When the Rain Comes

Long time - no blog

2011-07-12T11:52:00.001-07:00

I need to revamp this entire thing. The little guy takes up way more of my time than I anticipated (and I love it so that's ok) but I do miss blogging a lot.

I'll have to work on that in the few short weeks before school starts again.

In the mean time we're all doing really well. Baby G is almost 8 months old (HOLY CRAP!) and I'm enjoying my summer off!!

Oh yeah - Happy Belated 4th :)

Happy Easter! :)

2011-04-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

I know I'm an awful blogger lately but I just wanted to post this and wish everyone a Happy Easter! Maybe when the summer comes I'll get back in the game.

Baby G
5 months old

One year ago today

2011-03-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

One year ago today I found out I was pregnant. I tested in the afternoon with a cup of pee that I had saved from that morning. I raced out of work, made the fastest WalMart trip ever and rushed home. I remember being more excited than I've ever been in my life but I didn't cry. I was pacing the house trying to find a phone number to where MrG works. After getting a hold of my husband at work I told my efriends. I didn't cry until the next day when I drove the hour trip by myself to the RE's office for bloodwork to be done.

This has probably been the best year of my life. We prayed for that day and longed to add to our family for so long. Pregnancy was amazing. I loved it. Childbirth... well... I'll do better next time. This little man that I get to cuddle with every day? More of a blessing than I could have ever imagined a baby would be.

Best year ever.

3 Months Old!!

2011-02-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

We have a fun weekend planned. We're pretty much doing... nothing!! :) Monday is MrG's birthday and we're both off for Presidents' Day (woot!). We're going out to eat for that with his family tomorrow after church and then hopefully cleaning the house (exciting right?).

I've been down with severe back pain but I'm getting better. It was bad enough that I took off Wednesday so I could get in at a chiropractor. Not good. I had an appointment yesterday too and I'm feeling a little better every day. I can't even begin to tell you how sick I am of needing to see doctors all the time. It's getting out of control.

Happy 3 months little guy! I need to start writing him monthly letters. I intended on doing that since he was born but never managed to get one out. This is the month I'm going to make it happen.

Happy weekend everyone! :)

I hate day care

2011-02-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the women that work in the nursery at the DCP we found for BabyG. They're right across the street from my school, the head "teacher" there is great and texts back and forth with me (super convenient!). But I hate it. I hate pumping. I hate leaving him there every morning (I hate getting up at 4:45am everyday to make sure we're out the door by 6am to get there on time). Most of all I hate that someone else spends more time with my baby than I do. He doesn't nap much there and when he gets home he's sleepy. That's great but I want to spend time with him while he's awake! Daycare helps him sleep through the night - which is also great but I still hate it. It hurts my heart.

Ok. Hungry baby. Shortest entry ever.

Early Valentine's Day treat

2011-02-11T15:47:00.001-08:00

The little man is 12 weeks old today! TWELVE WEEKS!!

Mr G wanted to do Valentine's Day cards for our parents but we tried not to make it TOO cheesy. ;)

Black Friday (Birth Story Part 5 - LAST PART!)

2011-02-08T15:56:00.001-08:00

This is the day we were told we could take the baby home. This is also the day we found out that he'd have to stay for 3 more days. Miscommunication at its finest.

Friday afternoon we were going home from the hospital with plans to go back later that evening. I really didn't feel good, I was emotional and upset. MrG had hugged me and kissed my forehead and noticed that I was REALLY hot. He took my temp and I had a fever. Called the OB clinic's emergency line to see what to do. The doctor that delivered Baby G was on call (wonderful ::eyeroll::) and told us to go to the ER.

We spent 4 hours in the ER. Nurses came in and looked at my swollen, red stomach and we waited for the ER doc. He came in when I was trying to pump and was probably in there for 2 minutes tops. He called it "cellulitis" (which it wasn't) and called the oncall OB. OB didn't even come in to look at me - he just told the ER doctor over the phone to send me home with a Rx of antibiotics. He said it was probably "just superficial swelling" and that the Rx would be fine. We asked if I could have an IV antibiotic because we knew it would work faster and be stronger but they said no. The OB was IN THE BUILDING and didn't have the decency to walk down to the ER to look at me.

By that time it was too late to get my Rx filled so we went to the NICU to see the baby. We got some food and in the process of going from the ER, to the food court to the NICU 3 people asked if I was there to have my baby. "No. I had him last week." It made me feel good for sure. We visited and held him and went home.

The next morning we got up and I was getting ready. We were going to spend the morning in the NICU after I dropped of my Rx at the hospital pharmacy. I had showered and was getting ready when I felt something wet at the TOP of my underwear. I had no idea what it was but it had a smell to it too. I asked MrG what it was and said he didn't see anything. I went to the bathroom and while I was sitting on the toilet there was this gush of the nastiest looking and smelling fluid I had EVER seen. I thought my incision had burst open. I screamed for MrG to come, he grabbed me a towel to hold over it, helped me get the rest of my clothes on, got dressed himself and we were back to the ER.

A necrosis is a place on your skin/tissue that dies because of an infection. There had been a black spot on my stomach above my incision that MrG had been concerned about. Apparently that was a necrosis and that's where the huge gush of fluid came from. My incision had only come open in a very small spot but there was now a hole in my stomach above my incision where all of this fluid had pushed its way out - killing my skin and tissue to escape. This is something the OB could have seen had he come down to look at me the night before.

The ER nurse couldn't believe they sent me home the night before. She asked why they didn't give me an IV antibiotic (good question right?) I saw yet another OB from the practice whom I had never met before and he had me admitted back into the hospital.

Mr G spent the next several days running bottles of pumped milk to the NICU while I was in my room again. I couldn't go with MrG again this time because of the IV and because of the infection. I wouldn't want to risk getting those fragile babies sick out of selfishness wanting to see my little guy. Mr G would take pictures of him and bring them back for me to see but I spent from Saturday - Tuesday away from my brand new baby.

We were both discharged on Tuesday. We didn't have the coming home experience I had dreamed of. I only grabbed a couple pictures of him the day he came home. None of him with us at all. I was so ready to be out of the hospital that I didn't even care at the time.

I spent the next month having MrG's cousin (who is a nurse) come over twice a day to pack, clean and repack my wound. It was miserable having that done. It made me feel disgusting & like an invalid but it had to be done so the wound would heal from the inside out.

It has taken me a really long time to get through all of this emotionally. I'm still dealing with it a little and typing this out makes me realize that it still hurts sometimes. God really watched over us during this hard time and I praise Him daily for this miracle He blessed us with. He never said our path would be easy (isn't THAT the truth) but He was there for sure. In addition to that, my amazing husband, family and friends really helped to pull me through this. I'm in love with this sweet baby and I fall even more in love with him and my husband every single day.

We had a rough time getting here and we had a rough start. It has been a journey for sure but we're beyond blessed to be where we are now.

And seriously - if you've read all of this you're either extremely awesome or extremely bored. :)

The Rest of the Story (Birth Story Part 4)

2011-02-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely long winded and have a big story to tell. Never thought it'd take me so many entries. Sorry. :-/

I remember going to the recovery room. Mr G, his mom and sister were in there with me. My mom arrived from driving in (8 hour trip) while I was in there too. I remember them talking to me, telling me he was beautiful, the nurse asking me a bunch of questions and showing me my pain medicine pump and clicker, crap like that. All I wanted to do was hold him but they whisked him away straight from the OR to the NICU.

From the recovery room they wheeled me down to the NICU to see the baby. I was still on the bed and when they brought me in I was at the foot of the baby's bed. Me, Mr G, my mom and maybe his mom (I think?) were in there looking at him. The NICU people spewed a whole bunch of information at us - I didn't comprehend ANY of it. I was too upset that I couldn't even see his face from where I was laying. I touched his foot but that was as close as I got at that time.

I was taken up to my room. Mr G was able to go down to the NICU to see him throughout the day/night but I was stuck in bed because of my IV. I requested a pump so that I could at least try to start doing that since I was trapped in my room. Mr G got all of the supplies, paperwork and stickers we needed to get my pumping started. This is where MrG got even more awesome than he had been before. He helped me keep a pumping schedule and filled out all of the records. He'd label bottles and deliver them to the NICU for the baby. He was just great and continued to be strong for all 3 of us throughout the rest of the crap that was heading our way.

Ok story time break to explain what happened to the baby. He had gotten an infection from my placenta and had to be on antibiotics. We were originally told he'd be there 7 days but ended up being on a 10 day antibiotic treatment. My infection was called chorioamnionitis. The doctor in the NICU said it was good that he got out when he did because if he had been in there much longer it would have been a lot worse. On top of the infection he was having trouble with his breathing. It was shallow and fast causing it to be tough for him to eat because he couldn't get the breathing/sucking timing down. He was on a feeding tube and IVs. So hard seeing him like that.

So I went into the hospital on Thursday and was discharged the following Tuesday. The entire time I was there was spent pumping and walking (riding in a wheelchair in my case) back and forth to the NICU. I was not feeling any better as days passed. My stomach was swollen, red and feverish. I kept having serious night sweats (which is common w/hormone changes I hear) but I was also having terrible spells of shaking in the middle of the night. I'd feel extremely cold and would start shaking/shivering uncontrollably. I would ask doctors and nurses about it but they'd just brush it off like it was no big deal.

We left him there on Tuesday. We'd go between home and the hospital several times a day. We spent most of the day up there on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). Our parents got to hold him that day. The flu season rules at our NICU are that only parents & grandparents can come in and only parents can hold the babies. My dad flew in from home on Thanksgiving day. We told our nurse the situation and she said grandparents could hold him (especially being the holiday).

So Thanksgiving was a happy day. The Friday after? Not so much...

Pushing time! (Birth Story part 3)

2011-02-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

I was finally dilated enough for it to be time for me to push. I was at 9 1/2cm w/just barely any cervix covering anymore so they had me start. I pushed for about an hour and a half with the help of the L&D nurses (wait! Where's the MW you might ask? Who the heck knows? She wasn't in my room that's for sure). She finally came in, checked me and then found out that I had developed a fever (remember that. It comes into play in a little bit). They told me I needed to "labor down" for a while because Baby G wasn't moving down with my pushing. I was supposed to go an hour without active pushing to see if he'd move down.

It was SO hard to not push so I'd bear down just a little bit when I had the urge hoping to help him move down. MW said that'd be fine and probably help a little so I kept doing it. It felt good better than trying not to.

The MW came in and said I could try to push again. She helped a little this time but then eventually just stood there w/her finger in my vag, head tipped to one side looking incredibly bored. Nice. She told me with my fever and baby not moving down she was going to call the OB who was on call from her practice to come in and assist.

So here I am, lying flat on my back (what I didn't want) and in walks an OB (that I had never met before) with a vacuum in hand (that I didn't want) to try to suck my baby out as I pushed. He tried three times and the thing popped off of the baby's head each time. At one point I almost kicked the OB in the head because it hurt so bad when he was stuffing that thing in there to get to the baby.

OB says he can't get it and it's time to go to an emergency C-section. With the failure to progress and the fever he had them get me in there within 30 minutes. The fever also meant the people from the NICU would be in there to work with the baby after it was delivered.

Let me take a second to add one more thing about my LOVELY midwife right here. She PROMISED me that she'd be there for the birth of the baby. I was her ONLY patient in the hospital that night yet I saw her maybe 3-4 times. She PROMISED me that if it came to needing a c-section she'd be in the OR with me - she'd be the one assisting the doctor in the delivery. She had a clinic day on the 19th (the day the baby was born). The OBs covered her appointments and the rest of her appointments were moved until after 2pm. I had the baby at 11:05am. She was not in the operating room. She went home. To shower. Yeah, you read that right. She didn't even come up to see me in the hospital room in the days after he was here.

I thought that was the last straw. I was going into surgery to be cut open and have my baby ripped from me while I lay there. No bonding time. No attempt to nurse him because of the risk from my fever. I went in with flexibility in mind but here it was. Everything I had hoped for in childbirth had been taken from me.

Oh but that wasn't it. I have no idea what drugs they put me on in surgery but I don't remember ANYTHING from the c-section. I remember them moving me to the operating table, I remember MrG waking me up to tell me it was a boy and I remember him trying to show him to me. That's it. Mr G got to hold him and there was a picture taken (that I don't remember). No cute picture of the baby being held next to my head or anything like that. I didn't even get to kiss my baby.

