Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

So sorry I've been away.  I'm sure most of you are pretty busy as well so I'm sure you understand.  I'm going with a quick rundown of the last week or so just to get everyone caught up.  And for those of you who are mainly interested in my TTC journey...today is CD1.

Last weekend - we shopped and shopped and didn't get a tree.  I found one that I thought would do just fine but the husband was unsure.  I decided to make an executive decision and get it Tuesday when I was off work and he would just have to live with it.  I did most of the Thanksgiving shopping but came home without a turkey.  They didn't have one big enough if you can believe that.

Tuesday - I was off work and we had the plumber come over and fix the sink and the drywall guys were there fixing nail pops and I was a cleaning machine.  And then I was a turkey buying machine.  I went to another grocery store and bought a fresh turkey, never frozen.  Still didn't buy the tree because I saw an ad that the tree would be $40 cheaper on Thanksgiving.  Told the husband I was going out early Thursday to make sure I could get it.

Wednesday - The Little Guy and I baked and prepped for many hours.  It was great and he was great.  Very willing to help and even kept asking what else needed to get done.  Love that Little Guy.  He and I went to lunch and decided to see how many of our tree they had in stock.  It would be my luck that I waited and then they didn't have it Thursday.  The sales guy had to go to the back to check and he eventually came out with the LAST ONE in multi colored lights!  I said screw the $40 we are getting this tree now.  So I did.

Thursday - Did minimal cooking.  Only had the pie to bake and the turkey to roast and the potatoes to mash.  By 1:00 we were sitting around with nothing to do but wait for our guests.  It was great.  The dinner was wonderful and my turkey was the best I've ever made!  Clean up was a snap as we used disposable plates.  We only had to clean the serving dishes.  We made the decision to not stuff the turkey and it was the best thing.  The turkey cooked faster and more evenly and the stuffing from the oven was great because I added some chicken stock before baking.  My mashed potatoes didn't have any lumps, either!  Go me!  I rocked that Thanksgiving dinner.  :-)

Friday - We began decorating the house, inside and out.  We had glitter all over everything, even us, from head to toe.  The lights went up, the mantel was decorated, the columns were wrapped in red ribbon and then it happened.  We hated the LED lights we put up outside.  We went with cool white instead of warm white...big mistake.  They didn't match the mini lights we had on the porch.  So we took them down and planned on getting some regular lights.

Saturday - We did some more decorating and we put up our new tree.  BJ went hunting and the Little Guy and I fluffed all the branches and plugged it in and fell in love with it.  Yes, it's thin, but it fits the space and it has a LOT of lights which is my main concern.  Then the Little Guy and I went to the festival of trees that benefits the local hospice.  There were about 60 beautiful trees to look at.  I love going and I haven't gone the passed couple of years so it was good to start again and have the Little Guy with me.  Although he began to lose interest about half way through.  After dinner we put ornaments on the tree and now we love it even more.  I just have to find a new topper as I seem to have lost our Angel.  Hmph.

Sunday - Put away all the decorations and lights that we didn't use and put up the new mini lights that I bought and now the house looks wonderful.  I just need something for the foyer window.  I'm thinking a wreath with a red bow.  BJ hit the hunting trail again so the Little Guy and I went to see Tangled.  We loved it.  We laughed so much.  I highly recommend this movie.  Very touching and it sort of makes you realize that sometimes dreams can come true.

So there you have it.  I was very busy on all my days off but it was still wonderful not to come to work.  The food turned out fantastic and everyone had a great time and now my house is decorated for Christmas.  I'm feeling completely different from this time last year and I'm thankful for that.  I'm not happy that AF showed her nasty face.  Especially since she sort of tricked me.  My temp dropped Friday morning but then was back up Saturday and Sunday morning and only 1 tenth of a degree below the coverline yesterday so I must admit, I was having some hopes.  Then of course there she is this morning.  Reminding me that I'm still not pregnant.  I'm glad she stayed away over my long weekend but I really wish she would have stayed away for about 9 months.  Onto another cycle and another round of hopes.  The cycle never ends.

Let the Madness Begin!

Today is the beginning of my Thanksgiving madness.  Aside from my spreadsheet and lists, of course.  :-)

I will be shopping for all the groceries (minus the strawberries because I want them fresh) this afternoon.  Not only will I be picking up the Thanksgiving groceries, but everything else we need as well.  This is likely to be the highest grocery bill I have ever seen.  But you know what?  I'm ready.  I say Bring.It.On.  I'm going to be trying a couple of new dessert recipes that I'm really excited about.  Bite sized s'mores from the oven will be the best, I think.  It's a pampered chef recipe that I hope is as easy as it sounds.  I am also going to make some no bake cookies...chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal....mmmmm.

