Quebec 1

Bonjour from Quebec city! We arrived not long ago and found our B&B without any problems. We ended up with a room in a small place within the walls of Old Quebec. It's GORGEOUS. Total fluke how we ended up here--we thought we had a room in one place, but turns out they could only accomodate us the first couple of nights. I frantically emailed a dozen other places (mind you, this is all taking place last week, just a few days before we left). Every place I emailed came back with the same response: no room at the inn. We thought we were screwed until this place wrote and said they could house us the entire 4 nights, and for a reasonable price. I wasn't sure about it, but on the map, it looked like it was in a nice place. Well, NICE doesn't begin to describe it. It's not the Ritz, but for a B&B, it's pretty amazing! We're on the 3rd floor in a nice, spacious room with a private bath and a balcony. The balcony alone is worth it!! The view is incredible and we couldn't be happier. Not sure how we got so lucky as to find this place, but thankfully, I could take care of it all in French.

Going back to yesterday, we had a great last day in Montreal. We had breakfast at a cool little restaurant a few blocks from the hotel (we ate there again this morning before leaving town). We then drove to the botanical gardens in Montreal. They were nice--pretty much what you'd expect from a botanical garden. I got a bunch of neat pictures. Inside the area was the Insectarium. I don't really care about insects, but I walked in to the building hoping for A/C (there was none). It was still kind of cool to see. After a few hours in the whole garden area, we left and stopped at a grocery store for food for the night. We got back to the hotel and decided to go up to the rooftop pool. The weather hadn't really been too great the whole time we were there, and yesterday seemed sunny and much warmer. We got up there, found some chaise lounges, and stretched out in the sun. Unfortunately, a gaggle of giggling teenagers were in the pool and really ruined the whole atmosphere. I got into the water once (feeling warm from the sun), but after laying back down, I couldn't get warm again. There was such a breeze that I froze my patootie off! So we headed back down to the room where we spent the evening watching TV and playing Yahtzee. This is our favorite pasttime on vacation--all we need are dice and a pen so I can draw up the score sheets on whatever paper I can find. ☺ Really fun! We have tournaments and for the most part, we're even as far as number of wins. Do we think they make Yahtzee for the Wii? That might prompt us to buy one!

We left this morning and drove to Quebec city. Paul's napping right now (it's about 2pm QC time) and eventually, we'll head out to see the sights around our hotel. We had to pay for the B&B in cash, so we're almost out of that, but thankfully most places take credit cards. We'll be here until Sunday, then head out early to Niagara Falls. I'm not desperate to see the falls, but Paul really wants to, so we'll go. We'll end up staying somewhere that night (we're not sure yet where), then head back to St. Charles on Monday (probably arriving late).

More later!!

Montreal 3

Well, today was quite action-packed! After breakfast at the hotel, we took the car from the parking garage and went in search for gas. This was quite the adventure!! We drove around and around for what seemed like an hour before finally finding a place: $1.32/liter (there are 3.79 liters in a gallon, so that comes to about $5CAD a gallon, and since the exchange rate is pretty much $1CAD to $1USD, that makes it flippin' $5USD a gallon). We just got a few gallons to get us around town, and we'll fill up Wednesday when we get out of Montreal. It might be cheaper out there...

After we got gas, we headed for Mont Royal, a mountain/park area in town. It was beautiful and not too tall of a mountain, just a little ways up. We stopped at a look-out point to take pictures and the rain started. We drove on and stopped at another place where we thought we'd get to the summit, but after a HUGE hike upwards, we found nothing but a stinkin' picnic table. We wove our way down through the woods (one of my favorite things to do!) and got back to the main trail and eventually, back to our car. We stopped for ice cream along the way. Had to gain back those calories we lost on the HUGE hike upwards.

We then drove to an area called Old Montreal. All these big cities have an OLD area. It was very nice--brick-lined streets, lots of little restaurants and cheesy souvenir shops, that sort of thing. We walked a bit to the St. Lawrence river and saw some boats, but it was raining heavier at this point, so we walked back. It was a really nice area!

We hopped in the car and started to drive back when we found ourselves in Chinatown. We parked and walked a bit, only to find cheesy Chinese souvenir shops and some restaurants. We stopped at one and had lunch. We were the only ones in there--it was a bit nicer looking and a decent meal. Paul informed me that we've "only" spent about $40 a day on food so far. YIKES! That's basically eating out only one meal (though today was double that since we had breakfast at the hotel). That seems like a lot of money to me! We're still not sure how the credit cards are going to translate the money, but it might be a bit more in our favor. We'll see.

