Friday, July 30, 2010

Hot Dog Casserole Recipe

To all the fans of hotdog casserole:

6 hotdogs--chopped
1 medium onion-chopped
1 tbsb butter
1/2 cup water
4oz velveeta
1 can tomato soup
8 oz egg noodles
Worstershire sauce to taste


Brown hotdogs, onion and butter in saucepan (if using beef hotdogs you
can probably leave out the butter)

Cook and drain egg noodles according to package instructions

After hotdogs and onions are browned add water, worstershire sauce,
tomato soup and velveeta to saucepan and cook over low/medium heat until
velveeta is melted.

Combine with noodles and enjoy. (If desired, cover and bake at 350
degrees for approx 30 minutes)


Directly from my cousin. Enjoy!!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Hot Dog Casserole

Last night, my cousin invited a lot of our family over for Hot Dog Casserole....I wasn't too sure about this. It sounded kind of gross, to be perfectly honest. But it was something to do on a Wednesday night and we needed to eat, so why not!?

We got over to Nathan's about 6:45 and the casserole was already in the making. We settled in and started watching the baseball game with the cousins. Nick grabbed a beer and I grabbed a lovely tonic water with cranberry. We watched the game and talked to family and had a good time waiting for dinner to be ready.

When Nathan said it was time to eat, I was really unsure. It looked...interesting. But I'll try anything (or almost anything) once so I grabbed a spoonful, got some salad and a piece of bread and took a seat. It was really good! I went back for seconds and Dommie loved it too. Nick actually asked me to get the recipe so we can have hot dog casserole at home too. I was pretty impressed.

I don't have the recipe yet, but the main ingredients (that I could tell) are hot dogs (duh), noodles, velvetta cheese, tomato soup, and onions. That's all I could tell. Mix that together and it's pretty good.

As soon as I get the recipe, I'll post it.

Hot Dog Casserole....who woulda thunk it?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Blood Test results!

I got my second beta test done yesterday and everything is looking fabulous!

On Monday the 19th, my hcg was 72.
On Monday the 26th, my hcg was 3,033.

That is a doubling time of 30.39 hours! That's really fast!

I have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday, August 2, when I'll be 6 weeks. If that goes well, we'll do one more ultrasound on August 9, when I'm 7 weeks, and then I'll be released to my high risk OB.

Yay! Keep the prayers coming for good news at Monday's ultrasound, but things are looking great right now! :)

18 Month Appointment

Dommie is a tall, kind of skinny guy!!

Height: 35" (96th %tile for height)
Weight: 28 lbs even (70th %tile for weight - and still NOT over 30 lbs yet like everything thinks he is!)
Head: Don't remember the number but 50th %tile for head circ.

He is doing great! The appointment was perfect. He has all the teeth he'll get for awhile. She said not to expect any more teeth until he is at least two. So that's exciting. Also, no shots yesterday!! Yay! And only one shot at his two year appointment! We are doing good!

Everything looks great she said. He is developing perfectly and doing all the things he should. She's happy about how many words he's saying and that he is talking more with words lately. Also happy that he can use a spoon and a straw and stack up to 5 blocks. He is a smart healthy little man! :)

My sleepy man

So some day, Dominick will kill me for posting these pictures but I can't help it.

This morning, around 7:15, I had to wake Dominick up to get ready. He was VERY sleepy today! I got him out of bed, and put him on the changing table. He immediately rolled over and fell back asleep...



Look how LONG he is! He is longer than the changing table now!

I had to take a picture because he was cute. But then we had to get ready. So I rolled him back over and started to change his diaper. I got his old diaper off, and he immediately rolled back over and fell asleep again!




I had to take a picture. He's just so cute! Then I rolled him back over and made him get dressed. After we headed downstairs, he was already waking up and talking and laughing. But my goodness, he was a sleepy little man this morning!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Interesting...

I was at Walgreens yesterday and I saw something that I thought was very interesting...

Did you know that you can buy a Walgreens gift card for a flu shot?? It says on the sign, "Give the gift of health!"...

