stuff

1. Our garden is coming along nicely. I'm waiting (not so patiently) for the tomatoes to redden so I can eat them. Garden fresh tomatoes are AMAZING. There are a couple cucumbers just about ready for picking too. If the tomatoes can time themselves with the cucumbers, I am infor an amazing salad. The bully green beans knocked down my peas, so they are mostly dead now. Boo. I was looking forward to shelling peas. Maybe next year. Of course, next year they won't be next to the bullies.

2. My mother in law is still not my favorite person. They came over to drop off some stuff for my husband, and while he and I were trying to talk to our nephew, she kept babbling, and calling my name to make me pay attention to HER. Then she went on to tell me about some home buying grant for teachers and cops that she had heard of, so if we wanted to buy a different house, with a floor plan that we liked better, since she remembered me saying I didn't like the floor plan of the house my husband bought before he met me, blah blah blah. So I said that the floor plan was only a problem if we had more than one kid (which we had said at the time; there's only one other bedroom on the main floor with us, the other is in the basement), and now that we won't be having kids, the floor plan is fine. So then she keeps going with it, because she has to be right or make me uncomfortable, and says "well, I didn't know if using what was supposed to be the nursery as your sewing room would make you sad, so buying a house with a different floor plan would be a fresh start." Um, thanks for picking the scab off. So I told her that USING the room that was supposed to be a nursery was a lot less sad than leaving it sitting there empty. And then apparently, her brain went "speaking of babies..." and she went on to tell me how D's sister is so tired of being pregnant because her ankles are swollen. Wah.

3. I LOVE my girl room, and I LOVE our house. All our redecorating and organizing has really paid off, and it is so cozy. I kind of don't want to leave it. That doesn't mean I don't want to socialize with people; I just want to do it at our house and not at theirs. :)

4. Now that we are no longer trying to get pregnant, I am looking forward to a school year in which I do not have to set doctor appointments, or try to have private, fertility-related phone conversations where my students/coworkers cannot hear me.

5. Of course, there are at least two immediate coworkers who are starting TTC this summer, so I am NOT looking forward to hearing about how quickly they got pregnant and the follow-up of comparing pregnancy symptoms when they are pregnant together.

new friends

We had a cookout today, and I met some cool people. One is the fiancee of one of my husband's friends, and the other is a new-ish girlfriend of one of our friends. The fiancee loves Sex and the City and Friends, and has a great personality. The new-ish girlfriend seems really cool, and is a three-time published author of fiction books that sound really good. I'm probably going to go to her book signing on Wednesday and pick up her three books. (They are a paperback series about vampires.)

So all in all, a pretty good day!

Up

I was feeling a need for a crying session, so I watched Up. Yikes. Instead of a simple release, I got a major sobbing session. I pretty much cried off and on throughout the whole movie. I guess I needed it because I feel better now.

progress

In December, when we were optimistic that IVF would work, we painted the spare bedroom a nice gender-neutral shade of green. When science failed us, and that meant moving on to life without children, we had to decide what to do with that room. I didn't want it to just be a spare bedroom for guests because the idea of it sitting unused and having to walk by it was going to be too sad to bear. D has his "man cave" in the basement where he has a workbench to do all his gun work, so we decided that the spare room would be my "woman cave." It now has my oversized chair and ottoman, my bookshelves and books, and my sewing machine. I love it! It is incredibly cozy, and our two cats love it too. They might be in it more than I am!

We have also purchased a foosball table; I've wanted one since I was probably 12 years old when my uncle had one that we played on all the time. (Funny, I used to say I knew I wanted to have kids since I was 12, but owning a foosball table is something I can actually control.) Along with the foosball table, we are sort or reorganizing/redecorating the basement. It already had a pool table and a bar, and I bought D an electronic dart board for his birthday last year, and now we have the foosball table. Since it is quickly becoming the ultimate gaming room, we decided that buying some bookshelves to house all our board games would be a good idea, so that they are visible and not shoved in a closet somewhere. So once we have the shelves put together, we will be set.

It feels really good to be doing something together for our home, as a couple. The only thing that we've done together for us in the past two years is our vegetable garden (which did rather well considering that neither of us has ever been able to keep a houseplant alive!). All other energy was directed at making a baby. Now that that is over for us, we have all this spare energy to redirect. I'm just thankful that we are redirecting it at a project for both of us, and not sort of going our separate ways. I guess it feel like a reconnecting sort of thing.

babies!

In my friend group, there are a lot of recent babies. At the last cookout (all friends from my husband's group, you know, HIS friends from before we were married, my friends now too), there were three new moms (babies 7 months, 3 months, 1 month). I avoided them because the moms sort of isolated themselves in their mom club. The three moms sat on a blanket in the front yard with the babies, while everyone else was in the back yard playing the washer game and launching water balloons. Since I don't have the prerequisite to be in their club, I barely talked to any of them.

Last night, we hosted an impromptu poker night. The guys played poker in the basement, and the girls talked upstairs. Only one mom in the bunch, and she brought the baby. I held him and played with him, and it felt like old times when I ALWAYS wanted to hold and play with babies. I didn't even get sad when I had to give him back because while I can enjoy their cuteness, I can also focus on the hassle of all the crap that goes with bringing a baby anywhere. I counted two bags of stuff plus the carseat/baby carrier.

So I've learned that I CAN enjoy babies and even talking to the mom about mom stuff when it doesn't feel like they have formed a club that I can never join. So I guess one at a time is best. When they gang up on me, I can't handle it. Maybe someday.

wtf

World's Oldest New Mom Dying After IVF Pregnancy at Age 72 - Pregnancy - FOXNews.com


I particularly like the comment from the IVF doctor saying that at least the woman doesn't have to die with the stigma of being barren. Nice.

booze

On our honeymoon, D and I went to Jamaica, and we tried rum cream. We both LOVED it, and bought a bottle to bring home with us. It didn't last long, and we have been unable to find it anywhere. There is a specialty shop that supposedly does custom orders, so I'm going to go there sometime soon because I really want a Jamaican Smile (this drink combines a bit of a strawberry daiquiri with a bit of pina colada, all topped with a bit of rum cream; after trying a few drinks, I stuck with this one for most of the honeymoon) this summer.

Over the weekend, we went to a wine store, and attached to it is a wine lounge of sorts. You basically have a wine card that you insert in the machine, choose your wine and the amount, and your card is charged. It's a pretty great way to try several wines without having to buy an entire bottle.

At the store, I found this wine called ChocoVine that I had read about online. It's a mix of a cabernet and dark chocolate. I tried some of it tonight, and it is AWESOME! It is kind of like a boozy chocolate milk because it is chocolatey, and creamy, with just a hint of alcohol flavor, and it's pretty strong for how little it tastes like alcohol. It's so good, I want to put a straw in the bottle and drink the whole thing. It's like Yoo-Hoo for grown-ups!

And tomorrow, I am going to attempt to make sangria for the first time. I want to make it for our 4th of July cookout, but I need to have a trial run first. I did this the first time I made mojitos too. A trial run (or two) to fine-tune things makes for a hit at the actual party!