This about sums it up

I came across this on M's blog and found that this totally describes this whole infertility situation. I wonder how many things I could actually check off. At least half of them...

Back to square one. Again.

I woke up this morning to a HUGE temperature drop thats falls way below my coverline on my chart, cramps, and a BFN. I guess the universe is giving me a big F U this morning. I'm so mad and sad and pissed off right now. I was so positive that this would be our cycle. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. I feel like such a failure. I guess all I can do is wait for AF to show up either today or tomorrow, call the doctor to find out my injectable dosage, and start the injectables on cycle day 3 for my first IUI cycle. Life sucks.

Some inspiration

I was talking to a friend yesterday who just announced that she's 12 weeks pregnant. Totally jealous but definitely happy for her. Anyway, she told me that she recently started to say a prayer to St. Gerard to help her achieve pregnancy. I wanted to find out some more information on him. St. Gerard is the patron saint of expectant mothers (Patron saints exist in the Catholic Church). He is considered to be the patron saint of expectant mothers because a miracle was performed through his prayers for a woman in labor. I found a prayer that is written to him.

O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters ofbaptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I've been saying my own prayers for awhile now so maybe adding this one will help? I'm so lost anymore when it comes to this aspect of my life. I'll take anyone's suggestions at this point.

Milspouse Friday Fill-In #9

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. This long week is almost over with!

Well it's Friday and that means it's time for the Milspouse Friday Fill-In. If you'd like more information about the fill-in or you'd like to link up your blog, head over to Wife of a Sailor's blog!

1. If you were a famous movie star, what types of movies would you star in?

I love all types of movies, except horror, so I'd like to be one of those versatile actresses that can do romantic comedies, comedies, drama, and action movies.

2. What is a vacation that you would like to take if money were no object?

I'd be jumping all over the place if I could go anywhere. I'd go to Hawaii, England, Ireland, Germany, Australia, and Alaska. I'm dreaming big here!

3. Did you have pets growing up?

I always wanted a dog but my parents got me a rabbit instead. Our rabbit was nice but I love having my dogs so much more.

4. What do you do for exercise?

I have a specific weekly routine.... Monday, Wednesday, Friday - spinning

Tuesday, Thursday - muscles class

Saturday and Sunday - elliptical machine at home

When it starts to get warmer, I'd love to run 2 to 3 miles outside after my muscles class

5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever received as a Milspouse?

Be flexible! Plans can change in a moments notice so don't get too stressed out about it. I can't count how many times Evan was supposed to be home by a certain time and didn't get home until 4 or 5 hours later. Training and deployments schedules also get switched around and extended so I've learned to accept that he'll be home when gets home.

Tap in Thursdays #1

Whoa my third post today! I decided to join in with another blog hop - Tap in Thursdays. Here's some information...

What is Tap in Thursdays?

Taps is the "lights out" song heard around every military instillation at 5pm. The way we see it, we hopefully have a place we call home at that time. Since home is where the military sends us, we thought this phrase was fitting! We want to know about the area where you call home.

This meme will be something brand new and exciting. We haven't seen anything like it before. We want to help all of us military spouses who have to PCS in a moment's notice. We want to provide the information before hand to make things a little less complicated. Every Thursday, we will have a list of questions about where you have lived and the experiences living there. You do not have to say whether you currently live there or not.

If you'd like to join in and link up your blog, head over to the Army Strong Spouses blog!

Here are this week's questions...

1. Name an installation you have ben stationed at.

Fort Benning, GA

2. Did/do you live on or off post?

We lived on post while we were stationed at Benning. We lived in a brick, ranch-style house. We ended up with a 4 bedroom house that had way more space then we needed!

3. What would you recommend for newcomers to do about housing?

If you can't get into housing on-post, I would suggest looking at apartments or houses to rent in either Phenix City, AL or somewhere in Columbus, GA past exit 7. Anything closer to post isn't that great. Phenix City is a good option because the housing prices a little cheaper and it's an easy drive to the back gate.