I just don't know how I feel about that. It's very interesting.

Edited to Add:

So my mom sent me an email saying how she could see herself buying these for us kids....so I guess where I'm really torn is who I'm receiving the flu shot gift cert from. If my mom got it for me, it might be nice...if Nick gets it for me for my birthday or Christmas or anniversary, we've got issues... :)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Still kind of DL

Just a warning to the six (maybe) people who read this:

I am ok with people knowing, but I don't want to post it entirely on Facebook or anything yet...Once I get my next blood test I'll feel a little better. I literally think like 10 people read this and I have over 600 facebook friends, so I would rather keep this between you and I - blogger world.

Thanks!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Test Results

I wasn't sure if I should blog about this yet or not, but I guess I might as well. I blogged about everything else, the good and the bad, so I guess I should keep with my own habits.

This past IUI cycle has been a completely different experience than the previous two. The first one I was sick during and was completely convinced it didn't work. I was right. The second one I was 180° the opposite. I was convinced I was pregnant. 100% sure. I was wrong.

This time, I decided to have a different approach. Whatever will be, will be. I wasn't going to stress about it. I was going to go with the flow. I did a good job. I didn't think about the IUI much. In fact, a few times I even forgot we did one! I was looking forward to a break from pumping myself of synthetic hormones. I didn't want to keep taking the medicine for nothing. So we were determined to take a break. And I felt great about it. I didn't take tests constantly and I didn't overanalyze every single "symptom".

Last Wednesday, or 9dpIUI (9 days past IUI), I went to Target to buy a few things for our trip to Arkansas and I decided to buy a pregnancy test while I was there. Just to be ready when I could start testing.

I got home, Nick and I started cleaning and getting ready and I had to go to the bathroom. I asked Nick if he minded if I took a test. He asked why I was taking one so early and I didn't have much of a response other than, "For some reason I think I should take one before our trip". He said he didn't mind, so I went to the bathroom and took a test.

I put the test on the mirror ledge and we continued to get ready for our trip. A few minutes later I looked at the test...definitely a second line.

What?!??! It was SO early and I wasn't feeling anything. How was there another line??

We got excited but not too excited. Maybe it was a fluke? Maybe, somehow, I still had some of the trigger shot in my system and it was a false positive. I didn't test out the trigger this time so who really knew.

The next morning, or 10dpIUI, I took another test. Another positive. It looked the same, but not darker, so again, we didn't get too excited.

That night we left for Arkansas. We told Jim and Leslie that I probably wouldn't be drinking during the trip because we were pretty sure I was pregnant. They were excited and determined to help me make "mocktails" and find non-alcoholic beer!

Friday morning (11dpIUI) I took another test (yes, I became a little obsessed) and got a darker positive. At this point, I'm pretty sure it's real. I called my doctor and they kind of (unintentionally) crushed my happiness, telling me that they can't send me for a blood test or anything until I get a positive test on 13dpIUI. Well that was fine, I wasn't looking for a blood test yet anyway. But it made me nervous, like my positive tests didn't mean anything yet.

Of course I took another test both Saturday and Sunday morning, and they were all getting darker. So I was pretty excited, but still cautious.

We got home Sunday night and relaxed and then first thing Monday morning, I called the doctor again. They sent me for a blood test that afternoon.

The blood test is called a quantitative hcg test. It's testing the exact level of hcg (the pregnancy hormone) in your body. With Dominick, my level was 73 at 13dpIUI.

I got my results yesterday, 72 at 14dpIUI, almost exactly the same! Maybe we'll be blessed with another baby JUST LIKE DOMMIE!



Of course I got nervous and had to take another test yesterday, but I think I'm under control now! :)

So that's my news!! It's still very early so we're still very cautiously excited, but it's official! I'm PREGNANT!

I am scheduled for a repeat blood test on Monday, the 26th, when I'll be 21dpIUI or 5 weeks pregnant. If my hcg level is at least 1,000, we can see something on an ultrasound. So we're hoping it's over 1,000 on Monday! If it is, we'll do an ultrasound next week sometime.

