With a solid one-two punch, two more items are being CROSSED OFF the baby bucket list…within an 8 day stretch, my handsome husband Marmot finished his MBA and I started my first term of graduate school!

It amazes me that when I first started this blog, neither of us had really even talked about going back to school. I have to admit, when I made this list it was with a pie in the sky mindset- I really didn’t actually thought we would accomplish this much!

A couple more heavy hitter items on the list (trip to Europe anyone?) but I feel like wow, we’ve come this far!

And we have another item to cross off the Baby Bucket List!

We bought a new vehicle. After three years of being having just one vehicle, while we still have one vehicle, we have upgraded. We traded in Marmot’s single cab stick shift Toyota Tacoma for a Ford F150 that has leather interior, butt warmers, and extended cab so the dogs can ride with us. And yes, those were my three requirements for a new vehicle.

Its one more item being crossed off the list. Can I just say that the pace that the items are flying off the list is a little shocking to me?? And we’re just picking up steam, we’ll have three more to cross off in the next three months…wow!

We have a momentous day in the B. household, another item to be crossed off the Baby Bucket List! We paid off one of our two credit cards- woo hoo! This was definitely Credit Card Jr. and dealing with Credit Card Sr. is going to be an uglier fight, but we’ve got a plan and I’m hoping we will have done some serious damage (if not taken it out completely) by the end of year.

We just keep ticking them off the list…we might get this list done yet!

Did anyone elses Mom say that, or just mine?

TTC has been ok, I got through the two week wait fine, although I think getting my period is all the more depressing when I’ve done six days in a row of negative pregnancy tests. But that’s really fine, its just the rest of my life that’s going crazy! Reorganization with work, graduating from school in less than two months, and some work travel coming up…pretty much the TTC is putting me over the edge!

Because of my straight up bitchiness current stress level Marmot and I talked about it at length this weekend, and decided we’re going to take a break from TTC for a month or two. Time to let me chill out and get through the reorganization at work and graduate from school. The way things are right now are rough and I know there is always stress, and it will never be a perfect time, I really am at the point where I need to back off of something in life, and TTC is the easiest to go.

I’m trying to be positive. Be excited and work on managing the rest of my stress.

Looking back at the Facebook posts made me realize that the one thing I dislike about my life is entirely within my control, and I can’t say that I’ve done anything about it other than ignore it. What is wrong with me?! So I’m hoping to take the time off to lose weight. Crazy when I just said I wanted to de-stress, but this has been on my mind so much while TTC.

Its really hard to look at the Baby Bucket List and see the Get to a Good Weight item not crossed off. It was one of the most important items on there, the one I wanted the most of all of them. Which has made TTC hard because I look in the mirror and cringe. I know that I’ll never look in the mirrow and be perfectly happy, but maybe if I get a few pounds off I won’t look in the mirror and get teary!

Last night on What Not to Wear, the victim was a woman who had ‘taken ownership of her life’ and quit drinking, lost weight, and started spending more time with her kids. I was totally impressed, and loved how she put it- taking ownership of her life. I looked at Marmot and said I need to take ownership of my weight.

He nodded his head and said ‘That’s good sweetie.’ (He’s invested. lol)

Take ownership of my weight. Destress. And start the TTC thing again in a month or two.

So yeah, that’s the plan. But who is Stan?

Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

Something we wanted to try in 2010 was to have a baby! But that is probably not at ALL what they had in mind with this question. But regardless, we decided to wait until a few more items were crossed off the Baby Bucket List, so now we’re crossing our fingers that 2011 is the year! Although the responsibility hits me every once in awhile…at one point during our two week wait, I emailed Marmot to say “The enormity of what we have done, and the reality that it cannot be undone, is weighing on my mind today” to which he replied “Geez, its not like we robbed a bank!” lol

So the potential plan of TTC in December or January has put me into a little bit of a babies-rabies/panic/overdrive. And like every good Type A planning freak, as soon as I felt the need to research and obsess, I went to Amazon. And here’s what I’ve found so far:

I just finished The Big Book of Birth, and I was impressed. Like way impressed. I had anticipated some hostility towards one side or the other, but this was very objective, written very fairly. Furthermore, the writing was done in the most friendly and non-intimidating way possible. I assumed that as a nurse (that did quite well in OB actually) that I’d prefer a more textbook tone in birth books. Way wrong! And she was funny too. After reading the book, I felt like I had been able to dispel a lot of the fear I’ve always had about labor and birth, and I’m actually starting to look forward to it, if thats possible? I don’t think I could recommend this book any higher.

