Charting

So last week I decided that I was going to start charting. I bought a digital thermometer and signed up for Fertility Friend (the free section).

Since I didn’t start right after getting my period, this month will probably be used to get into the habit of sticking the thermometer in my mouth before getting up to go to the bathroom (unless I am lucky in a little over a week and can stop charting for the next 9+ months!). My chart is all over the place so far and there are a couple of reasons why. First, I don’t wake up at 6:30am on the weekends. Thus I am not taking my temperature at the same time every morning. Second, I always have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Last night it was around 3am, previous nights have been earlier or later. This could vary my temperature results, but there is really nothing I can do about it. Third, I have been taking Nyquil for my cold and I have no idea if that affects temperatures at all.

So far CP hadn’t noticed the three high beeps of the thermometer in the morning, but that has been because he has been up and out of the room before me…..until this morning. My alarm clock went off and I reached for the thermometer. I lay in bed until the beeps went off. They must have woken up CP because he immediately asked “what were those high-pitched noises?”

Tonight I’m going to talk to him about charting (something we haven’t talked about before). He doesn’t want our quest to conceive to become more like work….instead of “practicing” because we are in the mood, we jump into bed because it is a good time of the month. Which I understand. But if I am not pregnant by January, I am scheduled for my annual lady visit. It would probably be helpful if I had a few months of charts to show her and maybe she would have some suggestions or thoughts on why we were not getting pregnant. With only a 25% chance of conceiving even if we do “practice” on the right days, getting pregnant is an accidental thing anyway!

Back from hiatus

Wow. I took a two-week unexpected hiatus from blogging for no apparent reason. Whoops! Hopefully I will get back on board with regular posts starting today….if not, then I obviously don’t have anything interesting to say!

So what has been going on here so far this month….

• CP and I had a nice anniversary. Unfortunately our dinner out to a Spanish restaurant wasn’t that exciting, but the meal that we shared (a whole lot of grilled seafood- clams, shrimp, mussels, scallops, etc.) reminded us of the food we had on our honeymoon (at least while we were in Mozambique). We picked a great day to hike up the tallest “mountain” in CT. Some of our pictures from the day….

If she could talk, Fuzzy Britches would have been saying "HURRY UP GUYS!"

Making FB take silly pictures

The view at the top. What a beautiful day!


• Fuzzy Britches was amazing. For almost being 7 years old, she is not fearful of much. On the way down the mountain we decided to do the loop (the longer way) instead of heading back down the way we came. While CP and I had branches and other items to help us from falling down big boulders, FB had no problems with the terrain. At times she would put her front paws down and slide down the big rocks, using her tail and shifting her weight to balance. It was fun to watch. She definitely slept well that night!
  
• The next weekend CP and I headed up to VT with FB to meet some friends. We drove up to northern VT and met CP’s childhood friends, their wives and kids. I went ATVing for the first time (and surprisingly enjoyed it!) and we took a gondola ride up to the top of Jay’s Peak to check out the views. We saw Montreal, Lake Champlain (in NY) and the White Mountains of NH. Pretty amazing. It was FREEZING though and as we boarded the gondola to head back down to the base, it started snowing!

View from the top of Jay's Peak

• On Sunday morning our friends got a phone call that I don’t wish upon my worst enemy. We helped their wives pack up and wrangle the kids as they raced down to their parents for a family emergency. Sadly there was no happy ending to this story.
  
• Last week I started to run again. Plantar faciistis be damned! I ran a 5K both Monday and Wednesday, only walking up a couple steep hills. My pace was a SLOW 11:30 or so, but I’m simply happy that I am running basically the entire time. It will get better the more I run. Monday night I was in some serious pain while trying to walk because of my heel. I was still limping on Tuesday when I headed into work. Wednesday night and Thursday morning was not as bad, so I’m hoping with lots of stretching and ice I can keep the inflammation down.
  
• CP got sick earlier last week and finally gave it to me on Thursday night. Bastard. I had high hopes of running on Saturday morning before family arrived, but felt icky. I still have a sore throat and some post-nasal drip, but am not down for the count. I probably won’t run tonight, but plan on running Wednesday after work.

What has been going on in your neck of the woods?

One year

On Sunday, CP and I will have been married one year. It seems like our first year flew by!

People often ask if I feel any different now that we are married. I answer honestly- that it really doesn’t feel different from when we lived together before marriage! I do have two lovely rings that I still look at in amazement. I love checking out CP’s left hand and seeing his ring on his finger.

