I may have found god in lemon cupcakes.
Friday was our consultation with the fertility specialist -- We are cautiously optimistic! We liked the doctor quite a bit. He has a gentle, honest manner which we both appreciated. From looking at our medical profiles, he was able to narrow the playing field slightly, ruling our a couple of things, which is great. Believe me, the array of tests and questions and options is staggering! The next steps are for Ian and me to both take a battery of tests (me more than Ian). I also need to go get all my annual physicals done with various physicians, which will take about 6-8 weeks to get all those appointments. Once we have all that aggregated data, then we return to speak with the doctor and discuss our odds and options personally. Alas, as it happens, indeed neither insurance company will cover any of this (except the physicals, of course). It'll be about $1,000 out of pocket just to get to that "what happens now" stage -- but that's also the stage which we hope will provide the first round of real answers and personal information. As I said, we are cautiously optimistic!
With that worry off our chests, the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed. On Saturday, I took the first steps toward my resolution of, "Say It With Cupcakes", which may have been the best idea for a new year's resolution I ever had in my life! I spent a couple hours baking lemon cupcakes with lemon-buttercream frosting from scratch. It was - comparatively - a lot of work, actually. We're talking zesting 4 lemons, and all that "real" baking entails. Through that, I laughingly promised Ian that there would be hell to pay if the cupcakes turned out not much improved from those from the box mix, which I used to like pretty well, actually! USED TO, that is, until the tiny lemon angels that dance on little lemon-buttercream feet descending from heaven to melt into our mixing bowls and become these fancy cupcakes I made! Boy, howdy! Those cupcakes were EPIC. Those cupcakes were life-changing! Needless to say, we can take no more satisfaction from box cupcakes ever again. We are forever ruined by the wholesome, delightful lemon-buttercream goodness that only homemade cupcakes can bring. Ian did a little photoshoot for our little beauties. I hope to have some pics to share with you soon. Next Stop: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my friend John's birthday on the 16th.
I dropped some donations off at Goodwill, and picked up 2 blouses and a reversible skirt while I was there. Got a whole bunch of little stuff done around the house. Then we checked out an "untapped resource" as my friend Sniper Dave would have called it, of a nearby restaurant that we'd never tried before. It's Amici's, a local Italian place on Wadsworth south of I-70. The atmosphere and the service (while very busy) were not stellar, but the food certainly was! We dined with Mac, John (of carrot cake fame), and their houseguest, Derek. We each tried the other four dishes everyone else ordered, and pronounced the whole place to be an unmitigated WIN! Looking forward to going back there to try it again sometime. We went to their apartment, a/k/a "Mount Olympus," to play Aberrant, and it was a great night with good company overall.
Sunday was chillin' & knittin' day. I watched this past half-season of "The Walking Dead" which is indeed proving to be better than seasons past. I'm already halfway finished with my custom hat chart with the Klingon imperial symbol on it, which I'm very excited about. I also managed to get our gas fireplace working again. The pilot light blew out sometime last summer. Neither of us have ever had a fireplace before so deal with ZOMG NATURAL GAS!!!11!!!! seemed very scary to us. The Fireplace Dude told me last year that it was no big if the pilot blew out, and he showed me how to fix it, which I promptly forgot. When I finally set my mind to it, it took about 45 seconds to get it going again. Don't I feel a little silly for these past few months when I could've been enjoying the ambiance of our totally-projects-no-heat-whatsoever gas fireplace? Of course now it's 54 today, but I'm sure it'll be fire-enjoying weather again shortly. In fact, I think we're supposed to get a snowstorm in on Friday.
Here it is January 7, and I've managed to make it through the first week of the new year with only one single Coca-Cola! Within a few days of kindly asking the monkey to step down from my back, I was sleeping noticeably better. I wake up fewer times, and I sleep longer and more deeply. I think last night may have been the best night's sleep I've had in weeks. That's always a good litmus test for my general stress levels, which tells you I've livin' pretty well these days!
Now to get back to it...
Trace
With that worry off our chests, the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed. On Saturday, I took the first steps toward my resolution of, "Say It With Cupcakes", which may have been the best idea for a new year's resolution I ever had in my life! I spent a couple hours baking lemon cupcakes with lemon-buttercream frosting from scratch. It was - comparatively - a lot of work, actually. We're talking zesting 4 lemons, and all that "real" baking entails. Through that, I laughingly promised Ian that there would be hell to pay if the cupcakes turned out not much improved from those from the box mix, which I used to like pretty well, actually! USED TO, that is, until the tiny lemon angels that dance on little lemon-buttercream feet descending from heaven to melt into our mixing bowls and become these fancy cupcakes I made! Boy, howdy! Those cupcakes were EPIC. Those cupcakes were life-changing! Needless to say, we can take no more satisfaction from box cupcakes ever again. We are forever ruined by the wholesome, delightful lemon-buttercream goodness that only homemade cupcakes can bring. Ian did a little photoshoot for our little beauties. I hope to have some pics to share with you soon. Next Stop: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my friend John's birthday on the 16th.
I dropped some donations off at Goodwill, and picked up 2 blouses and a reversible skirt while I was there. Got a whole bunch of little stuff done around the house. Then we checked out an "untapped resource" as my friend Sniper Dave would have called it, of a nearby restaurant that we'd never tried before. It's Amici's, a local Italian place on Wadsworth south of I-70. The atmosphere and the service (while very busy) were not stellar, but the food certainly was! We dined with Mac, John (of carrot cake fame), and their houseguest, Derek. We each tried the other four dishes everyone else ordered, and pronounced the whole place to be an unmitigated WIN! Looking forward to going back there to try it again sometime. We went to their apartment, a/k/a "Mount Olympus," to play Aberrant, and it was a great night with good company overall.
Sunday was chillin' & knittin' day. I watched this past half-season of "The Walking Dead" which is indeed proving to be better than seasons past. I'm already halfway finished with my custom hat chart with the Klingon imperial symbol on it, which I'm very excited about. I also managed to get our gas fireplace working again. The pilot light blew out sometime last summer. Neither of us have ever had a fireplace before so deal with ZOMG NATURAL GAS!!!11!!!! seemed very scary to us. The Fireplace Dude told me last year that it was no big if the pilot blew out, and he showed me how to fix it, which I promptly forgot. When I finally set my mind to it, it took about 45 seconds to get it going again. Don't I feel a little silly for these past few months when I could've been enjoying the ambiance of our totally-projects-no-heat-whatsoever gas fireplace? Of course now it's 54 today, but I'm sure it'll be fire-enjoying weather again shortly. In fact, I think we're supposed to get a snowstorm in on Friday.
Here it is January 7, and I've managed to make it through the first week of the new year with only one single Coca-Cola! Within a few days of kindly asking the monkey to step down from my back, I was sleeping noticeably better. I wake up fewer times, and I sleep longer and more deeply. I think last night may have been the best night's sleep I've had in weeks. That's always a good litmus test for my general stress levels, which tells you I've livin' pretty well these days!
Now to get back to it...
Trace