Like I said, we're still pretty nervous but very excited.

I'll keep you posted on how everything goes, but as always, please keep saying prayers!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Weekend Away!

This past weekend, Nick and I went to visit our VERY GOOD friends, Jim and Leslie, in Fayetteville, Arkansas!

We had a BLAST. We actually left on Thursday night, to get there very late Thursday night and be able to sleep in on Friday. That was a great idea. We got into Ark around 10:30 and stayed up watching tv and hanging out until about 11:30. Then we crashed.

We "slept in" until about 7:45 on Friday morning and then made breakfast. And I must say, Jim and I are excellent cooks! We made pancakes and breakfast sausage for Friday morning. Then we got dressed and went to play golf.

Golfing was AwEsOmE!! I had so much fun! (Except on one drive I broke the driver head off the club shaft - but it was still a good drive!!). We played "Westerheide's" versus "Marecek's" and we played a scramble. I have to say, I did pretty well! The first hole we played was a par 3, and I shot a 3 all by myself!! After the front 9, we were all tied up, but Jim and Les brought their A game in the back 9 and beat us by two strokes I think. It was fun, no matter what!

After golfing, we drove home and cleaned up. Then we went to Hooter's for lunch/dinner. For some reason I was really craving Hooter's hot wings!! We had dinner and then decided to go to the go-cart place. We had a great time there too! Nick and Jim were banging into each other and trying to spin each other into the rails, but Les and I just had fun driving the course. Of course, Nick and Jim had to go again just to race again. Les and I watched this time and took a few pictures.

After the go-carts, we headed home and sat on the patio while drinking a few drinks and playing washers. I went to bed shortly after all this.

Saturday was a good day too! We got up and Jim made us another excellent breakfast! We had bacon, egg and cheese biscuits for breakfast! Yum!!

After breakfast, we loaded up the coolers (one for drinks and one for food) and headed to the marina. We rented a pontoon boat for the day. It was gorgeous!! The sun was shining and the water was great, it was a perfect day for boating. Also, a perfect day for getting sun burnt apparently!! I am RED RED RED!!

After boating, we went back to the house and I passed out! I was exhausted. I took almost a three hour nap! Nick woke me up and we BBQ'd outside. Jim made another great meal. Porksteaks and corn on the cob. Yum!

I didn't make it very late Saturday night either. I went to bed fairly early so I could get up early on Sunday to pack.

Sunday morning I got up and packed all our stuff. Once we were packed and ready, Nick and I loaded into the Durango and Jim and Les loaded into their car and we drove an hour and twenty minutes to Branson to meet up with Ashley and Luke for breakfast. I felt bad for Jim and Les. It was on our way home but they drove out of their way to do a big breakfast with us! I think it was worth it though. Leslie got a brand new Coach purse (which I want to see pictures of!) so I think they did ok on their drive!

We went straight home after that to get our baby boy and we were SO glad to see him! I think he was pretty glad to see us too! He wouldn't let us out of his sight the rest of the night!

I'm glad we were able to get away for a weekend. I had an amazing time, but after seeing my baby last night, well, there's no place like home!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Worst. Morning. Ever.

I can't even believe how this morning has been going.

The first bad thing is obviously the worst. Everything else is just the icing on the cake.

Today started off like any other day. Dom woke up about 7. We got up and I changed his diaper and he was running around, reading books and things while I got ready. We do the EVERY MORNING.

Well today, Dom decided he wanted to close all the doors. No big deal. He does this a lot too. Usually, he closes the door and then giggles and waits until I open it and then we both laugh. Not this morning. He went into his room, pulled the door shut and LOCKED THE DOOR.

I couldn't, for the life of me, get that door to open. It is one of those doors that has the tiny hole on the other side and you have that straight, metal key-like thing to unlock it...but that thing is pretty hard to use. Especially when your son is on the other side crying and still turning the knob.

