I have something GREAT to say!

After 4 years of doing everything we could to have another child we are adopting!

I am soooo excited about this turn in our life.

So were are we in the process, lol, I've called an Attorney! So not that far at all... but it's a step in the right direction.

The girls are beyond excited. Our little one was filling out her homework packet and she had to write what she is thankful for and she asked if she could write "the adoption people". Makes my heart melt!

My oldest is excited in her own way. She's most concerned about getting the house ready and having baby books available for the new addition to read and be read too... and they say I'm a little crazy when I prepare for things, she's beating me by years!

So I'm sitting here looking around at everything I need to get done and just waiting for the packet from the attorney... more to come...

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Can I tell you a secret?

I used to eat liverwurst when I was younger. I even used to like it. I am very disturbed by this admission. Not only is the thought of eating this gross... but it even looks gross.

Do you have any food related confessions?

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Feel Better List

Have you ever made a feel better list? It's better than a bouquet of flowers!

Not to be confused with being ill, just a list of things that if done would make you feel mentally better. I need to make one of these said lists.

I was sitting at a beautiful wedding last night, just thinking about all that is ahead of these 2 people. In sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer... you get the idea... but how little it actually means till you've been married for a few years or more.

I've had a really easy marriage. We just celebrated 10 years and I still wouldn't trade him for the world, but we've had our share of heartbreak and happiness. Nothing compares to the joy our children bring us... nothing. They were the best and hardest thing we ever did. I tell them daily that I think they are great, and I already am dreading the day they move out (can they live with us forever please?).

Even with my perfect life (dare I say that, when compared to all the horrors of the world, my problems are nothing)... I know there is room for improvement. If I could tackle a few items on my to do list I could spend more time living the life I want to live!

Here's my (partial) to do list:

1. clean and organize office

2. clean out the children's closets

3. buy new clothes for the kids. I'm normally on top of this, I buy the season before for the current one on clearance... being sick has really put a damper on this.

4. get a hair cut and and a manicure and pedicure. I'm pretty frugal (I think) but I really like having nice looking nails. For the past couple of months I haven't had fake nails and I've been doing my owe nails... this is embarrassing, I can't "do" nails and it shows. It would make me feel better to have my nails look presentable.

5. Make more time to read a book. I read the internet for hours a day... I miss reading books!

Once I started writing this I realized I could keep going for quite a while... there are lots of things on my to-do list, but nothing too crazy. I'll keep you posted on my progress... please let me know in the comments what's on your better life to do list... and a link to your blog with a post about it!

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Simplify Your Life

Actually, simplify my life!

One positive aspect of my "new" life, that of a patient is that my life has become WAY simpler.

My crazy, but fun coupon shopping has come to a screeching halt and I've realized that's okay. We now shop all together for groceries once a week. This is good and bad, I have to really think when we are there and make sure we get enough to last the week. At least of perishables items, we have a pretty well stocked pantry to supplement from.

I also really appreciate the simple things. You hear people who have a life changing moment talk about appreciating simple, everyday things and this is so true. I can't pin-point exactly when this happened to me... at some point I made a deal with the universe that if I could make it through this period I would be the best mom and person I could... I would appreciate every moment...

I'm also thankful summer is over. When the days were longer and warmer, I was desperate to get out and do stuff. This led me to feel more depressed about my situation. Now my energy level is more in line with the shortened day.

Quite simply, if my life has to be altered to a different kind of life than I had before, so be it. To what extent I'm willing to let my life be changed I'm still determining, but for this life at all... I'm thankful!

Till later,
The Good Mom

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Sometimes It Is As Good As It Gets... Or Is It?

Talk about a long over due post.

So my garden died. I got sick, the hose ruptured and I didn't have the strength to buy a new one or to even ask anyone to get me one so everything died. Of course this all happened when we had a huge heat wave. As with everything in life I tell myself it happened for a reason and there's always next year. The pumpkins are the only thing that survived... barely. We lost about 75 percent of the plants... probably over 300 of them. The rest produced minimal pumpkins due to the heat and minimal water they got from the avocado trees irrigation.

