Home

is a very good place to be.

We were going to go on a short ride today. Especially after the spectacular meltdown of yesterday.

However hubby's quad, which was iffy all weekend, absolutely refused to start. Plus mine decided to start leaking fuel. So we got everything broken down and loaded and left camp around 11:30.

We stopped at Lake Mendo, or what's left of it (we need rain bad), and we swapped out and I drove the rest of the way home.

Gas wise it was a really cheap weekend. Only cost us about $200 total and we didn't go through all the gas we took with us (see yesterday's meltdown and Jenn refusing to get back on a quad - I did though).

Last night was a nice pot luck by campfire.

So we are home. We are tired and I still have Sunday's chores to finish.

Thus ends Jenn's lame contribution to her first ever NaBloPoMo

As for NaKniSweMo, well, um, er, eh, I did actually knit on hubby's sweater this month but it is sure a long way from finished.

I did finish my Cherry Garcia cowl. Then frogged the last repeat and bound off again. It should be perfect for the Christmas trip unless I decide to give it to someone as a Christmas present.

Completely Mental Breakdown

I had a complete breakdown on the trail to Bear Wallow (willow? whatever).

Was scared to death. Didn't want to go any farther. I do NOT like my quad.

After hubby got mad and got upset and got me to calm down and stop freaking out (this would be me screaming NO NO NO NO NO NO at the top of my lungs and crying in the middle of the trail - and yes I'm 38 why do you ask?)

He got me on his quad, which is MUCH BIGGER and way MORE STABLE, and I made it back down without another freak out.

Sigh.

Again the campfire saved me at the end of the day.

Dirt

Lots and lots and lots of dirt.

Lots and lots of Jenn freaking out on her quad going up to M5.

Hubby cracking the frame on the go-kart. Still not sure how that happened but he is fine.

MMMM camp fires good.

Knitting by camp fire pretty good too

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hugs and good wishes for all my friends out there.

Have a good one.

See you Sunday.

Yeah that means I'm blowing NaBloPoMo.

Oh well. I'll have plenty to back post.

What I'll be Playing with this Weekend

Last time I was on a quad I rolled it.

Time before that I sprained my wrist.

And I've managed to roll the Kart twice.

This should be fun.

Not Cooperating

New pills to prep for IVF are mucking up my system good.

So I feel like crap, my body is not behaving itself.

Just reminding myself that it's worth it, and it is. No doubt about that.

This is what we want and hopefully it will work.

Keep your fingers crossed.

I'll think we will need all the help we can get over the next two months.

That Kind of Day

Hubby let's me know after my alarm went off that Smokey Cat had been in the house all night. This is the cat that doesn't use the community litter box.

So I get up and grab the black light and start sniffing out 'accidents'. Find nothing and hit the shower.

Battle with Scrat monster over the muzzle. I think I'm winning (ha)

Head to car.

Grab socks from purse to put in gym bag, notice they are wet. What? Smell them.

Smokey Cat peed IN MY PURSE. My Hollywood Pink Malibu Namaste bag. IN IT!

Pull everything out that is wet and does not reek and throw into spare bag in car and head to work after going back in and grabbing the black light and telling hubby.

Scream all way to work (he ruined my Winnie the Pooh wallet too which I cannot replace).

Get to work and make sure the pee didn't get on my knitting. Noro Silk Garden need I say more?

Figure out I can pull the liner most of the way out and stick it in the sink (after emailing Namaste directly). Wash it thoroughly with soap and water. Slap in front of space heater at work.

Go to lunch to find new wallet (love Wilson Leather Outlet).

Come back and liner is dry and doesn't stink. Woo hoo. Maybe saved. May still have to rip out bottom seam of liner and scrub leatherette inside per Namaste.

Get call from hubby that Foster Lady returned my call. They still think we will only take a child we can adopt. Which means our placement has to come from adoption. Who still won't send me the paperwork because I'm undergoing fertility treatment (called again today to beg for the paperwork - didn't work). Hopefully have cleared this up again. We will take a child that might go home. We understand that. We are prepared. We don't care. We just want a child in our home. We are ready. Was told that if we still don't have a placement in 2 months we should go to a private foster agency. Which means relicensing.

I am going to pull my hair out.

But it sure looks like we won't have a placement before Christmas.

And yeah I'm crying.

Productive or Not?

You decide.

9:00 am - roll over look at clock, see hubby is out of bed, roll back over.

