I've been MIA

I really have been horrible about posting lately, mostly because I am so out of the ttc loop right now. My dh is having to travel a lot for work, and unfortunately his work schedule and my cycles are conflicting. We are seriously at the point where dh is wondering if he needs to get a doctor's excuse so he can stay home, since we are quickly coming up on six months post lap and have only managed to get in one IUI cycle during that time. (Of course part of that was Hurricane Ivan's fault for arriving at the beginning of the last cycle that dh was home.)

Fortunately I'm in an emotionally stable state right now. Truthfully I don't know if I want to get back in the center of the IF chaos because I am experiencing a calm acceptance, which we all know could change next week.

Ugh, the horrors of being an infertile teacher with a traveling dh during hurricane season.

Book: "Infertility Sucks" by Beverly Barna

This book partially explains my absence from blogging. I spent two afternoons after work devouring the book Infertility Sucks. I absolutely love this book and would recommend it to almost anyone who is exactly in my shoes right now. (Meaning not 100% convinced that you want to adopt, but sick of IF treatments too.)

Of course, I don't want to commit plagiarism or give away too much of the book. However, I will admit that I'm a bit dismayed to realize that many of my IF jokes that I have listed on boards over the last two and a half years are in this book! So much for thinking that I ever had any amount of originality before my brain became zapped by the fatigue of IF.

I'll admit that I am one of those people who could possibly be happy with a lifetime of outstanding experiences in place of adopting a child. However, keeping such a high is ultimately very expensive, and I would need a continual adrenaline rush from crazy life experiences to replace having a child. Teachers just don't make enough money to fulfill that need.

No wonder Beverly Barna adopts in the end, despite writing 137 pages about the advantages of living child-free. However, I will thank the publishing company for dedicating themselves to the project. I may have only had a few laughs from the book, but they were much needed ones. It can take a lot of effort to make IF funny.

A Summary of My TGIM Week

Yes, last weekend was so torturous that I actually found myself wanting to shout, "TGIM" when Monday rolled around. I would much rather be around other people's children who act as though I am their saving grace at school, instead of my relatives who never stop talking about pregnancy related topics.

For the most part I had a great week at school! The highlight was finding out that my field trip to take my students to see the opera Madame Butterfly was approved! Many of my students take violin lessons, and their instructor will be playing with the orchestra, so they are excited. Somehow, I have managed to instill a love of music amongst even some of my most "rough and tumble" boy students. (Although they wouldn't admit that to their peers who don't visit my classroom.) Our trip is October 19.

There was a distressing moment during the week with stupid Julie, however. I've heard her for weeks talking about how she is going to have her husband take her out to eat to at the Outback to celebrate when they find out the sex of the baby. Anyway, I had to hear all about the baby being a boy. I can understand being excited and wanting to know the sex of a baby. However, I've just never seen the point in being so overly excited about a child being one sex or the other, especially if its a first baby. After all, the child is going to, hopefully, be either a boy or a girl. And let's hope she wouldn't have gone and had an abortion if it hadn't been a boy.

This weekend my dh and I went up to Auburn for the homecoming game against LA Tech. One of his cousins called whom he hasn't seen in years. We met his cousing and is dw before the game to eat wings, and I must say it was absolutely refreshing to talk with a couple who has a two year old, while they were absolutely capable of discussing other topics as well. Perhaps it helps that they are engineers, and can't get away with talking about their kids all day long. Anyway, we ended up enjoying our Saturday, which was well needed after last weekend with my family.

Weekend Test of Patience

Ugh! I had been looking forward to the weekend all week long since dh was working the crazy west coast support shift and not getting home until 11 p.m. I had forgotten about the torture I was going to be subjected to this weekend. My uncle and aunt, who are in their very late 30s, are here with their close to one year old son. OMG, I am already sick of listening to my sister ask pregnancy related questions. They brought her the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and gave it to her right in front of me. (It didn't help that a copy of What to Expect When You're Not Expecting is currently being shipped to me.) I could have just cried. It doesn't help that they showed such obvious favoritism toward my younger sis by choosing her to be the godmother last year.
Honestly, everyone else in my family is uberfertile, and it's like I am singlehandedly the balance pulling my families fertility record back to the national average.
My new cousin is the sweetest baby ever, and so far I have loved being around him, even though dh and I really should have a baby that age now. It just hurts because there is so much pregnancy related talk when I am there, and there is no way I can be included.
Not to mention that my sister brought the topic of how she isn't getting along with her mother in law, and when I asked a nonchalant question my dad stepped in and said it was best not to talk about that. It would be nice if they cared equally about my feelings.