At first I was so calm. I grabbed the key and I started working on the lock. I could hear Dom the whole time, so I knew he was ok. He was just scared. Which is normal. I was scared too! I kept working on the lock and talking/singing to Dom. After ten minutes and no unlocking, I started to worry.

I noticed the door knob was on the door by two phillips head screws. So if I could just get a phillips head screwdriver, I could take the door knob off. But where are Nick's tools??

I called Nick. No answer. I called his work phone. No reception. I called again. No answer. So I called my mom. She doesn't know what to do but tells me to call my dad. The whole time I'm doing this, I'm trying to open the door with the little "key". Finally, I start to lose it. I start crying and shaking the knob really hard. Well this makes Dom scared so now he's crying louder and calling my name. I call my dad and he is the voice of Calm. He asks me which side the hinges are on. I tell him, "the other side". So Dad asks me about the key. He tells me he's grabbing his tools and he's on his way over. Which is great, but my dad lives 25 minutes away, NOT during rush hour, and my son is crying.

I hang up and finally get a hold of Nick. He doesn't have any of his tools at home. They are all at work with him. He tells me to calm down and I basically yell at him. I told him if he didn't have anything to say to help me, then he should just go back to work. He hung up. I don't blame him. Stupid hormones.

My dad called back and was on his way but wanted to talk me through using that "key". I thought he was crazy, because I had been using it for THIRTY minutes at this point and my son was still stuck in his room. But whatever my dad said, made sense I guess, because I finally got the door unlocked.

Success! Poor Dommie. When I opened the door, he ran to me and just held on tight. I felt so horrible. We went into my room and sat on the floor together, just holding on to each other and Dom didn't make a peep. I was starting to worry that I emotionally scarred him in some way, but by the time we got to Stella's he was fine. Running and playing and having a blast.

(PS - Don't worry, I called Nick back and told him his son was ok and he was very happy).

So that was the worst thing, but there have been other things that have made this a bad morning.

After dropping Dom off, I turn down the next street (which is a one way) and there's a truck blocking the street. A car pulls behind me so I can't back up. I'm stuck until the truck decides to move. Well that took a good 5-10 minutes and finally they moved the truck. Now I'm really really late.

So I decide, I'm hungry, I've been emotional. I'm going to splurge and get some McDonald's. So I run to McDonald's and wait in a L O N G line and when it's my turn they start off by saying, "Will this be cash? Our credit card machine is down."

GRR! I don't carry cash EVER. Not even $5. So I leave there.

Now I'm really angry. I go to Burger King and order my breakfast with a decaf coffee. "I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't make decaf coffee here anymore."

Ok...so I get a soda. I go to work.

As I'm sitting down at my desk, I knock my soda over. Soda everywhere...Great.

It's just one of those days....hopefully it gets better and ASAP.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Poor Kindle

I LOVE my Kindle. If you don't know what a Kindle is, click HERE to read all about them. I got mine for Christmas from my best bud, Mike.

I ♥ MY KINDLE!

So, as you can imagine, it was absolutely devastating to me when mine broke.

It was my fault. Dom and I were waiting for my Mom to pick us up to go to Grant's Farm. I was sitting in our big leather chair by the front window and I was reading. Dommie came over and wanted to read too. So I set the kindle on the arm of the chair and picked Dom up...When picking him up, one of us (I'm not even sure who) knocked it off the arm. It hit the floor and I held my breath...Would it be OK? Was it broken?

I picked it up and it looked fine. Hoorah! So I continued reading and when I finished the page, I hit the "next page" button....and the screen went to this:



I was crushed. I was so upset. I took a deep breath and picked Dom up and we went to wait outside. I was very angry and upset, but not at him. It was my fault. But I couldn't take it back.

I waited until Monday and then I called Amazon. I gave them my email address and they could log into my account. I verified some information and then they asked what the problem was. I told them and they tried to have me reset the whole Kindle. It didn't work. He asked me if it had been "exposed to any drops"...Um...yeah.

I told him that it did in fact drop and he told me that it was completely covered under my warranty. YES! So they are shipping me a new one. Brand new! All I have to do is send the broken one back. No problem there! I can use the same box the new one comes in and I already printed off the return label. So excited!!

