Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving....

I have so much to be thankful for. I won't bore you with the list but let's just say that all is well in my little world. I pray for those whose lives are not so happy on this day.

I have laryngitis for the first time ever. I think my husband is happy...when we go to my mom's he might actually get a word in edgewise for once. I don't feel bad at all...just have no voice.

Do you shop on black friday? I don't. For one, I'm one of 11 people on the planet that has to work. For two, I do not like crowds so would probably die if I attempted shopping on that day. I am sending my poor hubby to Sears because there's one deal we can't pass up...laundry detergent. Like I said, a black friday shopper I am not. I prefer to do my Xmas shopping on a weekday in December. There are crowds but not unbearable ones.

No news on the surrogacy front. The guys are still comparing egg donors and surrogates. I am enjoying not being on meds for the first time since June. It's all good.

The basketball team is still undefeated, though we expect the winning streak to end next week at the South Shelby tournament.

I will end this now and go make something chocolate, as that is what I have been instructed to bring for Thanksgiving (the apple did not fall far from the tree).

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone.

Monday, November 21, 2011

The Swedes



The younger ones at least. Love this family and the way they continue to send pictures and emails. I have a small Sweden corner with pictures and stuff they have sent me in my house and they have a small America corner with pictures of our boys and stuff we have sent them. This is how surrogacy should be....it truly is a blending of two families to become one.






Friday, November 18, 2011

Another good blog to read

This one is a tear jerker. My last IF had cancer that was diagnosed after I was pregnant so this one really hits home for me. We all got lucky and my IF is in remission right now but you never know how long that will last. I think every day of Lars-Ove in Sweden, and his three kids. I think of how their life will be if things change for the worse. I think of the look of fear in Lennarts eyes when he was here to get Aurora. I think of those three kids not having their dad and I think of Lennart having to comfort them when there is no one there to comfort him. Cancer sucks. Read the blog. Have tissues nearby.

http://journeybycourtney.blogspot.com/

Holy bacon.....we're good



And by we I don't mean me.

First some background:
St. Brendan's is a very small Catholic school. Very small as in less kids total in pre-k through 8 than are in the middle school here. Very small as in 13 kids in 8th grade. Total. Very, very small.

These kids have played basketball for years and frankly just plain sucked for years. The girls have been good for a few years now because they had some amazing players and an awesome coach. This year they lost their two best players and no one expected the girls to be any good. As for the boys....well they have always put forth the effort and tried hard but could just never really get there. They lost. A lot. You know how they say everyone needs to learn to lose and that losing builds character. Well they have learned to lose. And they have gallons of character.

Fast forward to this year. It has all clicked. We have massive clickage. These kids are awesome. Boys and girls both. Totally awesome. It is so fun to watch because these are all good kids, great students, and they are out there having fun. They are literally dismantling the other teams. They have a wicked press and they can rattle any team. The girls are short but they are so tough. The boys are not short but they are not tall. Last nights team was a lot taller than them. Didn't matter. I know that tougher opponents are on the horizon. I know that they will not have an undefeated season. I know that they are getting ready to play a tournament that is a definite step up (heck a leap up) from their current level of play. But for right now, at this moment, they are both undefeated. They have worked so hard for this and we are so proud of them all. And they are so fun to watch.

On a personal, "Hey that's my kid" note, boy #2 has been offered a full ride basketball/academic scholarship to one of the regional Catholic high schools in the area. He rocks. :)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Fresh

Is always better than frozen. Fresh has a 50% chance of success while frozen has only a 20% chance. So....fresh it is.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Further proof that boy #2 is an idiot



And there you have it. Yep. Like I said. Happy. Well-adjusted. Believe it or not a straight A student. Being heavily recruited by 3 different high schools to play basketball. But an idiot none the less. He's in the red.

Geriatric flab a'flyin

Yep. That title about sums it up. See you can't really work out when you are cycling. Because you want to do everything perfect so that when/if the cycle fails you can look back and have no reason to curse yourself. Sometimes these things just don't work (in the case of a single frozen transfer, 80% of the time, these things don't work) and you want absolutely no reason to blame yourself other than the general geriatricness of your uterus. Anywho, anyone counting how long this ridiculous cycle was? Anyone? Well let me tell ya. On June 25th I started Lupron. On October 28th I transferred. Anyone got an abacus, because that's a LONG cycle. With meds that make you gain weight. And meds that make you over eat. Shockingly, I started the cycle weighing 140 and ended weighing 135. And I really didn't exercise at all throughout the entire thing. So, yay go me but holy bacon is there so flab on this body. Untoned flab. Geriatric untoned flab.

