When life hands you lemons...

Drink Tequilla.

Oh, wait a minute...Hubby and I both gave up alcohol for this IVF cycle. Hmmm...eat chocolate? No, that won't work, all that sugar and caffeine.

I guess the answer is lemonade then. Although, that takes sugar too.

Ok, pucker then. I guess the answer is pucker.

We're having one of those weekends where nothing seems to go according to plan. But before I tell you about that, I want to thank you all for all the great comments, words of advice and encouragement with my house keeping woes. It is nice to know I'm not the only one who struggles.

I came up with a plan, which helped to get caught up on the kitchen and clutter on the main floor in general. We are TV people. We have three Tivos in our house, one with a dual tuner. It's a bit of a problem. I think Hubby hasn't watched a commercial in years. Before I met him, commercials were when I cleaned. It's very simple. Two minutes to race against the clock to see how quickly I can unload the dishwasher. Can I get it fully loaded on the next commercial? I decided this week, we were watching Idol live, with all the commercials in their full glory. (muting, as Hubby tried, doesn't work...I need to hear how much longer I have!) It worked like a charm. I got the house picked up, and got to rest on the couch in between cleaning sprints. I think this will be the new rule with Idol in our house. (and with So You Think You Can Dance this summer....my absolute favorite!)

Now, on with the lemons.

Friday afternoon, friend of ours in New Hampshire who we've been trying to find time to see (I refuse to commit to late May/early June not knowing what IVF will bring) had extra tickets to a Guster concert at the last minute. When I first got the email from Hubby, I thought, really? I have to drive an hour (without traffic) in rush hour to go to a show when I don't really know any of the music. It's Friday, and I'm tired, and I have acupuncture at 9:30 the next morning. But, it's a good opportunity to get together with these friends we haven't seen. And I'm trying to let loose and be spontaneous, and not be upset with things surprise me, or don't go according to plan. So I agreed to go.

I got home from work a little early. Hubby had already picked up dinner so we could eat in the car. We jumped in my car, and headed north in the rush hour traffic. We'd gotten a few exits, when the engine temperature light came on with a big ding. Hmmm...is that bad, we thought? Maybe before we get too much further, we should turn around and grab the truck at home. Hubby worked on that, while I turned the heat on, and grabbed the car manual out of the glove compartment.

I read that it was indeed about the engine temp. If the car was dangerously hot, the light would come on, and it would ding continuously ten times. OK, so far, so good. We didn't have ten dings. Shortly after we managed to get on the other side of the highway, there it was...the incessant dinging. We had no choice but to pull over. There was a cop in front of us who walked up to see if we needed help. As she approached the window Hubby said "Do you know why I pulled you over officer?" Thankfully, she burst out laughing. We thought we were fine, we just needed to let the car cool for a few minutes. We were so close to getting back home, it was already 6:30, the concert started at 8 (well, the opener anyway), and we didn't want to be stuck on the side of the road forever waiting for help. If we could just make it home.

After a few minutes, we started off again, only to have to pull over once again to stop the dinging. We called 911 and asked for the help van...which thankfully showed up within about 5 min. He filled the coolant, and followed us until we got off the highway. We had to pull over two more times, before we finally made it to our street! I'm proud of both of us for staying very calm. It was actually quite the accomplishment. Hubby decided to back the car into the driveway, in preparation for a tow truck having to pick it up. Just as the back wheels hit the slight slope up at the edge of the driveway, the car shut itself off.

Awesome.

Now, we were paranoid that the engine was really damaged or something. And we had a car sticking out into the road. Hubby tried his best to push the car with me steering, but the slope was to much of a challenge. So, he went for the big guns, jumped in the truck, and pushed me like a snow plow into the driveway. It was really kind of amusing. I wonder what our neighbors thought!

So, we regrouped, checked in with our friends to let them know we were running late, and jumped in the truck. An hour later, we were almost there. We got off the highway, and hubby burst out laughing. We were going about 35-40 on an regular road, and his speedometer read 120mph! WTF? Was everything going to fall apart? I though next Friday, the 13th, was supposed to be the unlucky one. Seriously? The good news is that the truck is still working fine, it's just confused.

The concert was fun, even though I was kind of tired, and only recognized two songs. We had the chance to stay for a meet and greet after the show to meet the band, but when my legs started buckling from exhaustion, Hubby decided we could call it a night.

We had planned to get a lot of stuff done around the house this weekend, and now it looked like we were going to be stuck dealing with a sick car all day. Not to mention figuring out our work commutes next week with only one car. But whatever, we'd figure it out. When we got home, hubby started up the car, and we convinced ourselves that the engine was not dead, so we could rest easier.

In the morning, he grabbed his laptop in bed to research what might be wrong with the car. And then, a window popped up saying his hard drive was crashing! Come on universe! This isn't funny anymore. I had to leave for acupuncture, taking the truck, and therefore unable to do the other errands I need to afterwords. I'm really bad a parking the truck, so I can only take it to certain places!

When I got back, Hubby had determined that it wasn't actually his hard drive, but a virus, but the fate of all his data is yet to be determined. (which reminds me to ask the question if anyone out there uses an online back up service they would recommend??)

Thankfully, the rest of the day has passed uneventfully. I did not get done as much as I had wanted to, because I ended up needing an hour and a half nap to make up for getting home after midnight last night (I feel so old sometimes!). The car is still dead in the driveway, but Hubby got lots of electrical work done, and I did get to some purging that's been on my list. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Oh yeah, Mother's Day. That's what tomorrow brings.

Thankfully, Hubby agreed to skip the big get together with his family. I just couldn't do it this year. We'll have his mom over for dinner sometime in the next week or so instead. And we're visiting my mom next weekend. So we have tomorrow to ourselves! I'm still not sure how we're going to spend it. But I hope all of you have a fantastic day...all of you  who have made it to the other side, and especially all of you who are still trying, like me. We are all expectant mothers, and should do something nice for ourselves tomorrow. We deserve it dammit!

One more quick thought to end what has turned out to be somewhat of a rambling post...I go in for blood work on Monday morning and will hopefully be starting lupron. I can't believe we're finally here! I have to remind myself at how well we both handled the chaos of the last twenty-four hours, because life is only going to get more hectic from here on out.

And I actually do love lemonade.