Check In

I'm going to try to be fast, but it's nice to just spew it all out, every last thought of it all. So here's what's been up since I recovered from the Little Man's B-day party...

The FET is tomorrow. That is a TRANSFER, not implantation, transferance, or impregnation, of the 2 embryos that will thaw out around 1 tomorrow and be put into my "oven" around 2pm. I'm starting to feel slightly slightly more normal hormonally which if this takes, it will last 3 days. I don't know if I can put my body through this again, but I probably will... anyway, after the transfer is 2 days (give or take) of "bedrest"-- I can get up to go to the bathroom, but other than that I get to sit on the couch and attempt to stay sane. I know, you wish you could be so lucky as to be forced to sit on the couch/lay on the couch. But when you get there, you think off all the millions of things you'd rather be doing or should be doing.

So the doctor wants me on "limited activity" until the pregnancy test is confirmed, which now that I think of it is either 2 weeks or until they get a heartbeat? Oh dear Lord... this could get ugly. Limited Activity is no working out, no lifting of anything that basically is heavier than the phone, the remote or my purse (HA! Clearly dr has not ever picked that thing up!). Do nothing that moves any muscle too much or raises my heartrate above resting or my blood pressure. Limited trips up/down stairs. No picking up Little Man. And THAT folks is where it becomes a royal PITA. Big huge PITA. Ginormous. If we had known this sooner, we could have gotten a nanny for the 2 weeks, but instead we're scrambling to get family to help. This only has caused problems and made it clear to us where we stand in certain families minds (like if a million bucks were falling to the bottom of the sea and we were drowning, they'd go for the money. Make that 100 bucks. We're aparently not worth much.). As a result of this news, I did spend the greater part of today making food for Little Man-- chicken stew, tuna casserole, spaghetti with meat and mushroom sauce, steamed fish (plain), French toast, cereal, and carmelized bananas (for the toast). I baked up 4 potatoes too, which will be nice to have around for all of us. Baked in flavor, microwave cooking time. ;) My body can't take standing like that-- my knees are gonna pay for it tomorrow and I'm going to need to rest. Hey wait, I'll have 2 days of rest! No problems here folks... (eyes rolling)

Little Man is still the love of our lives. Last Saturday he started waving, but he doesn't do it often and we haven't gotten it on film. I think he's beginning to understand "no!", but he laughs when I say it! He will clap if I ask him to clap for me and occasionally when he's excited. Today on our way to music class, he was fussy so I started singing the welcome song and he just lit up... and was very happy when we got there but not about holding still! Starting swimming on Monday morning which was fun. It's just a Mommy-and-Me type so not too many tears. The water was like a freakin' bathtub-- I was sweating by the end of class. Ed gets to go the next 2 weeks which should be interesting to say the least. There are 2 other babies (one who's mom came fully coiffed AND in a bikini!) but the rest of the kids are about 2 years old. My goal is to just aclimate Little Man so he doesn't freak out at the lake this summer. His newest trick: He sort of can drink from a straw too-- that started today which tickles me to the gills. Loathe sippy cups! He's really figuring out his toys and what they do. He's got the FP Zoo that makes all the sounds and loves the tiger roaring. He'll open the flap, take out the tiger, put back the tiger, close the flap, over and over. Really cute. Did I mention anywhere that we did the zoo Friday? SO FUN! He giggled the whole time-- thought the polar bears and the camels were a hoot. He still doesn't like meat and has figured out how to spit food out so my previously non-chalant eater has become PICKY! UGH! No avocado, no chicken, no beef, no tomato if it has so much as a SPECK of meat on it... but he did eat a whole tomato and can put down a whole banana so... DH swears Mike can not be his child w/ this hatred for meat. Makes me laugh. He ate a whole egg this morning though, so all hope is not lost. The tomato-chicken incident was the funniest-- he spit out the diced tomato, picked off the chicken, then ate the tomato. Seriously. Too freakin' funny.

In Ed's world... Obsessed with the yard. He got all kinds of plants over the weekend for the beds and, yes they're pretty, but they need WATER. They need water that the sprinkler system can't provide. I have to water them. And he got me herbs so I want to take care of the herbs... those he planted in pots too. Then I moved the pots so the sprinkler hits them. Take that dear hubby! I may be blonde but I know how to avoid yard work! So blame the rains on me b/c I'm out there with the danged hose. Did I mention that the spicket for said hose is back behind a ton of bushes? About 10 feet of them, give or take, to maneuver through-- and the spider webs that lay across them-- to get to the flippin thing. There has got to be an easier way. Stay tuned on that and sit tight for the day I utter how much I love to garden (hell will freeze over).

And a few last thoughts to wrap things up...
To my neighbors: KEEP YOUR DAMN DOGS IN YOUR OWN YARDS!
To the people in front of me on the road: Cryptic vanity plates are not cool. Save yourself the dinero.
and...To the RN at the dr's office: NO a 1 year old CAN NOT climb up into the car. EVER.

buh-de-buddy-de-buddy-de... that's all folks!

Popular!

