My Monkey.

Sorry to post this here and the fact it's super cheesy, but I just couldn't help it.

~ Time spent ttc him ... 21 months
~ Number of appointments, hoohaa cams, injections ... countless
~ Being fortunatate enough to take this picture?



Priceless.

p.s...

I had to add this in to my last post. I can't believe I forgot about it. Maybe because I'm still too shocked.

My father, 73 years old, just found the wonderfulness that is an ipod. He spends HOURS looking for and downloading songs. He's very much into think like Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, The Eagles, etc.

So today, he's going over his music to find songs he wants to put in an absolute "favorites" playlist. He's going through song by song, playing the first 5-7 seconds, checkmarking the ones he wants.

As one song starts to play, I immediately turn to him my best WTF look.

Dad: "You know that girl who Chris Brown beat up? I love her music!"
~ Rihanna playing ~
Me: can't talk. dumbfounded.
Dad: "I've been listening to her a lot!"
Me: Rihanna?
Dad: "Yes. This song, 'unfaithful', is my favorite"

I don't know what is more disturbing. That my 73 year old father listens to Rihanna. Or that he explains who she is by "that girl Chris Brown beat up". Or that I knew who was singing when I heard it playing.

Since it's a Friday

I will not post my discussion of the four questions. I seem to have a lot more traffic in the mornings of weekdays, so when I want people to read/see something, I make sure it's posted over the span of a night/weekday morning. So, you'll have to wait. Although I'm not going to be full of great insight, just my take (and the answers to the questions).

A few random and schnarky items.

~ My brother is getting married on a cruise ship in oct and I wasn't going. But my dad wants me to go and said he'll pay for me. Just me. Not Tom or the kids. I want to go, but a week away from everyone is huge. And unfair to Tom. It's a big family cruise and my dad just won't pay for 5 people, so it's just me or no one. Ugh. I understand why I can't go, but it's still a bummer.

~ What are those blanket things with arms called? Snuggies? Shnoogies? Snugglies? I refuse to google it. Anywho. I was watching a baseball game the other night and saw someone behind home base with one on. Seriously. Like actually wearing one. Now, there are white trash / punk rock shit that is cool - like PBR, John Dear and pink flamingos in your yard, but the blanket thing is seriously dumb.

~ I hit my weight goal this morning. But it was just the first of weigh-ins and I have to weigh it multiple times in case it's just a fluke. Yay. 7m2w4d past birth. FINALLY. Of course, I'm 15 lbs lighter now than pre-preg weight, it took that long to get off all my iui/ivf/fet weight + baby weight off.

~ Ted Kennedy died THREE days ago and I just found out about it now. I was at my parent's house and the news said "kennedy's viewing is over" and I was like WTF? They STILL are showing jfk's casket? Seriously - look how out of it I am. I even read the paper today and didn't catch it. BTW, I totally think ted kennedy got away with killing that girl. I'm just sayin'

~ Speaking of public figures getting away with shit. This michael jackson thing is starting to really fucking annoy me. I believe he got away with some very bad things. Sure, he had a fucked up childhood. Real fucked up. REAL fucked up. But that's just a reason, not an excuse.

~ I have a russian tortoise I need to get rid of. He's awesome, but we just don't have the room. I used to keep some of the girls' large toys in the office/guest room, but now it's a nursery so all of their stuff is in their own room. Plus Peter Pan (the tortoise). I feel bad, but the thing has a life expectancy of 80 years and he's 4. I put an ad in the paper for this weekend (craigslist doesn't do pets) so hopefully I'll find him a home. If anyone in driving distance to Co Springs wants a full setup for a tortoise (55 gallon terrarium, warming pad, lamp, plus all accessories), I'll give it to you. I'm asking $75, but I'll give him away to anyone I "know".

~ Can Jon Gossling (no clue on spelling) wear more Ed Hardy? Seriously dude. Buy some different t-shirt brands.

