Working Vacation

I've been terrible at posting this week... Hopefully I will get a chance to do some mobile blogging while I'm in California. I'm really looking forward to the following things.

Taking pictures for this cute couple!

Seeing my in-laws. (Yes, I'm pretty fond of them.)

Getting away from Utah.

Moisture.

Seeing my new niece.

Time with Will... It's a precious commodity.



I'll try and post a few pictures along the way!

My sleepless Monday night

Sorry I've been so bad at blogging the last few days. I've been busy, and just not feeling totally great, but really I'm okay. Anyway, I had to blog about Monday night, since that was when we went to see John Mayer & Colbie Caillat in concert. We had so much fun.


Some guy (who's name we don't remember) opened for Colbie Caillat, and while we were sitting there AJ said the music would be great to dance the Merengue (sp?). So since we were celebrating Mandy's birthday (August 31st) a little early, they got up and danced.

They brought cute Treson with them (this picture was taken before we gave Tre earplugs).

Will had way too much fun with shadow puppets.

Treson had a good nap during Colbie Caillat's set.

Will had more fun with shadow puppets.

We had some good lawn seats... until everyone stood up in front of us for the John Mayer set. It's okay, we were back far enough that John just looked like a little white dot.

Colbie sounded AMAZING!

John Mayer is a dork between songs. Will just kept saying, "Stop talking and start singing... you're not funny, but you can sing."

Tre woke up for John Mayer... I think he was upset that the jokes were so bad. That and the fact that the sound was perfect for the 1st two artists, but when John Mayer got up there, they turned it way up, and then it sounded bad/too loud.

John sang pretty well.

Will got really tired, and he had a sniffly nose. But he's cute and I love him to bits!

Basically we had a great time, and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep. It was up at the Usana Amphitheatre, and that is at least an hour away from the house. The concert was well worth the lack of sleep though. Thank you again, AJ & Mandy, for the tickets.

10 reasons I love AJ & Mandy

10. They are super fun, and they know how to have a good time.

9. They aren't overly protective of Treson, and they love to see him smile no matter who he's smiling at.

8. They come to my house to play Wii.

7. We eat together pretty often, and there is never a dull conversation.

6. We've had some really open conversations, and mostly that ends in laughing over how comfortable we are with each other.

5. They bring me free stuff from Usana (where AJ works), and that means I haven't had to buy shampoo, conditioner, lotion or basically any toiletry items in months.

4. Mandy's come over before just because I was having a hard day, and brought a present when she came. (It was really sweet!)

3. They let me hold Treson whenever I want.

2. They just gave me and Will free tickets to this concert.

1. They're basically awesome people, all the way around.

I'm really excited to go see John Mayer (Colbie Callait is opening!). It's at an amphitheatre, which makes it even better!

Memories

I was reading my friend Amy's blog, and she had this great idea to get some fun memories out in the open. I always like to see what people remember about their life experiences with others.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Bloodletting

For those who haven't been through it, infertility requires a lot of tests. Usually those tests involve taking some sort of fluid... usually blood. In fact, I've had my blood drawn so many times in the last year, I can't even count.

Usually my blood is taken once a month between days 21 and 23 of my monthly cycle. This blood draw is to check my hormone levels to see if I'm on enough medication to actually make me ovulate. Today was day 23... so I went to the hospital to get my blood drawn.

I checked in with the same girl that sees me every month. She asked how I was doing and since she asks me the same questions every time I come in, this time she just said, "Has anything changed?" Nope. Nothing. That's why I keep coming back.

Then I went to the outpatient lab, where the same lady who draws my blood every time greeted me like this, "Just coming for the progesterone test?" Yep. That's me. Progesterone test girl.

Please note my blood was being drawn from my right arm... I'm right handed... and obviously an amazing photographer if I can take a picture one handed with my left hand. :)

This time I shook things up a little by telling her I was going to take a picture. She laughed and wondered why. I told her it's because I blog, and my readers should get to see what I have to do every month. She didn't quite get it, but moved her other hand out of the way so I could get a good picture.

Thankfully she was fast at my blood draw this time. I've had to leave before with both arms being poked, then the phlebotomist (I love that word) having to fish around with no luck, but they finally found a spot on my hand or upper arm or something. I won't put in the picture of when they ended up blowing a vein. It's a really bad bruise.

What strange things do you do regularly?

Unsolicited Advice

This is Treson (a couple of months ago). Isn't he cute? He's my friends' little boy, and he's adorable. Mandy & AJ (his parents) understand our situation without kids, and are really sweet to let me hold him as much as I want, and sit by me in church so I can have baby time. Church is one of my hardest times to handle my infertility, since everyone seems to have a million kids or is pregnant. Mandy is also really laid back about Treson. She knows I know how to handle him, and to soothe him, etc.

There's the background to my story.

Today I was sitting next to Treson's car seat (with him in it) for all of Sunday School and Relief Society. I was playing with his fingers and toes, he was holding onto my fingers, etc. Exactly what most babies do during the 3 hours they have to sit in church.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself. He has an enormous smile, that makes me so happy. Anyway, we were on the second to last row of chairs, and behind us is where all the older sisters in the ward sit. As Relief Society ended and everyone got up to leave, Mandy and I just sat there a while and played with Tre. One of the older sisters in the ward tapped me on the shoulder and then leaned forward to whisper in my ear. She said, "Don't touch babies' hands." Then walked away.

Now, I know she meant well, since you want to protect a baby from getting sick and all, but REALLY!!!!!! I'm so mad, sad, upset, furious, whatever, I could scream. To be precise, I cried the whole way home. (All 3 minutes of my drive, since the church is only 4-5 blocks away.) Even now, thinking about it makes me cry again.

