I am the hugest chicken when it comes to the dentist. I even get the nitrous to have my teeth cleaned! Leave it to an orthodontist who never should have been working with children, and then you get someone like me, terrified, even at 35!

Through the grapevine, when my beloved dentist retired, I had to find another kind and gentle dentist who would be ultrasensitive to my needs. And I found her! The downside, she doesn't offer nitrous at her office. Now I was really in a dilemma. Stay with her and handle my anxiety, or go to someone with less understanding,... more

Once again, upon signing online this morning, my opening page had a link to the following website and article, which lead to the next article as the cycle goes. And now, I pass them along to you.

Here is the introduction from www.thatsfit.com:

Menopausal changes due to a woman's relationships, not hormones Posted: Oct 26th 2006 1:23PM by Brian White Filed under: Women's Health

As many women approach menopause, it's long been thought that hormonal changes start affecting sex lives at roughly the same time. But, according to a new set of studies by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, a woman's... more

Hello! I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloweeen, but thought that I would be too obvious in repeating everyone else's wishes in the Title line, so I decided to add a little mystery. If your brain isn't working to it's peak on this crazy day, HH and H x 2 is for "Happy Halloween"

It isn't even afternoon and we have been enjoying the festivities to the max around this joint. I dressed up as a skater girl, which was pretty easy as that is kind of how I dress anyway. I've been telling everyone that I'm Pharrell's girlfriend! And if you don't... more

Who says that you have to be pregnant to create a body-image piece of art? Not the people at soul food cafe, that's for sure. In this exercise, they are encouraging students to think about armor. I can't think of one time in my life when I needed some heavy duty armor than during my infertile times. One of my good friends and artistic creativity coach sent me this page, because she knew that I would "get it". And I do. I have a belly cast from Ivy hanging on our bedroom wall. I love this idea with the mannequin, but I think that it would freak me out having it in my... more

I know how difficult it can be keeping your marriage sane during the trials of infertility. I remember our communication hitting a stand still while I was only crying to convey my emotions, with Chris just being silent in disbelief, I'm sure, wondering if I would ever get better. There are a lot of memories that I don't recall from that time, but one thing that I do remember is that towards the end of my intensive mourning, I was thinking that in reaching out and grasping for a child, I was letting go of my marriage.

Thankfully, it never came down to a choice between the two. And, as you know, we are still together. But times were rocky here and there. It is really scary to think... more

Before Bec came home, Chris and I had a lot of talks about how we would react when people questioned our relationship with our son. We had thought that we would be confronted with "supermarket gawkers" or worse, people who would come right up to us and want to know where his "real" parents were. Now, this last scenario was on the far end of reality but we wanted to be prepared for the worst, or so we thought.

I just got back from a walk with Bec, heading to our neighborhood video store. We met a lot of people along the way that were also enjoying the super mellow weather and the bright sun. We also saw a lot of people that we didn't know, including a woman who tracked me down to... more

I am on pins and needles and have been ever since I found out that a friend of mine is pregnant for the first time after years of infertility and infertility treatments. In fact, when I found out about the pregnancy from another friend, I told her, "I'm going to be worried until the baby gets here." I am always asking for updates, and tentative to actually think about the reality of it. I am so happy. I am so worried.

I went back over to www.beliefnet.com and found the following prayers that I can adjust to use for praying for my friend. At least now my worries will have some action to them.

Prayer for an Expectant Mother... more

When I signed on to AOL this morning this was the photo that I saw. My heart melted. I remember the first time that I saw Lourdes in a photo shoot, with her curls and almost black eyes. I remember seeing Rocco being held by his mommy coming out from the family wedding. And now this photo of mommy, sister, brother and David. Tenderness and good wishes for this family flooded my brain.

I replied to a previous Madonna post last week on this site. Actually "coming out" as a huge Madonna fan, with my adoration starting way back with my... more

I apologize for the sorry state of the image that I had to scan and then alter to get to fit into our format. I tried to find a jpeg image from different websites but I wasn't able to find one. So, you're at least stuck with a partial, grainy image instead of having me describe it to you.

I came across this ad for Clearblue Easy Digital Ovulation Test. You might not be able to see all of the words, but it goes like this.

How to use: CLEARBLUE EASY DIGITAL OVULATION TEST

1: It works like... more

The influx of catalogs has begun to arrive in my mailbox. Catalogs like Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and Williams Sonoma go straight to Chris' mail pile as I can't stand to see how expensive most things are and he loves to envision a life that could afford those items.. All of the other catalogs go into a pile for me and I do read most of them before tossing them into recycling. Titles like Colorful Images, Hannah Anderson (pricey but worth it), Lilian Vernon and the Right Start are... more