Don't Be Ashamed...Coming Out of the Fertility Closet...

We are the 1 in 1 in 6 Couples in the US have problems conceiving...

Since the month Dustin and I got married (June 26, 2010) we have been TTC (Trying To Conceive). We found out a year and a half later that we had fertility issues. It was a big blow. It meant we could not have a child naturally without the help from Doctors. It meant our pocket book was going to be hit hard. We have come a long way in the last 3 years. We have learned a lot about the Infertility world, about our relationship and about our own self. 

We have Male Factor Infertility. We have spent the last year going to Doctor after Doctor eliminating possible causes but still no answers. Our final stop was Dr John Gould at the UC David Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. He is a Urologist specializing in Male Infertility, he is also part of the Northern California Fertility Medical Center. He has been GREAT! We just went for our first SA (Semen Analysis) since we got the devastating news over a year and a half ago. Dustin has been on a drug called Clomid for the last 3 months to see if it will get his little guys moving. We will find out the results this week. 

We both have gone through many stages of grief when coming to reality that having a child will not be as easy as it is for 5 out of 6 couples in the US. I have personally felt angry, jealousy, depression and sadness on a regular basis. It wasn't until we met Dr. Gould that I have been feeling a little bit of Hope in the mix. It seriously has been the loneliest 3 years for me ever. There is a major Taboo about infertility in America which makes going through this experience lonely. I had a conversation with Dustin this last weekend where he said he was over keeping it a secret. And I totally agree. I think Infertility needs to be talked about more. Recently Jimmy Fallon had announced the birth of his child 2 weeks after her birth. I didn't even know his wife was preggo. She wasn't, little Winnie was born via surrogate due to many years of failed pregnancies. 

So I will be using this blog to voice our struggles and joys through our experience with Infertility. I would hope this will also help others be more aware of the loaded question "So when are you going to have children?" because sometimes that is the rudest question of all.

-EB

Cabover Camper Project...

My Hubby and I are preparing to go camping in Febuary down in Southern California to Johnson Valley. There is an annual event called King of the Hammers that we have made it to 2 out of the last 3 years. (I posted about our last trip in 2011 Here)

 

 

Here we are enjoying the Race.

 

Here is Chocolate Thunder during Race day.

 

I'm SUPER excited to go this year. We have less than 40 days left before the week long event starts.

 

I guess I should get back to the reason why I'm posting this...We bought a Cabover Camper kinda like this one...

 

 

We have an F350, she is named JLo for obvious reasons...She's wide in the hips. Meaning she is a dually.

 

The only problem with our Cabover Camper (we need to come up with a name for it....CASPER. You know after JLo's current boy toy because he's piggy backing on her fame and fourtune...HAHA!) Well anyways he needs a little TLC. The interior needs to be painted, a new mattress, re-do the shades, fix the water heater and frig. To name a few. We may not get to it all before we leave.

 

I figured like with the house inprovements (which I need to update, Sorry) I'd post about it.

 

So I'm going to start out posting about Casper updates with a sewing project. I recently bought material to make a quilt. I'm actually really excited about this quilt. Here are the fabrics I'm going to be using...

 



 

I'm trying to decide between 2 quilt patterns right now...

 

Strip and Flip by Cluck Cluck Sew

 

or

 

The Jelly Roll 1600 Quilt by Heirloom Creations

 

Which one do you like?

 

I haven't recieved my fabric yet but can not wait to get this started!!

 

I will post pics of Casper as we improve him and update my progress on the Camper Quilt.

 

Until then...

The House Update #5...

Ugh...Why is it taking so long...This is how I have been feeling lately.

It seems like we were never going to get into The House until yesterday. Dustin and I got up super early on our day off and spent the whole day over at The House working on the floor, and by golly we got it DONE! Yes I said it, We are done with the floor which means we can start moving in slowly. We still have the base boards to put in but we can do that while we have furniture in the middle of the rooms. We are going today after work to get the new door handles/hinges so we can hang the doors.

