Joys In My Life

Here's another post from the hair salon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my online friends and anonymous blog readers! I'm having my roots touched up (Thank God!) this morning and then I'm looking forward to a quiet day of baking cookies watching movies and playing games while we wait for Santa to come. I think this is probably Phoebe's last year for believing. We may be able to get next year, but I'm not sure. Between older cousins that are starting not to believe now and the kids at school, I know it's going to come sooner rather than later. No matter what, I'm really excited to have her see her presents in the morning. She's getting a real 3/4 size acoustic guitar (she wants to take lessons from our friend), a Nintendo DS Lite, gravity-defying boots, various Harry Potter stuff such as a wand, Griffendor scarf and tie, a set of all the Narnia books and pajamas. Hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday!

Why is it Phoebe can make such a huge deal out of a hangnail or a splinter, but an almost trip to the ER doesn't slow her down? The weekend before last, she was walking down her Aunt's basement stairs with her two-year-old cousin. He started to fall over the open side of the staircase (they were five stairs up). Phoebe grabbed him and broke his fall. He had one scratch on his leg and that was all. I couldn't say the same for poor Phoebe. Her face broke her fall on the concrete floor. She had a bloody nose (those happen all the time in the winter - I have to start running her humidifier tonight!), the left side of her mouth swelled up bigger than Angelina Jolie's lips, and she had scrapes all over the left side of her face. We were at a holiday party when this happened, so when we got the phone call we (or I should say, me) were really upset. Once we realized that she was not too bad off and her nose bleed stopped, we agreed they should make her lie down and put...

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time (Hi Mom!). We've been really busy at our house. Phoebe had a show she was in on 10 November. It was Mozart's The Magic Flute. She was fabulous and had a great time. She wants to be in their Winter production, which is Pirates of Penzance. I also just became a Brownie Girl Scout leader and the training and meetings has taken up a lot of my time. So the big news for today is that I will be platinum blonde for Christmas. I'm at the hair salon right now and getting myself bleached. Can't wait to see it. Also on the fertility front... we're going back to the doctor in January when my insurance changes. It'll be our last ditch attempt to have a second child. I promise to give up coffee, alcohol, etc. for this time trying. I'll be very good and try to be as healthy as I can be. I'm going to go now and check on blogs and see how everyone is doing. I haven't done that in a long time either.

Things have been really busy. Both work and home life are just totally swamped. I'm working hard to keep up, so I haven't been online a lot lately. It's sad to say, but I've been neglecting my blog reading lately. Maybe I'll have time to catch up today. I sort of used the menu plan last week. It did help to have a guideline, but I did deviate here and there. I'll get better at this though. I'll post one for next week, as this week we're flying by the seat of our pants. I have two items on the Democratic Debate last night. First of all it was in the Main Building Auditorium at Drexel University last night. This was the college DH and I went to, but that is also the building that we first talked to each other and started seeing each other from that moment on. Pretty cool to think that all these presidential hopefuls walked past the stone bench that DH and I talked at when we were starting to fall for each other. The other update, is that I'm s...

I found a new blog through Trace . The new blog is Organizing Junkie . I'm going to participate in her Menu Monday (I'm also stealing her menu for Tuesday - sounds great!). Here's my menu for our house this week: Monday - Stuffed Red Peppers (ground beef and rice with tomato sauce), crusty bread Tuesday - Slow Cooked Thai Chicken , brocolli and rice Wednesday - Sausage, roma bean and hominy soup (DH made on Sunday) and grilled cheese Thursday - Fajitas, black beans and rice Friday - Homemade sausage pizza

Thirteen years ago, my sweetie and I stood before our friends and family and pledged to love and support each other forever. It seems like it was only yesterday, but here we are ages later and I still give him my devilish look - apparently I did so yesterday, I was told. He still deserves and warrants me chasing him around the house - but I think he lets me catch him, I wonder why? Happy Anniversary and may we have many, many more!!!!

I never got around to posting the pics from Phoebe's birthday party that was on the 7th. We had it at home as she wanted to have a pinata. One of the pics shows the pinata she chose. Everything in the party had a pink theme. No special characters or anything, just everything pink! My favorite pic from the day is the last one with her BFF, Lexie. You gotta love the tiara. It was supposed to be put on the cake, but when we picked it up from the store, she opened the tiara, put it on her head and it stayed there all day. It was funny watching her play around in the yard at the end of the party with her friends. She's playing soccer, touch football, frisbee - all with a tiara on her head!!! That's my girl!

