Holiday Recap

Hey blog world! I took a little break from blogging to enjoy the holiday weekend. I certainly am enjoying not working and just taking it easy. Yesterday I didn't get out of my jammies until after noon!

We were able to get to our Christmas Eve party which was delightful. Then we headed to Mass. Christmas day was spent at my parents enjoying their "new" kitchen and living room. Their remodel took a long time but I think it was worth it. I got a pretty tea pot and some holiday mugs which is just what I asked for! The husband and I didn't do gifts as we got a DVR earlier this year and we're getting new windows in the new year. The day after Christmas my parents, brother and I went to the Twin Cities to see A Christmas Carol in 3D IMax. It was pretty good. We then went out to lunch at Bucca. We headed back home and the husband and I met up with some friends from high school for dinner which I still wasn't hungry for due to the large lunch!

The husband decided not to fish or hunt on Sunday so we rented a ton of movies and stayed in our PJ's until after noon. By noon I was feeling, as Heather says, Rungry!  (Check out her new blog design and address). I hadn't run in over a week. I hadn't had a really intense workout since I taught cycling on Wednesday. I planned on going to the YMCA for a good run AND a short swim. The run went really well. The swim started out well but then the firs alarm went off. The whole building was evacuated including the 7 of us who were in the pool. We had to stand outside in 20 degree weather in our went suits! The life guards gave us these special blankets which helped to keep our heat in but it still was not fun! Needless to say I didn't finish my swim and jumped in the hot tub when we got let back in.

I'm still off of work today but have to teach group strength at noon. I also need to clean the house a bit and work on some Zumba songs for tomorrow. We get to celebrate Christmas all over again on Wednesday when my husband's family come in town. I'm sure I'll have more pictures since the little kids will be there. They are so cute!

I certainly notice the effect of not eating well over these last few days. I feel sluggish and some times sick to my stomach due to the extra sugar and fat. I have a few easy days of clean eating before we feast again. I think being reminded of how crappy I feel when I don't eat well will help my to make better choices!

AF did show up in full force this morning. I'll blog more about my thoughts on my up coming fertility consult!

Lazy Christmas

First of all Merry Christmas! I'm not sure where you all live but I'm in the Midwest and the weather is NASTY! Snow, ice, freezing rain, rain! I feel so lucky that we don't have to go anywhere.

After my long nights spent at work watching the students studying for finals I decided to start my Christmas vacation early and took off yesterday. I had to teach cycling at the YMCA at 6:00am. After that I showered and immediately put my jammies back on. The doggie and I spent most of the day in my bed watching Flash Forward on the Internet. I really wanted to watch this show when it was on but totally missed it even with our new DVR. I started watching it while working late and now I'm hooked! I did have to get dressed to go for a hair appointment but that was about it.

I had plans to go to a fun class at the YMCA called the Jingle Bell Body Blast but I'm too afraid to drive so after my breakfast digests I might download some workouts and do them in my basement. Not sure if we'll leave the house to make it to our Christmas events tonight but I don't care. I'd rather be safe. Bad weather makes me nervous ever since I lost control on the interstate during a storm.

I did take an early pregnancy test this morning hoping for a positive to wrap up for my husband but it was negative. I'm not super sad as I know it's still early but it would have been fun!

Have a great holiday everyone! Be safe out there!

Dip?

Well, I ended up staying at church until about 11:30pm. Not too bad! I could have slept in this morning since I had no where to be but of course I woke up at 6am when my husband did. Therefore I got a pretty accurate temp reading. I'm not even sure why I bother to take my temps after ovulation but oh well. The last three days my BBT has been 98.3 and today, 7dpo it was was 97.9....implantation dip????? I am really trying not to get my hopes up this time but I would also really love to cancel that appointment at the fertility center in January. Right after I ovulated I felt sick to my stomach almost all day. The only time it felt better was when I ate something. This is has been happening on and off ever since then. The dip in temp this morning furthered my hopefulness. Another weird thing, I do not want to drink alcohol. Not that I'm a huge drinker any way but I occasionally like a glass of wine. I sometimes crave red wine. Or maybe a beer depending on what we're eating or if we are out. Sometimes during the 2WW I don't drink at all and find it really challenging. This time the thought just totally turns me off. Weird!

Today I sat around in my jammies until almost 9am watching the finale of Survivor. I must say it was a pretty good season. I am really looking forward to the next season Survivor:Villains vs. Heroes! Then I cleaned the house, walked the puppers, took a nap, had some dental work done, shopped for veggies  at the co-op and now I'm back at work. The husband made me a happy girl by bringing over dinner! Tonight is my last "late shift" I'll work tomorrow during the day then I'm OFF until after New Years!

