Day 22 - A website

I spend a lot of time on thebump.com. There is a lot of good advice and people I can relate to on some of the message boards.

It's finally here!

After 146 days of waiting and waiting and waiting, it's finally here! Bring on round #5 of C.lomid. I'm not very optimistic that it will work on the first try but it would be nice if it would. I've already mapped it out on the calendar and found that Evan will be gone for our shot in November. I guess there's always December and a month or two after that before deployment. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers please. I'm happy to be back in TTC mode again.

Also, my appointment at the doctor on Friday went well. I was kind of wary about going to another off-post doctor but this guy is pretty awesome. He's friendly, kind, and seems to be very knowledgeable about PCOS. I explained to him our timeline dilemma so he's going to call in my referral to see another RE so we can explore other options just in case I'm not pregnant again before Evan leaves. I should hear back from his office by the end of the week so hopefully getting a consult with the new doctor doesn't take 2 months like it did when we were stationed in Arizona. I'm ready for things to turn around for us. My due date is fast approaching and we haven't even had the opportunity to try again. I'm going to try and pretend that October 13th doesn't exist.

Day 21 - A recipe

One of my new vegetarian favorites

Black bean lasagna (taken from allreceipes.com)

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (16 ounce) cans black beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, cook the lasagna noodles 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
2. In a bowl, blend the ricotta cheese and egg, and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 3-quart baking dish with cooking spray.
3. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, and saute the onion, green bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Mash 1 can of black beans. Stir mashed black beans, whole black beans, and tomato sauce into skillet, and cook until heated through.
4. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles in the bottom of the prepared baking dish, and layer with 1/3 each of the ricotta mixture, black bean mixture, and mozzarella cheese. Repeat twice.
5. Bake 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Day 20 - A hobby of yours

Hobbies are much easier to come up with than talents are for me. I'd write about baking but that was covered in my last post. My other main hobbies are reading and working out. I LOVE books. Evan made me get a library card a few years ago because we were spending too much money at Barnes and Noble. I just finished reading 2 books over the past 3 days. When a book is good, I can sit and devour the whole book in one sitting.

I also love to go to the gym and get in a great workout. I started spinning about 2 and a half years ago and fell in love immediately. I spin 3 to 4 times a week for an hour and it is the best workout I have ever done. I also started taking a muscles class recently. We work out each muscle group for about 5 to 8 minutes with barbells and bands. It is a great, new challenge. I'm hoping to tone up a little bit by the time Evan gets home from his training.

Day 19 - A talent of yours

I don't really have any talents - I have things that I'm good at though. According to my husband, I am a wonderful cook and baker. I wasn't always handy in the kitchen but ever since we got married, I've become quite the chef and baker. I would love to take some cake decorating classes so I can make all my baked goods look pretty. Maybe that will be one of my deployment hobbies...

(Turkey cupcakes - Thanksgiving 2009)

Day 18 - My wedding

Evan and I got married in Lancaster, PA on December 16, 2006. I can't believe that we'll be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary in a few months. It's crazy how time flies by so quickly.

We had a traditional church wedding in Evan's childhood church. Our reception followed in downtown Lancaster. My best friend, Megan was my maid of honor. Evan's sisters, Aubrey and my college roommate, Amy were my bridesmaids. Evan's adopted sister, Rosie, was our flower girl. Evan's best man was his high school best friend, Darin. Evan's brother, Adam and Evan's high school friend, Mike rounded out the bridal party. We preferred to keep the bridal party small since we were planning the wedding long distance. The bridesmaids wore beautiful, long red dresses and I wore a traditional white wedding dress with red accents.




I remember how warm it was on our special day. It was mid-December and it was around 65 degrees for the entire day. We took some nice pictures inside and outside of the church before taking a limo ride over to the reception site. Evan and I danced to "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel for our first dance. The reception was wonderful - great food, great music, and of course great company.




The day and night flew by so I'm glad that we have so many pictures to remember it. 2 days later we left for our honeymoon - an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

Day 17 - An art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)

Monet - "Water Lilies"

Day 16 - A song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Not too many songs make me want to cry but this home hits home....

"Just a Dream" - Carrie Underwood

A song about unexpected loss. Being a military spouse, I pray to God that this never happens.

Back in the (blogging) saddle again

We made it across the country (again)! I can't believe we did that drive a little over 5 months ago. I never, ever want to drive cross-country again. We started out at Ft. Huachuca and made our first stop in Albuquerque, NM. I did a little but of research beforehand and found a great Mexican place to have dinner at. We ate in the downtown area and then stopped at a local candy store and bought a few chocolate covered pretzels for dessert. They were wonderful! We got on the road early the next morning and headed off to Oklahoma City, OK. I guess I didn't research the area enough here because our hotel was definitely in a bad area. We decided to stay in for the evening with the dogs so Evan ran out to pick up dinner. Out third driving day took us to Memphis, TN. I wish we would have been able to go sightseeing there because there looked like there was so much to do. It's definitely on the list of places we want to visit in the future. We had a great dinner at a local BBQ restaurant and then got a good night's sleep for our longest driving day. The next day, we drove to Asheville, NC which is about 4 hours outside of Fayetteville. We went to Subway and headed back to the hotel so we could watch the Eagles home opener. Unfortunately for us, they lost (but they won yesterday). We arrived in Fayetteville on Monday just in time for our final walk-through of the house. We closed that afternoon and started moving in right away. Our household goods came the following day. Unpacking went smoothly but we did find a lot of things that were damaged. We're in the process of filing claims to have them fixed or replaced so hopefully everything is back to normal soon. We have some things that need to be hung but other than that, we're pretty settled in already.

