MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Thank you Wife of a Sailor for coming up with this!

This week’s questions are:

1. How did you and your spouse/significant other meet?
I picked him up in a bar

2. What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?
To me there are so many great things about being a MilSpouse. I love getting to move to different places and experience different parts of the country. Another perk to the moving is that I have met friends that I never would have met if I wasn’t a MilSpouse.

3. What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?
I think the hardest thing is the lack of communication (especially for submarines) and the constant worry. But the good BY FAR outweigh the bad.

4. What is your favorite dish?
It depends on my mood. Overall I am a huge fan of Mexican food and could literally eat chips and salsa every single day. I also love fresh seafood and local fish. A good fish and chips rocks my world when served with a good beer and let’s not forget my love of buffalo wings.

5. If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?
I wish that people would appreciate and protect the environment to a greater degree than what’s currently being done. Protectly the environment and finding alternative energy sources would help improve quality of life for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Ok, now it’s your turn If you’re a MilSpouse (that includes significant others) take part in this wonderful thing that Wife of a Sailor has started.

A Wonderful Sunburned Weekend

P and I have enjoyed a wonderful, beautiful weekend. Friday night we did our normal thing-watched movies and drank at home. I normally go to Zumba on Saturday mornings but P asked me to please spend the whole day with him, so we went fishing We got up, got breakfast, bought supplies at Dick’s and then headed to the Skaguay Reservoir for a day of fishing.

On the way...

LOVE fishing in the mountains

Pretty flower

The master at work

Beautiful clear water

We didn’t catch any fish but spending quality time alone, with no cell phone reception was great. We both got sunburned and then went to a local Mexican joint for food. I think that we are going to do some river fishing next weekend. Hopefully we’ll catch something so that we can have fresh fish for dinner

Today we spent much of our day helping our friend, Sarah, move to her new house. Most people might like consider that fun but it seriously was fun. So happy for her that she bought a home and I can’t wait to spend time over there with her painting and having girl time when P deploys. After helping her we grabbed lunch at Red Robin’s and went to Whole Foods. Yes, heart Whole Foods so much. Sundays have traditionally been our days to run errands and spend time together. They will be very hard for me when P leaves.

In other news, my therapist is awesome and has volunteered to take me to the egg retrieval and embryo transfer when the time comes. When I mentioned going to BWW while P is gone, she also said that she would go there and to SB with me if needed. I could not be happier about her being my therapist and firmly believe that I would not be able to make it through all of this without her. If you are going through fertility challenges or deployment, I highly recommend therapy.

Now I’m off to watch the series finale of The Tudors with the best husband in the world.

Scattered thoughts

Time is going too fast. We are having fun but it’s just too fast. Our weekends are filled with eating out, shopping, drinking and hanging out. I’m cherishing every single freaking second, just wish it would slow down.

This weekend is a long one and we have lots of fun stuff planned Tonight we had dinner out and then went to see the Prince of Persia. It was a GREAT movie! I got teary eyed during the previews because most of them were for movies coming out after P leaves. Nonetheless, it was a great night. Now we’re relaxing at home and I’m enjoying a glass of wine. Tomorrow I go to Zumba (seriously, my new favorite exercise) and then we are going to Territory Days in Old Colorado City. I seriously LOVE that part of town and would love to live there one day. It’s where I take Zumba and it reminds me a lot of Savannah and the Highland area in Birmingham. I feel at home in the Springs but I really feel at home in that area-hippies, local artists, dancers, hip earthy parents all seem to frequent that area. I am taking my good camera out there tomorrow and hope to get some great pictures. Either Sunday or Monday we hope to take the dogs outdoors some where for some walking and I plan to take some pictures then, too. I really need to get back to serious picture taking-at one time it was so therapeutic for me.

