Almost Wordless Wednesday

Well, the dining room is finally 100% complete after this weekend.  We have put a lot of work into it and I think that it looks great!

Clearly this is a "before" picture.  Ugly chandelier, awful wallpaper.  The entry way on the right heads out into the sunroom (transformation here) and the entry way on the left heads into the kitchen (to be finished shortly).

Another "before" picture.  This is prior to the floors getting refinished.  We love the hutches- they are similar to the hutches we had in our dining room in CT!

Starting to make progress.  Gone is the chandelier.  We were starting to take off the CEILING WALLPAPER (yes, you read that correctly) in this picture.  It's a bit hard to see but to the left of the light on the curve of the ceiling you can see the chipping paint.  After taking the wallpaper off, we had to take the wallpaper paste off the ceiling (and walls of course), chip off loose paint, then apply plaster, then prime, then paint.  Ugh.

Who wallpapers in inside of a hutch?  And with ugly wallpaper that doesn't even match the wallpaper on the walls???

Finally, a finished dining room!

We took all of the paint off the hutches and repainted everything.  We still need to do some organization inside the cabinets though.

Check out our new chandelier!  We have an 11 foot long dining room table so we needed something longer in length.

Our new hurricane candles for the table found at an antique store in MI.  :-)

Three rooms down.  A bunch more to go.

Pin cushion

Today I was a human pin cushion.  Needless to say, I’ve had better mornings.

My first appointment was for an ultrasound and bloodwork to see what is going on with my reproductive organs while I’m on Lupron.  The nurse called this afternoon and said that everything looks good….however I have a mature follicle.  I am not to have sex and I have to go back into the office next week to see if I ovulated.  If I do ovulate then I will have to do another month of Lupron.  *sigh* So pretty please send my ovaries DO NOT OVULATE thoughts this week.

After that I ran over to the hospital to get my stitches from my cyst taken out (OUCH), have an updated pap, and get some bloodwork done.  The phlebotomist was surprised that he only had one arm to work with and remarked, “boy you must be having a fun day today.”  Yep.

So now I wait, crossing my fingers that I don’t ovulate this coming week.

F*ck

I don't usually post twice in a day, but I'm posting because I am trying not to worry too much right now.  This morning, only 2.5 weeks after my month-long Lupron shot, I had some spotting.  Last time I took Lupron my reproductive organs were knocked out for 6 months, far longer than the 3 the shot was supposed to cover.  I was expecting the same thing to happen here....

I called my nurse and she told me to get bloodwork and an ultrasound done tomorrow.  She mentioned something about upping my dosage or having to tweak things because of the spotting.  I'm trying not to think about it too much but does upping my dosage mean that I will have yet ANOTHER month on Lupron starting whenever the shot arrives at my clinic?  I have been fairly patient waiting for this month to go by and for me to really get started with this IVF cycle.....does this spotting now mean I have to wait even longer?

Ladies, have any of you had spotting problems in the middle of long Lupron shots?  Any advice, stories, etc. would be appreciated- especially if you can tell me that it's no big deal and that tomorrow's appointment is just a formality.

 My day started out not-so-great....and has continued downward.  :-(  I need some chocolate.

Pinning

With CP out of town, I have been busy keeping my mind off the upcoming IVF cycle by pinning and then making items!  After my holiday crafting blitz I have been a little lazy on the crafting side, but home improvement is enough “crafting” for me these days.  We are desperately trying to finish off the kitchen before we have friends over for the Superbowl on Sunday. 

Frankly, my pictures are never as good as the person who took the time to stage their food, so most of these pictures will be from the Pinterest pin.  :-)

For a work holiday party, I ended up making these cheesecake stuffed strawberries.  Holy crap they were good (and really easy).  The only caution I have for you is to make sure that you make them the day of the event.  I made mine the night before and the strawberries were a little mushy.

Recipe here

I made these pretzel bites for a friend’s holiday party.  I ended up making both the cinnamon sugar and the parmesan bites.  I had NO idea what Rhodes Roll dough was and if I had more time I would have made the dough myself….instead I just used Pillsbury dough and they came out great!  I would absolutely make them again.

Recipe here

 Although it’s not quite the season right now for some of these veggies, this Summer Veggies with Basil Quinoa Salad was delicious.

Recipe here

Last week I wanted a casserole, but also wanted it to be something that was really easy to put together.  I found this recipe for a Chicken, Spinach and Pasta Casserole.  I used rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods, fresh spinach (instead of frozen), and threw in some fresh mushroom into the dish.  It was tasty and easy to put together.

Recipe here

I can’t remember if I told you guys about this Chicken dish, but in case I haven’t, I’m posting it here.  This is a fantastically easy marinade and even though I’m not a huge fan of mustard, I could eat a whole lot of this chicken.

Recipe here

I love making soup in the fall, winter or spring.  I could seriously eat it every day.  I happen to LOVE corn chowder so I thought that I would make Quinoa Corn Chowder.  The soup is just okay- it seemed to be missing something- maybe a spice?  I ended up putting some Tony Chachere’s seasoning into the soup and it was better. 
 

Recipe here

CP bought me three beautiful silk scarves in Thailand on his work trip (I’m wearing my favorite one today and even took a crappy iPhone picture of it- see below ).  I used this handy scarf-tying guide to figure out different ways to tie my new scarves!

