So, here we are on vacation! We made our second trip to I.K.EA today. Oh. My. Goodness. Mr. X commented that it's a good thing we brought such a small van :) Otherwise, we might try to bring home the whole store. So far, we've bought two cribs and two dressers, with one changing-table top thing to put on top of the dresser. We had to go back today, because there was only one crib available yesterday--they had to put more out on the floor for today. Today, we also bought a new desk for me and a drawing table/desk for Mr. X--he's wanted one for years, and I'm so happy we bought it! I have no artistic talent, but he really does, and I'm glad he's got the drawing table. We found a kitchen cart that will work to get our printers (we have three!) off the floor and desks. I think we'll actually have a functional home office when we get home! We bought legs for a table top that we want to put on the back porch (the table top's been in our downstairs for five years. Five. Years.). And then we bought a few random items--a cutting board Mr. X really liked, some glasses (most of our glasses have broken over the last couple of years and we never think to replace them), some little child-proofing latches. It was really funny, because neither of us had ever been to an IK.EA, but Mr. X is always coming up with ideas for designs of different items and will sketch them out and tell me about them--the drawing table and the cutting board we bought (along with several other things we saw in the store) were almost identical to his ideas. The good thing is that we've spent almost exactly what I anticipated, but ended up with a lot more for our money than I thought we'd get!
We may go back again tomorrow.
So, let's see, what else . . . My progesterone dropped again. The nurse from PPVI called while we were on the road and told me to resume the injections. Unfortunately, I left everything at home! My local doctor (have I mentioned how great he is lately?) called in the prescription for me and we actually were able to get the progesterone and syringes locally with little trouble, thank God! Things seem to be going fine with the baby girl. I was having some really bad round ligament pain for a couple of months, but that seems to have pretty much stopped--I guess the ligaments gave up and just stretched already. We've gotten really good news on the adoption in the past week, too. We made it past three more paperwork steps. I'm still keeping track of everything so that I can post about our process once we've got our little guy home . . . which should be soon, I hope! So, all is well on the baby front right now.
The nearest I.KEA to us is in Utah, so we had a looong drive, and we're spending the weekend here just relaxing, which is great. This morning, we went to hear the M.ormon Tab.ernacle Ch.oir. It was pretty cool--they had a military band as the special guest and performed patriotic music, so it was a fun thing to do for Memorial Day. Temple Square was really interesting, too. Afterwards, we went to the cathedral for mass, and found to our delight that they have an amazing choir. The deacon gave a really good homily, and the music was a few older, traditional English hymns, and then Renaissance music for the mass setting and a few motets. When I heard the choir without seeing them (they were singing in the chapel for Lauds as we were coming in for mass), I assumed it was an adult choir, but most were children or teenagers. It was really impressive!
We're going to head out for dinner in a little while, and we're going to spend some more time tomorrow in the U.inta Fo.rest (we did a bit of exploring yesterday) when the weather is nicer (I forgot an umbrella when we were packing and got completely soaked walking to mass). Yesterday was actually my birthday--yay! Any guesses how old I am now? :)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Weirdness
I was talking to a friend the other day about Mother's Day, and we agreed that people who say that "once you are a mom, all the pain of infertility goes away" are just wrong. It isn't that you aren't happy, but you still remember it all. So, I did have a lovely Mother's Day today--Mr. X gave me tulips and a card yesterday (I saved the card till today), and I got a card in the mail from my parents. Lots of people wished me a happy Mother's Day at church, which was really sweet, and I stood up for the blessing at the end. I did remember vividly how I felt last year, and I prayed for all my friends (blogging friend and other friends) who are waiting.
The weirdest thing happened today, though. After singing for mass at my own parish, we went across town to another parish for a family friend's first Communion. And we heard the worst homily I've heard in years. Seriously. It was so bad, Mr. X finally got up and left for a few minutes. The priest was talking about the importance of community, and he talked about how we need to have dialogue in order to grow in our faith. He talked about how we are the church. He said that to blindly accept something the church (meaning the Magisterium) teaches even if you don't really believe it lacks all integrity, but to say "what I believe must be right and the church must be wrong" lacks all humility. Then he gestured to the white wall behind him and asked if he told us that the Magisterium had just infallibly stated that the wall is red whether we would believe it. What??? He said that, if the Magisterium tells us the wall is red, but everything in our experience of life tells us the wall is white, and that's what our community believes, then, since our community is the church, the wall is really white. Huh??? (This is the point when Mr. X couldn't take it any more.)
He never gave a concrete example, just talked once about "proposition A" versus "proposition B" and then spent the rest of the time on the whole white-wall-is-red thing. It was a total straw man fallacy--I mean, how often is the church going to give us a teaching on faith and morals that is demonstrably, objectively false? Though Mr. X pointed out that it's particularly insidious to be giving this kind of homily at a first Communion, where the children's senses tell them that the Eucharist is bread and wine, but the church tells them it's the body and blood of Christ! I'm not up on these things, but is it actually heresy to tell the congregation that we can reject an infallible teaching of the church if we come to a conclusion as a group, based on our experience, that it's wrong?
Just had to get that off my chest. For the most part, it's been a really nice weekend!