10:30 am - look at clock again and decide to stop being a slug

11:00 am - finish shower as hubby sticks his head in to see if he can have his turn.

11:30 am - have finished drying hair, brushing teeth making sure I don't stink and release the hounds

We start a plan to get Scrat to associate Number 2 with getting the muzzle off. Problem is you have to get him to go number 2 first. Gr. So for a walk we go and that works and off comes the muzzle

12:00 pm - start a multitude of laundry since we are going on a quad trip for thanksgiving.

12:30 pm - make sure my villages (travian server 6) are still standing in spite of inbound attacks. Ask hubby for reinforcements.

12:45 pm - start project Kitchen Reclamation while hubby start Garage Reclamation. Overlap each other by bringing him garage stuff from kitchen and taking house stuff in from garage. I'm not sure who won.

1:30 pm - decide I need to learn how to break the back end loose on both my quad and my cart. Finding riding gear first since last time we tried this it ended up with me bleeding profusely and sporting several lovely new scars.

2:30 pm - can break the back end loose from both without going into a roll. This is a good thing. Go back to working on the house and laundry

4:45 pm - figure out how to get Hubby's quad, my quad and my Kart into a 10' X 6.5 ' trailer. Be glad I'm not the one towing it once we do figure it out. Out of 12 tires, only 8 are actually on the floor of the trailer. Don't ask, I'll post a pic.

5:30 pm - have all the finished clothes put away and constant washer dryer swap outs happening. Tell Nemo the LOUD cat it's NOT dinner time yet.

5:45 pm - see what damage the last village raid did (why on earth are these idiot sending 300 TTs to my BFE village when I'm just going to kill all of them?) Tell hubby he lost some horse troops and to move reins to my next village that is getting attacked in a couple of hours.

6:00 pm - dig through freezer for dinner. Ooh ham and BBQ sauce on french rolls. Take trash out since tomorrow is garbage day.

6:30 pm - feed fur babies so they will BE QUIET. You'd they were starving. Feed hubby.

6:45 pm - the battle with Scrat and the Muzzle and going potty with the muzzle on begins anew. Needless to say he gets another walk and I'm freezing my tuckus off.

7:00 pm - start this blog post after maybe teaching Scrat that number 2 means no more muzzle.

7:09 pm - wrap up blog post so I can go in and eat my sandwich that I left on the counter 20 minutes ago. Hope Rasta didn't find it.

7:15 pm - edited multiple times to fix mistakes. Probably don't catch all of them. Sigh I was a physics and computer science major, cut me some slack, eh?

Beyond Tired

6:30 am - Wake up for Kickboxing class

7:30 to 8:30 am - Kickboxing

10:30 to 2:30 pm - Funeral

3:00 to 11:00 pm - Docent meeting and public night at observatory.

I don't know about you but I'm going to bed

Muzzle Training...

... you'd think I was beating the little guy with a lead pipe.

Scrat the Brat eats rocks. Any of the people that follow this blog knows this.

I have insurance on him now and that helped with the last episode, but we like there to NOT be a third episode lest it finally be the one that means he has to be cut open. Not a good chance to take.

So Scrat is being 'woeful'. You put the soft mesh nylon muzzle on him and he starts shaking and gets that no one can resist (unless you've been dog owner for a VERY long time) poor poor me look on his face and stops still.

So out comes the leash so I can walk my dog around the yard because he will not go potty with the muzzle on without being on lead.

I guess he thinks that if he has to wear the darn thing, I have to walk him, even though I am always outside with them the entire time they are out in the yard (it's not fully fenced and they believe in walkabouts).

But I'm not caving this time. He's going to get used to the muzzle or rub his nose raw while he's outside trying to get it off. But it will stay on, he will go potty and Mommy will not cave and he will not eat anymore rocks if I can help it.

This will Fly

The words our best man said at our wedding:

I've seen them fly before
- off of a 5 foot wake given by a willing yacht
- sky beneath them

When they landed and no knife was whipped
- out to alter the smile of a daredevil

This might work

They are
- companions
- coworkers
- playmates
and lovers

Each strong and capable in ways that elicit respect from one another

- This will Fly

To Love to Ken & Jenn

Wordless Wednesday

Done

This day, this week, this whatever is pissing me off royally right now and causing MASSIVE MOOD SWINGS needs to stop right frakking now.

If it is the BC Pills I started two days ago I'm going to kill someone I swear. Because to get to IVF and children I have to go through them first.

