- I’m debating about what I want to do with my hair. I’ve decided that I want to grow it back out long while I’m still young enough to be able to pull that off. The debate is whether or not I want bangs.
- It’s the moms birthday week! Happy birthday to the bestest mom and mom-in-law a girl could ask for! (Yes, I actually like my MIL. Shocking, I know.)
- Speaking of birthdays, mine is less than 2weeksaway. Just saying. In case, you know, you wanted to help me celebrate.
- This weekend was supposed to be my 15 year reunion. We were supposed to have a big family-friendly, catered gathering at a local church. But since apparently no one really wants to see each other or their offspring, instead we’re just meeting for drinks Friday and Saturday night.
- The shrink wants to put me on meds. I’m indecisive. If I go that route and I get all zombie on ya’all, you’ll tell me, right?
- Reading about all the drama from BlogHer (again), I’m not sorry I missed it (again) this year. Why is it not possible to put a group of women together and not have drama?
- I watched the Twilight: New Moon panel from Comic Con. I understand why Kristen Stewart looked like she styled her hair with a Flowbee (apparently she’d just come off set from another movie and flown in), but why, in every interview, does Robert Pattinson have to act like a complete buffoon?
- I posted a little something over at the St. Louis Bloggers Guild. Check it out.
- In September, I’ll be auditioning for a local talent show. If I make it, I’ll let you know when and where the performance will be so you can cheer me on!
OK, so I’m not doing so well with blogging once a week. I am INSANELY busy right now. I work solid all day (challenging in a good way, too! Yay!) only breaking to pump (still at it!), eat and read for about 45 minutes. When I get home I go through my email and read your blogs, eat dinner and then chill with the family. There is really no time to spend on my own blog. I don’t even bother trying to keep up with Twitter or Facebook status anymore. There are simply not enough hours in the day right now.
Interviewing for the new gig (my boss’ old job) next week. It looks like it’s down to me, my “arch nemesis” and an external candidate. If nothing else, I’m hoping it will set the wheels in motion for good things to happen later down the line. I really don’t hold out much hope of my actually getting the job since I have zero management experience and the external candidate has tons, but I’ll try my best and see what happens. I think I’d be good in this position, but I have to convince several other people to think the same!
Other than that, the Kid starts an abbreviated Pre-K next month. We went to the orientation last night and it really hit home that my little guy is going to school soon. It just doesn’t seem real to me, like he’s not nearly old enough for that. He needs the structure and the rules so he’s ready for Kindergarten. I know it will be good for him, but this Mama is not ready for her little birds to leave the nest, even if it’s only part time.
Boo is starting to walk more often now. The other night we made a game of him walking back and forth between me on the couch and the coffee table. He’d walk to the table to get a snack and then walk over to me for a kiss and a quick snuggle. He’s busting out all 4 one year molars right now so the last few weeks haven’t been very fun. It’s crazy how much his face shape is changing from those teeth. He’s really starting to look like a toddler. *sniff*sniff*
Later this month, we’re going on vacation! We’ll be in “Still-ville” (AKA Steelville) at a little hoosier “resort” with cabins and easy access to the river. As opposed to my hubby’s usual whirlwind vacations, this one will only include a river float, some cave exploring and the rest of the time will be spent around the cabin just relaxing. Chances are the site will not have internet access which may very well KILL my husband. I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time on the screened-in porch with a good book.
Tomorrow night we’re hosting a karaoke party for Kevin’s playgroup (grown-ups only!). It’s been FOREVER since I’ve karaoke’d, but I’m excited to just relax with some fun ladies and their spouses. And maybe get my drink on for once in a looooong time. The kids will be with Kevin’s folks so I can pump and dump without guilt!
OK, I’ve yapped your ear off enough with my terribly exciting life. I hope you all have a great weekend! In reward for your efforts in reading this far, here’s a quick video of one of Boo’s first attempts at walking:
Are you tired of hearing about my reproductive system? ‘Cuz I’m pretty tired of talking about it. Sadly, I’m just beginning the two week wait so there will of course be updates to Symptom Watch 2007 (Part 3 – Now with even more Pessimism!). Maybe my body will spice things up and actually throw out a few symptoms this time. I’ve never wanted sore boobs so badly in my whole life.
In non-bodily function news, I’m going to join my sister tonight for some karaoke at the gay bar. That place is so freakin fun. They are so into karaoke. At most of the hoosier bars I go to around home, you have to keep singing louder and louder to be heard over the drunken chatter. At the gay bar, they are actually listening to you! And singing along! They are so positive and encouraging, too. I just really had a great time there last time and since my sister is bringing some of her posse, this time is sure to be just as fun. With any luck, this will be my last chance to go to karaoke for the next 9 months or so.
