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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pâques Palliatif

For those of you who are unaware, I lost my grandmother yesterday. She went into hospital on April 24 around 2am, and by mid afternoon on the 25th she was transferred to palliative care. She died on April 26th at 12:15am.

The last few weeks seem to have flown by; everything was so fast at the end that it was only afterwards that I, or anyone else, could truly comprehend what had happened. But, in a strange way, I am glad that things happened the way that they did because she didn’t suffer. My grandmother had already been through so much in her life... she deserved to die peacefully, painlessly, and with dignity and that is exactly what she did. At 92 years old, pneumonia was the first thing that she was unable to conquer.

We may be having a memorial service for her in the upcoming weeks but nothing has been finalized yet. The burial will be private, as she had requested.

As always, thank you all for your support!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sister-in-Law's and Baby Showers

Just for fun, I googled "sister-in-law" last night... and you wouldn't believe the amount of negative links that pop up! "Affair with sister-in-law", "My sister-in-law is evil", "So and so's enemy", and "Sister-in-law from Hell" to name a few... wow! I am happy to say that I do not have any of these problems with MY sister-in-law, although I know that not everyone is so lucky.

Because I love MY sister-in-law, I threw her a semi-surprise baby shower on April 17th and I am happy to say that everything went well! Better than expected, actually, and I am pretty sure she had fun too! Yay! Lots of presents, balloons, homemade cupcakes, and the restaurant (which I originally had my reservations about) turned out to be very helpful in the end!

Now the real countdown begins; about a month, and I am really excited - for them and for me! I have never been an aunt before! And, now that the big day is coming up, I can finally let you all know that I am expecting a niece! I couldn't be happier right now... well, despite our own "issues"... but for the next couple of months it is all about my niece! I cannot wait to meet her...

Monday, April 4, 2011

Buy Me Love

“I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love”
"Can’t Buy Me Love" – The Beatles

Song stuck in your head yet? HAH! You will understand the quote shortly… and then you will think I am nuts, but whatever!

Years ago, about 1997 just after getting my driver’s license, I cashed in my savings bonds and bought myself a used Hyundai Excel ’88 (hatchback) from a friend of mine’s father. He had a body shop and fixed it up perfectly. Sadly, 10 days later a van smashed into me and tore part of my car off and bent the frame, but we brought it back to the body shop and they were able to fix it up for me. I had this car for about 3 years. We had our moments, our differences, and it was quite finicky at times… but I loved that car. When I moved out on my own, I left the car behind and it has since been sold.

Now, flash forward nearly 10 years.

Two weeks ago I posted on Facebook that it must be spring again because I was car hunting all over again. This seems to be a yearly tradition for me and one I usually fail miserably at! Within minutes she sent me a message saying she had her dad’s car for sale if I was interested. Sadly, he had passed away a few weeks earlier (I knew this before and had gone to the funeral) and she was left with a house and car to sell… a Hyundai Sonata ’02! Strange coincidence being another Hyundai! I went and took a look at it, and even though it was more than I wanted to pay it was in great shape for its age and I trust her dad kept it running well so I bought it!

So, after 10 years of not owning a car I have now had my very own car for about 48 hours and although I do not plan to use it much, I am happy I bought it. So, what’s with the song? About 15 years ago or so someone I am close to had made up a phrase to remember their license plate by and, thanks to her, I STILL remember that plate even though she hasn’t had that car in years! I even remember other plates from friends’ cars now because of this method (strange habit, I know). So… after going through a variety of “names” for my car I finally settled on “Buy Me Love”, which doubles as a way for me to remember half of my license plate as well! And yes, before you comment, I know that it is impossible to truly BUY someone’s love which is why the song title has the word “can’t” in it…. but my car doesn’t have a “C” in the plate!!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Round 3 (IVM): Summary

As some of you already know, I did another cycle in March using the embryos I had frozen back in December. Of the 2 embryos transferred on March 16th one of them was as perfect as can be in IVM! However, I did not let myself get my hopes up because I saw firsthand what that can do back in January when I was devastated. 

I remained pretty neutral throughout, even went back to work after a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks (yes, the doctor agreed to this) and I did not include very many people in this cycle either.  It was so much easier this way and I have learned that, in future, this is the way to go! In fact, I will probably include even fewer people. No offense to anyone, just my choice.

On March 28th I did my final pregnancy test at home and saw that it was still coming up negative. At this point, I pretty much knew that my blood test would only confirm what I already knew… and that is just what it did.

I met with my doctor yesterday and will be moving into IVF. Like he said, we tried IVM and it didn’t work… but it was far more successful that IUI ever was so there is hope in that. Yes, I already have a schedule set up and have a pretty good idea of when things will be happening but, as I mentioned above, I will be keeping things to myself for now. Only a few people know at the moment and very few others will be informed. 

So… round 3…. bust again…. moving on….