I know that everyone will be food shopping this weekend so I'm hoping to miss some of it by going this afternoon.  Wish me luck on that one.

The other madness this weekend will be Christmas tree hunting and decoration hunting.  Since we will be decorating next weekend we really need to find a tree.  We need a slim, pre-lit tree because our living room is a little narrow.  Something we didn't anticipate when building the house.  There was an option of a more bumped out space but we figured it was big enough.  We didn't think about a tree needing to take up residence for a month.  Anyway, I digress.  We want a tree with multi colored lights and lots of them.  Not so easy to find.  We found one that we liked but it was only clear lights.  That might end up being the one we get but hopefully not.  I saw one at Michael's last weekend but BJ wasn't with me to give me his thoughts so we are going back together.  It was on sale and I'm hoping it is again.  We still need some decorations for the house and the outside but are having a hard time deciding what we want to do.  I think this year and probably next year will be a learning experience for us in decorating and figuring out our tastes, so to speak.  We have also decided that we need to seal the grout in our kitchen.  So on top of my usual Saturday morning cleaning routine, we will be making the house smell terrible with sealer before we head out for the day.  Fun, no?

Sunday will be a day of football and that's a good thing because that means we probably won't go anywhere.  I'm sure after all the running around Saturday we will be happy to sit our butts on the couch and chill.

Monday will be a crazy day at work because I will be trying to finish up anything that is pending since I will only be in a 1/2 day Tuesday and then gone the rest of the week.  Crazy things always happen when I'm prepping to be out, why is that?  The crazy work stuff will carry into Tuesday, I'm sure and then the real fun begins!

The Little Guy's mother is dropping him off to me Wednesday morning.  We will be getting his hair trimmed so he looks nice for all the pictures I will be taking and then we are cleaning (mostly me) prepping and baking to get ready for Thursday.  Here is the list of things I will be making on Wednesday:

• Prepping the turkey which includes stuffing it (and that means making stuffing).  I will do this late Wednesday
• Deviled eggs - sure to make the fridge smell great overnight!
• The crust for my apple pie - I'm going to wrap it up and take it out Thursday morning when I actually make the pie.
• Chocolate trifle - this includes a chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, (light) cool whip and heath bar pieces...to die for.
• ranch dip - packet of seasoning and sour cream
• onion dip - lipton onion soup mix and sour cream
• fruit dip - blueberry yogurt and (light) cool whip - yummy with just about any kind of berry
• oatmeal cookies - from above
• mini s'mores - also from above

Pretty ambitious, huh?  Most of it is pretty simple but can be very time consuming.  The Little Guy will love helping with the trifle, oatmeal cookies and the mini s'mores.  And if he'd rather stay on the easy side of things, I'll just have him mix the dips for me.

And to top this off, it's time for our year in review on our house.  Our kitchen sink is leaking sporadically so we are having the plumber come out...on WEDNESDAY of all days.  Hopefully most of the stuff will be done by the time he gets there and hopefully he's not there very long.  I needs my sink whilst I be's cookin'.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm hoping to be able to update Monday about our shopping excursions this weekend.   I have a few blogs I'm reading that I hope get some very happy news soon!

Bullet Point Update

I have so much to say but I just don't feel like writing all of it out so I'm going to give ya'll a bullet point update.  It will still probably be a long post because as you know, I like to ramble.

