Those bitches

Can I just say how much I hate women how announce pregnancies super early? Yes, it's all jealousy. Every ounce of my hatred right now is jealousy. Some random person that I knew in high school just announced her 7 week pregnancy and included a healthy looking ultrasound. What the hell, cow!? I just want the world to stop being happy for a second and let life suck... and all for ME.

Furthermore, why do I make Facebook friends with people I knew 15 years ago and have nothing to do with now? I think I need a Facebook cleanse like I need my tubes flushed.

What the doc says is always true

So having two miscarriages isn't suppose to mean anything. I guess it's when you have three. On a lighter note, I can drink on our trip to Mesa Verde with the boys! Having a kid is much better than having a bottle of Merlot, for sure. Nothing has been changed, still on progesterone pills to extend the luteal phase. Still charting. Still doing the morning routine (which I hate).

If people think I'm joking about having a blow-out party at the one year mark, I'm not. This summer people... this summer!

Please Mr. Stork, remember my address this summer. I don't want to spend money on a huge party; I want to spend money on a child.

Another Miscarriage

After yesterday, this morning reminded me of how hard it is to conceive. Yet another miscarriage. On to July, I suppose.

Since no one is reading...

We just found out we are pregnant... again. We miscarried in March and are now pregnant the second time. The doctor gave me a hormone prescription so we are hoping the fetus will attach and make it. Since I'm spilling the beans, I have a short luteal phase which makes getting pregnant very hard. With a hormone treatment, we're suppose to make it to the second trimester. After the first is over, I should be able to carry the baby to full-term. *fingers crossed* Needless to say, we aren't telling people (blogging is okay b/c I never tell people to read it; it's more for me) because our excitement is different. When you try for so long and have issues, you don't assume it's going to work out and you don't run to announce it to the world. I am primarily blogging this b/c if the pregnancy does work out and people take an interest, this will be something to read. WE FOUND OUT WE ARE PREGNANT AGAIN.

Now, next week I am suppose to get an early ultrasound to check the implantation and a possible heartbeat. Again, hoping for the best but completely aware of the worse. Those who conceive easily are typically just happy at this moment. Greg and I are a bit scared. If you are reading this and have had a hard time getting pregnant, I hope it works out for you just as I hope it works out for us.

Hopefully my next blog will be sharing the good news of the ultrasound.

I'm a bad blogger

With the help of Greg, I think I'm finally coming to terms with not having children. After spending most of my 20's not wanting children, I didn't think infertility would bother me. The one year mark is approaching and I do know what that means, as does Greg. He doesn't voice his disappointment like I do. Sometimes I hate this because it makes me feel very alone. Greg just keeps telling me all the good things we could do in life if we don't have children.

After looking at our options (adoption, tests, etc.) it doesn't appear that having children will be part of our life together. We can't afford adoption and even if we could afford the tests, IUI, IVF... I don't know if we'd do them.

We are blessed in so many ways. We live in our dream neighborhood, I work in the best district in the state, Greg hasn't had any secondary health problems from UC, and our dogs are great pups. I just hope I'm not focusing on what is good to compensate for what I am missing. Soon it catches up to you and it can be more devastating.

My doctors have been telling me stories, some are their own stories, of it taking a longer time to have the first child. I guess there is some comfort in that.

I am not good at blogging and I don't know if anyone follows this. Seems like people only follow your blog if you have children or have a family that consists of more than you, your spouse, and a few dogs. I suppose a DINK's life is pretty boring, and I can't blame them.

I must collect myself and go to work.

If I hear the phrase "baby dance" one more time...!

It's been months now and for those of you counting, seven. No blasted positive. No rise in BBT (google that one). Went to the doctor and will undergo some testing in March. Might be endometriosis. Might be tight fallopian tubes. Might be, might be. I asked Greg how much money we want to put into all this. We have no idea. Don't tell me the cliche, "It will happen" because quite frankly - it might not.

