This T-Shirt is Pretty Much Awesome Thursday

I've already featured a T-Shirt with a Uterus that is shopping, and now I've found a Uterus taking a bubble bath. I mean, like, WTF? Lol hard.

This T-Shirt Isn't Funny Tuesday

Gosh, T-shirt Tuesday and Thursday rolls around fast! I've got to find more shirts so that I can keep up! I hope you all are liking them. Next Monday is our WTF appointment, so I'll have more to talk about after that. Actually, my blog friend Amanda said it should be called the WTFFFFFFFFFF appointment...I concur!

Oh, you poor thing. What an inconvenience! Once again, I'll trade you!

The Today Show Segment

 One of my blog friends, Waiting for a Baby Bump, was featured on The Today Show in this awesome segment titled, "The Struggle to get Pregnant". It focuses on the psychological impact of infertility on ourselves and our relationships, and shines a light on the daily struggles of a person experiencing infertility. Also, please check out her blog by clicking on the link above...she's great!

You Go Girl! Thanks for being our voice and raising awareness!

This T-Shirt is Pretty Much Awesome Thursday

WTF? Save the Date!

 We finally set up a date to have our 350,982,374,598th WTF appointment with our RE in Charleston. We are ready to get answers and explore ALL options. Our plan is to let him know that we don't want to do the last cycle in our IVF package if there are issues with egg quality or genetic problems. I refuse to waste more money if he believes that the probability of it working with our own egg & sperm is low! This will basically be our last chance unless we win the lottery, so we want to go with what gives us the best chances of conceiving. 

Of course, it's only natural that I want to experience pregnancy and give birth...so we're okay with our child not being biological if donor egg/sperm is the road we have to choose. Then we would have to look into the cost of donor to see if it is even feasible. If it is not feasible, then we are going to start begging people to see if anyone wants to get knocked up and give us their baby. Just kidding. At this point, we just want to be parents. Something has to go right one way or another!

We will also get the pathology reports from my D & C. This will tell us if our angel baby was a boy/girl and if there were any chromosomal defects. I never went to my follow-up appointment after the D&C because I just wasn't ready to hear it...especially from my Augusta doctor because he is the one who performed my D&C and I am not very fond of him at this moment. I'm probably not ready to hear it now, but it's time to get this show on the road. We need to figure out why it hasn't happened for us in all of the time we have been trying.

The weird thing about this appointment? It is exactly one year since our initial consultation at this clinic. One year since we proudly walked in and thought that IVF was going to be the answer to all of our problems. Now we've opened up a whole new can of whoop-ass. Please pray that our doctor can give us answers and renew our hope!

This T-Shirt Isn't Funny Tuesday

And now ladies, I present to you another weekly edition featuring T-Shirts that your average woman who is having trouble getting pregnant would want to rip off of someone, cut into little pieces, and put a match to!

Seriously? Who cares if you look fat...pregnancy is beautiful and you're going to be blessed with a baby and that's all that matters! I'll tell you what, I'll trade you my gym membership for your baby so that you can go do something about that fat arse. Deal?

What if Your Next IVF Cycle was Free?

This is the title of an email I received from RESOLVE last week. For those of you who don't know what RESOLVE is, it is an online community that provides support, education, and advocacy to the 7.3 million Americans who suffer with the disease of infertility.

April 24 - May 1, 2010 is National Infertility Awareness Week. In light of this, RESOLVE will present its 1st Annual Family Building Conference on May 1, 2010 in Atlanta. This conference will feature keynote speakers and workshops. It will address the medical, emotional, social, financial, and legal issues associated with infertility and adoption.

There will also be over $50,000 in FREE giveaways, including acupuncture treatments, consultations, yoga sessions, a free IVF cycle, and a free frozen donor egg cycle.

Andy and I figured we would sign up to attend...it can't hurt. Plus, we will probably learn a lot...and winning a free cycle wouldn't be too shabby. It would be an answer to our prayers.

I just thought that I would let all of my blogger friends know in case you are in the area! If you click on the link above, it will take you to the website for more information and how to register. If you are not in the Southeast, you can go to your local RESOLVE chapter and find out when they will host one near you.
 

This T-Shirt is Pretty Much Awesome Thursday

Who needs friends when you can go shopping with your Uterus?

This T-shirt Isn't Funny Tuesday

I thought that I would start a new weekly theme by featuring T-shirts that your average woman who is having trouble getting pregnant would want to rip off of someone, cut into little pieces, and put a match to! To balance it out, I might feature T-shirts that I actually think are funny/truthful on Thursdays. We'll see how it goes!

