Whew! It's been a while!

I haven't posted in quite a few days (almost 2 weeks!) and it seems long overdue that I update. Things have been busy here, to put it mildly. G finished up school on the 16th and we left that night to go up to central PA to go camping with my parents and my two cousins. We camped from the 17th-20th (and still had fun despite the 40 degree nights and cold days) & then came back late on the 20th because Gregg had a football reunion picnic with his high school championship team on the 21st. That was pretty fun. I had to work Monday through Wednesday of this week & then today, we helped a friend move out of her apartment. Somehow, it took us longer to move her out of her apartment than it took us to move all of our stuff (and we have a TON) out of our house and it took us four trips, to her one! I don't know how it took us so long! Anyway, tonight, we're leaving for the shore & then on Monday morning, we leave for Disney!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!

I'll leave you with a list of fun camping memories that my cousin, Jenna came up with, as well as the movie that DH made of our trip...enjoy!

Here are some highlights of the camping trip...

• Downloading (lots)
• A butt stamped on Gregg's face
• Butt friends
• Gregg almost dying from a smiley
• Beavers
• A huge raccoon
• Scary skunks
• It's too late to 'pologize
• The cold temperature
• Gregg's naughty mad lib
• Frisbee (Hitting Jenna in the balls)
• Shay and her constant crying
• Old guy who was amazing at redneck golf
• Feeding birds
• Talking showers
• Walking with Aunt Chris to the bathrooms in the dark
• Michelle flirting with the maintenance man
• Buzz Word
• Teri wanting to play Skip-bo every minute
• Gregg and his disgusting long john farts
• Gregg being a butt head about Phase Ten
• Gregg drinking Teri's "pee"
• Gregg, Jenna, and Michelle dancing on the amphitheater stage
• Gregg and Jenna running to the bathroom in the torrential downpour
• "Jenna we're neighbors!!"
• The camping sign

PS - I wish I had time to write out and explain all of the "private jokes" on most of these items on the list...let me know if there are any that intrigue you & I'll be sure to blog about them!! :)

Good-bye 301 W 6th St (aka - we're homeless)!

With all of the commotion, I haven't had the chance to come on and write much (the meme was about all I could handle), but it must be done. I need to bid farewell to the home that's been Home Sweet Home for the first 4 years of our life as husband and wife.

It's been a good home to us...

• even if we did have to get the NEW air conditioner fixed every SINGLE year that we have been there.
• even though the crappy builder's-issue paint on the walls would scrub off down to the drywall if you tried washing the walls down or wiping off a scuff mark
• even if we did have to see our fire-fighting bachelor neighbor sunbathe himself semi-weekly on his back porch
• even though our loft/office was known to be about 95 degrees in the summer despite our central air

Wow - that didn't sound like it's been a good home to us...let's try again...

• It's the home where we sat on the living room floor and opened up all of our wedding gifts the day that we arrived home from our honeymoon
• It's the home where we've shared all of our heartaches and shattered dreams TOGETHER on this crazy road of infertility
• It's the home where we've hosted many'a game night for friends
• It's the place we've called home TOGETHER, where I was carried over the threshold when we returned home from our honeymoon.

Sunday was a sad, but bittersweet day for us. Our WONDERFUL friends (people from G's work and our church, plus family) rallied together (on the hottest day of the year so far) to move everything out of our house. It is honestly amazing how much stuff 2 people (and a cat) can accumulate in four years. I mean, our house wasn't overly-cluttered or heavily furnished and we're not pack rats by any stretch of the imagination, so we kind of couldn't believe our eyes when it took FOUR trips with the U-haul to get everything into G's parents' barn, aka second garage (thank God we didn't have to rent storage!). And it was jam-packed every time! It shouldn't have surprised us too much, though, considering that we had 19 boxes of JUST BOOKS on the bookshelves in our loft alone...but, we are teachers, after all! After the moving was over, G's parents hosted a cookout at their house (aka our new home). They have a pool, as well, which was a HUGE blessing on a 95+ degree day! Enjoy the pictures! I'll probably post another entry later today if I get a chance!

