So I started a blog a while back, and then life happened, and then I fell of the wagon. Then more life happened and I wanted to get back on the wagon again… and then I realized that I didn’t like the restrictions of my other blog… so then I moved here!

This one post is basically a historical summary of the posts I’d written on my old blog and then transferred here. It’s going to be epically long… but that’s just for now. I’ll change that in the future. I promise!

Feb 21, 2011: Deep in the heart of renos

So we’ve been rennovating for 3 months now.

I. am. so. sick. of. this.

At this point we’re finally on the beginning of the homestretch. All the boring inner guts (electrical, structural, drywall, etc.) junk is done and we’re priming and painting now. In the next days there’s actually hope that our walls will have colour, which will hopefully be quickly followed by things like cupboards and backsplash and floors.

And appliance.

I cannot explain how excited I am to have a dishwasher in the foreseeable future. It is actually possible that one day I will not need to wash dishes in my bathroom sink. Excellent.

I’m also really psyched about being able to prepare food. You know – those little things in life that seem like basics; chopping, cooking on a stove (versus nuking in a microwave), putting food on plates and eating at a table.

One day. Possibly one day soon-ish. 🙂

Feb 17, 2011: Hope deferred

Well, here we are in another cycle of this stupid IF journey. Every month we get our hopes up. Every month they get crushed.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfiled is a tree of life.

Heart sick.

Yup.

Feb 12, 2011: So it’s been awhile…

This is a long one… It’s been a while, so there’s a lot to update. Hold on!

It’s funny how grieving is different for different people. Personally I’m surprised at how Rob’s mom dying affected me so much.  She was an extrordinarily unhappy woman, who blamed me for her husband leaving her (he’d been having an affair for 1 1/2 years) and for her divorce. I ‘stole’ her son. I was pretty much evil incarnate. She was a (closet) alcoholic, and quite verbally/emotionally abusive… but always in subtle ways most people couldn’t see, and generally in emails after she’d been drinking. But more so, she was just very sad and had very poor communicaation skills.

But. I never ever in a million years would have wished that this would happen. That at 58 years old she was die unexpectedly. That our (future) children would never meet her. That my beloved husband would lose his mom at (what feels like) such a young age. That I would be so exhausted and sad about it. That it would make me fear my own parents’ deaths… I cannot imagine what that will be like – aside from the fact that I want to throw up every time I think about it.

It’s been just shy of a year now. She passed away on March 8th. Life has changed so much since then.

For example, we’ve been trying to start a family… for16 months so far. It feels like an eternity. Mostly because we waited until we were really sure that we were ready. I’d finished my Masters. We’d bought the house in the ‘burbs, and had time to settle down. We’d gone for a 3-week trip to Central America to explore and adventure together. We were ready.

And so we waited. And waited.

We got a BFP 4 days before Rob’s mom died… followed shortly after by BFNs… otherwise known as a “chemical pregnancy” or “very early miscarriage.” No time to really grieve. It was so early that it’s hard to even know how to grieve.

Finally at the 12 month mark we got a referral to a fertility clinic. We did the tests. Not such great news. Basically the liklihood that we’ll be able to conceive on our own is really low. That being said, the RE feels pretty confident that we can get pregnant through IUI or IVF/ICSI. So it’s an option. The bigger question is whether or not we can handle that.

In my opinion (at least my current opinion), IVF/ICSI is a little too much. It’s so personally, physically, and financially invasive that I’m not sure we could handle it. IUI isn’t such a huge thing to me, though… just feels more like giving the little guys a ‘fighting chance’ by getting all the healthiest ones closest to to the egg. Combined with Clomid (to hopefully have more than one egg available per cycle), it basically increases the (very low) odds to better than very low. We could adopt too. Totally. It’s also super invasive, but in more of a way that (as far as I understand/can imagine) makes it feel like you’re at a junior high school dance; standing off to the side and hoping someone will ask you to dance… and every time a boy comes near and doesn’t ask you it feels crushing. Just as expensive as IVF, but instead of being physically invasive, it’s more psychologically/emotionally invasive. And that doesn’t change with being public or private or international adoption… same crap – different category.

We’re still thinking about it. But no matter which way you slice it, I’m really really sad. I never thought I’d be this person. I always thought I’d be fine with no kids. I’m not anymore. I’ve just simply changed. I’m sad that the idea of us having kids ‘naturally’ is slipping away… yeah, yeah – anything’s possible. I totally know that. I just also know that anything’s not likely.

No – we don’t need to just relax. Yes – we do know what we’re doing, and the right timing and all that stuff. I know – when the timing’s right, it’ll happen… or not.

It just sucks.

There’s that. And work has been soul-crushing this past year. Major financial crunch – downsizing, layoffs. I’ve run out of steam… They’re good people. I’m just emotionally spent. Nothing left. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but the summary would be that I’ve changed. What I value in life and in work has crystalized. And the summary is that I don’t want to spend the equivalent of a full work day every week JUST communting. I don’t want to just fix other people’s problems. I don’t want to get anxious and nauseous every time I realize I have a new email in my work inbox. Good people. A cause I care about. I’m just not emotionally able to do it anymore. Not sure what that means yet. I’d really hoped to go on a maternity leave and figure it out then… now that that’s not likely to happen anytime soon it opens a lot of stuff to think through.