The only sad thing, is they told me I would get my new one today and now the website says I'll get it tomorrow....oh well! It's still BRAND NEW and FREE!!

I ♥ Amazon now too!

Monday, July 12, 2010

On our own

After Nick's big birthday on Thursday, he rounded up a few guys and went to Crown Pointe in Farmington for a golf weekend. Dommie and I were on our own for the whole weekend. Three full days. We had a blast! :)

Friday night we went to my friend, Abbie's house. She was having a housewarming party and Dom and I went for a bit. The food was great and we had a lot of fun. There were a lot of other kids there so Dommie was just running around and having a great time. We couldn't stay too late because Dom goes down around 8 typically, but we stayed late for him! I think we headed home around 8:30 and he was asleep by 8:45.

After he went to bed, my cousins came over to hang out with me. Michelle, Annie, and Sara all came over for some wine and girl talk. We hung out drinking and talking until 1 am until I finally kicked them out. I didn't realize how late it got and I knew that Dom would be up at 7 whether I was ready or not!

I went up to bed about 1:30 but stupidly decided to finish my book and didn't go to bed until a little after 2am.

Saturday morning was a lot of fun! Dommie woke up around 7:15, as usual, and we got dressed and headed over to my new favorite coffee house: The Hartford Coffee Company. It has GREAT food and has a children area full of toys, a train table, and a pretend kitchen. Dommie LOVES it there.

I got Dom a blueberry muffin, and I ordered up a vanilla latte and a bagel with lox. Yum!!

Here are a few pictures of Dom playing at the Hartford:






After breakfast, we went back home to get ready for Grant's farm. My mom, my sister, and Cecilia came over to pick Dommie and me up. We headed out to Grant's Farm and had a great time! Here's some pictures of our day there:











As you can see we had a great time! We fed the goats, saw some amazing animals, including the BIGGEST turtles I've ever seen, and rode the Merry Go Round.

After Grant's farm, we grabbed some sandwiches from Southwest Market and went back to my house. We ate lunch and then the fam left and Dommie and I each took a nap. It was great. We both needed a rest so badly.

After our naps, Dommie played and I ordered some chinese food! Yum! Hot braised chicken, crab rangoon, and egg drop soup. Amazing. I watched the Cards game and went to bed early. It was the perfect end to a perfect day!

Sunday morning was another busy day. Dommie and I got up around 7:30 and just hung out in the morning. We went to 9:30 mass and then headed out to Glen Echo to have lunch and swim with Mom, Angela and Cici. I hadn't been to the pool there since I was a kid. It's so neat now! There were two kiddie pools that flowed into the big pool. The kiddie pools had fountains and misting areas that were a blast! Dommie and Celia loved it there. We had lunch and then Mom took Dommie for me.

Nick was home when I got home and we had two softball games yesterday afternoon.

We won them both in case anyone cares. ;-)

It was a great weekend. I missed Nick, obviously, but me and Dom had a blast. Even if he was a little cranky most of the weekend.

Um...seriously?!?!?

Just a quick story.

This morning while getting gas, I noticed a pregnant woman at the pump next to me. She was VERY PREGNANT, pumping HIGHLY FLAMMABLE GASOLINE, and SMOKING...how many wrong things can you do at the same time?

Seriously??? What is wrong with people?

Nick's Birthday Bash!

As promised, here are a few pics from Nick's birthday:







We had a BLAST!

Friday, July 9, 2010

6 years

Nick and I have been together for six amazing years. We started dating on July 4, 2004. We've been through a LOT in our relationship and I'm very confident that we can make it through anything.

He is an amazing guy. He really and truly is. I'm so lucky to have him in my life.

I really can't believe we've been together that long! I remember his first birthday that we were together. We had only been together for a few days so I didn't want to seem crazy and do too much for him, even though I liked him already. I made him a cake, and bought him a lot of "firsts". He had never tried Corona beer, so I got him a case of beer (actually had to have someone buy it for me because I was only 20 when Nick and I started dating!), and he had never seen the movie "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" so I bought him that. I think there might have been more, but I can't remember now.