Moving Day Pictures

You will be missed, 301...onto bigger dreams.

Music Meme

I got this from a fellow blogger friend, Tipp! If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

MEME Rules:

1. Put your iTunes/ music player on shuffle

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT

After you’ve answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and then let them know they’ve been tagged to do the meme themselves!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?

Old Time Christmas by George Strait

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Something Worth Leaving Behind by Lee Ann Womack

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Geek in the Pink (as sung by Chris Richardson of American Idol season 6)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Forever and Ever Amen by Randy Travis

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

Change the World (as sung by Chris Richardson of American Idol season 6) - interesting that he came up twice since I probably only have 2 songs by him on here...and interesting that this is my purpose in life...not sure how I'll change the world, but I'll sure try - one preschooler at a time!

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

Song of the Cebu (Veggie Tales) - this one made me crack up!

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?

A Christmas to Remember by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (this is actually neat because I love Christmas time at home with my family! Can you tell I love Christmas music? We've had 2 Christmas songs already!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Temperature by Sean Paul - does that make me naughty???

WHAT IS 2+2?

Total Eclipse of the Heart (as sung by Jessica Sierra on American Idol season 4)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Last Man Committed by Eric Heatherly (very appropriate since DH is my best friend and definitely my last man committed!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Crying as sung by Carrie Underwood - well, since DH is the person I like, this seems appropriate, since he is crying (and wishing and hoping and praying) that Carrie Underwood would throw herself on him - haha

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood - so true, so true ( "I've never been the kind that you call lucky, Always stumblin' around in circles, but I must've stumbled into something)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

The Day Before You - Rascal Flatts

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Be My Baby Tonight - John Michael Montgomery (ooh yeah!)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

I'll Never Forgive my Heart by Brooks & Dunn (don't get that one??)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

The Christmas Song by lonestar (I sure hope not...) haha

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Every Friday Afternoon by Craig Morgan (hmmm - I don't think so - nice song, but not really appropriate)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem by Kenny Chesney (what??? being topless can be a hobby, right???)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Too Much Fun by Daryle Singletary (oh yeah!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Took My Place by Third Day (I've got some great friends...they would take my place/pain if they could!)

WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?

Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall

Kind of strange in some places, but still good!

Top Ten

Top Ten signs you know you're moving...
1. You start out packing into nice, neat organized boxes, but eventually you get so tired of it that you see nothing wrong with putting an alarm clock, a jewelry box, towels, flip flops, and toilet bowl cleaner all in the same box.
2. You (oops!) leave the inside entrance to the garage open and suddenly find yourself on your hands and knees, attempting to lure your cat out from under your car with catnip (ok, so that one isn't really a sign of moving, but I thought it was a funny story anyway...)
3. Practically every square inch of your home is covered in boxes
4. Practically everything you've ever owned is packed into boxes
5. Your cat is bewildered and spends approximately 90% of her time huddled under the bed
6. You painfully part with $600 to put dead-bolts on your doors, to bring it "up to code" according to new area regulations, knowing full-well that your dad could have done it for about $80 if you had a bit more advance notice.
7. You live out of a suitcase for a week and a half, quickly remembering that you needed (insert random toiletry item here), but it's already boxed up and sitting somewhere at your in-laws' house.
8. You ate a Betty Crocker mini Warm Delights (for lunch) with a plastic knife because all of your real silverware is packed away.
9. You lived on PB&J for a week because you didn't want to buy any perishables
10. You have one of these in your front yard

Great giveaway!

Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is hosting an awesome giveaway. Twenty lucky bloggers will each win a boxed set of 17 cds from WOW Hits 1! Cool! Go check it out!

What a whirlwind week?!?!

