Adventures in surrogacy

Raise your hand:

2012-01-27T18:47:00.001-08:00

Raise your hand if you got a new second part time job doing transcription at night. ME ME ME. It's really neat. I find myself caught up in the stories and my brain gets way ahead of my fingers because I can't wait to find out what happens next. I'll be devoting a few hours a night to this and a few hours on weekends. I'm SLOW right now but hope to get faster and I love that I can take it with me and do it when I travel, etc.

Speaking of travel, raise your hand if you got a calendar. ME ME ME.

Raise your hand if you've now lost 5.8 pounds and your skinny jeans fit. ME ME ME.

Life is good. Back to transcribing. I'm in the middle of a saga and need to know what happens next. :)

Still

2012-01-17T18:11:00.001-08:00

Still:

here

hungry

on bcps

waiting

happy

Ever tried to diet on bcps? Don't. It feels as if your belly button is being sucked through the back of your body. Every morning I wake up hungry and i'm just sure that I will look at the scale and weigh 20 pounds less. Surely if you're this hungry and running like a maniac for cardio you can drop 20 pounds in a week. Right? RIGHT? Yeah not so much. Week one is done. Down 4 pounds. Minimum of 11 to go. Would like to lose 16 more. We'll see.

My latest addiction

2012-01-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

So I have discovered a new addiction. It's a website called myfitnesspal.com

LOVE IT.

I exercise enough, I just eat too much. This website has a way to track what you eat and let me tell you, it's database has every darn thing you can even think of eating. I LOVE IT. When I have to actually type in 3 pieces of chocolate cake with chocolate icing at 200 calories a piece, it is a really good motivation to not eat those 3 pieces of cake. I started tracking my meals on this site on Wednesday of this week and that has really cleaned up my eating. I never realized how many calories I was eating before....I estimate I was easily consuming 3000 calories a day, if not more. No wonder my weight stalled at 135 and then crept up to 140. Here I was blaming it on the years of infertility hormones and in truth, it was just my fat butt eating too much.

Hoping to lose ten pounds or so. I am still on birth control pills to control my cycles and those mess with my weight a bit but I'm not going to let that be an excuse any longer.

So if you're looking for weightloss motivation, mosey on over to myfitnesspal.com and read the success stories. Awesome.

Peace? Tranquility? Sign me up for some of that.

2012-01-11T16:02:00.001-08:00

So the boy has moved into a place of his own. Let me repeat that with a bit more emphasis:

SO THE BOY HAS MOVED INTO A PLACE OF HIS OWN

Now don't get me wrong. We love the boy. And we're very proud of the progress he's made. But I think we all like it better having our own space. After first months rent, deposit, groceries (to the tune of 169 bucks at aldi's...he eats like I can't even comprehend), etc., we are out something like 1000 dollars but he has his own place and we have our house back. Yay for forward progress.

Pictures

2012-01-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

I opened my email yesterday and there was a picture of Dylan and Ella at their fifth birthday party. They now look so much like their father, especially Dylan. Love those little tykes. Their next adventure is kindergarten.

Then today, I went to my mailbox and there was a package from the Swedes. It was a photo calendar with pictures of the ESBs and the ESS. What a wonderful gift.

:)

Changes

2012-01-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

Life has been so full of change lately and I must confess...I don't always handle change well. For many years, our life was calm. The girls had chosen to live with their mom and the oldest boy had been sent to live with relatives in hope that a new environment might change his ways (by the way...don't try that ever. It just made him feel like we didn't want him around and he found the same thug friends and did the same thug things wherever he went).

Anywho, for several years it was just Joe and I and the two younger boys. We took a lot of trips and just hung out and had a good time. Then, in the last year, everything has changed again. Not changed in a bad way, just changed so that life now is so incredibly FULL all the time.

Girl number one works full time and goes to college full time. She is married and has a step son. They live less than a mile away so we see them frequently.

Girl number two lives in the house directly behind ours (literally ten steps from our back door) . She has a boyfriend and a baby. The boyfriend just lost his job a week ago but is job hunting. She is in college full time. We see them a lot too.

Boy number one is out of prison. The transformation is amazing. He is polite, considerate and even better....job hunting. He will have a hard time finding a job because he has no work history but he's out there looking and I think someone will give him a chance. He rented his very first apartment yesterday and will be living on his own as soon as he gets the water and electric turned on. Until then he's camped out in our basement, eating me out of house and home.

The husband is still laid off, though they do call him in to work sometimes. He never did apply for unemployment and now it's too late.

