3 in 1

I'm not sure I've EVER written three posts in one day.  Well, it's not really the same day, since it's 12:27am, but I haven't slept yet, so it still counts as Monday, right?!? 

I love Black Friday.  L-O-V-E it.  I love getting all the ads, going through them, and separating them into piles,of 1st priority, 2nd priority, 3rd priority, etc.  Even though all the ads are online, it's not the same, I need to have them in my hands, I need to feel they glossy-ness of the paper. 

I've tried to do a bunch of shopping before hand, so I didn't have much to buy for, just somethings for us (like mini-SD cards for our BlackBerries), and some Birthday/Mother's Day presents that were hugely discounted! I also was going to grab a toy for my nephew. 

Last year, my MIL/FIL came with me.  It was their first time.  We had a BLAST!!!  This year, his step-mom slept in, and his Dad and I went.  Granted, we started Transformers 2 about midnight, so climbed into bed at 2am, back up at 4am, ready to go.  Our first stop was Best Buy, but the line was REALLY long, and it was cold.  It was small electronics and the memory cards, and they really weren't THAT big a deal, so we waited in the car.  Doors opened at 5am, we were in by 5:10am, found what we needed, and checked out back to the car by 5:33 am.  It rocked!  Then it was off to Target, where I was going to buy my nephew something.  Our first clue should have been the fact we had to park in the Applebee's parking lot!  The line to check out was DOUBLED around the store... we literally walked in, saw the line, and decided the $4.00 I was going to save was so. not. worth. it.  However, the stop wasn't futile, we grabbed some coffee at the Starbucks that was inside the store!  We then made an impromptu stop at Lowes across the street and scored BIG on presents for my husband. We walked past a display of power-tools, and there were two there that were $59.00 (reg $114.00), and with our military discount, we walked out with them right at $60 bucks. Awesome!  It's killing Travis that he has a HUGE present under the tree, that he wasn't expecting, and has no idea where to begin guessing.  We ran to Kohl's, which last year was our tar pit! We spent so much time in line last year, it was horrible, sorta.  Greg stood in line, while Val and I walked around the store, and kept finding stuff to buy.  We went in for luggage, and left with a bill over $800.00 (mostly there's).  This year the plan was for me to stand in line, while he went and shopped, and then he would come take my place while I went to shop... ha! Joke's on us- the line had 15 people in it, so we were able to wander around the store together.  I got Trav's little brother a remote control helicopter, and a toy that makes LOTS of noise for my nephew. For the first time ever, we DIDN'T go into Wal Mart.... it almost felt like we were breaking a "Black Friday Commandment". 

Ok, so why the long post about shopping I did last week... because of these pictures.  Our biggest steal of the day, by far, was PetsMart.  When you have over 300 pounds of dogs to feed, any money you save on dog food rocks!  They had thier 40 lb of dog food $9.00 off, and their beds and rawhide were 1/2 off!  I was stoked.  I saved $93.00, bought 2 bags of dog food, three big bones (when you have a great dane, you buy the biggest you can find!), and three new dog beds.  I had brought them all in and put them on the air mattress that my step daughter was sleeping on (at the foot of our bed, her bed was given up for the 'guests').  I walk in, and what do I see....
*ha!  it was supposed to be a picture of our littlest dog Baxter, he was snuggled in like a bug in a rug, on top of the three brand new beds, that were on top of their mattress.... however, I can't find the picture!*

Well, we piled all the old beds over in the corner by the bed, and I guess he goes for quantity, not quality, because there is a perfectly good (brand new) bed sitting at the foot of the bed, where he usually sleeps, but instead.... he picks there!

And, since there is a perfectly good (brand new) EMPTY bed sitting at the foot of the bed... the psycho cat Hunter decided to take advantage of it!

Cancel that? Roger!

So today, after I wrote my last post I laid down for about half an hour....or that was the plan!  I woke up 4 1/2 hours later, to 7 missed calls and 5 voice mails. Three of those were from my doctors office.  I guess something in my blood alarmed them, and they want me to trigger tonight, and then we will have our 'date' Wednesday morning.... of course this is the ONLY day this week I have substitute teaching booked, so I'll be triggering in about 15 minuets, so that I will have an hour Wednesday morning before I have to leave for work.  I know they say just a half hour is necessary of putting your feet in the air, but I always wait for 45 min, at the minimum.  So, here's to getting up extra early to be completely showered and ready to go, and then 45 minuets of uninterrupted "Twilight" time.  I'm trying to re-read the books, but have not been able to scrape much time for it. 

One more day

My follicle study today was a bit encouraging, and a bit scary.

Before I had two 11mm-ish follicles, one on each side.  Now, I have an 18mm and a 14mm on my right,  and three 9ish on my left (9.2, 9.5, 9.9)...  They are having me take one more FSH shot tonight and go back in tomorrow, with hopes that it just affects the two bigger ones on my right side, and not so much on my left.  They said that if my left side takes off, then they are canceling the cycle, because 5 is just two many.  They also took my estradiol levels again, because the second one was lower then the first one.  Not to sure what that means... but there we go! 

