MIA

Forgive me if you don't see anything from me for the next week. My parents fly in from Ohio Saturday!! We're picking them up in the RV (yes, we will be the people at the airport in an RV. hah!) and immediately taking off for the Grand Canyon. This will be the third time up there for myself, the kids, and my mom. The second time for my dad, and the first for Gabe. First time for us all to make the trip in our very own RV!

We're nervous about the trip. Going up there is almost all uphill, and back is downhill. We'll probably end up doing 20 mph up the hills and then riding the brakes on the way down. We don't know how the RV will handle it, but I'm sure we'll get home in one piece (we hope so!).

On Monday, on our way down from the canyon, we're making a stop at my great aunt's house just north of Phoenix. Then we'll proceed home early on Tuesday because the kids have swim class at 330 followed by piano class at 630. OY! Busy busy. The rest of the week should be less stressful/busy.

Don't forget, next Wednesday is my appointment to determine if I really, truly, finally am pregnant!

Now, on a different note...

Pictures!

Lovin all this lettuce!

Peas in the front, squash in the back.

Waiting for that corn.

Carrots will be ready soon!

Apricot tree. None this year, maybe next year?

Same with the pomegranite.

Please excuse our yard, but it is Arizona after all. Where grass doesn't grow unless you put a lot of work and water into it! This picture was to show the apple trees. No apples yet, Again, probably next year.

Lovin swim class!

 Doing big arms.

How Christian spends most of class now that he discovered he can see with the goggles.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!

 

Jumping into the deep end!

 There you have it. I hope to be back next weekend with lots of updates and pictures from our trip!

Good News!

I ovulated!!!

You thought I was going to say I was pregnant, didn't you?

Well, I'm not... yet. :) I ovulated which is a GOOD thing because I'd have been really po'd if those five follicles had gone to waste!

Anyone who has gone through the infertility process understands and knows what I'm talking about. How with each blood test, you're hoping for the best only to receive bad news. Or how much of your life it actually consumes and revolves around. (I'm probably thinking about it every waking hour of the day.) Seriously, I am. And who would have thought you would ever need to pay this much attention to your cycle?!?!  Also, how much money it costs! That's the big one. People who haven't experienced this have no idea how much treatments, dr appts, Chlomid or other pills, lab tests, gas to drive 1 1/2 hours each way (for me, at least), and I'm sure I've forgotten something else. I can tell you... it's not cheap!

But in the end, we know that it will be worth it. We've saved up some money for this so at least that's one less stress in my life.

My parents get into town on Saturday (YAY!) so they'll be here when I go to the dr for a pregnancy test! AHH! The wait is going to kill me! Good thing my parents should be a good distraction.

Everybody, please send prayers and good luck! Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

This is what I've been waiting 2 1/2 years to see!

Green, green everywhere!

I am so excited about our garden! Now that we've worked out all the kinks, the garden is growing so fast and well!

I can't believe how fast some of this stuff grows. The zucchini, peas, lettuce, and corn make me smile when I look at them. We finally picked one of the radishes because I just couldn't stand to go out there and see it just waiting to be picked. It was a great size and tasted excellent!

peas in the front and yellow squash in the back.

grow corn grow!

The zucchini is taking off!

I see a lot of salads in our future.

carrots

Weekend Rewind

Saturday morning was a busy one. First the kids had gymnastics. Immediately following that, we headed to Alena's preschool graduation. OMGosh! Talk about cute!

Each graduate wore a cap and gown and there's something about seeing my five year old wearing those that made me have a mini heart attack. I could just picture her 13 years from now at her high school graduation. It was almost too much. {almost} Don't worry, I held it together. :)

My little graduate!

They did a whole ceremony just like high school. There were speeches, baby pictures slide show, and giving of diplomas. The kids even sang a couple songs. I got a cute video (seen below). It's not great because I had to try and keep Christian from running off while also trying to watch.

And yes, that is my little stinker YAWNING halfway through the song. But she's was cute at the end clapping along with everyone else, wasn't she?

Here's a couple more shots from the graduation.

Singing.

They're so cute, right!?

Christian wanted in on the pic with her diploma.

Gotta have cake, of course!