So are you adding this all up? I am working about 50 hours a week. Some weeks the husband works 20, some weeks none at all. So basically, I, and I alone, am supporting three households. It is neat to see all the kids more. It's neat to see them all growing up and taking responsibility for their lives. It's neat to have grandkids around and kids coming out of every corner again. But sometimes I miss those nice quiet years. However, those years are gone and not coming back. The two younger boys head to high school next year and life will only get busier. Like I said, I don't always do well with change but I'm learning to let go and just enjoy the ride. So many positive things have taken place in the last few months.

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

Do you make them?
Do you keep them?

In the past I have made a few and never kept them. But I tended to make all encompassing ones such as, "I will never eat chocolate again". Not likely to happen. This year feels like a watershed moment in my life. I am hanging on to a few pounds from the last pregnancy and I know that the older I get the harder it will be to lose it. I'm going to be 40 this year. The kids are all teens or older and I need to have more energy to keep up with them. So, without further prelude, I present my New Year's Resolutions, 2012 version. Feel free to make fun of me in a few months if I fail at them (or better yet don't even remember what they were).

1. No eating out except for special occassions.

Money is tight this year and since son-in-law #2 lost his job we are essentially supporting him and girl #2 and grandbaby #2. And eating out is such a waste of money and so bad for us. So there's the reasoning....let's see if we can stick with it.

2. Get a better handle on our spending and debt.

With Joe out of work for so long, our once debt free life is debt heavy again. I hate making debt payments. I hate owing people money. From here on out, if we don't need it we aren't buying it.

3. Embrace a positive attitude.

When I get tired at work or at home, I tend to get negative. I am trying to embrace a positive mindset.

4. Work out, in some way, even if it's just a short walk, every single day.

I don't seem to be able to stick with a workout plan if I give myself any out. And for me, saying I'll only do it 4 or 5 days a week gives me an out. We took a 7.4 mile walk yesterday and today I can barely move so that should tell you how out of shape I am. I have a treadmill and an exercise bike at home. There's never an excuse for not working out. I will do it daily. Period.

So that's it. I'm not going to try to control my chocolate habit. I know that if I keep resolution number four the last few stubborn pounds will fall off. It might take a year or two but who cares. It's not like I need to drop a few pounds quickly because I'm getting pregnant again. It's so strange to realize that in all likelihood I will never be pregnant again. Here's to embracing a new year with a positive outlook.

P.S. The hubster and I will have been married for nine years tomorrow. I was married to my first husband for 12 years. So out of the last 22 years of my life, I've been married for 21 years. I am lucky to have my husband as he's a good man. Here's to another nine years.

Good blog post about parenting little bitty ones

2011-12-31T18:07:00.001-08:00

http://dougandbill.blogspot.com/2011/12/11-lessons-for-those-thinking-about.html

5 years ago today

2011-12-26T04:30:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas. Five years ago today we had five kids living at home. The three older kids had gotten money for Christmas from several people and it was burning a hole in their pockets. We took them to the mall and they shopped. I sat a lot because I was 8.5 months pregnant with twins. No contractions at all though. The Columbia Mall had massage chairs at that time and I can remember Sarah and I sitting in the chairs getting a massage and it felt wonderful on my poor back. After the mall we came home and got Hardees. I ate a huge hot ham and cheese and curly fries. Not twelve seconds after I took the last bite my water broke. Not a single contraction....just bam. I went to the bathroom and there was blood. A lot of blood. We called a babysitter and then went down the street to the hospital. I was supposed to deliver in the next town but was nervous about the blood. That turned out to be a good decision. When I got to the OB Triage, I was dilated to an 8 but had complete placenta previa (how, exactly, did my OB miss that one?). I had an immediate emergency c-section and thankfully the babies and I were all fine.

Five years has passed since that day. Dylan and Ella are now in pre-K and getting ready for kindergarten. Their dad continues to send me pictures and their grandparents send me an e-mail once a year, on their birthday, thanking me for their grandchildren. Surrogacy is about creating families and I'm so thankful that these wonderful people allow me a glimpse into their family.

Life around here has changed a lot in the last five years. My role in the surrogacy world has changed from a "grower" to a mentor. I am in the background now. I do a few interviews a year and write an article or two here or there. Some people say that you are always a surrogate but I don't think I agree with that. I was a surrogate. Now I'm a mom and a friend.

