Adoption Updates, a New Article, and a Project

Well today was my appointment with my PCM to discuss a piece of our adoption questionnaire. We went over various substance abuse issues and what kind of effects those drugs would have on an unborn child. It was very enlightening. Some drugs that I thought I would be comfortable with I ended up changing my mind and vice versa. We also discussed medical history of birthparents' family, like mental disorders or cystic fibrosis, and what we felt comfortable accepting and not accepting. I didn't realize how uneducated I was about all this until we went to our appointment. But it looks like we've made up our mind about our comfort level with these issues so we plan to fill out that part of our questionnaire tonight while the information is still fresh in our mind.

Today I finally got an article published with Associated Content. This article discusses 13 different resources for adoption fundraising, all with different ways to raise money for your upcoming adoption. My favorite is the Leaves of Love which is the fundraiser I plan on doing if we end up adopting. It's such a wonderful idea and I love the artwork! I plan on working on my next article shortly, which will be a compilation of adoption grant programs.

So to commemorate my lovely adoption fundraising article I've decided to start a new project called Fundraiser Friday. It's a simple enough project, if you're having a fundraiser for something infertility or adoption related, simply email me with the info about the fundraiser and its purpose. I will post the information about your fundraiser either the week before or the week during your event to help spread the word (on Fridays of course, hence the name Fundraiser Friday). I'm not sure how popluar my project will be so I can't say when I'll have my first Fundraiser Friday post but we'll just figure that out as we go along.

Oh, and the Lost Stork Foundation finally has a blog of its own! Check it out here. The design isn't complete yet but we hope to have that done this week so please excuse the "construction" going on. Aly from the Infertility Overachievers has graciously donated her time to help make the Lost Stork's blog beautiful and we can't wait to see the finished product!

Oh, and 48 MORE DAYS!!!!

Losing Strength

Well it looks like FET #2 might be upon us. I say "might" because things can still go wrong and I was fully prepared to give up on my cycle and fertility treatments for good. After almost two weeks of phone calls and emails I finally got my FET draft schedule from Nurse D last night. It's a draft because she forgot my vacation days so I emailed them to her and hopefully I'll get the finalized schedule today. If so then I will take my schedule with me to tomorrow's adoption appointment to schedule my fertility appointments as well. My baseline u/s should be next week so I hope it's not too late to schedule an appointment for that. My meds are called in and I should be starting Lupron next Friday.

I'm going to be honest here (and I feel really bad for admitting this) but my heart's just not in it anymore. It's taking all the strength I can muster to get through this FET. I thought long and hard about just quitting, moving on to adoption, and coming back to use my frozen embabies in a few years. Brandon wants me to keep trying (easy for him to say when he has NO involvement in the FET process). Obviously it's cheaper to do an FET than pay for adoption and he's still optimistic that it can work. But I still have that feeling in my heart that says we're not going to get pregnant so my heart is pulling me towards adoption. Which makes me feel bad because I feel like I'm giving up on my own embryos before they've even had a chance.

It's just that I've lost all hope with fertility treatments. And I'm sure everyone who reads this knows exactly what I'm talking about. Remember when you first decided to throw out the birth control pills and try for a baby? That first baby-making sex was so exciting and fun because it had a purpose. That first cycle you were so blissfully unaware. You had hope. And then when it didn't work and you saw the doctor who prescribed fertility treatments (whether it be Clomid, IUI or IVF) and you thought to yourself "Yes! This is what we need to get pregnant. I just know it's going to happen for us now!" You had hope. Well after 2 IUI's, 2 IVF's, an FET and a miscarriage I have lost that hope. And the only place I can seem to find it now is with adoption.