BabyG was a boy and was born at 11:05am on November 19th, 2010. He weighed 7lb 9oz and they think he was 20in long but didn't measure him w/all of the trouble we were having. He had aspirated a lot of meconium and with my fever they were working on him to make sure he was ok.

There's more. I'm going to work on the rest when MrG gets home. If you made it this far you deserve a cookie :)

Birth story continued...

2011-02-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

I'm picking up where I left of today. It probably won't be as detailed and I should probably be writing it when MrG is home because I can't even tell you the entire story since I don't remember it all from being knocked out anyway but I'll give it a shot. It'll be even more interesting since just as I started this entry BabyG spit out his pacifier and started crying. He's been clingy and fussy today so... oh well. Welcome to motherhood. Here we go.

Thursday November 18th 2010

The MW had trouble keeping the baby on the external monitor (tht I was told I wouldn't have to wear) so instead of trying again her and the L&D nurse came in and stronghanded me into breaking my water and putting an internal monitor in the top of the baby's head. After that I was stuck in bed - no moving around, no changing positions, no birthing ball, no standing and swaying, no leaning on MrG go get through contractions, no allowing gravity to help the process. I was stuck and trapped.

I labored like that for several hours (can't remember how long exactly). I was getting tired and the nurse asked if I wanted something to "take the edge off". By that time I was already exhausted & frustrated so I figured - why not? Apparently "take the edge off" is the medical term for "knock you out completely" because that's exactly what happened. I was given stadol (sp?) and was so out of it that I'd sleep between contractions, wake up during them and be out cold again as soon as it was over. Not exactly what I had in mind but by that time it was too late. Mr G didn't know WHAT to do but did the best he could.

A little while later my MW came back in (this *might* have been the 3rd time I saw her since 4pm and it was now late in the evening. She was supposed to coach me through labor and help me deal with pain and all that. Hard to do while you're hanging out in the physician's room playing on Facebook on your phone. I wasn't progressing - still at 4cm - so the MW said she was going to order pitocin to get things moving. Yet another moment of defeat. I knew pitocin would really make the contractions bad so I just gave up and asked for the epidural. I was too tired to do it after laboring so long already.

They called the anesthesiologist in and got me prepped to get the epi. I wasn't happy that Mr G had to leave the room but he's got a fierce needle phobia so I'm sure he wouldn't have been any help anyway. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined going in but I cried out of frustration and disappointment. I think the nurse thought I was scared. They were all pretty smug about me saying I didn't want meds in the first place so I wasn't too surprised.

I'm not going to lie. The epidural made me feel good enough that I could rest. The nurses failed by not telling me to switch sides periodically with the epidural so it would distribute evenly. When the anesthesiologist came back he told me to switch laying on one side and then the other. At the time I was thankful that I could move my legs. I wasn't able to feel contraction pain (just pressure) but could still move my legs. I'm not totally sure but that might be what caused some trouble further down the road.

I slept, MrG slept and MIL (who had been in the waiting room) came in and slept in a chair in my room around 2am. I didn't see my MW all night long. Lovely.

When they came back in and checked me again I had gone from 4cm to 8cm and was getting close to pushing time. That was around 7am I think I'll have to check with MrG on the next stuff.

Ok let's do this.

2011-02-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

Here's what I started writing in the hospital on the morning of November 28th, 2010
(I was going into a LOT of detail apparently LOL)

Original Title: "Birth Story! Part one! Aaaaaaaaand ACTION!!!"

Thursday, November 18th, 2010 - 40w6d pregnant

I woke up around 9am with some extremely mild contractions (FINALLY!). Wasn't getting too excited about it until they seemed to be coming pretty regularly and were getting a little more painful. I figured it was no big deal and I'd just keep an eye on them. I opened up the contraction timer website thing just for fun to see what they looked like and how the thing worked. I noticed they were making a pattern and figured I should probably pay attention.

I text my midwife and told her what was going on. I let her know that I was going to walk and then take a bath and labor at home for a while before I came in. I knew I wasn't very far along and didn't want to rush to the hospital and be pressured into interventions and things I didn't want (oh the irony). She said it was a great idea and left it at that.

We went in to the hospital around 4ish I think. Went in and they got us to a room in L&D to check me. I was not dilated very far but my cervix was effaced a lot. They had me walk for an hour and come back for another check. From there they decided to admit us.

Here is where my dream of a natural birth goes down in flames. I actually had the exact opposite of every single thing I had hoped for and wanted in birth. Apparently I'm an extremely terrible judge in the reliability of medical professionals because I've picked a couple crappy OBs and (come to find out) a crappy midwife throughout this TTC process.

I was told my by my MW that I wouldn't be forced to wear external monitors because I wasn't a high risk pregnancy. They could check the baby intermittently just to make sure he was doing ok. She sounded pretty confident in that and I believed her. In the labor room, however, she tried to get the baby on the monitor maybe 2 times before she said she needed to break my water & put an internal monitor on the baby's scalp. That's nice and all but once my water is broken contractions were going to be a lot worse and that with the internal monitor I would be strapped to the bed.

::to be continued::

First Snow

2011-01-12T13:01:00.001-08:00

Figured that last post had a ton of pictures so I made a new one for these. We had a pretty decent snow (for the area we live in anyway) on January 10th. MrG thought the little guy needed a snowman so he built one for him. :)

We're doing great!!

2011-01-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

I'm so so SO sorry!!! It's been a wild and crazy 2 months and I'm very sorry I haven't posted anything. Thanks for all of the thoughts & prayers!

I'm still sorting out my birth story in my head. It's long and it has taken me this entire time to really process what happened and didn't happen. I started a draft of it in the hospital but never got around to finishing it. Once I got home I started to realize just how upset it was making me. I think I've come to terms with it (though I know parts will bother me forever) and I promise I'll work on getting it posted.

We had a great holiday season. We spent a lot of time visiting with my husband's family and my parents came down for almost a week to see us.

I'm finally feeling a little more "normal". I've adjusted to not sleeping much (thank you little guy!) and just in time too. I have to go back to work on Tuesday and I'm NOT ready. I found an amazing daycare near my school but I don't want to leave him!

Baby G is doing great. Last we checked (Dec 30) he weighed 10 lbs!! He was 7lb 9oz when he was born. His 2 month check up (and shots! :( Shhhh... we haven't told him yet) are Monday.

I'm trying to type one handed so for now I'll just leave you w/some pics & get into details later.

This is where he spent the first 10 days of his life.
That's his "real" crib - without the warmer above it.

Heading home!

Our Christmas card

Happy Boy :)

Happy New Year!!

Back in the hospital...

2010-11-28T07:07:00.000-08:00

I have a LOT to write about so let me start by explaining that the reason I have time to sit and ramble on so much about what happened this week is because 1) the baby's still in NICU and 2) I was re-admitted into the hospital yesterday. If you follow along with the next several entries I do you're sure to be in for some entertainment.

I had always planned on writing a "birth story" entry once BabyG got here. I was going to sit down and write it from home while my angel napped next to me. That's not working out this week so I have a totally different plan. I'm going to have to break this down into several entries because posting my birth story in ONE entry would be so long it'd make the interwebz explode and then we'd all be sad. I'd hate to make anyone sad so I'm going to go through and do my best to describe the events (and my emotions regarding those events of course) of each day.

Let's get started, shall we?

Baby G is here!!!!

2010-11-25T05:34:00.000-08:00

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!

Baby G made his entrance into the world on November 19th, 2010. He weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 20 inches long!

It has been a bit of a bumpy road this week. He has spent every day of his sweet little life in the NICU. I will post about his birth story another time.

Just wanted to stop in and say Happy Thanksgiving. I can't even express how thankful I am to have my husband to hold me together this past week. He has taken care of me and is even more of an amazing man than I knew him to be before all of this happened. I will update with a story soon. Here are some pictures :)

No baby yet

2010-11-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

Being past my due date is one thing. Being past my due date while sitting at home all by myself is totally different. If I were still at work at least I'd be distracted by obnoxious middle schoolers and other crap. Here I'm sitting at home... waiting... wishing something would happen... getting countless texts and phonecalls (from people who would clearly know if the baby was here by now). I'm just bored and lonely. I love the dogs but they're not very exciting companions right now.

So... here's a picture for you. We took this on Sunday I think so that's 40w2d

Up until today I haven't been uncomfortable at all. Today I've got a LOT of pressure (I've had pressure but this is way more than before) but still nothing eventful on the contraction front.

My next appointment isn't until Friday. I really don't want to but I'm going to talk about induction. My dad has a plane ticket for Thanksgiving day (a week from tomorrow!!) and I don't want to be pregnant nor do I want to be in the hospital when he comes down for that. Mom was planning on driving down whenever I went into labor and has been waiting for that phonecall but sadly hasn't gotten it yet!

So... Happy Wednesday?

I've got nothin'.

2010-11-12T15:35:00.001-08:00

I've spent the day being a lazy bum and doing absolutely nothing today. Well that's a lie. I played online, bounced on my yoga ball and took a nice long bath. Some people consider that nothing. I consider it awesome. :)

Keep watching for that picture. I did my hair & makeup today cause I want to have a due date picture - now I just need my husband to come home and take it so it's a decent one and not just belly.

Happy Due Date Friday!

Still here. Still huge.

2010-11-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

::bounces on yoga ball::

My next doctor appointment is tomorrow morning. We'll see what my midwife says and figure out how long she'll let me go over. I really don't want to be induced because I really REALLY don't want a c-section so I'm willing to be patient and wait for BabyG to come on his/her own.

I'm starting to get the phone calls and text messages asking if I've had the baby yet/how I'm feeling/asking if I'm having any signs (to which I want to say "YES! My mucus plug is coming out!!" to get people to lay off). I feel great. I'm not waddling TOO badly. The baby is wiggling all the time and is still really low. I'm sure this kid will be just like me - a procrastinator. I'm coming to terms with this and convincing myself that I'll see 41 weeks before the little one decides to show up.

Then I get a phone call from my husband.

A girl he works with (due 2 weeks or so after me) went into labor last night. They just had her baby shower on Monday.

Maybe I should go for a jog around the block...
or two...

::drums fingers on desk::

2010-11-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

See? This what I was trying to avoid by working as long as possible. I have a few things to get done around here but nothing major so I'm sitting here, playing on Facebook and over analyzing every little twinge I feel, wondering (hoping) that it's baby time.

I'm thinking naps are going to be my best option to pass time. Naps and cleaning... but right now it's lunch time.

P.S. I'm still working on that picture. I promise. We're going to dinner tonight so I'll have MrG take one before we go (when I look presentable).

Hello there!!!!

2010-11-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

I'm still here and still pregnant! 39 weeks + 1 day now. I used to update from school on my planning when I had a second but school blocked that little feature on my Google page so I've been a failure at updating once again :(

I have been feeling GREAT! Hardly any complaints at all! I've had some seriously bad heartburn this past week and my feet have been swelling a lot but other than that I'm totally fine! I've been blessed with an easy pregnancy and have enjoyed every moment of it.

I had my weekly appointment yesterday. I've had several appointments where my blood pressure has been high (imagine that! Teaching middle school all day then going to my midwife appointment and my BP is up! Amazing right?!). It was up again yesterday (144/98 - yikes) so she wanted to run some tests to see how/if it was affecting the baby. She knew I didn't have pre-eclampsia because I don't have any headaches and my urine and blood tests have been fine.

So... I had a non-stress test. They hook up external fetal monitors and check the baby's heart rate and see if I'm having contractions. They also give you a little button to push to click whenever you feel the baby move. Everything looked fine so it was off to an ultrasound.

The ultrasound was to see baby's size, fluid level and to make sure my high blood pressure wasn't constricting blood flow to the placenta. Everything was fine there too. Baby's weighing between 7 1/2-8lbs. I freaked out a little when the head measured 41 weeks (thanks Mr. G - he had a HUGE head when he was born).

I'm only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. I'm not getting too excited about that cause I could walk around like that for weeks but it's better than nothing I guess!

The MW diagnosed me as having Gestational Hypertension and took me off of work. I had originally wanted to work as long as I could so I'd be home WITH the baby during leave instead of being home waiting for the baby to come. I'm bummed about being off early so I keep trying to tell myself it's best for both of us this way.

Next appointment is Thursday! I'll post a picture tomorrow after church. I keep forgetting to have MrG take a new one because by the time I get through the door I'm taking off my real clothes and putting on sweats/PJs within 5 minutes :)

Sorry it's been so long. I'm thinking I'll get back into the groove of writing this week since I'll be home resting, cleaning and driving myself crazy with the waiting game.

