Infertility

Just a few things to share on this topic. Even if this is not something you have been affected by or are interested in, I encourage you to take the time to read through this because those of us who have been affected by infertility desperately need the understanding and support from those around us.

First a post from my friend Rhiannon's blog "Pray, Hope, Don't Worry." She has such an amazing perspective on this and her most recent post is just so perfectly written I had to share. Please take the time to check it out. It is short, sweet, and straight to the point.

Second, it speaks volumes that I am about to post this because I don't like country music AT ALL! However, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I was so ecstatic that adoption and infertility were finally being addressed in music that I posted it on my Facebook profile and want to post it here as well. I just get so excited when this is brought to the attention of the general public. Because for the most part it is not something that others want you to discuss.



Finally, and you'll have to excuse my inability to correctly quote the source of this study, but I couldn't find it on Google nor could I find the Yoga Journal issue that addressed the study. So, don't quote me on the source but I'm pretty sure that it was Harvard that conducted a study that showed that women with infertility suffer from depression as frequently as people who have been diagnosed with A TERMINAL DISEASE!!! Yes, a terminal disease. Need I say more?

Fort Collins is a really great place to live, I promise!

I live in a small city called Fort Collins in Colorado. It is located 60 miles north of Denver and 40 miles south of Cheyenne, WY. It is the home of Colorado State University (of which I am an alum) and has a population of around 130,000. We are situated up against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and are the northernmost city in what is considered Colorado's Front Range. Up until recently our biggest claim to fame has been the fact that we have been named the best city to - live in; raise children in; retire in, start a business in, etc. several times over the last decade or two. Our city has also been mentioned a few times in the cartoon "South Park" (which is an actual region in Colorado around the Breckenridge Ski Resort) and had a brief mention in the movie "Reno 911!: Miami."

That was, of course, until last Thursday when it was thought that a 6 year old little boy, aptly named Falcon, was inside an experimental weather balloon when it accidentally took off from his family's back yard on the south side of Fort Collins just a few blocks from where I work. I was working when it all went down and we were all glued to the live coverage first discovered on local network websites. We were all shocked when we realized that national media outlets and even media outlets in Canada were covering the story as well. We were concerned for the little boy when his whereabouts were unknown and were relieved when he was found hiding in a box in the attic above the garage. And of course we were ticked when the evidence began to mount pointing this out to be a hoax. First of all, because like everyone we feel stupid for falling for it and second because this will most likely be our city's most lasting claim to fame.

This weekend I went down to spend time with family before my cousin leaves to serve a mission in Argentina. Inevitably I was quizzed on Thursdays events. Did I see the balloon? Did I know anything about the family? This week we've received emails from clients from out of state who know our offices are located in the same city as the "Balloon Boy" incident teasing us about the event. So please allow me to set the record straight for all of those reading this who wonder if the Heene family represents the type of people who live in this city and for our posterity reading the printouts of this blog for generations to come, Fort Collins is actually a really nice place to live! The overwhelming majority of us are normal people!! The University is one of the top schools in Veterinary Science (generally takes 1st or 2nd place nationally) and is in the top ten schools for Engineering as well. We have lots of outdoors activities near by and we also have a great artistic community as well. Please do not judge us by the "Balloon Boy" incident. I promise that we are not backward, in-bred hicks up here. We are intelligent, normal people... Or at least I like to think we are. But like Cory asked me on Saturday after we left the ARC thrift store, "Do white trash people know they are white trash? Are we white trash and just don't realize it?"

I'm 34 weeks pregnant?

Wow, so all my life I thought that I would notice I was pregnant at least within the first trimester. But apparently it has flown under the radar now for 34 weeks. I always thought I would be pretty big come 34 weeks but apparently not because I've actually lost weight since the beginning of the summer. However, for the past month or so I've been getting regular emails from Parents.com telling me that I am 31, then 32, then 33, and now 34 weeks pregnant. So I must be pregnant then, right?

I'm totally kidding but I was very confused when these emails started showing up and I received a phone call from Parents.com confirming my registration and giving me millions of sales schpeals for health/life insurance for my child, work from home money making scams, and of course the special deals you get if you sign up for some program for 30 days at a reduced price, etc. They asked when I was due and were equally confused when I explained I ADOPTED a baby boy who was born September 14th, 2008. At first I thought that perhaps they were delayed in processing a registration I had filled out prior to River's birth. As there is no place to indicate that you are adopting and not carrying the child whenever I registered with parent sites pre-placement I would just enter his due date. However, if this week I am 34 weeks pregnant that means that the due date entered into the registration form would be the end of November. So I don't know if that can explain this anomaly. Also I know I didn't sign up for any sites that gave me weekly updates on a pregnancy. Angie forwarded me all of the ones that she received from babycenter.com. The next question is, did someone other than myself register under my name, email address and phone number? Doesn't seem likely but if I didn't then who did? Perhaps one of life's mysteries that will never be explained? Just in case I immediately changed the password on my email account. Perhaps I should also change my name and phone number for good measure ;)

Nothing like a little cat pee to get you motivated in the morning!

