Sunday, December 20, 2009

Merry Mary Merry Mary Christmas!

Well, nothing much to report, but I LOVE Christmas! the house is decorated, the tree is up... the lights are on the front of the house. Its so cozy! I printed a bunch of winter-themed photos and framed them in silver for the mantle. I've always wanted to do that for Christmas.

I am building a website for a family friend, doing lots of painting and reading. We are spending Christmas Eve here at home, just the three of us, and then we are headed to the Bay Area and San Diego. We are doing a tour of California. I am especially looking forward to a cocktail party at a family friends house in SLO on Christmas Day. And also, I can't wait to see the Puccinelli's again. Zach has grown so much already!

Love to you all and have a Very Merry Christmas

Sunday, December 6, 2009

FINALLY

Four days late and it arrives. Why??!! Things are hard enough I tell you. We did take our Christmas card photos yesterday and decided on a cute one we both like:

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Day 31

Still no period! If I thought I was pregnant this might be exciting, but I feel like an emotional time bomb! If its coming, lets get it over with already!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Day 29

Ok... two negative tests and no period... I finished another painting! Yay! This one is of Kris' son Wyatt, I thought it would be a nice Christmas gift since I had all the materials out already.

So... definitely cramps... just waiting on the green light here, so that I can refill my prescription and all that, but I really hope this late period thing doesnt become a trend. Its hard enough waiting for day 28...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Day 24

So, on Dec 2, it will be another round of pregnancy tests, unless my period does me a favor by coming early (which would be great but never happens lately). I guess its the clomid working which drags my cycles out to normal length. My period used to come every 3 weeks, which was terrible except when youre trying to have a baby, because you don't have to wait as long through that anxious part.

Scott and Chubba were enjoying some sports on TV before we headed over for some Thanksgiving grub.

This month has been really busy, with travelling everywhere to see friends. It was really great to see the Puccinelli's and the Schmalbach's. Holding little kids makes my world go round. And the parents are pretty great, too.

Scott dug up the front yard and is trying to rake all of the leaves and rocks out before he digs trenches for the sprinklers. However, he got pretty overwhelmed by the whole process and basically just left it as a dirt hill. Left it for so long, that it began to grow its own lawn, in bright green patches. So... I guess at least it looks better than it did before.

Our deal is that he needs to finish it by the time we have a baby. And I'm not required to do anything to it, which is why I allow it to be totally ignored... so I'm not called out to do it.

I also did a painting this month! My uncle asked me to do a painting of his friend's dogs as a Christmas gift. They had both passed away and my uncle wanted to do something for him, to commemorate them.  It came out pretty well, and really got me going! I mean, half the battle is setting up and cleaning up, so once you have all the materials out to do one... it really makes sense to do more. So, we will see what I bust out with next! I included a photo of the watercolor for you.

Well, Scott and Steph are both out of town today, so I am hangin by myself until tomorrow. I am planning on doing some reading, sleeping (hopefully some exercise but my motivation is way low) and just general relaxing. Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Zachary August Puccinelli

I finally got to meet him! He is just the cutest bundle of baby in the world. He looks just like Mom (although I'm sure his Alan traits, besides his hair, will emerge soon). He was born November 8 and was 9lbs 2 oz. He is the best baby, just wants to sleep and eat and be loved. His mom takes such good care of him and is truly a natural. She has an intuitive sense of what he needs and is totally devoted, its beautiful to see. Holding Zach is the best medicine for a bad day, and boy have I had a series of those!




I love Zach.

Monday, November 9, 2009

For Better or For Worse...

Well, we had a wonderful time in San Diego. We celebrated some birthdays with friends and had a wonderful time with the Schmalbachs!






This is Bond and I having a late breakfast with Stephanie and the birthday kids Emily and Kirby.


Later on after breakfast, we were driving around La Jolla when I got the call from Kelly that she was in the hospital! Zach was born much later, at 4am, healthy and according to all who have met him, the sweetest little guy there ever was.


