AF here

I was right. The acupuncturist was wrong. Sigh.

Where do you find hope?

Is it a bad sign that your acupuncturist has more hope than you do? Yes, it has been two weeks since the IUI. No, I haven't tested. Honestly, I don't feel the need as I'm not feeling very hopeful this month. I do feel like AF is coming soon, but even before the past few days I didn't have much hope.

4:10:21

I completed the half marathon!

With all the horrendous weather reports, I woke up to partly cloudy skies and dry weather. It had rained over night, but seemed to be past for now. They did start the race 45 minutes early hoping to skip the second wave of storms coming later in the day. It was actually a beautiful morning, with the sun breaking through the clouds just as we reached the top of the first hill and could look down on downtown.



The experience was amazing! They had bands playing every mile or so, plus the spectators were a sight to see themselves. It felt like a carnival! The first few miles flew by and we were hitting a good pace.



The course looped around on itself and when I hit the approximately 3 mile mark, I could see both the people who were behind me at the one mile mark (on the overpass) and the faster runners going underneath me at the 10 mile mark:



The rain did start during mile 9. It started light, but slowly started coming down more heavily. In the middle of mile 10, the police recommended we take cover for a severe storm. We stopped for a while in a warehouse (actually, you can almost see the warehouse we stopped at the picture above near the stop sign on the left). Here we are taking cover:



After a few minutes, we didn't think the storm was that severe and kept going. With wet shoes and the inclination to keep our heads down to avoid the rain, I was feeling the last few miles hard. Then a police officer told us a second wave of storms was coming and they were talking about closing the course at that time. We had better hurry if we wanted to finish. With that extra motivation, my friend and I found our pace again and finished the race strong.

It was a great day that ended with a foot massage and my favorite ice cream. My legs are a bit sore today, but am feeling good and proud of myself.

I am already thinking ahead to next year. I definitely want to do this again another time. But I need another challenge. I'm thinking of joining this group for the half marathon next year:

Double ACK!

I've had quite an afternoon. Actually, I didn't really do much other than procrastinate at work, but it seemed eventful with all the things running around in my head.

First, I found out my very favorite band, the Barenaked Ladies, will be giving a concert in my hometown at this great venue. I am semi-obsessed with BNL and this venue would be an awesome place to see the show. Of course they give great shows anyway! The catch? It is during a week when I am scheduled to be about 3 hours away for work. I am driving there, so am thinking maybe there is a way I can go up Sunday, come back Monday afternoon, and then drive during the night to make it back for a Tuesday morning meeting. Is that crazy? I've been trying to find other places where I could go see them, from a city a few hours away where DH and I could take a long weekend trip, to cities several states away where I could try to arrange a trip to see my sister or cousin! I told you I am obsessed. But the venue here would be the best.

After I calmed down about potentially them in my own city, I checked the weather for this weekend. My half marathon is on Saturday and they have been forecasting rain. Of course it is so hard to forecast several days ahead, so I figure today's might actually be somewhat accurate. And what do you know, but the first thing I saw was a special weather statement! Not just thunderstorms, but severe storms, hail, and possibly tornadoes! I'm panicking and trying to figure out what to wear. I am not experienced in marathons at all, so this is all new.

I picked up my race bib tonight and they did have a booth selling these white hazmat looking suits that are supposed to be rain proof. I could not bring myself to buy them just for the look of it. DH was giving me a hard time b/c he has no problem looking foolish to stay comfortable in severe weather, but my California upbringing makes severe weather so unlikely that the concept of looking foolish for it does not make sense. I did not buy it, but am thinking of going back tomorrow for it.

Neighborhood

This weekend was quite a busy one for us. We live in a popular neighborhood and were asked about 6 weeks ago to open our home for the neighborhood home tour. We were happy to do it since we live on the northern edge of the neighborhood and wanted to show people that this side has things to offer as well and to get to know more neighbors.

Well, little did we know that this event would take up the entire weekend! It started Friday evening with a cocktail party with all the people whose homes were on the tour and a short tour of our homes since we would be busy the next day and wanted a chance to see each other's homes. Saturday started early with breakfast (which I missed because I was trying to fit in my last marathon training session before race day next weekend!) and then the tour for 6 hours. And then Saturday night was another party.

While exhausting, it was also a ton of fun. We had a lot of great comments on our house and it was funny because things we never liked actually attracted other people because it added "character". I guess we all have different tastes.

Despite the fun we had overall, there were several hard parts for this infertile over here. First was just the large number of small children running around, always reminding me that we moved into this neighborhood partly for its family-friendliness. And of course that was pounded into us again and again as almost every couple we started talking with would say what they love best about the neighborhood is how great it is for kids.

