Busy Little Bees

That is what Andre and I have been lately. You may (or may not) remember when I mentioned that my sister (and her boyfriend, and his daughter and his dog) would be moving out of my parents house into their own home, and moving their stuff out of our house. Well they did, at the beginning of the month! Our plan was to get the guestroom, where they were storing their bed, painted, and the carpet ripped out to be ready for Christmas. This is where the busy like bees part comes in.

Now that Andre has started his new job I thankfully have him home all weekend, so he has gotten just a hint of what most of my weekends have been like since we moved into our house.

Here is what we started with:

This room was also known as the room where beige semi-gloss came to die. Every surface in this room was covered in beige semi-gloss. The walls, the trim, the closet doors, hell even the ceiling! It was horrible. Our first step was to choose a paint colour. My plan was to do neutral in here, I had visions of creamy yellow walls and crisp white trim. I picked a few samples that fit the bill, then found the sample for Simply Sage. I just loved the colour so threw it in the pile. I got home, put the samples up on the wall, and well Andre loved the green colour. So we went with it.

Now this is what the room looks like:

These pictures were taken before I painted the trim yesterday. It is all a beautiful white, not beige. While you're looking at those pictures, look at the bottom of the picture. That horrible brown/rust colour is (was) the carpet! It was absolutely horrible! As of this past Saturday it is history. Destined for the dump as of this Saturday when we drop it off.

Our plan for the floor was to just leave the parquet wood floors until we could decide what to do with the flooring on the entire second floor. Then we discovered a teeny tiny spot of mold when we removed the baseboards. Then we decided to pull up the carpet to see what was underneath.

::Le Sigh:: Gotta love old water damage! So back to the drawing board for us. We decided that we would put laminate down on the floors of this room and the office. We would eventually (when budget permits) replace the carpet on the stairs, upstairs hallway and master bedroom.

Now the room is waiting for the new floors to be installed. My sister is having new laminate installed at her house, and the guy that is doing her floors is coming to give us an estimate later on this week, or early next week. He is doing an amazing job at her house, so I hope he gives us a good price!

Stay tuned for some more pictures over the next couple weeks as this room is completed!

Being put back together--Follow Up.

I've been waiting to write this entry. Trying to let things settle in my brain a little bit.

So on Thursday morning I had the follow up with my gyno regarding my uterus. They had the results of my preliminary blood work (b/w), and my ultrasounds (u/s). All of my b/w was within the normal range. They had tested my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), LH (Luteinizing Hormone), and my Prolactin levels, oh and a pregnancy test for good measure. Surprise, surprise, I am not pregnant.

Then they checked my u/s results. The purpose of the u/s was to rule out PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and to check the thickness of my uterine lining. It turns out that all my girl parts are perfect (for someone who doesn't get a period) and they ruled out PCOS. I guess the silver lining of this is that they didn't find anything wrong immediately. We'll go with that.

So the next step in all of this is a Progesterone Challenge . I was given the prescription for Provera, and I am to take it for 2 weeks. I am waiting for some pesky random spotting to stop before I start the prescription. I was told that if I do not get a period at the end of it all I am to call immediately to book another appointment. If I do get a period at the end of it, then I am to wait another month in the hopes that the Provera will have "kick-started" my cycles again. If it doesn't, I have to go back and they want to put me back on the Birth Control Pill (BCP).

This was the point of the appointment that I was not happy with. I feel like going back on the BCP is a huge step back. I asked what would happen when we wanted to try to conceive (TTC) if I went pack on the pill; I would have to go back off the pill, wait, TTC, and if unsuccessful go back to Dr. A for hormones to help me ovulate. Andre and I have talked, and we're not too keen on having to go back on BCP for 3-6 months (they want to put me on Seasonale) only to have to do the 6-12 month unsuccessful TTC wait, and then start fertility treatments that well, could take years to be successful. Let's face it, Andre isn't getting any younger (and my biological clock is already ticking).

So we have some thinking to do. We have thrown around the idea briefly over the last few days about starting to TTC in March. By then Andre will be done his probation period at work, he'll be at his maximum pay, and we'll have a benefit plan (although they don't cover any fertility medications, I already checked). Most importantly, the 5th of March is my 31st birthday. We still have alot to think about, and some numbers to crunch, especially being I am self-employed and do not get maternity leave benefits.

The good thing in all of this is that the ball is rolling, more slowly than I had hoped, but rolling nonetheless.

"Patience is the art of hoping."

~Marquis de Vauvenargues

Changes, Changes, and more Changes

Hello Blog land!

I knew that it had been awhile since I did an update, but I didn't realize how long! Hmmm, well I'm a slacker, what can I say? Well that and there's just been so much going on around here, that blogging has been the last thing on my mind. There, that's my reason.

So, the last time I was here Andre had just gotten his new job. It is working out fabulously. Even with the stress of learning new things daily, and getting used to working with children everyday as a bus driver he is loving it. The one night we were sitting watching tv and I asked him how he liked the new job compared to his old one, and he said that even with the newness of the job and the different challenges it's less stressful.

