Our House is a Very, Very, Very Fine House, Fine House

Our house has been put back together! Last Wednesday, we got carpet. I love it!! It's just what I wanted. It's so soft. Sometimes, when I'm walking between rooms, I just want to stop and lie down on it. Thank you, Sherwin Williams...er, Carpet One, for finishing putting my home back together! J

For the record, one of my girlfriends informed me that Sherwin Williams does have a flooring department.  Who knew?  Well, subconsciously, I did.  J

The Zingo is Back in Town

Let me preface this entry by saying that I really don’t like writing negative thoughts.  I don’t even like thinking negative thoughts.  However, if someone that is going to take Lupron reads this, I want them to have as much information as possible.  It helps when preparing for this ordeal.

Also, I would like to mention that my in-laws came for a quick visit this weekend.  I have been trying to find a cute hand fan to keep in my purse since we found out I was going to be on Lupron.  Ta da, my sweet mother-in-law brought me one.  It’s gorgeous and just perfect!  She got it from a friend that lives in The Phillipines, and I love it!!  Thank you, Judy!  I love you.

Okay, so the not so fun stuff.  Lupron is not the cakewalk I thought it would be.  I know I’ve said it before, but I mean it even more, now.  I have tried and tried to be strong through this process, but it’s finally getting the better of me.  I feel officially beat today.  The two symptoms that are killing me are my joint pain and my mood swings.  For those that aren’t familiar with the Zingo, it is a rollercoaster that was in Tulsa for like 200 years.  By the time they closed the amusement park, it was pretty rickety.  It’s like me…up and down and rickety.  J

I have been on Osteo Bi-Flex since November 8 for the joint pain in my knees, wrists, and feet.  I thought it was getting better, but then it started getting worse.  I called Kelly, my amazing nurse, yesterday.  She said that she’s concerned that I’m pushing it too hard at boot camp.  I have been going five days every week since I started (with the exception of when we went to Austin, and I could only go four times that week).  She said I have to tone it down to three days a week, but I can walk for 15-20 minutes on my “days off”.  At first, I was devastated.  I called Todd on my way to Edmond yesterday in tears.  I never thought I would cry from being told by a doctor that I had to take it easier on workouts.  However, this is the first time I feel like I’m really succeeding at a workout regimen, and I’m scared that I’ll slip back into my couch potato ways if I don’t keep it up.  Todd assures me that he’ll walk with me on my days off if he’s here.  I know my mom will walk with me when he can’t.  Or we can all three walk together.  J  I’m going to work with the trainers to get some exercises I can do off of my joints, too.

The mood swings are the worst, though.  Last night, Todd came home a day early from his work trip.  I was ecstatic.  We ate dinner, and he was asleep by 9:15.  He hadn’t slept in over 21 hours, so I was glad to hear him snoring this time.  J  However, by 11, I was in hysterics.  I don’t know why.  (It might have been the awful Google search I had done on Lupron that set me off, but I’ll never admit it.  That was the first thing Kelly had told us not to do when we learned I was going to take the shot.  It’s terrifying!)  Anyway, after crying for a little while, I decided I couldn’t stand feeling so alone.  Mom wasn’t answering her texts, so my last resort was to wake my Sleeping Beauty.  I told him I just needed him to hold me, so he rolled over and let me nuzzle into his crook.  Within 30 seconds, I heard the snores again.  At least it made me giggle a little.  Anyway, I cried for a while longer and woke-up crying this morning.  I’ve cried on and off a few times today.  It’s like I can’t control it.  (I’m actually tearing up just writing this.)  A couple of years ago, I read an article from Stephen Covey about the 90/10 rule; basically, it says that your moods are determined 90% by your own mind and 10% by what happens to you.  I’ve tried to live by this principle, so I’ve gotten better at staying pretty consistently happy and positive through most things.  Not now.  I feel like I have zero control over my emotions.  I don’t even feel like the same person.  It’s awful, and I hate it!  I will be so grateful when this medicine is out of my system…and then I can start the IVF meds.  Ha!

I am lucky, though!  Most of the time, Todd or my mom have the time to talk me through my episodes.  A lot of the time, I’m able to lean on Samantha and Rachel (my girlfriends that are currently pregnant) through texting.  I appreciate these people so much right now!!  Sometimes, just talking (or texting) it out can make all the difference.

Anyway, so sorry for the Debbie Downer post.  Maybe I’ll write another one in 30 minutes when my mood is back at the top of the rollercoaster, again.  J  Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have baseboards!!!

One thing I forgot was an update on the house.  We are having baseboards installed today!  Yay!!  So excited.  I’m  hoping they will get painted this weekend, so we can get carpet at the beginning of next week.  I can’t believe we may be officially getting out of the concrete jungle soon.  Woo hoo!

Also, we are using Carpet One for all of our carpet.  Throughout this process, I have been calling it Sherwin Williams, which is one of my vendors I use at work.  It’s been pretty funny!  The best part is that I’m completely unaware when I say it that I’m wrong.  Again, I love my mushy, Lupron brain!  J

Tiff and Stew Say I Do

*I'm going to add more pictures to this post when I get them off my camera.  This is just what I had on my phone.

