Me and my 10 week belly

Ha, I was actually bigger 2 months ago when the meds had me all bloated up. I didn't think about it back then but now I realize why I looked so much bigger and it was because of the steroids. I had to take lots of them for 3-4 weeks and it caused me to blimp up. I haven't had to take them since July and now all that puffiness is gone, thank the Lord! I have gained 9 pounds at this point and I am still willing to bet that at least 5 of those pounds was from the meds.

See those dark splotches on my belly? Those are bruises and discolored areas from the blood thinners. I have to inject Lovenox once daily into my tummy area. That will soon be all over though at 12 weeks.

I forgot to mention that yesterday was my last PIO shot and my last E2 shot (both were monster 1 1/2in. shots that I had to do in my rear). Thank God that's over. Yay!!!

BTW, please ignore the horrible hair. I haven't fixed it yet today.

I am now the Mommy of a kindergartner

Hayden couldn't wait to start school today. We walked to school (it is only a block away) with our awesome neighbors, the Leals. It seemed rather weird to actually take Hayden to real school. He has been in pre-K programs since he was 2 but today felt totally different. My first-born is really growing up!

Here's Hayden waiting in line to go in to his classroom. I have no idea who the kid is in front of him but it was obvious that they were going to be cohorts, lol.

See the cutie on the far left (first in her line-curly hair and blue shirt)? Her name is Gracie and she lives just across the street from us. I so wish that she was in Hayden's class but at least they get lunch/recess together.

Hi Guys

Yes, I know I have been a bad blogger lately. Life has been insane though and I just haven't had much to say. This past week consisted of meeting Hayden's kindergarten teacher (which he is already in love with, lol), getting Hayden assessed, my first OB appt., bloodwork and a mad hunt for a particular pair of Skechers that make Emerson over 40 in. tall (so he can ride Soarin', Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, etc. at Disney World next month).

There's lots of changes going on around my home lately. I had ordered lots of window coverings for our home earlier this month and they were all installed this past Friday. Saturday I spent my time working on painting the kitchen. Our landscaper, Fred, came by and we worked out a plan for the backyard. We are going to put in some Aspen trees, purple sage, juniper groundcover, some purple flowering shrubs (can't recall the name) and a walking path from the front yard to the back so Clayton can easily push the mower back there. He will complete this work for us around the beginning of September.

Tomorrow is Hayden's first official day of being a kindergartner and he is so excited. I am happy to see him finally join the ranks of school-age kids. He has been ready for this for a long time now. I find it strange though that tomorrow will be the start of the rest of his life. You know what I mean, up until now nothing has really been expected of him. Now he will be expected to go to school until he is 18 and then he will go to college or directly to the work force. Play time is essentially over for him in a sense. Oh well, I have great faith in this kid and I am sure that he will be the type that loves academics. His future is very promising and I can't wait to see how he decides to steer his life as he grows older.

The surrobabe seems to be doing very well. He/she was measuring ahead at the u/s I had on the 15th so they are thriving. I have been sick with nausea alot lately so my OB gave me Zofran last week. I was terrified to pick it up from the pharmacy though because I had heard that those pills are outrageous and most insurances don't cover it. The nurse even made a comment about it being very expensive. Thank God Clayton has good insurance though because I only had to pay a co-pay for it. Let me just say, that stuff is a God-send. It works fairly quickly and makes me feel completely back to normal after taking it. I have used Phenergran for slight nausea in the past and that stuff always put me to sleep. Zofran doesn't do that at all. I am one happy girl now. :)

Only 26 more days until we see the mouse!!!

Our new dining room and bathroom

This is our formal dining room. We added dover white (Sherwin Williams) wainscoting, chair railing and crown molding to this room. The wall color is a warm red called crash (Kwal). I have several pieces of artwork to hang but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Sorry the pics aren't the greatest but the lighting in there is atrocious and I had to use my flash.

This is our downstairs half bath. We added dover white beadboard and the paint for the wall is called cafe curtain (Kwal). I have yet to buy anything to decorate this room so it is bare bones right now.
I had no access to natural lighting in this room so I had to use my flash in here too.

Ahhhhhhh....

Saturday was my much anticipated spa day. I had booked it last month knowing that the kiddos would be camping in Estes with Clayton and his Dad. Their plans were thwarted though due to rain. It never rains here so it would figure that the one time it did it would be on a day that hubby had special outdoor plans. Oh well, at least I still had fun.

