HUGE catch up post

My resolution to take more photographs seems to have lasted all of 18 days. Heres my big catch up, more for me than anyone else. Gives me something to do to take my mind off moaning. 

Photo 19 - Artwork 

Martin and I, obviously. This is about as artistic as I get.

Photo 20 - Memories 

This photo just makes me laugh. My High School Prom, 2004. Im in the far right in my red prom dress which I loved. 

Photo 21 - What you're reading

Andy Murrays latest book, on kindle. 

Photo 22 - Your breakfast plate

I'm going to leave this one blank, as I've not eaten breakfast for days. 

Photo 23 - Childhood

My brother, me and my Nanan. My guess is around 1992. My nanan is still with us :) 

Photo 24 - Something Funny

What isn't funny about a skateboarding Owl?

Photo 25 - Family Pets 

The boys are back!

Photo 26 - Your Calendar 

I don't have one. Just in my head. 

Photo 27 - Something Red

My hair before I had to be a grown up. Sob. Here we are walking the streets of London before an Avenged Sevenfold gig in 2011.

Photo 28 - Best Friend

Me and my wonderful best friend, also Steph, on my wedding day.

Photo 29 - Self Portrait 

Taken just this morning. Red hair back, hair recently cut and au natural!

I'm a big moany moan bag

All I seem to be doing lately is moaning and moaning and feeling sorry for myself, I HATE it!

The magical practise manager at the GP has been brilliant, and after speaking with her on the phone last week about lack of appointments, she called me on Monday to say she had some good news, she had been chasing up my case with the hospitals and managed to get me an appointment with a gastroenterologist on march 11th! Hurrah! I could have kissed her! It will have still been 3 months since the trouble started, but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Moan? - got the appointment letter through and it is just that, an appointment. No endoscopy or ultrasound to be carried out, I'm grateful for the appointment, but I know full well it will be another 6 weeks for a endoscopy appointment, therefore no diagnosis just yet. Unless I get a magical doctor?!

I would gladly have the majority if my stomach cut out at this present moment in time. I've reached a whole new low of not eating for 4 days because anything I ingest makes me cry in pain. Last night I ate two sweets and that kept me awake until 4am. I love sweets!!! So I've taken the day off today because I'm a physical wreck.

I feel needy and cuddly and need looking after and Martin is obviously at work, so I'm even more pathetic without him here :(

Good news? I had my cardiologist appointment on Monday and officially got the green light for IUI! Finally! So I get to call my FS next Monday and have a consultation over the phone and we should be  on the way to IUI. We did want to start in march, but with my stomach problems it's going to be April now. Sigh. Always something.

To be honest, when we looked at dates my April AF is due on April 26th. It's my Birthday on April 28th and we've booked a weekend away in the Lake District to celebrate. If we did do IuI in March we would find out if it was auccessful or, more likely failed two days before my birthday and the day we leave for our weekend away. I think waiting an extra month will at least give us another month in ignorance before the tears, taking HPTs and emotional breakdowns start.

I'm still plodding on.

NHS still my worst enemy

I love that I have access to free health care, it's something a few countries don't have. I personally, can't imagine having to constantly worry about the financial implications of becoming ill or having an accident. It seems completely outrageous to me that governments even think it's acceptable to expect it's population to pay for things that are often completely out of their control. I mean, lets put a tax on blonde poeple, and make those over 5"6 pay extra insurance??!!

Anyway, although I do love our free health service. I do feel it comes at a cost. A severe cost.

The National Health Service runs a 18 week promise, which means that every patient should have a hospital appointment within 18 weeks of requesting one. That seems fair, but bare in mind that is still 4 months.

My well documented stomach complaints have been ongoing since August 2011 when the trouble first started. I have had one hospital appoints in December 2011 who confirmed 4 stomach ulcers (I even saw pictures!)