So AF showed up today, right on time, which is the first time in a long time that happened. I'm usually several days early. I think I'm going to go back to taking my temps to see what's going on with my cycle and how my current treatment is doing. I didn't expect to get pregnant this month. I had a nasty yeast infection when I was ovulating this month, and you do need to have sex to get pregnant when not under the care of a RE, LOL! I think we might get serious over the next few months to really try hard and see what happens. After that, I am trying to decide if we go back to the doctor or if we start pursuing adoption. I'm really not sure which way to go. We'll see.

On Saturday, my little girl turned seven years old!!! I'm too young to ave a first grader... Right? Anyway, we took some pictures of her on the front porch (you can see some of my mums!) and then to get ready for her party on Sunday, we went to the local Farm Market (Glen Willow Orchard) and bought some small pumpkins and had the kids decorate them for a craft during the party. They had some really neat hay sculptures at the Farm Market. We had to break out the camera and take a lot of pics of them.

We had a huge reorganization announcement at work yesterday. It did impact me and my department hugely. I'm feeling a bit better about it today, but yesterday I was feeling lots of confusion. I still have the same direct manager but he has a new boss. Today it sounds like it's going to be a good positive for us, but yesterday I was so not sure. So I went home, got the munchkin off the bus into DH's SUV and we went to the nearby local produce farm and bought nine mums to plant in the front yard to make things look nice for Phoebe's birthday party on Sunday. The price was definately right. They were selling them 3 for $13 and they are huge! I need to finish planting them tonight as the light was starting to fade and we had to go in and eat dinner. I meant to plant mums over the past weekend, but we just got so busy, I never got around to it. After dinner last night, I also pulled out all our Halloween decorations, so we look really festive inside as well as outsi...

Why is it that when things are crazy and hectic, I just seem to want them to be over? I really need to learn to enjoy what's going on when it's hectic as well as when it's quiet. Especially as the hectic times are the times that are the most fun. Phoebe's birthday is this weekend and we're having a party for her and her friends from school and the neighborhood. Add that to the trip DH and I have the following weekend to Canada - Niagra Falls and possibly Toronto. Then comes Halloween, my DD's favorite holiday - I must admit, I enjoy it a lot too! We're in for some pretty fun times over the next few weeks. I was really excited when I got my passport in the mail yesterday. That was pretty fast. I had it expedited and I got it in a week and a day. Wow! So the other thing that I've been thinking about lately is that with Phoebe turning seven, should I just give up the thought of having another biological baby? I mean, we've been trying since sh...

What a crazy busy week! Since I last posted, here are some overall updates of what I've been up to each day: Tuesday - Submitted passport application at post office. Phoebe had CCD - we did CCD homework on the way there, we totally forgot about it. I went to Girl Scout Registration Night while she was at CCD and agreed to co-lead a Brownie troop as they don't have enough leaders and Phoebe really wants to be a Brownie. I was a Girl Scout for most of my school age years and loved it. Wednesday - Phoebe's ice skating classes started up again. Afterwards, we went to the mall to get birthday party invitations for her party on October 7th, I stayed up until midnight writing them out so she could take them into school. We're inviting her whole first grade class thinking that the only ones that will come are the ones she's friends with. Found out I had a yeast infection (cr@p!!!) - gotta love when that happens when you're ovulating. No chance in h*ll I'll get...

I love the fall. The weather is a lot cooler and crisp. Of course, our days here in the Philly/Wilmington area is in the 80s this week, but our nights are still pure fall weather. Both DH and I are trying to exercise more and this weather is perfect for that. I swear once you get to be a certain age, just eating right doesn't cut it anymore. You lose all that muscle tone you used to have when you were younger. I would love to have DD's abs! It's not just that they are flat, but she's so active that they are so toned and muscular. So anyway, I took our dog for a two mile walk last night while DH was on our elliptical machine. When I was done, I went down to the basement to play "Be By Me" with him and I used the weights and then the elliptical machine. When we went upstairs, I did a few ab exercises. I really need to work on that area these days! They are totally out of use. I can't do nearly as many reps as I used to even a year ago. Bad Heat...

I always say I want to capture little snippets of things Phoebe says that crack me up. Here's some of my recent favorites: 1. From the girl that just started CCD classes and is excited to be learning about how God is all our father and Jesus our brother..... "Mom, I'm going to pray to God to ask Santa to get me xxxx for Christmas this year." I had no idea that God had the ins with Santa. 2. When her, DH and I are talking about what celebrities we're told we look like, "Mom, you look just like Gwen with long hair!" I love that kid. That's the ultimate compliment to me. Gwen Stefani is the coolest. 3. I asked her last night when I was tucking her in what her favorite part of being in her 1st grade class is. "Being the Line Leader, passing out papers, doing calendar." I asked her what part she really didn't like, "Sitting at my desk." Seriously, the girl cannot sit still. Even when she watches TV, it's an exercis...

