Adventures in Firsts

Well, it's been a pretty eventful weekend. On Friday, we were approved for our very first mortgage. Saturday, we made the 5 hour drive to Woodstock to look at a house.

On a quick aside, we stayed at our first Bed and Breakfast, Brigitte's Bed and Breakfast. We did not know what to expect and this place exceeded our expectations. This was their information at the time of our visit.

• Pricing per night from $55 to $69 CDN
• Located halfway between Woodstock and Hartland in the St. John Valley, we have a panoramic view from our large sundeck. ( NEAR FROM HOSPITAL)
• Two golf course. Longest covered bridge and other local tourist attractions with 10 minutes' drive.
• We offer 5 newly decorated rooms, a large family room with large screen TV, satellite, pool table, dartboard, exercise equipment and snack bar.
• We have a new 24' above ground pool with deck offering a relaxing end of day dip while enjoying the scenic view.
• Our 'last all day' breakfast has drawn rave reviews from our guests so far and will continue to be a delicious start to your day.
• Weekly & monthly special rate. (Special rate for family who have someone at the hospital. )
• We offer two bathrooms. We speak french

If you find yourself in Woodstock, NB, I am highly recommending staying with Brigitte and David. They also have the world's sweetest kitty who may abandon her family to spend time with you.

So back to my story... Sunday, We looked at our first house, we made our first offer and now we are closing on August the first! It's a bit of a whirlwind. I don't think it has sunk in yet that in 13 days we will be moving into our first house. It's a big place with lots of room for the kitties and.. maybe children.

Sometimes, I forget to breathe.

Adventures in Employment, Moving, Mortgages, Construction....

I used to say I was busier than a one arm paper hanger in a paper factory. Apparently I really didn't know what busy was...

Here's a quick run down of my week so far...

My apartment bathroom is getting a new ceramic floor. On the surface this doesn't sound tramatic but.... my apartment only has one toilet. The process requires my toilet to be lifted and placed in my tub for 3 DAYS. My landlady has provided us with an empty apartment 2 floors above us. So everytime we need to go to the bathroom, we have 2 flights of stairs to conquer first. I successful had a bathroom break on a commercial last night (So you think you can dance was on) but I was a little winded when I got back.

We are packing. Still haven't found a way to pack the 4 foot smurf but everything else is going away quickly.

I applied for a mortgage. I hate the waiting game. We found a house in Woodstock that we love and tried to rent it but the owner needs to sell. She says that she could close Aug 1. Fingers crossed. If we get approval, we will have to take the 5 hour drive up to make sure the house is as perfect as we think it is. And of course that is going to make a billion more appointments.

I've had my last doctors appointment with my current doctor. She gave me a years worth of my perscriptions and a years worth of lectures (given out of love). I'm going to miss my doctor. I've been with her since she got out of medical school. Cory has his last appointment with his doctor today

We both have a dentist appointment today for our cleanings.

We have another moving company coming in for another quote for the move.

The car is going in for repair and safety inspection on Monday. Hopefully it won't have to have a sleep over.

Next week, I need to train my replacement at work, hopefully go for a trip to Woodstock and look at real estate. Have lunch and dinners with a ton of people both co-workers and families. I wish I just had so much more time....

Adventures in Employment

Well, I've been a very bad blogger lately. Apologies to all!! But I have news... not as exciting as Jen of Nunavut's news but still very exciting.

I have a new job. I have given my notice at my current employer... my last day there will be July 25. My new job is in Woodstock, New Brunswick (about 5 hours drive from Halifax, Nova Scotia). It's been a pretty exciting process.

The job posting closed on May 20. Around the beginning of June, I had a phone interview with the HR manager. A week later I had a phone interview with 5 managers... a few weeks after that, they invited me up (all expense paid) to have a meet and greet. And Friday they offered me more than I was asking for...

Now the panic is setting in... need a place to live, have to pack all my crap (wow where did I get this stuff?). Fortunately the company is paying to relocate me. (Who bought this crap?). Have to work for the next two weeks while trying to get all my doctor, dental, etc... completed (Cory, do we really need a 4 foot high stuffed Smurf??).

My mother (forever to be referred to as Saint Mommy) has volunteered to make the drive up to Woodstock with me and the 6 cats. The longest drive that the cats have experienced in their entire lives has been the 9 minutes on the Hwy to get to the vet. We refer to the 9 minute drive as the Hwy to hell. When we get to the vet, they are covered in spit, have dumped at least a pound of hair in the carrier and our ears on the verge of exploding. Should be a good time...

Well I have 23 days to completely upheave my entire life and start work in a whole new world... ACK!!

Adventures in Fertility - The Dye Test

Well on Friday I had my dye test or Hysterosalingogram (HSG) test. I have to say nothing on the Internet or the pamphlet really prepared me for it...

