All Good Things Must Come to an End

AHHHH, Summer Vacation has once again come to an end. The 10 weeks of bliss that we had off are now a thing of the past! We've had a great summer once again. Tomorrow we go back to work - Monday and Tuesday are our invigorating (haha) staff meetings, keynote speakers, and teacher workshops. Kids come on Wednesday for the long awaited first day of school.

Yesterday we baked 8 dozen cupcakes to bring in for the staff tomorrow and we'll decorate them later today. We are also going out to lunch with Mom and Dad and our friend Becky today to celebrate Becky's birthday. Of course there is laundry to do and lunches to pack as well. Gotta get back into that routine, you know!

Tomorrow night we get to go see Mel.issa Ether.idge which will be really fun. I'm looking forward to our free skyb0x seats as well! We'll be tired Tuesday morning, but it will be well worth it!

That's all from around here - nothing too exciting...

The Simple Things

Just a few of the simple things we enjoyed today.....

**Went to lunch with teacher friends and enjoyed good food, good conversation, and ice cream!

**On the way home we stopped at a Lemonade Stand and bought some lemonade from a little girl sitting on her front lawn - hand drawn signs and all. We even got to choose "what color" lemonade we wanted - best 4 quarters we gave up all day!

**Had BLT's, corn on the cob, and sliced cucumbers for dinner. I think that is the perfect summertime meal! The best part is that the veggies were all fresh picked from my dad's garden, corn from a local farmstand, and the bacon is from my dad's pigs!

Sometimes it's important to relish the simple things in life.......

Total Bust

So, this cycle has turned out to be a total bust! My estrogen level actually dropped yesterday to a whopping 75 - this after 19 days of stims. So, we made the decision to just cancel this cycle. We think that my body is just too out of whack as we did the D & C in May and then almost immediately went on birth control for 3 months. We just suppressed my system too much. The good news is that I don't have to sit a cycle out, so as soon as af arrives (probably in 10 days or so), we'll be aready to go again!

My stress was alleviated when I called Joanne at Mid.west Sp.erm Ban.k ready to beg and plead for her to let us send back the vial. She was super nice about it and said absolutely we could send it back. She told me that "I always tell my girls that they should send the sperm back instead of wasting it on a bad cycle. Wait to use it until it's going to work!" She made my day! So, I just talked to the doctor's office and they are going to get F.ed E.x to pick it up today!
All we have to do is call Joanne when we are ready next cycle and she'll ship the vial back to us.

So, that's the news from here - a little disappointed that we had to cancel, but not as disappointed as we would be if it were a BFN.

Painting Fun...

After we went to the farm on Saturday, we came home to do some painting. Olivia had picked out 4 twenty five cent wood shapes to paint when we got home. We also have bags of letters that my grandfather cut out when he used to make wood crafts. Olivia painted her shapes while we painted the letters in her name.

Then, we glued everything onto a board that I spray painted for her. Here is the final product!

And one last picture of her right before we took her back to meet her moms.

We had a good weekend with her and look forward to the next time she comes to visit.

This Makes Me Chuckle.....

In honor of our score at Sta.ples yesterday, I have to share this commercial because it just cracks me up every time I see it! I'm sure many of you have seen it, but here it is again. For those of you who have school aged kids, I'm sure this is the way you feel as well! Now, they just need to make a commercial like this for teachers getting out on summer vacation!



Someone asked yesterday if all of the stuff pictured was free, and the answer its YES! Every year, around here, our Stap.les does their Teac.her Appr.eciation day a couple of Saturdays before school starts. They have goodie bags that you get for free, coffee, juice, muffins, fruit, donuts, and raffles. One year MJ won a $150 desk chair! Now, we visit three different stores and there are two of us, so we get 6 goodie bags total. We look forward to the day every year!

Great Day with Olivia

We started of today with one of our favorite activities of the year - Stap.les Appre.ciation Da.y! We went to three different stores - chit chatted with all of the teacher friends we ran into, and got a lot of LOOT!!!

All of this, plus 6 of the reusa.ble cloth bags for FREE!! All because we are teachers - SCORE!!!

We headed over to my parents' house for the afternoon because as Olivia said, "I don't think I've helped Gayle and Dwight collect the eggs for a VERY long time. We should call them and see if they have some eggs to collect." So, we did just that!

Here she is with the egg basket ready to go collect them:

Collecting eggs with my dad - they had to "find" all of the hiding spots behind the hay bales.


Stopping to say hi to Bub...

Stopping again to give Haley a pat...