And it seems confusing to say that because how can I have strength and hope for adoption but not for fertility treatments? How are the headaches of the adoption process somehow worth it while trying to get pregnant is not? I really don't know why. Perhaps because the adoption is some new and exciting while fertility treatments are the same boring hassle they've always been. And let's face it, my fertility treatments are a big fucking hassle. There are only 6 Military Treatment Facilities in the US that organize IVF for military families. That's a small number of clinics for a large number of infertile couples. So alas, I have to travel to NC every time I want to get pregnant (unless I want to move my embryos to Walter Reed in D.C. which is still 7 hours away). It blows, especially because as an out-of-towner I think I tend to be forgotten about. They're a really busy clinic and its easy to get lost in the shuffle. It's the price you pay for going to a military clinic, but it does save thousands of dollars in the long run. But I digress. What were we talking about again? Oh yea, hope. I just don't seem to have any for this cycle. Maybe I'll be proven wrong but so far I've always been proven right. At any rate, this will be our last fertility treatment, even if we don't use all 5 embryos this time. Whatever embies are unused will stay frozen until after adoption. I just can't keep going through this anymore. And because this is our Last Chance FET, I'm going to pull out all the stops for it. I'll keep on with the acupuncture, start eating healthy organic food till beta (then it's Irish food after that!) and I'm going to be hitting the gym at least 3 times a week. Just because I don't have hope doesn't mean I can't make a reasonable effort to get pregnant.

Raffle Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the raffle, Ellen C.! I want to thank everyone who entered to help out the Lost Stork Foundation. The organization has big big plans in the making for National Infertility Awareness Week (April 24-30) and will announce those plans as they get firmed up.

Waiting Sucks

There's a few important things I'm waiting on in my life right now that's causing me a bit of stress. The most important one is my FET schedule. I'm due for a baseline ultrasound in less than 2 weeks, if my calculations are right. So it's a bit stressful to not have a schedule detailing all the other appointments I need. I still have to book my flight, hotel, rental car and ultrasound appointments and it's all on hold till I get that piece of paper. I'm trying not to stress about it but it's getting to me.

So let's talk about something else, shall we? The raffle for the Lost Stork Foundation ends on Saturday so please check it out and buy a ticket if you can. We haven't sold any raffle tickets so far and the end of the raffle is only two days away! Also, the LSF has moved from a Facebook group to a Facebook page so followers can get updates through their news feed instead of having to visit the group's page. Unfortunately followers of the group could not be moved to the page so please stop by and click "Like" if you would like to receive updates from the Lost Stork!

In adoption news we've got an appointment next week with my PCM to discuss substance abuse issues and their effects on babies. We just don't have enough information to make an informed decision and since it's part of our adoption questionnaire we need get more information before we can fill that section out. I specifically asked for an appointment with a pediatrician but we've got no kids so apparently that isn't an option. I was told that if my PCM doesn't know the answer to some of our questions then she can just run over to the Pediatrics Dept and ask someone. WTF. I hate Tricare sometimes.

I'm starting to get things ready for our trip to Ireland, even though it's two months away. I need to buy a power converter for our electronic stuff so that will need to be ordered soon. And I'm going to pack the things we don't plan on using between now and then, like our camera and tripod. I've also got plans to meet two blog friends on our trip, Fran from Everyone else but me and Mrs S. from Him+Me+Three?Maybe. I'm so excited! Fran lives in Dublin so it was only natural to make plans to meet her and her precious baby Oliver. But Mrs S. is also planning a trip to Ireland/London the same two weeks we're going and it just so happens that we'll be in the Galway at the same time! How cool is that? I'm so excited to be able to meet two blog friends on my upcoming vacation. I told Brandon about it and our conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hey babe, you know how we're meeting Fran when we go to Ireland? Well now we're meeting another blog friend of mine, only she's from the US and will just happen to be in Ireland at the same time!
Brandon: Really? So we're actually going to be meeting Fran?
Me: Of course we are, I just haven't hashed out the exact plans. Why do you think we wouldn't meet her?
Brandon: Because it wasn't on your itinerary.