I started the morning off with an eyebrow wax and then a facial. It was pure heaven! I then moved on to an ultimate pedicure and then an ultimate manicure. I found that it was so worth it to do the ultimate treatments as opposed to the regular ones because the bonus paraffin wax and massage was simply divine. After all that, I took a break and had lunch before getting a hair facial. Yea, I know that sounds weird but it was an hour long head massage with wonderful Aveda hair products. I can't even begin to tell you how awesome that was. The one thing that I wish I could have done was a prenatal massage but the salon won't allow you to have one until you are at least out of the first trimester. Since most miscarriages happen in the first trimester, they don't want you to be able to blame them if you had a massage during that fragile time. Oh well, at least I will have something to look forward to when we get back from Disney World. ;)

I promise that I will have photos of the new woodwork and paint in the dining room soon. I haven't felt good most of the weekend so I just haven't gotten around to hanging the artwork up yet. I will also get some bathroom pics up soon but I have yet to buy the towels and rugs for it.

Nausea is my middle name, lol

I have never had any issues with morning sickness during my previous 3 pregnancies but this time it is driving me insane. I was struggling rather badly yesterday evening (forget morning sickness, I have any-time-of-day-will-do sickness, lol) and so I decided to buy some meds from the pharmacy that my OB recommends, vitamin B6 combined with 1/2 a pill of Unisom (a sleeping medication). Can you guess the side effect from that lovely concoction? I ended up in bed at 8pm and slept clear through til 9am this morning. Ummm, it doesn't exactly count as an effective remedy if I am dead asleep. I can't possibly be like this when my kiddies get back home from Grandma's house. Part of my job as a SAHM is to be awake and alert. Unisom doesn't seem to help me in that arena. Next week I go to my OB clinic for my first appt. and I am going to ask for Zofran if I am still sick. Phenegran makes me really sleepy so I hope that Zofran will be an option.

Oh, and my dining room and bathroom are now completed. I will post pics of them this evening after hubby puts all the furniture back in place. The wainscoting and beadboard look so good in those rooms!

August Layouts for The ScrapRoom

In case you can't read the journaling, I was ranting about how my 2 kiddos never smile at the same time when I take pics. :P

My Aunt Judy

20 weeks preggo with my first surrobabe-8/21/07

This is sadly going to be my last month on the TSR design team. I have been a designer there for 2 years and it has been wonderful. It is now time for me to spend more time scrapping for myself rather than completing assignments. I look forward to that and I love the idea that I am done with deadlines.

Tammy is the best kit club owner on the web. I am going to remain a loyal customer there for life because no other club can touch this one. I have been with TSR since the very first kit back in December 2004 and began designing there back in 2006. The kits are always marvelous and packed with cool new products every month, the message boards are full of awesome gals to chat with and the monthly coffee packets that come with the kits are yummy. Thanks so much Tammy for offering such a wonderful way to scrapbook!

Baby News!

On Sunday night, we headed up to Fort Collins to meet the IPs for dinner at Bisetti's. It was so obvious that we are a great match. I gotta say, my IPs are awesome!!! They couldn't be any better if they tried, lol. The kiddos fell in love with them. I am so lucky! Anyhoo, enough gushing, lol. Dinner was fabulous and dessert was even better.

I had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn yesterday to get ready for our early ultrasound appt. The kids weren't too happy about getting up so early but they got over real fast when they found out that they were going to see the IPs again. When we all arrived, one of the nurses looks at us and makes some comment about me having lots of spectators. That's when I explained that my IPs are the bio parents and I am the carrier. My kiddos had to be there too because they aren't in school yet. I know it appears strange to have an entourage at the fertility clinic but at least there is a good reason for it, lol. She led us all back to the ultrasound room and that's where we met the doctor. He was awesome! He explained everything as he was scanning and also answered lots of questions for us. When he started the scan, I saw 2 different sacs appear on the screen and I groaned. My IPs and I were all hoping for 1 baby. The doctor told us that one of the sacs was a baby and you could even see the heartbeat. The length of the baby is only about 1/3in. right now. The other sac is just a fluid filled pocket. It's nothing to worry about and is fairly common. That's when we were all able to sigh a breath of relief. Thank the Lord!!

Happy Birthday to Meeeee

Today I entered my 30's and I feel pretty good about it. We had dinner at the Melting Pot and the girl in the both behind us was celebrating her birthday also. She was turning 18. I told hubby that I wouldn't trade places with her in a million years. I like where I am now in life. For starters, that gal has no clue what real life is like just yet. She hasn't even moved out of her parent's home I bet. I would also be willing to bet that she hasn't found the love of her life. Most 18 year old's haven't. There is the issue of where she wants to go in life and what she expects to do in the future. Does she have any clue? I sure didn't at her age. Then there is the money issue. At 18 I simply had none, lol. That part sucked but I learned to deal with it as a college kid. I do envy her that she is about to embark on the coolest adventure of her life and that is college (I heard them mention it). College was fabulous and I would never trade my experiences at NC State because that is where I met my soulmate and made some lifelong friends. It was an awesome time in my life. I must say though that I prefer my day-long activites of making grilled cheese for the kids and enjoying homelife as opposed to hustling to classes everyday. Oh yea, studying sucked too and I don't miss that a bit.

