Woo hoo! We were finally able to get out and go walking again. Between the FET and the bitterly cold temperatures lately, we haven't been walking since at least the beginning of December. It felt really good, too. :) I was a little concerned that something or other was going to really hurt by the time we got home, but I haven't gotten as out of shape as I feared. I even made it over the knee high snow banks without hurting either of us. Alison hasn't gained much weight, so that helps. I did end up with one small blister, but I chalk that up to wearing my hiking boots instead of my tennis shoes... my feet aren't used to them.
Being out walking kind of makes up for not getting up and doing Tae Bo this morning. In my own defense, I was not being lazy. I had fully intended to get up, but Alison was up coughing in the middle of the night and therefore mommy was up, too. By the time 6:15 came around I could barely open my eyes, and I still had a bit of the sore throat that popped up yesterday. So I ditched my workout and grabbed an extra hour of sleep. It must have helped, because I'm feeling much better now.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
About 10 years ago, maybe a little less, I decided to teach myself how to crochet. I bought a skein of yarn and the "I Taught Myself Crochet" kit and off I went. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get the hang of it, so I gave up and took up knitting instead. I was much more successful at that and I love to knit.
After finishing my last knitting projects (a baby blanket for a gift and a couple of dish cloths for me), I felt I needed a new challenge and decided to give crocheting a try again. It's taken a couple of days, but I think I've finally got the basic stitches figured out. I don't know if it's because I've been knitting for so long now, but it seems so much easier now than it did before. At any rate, I felt confident enough with my practice swatches to try a simple project. So I'm making myself a scarf. I had a little trouble at first, so I'm really on my second attempt, but it's looking pretty good. Maybe in a couple of days, just in time for the bitter cold to end and a scarf no longer be a necessity, I will have a brand new scarf. :)
After finishing my last knitting projects (a baby blanket for a gift and a couple of dish cloths for me), I felt I needed a new challenge and decided to give crocheting a try again. It's taken a couple of days, but I think I've finally got the basic stitches figured out. I don't know if it's because I've been knitting for so long now, but it seems so much easier now than it did before. At any rate, I felt confident enough with my practice swatches to try a simple project. So I'm making myself a scarf. I had a little trouble at first, so I'm really on my second attempt, but it's looking pretty good. Maybe in a couple of days, just in time for the bitter cold to end and a scarf no longer be a necessity, I will have a brand new scarf. :)
Thursday, January 27, 2005
I've been neglecting my blog lately. The last couple weeks haven't been all that great around here. But enough about that for now.....I may get back to it at some point, or I may not.
When I was in high school, I was in the marching band. Our band was a competition band. During my 4 years in the band, we had competition shows using music from "West Side Story," our "Simply Streisand" show featuring songs by Barbara Streisand, a show that really had no theme, and finally, "The Phantom of the Opera." That show, done in my senior year (fall of 1989), began my fascination with "Phantom." In 1992, my mom and I went to Toronto to see "Phantom" on stage. It was incredible. Growing up near Cleveland and Akron, I was no stranger to professional productions. I had even seen a ballet in Paris when I was there as an exchange student, and a musical on Broadway ("City of Angels," which went on to win the Tony for Best Musical that year). But this was something else. There had been some impressive effects in "City of Angels," but the effects in "Phantom" left me wondering "where did he come from?" or "how did they do that?" When it was over, I talked my mom into buying me the tape of Toronto cast album and the book that told about the production. I listened to the tape the whole way home. If I could have seen the show again, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Little did I know that I would get that chance.
In 1995, Kevin and I were trying to come up with an idea for short vacation. I threw out going to Toronto to see "Phantom," never thinking that he'd be interested in it. Kevin grew up in northern Maine. Going to plays, musicals, ballets and things like that was something he never had the opportunity to do. To my surprise, he agreed, and we set about making the arrangements. We came across the CDs of the original London cast and picked them up. We stumbled across the original, 1920's, movie version of "Phantom" with Lon Chaney, and bought that, too. We were able to get seats close to where my mom and I had sat.....they were actually a little better than what we had had. The show was just as good the second time around as it had been the first. Kevin, having never seen anything like it before, thought is was incredible. I left wishing that there was a video of the show available. I wanted to be able to see it again and again and again. My mom went to see it again a few years ago, as it was ending it's run in Toronto (Paul Stanley, yes the guy from KISS, was playing the Phantom then). I was deeply jealous and wished I could have gone, too.
