I'm crazy.. but you probably already knew that

Why am I crazy, you ask? Because I'm currently painting and putting up wainscoting in the future nursery. This is how it all went down..

We got a leak in the guest bathroom that's attached to the guest bedroom (aka, future nursery). The guest bedroom flooded. We ripped up the carpet and decided that now is a good time to go ahead and get new carpet in all 3 bedrooms. It was something we wanted to do before making that room into a nursery. This just sped things up a bit.

Then we thought.. well, if we're going to take out all the furniture and rip up all of the carpet, we might as well paint! So, that's how it all went down.

Lucky for me I've always thought I would want a light blue nursery regardless of whether we have a boy or a girl. And I think the wainscoting will make it very pottery barn-esque. I want a simple, no theme, nursery. And since we're getting all this work done now, we'll only have to worry about furniture and decor. Now we just need to take care of the getting pregnant so we can actually use it as a nursery issue. Small detail, no?

So, here's the before pics of the room. Like how I painted "I heart Dan" on the wall and Dan painted "Lolo is slow"? He's referring to my ceiling painting skills.. or lack thereof. Jerk.

And here's our progress so far:

We got the painting done and next up is the wainscoting on the bottom, and the crown molding around the top. We're also painting our bedroom, the guest room, putting the crown molding in all 3 rooms, and installing new doors. We have about 8 days to finish, before the carpet is installed. Phew.

Good thing for us I have day labors my parents coming to stay with us this weekend. Now where's the HGTV or DIY network peeps when you need them?

Odds

Hm... So, I'm on cycle day 31 right now. I've had some off & on cramps the past couple days but no spotting yet. Normally I would be expecting my period today (or the last couple days), but I have NO CLUE when I ovulated. Like, I couldn't even give an estimate. Argh.

So, I wait. And think. And over think.

Since last week I've had the same sort of waves of nausea that I had when I got my BFP last month, and I woke up both days this weekend feeling hungover, even though I hadn't been drinking the night before. So of course I'm getting my hopes up. I know I shouldn't. I need to write these off as phantom symptoms and call it a day.

What are the odds that I get a BFP two months in a row after almost 2 years of nothing? Slim to none, right?

And while I'm talking odds, guess what I did over the weekend? I went to the horse races in Del Mar! Guess what horse I didn't bet on to win?.. Dancing Lauren!!! Guess what horse won that race? ... Dancing Lauren!!! (Just in case you only know me as "lolo" my real name is Lauren).

And yes, I'm an idiot.

Foodie Friday!

I decided since I randomly like to throw in a post all about food or drink, I'd make it official. So, every Friday I'm going to post about my week in food.

Because you know, I love food. And really who doesn't?

Nothing says Summer like bubblegum ice cream.. and it just happens to be Baskin Robbins' flavor of the month!

There's one issue that I had with this ice cream. That's literally pieces of bubblegum in the ice cream. Yes, I realize that's the point.. but what the hell do you do with the gum as you're eating the ice cream? You really have 3 choices:

1) Designate a spot in the faaar back corner of your mouth to store each glob of gum until you're done with the ice cream

2) Take the gum out of your mouth & stick it on something until you're done with the ice cream

3) Swallow the gum

I went with option #3. I know, I know.. I'm clogging up my intestines. Didn't someone discover that whole thing was a myth? Or a lie that Mothers told their kids so they wouldn't choke on their gum? Hope so.

My co-worker went with option #1. Until that got out of hand and then she resorted to #3. Seriously, ice cream should NOT be this much work. And what did we do when we were kids? I want to say I probably spit the gum out as I ate the ice cream, and then put all the spit covered gum back in my mouth when I was done. Ew.

Now that I've completely ruined your appetite and any sort of craving you might have had when you saw that delicious looking ice cream, here's one of my favorite recipes for salmon. It's suuuper easy, and suuuuuper yummy. I stole the pic from allrecipes.com, which is where I got the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans (Dan's not a fan, so I exclude these)
4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
4 (4 ounce) fillets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley.
Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the bread crumb mixture.
Bake salmon 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven (I put mine on a foil lined baking sheet), or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

Lyrics for the Soul

I completely forgot to blog about seeing Elton John live a couple weekends ago. It. Was. Awesome. He was beyond awesome. If you ever have the chance to hear him live, DO IT. That's an order.

