Ovaries Like Footballs

I know I've been a total slacker about writing and I apologize. I've been a little busy, though, giving myself shots every night and winning battles with the insurance company.

Last you heard, the insurance company had informed us that we had zero coverage for IVF and they sincerely apologized for two months worth of telling us that we did. Well, that was ridiculous to me and we continued to fight. I asked for a document to review with my lawyer (not an empty threat) and they came back with a settlement offer. A very nice offer. We reviewed that with the lawyer and Brad and I agreed to sign it. They gave us the maximum infertility benefit as a lump sum in exchange for dropping the fight and agreeing to not submit claims. We're still waiting on the check (last I heard, it was mailed on Friday) and I'm so excited. The settlement is enough to pay for two tries and the new dining room chairs we ordered. Priorities, people.

My Follistim kit. Pretty user-friendly.

 

While we were in the midst of fighting with insurance, Brad's parents loaned us the money we needed to start the process. I was on birth control pills for three weeks in order to regulate my cycle and then I began nightly injections on November 30. For one week, I had nightly injections of Follistim. I began at 150 units, but had to double the dose in order to see results. Beginning on December 3, I've had every other day ultrasounds and bloodwork to check progress. I added another shot--Ganirelix-- on December 7. I've done really well with giving myself shots, which is a huge deal. My poor stomach has little bruises and I'm bloated, but I'm surviving and thriving.

Follistim pen in use. Well, not actually.

This picture was a bit staged as I need both hands

for my shots--one to operate the pen and the other to a bit of stomach chub.

 

At this point, I have around 16-20 follicles of varying sizes happening. Most are mature, which means they're huge. It hurts to sit sometimes and I'm wearing dresses the rest of the week for comfort purposes. Hence the title of the post. I know they're not really the size of footballs, but they feel big.  I've also had to increase my fluid intake to keep headaches at bay. And I cry. A lot. Pretty much, I'm a mess. I'm so optimistic about this, though, that it makes up for it. I'm going to add my trigger shot tonight or tomorrow and they'll harvest and fertilize my eggs on Thursday or Friday. That means that implantation could occur as early as Sunday or Monday. Guys, it's happening. We're moving forward.



I will keep you updated as we learn new things, but expect maybe some silence or fluff posts around January until we're OK sharing the news (either way it goes). Oh, and because they're gorgeous, here's our new chairs that United Healthcare paid for. Brad's dad is building us a dining room table for Christmas and I'm beyond excited for that, too. More frequent dinner parties are for sure in my future.

These beauties are from Industry West.

We have six of the tall ones and two of the short ones.

House Tour: Balcony

Maybe the balcony isn't so much "House Tour" as it is an item from the Summer Wish List. Our balcony, hidden by orange-striped curtains, was a mess. I had flower pots that only contained dirt, I had flower pots with a few weeds, and I had flower pots with cracked mason jars inside. Our table had no umbrella. The balcony was just not a welcoming area.

I really wanted to buy an umbrella, but Brad asked me to hold off until I got rid of the old flower pots and cleaned it up a little. I'm a fan of the Premack principle, so I agreed. However, I was at Ikea with my mom and sister when an umbrella was found. We were near the checkouts when my sister spotted the bin of $10 umbrellas. Yes, you read that right--$10. I was originally looking for a neutral, tan umbrella, but couldn't pass up a savings of $50-$60 over other umbrellas. I took home a striped umbrella that doesn't match anything. :) Our base, which isn't pictured, came from Target.

Once I got home, I immediately started in on the cleaning portion and was pleased with how quickly it went. I'm sure it's against the rules, but I dumped old dirt off the side of my balcony.  Whoops. I threw away the mason jar pieces and, once cleaned, the old pots went into storage. That left us with three actively growing plants. One, not pictured, sits in the far right corner where we get the most shade. One is attached to the balcony rail and the last is sitting on a little table. You can see in the above picture that my terrariums were also hanging out on the balcony soaking up some sunshine. 