Six years ago. Crazy.

Here's to Sixty more!!

Nick's 30th!

My husband is 30 now!! He had his 30th birthday yesterday. I can't believe it! When I met him, he was 23. It's amazing how time can fly.

To celebrate, I sent mass emails and invites out to go to Lumiere Place Casino for drinks and to a restaurant there, the Burger Bar. Nick didn't think a lot of people would come out since it was a Thursday, but I was confident, and we had 17 people come to dinner and about 25 people to come for drinks! My husband is a popular guy!

I took a TON of pictures, but don't have them on my computer yet, so those will get posted soon, I promise!!

We had a great time! And I won $60 playing Roulette! Win-win!!

Pictures to follow, soon I hope!!

Dominick Updates

My friend, Crystal, had a post about her son, Bennett, about the things he was saying, doing, etc. and I thought that was a good idea.

Dominick is learning so much and getting so big!! Here are some of the things we are doing now:

Words he says very clearly:
Hi
Bye
Mama
Daddy
Kitty
Dog
Ball
Bite
Hot
Out
Up
Yes
No-no!
Please
Nana
Ci-ci
Cheese
Peas
One

Words he says kind of clearly:
Love you
Binky
Grandma
Grandpa
Stella
Ruby
Thank you
Two
Three

Things he's doing that amaze me everyday:
- He no longer walks, he RUNS everywhere.

- He goes up steps like a big boy for about 5 steps. No holding hands, no crawling on knees, and not one step at a time. Straight up like a big boy.

- He sings along to songs and makes up his own songs.

- He counts to three, not always in the right order, but he clearly is counting and he says One, Two and Three.

- He LOVES to read, just like his Mama!! He'll bring you a book and as soon as you finish he's off and running to get another one.

- He answers questions. Not always with the answer you want! But he does answer them. For example: I asked him this morning if he would be a good boy at Stella's and he looked at me and said, "no". I asked him why not and he rattled off a reply I couldn't decipher. Then I asked him if he would be a good boy for me tonight and he said, "Yes". I said, "Because you love me?" And he smiled and said, "Love you!". :) It made my morning.



He is just getting to be so big and so smart. I love him so much and I can't believe how perfect he is. He's my little man!!

Silly Game

Ten Things I Wish I Could Say to Ten Different People Right Now
1. Thank you so much for coming out to Nick's party last night!!
2. You truly are a best friend and I'm thankful to have you in my life.
3. Being a mother is the thing I love most about my life and what I am most proud of.
4. Please stop calling and trying to sell me stuff I don't need....I'm not going to change my mind.
5. Does anyone want a puppy?? I have one if you need one! :)
6. It really should be 4 pm already.
7. Who wants to hang out with me this weekend??
8. I hope you have an amazing weekend!!
9. Thank goodness it's Friday!
10. Maybe we should take a half day and go home and take a nap...

Nine Things About Myself
1. I can say the alphabet backwards.
2. I am a perfectionist about everything, EXCEPT the state of my house.
3. I have a few tattoos.
4. I am obsessed with change and have to rearrange furniture at least once a month.
5. I am ready to be a mother again.
6. I love to read and my kindle is one of my favorite things in the world...ever.
7. I have some truly amazing people in my life and for that I'm extremely grateful.
8. I love to travel.
9. If I could, I'd go to bed at 8 pm every night. I love to sleep.

Eight Ways to Win my Heart
1. Read with me and discuss the book, even when you don't want to.
2. Listen to my stories and act as if they are important to you too.
3. Have fun and let little things go.
4. Love the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team.
5. Love the Indianapolis Colts football team.
6. Take me out for sushi. Yum!
7. Tell me I look beautiful, and not just when I'm dressed up, but when I'm in sweats too.
8. Bring me home something small, but sweet. Like a single flower, or a box of chocolates, just to surprise me.

