Lots O' Stuff to Talk About

I got a Eggnog Chai latte from Starbucks yesterday and it was delicious! Even if you aren't into eggnog, I believe that you would still like it. It was so yummy.

Yesterday was my grocery day at Harris Teeter and I saved $75. I spent $90. That means that I got $165 worth of groceries for $90! You gotta love that!!! Normally, I save more than I spend, so I was a little dissappointed. It was the excellent onion chiabatta (sp?), gourmet honey mustard, and red pepper hummus that pushed me over the edge. I couldn't help but buy that stuff even though I didn't have coupons. Shame on me. I rarely buy anything without a coupon any more. If you are interested in saving $ like me, go to The Grocery Game and check it out. Feel free to use my email as a referral- brandylogan@gmail.com .

The GG has a free list that you can try out for Walgreens. I have done it the past 2 Sundays and it has been well worth it. Now, I will say that it is a little confusing because Walgreens does a rebate circular, a weekly sales circular, and they take manufacturer coupons that you find in the Sunday paper. I spent $22 on $46 worth of stuff this past Sunday. I got 2 bottles of Thermasilk shampoo, 3 packs of batteries that had 6 in each, 4 packs of Tic Tacs, 2 packs of Eclipse gum, a 50 count pack of latex gloves for Hayden's class, 2 big bottles of Ajax dish detergent, a Colgate toothbrush, a big pack of Sudafed PE Cold Medicine-36 count, 4 small gift bags, and 3- 8.5x11 padded envelopes. That's a bunch of stuff for just over $20! Oh, and the medicine has a $2 rebate on it that I will get next month on a Walgreens gift card. So far, I have earned a $9 rebate since the beginning of the month. As long as I choose to get the rebate back in the form of a gift card, I will get 10% on top of that. Whoo hoo :)

Our surrogacy journey is finally progressing. Clayton and I have to go to an injection class on the 20th in Atlanta. I can't believe that we have come so far! Clayton better be nice to me with those shots, LOL. I begin Lupron on 1/1/06 and those are little shots that I should be able to do myself. They just barely go into the skin since they are subcutaneous. The big daddy shots, progesterone in oil or PIO, begin on Hayden's birthday-1/29/06. The needle is huge! It is 22 gauge and 1.5 inches long. Since the shot is intramuscular, the needle must go all the way in. Eek! They will go in my rear, hence the reason that Clayton will be the one doing it. I am contemplating going to my doctor's office for it. My gosh, it is just up the road. The problem is that it is a daily shot that I will take for 4 weeks. Our IVF transfer will be around February 2-4. In case some of you don't understand the process, here is the breakdown in simple terms:

-They align my cycle with the Intended Mom's cycle using birth control pills (kinda funny that we take birth control to get pregnant, LOL).

-They remove my IM's eggs and fertilize them with her hubby's sperm in a lab. These eggs will be left alone for 3-5 days to see which ones fertilize.

-They will transfer 3 embryos to me and we pray for the best.

All of this is done while taking numerous drugs to make my body think that it is pregnant and to make hers produce as many healthy eggs as possible. We both take birth control pills to align my cycle to hers so that our bodies are in sync. Then, I take Lupron to suppress my ovaries and to keep them from releasing eggs. It temporarily shuts them down. I then take Estrogen patches and lozenges to create a nice soft lining in my uterus to carry the baby or babies. I then take Progesterone shots to make my body think that it is pregnant. Your body makes this hormone naturally when you are preggo. Since my body will not be preggo yet, I have to take the synthetic version of the hormone. After all of that, we then transfer and hope that the babies stick. Wish us luck!!!