Yep, I'm a Planner!

Andrew and I spent the first half of the day in IVF class. I loved it. Lots of information and an official IVF calendar that's just for ME! Of course, the financial session was no fun, but I'm choosing to think of it as the best way in the world to spend the equivalent of the cost of a mediocre car...

When my next cycle starts, I'll go back on birth control. Everyone always points out the irony of starting bcps when most of us stopped them months (in our case--years) ago when we decided to start ttgp. I'm past irony; I'm ready for some action that involves a fairly decent chance of finally ending up with a baby or TWO! From there, it's shots and more shots.

My IVF nurse is wonderful and coincidentally has a music degree, so Andrew thought she was swell. She said it was a great time at their clinic and lots of people seemed to be having great cycles. I'll take all the good karma I can get and have decided to think of this as the "perfect time" for us to get pregnant.

As a side note, my husband (admitted needle-phobe) made it through the shot class portion of the morning with no major incident. According to him, the needles are much smaller in real life than he'd imagined. I still think I will be having a nurse friend give me the ones that I can't reach to do myself, but it's nice to know he might could do it if the need arises.

Things are looking up at the Mroch house! Any doctor's visit that ends with a calendar party is fun times in my book!

Hello, Old Friends

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal (A)--nostalgia for the dozens of Sweet Valley books that I read when I was younger dictates the "A" for this book. What better than a reunion book that allows me to revisit trusted companions that I practically grew up with? I'll pretend not to notice that everything was a bit too predictable and a bit like poor Francine is out of touch with modern times. I was also a bit worried that time isn't moving just right in Sweet Valley. The twins were in high school when I was in middle school and now they are younger than me... Nonetheless, I'll read a reunion book with characters I loved as a youngster any day of the week.

75 Things

Several years ago I heard someone say that a person is truly happy if they can sit down and list seventy-five things that always make them happy. Seventy-five sounded like an arbitrary number, but since I'm a fool for lists, I decided to give it a try.

It's been several years since I made the list. I've changed jobs twice, moved to a different state, gotten married, and filled out a million other lists since this one, but I've kept it and have referred to it a couple of times to make sure that I'm still "truly happy."

1. Cheeto Puffs (now they make ammaaaazing Natural White Cheddar ones that are even better)
2. 20 oz. Mountain Dew (alas, age and a few dozen pounds have switched me to Diet MD)
3. striped socks (still wearing two of the pairs that inspired this entry)
4. blue ink pens
5. Light Blue by D&G
6. red toenails
7. high-heeled sandals (guess I used to be more fashionable...)
8. Buckle jeans (damn those few dozen pounds!)
9. Randy Travis
10. soap operas
11. romance novels (yep, I'm a sucker for a predictable ending)
12. day lilies
13. snow days
14. David Letterman (the whole cheating thing puts a damper on this)
15. quesadilla roja (was just swooning over some red sauce at the local Mexican restaraunt last evening)
16. Jade Palace (best Chinese everrrrrrr)
17. Blake and Dylan (the two boys I used to babysit)
18. "Victory in Jesus"
19. duty-free shops (I also used to travel more, thus visiting more airport shops)
20. book stores
21. magazines
22. Yankee candles
23. maps
24. "Golden Girls" reruns
25. big sunglasses
26. cheesecake
27. Sunshine Chicken Salad (Rafferty's)
28. Wednesday shopping (when I moved to TN, my best friend would meet me in Clarksville once a week for dinner and shopping; now I have dinner once per month with my three best friends from high school)
29. black and silver picture frames
30. organized closets (my clothes are still in ROYGBIV order)
31. chairs on wheels (wtf?)
32. couch napping
33. trampolines (maybe that's why I was thinner?)
34. rainy nights
35. air conditioning
36. HGTV
37. airplanes
38. Mtn. Spring Tide (DH insists on the original scent)
39. smooth legs (mine)
40. black underwear
41. Daily planners
42. Angel by VS bras
43. Stearnes and Foster
44. MAC Cosemetics (I'm more of a Sephora girl now.)
45. Janet Evanovich
46. shawls (I had just bought a green one in a duty free shop; later used same as a couch throw)
47. fleece pullovers
48. roller coasters
49. Joe's Crab Shack
50. palm trees
51. Australian accents
52. the Olympics
53. the French Revolution (HIS 5o1)
54. black pants (what chubby girl doesn't?)
55. new notebooks
56. well-folded laundry
57. vertical stripes
58. Algebra (oh for a job that allowed me to sit in a cubicle and FOIL all day long...)
59. Turquoise jewelry (the phase passed)
60. Halloween
61. cranberry sauce (all three things I took to Thanksgiving at my MIL's involved cranberries)
62. postcards
63. free samples
64. motorhomes
65. wrapping presents (have bought all the paper, ribbon, and labels but NONE of the presents)
66. stationary
67. Las Vegas
68. Harley t-shirts (again, the phase has passed)
69. alma maters
70. Drakkar (not so much...)
71. scotch tape
72. Julia Robert's movies (that last one with Clive Owen didn't do much for me)
73. April (the month?? don't remember)
74. Madame Childress (hs French teacher)
75. Christmas carols (but only the traditional versions, NOT the pop crap ones on the radio)

It's always reassuring to see that, even though my early twenties gave way to my later twenties, I'm still the same person who loves organization, fresh starts, and holidays. I would add a few things if I were starting this list now (especially sushi, which I was uncultured enough to have never tried) but it's still a good snap shot of what's important to me. How many can you list??