Technorati Tags: implantation dip,TTC,fertility

It's the most interesting time of the year

So, for the last 5 hours I've been sitting the basement of the church where I work. Why am I doing this you ask? Well, it's finals week. Since we are the Catholic church on campus and our main goal is support the student population of the public university we keep our doors open for the students. It gives them a nice quiet place to study and we stay open LATE, later then the library. We also have yummy treats for them to eat and drink. Who wouldn't want to study here? Alas someone has to "house sit" as my boss calls it. This means basically sitting around keeping an eye on things, making sure "strangers" don't come around and bother the students or eat their food. The first year I worked here I stayed until 2am! The last couple of years haven't been too bad.  So my boss asked me to work this afternoon and this evening. As for my day I got up and got the laundry started, ate breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, walked the dog, went to the YMCA to run on the treadmill and do some core work, came home and finished the laundry, got here about noon. The Internet was down on my computer but that turned out to be a good thing as I got three chapters read for my grad school class, I ate 2 chocolate candies, 1 piece of peanut brittle, and one mini granola bar. I'm hoping to go home in a bit to eat dinner with my husband and then be back for the evening. I have DVD's to watch and some knitting projects to do. So yeah pretty crazy day. The worse part is not being home with my hubby and missing the season finale of Survivor. Thank God we have a DVR! Now if only I can keep from finding out who the winner is!

Technorati Tags: final exams,Survivor,crazy day!

Blessed

Hello friends! Man have I been a slacker on blogging. I LOVE to read blogs. I don't know how some of my favorite bloggies have time to post three times a day! I wish I could do that. I guess that's why they're "famous" in the blog world. I promised myself I wouldn't read any blogs until I posted something! Sometimes I don't think I have anything to post but now that I think about it I do!

In TTC news the hubby and I gave it are all this last week! According to my lovely fertility software from Taking Charge of Your Fertility we BDed 3 out of my 5 fertile days including the day of estimated ovulation. So now, we wait. I'll be 10dpo on Christmas Eve. I've never been one to test early. I always just wait until AF shows up. The only time I've tested was when I wasn't charting and was "late". Guess I just O's late that time. I am considering testing Christmas Eve morning. Wouldn't it be awesome to wrap up a positive pregnancy test for my husband?! I also got an appointment at the fertility clinic. It's not until January 18th so I'm glad I didn't wait any longer. I am just hoping and praying I have to cancel it.

In fitness news I swam 44 laps, which is 1.2 miles, also the distance of a 1/2 ironman swim all before 7am this morning! It took me about 50minutes. I felt pretty darn good about myself! I haven't been running much. About two weeks ago we got hit with 17inches of snow that pretty much ended my outdoor running. I also work out early in the morning and don't feel comfortable running in the dark. I've done a few treadmill runs but when faced with the choice of running on a treadmill or swimming I'll pick swimming I guess.  I do really want to keep my running up over the winter. It's such a pain to try an rebuild in the spring. We'll see. As for right now I'm just listening to my body and doing what feels right.

Looking back on this past year, even though I think I should feel sad that we didn't get pregnant I truly feel blessed. My immediate family might be a bit dysfunctional but I have an awesome husband and a wonderful group of friends. My job might not always be the best but at least it's a job and sometimes I do get a glimpse of the difference I'm making. Life is good. I'm happy and healthy and trying to live each day to it's fullest, even if that means getting to put my jammy pants on at 5:30pm and chilling with my husband and dog.

Technorati Tags: TTC,Fertility,swimming,blessings

Checking in!

Howdy folks! How's your Saturday going? Mine is just peachy! I've been up for awhile (just couldn't sleep in). I watched some Ti-voed shows and worked out. I can really tell how much more core strength I've gained doing the whittle my middle challenge over at Angela's blog. I use to really struggle during class when we did core work but today I stuck it out like a champ! I also did something this morning that I haven't done in almost a month. As I wrote about in this post I quit going to Weight Watchers about a month ago which was also the last time I weighed myself. I woke up feeling a little hungry (even though we went out last night), went to the bathroom (sorry if that' TMI), stripped down and weighed myself. Guess how much weight I've gained? None! In fact I've lost 2 or 3 lbs, I'm not even sure because I don't remember the number or what I weighed a month ago! The best part is I'm not letting the number on the scale rule my world. Like I said I don't even remember what it said. All I know is that I was in the low 170's and now I'm in the high 160's which is good enough for me. Another positive effect I've seen from my recent break up is that I don't freak out about food so much. I use to map out my week and look at all the "challenging" food situations I would be put in and try and plan around them. Try is the operative word here. I usually would starve myself and then binge or never get "back on the wagon" so to speak. Now I just eat the food that's presented to me making the healthiest choices possible given the situation and what I've eaten during the rest of the day. It's great. I'm really happy! In fact I'm just realizing now how awesome this is!

