Birthday Photos

Today I was able to sleep in a bit-because there wasn't any choir practice! :) So of course, I slept a bit longer than I should have to get both myself & Anna ready for church and get to church before it started--since I'm the chorister and I need to put up the hymn numbers in the front. Yeah, I feel bad for the bishopric whenever I show up 1 minute before the meeting should begin...poor guys.

Church was really wonderful. There was a beautiful prelude before Sacrament meeting and a musical number during, with wonderful talks in between. I finished my subbing for the primary chorister today. I really like the primary pianist--she reminds me a lot of my mom--even in looks, it's quite uncanny.

We had dinner at my friend Kathey's house. Today is actually Anna's birthday, so we had another little cake/ice cream and sang. She loved it. Kathey worked with me on some EFT methods. I feel like it could be quite helpful for me. I'm excited to begin doing it. Here are some photos from Anna's birthday party yesterday--the blogger decided that I could upload them today instead of yesterday...enjoy!



6 Pretty Princesses!



Playing 'ring around the rosey.'



I bought her some dress-up shoes (6 pairs to be exact) and some tiaras--a must for a royal princess!



We yet again have the game "chutes and ladders." We somehow lost our copy while in Oklahoma last summer and Anna has been mourning its lost since then...the mourning has ended...



A DISNEY PRINCESS--SLEEPING BEAUTY, or as Anna says it: Sleeping Booty. hee hee!



A dress-up for my dress-up girl.



The Princess Loot!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Well, today was Anna's birthday party and I think it was a big success. She had 5 friends come who also dressed up, and we had the party at the bowling alley. Can you imagine having six 5-year-olds with chocolate cupcakes in your house that is white & cream?? Yeah, we decided to have the party SOMEWHERE ELSE, which became the bowling alley after the successful bowling birthday that Anna had last year. She had all sorts of fun between the bowling, eating pizza, the cupcakes, opening presents, followed by more bowling and more cupcakes...a great day for her.

And shortly after arriving home, I was exhausted! (imagine that) and so my sweet husband took Anna to Lowe's and let me take a nap. And of course, being Anna's birthday (remember, she couldn't handle the thought of her birthday being on a different day than the party-so the "birthday" was today, even though it's really tomorrow) she got to choose what she wanted for dinner and being a very highly intelligent girl--she chose Papa Johns Pizza. Well, technically she chose pizza, I was the one who opted for Papa Johns. ;) So I didn't need to cook, which was great!

We got my prescription for Clomid which I began today. I'm just so happy that I was able to get it. My period is still going quite strong, it makes me wonder how much blood I haven't been shedding the past few years! Anyhow, we're looking forward the possibility of becoming pregnant this month. I feel like it's coming up soon.

I now have the desire to stop eating sugar and begin exercising again. It's funny what things motivate you to kick out bad habits and replace them with good ones. Tyler bought me an IL DIVO dvd for Christmas and while I watching them, it occurred to me that they were doint something extraordinary--not something many people do--I yearned to do something like what they are doing, but I know that will never happen if I cannot get my weight to a healthy number. Also, my friend Melisa has started on a weight loss quest and I was inspired by her as well. So I am going to begin on JANUARY 1st, and will be sure to keep you posted!

Here is a photo from today-I'm having trouble uploading more than this one. Enjoy!



Anna bowling. She wore her DISNEY PRINCESS Jasmine dress. Isn't she cute?

PRINCESS BIRTHDAY PARTY

Tomorrow is Anna's birthday party. Her actual birthday is December 31st, on Sunday. She is quite confused by the concept that her birthday party is not on her actual birthday. I have tried to explain it several times, only leaving her confused concerning it--therefore, today I decided to simply let her think that her birthday is tomorrow-the same day as her party. *sigh* What will it matter? She won't know the difference this year...The party is a DISNEY PRINCESS theme. Today we put together little PRINCESS sacks filled with PRINCESS lip gloss, earrings, skittles, etc. Anna enjoyed filling each little bag and decorating the little crowns for each girl who is coming tomorrow. I made cake cone cupcakes, I still need to frost them. I ordered DISNEY PRINCESS rings that you can put on top of the cupcakes and then the girls can wear them afterwards...anyone ever heard of DISNEY PRINCESS overkill?? I think I'm almost there...oh yeah, I also got PRINCESS wrapping paper...

I won some cds on ebay--My mom is really into IZ, he's a hawaiian singer and has a very nice voice. I also heard that IL DIVO put out another cd-SIEMPRE-which of course I just HAD to buy. Half.com had a good deal on it-better than EBAY.

Fertility update: Things really look positive about this cycle that I just started. We are inviting our family to have a family fast for us on January 7th. I got a call from the nurse today saying that from the lab work yesterday the results were:

HCG less than 1
Progesterone is 0.868

They are prescribing me clomid 100mg which I will begin taking tomorrow and will take it for 5 days and then begin the ovulation predictor kit on January 6th. My period is still going strong--it makes me think that perhaps the lining in the uterus was too thick to begin with--to have 2 periods in 3 weeks and they're both pretty strong--so perhaps if I ovulate from the clomid, we might have success this month! We shall see...

