tagged

Christyna tagged me for a meme today and I am compelled to do it since it is (I believe) an "end of April" meme. I have so many posts unposted, including a meme Brenda tagged me for a while back...but, alas, I am doing what I can right now when it comes to the blog.

Here is my list of 10 things that have been keeping me busy:

1. I start (pretty much) every day in meditation. I'm not a morning person, so any extra time is precious. But since I started doing it last July, it has made such a profound impact on my life that I manage to get up and do it. I don't mean to sound like some sort of zealot or anything...so I'll leave it at that.

2. Running after the animals, mostly Gracie, keeps me busy. She is happiest when she gets a lot of activity--so I'm either busy taking her places and playing with her, etc. or I am busy dealing with her hyperactivity and downright goofiness if she was left alone for too much of the day. The kitties follow me around whenever Gracie is out in the backyard or when she is sleeping--they know the coast is clear so they take advantage of some cuddle time.

3. Trying to get knocked up without going crazy about it.

4. Morning exercise and afternoon activities with our residents, and a myriad of ever-changing diversions throughout the day. You never know what might come up when there are 30 residents, over 30 employees, volunteers and community contacts, and 5 houses to keep running (inside and out).

5. Mr. C got me XM Radio for Christmas and I love it. I want to get it in my house now too, because I find that at least once a day I sit in my car to continue listening to something that has compelled me.

6. Trying to fix healthy food for me and Mr. C each day. We decided when we were on our cruise that we want to eat lunch together as often as possible. This can be a challenge because our tastes are so far apart. I would be happy eating brown rice and veggies while he would be in heaven if pizza, cheese burgers and fries were actually healthy and he could eat them every day.

7. The house still isn't "moved in." I have three rooms that I still haven't finished painting and NONE of the rooms are fully furnished (not to mention accessories, art, etc.). The garage is filled with boxes. We still have a storage unit that is mostly filled. Mr. C is busy (understatement) with this film project so he hasn't had the time or energy to help with these things. So I plod away slowly and some days, like today and yesterday, I only manage to keep the house reasonably clean and tidy. It's OK, because I've got nothing but time. We were thinking we'd have a house-warming party at some point. Is there a time limit for such things?

8. Almost every evening we watch a movie. Without cable it is our only option, but it does require that we give attention to what we are watching rather than just turning on the TV and flipping through the channels.

9. I've been reading spiritual books lately. Good stuff.

10. Daydreaming about summer, which will be here before too long. I love spring, so I'm not wishing it away. I will, however, relish time outside, long days, grilling like crazy, riding our bikes...

Will this surge ever end?

I've been using OPKs and so far I have had pretty regular cycles with a positive OPK on day 17 and all of the physical signs of ovulation following.

This month I was on the cruise on day 17 and, sure enough, got the positive. I didn't notice the normal signs to follow, though. But that didn't set off any alarms or anything, since my schedule and eating patterns were all out of whack due to being on vacation.

I had a couple unused OPKs, though, and four days after the positive I--just for the heck of it--tested again. It was positive. The next day I tested again and, yep, it was positive. When I got home I went out and bought another box of OPKs. I've tested now for 5 days in a row and, you guessed it, still positive (I've even done both FMU and evening tests). So now I am 9 days out from the first positive.

What the...?

Of course I have done some research and did read that your body can have a surge and then not ovulate, only to later surge again. This wouldn't be surprising since travel, stress, being sick, drinking a lot of alcohol, etc. can impede the egg from releasing. But what is up with a surge lasting (at least) 5 days? I know I don't have PCOS. I also read that an OPK will go positive if you are pregnant, but only after implantation.

I ran out of OPKs today and will not buy any more. It is expensive (albeit strangely satisfying) to pee on sticks.

back on land

...but I feel like I am still on a boat, even though we got off the ship on Sunday morning. We had a long travel day yesterday that started at 4:30 a.m. and included two flights and a 4 hour drive. Today I am tired.

The trip was quite an experience. We had fun and enjoyed being away for a while. Being on a cruise really was a step into a different reality. I enjoyed sitting in the sun and reading, eating good food, and dancing almost every night. Mr. C and I made a little video of some highlights of the cruise which I hope to post in the next few days or so. He wants to fiddle around with it, so I'm really not sure when it will be done.

I got a little taste of summer, which felt wonderful. Apparently the weather here was pretty sunny and warm as well while we were away. Before we left it was still feeling like the verge of spring. The tree in our backyard, along with trees all over the area, was covered in blossoms. Now, the trees are full of yellow-green leaves. It is like the color dial on the landscape was turned up several notches--spring has definitely sprung.

away for a while

I realize that I have been away from the blog already--haven't posted in a very long time, which has been hard because I miss blogging and I miss catching up on all of you out there who I care so much about--but I am going away for an actual vacation.

Mr. C and I are taking a cruise and we are looking forward to some serious down-time. We started vacation planning with something tropical in mind and when the idea of a cruise came up I think we both were attracted to the idea of being out to sea.