After we collected eggs, we went for a walk in the woods so the dogs could go swimming in a little hole that my dad dug. That turned out to be an adventure in and of itself, so we'll save that for a separate blog post.

After our walk, Olivia decided that it would also be a good idea to pick some vegetables:

Picking tomatoes:

On the hunt for green beans:

Having my dad help her with the cucumbers because "they're too prickly!"

We had a great day, and we are all worn out and ready for a good night's sleep!

We have to return her to her moms tomorrow. :(

Hmmmmmm.....

So, today's appointment wasn't exactly as good as I hoped it would be. I have one 15mm follicle on the left, my lining is only 7mm and my estrogen was only 90. This is after 16 days of stims. I was a little disappointed. I go back again on Monday for more bloodwork and we'll see from there where we'll go.

I'm a bit nervous because we had the sperm shipped to arrive today because we assumed we'd be doing the IUI this weekend or Monday. Now I'm worried that the tank won't last long enough. I called Mid.west and she said it's good for 8 days, which is Thursday, but I really don't want to push the limit and have dead swimmers. I just have to trust the process.....

In other news, we have Olivia for the weekend - YAY! We went to see G-F.orce today. Not as much of a "kid" movie as I had expected, but it was cute. Tomorrow is one of our favorite days of the year - Sta.ples Tea.cher A.ppreciation - so we'll get up early to go and get our goodies!

That's all from here happy weekend.

Happy

It has been a good week - we have lots to be happy about - here's the list:

1. TTC is plugging along and I'm doing what I do best - responding slowly! Next appt is Friday for blood work and ultrasound.

2. When I called to order the sperm, the lady wasn't sure our donor was available and said she had to go find out from the doctor. All is well though - there is some and it will be delivered to my doc on Friday.

3. MJ and I went in to school for the last three days and worked our hineys off! The best news is that we are done and ready to go - we don't have to go back until we're required to on Aug. 31.

4. Starting tomorrow we get to hang with our favorite 6 (yes, she's a year older) year old Olivia until Sunday. She's coming to stay with us while her mommas celebrate their anniversary.

5. It has finally been HOT here! The first week this summer we have hit the 90s!

6. We've had a couch in the basement forever that is just always in the way and becomes a "catch all". Someone on Free.cyc.le was looking for one and they came to pick it up today!

7. Saturday is one of our favorite days of the year - Sta.ples Teach.er Appre.ciation Day. We hit three different Sta.ples in the course of the morning and get our free goodies. We usually score big at this event! Raffles, free stuff, major sales, and double points on our rew.ards card!

8. Last night my mom called us and told us that her neighbor got 4 tickets to see Meli..ssa Eth.eridge in two weeks. They are her employer's front and center box seats. She asked if MJ and I wanted two of the tix. FREE tix to Mel.issa - you betcha!!!

As you can see, life is nice around here - we have lots to be happy about! We are enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer vacation and trying to remain as stress free as possible!

Bathroom Redo

While MJ's mom was here , she took on the daunting task of painting our bathroom. We have wanted to do it for a long time, however it is a pain in the you know what. The biggest problem is that we have a border of ivy leaves at the top and you have to take a small brush and painstakingly paint around each and every leave. Well, MJ's mom was a saint and she did just that!

We LOVE the way it came out. We painted, put up a new "hotel" shower bar, and put up a new corner shelf thing in the tub. It is so fresh and clean! Here are some before and after pics:

Oh, and BTW - this is our 200th post! Guess we've had a lot to say over the past year and a half!

TTC is chugging along - had blood work yesterday, go back again Monday for more. My body is reacting just like it always does - slow and steady - we'll take it!

TTC Update - need some advice

First things first - go over to And Baby Makes Three and congratulate Lisa and Danielle who FINALLY got their BFP after 17 tries!

Well, here we are - our first cycle after the miscarriage. I went for bloodwork and the baseline ultrasound on Thursday. Everything looked great. So, I started my evening cocktail of Folli.stim

We are going to follow the exact same protocol as we did last cycle when we got pregnant. Stims for 17 days, trigger on day 18, IUI 36 hours later on Day 20. Let's hope that maybe, just maybe, we could be so lucky on our first try back? We have been at this since Feb of 2006 - that's 3 and 1/2 years. I think it is finally our time!

Ok, here is where I need advice from those of you in this TTC game - I asked the doctor about starting prog.esterone right at the time of IUI (last time we waited until after beta #2). She said that she would do it if we wanted to, however, from her experience and research, all it does is prolong the inevitable if something is going to go wrong. She said it will NOT prevent miscarriage, or make a pregnancy happen. If something is going to go wrong, it will - progesterone or not. She said that for IVF they do because it is actually a much more "artificial" process.

