My Parent's Bought a House!

My parent's offer was accepted and they'll be closing on their new house soon! I posted a picture before, but here's a little tour!

New Blog Address

Soooo I couldn't get google to remove my old blog from cache and I didn't want to make it public for fear of my kids finding it and reading it so... I created a new blog address and imported all of my old posts! For those of you that are new, welcome! I know I've had several conversations with you all regarding where we're at with fertility stuff. Its easier for me to keep everyone up-to-date on the blog vs. emails and phone calls. Hope you enjoy!

the new address is anniandjay.blogspot.com

<3
anni

Weekend Part 3

I was so excited that my sister Allie came to church with us this weekend to see our new service. It's always great to have visitors! I thought I had to teach Sunday school this weekend (Jay and I trade off weeks with another lady at our church) and I brought Allie down to my classroom to meet my kids! There were five cute girls there so excited to meet another "adult"! I was all set to teach when the other lady I teach with came. We had gotten our weeks confused. We'll you don't have to ask me twice to get out and enjoy my Sunday! Allie and I left and hit up Nordstrom Rack. The place was PACKED! Unfortunately we really didn't find anything. She got a pair of tennis shoes and I got some PJ's. I was looking for designer deals but nothing really caught my eye. We had fun shopping though!

I have never seen the lot so full!

My sister was running away so that she wouldn't show up on the blog!

Ha! I got her!

Jay and I are trying to get back into playing tennis. I'm one of those people that needs to look the part in order to play the game so we swung by Dick's and he bought me a cute visor and warm up jacket to match my tennis outfit! What a great husband I have :)

We went to visit our friends Jennifer and Brian and their sweet baby boy, Clark. Clark is 11 weeks old and we hadn't met him yet! We both were suffering from the flu when he was born and just hadn't had a chance to come by yet. We had so much fun cuddling with him! Newborns are sooo tiny and sweet and smell so good! I'm bummed I forgot to take a picture! We had such fun visiting that we lost track of time and didn't make it back in time for a tennis match before bible study. Maybe tonight?

After bible study, I came home to cook my lunches for week. I get super bored of salads! I'm trying to incorporate veggies in a better more filling way. 

Here are some recipes I made for lunches:

Paige's Chicken Soup (adapted from a recipe from my sweet friend Paige from bible study)

2 boxes low fat chicken broth

Handful of parsley

1 large can stewed tomatoes (drained)

1 onion (dice and saute until soft before adding to the soup!)

1 rotisserie chicken

2 cans northern beans

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a big pot, boil, then letter simmer. Easy and yum! Freeze leftovers and let them sit out the night before you take them to work!

Adapted from The Whole Tulip's Whole Wheat Penne Primavera

All the ingredients in this dish came from Trader Joe's.

2 large portobello mushroom caps, sliced in long strips
1 container grape tomatoes (they were out of cherry!)
1 can artichoke hearts (drained)
1 large handful of kale spinach, stems discarded and cut into strips
1 large handful of basil, cut into strips
1/4 cups of toasted pine nuts
1 lb of whole wheat penne
1 clove of garlic (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan to garnish

Heat a large pot of water for pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a large saute pan heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil over medium high heat and add mushrooms and cook through. Remove mushrooms from pan and add more olive oil garlic, cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes cook for 3-4 minutes and then mash with a potato masher or fork to help them burst. Let simmer until the tomatoes are a sauce like consistency.

Add back the mushrooms, artichokes, and kale spinach. Once the pasta is al dente, drain reserving a little of the cooking water and add to the pan with the vegetables. Stir together and add a little pasta cooking water to help all come together. Once all combined, add the pine nuts and basil.

Welcome to First

So I've just decided to do three posts to cover our weekend! The rest of our weekend was pretty much as wonderful as the first part! Sunday morning's church service was not quiet as great as the premiere of our new service last week. We've got some things to work on still but overall it was pretty good! I wrote the following and read it for our opening welcome/prayer. I really do mean every word I said and truly LOVE our church. We have the most amazing people to work with and great pastors that care so much about us as individuals. If you're looking for a church in Charlotte, come check out our new contemporary service. I know 8:45 is EARLY but it gets your day started on the right foot and when you are done with church you can grab breakfast and still have your entire Sunday :)

Welcome

When first asked to welcome you to First Church, I thought: Ok. I can do this. I greet kids when they enter my Sunday School class, I greet members in the parking deck, in the narthex, I welcome our neighbors at room in the inn. I’ve got this. Welcome to First Church!

Then I thought about it a little more. I don’t want to just welcome you. I want to WELCOME you. I want you to feel the same comfort, friendliness, and acceptance that I do when I walk through these doors.

