Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 25, 2013 by imfluffyowl

First, a Merry Christmas to those celebrating. To those not celebrating on the 25th, I wish you a wonderfully quiet and peaceful Wednesday with your family.

As for us, we started our celebrations tonight. We went over to the inlaws for supper and had our gift exchange. I got some of my favorite gifts: socks, underwear and my yearly Christmas PJ’s. Pjs that I’m all curled up in while I watch Christmas movies and finish a cross stitch for a friend. After supper and gifts, we headed to my parents house where we opened our gifts early. I got some old school games (toss across and rebound) that my parents tracked down in a store on their travels. We got clothes and puzzles, a blu ray player and candy. A beautiful necklace that my parents got for me while in Mexico. But the best part of the evening was skyping with my brother, his girlfriend and her son. We spent the evening relaxing as the snow fell outside. Then we bundled up and headed home to our kitties where they were treated to a lot of boxes of kitty treats from the grandparents. I made a cup of tea for myself, the last of my Santa’s Secret tea from David’s Tea, and watched Christmas movies with my husband.

We didn’t get gifts for each other. We haven’t since we moved in together (joint bank account and all…). But in the new year we plan to treat each other to something we had our eye on, him a chair for gaming and me a shopping spree at David’s Tea.

In the morning, it’s back up to my parents for our Christmas Day big brunch that myself and dad put on. And while we spend the afternoon vegging out and napping, mom makes her big turkey dinner. After dinner, me and Chris will cuddle up to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special.

Boxing Day will be spent with my inlaws and my hubby’s great big family for yet another turkey dinner. I’m finally going to let loose and drink, bottle of wine in tow. Before I leave for the inlaws, I’m making caramel apple jello shooters for our get together with friends on the 27th, where we will swap gifts and drink and just celebrate the fact that we made it through the holidays relatively unscathed.

So once we survive the next couple of days, we plan on spending the rest of 2013 quiet and peaceful. We even plan for a quiet New Years at home.

So if my absence is noticed around here. It’s with good reasons. I hope all of you enjoy the rest of 2013 and that 2014 brings all of our hopes and dreams to life. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my fellow bloggers!

A Perfect Moment

Posted on December 10, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s 3:30am and I’m just shutting everything down and heading to bed where my husband is already snoring soundly. I’m at the top of my stairs and looking out my octagon window and I can see that’s it’s been snowing pretty regularly since I got home from darts.

I look at my neighbors house across the street and notice that his garbage is out. I look down expecting to see mine because that chore belongs to Chris, but it’s not there. I’m a little peeved. Not only because I now have to bundle up to take the garbage out, but it’s also recycling pick up week and if I’m being forced to separate and put them out every two weeks, I’m not missing the opportunity to have it taken off my hands. I’m also peeved because I’m clumsy on my best day and having me walk in almost 2 inches of snow where I can’t see the ice below, in the dark, with my hands full of garbage bags, the odds are not in my favor. Scenarios run through my head of me falling and unable to get up, Chris sound asleep and unable to hear me holler for help so I’m forced to freeze in the snow until either my neighbors or the garbage collection guys find me. (Did I tell you about my overactive imagination?) So I fire on my sweater coat and my sneakers (because my new winter boots are wrapped under my moms Christmas tree) and take my chances.

I make it through, incident free. (Whew! I saved those garbage collectors a show!)

I make my way back to the house and as I’m about to go back inside, I stop and look at the neighborhood. It isn’t very active on the best of days (other than the guy who fixes cars out of his garage, the Griswold next door who is trying to out decorate the rest of the neighborhood and the guy who revs his motorcycle for a few hours every couple of days but never really drives it anywhere). But at 3:30am, the neighborhood is dead. It’s quiet. There aren’t even any recent tracks in the freshly falling snow to show where the road ends and our driveways begin.

It’s one of those quiet, peaceful snows that fall. There was no breeze or high winds. It was just me and the falling snow. This is the snow you want on Christmas Eve. This is the snow that they try to recreate in the movies to show you winter magic. This is the part of winter I love. I always called it the “It’s A Wonderful Life” snow. That beautiful snowfall that just catches your breath. It triggers long forgotten memories of adventures with friends and making snowmen with my brother and playing with the other kids in the neighborhood, this exact same neighborhood in this exact same house, 20 years earlier.

I was out there a good 10 minutes before I noticed that the snow was starting to numb my toes. Or that my nose was getting red. I had the urge to go wake up Chris, get bundled up and go play in the snow. I felt like a kid again.

But the moment passed and I forced myself back inside to head to bed with promises that next time, I’ll wake Chris and we’ll get bundled up and we’ll go play in the snow like we are kids again. And maybe next time I’ll invite the kids I used to babysit, who still live in the neighborhood too, to join us. Next time…

Winter Shed Week 10

Posted on March 16, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Hey guys,

Here it is, the last week of the winter shed. Next week I’ll be joining up for the spring version of this. I’ll adjust the goals here I still plan to work on and add new ones as I feel it. I will spend the week determining my goals I want to accomplish.

If you want to join in on the spring shed, I’ll have the icon and link set up next week when sign up is set.

