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!!