This is the Denver Capitol Building. It’s pretty much across the street from the City and County Building. I was a good distance away from it! I probably took 15 photos of it and only 2 are good. It’s hard to take pictures in the dark when you should be using a tripod!

Oh well, hope you enjoy it!

I took this photo while I was at home during the holidays! I can’t believe how WELL it turned out! Woohoo!

Do you think I could win an award with it?

Well, I’ve been itching to get this news off of my chest! It’s wonderful (mainly!) news.

I’m quitting smoking soon. Still haven’t set a date, but I will. I have until Monday morning to decide!

Secondly, I had some blood drawn just after Thanksgiving this year. My Ob/Gyn and I got to talking when I had my last “you’re in the clear” PAP smear. If you didn’t know this, I had cervical cancer a few years ago. I had to have a part of my cervix removed so that it wouldn’t spread. I was told to have a PAP four times a year for a year and if those were good, then I could go to 2x a year for two years. If those were good, then I could just have done once a year. They said that there’s a risk that it can come back…even in 20 years…so it’s best this way.

Anyway, the doctor and I started chatting. She was asking if my husband and I were planning a family and I explained my whole story to her and she listened carefully. She did the PAP and told me to run over to the lab and have some blood drawn. She had a hunch, but didn’t tell me about it. She said that she’d call, but with the holidays, she wasn’t able to do so.

I made an appointment with her and she pulled my records and she told me that I wasn’t ovulating! Can you believe it? Well, no wonder why Rob and I can’t have babies! The doctor previously said that they wouldn’t even do simple blood tests for infertility as long as I was still battling cervical cancer. Well, the doctor that did my PAP said that was ridiculous and that they were just being lazy. She said that while yes they are in the same area, one does not necessarily affect the other!

Anyway, to make a long story short, she prescribed Clomid for me which she wanted me to take in January, but with Rob gone for 3 weeks, I’m going to wait until February to start the cycle. Basically, it tricks the brain into thinking that one hormone isn’t being produced and so the brain over produces on another–and it forces an ovulation. They are starting me out on a low dose right now. If it doesn’t work, then they increase the dose next month. I have 6 shots at this. The stats are pretty good. In 50% of the women who take this in 3 months get pregnant. 75% of the women who take this in 6 months ovulate and 50% of those get pregnant and carry to term. At least now, I have a fighting chance! The doctor said that I have to go back and have my blood tested after the first round and every round thereafter. If it doesn’t work, then it’s off to more powerful drugs. I think that they will also take a look at my tubes and all of that to make sure that there are no blockages or potential endometriosis.

She also let me know that while the chances of me getting pregnant are pretty good, there is also a good chance that I could have twins. Triplets, she said, are exceptionally rare. And since twins and triplets run in my family…who knows!!

Yeah!!!

As you have already read in my previous entry, Rob and I went home for Christmas and New Year’s. Our flights coming back into Germany wasn’t nearly as adventurous as the ones leaving! Actually, they were normal. Thankfully!
We left Ohio on Christmas eve and flew into Denver. It was a bit of a struggle leaving though, because Rob’s uniform was completely messed up and he had to change clothes at the last minute and our bags weren’t packed as well, so we had to dig through three bags to find clothes and shoes for him. Almost as soon as we landed in Denver (45 minutes early) we were greeted by my dad and brother. The drama had started weeks before, but I can always ask to talk to them later, if we’re talking on the phone.
I do love my family, but it’s not easy to get along with them. After getting our bags, I called my mother and she said she wanted to get together, but we wouldn’t be able to until Christmas Day. It snowed 8 inches. So, the next day we headed to the Western Slope to see her side of the family. We ended up spending an extra day there because the interstate was too bad to drive over. As soon as we got back to Denver, I called my mother and she ended up attacking me saying, “Everyone else is more important to you than me…and you don’t love me”. I responded to her saying that she was the first person that I called when I got into town and that I did love her. She told me that she decided not to keep the birthday gift that I got her and that she was going to return it. I called her ungrateful. She hung up on me. We haven’t talked since. I doubt I ever will again.
I love Rob’s family. They’re so easy. There’s no drama. I joked that I couldn’t divorce Rob because I loved his family so much. I wouldn’t anyway, but the wonderful family he has is a huge bonus. I didn’t like most of my ex’s family and they didn’t like me either. They quit pretending they liked me before we ever said our vows.
Anyway, we’ve made it back to Germany and we were both jet-lagged so bad this weekend that our days didn’t begin until the afternoon and we were up all night. Today has got to be hard on him. I’m doing okay, but I don’t have to work, so it’s been a little relaxing for me.
I’m headed over to the clinic to talk to the Community Health Nurse so I can quit smoking. No, it’s not my New Year’s resolution. I don’t believe in them. They are perfunctory for a week or so and I’ve never met anyone who is actually SUCCESSFUL at keeping them. I have wanted to quit for a while now and I did promise months ago that I would. I was successful for 1 and 1/2 days. I was going to wait until we moved in a few months, but I’ve never even tried, even though I’ve said that I would every time we’ve moved. My memory can be short, but I knew that if I did wait, it was never going to happen. Now seemed like a good time. I guess I’ll come up with a game plan this afternoon.
Well, nothing else going on. Need to go for now.

