Here we go ….

I started Buserelin injections today.  Despite all my fears, I didn't feel much when TJL injected me this morning.  I begin Gonal F on Friday, and judging by the amount to be delivered (ie significantly more than Buserelin) I might be feeling that one a bit more!  I guess I will know Friday night.

Had a good trip up to H.Town yesterday, to get the drugs.  TJL got a wee surprise in finding out he had to pay another bill, but he sucked it up and paid it (what a good man).  Then he had to give a sample.  He didn't get any 'instructions' ie, the room was blank, there was a TV and no remote.  Lucky he's a bit of a snooper and opened a cupboard door and found some Magazines.  He wasn't too sure if he could have done it if they weren't there.

Then we had the meeting with the nurse, re how to inject the drugs.  TJL being a dairy farmer doesn't have a problem at all with injecting me, which is a relief as I don't think I could inject myself.

Finally was a meeting with a counsellor.  She was ok.  I think she expected us to be 'really excited' and we were a bit more relaxed about it.  Basically I just want it over.  And I'm not getting my hopes up, I refuse to!  By the end of it she wished I could work for her as my attitude towards it was so good.  As I told her, I have contingency plans if it doesn't work, but no plans in place if it does … lol.   I figure if it does work then I will have plenty of time to plan from then on.

So it's all go, scary stuff!

Incredibly busy week - the photo edition

We have had an incredibly hectic week with hay making, farm 'shopping', vet visit, TJL's birthday (and thus his family visit).  And tonight I get to milk as TJL has speedway and needs to get there early.

Not to mention that I still have 2000 photos to edit and upload from last weekend, and I am back out taking more photos tomorrow!  Now let me hear you all SCREAM!

So here are a few things, in pictorial form.  Probably out of order :-)

Calf enjoying a chew on my shirt before getting vaccinated

TJL checking out the calves before vaccination

Get lots of these shots ...

… and these ones ...

… and these ones

Vet giving the vaccinations.  Does it super quick (now I'm worried about IVF injections starting soon).

Freedom!  After vaccinations.

Chocolate cake made for TLJ's birthday.

TJL turning hay

Stella-D

Stella-D

TJL turning hay.

Boys heading up to fresh grazing - Jeckle, Bernard and Paulie

Jeckle rubbing on a bank on the way up to paddock ...

… awww yeah ...

… AWWWW  YEAH!!!!

Hay bale

Hay bale closeup in black and white

Hay bale closeup in black and white

Hay bale closeup

TJL bringing hay to the shed, 3 bales at a time

Making hay while the sun shines

That saying is an oldie but a goodie, and definitely applies to us today.  Last nights weather report was all good, up until about Thursday, and so trusting the metrologist's (as there is no other option) we are good to go.  Unfortunately we did get a bit undecided this morning as we got a bit of heavy rain, but it now seems to have gone and the cutting of hay has begun.

Hay making is one of my favourite farm activities.  The smell of freshly cut grass.  The sweet smell of hay when it gets baled.  I also love the memories, back in the day of conventional bales, when the hay gangs (usually students) would be busy all summer stacking up truck and trailers with bales of hay, tanned and muscular from all the hard physical work.  Ahhh, a time when men were men!  Then there would be the sitting around, having a feed and a 'beer' after a hard, solid, days work.

I also remember my father stringing up a couple of bales in the hay shed, chucking on an old saddle, so my sister and I could ride and swing to our hearts content.  No doubt it saved my poor pony from being ridden into the ground.  Dad only did this for us for one year.  In hindsight he must have discovered them to be bloody annoying when he had to get the rest of his hay out of the shed, lucky he was kind hearted enough to leave them up for the summer season.

As an aside, another of my favourite farm activities is shearing, but now I am on a dairy farm I have to survive on my shearing memories alone.  I love the smell of raw wool with its lanolin!

The neighbour has also decided that it might be a good time to spread some fert.  Obviously one of the quickest ways to do this is via helicopter.  Those pilots have some serious skills!

I tried to be seriously quick with the next photo.  My better half cutting hay, milk tanker collecting milk, and helicopter doing fert.  All tools of the agricultural trade!

And I couldn't resist getting a few shots of the dog.  She is a pound puppy, black lab x kelpie.  Unfortunately our farm is too small for a real farm dog, there would not be enough work for one, so we have our pet instead.  I am hoping to rehome a retired huntaway at some stage.  I just love farm dogs and think that rehoming a dog that is passed their working best would be a great compromise.