The first step was a pregnancy test. I needed to prove that I was not pregnant before they could proceed. As usual, the appearance of a cup in a bathroom immediately made all desire/need to pee to go completely away. After 15 -20 minutes, I finally emerged victorious and produce a negative test.

Down to X-ray I went... with someone else file. Fortunately, the person who had my file was curious enough to read it and we swapped out after a short read. Hers was WAY thinner than mine.

I'll skip the fantastic wait in the world tiniest waiting room with one magazine. Cory was the lucky man with the magazine and all the other husbands were clearly jealous.

***** Men might want to stop reading here ********

After our lengthy wait, I was finally called in. They asked me to pop up the table which was actually an xray machine. They explain that this will be alot like a REALLY long pap test. First they painted my girl parts with an iodine paint to prevent infection. Then came the speculum... this was pretty familiar. Next they used the paint again to paint my cervix... then came the pinch. I'm not 100% sure what the pinch was but my best guess it was to open my cervix. It's hard to explain the pinch except it was a pinch that felt like it was deep inside my stomach... it sorta hurt but only for a split second. Honestly it was hardly mentionable...

Now I'm all set to proceed, they pop out to grab the radiologist and we are ready to rumble. Once she entered the room, we proceeded. The Xray machine turned on and the dye was injected. This was the most uncomfortable part... as the dye hit my uterus, I felt a wicked menstrual cramp. It was only one cramp but it was a doozie. I breathed through that... it wasn't anything worse than mother nature had already subjected me in the past and it was only 1 cramp. We watched the dye proceed up my Fallopian tubes, I had to turn my hips a little and voila... all done.

Tubes are clear and unblocked.

They sent me off to the bathroom with a little clean up kit... wash cloth, towel, maxi pad. After washing off the paint (sticky yellow stuff), I got dressed and headed home. Due to the pinch, I had some spotting that lasted a day. I had some super minor cramping for the rest of the day but nothing noteworthy... mostly a just feeling that someone had messed with my innards.

I decided to share the details after I didn't find a satisfactory description online and went it without any preconceived notions of what to expect. I'm not saying I would want to have one everyday, but in the world of medical tests I have endured, this one was a breeze.

Adventures in Healthy Living - Fun Fact

Did you know that sitting in a sauna is cardiovascular exercise??? Increases body temperature, increases heart rate... voila cardiovascular exercise... I am NEVER getting on a treadmill again!

Adventures in Healthy Living

So this has been a pretty big year for me so far... I've given up caffeine, cigarettes and now I've completed a cleanse. My husband and I purchased a cleanse that was highly recommended to us by a friend. Sceptical to the end, we gave it a shot... we had a choice between a 9 day cleanse or a 30 day cleanse. We decided in the end to buy a 30 day cleanse and split it between the 2 of us for a 15 day total. It ended up costing about the same as two 9 day cleanses but with almost an extra week.

It was such an easy, gentle cleanse. As the toxins moved out of our bodies, we increased in energy and noticeably our moods improved. We learned meal planning and broke some serious processed carbohydrate addictions. I personally lost 10 lbs and over 15 inches off my body, Cory lost 18 lbs and 15 inches off his body. Most of which came off our tummy's, of course results vary from person to person.

I've had to buy new clothing (oh the humanity) as I dropped 2 full dress sizes. I used to dread buying clothing as it just reaffirmed how far the mighty have fallen. I found clothing shopping to be enjoyable and I actually feel sexy and attractive again. I'm planning on continuing with the weight loss program. I'd love to lose another 30 lbs... maybe one day soon, I'll post before and after pictures (if I can find any befores... )

Adventures in Fertility

There is a lot of information on the internet but whenever I go looking for things I almost find what I'm looking for and usually it's in a forum and therefor incomplete... So I'm hoping to share my experiences as complete as possible...

We had our appointment on May 14. We have had an appointment with another specialist over a year ago but she wasn't very pleasant. My doctor decided that I should see someone else. Our appointment was at the IWK in Halifax. I say our appt as Cory was an active participant in the appointment as well.

Our appointment started with the questionnaire... one pink one (for me) and a blue one (for Cory). It asks everything from the age when you hit puberty (I guess I forgot to write that one on the calender) to the frequency of intercourse. If you are a private person, the questionnaire will make you uncomfortable. Then a nurse came in to review the questionnaire and asked for clarification where needed... which was pretty much every question. She took my blood pressure, my pulse, my height and my weight... I'm happy to report that all 4 were present and accounted for.

She then left....Then we waited.... and waited and waited....

After about 50 minutes, the doctor came in....

