Home From Branson

Just home from Branson and there's so much to tell. First and most importantly, Mary at the clinic called with reports on my donor each day. Things are looking good. The follicles are progressing nicely and it looks like they'll probably take the eggs tomorrow. My transfer could be Thursday or Friday of next week.
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Wow! I just burst into tears for a few minutes. Glad to be home, happy about my donor, completely overwhelmed at the fact that it's finally, finally here, wondering how I'll wait for another week for MY part. I'm exhausted from vacation. I got good reports on my donor and was so very delighted! But since the girls were there, I couldn't really talk about it except for a couple sentences here and there to my mom who was as busy and distracted as I was. Although I was constantly thinking about it, I couldn't really think about it. Weird dual thoughts going on in my brain at all times.

Vacation Paige: Oh, look at those cool tshirts.
Mom-to-Be Paige: Why hasn't Mary called?
Vacation Paige: Wonder if they have plus sizes?
Mom-to-Be Paige: Is my phone on? Did I hear it ring?
Vacation Paige: Where's DollFace? Oh, there looking at key chains.
Mom-to-Be Paige: Surely I'll get another good donor report today.

Being on vacation put a whole other spin on things. Yesterday, while we were searching downtown Branson for a certain quilt shop Mom wanted to visit, Mary called with instructions on my medication for the coming week. So we're lurching around in the car, the girls are talking and being silly, I can't find a pen, the only paper I have is an old receipt. It was wild. I'm sitting here looking at this sad little scrap of paper which holds vital information about my future. I've got an email in to Mary to double check things before I start slamming these extra shots into myself.
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Branson was great! Ok, I really think it's a giant tourist trap but it was so good to spend this kind of time with my parents and the girls. The first night there we went to the Dixie Stampede. Wonderful! They have stalls around the outside of the building so you can look at the horses before the show. After we looked at all of them, Dollface asked if it was over, were we going home now. The pre-show was a funny Japanese comedian and juggler. Great sophisticated comedy and very clever juggling tricks. He ended by balancing a golf club horizontally on his chin, a golf ball on top of that and another club vertically on that. Amazing!

The show itself was very good. Musical reenactment of the Civil War and wild west through history, cowboys, Native Americans, the gold rush and so on. Cute things in between like little pigs racing and miniature horses racing with little dolls on their backs. The food was ok, we ate with our fingers because it was the wild west. What was amazing to me was to see how the servers served this great amount of food up and down the rows almost with military precision, even to the point of pushing the glasses back so nothing would spill during this flag passing thing we did toward the end.

The first night there Dad, who hates water, says he'll take the girls for a quick dip before the Dixie Stampede. He busted out of the bathroom in his Air Force swim trunks. My dad was in the National Guard 40 years ago, in the 70's. I just had to ask him if those were, indeed, the Air Force swim trunks I remembered from my childhood vacations. He said, yes and there was no need to spend good money on something you only use once a year and there was nothing wrong with them! We all actually had a good laugh about it.

At one point, on the first day there, I noticed a rank odor in the car when we were all together. At first, I thought I would need to have a little talk with Stretch about using deodorant and wondered why her mom didn't have her using it already. I finally figured out that it was her shoes. The longer we were at Branson, the worse this stench got. I mean I could smell it even if Stretch was 6 feet away and it stayed in my nose even if she wasn't around. It was like the Seinfeld episode when the stink took over the car. Poor Stretch took some good natured ribbing but wouldn't let Mom buy her some new shoes, sighting problems with each pair that was suggested. Finally the stanky shoes got relegated to the trunk if we were in the car or the balcony of the hotel.

Thursday we went to Silver Dollar City. The girls had fun. The place is really spread out and it was a lot of hot walking and standing in line and you couldn't walk 50 feet without encountering some sort of junk they were selling. Like I said, the girls had fun. Dad had been promising Stretch for weeks that he would go on roller coasters with her. He went on the smallest one with her and Dollface and then said he wasn't going to wait around for anymore rides but was going to walk around and look at things on his own. It was kind of strange. He spent most of the day away from us, walking around or sitting and watching the people. At lunch time I asked him to take DollFace on some smaller rides so that I could take Stretch on the bigger coasters. He said he didn't want to walk that far but would meet us at the enterance of the park. So it was up to Mom and me to take the girls on rides and everything else. Mom got on one ride that simulates a river raft and she was done. Didn't want to ride any more rides and had a bit of a hard time with all the walking but did keep up. Truthfully, I think she was miserable most of the day.

So, I thought I should try to go on some of the bigger coasters with Stretch even though I hate those things and haven't been on one in years. I was annoyed at Dad for abandoning us and bailing on Stretch. I really wanted her to have fun. Well, we get to the coaster and thank goodness now they have a model of the seats at the start of the lines. Of course, I was too damn fat to fit, but Stretch wanted to go anyway. It was a really huge coaster that goes upside down and drops 110 feet. I was really proud of her for going by herself. I think it scared her. She didn't want to go on anymore after that.

Later on Dad told me that the little roller coaster had made him physically sick. I think he was a little embarrassed. Not sure if that's why he took off like that for most of the day. It was really unusual for him to do something like that.

Friday we had 10:30am tickets to the Shoji Tabuchi Show. Dad had gotten a recommendation for this show and had been talking and talking about going. Kind of unusual to have tickets in the morning like that but when we arrived in Branson, I learned that Mom had only booked the hotel, nothing else, so I had to call around and got us into this one. At first, I thought it was kind of weird and cheesy. These dancers came out and the only way I can describe them is wholesome...knee length costumes, big, big smiles. They started singing Proud Mary and dancing in such a clean cut way then they sang Don't Stand Too Close To Me. It was just a weird contrast with the wholesomeness paired with the sexy music. I wondered what we had gotten into. It got much better though after Shoji came out with his violin. Each section had a theme like Broadway, Jukebox music, Orange Blossom Special, Japanese drums, Hawaiian Music/dancing and some regular violin music. Every time I looked at my parents, they both had big grins and I was very glad that we had come.

What was cool was that this Shoji had heard some bluegrass music when he was young in Japan and came to America with $500 and the dream to play bluegrass. What America is truly about, right? He explained each segment in his cute accent and was funny. The last segment was patriotic music dedicated to American veterans. As we left the theater, Dad said something about that kind of music was hard on him. I looked over and he had tears in his eyes. The only other time I've seen my dad cry was at my brother's wedding.

The rest of that day we went to the old town part of Branson and shopped in some flea markets and a cute, old fashioned 5 and dime. Then, Mom took the girls miniature golfing, thank goodness because they had been asking about that for days. Dad took me on a winery tour.

I have to say the girls were extremely well behaved. I wondered if we would have bickering or if Dollface would be over tired and whiny or throw tantrums or if Stretch would cop an attitude. They were both delightful and we had a lot of fun together. My parents wanted the girls to have good memories of a vacation with their grandparents. They will have great memories of Branson with their Maw Maw and Paw Paw.

Today we drove home and now I sit here in the sweet quiet and wonder about the next few days and weeks. Embryo transfer. On the brain and in the heart always. But also, school starting, who our principal will be, how hot it will be in our unairconditioned school. Will my babies be able to take that? And the stress?

I'm so happy to be home!