Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, our Thanksgiving turned out to be a little less nice than we had hoped. Eric ended up with pneumonia and in the emergency room from about 7:30 pm to midnight. I made a big feast even though it was just going to be the two of us but Eric ended up not feeling quite well enough to eat much and then felt like he couldn't breath very well so we went to the hospital. They gave him a couple breathing treatments and did a scan of his lungs since he was in there 6 months ago with the same thing and a possible pulmonary embolism. Back then, they put him on a blood thinner just to be on the safe side and he's been on it for the last 6 months. He doesn't have any blood clots, thank goodness, but the scan did show that he has pneumonia. They sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics and away we went. Poor Honey!

I didn't do any Black Friday shopping but did score a lot of good deals yesterday at Walgreen's and Rite Aid right before their 3 day sales ended so I feel like I didn't miss out on much! We're nearly done with our Christmas shopping, too. Yay! I took pictures of my Walgreen's haul but not the awesome deals I got at Rite Aid. I was too tired to take pictures by the time I got home!

The really sucky part about this weekend, though, is that I'm pretty darn sure I'm ovulating right now but Eric feels way to yucky to actually do any BDing so I guess this cycle is a bust, too. :( I haven't even taken any OPK's because I don't want to waste them on a cycle that I'm not even going to have a chance of getting preggers in. I have all the other O signs so we'll see if the BBT goes up to confirm it.

In other news, I've now lost 8 pounds on the diet. Well....I have some catching up to do after totally pigging out on Thanksgiving fare! Time to get out the Biggest Loser Wii game and let Jillian Michaels kick my behind.

Weekend...Yay!

I love our weekends alone, I have to admit. It's nice to sleep in and lounge around together in a quiet house! We went to Kohl's last night to use our Kohl's Cash on a Christmas present for the boys and while we were there I was smelling some men's colognes. I have a new favorite...McGraw. Oh my gosh, it smells sooooo good on Eric! Mixed with his pheromones, holy cow! I practically attacked him in the store. By the time we got home he smelled even better because it had time to really mix with his natural scent or whatever so we had lots of fun when we got home. TMI, I know. The power of aroma is amazing, I tell ya. I'm crazy for Eric anyway but sheesh.

So yesterday I scored another free box of Garnier Herbashine hair color making my total free count for hair color 4. Gotta like free stuff. I also got a free Melissa & Doug toy and and Olay Body Wash set for $.01 (with mail in rebate).

We're just about ready to go house shopping and I'm really excited. I can't wait to have our own house and have a yard or our own and more space to live in. There is a house that we really like that is still for sale but we'll just have to see if it's still available once we have all our loan stuff ready. Here's hoping. :)

I'm on CD6 today and AF has gone away. This one was really light, maybe because I didn't ovulate. I have my fingers crossed for this cycle. I'm finally doing everything I should be doing. I'm in the process of losing weight, I'm eating healthy foods, drinking green tea and Fertilitea, taking my B vitamins, etc. God, I hope I'm not too old to get preggers! I took an FSH test a couple of months ago and it showed that my levels were normal so I have hope. I also have no symptoms of being in peri-menopause which is another plus on my side. I feel significantly less stressed this month, too. I think I didn't ovulate because I was super stressed last month and I got really sick with tonsillitis, bronchitis, a sinus infection...you name it, I had it all at the same time! So, a few more days and I'll start my OPK's.

The diet is going great. I'm super proud of both of us. Last night we had lots of fun playing Wii Sports games for exercise and decided we really need to use our Wii more. I'm so looking forward to eating whatever I want on Thanksgiving! I was hungry right before bed last night and started imagining all the yummy food we're going to make on Thursday....mmmmm, Turkey. I like to eat way too much!

OK, gotta go shower so we can actually do something today.

Deals!

I ran around to three stores last night on Mission: Bargain and it was a success. I got 8 large boxes of General Mills cereals at Rite Aid for $.84 each along with an 8 oz Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Moist for $.49. Combined with the recent General Mills cereal sale at my local Meijer, I now have 16 boxes of cereal! OK, I'm all stocked up on cereal for a while. But, Jackson alone can put away 3 or 4 bowls on a Saturday morning so it'll get eaten up.

