Ok, I'm feeling about a hundred times better today, even though it's cloudy out. So I'm really hoping it was the frozen pizza - that would be so easy to avoid!
LivingSky: I'm glad you found a home for your dog. That must be a real relief. Honestly I don't think my identical-looking dog actually tries to kill the chickens - she just likes to chase them and "play" with them. Even mice and voles she catches and plays with them, and loses interest when they stop moving. She got the border collie chase drive without the border collie no-bite drive, I think. Only two more weeks until you get to see the sex! You must be so excited. Thanks for the kind words about depression and February. I know it's probably largely seasonal, and I keep telling myself it's getting nicer - my parents' old friend (she lived to 82 and rode her horses until the very end) always said that if you made it to Valentine's Day, you were going to be okay. I hope she was right! The snow has actually all melted under my spruce-and-maple patch in the back yard. No green for a while, of course (I hope not, or it will all die in the next cold snap) but I think I've seen some buds just starting to swell on the trees on south-facing slopes. Spring will come . . . it does every year. I just have to hold out a little longer. I have to say, Comet is about the cutest thing ever. I really like big dogs, but I have a special soft spot for corgis. They're like a big dog with short legs and a kind of small body, somehow. When I went to the animal shelter in Grande Prairie to get a dog, I actually had my sights set on an adorable corgi they had there . . . unfortunately for him (but luckily for Aria!) he hated me. He took one look and retreated to the back of his cage, barking at me as hard as he could. Aria, on the other hand, stood quietly at the door to her cage wagging her tail, and had a sign on her kennel that said, "I promise I'll be good, I just really want to go for a walk." I took her, and fell in love, and informed my husband that I had found a dog and promised to take her home. I'm glad we got her, but we were this close to getting a corgi instead. I hope he wasn't like that with everyone, poor little guy! Anyway, that picture of Comet and Tango is FANTASTIC! I especially like the green grass! 
And Ana is quite attractive, so she's doing her job quite well. Molly looks like she takes her job seriously! She looks just like all the best mousers I've ever known, I bet she does a fine job. I had forgotten how tall Clydesdales are, and that Gypsy Vanner fella is handome! The picture of your Friesians looks a little like they're planning something . . .
Bel: Yeah, she's a big fluffy all right. It's the cutest, softest thing most of the year, but in the fall there are tons of burrs and seeds to get stuck in her fur, and she's just finishing shedding, and it's a nightmare. Petsmart's alright, I liked it well enough as retail jobs go. The people tend to be okay, you have to expect a certain number of useless teenagers to be working with you, in my experience. But they're usually pretty nice useless teenagers. I can scarcely believe that your family called you fatso as a term of endearment. I mean, I understand that they didn't mean it to be cruel, but it doesn't take the mos sensitivity to realize that that's not an acceptable name for a kid! My dad called my sister "big girl" for many years, but it had more to do with her being the older sister and having her growth spurt at the age of 8 or so. Not that I think it made her feel any better about it. He finally figured out about 4 years ago that maybe that wasn't appropriate "anymore". Sigh. He really did mean well, he just didn't get that maybe being twice the height and weight of the other kids in her class might be a source of shame for her, not just a physical fact. 
Anyway, it sounds like you've managed to give yourself a healthy attitude about it regardless of any help from anyone else. My cat and dog don't love each other, either. Unless hissing, scratching, whiny barks and sulking count as love. Tripod looks really intense in that picture! What a cutie! I love how both your dogs are looking SOOOO innocent in that picture, like they could do no wrong . . . when you called them mischeivious. I can totally see them thinking, "Who, us?" No worries on missing my post. There isn't much to be said when I'm feeling down anyway! I've been working on the no chocolate thing anyway because I know it makes my menstrual cramps worse, and because I watched a horrible documentary about chocolate production (in many places, they still use slaves - they kidnap them and keep them through fear and in places they have never been so they don't know where to go even if they escape). Now I feel really bad if I eat chocolate that's not fair trade, and it's kind of hard to find fair trade chocolate in my small town. Furthermore, "fair trade" just means that they pay their workers, not that they pay them a good living wage. I mean, I love my chocolate, but I just can't eat it in good conscience any more. So it's hard to give it up, but I have multiple reasons, which makes it easier. Thanks for the wishes for hope!
