Greetings From Hell...

I bring greetings from the warm, sunny (beaches?) of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was nice and warm today... and driving down on Beach Boulevard and Washington Avenue today, you really might have thought you were in Hell. At least, it looks like it. I drove down by the old house today, and it is still an ugly sight. It is very sad to drive around down there by the water. I'm so glad that my parents aren't living there in the trailer anymore. It is very depressing to just drive by and look at it for a minute, much less live there and look at it all day every day. They got moved (I guess you'd call it moved... although they really didn't have anything to "move") into this house at Thanksgiving. It is a rental house located closer to Highway 90 that was only flooded with a couple feet of water. Thanks to lots of help from various church groups, it was fixed up for them to "move" into. It is much, much better than the fifth wheel camper trailer that they lived in from September till Thanksgiving. But they are very lucky to be living in a house already. Most people (in this neighborhood and everywhere else) are still living in their FEMA trailers. (About 90% of structures in Pascagoula were either damaged or destroyed.) So anyway, I'm here until the morning when I'll be headed back to Jackson. I just wish I could take them with me and get them out of this Hellhole!

Merry Christmas to All...

And to all a good night!

I hope everybody has a wonderful Christmas and is able to spend it with those closest to you. I am here with my family in Pascagoula, MS, in the midst of Katrina destruction, yet everywhere we look, God's blessings are all around us.

Be thankful for all that God has given you, and may the joy of the season fill your hearts this night as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I Felt Him Move

Yesterday, I saw my very good friend, Birdie, and she's only about 5 or 6 weeks away from meeting her new little boy, Tristan. I can't wait to meet him, too! I got to feel him move yesterday, and it was so cool! I can only imagine how it must feel to her, and I know it is so exciting. She is only about 2 weeks ahead of my other very good friend, Linds, and I know how excited she is waiting for baby Ali to come. I just can't wait to see what it's all about for myself because I know it's just so wonderful and exciting. Right now, I know at least 6 people that are pregnant or have just had a baby. What was in the water 9 months ago? It's a good thing my Brita pitcher filtered it out of mine! I want one, but I'm still waiting on the right man to come along to be Daddy.

It's Finally Here!

It came this morning! And it looks so good!










Now I just want a bigger house to go with it...









Yes... that is Sex and the City on the TV!




This is what I did tonight. I was worried about how they would do. I'm glad they turned out OK! Tomorrow night I will finish the batch (it makes a LOT of cookies!).

Almost done

Tonight I made a big trip to Walmart (it was crazy there) and actually finished my Christmas shopping! Yay! Then when I finally made it home, I took advantage of my wide open living room floor and did some wrapping. The tree looks so much better with presents underneath!


I also picked this up at Walmart tonight... This is going to be my next attempt at being "crafty." We'll see! (Sarah I wish you were closer so you could teach me how to knit!)

Here is my bare, naked living room as it awaits the arrival of my new furniture tomorrow morning!! (Note the pile of things in front of the TV that I still have yet to wrap.)

And ere's a thought to leave you with... In the words of Pamela Anderson on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight: "If you cover your nipples, then you're clothed." Hm.

The Sound of Music

While I watched The Sound of Music for my very first time ever, I finally finished decorating my tree! Now.. on to vacuuming. I'll be moving my furniture out tomorrow night because my new furniture is coming on Tuesday!

Christmastime

I'm still in the process of decorating for Christmas. Here are some pics of what I've done so far...

So far, all I've got on the tree is lights, but the plan is to finish decorating it tonight so I can at least have a week to enjoy it before Christmas.
This is my house from the outside. It's a little pitiful, I know, but the pre-lit wreath is all I have time to put up outside. Maybe someday when I have a man around to help me, I can do more lights or something. That's wishful thinking...

This was tonight's sunset. I just thought it was pretty, so I threw it in here.

And finally... The picture you've all been waiting for!
(I can't seem to make it home from work these days before the sun goes down, so I took one picture with flash and one without. That's why they look different.) It may be a "soccer mom" car, but I am absolutely loving it!

Yes, Virginia...

There really is a Santa Claus! ...And he works at Grey-Daniels Nissan. Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas, Taylor! :D

I Want my DH!

So apparently, a 2-hour "holiday special" of Extreme Home Makeover is a substitute for Desperate Housewives? I think not!! Don't get me wrong, I like Extreme Home Makeover, but NOT in the place of my Desperate Housewives! They should've started it at 6:00 if they wanted to do a 2-hour special. What were they thinking?? I guess I'll just watch Days of Our Lives on SoapNet till 9:00 instead...

Dear Santa...

Cold and Cozy Night...

It's a really cold night tonight (in Mississippi terms).... Here is everybody being lazy and enjoying the firelog burning in the fireplace.

From Bert to Bertha

Well, my cat, Bert, has been in the vet hospital for over a week and a half now. He's had problem with urinary tract blockage, and he hasn't been able to pee, so he's had to stay at the vet with a catheter in. He's had this problem before and it took some time, but he eventually got better on his own. But this time, after a week and a halft it had not resolved on its own, so Bert had surgery today... Basically he had a sex change to try to help fix his problem. Poor thing... I miss him so much, and I hate that he's had to go through all this. But Dr. Adams felt like the surgery went really well, and thinks that he (or she? or it?) should recover nicely. I guess technically Bert would not be a "she" because he lacks the female parts, but he is definitely not male because he is now lacking the male parts. Poor baby. Hopefully, as long as he keeps doing well, he'll be able to come home on Saturday.