But since its the last week, I want to look back, not only at what I accomplished this week but what I accomplished overall and if I considered it a success or not.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

Last week, I joined the gym. Its a 24 hour gym and so far I love it. i tend to be in a 2 days on, 1 off while my body adjusts to working muscles its not used to working. I weighed myself on Tuesday and found out that since my first weigh in in November, I’ve lost 30 pounds! I feel wonderful and my clothes are loose on me. People are starting to notice the weight loss. This makes it much easier to continue my lifestyle and diet change. I consider this goal both successful and still a work in progress. I don’t want to give up this healthier lifestyle now that I’m getting into a routine with it.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Today was finally the day of my HSG test. While I never want to do that again, I am pleased to say that Dr. D proudly announced with a smile on her face that my tubes and uterus are “clear and perfect”! So she thinks that my biggest hindrance on my end at this point is my thyroid. I’m about 2 weeks out for my 6 week thyroid level check in. My family doctor is still on vacation so I called my fertility clinic and asked if they could mail me a requisition form for my thyroid levels. The secretary is sending that out first thing Monday and she told me that my last progesterone level results are in but she doesn’t have the ok to share it with me. But she will have one of the doctors call me first thing Monday to go over the results with me. So right now, everything is going smoothly in the testing area. I’ll just be happy when my thyroid levels are normal again.

I consider this one a success and a work in progress as well. Things were completed but there is still lots to go in this goal.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

The passion party was great. I was sad that some people said they were coming and then didn’t bother to show or even let me know that they wouldn’t make it, but people will always do this regardless of how much you plan. But for the people that came, we had a great night.

Overall, I consider this resolved. I accomplished everything I set out to do.

To work towards making our house a home.

The house continues to stay functional. But the big news here is that we finally got a dog!

I’d like to introduce you to Mia:

We had this perfect alining of events that led us to finding her. Hubby always wanted a beagle, we needed a dog that was already at least partially house trained and worked well with cats. Chris’s uncle was looking for a dog for himself and seen the ad with this beautiful girl. The owners were moving, she was a year and a half old, house trained and great with cats and free to. A good home. We called that day, went over an hour later and came home with her. She is possibly the friendliest dog I’ve ever met. All she wants to do is cuddle and sleep curled up to us. She won’t lick your face, doesn’t jump all over you, but if you invite her up on your lap she will jump up and sleep there til you want her to get down. We are madly in love with her and in 3 days she’s already a staple in our life. Me and a friend went out and got her a pretty collar, name tag and some jackets. She sleeps with us every night and the cats are slowly coming out of hiding even though they are still hissing at her if she gets too close.

Having Mia has made our house feel more like a home than anything else we’ve done. I consider this goal only mildly successful. I want to revisit this and maybe make some adjustments to this goal.

To expand my reading collection.

I’m gonna claim this one as a failure but possibly adjust this before next week. I want it to incorporate more of my need to alternate between reading and crafting as they are something I do equally.

It’s been a great couple of weeks and this shed had really helped the winter months fly by. Each week I had a goal and it really helped stop the winter blahs from taking over my life.

I hope everyone else is doing well. See you next week for the start of the Spring Shed!!

Winter Shed: Week 7 & 8!

Posted on March 2, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s already week eight of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

So I have a confession to make. I missed last week. I felt off all week because I missed it, but I simply didn’t have the time. February is a big month for Girl Guides so I was swamped. We had stuff going on with them each week, plus last week alone, 3 of my days were dedicated to Brownie stuff, plus darts. Dad left for his new job so we were busy getting him ready to go. We had 3 birthdays to celebrate. Plus, did I mention its a bit of a hectic month for Girl Guides?

So I’m giving you my two week run down instead of 1.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

So this thing happens that every time me and friends try to go to belly dancing, it gets cancelled because of bad weather. It’s become quite the piss off. So we are giving up on that and just all going to join the gym in town. Money has not been my friend the past couple of pays but even if I have to break into my treatment fund for the initial start up costs, it will be worth it to get that gym membership.

Breakfast is still hard for me, I’m not going to lie. I find it hard to stomach anything in the first hour of waking up even though everything I read has told me its important to eat within an hour of getting up. I’m still trying to eat healthy meals throughout the rest of the day. We really only caved once for take out in the past two weeks. My portions are pretty much split in half. I still crave sugar but instead of completely denying myself sugar, I might have a small handful of smarties, a small scoop of sorbet or fruit.

I’m still behaving for the most part at darts. I’m now in the process of having a tea at the start of the night, and I bring 2 bottles of water to drink if I’m thirsty. If someone brings a snack or treat, I may have one or split it with a friend, but PMS time is the only time I really see myself caving.

I started buying more frozen veggies to incorporate into my meals.

We had 3 birthdays to celebrate and all three had unhealthy food. I did let myself have some, but I kept my portions down to at least half of normal. I also found that I didn’t snack during the parties. Like I had half a slice of pizza and half a piece of cake but when everyone put out dip and chips, I didn’t even find myself looking to have any. I asked myself if I was hungry or just keeping my hands busy and then found myself with no urge to eat the extras I normally would have found myself snacking on. So I was happy with the little things.

