A trip home

Saturday my Mom and I packed up the car and headed back to our home state of Wisconsin.  From Indianapolis it is only a 4.5 hour drive.  Except for this time, this time everyone was going somewhere it seemed.  We made it in just under six hours.  Along the way we got to see how much the windmill farm had grown.  And it had grown quite a bit since the last trip up.

We stopped for brunch in Merriville at Bakers Square.  Then we hit Chicago hell.  Over 30 minutes of stop and go of 5 mph or less.  YUCK!

Check out that line of cars!

 It was a couple hours before we saw this.

The latter part of the day consisted of a visit with the Aunts and Uncles and cousins.  Then I headed to my Dad's.  Sunday I got to spend time with my two nieces, Ciera who just turned five, and Isabella who is 17 months old.  Check out these cuties!

Isabella

My Dad, aka Gramps, breaks out the guitar

Can I play too?

Ciera

Sunday night I went for dinner with my friend A.  I had an extra tasty pork tamale, enchilada style, fresh guacamole, and a virgin strawberry daiquiri.  YUM!  After some catching up I went back my Dad's to relax and enjoy a little me time with a book.  I slept in Monday.

Dad and I went to see the new "the Thing" movie, which I really enjoyed!  Then we headed over to my brother and sister-in-laws house to have dinner and visit some more with the girls.

 I love this picture.  Everyone is smiling and even Kazi (the little dog in the right corner) made it into the photo.  I am hiding behind Ciera a little bit, but that's okay, you can still see its me!

This one isn't so great.  I'm really hidden in this one and the baby isn't smiling.

Tuesday came too soon and we had to headed home.  But I really missed my guys, the hubby and the cat!  It was nice to sleep in my own bed, but I'm still tired from the trip.  Work was so not on my list of things I wanted to do today.  I think an early bedtime is in order.

Sometimes it sucks to be a woman

Like the last two days.  That medicine Dr. C put me on, Prometrium, has done its job in spades.  I have the period from hell!  If you are squeamish skip the rest of this paragraph because its OVER SHARE time!  Today I bled through two super plus absorbency tampons and a super thick, diaper-like pad in less than two hours.  There has been lots of clotting and heavy flow for the past two days.  My cramps are so bad that even touching the outside of my abdomen is painful!

Ibuprofen and my heating pad have been my friend, and Thermacare my savior at work!  Thankful this should be over in the next couple days.  Wednesday was day one of this cycle.  I called Dr. C's office to let them know and they wrote me a prescription for Loestrin birth control bills.  This bc is one strength unlike the popular tri packs like Ortho-tri-cyclen.  I'm going to be on this continuously until they tell me otherwise.  I will be skipping the placebo bills and just starting the next pack.  This is all about timing and this will give Dr. C control over my cycle.  I was supposed to start this as soon as my blood work was done.  I did that today.

There were quite a few tests that needed to be run.  The most important one was an Ovarian Assessment Report.  This test is unique to one company, ReproSource.  They are based out of the east coast so they get your blood via Fed-Ex.  They ship you a pre-paid shipper and all of the testing supplies.  According to there representative, you can either use your own lab or their contracted mobile lab.  The mobile lab is an extra $50 fee.  I figured I would just go to my own lab seeing I had to have more than just this test done.

I called Dr. C's office to ask them to send a lab order over and found out that ReproSource was a little misleading in their "use your own lab" instructions.  Apparently everyone who has used their own lab has had to have the test redone.  I ended up having to go to one specific lab at the hospital, Community North.  They are familiar with this test and even handle shipping your sample off via Fed-Ex so that ReproSource gets it there within 24 hours for the lab work.

While I was there I also had a DHEA-S (for insulin resistance and androgen), Prolactin (this is the hormone responsible for breast milk), testosterone, hCG (the pregnancy hormone), and an infectious disease panel.  The infectious disease panel is because they are going to be handling tissue samples when they take eggs for implantation.  Tony also had to have this test because sperm does count as a type of tissue.  They took a total of eight vials of blood from me, eight!  But that's all I have to do for awhile.

