This will mark post 99, next post will be 100!

Tomorrow is Friday the best day well maybe Saturday is better so we can sleep in. I have honestly had a great week. My mom has came around somehow. I called my dad (who is a good mediator) and maybe he talked some sense into her. We had a long talk yesterday afternoon for about 2 hrs. We will see how long things are good this time.

Tomorrow we head to Nashville, I absolutely cant wait. I love Nashville and miss it terribly. If we could take our jobs and our house we would move tomorrow, but of course thats not how life works. Im just hoping the rain holds off for the game Saturday night and maybe we can win, well see.

Boot Camp is still going good I love the feeling of it I must admit. I posted more over on my Weight Loss blog for anyone interested. Im hoping for a good weigh in tomorrow:)

This week has been kind of weird at school, a student who graduated last year shot himself over a girl and its just been a sad week. Please keep this family in your prayers, I can only imagine how tough it is for the parents but also the girlfriend too.

AF should be here Im guessing if its like every month Saturday (10 DPO) so well see if she stays away or not. If not, I know God has another plan for us.

Also if anyone is looking for recipes, Im trying to get my entire collection to it, so Im posting 1 to 2 per day new recipes.

Well this week was tough, rough you name it. Ive been staying until anywhere from 6-9 pm everynight and getting there super early too. There has been so much going on and trying to get everything perfect (yes Im very much a perfectionist). I feel like Ive had no life this week and am so glad this week is coming to a close and have everything done thank goodness. I think it should be illegal to have regular duty (before school) and football duty on the same day but thats just me:)

My reward for having such a tough week was an AWESOME Friday. My kids were so good, so engaged and we had fun. In two classes we started learning Photoshop (how can you really not like learning such a cool program) and my other class actually begged me to go back early from lunch-they were doing de.mon.stration speeches and got to bring food if thats what they demon.str.ated. They absolutely loved it and we really had a great time learning about new things, how to do it, and they really did wonderfully on their sp.eeches too!.

Then I got home and my little pup, Brownie seemed more excited than ever to welcome me home, she is so cute and fun.

Tomorrow morning we leave really early to head to the plains of Alabama (Auburn) to visit with my cousin and her family and to enjoy some football (or lets hope we enjoy it:) ). I cant wait! Then next weekend we head to Vanderbilt..yeah! Two fun filled weekends!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend! We have had a wonderful weekend with tons of relaxing and sleeping in which has been much needed!

The Dawgs (MSU) won their game on Saturday. We have had some really bad seasons the last few years but we got a new coach this year (an assistant from Florida-Dan Mullen) and it was amazing to see so much excitement around campus! We left 5 hrs before the game and couldnt even find a parking place I was truly shocked.

Then we spent the rest of the weekend with Chads family which they are always great, so different from my family:) His grandmother made a fabulous coconut pound cake (added it to my recipes blog if you are interested) that was so amazing but so addicting..haha!

I cant wait for next weekend to get here....off to Auburn and to see my cousin and her family so excited next weekend cant get here soon enough!

Hebrews 11:1 -Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

God has a really clear plan and while we dont know every piece of it, today made the whole situation with the BM about as clear as can be. The writing is all over the wall and it hurt to see how clear it was but we also realized that God knew how emotionally attached to the BM and these babies we had gotten. Im just glad gave us such a clear answer and now it all makes sense as hard as it is to swallow especially what all we have found out.

An email a friend sent to me, I need to frame this all over our house:)-To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

For our plans we are just going to sit back and see what road God has in store for us. All of this has really made us want to go with an agency. We are still in the cue with Bethany so well see. We have never had anything against Bethany they have been nothing but kind and generous its just the wait. We did talk to our pastor though and he said that no one has ever had to wait over 18 mths. They did tell us since we are younger we probably would be picked sooner bc most couples they get are anywhere from mid to late 30's, some even early 40's.

We seem to keep coming back to them time and time over. Maybe God is trying to teach us patience in all of this and to really rely on him for everything. We are going to pray that he will direct us on the path he wants us to go down and well see where that path goes.

