Can you guess what it is?

I would love for it to be something that would make life easier on us posties, but I am guessing it is either a new domain added to the mix, it going out of beta, or upgrades of some sort. Whatever the news is, I look forward to how it will affect all of our blogs.

I think the critics will criticize, but they always do. I think the advertisers and posties will complain, but let’s be real here people, we always do… just because you cannot please everyone. I think overall there will be a buzz of excitement as there always is after a big roll out.

However, I would love to think the big news is something fun and sweet like someone at PayPerPost is getting married, or having a baby, and plan on broadcasting it live (much like Julie’s wedding). But I think I am just a sentimental sap that loves all things family related, and would like to think that Ted sits in a nice roomy office being fanned by palm tree leaves while being fed grapes by scantily clad women while the other people at PPP put in 4 fun filled hours of work and take home a ton of money and no one has to work long hours, and work their fingers to the bone. However I do know how hard the people over at Pay Per Post work, which is why I try to be happy with any upcoming changes.

Now, if only I could be so productive with MY blogs!

Sooooo, a few months back we buy a DVR from Best Buy. It’s the DirecTV DVR brand and not my nifty neato TiVo one from Hughes that I love. The fast forward button sucks and I spend more time rewinding than I do FFing through the commercials. If the show is a rerun, I can’t just push one skip button to get to the “do you want to delete?” function and the ONLY way to get to the “DYWTD?” part is to fast forward to the end (which half the time does not even work).

So, skip to last week…. I get one identical to my Hughes one from Ebay and cancel the other one and all is fine. I figure I did not want to waste the old one, so I give it to our friends. Well, tonight they try to activate and DirecTV says it is leased….? WTH, I bought it, I have the receipt, I did not sign a lease, I OWN it!

So I call DirecTV and speak to some woman who speaks English only half the time and she does a crappy job explaining anything… she did not even know what “an Ebay is”. I get pissed with her attitude and tell Bobby that I should call my dad and see how the law relates to this (he is a lawyer) and she says “Call Best Buy, call your legal team, You can call ANYONE you WANT!” so I ask to speak to the manager… what a shocker, she hangs up on me.

Anyways, apparently back in March ‘06 they made all their DVRs in the stores leased, but did not put it on the box, in the manual, on the shelf displays or anywhere else…and if I do not return it in 7 days to DirecTV I get a $200 charge. So, when I purchased the DVR Best Buy should have told me it was leased. When I activated it, DirecTV should have told me it was leased. When I deactivated it they should have told me it was leased and sent a box for me to return it in. When I called them a SECOND time to deactivate it again because they never did the first time they should have told me and sent a box, and they didn’t. In fact I was being slated to get the lovely $200 charge. F’in lovely!

Getting 5 hours of sleep at night is starting to wear on me and I look forward to another four day weekend. In fact, this morning I overslept and Austin had to let baby A. & mom into the house. I do apologize for being a bad blogger, I have been so busy this week.

Christopher’s diagnosis appointment is finally set for Tuesday, I am really looking forward to getting answers.

He also will be receiving speech therapy again at school, this time to help him gather and get out his thoughts. He will often start speaking, pause, start again, pause, etc. The speech therapist said what he is doing is similar to stuttering, and the treatment is much the same.

Austin got a progress report this week, and he still has mostly A’s and some B’s.

I also have been in contact with the Charter School I want him enrolled in, and he is #15 on the waiting list. Here is hoping that 15 kids move between now and the school year.

Matthew has some new words (and signs), like grandma (maaa-mah), and grandpa (pa-pa), and juice (deuce).

Bobby started his new semester and these classes are a bit harder than the other’s. I have faith he will do fine.

Isis got her shots, and weighed 44 lbs at the vet’s scale at petsmart and 39 lbs at the scale at the vet where she got her shots, so I am not sure which one is closer.

I have been up to the normal same old, same old. Later today I am going to post on my other blog about my great day yesterday, so stay tuned!