Now that I’m healed from my wipeout I’m starting to get back into my yoga. Monday I plan on finally signing up at the gym.

I’m also fighting with changing my sleep schedule. I’m going to bed earlier, but I’m still struggling with falling and staying asleep when I go to bed early. It’s a lot of tossing and turning for now.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Still nothing from Gyno, but I’m just waiting to start CD1 again. If she still won’t do anything this cycle, I’ll report her to AART and push with them to get me in for this dye test. But regardless of that, I got my blood work to test my progesterone levels this cycle. I went for that blood work yesterday afternoon. They will call with the results. Hopefully there’s ovulation this month as I’ve had symptoms that I didn’t last cycle. My family doctor is finally back from his vacation so I’ll have to call to get a slip to check my thyroid levels soon. Here’s hoping this upped dosage was all I needed.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

The dance was fun. The steak dinner was yummy. The dance part itself was geared at an older group but we had fun and the storm started later that night after we got home.

My passion party is on Sunday so I’m running around like a mad woman in prep. I had to move it to the basement because more people than I expected are planning to come. I’m currently taking a break from cleaning and baking for the event.

To work towards making our house a home.

Basement is currently filled with chairs in prep for the party on Sunday. And honestly, my house hasn’t been this clean since I first unpacked and organized this place back in December. My downstairs bathroom is clean, like sparkly clean. I’m finally going to have all our clothes clean at one time because I refuse to have dirty clothes in that bathroom for the party. My kitchen both clean and messy. Baking messy, but I’m cleaning the areas I’m not using in prep for Sunday. Apparently all you need is to have a party to make you clean like a madwoman. This cleaning is giving me quite the workout too.

To expand my reading collection.

Still reading when the feeling hits and still reading Beautiful Creatures, but its been a hectic 2 weeks. Plus I’m also trying to finish that gift.

All The Things!

Posted on February 22, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Lots of little updates:

Infertility Wise:

~Still nothing from my gyno’s office. But that secretary is a bitch so I’ll call the second I start my period (despite time of day) and demand that she schedule me or I report her and the office for their practices. Enough is enough.

~AART called me earlier this week and told me that CD21 bloodwork was ordered for me again. They are mailing me the form so I can go in for blood work. They still want to check for ovulation while my thyroid meds kick in. I’ll know if they are also testing my thyroid when I get the form in the mail. If not, I’ll either call them for the form or set that up through my family doc and just have the results forwarded to AART.

Everything Else:

~We were hit with a sudden storm last night. Not fun. We got enough snow to need to shovel. But the best part of today was when I got up, prepared to at least shovel out enough to get my car out only to see my neighbor going through it with his snow blower. I know he doesn’t mind doing it because we let him keep it in our garage, but damn it if I’m not beyond grateful to see it done and save myself some exhaustion.

~I’ve decided to bake for him and his wife to show my gratitude. Plus I’m told I’m an amazing baker.

~Brownies was tonight. The girls continue to amaze me at how amazing they are. Around late October/early November, we taught the girls about the 4 world centers of guiding. We assumed that because their attention was wandering despite our best efforts to make it extremely exciting. Tonight we talked about World Thi.nking Day which is the birthday of both Lord and Lady B.aden-Po.well. We talked about WAGGGS (Wo.rld Assoc.iation of Girl Gu.ides and Girl Sc.outs) and we tested them on their knowledge of the world centers. The girls amazed us when they actually got most of them right along with their locations. It’s so wonderful to see that they are taking something away from our time together. That things we are teaching them, are in fact, staying.

My inner self was totally doing this.

While my outer self was totally giving the girls two thumbs up.

~I came home tonight with the intention of pricing a guiding poncho for camp in mid-April so I have something to put all my badges and crests on. I ended up getting caught up in with all the guiding stuff. I now have a very expensive order on the go with clothing and fun stuff. Stop me before I buy all the guiding things. I NEED ALL THE THINGS. The site is so shiny and pretty and has fun things I want. It’s the place my wallet goes to die.

I’m trying my best to justify everything on this order. Hey, maybe I earned this treat? Right? Anyone?

And after all this. I’m not even getting the poncho. I realize that it would be cheaper to buy the materials and make it myself or ask Grammy to help me make it. *sigh*

~I finally watched The Lucky One when it popped up on my OnDemand menu. I don’t like Nicolas Sparks books, but I tend to love them when they are turned into movies. I have a soft spot for romantic and sappy girly movies. But can someone tell me when Zac Efron got so freaking hot?! I turned it on expecting a sappy movie with a man that was OK to look at and sorta let it play in the background while I read. Well as soon as Zac came on the screen, I glued my eyes to the screen and they never looked away, not even when hubby came to bed. Damn he got hot.

~I’m finally eligible for my phone upgrade and my shitty iPhone 3gs is finally going to be upgraded to a newer iPhone. I don’t know if I’ll do the 4s or go right to the 5. Depends on the contract. Since I got my iPad, my iPhone usage has dropped dramatically, so it doesn’t matter to me either way. I just desperately need a phone that doesn’t shut off at 60% battery. Especially considering that we don’t have a home phone, just our own separate cell phones.

