2011

I may be a day early in saying this, but I wont have a chance to post it tomorrow, so........

I am VERY ready to close the book on 2010 and start fresh with hope in 2011. This past year has been a whirlwind for us and while a lot of the negative events tend to stick out in my mind, there were definitely some good times as well. So rather than dwell on the bad, here are some of the good that 2010 brought for us:

*Our first year of marriage :)

*Husband graduated in May

*Husband got a new job

*We took some amazing trips (Vegas, California, and River Floating!)

......and best of all, I learned to find peace just enjoying time with our current little family: me, Husband, and the 2 pups!

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2011! :)

Christmas Recap

Whew......Now that the holiday season is finally coming to an end, I feel like I am finally getting my life back! Between shopping, holiday parties, weddings, family gatherings, doctor appointments, etc I was running around non-stop these past 2 months!

Now that everything is over, I can say that we had quite a fun filled holiday season!

Here's some pics from over the holidays-- I really wish I had taken more :(

Some of my work family-- I love every single person that I work with and am so blessed to have them in my life :)

Me with Husband's grandma, my MIL, and some other girls in the family

And, of course, I just HAVE to show everyone what I got for Christmas (Husband really outdid himself this year!)................

Yep, its my pride and joy right now- I have been walking up to every person I know and asking them if they are as much in love with it as I am :)

The only downfall to our holiday season was that we are still without Baby Hill. I completed a round of treatment 2 weeks before Christmas and once again we were let down with the results (which has contributed to my absence here). Our doctor even spoke of the 3 letters we have been dreading........IVF. While we dont have to jump to it right away, he said he would like for us to at least begin discussing it as a possibility. Husband and I have thought about it a lot these past couple of weeks and we are definitely warming to the idea, but still have some concerns with that type of treatment. I would love to hear from any of you that have gone through IVF!

Send Some Love to Taylor!

Ok, this is going to be short and sweet because I have had a long day, so here it goes........

I know most of you are already friends with and follow Taylor's blog at The Undomestic Momma, BUT if you dont or if you havent visited her page recently please go send her some love and prayers! She is going through a lot right now and I cannot tell you what a wonderful, strong woman she is! Most of you already know that from reading her blog, but I am lucky enough to be friends with her in my everyday life (outside of blogging) and she is just as sweet, funny and kind in person!


I wont go into details here- I'll let you go to her page and read all about it in case you haven't already :)

Gone for some retail therapy........

So, I officially sound like a broken record :( Every month we go through the same cycle: start treatment, get our hopes up, go to daily doctor appointments, encounter lots of needles, get the bad news, then Cait does a lot of shopping. Well, we are at the shopping part right about now........

I had another appointment this morning (at 7 am- yuck!) and it seems this cycle of treatment will likely be a bust. I am not even sure we will be able to try an IUI this time. Instead of growing follicles- my ovaries somehow got it backwards and have now decided to start shrinking them! Yes shrinking!! I did not even know that was possible- especially considering I have been injecting meds into my body to speed up the growing process!! The doctor is supposed to call me later today to let me know what our game plan from here will be- but I knew it wasnt a good sign when all the nurses I encountered were scratching their heads trying to figure out what to tell me! It seems I have become some sort of science experiment because every time we try something with treatment my body does the exact opposite of what it should do! I think I have now stumped everyone in my specialist's office!

So with that being said, Husband has been instructed to take me on a very nice date night tonight and in the meantime I will be making best friends with our ATM card :)

Wedding Bells and Sonograms!

Yep, thats exactly what my weekend consisted of!

One of my besties got married this weekend and both Husband and I were in the wedding- it was here in Dallas, so it was nice to get away for 2 days, but not have to actually worry about traveling.

The wedding extravaganza started Friday evening with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The dinner was held at a nice steakhouse in downtown and we enjoyed some yummy steak, potatoes, cheesecake and creme brulee!

Here we are with the excited couple- soon to be Mr and Mrs!!

All of the girls- after a full day of making ourselves pretty :) The theme was a winter wedding so notice our fur wraps over the dresses!

Me and Husband in the limo on the way to the reception- yes, my eyes looked HUGE all night, thanks to some fake lashes (not sure if that was a good thing or bad thing)

Having some fun at the reception :)

My weekend then ended with a very early doctor appointment Sunday morning. The good news is that the sonogram was neither good nor bad. This is what we saw:

If you look carefully in the upper left corner you will see that the tech noted that there are 17 follicles they are watching- yes, 17! And this is only on one ovary- there were about 20 on the other side. While this may sound like wonderful news, it can actually end up being bad at some point. Here's our dilemma: without the injections I do not ovulate at all on my own, but with the injections we end up with 20 follicles per ovary that start to grow- which is not safe. Not to mention I would prefer to not be the next celebrity mom for having 20+ kids!

So I'll be going back bright and early tomorrow for another sono and more bloodwork (as usual) and in the meantime we will just hope that the injections work their magic!

