This Girls Journey

beautiful day, fun day

Today was a beautiful day. In fact it is actually the first really nice day we've had in a while. This entire week, with the exception of most of last Monday has been really cloudy and drizzly. Not rain, just random water sprinkles coming from the sky. So depressing. So when we woke up this morning and saw that the sun was actually showing it's pretty face we decided that we must go out and enjoy it. Besides the fact that I believe children should get as much fresh air as possible. Also my husband's daughter Alexis is visiting us for a couple of weeks. It's a shame that already half of her time with us has passed and the entire time we have been stuck in the house because of the poor weather. Don't get me wrong. I totally understand that we need rain. I love rain sometimes. But when you have an infant and an 8 year old being in the house all day is the last thing that you want to do. Ok... I'm rambling. The whole point of this post is to post pics of our day picking strawberries at Belkin Farm. It was so much fun. We plan on going back when the peaches and nectarines are in season. Can't wait. I can already taste the peach cobbler. YUM.

what's going on?

Everything. We had to move for exactly 3 weeks into another apartment so that my apartment could be deleaded. I won't complain too much about it, but I will say that it was not fun. I hate moving, and I hate moving even more when I'm 33 weeks pregnant. Maybe one day all of my boxes will be unpacked. I feel so unprepared for a baby. I really just want to nest, minus the extra unpacking that is involved right now. Oh well.

So, in the next couple of days, I must get everything unpacked. Babie's r' Us is having a huge sell that is waiting for me, a sell that I can't miss.

Not much else has been happening. Baby is getting bigger, thus causing me to get bigger. I really can't wait to see her.

snow snow go away

As I am sitting here watching the 5 o'clock news, I just realized that the light snow that was on the weather.com forecast earlier today has now turned into 8-12 inches of snow for Wednesday. Why? Why? Why? This is why Massachusetts should not be an inhabited state. No one should be permitted to live here during the winter months. It has snowed every single week with serious accumulation since mid December, and clearly the gods have no intention on stopping this madness.

this week...

Has had many ups and downs... literally. I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling fabulous. The sun was shining, the leaves were orange and it was 64 degrees in November, in Boston. It was an absolutely beautiful day. But most importantly, there was an air of hope in the air. I started my day by watching the news, and the only thing happening in the world were people going out to vote for our next president. So exciting. I finally got up and out, and went to vote. Thanks to the town that I live in (that I usually hate b/c of the elitist cold air that permeates all around me) there was NO line. Not one person stood in line in front of me. I was literally able to walk in, give my name, and walk out. The entire process took all of 5 minutes. It was wonderful. Later in the day, I had a doctors appointment. All was looking well. Baby is growing right on target.

On my way home, I decided that I HAD TO HAVE a milkshake. An extra thick Strawberry Frappe. I walk into the ice cream parlor, I make my order. The man behind the counter knew exactly what I wanted/needed. Most people do not understand what an extra thick shake entails, and it makes me extremely angry. Ask my husband. He's been there. So I get my shake. I pay. Everything is perfect. My day couldn't get any better. As I'm walking out of ice cream parlor, I miss the ONE step, and fall. Shake goes everywhere, and I am laying flat on the sidewalk. I somehow make it to my car where I cry and cry and cry, while freaking my hubby out who is on the phone and still at work. I drive down the street, and make it home where I cry some more before laying down. Hubby comes home shortly thereafter, pulls me out of bed, and takes me to ER. Baby is fine. Yay. My little trooper.

I finally make it home 5 hours later, and not too long after my new president was announced. Suddenly I felt no pain. Everything was great. Everything IS great. We have a new president! My couldn't get any better. It started off great, took a little stumble in the middle, and rose.

next day??

So today, the next day after yesterday, I went back to the dry cleaners to pick up my same day cleaning. Everything was ready except for my sweater. Ok...

Cleaner Man: "Sweater not ready."
Me: "Ok... when will it be ready."
Cleaner Man: "Some days."
Me: "How many days?"
Cleaner Man: "Some days."
Me: "When will it be ready?"
Cleaner Man: "Some days. It has to drip dry."
Me: "Umm ok..." (extremely confused look on my face. why would a dry cleaned sweater have to drip dry?)
Cleaner Man: "Paying for everything?"
Me: "No. I'm not paying for a sweater that's not ready. I will pay when I pick it up in some days."

