Jumping in, head first

There is nothing like getting up in the morning and NOT having to rush to be somewhere! I'll have no problem getting used to this. That's not to say I'm not working--I am, and I still have 3 other jobs, but no more the 8am class, or having to leave at 6:30am to get there (did I ever have to leave that early?). I can now do laundry, clean the house, empty the dishwasher...all the things I've neglected for the past 10 weeks. Thank goodness I have a husband who doesn't mind playing housewife. :)

Last night, I started the first of many drugs for IVF. I'll be on a birth control pill for 2 weeks. It seems so ironic to be taking these, but I understand why. Funny that I've NEVER needed to be on them in the past, I'm only on them when I'm trying to get pregnant. Tee hee! Anyway, April 3rd or 4th starts the next drug, Lupron, then 2 days later, I start the whole barrage of drugs--Gonal, Menopur, then eventually the progesterone (shots in the butt). I'm SO glad we waited to start this again...I could not have done this while in school.

I ran a bunch of errands this morning, now I'm off to work this afternoon. The relief of not having to grade online workbooks or prepare for class tomorrow is so nice!! I feel like I can finally breathe again!

B.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Yes, it's true. I'm DONE DONE and DONE teaching at NCC!! I still have papers to grade, but that's minor. I'm so stinkin' excited I can't stand it. It felt sooooooooooo good to walk out of there today! I just can't believe these last 10 weeks are finished.

No sooner had I gotten out of school when we had an appointment with the fertility doctor to discuss what's coming up. If all goes as scheduled (i.e. Aunt Flo arrives tomorrow), I'll start on the pill in a week or so. The heavy drugs start at the beginning of April, then the transfer will be sometime in mid-April. Hopefully, this will go smoothly because I have a lot of showers, weddings, and birthday parties to attend in April, May, and June! Any change to the schedule could mess something up. The plan this time around is much different than the first time I did this (besides being at a whole new facility!). In a nutshell, I'll be on some drugs for a significantly shorter amount of time (those would be the ones that suppress everything), and other drugs FULL BLAST (those would be the ones that stimulate everything). They are maxxing me out on one of them. Pretty scary stuff. One that I did before (the coochie progesterone) will now be a shot in the butt, which doesn't thrill me. Paul better not pull a Rob and hit me in the sciatica.

The meeting went well overall and everyone seems very positive. I don't think I'm either positive or negative, just more realistic. I don't know if this will work--I'd like to think it would and, of course, I'll be ecstatic if it does, but honestly, I won't be surprised one bit if it doesn't. I'm not really expecting it to, given our horribly low odds for success. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it does though!

Gotta go grade something now. WOO HOO! Ugh, it feels so good to be done with that place!!




B.

1 week...OH YEAH...1 week...and 2 days.

Everybody sing now....1 week! OH YEAH! 1 week! Only ONE (count 'em...ONE!) week left of classes at NCC. I'm not counting the 2 days of finals next week--those will be easy, comparatively. Actually, it hasn't been a difficult term, but I'm still very much looking forward to NOT being there. And much to my surprise...I was asked to return next year. I thought he (the dept chair) was kidding, but no, he wasn't. I declined with much glee. I'm still happy that I've finished my work there on a relatively high note.

We are almost done getting the house ready! I finished the basement this week. That was monumental. There are still projects that Paul needs to finish, but he's planning to take 2 days off work this week to get them done. I'm not really happy about him using vacation time, but there was only so far I could push him to get things done. I feel confident that they'll get done when he's home. That makes our market date next weekend and I couldn't be happier!!

All the other jobs are going well. At the vet clinic this past Thursday, there were 2 euthanasias--one on a 19 year old cat (it was definitely time), and the other on a 7 year old Rottweiler mix that really didn't need it. I tried to talk Lisa (the doctor) into just knocking him out, reviving him, and letting me take him home, but she couldn't. The owner was distraught, but not willing to hear that it might be too soon. And I've learned that as hard as it is to have ones own animal put down, it really isn't much easier when it's someone elses. A lot of tears were shed.

Teaching at WCC is going pretty well, except it seems that everytime Monday rolls around, the weather is hideous and students don't want to come to class. It's hard for me to accept the weather excuse when I myself have had to drag my butt there. I have been letting them out early for all but one class so far. Kind of stinks, but that's really the only stinky thing about it.

IVF starts at the end of this month. Ahhh, the pills, the shots, the coochie ultrasounds....I wish I could say I can't wait, but for that, I can. Oh well. Hopefully, the end result will be successful!!