~ I'm dying to see Inglourious Basterds. I really want to know what the reasoning behind the intentional incorrect spelling, but when Quentin Tarantino was asked, he replied, " "Here's the thing. I'm never going to explain that. You do an artistic flourish like that, and to explain it would just take the piss out of it and invalidate the whole stroke in the first place." Lame.

~ That twilight movie thing. I've never read nor seen it because whoa, I'm over the age of 14, but I see the cast and such in my hollywood gossip mags. Can someone please tell me why this vampire kid (the one with the shaggy blonde hair) is supposedly hot? I don't get it at all. Although I do think Dr Cooper from Nurse Jackie (who I just learned is another vampire in twilight) is cute as hell. Maybe it's just "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" thing. ~shrug~

~ I am going to get the "mother of the year" award this year. I wrote about it on my other blog.

I have way more to say, but I have to go take care of a few things.

Question #4

I know you already know my final question (and then I'm going to post something about all 4 ...)

What was the best thing you have ever said to anyone? Does anything stand out that you would think someone else would consider what you've said to be their "best"?

Question #3

What is the worst thing ~you~ have ever said to anyone?

(a lot of the time we don't even know we've said something horrible, but many times, we realize we've said something horrible, usually too late to undo the damage. Do you remember yours?)

We interrupt this line of questioning

to welcome Baby Birdee into the world. I received his newborn picture this afternoon (5 hours after posting she was in labor) and he looks gorgeous in every way. Mommy hasn't posted herself yet, except the fact she went into active labor this morning, so I can't give out any details due to respect of allowing her to post the first picture of her son. (although I'm dying to do so!)

Now back to regular programming. If you haven't yet answered the past two questions, please take a moment to do so. Thanks!!!

Question #2

What is the best thing anyone has ever said to you?


This is a two part-er, so I'll speak to many of the comments left on the past post. Which, by the way, just broke my heart to read. I want to give everyone a ginormous ~hug~.

Question.

What was the worst thing anyone has ever said to you?

The candles are blown out.

Thank you to those who wished me a happy birthday. 37. Wow.

Today we had a 'dual' family celebration for both my birthday and allison's, which is on the 18th. It ended up being all about her - she got the cake, the song, the candles, but who needs a birthday party at age 37? She's 4 and she had a great family birthday party. (I didn't get a card from the hubby nor my kids though. I'm bummed out about that. My friends were great though. Lots of texts and cards came in the mail, so that all made me happy!)

I saw the movie "funny people" tonight. Long movie, but good. I liked it. It didn't have a clear storyline all the way through, until I saw the end which pulled it all together. What I thought the movie was about was not what it was really about. Good movie though, so I'll thumbs-up it.

The red sox lost again today - that's 10 years of losses on my birthday. How do I know this? Ben Affleck and myself share the same birthday, including year. And Baseball Tonight on ESPN kept talking about the fact the sox haven't won on Ben's birthday for 10 years. Weird. Not weird they haven't won - they're the sox for goodness sake. You aren't a true red sox fan unless you are used to losing. All. The. Time. Well, when it counts. (I can't believe we actually have 'fair weather fans' now. Incredible!) But weird espn were all about reporting the aspect of wins/losses on Ben Affleck's birthday. Why his birthday? There is a sox fan born everyday of the year, yet we hear all about Ben's curse of August 15th.

I'm such a loser.

That's right. A LOSER. I'm 1 lb away from my goal weight! One fucking pound. ~grumble~, but better than 20, right??

I keep walking around the house saying outloud "that's right bitches! 131!". I don't have any idea who these "bitches" are who I'm talking to, but it keeps coming out of my mouth.

I just measured myself tape measure style. 36-28-34.

omg. the horror. I just looked in a playboy to see what the measurements of centerfolds were (knowing I wasn't anywhere near! but still curious) and the girl in the one I picked up was 38-24-34. Oy vey. 24-34? A TEN INCH difference in waist/hips?!