Our kids, who were 8,8,13,13, and 15 have grown another five years. We have gone from having them wake us at the crack of dawn to open presents on Christmas day to us actually having to wake them up yesterday morning so they could open presents. We have gone from two in grade school, two in middle school, and one in high school to two in college, one in the workforce, and two in middle school.

Five years ago I was working a crappy factory job. I now work in a professional lab and have had two papers published about my research.

Life is so different now and yet very much the same. My time is taken up with kids, work, and my husband. I have little free time and little time to myself but I can see that changing as the kids get older. I'm not one of those that wishes the years away. I can see that we only have five years left until the younger ones are 18 and it is exciting for them and a bit sad for me. They are growing so fast and time seems to be speeding up rather than slowing down. Joe and I both try to embrace and enjoy every minute with them because time seems to be slipping away faster and faster.

Put in my place by a 3 year old

2011-12-18T14:28:00.001-08:00

So I'm in the store, waiting in a ridiculously long line, and the kid in front of me is not waiting patiently. His mom has two other youngsters and has her hands full. So I kneel down in front of the kid and we start rifling though my purse together trying to find something entertaining.

Note to self: get a discreet container for instead cups and pads if you're going to share your purse with an unknown kidlet.

So he finds my pictures and he's going through. There are pictures of all five kids, the grandbaby, some family shots, etc. There's also pictures of all five surrobubs. Think explaining surrogacy is hard with adults...try it with a three year old.

Conversation went like this:

Who they?
Those are some friends' babies.
Where they live?
Boston and Sweden.
Huh?
Boston and Sweden.
Why you have their pictures with pictures of your kids?
They are very close friends' babies.
Why?
We like them a lot.
Why?
Because they are special.
Why? (man I don't miss 3 year olds one tiny bit)
Because they are family too.
How?
Because I grew them.
These pictures are old?
No.
(Look of total confusion while he rifles through for the grandbaby picture and then compares it to the newest surrobaby picture)
How can you grow babies and be a grandma? Nah...you're too old for that.

Out of the mouth of babes as they say.

So to answer the question of how do you know when you should retire from surrogacy: when random three year olds tell you to. The end.

It's strange

2011-12-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

Many moons ago, when all five kids were still at home, parenting didn't seem like a full time job. Yes, it consumed my time as did work. However, I felt as if I still had time for myself. What's weird is that now, with only two kids at home, I feel like between my job and the kids I have two full time jobs. I think it's because with only two at home we have time to be so much more involved in their lives. Add to that the fact that one of them is so INVOLVED in everything. And I do mean everything. It just seems like every spare moment that I don't spend at work, I spend either taxiing kids, helping with homework, cooking (egads the cooking to be done for two teenage boys) talking, listening...just parenting in general.

And today it struck me....what in the hell will I do with my time when these kids are gone? I will still work from 6:45 until 4:30. But then what? I can actually have time to work out every night. I can cook (but honestly after so many years of cooking for so many, I fully intend to go on a cooking strike for several years after the kids are gone). That still will leave me with hours of....wait for it. Free time. I'm not so sure that that's a good thing. Free time is for the birds. I guess I could be one of those poor pitiful souls that still attends high school basketball games after she doesn't have a kid on the team any longer. NOT. I will have to find a hobby. How weird. I can't tell you the last time I got to sit around and ask myself what I actually want to do with my time. It is still five years away but this all feels so uncomfortable.

Maybe I can convince the boys to live at home forever? Yeah....I don't think they'd go for that. One talks of taking the NBA by storm. The other wants to work for a computer design company and according to his math teacher, who I ran into at a dinner party the other day (hold the phone....I went to a dinner party? Yep, sure did. With the mayor and the police chief, and several others who either are or think they are movers and shakers in this town. And I mingled (gasp). And I wore a dress (double gasp). And I wore high heels (triple gasp). And I wasn't out of place (holy bacon))

I digress. Anywho, his math teacher, who I ran into at a dinner party the other day, says he has the brains and the gumption to make all his dreams come true. Yay. Good job boy #3. Love hearing good things about the kids.

It's weird to think that in five or six years we might be empty nesters. I don't feel old enough to be a grandmother, yet I am. I don't feel old enough to have a son-in-law, yet I do. I don't feel old enough to have all my kids in their teens or older. Yet I do. This whole aging thing is really happening. The kids really are growing up. I am so proud of all five of them and I can't imagine what the future holds, so I guess I will just hold on for the ride like I have learned to do since that fateful day when I was 17 and met a guy that called me beautiful and proposed marriage. It's been an amazing ride for the last 22 years and I wouldn't change a single thing. Life is good.

