Back in the Saddle

Yes, we are back in the saddle of blogging and the infertility world!  Something I have never blogged about before but felt as though I should, considering I found comfort as I once scoured the blogging world to read stories as other couples struggled to achieve pregnancy while the rest of our "fertile myrtle friends" got pregnant & had their bundle of joys arrive and we were left still questioning and wondering if & when & how it would happen. 

Oh you know, Just hanging out in a tiny "waiting space" with a gown on ready for my Hysterosalpingogram

 

Of course we are in a different place this time around.  We already have a beautiful gift from God, our precious daughter Gia.  So where am I as a women living in the infertile world? 75% of the time I am in a good place and just greatful for my girl.  The other 25% of the time there are random times/thoughts/comments that make me wonder IF? WHEN? HOW? will it all happen (another baby that is). 
People are nosey and geniunely interested as to when a married coupld will start adding children to their family.  I am one of those people! BUT I also try to step lightly into those questions as I never want to make a woman feel the way others have made me feel.  Oh you know the comments...

"You know your peak fertility is 27, you better hurry up"

"Once you stop nursing you are the most fertile"

"Just get pregnant and then your other child will wean off breast feeding"

"Im sure you will be fine, just relax"

Those are just some of the comments that replay over & over from time to time in my head.  And yes these are comments that have been said by friends & family.  Well here's the fact friends... 

1.Peak fertility is the least of my concerns, instead my concern is making sure my thyroid levels are in check

2. You might have been most fertile when you stopped nursing but you were probably also pretty fertile right when you got pregnant...not the case for me!

3. As you know thats not something I can just make happen

4. of course just sit back and doing nothing will make you pregnant

Next time you have a friend or family member that you start asking about when they are going to grow their family - step lightly and in love!  When they saying we are trying.  Pray for them! And just listen because you might have no idea what its like to be a young woman desiring for a baby yet can't seem to achieve pregnancy on their own.  

An Extra Day

Kevin & I were both off work today which meant we had an extra day added to our weekend!  We did lots of things yet felt so relaxed and nice to enjoy time just the 3 of us. 

Friday evening started off with a last minute date night.  By last minute I mean at 3 Kevin sent me a text asking if I wanted to go out to dinner just the 2 of us.  I quickly asked my Mom if they were free that evening for some company and to my surprise they were.  So operation make it all happen in an hour was in progress with 2 little ones along for the fun...diaper bag packed, dinner for G, wash hair, make up on, change clothes, blow dry/style hair, change a few diapers & entertain some cuties!  Kev & I headed to Hibachi for dinner and then did a little shopping afterwards. 

Saturday morning I was blessed with some extra sleep from my wonderful husband.  Rolling over and realizing its 10:30 was delightful and then to top if off I walked downstairs to breakfast from our favorite bagel shop!  During the afternoon we headed to the outlets. 

Sunday was the usual ...church, lunch and football.  Bonus one of Kevin's friends came over to watch the 49ers game.  Then my parents came over for the first half of the Ravens game. 

Extra Day Monday...grocery shopping in the morning and then the rest of the day was spent at home laughing and having fun with our perfect little family.  I even had time to re-arrange the family room, our bedroom and put LOTs of loads of folded laundry away finally !

And now the evening is winding down with The Biggest Loser, wonderful smell of a yankee candle and my gorgeous hubby sharing the couch with me :)
Here's to the work week!

Change of Pace

 

After Gia was born I was able to stay home on maternity leave for 10 weeks.  And Oh how I loved every minute of it.  It was happy valentines to me as I waltzed back into work at the Y.  I missed those kids who I had had in my program every school year & summer for 4 and 5 years.  But the business aspect & upper management part was not missed once!  I survived heading back to work knowing that my girl was spending her mornings being loved on by Papa, Nana & Uncle Joey and the afternoons with Uncle Noah & Nana.  Kevin was home by 4:15 everyday so the evenings were daddy-daughter bonding time.  While everything was going just fine, Mama wasn't okay.  Early mornings & Late nights at work had mama in need of a change.  By mid March many dinner conversations were focused on "how can we make this work?"  And the answer...Home Daycare.  So we began the journey to licensed to home daycare.  Having grown up with my mom doing daycare it wasn't something I had ever thought I would do BUT after much prayer and consideration my heart knew it was the right thing to do.  I finished the school year and ended my 10.5 year Y career on the last day of summer camp.  It was a bittersweet day.  The next day we woke up early and headed to Myrtle Beach for a week.  Then 2 weeks later I started back to work at HOME!  I first started watching an 8 week old baby on Thursdays & Fridays.  Then a month later I added to the mix my best friends 2 kids every afternoon. Then the following month added another friend on Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays.  We have been very blessed with this opportunity and thankful that the Lord continues to show us he will provide during our times of need as we must trust him!

