Back in Utah?

I'm back in Utah, I know some of you maybe thinking, "Wow, time sure has flown!  Seems like you were there just a week ago!"  Well, I was here just a week ago!  I got back to Texas on Sunday the 13th and then began driving back on Saturday the 19th.  All in all, I will have spent about 8 days in my own home and with Jeff, for that matter, in the month of September! Hmmm....I wonder why we haven't gotten pregnant yet?!?!?!  :)

So here is the story:

Jeff's littlest sister, Angie, and her family are going to be moving to Texas!  This will bring the tally up to 6 out of 7 kids in Texas, plus Jeff's Mom, Cami.  Ok, so Wendy???? when are you coming down?  This means that Wendy has to start visiting Texas more often!  The totals are: 1 in Dallas, 2 in Austin, and in a little bit there will be 4 in Houston.

I called Angie on Tuesday, September 15th to congratulate her on the good news, asked her about the plans for selling the house, when do they have to be in Texas, are there movers, is she doing it, how is she going to stage the house, getting it ready to put on the market...the basics.  Angie tells me that they are going to be driving down on October 5th, when the house sells - they are going to be "moved" by the Church, and she will start cleaning and staging (um, what is staging?) the house about 2 weeks before they leave, right now she is doing a few things here and there to get ready....."Ummmm, Angie, you do realize that it is about 2 1/2 weeks before you have to report down to Texas right now, right?" I replied.  Dead silence and then a little panic!  I asked if she needed/wanted my help, that I had a doctor's appointment the next day, but knowing the process, I had about 2-3 weeks before I would start anything with the doctor and I think that Jeff would spare me so that I could help his baby sister.  So my new adventure began!

I got here Monday night, I made a detour in Cirlceville & Clinton to drop things off to them - since I had a car to bring them up.

Tueday, Angie & I made a list and headed out to Lowe's!  Ahhh Lowe's I have now made I am not sure how many trips.  It seems as if when you have a big project, and you make your list of every possible thing that you will need, you always forget 3/4 of the things to put on the list.  And those things on your list don't fit and you have to return it at least 3 times before getting the right one.  I have now perfected Angie's signature for her credit card.  It is easier for me to run and leave her with cleaning a closet, etc.

Let's see what have we done?..... Scott replaced their dishwasher - it had been broken for about 4-5 months - moral of the story? if your dishwasher breaks, cut the water off to it and remove the drain line, otherwise whatever was left in there when the dishwasher breaks, stays in the line for months (mmm, good) and then spills everywhere when you move the line.

Here is picture of Angie clearing the line before we try moving it again.  I had to stay far away from the mess, I have a very sensitive gag reflex and the smell....just think Ghost Town! :)

Instead of calling a locksmith out to rekey all the locks in the house (all the doors had different locks and they only had a key to one of them) we went to Lowe's and bought new locks and hardware and had Lowe's rekey the new locks to the only key they had of the house.  Well, this would've been a brillant and easy job, except the backdoor to the garage is a very old door and the placement of the doorknob hole was right inbetween the two settings on the lock.  I tried drilling the door, but that didn't go over to well - the door is wood, with metal on the outside.  So Angie & Scott had to buy a new door.  Scott measured it 32" x 79", but Angie and I opted to try one other type of lock just to be sure .... nope it didn't work.  So we were going to have to buy a new door.  Putting the old hardware back on wasn't even an option for 1 thing, we didn't have the key to it, and the other, I messed up the door pretty good when I was trying to get the other lock to fit it.  Angie and I measured the door again and we measured 31 3/4 x 80 - whoo hoo, that was the measurement of the cheaper door!  So we bought it, brought it into the home, put it next to the other door and you guessed it...it was too narrow and too tall!  So I had to return it and buy a new door.

Angie & I have hooked up the washer/dryer - first time for both of us...and they actually work and don't leak! 