Today I had another experience which confirms my belief in prayer. I talked with a nurse who said that I needed to pick up my CLOMID from the pharmacy, so Tyler went by there on his way home from work. The prescription wasn't there and no order for it was found. By the time he got home it was 4:55pm and so I called the Women's Health Clinic--no one answered. The infertility clinic was closed also. I remembered that I had my last month's prescription paper, so I thought I'd just call in a refill on it. Makes sense, right? So I called the number and it said that my prescription would be ready NEXT FRIDAY! BUT I NEED IT TOMORROW!!!! In fertility, it is imperitive that you take clomid on day 5 of the cycle---not day 10!! So I was QUITE disraught..thinking that this cycle would also be a bomb--since none of the doctors offices would be open tomorrow-sat, sun, mon (holiday), and tues (remembrance of Pres. Ford.) I went in our guest room and just bawled.....then I prayed to Heavenly Father...what can I do?? After a few seconds, a name of a girl in my ward came to my mind--she's very familiar with infertility and has worked in a pharmacy too. I called her and she gave me the direct phone number to the on-base pharmacy--which was open until 6pm--I explained the situation to them and they will have my prescription ready tomorrow at noon. What a blessing. Heavenly Father is always there listening...I feel so blessed.

Garage Door Opener

Guess what Tyler worked on today?? YOU GOT IT--the garage door opener. And the last peek I took in the garage--it was operational!!! WAHOO! I am VERY excited about that. I've been working in the C2 room today, I have all the music labels printed and alphabetized (of course) and now I am putting all the music away in their own folder. It may sound quite silly to you--but I THRIVE ON ORGANIZATION!

Today I received a call from the women's clinic on-base. They asked me to come on-base and do another blood test. I think they're going to give me another set of clomid for this "new" cycle. They should call me tomorrow with the results from today's lab. I'll keep you posted.

Anna had a friend come over today-Sariah. They usually play very well together, but that didn't happen today. They were just bickering for most of the time. It got so bad that I called Sariah's Mom and asked if she could come get her. I think that perhaps they just played together too long today. Who knows...Anna wasn't happy about Sariah having to go home--she threw a HUGE fit, for which she was spanked, which only increased her screaming. *sigh*

Lately, Tyler & I have been staying up quite late doing things around the house, it's getting more late every day. It's after 1am, and we're still going strong. We need to retire to bed early and arise early...

Back To Normal

Today began a bit slow, and gradually picked up the pace...until now all the Christmas decorations are taken down and the house looks "normal." It's such a great feeling to see everything "in it's place."

I am organizing my choral/vocal/piano music in the C2 room. I am cataloging (spelling?) them in my small filing cabinet. It will be a great feat when it is all done...I wanted it to be DONE today, but alas, it didn't happen-although other things were accomplished, so I needn't be upset.

WOMAN UPDATE. I won't give any more disclaimers to my readers...fertility is a HUGE part of my life and I plan to post about it often. So, wouldn't you know it--my period began today. Yeah, it began 2 1/2 weeks after my LAST period began. My very knowledgable friend, Kristina, said that it sounds like I am NOT OVULATING. And this month I used my first ovulation prediction kit--guess what, I didn't ovulate. To become pregnant you MUST OVULATE!!! So, I think there is some room for improvement here, like releasing the EGG so it can be fertilized. Yeah, I hope we get that going. I only hope we can do it without using birth control pills. They normally use those to get everything on a system and then after 3 months begin using clomid again. I hope I can just use clomid. We shall see.

Relax?

One would think that after receiving 23 presents that they would be quite busy the day after Christmas...and not need much supervision. However, Anna wanted 100% of my attention today, which I found a bit difficult to give. I felt drained from preparing everything for Christmas and wanted to relax today, but Anna had other plans. I did a little cross stitching, did some dishes (by hand, grrr!) and then warmed up some dinner and prepared some packages for mailing. The one thing that I wanted to do today was work on the C2 room. Around 6:30pm, I finally got to do that. Wahoo! It is now organized and it feels so good! I am working to completely organize my music--so I will know what I have. That project will be taken on tomorrow. That's my day...I took a brief nap when Tyler came home from work--yes, he had to work the day after Christmas. However, he had taken off wednesday & thursday of this week, because my Dad & family were going to come visit, so we'll get some time together those days, which should be really nice. I think he has desires to get the garage door opener installed, which I am definitely NOT opposed to! Also, he called the dishwasher people and they're coming by on thursday to look at it. Until then, break out the dishwashing gloves...or perhaps, break out the paper products??? ha ha!

Merry Christmas 2006!

Last night was Christmas Eve and we had a very nice time. The Elders came over for our traditional Christmas Eve meal: Peasant Soup, dinner rolls and some mixed berry (non alcoholic) bubbly, followed up by homemade tapioca pudding. We had a fun time with the Elders. After they left, we went over the Christmas story with Anna, sang some songs, and then Tyler put her to bed. We renigged the whole idea of Santa Claus and had Anna put out some cookies and milk for him. We're not entirely sure what sort of Christmas traditions that we want to have in our family and since this is our first Christmas away from family--we're having to decide what we want and what we don't want to do in our family. We want to have a more spiritual Christmas experience instead of focusing on Santa Claus and the whole selfishness that normally accompanies him. I am looking for ideas/thoughts/traditions that you all have done to make your Christmas more about Christ. Please share them, if you can.

