Kooza

We had a fun-filled weekend! Saturday, Paul and I went to see Cirque du Soleil (Kooza) at the United Center. Paul has seen many of these; I've seen one before. It was a great show! We went to dinner afterwards (using some gift cards from his sister). Overall, a nice date night with the husband!

Sunday, we went to a combined birthday party at the Hall house. It's always so nice to have all the kids together! Here's the best picture of the day:

Such beautiful children!! And I'm not just saying that because I'm the proud Aunt Becky. ☺ Seeing Robert and Charlotte together is so cute--he loves babies and little kids and is SO GOOD with her, and it's obvious how crazy she is about him.

We still haven't had any calls on the house. I've been watching some of the others in the neighborhood, and many are selling. I'm not sure why ours isn't, but I can tell you it's incredibly frustrating to see homes that are not that much different from ours selling for more $$. I just don't know what to do anymore. How do I market this place? We've cleaned it, emptied it, and fixed it up, but still nothing. We haven't had a showing in weeks. I may just start hosting open houses myself on Sundays. I don't know what else to do.

This week will be an easier one for me. My evening tutoring will end after tonight (the couple is moving to Belgium next week), so that will free up some time. The vet clinic will close early on Thursday, so I have the day off (depending on the weather, I may spend the day at my friend Peggy's pool). YAY! I do have to work Saturday though.

Paul is spending today at his sister's. She has chemo this morning/afternoon, so he's staying with the kids all day. It'll be good for him to do this--he's been so worried and stressed out about her. I still have to work today, so he's on his own. He hasn't done this before (spent an entire day with the kids) so it'll be interesting to see how it works for him. He's AMAZING with kids but this could be a challenge for him.

Let's hope the sun stays out all week!

Smelly smell

Yesterday, I spent an hour reading t-shirts on this site. It's a collection of photos that people send in (mostly) from Japan of the "English" they find on things. It's HYSTERICAL! The sad part is, they're all accurate. Those of you who have heard my Vigorous Throw-Up story know what I mean. It's amazing that people will wear something just because it has English wording on it. I suppose, though, that we're no better with the kanji characters I see on things. Change one of those itty bitty lines and you could end up with a completely different word. We could be as ridiculous as what's found across the pond. Here are some examples....

Oh, how I miss Japan! ☺

The last few days, I've really been missing my STUFF. The stuff in storage that, for whatever stupid reason, I didn't think I'd really need at any point. And now, I'm finding that I do. Like a glue gun. Very handy when doing crafts, costs a few dollars at Hobby Lobby....I have 2 that I packed. I swore I wouldn't go out and buy anything that I have in storage, so last night I ended up doing a craft project with wood glue, the only thing left in the closet. Gluing ribbon to plastic with wood glue...it just DOESN'T WORK. I want my stuff back!!! I WANT IT ALL BACK! I'm tired of living here.

It annoys me that we lowered the price of this house more than a week ago and haven't had a single call about it. What does one do to advertise a house?? I have it on the MLS, realtor.com, zillow.com, kijiji.com, and occasionally on craigslist. Still, no nibbles. I don't know what else to do. I'm seriously losing patience quickly and those of you who know me well know that I usually have little of that to spare. I want so badly to move from here, I can taste it. Paul announced last night that, in his research of schools systems in Kane county, he found that Batavia has a pretty good system! I really like Batavia (that's where the dream house is located) so I'm happy to think we might end up there. Why? For one, it's closer to the highway--this means more to me than to Paul. Second, it's closer to Oswego. Someday, if we have kids, my sister will be the one babysitting and this will make the trip much shorter! Of course, Batavia is WAY farther from the vet clinic, but WAY closer to Waubonsee.

Fertility doctor appointment for next Monday has been changed to July 7th (to accomodate Paul, who's spending all day next Monday with his sister, who has chemo). The second is July 9th, so that will be a week of either major disappointment or sheer elation. It will end with a lot of happiness anyway because we'll be at Waynee World that weekend for the annual Baumann (etc.) weekend up there. Looking very forward to that!!

