Got baby on the brain?

Well, I finally did it.. I went to the doctor to talk to him about my infertility. I learned that I can use that word because my doctor told me it is defined as tyring for a year without luck of getting pregnant. So there.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I went in, but the doctor was very friendly and informative. We discussed the history of my crazy, stupid, frustrating, idiotic periods. I also feel that I've earned the right to use all the words.

He said he was willing to bet I just wasn't ovulating. Which is what I figured, seeing as how for a while there I was trying oh so hard to track and find the best time for some baby makin' lovin' with my boy. He started me on one round of Provera and Clomid. Then I'll go back in for bloodwork to find out if that helped me ovulate or not. I know much better than to expect anything right away, but it's just one of the things you can't help but hope for.. you know?

I can't wait to make my husband a daddy for the first time. I watched our neighbor's baby for a couple hours last night and it melted my heart to see him interact with baby Ashton.

I know that it's all in God's hands but I also know that we're ready.

Premonition?

I had this odd feeling at work on Friday that I should brush up on my CPR skills.

Weird?

But thanks to google.. I now feel a bit more confident should I ever need to perform CPR.

But please people.. don't make me have to use this skill.

Put me in coach..

.. I'm ready to plaayyy

Okay, not really. I just can't get over the game yesterday.

WHY in the HELL would Frazier have not gone for that 4th down with 2:30 left in the game?! It doesn't make sense to me. You need a touchdown to win.. so go for that touchdown.

But on a positive note.. we did play one hell of a game.

And that Ponder.. I sure hope he goes far! (we need it)

*sigh* Enough football talk. Really Nikki, there is more to life.

In a funk

Today is just one of those days.

I'm not motivated to do anything, and all I want to do is sleep.

It's that time of the month and my head hurts, and my stomach hurts, and my body hurts.

Plus is makes me mad, because it means that once again.. I'm not pregnant.

Ugh.

But hey, it's Friday :)

V.i.k.i.n.g.s

I am a Vikings fan.

Not just on game day.
Not just if we win.
Not just during football season.

I wear my purple with pride.

Not just on game day.
Not just if we win.
Not just during football season.

I am a Vikings fan.

The post where I complain about money..

..or lack thereof.

I knew it was going to happen. Joe is back to school full time. He's also going through the police academy and taking entry level firefighting classes as well.

And what do you know.. he has just exhausted his unemployment benefits. (their words, not mine)

Joe's going to work as much as he can in between school, homework, and trainings.. but it will probably only be 3 days a week at most.

We have a little bit of school money left, which I'm hoping will at least pay our mortgage for the time he's in school. But I'm still trying to figure out how the devil I'm going to pay all our bills with just my paycheck! Oiy.

I'm pretty cool headed about it now, but I'm sure I'll freak out sooner or later.

Oh well, things could be worse right.

I have a very loving husband and 3 beautiful puppers. Life has got to be good.. right? :)

9/11

I can't describe how much my heart aches today, for the thousands of lives lost and the million of lives affected by the tragedy that happened on this day 10 years ago :(

I cried through the sermon at church, I cried when I saw flag after flag being waved off every interstate bridge, I cried every time I heard a plane fly overhead, I cried when I tried to tell my husband oh sad I was feeling.

To watch the news and see the videos and posts on FB literally breaks my heart.

And never have I been more proud to be an American.

Thank you to every service member that is/has/will be serving for this country!

Corie Mae

I woke up this morning and found out that a girl that I've been friends with since middle school was in a serious car accident last night.

I won't lie.. we haven't been good friends for quite some time. It was just one of those things where two people slowly drift apart. I don't regret it, or blame anyone.. it just happens. It's always like a little reunion when our paths happen to cross at the bar some nights. :)

So, with that being said.. I can't describe how sad I feel. I know people get in car accidents all the time, but to have it happen to someone who I have laugh, cried & stayed up all night talking with just makes it so hard.