Words

A few people have been coming up with words that they are focusing on for the year.  So far I have come up with 4!  Yes, that pretty much describes me - indecisive or greedy or just a faffer general.  Anyway, what has been happening for me is some mornings I wake up and I have a new word in mind.  At the moment I am writing them on the whiteboard in the kitchen, and so far it's working pretty well as TJL then reads them and repeats them, and thus reminds me of them.


So the words I have up (so far) are:-

FOCUS - I have picked focus because, as I said before, I am very, very good at faffing around rather than getting tasks done.  This is a hard one for me.  I know what I should be doing but get sidetracked extremely easily.


GROW - This really stands for many things.  A key one is to Grow Up!  I am embarrassingly immature.  Seriously.  It is time I grew up.  I also want to grow in my understanding of God, as I am such a beginner when it comes to Christianity.  I want to grow my photography business, grow decent vegetable and flower gardens.  And, of course I want to grow a baby, or three, or how every many God decides to bless us with.


ENGAGE - I need to engage more with TJL, rather than spend all our time in the same room watching TV and being on the computer.  A relationship can not exist in this manner!  I need to listen more and talk less.  And I need to actually concentrate when I listen, not show a half interest, it has to be listening in full.


APPRECIATE - This was the word I had when I woke up this morning.  I am a glass half empty kind of person.  What I realised this morning was that, the only thing missing from my life is children.  Other than that I have everything I ever wished for.  My fiancee is a farmer.  I am a photographer.  I own a house.  So I don't appreciate what I have, and it is time that I did.  


I wonder if God will bring me any new words tomorrow?

So unmotivated!

Seriously, it is terrible at how unmotivated I am at the moment.  I blame the weather, it has been warm and wet so far this year.  We have definitely had enough rain now, we need SUNSHINE so we can get our hay made!

Today I had been asked to head out and photograph the Taranaki Area Mounted Games.  I wasn't too sure if it would still be on, as we have had so much rain I thought that the grounds would be slippery.  Fortunately they didn't start until 10.30am (such a civilised hour), and the grounds are only 15 minutes away, so I didn't have to leave home until 10am (I like to get there a bit early to see the set-up etc).

This is one of the top older riders.

It was a real shame to see only 4 teams competing today as games are such fun to ride. I am interested in joining the committee (if they have one) but words of wisdom from TJL is to wait until IVF is over (he is definitely a sensible one!)

This is one of the younger novice riders.  The boys, I find, really love the mounted games side of horse riding.

I was so glad I went!  I had thought about 'piking out' because of the weather, but it really was more to do with my lethargy.  Going to the games reminded me that I LOVE MOUNTED GAMES, it is definitely my favourite discipline.  If I ever get a horse again I really think I will do games (if I can).

I really liked this shot as the horses legs are almost in unison, you don't get that shot very often.

So I am very thankful that God has provided me with the motivation to get back into my photography, via the use of Mounted Games.

I'm back!

Cheers

Micha

Tidying up my crafty stuff

I drove into H town today as there was supposed to be dressage on for me to photograph.  There was not a sign at all that the event was on today, so I high tailed it back home.  I wasn't really in the mood to photograph in the intermittent rain today anyway.

When I got home I decided to start tidying up my craft containers.  Our house is not the largest, so all of my stuff if 'jammed' into a couple of containers, and recently they haven't had their lids on due to being so full.

Of course, once you start 'tidying' your craft stuff you end up wanting to actually do some craft stuff, so in actual fact my tidying ended up looking like this - 

Yep, stuff for MILES!  And seriously, I think we need to get rid of the 1970's Lazyboy in the corner, it's only used as a 'shelf', and currently it has a dead DVD player, and one of the cow's brushes on it.  But yes, messy, messy, messy.  I did manage to get it mostly tidied up before TJL came in for dinner.

I did achieve something through the mess though.  I finally got around to organising our engagement cards.  I can't remember where I got the original idea from, definitely a fellow blogger, but just which one it was, sorry I can't remember.  A big thank you to you anyway, whoever you are!

So I scrapbooked a cover, to go with our engagement cards.  My (old) work colleagues gave us a HUGE card, so I had to make a HUGE cover.  I'm definitely a newbie to scrapbooking (as in I have done about 6 pages total) so I have A  LOT  to learn.  I actually wish I had used blue paper instead of the green, but what's done is done.

And below is the inside.  I have only tied it up with a bit of ribbon, so I can still add more cards (if we get any more, like, if we actually have an engagement party at some point).  Plus I want to write out the proposal and ring details and include them in there as well.  