Target had some great deals to cash in on and I got the following: 3 Gillian & O' Malley sleep tank tops for $.64 each and 5 Glade Holiday scent products for $.80 each. The Baked Magic scent smells soooo good, by the way. I did get a little hassle from the clerk on these purchases but shouldn't have. I had a $10 off 3 women's PJ's coupon and I found the 3 tanks on clearance so the clerk went back and forth with her supervisor a few times as if I was trying to pull a fast one on her. The coupon did not exclude clearance items so I got the deal. Then she forgot to give me the $5 gift card for buying 5 Glade products and when I pointed it out she pulled out the weekly ad and thumbed through to find the deal and then looked over my receipt. I did get the card but ended up feeling like I did something wrong....I did not. These were advertised specials so you'd think she'd be familiar with them. It really is true that younger male clerks are way easier to deal with when you're using coupons! For some reason the girls sometimes give you a hassle like we're putting them out or doing something wrong. We need some better training in retail!

My third deal was at Walgreen's where I got 4 large bags of M&M's for $.50 each, 5 Campbell's soups for $.60 each and 2 free Butterfinger's Snackerz. So we came home with bags and bags full of stuff and only spent around $25 (there were some other little items in there that weren't necessarily super great deals but deals none the less that we bought). Nice. It's especially nice that so many stores are quite close to us so I really don't have to waste too much gas driving all over.

I'm glad I have this particular obsession right now. It totally keeps my mind off cycle stuff. I'm on CD3 and it usually seems to take forever in the follicular phase just waiting until it's time to start testing for O.

A brand new cycle...finally!

Well, at last the progesterone cream did its job and induced a period. So, I am currently on CD2 of what will hopefully be a normal cycle. Think positive, Lori....it will be a normal cycle! So far, this period is super light but at least it's a period.

Yesterday was a good day all around. I accomplished a lot around the house and planned out some great deals for shopping tonight. I was chosen to be one of many House Party hosts for Athenos products so that was cool, too. My only issue is that my local supermarket doesn't carry the greek yogurt so I need to hunt around and locate a store that sells it in order to redeem my gratuity coupons for the stuff.

Eric and I went grocery shopping on Sunday night and got two weeks of groceries, including Thanksgiving food for $125. We ended up saving $79.70 in coupons. I'm loving this coupon stuff! I've been searching for a decent set of dishes to replace the ones we were using because they would get super heated in the microwave yet the food would be cold or slightly hot, so we went to Ikea and found a 6 place setting box for $14.99! That was a good deal.

Oh, and I had good diet news yesterday, as well. After our first week of dieting, I've lost 4 pounds and the jeans that were tight 2 weeks ago now fit me comfortably! Yay! Now, the depressing and embarrassing part is that over the last year I gained 32 pounds. Holy crap, that is just disgusting. Who knew being happy, content, and stress free would actually make me gain weight?! So now I have 28 pounds to go just to get back to where I was this time last year. Eric hasn't weighed himself yet but I know he's lost weight. The best part is that we're finally eating healthy foods in rational portions. I'm trying to include a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy in our diet and I just feel so much better about life now. I've had the desire to eat healthy foods for a while but just didn't do it until now. We're getting some exercise here and there but definitely need to improve on that front. We've decided (well, I've decided, and hope Eric agrees) to eat a healthy diet everyday during the holidays and just eat what we want only on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. I figure one day per month of over eating isn't going to kill us.

Well, tonight we will certainly get our exercise because I plan to drag Eric with me to 3 stores so I can cash in on the weekly deals. I'll blog tomorrow and let ya know what steals I got!

Peace and Love :)

Can't move...too much food in tummy....

OK, so our diet is actually going quite well and Eric already looks like he's slimming down a bit. I feel a bit better in my clothes, too. But, it's kind of our anniversary today so we decided to go out to dinner and just get what we wanted just for this meal. I say kind of anniversary because I first came to visit him on Nov. 12 of last year and then came back for Christmas, etc., etc., so we just made Nov. 12 our anniversary until we can get married and have a proper and official anniversary date. We have Eric's boys for the weekend so we pushed our dinner to tonight.

