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For anyone who was following Jack Simbulan's story, I'm heartbroken to report that there's some sad news this morning. If you have any words of comfort or sympathy, I'm sure they're greatly needed right now.

Hey! Who Wants a Kick in the Ovaries?

Readers of mah blog know I am a fan of the sappy nostalgic video baby's-year-in-review montage. (CRY, SUCKERS. CRY.)

I just got a dose of my own medicine.

And I LIKED IT, even if my eye makeup didn't.

Maureen of Grad Lab Adventures (and member of our Secret Awesome Group of Awesome Blogging Power, which...have I mentioned that recently? In the past four sentences, or so?) made a video in honor of her son Jack's first birthday. I KNOW what an exercise in terror and cursing and vodka making these videos can be, so I hereby order everybody to go watch it and tell her exactly when the waterworks started.

You know, unless you have a heart of tarry stone like mine, which in that case you won't cry at all.

(LIES. LIIIIES. The peas! The legs! The cheeks! DEAR GOD THE WEE LITTLE STRIPED BATHING SUIT!)

Helping a Mutha Out

My brain is oozing out my ears today, people. It's only Thursday and I am done. Beat and done like overcooked scrambled eggs.

And I believe the universe is telling me to take it easy today, for behold! The perfect subject for today's Dosing arrived in my inbox this morning, courtesy of everybody's favorite underpaid kept woman Susie Sunshine. She even summed it up in bullets, to save my poor leaking brain the effort:

Quick summary:
Kim, mother of two, goes to law school.

Starts a blog.

Gets diagnosed with breast cancer.

Is now nearly finished with her treatment.

Her blog is a finalist for $10,000 law blog scholarship and the money would really be helpful.

Voting ends Oct 28th., one vote per IP address.

Here's the link to Kim's blog and to the entry with all the details on the contest and scholarship and all that. A $10,000 scholarship! For blogging! That is ridiculously awesome. And just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as Kim continues to kick cancer's butt.

If you've never read Kim's blog before, check it out! Peruse! Poke around the archives. If you like what you see, go vote and feel happy: you've just done something potentially life-changing, and how often can you say that happens on a random Thursday?

 

Stuff to Read and Stuff to Do and...Stuff

Found via Mrs. Kennedy's Required Reading sidebar: the Hobo Nest by Mihow

Found sort-of roundabout via Plain Jane Mom's Go Read It Today sidebar: Already a Picky Eater by Boy Crazy

Hmm. Perhaps this entire blog should be a sidebar. Perhaps it already IS a sidebar on a bigger blog, like Earth could be a speck of dust on a bigger planet, and I just blew my own mind.

Or, perhaps it is just a little bit past my lunchtime.

After you're finished reading those links, if you are perhaps looking for something to write about today, Mrs. Flinger directed my attention to Blog for the Mother's Act Day. Which is...TODAY. The blogosphere has been responsible for a tremendous amount of support and awareness for postpartum mood disorders, as thousands of women have bravely written about it openly online. If you suffered from PPD or something similar, consider telling your story -- again or for the very first time -- today.

Here's Mrs. Flinger's entry.
And more information on the Mother's Act legislation.

Obligatory Lady Parts Talk

OK, let me just get this out of the way: another month, another cycle, another negative pregnancy test. OK, tests, plural, because my period has decided to go completely MIA and I keep thinking that maaaaaybe I tested too early? Can day 38 still be considered too early?

I had a few good months there. Regular and unassisted ovulation. Carefully planned...uh...relations. One possible chemical pregnancy but that's ok too. At least stuff is happening in there, right? And now nothing.

Even Jason has suggested it's time to go see the doctor.

I've stubbornly fought medical intervention this time around. I don't want to do Clomid, I don't want to do anything with a higher chance of multiples, I don't want to be poked and prodded and talked into Clomid and an IUI because I'm scared our chances for a second baby anytime soon are slipping away with each erratic cycle.

Basically I don't want to admit that no, having Noah didn't fix me and yes, this is true secondary infertility and it's about to call my bluff and make me decide which option I feel stronger about: avoiding fertility treatments or having just one child. (Yes, we've discussed adoption as well, but I'm not ready to make that decision yet either.)

So you can imagine this entry by Allison at Life's Lost and Found was amazing for me to read. I never once thought about a fertility clinic the way she describes. As a community, a support group, the one place that really, really gets what it's like to have misfiring ovaries. (Especially since I'm guessing I'd probably end up at the same clinic here in the DC area.) It was...really encouraging. Enlightening. Made me feel a teensy bit better.

Thanks, Allison. And good luck this month.

Writing Challenge Time!

This week's writing challenge is from Misguided Mommy, who asks...

What are the three things you wish for your kids to experience in their lives?  Is it different for your sons and daughters?

We've got a nice stable of regular participants, but as usual, if you're looking for a little end-of-the-week inspiration for your blog, feel free to join in and leave your link in the comments or forum.

The Doctor's Wife figured this one out back when she was still pregnant.