This morning Anna slept in--hooray that she doesn't know that most kids are up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning! She woke up around 9am. I had breadfast ready about 9:30am. She came downstairs and was SO excited about all the new presents under the tree. We ate a breakfast casserole-from this month's TASTE OF HOME magazine. It was...okay, nothing special. I'm on the lookout for a better recipe for next year. We opened presents afterwards. Anna had 23 presents-much more than the desired amount of 3 that we had been thinking to do. Alleigh, my sister, mailed Anna about 14 presents--which Anna was thrilled about! She also got presents from Grandma McElwain, Grammy Pierce, Grandma Dahle, Grandma Hatch, Uncle Evan and her parents--of course! Tyler bought me an extra set of beaters for my handheld kitchen mixer, an electric shaver, a book called "HOLY PLACES" which is a compilation of temple experiences across the world, and then a box of Sees Candies--the scotchmallow kind, my personal favorite. (marshmallow + caramel + dark chocolate =YUM!) Afterwards we just spent time together until the Sister Missionaries came over for lunch. We played some fun games with them and ate lunch. It was very enjoyable. After they left, we prepared for dinner. Two sisters from our ward came over for Christmas dinner. They are from Mexico originally-but just moved here from California. They speak spanish (naturally--they're from MEXICO) and so it really ups my spanish when they come over. We played the same games as earlier and sent them home with goodies and extra ham.

We read scriptures, prayed, and read the last story out of the TALL BOOK OF CHRISTMAS. Anna is very excited about that book and I think she will be happy when we pick it back up next December. One bad thing occured on Christmas Eve--our dishwasher broke. *UGH* Not a nice thing to happen on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day...when we do LOTS of cooking. But alas, we made it through and hope the frigidaire people work the day after Christmas because we'll be calling them! I hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Here are some pictures from ours, Enjoy!


Tyler holding the blessing bowl that I put together for him. He loved it!

Anna and her numerous presents. Can you see her big smile??

I bought this apron for Anna and ironed her name onto it. She really likes it. :)

Daddy and Anna reading from the TALL BOOK OF CHRISTMAS.

A picture of Anna when she first came downstairs Christmas morning. She absolutely loves loves loves the Disney Princess kitchen her Daddy gave her.

Christmas Eve photo with Mama and Anna.

Christmas Eve photo with Daddy and Anna.

It's A Wonderful Life

Today was pretty busy, non-stop! We decided that we want for Anna to have more presents under the tree on Christmas morning. My poor husband wants to eliminate SANTA CLAUS from our Christmas traditions, but then he begins to remember fond memories he has from his childhood...SO! Out I went to purchase some last minute Christmas gifts...from Santa...but we're not going to convince Anna that's he's a real person...got that?? I don't know if I do! But I'm trying to be supportive of my husband's wishes. I hope we'll get it all figured out soon...

I did some more baking...endless baking...so I won't have to do as much tomorrow. We had our second/last Christmas Party tonight. It went really well. It's funny how the Christmas parties were SO different from each other. This one was much more relaxed and more quiet--we sang more songs. Last night it was loud and there wasn't any music, really. Both were enjoyable. Are you ready for Christmas??

Check out this link for a laugh. :)
http://www.mercola.com/2006/dec/23/its-a-wonderful-life----fast-version.htm

More Pictures

Our bedroom---it's VERY LONG.

Anna's tree! So hilarious!!!

This is Anna's room.


I am having a bit of trouble loading these pictures...I hope that I can get them all on here pretty quick--it's getting late!!

Christmas Party

I woke up to lots of RAIN and it continued throughout the whole day. I must say that I'm a bit surprised by the "winter" weather here in Ohio. I had thought that I would be wearing snow boots halfway through november! I am also a bit sad that we won't have a "white Christmas" this year...*sniff*

I talked with my Dad and he won't be able to come visit us after Christmas. I was really looking forward to having them come stay a few days...and if you think I was upset (I cried after talking with him on the phone) then you should have seen Anna's reaction when I told her that her Aunt Alleigh couldn't come for her birthday. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO sad. I wish I could make it all better, but I'm learning that there are some things that Mama cannot fix, and this is one of them. :(

We had our first Christmas party this evening--we invited 4 couples over for refreshments, visiting, and ended with a rousing game of FAMILY FEUD, which the boys beat the girls by 1 measly point! It was really nice to have some adult time and enjoy the Christmas season as friends.

I am going to post some pictures of my house--now that I am able to do so! I hope you enjoy them! One picture is of Anna's Christmas tree--I'm sure you can tell which tree is hers--she decorated it all by herself. (you can barely see the tree!) It is SO priceless!!!

House Pictures

I love these stairs, they don't feel as tall with the small loft halfway up!



Our Christmas Tree--red & gold as usual.


This is our guest room. My mom made the patriotic quilt on the bed--I tried to decorate the room in a patriotic theme, which is hard to see in this picture.

This is the downstairs bathroom. We have another one upstairs.

Our kitchen.

The hallway downstairs--with the bathroom on the first right, the guest room after that on the right and the C2 room on the left. (C2=craft & computer room, there's not a picture of it because it's not clean!!!)

Our kitchen, this is actually an old picture of the kitchen. It is now different-Tyler installed a dishwasher and made a shelf to go next to it. Sometime I will post a more updated picture.

Christmas Baking

Anna helping with the gingerbread men and the fabulous sugar cookies....mmmmmm! I hope she will always want to help me in the kitchen, it takes longer but very much worth it! :)

Social Butterflies

Anna is on Christmas vacation now and her first day wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. We called Sariah and invited her over to play for a couple of hours. They got along fairly well despite a few little snits.