Anywho, we ended up trying a different Mexican restaurant than we normally go to and it was pretty good. We ate way too much, though, and are currently super stuffed. We came home with enough food for lunch and dinner for tomorrow!

AF is still a no show as of yet. I'm still on the progesterone cream...which smells a little bit like fresh dirt, strangely enough! Not in an entirely unpleasant way, though. Everytime I use the cream I proclaim that I'm using my dirt lotion. :) It's just sort of earthy smelling, to be more exact. The kind I'm using is Emerita Pro-Gest just in case anyone is interested.

So, my bargains for today were getting fuji pants for only $3.00 at Kohl's because Eric needed shoes and we ended up getting $10 in Kohl's cash to use. Nice. OK, now for all of you who are wondering what the hell fuji pants are...when I was a kid, I was trying to ask my Mom where my sweatpants were but I couldn't think of the word 'sweatpants' and I said "where are my....fuji thingies?" and it just sort of stuck and my Mom, Dad, and I ended up calling any sort of comfy loungy clothes "Fuji's" or "Foojeez". It always looks weird when I spell it. It's more something I say, not spell. Anyway, I have successfully inducted Vince and now Eric into the land of foojeez. To "Foojify" is to put on comfy clothes, by the way. Currently, I have completed foojification and am quite comfy. OK, you may now leave crazyland and go about your normal life....

Back on the Wagon

I'm on a diet again. Eric and I both need to lose weight and after cleaning and organizing our closet and drawers last week and discovering that about half of our clothes currently do not fit us, we've decided it's time to bite the bullet and get on a diet. We're trying to stick to 500 calories per meal with extra snacks for Eric since he gets to eat more. Guys are lucky that way...they can eat more and lose weight faster!

I had a lousy anovulatory cycle last month, the first in a long time, and I think it might have to do with the fact that I've gained weight, I've been stressed out, and maybe because I stopped drinking the Fertilitea because I ran out. It coincided so perfectly with when my cycle went wonky that it's a little hard to dismiss. I bought some more tea and have been drinking it daily but still no ovulation. :(

I figured this cycle is a wash even if I end up ovulating because my follicular phase would be forever long so I'm currently on day 6 of using progesterone cream in order to induce a period. I figure it's better to get this crappy cycle over with and start fresh. So, all in all that puts me on cycle day 36 today with no ovulation yet. I'm still charting everyday just so I know what going on but my chart look like I've flatlined and am barely alive, my temps are so low!

I have been actively trying to stress reduce and have been mostly successful. I'm sleeping better, eating better, trying to get in at least a walk during the day, and have kept my mind off baby making by obsessing over saving money with coupons, etc.!

Over the weekend I scored 3 free boxes of Garnier hair color and a large bottle of fabric softener at Rite Aid. Yesterday, I got $10 worth of free stuff from Drugstore.com and $350 worth of restaurant gift certificates for $24. Oh, and a pair of Crocs for $12.90. I think Crocs are kind of ugly but they happen to be really comfortable! My poor arthritis riddled feet need comfort, especially now that I'm trying to get some exercise. Tomorrow, I'm going to Walgreen's for free Dawn dish soap and then to Rite Aid for super, super cheap Garnier Fructis hair products. I love saving money!

Tired!

I had a very fun and exciting shopping day today. I'm only a few days into my new life as a couponer and I've scored some crazy deals already. I hit Kohl's, Target, and Meijer today and ended up saving about $72 from using coupons with sale items. I don't even have enough room to store all the items!

We're still in a little apartment but are looking for a house so hopefully soon I'll have some space for my stockpile. I thought it was going to be overwhelming to have this big coupon binder and lists, etc. but it was actually better because I felt empowered. Plus, I'm lucky enough to be a stay at home wife (almost!) and now I feel like I'm contributing to our little family a lot more than just cooking and cleaning. Eric loves the coupon stuff because he's got the bargain shopper gene, too. We rarely go out to eat without a coupon and usually buy things on sale anyway. He thinks he's a tightwad but I think he's just frugal. Being frugal is wise! He's one of those guys who would buy anything for me or his boys but I have to twist his arm to get himself anything even if he needs it. I've found the best way to get Eric to buy himself something is to find out if he really wants it and then I ask him if he'll buy it for me...then I give it him. He's used to this now, so I just ask him if he'd buy it for me if I asked him to and he gets the point. He's sweet and kind. I just need to get him to understand that he's worth spoiling, too, not just everyone else.

