Hair

I got my hair cut!

My World Has Been Redefined

Nobody Does it Like Sarah Lee!

I wish I had a picture of the truck we saw at Waffle House today. It was a Sarah Lee delivery truck and I learned something that tilted the earth on it's axis (more than the normal tilt). It shouldn't have been so monumental, but sometimes you just don't get to choose what has meaning and what doesn't.

The slogan is actually Nobody Doesn't Like Sarah Lee. What marketing genius created a slogan with double negatives??? Who thought that was a good idea? The same guy who made "You've got mail" and "I'm lovin' it" household terms??? Are these idiots from Memphis???

I just feel dumber knowing the real Ode to Sarah Lee jingle.

It's a Saturday morning and I'm just hanging out here with my Egg-Nog Latte, looking around and silently listing all I would like to get done today.

1. Take Grace to the groomer.
2. Stop by the Christmas store and get the neighbors each an ornament for the Christmas get-together.
3. Print the invitations to the Christmas get-together so the neighbors know about it.
4. Decorate the tree.
5. Hang up the clothes that are draped over the chair arm next to me.
6. Wrap presents.
7. Figure out how to get my mom to move to Memphis. (Other than having 6 babies!)
8. Maybe, if I'm good, go to the bookstore.

It's going to be a great weekend!

I got to go out with girls last night. I still haven't met many friends here. We went shopping, ate dinner and drank margaritas. I had not much margarita. We were in Olive Branch, MS and I needed to be able to drive home.

I am so grateful Alan got me a car with GPS. I would be in Louisiana by now, kidnapped and flying down the bayou on a swamp boat looking for the Devils Eye with Teddy, without it. My North/South/East/West is no good out here.

Now the song Someone's Waiting For You is in my head. The one at the end of side A on the LP record version. The sad song. Great. Now I'm crying.

I love that this is a government website. I imagine a little man with a Casio keyboard on his lap and his monkey in a tiny red suit and hat are sitting somewhere in Washington recording music for this website. And getting paid to do it. Just think, there is a line somewhere in the big ol' US budget called Electric Keyboard Children's Music for Website - $521,670.00. The children don't have books in the schools, but don't cut the Elevator Music Budget! We neeeeeed that!

She wants bacon.

Grace whispered bacon to Santa yesterday. Bacon grease. Bacon soup. Bacon fat. Cooked bacon. Bacon bits. Raw bacon.

Best Gift Ever?

$249.00 + tax and shipping to bring you child's fears to life.

Time for a Book Review! Yay!

I've always been fascinated by fairy tales. Not the Disney, watered down version of fairy tales, but the original, twisted version of a story told to warn children - and sometimes adults - about the not so gentle wide, wide world.

~~Interrupting the book review for an impromptu movie review~~

If you haven't seen Enchanted, then go! It's like how a cartoon would actually be in real life. Oh my gosh. I laughed, I cried, I was grossed out about roaches in the bathtub. I mean, even Disney can't make roaches endearing.

Anyway, make sure you sit behind two four year old little girls in the theater because they will totally enhance the experience. They're still young enough to giggle unabashedly at the things the dippy (and incredibly handsome) (and quite stupid) prince says. Or sit next to Ciara and Carroll. Same experience. We had so much fun!

~~Back to Book Review~~

Well now I'm just too wore out to give the wonderful book the review it deserves. Poop.

The Book of Lost Things by John Conolly is wonderful. It's what I thought Pan's Labyrinth should have been - only better. So much better. This book revisits many of the fairy tales I only thought I knew. When you read this book, know that the Snow White part is my favorite.

Blah blah blah. Read this book. The middle is really good. (I can't think of what to say, so here's a picture)
The ending left me wanting more, but not in the annoying way that some books do. You know the book endings I'm talking about. The ones where the author carefully plans all of these wonderful twists and turns to a story, and you end up falling in love with the characters and then WHAM! The main character suddenly turns into a bagel and the story ends with no explanation at all. Yeah, this book doesn't do that. This book makes you want to foist it off on family and friends as Christmas presents.

Shopping

I don't love shopping. If I'm going to force myself to shop I have to be in the right mood.

We are going to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and I don't want my mother-in-law to think her son married a crazy religious nut who believes women should only be seen wearing slacks and skirts and little doilies on her head.