Anyhoo, what I am trying to say here is that 30 is good and life seems to only be getting better at this point. Clayton and I are just as in love as we were in college and now we have 2 sweet boys to raise. I love the fact that we actually have spare money to buy things that we really want and a trip to McDonald's doesn't break the bank like it did when we were in school, lol.

The flowers and balloon shown above were sent from my parents and the Coldstone Creamery peanut butter cup cake below was from Clayton. C also got me some yummy candies, a cute card and some spending money to go shopping for myself. Whoo hoo!!

Change is good + A joke

The above photo is not from my own home but I love the way that the walls are done. I am a huge fan of wainscoting, chair railing and crown molding. Unfortunately, our home didn't come with any of those. We didn't build the house (someone else did and his financing fell through-that's how we got it) so we didn't get the say-so on those upgrades. Anyhow, I recently decided to remodel our formal dining room and our downstairs 1/2 bath. The dining room is going to be a gorgeous red with dover white 3ft. high wainscoting, chair railing and 6" crown molding. The bathroom is going to be a pretty purple tone (probably) and have dover white 4ft. high beadboard and chair railing. I am so excited!! They wanted to do the work this weekend but we have too many things going on so I have them scheduled for the following weekend. Once we get those projects completed, I will possibly have them come in and paint the rest of our house. We'll have to see. We can do the work *alot* cheaper ourselves so that makes it hard for us to spend all that money on simple paint.

My friend Sarah sent me a joke the other day and I just have to share:

So, I was talking to this little girl, Catherine, the daughter of some friends, and she said she wanted to be President someday. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats were standing there with us and I asked Catherine, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'

Catherine replied, 'I would give houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow, what a worthy goal you have there, Catherine.' I told her, 'you don't have to wait until you're President. You can start now by coming over to my house and cleaning up all the dog poop in my back yard and I will pay you $5 dollars. Then we can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, you can give him the $5 dollars to use for a new house.'

Catherine (who was about 5) thought that over for a second, while her mom looked at me seething, and Catherine replied, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and clean up the dog poop and you can just pay him the $5 dollars?'

'Ah', I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party'.

Ha ha!!!

I'm Hungry!

I am a little bit bored today so now is a good time for me to list out all the Disney restaurants that we are going to go to this year. I am super duper excited!! Only 52 days to go. Here is this year's list of ADRs (advanced dining reservations):

9/19-Kona Cafe-dinner (Polynesian Resort)
We ate there last year since it is located conveniently in our hotel. The food was wonderful and I can't wait to get the banana cream brulee again. Yum...

9/20-'Ohana-breakfast (Polynesian Resort)
We had dinner here last time and it was just okay. You really have to like meat since that is the main attraction. They skewer everything and cook it over a pit. I didn't really care for the meat but the Maui potatoes side and the bread pudding were to die for.

This year we opted to have breakfast here instead. They serve everything family style and there are characters circulating the room (I know Lilo and Stitch are there for sure). I think that it will be a great first morning meal just before we head out to the Magic Kingdom.

9/20-Cinderella's Royal Table-dinner (Magic Kingdom)
I have heard mixed reviews about this place but I am willing to give it a shot. CRT is actually one of the hardest ressies to get since the meal includes photos with Cinderella and it is located inside the castle. It's every kid's dream to eat inside there (and mine!). Hopefully I won't be too disappointed by the food but at least the atmosphere is priceless.

9/21-Rainforest Cafe-lunch (Animal Kingdom)
I have eaten here a few times in the past. The food is always yummy and the atmosphere is so cool. My kiddos are going to love it!

9/21-The Wave-dinner (Contemporary Resort)
This is a brand new restaurant so I don't know much about it. I have seen pics and it is beautiful inside. The food is supposed to be mostly organic and fresh.

9/22-Teppan Edo-dinner (Epcot-Japan)
I have heard rave reviews about this place. I think that the kids will enjoy watching the chefs do tricks at the hibachi and I love this type of cuisine.

9/23-Kona Cafe-breakfast (Polynesian Resort)
This place has an awesome breakfast menu that includes Tonga toast and macadamia nut pancakes. Can I just say yum?!