We bought our first house together. While a bigger mortgage than what we were paying in rent in MA means less “free” money every month, my shorter commute has done wonders for my moods when I get home. The availability of more restaurants and the variety reminds us of the bigger cities we have lived in before. And the possibility of meeting people our age through a “new to town” club makes me happy.

We recently made the decision to get a Fuzzy Britches clone puppy. We found a breeder in CT that just had puppies last week. She already sent pictures (Kate- don’t worry I am not posting them yet) and every puppy is adorable. We hope to be able to take FB to meet the puppies in about three weeks. That means we could have a puppy at home with us around Thanksgiving. Yay!

We made the decision to try to get pregnant. While that hasn’t worked out so far (as and of this morning, we will have to try again next month *sigh*), we are trying to have a good attitude about it. No crying. No yelling. No tense conversations. While I hope that our family dynamic changes in a big way during the next year of our marriage, I know that we will survive if it doesn’t.

CP, I know that you don’t read this, nor do you know about this blog (thank goodness), but I love you from the bottom of my heart. Here’s to our future and the adventures that await us!

Walking pain

For the past month or so I have been walking around in pain. From a quick search on the internet, I figured that it was due to wearing flip flops this summer while commuting to and from work and on the weekends. I love my Teva flip flops, but also know that they are not very supportive for my feet.

I finally went to see a doctor about it and the first thing the office wanted me to do was get an X-ray. Wait, so you want my insurance company (and me) to pay for an X-ray that I might not need? Why don’t I get to see the doctor first and THEN he can decide that I need an X-ray? It didn’t matter anyway because as soon as I got into the X-ray room I saw a sign saying that if you are pregnant or may be pregnant to tell the nurse. Because it is a slight possibility, I got the nurse and we decided to put off the X-ray until visiting with the doctor.

Turns out I didn’t need an X-ray and I have Plantar fasciitis. It makes me laugh that it is what is wrong with me because as of about a year ago, every time I heard that an NFL player had the same thing, I would wonder why so many football players were getting warts on their feet! Thankfully I am NOT the only one that equated Plantar fasciitis with warts….as soon as I told CP about the diagnosis he said, “you have warts?!?”

So no, I don’t have warts, but the tissue that runs from my heel to the sole of my right foot is inflamed and it hurts. I am in the most pain in the morning when I get out of bed, but even walking a lot hurts.

Image via Google Health

I seem to have some of the common causes of Plantar fasciitis:

· Foot arch problems (I have high arches)

· Sudden weight gain (Sadly I have gained back ALL of the weight I lost for the wedding which means I kept the weight off through January and have since gained 30 pounds. GAH!)

· Tight Achilles tendon (I really need to take up yoga. My muscles are way too tight, despite the fact that I stretch after working out).

While I am glad that I finally know what is wrong with my heel, it still sucks. With stretches and applying pressure to the tissue a few times a day I may be able to walk and run without pain in a few months. My doctor said that there is no reason for me to stop running in the meantime (I say that like I have been running more than once every two weeks- ha!).

Meanwhile I am PISSED at myself that I gained all of the weight that I lost so hard to get rid of. I desperately need to join a gym to get back into a routine. Losing weight will do wonders for my self esteem (not wanting to take your clothes off for your husband when you are trying to get pregnant makes conceiving more difficult) and will hopefully alleviate some of the pain I am having in my foot.

So yeah, time to buckle down on the eating and start working out again. *sigh*

Crossing the line with a coworker?

Recently I went out with a bunch of friends from various stages in my life. We were having a good time at the bar when one friend asked if another friend was maybe having “too much fun” with one of her coworkers.

The friend in question who might have been “having too much fun” has been married about a year and a half, but her husband did not join us that night because he was busy planning a bachelor party.

At first it was just a coworker putting his arm around another coworker. I haven’t done that with anyone that I work with, but she actually has coworkers her age that she hangs out with after work. So maybe that is a bit different? Then a few minutes later she was riding a motorcycle arcade game- like the one below.

Except then her coworker jumped on the back of it with her to play the game- which included leaning from side to side as you made turns.

It was weird. Awkward. Etc.

Everyone agreed that it was going too far. CP and I both said that it would not be appropriate for the other one to do that. Note: I’m happy we are on the same page about this because I would certainly NOT be okay with him doing this.