Okay, let me get off my own horn-tooting topic...

Hrm. Blogable news ... um ... yeah. So.

I have some topics to bring up, but they need their own post. And I swear, I got nothin' right now. Nothin.

I told the guy, I didn't even WANT the fish!

Titles aren't my forte.

My gosh, yahoo mail was PISSING me off yesterday. I just couldn't save my picture attachments and I wanted to stab my mail program. Computer rage is much like road rage. I'm not only a member, I'm the president.

ANYWHO ...

Yes. I declared reader bankruptcy AGAIN. And I've actually been out there and anyone who has had updates in past two days. Well, not everyone, but I'm getting there. Slow and steadily I'll be back to knowing what the fuck is going on with everyone. Thanks for the advice. It's amazing how something you use for 'therapy' (blogging) can become a source of stress itself.

Updates about me? Yeah, not much. I'm unemployed and haven't even started looking for a job. My severance came in and I'm in the midst of budgeting it all out. And with a lot of thanks to our families, we also found our way completely out of debt so I'm no longer worried about living in a van down by the river. Ella is in school (thanks for looking! I don't think I've ever had that many people on my other blog!) and I'm now getting my bearings enough to start thinking about working again. I'm planning on starting the job search in September.

So what's an unemployed girl to do?

GET A NEW PIERCING!

Heh. I'm not really into piercings too much. I mean, I got my belly pierced (and it's still pierced) over 18 years ago. My birthday is coming up and I'll have had it pierced for 19 years. So obviously it's nothing new to me. I was one of the first to get it done back then, but it's definitely not edgy anymore.

So. I fell in love with transdermal anchors. And since I don't have a job right now, I got one. I love love love (no, you don't have to pretend like it. it's okay.) the positioning of the one I got. I've liked the collarbones and back of neck ones, but not enough that I wanted one. When I saw the "cleavage" one (have no idea what the real positioning is called) done, I wanted it. So I got it...




YAY! I fucking love it. It's low enough that totally shows off when wearing a tank or a scoop or vee neck tee, but with a normal tshirt or button up, it's covered.

What do you think? It's a little red because I had ~just~ had it done moments before I took the picture, but it's been perfect since. And if you are wondering how it's done, first a hole is pierced into my chest with a thick needle using a forceps to pull the skin away from my chest bone. Then she stretches the hole open and slips a transdermal anchor (kinda like a flat disk) in and then lets the skin fall over it. Finally, through the pierced hole, the ball is twisted onto the post in the anchor. So I can change out the ball, but the anchor is pretty permanent (until I get it cut out I guess).


What else to do with unemployed summertime?

MORE TATTOOS!

Heh. Well, I can't really afford to get new tattoos, but I wanted my sleeve finished. Here is the inside elbow which finally got colored in...




The green swirls are working into that first bottom wave which will be eventually be worked into the top waves. The top of my arm is being totally redone. A HUGE coverup. I used to have a variety of "stuff" there - as it was when I first started getting tattoos like 20 years ago and I had no idea I'd get a sleeve done. Having a fairy and a arm band of vines was cool back then, but now it just looked kinda hodge podge.

So an incredible artist (different from my incredible artist who did my bottom sleeve) is working on my coverup. He is amazing. He covered up my entire upper arm with beautiful colored flowers. I had no idea color could be covered with color other than black. My outer (shoulder to elbow) arm is done and now he had the entire inside of my arm to redo. It won't be a coverup though, as the two interlaced koi, representing myself and my husband, is what I want. But he's going to redo it, as the initial tattoo was only started and no where near completion when my old artist started smoking meth and took off. (it was hard to find an artist who would work on another's work. Especially an artist like I have, who is actually internationally known, as he's been in tons of tattoo magazines).