Happy Birthday and Goodbye to Xterra

Well, today is my Xterra's birthday... It was my first new car purchase, and I bought it on December 7, 2002. It's so sad that it has to be all alone on it's special day. :( And then on top of that, yesterday they declared it a total loss.... poor thing. Today I went to get all of my stuff out of it, and I said goodbye. :'( Now I have to get something new. I was thinking of getting a new Xterra, but after going by the dealership today, I fell in love with something else...


That's right ladies... a new Nissan Pathfinder. :) Maybe this won't turn out to be such a bad deal after all.

I Wish All my Ex-es Were in Texas

Today I found out that my ex-boyfriend is getting married.... I'm over him, but why does it bother me so much? Maybe because not even a year ago we were talking about getting married? In January, he told me that he wanted to get married and that he saw us being engaged by May. But in March we broke up. Fine. It was tough, but I knew it was for the best, and part of me was actually relieved. Then he started seeing his high-school girlfriend again, and today I found out that they are living together and getting married in April. I guess there's something about me that makes guys want to get married.... to the next girl, not me. This is the third serious boyfriend in a row who has married the next girl they've dated. And I've only had three serious boyfriends! But this one bothers me more than the other ones for some reason. My first ex to get married was my high school boyfriend that I dated forever. But his getting married didn't bother me at all... maybe because it had been so long after we broke up. The next ex married the girl after he knocked her up, and I was already fed up with his crap anyway so I didn't care what the hell they did. It was no surprise to me that she got pregnant.... She'd already dropped out of high school and gotten kicked out of her parents' house (she was 17, he was 24). But the most current serious ex was I guess the one I thought most seriously about marrying. It's not like I want him back or wish I were in her shoes, but I don't know what it is. It's just plain weird.

GO DAWGS!!!

It was the best game we've had all season.... In fact, it was our only SEC win this season, but to Mississippi State fans, it was the most important SEC game to win. Even if we don't win any other games all season, the only game we care about winning is when we play Ole Miss (aka the "Egg Bowl"). And win.. we did! And I had the ultimate pleasure of witnessing it in person! I hadn't been to a State game in 2 years, and I am absolutely thrilled that I got to be there for this game! Let me remind everyone of the final score... Mississippi State 35, Ole Miss 14. Once again, that's 35-14 Mississippi State just in case you didn't get it the first time. Woohoo!! That's a pretty sad score for all you Rebel fans out there... HA! We did have a little mercy on Ole Miss because we could've (and should've) very easily scored another touchdown in the last 40 seconds of the game to make it 42-14, but we had a little courtesy and took a knee. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the giant golden egg trophy that we vie for every year being carried off the field by the MSU team. The trophy is home once again. GO STATE! GO TO HELL OLE MISS!! I thought this was a bit funny here... You can see where we put the visiting team's band. Waaayyyy up in the very top! They'd better be careful not to fall off sitting way up there! Haha.


"Hail dear 'ole State,
Fight for that victory today
Hit that line and 'tote that ball
Cross the goal before you fall,
And then we'll yell, yell, yell, yell!
For dear 'ole State we'll yell like H-E-L-L!
Fight for Mis-sis-sip-pi State,
Win that game today."

My Bulldogs made me so proud this weekend, and it completely made up for any embarrassment that I might have felt at any time this season for being a Bulldog fan. So for that I just have one last thing to say... GO DAWGS!!

Am I Crazy?

Would you be offended if a guy who you'd only met twice and who hardly knew you (but was trying to talk to you, get to know you, etc.) sent you a text message that said "I didn't tell u how hot u looked saturday... I wanted to down u and make your toes curl rite then"? Am I crazy or is that just slightly inappropriate at this stage in the game?

New Living Room

It's late, so I'm not going to talk long, but I bought new living room furniture last week! I don't have it yet... they did not have it in stock at Miskelly, so it will be mid-December before it comes in and then gets delivered, but that is fine. I'm so excited though! I got a Lane sofa, chair and a half, and an ottoman. (It is not the color of the one in the picture on the web site... I love red furniture, but that doesn't work when your walls are red.) So it is kind of a golden, camel-type color. I just can't wait for it to come in! :D

CMA's in NYC!

I hope everybody is watching the Country Music Awards in New York City right now! I love the CMA Awards!... I love Garth, I love Martina, and I LOVE A.J. singin' "Wonderful Tonight"! And there is still more goodness yet to come (Sugarland and Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, and more)! Just wait till the duet of Elton John and Dolly Parton! (I never knew Olivia Newton John won the CMA Vocalist of the Year in 1974... did you?)

Oh yeah...

More news:

I FINALLY (almost 3 weeks later) heard from the other insurance company today that they will be paying for 100% of the damages to my Xterra. FINALLY!! Praise the Lord! So now that the body shop can begin work on my car it will be at least a month before it is ready. :( Maybe by Christmas I will get it back? There is over $8500 worth of damage to my car. Since that is about half of the total value of my car (according to KBB), the way I see it is that I will be getting half of a brand new car!

