Break is soon to be over

I started this blog about 5 months ago after my failed DE cycle. I wanted somewhere to write about non-Infertility stuff, about the rest of my life, to have a public blog (since my IF blog is private), and really to be able to write about whatever I wanted. I will continue doing all of that on this blog, but I wanted to just write a quick note to say that our "break from TTC" is coming to an end. I do not plan to write about it here much, if at all (that's what my private blog is for), but I did want to at least be honest. Tarzan and I have talked at great length and we are going to give it another try. We want to be able to look back when we are 70 years old say we gave it our all; either we'll have kids and maybe grandkids by then, and we can say it was worth it, or we'll at least be able to say that we tried - that we did multiple treatments, and went down a variety of alternative paths in our attempts. If it doesn't work we'll be able to look back without regret.

That being said, we know at age 39 and 41 we need to get this show on the road. We are going at this last attempt with a two-pronged approach. We will be doing an FET with our 1 and only frozen embryo, and at the same time will be pursuing traditional surrogacy. Yes I said it, traditional surrogacy. We recently found out that Tarzan has no fertility benefits on his medical insurance at his new job in Chicago (we were really hoping, but the company is not headquartered in Illinois, therefore the IVF mandate does not apply). Considering we've maxed out my insurance over the past 3 years, we just feel that if we are going to spend a ton of money, we'd rather risk it on TS than on a fresh DE cycle that may not work. We haven't started either process yet. The FET will probably be around February, and we have no surrogate. We are just starting the process of trying to find a traditional surrogate who will be willing to help us achieve parenthood. We'll see how it goes. Those of you who follow my private blog - there isn't much there yet, but as these processes get underway I'll post more.

Thursday night update

I can't think of a catchy title for this blog post. Let's see what has happened this week?

• Tarzan started his new job on Monday in Chicagoland and so far so good! He likes it, is learning a lot about wind energy, and says it is a much more positive environment than the automotive industry. We talk every morning and every evening. He'll be home for Thanksgiving
• We are waiting for a "password" to look at his benefits, not sure what is taking so long.
• My niece Blaire and her volleyball team lost in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night, but hey they made it to the quarterfinals - that's the top 8 teams in the state for Class B! She and the other seniors bawled their eyes out afterwards, but we are very proud of all they accomplished. Now it's onto basketball season for her!
• I came down with a cold on Sunday, felt crappy for 2 days and then it practically went away. I thought "wow only a 2 day cold!"......then this afternoon my head got all congested. I have been eating a lot of grapefruits for vitamin C and taking Airborne.
• I'm reading a book called The Gerson Therapy by Charlotte Gerson to try to incorporate some of the therapy into my diet. This is the therapy my friend Christian has used to control his sinus/brain cancer. He's doing very well 3 years later because of this nutritional program. I got a copy for my friend Anne (I'll get it to you soon Anne). I just found out today that my step-mom has melanoma, so I need to get a copy to her too. Basically it's a combination of juicing and coffee enemas to fight cancer - that is a very simplistic view, and it goes into a lot greater detail and science, but honestly that's the summary. I'm going to try to do some of it just to prevent cancer. Of course I found out I have the wrong kind of juicer; I have the Jack LaLane juicer which is a centrifugal juicer which apparently kills the enzymes because of the high speed blades. Oh well, I'm hoping it doesn't kill all of the enzymes.
• I'm loving the XM radio I have in my new car; free for 3 months. I've been listening to CNN in Espanol and the Oprah station the most. Deepak Chopra also has a show on one of the channels, I have to find it.

Class B Regional Champions

My niece Blaire and her team of Marysville Vikings beat Bloomfield Hills Lahser in 4 games last night: 25-19, 26-24, 23-25, 25-22 to take the Class B Regional Volleyball Championship. It was so exciting, but those games were a little too close for my comfort! Onto Quarterfinals on Tuesday against Northbranch at Notre Dame Prep High in Pontiac (if anyone wants to come and cheer them on).

Oh and one other thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post; Blaire was chosen as Prep Athlete of the Week last week and had a nice article and pictures in the local newspaper over the weekend. When asked who is her role model; she answered that it is her grandma (my mom). #8 rocks!

Here are some pictures and then the link to the official newspaper pictures from last night's game http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=BP&Dato=20091112&Kategori=PHOTOGALLERIES&Lopenr=911120802&Ref=PH

Such a proud Aunt

My nephew Reed has been bugging me to blog about him, so here it is Reed! I'm very proud to be an aunt to my awesome nephew Reed and nieces Blaire and Emma. They are all very smart and accomplished at such young ages. The last week has been very exciting in all of their lives. I will go from youngest to oldest.

My niece Emma who is in 8th grade won MVP of her volleyball team, and also received an award for being a "Role Model". Here she is posing with her award. I'm so very proud of her, and look forward to 4 more years of volleyball when she gets to high school. Maybe she'll get pulled up to Varsity as a Freshman.......time will tell. Her cousin Taylor who is in 9th grade now, just got pulled up to varsity for the playoffs. Good volleyball skills run in the family.

