An Ocean Sunrise

The alarm went off at 6 AM this morning. We were going to sit on the beach and watch the sunrise. If you want to see beauty that God creates, put watching an ocean sunrise on your list. Simply gorgeous! We got out to the beach at about 6:45. It was still pretty dark out. My ISO is amped up pretty high in this picture, so it looks lighter out than it actually was.
There was a man out there who was doing some early morning fishing.

Drew took the camera and started snapping some pictures while we were waiting for the sun to make an appearance.

This little bird had me cracking up. He would peck his little beak along the area where a wave came in looking for food. But, when a wave came back up on the shore, he would run as fast as his little legs would carry him away from the water. Once the water reached the furthest point it would go, he would go back to pecking his beak into the sand. So funny!

Here comes the sun!!!

And here is the point that the battery dies! Drew spent so much time playing around this morning, that by the time the sun came up, the battery was dead. Granted, I probably should have put the battery on the charger.

After watching the sunrise, we came back to the house to eat some breakfast. I was pretty crabby because I didn't get a lot of sleep, plus I had somehow gotten a splinter in the bottom of my foot yesterday. Lack of sleep + not being able to walk on my foot = crabby Tania. I felt bad being so pissy with Drew, so I went back to the bedroom to take a nap. I guess he fell asleep on the couch. I think it was about 9:30 that we laid down. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 12:30! Nap. . . check.

Drew was already awake and working on a puzzle that we've been working on. We got ready and went back to the beach to do some more swimming. The waves were pretty crazy today. Drew decided that he would show me how to boogie board. I strapped the board to my wrist and started to try to make my way out into the ocean. After drinking about a half gallon of ocean water, I was getting frustrated. Drew kept telling me to jump over the waves so that I could get further out to catch a wave. Yeah, sure. What he doesn't understand is that I'm way lighter than he is, so me jumping over the waves just causes them to pick me up and drag me back to shore. And me drinking a ton of saltwater in the process.

Once I had had enough drinking of the saltwater, I headed to shore. We decided to head over the pool and spend the time there. After an hour or so there, we came back to the cottage to get ready for dinner.

We got recommendations to go to Conchy Joe's for dinner, so we did. We ordered Alligator Tid Bits for an appetizer. Tastes just like chicken!

Drew ordered the Grouper for dinner, and I had Shrimp Scampi.

I thought that the food was good. It wasn't so good that we'll have to put it on our list of places that we must come back to, but it was good. When we were leaving, a band was playing more towards the front of the restaurant.

Tomorrow, we're going to a place called Lion Country Safari. Be prepared for a lot of pictures!!

Why, Hello Again Ocean!

Drew and I are quite used to sleeping in, and today wasn't any different. We woke up about 11:00 AM and got ready to go to the beach. See, Drew's all ready!
I wasted no time in breaking out the camera and taking pictures of all of the beautiful things that I was surrounded by. This was one of the neighbor's bushes. Isn't it beautiful?

In order to get to the beach, we have to walk through the neighborhood a little bit and then go through this tunnel. The tunnel goes underneath the street and comes out on the other side where all of the recreation area is for the complex.

The recreation area has lots of things for residents to occupy themselves; Bocce ball, shuffleboard, a pool, pool tables, ping pong tables.

Ahhhhhh, the ocean!

I decided that I wanted a picture of the two of us. However, since we're on a private beach, there aren't exactly a lot of people around. Plus, I'm not too crazy about handing my fancy camera over to someone who probably has no experience handling a fancy camera. So what does one do? Well, set the self timer, of course.

After I drank about a gallon of ocean water, I decided that I was done for the day. As we were walking back through the tunnel, we noticed the fantastic echo. Drew decided to put on a little show for me.

We changed clothes and did a little exploring around the island. We went into one of the surf shops and found this little guy. His name is Owen, hence my face. Isn't he cute? While doing some research of things to do while we're here, I came across a kayaking tour. I mentioned it to Drew and told him that I'd love to do something like that. We were talking to the lady at the surf shop and found out that they rent kayaks. One of their employees is out of town, but she'll be returning on Tuesday and the lady said that she can take us out on a kayaking tour. So, I think we're going to do that on Tuesday.

