Over the weekend Maddy posted about the African Fertility Statues that are owned by Ripley's Belive It or Not. You can read about the statues here.

I orginally heard about these statues many years ago before TTC.  I actually tried doing some research on them either earlier this year or late last year to find out where they were at.  At that time I don't remember seeing anything about a tour.  They are about to wrap up the tour in Panama City, FL, and I have already made plans to go.  It's about an 11 hr drive, but DH agreed to it so we're going.  I'm so excited. Not only do I get to touch these world famous fertility statues, but it's in Florida! Does it really get any better than that?

Last Wednesday I left work, drove to the next town, and sat on a table with my bare butt sticking out for over 20 minutes just so the nurse could come and tell me that since I was still bleeding I wasn't where the Dr needed me to be so we'd try again next month.  It really sucked.  Especially since I told the girl after she weighed me that I was still bleeding and she told me it was ok.  It is now CD16 and I'm still bleeding. It's not even getting lighter, it's getting heavier.  I'm getting in a funk because of this. It makes me feel unclean all the time.  I just want to live in a shower.  I sure hope it doesn't last for 35 days like last time.

My wonderful mood makes me want to bash my so-worker in the head with my phone about 10 times a day. It's grand.

I've managed to talk my parents into having a Halloween party this year and somehow it has already become an annual thing. Even though it was my idea and I'm expected to do atleast 50% of everything, my ideas don't matter.  My mother does this to me every time we do a project together.  This is why I can't do cakes with her anymore.  It doesn't matter what it is, it will be what she wants.  We were discussing what color table cloths to use and I kept suggesting a color and she was acting like I didn't even say anything.  I would say something about a decoration I wanted to make and I was told we didn't need it. It is so frustrating, but of course I never say anything.  I'm about to the point where I'm going to have to say something.  Since I'm already grouchy because of AF I guess now is the perfect time.  The way I see it is if I''m paying for atleast half of the party then I should get half of the say so. Isn't that fair?

DH and I have been talking for years about wanting to open our own business. It has always been a dream of ours because we just hate working for other people.  Since we live in a small town we were having a hard time coming up with something that the town needed, that we wanted to do, and wouldn't be too extravagant for a small town.  We finally decided what we want to do.  We want to open a pie shop.  It would be called I Like Pie. Our specialty would be pies, but we would also sell cupcakes and cookies.  We were talking about it around my mother and I asked her if she would work at the pie shop with her, and apparently she took it to mean that she would own the shop with us.  She is already picking out the decor for us and everything. 

Of course this may just be a lifelong dream that never gets fulfilled, but what fun is life if you can't dream.  We are actually going to start working on some recipes soon.  My sister works at a high school so we're going to let her take them to work with her and let the teachers try them and give us feed back.  We're hoping that they will like them enough to place some orders.  My goal for now is just to get some good recipes down that people like.  My goal after that is to get enough orders that I can quit my job.  Next goal after that is probably a business loan.  We'll see how that goes.

I think we're going to make a pineapple pie tonight.  Any one have any suggestions on flavors?

I don't really remember what was in my last post, but incase I didn't tell you, AF came again with no meds.  I know most women don't wish for it, but I do and it's like a miracle when it happens.  It seems my body is finally figuring out what to do on its own. Small wonders never cease.

I think I'm most excited about the fact that this is going to be my first monitored cycle.  I had my FSH tested on CD3. I assume the Dr will go over that with me on Wednesday when I go in for my first ultrasound and follie check.  I am praying that I've got some eggs doin' their thang.  If not I'm not sure if they can give me anything at that point in my cycle to try and produce some follies.  I guess we'll see.

Part of the reason my body may be straightening out is that I've finally lost 20 lbs. Unfortunately not all of it is the 20 the Dr wants me to lose.  I have been working for 6 months to get this 20 off.  I've lost about 12 or 13 of the 20 the Dr wanted me to lose so I'm almost there.  Yippee!  It's amazing to me that I've lost almost 6 of it in the last two weeks and I've only been to the gym twice.  I've never lost that much weight so quigkly except maybe the first week or 2 on Nutrisystem, but then my weight loss trickled after that.  I am about to the lowest weight I had on NS before I got frustrated and quit. Then I gained all of it back so it was a waste of the $1800 I spent.  I feel like since this weight came of with good ol' diet and exercise it will stay off. Plus I won't let myself get that heavy again.

I'm loving the way I feel.  In the last couple of weeks I have really started to see a change in my body shape and it's great.  Once I lose some more weight maybe I will post some before and after pictures.  I've lost a pant size and I'm back in the jeans I was wearing at the end of NS. Before too much longer I will be able to fit in to my "skinny" jeans.

The last week and a half were pretty nice at work. My co-worker was out on vacation so it was warm and quiet in here.  I loved it.  My mom actually came and did some temp work because we were so busy last week. We are a non-profit organization that does safety training for the petrochemical industry and most of those are computer courses.  DH runs the computer lab and he was so swamped he had to have help.  That is the first time in 8 years he has had to have help.  Business is really picking up here so that might mean going to full time for me.  I wouldn't really mind that, I just wouldn't have Fridays for doing things with my mom.

The next week and a half will be blissfully co-worker free. I can't wait to get here. I am so excited to have some drama-free time around here. Of course, she is causing enough drama around here right now things will just be getting back to normal  when she gets back. I'm telling ya, things keep going from bad to worse around here and for some reason I keep getting the short end of the stick. I didn't even get to eat lunch yesterday until 2:30 and I leave at 3. How is that right?