These people have no clue what same day means. They only seem to know some day.

why?

Why do people bring babies everywhere they go? There are someplace's where I feel like they just shouldn't be.
1) Expensive restaurants.
2) Movie theaters
3) FERTILITY CLINIC

I was at my RE's office for bloodwork and in walks a woman with her gynormous stroller system, with a baby in it. There are some places you just don't bring babies. RE office is definitely included on the list. Not because of jealosly, but simply because we infertile's see babies everywhere. Magazines, TV, grocery store, in our sleep. The last place we want to be super duper reminded about our inadequacies is at our doctors office. Please keep in mind that my doctor does NOT share an office with a Family Practitioner, a Pediatrician, or anything that involves full sized born babies. This is strictly an office of Reproductive Endocrinologists. I completely understand that perhaps a babysitter was not available. But still... I can't help but be a little irritated. This probably stims from the first time a saw a woman bring babies (brand new twins) into an RE's office. On the same day I was in my old RE's office because I was having a miscarriage, a woman thought it would be wonderful to bring her babies to my Dr's office to "show them off." So I ended up sitting (and bleeding) in the waiting room for an hour while this woman paced back and forth in front of me cooing at her babies that were far from taking a nap. Please keep in mind that this woman did not have an appointment, and just decided to show up. As a former infertile, she should know better.

I'm going to take a moment and compare this to an experience a couple of friends and myself have had the past couple of weeks. We attend Weight Watchers meetings on Tuesday mornings. Every morning when we arrive there is a woman there with her child. Every week she complains about how she's not loosing like she would have hoped as well as blah blah blah. So sitting next to her on the floor is her son who is let's say around 4 or 5 years old. He is sitting on the floor eating either a donut or a McDonald's biscuit with grease attached. Why on earth would you bring your child to a Weight Watcher's meeting eating a donut? Weight Watcher's is all about learning and practicing healthy eating habits. Plopping your kid down on the floor in the middle of the room of 20-30 hungry women (and a couple of men) is just not wise. I can't help but stare at the kid of think "hmmm... I want a donut." I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one who was having that thought.

yes we can: part deux

Here is a little excerpt from last night's NYT article about Obama's Democratic Party nomination.

“You chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears, but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations,” Mr. Obama told supporters at a rally in St. Paul. “Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another — a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Because of you, tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.”

i've been tagged

My very good friend Brandie over at Out and About in Africa tagged me, and wants me to answer all these questions, even though she probably already knows all of the answers. So here I go...

10 years ago:
I was just finishing my first year at Boston College, and I decided to spend the summer with my dad. What a very long, boring, and hot summer. Around this time was probably when I sat down and watched the complete Godfather trilogy and a 24 hour period of time, and I slept for another 24 hours. This was a long summer, and I was looking forward to going back to college, and having my Brandie as the last roommate of my college career.

5 years ago:
I was moving back to the DC area from New York, after doing a year of graduate school, and realizing that I absolutely hated my program, missed my boyfriend now husband, and was lonely as hell in NY because I only had one friend, who had a life. NY is not the place you move to if you do not have a strong friend network in the city. It can feel super crowded yet depressingly lonely. Otherwise, I LOVE NY and everything about it.

1 year ago:
I had just found out that I had gotten my current job, however I would not be starting for a couple more months. This new job would require me to move from the DC Metro area back to Boston. This was a very nerve wracking summer as I was just ready to go. Also, I had just finished an IUI cycle, that ended with a miscarriage.

Yesterday:
Started the day with an unusually productive meeting, followed by another. Ended up having a very impromptu evening of grill cooking with friends. Everyone brought stuff over, and we just threw it on the barbi.

