Mykonos

Excursion: MAGNIFICENT DELOS

Not far from Mykonos lays the island of Delos, the ‘island of light’. According to mythology, Zeus, the King of the Gods, fell in love with a beautiful Titaness named Leto, but when his wife discovered his infidelity, she forbade Mother Earth to give Leto refuge. Lonely and pregnant, Leto wandered the earth until the island appeared amid the waves so that she would have a place to give birth to twins: Artemis, goddess of the hunt and virginity, and Apollo, god of truth and light. Sights include the Avenue of the Lions and Mt. Kynthos.

Ephesus (Izmir)

Excursion: MAGNIFICENT EPHESUS

Today we’ll visit Ephesus, an ancient city that was dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Her temple was once considered the Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World and attracted pilgrims worshipping the female; first Cybele, then Artemis and finally the Virgin Mary. Sights include an amphitheater, the Library of Celsus, the Temple of Hadrian, the Scholastic Baths, the Lower Agora, State Agora, and Odeon. Afterwards, we’ll visit a carpet weaving center for refreshments and the opportunity to learn about carpet making before returning to the ship in Izmir.

Istanbul

Excursion: OTTOMAN TREASURES

We'll visit the Blue Mosque or Yeni Cami, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar, one of the biggest covered markets in the entire world.

Traveling to Istanbul

Today we landed in Paris at 11:30 AM)(6:30 AM RIC time) and somehow have to make it through CDG in 65 minutes to catch our flight to Istanbul. You might think it would be easy lest you forget Customs & Immigration as well as the hugeness that is CDG (so I've heard). Good luck to us.

We'll land in Istanbul around 4:55 PM (10:55 AM RIC time). We'll take a taxi to the ship and then plan on crashing until tomorrow morning.

Today is our cruise to Egypt!

Well not really. But today we're getting on a plane and starting our vacation. I'm really looking forward to this trip because we've been talking about going to Egypt for a while. I've scheduled posts that say what we are going to be doing on each day. I'm hoping that once we get back I'll fill in what actually happened along with photos. Okay need to start reading up on the places we're going so I'll catch up with you all when I get back.

Labor Day Recall

The drive down wasn't that bad. Kevin had a meeting get pushed back and so he ended up not leaving the house till 12:00 so we were half an hour off. Usually we handle it in three hour shifts and did this time as well. We got to my parent's around 1am. myDad actually let Les and Dave sleep in our room which isn't normal, but starting Saturday morning, they became outside dogs.

After their swim lesson in the morning (where we learned Les doesn'tuse her back legs when swimming) we left for Chicken's house. J is college football obsessed so we watched that, ordered in some Chinese food (which J doesn't like but was willing to endure since it meant he didn't have to leave his TV) and just hung out. Chicklet was a little angel. I even held her after her second feeding. Kevin held her right away and then again when I was done. I think he's ready for fatherhood. We left before dinner and when we got home myDad was out grilling (he's got the mac daddy setup!). myDad and I stayed up to watch The Sou.nd of Mus.ic. That movie is seriously a long a$$ movie! It's like 4 hours! Okay, I looked it up on imd.b.com and it's only 3 hours long....that's still long for an old movie. It'd be like a 6 hour movie in today's time, right?

I got Kylee done in enough time but didn't redo Chloe's head. I realized after I made them that their little button eyes are probably not kid-safe so I told Chicken and J that they could cut them off and I would reattach them when Chicklet was older. When I gave the dolls to Chicklet, J was so awesome. He took them to Chicklet's room and put them in the crib! Most of her dolls are on a high shelf in her room and I know that that's where they'll prolly end up, but still, it was cute to see him do that.

Sunday we went to Bus.ch Garde.ns. My mom had free tickets for working a big event held in February. It was a nice day for it and I got a hat for our cruise! Afterwards we cooked out again and then played Phas.e 10. It took 3 rounds for me to get the first phase done, but then I caught up and was in even in the lead once. Then Kevin won.

Monday morning came too soon and we had a 12+ hour drive ahead of us. But myMom and I got some shopping done at my favorite teacher store and then Kevin and I said our final goodbyes to Les and Dave. It was so sad. Les was all excited (she can sense when we're going on a trip) when we came out that last time. But we managed to drive away. We got home about 11:30pm.

So now that my 3.5-day weekend is over, I can relax and rest.

Road Trip!

I'm waiting here at work for Kevin to come pick me up. We're driving down to Florida today and should make it to my parents house pretty late. But we've been planning this trip for a while. Ever since Chicken told us that she was due at the end of July. I figured she'd have enough visitors the first month that Chicklet was around and now that she's 5-6 weeks or so, she should be less scary. The only baby I've ever had to hold (in my adult years) has been my cousin's kid born back in '99 (cause seriously D gave me no choice, just handed the baby over!). Since then, nobody else. Not that people haven't offered, I just refrained from it. Give me your kid when he/she is 1 or 1 1/2 and I'm great. Younger than that induces all out panic on my part. Great for someone trying to become a mother, right? But people tell me I will change when the kid is my own. I sure hope so.