Isis got sick all over floor the night before last, I was sleeping and she did not even whine, I woke up to the sounds of doggy diarrhea, oh fun! It took 15 times of running the Spot Bot to get all 5 messes clean. Yesterday she had one more accident in the house before we sequestered her to the great outdoors until this blew over so to speak. Last night she slept in our room without incident. Thank goodness that is over with!

No problem, Just Say Hi!

JustSayHi.com is a 100% free online dating website, with all the online features of the other paid websites. No credit card is required, but I am sure they would appreciate a little word of mouth referrals to your friends and family.

Like a lot of other websites, on Just Say Hi you can search by gender, sexuality, age range, and distance from a specific zip code. You can also read bios, which include a picture, their physical description, profession, interests, and lifestyle choices.

I found the lifestyle choice questions were great, things you want to know like if they have been married before, if they have children, if they want children, if they are a drinker, a smoker and what religious preference. I feel those questions there tell a lot about a person. When I was dating Bobby if he said he never wanted children, that would have been a deal breaker for me. However I know people who are looking for a partner who does not want children, because they chose to live childfree by choice.

*This is a sponsored post.

Going out and making date night is an essential part of keeping a strong marriage, but remember, keeping the babysitter happy is a great way of making sure they will give you a helping hand when you need a little time to yourselves. If you mistreat the sitter or ignore some basic principals, you may find that the sitter is not so willing to watch your little darlings. Here are some basic ideas:
Plan ahead, if your child is not up to being left and your plans allow it, reschedule; leaving a crabby or sick child with a sitter is stressful on the sitter, as well as the child itself.

Make sure you include everything your child needs, from necessities like diapers, milk, and a change of clothes for younger children; or snacks, and entertainment for the older child. Also, if your child is young, or prone to missing the parents, include any comfort objects like special blankets, toys or pacifiers.

Find out ahead of time what your sitter would like you to do for meal times, if your children will be there for a meal, and feed the sitter too, it gives them energy to run after your children!
If your child has been feverish, or gassy, include a fever reducer, or simethicone drops, along with written instructions on dosage and the time the child can take it again.

Include phone numbers (or cell phone numbers) and locations you will be going, as well as show times, if you know them.

Give notice, at least 24-4 hours, to the sitter so they know what time to expect you, or what time to be at your residence.

Don’t change your plans without notifying the sitter. If you say you will only be gone 2 hours, don’t change it to 4 or 5 hours without letting them know. An impromptu visit to the diner for steaks and eggs after a late night show may be fun, but remember, as parents, your responsibility to your children come first… and your sitter may not be too thrilled about your change of plans also.

Remember, sitters are people too and deserve a little common courtesy.

Bobby and I have been talking a lot recently about flying down to the most South Eastern state to spend a week with Mickey & the gang, maybe when Matthew is 2 or 3 and before we lose the boys to hormones. I came across a website today that was offering some really good rates in Orlando, like $35-55 a night within 10 miles of the park.

Honestly, I expected to spend twice that for Hotel Reservations, especially to such a big city, but then I noticed the sign:

Well then, I guess I can understand why some of the rooms are so much cheaper than going directly to the website. As can be expected, some of the rates are exactly the same as going to the hotel’s website itself, but who wants to do through all that trouble searching hotel websites on by one to get the best rate.

The other nice thing about this website is that you can click on the picture of the hotel to see more pictures of various things such as the room, the amenities, the grounds, etcetera. I also liked that you could find vacation suites. For something like $20 more a night I found a “one bedroom” suite which had a bed in the main living area, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and two double beds in their own private room… a VERY nice thing to have when traveling with kids. Having a kitchenette would also have us a lot on food since we can make our own meals at least once a day to save on food costs.

The website was easy to navigate, easy to sort, with a lot of information about each property, a lot of pictures, and a clear breakdown of the nightly costs and fees with your total. I also liked how it would tell you what you were paying each night, since some hotel rates went up on the weekends, or down after the 2nd or 3rd night you were there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this website and have put it in my favorites to revisit when we get ready to take the plunge and plan our family vacation.

*This is a sponsored post.