We got the official, "Hey idiot you're not pregnant...that's why all 15 of those home pregnancy tests were negative" from the RE on Tuesday. Wednesday was a crazy evening since boy #2 was packing for YIG and had basketball practice. Thursday brought about the period from hell. Ever had a post failed cycle period? Let's just say that all that lining they built up in there has to come out. And come out it does. So exercise was out for Wednesday, out for Thursday, out for Friday and out for Saturday. This morning, bright and early, the hubster and I decided to jog. Stop laughing. Ok, fine, keep laughing. We made it about a mile. If you are using klingon distance measurements. Then we walked a bit. And jogged a bit. Every jog got shorter, every walk got longer. There was much wheezing to be heard. And oh the flab that was flying. Egads. Must get into shape. Must banish the flab. How is it that my clothes all fit again and yet when I take them off, flab springs forth from every direction? Is this something else I can blame on aging? I hope so because if I have to blame it on my own laziness then I just suck.

I got my work report from this year so far. I've averaged 48 hours per week. Egads. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the poor laid off hubster has worked a whopping 700 hours all year long, almost all of it before he got laid off in May. Poor man is really getting bummed about not working and we are both really starting to wish he had filed for unemployment when he got laid off. We were trying to be nice and not burden his boss by making his unemployment insurance go up but wow...it's been a long time. Oh well. We have had a good happy summer and fall and hubster has been around for the kids alot. He has started searching for a part time job. We still think he should only work part time so that he can be around for the kids. The money would be nice if he worked full time but the kids are way more important than money. In five years, when the kids are grown, he can work full time.

So that's it for now. It's 76 here today and gorgeous so we are spending time outside. Boy #3 is gone and won't be home until tonight. Boy #2 is at the Y, playing basketball. The house is quiet and peaceful and the chocolate cake in the oven smells delish (what...did I say I was trying to lose weight? Hush).

Friday, November 11, 2011

Funny

This woman is hilarious. She fully captures life as we normal folk live it. I've been reading her blog since her son Charlie was delivered eons ago and she just gets funnier with time. She's a real woman. Kick her, knock her down and she will get back up, although she might be cursing the whole way. I like to think I am half as strong as she is, although I don't know. Enjoy.
http://www.alittlepregnant.com/alittlepregnant/

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Well that sucked

Long story short (which might eventually be long again if I ever get a free minute to blog)....I transferred one lone frozen embryo and the transfer failed. I feel awful for my guys. They have decided to take a break and I don't blame them. They only have two embryos left and they want to make sure they give those embryos the best chance. They only want to transfer one at a time but they are going to explore whether a younger surrogate might offer them a higher chance of success. I completely support that. My goal was always to help them become parents and if to do that they need to get a different surrogate then that is what they need to do. I am waiting on that wonderful post transfer period to come. You know the one that comes with cramps that feel like labor pains and blood loss that makes you think a transfusion is in your future. Yeah. Good times.

I still need to give details on the transfer trip from hell. It snowed. Alot. The airport got closed down. The national guard got sent in. I slept on the floor and had no food or water for 20+ hours. Can't imagine why that transfer failed, can you? Anywho, I'll get around to that eventually.

Boy #2 is going to a youth in government convention tomorrow. I think he will be bored senseless but hey, who am I to say.

Boy #3 has a science project he is working on. Ugh. Not a fan of the science project thing but he has a good idea for this one and is making progress on it.

Grandbaby is doing well and growing finally. She is so cute now and really starting to stay awake longer. We took her to her first basketball game and she just watched the game and actually didn't scream.

I found another job that I'm going to apply for. I love my job and I doubt I can make what I make at this new job but I figure any time there's a science job in the area it can't hurt to apply for it.

And that's it. I'd like to say I'll have a longer post soon but yeah, I doubt it. It's 10pm now and I am in bed typing this. I still need to iron boy #2's suit for tomorrow, finish packing for him, figure out how to make an endoplasmic reticulum out of pipe cleaner and glue for boy #3, pack lunches for tomorrow, cure cancer, and figure out that whole world peace thing. :)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Alive

I have a super funny (in an OMG did that really happen) post about traveling that I'm working on. As a hint, you know that huge snowstorm that shut down Bradley Int'l airport last week. Guess who was smack dab in the middle of that? Yep. Slept on an airport floor. Went 20 hours without eating. Funny in a wanna kill someone kind of way. Anywho working on that post.

On another travel note, I have to drive to Sioux Falls for a 3 day meeting in the dead of winter. Urgh.

Basketball season has started and both boys and girls are 2-0. Amazing for a small Catholic school. Boy #2 has beaten his scoring record in a game, scoring 28 points. And that was sitting out one whole quarter. He will be playing AAU ball this summer which is awesome but means a whole lot of time on the road and in the car. Urgh/yay.

Life is so busy right now. I was hoping to have some exciting surrogacy news but it doesn't look like that will happen. More to come later.