I’ve been doing great with eating and exercising this week I made 3 Cheese Baked Ziti on Monday and literally ate it all week. I never got tired of it-P did but he just ate sandwiches instead. No way was I cooking every night with it being so hot and this house not having A/C. I’ve run once and been to Zumba twice this week. I planned to run today but when I left work at noon (took half a day off) I crashed for a 4 hour nap. I am really not sure why I was so exhausted but I listen to my body so I took the day off from exercising. The weight loss is going slowly but it’s going. I lost 6 lbs, gained 3 back and have lost 2 of those so I guess I’ve lost 4 lbs so far I think that the key for me is staying away from unhealthy snacks and eating out during the week. Last week I did not do well at all with the eating-ate out and snacked A LOT. Must not do that on a regular basis. Also, been doing well with eating vegetarian for the vast majority of my meals. My goal is 1, max 2, non-vegetarian meals per week and so far I’ve been sticking with it. I am proud of me

In less than a week I turn 34 and in just over 2 weeks we have our IVF consultation. I am ridiculously calm about all of that at the moment. My next therapy appointment is on my birthday and P has agreed to go with me at the request of my therapist-LOVE MY HUSBAND. He is so not a therapy person but he didn’t hesitate when agreeing to go with me. I love that he sees how important this is to me. I love that I married him. I hate infertility but I love that he’s the one going through this with me. He is amazing.

I feel guilty about not blogging as much, seriously I do. I promise that I will blog A LOT when he’s gone. So much that you’ll probably get sick of me :-p There is so much that I think of blogging about during the week, then I get home after running or going to Zumba and all I want to do is snuggle on the couch with P and watch iCarly (yeah, I love iCarly-so what?!) I need to just write like 5-7 blogs over the weekends and then post them throughout the week.

To all who read my blog, thank you-for real <3 I promise to catch up on blog reading, too. I am ridiculously behind but I truly promise to read all of them on my Reader.

I’m No Longer a Virgin….

a therapy virgin that is. I finished my first therapy session about an hour ago and I loved it. I was so nervous and excited about it right before I went it to meet her. She completely put me at ease and the office was homey, not at all “therapy” feeling. It was like talking to friend the whole time, a friend that was inside my head :-p

I seriously cannot explain how great it felt to talk to someone about the stress of infertility, deployment, IVF, moving, etc. I mean, I love you readers and Tweeters but having a real live person, who has been through infertility (yep, she’s been down that road) and is a trained therapist is truly wonderful. After just one session I no longer feel as overwhelmed with this whole IVF process during deployment. I seriously feel like I can handle it.

If you are going through infertility, deployment, adoption or just feeling overwhelmed I highly recommend therapy. Yes, I know it seems odd for me to recommend it after only one session but I can tell even at this point that I have found the right therapist and that she will be a great help to me.

Meatless Monday and a Lesson

First of all, here’s a lesson that I learned the hard way dear readers-don’t eat a big juicy beef burger if you haven’t eat red meat in months. I gave up ground beef many months ago and switched to ground turkey. Then, of course, a few weeks ago I decided to become a part time vegetarian. Well, after Zumba on Saturday I was CRAVING a big juicy burger. Rather than smartly looking for a turkey option, I opted for the full beef burger with cheese and yummy cooked onions. Let’s just say that I’m paying for it. So readers, if you have given up beef or meat, don’t go all out if you’re craving it-baby steps, people, baby steps. My husband also kindly shared his germs with me and I am now fighting off a cold AGAIN. Yeah a cold and stomach issues are not a favorable combination.

If I brave eating real food tonight, I’ll be eating an Amy’s frozen organic cheese pizza. I felt guilty eating prepared foods for some of my meatless dinners, but then I realized it might actually help by showing that eating vegetarian meals does not mean that you have to actually cook every single night. If you are looking into dipping your toes into vegetarianism, look at soups and your frozen food section. I love Morningstar “chicken” and everything I’ve ever tried from Amy’s Organic line has been delicious. With soups, add your own stuff in there to make it more yours. Get on allrecipes.com and look around at some the vegetarian recipes-there are easy and yummy ones out there, I promise.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go drink my Sprite and eat some crackers. Hopefully I’ll be enjoying pizza later.

A New Plan and a GREAT Weekend

I am taking a 100% break from TTC this month. Earlier I said that I would still chart my BBT but I have decided that even that is too much right now. Of course we’ll still “do the deed” but that’s it. We need a complete break before we start IVF. I feel less stressed already.

Remember how I said I was going to get a personal trainer? Well, I think that I’ve changed my mind. On Saturday I went to Springs Salsa with my my friend Sarah and I LOVED it. Seriously, I went there hungover as all get out (not my best decision ever) and within 15 minutes it was virtually gone. I sweated more in that hour than I do when I run and it was so much fun! Another big plus is that it was all women, a great place to meet friends I talked with P and instead of me paying $280 per month for 3 months for a personal trainer, I’m going to join the dance studio! Yes, I am excited My new workout plan is Zumba Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; then C25K, Hundred Push-ups workout and Ab Ripper X on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Crazy? Maybe, but I am determined to decrease my body fat by 13 percent, and making friends is icing on the cake.

