Looking back on 2011

2011 brought our family lots of hope and lots of heartache.. For the most part it was lots of waiting, rushing around and then more waiting. Then the SUCKFEST began for pretty much the entire last half of the year.. As I look back, I still have a bit of sadness and pain at the events that unfolded, BUT I have MUCH MORE hope going in to 2012 then I ever thought was possible! Inspite of everything, we are gearing up for another IVF cycle AND we are doing what I wanted in the timeframe I wanted= A Fresh transfer before I am 39! I am feeling so GO and SO BLESSED.. It seems like everything has just been falling into place as of late and I want to stop and be thankful for each little thing that is happening, no matter how small.. My sister in law and brother in law are in it to WIN IT with us and they are both so excited at the thought of us on this journey together.. We can't wait to head to TEXAS in about 6-8 short weeks and get things rolling! Of course I will be keeping you guys up to date, I don't know what I would do without ALL OF  YOU to lean on! I appreciate you all for reading our story and for all of the love and support you have shown us.. You were a HUGE part of the hope we felt in 2011.. And for that WE THANK YOU!

My Checklist and NYE

With each journey, I HAVE to do a checklist or I will go insane (because I have a touch of OCD) I have lists and numbers scratched on every surface.. Seriously, it looks like a shot from "A Beautiful Mind" up in here.. I can't help it. I am constantly checking and rechecking numbers and lists, etc.. Annnnywho so I got my SIL an AFLAC policy because lots of surros said it was an awesome thing to have, so I looked in to it and set SIL up with one. Well the packet came in the mail today so CHECK! Next up is paying the clinic Monday and getting our schedule some time after that. I can feel that giddy anticipation starting to build! BRING ON 2012, I AM READY!!!

On another note, if y'all are going out tonight BE CAREFUL! I read a blog from the husband's point of view about his wife that has cystic fibrosis and she needed a lung transplant (she got it) but I am pretty sure he said the highest rate of transplants is TONIGHT and we all know why.. DONT DRINK AND DRIVE! You might THINK "you got this" but you may not! BE SAFE Y'ALL and see you NEXT YEAR! LOVE TO YOU ALL!

Teeniest of Steps Forward

Received an email from the Nurse for our cycle today! She said we do not need any labs done at this time (YAY!) and that once we are closer to retrieval we need to update our FDA testing (Another YAY!!!) And she asked when we were getting to TX (this is getting real folks!) I replied back to her and said once we get the schedule, I can plan better when we are coming. So, now I wait for a reply from her!


In other news, Christmas was really nice! The boys were happy with their gifts (Cuz, they got everything they asked for, BRATS! LOL!) and I got a splurge item (THANK YOU Swagbucks) a Xbox 360 with Kinect! I LOVE this thing! I am NOT a video game person by any means, but I freaking love this thing! There is this game called Fruit Ninja and lemme just tell ya, I should have been a Ninja for real! I am kind of awesome at this game. Oh and I got the Michael Jackson Experience game (SUPER freaking hard!!) Let's just say MJ would NOT have given me a callback to be a backup dancer *hangs head in shame* Yeah, it's pretty bad.. But really fun! I am now using the Zumba game so I can lose some of this extra large and in charge butt i am carrying around!

In other other news: A friend from high school came in to town for the holidays and I got to see her new baby! Such a doll he is.. They unfortunately have been down this sucky IF road too, so knowing she came out the other side (we are the same age) makes me so happy and gives me such hope.. Seeing her and her husband with their son is so amazing. I can't wait for that to be me and hubby.. I got some good snuggle time with that little cutie and it was great!


So that's how my Holiday was! Hopefully all of you had an equally amazing Christmas!

More to come after the New Year I am sure!

Have Yourself

A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS!!!! Love to all of you... Hope you have a wonderful day!

Garage Sale FAIL..

Yeah, so ummm... Don't ever have a garage sale the weekend before Christmas, ummkay? Cuz I did that today and all I got was a whopping $45 bucks! :( GARAGESALE.FAIL I coulda slept in and lazed about today! It was my fault I was sooo gungho on having a sale.. BUT in my defense, I wanted to have one like 2 weeks ago but hubby worked the weekends the past two weeks so he said NO. (He has to be there for garage sale day because I call him eleventy million times to ask questions about his crap, HA!) so this was the only weekend he pushed his schedule around to be off.. Annnnnyway... I am $45 dollars richer so I can't be all mad. Plus I am having another decent week on eBay.. Nothing like that Care Bears weekend but I'm doing ok, I know I will make atleast $300 this weekend and I am gearing up for another serious listing fit, so hoping to make atleast another $300 next week. Gotta keep the momentum going! Nothing much to report on Operation: Babydreams 2012 just yet. My SIL & BIL are having their testing done next week and then it's just more waiting.. I paid $800 to the clinic so far for consults and testing, I definitely don't miss this part of the journey, LOL! But I know with each payment we make, we are getting closer to our baby!

