Hot and sick

Well, we ended up having a very quiet weekend. We stayed in town and went into the city on Saturday to do a little shopping and visit our amazing farmer's market and lunch at one of our favorite restaurants (we love tapas so much, we had it at our wedding).

But since S wasn't feeling well, we laid low the rest of the weekend. It was actually really nice not to have to do anything that we didn't want to. Sadly, I had planned to relax poolside all weekend since it's so hot, but for the first time in five years, I misplaced our pool passes and without them, no pool for me. :( My skin is probably pleased.

S got his rx for Cipro today, 2x for 20 days. So now we are both on mega antibiotics. We are eating yogurt like it's going out of style. He thinks he might have a sinus infection, so conveniently he'll be killing two birds with one stone.

Happy B-day America!

Looking good for 234! I'm celebrating with some fresh berries and lots of pool time.

Living room reveal

(click for detail)

I was trying to do a before and after, but our home server with our old pics is down, so we'll have to live with just the after (for now anyway).

Our living room has been constantly evolving over the last 4 1/2 years, but this is where we are now (for now).

After living w/icky cream carpet for awhile, we finally had bamboo floors installed in the whole house. Carpet in general is bad (for the environment, your lungs, etc...). New carpet is really bad and old carpet is just gross. Anywho, I digress.

We also had new energy efficient glass put in all the sliding doors.

We painted the walls (in Toasted Almond by Olympic) the vaulted ceilings go up to 19', but I wanted to make it feel cozier by only going halfway up w/color. Can't wait for the crown mouldings, tick tock.

We painted and had installed w/the flooring all new colonial white baseboards (bye bye ranch oak trim!), and painted the remaining ranch trim around the doors white.

DH installed new ceramic tile in the foyer area.


sources (a little home inventory): (see where I shop for store links)
Leather couch/love seat/chair/ottoman/throw: Marshall Fields (RIP)
silk damask pillows: Restoration Hardware outlet
wool area rug: Simon rug from Pottery Barn
coffee/end table: Target (Chinois and Katie(behind love seat and painted earl grey-Olympic))
end table surveyor lamp/shade: Target
on coffee table (besides way too many decor mags): faux python tray: Jayson H&G, wood bowl: Arhaus, globe balls: Crate & Barrel
seagrass/leather magazine holder: Crate & Barrel
greek key console table: Bombay Company (RIP)
console runner/coasters: Z Gallerie
seagrass baskets/Eiffel tower: Vintage Pine
bamboo leaning bookcase: Crate & Barrel
art: over chair: Ikea, over couch: yours truly w/a little help from DH (canvas/paint from Michael's). It look me two years to finally admit that I couldn't find anything I liked for over the sofa, then another two to put paint to the canvas I bought in '08. I guess it's inspired by "Starry Night".
Moroccan screen: World Market
linen curtain panels: West Elm (since properly hung, uppers on "door to nowhere" to come, and world's tallest vertical blinds to go).
candle holders: Arhaus, Z Gallerie (see here)
linen floor cushion: Costco
brass floor lamp: Wal-mart
floor globe: Target
ceramic garden stool (hidden, between couch and tree): Target
ficus tree: Plants Inc., Chicago (One of the very first things we bought for the house, from a shop across the street from where we got our wedding cake. I always wanted a tree, and now I don't have the heart to even trim it (she's got spunk!). I wouldn't recommend a ficus as they sap onto the floor. :( ) The ficus makes way for the Christmas tree every December.
lilacs: cut from our gardens :)

How many doctors will it take?

I was just thinking that it's almost time for me to go in for my annual exam. I've been seeing the same gyne for the last ten years, since I first moved to Chicago. She is very nice, S met her for our pre-conception visit (two years ago :( ) and then of course I saw her last year when we were ten months into TTC and were already seeing an RE (and had all dx testing and a hysteroscopy under our belts). She didn't seem too concerned about our inability to get pregnant. I'm thinking I should get busy finding a new one that actually delivers babies (she waited until our pre-conception consult to inform me that she no longer does).

I'm thinking that beyond the lap (if that happens), I may not stay with my RE here much longer. Our first one is completely out of the picture. Our RE in NY is really just a second (well third) opinion. We get to see yet another about IVF in just a few weeks. And S is off to see a new urologist next week. I also have a pelvic surgeon (well two) that will do the lap. I feel like I need an admin just to manage all the doctors... Apparently it takes a village to get us pregnant.

The battle of the antibiotics

If it's not one thing, it's another. Oh no, with us it's all things at once.

We just heard back late today that my CM culture from 6/10 tested positive for group b beta strep, a common bacteria that is very bad in late pregnancy.

My RE here is putting me on high dose Azithromycin (4x/day) for the next ten days to get rid of it. This will likely kill my sensitive stomach. :( The nurse also mentioned that if I have it when pregnant, the treatment is IV ABs. I'll have to go back for a reculture four days after the end of the course of meds (~7/15).

S's culture from NY came back positive for pseudomonas.

We are still waiting on his ureaplasma culture. When that comes back, either way he will be put on a TBD antibiotic as well.

We are like one big human petri dish over here... Article on how bacteria can cause/contribute to IF.

Adornment

One of the many ironies of my life is that while I married an Indian whose extended family is in the jewelry business in India (and our last name means "goldsmith" in Hindi), I am not a big jewelry girl.at.all. This fact does not keep me from appreciating gorgeous pieces. The summer Tiffany's catalogue includes the new Marrakesh collection from Paloma Picasso. My favorite...



Gold/Lapis pendant

It's five grand. So.not.happening.

Knowing their market, they do kindly have a more affordable version.


But it's not quite the same. But a girl can dream...

July!

How has it been almost five weeks since Memorial Day weekend? My how the summertime flies! As busy as June has been with all our diagnostics and such, July will be even busier. And we have some fun stuff planned too, thankfully. :)

On the IF front, S has an appt. with the urologist for next Thursday, the 8th, when hopefully we'll find out about what we can/should do about his recent SA showing low morphology. Then on the 19th, we have our IVF consult at Advanced Fertility. I am super excited about this. We are also both still awaiting the results from our bac cultures. On the 27th, I have my pre-lap consult with the surgeon (Dr. T).

On the fun front, we sadly won't get to see U2 on the 6th, as the entire concert tour was postponed due to Bono's back surgery. We do, however, have lots of Ravinia concerts planned. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) on the 8th and the 24th (w/Renee Fleming). Swell Season on the 14th (Bastille Day!). Sting on the 17th! And a work outing on the 21th to see the B-52's. That's a lot of Ravinia for one month. And of course, I'm in charge of planning them all. Eek!

We had planned to go to the Women's Board Gala on the 31st, but decided to save our money and go sailing on R's boat that day instead.