9/23-Garden View Tea Room-high tea (Grand Floridian Resort)
I did this one twice during our last trip and it was the highlight of my trip. The food is phenomenal and the teas are so yummy. This is a great place to get away from the kids and have some adult time. Mom and I are going alone this time.

9/23-Whispering Canyon Cafe-dinner (Wildnerness Lodge Resort)
I am mainly doing this one for the kids. Supposedly the wait staff does lots of silly antics and they have pony races during dinner for the kiddos. I am just looking forward to seeing this resort again because the inside is absolutely breathtaking.

9/24-Sci-Fi Dine-In-dinner (Hollywood Studios-used to be MGM)
This has always been one of my favorite places to eat and it is now my whole family's favorite too. You sit in a car and a car hop brings you your food. In the meantime, they show cheesy old flicks on the big screen ahead of you. On our last trip this was our most enjoyable meal thanks to the ambience. The food is just okay though.

9/25-Chef Mickey's-breakfast (Contemporary Resort)
This is a character breakfast with Mickey Mouse and the gang. It should be fun but I don't expect the buffet to be all that great (I despise buffets-major ick factor!!). We'll just have to wait and see.

9/25-Rose & Crown-dinner (Epcot-United Kingdom)
I booked this one because the menu looked good and they offer lots of good beer for Clayton. Hopefully it will be as good as I think that it will be!

9/26-Kona Cafe-lunch (Polynesian Resort)
We eat here alot, huh? It is convenient to us since it will be close to our room at the Poly. It's good too so why not?

9/27-Liberty Tree Tavern-dinner (Magic Kingdom)
We ate here for our first lunch on our last trip. It was super yummy and I am thrilled to be going back. This time we are going for dinner so it will be a bit different (it is served family style with limited options). I still think that it will be great though. It is a character dinner and they will be in Halloween costumes this particular evening because it is a Halloween party night. My friend Sandy and her daughter Sage (I met them back in NC and they now live in FL) will be going with us too. How fun!

New cool way to check blog posts

I just discovered on Blogspot/Blogger that you can now add a blog list in a much better form than the regular list option. It is an easy element to add. Can I just tell you how much I love it?! Now it tells you the name of the blog, the title of the most recent post and the time that it was last updated. I even have them arranged in the order of the most recent update. Now I won't have to click on all of my blog links just to find that only 2 people updated in the past few days. I love that!! You can also choose to have an excerpt of each blog's most recent post to be shown on your page. As far as customization goes, you have complete control. You can rename blogs (I like to add in my friend's names), choose to have whatever info. you want displayed, choose what order you want the blogs to be in, etc. Blogger rocks!!

Not Much Going On Around Here

Sorry I haven't had much to write about lately. Life has been a bit monotonous to say the least. I have been busy doing lots of shots, going to the hospital for blood work and napping. Everyday I get super sleepy around 2pm. This happened with the first 3 pregnancies so this one isn't any different. I will gain energy back when I hit the second trimester (which is WONDERFUL timing since we will be in Disney World when I hit that milestone!). I had a couple of days of nauseousness a little while back but I am totally fine now (which may have been a result of the 7 or so pills I had to take in the morning). My body is responding beautifully to the pregnancy and I feel quite good almost all of the time. If I wasn't sleepy, I would feel pretty much normal. :)

We set up the first ultrasound appointment for August 4th. My IPs are going to fly in and go with me. I can't wait to see them! It will be the first time that I get to meet the baby's father. If he is anything like my IM, then I know that we will get along. We plan to get together that Sunday (8/3) for dinner and then the ultrasound will be early Monday morning. Wish us luck!!

I got my new washer and dryer today and they are totally cool. I have never seen such pretty appliances. When you start them up they look like they have a rocketship control panel with all their cool lights and buttons. They also make the cutest noises at the end of a cycle and when I make a selection on the keypad. My first load was towels and they came out so much fluffier than I have ever had before. They looked practically brand new. It was strange to see how different they looked since washing/drying them in the new gizmos. The fibers were actually standing up and were fluffed. From what I have seen so far, LG has majorly impressed me.

