Stop Hounding Me!

Away

So, we skipped town last weekend for a quick 2-night trip to El Capitan State Beach.  Right next to our tent, there was a little flat spot with room for our chairs and a dog bed and a direct view of this:

We spent quite a bit of time in that spot.  The pups thought it was a great place to nap.  And beg for treats.  Twix does a mean high five with the right motivation.

We also spent some time at Arroyo Burro dog beach, which is only a 20 minute drive from the campground.  Dogs aren’t allowed on state beaches, so we took them to the dog beach at low tide on Saturday.

The added bonus of low tide at the dog beach? Tidepools!

Naturally, we made it back to camp in time for sunset. I wouldn’t want to miss this.

We were up early Sunday morning, and made our way quietly to the beach with the dogs to catch the sunrise.  It was quick enough not to get caught by anyone who would yell at us about dogs on the beach, but long enough for the dogs to find a dead lobster to roll on.  Good times.  Beautiful sunrise.

Not a bad way to spend a weekend.  I hope we can do it again soon!

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The Dog Beach

El Capitan

(Lacking) Motivation

There are always terrific reasons as to why I should do the things I have trouble making myself do, but let’s face it—earning a living and keeping a roof over our heads is just not enough motivation to get my ass out of bed in the morning most days. That’s why Catch saved me the last Starbucks Holiday Blend k-cup this morning. Thank you, baby. 

In Southern California, we don’t see much rain.  For that reason, I LOVE me a rainy day.  Everyone else bitches and complains, but I adore the gloom.  It makes me want to curl up in pajamas with a hot cup of something or a glass of red wine and watch movies all day.  Precisely the reason why it’s a good thing that we hardly ever have rainy days here.  I’d never get anything done.  I’ve learned over the years that no matter how much I complain about the lack of grey, I need the sunshine.  There’s something energizing about the sunrise, and I am always grateful when I get to catch the spectacular snippets of them in my rear view mirror like I did this morning. When I walked into my office, I opened the blinds completely for the first time in months.  Hello, sunshine.

Then, there’s exercise.  Why is this so hard for me?  I truly don’t understand it.  30 minutes a day feels like pure torture.  I find myself counting every dang second.  No matter how I entertain myself while working out—new playlists, audiobooks, TV—I get so bored.  AT the 20 minute mark last night, I was bargaining with myself: Just get to the 25-minute mark and then you can stop.  You’ll do the full 30 tomorrow.  It’ll be fine. Fortunately, I added some motivation to the treadmill.  Meet sperm & egg:

Apparently, they were all I needed to push myself past the 25 minute mark. 

Now if I could just find something to motivate me to do the laundry and wash the dishes.  Someday I'll figure out how to put this lazy, adorable little shit to work.  I want her life.

Merry Christmas

Oh, Christmas… you have kicked my ass this year.  You really have.  I can't even remember the last time I was so physically and emotionally exhausted.  I'm sure it's been years.  

First, let me just say that my company holiday party was phenomenal.  So beautiful.  We checked in to the Four Seasons and they upgraded my already comped room to a suite, which was about as decadent as it gets.  Living room, bar, guest bathroom, separate bedroom with a bathroom bigger than my living room.  There was an espresso machine, gorgeous hardwood floors and the best part--remote controls for the curtains.  An hour after we checked in, we were greeted with a cheese platter and a bottle of wine.  I could get used to that life.  Unfortunately, we had to check out and return home the next morning.  Not before I enjoyed some room service eggs benedict, though.  (Weight Watchers what?)

I made this all happen:

 

How gorgeous are these flowers?

The living room area of our hotel room:

All those lovely things aside, we were simultaneously dealing with the death of Catch's grandfather while my Nana was hospitalized for two weeks with a systemic infection.  Nana was released from the hospital temporarily on Christmas Eve, but is back today having exploratory surgery to see if they can determine the cause of the infection.  

The funeral for Catch's grandfather was yesterday.  The day started with a rosary and mass at 9 am, followed by burial at a veterans cemetery 90 minutes away and a reception with the family at the home of one of her aunts.  It was a long day following several previous long days. With both emotions and exhaustion running high, all I can say is that it didn't end well.  I wish more than anything that I could have a do-over, but I can't.  

My cousin went into labor last night, which added more fuel to my emotional fire.  I want so badly to be happy and excited for her, but it's so hard when I am already run down and insanely jealous.  I'm trying, though. I really am.  

I also got word last night that my grandmother's best friend passed away, so I have another funeral to attend on Sunday.  

When it rains, it pours.  

I hope all of you had a lovely holiday.  Since this post was such a downer, allow me to leave you with our holiday card…

 

Here's another gratuitous shot of the hounds enjoying their Christmas present (ok, it was Catch's present, but we all know it was really for them...)  This wagon is the greatest thing ever.  It even has a canopy on it, and it folds up SO easily.  LOVE IT.

Threes

I left work early yesterday because I was starting to feel sore from the accident and I was totally exhausted from the rush of adrenaline.  I crashed HARD.

As I walked to the parking structure, an unwelcome thought popped into my head.  Bad things happen in threes.  The accident was one.  What would the remaining two be?  Would one of them be a failed IUI?

As I drove home, Catch texted me to tell me that one of her sister's horses had been found dead in their meadow.  It was sudden and unexpected.  At the time, we weren't sure which horse it had been, but the evening revealed that it was my favorite horse, Cher. 

Don't get me wrong--her other two horses are nice enough, but they're shy.  Not the biggest fans of people.  Cher was a people horse.  She wanted to be a part of the action.  If you let her, she'd walk right into the house. 

