Lucky #7

Sam, seven years ago today I made one of my best decisions ever and said I do.  Thank you for being such an amazing husband!

Let Me Tell Ya 'Bout My Best Friend

I met Julia my freshman year of college when she was my next door neighbor in the dorms.  We moved in and, along with my room mate, quickly became friends.  We spent every Thursday evening eating Little Ceasar's pizza and watching Friends.  When I attempted to play inter-mural softball, Julia was there to support me.  When she had orchestra concerts (this girl plays a mean French Horn), I was in the audience with her family.  We even sold attempted to sell CD's for a friend while he performed at a local coffee shop.  

I was thrilled to be the maid of honor in her wedding (on my 21st birthday!)!  And I love that her kids call me Aunt Courtney!

She's the type of friend who goes along with the joke when you nickname her unborn child "Dave."

As well as the type of friend who shows up the day of your daughter's funeral and hands you a hanger with a compete outfit on it because she knows that you really don't want to wear maternity clothes and none of your pre-pregnancy clothes fit yet.  (To this day I wear that outfit when I feel like I'm going to have a particularly rough day,  it just feels like she's giving me a hug.)

She's also the type of friend who sends you this in the mail for Mother's Day with a note saying more charms will be added with your future children's names.

 Happy birthday Julia!  I hope it's as great as you are!!!

Gaudy or Cute? Opinions Please

I spent the afternoon crafting (shocker, right?), and now I need your opinion.  For a while now, I've wanted to make a ruffle butt onesie.  I used the tutorial from Crap I've Made, but decided to use a shiny, sheer ribbon instead of fabric for the ruffles.

I thought it would be cute to take it a step farther and incorporate a "pearl necklace" similar to the one Little Pink Monster made.

Now, this is where I need your opinion.  When I showed my husband, he suggested I add a "turquoise charm" (before you judge, remember we live in good ol' Oklahoma where we tend to wear large jewelry), but now we can't decide if it's gaudy or cute.  I haven't attached the "charm" (made out of fabric and paint) yet, so your opinions will be greatly appreciated.

I think the "turquoise charm" might look better on a white onesie, and maybe one that doesn't have ruffles on the bottom.

Although I have to admit, if we end up with twins, how cute would it be to take them to church in these.

What Was I Thinking! - Fabric For the Kids' Room

As you already know, we have requested two kids from DHS.  Since they will both be four or less, we will be placing them in a room together for a while regardless of gender.  Because of this, I have been racking my brain trying to decide how to decorate their room that is gender neutral but not baby-ish.  For a while now, I've been wanting to use teal and red as the primary colors and accent in navy or pink accordingly. 

Cute, right?

I've been having a hard time convincing Sam that this is a good color scheme. I'm not sure why he's so against it, but he is (sometimes I wish I had one of those husbands who doesn't care about how the house is decorated; in the end, I'm glad he does).  I decided that he needed to see the colors together to truly appreciate the combo.  Fast forward to the other day when we were driving through down town Tulsa.  I saw a lady wearing a teal shirt with red shorts and immediately pointed her out to Sam.  His response was, "Courtney, look at that lady.  What makes you think that a homeless person is a good example of color choices?"  He was right, it was a homeless person carrying a ton of bags (at least her clothes, cutely matched as they were, were clean).  I decided to let Sam win this one and set out on a mission to choose a new, better color scheme for the kids' room.  So, what did I pick?  We reached an agreement on orange and blue!  I'm so excited to start collecting fabric in these colors in preparation for their room!  Now, if I just knew what size bedding I need to make...

We're not planning on going with a whale theme (although it is cute), I just wanted to show you the colors together.   Sam, you already agreed so no backing out now :)

Date Night at Swick's Pizza and Mini Glow Golf

Friday night, Sam and I went on a little date night to Swick's Pizza.  I love pizza, so I was excited that Sam (who doesn't love pizza) agreed to go to Swick's even thought he had pizza for lunch that day.  We got a chicken alfredo pizza which I highly recommend (we like to add bacon)!  I didn't want to look like a dork in the restaurant, so I don't have any pictures of the pizza.

After the pizza, we went next door to play mini glow golf.  It was so much fun!  The best thing about the mini glow golf is that it's indoors, thus we didn't have to play outside in 98 degree heat at 9 pm.  I took a couple of pictures while we were in there, but they don't do it justice.  When you enter the room, it is dark.  All of the borders and obstacles are painted with neon paint that glows under the black lights.

I was excited about playing mini glow golf.

Sam might have beat me by ten strokes...

Fourth of July Recap... A Little Late

I just realized that I never posted any pictures from our Fourth of July weekend.  So, here it goes...

On our way down, we realized that Bella might be a little too big for the back part of our vehicle.

Rufus loves car rides!

After the Jason Boland concert Thursday night, all three bands came out for a jam session.  It was awesome!

Since people were arriving throughout the day Friday and we are old and went to the concert Thursday night, we decided to just hang out at Ty's house.  I know it's redneck to sit in a pool while it's filling up with water, but we had a blast. 

Ben got a sunburn on his feet while we were floating the river Saturday, thus he decided to wear socks to the lake on Sunday.  How cool is he!?!?!?