Well played, Brandon, well played. Looks like I'll have to add my friends to my itinerary so he isn't confused anymore. Sheesh.

Shopping for a Non-existent Baby

It's bad enough that I made my first baby purchase almost a year ago and I still have no baby to show for it, but I'm starting to get that bug again. The baby shopping bug. Because now I know that one way or the other we're having a baby. Whether it's through adoption or pregnancy or visiting the Lost Kid Building at Disney World (don't judge, you know you've thought of that too!).

So I thought I would start expanding on my hedgehog-themed nursery. For those of you who don't know, I love hedgehogs. They're easily my favorite animal. I had one in college. His name was Brillo and when he was pissed off he would make a funny noise that sounded like he was brewing coffee. I need a glove to pick him up but after he unwound from his ball he was fine to hold in my hand. He wasn't the friendliest creature as he didn't appreciate being awake during the day but he was a good pet for the few short years I had him (they don't live long).
Since Brandon isn't a Disney fan at all, I couldn't choose a Pooh-themed nursery. I had been debating about whether to pick Snoopy when I discovered this bedding from the UK. I knew I had to have it so I bought it last year, just in case they discontinued it. So that's been my one baby purchase for the past year or so. Until I got the shopping bug again. So a couple weeks ago I bought this cute hedgehog pull toy. Next on my list is a little hedgehog nightlight (which isn't a true nightlight but he's a hedgehog and he lights up so that's good enough for me). And I might buy these cute storage bins though they're extremely expensive and I'm currently checking with family members to see if someone can make me a couple for cheaper than $40 each. This kid is gonna be tricked out in hedgehog stuff by the time I'm done shopping. Oh well. It keeps me busy!

ICLW Welcome & Other Random Updates

First off, I'd like to say hello to everyone stopping by for ICLW. For those of you unfamiliar with ICLW, it stands for International Commenting Leaving Week. Mel from Stirrup Queens hosts the event every month and it's a way to socialize with others in the ALI community. I encourage everyone to give it a try!

So I suppose introductions are in order. I'm Christa, author of Fearlessly Infertile. My husband and I are currently residing in CT, though we're a military family and we move alot so we're hoping to make it back to the West Coast in a couple years. Not that we hate CT (actually we do) but we really miss living in Washington. We've been married 3 1/2 years and have been trying to conceive since before then. 2 IVF's and a FET later we have one miscarriage and 5 frozen embryos to show for it, but alas no baby. So now we're in the "boring" part of FET #2...waiting for AF to show up. I'm on the last few days of Provera, just twiddling my thumbs for the moment. Transfer Day is scheduled for May 2nd. We're also researching domestic adoption and have an application on our desk ready to be filled out. But for now we're just going to prep our house for a homestudy and not really pursue anything adoption-wise until we're done with infertility treatments.

So as I wait to embark on FET #2 I decided to keep myself busy. I recently hit 200 followers (yay!) and I'm hosting an awesomely awesome raffle to benefit the Lost Stork Foundation. The LSF is a new non-profit organization that will be providing grants to infertile and adoptive couples. It's in its infancy so they're not accepting applications yet but they're trying to build their grant fund and could use your help! Because I'm a sucker for a good cause I put together an anti-stress gift set to raffle off this week.

Check out the detailed info here and please please please donate if you can. We all know how much infertility and adoption can cost and we have a great new organization that wants to help our community. But first they need our help, not just by spreading the word but by opening our pocketbooks. And considering a $1 ticket is less than the cost of a cup of coffee, it won't break anyone's bank. So please enter the raffle if you can! Entires are accepted through Saturday March 26th and the winner will be announced the next day.