Well, we left our home at around 10 in the morning and we headed out to the airport. We ended up getting lost looking for the parking lot, so it took us an extra 30 minutes time. We finally made it to the check in counter and we got our boarding cards and everything seemed to be going so grand. We got on the plane and we had just flown over Scotland and we were 30 minute over the Atlantic ocean when the pilot gets on the speaker and says that there is a hydraulic problem with the plane and they are going to be making an emergency landing back in London. Many (not that many!) people were pretty upset that we were being diverted, but there was nothing that could be done to change the fact. Take it as it comes…you have to! So after we landed, we stood in line for 3 hours waiting to go through the Security point and to stand in another 2 hour line to get re-ticketed. We did all that just to wait in line to pick on the bus on the way to the hotel–where–you guessed it–to stand in ANOTHER line to get a key for our hotel room. They didn’t have enough rooms for everyone so they told the last of us to go stand in line to get some grub while they worked out the room situation. Rob went to get the key and we were FINALLY able to get some rest. We didn’t sleep too well, but it was definitely better than sleeping in the airport. We went down for breakfast, ate and waited for the bus to pick us up to go to the airport, but there weren’t enough buses and so we were in the last group of people to be left and we thought that they were sending another bus, but they didn’t. Someone from the group called the airline back and let them know that we were still stuck at the hotel and then they sent another bus for us.
After that we stood in line for our boarding passes for an hour and a half and we were late for getting to our flight–but they held it for us and we took off an hour late. When we did make it back to Chicago, we were supposed to catch another flight, but it was leaving 20 minutes after we landed and obviously missed it. They re-booked our flight for another hour later and we made it to the terminal only to find that they delayed our flight for almost 4 hours because there was mechanical problems with the plane. We ended up making it to Dayton a day and a half later.
We had a great visit. We headed up to Toledo to spend a day with his sister, her husband and their two kids. It was awesome! We got to go see the Toledo Zoo Lights and that was not at all disappointing. We didn’t see much snow in Ohio–except what was on the ground before we got there. It was disappointing at best.

Well, it’s 2008 and I’ve done nothing with the blog in the last couple of weeks. Needless to say, I have LOTS of updates! I’m not really going to get into it right now because it is 11:30 at night, but I was updating the layout, as you can see! Do you like it? It’s colorful–just like me 🙂 Okay, so after tomorrow I should have some time to give everyone their updates! Rob’s waving! (Wink! Wink!)

But I’ve been super busy getting ready to go home and with all of the unit stuff going on, IT’S INSANE!!!! It’s almost time to RELAX! I can’t WAIT! I can finally get to see all my old friends that I haven’t seen in YEARS! So, that’s pretty much how it’s been going here. I do apologize for not posting more frequently. Amazingly enough, this blog seems to be getting more readers–which makes me VERY happy! I guess I’m just going to have keep plugging away and maybe I’ll get more!

Well, I better run. Much to do!

TTFN and thanks for reading!

Okay, these aren’t all the pictures that I wanted to post, but I keep getting error messages, so I guess this will do for now. This is my “memorial” of Lilo. The neighbors buried her, but I’m not sure where. I’d like to find out and get a picture. Is that sick and weird? I really miss Lilo. This house has been so quiet without her.

I don’t have too many pictures of my cast, and this is the one I got in the German hospital on Friday night. I’ve had 2 since…lol.

So, without further ado..

Almost literally, but not quite. While bowling tonight, during the first frame of the first game, I fell down and busted my butt. The lane was oily and there might have been trace amounts of baby powder on my shoes. I slipped on my second throw. I made the spare, didn’t foul (surprising), but I broke my left hand in the process! I bowled the rest of the games, but I complained the whole time that my hand hurt and I decided I needed to go to the emergency room. I was in-processed, x-rays completed, cast put on and out in under two hours! That’s a record! My cast is set, but won’t be dry for a couple of more hours!

I broken hand and all. Pictures to come! I swear!