Somehow, I had not heard that there was a film adaptation of the musical in the works. Imagine my surprise when I started seeing commercials for it! Imagine my disappointment when it was opening only in selected cities last year and would not be opening nationwide until this month. Now imagine how happy I was that my mom was visiting when it finally did open nationwide two weekends ago. We don't go to a whole lot of movies. In fact, I think we only went to one last year. But there was no way I was going to miss seeing "Phantom" in the theater, especially after seeing the "making of" on HBO. I was really excited, but also a little worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. I thought the casting was perfect, and was really impressed that the three leads did all of their own singing (a requirement of Andrew Lloyd Webber). I loved being able to see things up close, see facial expressions, details in the sets/scenery that you can't see in the theater unless you're in the front row. There was, what I felt was, an akward cut away at the end of one scene, some of the song lyrics were changed a bit, there was a scene that was cut out completely, and the chandelier didn't fall at the end of Act I like it was supposed to, but overall, I loved the movie. I left the theater wishing I could go back in and see it again. When telling my mom about it the next morning I said that Kevin and I should have gone Friday night and then I could have gone back and seen it with her Saturday night. Maybe, if we get the opportunity, I'll get a chance to see it again while it's in the theater. If not, I will the first in line to buy it when it finally comes out on video!
When I was in high school, I was in the marching band. Our band was a competition band. During my 4 years in the band, we had competition shows using music from "West Side Story," our "Simply Streisand" show featuring songs by Barbara Streisand, a show that really had no theme, and finally, "The Phantom of the Opera." That show, done in my senior year (fall of 1989), began my fascination with "Phantom." In 1992, my mom and I went to Toronto to see "Phantom" on stage. It was incredible. Growing up near Cleveland and Akron, I was no stranger to professional productions. I had even seen a ballet in Paris when I was there as an exchange student, and a musical on Broadway ("City of Angels," which went on to win the Tony for Best Musical that year). But this was something else. There had been some impressive effects in "City of Angels," but the effects in "Phantom" left me wondering "where did he come from?" or "how did they do that?" When it was over, I talked my mom into buying me the tape of Toronto cast album and the book that told about the production. I listened to the tape the whole way home. If I could have seen the show again, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Little did I know that I would get that chance.
In 1995, Kevin and I were trying to come up with an idea for short vacation. I threw out going to Toronto to see "Phantom," never thinking that he'd be interested in it. Kevin grew up in northern Maine. Going to plays, musicals, ballets and things like that was something he never had the opportunity to do. To my surprise, he agreed, and we set about making the arrangements. We came across the CDs of the original London cast and picked them up. We stumbled across the original, 1920's, movie version of "Phantom" with Lon Chaney, and bought that, too. We were able to get seats close to where my mom and I had sat.....they were actually a little better than what we had had. The show was just as good the second time around as it had been the first. Kevin, having never seen anything like it before, thought is was incredible. I left wishing that there was a video of the show available. I wanted to be able to see it again and again and again. My mom went to see it again a few years ago, as it was ending it's run in Toronto (Paul Stanley, yes the guy from KISS, was playing the Phantom then). I was deeply jealous and wished I could have gone, too.
Somehow, I had not heard that there was a film adaptation of the musical in the works. Imagine my surprise when I started seeing commercials for it! Imagine my disappointment when it was opening only in selected cities last year and would not be opening nationwide until this month. Now imagine how happy I was that my mom was visiting when it finally did open nationwide two weekends ago. We don't go to a whole lot of movies. In fact, I think we only went to one last year. But there was no way I was going to miss seeing "Phantom" in the theater, especially after seeing the "making of" on HBO. I was really excited, but also a little worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. I thought the casting was perfect, and was really impressed that the three leads did all of their own singing (a requirement of Andrew Lloyd Webber). I loved being able to see things up close, see facial expressions, details in the sets/scenery that you can't see in the theater unless you're in the front row. There was, what I felt was, an akward cut away at the end of one scene, some of the song lyrics were changed a bit, there was a scene that was cut out completely, and the chandelier didn't fall at the end of Act I like it was supposed to, but overall, I loved the movie. I left the theater wishing I could go back in and see it again. When telling my mom about it the next morning I said that Kevin and I should have gone Friday night and then I could have gone back and seen it with her Saturday night. Maybe, if we get the opportunity, I'll get a chance to see it again while it's in the theater. If not, I will the first in line to buy it when it finally comes out on video!
Sunday, January 9, 2005
It's been a while since I written anything. Things got very busy around the holidays. Christmas this year was very much like Christmas last year, and that is not a good thing. Alison was not sick, this year, but we had another death in the family. Last year it was my grandfather, this year it was Kevin's father. The good thing is that he is no longer suffering, and he passed on before the suffering got too bad.