4. Where is an inexpensive place you can stay off-post while waiting for on-post living?

There are a few extended stay hotels that are located on Victory Drive - about a 5 to 10 minute drive to post depending on traffic. We stayed in on-post lodging and found it to be cheaper than what the off-post hotels were offering.

5. How is the housing office? Do you have any recommendations or specific people to speak with?

Honestly, I hated dealing with the housing office. They weren't helpful in most situations. It took forever to get maintenance out when we needed them - even in emergency situations. They didn't seem to care about the mold problem that we were constantly having in our master bathroom. They also messed up our BAH when we had PCSed to our next duty station.

6. How is the wait list?

Since a lot of officers are stationed at Benning for the Captain's career course, officer housing opens up fairly quickly. We only had to wait a week for our house to become available. As far as enlisted housing goes, I'm not too sure. I do know that the wait lists for the brand new housing were fairly long when we were there.

Blizzard Blog Hop

Welcome fellow bloggers! Thankfully, we're not getting any snow down here in NC but I know a bunch of you northerners are!

Let me introduce myself...

My name is Lauren and I'm 28 years old. I'm a proud Army wife, mommy to my 2 dogs, and a full time college student for the 3rd time. I'm pursuing my elementary education teaching certification through Drexel University online. My goal is to become a kindergarten teacher and possibly work as a reading specialist/reading recovery teacher after being in the classroom for a few years. I've been married to my soldier for a little over 4 years now but we've been together for about 8 years. In the past year, we've lived in 3 different states. I'm glad to say that we won't be PCSing again for a few years. I love reading, watching movies, the Philadelphia Eagles and spinning. I blog about random things happening in my life and my struggles with infertility and miscarriage. I would like to start blogging more about being a military spouse in the near future.

Hope you enjoy what you read and I'm looking forward to finding new blogs to follow!

Adventures in baking

Evan is coming home soon, so I thought I would make him some cookies as a surprise. I haven't baked anything since right before the holidays, so it was nice to get back into the kitchen. If anyone is interested in how to make these cookies, here is the recipe.

M&M cookies

(What you'll need)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup flour (I use whole wheat)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg (I use 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1 cup M&M's (I use the dark chocolate variety)

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 350 degress.

Grind up rolled oats in a blender then transfer to a medium bowl.

To the oats, stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat butter until fluffy.

Add oil, sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla to butter.

Beat until smooth.

Combine dry ingredients with wet.

Stir in M&M's.

Drop tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes then cool on wire rack.

Enjoy :)

(My favorite!)

(The completed batter)

(Ready for the oven)

(The finished product)

Wordless Wednesday

(photo credit)

To Twitter or not to Twitter?

I've been debating about whether or not to make a Twitter account? It might be nice to try but on the other hand, it might just turn into another tool of procrastination. What do you all think?

What I'm loving right now

I've been talking a whole lot about school and infertility lately so I thought I'd post something totally unrelated to these 2 topics. I've decided to share some things that I've been loving lately.

1. How I Met Your Mother - Evan and I just started watching this show about 2 months ago. So far we've made it through seasons 1 & 2. I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a show. This show is legen... wait for it...dary!

2. Modern Family - Another awesome show that I recently started watching. I love Netflix! The characters are so unique and quirky. I love how awkward Phil is and how sarcastic Claire is. My best friend and I say we channel Claire's personality often. I was so addicted to the first season that I watched it all in a week.

3. Panera Bread - We finally got a Panera here in Fayetteville! I may have a slight obsession with their chicken noodle soup and iced green tea. I actually went over there for lunch yesterday :)

4. Taylor Swift - Now I'm not big on country music or female artists for that matter, but I just downloaded her new album onto my ipod and I think it's absolutely amazing. She's so talented in her singing and songwriting. I really love the songs "Haunted" and "Never Grow Up".

So now that I've told you what I'm loving now, what are some things that you're loving? Any movies, books, music, or television shows I need to check out?