I went back to the gym on Wednesday. It was great to see some old friends that I met while we were stationed at Ft. Benning. I felt so lonely out in Arizona because we didn't know anyone when we got there and we weren't there long enough to make any good friends. The spin classes are awesome and I'm going to start taking a body pump class tomorrow. I haven't done body pump since the miscarriage, so we'll see how it goes. I bet I'm going to be sore!

I have my first doctor's appointment on Friday. I was referred off-post unfortunately because there were no available on-post doctors. I'm hoping to get my referrals for OB/GYN as well as an RE referral so we can continue our infertility journey.

Day 15 - Your dream house

My dream house would probably be quite similar to the house we just moved in to. However, it would be a little bit bigger. My house now has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It has a nice, updated kitchen with ceramic tile floors, stainless steel appliances, and granite countertops. We have a huge master bedroom with a great walk-in closet. We also have a screened-in porch and a privacy fence so the dogs can run and play in the backyard. The only things I would change about the house are the location and another bedroom. When Evan retires from the military, we hope to move back to Lancaster County. The area is beautiful, we have family and friends there, and the school district will be great for our future children.

A quick update

Evan and I are in the middle of a cross-country move so I'm taking a short hiatus from the daily blog journal. We started out in Arizona yesterday and stopped in Albuquerque, NM for the night. We got on the road again early this morning and arrived in Oklahoma City, OK a few hours ago. We're in a bad part of town and we didn't want to leave the dogs alone in the hotel room so Evan ran out for some Chick-Fil-A. Not a bad dinner :) Tomorrow we'll be making our way to Memphis, TN. I already did some research and found a great BBQ place to try out for dinner. On Sunday we'll be stopping in Asheville, NC. We're hoping to get there by 4:00 so we can watch the Eagles home opener! I'm so excited for football season. I'm also excited to be closing on our house on Monday. In a few short days, we'll be first time homeowners.

In other news, I stopped into the hospital for my last doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I had asked my doctor if she would give me the progesterone shot. She said she'd be happy to... if they had it. Apparently the hospital (and Sierra Vista in general) doesn't have access to any type of hormone therapy. Just another wrench in our infertility battle. I now have to wait until we get to NC. She suggested that I try to get in with OB/GYN if I can't get an immediate appointment with the new RE. What's another possible 2 to 3 weeks of waiting in the grand scheme of things. Ugh....

I hate my body

Cycle day 128! WTF??? My body temperature dropped about 4 days ago which should have meant that AF was on her way but so far nothing. I have an appointment with my doctor on post tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she will go ahead and give me the progesterone shot like RE has suggested. This is so frustrating! Knowing that Evan will be gone for a whole month is making me more and more nervous everyday that things aren't going to work out before deployment. We're planning on heading over to the hospital in NC on Tuesday afternoon after we receive our household goods. Praying that it doesn't take forever to get in with the new doctor because we need to start moving things along quickly.

Day 14 - A non-fictional book

I've really been into memoirs for the past 3 years or so and my favorite author from this genre is Jen Lancaster. Her books are witty, clever, and sarcastic. They also make me laugh out loud randomly which is kind of embarrassing sometimes but I love them all the same. Check her out!

Day 13 - A fictional book

Two words...

HARRY POTTER

Day 12 - Something you are OCD about

There are quite a few things that I'm OCD about but I suppose the one thing that bothers me the most is when things aren't put in their place. I think my biggest pet peeve is when my husband leaves his clothes in a pile in the middle of the bedroom floor. Is it so hard to pick up the clothes and walk the 100 feet to the laundry room to drop them off in the basket? I think not!

A break from the daily blog journal

I thought I'd take a few moments to write up a regular blog entry in addition to the daily blog journal entry. I finished up my last day of work on Tuesday. The ladies treated me to a pizza lunch and gave me a few going away presents. The kids are too little to understand that I wouldn't be coming in the next day to play with them but I'll still miss them the same. I have to stop in next Tuesday to pick up some paperwork so I'll stop in the room to get my hugs from my favorite little girls.

The packers and movers came yesterday and today to gather up our personal belongings. We were told that we should receive our things around September 14th which would work out perfectly since we close on the house on the 13th. We are 11 days away from becoming homeowners! We can't wait to get into the house and start getting things set up.

I had my last RE appointment here last Thursday. I took my charts in to show the doctor and he said that I definitely didn't ovulate for the past 3 months. Not a total shocker but disappointing nonetheless. He decided to up my dosage of M.etformin from 1,000 mg a day to 2,000 mg a day to see if that will help my body out. My body is still adjusting to the change in dosage. I've been very nauseous and light-headed at times but it gets better everyday. He also gave me the go ahead to try the C.lomid again since I responded to it the last time. Still no signs of AF so I need to go into my primary care doctor on Tuesday for a shot of progesterone. It looks like Evan and I will not have much time to conceive because of an upcoming deployment. He will be gone for a month of training this winter then will deploy for 6 months to a year at the beginning of next year. We have discussed IUI and have come to the conclusion that it will be the best option for starting our family since we only will have a few months to try before he leaves. Now that we have a personal plan of action, I hope that I can get in to see the RE in NC before Evan leaves for his training. I hope he is also on board with what we want to do.

Day 11 - A photo of myself recently

One of my favorite pictures of me and my hubby :)

Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you

I don't have any pictures that are 10 years old on this computer. I believe this was taken in 2002 while I was in college. It'll have to do.