My father-in-law's death made the week after Christmas quite crazy for us. We were already timing for our last embryo transfer and had to be home by Wednesday night, for the procedure on Thursday. Despite the fact that my FIL wanted to be cremated (and he was) the family decided to have the memorial service right away, to get it over with instead of dragging things out for weeks. The memorial was Tuesday afternoon. That gave the family coming in from Maine/Connecticut time to get there (and us too) and also gave us time to get home for our transfer.
The service was very nice. There were a lot of people there. By the time the service actually started I think it was standing room only. It was a little awkward for Kevin and his (older) younger brother, because they did not live or grow up in that town (Kevin is 9 and 11 years older than his half-sibs), so they didn't know a whole lot of people. The minister did a very nice job. He tried to get people to stand up and speak, to relay their memories or tell funny stories, but no one did, at first. He went on with his "sermon" and opened the floor up again when he was done. At that point, Kevin's cousin got up to speak, and that gave Kevin and his brother the encouragement the needed to get up and say something, too. It was good for my BIL, because, not having expected it to affect him at all, he was having a hard time dealing with how much it really did affect him.
I felt like we spent most of that week in the car. Instead of coming home, which would have been pointless, we stayed at my parents' for an extra night and left for Virginia Monday morning. We stayed there until Tuesday evening and then hopped back in the car and drove to my aunt and uncle's in Maryland and spent the night there. The next morning it was back in the car and back to my parents' to pick up all the stuff we had left there, like our Christmas presents and our dog! We spent the afternoon there so that Alison actually had a chance to lay down and take a good nap instead of trying to sleep in the car, which she doesn't do very well. Then we got back in the car again and headed for home. Then Kevin and I had to drive down to near Detroit and back on Thursday.
As for the embryo transfer, it went as well as it could have. The doctor told us we had two "beautiful embryos." They both survived the thaw and did exactly what they were supposed to, as far as being ready to transfer. We won't find out until later this week if they did what they were supposed to, as far as sticking around to become a baby or not. I'm waffling back and forth between thinking it might have worked and being sure it didn't. Today I'm in the "I'm sure it didn't" camp. One thing I know for sure is that, either way, I'm getting my tubes tied. I can't afford to keep buying prescription folic acid supplements, and we can't afford to risk accidentally getting pregnant if I'm not taking the extra folic acid. Kevin would be willing to get the big snip, but this way, if we ever have the money again, we could still have the option of trying in vitro again.
My father-in-law's death made the week after Christmas quite crazy for us. We were already timing for our last embryo transfer and had to be home by Wednesday night, for the procedure on Thursday. Despite the fact that my FIL wanted to be cremated (and he was) the family decided to have the memorial service right away, to get it over with instead of dragging things out for weeks. The memorial was Tuesday afternoon. That gave the family coming in from Maine/Connecticut time to get there (and us too) and also gave us time to get home for our transfer.
The service was very nice. There were a lot of people there. By the time the service actually started I think it was standing room only. It was a little awkward for Kevin and his (older) younger brother, because they did not live or grow up in that town (Kevin is 9 and 11 years older than his half-sibs), so they didn't know a whole lot of people. The minister did a very nice job. He tried to get people to stand up and speak, to relay their memories or tell funny stories, but no one did, at first. He went on with his "sermon" and opened the floor up again when he was done. At that point, Kevin's cousin got up to speak, and that gave Kevin and his brother the encouragement the needed to get up and say something, too. It was good for my BIL, because, not having expected it to affect him at all, he was having a hard time dealing with how much it really did affect him.
I felt like we spent most of that week in the car. Instead of coming home, which would have been pointless, we stayed at my parents' for an extra night and left for Virginia Monday morning. We stayed there until Tuesday evening and then hopped back in the car and drove to my aunt and uncle's in Maryland and spent the night there. The next morning it was back in the car and back to my parents' to pick up all the stuff we had left there, like our Christmas presents and our dog! We spent the afternoon there so that Alison actually had a chance to lay down and take a good nap instead of trying to sleep in the car, which she doesn't do very well. Then we got back in the car again and headed for home. Then Kevin and I had to drive down to near Detroit and back on Thursday.
As for the embryo transfer, it went as well as it could have. The doctor told us we had two "beautiful embryos." They both survived the thaw and did exactly what they were supposed to, as far as being ready to transfer. We won't find out until later this week if they did what they were supposed to, as far as sticking around to become a baby or not. I'm waffling back and forth between thinking it might have worked and being sure it didn't. Today I'm in the "I'm sure it didn't" camp. One thing I know for sure is that, either way, I'm getting my tubes tied. I can't afford to keep buying prescription folic acid supplements, and we can't afford to risk accidentally getting pregnant if I'm not taking the extra folic acid. Kevin would be willing to get the big snip, but this way, if we ever have the money again, we could still have the option of trying in vitro again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