Birdie: I'm sorry about AF. Another try . . . it will happen. I expect you might not be on for another day or two (I always need a couple days off at AF time). We'll be here for you when you get back!
Mole: I'm sorry for your AF too. It's not that you didn't have enough sex - even with perfect timing, it doesn't take every time - in fact, I think it's still right around 20%. So don't feel like you failed, just feel like this roll of the dice didn't come out in your favor. You get to roll again!
Tickletoes: You too, I'm sorry AF found you. That's the part when you're glad you're busy, right? It helps a little bit, anyway.
Tank: I love your Lucy's ears. The make her look so goofy and so ready for anything! They are both lovely dogs, thanks for posting the links. My parents' dog is really quite fearful-aggressive - she's never bitten anyone, but she snaps at people if they try to touch her when she's in bed. My niece is now 2 1/2 years old, and Weenie has only snapped at her (not trying to bite, just trying to warn) once, and that was a week or two ago. And they don't live in the same house. Weenie was abused as a puppy, so she's pretty extreme. If Jake is afraid of your kid, I'm thinking two things are pretty likely: 1) He'll get used to it eventually, because he'll actually be living with the kid and seeing how you care about him/her. 2) You'll be able to manage dog-kid interactions if you need to during his adjustment period - he will probably make this easier by trying to avoid the kid if he is afraid, since you will be making it clear that the kid is above him in the pack hierarchy. I too have to try not to read too much into my dreams, and it's so hard when the kid in them looks like your partner!
Calycanth: Kitters is so cute! She looks ever-so-content there in that sunbeam. Ah, the life of a cat, eh? And I, too, vote you for ruler of the universe. Weekends don't affect me personally much, but it would be nice if my mom had more time off! I hope your 2ww is staying pretty chill for you so far. The answer your midwife gave you was fine, but if you weren't comfortable with her manner then it makes a lot of sense to look for someone else. I imagine we all will need all the help we can get to feel relatively comfortable when we're delivering! I hope your boss doesn't ask you to work on your birthday morning! I would suggest that you just say no, but I know I wouldn't be able to.
Catheleni: Jackson looks an awful lot like a dog that belongs to a friend of mine - mostly his posture and expression in that first picture, and the white around the muzzle. She's very leash-aggressive . . . I can imagine two dog-reactive dogs on leashes would be not much fun . . . but they sure are cute! And baby has quite the eyeliner! Nicky is a beautiful cat - almost enough to make me wish I had gotten a white-and-black instead of my brown tabby . . . maybe less grumpy, too, since you called him both sweet and joyful! Eli looks to me like he's got attitude - I can imagine him being the boss-man. No hurry on figuring out multi-quote, I read someone talking about it when I first joined, too, and I think I only started doing it in January - or maybe December. Sorry about the grumpiness in your house, especially around O time . . . I think that redoubles my grumpiness, because then I'm not only grumpy, I'm grumpy that the grumpiness timing is so bad.
Ambers80: Glad you came back! Did you have any symptoms of the endometriosis, or did the doctor have to look before you knew?
Faerylady: As mentioned by Calycanth (thanks for taking up the slack for me), we're happy to have you, but you might find a better fit in a thread with ladies who already have kids. Let me know on here or by PM if you want to be added (just post anything here and I'll go ahead and add you).
Taxlady: I would be delighted if your future child came here for the summer with my future child . . . my cousin came to visit from the greater LA area when I was about 7, he came up for a few weeks I think, in the summer. He was a couple of years older than me. Somehow we got on the topic of where mushrooms grew, and then he wouldn't eat mushrooms. My parents told me I wasn't allowed to tell him where eggs came from! So I will warn you, if you're going to send your kid/s here, there's a good chance that my kid/s will tell them where eggs come from. If they can't take that, there could be trouble. 
I might have to do the reverse trade, too, to give my kid/s a taste of a city . . . and my husband can come too, he's never seen LA! I'm glad you liked the pictures of my farm, even though they were a less-than-fantastic assortment of whatever I've uploaded for any reason! Simon is so pretty, and John Brown looks very serious, from the little that I can see.