In holiday news, I am SUCH A ROCK STAR, if I say so myself...AND I DO! I use this website called Swagbucks and it's a search and win type site, (I dont know how to explain it really) Anyway. instead of using say goo.gl.e I use them to search for things and I win points every now and then for my searches. For every 450 search points I accrue, I can trade those for $5 in Am.az.on Gift Card credit! So I have been searching, getting points (sometimes they give out codes that are worth points) and doing my little thang... So I have been a member since last year probably and I have managed to squirrel away $290 dollars in ama.zon gif.t ca.rd credits! HUGE help for Christ.ma.s shop.pping this year! I didn't really have to spend much money at all thank GOD. So this definitely is helping keep our spending down and we are still able to add to the IVF Fund!

So that's all my little news for the weekend. This week I plan on couponing my heart out at the grocery store to get the items I need for Christmas Dinner and we are baking cookies, cake, brownies, pie, etc. getting ready for the eat-a-thon, LOL!

Til next time!

SIL Consult

C had her consult and it went amazing too! Dr. Le said she has a perfect uterus and she was born to be a surrogate! He said she has a beautiful cervix. She laughed and thought it was weird, but then said "Well I guess that's a compliment considering what we are trying to do." I TOTALLY agreed and said YEP it is! HA! So she is good to go and has to call when she gets her January period!! OMG!!! my BIL has his lab order to do his labs and she has hers to do it locally at her OB (it's over $1,000 to do it at the RE's office!!!) so umm, yeah I dont think so.. SO they will be getting those done on 12/20 and the results will be faxed over to the IVF clinic. All of our testing is good to go as well! We have to redo the FDA testing, but that can be done once we get to TX.. So it's officially OFFICIAL! We are BACK!

IVF Part Trois

I had my much awaited consult! It was AMAZING! The Dr. was late in calling but a nurse called and let me know he hadn't forgotten about me and that he was still with his last patient. I was ok (after she called to tell me, I was getting nervous before that and maybe the TEENIEST BIT attitudey, LOL!)Annnywho... So he calls me and apologizes for being late and we get right to it. He said all the right things and he wants to try something new, namely me not taking birth control pills. He feels they are over-suppressing me and wants me to do just monitor my LH surge by using an OPK (ovulation prediction kit) and then starting right to the stim meds. While I am doing that, my sister in law "C" will be doing birth control pills and lupron and then vivelle patches, estradiol pills and the wonderful progesterone to get her lining nice and ready for hopefully 2-3 day 3 embies or TWO blasts or day 5 embies! We are shooting for February (no later than very beginning of March) to make sure all of the testing is completed and the legal is done and also it just has to be after the New Year so we can maximize the flex spending account with our health insurance. Gotta do what ya gotta do.. The Dr said he can control everything except the eggs being abnormal (Damn, doc why'd you have to remind me that I'm OLD, I know this!) but he said he is hopeful since the girl I just donated to in April is successfully pregnant (she's due VERY soon).. Everything went really well and I am SOOO excited for it to be next year so we can get this party started!! My SIL has her consult tomorrow (today now, it's after Midnight!) and she will be calling me afterwards and giving me the the low-down on how it went. I asked the RE all the questions I wanted to ask and told him of all the supplements I am taking to have better egg quality and he was totally ok with it and recommended one I wasn't taking, LOL! I really like him. I haven't felt this good about IVF in a long time, so it's nice to feel that dark cloud slipping away and being replaced with hope! I am still kinda nervous about this being our last shot and I hope I have atleast ONE good egg left in there for my own miracle, that's my prayer! Lawyer is working on the contract and that should be done in January some time so things are moving along nicely! Will update after I hear back from my SIL tomorrow! until then, later gators!

Wait... WHAAAT?!?!

The other day went something like this:

RING, RING! Me: Hello? (Yes all question-y like because I could see it was the IVF clinic and I had just spoken with them) Her: Hi, may I speak to Tonya? Me: Yes, hi S____ (Yeah, I'm cool like that and recognized her voice) Her: Hi, yes... We were going over cases and Dr. Le has decided HE wants to handle your case personally, so he wants to have the consult with you BEFORE he sees your SIL, so we need to change her appointment. Me: Umm, NOPE, she is already coming from 3-4hrs away, no way I am having her come in LATER.. Just change my appointment to earlier in the day. Her: The only other answer is for yours to be TUESDAY. Me: OK sure! Tuesday is great! Sooo, ummmm... Yeah.... So now my consult is in FOUR days!!! EEEEK!