This 2 week wait is going to SUCK!

(photo credit)

According to fertilityfriend, I ovulated on Thursday, which means I've officially entered the 2 week wait. If you've been following my more recent posts, you know that I traveled up to see Evan last Thursday. Hopefully our timing was good enough! I'm 4 days past ovulation today and I refuse to take a pregnancy test until cycle day 32 because that's usually when AF makes her appearance when I'm on C.lomid. It's such a long time to wait but that'll put me at 15 DPO. I shouldn't have any faint lines show up by that point like my last BFP. If I see any faint lines, I know I'll automatically think that I'm having another chemical pregnancy. I can't handle a third miscarriage - I really can't.

I haven't done this in awhile but I decided to check out what my due date would be if I got pregnant this cycle. It turns out that the due date would be October 13. I don't know how to feel about this because that date was the due date for angel baby #1. Maybe it's a good sign? I guess I'll find out in a little under 2 weeks. I know I'm obsessing over this cycle but we move onto the injectables next month if I'm not pregnant this month. I still have a giant bruise on my stomach from when I gave myself the trigger shot. I can't imagine what my stomach will look like if I have to do the injectables for a few weeks. Right now, I'm just going to try and relax, snuggle up with the puppies and enjoy my iced green tea that I got from Panera for lunch. It's going to be a long 2 weeks, isn't it?

Military Monday Blog Hop

I'm participating in another Military Monday Blog Hop. If you would like to join in and link up your blog, head over to April's blog for more information! If you're a new follower to my blog, please leave a comment. I love reading them and getting to know my readers!

I finished my entire to-do list yesterday plus a little more. My last week of Biology and Biology lab starts today. Evan comes home this weekend. And it's supposed to be fairly warm for January here today. Hopefully this is a start to a great week!

Meet and Follow Sunday

It's Sunday which means it's time to take part in Meet and Follow Sunday. Head over to The Thrifty Military Wife's blog to link up your blog and join in the fun. Hello to all my new readers today! Hope you're all having a great weekend. Please leave a comment so I can check out your blog also.

It's so cold here today. I know it's only mid-January but I bet I'm not the only one wishing for some warm, spring weather. On the agenda for today: finishing and submitting my research paper, finished the first season of Modern Family (awesome show - if you haven't checked it out, you should), and watch the Bears/Packers game. I'm kind of sad that football season is coming to a close. I really enjoy watching Eagles games every Sunday with Evan. We do have the Super Bowl to look forward to though in a few weeks!

Spin-a-thon Saturday and other activities

Spin-a-what? Spin-a-thon basically was 3 hours of spinning class. 4 instructors, 45 minutes each. I didn't intend on staying for the whole event but by the time I got halfway through, I figured I might as well stay and finish what I started. We did jumps, hill climbs, sprints, and anything else the instructors could think of. I was a sweaty mess by the end of it and I know my legs will be yelling back at me tomorrow, but I felt good doing it. Who knew that I could be an endurance athlete? I hope they decide to offer this again because I will definitely be back for another butt kicking!

More importantly, I made it up and back to see Evan in one piece. I had to drive home in a pretty heavy snowstorm yesterday but it was definitely worth all the driving. He's only been gone for 2 weeks but I missed the heck out of him. He won't be coming home until next weekend and I already can't wait to see him. I don't know how I'm going to manage this deployment. I don't even want to think about. I hope our traveling paid off. My chart looks good but that unfortunately doesn't mean anything. Keep those prayers coming for a BFP! I know I'm praying and praying and praying every day for this to finally be our month.

I don't really have any other exciting plans for the weekend. Tomorrow starts my final week of Biology and Biology Lab. The class has been a lot of work and I'm so glad that it's almost finished. I'll have one week off and then I start my next undergraduate class - Geography. I hope the workload is less than Biology because I have so much to do for my education classes. Classroom observations start soon so I'm going to have even less free time than before. I have to complete 28 hours - hoping to be able to split it up over 5 or 6 days to get it out of the way. I'd rather spend longer days in the classroom to get it finished faster. I suppose I should stop the procrastinating and get back to homework. The discussion boards await me.