I love that an easy twenty minutes or so was all that stood between me and a balcony I wanted to hang out on. I have been enjoying my breakfast outside on most days and, when the weather isn't unbearable, Brad and I have our lunch or dinner outside, too. The fit is a little tight, but we do have a fourth chair for the balcony that we can bring out if needed. For the future, I'd love to have more plants, but I have to do some research about what to grow, I think. I don't have a very green thumb.

Do you live in an apartment? What does your balcony look like? What do you grow?

House Tour: Dining Room

Welcome to the dining room! As you may recall, this area opens up into the living room.  Maybe one day I'll make up a floor plan in Paint or something for you. Anyway, how about more pictures less talking?

This is the view as you enter from the hallway or as you turn around on the couch. Our table usually isn't pushed against the wall, but is helpful when vacuuming. We have two additional chairs--wooden and fold-up-- that we break out for company. Buying a new table and chairs is on my wish list, but I have expensive taste and I think we'll be waiting awhile.  Ugh.

Here's a closer look at our artwork. All except the right-most poster were purchased from Powerhouse Factories, a local company. The poster on the right is from a CD release party for our friend's band.

This little guy was printed by an art teacher within my district. It hangs to the left of the kitchen entry. This was one of the first songs that my niece, Macey, learned to sing and I still hear her little voice when I see the print.

The green shelf (sorry about the quality of the photo) is from Brad's sister. We use it to house cookbooks, bobble heads, serving dishes, and larger items like the crockpot.

Here are some of my favorite serving dishes. The tiny birds are actually salt and pepper shakers.

Our cake topper has been snuck in here for safe keeping, too.

Brad's DeLorean and Reds bobblehead collection have a shelf all to themselves.

I'll try and get some pictures of the kitchen soon, but it's really nothing to write home about.  

House Tour: Living Room

I figure it's about time I posted some images of our apartment, especially since so much of it is looking pretty good. Also, I went on a cleaning rampage recently and felt the need to take pictures in case it's not that clean again for awhile.  Honesty, right?

Anyway, here's the living room. If you remember, we enlisted the help of our friend, Emily, to help us design the space incorporate elements that Brad and I both love. Please click over to her blog and see the amazing things she does to her own home.

When entering our apartment, you walk in the front door and turn left. From there you have the dining room/kitchen area to the left and the living room to the right. It's a pretty big space and we're usually amazed at how many people we can squeeze in there.

This is the view as soon as you face the living room. I feel like the back wall still needs something else, but I'm not sure what. Brad and I have debated getting another set of the round mirrors ($25 from Target) to help elongate, but we're not sure.  Thoughts?

 Here's another view of the living room. That hallway off to the right takes you to the front door and bedrooms. This view is also a shameless plug regarding my lovingly-constructed gallery wall. We're still waiting on two photos to be printed (hence the post-its that I'm sure only I notice), but here it is.  I talked about it before, but this wall contains images from our engagement shoot and wedding. The tree was our guest book and the circular cross-stitch was our ring pillow.

Again, another view of the living room. That little orange table is from Crate and Barrel (sadly, it's no longer available). I love the pops of orange in our space and Brad loves all the neutrals. Also, I have permanently claimed the corner-spot of our sectional and it. is. fabulous. Seriously. How was I ever comfortable before?

It sounds so weird to say, but I love this little lamp. You can click here to see it in its original state, but it was just a $3 brown lamp from Goodwill when we started this journey. A little bit of sanding and some spray paint and we were in business. The tree wedge is a gift from Brad's parents to commemorate our wedding day. 

We've been moving counter-clockwise around the living room and have now reached the reading nook. It's pretty sad looking out-of-context, but I do enjoy this corner. The print is a series of Picasso sketches from Ikea, but I don't think it's available anymore. Also featured is the Poang chair and footrest from Ikea. We have a couple of "couch blankets" stacked on top of the footrest and a basket underneath for storing magazines and crochet projects.

