Not a Wordless Wednesday

I know you are probably tired of reading these updates. I'm growing tired of posting them. I'm ready for some good news!

Today, I had an appointment with Dr. S to see how the injections had progressed my follicle growth. In two days (each with a 75 cc shot of Follistim), my growth had only progressed to 18.69 mm and somewhere around 17 from 16.

SO. It's not looking much better than last month. Both doctors raised their eyebrows at the outcome of the treatment this time around, and continued to say "it's not where I'd like it to be, but this may be completely normal for you." Dr. S reassured me today that at least the chances have been raised from 0% with no ovulation to 20-25% with one (maybe 2?) follicles.

 I think both doctors are starting to get frustrated with the lack of progress my body is showing. I don't seem to be responding very well to the Clomid, but...we are hoping for a miracle. I'm giving myself a shot tonight of Ovidrel to make my body ovulate. It takes about 36 hours for that to happen. Then, Friday morning at 11:30 we go in for our second IUI attempt.

 Scout was at my appointments this week, and she continues to make everyone in the office laugh and smile. They talk to her about her Halloween costume, her curly hair, and ask her if she wants to stay in the office with them. She tells them about her favorite Nintendo characters, how she wants a baby sister, and her rock collection. She caught Dr. J off-guard on Monday. As he was leaving our room, he said "Bye, you!" to Scout. She looked up at him and said "BYE, YOU!!"

 Jay was in San Francisco today, sitting on a discussion panel at OMMA Video Conference. They were discussing YouTube as the new MSO. You can view it here in all it's techie-fabulousness. He makes some very good points (around minute ~5 and ~22:30) about internet media and even gets to use the phrase "democratized content landscape." God, he's so awesome. I love that he is amazing at his job. I love that he loves his job. I love that he gets to do cool stuff like this, because...he is really good at it. I'm so proud of him.

Good food: Nicoise Salads

Jay and I have been having "at home date nights." Which really, really, really sounds like a cop-out. But, in reality, is SO fun. So far, we've had three of these...and what happens goes something like this: Jay makes and serves dinner in three courses; soup or salad, main course, dessert. I'm not allowed in the kitchen. We both shower and shave and get dressed up like we actually are going to leave the house. We listen to records, and put away the technologies (for the most part). We talk about current events, work, the future and other fun things. Then after dinner, we play a board game or watch a new movie, or both. 

This Saturday night, Jay made Nicoise (knee-swahz) salads and tomato bisque with ice cream and milano cookies for dessert. Nicoise salad is one of his favorites that i've never ventured to try. Though I don't know why...because I LOVED it. 

There are different variations and recipes for this delicious salad. Jay enjoyed one last week that used salmon instead of tuna and asparagus instead of green beans. We stuck to the traditional recipe (minus olives, because if you know anything about my husband...you should know he hates olives and most pickles). 

Jay made the dressing from scratch. Here's the things you need for the dressing:

3/4 cup olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 tbsp. fresh (or dried) thyme

2 tsp. oregano (we used dried whole mexican oregano)

1 tbsp. fresh basil

1 tsp. dijon mustard

1/2 cup lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Other things you'll need to pick up from the market:

Sashimi-grade Tuna steak (one should be enough for two people)

small red new potatoes 

fresh green beans

1 egg per person, hard-boiled

Nicoise Olives (or capers or kalamata olives, if you can't find nicoise) 

Boil your potatoes and your eggs (separately), and flash cook or steam your green beans. You want the green beans to be crunchy and sweet, not soft and mushy. You'll want to cool these things down before you put them on the lettuce to keep the lettuce from wilting. Jay let them sit in some ice water for a few minutes to bring them to room temp. 

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on your tuna steak, and then pan-fry it over medium heat. Keep the center pink, don't overcook the tuna. You can put a little bit of kosher salt on there, if you like. After cooking, slice it and divide between the salads. Let it cool down a little before putting it on the lettuce.

To arrange your salad, start with fresh butter lettuce. We got the hydroponic head of butter lettuce at the store because Jay loved the tagline on the packaging: "You know it's fresh because it's still alive." Queue the sinister laughter. 

In the middle of the lettuce, place your sliced tuna steak in the middle. Then, arrange the remaining ingredients in clockwise fashion. Potatoes (4 or 5), green beans, sliced deviled egg, and olives. Instead of olives, I opted for capers. Which, I have to say...were really delicious. Drizzle your dressing over the top, and enjoy! 

Nicoise deliciousness

dinner date

This just happened: Saturday Morning

Jay spends all morning...literally all morning.....trying to convince me that we need to buy a new television THIS weekend. Mind you, just last night I agreed that our current plasma t.v. is going to need replacing...maybe it could be our Christmas present. Like, ease me into it...by...CHRISTMAS.

I'm resisting. Telling him it's ridiculous. I don't want to spend the money right now. No way. No how. Don't care how good the deals are right now.

He says these words. "It's 3d. It comes with two free pairs of 3D glasses. And it's $200 cheaper than normal." He measures our current television space. I can see the wheels turning. He's trying to figure out how much television he can get for his buck.

I say: "uh. I don't care. And I can't think of anything more embarrassing than sitting on our couch, with glasses on, watching television." I vacuum the rug.

Finally, after some more badgering, I give in. "Fine. Just don't tell anyone we have a 3d television." (and yes, I know, I'm here telling you all about it)

THEN. He. Measures. The. DVD. Player. The blue-ray we just got for Christmas.

You can imagine the panic that was in my voice as I say. "OH NO YOU DON'T!!"

Boys and their toys. tsk. tsk.

Happy Father's Day....

To all the daddies out there. And especially to the one of this girl:

Without whom, I don't know what I'd do.

evolution

Scout woke up this morning and started her usual "entertain me" antics. We sleepily told her to go draw in her room while we woke up, gathered our thoughts and our coffee, and tackled the seemingly-never-ending task of organizing and putting together our new furniture. She comes in the kitchen and without a word hangs up a masterpiece on the fridge. Jay sees this and asks her what her picture is.

It's a big, scary monster and a rain cloud. Then, picture Jay's jaw dropping to the floor. It is that, exactly.

Exhibit A:



So, being the inquisitive parents we are. We said "hey, scout, can you draw a funny monster?" So, off she runs to her room as we discuss her incredible, overnight ability to draw things with legs and faces and arms, instead of just scribbles and swirls and blobs. How do they just know? Where did this ability come from?
Then, to our amazement, she emerges with this:

Exhibit B:


I've never been this proud in my life. I'm framing her subsequent series of monsters for our living room. Seriousness.

Mini-Vacay with my love.

Olympic Peninsula, WA - Canon T2i from Jay Holzer on Vimeo.

Turkey on the brain

Thanksgiving.
It's a week away and I'm already CRAVING that dressing and gravy. MMMmmmmMMMm! I've had a great year, and have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful for a loving husband who works very (VERY, VERY, VERY) hard. I'm thankful for a silly 2 (almost three!) year old that keeps me on my toes. I'm thankful for the roof over my head and that full belly of mine. Tonight, I'm thankful for Chinese take-out and Disney movies (it's been that kind of day). One more day!