I don’t think this was what Vince Shilomi had in mind during his infomercial for ShamWow! Today was our friend Scott’s birthday and as a gift, our friends bought ShamWows and made them into pants. Just imagine all the creative uses for pants such as these. No matter how many times I requested it, he would not pour a pitcher of water down his pants. To beat this,  I need to somehow get Billy Mays’ autograph for my husband’s birthday. I wonder if he has a fan club?

I started administering shots of Bravelle  as part of our fertility treatment this past Friday.   Bravelle sounds like the name of a drag queen or burlesque dancer, so I can hear David Rose and his Orchestra playing in my head.    I started with two vials and after my blood work yesterday, they increased the dosage to four vials.  I know that side effects are possible and decided to take a look today to see if fatigue and insomnia were on the list only to find the following tidbit of information about the drug:

Bravelle® is a product containing a highly purified preparation of human follicle stimulating hormone (hFSH) extracted from the urine of postmenopausal women.

I am shooting myself up with the Golden Girl’s pee?

Friday night I met my husband over at our friend’s house.  I don’t especially have a high tolerance for alcohol, but I love a good Mexican Martini (If you are ever in Austin, please go to Trudie’s and try one!).  After drinking four of them, I could not operate heavy machinery so my husband drove me home. He even stopped and got me a Vanilla Frosty at Wendy’s. I don’t recommend mixing martinis and fake vanilla flavored non-milk based products.  I slept soundly Friday night and when I woke up Saturday afternoon, I decided that we needed to go out to lunch, Best Buy, and Whole Foods. On Sunday, my husband wanted to stay in his PJs and not leave the house. I love Sundays like that. We played video games, chugged Diet Coke, and ate nachos.  This morning Pete got up and I rolled over thinking I can sleep in.  I heard the door open for Pete to leave and then I heard, “honey…Honey…HONEY!”. I am a firm believer that if you pull the covers over your head,  you really do disappear into another world.  I decide that if it is really that important, he will come upstairs and bring me back to Earth.  He trudges up the stairs and says, “Uhmm, I need to go to work but I don’t have a car.”  We left his car on Friday and completely forgot to go pick it up over the weekend.  How do two adults forget a car?

We have moved on to phase two of fertility treatment: injectable hormones with intra-uterine insemination (IUI).  It was more than a little intimidating to open the box and find all of this in it.  There are two good things:

1. Mandell’s Clinical Pharmacy also sends you a bag of Hersey kisses with your meds. They know what a woman hopped up on hormones really needs!  Now if only the doctor’s office handed out peanut M&Ms after internal ultrasounds.

2. Our insurance covered all but $78.00 of this medication.  When you consider how much we pay for our insurance, it is nice to be getting something back other than the occasional prescription for mysterious skin conditions that have popped up since moving to NJ.

In my heart I know this is the right path for us. I spent yesterday taking care of a niece and nephew. Despite the snot, poopy diapers, glass shattering screeches, repetitive children’s television, and the I need an advanced degree to work a car seat moments, I loved every minute!

My husband and I share a mantra, “Being true to yourself is the MOST important thing.” Life is just too short to spend it second guessing who you are instead of just being the best you can be.  Let go of preconceived notions of what you should be and find bliss in the moments that make up your life. It can be the simple things like enjoying a good book, watching your husband sleep, or laughing at old movies that make your day and give the most satisfaction.

1. Click on Settings and select Application settings.

2. Scroll down the list of applications to the Twitter application. Click on Edit Twitter Settings and then click on Never publish stories from Twitter.

3. Log in to your twitter account and send out a Twitter. Check your Facebook account to make sure no Tweets are posting to your Facebook page.

I recommend this because at times Facebook glitches and fails to update setting changes.

UPDATE:

I posted this in March. At the time this was the only option to unlink. If you know an easier way, please leave a comment or a link. Thanks!

He and Lynn did it!  I do believe I could do a little happy dance around my computer.  I haven’t been so happy that two people have come together since reading about Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth.  I have not become a voyeur mom, so don’t worry. I have been reading a personal blog lately that I think most people would find salaciously entertaining but at the same time insightful and sincere.  I say this with the hope that the blog is not a fictional interpretation of what someone’s life would be if they were male, living in California, loves food/wine, loves women who look like real women and in love with their best friend.  I don’t really care if it is fictional because reading this blog has become a must do part of my week.

Message in a bottle is the personal blog of gentleman named Rich and I love to read this blog.

photo by: Chris Nakashima-Brown

I just found the Are You Social? teeshirt. I have this blog, multiple email accounts and instant messaging, but last night I signed up for a Facebook account.  I already belonged to LinkedIn via Pete’s suggestion but I had resisted Facebook and MySpace. A number of our friends and family have accounts and so I took the plunge.  No sooner than I sign up, I found this article in TIME that questions if Facebook takes away from friendships or enhances them by making communication easier.  I don’t use the term friend all that freely and I believe in quality over quantity.  I need friends that understand I might going on a cleaning/organization bend and not be seen for a week.  The kind of friend that knows if I haven’t called it is not personal, I just got Season Four of House and I have to watch all the episodes in two days. I am not sure I will get use to speaking about myself in the third person on Facebook and I hope that my friends understand that I might find it easier to post, “Becky is too stressed, too tired, and can’t lift anything.” ,versus picking up the phone for a conversation. I think friendships can be enhanced by new ways of communicating but nothing replaces a good heart to heart conversation.