Time for a little R & R

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day (11/11/05), and since it is now a holiday that is observed by state employees, I get a nice long three-day weekend! Awesome! I'm going shopping tomorrow after I get a haircut, and Saturday night I'm going to "the races"! Don't ask me about any more details than that about "the races" because I don't know any more. Either ask AL or I'll let you know on Sunday.

Everyone enjoy your Friday! I know I will.

P.S.

The oocyte that I injected yesterday fertilized!

Proud Mama

I had a busy (but exciting!) day at work today...

Last Thursday at work, we had an egg retrieval, and I got to do my first real (not practice) ICSI (aka Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) on 2 oocytes! And you should understand that these 2 eggs were not good quality at all (appearance-wise, at least)... they were very homely! (Which is why I got to inject them.. because they were so crappy-looking.) Well, only one of the two fertilized, but it developed very nicely, and then today it was a beautiful blastocyst! That meant that it had to be cryopreserved (frozen) today because this lady already had her embryo transfer on Sunday. I was just so proud that an egg that I injected (and an ugly one at that) went all the way to form a gorgeous blastocyst!

So, since I did so well with that ICSI, I got to do it again on our case that we had today. I only injected one egg today, and it wasn't quite so homely-looking, but we'll just have to see in the morning if it fertilized or not.

Mother Hen

***Warning: the following post was created while under the influence of Combunox.***

Just go ahead call me Mother Hen because I laid my eggs today.... 20 of them to be exact. Well, really I didn't lay them, but I did have my egg retrieval today, and it went really well. I got to have a couple of margaritas given intravenously (aka Versed and Fentanyl), which was a really nice feeling. I won't say that it was completely painless, but it wasn't bad at all. Now I am just feeling like I have bad menstrual cramps, but I should be fine enough to go back to work tomorrow. But anyway, the procedure was really short, and after it was over, the lab ended up with 20 oocytes. Yay! That's a really good number, so good luck to my recipient! It's in the hands of the lab for the next couple of days, and then it's up to her uterus. I'm glad, but also a little sad, that it's all over with on my end. I've really enjoyed doing this, and I would definitely do it again. Plus, I'm a little bit richer now that it's over! $$ :D

I finally found some good pictures to show y'all (I've been looking on the 'net for some all along):

This is an ultrasound picture of follicles. What you see here is basically one ovary with the fluid-filled follicles (the big black circles) that have developed on it. Today in the retrieval, we watched on the ultrasound as he went from follicle to follicle aspirating the fluid out of each one. As he would aspirate, the black circle would slowly disappear.

This is a a mature oocyte (under high magnification). When you first find oocytes, they are surrounded by cumulus cells that will later be stripped off of the egg for further manipulation. You can actually see the oocyte with the naked eye, but it is necessary to use a microscope to see it well. After the cumulus mass is stripped away from the egg, the egg is about the size of a dot that a pen would make on a piece of paper if you just touched the pen to the paper and didn't move it.

This is not the best picture, but this is a fertilized egg. My eggs were put with sperm this afternoon, and so hopefully in the morning they will look like this. Tomorrow will be considered "Day 1" after fertilization.

This is a 4-cell embryo, and this is what the embryos look like on "Day 2." They will have cleaved, and they are usually between 2 and 6 cells on day 2.

These are 3 gorgeous 8-cell embryos on "Day 3." Most of the time on day 3 they will be 8-10 cells. Day 3 is generally the day that they are transferred to the mother's uterus.

This is a picture of 2 expanded blastocysts, one of which is about 50% hatched. This would be about Day 5 or 6 after fertilization, and occasionally embryos are cultured to this point before being transferred to the mother's uterus. Between this stage and the stage in the previous picture, the cells have divided so much that they have begun to organize, and at this blastocyst stage, the cells have formed an embryonic mass (which will eventually form the fetus), and the cells around the edge will eventually form the placenta. At this stage, the blastocyst will "hatch" out of the "zona pellucida" which is like the shell around the outside. Once they hatch, they can implant on the uterine lining and begin to grow into a baby!

For more cool images, check it out here.

The Last Shot

I went to the doctor yesterday morning, and he said everything looks great! My egg retrieval will be Tuesday morning. So that means that I will take one last shot tonight of hCG at 10pm, and then no more needles!.. until the retrieval on Tuesday morning, at least. Almost done! Yay! :D

It's Too Early for a Rerun

What is the deal with Desperate Housewives?? Didn't the new season just start? And they are already showing a re-run... What is up with that? At least Grey's Anatomy is a new episode or I would really be mad. I am happy tonight though because I realized that I now get SoapNet on my Dish Network. Yay! :) Now I don't have to record Days of Our Lives everyday. And on Sunday nights they have "Sunday Nights in Salem" where they show the whole previous week's episodes of Days. How wonderful!

