a link-up, a storm, a bad choice, & a funny picture

First of all- hello to any visitors from Kelly's Korner! Today is her annual (semi-annual?) Show us Your Life: Infertility blog carnival...I always enjoy participating and meeting new friends to commiserate with on this crappy journey. Ha. Normally I do a nice little write-up about my personal infertility 'journey' (lamest terminology ever, but what else can I call it?), but I just can't muster up the energy for that today. I'll give you a quick summary and links instead. My husband and I are 31 (me) and 30 (him) and have been TTC since December 2008. I have stage III endometriosis and he has male factor infertility. We've gone through a (small) variety of infertility treatments, mostly in 2010. In 2012 we each had surgery for our respective issues. In November 2013 we had a failed adoption after three days with our daughter. That pretty much brings us up to speed. We're still figuring out what's next.

I blame my lack of energy (both physical and emotional) on two things today:

1) We had a HUGE FREAKING STORM overnight. Georgia's really going all out this month, I tell ya. Let's count up the weather phenomena she's blessed us with: snow and ice storm, earthquake, gorgeous spring, now a July-esque storm (complete with tornado watch!)...really. Really. During the summer I get used to the storms and can sleep through them. But my February self isn't accustomed to such disturbances and therefore stayed awake for the whole shebang. Delightful! (Also, sorry that this has basically turned into a meteorologist blog (is that even a genre? Wouldn't that be awesome?) the past few weeks. If the weather wasn't so varied and interesting, I wouldn't talk about it so much...promise.)

2) I made the mistake awesome life choice of taking the interval (Tabata-method) class again yesterday. I know, I know. I never learn. I was crying and dry heaving approximately 8 minutes into class, so...you can just imagine how well the following 52 minutes went. Now my whole entire body is broken (please refer to the Pain Map from the last time I whined about this) and I may never be able to move again. IT HURT TO PUT ON MY EYE MAKEUP THIS MORNING. I mean, this is really not okay. Dumb, dumb, dumb. 

Due to my compromised physical and mental state, I'm about to let myself slide and break my own Cardinal Sin: sharing a picture I already posted on Instagram. I hope you can forgive me.

This was my selection for Throwback Thursday on Instagram yesterday (P.S. Any longtime readers of this blog or Allison's blog want to argue that Allison basically invented this phenomenon with her Way Back When-sday? I mean...just saying...we were doing this long before Instagram was invented.). I came across this magnificent picture while visiting my grandparents' house in Texas last week. 

In case it's not perfectly obvious, that is me in red. I'm sitting in my dad's lap. The other four handsome gents are my dad's brothers.

I think this picture is freaking amazing. I was the first child/niece/grandchild in that family and judging by pictures like this...I was worshiped by all. It's hard to know what to focus on first in the picture: the amazing 80s suits? The mustaches? The way my uncle Tim is holding my finger? The fact that I was (gorgeous as) a blonde? Or how about how weird it is that whomever was calling the shots decided that a good photo grouping would be the five brothers and the daughter/niece? And not...say...the wives? Or at least the mother of the baby? I dunno. I can see this particular photo arrangement happening (maybe) if we were all sitting around at Christmas, taking tons of snapshots of different arrangements of people...but to decide to get everyone dressed up and go to Olan Mills for the Family Portrait? Kinda strange. But awesome just the same. Anyway. Do you think this picture and the feelings of adoration heaped upon me (for the 2 years until I was joined by a passel of siblings and cousins) somehow seeped into my psyche and led me to believe, 25 years later, that I should probably start a blog? HA. But maybe.

That's all I've got. It's Friday- YAY. I'm preparing to host the very first (organizational) meeting of my book club this weekend! There's been no actual reading of books yet...we're basically just meeting to discuss forming one, make some guidelines (I guess?), eat snacks, and pick a book to read for our first month! I'm excited...but I also have to clean the house, which is somewhat less exciting. Feel free to give me your best book club advice/book picks if you have any...we're all newbies, so I'm sure we'll take all the help we can get! Have a happy weekend!