Happy weekend and Happy "Fall Back" time change!

What an AWESOME day!!

2010-10-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today was absolutely WONDERFUL. We spent the entire day visiting with my friend and her adorable son. Later in the afternoon we did the maternity photo shoot and had a BLAST. :) My friend is so talented and fun. We feel like dorks trying for natural pics but she was incredible.

We had planned on trying the Cheesecake Factory for dinner but by the time MrG and I got back into the hotel room we ended up watching a movie on HBO and changing into our PJs instead. We ordered room service and enjoyed the rest of the evening in our room.

Sleeping in a little in the morning and driving back home after another delicious breakfast at the hotel.

I'm just so happy and so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and amazing friend. :) I needed this weekend for sure. Now I'm ready to enjoy the rest of my fall break! Absolutely perfect.

I'm having a baby NEXT MONTH!

2010-10-01T07:01:00.001-07:00

Today I can say "I'm having a baby next month" Holy. Cow. 34 weeks today. A month and a half-ish to go and I still don't believe it.

Yesterday was one of those days that makes you laugh when you look back on it.

It started out wild when it was "Hat Day" at school for homecoming. Homecoming week is wild anyway - when you have to be at school supervising kids before the sun comes up it makes it a little bit worse. On top of homecoming spirit week, they brought the drug dogs in to sniff the kids' lockers. Luckily I had 6th graders at the time and they had no idea what was going on in the hallway.

I had a doctor appointment and tons of errands to run after school. Everything looked great. I know I'm pregnant but stepping on that scale made me cringe a little this time. I hate the number game.

Everything else looked good. My blood pressure was GREAT (hallelujah!) and BabyG's heartbeat was 136-ish. I was measuring right on track but the midwife said at my next appointment she might have me go for a growth ultrasound depending on how I measured that day.

By the time I was finished going all over creation after the doctor I was wiped out. I told MrG he was in charge of dinner so he made chicken nuggets & french fries (his apparent specialty?). Whatever. I was too tired to care and my ankles were somewhere between the size of golf balls and baseballs.

We packed and cleaned up a little for our trip. MrG went to feed the dogs and then we had a conversation that went something like this:

MrG: "Bring me a flip flop. QUICK"
Me: "Uh... ok?" ::looks around for one::
MrG: "RIGHT THERE!"

So I grab his flip flop and kinda toss it to him because at this point I figure he has found a spider.

MrG ::WHACK::

::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::whack::

Me: What the crap are you doing?!?!
MrG: IT HAD BABIES ON IT!!!

If I hadn't been on the other side of the room I would've freaked so I just sat there watching him with my eyes bugging (ha) out of my head. Awesome. Glad he found it (them?) and not me!

Happy Friday. Today is worse than yesterday (so far). Crazy hair day the last day before fall break wasn't the best idea. Why didn't the do something more calm like "Wear matching shoes day" or "Keep your shirt tucked in like you're supposed to day"?

6 hours till freedom. I can make it.

Slow motion...

2010-09-29T05:41:00.001-07:00

I'm totally wiped out today. I feel like everything around me is going in slow motion and I can't stop yawning. This week is busy - I've been doing something every night. In addition to that, I've got early bus duty (which means I'm here, standing in the gym at 6:30am) and it's homecoming week so the kids are WILD.

Friday can come and go a little quicker. I'd like to get to Saturday right now. Please and thank you.

Reason #928,174 why I love my husband

2010-09-28T06:02:00.001-07:00

This summer I had planned on taking a weekend trip to meet a friend of mine. It was going to be a double bonus trip - I'd get to meet her and visit with her AND she has her own photography business and was going to take maternity pictures of us. Sadly, the plans fell through as summer ended quickly and I was sick for the first half of July.

I can't remember if I posted about my meltdown a few weeks ago over childbirth classes or not. I procrastinated (imagine that) on signing up for all the different classes I wanted to take from the hospital and we were coming down to the wire for childbirth class. I signed up for two Saturday classes at the beginning of October (the 2nd and the 9th). When I told MrG he panicked and said we couldn't do it. Now we're doing one once a week for all of October. That puts our last class 2 weeks before the baby's due. YIKES. I freaked out about it. It was ugly. He told me to trust him that we couldn't do the October 2nd class, not to ask any questions and just to LOVE that we couldn't do that class. Not exactly comforting words for a pregnant woman's ears but... ok.

My friend mentioned above and MrG have been friends on FB for probably over a year now (due to a shared Fish World addiction). I found out yesterday that she and MrG have been planning a weekend trip to meet up in Alabama for MONTHS and both of them have kept it a secret from me! We're going to meet her and get maternity pics done this weekend!!! SO CRAZY!!

I'm really really excited!! He was going to wait until Wednesday to tell me but told me yesterday instead. I'm glad he did because now I'm trying to figure out what to wear! Normally this would be an easy task for women married to men who don't care about what they wear. MrG is very "metro" and has an opinion on... well... everything from fashion to our wedding plans to the nursery so we'll be going around and around about what we're wearing this week before we leave.

Now I have the perfect way to kick off fall break next week by spending the weekend with my amazing husband and super sweet (super SNEAKY!) friend. :) Perfect.

WHOA!! What was THAT!?!?

2010-09-27T05:23:00.001-07:00

Walking down the hall and suddenly I got this HORRIBLE sharp and fast pain up inside the girlie bits. What was that!? I thought I'd been kicked in the cervix before but OMG that was TERRIBLE! It happened while a student was talking to me and I verbally said "YOW!!!" when it happened because it killed and took me by surprise.

::side-eye::

BabyG, you need to stay in there and cook a little longer. I'd love to meet you but give it several more weeks ok?

Good grief!

Well then... that'll help a little :)

2010-09-24T09:01:00.001-07:00

My Friday just got a little more tolerable. MrG and I will get to have a (very nice) date night tomorrow! The best part? It won't cost us a dime!!

I was already getting complimentary tickets to the symphony for tomorrow night. Going to the symphony in our town is not as glamorous as it sounds. People wear anything from furs (in the winter time - not the 95* fall weather) to blue jeans and short sleeved button up plaid shirts. This town's not exactly the mecca of class and culture to put it lightly.

Anyway so I was getting tickets for that which had been donated to our school and MrG sent me a picture message with a $50 gift card to a new restaurant in town! He got it for something at work - hasn't told me why yet - but who cares!? I'm so excited now.

We'll dress up and I'll post my 33 week picture when I look cute for our sweet date tomorrow night.

Happy Friday! :)

Five more days.

2010-09-24T06:35:00.001-07:00

Fall break can not come soon enough. Seriously. I probably should've taken a personal day several weeks ago because I'm burning out fast. I know that maternity leave in November will bring a whole new realm of tired but I'm almost certain it will be a *different* kind of tired.

The tired I have right now makes me want to cry when I'm driving home from school every day.

Five (school) days until fall break.

49 days until my due date.

I can make it... right?

Dear Starbucks Lady,

2010-09-23T05:06:00.001-07:00

Thank you for making me the best Pumpkin Spice Latte I've ever had. It's the first day of fall and the high today in this hole in the USA is 96°. For obvious reasons I couldn't stop and enjoy a PSL after school (like I'd be a fiery inferno of hot cranky teacher) but that's ok! This PSL was better than the one the college kid after school would've made anyway. :)

Love always,
MrsG

I love love LOVE Starbucks but MrG doesn't understand my passion (and neither does my debit card) so I haven't been to Starbucks since MAY. For real. It's sad. A dear friend got me a mommy gift for my shower - a $10 Starbucks card - so I treated myself to breakfast this morning.

Good stuff.

Tastes like chicken...?

2010-09-21T09:55:00.001-07:00

Is it just me or is it totally wrong for the cafeteria ladies to claim that their prepared selections are one thing when they are indeed something different?

Today's example? We had tacos at lunch (with all the taco fixin's out). The meat was labeled "Chicken for Tacos". It was shredded meat and some of it was chicken... but I can guarantee you that there was left over shredded BBQ (turkey or pork? I don't know which) mixed in with that taco "chicken".

You're not fooling anyone... and that's nasty.

Today has been one of those days from the start.

The outfit I was planning on wearing wouldn't work because there was a hole in the shirt.

I was running late getting ready and doing my hair. I got to BK for breakfast (a result of the running late) and my order wasn't very good. Burnt Cini-Minis and iced mocha w/o the mocha part doesn't please me.

Got to school and left my water jug in the car.

Find out that there's a team of people from the board of education observing teachers today during classes. I'm not sure if they're going to everyone but if they are they just missed my best 4 classes and will be subjected to watching my blood pressure go up with the 8th grade classes.

I have the glorious honor of lunch duty where I stand in the cafeteria and watch those same 8th graders talk with their mouths full and share all of the contents with everyone as they chew.

Tonight is the gLee premiere. Where will I be? Not snuggled up in my jammies on the couch watching it! I'll be sitting at school... at a PTO meeting.

::sigh:: Can it be October yet?

Eight 5am alarms and I'm on fall break. PLEASE HURRY!!!

Footloose

2010-09-13T05:22:00.001-07:00

Every morning instead of having bells sound to tell students to get to class we have music played over the intercom. It can range from Chris Brown songs (yes even after THE incident) to the Mamas and the Papas depending on who's in the office to play it. I thought I was going to be homicidal the day Surfin' Bird came on and I threatened the chorus teacher (who picked that selection that day) with his life if he ever played that again. I don't know about you but that's not a song I want to hear at 7:15am.

Today's selection was Footloose.

BabyG was rockin' out to it.

Meanwhile, MamaG could barely waddle down the hallway to get her coffee without falling asleep half way there.

At least one of us is awake! Maybe I'll let the baby teach this morning...

Volume. Control.

2010-09-08T05:14:00.001-07:00

I teach 6th-8th grade. They get here at about 6:30am. I normally don't see or deal with them until 7am unless I have early bus duty where I stand in the gym and babysit the students until they go to breakfast.

The thing is - I don't remember EVER being this loud at 7am. Ever. Why does anyone want to talk so much (let alone, scream, sing, chant, and or fight) so early in the morning?

I mean... I'm sure they stay up way later than me too! What is going on inside a middle school brain/body that would have them behave this way?

I just don't get it.

Urrrrrrgh...

2010-09-03T04:59:00.001-07:00

30 weeks today! :) It's been a stressful week but I'm surviving. This morning I'm moving super slow because I had to work the concession stand for my students' football game last night. I was pulling into the garage at the time I'm usually getting into bed. Makes for a rough morning - even though it IS Friday!

We're leaving for "home" tonight and I don't have a single thing packed. Awesome. I'll have to bust it when I get home from school then sleep in the car I guess. My mother in law, father in law and of course MrG are all going. They're driving so that'll be good for me. MIL wanted to go halfway tonight then get in to town earlier tomorrow to have more time with my family - to which I did NOT object.

My shower is on Sunday. I'm really excited to see my family and a couple friends who are coming. One of them is making the cake and it's going to be AMAZING. The other is driving down (4 hour trip). I haven't seen her since her wedding last year so I'm THRILLED that she's coming. She's actually staying the night on Sunday to spend more time with us! :)

It's going to be a GREAT weekend (as long as I can survive the school day today!).

Speaking of... I think I hear voices coming down the hall. And off we go!

As promised :)

2010-08-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

29 weeks

Answers to the questions I keep getting
1) Yes, I'm only 29 weeks.
2) No, it's not twins.
3) Yes I'm sure it's not twins.
4) Yes, I know it's summer and yes I'm hot.

:)

29 weeks

2010-08-27T06:07:00.001-07:00

I keep promising belly pictures but by the time I get home in the afternoon my shoes come off, my school clothes come off and I throw on my comfy jammies and lounge around the house. I will do my best to get one taken and posted this weekend when I look cute when MrG is home with me :)

BabyG is getting very strong these days. All morning long I feel like I've been getting one roundhouse kick after another to the cervix/bladder/pooper area. It's not time yet, little one. Chill out in there. I haven't been kicked in the ribs yet but I'm starting to debate on what would be worse - feeling like the bottom's about to drop out/I'm going to pee myself or getting knocked in the ribs. I'll let you know when s/he decides to test the rib action.

I have had a great pregnancy this far. I'm totally shocked that (knock on wood) my belly button is still in tact, I don't have stretch marks (I was SURE those would come early and be horrid - benefit of being a fat girl I guess?), I don't have the linea nigra and haven't had hemorrhoids either! I feel really good with the exception of some rough pelvic pain especially at the end of the day. I couldn't ask for anything more.

