At the ripe old age of 34 my life started over. I'm passionate about cooking and trying new dishes. I dabble in scrapbooking and home decorating, and I have an impressive shoe collection. I love to travel to new places, but Honduras is my favorite. After trying to get and stay pregnant for almost 2 years, we are expecting our first baby May 9th, 5 days after my 38th birthday.



Chris is the most amazing man I've ever known. After "meeting" on match.com, we had our first date December 12, 2007. We were engaged by July and married on October 11, 2008. I would be lost without him. I never knew life could be this good!



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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Joys of Rental Cars

***Alternate Title*** How We Got an Extra Day at the Beach.

When we picked up the rental car on Thursday night, it was making a noise like it had a flat tire. So we pulled right over and got out to check all the wheels. We couldn't find anything wrong and figured our dogged out, low end rental car had a bad muffler.

We were wrong.



We got there fine, but on the way back to the airport the sound got louder. Then about 30 seconds later, a huge bang and the tires locked up and we started skidding. Chris was able to get us over to the shoulder.

What the heck? It looked like we got side swiped.

Actually, the plastic part of the wheel well came off and stripped the tire of all it's tread, then got jammed in the tire itself, completely locking up the back wheels.

Why yes, this piece of tread DID slap the back of the car and is what caused the body damage. Notice you can barely see our car in the foreground of the pic. That's how far we skidded.



The tow truck came, and we hitched a ride to the airport.


But we missed our flight.



Taylor is distraught that we have to go back to the beach.

Just an extra day in Paradise. If that's what you call Daytona Beach!

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Daytona Beach Shores

Once we got there and got over the excitement of Taylor's first flight, we had a wonderful time chilling out in the awesome condo, hanging out on the beach, eating some great seafood, and watching the fireworks show down on Daytona Beach's boardwalk.

We did a lot of this:





And a lot of this:



Chris & Taylor on the boogie boards.


Chris tried surfing. He go up the very first time. Wasn't so lucky on subsequent tries. Maybe I can talk him into to taking me to Hawaii so we can try some better waves.



Catching a wave on one of these things is not easy if you weigh over 100 pounds. The waves would take Taylor all the way to shore, but they would just wash right over us and leave us where we were.


We also built a lot of sand "things". No average castles for us. We built men, sharks, turtles, and even one message.







Taylor made this for Holly because she missed her Mommy.

On the dock at the resturaunt.



On the boardwalk.

The great view from our lanai over looking Crabby Jo's.
Great for people watching.

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Leaving on a Jet Plane

My friend Kym gets a place on the beach in Florida every summer and we're always invited down. Because I'm a chicken and can hardly fly anymore, I went later in the week when Chris could go with me so I didn't have to fly by myself. The trip was wonderful. Just being on the beach is fab to me. We did have a little snafu on the return trip with the rental car and missed our flight. But who can complain about an extra day at the beach, right?


This year, Kaleigh invited Taylor to come down with us. She had never flown before and was so excited. I called her the day before we left to ask her if she was ready and she talked my ear off. I don't think I've ever heard her that animated on the phone. She was already packed and ready to go!

On the jet way waiting to board. We like to board very last so we don't have to sit and wait for everyone else to get on. The shortest amount of time on the plane possible is the way I see it. Thanks to all you eager beavers for jumping up and boarding first. The seats are assigned, remember? No one's gonna steal your seat. Taylor was very antsy for us to get on.

In the door to the cabin.

We let Taylor have the window seat. She told EVERYONE (the stewardess, the people behind us, the people next to us, thank goodness there was no one in front of us!) we passed that this was her first time flying. She is so beautiful, though. Everyone thought she was so cute. I'm so glad we got the chance to take her. Even if she did get a little homesick the last few days.

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Chattanooga, but no choo- choo

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. But I have been visiting different areas besides home. We've been on several mini vacations, but we're home for little bit. We leave 4 weeks from today for the Isle of Palms to celebrate our 1 year anniversary.

Chris had to go to Chattanooga to file a lawsuit at the very last minute, so I decided to go with him and we made a weekend out of it. We had a great time. The court house was really old and historic and I loved seeing all the beautiful architecture. We just found a little hotel downtown, the only criteria being a pool & hot tub. Before we remembered, Chris can't sit in hot tubs right now. But I enjoyed it. He put his legs in and swam in the cooler pool.

The hotel gave us some coupons for different restaurants and bars downtown. It is so charming down there and we saw lots of cool places. We went restaurant hopping with our coupons and got an appetizer with a glass of wine at 3 different places instead of eating a proper dinner.

This place was so hip with cool decor, but I can't remember the name.


We were the only people in there since it was only like 4 o'clock. I'm sure Chris was embarrassed when I got out my camera. But loved the little green couches.



I loved this wall of different shaped mirrors and I'm trying to think of somewhere I can do something like this in my house. No really good ideas yet. Maybe one of the foyer walls.


