yay Science!

Here are some cool patterns I got tonight with my Ferning test with my saliva. I'm pretty sure this is a positive result :D

Hello Gorgeous :D

Look what I picked up today! Beautiful blue and perfectly in our budget. I need a good name, only I can't get too attached because it's a lease. We'll be buying a 2020 model when that's finally released (hint: That's what Eric's working on)

But for now, this truck is perfect for our needs. It's a 2015 Silverado 1500 with 5.3L V8 gas. For the infrequent hauling I'll be doing over the next four years it will be perfect. With this truck I won't be getting the gooseneck that I posted about previously, but I do have a lightweight aluminum bumper pull in mind. More on that tomorrow!

Summer Storms

The backyard at my mother in law's house where we're staying. It has frontage on the St. Clair River.

Lake St. Clair, a not quite Great Lake. I found the rain.

The kid, a new house, and making babies

I've only been temping lately and I wanted to get back into more tracking so I ordered more LH test strips as well as a nifty new toy that can also be useful!

LH test strips, I hope I don't need all 50 of them...

Apparently, you can also check your saliva to see if it crystallizes. The crystallization changes when you ovulate and that can be detected by drying saliva on a microscope slide and examining it. So I got a pocket microscope.  It's small enough to fit in my purse!! And way cooler than the "marketed for fertility looks like a lipstick case" pockets scopes. That would stick out in my purse.

Glass slides.

Bright LED for examination

Test of saliva. You can see some crystallization but during ovulation/fertile zone there should be tons of 'ferning'. I'll hopefully nab a picture when I see it in the next few days!

In other news, I am the owner of this AMAZING front yard! Horses not included, but that's okay! I have my own ;) 

And Kaylee is already in love with this awesomeness in the backyard.

She practiced climbing a rope ladder at the park.

It was a gorgeous day on Lake St. Clair

So she went swimming in her undies. Lack of swim suit bedamned!

What a crazy weekend

On Saturday Kaylee had her soccer 'practice' in the morning that we were finally prepared fully for. Despite stuffing her face on the 40 minute drive there she STILL wanted snacks halfway through practice. At least I was prepared and she definitely was in a more participatory mood this week compared to last.

After soccer we drove over to Heidebreicht Cheverolet and I got to test drive some new and used Silverados!   Our house closes 2 days from today (!!!!) at which point a little over 80k will be deposited into our bank account. Most of that will go towards the new house's down payment of 20% (and damn it feels good to not need PMI on this next house!) but we have set aside a portion to pay off Eric's last student loan and then buy me a truck and trailer for Gwyn. If we can swing it, we're also going to pay off Eric's new car he bought in March. 

The dealership has a used 3500 duramax extended cab long box from 2005 for 24k that I kind of fell in love with. I'd never need another truck. I did like the 2015 extended cab they had in gas. We'll see what I end up getting. Trailer wise my plan is to offer around 5k for the Grewe's trailer and then fix it up. Eric and I even discussed me taking some welding classes to do the metalwork myself. It'd be a useful skill to have. I'm even contemplating taking a whole degree of it and just finding a welding job. Or maybe I flip horse trailers. Who knows. It's all hypothetical at this point anyway.

Yesterday SIL Elyse graduated with her Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve Law School at the ripe old age of 22. She is a beast. We drove down to Cleveland OH (Kaylee ate/snacked the whole 3 hour drive) to watch the graduation and celebrate. That was a lot of fun and Kaylee was a rock star. We had to take her out of the auditorium a few times when she got restless but she was a saint compared to some other kids.

*puts sanctimommy hat on*
Seriously, if your kid is going to SCREECH (right behind me)  take the damn child OUT. If you can't keep your kid under control at least remove them for the sake of others in the audience.

*takes hat off*

One of the ushers mentioned how she wished they had a room for parents with kids where it got video'd in. I told her I thought it was a great idea and I would definitely have used it!

Elyse takes the Bar in July and then won't get the results until November. Apparently loans don't start accruing interest until November because you can't work as a full attorney until that point. Interesting.