So, tonight I'll shoot up for the last time this cycle... at least with Bravelle, we still have the trigger and Lovonox to start, but the trigger isn't bad, and I'm a bit worried about the Lovonox, so I'll just try to forget about that for now. 

CD 15

So, after THIRTEEN Bravelle shots (which is FSH-Follicle Stimulating Hormone- hear that follicles, you should be stimulated by now, you've gotten 13 doses of 'stimulating' stuff!!!)

I knew when I went in on Friday (after 3 hours of crazy shopping!), that they weren't going to find much.  I have gotten pretty good at telling if things down there are 'tender' enough to mean there is a DF.  I am thinking that something is brewing right now, so I'm hoping it's grown a bit, I still don't think we'll be ready to trigger.... and we're running out of time.  I've gotta trigger by Friday, because Travis leaves to go out of town Sunday, and without him around, all this is pretty much useless!

However, thing's that I've learned this cycle:
*Injecting myself is almost better then having Travis do it... only because I can regulate how fast it goes in, and recover from the sting.
* Never, NEVER inject around my father in law... because he will make you laugh, somehow. "Push it in, push it, push it, push it..." makes me laugh, so much that my stomach moved back enough to have the needle come out.  Good think I had extra needles to get the rest of it in!
*Headaches are bad.  And after 13 days of Bravelle, they are evil.
*My body keeps building up a tolerance to fertility drugs (is that possible?)
         -1st cycle: 100 mg Clomid
         -2nd cycle: Clomid, Femera, 8 Bravelle shots  
         -3rd cycle: 13 Bravelle shots- and we're still not done!

Ugh-  My appointment is tomorrow morning.  I guess I'll find out if my 'follies were stimulated' enough over the weekend!

Amazing House

There is a house that is just up the street (sort of) from us. We pass it every day, and have always wondered what it looked like on the inside.  When we moved here about 7 months ago, it was listed for $2.8 million, (we learned today that it was originally listed for $3.5million!).  Unfortunately the house is going up for auction, (and everything in it) next week, so they had an open house. 

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is what the info posted on it said:Historical Restored Victorian Mansion (10,000sq ft) on 10 acres:

Main home: 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, living rooms, family rooms, professional kitchen, sitting room, sun room, study/den, recreation room, office, security system, barn/garage, 6 car parking, workshop, upstairs apartment, swimming pool, putting greens, outstanding landscaping.

There is really no other way to give it credit- so "roll the pictures" (and let me tell you, there is a TON! and some may be blurry, but I took them all on my BlackBerry, so I think that I did pretty good!)  Also, there was a shit-ton of people there... so sorry... sometimes there are several in the shot, I did my best to wait till people passed, but you know how that is!

This is the garage/workshop with the apartment above it

From the workshop to the apartment, these are the stairs up.  The owners had made this into a 'dressing room'  Each one of those 'boxes' is actually a drawer that is got glass so you can see into it.  Also, there are little labels that describe what is in, a few I remember are oriental, linen, panties, feathers.... there are these drawers on both sides of the apartment, and the corners (where the black and white curtains are) had places to hang clothes.

The kitchen/dining area in the apartment

This is looking at the back of the house from the garage

Sun room at the back of the house, you can tell it's an 'add on' because the other side of the wall is what the outside of the whole house is, that rough rock.

Kitchen with all professional grade appliances

Formal Dining room

There were these little 'circle rooms' off a corner of each side of the house... this one had a fountain (and my handsome husband) in it.

Formal sitting room

Another 'circle room'

Master Bedroom/sitting area

Master Bath

Bedroom, the canopy, curtains, pillows, bench at the end of the bed, shower curtain and wallpaper in the bathroom are all the same pattern....

Another 'circle room' off the 'matchy matchy' bedroom

Another bedroom

Bathroom attached to the empty bedroom

This was a 'loft like' area, there were two bedrooms, this one more for kids, (there are small angled closets across from each bed)

Another room, maybe play room for the 'twin' room

Separated HUGE room, with a platform for a bed (?)

Basement/bar/rec room

Casino games by the pool table

Sitting area just off the bar area

On the back side of the bar, they have the 'pulls' for beer (whatever they area called, and to the left of that is the door to the wine chiller/keg holder/ refrigerator

Looking out to the bar area from the fridge

The wall paper in this house was amazing, this was some from down in the basement

They had framed the original 'blue prints' of the house and hung them along the wall (across from the pool table, though you can't see it)

Laundry room in basement

Extra area in basement, it was holding lots of things to prepare for the auction

More storage under stairs.

Travis thought it was so cool there was a urinal in the basement bathroom (I'm assuming because it is the 'man cave' (keg, sitting area, pool table... ummm.... ya!)

When we were first there, there was a TON of people, so as we were leaving, I was able to take some more pictures, that weren't so crowed with people.  It was beautifully decorated, and had gorg fabrics!

an Ariel picture of the house that was on the kitchen counter.  At the bottom left of the picture, you can see the 3 hole putting green

BEAUTIFUL front door!

This house had chandeliers everywhere!!! These are ones that are JUST from the first floor.... beautiful!