My First Award, And The First Hurdle Cleared

A week ago my dear Maddie bestowed upon me my very first Blog Award. Thank you Maddie!

Here are the rules for the award:

Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.

Copy the award and paste it to your blog.

Tell us 7 interesting facts about yourself.

Nominate 7 bloggers that you love and link to their blog.

So, seven interesting facts...this is going to be tough, and is the main reason I've waited an entire week to post this! Alright...here we go.

1. I very nearly majored in music performance in college. Specifically, violin performance. Instead, I was told that I wasn't good enough to to be in the performance major and would only be admitted to it if I dually majored in performance and education. Instead, I started college as a music minor and a botany major, which quickly became a business major with no minor, which in turn became an economics major and business minor. Somehow, I graduated in four years.

2. When I was a child, I had very blond, pin-stright and limp hair. When I turned 10, it started getting wavy underneath in the back. When I got to middle school, it was mostly brown with blond highlights and ringlet-curly. Today it's brown and save for a few curly spots, pretty much completely straight and limp again. The blond didn't come back, but thankfully so far there's no grey.

3. I spent a large portion of my summers through age 13 in Pittsburgh at my grandparents' home. I love it there, but I hate all Pittsburgh sports teams simply because I need an arch rival and who better to talk trash to than my cousins?

4. I have too many hobbies and career interests to ever truly settle down and master anything. I guess I'm perfecting being a "jack-of-all-trades."

5. I'm 30 years old. I still sleep with a stuffed dog. His name is HoundDog. When I'm not in bed, my husband snuggles with him. What can I say? That's one comfy pup! (note: There is no need to remind me just how insane I am. Trust me, I'm fully aware of this fact.)

6. Today is one of my best buds' birthday. I've been sick all week and completely out of it, and I've just now realized that I didn't call him today and it's too late now as I believe he still works on Saturdays. Contrary to my college and early post-college days, I don't call him at 3am singing mmmBop and giggling madly. There may have been vodka involved in that.

7. I live in an apartment, but I have the perfect house in mind. Unfortunately it's stuck in my mind and so far doesn't exist anywhere. Someday I hope to find it or build it, complete with my music room, a true mancave for the hubby and a walled "Secret Garden" type garden in which to spend quiet summer afternoons reading my favorite books.

And now, for 7 bloggers that I love and absolutely in no order:

1. Tori at Fertility Wishes and BFP Dreams. I could write a book on how awesome she is - both online and in person
2. Chase at Thirty by Thirty. I've never actually met Chase, but she's a friend of a friend. She's challenged herself to read 30 books by the time she's 30, and she's a terrific and entertaining writer! (And let's face it, I'm always looking for book recommendations!)
3. Murdgan at Conceive This! Hilarity. Plain and simple.
4. Courtney at When I Least Expected It, mommy of two beautiful twin girls.
5. Kerri at Keeping Up With The Jones. All about her life with her husband and three adorable kids.
6. Dawn at can you imagine? She's enjoying the first weeks of motherhood with her beautiful daughter, Willow.
7. Last, but very far from least, is a blog that I can't link you to and a blogger that I can't name. She's a great gal that I met in college. She's dealing with infertility and loss, and she's a hell of a lot stronger than I think she gives herself credit for. If she decides to open up her blog to the community, I'll be sure to link you to her.

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Finally, if you've made it this far have a look at my artwork:

Yes, that's me. Yes, that's my Ovulation Hurdle. And yes, that's my big red check mark of completion. Fabulousness reigned today.

A Late, But Good Update Post

So sorry I didn't update you all after Sunday's follie scan. I ended up coming down with bronchitis, so I've basically been in bed for a few days minus Monday morning's 3 hour stint at the urgent care center (couldn't wait for an appointment with my doc - I couldn't breathe well enough!) and an afternoon trying to muddle through work so that my boss could be prepared for a metting that evening with clients and then jet off on yet another scuba diving vacation leaving me here with snow on the way. So yeah, there's my excuse, and I still feel sick and tired and weak so I don't care if it's a good excuse or not.

Anyway, Sunday's scan sucked. I had the nurse/ultrasound tech that is there on weekends. Let's call her "T." Now, while it's nice not to be forcefully jammed into with the u/s wand, when I can barely feel it in there and feel it so much lower than when the doctors do it, I have to wonder just how accurate she is. My one 10mm follie from last Wednesday was 11mm and she said I had another 11mm one on the right side. Doesn't sound right to me, but I figure the Femara only worked for me while I was on it and the follie(s) stopped as soon as it was out of my system. They scheduled me for a repeat u/s for this morning with my doctor, not T.

As I said above, I feel icky so I could really have cared less to go today. I did, however, and was pleasantly surprised. On my right side I had nothing notable, but on my left...lo and behold a follie. Not an 11mm cyst, but a 19mm follie! I have to pick up my trigger shot on the way home today (home early I'm hoping), trigger tonight and then I "have homework," as they put it at the fertility center. I'll go back for an u/s on Friday morning to confirm ovulation. How freaking awsome is that??? 

