I’m Still Here…

Yes, I’ve said that before.  And I will probably say it again.  Things are crazy in the TresLaLa world, and I really didn’t know how to start when I got back from the UK.  But, I’ve been away for too long, and need to start getting everything out there again!

So, here’s what’s up with me:

That was quite the trip.  Started out terribly (Virgin cancelled my flight! AND I got my period 5 days early!), but ended really well.  We saw SO much of the country – but really I kind of felt that I didn’t see much of anything.  We were always running from one place to the next!  Getting my period did allow me to have some drinky-poos, though…  Yay for cask beer and vodka tonics!

Food wise, I’ve really fallen down.  January was such an amazing month for me. I was in a really good place mentally, and in a really good place with exercise and food.  Travelling for 15 days really did a number on my workouts, and full English breakfasts (even if they were mostly vegetarian) are not something that anyone should sustain for that amount of time.  Today I committed to eating on plan – and figured what better way to kick this off than to start blogging again.  Kind of a way to re-commit everything.

I even started biting my fingernails again.  I bought an OPI “shellac” manicure through a local deal site that expires on 30 April.  So I have Just under 6 weeks to get back to real nails!  I can do this!

Work has been going really well.  Busy, but good.  I got a really good review, with a nice raise and an even nicer bonus.  Love that.  That bonus is going to help us do a bunch of projects around the house.

Speaking of, we’re renovating our house.  It’s a gigantic project, and we just finished interviewing 3 contractors (all of whom come highly recommended by various people).  Just waiting on those estimates to come through so that we can start.  We designed the kitchen cabinets yesterday at Home Depot — and I think we’ve decided that we’re leaning towards having the cabinets custom-made.  Apparently they’ll be less expensive than the Kraft Maid brand?!?  I was super surprised to hear that…

In addition to the kitchen, we’re replacing about 90% of the flooring in the house (leaving one bedroom’s carpet, but replacing the other guest bedroom’s carpet, the office & the living room, then replacing the tile in 2 of the bathrooms [maybe 3?], and then everything else (including our bedroom) will have engineered hard woods.

On top of all that, we need to renovate at least 1 of the bathrooms (possibly 2).  Those we’ll probably not be able to do with the contractor now – but we might have them tear the current stuff out, so that we can work on them kind of piecemeal when we have time.  We have a buddy who really wanted to help us do everything, but I know my limitations (and especially those of my hubby & his time), and I realized that it wasn’t worth it for us to even attempt our own kitchen.  Guest bathrooms are another story (there would always be another bathroom that could be used!).

Oh, and we’re redoing our pool.  Why, yes.  We are crazy.  But it’s going to look awesome!  I even dreamed about the pool tile last night (and we’re the furthest behind in this project – the hubby’s in charge of finding and hiring the contractor for that…)

And, finishing up the update on my life is the fact that I’m still not pregnant.  Or, at least, I don’t know if I am or not.  While on my trip to the UK, I was taking birth control pills so that we could be the ones determining my cycle.  Once we got back, the hubby was leaving in a week for his parents’ house in Florida, so all in all, I was on the pill for 3 weeks in February.  Started up again on a drug similar to Clomid (an estrogen blocker), but that’s known for growing the lining of the uterus a bit more (mine had been thin the previous cycle.  Ultrasounds revealed that my eggs weren’t maturing as quickly as they’d like, so I started on Brevelle (an injectable fertility medication – $125 per day!!!).  5 days of that, plus acupuncture twice a week leading up to ovulation, and I *think* I had a LH surge (via LH predictor kit) on Sunday morning – 11 March.  That afternoon I gave myself an injection of HCG (just in case I didn’t really ovulate, since I couldn’t recreate the LH surge on other tests), and in the afternoon on 12 March I had an IUI (intra-uterine insemination).  Implantation was due on Saturday (acupuncture on Friday afternoon, and lots of pineapple!).  So now we’re just waiting.  I can take a pregnancy test on Monday (26 March).  If positive, I have a blood test.  If I get my period or it’s negative, we start on another round of Clomid, injectables (if needed) and insemination.  My doctor has recommended that we go straight into in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but at $10 to 12,000, we’re not willing to go down that route just yet…  What an emotional roller coaster.  The medications have made me more than a bit crazy – and cause hot flashes!  NOW I know what my mother was talking about!

A few posts that you can look forward to:

• Full details on the UK trip, with pictures!
• Updates on food & exercise!
• Updates on the nail biting situation!
• Many, many updates on the renovation progress, with pictures!
• What I’m hoping will be FEW updates on fertility and MANY updates on how wonderful it is to be pregnant!

Cheers!