• I worked a short week last week since we had the 11th off and I took the 12th off.  The plan was to take the Little Guy to his dentist in the morning on Thursday and then go through all the Christmas stuff and do some things around the house and then go to his parent teacher conference.  I was on the go all day and barely got through the Christmas stuff at all.  The Little Guy and I decided to have breakfast at the new ihop in town.  Mistake on a holiday.  It took us 45 minutes to be seated.  It was so worth it though.
• BJ decided to take Friday off so that changed my plans of shopping without him.  We shopped for the Little Guy and bought him a guitar and amp and 2 lessons for Christmas.  I hope he likes it because it was not cheap.  Against my better judgement and my prodding, BJ bought these things instead of renting them to make sure the Little Guy would stick with it.  We'll see.
• I had a scrapbooking crop on Saturday.  I got a lot done and it was nice to sit and work on it all day.  I actually met the mother of the guy that lent us the chairs for the Little Guys b-day party back in June.  It was very random that I realized who she was.  She was very pleasant and I enjoyed our conversation.  I did not enjoy watching the lady next to me create her daughter's baby album.  Ugh...these events are as much fun as they are misery.
• It's true that IF follows us/me everywhere.  I was browsing through the new NHL Christmas catalog and my jaw dropped.  They now have MATERNITY hockey wear!  The model was pretty and smiling (and obviously had a fake belly) and wearing a maternity shirt that had the words Future Rookie (or something like that) across her bulging stomach.  Lovely.  What will they think of next to throw in my face?
• I tested positive with my opk Friday mid-morning.  I had tested negative Thursday afternoon.  I never felt any O pain but I did have a headache that didn't go away with 3 ES Tylenol on Saturday.  My temp spiked Saturday morning (which is very unusual for me since I usually spike 2 mornings after ovulation) and has stayed up since then.  According to FF I ovulated Friday.  That doesn't really sit well with me because I got a negative on my opk Thursday afternoon.  But then I can't explain the temp spike on Saturday.  Ugh, this gets so confusing!  And to top it off, both BJ and I were exhausted Thursday night and decided to do the deed Friday, which we did.  So if I ovulated Friday we probably missed it.  Plus, my ovary had NO pain whatsoever so I don't have a clue as to what really happened.  Only time will tell, right?
• I'm getting geared up for my Thanksgiving dinner.  I have my spreadsheet that lays out my menu, what dish the item will be served in, who is responsible for preparing/bringing it and which day I will make it.  I'm doing quite a bit on Wednesday so I don't have to spend the whole day Thursday cooking and stressing.  I just need to find time to get to the grocery store to buy all the ingredients.  :-)
• I bought a plain wreath and decorations for it.  I put it together Friday and was satisfied.  I've never done this before so I was pretty worried about my ability.  I left it in my scrapping room.  I went in there Saturday afternoon to put my scrapping stuff away and saw it on the table.  It's really pretty.  I guess I needed some time away from it to appreciate how the reds and golds all work together.  I'm going to take a picture of it once we hang it next weekend so you all can see it, too.
• The trim is up in the kitchen!  I haven't taken any pictures yet but I plan on it this weekend after I clean.  I will post pictures very soon.  The floor looks so much better now that it's complete.  This is one happy TeeJay.
• It has been a while since I took a bubble bath in my wonderful tub.  I indulged myself last night.  Can I just say...ahhhhhhh.  I was so ready for bed afterward.  I slept all night and didn't wake up one time.  It was great.
• I've been bad about commenting this past week but I plan to make up for it over the next few days.  I miss "talking" to you guys.

There it is, my first bullet point post.  I think I'm going to start using those bullets for my Happiness posts.  They work well and I didn't even know I had them.  :-)

Improving the Home

I've gained some new readers in the passed year so I'm going to recap just a bit on our house.  BJ and I were able to sell my house last Summer and have a house built.  If you've never gone through the process, it's not as easy as it seems.  There are 1,000 choices to make before they even break ground.  Builders also make their money off of upgrades and options.  We were pretty smart about what we chose to upgrade, I think.  There are some things that we wished we had known because we would have done them differently but how much can you know before you live in a house?  And not only that, but the house we came from was so...ordinary, that everything we picked was like a luxury to us.  Anyway, certain things were not upgraded because we knew we could do it cheaper (and probably better) on our own or with the help of BJ's contractors from work.  How much work could there be in a new home you may ask?  See this post to get an idea of our plans.

We bought our hardware for our cabinets months ago.  BJ finally installed everything about a month ago.  We had our kitchen floor and backsplash installed in June.  I have been waiting since then for BJ to put the shoe molding up.  He finally brought some home Thursday.  We actually stained and painted all of it yesterday!  I will have a complete kitchen by this weekend (hopefully!).  I can't tell you how excited I am.  I will be able to take pictures and show all of you the transformation from the beginning.  I have been promising pictures for a very long time but I refused to post any until it was done.  There will be painting and more decorating along the way, but once the shoe molding gets put up, it's done for the foreseeable future in my opinion.

As we were walking through Lowe's, we casually strolled down the curtain aisle.  I need some sheer curtains for the office.  Of course, they didn't have any that were long enough.  However, we did stumble upon some red and black curtains that we grabbed for the Little Guy's room.  AND, we even put them up yesterday!  I ironed them and everything.  Aren't you proud of us?  I sure am.  It was a feat to buy them and put them up all in the same weekend.  Go us!