As per usual, upon further inspection by my GP on 6th January 2013, it appears the specialist who carried out my endoscopy decided to leave the words 'ulcer' off of my medical records, and instead referred to it as acid reflux. Therefore my GP thinks I'm an idiot making, and after over 12 months of medications not working, requested I see ANOTHER specialist.

I found out this morning, as usual, this referral to the gastroenterology department has disappeared into thin air. So although I have been waiting patiently (albeit in chronic pain) for  the past 8 weeks for an appointment, it has not been made. I have to start from scratch again, and will take another 8-10 weeks for an appointment. (Sound very familiar to my FS referral?!!!)

My last full meal was on December 17th 2012, I have not been able to eat a full meal since then without being in agony. I've been to Accident and Emergency with the pain, still nothing.

I was obviously hoping that I would have had my tummy trouble re-diagnosed an correctly treated before starting IUI, I shouldn't sensibly start until then. After everything we put ourselves through during treatment, I'm not going to spend every evening after treatment throwing up, not sleeping and in pain. It's bound to fail.

So i'm back to square one. IUI on hold indefinitely. Still not eating, still loosing weight, still unhappy.

All sorts of silly things going through my head as ways to get the doctors to listen

Photographs!

With all my negative moaning, I have been useless at keeping my photos up to date! (J, I need to see more Canadian photos too ;))

Heres my big catch up post..

Photo 12 - Your Weakness

Mozzarella. I love this stuff, I would have it on cereal and cake if I could. If we make homemade pizza, I usually need to buy a ball of mozzarella to eat while the pizza is cooking. This and parmigiana. Forget chocolate sauce and honey in the bedroom, I'd rather cover Martin in Mozzarella and eat it off him. 

Photo 13 - Your shoes.

Not the shoes I'm wearing right now, but my absolute favourite pair of beautiful shoes I own. I got married in these shoes (see right photograph) The registrar stopped half way through the vows to compliment me on these shoes. I would wear them every day if I could!!

Photo 14 - Who you love

Duh. My handsome husband/punchbag/chief cuddler/hair stroker/breakfast maker and best friend extraordinaire. 

Photo 15 - In your bag (uh oh) 

My suitcase I call a bag. (I'm grown up enough to run a home and have IUI, but not grown up enough to have a big girl hand bag!) 

In here you can see my essentials, purse, can of dry shampoo and my emergency Zantac for stomach issues during the day. (I may have no cracked it, I'm now on 60mg of my prescribed medication, and 200mg of OTC medication - together it SEEMS to be calming down my tummy!)

Photo 16 - Your Lunch Plate

I dont have a lunch plate at work. I barely have lunch at work. Heres my rations for the day sitting on my desk. As I can no longer drink hot drinks (no coffee, sob!) the Monster energy drink is my replacement for the morning, and my thai curry pot is for lunch. I don't mind though as it's absolutely delicious (And only 300 Kcal!)

Photo 17 - Books 

I'm going to be really bad and skip this one. All of my books are currently in boxes still and I'm not unpacking them purely for a photograph. 

Photo 18 - Technology 

Just our technology cat, checking his emails. 

Called it!!

I'm getting so good at this now.

Over the past 3 years of TTC, I have bet Martin that ___________ is pregnant at least a few weeks before it's been officially announced. Three of his cousins have had babies in this time, I knew they were pregnant weeks before they announced it to family, I've had friends fall pregnant and I've told Martin they are weeks before they're announced it. So it came as no great surprise when my pregnancy spider senses were tingling about the unnamed family member being pregnant, and once again last night I was proved right.

I have however come to realise that there is no pleasing me. Martin family came around for tea and biscuits and a general visit, and I knew something was going to crop up. I half expected his mum to just come out and tell us that said family member was pregnant, I had already pre-warned Martin this would piss me off with the mood I was in yesterday, and I would probably run to the bathroom and sob, making people feel unconformable enough that they would leave. As I keep trying to explain to the horrified friends around me, it's not that I am pissed off that they ARE pregnant, or that people are having babies, I don't expect the world to stop. But when people tell us face to face and know about our situation, what do they expect us to do with this information??!