5 snacks I enjoy:
- cupcakes
- ice cream
- strawberries
- yogurt
- cucumbers (if I actually take the time and cut them up)

5 books I like plus a bonus!
- "Portrait in Sepia" by Isabelle Isllende
- almost any craft or quilting book
- All of the Harry Potter books. It makes me very sad to think that they have ended forever.
- “Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” by James Weldon Johnson (I have to agree with Brandie. This has     to be one of the best books I have ever read. I highly suggest it.)
- Anything by Amy Tan
Bonus:
- "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

What I’d do with 100 million dollars:
- Travel
- Adopt a few kids
- Buy a Brownstone in Brooklyn, a villa in Dominican Republic, Bed and Breakfast on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and an apartment in Paris.
- invest
- start a small business
- start a charity

5 places I’d love to run away to:
- Morocco
- India
- Mexico
- Sweden
- anywhere but here.

5 bad habits and/or pet peeves I have:
Peeve- Touching things with my hands (i.e. door knobs, shopping carts, other people's hands, etc.)
Peeve- Parents of bad children. (I was annoyed by children when I was a child)
Peeve- People who can't sit long enough to relax, and have a normal conversation. "Relax, Relate,                         Release" (Whitley Gilbert, A Different World)
Peeve- double dippers.
Peeve- Constant complainers. Not people who do it occasionally, but those people that every time you talk     to them, they are complaining about something new. However, I don't know what is worse. Complaining     about something new, or the same thing over and over again.

5 things I like doing:
- sewing, scrapping, card making, knitting, anything with my hands.
- reading
- baking
- playing with my doggie
- shopping

5 things I would never wear: (Brandie actually said all of this, and I'm gonna have to agree.)
- any kind of fur
- a weave
- acrylic nails
- short-shorts or anything too short
- high-waisted pants

5 tv shows I like:
- LOST (Season finale was last night. I have so many questions)
- Brothers and Sisters
- Grey's Anatomy (I hate Meredith Grey. She's so annoying.)
- Medium
- Battlestar Gallactica

5 famous people I’d like to meet:
- Barack Obama
- Oprah Winfrey
- Will Smith
- Spike Lee
- Martha Stewart

5 people I’d like to see fill this out:
my mother
my sister
(they probably wouldn't though)

feelin a bit like a grouch

My period has come, which means I will probably (hopefully) be doing IVF #2 in June. With my period comes ALL of my grouchy, don't feel like dealing with sh*t kind of mood. I'm crampy and I REALLY want to watch some scifi, except we don't have the SciFi network because we have crappy cable. Thank the god's the SciFi network thought it smart to put new episodes of Battlestar Gallactica online, otherwise I would be a mess. I just recently started watching Torchwood, which is a British scifi drama which is a spin off of Dr. Who and is a cross between CSI and X-Files. I really want to start watching another scifi tv show. Either Babylon 5 or Stargate SG-1. Both of which I refuse to jump in the middle, and must watch from the very beginning. Therefore I NEED the dvd's. I hate watching stuff from the middle. It's just not fun. Never ever.

Anyways... This is my grouchy post, and hopefully I will have more actual info about my IVF cycle. I have 20 days that I will need to be on birth control pills. Fun Fun. I love being pumped up with hormones in the form of tiny little pills, or clear liquid injected with syringes into my arse or tummy. fun fun.

it's been a while

I made it through Mother's Day without feeling like crap. I woke having completely forgotten that it was Mother's Day but then jolted myself back into present day reality and realized I have to call my Mommy. I hadn't realized how much I missed her until I spoke to her and realized I wouldn't be with her for the day. So for the rest of the day we relaxed at home with friends, and threw some turkey burgers on the grill. That was fun. Previously mentioned friends brought their dog over who decided he wanted to chase my baby girl around and attempt to hump her. Good thing that little Remy is fixed I don't think Boxer/Poodle mix would be a good idea. What would it be called? Boxerpoo? Poobox? Pox? Poxer? Pooxer? Whatever... It just wouldn't be right.

I also got an email from a good friend from college wishing me a Happy Mother's day who has also had her fair share of fertility issues who now has 2 beautiful baby boys. 1 she adopted, and while going through the whole process of adoption, found out she was pregnant. Very very exciting. Her entire email reminded me of the episode on Friends where Monica and Chandler were trying to adopt a baby, and basically Chandler referred to Monica as being a mother without a child. Here is the clip.