Once we knew that we were going down for the long weekend and knew that the cruise was coming up we decided to drop the dogs off at my parents. We're gonna be gone for almost two weeks and didn't want to put the dogs in boarding. So we asked my parents and they agreed to meet us half way in October to retrieve the dogs. I'm gonna be a whole month without Dave and Les! This will be the longest Dave and I will be separated since I brought her home from the Pu.blix parking lot! And what's Kevin gonna do? He's really into agility now and the "season" is starting. He's already disappointed that we're going to miss the start of it because we'll be gone, but now we're gonna miss a further two weeks because the dogs will be gone. What is he gonna do those three nights a week he usually goes to classes? We're sure gonna be some case without them!

Wednesday I texted Chicken to make plans - I suggested Kev and I come over on Saturday and then we could do dinner Sunday night. That way I'm spending time with Chicken & Chicklet but still get to spend time with my parents. Chicken texts me back and says Saturday is fine but she needs to talk to me about the rest of the weekend. Yesterday she called me for all of five minutes and says how she and Jon have a strict rule that Sundays are family days. How they're always inundated with family members visiting so for their sanity they receive no visitors on Sunday. So could we do dinner on Saturday instead (whereas I thought us spending the day with them on Saturday included dinner?!?). All I'm thinking in my head is "Seriously? I'm driving 24 hours round trip to come and see you and your kid and you can't have dinner with me, Kev and my parents on Sunday evening?" I know it's unfair but my feelings were hurt. I said something about totally understanding and then she had to get off the phone. I'm not sure if I was hurt because of this incident, because of our IF struggles (you know it factors into everything I'm feeling these days) or because our friendship has been changing (starting before the KU announcement).

Ooh, I started a new crochet project last Friday:
Know what this turns into? This:
I finished it in less than 24 hours. Her name is Chloe and she's for Chicklet. I'm making another one called Kylee. She's gonna be a bear.
I'm not happy with Chloe's head (looks kind of messed up to me)
so I might redo it before tomorrow. Kevin asked me if I needed a book for the drive tonight and I was like "Nope! Got my crocheting to do!"

Vacation Side Effects

It's because I'm going on vacation. I know it is. Two weeks from right now I'll be on a boat in Istanbul probably crashed out and wanting to sleep forever. Either that or be so hyped up that neither jet lag nor a 33 hour day is going to convince my brain that it's now 10:30pm and not 3:30pm. Anyhoo, I know the reason I've been so busy (and will continue to be till the day I leave) is because I'm going on vacation. Work is busy, agility is busy, soccer is busy...I got an invitation to join the Fall BSC and I don't think I can do it. I want to, but it means another evening away from home when I already spend most of my evenings away from home. I've got a little while to decide so we'll see.

Sooooooo, last Tuesday R from Dr. Grrr's office called me. She was calling to settle up my account and I happened to mention that I was on CD29 with no sign of ovulation or AF. I might have mentioned that I had some leftover Provera from that one cycle. She talked to Dr. Grrr and called me back. They thought it would be a good idea for me to take the Provera just so that I didn't go 2 months without a cycle.

Wednesday I called R back. See, I read A's post where she mentioned that since she can't get monitored she's doing Clomid for another month. Then I thought "Hey, maybe I could do the same thing." Clomid worked to get me to ovulate, even if I had to take 150mg. I talked to R and explained that we were planning on starting up again in October (which was true) but that we might be interested in TTCing in September though. And how I was going on vacation so I couldn't do injectibles (which I have decided are a waste of money for me) but that maybe I could do 5 days of 150mgs Clomid. She talked to Dr. Grrr and called me back. I was a go!

Tonight is my last night of Provera (I only had 8 pills left — I took one when I got the Rx, don't ask me where the other one went). Hopefully AF will show up on Monday — totally selfish here, but can I tell you how grateful I am that it worked out that AF will be here next week instead of the week after?!? Thank you GOD! — and so Clomid will be the end of next week and peak ovulation time will be while I'm on the cruise! Who knows what will happen on a honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean. ;P

U(nexpected)W(e're)P(regnant!) Announcements

Kevin's cousin M and his wife S are going to have a baby. They're due in March. Cousin M announced it on his Fac.ebook status. I showed it to Kevin who told his Mum and it was a shock to them both. Later Mum "happened" to be walking down their street and saw S and S told Mum the happy news. M wasn't suppose to say anything but after an evening at the pub a friend convinced him to put it on fa.cebook. The next day they had to scramble to get to his parent's house and tell them about it before they learned about it from someone else. Mum said that S went off the pill around Christmas so they were TTC but I don't think anyone knew about it. Back in February 2008 S said they were waiting for M's 30th b-day (which was last month) to have kids. Now they're 10 weeks along and the first thing I thought of is that if we had gotten a BFP last cycle our EDDs would have only been 2-3 weeks apart.

