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.

I'm Engaged!!!

Look at the splendor of my ring! Eric asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes! Christmas morning he got down on one knee and asked me and I can't stop staring at my ring. It's the most beautiful ring...I'm in love with it and the man who gave it to me!

So, obviously, it was a great Christmas. We went out for sushi on Christmas Eve for the second year in a row at a restaurant that makes the best spicy salmon roll ever. We were the only people in the restaurant, which was actually really nice. I get tired of how loud restaurants are most of the time.

Besides being blinded by diamonds, I also got Wheel of Fortune for Wii. I love it. I mean, who doesn't like Wheel of Fortune, right? I've been watching that show pretty much since it started 27 years ago so when I heard they were making a Wii version I got all excited. Probably more excited than normal people get about a game show but anyway....

So now, I'm on the hunt for a treadmill because it's way too cold outside to take walks but walking is one of the few forms of exercise I can do that doesn't aggravate my RA in some way. Actually, using a treadmill is even better than walking outdoors because my feet don't hurt as much walking on a predictable, even keel rather than outdoors where there are bumps and other things that make it slightly unsteady. Even the littlest thing will make the RA in my feet really hurt. Blah blah blah.

In other news, it's just about ovulation time again! Yay! I haven't been stressed about baby-making at lately. It's nice for a change. Here's hoping that it works this cycle. :)

Meh

Well, the wicked witch of the east showed up today (AF) so I'm absolutely, definitely not preggo. Oh well. The up side is that my luteal phase ending up being 12 days this cycle. Not the 14 I had hoped for but also not the 10 I'm used to. I also don't have any premenstrual cramps any longer although I do still have the spotting so the B6 and P cream are doing something.

Eric had his nasal surgery yesterday and they kept him overnight to make sure his breathing was okay since he has sleep apnea. His surgery went really well and he's home with me now and not feeling any pain. He hasn't even needed any pain medication beyond Tylenol. The surgeon fixed his severely deviated septum and sort of roto-rootered his sinus passages. I'm really impressed by the hospital we were in because they were super efficient but also genuinely kind and compassionate. The nurses were so sweet and attentive to both Eric and me and even the surgeon was very nice and personable, which I find is rather rare with surgeons. I think I'm going to write them a thank you letter because so often people take the time to complain about bad service but rarely take the time to praise good service.

Well....have to go change my honey's bandages!

Argh!

So, I'm only 10 DPO and I'm spotting. Last night I had a strange pinching sort of pain in my uterus area that went away rather quickly and then I had some residual tenderness for a couple of hours but it was mild. It was very different from what I usually experience in the days before AF so I was a bit hopeful that it was implantation. I can't shut off my brain when it comes to thinking baby thoughts! So fast forward to just about a half hour ago and I had some bright red spotting and then nothing. So, theoretically it really could be implantation spotting but from what I understand it's not terribly common, maybe 30% of women have experienced this. If it's not implantation bleeding it means the dreaded AF is already here. At only 10 DPO??? I haven't had that happen for a while. Once I started taking B6 supplements my luteal phase lengthened to 14 days.

This is so frustrating. I'm trying not to stress and just let whatever happens happen but it's difficult. I want to have a baby so badly and the constant back and forth of my cycle is getting to me. I guess for the time being I need to just keep focusing on losing weight and doing all the stuff I'm supposed to. I have vowed to myself that I will not obsess about baby stuff today and instead put my energy into something else so wish me luck! :)

Click this to print a coupon for free fries at Wendy's!

http://wendysfry4all.com/c/VVhAy1iy

I hate the TWW!

I'm only 5 days into the TWW and going slightly crazy, as usual. Last night I had the weirdest dreams. We're talking finding newborn babies floating on a stream nestled in giant squash blossoms kind of dreams! It was all very Anne Geddes-like and was actually pleasant despite how strange it sounds. So of course now I'm wondering if having a baby dream means I'm pregnant! I have strange sensations in my uterus area and my nips are so sore! All of these things can very easily be explained by luteal phase progesterone spikes and the fact that I have babies on the brain. This is the wonderful thing about the TWW (I say very sarcastically). I'm constantly wondering with no real answers until the TWW is over. I guess that's why they call it the two week wait......

Success...sort of

Success, in that I ovulated...yay! My temp has been up for three days and Fertility Friend concurs that I have indeed ovulated. So I am now officially on day 3 of the dreaded TWW. I didn't have too much hope for this cycle because pneumonia has been lurking in our household but we managed to get in enough BDing to qualify! :) So, I'm on my dirt lotion (progesterone cream) and crossing my fingers. I'm really trying to stay focused on my other obsession, couponing and bargain hunting, so that I don't over-obsess in the TWW like I usually do. The TWW is usually filled with many, many anxieties and I've become (as most of us who are TTC do) so in tune with my body that any little change is noticed and I wonder if it means I'm pregnant. Argh. But fortunately it's Sunday today and that means a new batch of coupons and store ads to mull over so my mind is occupodo.

This past week was rife with free stuff for me. Gotta love that! I received two full size products that I'm testing for manufacturer's, my free Melissa & Doug toy arrived (don't know who to give it to yet...or maybe I'll keep it for my future little one!), and because Eric had pneumonia and had to get prescription medicine, we have gotten $50 worth of free groceries at Meijer. I love that pharmacies pay me to get my medicine! Oh, I also started entering contests selectively and won a $25 gift card to Little Caesar's Pizza and something else that I can't remember at the moment....

I'm actually amazed at how many items I have gotten lately where I have actually made money. Toothpaste is by far the most frequent freebie so far. I don't know what items experienced couponers frequently get for free but so far for me it has been toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, razors of all kinds, lotion, and candy. It's like manufacturers want us to get cavities and yet have good oral care! I had such a great Rite Aid trip this week that the store clerk, at the end of my transaction, looked at my shopping cart full of items, charged me $2.75 and made this noise "mmm mmm mmm!" in a very approving way. The person behind us looked in our cart when she heard the total as if to say 'how did they get all that stuff for $2.75?'. Saving money is awesome.

Now I'm at the point where we have such a stockpile of things that we really have no more room for more so I'm only buying stuff this next week if they're literally giving it away or I'm making money off of it.

Well, here's hoping that the TWW will go by fast!

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!