The weirdest thing happened today, though. After singing for mass at my own parish, we went across town to another parish for a family friend's first Communion. And we heard the worst homily I've heard in years. Seriously. It was so bad, Mr. X finally got up and left for a few minutes. The priest was talking about the importance of community, and he talked about how we need to have dialogue in order to grow in our faith. He talked about how we are the church. He said that to blindly accept something the church (meaning the Magisterium) teaches even if you don't really believe it lacks all integrity, but to say "what I believe must be right and the church must be wrong" lacks all humility. Then he gestured to the white wall behind him and asked if he told us that the Magisterium had just infallibly stated that the wall is red whether we would believe it. What??? He said that, if the Magisterium tells us the wall is red, but everything in our experience of life tells us the wall is white, and that's what our community believes, then, since our community is the church, the wall is really white. Huh??? (This is the point when Mr. X couldn't take it any more.)
He never gave a concrete example, just talked once about "proposition A" versus "proposition B" and then spent the rest of the time on the whole white-wall-is-red thing. It was a total straw man fallacy--I mean, how often is the church going to give us a teaching on faith and morals that is demonstrably, objectively false? Though Mr. X pointed out that it's particularly insidious to be giving this kind of homily at a first Communion, where the children's senses tell them that the Eucharist is bread and wine, but the church tells them it's the body and blood of Christ! I'm not up on these things, but is it actually heresy to tell the congregation that we can reject an infallible teaching of the church if we come to a conclusion as a group, based on our experience, that it's wrong?
Just had to get that off my chest. For the most part, it's been a really nice weekend!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Well, so much for that resolution!
Still working on the de-stressing thing . . . not working out quite as well as I'd hoped!
Things are going along well, though. Our adoption paperwork is hung up in process right now, so I'm working on my patience! I'm already almost 31 weeks, too, which is kind of surreal. Every once in a while I have an "oh my goodness, this is really happening" moment. The doctor was able to tell that the baby is head-down at my appointment this week (hooray!), and last night at choir practice, she seemed to have decided her foot really needed to be lodged under my ribs, which makes singing quite interesting. My progesterone has been high for two tests in a row, so no injections!!
I really, really need to start working on the babies' room, though. It's still full of junk. Our kitchen and bathroom are fully functional, so I think it's time to move on to the baby prep. We've picked out furniture--finally settled on I.KE.A for cribs and dressers. Unfortunately, we live more than 8 hours from the nearest store, and shipping is outrageous! So, after wavering for ages about our last pre-baby vacation as a couple . . . we're going to drive to I.K.EA in our new minivan! Aren't we the most exciting people ever? Just so you know, our original plan (ages ago) was a month in Italy. With the uncertainty of the adoption timing, we scrapped that idea and opted for a cruise instead. I was just getting ready to click "buy now" for the cruise tickets when I read the fine print that no woman more than 24 weeks pregnant is allowed on a cruise ship (really glad I read that before clicking "buy now"). Then we were going to have a Florida Keys snorkeling trip, but booking the plane tickets using miles was getting a little crazy. So. We had much more thrilling plans originally, but I.K.EA it is!
OK, there are other attractions to the trip, we're not just going to I.K.E.A. We're looking forward to having a little road trip and relaxation. I think I'll turn off my cell phone, too. Or at least program special rings for people I'm willing to pick up for. The only hitch in the plan so far is that I called customer service at IK.EA today, and they will not hold merchandise or let you order to the store. I guess we just have to hope our cribs and dressers are in stock!
So, that is the latest update, and in the interest of reducing stress, here is something that made me laugh out loud today.
Things are going along well, though. Our adoption paperwork is hung up in process right now, so I'm working on my patience! I'm already almost 31 weeks, too, which is kind of surreal. Every once in a while I have an "oh my goodness, this is really happening" moment. The doctor was able to tell that the baby is head-down at my appointment this week (hooray!), and last night at choir practice, she seemed to have decided her foot really needed to be lodged under my ribs, which makes singing quite interesting. My progesterone has been high for two tests in a row, so no injections!!
I really, really need to start working on the babies' room, though. It's still full of junk. Our kitchen and bathroom are fully functional, so I think it's time to move on to the baby prep. We've picked out furniture--finally settled on I.KE.A for cribs and dressers. Unfortunately, we live more than 8 hours from the nearest store, and shipping is outrageous! So, after wavering for ages about our last pre-baby vacation as a couple . . . we're going to drive to I.K.EA in our new minivan! Aren't we the most exciting people ever? Just so you know, our original plan (ages ago) was a month in Italy. With the uncertainty of the adoption timing, we scrapped that idea and opted for a cruise instead. I was just getting ready to click "buy now" for the cruise tickets when I read the fine print that no woman more than 24 weeks pregnant is allowed on a cruise ship (really glad I read that before clicking "buy now"). Then we were going to have a Florida Keys snorkeling trip, but booking the plane tickets using miles was getting a little crazy. So. We had much more thrilling plans originally, but I.K.EA it is!
OK, there are other attractions to the trip, we're not just going to I.K.E.A. We're looking forward to having a little road trip and relaxation. I think I'll turn off my cell phone, too. Or at least program special rings for people I'm willing to pick up for. The only hitch in the plan so far is that I called customer service at IK.EA today, and they will not hold merchandise or let you order to the store. I guess we just have to hope our cribs and dressers are in stock!
So, that is the latest update, and in the interest of reducing stress, here is something that made me laugh out loud today.
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