I'm Back!

It has been forever since I have blogged!  I have still been following along on friend's blog post but took a step back from my own blogging BUT today I'm changing that!  With my last post I announced that a little girl would be joining our world and that she did!  December 2011 she was "evicted" and every day since then has been a blessing.  Not a day goes by that my girl doesn't put a smile on my face and warm my heart.  I now have the best name in the world...Mama :)

Our precious little one!

Just about 20 weeks along and everything is looking wonderful!  Last week we had our anatomy ultrasound and it was music to my ears to hear that our little baby was perfect and healthy.  We did want to find out the gender but that was just the little cherry on top compared to seeing all of the little one's organs & body parts complete and functioning :)   We were completely surprised during the ultrasound to hear the gender.  It was neat because I actually said what it was before the sonographer was able to.  She built it all up by talking about everything we had seen so far during the scan of our baby and then she told us that she saw 3 lines which I knew is what they looked for to determine that it was a little GIRL.  It was a very sweet moment :) 

 

We can't wait to meet Gia at the end of November/early December !

She was quite stubborn throughout the entire scan causing it to take longer than normal but look what she showed us right at the end...

So may say she is saying "hi" but considering her parents we are going to say she was telling us to stop and that she had had enough of the picture taking ;)

Upgrades...

About 2 weeks after we moved in we replaced this nasty sliding glass door with the help of 2 amazing friends from church who spent a good part of their Saturday at our house! 

We love our new french doors!  (sorry for the poor quality picture)

House Tour

Welcome to our new home!

Entry way/foyer

living room

Kitchen & Dining Room

Bathroom on main level

Master Bedroom

 

smallest "extra" bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Office (in basement)

Family room/basement

There is also a backroom workshop, laundry area and full bathroom in the basement that didn't seem to make it into the photos. 

We're alive!

We are still around and finally starting to see less boxes sitting around!  We have been homeowners for a month as of Friday.  It is crazy to think of all the work that has been done around here in that short of time.  Of course if my parents & brother weren't around to help I know we would not have made as much progress on the house.  We have been trying to take pictures of before & afters along the way.  The house was beyond dirty when we moved in.  We spent the first days cleaning and ripping out carpet.  Our plan was to leave the carpet in the 2 "extra" bedrooms upstairs for a few months until we had the money to replace them.  Well that idea quickly went out the window...quite literally!  The Sunday after we moved in my parents came over and my mom, brother and I were throwing carpet out the bedroom windows.  The carpet smelled like dog pee!  We could not have that for several reasons...1. being i wanted my dog to come live with us and didn't want her to smell it and think it was okay to pee in the house.  2. it STUNK! That following week the basement carpet had to go as well.  We have left the basement office carpet in for now.  That carpet seems to be in good condition and we haven't noticed too much of a smell in that room...fingers crossed it stays that way!  I will leave you with this picture for now...more house pictures to come!

Moving

Yes I am procrastinating on packing by blogging!  But its official we have a settlement date for our new house.  April 13th we will officially be homeowners.  Yikes...2 weeks!  We are very excited about our new home and can't wait to make it our own.  Of course there is LOTS of cleaning to do, painting and a few other misc. projects my wonderful Dad will be working on :) Right now we are living among a mess of stuff everywhere...packed boxes and empty boxes waiting to be packed.  I guess I better get to it since they wont pack themself!  Be on the look out for house pictures to come...

My husband rocks! I came home from work to find pink tulips on the kitchen table :)

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Weekend re-cap

We had a jam packed fun-filled weekend!  On Friday night Kev made crab legs for dinner which were delicious as always!  Then out the door I went to meet up with the girls for an evening downtown.  The 4 of us girls hadn't all been together in years so needless to say there was a lot of talking and laughing going on.  It was so nice to catch up and I can't wait to do it again soon.  Don't worry Kevin loved being home ...he played video games the whole time. 