What are your thoughts??? Please weigh in - I have read a lot that supports both schools of thought. My gut says just trust the doctor, but I'm not sure what to do - and if it is true that all it will do is "prolong the inevitable" - then I certainly don't want that!

Keep everything crossed for us, please, and let me know what you think about the prog.esterone.

Camping and Wine

We left MN on Thursday and drove to IN for the night. The next day we drove to NY and set up camp for two nights. We had a cute little spot right next to the pond and the weather was gorgeous! We brought MJ's mom home with us and she was AWESOME camping!

Beautiful sunset viewed from our site!

MJ and her mom making s'mo.res.

On Saturday we visited the Sen.eca Lake Win.e T.rail. We went to six wineries and one brewery. We had an awesome time sampling the different wines at all of the different places. We bought a few bottles to bring home - one was even named "Carrie"! We had to buy that one!

So many different wines to try....

Be sure to cleanse the palate between wines.....

Enough said!

We just HAD to go to this winery because of the name!

So many wineries, so little time!

We stopped for lunch at a brewery and had some great sandwiches and beer!

It was a perfect vacation! MJ's mom is here with us until next Thursday and we are keeping her busy helping us with projects around our house!

TTC update coming tomorrow!

The De.lls Part Two...

On the second half of our day in the De.lls, we went on a Duc.k To.ur. These are really fun - they are old WWII boats that go both on land and in the water. We went all through the woods and went in both the Wiscon.sin Riv.er and Lak.e Del.ton.

The boat in the water.

Hawk's Bill - look closely, you can make it out!

Piano Rock.

After the Du.ck Tour, we went back to the campground to hang out for a bit and then in the evening, we went to the Tom.my Ba.rtlett Water S.how - this is a "must see" when you are in the D.ells. It was a fun show of water skiing for the first half and then they had a juggler, horn musician, and pyrotechnics show during the second half. It was lots of fun!

The next day it was time to head to MN to visit MJ's mom - we made it with no problem and had lots of fun during the time we were there. We went out to eat a few times, MJ and her mom got manicures and pedicures, we completed her mom's "honey do" list, went shopping, and just relaxed. One day we went down to Iowa and visited with MJ's cousins and their families. I'll leave today's post with a pic of the crew!

The Del.ls Part One....

We got to the Wis.consin D.ells early on Saturday as we only had to drive 300 miles. We set up camp and had a nice fire before we went out for the evening. We didn't find any more stowaways in the van or the grill, so I think we left all of the mice in NY!

In the evening, we decided to go to a magic show. It was actually lots of fun and I am always amazed at the way they use light and mirrors, etc to create the illusions.

On Sunday morning, we did an Upp.er De.lls Boat Tour. It was a beautiful sunny day and just perfect to be out on a boat. We saw some beautiful rock formations while we were on the river and we made two stops where we were able to get off the boat and walk around for a bit.

The first stop was at Witch.es G.ulch. It was a winding path with little water falls and rock formations. There were also a few places where the rock was just barely wide enough for the walkway.

Stop number 2 was at Stan.d R.ock. It was really tall!

We also saw V.isor R.ock on this stop as well.

Here we are at the end of the second stop.

The D.ells part two will be up tomorrow- Duck tour and Water show.....

Day One and the Stowaways

Our first day of vacation was spent driving to New York and it was actually an easy 450 mile drive. We got our tent all set up and I pulled out the grill to start making dinner. I opened the grill to start it and saw this:



To which I said to MJ - "Oh, some mice must have built a nest in the grill when we had it in the shed - I good thing I saw it or we would have had a nice fire when I started the grill." So, I took the grate off the grill and lifted up the burned cover to get the nest out. That was when I saw four beady little eyes staring back at me:



Now, I hate mice!!!! I quickly closed the cover and made MJ go look. Once I was over the initial shock, we did as any good scrapbookers would- we took pictures!

So, we walked into the woods and dumped the suckers out along with their nest. One of them ran away quickly and the other was quite stunned - all I kept thinking was that there may be more in the van!






After we relocated our new friends, we had a great dinner and enjoyed sitting by the fire. We went to bed early because we had to get up the next day and head for Indiana.

On Friday, we made it to Indiana with no problems, had another nice evening by the fire and headed out to the Wis.consin De.lls on Saturday morning. We'll leave that for tomorrow's post.