I'll post pictures of the house when we're finished....one of these days.....



B.

I smell FREEDOM!!!

THREE WEEKS from now, I will be a free woman. March 12th is the date of my last final at NCC. I haven't been this excited about anything in a while. :) WOO HOO! This will probably be the longest 2 weeks of classes (the last 2 full ones, then 2 days of final exams). Things have actually gone really well this term! I'm glad about that, but I definitely don't want to go back there after this.

We're well on our way to getting this house in order. This weekend will be a big push to finish packing (at least for me, anyway). I still have a lot to do in the basement, but we now have all the extra furniture out. It actually looks like a "normal" house should. But I still miss my STUFF. Thankfully, I haven't really run into needing something, only to find I'd packed it away, and having to go out and buy it again.

MariaElena (Paul's sister) is doing ok. She had her lump removed almost 2 weeks ago and went back earlier this week for results, but didn't get much from the doctor. It does, however, look like they got the ENTIRE cancerous lump out of the boob. She'll still have to do chemo and radiation, but we're not really sure how much or how often just yet. Or when, for that matter. It's all a waiting game, and one that I think is driving Paul nuts. He's really taking this hard--he and his sister are very close. He doesn't let it show that often, but it's eating at him.

Everyone else is doing well. My cousin, Kim (she was in our wedding party), is getting married June 13th, and her brother, Greg (who was an usher in our wedding) is getting married May 10th. We're all so excited for them both!! Her wedding will be at the Shedd Aquarium--my mom, of course, is planning it and couldn't be happier! She didn't really do anything for my wedding (my choice, not hers, but there wasn't much for her to do since the Riverside did it all), so this is her chance to do the wedding of her dreams (hahaha) for her favorite cousin/niece. It should be a BLAST!!! We've waited long enough for it! TEE HEE!

Work is going well, even for Paul, so things are calm and quiet in the house right now. It's rather nice. The cat is about to be shipped off to Paul's mom's while we have the house on the market. Paul will miss her greatly (I will, too, but she's more his cat than mine). I'm sure Bailey will miss her presence as well.

That's about it from here. It's still too cold for my liking, but I'm hoping that right around the time I get sprung from the joint (NCC), it'll be about the time to get my scooter warmed up for summer. I got a new part for it (I'll post a picture when I get it installed), and I still have to fix the dent I made last summer (long story). It's going to be soooooooo cool though!

A bientôt!!

VD

Well, it's Valentine's Day. I got to work this afternoon and my wonderful husband had flowers delivered to me. It was sweet, but I wish he wouldn't do that ON Valentine's Day when it's $100 more for a delivery. Thankfully, they weren't all roses, though there were 5 nice looking ones in there. It's beautiful! Then I came home to find a container of flying saucers!! I love these things! Not sure what they are? Here's a picture:


These are hard to describe but I'll give it a shot. It's like 2 communion wafers sealed together around the edges. On the inside are tiny candy beads. I don't know why they're called flying saucers. They taste a little like sweet cardboard, but I still love them. On one of our earlier dates, I was on a mission to find these. I ended up at Naper Nuts & Sweets (a small candy store in downtown Naperville...and those who have known me forever know that I spent 4 years working there between HS and early college). Anyway, since then, he's ordered me this bundle of them every year for VD. It's a tradition now. I don't mind it.


So, overall, despite only seeing my husband for about 30 minutes this morning (he's bowling right now and won't get home until after 11pm), it was a good VD!


On another front, I spoke to the fertility clinic today. We're putting off our IVF another month. I'll be starting the drugs next month (mid-March), then we'll have the procedures in April. If all goes well, I'll be hugely pregnant at my 40th birthday party. :) We had toyed with starting this month, but that would mean NOW, and life is way too hectic at the moment for drugs to get in the mix.


We're making the big push this weekend to clear the house of all possessions except the basics. OMG, living like a minimalist is SO not like us. But we'll do it. For those who are wondering, we're hoping to stay in this area (St. Charles, Geneva, possibly Batavia) but find a much bigger house. The market is horrible, but we've gotten some good advice along the way so we're trying to remain positive. Paul won't consider looking until ours is sold, so I'm hoping that's within 6 months. I'm trying to be optimistic.


Happy Valentine's Day to anyone reading this!

Forgot to mention.....

GO GET A MAMMOGRAM!!!

MariaElena

Just thought I'd let everyone know that last week, Paul's sister, MariaElena, was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She had found a small lump right before Christmas and decided to wait until after the holidays to get it checked out. Time got away from them but she finally made it to a doctor who, after running numerous tests, gave her the news that it's cancer. She's going in for surgery this coming Monday. They think that's it's spread to her lymph nodes, but they have more testing to do to find out.