Angie took an exacto knife, cut a piece of the wall off so she could color match the paint.  We didn't realize until after her friends had painted the rest of the huge laundry room (using 1/2 of the gallon) that the color didn't match exactly.  In fact the texture of the paint was different even though both of them were supposedly satin.  So after taking the paint back 3 times to have them "lighten" it for us and it not working, we did an experiment - I mean the paint is too dark, we can't use it to touch up the walls, so why not experiment with it.... The new color had a more "flat" feel to it even though the can says satin.  The walls look shinier than the walls with the new color on it, so I began to think - luckily it wasn't friday (I had terrible ideas on friday that didnt seem to work like they were suppose to!)  So if we want it to be lighter, add white.  If we have a "satin" that seems "flat" so we need a little more gloss to it...why not add more gloss and more white by adding "semi-gloss ultra white" to the mix!  Angie got a pallet and paint brush and went to work mixing them together, and whaa laaa!  we have a perfect match!  We were even able to duplicate it in the big can - after much testing and mixing!

We have moved furniture, soooo much furniture around.  Scott and Angie have been kind enough for many years to store pieces of furniture, bedding, clothes, tools, you name it, and they have probably stored it for their family.  With Scott's family staying in Utah, and Scott and Angie moving to Texas, we had to go through the house, storage room, mud room and separate all their stuff from the families stuff.  Once that was all done, we started rearranging the furniture that is left and "staging" the rooms. 

All we have left now is the detail work - we have been trying to wipe down baseboards and blinds as we go into each room and purge/stage it.  We have a few rooms left - bathrooms to clean - showers to regrout... DI is coming on Wednesday to take a bunch of stuff.  Then it will be a matter of packing for Texas and then sell the house!  Whew!

I know Scott and Angie have been questioning me on "how many doors have you hung before?" - none, theirs was my first one! "how do you know this, how about that?"  I must say that I am grateful for my parents in that department.  I have sat many a day out in the garage watching my Dad do different things, talking with him, troubleshooting with him - I think I actually learned some problems solving skills that way!  See, I was listening Dad and not just looking at the bugs!  And I cheated when it came to "how do you get hard water stains out of the toilet?"  I called my Mom!  She said very simply, "pumice stone".  And sure enough!  She did teach me how to clean house and the importance of the details - wiping down the blinds (use a swifter duster) getting the gunk out of the window sills, toothbrush around the faucets to get the grime.  It has all come in handy at my house and now that I am able to help others.  I will say that I think when I get home I need to look at my blinds, window sills, and window tracks......I may have been neglecting them!

See, and here again, I have a wonderful husband who is understanding and caring and has been supportive of me leaving him again to come help out another family member.  He even decided to help out around the house and pay our bills....so now we have credits on a lot of our bills cuz he ended up double paying after me!  Ahh well.  I love him!  Thank you Jeff you are a wonderful husband!  What is nice is that I know when I get home the house will be clean and the laundry done, not because he will scurry around the night before I get home to make it look presentable, but because he helps keep the house up on a daily basis.  Whether it is taking his dishes to the sink and even putting them in the dishwasher to vacuuming while I am out swimming with friends cuz he knows it needs to be done.  He knows the importance of a clean house and is willing to pitch in a do his part to keep the house looking nice all the time.  He does this without me asking.  He is truely a wonderful husband!  How lucky am I?!?!?!  I can't believe sometimes that he chose me!  I am blessed!

Doctor's Visit

So here is my delima, I want to have a "normal" get pregnant experience or as close to "normal" as possible.  Everyone else in the world gets to get pregnant, wait (in theory) until the first trimester is done and announce to the rest of the world in some crazy unique way that they are prengant.  I have such wonderful caring family and friends who are constantly asking - and I really don't mind...sorta - what is going on with us in the fertility department, that it is hard to keep it a secret.  I would have to lie to their face and say we are doing nothing and then after the first trimester say "surprise I am pregnant & oh by the way, I have been lying to you this whole time...yeah me!"  I just can't do it.  I have to accept the fact that I am not "normal"!  I love the prayers and the support of everyone, so I have decided that I would "blog" my appointments.  This way, if someone really wants to know what is going on, it will be here.  No secrets, no lies.  It will also save my voice from having to tell umpteen number of people all the specifics - it is hard to know who really cares and who is just asking to be nice or how much detail they really care to know for that matter.