It rained yesterday and more is expected today. I did sneak in a scooter ride yesterday afternoon, which was nice, but I think I'm driving the car to work today. OOOH! I see sun!!

FEEL ENJOY! ☺

♪♪♪♪ LSD ♪♪♪♪

♪ Ok, I know 2 posts in one day is a bit excessive. I just mowed the lawn and I'm totally JAMMING to the song Lake Shore Drive (this doesn't have the best sound) by Aliotta-Haynes-Jeremiah on my I-Pod (or, as I usually call it, my faux-Pod). ♪ This is my all-time favorite song! ♪ I don't think there's another song out there that puts me in a better mood. YES, I know that there are certain other meanings within this song. I don't care about those, but I do care that it has a great beat and it's just a really fun song.

And that's all I have to say in this post. ☺

Go Cubs go!

I think this says it all. :)

(Feel free to email me if you have no idea what this means).

This past weekend was action-packed, as they all seem to be these days. Birthday parties, work, more parties. Last night had a little bit of relaxation, which was nice. Definitely needed.

The house price has officially been lowered. I think I had the slight expectation of increased traffic through here, but of course, that hasn't happened. I'm more impatient than I thought--I want this place SOLD!! I keep dreaming about that house we saw. If you're interested in seeing it, click here. It's pretty--there's actually a wet bar in the family room. PERFECT for entertaining! That's what we hope for--a house in which we can host parties and get-togethers, and have enough room for people to stay over if they visit (my friend Cathy said she can totally see herself [and her boys] sleeping in the basement!). Cath, there would actually be a ROOM you could stay in. :)

I think our biggest fear with this is that we'll have little to no negotiating room. A house 2 doors down from us sold for $190K. It was a foreclosure that, from what we heard, was a DUMP on the inside. Some people bought it and are fixing it up. The thought of our house selling for the same $$ as that one is depressing, especially given all we've done to it. Keep your fingers crossed that it sells soon! I'm pretty sure we won't be lowering the price any further.

In infertility news, well, there really isn't any. I set up 2 appointments in the next couple of weeks to see 2 different doctors. We won't know much until those happen. I'm ready to try anything at this point, even if it's starting the adoption process. Ignoring this whole issue hasn't made it go away. Again, my patience is being tested. HOOCHIE MAMA, is it ever.

A few days of good weather this week means for more scooter riding! It almost didn't start on Saturday--not sure what happened, but it did eventually. I charge the battery on occasion, which seems to help. I haven't had any problems so far this year (someone knock something wood for me, please).

More later!

Reeeeelax.

I solved my sign-on problems! Not sure how, but who cares. I'm in.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity! First, Kim's wedding Friday night. WOW. She was stunning and everything seemed to go off without a hitch. We had such a good time! Here's the moneyshot:

I took over 700 photos from 11:30am until about midnight. It was so much fun!! Pictures are on my photo site if anyone's interested in seeing them. Mind you, they're not the greatest--I'm still learning how to use this camera with the flashes, etc., but I think I got a few good shots. That's all I hope for--a few really, really good ones. I think the one above hit the mark.

After the reception (at the Shedd Aquarium), we headed to Hoffman Estates for the Relay for Life. Everyone at the vet clinic was participating on a team there, but for obvious reasons, I wasn't there. I did see my good friend Kevin (his sister, Lisa, is my boss at the clinic), so that was nice! We stayed for a bit and talked, then came home and crashed at 3am.

The next day, we took it easy in the morning, then in the evening, we helped out at a fundraiser for Paul's sister, MariaElena. It was thrown by his aunt at a hall in Elgin. She had some singers and there was some dancing (apparently, the older crowd was upset because of the kids on the dance floor). Overall, it was a nice event, however there were only about 40-50 people who attended (including family and close friends), so not as successful as his aunt had hoped. I'll have pictures up on my site later.