We drove around a little more. Drew remembered going to some "bathtubs" when he was younger. We found Bathtub Beach that he was talking about, but you can only see it during low tide. Of course, we were there during high tide.Guess we'll just have to make a trip back there another day during low tide to see it.

We're going to get up in the morning to watch the sunrise on the beach. I am so excited!

@#$*&#% Delta!!!

Never again! Never again will I ever fly on Delta. Well, with the exception of our flight to Atlanta and our flight home, I will never again fly on Delta. I don't care if my mom has died and it's the only flight available. I will wait for the next flight. Delta will never again get my business as long as it's my dollar I'm flying on.

Today was a travel day for us. We're in Jensen Beach on Hutchinson Island. Drew's grandma has a home here, and she was kind enough to allow us to use it for our vacation.

When we started planning this trip, I told Drew that I didn't really want a flight at the crack of dawn. Our flight was at 12:30 this afternoon. I thought it was perfect. Until we got to the airport.

You see, I didn't know that Drew booked us on Delta until yesterday when I asked him. My hatred for Delta started when they screwed us over on our flight coming back from Puerto Rico after our cruise. There were storms on the east coast at the time and it screwed up flights everywhere, delaying and cancelling tons of them. Our flight to Chicago got cancelled, but Delta told us that they could get us on a flight to Atlanta. We would have to stay the night in Atlanta, but they would provide us a hotel, transportation, and food vouchers. Our flight to Chicago would be scheduled for the next morning. We agreed to this and went on our way to Atlanta. When we landed in Atlanta, they weren't even expecting us. We had no hotel room, no transportation, no food, and my luggage got destroyed! It ended up working out after some difficulty, but I have not been a fan of Delta since.

I figured that I would go into this with an open mind and give them another chance. Way to go, Delta! You jacked that one up!!!

We got to the airport today and Drew put my suitcase up to get checked. (I should first say that we were trying to pack "smartly" and only check one bag. The first bag was $25 to check and the second bag was $35 to check. We didn't want to pay $35 x3 flights for a second bag, so we packed one suitcase and a carryon for Drew.) My bag weighed in at 55 lbs. Apparently, that's 5 lbs overweight and we were charged an additional $90 to check the bag. You read that right, folks. $115 to check one suitcase!!!!!

Delta, you suck a lot!

We boarded the plane, amidst my grumbling, and had an uneventful flight to Atlanta.
We grabbed our connecting flight in Atlanta to West Palm Beach and arrived here in Florida at about 6 PM. We got our bags and rental car and began to make our way to the cottage. Drew had to call Erik, our brother-in-law, for directions because Mapquest doesn't know what they're talking about. We eventually made it here and quickly dropped our bags inside to go find some dinner.

We did a very quick dinner at Wendy's because somebody (me) was starving. Since we're staying at the cottage, which has a full kitchen, we decided that we would save some money and buy some groceries to cut down on our eating out. We went to Publix and spent $107 on a few groceries! I was shocked!! I can shop for a couple of weeks for Drew and I on that much money back home. And we only bought a few things.

After grocery shopping, we came back to the cottage to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, we're going to go to the beach. I can't wait to play in the ocean!!

Rachel's Senior Homecoming 2010

I can't believe that my "baby" brother and sister are seniors this year. My sister was especially excited for Homecoming this year because she had a date. Not just a date, but her boyfriend. And this just so happened to be the first dance that her boyfriend has been too. If that doesn't scream precious, I don't know what does.

I gave my sister an extremely hard time when she went to Prom last year because she didn't let anybody come to take pictures of her. Yeah, not cool. I basically insisted that I come take Homecoming pictures of her. Thankfully, she didn't fight at all. And I got some great pictures!

I'm a little disappointed with this picture. The goal, or at least my goal, with photography is to take a great picture SOOC (straight out of the camera) and not have to do any editing to it. I love this picture and haven't touched it all. The only bad part, to me, is that their faces are blown out. Bummer! But it's still a decent picture, in my eyes.

