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!



Followers

Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Isle of Palms

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while. But, we HAVE been doing some exciting things. We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on October 11th. Chris offered to take me somewhere fun for an extended weekend trip and I was able to convince him we should go for the whole week. We still wanted to keep it small and low key, so we got this adorable little condo on the Isle of Palms for the week. It wasn't super warm and it rained a few days, but we had a fabulous time.


This is what you saw when you walked in the front door. Loved the little pillow pointing to the beach.


Chris chillin' in the condo when we first got there. Before he could scatter cords for all his different electronics throughout the room. I was sooo covetous of this cool circle rug.


Even the dishes were beachy, so we got to eat in style. And we did a lot of eating. When I look at my pictures, it seems like all we did was eat.



The beautiful beach where I walked (almost) everyday and sat and read.



It was FREEZING our last day. I had to go put on warmer clothes before we left.






The view from our screened porch.




Like I said, we did a lot of eating. The view from our breakfast table was significantly better than our breakfast table at home.



Although I didn't take any pics of the actual action, we rode our bikes a lot. I snapped this one at a restaurant in Greenville where we stopped to eat on the trip home. I have several more pics to post, but after a month, one short post is the best I can do today.

Posted by Hope 1 comments
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.

Posted by Hope 0 comments
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! :-)

Posted by Hope 2 comments
Friday, August 14, 2009

My Favorite Place on Earth

I'm joining in again over at Kelly’s Korner. I have had so much fun with these blog hops. Today is Vacation Spots. Honduras is my favorite place on earth. I've been blessed to go there several times. I've only been there specifically for vacation once, the other times have been mission trips. We worked in Tegucigalpa for 2 weeks each time and then spent a few days in Roatan, one of the bay islands off the coast in the Caribbean sea. Chris hasn't been there and I can't wait to take him! You might say to yourself, this is not much of a vacation, but I always come back so refreshed and relaxed with a renewed sense of where I'm going and what I want to do with my life.

All the girls from the trip, the teenagers and the adult chaperons. I love you all!



We build houses for families in the communities. On this trip, we built 10 houses in 12 days.


This is the sweet lady and one of her many children that will live here in front of the finished house. Notice there is no floor. This is basically a one room shack, but the people are always so grateful. I always come back with such a sense of not needing as much stuff.


The rivers in Honduras look a LOT like the ones in East TN. Funny story about this cliff jumping. All the kids were jumping off and they were like, come on Hope, you can do it. This is the kind of thing I WOULD normally do, but frankly, the water looked a bit shallow to me. But they said it was fine, just keep your knees up. So I jumped. I kept my knees up. And when I hit the water, I promptly sat on the bottom. When I stood up, the water was barely past my waist. It's a miracle no one was injured!




Now for Roatan





The beautiful sunset viewed from Eagle Ray's, where I always eat the coconut grouper. YUM!


Touring the mangrove tunnels, where the pirates used to hide from the British Fleet.


The beautiful beach cabanas where we stay in the West End.


Darling picture of all our flippers before we went snorkeling. The water is amazing clear and calm. Because of the reef, the shoreline is more like a lake, very smooth, with no big waves. Great for walking in and viewing the underwater life.


I can't wait to go back!

Posted by Hope 2 comments
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

Labels