CME* I love you and I KNOW that if anyone is strong enough to pull through this, IT IS YOU! Please know that I am sending every ounce of thoughts and prayers your way. Please get better soon. You have SO many people that love and care about you!

**All of us girls :)

Are you ready for some football!?!?

Every year I wonder how I make it EIGHT months without football?! Honestly.. how do I pass my time? Well there's no worries about that anymore.. it's FOOTBALL season!!!

YAHHHH!! :D (everyone cheer with me!)

Me, being a die-hard Viking fan, really wishes the season didn't open up with the Packers playing tonight. But hey, I'll deal. I just really wana see the Saints whoop some ass ;)

3 Years*

Joe,
I can't believe how time has flown! It feels like just yesterday my dad was walking me into a room filled with my family and closest friends to give me away.. to you. Our relationship isn't perfect, but I'm willing to be no one's is. All you and I need to know is how much I love you. Before I met you, I didn't know it was possible to love one person so much.. but honey, I do. Happy anniversary!

All grown up

I'm trying to figure out when my little bitty puppy grew up to be such a handsome dog!

Mama loves you Charliepants :)

Labor Day

I'm so glad it's Friday!

Time for a much needed weekend away w/ my boy :) Going back up north to Two Harbors to celebrate our THREE YEAR anniversary! Wow, where did the time go?!

Hope everyone has a great & safe holiday weekend!

Tired out

I need to make some life adjustments here pretty soon.

I am just sick of being so dang tired all the time!

I'm sitting at my desk at work, knowing full well that if I put my head down for even a minute I will be out like a light.

It's a struggle to keep my eyes open, and it's starting to make my head hurt just trying to do so.

Everyone keeps telling me that the humidity has finally seeped back into the air.. maybe it will help to step outside. (Even though my "steps outside" usually just mean going to the bar to visit with Jesse and Gus quick.)

Any suggestions on how to wake myself up?

Party = success

Last Saturday Joe and I had a big blowout bash at our house. We got 2 kegs, roasted a 135 lb piggy and 200 years of corn. We think we invited about 100 people, and roughly half showed up. Not bad, not bad. I know how busy most people are on the weekends in the summer, so I was happy with the turnout!

We tapped the first keg at 3:30 on Saturday, and finished off the second one at 6:00am on Sunday.

I'm not saying I could do this every weekend.. but it really was alot of fun to have so many people over at our house.

Our pool and deck were broken in good for the first time by about 12 children :) Poor kids, we haven't hooked up the heater yet and the pool was only 74 degrees! There was lots of shivering children running around my yard after that!

But never fear, we had a HUGE bonfire to warm them right up!

I sure do love summer!

So what do you think.. should we make it an annual thing?

Would you people come to my parties? ;)

Bed.. book.. bummin'

.. that is exactly what I would like to be doing right now.

I want to curl up in my big comfy bed, with my warm snuggly puppies, and I want to completely lose myself in a book that is so good the thought of having to close the cover and float back down to reality makes me want to cry.

It's just one of those days where I need to get lost in something good.

Oh, and if there happened to be a bag of Dove chocolates w/ almonds next to my bed.. I wouldn't even complain.

The night I stayed out until 4am.

That would be Thursday night.

That would also make me an idiot, because it is now Saturday and I still haven't caught up on my sleep!

Thursday my friends play volleyball on a bar league. It's Sami, Petey, Jeffrey, Michael, Dustin, Alli, Kayla & Kirky. So I always go to North Hudson to watch them, and then we usually grab dinner and a few drinks at Kozy. Joe doesn't ever come with because "sports aren't his thing". Dummy, it's not about the sports.. it's about friends and having a good time. But whatever!

