Good News

Just a quick post with some good news (because I'm supposed to be cleaning right now...).

Hubby did not get laid off work as of yet...it looks good until at least the end of August and probably after due to another workers surgery and possible retirement.

Good news for our next IVF cycle scheduled for September...looks like it's still on.

Fingers crossed!

Payback for ruining the world...

Well...it's week 5 on my weight loss journey and I'm down 19 lbs. yay. I'm thinking about getting some of these new "FitFlops" from Bath and Body Works...has anyone every worn any before??? Supposedly you can exercise (walk) in them - which is good because I HATE sneakers and socks as they are so hot on my feet - and as an added bonus they are supposed to actually work your muscles out more due to the way they are constructed. I don't know...I have a $10 coupon, maybe I'll drive into Bath and Body and check them out.

New problem has happened though...Hubby is probably getting laid off of work soon (next week). Which sucks for MULTIPLE reasons - the obvious fact of getting laid off would be enough, but the other problem is that his insurance that he currently has helps us in paying for infertility treatments. (Before you get mad and hate me...it does not pay 100%, but it does help quite substantially). So.....now is my dilemma. Our plan was to wait and do the next IVF cycle this September so that I could lose some weight prior and just so we could take a break for mental health reasons. Now...he is "on the bubble" with getting laid off. Meaning, he is the first one that would get called back if they called anyone back or if anyone retired. Supposedly there is a lady there who is just ahead of him w/senority and she is going for neck surgery and will be taking the next 3 months off anyway...after that she is "thinking" about retiring but has not decided for sure yet. So....that means that they may hold her spot for her for the next 3 months until she decides (which means that hubby gets laid off) - or - they may let hubby work in her spot for the next 3 months and then if she comes back after her 3 months off THEN hubby gets laid off. However if that's the case, then in the meantime someone else may retire, who knows, or maybe we'll be in the same boat in 3 months.

Second dilemma...if he does get laid off next week...we can keep our current insurance for 4 months. So do I go ahead and go through another IVF cycle because of the insurance coverage as soon as possible? But then if I do and it's successful, what happens if I have a complicated pregnancy and can't work or worse have lots of medical bills and hubby can't find another good job in the meantime??? I would need to pick up time at work to be able to get insurance or quit my job and go back to the hospital for the insurance (but again...what if I have a problematic preganancy - my fertility specialist already informed me that I would be a "high risk" pregnancy throughout the entire pregnancy). OR do we wait, lose the insurance, hubby gets another job and insurance that will most likely not help with infertility costs (because I know most don't) and then I'm kicking myself becuase we didn't take advantage of this insurance when we could??? (Of course going for an IVF cycle when your getting laid off work doesn't sound like it makes much sense either).

Open for suggestions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a lighter note, I found this post on another bloggers site (it's not forgery if you give credit, right???)

Anyway here it is, it's hilarious:

Feeling stupid?
If you ever have one of those moments where you feel a little bit stupid, just think of these and you'll begin to feel like you're a genius.

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."--Miss Alabama, Heather Whitestone, in the 1994 Miss USA Pagent.

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."--Mariah Carey

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."-- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body"--Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington , DC.

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it."--A congressional candidate in Texas.

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."--Al Gore, former Vice President

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."-- Dan Quayle, former Vice President

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"--Lee Iacocca

"The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."-- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."--Department of Social Services, Greenville , SC

"Traditionally, most of Australia 's imports come from overseas."--Keppel Enderbery

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."--Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

Feeling smarter yet?

Ruining the world - one ipod shuffle at a time...

OK - so I thought I was doing a good thing by buying the (RED) version of the ipod shuffle. But now I'm not so sure that buying an ipod (or anything else from apple is so good at all).

This all started when I got an email saying that my shuffle was packaged and on it's way to me via FedEx - so I plugged in the tracking number at FedEx.com and found that my package had left Suzhou, China and was now in Shanghai, China. - Well being married to a 'Union-man' that tries to buy ONLY made in america items when he has the option (which I agree with don't get me wrong...he does go a little overboard sometimes even ordering his blue jeans online to make sure they were made in the united states).

