This is so true and hilarious. :o)

Start Spreading the News......I'm Leaving Today.....I want to Be a Part of It....New York! New York!

My sister, Jamie, and I went to New York City together this last week. Just for fun and to celebrate her birthday. It was super-duper fun and super-duper cold. Please promise me you won't zoom in on my face because you will likely see snot running down my nose. It was THAT cold.

I love, love, love big cities. In my secret life fantasy I live in a big city. I love traveling with Jamie because she is a picture-taking-freak. She is also a history nerd like myself, so we did the full audio tours everywhere we went. She also carried a backpack, so after the first day I was able to ditch my fanny pack and just be free. She can travel with me anytime! :o)

Here are some classic New York City pictures: Times Square

Statue of Liberty

City Skyline

The day before Jamie got there I went and toured the UN Headquarters. This was HUGE for me, and VERY inspiring. I always said my dream job would be Secretary General of the United Nations. I got a picture with the "actual" Secretary General of the United Nations.

We also toured the studios at Rockefeller Center where we learned that basically everything you see on TV is fake.

Something that we both loved was touring the Grand Central Station. I love old buildings with great histories and delicious food. (Sorry my eyes are closed. Actually, one is closed and the other is almost closed.)

We also did the historical audio tour of Ellis Island. I loved it. But I do NOT recommend doing it while pregnant or on pregnancy hormones. I cried at least ten times. I don't believe any of our relatives came through here because they came long before this building existed. But it was still very touching to see what people went through to get here. I hope coming here fulfilled all of their dreams that they sacrificed so much for.

We also ate great food. This is an Italian restaurant called Barbettas. It is one of Hillary Clinton's favorites, so I just had to try it. Nobody told us how "fancy" it was and I quickly regretted looking like a bag lady. But they were very nice and the food and experience was great.

I saw a show every night I was there. I LOVE live theater. When I lived in London, I would save all my money that was supposed to be for food and travel and shopping and go to shows all by myself almost every night. This one, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", was a definite two thumbs up.

The down side of traveling with Jamie is that she can sometimes get TOO carried away with pictures. She will take them of very stupid things and I am forced to be Vannah White. Here I am showing the stupid brass swan faucet in the bathroom at the fancy restaurant. I love seeing what people in the "olden days" thought was fancy and thought would made them appear to be rich.

We also ate at a delicious sushi restaurant. (Once again, severely underdressed. NYC is much more formal than the west coast.) But this picture was actually supposed to show my nails that I got done. It was so freaking nasty bitter cold that we were desperately thinking of things we could do indoors. We found a nail salon that was open all night, and it looked nice and warm inside. We got everything done that we could get done so that we could stay inside as long as possible. We also had too much time after our Sushi dinner and before our theater show, so we walked down the street to another restaurant and ordered a second dinner just so we could stay indoors.

Next time I go back I want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and order pizza. I still haven't done it. We had planned on doing it, but I will now only go to NYC when it is above 60 degrees and isn't snowing. That's the plan.

Throw Up Pregnancy Story

So far, I'm pregnant. You can call me cynical though, because that doesn't mean anything to me. I'm going to be like those 16 year olds that give birth in the bathroom during Prom because they are in so much denial that they are actually pregnant. :o)

But I have to share the funniest, least romantic conception I have ever heard. We started with 8 frozen embryos and were going to thaw one at a time until we had a nice healthy one to use. But they kept thawing one at a time and none of them were surviving the thaw. My transfer date kept getting pushed back to the next day. My doctor finally called two days later and said he wasn't very optimistic: they only had one embryo left and it wasn't that great of a quality.

Josh and I went to bed very convinced that it was the end of the story. So the third day we all woke up and got dressed to go to the Rebel basketball game. And the doctor called. Surprise! We had TWO healthy embryos. The one lone survivor turned a corner and became a great quality embryo, and another one "came back from the dead" and is a good quality embryo. (Maddie is now terrified of the "Zombie Baby.") We had half an hour to get into the office to get pregnant.

Well, we had Maddie with us and no babysitter. So Maddie came with us to the doctor's office and waited in the waiting room with the other soon-to-be pregnant couples. I was laying on the table with my legs in stirrups. They had just squirted the embryos when a nurse came in and said that our daughter had just thrown up all over the waiting room. Josh ran out and found Maddie with throw up all over her. He apologized to the other couples and nurses and got out of there as fast as possible.