Finally, if you are looking for a delicious and healthy breakfast, look no further.  The baked eggs with spinach dish that I pinned was really easy because I had all of the ingredients on hand!  This is definitely a breakfast I will be making again.

Recipe here

Have you pinned anything interesting lately that you would like to share?

FB's new look

Fuzzy Britches somehow has a sore on her elbow.  I took her to the vet this morning and what did he recommend?  A long sleeve tshirt so that she can't lick at the sore anymore and antibiotics.  So far she is tolerating the tshirt well, but I have a feeling CP is not going to be happy with FB wearing a tshirt, even if it was vet-recommended.  I personally think that it's hilarious.

She looks so dignified in this picture, yes?

Good and bad

Today is a mix of good and bad things.  I’ll start with the bad.  I went to get a Brazilian yesterday and my waxer mentioned that I might want to head to a doctor because what I thought was simply a very large ingrown hair was most likely a cyst.  I don’t know why I am partial to getting this stupid things, but if you have  been reading for a while, I had a large cyst taken out of my back in the spring of 2010.    Thankfully this cyst was smaller and I didn’t need to be put under with general anesthesia, but I will probably be sore for a few days.  The worst part about it?  No sex for two weeks because of its location and to make sure that I don’t open the stitches.  Seriously???  I haven’t seen my husband for more than 24 hours in A MONTH and in the 24 hours I did see him, I of course had my period.  ARGH.

The good news is that CP’s work in Brazil has finished early so instead of leaving Friday night and arriving early Sat morning into Chicago, he is going to leave tomorrow night and arrive early Thursday morning!!  I’m very excited that I get two extra days with him and I’m crossing my fingers that he doesn’t have to go anywhere next week.  I seriously miss my husband- especially because it has been FREEZING in Chicago the past few days.  When I took the dogs out this morning the wind chill was -15 degrees.  I mean, I love my two furry blankets but snuggling with the dogs is just not the same as snuggling with your husband.

My other good news is that I actually got CP to agree to go to a couples group on how to support each other through infertility treatments this weekend.  It’s free and only an hour long so it can’t be that bad.  I’m just amazed that I didn’t have to beg or plead with him to go with me.  Progress!!

On another note, those of you that have done acupuncture in conjunction with your fertility, how many times did you go a week?  How far in advance prior to retrieval did you go?  Was there a place that your doctor recommended or did you just find a place nearby?  My insurance wouldn’t cover acupuncture, but there is the place that my clinic recommends (place #1) or there is also a place that is connected to my gym (place #2).  Place #1 is a bit more expensive ($25 more for the initial consultation and then $15 more for follow ups) and farther away than Place #2 (25 minutes as opposed to less than 5 minutes).  I wondering though if the specialty acupuncture place (#1) is worth the extra money and driving time because infertility is really what they focus on.  Thoughts?

Garbled thoughts

I swear….I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth.  I got back to Chicago on Friday and have been crazy busy since getting back. 

I got my one-month shot of Lupron on Friday.  The shot wasn’t awful (the nurses said that the self injections for the IVF drugs will be easier), but Friday night I got a migraine and felt awful.  I only had 24 hours with CP before he jetted off to Thailand, but had to bail on the movie we were watching and put myself to bed at 9:30am (no lights and some drugs).  I still had a bit of the headache Saturday morning.  Boooo.  I can’t imagine that it could have been from the Lupron after just getting the shot that day, but who knows.  Either way, it sucked.  No hot flashes so far….still waiting to see if those reappear like last time.  I did buy Calcium pills because Lupron can suck nutrients out of your bones.

I love my husband a lot, but I wasn’t super happy with the condition of the house when I got home.  He did clean up the ornaments and Christmas stuff, but didn’t pick up the rest of the house so Saturday I did some cleaning before heading over to our friend’s house to watch the Packer game.  Sunday my parents came over and helped me with some painting around the house.  It was nice to see them and get some extra hands on some small projects.

This week I have been STRESSING over a big work event on Wednesday that I was single-handedly putting together.  I did as much work on the event as I could from New York, but that was sporadic at best and hard to do from mostly email.  I swear, sometimes when dealing with managers, it’s like herding cats.  You have to hold their hand through the entire process because they don’t read emails and god forbid they try to figure something out on their own.  Arrrrgh.  BUT.  The event was yesterday and it went GREAT.  My boss’ boss was very impressed- so go me!

FaceTime continues to be the best invention ever for a husband that travels a lot. It’s really weird how when he is calling me at 6pm my time, it’s 7am his time the next day.  It will be better when he gets to Brazil on Sunday and it’s not such a time difference.

Between Netflix and a 7-day free subscription to Hulu Plus (now cancelled), I am obsessed and totally caught up with Downton Abbey- just in time for the third season to get going!  I’m also excited about Girls (HBO) and Archer (FX) starting up again.

Today I received more information on my insurance coverage.  My insurance follows the IL IVF mandate, which means that I have a total of 4 lifetime IVF procedures or 2 after a live birth (resulting from an IVF cycle).  The cycles are covered 100% with a $35 co-pay which is INSANE to me (INSANE meaning we are so lucky).  I wish that everyone had access to this coverage.

Sorry for the random post. I’m still decompressing from the event yesterday and looking forward to the weekend- the dogs and I will be headed up to Michigan to hang out with my parents.  :-)