Our Weekend Get - A - Way!

So we are back from our vacation, sad to say! We had a REALLY good time. The cabin was small but had all of our needs...a jacuzzi in the living room next to the fireplace...what more do you need? Patric and I are thinking of installing a jacuzzi in our family room...don't mind us in the corner bathing when you come over...

On Friday we arrived around 6:30, so we got our keys and Patric and I went into the cabin. Patric bought the romantic package, so there was music playing and the coffee table was decorated with rose petals and rocks. There was a bouquet of flowers, chocolates and sparkling apple cider. I am usually not a fan of apple cider, but it was delicious! We had some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner...thanks to my mom, and relaxed for the rest of the evening in the jacuzzi and talked about stuff we never talked about. It was nice!

Saturday morning we woke up and decided we wanted to explore a little bit. I knew I wanted to do some type of hiking, so we went to this place called Crabtree Falls. It was a two mile hike up to the top of the falls so we did it. It was nice to be in the wilderness and enjoy nature. When we got to the top of the falls it was BEAUTIFUL! There were also about a million lady bugs flying around. I have NEVER been around so many ladybugs. After we got our fill of the mountains we hiked back down and decided we should go out to lunch instead of dinner because it was already 2. The first place we wanted to go wasn't open so we went to another place. The food was ok but it was pricey. There was a line to get into the bathroom and Patric was like, "isn't that the guy from your tv show?" I looked and was like, "hey it's Mouth! (or Marvin) from One Tree Hill!". I didn't want to bother him though, so I didn't say anything to him. After we ate, we went back to the cabin to relax. I read my book "The Hunger Games" and Patric played on his phone. He decided to collect some firewood as well, and that night we filled up the jacuzzi again, I started the fire and we watched a movie.

Sunday morning, we decided we wanted to go to Monticello in Charlottesville, on our way home from Royal Oaks. I LOVE Monticello. I want a garden like Thomas Jefferson had! He had SO many different vegetables! Patric promised me that once he gets the water problem fixed in the house that I can start my vegetable garden. I am going to have to read up a bit on what I want to grow and how to do it!

It was such a nice trip. I am sad that it is over. The cabin had problems with those stupid stinkbugs! We probably killed like 100 of them while we were there...but it was perfect other than that!

Josh was also AWESOME for my mom, which I am very grateful for. He even napped for like three hours for her! Why doesn't he nap that long for me? We may plan a disney cruise sometime in the future to take with my mom and charlie.

Here are some pictures!
We got to enjoy the falls with some of the Amish. They didn't make it all the way to the top of the hike though.
Someone was kind enough to take our picture at the first falls before the hike.
These pictures do not give the beauty of the place justice!
One of my favorite parts.
Where's Sasha? I don't generally want to climb out somewhere to get a picture taken...so I MUST have been relaxed this weekend.
Found another couple along the hike that was willing to take our picture.
The view from the top. I know that they are not as impressive as the mountains in the west, but I think they are BEAUTIFUL!
People were so friendly and volunteering to take pictures of us!
Seriously!
My awesome fire roaring, the jacuzzi filling up...and a movie ready to watch! I wish I could do this every night!
Patric took about a hundred pictures of me at this window. This building was in the gardens. I told Patric I want a building like this in my garden to just enjoy my flowers and plants...of course, I need A LOT more land to actually need a building like this.
People are friendly in Charlottesville too because someone volunteered to take a picture of us. This is probably my favorite of the weekend. I actually adjusted the camera before she took the shot, so I knew how zoomed in it would be.
A small portion on Thomas Jefferson's garden. He had 1000 yards of just garden!
Another part of his garden...which overlooks the city below.
The Monticello. We didn't get to see the upstairs, but I LOVED the architecture that Thomas Jefferson designed. It is actually a three story house, but the style back when he built is was just one story, so he made it look one story from the outside. He didn't like to waste time or space...sounds like me! Thomas Jefferson was an incredible man and I am happy I got to see his house with my incredible man.

So that's that!

Thinking about you!

Thank you for being my wife...you are wonderful. I love you....you are the best...looking forward to our trip.

miss you


This was an email I got from my husband today. Perhaps he is finally catching on after 6.5 years of marriage!

I REALLY can't wait for our trip! Just need to pack a few things and get out of town. We leave around 3pm tomorrow and will hopefully get to the cabins around 5:30. We don't really have much planned...maybe a hike..mostly we are just going to enjoy each other. Will we even know how to do that anymore?

P is for Pumpkin!

So I have scrapbooked yet again! I am on a roll! I guess I finally have some time (which could be a bad thing) to do this type of thing! I have wanted to scrapbook so many pictures of Josh, and these are from when he was 19 months old! The kid is 3.5 now....tells you how busy I have been these past two years!

Anyway--I took another lay out from www.thescrappiest.blogspot.com because why would I even use my brain to think about a lay out?? It is SO nice to have Liz's website because I don't waste hours just thinking how to put everything on my page. I am getting faster at scrapbooking because of this, so thanks Liz for your blog! I hope you get many more followers because you are one talented lady!