We are now 57 days away from visiting sunny Florida again. I can't wait!!! The kids are really excited this year since they now know what to expect. Last year it was a little bit hard trying to psych them up because they had no clue what Disney World was. This trip is going to be so much fun. Emerson will be big enough to ride Big Thunder Mountain and that is a huge deal. Hayden is talking about Space Mountain (we'll have to wait and see on that one!). Hubby is excited about doing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this time. Hayden and I went to it last year and we still rave about it. I won't be able to ride the big rides once again but as long as I have a Mickey ice cream bar in one hand and a Dole Whip float in the other, I will be hunky-dory, lol. Yes, I am a glutton. That is one benefit of being preggo. I can eat, eat, eat and then drop the pounds quickly after the birth by pumping milk. ;)

You guys need to check out Pioneer Woman's blog from my sidebar. I made the recently posted zucchini cakes and they were delicious! I really liked the crispy outside and the tender inside. The fresh garlic was a bit much so next time I will cut that down just a little bit or use a small amount of garlic powder instead. Overall, the recipe is a keeper for me.

Hee hee, I have the tv on in the background and it is that episode of Friends where Phoebe goes for her ultrasound and finds that she is carrying triplets for her brother and his wife. I love the fact that her character is a gestational surrogate for them. Being a GS is awesome!

Check these out...

Clayton and I have grown sick of our old washer. It has been getting oil spots on all of our clothes lately so we decided to replace it and our dryer that we have had for 10 years. After reading up on LG products, C knew that they were our best option. We headed out to Home Depot last night and bought this pretty pair. Don't ya just love that color? It is called Bahama Blue. Love it!!! They will get here on Thursday and we will finally be able to have clean clothes once again. Yay for not having to wash the same load of clothes more than once, lol.

It's for real...

I went in today for my first beta test (hcg) and it was positive! The number was 210.9 which is a really good strong number. I go in again on Friday for another beta test to make sure that my levels are rising appropriately. After that we will have to wait 2-3 weeks to get the first ultrasound. That's when we will know if one or both babies stuck around. I can't wait!! Due date is March 24th, 2009. :)

Can you guys please comment on this post and let me know if the 2 tickers at the top of my blog are side-by-side or are they one on top of the other? I have a wide screen laptop so they are next to each other on my screen. I really want them to be that way rather than the other but I have no idea what you guys are seeing. Thanks for your help!

BTW-It may sound weird that I am already 4 weeks along when we just transferred 10 days ago. There is a good explanation for that. Basically, in a normal cycle you don't ovulate until around day 14 (2 weeks after you start day 1 of your period) and that is when conception occurs. By the time that you know that you are pregnant, you most likely just missed day 1 of your next cycle (about 2 weeks after conception). Due to never knowing exactly when conception occured because everyone's period lengths are different, the due date is always calculated from the 1st day of your last period. With IVF, we know exactly when conception occured but it still has to be calculated with the addition of 14 days before the egg donor's retrieval (ours was 7/1 and that was the day of fertilization). It's weird but I could claim to be 2 weeks pregnant before the embryos were ever created, lol.

I hope all this made sense.

Beautiful Colorado-Part 1 (from last weekend)

Poor E. This was how he looked last Friday morning. He woke up with a tummy ache and a fever. I originally needed Clayton to meet me around lunchtime at the spa so I could have a mini treatment but this caused me to cancel. While I was leaving CJ a voicemail not to meet me there, E puked on my bed and I started freaking out. I am sure that was one funny message to listen to, lol. Anyhoo, he took some medicine and felt better that afternoon. Thank the Lord he didn't remain sick through the next day because that was when we went on a family picnic in the Rocky Mountain National Forest.

Here are my boys enjoying a cool area that we found for our picnic (yes I am aware that they just wore these outifts not too long ago, lol).

Mom and Me (you can barely see my new 'do but it floops up on the bottom)

Check the awesome scenery! Isn't it gorgeous?

Beautiful Colorado-Part 2

More tests for your viewing pleasure...

Let me just say that I think that the First Response brand sucks. You can barely see the line on it (the top test). It has gotten a bit darker since I took the picture but still. Ugh. I recommend the EPT regular and digital tests. I got my positives a day earlier on the EPTs.

Whoo hooooooo!!!!

Yee Haw Ya'll!!!!

I just got this lovely test tonight at 6 days past 5 day transfer (that would equal 11 days past ovulation in a natural cycle so it is still early). Yayyyyyy for my wonderful IPs!

I will be back soon, I promise...

I am so sorry that I just blogged and ran off after my journey back home from San Fran. It hasn't been my intentions. My Mom is here taking care of me and I have just been taking it super easy. My days have consisted of lots of naps and chit-chat. I just haven't wanted to jump on the computer lately. Mom will be leaving on Monday and I will then return to blogging regularly, I pinky swear. I will give a surrogacy update and share some pics then too. We are going to Estes Park tomorrow to show Mom around and Sunday will likely be something fun too.