My neice and cousin had a joint birthday party at Chu.ck E Chee.se over the weekend. It was pretty fun. I think we played just as much as the kids did. Hopefully I will actually get the pictures off my camera sometime soon.

We also bought a car. It is by no means a new car, but it's better than what we had. It atleast has a nice cold air conditioner. That is a big improvement.

We are still going to the gym, but I think I may need to change up my routine, not really sure. I've just kind of gone into a blah mode that I need to get out of.  I'm getting bored and that's never a good thing.

I've started a new diet, but I don't want to tell you any more about it until I know if it's working or not. I should know something by the end of the week. If it does work I'll be telling you all the gory details.

We finally got our vacation planned. We are going the first full week of November. Since my dad still doesn't have a job we won't be doing a lot of sight-seeing probably because mom just won't have the money to do much. We decided to go to Lake Sam Rayburn. If nothing else, there should be nice scenery.

I went to talk to my boss yesterday so he could approve my vacation days and I was asking him about how many days I am supposed to get. Since I only work part-time I wasn't sure if I got a full week or not. He told me that I actually have 2 weeks. I was really shocked and didn't know quite how to react. He told me that any time I don't take I will get paid for in January. Sounds good to me. If I had known I had that much time I would have taken some earlier this year. Oh well, the extra money will help make up for the Christmas spending.

Since I'm paying for a car now I will have to try and go easy on the Christmas shopping. I normally have my shopping about done by now, but I have really been slacking off these last couple of years. I think I'm going to gat all the kids gift certificates to Wally World so they can picout things they really want. Or is that really just the easy way out?

I'm supposed to call the Dr on the 9th if AF doesn't come by then, but If this diet works out I may hold off a week or 2 so I can lose a little more weight before I go back.

Other than that things have been pretty normal. For me anyway. I'm off to wish co-worker a fond farewell.

PrimDonna co-worker has struck again. This time she took it to the boss.

This morning she was being her usual self and not doing shit so when I had to answer the phone for the fourth time in a row I started to get a little huffy and I slammed set the phone down heavily. I also slammed set the phone down heavily the next 3 times I had to answer the phone because she apparently decided she was too important to help with this task.

When she went to get lunch the boss called me into his office to have a "talk."  He said she told him there was an "issue" with the phones this morning and he just wanted to know if there was something else going on that he needed to know about. I had a feeling that's what he wanted to talk to me about. I wanted to tell him about everything, but I didn't. I just told him that she doesn't help answer the phones like she should, that I answer it 80% of the time and I get frustrated because sometimes I get busy and it is hard to answer it. He also said that she told him I was being curt with her. He did tell me that if I have any more issues I can come talk to him about it because he just wants everyone to get along.

She was basically being a big old whiny baby telling on me for being mean. I haven't been mean or rude to her I just haven't gone out of my way to be nice. I don't feel like she deserves my kindness when I don't get any in return. I am in no way mean to her. I do my best to be civil to her at work just because of the fact that I don't want it to affect my work performance or come back on me in some way with the boss.

I just find it odd that normally she is the first one to be rude to someone or snap at them when things aren't her way, but she didn't bother to say anything to me herself. G has had heated arguments with her many times that she has started. The only difference is that usually when she starts something the boss isn't here. It feels like she was trying to get me in trouble or something. I actually thought the whole situation was so ridiculous that I laughed my way out of my boss's office. I really feel like I am in grade school again. This whole thing is just so completely childish.

What should I do about this situation? Am I supposed to go out of my way to be nice to someone I can't stand or just continue on the way I have? I feel like any minute now we are going to be put in a time out or told we have to sit out at recess.

The exercising is still going good. Yesterday I did the elliptical for 15 minutes, walked for 30 minutes, did a little resistance training, and then did the elliptical for another 15 minutes. Over all I burned over 400 calories. I think I finally have a routine down. I like that when we get to the gym there are usually only a couple of people there. Since I am self-conscious that helps a lot. It also lets me pick which machine I want to use instead of being forced to use the old crappy ones.

The machines really aren't bad. The 2 stair-steppers and 2 ellipticals are the same, but there are 5 treadmills. Two of them are the same, but one of them doesn't work, and all the rest are different. The 2 that are the same have fans on them which is very nice since the gym is not very cool. Since 1 of them doesn't work everyone always chooses the one good one. If there's someone on it I will usually wait until they are done instead of getting on one of the others.

I am still having a hard time with my co-worker, but ther is nothing I can do about it because I will never have the backbone to say anything to her. As mad as I get I will go in the supply closet and cry and vent because I get so upset, but I will never say anything to her. The gym is a good stress reliever for this. It lets me get all that pent-up anger out. On the night we go to the gym I sleep so hard I don't hear my alarm clock in the morning. I guess that's a sign I am getting a good workout.

I just feel like I am getting so stressed about a lot of things. I have been cramping and spotting for over 30 days straight now so that makes me cranky. We also have more bills to worry about, the stress with my mother, G's brother-in-law passing away and so much other stuff. I feel like I'm going to explode at some point.

I've been so busy with other stuff I haven't really been able to clean my house in weeks. It's a big mess and now my sister-in-law and her daughter are coming for a visit.  We don't have a date yet so hopefully I will be able to get some cleaning done before she heads this way. I will be really upset if it ends up being a surprise visit.

Luckily G has a dentist appointment today so we will be leaving work about 2 hours early. Yay! Then to the gym to work off a little steam and burn some calories because we are taking my mom out to eat at a catfish restaurant for her 50th birthday today.