Monday, December 28, 2009

The decade in review

I've just spent some time conversing with the husband in front of the fire. We were talking about how much our lives have changed in the past ten years. They've changed a ton! The Highlights (or lowlights):

2000 June Got married.
2000 August Moved to England.
2000 October I started grad school at UWarwick
2001-2003 ran all over the European continent and made three trips back to the states
2002 February P finished grad school at UM
2003 Feb hit milestone of losing 85 pounds
2003 July my dad died
2003 July moved back to the States
2003 October bought our first house
2004 March started work at my current job
2004 March finished my graduate degree
2004 June my grandpa died (at age 97)
2004 September found out I had fertility problems
2005 Feb found out I had 5% of conceiving a child
2005 April failed IVF
2005 May P left Ford Motor Co (after 7 years) to a new job
2005 November P started newer (awesome) job
2006 April IVF cancelled for high FSH
2006 June got a puppy gifted to me/ found puppy new home
2007 Feb started looking for Egg donors
2007 June severe intestinal issues caused me to stop eating wheat/gluten
2007 September got braces
2007 October drove cross country to Boston
2007 December found out I was pregnant!
2008 January P started grad school at MIT
2008 June had a terrible fall when I was pregnant
2008 August my miracle child was born
2008 October arthiritc issues caused me to be diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome
2008 December my grandmother died (at age 97)
2009 July spent the month in Boston
2009 December P completed program/thesis at MIT

We also were lucky enough to visit Hawaii, Boston, Maine, Nevada, Arizona, California (San Diego) Las Vegas, New York state, NYC, Canada, Niagara Falls, Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome, Florence, Pisa), France (Paris x 4, Normandy), Cypress, Greece (Santorini), Egypt, Germany, Austria, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland, and the Vatican.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my Christian friends. I'm sitting here with the fire roaring, my husband watching the tube and cuddling the baby (I have to stop calling her that - she's 16 1/2 months), and watching my little Christmas tree. The tree is a little 3 foot fiber optic one plugged in the family room. It is really special to me. My dad bought it for me the Christmas before we got married because he wanted us to have a tree. He loved little trees and really got on the fiber optic craze when they were popular back in 2000. I look at it and it makes me feel so loved by him.

If I haven't said so before, he and I were very close and I lost him (in his earthly form) back in 2003. I miss him so very much.

It's been a nice Christmas. I never got dressed today - it poured rain. Vi took at 4 hour nap and I got a 1.5 hour one!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

In honor of Reid.

A fellow blogger's son went to be with Jesus today. Please keep Reid's family in your prayers and thoughts.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Holiday Meme

I borrowed this from the fantastic Swistle

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Never had eggnog and hot chocolate makes me basically go into a diabetic coma. So, neither.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Always wrap presents. I like to avoid gift bags at all costs. Part of the fun is ripping open the paper.

Colored lights on a tree or white? OUrs are tiny twinkle multicolor. I envy the people with color themed trees with all one lights. I am investigating blue and white.

Do you hang mistletoe? No.

When do you put your decorations up? Usually Saturday after Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Chocolate/peanut butter buckeyes - not really a dish but I can still eat them since I am gluten free. I also love my Grandma Ernie's poppyseed potatoes. Unfortunately cannot the recipe!

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Used to be able to open one when I was a kid, now husband and I do them all on Christmas Eve.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Like Swistle, nothing matches. Old + new + my grandpa's old ornaments = chaos. I also have about 13 different Strawberry Shortcake doll ornaments. I loved them when I was in grade school and people like to buy me them when they see them.

Snow: love it or hate it? I Hate it. So ready to move to Florida.

Can you ice skate? Yes I can. I grew up in a Northern Michigan Town where it was winter 6 months out of the year. I haven't since High School though.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? See buckeyes above. I also like Apple Pie.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Making sugar cookies.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Nope. Too sweet.

Favorite Christmas show? Home Alone! Love that movie.

mice

Approximately two weeks ago, I brought up the Christmas stuff from the basement. There were approximately 12 bins and a large bin for the Christmas Tree (artificial) branches. The large bin was too heavy for me to carry so I waited until the weekend when P could do it. He opened the bin and started pulling out the branches. The conversation went like this:

P: Hey babe
Me: yeah?
P: there is a bunch of kleenex in here
Me: what?
P: Kleenex... and dryer lint.. and what is that?
Me: (leaning closer). That is a mouse nest. Made of dryer lint, Kleenex, and my hair.
P: Oh
Me: There appears to be no babies in it (Thank God). It's huge. (The size of a bird's nest)
Me: oh look, the mice chewed through the plastic bin and squeezed through the little crack to get in. Great

P throws away the nest and dustbusters the rest of the branches.