Have a wonderful weekend!! :)

Cool

You guys won't believe who I just had the pleasure of meeting in the San Fran airport. I was sitting in a restaurant eating some dinner when an interesting man walked in wearing a backwards hat, a pair of earrings, had a couple tattoos and a pair of sunglasses. I could not help but stare at him while was eating because he sure did look like a certain famous chef. I sat there googling him for pics in the hopes that I could positively identify him. I even watched clips of this person on you tube just to see if I could get a glimpse of his tattoos so that I could match him up. Sure enough, it was who I suspected-Guy Fieri! You know, the cool guy that won the first season of Food Network Star. Awesome, huh?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Surrogacy Updates

Hey everyone! I am sitting here in the San Francisco airport waiting for my delayed flight. As of right now I have an extra 2 hours to sit around incubating, lol. We transferred 2 flawless embryos yesterday around 1pm. We know that 1 is a boy and the other is a girl. How cool is that?! Anyway I am going to keep this short since I am on my BlackBerry. I will jump back on here as soon as I can get on my laptop. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for my IPs and their perfect little embryos. :)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Pirate Play & Updates

The kiddos have been having fun with pirate stuff lately. On Monday I had them take homemade pirate hooks and see how many pretzels that they could scoop up with them. That was a huge hit at snacktime. See how into it they were? lol

Yesterday was the egg donor's retrieval. The RE was able to retrieve 20 eggies for our upcoming transfer. Yay!

My Mom is flying in today to take care of the kiddos while I go to San Francisco this weekend. She should be here around 6pm and we can't wait to pick her up. I hope that she has me some chicken biscuits from Biscuitville stuffed in her suitcase. I miss having breakfast biscuits so much! Colorado really needs to think about getting either a Biscuitville or a Bojangles so that I can get my biscuit fix. McDonald's is the only place here that has them and they are not worth talking about. Blech.

Surrogacy Update

Hey guys! I am happy to say that everything is going perfectly according to plan. I flew out to San Fran yesterday to have an u/s and my uterine lining was at a 13 (it had to be at least an 8 to proceed). I also had some bloodwork done to test my E2 (estrogen) levels and it came back awesome too. The egg donor was given the green light to do her hcg trigger shot on Sunday so her retrieval will be on Tuesday. She had 26 follicles at her last check. I fly back to San Fran next Saturday for our embryo transfer on Sunday around noon. My IPs and I are both incredibly excited. I can't believe that transfer time is right around the corner!!

On a scary side note, the RE told me that I had an amazing number of follicles in my ovaries. They were both fully loaded with them. He said that I would make an awesome egg donor if I ever decided to do that. No way will I ever but I knew that news would make Clayton cringe. He is terrified of the thought of having more babies. He really wants to get snip snip but I have a hard time okaying that for some reason. I simply don't want him to. Now that we have confirmation that I am quite a bit fertile (this RE wasn't the first to note how many potential eggies I had in there), he is even more concerned with having something permanent done to prevent expanding our brood, lol.

My Latest Gadget & A Surrogacy Update

I just ordered my first BlackBerry device today and I can't wait to get it into my hot little hands. The pink BlackBerry Pearl has been calling my name since I first played with it a few weeks ago. I have done a lot of research and asked tons of questions. I think that this new gadget will be an awesome way for me to communicate. The thought of being able to send emails or surf the web anywhere/anytime is particularly thrilling. This phone is lightweight and you are able to use it one-handed unlike the traditional flap-jack shaped BlackBerrys. Yes, the size is compromised with having 2 letters assigned per key but I think that it will be fine. I have asked several others who already own the phone if that was a huge deal and it seems that the portability is worth not having a separate key for every letter. There are 2 different ways to type using the dual letter keys so I will just have to see which way works best for me when I get it. It will be here tomorrow. Yay! :)

I am gearing up for my San Francisco trip next week. I can't believe that it is so close now! I will fly out Sunday morning (6/29) for an ultrasound and return later that night. My Mom will fly into Colorado on Wednesday (7/2) so that she can watch the kiddos while I am away. I then take off again for CA on Thursday (7/3) and the transfer should be on Friday (7/4). It has to be good luck that the transfer is on July 4th. How cool is that?! I will have my BlackBerry with me so I should be able to update my blog while I am away. Wish my IPs lots of luck! ;)

For the love of Gymboree...

I am such a sucker for Gymboree. Don't my boys look cute in their new madras shorts and polos?? I swear, it is beginning to be an addiction for me. It doesn't help that it is Gymbuck time. I have been buying all my kiddos' clothes there and I noticed that this was a problem recently. They had no play clothes or clothes that I thought were cheap enough to sit in the dirt in. Egad. So what did I do? I ended up going there and spending a small fortune on their play clothes (which are really cheap right now and you can earn Gymbucks at the same time). They had tons of tanks and soft play shorts for really good deals. I picked up several outfits for the boys that I won't mind them getting dirty. Even though I was supposed to only buy play clothes, I couldn't resist the outfits above. They look so cool!

