Major paperwork - done!

The contract is signed, the payment done - we are off to the races (so to speak)... :)

Vicki (Blake's mom) came with us to our appointment - it was especially fun because people remembered her and Danielle, and she got to talk about and show pictures of Josie, Braden, and Bailee! People were happy to see how great they are doing at 7 yrs old! It made things feel happy and calmer. We are lucky to have support from our parents and siblings!

Had to get blood draws done today - mine took three sticks - one try in my arm, two in my hand (OUCH) - but they got it (finally). My new mantra is "I will drink at least 8 glasses of water a day" since I'll be getting lots of blood draws done (not my fave, but necessary!) *I blame two things for my bad veins: 1) their "memory" from when I was in the hospital - having IVs for 3 weeks I think made them dive deep and move when they sense a needle coming at them, and 2) (the more likely culprit) I think gaining weight is obviously making my veins deeper. Oops. Better get working on that hula dancing... ;)

OH and hydration - when work gets busy, I forget to get up and get water - this is good incentive to correct that because I'm not fond of the pincushion feeling!!! Lucky Blake - his was done so fast, and in one stick.

Next "big" thing: IVF class a week from tomorrow!

OK I have to include this though Blake may be mad and it may be TMI- we had to give urine samples and were supposed to leave them at the counter in the bathroom. Blake forgot that instruction, though, and came parading out with his sample in-hand back to the nurse and me. I don't know why, but it looked funny - he promptly did an about face and put it back. Poor Blake! :)

*I just remembered one other thing while cleaning the house - I've always had tricky veins - when I was ~10 yrs old, I had an endocrinologist at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes (in Denver), Dr. Donough O'Brien, who was a kind of old, gruff looking Scottish man. He had eyebrows that seemed to have a life of their own - very bushy, seemed to knit together. Anyway - his index finger was cut off a little above his first knuckle, but he insisted on drawing his patients' blood for the HbA1C check - he would put the rubber band on your arm and have you make a fist, feel around for a vein, take a marker and put an "X" on your arm, then stick you in the "X"! I think that's the first time I knew your veins will move if they sense danger!!! I can't say I was too disappointed when I got a different practitioner a few years later... So my veins have a long history of dodging needles! :)