So when the family arrived, I had already practised my 'give a shit' smile, and had it permanently plastered on my face, when the conversation turned to weddings due to something on the TV. I can handle wedding talk, I've had a wedding after all. We discussed the fact that Martin has some aunties who aren't married but are in long term relationships, and wondered if they ever would get married. MIL started a sentence, which I assume was supposed to end it "..I thought they said they were going to get married" But it actually came out like this....

MIL: "Well when we had the phone call to say _______had some exciting news.....erm...well...erm..."

Queue all family in law looking at each other panicked and distraught, thinking of the next thing to say, this is what was said next

MIL: "..So in the new house, where are you going to put the sofa?"

Right. Yes, you definitely saved that one. *Huge exaggerated eye roll*

So even though the in laws who visited clearly didn't want to say the words "_______ is pregnant" and panicked when they thought it was going to come, it pissed me off. I'm just a woman who is never satisfied.

To me now my life is the elephant in the room. Nobody ever asks us or refers to or talks about our infertility, but everyone awkwardly avoids the topic of pregnancy like I will explode into a billion pieces if I hear the word. (emotionally I do, but on the outside my 'give a shit' face is fault less!)  So pretty much I'm an awkward bitch and no matter how or in when medium of pregnancy the topic is brought up, I will be pissed off with all persons involved.

I did have an uncontrollable sob at the situation, and it's been a while since the last one. Life is so unfair sometimes, said family member who is pregnant with her second, constantly moans about how she's too poor to care for the one she has, and relies on family members to bail them out constantly. Now number two is on the way. Whoopdi-fucking-do.

Oh yeah, and just to make the 'give a shit' smile come back, I figured out her due date will be around the time we finish IUI number 3 (yes yes, if we get that far)

BUT I have my ladies, who mean everything to me (you know who you are) if I didn't have them over the past 9 months (how apt!) I may have just dissolved already.

Is 9am on a Monday too early for alcohol?

Sunday blues

It's a down day today. I don't know why, well I do, but I'm usually so good at shaking off the bad feelings and upset and ignoring it long enough to pain a smile, but today I'm not painting anything.

I'm pretty sure there's another family (in laws) pregnancy announcement coming up, their second nonetheless, and here we are, still stuck in the rut. If I'm right,, and I usually am, they will have managed two children in the time we've been trying to have just one. It's not any of my business, it's their life, their decision, nothing to do with us and our lives what so ever. But sometimes you can't help bit sit back and just think FUCK YOU LIFE. What have we done so wrong, that were getting the shitty end of the stick? We're both educated, we both work damn hard, we run a successful home, and financially comfortable but no... We're still getting slapped in the face with whatever life thinks its playing at.

Something as stupid as my brother in law and his girlfriend buying a house sets me off. It's like every couple around me are making plans for life, friends are buying houses, settling down, planning weddings etc... And it's like we've got so far and now we're just stuck where we are for an indefinite amount of time. I hate being all "look at me, life is so bad, feel sorry for me and pity me" but, yeah!! I guess we were lucky enough to fall in love and be the first couple out of our friends to get married, quite young, at 22. The only downside to this is now we've been told not to pass go and straight to jail, while the people around us as zooming round collecting everything we want.

Photies

Lack of photos is down to my hectic weekend I'm afraid!

Photo 10 -Your dinner plate

Technically not my dinner plate, but this is what I made for dinner last night. Chicken and bacon spicy creole jambalaya. It was delicious. I didn't have a plate to take a photo of as I only ate a few mouthfuls before my stomach pain stopped me from eating. It smelt nice though!

Photo 11 - Gratitude

This is a selection of all the things in my life I am grateful for.

Top - My home. I took this photograph myself whilst in the passenger seat of our car. I love the views we get driving around our villages. I have lived and visited many places in my life, but Yorkshire will always be my favorite place. 