I did some more holiday baking today...I'm sure you're wondering how much baking I could possibly do in one month? PLENTY would be my answer. ;) I did some baking and then made some dinner rolls for a dinner party that we were invited to this evening--a coworker of Tyler's invited us over with a few other guests-including some kids that Anna played with non-stop for the two hours we were there. We had a nice time. Then we were invited over to watch the BYU football game at a friend's house-again, there were some kids for Anna to play with. That was also fun. I brought along my cross stitch so I could get some more done...

In case you are wondering how I was able to FINALLY post some pictures---we got high speed internet! HOORAY!!! I am thrilled to have it. :)

Let's Give This Whole Picture Posting A Try

Here are some pictures from Anna's Christmas Party today. The last one is of her in a lion's outfit---apparantly a very sought after outfit in her class! Isn't she cute??

Getting Ready For Christmas

Today I slept in. I was up until 1am last night cleaning...and had gotten up at 6am yesterday morning. Yeah, I got to sleep in today. I mixed up some meatballs, baked them and then put them in the freezer--a little trick Sister Homer taught me when you have a party coming up so you have less to do that day. :)

Anna had a Christmas party at school today, so Tyler came home from work so he & I could go together. It was really nice and we were the only set of parents who came. Santa Claus paid a visit and even complimented Tyler (since he was in uniform) how grateful he is that Tyler is serving our country. :) Anna just LOVED that we came to our party. This evening she said to me: Mom, I'm so proud of you for coming to my Christmas party today. Isn't she sweet?? The party ended about 45 minutes before school let out so we asked Anna if she wanted to keep playing and then ride home on the bus or come home with us. She didn't really answer Tyler and just kept playing-so we left. When she got off the bus, she was in tears saying she had changed her mind and wanted to go home with us. Pretty pitiful...she decided that next time she will say yes when we ask if she wants to come home with us. :)

We are cleaning like crazy trying to get our house in perfect working order--or something really close to perfect anyhow. We want everything to be just right for our first Christmas here in Ohio. We got our dryer & washer completely installed and are currently running our first load on it--this is an exciting moment in time. :)

Earlybird

This morning I woke up around 6am...went the restroom and then back to bed...at least I assumed that I would sleep some more. I guess my body had other ideas, I was wide awake. So I got up and got ready to shower. Tyler advised me that I really should go back to bed...but I was "awake." So I readied myself for the day, had breakfast, checked email, and made birthday invitations for Anna's birthday party-which turned out really cute, I must say! Around 9am I figured that I should wake up Anna. So I got her dressed and fed her breakfast and then we set off to invite some of her friends to her birthday party. Then we went to get some gas, went to the bowling alley on-base to reserve Anna's party date/time/etc...then we went to the commissary. And this was all before 1pm. Yeah, today has been productive!!! :) I took Anna to school--which she has been wanting me to do--then I prepared some dinner for my family along with putting groceries away. When Anna came home from school we dropped off two more birthday invitations. Tyler was home when we finished up and we spent a bit of time together before I met my friend Angela for a pedicure. Wow, it was SOOOOO nice. I was there for an hour & a half! Those massage chairs are divine....perhaps I should invest in one for myself? After the pedicure, I shopped at wal-mart and then headed home to bake some mint cookies for Anna's Christmas party at her school tomorrow. We read scriptures and now Anna is in the bath. I need to get her to bed earlier....

So we are quite busy here at the Pierce home. We have a LOT to do before Christmas comes...my getting up early today certainly did help me accomplish so many things. It's interesting how you can do more things if you get up early in the day versus staying up later....at least that's how it is with me.

Anna

We received some wonderful news today concerning Anna. As you may remember, she had a heart murmur when she was born. They closely watched it these past 5 years. Last year the pediatric cardiologist informed me that if the hole in her heart had not closed by the time she turned 5 years old, that she would require surgery. Anna had her appointment this morning with a pediatric cardiologist on-base and after an hour of examining her-he said that there is no longer a hole in her heart. We are overjoyed at this news! We are so blessed that Anna is so healthy now. :)

I went to the Post Office today and you wouldn't believe the long line inside...as if there's some big important holiday coming up or something...

I did lots of planning for Christmas Eve, Day, etc. We're having the Elders over on Christmas Eve, the Sisters over on Christmas Day, my dad is arriving the day after Christmas and will be here for about 3 days, and my Uncle Kurt, Aunt Rachel, & their 5 kids will be stopping for the night on their way to TX from NY on New Years Day...also, we're hosting 2 parties this week. That means I had a LOT of planning for all the meals. Despite the headache that many would attain by all this going on--I enjoy it! I like organizing and planning--I thrive on it! And consequently, if I am not organized--it's very hard on me. So I choose to be organized! :)

Caroling, Caroling

Tyler & I were up late last night. Tyler was trying to install 2 tiles in the bathroom that needed to be replaced. However, when he returned from LOWE'S, he realized that they had cut the tiles wrong and it was 10pm, so they were closed. He was REALLY UNHAPPY about that. This means that we won't be able to have the people bring the dryer up to our laundry room (on the 2nd floor) because Tyler won't be able to lay the tile until monday and it has to set for a day or so...yeah, so that's not the best news. But anyhow, we were up last night. So this morning it was rather difficult to drag myself out of bed.