This is my favorite picture that I took. I love everything about it. I love Adam's position and the look on his face. I love how my sister is leaning on him and how she looks so fierce with her hip popped. I love the background. I give myself MAJOR points for this one! Major points!!

Good News for a Change

Have you ever dreaded something? Dreaded something so bad that you lost sleep over it, spent time leading up to that something sick with worry? And then that something turned out to be not nearly as bad as you expected it to be? Or better yet, turned out to be even better than you expected?

Well, that was my day today. Today, I had my HSG with the RE. An HSG is an hysterosalpingogram, which is an x-ray type of test that looks at the uterus and fallopian tubes. A dye is inserted into the uterus and flushed through the tubes.

In case you're wondering, it's as unpleasant as it sounds.

But, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Yes, it was slightly painful, but with all of the pain that I go through every month, it wasn't too awful. And my RE has apparently done his fair share of them because he was very quick with the procedure.

Now for the good news. My tubes aren't blocked!!! And my uterus looks very good; there are no abnormalities.

This has, of course, caused us to change our game plan. We are going to do an IUI this cycle. I am to track my ovulation with OPKs and as soon as I get a positive, I have to call the office.

Words can't describe how happy I am to finally have some good news throughout this process. Now we just have to hope that I ovulate before we go on vacation. C'mon ovaries . . . . do your business!!

The Day I Held My Tongue

I got fired yesterday.

My boss called me into her office shortly after 10 AM (Gee, I'm sure glad they kept me around long enough for me to get everything done for them in the morning) yesterday morning. I sat down in her chair and she, very smugly, flipped over a piece of paper and handed it to me. The paper began by stating that they regretfully inform me that my position was being terminated. My boss said that they were letting me go and that it shouldn't come as a surprise. I continue to read through the letter as my boss is running her mouth saying something or another that I didn't really pay attention to. I had heard all I needed to.

I simply got up, while she was mid sentence, and walked out the door. There was a box on my desk (Thanks a lot!) and I packed up my things and left.

I actually surprised myself in the fact that I didn't say anything at all. And trust me, there were A LOT of choice phrases that I really wanted to vocalize. And if you know me, you know that me keeping my mouth shut when I'm being treated completely unfairly is a BIG DEAL!!!

I called my mom. And bawled. And I came home to tell Drew. And bawled. And then you know what I did?

I said, "Screw them!" and I decided that this is the best thing for me. Was I fired unjustly? Yes! Are we probably going to do something about it? Maybe. But this is going to give me the opportunity to do what I want to do.

And you know what? It did surprise me! I'm surprised that a woman can treat another woman so cruely. I'm surprised that I have been open and honest about my condition and about my fertility treatments and this is the way that I was treated. I'm suprised that this woman, who is a mother, can be so compassionless and heartless. I totally understand that this is the business world, but normally, employers will work with their employees. Especially when it's health issues. I could totally understand if I was screwing up, or if it was something from my doing. But this isn't.

I just keep telling myself . . . . KARMA IS A BITCH!

Tin Grin

Today, I started my journey into getting braces. I had x-rays and molds done today. It was all very painless. As the woman, who is only slightly older than me, was doing my molds, she told me that I have tight lips and cheeks. Um. . . thanks! I think.

As I was leaving, the woman told me that the doctor was going to take a look at everything and then he would send me a letter to let me know what my treatment plan will be and what to do as my next step. Well, I already know what that is going to be. I'm going to have to get four teeth pulled.

And that's the part that I am terrified about. They aren't going to knock me out. I have to be conscious while they rip four teeth out of my gums. Yes, I'm going to have Novacaine, but that's not going to stop the sounds. Oh.the.sounds!!! I'm absolutely terrified.

According to the orthodontist, he can put the braces on four or five days after I get my teeth pulled. He said that I'll probably have to wear them for two years. He also said that, not only do they have clear brackets, but they have clear wires too. So I won't be a complete tin grin.

Two years and I'll have a beautiful smile!