What I do find funny is that his old boss was constantly doing things that I found suspicious or fishy. Even now, after Andre is gone from his old job, his boss is still doing things that are suspicious. Just two days ago Andre got his Record of Employment and last pay stubs from his old job. After looking over the ROE we realized that his boss had included the ROE from all of his chauffeur (occasional) work, but not from his shuttle (full-time) job. So according to his old company, the government of Ontario now thinks that in the last 2.5 years Andre only worked 149 hours. Andre called his old boss and after the office told him that his old boss had "forgotten" to do this.

Yeah.....likely story. Lets hope that things are corrected on the ASAP.

When one door closes another door opens

Have I ever shared with you all my total and utter frustration with Andre's job? I'm sure I have. If I haven't, well we both hate is job. His boss is a bully that routinely likes to yell and humiliate his employees, and well, there are just too many specific things to write.

Andre's dream job would be to work for the city as a bus driver. The only problem with this is that they only accept job applications about twice a year, and then once you go through the testing, then the interview process you could wait up to another year before there is a vacancy that needs to be filled. Andre's second runner up dream job would be to work for a private school in our city as a school bus driver. Benefits, a pension, and twice as much money as what he is making now. Not a bad deal in exchange for driving a bunch of rich kids back and forth to school everyday!

An old co-worker of Andre's that told the boss to shove it a little while ago, told Andre that anytime he got sick of the boss to let him now and he'd put in a good word for Andre at the school. So earlier this year he gave Ernie his resume. They were hiring. Well after getting our hopes up for weeks, the start of the school year came and went. No phone call, no nothing.

So about a month into the school year I run into Andre at the office I work at, and he says that they are really under-staffed, and Andre should give them a call. Andre decides to fax another resume in (you never know if it got lost in the shuffle). He does the follow up phone calls, and again nothing. We give up. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be?

Then while we were eating breakfast on Monday morning we get a phone call. It's the school. They're hiring. They want Andre to come in for a little talk and driving test the next day. Thankfully Andre has the day off. He goes in, and talks to the head of the Transportation Department, then has a driving test with another Supervisor. The driving test goes fabulously. The Supervisor tells Andre that she is "impressed with his driving". Andre tells her he is impressed with the bus (brand new 2010 model). He is left with a great impression.

Fast forward to the next night. No word from the school, and Andre has talked to jerk..erm, boss, and the boss tells Andre that the Shuttle run that he has been driving for over the last 2 years isn't a big money maker (not a huge surprise) and that it's being stopped at the end of November. After that he can give Andre a "few limo runs", but gone are the guaranteed hours and pay of the shuttle. He comes home heartbroken and breaks the news to me. I went to bed that night and prayed and cried.

Andre and I had been so excited. It seemed like everything was finally working out our way. This new job was the answer to our prayers. We had decided that if Andre found another job making at least the same wage as me we could start a family. We could afford it. With this new job he would be making the same as me, and be getting benefits, not only that but I was on the way to figuring out what was going on with my faulty uterus. How could God bring us so close to everything we had ever wanted, only to bring us to the point of Andre losing his job? I prayed that I would have the strength to get through the next few days. I prayed that I would trust in His plan for us.

Over the next few days Andre and I would try our best to get through the day. Both of us checking the messages at home for any word. Nothing. To make matters worse Ernie called and told us (twice!) that Andre had it in the bag. He had the job. Very frustrating to hear when you haven't heard this from the company themselves!! So I called Andre on my lunch on Friday. Gave him the number for the woman in charge, and asked him to call her and find out when we could expect to hear the results of the interview.

He called and left a message and the supervisor ended up tracking him down on his cellphone to tell him that they wanted to hire him! Not only that, but they wanted him to start on Monday! It was like a huge relief. Our prayers had been answered. Andre told his boss that he was leaving at the end of his shift on Friday. He was scheduled to work Saturday night and Sunday all day and then he was done.

Monday is for new beginnings.

Being put back together. (TMI warning)

Steps are finally being made to fix my brokenness. You can read about me being broken here and here. I finally had my first appointment with Dr. A last week. I was a little nervous as Dr. A had a foreign name, and I didn't know if this Dr A was a male or a female. My worst fears were that Dr A was a male with a horribly thick accent and a horrible bedside manor (totally had this before at my GP's office). I can now relax. Dr. A does not have a horrible accent, and he had a very good bedside manor. Phew! The weird thing is that his associate (also a Gyno) is my middle sisters ex-boyfriends father! Talk about small world.

It was a little weird sitting in the waiting room as I was the only one sitting there that was under the age of 50. I'm not kidding. The rest of waiting room was filled with empty nesters, that and there were about 10 clocks hanging on the walls. I want to know what the deal is with the clocks. The random things you notice when you're sitting uncomfortably in a specialists office.

