Leaving on a jet plane

I am heading out to Denver tomorrow. Our transfer is most likely going to be Friday. Wish us luck!

Tagged

I was tagged by Shirley via TSR. My answers are in bold red.

YOUR HOME:
Coffee table or soft ottoman?
Flower arrangements or candle-scapes?
TV/DVD/stereo black or silver?
Garden annuals or perennials?
Both Antiques & flea finds or matching sets?
Office or junk drawer?

YOUR SELF:
Pony tail or butterfly clip?
Make-up or nada?
Cotton or synthetics?
Flip flops or leather sandals?
Silver or gold? I really prefer platinum ;)
Purse or pocket?

WITH HUBBY:
Fine dining or picnics?
In jammies or unmentionables?
You click the remote or he does?
Theater or rent?
Lowes or the mall?
House work or hire it out?

Getting ready to go!

My trip to Denver for the embryo transfer is right around the corner. I can't wait! My IM is getting her hcg trigger shot today and she will have her eggs retrieved on Tuesday morning. I begin the huge PIO shots tomorrow night and will fly out to meet her on Wednesday. The clinic says that the transfer could be on either Friday or Sunday. It all depends on how the embryos do in the lab. We shall see. I have already gotten a few of my things packed and I am looking forward to this adventure. Wish us luck!

BTW-I have several new layouts to show you all, but I can't post them just yet. They are all for phase 2 of the design team competition on The ScrapRoom. I think that I will be able to unveil them on the 1st. ;)

3 Layouts for C&H

I did 3 quick layouts last week using the August kit from C&H Scrapbooks. It included one of the new cool white Sharpies that everyone seems to be looking for and I had fun learning to use it. It is fabulous for doodling. If you want to read my article that I wrote on how to use it, click on this link: August Newsletter.

If you want to read the journaling, click on the photo and it will enlarge it. ;)

Layout #2

 

Layout #3

 

Wow, I am a complete slacker

Things have been nutso lately, so the ole blog got put on the backburner. Let me catch up quickly right now and I will post some photos tonight or tomorrow.

The Surrogacy
Everything is going according to plan as of right now. My intended mother (IM) begins her drugs today for her upcoming egg retrieval. This Friday will be my internal ultrasound to check my lining and bloodwork. Hopefully, it will all be perfect. I will be flying out to Denver on the 23rd and our embryo transfer will be sometime between the 24th-26th. I will have 2 days of boring bedrest, but I hope that my IM and my computer keep me company. We are so excited! Please keep my intended parents in your prayers. I really want to make this happen for them, but I realize that once the babies are in me, it is up to God.


Scrapbooking
I am thrilled to announce that I have made it to Phase 2 of the competition for the new design team for The ScrapRoom! Best of all, my friend Shirley made it too!! She is the previous owner of The Scrapbook Stand where I was lucky enough to be chosen for her first design team. Cool, huh?

The Kiddos
They are both doing well. Hayden is going through a VERY annoying phase though. He whines and cries all the time. He is a total drama king. Emerson is going to the physical therapist next week and we will find out if he needs to see a foot doctor. I sure hope not!

My Birthday
My birthday was a week ago on the 2nd. I got lots of cards and well wishes that made me feel special. Hubby took me out to eat Mexican that night with our friends, the Smiths. It was excellent as always. On Friday, Clayton arranged for the kids to go to Parents Night Out at our YMCA. We got to go out to Olive Garden and Barnes & Noble by ourselves! Now that was a treat :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I am 28 this year again. No, seriously. I mean that. Stupid me thought that I was 28 all last year until I saw my page on myspace. It said that I was 27 and I thought that it was wrong, lol. I looked in my profile to see if I had entered my year wrong, but it was right. After doing the math, it occured to me that I skipped being 27 for almost the whole year!

Gotta love SEI!

I made these 2 layouts the other day using this cool SEI paper that I got in my latest customized kit from The Scrapbook Club. I just *LOVE* this photo of Emerson and his Grandma Jacobsen. I didn't photoshop it or alter it at all. It just came out like that. It has the nicest glow to it, dontcha think?

Baby E

 

Watch GMA tomorrow!

The surrogacy story that I posted about on the 10th is going to be featured on Good Morning America tomorrow morning. It should be featured sometime around 8am EST.

Catching up...

Sorry I haven't updated lately. The kiddos and I were in High Point with my family all last week. I couldn't get online because my Uncle lost his password to his Internet account. His computer won't go online any more, so I was just going to connect my laptop to his connection. I remember doing it before and the password was written down, but we couldn't find the paper anywhere. Ugh. Anyway, my Mom had a pretty invasive surgery done last Monday and she is doing way better than expected. I am so glad that she isn't hurting.