I had to rush around like a mad woman to get my medical records and overnight them so they could review them Monday for my phone consult Tuesday.. I hope he has a big lunch or a good snack because that is one HUGE envelope coming to the office! S___ said "Why not just fax it?" I said OK, do you have atleast 100 pages in your fax machine and nothing to do for a while? "Oh, no mailing them overnight is fine!" HAHAHAHAA!, Yeah, that's what I thought! I CANNOT believe I am talking to the RE in a few short days AND that he decided he wants to handle my case personally! I was OK with any RE from the Group, but just knowing that it's the "main man" makes me even more excited!! YAY Me! So that's my little update for today.. Sales are slow on ebay this week, but it's not over yet AND I still have TONS of stuff to list so I am not worried at this point. Just gotta keep at it! OK off to hit my listings while I have the house to my self!

Later Gators! Will update for sure Tuesday if not before, MWAH!

Birthday Celebration and 1 Week Countdown

So today is the day.. The big 38 (I am still in shock!) I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday I was 18 and thought I knew it all! So much has happened over those 20 years.. And for part of them I was 29 a FEW times (shhhh!) Anyway, it's kinda cool to see where I have been and all that I have accomplished alone and then with my wonderful hubby.. I can't wait to see what the next chapter holds! Now where was I? Oh yes, the COUNTDOWN. It is T-Minus 7 days until my SIL and I have our consults with ARCC! I am gonna have to get my medical records copied and overnight them to the clinic (will save that for tomorrow, this princess isn't doing that on her birthday-HA!) so they have all my info before talking to me.. Things should really start moving at least with testing so we are just in a holding pattern until the time to start gets here! EEEK! It's getting more real now!! So that's about it for now.. Off to celebrate my day with my love. He took off to be with me, he's so amazing..

eBay Is Gonna Help Me Have A Baby!

So all last week, I went through my garage and all my stuff that I have been collecting over the years (I used to have an online store) and then some friends donated things to me to sell and started listing stuff on eBay. I didn't think much would come of it, but anything would help and would be put into the "Baby Fund 2012" account. I WELL EXCEEDED my own expectations! We put some cutesy stuff up (Care Bears and other knick knacks) and some dinnerware (what I mostly collected) and some games that hubby didn't want any longer, etc. and this is what we made AFTER shipping the items out!

 

Can y'all believe it!?! My goal is to do this well each week! If so we will be ahead of the game when February rolls around for sure! You guys can check out my auctions to see how it goes, I am hoping I get a few bidding wars like the ones that went down yesterday, it was AWESOME! This is what happened at the end of the bidding war: Care Bears War    So this is the link to my current items

Maybe Baby Ebay item Fund   but I am listing a bunch more and maybe I will have just as much luck as this past weekend! Say a prayer for me guys! Will keep y'all updated on how I make out! Birthday is Wednesday and consults a week after, so exciting times coming up!

Small Steps Forward

Consults have been set up for both of us! My SIL will be going to the clinic 12/14 and getting started.. After they see her, they will be doing a phone consult with me! I told them I would rather do it now so we can get all the orders for testing since we all know December is pretty much a wash with the clinics! The coordinator was kind of difficult and was saying we needed to wait until closer to January but we all know I don't back down so I got my way, LOL! I also have an alarming incident with the coordinator.. She was going on about how my SIL had certain testing that couldn't be done at her primary care DR office such as "donor testing".. She just kept talking and then asked me if she had ever had cystic fibrosis testing done? I said "Umm.. I dunno, but since I AM THE ONE CONTRIBUTING MY DNA, YES I have had it done" She said "OH, she isn't the donor?" WHAAT!?!?! HELLLLOOOO!?!?! I have talked with someone several times about having a SURROGATE! Ummm...yeah.. So after being put on hold for what seemed like forever she had it fixed.. Turns out those THOUSANDS of dollars of tests she said were needed for my SIL were because she thought she was the donor.. That did not give me the warm fuzzy's y'all.... BUT atleast after the third or fourth time of me asking she said "I PROMISE I FIXED IT, IM REALLY SORRY" but of course I will be triple checking every damn thing now, I TRUST NO ONE LADY! :) :) Y'all know how I am.. So all in all, we made some headway.. Now we wait two weeks and I will have a great update I hope on our consults! In the mean time Wednesday is MY BIRTHDAY!!!! No idea what I am gonna do.. I think a movie and dinner and that's about it, unless hubby has something else planned.. I'm low key on my birthday pretty much after I turned 30 so, that is plenty for me! But isn't 38 the new 28??? LOL!!!