Milspouse Friday Fill-In #8

It's Friday which means two things - the end of another long week and Milspouse Friday Fill-In. Head over to Wife of a Sailor's blog to learn more about the fill-in and to link up your blog.

1. What do you usually want to know about someone when meeting them for the first time?

I guess we're talking about other milspouses? I guess I usually ask some background questions - how long have you been married, where have you been stationed, what do you and your husband do?

2. Would you rather know everything about your spouse or be regularly surprised?

My husband and I are pretty open with each other. We usually tell each other everything. I appreciate honesty and open communication. Also, I don't like surprises :)

3. If you could live in a city for the rest of your life, where would you live?

The plan after Evan retires is to move back to Lancaster, PA. It's a larger town but still has a small town feel in many neighborhoods. My in-laws still live there, my parents and friends from home would be close, and the schools are wonderful.

4. When you go out of town, what one material thing do you always take?

Lately, I've been always taking my laptop so I can stay on top of the never-ending pile of homework.

5. Using no more than 10 nouns, and ONLY nouns, describe yourself.

wife, milspouse, student, teacher, friend, daughter, sister, bicycle, music, animals

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Is it too much to ask to see one of these again at the end of this cycle?

I can't believe I did it

My follow up appointment with Dr. P was this morning. We did another ultrasound and blood draw. He reviewed the ultrasound results and was happy with the follicles. I was told that if I could go see Evan on Thursday, then I should go ahead and give myself the trigger shot tonight. Nurse D. showed me how to give myself the needle, wished me luck, and sent me on my way. Since Evan isn't involved in any training exercises until the weekend, he decided to ask his commander if he could take Thursday and Friday morning off so we could meet up. I guess his commander was sympathetic to our situation because he said yes! It's a miracle that he's getting a day off for this. We're going to meet halfway between here and there which means about 5 hours of driving for me. I better load up the Ipod with some new tunes. I'm so thankful that we have been given this opportunity. I just hope our timing is right!

So the needle... I was psyching myself out all night at the thought of having to stick myself in the stomach. After some great reassuring text messages and moral support from a few friends, I worked up enough courage to go through with it. I put Evan on speaker phone and he didn't prove to be much help. I was literally shaking as I was prepping the area and he's shouting "Don't be a wimp - just do it!" Thanks. I did it and honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, I don't want to do it again. If this cycle turns out to be a bust, I have about 2 weeks worth of injections to look forward to. Any extra thoughts and prayers would be appreciated in the next couple of weeks. I really, really, really hope that this is our month.

Military Monday Blog Hop

It's Monday which means it's also the Military Monday Blog Hop. Head over to April's page to link up your blog. If you're a new follower to the blog - welcome! Please feel free to leave a comment so I can follow your blog. I love getting to know my new readers.

Some goals for the day:

Go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather! It's supposed to start getting cold here again later in the week and I want to soak up the sun while I can.

Go to spin class even though it's at a later time than usual. Most of post is closed due to the holiday but the Air Force gym is open and having classes. I need to get my spin on!

Walk the dogs for at least a half hour. They've been cooped up in the house for so long because of the cold and snow. They definitely need to walk some of this crazy energy off.

Start working on my first research paper for one of my education classes. It's on a topic that I've written about numerous times so it should be something I can knock out quickly.

Meet and Follow Sunday

It's Sunday which means it's time to take part in Meet and Follow Sunday. Head over to The Thrifty Military's Wife to link up your blog and join in the fun. Hello to all my new readers today. Please leave a comment so I can check out your blog also.

