Happy Birthday, Chad!

Happy Birthday to my brother, Chad!!!

He turns 37 today...wow!? You're getting up there! Congrats on another year - hope you are having a fun day! We'll see you in a few weeks!!

Soccer!!

On Saturday, I went with Jason's sister to watch Kali's soccer games near Peoria. It was a beautiful day outside (proven by my newly tanned arms!), but unfortunately they lost both of their games. It was still nice to spend some time with them!
Caden was standing up and clapping....but it was for the game going on behind us! ha! I think he liked watching the boys play better than the girls?!


Look at those teeth! He has his 1-year molars in, too!

Cubs Party!

On Friday night, we were invited to a birthday party for one of the neighbor guys who is a big Cubs fan. We had baseball park food, cake, and watched the Cubbies (unfortunately they lost, but that's okay...at least we're in the playoffs!).

Jason, Mike, Jay, Camden, Tim, Bob, & Byron

Happy 30th Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Janell today!!

Janell and I met in college at ISU during Gamma Phi Circus and have been friends ever since! We were roommates for three years and also realized that we cheered against each other in high school (she graduated from Rockford East). She has been a great friend through all the ups and downs, and I really appreciate her!! Janell - I'm sorry we couldn't celebrate with you in Vegas, but hopefully we'll get together soon!

The waiting game...

One more week of waiting!!! This week has actually gone pretty quick besides the fact that I didn't sleep well early in the week. In fact, I don't think I hardly slept on Tuesday night. My mind has just been racing lately!

I'm still having good feelings about this cycle...trying to keep positive and not think about the negative. I had my progesterone check on Wednesday and everything was great with it being over 40 (they like it over 15)!

Check out this blog for an interesting one on "just relaxing."

I'm sure I'll post before the results, but next Friday is the day we've been waiting for!

Minier Lake!

We get together with two other couples about once every other month for dinner...sometimes with kids, sometimes without. This time, we headed to JA's cabin at Lake Minier. We had a perfect afternoon/evening for time at the lake. It was beautiful weather and so peaceful! We fished, swung, roasted weenies, made s'mores, and had some fun conversation. Our gracious hosts - Robbie, JA, & Mike
Chloe
Mike caught a walleye - quite a rarity at Lake Minier!
What a view!
Mel & Emily checking out the swing!

Take two...

Just thought I would let you all know that things went well today...nothing out of the ordinary, so that is good! I asked about the count from yesterday - it was 54 million - and today was 29 million! Very good news, totally normal.

I also got my "schedule" for the rest of this cycle - start progesterone on Monday twice a day (yuck!), bloodwork (to check progesterone) and hcg shot on Wednesday, and pregnancy test on Friday, October 3rd! This was a little sooner than I thought so I am pumped! Unfortunately, it means I won't be able to take my girls trip to Nebraska, but this is more important right now. Guess Jason and I will have to make a trip out there some other time.

Take one...

Let me start by saying that I was a little concerned last night...I took my trigger shot yesterday about 3:30pm (right when I was supposed to) and later that evening I thought I might have ovulated. I say this because they try to time the iui's as close to the time of ovulation as possible. I checked it out online and saw that the egg can survive about 24 hours. If this was the case, I figured we should be good because we were doing the insemination about 16 hours later.

We headed out to Urbana around 6:45am today and got to Dr. Jarrett's new office right (which is beautiful I might add!) on time. The insemination went just as planned...nothing really different. I did ask the nurse about the timing of ovulation and she thought we would still be okay even if I had. She also mentioned that in my blood test on Tuesday, my Lh was still low (2.5) - that's good. Your Lh typically surges right before ovulation (around an 8).

We'll do it all over again tomorrow and hopefully get a positive pregnancy test in two weeks!

(Sorry if this is too detailed info, but I know some of you reading this don't know all of these things.)

CD10

I had my ultrasound and bloodwork this morning. Everything looks good. The right side isn't doing much (6 follicles too small to measure), but the left side is working! The tech counted about 14 on the left with five large enough to measure!

I heard from the nurse this afternoon...the ones on the left were 20, 16, 14, and 13 (guess they only went with four). She gave me the option of taking the Ovidrel tonight and doing the IUIs on Wednesday & Thursday or moving it back one day. I opted to move it back a day. Since they figure the follicles grow around 2mm per day, if I wait until tomorrow to do the Ovidrel we could have a couple more that are ready (they want them to be over 18). Obviously this will give us better odds so that's why were waiting one more day!

Rainy weekend!

This weekend turned out pretty nice even though it rained most of the weekend. We hung out at home on Friday night, and I scrapbooked with a neighbor on Saturday. Today, we went to church and then to a surprise 40th wedding annivesary party for Jason's aunt and uncle. Otto & Sandy
With their grandchildren - Breanna, McKenna, Carly, & Joe

The party was at Jason's cousin's house. We haven't seen his mom's side of the family for a couple years now - they just don't get together all that often since he grandma went into the nursing home (we used to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house). At the party we also found out that Jason's other aunt and uncle, Judy & George, just celebrated their 45th wedding annivesary last month! How awesome is that? I can only pray that we will see those years, too!! Karen and Caden came to the party, too! Caden just got new shoes so he is learning to walk in them as he is still a little shaky without them. He did really well today. Unfortunately, my camera battery died when he was actually taking a couple steps without holding anything, but I thought this picture was cute...holding the table and stretching just to get the water bottle!