In 1 1/2 hours I managed to buy 5 pairs of jeans, a really cute shirt and a pair of boots. The boots were a cheer-me-up-because-I-am-shopping treat.

Pretty, new boots with pointy toes:



















I almost got these oddly appealing brown elf-like boots with the strangely turned up toes. These are not to be mistaken for boots that the totally hot Legolas would wear, but more like boots that Hermey, the disillusioned elf; who just doesn't know his place in life elf; who eats yellow snow elf, would be sporting around in Santa's kingdom. It's in the movie, promise. Not making it up.









Legolas because, well, just because.

Question of the Day

ETA: Dustin was asking for my input on a topic he was discussing earlier that day with some friends of his. He wasn't calling me sexy.

The question of the day is posed by Dustin:

Ok, if someone told you that you were "sexy" would your initial reaction be that the person thought you were physically attractive, or that your attitude was "sexy"?

My answer:

First I would think EWWWWWW! because the only person at my work that would say that is ******* and he totally gacks me out. ***shudder***

I would say sexy is physically attractive. But to me it's a package deal. When I feel sexy I tend to look sexy. And vice versa. I can't look sexy in my really long brown, corduroy skirt. I look cute and very Banana Republic, but not sexy. Even if I did the sexy hair and sexy walk, yeah, the sexy is just not going to happen.

Now a simple jeans and cute shirt - that can be pulled off as sexy or cute. Just depends on the attitude.

Hmmm. I'm going to have to change my answer after talking it all out.

I say sexy is in the attitude, not physical.

And there you have it. The veritable chicken vs. egg and which looks better in corduroy debate.

(Thanks Dustin, for the blog nibblets)

Done!

Our yard is finally done! And someday we'll have big strong bushes to fill up the space. heh. It's so naked in the beginning.

Ahhh, Kansas!

I got a reply! I got a reply!

From: Gene
To: Skye
Subject: Re: Ah - Kansas!
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:42:13 -0500

Hi Skye!

Thanks for your nice comments. Where did you manage to find the lyrics? The jingle production company calls that "Ah Kansas" that is stuck in your mind "the hook." Once you hear it it's hard to forget.

It has now been 25 years since it first went on the air in 1982! I plan to play some of the various versions on my Saturday morning radio program in the coming weeks. If you live in the Wichita area you can hear them on the air again or on the podcast. I will try and attach an mp3 file of one version to this e-mail. Please let me know if it works. Bet "the hook" will get even your Texas born husband singing along!

all the best, gene

Gene is my new bestest friend in the whole wide world. The mp3 did work and I got to sing my song with all of the words and everything. And oh, how Alan is singing along! AHHHH KAN-SAS!

I was born in Kansas, I was bred in Kansas...

I sent the following email to Gene - the man who came up with an ingenious marketing ad in the 80's to sell the ambiance of Kansas. Ahhhhhh, Kansas!

Dear Gene,

Thank you so much for creating the Ah, Kansas! ad campaign. It was brilliant. I am still singing the song 20-something years later.

I hope you can help me with a little dilemma. I am searching for the Ah, Kansas! ad song so I can let my husband hear the whole song and can't find it anywhere.

This song filters into my head and, apparently, out my mouth on a regular basis. The problem is that the song coming out of my mouth is:

Dun dun duh duh dun duh dun dun dah AHHH KAN-SAS!
(repeat this line over and over and over)

The issue now is that this same version of the song is now coming out of my TX-born husband's mouth, too. I guess I sing it a whole lot more than I thought.

I found the lyrics online, but my singing just can't do the song justice. Do you know where I can get a copy of the original ad with the lady singing the Ah - Kansas song?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Skye

I hope I hear from Gene soon.

ETA: The link to Gene's reply

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Here are some pictures of the new bushes. The landscaping is about 1/2 finished.

~~Technical issues uploading the pictures. I'll get back to them later~~~

If any of the planting crew are reading this -
BRING ME BACK MY GARDEN HOSE YOU POOP HEADS!

Someone stole the bushes!

We used to be the haunted house on the block. Now we're the NAKED house!

I am so excited. The landscapers came today and took the bushes away.

Embarrassingly enough, I didn't notice the missing bushes when I pulled up from work. I noticed that I could suddenly see the dining room table. And I noticed how the house was suddenly soooo dirty. Oh, and I noticed that there were mysterious orange lines spray painted on the lawn. But yeah, completely missed the lack of green leafy things.



