Secondarily Speaking

Rachel's brief word about Secondary Infertility and our story:

Secondary infertility came as a surprise to us, as I'm sure it would to anyone in our situation.  (The CDC's stats from 2002 are that 11% of couples who have one child will struggle to have another)  We sought out the assistance of a NaProTech.nology certified doctor who just happened (huge blessing) to move to our area just at the right time.  If you've never heard of NaPro, here's a little summary:
"NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology) is a new women's health science that monitors and maintains a woman's reproductive and gynecological health. It provides medical and surgical treatments that cooperate completely with the reproductive system." (http://www.naprotechnology.com/) 

NaPro (as it's abbrev.) uses the Creighton Method of Fertility Awareness Charting/NFP.  It seeks to help with all kinds of women's issues.  Infertility is one of those issues.  It sees infertility as a symptom of what's going on with the body rather than a disease in itself and seeks to understand EACH woman's body in great detail and get it to it's maximal health in order to facilitate the natural creation of a pregnancy.  It's a scientific method, 30 plus years in the making and is all morally acceptable to the Catholic faith (in fact it's creation was inspired by Pope Paul the IV).  There have been studies showing that NaPro actually has higher success rates than what is now typical fertility treatments, which doesn't surprise me at all having witnessed it first hand for myself and through friends' stories.  I would be willing to bet that in the world of reproductive health today most docs would have labeled me/us as having "unexplained infertility" and said good luck after a year or less since we weren't willing to go the artificial route of IVF, etc. We're so thankful for our Napro doctor who respected us, our faith and our bodies and stuck with us through charting, appointments, blood draws, hormone supplementation, medications, vitamins, diet changes, exploratory surgery a year ago, biopsies, and lots of prayer!  It was a long road but worth travelling.  There's abundant info about Napro on the internet if you want to find more, or feel free to talk to me :) 

Infertility of any kind is a struggle and a cross and my heart goes out to any other couple who is dealing with or has dealt with any kind of fertility issues.  I have been so, so blessed with family and friends that have supported me in a million ways, especially through prayer.  I started my own blog about having secondary infertility as a much needed outlet and found other bloggers as well as friends in real life also dealing with similar crosses, they were also a huge support as we walked this road together.  I have learned so much having this as a part of my life, please pray for those waiting for children and if you're looking for some good books or blogs to recommend, let me know :)  I'd be happy to talk about what I did, what I've gone through so far, and what I know.  This may be a personal topic but I think the knowledge and support that can be gained is too valuable to stay silent.

Love and God bless,
Rach

So Utterly and Completely Blessed

Our dream for the last 2 years has come true.  We're pregnant. 

I'm still in utter shock that our prayers have been answered.
Please join us in praying for "tiguester #2" :)  I'm 14 weeks right now and happy to be out of the first trimester!

The past couple months have been a tad rough, but thanks to an amazing husband and great little boy we got through the worst, I think, and I'm slowly starting to feel better.

I hope to expand a little on our story and the blessing it was to have my Catholic doctor work with us the past couple years, but for now I just feel like I should get the word out and ask for prayers for this new little one.

Much love to all!

Quick Takes 7-26-2013

Linking up with Jen and the gang...

I promised more on the house and travels last post so that's what I'll do:

1. My parents, sister, J, B and I all went to the Children's Museum on July 4th.  We had a blast even with only one kid in tow.  We were there from 11-5... no joke.  We went from basement to 4th floor and even had lunch there.  Serious fun...

Dinosaur exhibit, hands on part

looking up at the blown glass sculpture

And of course my camera battery died shortly after this moment, at the beginning of our visit.  Hmm, perhaps my sis has some pics I could have...

2. B was up all day on the 4th and still did fireworks, I don't know how he pulled that off but he was great throughout.  The rest of the week was spent with my family...

sudden rainshower = puddle splashing 

"well for starters, you have to understand that..."

Dancing after chocolate ice cream?  Why yes, don't mind if we groove.  One of my fav pics evah.

BTW, B's dancing reminded me of this scene from Psych, one of my favorite shows, if you haven't seen it, you should:

3.  My grandmother turned 80 and I really enjoyed seeing all of my extended family.  Every time I get some time with family I realize just how utterly blessed I am to have these wonderful people in my life.

One of the highlights was my uncle "interviewing" Grandma about her life.  She told us about finding work at 11 years old to help out financially, living with rations during WWII, walking to Church, her first experience of Adoration as a young girl and, of course, the love story of her and my grandfather.  The interview was videotaped.  I'm tearing up again just thinking about how much I was able to learn about this amazing woman that I wouldn't have learned without that opportunity.  Everyone should hear from their grandparents like this.