Last weekend was an amazing weekend!...well, mostly.  J

We went to Austin to see our dear friends, Tiffany and Stew, get married.  Tiffany and I have been friends since college.  She’s one of the greatest friends a girl could have, and I’m not exaggerating.  She lived in Tulsa until earlier this year when she moved to Austin to be with Stew.  She is one of the only three friends that always made an effort to come to Dallas to see us.  Several times, Tiffany has given me clothes that she no longer wore.  Inevitably, they end up becoming staples in my wardrobe.  Recently, she mailed me a top that she had loaned me to take to Mexico last year.  I kept asking her what the brand was, so I could look for one like it; she ended up just giving it to me.  Anyway, at her rehearsal dinner, I fell in love with her dress.  Todd teased me and said, “Maybe if you ask her about it enough, she’ll give it to you someday.”  J  Anyway, all of this is to say that Tiffany is great.  We both adore her, and we adore Stew.  We couldn’t be happier that they have found each other…even if it means she has to live so far away from us.

About a month ago, Tiffany decided she was giving up on finding an Elvis impersonator to marry them and asked Todd to do it.  I know, awesome, right?!  Todd got ordained on the Internet and was ready to go!

He left on Wednesday to head to Austin for work.  The house didn’t even float away!  J  I left Thursday night, so I could be there to spend some time with Tiffany on Friday and go to the rehearsal dinner.

To back-up just a step, though.  Todd was awoken at 4am Thursday morning by Austin Police.  Apparently, Todd resembled a fugitive one of the valet guys had seen on TV.  His name was even similar.  They questioned him for about 40 minutes before deciding he wasn’t a fugitive.  J  Here’s a guy with status at this hotel that has accumulated thousands of points over the last few months, and the manager couldn’t figure out it might be a mistake?!  Anyway, they had told Todd there were no upgrade rooms when he had checked in.  Guess what magically came open later that day for us?  An upgraded room!  We were in a suite!!  It had an entry, living room, bedroom, and TWO bathrooms.  I even had a vanity.  I loved it!  So nice to get the travel perks!!

Friday morning, I woke-up with a very upset stomach.  I ended up having food poisoning.  I missed breakfast with Tiffany and Stew and our other good friends, Angela and Adam.  (Tiffany brought me a gift bag full of snacks, drinks, and medicine.  Even on her wedding weekend, she’s taking care of me.  See, I told you she was great!)  About 6 hours later, I had expelled the demon from my body.  We made it to the rehearsal dinner and had a fabulous time!  We were supposed to ride The Big Brown Bus with the group, but I wasn’t feeling it.  Anyway, we drove out to Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas.  It was a huge barbecue place with multiple buildings and lots of outdoor seating.  The food was great, even though I was only able to take a couple of bites of everything.  Afterwards, everyone else got to go celebrate some more, but I had to go to bed.  I was swamped from the days’ activities, and I had a headache.  I knew that if I was going to enjoy the next day, I needed to get some sleep.

The next morning, I was starting to feel myself, again.  Todd and I had awesome waffles at the hotel breakfast, which my stomach much appreciated.  Then, we met Tiff and Stew at the CTC Gardens for their rehearsal.  The place was perfect for Tiffany.  I couldn’t wait to get back there that night.  The only problem was that mosquitos were alive all over the gardens that morning.  (They seemed to be gone by the time we arrived later in the day.)

Oh, the mosquitos!

 Then, was the wedding.  It was perfect!  Tiffany had planned this wedding to be just like the two of them from the programs to the music to the decorations.  They even had a food truck serve hamburgers and French fries and another one serve awesome cupcakes with the best frosting!...and I consider myself a frosting connoisseur.  J  Instead of a guest book, she had everyone sign a basketball.  (They got engaged while playing basketball together.)  Tiffany’s dress was perfect, too!  She looked so happy.  She made a perfect bride.  Todd did a fabulous job.  He had rehearsed the ceremony with the two of them, and he added a few personal touches.  During the vows, he actually made Tiffany say, “I, Tiffany, take thee, Stewbert.”  She got the giggles.  It was priceless.

Overall, the weekend may have started out rocky, but it ended wonderfully!  I’m so glad we were able to be there to celebrate with such an amazing couple.  I’m so very happy for them.

 

 

ADDITION:  We, also, had Tiffany's bachelorette party in Dallas two weekends before the wedding.  It was a blast!  There were about 8 of us.  We stayed at a boutique-esque hotel in downtown Dallas, Hotel Indigo.  We went to dinner at The Chesterfield.  Then, we hit Uptown for some celebrating.  Tiffany is a great sport at posing for all of my pictures!  J

The silly bride

I Love My Lupron Friends and Nurses!!

Well, yesterday was my third Lupron shot.  As usual, the shot was easy-breezy, but boy, did we learn a lot about what my body is doing.