After the party we came home to quite a mess...no, there wasn't water in our basement...somehow the mirror in our half bath downstairs completely fell off the wall and busted into a million pieces! How this happened we will never know, but I guess we'll be shopping for a new mirror next weekend.

IUI #2

Another month is finally here! We have skipped one month as directed by Dr. Jarrett, and now it's time to start everything all over again. Today is CD6...I had my baseline ultrasound on Tuesday and everything was normal so I have been taking the Letrozole the past five days and start my Bravelle injections tomorrow night. Dr. Jarrett did increase the dosage (to 150iu instead of 75iu) on the Bravelle this time so we'll see what kind of results that produces. My next appointment is on Tuesday (CD10) for bloodwork and another ultrasound with the IUI's to follow that week. It will all depend on the size of the follicles on Tuesday, so I'll keep you posted with our plan!

September 11, 2001

We all know what today is, and I'm sure most of remember where we were seven years ago when those two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. Here's what I was doing:

I was taking my car (a 2002 Oldsmobile Alero) to the dealership for an oil change. As I was dropping it off, I heard some commotion on the radio about a plane hitting the first tower, but I didn't really know what was going on. Luckily, I worked right across the street at the Radisson where the tv's were all on with the news channels. I just remember watching the tv in complete shock of what was happening. Being in the hotel industry that also meant lots of things for our little world - the phone lines were going crazy with people cancelling rooms and people trying to get rooms because their flight had been cancelled. I don't recall getting much work done that day, but focusing all of our attention on the guests in the hotel and the tv.

Where were you??

Happy 3rd Anniversary, Mandy & Brad!!

Blog Award!

I received this blog award from Tonya. Thank you so much!

Here were my rules:
1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Here you have it...

1. Mel - because you are a great co-worker and friend...and, you got me started blogging!

2. Jackie - because you, too, are a great friend. We've been through a lot in the past 15+ years, and I'm so glad we've see it together!

3. Janell - because you are also a great friend! You keep me grounded and able to look at both sides of any situation and can challenge me to think differently.

4. Tiffany - because you have been such a great support for me during our infertility struggle and have let me come love on your babies!! I can't wait to hang out with you more!

5. Jill - because I'm so glad we're able to stay in touch through the blogs! Maybe you'll make it back for the 15 year reunion?!

6. Heather - because your blog entries always cause me to think...you're creative! :-)

7. Nicole - Here's to hoping I can get you to update?! (It was worth a shot!)

Wisconsin Road Trip!

Wow, was it a busy weekend! It's not like our house isn't used to that and it always seems that I try to cram so much into one event. But, it does make sense! If I'm going to drive 3.5 hours to Wisconsin, then I might as well get to see everyone, right? I left on Friday afternoon to head up North to my brother's house to watch my niece cheer at a high school football game. Granted, she's 13, but she has participated in a cheer camp for quite a few summers now and they always cheer at the first home game. This year was the first time I was able to make it. It was pretty exciting not just because I was getting to relive the memories of my high school days when I spent every Friday night cheering at a sporting event, but because I got to see my niece doing something I loved, too! She did a great job if I do say so myself! We ended up staying up pretty late (1am) just talking which was nice since we don't get together all that often, but then I was up at 7am! (Darn internal clock!)

Nicole is in front of the girl on the left with the #12 on.

After some breakfast on Saturday morning, I headed East to Carter's 1st Birthday Party! Carter got lots of great gifts, and had some fun time outside with the beautiful weather. It was really nice to see people I hadn't seen in a while (some since Jonathan & Jackie's wedding four years ago).

Isn't this cake AWESOME?! Great job, Jackie!

I left the Flack house in the late afternoon to meet my friend Janell and her husband for dinner in Rockford and then the last two hours of the trip home...getting home around 10pm!

On Sunday, Jason and some friends headed up to Joliet for the Indy & ARCA races while I was off to church. It was my day for nursery duty...the kids were great, and I might have a new friend joining our small group on Thursday mornings! After church, I met Heather for lunch and shopping. We also managed to stop by Kali's second soccer game.

Caden walking to the car...he is getting so brave!

Jason got home just in time for Big Brother and the Bears game. And, I must brag a little here...WAY TO GO CHICAGO!! It was so exciting to see the Bears pull off a win! Hopefully our Cubbies will be doing the same this week!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 7th wedding annivesary of my friend, Patty, and her husband, Kurt! In the past seven years, they have also been blessed with three beautiful children...Zayne, Makenzie, and Zavier.

Happy Anniverary, Patty & Kurt!

Happy Birthday, Kali!

Today marks another celebration! Kali Sue turns 16!! She is a great "kid," and I'm sure she is really excited to be getting her driver's license!

Happy 16th Birthday, Kali!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Heather & Roger!!

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post right now, but you can check out their blog here.

Labor Day Project

As promised, here's a picture of our project we completed yesterday!Thanks to my friend, Jean Ann, Caden got a new toy! JA's son, Robbie, has grown out of the stage where he wants a play set in the backyard, and she was giving it away! Caden is going to have so much fun on this over the next few years.

THANK YOU, JEAN ANN, MIKE, and ROBBIE!!!!!!

I tried to get a nice picture of Caden, but every time I took it he quit smiling! Here's a little video I got of him while the guys were finishing putting up the set. You can see he's not quite yet walking by himself, but he is pretty close. He'll take a step or two if you really coax him, but otherwise, this is what you get. (Hopefully the video works...it's my first attempt at posting one! And, sorry for the blurry spots...I'm not sure what was going on there.)