She's doing remarkably well, attitude-wise. She's definitely positive and upbeat about beating this, and she's relying on humor to help get her through. She has 2 little kids (Claire is 1 and Lucas will be 4 in May) so she wants to remain positive for them as well. She knows she has a long road ahead of her, but she's strong and will get through it.

If anyone is interested in reading her new caringbridge site, you can find it here. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

The winter of my discontent.

Eeee-gads, I hate winter. I hate being cold (especially now that I no longer have free access to a jacuzzi tub) and I hate snow. I miss green! I miss leaves on trees! I miss mowing the lawn! Winter, however, can provide some pretty pictures. I've taken a few of them along the way and posting them on my photo site in a file called Winter 2008, or something like that (for those who don't know, my site is here). Here are a couple I took tonight (that aren't on the site):

You can see how deep the snow has gotten in the second. It's awful--for those who are lucky enough to NOT live in the Chicago area (worse, if you live in Florida), this is what we're having to deal with. We had a foot dumped on us last weekend, and this afternoon, another one's expected. There's no where to throw it anymore.


Ok, enough about this horrid stuff. On the family front, Kate is pregnant! And there's only one in there! For anyone who might not know (I think all who read this do know), my uber-courageous sister is now a surrogate for a very lucky family. The thought did cross my mind that WE may need her services as well when she's done, but we'll figure that out later. In the meantime, she's managed to get out of having to shovel (lucky bitch).


School is going surprisingly well! I'm so much happier this term, thus the students are happier. All is well on the work front. The vet clinic job is so cool. I've gotten to see and experience things there that I had always dreamed of doing. I have a high tolerance for seeing blood, however vomit is still a problem (not so much with animals). :)


I hope someone, somewhere who's reading this is enjoying warm weather. I dream of it. Every. Damn. Night. Please don't write and tell me about it though. I don't think I could take it!

Enjoy!

RATS!

I'm almost halfway through my NCC teaching! YAY! It's actually going quite smoothly. I've surprised myself this term by tackling the thing I tend to put off the longest--grading. That's not to say I like it, but I'm taking it on head first. Today in class, the students took a short quiz that I managed to get graded before the end of the second class! They had an in-class assignment and I graded them during that, so before I even left the room, I'd handed them back. That's never happened before. :)

I start teaching at WCC tonight. This class is only once a week (Monday nights) and it's probably the worst way to learn a language, but we muddled through one semester already, so I'll get through this one with them. Surprisingly, I have 16 students! Not bad for a class that hasn't been taught there in 8 years! The other guy who teaches French there (he's like 85 years old) had one student signed up for 102 this semester, so he dropped that class off the schedule. He's just going to teach another section of 101. I have to wonder how long they'll keep him around.

Packing is going slowwwwwwwwwwwly. Holy CRAP, we have a lot of CRAP. I like to think I'm doing a good job of organizing things that are being packed away. I have to constantly leave lists for Paul to do and practically stand over him to make sure they get done. He doesn't realize that some of what I need to do is contingent upon him finishing certain things. So I push and nag and eventually, it gets done. With any luck, we'll have the house ready to go on the market by the end of February. That's my goal right now anyway.

Work at the vet clinic is going well! I'm learning so much there and actually having fun! Last week, I held rats for the first time in my life. I try not to act squeemish around clients and their animals. I've heard that rats make good pets and I'll be damned if these weren't the 2 sweetest animals I've ever held! They were great! They cuddled! I cuddled rats! I could see having one as a pet at some point. Even Paul isn't opposed to the idea.

We've been in contact with the fertility clinic. I've been adament about not starting the next round until after I finish teaching, but I might go ahead and start next month (Feb), which would put our egg retrieval date in mid-March, right after I start teaching. I haven't totally made the decision to start then--I'm still more inclined to wait another month. At this point, what's another month, right? It would certainly make my life easier. Anyway, the protocol will be much different, which I'll detail later once we get started.

I have to run to school now but wanted to give a little update. More in while!

Stinky

So I've gotten through 3 weeks of school now and it's going pretty well! I've had a few minor bumps but they're smoothing themselves out nicely. It's definitely a much different semester. I think I have only 21 classes left (of 30), 7 weeks, 24.5 actual teaching hours, and 1470 actual teaching minutes left to go. WOO HOO!