This weekend seems to be flying by. I did a little shopping yesterday and got myself some Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I worked on a bit of homework and ended the night on the couch watching Juno. It's kind of ironic that I love a movie that is centered around teen pregnancy. I absolutely love Ellen Page and Michael Cera though and the humor in it makes me laugh every time. I think I may have seen it 10 times already but I still love it! Today's agenda is to finish up some chores around the house - a.k.a. put away the laundry that has been sitting in the basket on top of the dryer for 3 days. I also need to start working on a paper that's due at the end of next week. Trying to get a head start on things instead of procrastinating and leaving them until the last minute.

It doesn't look like I'm going to have a chance to go out and see Evan next weekend since the training schedule changed yet again. Looks like we're out for this cycle and will be starting the injectables on cycle day 3. Nervous, nervous, nervous about this! I'll be doing G.onal-F injections and then a trigger shot. The G.onal-F needles are pretty small and I think they'll be manageable, but has anyone had a trigger shot? How big are those needles?

Last thing to talk about - my new workout love. I tried out TRX on Friday morning for the first time and I have to say I'm in love with it. If you've never heard of it, basically it's a suspension workout where you use heavy duty straps and your body weight for each exercise. We did squats, lunges, planks, pikes, push-ups and a ton of upper body exercises. Only problem is this class is usually offered at 6:45 in the morning and it's impossible to get to post at that time because it's PT time for the soldiers. Plus, I'd probably have to get up and be out of the house by 5:30. No thank you. I put in a suggestion to add a later class and hopefully some of the other ladies who took it on Friday did too. It would be nice to add something new into my workout mix. Guess I'll just be sticking to spin and muscles for now.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Milspouse Friday Fill-In #7

Milspouse Friday Fill-In is back! Head over to Wife of a Sailor's blog to learn about the fill-in, join in the fun and link up your blog.

1. What are you looking forward to most in 2011?

Well since Evan is deploying shortly, I guess I'd have to say that I'm already looking forward to his R&R. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out someplace nice to take him so we can spend a few days alone together.

2. What is something random you do on a boring night when your significant other is away?

Evan doesn't appreciate my television viewing habits. I have a weakness for crappy reality TV- think Teen Mom, Project Runway, Supernanny. I Tivo all my favorites and watch them freely when he's gone.

3. What has been your greatest adventure as a MilSpouse?

The greatest adventure would probably be all the traveling that's gone on in the past year. In April, we drove across the country from Georgia to Arizona then turned back around in September and drove from Arizona to North Carolina. We got to see so many different states and enjoyed awesome local foods. Even though it was fun, I don't think I'd want to do it again anytime soon!

4. What is the ugliest fashion trend that you ever bought into?

I went to 12 years of Catholic school so I never really had the opportunity to buy into the awesome 80's and 90's fashion trends. In college, I just looked like I just didn't care about clothing. I only recently started to embrace fashion and started to buy some "grown-up" clothing.

5. What was the high point of last month?

I'd have to say the high point was going home for the holidays. We had a chance to see a lot of family and friends that we hadn't seen since last Christmas. It was a great time to relax and enjoy the company of everyone around us.

Excuse me, you want me to do what?

The snow couldn't stop me today! I was getting into the RE's office this morning even if I had to wait all day. Well I didn't wait all day, but I did have to wait almost 2 hours because of all the rescheduling due to the snow. I had an ultrasound done to check the follicles and it seems that I won't be ovulating until later on in the cycle. This is definitely not unusual since I don't normally ovulate until cycle day 19. I'm supposed to go back in for another ultrasound on Tuesday to see where we're at. If ovulation is predicted to happen next weekend, then I may drive out to see Evan if he has the weekend off. If not, then we're completely out for this cycle.

We started talking about next cycle and I committed to IUI. Since I've been on C.lomid 6 times, we're moving onto the next step. I'm going to have to start giving myself injections starting on cycle day 3. I'm totally needlephobic (not a word, but let's pretend it is), so I'm very nervous about the injections. I practiced in the office today and they don't seem hard to do, but I'm afraid that I'll mess up. I guess once I do it for the first time, it won't be so bad afterwards.