I have great news on the surrogacy front. I begin injectibles (Lupron) and antibiotics on Thursday. Yee haw! It's weird to be excited about sticking needles in my stomach again, lol. We are going to transfer the embryos sometime between the 24th-26th of August. I cannot wait!!! My intended Mother is over the moon and is anxious to get to that point. I have my fingers and toes crossed that this all works out and that the intended parents have a baby to bring into their home. These 2 people are just the nicest you will ever meet. They are so fun and easy-going. I know that they will be awesome parents. Please keep them in your thoughts/prayers over the next month. They want this more than anything and this is their last chance. They have already used a surrogate for 3 other transfers and they are still empty-handed. We hope that this time will be different since we are using the best RE (reproductive endocrinologist) in the US for this transfer. I will keep you all updated.

J-fer, plan on me being in Denver from August 23rd-28th. We need to get together. I will have to be on strict bedrest for 48 hours after the transfer, but I don't know which day it will be until I get there. I will call you when I know more. You need to email me your phone number again.

And this is why I am a surrogate...

Click here to read a newspaper article from the Raleigh News & Observer about a couple who had a long and hard battle with unexplained infertility. The awesome thing about this couple is that they finally did end up with two children-1 via the natural mother and the other via a surrogate. The clencher is that they were both pregnant at the same time so the kids are twins that developed in separate wombs. It is truly a sweet and interesting story.

My All American Boy on the 4th 

Emerson watering the lawn 

Hayden 

Hayden playing in his pool 

Summertime fun

We now have a hideous $10 pool to help kill the grass that we are desperately trying to grow. At least the kids love it. I took several photos of the kids in it last weekend, but this one is my absolute favorite. Their expressions kill me! Hayden looks all tough and Emerson looks goofy. It cracks me up :) 

4th of July

This post is a bit late, but oh well. I packed us up an awesome picnic (a la Paula Dean), but we ended up eating it out on our patio instead of the park. It was insanely hot. I couldn't stand being out there the 15 minutes that we were. The park would have been miserable. It began to rain a couple of hours later and that put a damper on our fireworks plan. We decided to brave the weather and go anyway with our friends, the Smiths. We had to park forever away, but it was well worth it. Just before the fireworks began, the rain really started coming down. We were afraid that they would cancel the whole thing and that we got drenched for nothing. The good thing is that the rain subsided long enough to do the show and it was the best show ever! Our view was breathtaking. We had to lay on our backs and look up because we were so close to them. Even though the ground was wet and yucky, it didn't matter. It felt like the fireworks were close enough to us to touch. It was amazing. 

Check this out!

We are planning a trip to Walt Disney World for next year (Sept. 22-29, 2007). Several people from my family are going-my Mom, Aunt Judy, Christine, Aaron, Joshua, Jake, and possibly my cousins Sheila and Rachel. The last time we went was in May 2000 with our friends Jason and Natascha. We had a blast back then, so I am anxious to return. This time will be even better because we have 2 small little kids that will be oohing and ahhing over everything. We will also be staying on the grounds, so it will be even more magical. They are going to *LOVE* it! I am having a bit of a dilemma trying to figure out which hotel to put us in. The ones I am looking at are: The Polynesian, The Contemporary, The Wilderness Lodge, and I am sorta considering the new family suites that are a fabulous steal-of-a-deal at All Star Music. The ASM suites are really nice and very cheap, but I would like the luxuries that the deluxe resorts have to offer. I just can't make up my mind. At least I have a while to think about it ;)

FYI-If your name wasn't listed above in the traveling party, you are more than welcome to join us. The more, the merrier!

July layouts for C&H Scrapbooks

I just did 3 more layouts using the fabulous July kit from C&H Scrapbooks. This kit has been my favorite from them, but the August kit is going to be even better! It will feature the new lines-Scientifically Weird (Gin-X) and Rise & Shine (Chloe's Closet). If you want a peek at those lines, check this link. I am so psyched!! 

Layout #2

 

Layout #3

This is a scraplift of a layout that Angelia Wiggington did in the CK 30 Minute Pages book. 

One of "those" days

Ever have one of those photo sessions where nothing goes right? Well, I tried to take a pic of the boys in the cute matching pjs that Grandma Ronda made them. Emerson cried, Hayden argued, neither one of them would sit still and I got frustrated. This is the best I got:

Hayden's picking at his nose, Emerson's hair is sweaty from crying so much, and you can't even see their pajamas. Ugh! Maybe next time.

Anyway, I did get this silly pic of Hayden:

Hee hee...

Emerson's new thing is to quickly blow through his lips (like he is blowing out a candle). He thinks that it is so funny (and it is!). I just happened to catch him in the middle of doing it. Cute, huh? 

Well, what do we have here?