So they wheeled me out on a gurney into the "recovery room" and started on the next lady. But Josh and throw-up-covered-Maddie didn't realize that I had just been moved to a new room, so they went back to my old room and walked in on the next lady with her legs in the stirrups. Josh apologized to the poor couple and asked where HIS wife was. So we all sat and waited in the recovery room trying not to gag on throw up smell until they gave me the go ahead. We went home and Josh put me in bed, gave Maddie a shower and clean clothes, and then picked up Angus' throw up that got all over the carpet. I'm pretty sure no other woman got pregnant with so much throw up involved. I find it hilarious because I have always said Josh's job for in vitro is too easy. I think the throw up and embarrassment of this conception kinda levels the playing field.

So far, everything is going as it should be. But nothing is certain yet. I'll keep you all updated.

Good Times in SLO

Maddie's first grade class went to a Nursing home to sing to and play with some seniors. She befriended "Sally," who is 98 years old and awesome. Despite not being able to hear a word the kids were saying, she was very sweet to them.

We finally got to go to SLO as a family. We particularly loved Avila Beach.

And I kept thinking we were somewhere in Italy or Ireland. It is beautiful.

Maddie got to go to her cousin's 7th birthday party. It was a Michael Jackson/Rock Star themed party. So I told everyone in my "group" that we had to be dressed up. Who cares if we were the only grown ups dressed up? I will never pass up an opportunity to dress us as the King of Pop.

Smooth Criminal

Maddie passed out from all the fun.

Angus was so happy to have his family back from our quick getaway.

P.S.

Josh said I'm never again allowed to refer to him as "Dad Josh" when referring to Angus the Dog. :o)

Sweet Hearts

Daddy Daughter Valentine Dance at school. I'm so grateful how serious Josh takes his job of teaching his daughter how a man should treat her well.

Slow dancing. This song is actually the song Josh and I danced to at our wedding so Maddie loves this song. I think it's awesome how she yawns in the middle of it.

The Fist Pump dance? I guess that's how they get a bunch of middle age white guys to dance.

It's a yearly tradition at her school. Here they are two years ago. They didn't get to go last year because I was on my death bed trying to get pregnant in Virginia. :o)

Happy Conception Day!!!

Today is the day. My father in law and I counted a while ago, and realized this will be baby # 12 put in my body. Seriously? 12? Pretty crazy, right? (Although not LITERALLY crazy, remember? Please see previous post!) My Grandma Judy had 12 kids, so I guess I'm just her granddaughter. :o)

I will say that invitro has never been this easy. I haven't had to travel at all. I think the hardest part before was having to travel back and forth to Virginia every few days, wake up super early for my early morning east coast time appointments, scheduling doctor appointments here and trying to get the results faxed back to Virginia, and having to get around in a strange city in a rental car in snow storms. This time, since we were working with frozen embryos, they just FedEx'ed those babies overnight to a doctor here in Las Vegas. Stuck them in a cryopreserve freezer, in a box, and in a FedEx truck. Those babies are definitely our babies. Traveling is in their genes. :o) Now, I just drive a few minutes from my house to a fertility doctor down the road and it's no big deal. It's just amazing really.

The shots still suck though. And so do the hormone induced side effects.

Maddie came up to me and gently said, "Mommy. If it doesn't work this time, you should just stop." Wow. She sure has grown up. And you know what? I agree with her. But I'm going to give it my last best effort today and keep my fingers crossed.

In other news.....Maddie started a Children's Choir. If you have school aged children, you should totally join this. The teacher focuses on the self esteem and confidence of the students as much as she does on their singing ability. And they get to perform at Bonnie Springs and the Adventuredome. It's pretty awesome. Wednesdays, 4:30 at the West Sahara Library. http://www.learnlaughsing.com/

Maddie and her friend made their Valentine boxes for their school party during a play date. I wonder which boys will secretly put in a little love note.

Maddie found a bird nest in our tree in the front yard. She climbs the tree every morning to look for eggs. I'm pretty sure the nest is abandoned, but I'm not going to tell her that. Is it mean to put regular eggs in there and make her think they are baby bird eggs? I can't decide if that makes me a nice and fun mom, or a mean and sneaky mom. Hmmm....

Big Boy School

Yeah, Angus is really cute. But he is also really naughty so I put him in Puppy Training school. He's doing okay, but he's not necessarily an honors student. Let's just say he takes after Dad Josh...... :o)