Finally, we reach the curtains. These beasts, comprised of six panels of Ikea curtains, are hung to cover our patio doors. They were hand-painted over Christmas and I will never undertake this project again. First, we used the green painter's tape to mark off the to-be-orange areas. The green tape is fantastic and I continue to talk about it amazing abilities to this day. After marking off the areas, we mixed fabric medium in with orange acrylic paint from Michael's and commenced painting. We just did one coat and let it dry.  Then, I tried ironing to "set" the paint, but that got boring really quickly and I decided to take a chance and wash them. Big mistake. After one time through the washer, I had dark orange and light orange striped curtains. After a few choice words and tears, I hauled the curtains (six wet panels at least six-feet-long each) to the laundromat near my mom's. She had quarters. We ran the curtains through the wash two more times before we were happy with the outcome and then dried those suckers on high to fully set the remaining paint. Sure, Brad and I got an orange spot here or there and if you get really close you can see some spots where the orange bled into the white, but they look fantastic hanging in the living room. When it's dark, the stripes look completely solid. When they're back-lit, the stripes take on the distressed vibe you see in the above picture. It is more evenly distressed, though, when you see it in person.

So, that's it. That's our gorgeous living room. 

Lately

When Christmas rolled around, Brad gifted me with hiking boots.  Mind you, in the two years we've been together, we've never been hiking.  We decided to remedy that this past weekend and found a 1.5 mile trail nearby.  We had fun traipsing around taking photos and videos (from many angles, so I had to be aware of which foot I led with) and trying to break in my new boots.  I'm hoping it becomes a regular weekend event for us and that we get to explore a lot of the surrounding parks.

Not sure what's going on here.  Brad looks like he smells something funny...

Part of the perks of my job include tons of catalogs of school supplies, intervention supplies, and books about disorders.  I usually pitch recycle them, but the latest came with a calendar of student artwork. Check out the first page...

Truth.

I'm also dealing with a little separation anxiety this week as I dropped off my wedding dress (finally) to be cleaned and preserved.  I know I'll miss touching it everyday since I had it hanging in my bedroom closet, but I do have hopes that someone down the line will want to wear it.  I know that if my mother had a wedding dress, that I probably would have worn it.  My mom and I are eerily similar and I would have loved to have even a piece of her dress sewn into mine as my something old.

Is it weird to have a wedding dress as a security blanket?

Finally, we come to the portion of the week that I've spent messing about in the living room.  I hung up a print and a mirror, but I hated the way the mirror looked.  I went to Target and picked up some round mirrors that I thought might look better.  Ed. Note--It is so very dangerous for my budget that Target is literally two miles from my house. I played around with placement and found one that I think works.  What do you think?

Construction paper models. 

Please ignore the horrible cell phone pictures.

Final product (including a peek of me in the mirror).

I am headed to Ikea this weekend to pick up some bedroom furniture, picture frames, and enjoy time with my sister and momma, so you will have some more exciting posts next week.  On the docket will be: updated (or progress shots) bedroom, living room (almost all settled), and maybe I'll delve into my love story with Brad.

How has your year been?  Sticking to your resolutions?

Pinterest Project

I've been playing on Pinterest a lot lately.  You can check out my boards here, if you'd like. It's very easy to spend way too much time looking at cute things on the internet, but I wanted to actually do something, too. I was shopping at Target (surprise, surprise) and found a really cute orange frame that would work nicely as a message board.  Insert a couple 5x7 sheets of card stock and throw a pack of wet-erase markers nearby and, voila, a rewritable message board!  Man, am I crafty.

Are you addicted to Pinterest?  What have you made?

Feelin' the Spirit

Today I thought I'd share some horrible iPhone pictures that I took this morning of our Christmas tree.  I have our tree on a timer so that it lights up for about an hour in the morning (conveniently, at the same time that I awake) and turns on again in the evening when I return home. This makes it feel like the tree is always on without the added fire risk.  Been there, house burned straight down.