Here is the page I did! We took Josh to Belvedere Plantation that year to pick out his pumpkin. I did use a picture from a different day in the middle, but I loved all the pumpkins behind him, even if he wouldn't smile for the camera (the little punk). That day I took him up to a nursery in Fairfax and the kids played around with their pumpkin display for free.
I also did a new hairstyle today that I am pretty proud of! I don't play around too much with my hair, but today I was feeling like I wanted to do a new style. I have to sing in church today and so I wanted to look nice. I am singing in a quartet and we are singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Hopefully we don't choke and it sounds good!

Here is my hair!
Well I better go eat some lunch and get going to church!

Another scrapbook page!

So I guess I have had the creative itch lately, because I have created ANOTHER scrapbook page. My good friend Liz has a blog, www.thescrappiest.blogspot.com that has all sorts of great lay outs to use. I find the hardest part of getting myself into doing a page is the lay out...now that I know my friend has this blog I can just use her lay outs and pick out what I want to do!

I have been doing an alphabet book, if you haven't noticed from other blog posts and today I wanted to do H. I took a bunch of pictures of Josh with a hard hat on when he was a little over 20 months. Patric came home from work with it, for some reason, and Josh LOVED putting it on...in fact he STILL loves putting it on.

If you go to Liz's blog you will see that the lay out I copied is her "Ladies with an attitude" lay out. She has a lot more cool stuff and ideas to work with, and really cute girls, but I think I did alright!

Here are some pictures!

I am no photographer, so sorry for the poor quality of pictures.
I was playing with the lighting and then the editing a bit with this one.

I can't resist posting these pictures either. Josh is becoming friends with some of his team mates. He is chatting it up with Ashley and Taelen.

GGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!
Josh scored four goals this game I believe.

Just one more week until Patric and I go away by ourselves. I CAN'T WAIT! The leaves will be beautiful and the setting is just right for us.

A new song!

I love music...I can't go a day without listening to it. I asked Patric to make me a cd of music 3 years ago and he never did it. He redeemed himself this weekend by declaring that he and I had a new song. We were listening to some Michael Buble (Josh is obsessed with him...) and "Hold On" came on. I thought it was a break up song and said we can't use that for our song...so I googled the lyrics and cried. It is an absolutely perfect song for Patric and I!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDtye9jTG3o

We are definitely looking up!

Relief!

I am sure that last post, if you read it, made you wonder how I am doing. I am not going to lie and say that I did not shed a tear in the last few days...because I have. I knew I wasn't pregnant the night before my period started, and I also knew that we weren't going to "try" anymore after this cycle...so I cried a little that night. And then I cried a lot the next day at my mother's when I needed to escape my house because my period started. And then I cried a lot the next day after that when I went back over to my mother's house for more comfort.

But tonight, I feel GREAT!

I feel like a weight is lifted off of my shoulders. I feel like Patric and I are finally going back to the relationship we once had. Just knowing that later on this month, when I will know I am ovulating (because I KNOW after almost two years of tracking) that I don't have to stress out about it feels great. Patric and I have been talking about going away for a weekend without Josh since about July of this year...and we are finally making that happen! My mom is willing to take Josh for the weekend in a couple of weeks so Patric and I can go to a cabin in Love, Va (I am not even kidding you) that is nestled right on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the mountains.

I am also back on track with working out...something I have been neglecting for a year now...wouldn't want to hurt any baby that may be developing right? WRONG! What a waste of a year and a waste for my waistline! Now I have to get back in shape and I am a year older...blech!

Do I think that I will never have another kid? Absolutely not. I am just choosing to not actively try anymore. I am choosing to have a better relationship with my husband. I am choosing to love my son more than anything in this world and know that I am blessed to have him. I am choosing to get healthy physically and emotionally.

Today-we had a photo session and it was fun! It was the first time we ever spent money on a photographer. When I approached her a couple of weeks ago I asked her if she can make people look like they were in love. I could pull the facebook email if you don't believe me. At that point, I felt so disconnected from Patric that I would do ANYTHING to feel connected again...even if it meant looking at pictures that would show that we were in love. Today I can say with certainty that we are in love and that the pictures are not going to show anything phony...thank goodness!

I wanted to see if I could find a divorce rate online for couples dealing with infertility problems, but I didn't find one. I did, however, find this article, and for the most part it is true for Patric and I. http://www.slate.com/id/2250361/ I am just so happy to move on from this part of my life....it hasn't been easy, but I made a promise to myself and Heavenly Father that if I was not pregnant this month that I was no longer going to be the "willing" person I have been the last two years. Will I use contraception? No! Never really have! haha...why start now?

I also worked on a little project for Patric this evening. I have had the scrapbooking itch for awhile and haven't sat down to do it. For me, it is such an ordeal to pick out the paper and decide how to lay it all out...and my patience is pretty short. I wanted to do something nice for Patric to show him my appreciation. I have been working on an alphabet book...but I took a break for Patric.

Here is the page.
So that is where I am at today.

~Sasha

Taking a break

It has been too long and too hard on our marriage, so Patric and I have decided not to try anymore for baby #2. We don't understand why we are not being blessed with another child and we can't handle the constant disappointment anymore. If you are reading this, just understand that we are not really open to talk about it anymore, it is an issue that will be put behind us...we are happy with our beautiful son and ready to fully heal from the hell that we have gone through these past two years.

Thanks for understanding and hopefully great things are in store for us in other departments of our lives soon!

Sasha