Church was wonderful! I sang a duet with a guy in my ward, we sang "Sleep, Little Lamb." Many people loved it. Everyone seems to be pleased with all the new music that I have brought to this ward. I'm excited to be a part of it all! I subbed for the primary chorister today. Yes, you read that right--the calling that I dread because I feel I lack the excitement to hold the primary children's attention. It actually went pretty well, which was pleasantly surprising to me. :)

We had tithing settlement today. I thought that I would reserve the little candy cane that Anna received in primary for her to eat during tithing settlement, so she would be calm. Yeah, big mistake, the candy cane made her quite sticky which was just lovely.

I made potato soup & breadbowls for dinner. We took a too short 30 minute nap before heading off to the church for a caroling activity. We must have had about 40 people come--so we split up into 2 groups and went to see about 6 families that were referred by members. We gave away JOY TO THE WORLD pass-a-long cards. It was a really enjoyable night. :)

Feeling Good

This morning we dropped Anna off to play with her friend Sariah, and Tyler & I went to the Columbus Temple. What a wonderful visit we had. I was able to seal my Great Grandmother to her parents. :)

We picked up Anna and went to Elizabeth's 5th birthday party. It was a nice gathering, done dominican republic style--Elizabeth wore a beatiful blue dress, there was a huge feast, lots of people, and everyone was there for about 2 1/2 hours...yeah, Anna's birthday party will most likely be 1 hour with no feast, only a few people, however she WILL be wearing a nice princess dress. :)

Our home teacher came over to help Tyler remove our washing machine from upstairs. We bought a new washer & dryer set that will arrive on monday and they will bring it upstairs for us, isn't that great?? I am excited, as you can well imagine.

I read my scriptures, one section in the D&C ( a very long one ) was especially good reading. :) I feel so much more at peace today than I have felt the last two weeks. Going to the temple really helped me and I just feel good. Also, a package that I thought would never arrive was waiting for us when we returned from the temple. Tyler jokingly asked, "But would it have come if we hadn't gone to the temple??"

Cinderella

We had another phone jack installed today--there was only 2 in our whole house-1 in the kitchen and the other in our bedroom upstairs. I had it installed in the C2 room so we could have internet access on both computers. :)

After that, I made some granola and then I made some perogis--something I've never made before. It's like a homemade dumpling wrapper with mashed potatoes & cheese in the middle, then you boil them and then saute them in some butter. (how can you go wrong, eh?) Well, I probably should have added more salt, they were somewhat bland but satisfying for sure. I found the recipe in a cookbook compilation of mine-the woman who submitted it was from UKRAINE.

I did some cleaning today, which is so satisfying to see. I did dishes, some laundry, and swept & mopped the kitchen and both bathrooms. We had our Christmas Cantata tonight at the church. I think there was some disappointment about how few people that attended, but the Spirit was really strong-which is what I was needing. Tomorrow Tyler & I are going to the temple, and I can't wait!!

Up & Down

So today Anna wanted pancakes for breakfast--which we had. They're easy to make and I really like this new honey-butter syrup that I make. YUM!

CONTINUATION OF FEMALE TALK: I was supposed to begin taking clomid today, (for those of you who don't know about this--see previous posting) but I was uncertain because my period hadn't really come. I called the nurse and she said to come in for a blood pregnany test so we could be sure. I went in and the nurse who took my blood was such a serious guy who looked about 17 years old. I asked him if he'd ever drawn blood before, and he confidently responded how he'd done it for the past year. That wasn't impressive to me and I have very deep veins, so naturally I was concerned about this high-school kid drawing my blood. And wouldn't you know it--he missed the vein...and tried to redirect it...two or three times...need I say more? He ended up using a butterfly needle on a different vein and I was glad to get out of there! So I called the nurse, like she asked me to do, and left a message saying that I had done the lab work and I would be waiting for my results in a hour--how long she said it would take. Well, then I headed off to the family history library, having my phone very accessible on the table as I did some research. My phone never rang. At 4:45pm, I was becoming anxious to hear the results--with some hope that it could be positive, however, if it was negative I needed to take the clomid. Are you following all this? Well, I never heard back from her, and as I was packing up I headed to the bathroom where I discovered "Aunt Flo" had paid me a visit. So, it turns out that I didn't even need to hear back from the nurse. Once I got in the car I took the clomid and drove to hobby lobby. On the way there I was so emotional...I think I need to spend some "Jill time" very soon...that should help. I appreciate the advice about taking time for myself and not worrying too much about having more children. But, without hurting any feelings, I have wanted more children for 4 years now. If you haven't had infertility problems, then you really don't understand what it's like to try month after month after month and see only negative pregnancy tests over & over & over...it's been a huge struggle for me, and I can now relate to those millions of women who have been through infertility, I pray that we will have another child soon. Thank you all for your positive encouragement, it really does help. :)

So my moods have been up & down today. It could be because we're not pregnant this month, because I'm not on my diet/exercise program faithfully, because I've been sick for over a week now,...because I'm a woman??? ha ha ha. That's probably it!

My wonderful grandma in OK mailed us our Christmas gifts and of course I already opened mine. ANY GUESSES???? It is a photo printer---just what I wanted!!! I am so excited about being able to print real pictures...Also good news, we have decided to upgrade to high-speed internet, so I should be able to post some pictures soon...my dial-up makes it impossible to do so right now.

