10 DPO and, as always, confused.

Well, my BBT was slightly down this morning yet still above the coverline. Completely consistent with my usual 10 DPO but not quite as low. My boobs are still really sore, though, and that usually goes away around 8 DPO for me. I'm having crazy vivid dreams and a lot of them have to do with taking care of children, adopting children, finding children, being pregnant, having a little baby, etc.

I've started this thing called Lunaception. The theory being that before electricity, most women experienced their menstrual cycles with the phases of the moon and at more or less the same time as all other women. The method uses light to control ovulation. In practice, all light should be blocked from coming into the bedroom at night. During the three fullest days of the moon (the day of the full moon and the days preceding and following), a small light should shine throughout the night in the room. This can be as simple as a small night-light or desk light. After several months, the menstrual cycle should come into balance with the light. When attempting to conceive, intercourse is had on those three nights when the moon is fullest.

I ovulated this month on the day of the full moon. We started darkening the bedroom and you would not believe how much light you find from little things throughout the house! Now that the bedroom is completely darkened I am having super vivid dreams, even more so than my usual. I fall asleep faster and sleep much more soundly with the darkened room, as well. Since I've struggled with insomnia since the age of 14 I'm glad to have some relief. My insomnia is not consistent and it did rear its ugly head last night but the darkened room seems to help. I told Eric that if we conceive while trying lunaception we're going to have to name the baby Luna if it's a girl! Our little moon baby. So....if for nothing else lunaception is doing great things for my quality of sleep.

On a completely unrelated note, I colored my hair yesterday. I had some great coupons for hair color and snagged a box for like 19¢ but the only color they had left was Dark Auburn. I bought because I thought it would be fun and I used to dye my hair red all the time in my 20's so it's also nostalgic. It's a demi-permanent color that just lasts through 28 washes anyway so it's no biggie if I don't like it. It's pretty red. I look like I poured a bottle of Maraschino Cherries over my head. Not quite as red as the Phoenix from X-Men phase of 2006 (see picture!) and honestly that picture doesn't do it justice. My hair was RED back then. And it was permanent. I was seriously going for a Phoenix red. I know, I'm a Sci-Fi geek.

Back in the TWW

I'm 9 DPO today and, as usual, I am obsessing about symptoms. Every little symptom I have makes me wonder if I could be pregnant and of course there's no way to really know until I test in a few days. Every TWW I'm in I end up obsessing over my charts. I eyeball them until they start to blur together. At this point, though, I am starting to see some consistencies in my charts. I have a longer follicular phase and shorter luteal phase and my symptoms in the luteal phase are rather consistent. Theoretically I should just relax and wait until I can test but my mind goes crazy wondering anyway. I both love and hate the TWW. It's exciting and maddening! I tend to start having some cramping and back pain at 10 DPO and then spotting 11 DPO so the next couple of days will be quite indicative of AF or future kiddo!

Valentine's Day, Kindle Joy, etc.

I've been a little lax in the blog department lately. We've had family visits, family melodrama galore, and the common cold floating around. I'll write about the melodrama later, but for now it's too fresh and if I write about it there will be many curse words. Let's just say for now that ex-wives can be demonic.

So, obviously last month's cycle came and went and I'm onto another. I have one more day of high temps to confirm ovulation and then I'm officially back in the TWW. My cycle has been odd lately with longer follicular phases and shorter luteal phases. I was happy when my usually short luteal phase lengthened with the B6 by several days but it has shrunk down a bit. Meh. It's still longer than it used to be so I shouldn't complain. The lengthening of the follicular phase is a little peculiar, too. Sometimes I just want to scream. But....given the fact that I went years without even having but a couple period per year, I should be tres happy that I have periods at all!

We had a great Valentine's Day this year with mucho romance and fun. I used a computer program called Rasterbator (I know...) to make a huge wall mural of Eric and myself and hung on the wall in our bedroom and then decorated the rest of the bedroom with lots of candles and a giant Hershey's kisses heart of the bed. Cheesy, I realize, but also very fun. We went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and had what is becoming "our usual" there, the spicy tuna roll and the spicy salmon roll. So delicious! My darling Love got me a Kindle for valentine's Day and I absolutely love it! It even passes the bubble bath test. I was a little scared the first time I ventured into a lovely bubble bath, where I love to relax after cleaning or exercising and read a book but I kept a very firm grip on it and it stayed high and dry and worked out fine. Plus I can play games on it. I'm a nut for work puzzles of all kinds, especially things like Wheel of Fortune and the games like Every Word where they give you a set of letters and you make as many words from them as possible. Love 'em. So now I'm really a geek and play Every Word on my Kindle during the commercials of Wheel of Fortune on TV!

My supplies of bath and beauty products have grown so much since becoming a couponer that I've had to get creative with organization. Yesterday we bought an over the door shoe organizer that we attached the the back of the bathroom door to store more stuff. It works great and now I have much more space. I made a list of all the things I'm not allowed to buy because I'm so stocked up and it's pretty long! I can only get those items if they're free. The problem is that there really are a lot of free things I can get every week. I have so much toothpaste it's crazy. I've started just shopping at Rite Aid and Meijer weekly and then I go to the other store only if there's a deal I just can't pass up. I have to hit Kroger today though because I won a prize from an online contest and have to go pick it up there. I usually don't shop there because it's more expensive than Meijer but I will take my coupon binder (I call it my bible) just in case!