In other news, I copped out on the 5K run this weekend, the one where I only had 8 measly days to prepare. I didn't see the point in paying $60 for me and Brandon to attend when I knew I'd be walking the whole time. I wanted more of a challenge than that. And I think I'm on the verge of giving up on my weight loss quest (for the record I weighed in at 198.6 this morning, but who's counting). With everything else that's going on right now I just don't have time to hit the gym or the track. Our gym membership expires in May and we're probably not going to renew it. That $55 a month can be utilized somewhere else in our budget (mainly for adoption). It will suck having to drive 30 minutes to the gym on base but at least we have a free resource (even if they have no air conditioning and it gets really hot in the summer). And I can diet on my own and save another $18 a month by dumping the Weight Watchers Online account. So I'm weighing my options on that (pardon the pun).

And raise your hand if you noticed that I now have less than 60 days till Ireland!!!!! For my ICLW visitors who don't know, my husband and I are going to Ireland in mid-May, right after our FET. I'll know before we leave whether I'm preggo but I won't get my first ultrasound till after we get back. I'm so so very excited to be going and I hope I get to meet some blog friends while I'm there!

Well that's it for the updates. I hope everyone enjoys their visit to my little corner of the blog world and feel free to stop by and say hello every now and then!

200 Followers and a Raffle for a Good Cause!

Hooray! I'm just a couple months shy of my 2-year blogoversary and I finally hit 200 followers! Usually I host a giveaway for events like these but this calls for something a little more special. Therefore I've decided to host a raffle to benefit the Lost Stork Foundation! For those of you who don't know, the LSF is a new non-profit organization that will be providing financial assistance for couples pursuing infertility treatments or adoption (including domestic, international, embryo adoption and surrogacy). It's an awesome organization that hopefully (in the very near future) I can start helping out with on a regular basis. But more on that later. Let's get to the good stuff!

I knew this raffle had to be epic. It couldn't just be a little gift I picked out because that just wouldn't do my readers or the LSF justice. So I scoured the stores for the perfect things to make up this raffle. In the end I decided on a relaxing "anti-stress" themed gift set with some seriously awesome stuff. In fact I might have to go back and buy myself a few of these things (but don't tell Brandon that). So without further ado....the gift set!


The items in this gift set include one of each of the following:
-An EarthTherapeutics Anti-Stress Microwaveable Comfort Wrap (say that 3 times fast) with the scent of lavender and chamomile
-EarthTherapeutics Anti-Stress aromatherapy bath beads (also lavender and chamomile)
-An EarthTherapeutics Holistic Stress Management Aromatherapy Set, including a cooling beauty mask, pulse point cream for the temples, neck and forehead, an anti-stress pillow mist and anti-stress massage soap
-A Bamboo and Jasmine reed diffuser set by Chesapeake Bay Candle (which smells absolutely divine and comes with a pretty ceramic vase)

*Actual Retail Value of this gift set: $58

Because this is my first time hosting a raffle (let alone an online one) it's going to be a bit simplified. Raffle "tickets" will be sold for $1 each, or 6 "tickets" for $5. In order to enter the raffle, please send payment via Paypal to my email address, cvpis4me@yahoo.com and note that this payment is for the LSF Raffle. I will add your name to a spreadsheet with one entry for each ticket you buy, much like the way I do things for giveaways. At the end of the raffle period I will draw a "ticket" via Random.org and announce here. ALL raffle donations will go to benefit the LSF, not just the proceeds. If you would rather make a payment directly to the LSF you may do so via their website. The winner will be contacted via email so please leave your email address as well.

The raffle will begin on Sunday March 20th and will continue until midnight EST on Saturday March 26th. Until then please help to spread the word and I hope that we're able to raise lots of money to benefit this wonderful cause!! I'm very excited about this raffle and about the future of the Lost Stork Foundation!

I Have Issues

I know I'm not the only person with this problem but I have serious food touching issues. It started as a young adult and has progressively gotten worse over the past few years. I just can't stand to have my food touching each other. My reasoning is simple and logical: I want to taste whatever I'm putting in my mouth and nothing else. If I'm digging into a serving of mashed potatoes I want to taste mashed potatoes, not corn or the juice running off of my green beans. It just creeps me out. And as my obsession got worse I developed a system for what's allowed to touch and what isn't.