At my doctor's appointment on Monday they told me my blood pressure was up again for the second appointment in a row. I keep trying to tell them that I'm 99% sure my BP is up because I'm coming to them straight from school. Teaching 6th-8th grade isn't exactly a cakewalk kind of job! I'm on my feet all day, I'm getting bigger and they're stressful little boogers so it's no wonder my BP is high lately.

They are being extra cautious and testing me for preeclampsia. Sunday I get the joy of collecting ALL of my pee for 24 hours so they can test it for proteins. Freaking. Awesome. I can't wait. I've got my little red jug with my name written on it in permanent marker and I've already told MrG that Sunday we aren't doing ANYTHING but sitting around the house and waiting for me to pee. It's going to be SO fun. I have to keep it refrigerated too so I'll have to bring it in a cooler to school on Monday to take with me to my appointment that afternoon. Good times.

I will update this weekend with a picture - FOR REAL this time!! :)

Happy Friday!!

School Daze...

2010-08-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what's going to happen when I'm up with a newborn all night long but I am EXHAUSTED right now. School's going well I'm just really tired dragging myself here at the buttcrack of dawn every day. I don't know who thought it was a good idea for middle and high schoolers to have to start their school day at 7:15 am but it's ridiculous & they don't function that early (neither do I!).

I'll enter 3rd trimester on Friday! Everything's going really well. I always thought I'd blog about pregnancy more than this but apparently not! I think I'm still in denial that this is real in the first place. I keep reminding myself that there IS a baby in there and it has to come out somehow. It feels like a fantasy or something.

We've made a lot of progress on the nursery but I'm not going to post any pictures until we're finished with it. Curtains went up today and we're *almost* done with the other decorations. The walls are painted a fun shade of green - it took me a while but I love it now. MrG is awesome and is working really hard on it. I'm helping where I can but it's rough on me being on my feet all day and still doing stuff at night (ever heard of lightning crotch? It's real and it's terrible).

We've got several busy weekends in a row including going home for a shower on Labor Day weekend. I feel like time is flying by but at the same time I feel like I have a long way to go.

I'm thinking about changing my blog address but I'll have to figure that out at home.

I promise a belly pic and some nursery pics very soon. I'm such a blogging failure. If any of you are still reading - I'm sorry for neglecting you. :)

This one time... at band camp...

2010-07-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy (and so tired) the last two weeks!! I've been teaching at a band camp where my friend is now the head director and I'm EXHAUSTED! I went from being a slug and doing nothing all day to working 8am-5pm in and out of the heat (I was really careful!) and teaching kids music. They're doing a Journey show so I think BabyG will come out singing Journey songs from hearing them all day every day! :)

I'm back to school tomorrow. No kids until Monday but teachers have meetings tomorrow and Friday. In some (most) ways I'm SO not ready but others I know that once I get the school year started time will fly between now and November.

We had an ultrasound at 20 weeks and the baby's kidneys were slightly dilated (but still within "normal"/don't worry too much range). On Monday we had another ultrasound to check on them again and they were still dilated - one had gone up a little even. My midwife (LOVE HER!!!) wants to see me in 2 weeks and do another ultrasound. If they're not getting smaller by then she's sending me to the perinatal ultrasound department with the higher powered ultrasound to see what's going on in there. I'm refusing to worry until we get to that point because the ultrasound tech and the MW both insist that this happens all the time. I'm glad they want to keep an eye on it and more ultrasounds are always good for me!

So that's a quick update. MrG is making me dinner right now then I'm hitting the shower and watching Big Brother with my sweet husband. After that? Probably bed!

Almost normal

2010-07-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Man it's taking me FOREVER to kick this!! Sheesh! I'm just now starting to really feel better today. I ended up going BACK to the clinic on Thursday because I still wasn't feeling better. I have been taking antibiotics orally now and they prescribed me an inhaler. I'm still coughing today and my throat hurts a LITTLE bit but it's nowhere near as bad as it has been!

22 weeks this week. I didn't take a picture because I felt like poo and my parents were here for a visit. We had a nice time. Just long enough before I got TOO irritated with them. We went to a minor league baseball game Saturday night and MrG and both of my parents saw my belly jump a couple times while we were there. :) I was more excited about the fireworks after the game than the game itself but it was a fun night anyway.

This week I really need to get some things done since I got behind from doing nothing last week. This is my last official week of summer break. Next week I start marching band camp from 8-5. It goes for two weeks (Monday - Friday) and the 29th and 30th I go back to school for inservice. I have students Monday after that! The second half of summer has FLOWN by. I thought it was dragging a little in the beginning (not that going slow was a bad thing) but now that it's over I feel like I missed part of it!

Working around the house today - hope everyone has a great week!! :)

Bummed.

2010-07-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I woke up with a really really sore throat. I immediately assumed it was allergies as I had been dusting and vacuuming the day before and MrG had just mowed the lawn. It was sore all day long and the longer the day went on the worse I felt.

By the time I was ready to go to bed I felt terrible. Achey all over, nasty sinus drainage (gag), tenderness on either side of my neck, stiff joints, all that fun stuff.

I'm usually pretty hardheaded about going to the doctor but after a terrible night's sleep and feeling horrible this morning too I just got up and went when MrG suggested it.

I tried to go to the clinic that's supposed to hope at 8am only to find that they were closed for the holiday weekend. Fantastic. The other clinics didn't open until 9am so I had to burn an hour. I finally got into the room and the nurse practitioner came in.

I have strep. :( I HATE getting strep. I'm confused as to HOW I got it since I haven't been out of the house much at all the past week or so. Sucks.

She gave me two options for my penicillin - either a shot or the pills. I'm a big girl and the thought of swallowing pills at that moment made me cry. With all of the IF stuff we went through I was used to having shots all the time so let's go with that. Over with right away, it'll work faster. No big deal.

I waited and waited and waited for someone to come in and give me the shot. It was strangely warm in the room and I started to feel really thirsty and a little lightheaded. The lady FINALLY came in. As she was giving me the injection I asked her if they had any bottled water up front (they have coffee, cappuccinos, a slush puppy machine all this cool stuff for patients - no bottled water. What the crap?). The shot HURT and she kept looking at me weird as she was telling me where the water fountain was and pushing the meds that I never thought would end. She told me to get up on the table and lay down. I almost passed out. LOL I donate blood, I lost my fear of needles YEARS ago and I almost passed out from her giving me the injection. How embarrassing.

She brought me a cup of ice water and had me lay there for a minute and sit in the room to make sure I didn't have a reaction to the medicine then I was free to go. She was really sweet about it and I kept telling her I'm usually not like that. I'm such a goober.

MrG and I were supposed to go out to my IL's for the 4th of July cookout tonight. We were going to go swimming this afternoon, too.

But no. Here I am.

Sitting in the chair trying not to move and I wouldn't want to go even if I did feel better because I'd hate to pass it on to someone else. MrG has been really sweet and made me a bowl of soup. Guess I'll just sit here and sulk as I eat it because I don't get to have any fun today. :(

Happy 4th of July Everyone! May your weekend be better than mine!

A quick post and a pretty picture :)

2010-07-02T14:25:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post and say that I LOVED the midwife on Monday!! We told the other clinic we were transferring and I feel a bajillion times better. I really think the MW will help make this natural birth work and it makes me even more confident that I can do this. :)

We were surprised to have an ultrasound that day to do the 20w fetal assessment too! I was glad to be able to see the baby and also glad that I didn't have time to worry about the ultrasound and something being wrong.
There are a few things they want to keep an eye on - a calcification on the heart and just barely dilated kidneys. We were told that both things happen often and are usually nothing but it's something they want to monitor.

Here's one of the images we got. We're going Team Green and not finding out if it's a boy or girl but it sure does look like I've got a real live baby in there! :)

Baby G - 20w 3d

I love this one too :)

Oh I need to update.

2010-06-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

I've been busy doing nothing but enjoying my summer and keep forgetting to get on here and update! I thought I'd be on here all the time but I keep distracting myself with other things and it slips my mind! Sorry guys! (if anyone's still with me) I've had a wonderful time this summer. MrG and I took a weekend trip and had a great time seeing friends. We've had a garage sale and made pretty good money from it! We got nursery furniture and are trying to plan the nursery.
I'm 19 weeks 5 days right now - Friday will be HALF WAY!! I am torn between thinking the first half FLEW by and by realizing that I still have 20 weeks left. Somedays I feel like it's going really fast, others can't wait until it's October where the due date is right around the corner.

I've been feeling the baby every day now. It's so amazing. I can't even describe how exciting this is. I never thought I'd be here so every time s/he rolls or kicks me I'm just smitten. I can't feel it from the outside (probably from my layers on layers of padding right? LOL) but the movements are getting stronger and more frequent so that's great.

We're going Team Green!! I really wanted to NOT find out the sex of the baby and MrG agreed after I hooked him in with the fact that he'd get to go into the waiting room and announce to everyone "It's a Boy!!" or "It's a Girl!!". He fell in love with that idea. Plus it keeps us from getting a bunch of girly crap or a whole lot of boy stuff. :) It seems to be driving everyone but us crazy but that's too bad for them because I just don't care! LOL

We have been seeing the OB that I was with before going to the RE. At my last appointment about 2 weeks ago I asked about what happens whenever the big day comes. Only one OB is on call so more than likely he would NOT be doing the birth. That seemed weird to me (even though it's common practice for many clinics I suppose). Then the OB mentioned that they try to work out their schedule so they ARE at the birth of their patients. That seemed totally weird to me too - how can you schedule when women will go into labor? After that he said they'd probably induce me early because of my thyroid. Excuse me?

Now I'm not the best at researching and finding information but I'm definitely not one to roll over and take whatever my doctor says just because he/she's a doctor. I've been looking into this and have found NOTHING saying that hypothyroidism is sole reason for early induction. I've asked around and haven't heard from anyone with hypothyroidism who had to be induced early. As much as I love this OB as a person I've given him the side eye before (wanting to do Clomid w/o monitoring before the RE and not diagnosing my PCOS) so I've been looking around for other options.

In the area I live my options are EXTREMELY limited. Everyone goes with the flow, same ole' same ole', do whatever the doctor says without asking questions... blah blah blah. I've always wanted natural birth and I feel very nervous being in the care of OBs whom I don't know and trusting them to follow my birth plan. While MY OB may be willing to cooperate and agree to a med free birth, I can't be sure that whoever the oncall doctor is when I go in to have BabyG will be the same way.

I've been looking into midwives and had a rollercoaster ride figuring out if there were any I could go to in the area. MrG is hesitant but agreed that we could do it however I wanted as long as insurance would cover it. I found that if a midwife works within an OB practice the office will bill the insurance simply as the doctors' office and not specify that a midwife is giving the care. This is a standard procedure that forms a perfect loophole for use to take advantage of! I have an appointment with the midwife to ask her questions and see what she's all about on Monday morning! I was relieved that she is relatively new to the practice and was able to take me at almost 20 weeks! In addition, I have several friends who are nurses who went with the OBs in this particular clinic in town so I feel confident that if something happened and I needed doctor intervention (highly unlikely) the doctors there are great.

I made it over that big hurdle now I'm trying to convince MrG that it'd be awesome if we could hire a doula. I've found a girl who's still training (making her extremely reasonably priced! Not gonna lie - she's a steal!). She lives an hour away but said she's very interested and willing to be a doula for us. I think (hope) once MrG meets with the midwife and can ask her questions she'll explain how helpful a doula can be. I'm continuing to explain what they do as best I can and trying to get him on board with that. I think it'd be a great experience and she'd be really helpful.

Anyway this is getting HUGE so I'll stop and post my belly pic from last week. I should have a cuter one this week because we're going to a wedding on Saturday. I WILL update more often. I've totally fallen off the wagon but I'm crawling back on :)

Here ya go. This was last Friday - 19 weeks!

It's my birthday!! :)

2010-05-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

And I can't sleep in anymore!! BAH!! It's NOT because I'm getting old... it's because of my work schedule, going to sleep the same time MrG does and because I'm only supposed to sleep on my sides now. Not the most fun but I can deal with it - the reward in the end is way better than sleeping well. :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend. :) Regular blogging will resume - I PROMISE (again)!!!

I hit 16 weeks yesterday. Here's the picture I took.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

2010-05-21T05:01:00.001-07:00

It's the day that we all look forward to (and any teacher that says they DON'T look forward to it is a big fat liar). It's also the day that you think will never come.