P and I have had a great weekend and I wish we had one more day. Friday we went out to BWW and then to a local Irish pub (hence why I had a hangover). Saturday after Zumba we ate lunch at a local place in Old Colorado City (best burger EVER), went to Beer Fest (over 50 microbrews-no we did not sample all of them) and then relaxed on the couch watching movies. Today I visited a church and loved it. It’s an old Gothic style Episcopal church. The service was a good balance of tradition and doctrine. The people were nice and I enjoyed the sermon. Hopefully I can get P to go with me next week.

After church we did our usual eating lunch somewhere (Chipotle was today’s choice), shopping and seeing a movie. We saw Robin Hood and I really liked it; of course staring at Russell Crowe for 2 hours is easy for me :-p We bought a front load washer since our washer broke (being delivered Tuesday) and then bought some stuff for the upcoming deployment. Oh, and I also got 2 pairs of cute black shoes from Kohl’s. My shoe collection has dwindled considerably since getting 4 dogs so I’ve decided to start rebuilding it. I’m also only going to buy good shoes from on-no more Payless, they don’t seem to last.

I’m already looking forward to this coming weekend-we’ll be going to the local roller derby. I plan to bring my camera and hopefully get some decent pictures. Maybe we’ll even take the dogs on a hike again at Garden of the Gods. I savor our weekends together right now…..

2 more sleeps

Two more sleeps, then we leave this hellhole and move to Colorado! To say that I’m excited is an understatement. I’ll miss my friends and our RE but moving to Colorado is a dream for me. I simply can’t wait. Mountains, Starbucks, West Elm, shopping, hiking, camping, fishing-I cant’t fucking wait.

And I’m Zen Again

For whatever reason, I am totally back to being zen-like again. The move no longer freaks me out and neither does the IUI coming up. I have no idea why….maybe it’s because P is now in freak out mode right now. In fact, the only thing I am remotely stressing about right now is my weight, which I cna’t do anything about right now. Damn you fertility drugs for making 12-15 lbs heavier.

As I was thinking today, I realized that many of my readers might not know what it’s like to do a military move. Before I married P, I always just moved myself (well, except for the move from AL to GA-I hired movers) so 2 yrs ago was my first military move. I learned from it and now feel more prepared for this upcoming move. Without further babbling I will give y’all a little breakdown of an Army move.

There are 3 possible types of moves: DITY (do it yourself) move, partial DITY and full Army move. With the full Army move, the Army arranges for a company to pack up 100% of your belongings one day and then arranges for movers to pick up the packed belongings a day or so later. You do nothing but watch them pack, load your things and then unload them at your new place in your new city.

With a DITY move, you pack, load and unload yourself (or pay someone else to do it). There is some reimbursement that happens based on the pounds packed and the miles driven but I don’t know the details because I refuse to do it this way. I am not a fan of packing. I hate it. Seriously.

We are doing a partial DITY move to Colorado. We will be renting a U-Haul trailer (not a reimbursable cost) and loading some of our stuff (mattress, furbaby supplies, a TV, X-Boxes, some clothes, things that the Army packers/movers won’t pack) into it. We will get paid a certain amount per pound so we will have to weigh the trailer empty and full and save the receipts. We also keep track of the miles driven so that we can get reimbursed for that too. I believe that we also get a per diem for the days that we are on the road to pay for our meals but I can’t remember for sure. You turn in all the receipts at your new military post and then get paid within a couple of weeks (as long as they don’t lose your paperwork a million times).

With any of theses moves you get paid a Dislocation Allowance, DLA. The DLA is to help you pay for a deposit, rent, closing costs, etc. You get 80% up front and then 20% when you get to your new military post.

In addition to all this, when we get to the new Army post we’ll need to check in with various offices on post, including insurance, to be sure that they have our new address and contact numbers.

Some people complain about moving frequently when you are in the military but I really don’t stress about it. Other than the small amount of stuff that we take ourselves, we don’t have to pack anything. I also plan to let the movers unpack most of the boxes at our new home because that is something else that I just don’t like doing.