Things have been BIZZY at home! We're trying to get the house ready to put on the market and sell. Well, that's no easy task. For anyone who's been to our home, you know it's pretty damned crowded around here. We have STUFF. So far, we've finished one room--the office. In fact, I'm sitting on the floor on a laptop typing this up (the computer's on a table tray). Paul has a desk and his computer, but mine is out for now--after we move, we'll each have our own again. I already miss mine *sniff*. Anyway, I've been packing like CrAzY! And throwing out, and organizing, and donating, and shredding...

The new fertility doctor is going to be ready to start up with us in March. I had to wait until I finish teaching at NCC--it's just too hard to do both. I'll still be teaching at WCC (which hasn't started yet--it will at the end of January...oh shit, we're getting close, aren't we...). Anyway, that will be only one night a week. I'll still work at the vet clinic as well but that's just a couple days a week, so it'll be tolerable.

Everyone's doing well. My mom's on her way to Florida with her best friend, Barb. I look so forward to the emails about how warm it is there (note: this last sentence was DRIPPING with sarcasm). The kids are all healthy and doing well. If you'd like to see the most recent pictures of everyone, check out the photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/beckysensei There are some good ones on there from Christmas!

Hope everyone reading this is doing well!

HNY

Happy New Year!

So far, 2008 is shaping up to be pretty good. Obama wins in Iowa with Hillary right behind him. I'll take either one...in fact, anyone other than what's living in the WH now. Just my political opinion.

I started school this past Wednesday. It hasn't been a tough start--a few of the rotten eggs I had last term are gone. There have been a few glitches (the bookstore didn't order any new books for the new students, so about 10 of them are struggling to find something while they wait a week for theirs). This is just one reason why I detest school bookstores. I absolutely HATE how they extort hundreds of dollars from students. Does anyone know what the markup on these books really is? I encourage my students to go online and find them. Probably not what I'm "supposed" to do, but I've been there. It's sucks to have to pay $150 for a book. NCC bookstore won't buy back French ones at the end because they're initially bundled with a code to get to the online workbook (which is actually a separate entity from the book). The students use the code and it can't be used again, so they say the book is useless, despite the fact the code can be bought online. It just sucks.

Onto other things. Paul and I are trying to get the house ready to go on the market. Our target date was Feb. 1, but it's pretty evident to us both that it's going to be a bit later than that. I'm trying to get him to commit to one day each weekend to devote to getting it ready. That in itself is a nearly impossible task. We have quite a list of things--nothing too difficult, mostly packing stuff up and getting it into storage. Quite a bit of painting and touch-ups, which will take more time. And we really need to get someone in here to help tell us what needs to go, what needs to be moved around, and what's acceptable in each room. We had a 30 minute discussion yesterday on how to arrange the living room. It wasn't fun.

IVF will start again in March (possibly late Feb). It won't be so bad doing the shots, pills, patches, etc. this time around--having been through it once already, we know what to expect, plus not being in school, I'll have more time to go to appointments. That alone will make it tons easier. I'll still be working at the vet clinic, but if I'm a few minutes late or need an hour to take care of something, it won't be a big deal. BTW, I still really like working there. I'm learning so much and really enjoy the people with whom I work.

I hope everyone has a happy and prosperous 2008!!

My perfect jammies day

I just wanted to describe the most awesome day I just had with my wonderful husband. I told him the other day that I wanted nothing more than a day where we hung out in our jammies, took naps, ate junk food, and layed around on the couch together. And that's just what I got. Twelve glorious hours of doing absolutely nothing (he watched football and rubbed my head while I napped all afternoon). He got up only to let the dog out and go potty. He ate nothing but cookies until I made him dinner in the late afternoon. The man knows how to treat a woman! :)

That's all. It was a very good day. And I'm very lucky to have him.

A new year ahead

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote! I don't know if anyone is really reading this (besides my dad) but if so, sorry for the delay! I have no excuse other than laziness.

I'm a wreck this week. School at NCC starts next Wednesday. I'm absolutely dreading it, but I know I need to go in and make the most of the 10 weeks that lie ahead. I keep trying to tell myself that it's ONLY 10 weeks and it won't be that bad, but deep down, I know otherwise. This sucks. There's a small part of me that wants to go in and do a great job, but the rest of me wants nothing more than to write to the dept chair and say, "See ya!" BUT...I've signed my life away, so I guess I have to go back. Ten weeks. Thirty class days. Seventy teaching hours. Forty-two hundred teaching minutes. Tick. Tick. Tick.