So I went through a bunch of questions with Dr. A and a resident that he asked could join us. He seemed very concerned with my lack of a period. He was very adamant that I should be getting one period 4 times a year at the very minimum. The worry being a higher risk of certain cancers with the imbalance of hormones. I was relived that he seemed concerned with both the bleeding and the lack of periods instead of just ignoring one of the problems.

I had to do yet another vaginal exam (my third since January) and yet another pap smear (my second since January). He explained that I had my last in January, but he wanted to be able to rule out everything so he did another one. I'm getting to be a pro now. It makes me laugh every time a doctor does a vaginal exam now because they all say the same thing **TMI WARNING**

"Wow, you really do bleed alot" or "All I have to do is touch your cervix and you bleed" I feel like shaking my hands in the air and saying "No Shit! Now just figure out why and fix it!!!" It's like they haven't really been believing me until they see it for themselves.

This doctor seems to think the bleeding is caused by my transitional cells on my cervix changing location and moving too far forward, and because they are so fragile, every time they are touched I bleed. The root cause of this would be the lack of hormonal changes. In the meantime I was sent for some blood work "only three vials though", the lab tech told me. And another round of ultrasounds.

This time I learned that I'm a little more hydrated then the average person though because I was on the verge of being too full. Yes, too full. This was after I started drinking my water a whole 20 minutes later then they asked because my bladder was so full the first time I was in pain. I was practicing my deep breathing and she poked and prodded my bladder. The best part was when I finally got to empty my bladder. Heaven. But then I had to go back for part 2. The part I affectionately call the "dildo cam" Sorry Amy, I totally stole your name for it. The added bonus was when I had to hold my breath and poke my sides so she could get a good picture of my left and right ovary.

Now some more waiting. I have a follow up appointment in two weeks, so god willing Dr A will have been able to gleam something from my test results.

Halloween

It's hard to believe that as I am writing this it is already a week after Halloween! Soon we will have been in the house for a year. This year has gone by so quickly, it's hard to believe I'm already thinking about Christmas decorations.

So, our first Halloween in the house. Andre booked the day off work. Silly to have to book the day off, on a day that you're suppose to have off anyways, but whatever. He took it off. We were going to give out candy to the little neighbourhood kiddos, and then head off later on that night for a Haunted walk at the Hermitage Ruins/Dundas Valley Conservation Area courtesy of Haunted Hamilton. We did another tour with them a couple years ago, and thought that a moonlit ghost walk on Halloween would be fun.

Andre loves the holidays. Any holiday really. That's the hardest part about his job, being that he's had to work every holiday for over the last two years. Halloween is no different. He always makes sure that we have a pumpkin to carve and candy to hand out to the kids. This year we decided to go with a spider design for the pumpkin.
I wish that this design showcased our artistic abilities, but we bought a pumpkin carving kit a few years back that had a book of templates. We photocopy the templates and then copy and carve. Very easy, and very cool looking if I do say so myself.

It was so great watching Andre give out the candy to the kids. I have talked to quite a few friends about their husbands and Halloween and they would talk about how their beloved would lock themselves down in their basement until all the little ones were gone. Not Andre. I would go up for one group of kids, and then if I was going to go up for the next group, he would grab the bowl out of my hands and tell me it was his turn. He would ask all the kids what they had dressed up as and hand them the correct Jenna approved ration of candy then wish them all a Happy Halloween. It was so adorable to watch. It was one of those moments that reminded me why I love him as much as I do.

Then after all the kiddos were home safely in their parents homes hyped up on sugar we left for our Halloween adventure. The evening was a little cool, so I made sure to bring my hat and mitts. Andre on the other hand didn't think he would get cold so only wore his fall jacket. He froze his ass off. Men, god forbid they listen to us when we tell them they are going to get cold!

Here are some pictures of us as we waited for the walk to start:

Oh Andre, trying to look menacing and scary....my sister couldn't stop laughing when she saw this picture.

The walk lasted about 90 minutes as we wound our way down hiking trails in the middle of the night. It was a beautiful night for a walk. As the guide was finishing the last story of the evening on our way back everyone stopped as the clouds parted so the full moon could guide us back. It was beautiful.

We didn't really experience anything spooky while we were on the walk. There was no howling in the forest or anything like that. I did notice that for the most part the evening was very still, but as the guide was telling the stories every stop there would be a big gust of wind that would stir all the leaves in the trees. I thought it was just coincidence, but it happened on every single stop, during every story. We also noticed a little something extra when we were checking out the pictures later on that night. In this picture you will see the lights on the right shining on ruins from our flashlights, but there on the left through the open window, we can't explain the lights. There was nothing in the back except for branches and beams holding the side walls up. Kind of spooky don't you think?
*I'm writing this on my netbook, so I copied the pictures from facebook, hopefully later I will replace at least this picture with a higher resolution original*
Then at the end of the night as we were hearing some more stories and touring the back of the building (or what is left anyway), a couple offered to take our picture. She was very nice.
See what I mean about nothing behind the building? Very spooky.

I hope everyone else out there had a great Halloween!