Sure, we thought we might NOT have kids when we first married. The idea of being a couple without kids, free to travel or whatever was very tempting. But, to make the decision to try and have no control over the outcome is what really pisses me off. I suppose the anger is that my choice has been taken away. Or so it seems.

Cheesy Ass "Baby Dust"

Greg and I started trying to have a baby this August. Well, we stopped using contraceptives in August. An entire world of acronyms and shit about "dust" has been downloaded into my vocabulary. Greg was sweet and purchased the book What to Expect When You're Trying. It was very nice and I did read the entire book, although Greg loves to remind me of the details I can't remember. Damn his ability to retrieve such trivial facts. Is there a future on Jeopardy! perhaps?

At any rate, I'm really tired of the stress and worry of, "are we pregnant?" and it's only the third month of trying. I'm even more tired of the new term for the anxiety of trying to get PG ("pregnant" that's a duh one). Cheesy ass "baby dust." What bored, lame, naive chick thought of that one? The real feather-in-the-cap of the entire experience is my sudden irregularity when it's been clock work since age 11. I'm blaming that on the stress of TTC ("trying to conceive" for those outside of the baby dust crap acronyms).

Now that you all know of my regularity and age of menstruation onset, I'm done sharing. TTC is a PIMA ("pain in my ass" I just made that one up).

Cute Picture!

Our Last Trip

We went to Bear Lake with our neighbor friends Greg and Lance. It was a lot of fun but we were disappointed in the condo situation. The owners of the condo above us let their child and his bro-hood friends stay there. Did I mention there was a huge dog which we had to hear the owner be an ass to?

The neighbors seemed to enjoy staying out late, coming home in the early hours of the morning and continuing to party. Between both nights, I might have had eight hours of sleep. The real feather-in-the-cap was checking out. The managers weren't at all surprised to hear our complaints, in fact, everyone complains about the neighbors. NOW I'M MAD THAT I WASN'T INFORMED OF THIS BEFORE I BOOKED THE PLACE! Jerks.

Can it really be this easy?

Suddenly, I feel spoiled. After six years of scraping my way into a teaching post in a district, I find myself with so many resources that I don't know where to begin.

In the previous four years at the Salt Lake Arts Academy there were many projects. I'll always remember the students running with their heads down, staring at a dirty bowl of paint water, making sure to not spill on the way to the bathroom sink... where is the justice now that I have a sink in my room but no requirements to do art projects?

There was also vandalism in the bathroom (as expected) so students were not allowed to use the restrooms during class, even to obtain a drink from the fountain. Now, I have a water fountain in my room.

With charter school budget restraints, I never had classroom textbooks. Not only do I have textbooks, but many other units, primary sources, and my very own class sets of novelssssssssssssssss (yes, plural).

My projector at the Arts Academy was at least 15 years-old. What made matters worse, when I ran out of copies to use on the fancy copier for overheads, I had to hand write the sheets on the blank overhead pages. Now, I have an LCD projector. For real?!

Did I mention that I don't have to write curricula?

Now for Sandcastle Academy... half the time I was there, my computer didn't work. I would come in about two hours early and use my coworker's computer. Not only do I have my own computer, I have resources on the district website to use!

While Sandcastle had a good supply of teacher furniture, at the Arts Academy I purchased many of my shelves, books, and class supplies. In the Salt Lake District, I was brought into a room of furniture and told, "pick what you need."

Let's not forget the curricula part.

I'll always love the Arts Academy and Sandcastle. Great schools, great faculties, great admins. Perhaps "roughing it" made me a better-old-school teacher... but man, do I LOVE working for a district already!

Summer 2009

It's been almost a year since I've posted on this blog... I'm sure no one has been following. After spending last summer remodeling and planning a wedding, we decided to spend this summer doing "fun stuff." As we have discovered, when you over plan, it's not that much relaxing. Below is a our summer in review:

OUR TRIPS

June...