I googled ipod and Suzhou and Shanghai and this is what I found. I found MANY articles like the one from Wired stating that the 'ipod city' as it is called in China only pays their workers anywhere from $50-$100 a month and they must live in the dormatories pictured above and work in sweatshop like conditions. They aren't allowed to have visitors or even many personal belongings and are forced to work 15 hour days.

So now I'm feeling pretty crappy about supporting such a practice. Although, I then stumbled across another little piece of information on the internet (looks like it's from someone's blog) at fixyourthinking.com that basically says that the economy in China now is like that of America in the Great Depression and that people are paid less but that the cost of living is much less. What was even more interesting was a comment to this post written by "KC" a Chinese-American who seemed to have no problem with the way the ipods are made - he states that these types of companies in China give people a chance to make more money in a month than their family can make in a year through farming. He states that there are opportunities for moving up to supervisory positions as well...he says it is just a different world and different environment than in the united states today and people do what they need to do to make a living. He also states that a lot of individuals will work in these types of places, then pool their money and start their own business and factories.

So, I don't know what to think. I think it's rotten that people have to live in conditions that I believe are substandard...but then again I may be living in conditions that other people would think are substandard. I don't know...I know however that there are basic human civil rights that should be upheld everywhere - but, if these rights are being upheld - then who are we to say that another country's practices are wrong as long as the basic rights are upheld and people are entering these working environments through their own free will?

I don't know...it's hard to say how I really feel because I'm not really sure. I wish everyone in America and everyone in the world could experience life the way it is supposed to be and I wish everyone could experience being cared for by their loved ones, friends and their employers. I wish, but I know that is not reality and I know that people have to make hard choices in life about everything. Who knows...if I lived in China and my family members were farmers (or unemployed) and worked hard but still could not make a living - and if I had a chance to go to work in 'ipod city' and send money home to them during these depression like times...I probably would be glad that the option to do that was there. So then, looking at it that way, I feel like a jerk sitting over here in America in my nice house with my nice job criticizing what may be a great opportunity to someone on the opposite side of the world.

I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks.

Saving the world with an ipod shuffle...

OK - so I'm not really saving the world. But... I did buy the product(RED) ipod shuffle this morning online (well actually my hubby bought it for me for my birthday - he just doesn't know it yet as he is sleeping in the other room).

I plugged in my (RED) purchase at the product(RED) website and found out that my purchase will provide 41 single-dose (nevirapine) treatments for mother and baby, to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

Cool.

I also got a pretty cool case for it to keep it in my purse without getting destroyed!

So all in all, I shopped around the internet (e-bay, Apple store and amazon.com) and got the following for a grand total of $110.25:

1-apple ipod shuffle 2GB

1-travel AC charger

1-car charger

1-pink carrying case to hold i-pod and ear buds

1-pink earbud clip to hold extra cord out of the way when working in my garden
1-happy husband that knows he doesn't have to try to find me a birthday gift other than a nice dinner out in July! (and maybe some nice flowers...hint, hint)

I think that's a pretty good deal.

(By the way - my face still feels like hell - damn wisdom teeth).

My Birthday Present......

My birthday isn't until July 21 but I think that my hubby is going to buy me an early b-day gift! (He doesn't know this yet - but will be delighted as he never knows what to get for me!)

I have been wanting to get an ipod so that when I go walking and stuff for exercise I can have something to listen to - however the choices are ENDLESS! I think actually that I want one of the least expensive ones (the ipod shuffle) because I really don't think I would use all the fancy video features (although a visible play list would be nice). However, I really think that the shuffle will be just right for me.

If anyone has any ipod experience/advice I welcome it as I am making this decision without actually ever seeing a device.

The one I'm looking at is from the Apple Store, and I'm looking that the red ipod shuffle (i like the minty green one better i think) but will probably buy the red one as it is part of the product(RED) line and I really like the idea behind those products.

So anyone with 'ipod experience' let me know what you think. I look forward to comments!

By the way, I have also launched out into the cyber world of facebook & myspace. I did this mostly to catch up with long lost friends/coworkers...but am extending an invitation to any of my bloggie buddies to drop me a line/add to friend list if you are so inclined. Here are the links.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/shauna_wagner

Facebook

Wisdom Teeth.....