BUT IT'S HERE!!! YAY!!!!

I hope I don't have many kids today. The ones I DO have I plan on putting to work for me to get everything packed up and stored for summer. Middle schoolers are so eager to help all the time (so are elementary kids for that matter). They love feeling needed and important. I'm going to make them feel both today and then I'll give them candy as an extra benefit to their emotional satisfaction. :)

Turning in your keys is like finally turning in that research paper in college you stayed up all night long working on because you waited until the last minute to work on it. (Don't act like you never did that too.) That feeling and then walking out is pure awesome.

15 weeks today, anniversary tomorrow, and my birthday next week. :) I love May.

You might be pregnant if...

2010-05-19T06:12:00.001-07:00

(a post title I never thought I'd make).

seeing a scene from a movie set in Texas with a mariachi band makes you crave Mexican food. Now that's pretty embarrassing right there.

I triple duper promise I will be back in the blogging action starting say... this weekend-ish. Today and Friday are my last two days of school with students which is ridiculous. Why not let the teacher work day be on Friday so the kids don't have to come back? I have no idea. It's silly. What's more silly is that Friday is report card day but it's a FULL DAY. BAH!

So I can practically TASTE summer break but I have a few more days to live through.

I will be 15 weeks on Friday and I have a doctor appointment this afternoon. I won't have an ultrasound this time but I'm hoping for one next month.

Also since I've been gone I finally got MrG to agree to go Team Green (waiting to find the gender when the baby is born). YAY!!!!!!

Also, I was in a car accident last week. I hit a deer but I'm fine. My car should (hopefully) be fixed by the end of the week.

I'll go into detail on all of that and post a belly pic soon. :)

Skittles at 7:43 am

2010-05-07T05:51:00.001-07:00

What? They're fruit(y) and the baby wants them! :)

I have this one co-irker who has been driving me more crazy than the children have the past 3 weeks or so. He has driven me insane all through the play I helped him with, his concert I sold tickets for last night and now... today.

He is taking his kids (along with my friend another teacher) on a field trip. They've been planning this for a while now. When you're going to be out you have to find your own sub. Wanna guess when he started looking for one? LAST NIGHT. Not only is it next to impossible to find a sub the night before but there's a huge festival one town over that a lot of teachers take off for (or the subs go to themselves).

7:00 am he walks down the hall and asks if I've gotten his note. Um... No? He "couldn't find a sub" so he needs me, the art teacher and the dance teacher to take his kids!! HE waited until the last minute so WE have to save his rear by taking on additional students (besides our own) for him all day long.

::deep breath::

9 more days... 9 more days...

On MUCH happier news - today I'm 13 weeks along!! That means I'm starting 2nd Trimester. I can't even believe I'm typing this. I never thought I'd get a BFP let alone be in 2nd Trimester.

So on top of my great day with BabyG I have a craptastic co-irker. I think I need ice cream after school... or Starbucks... or both. ;)

In case you didn't know...

2010-04-30T07:51:00.001-07:00

middle schoolers are not an effective form of headache relief.

Just wanted to let you know that.

I promise I'll be back to blogging soon. I haven't been around here because I'm helping with a musical (that is a disaster). I didn't want to write because I'm sure every entry would be complaining about the insanity that I deal with 3 days a week after school.

I will be back soon!

::searches for Tylenol::

Um... WHAT?!

2010-04-15T08:45:00.001-07:00

The kid I'm testing this week is on the English as a Second Language list. That's why he is getting one-on-one testing with me - you know in case he doesn't know a word or doesn't know how to pronounce something.

I just found out that English is the ONLY language he speaks!!! He doesn't even speak Spanish and for some reason the central office thinks he does!!

WHAT THE CRAP!?

Stir Crazy

2010-04-14T09:41:00.001-07:00

As a student, standardized testing is stupid (sometimes hard) and really boring. As a teacher? Eleventy billion times worse. This year I'm only testing one kid. He's an English as a Second Language student and I really have no idea why he needs the accommodation. He never asks me questions about any word on the test. He finishes in time and from what I can tell he's really reading and answering the questions so I just sit there.

What's worse is I'm not allowed to DO anything while I sit there. I couldn't even make a grocery list or a to do list if I wanted to because it's considered a "breach of security" - in case someone wanted to cheat and write test questions down.

Two days down, two more to go. It takes everything in me to stay awake while I sit there and stare at him.

::sigh::

I love this stuff!

2010-04-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning. MrG is at work and it's my last few days of spring break. It didn't fly by this time (which was nice)! That's probably because I didn't do ANYTHING (which was also very very nice!).

Today I'm doing some house work and other things I've neglected to do all week and just having a fun day. I can't wait for MrG to get home so to pass the time I've played online as usual.

I stumbled across some stuff that is just awesome. First of all is this way better alternative to a sign in book at a baby shower. In their example they're using it as a wedding guest book but I think it would be PERFECT for a baby shower and then to frame it and hang it in the nursery!

pic here

It's similar to what my brother and SIL did for their wedding "guestbook" but instead of thumb prints they had little leaf stickers in red and blue to match the wedding colors. I saw this and loved it. It's so personal and cute and not the average book where people sign in and then it stays in a box forever. Just so cool. :)

Then I saw this super cute chore chart thing. I love it but why in the heck is it so expensive!? I think it'd be better when (hopefully) have more than one kid and they're older and helping with chores but some days I think we need something like it for the two of us!

pics here

I mean how stinking cute is that!? Maybe if I start now I'll figure out a way to make it by the time I want one to hang up in my house. That'll give me a few years to figure it out. :)

Ok I'm off to unload the dishwasher and start putting laundry away. I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful, and gorgeous weekend!!

ETA!
I just found this one! Cheaper but I still think I could make one for even less. I'll have to start looking at Hobby Lobby to see what kind of pieces I can find :)

pic here

Ultrasound #2

2010-04-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

We had our 2nd ultrasound today with the OBGYN. He said everything looks amazing - couldn't ask for any better. By the calendar days since my last period I'm 8 weeks and 5 days. BabyG is measuring 8 weeks 3 days but he said it's just fine. We got to HEAR the heartbeat (which doesn't always happen this early - you can see it but sometimes can't hear it). It was pumping strong at 188 beats per minute!!

Our next appointment (the "official" New Pregnancy Marathon Appointment = 3 hours long) is in a couple weeks. So here you go!

It's hard to tell with the scanned pic but the baby has grown a LOT since the last one 2 weeks ago. Before it looked like a little peanut that was almost the same size as the yolk sack. Now you can see the head and the body (and little arm/leg buds when we saw the baby in person) and the sac is way smaller than the baby.

This is all so unreal still. I'm just amazed and thank God for every day He gives me with this little one.

Spring break is amazing.

2010-04-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

Our spring break started on Friday and I have all of this week off. It's going to be SO nice. Yesterday after church we cleaned the house and gave 3 dogs baths before my ILs came for dinner. It was warm and very nice out so we didn't have the traditional Easter-y dinner we cooked burgers and hotdogs on the grill. Still very good.
I was exhausted today so I've been a little on the lazy side. I don't plan on doing this every day because there are rooms in the house that need some serious attention but today was a little break. Wednesday I have an ultrasound and an appointment with my OBGYN. Thankfully the RE that we saw a couple weeks ago said we could go to the OB (since he was closer) for the growth u/s to see how BabyG is doing. I keep telling myself everything will be fine but I still worry.
Today I'm 8 weeks and 4 days along. This past week I've had some rough nausea during the evenings. I have a weird food aversion to things like chicken (which is really really sad). I can think about eating McDonald's chicken nuggets but anything else makes my stomach turn. The food that's been the best for me so far has been fruit. I can eat fruit without feeling sick so I've been sticking with that for now as my go-to food.

Some friends have been bugging me for a picture. I was supposed to do it Friday but I kept procrastinating (who? Me?!? NEVER!). So here it is - in my awesome shirt that was marked $10(something) and I got it for $3.74. I love Target.

Mostly bloat and belly fat (and lunch) but there you go.
My first one.

Little things that make me ridiculously happy.

2010-03-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday - that's awesome in itself
The weather is GORGEOUS

Staying in bed later than you should
Cuddling with MrG :)

Finding a cute shirt on clearance
Having said shirt ring up $3.74 when it's marked $10.48

Offering me apple pie at the Popeye's drive thru
I couldn't resist!!!
(Awesome apple pie might I add)

Popeye's chicken strips meal (This is totally SP's fault and omg YUM!)
Got home and found two extra strips in the box!!

Going to the ballet tonight with my favorite person
For free.

7 weeks

2010-03-26T07:48:00.001-07:00

So far I haven't had "morning" sickness in full swing but I'm feeling a little off today. I've been exhausted the past 2 days and last night I had a TERRIBLE headache that came back this morning after I was up for a while. I haven't taken any belly pics yet. I feel like you can't see anything. I just look like I did before I lost the 15 lbs from my diet - maybe a little bigger and more bloated and fat in the middle. Nothing impressive enough to take a picture of just yet. :)

I forgot lunch money but I brought a few things so I'll just have my South Beach meal bar, pear and yogurt for lunch. I think that'll be fine anyway because food doesn't sound appetizing at all right now anyway.

This weekend is going to be great. MrG got us tickets to the ballet on Saturday (for free) and I'm really excited about that. It's the local youth ballet company and they're doing Cinderella.

Spring break starts next week. I had originally planned on painting the master bedroom over break but I'm not sure if that'll get done now.

That's about it for me! :)
Happy Friday everybody!

Can I just sleep until Saturday?

2010-03-24T05:44:00.001-07:00

This week is so busy and I'm exhausted. I have to be at school early (6:30 am - about the time MrG is finally deciding he should roll out of bed and get in the shower) for bus duty and I've been staying after every day (till about 4:30) for either practice for the musical I'm helping with or the faculty meeting.

I need a nap. :P

A few pictures from February and March...

2010-03-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day was very good.

MrG got me this...

and these...

I made some soup...

Got a belated Valentine's gift...

Went north for my "little" brother's wedding...

Grandma and Grandpa (formerly known as Mom and Dad)
looked GREAT :)
We didn't look too bad either.
Met a sweet friend at IKEAShe brought us a EXTRA sweet present but...

I'm not sure if it'll fit just yet.

BabyG 6w3d
Expected to arrive November 12, 2010

It's "Friday"!!!!

2010-03-17T11:53:00.001-07:00

Flying home for my little brother's wedding tomorrow afternoon! I'm really excited to go home this trip and to have a break from school. At first I was irritated about it being in the middle of March but now I'm thankful because it's dividing up the spring semester (that seems to DRAG BY).

Spring break will be 2 weeks after that so I think I can make it! :)

I'm still alive :)

2010-03-10T07:31:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy week or so. I'm helping with the musical at school (huge mistake that I walked into because I'm a newbie here and didn't realize what an unorganized disaster it would be).

I'm ready for spring break to get here in a hurry. I'm really ready for MAY to get here in a hurry but I've gotta take it one step at a time. :)

The wedding's next week so that'll be a little break. We start the last 9 weeks of the year tomorrow. I'm excited to be at the end but I'm anxious to see what my last group of kids are like.

Anyway just wanted to check in and say hi! :)

A New Routine

2010-03-02T06:15:00.001-08:00

I think I'm going to try to get to school just a little early to have a morning devotional time. It's too hard to do that early at home because home is too comfy and I'd fall back asleep and that'd be no good. I don't spend enough time with God, praying, or reading the Bible. I want to worship more every day. If I can get here just 10 minutes early I think it would have a huge impact on my day. I could sit in the quiet before the storm of kids and read and pray - especially for them at that time. I could also turn on Pandora and listen to some music to put me in a better mood. Coffee, the Bible and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - can't start a day off much better than that right?

Back on the diet today. Phase 1 for the next 2 weeks to try to fix the mess I put myself in the last 2 weeks! I weighed this morning because I was feeling big and ended up that I was down a pound. I'm at 214 lbs. I think my heaviest weight was 238 lbs at the doctor's office one time. Change is coming. More slowly than I like but it's getting there. I have my determination back to not cheat this time. I resisted a doughnut in the teacher's lounge this morning. Some days it's the little things ;)

Lazy weekend

2010-02-28T07:43:00.001-08:00

I think I need spring weather to come so I can feel more motivated to clean my house and get moving on it. I don't have motivation at all - even though looking around should be motivation enough! This week is has been busy and my first full week of school for a LONG TIME and I was staying after school 3 of the 5 days for different things. So for THIS weekend, I'll blame it on the busy schedule. Next weekend I need to try to not have an excuse.