Busyness

Ack! How did an entire week go by without me posting? I need to get back in the habit of posting and commenting. Just as a warning, the next month or so's posts are going to be mainly soccer related. I tend to get a bit obsessive (at least that's what friends tell me) when I coach and with the break in TTC I don't really have anything else to write about.

Monday - Everything went great at practice. Except that I forgot my watch. I didn't forget it really, I just usually keep it in my car and then drove Kevin's car to practice. Wait! Crap, I did it again today. I think I need to buy another watch - one for each car. I don't normally wear a watch so I usually take it off first chance I get (in the car) and then don't usually remember about it till I'm on my way to a game/practice. So I leave it in the car. After practice I met briefly with the parents and got to meet my team manager. So far so good.

Tuesday - I use to play indoor at one place on Monday nights, but since I'm now practicing on Mondays, I had to switch to the other indoor place. They play on Tuesdays. This was the first time I was able to go and it turned out to be the last time they're doing Tuesday pick up games. Apparently not enough women are interested so they're trying to fold the girls into the co-ed league. Which is on Monday nights. But I did find out about an outdoor league that starts up next month. I might do that instead. Ooh, and I got to use my new toy - a Po.lar Hea.rt Ra.te Moni.tor (PHRM) - while playing.

Wednesday - Practice #2! It was stormy the whole drive (45 min. north of where I work!) up, but as I turned off the freeway, the storm let up. Turned into a real nice afternoon and a great practice. However I became confused when I was practicing and thought practice ended at 6:30 instead of 7. But because I'm me, I let the girls go at 6:45ish. Parents don't mind practice going 15 minutes late right? Even if it was actually 15 minutes early? I've warned most of them though that I very rarely end right at 6:30.

Thursday - I went to another game night. It was hosted by the same people as last time. We got to play a game called Last Word. It was awesome! It's like a mix of scattergories and something else but fun! You're shouting the whole time and sometimes you get caught up in arguing how an answer is not eligible and then someone else ends up with the point because you forgot to get the last word in.

Friday - I decided to play in the outdoor league but I had a few questions. Friday was the last day to register but the chick never called me back! I've also decided to actually start using my elliptical machine. I think Kevin and I are going to do a lot of walking on this cruise. When going through the excursions Kevin kept leaning towards the walking-tours-of-this-historical-city type of activities. I did a 45 minute workout and got to use my PHRM again. Also, Kevin and I have decided to do a kayak rolling class. But I can't register us till Monday!

Saturday - On Wednesday when I was finally cleaning out my soccer bag, I found a gift card to the local mall. And it was for $135! Yes! Sweet! It must have fallen out of the thank you card I got from my last team back in May 2008. However since it had been a year since it had been purchased it was only worth $127. Stupid monthly maintenance fees! Kevin and I went to DSG to pick up a few items. He got these shoes

and this bag. Of course for the cruise! :) I got some shirts and these ad.idas shorts (The new soccer club is adid.as and I've been coaching at ni.ke clubs for the past five-ish years). Plus I found this water bottle! I've been looking for this kind of water bottle for years! Anyways good shopping day. Of course we rounded it out with a trip to Targ.et and Ko.hl's.

Sunday - I had a very productive day! We watched the Form.ula 1 race and the first half of the WPS Championship game (not the second half, so no spoilers please!) while I did the weekly shopping list. Then after the shopping, we installed our rain barrel which we've had for MONTHS and never put in. But we got it in. Afterwards I did my 90 minute elliptical session (go PHRM!) while Kevin made this for dinner. Yum-O! We went to the Byrd to see Ter.minator: Salvati.on. And I got to squeeze in Tr.ueB.lood and De.sign S.tar before bed!

Today - It rained last night! RIC got 2-3" of rain! And Kevin said we'd go through a dry spell because we'd installed the rain barrel. I signed us up for the rolling class. We got the date we wanted. Also the girls soccer schedule came out. I knew I was going to miss two games because of the cruise but now they've scheduled a double header for that second weekend I'm gone! Come on! I don't know if I can reschedule (in the past they've been really rigid about rescheduling games), but I'll try.