So we got to Kozy around 9:00 and ordered some food and drinks. After everyone finished, they decided to call it an early night and go home. Except me, Mike & Kirk. So we headed down the road to Starr's Bar for awhile. We each had 3 or 4 more drinks, played some dice and took some shots. Scott was trying to get us to come over, and I kept hesitating because I reallly needed to go home and sleep. It was already well past my bedtime. But then he said we could go swimming, and really how could I turn that down? :) So around 1:00 we went to Scott's house. It was me, Mike, Kirky, Scott and Kirk's brother, Ryan. We weren't there 10 minutes before all of us jumped in the pool! It was really fun :) There was a little bit of drunken drama between Kirk and Ryan, but we just let them fight it out while we kicked back on the deck with a beer :) Finally I checked my phone and realized it was 3:00 and I needed to get up in 3 hours! I really didn't want to, but I ended up taking Kirk and Ryan back home to North Hudson and then went home. It was a very long ride with a soaking wet dress!

I got home at 4:00 and got exactly 2 hours of sleep.

Then yesterday at work my manager bought me a 5 hour energy :) She also told me that I wasn't allowed to partake in Thirsty Thursday's anymore and she was going to call me at 10:00 to make sure I was home in bed every Thursday. I guess I do like my work girls here sometimes :)

I went grocery shopping after work yesterday, but spent the rest of the night relaxing with my Little House on the Prairie books.. it was very nice :)

Now 5 more hours of work, and I can go home and help my baby boy with our pool deck!!

Have a great weekend! :D

*sigh*

I have absolutely nothing to do right now.

I'm losing my mind.

Helppppp.

Think of all the stuff I could be doing if I was at home.

Stupid, stupid work.

Changed my mind.

Gosh, I'm horrible at this!

I've gone so far as to log on to blogger, title a post, and start WRITING.. and then I just change my mind.

I wish I had a fascinating life to tell you all about :)

Friday I left work around 1:00 and took a MUCH needed nap. My silly self drank too much wine the day before and didn't get nearly enough sleep the night before. So after a nap and shower on Friday afternoon, I met Joe in New Richmond and we went to dinner at Pete's. :) Mm.. I love Pete's buffet! I checked out the new Maurice's in town and did a bit of Walmart shopping then headed home.

Joe had to go back to work for a little bit and I met up with Michael, Jeff & Petey for a few beers at JJ's. Ended up being an early night.. I was back home in bed well before 11:00.

Saturday we were celebrating my cousin, Ell's, 1st birthday and taking family pictures at Fort Snelling State Park. I can't talk enough about how much I LOVE being with my family. It's impossible to not feel anything but complete and utter contentment when I'm with them. So, Saturday was just an absolutely perfect day! We grilled out at the park, I spend lots of time swimming and playing with all my little cousins, and I got even got some quality time with my brother (which doesn't happen often enough) All the fun in the sun that we had quickly caught up to us when we got home and both Joe and I took a nice nap :) Then Dylan came over and the boys played around in the garage until about 4am, while I got lots of episodes of 7th Heaven in! Perfect :)

Sunday morning, we both slept in until 11:00 then slowly started getting ready around the house. We made our way in to Hudson to finally get the lumber for our deck! All that work loading lumber in the sun made us decided that we deserved Chinese for lunch :) We came home, and I got showered up and changed to go to the boys' softball game. Horrible game, got 12 runned.. but we all agreed it was for the best anyways, because nobody wanted to be outside (let alone playing!!) in the heat. So of course to cool down, me and Mike and Scott went to Kozy for a couple beers and some food :)

And now it's Monday and the workday is finally over!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend :D

Let's play the catch up game.

How is it that I read other people's blogs religiously.. but I can't find time to write one of my own??

Just plain lazy I tell ya ;)

Not too much has been going on.. I've been trying to enjoy this beautiful summer weather as much as I can! We finally got our pool up, and it's been a savior on some of these humid, humid days. I'll admit we don't use it nearly as much as I'd like, but that's due to the fact that we haven't built our deck yet. For now we have half a ladder that goes into the pool, but doesn't hang down the other side. So we have to back Joe's pickup up to the very edge of the pool so we can get to the ladder. Kind of a pain, but worth if it we're going to spend all day lounging in a floatie :)

Hopefully we'll have our deck up in a couple weeks!