I'm going back on Phase 1 for the next two weeks before the wedding. Between Valentine's Day and MrG's birthday I have been a dieting failure the past few weeks. I need to get back on track and work out more consistently too. Other times I've dieted and gotten off track I'd just give up and forget about it. I'd eat whatever I wanted and stopped caring. This time is different. I was making progress, people have been telling me that they SEE the progress and I know I can do this!

We are heading to church in a little bit. MrG has to work at job #2 for the first time in over a month. They never give him any hours. He was tired and had a headache so we're going to the later church service instead of the first one that he usually prefers. We were hanging out with some friends last night and were out late. I had a great time though. :)

That's about it for this weekend! I hope everyone has a great week!!

I love you guys.

2010-02-26T15:10:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all of the responses in my post about you. I absolutely love it.

I've been a diet failure the past week or so. I think I'll go back on Phase 1 for the next 2 weeks before the wedding so I can fix the damage I've done. It hasn't been much but I haven't lost any either so I need to get back on track.

I'm off to go chaperone a dance at school tonight. I'm sure it'll be a GREAT time. ::eyeroll::

My love note to the internet crazies:

2010-02-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

While I love 99% of you dearly, there are a few people who have been posting less than appropriate comments on my blog. It's ok. I know people aren't going to agree with everything I say. It's cool. No problem. I can roll with the punches - that's an important trait for a middle school teacher I think.

Last night was weird. I'm not sure why someone would post that a "baby was on the way" and "the baby boy would bring us a lifetime of joy". A little bizarre. More explanation to what the thought process was behind that would be awesome.

Today I found a new special friend. Her name is (taken out to stop searches coming here). Unfortunately she thinks she's funny and hurtful. She's strongly mistaken. She has a very limited vocabulary and she isn't able to do anything but state simple obvious things - like the fact that I'm fat. Thanks. I know that. That's why I'm working on it. Lucky for me, I can change fat. She'll have a tougher time changing her serious issues.

I'm not going to humor her with posting what she wrote to me but I do hope she posts again. She has an interesting take on the lives of other people and I find it quite entertaining - just not for the reasons she thinks she is!

Sweet dreams crazy. Snuggle those dolls tight tonight and watch out for those pins. They might stick ya. "Everything comes around full circle" right?

::smooches::

Just for fun...

2010-02-23T18:57:00.001-08:00

(and because I'm EXTREMELY curious)

Blog Reader Poll!!! (I'm lame, I know. Please humor me.)

Leave me a comment to answer these questions

- Where/how did you find me?
- Do you read often?
- Where are you from? (obviously don't give too much detail)
- What's your story? Tell me about yourself
- Where's your favorite vacation spot?

aaaaaaaaaaaaand GO!!
This one's all about you guys so make it good!!! :)

Happy 300 Posts!!

2010-02-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

This is post #300. Isn't that special?

Can I just say that I love watching the Olympics? I've never been an athlete but I think they're cool and fun to watch. We watched Ski Cross - a brand new event - the other day and it was FIERCE. MrG prefers the summer Olympics but I love both. So cool.

This is fun news - Travis Cottrell is going to be the music minister at our church! He officially starts in May and I'm really excited. He's amazing and is going to be a huge blessing to our church.

My back has been killing me for the past week and today I finally got up the courage to do the Shred again. I've been a total failure this weekend with eating and all of last week with exercise so I've got some ground to gain back.

I'm tired and need to go to bed early. Our hopeful baby making sex-a-thon is over now and I'm kind of excited to go to bed to just... sleep. :)

I got new glasses today. I'll post a picture when I take a better one than what I took earlier. I look a little rough today.

Anyways... Happy 300!

Doritos, cookies and my pants don't fit.

2010-02-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Last night was bad. Really bad. We went to a friend's house for a little "party" (it wasn't really a party it was just a get together but I can't think of what else to call it). The only food they had there? Doritos, chips and salsa and cookies. How can you be rude and not eat anything? That's just horrible, right? Yeah.... so..... SBD was out the window last night but I fully plan on jumping back on the wagon. Tomorrow. It's MrG's birthday! We're going out to dinner! We're having cake! What's a girl supposed to do!? Maybe I'll kick it with Phase 1 for a week to make up for this weekend.

Can we talk about my favorite (relatively new) dress pants that I wore to church this morning. They're baggy. I look like droopy drawers. MrG told me my kids (my students) were going to think it was awesome because I'd be "sagging" like they always do. Not exactly the look I was going for. I'm sad that they're my favorite pants but glad at the same time because OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY WORKING!!!!!! I'm going to have to look for a tailor, fast.

So. We're already back into November due dates again. It hits me hard when they're close to the end of the year and my hope of having a 20(08... 09... 10...)baby are thrown out the window. In addition to that trying and doing a lot of proactive stuff - other than doing it like bunnies - makes the issues more heavy on my heart. Went to my board last night... BFP. Got on Facebook after church... BFP. I'm trying not to jump into the pool of "Woe is me" and remember that there's a reason for this. It's one that I don't understand and I'd love an explanation but I guess it's not time for me to have one yet.

Our pastor was out sick today and the pastor that was there before him covered the morning service. He talked about how we should put God before everything - family, friends, job, HEALTH. Health. I probably need to work on that. He also said that no matter what our circumstance is, there is a way that God can use you to minister to others through that. I contacted the head of woman's ministry around Mother's Day 2009 and she said that an IF support group was "at the top of a very short list of things for her to do this summer". Maybe she meant 2010 because I haven't seen anything in the bulletin or heard from her about it since. I think it's time for another email. I've been through a lot and I want to be able to help others in person. The internet is great but e-hugs only help so much.

Ok. I'm off to bake brownies for the birthday boy.

I promise not to eat any of those.

I can't make the same promise about the strawberry cake in the fridge.

Jillian's going to kick my rear but the weekend has been fun and worth it.

Happy Birthday MrG!!!

2010-02-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

(This picture was taken last year in April)

Happy 27th Birthday to the most wonderful man I know. I love you so very much (not that you'll read this) and I appreciate your strength and patience with my craziness every single day.

:)

I think cake is my weakness.

2010-02-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing that this week's weigh in won't be so good due to back pain (not being able to work out! SUCKS!!) and it being MrG's birthday.

He asked the lady at work for my favorite kind of cake for his birthday celebration there and he brought OVER HALF of it home!! I had a (smallish) piece and couldn't even finish it because the icing was so sugary - I could tear through a piece of this when I got it for my birthday last year! I guess that's a good sign but it's still not good for the dieting.

It WAS delicious though.... :)

Just because I can't eat them...

2010-02-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

Doesn't mean I can't make them!!

I whipped up a batch of these with MrG tonight for him to take to work tomorrow.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
source ^ there

His coworkers have seriously considered putting a jar out for donations and have me bake them stuff for him to bring so that we're not always buying all of the ingredients. It cracks me up. They've even started putting in requests. I love it. :)

I won't lie. I ate a little one. They're amazing if I do say so myself (which i think I can because I didn't write the recipe I just put it all together). Delicious. Definitely not in the diet plan but I couldn't help it.

Today I had an RE appointment. I had an ultrasound - the tech said she saw a few little ones on the right but the left ovary had one good follicle so I got my HCG trigger shot. Way better than before. I used to get it in the hip/butt area but this nurse put it in my lower abdomen. More fat + less muscle = didn't hurt as bad! We were given orders to have sex the next 3 days then "whenever I feel like it after that". LOL I can't help but laugh that other people know so much about my sex life. As horrible as IF is I'm glad I can manage to find some humor in it - silly as it may be.

Ok need to head off to bed because I have early bus duty in the morning (lame). Two more days and this weekend is MrG's birthday!! :D

Two Blog Awards

2010-02-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

Because I'm a blogger slacker. The first one is from over a month ago (I can't believe I forgot to do it before now. I feel like this month FLEW by).

It's from my sweet friend Kelly

I am supposed to tell you ten random, honest things about myself. Here they are in no particular order.

1. I am adopted. My mom suffered for years trying to have kids and they were never able to conceive. My brother is adopted too but not from the same family. Interesting that I'm dealing with IF too, huh?

2. I was the drum major in high school. I played the saxophone in band, went through drum major camp and learned a ton to come back and have my sexist band director not let me do anything with what I learned. I still loved it though! :)

3. I'm pretty good at baking but not as good at cooking. I feel like I should be able to do both but I just don't think I'm a very good cook.

4. I hate making the grocery list and planning meals! Especially when MrG tells me he doesn't care what we eat EVERY. TIME. I. ASK. But then when I say "Ok we'll have this" and he says "Oh I don't like that". Help me out!! Sheesh!

5. Since we're talking about food - the smell of food grosses me out lately. I have no idea why. It's bizarre and I don't like it. I may have blogged about this already but... I can't remember and I'm not that interesting so I'm BSing a few of these :)

6. I hate where I live. When I moved to the "south" I thought I was moving to THE south. Mid-south =/= THE south. I was hoping for Paula Deen charm on every corner not the kingdom of NASCAR, missing teeth and mullets.

7. I love snow. Not because I get out of school, because it's beautiful and it's a LOT prettier than ugly, brown, dead grass.

8. I used to drive a forklift over the summers when I was in college - and I love it.

9. I wish we hadn't bought our house but I love it dearly.

10. My childhood teddy bear's name was Timmy. I loved him.

OK On to award #2............

My twin from the coast TW nominated me for this one - Thanks babe! :)

Isn't it lovely? I'm quite proud. In order to receive the award, the following must be completed:

Thank the person(s) who nominated you and link their blogs. Done and done!
Copy the award and paste it above. Check!
Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself. 7 more?!? Eesh!
Nominate 7 bloggers that you love and link to their blogs. I will try

But first, here are 7 mildly interesting things about me.

I teach class piano but I'm not that great of a player myself. I can do enough to get by and definitely have enough skills to teach beginners but I'd rather be teaching chorus... sometimes... :)
I think hunting is gross. I could easily convert to be a fruititarian if I think about what meat really is long enough.
I have a secret life online. Shhhh... don't tell anyone. I'm sure none of you know that.
I love the fact that my twin plays sax too! As I mentioned with award #1 I played/play saxophone. I always played alto in intermediate/middle/high school and when I got to college played bari and it was WAY better :)
There are many days that I wish I was a nurse.
I want to live somewhere closer to the ocean or mountains... or both...
I love Disneyworld and can't wait to go back.

Ok for the whole nominating thing? Yeah I think everyone has already received these awards so how about this? If you HAVEN'T been nominated for one or both of these consider yourself nominated. NOW.

I think I over did it today

2010-02-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

I didn't eat much all day long and then I did the shred tonight. I tried level 2 to see how it was. I think I could have done it better had I eaten more food (and food that was healthier for me). I've had tummy troubles since right after the workout and I feel totally drained now. I downed a big glass of "gatorade" (generic sports drink from Walmart LOL). I think I just need to go to bed.

I weighed this morning and I'm down to 215 - that's 3lbs down from last week. I have lost 13 and have 15 to go before my goal date. I'm going to cheat less and workout more and I THINK I'll have it! :) If not I'll get pretty darn close and will be pleased no matter what (as long as I don't gain any back of course).

Today I had a fun day with MrG. We went to see Valentine's Day and it was SUPER cute. Then I had an eye appointment and he helped me pick out new glasses. They look like this but are black with cream accents...source

(**weirdness right there ^ I can't get the text above the pic to right align w/o the "source" below it right aligning too. Creeepyyyyy)

I'll PIP me wearing them when I get them in. I hope they don't take long. They're supposed to take about a week. I love the ones I have but they're brown/neutral tones and I wanted some to wear with black/grey because a LOT of my clothes are black and I'm too anal to wear brown glasses with them. LOL

Ok going to set the timer on my coffee pot and head to bead. I've got early bus duty in the morning and I'm tired already. Happy Monday! :)

10 pounds + 60 followers

2010-02-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

Fun milestones. I've lost 10 lbs now. I was a little disappointed in "only" losing 2lbs last week but I know that's supposed to be the healthy way and I blame the rest on AF. 60 blog followers is just fun. :) I don't know why you stick around but, ok!

I love the days off but seriously. Going to work on Thursday and Friday isn't good for these kids. This is the 2nd week in a row they're only going to school Thursday and Friday. What's worse? It's a 3 day weekend with President's day!! I mean yay for time off but I'm ready for my routine back (did I really just say that?).