That being said, please still ask me questions, about my own fertility, about general fertility questions, about whatever.  I really don't mind.  I don't know if my advice will work though - I would trust my own advice more if I actually had been successful at any of the umpteen ways to get pregant....but anyways, on to the good stuff:

Everything really started for us back in July. I knew that the fees for the embryo storage would be due to the old place on August 1st, we weren't happy with the old place, and we needed to find a new place. I looked at the calendar and called the new doc - Dr. X - and scheduled the appointment. They told me where to find the new patient forms to fill out and return to their office and they told me to have my old doc send over my file. So I had about 2 months to do this...and when do you think I did it? That's right - the day before. On my defense, while I was in Utah, I did try to contact Parkland to have them send a form for me to sign to release my medical records over to the new place - they never did. So Tuesday I went in the office with Jeff to fill out all the new patient forms and to have Jeff's office put in a request for my records - this way I could bring them with me. Jeff's office staff was wonderful - they helped me put the request in. DeeDee even called and harrassed them to make sure we had my records before the end of the day. Parkland apparently called and started complaining about having to fax everything over - they said it was a lot, so Jeff & I decided that the most important things would be the last 2 embryo transfers - we gave them a 2 year window to fax over to us. So, 113 pages later we had those 2 years. EEEK! That is only 2 of the 10 years of our treatments! DeeDee kept having to field phone calls - people were complaining because the fax machine was busy for a long time. Parkland sent the entire file by mail. I don't know if their is a box big enough for my medical record....


So, Wednesdy, September 16th, Jeff & I had our first doctor's visit with the new fertility doc.  Jeff was wonderful - he rearranged his morning schedule so that he could be there with me.  I really appreciate him doing that.  It wasn's something I had asked him to do.  I told him when the appointment was, and knowing that he is getting rather busy at work, and now that the group has hired a new doctor to work at Forney with him, he is under a little more stress - direct competition - I didn't expect him to be able to come.  I am glad he did - I have a tendency to shut down sometimes when someone jumps to conclusions without knowing all the facts.  Unfortunately I did shut down a little at the doctor's office.  If I had been alone, I probably would've come home and told Jeff that we were switching docs.  With Jeff there, I was able to snap back a little, and give the new doc a little more patients (get it? patients? hehehe) and allow him to catch up to our 10 years of personal infertility experience.

The doctor's visit:  It was very typical for us at least - he sat behind his desk, took one look at the records we gave him, and then he asked us to sum it all up for him! :)  As we sat there telling him all the different things we have been through, he just kept looking at us and asking "are you sure there isn't anything wrong with you?  this doesn't make sense...you should be pregnant by now."  He decided that he was going to figure out what was wrong....at this point you kinda have to humor them and let them figure out that I have "unexplained infertility".  It is very hard for some people to not have a "reason".  I have learned long ago not to worry about the "reason" and just have faith in the Lord that their is a "reason" for this trial and be ok with not knowing what it is now.  Jeff has learned a lot that has helped him in his practice - I am grateful for that.  He has a compassion and an understanding that I think his patients who struggle with infertility can see and they love him for it.  He uses me in a lot of examples - so much for HIPPA - but that is ok - if my struggles can help others then so be it.  Anyways, back to the doctor's appointment.  He did do some blood test, because he knew that I had a thyroid problem or an insulin resistence problem - BUT, that is not the case.  Everything came back normal.  Yeah! At least I am normal in one aspect of my life!  I guess it is back to the drawing board for this guy.  The thing is about me now is that it really doesn't matter if I ovulate or not, or if this or if that - I have 2 frozen babies....just get my uterus ready and stick them in!  So that is what we are going to be doing.  We have to wait until my next cycle begins - just to insure that for some odd reason that I am not actually pregnant right now.  Wouldn't that be funny!  Going through all of this and then spontaneously getting pregnant on my own...I know it can happen - a friend of mine's 3rd cousin's brother's aunt on his father's side had that happen to them you know.....

So for now, I guess we wait until my next period and then I get to go on birth control....hmmm how ironic....