Jealous

2011-12-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, I admit it. I read a lot of other surrogate blogs. And surrogacy in India blogs. And surrogacy after infertility blogs. And IP and IF and IM blogs. I am a bit blog obsessed, truth be told.

Many, many, many of those blogs are currently sharing about being pregnant, cycling, delivery, or being immediately post-partum. And as crazy as it sounds (or frankly as crazy as it is), I am so jealous I could spit green monsters. I am incredibly happy for all those surrogates and parents and don't want to take their journey's away from them, I just wish I had another journey of my own. Wow, does that make me a bad person, or what? I mean, I have had three wonderful journey's. I have grown five happy, healthy, well-cared for and very loved children. I have helped create two families. I have helped make three men into daddies and innumerable people into grandparents. Wouldn't you think that would be enough? It scares me to think that this desire to carry again and be in the thick of the surrogacy action will never go away. I was sure that if I just waited long enough, the desire would go away. It's like an itch that I can't, or more precisely won't, scratch. I was sure that one full year of normal life would dampen the cravings but there they still are.

I think I need something of my own to invest myself in. I mean I have my family and my work but I think I need some sort of physical pursuit. Maybe a karate class or a new class at the YMCA? I don't know. But I need to explore something because while I'm incredibly satisfied with my family and my work. there's still something incomplete feeling in my life. I would love to fill that with another surrogacy but since that does not seem to be the right choice, I guess I'll go and look at some other options. Hey, maybe a year from now you'll see me on the obscure sports network breaking boards in a tae-kwon-do competition. Ya never know, right?

Egg donor is chosen

2011-12-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

The guys have picked a known donor with a proven history. Yay. They are still unsure on the surrogate front. I have recommended a couple friends who I think will work well for them. Is it weird that I don't even care if they chose someone else...as long as they pick someone who will be a good match for them?

Sent the parcel to Sweden for Xmas. Did I mention that Aurora was 1 on Friday? Where does the time go? I still need to send a parcel to Boston for the twins' birthday there...they will be 5 on Dec 26. Seriously, WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Still fighting this damn cold here. It is in my lungs now and I spend the first hour of each morning and the final hour of each evening coughing and choking, trying to rid my lungs of crustry green snot. Appetizing, huh? I love that I rarely get sick but hate that when I do get sick it lingers for weeks. Urgh.

Went Xmas shopping yesterday and got everything we needed. Thankfully that chore is done. Our list is really long this year since there are now two sons-in-law and two grandkids. So we marked several people off the list. You can only do so much and since Joe has now been laid off almost continuously since May, it will be a very slim Christmas around here. We all know that time with kids is more important than things though and since Joe has been off he has been able to spend a ton of time with the kids. Yay for that.

That's about it. Taking my yearly test at work tomorrow and boy #2 is studying for finals week at his school. Of course the crappy public schools here don't do finals weeks in middle school so boy #3 is off the hook.

Errr...or not

2011-12-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Good news here today. The doc that read the x-ray last night saw a line and called it a fracture. Today, on further analysis by the radiologist, they have decided that that is not a fracture after all but merely his growth plate. So yay, he's not broken (well his nose is but his pelvis isn't). Thank heavens. As soon as he feels up to it he can resume normal activities. They said he will be super sore for a long time because he got a deep bone bruise but that is so much better than a fracture.

Basketball is over

2011-12-02T05:27:00.000-08:00

The boy was badly injured last night. The refs were not calling the other team on their "physical" play and so they just kept getting worse. 5 min into the first quarter they took the boy down. Concussion, broken nose, hairline fracture of the hip. They did call a foul on the other kid but they did not eject him from the game like they should have. We are not sure if the boy will ever play again but he certainly won't play this season. Right now he can't walk. I have no words, at least no polite words, for the other team right now.

Happy Thanksgiving....

2011-11-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

I have so much to be thankful for. I won't bore you with the list but let's just say that all is well in my little world. I pray for those whose lives are not so happy on this day.

I have laryngitis for the first time ever. I think my husband is happy...when we go to my mom's he might actually get a word in edgewise for once. I don't feel bad at all...just have no voice.

Do you shop on black friday? I don't. For one, I'm one of 11 people on the planet that has to work. For two, I do not like crowds so would probably die if I attempted shopping on that day. I am sending my poor hubby to Sears because there's one deal we can't pass up...laundry detergent. Like I said, a black friday shopper I am not. I prefer to do my Xmas shopping on a weekday in December. There are crowds but not unbearable ones.

