Nursery Project #3

I am on a roll today, three projects and four posts in one day!  I saw this on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and thought it would be cool.  It was super easy and I love the way it turned out.  Now I'm working on cutting out squares for the quilt--we'll see how long that takes me to finish. :)

Nursery Project #2

I'm not sure how much this one counts as a "project" since all I did was spray paint it white but I love it and wanted to share it anyway.  We found this adorable branch/bird hook at Hobby Lobby in Las Vegas last week.  It works perfectly in the nursery, which is inadvertently acquiring a bit of a bird theme.  Now I just need to get Jeremiah to mount it for me...

Not sure why it's coming in upside down and no idea how
to turn it right side up.  Use your imagination.

Nursery Projects

I began planning the nursery on June 22, when we found out we were having a girl.  My parents came to work visit the next week and we got the room painted (Balmy Seas by Behr-I love it) and purchased and assembled the furniture (dresser and bookcase from the Hemnes line at Ikea and Sedona crib from Babies R Us).  Now I am working on all of the fabric and other projects to pull this room together.  My goal is to have it mostly done by the end of the summer, when I will be entering the third trimester, so I don't have much to worry about other than reading up on babies and taking child birth classes.

                                          The nursery so far.

Mom and I found some gorgeous fabric at the Corn Wagon Quilt Company here in Springville.  It is from the Vintage Modern line by Moda and I love it.  I have big plans and hope to document some of my projects here for anyone who is interested.

I finished Project 1 this afternoon--a diaper caddy for using on the dresser/changing station.  It didn't turn out perfectly but for a completely self-taught seamstress, I'm pretty happy with it.  I found the tutorial here.

I'm Back

I realize it has been a very long time since I updated this blog and it is highly likely that no one is reading it but a lot has happened in the last few months and I feel motivated to post a little about it.

IVF was quite an interesting process and I will just sum it up here.  There were lots of needles and appointments in Pleasant Grove at the wonderful Utah Fertility Clinic with Dr. Shawn Gurtcheff.  There was a lot of anxiety and some discomfort (80+ shots in the stomach and bum, plus drug reactions).

I reacted very well to the follicle-stimulating hormones that they give you so they can retrieve as many eggs as possible, swelling to the size of a four-month pregnant woman and being placed on serious mobility to restrictions to keep from accidentally rupturing an ovary.

Due to a medication mishap early in the process, we ended up being five days ahead of all the other couples in our group so when it came time to retrieve the eggs (which we did a day ahead of our new schedule because I had so many large ones already) there was no anesthesiologist available so I had to go through the process with just a Valium.  It was not fun but mercifully it was short; only about five minutes.

We ended up with 17 eggs but only 8 mature eggs.  This is where the anxiety started kicking in since we'd both hoped and kind of expected that we have several embryos and would be able to freeze some for later.  Statistically only about half of the mature eggs fertilize and only about a third to half of those end up being viable embryos so you can see why we were a little concerned.  It turns out all of them fertilized but some were very, very slow about it.  In the end, we ended up with two viable 5-day embryos (our other six stopped growing on day 6) and while it is the clinic's preference to only transfer one embryo at a time, our doctor agreed that given our situation it would be best to transfer both.

Flash forward ten days to the fantastic news that I was at least chemically pregnant.  We were thrilled but cautious.  We did tell our families since they'd been in on the whole process from the beginning but that was it.  There was still a possibility of miscarriage so we didn't let ourselves get too hopefully.  Week 7 and our first ultrasound showed one little bean happily floating around with its attached yolk sac and a nice heartbeat.  Two weeks later our second ultrasound showed a bit bigger bean with a great heart beat and we officially graduated from the clinic to my regular OB!  We were ecstatic, having never made it this far before.

I am now 20 weeks pregnant with a little girl.  We couldn't be happier.  We had our anatomy scan on Wednesday and it showed that everything is developing perfectly with her.  I'm feeling her more and more consistently and we both feel much more secure in the hope that on or around December 6, 2012, we will be bringing home a baby.

From our 16-week ultrasound.  She's head down with her

bum in the air, just like I used to do when I was little.

We had the tech put a card (without telling us first) with the gender 

in an envelope which I took to my friend Jocelyn, who filled a 

cupcake with pink cream that we cut open two days later on 

our 5th anniversary in front of family and friends.

A Summary

I always have such good intentions...but so little follow through.  It's a bummer but I'm working at getting better at it.  It helps if I can convince myself that I don't have to have pictures to post and that it doesn't even matter if no one actually reads this blog.  Mostly I'm just trying to become consistent at this so that when we have kids (and people might actually be interested in our life :), I will have made this a habit.