~Tomorrow is also the next installment of taking the Brownies to a hockey game. We only have 2 girls going along with all 4 leaders which will make it much easier than last time when we had 15 girls to 2 leaders. Mom is coming with me, along with the other 3 leaders, their husbands/boyfriend and one of them is taking their oldest child. So we might get to watch some, if not all, of the game this time.At least bathroom runs will be much easier.

~Saturday is shopping with Grammy. I’m actually looking forward to it. I really enjoy shopping with my gram. We also have some plans in the evening with some friends.

~Sunday, I’m hoping to have a home day where I can actually get some baking done. My father in laws birthday is on Tuesday and I promised to bake for him. I’m also getting a care package ready to send up to Aunt Moe and her husband (the people we stayed with for my last AART appointment). She has MS and she got a less than stellar report last time so I wanted to send up some snacks that I know the two of them would enjoy. They loved my Christmas package that I sent up. I also wanna take a stab at making bread again. If it works out well, I’ll send some over to my awesome neighbor.

~I’m also trying to get the house ready for the beginning of March. I decided to host a passion party and the response has been amazing so far. So much so that I may have to move it from the living room to the basement just to be able to hold everyone. I’m just looking forward to having my friends come over. Some I haven’t seen in awhile and it would be nice to see them.

~Also, I still haven’t used my gift certificate for my hot stone massage. I don’t know why. Have I lost my mind? I have two gift certificates here waiting to be used. It’s not like I haven’t earned it. So I’m gonna call them tomorrow and see when they can take me next week. I think this will help me with the winter blahs and the bit of envy going through me over recent pregnancy announcements and the pending arrivals of others both in and out of the community. Take some time for me to realize that I may be dealing with infertility but infertility is not the whole of my life and to relax and remind myself that its OK to be both happy for them and envious of them at the same time and that at least those in the community get that and take no offense to my less than happy side. You know what? Maybe I’ll even splurge for a pedicure!

~And a completely random but still fun thing…me and Chris decided on our Halloween costumes. I know its really early and we don’t even have anywhere to wear them yet, but we are so excited. Now its just time to get everything ready as I will have to order some things online and talk to my friend about doing my makeup.

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week 6

Posted on February 16, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s already week six of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

This weeks post is a bit late because I woke up to see that my hubby had a functioning Xbox and Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 waiting for me. The Lego games are my crack and I easily lose hours of my life to these games in large chunks of time. Today, I lost 4 hours to it and I only remembered to post once Chris went to bed. So it’s here, just late.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

So my body is still trying to convince me that hotdogs will make me skinny. I normally hate hotdogs. But short of still fighting to eat breakfast, I am eating healthy and I’ve barely had any chocolate or sweets (which is great considering yesterday was valentines day).

I started yoga. I won’t dare take a class on it, but instead I’m doing it in the privacy of my own home. Maybe not the best choice for me as I’m overweight, clumsy, and have terrible balance. But it’s working. At the end of the workouts, my arms and legs feel like jelly. The other day though, I wiped out on my parents step and my butt got up close and personal with a couple of steps. So I’m pretty sore and my butt is pretty bruised so my work outs are limited for the time being til my tush isn’t so tender.

Last weeks yoga was cancelled due to the storm and I did yoga that night instead. But as long as the weather stays away this weekend, we will be going on Sunday. I’m actually getting a little excited about it.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Still haven’t heard anything from gyno’s office. Not that I expected to, but AART is also unable to get a response from the secretary. Secretary is now avoiding their calls but AART are going to keep at it, if they continue to give them the run around too, they will either refer me to another local Gyno for the test and stop sending referrals to Dr. D or just have me go up to Halifax again in the spring to have the test done at the IWK.

Also got a call back with my test results. The full rundown is two posts back (titled “Help!”) but more or less, thyroid is still really high (this was before they doubled my dosage of synthroid) and my FSH level is 11. Normal FSH is 9 or lower. I’m also showing that I didn’t ovulate on that cycle. They don’t seem very concerned about it now because these things can be directly affected by my “really high” thyroid level. I will get my thyroid under control and then we can start checking everything else. We test my thyroid levels again in about 4 weeks and if I’m back into normal levels, we redo my cycle day blood work again. If my levels still need to be adjusted after the 6 weeks, we redo that process again til my levels are normal and then move forward.

So now, I continue to fight with my Gyno’s office on my CD1’s til this damn test is done all the while being a good girl and taking my folic acid, multivitamins and synthroid every night before bed.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Our rescheduled dance is tomorrow night. Supper at 6:30 then the dance starts at 9. I’m very much looking forward to having a reason to get dressed up and finally use my new fancy purse that I won a few months ago.

I also schedule a passion party and the response has been great so far. I’m looking forward to having everyone over for a fun night.

To work towards making our house a home.

My bedroom is finally set up how I want it and there is even enough room for me to do my yoga in peace. I’m still staying on top of chores but that’s the extent of it.

Really, I clean but none of my other plans are working. I did dig out my nail polish from the spare room though so that’s something, right?

To expand my reading collection.