Cher could smell an apple or a carrot from half a mile away.Her personality was bigger than she was. 

Cher, you will be missed. 

After the news of Cher, I logged on to facebook to learn that the basset rescue group we work with lost little Spotty yesterday.  He'd been ill for a few weeks but was totally rebounding.  It was very unexpected.  So sad.  Poor little Spotty.  I'm just thankful that he had a great foster home in his last days. 

So there's our three bad things.  We're done, now.  No need for any more bad.  We're pushing it all aside in favor of thinking positive, cell multiplying thoughts. 

We will now resume our regularly scheduled State of Fertility Address.

Low

I've been so down this week that I'm almost positive I could be the limbo world champion.  My first thought upon opening my eyes this morning was, "The OPK will be negative this morning and you will be fine."

How's that for a pep talk?

Needless to say, we didn't get a positive yesterday, so I scheduled a follow-up ultrasound for today. I hoped I'd get a positive this morning, but it turns out that my pep talk served me well.  So, we head out for the ultrasound in a few hours, and I can only imagine that they will tell me that the 14mm thing we saw on Monday wasn't a follicle after all and that this cycle is a wash.  That's how my week has been.

On a more positive note, our dogs won the pet costume contest at my office yesterday for their version of the chia pet.  It's hard not to smile at this:

(And no, those are not bath mats. It's yarn that I cut up and painstakingly hot glued to felt by hand.  It took HOURS, but it was kinda worth it.  Twix is the main photo and Rolo is the little one.)

PS... Nano starts today and I don't know if I have it in me.  I want to.  I really do.  I'm just not feeling very inspired.  We'll see. 

Distraction

I am having a lousy week.  It's been frustrating and challenging and busy and neverending.

Last night, I cleaned the bathroom because I had so much anxious energy that I couldn't bring myself to sit still and relax even after a glass of pinot noir.  My motto has always never been, "When all else fails, scrub a toilet."    

Anyhow, in my stress induced cleaning fog, I did manage to find something to force me to chill out.  It's hard to be stressed when you're watching this:

 

She's going to her forever home on Saturday, and I am going to really miss this little monkey.

Puppy

Oh goodness--little Gidget is home from the vet hospital and clearly she is feeling better because she's a different dog completely.

On the one hand:  Yay!  She's feeling better!

On the other hand:  No!  Not my shoes!

Also: No humping!

And: DO YOU EVER SLEEP?????

All that aside, she is an adorable little munchkin with SO much personality it's hard not to be smitten with her.  When I got home last night, she was totally bouncing off the walls so we went outside.  She promptly found a tennis ball and brought it over to us to play fetch with her.

Let me tell you--it's pretty rare for a basset hound to play fetch. Particularly with such enthusiasm.  Fortunately, I had my camera handy.  Please excuse my scary crazy baby puppy voice and the condition of our yard.  The lawnmower died and we've been lazy about taking it in to be repaired, so the weed whacker has been doing our "mowing."  It's a mess! 

 

Still Counting...

The pups competed in the Basset Hound Rescue’s annual Spring Games on Saturday.  What a crazy event!  I have never seen so many basset hounds in one place before in my life.  Amazing.  It was a fantastic fundraiser for our rescue group. 

Our brilliant little Twix was awarded a blue ribbon for placing first in “Synchronized Swimming,” which is bascially just a bunch of bassets hopping in and out of little plastic baby pools.  Pretty darn funny, and it also happens to be one of Twix’s favorite activities. 

She was totally proud of her ribbon.

  

Absolutely no news on the TTC front.  CD 39 today.  My last cycle was 40 days, so maybe this one will be, too.  These irregular cycles will be the death of me.  Since January, we’ve has 34 days, 33 days, 20 days, 40 days and now the count continues…

Foster Hound

This is our newest foster dog, Gidget.

I am enamored with this sweet little pup.  If we were ever to become foster failures, little Gidget would be the one.

Unfortunately, the sweetheart is very, very sick.  She was just spayed and has 17 staples in her belly, but she also has the worst case of kennel cough I’ve ever experienced.  It’s awful.  She was already skin & bones when she came into the rescue, but she hasn’t been able to eat much of anything since Friday and she is truly wasting away.

Yesterday, she spent the entire day asleep on our bed.  We had to carry her outside to go potty, and bring her little water dish to her.  She had absolutely no energy to walk around.  I knew that she needed some nutrition if she’s ever going to get better, so I resorted to taking some cooked stew meat and coating it in the bacon grease left in the skillet from the BLTs we had for dinner. 

What dog would turn its nose up at beef coated in bacon grease, right?

Apparently a very, very sick little Gidget can.

Think some good thoughts for this little one.  She already has an adoptive family lined up, but she has to get better first.

More Gratitude

When all of the happy things in life collide--seemingly at once--it can be stressful.

May is filled with happy things.  Birthdays, a law school graduation, foster hounds, me on the verge of a promotion, Mother's Day, medical clearance (we hope) to start trying to conceive... the list goes on.

Today, I am so grateful for the simple things.  A mom who wants to spend Mother's Day at the dog beach.  A wife, who when asked what she wants for her birthday, tells me that she doesn't want or need anything. An upcoming weekend.  A good book to listen to in the car.  A gift of gift cards from a friend who's a marketing director for a restaurant chain on the same day that the basset hound rescue we work with puts out a call for donated gift cards to raffle off.  

Last weekend, we dogsat for another foster who had to go out of town. I totally fell in love with sweet Sammy.  He is such a love.  It was astronomically difficult to give him back. It turns out that we get to hound sit again this weekend for sweet Sammy.  I am so happy that we get to spend some more time showering this big guy with love.

Much to be thankful for today.