*This picture is from 2007 of the 4 of us girls*

Saturday we got up and hit up the usual Saturday morning spot, Zi Pani.  The workers pretty much know our order when we walk in and we can spot a new worker as well.  Then we were off to go house hunting with our realtor.  We liked what we saw but will continue on looking.  Maybe if people would just clean their house it would be more appealing for me to buy it :)  We had just enough time to shower and change and head to DC for an evening of fun with cousins.  For Christmas each year Kevin's family does a cousin gift exchange and this year we hit the jackpot!  Meghan & Ben took us to a Wizards Game.  We got to see their house and then walked to Chinatown for dinner and then headed to the game.  The Wizards lost by a few points but we still had a great time.

We got home pretty late and then just a couple hours later my phone was ringing.  A wonderful friend of ours was about to give birth to her twin boys so I quickly got up and went over to watch their older 2 boys whom we love!  I crashed on their couch until he came in around 7am with the exciting news that they now had 4 beautiful boys :)  Then off to church we went.  After church we ended up going to lunch with some friends and had a great time hanging out with them.  Nothing ends a good weekend like a Sunday afternoon nap and that is what I did!  And to add to the weekend fun since my parents were away we had some doggie house guests ;)

Home Owners

If someone asked me what I was most looking forward to about being a homeowner my answer would be simple...

Having my lucky girl live with us!  That's right, I am pumped to know that the days of living without a dog are numbered.  I have always LOVED having a dog in my home.  And of course a Mom to take care of it :)  I have loved each of my cocker spaniels throughout growing up. 

We got our first cocker spaniel Ginger when I was about 4 years old.  I remember driving to my Dad's work with my Mom to ask him if we could bring home Ginger from the pound.  What a great dog!  Whenever I was sick you would always find him laying right beside me keeping watch over me.  We had to put him to sleep when I was 14.  I might still tell my parents that they murdered my dog.  To say I was upset is putting it mild.  

About a year and a half later we got our second cocker spaniel, Bug a Boo.  Yet again my Dad was not with us when we went to "look" at the dogs.  That afternoon we left with a dog.  We didn't need Dad to be there...he wasn't the one that ever needed convincing!  Bug a boo is a great dog.  Probably the best behaved of all 3...except when we go out of town.  He doesn't like when we leave him.  He is getting pretty old and slowing down quite a bit these days but I refuse to hear anything of that nature.  I told you I love my dogs and it makes me really sad to think he may die soon.  

Next comes MY third cocker spaniel, Lucky!  That's right she is mine :)  She will be 4 years old this April.  It is my first girl dog and boy is she feisty!  But I love her and she loves me.  Right now she is living at my parents house but hopefully within the next month or so she will be back with me.  I can't wait to have some extra company around.  Hey a dog can be a girls best friend too ;)  

Happy New Year!

I can't believe today is the first day of the year 2011!  Our year has had its exciting, sad, fun, hard & joyful moments but through it all we have grown closer to each other :)

So just where did the year 2010 take us?!

The year quickly started off with 2 back to back snow storms!  Foot after foot of snow was dumped on us and we fully took advantage of the snow days together. 

Our weekends from January through May & August through November were spent at Indoor, Outdoor & Cross Country Meets.  Kevin coached all 3 seasons and Kyle was running his senior year.  It was an exciting Indoor & Outdoor season because of Kyle's awesome season!  We were able to travel to Boston for Nike Indoor Nationals Meet in March and then Penn Relays in April. 

Unfortunately I don't have pictures on this computer from our trip to Kentucky for Easter but we had a blast.  Our family that lives there is wonderful.  Despite the distance and time that goes on between our visits we always can count on have an awesome visit with the Monroe/Armstrong Extended family.  Looking forward to the next vacation to Kentucky!

In May we were blessed with meeting some amazing friends with some pretty cute kids :)  They might not even know just how special they are to us as we were longing to find couple friends to share life with. 

In July we took our first family vacation to the beach with the Graves family.  It was so nice to be able to get away from the hustle and bustle of life & work for an entire week at the beach!