The book Beautiful Creatures caught my eye. I just started it yesterday and it feels good to get wrapped up in a book again instead of forcing myself through something til I enjoy it.

It’s a short and sweet one today and a bit late. I’m choosing to blame my husband for that one because he put an Xbox and Lego Harry Potter in front of me and I lost hours of my life. See you next Friday!

Love and hugs!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week Five!

Posted on February 8, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s already week five of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

Since last Friday, my body has tried to convince me that the best diet in the world is the “only eat hot dogs and tater tots everyday” diet. I indulged one night and damn it was good. It was also CD1 so it was my get out of jail free day. Otherwise, I’m eating well under my calorie count but I’m also skipping out on breakfast too. I know, bad Kim. I’m also staying up all night and sleeping all day. Another big bad. But I’m slowly trying to switch back over. Each night I try to go to bed one hour earlier and get up on hour earlier. I’m currently laid off until my dads next contract picks up so I don’t exactly have any push to be up early and I honestly miss the motivation. Dare I say it, I miss work…

But on the plus side, me and two of my girlfriends are working together to change our lifestyles. Eating healthy, working out together and we just signed up for belly dancing. Our first class is Sunday provided that that nor’easter doesn’t prevent us from getting to it. Last weekend was a great workout. We spent the day doing a Brownies and Sparks Travel the World event and we spent an entire morning doing activities with our girls. By the time I got home that night, I was exhausted and sore. I always claim that a couple of hours with our Brownies leaves me feeling far more worked out than an afternoon at the gym.

And the big one that I’m happy about is that I weighed myself for the first time last night since our appointment in November. And I’m happy to report that in that time I’ve managed to lose 7.4lbs. I don’t know what my biggest loss was, if I lost more and gained some back or just gradually lost to this point, but I’m down in weight. It’s good to know that the lifestyle change is at least starting to work and show in my weight. 🙂

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

A bit frustrated with this one. CD1 hit and like I was told, I called to schedule my HSG as soon as I was aware of AF. The secretary for my Gyno brushed me off, told me that there was no opening, I should’ve called sooner and I’ll have to “try my luck next cycle” to get an appointment. I told her I was told differently and that this is currently my only hold up with my fertility clinic. The results of this test will give them all the pieces of the puzzle needed to figure out where I’m at in this and what our options will be, treatment wise. The secretary continued to give me a hard time, rushed me off the phone. By this point I’m pretty riled up, get angry, tell secretary that I’m very unimpressed with this arrangement they have and hang up on her. I call AART in Halifax and tell them what I was told. They are equally pissed off and asked me to leave it with them for a couple of days because they won’t put up with their patients being treated like that by a Gyno that they work with regularly. Plus chances are, Gyno may not even be aware of what her secretary is doing and how she is treating her patients.

If I hear nothing by Monday morning, I’m writing a nasty letter to my gyno’s office telling them that I refuse to be treated like that from a secretary and that if something isn’t done and I’m forced to play this Russian roulette game of who calls first for a damn test every cycle, I’m gonna look into reporting the doctor and her practice. I refuse to sit back and be walked all over anymore when it comes to our infertility. I don’t like being comforted by a doctor telling me that I don’t have to worry anymore and that I won’t get the run around anymore when that is exactly what I’m getting again. I spent almost 4 years of my life begging doctors to get their heads out of their asses and do something for us because something is wrong. I’m not spending the rest of my best years (and chances) of conceiving waiting around for doctors to get their heads out of their collective asses. I refuse to wait until I hit AMA (advanced maternal age, for those not in the know) just to be told by doctors that I shouldn’t have waited so long.

Oh and I’m still waiting for my results from CD21 and CD23, but I put the call in and expect to hear something no later than Monday, because if they don’t call, I’ll call Kendra at AART and either get her to give me the results or get her to get a doc to call back with them. Cause Kendra is the only one who knows how to get things taken care of for me, even if all she is is the secretary for a fertility clinic. That girl knows her shit.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Things continue to be the same. Can more or less mark this one resolved for the time being. Winter puts a damper on plans due to random storms. We have tickets for a dance tomorrow and its the first time Chris and I have even acknowledged valentines day in our relationship and now the night of the dance, the weather is calling for a nasty nor’easter that could give us as much as 35cm of snow. So me and Chris, along with the 3 other couples are pretty pissed about the forcing a possible cancellation. If it gets cancelled and we are refunded the ticket price of $30, I’m just gonna move that into our treatment savings.

With the rest of my friends, we started talks for our yearly pub crawl. Sure it’s not til July and yes it’s a night of drinking, but its the one time each year I let go and get wasted. We have upwards of 20-25 people already saying yes to going. People are already looking for sitters, talks have started for themes, location of pre-drinks, setting up places for people to crash at if they live out of town and have no way of getting home and of course, there is already talks of a hangover BBQ. We don’t skimp when it comes to pub-crawl.

I’m also planning to have a passion party for me and my girlfriends in the next couple of weeks as a reason just to have everyone down. I’m gonna check with schedules and see what day works for most and go with that.

To work towards making our house a home.