Sunday was the usual. Church, the grocery store (I survived alone with the kids walking and "helping" me the whole time!), and then relaxing around the house. Well, the kids relaxed. I was cleaning because Gabe was coming home from his business trip that day. The kids were super excited to have him home so they were all over him, giving me a bit of a break. Thanks hun! We ordered Domino's for dinner because they've come out with a Gluten Free crust that actually tastes pretty good! And let's face it, I'm taking the chance of not cooking when I can get it. So did any of you watch the eclipse? I tried to do the whole pinhole trick but don't think it worked. So I resigned to watching it live on the internet. Gotta love the internet!

All in all, pretty good weekend. :)

Not a Baby Anymore

My baby is no longer a baby! Dare I say we have a *gulp* kindergartner!?!? Alena graduates preschool tomorrow and it sure is bitter sweet.

Next year she goes to a full day kindergarten. I feel like I'm never going to get to see her. I am thankful I am able to be a stay at home mom and I had five years at home with her.

First day of preschool. August 2011

Last day of preschool. May 2012

My Dearest Alena,

Since August of 2011, I've seen so many changes in you! You can now write your name correctly, write and read all the letters, and count to 30 (that's the highest you've counted for me at least.). When I would drop you off at school, you didn't want to stay and would hang on my legs. Now, a quick kiss and hug goodbye is all you need. You used to hover near the teacher in class, but now when I come pick you up, I always see you playing with your classmates and you don't want to leave. Alena, I've seen you blossoming into such an independent, confident young lady. I'm so proud of you! I got your "report card" today and was happy to see mostly Excellent scores for everything! I can't believe you are going to be in Kindergarten! I love you so much and can't wait to see how you grow and change this next year!

Love, mommy

Now, we wait.

So, this past month, after trying a double dose of Chlomid and that not working, we had to do it again. This time with a TRIPLE dose. Yup, triple. That's three pills a day, for five days. Mind you, it only took a half dose to get pregnant with Alena. It wasn't pretty. Hormones were raging and making life very stressful for us all.

I went to the dr's on Tuesday where they did an ultrasound to see if the pills produced any follicles. Um, I had FIVE! Five follicles, meaning a chance of five eggs! We have to be successful with at least one egg, right? I sure hope so because I don't think I could handle a QUADRUPLE dose of that stuff. (I know Gabe couldn't either.) They also gave me the Ovidrel shot that is supposed to induce ovulation within 36 hours.

And now we have the long two week wait until we find out if we're pregnant. The waiting is the worst. Wondering if you did enough, if you "tried" enough, feeling guilty for not taking your prenatals every day, etc, etc. Just generally stressing about everything!

I'm feeling extra pressure because Gabe has a business trip. He left at 330 this morning so we had only two nights to try. Almost exactly 36 hours from the time they gave me the shot on Tuesday. That didn't give us a whole lot of time to try!

We're hoping and praying and that's all we can really do at this point. I was feeling highly optimistic (which is the opposite of what I've been feeling lately) up until Tuesday. Now I'm just a nervous wreck.

Also, we've started getting the bills for all these dr visits... and it's not cheap. Our insurance doesn't cover anything billed as infertility so we're pretty much paying 100% out of pocket. That puts even more pressure on us to get pregnant. Can you imagine if I had to go through this for another 6 months?! We'd be practically broke. There's only so much more time that we're going to keep trying before we've had enough and need to stop. We're trying to avoid doing an IUI, artificial insemination, or *gulp* IVF. For one, we just can't afford to be spending that much. And another, we're trying to conceive as naturally as possible. And I use the word naturally loosely because I know it's not 100% natural when it took medication in order to get pregnant. You know what I mean, right?

So that's where we are now. Waiting... and waiting, and waiting. :)

Mother's Day Weekend

Gabe and I purchased an old RV a few months ago and have spent time fixing it up in hopes of taking it to the Grand Canyon for Memorial Day weekend.

We got it back last Friday and thought it would be a good idea to do a test run before the long trip. So we made a last minute decision to head to nearby Patagonia Lake for a night. I wanted to be there by 2 o'clock but I was packing things for the family and the RV alone so Gabe could get some school work done. We didn't make it there until about 5ish which is ok because we'll be going back again many times this summer.