I've started my Clomid again. My last doctor had me taking it days 5-9 but the RE has me going days 3-7 so maybe it'll work better this time? I try to be hopeful but at the same time I hate setting myself up for disappointment.

I found a nursery that I LOVE. It has been a long time since I've even looked at nursery stuff but it's just great. It's from the Me and Wee blog and the nursery pics are right in that entry I linked right there. I'm not big on matchy stuff and we already have the bedding I posted about a while ago (here). I think I can take ideas from the new find and incorporate them with the circle bedding (especially since the bedding stuff is discontinued!). Anyway I need a pic of it since I've been picture-less lately so here

pic here

See the circles on the wall?! Those are embroidery hoops with fabric on them!! Genius!! I love it! :) I also love how she put the "wood" look on the dresser. It was originally all white - she used wallpaper to make it look like that. So awesome.

SO... enough of that silliness. I need to eat breakfast (almost lunch now) and do a little workout. I'm doing 2 today because I skipped 2 days and paid for it last night. A little extra cardio never hurt anybody either (especially THIS body!!).

Food (South Beach Phase 2 edition)

2010-02-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

My pantry, refrigerator and freezer have had a makeover. It's funny how "healthy" foods are almost always perishables! My fridge has been getting a workout the past few weeks for sure! I'm moving on to Phase 2 of South Beach which opens all sorts of doors for me and is a LITTLE more lenient but when you pick the right stuff you're still supposed to lose weight (though not as rapidly as Phase 1).

I need to tell you how much I love Crystal Light. Really. It has been a life saver with this whole diet. MrG has been drinking the lemonade for a while and I've tried it on occasion - it's really good. I also picked up the Peach Mango Green tea packs and they're fantastic too.

I ran across these at the store and we had to try them...

pic here

I had strawberry and MrG had orange and they're delicious.

We also found these (fruit punch/orange and lemonade/raspberry lemonade)

pics here

*ps they lied to me. They said if I'd take their survey I'd get a coupon.
Finished the whole thing and it said there weren't any coupons available to print. Lame.

I just ate a bowl of this because I was hungry and didn't eat anything really for breakfast/lunch. By the way when a medication says to take it with food... take it with food. I was totally out of it at the grocery store and dropped the milk I was trying to get out of the cooler. Oops. :(

pic here

Surprise! It doesn't taste like cardboard!! HOORAY!!! :) I'm full and happy from just one cup so this cereal gets 2 thumbs up from me!

I also grabbed a box of this kind which cracks me up because it looks like it's geriatric cereal from the "Good Friends" on the front of the box who are two older people. High Fiber = you're old by the way. :)

pic here

I haven't tasted it yet but I will definitely let you know how it is. Hopefully it's yummy like good ole Uncle Sam. The fact that they refer to parts of their cereal as "twigs" freaks me out a little but I'll give it a shot.

I'm going to make my own granola sometime soon and I'm really excited about that. I am also allowed to have yogurt and found some lighter sugar/carb yogurt that will be AWESOME. I've missed yogurt and never realized how much sugar was in the average carton!! It's CRAZY!

I hope that was randomly informative in some way. I'm off to make soup for our commercial party tonight... I mean... Super Bowl party... yeah. ;)

Wedding outfit :)

2010-02-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

My "little" brother's getting married on March 19th. I've been stressing out about what to wear and we just started browsing on a whim tonight when we were at the mall. I have put off buying a dress until now because I hoped I'd either be pregnant or would have lost weight by then. Looks like I'll continue working on the latter of the two for the next 5 weeks since the pregnant thing hasn't happened yet.

I've been wearing an 18/20 at Lane Bryant the past year or so. We looked at JCPenney today and found a dress that fit - a size 16!! :) This picture was taken after dinner with no "roll control" (what I ever so affectionately call my Spanx). The day of the wedding I'll have my Spanx on so it'll smooth out and hold things in place a little better.

There's a little place in the seam that wasn't sewn completely (on the left side) and we're going to fix it. It got me an extra 10% off so I figured it was worth it! Plus I knew the lady ringing us up and she used a coupon too. Original price $99, it was on sale and after we got the extra off and used our gift card we only paid $33

The only thing to say about these is that they're awesome and I love them. :) $39 at Kohl's.

CD2

2010-02-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

AF is here. I called the RE yesterday to set up my ultrasound date, got my Rx for clomid set up I just need to pick it up, just got off the phone with Freedom Pharmacy to get my HCG Rx and I took yesterday's workout off. We were both in bed by 9:30 and I think I was asleep by 9:33. AF always knocks me out the first day or two.

I was proud yesterday. I resisted the urge to get in the car and drive to McDonald's to trash my diet. I didn't follow the diet plan but I also wasn't as bad as I could have been. I had peanut butter toast and a little less than half of Corey's Oatmeal Cream Pie - I felt scandalous! LOL I would have accompanied it with chocolate milk but I didn't have any chocolate! I'll get back on the workout/diet wagon today. I'm still kinda crampy but I want to push through it.

Cycle 29. Here we go again. I'm determined to temp this cycle. I totally forgot to last cycle. I really need to get it together!

I can't believe I'm about to do this...

2010-02-04T18:37:00.001-08:00

This is the "before" at Day 18
*post dinner (as if that makes a difference) - pre workout*

Well there you have it. Holy crap.

I'll work on a shot that shows legs too. The middle is clearly the problem area anyway. I looked even worse in the ones MrG took of me so we'll go with this for now.

In better news I did the Shred 2 days in a row and I'm not passed out on the floor and my back doesn't hurt! Score!

AND... my day was made by 7:15am. The resource officer at our school asked me this morning what I did while I was gone for the snow break because I looked different. I asked him what he meant and he said I looked thinner - that it took him a second to put his finger on WHAT was different but that I looked slimmer. I almost passed out in the middle of the hallway. If I weren't married I probably would have kissed the man. ;) Best compliment ever.

Can I shred tomorrow too? We shall see. Right now my left calf is cramped up but I'm going to be hopeful that it'll feel better tomorrow.

Good morning!!!

2010-02-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't get to do the shred last night because my back was KILLING ME all day long. It wasn't an injury really, just recurring back problems that I've had since high school. I sat in my tub for a LONG TIME last night rereading the South Beach book because I didn't read it before I started this time. That was a really good idea because my back feels a lot better this morning!

I'm still not back to school! I met my husband for lunch yesterday and the roads from here to there were just fine. I guess it's some of the back roads that still have ice on them. Supposedly it's some of the ones near schools too - I'm not sure WHICH schools but oh well. I've had 6 days off now! I was only expecting a 3 day weekend! Pretty cool. :)

I need to put up some pictures but I don't have any good ones. Maybe I'll get that "before" picture taken tonight. I can't wait to have an after picture to post!

Ok off to figure out what to eat for breakfast! Happy Hump Day!

February 1st = 30 Day Shred Day 1... again.

2010-02-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

Ok if I do the 30 Day Shred 5 days a week starting now until wedding week (my little brother gets married March 19th) I'll get all of my 30 days in with 3 days to spare the week before we fly up there.

I'm really going to try to stay positive that I can survive through this. I don't think I've ever worked out 5 days a week but I'm really going to set my mind to it this time. I'd love to fly home in March looking better than I looked when I left at Christmas!

I'll have to take a "before" picture tomorrow BEFORE I work out cause I look rough right now. My face stays the color of a tomato for an hour or so after I work out. I don't know why - it's always done that. Quite embarrassing in high school going to class after gym! ;)

Ok chugging some water then heading to bed. Good night blog world!

So... about that weight loss...

2010-02-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

I lost 5lbs this week. That's 8lbs in 2 weeks. I started at 228, last week I weighed 225 and this week it was 220. I'm pretty happy with that!!! I finally weigh less than my husband again (that is something that has bothered me for a long long time).

Maybe if I actually work out this week I'll do great again. I'm going to stick to Phase 1 for one more week. South Beach Diet wants people only to stay on Phase 1 for 2-3 weeks at a time because it's not the healthiest. I don't think I can stand much more than a week of this because I NEED FRUIT!!!!!!!

I wonder if I can lose 20 more by my brother's wedding on March 19th...

What a great way to start the week!! No school and losing weight!

Surefire way to lose weight?

2010-01-31T17:01:00.000-08:00

Take metformin.

OMG this is miserable. It only happens once a week or so, so it's not as bad as it could be... but seriously. I just want to get in a hot bath and stay there.

Horrible.

Snow days

2010-01-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

MrG got some snow days too this time around!! He only worked for 2 hours on Friday and didn't have to go in at all on Saturday! It's been a fun and relaxing weekend. I might even get tomorrow off too because the ice and snow aren't melting very quickly because it's cold outside but I won't count my chickens before they hatch. :)

I'll have to post a couple pictures later

Vacation Dreams

2010-01-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

We get a snow day that was actually necessary! Now I'm sitting here dreaming up what I want to do for vacation this year. We haven't had a "real" vacation for a long long time without it being travel for a purpose so MrG was determined to take one this year.

He wanted to "go to the mountains" which means Pigeon Forge/Gaitlinburg. He's been there a bajillion times and I've been there once (and it was enough for now). I've got my mind set on getting him go agree to go somewhere new for both of us and I think I've found what I was looking for. :)

Savannah, GA

pic here

pic here

pic here

pic here

And I want to stay HERE.
All images found at that site too.

Wish me luck pitching the idea to Mr. G!!! :)

30 Day Shred - Day 1

2010-01-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

So I totally got my butt kicked today and that's ok. I definitely need it and I almost want to say that I enjoyed it ::gasp::

I know some of you skinny minnies that might be reading are thinking that I'm crazy for being totally killed with workout one but listen - I'm a BIG GIRL! That crap is HARD for a fatty like me!! I was proud that I only stopped gasping for air momentarily and just a few times during the workout.

I don't have control of my limbs yet but I think I feel pretty good. Tomorrow morning might be a different story. :)

Oh and I started South Beach one week ago today and I'm down 3 lbs without really working out. Maybe if I keep up this workout I'll lose even more.

I think I need to get in the whirlpool tub now...

Left Behind

2010-01-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't been super sad lately about the IF issues but I have been thinking a lot about where I "should" be in my imaginary pregnancies. Several different times over the years girls have cheerfully exclaimed that we were "cycle buddies" or that our charts looked similar. Sometimes they would end up getting their monthly visitor but it's the ones that continued on without me that I am forced to sit and watch from the wings.

I try to forget that they included me in their 2ww journey but it sticks in the back of my mind so whenever I see a new belly picture or a new milestone come up it stings a little. It doesn't mean I'm not excited for those girls it's just a tough pill to swallow sometimes.

As the weeks, months and years have slipped by people whom I was "supposed" to be pregnant with when they had their first little one have started expanding their family even further while we sit with our party of two.

Living vicariously through others isn't all bad but in the end our hearts are still bruised and our arms are still empty. My vocabulary has changed from "When I get pregnant" to "If I ever get pregnant" to "If we ever get a baby". The pain is normally numbed a bit lately so that it doesn't hurt as bad but there's always a little bad aftertaste that lingers on with every two week stretch that passes by.

Ok there's my IF reflection entry for a while. I try not to think about it and definitely try not to post about it but sometimes it eeps out. I think it helps get it out of my system so if you made it this far you rock. :)

This stuff is GREAT!

2010-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

I picked up some of this at T.J. Maxx the other day because I've been wanting to try it and it's AWESOME.

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Lavendar Automatic Dishwashing Liquid

It smells good and definitely doesn't seem as harsh as regular automatic dish washing liquid. I filled the rinse compartment with vinegar and the dishes were cleaner than they've been with the regular stuff for a while. I wish someone would carry it near me!

Dieting Schmieting

2010-01-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

The RE appointment wasn't too bad last week. She would like me to lose more weight which I knew was coming because I haven't been trying very hard on that at all. We're going to try Clomid again next cycle - with ultrasounds, HCG shot and maybe even injectables. I'm hoping it is successful with the RE since we had no luck with the OB. Let me also say that a $50 copay is outrageous and ridiculous. It went up from $25 to $50 for "specialists". Awesome. As if insurance paying for little to nothing they do there wasn't bad enough.