Jodifur wishes for love, a place to belong...and the invaluable gift of failure.

Sabrina of Silly Me also wishes for the right kind of mistakes.

At Momma's So-Called Life, there's talk of risks and adventure...with a side of security.

This was challenging one for me, since I came up with about a dozen wishes for Noah and then tried narrowing them down to my top three and then kept re-ordering them. Because...I want him to have everything. I want him to have the things I that I have  (love, security, parenthood and my dream job) and I want him to have the things I don't (freedom from doubt and anxiety, lots of travel and a 401k). And I want him to have the things that didn't come easily to me too (education, self-confidence and a willingness to take risks).

So I'm going to cheat. I want Noah to have 1) everything I have, 2) everything I lack, and 3) everything I had to fight for.

Who Needs Some Loving?

No, not that kind of loving. (Slut!) I mean blogger loving. Comments, support, been-there-done-that stories. Like Oprah, only with more cursing.

Jenn from Jenn's Journal put up the blogger loving bat signal over in our forums because it is just RAINING cats and dogs and difficulties for her right now. Endometrial biopsy next Thursday to rule out cancer, while her mom is having cancer surgery this Friday. AND her baby Nick is getting tested for maple sugar urine disease and I didn't even know there WAS such a thing as maple sugar urine disease and oh my Lord, it doesn't sound pleasant.

Although maybe it would work on waffles?

Geddit?

*crickets*

(Oh, don't look at me like that. If Jenn can make jokes about Ice Capades I can make jokes about waffles.)

Anyway, Jenn, we're all rooting for a whole series of happy endings for you, and while I don't know your position on tiny dogs dressed up in clothes, here is a picture of my dog wearing a onesie. It always makes me smile, and my heart is a pulsing lump of tar.

Waking Nightmare

Andi left this link in the comments yesterday. I have to warn you, it's not a happy story for a Friday. It's not a happy story at all.

In fact, it makes me kind of ill when I think about it. Ill in a righteous, appalled anger sort of way. Ill in a helpless sort of way.

Ill in a I-want-to-pluck-Noah-from-his-crib-and-squeeze-the-bejeezus-out-of-him way.

They're taking her baby.

Also a Golden Lasso

In unrelated news, I just returned from an entire morning at Chuck E. Cheese. I pwned skeeball; was pwned by absolutely everything else regarding the experience. 615 skeeball tickets for a three-inch plastic dinosaur that causes Noah to WEEP every time I try to take it away from him, so YES, he is napping with a hard plastic pointy toy that is probably covered in lead paint, why do you ask?

Ahem.

It's Daily Dose Writing Challenge Day! Built for speed and for anybody struggling with writer's block, this one is courtesy of Moo's Moo, who asks: If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Misguided Mommy wants to be a superwife.

Rimarama wants a force field to protect her kids.

The Doctor's Wife would be Doctor Doolittle.

Beam Sabrina up, Scotty.

Chantelle wants that force field too. AND the teleporting.

Jodi sees the downsides to superpowers.

More dreams of teleporting from MomSmoo.

Colleen of Wine Please wants to read minds.

Candy's Corner would just like to know where everything is all the time, like her family already assumes she does.

Want to join in? Post a link to your submission in the comments, or join us over in the forums.

(My superpower? Multiple extendable arms. Enough said. The end.)

Memes to the Rescue!

Wicked case of writer's block over here, peeps. Wicked. Noah's naps are getting shorter and shorter and I'm rushing to the computer to write during the precious few minutes he will nap and then...

Blaaaaaah. I wonder what Britney's up to? I could play just one more level of Out of Your Mind. I could just stare at the wall and...blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

So you know what that means? MEME TIME, BABY.

Linda did this meme over at 2nd Cup of Coffee, and although she did not tag me, I am butting my big butt right in there and tagging myself.

8 Random Things in My Kitchen:

1) My best friend's Crock Pot. She brought it to Noah's birthday party, along with some cheese dip. We ate all the cheese dip, and yet I have not returned the Crock Pot. This fact reveals more about me as a person than it should.

2) A mandoline.

3) A first-aid kit. See above.

4) A small fire extinguisher, set on the counter closest to Noah's highchair. I wanted to keep it out of sight, perhaps in a cabinet next to the stove, but Jason insists on keeping it there, perhaps in case of toddler spontaneous combustion.

5) A white KitchenAid toaster.

6) A white KitchenAid mixer.

7) A black coffeemaker that is the source of much OCD-like twitching, oh my God, why doesn't it match?

8) One of those little flip-down sponge cubby things by the sink, which was VERY EXCITING when we first bought the house, like LOOK LOOK WE HAVE A SPONGE CUBBY, but now we never use it. Because whenever one of us actually puts the sponge in the cubby, the other one of us will spend 10 minutes searching for the sponge before giving up and opening a new sponge, until we have about a dozen sponges in active rotation around the sink.

I hereby tag all of my brothers and sisters in Blogger's Block Hell.