Pete bought me a book called, “Listography” for my birthday. Basically, you create an autobiography by making lists.  I have found it challenging to think back on different times in my life to create the lists. Today I filled in my list of favorite films. This is what I came up with in no particular order:

Forrest Gump

Lord of the Rings

The Shawshank Redemption

The Usual Suspects

Pulp Fiction

Silence of the Lambs

Matrix

Star Wars

Saving Private Ryan

Sound of Music

Pretty in Pink

Monsters, Inc.

The Princess Bride

Groundhog Day

Kill Bill

The Sixth Sense

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Love Actually

The English Patient

Secretary

Pete and I had an amazing time in Germany and Austria. Things got rather hectic upon our return to the states with the holidays and the passing of my grandfather. I thought I would post 12 of the 4200 photos we took while on our vacation.

Pete and I are having a wonderful time in Munich. We arrived yesterday at 10:30am local time. We got no sleep on the plane, so we decided to just stay awake for 33 hours straight to get on a normal sleep patern. We have wandered around the Christmas market, eaten curry wurst and Dumpfnudel, and drank beer at the Hofbrau House. Life is great!

The Good:

• Georgia beat LSU. Hopefully they beat Florida on Saturday. This might p.o. all my Texas friends, but I have been calling on the football Gods for Texas to lose.

• I bought tickets for Pete and I to go see Spamalot on Broadway this Sunday.

• My 13 month old nephew thinks I am the coolest thing since disposable diapers.

• 29 days and counting until our vacation!

• The election will be over soon and all those yard signs can come down.

• I got a haircut and it looks fabulous.

• We had a great time at the Oktoberfest in Rehoboth Beach.

• My sister and her family should have the renovations done and be able to move into their new home before Thanksgiving.

The Bad:

• Pete’s great aunt passed away. Just two months ago her husband passed away. It has been a hard time for the family.

• Open bars at wakes followed by Octoberfest…just don’t do it.

• My German language skills. Even Rosetta Stone can’t help me.

• My painting skills. I don’t think my brother-in-law will ever ask me to help paint anything in the future.

• Pete came home and asked me what I thought of Boca Raton. I told him that is where old New Jerseyans go to die.

The Ugly:

• The doctors think I have diabetes. They started me on a medication and they are going to slowly increase the dosage until it is under control. Looking at my medical records, they feel I should have been diagnosed about a decade ago.

• I feel as though I live in doctors offices lately. On Monday, we follow up with the fertility specialist to schedule our next procedures.  I go between praying for any baby to praying that I don’t end up with sextuplets.

• I really miss living in the south.  I have about had my quota of rude people in NJ and it is cold this week. We had snow in October!  I miss nice people and sun…so much so that Boca Raton sounded good.

Neiman Marcus just came out with their over the top gifts for Christmas 2008. Given the current financial crisis, I just don’t think that I could justify a $60,000 life size sculpture of myself, made entirely of LEGOS. Although I think the look on my husband’s face would be priceless. This does not include shipping.

Derek Jeter

Jason Giambi

Xavier Nady

Alex Rodriguez

Johnny Damon

(He is a right handed batter and he never made it to third base during this game. He is a cutey and I think deserving of some mention.)

I spent the last week in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with my friend Nicole and her son. We stayed in an amazing cabin that Nicole arranged through Parkside Cabins.  The cabin was close to Arts and Crafts community in Gatlinburg and a few minutes from downtown Gatlinburg.  Gatlinburg is a tourist spot but I enjoyed the Aquarium, the arts/crafts, sweet tea, and the music. I bought a number of craft items from a pair of copper Dogwood blossom earrings to a small oil painting by Iva Prince, the Grandma Moses of the Smokies. Gatlinburg is very kid friendly and the drive to get there is very scenic.  I loved the people of Gatlinburg. They were friendly and helpful. I couldn’t get the parking brake to go down on my friend’s car and within minutes I had two men offering assistance.

I cannot say enough about the cabin we stayed in! The cabin was private, extremely comfortable and allowed you to enjoy nature.  If you are a bird watcher, looking for a place to honeymoon, or just wanting to get away, I recommend Parkside Cabins in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I know I will be going back with my husband and I am recommending it for next years Girls getaway.

The second phase of my vacation starts tomorrow. I am flying back to Austin, Texas to spend a week with friends and to enjoy all the old haunts! I can’t wait for barbecue and Mexican-Martinis!