Perhaps it is good luck having T do a bad u/s reading. I distinctly remember her telling me I had no follies, only to suddenly have 2 ready to pop a few days later. Those 2 became my little Wally and Liz. Fingers crossed that this follie becomes baby #3!

Does Anyone Really Care?

Let me stop you before you think I'm feeling sorry for myself because I'm not. Furthermore, I'm not even talking about myself. So....

Pop Quiz Time! What does this:

and this:

have in common?

Hints:

1. I'm tired of reading about this.
2. It involves a sport, which when watched on television could put the world's most exhausted insomniac out cold.
3. I could care less what and who this does in the bedroom; however, I do find it funny that this all came to light because of a middle of the night minor car accident.
4. I could care even less that this is remorseful and seeking rehabilitation.
5. Finally, though children and adults idolize "celebrities" and I certainly understand that none of us wants our children, partners, spouses, etc. to mimic bad behavior,  why does personal information like this even get made public? And why does everyone seem to think that public apology is needed for a private matter?

All I'm saying here is apologize to your wife, keep it in your pants if you want to hang on to said wife and stay out of my headlines. Honestly, why is this one of the top news stories? I can think of much more newsworthy topics out there. Things like this or this or more importantly, this.

If you haven't yet figured out who I'm talking about, please let me know where you live, so that I too may be blissfully ignorant of stupid so-called news.

/Rant complete.

While I have a second...

I have a quick break at work and since I seem to be completely braindead by the time I get home, here is a quick follie scan update....

• One little follie
• 10mm
• Repeat ultrasound Sunday morning
• Keeping fingers crossed for growth
• Raging headache thanks to work

CD7

Well here I am on CD7 and FD3 (femara day 3). So far so good - no hot flashes or other adverse reactions except maybe a touch of insomnia and fatigue. That may also be the effect of having approximately 50 inches of snow on the ground. Either way, it's only mildly annoying as I have been working from home and can take naps.

I'm trying to remember to chart my temps, but this week has been weird (again, the snow and sleeping issues) so we'll see how it all goes. I have my first follie scan on Wednesday and this morning started having a little bit of my normal "O pain," which is not actually ovulation, but general annoying pain from the PCOS cysts.

Fingers crossed for an excellent follie scan. Or would that be egg-cellent? (Lame joke, I know.) I'll update as soon as I can on my follicle status, but judging by the way work has been it may have to wait until Wednesday night rather than as soon as I set foot in the office and get the computer turned on.



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Goals Update

I realized last night that it's been just over a month since I updated my progress on my goals. So for anyone who cares, read on.

Weight Loss: Down a total of 11 lbs. since beginning to track. Down 16 lbs. from pre-pregnancy weight.

Movies: More than meeting this goal lately!

Series 7: *Almost* have progress in this department. I plan on finishing this blog entry, posting it, eating lunch and then cracking that book open finally!

Savings for TTC/Bedrest/Child(ren): Small progress, but with a nice sized tax return in sight, we will be VERY close to meeting this goal.

Cleaning out Former Mancave: Uhm. None. Haven't even looked in there in over a week. I did finally plug a lamp in in there a few weeks ago with the intention of working on it in the evenings.

Sewing: I haven't sewn using my sewing machine; however, I did learn how to crochet so that counts right? Here's a picture of one of my first projects. A little googly-eyed, but cute nonetheless.

Letter writing: Total failure lately. It took me over a week to get one letter written and out the door (it was partially written for most of that time). I will totally try harder!

That's all for now, folks. Hope everyone is doing well!

CD2

That's right! AF finally showed up! I have my bloodwork and baseline ultrasound tomorrow morning at 8:45am. On my way home from work (boo for work) I will pick up the Femara.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get everywhere I have to go safely! We ended up getting 30 inches of snow here, though I've heard local reports of 40 inches south of here. We dug Bry's truck out this afternoon and cleared out in front of the garage. Thankfully a guy with a bobcat was still coming around and plowed out the truck's parking spot. Of course, schools are closed tommorrow so he doesn't have to go in, but I do. Ah well. We're supposed to get more snow/rain/ice/mix/whatever Tuesday night and Wednesday. Kinda feels like the winter will never end, but with all this water around we should have a beautiful spring!

Day 74, Spots and Snow

Spots:
I'm finally spotting! Woohoo! I picked up the provera last week, and when I got home I started spotting so I held off taking it for a few days. Well, it never developed into anything so I went ahead and took the pills. Today is day 9 of provera, and I'm definitely spotting! I've also been crampy for a few days - especially at night before or soon after I've taken it. I'm just very excited because the last time I took provera it took me 2 whole weeks to get AF after the 10 days of pills.

Snow:
I live in the mid-atlantic states. We are suppposed to get 20-30 inches of snow overnight tonight and through tomorrow night. The county about 10 miles south of me, and where I happened to grow up, is under a blizzard warning. Good thing I have spinach dip and ingredients for pumpkin cookies! Looks like I'll be stuck inside for a few days. Hopefully I'll be able to get out Monday for CD3 blood work and ultrasound.