This morning, I was feeling particularly joyful and so I wanted to capture that.  However, the photographs I take in my mind and those that I take with my phone are very, very different. 

The tree.  No flash and no lights except for those on the tree. 

Here we have some flash and some wrapped gifts.

Our tree is only a 4-footer that we set on a table and I like it. 

I'm sure we'll get a bigger tree when we have a house and/or kids,

but for now this tree fits us.

My duck nativity.  Don't hate.

I just learned of the Santa Key this year and had to get one. 

I'll hang it on the front door a few days before Christmas

so Santa can come on in.

This darling angel was crafted by my husband in 1992 at a Boy Scout event.

Do you have any pictures of your tree (good or bad)?

Also, see our first-ever photo Christmas card next week!

Enjoy your weekend!



Living Room Update

Wow.  I'm glad I did the "thankful" posts during November or you wouldn't have heard from me at all!

How about an update on the living room?

If you'll remember from my last post about it, Emily (from GoHausGo and a dear friend) had come up with an amazing plan for our living room to take us from "dorm room chic" to "we're married and grown-up."

As a reminder, here was our "Before."

Photo credit to Brad, who emailed it to Emily for our plan.

The image originally appeared on her blog, linked above.

Pretty boring, huh?  I'd had that orange couch a couple of years (thank you, Urban Outfitters) because I'd grown disgusted with boring white walls.  I needed color.  In a previous apartment, I had that couch, a green rug, and a six-foot plywood buffalo "shadow" hanging on the wall.  I'm a bit of an odd bird.

Our first step from Emily's plan was to paint.  We taped up bits of paint to the walls and hemmed and hawed. We both wanted a light gray, but Brad wanted to be sure that it wouldn't look too blue and that it would be light enough that we wouldn't need to prime it before moving out.

We ended up choosing the sample on the left, which is actually a beige color that magically shows up light gray on our walls. Brad invited his parents over for a painting party and breakfast-for-dinner.  I made eggs, the boys got out the painting stuff, and his mom and I went to look at fabric for curtains.

My father-in-law.  I told him this picture would feature

on the blog and I'm not sure he was as excited as I was. 

It's hard to see in the above picture, but if you look by the ladder, you can see the light gray going up on the walls.  It dried a smidge darker than it appears and is such a subtle change, but I love it.  Brad is fond of it, too.

Anyway, after the painting came the couch.  We had factored it in the budget for November, but it certainly didn't hurt that Ikea was running a promotion where you received a gift card for 15% of the purchase price of a sofa when you purchased your sofa.  $900 sofa = $135 gift card towards bedroom furniture, odds and ends, cinnamon rolls, etc.  Done and done.

We invited my brother over for lasagna and wrangled him into helping us put the couch together.  I LOVE assembling furniture. Seriously, if I weren't a school psychologist, I would want to work for Ikea assembling peoples' furniture.



Five humongous boxes containing our new sofa.

Getting all the pieces unloaded.

Poor, poor Karlstad

Tragedy struck when we were unloading the third box.  We noticed that a back support piece was badly damaged (as pictured above).  I quickly called Ikea and they informed me that I just needed to bring in the broken piece and they would hand me a replacement.  I had time the next day and took care of it. Crisis solved!

Men at Work.

The boys did most of the sofa set up while I finished up dinner and it was so lovely to watch it come together!  They assembled as much of it as they could with the one piece being broken.

Enjoying the fruits of their labor.

You can see in the (somewhat creepy) photo above where the other half of the couch is ready to hook on.  It was a little sad looking, but I was so excited that we had at least half of our couch ready to go.  True to my word, I went to Ikea the next day, picked up the piece, and Brad and I finished assembling our couch.  Here's a photo that Emily snapped of us and our amazing ability to sit so far apart from each other.



We can both sleep on the couch without touching

the arms of the couch or each other.

With the couch in place, I went to work on the other items.  I ordered the orange stool from Crate and Barrel (it looks great!) and Mom and I went out for lamps.

Sadly, this is not the lamp I bought.