BTW, I would post a pic of my new haircut but that is impossible considering I didn't get it. Aveda screwed up my appt. so I will be getting it done tomorrow night. I can't wait to have short hair again and neither can Clayton (he actually prefers it that way).

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! :)

Updates

I have been super slack on the ole blog lately. For that I apologize. We've been having lots of issues with my wireless router lately and so I haven't jumped on here very much. What has been going on around here in the past 5 days? Well, not much but here is a recap:

Tuesday-I went grocery shopping in the county below me and found out that they do not have sales tax on food there. Guess where I will be going from now on, lol.

Wednesday-I went to have some surrogacy bloodwork done. Everything was perfect so I got cleared to begin even more drugs. Whoo hoo! After my blood draw, we went to a fun bouncehouse place called Jumpin'. My friend Melissa and her kiddos joined us. It was so relaxing. The kids took off and only checked in with us every so often for a much-needed swig of water. They completely wore themselves out, lol. I had to leave around 2pm because I needed to get the kids to Clayton. I had a dentist appt. to get some cracks in my teeth fixed (Lesson learned-DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT eat hard chunks of ice no matter how much you crave it!). When I am pregnant I will grab huge pieces of ice from the freezer and eat it. That is soooo bad for your teeth. Yes, I know I am not preggo (yet!) but this habit continued after my last pregnancy for some reason. I must still be a little bit anemic (craving ice is usually a sign of anemia). Now I am paying the price for my nasty little habit. 3 teeth have been fixed over the past 2 weeks. At both visits for dental repair, I chose to do the laughing gas (nitrous oxide) because I was so anxious. Let me tell you, that stuff is wonderful. I told my dentist that it was great to be high and watching the Best of Will Ferrell from SNL at the same time. I could have sat there forever in my own little happy world, lol

I have nothing much to say about Thursday and today. The kids and I have just been sitting around the house pretty much doing nothing. We don't have any weekend family plans but I can't wait until Sunday. I will be getting my hair chopped off at Aveda. Here's the look I am going for:

Wish me luck!

Father's Day

Getting a picture of Clayton and the kids is an extremely difficult task. It seems that all 3 have made a pact to never cooperate with the camera at the same the time. I took about 20 pics of them sitting on Hayden's bed during storytime and all of them had at least one person doing something goofy. This one and the one at the bottom of this post were the only 2 good ones (even though E wouldn't look at the camera). In case you are wondering what they are reading, it is "Where the Sidewalk Ends".

I ordered Clayton this awesone ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery. It is a Cookie Dough Delirium cake and it was insanely good! We have had other kinds of ice cream cakes before but this one was the best. It had yellow cake, cookie dough ice cream, icing (which tastes like really sweet Cool Whip) and cookie dough chunks. The big chocolate thing in the center says "Happy Father's Day".

The kiddos gave their Daddy a mug and a mousepad for work. I got them made through Snapfish. The mousepad came out perfect but I don't recommend their mugs. The photos on it were quite a bit blurry from the bad printing. I know that those photos should have been crystal clear considering that I just got the same prints from them and they were awesome. Oh well, I tried.

Happy Father's Day Clayton!!

Thank God...

We finally got another car! Clayton was beginning to go nutso from looking at so many. He originally was set on buying a new Honda Civic but we ended up buying a '09 Toyota Corolla instead. What happened was yesterday we drove out to Honda and made an offer. They wouldn't lower the price more the $300 from the sticker. Clayton told them to forget it and so we went over to Toyota and bought the Corolla. It was a fairly easy sale and hubby did good in the negotiations. It took forever to complete though. I swear, signing all the crap to buy the house went alot faster than the car paperwork. Sheesh! Anyway, the car is silver and is really cute. It also gets great gas mileage (which is precisely why we bought it). I told Clayton that the car's name is going to be along the lines of Bert (if I decide it is a he) or Bertie (if I think it is a she). He just rolled his eyes at me, lol.

Today the kiddos are going to their Aunt Stephanie's house in Cheyenne for the weekend. They can't wait and we can't either. It will be the first time that we have been kidless together in a year. We plan to go out on a dinner date tonight and a movie tomorrow. I am thinking of maybe The Melting Pot or a Mediterranean restaurant in Fort Collins. I know for sure that we will be seeing the new M. Night Shyamalan flick "The Happening". We are huge fans of his work so we can't wait to see his latest one.