Well, I'm back to blogging. Had a rough Thursday and Friday last week as hope died when AF showed up a few days early. The acupuncturist still wants me to stay on the herbs I'm on as they are working, it's just going to take some time. DH and I had some talks. We still wonder if we are asking too much to have more than one child and if we should just move and and be happy with what we have. But we did come to a decision to schedule a consultation with the old RE and see what he says. I haven't called to set that up yet, but I will soon. Need to check with the insurance and find out if he's in the network still. I'm also trying to give up coffee again which is really hard considering my new early working hours and all those great pumpkin spice lattes out there. The rest of the weekend was great. Phoebe started her program at OperaDE, which is great. She's learning a little German, clown skills, they are going to make masks for their performance of M...

To celebrate 9/11, I sent my DH to NYC for work. I kissed him goodbye this morning and waved to him as he drove to the train station to take him to NYC. He will be there tonight and tomorrow he'll be in White Plains for work. As I do this, I pray for the families that lost their loved ones and pray that mine will be safe at home soon. This may sound a little melodramatic to some, but I believe that 9/11 is our generations Pearl Harbor and yet even more so. Unless you were on the West coast, Hawaii seems so far away, even though it is American soil. As Americans, we always feel geographically sheltered, being so far away from areas of conflict. For an attack to happen on American soil, and more importantly on the East coast of the US, it brings our idea of security in question. My DH was supposed to be in NYC in the financial district on 9/11/01. It was only fate that made him decide to hold off that trip and go to his Malvern, PA office instead. He was driving there when h...

I've been so swamped this week I haven't been able to keep up with posts or reading my favorite blogs. It's nice that my hairstylists has computers for us to play on the Internet while my hair color is sinking in. DH is doing better, but he's finally got some discomfort in his foot. I took him to the orthopedic doctor yesterday and they took some more Xrays, but between the new ones and the ones at the hospital, they couldn't find a break. They didn't use the word sprain, but I guess that's what they are thinking it is. He goes back in two weeks and they gave him a boot to wear, since his foot was too swollen to fit into his sneaker. We put some ice on it last night and that seemed to help and he could get into a loose sneaker today, but he's getting a lot more discomfort now that the swelling is going down. He's a little bummed even though we're all happy it's not broken. He's not used to having anything slow him down. I'm t...

I wanted my next post to be about the great trip we had in NYC this weekend. I guess I'll have to post that later. I have some great recommendations for places to go in NYC when I get to it. However, we've had some fun (sarcastic tone here) at our house over the past few days. DH is now called Gimpy and DD is Itchy. DH broke his foot on Sunday playing football. We didn't realize it was broken until Monday morningish. We took him to the hospital on Labor Day night after dinner and they put it in an air cast and gave him crutches. He's getting along very slowly now, but at least he's being a good patient and not trying to put weight on his foot and mess it up more. DD is called Itchy because she had multiple tiny bug bites mostly in her panty area, but going up her back and down her legs. She developed some kind of allergic reaction to them as well. We noticed this Monday early afternoon too and called the on-call ped who told us to give her Benadryl until t...

It's Thursday and things are looking up. I worked late last night as I'm off today and tomorow. Today we get to visit Phoebe's first grade classroom and teacher. I'm looking forward to that. Then we are going to NYC tonight with friends. Phoebe will be going to her grandparent's. I've so been looking forward to this trip to NYC. We haven't had a childfree trip there in a long time. When we have gone in the past, we would lament over that we couldn't be sitting in some quiet cafe drinking wine over dinner or go to the hotel bar in the evening for drinks. Now I just can't wait for this weekend to be over so we can start the school year and a normal schedule. I'm trying to remind myself to be positive. I know that I do believe in that whole "Law of Attraction" thing from "The Secret." It's not that secret. It's just the power of positive thinking that has worked for me most of my life. So I have a driver'...

The weekend was definately not relaxing. We went to a baseball game in Reading, PA and my wallet was either lost or stolen from my purse. Considering I was carrying my "Mommy purse" which is one big pit with lots of papers, straws, napkins, etc. I have no idea how it happened. I've never had anything like that happen to me before. We canceled everything immediately while we were at the game, frantically (but carefully) looked through all the places we had been during the one hour I can pinpoint when it went missing and talked to the baseball stadium staff. I know exactly when it went missing because I gave DH some of the MAC money during the fourth inning and then an hour later when I went to get some money out to buy glow sticks for the kids it was gone! And of course the rest of the weekend was a mess. DH and I have been disagreeing a lot lately. I know we love each other and it will totally blow over, but until then, he gets on my nerves. I'm sure a lot of...