This coupon stuff is completely keeping my mind off baby-making and I feel rather stress free. I took a nice hot bath and read my book when I got home from shopping so perhaps all the relaxation and diversion tactics will help me get preggers!

New Obsession

In keeping with my constant obsessive life, I've gone and found a new obsession. This is a win-win. Thanks to my thrifty and oh-so-wise niece, Katie, I have been turned on to the life of being a coupon diva. So, I thought I was a bargain hunter....I have soooo much to learn it's not even funny. I feel like a total noob. I mean, yes, I get some great deals in the realm of clothing but I had no clue when it came to grocery coupons, etc.

There is a vast amount of info out there and I started with Katie's blog and her links. I've been reading practically all day about how to be a coupon lady and I still have a lot to learn. I'll get there. I'm excited because not only does this new obsession give me yet another thing to keep my mind off the craziness of TTC and TWW hell, it also saves me tons of money! Yay!

My Story

So, I've pretty much always been a late bloomer in life. I was married to my first husband when I was 29, later divorced, and now here I am with the love of my life, wanting to have a baby (my first) and I just turned the big 4-0.

A little late in the game to start trying to have my first baby, I realize. I've had issues, though. I started having strange periods when I was about 24. They became less and less frequent until they virtually disappeared. By the time I was married and we were actually trying to get pregnant, I was maybe having 2 menstrual cycles per year. I went into fertility testing in early 2005 and they found that I had a blocked fallopian tube (wow, what a painful test that was!), short luteal phase (9 days), and just didn't ovulate regularly. They couldn't find a reason for that in the time that I was being tested. My husband and I split up after about 8 months on fertility testing and my life became a jumbled mess of emotions for quite a while. Fast forward to last year.

I was in one heck of a crappy relationship in the spring of 2009 and caught in the motherload of all negative thought patterns. A few things happened all at the same time that changed my life. A good friend of mine suggested that I read the book The Secret (he had suggested it previously but I finally listened), I started counseling, and Eric (my current love whom I met 21 years ago and dated briefly while we were both living in Utah) found me on the internet and got in touch with me. My counselor successfully started to bring me out of my negative fog and helped me realize that I needed to get out of the destructive relationship I was in. She advocated positive thought which went hand in hand with the teachings of The Secret. Law of Attraction, positive thought, etc. Eric got in touch with me because he had a very vivid dream in which I was in danger and needed help. It was such an intense dream for him that it motivated him to get in touch with me after years and years just to make sure I was okay. I was not and neither was he. With his friendship and a new found sense of self, I finally broke free of a painful relationship and moved from Oregon to Montana, where some of my family lives.

Eric and I became great friends and now, here we are! Wow, what if he had not had that dream??? Anhywho, a little back-stepping here, a short while after splitting up with my first husband, I had terrible pains in my abdomen that sent me to the ER. Tests were inconclusive but the result was that for the first time in many, many years I started having a regular menstrual cycle. Now that I was single and not TTC! It was like clockwork, too. Once Eric and I got together we quickly decided that we wanted to have children together. We have been actively TTC since about May 2010. I was really hoping to get pregnant before I hit 40 years old but that didn't happen. I haven't been trying for that long and I have a lot of hope that it will happen for us.

This blog, I'm hoping, will help me to chronicle my tale, give me a little outlet for my TTC obsession, and just maybe provide someone out there hope/comfort/etc. All of us in the TTC game are desperately in need of diversions during the TWW. I'm assuming if you're reading this you already know the crazy TTC nomenclature but maybe I'll post a key soon!

Anywho, that's my condensed story. I will post more soon. I am currently "taking a month off" of being obsessive with charting and testing and just charting my BBT's and BDing when we darn well feel like it. I was getting too stressed out and feeling pressured so I'm taking a step back from the madness. I do plan to go back to sane level of testing and charting when my next cycle starts, however.

Good luck to all of us!