Middle left - Music. Pretty much self explanatory, I've already had my rant about music so I don't need to say anymore!

Middle right - Family. They might drive me mad on a regular basis, but I wouldn't swap them (well maybe a few of them) for the world. 

Bottom left - Friends. I would ALMOST go as far as to say my friends are more important to me than family. I know, what a dreadful thing to say, but my family have a colour history. My friends are there every day and through every event. So maybe my friends are my family? 

Bottom Right - Coffee. I love it so much, which makes it even harder than I can't drink it!! My stomach has now gotten so bad my morning coffee makes me cry with pain, therefore my life is now water, water and more water. 

Life

Is OK. Not great, not bad, but OK. My stomach issues are now ruining my existence more than I ever thought possible. Usually I have pain in the evenings, throw up, go to bed on an empty stomach and wake up fine the next day. For some reason I have now been in pain since Friday afternoon (It's Tuesday morning) and haven't been able to keep anything more than a banana down. Not because food makes me nauseous, but because the only way I can manage the pain is to throw up everything that's in my stomach. The pills aren't working, I've tried taking one at different times, I've tried taking 2, I've even tried taking 3! I've drank bottles and bottles of gaviscon, loaded myself up with pain killers and nothing. The hospital won't do anything for me because I'm not throwing up blood, the GP won't do anything for me because I've been referred to a specialist. The waiting list for the specialist is 18 weeks. I haven't eaten a full meal now for 10 weeks. December 17th was the last meal I ate without pain. It could possibly be another 10 weeks before I get to see the specialist...ARGH!!

Apart from that I suppose I'm OK. I'm panicking about how on earth I'm going to be able to go through IUI with these stomach problems, theres no way I can carry on throwing up everything I eat after the treatment, the strain it puts on my stomach and abdomen is just silly. So if it isn't fixed before treatment I can't throw up, which means coping with the agony the best I can. 

I don't know what to do.

Friday is a good day, right?

So today HAS to be better than yesterday, surely? Well I'm not too sure. I managed a grand total of 2.5hours sleep last night before my stomach pains woke me at 2am. I've been awake since then, it's now 9am and I'm started to feel the need to sleep.

It's been 9 weeks now since I A) Managed to eat a meal (honest!) B) Slept through the night without waking up in pain. My stomach problems are ruining my life. Sounds dramatic, but at this moment in time it isn't.

Alas I'm still alive and moving around so I have that to be thankful for, and also I can do my photos today! I know most people are not at all excited to see photographs of my daily life, in face most people are not at all excited to hear my moans and groans about life in general, but I'm really enjoying documenting the world. I never do it, so I'm hoping that in years to come when I do either A) have a son or daughter to share this blog with or B) am living and working in Spain with a perma-tan and running a bar restaurant (Life plan B) this will give me something to look back on a smile.

Photo 8 - My daily routine

I found it was quite difficult to take just one photograph to show my daily routine, so I made a collage of a number of photographs.

From bottom left to right; 

1. My boys - I have spoken about my cats in length throughout my blogs. They're my boys, my stand in children for the time being. From the minute I wake up they demand attention, whether it be Colin meowing to be let onto the bed, or Travis rolling around on the floor wanting his tummy rubbed. As soon as I walk in the front door in the evening, they are both there say on the door mat waiting to say hello. When my tummy gets really bad it causes me to vomit - A LOT. Travis sits outside the bathroom door every single time and nudges me when I get out. 

2. Food - Obviously. Whose daily routine doesn't involve food. Specifically for me is healthy food as I'm still on my weight loss challenge. This is a photo of a homemade Spanish Tortilla and salad. Yummy! As much as I am getting increasingly bored of dieting, it is working. Since September I've dropped two dress sizes, 30lbs and have gone from a BMI of 28 to a BMI of 24. I need to be motivated to carry on. An unexpected bonus is since loosing the weight our sex life has gone from TTC-tainted non existant to amazing. I really like flaunting what I got in new underwear. It's nice to look down and like what you see. 