We had the Christmas Cantata rehearsal tonight, I didn't sing everything--trying to rest my voice for the real performance tomorrow. I know the music, so I don't really NEED the practice--I just come to support the choir director who is 5 months pregnant! I also practiced singing "Sleep, Little Lamb," with a tenor here in my ward. It made me miss singing it with KC-because you know how I sing and you can match it so well, plus I wish that Maria was here to play the violin, wow, we sure had it good in OK in regards to music, didn't we? Now I'm having to start all over here in OH...this guy, Drew, is quite nervous, however I am certain he'll do fine. :)

Brooms

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to
know each other so well, they decided to get married.

One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom.

The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress. The groom
broom was handsome and suave in his tuxedo. The wedding was lovely.

After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride-broom leaned over
and said to the groom-broom, "I think I am going to have a little whisk
broom!!!"





"IMPOSSIBLE !!" said the groom broom.



Are you ready for this?
Brace yourself; this is going to hurt.

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"WE HAVEN'T EVEN SWEPT TOGETHER!"





Oh for goodness sake... laugh, or at least groan. Life's too short not
to enjoy... even these silly little cute..... and clean jokes

Christmas Letters

Today I slept in a bit, then spent some time with Anna before she headed off to school. She is such a sweet little girl.

My VT (visiting teacher) stopped by and visited me for a while. Her companion hasn't come with her to see me yet. I'm so glad that I have a great VT companion! She left me some goodies and a gingerbread candle--it smells as good as it sounds!

I spent the rest of the time that Anna was in school working on the procrastinated CHRISTMAS LETTERS!!! I'm over half-way done, which is good. There are always some addresses that I misplaced or some other mishap occuring...but that is how it goes, right?

**********FEMALE VENTING---DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH "FEMALE STUFF." IF THIS MEANS YOU, PICK UP READING AFTER THIS LINE: --------**********So anyhow. I'm going on clomid this cycle. Clomid is a prescription that helps a female ovulate. When an overweight woman, like myself, is having trouble with fertility--it is common that ovulation is the missing factor. SO! I have this handy-dandy directions sheet on what to do this cycle. On CD1 (first day of period) I'm supposed to call in the office and tell them that my period has started and then I'm supposed to go in on CD3 for bloodwork, begin clomid on CD5 and take through CD9, then on CD10 I will go in for more bloodwork--to determine if I ovulated or not. Sounds like a good plan, right? But wouldn't you know that my body decides to do something peculiar this month. This past sunday morning, about 4am, my period begins. This is a surprise to me because it was 1 day shy of 4 weeks since my last period began. I usually have a 4 1/2-5 week cycle, so this was one day less than 4 weeks. Odd. So, the next day, monday, I call the office to say that my period began yesterday, blah, blah, blah. However, I mentioned that after that early morning bleeding, I hadn't bled all day sunday or on monday up until I made that phone call. The nurse said it sounded like my period HAD begun, so I continue on with THE PLAN. Okay, well I've been wearing feminine products since monday. NO BLOOD SINCE SUNDAY. Today I had a bit of lovely brown discharge, but other than that-NOTHING. So I'm supposed to start clomid tomorrow, but I'm not completely convinced that I'm on my period. We took 2 home pregnancy tests yesterday--just to see if we happened to be pregnant already--but they were negative. So, I guess I'm just confused as to what my body is doing and why it's doing this now that I actually have A PLAN to help us this cycle. *heavy deep sigh*
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So, we had our HT (home teachers) over this evening. They are really nice-it's a father/son duo. After they gave a wonderful lesson and left, we ran some errands. We bought Tyler a table saw and we bought me a garage door opener thingy. I hope it won't be too much work to install for Tyler. We shall see. I'm ready for bed, I really need to sleep earlier than I have been getting to bed.

I Can Do Whatever I Want To Do

Today was a good day. I'm still on the mend, but overall feeling better. I mailed off several packages, and made up some invitations for a small party I'm doing next week. I went on-base and had some blood drawn to see how the thyroid meds are doing.

Tonight was the book club and it was my turn to introduce a book. I chose "The Story Of My Life," By Helen Keller. It's a great book, I hope they will all enjoy it. And for those of you who know me well---NO, I haven't read it all the way through, just skimmed it...but my husband loves it! (he's a reader and he told me to recommend it to the book club)

Tyler is making me a shelf to put my cookie sheets in, just next to the dishwasher. I'm very excited! There's never enough room for cookie sheets in typical cabinets!

I have a liberating phrase to share with you, please say this outloud in a very confident voice:

"I can do whatever I want to do."

There now, don't you feel better??

Peanuts, Peanuts, EVERYWHERE!!!

This morning I woke up quite groggy. This cold still has quite a hold on me. I didn't take it easy today...which backfired on me later on in the day. I know, I know...I need to take better care of myself. It's just hard when I have a to-do list that is only half-way done. *sigh* In my mind I know that if I don't take it easier it will take longer to overcome this cold.

I went to the bank, post office to mail ebay items I sold, and grocery shopping. I baked some brownies--which didn't turn out perfectly which drove me crazy!!! ARG! We had dinner and then set off to do more holiday baking deliveries which we somehow missed last time. (All 10 of them) We came home and read scriptures and then out of the TALL BOOK OF CHRISTMAS. We read my favorite story out of it tonight: Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens. It brings back memories to read that story. I hope that Anna will cherish the memories that we are making now.