Anyway, when I went to the bathroom with her a few minutes later, I asked her about it. She said that she thinks her coworker is actually gay and that she feels like his big sister. Nothing weird going on at all. I’m not sure she convinced me- but is it even her job to convince me?

Whenever I get into a relationship, I think that I actually go out of my way to make it known to strangers that I am with someone. Granted, a coworker is not a stranger, but he knows that she has a husband and is still really touchy-feely with her. And she allows it. Does she just want attention? Are there already problems in their marriage? Is there something actually going on with them? I can’t imagine her actually doing it in front of us, but then again, she only really talks to me out of everyone in the group….and I don’t keep in touch with her husband.

I’m not sure what to think. I mean, in a way I did kind of the only thing that I thought I could do (asking her about it in the bathroom) being that she lives in DC and I’m up in CT. It’s really not my place to do anything if something is going on, but would consider her a sh*tty person for cheating on her husband.

Have you ever been put in this situation? How would you deal with it?

Dragging

It might be because it is Monday, or because it is raining, or because we hit traffic on our way up from NJ, but I am dragging today! It might also be because of our busy weekend.

Friday night we saw Anthony Bourdain in Springfield, MA. Beforehand we went to dinner at The Federal. Dinner there was DELICIOUS. French onion soup is a favorite of mine and this restaurant puts braised short ribs into the soup. It was a meal itself! My entrée was a special for the day- salmon over corn chowder. I couldn’t possibly resist having two of my favorite soups in the same meal! Needless to say, if you are ever in Springfield, I would highly recommend this restaurant!

Anthony himself was funny. I wasn’t sure what he was going to talk about, but he does have a new book out, Medium Raw. CP has read the first few pages of it and thinks that a lot of the talk came from stories in the book. I didn’t care since I haven’t read the book yet. My favorite line from the entire night? He was talking about being a guest judge on Top Chef Season 3 when Dale made scallops in caramel sauce. “It tasted like I was felching Mrs. Butterworth.” Ahhhh Anthony you didn’t disappoint.

Saturday we headed down to my aunt and uncle’s house in NJ. My aunt recovered my grandmother’s couch for us and so we decided to pick it up and attend her cider making party! Little did we know that it was a major party…..

The giant clam with shrimp and different kind of oysters. CP was in heaven with the oysters.

The cute tables

The cider press machine.

As you can see, my aunt goes a little over the top with her parties. CP and I had a great time catching up with my cousin who I haven't seen in a while and came home with two liters of freshly-pressed cider! However, we hit a bunch of traffic on our way home which CP wasn't too happy about as he was stuck driving the U-haul truck.

This coming weekend is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! We don't have any solid plans yet, but we will be spending the weekend enjoying our new home. We don't have the cash to go anywhere and I am actually looking forward to not traveling.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Away again

Why pay our mortgage when we are never home? :-)

This weekend we have a busy lineup. Tonight we are headed to Springfield, MA to see Anthony Bourdain (of “No Reservations” fame).



We love watching his show on the Travel Channel so we are hoping that his show will be interesting. I guess he is going to talk about his new book and then answer questions? I’m not sure what we paid money for, but I’m expecting adult language and funny stories. Hopefully CP will we able to think of a good question to ask him.

Tomorrow morning we will leave bright and early for NJ. My aunt and uncle live down there and have recovered my late grandmother’s couch for our new house. They are also having a cider party so we will have some fun making apple cider and then we get to take some home! :-)

I am excited to see my Aunt, Uncle and hopefully one of my cousins, but we are missing out on a lot of things here in CT this weekend. The Newcomer’s Club that we joined (same club that had Bunco on Weds night) is having the fall Kick-Off Party tomorrow night. CP and I would have been able to walk to the house because it is fairly close to ours. There will be other events though so I am not too bummed.

Also, we just found out that one of CP’s friends from his fraternity will be down in our town this weekend. It is such a small world story. The house two doors down from us has been nicknamed “the Party House” because they often have a bunch of people over in their backyard hanging out on the weekends. CP and I have joked that we need to make friends with them. While on a walk with Fuzzy Britches earlier this week we ran across some other neighbors farther down our street and they were able to place where we lived because of our proximity to the “Party House.” Turns out CP’s fraternity brother went to HIGH SCHOOL with the guy (he owns the Party House with his fiancé) and will be down partying with them this weekend. So we are missing our chance for our “in” to the Party House, but maybe the introduction will be made sometime in the future.

Do you guys have any exciting plans this weekend?




*By the way, yesterday was my 500th post! WOW.