I got the name of the woman I need to contact at the cryobank so we can get moving on Evan's part when he gets back from training. I'm hoping that we won't need to take this step but it'll be good to be prepared.

Snow day - Day #2

Well it looks like we got about 5 inches of snow here in North Carolina and a ton of ice to go with it. Post and schools were closed again today since most driveways and secondary roads were covered in sheets of ice. Post is running on a 4 hour delay tomorrow. I felt for sure that my appointment would be cancelled but wonderful nurse D. called tonight and told me to come in at 11:00!

I spent the better part of the day working on biology homework so the rest of the week can be dedicated to my education classes. I also went outside to chip away at the ice on the driveway and Evan's car. No snow shovels were available so I used the next best thing - my huge push broom. It took awhile to clear all the ice, but the broom did the trick. I'm hoping it doesn't rain again tonight or I'll be waking up to an iced over driveway again.

Here are some pictures of the snow and the dogs enjoying or not enjoying the snow.

(Bella romping through the snow)

(Murphy doesn't want anything to do with the snow)

(Our neighborhood is covered!)

(The backyard)

Military Monday Blog Hop

I'm participating in another Military Monday Blog Hop. If you would like to join in and link up your blog, head over to April's blog for more information! If you're a new follower to my blog, please leave a comment. I love reading them and getting to know my readers!

I'll leave you with what I woke up to today...

(Snow? In Fayetteville? You're ruining my plans for the day)

First week of school and other random thoughts

The first week of school with a 4 class workload is over with! I haven't taken an education class in a year and a half because of our moves, but I'll admit it was nice to get back into the swing of things. At times I felt like my to-do list was never going to get shorter, but I finished everything early. It probably helps that I've taken these classes before - I know and understand the material already. I surprisingly have A's in both my biology and biology lab classes, so I'm very excited and proud of myself. Only 3 more weeks to go and 1 out of 4 undergraduate classes will be finished. Geography will be up next starting in February.

Since Evan is gone for training yet again, I've found myself with a lot of free time. Today I decided to tackle the daunting task of taking down and packing away the Christmas decorations. I headed to Target to pick up some new storage containers because I was determined to finally get everything organized and labeled. I always feel kind of sad when I have to take down the decorations because they're so pretty, but it was definitely time.

I'm happy that I'll be entertained for the rest of the afternoon. The Eagles are playing the Packers today and I'm excited to watch the game. I have some friends going to the game today and I'm very jealous. Evan and I had the opportunity to see a Monday Football game the other year when he was home for R&R. They didn't win, but seeing an NFL in person was amazing. I hope we get another chance to go.

(We had awesome seats!)

I'm having some trouble trying to fill up my days with things to do. A girl can only do so much homework in one day. It's hard to believe that I'm going to be living on my own for at least 8 months. I can't even handle when he's gone for 2 weeks. What am I going to do with myself?

Meet and Follow Sunday

I've decided to take part in The Thrifty Military Wife's Meet and Follow Sunday! I'm looking forward to discovering and reading new blogs as well as gaining some new followers! If you're a new follower, please leave a link to your blog so I can check out your blog and follow you as well.

Moving on to IUI

So Evan and I have decided to try IUI once before he deploys just so he knows what the process will be like for me just in case it doesn't work on the first try. I started another round of C.lomid today and will be going in for bloodwork and an ultrasound next Wednesday morning. If I ovulate like normal on cycle day 19, Evan will definitely be back from training. If for some reason I ovulate early, we obviously won't be able to do IUI, but at least we'll know if the Clomid is doing it's job. If we don't get to do the IUI this month, we'll definitely be on board for it in February. I'm optimistic that this will work for us - it has to.

New Blog Design

If you haven't noticed already, there have been many changes to my blog today. I want to say thank you to Aly for making my blog look beautiful! I love the colors, pictures and the Army camo theme. She also designed my new button, so grab it and add to your blog if you'd like! If you are looking for your own blog redesign, check out Aly's design blog - Bridge Work Blog Design and make sure to check out her own personal blog. She's a wonderful person who is open to your ideas and is great to work with. Thanks again Aly!