We received a package from my Grandma in Oklahoma. The box was HUGE and consequently, full of those styrofoam peanuts. We were having difficulty in getting out the larger present, so without thinking I just dumped the box over and all the peanuts went everywhere. Yeah, now those peanuts are EVERYWHERE and driving me CRAZY! Anna & I spent 30 minutes picking them up and they are still all over the floor. Somehow I think that if I just go to bed that they won't be there in the morning...

Can Mommy Come Out And Play???

I went to bed last night at 9pm and got out of bed at 1pm today. Yeah, 16 hours of sleep. I must have REALLY needed it!!!!!!!! I don't think I've ever slept that long in one period of time before. And the odd thing is that I've been tired all day too. We'll see how I feel tomorrow...I really missed going to church today. Sarah called to check up on me, which was sweet.

Remember when you were sick and you stayed home from school, and then your friends came over & asked if you could come out and play? No, I didn't have any friends come over and ask that--but it just seemed to fit this blog today. I can't remember the last time I stayed home from church. *sigh* I'm eager to be feeling better, 16 hours of sleep should help, right?

Sick

I'm sick. It's official! I woke up today without a voice. I couldn't speak, let along sing...and today was our first performance of the MESSIAH. I didn't go. That makes me sad. I called a friend and she told the director. I hope he doesn't think I'm not singing because I didn't get a solo...I had intended to stick it out and sing because I like the music and I enjoy singing...and now I couldn't go because I was sick!!! The second/last performance is tomorrow....and as of now it doesn't look promising that I'll be singing in it either. *heavy sigh*

So today I just felt pitiful and despite really needing to relax, I tried to do stuff around the house like laundry, cooking dinner, doing dishes...etc. Why can't I just ignore everything and let myself relax when I'm really sick?!?

A Long, Tiring Day

I was able to sleep until 8am, which was so nice! But then it all hit me, I had so much to do. For some odd reason, Anna wet the bed last night. It's the second time this week that it has happened----it's been almost 2 years since the last time it happened so you can understand my confusion when I discovered it earlier this week and then again this morning. So I started some laundry--which I was a few days late in starting due to my holiday baking. I went downstairs and made mashed potatoes to take to Tyler's Christmas work party on-base. I hurried to get ready & to get Anna ready as well and then we rushed off to the party...only to discover that the party wasn't really for families--just those who work there. So I felt REALLY out of place and I had a 4-year-old to keep entertained while not disturbing everyone else. *sigh* We came home & I so wanted a nap. Then I looked online & realized that 26 items had sold on ebay and I needed to get about 10 of them mailed out. So I did all that online, during which a woman came over and looked at our water softener that we listed in the paper. She bought it and gave me a check--which was really great since we're a bit low until Tyler gets paid again in another week--so I packaged all the items and we raced to the bank at 4:15pm only to find a long line inside. When we left for the post office, it was about 4:50pm. We hurried and got there just in time before it closed....poor Anna, my patience was short with her during this little escapade. I'm so lucky to have a daughter who is so forgiving and who loves me despite my faults. So I went to see Shannon and dropped off some holiday treats with her, then we came home & met Tyler and drove to the Eber's home for dinner. That was nice and we chatted until almost 10pm, when we left to come home. It's after midnight and I think I'm losing my voice...which is lovely because the MESSIAH performance is tomorrow. As of right now--there's no way I could sing. Who knows, maybe tomorrow my voice will be better. Oh, one good thing, I ordered a himilayan salt lamp and it came in today. We really like it & hope it will help our health. So that's my day...I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Today was the first day since I've been in Ohio that it consistenly snowed through-out the day. We woke up to snow on the ground and then it lightly snowed through the rest of the day. I LOVED IT! Most people who hear of my love for snow say that it will change once it happens everyday. I do not think I will share their opinion--I've lived in Oklahoma practically my whole life and there certainly wasn't enough snow there to satisfy me. And so, I will continue to be enchanted by the snow while here...since I've waited my whole life to have it!!

We went visiting teaching this morning, which was really nice. My companion, Sarah, brought her kids over at 8:30 and we had a nice breakfast together before our first appointment. It was really fun cooking for 7 people! (I don't get that chance very often!)

After Anna went to school, I set out to put together a package for my sister serving her mission in Michigan. I included all of the yummy treats that I made + some knee highs, cds, and other items. I am excited to see how she likes it!

I went to the genealogy library today for about 4 hours. I didn't have much luck at all until the last hour I was there. I did find some names that matched with one of my lines and I can't tell you how exciting that was!!!! Thursday is my day to do family history---it's set aside specifically for that when Anna is at school. My sweet husband makes sure that he is home before Anna's bus arrives, so I can stay at the library longer. :) That's all for today, we're going to read scriptures and some of my TALL BOOK OF CHRISTMAS stories--a cherished book of mine that my mom read at Christmastime when she was a little girl.

Deliveries

Today was the 2nd half of my traditional holiday baking extravanganza! Here is all that I have made from these two days: Coconut pound cake, fudge, mint chocolate brownies, mini cheesecakes, gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, and candy popcorn (2 flavors). WHEW! I have been busy! And the fun part was delivering them tonight. We weren't able to get to everyone, but most of everyone on our list. I love sharing treats with friends, it makes this time of year so enjoyable!

