Proud Mama!

Josh had his third soccer game this morning. He was outside playing with Kami and Ella, waiting for his turn to swing when I called him inside to get ready for his soccer game. He was less than thrilled about going to the game and so I thought that he was going to have a bad game.

My kid scored five goals!! (He did score one in the wrong goal, but that would make six goals then). He was AWESOME today! Best soccer playing he has done so far this season. He would go for the ball, and sometimes push and even scream at the other team, but he did it! Just this week I was thinking that maybe I put him in to soccer too early and should wait a year or two before putting him into anything else, but I am happy he had the experience today. He was SO happy when he made a goal and would run and give Patric a big hug with a huge grin.

He made me a proud mama today and was compensated with some ice cream!

I didn't bring my camera to the game, so you are going to have to accept this recent picture I took on my cell phone as an updated shot of us.

Dining Room Make Over!

WOOHOO! It is DONE! Patric picked an interesting time to start redoing the dining room...the weekend before Kami and Brad(and Ella and Everett) moved into our home for a couple of months. But...it only took a month to get everything done. I am so very proud of this dining room make over...probably because it was something I envisioned before doing it and then it came out exactly how I wanted it! This is also the first room that we have finished EVERYTHING in...no trim still left to paint, no curtains to buy, nothing. We even changed the PLUGS! We were going to buy new faceplates for the plugs, but they were like $6 per faceplate, and I didn't even like the ones I found at the store. I bought white spray paint and we went that route instead, and it turned out perfectly.

List of things we did to the room:

1. Scrape the ceiling and spackled to smooth it out (we had a popcorn ceiling in there.)
2. Paint the burnt red/orange color on the walls.
3. Cut and hang the beadboard and chair rail.
4. Install new plugs and spraypaint faceplates.
5. Paint the bead board, trim, crown molding (luckily there was already crown molding and basedboards that we liked in the room).
6. Put up new chandelier...this proved to be the most annoying part of the renovation.
7. Iron and Hem the curtains
8. CLEAN!
9. Move furniture back into dining room.

There is always LOTS of dust after our projects because we are changing all of the ceilings in this house...but it is so worth it!

So here are the pictures!!

This is the before picture--we tore down the wall paper about a year ago, but I wasn't sure what to do with the room so we just left it with white walls. This was taken when we were moving in.
The first coat of red paint!
Everyone in the family worked on the room...that included 3.5 year old Josh!
Beadboard going up!
After pics...before the furniture. After I hemmed the curtains...gotta love IKEA for iron on hemming...I don't sew.

Just a wall...
I love that I can put my Fall decorations out now and it fit so nicely with the room!
Another view of the room.
I know that my style is now more country than anything else. I like a bit of contemporary, but I find that I like the country style because it feels warm and cozy, and that is what home is supposed to feel like to me!

First Soccer Game!

Patric and I decided to put Josh in soccer this Fall. We have never put him in anything around other kids and an adult to teach him, so we thought this could be fun. We asked him for about a month before we signed him up and he kept saying that he wanted to play.

He had his first game this past Saturday. While he didn't make a goal, and half the time just stood there...I would say he was pretty good! He did try to make a goal once but there were two of the other team's kids just standing in the goal so he didn't make it. He has a girl on his team that LOVED making goals and she was REALLY cute after each one she made. We destroyed the other team though, and Josh had fun!

Also--Kami and Brad have moved in with us for a couple of months. Josh gets a live in friend...how cool is that? This week we pulled out the slip n slide and let them play. Josh also LOVES Everett, Kami and Brad's six month old son. I can tell that he is going to be an awesome older brother some day.

Here are some pictures to update!

Here is where he was ROBBED of his goal...there are no goalies at this age...let alone TWO! RED CARD RED CARD REF!

Since Summer has decided to stick around and the pool is closed...slip n slide time!
Other than that, there really isn't much going on in our lives. We are making over our dining room, but I will post before and after pictures when it is done. I got another job offer but I didn't take it...that makes three possible opportunities this year...and while it is a blessing, it is also a test to me. I made the decision to stay home with Josh and I feel like I am tested over and over again with $$$. While the money would be GREAT, staying home with Josh WHILE working is best for our family, and I feel so blessed that this is something I am able to do.

