Yep, Im Back.......and here's what happened:

Long time, no blog, right? I know, its been FOREVER since I was last on here and believe me, it was not intentional! Remember a couple posts back when I mentioned Husband and I had decided to take a month off of treatment to destress? Well, to be honest I did not realize how badly I had needed that time away from everything.........including blogging.

Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love blogging- I love the friendships I have made through this, I love the release of writing things that are on my mind, and I love being able to get wonderful advice from wonderful people! But, the time away was necessary. The whole "Baby Hill Situation" was starting to take a major toll on me and I definitely did not want to end up posting post after post of how sad, angry, frustrated I was.

I think the main factor that contributed to this "get away" time was this realization: a lot of my friends and acquaitances are now expecting or planning for baby #2, I cant even get baby #1. And trust me, I hated having these types of thoughts. I told myself early on that I would face our fertility challange in a positive way and not bring myself or others down because of it. But I think I have learned a lot from this reflective time and I feel a lot better now because of it.

So, Husband and I are very happy to announce that we are moving forward with treatment once again! I am very excited to be going back to our specialist for an appointment this week and (pending his approval) we will pick back up with the daily injections. Our fingers are crossed that this will lead to IUI #2! And, of course, this means I will have much to blog about as we start this whole process over again!

Oh, and I thought I would share this picture with you all (it was taken on Thanksgiving)- just to prove to you that I am still alive! :)

Im off to read your blogs- I have missed you all! :)

Top 2 Tuesday!

Geez, its been a couple weeks since I last did Top 2 Tuesday! I am excited to finally join back in again! This weeks topic is Top 2 Favorite Jobs:

1) My current job (which I have briefly talked about before): working in a dental office

I know, cheese-y picture, but it made me smile :) 3 days a week I spend my time with the most wonderful people! I work in a family run dental practice and help with all aspects of the front office/business needs: filing insurance claims and payments, going through accounts, scheduling patients, helping with any events, etc. This job is so different from anything that I have ever done before and I would have never guessed that I would end up in the dental field (I had my eyes set on the fashion industry!!), but I would not trade it for anything! I love having 4 days off each week (for shopping!) and love my work family!


2) The job I sometimes miss: before joining the "dental world" I used to spend my days working here:

Yes, I worked at my favorite store (and the 2nd love in my life, after Husband!). I used to sleep, eat and breathe everything Nordstrom! For almost 3 years I was able to shop as part of my job and eventually I ended up becoming an Assistant Manager for women's clothing in their largest Dallas location. This job was amazing: each day I got emails on the latest trends, discussed issues with buyers, went shopping throughout the mall to scope out the competition, and got to decide where the all the merchandise was placed. The ONLY downfall with this job was the amount of hours required as one of the managers- when I would come home at the end of the day, work came with me. I would end up making schedules and putting together spreadsheets on my days off and that was after already putting in 50 hour work weeks. I ended up giving up my dream of moving up the ladder to Buyer so that Husband and I could start a family (which we are still working on......). Leaving this job was one of the hardest decisions, but there is nothing more important to me right now than starting a family.

Link up at Taylor's blog so I can read about all of your favorite jobs!

Staycation!

I cannot explain to you how excited I am for this weekend! I am continuing with my plan to de-stress, so Husband took a 4 day weekend so that we can relax together! At first we had planned on going somewhere for a weekend getaway, but I couldnt decide where to go and then before I knew it the weekend snuck up on me and I never made reservations anywhere :( So now our plan is to have a wonderful "staycation"! I am very much looking forward to trying some new restaurants, seeing new things, and of course, relaxing with some shopping!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend ahead!

Fun Times at the Farm!

So, here is the reason I have been gone for so long...........I spent a wonderful long weekend relaxing at our family farm :)

My grandma, aunt, cousin and I all took a girls road trip to my uncles farm in Arkansas this past weekend for some time to relax and enjoy ourselves. It was the most perfect trip and just what I needed- I just wish we could have stayed even longer!!

I started my morning off with what I called my "farm breakfast": barley, cream, walnuts and fresh raspberries! I didnt even realize you could eat barley, but it was delicious!


Our first day there, my cousin and I realized we were dressed alike :) (Notice the guns on the wall in the background)


My uncle has THE MOST BEAUTIFUL property! It is so relaxing to wake up every morning and see this view outside!

Each morning, dressed in our pajamas and sweatshirts and holding our cups of coffee, we would go out to see all of the animals:

We would play with the cows for a bit:

Then head on over to the horses:

.....and then finish with the chickens (and peacocks!)

As a kid I used to visit the farm every year, but lately I have been so busy that I have not been up there for several years- I completely forgot how relaxing it is there! After this weekend, I came home begging Husband to let us buy some land up there and build a cute little farm house :) He's not going for it yet, but he seems to be warming up to the idea! The only problem I see is where would I go shopping?? But I guess thats what online shopping is for, right? :)

Our Very Hard Decision.......

Over the past couple of days, Husband and I were forced to make a very hard decision regarding our pursuit for Baby Hill. Now that I am cyst free (once again) we were given the option to start again with treatment and attempt IUI #2. However, after many long talks, Husband and I have decided we will be waiting another month before moving forward.

There were many factors that led us to this decision: 1)my crazy schedule for the next couple of weeks does not allow much room for constantly being in a doctor's office 2)this gives us some extra time to save more money for treatments 3)we will have a couple weeks to just focus on US for a bit without the drama of fertility treatments

But, most importantly, I am going to try to take the next couple of weeks as a time to de-stress. The constant worry of "are we going to get pregnant?" and the constant pills, shots, tests, etc have really started to take a toll on me lately and as Husband so delicately put it my stress is now starting to stress him out too!

I am hoping this is the right decision, I am hoping we do not take a step backwards by using this "down time", and I am really, really hoping that after having a couple of weeks to relax my body will fully cooperate with treatments.

I have already had several people tell me this is just what my body needs right now and that it will probably end up helping us get pregnant, but right now I can only hope they are right!