On the Home Front of PT

So we have had a few back slides, mainly travel has messed up Gracie's progression on PT.  But she is still doing really well.  She was obsessed with only using the big toilet then realized if she sat on the little one she did not need my help and she could enjoy a few of her favorite books.  I wanted a memory of this, enjoy!

Sporting her Malone gear and taking in Angelina. 
What a cutie.

I recently bought a very high stool for her to climb up on the big PT by herself which she has used but I am always afraid with her pants around her ankle she will fall.  I think she is not to keen on it either because she always wants to use the downstairs PT.  Mainly because she can run in and do it by herself.  Maybe she will be tall enough to try the normal toilets again this summer.

Meeting Dr N

I recently had a couple of appointments. The first one was to see if my tubes were open. This by far was one of the most embarrassing test that I have ever had. It was uncomfortable but not painful like I have heard some describe. That is done and the results came back perfect. No issue here.

Appointment #2 in the same week.  I got to meet Dr N.  He is a fertility specialist and was very nice.  I know someone who used him in the past and like him so here we go.  He was blunt straight to the point which he apologized for but I love.  Don't beat around the bush just be straight forward with me.  At this point just tell me.  He said honestly you had a problem with the first and now the second he said there is something going and basically you should have been pregnant with in the first 6 months.  There is a problem and secondary infertility happens but can be helped.  Ok...now what do we do?  A couple more test, oh fun.  So we will see how those come out and then for decisions.  This may get interesting.

Guess What?

Gracie's room is finally done.  Wahoo!  At the end of all of the re-arranging and cleaning out of closets, and going thru everything we own.  My house is very clean, well minus the attic and that will happen this summer.  I have been trying to finish her curtains since well, I think November.  That's sad!  But it looks cute and she is not allowed to change it for a while.  I love it and it has lots of different colors so as the next years pass and her favorites change I will have to just point them out.  Right now she really likes the flowers on her wall.  At some point I will find her a twin bed and layout her comforter but that won't happen until this summer.  Enjoy!

the new room

her play area

I wanted to do something with decals on the wall.  I worked on these with someone from my work and then we printed them off.  They came out looking pretty close to what I found on etsy for way, way less.

the curtains  

I have plenty of left over fabric so I will

also make some pillows with this at a later date.

I also got these letter from work, for free, wahoo.  

I thought they were pretty cool and this 

is what I did.  It is hanging above G's bed.

I thought I had a before picture but I don't.  This was a hideous 

picture of a girl.  Which I spray painted over, made a chalk 

board and painted the trim purple.  I did not want anymore white.

Time with S

The last month has been filled with wonderful exchanges of children, meaning a babysitting swap.  Every other week on Thursdays we watch my nephew Sawyer and on the others Gracie goes to my SI.  And then once a month we get a Saturday night out.  Free babysitting has been a blessing.  Troy and I have gotten in some much needed alone time to just hang out and go out to new places.  I highly recommend doing this with someone.  Even if it is only once a month it is good for the soul and marriage.  I got a couple of cute shots of the kids playing.

Although I would love to say that S

hugged and kissed on baby Abby, not true.

once I handed Abby to him, he to took her right to G to love on

These two are like siblings.  They get

along and play well together most of the

time there is some fighting but nothing to bad.

Royals Love

Although Troy and I tend to disagree on the teams we are going to bestow upon our kids, the one team I am more then ok with supporting are the Royals.  I have no major loyal to them except my hubby loves them, and the Chiefs but that is a different topic.  So here is some love for our favorite team the Royals!

cheese

this is my favorite

peek-a-boo

ready for the game

sad about the last play

A Great Grandma

I have been away from the blogging world for about a week.  From being sick , to having no electricity and then the passing of Troy's Grandma, Velda Schenk, it has been a little hard for everyone.  I can say that this amazing women was just that, amazing.  She was hard working, strong, creative, encouraging, loving, honest and took in all family members as her own.  She never missed a birthday and she loved talking to her kids on the phone.  Troy has a very big family where some of her grandkids were adopted, with different nationalities and you would never seen her look at one of them differently.  She loved her kids, her grandkids and her great grandkids.  I heard numerous times that she was the best mother-in-law anyone could hope for.  I am honored to be apart of such an amazing family.