...16th & 17th - Escalante, Bryce, and Zion's. We took Annabell with us and this didn't work out well as Zion's is very strict about NO DOGS on any trails. It was torture being so close to the trails we love but unable to hike. Next time, no dogs on trips to Zion's National Park. It rained one night and day we were camping and we learned this would be a trend for us the entire summer!



...30th - Adoption of Eleanor. After trying two previous times, we finally adopted a dog that really fits our home. She is a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua mix and elderly. She was adopted through Second Chance for Homeless Pets. Eleanor is manic - either really hyper or really lazy. Neither her nor Annabell have desire to be alpha... so we're still working on placing Annabell alpha.



July...

...4th - BBQ and fireworks show from Sugar House Park. This was a fun event! The highlight being the end of the show when thousands were leaving the park, walking down our street. It was like a parade that included Michael Jackson music blaring from our window and friends trying to get strangers to dance as they passed. Some did.



...8th - 11th - Wenatchee, WA. We spent a few nights and days with friends and family. I got to spend time with my nephew, Silas, whom I didn't know well. What a sweet boy. We had fun in the pool with Silas and my niece Ivy. I can't believe how tall she is! It was also really fun to spend time with my sister Kristin.



...12th - 14th - Lake Chelan, WA. Although we had planned on three nights camping at the lake, we decided to leave one day and night early as Greg was anxious to get back home to SLC. Lake Chelan was beautiful, as always, but as usual it rained one day and night we were there.



...20th - 23rd - Grand Canyon and Navajo Lake. Unfortunately we forgot to pack our camera for this trip. We purchased a disposable camera on the way into the park but I am not motivated to scanned pictures to put on this blog. What a trip to forget your camera! The Grand Canyon was amazing. We hiked the Kaibab trail and walked part of the Rim Trail. As normal for us, it rained during the day and night we were there. This was helpful, as the temperature was never over 85. On the drive home, we camped overnight at Navajo Lake in Dixie National Forest. It's more of a fishing lake than anything, but very pretty. We didn't bring the dogs on this trip and it was worth it even if we missed them greatly.

STILL TO COME - July 30th - Aug. 2nd - Bear Lake. After camping so much, we booked a condo with some friends. We are also not bringing the dogs again. This is our last outing for summer 2009.

KATE'S NEW JOB

I'll be working in the Salt Lake District teaching at Clayton Middle School. Similar to my last job, I'll be teaching English and History. The school is walking distance to our house and I'll be able to ride a bike (except during the crappy winter!).

GREG'S NEW JOB

Greg works for Tooele County School District and his previous school transferred him to another junior high with the shifting of students due to another school opening. He's happy to leave some lazy, moody teachers behind but sad to transfer schools. I've seen his new school, Tooele Junior High, and the building is completely vintage with tiled walls in the halls. It's pretty sweet... although that's pretty much all I know about the school.

THE END

In conclusion, even though this summer has been a blast, we are both anxious to get back into the groove of working. Greg and I may be in love and best friends, but it's time to have our days apart and mold some minds.

Halloween in the Hood

This was our first Halloween in the new neighborhood. We had a lot of kids, most of which came in minivans from other places. We even had a little kid steal one of our decorations on the front porch. Since Greg loves Halloween, we went all out in handing out candy. When we opened the door, we were fully dressed in our Star Wars costumes and had "The Imperial March" playing. It was great. One kid thought my mask blinded me and swiped a skull from our porch right in front of me. Jerk.

Intergalactic Family!

Gutter Slutters

We need gutters around the house. There is some wood rot forming. Not good. The process of remodeling our basement has shown us how much neighborhoods can change what should be a fair estimate. One of our plumbing estimates for the bathroom included MOVING the already set toilet... it reached $6,000. Whatever, dude.