I'm really glad to see this week over. Phoebe has been at her grandparents all week and I'm feeling like she's starting to overstay her welcome. Thankfully, we are picking her up tonight and she'll be with us all week. I also didn't mention this, but I threw a diaper shower at work for my co-worker that is having her third child next week. We waited so long because the lady that works for her was going on vacation for two weeks, so the planning was also all on me. I ordered the cake, sent the invitations and collected the diaper fund $$ from the folks that participated. I'm glad I did it, and I really have no hard feelings, but I don't think she realized I organized it myself instead of the admin who usually does. I don't think our admin was that crazy about throwing a shower for someone who will have her third child as she's fighting infertility issues as well. Myself, I kind of give her a bit of credit for managing that many kids so well. Th...

It's been rainy and dreary here since Sunday. On Sunday I liked it, but by now it's gotten old. We haven't seen the sun since Saturday and I haven't been able to wake up in the morning all week. The weatherman keeps saying we'll see the sun each day, but then it never materializes. I haven't sent my laptop in for repairs yet. I can start it up plugged in now, so that's a lot better. But the number four key still won't work. I think that's the only problem left. Eventually I'll send it in for repairs, but I'm so behind on a lot of computer stuff, I don't like to be without it. For those that have found my blog by searching for LisaJH's Bridget Jones Fan Fiction, it disappeared from the old website a few months ago, but I've found something even better. SFaith on Live Journal posted a new Bridget fan fic story this week. It's a continuation of one of her previous stories. I highly recommend. I'm late for work thi...

So I can use my laptop a little bit. It won't start up if it's plugged in, but if I unplug it, it will start up and then I can plug it in to keep it charged. The key for the number four won't work either. I took it into the Apple store, and it won't be covered under warranty because it was accidental damage. Kind of sucks. I wanted to let it dry out a few more days and see what would happen, but the status doesn't seem to be changing. I'm going to call the 800 number for Apple and have them send me a box to send it in for repairs and then my warranty will be good again. I'm going to have to pay to have it fixed, so after that's done, I don't think I'll be letting other people touch my laptop too often. After I send it in, I'll have to do my blog updates from DH's laptop or from work, so I don't know how many I'll be able to make. Also on other updates, Aunt Flo showed up again today. I think the herbs are working. So far...

Yesterday was such a Monday. Glad that's over. It felt like one of those days where everything is just cr*p. DH took DD to his work in Aberdeen, MD and I let them borrow my beautiful new laptop for her to play games and watch movies. She accidentally spilled water on it. It's dead now. Thankfully I have a warranty, but I need to call the Apple store about how to get it fixed and hopefully I won't lose the pictures I had stored on there and my budget file. I hadn't gotten around to setting up the backup yet. Work was tough too. Working hard trying to meet deadlines and not feeling like I was getting anywhere. Got home and DH and DD didn't get home until 8 PM, because she wanted crabs for dinner and he was trying to find a place that was open. He even admitted last night that he can't say no to her. Them being so late totally through everything I had planned out the window. I love DD immensely, but I told him this morning I want to call him Haphazard ...

I was in my boss's boss's office today (hey that looks funny!) and he has a really great plaque on his desk. I guess it's a paperweight of some kind. It says, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" It's really an interesting way to ask yourself what would mean the most to you to do right now. I can think of three things: 1. Have one more child. 2. Make our house more the home we want to have. 3. Become an Iyengar yoga instructor. So then you stop and think to yourself what is holding you back from these things. I know right now, it's all just me. Even item #1. I'm holding a lot of mental baggage right now with issues with my mom, the baggage of that relationship as I've taken it in with my relationship with my husband (love that man!), fear of disappointment if I go back to the doctor, and fear of losing myself in the hormonal mess that comes with IF treatments. So tell me what would you do if you knew you couldn't fai...

Wow! Was I ever tired when I wrote that last post! I definately knew I've written better posts, but I was so excited that I was able to make my own wheatgrass juice. They say it's supposed to be really good for you and fertility. It has a very interesting taste. The frozen stuff I was getting didn't taste like much, but when you freeze your own fresh wheatgrass it has a very distinctive taste. It's kind of sweet and kind of tastes like your drinking grass. I was also really good to myself last night and went to my yoga class. I haven't been there in about two weeks. I left there feeling awesome, but when I got home I kind of got cranky. I had a really busy day at work and I wanted some quiet time. DH kept talking non-stop the minute I got home about weekend plans for the rest of August. I think he's making up for not having last summer off and making sure we get to do everything we want to do before the end of the summer. But it was driving me crazy ...