Not doing so good with those resolutions

Remember how I said that I was going to stay positive about our fertility issues? I'm failing miserably and it's only January 4. I don't think I've discussed this before, but I've been charting my way to insanity for the past 6 months. I only started charting after being advised to by my Arizona RE. I felt really good about this month's chart until about 3 days ago. My temperatures have been consistently dropping which means AF is most likely on her way. When I took my temperature this morning and saw the huge drop, I completely lost it. We only get (maybe) 1 more shot at this naturally before the deployment.

I mentioned before that my husband was a little wary on the whole freezing sperm for IUI thing but I told him that we've been on this journey for so long and I don't want to stop. He told me that if it's what I really wanted, then he would do it for me. I'm so glad that he's being so supportive even though I know I've been acting crazy - especially this month. I guess I'm holding out a little bit of hope for a positive test this cycle, but if and when AF shows, I'll be on the phone to Dr. P. to figure out what to do next.

I guess I have to keep telling myself to stay positive. I want 2011 to be the year we finally get to bring home our baby. I hope I can remain strong enough while he's gone.

*Update* - As predicted, AF showed up a few hours ago. Temperatures don't lie. I put a phone call into the RE to see what he wants me to do next. I hope I get a call back from his nurse before the work day is over with. Hopefully he has an idea on how to move up my ovulation date a bit. Cycle day 19 did not work out good when this cycle only lasted 28 days. Ugh.

Military Monday Blog Hop #3

I'm participating in my third Military Monday Blog Hop! If you would like to join in and link up your blog, head over to April's blog for more information. If you're a new follower to my blog, please leave a comment! I love reading them and getting to know my readers!

I have a big week ahead. I'm starting my first 2 education classes through Drexel and am halfway through my undergraduate Biology classes. I'm kind of scared of the amount of homework I'm going to have with these 3 classes. I guess I'll have plenty of time to work on everything though since Evan is headed out at the end of the week for more training. Looks like it'll just be me and the dogs for awhile.

New Year's resolutions

My New Year's resolution is always the same every year - to lose weight. I'm happy to say that after 4 years of losing weight, I'm finally happy with my weight. Therefore, that won't be one of my resolutions for 2011.

That being said, my resolutions for 2011 are:

1. Try to be more positive - 2010 was a hard year. Being diagnosed with PCOS and suffering 2 miscarriages kind of cancelled out all the good things that happened over the year. I'm going to try to keep a positive outlook on our fertility situation and keep praying that we'll have our miracle baby in 2011. I'm still holding out hope for this cycle!

2. Run a 5K in under 30 minutes - As you all know, I finished my first 5K in a time of 34 minutes. I would love to be able to run 10 minute miles at most. Hopefully with a little more training, I'll be able to easily accomplish this goal.

3. Keep in touch with friends more often - I do talk to my best friend on the phone at least twice a month, but I've been bad about keeping in touch with other friends. I want to try to call or email friends at least once a month so I can keep up with what they've been up to.

4. Finish my education classes - The way I have my classes mapped out, I should be finished all of my undergraduate requirements, as well as all of my graduate education classes, by December. I would love to be student teaching by this time next year. The only way this is not going to happen is if I get pregnant and I'd be 100% ok with that.

So I've told you my resolutions for the new year - what are yours?

Christmas recap

I have everything put away and most of the house is back to normal so I thought I would finally write my post about the holidays. I'll just continue to ignore the 2 loads of laundry waiting to be folded until I'm finished :)

The holidays started off with my first 5K - Ryan's Reindeer Run in downtown Fayetteville. The longest distance I've ever ran before this was only 2 miles, so 3 seemed like quite the daunting task to complete. I was warned by a girl who ran the race a year before, that there were 2 huge hills to conquer. Unfortunately for me, there were 4. We had to run up and down 2 hills, then I found out at mile 1.6, that we had to turn around and run back the same way we came. The 2 downhills that seemed awesome at the time, were looming ahead, waiting to be ran up. Even though the hills were challenging, I was determined to run the whole race without stopping. I ran the whole way and finished with a time of 34 minutes. Not as fast as I would have liked to run it in, but it gives me a time to beat for my next 5K. I'll be searching for a local race to run in the early spring. Who knows? I may turn into a runner after all.

