Well shoot.

It's looking like I do have endometriosis. After getting my $400 shot in the ass at the beginning of the month I didn't see any change in my cramps (other than my sore butt cheek). I was still having cramps at least one or two days every week. Now it has been an entire week where I haven't had any cramps at all. The medicine is working. That's great, right? Well sort of. While I am pain free and my uterus isn't sticking out like a pregnant lady's, that means that I almost certainly do have endometriosis. I just talked to my doctor and he said that we should do another shot again next month just to be sure.

I'm glad that we probably won't have to do surgery to figure out what's wrong with me but I don't want to have endometriosis. Nearly every time I tell someone about my situation they say things like, "Oh, I know such and such a person who had endometriosis and they tried to get pregnant for like 15 years and couldn't." GREAT. Thanks for that charming piece of uplifting commentary! Can you not tell that I'm a fragile wreck right now and that the worst thing you could possibly do is to suggest that my fertility might be compromised? DUH.

A kid in my classroom has a really funny voice that sounds sort of like a robot. I often overhear him saying very amusing things, one of them being, "I'm just about sick of this." He is a tiny little boy with glasses and giant eyes that he loves to roll. I feel like mimicing him today--I'm just about sick of this.

When I had my OBGYN on the phone I told him that I was worrying a lot about my ability to concieve, especially because of what people have been saying. I said flat out, "please assure me right now." He did so, saying that lots of people have endometriosis and don't even know it and have no trouble getting pregnant at all. About 1/4 of women with endometriosis have increased chance of having a hard time conceiving. He sounded really confident and told me I did not need to worry. But I still am. Worry, worry, worry, and fret. It's totally not helpful that my cousin (who is exactly my age) had her first baby today. I can't embrace other people's fertility right now. All I want to do is curl up into a ball and scream into my pillow. Not even cookies are helping. At least The Bachelorette is starting up this week to distract me.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

'Tis the season for getting your garden started. Our rented backyard is pretty darn big but only had grass growing in it. Seriously, no shrub nor tree to be found. We talked a lot about how much, if any we wanted to do with it. It costs money to put in raised beds and buy soil and plant starts. In the end we decided on putting in two 4x6 beds, with lavender growing in between them. They turned out to be pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. I also put two old Lucerne crates out there to grow herbs in.

So far we are going to be up to our ears in red potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, swiss chard, romaine, spring mix, strawberries, snap peas, beans, carrots, tomatoes, chives, scallions, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, peppers, and corn.

This was our first miniature strawberry harvest. They are sweet and delicious, and early. I can't believe it's only mid-May and our June-bearing strawberries are already ripe enough to eat.

On the opposite side of the yard we (and by "we" I mean Ricky) dug up a bunch of sod along the fence to plant wildflowers. I put in the "Save the Bees" mix and the "Hummingbird Haven" mix, so we'll see what I get. The little sproutlings are already starting to appear.

Even though it cost a good chunk of money to get this garden going and we'll have to leave it after next summer, I'm glad we decided to put it in. It's something that I can focus on and get excited about that can take my mind off of the baby thing. Since I'm extremely fragile about that lately and am dealing with stupid side effects from the meds my OBGYN put me on, distractions are a very good thing.

Now all we need are some lounge chairs and an outdoor table and we'll be set to have a very enjoyable summer in the backyard!

Seattle Trip

It took us a ridiculous SIX months before we were able to go back and visit Seattle. We had wanted to go visit for Valentine's Day but we were too poor. Then we had planned on going for Ricky's birthday but we were also too poor then. We were finally able to go the first weekend of May and boy, we couldn't have picked a better weekend to go! As we drove up I-5 there was a point where we could see Hood, Adams, and Helens all at one time. Once we made it to our Northern home it was so clear that we could see the Olympics and Rainier for the whole weekend. Our plan for the weekend consisted of nothing but eating and hanging out with our Seattle family, the Deckers.

Saturday morning we went for a little hike at Discovery Park, where I worked all of last summer. We were lucky enough to spot a pileated woodpecker AND get a photo of it. It was glorious to be back there.

Post-hike we experienced the meal we had so been longing for. We drove over to the Ballard waterfront and parked in front of our favorite salmon and tourquoise building--Paseo! After 45 minutes of waiting in a line that had more than 60 people in it, we ate the most amazing cuban sandwiches ever. EVER. My stomach is growling with desire just writing about it now.

We spent the rest of Saturday wandering around Ballard and Queen Anne. When our sandwiches had sufficiently digested we stopped off at Molly Moon's and had ice cream. :)

In the late afternoon we visited our old nextdoor neighbors Rob and Sarah and we able to meet their brand new, 4-day old baby Max. He was way cute and we are super happy for them. 

Since it was so glorious outside, we decided to take a picnic to Gasworks Park with the Deckers for dinner. Alma and Anita had a blast playing in the grass, spotting kites, and pretending to be horses. I think Alma went up to at least 4 sets of people and neighed at them. Teheh. Oh, and she stole my sunglasses.

 Sunday morning we got up and headed back to Ballard to go to our favorite Sunday Market where we picked up some delicious toffee fir Mother's Day gifts. After that it was full steam ahead to the Aquarium with the girls for Anita's 2nd birthday! We had an awesome time there, obviously, and I was able to catch up with a few of my volunteer friends.

 

After the aquarium we dropped off the girls and headed southbound. We really miss Seattle and its many opportunities for food and adventure. I really do think that I was meant to live near salt water.

Ah well, maybe we'll live there again someday. In the meantime, we'll just have to go on a lot of visits!