Cycle update and a couple stories - updated

Well, I'm back for a second time today. See, what is happening lately is that my laptop is on the fritz and so I am forced to blog from our apple desktop in our office. The problem is that the desk chair is awesome. We bought it so I could comfortably edit my movie, and now I comfortably check blogs, email and facebook for hours. It's just too nice to get up. So, I am back with another post.

I need to get something out of the way first. Remember this? Well, I have officially decided not to chart it. Yes. That may surprise you, but I feel good about it. Why? Well, first off, it was a miniscule amount. It was hardly a light tan discoloration. Second, it was combined with 6PC (pastey, cloudy) non-fertile mucus. I'm not sure why I am using that to support my argument, but I am! Third, it was a one-time occurrence. The rest of the day was completely dry and free of any color. 

Perhaps it should be charted, but for my sanity, it will not be. What can one little green sticker hurt? My doctor doesn't pour over my chart anyway. He considers it, but he won't even be looking at it for several months. Probably five to eight (the countdown is on).

So, that being said...I am on cycle day nine. I charted five red stickers, and now four green stickers in a row. As I said, on Monday morning (infamous Monday morning), I saw 6PC; on Tuesday I charted 2AD, and tonight I will chart 6PC x__ (at least if nothing changes between now and then). 

This is great news, even if Monday morning is taken into consideration. It hopefully will mean that my mucus won't last for as many days as it did last month. I cannot tell you the last time I had four dry days between my period and my mucus. I usually go right from red to white stickers, so this is definitely a change. Something's going on, that's for sure!

I can tell that I'll probably see some fertile mucus tomorrow, day 10, and if it lasts for six to eight days, that would be great. I've been "ovulating" (I don't think I will be able to write that without quotation marks until after I have conceived) around days 17 and 18 (with a few exceptions) for a little while now, so that will probably happen again this cycle. (Not to create more problems, but is that less than ideal? How close to the "textbook" day 14 ovulation should we realistically be, or is that a myth?)

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Now for the ring story. First, you should quickly go back here and read numbers 8 and 9.

Okay. So due to my weight loss, my engagement and wedding ring were too big. I hardly wore them at home and would put them on just when going out. I was always afraid they'd fly off or fall down a drain. So, I decided to have them resized and we took them to a jewelry store on Tuesday where my sister-in-law used to work, since we were visiting my in-laws. One of the employees took them from me and brought them to another room to give to the jeweler. A few minutes later, the jeweler came out, looking concerned. 

It turns out my "platinum" wedding band is actually white gold. That would be fine, of course, if we had asked for white gold and paid for white gold, but we didn't.

So on top of the band being white gold, he also told me the little diamonds (not sure what it's called, but it basically looks like this) on both rings are very poor quality and were not set correctly (this is obvious if you look closely...it looks like whoever made it was working on their first ring EVER), and that is causing them to chip away at each other, which could result in them falling out (it actually happened once shortly after we were married). I should have made a fuss years ago, before the jeweler went to jail and everything, but that's not how I am. I've never been good at speaking up. 

So this jeweler was really nice and was really worried I'd be very upset, but I assured him I wasn't. I actually felt relieved. I had always suspected it was white gold, since it was turning a different color from my engagement ring. And then there's that little part about the jeweler we bought it from going to prison. Nothing really shocks you after that happens. 

I was relieved, but the more I thought about it I started wanting new rings. I felt like my rings were a constant reminder that we were taken for a ride, and that I'd hate knowing how poorly made the are. We decided we'd start saving up, and I'd get an affordable, simple, diamond-free band and engagement ring setting (purposefully in white gold this time) by our next anniversary. After all, my diamond (which was my grandmother's) is the important part anyway. 

Then we picked up my rings that evening and they looked great. All clean and polished, and fitting my finger. I decided no one has any idea that they're poorly made except for us (and all of you now!) and who cares anyway? Of all the problems I have in my life, worrying about my rings shouldn't be one of them. And of all the things we need to save up for, new replacement bands should not be on the list. 

And no matter how crappy they may look to a knowledgeable jeweler, they are still worth a lot of money. How crappy would that be of me to just toss them aside? Millions of people in the world don't even have enough food to eat, yet my diamond wedding band isn't good enough for me?  It just doesn't seem right.

It also helped that they told me how big my diamond is (we never knew, since it was a family heirloom) and let's just say it's a pretty good size. That helped to take some of the sting away!

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I just wanted to share one more quick story with you, for what it's worth. 

I was having an incredibly hard time opening a 2-liter of soda tonight. It had already been open, but Ryan must have really put the top back on tight. I tried like twenty times to get it off, my hand was getting red and I'm sure it was close to bleeding (yes, I really wanted that coke zero). I was getting frustrated, to say the least. 

I knew I needed to stop, step back, and pray. So I did. I prayed, I asked God to help me open the soda, and I had faith that he would. OF COURSE, I got it on the very next try. 

Before you tell yourself I had just loosened it the previous twenty tries, I do not believe that was the case. I cannot describe to you how tight it was on there. Crazy tight. And even if I had loosened it on that last try before praying, that would have made for one HUGE coincidence, and after all, there are no coincidences with God!

So a few things that could be learned from this experience: 1) we can try all we want on our own, but until turn it over to God, nothing will budge; 2) have faith when you ask God for help, because everything is possible through him (even twisting off impossibly tight caps); and, 3) remind your husband that you aren't as strong as him, and you may need to open the soda when he's not home.

Anyways, just wanted to share that with you. Not sure if that was God himself teaching me a little mini-lesson, but I'd like to think so. 

Updated - So Jeremiah 29:11 suggested a photo of my rings, so here it is: 

Don't my hands look like that of a 60-year-old? Maybe I need to start moisturizing.

And while I'm posting pictures, here's one of Sophie in her new lady bug costume: 

What a look she's giving me! And she likes dressing up, it's the posing for pictures she's not crazy about. A friend of ours found this at Target after Halloween for $ .99 and got it for her. Now that's a sale!