We drove back to Detroit for dinner. Kaylee slept for half the drive (90 minute nap) and then was a rockstar again at dinner. She went to bed fairly easily but it was late at nearly 10:30pm and I fell asleep with her upstairs and woke at 2am to come downstairs. She followed me, apparently, very silently, and climbed into our bed. I thought/hoped she would fall back asleep but that didn't happen. So at who knows what time I brought her back to bed and changed her diaper and came back downstairs. She slept in this morning until 9:30 and around 8 I opted to keep her home from school again so she could sleep. 

In less exciting news, my first cycle on Metformin was a bust and no pregnancy this month. I've included a picture of my basal body temp chart. It was ALL over the place and high again this morning, but my period is starting.  I'm so discouraged. It's been 14 months now with not even a miscarriage (which quite honestly I'd welcome right now because at least I'd know sperm met egg)

I decided to order more LH strips since mine are still packed away and I don't feel like digging through a huge wardrobe box to find such a small item. I also discovered that you can track ovulation by looking at the crystallization pattern of salts in your saliva under a microscope. They sell rinky dinky little microscopes that look like lipstick cases but that would be too obvious for me LOL. So instead I found a better rated, better quality pocket microscope for far cheaper. Plus, I'd want an actual microscope with more functions. I also picked up some add-on slides because I'd met the minimum purchase amount already. 72 glass slides for less than 4 bucks! Woo!

Since Kaylee is home and I'm not likely to ride, I decided we'll head to Costco soon. An online friend is in need of food and diapers this month, her WIC got cut by $100 and no one can explain why and she has two little girls to feed in addition to her husband. I'm getting her a costco gift card and will probably pick up some dry goods to ship.  Costco is cost effective IF you can drop the large amount of money up front for over all cheaper items in bulk. She's part of the mom's group that moved to facebook after we all were pregnant together on Reddit. I love these women and the perspective they give me. We come from all walks of life and it makes me both grateful to have the life I have and the husband I have (Eric is a pretty stellar person and father) and thankful that I can give back to these ladies when there's an opportunity. This one lady gives of herself SO much and it feels good to know that we all band together in our little online village to help each other out.

Over Christmas we organized a secret santa of sorts, where ladies who were struggling could sign up for help with gifts and those who were able could sign up to help others out. I drew a wonderful person in Hawaii who just got a new apartment to escape her methhead abusive ex (seriously, this guy takes the cake for idiots). She has two beautiful boys and it was extremely fulfilling to impact someone's life in such a direct way. I much prefer this form of giving to a blind donation. 

WW: Things I've done since I last posted on this blog

Home Inspection Today!

Eric went out to Dryden to be present for the home inspection this morning. I wanted to go, but Kaylee had her first soccer 'practice' so I attended that instead and met up with Eric later at his sister's house.

The home inspection went well enough. There are a few things that need to be done to the property, but nothing glaringly dangerous or super duper expensive.

The only thing we don't know is the status of the arsenic content in the well water. The results of that will come in on Tuesday. Even if the water straight from the well has arsenic, we have a plan for how to tackle that for the barn water so the horses will have arsenic free water to drink.

Once I get the results of the water test back I plan to purchase celebratory manure forks for myself and Kaylee. I already found kids size I can buy online and I'm going to get myself a snazzy one from Tractor Supply.

I'm super excited! We close this month on both houses! Goodbye to Rainbow Place on the 20th and hopefully hello to Rochester Rd on the 22nd! (But maybe not moving in yet)


We'll be going back to look at the property again next Sunday so my MIL and SIL can see it. The current owner, SM has offered to go over where she orders things for horses and stuff, which is awesome, and just generally familiarize me with the property. She's a trainer and is moving so she can have an indoor to work out of through the year.

This fact makes me feel REALLY good about the quality of that sand arena, something I had suspected anyway, but now feel really sure about. I've mentioned this before, but the property is set up exactly how I would do it, and go figure, it's because it was done by someone who had VERY good knowledge about how to go about it.