After Chinatown, we came back to the hotel intending to hit the rooftop pool, but it rained like crazy so Paul napped while I watched TV (and tried to nap). He woke up and we started a 14 game Yahtzee tournament, which ended in a split. We also ran out of Yahtzee score sheets so I was having to draw them as we went along. ☺ Kinda ruins the whole spirit of the tournament when it comes down to how many score sheets I can draw on one page.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure what's on the docket, but it's our last day in Montreal before we head to Quebec city. We'll likely do a little shopping and hope for good weather so we can finally go to the pool. I feel like I saw a good bit of the city, probably not as much as others might see but enough for us. We definitely longed for the laziness at the start of the trip, especially after the 19 hour car ride here. Worth every minute!!

More later from the next leg of our adventure in Canada....

Montreal 2

Oh shit. I had a whole post typed up and somehow, I lost it. I tried to highlight and copy it in case I lost it, but something happened and I lost it anyway. UGH!!

Ok, to recap what I had already written, basically our vacation has been wonderfully lazy! Saturday, we walked around quite a bit in the area of our hotel. The hotel is right smack-dab in the middle of downtown. We're just a couple blocks from this whole shopping district (above ground). Underground is an entire shopping network that spans the whole downtown area. It's pretty impressive! We spent a little time down there shopping around, but Paul can only take so much of that. I could go all day. ☺ After spending the afternoon napping (me...Paul watched TV), we walked around and found a little grocery store where we bought bread, cheese, and wine and had dinner in our room. We so enjoy doing that!!

Sunday, the "theme of the day" was laziness. I got up early and spent some time on the internet, then sat to watch Grey's Anatomy (I had 5 episodes from last season on a DVD to watch later...I brought the DVD with...there are episodes of Lost on there as well, but I haven't seen those yet). Paul was still sleeping, so I watched. Then he woke up and turned on the TV, and I just kept watching (I had headphones on the laptop). Eventually, we showered and went out to forage for food around 12:30pm. We walked around for a couple hours and stopped to see the inside of a beautiful church, had lunch around 2:30pm, then came back and watched TV and played Yahtzee. We had intended to go up to the rooftop pool, but it got cloudy so we didn't. Having had lunch so late, we skipped dinner and just hung out all evening. It was perfect!

I think our time in Quebec city will be much different--more sightseeing, less laziness. We'll be staying in a small B&B in the middle of town where there's undoubtedly no TV in our room, and no wireless internet. Normally, we wouldn't think of bringing a computer along on a vacation, but with our house on the market and no cell phone service, we needed some way of being in touch with Dawn. We don't expect an offer to come in on the house, but of course, when you don't expect it, things usually happen. Since one of us is desperate to get rid of the house, I'll keep reiterating that there's no way an offer can come in while we're on vacation. Nope, no stinkin' way. It just can't happen while we're here. Too inconvenient.

(hello! anyone out there?? where are the inconvenient offers when you need one??!)

Anyway, the weather hasn't been too bad--breezy yesterday, a lot of cloudiness and overcastness, only a little rain a few days ago (more expected today). Thankfully, we didn't come to Canada to do a lot of sunbathing. ☺ It would be nice to check out the pool at some point though. I think today's supposed to be crappy and museums are closed, but I'm sure we'll find some way to amuse ourselves.

More later! Maybe I'll NOT delete this post this time....

Montreal 1

Bonjour! We arrived late last night after....get this....NINETEEN HOURS in the car. We left at 4:30am from home and drove straight through to Montreal, having stopped four times for accidents or rush hour (Toronto). It was awful. At one point, we were stopped (for an accident) and people were getting out of their cars, wandering around. I just wanted to cry (instead, I got out and took a picture of people wandering around). We came to the conclusion that Canadians can't drive, and that their emergency response system pretty much SUCKS. We arrived last night at 11:30pm (CST...we're now in EST), about 4+ hours later than we originally thought we would.