We got everything hooked up and made dinner on the stove. We brought along ALL three of the dogs, so after dinner, the "family circus" as I like to call it, went on a walk around the campground. Sleeping arrangements are weird in the RV because the owners had put shelving on the bunk above the front seats making it into a twin size bed. There are four twin beds in there so Gabe and I made do and squeezed into the tiny bed (at least we got to cuddle all night). :)

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we heading to the marina and bought the kids some fishing poles and after unsuccessfully catching nothing and sweating in the sun, we decided to hit the beach before coming home. I didn't even realize it was Mother's Day until a stranger wished me a happy mother's day (Thanks Gabe for remembering)!! Just kidding hun... sort of. :)

I, of course forgot my camera, so pictures are pretty much non existent. :( I did grab a couple with the Ipad while we ate some ice cream before leaving and on the drive home.

My handsome men.

Alena wanted a pic with her bunny.

so sweet!

Thank you Gabe for photobombing my pic.

Random Thoughts

I don't write too much about our life outside of my infertility and gardening so I thought it would be good to change things up a bit. K? :)

First, the kids love the idea of the garden and so we went out and bought them some chia pet type of things that they can water and watch grow. And they're so cute! Christian even gave his a haircut.

Second, Flower is growing like a weed! She weighs in at 19lbs now and chews on EVERYTHING! Seriously, everything. And getting her to hold still long enough for a pic is so hard! I had to bribe her with some leftover pork. She also likes to think she is small and lay in our laps and in the laundry basket.

Third, after having family pics taken way back in May of LAST year, I have finally hung up one of the photos. Better late than never right? I had to order a frame online because of the odd 16x24 size photo. I LOVE the couch in the field and mountains in the background. It was quite the adventure hauling the couch out there hoping no spiders or snakes were nearby. But the product was worth it. :)

Fourth, we have a radish that is ready to be picked!! It's growing out of the ground and we're stoked that the garden is doing so well.

And last, we have another wildfire happening in our area. We had a horrible fire in June of last year that was a serious threat to our town. I had several friends affected by that fire. I got some pics yesterday from our back yard after the smoke covered the sun and cast a strange orange  hazy glow over us. This one, called the Montezuma Fire was started in Mexico and jumped the border in our direction. God has blessed us with rain today (very rare for this time of year)!!! The town is praying that it will help contain the fire and help put it out.

This Explains the Rattle

Our washing machine has been making a horrible rattling sound every time it goes through the spin cycle. It had been going on for about a month and I was tempted to call a repair man.

Then, the other night as I was putting a load of clothes in the machine, I looked in the detergent dispenser. I noticed there was something in there. I reached in and found these...

Colored decorative stones. 63 of them to be exact. I couldn't believe it! Christian had taken them from an unused fish bowl and put each one in the detergent dispenser. All this time I've been wondering what was making that sound.

At first, I was upset because I was thinking about what it could have done to the washer. Then I had a good chuckle over it.

Never a dull moment with my kids around.

Garden Update

I've been taking pictures of the garden and all the plants in hopes of writing this post. I never end up writing it and then the pictures become out of date. But here are updates, finally.

We made a discovery about a week and a half ago when we went to transplant some veggies. Some vegetables had been dying off or not sprouting at all, and then the soil under the surface was BONE DRY. It was like dust. Even though I watered every day, in this Arizona weather, that wasn't enough. We needed to give it more water, LOTS more. So we soaked every square inch of the garden and now make sure to give the plants plenty of water.

Gabe has also constructed some drip systems for the garden and trees and set them up on automatic timers to make things easier for us. You can see them in these pics below.

We are sooo close to being able to harvest our first veggie!! A radish (You can see it in the pic on the right up above. It's huge!). Only one radish survived when we planted 16 on March 1st. (Another mistake on our part. Planting too early.) We have had to replant some crops because of our mistake. (Live and learn, right?)

Carrots

Honey Dew Melon and Cucumbers have sprouted!

The grapes have taken off and are doing wonderful! I can't believe how fast they grew. I don't think we'll see any actual grapes this year but maybe next year. The plum tree was COVERED in plums until a wind storm (common for our part of Arizona) blew over half of them off. :( We also have some strawberries growing! They are small ones, but the plants are still young and have more growing to do before we can have a better crop of strawberries.

Our lovely grapes

Strawberries in the barrel to the left and blueberries to the right.

 Also, we have potatoes in the pots behind them.

A close up of the strawberries.

Yum yum plums!

Plum Tree

I really should have updated this sooner because now there is just SO much to write about! We have so many things growing right now that if I wrote about them all, the post would be way too long. So here are some pics instead. I tried to get everything we have in them.