1,576 and a Boatload

It's no wonder that my abdomen is feeling so bloated and full... Today my E2 level was 1,576, and my ultrasound revealed ovaries that look like honeycombs. Dr. Isaacs measured 19 follicles, but there were more that he didn't measure because they were smaller. I go back again Saturday for another ultrasound and E2, and my retrieval should fall sometime early next week. :)

Sex Ed Review

The menstrual cycle is a complicated process involving many different hormones, women's sex organs and the brain. The activity of a woman's sexual organs, including their development is under the control of a small gland at the base of the brain, called the pituitary gland. Two of the most important hormones of the pituitary gland are Follicle Stimulating Hormone (F.S.H.) and Luteinising Hormone (L.H.). This is where the Lupron comes into play. It basically blocks the communication between the pituitary gland and the ovaries so that the body does not do its natural cycle and secrete FSH and LH. The Follistim (manufactured FSH) and Repronex (manufactured FSH and LH) are used to simulate the cycle but in much larger quantities.

A woman has 2 ovaries in her reproductive system, each one stores thousands of follicles, within these follicles are the immature eggs. More than one follicle may start to develop at a time, but usually (naturally) only one reaches maturity each month. With the stimulation drugs, multiple follicles will develop and contain eggs that will reach maturity.

At the start of each menstrual cycle the pituitary gland releases F.S.H. which makes the follicles (containing the immature eggs) grow (this is why F.S.H. gets it name). While the follicle is developing, the cells around the egg produce the female hormone - estrogen. This is why the doctor monitors my estradiol (a form of estrogen) level. The higher it is, the more follicles I should have or the bigger my follicles should be. Along with the blood test, ultrasounds are done to follow the number and growth of the follicles. The follicles look like fluid filled blisters on the ovary.

Once the follicle has reached a certain size and development, the rising level of estrogen in the blood, signal to the pituitary gland that the ovary is ready to release the egg. The pituitary gland then sends out a high level of the hormone L.H. (this is commonly known as ‘the L.H. surge’) and this signals the ovary to release the egg (ovulation). The follicle bursts and the egg leaves the ovary and travels through one of the fallopian tubes to the uterus. This is where IVF really intervenes in the natural cycle. When the doctor decides my follicles look like they are at the right size and development, I will be ready to have my egg retrieval. Since I'm taking the Lupron, the estrogen won't signal the pituitary to release the egg. So 36 hours before my egg retrieval I will take one last shot of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). This will push the eggs to their final state of maturity so that they will be ready to be put with sperm when they are retrieved. At the egg retrieval, a vaginal ultrasound probe with a guided needle attached to a vacuum tube system is used to aspirate the fluid from the follicles into test tubes, one by one, until they are all gone. These test tubes are passed to the laboratory where the embryologists look through the fluid under microscopes to find the eggs. Technically, there should be one egg per follicle, but a lot of times not every follicle will contain an egg.

The cluster of cells, which formed the follicle, now called a corpus luteum remains in the ovary and starts to produce the female hormone - progesterone.

If a woman has sexual intercourse with a man at this time and his sperm fertilizes the egg, the woman becomes pregnant. The fertilized egg attaches to the uterus and the corpus luteum keeps producing all the progesterone needed, to keep the egg implanted and growing (click here to read more about fertilization). Progesterone also blocks the release of more hormones (L.H. and F.S.H.) from the pituitary gland so that further ovulation does not occur during pregnancy.

If after a few days, no egg is implanted the corpus luteum stops producing hormones and gets reabsorbed in the ovary. The levels of progesterone and oestrogen fall and the lining of the uterus starts to break up. The unfertilized egg and the lining of the uterus are released through the vagina as your "Period." The cycle then starts all over again.

767

This was my first Estradiol (a.k.a. E2) level today, on day 5 of my stimulation meds. I know it doesn't mean much to anybody, but I am proud of it because it means that I should have a boatload of follicles growing on my ovaries! Just to give you an idea, we generally like the first E2 (always taken on day 5 of stimulation) to be at least 100. Anything less than 100 is not good, and a lot of times, those cases are cancelled. 767 is really on the high side of what they like to see, because there is a concern of hyperstimulation, but they may later decide to decrease my dosage to help prevent me being hyperstimulated. Thursday, I will have my blood E2 level tested again and they will do an ultrasound to get an estimate of how many follicles I have and how they are progressing. The E2 should be more on Thursday because it rises as the follicles grow. When they reach a certain size, they will be ready to have my egg retrieval. So maybe this will all be over with early next week. :) It's getting a little tiresome giving myself all these shots.

Other news... I FINALLY got a rental car today... HALLELUJAH!!! I'm hoping to find out in the next day or 2 the liability decision of the other person's insurance company. They should find themselves to be 100% liable... if not (which is my biggest fear right now) then something is wrong because in no way was this accident my fault.

Well, Will He or Will Ne Not??

I knew they were going to make us wait yet another week to find out if Dr. McDreamy will decide to sign the divorce papers or not. I don't think he has the balls to sign them. He's a jackass (like most men), and that gorgeous red-headed bitch will get to have her way. So I feel sorry for Meredith. What does everyone else think will happen on Grey's Anatomy?

