Happy New Year...

Wishing you the very happiest New Year!
Here's to a great 2007!!!

Guess what Julia Roberts and I have in common...

ab-so-fucking-lutely nothing.

Julia is pregnant.
I am not.

You can stop refreshing now.

It may be a little early to test... for those of you who believe in that shit... cd 29... somewhere between 13 & 15 dpo.

I still plan on having a great time at my party / reunion tomorrow... a great drunk time. Mr. D. and I spent all day cleaning and shopping (thank God for Super Suppers). I will fill you in later on all the details and let you know how it went!

For those of you who asked about Mr. D.'s commercial... he was in a great Superbowl commercial last year (see January archives). You can still see the commercial on youtube here! It was such a cool thing to see the commercial as the #2 commercial of the year!

OK... gotta eat dinner... cleaning for hours really makes you hungry!

cd 28...

My boobs are crazy sore. Today is cd 28 and I am getting close to testing... 14 days past trigger. I have about 5 Dollar Store tests but I am afraid to test... I like to hold on to the "hopeful" phase as long as possible... especially at this time of year.

Let's talk about something else.

Christmas was wonderful.... everyone was so generous to Mr. D. and me! Our living room still hasn't totally recovered from all the unwrapping.... they are still opened gifts sitting under the tree waiting to be put away.

On Saturday I am hosting a reunion with 6 other girls I used to work with when I did shows at theme parks! This show was a great one where we were all high-kicking saloon girls with red garters! It has been 13 years (and 20 pounds) since I have seen most of these girls so I am really looking forward to it. It is at my house so I had better get crackin' on cleaning this place up! I am also cooking... well... with the help of Super Suppers... shhhh... But I have to go pick up all the food today and tomorrow too. I really hope everyone comes and it is a lot of fun.

Truman is 9 weeks old today. He is the smartest dog in the world! He does not potty in the house or his crate... ever... he just runs over to the door and stands up like a little gopher until we let him out. I also taught him to SIT in about 10 minutes by using little pieces of puppy chow. It is so funny to watch such a tiny dog obey commands! He just cracks us up! So far he is still not sleeping through the night.. so Mr. D. and I take turns on getting up with him at 2:oo and 4:30 and sitting next to his crate until he goes back to sleep. It is a really sweet time around here.

We have seen 2 movies this week... CHARLOTTE'S WEB and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM... I highly recommend them both. Other than that we have sort of been hanging around the house... running errands... and just generally enjoying our time off.

I hope you are having a wonderful and restful end to 2006.
I am looking forward to seeing what 2007 brings.

The wrap, the tree, the Reindeer, and the pup!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Since so many people loved our wrapping paper I wanted to include another picture and let you all know that my husband gets all the credit for picking it out! We always try to have a color scheme... it is the interior decorator in me that wants it to look perfect... we usually pick out a paper and then a large box from my mom in North Carolina arrives to clash with our paper... she tends to pick out the paper with rolly polly penguins or funny Santas... but this year I opened the box to find all while and silver packages that look just lovely with our aqua, silver, and brown retro paper! It all looks so pretty under the tree... full of mystery and possibility... I will be a little sad to open the packages tomorrow... The paper came from our local SAMS... at the beginning of the season... Mr. D. went back to get more for next year... but it was all gone!

I am also including a picture of our tree... decorated with the Disney ornaments that I have collected over the past 15 years... If you look closely you will see Cinderella, Chicken Little, and Bella... along with about 100 more special ornaments from our visits to DisneyWorld... each one has a story and I love them all.

Next I give you a shot of me and Santa's funniest Reindeer... aka Mr. D. as one of the many characters he is playing in the children's production of Santa Claus is Coming to Town! Seeing my macho 6 foot tall hunky husband dancing, singing and prancing around as Blitzen was definantly a highlight of my holiday season!!! So this is how I spend my fifth wedding anniversary... along with a wonderful dinner at a fabulous Mexican restaurant after the show with our friend C&L and their two adorable girls... who now think Uncle Mr. D. is the coolest!