Things are going well

I started the injectible meds this past Sunday and all is going well so far. It has been really easy. Our transfer will likely be July 4th or July 6th. I have to fly out to San Fran for a one day venture just to get an ultrasound at the end of this month (why, oh why will they not let me get it done here locally?). I will leave early in the morning and come back that evening. A few days after that I will fly there and stay for a few days for the transfer. I can't wait to meet my awesome IM there!! She is so fun to chat with and I just know that we are going to be two peas in a pod. July can't get here fast enough. Just think, a baby for my IPs could be brewing in my womb in less than a month! Crazy, huh? It seems like I just gave birth to my first surrobabe the other day. He is now a cute bubbly little guy and he will be 6 months old on the 27th. Wow, time sure does fly.

The timing sucks for us to be buying a new car since we are refinancing our home this month but it is necessary since we cannot possibly be a one car family. Clayton is looking at both Toyotas and Hondas (we are HUGE fans of Toyotas for their reliability). I really want him to buy another Toyota since we have a 1996 4-Runner that has never been in the shop. She (her name is Suzy) has been the most reliable vehicle ever. If she died tomorrow we feel like we got our money's worth out of her. That vehicle has went above and beyond the call of duty. I have serious attachment issues to her since she has been with us through everything-our move from Atlanta back to NC, the purchase and move into all 3 homes that we have bought, the move to Colorado, the trip home from the hospital with both of my kiddos, etc. She even has nose prints from our dog Bailey on the inside of the cargo area windows. I can't bear to clean them off as they are a reminder of him. Needless to say, I am soooo glad that Clayton didn't drive her to work the day of the tornado. I would be distraught. Thank God she was safe at home in our garage. Sorry about the tangent but I do love our SUV. Anyway, Clayton test drove a few cars and thinks that he likes the Honda Civic best. When compared to the cars we saw at Toyota, I can see why. The Honda did look cooler. He will likely buy an '09 Civic but we will always stick to Toyota for SUVs (the Sequoia is next on our list). This will be our first brand new car as we have always bought used. I just can't wait to not be holed up in our house everyday while the kids drive me absolutely crazy. :P

Ahhhh, the joys of being a surrogate....

I got a ton of meds delivered to me yesterday so that we can finally get this surro journey started. This supply will be used for about 4 weeks (leading up to transfer) and then we will need to order more for the first 10 weeks after transfer providing that I get pregnant. I am a bit dismayed at having 4 different types of injectibles this time but I will just have to deal. 2 are subcutenous and will be injected by a tiny diabetic needle into my stomach and the other 2 are intramuscular. The 2 intramuscular ones will go into huge syringes with 22G needles. I have to inject those into my rear. The needle is 1.5" long and it has to be completely inserted to work correctly. Sounds fun, huh? Actually, I prefer the big needles over the little ones because they don't seem to hurt at all. They glide right into the skin easily and almost effortlessly. Sometimes the little ones don't seem to be sharp enough and I really have to jab them. Anyone interested in becoming a surro now?

For those that are curious, here is my med list:

Heparin-subcutaneous injection twice daily (blood thinner)

Lupron-subcutaneous injection daily (puts me in menopause-stops ovaries from production)

Estradiol Valerate (Estrogen)-intramuscular injection twice weekly (builds uterine lining)

Progesterone in Oil (Ethyl Oleate)-intramuscular injection daily (this hormone keeps pregnancy viable-you can't carry a baby without this and since I won't be naturally pregnant my body won't make this on its own initially)

CitraNatal DHA (prenatal vitamins)-1 gel and 1 tab daily (promotes health)

Doxycycline-twice daily for 10 days (Clayton and I both have to take these so that I hopefully don't get sick during the cycle-they make us both throw up though, lol)

Cipro-twice daily for 5 days around transfer (to keep me from getting sick)

Prednisone (steroid)-twice daily (suppresss my immune system-keeps my body from attacking the embryo after transfer)

Aspirin-daily (keeps blood thin)

Folgard-once daily (adds extra folic acid for baby's growth & development)

Calcium + Vitamin D-once daily (helps with my bone strenth)

birth control pills-once daily (gets my cycle in line with the egg donor's cycle-we must be in sync for everything to work correctly)

Crash Hot Potatoes from the Pioneer Woman

Let me just say that the Pioneer Woman has some of the yummiest recipes. The latest entry on her blog for crash hot potatoes was a definite keeper for me. Take a looksie here: Crash Hot Potatoes

I promise you won't be disappointed!

June Design Team Layouts for The ScrapRoom

You can't see it very well, but the epoxy sticker in the bottom right corner says "Boys Rule".