I’m staying on top of the chores. Clothes and dishes are regularly cleaned. My kitchen is staying clean but most projects to get stuff done around the house are non-existent right now. But right now, I’m ok with that. If my house is staying clean right now, I’m happy. My priority right now is on working out and getting into a good routine with that. As long as the house is functional and clean enough for guests I’m happy. Many of the projects I wanted to complete are ok to spread out into the spring.

But I do plan to go through my photos and fill that big frame I bought for the living room. I want to get that done by next Friday. If I can do that, I’ll be happy.

To expand my reading collection.

This right here is my hold up on my reading. If you ever played the game “Portal” you understand exactly what my cross stitch is from. I’m currently working on the other half. Once I’m done stitching them, my friends awesome mom is going to help me turn them into pillows. I’ll be sure to post progress shots and a picture of the finished gift. The recipient of the gift has his birthday at the end of the month so I’m looking forward to giving it to him. Especially since he was so great to help us with the move into our house. He’s earned a homemade geek gift.

So a bunch of ups and downs this week but overall a great week. But at least the things that are down, I have at least some direction and know how to go about fixing them. I’m really enjoying the accountability of it all. I believe that if I didn’t have to be accountable for everything I do, I would’ve fallen back on most, if not all, of these goals. When I eat, I think about the fact that I have to e honest about this on Friday. If I put something off, I know I have to be honest about it, that people will be checking in and looking for updates. It’s a truly wonderful feeling when you have those positives to share I hope everyone is doing well and I’ll see you all next Friday!

Love and hugs!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week Four!

Posted on February 2, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s week four of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

This week, I binged. I know, bad Kim. But CD1 is just around the corner and she must be a doozie because I want all the sugar, all the time. Thankfully only the past 2 days have been binge days so now I’m just trying to limit it. It’s like hitting black ice, you don’t over steer to fix it, you just slowly lift your foot off the gas and only lightly turn the wheel to avoid the complete spin out. Same thing with PMS, let in a little sugar to prevent a sugar overdose. At least that’s the reasoning I’m going with.

I had a great work out on Tuesday. And me and my friends made a goal to join that gym finally. We also did our first weigh in with plans to do our weigh ins together to help keep us on our goals. My girls also messaged me about possibly trying out a belly dancing class. I tried to today but there was no answer at the gym when I called. I got Chris to dig out my Xbox and kinect so I can at least start my workouts on that til I get my gym membership set up on Monday.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Made more progress on this than anything else this week. Beginning of the week I was able to put $30 away for our treatment savings. Then later this week, my father surprised me and after finishing some work for him and gave me $100 bill as a thank you. I didn’t expect it, tried to give it back but he told me to put it into savings. So I did. Didn’t tell Chris about it, just put it in the box. We now have almost $250 put away and it feels wonderful!

Still waiting for results from CD21 and CD23. I meant to call them today but I got sidetracked and forgot. I’ll call them Monday for the results and to get some questions answered about my CD2 blood work that I forgot to ask about. No dye test scheduled yet, but then again no CD1 to call and schedule yet.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Another great week. Got a surprise visit today from my friend that I was meaning to get together with. We spent most of the day catching up. Otherwise, everything is going about the same.

To work towards making our house a home.

I got lazy. Did some laundry, dishes and baked a bit but otherwise didn’t get much done that I wanted to. I’m pretty sure I need to hire a laundry fairy to take care of the clothes because I’m hating that as much as I hate cleaning the bathroom.

To expand my reading collection.

As I planned last week, I stopped reading to work on that birthday gift craft. The cross stitch is almost half finished though so the sooner I finish that, the sooner I will start reading again.

This weeks post is short and sweet because I was so busy today and I’m trying to get this out before bed and I have a very early morning tomorrow for a guiding event for our girls followed by a training event in the afternoon. I hope your week was a bit more successful than mine! I hope everyone is doing well and I’ll see you all next Friday!

Love and hugs!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week 2

Posted on January 19, 2013 by imfluffyowl

It’s week two of the winter shed blog hop! Time to check in on the past week. If you would like to join us in the Winter Shed Blog Hop, click on the picture to your right to read up and join!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

Another week down! I don’t feel as productive as last week but progress was still made. I’m proud to say that I only ordered take out once (last night) because I was far too sick to cook. I’m battling the head cold from hell and I’ve spent the last two days mostly asleep, moving back and forth from the bed to the couch. And even when I went to my parents and they had takeout I opted to make myself something healthy instead so it’s been a good week (despite the sickness and my take out). I will say though that after eating the pizza, I felt gross because my body is adjusting to an all healthy diet. Our grocery bill has jumped a bit but its coming from the money we wouold’ve spent on takeout in the past so its worth it. I can’t wait til spring so that i have access to fresh local produce again at lower costs.

This week at darts, I made fruit salsa and baked my own tortilla chips in the oven to dip in the salsa. Not only was it healthy (diced up kiwi, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries with a bit of sugar and cinnamon) but it was delicious and everyone loved it. A bunch of the women asked for the recipe before we went home.

Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose and generally feeling like crap so my 3 meals a day went out the window and any hopes of working out went out the window too. I’m still under the weather and even had to miss Brownies last night. My hubby has been trying to take care of me but his cooking skills cap out at Kraft dinner, Mr. Noodle and toast so when I have the energy, I make food for myself. I still track everything daily on My Fitness Pal and I’m still under my daily limit (even with the takeout last night). So I’ll take the good despite the bad. I’m missing breakfast a bit this week but I’m also feeling pretty gross when I wake up so I think I’m ok with missing a few. As soon as I can stomach it, I try to have toast and tea or a piece of fruit even just to try and go back to bed.

Up next: get over this cold. Beginning of February, I plan to sign up at the gym. February is a busy month for Gi.rl Guid.es so I’m hoping that that keeps me busy and active. I’ll continue to work on the house which is a workout in and of itself. Plus hopefully a surprise I can share next week! (Don’t worry, it’s nothing baby related, I promise!)

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

Successfully hit my goal of getting $60 put away (actually I got a whole $65 put away!) for treatment. We officially have our first $100 put away for treatment! And I don’t find myself itching to spend it. I ended up winning the even split at darts on Monday so all of that plus the extra money I had put away earlier in the week helped hit the $100 goal I set for myself even though this wasn’t a pay week for us.

Also, AART called me with my results from my CD2 blood work. It was nice to not have to track down my results like I normally have to do. Waking up to a call from them giving me the rundown of my blood work was awesome. Apparently my thyroid levels are still abnormal so they upped my dosage of Synthroid from 50 to 100. Not only did they call me with the results, they are also updating my family doctor for me as well as my Gyno. They reminded me to call my family doc in 6 weeks to have my thyroid levels checked again and to not forget my CD21 and CD23 blood work on Monday and Wednesday. I’m still clearly waiting on CD1 for me to call and schedule my dye test.

And I’ve finally hit a good cycle with my vitamins. No more sickness from it. I have a small snack before bed then have my vitamins, folic acid and synthroid and put myself to bed. By morning I feel fine.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

Friend who I emailed last week finally massaged me and we had a very long conversation that was long overdue. We put everything out there and made the decision of whether we want to work on the friendship or not. I’m happy to say that everything has worked out and what hasn’t, we are working towards fixing. We realized that we weren’t done and that we care about each other too much to walk away. A heart to heart later and we are mending our friendship with goals to work on it and make it healthy again. This makes me happy. I feel lighter now knowing that we are working on things.

I’ve also been in contact with other friends I haven’t talked to in awhile. Schedules are crazy right now, but contact has been made. There is another friend who I really need to get out with, but I have yet to make contact and I think that will be my next goal. She’s in school and working part time so her schedule is messy but once I make contact, she will happily find a day and get together.

To work towards making our house a home.

Sunday, I finally started working on our bedroom. I had yet to put away our clothes from the move. It’s been a mountain on our bedroom floor since we moved in and I just didn’t want to even try to tackle it. So when I woke up on Sunday, I took advantage of our cable OnDemand, put on some movies and started sorting and putting away our clothes. All the clothes that were going in the dressers were put away. All that’s left is the clothes to be hung up in the closet, but I got sick and lost my motivation. So once I’m feeling better, they will get put away.

Monday, myself, hubby and the in laws ripped apart the basement. By the end of the day, it was clean and ready for hubby to turn into his “man-cave”. Next we move the furniture in from the garage into the basement.

I also started recycling. Did I ever tell you how much I hate recycling? Like really, really hate? I couldn’t do it at the last apartment because we really had zero storage room so we just used our garbage bags. Now it’s required for us to recycle and I hate it, truly, truly hate it. There are only two of us so it takes us forever to build up enough recycling to put out. Then of course they only take the recycling bags every other week so if we fill the recycling bags on the off week, we have to keep the damn bag an extra week. I just find it one big hassle. But I’ll begrudgingly do it just to keep the garbage men happy.

My goals for the next week include getting the rest of our clothes put away, doing a dump run to finally get rid of the bags of garbage collected from the move and get a start on my craft room.

To expand my reading collection.

I got a bit more read of LOTR but honestly, I’m feeling so shitty that once my nighttime cold meds kick in, I don’t remember what I read and Chris keeps coming to bed with me asleep still holding the book.

Up next: Just getting back into the habit of reading without it putting me to sleep. Damn you head cold!!

Well I didn’t get as much done as I hoped but still some progress on my part in most of my goals. The big thing this week is realizing that even if it was a “bad” week, there were still positive things that happened and these positive things did work towards my goals. Looking back I see that I did more than I thought and it gives me a good starting point for next week.

Love to you all!
Kim

Winter Shed Blog Hop: Week One

Posted on January 11, 2013 by imfluffyowl

Well the first week of the Winter Shed Blog Hop is here, which means that I can recap on what’s changed in the past week. Head over to my introductory post if you want to read up on the blog hop and my goals. And you can always check out Kathy’s original post on the blog hop over at Bereaved and Blessed. Here’s her Week One post if you want to check in!

To recap, I’ve highlighted my original goals and below each goal, I’ve noted my progress on each this week.

Living a healthier life in 2013 in preparation for “Future Baby B”.