 The photo that I put on the front is from our trip to Cairns, before we got engaged, but I didn't have any decent ones of us from the actual day.  I do have some others from the day though, so want to have them inside too.

I plan to do this with all saved birthday and Christmas cards as well.  Fortunately they are all just regular sized, so I won't have to make such a big cover!

See you next time

Micha

Good feelings

I just realised today (yes I can be slow), that I did the right thing by quitting my job 3 months ago.  I think if I was still under the 'stress' of work (and that would have been purely because I disliked the environment so much, not because the work itself was stressful) then the thought of even trying IVF would have been an added stressor, and then, in my opinion, the chance of success would have been greatly reduced.

However, since I did quit three months ago, I think I have had just the right amount of time to free myself from the work stress, and relax out, and be more receptive for the IVF.  I know that I am lucky to have TJL and so have been able to be work free and get myself kind of ready, but seriously, I have no idea how other people do it.  I find it mentally quite taxing, so trying to handle both IVF and work would have put me to my limit.

So I am all geared to go.  I feel great!  Yes I could do with some weight loss, and I am working on it, but other than that, and my age, I really don't think that there should be any other issues, so fingers crossed we have a great cycle, and all that goes with it.

One thing I can thank infertility for, is giving me patience.  She's a long, slow, process, especially here in good ol' New Zealand, I'm just glad we have finally begun the road!

Day one of BCP

So today I started birth control pills.  This means that the process of IVF has now begun.  It's exciting, and scary!  I haven't been on BCP for a very, very long time, so I hope they don't stuff up my cycle since I am so regular.  Oh well, time will tell.  We have the appointment for drugs (and how to inject them etc) on the 31st Jan, and so I figure we will be doing the whole IVF petri-dish experiment sometime around Valentines Day.  Being infertile I look to anything as 'a sign' that all will be well, so I'm going with YAY!  I'm going to get pregnant Valentines Day … lol.  Well, a girl can dream can't she … is it to early to start hoping for twins … hahaha.

And then onto more mundane things ...

Tonight for dinner we had Baked Pork Chops in Applesauce.  It was de.lic.ious!  I am so glad I am branching out in the cooking department.  It was super easy as well.

Ingredients
Pork Chops (we had 3, so one left over for lunch tomorrow)
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/4 cup Catsup (I used good ol' Watties Tomato Sauce)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup applesauce (I made my own)
1 onion, sliced

Method
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)
Brown pork chops in skillet then put into casserole dish
Add flour, salt, pepper, catsup, boiling water, and applesauce to skillet with pork juices (see pic below), stir until thickened and smooth

Place sliced onions onto pork chops (I actually cooked my onions in the mix above)
Pour applesauce mixture over pork chops.
Bake 45 minutes or until done

I served with green beans and potato kumera mash … yum, yum, yum

The only other thing I achieved today was cleaning the goldfish tank.  I gave it a thorough clean so the fish got moved out into my spare small tank, all the water taken out (into buckets to go back in), all the stones taken out and washed, and all the sides of the tank cleaned.  It looks good!  And the fish seem quite happy so all is well.  Hooray!

Wedding

TJL and I had a weekend away for my friend CrazyJ's wedding.  It was 'back home' so we stayed with my parents, 2nd time in two weeks for me, so that was great.  Being the great photographer I am I didn't actually take a camera in with me (I only had large ones with me and totally forgot my little compact one.  The photos below are pinched from Facebook taken by the Brides sister).

This is the venue - The Hawke's Bay Club.  It was very nice, lovely and historic.

The cake was very cool.   Little cupcakes for everyone to eat (they were made by another of the brides sisters), and the cake topper included a pregnant bride (which J was).  The cupcakes were delicious (I originally got a banana one, and luckily TJL got a vanilla one so we swapped). 

J&J cutting the 'cupcake'.  The top tier is fruit cake that is being saved for the birth of their baby girl in a couple of months.

If you couldn't quite tell by the above pic, the groom was indeed in a wheelchair (due to a botched operation when he was early 20's I think).  Also the bride was in jandals and I was so jealous!  My feet hurt in my tiny heeled shoes (that means the heels were tiny, not the shoes themselves!)

Awwww father daughter dance.  J is the oldest of 4 sisters, and the last to get married and have children.  He was one happy man!  And obviously J was over the moon to finally have the man of her dreams.

Acupuncture appointment

Had another acupuncture appointment today.  Have I said before how much I love acupuncture.