Cycle News (finally!): I'm CD28 today and no signs of ovulation. My chart looks dismal. I'm thinking about taking some leftover Provera just so that I stay somewhat regular. Kevin and I are going to restart TTC when we get back, in October, so I might go in to see Dr. Grrr. I think I should do a u/s before taking the provera and also I want to have a game plan (and order any meds) for when we get back.

Adoption News: We have 2 references in! I talked to Chicken, Lylas and S and they all said that they were getting theirs in soon! So one of them did! We just need one more now. Also I called one local lawyer that had been referred to us, but when I called Kevin to confirm the appt he kind of freaked out about how fast everything was moving. So I cancelled the appt. Hopefully we'll talk about it soon and can get everything moving again. We also need to work on our profile book.

Well I think this post is long enough! I'll try to update sooner next time!

Oh, to answer some questions -

Beth - I'm coaching U-11 Girls.

A - I coach with a soccer club. I coach travel (select) soccer.

First Day of Practice

Tonight is my first practice with my new team. I'm really excited to be starting up with them. As well as being a new team, I'm also starting up with a new club. So far this club seems really good. The only gripe I do have is communication. Up here the modus operandi seems to be that coaches coach and the manager manages. All well and good, but when my manager finds out information before I do, it's not good. I don't like being blindsided by info coming from him. Like the club decided to run a skills clinics for the next five weeks (which is awesome) but they didn't tell me about it and they didn't tell my manager till this morning. So here's me, showing up to work 15 minutes early so that I can get out 15 minutes early and I'll be on time to my practice at 5:30. When I get to work, I get an email (from my team manager, not the club) how the skills clinic is going to start today and oh yeah, starts at 5pm. WTF! I can't get there by 5! Oh well, it doesn't look bad when the coach shows up 30 minutes late to the first practice, does it?

It's My Blogiversary

One year ago today I started my blog. When I think back to how I was one year ago, I can't believe all that we've gone through to get us to here.

So I decided to take a look at this past year by the numbers:

180 - # of posts I've done in the past year.
91 - # of posts that were TTC related.
55 - # of times I/Kevin injected me with fertility drugs.
40 - $ it costs me each time I see Dr. Grrr.
36 - # of days till our cruise!
33 - # of average days of my cycle.
27 - Latest CD that I ovulated.
22 - # of days since Chicklet was born.
21 - # of appts I've had w/ Dr. Grrr.
16 - Earliest CD that I ovulated.

10 - # of days it took to get my renewed passport.

9 - # of cycles of TTC in the past year.
8 - # of weeks since we started our homestudy.
7 - # of co-workers who are/were expecting this past year.
6 - # of cycles that I actually ovulated.
5 - # of blogs I read who are preggers.
4 - # of Catholic Infertility Support Group (CISG) meetings in the past year.
3 - # of adoption orientations we went to before choosing JFS.
2 - # of IUIs we've done
1 - # of couples (that I know IRL) whose adoption went through this past year.
0 - # of BFPs.

Thank you to everyone who regularly reads (and comments on) my blog, those who have just visited once and any lurkers out there. While I do write for myself it always makes me smile to know that you all are out there standing with me through this journey.

What could it hurt?

I'm seriously considering calling Dr. Grrr and asking for a looky-see at my ovaries. I *think* I might have something on the right ovary, but so far I haven't had any other signs of impending ovulation. It's only CD15 and even with meds, I don't usually ovulate till at least CD17. My bbts have been weird, higher than normal but not high enough for ovulation. I know I said Kevin and I were stopping TTC but I still have this need to track everything.

Cake

The first of Kevin's b-days that I was in charge of was in 2006. We had just gotten back from a wedding in England and so were in recovery mode. We went out to dinner including dessert (the norm for the Mos), he got his gifts and that was that. Then later that week while on the phone with his mother (in clear hearing distance) he happened to mention how he didn't get a cake.
One year later, in 2007, I went to Kro.ger to get him a cake. He had just gotten his car and so I got him all car themed gifts. Later that week while on the phone with his mother (in clear hearing distance again) he mentioned how he got a store-bought cake and all his gifts were for his car, not him.
In 2008 we happened to be in NYC for his birthday, with his parents. I didn't buy him a gift because he had told me that he was at an age (31) where he didn't need presents anymore when I had asked him a week earlier what he wanted. Well his parents brought him loads of gifts. When we got home, Kevin again mentioned the lack of cake.
So Birthday 2009 was looming. It happened to be the day of our 3rd Homestudy appt, but not wanting it appear more important than his birthday, I actually baked this. Along with home-made ice cream.




The cake was so dense that we actually had smaller than average pieces. It lasted about a week (which is usually unheard of here). Yes, he got presents this year, but I just wrapped the clothes we had bought the weekend before.
Dave got this for him:

About two months ago, she decided that it was a good idea to eat the one we had. I think it was a bit cheeky to wait till his birthday to replace it...