In trying to conceive news the husband and I have decided to "give it hell!" this month since next month we plan on seeing a fertility specialist. Our insurance covers very little in the way of fertility treatment so we thought we'd give it our all this month with hopes of not even having to deal with it. What this means is "doing the deed" every other day (starting today) for a week. We shall see! Let the games begin!

Technorati Tags: health,losing the scale,infertility

Snowbound

Hi there! Long time no blog, I know! Not much news to report. Yesterday, last night, and today we got OVER a FOOT of SNOW! EVERYTHING was shut down even the mall! Fortunately for me (or maybe unfortunately) I am able to walk to work so I put on my snow pants and headed out.

Last week I was really getting frustrated by my work. I totally should have blogged about it. I literally had this voice screaming in my head that said, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" Yeah, you know it's bad when that happens. I can't quite discern why but I was fed up. I know that when you feel this way you are suppose to answer, "What would I really like to be doing with my life?" For a long time I didn't think I had an answer. I mean, this is my life. Since I was 17 I wanted to serve God and bring His message to young people. I am only beginning to realize that you don't have to do this only through ministry. I began to imagine what it would be like to just volunteer at a church rather than have all the responsibility this job entails. Plus I think  I figured out what that other thing I would like to be doing is. Fitness and nutrition. I was begriming to think this was only a pipe dream. I mean, there is no way I would go back to school for this. But there are a TON of certifications I can get to help me fulfill this dream if only at the YMCA and part time. Which might be a good thing. Last week at my weekly meeting with the priest and my other boss J the priest said he wanted both of us to list all the "things" we've done in Campus Ministry over the last 18months. He said we needed to look at what we are doing and reevaluate it AND reevaluate our budget and possibly our staffing....Uh Oh!

Honestly I've been saying this since I've been here we do not need a full time Campus Minister (J) and a part time Associate Campus Minister (me). One person could totally do what we do together as a full time job (does it sound to you like someone (J) might not be pulling his weight?). When the possibility of losing this part time position was presented to me I really felt quite

relieved. I mean, money would be tight and all but I could do other things. I guess you know your in the wrong place when you wouldn't be sad to lose you job. So, we meet again tomorrow. I'm sure nothing major will happen until next school year or this summer but it's good to be planning ahead. On the other hand J could decide to retire and I could be offered a full time position as Campus Minister......I'm not sure I would like that either.....oh dear!

Technorati Tags: ministry,snow,job loss

Got the Ball Rolling

Well, I did it! I called the Fertility Center at our clinic. I really called inquiring if they ever offered appointments after 4pm (they are open 7am-4pm and my husband works from 7am-3:30pm) Unfortunately the answer was no. Their earliest appointment is 7:30am and the last consultation appointment is at 2:15pm. I also found out that they send you a packet and then when they receive that back they call to set up an appointment. I asked them to please send that to me. I know we said we would wait until January to see a specialist but I figured we better get the ball rolling. We've actually been "trying" (meaning no birth control at all) for 16 cycles. 11 out of those 16 I charted every little detail of my cycle and my life and we tried to "time" things just right. The other 5 cycles we just took a break from charting to see what would happen. So, I'm back to charting, just so I have something to show the doctor when I come in. I really don't want to say this and of course I'm not certain but I don't think the problem is with me. Just based on my charts and OPK's it appears that I ovulate pretty regularly. Of course there could be something else wrong with me. In a way it would be easier (?) if the problem was with DH, I think (from what I've read) it's easier to "fix" (right?). Well, I guess we'll find out. I guess this is the next chapter in our journey. I'll try to keep blogging about more than just IF. I think I did a pretty good job of not mentioning it too much during the last 3 months...don't you?

Grinch

Well, I see I haven't posted in a long time. My previous post was filled with joy and excitement about teaching classes at the YMCA. After that it seemed it all go downhill. Thanksgiving was bad! I'm not going to go into details but let's just say I woke up the day after Thanksgiving at 4am and cried my eyes out before falling back to sleep. It's mainly family stuff.

The weekend slowly improved as I got to spend some time with my nieces. Then a couple we are friends with stopped by our house on their way home from their Thanksgiving adventures. We drank wine, played cards, and laughed until we cried.

I still haven't gotten into the Christmas mood yet. We've bought all our Christmas presents and I've wrapped a few but I have yet to get any decorations out. I usually try to do this on Thanksgiving weekend since my life gets crazy busy at work during this time but I just wasn't feeling it.

And today I found out I'm not pregnant again. I wasn't really thinking I was but I was beginning to entertain the idea of announcing it at Christmas in a cute way. I checked out the fertility site for our clinic. I guess that's the next step. I guess I do really want to find out what's "wrong" with us but it's kind of scary all the same.

I need to perk up though! I'm teaching Zumba at 4pm and then hosting a Christmas party for the college students!