This picture was taken when we bought our home. We had to remove the Maple because ants had made a home in the trunk.







This picture was taken yesterday after Tanya saved the hydrangeas that were along the wall with the little window that has shutters. They are now in a shady spot in her side yard.




And this is what I saw tonight when I got home from work. How cool is that?! We have a naked house!

Part of the 37%

We didn't get the results we were looking for. I'm not pregnant.

Alan was so sweet. He came home from work with flowers. He really gets what a big deal this is. I didn't think he did. He's such a strong, silent type and I just never could read if he knew what a big deal this is. Was.

We're meeting with the doctor 11/6 to discuss options for a 2nd round. We'll probably wait until January to try again.

In the meantime, here's some pictures of what's important in my life right now.









Alan and I eating dinner at Tanya and Jim's house.















Tanya decorated our gate early in the morning on my birthday!












Me and Alan at the Botanic Gardens on my birthday.












Alan's fish because they're pretty!











And a picture of Grace because she's even prettier!

She's trying to run away from the camera. She's shy.

Pretty!

My mommy just sent me the yummiest flowers! I wish you could smell them. The roses really smell like roses. And never knew the popcorn ball flowers had a fragrance at all! The whole room is brighter now!

Thank you Mom!

The Importance of Stillness

I am so just lying here being a very good girl. I'm not moving or dancing or wiggling at all.

Three embryos were transfered on Monday morning and since then I have done my very best to be still. I never realized what a wiggle-worm I am.

Monday and Tuesday were easy because one of my best friends drove 8 hrs to come and stay with me. Alan had to go out of town on business. Does this mean that if an embryo implants that Kiwi is actually the co-parent instead of Alan? After all, she's the one who made me really good meatloaf and picked up chicken fried steak and got me drinks whenever I needed one so that I didn't have to move from my reclined position?

Today it's a little more difficult, but so not impossible to continue to be still. I think with a little practice I could be a sloth for a living.

My embryos will implant between today and Thursday this week. I go in for a pregnancy test 10/3.

Ups and Downs

Egg retrieval went really well. Thursday Lucy, the Embryologist, called to let me know all seven eggs retrieved fertilized.


Not my egg, but the picture above is what my egg looked like after one night fertilized.

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Friday Lucy called and told me that of the seven eggs fertilized, five were doing very well. On a scale of 1 - 5, two of the eggs were a grade 1 and three were a grade 2. She said she was planning on a 5-day transfer instead of the expected 3-day transfer due to the great quality of my eggs. Yay!

Above is an example of what a 4-cell embryo looks like.

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Saturday Lucy called and didn't have quite the optimistic news as yesterday. Only three embryos divided to the 8-cell stage. Two of the embryos divided into five cells. Five is no good. Five isn't even a proper stage name. There is no stage five! The 5-celled ones must have had my math genes.


Above is an example of an 8-cell embryo. Three of my embryos currently look like that picture.

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I asked Lucy if we should transfer today (Saturday) or if we can move the transfer up a day to Sunday, which is tomorrow. Lucy said tomorrow is a bad idea because of the extreme growth in the next 24 hours. The cells divide so fast and the embryo is rather unstable.

She didn't recommend transfer for today because she wants to wait and make sure the two embryos to be transfered are the most viable choices. She won't know which embryos those are until tomorrow or Monday. She's trying to weed out my math genes.

My mom and I were shopping when Lucy called. After I hung up, all I wanted to do was get back in the car and go back to bed. I didn't even call Alan and tell him.

Hopefully, while Lucy is making sure the embryos that will be transfered are proper mathematicians, she can weed out my propensity for worrying. And while she's pcking and choosing, I think I'll suggest she picks out a couple of embryos that have Alan's hair gene. Great, now I'm picturing dividing eggs with curly hair.

Here's a picture of what we are hoping to transfer two of on Monday. Pretty, aren't they?


I did finally tell Alan. He's optimistic and thinks everything will be okay. He's so good for my nerves.

hCG injection

Big needle. Big! Other than that, I think the hCG shot went okay. My poker-partner came over Monday, 9/17 at 9:30pm since my shot was to commence sharply (haha) at 10:00pm.

My poking-partner and I have since reunited. She is more comfortable with the needle stick now that she's gotten used to the initial poking. She said she just finally got over the idea that poking a person is anything like poking an orange. I didn't argue with her logic. I need someone to needle my backside for many more weeks!

