Writings from Wimberley (March Photos, Days 10-12)

Babycakes, the cats, & I arrived safely to Wimberley Saturday night. Sam Johnson howled the entire car ride- didn't help that we were driving through torrential rains. Eventually I was able to turn up the radio loud enough to drown out poor Sam's pleas.

We are staying at the "Watermelon Cottage" at the Highpoint Manor Inn B&B. It definitely lives up to the name- there are watermelon chachkas everywhere you turn! Plates, pictures, tablecloths, baskets, you name it- it has a watermelon on it. We laid down a watermelon drop cloth on our couch, lest Mr. Otis decide to pee make himself at home.

 Who me? Pee? Never.

Sam Johnson in the country, howling no more.

Our cottage also seems to be built  for dwarfs people my size. The shower head barely reaches the top of my 5'2 head, and I can just see the upper part of my face in the bathroom mirror. Based on this, I bring you Photo #10 of the March Photo Challenge, "LOVE:"

My sweet, sweet 6'4 BC- who has to stoop way down to look in our cottage mirror.

 Adorable for me, not so awesome for him.

Our cottage community could also double as a bona-fide farm! So many animals all over the property. BC and I have been loving visiting them, and learning some of their silly names. So for my Day #11 photo prompt, "LIVING," I bring you our menagerie of new friends:

 This Alpaca was absolutely stunning, and one of my favorites.

 I've also discovered I LOVE donkeys!

 Lucky for us, it is mating season for these beautiful peacocks. 

This fella was pulling out all the stops to attract the ladies.

Peacock butt! Also surprisingly pretty.

 Feeding frenzy. Hay= instant best friends.

 This chicken took her hairstyle cues from Tina Turner

 Hi Mr. Parrot!

Daisy May- one of the most ancient pigs I've ever met 

(ancient being 14 years old)

Yesterday BC and I took a trip into town to stock up on groceries (downtown Wimberely has only 3 stoplights! Blink and you could miss it). We'd agreed to each cook a meal at our cottage home this week, and last night was my turn. I purchased some cod fillets, Cajun seasoned breading, & spinach to saute.

As I've said before, I am not the most adept in the kitchen. However, I've cooked this meal before, and felt confident going into the challenge. What I had not anticipated were the extremely poor tools I had to cook with. There were a total of two cooking pans to choose from, both very cheap with a convex shape- where any oil & ingredients oozed to the edge perimeter of the pan, leaving everything in the center dry & on high heat. I also had an electric stove to work with, another foreign cooking concept.

The meal was an absolute disaster.

The coating on the fish burned quickly & stuck to the pan, smoke funneling up throughout the cottage. Not wanting to set the Watermelon Cottage on fire, I removed the fish from the heat. Unfortunately it still wasn't cooked through the center. BC was sweet and ate his piece anyway- I, however, took one bite and literally spit it out. It was disgusting and one of the worst things I think I've ever prepared. 

Behold- the beauty of putting me in charge of dinner, and Day #12's prompt "EAT." I think the watermelon plate adds a nice touch. Bon appetite!

March Photo Challenge

Belle over at the lovely Scrambled Eggs Blog has proposed a March photo challenge. I've decided to play along- figuring it is a great way to have a distraction from all this TTC craziness, and also a creative way to encourage me to blog more often.

Today's subject: Self Portrait

This one is pretty accurate for how I've been feeling & posting lately. It was taken with BC's iPad photo app- I was having a great time experimenting with the different settings & effects.

In my own TTC world, I've decided to try something new and revolutionary: listening to MYSELF. Taking my own intuition on treatments & timing as priority over the opinions of friends, family, acupuncturists, psychics, doctors, etc. And you know what I decided this month? I am NOT ready to have another laparoscopic surgery. At least not yet. My thought process went something like this:

*If I do the surgery now, I"ll be out of work for 2 weeks, and be compromised physically on my Wimberley trip with BC
*If I do the surgery, it guarantees I will have to have a c-section when babies come
*If I do the surgery now, we won't be able to TTC for at least 2 months, and that completely rules out any chance of Baby Lambert coming home in 2012
*Miracles do happen- *maybe* we will get a surprise natural BFP!
*I'd rather keep the window of opportunity open this month, vs slamming it shut with surgery

And here's where life steps in and has her way with me. It seems to me that once one is on the Fertility Roller-Coaster, it is extremely hard to get off. Remember that month after our 1st injectables cycle & miscarriage, when I thought either I missed ovulation completely or not ovulated at all? It seems like this is happening again.

A huge part of my decision not to do surgery this month was to keep our TTC window open (I admit I have a slight hang up about bringing a baby home in 2012, and that window is getting closer and closer to disappearing). It appears that again, my body is onto us- essentially flipping off me and my plans. I don't blame it for being confused- we pumped it so full of hormones last month that its natural mojo was completely overrun. This month, my temps are remaining high - post ovulation type high (98.1-98.2 waking)- yet ovulation has not occurred. I'm still having heat flashes, likely from my body trying to make sense of my hormonal hangover. I am on CD 13, and given the high temps, fully believe my eggs are getting BAKED and because of this will likely not release. I've been doing daily OPKs with no sign of a surge. So maybe this month wasn't such a bad time to have surgery after all. *Sigh*

Now the question becomes: do I let my body naturally get back into equilibrium (and let's face it- our TTC naturally didn't lead to much success), or do I hold on tight to the ART coaster & keep upping the anty- the hormones & surgeries & interventions- until we succeed in medically making a baby?

All I can do is take things one day at a time, one decision at a time. For now, I'm hoping my cysts are calming down & deflating, and that if my body is indeed taking a month off, it will be gearing up for bigger and brighter things in the months to come.