For example, if you cook peas in a pot and carrots in a pot, they can't touch on the plate. But if you cook them in the same pot then obviously they can touch on the plate because they were cooked together, as one dish. But the foods that are cooked/served together have to "naturally" go together in order for the food-touching to be okay. You like putting pears or apples in with your salad? No thank you! I'd rather have a salad and then eat a pear. It's just not natural to me to have the two in my mouth at the same time. Things like peanut butter and jelly are okay because to me, it's "natural" for them to go together. But my husband, who likes mac and cheese with hot dogs mixed in, is a freak of nature (look at the pot calling the kettle black!). And let's not talk about those KFC bowls or those bags of Dorito's with two flavors of chips in the same bag. Barf.

One of the exceptions is foreign food. In Peru I didn't really have any issues with food touching because 1) if I didn't eat it I went hungry and 2) I didn't really know whether it was supposed to touch or not, because I didn't know what it was. One dish, lomo saltado, did bother me a bit but turned out to be one of my favorite foods. It's like beef stir fry with french fries. Weird, but pretty good. So I hope that Ireland will be the same and I'll stop being a picky eater for those two weeks.

But not today. You see, today I went to Subway for dinner because Brandon had to work late. And the March $5 footlong special was Meatball Pepperoni. Now I like pepperoni, and I almost always get a meatball sub when I go to Subway but I just didn't feel comfortable with those two foods touching. So I asked the Subway guy to please put my pepperoni on the side. He went one step further and put it in a little bag for me, all without batting an eyelash. Now I'm eating my sub and later I'll have my pepperoni slices.

My obsession knows no bounds.

A Prayer for Miracles

Dear God,
I know you're busy up there so instead of getting on my knees and praying I thought I would type this out and send it to your inbox for you to read when you get the chance.

I know you know that I've got this FET coming up so I would really really appreciate if you could get me pregnant this round. If not, then the next round perhaps. And if not that, then can I win the lottery so we can adopt?

Cause I know you know how much I hate my job right now and I know you know I want to quit (like yesterday). And the only reason I'm working this crummy job is to save up for adoption. So please use your Godly powers to make it so that I don't have to work at this job much longer, while also using those powers to bring me a baby for my own, in whatever way you see fit.

You're the best.


P.S. -- Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Random Updates

Well, FET #2 has officially started. I didn't get my period on Sunday (of course) so I started taking Provera. I hope to get my schedule for everything this week but I already talked to Nurse D and my FET is scheduled for Monday, May 2nd. That means that I will know if I'm pregnant before flying off to Ireland but unfortunately my first ultrasound will have to wait until after the trip.

I think I'm going to start writing articles again for A/C. My Article list is a bit short at the moment, though I did remove all the non-fertility related ones from my blogs. I'm currently working on two articles right now, both are related to adoption. One will be a compilation of sources for adoption fundraising and one will be similar to this article (my most popular one) and will discuss adoption grants. But because there are so many adoption grants out there my list will be narrowed down to grants that 1) don't require couples to be a certain religion and 2) apply to adopting all children, regardless of race, age, or special needs status. That article is turning out to be a little harder than I thought, as there really aren't that many grants out there that fit that criteria. I'll be lucky if I find 10 for my article (I think so far I have 8). So I hope to have my adoption fundraising article done in the next couple weeks and the second article will be done in April.

I think when I reach 200 followers (only 1 follower to go!) I won't hold a giveaway. I think this time I'll hold a gift basket raffle, with the proceeds going to The Lost Stork Foundation. So I could use some suggestions for what to include in my gift basket. My next true giveaway will be something from Ireland (63 more days!).

I think there was another update I wanted to put on here but my mind has gone blank and I'm running late for work. Ciao!