3. My office - Well my computer where I spend around 80% of my time at work. As you can see here my own blog is on the screen, but I do actually work as well! 

4. My family - Its only small, contains two humans and two cats, but my world revolves around them. Heres Martin with Colin curled up on his knee and Travis asleep behind his head. 

5. Coffee - I know I know, I shouldn't be drinking this when trying to have a baby yada yada yada...but screw that! I spent 2 years not drinking caffeine and still no mini me. If people can get knocked up when drunk, high and anything else, a coffee in a morning is not going to do me harm! (I think my American/Canadian friend may be a bit disgusted at my coffee, its ridiculously milky!) 

6. Work - The university logo for where I work, and where I did my degree and met my best friend. 

I'm going to cheat here as my sister is coming to stay tomorrow (YAY!) so I'm going to do tomorrows photograph today because I know I'll forget. 

Photo 9 - Me in black and white

I dont like my face. Specifically I don't like my chubby cheeks and round chin. Couple those with my big brown eyes and voila - the face of a teenager forever more. Heres the top of my face in black and white taken this morning after the first coffee, hence why I actually look awake!

S x

Friends?

You know what's really important to me while I've been going through this shower of shite I like to call IF? Friends.

My friends are mostly understanding. They ask the right questions, they let me vent. They give me hugs when AF arrives, we get drunk together. They admit they don't understand and they can't imagine what we're going through, but having them there to rant to makes all the difference. I don't need or want them to understand, I just need them to be there. I love them all dearly for that.

So imagine my shock and surprise to find that one of my closest friends, one of my best friends in the whole world who knows full well what we're going through, who I talk to weekly if not daily, who I cry down the phone to, who cried with me when we had the m/c, decided to upload her 12week scan photo onto Facebook this morning. No text. No email. No Skype call. No PM. No nothing to let me know. We have spoke 3 time in the past week. She hasn't mentioned a thing.

These friends, I don't need.

Slacking!

So I was so busy with work yesterday that I forgot to upload my photographs - To be quite frank I'm suprised the world managed to continue without my pictures...

Photo number 6 - The Sky 

I'm really disappointed that I missed this one! We leave home at around 6.45am so it's just getting to the time of year when that coincides with the sunrise, there was such a pretty sky this morning driving to work and I missed the opportunity! Instead you get to see a photo of the sky outside my office window! How exciting!

Photo number 7 - My hands

Or hand as the case may be. It's quite difficult to take a photograph of both hands! I've never been self conscious of my hands until I had to take a photograph of one of them. I need some cuticle cream and nail polish stat!! I can never polish my nails, I have an annoying habit of chipping away at the polish as soon as its been painted on so I give up. Although you can see my beautiful engagement ring on here. Its not a sparkly diamond (Not for me) but it is a 112 year old antique gold, sapphire and diamond ring which I adore. It doesn't march my wedding ring as I didn't want a gold ring, simple. Not conventional, but I love them. 

Steph x 

"A womens perfume tells more about her than her handwriting"

Thats probably a good job, because as the years go on, my handwriting gets gradually less and less legible and more scrawly.

When I was younger I took great pride in my handwriting. As a teacher the pride in my handwriting was gradually overtaken by my love of getting comments written quickly and forms filled quickly, it has therefore become the scrawled mess you see above.

In other (related) news, my favorite childhood band are back. Yes yes I know I should be a grown up by now but music is my entire life. Honestly. 

I am 100% positive I would rather loose my sight than my hearing because I couldn't cope without hearing music, it starts the minute I wake up and my CD player plays as my alarm, until I leave the house, then it's my iPod until I get into work, iTunes while I'm at work, and CDs when I get home. I think gigs are the only think I may have spent more money on in my life than fertility treatments. 