Seven Things that Cross my Mind a lot
1. Dominick is growing up way too fast!
2. Am I ever going to be blessed with another baby??
3. How can I redo our living room and dining room?
4. Will our backyard ever get finished??
5. Where can we take Dom over the weekends to do something fun?
6. Am I a good mother? Is Dominick getting everything he needs from me?
7. I'm very lucky to have such a great family.

Six Things I do Before I Fall Asleep
1. Let the dogs out one last time.
2. Turn off lights and set the alarm.
3. Check on Dom one more time.
4. Take out my contacts and brush my teeth.
5. Take ALL my medicine (which is at six pills currently).
6. Give Nick a good night kiss.

Five People Who Mean a Lot
1. My wonderful husband
2. My perfect son
3. My amazing parents
4. My brilliant sister
5. My generous friends

Four Things I'm Wearing Right Now
1. Fontbonne Tee Shirt
2. Blue Jeans
3. Blue nail polish (on fingers and toes!)
4. Cross necklace
5. My fake wedding ring...I wear a flat band most of the time because the diamond on my wedding ring scratches Dom. I wear my wedding ring on special occasions!

Three Songs I Listen to a Lot
1. This Afternoon by Nickelback
2. Fearless by Taylor Swift
3. Simple Man by Lee DeWyze

Two Things I Want to do Before I Die
1. Go back to Europe
2. See some Grandchildren

One Confession
1. I went to Jack in the Box on my way to work and ordered two breakfast sandwiches and two tacos....and ate them all. Gotta love mornings after drinking all night...blah!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Day 3 for Mommy and Dommie

Dommie and I are counting days right now.

I am on Day 3 after the IUI, and doing fine so far. I know it's WAY too early but I'm not even focusing on testing at this point. I'm getting excited for Nick's birthday party tonight and and our mini vacation next week. So testing is not on the top of my list of priorities. Eating however is. I'm going nuts. I'm eating everything in sight and the things that sound good are things that are NOT good for me. Like chips....oh sweet chips. And cookies. Yumm.....

But enough about me.

Dommie is on Day 3 of no binky, except at bed time. I'm not gonna lie, this is a bit of a struggle. But we're getting there. This morning we actually made a big production of it. Dommie tossed the binky into his crib and we said bye-bye to it. I told him that he could have it when he went night-night. And he waved bye bye to his bee-yeee.

After he did that, we brushed his teeth (which he HATES) and then we had a melt down. He ran, literally ran to his room, and started shaking the crib screaming, "bee-yeee!! Bee-yeee!!" which is what we call the binky. I picked him up and told him that he had another one at Stella's for when he went night night there. He got real serious and nodded and said, "At la-la's" (which is what we call Ms. Stella).

So we went to Stella's and he ran right up to her and asked for a cracker and milk and the whole Binky fiasco was already over.

I'm hoping this doesn't take too long before we are completely under control that the binky is for bed time only. He seems to be doing pretty good, so I'm pretty proud of him!

Day 3 and counting for Dommie and Mommy!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Relief and July 4th

We did the IUI yesterday. I have to say, I'm relieved. No matter what, I get a break. And I'm thankful for that.

I think it went well. It was odd, going to the hospital on a holiday. It was so desolate. There were maybe 10 cars in the whole parking garage. We went up to the office and Mickey was there waiting for us.

She took Nick's "sample" and went back to get it ready. Nick, Dom and I waited in the waiting room. It only took about 15 minutes and she brought us back to the room. Nick and Dominick were running around the office because Dom didn't want to wait in the room.

Mickey said the procedure went perfect. She said that I make this look "easy" and everything went exactly the way it should. I'm hoping she's right.

After the procedure, I stayed in the room for about 15 minutes and then we got up to go. I had written a long thank you note in a card for Mickey, so I gave it to Dom and he ran it up to her. She seemed grateful. I want to do something more for her but Monday morning was a little hectic and a thank you note was all I had time for.

When we finally left, we headed to breakfast. We felt we needed a nice big breakfast so we went to Bob Evan's. Dommie was such a good boy!! And ate all his fruit. That kid could live off of fruit if we let him!