Hormonal and Without a Ride

Say "bye bye" to the Xterra... Although this is not a great picture, this is what my Xterra looked like earlier this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me this evening to take an "after" picture, but just imagine the whole front end all crunched up, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it looks like now. I was on my way to pick up my pizza from Papa John's when some crazy woman pulled right out in front of me to cross my lanes of traffic. I hit her dead on in her passenger side. She swore up and down that she looked and she didn't see anything coming, but I didn't just pop up out of nowhere, and I'm no magic trick, so I'm still baffled at how she failed to see me. She was so close to me when she pulled out in front of me that I think if she had waited a split second more then she would've hit the side of my car. I mean I had no time to react at all and nowhere to go but into the side of her car. But anyway, no one was injured, although both of my airbags deployed and hit me in the face so that hurt a little. I think my neck and shoulders will be sore tomorrow because I'm already starting to feel it in my shoulders, but that could also be from stress. I was on the phone with my dad when it happened, so I just imagine his horror when he heard me screaming in the phone and then the call was dropped. But he called me right back and found out I was okay, so he didn't have a heart attack or anything. I'm just so mad at that stupid woman!!! It was all her fault, and how on Earth could she not have seen me?! I'm just really glad that I wasn't driving a brand new car, or I would really be IRATE. The whole reason that I hadn't bought a new car was because I really liked my car and there was nothing wrong with it... but the key word is "was." Now it will sit in a shop for 2 or 3 weeks while it is fixed to be like new. I just don't know if it will really be the same, but I hope so. However, one good (?) thing came out of all this.... I can't go to work tomorrow. It will be nice to have a day at home to relax and maybe get some stuff done around here. The bad thing is that I don't have a way to go anywhere... :(

On another note, I did start my stimulation drugs yesterday like I was supposed to. Now I'm having to do 4 shots a day... 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening: Follistim twice a day, Lupron still once in the morning, and Repronex once in the evening. It's all going good, and the shots aren't bad except for the Repronex. They are all subcutaneous injections (short needle, given in the tummy or the thigh), but apparently I have a reaction to the Repronex so I'm probably going to have to start giving it IM (intramuscular) in my hip (LONG needle... YUCK!). Other than that, it's no big deal. I feel like my abdomen is already bloated and poking out, but I don't feel my ovaries yet, so maybe I'm really just retaining water right now.

Anyway, that's all I've got to talk about tonight, and I'm so exhausted right now that I'm about to pass out, so I'm gonna go hit the sack. See y'all later...

It's Like Coming Home

Stupid blogger wouldn't let me do all the pics I wanted to so here's continued...


Another day we went driving to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park just outside of Cherokee, NC. This area that we went to is called Round Bottom along the Big Cove Road. And yes, that is me in the pic with my Mom... I'm just fat, not pregnant.

We got to get some good "real ass" for only $10... What a deal! (By the way, I'm just kidding, but the sign is funny whatever it means!)

Other updates...
After not driving my Xterra for 5 days and having some good time to think about the aspect of buying a new car, I've decided to wait about it. As much as I love the new 2006 Honda Accord and would love to have one, I also still really love my truck, plus I have no reason to need a new car yet anyway... my Xterra is only 3 years old with only 42,000 miles. So I feel like the best decision for me right now is just to wait about all that.
Tomorrow, as long as my suppression check comes out okay, I will start my stimulation meds. Wow, here it is.. This is it. Then it'll only be about a week and a half until the egg retrieval! I can't believe this is it! By the way, I haven't really noticed much of a difference being on the Lupron, but I was told that it takes about 2 weeks to really take effect (which it has now been 2 weeks). Starting the stimulation meds should help counteract the menopause symtpoms is what I've heard, so I shouldn't really feel the side effects too bad.

P.S. Congrats to the Astros!

It's Like Coming Home

Welcome to 332 Mason Road, Bryson City, NC. To us, it's like coming home.

We took a short (too short) trip over this past weekend up to the mountains, and it was just so nice to get away! It sure was hard to come back to Mississippi, though. The weather was absolutely perfect... 70 during the day and 40 at night with gorgeous October blue skies. The colors were just beginning to change, but up higher in the mountains, there were more colors.

One day we drove up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and took an easy hike around Graveyard Fields around the Yellowstone Creek. Ben and Daddy did some fly fishing while Mama and I just took it easy soaking up the beautiful surroundings. Ben caught his first trout (pictured above). :)

By the way, it is still just a thought... Although it doesn't seem to want to go away, because it's been all I've been able to think about for the past 2 days! I had to go and test drive one (well, actually I drove two) today, and let me tell you... I loved it!!

My New Fantasy

Down Regulation

Well, this is it... my last pre-menopausal day for the next 2 weeks. In the morning, I'll give myself my first injection of Lupron, and I'll start feeling like I'm in menopause. What the Lupron does is keep my pituitary gland from communicating with my ovaries so that they basically are shut down. Then, 2 weeks from tomorrow, I'll go back to the doctor and they'll check to make sure that my ovaries are suppressed, and then I'll start the stimulation. So, anyway, I'm really excited about doing this whole thing, but I'm also a little nervous at the same time. I just hope I do good!