Speaking of music, thanks to my birthday present from my dad, my collection of Everything But the Girl CDs is complete (except for the “best of” and remix albums) with the purchase of their first album “Eden“. It is amazing how different each of their albums sound. They really do perform almost every syle of music (acoustic, pop, jazz, folk, electronica/house, etc) and I love all of it. I am obviously a huge fan, which is why I was surprised at how disappointed I was in Tracey Thorn’s recent solo album. While Tracey’s voice is gorgeous as always, the music was generic and uninteresting. The lyrics of the songs written by Tracey (which is most of them) were of the same high quality you can always find in EBTG songs, but the music was just boring. There were a few songs (namely the singles “It’s All True” and “Raise the Roof”) that were catchy little earworms, but for the most part it just sounds like remixed 80s dance music – and not in a good way. It’s very clear that Tracey needs Ben Watt to produce her music. My most fervent musical wish is that they get back to making EBTG music.
In honor of my completed collection, here’s an EBTG Friday shuffle with the album titles:
1. Walking to You – Amplified Heart
2. Alison (Elvis Costello) – Acoustic
3. Good Cop Bad Cop – Walking Wounded
4. Get Back Together – The Language of Life
5. Love is Here Where I Live – Idlewild
6. Boxing and Pop Music – Worldwide
7. Politics Aside – Worldwide
8. Downhill Racer – Tempermental
9. This Love (Not for Sale) – Love Not Money
10. Five Fathoms – Tempermental
- This stuff is the elixer of the gods. It almost makes me happy that I’m not with child and can enjoy a fine caffeinated beverage. Almost.
- I am so glad our GM finally bought some pants that fit. So many times I wanted to walk up to him and say “Dude, you make entirely too much money to be running around in high-water pants. You are not that tall, they do make pants to fit your inseam. Buy them.”
- My kid has been awesome lately. He still has his moments when he throws a temper tantrum or behaves in a way he knows he’s not supposed to, but those moments are fewer and further (farther?) between. I hope this behavior change sticks around!
- I think my next speech for Toastmasters will be on our Honeymoon. I find I can talk without notes if I have pictures to keep me on track and remind me of what I want to talk about. If I have notes, I spend the entire speech reading them, which is not good. (Kind of like the way I stare at the monitor when singing karaoke even though I know every word.) I’m a much better off the cuff speaker than a prepared speech speaker.
- Speaking of pictures: I’m taking fewer pictures this year. I think part of the reason is that I am already a year behind on my scrapbooks so I subconsciously don’t want to take too many and put myself back farther (further?). Another part is that it’s actually more complicated to get a 3-year-old out the door to places than a baby. So most of the time I just forget to take pictures or to even bring the camera. I need to rectify that as I’m missing a lot of life’s great moments.
- I’m a little apprehensive about meeting my old HS buddy tomorrow night. From her pictures, she looks exactly the same. Maybe a few pounds heavier, but not much. On the other hand, I have gained… well, let’s just say I was around 150 (and 5′6″) at the heaviest in high school and I weigh a lot more now. I know she’s not hung up on things like that and I have warned her, but I’m dreading that shocked or surprised look I’m sure she’ll have on her face when she sees how much I’ve changed.
- I’m hoping to go to karoake at the gay bar again soon. Anybody want to join me? I haven’t been to karaoke since my last visit to the gay bar and I really miss it. What I need to do is have a karaoke party, but I’m too afriad I’ll be a hormonal mess or a hormonally exhausted mess at the time and make it a bad time for everyone. I nearly blew a gasket when I hosted Kevin’s family Christmas when I was pregnant with Gavin and that was just on matural hormones. I don’t even want to think about what a nut I’d be on medically-induced ones.
- TTC update: Today is CD1. Tomorrow morning I have a hot date with the Wand-a-Vag to check the state of the follies. Then it’s off to Wal*greens to pick up the multitude of drugs I will need for this cycle. Dr. P wants to do the exact same protocol as last month (minus the week of BCPs I needed because we were on vacation and could not do the IUIs in Chicago), so it will be a week of Clo.mid and then a week of Folli.stim. Here we go again…
- Gavin felt really hot to me last night so I took his temperature. 102 under the arm. He was acting like his usual self and didn’t show any other signs of being sick. So we gave him some ibuprophen throughout the night. It’s finally down to 99 this morning, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the mystery fever.
- I had the weirdest dream last night. Highlights include: meeting a younger version of my deceased grandma, flying (literally) to get baby food and milk, being attacked by a velvet Jesus painting with laser eyes, and my dream-roommate who had to bathe in his boxer shorts because the smoke from the neighboring apartment would cause his pubes to fall out otherwise. Pregnancy hormones fuck up your brain obviously.
- I told one more person at work (Terry). She caught me in a situation where I didn’t know how to get out of it without telling her. I know she will keep it on the downlow. She keeps secrets for a lot of people.