Two weeks ago I rushed home from work, quickly packed myself and River, fed everyone, bathed River and brushed all necessary teeth. We then packed our entire family (canine members included) in Cory's work truck and embarked at 8 pm on an all night drive from Ft. Collins, CO to Great Falls, MT. All said a 10 1/2 hour drive. Kudos to Cory (and his trusty engergy sodas for the assist) for driving all night after spending an exhausting day packing the truck and getting most everything ready. We arrived at 6:30 am the next morning. The purpose of the trip was to help my father-in-law with some major construction and remodeling projects around the house, and most importantly spend some much needed time with Gala, Papa Bear, Kelli, Angie, Brandon, Preston, Jodi, Jeremy, Noah, Jeremy (yes, there are two in the family one born into, one married into), etc.

Every day was exhausting, and every day was fun. My mother-in-law took advantage of having us in town and took all the grandkids in Great Falls at the time (only 5 of the total 16) to Sears for portraits. Let me tell you that was an adventure! 5 children ages 4 1/2, 21 mo., 1 year, and 3 mo. old twins. Tears were shed by all, adults included. Luckily we did get some cute pictures and Gala gave River a cute haircut and bought him an adorable little suit to match Preston and Noah's. We got to help dig out the foundation/root cellar area for their new green house using a rented Bobcat. That was fun as I hadn't been able to play around in one of those since I was back in college working for the Engineering Research Center making physical models of rivers. Angie dyed my hair. Black and auburn low lights. It looks super cute and she doesn't even have any formal training yet!

But I digress, because what I really want to talk about is cat pee. Yes, cat pee! Fast forward three days later. We left Great Falls around 8 pm and decided again to just drive straight through. This time it was a colaborative effort between Cory and myself. We got in to Ft. Collins at 7 am dirty, tired, and grumpy because not only had we driven all night but we had also been working hard outside all day prior to leaving. Immediately when we get in the house I hear the warbling meow of my cat Louie. The kind of meow indicating something is wrong. It also was a muffled sound which baffled me because she should have had free reign of the house. Well, much to my chagrin when I closed the door to River's nusery with the express purpose of keeping Louie OUT (she loves to lounge in or under his crib, in the bags of clothes in his closet, etc.) I accidentally closed her IN his nursery. When I opened the door out flew an angry, hungry, thirsty cat, and of course the pungent, dizzying odor of cat pee... Going to work the next day was officially out of the question as I refused to leave the pee festering for any longer than necessary.

Luckily, River's Nanny Debbie had a carpet shampooer and I purchased carpet cleaner at a Janitorial Supply store, the most effective I could find, pre-treated the areas where she peed and then shampooed all the carpet in his room. Did you know you can use a black light to see all of the organic matter on any surface? Well, I know this now and I effectively used this technique in my efforts!

The Good News: While giving the pre-treatment time to work I had some extra time on my hands and FINALLY got around to changing out all of the clothes in River's dresser and closet. Up until this point there were still size 0-3 month clothes in the mix. As a result I didn't have enough room for the clothes size 9-12 month so I was just pulling them out of a tub I had stored clothes this size that we had received as gifts or that were hand-me-downs from friends and family. I also put away all of the big items that are now too young for him like the swing we have and a gym/playmat. They are all now tubbed or bagged up for the next baby. I must say I did tear up as I put everything away. I love to watch how River grows and becomes more interactive each day but seeing all of the little clothes makes me wish he was able to stay that little for a little while longer. And I also was sad because I'm not sure if/when we will be able to have another baby. We couldn't afford fertility treatments or another adoption right now so hopefully good old fashion baby making will work for us this time around.

The Bad News: Unfortunately, though I've repeated this process several times the smell is still detectable. To minimize it we constantly have a fan going in his room and I plan on one last big clean this weekend involving some serious sudsing because apparently cat pee is oily and suds help break it up. Even still this carpet only has to last another month or so until we can finally get an appointment with the hardwood flooring company that Cory is going to exchange work with. Then we can replace the carpet in his nursery with the carpet in the living room (which is only 1 year old) that we are replacing with hardwood floors.

I will post pictures of our trip to MT soon! We didn't take out our camera once so I have to have my MIL and SIL Kelli email me the ones they took on their camera. Hint, hint to both of them if they are reading this ;)

A new look...

I know, I know, I am stating the obvious but I'm just so excited I finally got around to doing this and that I FINALLY got it to work I had to post about it. I had to start from scratch several times because whenever I would change something it kept on reverting to the old style "template" instead of the more flexible "layout." Anyway, plenty of great posts to come now that hopefully life has settled down for a while.