Labor Day Weekend of Love

So Labor Day Weekend, our little nephew, Matthew, was baptized.  He was so excited!  He did an amazing job being reverant during the talks.  In between the prayer, the song, the first talk, Matthew would turn to one of his parents and whisper in a "quiet" voice, "Is it time for me to get baptized yet?"  It was refreshing to see the excitement of being baptized.

Originally, back in July when Jeff's brother got married, I was planning on staying a couple of weeks after the event to visit with my family, one week with Susan and one week with Aaron.  But, Susan had to mess up my plans be actually being in Texas during that same time frame.  I didn't think Circleville would be very fun by myself - (they have no fast food, I might actually have had to cook for myself...shocking!) So I had a change of plans, Jeff & I did a quick trip to Utah for the wedding and when we returned for Matthew's baptism I did an extended stay with Aaron & fam. 

The plan was great until I got a phone call from Rebecca.  It went something like this, "So Jill, I was wondering.......Do you Like to paint?"  (what a loaded question if I ever heard one!)  Technically no, but I told her that I would love to help her - so if that meant I had to paint one room and a bathroom, then YES I like to paint.  I will say that I am totally to blame for what happened next on my trip.  Rebecca and I went to Home Depot and took a lot of paint swatches to look at at home.  Well, Behr paint was on sale - $5 off a gallon - that puts a girl's mind to thinkin'.....Well, the family room - that had some lovely country blue walls :) - had a wall that carried up to the breakfast area and kitchen.....and if we do that, then we might as well do the rest of the kitchen too...and if we do that, then there is a wall in the kitchen that goes up and over and is a wall in the formal living room and one of the walls in the kitchen has a rounded corner and turns a couple of times and ends up in the formal living room too....so if we do the formal living room, then we might as well go up stairs and do the hall, and if we do that then.....So poor Rebecca's one gallon of paint for the family room, one gallon and one quart of paint for the bathroom (the original project) ended up being - one gallon accent paint, five gallons of base paint, one gallon paint for the kitchen cabinet (yes we sanded and painted the cabinets as well), one gallon and quart for the bathroom, kitchen knobs and drawer pulls, 2 ceiling fans, 1 new light fixture in the bathroom, towel & tp holder, brushed nickel trash can, soap dispenser, and toilet brush holder, curtains - kitchen, dining, family room (2 windows), bathroom rug and towels, and a various amount of little pieces to decorate...Whew! Literally she is "POOR" Rebecca now!  :)  Her house looks wonderful.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time at their house.  Laughing hysterically at .... well I don't remember cuz at the time I hadn't had much sleep ....  I can now not look at a brown wall without putting a smile on my face - "mmmm...brown"  Check out all our hard work here.

And as a side note for those of you wanting a little motivation to paint your house - You burn 195 calories/hour by painting - this of course means actually using roller and brush, not spraying it on...

I enjoyed visiting with the boys and Sarah.  I got to witness a few firsts with Sarah - drinking through a straw, a first step, her going not only up, but down the steps, her learning to sign "more" - although at first I think she thought that "more" meant Sonic Diet Coke - and she actually knew that a Sonic drink and McDonald's drink were different.  It was neat to see a change in her - the weekend of Matthew's baptism, Jeff was trying to "walk" with Sarah - her holding his fingers and he guided her, but after about 2 steps she would lift up her legs or get jelly legged and she was done "walking".  The very next weekend, all she wanted to do was to hold your finger and "walk" around.  Sarah isn't going to eat anything, drink anything, or do anything until she is darn good and ready!  Sounds like someone I know....

I was able to hang out with Daniel - he "helped" me paint.  I went with Daniel to his allergist appointment and the subsequent blood draw - it was then and there that I decided that if Jeff & I have kids and they need a shot or blood drawn - that is going to be a Jeff job!

Daniel and Josh are cute at Karate - oh I guess I should use a more manly rough gruff term than cute since it is about Karate, but I can't think of any better term than that!

I think Josh just loves me for my instant Netflix on my computer... :)

Matthew and I played Mario Kart and I got to go to his very first Pack Meeting.  It was very cool to see him welcomed to the Pack.

I am very gratefuly to have been included in all of these wonderful experiences and I am very grateful for a husband who allows me to run off and be with family and who comes to important family events!