In other news the next few weekends are pretty exciting and hopefully it will help take our minds off of everything:)

• This weekend is the first college football game (MSU vs. JSU), then we are going up to see chads family and stay the weekend with them.
• Chads 30th birthday is Sept. 8..hes getting old..haha!
  
• next weekend is the trip to see my cousin, her little girl and hubby (MSU vs. Auburn)
• then the next weekend is Nashville (MSU vs. Vanderbilt) and possibly go see Wicked if we can get tickets.

Yes we are big time football people (for MSU-dont confuse with University of MS better known as Ole Miss-thats our major rival and would be a major insult:)

Ok after a rough two days I think Destin is sounding better and better:) After my day at work (little over half day) we are heading down there..cant wait!

Please say a little prayer for our dear friends who are having their wedding on the beach on saturday. The weather is saying all rain and I couldnt imagine paying the amount they have to have an indoor wedding so I hope and pray the rain will hold off for them.

We are staying with one of my good friends who I have been friends with for over 20 years. She has two little kiddos who are absolutely precious I cant wait to see them! I know we will have lots of fun we always do and she just got her first house and I know she is so excited so I cant wait to see it:)

Spoke with my RE and I always had in my mind if this cycle didnt work we were done..I mean we have tried just about everything and nothing has worked. Well maybe God had another plan...
Ive been trying to get all the doctors who I have been too in the past 15 mths to put me on some type of progesterone supplement since my luteal phase is so short. They all think that fertility drugs (clomid preferably) has been the answer not progesterone supplements. I know some of you dont think its that big of a deal but my RE.....F-I-N-A-L-L-Y is going to give me a prescription for vaginal supplements. Maybe this isnt a big deal to anyone else but its a huge deal to me. Do you know how long I have waited to even have a true shot of getting pg...we will see what happens...so I say if this doesnt work out we are done..over and moving on to fully adoption. Then I know we have tried everything and God has a different route for us.

Plan of Action this month..final month...
1) Go in tomorrow morning (too early-since work starts back tomorrow) to get my FSH and prolactin levels tested again. Not sure when I will get my results back. Ive been on cabergoline since March due to a very elevated prolactin
2) increase dose of Femara to 5 mg
3) ultrasound on day 14 (Aug. 12-my brothers birthday) and do an HCG shot
4) vaginal progesterone supplement that will start the day I go in for ultrasound (so excited about this step!)

Anyone had a vaginal progesterone supplement so I know what to expect?? Any side effects, etc.??

we are going to start working on our dear birthmother letter this month and if it doesnt work Im really ok with it but I guess I just want to know Ive given it my all that Im willing to try.

Less than 24 hrs we will be in Destin!!! Have a great weekend!

This week is quite a week but I love staying busy I must admit also

Last night we went to go take our professional pictures with our dear friend. Well it looked like it was fixing to storm but it was the only night either one of us didnt have something going on. Well I prayed really hard to please Lord just let the rain hold off until we get a few pictures so we will have one for our profile if you want us to adopt. Well wouldnt you know it the rain held off and just about the time our friend put his camera up it started raining. God is good and gave us a clear sign of adoption. The rain held off and we got some great pictures I think. Just waiting to see the final pictures!

Tonight is the International Adoption meeting to see if we are interested or not and get some more info

Wednesday is getting my progesterone tested to see if we even have a chance of being pg. I would be excited of course if we were, but if not we are going to go forward with CA and get things ready for it.

Thursday-have to take Brownie to get her yearly shots

Friday-start back with school, have a shorter day and orientation and all that fun stuff.

After the training and all that jazz we are heading to Destin for the weekend I cant wait! One of our good friends is getting married this weekend. I just hope the rain holds off for them because according to the weather its supposed to rain all weekend long.

Well thats our crazy week for ya. Next week is the start back to school in full for teachers, then the following Monday (Aug. 10) kids come back..my summer is slowly coming to a stop. Im ready to go back but then again I kind of will miss sleeping in too so its a bittersweet moment...