I love music, it is my world, it's in everything I do. Every single one of my tattoos is something musically inspired and I have quite an eclectic taste. Everything from Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Guns and Roses and Led Zeppelin to my teenage nu metal bands of Limb Bizkit, Linkin Park, Black Stone Cherry etc.... OK it's not everyones taste in music but its mine. One thing I can't stand it lack of acceptance to other peoples musical preferences. I like rock, metal, nu metal, country rock, stoner rock etc... and enjoy some commercial stuff. I do not judge anyone who likes dance, country, pop, hip hop, R&B or any other genre, ears like what they like. 

When I was 14 (argh, 14!) I bought an album on the recommendation of a friend called Take This to Your Grave, it was a very teenage esque guitar riffs and drum beats angst ridden CD that I feel in love with immediately. I have loved it ever since (It got me through some of my worst breakups!) My little sister is 7 years younger than me, and we shared a bedroom growing up. She had to put up with me playing this on constant repeat for days if not months, so naturally grew up with the same taste in music as me. 

We bonded over this group, I took her to her first gig to see this band, we've jumped up and down with excitment about this band and spent hours on the phone taking about their music, the gigs and recent news. It might sound sad to people reading this that we developed such a strong bond over Fall Out Boy, but to be frank I couldn't give less of a shit. My family is no longer a family, we were split down the middle around 4 years ago  due to an issues im not even going to begin to go into, yeas of not speaking, angry exchanges, tears, arguments, ruined birthdays and christmases have now gone out of the window because of something as simple as music. 

Due to this band, this silly little music group some of you may think, me and my little sister have spoken for the first time in 4 years. Are meeting up for the first time in 4 years, and she's meeting my husband for the first time. All because of a band. 

If you think music isn't important..I beg to differ. 

S x

Feets!

Photo 3 - Picture of my feet. 

Quite an odd one I must admit. My obviously well loved and well trodden biker boots under my desk. They never let me down, come rain, sun or snow they have served me well. Although looking at this its about time I invested in another pair!

Photos!

I have stolen this from a very lovely lady whose blog I follow. One of my new years resolutions was to take more photographs. I hate having photographs taken of myself, so many things me and Martin have done together have no photographic evidence. Holidays, day trips, parties - No photos of us together what so ever. I have plenty of photos of my cats, non of everyday things. So thank you to J <3 

Its now February 3rd so I have some catching up to do! 

Photo 1- Self Portrait 

So I imagine that if you were reading this and weren't previously friends with me on facebook, or knew me in real life you would conjur up an imagine in your head of someone who looks like they are old enough to be a mother. Someone mature, someone who dresses well and can buy alcohol without being asked for ID. That isn't me! 

Yes I look like an 18 year old, but I am in fact 25. Good genes or bad genes, I'm not sure. Annoying genes when you are asked for ID to buy a lottery ticket, I'm guessing good genes when I'm 40 and still look in my mid twenties. Lets see! 

Photo 2 - View from your window

This was taken about a week ago from my living room window, my little car in the snow. Although I'm going to cheat a little bit here and add a second photograph. We live in a beautiful part of England with some amazing views all year round, even though the view from my living room window shows my little village with stone houses and brass bands, if you walk 5 minutes from my living room window, this was the view in the snow. 

I love it here. 

Photo 3 - Where you've slept. 

Where the magic happens - or something like that. Our lovely little bedroom, it's not fancy, it's not posh but it's my favourite room. Here you can see the most important bits - The TV on the drawers where we watch House before we got to sleep, photographs of our wedding and friends and family on the walls and our beams. The whole reason we fell in love with the house was because of the beams we have running through every room. Shame we're moving in 6 weeks!

Get snapping! 

Steph x

Back to the real world..

So as I was sat in my office yesterday I was mentally planning out 2013 TTC wise.

Our 2013 looks something like this (Im also an eternal pessimist, as you will see)

January and February - Enjoy life, enjoy sex. Be like every other non worrying couple that exists, have fun, drink alcohol, drink coffee, live

March - IUI number 1. Welcome back hospital appointments, blood test, scans, injections, tablets, sprays and creams. Also a warm welcome back to the speculum and stirrups. IUI BFN number 1.