After the service last week, my friend Paige said to me, It was so cool to see you and Casey standing up there together giving communion. Why is that cool? You see Casey was born and raised Catholic, went to Catholic school his whole life and ended up feeling welcome here. I… well… I’ll show you a bit of my background.

(Cue slide collage)

My dad is Jewish, my Grandmother was Catholic, my mom was raised Lutheran, I went to an evangelic Presbyterian church as a child, I married a Southern Baptist. When it comes to religion, where in the world do I fit in?

I fit in at First Church. You fit in at First Church. We fit in at First Church.  They welcomed me. They welcome diversity. They welcome you with open hearts and open minds. They welcome you, no matter where you are in your walk with Christ. They welcome you to explore, to learn, to grow in God’s grace. They do not judge, they welcome you in Christ’s love.  I know firsthand that church can be an uncomfortable place to those that don’t feel welcome. What if I do something wrong? What if I’m not wearing the right thing? What if I don’t know the Lord’s Prayer? When do I stand? When do I sing? What do I respond?  What do I do when they call me up to take communion? I’ve been there. I get it. And I’ve learned. It doesn’t matter here at First. We welcome you just the way you are!     

Let’s Pray:

Heavenly father, I pray that you continue to make First Church a place that welcomes all people of all walks of life. I pray that Connect, this service, will be an instrument to reach those that are uncomfortable in church and provide them with the comfort of Jesus.  I pray that everyone that walks through the doors at First feels loved, welcomed, and accepted. I pray that First church provides a place of comfort when the outside world can’t. I pray that all of these people feel welcome in this place. 

Wonderful Weekends

Last night we had a fun "date" night. Kathryn and I went to Selwyn after school to grab a few drinks and some snacks. It's been a rough week. Spring break is waaaaay overdue! Jay and Mary Clare joined us and MC brought table topics with her. Have you evert played table topics? It's such a fun and interesting game. You pick a card and ask a question and everyone answers. It's fun to play with friends and strangers. You'll always learn something new! My sister Allie and her friend Ashley joined us later in the evening. Around 10 we headed home totally ready to crawl into bed! Ashley and Allie headed out to the bars. Ooo to be 22 again and have that energy!

Today I rode up to Raleigh with my sweet friend Laura. Our friend from college and high school too is getting married soon and had a bridal shower today. It was so fun watching her open all her gifts! The host played a cute game where they asked her fiancé Joe questions before the shower and before she could open her gifts, Katie had to answer what she thought Joe said! Yall, I'm normally not one for shower games but this was hilarious! Soo much fun. We only were able to stay for a short while but I enjoyed every minute of it. I also got to see Courtney, my college roomate. So much fun catching up! Katie, Courtney, and I were all shared a house senior year. I have the best memories with these girls. :) Can't wait for the wedding to see all my college friends and celebrate Katie and Joe!

College Roomates

Courtney, Katie, Me

All the girls from the shower. Please excuse the extremely pasty legs!

I'm sooo excited about our church service tomorrow! Lots of great stuff in store. I'm hoping after church jay will take me to the new Nordstrom rack that just opened today for a few treats! Hope you're having a great weekend!

Incognito

Soooo one of my students recently googled my name in afterschool and guess what showed up... my blog. I've contacted google and had it removed from search engines and am waiting to get the cached version removed. I don't think that any of my kiddies need to know about fertility treatments :)

Until all this mess is off of the internet (or at least out of my kid's reach) I've made this blog private only to my friends and family. If you know of someone else that reads it or would like to, feel free to send me an email and I'd be glad to invite them!

I've also hidden the comments section for now, because any time I answered a comment, it pulled up my name too! I'm working on all of it :)

Thanks!
Anni

Things I Love and Things I Hate

I woke up today to one of the things I hate the worst! Thunderstorms! I am completely terrified of thunder. I've always been afraid of loud noises, even as a child. During 4th of July fireworks display my parents would put an old AM/FM headset over my ears and crank up the oldies music so that I didn't hear the big bangs. I shuttered my entire drive into work seeing the lightening and clenching up until I heard the thunder. Ugh! The other thing I hate the most: ketchup. I don't want to talk about it. Typing about it makes me feel ick!