ShannonO: You're very welcome to hang out here with us. I don't know a whole lot about fitness and TTC - I know I did read that women who did a whole lot of exercise in early pregnancy were less likely to maintain a pregnancy - according to wikipedia the probability of miscarriage increases with exercise, before the 18th week. I don't know about implantation probabilities - they're pretty hard to measure - but I would think they're similar. It only talks about time spent exercising, there's a 10% higher risk of miscarriage with up to 1.5 hours of exercise, and 200% higher risk with over 7 hours a week of exercise. As for strenuous, I would say probably finding your max heart rate is best done before O, and maybe before implantation, not in the late 2ww. But I don't really know . . . and other non-wikipedia sources said that exercise isn't associated with miscarriage at all. I looked all of this up when I found out I was pregnant the day after I had worked my butt off . . . and I still had to keep working at least some. I did miscarry . . . I have no idea if the two are related or not, but I can tell you that I am going to be one lazy pregnant woman next time I get pregnant. I'll walk, I'll do yoga, I will do minor strength exercises, but I'm not going to be doing any more running. On the other hand, I've been so lazy in my 2wws these last few months that I can't help but wonder if maybe that's why I'm not getting pregnant - my body thinks I'm sick because it never moves! So I've been doing moderate cardiovascular this month. I'm going to stop now, though, as I'm 8 dpo. For all I know, this will do about as much good as rubbing a lucky rabbit's foot, but it makes me feel better! As for the heart rate monitor, I love mine too! My husband tried and tried to get me into running, and I HATED it. I always felt like a failure when I would start to feel like it was too hard, like I was some kind of wimp who couldn't even run a tiny little ways . . . so then I would stop running (ah, self-fulfilling prophecy). DH tried and tried to get me to buy a heart rate monitor, but I thought it was a waste of money - I can take my pulse rate myself, right? Finally I lost my watch, and didn't find it for about six months (it was on the floor in our seldom-opened storage closet, under a blanket). I decided to get a new watch, and while I was looking I saw a heart-rate monitor. It cost the same as a new watch, is a watch, and has a chest strap to take my heart rate. It turns out, when I am running up a hill and feel like I'm about to keel over, that's because my heart rate is really pushing my max heart rate! I'm not a wimp after all, I just had way too high of expectations! I actually really like running with my monitor, much to my surprise. I like the constant feedback. Now if only our weather would cooperate for more than about 5 months/year! And as far as eating, when we went on a cycle tour through California and Mexico, I calculated our caloric intake one day in the first couple of weeks, and it was something like 3800 calories EACH per day! And I LOST body fat (which I had very little of to lose) - I gained weight, though, all in my leg muscles. So, if you want to eat like a horse (and love every bite), just spend 5 hours a day exercising harder than you ever thought you could! 
(Everyone can fit that into their schedules, right?)
Ramzubo: Definitely keep up the BDing - it's possible to get the LH surge that gives you a positive OPK without it actually triggering ovulation. I can't remember, are you temping? If you are, then higher temps will let you know you did O. If you aren't, I would keep taking OPKs just to be sure it wasn't a false start. Also, I love that second picture of your dog! He looks so . . . regal. Great danes are such attractive dogs, they're extreme but not weird-looking . . . I won't mention what breeds I think are weird-looking for fear someone has one of them that they haven't posted yet (none of the posted ones are weird-looking, they're all lovely and adorable), but suffice it to say that some breeds of dog look mighty weird to me . . . Great Danes are unusual-looking, but in a good way. They have PRESENCE! And he still looks so cheery and doggy!
Cristinimartini: Sorry. It really is a hard thing, to get the hopes up and get them dashed every month. It sounds like your husband tried really hard to help, so that was nice, anyway. Don't worry. I'll say it again - our chances are pretty poor in the short run (each month), but in the long run they're very good. I know that only helps a little, but it's true. Also, I think the upgrade to 5-10 km is great! I never run more than about 4 km, and that's really only in the summer. In the winter I run nearly 2 k, whenever I feel like it, which is seldom. Once or twice a week. But walking through the deep snow with my dog (or, more recently, with my donkeys) is pretty good cardiovascular too! I don't check my CM, I just note it on the thermometer in the mornings (if it's really obvious) or on my tp. Honestly, I get pretty gross donkey, goat, dog, and chicken dirt on my hands, and I'm not 100% confident that I get it all when I wash my hands, and then I have to stand in the bathroom with my pants down waiting for my hands to finish drying and I can't actually find my cervix, and besides all of that, the few times I did try, it told me nothing different than keeping an eye on my tp. So I don't bother to actually "check". And I have had, one month since we started trying, a crazy amount of EWBJ. It was a mess, but I was pretty happy about it. Also, that's a very cute furbaby you have. He looks so smooth!