I have come to realize over about the last year that there are 2 very precarious things in life: Popularity and Friendship. It seems as though culturally, we have such an emphasis on having a lot of friends, a full social calendar, and that if we don't have a solid network of friends and are not invited to all the hottest parties and aren't going out every weekend, that there's something fundamentally wrong with us. I get that humans, apes, are "social creatures" that live in groups, not alone like, say, a bear (you never see groups of them, maybe 2 or 3, but not like 10, so I figure they're rather solitary creatures). But do we need that interaction or is it culturally imposed on us to have these relationships? Why is it that when the relationships fall from grace, so does our self-esteem? Why do we often overestimate the importance of the relationship, either from our POV or from that of the other person? Why do we maintain "toxic" relationships? Why is it sometimes harder to let go of these than it is to stay in them? Why do have such difficulty being open, and honest, and in discussing our feelings *about* our friendships with our friends? What makes one friend closer in one emotional realm and another in another? Do we "rank" our friends, our *good* friends, in our hearts even without thinking about it?

This is just stuff that's been stuck in my mind for a while... I've been biten (and I know quite a few other people) sharply a couple times, yet I muster on and I have to wonder why.

(...cogitate...)

Blog Challenge: Getting to know you

I tweeked it a little, changing some things to make it more "general" for me...

1) Right now I want: Go to bed
2) I wish I knew how to: bake fruit pies
3) When I want to indulge myself, I: shop!
4) You'll never see me: camping
5) A childhood memory that I love: Camp Michigania
6) 2 things I do every single day that aren't obvious/that everyone does: lovenox shots and sign to the Little Man
7) Happiest moment of 2008, so far: Tie between The Little Man's birthday party and knowing we have 2 embryos frozen-- hope for more babies
8) Describe yourself in 3 words: loyal, stubborn, creative
9) 2 goals for this year: get in shape and get pregnant (again)
10) You have $40 that you MUST spend on yourself – what do you do with it? probably new workout clothes, esp if I had to spend it this very second

Gary: “Fine, I’ll help you do the damn dishes.”
Brooke: “That’s not what I want. I want you to want to do the dishes.”
Gary: “Why would I want to do dishes?”

Not that that entirely summarizes my life, but there's a bomb that's gone off around here and someone's entrenched in a duel in Guitar Hero and it ain't me gettin' my butt whipped.

Where have I been you ask? It started with the mayhem of 3 days to prepare an Easter meal for 8 plus the Little Man which moved into 2 weeks prep for this past Saturday's 1st Birthday Party for the Little Man with a mere 25 or so people to the house. Easter was, in all honesty, one of the easier holiday's ever. Andy did a lot of the cooking and I was able to do table decor and the like, learn some new recipes which were super easy but looked hard, and our house was about done of the decorating we'd started. The Little Man held up but went down for a nap right before we ate so our meal was relaxed. (Note: Never buy little kid's rompers that are not a knit fabric that have snaps in the crotch. They don't stay snapped.) Food was good. House looked great. People left and my house was clean before they went. Lovely.

Then mayhem set really set in. I did it, I pulled it off, but I'll admit, I had staff to help. Gene, Dix, and Mimi rolled up sleeves and followed the to-do list. Make that LISTS, plural. They did a great job and I could not have done it without them b/c there are simply not enough hours in the day or days in the week. Mind you, what I could have them help with was not making food b/c the Big Man decided that we would make all the food ourselves. Please translate that to MYSELF. Though he did the burgers and brats and manned the grill... I did buy the corn salad/salsa, the chips, buns, ice cream, precut veggies, and some other short cuts, but basically I didn't have anyone bring anything homemade. The piece de-resistence: Three cakes-- one to smash, a giraffe, and a monkey that was standing up like a stuffed animal with a tiny "cake" infront with a "1" candle and Little Man's name on it. So cute and probably what I found the most impressive of everything. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, the kids were happy (no tears), the dog behaved, and my house is in one piece. And I am slowly eating through the remains of the monkey cake in the fridge: His head. Well, if you have a better way to carve a monkey (think teddy bear), please let me know.

That bar is now set so freakin' high I'm scared. Apparently I *have* out Martha'd Martha. And I AM EXHAUSTED.

We're having a party this summer to mark the summer solstice. I want to call it "Midsummer" something but am at a loss for words. The gears are going, the save the dates sent to the people who I know would appreciate them, and all I need to do is try to convince myself to keep it simple. (ha)

Last thing: I am officially leaving "work" at 7pm each day. I am doing nothing after 7 unless it's taking care of Little Man, or it is specifically something I want to do deep in my soul (like blog). I have 3 places that I can go that I am not "working": bed, my bathroom when it's not being played in or used by Little Man, and my closet. I'd say my craft room, but I keep all the household files down there at the moment so... but I just need time away from it all. Time to focus, relax, watch the dust fall and try to remember what day of the week it is and if it's Wednesday I'm gonna need to wipe it up at some point. I want time to actually miss my family, to feel like I need to be with them right this second, to be able to reflect and know how much I appreciate them and love them. I don't want to accidently start to take them and their love for granted.

Ok, there. I posted. I'll post pictures next time b/c right now I'm going to BED!