Let's see.. what else is new? Joe came home with a new car yesterday. And I bet you guys aren't even surprised! It's a 1991 Camaro.. actually a decent looking car. He's going to sell his Ford Ranger (if anyone's interested) which I wasn't too happy about, because it's a good little truck that can do much more than a car! But oh well, Joe is sure he'll make good money off of it, so I'll just let him do his thing.

I am in dire need of getting my carpets cleaned. Has anyone used a company that they really like?? And my carpets are so bad from potty training Kylee & Charlie that yes, they need to be cleaned professionally. And SOON!

Charlie, oh gosh I could go on about him forever. Mostly bad things.. some good though ;) He is just the naughtiest little thing I've ever seen! And it kills me to punish him, because I know he really tries to be good. But because of him, I need to replant almost all of my front gardens. Not looking forward to do that, but luckily my beautiful mama is going to come and help me!

Joe and I decided that we are going to have a big party in August! We talked about it last year, but never had the time to make it happen. So I think we're both looking forward to that soon :)

I was just about to say that I have nothing more to write about right now, and then I got up to help a customer and realized that I didn't mention my new job! I'm still at Associated Bank, but I took a promotion at the Hammond branch. SO much closer to home for me! Only 5 miles away.. :) Unfortunately, that's all I like about it. But hey, I'm making money right?

Okay, that's really all I got for now.
Thanks for reading & not forgetting about me in my blogless days :)

Oh you know the norm.

I have a secret room in the basement at work that I take naps in about once a week when I stay out too late the night before. I bring my blankey and sprawl out on the desk and sleep like a baby for an hour.. It's heavenly.

Well, I was walking into work today w/ my blankey AND a pillow, and one of my bankers said to me "a pillow too?? you must have been out later than usual!!"

Apparently I need to switch up my habits.. people are catching on.

Star

**CAUTION.. SAD STORY**

Oh, what a morning I've had.

I was supposed to work at 6:45 this morning, and I was kind of running a tad bit late. I left the house around 6:26ish.. and I usually leave by 6:20 at the latest. So anyways, I left and was on my way to work when I got into Roberts on Hwy 12. I saw something in the street up ahead and at first I thought it was a big garbage bag flapping in the wind. I saw a jeep parked on the side of the road w/ it's lights still on a little bit before the thing in the road. I got closer, and I saw it was a DOG!!!!!! This poor, poor dog had just been hit by a car and it was flopping around in the middle of the road :( :( :( :( :(

I quick whipped into the Holiday parking lot and I saw that the person in front of me had pulled over too. We both got out of our cars and ran to the dog. We each picked up an end (it was a bigger dog, but I wasn't sure what kind) and we carried it over to the side of the road. Of course I'm crying my damn eyes out, hoping this poor dog doesn't die.. and the dog doesn't have a tag on, so the other lady that stopped ran over to Holiday to ask them to look up a number for Animal Control.

When she left the dog wasn't moving, she was just laying there looking at me while I was petting her, but a couple minutes after the lady walked away the dog sat up and I could tell she wanted to get away. I had a grip on her collar and was trying to make sure she stayed calm.. I was soo happy she was up and moving though! I was able to look her over a little better when she was sitting, and I could tell I had blood all over my mittens and my jacket. It looked like she got hit in the front and her mouth has some blood in it, but other than that she looked fine!

Finally the jeep that had been parked on the side of the road turned around and drove over at the same time I little boy was running up to us. The lady in the jeep is the one who hit the doggy, and the little boy was his owner. I guess the boy was putting Star (the dogs name) out on her chain when she got away and ran towards the highway and the lady hit her :( Of course the lady was way shooken up and felt terrible, but the boy handled it very well. I sat there with them for a little while longer, and then the boy walked the dog back home.

I'm kicking myself now for not getting the boy's phone number now. I would really, really like to be able to check up on Star :( I'm hoping his parents were home and able to get her to the vet right away. But I'm pretty sure she's going to be okay! She looked like a tough puppers!

What.. cold??

65°
Arizonans turn on the heat.
People in Wisconsin plant gardens.