The server took our picture and I thought it turned out pretty good considering I've gained 15 pounds from all the fertility drugs. Hiding behind your husband's arm does wonders for the figure! :-)

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Baby Names - BabyNamey.com Name Badge Ticker
Lilypie First Birthday tickers

TTC #2

April 2012 - Back to RE, Bloodwork is good, order drugs from overseas

May 2012 - Uncle Robert dies, have to be in Memphis when cycle starts, postponed until next month

June 2012 - Cycle day one - wrong - cyst on right ovary, put on BC to calm ovaries

July 2012 - Ovulated through the birth control, tyring old fashion way, did PIO and heparin shots, BFN

August 2012 - 150 U.I. Follistim 1x/day, only 1 egg, cancel Ganirelix, go ahead with IUI #1, 22 million sperm post wash, heparin & PIO injections - BFN

September 2012 - Skipping a month, couldn't get the drugs in time for the start of my cycle

October 2012 - 225 U.I. Follisitm 2x/day, Ganirelix, 3 mature follicles, IUI #2, 22 million sperm post wash, PIO and heparin injections - BFP

November 2nd - 1st beta, not good - 9

November 5th - 2nd beta - 3, chemical pregnancy

November 2012 - 2 weeks BC

December 2012 - 225 UI Follistim 2x/day, Ganirelix, 3 mature follicles, IUI #3, 18 million sperm post wash, doxycycline, PIO and heparin injections,

December 19th - BFN

January 2013- 2 weeks BC, 150 IU Bravelle 2x/day, Ganirelix, 2 mature follicles, IUI #4, 20 million sperm post wash, doxycycline, PIO and heparin injections - BFP!

January 29th - 1st beta - 42

January 31st - 2nd beta - 43, not good

February 4th - 3rd beta - 320! What? Maybe this is going to happen after all!

February 7th - 4th beta - 1196, RE says I have graduated to OB!

February 13th - 1 beautiful baby, saw the heartbeat, too early to hear it, measuring exactly 6 weeks

February 22nd - Heard heartbeat!!! Measuring perfectly at 7 weeks 3 days, Due date - 10/8/13

April 25th - It's another girl!!!!!

TTC Journey to #1

October 2008 - Married, never started BC

December 18, 2008 - BFP, second month trying!!

January 2009 - Miscarriage 7w2d

February - April 2009 - trying old fashioned method, no luck

April 2009 - First RE appt. SA:163 million, excellent motility & morphology

May 2009 - HSG all clear, IUI #1 - BFN

June 2009 - 50 mg clomid, IUI #2 - BFN

July 2009 - 50 mg clomid, IUI #3 - BFN

August 2009 - Follow up with RE, says 1% chance of getting pregnant, recommends IVF

September 2009 - I don't believe Dr, decide to go to Chinese Medicine Dr & Acupuncturist

October 2009 - Appointment with CM Dr, orders an expensive, out of pocket hormone test. I go to get records from RE, surely he tested hormones, right? WRONG, never did any basic hormone tests

November 2009 - Appointment with new RE, testosterone level elevated, diagnosed PCOS, 1500 mg Metformin, Birth Control for 1 month

December 2009 - Femara & HCG trigger shot- BFN

January 2010- Femara, HCG trigger shot, scheduled IUI, think I'm ovulating before giving trigger shot, go for Progesterone test, already ovulating, IUI canceled

February 2010 - Femara, Injectibles, trigger, IUI #4 - BFP

March 5th, 2010 - 1st beta - 79

March 8th, 2010 - 2nd beta - 96

March 10th, 2010 - 3rd beta - 99, Diagnosed as chemical pregnancy, never start on my own

March 17th, 2010 - 4th beta - 113, U/S, nothing in uterus, Ectopic, Methotrexate Shot

April 2010 - Tested positive for heterozygous G20210A & MTHFR gene mutations, started baby aspirin and Folgard.

May 2010 - Laparoscopy - tiny bit of stage 1 endo removed from left ovary, drilled right ovary, no blockage found in tubes.

June 2010 - Mixed Cycle - Femara and Bravelle injectibles, trigger shot, 3 good follies, 46 million sperm post wash, IUI #5, Heparin injections - BFN

July 2010 - Femara + Bravell, trigger, 2 follies, 29 million sperm post wash, heparin injections, IUI #6 - BFP

July 27, 2010 - 1st Beta- 29

July 29, 2010 - 2nd Beta - 22 - Chemical Pregnancy

August 2010 - Bravelle, Ganirelix, Trigger, 29 millions sperm post wash, heparin & PIO injections, IUI #7 - BFP

August 30th- 1st Beta - 90

September 1st - 2nd Beta - 209

September 8th - 3rd beta- 4150

September 15th - 4th beta - 29,481

September 20th - 1st Ultrasound - 1 beautiful baby, measuring 6wks6days, heart beating away

November 23rd - It's a GIRL!!!

May 2, 2011 - Quinn Caroline born at 8:25 PM, 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches

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