To sum up January and February, Jeremiah worked a lot and I was alone a lot.  He has had lots of 10-12 hour day which means I get lots of time to read, sew and play CastleVille on Facebook (I'm trying to wean myself off.  I'm grateful that the real estate market is improving and that Vision is doing really well but I miss my honey. :)

Work is going well for me and I've picked up a few more kids which makes for a nice paycheck at the end of the month.  We need it because in December we decided to pursue IVF at a clinic in Pleasant Grove.  I am currently injecting myself (or rather, being injected by Jeremiah) with one drug and will start a host of others tomorrow.  Our hope is that we will be successful the first time and have enough healthy embryos leftover to freeze so we don't have to do the full-blown treatment next time we want a baby.  It's a nerve-wracking, expensive experience but I'm excited (and a little terrified) to think we may have a baby coming soon.

That's it for us.

Car Accessories

Have I mentioned that I love my sewing machine?  I've been having a good time with it and actually made a new CD holder and trash bag for my car.  I decided not to do a car caddy/organizer since it seemed like over kill.  I got both of the patterns that I did use from a book called "One Yard Wonders".  The projects all take, you got it, one yard of fabric plus a few other supplies.  Anyway, here's a look at my newest creations:

The CD holder was just a little on the wide side and top CDs would come falling out when attached to my visor so I just sewed a seam on either side of CDs for the first four rows and it works great now!

I love the remnants bin at JoAnn's; I found a piece of vinyl in there for 50% off (so I got it for $1.50 and have tons left over) and made an insert slightly smaller than the bag itself so I can take it out for easy cleaning and avoid staining the fabric.  I was nervous about sewing on vinyl but it actually worked out just fine.  I use the front pocket for items I want to recycle.  You can find this pattern online for free as well as in the book I got for Christmas.  Just Google "Not Ugly Car Trash Bag".

Catching Up

Ok, here goes a quick recap of the last two months:

1.  We spent a week in beautiful Oahu with Jeremiah's parents, brother and aunt at the Marriott Ko Olina Resort.  I had never been to Hawaii and we had a great time.  The weather was a bit cloudy but nice and warm the whole week.  We did a lot of snorkeling and sight-seeing, including the North Shore, Kualoa Ranch, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbor.  It was a great trip.  I managed to finish a DVD to give to everyone for Christmas but I'm still working on the book.

2.  We spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Pasco.  It was really nice to be there even though the large family gathering we were expecting turned out to be much smaller than we thought.  We spent a lot of time with my adorable nephew Phoenix and Jeremiah got in some quality XBox time with my brother and cousin.

3.  December sped by quickly--Jeremiah has been extremely busy with finishing the merger of Vision and Asset Real Estate into an awesome new company so I had a lot of extra time on my hands since he wouldn't get home until 7-8, if I was lucky.  Thankfully I picked up my early Christmas present at the end of November and it kept me quite occupied--a brand new Husqvarna Viking sewing machine.  It's not one of the super fancy ones they sell but it is digital and I love it!!  It sews without snarling or me having to rethread it every two seconds.  I finished several baby blankets (from kits I got from my mother-in-law's friend), finally got around to making our Christmas stockings, made an apron for my mom for Christmas and made four super adorable owl bags that I found on Pinterest.  If you like the bags, you can buy the pattern from the author at:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/62512477/owl-pillow-pdf-sewing-pattern-the-lola  It's pretty easy, I can make one in about three hours now, with most of the work being cutting out the pieces and doing the face.

4.  To get ourselves into a holiday mood, we went to the Hale Center Theater production of "A Christmas Carol", read the book on the ride to California for the holidays and finished it off with the Muppets version.  I liked the first two best, especially the first, which was excellent. :).

5.  We spent a week in balmy San Diego for Christmas (I know, real hardship there).  We drove Jeremiah's grandpa's car down so his dad could buy it and we drove back up in...my new car!!  Well, not exactly new, Jeremiah's dad's old car, but it's new to me and it's a car!!  I am no longer stuck in the house at the mercy of Jeremiah's schedule.  I've been excitedly outfitting it in steering wheel covers (leopard print--an impulse buy I kind of regret but will live with for a few months before changing), air fresheners (vanilla for winter, then something more citrusy towards spring, I think) and a coordinated car set including:  visor CD-holder, laminated trash bag and car organizer (it's my new sewing project.  I'm going to try and post pictures as I finish each piece).

6.  Like I said, we spent a week in San Diego with all of Jeremiah's family.  The weather was AMAZING!!  We really enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, enjoying family togetherness.  It was a little strange to be wishing I had brought my capris but Lynn decorated it so nicely inside, there was still a feeling of the holiday.

7.  Now we are home for a good long while.  I have great aspirations for the New Year, including:
 *  Becoming more consistent when it comes to reading scriptures, visiting teaching and working   out.
 *  Systematically decluttering every room
 *  Finishing some family history projects I've been working on for 18 months
 *  Improving my sewing skills
 *  Finally expanding our family with a human member rather than feline.  We will be starting the   IVF process in February.  I'm nervous but optimistic.

Hopefully this post will be followed quickly by others, as I also strive to be more consistent in all areas of my life.