Listening intently

She even pulled out some things... this is her high school cheerleading sweater!
She was in the class of 1941 :)

4. Summer at home has been full of house projects, gardening and such.  I lost all my romaine lettuce because I didn't know when to harvest and it bolted.  Chalk that one up to a learning experience.  I have more tomato plants than I thought I would because so many volunteers came up from tomatoes that dropped last year.  I have 2 little icebox watermelons out there that I'm curious to watch grow.

5. Stripping dining room/playroom wallpaper and washing walls... teeeeeedious!
Before:

B photobombing the before pic :)

Pulling off the paper... thinking, "oh my, this is pretty easy for once!!!"

Something's not right here... that's not some kind of design...

And as I realized that there was a wallpaper mural under the glue and a coat of primer
I may or may not have cussed in German... ok, I did.  B was in bed.

I played with the filters on the last picture in hopes you would see what I was seeing... THIS MURAL UNDER A COAT OF PAINT... AAAAAACK!!!  (yes, I searched for it online because I was that mad that the least they could have done is not painted over it so that I could see the mural in all it's 1950's glory before I tediously scraped it off of the plaster walls... grr.)

Yup, it's under there alright.

 A week and a half later we finally finished scraping and steaming and scraping some more.  Now we're washing, washing and washing the walls.  Wallpaper is my nemesis and it has now been completely erradicated from my home.  WAHOO!

6. Speaking of stubbornness (wallpaper), a little boy is really exercising his independence lately :)  But we're learning to adapt to a big boy bed, drinking from real cups, doing things all by ourselves...

"I'm a big kid now" 

7.  B and I joined some friends for Mass and bagels this morning, great way to start a Friday!

Sorry so long, but thanks for stickin with me :)

Super Summery Summary

Like that title... all kinds of alliteration awesomeness!

Phew, this summer has already been a whirlwind of crazy.  We've been busy so many weekends and the weeks are usually clean up, laundry, prep or pack again for the next.  It's nice, I like being busy, especially with family and friends.

And because what is a good summary without pics, I'll let the pics lead the way...

Father's Day... Grilling tools!

USteve came for almost a week!!!  He helped me rock out the
office panelling project as well as be some great company.  Office pics to come soooooon :)

USteve shared the "Cups Song" music video and Ben was trying to do it too.

One of the many house projects of June: spray all the downstairs interior doors white.  Our garage became the spray booth.  We'll do the upstairs interior doors when the weather cools down...

Part of all the home renovations were to have them done by our deadline: hosting my MIL's birthday party for her family and friends.  I've found a new love for hospitality and especially with decorations, here's a few pics as we were setting up...

Setting up the outside, borrowed pagoda over the patio with two tables and then our rectangle and circle table.  All of this fit on the terrace area so we had seating outside for over 20!

The Dessert table :)

 After the party we headed to my parents for the 4th and then my mom's hometown the next weekend for my grandmother's 80th.  More to share later!

7 Quick Takes 6-7-13

Linking up with Jen and the rest of 'em...

 

1. Yikes!  It's been a long time since I posted.  Between my birthday, an ordination, and travelling May was actually a busy month!


2. It's been "snowing" at our house for like 2 weeks now.  I'm pretty sure that if I had a cottonwood tree I would have hacked it down by now.  I don't know if I'm allergic or not but just seeing all those seeds floating around makes me sneeze.  It's been blowing and piling up around the driveway... seriously.

3. Been working on my eating and I'm finding some recipes and ideas that have been helping.  I have a friend that just gave me a recipe that tastes like my mom's no-bake cookies.  It's even gluten free and dairy free!  Wonderful!


4. Anyone else watch Early Edition when it was on?  I stumbled on an episode this week and it was like going back in time.  There's something about a regular guy who acts like a guardian angel to all kinds of people and often runs away before anyone can thank him.  Plus he's got that squinty look with his eyebrows and popped collar thing that just... pshew!

Exhibit A:

 

5.  Hallway painting is done, more on that in a later post.  We're in the process of painting the office paneling now.  It will make for a biiiig change but also lots of work.

Sneak peek of the work in progress.

6. It's beautiful this week, loving the 70 degree coolish summery weather.  Spent some good time in my garden finally. B loves digging in the dirt and finding worms :)

7.  Speaking of the little boy, here's the photo reward to those who follow this blog mainly because of him. I understand, I would too. :)

Have you seen a happier face lately?!  

Ben just came over and looked at the screen and said, "I miss Auntie Em."

Peace to all!

Feeling blue? (living room redo)

We've been meaning to update our living room, after all, we spend LOTS of time in there.  We thought some paint and a few other changes would help.  Well, once we get rolling, we roll!

Pictures will help me explain how it all came together...

BEFORE:

realtor shot of living room fireplace

realtor shot of back of living room

front window the day we moved in (window awning
was taken off in the first year we lived here.