Earlier this year, I went through Naturally Knocked Up’s fertility e-course, another pre-pregnancy recommendation that was quite simply, excellent. I am my (crunchy) Mother’s daughter, and I really wanted to learn about getting my body ready, beyond the What to Expect Before You’re Expecting book which is much like its predecessor, and had me worrying a lot about pretty much everything. The course was laid out nicely, the topics were excellent, it had a forum for participants to discuss the week’s content, and worksheets, links, and resources on each weeks topic. Look into it!

Prenatal vitamins are quite the racket. I spent no less than five hours researching the best prenatal vitamins that met the recommendations for what the vitamin provides, and also spent at least an hour researching DHA supplements (which apparently will turn your child into a genius). The vitamins that were prenatal and DHA didn’t have quite the recommended amounts of either, one of the better prenatals had concerns about the use of bean sprouts, the next best required taking two pills three times a day (gag) and the ones I’ve been taking for the past year expire in three weeks. And just in case anyone reading is in the market, the verdict of all my research is: Rainbow Light Prenatal One vitamins and Expecta Lipil non-fish DHA supplements. And the Bellybar chewable prenatals although I find chewable aftertaste to be slightly gack, nothing like Flintstones.

I’ve got a few more books in my Amazon cart, and another few stashed on my Kindle: the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

Are there any you would recommend land in my Amazon cart?

I have to say, its been a looooong time since I’ve been awake on this side of midnight. Voluntarily. But I’m taking it as a good sign! We’ve been through a lot in the past month, I haven’t been able to stay awake to even see midnight, let alone stay up past it.

*School trudged on during all the insanity that was October, and would have been uneventful (wouldn’t I have loved uneventful!) until a classmate tried to slide a little plagiarized content into a group project. And then was snarky about my attitude when I called her out on it. This is not like a just-out-of-high-school kid, this is an adult. And the best part? The class was Health Care Law and Ethics. *facepalm*

*We have six items that will be crossed off the Baby Bucket List in the next six months. And the rest are the fantasy-land items, like a trip to Europe. Marmot has always said he’d like a fall/winter baby, and I’ve always teased my bosses that I’d love a maternity leave that goes over Thanksgiving and New Years…so starting to try in December or January could be on the radar. WOW. December is only three weeks away?!

*And with the beginning of the first potential TTC cycle is only 29 days away, I’ve been feeling like a student behind on homework. So out come the books I’ve been hoarding/hiding for the last year, and the homework is getting caught up! More on that to come…

*But the potential shopping to prepare for a baby? That outrightly freaks me the hell out. And yet Marmot, the official Financial Freak in our house, just says ‘We’ll be fine Honey…we’ll be fine!’ Who is this man, and what has he done with my husband?!

*Last but not least, the Honey B. blog is going to have a makeover coming up soon…stay tuned for the reveal!

And I’m off to bed…hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

The item with the biggest lack of progress on the Baby Bucket List is, sadly, my weight. This has been an issue for me, in one way or another, for over a decade! After a depressing look over my weight fluctuations and what my successes and failures have been, I decided its time to bring in the big guns. I talked to my primary care doctor, and she gave me a referral to the Department of Endocrinology. Not just for thyroid issues, Endocrinology (at least in our health system) also acts as a primary care for weight related issues.