After my last appointment, when she gave me the 'hot cigar' treatment (can not remember its proper name), I had spotting a few days before my period.  I NEVER have spotting.  And then my period was a day late, I'm NEVER a day late, my cycle is a perfect 27 days (I had thought it was 28 but that was me counting day 1, twice, doh! … lol).  Acupuncturist was pleased as it meant that the treatment was 'doing something', and while I do agree, any strange symptoms for someone with infertility can't but help raise the hopes, although it was very slightly and I did think the cause was the acupuncture, but you know, hoping for a miracle here!

Todays treatment was good, it was on my back, which is super relaxing.  Then she massaged my feet and legs - talk about OUCH!  Man she digs in deep!  And then she did my shoulder area, which is full of knots, and yep, that hurt too!  But I always feel great afterwards, and she has given me stretches to do for my back and shoulders.

My feet have been giving me a bit of trouble lately too, especially the right.  Apparently I have 'too much skin' and I need to slough it off (she said some people would razor blade it off … what??!! - I am so out of touch with what people do).  Anyway, I bought a pumice stone and foot file today, so I shall get to work on tidying up my feet.

I haven't made another appointment as yet, as period is due tomorrow, and we have to see what will be happening with IVF before I book for more acupuncture.

Ohhh, exciting and nervous.

Hopefully my period comes tomorrow, as I have no clue as to what will happen if it comes on the weekend and we are away, wait another month most likely!  And I don't want to.

Oh the trials and tribulations living in a country where so few clinics do IVF, and I have to travel 4 hours to get to it!

Catch-ups and giveaways

I had a great day today.  I met up with a couple of 'girls' that I used to work with at Fonterra.  It was great to catch up with them and to find out what was going on back at the 'ol joint.  It is pretty much same ol', same ol' - no surprises there.  I am so glad I got out.  M is about ready to 'pop' with baby #1.  She is a bit nervous, as she is single, but she will be fine.  S is as sporty as ever, and had plenty of gossip to share before M got there.  I try not to be big on gossip, and it really was one of the reason's I left, but I am ashamed to admit, I did enjoy hearing the tales about what was going on.  I have to say that it wasn't too much gossip, and it wasn't malicious, but it was gossip none-the-less.

Then, when I went to the supermarket, I bumped into another old colleague D.  It was a brief catch up with her (had frozens and it was HOT today), but she looked great, and it was definitely nice to see her.

I got home in time to cook dinner for TJL.  I had planned to attempt an apricot chicken dish, but I actually didn't have all the ingredients!  It's called shopping in a hurry as you didn't really want to be there, and therefore stuffing up.  I still cooked chicken (lemon garlic), but it wasn't anything 'new' liked I'd hoped.

I had two Facebook giveaways tonight.  One was for my Photography business (I had three calendars left from my Christmas giving), and one was for the Taranaki Mountainairs (local basketball team).  Again it was calendars.  My photography one went well, I had 14 contenders, so I drew three names out of a hat.  The basketball one only had 2 contenders and there were 3 calendars and 5 magnet calendars.  Oh well, I will be able to give them away at games.  It always amazes me about how hard it is to give away things at times.  At least I'm trying my best to promote the team, and that's the main thing.  It might take time but it all has to start from somewhere.

Getting out of a cooking rut

Poor TJL, I have really been in a cooking rut for the last four years.  I am not a bad cook, I just got into my fathers way of cooking - meat and three veg, one being potato, 'chinese 5 spice chicken or sweet and sour pork and rice', pasta via lasagne, bolognaise, or mac. cheese, roast meals, and on the odd occasion kebabs, or maybe a salad instead of cooked veg.

So tonight's plan of attack was to make sweet and sour pork, with rice.  And then I thought (wow, me thinking - miracles are happening in 2012 already!), sorry, then I thought, google pork slices and see what recipes come up.  The first couple looked pretty good - Caramelized Pork Slices and Tangy Sweet Pork Belly Slices.  I went with the Tangy Sweet Pork Belly Slices, but used silverbeet instead of watercress or puha.  I also REALLY branched out and went with brown rice instead of the usual Jasmine or Basmati.

It was delicious, and really, really easy, and TJL really liked it, and appreciated that I went to some effort to make something different.

I then remembered that I had signed up for Pinterest You can find me here (I hope) so I saved the recipes to my boards.  And now I can finally see the point to Pinterest (sorry, I can be a bit slow), but from now on, when I see stuff I like, and am inspired by, I can Pin it!  Yes!

I also must make more effort to get photos to this blog!  Otherwise it is a bit of a bore … hahaha.

But for now I am off to pin, pin, pin!