The Pink Palace

This is the new pad at 2103 Washington Avenue. My mom nicknamed it the "Pink Palace" because just about everything about it is pink. Although it is not pink on the outside, all of the decor inside is pink... and not just any pink, but that lovely shade of mauve (with hints of country blue). Isn't it lovely? It is a nice, old (old is the key word) "fifth wheel" that was donated to the American Family Association and then somehow made its way to my parents. But nevertheless, it is better than nothing, and it really wouldn't be all that bad if only the refrigerator worked. It would be a pretty nice thing to actually "camp" in, but to live in it, it gets a little cramped. But anyway, a church member has offered a rental house for them to live in. It only got about a foot of water in it, and a church group from Daphne, Alabama has made it their project to work on the house to get it fixed and ready for them to move in. But it will still be a little while before it will be ready. So as if you couldn't already tell, I went to Ground Zero (Pascagoula) over the weekend... I took off on Friday, and although I was excited about having 3 days off (Friday + the weekend) to spend around my house, I really felt like I needed to go visit my parents. I think they needed it, too. So I was glad to have an extra day to spend the time with them. They were really glad that I came, and I was, too.

I really wanted to post to my blog last week, but I just never found the time, and then I was without internet all weekend. So I'm sorry to my readers!

Here's an update from last week... It was a very uneventful and for the most part boring week at work, but Thursday was pretty exciting. First, I got to take a field trip from work to go see Dr. Isaacs and get ready to be an egg donor. That was interesting... I got to practice giving myself a shot, and then I got to take a tour of my reproductive organs via ultrasound. I saw my uterus and my ovaries, and it was neat-O! And then I got to eat lunch with my good friend, Bridget, while I was there. :) Then, Thursday night after I got out of class, Anna Leigh and I went out to try to meet us some doctors and lawyers. ;) Actually, we had already been planning on going out Thursday night, and then my friend, Jay, called while I was in class and invited us to go to this "Ambulance Chaser" hurricane benefit party at Hal and Mal's. It was a joint effort between the Mississippi College School of Law and University of MS Medical Center students. We had a pretty good time, although we didn't really meet any doctors or lawyers. But it was definitely fun to go out! :)

"Stand Back Up"

Go ahead and take your best shot,

Let 'er rip, give it all you've got,

I'm laid out on the floor, but I've been here before,

I may stumble, yeah I might fall,

I'm only human, but aren't we all?

I might lose my way, but hear me when I say,

I will stand back up,

You'll know just the moment when I've have enough,

Sometimes I'm afraid, and I don't feel that tough,

But I'll stand back up,

I've been beaten up and bruised,

And I've been kicked right off my shoes,

Been down on my knees more times than you'd believe,

When the darkness tries to get me,

There's a light that just won't let me,

It might take my pride, and tears may fill my eyes,

But I'll stand back up,

I've weathered all these storms,

But I just turn them into wind, so I can fly,

If what don't kill you makes you stronger,

When I take my last breath,

Thats when I'll just give up,

So, go ahead to take your best shot,

Let 'er rip, give it all you've got,

You might win this round but you can't keep me down,

'Cause I'll stand back up,

And you'll know just the moment when I've had enough,

Sometimes I'm afraid and I don't feel that tough,

But I'll stand back up,

You'll know just the moment when I've had enough,

Sometimes I'm afraid and I don't feel that tough,

But I'll stand back up.

~Sugarland

Wow, what an awesome song. MISS 103 has been playing it with bits and pieces of people talking about Hurricane Katrina, and it is very moving. Although, I'd really rather hear it without the extra stuff, because hearing it all again just brings it all back to me and makes me really sad. But regardless, it's still a great song. I just thought I'd share it.

The wrong Bulldogs won...

Well, the Bulldogs won last night, but it was University of Georgia Bulldogs, not Mississippi State. But my bulldogs still put up a good fight and played good defense. We lost to UGA 23-10, and that is not a let down... it could've been a lot worse. UGA is #7 in the country, and a pretty darn good team. They're just a bigger and better team, so I feel like we did a pretty good job playing them.
Now as for Ole Miss, they lost to Wyoming 24-14. Who is Wyoming?? That's all I have to say about that.

Ode to Nano

Oh Nano, you are pencil-thin,
Yet somehow a thousand songs you store.
Hours of music, and pictures, too!
And still, there's even more!

So tiny and so lightweight,
You are with me all the time.
Just slip into my pocket, and
Oh what adventures we will find!

Walking or jogging,
At home or in my car,
You are always right beside me.
My iTunes are never far.

If never I had seen your face
Whatever would I do?
My ears would never be so happy.
Oh Nano, I'm so glad I found you!

My New Friend

Let me introduce you to my new friend that I made today...

I finally was able to get one today at Best Buy, and let me tell you... it is so cool! Now I just can't wait to get some cool accessories to go with it! Yay iPod!

I'm Bored...

Well, I'm bored... just sitting here waiting on time to go home, and I thought I'd blog since I hadn't done it all week, but I can't think of anything to talk about. Amazing that I don't have anything to say, huh? So maybe I will just come back later on and try this again.

Just an update...

Just to note, my Dawgs won tonight!.... 21-14 against Tulane! Go Dawgs! Yay!

Ole Miss, on the other hand, LOST. Ha.