I had two lessons on Sunday at church just hit me in the face and knock me back down to size. First, was the lesson about Job. Now, I am no scriptorian, so I knew not the story of Job. He had a GREAT life...and then EVERYTHING literally was taken away from him...and he still stayed faithful to Heavenly Father. After his trial period was over, and boy was it a TRIAL, he was blessed more than he was before the trial began. I can only hope that my pathetic trial will be over soon and I will be bless moreso than ever for not giving up on my faith.

Then...I go to YW and we have a lesson about how important life is and also sort of about staying home with our kids. How society makes it glamorous for women to be executives of big companies and leave their kids, and how unglamorous changing diapers are etc...and it hit me. Josh is only two years away from going to school and then that's it! I don't get that time with him anymore...so I made the right decision to be with him and will continue to make this decision. I do have to work, but I will not take a permanent part time or full time gig until he is in school...and even then, I only hope that I will have one or two others at home by then.

Normal

I got my test results back for my blood draws--everything looked normal...just as I suspected.

My FSH level was 6.0 Anything below 9 is normal
My LH level was 4.7 Anything between 3 and 10 is normal
Prolactin was 7.18 Anything between .47 and 27 is normal
TSH was 1.030 Anything between .320 - 5.5 is normal

My white blood cell count and CBC work was also all within normal limits.

I just suspect it isn't time for us to have another kid...because I am almost positive if I got Patric's sperm analysis done it would also come back fine.

Just need to keep the hope up and move forward.

A year!

**Since I decided this would be my everything blog...you get to hear the moanings of ttc.**

It has officially been a YEAR since Patric and I decided to try again for a baby. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would take this long! How could it take this long? We got pregnant SO freakin easily in the beginning of 2009.

A couple of things I have learned this year about my cycles -

If I spot mid month, I will almost surely have a longer cycle (like 39 days).
Evening primrose oil helped regulate my cycles to not have 39 days.
HSG tests do NOT increase your chances of getting pregnant.
With the exception of the last three cycles (the ones I have used EPO on) I had a pattern of short, long, short, long cycles.
Taking your temperature every day for almost a year SUCKS. And if your temp doesn't drop, it doesn't mean you are pregnant!

I have also learned that I am not alone in this journey. While most of my friends have been pregnant in the last two years (it is the age group to have children) there are two friends of mine that are struggling like me....so I can find solace in knowing I am not the only one. I would love it if ALL of use got pregnant at the same time(so we don't hurt the other person's feelings by getting pregnant).

I have never been afraid to talk about my journey with this. I do feel I am supposed to go through this crap. I know I will have at least one more child. The waiting game SUCKS! But, I didn't even get upset this time. I was actually somewhat excited because I was wrong about when I thought I ovulated, so I had a short cycle than I thought...and I had already contacted my doctor around cycle day 13 when I was spotting to ask her about it and she ordered labs to be done on cycle day 3. I will go to the lab tomorrow to get blood drawn to check my FSH, TSH and prolactin. Hopefully it will give me answers.

In other news--

I am 95% sure I am going to take on more work with the consulting firm that feeds me work from time to time. Last Tuesday I got a call from Bill asking me if I wanted to do full time. Anxiety sets in and I know full time is not right. He told me 24 of my hours would be in Chantilly at a bank (not even really my line of work if you ask me), but the hourly rate they want to give me is more than Patric makes a year( at 24 hours a week...). I will keep my Tuesday work with my own clients and obviously tax work and quarterly work. I also got a call from Scott, that also USED to work at the consulting firm. Now it all makes sense that they want me to work full time. He started his own consulting firm and was hoping that when he calls me I will be available to help him out. I am SO thankful for finding this consulting firm last year.

Yesterday it occurred to me that I am going to make more money, probably, just to pay for fertility stuff...but if that is why I am being blessed with the extra money, it will be money well spent. I am confident that I will be pregnant soon. It will not take another year. We are 5 months away from paying off our credit card too. I have been REALLY proactive in paying it off because I am tired of credit card companies. With this extra money, I may pay it off sooner...that will be a MUCH less bill to pay each month, and I can put that money into savings. I want to have enough savings that we can relax a little after having another child. I was able to put enough away when I got pregnant with Josh that I didn't have to work for four months before I started freaking out about money and started my business. I want the next baby to benefit from my undivided attention as well (though I will still work with my own clients, I will not do much with consulting I do not believe).

We never know what a year from now will bring us. Maybe Patric will make the jump and we will work with this consulting thing together. Maybe market more of SJP Accounting as well...who knows? The future seems bright though in all aspects and I am just going to keep the hope up and not dwell on the bad (at least for today!). Ask me tomorrow and I may feel a different way!