(Getting ready to cross the finish line!)

After the race finished up, we loaded up the car, got the puppies settled and set off for PA. After a 7 hour car ride, we reached Evan's parents' house. There was so much going on! We entertained a few families from their church, the first night that we were there. The next day, we packed the car up again and headed off to NYC. Evan got us tickets to see Cirque du Soleil for our anniversary so we decided to make an overnight trip. We walked the cold streets all day - taking in the sights. We went to the top of the Empire State building, visited the M & M store, saw Times Square and had a fabulous time at the show which was called Wintuk. The next morning, we headed over to 30 Rock to do the NBC studio tour. I had the pleasure of anchoring a fake newscast towards the end of the tour. Good to see that the broadcasting degree got put to use.

(NYC Christmas tree)

(View from atop of the Empire State Building)

The next night, we went out to visit one of my college roommates, her husband and their daughter. We all had a great time catching up. I definitely miss my friends from home! The next night, we went to visit one of Evan's best friends from high school and his wife. The guys drank a little too much gin, but we shared a lot of laughs in between the drinks.

Christmas Eve was a busy day. My sister-in-law and I helped my mother-in-law prepare food for that night and the following morning. We were hosting a dinner for 13 people that night and I think she was just a little bit stressed out. We went to the 4:30 church service where Evan got to play his saxophone with the praise band. I've known my husband for over 9 years now and this is only the second time I've heard him play. He sounded great and I wish he would play more! Dinner went off without a hitch after the service and we all headed to bed early.

Christmas morning came and everyone got treated to a lot of presents. I received a gift card to Loft so I could buy some new teaching clothes and a new purse. Evan got a great Columbia fleece jacket and some books to take along on his deployment. Rosie (my 9 year old sister-in-law) kept us entertained for the rest of the day with her new Nintendo games and board games. Our turkey dinner was fabulous and I capped off the night with "Elf".

Christmas #2 happened a few days later down in Philly with my parents. We got a lot of presents that we weren't expected, but were definitely well-received. I got Photoshop for my Mac (can't wait to start using it), a new wireless mouse, another Loft gift card and a few new books. Evan got a cover for his new Kindle that I got him, a giant bag of coffee (since he's addicted) and a book rack for his bike trainer.

We got to see a bunch of my friends while we were down in the city. We had the pleasure of visiting our good friends Katie and Ben who are at a rehab center in New Jersey. We knew this couple from when we were stationed at Ft. Benning. Unfortunately, they were in a car accident in August 2009 and Ben has been to several rehab centers to treat his TBI. It was great to catch up with Katie finally since I hadn't seen her since December 2009. Ben seems to be making great progress! He was talking, joking around and being silly with us. He promised Evan that one day, he'll do a triathlon with him and he'll beat him. We can't wait, Ben! (If you want to read more about Ben and Katie's story, click here to follow their inspirational blog).

Over the next few days, I got to see a few good friends from high school. We watched the Eagles game (unfortunately they sucked and lost to a terrible team), ate a lot of cookies and grabbed some authentic Philly cheesesteaks. Overall, Christmas was great. We saw a lot of friends and spent a lot of time with family. We definitely weren't taking this holiday for granted since Evan may not be here for the next one.

I'll leave you with some pictures from the holidays!

(Posing with Murphy in front of the tree)

(Family Christmas photo)

(Just us - Merry Christmas!)

Well this has been quite the long post. I guess I'll save my New Year's resolutions for my next post. Stay tuned!