First of all, I have been having pain in my knees and wrists lately.  I thought it was because of my increased boot camp.  However, it turns out that the Lupron is literally sucking all of the fluid from my joints.  It’s one of the awesome side effects of menopause.  I didn’t even know this might be another symptom until I talked to Chelsea (the used-to-be-stranger that commented on one of my blog entries).  She just happened to mention that if my joints started hurting to increase my fish oil.  Because of Chelsea, I asked Kelly, the nurse, about my pain yesterday.  She equated my pain to old women that seem to walk around all scrunched up from pain in their joints.  I knew what she was talking about exactly!  I’ve even heard my mom and grandma talk about how it can hurt to sit and stand sometimes.  Mimi makes lots of “ooo ooo” sounds as she moving.  Anyway, Kelly prescribed me Osteo Bi-Flex and told me not to do any jumping for the next few weeks, at least; I could actually damage my bones from trying to do too much without the fluid in my joints.  Thank goodness Kelly seems to have an answer to all of my symptoms!  (Thanks for the heads-up, Chelsea!)

The next thing we learned was that every 3 weeks or so after a shot, my body may start to actually go into withdrawals from not having Lupron.  This can cause pretty bad mood swings.  For the last week, I have had a much harder time keeping my moods stabilized.  I was actually in tears when we got to the doctor yesterday from stuff that normally wouldn’t have made me cry.  When I went to the restroom before my appointment, Todd told Kelly that I was “having a bad day”.  Luckily, she had an answer for this, too.  Increase my Fish Oil and Vitamin B6.

Hopefully, in about a week, I’ll notice my moods getting better and my joints being less painful.  I’m so very thankful for my Lupron friends and awesome nurses that can help me through this!  The first six weeks of this, I thought it was going to be a cake walk.  This last two weeks has really started taking a toll on my body.  I just hope Todd can withstand the mood swings.  J  Maybe I need to be buying him flowers!

Happy Friday everyone!

It’s a girl!!

I have been waiting until the mother said I could announce this, but she made it official by putting it on Facebook today. Then, I was waiting for Todd to call me, so he could be the first to hear the great news. However, he’s too busy gallivanting on the golf course today. So, I’m blogging it first!!

Todd’s childhood best friend, Michael, and his wife, Samantha, are pregnant! They are the first text I blogged about weeks ago, and I said I had to wait at least another 6 weeks to tell their names. They went through IVF, too. Another success story!!! We are so excited for them! The best part is that they are getting a little girl. Todd said Michael has always been great with the ladies, so I know he’ll be a great father to one. J

For those that don’t know the back story, Sam and Mike have been back in our lives for about 5 years, I think. Todd and Mike had lost touch because they didn’t have their awesome wives to keep them in contact with each other. J When I started dating Todd, I kept hearing about this Mike guy. He told so many stories about them growing up together. Anyway, I decided to look on MySpace (yes, we were still using MySpace, so maybe it’s been longer) to see if I could find him. I did. He only lived about 20 minutes away from us at the time, so I sent him a message. Sam happened to be the one that checked their account and called him to tell him some girl was messaging him about a guy named Todd Provence. He asked if Todd looked like Ben Affleck (I still don’t see the resemblance, but it’s a funny part of the story), and Sam agreed that maybe he did. Anyway, we made a dinner date for them, and they were reunited at Uncle Julio’s in Addison, Texas. They are seriously adorable together. I love watching their relationship and how Todd lights up when he gets to talk to Mike. It’s like talking to a brother for him. Mike was in our wedding, and that really meant a lot to Todd and me.

Samantha and I have a special bond because she’s been through IVF, and I’m going through it…plus, our husbands are secretly in love. She’s one of those people that are beautiful inside and out, and I know that sounds cliché. It’s so true, though. She’s like a real-life Barbie doll. J We’ve always gotten along so well, and I’m blessed to have her to answer all of my questions about IVF, too! Between her and Rachel, I tend to blow-up their phones anytime I need to know something. Thanks for being so great, Sam!!

Todd and I feel blessed to have them as friends and are elated that they are going to be parents soon! Congratulations, Sam and Mike! We are so thrilled for you!!

(By the way, I asked Todd the other day if he was sure he was still up for the challenge of having more kids at his age. Not that he’s old, but I wanted to make sure he still wanted to do this, again. His response was, “If Mike can do it, so can I.” They are so cute together!)

The Happy Parents

The time has come...

…that I can tell you which of our IVF friends was pregnant weeks ago.  Then, it was a secret.  Now, it’s Facebook leading news!  Yay, Rachel and Dustin!!  We’re sooooo excited for you!

Rachel is another patient of Dr. Bundren’s.  She’s also in my Bunco group.  She and Dustin both grew-up in Sand Springs where I’m from.  She’s the main reason we decided to check-out Dr. B, and she’s been wonderful during my process.  She’s always very patient with my numerous questions.

The real exciting news is that Rachel and Dustin aren’t just going to have one baby…they’re going to have twins!  Yay, yay, yay!!!  Look at the cute way she announced their pregnancy…

They're going to be such wonderful parents!

Dustin and Rachel