And then there were all the comments about our house that reminded me why we bought such a big house in the first place. Many people asked, "oh, you don't have any kids? But there is all this space?" Or, "this is so big for just the two of you." Or, perhaps the hardest to hear as people notice we have his and her offices (mine is actually an office/sewing/craft room), "wow, how great to each have your own space! Now that we have kids, we have no room for our own space."

Sigh. Many of these comments were hard to take. We did buy this big house thinking we would grow into it. That was three years ago. And there is no growing family in sight.

Wonder Years

Do you remember that show? It was one of my favorite shows growing up. First, the theme song "with a little help from my friends." I associate that song much more with the show than with anything else the Bea.tles have done. And then there was Fred Sav.age. The star of the show and so cute! And so close to my age that I used to think it was actually possible that we could meet and fall in love, unlike other childhood crushes where my fantasies would always involve some way to explain why it was OK to marry Jo.rdan Kn.ight even though he was so much older.

As it turns out, I did end up having my chance with Fred. We went to the same college. I was involved in theatre in high school and college. I did some acting, but mostly worked backstage. In college I ended up doing costumes for a series of one-act plays that were written and directed by other students. Guess who directed one of them? Many years had passed since the Wond.er Years. But when I first heard that Freddie would be directing the play, I squealed like a schoolgirl.

I should have known that reality never really turns out like our dreams. He may have been a heart-throb, but he did not have much of a heart. He did, however, like to drink. After opening night we had a party where the alcohol was flowing freely. Still, most people did not get as drunk as he did. Near the end of the party, Fred had an idea. First he found a bunch of popsicles in a freezer and starting throwing them at people. Then once he had our attention, he explained his idea. All the women who wanted se.x would stand on one side of the room and all the men who wanted it would stand on the other side. Then we just pair up. Apparently he was the only one who thought this was a good idea and the only one who moved. One of the heads of the theatre company ended up driving him home shortly after that.

So that was my chance with my childhood crush.

IUI and tax deductions

We did our second IUI today. So now that is in the history books! Hopefully it will be one to remember for history. It is funny how quickly we progress into a next stage of things. With our first IUI, I had all these plans to do something *special* for DH to give him some inspiration. And then we went out to lunch before the procedure and I took the whole afternoon off afterward. It was a big deal.

Today was much different. After I got a hold of the nurse, I called him and told him what time to show up for his duty. He did manage to take time off work to come with me for the IUI, so we went to that together again. But then I rushed back to work for another meeting. We are only on our second IUI and it is already seeming so standard, just a normal thing to fit into our day. Just like putting "get impregnated" under "pick up dry cleaning" and "go to bank" on the day's to-do list.

Speaking of things I needed to do today. We finally finished our taxes. Just another reason to be jealous of all those fertiles and their little tax deductions running around.

Frustration

My RE does not work on weekends. So far it hasn't created any missed opportunities for us. But now I am worried we are going to miss this IUI. Especially since I can't convince my RE to schedule an appointment before this Wednesday for monitoring. This is a problem since I will be on CD 16 by then! When I realized no matter how much I argued for an earlier appointment, she wouldn't budge, I decided on my own to start the clo.mid later than she suggested. Just by one day, so I am doing days 4-8. I haven't heard anyone else taking it days on these days, but she didn't want me to wait until days 5-9 and I didn't feel comfortable starting on day, so this was my compromise. My RE did tell me to take OPKs and to call first thing Monday morning if I had a positive on Sunday or Monday. If I had a positive on Saturday we would just miss our chance. Luckily I had negatives on Saturday. But today I had something very close to a positive OPK. The test line is just slightly less dark than the control line, but they are close. I'm calling it negative now, but am guessing it will be darker later today or tomorrow. So I am calling first thing in the morning for hopefully an IUI tomorrow. This is so frustrating!

In acupuncture news, has anyone ever had a needle bleed when it was taken out? There was a little bit of blood last week in my appointment and now I have a bruise on that spot.

I am still training for my half marathon. Yesterday I walked 10 miles! It was a beautiful and I am just hoping for the same weather on race day. Only two weeks to go.

FB

If you've been reading me for a while, you may remember when I wrote about catching up with a friend I lost track of. She kept bringing up "when I have kids" and mentioned she was going to start TTC soon. Surprisingly, I wanted her to ask me when I would have a baby or why I didn't have one yet after being married so long. But she didn't.

Today I found out she is pregnant. Many months along and due in August. Sigh. FB can be a horrible place to be at times like this.

Back on the wagon

Well, here we go again. Another clom.id and IUI cycle. Meds begin tonight. This is my "some people have success right after a lap" cycle, so all fingers crossed. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but am feeling somewhat optimistic.