I don't understand why some people think it's okay to give advice on a child that isn't theirs, to someone who's not the parent of that child. Where do they think they get the right?

My big thing is that I don't want to see this lady ever again. I don't know if she knows my heartache about not having kids, but it seems so unreasonable to say something so insensitive to an adult. I can understand telling kids not to do something, but I'm 28, I know what I'm doing.

How do I get through this?

Lazy bones

I am guilty of encouraging second day hair. Basically what I mean is that I don't see anything wrong with using the same hairdo 2 days in a row... without washing it.

Case in point: This is a picture of my second day hair. I did my hair yesterday, and then after sleeping on it all night, I got up this morning, rewet it a little, and then left it.

There are plenty of excuses for my second day hair.

• Utah is really dry, so my scalp doesn't like being washed everyday.
• My hair curls better the second day
• Whatever else you can think of

But really, it all comes down to the fact that I'm lazy. I wanted to get those extra few minutes of sleep today, so I didn't get up to redo my hair.

What faux pas are you guilty of?

Friday's Feature Foto

This week's photo should have been from an assignment I pulled out of the hat last week... however, with the holiday, and just being plain busy, I not only missed posting a photo last week, I didn't do the assignment either. I was taking pictures last week, just not of what I'd pulled. I took some pictures of the Balloon Fest they have here. Basically if you go out to a specific field at about 6 am (basically way earlier than I want to be up), you can walk among hot air balloons while they're being inflated, and taking off.

These are some of the MANY photos I took that day.

This is the inside of the balloon, and the burner is firing. Those are really REALLY warm... I think they said they are something like 20,000 BTUs.

These are a few of the other balloons that took off that day. One of my favorites was the bright pink pig.

Let me know some suggestions for new assignments. I love to hear your ideas. They're so unique!

Free time

This is my husband, Will. He's applying for med school this summer. The classic quote we get when people find out he'll be in med school is this, "Be sure to enjoy your free time while you have some. Med school will be so much busier."

This is Will's schedule right now (remember, this is summer, so during the school year, he also takes ~15 credits of school and has bunches of homework as well).

Research Lab: ~6-8 hrs/week
Volunteer at the ICU: ~4 hrs/week
Volunteer Medical Interpreting: ~ 4 hrs/week
Work: ~40 hrs/week
Travel for all of the above: ~ 7-8 hrs/week
Church calling (Primary teacher): ~ 3-4 hrs/week

We're already at about 68 hours for one week. Since there's only 168 hours in a week, and you take out the 68 he's using up already, then approx 48 for sleep (if he can actually get 7 hours of sleep a night), that leaves 52 hours. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it.

Here's what else he has on his plate.

Doctor Shadowing: ~ 4-8 hrs/week
Med School app: ~ 5-10 hrs/week

Now we're down to about 34 hours a week left for free time. Estimate about 1 hour a day for getting ready, and about 1 1/2 hours a day eating (if he can make time for 3 meals), and we're down to 17 1/2 hours of "free time." Most of that happens on Sunday. Granted, 3 hours for church, and usually meals take up more time, so maybe 15 hours of free time in a week. And don't get me started about the time requirements of going through fertility treatment... even less sleep then.

Granted, during the school year, he's probably in class for about 15-20 hours a week, plus about the same amount of homework. Now we're in the red on free time. What happens then? Less sleep. His average during the school year is between 3 and 4 hours a night.

Here's the great thing about med school...

• You can't have a job.
• You don't have to put in crazy numbers of hours of volunteering, doctor shadowing, extracurricular activities (those are a requirement for the applications, 20 hrs a week is the preferred), and research.
• You do spend a lot of time at school, but when you come home, you don't have to go to work.

Overall, when it comes to the idea of med school, I say, "Bring it on!" I don't know that anything could be busier than trying to get into med school.

Iron Chef Utah

Will and I love to watch Iron Chef America. It's fun to see what the secret ingredient is for each show, and what crazy stuff they make (like lobster ice cream, or cotton candy sprinkled with cayenne pepper). On Sunday we were watching it, and it was getting to be dinner time, and pretty soon our kitchen turned into Iron Chef Utah.

I didn't take any pictures, but we made some really good food. We had an american style picadillo (Costa Rican dish that has chopped veggies and meat in it). Ours had potatoes, bell peppers, celery, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and sausage in it. Then just before we finished, I realized it was missing something. I wanted mango in it, but we didn't have any, so we settled for some apples. It was perfect!

In addition to our picadillo, we had some Costa Rican rice, black beans, and homemade tortillas. The only problem with it all was that we made enough to feed about a million people. I'll be eating this for dinner every night this week.

Ode to Sconces

I have a love of all things sconce. I have lots of sconces, in fact I have a pair in almost every room in my house. (I'm still looking for the perfect pair for my bathroom.)

It all started when someone gave us this pair as a wedding gift.

Then I went to a PartyLite party (like Pampered chef for candle lovers), and fell in love with these.

These were a housewarming gift when we moved to Utah.

This is my favorite set. We got them at a craft fair at Apple Hill. They're made from wine glasses, handpainted, and bent, then attached to wood.

In addition to my sconces, these pictures also show my love of color on walls. We spent the first 3 days in our house painting.

The Joy of Photoshop

A few months ago, after I got Photoshop, Will and I were messing around with pictures to see what we could do with them.

This (and lots of laughter) was the result.

Guess what Griffin's mustache is made from.