60°
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Wisconsin sunbathe.

50°
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Wisconsin drive with the windows down.

40°
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in Wisconsin throw on a flannel shirt.

35°
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Wisconsin have the last cookout before it gets cold.

20°
People in Miami all die.
Wisconsin's close the windows.

0°
Californians fly away to Mexico.
People in Wisconsin get out their winter coats.

-10°
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Wisconsin are selling cookies door to door.

-20°
Washington DC runs out of hot air. (Ya think? Nah.)
People in Wisconsin let the dogs sleep indoors.

-30°
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Wisconsin people get upset because they can't start the snowmobile.

-40°
ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Wisconsin start saying..."Cold enough for ya?"

-50°
Hell freezes over.
Wisconsin public schools will open 2 hours late.


Saw this somewhere today & it really made me laugh because it's totally true.

got to love Wisconsin!

Out the window.

How is it possible that common sense has flown so far out the freakin' window?!??

I just.don't.understand people. Use your freakin' head.

Sick as a dog.

Ooh boy, never again will I brag about not getting sick. Now I am a girl that lives w/ allergies 24/7 and it's not like I don't ever get colds.. but I hardly ever get "really" sick.

Well on Monday I kept coughing & coughing the whole day at work. My throat wasn't even sore or scratchy, I just kept having to cough. Nbd. Then I get home Monday afternoon around 3:30ish and by 5:00 I had a fever and felt like crap! I hate, hate calling in sick at work so I just loaded up on meds and went to bed around 7:00 so I would hopefully feel better for work on Tuesday. No such luck. I worked a 9hr shift w/ a 103 degree fever.. noooot the brightest idea ever. It's safe to say I was quite happy when it came time for me to go home. I got home curled up in front of the fireplace w/ 2 fleece blankets for about an hour until I finally warmed up, and that's pretty much where I spent the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning I didn't even set an alarm, Joe called work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. I still hadn't gotten my fever to go below 102, so Joe made me take a cold shower :( it was horrible!! BUT it did break my fever.. for a couple hours :/ Joe left to go snowmobiling all day, so I had the house and the puppies to myself. Me and the couch were verryyy good friends! Wednesday evening I got myself showered and dressed and went to Ron Thoennes's wake. So sad :( I'm really glad that I was able to be there for my friends, but I don't think I should have left the house.

Luckily I had Thursday off already, so I had one more day to rest up. Not that it helped.. I felt like I was never going to get better!! :(

Finally today.. over a week a later.. I feel better! Definitely not 100%, but I'll take what I can get. I am so, so thankful for my husband. He took such good care of me when I was sick. He brought me medicine, made me soups, kept me stocked with cold washclothes when I had my fever.. he was the best caretaker I could have asked for! Love you baby! :D

Vodka & Eggs..

Sunday morning my sweet, loving, darling husband woke up before me and decided to surprise me w/ breakfast! Welll that is, until he realized that we were out of vodka & eggs. Then all hell broke loose. No longer was the element of surprise his key goal, rather it was to get my butt out of bed so I could go on a vodka & eggs run. Either way, breakfast & bloodys were delicious :D

"Now we can really be friends.."

So the only times me and Sami really hang out are nights when we go to the bar. Every Wednesday we play trivia together at Seasons Tavern, and occasionally we'll go there other days during the week just because. And then we're either at JJ's or Seasons at least one day out of the weekend. Which is completely fine with me.. no complaints or anything. I love this girl and it wouldn't matter where we hung out!