No news on the surrogacy front. The guys are still comparing egg donors and surrogates. I am enjoying not being on meds for the first time since June. It's all good.

The basketball team is still undefeated, though we expect the winning streak to end next week at the South Shelby tournament.

I will end this now and go make something chocolate, as that is what I have been instructed to bring for Thanksgiving (the apple did not fall far from the tree).

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone.

The Swedes

2011-11-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

The younger ones at least. Love this family and the way they continue to send pictures and emails. I have a small Sweden corner with pictures and stuff they have sent me in my house and they have a small America corner with pictures of our boys and stuff we have sent them. This is how surrogacy should be....it truly is a blending of two families to become one.

Another good blog to read

2011-11-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

This one is a tear jerker. My last IF had cancer that was diagnosed after I was pregnant so this one really hits home for me. We all got lucky and my IF is in remission right now but you never know how long that will last. I think every day of Lars-Ove in Sweden, and his three kids. I think of how their life will be if things change for the worse. I think of the look of fear in Lennarts eyes when he was here to get Aurora. I think of those three kids not having their dad and I think of Lennart having to comfort them when there is no one there to comfort him. Cancer sucks. Read the blog. Have tissues nearby.

http://journeybycourtney.blogspot.com/

Holy bacon.....we're good

2011-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

And by we I don't mean me.

First some background:
St. Brendan's is a very small Catholic school. Very small as in less kids total in pre-k through 8 than are in the middle school here. Very small as in 13 kids in 8th grade. Total. Very, very small.

These kids have played basketball for years and frankly just plain sucked for years. The girls have been good for a few years now because they had some amazing players and an awesome coach. This year they lost their two best players and no one expected the girls to be any good. As for the boys....well they have always put forth the effort and tried hard but could just never really get there. They lost. A lot. You know how they say everyone needs to learn to lose and that losing builds character. Well they have learned to lose. And they have gallons of character.

Fast forward to this year. It has all clicked. We have massive clickage. These kids are awesome. Boys and girls both. Totally awesome. It is so fun to watch because these are all good kids, great students, and they are out there having fun. They are literally dismantling the other teams. They have a wicked press and they can rattle any team. The girls are short but they are so tough. The boys are not short but they are not tall. Last nights team was a lot taller than them. Didn't matter. I know that tougher opponents are on the horizon. I know that they will not have an undefeated season. I know that they are getting ready to play a tournament that is a definite step up (heck a leap up) from their current level of play. But for right now, at this moment, they are both undefeated. They have worked so hard for this and we are so proud of them all. And they are so fun to watch.

On a personal, "Hey that's my kid" note, boy #2 has been offered a full ride basketball/academic scholarship to one of the regional Catholic high schools in the area. He rocks. :)

Fresh

2011-11-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

Is always better than frozen. Fresh has a 50% chance of success while frozen has only a 20% chance. So....fresh it is.

Further proof that boy #2 is an idiot

2011-11-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

And there you have it. Yep. Like I said. Happy. Well-adjusted. Believe it or not a straight A student. Being heavily recruited by 3 different high schools to play basketball. But an idiot none the less. He's in the red.

Geriatric flab a'flyin

2011-11-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

Yep. That title about sums it up. See you can't really work out when you are cycling. Because you want to do everything perfect so that when/if the cycle fails you can look back and have no reason to curse yourself. Sometimes these things just don't work (in the case of a single frozen transfer, 80% of the time, these things don't work) and you want absolutely no reason to blame yourself other than the general geriatricness of your uterus. Anywho, anyone counting how long this ridiculous cycle was? Anyone? Well let me tell ya. On June 25th I started Lupron. On October 28th I transferred. Anyone got an abacus, because that's a LONG cycle. With meds that make you gain weight. And meds that make you over eat. Shockingly, I started the cycle weighing 140 and ended weighing 135. And I really didn't exercise at all throughout the entire thing. So, yay go me but holy bacon is there so flab on this body. Untoned flab. Geriatric untoned flab.

