California Photos

Matt and I after he finished his 1/2 marathon- so proud of him!


We had so much fun in California this past week! We were able to go to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo's wild animal park, the Long Beach aquarium, eat awesome Indian cuisine, Matt finished his 1/2 marathon, meet up with my roommate from Germany, and we even got to try out reflexology- that was an experience! We had a jam-packed week, but it was so great for us! I've loaded most of the pictures on my photography blog, you can check it out here.

On the way home

We're on our way home. I'm leaving feeling refreshed, in love, and ready to tackle whatever God throws our way next. We had a great time in California. We met up with my old roommate from Germany, hit up some great attractions, hung out with my super fun aunt and uncle, and smiled, a lot.

I can't wait to get some pictures up later on this week! I'll try my best by the end of the weekend.

Happy Birthday My Love!

To the best gift of my life:

Happy 25th Birthday my love!

I know it sounds cliche, but I love you more now that I could have ever imagined was possible when I met you 4 1/2 years ago. You are truly the best gift that I have ever received.

Thank you for all that you do and put up with every day. You are such a huge blessing and answer to so many prayers.

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband and man that I have ever known.

And now enjoy the top 25 things (in no particular order) that I love about you, Mr King.

25. You are funny
24. You are kind
23. You apparently love to go shopping for clothes now (which I think is really hot)
22. You dream with me
21. You are hot ;-)
20. You fit in with my family like a glove!
19. You love me even when I'm on hormone shots and am nearly unlovable
18. You are respectful
17. You are hilarious (and even though I tell you that I hate your jokes when I'm mad at you, I secretly love them)
16. You are amazing at giving painless shots in the butt, literally
15. You are phenomenal with babies and children (which is pretty hot too)
14. You are SO smart (even though you ARE obsessed with spreadsheets and that drives me nuts)
13. You match your shoes to your belt
12. I love the way you hold and talk to our kitties
11. I love how you fart, deny it, then die laughing when I shoot you the look of death
10. I love your amazing faith in God's plans for us
9. I love your determination
8. I LOVE your calves!!! (The rest of you should seriously see them sometime, AMAZING!)
7. I love that you give my dad just as much crap as he gives you, someone's got to do it!
6. I love your perfectly round head (As your current barbor, I would know)
5. I love your compassion for others
4. I love that you call me out when I round my shopping amounts down by $10 or so
3. I love that you are the sweetest man I've ever met
2. I love your perfectly straight (never had a stinking cavity) teeth
1.I love that you are FINALLY 25 - Happy Birthday Babe!

Happy Birthday Matt! I love you with my WHOLE heart! I am thankful each and every day that you are my husband. Love you!

**GOOD LUCK ON YOUR 1/2 MARATHON TODAY!!!***

(By the way- We are having an amazing time in California! This vacation was exactly what the Dr. ordered!)

We're off!!!

We're on our way to Cali!!! It's 2:30 in the morning, bags are packed, we're on the road, and life is good right now. 6 days with my husband, warm weather, mickey mouse, and other great things!

I'm hoping to post a few pictures from my phone while we're gone, so keep checking in on us. If that plan doesn't work for some reason, I am taking my camera with, so I'll catch everyone up when we get back.

Off to catch our plane!

57 hours...

In a short 57 hours we will be on a plane, heading to sunny, wonderful, stress-free California. I know I've probably done a little overkill talking about this trip, but I'm just so darn excited to get away from everything. The idea for this trip only came up a month or so ago, so I haven't had much time to get excited (not that I need it!)
I'm ready to have a break from everything pregnancy related, and frankly I'm just ready to kick back and have some fun!

This week my students have been working on visualizing. This was my paragraph that I used and had my students visualize.

The sun is shining a bright, warm, pear-yellow color on my arm. I can feel the wind zipping over my hand as I wave it in the warm Californian breeze outside the window of the car. The radio is making a gentle hum as we cruise down the freeway. I glance over to see Matt shoot a gentle, pearly white smile my way. I am radiating with excitement, only a few more minutes and we will be driving under the welcome sign of Disneyland. Loud, rumbling roller coasters await us. Life is good.