April - IUI number 2. Turn 25. IUI BFN number 2.

May IUI number 3. IUI BFN number 3.

I have spoken with woman who have had IUI at my clinic and they usually do consecutive months, although we would have the option of taking a month our here and there. But for the sake of this I'll carry on.

After IUI BFN number 3 we will be referred for IVF. The IVF waiting list is 18 weeks, so 4 months.

May to September - Prepare for IVF. Try and enjoy life again. Plan a life without children, moving to spain, travelling the world, start a savings account in order to do these things.

September - First and last IVF. We only have one funding IVF cycle on the NHS.

By the time we are celebrating out second wedding anniversary in October 2013, we will know if we are going to be parents or not. Well, I know thats a bit dramatic but our journey will end this year, either for the best or for the worst.

By the age of 25 I will have accessed all of the medical interventions I am entitled to on the NHS, and will not be receiving any more help. By the age of 25.

Just reading that makes me burst into tears. Obviously I know that there is a small possibility we will go on to have a miracle natural pregnancy in yeas to come, but Im not going to hold my breath for one.

We've already decided that if the three IUIs fail we will then start planning for a childless life. Thats 4 months away. Just 4 months. I dont even think I can handle this year.

I usually hate these things...me me me

See if you find out anything about me you didn't already know! Saw this on a friends blog and I'm bored, forgive me! 

STATISTICS 

Name?  Stephanie
Current Location? Holmfirth
Starting Weight? 10 stone 1 pound or 141 pounds. (urgh)
Goal Weight? 9 stone and 8 pounds or 134 pounds. 
When do you want to reach your goal by: When I can. I've lost 20lbs over the last few months, I think i can afford to slow down a little now. 
When is your birthday? April 28th 
Eye Color?  Brown
Hair Color?  Natural - dark brown. Currently - red
Height? 5 foot 2 and a bit. Often rounded up to 5 foot 3. 
Piercings or tattoos? Yes and Yes. Belly button, nipple and ear stretchers reamining. Lip and septum removed a while ago. 4 Tattoos - Music on wrist, music on ankle, deathbat on nape of neck and drunken mistake I don't remember on left shoulder
Single or taken:? Married to my lovely scruff bag
Right Handed or Left Handed? Right handed
Any pets? My boys - Two cats Colin and Travis and two geckos Zimba and Ardo (extra points if anyone makes the connection)
Your greatest strength?  Surviving and living infertility and still managing to smile
Your Weakness?  Apart from the obvious baby related stuff - CHEESE

FAVORITES 

Favorite color? Puprle
Favorite flower? Lily
5 favorite movies: Jurassic Park, From Dusk til Dawn, Bad Boys, Shutter Island and Girl, Interrupted.
1 Movie you're ashamed of liking: High School Musical
Favorite holiday? My honeymoon in Spain
Favorite physical feature on yourself?  Boobs. Im not going to lie. 
Your favorite pizza toppings?  Mozzarella and more mozzarella
Favorite guilty pleasure? Crappy reality TV, Teen Mom, Real Housewives etc..
Favorite place to eat a romantic dinner? My house
Favorite season? Winter
Your favorite food? Mexican 
Favorite Ice cream flavor? Vanilla
Favorite subject(s) in school? Psychology and geology/geography
Favorite candy? Wine Gums or sports Mixture
Favorite breakfast cereal? I love cinnamon Grahams, but diet means Wheatabix 
Favorite person in your life? My husband
Favorite book of all time? Is it cliched if I say Harry Potter?
Favorite song? Of all time?! errmm... All Along the Watch Tower, Jimi Hendrix
Favorite place to be? Home, is that sad? 
Favorite fast food restaurant?  Local pizza place make the BEST pizzas. There or Las Iguanas
What is your favorite part of your life right now? My marriage 
Favorite TV shows? Too many to name. Breaking Bad, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Its always sunny in philadelphia 