We got the official, "Hey idiot you're not pregnant...that's why all 15 of those home pregnancy tests were negative" from the RE on Tuesday. Wednesday was a crazy evening since boy #2 was packing for YIG and had basketball practice. Thursday brought about the period from hell. Ever had a post failed cycle period? Let's just say that all that lining they built up in there has to come out. And come out it does. So exercise was out for Wednesday, out for Thursday, out for Friday and out for Saturday. This morning, bright and early, the hubster and I decided to jog. Stop laughing. Ok, fine, keep laughing. We made it about a mile. If you are using klingon distance measurements. Then we walked a bit. And jogged a bit. Every jog got shorter, every walk got longer. There was much wheezing to be heard. And oh the flab that was flying. Egads. Must get into shape. Must banish the flab. How is it that my clothes all fit again and yet when I take them off, flab springs forth from every direction? Is this something else I can blame on aging? I hope so because if I have to blame it on my own laziness then I just suck.

I got my work report from this year so far. I've averaged 48 hours per week. Egads. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the poor laid off hubster has worked a whopping 700 hours all year long, almost all of it before he got laid off in May. Poor man is really getting bummed about not working and we are both really starting to wish he had filed for unemployment when he got laid off. We were trying to be nice and not burden his boss by making his unemployment insurance go up but wow...it's been a long time. Oh well. We have had a good happy summer and fall and hubster has been around for the kids alot. He has started searching for a part time job. We still think he should only work part time so that he can be around for the kids. The money would be nice if he worked full time but the kids are way more important than money. In five years, when the kids are grown, he can work full time.

So that's it for now. It's 76 here today and gorgeous so we are spending time outside. Boy #3 is gone and won't be home until tonight. Boy #2 is at the Y, playing basketball. The house is quiet and peaceful and the chocolate cake in the oven smells delish (what...did I say I was trying to lose weight? Hush).

Funny

2011-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

This woman is hilarious. She fully captures life as we normal folk live it. I've been reading her blog since her son Charlie was delivered eons ago and she just gets funnier with time. She's a real woman. Kick her, knock her down and she will get back up, although she might be cursing the whole way. I like to think I am half as strong as she is, although I don't know. Enjoy.
http://www.alittlepregnant.com/alittlepregnant/

Well that sucked

2011-11-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

Long story short (which might eventually be long again if I ever get a free minute to blog)....I transferred one lone frozen embryo and the transfer failed. I feel awful for my guys. They have decided to take a break and I don't blame them. They only have two embryos left and they want to make sure they give those embryos the best chance. They only want to transfer one at a time but they are going to explore whether a younger surrogate might offer them a higher chance of success. I completely support that. My goal was always to help them become parents and if to do that they need to get a different surrogate then that is what they need to do. I am waiting on that wonderful post transfer period to come. You know the one that comes with cramps that feel like labor pains and blood loss that makes you think a transfusion is in your future. Yeah. Good times.

I still need to give details on the transfer trip from hell. It snowed. Alot. The airport got closed down. The national guard got sent in. I slept on the floor and had no food or water for 20+ hours. Can't imagine why that transfer failed, can you? Anywho, I'll get around to that eventually.

Boy #2 is going to a youth in government convention tomorrow. I think he will be bored senseless but hey, who am I to say.

Boy #3 has a science project he is working on. Ugh. Not a fan of the science project thing but he has a good idea for this one and is making progress on it.

Grandbaby is doing well and growing finally. She is so cute now and really starting to stay awake longer. We took her to her first basketball game and she just watched the game and actually didn't scream.

I found another job that I'm going to apply for. I love my job and I doubt I can make what I make at this new job but I figure any time there's a science job in the area it can't hurt to apply for it.

And that's it. I'd like to say I'll have a longer post soon but yeah, I doubt it. It's 10pm now and I am in bed typing this. I still need to iron boy #2's suit for tomorrow, finish packing for him, figure out how to make an endoplasmic reticulum out of pipe cleaner and glue for boy #3, pack lunches for tomorrow, cure cancer, and figure out that whole world peace thing. :)

Alive

2011-11-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have a super funny (in an OMG did that really happen) post about traveling that I'm working on. As a hint, you know that huge snowstorm that shut down Bradley Int'l airport last week. Guess who was smack dab in the middle of that? Yep. Slept on an airport floor. Went 20 hours without eating. Funny in a wanna kill someone kind of way. Anywho working on that post.

On another travel note, I have to drive to Sioux Falls for a 3 day meeting in the dead of winter. Urgh.

Basketball season has started and both boys and girls are 2-0. Amazing for a small Catholic school. Boy #2 has beaten his scoring record in a game, scoring 28 points. And that was sitting out one whole quarter. He will be playing AAU ball this summer which is awesome but means a whole lot of time on the road and in the car. Urgh/yay.

Life is so busy right now. I was hoping to have some exciting surrogacy news but it doesn't look like that will happen. More to come later.