After we were stuffed, we headed to my parents house to go swimming. I love that my folks have a pool. It was just what I needed after stressing about this IUI for weeks.

The rest of the day was just relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.

Now we have a wonderful 2 week wait ahead of us. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to hold off on testing early this time. I'm just done with everything that I probably won't be too anxious...well I say that now.

July 19th is looking like the day we'll know.

Please keep saying prayers. :)

Friday, July 2, 2010

Well, what else is new??

I had my egg ultrasound this morning...yup. Same ole, same ole.

1 egg...looks good though, they say.

My doctor's office doesn't work weekends or holidays. Some fertility clinics do, but mine technically doesn't. So they told me to start taking ovulation predictor tests and if I get a positive to try on our own, but if I don't get a positive by Sunday, then take the trigger and we'll do the IUI on Tuesday morning.

I'm not ok with this. The thing that really had me concerned was the tech told me that any line on an ovulation test is a positive line. Even though the directions say the line has to be as dark or darker than the test line, not to believe that. But that doesn't make sense to me. Nick and I have done ovulation predictor tests. We did then for a year. I'm not comfortable with taking a chance and then not knowing if we were right or wrong. And I don't want to spend $700+ dollars on a chance.

Luckily, the technician, Mickey, is fantastic. She asked my RE what he would do if it weren't a holiday weekend. He said, "Easy. Tell her to trigger tomorrow and do the IUI on Monday. But we're closed Monday." so Mickey said, "Let's do that. I'll come in and do it on Monday".

I'm so lucky to have someone there who understands that this is important to me. Not that my RE doesn't, but it's great that Mickey is willing to sacrifice an hour of her holiday for me. It means the world to me.

So that's the plan. I'm triggering tomorrow night and we're doing the IUI on Monday mid morning.

Please wish me luck and say extra prayers. This really is our last try for quite awhile and I really want it to work.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Milk, Eggs, Vodka

Does anyone remember me talking about this book??

This is a book of grocery lists with some funny commentary that my friend Bill wrote. Well he's going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight!!!

I'm so excited for him. So tune in tonight (or if you go to bed early like me, set your DVR) and watch him!!

HERE is a website showing the line up of all late night TV today.

You have to watch him and then you HAVE to go buy his book.

Milk, Eggs, Vodka by Bill Keaggy.

You know you want to!

Here's one of Bill's websites: Grocery Lists

Seriously! Check it out!

School

So I promised a school post and here it is. I've decided to go back to school. Not like quit my job and start a whole new life kind of thing, but go back to school. Unfortunately the economy is just not what it used to be and I'm in constant fear of me and/or Nick losing our jobs. So, I'm going back to school to get my pre-requisites for Pharmacy school. It will take me two years to get all these classes done, so if in two years the economy picks back up and my job is thriving, then I don't need to go to Pharmacy school and I just spent two years learning some cool stuff.

However, if in two years the economy is the same or (God forbid) worse, then I have options.

I wanted to go into a medical field right out of high school but I was selfish. I wanted to play basketball and I got a scholarship to Fontbonne. So I took it and I played. I was good at Math and Accounting so that was the route I took. I don't regret it by any means, but I should have thought more long term than I did.

So here I am. Starting over while working full time and having a one year old at home. It will be fine, but hard. Hard is good though.

This is my schedule for the next two years:

Fall 2010
General Chemistry I with lab
Physics I with lab

Spring 2011
General Chemistry II with lab
Physics II with lab

Summer 2011
Calculus
Anatomy and Physiology I with lab

Fall 2011
Organic Chemistry I with lab
Any Biology class

Spring 2012
Organic Chemistry II with lab
Anatomy and Physiology II with lab

And somewhere in there I have to take General Sociology online...

Yup, it will be tough. But I'm actually really excited to get started. Next week I'm going to register and get my student number at Forest Park. I think my best friend, Mike, is taking one of the classes with me, so that will be fun too.

Wish me luck! I have a "fun" two years ahead! :)