Finally a Big Happy Holidays from Truman and me (and Mr. D. who took this early morning snapshot this Christmas Eve morning!) We all hope that you have a magical Christmas morning and a restful end to 2006.

Introducing... TRUMAN!!!!

HI! I am TRUMAN!!!


Ok... I know it is not the best picture... but this little guy does not sit still! He is such a cutie-pie and follows us all around the house. He did really well last night... he slept in his crate without much crying and I only had to get up to take him out twice. I just love watching him... he is so funny! Check out that adorable pink tongue... and how about those eyebrows... he sort of looks a little like Groucho Marx!


I will try to take more pics as soon as my batteries are re-charged... next time I will try the "sports" setting on the camera... maybe I can get a clearer pic of him.


Tomorrow is Mr. D. and my 5th wedding anniversary. I will see his show again with friends and then probably out to a nice dinner. My shopping is almost all done.. which is quite a feat since 3 my first day to shop was Saturday!


Ok... got to go snuggle with my pup... we are tired... we have been up since 6:30 this morning playing!

A little good news...

It may seem really soon... but on Thursday we will be the proud parents of a little 8 week old shih tzu puppy.

I am still grieving the loss of Emmitt... he was an amazing part of my life and could never be replaced. Honestly I never imagined that I would be ready for a new puppy so soon... but as terrible as Emmitt's passing was it was also something we had been preparing ourselves for. We were so lucky to have the last year with him after the "Great Pet Trauma of 2005"... but we have known since then that Emmitt was not a very healthy boy and that his cancer would probably be back. We have known for some time that our time with him was limited. And I knew that when the time came I would have to be brave and make the decision to say goodbye to him before he was in pain... It was the kindest thing to do... but the hardest decision I have had to make. His passing has been so hard on me... over the past week I have come home several times in tears because he is not here... it is so lonely here without him.

Mr. D. and I went to a local pet store yesterday to hold puppies... just to see if we both felt ready. We do. We are not replacing Emmitt... he is irreplaceable... but we hope that a new little Christmas puppy with help brighten up our lives for the holidays. The funny thing is we are not buying the puppy from a pet store... as soon as we decided to look for shih tzu pups in our area on the internet we found out that there was a family with 6 puppies ready to adopt at a reasonable -not-pet-store price price very close to our home. They are not breeders and this is their very first litter of pups. I could not believe that they lived just 10 minutes from us in the next city over because we thought we would have to drive all over the state to find healthy, home raised, reasonably priced puppies. I went today to see the pups and they are adorable and the family was so warm and caring that I know the puppy is coming from a loving well cared for home. I also got to meet the parents of the pups and see what sweet and playful little dogs they are. This just feels right.

I am off work for two weeks now so I will be able to help the new puppy get used to his new home and his 3 feline siblings... who might possible mistake him for a guinea pig since he is only about 1 pound.

I know I will still miss Emmitt. I will go and pick up his ashes tomorrow and on the next beautiful sunny day we have I will bury him in our backyard with a nice little stone marker I had made. I know Em would not want us to be alone and that he is watching out for us and helped lead us to this wonderful family with these sweet little puppies.

I know that it is very soon... but like I said before... it just feels like Emmitt would be glad to see us excited and happy about our soon to be new family member. And God knows we could use a little Christmas cheer...

cd 17...

I wanted to post and tell you all thank you so much for your sweet words. The loss of Emmitt has been such a hard one for me this week. I really miss him. Each night I find myself pausing for a minute out side the garage door to prepare myself that he will not be waiting to greet me when I walk in the door. I am beginning to feel a little better and a lot of that is due to your encouraging words on my blog. It always surprises me to know that people all over the world are taking the time to send notes of support to me. I am so happy to have my blog at times like these.

In the "life goes on category..."
I saw the nurse on Thursday and had a 21mm follicle... just one this time but it was big and healthy... actually I was surprised to have even one that was ready to go this month because of the stress over the last 3 weeks. So I triggered on Thursday morning... cd 14.

