Monogrammed Mom

Celebrate!!!

It's my birthday!!  I've always said it should be celebrated far and wide.  My husband jokes that it should be a national holiday and I tell him that's a great idea!!  I worked today with my one client. I have the afternoon off.  I'll be relaxing.  We are going out to dinner but I don't know where. I just want to spend time with my family.
  Elisabeth, Chachi and me at the balloon festival.

9:57 a. m.

Today is Elisabeth's 5th birthday.  Our lives forever changed Tuesday July 22, 2003 at 9:57 a. m.  She was born with a full head of dark brown hair and she was very clean.  When I held her for the first time I could not believe she was mine.  And here we are five years later. 

Happy Birthday Elisabeth!!! We love you!!!

Elisabeth climbing to new heights.

July 4th

I wish you all a Happy 4th of July!!  We will be celebrating with family and fireworks.  Then I'll be headed to the big OG.  I do hope I get out early today. 

Bar B Que

We had a great Memorial Day.  Our family came over and we grilled and watched the kids play.  The weather was perfect--78 degrees and breezy.  I wish it were like that all year round.
The kids played hard.  They rode bikes, Elisabeth's j.eep, played on the swing set and ended it by roasting marshmallows at the campfire.  We had fire works too.
We crashed hard.  So much preparation-clean the house, getting the food, prepping the food, getting out tables, chairs and the tent.  It wears you out.  Even though it is all that work I really like having gatherings here the best.  Our house has a really good, open lay out and with our big patio, tiki bar, pool and swing set we have it made. 


 

Hailey and Elisabeth in her jeep.  This was in the beginning--notice how clean they are.



My niece playing in the leftover sand from our pool project.



Logan taking a break with my Mom.



I had to wash her three times.  I still could not get her knees clean.  She left a ring of dirt around the tub.



Our campfire.

 

 

Let me fill you in...

So I went to see The Cure Saturday night in Philly.  Robert Smith (lead singer) has still got it.  I did see them in 1991 and they can still put on quite a show.  Poor Chachi only knew three songs.  I enjoyed old favorites such as:  Fascination Street, Here I Go, Lullaby and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. 
We walked around Philly with Sanovia (Chachi's chocolate lab).  We went everywhere--South Street, Society Hill, two dogs parks and numerous side streets.  A house had these displays set up in their windows:

      

The picture on the right must have been after the tailgating party:  the grill and chair are on their sides.

For those of you who said special prayers/chants/crossed toes: I got an A in Principles of Teaching.  That makes for three A's and keeping a 4.0 QPA.  I'm so happy!!!!!

Pop is building us a shed to keep all our outdoor goods.  This will free up room in the garage.

I believe the size is 16 x 10.

Elisabeth thought the work site needed a little beauty.

You are all very kind

Thank you everyone for all your love and support!!!  Thank you to my family and friends for believing in me and thank you to Mel  for asking for support for me from our community.
I feel pretty good about the final.  I knew them all except for maybe 4.  These questions came from left field.  Grades will be posted on May 15.  I know I have two A's in my other classes. I'm hoping for a third.  I needed a 68 to secure my A.  And we had an opportunity to earn up to 5 points extra credit by creating a multiple choice/matching test of our own.
I'm trying to get my house back in order now.  I've put away all the clothes and dusted.  I'm going to vacuum and then I'll be done.
Hello Summer Vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me catch you up

I met with my adviser on Monday to register for the fall semester.  I only have five classes to take instead of the six I originally thought.  I asked him which ones are offered in the spring and he replied none.  So I'm taking two classes in the summer, three in the fall and doing an internship.  It beats having a full load in the fall.  Do you know what this means?  I"ll be student teaching in the spring and graduating May 2, 2009!!!!!  How cool is that?  I'm very excited to be done one semester early.
Tomorrow we are headed to the city of Brotherly Love for a house warming party.  Chachi got a new house and we are going to help break it in with a party. I'm sure we will be playing board games and singing karaoke.  Elisabeth will love singing with a microphone.

This is me and Chachi at G.irl S.cout camp.  This was the year after I threw her out of a cabin window.  After that we've been best friends.  Who knew?

Wondering

I spoke with my gyno on Friday and she wants to do one more month of C.lomid and push off the IUI until next month.  She wants me to cut my dose in half (50 down to 25) because she didn't like how big my follicle was.  I'm confused. First of all we're trying to get both of my ovaries to produce follicles as insurance (so no matter what fallopian tube the swimmers go up there will be an egg there).  Second of all the size of my follicle (25) was well within the range.  So I called her today to schedule my u/s and left a message that we wanted to proceed with our original plan of doing the IUI this month.  She didn't call back. Hopefully she'll ring me tomorrow and I can get some answers.  You veteran IFers--do you have any thoughts on this?

Guess what was on tonight and will continue tomorrow?

The Westminster Kennel Club Show!!  One of these years I am going.  I love the voice of the announcer Michael J. LaFave , "This is Golden Retriever # 53."  He likes Bassett hounds.

Ch. Gillian's Quintessential Quincy.  The breed is Komondor.

This is Hank (American Staffordshire Terrier) kissing Guinness (my favorite breed-- Irish Wolfhound).
I love me some doggies!!!

Hello there!!

I'm still here.  I've been very tired this week. I've turned in at 9pm on several evenings.  I had a big test complete with a big extra credit opportunity. I think the stress wore me out. I took a quiz in this class I had the test in and I got five wrong.  I studied so hard. I asked other people in my class how they did and they did worse than me.  I just get really upset when I put so much time and effort into something and then I do poorly.  Dammit--I want nothing less than an A.  I should tell you that the quiz I had was on a book that we read by ourselves and was not taught in class at all.  But I feel pretty good about the test.  I know I got two wrong but other than that I think I did okay.
Michael's mom is in the hospital.  She is having kidney surgery to get rid of a blockage and abscess.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She's been so sick and she's such a good person.  We want her to feel better and get back to her old self.
I start C.lomid again.  I believe around the 13th or so.  We are going to do another IUI somewhere around the 20-22.  This IUI will be different from the last one in that I will be on C.lomid.  I still have hope.  Even though it will be hard to have a baby and be in school I'm more than willing to make it work.
On a happier note it's someone's birthday today.  He's the most wonderful person in the whole wide world. He is my world, my everything, my Lobster!!!  Happy Birthday!!!!

Nah Nah Nah Nah

Hey hey hey Good-bye 2007!!!!  Don't let the door hit where the good Lord split ya!!!  It was a pretty good year. I celebrated my one year anniversary,  was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, completed my first two semesters at Bloomsburg University in the elem educ major both with a 4.0, lost a lot of weight thanks to my new med and Weight Watchers, got my old job back at the OG, met some fabulous new friends via the blogging community and got a new puppy Logan.  Another year closer to getting my second BS from Bloom and another year without a baby.
I have high hopes for all of us with 2008.  A new year with new possibilities.  I'm jumping into 2008 with both feet and, hell, I'm not even looking.  On the IF front we will be doing more IUI cycles with the addition of Clomid.  I believe this will help us in our endeavors.  We start our first Clomid cycle in February.  I'll keep you posted of course.

Happy New Year to all of you!! I wish you love, luck, health and happiness!!!!
Hugs and kisses,
Susan

Our drunken snowmen decorations.  I think some of us will look like this later!!