We slept in this morning and are planning to do nothing more than wander around the area of our hotel and forage for food (if it doesn't rain, we may find ourselves on the rooftop pool). The hotel is nice: somewhat dated, but we actually have a small kitchen area in our room! It's so cool! Wireless internet is costing us $5 a day, so I may just put a short update on here each day (it's nice to have a journal). We'll be here in Montreal until Wednesday, then onto Quebec city. As of this morning, we don't have a place to stay there, but I had a response from a B&B there that apparently has a room, so we're going to find a phone and call to find out if it's true. This is our punishment for planning everything at the last minute (let's call it practice for our foray on the next edition of THE AMAZING RACE).

So far, the weather's warm and I heard it's supposed to rain, but not sure if that's here or if that was for Toronto. Off to shower and hunt for food. ☺

Bailey

Just took this picture of Bailey. I often bring her to work, especially on days when Paul and I are both gone the entire day and I don't want her peeing on the couch or sitting in a cage for 9 hours with no potty break. She looks pathetic, but she has a nice roomy cage, lots of potty breaks, and of course, lots of TREATS! It's all about the treats. When I took this, she was watching a dog about to be put under to have his cajones snipped and clipped. I'm sure she's wondering when her turn will come. She'll have x-rays later (to look for bladder stones), but for now, she's safe. ☺

House blog

I finally finished it! In our increasing effort to market this house, I created a blog about it. Yes, folks, a blog about our house. Describing it, showing pictures of it, hoping that the world sees it and someone comes along to buy it. Creative? Maybe. Inventive? Possibly. DESPERATE? You betcha!

Paul and I are taking off on Friday for a 10 day drive through French Canada. We have always traveled so well together, so of course, we're looking forward to this! Plus, we both really need a vacation. ☺ There will be a hotel, a B&B, a pool, some relaxation....and the computer. As much as I'd love to keep it at home, we'll need it to be in touch about the house (since our cell phones will be turned off). What if an offer comes in? And you know, since we'll be on vacation and doing our best to relax, that offer will be made at just the most inappropriate moment (see previous post about Waynee World weekend). It's ok though...we'll be ready for it.

After we get back, we'll have 2 more doctors appointments (2 new and different docs). One was recommended by a good friend of mine, the other was Paul's cousin Missy's doctor. You know, it only costs us $20 for a doctor visit, so we figure...why the hell not? I want to get to the bottom of this dilemma we're facing with the last 2 doctors and basically see what these others have to suggest. For grins and giggles.

I likely won't be able to update again until after vacation. Go check out the house blog! Let me know what you think (and if I've misspelled anything...).

Enjoy!

Winding down

I'm starting to get that feeling of dread. The signs of the end of summer are popping up everywhere. On a walk through Target, you see patio furniture on sale 75% off and BACK-TO-SCHOOL items highlighted by BTS signs. The store ads in the paper advertise clearance prices on summer clothes and "See the FALL FASHIONS" at such-and-such store. And, of course, the end of the family weekend at Waynee World.

I know it's only mid-July, but the signs are there. They can't be denied....or ignored.

I'm not ready. Someone recently was complaining about the hot temperatures and I reminded him that this weather is much better than the what-seemed-like-a-freaking-lifetime-of-SNOW last winter. He agreed. But I think people have already forgotten about that. NOT ME.

I hate winter. I hate it with every fiber of my being. If I didn't have nieces and nephews, I would try to convince Paul to move to Singapore with me. Did you know Singapore is 2 degrees above the equator? I was there in February of 1999. AND IT WAS HOT. Fucking hot. Humid, sticky hot, the kind where just moving your eyeballs from left to right makes you break out in a sweat. And it was glorious!!

I love summer! I love mowing the lawn...planting, growing, and watering flowers...going to Waynee World...riding my scooter...eating ice cream (which can be done year-round, but it's so less enjoyable in cold weather)...walking barefoot...pedicures (again, this can be done year-round, but if no one sees your $25 pretty painted toes, what's the point?)...swatting bugs...laying in a hammock...

The list goes on and on and on and on.

I think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Seriously, I do.

I have no point to this post. No words of inspiration (I never really do!). No enlightening moment that suddenly makes me look forward to winter. I think I'm just a little depressed, that's all.

Enjoy the summer....what's left of it.