Today I will have auditions for a children's production that I have been hired to direct. For me it is a huge deal... this is one of the biggest theatres in our area and their children's series musicals are a staple to kids around here. The theatre is newly renovated and seats about 1200. School children will come to the theatre daily to see this production and there are also evening and weekend performance for the public. So with 8 performances a week... well... a lot of people will see my professional directorial debut. Today I will get to hire 6 professional union adult actors.... 4 non-union adult actors... and a whole bunch of kids. I have been working towards this kind of opportunity since I became a director 10 years ago. I feel so excited to work with real actors, real designers, and have a real budget!!! We start rehearsals in mid-January and the show opens on February 6th. I am also a little nervous... but I think that is good... I just really want to do a good job.

Again... thank you for all of your support this week.
I am so lucky to have all of you as my friends.

Goodbye Dear Friend

This afternoon we said goodbye to our little dog Emmitt.
We found out today after an ultrasound that he had cancer on two-thirds of his liver.

I want to write about him and tell you what a wonderful little friend he was to me... how he got me through some of the toughest times in my life... how much I will miss him... but I just can't.

Making the decision to say goodbye to him was honestly one of the hardest things I have ever done. I know it was "time" and I didn't want him to suffer... but it was terrible. Mr. D. and I were with him when he died. I told him I was so sorry over and over again... and that I loved him. He was the best dog I ever could have had and he gave me such comfort in some of the darkest times in my life.

I am so sad.

Rest in Peace little Emmitt... I will always love you my little friend.

CD 6

CD 6... Saw the nurse... doing the same protocol as last month since it seemed to give good results.

CD 4 - Started clomid (1 day earlier this time since it seems to make me "O" late.
CD 8 - put on estrogen patch
CD 14 - u/s to see where the follies are
Trigger when I am ready to "O"
*pretty straight forward*

Went to my 2nd RESOLVE meeting last night. This time there were 9 of us. I am finding it tremendously helpful just meeting real women going through the same feelings I am. Although most of them (except for me and 1 other person) are doing injectable IUI or IVF... so I learning a lot about shots!

You may notice a few small changes in my blog... I am trying to go a little more anonymous. Being a teacher I have to be very careful with my blog... I want to keep my job and I feel like I just need to be a little more careful about my name and where I live. I don't want to be part of any news headline like "local teacher posts sex life on the internet" This blog has been such a source of comfort and support for me and I would hate for any conservative school board member or administrator to find this blog and make it something scandalous. Right now I plan to leave my wedding picture on... and to occasionally post pics... but I may change my mind. I am not sure if I could be traced... I anyone has any suggestions about something I should remove please let me know. I am not sure how advanced the google tools can be and if my blog could get me in some sort of trouble... maybe I am just being paranoid.

We have a show opening tonight... so I may not update the rest of the week.

cd 39.... UPDATES

Monday AM...
I didn't call the nurse on Friday because AF arrived that afternoon... so today is cd 3 or 4 depending on how you look at it. I am on the way to the dcotor this morning for an u/s and then the plan is to try to do the same treatment at last month... I will also ask about re-testing Mr. D. since it has been 2 years since he has been tested.

Who would've known that the most mundane post ever would bring out a troll... thanks so much for the support over the weekend.

I have a show at school opening this weekend... if I don't post... all is fine.

Emmitt is still scaring me... it has been a week since he had really eaten... right now he is eating about 3 small apple slices a day and a half a peice of bread with butter... Feeding him each day is devastating just trying to find something he will eat. I am pretty sure he is losing weight... other than that.. he is acting fine. This is hard.

Cd 39... still no AF.
Here we go again.
I will call the nurse this morning.

Emmitt seems to be eating a little more... he will now eat cream cheese, apples, dog treats (sometimes), a little cheese and a bit of cat food... he will not eat any type of dog food, chicken, hot dogs, salami or peanut butter... WTF? He is on 2 liver meds and is still sleeping about 90% of the time. I guess he is my little 85 year old man.

In other news... on Wednesday it was a balmy 80 degrees here... 24 hours later... it had dropped 60 degrees to a arctic blast of 19 degrees! We had some ice and a little snow... the high today is 50 degrees so I think our little bit of cold weather is coming to an end.

I will let you know what the nurse says.