There are gutter sluts out there; they only wish to extort money from you and you should hate them. We did some research and estimated our gutters would be about $500, including labor. One bid, a company who also can't take the hint and calls at least twice a day, put a $800 price tag on the project. When I finally found a company who didn't ask for my address first, their estimate was the closing bid, $400. The salesperson admitted that companies have prices for different neighborhoods.

Have you seen my street? Have you met my neighbors? I haven't met one who is particularly wealthy. It's madness. Remember this - gutter sluts. They are out there and they only wish to molest your budget.

Boo on Rock Port State Park, Hurray for Hyundais!

Greg and I needed some camping time away from the house. Okay, so it was mostly me who needed the time away. I was about to go insane with the endless projects in the basement. (Thank god the upstairs isn't a mess!) Being from central Washington, I associate camping with swimming. The Columbia river looks like a lake and there are endless camp sites that allow you to camp and swim. Not to mention Lake Chelan with it's glacier fed, crystal clear waters that are very refreshing on a hot summer day. YES - Washington state gets hot. NO - it doesn't rain a lot in central Washington. It's a desert.

Greg tried very hard to get us a camp site on a water source, so we packed up and headed to Rock Port. Not only did Greg pay $20 and not get his $10 change, but our site had become a parking lot for two huge vehicles. Death to Tahoes and diesel, white, extended vans!!! I know they are hard to park but placing them in another camp site = I hate them.

We drove back to get our refund, which wasn't really a refund with the incorrect change, and decided to bag the whole "let's camp on water" idea. As we made the drive to our usual campgrounds, Oak Hollow in Midway, we passed endless 350 trucks, Tahoes, and Escalates pulling boats, knowing they were headed to Rock Port. What made me get increasingly annoyed was that these vehicles were headed to an already FULL camp site and would do what the jerks had done at our site; they'd go to the boat launch, put the boat in the water, and the go park their extra vehicle at an empty camp site. Jerks - when a place is FULL this means those who reserved their site aren't there yet. God, I seriously hate those over consuming, pooping out babies, clogging the freeway, rude water breeders! I have never been around such a group.

Not once in my experiences in Washington at campgrounds on a water source, did I have my site taken as a parking lot, or heard people yell at ranger when the entrance line was taking too long. Perhaps it's the shortage of water camp sites here that brings out such frantic behavior. I've said this before, although not in a blog, "breeders" are a Utah thing. Selfish. Rude. I wish they'd sell their boats and extra large vehicles and travel the world or simply another state (Idaho excluded). They need to see how EVERYONE else lives. The worse part - they are breeding kids just like them. I'll never go back to Rock Port or Jordanelle. I hate the people who are there.

As for the Hyundai, now that it's our only vehicle, I love it's gas mileage. I love taking it camping with it's large trunk and room for the dog. Fantastic car. FAN-TAS-TIC.

Gun to my head

Kate tells me I have to make a post because it's starting to feel like the Kate Arch page and not the Arch Hogan page. Those of you that know me know that I am not really into the online communication scene that much. I use myspace and facebook as a means to an end to keep in touch with people. Of course this is limited to a message or so every six months. Regardless, I'm here and I may as well talk about something of importance: White trash idiot morons that are lazy.

I am referring to a select number of my neighbors. Specifically two houses north east of us and now the renting neighbors across the street. North house is all about the wife staying home drinking beer all day on the front porch talking to her friends on the phone at an extrememly loud volume. To make matters worse, her vocabulary is limited to someone that obviously didn't make it through high school. "Oh my god, did you hear what she said? I know. I know. Get out...." And to wrap up our trash neighbors to the north, the husband only knows one way to pick up his dog....by the collar.

Now to discuss our new renters. Divorced mother of two. And when I say two I mean one somewhat normal child and Forest Gump. She has taught her kids that everything you see belongs to us so don't worry about playing on everything. "Running out into the road? No worries. It's ok. Just don't come inside and interrupt me because I really need my semi hourly Meth fix. Anyone seen our dog in the last few days? I'm sure he'll be back."