WHICH DO YOU PREFER 

Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla
Alcoholic or non? Depends. Im not a huge drinker. Midweek I'll happily swap a vodka for a hot chocolate
Scary movies or comedies? Scary movies. But I appear to be becoming more of a scardy cat as i get older.
Short or long hair? Short hair on me, long hair on men. 
Croutons or bacon bits? Oh tough! Bacon bits 
Beach or lake? Beach
Single or Group Dates? Single - Im appearing very unsociable throughout this. 
Pepsi or Coke: Neither. Hate them, make my teeth feel fuzzy. Lemonade every time. 
Starbucks or elsewhere? Cafe Nero 
Dogs or cats? CATS!

DO YOU's 

Do you smoke? No...
Do you sing? Not infront of people, they would cry
Do you want to get married? I am married, and yes, although I didn't until I met Martin. Again, Im coming across very soppy and old before my years here. DILLIGAF?
Do you believe in yourself? Sometimes. 
Do you get along with your parents? Love my Dad to pieces
Do you want children? No..I'm just doing this for the laughs
Do you drink?  Not really, sometimes I like a vodka and lemonade. 
Do you like to travel by plane? I LOVE planes. 
Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday morning? No, I rarely see Saturday mornings. 
Do you have a teddy bear? I have a stuffed animal zoo in my spare room, collected from zoos, aquariums and animal centres we've visited through the years. 
Do you like thunderstorms? Love them, I get all giddy like a small child
Do you play an instrument?  Guitar. I use the term play loosely. 
Do you consider yourself a party person or more apt to stay at home?  Stay at home mostly, but I do enjoy gathering with my friends. Not huge events with strangers though

HAVE YOU EVER 

Have you ever fired a gun?  No, terrified of guns. Scariest part of living in the US for a while. 
Have you ever loved someone? Of course
Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to?  yes. 
Have you ever cried for no reason? Yes, thanks Clomid 
Have you ever cut your own hair?  Once when I was a child, my Mum was so upset she cried. Never again
Have you ever skipped school?  No. Honestly. Im such a geek.
Have you ever bungee jumped?  Never could, I think I would die before throwing myself off a tall building attached to an elastic band
Have you ever punched someone?  yes, but she deserved it. 

SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE MATURE 

List your top fears: My family always being a unit of 2. Moths, butterflies and dentists.
What bill do you hate paying the most? TV License - Really my American friends, we need to buy a licence to watch TV!
What did you want to be when you were growing up? Ha, a forensic pathologist. I wanted to cut bodies up to see why they died. I was a lovely child and teenager, honest. Just fascinated by science. 
What errand/chore do you despise? General 'tidying' and cleaning the kitchen. My OCD means I tidy the house every day. 
A secret that you wouldn't mind everyone knowing? Im infertile. I have a heart defect, I secretly fancy Hugh Laurie
What do you get every time you go into a Wal-Mart? Milk, bread, eggs, low fat everything
What Hollywood star do you think resembles you best? non. I have a very non-descript face. 
What famous person dead or alive would you like to have dinner with? Dead - Jimmy Sullivan. Alive - Bradley Cooper. Oooh
How do you want to die? Happy in my sleep. Or something really dramatic
What do you want to achieve in life? Become a Mum, just once will do. Complete my PhD. Be collecting my pension with my husband. 
Your most missed memory? High school summer evenings with friends. University years 1 and 2. 
What books are you reading (if any)?  Andy Murrays autobiography. Its actually really funny. 

SOME RANDOM QUESTIONS 

Do you cheer for the bad guy?  Of course, I love Dexter. 
What do you want when you are sick?  Sports Mixture and sweet things
Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?  In a tent in a field?
What country would you most like to visit?  Japan
How many pillows do you sleep with? 2 very fluffed up duck down pillows. Nothing less will do! 

This has made me realise how very dull I am! 

S x