I will give you a hint-no, it's not a zit. That, my friends, is a bump associated with varicella (otherwise known as chicken pox). Now I know that you all are wondering who in the household has this lovely mark of distinction? Um, that would be me. I never had chicken pox as a child nor did I get the vaccine. I have been in contact with the nasty disease 3 times in my life and managed to never get it. Just a year or two ago, my cousin Rachel got it and I touched her bumps trying to figure out what they were. She had already had the pox, so we figured that wasn't it. After going to her doctor, she found out she was going through a second bout with it. Ugh! I was pregnant with Emerson at the time and getting that disease could have killed me and caused my baby to be born serious problems.

Anyway, I had tried to get the vaccine after having Hayden. When I got pregnant in Atlanta, they run lots of routine blood tests. Mine showed that I was not immune to varicella, so I was supposed to get the immunization right after I had him and was done nursing. I managed to move to NC just before he was born, so my new OB did all the bloodwork on me again. They said that I was immune to it. I was pretty confused. I was still worried that I wasn't immune, so I called around to see if I could get the vaccine anywhere. It turned out that only pediatricians and the health dept. had it. Doctors that deal with adults usually don't carry it because most adults had it when they were kids or had already had the chicken pox. After calling the health dept. and finding out what a pain in the butt it would be to get, I decided to just go with what my last bloodwork results were and quit trying to get the shot.

Fast forward to now-When I went to Denver to do all the preliminary testing for the surrogacy back in May, they told me that I was not immune. I had to go get the shot. This just baffled me. I searched around on the CDC website and it turns out that different labs do different versions of the test for varicella immunity. Some tests are more sensitive than others. So, I went into our nasty health dept. (and I do mean gross!) and got the first round of the vaccine back on May 30th. Some people are lucky enough to have no reactions to it and others (like me) actually get a few souvenirs, lol. I have a grand total of 3, so I really have nothing to complain about. Hey, at least I am now immune ;)

Grandma J and the kids

Last week, we had the pleasure of having Grandma Jacobsen (Clayton's mom) stay with us. The kids absolutely adore her! They miss her everytime she leaves, but the good news is that she always makes her way back ;) 

The grate

Our kids love to play in the dirt pit that is bordering our backyard. There is a grate there that E is fascinated by. He throws a little fistful of dirt in there and then tries to see it hit the bottom. He is so cute, lol. 

Finally a walker

Emerson has been walking consistently for 3 weeks now. His physical therapist is now going to be seeing him only twice a month rather than twice a week. Yay! If after 3 months he is still walking on the insides of his feet, we will be referred over to a foot doctor to get some inserts for his shoes. That's not so bad. I am soooo glad that he is finally walking :) 

Another new layout

Man, I am so psyched about the July kit that I just got in the mail from C&H! I LOVE this kit!!! I just did this quick layout tonight:

Another quick layout...

Here's another quick layout I did with the June C&H kit. Emerson was enjoying his first romp in the jumper. He was so happy!

Hee hee...

Emerson was so tired this afternoon, he actually put himself to bed. Hayden would be mad if he knew that little bro was sleeping in his bed, but I just couldn't bring myself to put him in the crib. I moved him so that his legs were all the way on the bed and covered him up. I wonder what he will think when he wakes up??? 

New layouts

These were done using the June kit from C&H Scrapbooks. They are simple, but I love them :)

My apologies

I am so sorry that I haven't been updating my blog. Life has been crazy lately. Here's some updates:

Surrogacy Stuff
Clayton and I flew out to Denver on 5/23 (Tues.) and came back on 5/25 (Thurs.). We weren't even there for 24 hours if you don't count the time we spent waiting at the airport. It was insane. We spent all day Wednesday at the clinic (CCRM). It was really cool to be in the #1 clinic in America for infertility. They made us take drug tests, blood tests, and have a psychological evaluation. I also had to do a routine exam, internal ultrasound, the MMPI (a 500+ question personality test), and a hysteroscopy. We left at 11:55pm that night and got home at 8am the next day.

I found out that everything checked out okay this week with the exception of not being immune to Varicella (chicken pox). I have been exposed to them on 3 occasions, but have never gotten them. Yesterday, I got the shot from the nasty health department. No one else had it in stock because it is a vaccine that needs special storage and it expires quickly; therefore, not many doctors have it on hand (except maybe pediatricians).

Around the 13th of this month, we will do a mock cycle to see how my body reacts to the drugs. Hopefully, that will all go well and we will be able to move on to the real cycle :)

Emerson
He has been going to physical therapy for the past month and I am happy to report that he is walking. By walking, I mean that he is choosing to walk rather than crawl so he is finally up off his knees. Thank the Lord! His therapy will continue for several more months to make sure that he quits walking on the inside of his left foot. All in all, he is doing really well.