Anything to help me pass the time since all Andy and I do after work and gym is sit on our respective couches and stare at each other! I think I need another IVF cycle to keep me occupied...sike! My poor uterus and brain need a little bit longer to recover from that trauma.

Or better yet...let's put it on an actual baby.

Even mannequins can grow a baby bump. I'm jealous of a frickin' mannequin. Geez.
With all due respect, I hope that these would make my fertile friends cringe too.They're just so...classy.

Chocolate and a Diabetic Coma

We obviously couldn't figure out how to put the color tablets into the corresponding bowl...

 Our cute little eggs...we even made one for Ellie May, and some for our imaginary children. We're losers.

The candy that I've been waiting to eat for 6 weeks...It's almost gone. I'm feeling a little sick to my stomach right now!

Andy and his cute little Easter basket

We hope everyone had a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Hippity Hop Hop

This is the funniest Easter commercial of all time. I look it up every year so that I can laugh hysterically and then attempt to sing it at a comparable pitch and annoy Andy people.

I gave up chocolate/sweets for Lent this year, so Sunday is a pretty big deal for me. Let's forget about the fact that I cheated after the race last Sunday by eating a cupcake, blueberry pancakes, and Cold Stone Creamery Birthday Remix ice cream in a waffle cone. Jesus and I already talked about it and he says we're cool.

I CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on

This

This

And this

Little boy better share, whoever he is. 
That is all.

How to be Good Friends with an Infertile

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankrolls smaller, homes happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for." ~Unknown

This month marks five years since I stopped taking birth control and Andy and I began this journey. Wow, FIVE years. That's 60 months of negative pee sticks, well, make that 59 since our dream almost came true this past Christmas. I still can't believe that this is our reality!

I came across the following article by another blogger and it really hit home. She gives advice on how to handle us infertiles at our best and at our worst. Sadly, our entire situation has negatively impacted some relationships/friendships because people just don't know what to say or how to act. It's just very hard to understand when you are an outsider looking in...some people wish that they could help, while others minimize our problem and look at it like it's not a big deal. I agree that infertility is taboo and talking about it makes people very uncomfortable, so I'm glad that I started this blog! It has definitely helped me to be more open and get everything off my chest, and hopefully shed some light for our friends and family instead of shutting them out. If you are still here and reading our blog, then we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We're so grateful to have loyal friends and family that really care!

I would put myself in the "long term/tricky beast" category at this point, haha! Unfortunately, I have been there for awhile now. I'm learning to handle it a little better now, but I still have my bad days...usually when my period comes and I realize we've failed yet another month. Or when I log onto facebook and see nothing but pregnancy announcements. And pregnancy tickers. And cute little happy family pics. Or when I'm driving behing somebody that has a stick figure family on the back window of their car. Lol. You get the gist! Maybe I will progress to the "older timers" once we get some answers and have closure. Just a heads up...she drops an "F" bomb in the article. She's classy just like me! Enjoy, and let me know what you think about it!

How to be Good Friends with an Infertile

We Survived!

We finished the Cooper River Bridge Run 10k without having to be carried off on a stretcher! I'm so proud that we actually made it...yay us! It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even the incline of the bridge was manageable. I guess it was all of the adrenaline that pushed us to the end. Now I can check my first ever 10k off the bucket list! I really think I'm addicted now...we're already signed up for a 5k in May. Yay!

By the way, if you are in the Augusta area, this 5k will benefit a friend of the family who is battling breast cancer, as well as a little boy who is battling leukemia. If you're interested in participating you can email/facebook/call me for more information! Spread the word!

Andy, myself, and my mom participated in the race while my dad cheered us on! Our official time was 1:48, however, someone had to stop in the middle of the race to stand in the porta potty line for 15 minutes. Just kidding mom! I'm just picking on you...it really doesn't bother me! I'm at fault too, since I decided to goof off and take pictures of the freaks the whole time. So technically, our time was about an hour and a half for 6.2 miles...not frickin' bad! I ran about half of it and walked the other half because I didn't train for it like I was supposed to. Oh well. The guy who won it was from Kenya and did it in 27 minutes. Freak of nature. I just don't understand how people run that fast! Anyway, we had so much fun and cannot wait until next year!

After the race we hung out in downtown Charleston and celebrated with a pizza binge, adult beverages, and a trip to the cupcake shop. Worth. Every. Calorie. Hey, we burned about 1000 calories during the race, right? We earned it!