What a Crummy Day

First off, I'm sorry I got everyone's hopes up this morning, posting a picture of a pregnancy test that I obviously thought was positive only to find out I read the fucking test wrong. Not to mention I drove an hour out of my way to get a beta because of said pregnancy test. I feel like a complete and total idiot, and I'm a little pissed and disappointed to boot.

So I figured I need to let off some steam and practice for this week's 5K run. Brandon and I headed to the track, which I haven't been to one since high school. It was an EPIC FAIL. I got one lap in (1/4 mile) before having to quit. Running works out muscles I've apparently never used before. My shins and the bottoms of my feet were killing me, even though I wasn't pounding the pavement very hard! It wasn't running and it wasn't jogging, it was more of a fatty shuffle and yet my legs were still not happy with this new exercise. I'll go back tomorrow and try again, only I'll walk the first lap for a warm-up and then start jogging, or fatty shuffling, whichever I feel comfortable doing. Hopefully I'll get two straight laps of jogging in and then switch to another lap of walking. That would be one mile. Then all I have to do is do that 3.5 times on Saturday and I'm golden.

After our "run", Brandon and I went to the grocery store where I got this cereal just because I like the box. The fact that it's gluten free is kinda nice, though I've never tried the gluten-free thing for fertility.

66 more days!

God Help Me

Remember when I said I was going to get into running and my first relay "marathon" was a 1/4 mile Beer Run? Well scratch that. Apparently the Beer Run is only for local restaurant employees, which we didn't find out until today when we went to go register for the event. So my co-workers are just going to do the 5K. Easy for them since they've done it a million times before. Not so easy for me, considering I only have 8 days to prepare myself to run 3.5 miles instead of just .25 miles. At least I don't have to carry a tray of beer.

God help me.

Life is Boring

I suppose I owe you guys an update of sorts, yet there isn't much to talk about, at least not much that I feel like talking about right now. I'm still seeing my acupuncturist once a week, though I'm not sure if I like her. On our first visit I had to sit there and give her my entire menstrual history, starting from my first period. By the time I got to IVF #1, she was giving me this most sorrowful look, as though I had told her I had terminal cancer. Hold the tears, lady, the story ain't over yet. Now during every visit she's asking me how I'm feeling and insists on giving me a hug every time I see her, along with her sorrowful looks. It's a nice gesture once or twice but she's overkill.

We decided not to do the clinical trial. It's not completely free, we would still be on the hook for anesthesia during retrieval ($800) and meds (though I'm not sure if Tricare would pay for those). It's just Estrace and Endometrin, which they paid for during my IVF cycles. It would have been an easy cycle to do, no injections to take (not even Lupron), no daily ultrasound visits (I think they only wanted to do two) but we're really over the whole fertility treatments right now. Maybe in five years we'll revisit the idea but for now we're just going to finish up these FET's and be done with it. Our priority now is to be parents, we could care less about getting pregnant.

On the adoption front we paid the $200 pre-application fee and got our Big Packet in the mail. We read through everything but we're not ready to start chipping away at the paperwork yet. For now we're going to focus on little stuff, selling a few things on Craigslist and eBay, painting the future nursery, and then when we get back from Ireland we'll start scheduling our homestudy and all that.

Speaking of Ireland, 69 more days! After doing more research on our trip (cause you can never do too much research!) I kinda had my heart set on visiting Skellig Michael to see some puffins. I love saying that word...puffin. I smile every time I do. But I digress. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to fit the puffin (*smile*) trip into our schedule so we're going fishing in Dingle instead. I love fishing!

And there's no way I can tie fishing into this next subject but I just felt like I needed a little FB rant. I have a friend from high school who just got married in March of last year. His wife had a little girl in September (don't bother doing the math, she was 3 months along) and his status update today said "IT'S A BOY!!!!" What.the.fuck. Don't you have to be like 4 months along to find out the sex? So that means her baby was like 8 weeks old when she got knocked up again? It never ceases to amaze me how easily some people can procreate as I sit here barren as a wasteland. Le sigh.

