thank YOU, uncle sam.

We just spent an exciting Saturday night preparing and filing our taxes-- woohoo!! Actually, it was insanely exciting compared to how we spent the rest of the day. Maybe I'll fill you in on that later. But for now, what's truly important is this:

We're getting a higher-than-normal return this year, primarily because we were able to itemize our medical expenses. Yeah, thanks so much hospital visits, millions of trips to the RE in Atlanta, and surgeries 1 & 2, you were freakin' expensive and freakin' stupid and WAY MORE than 7.5% of our AGI or whatever. But that's all water under the bridge (or under the plane!), because now we're looking ahead to the positive things in life: getting money back. And what do you think we're gonna do when we get that money back? Money that I see as a personal gift for dealing with crappy medical problems all year/life? (Sure, a bunch of it is probably from boring stuff like interest paid on our mortgage and charitable donations, but those don't bother me. MEDICAL CRAP BOTHERS ME.) 

MEXICO, BABY!!!!

I was gonna give you three guesses, but you probably knew where this story was going before I even started, right? I mean...a fabulous vacation is a pretty good runner-up prize for a year of crappy and so-far-pointless medical expenses that did not even result in a baby, right? 

Did I ever see myself as the kind of person who would get to go on Caribbean vacations two years in a row? No. But I also didn't see myself as a person that would go without children for five years in a row, either, so...life isn't always what you expect. As I learned last year-- planning a fabulous vacation makes life SO MUCH BETTER because you have something concrete to look forward to. So let the giddiness begin! Let the anticipation begin! Let the working out with a PURPOSE begin! Let the government hurry up and direct-deposit my refund so that we can actually BOOK the vacation...ha. 

Unlike last year, I am not debating where to go. I am not reinventing the wheel. We are going to go exactly where we went last year (but for one extra night!). It was perfect and amazing and I can wholeheartedly look forward to it, rather than wondering whether I made a good choice, whether wherever we pick will measure up to last year, whether the food will be good, etc. Let's not let ANY unnecessary stress enter the equation!

So YAY!

I especially needed something like this (discovering the return would be good enough to almost entirely fund a vacation) because the first part of today SUCKED MAJORLY.

See this?

It's me doubling up on heating pads. Apparently six months was as long as my body could make it from surgery before deciding to freak the freak out again to announce the arrival of my period. If I'd had three heating pads, I would have used them all. I felt like I was in labor. Absolutely unbelievable cramps in my abdomen, back/booty, and thighs. I've heard tales of these infamous thigh cramps that some endo girls get to experience, but had never felt it myself. Well today must have been my lucky day. It was unbelievable. Thank God for prescription painkillers, wonderful husbands, and two heating pads (plus I used my hot laptop on my thighs as a makeshift third heating pad). At one point when I was like howling in pain, I informed Matt that "MOST WOMEN GET AN EPIDURAL FOR THIS KIND OF PAIN!!! AND A BABY!!!!!!" So, yeah. Not one of my more graceful mornings, but that's (my) life.

Let's refocus. I'm GOING BACK TO MEXICO, so eff endometriosis and infertility and everything else that sucks. I WIN.     

And THIS TIME I know in advance about the unlimited cotton candy, and if you think I'm not already dreaming about how much freakin cotton candy I'm going to slam...you're wrong. It's gonna be insaaaaaaane!!