We had a wheatgrass party at the Joys House tonight. About two weeks ago, I was at the health food store and found out that someone had ordered a tray of wheatgrass that had just arrived. I didn't know you could order a tray of wheatgrass. I kept that in mind and last Thursday I ordered a tray. It came in on Saturday when we were away, so I picked it up today. One of the reasons I chose the juicer I bought a few months ago, was because it can juice wheatgrass It's an Omega 8005. So we got to play with making wheatgrass juice when I got home from work today. I say we, because DH did help me. He cut the grass and put it on the counter for me while I fed it into the juicer. The one tray of wheatgrass made about 28 ice cubes. I measured it out and each ice cube is about 1 oz. It's in the freezer right now and when it's completely frozen I'm going ot transfer it to a freezer bag. I'm so excited to have fresh wheatgrass at home I might be able to give up t...

For any of my readers that are working moms, I've found a great resource I'm currently checking out. Here's the website: http://www.mommytrackd.com Enjoy!

I've been really busy with work the past few days. It's funny I've been so busy, because I'm working from home most of this week, and you know how people always think it's a picnic when you're working from home. I'm working from home because the emergency backup childcare at my work apparently isn't very good for emergencies. Phoebe is spending most of the summer at her grandparents, which includes overnights since they are over and hour away from us. She's usually OK with this and spent three weeks in a row there last summer. But for some reason last week she was really homesick, so we brought her home for the week. Except for the fact that DH is traveling for work, so he only worked from home on Monday. Since the backup childcare at my work is full and we're #11 on the waitlist, I've been working from home. Which is great for me anyway, because I have a lot of straight computer work to do and it's been great for being undisturbed...

I finished Harry Potter this morning over tea!!! No spoilers here, but it was amazing. I guess I could complain that it was a lot of hard work to get to the end where everything wrapped up neatly, but isn't that the way it should be! I'm very happy with how everything ended. Of course, some of my favorite characters bit the dust, but that can't be helped.

OK, here it is. I'm definately going to be pushing myself to be good to me and do the things I'm supposed to do, especially staying away from dairy and wine. I'm seriously thinking about doing these things for the next month and then talking to the doctor again. Also thinking about pushing on the adoption front. Need to discuss with DH. Overall diagnosis Endometriosis, blood stasis, liver qi stagnation, kidney yang deficiency Symptoms Heavy clotty periods, low back pain, short menstrual cycles, irritability and anxiety – especially when PMS Herbs Started taking these herbs about two three weeks ago. Acupuncture Every other week Supplements Multivitamin, C-1000mg 1x/day, B vitamin 1x/day, Vitamin E 400 IU 2x/day, evening primrose oil 2x/day, fish body oil 2x/day, spirulina 2g 2x/day, zinc 30mg 2x/day, acidophilus 2x/day Diet Avoid – dairy, wheat, cold foods, alcohol Add – seaweed (kombu, hijiki), lemons, pineapple, oatmeal, rice, millet, wheatgrass, walnuts, pumpkin see...

Aunt Flo showed up today. It's officially over. I'll be writing up my current regimen today. I think I need to double back on reinforcing some good habits.

Back to the infertility discussions here. Spot showed up this morning. We now get to find out if her owner, Aunt Flo, is going to show up in the next day or two, or I get to have my body mess with my mind and try to find out if it's implantation spotting.... I'm also in the process of writing up my current holistic regimen I'm following for endometriosis and it's TCM friend, blood stasis. Should have it up in the next day or two.

For those interested in home decorating, I just started a new blog to chronicle the building of our house that was completed in February 2006 and the new decorating projects we have going on. The site for my new blog is: Home Decor with Joy Hope you all like it!

One of Tom's younger sisters (he has five) had a housewarming party on Sunday in South Jersey. The weather was excellent! Couldn't have asked for a better day. Since we have such a nice camera and I like to take pictures, I was the official photographer for the day. Here are some of my favorites that involve my immediate clan: Tom hanging Phoebe by her toes (mostly literally!) Phoebe and some of her first cousins - the ones that are most close to her age Tom manning the grill - He makes great burgers - no hockey pucks in the bunch! Phoebe pretending to be the statue of liberty

She did great. Could tell she was nervous, but now that it's over, I'm sure she'll have more confidence for the next time. Here's some pics after the show. She's in action in all of but one (yes, she is doing mime!). She was on Cloud 9, so it's very indicative of how she is. We went out to dinner with DH's parents after the show and it was so funny! She had the song "Matchmaker" stuck in her head (one of the girls sang it for the recital). Thankfully, we didn't have anyone sitting in the tables around us, so we let her get away with running around singing "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch. Matchmaker, matchmaker, I know I'm still young, please take your time.." That's as much as she knew, and then she'd start all over again. Really cool to see your six year old singing "Fiddler on the Roof" LOL. They had a professional do the video of the performance, so I can...