Grocery Gaming
You guys that haven't tried this, really should. I can't believe that people still think that you can save more at Wal-Mart and by buying generics. That is what they want you to think. I have been gaming religiously since September 2005 and I have saved a ton of money. Last week, I spent $50 and saved $94. That is $144 worth of groceries for only $50. So far for 2006, I have spent a total of $971 on $2407 worth of groceries!!! That is a savings of $1436 and my percentage is 60%. I have a program that figures all of that out for me. Anyway, I don't buy generics nor do I shop at Wal-Mart. I shop at Harris Teeter and I buy all name brand products. HT is one of the more expensive stores, but that means that they have the best sales. When you use coupons on top of the sales, you really save big. To try the grocery game, click on my link listed on the right and feel free to use me as a referral ;)

Special Visitor
Grandma Christie (Clayton's mom) will be visiting us next week. We are excited to see her again and the kiddos are anxious to be spoiled rotten for a few days. It will be a fun week.

What was once lost is now found
I found my Digi Rebel charger so I should be posting photos again soon. Yay!

Why no pics?

I am so senile. I cannot find the charger for my Digital Rebel anywhere!! It is driving me crazy. The last time I had it was when I went to my Aunt's house in High Point, but it isn't there. I have a knack for putting things where they don't belong and then not finding them for a long time. Ack! Why don't I just put things where they belong?! Anyway, this is why I haven't been posting pics lately. I simply can't. My camera is dead. I will head on over to ebay to see if I can locate me another one for a decent price and then I can astound you guys once again with my amateur photography :P

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hayden called me this morning and wished me a happy day and then told me he loved me. How sweet is that?! I was so thrilled to get that call. He is such a good little guy. The boys bought me a set of chairs and a little table to go on the front porch. I am thrilled! What a lucky gal I am to have such wonderful boys :)

Yesterday, the intended parents made the trek from Atlanta to meet us in person. They were fabulous!!! Clayton and I are so happy that we are working with them. We all seem to get along really well. The IM (intended mom) and I are both super chatty and the IF (intended father) and Clayton both have a sarcastic sense of humor. We loved them! Hopefully, we can get through all the tests in Denver on the 24th and then move on to cycling. I can't believe that we are moving ahead so quickly at this point. I am sooo happy about that. All the pregnant people around me are making me incredibly jealous. My body is ready to carry a baby and I am itching to get this surrogacy going. Wish us luck ;)

Updates on Big E and the Surrogacy

On Monday, Emerson went to see a cardiologist. After the doc listened to his heart, he said that there were 2 murmurs (holes)-1 innocent and the other he couldn't tell. That's when we had to get an ultrasound. You guys have no idea how sucky it was to hold him on an exam table for 30 min. while this gal kept running the transducer all over his chest. It took forever! They played a movie for him to try and keep him occupied, but he couldn't stand it much longer when the tech was almost done. We were lucky to get the last photo that was needed. It turns out that both murmurs are innocent and he can live a normal life. I am so thrilled beyond words to know that he will be okay and that the murmurs are nothing to worry about.

A shout out to all my readers, I appreciate all of the support that we have been given :)

On Wednesday and today, E went to physical therapy. The gal that is working with him is really nice and good at keeping him entertained. We couldn't get him to walk for her at the first appt. to see how he does it, but she did get to see him stand. She showed me that his ankles are very weak and that he walks on the inside of his feet. It sounds strange, but it looks even weirder, lol. We are going to have to get him to correct that so that he will walk more consistently and so that he doesn't have bigger problems down the road (bad legs/achy hips/bad back). She showed me several ways to help build his muscles up and so we have been doing that. He seems to do the exercises really well. At today's appt., he walked and stood around for her. She doesn't think that it will take too long to get him walking correctly. Yay!

I am so excited to say that the surrogacy is going along fairly well at this point. I am meeting the intended parents tomorrow. They are driving up from Atlanta to meet us. We are looking forward to talking to them face-to-face. On the 23rd, Clayton and I are flying out to Denver, CO. We will be going through the screening stuff for the clinic to make sure that neither one of us has any diseases and that we aren't insane. I am so excited to get through this part with our new couple. After the tests are over and we pass inspection, we will be on our way to doing the injections again. Yay!!! Wish us luck! We won't be back until the 25th. I will update the blog as soon as I get back to let you all know how it went ;)

Layout #1

After getting the Basic Grey Silly line in the May kit from C&H Scrapbooks, I couldn't wait to play with it. The colors are so pretty and the patterns are really cool. I had fun putting together these 3 simple layouts. Laura really loads her kits down with lots of fun embellishments too. Don't you love the flower chipboard pieces from Fancy Pants?