Did you know that when you buy A LOT of food at Wendy's (as in enough for nine adults) they give it to you in shopping bags?

Ty's roomate is a sherrif's deputy.  He has a K9 officer (drug dog) named Boz.  We thought our dogs were well behaved until we spent time with Boz.  For entertainment, some of the guys planted drug smells around the yard and had Boz search for them. 

There you have it, lots of great memories hanging out with friends, but not a single firework.

The Joy That is Infertility Treatment

I have a few hours to waste today, so I thought I'd take advantage of this time and update everyone on our family expansion process.  Currently, I'm sitting in McDonald's in downtown Oklahoma City waiting for 11:30 to get here so I can go back to the fertility clinic to get inseminated (sorry if that's more info than you want (if it is, you might want to stop reading now)).  We got here at 8:00 this morning for Sam to do his part, he has since left to go back to work because he's really busy right now.  So here I am, killing 3 hours in OKC by myself (too bad none of the stores are open yet).

I'm nervous today.  I don't know why since I've had this procedure completed on my no less than six times (and to be honest, it hurts less than a pap smear), but I am.  I think I'm nervous because this is round 1 of 4.  The four final chances for us to have more biological children.  Also, Sam had his wisdom teeth removed Friday and I'm a little concerned about how his medicine and diet since then might influence his count. 

On the plus side, there are a few positives in completing fertility treatments in the summer as opposed to winter.  One is that I wear slip on shoes with no socks daily, this decreases the time spent undressing in preparation for the exam and redressing afterwards.  Another is that I have been wearing short sleeve shirts which helps in drawing blood.  These things are helpful because as part of the study I have driven to OKC five times in the last three weeks, during each visit they complete an exam and draw blood (most of these visits are at 7:30 am so I can make it to work without being too late). 

On the adoption front, unless something crazy happens, our file will be ready for the August meeting (each month Oklahoma DHS hosts a meeting during which they try to match children available for adoption with potential parents)! 

I know that God answers prayers in one of three ways - yes, no, or wait.  I pray we finally get a yes in response to our prayer to have a family (I thought we were getting a yes with Aubrey, but I'm not sure what it falls under now).

It's Official, I'm a Lab Rat

Wow, a lot has changed since the last time I wrote on here (which is why I haven't had time to blog lately)!  For starters, we signed our finished home study Tuesday night!!!!  During the final couple of weeks, our contractor was sending me e-mails almost every night, each with multiple questions that she needed me to answer quickly.  For a while, I spent my evenings just responding to her e-mails.  I'm soooo glad to have that finished.  I will turn in our life book this week (because I got busy and never finished it :) and then we are seriously just waiting for our kids.  Our estimated waiting time was 2 months to 2 years, I hope and pray it's closer to the 2 month mark.

Also, we decided to go ahead and participate in the research study at our fertility clinic.  I think the final deciding factor for us was that Sam turned 30 last month.  We realized that, although we always saw fertility treatments as something we could revisit in the future, we're only getting older and with that comes increased pregnancy problems.  The study is testing three different drugs commonly used with IUI treatments in young couples with unexplained infertility.  The good news is, since they are testing to see if they are stair-step drugs or if they are equivalent, there is no placebo group.  The "best" drug they are testing is an injectable.  We didn't get into the injectible group so I am taking pills (it's really odd to carry around a container of pills when you're not sure what's in it and the label just says it could be this or this). 

These pills are seriously huge!  Thankfully I only have to take two a day for five days each month.  (On a side note, judging by the fact that she's sitting (not something Great Danes like to do) and her facial expression, I'm pretty sure Bella thought I had a treat in my hand.)

We aren't getting paid to be in the study, but we are getting four months of free fertility treatments.  All I have to do is keep a daily log checking boxes about stuff I won't write on here, take the meds on the days I'm told to, and visit the clinic eight times each month for ultrasounds and bloodwork (did I mention that our clinic is a one hour drive from our house).  Lucky duck Sam only has to go once a month. 

There are two things I'm hoping to get out of this study.  First,  I hope that through the data that they collect in this project (and with 900 couples participating across the country that's a lot of data) they will be able to help other couples in our situation.  Second, I hope that since they will be testing so many things throughout the month, maybe they will notice a spike in some count some where that would help determine just what our infertility is caused from (although I'm not going to hold my breath for that one).

It's crazy to think that in four months we will either be pregnant again or finished with fertility treatments (unless we change our mind later and decide to do IVF).  Some of you might be reading this and wondering how it will affect our adoption process.  Well, let me tell you (and no, I don't want your opinion on this as it was not a rash decision (sorry to be so blunt, but it seems like everyone wants to tell us how to make our family instead of letting us follow what God has put in our hearts)).  Obviously, if we don't get pregnant in the study we will continue on with the adoption as planned.  If we get pregnant with one child, we will carry on with the adoption as planned.  If we get pregnant with twins (hey, there is always a chance with fertility meds), we will postpone the adoption for a short time (call me crazy, but I really don't want four kids ages four and under all of the sudden).

Please pray with us that our family will grow in the near future.  Have a safe, fun Fourth of July Weekend!