GRRRRRRRR!

The Goddess in You

or me rather....

YOU ARE ATHENA

Animal: Owl
Color: Blue

Athena is one of the most powerful goddesses in Greek mythology. She was born from the head of Zeus. Zeus - father of all gods, and Metis - the titan of wisdom, had conceived a child. Zeus was worried about this child becoming more powerful than he was. He had the pregnant Metis turned into a fly and ate her. However, he later developed an incredibly powerful headache. He asked another god to bash him in the head to cure it, and out popped Athena, fully armored.

Athena is one of the most courageous of the Greek Goddesses. The city of Athens was named after her - a place of civilization, beauty, strength. Athena was the protectoress of the weak, the patron of warriors, the one who looked after women and children. She always liked to reason her way through an argument, but if she had to defend herself with weapons, she was extremely skilled. She was both independent and nurturing.

Athena is very good at crafts, and is most fond of pottery, spinning and weaving. She is the goddess of wisdom, and is usually represented by the wise owl.

Which Goddess are you?

The last section of that shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone that actually knows me.

This was total swiped from PerpStu

PS this does not mean I'm going to start collecting owls. But I might have to go watch Clash of the Titans again.

Books

I don't talk much about books here on the blog, though I'm an avid reader.

Spent the day running errands, returning muzzles that didn't fit the rock eater (A.k.a Scrat the brat). So I had him with me today so I could make sure I got the right size.

Of course he hates them and does his best to master the 'Oh woe is me' look when he has it on, but I'm tired of forking over hundreds of dollars to get them out of his system. And it doesn't hurt him. And trust me, ruptured bowels would be worse and we have been lucky so far and haven't had to cut him open to remove any and I don't want to have to. They rarely survive that. Not taking any chances.

I picked up two new books today by Dean Koontz: The Darkest Night of the Year (I'm already up to page 200 and something) and Sole Survivor.

Now I'm going to go into the house and color my hair, read some more and probably work on the necklace I'm making for a friend for Christmas. Or knit. Or finish the laundry (oh that's funny). Or just veg.

Hope Springs Eternal...

and then you realized it's a rusty spring.

We are still trying to get pregnant.

We have the IVF lined up to start next month.

There are $3000 worth of fertility drugs in my fridge.

We had hoped we got lucky naturally this cycle.

Twas not to be in spite of being three days late based on my last two cycles.

I'm spotting which means tomorrow temps will have dropped and I'll be in pain. The mental part of that show has already started.

You'd think after three years and in spite of knowing we have a IVF lined up, it wouldn't hurt this much. But it does and I suspect it will for a long time to come.

You want to rant and wail at whatever power that be that has decided that this isn't something that is going to come easy, in spite of the woman leaving her four year old at home to go on a drinking binge. Or the mother that drowned her kids by driving her car into a river or drowned them in the tub. Or the father that almost beat his toddler to death on the side of the highway. Or the b* that locked his daughter in the basement and forced himself on her for decades.

You wonder what you are doing wrong? What should you be doing differently? Why them, but not you?

Is it punishment for giving my son up all those years ago? He got a much better life than I could give him at the time. I did the right thing then, but am I paying for it now?

I just don't know. And most days it is the wondering why that is almost enough to keep me in bed. To lose that battle of tackling the new day rather than hiding from it.

I just wish I knew why me.

When the Light at the End of the Tunnel...

.. is really the nonstop Express Train.

Monday I went back to the audiologist to order my new hearing aid. Oticon Epoq XW in Purple with a black Streamer and Orange Skin.

She checks my ear before putting in the goop for the impression and notices a block. Yep, disguta-Jenn has a complete blocked ear canal. That has never happened before.

So I make an appointment to get it cleared out. I ask her if that could have affected my speech recognition scores and she said maybe and that we will retest.

That was this morning. The block is gone. The hearing aid is ordered. My speech recognition scores did not improve at all. And we did it twice with different words.

Still 40%. Still a 22% drop in two years. Still no way to get it back. Still very sad about it.

Comments Broken??

Geez either you folks are slacking, I'm boring the h* out of you, or I did something to disable comments on my blog.

Which is it?

Wordless Wednesday

He's my best boy, and I wish I had his life. ;-)

I'm Short

So you'd think I'd miss the rafters when I stand up in the attic spaces.

But I swear the darn things jump out at me.

And the last one was a doozy.

I think it's time for bed cause the headache sure isn't going away now, it just moved to the new bump.