Boots: I'm glad the concert was good, I'm sorry that your allergies gave you such a hard time. Looking forward to seeing your kitty pictures!
Val: Spice looks like she's a bit of a firecracker to me . . . because I've met a tortoiseshell or two, and they always seem to be firecrackers! She sure is beautiful, though. I love her upside-down head in the second picture! And Nutmeg is completely gorgeous! I love sweet cats, and I'm not too bothered by insecurity in cats - it usually means they want to cuddle more, which I'm in favor of! Not to keen on wall-peeing, though, I have to admit . . .
Ceccy: I will add you right away. Don't panic . . . wait until you get your results, they did those to test and see if it WAS premature menopause . . . if they were sure they wouldn't have needed to do the tests, right? And women can get pregnant even in menopause, it just is less likely because they don't ovulate every month. I don't have anything experience with this specifically, but someone might. You might want to check out the "Infertility" forum if your results come back with a result you don't want. Hugs!
AFM: Well, I might need you guys to help talk me down. I know there's a possibility I'm pregnant, but I really want to focus on the possibility that I'm not. I truly don't know if I could take getting my hopes up only to be disappointed right now, so (I know this is a little weird) try to be just negative enough to help me temper my rising enthusiasm, please. My temp went back up this morning. It was low (like way below my coverline, pre-O kind of low) yesterday, and then it jumped back up this morning to the same as my other post-O temps. I took my temp twice yesterday morning and three times this morning, and each day was quite consistent. When I search on FF for "charts like yours" they come up as 53% ovulatory and 42% pregnancy. That means it's less likely that I'm pregnant than that I'm not. I will be calm about this. I'm only 9DPO, it's way too early to get all excited. I won't test until at the very least 13DPO, that's for sure. I'll try to hold out until 15DPO, my recommended test date by FF. In the meantime, calm. Have any of you ever had such a drastic temp dip only to not be pregnant? I know it happens (FF proved that), I just really would like some first-hand calming experience. Last month it dipped at 8DPO, then jumped back a bit, then fell again and I got AF at 10DPO. I really need calm. I'm going to go and clean my house now, and try to not think about this again for about another 6 days . . . yeah, right! But I'll try.
Tank, you've got it right, though. Jackson is a sweetie, except when he's trying to eat all the dogs he sees on the street. Your guys are so cute, and I'm jealous of your land! We are pretty tight here in the city, and my dogs would love more space. Caly, your Kitters is a sweetie!
to you!!!!!!!!!!!!
OPK neg today but expected that. Don't hardly FEEL like any BD right now!
I'm sorry you aren't feeling well and it sort of made the trip less fun. I HATE that, you're all pumped up to go and then something happens.. I know the disappointment. As for your cycle.. I sometimes get a little BJ close to AF. I know that is not the best news, but I don't think anything is messed up. Be my cycle buddy
for you. I know you're not feeling terribly optimistic, but that seems to be when it happens for a lot of people. I'll be optimistic for you.
I hope you feel better soon. I don't know what to tell you about the late-cycle EWBJ. Since I never get EWBJ, I have no wisdom to share. I can't wait to see pictures of your kitties (and Val, yours are adorable!). I would get another one if DH was down with it, but he thinks one is enough.
indeed! Actually, I don't think my DH would have done anything if I hadn't reminded him about two dozen times. Eh, men.
with you...FB just announced another pregnancy. 2 in one week. Glad you were able to laugh with DH about it in the end. As fat as checking CM - not really. Only when wiping after going to the bathroom...I'm not one to check my cervix either. I've tried a couple times...its kinda hard for me. BTW....adorable he sleeps with a blanky.
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