Almost

Last weekend was a BLAST! I'm exaggerating a little, but it was pretty fun. I got to Waynee World on Thursday and home Sunday night. It was adventure-filled, as always. One bit of adventure: we almost sold the house. ALMOST. There was a showing last week that turned into a second showing the next day. Then the probing questions: when was the roof done? How old is the A/C? Do you have any extra paint and such? When the questions come in is when it gets interesting. By Friday afternoon, they made an offer. Lowballed us, of course. We countered, they came back with a paltry increase; we gave our bottom line, they came back just $5K below us and refused to go any higher. Back and forth this went until after midnight Friday night, leaving us exhausted and totally spent, but not having resolved anything. The next morning, we finally agreed to the lower price and waited for the revised contract. And waited. And waited, only to find out in the afternoon that they got cold feet and backed out. GREAT. Poor Dawn tried her best to get it to work. Considering she's not really getting paid for this, she did put forth some damn nice effort.



Now, had this not happened at WW, we would have sulked for a while, sat on the pity pot, and after days of depression, realized it was for the best. But WW is a great place where you forget all that ails you, so we got right back into the swing of things and managed to have a dang nice time (even despite rain Saturday morning). There were kids everywhere! It was so GREAT! If you have any doubts, check out my photo page with the near 600 photos I posted (scaled back from the 800+ I actually took). Sheesh.



Things are quiet at home right now. We had another showing last night, but we no longer hold out hope like we used to. We also met with another agent yesterday. Paul decided it would be a good idea to shop around for another, just to hear what they have to say about the state of things here. We have no intention of letting go of Dawn, but he needs to hear from other sources that we're doing the right things. The one last night bugged me--she tried really hard to sell herself, but I had the feeling the whole time like she was just blowing smoke up our skirts. We'll meet with one more tomorrow to see what she has to say. I have a funny feeling our house will come off the market in a few months and improvements will be made. If it takes Paul hearing from multiple sources (in the field) that things need to be done a certain way for him to actually do something, so be it. (I've been hoping that hearing about egg donation from all these doctors would do the same thing...).


It's looking like some damn fine scooter-riding weather this week. Enjoy the sun and fun! I leave you with a few photos of our amazing weekend at Waynee World. What would we do without Uncle Matt and his strong arms?? ☺

Choices

Well, well, well. We had a visit today with another fertility doctor (Dr. Jacobs). This one hails from the same organization as the very first one we saw, but he's in another office. I found his name on the internet (it kept coming up first in all my searches), then later found it a friend of mine and my sister saw him. Both talk very highly of him, so we decided to go and listen to him.

He started by talking about our first IVF experience. He did say that he wasn't in total agreement with the way things were done (mainly, the change in medication after we started the heavy drugs). He did say that he was impressed with the number of eggs that were retrieved (15) and the number that fertilized (6), enough so that it puzzles him how things went so wrong the second time (with the other doctor). He didn't come right out and say it, but he seemed to disagree with the second doctor cancelling our whole cycle (and giving no explanation afterwards for it--I was basically sent along with a "See ya!" after the whole thing).

He went on to explain that there are 3 protocols for IVF. We've basically done the first 2. He explained the third one, and it was interesting: it involves the same routine, but leaves out the Lupron part of it (Lupron was the first shot I was giving myself both times...it suppresses the ovaries and is usually given to women in menopause, but it plays a rather big part in IVF as well). The thing I wasn't too sure about is when he said he would start me off at 450 of the FSH drug. If you remember, Dr. Miller wants to start me at 750. That's a HUGE difference with this drug. Dr. Jacobs said that anything over 600 is wasted and just peed out later. He said that my response to the 450 was still good (the first time) and that he'd be inclined to start with that amount.

The thing is, now we need to do some research and figure out which is the best way to go--with a higher amount or a lower amount. It's not just as easy as that though. Both doctors want to take a much different approach, and we need to figure out which is the better approach.

While looking through the records sent by the second doctor, he noticed that they were also sent to Dr. Miller (the guy we saw on Monday). We hadn't told him initially that we spoke to him, but when he brought up Dr. Miller, we told him what we were told. He then explained about the peeing out of the extra and how it hasn't been shown to work. The surprising thing is that he then went on to criticize Dr. Miller, with whom he had once worked many years ago. He didn't say he was a bad doctor, but he emphasized that Dr. Miller's main focus in his career is surgery, not IVF. He said he's a brilliant surgeon and he'd send anyone to him who had problems with endometriosis, etc. But he didn't have anything positive to say about his approach to IVF. I was shocked that he would take this stance. I don't think he really would have done it if Dr. Miller really was a GREAT doctor, like if he (J) was trying to sway us to stick with him. But it seemed highly unprofessional (in contrast to Miller's marked professionalism on Monday).

