Happy Halloween!

Any teacher out there knows how horrid Halloween Day is at school! The kids are insane, sugared up, overtired, and excited. You see, in the town we teach in, the kids trick-or-treat on "beggar's night" - October 30. Yep, that was last night - so not only were they out way too late, they fueled up on sugar before they went to bed and for breakfast! Oh, and just to keep on the sugar high, they make sure that they bring plenty to school with them for snack too! As teachers, we count down the hours until the day is over.
MJ and I work at two different schools on Fridays. At the school that I work at - the kids are not allowed to wear their Halloween costumes, but are asked instead to dress up in a way that portrays a vocabulary word for the vocabulary parade. I decided that I wasn't going to use one of the lame words they were giving out, so instead I picked my own. With the help of MJ we decided that I was going to be a ketchup bottle aka "condiment"! Everyone thought that this was just the most clever idea. So, here I am in all my glory as a ketchup, I mean condiment bottle!



Now, of course MJ needed a costume too, but she works at the fun school where they could wear their Halloween costumes. It is also Red Ribbon (Be Drug Free) Week and there was a door decorating contest at school as well. Her team (4th grade) decided to use the Wizard of Oz as a theme. They all did their doors according to a character from the movie and made a yellow brick road into all of the classrooms. MJ go to be the tin man. I think they did a marvelous job and they won the contest too! Here are some pics of MJ in her costume, the doors, and her team all dressed up!

In TTC news - the IUI went PERFECT yesterday. My cervix was wide open, and they were able to do the IUI with no problem at all. The doc said the swim team looked great and that my girlie parts looked great too. According to my AM temps, I don't think we could have timed it any better either. Let's just hope those swimmers are racing for the gold right now! We are thinking very positively!

Happy Halloween everyone, be safe if you are going out tonight!

Baby Dust donations gladly accepted!

So, I guess I'll start with a couple of pics from MJ's birthday. It was actually really low key and we had steak tips, mashed potatoes, asparagus and some wine for dinner. Then MJ opened her presents and we had carrot cake for dessert. Sadie had a wonderful time "helping" with all of the wrapping and tissue paper too. It was a really nice night!

On the TTC front - my blood work was good yesterday, my LH and progesterone made large jumps to right where the doc wanted them to be. The only disappointing part is that my estrogen level actually started dropping and it only got to 216 - which is low - around 300 would be better. But, I am really confident that we did everything right this time and it is up to the powers that be at this point. We finally got the meds working right and I have a nice follice instead of lots of cysts. We'll see what happens at this point - I feel really good about it all! Think good thoughts and send baby dust our way at 10:15 tomorrow morning.

All Systems Go!

Things are looking really good around here! My back is feeling SO MUCH BETTER - it is amazing. I guess the bedrest did wonders for it! I went to the chiro again today and she said that I am definitely much better. I have actually been up ALL day today with the exception of a 1 hour rest. So, camping is on, just with modified activities - we are not going to bring the bikes and kayaks as planned, but we will still have a great time. We can walk in the woods, go to the ocean, spend a day in Provincetown (one of our favorite destinations), go to a drive-in movie (I've never been) and much, much more.

Everything went very well with the insemination today, too! Reggie looked great under the microscope and I looked great under the speculum! To top it all off, we had the doctor that we both really like to do the procedure today. That makes all the difference in the world. She said everything really does look great and due to the cramping I had this morning, the timing looks great as well. Now all we have to do is wait for two weeks and I promise that I am not going to look into any symptoms - I am just going to let be this time. HA HA!! It is so hard, but at least we have camping to take our minds off of it all.

Oh, and to top it all off, we didn't have to get up for work this morning because it is SUMMER VACATION! I love a good day!

Out of Commission

So, I am out of commission! I bent over to pick up a piece of paper on Tuesday at work, and my back went all out of whack. I have been walking around like Quasi Modo due to the fact that the top half of my body leans distinctly off to the right. You can literally see that my spine is not in line. Needless to say, summer vacation came three days early for me and not in a good way. I have made 2 trips to the chiropractor and have literally been laying flat on my back since Tuesday night.

MJ got me all set up today and I have my laptop resting on my stomach while laying down because I am going completely bonkers being in bed all of the time. One can only read and watch TV for so long without going crazy! We may even have to cancel our camping trip which would be a real bummer.

And, of course, in the midst of all of this it is time to inseminate on Monday. I went to the doc yesterday and all things look good, so I trigger tonight (give my self a shot to make me ovulate 36 hours later) and then we have an appt on Monday at noon. Reggie (the sperm) is waiting at the doctors office for us!

That's all from here!

and so begins the dreaded TWW

For those of you who don't know, TWW stands for Two Week Wait. As of 10:15 this morning, that is what we have entered. It is the time from when you inseminate until you can conclusively use a home pregnancy test. When TTC (trying to conceive) you live your life in 2 week cycles. Two weeks of meds and monitoring, then the dreaded TWW. This is when your body does a great job at playing tricks on you. You suddenly feel different and of course think you have every pregnancy syptom in the book. Well, we should know whether or not we are pregnant by May 19.
Reggie (the swim team) looked great after he thawed out, so now Reggie needs to just meet up with an egg or two and snuggle in to that nice lining my body has prepared. The only problem is that I am convinced that I ovulated on Saturday as my ovaries were on fire all day long. MJ keeps telling me to stop reading into things and really she is right. This whole TTC thing really is a crap shoot anyways.
In other news - today is our Anniversary! We celebrated last night with a wonderful fondue dinner and wine since I can't drink wine now, and I have class from 4 - 8 on Mondays! It was great and yummy as usual! I just love to fondue - it forces you to just enjoy your meal because you have to cook it as you eat it. It is great for just sitting around and enjoying great company.
So, since it is our anniversary, here is a picture from our civil union! Oh, and so I don't forget to give credit where credit is due - THANKS SUE FOR TAKING THIS PICTURE FOR US!!!




That's all from here!