Creme de la Creme of 2012

The 2012 Creme de la Creme list is now up and ready to read*.

The Creme de la Creme list showcases the best of the ALI (Adoption, Loss / Infertility) community blogs, chosen by the blog writers themselves. The 2012 list is closed for entries, but if you'd like to participate in the 2013 line-up, keep an eye out for Mel's sign-up announcement at the Stirrup Queens in October. Don't forget to write, write and write some more on your blog so you have a selection to choose your best from. Happy writing.

*It was posted yesterday, January 1st, 2013.

July ICLW

International Comment Leaving Week (ICLW) is here once again! And this month, I'm ready for it. I have two more days of work and then I have 3 whole weeks of holiday (that's vacation for those of you in the USA. *grin*). This girly is going to do her best to relax and forget about work. But I also have a bunch of responsibilities that I need to take care of also. Such is life, eh?


The last day of ICLW also happens to be my birthday. I'll be 35 years old/young this year. I've decided to copy what Mel (from Stirrup Queens) did for her birthday and that is to have a reverse birthday gifting. That's right, I'd like to give some lucky reader/commenter a little handmade (by me) something. I'll post more about it on Friday or Saturday. So come back and check it out.

And, just for the fun of it, here's one of those "all about me A to Z" -things to help you get to know me a bit better. (I also think they are fun to do sometimes, although maybe not dedicate an entire post to them.)

Age - 35 years in 7 days
Bed size - Queen
Chore I hate dislike - Taking the garbage out
Dog - Had one growing up, but I only have 2 cats now
Essential start of your day - Going pee and petting Rusty-cat
Favorite color - Green, black & silver
Gold or Silver - Silver, definitely
Height - 173cm / 5'8"
Instruments - Flute in junior high
Job Title - Accounts Receivable Specialist
Kids - Trying for our first
Live - One day at a time
Mom's Name - River
Nickname - Heapher, Hessu, Battlefish, Ephalump
Overnight hospital stays - Once for my endo surgery
Pet Peeves - Noisy eaters, a dirty kitchen and paper clips, to name a very few
Quote from a movie - Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. -Princess Bride
Right or left handed - Lefty / Southpaw
Siblings - 3 younger siblings
Time you wake up - Whenever my alarm tells me to, usually sometime between 6:30 and 7:30
Underware - Can't live with them and prefer to live without them
Vegetables you dislike - Asparagus!!!!
What makes you run late - Dilly-dallying
X-rays - Besides teeth? Ankle, back/neck
Yummy food you make - Brownies, Chewey Gooey Brownie Cake, Muzzy's Cheesecake, Pulla, and oh so much more!
Zoo animals - Big cats and ravens, even though I feel guilty that any of the animals are there.

So what about you? If you do the meme put a link to it in the comments. I'd love to learn a bit about you.

Thankful Thursday

I'm feeling thankful today and it so happens to be Thursday, so this is what you get.

I am thankful...
- that tomorrow is Friday and I have a dinner date with hubby and another couple.
- for my hubby, our cats, that we have a place to live and all that "normal" stuff to be thankful for.
- for my job. Really! I like what I do and the people I work with.
- for the hot Jasmine green tea I'm drinking right now.
- for going to the gym. Even though I wasn't in the mood and it was all I could do to make myself do the kicks and punches for BodyCombat, I'm glad I went.
- for the few Reese's pieces candies I have left to eat.
- that even though this cycle didn't work, I still have at least one more IVF round in the public health care system that I can still be hopeful for in the fall.
- to still have hope. Although, I think it will take a little while to get it back in full strength.
- for my friends, although I wish I saw them more.
- for the pomegranate post written by the Stirrup Queens, it led me to ICLW.
- for all of my blog followers, comments and the IF online community I've recently found here.
- to be healthy.
- that hubby and I were able to make the first installment payment for our house. (We're much poorer now. *big grin*)
- that the pollen is mostly don't blooming and that I don't have such a red-scaly nose anymore.
- that summer is almost here and that the days are much longer!
- for my summer holiday towards the end of July. 3 whole weeks in a row!

I'm really just thankful to be here and be able to think of things I am thankful for. hehe

May's ICLW

This is my first time participating in the International Comment Leaving Week (ICLW). I found Stirrup Queens' blog and everything that is attached to it about a month ago and it has been great! I am so glad I found this online community. It has been such a relief and comfort to finally find so many others out there like me. Before I found Stirrup Queens I was really feeling low and like there wasn't anyone out there like me. I know that isn't so, but when you don't know anyone who is truly going through what you are going through, this is such a lonely path. I have belonged to other online communities before (iVillage.com, for example), but have since left them for one reason or another. This community though, I feel it has so much to offer me right now and I hope to stay put.

I just recently shared condensed blog post about my TTC timeline and you can find the longer version from the tabs at the top. So I won't go into that in this post. But, while out fulfilling my ICLW duties today tonight, I did see someone had posted some confessions about themselves and I liked it, so I'm going to copy her.

Some confessions of me:
- I really enjoy getting to the end of a product, such as finishing a whole tube of chapstick, using a pen until it is gone, using the last of the dental floss.

- I collect my cat's whiskers when I find them laying around. I never pluck them from the cat!

- I am American by birth and Finnish by application/naturalization.

- I don't really miss living in the USA, but I do miss my family some. I just wish they'd contact me more instead of me being the one to initiate calls and such.

- I love my husband dearly and I will spend my life with him, but I'm not sure if he is my best friend. And I feel guilty about that sometimes.

- For years, I would collect my used contact lenses in a little jar thinking that I would turn it into an art project called "lost vision". I just recently threw it away and then this weekend when I was at the Night of the Museums, I realized that my 'vision' wasn't so far out there.

- I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up (I still don't). I started out college with art classes, but I never really felt that I was an artist, but more of a crafts type of person. I ended up getting a degree in International Business. I don't see myself as a business person either. How much farther can you get from one ends of the job spectrum to the other?

- I've won gold in a Taekwon-do competition for my belt level & weight class.

- I love love love reading. Especially Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, vampires and other horror (not scary stuff though) sci-fi, fantasy and fiction. But I must read books in order. Nothing drives me more crazy than reading books out of order.

- I am easily annoyed, just ask my husband. LOL (edited to add some examples of what annoys me: repetitious noises (ping ping of the computer each time someone in the office does something or the damn baby seagulls on the building roof next to us going "peep peep peep peep peep peep" 24/7), someone chewing their gum like a cow, etc)