True to our love of all things Halloween and pumpkins, we've already been to 2 pumpkin patches and ate our first pumpkin pie of the season. It was supposed to be from a "great" local bakery and we paid through the nose for it at one of the pumpkin patches. Once we got home I read the ingredients... #1 was canned Libby's pumpkin pie mix. That ruined it for me. I'm not sure that it was that they used canned pumpkin or if they used canned pumpkin pie MIX. And yes, I still ate it... it was okay... but my favorite pumpkin pie is at Fresh and Easy... I can't explain it, but last year it was so hearty and good... I hope they have it again this year!

So here is the juicy part. After IVF # (I don't know. I stopped counting after 10) (yes, all fresh cycles) I developed heart problems, followed by a BFN (negative pregnancy test). I've been spending the past 5 weeks in bed. 2 days ago I actually felt well enough to get up some and pick up the kids. The mornings are the worst. I'm not just really, really, really tired, but my heart races something crazy... it's a lovely case of tachycardia... there's a really pretty longer name for my actual diagnosis... but I won't bore you with it. The good news is I am getting better. The medication is working (finally). I'm just sick of being sick.

So between school starting, being sick, working and my little sister having her first baby, life has been, uh, different. The hardest part is realizing this might be as good as it gets... although I'm not buying that crap. I intend to get a lot better. I'll keep you posted!

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Life Lessons

So much has happened in the past 3-4 weeks that I'm not sure where to start. This blog is more like a diary to me. It fun to share the fun stuff and therapeutic to write about the bad.

My life mostly is good... but I've learned a very important lesson that I hope I'll never forget.

Life Lesson- without your health, there's not much left.

Now I know that family and friends are the most important things ever... but if your ill or worse, it's hard to really enjoy them, know what I mean?

So my story starts 3 1/2 weeks ago. Much like every other time I've had a health issue, it was a normal day and I was having a "normal" treatment.

That was the last day I felt ok. Since then I've seem multiple Dr's had multiple tests and am now taking multiple medications and it looks like I'll be adding another one later today.

To sum it up, I had a reaction to some medications on my latest IVF (and got a negative beta to boot) and now I am having heart problems, even after stopping the IVF meds. I'm not going to post the medications... please leave me a comment with your info and I'll share... but I don't want to worry others already going through a really worrisome time.

And now I have a bacterial infections that needs a really "fun" antibiotic.

And you know what really made me mad? Going to the emergency room, yeah that made me mad... but it was missing K-Mart's last doubling for the year that really pissed me off!

At this point I can drive down and pick the kids up from school... about 3 min away and that's it. It was so bad that I couldn't even ride in the car without feeling like I was having a heart attack, passing out and or vomiting. Yeah, fun times!

Just being able to drive this short distance is giving me hope that I will get all better. It's very hard being dependant on others for everything... and I must say it's hard on the "others" too.

A funny story for you all now... I haven't been able to get my nails done in almost a month because my nail place is quite a ways away... so I took my fake nails off (first time in 15 years...my youngest looked at my nails and just kept staring. Finally she said "wow, you do have real nails".

Poor kid.

Till later... Hope you are all doing well!

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Doubles!!!

I have been having so much fun with K-Marts Double coupon days!

Word is that they will be doing it again for a week starting 8/30... oh my! 2 weeks of fun in one month... what's a girl to do?

This time I've been stocking up on plates, shampoo, dog bones, toilet cleaner, and mead notebooks... along with the random other items like cat treats.

I did learn an important lesson.

It's best to go by yourself. It's not the usual reason of others putting stuff in your cart... Nope! I learned that my mom will drop $200 out of boredom on clothes at K-MART if left alone...

It was a sad day :-)

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