Helping Out

sThis post is a shout out for the Lost Stork Foundation, an up-and-coming non-profit organization that will be providing grants for infertility treatments, adoption and surrogacy. This organization was started by Meghan Swann, a fellow infertile and new mom. I know many of my readers have infertility issues and those issues can be expensive. Really REALLY expensive, especially if you don't have insurance coverage for those treatments. Adoption, whether it be domestic, international or embryo adoption, can be even more expensive. That's why it's so important to show support for organizations that are trying to help people like us out.

Unfortunately the LSF has been unable to start accepting grant applications because they haven't gotten enough funds to provide grants yet. Last fall they started selling cookbooks as a fundraiser but they still have many more to sell before they can start handing out grants. As I said before, infertility and adoption can be expensive but if you have the money, please purchase a cookbook from the LSF. I bought one last fall. They have a huge selection of recipes (263 I believe) that were contributed from families all over the world. Cookbooks are only $10 plus shipping. Buy a few and give them away as gifts or host a giveaway on your blog for a free cookbook.
Even if you don't have the money to purchase a cookbook right now, get the word out! Follow her blog or Facebook page, grab her button and put it on your blog, or write a post to let your followers know that there is a resource out there that is willing to help our community. And trust me, those resources are hard to come by. But without support from us and others this organization can't help us and I would hate to see that happen. So shout it out to the world, buy a cookbook, or make a donation. Every little bit helps, it really does.

WW Weigh In Week 13

What a crappy week. For some reason I had no desire to stick to my diet but I did manage to make it to the gym. But this morning I logged a gain at 198.8 lbs. Bummer. I was supposed to go running yesterday but wasn't feeling great and today I'm still feeling a bit nauseous and I don't really have an appetite for anything so I might skip the workout again. I hope I'm not getting sick. Brandon has been sick for the past week but it's been in his sinuses and I seem to have a stomach bug. I just hope it goes away soon or my goal of reaching 190 lbs by my next FET will not be coming true.

I decided that I'm going to start running in the hopes that I'll be able to complete my first 5K in the next few months. I have a few co-workers who really like running and they talked me into joining my first relay "marathon". My leg of the "marathon" is just 1/4 mile so it should be easy but it won't be. You see, that's because this relay is for St Patrick's Day which involves beer. So though I'm only going to be running 1/4 mile, I have to do it while carrying a tray of beer. The total run is 1 mile and the team with the shortest time and the most amount of beer left in the glasses wins. And by glasses I seriously hope they mean plastic cups. I guess we'll have to see. The Beer Run takes place on Saturday March 19th so I have to start running soon to get ready for it. I think the last time I ran on track for a long period of time was in high school. I usually don't run on the treadmill, I prefer the elliptical trainer so I need get on the track soon to get a feel for it. Wish me luck!

On a side note, I got my hair done yesterday at a salon that my co-worker recommended. I had the perfect stylist in WA but couldn't find a good one out here that could replicate the cut that she would give me. So I decided to give this guy a shot. I was told he wasn't cheap but for a good cut, I was willing to pay. So I walk into the salon dressed like a bum in a sweatshirt in jeans and laid my eyes on the hottest guy ever. No wonder it takes a month to get in for an appointment! I couldn't tell if McSteamy was gay or just really really really metro but I didn't give a shit. I had eye candy for the next hour and a half. He did a really good job on my hair, though he left my layers a little short and they sometimes fall out of my ponytail. But he gave me the exact cut I was looking for and I left very happy. I see him again in May right before our trip. Of course Brandon doesn't like that I was checking him out, even if he was gay. But ladies, this guy was smokin' hot, how could I not look at him? Brandon fumed for a bit but eventually got over it. And he likes my hairstyle too so everybody's happy.

I can't wait till May!