Phoebe's been having a great time at camp. There are a lot of teenage girls and they've been very motherly to her. She's been coming home every day, tired and happy. She's painted, sang, acted and loved every minute! Yesterday their acting class was a mime game. That's her favorite. She makes miming fun and not annoying. Tonight is their recital. I'm so excited to see her up there with all the other kids. If it goes well we're thinking about signing her up for the fall program. It will be a time commitment, but it seems like a great program for her to be in. It's been a tiring week for us all. I feel like it just passed so quickly, trying to get her to bed at a decent time and getting her up early in the morning. It's probably what it will be like when she goes to school this fall. I'm looking forward to it. It's so cool to watch her grow up. The way she talks is so funny, I wish I could bottle it up forever. On another note, I...

So I've owed pics of my nose piercing. Now that I can seem to upload pics, here it is! This was from the beginning of June when we were at Valapalooza - the jazz festival at the winery near our house. The owners of this place are great! Their wines are fantastic too - Italian style wines - usually one white and four to six reds are available at one time. Excellent to drink with friends! So now that this seems to be working, I'll look to start a new blog that documents the building of our house (we moved in February 2006) and all the decor we've been working on since then. We're really big into home decorating. Mostly DH's ideas, but I make some great curtains! I'll also be posting soon my baby-making protocol. I have to get back on the ball with some of it. The cafe mocha in the morning has to go. Don't think that will help.

I had been having problems posting pictures in the past with blogger, so I figured I'd try it out with an old pic of Phoebe from May when Tom graduated from Villanova. Here she is wearing his cap and gown showing us how all the students had to pose when they came down from getting their diploma. We were sitting right there, so we got to see all the students do it wrong and have the photographer try to explain what pose they needed to do. She did this pose at home like "What's the problem? It's not that hard!" We're thinking that when she graduates high school or college, we should post this picture in the paper with the announcement. That would be too funny wouldn't it?

Thank you so much for your nice comments on my last post. I know I was rambling a bit, but I had a lot on my mind. This morning was very exciting for our family. Phoebe started a Theater Camp at the Delaware Opera this morning. She'll be going all week and she's the youngest kid in the program. The ages are from 7-17, but they let her in even though she's a little under 7 still. It's a full day program from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The younger kids go for just this week, and the older kids can continue for another week. They are going to have acting classes, voice classes, set design and costume design. In the last two they will be doing painting and sewing. She's really excited about these parts of the camp. That and the acting. Singing isn't one her forte right now. We were a few minutes late for drop off this morning, but I found out it didn't start until 9 AM, so I stuck around with some of the other parents. Phoebe was really nervous, not knowin...

Tom and I had a good talk last night about the whole "having another baby" thing. It actually came up because of how we wish we could adopt a little girl that is in our "extended" family. She's the daughter of Tom's BIL's niece. If you can follow that. She lives with her grandmother, which is Tom's BIL's sister, because the mother (her daughter) doesn't have custody, the father does, but he can't keep her, so he let's the grandmother (the mother's mother) keep her. Not of this is formal and legally binding. I know this sounds like a Jerry Springer show. This little girl's grandmother was in the hospital recently and so Tom's sister has had her for a few days. I'm not sure if the grandmother got out of the hospital yet. Tom and I heard about this and we both said in his mom's kitchen that if anything ever happened that the grandmother couldn't keep her, we'd love to have her. Of course we'd wan...

We went out to the movies on Friday night and it was really the first animated family movie I've enjoyed since Monster's Inc. Yes, we went to see Ratatouille and it was fabulous. I highly recommend this movie. I thought the story line was original, which is often hard to come by when it comes to any movies these days, let alone children's movies. The characters were highly entertaining, and they made me love a rat for his love of food and wine. He often ate cheese and wine in the movie, so of course I could relate to the rat, LOL. I'm sure this isn't a very professional review of the movie, but just like my wine tasting reviews, "I just know what I like." I was left with the same feeling I had after seeing Monster's Inc. "That was the coolest movie ever!" After the movies we went to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes. The rest of the weekend was kind of quiet. Tom got some painting done in the dining room. We're happy with the ...