Saturday

Well, last night's date was wonderful, but today I have a different date... college football. Right now I'm watching Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, and it's been pretty amusing since Vanderbilt has been in the lead for most of the game. But with 19 second left in the game now, it is 31-23 Vandy. Can they pull it off? I think so, although it is still quite close here at the end. Ole Miss could possibly score again. Go Commodores! Yay! With one second left, Ole Miss fumbled, so Vandy won! Haha Rebels... Go to hell Ole Miss!! :) Now, as for my Bulldogs tonight against Tulane (the game has been relocated to Shreveport)... last year we beat them, and it was our first win in quite some time. It should be a good game. GO DAWGS!!

As for tonight, I wish I could go out somewhere, but none of my friends are able to do anything tonight. So I guess maybe I miss having a guy around just a little bit. If only my date with college football could take me out.....

My Friday Night Date

Tonight I've had a date all night long.... just me and Cinemax on my big-screen TV. It's been the best date I've had in a while. :) I picked up some take-out from Abner's, we watched Gothika, and now we're watching Titanic. But anyway, I feel like I'm neglecting my date now, so I'd better get back. I think we'll snuggle up under my fleecy blanket on the futon. Titanic just started, and I think we all know how long that movie is, so we've got quite a while left to go before our date ends. Who knows, we may even fall asleep together tonight. ;)

Almost there... (the weekend, that is)

Ok, I'm tired of talking about boys and how much they suck. Plus, I don't want to sound too much like a man-hater, because I do really, really like them... that just seems to be what my problem is.

So.. I have to take a moment to brag just a little bit. I had my first test tonight in Biostatistics I, and I made 108! Yay! Ok, enough.

I'm also excited today because I got my mother's wedding rings back from being sized... they survived Hurricane Katrina! This was her original wedding set (she has since gotten new rings to wear). They're not big or anything, but just very special, and we actually found them in the house after Katrina. It is really absolutely amazing that we found them. Mama had wanted me to have them, and now I do, so I had them sized to fit my finger and I'm going to wear them all the time! (I will wear them on my right hand, but in order to take a halfway decent pic, I had to put them on the left had to hold the camera with my right.)

Other news... I am going to soon be an egg (oocyte) donor. This means I'm going to basically go through a cycle of IVF (in vitro fertilization), but after my egg retrieval, I'm done. My eggs will be put with another woman's husband's sperm and then she will get the embryos back in her own uterus to hopefully get pregnant. It is completely anonymous.. I know nothing about the recipient couple, and all they know about me is physical traits, etc. This will be a couple who has been trying to get pregnant for a long time and has been unsuccessful using every other option. She may have no ovaries, have ovaries that don't produce eggs, have eggs that are genetically abnormal, or have some other reason that she has been unable to get pregnant with her own eggs. But regardless of their reason to need to use donor eggs, they desparately want a child, and I want to help them. I will start what is called "down regulation" on October 7, which requires giving myself a shot of Lupron once a day to suppress my ovaries. Then on October 21, I'll start taking shots of Follistim and Repronex (follicle-stimulating drugs), and over the next week and a half they (the Dr.) will monitor my blood levels of estradiol and do ultrasounds to follow the stimulation of my ovaries. Then, when they say my follicles are ready (to produce mature eggs), I will have the egg retrieval. It's just a basic outpatient procedure, where the doctor uses a needle guided by an ultrasound probe to aspirate the fluid out of all of my follicles. The lab takes the fluid and finds the eggs, and later puts them with the sperm. 3-5 days later, the recipient gets her embryos transferred into her uterus, and hopefully will get pregnant! That's basically IVF in a nutshell (which is what I do at work everyday, by the way). Sorry for the education!... hope y'all didn't mind. If you want to know more though, or have questions, ask me! :)

And guess what... TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!! Hallelujah woohoo! A weekend off! :D

And.. let's not forget to buckle up! ;)

an' another thing

I thought of one more...

11. I have much more time to post to my blog, do homework, laundry, housecleaning, etc.!

For my single friends...

I was just sitting here thinking of the advantages of being single, so I thought I'd share some:

1. I can eat what I want, where I want, when I want.

2. I can sleep in the middle of the bed if I want to, and with as many pillows as I want, and I don't get hot during the night.

3. I can go for more than 2 days without shaving my legs if I so choose.

4. I have complete control of my 51" TV, with no worry of it somehow ending up on ESPN.

5. I have access to my own computer at any given time.

6. I don't have to share my washer/dryer with anyone.

7. I don't have to clean anybody else's hair off the bathtub drain.

8. I can have "couch appreciation night" any night I choose.

9. I can go to Headliner's and dance if I feel the urge! (AL - next time we can go out, we're gonna close out Headliner's and then go to Pop's, and we're not coming home till the sun comes up!)

10. No more of "what do you want to do tonight?", "I don't know, it doesn't matter", "I don't care, it's up to you", and on and on and on....


These are just a few of the pluses of being on your own! Can anybody think of others? When you're single, you've got to think about all these things that you enjoy about being single so you don't get so down in the dumps about not having anyone else around. Besides, we won't be single forever, so enjoy it now! Someone else will come along when the time is right.

An interesting article...
Do You Fall in Love Too Fast?