They should get the results back for everything within a few weeks.  The Ovarian Assessment takes at least two weeks.  Everything else should be in by next week but Dr. C's office with only call me when all of the tests are in.  This will tell us how much of what medication I will need to take and exactly which ones.  We are one step closer to IVF!

My stomach has finally gotten used to the Metformin and has stopped rebelling.  Of course now I have another reason to feel like crap, but I'll take cramps over nausea any day!  To celebrate I made my Mom's famous Beef Stroganoff.  It may only be famous within the family, but its a staple at my house.

Here's what you need:

Egg Noodles
Ground Beef (I use a container of Laura's Lean Ground Beef with 8% Fat)
One can of Low-Sodium Cream of Mushroom Soup
On 8 oz. container of Sour Cream (I normally use the light)
Salt (optional)
Paprika

Brown the beef in a skillet, salt to taste (this is optional but I salt lightly.)  Turn burner to low then mix in the mushroom soup and wait until its bubbly.  Stir in the container of sour cream.  Let this warm but do not allow it to bubble or boil as the sour cream will thin out too much and you'll end up with a runny stroganoff.  While its heating up liberally apply paprika and mix in.  Serve over egg noodles with your choice of veggie.

 You can also use rice or whole grain noodles, but egg noodles are my favorite.  I have tried this with the 4 % fat ground beef and it ends up too dry.  Ground turkey and chicken are passable but definitely not as good.

Browning the beef is the hardest thing about this.  No, disregard that.  Stopping yourself at one serving is the hardest thing!  It makes great left-overs too!

A few of my favorite things

We all have our favorite beauty products.  Some of them are luxurious splurges, while others are bargains.  Here are a few of my favorites and why.

Shea Moisture- Target

This is my favorite lotion when my skin is feeling a bit drier.  I love the coconut scent and the non-greasy feel.  It is strongly scented though, so it doesn't work with perfume.  I like that this on its own is enough of a scent for daily wear.  A BARGAIN

Almond Milk - The Body Shop

This is my absolute favorite light moisturizer.  I use this in the summer when my skin isn't really dry.  It leaves a nice sheen on my legs and absorbs super quickly.  It doesn't have much of a fragrance.  Just a clean scent that blends well with whatever perfume I choose.  I've had this bottle for a few years now, so it lasts a long time.  Not quite a BARGAIN, a little SPLURGE

Organix Cherry Blossom Ginseng Shampoo and Conditioner - Grocery or Drug Store

This shampoo smells great and leaves my hair soft and full of body.  The conditioner is light yet moisturizing.  I also use an Organix deep conditioner once every couple weeks.  BARGAIN

Chance Eau Tendre - Sephora

This was my birthday present from Tony this year.  I love the clean floral scent.  Its a little stronger so a little goes a long way which is good because this is definitely a SPLURGE.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer - Drug Store

This light weight formula is applied with the foam sponge at the top.  Just a few clicks and the sponge is loaded.  I find that this blends really well just using the sponge on top.  I have very fair skin so a good concealer is on my "don't leave home without it" list.  For me, dark circles have nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with the thin skin under my eyes.  BARGAIN

A couple other favorites include:
The Body Shop's super absorbent hair towel.  I've had the same towel since 1999 and it still works great!  This towel has held up remarkably well and has ruined me for other "normal" towels.  It buttons at the base of my skull to keep it in place while my hair dries.  SPURGE (But after eleven years I'd say it was money well spent.)

bareMinerals Original Foundation in Light.  This is my favorite!  I have a lot of trouble finding foundation that are light enough for my fair completion.  I also have an uneven skin tone with a pinkish cast.  This evens things out without being heavy.