Sunday, we spent the day at Paul's sister's for Father's Day. Usually, we host Father's Day here with Paul's family, but because our house is on the market (and we only have a limited number of forks and knives), we decided it would be best to have it elsewhere. It was nice and rather relaxing, however for the first time in a long time, I did not take the camera. :) I needed a break. I do not, for one minute, ever mind taking photos, but sometimes, it's nice not to be obligated to do it.

This week, I started tutoring a new ESL student. She's from Korea and very nice! Her English isn't all that great, so I hope I can do a lot of good. I really enjoy tutoring!! I never have much to prepare ahead of time, and I definitely have nothing to grade, so it has some huge advantages. Plus, the pay is pretty damned good. This month will be a major boom to my checking account.

There's been no talk of babies in the house lately. We both just seem to avoid the subject. Paul is so stressed out with everything (his sister, the house), so I kind of avoid making things worse. We're still trying to decide how much to lower the price of the house (well, Paul's still trying to decide...). It's been slow and we're both anxious to find a new place. One in particular that we saw and liked is now under contract, but thankfully, our #1 pick (in Batavia) is still available. Not sure how much longer it will be though...

Enjoy the beautiful scooter-riding weather!!

Something's up...

UGH!! I started typing and got a good couple paragraphs into this entry, then lost it all (don't ask). Bummer, dude. I'm just glad I got into it--my computer's been wacky lately and wasn't letting me in, but I managed to find some top-secret backdoor way in (that I'll likely never find again!). Not sure what I did, but I'm here, so I'll try to make it worth my while.

We went house hunting yesterday. It was a lot of fun! I enjoy seeing other peoples houses. :) This was simply a fact-finding mission--no buying yet, until we sell ours. We started in St. Charles but there were only a couple on the list here, then the rest were in Batavia. WOW! We found a couple interesting houses there (I'm sure there are tons more we haven't seen yet) and fell in love with one. It was on the northern side, near the border of Geneva, and it was PERFECT. Everything about it impressed us--the inside, the outside, the neighborhood...all of it. It's only been on the market a couple of days and I have no doubt it'll sell quickly. I'll be sad when it does (if it's not us buying it!!). Because of our 3.5 combined mortgages, we're not really in a position to add one more. So we wait.

Our house hasn't had any nibbles. It's been a week or so since the last showing. I'm not really feeling very good about this right now. Paul and I talked a little about staying here and expanding it (going up, possibly going back), but I think there are too many things we'd want done for it to be humanly possible. We're on the edge of lowering the price, but I hate to do that--I think it's already low enough, however that seems to be the advice we're getting from everyone. So...we wait.

In the meantime, we're still plugging away here. I did get another tutoring job, so I'll start that next week (it'll be Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-12 in Naperville--a bit of a ride, but if I can ride the scooter, it's worth it!). The really stinky part is, there will be a couple weeks overlapping where I'm driving to Naperville twice a day, morning and evening, for tutoring. This doesn't excite me, but the money's pretty good and again, if I can ride the scooter in the morning, that'll make the entire experience better. Both jobs are within a couple miles of each other, but still a good 35-40 minute drive from home. Worth it?? We'll see.

Happy Birthday (Wed) to my dad! And CONGRATS to my Godson, J'Mal, on graduating HS yesterday. I can't believe he's 18 (soon to be 19) and headed to EIU in the fall. What happened to the little 2 lb. 1/2 oz. baby born way too early???

And this weekend is my cousin Kim's wedding! YAY! I'm SO EXCITED!!! I get to be a guest photographer (haha) and I couldn't be more excited to do that. Look for the pictures next week on my photo site (link is on the right).

Rain, rain, go away

How's a girl supposed to ride her cool scooter with all this damn rain? Just ain't right.

Thanks to all who have made donations to NF. Since my last mention of it, I got 2 more (Kate and my dad). So far, Team Whittenhall is in 6th place for donations with just over $2400. I'm still a little away from my goal, but there are still 3 days left. It's NOT TOO LATE!! :) Just click on the link to the right and make your donation. Fast, easy, and a GREAT cause. And it's tax-deductible.