This week was homecoming week at my school. It was low key but fun. My students helped me decorate my door for the occasion and I stayed for the homecoming court and basketball games. The girls we so-so. The boys were really good! Two of my 7th grade home room kids were on the "court" and looked so cute all dressed up. I really do love my job right now and they remind me of that every day - even when they're crazy and silly at 7am. :)

So I decided to try the South Beach Diet. I did really well all week until last night. I cheated and had some no-no things when we went out to dinner with some friends. Today I cheated a little again and paid for it. Let's just say there was an "assplosion" (vocabulary courtesy of CarrieLiz) and I will not cheat anymore. :)

Tonight my dinner is amazing and I'm hoping lunch tomorrow turns out just as good. Some brilliant women have a website where people post recipes for dieters. They took foods that everyone craves and made them diet acceptable.

Tonight I made Spaghetti Squash Deep-Dish Italian Pie

SO GOOD!!! I highly recommend it to anyone - even NON dieters!! :)

I had a good day!

2010-01-14T15:31:00.000-08:00

No reason in particular just a good day. I finally have a job that I really enjoy. I've been cooking a lot and spending time with Mr. G and the puppies and I've been keeping my mind off of my T-TTC and IF issues. All in all not too shabby!

Tomorrow might be a different story. I have an RE appointment tomorrow. I've been encouraged by a friend to ask her about endometriosis. I have a few of the symptoms and my cycles are getting longer again (even after the metformin). My lady times are heavy and extremely painful too so I guess it's a possibility. It's definitely not something I WANT to hear but at the same time it'd be another piece to this totally jacked up puzzle.

In other news I need to work out again! A while ago I kinda smashed my thumb nail a little (doesn't sound possible but I'm glad it's not worse). It hurt a little bit early on but hasn't really bothered me until this week. It's almost to the point where it's growing out and it KILLS now. It throbs and is swollen in the mornings and feverish feeling. I showed it to a teacher who was a nurse at one point and she said I should just let it grow out more. Ugh.

On a non-working out note... I'm craving some Girl Scout Cookies really bad. Those don't go well together do they? :)

Ok, let's do this.

2010-01-11T18:54:00.001-08:00

So I got a couple work out videos for Christmas (per my request). I started one tonight and I really liked it! This one...

pic

is the one that I did. Level 1, took it slow. My favorite part? The other fatties (ie TBL contestants) were doing the workout behind the trainers instead of those skinny fitness freaks. Made my workout MUCH more enjoyable. Like having fat friends to suffer with you so you feel less awkward. Loved it.

I wasn't brave enough (and feeling well enough) to try this one yet

pic

I'm a little more intimidated by it so I just watched it as I recovered from the first one. I might (MIGHT) try it tomorrow. We'll see.

I need to get a better handle on the eating situation too. I'm having a lot of fun cooking which is causing a problem with me needing to lose weight. ;) Baby steps I guess. I didn't gain all of this over night and it won't go away over night either.

Ok now I need to shower.

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-31T10:09:00.000-08:00

image here

It's finally time to kiss this year goodbye. I think I'll smack it on the rear to get it to scoot a little faster. This year could have been worse but it certainly could have been MUCH better. I'm hoping for the better in 2010.

After reading the entry a friend wrote about IF and surviving another year anything I write would be pale in comparison. She wrote more beautifully than I could ever attempt to so I'll just leave it like this.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T07:20:00.001-08:00

pic here

For unto us a child is born... and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Sweet Home Chicago

2009-12-22T21:47:00.000-08:00

Having an AMAZING time visiting up here and spending time with MrG in the city. Best Christmas present ever :)

Hey guess what!

2009-12-18T05:10:00.001-08:00

pic here

Yeah... I've got one.
:)

Happy Birthday Grandpa

2009-12-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

I miss you.

Christmas Time is Here...

2009-12-07T15:02:00.001-08:00

I couldn't pass it up. That's the ringtone I got for my phone last night. No one's called me yet so I'm kinda bummed that I haven't heard it in action but I'll be super excited when I do! :)

So... I made hot chocolate last night. I mean I MADE it! And it was FABULOUS!

Mad props to husband #2 who made the peppermint marshmallows from scratch. It was just one glorious mug of homemade goodness!! :)

Perfect Hot Cocoa (from Food Network Magazine)

Bring 4 cups whole or low-fat milk to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.

Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 3-4 oz (I used 4, of course) finely chopped bittersweet chocolate in a bowl. (**I didn't have LF or whole milk so I used 2c. skim milk and 2c. Half & Half - turned out fine**)

Wisk mixture into the milk.

Reduce heat to low and simmer stirring until the chocolate melts and the cocoa is thick (about 2 minutes - I did it longer)

Divide among 4 mugs (HA!) and garnish.

My grandpa died.

2009-11-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

I'm brokenhearted and haven't quite wrapped my mind around it yet.
I miss him already.
I was going to go home at Thanksgiving but my parents told me not to and now he's gone.

I miss you.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

I did NOT feel well during the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had 2 of the 3 Thanksgiving meals MrG's family has that weekend and I was SICK. No fun. I managed to make a pie with the crust cutters I got at Williams Sonoma outlet (half off of what they normally are). Love that place!

The best part? NO ONE ATE THEM!!! What the heck?!?! After THAT happened the weekend before turkey day all I did for Thursday was whip up some mac'n'cheese out of a box and threw it in a casserole dish to get it there.

Forget all of this effort I'm just making the simple crap that they will eat!

Pumpkin Carving Party!

2009-11-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

Every year we carve pumpkins and for the past 2 years now we've decided to have some friends over for a pumpkin carving party! I meant to take more pictures of this but it was getting late and my hands were all goopy.

Mine's on the left - MrG's is on the right

This one was done by the cookie disaster friend
He brought glow sticks to put in his.

Halloween Cookies

2009-11-28T09:42:00.001-08:00

I decided to make Halloween cookies this year. I found some cool cookie cutters at the Williams Sonoma outlet store (for $1) so we decided to bake and decorate some for the neighbor kids across the street. Our friend came over to help. Well... at least we THOUGHT he was going to help. Turns out he's not so great at cookie decorating!

The Supplies

Ghosts

Mr.G helped too :)

Bats
This gets ugly quick so hold on to ya butts!
Started off pretty good!

After I looked across the table at him and said "What are you DOING?!?"

Yeah um... Those look like they've been shot in the face w/a shotgun
and I'm pretty certain they will scare the children.

"Fixing them" = adding googly eyes and more sprinkles.

After that I just worked on fixing the bats and having the 2 guys do the rest of the cookies.

(The bats after reconstructive surgery)

Trip home (part 2)

2009-11-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so this picture post will be baking, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Here we go...

First let me show you the goodies I got from my first trip to Trader Joe's

Aaaaaaaand I went to IKEA

I picked up this cute little dining set for our little friend.
It was on sale. I couldn't pass it up. It's for Christmas!

(There's a fork in there too I just had it on the other side of the plate)

I loved the grippers on the bottom of the plate/bowl and cup!

That's not all I bought at IKEA but it was the most exciting thing I got. :)

My grandma is so cool. She has apple trees in her backyard and has been picking apples and making stuff with them. We had apple pie while we were there and it was AMAZING. We were talking about how BIG her pie plate was and she started looking through her other pie plates and found this one

It's a hexagon!! How cool is that?!? Yeah she gave it to me. :) She says she has never used it and it belonged to either her grandma or my grandpa's grandma. It's SO old! I love it.

Grandma gave me a TON of apples from her tree so I made a Jewish Apple Cake. It was REALLY good. I had never heard of it before until a friend posted the recipe. Definitely something I'll make again!

I guess I should post or something.

2009-11-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

I've apparently been neglecting to blog and failing to keep promises. I doubt anyone has actually noticed but it makes me feel like a slacker nonetheless.

Let's see... since my last update... nothing huge has happened! I do have some pictures to share though!

Round 1: From the trip home

My partner in crime enjoying the ride
She slept most of the way there and back.

It's about time IL has gotten some of these!
I saw some in Denmark when I went to Europe in high school and
thought they were cool and a GREAT idea!

Halfway home
The cross in Effingham

Update time!!!

2009-10-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last update! Oooops! :) Sorry!

I love love LOVE my new job. It's great. The kids aren't too bad and the faculty is WONDERFUL. I really like my 7th graders. My 8th graders aren't so awesome but I expected way worse. Teaching keyboarding is so peaceful and quiet. Luckily it takes way less energy because it's such an early start to the day! I leave the house at 6am because it takes 20-30 min to get there and I'm supposed to be in my door at 6:55. It's still great and I am really enjoying myself.

Had an RE appointment on Thursday. It went well. We talked about all of my test results. Mr. G's SA looked "normal" and she confirmed that I have PCOS. I started taking Metformin (an antidiabetic drug) last night. It's supposed to help regulate glucose/insulin and help get my body back in line. Most women on it start ovulating and having more regular cycles on their own. She said with a "moderate lifestyle change" it would help me lose weight. I'm going to go on sugar detox and do the South Beach Diet for a little bit at least.

I have LOTS of pictures to add but I'm on the laptop and I haven't even gotten them off the camera yet so expect a picture entry in the near future. Have to go get ready and deliver some halloween cookies to the neighbor kids then I think we're going for an early dinner.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!

Mini Vacation

2009-10-16T19:43:00.001-07:00

Hello!!! I'm having SUCH a good time visiting my family in Chicagoland this weekend. I packed up one of the dogs and hit the road (Mr. G had to work - sorry honey!) This fall break is going really well. I have a lot to do when I get home getting ready for my new job but this trip has totally been worth it and tomorrow's going to be even better!

Today my mom and I did some shopping. We went to IKEA ::swoons:: Panera, B&BW, and Meijer. Then I went out to dinner with my parents, my godmother and her son.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet a sweet dear friend for breakfast then it's off to visit my grandparents and to an apple orchard. I may throw in lunch (at Panera again) with my brother or it might end up being dinner with the other stuff we're doing.

New job!! I'm going to be teaching keyboard class (piano class) at a middle school. One classroom. One school. Fun and easy job. Keyboard all day. They each have a keyboard to play and a headset. It's really high tech so I can listen in and talk to whoever I need to over the headsets through a microphone from my teacher's station. TOO COOL. I'm really excited. I got curtains and a rug at IKEA for my classroom today along with some new wallflower refills to make it smell good too.

I'm off to bed. I've got an early morning and a busy day!

Eventful start to the weekend!

2009-10-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a marathon of an RE appointment. We got there before anyone was even there to open the office (we only went in 15 min before they told us to get there!). By the time someone got there three other patients were waiting outside too.

They were very quick about getting us in. I went back and started with blood work. She took NINE tubes of blood from me. NINE!!! HOLY CRAP! The funny thing is it didn't even bother me. I used to panic when I'd have to be stuck with a needle of any kind. Now it's no big deal. So weird. Luckily my nurse was hilarious and awesome so it made it even more bearable. :)

After she took my blood she gave me flavor choices for the stuff I had to drink for the 2 hour glucose tolerance test! Almost everyone I've talked to has had to drink orange but I could choose between that and fruit punch! I chose fruit punch and it wasn't bad at all! I didn't realize how much it would be. For some reason I imagined a little cup (think cough syrup?) but it was a little water bottle - 10 oz or so. She gave me 5 minutes to drink it but it didn't take me that long at all.

Then I had my ultrasound right after that. The u/s tech said that sometimes ovaries are pushed back towards the bowel and it's hard to get a good count on how many cysts there are because of the angle. She saw at LEAST 7 on the right one. She definitely thought there were more but that's all she could count. Then she moved to the left one. She counted 16. It looked like a bunch of grapes. So clearly I DO have PCOS. I wish we could have discovered this a long time ago (maybe a year or so?). Oh well.

DH had to do a sperm analysis while he was there and he wasn't happy about it. My initial reaction would be "poor guy" but I've been violated so many times in the past year of IF treatment I just told him to suck it up ;)

After my 2 hours were up I had more blood drawn (3 more tubes - making the total 12) then we were on our way.

We left and went to Panera for breakfast and took lunch to go then we drove home. See MrG doesn't like to drive on the interstate or in "city" traffic so I drove to and from the doctor's appointment. It was pouring down rain on the way home and I HATE driving in the rain!! I'd rather drive in the snow than drive in rain. I was stressed out and nervous the whole way home which I think wore me out even more (in addition to getting up at 4:30 am). I was exhausted the rest of the day.

We went to get 2 more new tires for my car so I can drive "home" on Thursday to visit my family during fall break. Stopped by WalMart to get some stuff then came back to the house to take a nap.

Today we'll be cleaning house, heading to Hobby Lobby for yarn so I can make some wool drier balls, going to the pumpkin patch and then out to dinner with a friend that used to work with MrG.