Since Phoebe got out of school and the summer officially started, I've let a lot of things go around the house. Especially, since DH started the painting project that we are still in the middle of and it will definately contine for sometime since we're now working on some special effects in the study and dining room ala Home Depot Ralph Lauren style . I know I've promised pictures before, but I promise to post more especially of our home decorating projects. Since this mess in half of the downstairs rooms is going to continue, I decided it was time to get back on the Flylady bandwagon. I updated my planner yesterday with my daily and weekly routines. I'm trying to follow them, but I know I still have a bit more work to do there. I wish I woke up earlier than 6:30 AM this morning. I would have been able to finish my morning routine then. I have conquered the laundry monster and am all caught up now. The kitchen was nice and straightened up. My Weekly House Bles...

I so love my acupuncturist! I told him all about my problems this past month. We decided to change my herbal formula. Problem is because of the holiday in the middle of the week, I won't have the new formula until next Monday. :-( It seems to cover everything I've been having problems with PMS irritability, low-back pain, clotty periods (aka blood stasis) and a wiry pulse. I'll take his word on the last one. He always says I have a very wiry pulse. Shows me off to his apprentices as a perfect example of a wiry pulse. "It's very rare. You rarely see such a beautiful wiry pulse." Yes, Dr. TCM, but it's not supposed to be that way and it's standing between me and a new baby! So we'll be changing my herbs and he did some acupuncture to work on my blood stasis. Now I know I should get better about avoiding dairy products and making sure I get regular exercise. The 4th of July was nice, Phoebe and DH played in my in-laws pool and we had a ba...

So one important thing to mention is that I've given up taking my BBT (waking temperatures). The fact that I was being forced to think first thing in the AM about fertility was getting too much. I've been taking my waking temps for years now,, so it's a big deal for me to stop. I think the other reason I'm OK with stopping doing this is that I do trust my acupuncturist to straighten out my cycles, even though this last month sucked. I'm trying to remember that I did have the stress of the HSG test that could've messed it up as well. I don't remember if I mentioned my results, but everything was clear, but the spillover on the right side was slow. I think I do have touches of endometriosis still and that's why. My lower back was hurting most of last month and I've been having strange twinges or cramps in my right lower side. This is what TCM guy and I are going to discuss today.

Well AF showed up yesterday. Not that I'm surprised, but TCM guy and I are going to have some things to talk about tomorrow. I had horrible PMS rage on Friday and Saturday. Really don't want that happening again. I also made lots of changes to the website. Sorry for those who don't like advertising, but if it makes me a few extra $$ every month, it's a good thing.

Sorry I haven't been around. Things have been busy around here with painting walls, working and such. What free time I've had has been spent enjoying the Bridget Jones fan fiction found at SFaith's LiveJournal site . She posts on fanfiction.net but there is a lot of stories on her livejournal site that weren't posted. She is an awesome writer of BJD fan fic. I get totally lost in it. OK. I can't understand where all the other icons on my toolbar went for writing posts on blogger? I have spell check and insert a picture. All the other formatting and creating links are gone! That's why I didn't create a link to sfaith's website. I can't seem to do it. Another reason to push me to doing more with my mac and posting my blog elsewhere. If I ever do, I'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind. We have our 8-year-old nephew until later this afternoon. Him and Phoebe had a two night sleepover. We took them out to dinner last night and it was ...

Had a great weekend. On Saturday, I cleaned the house like a demon while Tom got his car brakes fixed at the repair shop. I had amazing energy. After I finished the house, I went right to the yard and finished all the weeding in the flower beds and put down Preen to keep the weeds at bay. This is the first time I'm using Preen, so I'm not sure how it's going to go yet. After that, we went out for dinner with friends. Sunday, Father's Day, Tom was supposed to go to Virginia for work. He found out he needed to on Saturday because of issues with a project down there. So we changed our plans that we wouldn't see Phoebe and his parents on Father's Day. I was a bit bummed, but figured when he got back Sunday night, we could have some relaxing time together. When he went to leave, I noticed he had an overnight bag. I asked him what was in the bag. He said "A change of clothes." I asked what he needed a change of clothes for and he said he was stayi...

I had my HSG test yesterday and all systems are go. Tubes look all clear. Test hurt like a bugger though. I forgot how much that test sucks. It's 10 times worse than an endometrial biopsy, cause at least they go in, snip and their done. This test the catheter is above your cervix and shooting in dye for a few minutes. Really bad words almost came out of my mouth very loud. I know I screamed a bit, but the worst thing I said was "Oh, Shit!" Anyway glad that's over. Not sure what we're going to do with this info yet. Tom and I get to have the fun conversation about if we should go back to the RE. If we did, I think I would stick to ovulation induction and IUIs (with DH's potent sample of course, that man could populate the earth!). I did get an email from someone anonymously to have him wear boxers and that worked for them to have their second. While I appreciate the well-meant advice, that's not our problem. He's always worn boxers, prefer...