Here are a few pics from the race! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

6:30 am...ready to bring it!

Packed like sardines...ready to start the race

33,000 people... as far as the eye could see

I had so much fun taking pics of all the freaks! Ahahaha!

Mom and I workin' it like a polaroid picture

Andy and I climbing the bridge

Top of the Cooper River Bridge, Charleston SC

Running the last 2 miles in downtown Charleston

Nearing the Finish Line!

Shoes off...binging on pizza and spending time with Mary

Mom taking a picture of us from outside the restaurant...please note the cupcake shop in the reflection. Score.

We ran across this...crazy!

Charleston, SC...the most beautiful city

 

Our weekend abode, Isle of Palms, Charleston, SC

My Favorite Things Friday

One of my friends introduced this stuff to me and I'm addicted to it! It's Smashbox O-gloss, and it's a freakishly cool intuitive lip gloss. It goes on clear and then reacts with your personal skin chemistry to transform into your own custom shade of pink. We were passing it around at work one day, and everyone had a different shade of pink on their lips that matched perfectly to their skin tone! It even kind of temporarily stains your lips, but doesn't make them dry and sticky. It ROCKS! I think I'll even have a giveaway for one once I reach 100 followers. Which means it's time for you lurkers to come out of hiding and click my follow button over there.

Hmmm...now that I've basically made a promise, can anyone give me advice on how to do one of those giveaways that everyone is doing? I'm clueless!


On to other news...well, there's not much going on. I haven't really had anything to write about lately! This Saturday is the ever so anticipated Cooper River Bridge 10k! However, since my dreams were shattered (insert drama here) I stopped training for it. I'm still a bit pissed off about what happened, but hey, what can you do? I made a decision a long time ago that I would never put work before my life and family, but this time I have too much respect for my coworkers to leave them high and dry. In case you have no clue what I'm talking about, you can read about that hormonal rant here. We're still going, but I'll get there late tomorrow night and will walk the race instead of run. I will, however, put in a time off request in the very near future for next year's race. And I will be taking some "my kids are sick" days from here on out. Now I'm getting fired up about it again.

This Saturday also marks the 20 week mark of the virtual pregnancy that has been spinning around in my head and won't. go. away. I'm sure some people say that I need to get over it, but this is how I'm dealing and that's okay with me. I don't even think that Andy understands. I've also been having thoughts about if it was a boy or a girl, and what I would be feeling in my tummy right now. I bet it's the coolest feeling in the world. Bummer.

On to a "this would only happen to me" situation ...my mom and I decided to go get a professional airbrushed spray tan last night so that our pasty white legs would have some color when we don shorts for the race Saturday morning. To our surprise, there was a MAN standing there waiting to spray us down when we got to our appointment. What salon hires a MAN to spray tan clientele that consist of 99% women? Thankfully, he wasn't the least bit interested in our kind (with all due respect), so that eased the tension a little. My mom was about to turn around and walk out of there, but you know me! I don't have any shame! I convinced her to stay and we stood in the booth together with only a bra and panties getting airbrushed and laughing hysterically the entire time. The best part was the air blower to dry us off...there's nothing like the cellulite on your ass flappin' in the wind in front of the world's bravest man. Poor thing probably thought we were laughing at him. Ah, the things we do for beauty. He will probably go running next time he sees us walk into that salon.

Needless to say, we are looking a bit Oompa Loompa today, but atleast we have some color after this long, dreary, and COLD winter! Don't judge!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Pray that we come back with all ligaments and knees intact!

They're Always After Me Lucky Charms

 It's better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money. ~ P.J. O'Rourke

So, I was informed today that I am part Irish. k. Thank you little sister for that vital piece of information, as well as the quote above. I have always known that my mother's side has an Irish name, and that my Great Uncle was Grand Marshal in the St. Patrick's Day parade every year...but I guess I never put two and two together. I even have flashbacks of being in the parade with my family when I was little. That's typical of me though. Always in the Land of A.D.D. Since I'm apparently magically delicious, I thought that I would do a shout-out to sweet lil' St. Patty! I love pirates, Gamecocks, and all things inappropriate and vulgar, so my apologies in advance. You can thank my "newfound" Irish family for teaching me how to keep it classy!

(P.S. Go Gamecocks)

                                                                                                                 

For those of you that don't know me very well, I would SO wear this shirt if I could get my hands on it!

And last but not least...a greeting from Andy.

For those of you who don't know my husband, he is OBSESSED with Spongebob. He's made me watch it every Saturday morning for prrrettty much the past 12 years.