We still have a quite a few projects to complete but we are on our way.  I'm hoping to have my wood floors installed by Christmas but I'm not holding my breath.  Neither BJ nor I are getting a bonus this holiday season so the floors will probably wait until the Spring.  I absolutely hate our carpet.  It's so cheap and such low quality.  I can't believe they actually put it in people's brand new homes.  We haven't even lived there a year yet and we don't wear our shoes on the carpet and it's already smooshed down and looks like we've lived there 5 years.  The only time it looks decent is when I first vacuum it.  It will be fine until it can be replaced.  That is the only thing that keeps me sane about it...it will be replaced and soon.

We went looking for a pre-lit Christmas tree Saturday.  We looked at 3 places and finally found one that we liked.  It was the right height, width and price.  It only comes in clear lights.  Drats.  I like multi-colored lights on my tree.  So it's back to the drawing board.  I know it may seem crazy to be looking for a tree right now, but we only have until Thanksgiving weekend to find one.  The house gets decorated over the long weekend.  And you know what?  I'm really looking forward to it.  I was in a major funk last year but I'm ready to make my house pretty.  We bought a few things and have an idea of more things we'd like to get so we are on a bit of a roll right now.  I even made my first QVC purchase of the season last night!  I can't wait for it to come in the mail.  It's a wired strand of lights and it will have many uses...I bought 2 and I'm hoping that's enough.  :-)  Bring on the Christmas cheer!

Happiness Is...

- my husband turning on the little heater in the bathroom before I got out of bed this morning.  I didn't even feel him get up.  When my alarm went off and I patted his hand (a little good morning ritual) as I was getting out of bed he told me that he turned my heater on for me.  That warranted a quick snuggle and some kisses!

- eating a Reese's Cup that has been in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  I love Reese's Cups room temperature or cold but having one cold for the first time in...let's see...forever, was great.  The old commercials state that there is no wrong way to eat one.  I disagree with that.  :-)  I like to eat the edges off and then, if I can, peel the chocolate off the top and bottom and then eat the peanut butter that is left.  Mmmm...so good.

 - Gizmo laying with me on the couch last night.  This might seem trivial to most cat owners because most cats love to lay with their humans.  Gizmo is not like that.  I know he's still a baby, but it's been very difficult to adjust to a more independent cat.  My Smokey loves to lay on me or next to me whenever she can.  Gizmo, on the other hand, is perfectly happy laying by himself.  We have tried to pick him up and put him on the couch with us and that lasts about 6 seconds before he's gone.  I was sitting on the couch and BJ was in the shower.  The Little Guy had gone to bed and I was on my laptop working on a digital scrapping project.  Gizmo jumped up and laid half on me and half on the couch.  He was just purring away and couldn't get enough love.  Then he really surprised me by climbing up on me (I had to push the computer further down my legs) so that he could lay on my chest and rub his face against my face.  It was so sweet.  And now I know that he really does love me.  :-)  He stayed for quite a while and I just let him.  There's something so great about talking to a kitten like he's a person.  My heart is melting just thinking about it.  Then BJ came downstairs and Gizmo stayed on the couch for about 30 more seconds.  He loves being pet(ted?), but on the floor.  He will lay down and roll over when he wants attention.  Anyway, it was really nice to bond with Gizmo like that.

- the sun is back and it's Friday!  And I have a short week next week!  We are off Thursday and I took Friday off.  Yay!

- when my sister posts pictures of my niece (whom I've never met) and my nephew on FB.  I love looking at how they've grown.  It's hard to believe that I can love 2 people that don't really know.  I haven't been around my nephew since he was 2 1/2 and like I said, I've never met my niece.  She's 2 1/2 and he's almost 9.  Wow...I'm getting old for sure.

It's Official

My period has officially started.  I had another dip in my temperature yesterday morning to one tenth below the cover line and this morning it was back down to 97.8.  I knew she was coming but it still sucks.  I'm not too crampy yet so that's good.  I had McD's for lunch to comfort myself.  Now I feel "blah" and mad at myself after being so good this week (all of 2 days) and going to the gym.  I'll be back in there tomorrow, but today...not so much.

I also had a DIVINE cupcake today.  We get "thank you" gifts from vendors around election day for using their services and we have gotten cupcakes twice this week.  The first one that I had on Monday was chocolate with chocolate frosting.  Can I just say it was sinfully good?  Today's came around about an hour ago.  I had a chocolate one with peanut butter frosting.  Both of these cupcakes were probably 1000 calories but you know what?  They were so worth it.  I've never had peanut butter frosting and you can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter.  I'm drooling again just thinking about it.