If you would like to see all the pictures click here Let me know if the link doesnt work:)

Sunday-got into DC went straight to convention center with luggage, not fun. Finally got to our hotel and just crashed. Decided to take a walking trip to Boston Market and found out it’s a lot longer walk than we originally thought it was.
Dummer Boys at the Convention Hall


Monday-Tuesday: Convention, Convention and more convention. Didn’t do much else. Also found out that Food Courts close at 7 pm who would have ever thought in such a big city they would close so early?! We did get to go see the White House and Executive Offices
us in front of the White House-it really does exist..haha

Wednesday-half day at Convention Hall then we we were off to sight see. We went to the National Archives, Spy Museum and did Operation Spy (pretty cool like Jack Bauer on 24)
International Spy Museum

Archives

Thursday- felt so worn out after walking so much that day! We went to the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, Capitol, Union Station, American History Museum, and Natural History Museum. Since we got tickets from our representative from MS we got to go inside the Capitol and actually see what it looks like. If you didn’t get tickets you just got to sit on the outside.
Supreme Court

Hope Diamond


us at the Library of Congress-amazing building all marble!


Friday-Another day of totally worn out. Went to see the Holocaust, Washington Monument (couldn’t get tickets to go to the top they were sold out in less than 30 minutes after they opened, but did get to see it I guess), Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial (one of my favorites), WW I Memorial, National Aquarium (don’t go here I could have gone to a pet shop and got more entertainment), Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon, Pentagon Memorial, and we got to paddleboat out on the Tidal Basin (my favorite part and it was only $10 for 1 hr!!)

Washington Monument

Paddle boat-Jefferson Memorial in the corner

World War II Memorial

Pentagon Memorial

Arlington Cemetery-Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-changing of the guards

Saturday-almost missed our flight because we didn’t think to check to see how often the buses ran. Well our luck we just missed one and we had to wait an additional 40 minutes for the next one! We got to the airport with about 40 minutes to spare and the rude woman at the airport had to take a break right when we got up to her. I was beyond pissed and wanted to throw something at her. She wasn’t even nice about it, rude, rude! We were able to get to our flight because it was delayed thank goodness but if not, I don’t think we would have made it.
Leaving on the subway

Hope everyone has had a great week we have had a great week but very exhausting to say the least. DC if you have never been is a city that you walk, walk and then some more. We walked anywhere from 5-8 miles a DAY! I think my feet felt like they were really about to fall off. I mean I walk pretty regularly but not that much.

When we got back though we got into serious shock from the difference in weather I mean we knew it would be hotter here but it about knocked you down. I must say I wish I could take the weather and our bed but other than that the rest can be left. People were just down right rude to us they need to learn some lessons from the southerners for sure!

Ill try to do a full update with pictures one day this week I need to organize almost 500 pictures and go through them. We did see a lot of history for sure.

In other news..there has been no word of any type from adoption stuff and doubt we will hear anything either. We have talked about other agencies and possibly even doing international adoption via Russia but its all talk now we will see. Ive been reading the The Adoption Decision: 15 Things you want to know before adopting and its really a great book Im almost finished with it and its taught me a few things.

Also, Im thinking about trying Femara this month anyone who has taken it I would love to hear your thoughts. I can get a FREE month of it so that would be nice as well! Ive just heard and read that Femara is not nearly as bad as Clomid which Ive taken for 6 mths with nothing so time to try something different.

We are headed out to Washington DC tomorrow morning EARLY. I cant wait to see a new city and do new fun things. Have a great week!

We are heading to Washington DC next week for an entire week and just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for restaurants. If so, please share:)

If anyone knows about the area we are going to a convention for a few days at the Walter E Washington Convention Center and is there anything close by for lunch and such??

Thanks for any info!

_________________
For the Adoption stuff, after yesterday we are really just thinking twice about going through the state. Its been nothing but a joke honestly and anytime we need to get ahold of anyone its impossible. How would we ever even find out we could get a kid??