We started out with more discussion. One of my major issues is that my cycle can go long. Anytime a cycle exceeds 40 days, it is a good sign that ovulation has not occurred. So I have a prescription for Provera , which will cause my cycle to start. This sounds scary so I'm hoping to never have to use it. It also must not be used until a negative pregnancy test is achieved.

The next item on the agenda is an hysterosalingogram or a dye injection test. This is an Xray of the uterus and tubes by injecting dye via the cervix. This needs to be completed within the first 12 days of your cycle to lower the risk of pregnancy for the test. You are required to have a clean STD work-up completed (which was completed during my appointment) and a negative pregnancy test. This checks for blocked/damaged tubes. Apparently having the dye test will actually increase your chances of pregnancy as it spring cleans the tubes.

If I have a clear dye test, on my next cycle I can start taking my prescription for fertility drugs... Clomid.

So in a nutshell, here's my time line... have to wait for my next cycle to make the dye test appointment, then to my next cycle to start taking fertility drugs.

Un-Blog-Worthy

I am un-blog-worthy. Even now, I can't come up with a single thing to blog about except for my lack of blogging lately. I have been trying to put a finger on why I can't blog and the best I can come up with is that lately I've been feeling more secretive but not in every aspect of my life... so here it is....

• It has been one month and 4 days since my last cigarette. Not really missing it except occasionally I walk through a cloud of fresh tobacco smoke and it smells better than a rose garden. Then I find someone with a stale smoke smell on them and it solves that problem. Ew.
• Finally replaced the van which died a spectacular death in December. Found a 97 Acura to fill our needs for a grocery getter. Bought it 3 weeks ago, filled the tank that day and STILL have a quarter of a tank. Life is so much better with a 4 cycliner.
• Bought a Basal Thermometer to track my fertility. So far I've discovered... Nothing. But we have an appointment with the fertility doctor on May 14th, I'm sure it will mean something to her.
• I've discovered my favorite Xbox 360 game. Two Worlds. Loved it while I was playing it... missed it when it was taken back to Blockbuster, waiting for it to arrive from ebay.
• Drank a cup of caffienated coffee and felt physically ill for 3 hours... Lesson learned.

Pretty freaking boring. But the weather is turning. The camping is starting to be planned. I promise I'll be more interesting soon.

Quitting Smoking

I apparently fell off the face of the planet for a few weeks... I can place blame on 2 different things... I quit smoking and bought an Xbox 360. I used to smoke a cigarette and think about what I wanted to blog about... now I sit in front of my Xbox and not think about anything except how I going to get past that Cyclops to obtain the Earth Relic to complete the next segment of my quest.

My first day of not smoking was April 1. As a professional quitter, I used my normal method. My last quit lasted almost 2 years before it was foiled by a cigar on a camping trip.

My biggest hurdle for quiting smoking is the chemical depression the lack of nicotine creates. So in preparation for quitting, I started anti-depressants about a month ago.

On the night before Quit Day, I smoke my last cigarette. Clear away all the evidence that I ever smoked and head to bed. In the morning, I wake up extra early and put on a nicotine patch. I try to go back to sleep so the patch has kicked in before I'm forced to enter my morning routine without a cigarette. I don't wear a patch to sleep as it causes wicked dreams. Everyday I delay putting the patch on for as long as I can. I wore my final patch on Friday, April 4.

I am now 15 days without a cigarette, 11 days without nicotine and a couple of months without caffeine. I wonder what I'm going to give up next...

Rough and Tumble

Well... another trip to the emergency vet clinic tonight. Charlie decided all the cool cats were falling off of balconies so he thought he'd give it a try (Only a story drop). Fortunately, he was trying to climb back onto the balcony when I found him. As we stood in the exam room, the vet asked if he had any other injuries or illness... I'm a little embarrassed from the list and a little broke....

1. When we found him, he had a de-gloving injury of his lower lip. De-gloving injuries occur when the tissue is separated from the bone. 9 stitches later, his lip was re-attached to his gums. He tore out 2 stitches and the rest healed nicely.

2. He took a 3 story dive off a balcony and his tail was a little crooked for a few months.

3. He impacted a hairball in his intestines 3 years in a row (strangely every August) eventually resulting in the removal of about an inch of his intestine. Now he wears a snazzy home hair cut and ugly sweaters on the cold days.

4. He impacted an anal gland a few months ago. Ow.

5. He ruptured his cruciate ligament in his hind right knee about 2 months ago. During the X-ray to check his knee, they captured his right hind foot and found signs of arthritis.

6. Tonight, he injured his left hind knee. The vet is pretty sure he didn't rupture the ligament, but he definitely damaged himself. No xrays needed, so no new gems provided. I'm sure we will need to xray something soon enough.

So this is my 9 year old cat... the vet thinks he has 3 lives left. I was just proud that he didn't draw blood on this vet.