This past week has been one jumbled blur! We've slowly been packing up our house for our expected June 13th move-out, even though we hadn't gotten final confirmation from our realtor that the buyers' mortgage proposal had been approved. The house had to be inspected, as per their realtor's request, even though it is only 4 years old, and then it needed to be appraised since the new buyer is a veteran & is using veterans' assistance to buy the house...it needed to appraise for at least the sale price or his loan through the VA wouldn't be approved! Well, praise God, we found out on Sunday that not only was the loan approved, but they were wondering if we could move settlement up to the 10th...as in this coming Wednesday! So, needless to say, we've been scrambling to get the house packed up and everything we think we will need over the course of the next 4 months, shoved into college-student SIL's room (aka our new room) at my IL's house. They did also clean off their sun porch, so that DH & I could have a place to keep our computers set up, keep our cat (she isn't much for other people or animals), and have some privacy...well, as much privacy as you can get on a sun porch, anyway...a sun porch that is right off of FIL's study...I guess there'll be no late-night snogging going on on the sun porch ;) hehe

I've also still been working, but only part time, so that has been nice, albeit aggravating. To put it mildly, I have had it up *to here* with the after school kids...I told them today that if I had a dime for everytime I heard someone say "but that's not fair" while they were playing with each other the past few days, I would be a millionaire. They are all just getting on each other's nerves and simply ready for school to be over with. I have work tomorrow, then I'm off Thursday (for our niece's preschool graduation & birthday party in NJ) and I'm off on Friday (because we're leaving as soon as G gets home to go to my parents' house for a quick weekend trip). Next week, I work Monday through Thursday, and then I'm off for a while as I'm only filling in for co-workers who are on vacation..I CAN.NOT.WAIT!
Countdown to the big move: 5 days
Countdown to the shore trip w/ DH's coworker friends: 10 days
Countdown to the camping trip w/ my parents: 14 days
Countdown to the Disney trip w/ DH's parents: 25 days

Have a super summer!!!!!!!!!!!

wii is for mii

At least for the time being, I'm putting IF out of my head for a while...worrying about it, the money, no baby, etc, isn't going to help and I know that God is working on something for us, even though it KILLS me to not know what it is or when, or if it's in MY plan for this life...

So let's talk about happier topics on this blog, shall we? let's talk about me getting in shape! Or more specifically, me crippling myself for 3 days while attempting to get in shape... thanks to my new wii Fit system! The saddest part is that I only used it for 45 minutes on Saturday and by Sunday morning, I was walking down stairs like a 90 year old woman! It's now Wednesday and I am just finally starting to walk without a limp going down the stairs. My abs and thighs really got a work-out, thanks to the Hula-hoop game, the ski jump, the yoga exercises, and the balance activities! I have finally found a workout activity that I like because I can do it by myself (which is key, seeing as how I don't get home from work until 6 PM!), yet I don't feel alone, thanks to all of my wii mii buddies and my wii fit personal trainer. Another plus is that the system has everything set up like contests or games, which is a great motivator for me! And I don't get bored with it too easily, because the more you "play," the more games, exercises, and levels you can unlock! You can track your BMI and weight loss progress right on the game (using the balance board as your scale) and you can do a daily fitness test to see how you're doing towards meeting your goals.

I feel more toned and in shape already, which is really what my goal was anyway. I know I don't need to lose weight, but I do want to tone my butt/thighs and get my heart in shape...especially since the P.A. at the gyno's office was nagging me about exercising when I was there (hatefully staring at all the pregnant ladies) last week...did I also mention that she told me I should probably start thinking about adoption? No matter...she's dead now anyway since I shot daggers out of my eyes when she had the nerve to ask me that...oops, forget I said that...this is supposed to be a HAPPY post...right, right.

Crawling out from under my rock...

I guess a week is a long enough mourning period, that I should now be crawling out from under my rock to say hello to everyone again...even though it doesn't feel like long enough. My tears are dried up for now...I have nothing left inside of me except hurt and emptiness...but I know I need to pick up and keep going because life goes on, even when I don't want it to. So here I am.