One is the Loneliest Number

I got my first taste of Drew being a flight mechanic this weekend. He called me Friday morning, while I was at work, to let me know that he would be going to California for a couple of days. His work scheduled his flight out and he left pretty immediately.

He flew to Phoenix where he had a connecting flight to Ontario, California. He said that it was beautiful out there. Unfortunately, he had to leave so quickly that he didn't remember the camera.

I can tell that he's missed me too, because he has called me and texted me incessantly. We're so not used to traveling on our own! :-)

He's on his way home now and I couldn't be happier. As nice as his paycheck will be, I would much rather have him working here than in another state.

Apple Pickin'

Last weekend, Drew and I went to Edwards Apple Orchard with Rachel and her boyfriend, Adam. The whole reason I wanted to go, besides to get doughnuts, was to pick apples. Unfortunately, apple picking didn't open until Wednesday. So, I made Drew go again today to pick apples.
The only apples that we could pick today was Jonamac.

Some of them were huge!

There was only one size bag that we could use to pick apples and when the bag was filled, it came out to be a half bushel. Have you seen a half bushel? Well, we got about 40 apples! Needless to say, I came home and looked up a bunch of recipes. There will be many apple themed treats in our house for the next couple of weeks.

Sweet Tooth

After my crummy day yesterday, I knew that I need some major distractions this weekend. My sister came over today and we had originally planned on going to On The Waterfront. It's cold here today! As in, there is no way that I'm gonna go hang out outside with scads of people. So, we needed to come up with something else to do. She didn't want to go shopping because I offered to go to Woodfield.

I sat thinking and I knew I was craving something. All of a sudden, it hit me! I wanted a cupcake. I wanted to go to a cute little bakery and pick out a cupcake and sit at a cute little table and eat my cupcake. The problem is that we don't have a cupcake bakery here. Sure, we have bakeries, but not CUPCAKE bakeries.

Enter Google! I found one in Naperville, which ended up to only be about an hour and 10 minutes away. Yes, Rachel and I drove a little over an hour for a cupcake. But they were delicious!!!!

Sugar Monkey Cupcakes is a darling little bakery in downtown Naperville. I'm smitten with it! They have daily flavors that they make and then there are flavors that are made specific to the day. They make a certain amount everyday and when they sell out, they're gone. When we got there today, there was only Red Velvet (first picture) and Maple Bacon (second picture) left. And let me tell you, both were F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!!!!

I can't wait to go back and try more flavors!

What's Beyond Frustration?

So, I was sick all last weekend, which meant that I got my period. Which also meant that, once again, I'm NOT pregnant. Based on my charting temps, I knew that I was going to be getting my period either Thursday evening or Friday. I called the doctor's office because I had to do Day 2 bloodwork. Since I knew that I was going to be out of town, I had to figure out what they wanted me to do.

After speaking to a nurse, she said that she would leave a work order at the front desk for me to pick up on Friday morning. I would then have to find a place in Wisconsin to do my blood draw. Pain in the ass, but doable.

My period showed up early afternoon Friday so I knew that I would have to go get my blood drawn either Saturday or Sunday. Saturday was pretty much out of the picture since it was the wedding, so Sunday it was.

Sunday morning, Drew and I went to their "emergency room" and had my blood drawn. The nurse had to fill a good dozen vials. A DOZEN!!!!!!! It wasn't as bad as I thought, but still not pleasant. Thankfully, she worked quickly.

The nurse said that she would send my results to the doctor. Yesterday, I was talking with a coworker of mine and debating whether or not to call the doctor's office. I hadn't heard from them yet, but the nurse did say that some results could take close to a week to get.

I decided to call this morning because, based on our consultation, the doctor had mentioned needing to do the SIS or HSG on CD10, which would be Sunday. Well, the nurse informed me that she did have all the results and that everything looked really good. I told her what the doctor said about the other tests and she said they usually happen on CD 7, 8, or 9. Today is CD8. Crap!

When I told her this and that I didn't want to miss this cycle, for very obvious reasons, she said that she would talk to the doctor and call me back. She eventually called me back and told me that there was nothing the doctor could do because the hospital was already behind on their surgeries. I would have to call next time on CD1 to schedule the tests. She even had the balls to tell me that I was supposed to call on CD1 to let them know that I had started.