I’m just spent.

Now for the good things:

– We just celebrated out 5-year wedding anniversary! And I can say that we’re more in love now than when we first got married. I’m psyched to see what the next 5 years will hold. 🙂

– We’re 2/3 done our BIG reno: kitchen, living room, dining room, entry way. A lot of time. A lot of work. A lot of money… but it will be glorious. I will post pics.

– We have an adorable nephew who’s 1 1/2 now… and we’re guardians to our really good friends’ little boy who is almost the same age, and he’s awesome.

– We’ve got great friends, awesome family, stable jobs, our own home (with a small mortgage), a goofy/crazy/loveable/annoying dog who keeps us on our toes.

So in summary, it’s been a stupid year. It’s also had great things in it. We’re tougher and yet more fragile. we’re counting our blessings, but praying for a few other particular ones that seem elusive. We’re still here. We’ve survived this far.

One of my favourite quotes from the Bible is from Romans 5:3-5, and it says “…More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…”

We all need hope. Hope keeps us moving forward when everything else feels futile. There have been many days over this past year that have felt futile… but we have hope.

Mar 28, 2010: Surreal Days

1. In the large dry skillet, toast cumin seeds until they release their aroma. Transfer to a spice grinder or mortar, or use the bottom of a measuring cup or wine bottle to coarsely grind. Set aside. (I didn’t bother with this – just added the ground cumin…)
2. In the same skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and celery and cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, cumin, peppercorn, and salt; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Place potatoes on bottom of soft cooker. Add beans, stock and onion mixture. (I just cooked it in a big ol’ pot, since the timing worked better and it was actually pretty quick!)
3. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours, until potatoes are tender. Add chipotle chili and cream cheese, if using. Stir well. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes, until cheese is melted. Garnish with cilantro or parsley and serve immediately.

If you’d asked me years ago whether I’d end up in the ‘burbs, I would have laughed you out of the room… but here I am, and happily so! Rob and I got married in February 2006 – on a crazy day where the wind went so wild that it snapped trees, took out all the power, and brought the waves from the ocean so far in that it flooded houses in the town! It was a crazy day, but in hindsight seems so appropriate. You can’t help but laugh at the insanity of it all… it was definitely memorable, and filled with family and friends who pitched in and made it something nobody will ever forget. We recently celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, and I can definitely say that we’re more in love now today than we thought we could be – in a deeper, more solid and real way than ever.

We don’t have any kids yet – just Bleu. He’s our adopted Australian Cattle Dog (aka Blue Heeler) who joined us just a couple of months after our wedding. He was one of the Hurricane Katrina animals who were rescued and re-homed. He’s still got some major trauma and insecurity issues, but high doses of anti-anxiety meds and lots of love and patience have all helped him to mellow out… a little bit. 😉

Last November we bought a house in the next town over from where we both grew up – an 8 minute drive from the townhouse we’d had since shortly before our wedding. It was a whirlwind process of deciding to purchase the house… a private sale where we had 2 weeks to decide from the time we heard about it; with everything closing and us moving in within 5 weeks! Our good friends have kiddy-corner backyards with us, and we also know the neighbours behind us pretty well, so that was a huge bonus too!!

Our house is on a corner lot, in a really quiet area – half a block from a sports park (i.e. baseball diamonds and soccer field), which is connected to an elementary school. Our neighbours back onto farmland, which in itself is kind of odd for the ‘burbs, but we don’t usually complain. Usually. During the spring and early summer there are air cannons (that sound like shotguns) going off in the blueberry farms, and that’s really annoying, but otherwise no biggie.

Our house is 40 years old, just like everything else anywhere nearby, and when we bought it the majority of the insides were pretty much like a flashback to 1969… totally original – great condition, but super outdated.

We’ve been slowly, but surely, rennovating like crazy. It’s expensive and tiring, but totally rewarding. I’ve also realized that I really enjoy working in our garden.

We have a total of 9 trees (6 in the front and side yards, and 3 fruit trees in the backyard) and on a sunny summer day there’s nothing I’d rather do than spend the afternoon weeding the garden; Bleu relaxing on the grass next to me; finches singing to each other in the trees; sunshine and warm breezes… snacking on fresh, ripe raspberries. Awesome.

So anyhow – all intentions aside, I’m now in the middle of suburbia with my hubby and our dog… rennovating and pruning, and cleaning, and weeding. I spend hours pondering which light fixture to buy, and then hours on my knees installing flooring. And I’m not complaining. It’s peaceful and friendly here. The noise that we hear is kids laughing and playing. When we got a leak in our roof of our garage during the winter, our neighbour saw Rob out there trying to get a tarp on things… within minutes he and his son were over – in the pitch dark and pouring rain – to help out. Seriously. That’s awesome.

So this is a little log of some of the things that are happening in the happily boring world of suburbia. I’m happy if you find this interesting, but not traumatized if you don’t… suburbia isn’t everyone’s delight, but it is mine. 🙂