Weird Dreams

Ok, I'm currently 8 DPO and once again having strange baby related dreams. This time my mother was the one who was pregnant! That would be a feat since she had a hysterectomy when I was a kid! I think this dream is because I'm starting to have the feeling that everyone in the world is getting preggers except for me. Meh. I keep telling myself that it'll happen for us eventually. I'm actually way, way less stressed lately than I normally am.

Tomorrow is Eric's birthday and his parents are coming to visit us today so I'm looking forward to the celebrations. I'm making a German chocolate cake for Eric (his fave) from a Food Network recipe so I'll let ya know how that works out. I also have muffins and cookies to bake so I'd better get off my butt and into the kitchen!

We had a huge snow storm yesterday and the base closed early because of it, so what did we do with our free time? I dragged Eric to 5 stores! There were hardly any people in the stores because all of the sane people stayed home. It was an adventure. I put off all my bargain shopping until the end of the week so I missed out a few deals but it's no biggie. I've scored on so many deals lately that I don't mind missing some. I spent the beginning of the week cleaning and organizing and just didn't quite feel like shopping, too. But now everything is done so I'm off to the kitchen to see if I can bake a cake. I fare pretty well in the kitchen but baking isn't exactly my forte so we'll see.

New Obsession Part Two

Ya know...I called my blog 'My Obsessed Life' because I have the tendency to completely obsess about things, especially if it's a new something.

My new obsession is Alchemy on my DF's Droid phone. This obsession was totally brought on by the proliferation of medical intervention that Eric has needed as of late. There is nothing more tedious than spending hours upon hours in an ER waiting and worrying. Thank goodness for Alchemy, Angry Birds, and Unblock Me on Eric's phone! I have spent so much time waiting in hospitals lately that I'm on level 275 in Unblock Me! Then came Alchemy, and all other games disappeared. It's so addicting. I'm not the type that likes getting cheats because I don't see the point of that so it's all me save one hint I got from someone. I was way too excited when I made yogurt. When I made a Zombie there were squeals of elation coming from Eric's hospital room, so I can only guess what the nurses were assuming!

I highly recommend this game if you haven't already gotten obsessed. Oh, and you can make The Beatles, too! How awesome is that?!

Free Stuff

Ok, I just have to brag a little. It's my blog, so I can do that, right? I got all the items pictured for free!!! The picture on the left was from 3 stores in two days and the picture on the right is the same but from two different days. Making all the items free in one week. It really took me very little shopping time, too. Thank goodness for coupon sites like the fabulous hip2save.com for posting all the weekly deals. You can't see them very well in the picture, but the coupons on the right are for two free Michelina's entrées and one Oust product. The blue and white thing is a bracelet, btw. I now have enough free toothpaste to clean the teeth of all of Beavercreek, Ohio, thank you very much. I have no intentions of becoming a hoarder so I plan to donate anything I can't use before it's expiration date.

My other fabulous deal, although not free, was 18 small bottles of Coffee-Mate creamer for 11¢ each. They would've been free with a bit of overage but the dumb register beeped on three of my coupons. Oh well. 11¢ each is incredibly cheap. Now, I hear you thinking 'what the hell are you going to do with so much creamer???' The truth is that my DF (dear fiancée now instead of dear boyfriend!) likes a little coffee with his creamer and not the other way around. We go through a ton of the stuff. Since it's non-dairy, it also has a very long shelf life so these puppies will last until May quite easily. We will definitely use them before they expire. I had to buy 18 in order to get $5 off, you see.

Anywho, it has been a stellar shopping week for me. Among all the the free and nearly free stuff I managed to haul in, I also now have birthday shopping finished for a few kids in the fam. Yay!

I am now finished bragging. Thank you for indulging me. :)

I have some catching up to do in my Blog posts!

Okay, so the day after Christmas, my poor fiancée was stricken with yet another bout of sickness and he ended up in the hospital so I have a bunch of posts to do to catch up. Here's number one.

Eric ended up getting sick the night after Christmas with a lot of intense pain and vomiting. Then on Wednesday, I took him into the ER for the same symptoms and they admitted him for gallstones and scheduled surgery to remove his gallbladder. So the surgery was done, went really well, and he was finally released on Saturday. So, the poor guy spent New Years' Eve in the hospital! The sweet nurses let me just hang out there as long as I wanted and I even had dinner with him...I mean, hospital food, but still nice. He's home now and doing quite well. Two surgeries in one month! Sheesh.

So, because he had two surgeries, was in the hospital for what seemed like forever, and was sick when he was home for a while, this cycle is a bust as far as TTC goes. No biggie. That's my mantra for this new year. No Biggie. I'm trying really hard to be ultra positive, not let little things bother me, and go with the flow. It's January 3rd and so far so good! My other big resolution for the new year is to continue to eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight. We just bought a treadmill which will help a lot.

Because this cycle is a no-go for TTC, I feel relaxed. It's actually kind of nice to not have to sweat the TWW.