Other then them our neighbor is full of nice, respectful, and quiet people. I'm sure as the neighborhood gets nicer and nicer we will hopefully weed these kind of idiots out. Apparently I need to wrap it up because now I'm being told I am writing too much....

The summer of X Files

This is our summer of watching the X Files box set Greg got me for my birthday. He really knows how to win my heart. I'm happy to say that Greg has been hooked on this show which makes him really want to believe that the truth is out there. As of now, we are midway through season six. This is my favorite season... and it also contains my favorite episode, "Arcadia." Good laughs, good scares, and good characters. Below is a series of clips from X Files episodes. All of you who want to believe, enjoy...



Here are some of the best scenes from, "Arcadia." I guess there are fans of this episode on youtube.



I'm trying to convince Greg that our first son should be named Fox.

It's the digital us

Greg is in pain from working on the basement. Ouch!

Honestly people, this is cultish!

http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com/index.html

My buddy Alisa sent this over Myspace. I'm so shocked to know there is a website that is ripping desperate people off. More shocking is that there are people who are financially supporting the idea. Basically this website allows subscribers to leave a letter behind begging their non-born again Christian friends and families to convert after the rapture has taken place. Here is my argument condemning these turd-heads.

The Book of Revelations was written roughly 1,900 years ago, keeping in mind that the current measurement of time keeping wasn't solidified for the entire western world until the 19th century (cite, The Discoverers). Even with our current measurement, we suck at doing it right. Taking the flawed measurement of time keeping, and the natural passing of time, The Book of Revelations could have been written between the time span of 2,300 years to 1,800 years ago. Ancient texts of this time period are rarely (if ever) literal. This was a time when few could read and stories were memorized in lyrics. Often the stories evolved like the telephone game, increasing the drama and entertainment.

Finally, after The Book of Revelations had only been available in Greek and Latin, King James had it translated into English. So, here we are in the 16th century, finally getting the story in a more commonly literate, upper-class culture... just behind the Arabs whom had already created the first Romeo and Juliet tale which Shakespeare ripped off, but that's another story... The contents of The Book of Revelations had been through story teller after story teller, version after version, and settled upon in an English version now shared by millions. A few of them are now operating a website.

Why do they believe it is literally a sudden abduction of Christian believers? Why do these born-again Christians understand that the seven-headed beast as an analogy in the book, but choose to believe the others are literal? It makes absolutely no sense to me, and I find them annoying for believing in what had been commonly accepted and WRITTEN as an analogy so long ago.

The world is full of idiots. I simply must wait for the Earth to kill them off with disease.

There is a god and he loves us!

We finally sold the Pathfinder! It was pure luck. Greg bought an 87 cent sign for Sporty and put it in front of the house on 1600 East. With in days, we had someone looking and placing an offer.

The luck went even deeper. Just when you think no one is buying an SUV, here comes a young family that lives up a hill whom needs 4 wheel drive in the winter. They have a Tahoe and it's, as the dad stated, "obnoxiously large and difficult." Sporty was just the size they were looking for!

It's been a rough time getting rid of the Pathfinder... part of me doesn't want to get rid of it. It was my first big purchase in life and there is such a sense of pride; "I bought that." Now that I live so close to work, have a bus line to school, TRAX line to school, and Greg's carpool meets by my school, it doesn't make sense to have a second car right now. Not to mention that gas prices!!! I think we've driven the Pathfinder twice since May. It just sits in the driveway, collecting heat rays.

I have a lot of memories with old Sporty... the time I went to SEATAC Airport and Dustin named it, "Betty Red Panties," or the time I blasted Ice Cube out the door and danced with friends at the Orchard Middle School parking lot. It's been on many road trips and it's been my shelter when I wanted to run away from crazy roommates.

Remember Boyz 2 Men? Yes, it is indeed hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Yet, it is easy to say goodbye to wasted gas money on a vehicle that serves no purpose other than memories.