We are on the waiting list at Bethany as well which is probably one of the cheaper for adoptions. We have to wait 6-9 mths (already waited almost 2 mths) to get into a meeting and then from there it will probably be a while later. They said from initial application to expect 1.5 to 2 years which would be December 2010 to May 2011.

Chad is doing better but hes still extremely sore and has a huge bruise but hopefully he will recover soon!

We are finally back from St. Louis which was a fun trip but boy am I worn out! Ill just do the highlights today and Ive got to go through about 250-300 pictures and post a few (yes I took way too many..haha!)

Wednesday
got to St. Louis in pretty good time, took showers and got ready for the concert. Before the concert we went to eat at Uno's which was very good but oh so very filling!

DMB concert was awesome and he played many songs that we have never heard in concert so it was definitely worth the trip for that alone:) It started sprinkling on us but it was just enough to feel good since it was a bit muggy for sure.

Thursday
Got up early and headed to the zoo (Forest Park) and we stayed for a few hours and then came to the conclusion if we look through everything we wont be able to do a thing extra so we went through about half the zoo. Its a tie on my favorite thing seen which was the butterflies and the sea lions:)

After we were all hot and sweaty we went and ate at Blueberry Hill which I must admit was a bit disappointing. The service was terrible and the food was just "ok" nothing special. The service was so bad we didnt leave a tip. Well the guy who was our waitor while I was in the bathroom came up to Chad and (yes its true) asked him why we didnt leave a tip. He was pretty ticked that the dude had the nerve and went to the manager and told him and he was mad he had the nerve and gave us all our meals for free.

After that we went to the Anheuser Busch and toured the building. It was rather fascinating I must admit and to see all of it being made and the process involved is just amusing, That took a large chunk of time more than we thought.

Then we went to the Gateway Arch and by this time it was getting close to time to go to the Cardinals game. We wanted to do the ride to the top but we just didnt have time and decided to come back the next day. We then went to eat dinner and ended up at TGIFridays after figuring out there wasnt much around the stadium according to many of the St. Louis natives.

Went to the game and the Cardinals lost unfortunately but we had great seats and enjoyed the game, very nice stadium. Then after the game we all forgot where we parked and we ended up going back to pictures we took before to figure out where we parked it was rather funny when we had to cross back and all the way back around.

Friday
Got up pretty early and went to see the inside of the Gateway Arch which was rather amusing. Of course my brother is terrified of heights Im really shocked he went. On the way up before we got into our little cart he looked like he was about to pass out he was so scared and then his girlfriend started getting scared too which she was the one that started the idea. The ride up was much more scarier than the ride down but that was really a neat thing to do if you ever make it up to St. Louis.

After that we headed home and stopped in Memphis to eat late lunch/early dinner at Jim n Nicks BBQ and made it back last night before midnight.

We didnt get to do everything we wanted to do we packed too much stuff in such a short amount of time. We will definitely have to go back sometime it was really a fun place with so much to do!

Just a few updates.... for anyone curious

*Havent heard back about the homestudy yet. Tried to call the guy and his it went straight to vm.
*Talked to the RE nurse about possibly doing any progesterone pills, suppositories, etc. and she said that she didnt really think it was necessary now until I was on medicated cycles so we will see I guess.
*Picked up some B6 vitamins Im going to try that out and see what happens. Ive tried it before but I really didnt do it for a full cycle and it was only 50 mg, I got the 200 mg and will be taking it each day
*Ordered a new basal thermometer I hate the one I have and it was rated one of the best by Consumer Reports and it was under $10 + shipping so not bad.
*after reading lots of adoption blogs over the past few days I really just think God is really leading us towards adoption. Im excited to see what God has in store for us:)
*Talked to the lady at Bethany and she said that the wait for the initial meeting was 6-9 mths which was from May 4 when our initial application was accepted. Then from that date the average wait time is 1.5 to 2 years right now through their agency. Yikes thats a long time!
*2 more days until St. Louis I cant wait!
*A picture of my only little fur baby, Brownie for now. She is a bit spoiled...all 9 lbs of her