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Paul and I took some time to go through houses online. We're just looking (not yet buying) and this Sunday, we'll be going out to actually see some, just to get an idea of what's out there. It's exciting!! I actually did quite a bit of research this past weekend and made a nice list of houses that I liked. Thankfully, Paul and I have similar tastes when it comes to this sort of thing and he was in agreement with a lot that I'd picked out. We've had very little action in our house this past week, which is disappointing. I knew this process would take time...I'm just impatient.

I might have another tutoring job. The company for whom I work contacted me a couple days ago about a Korean woman who lives in Naperville (needs ESL). She requested lessons on T-TH mornings, which I can't do, so I'm waiting to hear back if she'll switch to M-W mornings. That would work out well for me. She's only approved for 60 hours but with both my other tutoring gigs ending in July, this might take me through to the end of summer. And what's one more job?? Shoot, that'll put me up to 4 (and STILL not working 40 hours!). Tee hee!

Hasta luego!

Getting things done

Last Friday, I got a bill in the mail from FCI (the first fertility doctor we went to). I opened it up and low and behold, it's a $350 bill for the cryopreservation of our embryo. Last fall, at the time of our embryo transplant (our first IVF attempt), we had been told that they were putting in the 3 "best" embryos (of 6). I use that term loosely because the embryos they had were not all that great. We were told the 3 remaining ones looked pretty bad--one had already died away, one was very slow, and the other wasn't really doing anything at all. Two weeks later, we were informed that one lone embryo had made it to the stage at which they would freeze it, so they did. We doubted the viability and quality of this embryo and, since we'd made the decision to change doctors (and taking the embryo with us was a lengthy and expensive thing to do), we went ahead and donated the embryo to research. It wasn't a tough decision--as I said, we didn't think the embryo was of good quality, so it made sense to donate it. Paul and I both believe strongly in stem cell research so the choice was easy.

Anyway, before donating the embryo, I had called to have this cryopreservation charge removed, since we weren't keeping the embryo. I spoke to several people and they agreed to remove the charge. That factored (a small part) into our donation decision.

Then this bill shows up.

I called the office today to ask about it and was informed that this charge should never have been reversed. They claimed to have sent out 2 letters in the last month explaining this (I received nothing). I was blown away that they would do this. I (as calmly as I could muster) explained that having this charge removed was a factor in our decision to donate the embryo (it wasn't as much as I said it did) and we couldn't afford to do this. One rep had to talk to a supervisor, and that person had to go to the director....blah, blah, blah.

After 2 hours and much angst, they decided ("a one-time decision") to AGAIN remove the charge for us. I tried to sound thankful and grateful, but I was still seething.

You just don't pull that kind of stuff on infertiles. It's not funny.

But it's done and I can cross that off my list. Now, onto more positive things like bathing the dog and going to the bank.....

JUST DO IT.

How is it on my one day to sleep in, I wake up at 5am? Ugh. It wasn't even the kind of wake-up where I could lay in bed for an hour. I was too restless so...here I sit.

**IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO

MAKE A DONATION TO NF!!**

As many know, Paul and I are participating in the Great Steps for NF walk on Saturday the 7th with the Whittenhall's. If you have a chance, click on my donation site (also on the right-hand side of the screen) for more info. It's a very worthy cause and I thank those who have already donated (Matt! Mom! Leslie! Peggy!). I have a $250 goal and right now, I'm $75 away from it. HELP ME GET TO THAT GOAL! Come on...you know you want to. Donate as little or as much as you want. It's tax-deductible, people. Just do it. (Dad...are you out there????)

I'm headed outside to finish planting some flowers and plants. We have a busy day today! This afternoon, we'll drive to Minooka for the first birthday of the son of Paul's cousins. He was adopted recently from Guatemala and he's beautiful! Should be a lot of fun! For those of you who were on the dance floor at the wedding, there were 3 adorable little blond girls who kicked up their heels with anyone who would join them--this is their family we're seeing today.

Keep your fingers crossed for nice weather! I'm hoping to ride the scooter this week (of course, that's my goal EVERY week!!!).