So the things to notice in those pictures are
1. the bookshelf to the right of the fireplace (sat empty for over a year cuz B would pull stuff off of it.)
2. window boxes and high end custom curtains (these things must have cost a fortune in their day... their day is sadly over.)
3. the walls and trim are all "looks white but really it's a light light blue" blech (and I like blue!)
4. Joe did the project when we moved in but re re-purposed the fireplace grate by spray painting it brown rather than buying a whole new one.  Quick fix at the time but it's help up and I still like it!

The work began in late November with the goal of celebrating Christmas in our updated living room.

The bookshelf begins it's remodel

it only took 15 million samples for me to decide what color would be just right

The window boxes come down with the curtains

Measuring, Ironing and Sewing... forever.

Insert montage here of Joe and I painting and painting, building and sewing...  Oh and a Pooh Bear movie or two for Ben.

AFTER a couple weeks!

I added garland and switched up some decor after this, but you get the idea.

Very proud of my cost-effective back tab curtains
 that cover all the windowed walls.

Joe build this great entertainment center that lets us put our TV
 where we thought it should be and give the bookshelf some purpose... win win!

We even did the curtains in the dining room/play room.
One of the next projects- down with the wallpaper and painting the play room!

Phew... there's other project to share later.  Everybody loves a good before and after!  Oh, and I'll share the secret of my curtains :)

House-work

Everybody loves a good before and after!  This was the laundry room project, the first after Joe's graduation last year.  We started around August and completely finished a couple months later.

Laundry room before:

hated the wall color and wood color

"not hideous but so not us" curtains

In progress:

notice the baby monitor on the right side of the pic... naptime = worktime!

sanding cabinet doors and drawers in 98 degree heat

Inspiration for colors:

walls and curtain material

pinned on pinterest of course

Laundry room after:

so fresh and so clean!

plain black countertop

What did we do?

We painted almost every single surface of this room... actually we did paint every single paintable surface.  The walls went gray.  The ceiling got a coat of flat white (as opposed to the glossy off-white blech that was on the walls also before.)  I swear the ceiling seemed higher just with it's new paint.

 We took off all the cabinet doors, sanded, painted and rehung them.  The counter got a coat of black countertop paint from Rust0leum. (While I wouldn't use it in the kitchen, this room was a perfect application)  The doors, trim and even the sink all got new coats of fresh white paint.

I made the curtains and hung them up high.  Add the clock in yellow and some fresh new simple knobs and we were good to go!

I think the biggest challenge of this room was all the different surfaces.  We had indoor doors, outdoor doors, cabinets, a sink and trim all in different sheens of white.  Oh, technically the ceiling too.

One more room down... many more to go!  Living room was up next...

jumping on the bandwagon

With Google Reader going away, I'm tryin something new with Bloglovin'  Just in case you are switching to bloglovin, here's your link :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Triduum with a toddler

He's my little buddy and he's growing up!  We took a chance taking a toddler to Holy Thursday Mass and Good Friday service.  He seemed to just soak everything up.  We had conversations about what would happen at Church and then later a recap or acting it out on his own.


Some gems from B:

Holy Thursday Mass was constant whispering.
"See wots of Fadders?" (Lots of Fathers)

"B go up wass feet?  Take shoe off?"

Me: "Look at the servers, they're getting the altar ready"
B: "For me?"  :)

"I kiss Desus too?" whispered approx. 831 times as we waited to go up and venerate the cross on Good Friday.

When he did kiss the crucifix he gave it a good "mwah" causing the deacon to smile.

Me: "What are you doing?"
B: "I wassing der feet!  Wike fadder!"

Washing of the feet ala toddler style

B: "Wike Fadder? I way down" (prostrates himself in the play room which ends up looking more like he's "planking" :)

From a couple weeks ago: "Diss my chawice." (this my chalice) He didn't know why we thought it was picture worthy.

This morning: "Dad get you cwoss, we cawwy wike sewvoos." (we carry like servers) Also, the crosses were made of duplos.

This kid picks up alot just watching what's going on.  These are the good ones.  For example, I'm not including his, "Owr you kidding me" repeated after me while I was driving.  Oops.

Oh, and there's this that I printed out from Catholic Icing (awesome site!)  It's a Resurrection Set.  We came down Easter morning and the first thing we did was check to see if the stone was still there and Jesus body was in the tomb where we put it on Friday evening.  He was surprised to see it empty and Jesus standing on the mantel.  He kept repeating "Desus awive!"  (Jesus alive!) whenever he looked up there.  Then he went and found his Easter basket :)

I found that this little resurrection set and B helped ME take to heart just how amazing Easter is and how wonderful a thing to celebrate.  Sometimes kids help us see things with fresh eyes and in a simpler and deeper way.  It filled our desire as parents to focus on Jesus first and then celebrate like we mean it!  I mean, why have only one morning where you run down to see what amazing thing happened in the night (Christmas) when you can have two!  We SHOULD race down the stairs and be excited about what happens Easter morning! 

I hope that your celebration of Easter continues to be great!  God Bless!