My nephew Reed who is 15 was just selected to be an exchange student through the Rotary Club Exchange Program. He will be going abroad next summer for an entire year! He doesn't know where yet; will find out in January. He is hoping for Spain, and if not, another Spanish speaking country, but he could end up in Iceland or Japan. I do have to take credit Reed for you going abroad; you see back in September we went to this International festival in Port Huron because my aunt who is from the Philippines was working at it, and we wanted to eat her delicious food (sorry run on sentence oh well). We walked around the various country booths, and we stopped at the Rotary Club Exchange Program booth. There was a cute, blond German girl who is an exchange student this year and we talked to her about the program. I said Reed you should do this! Well the applications needed to be in by October so he had only a couple of weeks to contact the Rotary to get the info, apply, etc. Reed took the information card and now 2 months later he has gone through a ton of interviews, gave a presentation to the Rotary Club to gain sponsorship, his parents have been interviewed, they traveled to Canada last weekend, so they could all be interviewed a final time, and Reed was selected! Woohoo. I know we will all cry when he leaves, but this will be the experience of a lifetime and I'm thrilled that he will be living in another country, learning about other cultures, and hopefully learning a new language! I do plan to visit him towards the end of his year abroad - no matter where he goes. Here he is with his mom (my sister) last weekend. He's so handsome in a suit!

My niece Blaire is a senior in high school and is a volleyball superstar. Last week she set 3 school records in the District Championship game; 1) Most serves in a game (like 50 or something) 2) Most points scored (32 or something). 3) Most serves without errors (not sure if I got the verbiage of the last record correct, but it's something like that). Yeah Blaire - you go girl! Even though she is only 5'4" she is a front row outside hitter and has a vertical jump like you would not believe. She is a great spiker! They won districts and their first Regional game, so tonight we will be watching her and rest of her Marsyville Vikings team take on Bloomfield Hills Lahser in the Regional Championship game. Go Vikings!!

Terrain it is!

Picked her up at lunchtime. I tested out the butt warmers on the way home and they are awesome!! My bum will be nice and toasty in the winters!

Decisions, Decisions

Car shopping continues - after driving the Chevy Traverse, Hummer H3, Saturn Vue, Dodge Journey and GMC Terrain we are down to the Traverse and the Terrain. They both have things I love.

TRAVERSE
3 rows of seating for the rare occasions I drive my entire family (hubby, mom, sister, 3 nieces/nephew)
Very comfy ride - takes bumps superbly
Good on gas - 23 on hwy

TERRAIN
2 rows of seating, so the entire family wouldn't fit, but it's just Tarzan and I really. We don't need 3 rows of seating at this time.
Comfy ride - good over bumps, but not quite as good as the Traverse.
Super awesome on gas mileage - 32 on hwy
The one I drove and could get has heated seats! Woohoo

I'm leaning towards the Terrain. I told Tarzan that if a miracle occurs and we have twins or triplets someday - well then we'll have to trade it in and get the Traverse.

What is your vote?

Fun Night

Tarzan took me out last night to celebrate our anniversary. First we went to the church where we got married. It has become a tradition; we've gone every year. We pull into the parking lot and we get out of our car and then we dance and sing our wedding song; except last night I had forgotten all of the words. I guess I should listen to it more often (L.O.V.E. sung by Natalie Cole). We tell each other a few things about what we love about our marriage, or our favorite memory from our wedding day, etc. This all happens in about 5 minutes because the parking lot always has people in it and they start looking at us like we are weirdos.

Afterwards we went to Crust for dinner. It was nice, and Tarzan thought I'd like it because it is a wine bar. I did and in fact I wrote down the name of a fabulous bottle of wine - A Mano Primitivo Red Zinfandel from Italy, very smooth and delicious. After dinner we went to a place I've been dying to go to for quite some time - Paciugo, a gelato caffe. OMG I was in absolute heaven and I have found a new hang out. It has authentic gelato/sorbetto and it tasted as good as I remember the gelato in Italy tasting. The company started in Dallas, Tx by an Italian family and now they are opening stores (franchises) all over the country. I really hope the store in Michigan makes it! They have gourmet coffees/teas as well and I think pastries. For all of my Michigander friends reading this - Anne, Kacy, Lynette - we have a new place to meet! It's on Walton and Livernois in that plaza across from Crittendon. My favorite flavor last night was Sea Salt Caramel; sounds gross but it was divine. Second runner up was Black Raspberry - hmmm it just melted in my mouth. I also had Peanut Butter and Chocolate Hazelnut. I can't wait to go back and try this coffee drink they have called Cappuccino con Gelato. They infuse your favorite gelato flavor into your coffee! Yummy!

We came home in time to watch our favorite new show on TV - Modern Family, and then Tarzan promptly fell asleep on the couch so I spent some time on Facebook! What a great day!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. Seems impossible that 3 years have passed since I walked down that aisle. Tarzan started the day off right with giving me "a couple of my presents" - a Polo sweater, Polo sweatpants, and Polo yoga pants. The yoga pants are too small, but the other stuff fits perfectly! Not sure what we are doing tonight to celebrate - it's a surprise!

No new car today!

Tarzan and I arrived at the dealer at 10 am this morning to pick up my new Chevy Traverse; which we had picked out/put a deposit on Saturday. However the dealer tried to pull a fast one on us and all of a sudden the price was much higher. They wouldn't budge and neither would we, so we walked away. I'm sad that I won't be driving my new car today, but happy we stuck to our guns. I hate that car shopping is like this. Oh well, now I wait.