ANYWHO, due to the artist being as popular as he is, he's hard to book time with, so I have two 4 hour appointments scheduled for Oct~ish and Dec~ish. It's not part of our budget, obviously, but if I can save enough money from my blogher checks and if my husband gets more in his commission checks than we have budgeted, we decided to go ahead with the appointments. But no ~new~ work. Tom is getting a lot of work done free from the owner of the shop who is just starting to tattoo (his brother is the artist and he's the business end) but is also quite amazing. So it's only "fair" to allow our only extra money to go to getting my arm finally done. We won't go into debt because of it though, nor take away from family stuff for it. Obviously that should go without saying, but explaining we're on a strict budget then talking about spending tons of money on tattoos doesn't make too much sense on the surface, so I wanted to explain.

Here is the picture of my elbow which was finally finished ...




I just can't believe that flower is centered on my elbow. Nor can I believe I sat twice for the work. Getting my elbow done was the WORST pain I have ever sat through for any of my ink. Makes me really rethink of getting my other sleeve done in the future. Like seriously. Ouch.


Since I declared reader bankruptcy and I'll only be reading newer posts, is there anything I missed out there? Emily? Eden? Kym? Jenn? Jen? Jennifer? Sarah? Sara? Chicklet? Pam? Tabacco Brunette? JJ? Geohde? Hollie? Murgdan? Melissa? Katie? Lori? Morgan? Julie? Jewels? Laurel? M? Kim? Jendeis? Jamie? Beautiful Mess? GeekBM? Annacyc? Calli? Io? Denise? Carrie? Dot? Missy? Mel? Tori? Kristin? Jayme? Kari? BabySmiling? Monica? Tammy? Kelly? Mareike (smooches!)? Aggie? Beth? Krista? SHAYNA (I miss you!)? Robin? Steph? Tara? LJ? Lisa? ElephantsCR? Lilith? Photogrl? Kate? AreYouKiddingMe? Poltzie? Any Braces Buncher? Jill? Ella? Peeveme? Saraphim? Clam? Kimbo? Soapchick? Erin? CLo? Mommybird? Rachel? Sacredandscarred? April? Amanda? Suzy? Joe? Paz? Artblog? Amy? Stacy? Stacie? WishingHopingPraying? Elana? Shinejil? Olive? DrGrumbles? Rebeccah? Brianna? Sherry? omg... I can't do it. I know I'm missing so many people and I'm afraid if I keep going and "complete" the list, I'll miss someone!

updates and pictures for the "other"!

I'm about to update today, but pictures are taking a moment to get from my phone. grrrr. This blog will be updated later today hopefully. Until then, I've got the pictures for my family blog up. You know the one, right? Instead of TheNewLifeOfNancy, it's TheOtherLifeOfNancy.

The updates I'm about to publish in the next 10 minutes (if Jenn stops texting me! ~wink~) I've published on TheOtherLifeOfNancy are of:
~ Ella's first day of kindergarten
~ Karl's 7 month update
~ Allison's cutie-patootie smile

So check it out if you are up to it?

I've been in a mood.

Confession time.

I haven't read any blogs, nor barely blogged myself, for weeks.

Pregnancy blogs make me yearn for it. Parenting blogs make me compare. Food blogs aren't my thing usually. Decorating blogs, like my wonderful friend Laurel's blog, makes me feel like I haven't got a cool bone in my body.

I gotta get back in the swing of things.

Why?

I MISS IT.

I miss knowing everything about you girls. I miss going through all the ups and downs. Being away from you all makes a hole in my heart.

How do I get it back?

I'm just sayin ...

All of hollywood being baby crazed is super fucking annoying.

Even as an if-survivor (if i can even claim that) it bothers the piss out of me.

I don't care who has the cutest baby bump.
I don't care who has the best post baby body.
I don't care whose baby is turning 1.
I don't care whose kid has the cutest hair do. Or shoes. Or toys. Or outfits.

I like my hollywood gossip. I'll admit it. But in my latest issue, 13 of the first 30 pages had ~something~ about babies. Or pregnancy.

Can the public really be intersted THAT much in it? Seriously?