On to happier topics: Christmas! We got a ton of cards from friends and family all over the place, which was really nice! Lots of nice gifts, lots of funny munny. I bought myself a helmet case for the scooter (it matches--these are hard to find in my Daring Plum color!) and tomorrow, I'm going to buy a new vacuum. NEVER thought I'd be excited about that! :) I have 2 boxes to send to Japan--the one for Kumiko is HUGE but it'll be worth every penny. I'm so overdue with both boxes, but they should make the recipients really happy! That's what counts.

My mom is so much better--she's been driving for a few weeks now (despite not getting the doctor's approval until TODAY!). She bought her new remungous SUV on eBay and is now riding in the lap of luxury. This, until the settlement for her accident comes through, then she'll switch to an even nicer ride. At least she's happy...and still home for another 4-6 weeks before going back to work. I guess my 10 weeks of teaching is better than going back to a permanent job after 3+ months off (and having no end in sight). I have an end. This is good.

So that's it for my ramblings. I'm off to enjoy my last days of freedom. Happy New Year to you all! May 2008 bring us all great things (and babies...many babies...).

A cold and the cold

Holy crap! I caught a horrible head cold this week--today was the worst of it (so far). I'm not sure from where I caught it, but Paul was fighting something early on in the week, though his never did get as bad as mine. I woke up at 2:30am this morning, unable to sleep because of a scratchy sore throat. That is THE WORST!! The sore throat is definitely getting better though. After trying everything today to get rid of it (hot drinks, cold drinks, tortellini soup, and cough drops), I ended up with nothing more than a burnt tongue, along with the still-scratchy throat. Tonight's a bit better but since I can't breathe through my nose, my throat will be dry by morning.

Ok, that was probably a lot more than anyone needed to know!

Other than that, life is ok. I'm officially done teaching for the next few weeks, which is a nice feeling! I still have to grade the final exams from this past Monday night, but that shouldn't take too long (it's just getting the motivation to actually do that...that's the hard part).

We have my dad's Christmas party this coming Sunday. Kate's been sick, as is Robert, so Sunday should be a whole lot of fun. :) As long as there's a bit of "the recipe" (I've watched a few too many episodes of The Walton's this past week!), we should be ok. I did manage to get all my gifts ready though! That's HUGE.

Thanks to everyone who sent wishes for my birthday last week! I got a ton of cards, calls, and emails, which really made my day! It was otherwise very uneventful--I had to work all afternoon, then come home to an empty house as Paul was bowling that night. But it was still a nice day.

Enjoy the upcoming holidays!! And, for heaven's sake, STAY WARM! I hope everyone downstate now has power!!

Power naps

This past weekend was so nice! Paul and I spent Friday night through Sunday downtown Chicago, enjoying the sites, having fun with friends, relaxing...it was perfect! We took the train down in the late afternoon and checked in at the hotel (where we had 2 full-sized bathrooms in our room--we don't have that many in our house!!), then went that night to see Phantom of the Opera, which both of us have seen before but not in a long time. It was so good! I had the brilliant idea to walk back to the Hilton from the Cadillac Palace Theater, which would have been a better idea had we been wearing walking shoes. I ended up with HUGE blisteres on the bottom of my feet (just below my toes, and on my heels).

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (which was deee-lish!) and went for a short walk around town. We ended up at a store on Randolph called Pastoral Artisan (or something like that), which was a wine shop and deli. We bought a bottle of wine, a baguette, some cheese, prochuitto, stuffed red peppers, and olives, and hauled it back to the hotel (via the bus) to enjoy. It was so nice! The afternoon was spent NAPPING! At least for me it was--Paul watched movies on TV and rubbed my head. That night, we went out with some friends of mine who live downtown and we don't get to see much anymore. It was my first time in Dave & Busters. I lived up to all the talk about my latent Skee-ball addiction, which I've managed to keep at bay for many years. That was all shot to hell Saturday night. I long for my own Skee-ball machine!

Sunday, we had breakfast, then packed up and headed to the train station. Given the bad storm that hit Saturday afternoon and evening, taking the train was a great decision (even if it originally was to avoid the $40/night parking at the hotel). Overall, a very relaxing weekend!

I have 4 weeks and a day left of my Christmas "vacation" before starting back to school. Sadly, I'm dreading going back. It shouldn't be as stressful next term as it was this past one, but I'm still not looking forward to it. I love teaching, but being there (at NCC) is no longer fun. I still have one Monday night class to go (at WCC), but I'm not sure if I'll have enough students to have a class there next semester. I do enjoy teaching there and hope to continue!

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season! Congrats to Lisa & Mike on baby-chan Cassia, and to Kim & Jim on their upcoming wedding!!