On August 15th we celebrated our One year Anniversary <3 

September was quite a busy month for travel in the Graves household.  I don't think we were home one whole weekend.  The highlight of all the traveling was my trip to San Francisco.  Us 3 girls went from hanging out ALL the time to not seeing each other for 8 months!  We had a fantastic time catching up over a long weekend while exploring a new city.  I also conquered a 6 hour flight by myself and a delay/missing my flight on the way home :)  

This little guy became a big brother and we now have 2 nephews who we love to play with!

We celebrated our 27th & 26th birthday this year!

We look forward to another year full of events that become special memories :) 

Bananas & Christmas Trees

What could these two items possibly have in common?!  Allergies...That's what!  Over this past month Kevin and I have both had allergic reactions.  Earlier in the month Kevin had an allergic reaction to a banana that I sent him to work with and insisted on him eating :/  Oops!  Little did we know he would immediately have a reaction which ended with him having to be picked up from work and head to the Allergist office the same day.  After an hour long allergy test/appt we found out that Kev is allergic to all but one tree pollen, many grass & weed pollens, horse hair, cats, pork, peas & bananas.  The doctor was wonderful and sent us on our way to think about 3 options to help with such allergies; shots, nose spray & oral medication. 

You may be thinking that Kevin's allergies are related to the Christmas tree topic but no such luck.  It's actually ME the Christmas fanatic.  For over 3 weeks now I have been off and on sick...sinus, coughing, headaches, and sore/scratchy throat.  It would get to a point when I would think okay I am going to have to make a doctors appt and get on some antibiotic and then I would start feeling better.  On Christmas eve and Christmas day my symptoms were particularly intensified and I was especially bummed to be sick over Christmas break for the 2nd year in a row!  Last Christmas break I was sick for pretty much the entire break.  I refused this year to be sick for my ten day break again!  I may have started to feel just a little sorry for myself...or as my Mom would say throw myself a pity party.  It just wasn't fair that I could possibly be sick 2 years in a row when I could count how many times I have ever been sick on Christmas before!  And then I had a light bulb moment and realized what has been the one thing that has changed...REAL Christmas Tree!  I grew up with an artificial tree all my life and then when we got married we decided to start the tradition of cutting down a real tree each year.  I did a little research and believe that all of my symptoms were allergies to tree mold that are generally found on live trees and affect some people.  I decided when I woke up today I would undecorate my house and get the tree out of my house.  I have felt amazing all afternoon and totally believe the real tree was creating my sickness for the past 3 weeks.  Kevin is super bummed that we will be investing in an artificial tree but hey I would like to be able to enjoy my Christmas without being sick :)

Birthday Girls

We are so lucky to be the bestest of friends and to also share our birthday month & week.  Since we were little we have celebrated our birthday together.  I truly look forward to celebrating with this girl every year.  The past 2 years prior to our birthdays I didn't think we would be able to celebrate with each other and was a little bummed.  And in the end both have been the opposite!  Last year we celebrated the weekend before our birthdays after my cookie party.  This year Megan was in for a surprise and we celebrated the weekend after our birthdays by meeting up in Baltimore.  We had an awesome time in Baltimore; going to dinner and then to Howl at the Moon dualing piano bar.  

Here's to a wonderful 26th & 25th year of life as bestest friends :) 

Christmas Tree

After my parents pre-lit tree stopped working last year we have been trying to convince my Mom to get a real tree this year.  I never remember cutting down a real tree as a child and Noah & Joey have only ever known a fake tree.  Well after several months of preparing my Mom she agreed and off we went to Gaver Tree Farm.  It was pretty cold the day after Thanksgiving but we love to decorate for Christmas so we went anyway!

My Dad is always such a goofball :)

Kevin and my Dad loading up our tree.  It was nice not to have to do all the work with Kevin this year :)

The sun was setting just as we finished cutting down our tree which we had to take advantage of and ended up using the picture as one for our Christmas card this year!

'One Less'

I just heard this song from a friends facebook the other day and love it!  We hope that one day we are part of joining the "One Less" cause.  There are many ways that you can join the effort to have One Less broken heart.   

Billboards

I saw a billboard with this same saying on it today as I was driving to work.  It caught my eye and I was excited to see something like this on a billboard where I live. 

oh how I love Frederick!

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Carving Pumpkins