Life is good and I am starting to get back into a groove again. I had really gotten in the swing of things before our move into the new house, then everything was thrown about into a swirl of activity and newness. Time away will be, perhaps needless to say, wonderful.

I have made a lot of progress on the house--all but one of the rooms that I intend to paint are either finished or almost finished and the unfinished room has paint on the wall (just doing one accent wall in there) but we decided to change the color.

I do plan to get back to posting regularly again. And I promise that if/when there is any news to share of any substance I will, most definitely, share it.

sorry if I left anyone hanging

My days are so full now that I haven't been able to squeeze in even a moment during the last week to even peek in at blogs. We may be getting closer to being online at home, but sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back. Mr. C told me that he was getting things connected last week, then said he wasn't happy with the service so he is continuing his search for the perfect plan. If I had any time on my hands I would just do it myself, but I don't.

The mysterious spotting turned out to be just that. AF came right at 14 days. Since I was pretty sure we had missed the "right time" anyway it didn't disappoint me too much. Another month, another cycle. Anyone who was sending positive thoughts can (pretty please) continue to do so.

And now it is back to work!

OK, so maybe "soon" is a relative term

I still haven't gotten it together enough to manage to get the darn pictures onto my laptop. Add that to the fact that I have only found the time to get on the computer at all about a handful of times since I posted last. Each of those times I opted to read blogs instead of posting, partially due to the fact that I felt so lame for promising pictures and then not being capable of following through.

Ah, such is life.

I've been painting and getting rooms (slowly/partially) furnished. It seems that by the time I get around to posting pictures they may be before-and-after shots. Mr. C is out of town until tomorrow night (he went for a long-weekend to Vegas with a friend) so I have been spending every spare moment painting. It isn't that I cannot do it when he is here, but he does reel me in and keep me from going overboard. I reeled myself in last night, though, since I no longer have a schedule that is wide open. Our activity director quit last Thursday and we decided that I will run our activities instead of hiring a replacement. This means that I run our exercise program every morning and our afternoon activity. I love it. At exercise we sit in a big circle and do deep breathing, stretching and arm and leg exercises. We start the whole thing off by kicking a big yoga ball around the circle. The afternoon activities are different each day. Today we had an ice cream social, Friday we had a tea party (complete with fun hats to wear, it was a blast), Thursday we played bingo, tomorrow we are doing community service and Wednesday is spa day.

I need to share something. I've decided not to talk about it with anyone IRL but I feel like it is OK to write about it here. On Saturday, which was 5 dpo, I had a tiny bit of red spotting. I thought at first that I was having an extremely short LP, but I would be lying if I said that it hasn't crossed my mind that it could have been implantation bleeding. There. I just needed to get that out.

The meme where you post about six things about yourself has actually made it's way to me. Brenda tagged me and, like Brenda, this is the first time I have been tagged for a meme. I've already had a mental draft of something like this for quite some time, so it gives me an excuse to actually write the post. For now, though, I am off to read blogs.

pictures coming soon

We don't have an internet connection set up at home yet, and I don't know when it will happen since this is in Mr. C's domain and so far it is not very high on the priority list. But here I am helping out at the office so he can get a break and I am taking advantage of the opportunity to get online. If I had known I would be here I would have brought the digital cameras to download pictures of the new house.

It is still pretty empty, as the move is happening slowly. Gracie and the cats seem happy with their new home. There is plenty of room to run around and an abundance of hiding places.

We have been welcomed to the neighborhood--something that has never happened to us before. Yesterday when I opened the front door to take Gracie out for a walk I found a package containing a plate of cinnamon rolls and a note from one of our new neighbors. Soon I will summon up the courage to make my way over to their house to say thank you. Later in the day the phone rang and to my surprise it was the woman we bought the home from. Mothership ran into her a few days ago and mentioned that it was her son and daughter-in-law that were the new owners of her home and she gave her my number. She phoned to introduce herself and to ask if she could stop by to say hello. A little while later she and her husband came by with a basket filled with goodies for us. To my relief Gracie didn't maul them with kisses while we visited. They are a lovely couple who are originally from Brazil and they have five children. I knew they had children, but had no idea that there were five. The house is so quiet right now that it is hard to imagine so many people filling it with activity and noise. They are still in the neighborhood but built a larger home a couple of blocks away. It was very clear to me how much they loved the home and how many good memories it holds for them.

I was very impressed by the fact that I made it through the entire process of looking for a home and all of the home-buying experience without getting anxious. Then Saturday morning it snuck up on me. Hmmm...what is that clenched, acidic feeling in my solar plexus? It was still with me yesterday, like a gnawing in the back of my brain, all-the-while my insides were churning. At first the rational part of my mind tried to sort it all out. This can be a big problem. A person who has never struggled with anxiety might not understand this, but it is the thoughts that can be the true undoing.

Well, I have to run before I can really finish where I was. I will just say that overall I am doing OK. I will try to write again before too long.