Ice Climbing

For the past two years my dad has let his friend "Briggs" pull hoses to the top of his silo and ice it down. Briggs has actually turned the sport into a class at the college here in town, UNI. So this year Matt and my mom decided to give it a try one afternoon. It was pretty darn cold but they both did so good! Most beginners get about 15 feet in the air, they both went far beyond that. Here are some pictures (it was SO SO SO foggy the day they climbed and it was extra foggy higher up where they were at- plus my fingers were numb so I didn't take time to change my camera's settings, so sorry about the clarity of the pictures)

Part of my dad's farm on a cold, foggy, Iowa day



Briggs, Matt & My Dad


Go momma go!


Higher Matthew, higher!





A few weeks after Matt and my mom climbed Briggs organized a collegiate ice climbing competition. Lots of colleges from all over the country came to my dad's house to compete in a night climb. The competitors were timed to see who could get to the top the fastest. It was pretty cool to see the silo completely lit up at night.

A bunch of the climbers trying to warm up

A plan... sorta

We've come up with somewhat of a plan for our next steps. We aren't exactly set in these decisions, but we feel comfortable as of right now with what's next. We still need to talk with our head doctor about his thoughts, but for now, here's our plan.

We will be starting our next cycle right around the first of March. At that time we will get a baseline ultrasound to make sure there are no large cysts. If there aren't any, we will do shots (the nurse thinks it will be the same shots again, although we may take a larger dose) and have an IUI, exactly like this last cycle. Because although we weren't able to get pregnant this last month, everything was technically "perfect", we just didn't lucky enough to be in the 20% that gets pregnant.

So we will try the same treatments one more time. This will be our 3rd injectible/IUI cycle and the Dr. said that usually they only suggest 3 tries. Although we have gotten pregnant with our first try, it makes it a little bit trickier. We know that it can work, so it's a bit hard to abandon the treatments after only one more try. BUT... I feel SO ready to move on. I knew something wasn't right this last try, and I'm sick of feeling like we haven't truly had a shot at getting pregnant since our miscarriage in August. I'm ready to move on.

So... we're tentatively planning on going through with one more IUI and then we are leaning towards our options with In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). I'm hoping with my whole heart that we won't have to even attempt IVF (b/c we'll get pregnant with our next IUI) so I'm not going to get into the whole IVF talk quite yet. There is a lot to explain as far as cost, moral issues, and our faith. I'll hold off on those discussions (and hopefully any comments) until we cross that bridge.

We will only have enough insurance money left to do one cycle of IVF, and however many rounds of transfers (if we have any frozen embryos), and then we will move onto adoption. We have always had hearts for adoption, so it definitely won't be considered out "last option". Rather, we feel like we need to give each step of treatment a chance while we have the insurance money, and then we'll feel emotionally ready for adoption.

I have found a really amazing adoption "agency" that I think about ALL of the time. We will hopefully be able to get all of our paperwork into this agency by the beginning of summer if our IUI and IVF have not worked. Adoption is also another bridge that we will cross when we get there, there are also a LOT of questions, issues, and things to discuss when we get to that point.

So... there is our tentative plan for now. We'll see where the next treatments take us, what the doctor has to say about our chances with everything, and where God leads us. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, we definitely appreciate it, especially in this uncertain time.

Anymore

Anymore

Sometimes I feel like the waiting, wanting, and decisions are too much to handle.

I don’t want to wait anymore.

I don’t want this feeling of “wanting” to consume my every thought anymore.

I don’t want to make anymore big decisions.

I don’t want to put my life on hold anymore, waiting for a positive test to direct my next steps.

I don’t want to see anymore pregnant women.

I don't want to be so jealous and angry when I hear pregnancy announcements anymore.

I don’t want to deal with this anymore. I want to escape with my husband, and come back to our old “perfect” lives.

Where in the world

Oh how those palm trees look amazing right now!

As I'm sure most of you have figured out by now, we are headed to California in just 18 days!!!!

We are so excited!! I have a very amazing aunt and uncle that live in Long Beach, California that graciously accepted our plea to let us stay for a few days. =) We head out at 6am Friday the 19th, and will be back sometime late Wednesday. We are very ready to get away, have a few drinks, enjoy the warm weather, ride a few roller coasters, and whatever else the trip may bring. Plus, we'll be in California during Matt's birthday, how awesome is that?!

We will be back just a few days before our next cycle starts, hopefully refreshed, feeling hopeful, and ready to tackle another round of treatments. I'm hoping later this week to post a rough outline of "what's next" for us.