We Got The All Clear :)

Today's doctor visit went great! The sono looked perfect and we were given the "green light" to begin injections tonight! We are going to do the same exact routine as last time (daily injections and sono's every couple of days leading up to IUI), with the exception of the injection dosages being slightly higher these first couple of days. Hopefully the extra dosage amounts will be just what we need in order for this IUI to be successful!

After receiving the good news, Husband and I enjoyed a fun day together:

We had lunch, grabbed some ice cream......


......and finished off with some shopping at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack :)

Our next doctor appointment is bright and early on Sunday!

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!

Happy Weekend and Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has some great plans for the weekend! Sadly, I am not dressing up this year :( We dont even have any great plans for the holiday- probably just passing out some candy to the trick-or-treaters. BUT I am looking forward to some other fun things we have planned for the weekend: tonight we will be celebrating my father in law's bday and tomorrow night we are going to have a night out with some of our best friends. Oh and I almost forgot the best part of this weekend- lots and lots of shopping! Husband's bonus check this month was more than we anticipated and you know what that means- I am hitting the mall :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful AND SAFE! weekend!

What I've Been Up To.........

Wow, its been quite a few days since I last posted! I had such a busy weekend and am just now getting a second to breathe..........

My entire weekend consisted of putting together THE PERFECT wedding shower and bachelorette party for one of my besties! They both turned out to be a huge success and I, of course, have to share the pics with all of you!

I didnt get too many pictures from the wedding shower because most of the time I was running around playing hostess, but here are some of the pretty decorations:

Picture of the groom and bride with some beautiful flowers

Our food table



The adorable cupcakes I ordered for the shower

Once the shower was complete, I was able to let loose and enjoy myself for the bachelorette party!

The beautiful bride and me

Our bachelorette party girls- ready for a wild night out in Dallas

We enjoyed oursevles at dinner,

Had some fun in the limo,

And got a little crazy dancing at some bars

What a great night out! :)

I enjoyed spending several hours this morning catching up on all of your blogs as well- I missed all of you over the past couple of days!

Day 12 and the Weekend!

Todays topic for the blogger challange is What Do You Believe?

I believe:

Husband is my perfect match

laughter is the key to a lasting relationship

my family consists of the most amazing people

shopping is the best way to have fun

being nice to others goes a long way

you should say I Love You every day

But most importantly, I believe that Husband and I are ready to be parents and that there is a reason for our struggle; that this hardship is making us stronger and has helped us realize what is truly important to us in life.

I hope everyone has a great weekend to look forward to! Mine will consist of throwing a wedding shower and bachelorette party for one of my besties!

I have been planning this weekend for a long time and cannot wait to see everything come together! I have so much shopping to do today for the big event tomorrow :) Pictures will be coming your way!

Something You're Afraid of........

Hmm.....what am I not afraid of? That would probably be an easier question for me :)

Here are some of the things that scare me:

Spiders



Crickets


....basically any kind of bug- I cant kill them either when I find one in the house. Last night I found a cricket in the kitchen- I tried forever to get the dogs to kill it for me, but they werent interested in it at all. So instead I ended up putting a cup over it and waiting for Husband to get home :)

People touching my neck- I know, its very weird. I cannot stand people touching my neck! Whenever I watch a scary movie I have to wrap my hands around my neck to "protect" it. And when I go to sleep at night I pull the blankets up around my neck so that it is covered and "protected" while I sleep.

The dark. Yep, I still act like a 5 year old if all the lights are out. I go into full panic mode if I am ever trapped in a dark room- which Husband thinks is funny to do sometimes.

Small spaces. Especially if other people are in them- aka elevators. I get very claustrophobic in these type of places.

So, yes, I am a big fat scared-y cat (or however you spell it). I also get scared when I am home alone and the list goes on and on, but I will just leave it with the ones above.

Go to Katie's blog to link up and play along in the blogger challange!

Day 8

Today's topic for the blogger challange...........A Place You've Traveled To:

You guys already know all about my most recent trip- Vegas- so I've pulled some pictures from our big trip from last year......our honeymoon!! We took an amazing Caribbean cruise and visited St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, St Thomas, Dominica, and St Kitts- this was the MOST AMAZING trip ever and I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves beautiful beaches!

Beautiful Dominica:

Overlooking St Thomas:

Ignore my silly arms in this pic- just look at how clear the water is! This was Barbados:

Boating and Kayaking in Antigua:

And playing with some local monkeys in St Kitts:

Looking at all of these pictures really makes me want to go back- or at least go on another trip somewhere! :( I think I may spend the rest of the night on Expedia..........

Days 6 and 7

Oops! I didnt get a chance to post yesterday, so here is Day 6: a picture that makes you happy......

My sweet little family:

We are just missing a "little one" to make us complete!


Day 7 is all about Your Favorite Movie- I dont have just one movie that is my favorite, but here are the ones that I can continue to watch over and over and still love every single time:

I still have to watch Elf every holiday season and it still makes me laugh hysterically every time I see it!

I am looking forward to reading everyone's answers for the 30 Day Blogger Challange!