So, I have my own Dr. H! I met with him last week, and we worked out a weight loss plan for me. He went over my weight loss history, and said that I actually do really well when I try to lose weight, and we just need to see how to keep it going. It fits in with my ongoing joke that I probably have a killer metabolism, and this is just the best its been able to do to keep up! I’m getting labs and a metabolism test to see if that is indeed the case.

My Dr. H’s philosophy is that there are five rungs in the weight loss ladder- food modification, physical activity, psychological counseling, medication, and bariatric surgery. Based on my history, he felt comfortable getting me started on four rungs!

Food Modification: I’m meeting with a dietician, Rose, once a month to look at broadened food choices, my food journal, awareness of hunger signals, and awareness of full signals. During my first visit, she went over some of the things like eating until fullness, and she said “I’m telling you the simple things not because I think you don’t know these things, but because they are simple enough to start right now.” I’ll meet with Rose once a month to check my progress. The cool thing is that Rose also works in OB for nutrition during pregnancy, so she can follow me all the way through the initial weight loss stage, but then even after I do get pregnant!

Physical Activity: Dr. H said he wants me to do an hour a day, 4 days a week. He doesn’t care what I do, as long as it raises my heartrate.  He doesn’t recommend anything specific because one persons perfect activity as another person’s torture. Find something I can tolerate, and do it. The company gym does have trainers for periodic visits, but he said becoming a gym rat isn’t the goal and he’d prefer I find something I can do without a gym.

Psychological Counseling: Due to my eating disorder history and the fact that I slip into some of those patterns pretty quickly, I get to see a psychologist once a week. I figure if I run out of food and weight stuff to talk about, I can just talk about my Mom! {Just kidding Mom!}

Medication: I went on Xenical (the prescription form of Alli) years ago, and dang near shit my pants after eating sweet and sour shrimp in San Francisco. Due to my past experience, I was a little leary when he mentioned medication- however, Meridia sounded reasonable to me. It was originally an anti-depressant but didn’t actually make anyone feel better- but they saw appetite suppression, everyone lost weight! While for some it does have some anti-depressant capabilities (fingers crossed- hah!), Dr. H said that he’s seen good successes with it as a weight-loss tool. He also said that the concerns about cardiac issues have been shown to be minimal in someone without cardiac history, although I am to monitor my blood pressure twice weekly. So I filled my prescription, and started it yesterday! {Update just on Meridia coming in the next few days, but let me just say, I’m calling it a pharmaceutical gastric bypass!}

I will see Dr. H every three months to check progress and get repeat labs, and modify my plan as needed. Although sometimes I think this is overkill, I also see that what I’ve done on my own simply hasn’t worked! I’m hoping the increased accountability and the medication will give me the kick in the ass I’ve needed! I’ve logged my starting weight, blood pressure, and measurements. Stay tuned!

I get to cross another item off the Baby Bucket List…as I am now the proud owner of a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. And its RED.

The circumstances of buying it were slightly dubious- and by dubious I mean mad at my husband, so I bought a camera just to prove how mad I was.

{I know Mom, I should have just cut the crotch out of his favorite pants and been done with, I know!!}

And then just to top it off- he wasn’t mad. What is the point of buying something ridiculous out of spite if he doesn’t care?!

But I have an awesome camera. Not too grown-up (ie, not too many features for me to use) but complicated enough that it makes an awesome click when I take the picture, it makes me feel like I know something about photography. Hah! So I’ve been scouring Pioneer Woman’s photography section, getting ideas on how to play with the manual features, and really thinking that I might want to try Photoshop Elements.

Stay tuned for a deluge of candids, like this gem-

You’ve been warned!

We are crossing a huge item off the Baby Bucket List. As in HUGE.

We own a house!! I’m still in shock, and its been a week since we closed…Marmot and I still occasionally look at each other and giggle, because we own our dream house. OMG!!

Now there are some downsides to the house of dreams, most of it related to this picture below being one of the more organized rooms in the house.

But its our vintage wallpaper, and our disaster of a living room, and that’s so much better than renting!

And yeah, wallpaper stripping party at my house this weekend…no seriously, you’re invited.