Things that I am loving right now:
Pomegranate seeds- Adri @ The Whole Tulip recommended these yummies from Trader Joe's. I bought some yestderday

Babybel Light Cheese- Picked these up at the store yesterday and couldnt stop! Remind me of Europe :)

This Blog- Nosh N' Nutrition. Tons of comfort food recipes made slightly healthier. Also includes weight watchers points. I think one of my problems staying committed to WW is that I am not a fruit and veggie person. I like pasta, cream sauce, and chicken. I think wraps suck and salads are blah (I hate dressing and sauces so that might contribute!) but these recipes are yummy and pretty easy to make. Only downside, she uses a lot of artificial ingredients. I try to eat as fresh and "clean" as possible but everything in moderation is more my style. Hopefully I'll enjoy my bland salads for lunch and be able to enjoy comfort food for dinner. I'm making the healthy chicken portobello lasagna tonight! I'll let you know how it goes!

Well how do I love you?

Let me count the ways
There ain't no number high enough to end this phrase

Garth anyone?

To the point of this post. 10pm. Laying in bed, reading over the blog... Oops! I forgot to get my prescription of fertility drugs filled. I need to take them like um 4 hours ago. My loving husband got out of bed, did not complain one bit and headed off to Walgreens. I love him :)

Yummy Gourmet Grilled Cheese

The weather in Charlotte is GROSS! Days and days of rain and chilly temperatures. Yesterday on my planning period, I ran to the teeter to grab the ingredients for the best yucky weather dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup with a twist!

What you need:

Crusty Italian bread from the bakery. If its not sliced, get them to slice it for you

Kraft BIG sliced cheese. I use 2% reduced fat sharp cheddar

Vine ripened tomatoes

Oscar Meyer Applewood Smoked Bacon. Yum.

Fry up the bacon. Butter up the bread. Put it all together on the panini press and yum, the best grilled cheese!

For the soup, I was looking for a great homemade tomato basil recipe and didn't find one on my iPhone while strolling through the grocery store so I opted for Progresso Tomato Basil and Chunky tomato. I bought two cans of each and combined them all in a big pot. It was not enough for 5 people! So buy lots because it is good! And if you have a great tomato basil soup please let me know. I've got my handy dandy immersion blender and can't wait to use it!

REACH has redeemed. CD3

So after a long exhausting discussion with my husband and mother regarding what I should do about the dilemma I wrote about in my last post, I decided to call my doctor and set up a meeting for Jay and I to talk to him about our options. I left a message last night and expected to hear back sometime today.

Jay wasn't able to go to my CD3 appointment today so my mom accompanied me. It was sort of cool to share with her this part of our world; the waiting for bloodwork, meeting with the doctor, the ultrasound, the counting of the eggs (7 less than 5 on the right and 8 less than 10 on the left. I'm an egg machine!). I was surprised when we went back and the nurse told us that we'd be meeting with Dr. Wing this morning. I asked him about IVF and his opinion. Since our insurance covers IUI, he wants us to try the IUI one more time and see where Jay's sperm count is. He said that IUIs do work with super low counts because they are so concetrated, but it is very rare. He gave us hope though and said that Jay had PLENTY of sperm for IVF to work! If this IUI is unsuccessful, we'll switch to IVF which evidently takes about a month to prepare for the cycle. I was happy with his answer and it made sense to me. I felt SOOOO much better after leaving the clinic today.

Now I'll just wait for the nurse to call me back with the protocol. I'm thinking it will be a round of Femera, Ovidrel injection, the IUI, and a round of Crinone after. I just need to remember to ask them why my period came so early this month, to make sure my progesterone level is where it should be.

Unhappy

So today was the first day I've been unhappy with REACH. The nurse called back and said that it was up to me. We could wait a month or go ahead with it. She said that she didn't really get a chance to talk to Dr. Wing for a long time, but he said I could do either and didn't get his recommendation. I told her lets go ahead with it. She scheduled me for my ultrasound and bloodwork tomorrow, CD3. She told me Dr. Katz would do the monitoring and she checked to make sure that I still had refills. Huh? Refills? Um refills? I thought we were doing IVF? I guess not... I'm guessing we're trying IUI again? How was this not communicated?

I don't think I can take another IUI! And what was the other option she was talking about? Just doing nothing this month?! She also said something about how sometimes the Clomid doesn't even do anything for the guy. I'm just wondering; with his count sooo low, WHY are we trying this again?! I'm really frustrated. Have you ever felt like the doctor wasn't listening to what you had to say? I definitely feel like this now. I don't know what to do. I'm really unhappy with the situation. I'm unhappy that it doesn't seem like my doctor has a plan for me. Am I just going to sit here and do IUI after IUI? I want to scream at the lady MY HUSBAND HAS NO SPERM! What the F^*$ are we doing!?!?! I just cannot even express my disappointment. I feel like I'm being told no but not given any response. I probably won't even see my doctor until next month. I want to cry.

Also, I'm concerned that I'm starting my period so early. I mean day 25? When I'm on progesterone to postpone it! Do they even care? It really sucks not being able to control this situation. UGH