Anyways, this wasn't a song he sang at the concert, but the lyrics are beautiful. So sweet & simple..

Blessed

Hey you, you're a child in my head
You haven't walked yet
Your first words have yet to be said
But I swear you'll be blessed

I know you're still just a dream
your eyes might be green
Or the bluest that I've ever seen
Anyway you'll be blessed

And you, you'll be blessed
You'll have the best
I promise you that
I'll pick a star from the sky
Pull your name from a hat
I promise you that, promise you that, promise you that
You'll be blessed

I need you before I'm too old
To have and to hold
To walk with you and watch you grow
And know that you're blessed

Moscow Mule

So, apparently this drink has been around since 1941 (yes, I looked it up on Wikipedia), and I JUST experienced it for the first time this past Saturday.

Where have I been??? Oh yeah, at home with my dogs, my husband, and my cheap wine. I guess I don't do the bar hopping that I used to. And I guess even if I did the last thing I probably would have ordered at the bar would be the drink that comes in a copper tin mug.

I can actually thank the fact that the Mule comes in a tin mug, for me finding & trying this delicious beverage. Dan and I were at a bar, eating some tapas. Dan was enjoying his Guinness, and me my red wine. I saw the copper tin mugs and was intrigued, so I asked the bartender what kind of drink comes in the mug.

Two choices.. the Mule or the Donkey. The mule = vodka, ginger beer, bitters, lime juice & simple syrup. The Donkey = bourbon instead of vodka, plus all the other ingredients. Yuck-o.

We ordered up the Mule and Oh Em Gee. Seriously, where has this drink been all my life?

And now a little history on where this drink came from... Invented by John G. Martin, Jack Morgan & Rudolph Kunett. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lime. Ice was ordered, limes procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five later the mixture was christened the Moscow Mule...

Now someone please tell me.. what the hell is "quaffing a slug"?

Where we're at

Once we returned from Santa Cruz I called my RE and let him know the bad news. He told us we have a couple of options.. try a 4th IUI, since technically the 3rd one did work, OR move on to IVF.

Dan and I talked it over and decided to give one fourth and final IUI a shot. I figure if it doesn't work it only pushes our IVF cycle out from September to October. One month = not a huge deal in my mind. October will mark the 2 year anniversary of us officially trying to get pregnant, so it just seems to make sense to wait and try IVF then. Plus, we're out of pocket so giving the (much) cheaper option another chance makes sense to us.

SO, because I was on vacation when I would have had to start the injections and monitoring, this cycle is our "natural" cycle. We're just trying the old fashion way and not expecting anything to happen.

Hopefully within the next week or two I'll be able to start injections for IUI#4. (joy)

BUT, just in case it doesn't work, I also have a consultation appointment set up for September 2nd with the IVF clinic. My current RE referred me to someone else in the area because he feels like he's already really emotionally invested in us and he knows this IVF clinic has amazing success rates. Check these out:

Those are their success rates for 2009.. 79.5%!! So, I'm feeling really excited about those odds, and hopeful that we will NOT fall into the other 20.5%.

I've heard great things from a few people who have gone or are currently going to this clinic. Wonderful staff, the clinic is right down the street from my work, and fabulous success rates.. I'm feelin' good about this.

So, that's where we're at right now. Enjoying our break from all the injections and appointments, while feeling excited and hopeful for the future.

Thankful

I just want to take a moment to express how thankful I am for the friends I've met through theBump. At first I figured the "Getting Pregnant" board would be a great place to get some good info and share some laughs with some online peeps.

Well, something else happened.

I found myself there longer than I really ever wanted to be.. but you know what? I've made some great friendships. I have "e-friends" that I consider true, blue girlfriends of mine. Some of them are still struggling to get pregnant, some are pregnant, and some have babies.

They root for me, they cheer for me, they listen to me, and they cry with me. A few of these girlfriends sent me these beautiful flowers after our loss..

I was so touched and grateful to have such thoughtful people in my life. People who can understand exactly how I feel, and who would do anything they can to put a smile on my face.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have them in my life, and hopefully they feel the same way about me.

Love you ladies :) xoxoxo