Anyway, back to the big night. This night is the start to the finish of this whole protocol. It's a very important night. 36 hours after the shot, I go to egg retrieval. 3- 5 days after that, it's off to have those little eggs popped back into my person. Sounds so simple. *sigh* That has been my mistaken assumption through out this whole process.

So, my lovely assistant arrived at the scheduled time to find me staring at two vials and a really flipping big needle! We decide to finally watch the video detailing how to give the shots as we neither one can remember where in my hip that BIG needle is supposed to go ,or how, exactly, the liquidy stuff and the powder were be to mixed. Maybe things that should have been thought of yesterday.

We pop the movie into my Mac and... nothing. I hit keys and look like I know what I'm doing and... still nothing.

Okay, we're not giving up. Into the DVD player the disc goes. By now it's 10 till 10. Yeah, this stupid disk only works on my husbands PC. Of course he doesn't have speakers - which I'm usually quite pleased about because he plays this shoot people game that I imagine is loud and annoying.

I digress...

It's now 9:58 and we still haven't watched the video.

Being free spirits and not very good time managers, we wing it. That's right. The most important shot and we wing it.

I didn't bleed. None of the drug landed on the floor. And according to the pregnancy test I took the next morning that my husband was sent out to get that night (just to make sure we didn't completely botch the job) we managed to do the shot perfectly. And it ended with a Hello Kitty band-aid. Everything ends well with Hello Kitty.

Did I mention my husbands headphones only work out of one side? It wasn't pertinent to the story, but it did give me a good Christmas present idea.

Crazy Meds

Crazy Meds. That's what they should call this stuff. Lupron and Follistim are horrible, horrible crazy lady making medicines.

1. I'm now 10 lbs heavier.

2. I can't seem to keep a single thought or idea in my head long enough to act on it.

3. I cry with minimal provocation. Gilmore Girls finale reaired and I sobbed like I lost my best friend. Granted, I sobbed the first time without all of the extra hormones, but the 2nd viewing shouldn't have been so traumatic!

4. I'm about to cry again just thinking about crying during the finale. I can't believe we have said our last goodbye to the town of Stars Hollow. No more Sean Gunn and his odd little concave chest. No more Babbette and her gnomes. Love him or hate him, there is no more Luke.

5. My tummy is bruised in allllll these little circles.

6. These stupid drugs have my emotions so out of wack that I'm missing the friendship of someone who I really cared about and who hurt my feelings this year. Someone I've decided to have minimal contact with due to the unkind, unfeeling words that were spoken in such an offhanded manner by the offender. Why, you ask, would I want to put myself in a position to be hurt again by this past friend? Only thing I can come up with is that I'm reaching for the feelings of a simpler, less stressful time. Or, I'm an idiot. You pick. I vote the latter.

7. Did I say emotions? Well it goes both ways. It's like a roller coaster in my head. If I'm not crying, I'm giggling like a fiend.

Hopefully tomorrow I will find out how much longer this will go on. Fingers crossed. Besides, this is all worth it in the end. And I do love all of the scientificness of this process. Mr. Shivley would be so proud of this instilled curiosity! He's my 7th grade science teacher. Now I'm to google him to see what he's up to. I got to meet his daughter once many years later.

I better get this posted before I wander off - again.

Needles aren't for everyone

The friend giving me my shots seemed a little anxious after the first couple of days. I asked her if she was a bit freaked out and she said she was. That she had even been talking to her husband about how giving someone else a shot is very personal and feels somewhat invasive.

Funnily enough, I don't feel the same way at all. She's just popping a needle in and that's that! No big deal, right? Wrong. I'm doing it myself now.

Poked with needles

"So what's it like to to go through that artificial baby making, uhhhh, stuff...?"

That's one of my favorite questions so far in this process. I'm currently in the middle of my 1st round of IVF. Oh, and my answer would be that it's like a whirlwind that no one told me was coming.

Did you know it's like wringing a noodles neck to find any info online about what to expect? Who would have thought it? Crazy! A hundred gabillion people have or are going through this right now but a person has to wade through piles of nonsense to find any answers to simple questions.

That's why I've decided to start this blog. I need a place to list the answers I find, and also catalog my experiences to see if my reality is in sinc with, well, real reality.