Sydney and I were able to catch up on some stories while I was there. Her favorite book right now has to be "Slowly Slowly Slowly". A book about a sloth in a tree. Scott and I both read that one until we had it memorized. Conveniently enough, it featured a bit about the sloth hanging in the tree at night, and we spent a lot of time discussing how it becomes dark at night, so...educational moments abound everywhere.

However, Steph and I came home to some serious challenges. Family issues, college deadlines and fertility just seem to be humongous mountains to climb right now. I wish we had all the answers and we were living in a carefree season, but we are leaning on each other and Scott and are determined to get through all of this one day at a time. I am just so grateful for my friends and the way that you love and accept me despite my stupid moments. It makes handling life's bumps that much easier. Thanks.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

If I Can't Be Pregnant, I'll Settle For Skinny and Selfish....

So, sadly, I got my period this morning. Literally five minutes before getting in the car to leave for San Diego. Oh, well, another month bites the dust! BUT I also weighed myself and in two months I have lost 13 pounds and 3 inches off my waistline. YAY! This last month of no drinking really helped with the last five pounds. Now I can get back to an intense work out schedule and keep it going.

 Good thing I ran around on Wednesday getting my new prescription of Clomid ready just in case, because I start that Saturday night. Here we go again... and possibly again. Its been a crazy cycle, hopefully that was just the fertility meds and my sanity isn't really slipping. I'm praying not to have too many more of those kinds of months in the future...

But we are here and I spent the day with my little friend Sydney, who is 18 months now. She is a doll! She can say my name now, which is a real thrill, and we had a wonderful afternoon playing in the sandbox, reading books and watching Sesame Street. I can't wait for Zach to finally make his appearance, spending time with my friend's kids is really fun and definitely enriches my life.

Love to all!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Babies, Babies, BABIES!

Babies, babies, everywhere! The last two years have been all about babies. These are just a few of the children of our friends that we see on a pretty regular basis. We obviously aren't the only couple intent on starting a family! This is me and Aiden at the park in Shell Beach. His mom Amy snapped the photo. He is almost 17 months old.
The day he was born, Scott and I decided we wanted to start having children. Apparently, not as easy as it looks!








This is my friend Jason with his baby boy Noah, who is now almost 14 months old.

We tried for about 8 months on our own before I started shopping around for a good doctor. I was diagnosed with very mild endometriosis about three years ago when I underwent surgery after a hospital visit, and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to be a complication. The first doctor I saw was awful. I waited for an hour in the room, she consulted with me for about ten minutes max, rushed me through the interview, forgot to answer some of my most important questions, and told me I should consider losing weight because it might help me conceive. Yikes! I've never had anyone tell me I was overweight after a ten minute chat. That takes some getting used to...




This is our friend Scott with his darling daughter Sydney. She is now almost 16 months. We try to see them every few months.


My best friend Kelly is having her little boy Zach around Nov 4th this year. I can't wait to meet him, the past few days I've been working day and night getting ready for her baby shower.

So we finally found an amazing doctor, Dr. Safarik right here about 2 min away from where we live. He ran some routine tests and then decided to follow my ovulation by ultrasound.














This is Alli and her daughter Evie, who is now 19 months old. And my best friend Kris (right) just delivered baby Wyatt in July.

Well, turns out that I'm not ovulating regularly! My doctor started me straight away on some medication, and we took that for 3 months and conceived. About a week after finding out we were pregnant, I miscarried. It wasn't a fun time, but its very common (about 25-30% of pregnancies). The best part was that I got to take two months off of the whole process. I didn't have to take my temperature, any pills, or make sure I knew what day of my cycle I was on. It was truly a great vacation. We are trying again now, with the help of our doctor, and I feel a lot less worried now that we have been able to conceive once before.

Plus... will ya look at how much company our kid will have? Friends and friends galore, all right around the same ages! I can't wait!