I'm glad the elections are over.  I won't talk politics here (or in real life, either) but can I just say "wow!"?  I knew the Dems would lose some seats but I thought everyone was over reacting to how bad it would be for them.  Americans voted for change for sure.  The only problem is that with a Republican House and a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President...nothing will get passed in the next 2 years.  It's amazing how quickly the political climate can change in this country.  I voted and I hope you guys did, too.  We might not agree on who (whom?) to vote for, but voting is one of the most liberating things we, as Americans, can do.  Rah, rah, rah.  Ok, that's enough.

BJ and the Little Guy played video games for about an hour after dinner last night so I took the time to work on some scrapping.  Instead of doing laundry.  I got 6 pages mounted!  I'm slowly working my way through all the Christmas time pictures.  I take a lot of pictures at that time of year.  Between decorating, my SIL's party and our Christmas...whew!  My camera gets a work out for sure.  I will be mindful of how many I take this year and opt for more quality pictures than quantity of pictures.  I have a crop to go to on 11/13 for the day and I'm very excited to go and get some more work done.  I will actually need to print out some pictures to work on and that's fun...looking back and doing some editing and then getting them printed...good times.  I'm even dabbling in the digital side of things.  Talk about time consuming, but it's fun.  The possibilities are almost endless.  If I weren't so worried about putting pictures of the Little Guy on here I'd post some of my work.  Not that it's great work, but I like it and it's something tangible that I can be proud of.  I'll think about it.  Maybe I'll make it password protected or something.  I'll have to see.

Back in the Saddle

Not so much the saddle that I want to get back in as much as on the treadmill.  I took a break from the little gym we have at work over the Summer.  I hate going down there.  There isn't anything on the TV that will keep my attention and so I hated being down there for my walks.  I have been walking outside most of the Summer.  It's not as good of a workout but I love the outdoors and the sunshine.  Well, as many of you know, Fall is upon us.  With Fall, brings falling temperatures.  Today is November 1 and I decided to start back at the gym.  I was going to do pilates this morning but my co-worker started a big conversation with me before I could head there.  I went at lunch and walked 20 minutes with a 5 minute cool down.  If you aren't good at math, like me, that's a full 25 minutes on the dreaded treadmill!  Yee haw!  I went 1.3 miles total.  My legs are like jell-o right now but in a good way.  I'm hoping to go at least 3 days a week.  I'd really like to go 4 or 5 but I know myself so I'm setting a realistic goal for myself.

Yesterday was the trick or treating.  We put up orange lights on the porch, hung 2 skeleton ghosts from our hanging plant hooks and hooked up 5 skeleton head lights for the sidewalk.  We then opened the office windows and played the theme to Halloween on the computer.  It was fun to hand out candy (sort of).  We had 1 kid ask us if it was a haunted house and one little boy wouldn't come to the door until he saw it was safe.  :-)  That was pretty cool.  I've never actually scared a little one before.  The Little Guy went with his mother and her boyfriend and his kids.  They stopped by very early for a couple of pictures.  I have a lot more I could say about that, but will save it for another time.  She annoys me sometimes to say the least.  I'm sure I annoy her, too.  Anyway...

BJ and I watched America's Funniest Home Videos and it was a special Halloween edition.  I always see lots of babies and toddlers and what not on that show.  It's just par for the course really.  However, they showed a video of 3 very pregnant women and their bellies were painted like jack-o-lanterns.  I didn't say anything but BJ piped in...."They just love to rub it in your face, don't they?".  I agreed and rolled my eyes.  It's EVERYWHERE.  The fact that I can't have a baby is rubbed in my face constantly.  Why?  Why is the universe so cruel?  These are the thoughts going through my head.  Then Extreme Makeover comes on and things are really put into perspective for me.  If you watched, you know what I mean.  I have my health, well other than my fertility.  The kids on this show were deaf and went to a special school that lacks proper funding.  Infertility has made me focus on myself a lot.  It's made me always think about what I'm missing and how things could be so much better.  It makes me forget how much worse things could be.  Everything else in my body (aside from my sometimes wacky thyroid) works fine.  I have a great heart and lungs and liver and bladder...the whole 9 yards.  I can see and smell and taste and hear.  The only thing I can't do is have a baby.  I want to stop being so selfish and thinking about what I'm missing all the time.  The only problem with this is that I don't know how.  I don't know how to look at babies and pregnant women and NOT think about my empty womb.  When does that feeling end?  When will it go away?

Today is CD24.  My temp dropped down to be equal to my cover line temp this morning.  I had a killer headache yesterday.  I might not be very good at math, but I know that 2+2=4 and that a headache + a lower temperature = AF will be here in a day or two.  My body might not work right but it has become a bit more predictable lately.  That is the one positive thing I will pull from this cycle.