I had a very wierd dream this weekend. Again I'm still making sense of it as usual. I had to catch a flight to go home from somewhere, and I was running late because I hadn't finished packing everything I brought. What really struck me was the oddness of all the things I had brought on the trip. I think I had brought everything I owned except the kitchen sink! It really struck me when I started packing my grandmother's china. That is sitting in my basement in a box as an heirloom for Phoebe someday. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't wait to have the butler's pantry put in our house so I can put it in an actual cabinet and maybe use it sometimes. Right now I just don't have any place to put it except in storage. But I don't think that was the point. I think it was trying to tell me two things that drive me crazy about myself. One: I always feel like I'm late to everything (even when I'm not, my heart is racing). Two: I always f...

Not that I've gone on vacation or anything. We've just been really busy. I have a ton of things to post about and some pics to post too. I'm blogging from work (shhh!), right now, so I'll have to catch up on the pics later. AF showed up yesterday, so I have my HSG test scheduled for next Thursday the 14th. I'm still seeing my acupuncturist and I feel things are going well, except for that this month I started spotting 3-4 days before getting AF. However, I know I was drinking coffee again last month and had a thoroughly enjoyed the music festival at the vineyard (and the wine too!). I must admit that I took an HPT before going to the vineyard. We got a juicer yesterday and I'm really enjoying it. Made a glass of celery, kale, cucumber and apple last night for dessert (LOL!) and for breakfast this morning it was carrot, kale, beet, parsely and apple. I'm doing a minor juice fast today. Haven't done one in awhile. At lunchtime I walked down to th...

We've been busy and it's been great! Thursday we saw Gwen Stefani in concert. It was Tom, me, Phoebe and SIL. It was a full circle for me seeing her in concert with DD. When I was pregnant with her seven years ago and I found out I was having a girl, I used to play "I'm just a Girl" in the car at the top of my lungs for her. She loves Gwen as much as I do. I think one of my favorite parts was when she sang "4 in the Morning" which is my current favorite song. I cried my eyes out when she sang that song. We got home really late Thursday night and spent both Friday and Saturday still recovering. Sunday we went to the Philadelphia Zoo (we're members) with another family we're friends with. They have a daughter Phoebe's age. The girls had a great time. The gorillas were having a great time chasing each other all over the place. They were outside, inside, over and under. The girls kept walking all over the different areas to watch the...

Sorry I've been absent lately. Both work and home have been busy for the past two weeks. I think I'm getting things back in order now. Phoebe's taking a shower right now, so I figured I'd take a moment to blog. Tom graduated with his EMBA on Saturday, which was really nice. It's nice now to know that I can rely on him for a bit to get some things done around the house. He made a phone call today to get a quote for a sprinkler system and made chicken parm for dinner tonight. I could get used to having him available for stuff.

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers that are mothers or are in the process of becoming mothers. May all your wishes, hopes and dreams for your children come true. I only have a few minutes I have to go help munchkin in the shower and get her to bed, but I wanted to let you all know that I did get my nose pierced yesterday. I love it! It looks awesome. I think I like the most that it gives me an edge. I always look so wholesome, most people don't realize what I really am. I am a nice person, of course, but I'm a yoga practicing, health food eating, semi-practicing Buddhist, recovering Catholic, punk and alternative music lover. Try saying all that real fast. I like that with my stud in my nose, I'm proclaiming that I may dress conservatively at work and may use my manners and act very proper, but I'm really a bit unconventional. I've always known that, DH thankfully knows that and I think Phoebe realizes it. Well I'll owe some pics tonight. Pics of...

Still no luck. Aunt Flo showed up today and my temp dipped. Kind of sucks really. My temps were going up for the previous three days, so I bought a box of pregnancy tests yesterday evening. Tom even said this morning he thought we would've done the deed this month as we had lots of good "quality time" together. LOL As I told TCM guy this week, I think we're onto something. At least my crazy feelings all month are gone. Although I'll have to tell him they've been replaced by anger PMS. The past few days, I've been quite short in my dealing with difficult situations. My lower back has been a little achy the past 24 hours and I've been a little crampy. I'm going to continue working with him and my annual GYN appt is on the 24th. I'll be asking her to set me up for an HSG test in June. Want to make sure the pipes aren't clogged up. This afternoon, Phoebe's school is having a Mother's Day tea and they are putting on a play for...

It was a beautiful day, but very windy and brisk. Thankfully we had chairs to sit on and a quilt to put over us to keep us warm. Phoebe had a pony ride and her and Tom kept making their own bets on horses. I think Phoebe is supposed to make our bed for a week and give her father a back rub. I told Phoebe I learned a long time ago not to bet with her father unless I didn't mind losing. Here's some pics I uploaded from the day.