Day 4

It's been 4 days now and still nothing. Apparently he doesn't think about me enough to call. So I'm starting to wonder... should I bother wasting my time wishing I would hear from him? Should I just assume it is really over for good? It would just kinda be nice I guess to hear from him even if it is to say "it's really over, I don't have feelings for you." I'm just kind of like hanging in this limbo of "to move on, or not to move on?" Such confusion!! And I'm getting sick of it, so I don't think I will put up with it for much longer.

So, to change the subject, I donated blood today, and I ran into this guy friend of mine (Jay) from State who, as it turns out, just started med school at UMC. It was pretty cool to see him and nice to see a familiar face from my days in StarkVegas. :) I'm looking forward to seeing him around campus.

Other news... I'm looking at buying one of these. Having one is supposed to be my motivation to start walking by having some good tunes to listen to. :) I'm ready to get in shape!

Eye of the Storm

This is a great blog that I came across last night. Check it out!

Must be the half moon...

I don't know what the big deal is about having a real relationship with somebody. Why are guys so freakin' scared of it?? I mean, it has only been a couple of months since I've even known the guy, so it's not like I'm ready to marry him or to even say the "L" word to him. Yet he has suddenly freaked out. What is the deal?!

Okay, so I did offer for him to keep a key to my house (and I did not pressure him whatsoever), and that may not have been the reason for the freak-out, but apparently that means a whole lot more to him than it does to me. To me, all that means is that I trust him enough to have access to me and my house and my stuff... not that I want him to move in with me or that I expect a proposal or anything. But then again, I guess I can be way too trusting of people...

And if I want to introduce him to my parents, then all that means to me is that I think he is nice enough of a guy to feel comfortable about my parents getting to know him a little... their opinions are important to me. Meeting the folks doesn't mean that I'm expecting to get married next.

Apparently it has just been a bad weekend for love and not just for me. Must be the half moon...

Would somebody please get me another Fantastic Jason? Or another chocolate martini would be great too!

P.S. Don't forget to buckle up tonight!

Y?

Men suck. They are weird and stupid and impossible to figure out. I would swear them off all together if only I weren't so attracted to them, and I'm really trying to figure out why it is that I'm so attracted to them. Nature, I guess. Something about that Y chromosome that I can't resist. But why can't I just meet somebody who I don't send running after only a couple of months??

Continued...

As promised, here are more pictures...

First, we have the den. The den was on the back side of the house, and now it is more like a nice covered patio. On the left side of the first picture is what used to be a wall of basically a big window, and now the whole wall is gone. The second picture is the view of the back yard from the newly-made patio. The backyard is huge, and there was a wood fence all the way around it, but no more. By the way, all that stuff that you see sitting around is stuff that has been found and brought back into the house. The storm surge pretty much cleaned everything out of the house for the most part.


The pic on the left is our still functioning bathroom. Part of the wall behind the toilet was till there (from the waist down), and we slid pieces of wall paneling in on each side (also from the waist down) to give some privacy. The only drawback was that you had to get someone to guard you while you went because it was wide open facing the back of the house. The pic on the right is of my parents' bathroom. The stuff that the surge decided to leave in the house ended up like this... nasty. And the water in the bathtub is water left from after the floodwater receded, so that is the same water that flooded the house.... so you can just imagine how nasty everything is from that water. YUCK.


This is the view of the front porch. All of those bricks that are laying on the ground used to be the wall of the house. The pic on the right is the dining room, looking into the kitchen. Like I said earlier, there was nothing left... no furniture, no cabinets, no refigerators, no oven or dishwater, etc.


Here on the left is the guest bedroom that was on the front of the house. The king-size mattress was still there with some sheetrock and other debris. On the right is a picture of basically the far right side of the house (if you were facing the house). From front to back, there was my mom's study, Ben's bedroom, and then my parent's bedroom. I'm standing in my mom's study taking the picture, and the whole wall, including studs, is gone between that room and Ben's bedroom. All of that debris got hung up in Ben's room (wall paneling, doors, studs, and the daybed that was in Mama's study).


This is my parents' bedroom. The first pic on the left is looking back into Ben's bedroom. There was still a mattress from their bed left in their room, but no other furniture. A lot of clothes and magazines and etc. got washed into the corner of the part of the wall that was still left as you see in the next picture. Those are Ben's drums and I'm not sure if we found them in that bedroom or where they were. The other picture is looking down one hallway. The A/C unit at the end of the hall had come out of its closet, and all kinds of other junk, clothes, etc. ended up in the hallway all bunched up with the carpet. It was pretty gross.


Here is our pop-up camper that got caught up in a fence with other debris a block back from the house. And then there is my mother's piano that we found a couple of blocks back in somebody's back yard. It was her high school graduation gift from her parents. It survived the Flood of '79 in Jackson, and then I grew up playing this piano. So it was very special to her and to me. After I got there, though, we went to say good-bye to it. Even though it is all in one piece still, there is probably no saving it. However, on Monday, a church group from Daphne, Alabama had come over to help work at the church and to help do what they could, and they were able to get it for us and bring it back to the house. That was very special. But we're still not sure it will be able to be saved because the inside was just filled with muck and debris, and saltwater does horrible things to stuff.



So anyway, that's all I have to show. Even though it has been hard, my parents are doing okay (okay as they can be, I guess). We just try think about how it could be worse. But next time I post, I'll try to talk about something a little more cheerful. :)