We had the sister missionaries over this evening. Sister DeCosta and Sister Labor, they are so great! I really enjoy them and they work hard.

Tomorrow I hope to take it more easy and perhaps do some scrapbooking...? What fun holiday traditions do you have?

St. Nicholas Eve

Today I slept in a bit and then got started on the holiday baking about 11am. I worked non-stop in the kitchen until 5:30, when we ate dinner. Today I made mint chocolate brownies, mini cheesecakes, fudge, candy popcorn, hot chocolate mix, and coconut pound cake. Tomorrow I will finish up with gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies--the most difficult of all holiday baking. *sigh* Plus tomorrow I'm planning to go consign more items and the sister missionaries are coming over for dinner. Thinking of all this...I need to get to bed!

St. Nicholas came tonight--a tradition in Germany & Europe. You put your shoes outside the front door and then he comes leaving candy and little toys in them. Anna was ecstatic over the whole experience.

Preparation Day

It's that time of year again. The time when I dedicate 2 straight days to my holiday baking. And today is the preparation day for this endeavor. I went grocery shopping to make sure I have everything I need. Tomorrow will be the most busy and then I'll finish up anything that didn't get done (there will be something, I'm sure) + we will do deliveries on wednesday & thursday nights. It's a fun Christmas family activity/tradition.

I mailed out some Christmas packages to family back in OK. The post office was SO busy...those poor postal workers. The line was pretty long when I left at 4:45pm today.

I went to the MESSIAH rehearsal. I am a flawed person---I just can't seem to get over the bitter feelings I have that I didn't get a solo. Today the director had the main soprano sing one of the solos---and I felt that I could do a better job!! *sigh* Alas, he didn't choose me. I need to just move on!

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

This morning I went over to Shereena's house to help her get her children ready for church. She answered the door and said she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be going to church. To this I said that I would just take the two older boys with me. I woke up Matthew & Timothy, dressed them, combed their hair, helped them get theirs hat, gloves, and coats and we left for church. It was pretty wild having two extra kids during church, especially when I'm the chorister and Tyler was up on the stand taking notes for his calling of Ward Clerk. I think it was a big success considering the fact that the boys obeyed me almost all the time and they enjoyed going and said they wanted to go again next week. I hope that Shereena will come, too. She said that it is really difficult getting all the kids ready for church. But in less than 15 minutes I had the 2 most rowdy of all the kids ready for church...perhaps she simply lacks the motivation to go to church?

After church Anna & I had some chili for lunch. Tyler came home and ate then we took a much needed nap. Afterwards, we three went to Sherry's to practice a song for church. Then we went to the church to see the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was so wonderful. And President Hinckley quoted my favorite Christmas Hymn-the title of this blog. I was really uplifted by the wonderful talks and music. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. :)

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed and in the shower. My friend, Emily, dropped off her 2 girls while she & her husband went to the temple. Her girls are sweet and they had a great time with Anna. They played dress-up, watched some princess movies, ate pancakes, and just had a ball. Oh to be a 4 year-old where your only difficult decisions revolve around if you want to dress-up as Jasmine or Cinderella...:)

Today Tyler cleaned out the garage and organized it. It is such an improvement! We hope to get rid of some things so we can park the car in the garage. Of course, we're hoping to get a garage door opener too...

I listed several items on ebay. 25 items to be precise. I hope they will sell, we could really use the money. I am thrilled to report that last month with all my sales on half.com and selling items at the consignment shop--I made $500 for our family! WAHOO! It feels so good to know that I am helping out in some way in earning money...of course, I definitely help out in the area of spending the money. ha ha ha!

We went to play games at Shannon's house. It was really fun. It feels good to be more social with other people. :) Shereena called me at 11pm asking if I had any medicine that I could bring over. I took her some nyquil, cough drops, and some advil cold pills. I felt bad because she is sick, but I feel like the dependence on me has already begun. I'm going to pray and see what Heavenly Father would have me do. He knows what we all need.

Stormy Weather

Tyler & I were up late last night playing upwords and spending some one-on-one time. It was so nice that we ended up getting to bed around 1am. Therefore, I was up around 9:30am this morning, which got me off to a late start today. Since it's friday Anna didn't have any school. We played some games and ate together, then she watched a movie while I posted some items on ebay. Tyler called around noon and said that the power was off on-base. 20 minutes later he was home! YEA! So we decided to go shopping for a washer/dryer. We found what we wanted but they were out of stock, so we're going to order them. :)

This evening we went to our Ward Christmas Party. Shereena, a less active philippina woman--the one with 5 kids under the age of 4 that I've mentioned in earlier posts, came with her kids. We sat with her & helped out with her kids. All went well. She is planning to come to church on sunday. I hope that she will have desires to become active in church. My friend, Sarah, gave me a Christmas present that she picked up while in England. It's a beautiful silver necklace with a blue pendant. It's really lovely...and a great excuse to purchase a matching shirt! ;)

We came home and hurried inside. Currently it's 28 degrees outside and it's quite windy too! I talked to my friend Lauren for quite a while. (she is the friend I went to help in July in OK) Her marriage is doing really really well, however they aren't doing much with the church. From talking with Tyler & I, I feel that she will begin pursuing it again...it can be such an emotional roller coaster doing missionary work, but it's completely worth it.