P: Holy ----! There are two live mice in here. Big ones.

Me: (runs to bathroom and hides)

P takes out the bin to the backyard and disposes of the mice. Christmas tree is a bit tarnished for me.

Now it comes to be Monday. I get to work. Open my desk drawer. There is mouse poop all over, my chocolate (Chocolate - MINE!) is all chewed up and scattered. There is chewed up paper towel and poop all over my files. They are even in my overhead bin. What the hell!!!
Maintenance man comes and puts a trap under my desk. One dead the next day and another dead IN MY DESK DRAWER. Thanks so much.

Now comes Sunday afternoon. I go downstairs to change over the laundry. I spot a small black creature laying in the middle of the basement floor. P came and took care of it. It was dead. It was not a mouse. It was a shrew. Seriously. What the HELL is going on with the basement? I'm scared.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Great Cross Polination Post

Today is the Great Infertility Blog Cross Polination Post. How exciting!
Below is a post from my matched guest poster - you'll have to guess who!

Imitation Is Unflattering

Now that we are getting into the toddler phase hard-core, we're finding that we are having to more closely watch what we say and do.

When you have a newborn, you can pretty much sit all day on the couch watching a CSI marathon, eating chips and drinking pop, and the little bub in your arms will not think much of the exploding heads on the TV.

Now that our son soaks up everything around him like a sponge, it's an inducement to forgo certain bad habits.

Case in point: After a stressful workday, I've been finding myself sitting on the couch like a lump and watching hours of mindless TV. Our son now uses a toy to pretend it's a remote, points, clicks, and says, "Watch? Elmo, Sesame Street, Signing Time?" Fail, Mommy.

Since my dining room table usually acts like my desk, and is therefore cluttered with loads of papers, we eat in the living room. And our son wants to eat what we eat. Including any leftover cookies or pie from Thanksgiving. So we are back to apples and bananas only in the living room, and trying to eat at the table.

I may or may not be known for my potty mouth. After hearing my son mimic my exclamation of "Crap!" the other day, I've been trying to tone it down.

My husband, Mr S, has been known to whine, "Go, go go!" to a slow driver in front of us. It sounds much less innocuous when coming from a 19-month old.

Worst of all- we all know men do certain things whether it's gentlemanly or not. My husband is a good man, despite his being raised in a cave with the other Neanderthals. Yesterday, he decided to scratch himself, like most men do. Our son, seeing him, decided to follow suit. So that's where they learn that...


I swear we are much better parents than we play on the Internet...


Brought to you by

Monday, December 7, 2009

We read this 7 timed tonight


New Obsession

Wow. Is she obsessed or what? I kind of feel for Daycare today because I think they have a copy of the book. We had company this weekend and read this book approximately 28 times. I love to read to her, but it was a constant barrage of requests (rather demands) when we were eating, going the bathroom, sleeping, whenever. Vi speaks up and says "I see" in this adorable sing song voice. She is obsessed with books in general, reading them to herself (have a video, must post - adorable), and turning the pages and pointing to things. We ended up hiding the book behind the couch, to which she promptly went and found it.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

It's coming....

and frankly, I'm terrified. The first date for my jaw/facial surgery has been set. It goes like this:

January 20, 2010 - Sliding Genioplasty (chin job) with Mandibular Bone Graft (aka, excess bone implanted into my lower jaw). General Anesthesia. Outpatient. Off work 1-2 weeks.

May 2010 - Dental implants screws implanted into lower jaw. Outpatient.

Sept 2010 - Porcelin bridge screwed into implant ridge.

January 2011 - BSSO (Bilateral Sagital Split Osteomy) aka the major jaw surgery! Inpatient for 5-6 days.

I know that I have no further options for dental care. I need to summon my courage and move forward, but I'm terrified.

(For those that don't know I have a genetic mutation resulting in the lost of formation of many teeth as well as jaw deformaties. I don't look crazy if you see me on the street, but if you delve deeper, you will realize something is very wrong with my teeth/jaw)

Oh and did I mention that my out of pocket for all this is $20,000? Thank goodness the jaw surgeries and bone grafts are covered!