- I have 4 OBGYN’s that I will be calling to check out. They are all covered by my insurance and all came recommended by local ladies. Edited to add: I decided to only make consultation appointments with the 2 who were recommended by people I ”know in real life” (Dr. A and Dr. M). If both of those suck, then I’ll widen my range.
First impressions of Dr. A’s office:
Uses answering service to direct call
Loooong hold time
Very nice and chatty receptionist, but clueless about IF (She tells me she has 5 kids, I tell her we might consider more if we didn’t have to go through so much to get pregnant, she replies with “I tell my husband all he has to do is wave his hand over the bed and I’m pregnant! Now we have 17 grandchildren so guess my kids are the same way!” Um, yeah.)
Asked if I am pregnant
Asked for SS#, but not pushy when I declined
First impressions of Dr. M’s office:
No hold time
Answered by live human
Receptionist was nice, but not chatty and came across a little scatterbrained
Did not ask if I am pregnant
Did not ask for SS#
- I’m going to a crop Saturday! I’m looking forward to the crop, but I am not looking forward to cleaning up my stash which is scattered across a table in the basement.
- I picked up a Decaf Cinnamon Dolce Latte this morning at the annoying Fourbucks. I realized the problem with them is that they seem to have solely hired Lindenwood students. My wait was forever and when I finally made it to the window, two of the staff were just standing around. Obviously, it is just too much to ask a college student to work that early in the morning. (The only thing good about living so close to a college is that the men’s track team runs shirtless in the spring. Yummy college boys…) Fourbucks did right by me this time and actually offered me a coupon for a free drink.
- I’m missing karaoke. A lot. However, most of the bars I usually get my karaoke fix at are too small and smokey. I may need to talk Rachel and KC into joining me at T. Billy Buffets. (It didn’t seem that smokey the last time we were there.)
- Gavin came down with a 104 degree fever last night. Kevin had messaged me during the day to tell me his temp was close to 102, but after a dose of Tylenol it seemed to have gone down. Then after Gavin picked at his dinner (Tacos – one his favorites) and acted like a slug (instead of his usual spastic self), I checked his temp again and it was just shy of 104. I called the doctor* through the exchange and she said to give him Motrin and bring him in in the morning. If his temp didn’t change or went up in the next two hours, she said to take him to the emergency room. Luckily, it started going down and by this morning, it was around normal.
I took him to the doc and it turns out he has strep throat. (So if you playgroup moms are looking for my boys, you won’t see them until at least Friday since the doc said he’d be contagious for 48 hours.) He hasn’t been complaining, but she said his throat is red and covered in pustules. His fever was back up this afternoon and he threw up a few times after lunch. I have to work until 11pm tonight (second/third shift training) so poor Kevin is on his own with a sick 2-year-old. My poor boys.
- If my little guy is feeling better by then, we’ll be joining our very own KC for karaoke Friday night. If you’d like to join us, you can find the details here. I’m excited! I love meeting new people and checking out new karaoke bars. Based on the pictures, this looks like my kind of hoosier bar! I haven’t been to karaoke in soooooooooo long. I hope I don’t embarrass myself with my underworked vocals.
- Speaking of karaoke: I bought some new karaoke discs. They were on sale for only $6! How could I pass it up? No, I’m not an addict! I got the Pop Superhits of 2005 because I am addicted to singing that Anna Nalick song. I got Today’s Mega Pop basically because I had to buy 3 to get the $6 price and there were a few songs on there that I didn’t have and would like to sing. I got the Country Blockbusters because I have some friends with horrible taste in music and while I once promised myself that I would not give in to their demands for Gretchen Wilson (whether or not she’s here for the party), I realized that the core Midwestern karaoke audience is reeeeeeeeeeally into country music.
- I mentioned this earlier in a password-protected post: I’m back on the wagon, kids. I have officially gained back all the weight I lost at the beginning of the year and the fit of my clothes is driving me batty. It was so nice to have things fit well, or even baggy, and I want that back. I also want to be able to climb the stairs at work without being out of breath or having achey knees. I started my diet on Monday and if I’m lucky, my mom is going to let me borrow her elliptical machine for an extended period of time. Then I can watch my shows (and Gavin so Kevin can have a break) while on the machine instead of just parking my fat ass on the couch. I can also do my fun little dance aerobics videos in the basement (since nobody really wants to see all this flopping around), but I want the option of being able to be upstairs with my family. Wish me luck!
- Have you checked out Mortal Blog yet? You should.
* If anyone is looking for a pediatrician in the St. Charles County area (or is willing to drive across the river), contact me to get the name of ours. I HIGHLY recommend her.
Better late than never, I say. Here are pictures from Rachel’s birthday party in June. With these photos you can truly appreciate the fine caliber of people we hang out with at karaoke. For some reason these people, who apparently teach dance at a local studio, thought songs like “I Like Big Butts” are good for ballroom dancing.