Here's the lamp I bought.  Mom is holding it up for size

reference as we tried to find a suitable lampshade.

With the lamp purchased, Mom and I made another Ikea run.  I scored our nightstands, a lampshade, curtains, and drinking straws and only spent $20 after using the gift card.  I had plans of painting the lamp orange and either leaving the shade white or painting it a light gray, but Emily let me know yesterday that she has an orange lamp shade for me.  So now, I don't know what to do with the lamp.  The curtains with be striped orange and Mom scored some amazing curtain rods at JoAnn's for 40% off + an additional 25% off.  She rocks.  Brad and I now need to set up our Christmas tree, complete some of these DIY projects, and pick out wedding photos and frames for the wall over the couch.  Oh, and sell the orange couch.  I've had three buyers back out before they even saw it's gorgeousness, but I have a former co-worker who wants it this weekend.  I'm eager to no longer be in the land of couches. 

So, there it is.  What are your thoughts?  Anyone know an amazing place to get unique, cost-effective frames?  I'm thinking a lot of rectangles with a couple ovals thrown in. 

--Melanie

I Dream of Painting

I graduated high school in 2003.  College in 2007.  Grad school in 2010.  I got engaged a little later in 2010 and began planning a wedding.  Well, I've been married for a month and I know that I cannot just sit at home with my wonderful husband and watch TV.  I need a new project.  I have no idea why.  I've been a multi-tasking ball of stress for many years. 

But, it's there--I want to redo our apartment. 

I can't go overboard, mainly because we're broke, but I want to make some changes.  We have a lot of hand-me-down furniture from lovely family members and some furniture brought in from our single lives and I'd like to maybe have a more cohesive home.  I'd like a place that represents us.  We plan on living in our apartment until we get a house, which probably won't be for 3-4 years.  So, I called on our friend, Emily, whose blog you should totally be reading.  Seriously, go check it out.  Girl is talented and funny. 

Anyway, she came up with a mood board for our living room and I'm in love.  Brad is even OK with wanting to paint the apartment.  A lot can be DIY projects and I've been petitioning for a new couch since before the wedding.  You can see Emily's ideas for us here.  Please, let me know what you think.

I know I'll keep you updated on our progress and I can't wait to see Emily do an "After" post when we've got it looking good.

I know I can't be alone in my need for a project.  After you let go of one ball of stress (college, second job, wedding, etc.) what did you take on next?

--Melanie

Recap

This summer has started off crazy-busy! I don't even know when that happened (or why!), but I feel crazy and pulled in a million directions. Last night, I crawled into bed at 11:30 and told Brad I missed him. It feels like we're on different schedules lately and I don't like that at all. I'm hoping June is crazy and then it calms down, but with 88 (!!) days to go, I doubt we'll calm down before Christmas. Here's a quick recap of what I've been doing lately:

Mom had a cookout for Memorial Day and we made sure these lovely ladies got some swimming time.

School ended and this guy took me to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate.

We went to this beautiful wedding for Brad's cousin.

He proposed in the pictured canoe.  :) Lots of sweet touches and details for their day.

Barn reception.  I swooned.

She is so gorgeous.

Oreo truffle.

First dance.

Vows.

One of Brad's uncles made hangers for the above wedding and made me one, too!

On a recent dinner/movie night, Brad ate baby octopus.  Gross.

I had dinner for my dad and grandma.  I bought these blooming branches and alstromeria from Kroger.

It's an old picture, but this is my grandma and me.

Mom and I took these ladies to see butterflies.

Brad got our City Passes in the mail.

I made a father's day card complete with dinosaurs.

I also painted some flower pots. More on those later.

Told you I was busy.  There's so much on the to-do list and more is added every morning at 4 AM.  Soon I need to schedule engagement pics, throw Kerry's shower, go to Atlanta for a reception, finalize some details and start construction on others.  If you see me and I look crazy, just feed me chocolate and remind me that we have a dress and an officiant.  We are good to get married.  :)

--Melanie