My Name is Jennifer, and I...

take far too many dog pictures. We celebrated my father-in-law's 50th birthday last night, and I took a whole lot of pictures. However most of them were of dogs. I don't know why I take so many pictures of dogs. Maybe its the lack of kids. Or maybe its because dogs are always cute and never have bad hair days. Regardless, here is a picture of Roxy, my in-laws new boxer puppy. I took Jeramy's stepmom to Stanwood to get her the weekend after Thanksgiving and I think she has quadrupled in size since then.

Here is a pic of the birthday festivities too...

I hope that everybody has a wonderful new year!

A Lazy Saturday

I'm having a lazy Saturday afternoon. I can think of a ton of things that I should go do. I need to bake a cheesecake for my father-in-law's 50th birthday party tomorrow. I need to make curtains for the kitchen and do the trim work. I've got knitting and cross-stitching projects. Oh and my entire house needs to be cleaned before my birthday party next weekend. Yet, I sit here being lazy and feeling guilty about it because Jeramy has worked over 30 of the last 48 hours.

I watched Julia for a while earlier today. I really do enjoy having her over, but at the same time it makes me nervous about becoming a parent myself someday. I mean when she is here I feel like I can't do anything but watch her at all times. Now she doesn't have much in the way of toys while she is here and my house is not Julia-proof. But how do parents get things done anyhow? I don't know what I'm trying to say exactly, except that I realize that it is a huge lifestyle change. I definitely want it, and we're as ready for it as we're ever going to be. But I'd be a liar if I said that I don't find these thoughts overwhelming sometimes. I wonder whether I'm to selfish to be a mom. Whether I'm going to be a bad mom, because I'm not good at playing with children. I wonder if all feels different when its your own children. I'm rambling but if there are any parents out there reading this, can you tell me if any of these feelings are normal?

Anyhow, I'll leave you with a pic of Julia and Cujo that I took today. She really loves cuddling up with him, and he seems to tolerate it at least.

Another Reason I Like Letrozole Better

I really hate swallowing pills, especially big ones. As a child I couldn't do it for the longest time, which was problematic since I frequently got headaches but couldn't stand to swallow the aspirin. Finally somewhere around my pre-teens I figured it out, but I still have a difficult time with larger sized pills. I find that I get nervous causing my throat to tighten up, which in turn means the pills either don't make it into my throat or get stuck there until I cough them up. And in turn trying to swallow a large, moistened pill is even worse.

Clomid was about 1cm in diameter, which was just big enough to cause me problems. Plus it had a texture that caused it to get stuck on the back of my tongue coupled with a horrible after taste that made me gag if I couldn't get it swallowed quickly. But that was of little consequence considering that I did not experience the the typical side effects. Except for that low-grade, annoying headache that lasted for a week after the last pill. Oh and those lovely ovarian cysts. Hmmm...

Anyhow, my last cycle began Christmas Eve (apparently good ol' Aunt Flo prefers visiting on major holidays considering the last one started on Thanksgiving). So I've now finished my second dose of Letrozole, and I have to say that besides the lower cost (thanks to insurance) I'm loving the size of these pills, which is on the order of birth control pills. I can even swallow them with out liquids, and the after taste is minimal. And so far no side effects! Of course the clomid side effects didn't show until after I finished the pills so I'm not holding my breath.

So the protocol this month is Letrozole on cycle days 3 - 7 and then a follie check on January 4th. If my response is similar to my clomid cycles, we'll probably be doing the IUI around my 30th birthday (the 7th). So please keep everything crossed and I'd appreciate loads of anti-cyst vibes!

Pictures from the Christmas Festivities

I'm too tired out from all the festivities to write a legitimate post. I'm also feeling too lazy to find an old pic for a Flashback Wednesday post. So here is a pictoral recap of our Christmas fun.

First Cujo and Ellie received their presents.

That made them tired so then they slept.

Then we got together with family, where of course Julia was the center of attention. She has finally decided that she likes her Uncle Jeramy.

Back at home Jeramy played with his new remote control helicopter. Too bad it got stuck in my hair. Luckily both the helicopter and the hair survived. Today we went out to The Rock pizza with Jeramy's mom, stepdad, and Julia. Miss Julia thought the food was good...

Afterwards we went back home where she played with the dogs. Between Julia, the camera, and the dogs, I had my hands full.

Oh and my dad taught me something quite important this Christmas. "The clap" is slang for Gonorrhea and not Chlamydia as I stated in a previous post. However, I'd like to clear the air here...I have not had either of these lovely STDs. I find that the holidays are a prime time for life's little lessons, don't you?

Jen and Jeramy, Pet Sitters

We've acquired a second dog temporarily since we volunteered to watch Ellie while my sister was out of town for the holidays. I had forgotten how active a puppy can be. Especially a puppy that is not an extremely lazy bulldog. Here are some of the pictures I've accumulated over the past few days:







Oh and besides watching the dogs alternate between playing and sleeping, I've also been baking up a storm (sugar cookies, ginger snaps, marbled fudge, chocolate chip cookies and bourbon balls) and knitting. I even finished the scarf below just in time for Christmas.

Flashback Wednesday

Christmas is a great time of year for family photos, and yesterday when flipping through my photo box I found one of my favorites circa 1982. The personalities just come through so vividly!

A Perturbed Husband and a New Camera

Well not many posts can convince Jeramy to come out of lurker mode, but yesterday I (well we really) succeeded. When I got home from work today, Jeramy said "What's with all the husband-bashing on your blog???" I laughed, which perhaps was not the right response but was glad to learn he'd finally commented on something. Anyhow, he stayed home from work today, went to the doctor and is feeling many times better this evening. And that makes us both happier!

We also finally got our new camera today. When I posted last week, I thought the camera would arrive any moment...can you say free 2-day air? But unfortunately it ended up being backordered, which significantly diminished the advantages of this shipping bargain. Luckily it arrived today with plenty of time to spare before the holiday picture taking frenzy. Probably its coolest feature is that it can take panoramic photos by automatically stitching together multiple individual pictures. Here are a couple of pics we took this evening:

The tree. Obviously I am no tree-decocrating genius.

Cujo in his normal state, holiday or no holiday.