This past week has been the worst week of my entire life...not only has God told me that I'm not having a baby anytime in the next 9 months, but basically, I feel like I've been told that I will never bear my own child. I will never see our miniature reflection of Gregg and I running around our yard...and that hurts...it sucks...and it isn't fair. Even if my eggs are still good in there, we don't have enough money to give it another try. We don't have enough money to try donor eggs (which costs twice as much as regular IVF) and we don't have enough money to start even thinking about adoption...I know there are adoption grants out there, but my gut is telling me that I could possibly only have 5 more good child-bearing years left in me. And I won't be able to rest until I've been given the "I'm sorry, your time's up" speech...that will be my only form of closure on this...we won't be too old to adopt in another 5 years, but I may be too old to have my own child, so I just need to focus on getting pregnant right now...and we will worry about other things later...my in-laws approached me the other night about a possible way to fund another IVF for us, so I'm hopeful that I may be able to get at least one more shot at it...now the question is where to go? Do we stay with the current doctor (I don't want to but DH does) or do we go somewhere else with a doctor that specializes in poor responders, such as myself? In the meantime, I am researching possible IVF studies where I could get into an IVF cycle for free. So, that's where we are now...and my follow-up appointment with my current doctor isn't until...get this...JULY 8th. What in the heck? By then, you aren't even going to remember what happened in my cycle...how is the doctor even going to talk about it? And what if I wanted to get in on the next IVF cycle, then what? I would have to wait until August-September...just another reason for me to be friggin' frustrated with this doctor's office.

Work has been...work. My frustration started last week...remember when I told you that my boss said that she would come back to relieve me on the day of my pregnancy test if I got bad news? well...she saw me crying my eyes out to my other co-workers, but as she left for the day, I heard her say to some of the other people, "I'm going home! I've been here since 6:3oAM" and just like that, she left! I was so freaking ticked off...so, she threw me to the wolves on the worst day of my entire life...she made me stay there ALL DAY and suffer...all I wanted to do was be home with Gregg...but instead of doing her job and finding someone else to cover for me in what I considered to be an emergency situation, she just decides that she's done for the day and leaves. So ever since then, I have gotten frustrated with my work situation pretty easily. I LOVE teaching the preschoolers, but I hate the after school responsibilities and the fact that my boss isn't willing to make any changes...so I have to continue to suffer through it until June 11th, which is the end of the school-year program. After that begins the regular summer-camp program. I am freakin' counting down the days...and I'm never doing big-kid daycare again...EVER!

Speaking of work, I have a hilarious story to tell you today. We had beach day at preschool. We were supposed to go outside and play fun water games, etc, but the weather didn't exactly cooperate. It rained all day. So, we gave the kids the choice of watching the Little Mermaid or Jonah and the Whale (VeggieTales) . They laid on their beach towels on the floor, while wearing their swimsuits, sunglasses, etc. Because it's the end of our school year, we are also celebrating summer birthdays...so one of my students brought in ice cream cups for his birthday and another student's mom (who has 5 kids and works part time, mind you), made this cake (complete with blue Jello water and sugar candy rocks) for our Beach Day festivities...obviously she's insane. Anyway, the kids were having a great time when the birthday boy stood up during the movie to throw his garbage away...he's not the most coordinated of kids & ended up stepping right in someone else's half-eaten bowl of ice cream and cake. Before I even had time to think, he bent over, used his spoon to scrape the cake and ice cream off the bottom of his foot & he stuck it in his mouth and ate it!!!!!! I just sat there, mouth hanging open, flabbergasted...He then tried to use his spoon to scrape cake and ice cream off of the floor (that had previously been on his foot) and eat it...but I managed to intervene before that could happen.

Thank you, my sweet internet friends, for all of your prayers, kind words, and support. It was amazing to see old friends and new, lurking readers come out to lend their shoulders in my time of grief and need. Please comment more often...and I promise that once this week is over (my last week of preschool), I will be a better commenter on your blog, as well!!!