I went shopping this week and when I tried on pants I found out that I’m down a pant size! This made me very happy. The change is great and I think this came from the changes I made in the weeks leading up to the move, what I put my body through during unpacking (its better than any workout out there), keeping my portions down over the holiday and cutting down on holiday “snacks” intake (I was fairly well behaved this Christmas). This week, I started using My Fitness Pal, gave my honest starting weight and I’ve been tracking my food intake as well as my workouts. My calorie intake as well as my sugar, carb, fat and sodium intake are below my daily goal (a good thing!). I also went forward and pre-made breakfast sandwiches and they are ready to be nuked in the microwave each morning until I can get into the habit of eating breakfast every morning. Little steps but all in the right direction.

Next step, I plan on getting a gym membership for the winter months and starting a regular workout routine a couple of days a week. My friend is going to reactivate her membership and hopefully a day or two a week we can work out together and push each other out the door when we just aren’t feeling it.

To make progress towards resolving our infertility.

CD1 blood work is done and I’m waiting for CD21 and CD23 to get here for my next two rounds of blood work. Then I wait for the results from the clinic. Next CD1 I call Dr. D and set up my dye test. Also, I put away my first $40 towards treatment. It’s not much, but I put any extra money I have away to go towards treatment. Every time I have a couple of bucks, it goes in the fund hidden from the world. I stopped going to Tim Horton’s for tea (oh Tassimo, how I love you to the ends of the earth), so that extra two bucks everyday goes to the fund as well. If I put it away and don’t think about it, before we know it, we will have all the funds necessary for our first round of treatment. I’ve also found the best way to take my pre-natal vitamins and folic acid without getting completely sick each time thanks to some helpful suggestions of some friends. I take it at bedtime with my synthroid and by the time I wake up, I’ve slept through the worst of it and I’m feeling good and ready for breakfast. I seem to be sleeping later than normal but I don’t know if its laziness or me needing to sleep later in the day to sleep off more of the gross feelings. Maybe a bit of column A and B? But I’m gonna push to get myself to bed a bit earlier and hope to start getting into a better sleep pattern.

Next week, I want to get at least $60 put away. Then I can say that our first hundred dollars is saved for treatment. I want to keep at this pace. If I do, the money will build fast. Also, I need to call my fertility clinic for my blood work results, have those results forwarded to my gyno and continue to track my cycles. Also to stay on top of my pre-natal vitamins, folic acid and my synthroid.

To stop making people a priority in my life when I’m not even an option in theirs.

I emailed a friend to explain why I was so upset about a situation that happened. I was honest, to the point and left it in her hands to make contact with me. That was 3 days ago and I haven’t heard from her since so it really is in her hands now. I won’t be heartbroken and wait on her every move, I won’t play the pity me card, I won’t let it depress me and consume my every thought like things have in the past. If our friendship matters or ever mattered, she will respond in one way or another, if not, the friendship wasn’t what I thought and I make peace with that. I’m going to enjoy the friendships I have. Otherwise, everything else is going well.

I’m talking regularly with my friends and hanging out with those that are free, my social life is picking up again and when people want to get together, I find myself looking forward to it. Darts is back and that’s keeping me busy on Monday’s, Brownies is back and that’s keeping me busy on Thursday’s, and a couple of times over the past two weeks, my friends have initiated a get together with me and Chris without any push from me. Which is nice for a change. I’m not saying that no one ever initiates anything with me but it does feel much more even lately because part of it is also me learning that every time I ask someone to do something, I’m not pestering them. I sometimes feel that way through no fault of anyone else and I need to work on that. I like the feeling though, of progress.

To work towards making our house a home.

We started working on the basement. Each day we throw out a bit more. When the basement is cleared we will finally be getting our puppy. Today, my plan is to finally put away all our clothes. I miss having a clean bedroom and I finally feel like doing it.

Up next: Go through the cupboard in the kitchen that has all the cookbooks that mom left, figure out who owns what and finally have use of the last unclaimed cupboard in the kitchen. Also, I want to get started with unpacking my craft room, getting it somewhat organized and maybe even move in the chair and foot rest from the garage. There is also a cabinet in my craft room that is filled with books from my childhood. I want to go through them, organize them then pack and store them away in the spare bedroom til we have children to share them with. Here’s hoping.

To expand my reading collection.

Didn’t get very far with this. Still reading Lord of the Rings. Only another chapter or two since last week. But to be fair, Chris and I spent most of the week re-watching older seasons of Bones. I’ll get back into reading when we are up to date on the show (we just started season 6 and we are averaging about 8 episodes a day right now). Plus I always read a bit at night before I fall asleep.

Up next: Finish Lord of the Rings, move onto The Two Towers and then finish off the series with Return of the King. After that, The Hobbit, Angela’s Ashes, finally finish reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, then move forward with some of the classic authors and stories.

That’s about it for my updates this week. It’s been a positive week of change and knowing that I was going to be honest and share my progress with everyone, to be held accountable for my goals, was a great push. It stopped me when I wanted to be lazy and order takeout instead of making a healthy meal, it made me second guess buying a donut at Tim Horton’s when I stopped for a sandwich for my husband. I look forward to the upcoming weeks and making progress with everyone!

Love to you all!
Kim