It is no secret that I have suffered from secondary infertility for a number of years. Bobby and I started trying to get pregnant again when Christopher was 6 months old in July 1998. In early 1999 I started seeking help from the OB/GYNs on base at Ft Hood and kept getting little or no help. Bobby had surgery to fix his problems, but we still could not get pregnant. In 2000 we finally got a referral to a Reproductive Endocrinologist after being turned away from several doctors who could not help us. In 2002-2004, while Bobby was overseas in Korea and Iraq, I got on birth control pills to help regulate my cycles when he was gone.

I have PCOS, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This is an endocrine disorder that causes a plethora of symptoms, such as high testosterone and estrogen, weight gain, ovarian cysts, male hair growth & hair loss, heart disease, infertility, menstrual problems (irregular, infrequent or absent) and many many more problems. Right now there are several treatment options, such as insulin controlling medicines like Metformin, or Birth Control Pills to mask the symptoms. There are other surgical options or medicine therapy, but the above two are the most common.

The biggest heartbreak of infertility is how unfair it all is… my insurance will cover 100% of Viagra, birth control pills, surgical sterilization, abortion (all with a copay between $15-30), yet just for the initial consult with a Reproductive Endocrinologist I am looking at $700 out of pocket. Each visit after that would cost almost as much and I could be looking at being seen as many as 4-5 times in a single month. Also, why is it abusive parents, drug addicts and people who do not want children can pop them out right and left, where moms like me are lucky to have any at all.

In June 2004, 2 months after getting off of birth control pills, I learned I was pregnant for the second time. Matthew was born 10 months later, healthy, happy, and without complication. We started trying for #4 in August 2005 without any success. Because we just cannot afford advanced treatment from a Reproductive Endocrinologist, or even an OB/GYN we continue to just pray and hope that it will happen again.

If you are also suffering from infertility, be is primary, or secondary and in the Chicago or Naperville Illinois area, I urge you to seek treatment through a Reproductive Endocrinologist like Dr. Randy Morris at Chicago IVF. You do not have to suffer in silence, there are treatment options out there to help you achieve your dream!

*This is a sponsored post.

I have never been one for Valentines Day; I think it is a made up holiday to celebrate commercialism. I usually swear off all gifts, but this year DH was moved to get me something, either spur of the moment or planned… whatever the case may be, I think it was super sweet on the part of all my boys.

I had been getting sick on the 13th, and had laid down for a nap when Bobby got home from work. The older boys needed cards for their classroom the next day so he loaded up all three boys and headed to the store. He ended up getting fixings for dinner and he got me a teddy bear (from Matthew), a rose (from Christopher), chocolates (from Austin), and a beautiful lily plant from Bobby (pictured to the left, click to enlarge) and a balloon. When I came downstairs they had already made dinner and had arranged my gifts for me.

Of course, then I felt bad about not getting anything for Bobby, but he insists it is “my day” not his. He knows I hate Valentines Day so I know he did not expect anything. I have always loved how Bobby is romantic all year long and not just one day a year, so usually for Valentines Day I ask for time together. We joke that last year we went to the gun store for V-Day, but I loved it! I love just hanging out with him, spending time with him, commercialism aside. So thank you to all my men (big and little), for making this Valentines Day special… I love you all.

Well, after the suggestion of a mom in my local mothering group I chose a female doctor on the opposite end of town who she said she loved. I had an appointment for Wednesday and as usual, I arrived early to do paperwork. Turns out the paperwork was SUPER easy and fast and took me no time at all. By 15 minutes past my appointment I was in the office, and did not wait more than 5 minutes between the nurse being there and the doctor coming in. The doctor was super nice and she did not comment once about me trying to have another baby, breastfeeding still, or my weight. She did tell me that the blood pressure med I was on was NOT a good one if I were to get pregnant and gave me a different one. We did not agree when it came to the flu shot, but she only tried once to talk me into it once.

We also discussed getting back onto the insulin lowering medicine which is also good for helping with the symptoms of PCOS. I will start back on them in 2 weeks, and I will continue to monitor my blood pressure to see how my new meds work. If I do not see a change in 30 days I go back; if I do see a change I go back in 60 days.

In related news, I got a peak reading on my fertility monitor today, so I ovulated either today or yesterday. Yay!