Scattergories!

I love love LOVE this game! Have the original, and an upgrade set with different topic cards. It's an absolute family favorite when we all get together.

Even though I'm 2 days late, when I saw that Calliope had started up a blog version... well, I just had to jump on her bandwagon! So, here we go:

Use the first letter of your first name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things - nothing made up. You can not use your own name for the boy/girl names.

1. What is your name? Beth
2. A 4 letter word: barn
3. A vehicle: Benz, as in Mercedes
4. A boy’s name: Benjamin
5. A girl’s name: Bella
6. Drink: bourbon
7. An occupation: bartender (apparently, I have bourbon on the brain)
8. Something you wear: bracelet
9. A celebrity: Brangelina
10. Something found in a bathroom: Balls (cotton? hairy? you pick!)
11. Reason for being late: battery died
12. Something you shout: Bastard!
13. A body part: boob
14. Word to describe yourself: balance-seeking

Now, check out Cali's post for other players. And please, please, PLEASE - if you decide to play along, leave me a comment back to your post, too!

Is it bad...

.... that I played hooky yesterday and cleaned my house? And now I'm sitting at work - bored out of my mind - thinking how nice it would be to be sitting in my nice, clean house?

WOW! Typing that made me feel old - very old.

Bragging

I just HAD to share this video. Since blogger is not cooperating with my efforts, I'm going to ask you to go check out this link

Go ahead, I'll wait....










Pretty cool, huh?

Now, the bragging part:

• He's my cousin (tho I take ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT WHATSOEVER for his talents... I just "ooooh" and "aaaah" a lot).
• He also rides a unicycle
• And makes balloon animals
• And does magic
• AND has even been PAID (pretty freakin well, too) to do kids' birthday parties and other kids' entertainment
• And, did I mention, he's 15?!

Shameless plug... should anyone in the Metro Detroit area be looking for entertainment for a kids' birthday party, let me know.

ok, bragging on relatives has concluded for the day. Thanks!

Growing up

I've done it, people! I actually.... created..... a BUDGET!

Well, kind of.

It's not so much a budget as it is spreadsheet (of course, cuz I love me some excel formulas!) for tracking income & expenses. More or less an activity log. BUT, I'm thinking that after a couple of months of logged activity, it might actually lend itself to becoming a budget!

"Why is she excited about this?" you're probably asking yourself. I'll tell you why... I work for a CPA, as a bookkeeper, and I do some bookkeeping/review of a few clients. The dichotomy of helping OTHER PEOPLE get their shit together, and me not even knowing how much shit I HAVE to get together... well, it finally got to be too much. And see, I've been wanting to do something like this for oh - about forEVAH! Wahoo procrastination!

Anywho, I put the fancy schmancy lil spreadsheet together on Saturday, and started entering activity in it as of June 1. I've got all the income & expenses categorized (or lord, I'm even following GAAP....). I've planned it so that I have monthly activity separated in different sheets (and I can even balance bank accounts), and I'll have an ongoing summary sheet that will show monthly totals. I may even do some fancy net worth kind of thing with it, too.

My plan (cuz I've always got to have a plan) is that understanding where we REALLY stand financially will help me to panic less about the BIG GIANT DEBT that I want paid off, like yesterday. I know it's going to take time, and I know it's going to take sacrifice. But my recurring method of "panic and eat mac & cheese for a month so we can send ALL OF OUR PENNIES to the debt" followed immediately by "that month REALLY FUCKING SUCKED, so let's go on a vacation, and then eat at restaurants every night for a week, and then buy some new clothes, and shoes, and tools, and crap crap CRAP"... well, it's not all that fun now.

I want to live "normally" for a couple of months, and see where we really are spending our money. Then we can see where we might be able to make a few cuts to pay down that debt some more. Or, maybe I'll have to finally face up to spending ridiculous amounts of money on absolutely nothing (do I really need to buy a pop or coffee EVERY TIME I stop & get gas?), and put a stop to some of that. OR, maybe I'll see that we don't have to live as tightly as I've been pushing for, and that we can have some fun while still paying down our debt and NOT FEEL GUILTY about it.

So, that's how I grew up this weekend.

About Me

Hi!

I'm guessing the only way you're reading this is if you're somewhat new to me (either thru NaComLeavMo, or some other click-thru way to my little corner of the Internet), so I figured I'd do some introducing type stuff.

My name is Beth. I've been married to Grumpy (aka Grumps, the GrumpyOne, and several other variations on the theme) for 5 years. We've been together since December 1996. We're working on getting ourselves out of debt, and on starting a side business. Oh, and we're infertile.

You'll notice on my blog that a lot of the speak is infertility related, but not all of it. I talk about recipes, and friends, and our finances, and much much randomness. But, the reason behind the blog is to have an outlet for all of my infertility related frustration. And, to hopefully get some feedback from like-minded (or like-experienced) folks, most of whom are undoubtedly wiser about this than I.

Here's a highlight version of our years of trying to make our family of 4 (including this puppy and this angry (yet adorable) cat) a family of 5 (or 7, if you believe Grumpy's prediction of triplet boys).

• April 04: tossed the birth control pills, naively thinking we'd be pregnant within 3 months or so.
• Sep 04: laparotomy to remove a LARGE endometriosis cyst
• Oct 04: cleared by gyno to start trying again naturally
• Aug 05: started first of 3 clomid cycles under the care of gyno
• Oct 05: referred to RE
• Dec 05 & Jan 06: 2 unsuccessful IUIs at the RE
• Mar 06: marriage falls apart, all baby-making activity stops
• Mar 07: marriage put back together again, all natural baby-making activity begins again
• Jun 07: gyno at a loss, as all tests seem "within normal ranges". prescribes metformin as a last-ditch effort before shipping me off to the RE (again)
• Jan 08: gyno leaves practice, so I set up an appointment with Dr N (new gyno)
• Apr 08: laproscopic surgery to remove another large endo cyst (found by the lovely, talented, and fatherly Dr N), as well as some smaller endo lesions
• May 08: start Lupron therapy (will last 4 to 6 months). no baby making attempts during this time while my body tries to heal

And that brings you up to speed. I've not yet been thru an IVF, and somehow, 4 years into this, I'm still insane enough to think that maybe - just maybe - we can do this on our own {you know, with the help of 2 surgeries (so far), and 2 HSGs (so far), and 3 different doctors (so far) and 6 prescription medications (so far)}. Naive? Perhaps... But, I is what I is, and that's all I can be.