The boys drove out Wednesday the 9th, drove through the night.  Got there at 4:00am  on the 10th and they got to see her but were not allowed to wake her.  They went to get a little sleep and then were told to come to the room at 7:00am, where she passed quickly.  Although I know it has been a very hard time for everyone, we know she is in heaven and we know that she was greeted by her savior and her husband Lynn.  All of Velda's kids and almost all of her Grandkids were there when she passed.  I am glad that they were all able to see her one last time.  When the family got home from the hospital they found she had everything for her funeral planned even the songs she wanted sung.  On Saturday the 12th we buried Troy's Grandma, Velda Schenk.  I can say this women lived a great life.  The funeral was beautiful, very personal and the church was packed.  After the ladies of the church prepared a lunch for everyone to be able to enjoy each others company.  Grandma would have loved to see everyone enjoying themselves.  Although it was a sad weekend it was wonderful to see everyone and to love on them as much as possible.  I am thankful that everyone made it there and back home safely.

One of the reasons the funeral happened so quickly was that Troy's cousin Hannah had surgery scheduled for Monday.  A little clearer, Hannah is Velda's granddaughter.  The first surgery to take out a lump has taken place but another is to come.  Hannah will be having a mastectomy.  I want to say Hannah is about 16, I know she is still in High School, but if you could keep her in your prayers that would be greatly appreciated.  You can add in her whole family and her mom Lanita who is carrying a lot of stress right now.  I just know it has to be hard to grieve over your mom when there so much still pressing that you have to get through.  Just pray that God can give them all peace.

Just a few Great Memories:

July 19, 2003
This is by far one of my favorites

that we still have hanging on our wall.

Christmas 2008

Meeting Gracie for the first time

Christmas 2008

Grandma was not feeling very well so she was in the

hospital for a couple of days.  We took Gracie to cheer

her up and it did the trick.  Gracie was making all sorts

of noises on Grandma's lap, it made Grandma laugh.

Thanksgiving 2009

Lots of Love

Christmas 2010

Sadly this is the only picture from this past

Christmas that I have with Gracie and Grandma

picking out a candycane from the tree.

This is a Hard One

Warning the below info may just be too personal for some people but I felt maybe it would help others.

For you to fully understand what I want to share I must start from the beginning.  I am sure it is no secret from previous blogs, from the very beginning, that getting pregnant has never come easy for me.  For three years I had been off the pill, this time included dealing with a minor surgery of having a cysts drained, medicine to help the size of another cyst go down, and 15 months of trying later we were pregnant with Gracie.  Although the over all pregnancy with Gracie went well there was the minor complication of the surgery at 5 months.  Considering pregnancy issues don’t run in my family, the thought never crossed my mind that I might have a problem.  I thought I would be the girl who got pregnant on her honeymoon night or 3 months after her baby was born.  Nope, not me.

            This summer again after having issues I decided to go to my doctor.  When having to work around football schedules it makes things a little harder and some doctors seem to think you are crazy for caring.  I needed to know if something was wrong before we wasted a year, I want to know what to we could fix.  When I got pregnant the first time I had been on the pill for just the month before because they again thought it would minimize the size of my cyst.  I was told those hormones most likely gave me the levels I needed to get pregnant.  SO, I thought I would go in, see the doctor and just talk, just to make myself feel better.  In September 2010, I found out my thyroid level was fine but that I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome(POS)(read this link which explains perfectly).  The extremes of POS vary from each person.  Interesting enough the first time I was introduced to POS was the summer after Gracie was born.  I found out 2 people I knew had it, both there situations similar.  I had read up on POS and thought there was no way I would have it considering I have only 1 of the symptoms listed.  I brushed it a side until September, when I went to the doctor.  My one symptom besides blood work is the number of cyst I get, anyone surprised?  Sadly there is nothing I can to do to prevent them.  Obviously we are months from September.  All the medicine I have taken and all the methods I have followed have not helped in the least.  All of our tests come back perfect, which I think is worse.  I'd rather there be a problem we can try and fix.  When there is not problem, how do they know where to start to fix what is not broken?   I did not even know secondary infertility existed. All of this along with life has just been a lot at times.

Even though there are a lot of other details I could share there is not a need for those but I have been reading a couple blogs regarding women who have had fertility issues much greater then mine.  I know I am lucky I got one and although I am hoping for another it may not come in the form I am hoping.  That being said we are looking and investigating other options.  Praying about what options to take next, what is our next step?  Interesting enough I will most likely share a little bit about this next step of our lives.  Although even doing this now seems odd and strange to share these personal details.  I don’t have a problem talking about them in general but I can’t see your facial expressions and this is a vulnerable step.  I am stepping way out of my comfort zone for this one and this has been sitting in my post for about 2 months to be published. 
There are some friends out there that I love dearly that I have not shared this with mainly because I just have not had the chance so please don't be offended, and I never know how to bring up, it seems to be such a downer on the normal conversation so I tend to leave it out.