Well yesterday we both happened to have the same day off (this never happens) so we decided it was only right that we hang out together :) I ended up sleeping in until 12:30 (ooh how nice that was.. but kind of stupid also) and I quick took a shower and met Sami at Pearle Vision in Hudson. She was going to pick out new glasses and wanted a 2nd person's a opinion. After that we went to Fantastic Sam's to get my hair cut and then decided we needed lunch. We tried Kaladi's, but for some oddddd reason they're only open until 3pm (WTF, right?) Anyways, we ended up eating at La Fiesta Mexicana. It was very yummy! As we were walking out to our cars we were both saying how nice it was to have spent the afternoon together and then my lovely friend, Samantha says "and now we can really be friends, since we've hung out outside of a bar." hahah ooh my, it made me laugh! Have I mentioned I love this girl? :)

After that I was going to just go home, but decided that since it was Thursday I would stop at JJ's. (really, Thursday has nothing to do with it, I just wasn't ready to go home and clean.) So I went there for what was supposed to be one drink. Then after 5 drinks, 3 hours & lots of laughs w/ Gustafer & Jesse I decided I really should go home and work on my list of things I had to do for the day.

Well when I got home I realized it was already after 8:00 and all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch w/ puppies (Joe was plowing) and watch a movie. So I watched Pretty In Pink and neglected every single thing I had hoped to accomplish on my day off. Nice, huh? Oh well, it was a good day anyways!

And now, thankfully, it's Friday! Have a great weekend everyone!! :)

Bar hoppin' & lazy days!

Had a great Friday night doing some bar hoppin' w/ 2 of my favorite people.. Sami Gianforte & Molly Timmerman :)

Started the night off w/ Molly at L&M's. It was they're first night doing bingo and since a friend asked, we decided to stop and play a few games. Well a few games turned into about 2 games & a race to finish our drink because we could not get out of there fast enough!! haha let's just say there were some annoying people there.

SO where do we go then?? JJ's of course :) Got let in VIP style by Mr. Jesse Penman himself, settled our asses on a barstool and were pretty content to spend the rest of the night there eatin' nachos :) My love bug, Sami even came all the way out to Hammond to hang out too. It was all find and dandy until I found out something that made me have a bone to pick w/ Jesse. (even though he claims it wasn't him.. ) but anyways, after being ignored by said boy for about 2 hours, we decided to try our luck w/ the other Penman boy instead.

We loaded up the Vue and headed out to New Richmond to The Outpost. We sat there for about 20 mintues or so before Jer got back to the bar, and then we chatted w/ his gorgeous self for another half hour or so. We each had one drink & one shot and realized it was already past midnight and we had my boys waiting for us at Gibby's Lanes in New Richmond. So we got our goodbye hug and made our way out to the bowling alley to see Geno play!!

Gibby's was pretty quite by the time we got out there at 12:30, but it was still lots of fun! Only had one drink there because I don't think I've ever paid $4.25 for a dinky plastic cup filled w/ about a drop of vodka and the rest diet Coke. Just ridiculous! We stayed there until about 1:45 or so, got our hugs & kisses from Geno and headed back to home (second home I mean.. JJ's) Samantha and I continued our ongoing dart tournament, which I won that night :) then she headed out and I had one more drink w/ Molly, Dylan & Joe. Did my usual routine of helping wipe down tables and put up chairs, said my goodbyes to Gus, and once again got our butts kicked out the door at bar close.

And then Saturday and Sunday were spent being extremely lazy. Sadly, I had to watch my boy, Peyton Manning lose last night.. which pretty much made me want to cry. If I can't see the Vikes in the playoffs this year I reallllly wanted to see the Colts :( but oh well, there's always next year.. right ? So anyways, today I'll watch the Pack and hopefully go to Season's Tavern Christmas party. What fun! Hope everyone else had a great weekend :)



the only picture I got of the night :( still a gorgeous one though!

Routine

Whenever I have a day off from work, my morning routine gets very messed up. You see, when I get to work the first thing I do is log onto my computer and get my drawer out.
If there are no customers at the time, then I..

1. Check my work email - not that's theres usually anything important
2. Check my hotmail email - not anything important there either. except bills :(
3. Check my 5 favorite baby blogs :)
4. Check my other friend's blogs
5. Check my bank account
6. Check Joe's bank account

And then, and ONLY then am I able to really start my day. If the morning is hectic and there's people here bugging me that shouldn't be.. it's just a bad start to the day, lol. What weird habits I have!