Speaking of karaoke, did you all see this? I (heart) Robot Chicken.
* SoJaded introduced me to a new OBGYN so I sent a message to find out if he’s taking new patients. Now, SoJaded is the one who told me to try Dr. Mac, too, but I won’t hold that against her.  She and I share a lot of the same health issues so if he works for her, he’ll probably work for me too. Thank you to all of you who sent me recommendations! If SoJaded’s doc doesn’t work out, I’ll be checking out those guys too.
* I’m debating about changing my schedule for the summer. I have the option to work 4 nine-hour days and then 4 hours on Friday, or stay with my current 5 eight-hour days. If I decide to work the summer hours, I then have to decide whether to take the 4 hours off in the morning or the afternoon. I’d like to take them in the afternoon so I can start my weekend early, but then I’d miss out on the Friday morning SAHP playgroup events. I have until mid-May to decide.
* I went to karaoke last Saturday night and this nappy old drunk man kept touching me and blowing in my hair. I told him repeatedly to stop and he just kept saying he couldn’t help himself because my hair is so pretty. He finally got the hint when I put my back to him and told him if he touched me again I was going to slug him. Apparently he was friends with Rachel’s BF, but that was not going to stop me from taking him down if he didn’t keep his fucking hands to himself.
* I haven’t talked to my mom or my sister in over 2 weeks (I’ve only talked to my dad because I work with him). I know this makes me a very bad daughter and sister. And it’s not even that I am terribly busy. I just forget. I get wrapped up in the routine of daily life and forget to call anybody. Ocean always knew this so she used to call me once a week to check in. Rachel is just like me so it doesn’t bother us not to talk for weeks. I really need to work on being a better communicator with my friends and family, but then again, that’s part of why I have this blog.
* I took my third dose of Clomid this morning. Side effects so far: Feeling hot hot hot, tired and hungry. I’m on 50mg twice a day for this cycle so the side effects shouldn’t be as bad as it was when I was taking it 3x day like last time. I’ll start peeing on the OPK sticks in about a week. Then the real fun begins!
* I think I’m going to get some preschool workbooks for Gavin this summer. I saw some at Books-A-Million at the Mills this weekend (where I ran into some woman who knew my kid from playgroup. That was weird.). I know I’m probably jumping the gun, but I figure why not see how he does? In the past month he has really gotten into letters and words and thanks to The Electric Company on DVD, he now knows that a string of letters makes a word. Now he’s constantly asking “What does that say?” or “What does that mean?” My MIL says Kevin was reading at age 3 so it’s not completely insane to think that Gavin has that potential, too. I’m not going to be all pushy about it, but if he’s game I see no reason not to try it.
* I’m attempting to join a Meetup group for scrapbook fiends in my area. I need to crop more often and my core team is hard to coordinate on a regular basis so I’m going to see what this group is all about, too. The only thing I worry about is that they will be sterotypical St. Chuckians: Conservative, christian soccer moms who find everything out of my mouth to be “inappropriate”. I really hope they turn out to be fun. Because even conservative, christian soccer moms can be fun! Right?
- It looks like my body might just pull it off this month. I’ve been OPK-ing it these past few days and the surge line keeps getting a little darker every day. So perhaps I really will ovulate on my own. I’m not getting my hopes up, but I will attempt to get pregnant on my own this month. Well, not literally on my own, I need Kevin to help too. Somehow I don’t think he’ll mind helping out.
- I’m cropping with some fellowbloggers tomorrow and next Saturday. Yippee! I so need to catch up on my scrapbooking. At least I am well into 2005 now. Perhaps if I gab less and scrap more at these events… nah, that’s half the fun.
- Gavin and Kevin are both sick with colds. Maybe the antibiotics I’m taking from the HSG will help protect me, but I’m not liking my chances. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
- Tonight I’m planning to go karaoke-ing with Rachel after the sickies go to bed. Hoosiers R Us (AKA the C’Mon Inn) is having karaoke with PJ and she always gives us preferential treatment. I love it when we know the KJ. Edited to add: After being puked on twice tonight, I’ve suddenly lost all desire to karaoke. Good night, Wisconsin!
- I’m down ~25 pounds. I’m not being very good with the diet or exercise right now. After I lost 20 pounds I started celebrating a little too much, but I seem to be staying in the 20-25 pound loss range. That’s pre-pregnancy weight so I feel pretty good about that. I’d still like to lose a lot more, but maybe I will wait until after Kid 2.0 is born.
- For those of you keeping score: I shaved my legs last Tuesday (21MAR06).
 She and I share a lot of the same health issues so if he works for her, he’ll probably work for me too. Thank you to all of you who sent me recommendations! If SoJaded’s doc doesn’t work out, I’ll be checking out those guys too.