I guess the main thing that the 2 had in common was that they both thought we might have another shot at this. I really thought it was the end (given what the second doctor said). That's not to say I have a great deal of confidence that it's going to work a third time. I don't, and I'm under no illusions that I have any hope of really getting pregnant (I'm not just being negative but realistic!!). BUT...there is that little tiny piece of hope that will keep us going forward. In some ways, I wish they'd both said, "Sorry, this is the end of the line as far as your eggs go. Your only hope at this point is egg donation." Boom. Done. I have my closure and we go onto other things.

But now there's hope. And more than hope, CHOICES. Because my next period will arrive at the start of our vacation (end of July...we're going to French Canada), we won't be able to start anything until the end of August, so we have some time. Likely, we'll be visiting at least one more doctor. Not sure who just yet, but probably the one that Paul's cousin went to visit. She had success with him, so he might be worth checking into.

That's the latest! I'm off tomorrow to Waynee World for the annual family weekend. It'll be crowded!! There are 5 Baumanns, 5 Veldhuizens, 4 Halls, 2 Iacopettis, 2 Nitches, my mom, and Jack (he who owns the house on the lake). ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS!! Can't wait!! ☺

HOPE

Yesterday, we went to see a new fertility doctor, Dr. Miller. He was recommended to me by a good friend, who had success with him (and is now the proud mother of twins!). He's based in Naperville, about a 40 minute drive from St. Charles (which is why we didn't go see him before--we wanted to stay a little closer to home...now we don't care how far we go). We had a 4pm appt and showed up a bit early so they could make copies of some of my records.

On a side note, they had to copy records because I paid to have the first set sent to me, instead of to the doctor. I like having them in my control. I tried to get them from the second place, but the nurse very nicely informed me that it probably wouldn't be worth me paying the $25 for a mere 7 pages of history. She said I'd be better off having them sent directly to the doctor(s) and saving my money. So I did.

Anyway, we were taken back to the office, stopping for a weigh-in, temp, and blood pressure (for me, not Paul). I was a bit taken aback by this--I thought we were only there for a consultation, but I was ok with giving my health info. We sat in his office, waiting.......35 minutes later, Dr. Miller came in. Now, one might be normally annoyed at having to wait that long, but we were told he'd be reviewing our records right before coming into the room. The 7 above-mentioned pages were probably easy to get through, but the 30+ pages from our first attempt were what took longer. ☺ SO...he started off by saying that if we were going to attempt a third try, he would like to do a test to see if my ovaries are even responding to drugs. This entails me going on a 4-5 of Clomid, a pretty good fertility drug used to stimulate the ovaries into making eggs. Many people have used this as an only source of getting pregnant, and usually it results in those stories you hear of people having 4-6 babies at once. We won't be doing that, just using it to see if my ovaries are in working order.

Another side note, I did mention to him that if we were going to be on the Clomid and thereby stimulating the hell out of my ovaries, we're not going to waste it! If you know what I mean...

In a nutshell, if the test shows positive results, we'll go ahead with a third IVF try. If not, my only hope of carrying a child is by an egg donor. Most people know how we feel about that (if you don't, basically I'm all for it, Paul's not so much in favor).

The best info I heard from Dr. Miller was that he doesn't have the same limits on the stimulation drug. On our second attempt, I was taking 600 units of Gonal per day. They told me I was maxxed out, and stupidly, I believed them. Dr. Miller said he'd try 750 and, in the toughest cases, he's actually gone to 1200. To put this into perspective, during my first attempt at IVF, I started off at 300 units per day. He said every clinic has their own limits, based on past performances. I'm glad his is a lot higher! We joked afterwards about calling around, asking all the doctors what their limit is. ☺

We do have another appt tomorrow morning with another doctor (Dr. Jacobs). Even though we'll likely go with whatever Dr. Miller has set up for us, we do want to hear another doctor's opinion. We won't mention having seen Dr. Miller.

Then, after all these appointments, this weekend is our big family weekend at Waynee World!!! YAY! I can't wait! Hopefully, this won't be our last visit up there this year (we're going to shoot for the fourth weekend in August). I'm not sure how the weather will be, but it never seems to matter--we always have such a great time!

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll update again after our appt on Wednesday (if I can do the update that day, I will, otherwise it'll be next week!).