Excuse me woman! But I did call and inform you guys that I would be starting. Plus, you received my bloodwork. Shouldn't that be evidence enough that I started? Shouldn't you guys have called me to let me know that you received my results and to schedule the next step that you want to take.

To say that I'm beyond frustrated is an understatement. I feel like I'm the only one trying to do anything to become pregnant. I'm charting, taking vitamins, eating/drinking or not eating/drinking certain things, making uncomfortable changes in my lifestyle so that I don't become sick. And then to have the doctor tell me that I'll have to wait until next month! I'm just heartbroken. I don't think that I have ever felt so crushed in my entire life.

AYKM: Keep Your Hands to Yourself!

Yesterday, my mom called me and told me about a situation that happened at a school around here involving someone that she knows. We'll call this woman Beth. Beth has a 7 year old daughter that we'll name Michelle.

Apparently, Michelle was at school the other day and was in the bathroom. Another little girl came into the bathroom and knocked on the stall door and demanded to be let in. Michelle said no and that she was going to the bathroom. The other little girl then crawled underneath the stall door and began choking Michelle. I guess that a teacher walking by heard the commotion and broke the girls up. After a short discussion in the principal's office, he sent the girls back to class. Beth was called to come to school to discuss the incident.

Beth, of course, was outraged. Police were never called and the other little girl was not disciplined at all. She did not receive a detention, suspension, or expulsion. And, when asked why she did it, she responded that she didn't know and that she just wanted to be friends with Michelle.

Michelle is now terrified to be alone, as can be expected. At 7 years old, this little girl has experienced a trauma that no girl should ever have to experience.

There are so many parts of this story that make my blood boil. First of all, what is going on in this little girl's life for her to learn to choke another person? She, very obviously, needs to be in some sort of counseling to manage her anger. Second, the school did absolutely nothing about it. There was no punishment for the other little girl. She was simply sent back to class. Beth was told that the school could not call the police because a weapon wasn't involved. Beth could file a report if she chose to however. The other little girl was choking Michelle to the point where she couldn't breathe. If that teacher hadn't been walking by, Michelle could be dead.

Stories like this make me not want to have children. It is so hard to know that our children will have to grow up in a world like this. This story was also the final push (that I didn't really need, by the way) to move out of this school district. I do not like where our children would be going to school if we continue to live here. And, while I know that problems with children exist in every school, the way that a school handles the situation differs. I AM NOT OK WITH HOW THE SCHOOL HANDLED THIS SITUATION.

I pray that Michelle can overcome this unfortunate situation. And I pray that the other little girl gets the help that she so desperately needs.

Angela and Cody's Wedding

Last weekend, Drew and I made the trek up to Green Lake, Wisconsin for Angela and Cody's wedding. I had never been a bridesmaid, so I was so excited for this first. Drew and I left late Friday morning so that we would have some time to relax before the rehearsal. My period decided to show up Friday afternoon, even though my chart said that I would start on Sunday. I knew that it was coming though from my temps. I spent the whole weekend so sick. I have no idea how I got through it. I was nauseous, and in pain, and just miserable. I put on such a brave face and I don't think that anybody really knew how crappy I felt.

The rehearsal and dinner went very well. Saturday dawned and was a gorgeous day! All of us girls started our day out at the salon to get our hair done.
The back of my hair. I loved the way it turned out!

After I got my hair done, and while Angela was getting hers done, I played with the macro settings on my camera.

Not only was I a bridesmaid, but I was a makeup artist too. Multi-tasker!Angela's flower girl and her mom. Isn't she adorable!

The bride and her father.

Me, Cody's mom, Cody's grandma, and Cody's sister-in-law

The groom! I think he looks a little nervous. What do you think?

Mr. and Mrs!!!

Minus the fact that I was so sick all weekend, I had such a great time! I loved being a part of all the wedding festivities. I wish nothing but happiness to the newlyweds and a long life filled with many blessings.