I had two wisdom teeth removed yesterday (incredibly my lower right wisdom tooth was impacted an looks freakishly like the one in the photo above that I stumbled across in a google image search).

Anyway - my face feels like someone hit me on the right side of my face with a baseball bat and then cut the inside of my mouth up with a bunch of razors. (I'm feeling a little better today but this is still a pretty accurate description).

I took a vicodin too soon yesterday when I got home (my sedation meds must not have been out of my system yet) and I nearly blacked out in the bathroom - had to lay on the bathroom floor until it passed - such a wiener - can't even tolerate vicodin!

I do miss my solid foods and popcorn! (love popcorn - eat it every night watching TV - low calorie you know. I've found if you put some kernels in a brown paper lunch bag and spray a little Pam on them, fold the top down and put it on the popcorn cycle in the microwave oven - you end up with perfectly popped popcorn for hardly any calories!) The microwave popcorn that you buy in the boxes are LOADED with calories - and it's so much cheaper and easier this way! I think the the microwave popcorn industry doesn't want you to know that you can do this!

Oh well.....jello, pudding and cottage cheese for me! Maybe i'll try some chicken soup tonight.

Not bad at all...

So the colposcopy (AKA: cervical biopsy) was not bad at all. I felt NO pain! yay!

Anyway, he only found one place that needed biopsied so that's good news...won't find out the results for about 10-14 days though.

(note: the above picture I posted because I thought it was HILARIOUS. It is not a picture of me though, I am so not that cute! It is a picture that was posted on a friend's myspace page from her trip to Vegas - if you can't read the sign that the homeless man is holding it says "Why lie - I need beer.")

Colposcopy tomorrow!!!!

Not looking forward to the Colposcopy..... (don't know why, I hear it's pretty painless). I'll post tomorrow about how true that is!

A big thanks to Io. She less than 3ed my blog! (How nice is that Io!)

I feel that I would like to return the nice gesture, so I will less than 3 the following:

Ashley: Because she seems so genuinely nice... and I know that someday she will have more than Dog children!

Natalie: Because she just went through hell... and I wish her all the best.

And, Cece: because she is super supportive. She has had a long hard struggle that has resulted in her being preggers! Congrats!

I must add my brother Adam's blog also - you'll find a plethora of funny, witty and insightful infomation there.

*An honorary less than 3 award of course is returned back to Io because she has an AWESOME blog. You feel like her friend when you read it. You're the best!

(*by the way...I just figured out how to put links in my blog. SWEET! )

"Excuse me ma'am... Do you have handcuffs at home?"

Ok ... so true story. Today I'm at work (I work as a rounding nurse/physician extender in a large Cardiology group in my hometown).

Anyway... We had a patient come for follow up today that happened to be in jail so he was accompanied by a police officer.

As I'm checking my patient out, going over his instructions, the police officer is putting the patient's handcuffs back on. Something like this:

And then the cop (not the inmate) turns to me and says: "So, do you have some handcuffs at home?"

HILARIOUS.

When I think handcuffs, I think of the above picture.

I'm sure Mr. Pervert Cop-man was thinking something more along these lines:

Of course ... my ass looks NOTHING like the above.

Anyway, in some sort of wierd way it actually brightned my day. Call me crazy, maybe it's my old ER nurse ways coming back but I found it quite amusing that an officer (probably at least 15-20 years my senior) had the balls to ask me such a question not knowing if I was a prude that would call his supervisor to report him or not. (lucky for him I'm not).

Anyway, I took a post-Rudy blog break.

I needed some time away from infertility talks... We decided to wait 6 months and try again. Gives me time to mentally recoop as well as I want to lose some weight. (Although my fertility MD told me I can't do anything for exercise except walking in order to get the best quality eggies for next IVF).

So that was 2 weeks ago - I'm down 10 lbs so far... only a zillion left to go... we'll get there and we'll get a baby one day.

I want to return to blogging though - I miss reading everyone's news. But my blog will not be about fertility stuff for the next 5-6 months though...

Probably about daily stuff and weight loss.

I will continue reading all my blog buddies blogs though!

(Oh, I do have to have a colposcopy this Friday though because I've had 3 abnormal pap smears. Fun...)