I'm sure there are a few things I'm forgetting, but these are the basics.  I am always trying new products.  Sometime I end up with a wonderful new item, and sometimes I wish I'd never bought whatever it was.  But most of the time I just end up with things that are forgettable.  I have this problem with eye shadows a lot.  I will buy this wonderful color only to find out that it is: a. too shear, b. too opaque, or c. exactly like a color I already own.  Is this just me or does it happen to other people too?

What are your favorite items?   Any thing you couldn't live without?  I used to love the magazines that would post celebrities beauty routines or favorite products.  One common thread between most of them was mascara.  Just about all of them said they never leave the house without it.  I'm just the opposite.  I rarely use mascara.  I have allergies and rub my eyes a lot.  Most every mascara I've ever used, even the ones that are supposed to stay, end up making me look like a raccoon.

I would love to find a non-running, non-crunchy mascara that comes in brown or brown/black.  Any suggestions? 

On a completely separate note.  Today was THE DAY FROM HELL!  I went into work to find absolute chaos.  All of our registers were down.  For hours!  We kept having to reboot every few minutes, and multiple times during transactions.  So frustrating.  Here's hoping that everything is working tomorrow.

A baking day

I decided I wanted brownies today.  I didn't happen to have any brownie mix in the pantry so I decided to make my own from scratch.  Its not the first time I've done brownies, but this time I wanted to make them a little more healthy with whole wheat flour and less sugar.  I found a yummy sounding recipe online and set about my baking.

The originally recipe called for:

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

I made a few changes.  I used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour.  I also did not use 3 cups of sugar, instead I used 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and 1 cup of Splenda.  These brownies are thick and fudge-like, and they aren't toothache inducing sweet either.  I will definitely make them again!

Whole Wheat Brownies

After the brownies came out of the oven I decided to try my hand at bread making. Apparently I was in a baking mood!  I found this recipe for a honey wheat bread.  In the comments section someone had posted that they only used whole wheat flour and it was still a wonderful texture and taste.  The original recipe looked like this:

• 3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 5 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

I also only used whole wheat flour.  I set my Kitchen Aid mixer to work with the dough hook.  I don't think my beloved mixer has ever worked so hard!  It took me over 3 hours but what I pulled out of the oven was well worth the wait!

Whole Wheat Bread

As you may notice, this loaf isn't your typical shape.  As this was my very first attempt at bread making I didn't have a loaf pan so I just used a regular pan.  But look at that wonderful texture!  Tony took a bite and declared that it tasted like bread.  I threatened to throw something at him and he elaborated and gave my bread attempt two thumbs up.  I froze one of the loaves for use later.  I will let you know how it keeps.

We each had a slice of this with our dinner.  Remember when I made that yummy chicken parmesan with spinach?  I made this again but with broccoli instead of spinach.  Tony had yet to have tried this but he approves.  After one bite I got a "the chicken is tasty."

In other news, Frankie is on the next step in his toilet training process.  There is only two steps left after this, the last one being the complete removal of the CitiKitty!  Of course, every time we remove a ring, the cat flips out.  He does not like water and the sight of it beneath him scares him.  But we aren't giving up, it just takes a lot of patience and repeatedly showing him where his bathroom is.

He has had a few set backs.  His bed has been washed a few times thanks to his accidents.  It seems like once he goes for the first time in the toilet, he's fine from that point on.  But starting a new step is difficult for him.  According to the directions, we are only supposed to stay one each step a week, but we've been giving Frankie two to three weeks on each step.  Otherwise he gets stressed. And we don't want to stress out this sleepy kitty! 

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I'm sad to see it end.  Next weekend I'm heading to Wisconsin to visit the family.  I'm looking forward to it, not to mention how nice it is to have a four day weekend!

PS.  The metformin is still kicking my stomach's ass.  I'm giving it until Wednesday to improve.  If it doesn't I'm going to let Dr. C know that maybe this high dose isn't for me.