In other moving news, I am 95% sure that I will have a full time job when I get there I am trying to transfer with my employer and until this week my only option was to transfer there to an “on call” position. Well, last week I got a heads up that a full time position was opening yesterday. I submitted my resume and will be interviewing (over the phone) with the office next week. I am (and have been) praying so hard to get this job. I would be doing the same thing that I am doing now-working with soldiers-and I love it.

I’m also 95% sure that we will have a house to rent when we get there. Through a friend I had found a home that a couple had just moved out of. I looked at the pictures online and it’s perfect for us AND has a huge backyard. Originally the rental company told us that May was the available date but they emailed me back today and told me that we could move into the house in early April. I have completed the rental application and will be faxing it to them as soon as P can sign it. Again, this has been something that I have been praying for every night. It will be such a relief if we can move straight into a home without having to live in a hotel for a week or more. Plus, our dogs will LOVE having a huge backyard to play in

Tonight will be night 4 of the 150 iu Follistim injections. This month I have been having some AF like spotting since Saturday. No cramping or anything but I’m not liking it. I’m going to it mention it to the RE on Thursday when I go in for my date with Wandy. I haven’t really been giving much thought to this IUI, probably because of all of the other stuff that we have going on. I like not thinking about it. I’ve still been listening to Circle+Bloom each night and having a daily cup of pregnancy tea but other than that I haven’t been dwelling on it. When I do think about it I am trying my best to only think positive BFP thoughts

I like being zen-like again. It’s so much better for me than being stressed, sad and angry. I just feel better all around when I’m calm.

Wordfull Wednesday

No way that I can be wordless today There is so much going on in my head so I’m going to get it all out on here.

We are 2 days away from an answer. Two more sleeps until we find out if IUI #4 worked. I’ve been doing really well in the 2ww but this is where anxiety and dread starts setting in. My coworkers know that I will be POAS so they will understand if I’m upset. I am gonna miss my work friends when I move

I already have a contingency plan if it’s another BFN. Yes, yes, I know that I need to be positive and I am but I am also a planner. P and I are having a home cooked steak dinner at home on Friday night so if I’m not knocked up I’ll be having LOTS of wine. I’ll also be getting my tattoos this weekend if it’s another BFN. We are also looking at the possibility of one more IUI if this one didn’t take. We could push our move to the right by a couple of days, get inseminated and then move. I just have to know that we tried everything possible before he leaves. Of course, if it’s a BFP I will be drinking water on Friday night and instead of tattoos I’ll do some shopping for me I wish that I could just go fast forward past the POAS and just know the answer.

Things are moving right along with our move. I have located pet friendly hotels (LaQuinta) on the way to Colorado Springs and we also *might* have found housing. We’ve pretty much decided not to buy at this time. With him being deployed, I don’t want to have to deal with any house issues that might go wrong when he’s gone for that long. At least with renting I can call maintenence to fix anything that goes wrong. Through the power of prayer (and my friend, Brittany) we have found a place that we like. I am going to email the rental company today and hopefully we will be able to move right in when we get there. One less thing to worry about. I’ve also updated this post with the progress of getting the moving list done.

I am like a 5 year old before the holidays

It all hit me in the past couple of days. I cannot wait to live Colorado. Yes, being an Army family we might only be there a couple of years but I will soak it all up. No offense to any of my web friends, but I never wanted to live in Louisiana. Yes, I love the cuisine-so happy that it’s crawfish season-and I’ve made some awesome friends, but Louisiana is not my cup of tea. Colorado IS my cup of tea.

I visited Colorado for a week or so right out of college. My then boyfriend and I drove from Alabama to Estes Park, CO in 2 days and then we explored the town and the National Park. I fell in love with the state. I still remember the peacefulness that came over me as we drove in and saw the mountains. I remember the people, the food, the beer, the snow (in JUNE!) and everything. I fell in love. Right then and there I knew that one day I wanted to live in Colorado. I never could’ve predicted that it would be with an Army man and our zoo.

The other morning, walking to the car it hit me-I would rather be temporarily homeless and jobless in Colorado than stable and fine here. I know that we can find a home there-have a great lead on a rental (thanks Brittany!) if we can’t buy. I know that I can get some sort of job there to supplement the on call job that is waiting for me.
I know all of this, but sometimes I forget.

The important thing is that I am getting to live out a dream of mine AND it’s with the most wonderful man in the world.