The Bathrooms are not done yet but we will work on them while we are living there. We decided to leave the Kitchen alone for now. Maybe next year we will get around to updating it. Until then we get to cook our meals on the wonderful '70s yellow tiel countertops...haha. But we did remove those ugly hanging cabinets that blocked our view of the kitchen knok. If we were 4 feet tall it'd be a different story.

Here is the Allure floor all complete in the Dining room...

We were able to transition the flooring from the Living Room into the Hallway seemlessly...

This flooring had to be the easiest flooring to lay down ever!!

Next is the move! YEAH!

The House Update #4...

We have been pretty busy working away at The House since the last time I posted. Once the texturizing was done it was on! We were on a mission this weekend to get the painting done no matter what! And we DID!! I'm happy to say that ALL the painting is done in the house, with the exception of the bathrooms (that's another story I'll get to later).

Dustin and I had not been agreeing on what to do with the living room ceiling. Remember it looked like this...

I wanted to leave it the way it was because I knew it was going to be hard to paint and I didn't want to be the one painting it. Dustin wanted to paint it, he wanted the ceiling a flat color and the beams a semi-gloss color. I agreed to finally help paint only if we did the WHOLE ceiling in the semi-gloss AND use a paint sprayer. Well Dustin did it all with me supervising. And now it looks like this...

Next we are onto finish up putting down the flooring. The Dining Room, Living Room, Hallway and Craft Room are all that's left to lay down. Once the floor is down we can FINALLY move in. While we are moved in we will work on getting the bathrooms done.

Which leads me to tell you a little story about the bathrooms...The weekend Dustin, his Uncle Lloyd and Cousin Gavin where trying to figure out why the attic fan was not working. So Dustin and Lloyd where up in the attic investigating. The attic fan is located in the front of the house right above the Master Bathroom. As Dustin and Lloyd where making their way across the beams, being careful to where they were stepping, Lloyd stepped on a beam thinking that it was secure. Well it wasn't, and his foot went through the roof of the Master Bathroom. Can you believe that! So now we really have to do some remodeling to the bathrooms...haha.

Stella & Dot by Erin Burger, Independent Stylist

I have wanted to get into selling this line of jewelry ever since my Aunt Debbie got my sister and I a pair of earrings for Christmas a couple years ago, those earring have become some of my favorite! I wasn't until recently that I really conisdered it something that I could do. I wanted to wait until we were settled into our new house before I got involved. I wanted to be have to designated spot in the house to set up my "Office".

I have a friend from college who sells for Stella & Dot, she had really been encouraging me, but I kept telling her in time, in time. Finally a situation happened at work that gave me the push to join the Stell & Dot team earlier than I wanted. With the new home and the decrease in income from work I finally had the drive and desire to do something the I'd LOVE. I've been missing that lately. One of the rooms in our house has been named the Craft Room, this is my room. I will finally have a space again to do what I love; quilting, sewing, scrapbooking...crafting! And I'll be able to make it my Stella & Dot office as well. I'm excited to get going on this new venture. I feel that it will really help me get to know people in Lakeport. I've been here for over a year and feel that I really dont know that many people. I mean I know people that know Dustin but I really haven't made any close friends. So if you want to get a sneak peek into what I will be selling please go to my Stella & Dot webpage and browse. If you see something you absolutely love Buy it, you will not regret it. The pieces of jewelry are beautiful! Also visit my Stella & Dot Facebook page and "Like" it to stay up to date on what's new. Thanks!

The House Update # 3...

So it's been awhile...We have been busy...Work, House, Sleep, Work, House, Sleep, repeat.

One day Dustin and I were feeling daring. So we attempted to do the texturing to the ceilings by ourselves, Dustin's Uncle Lloyd was going to help, but to common Dustin fashion he got too impatient and just started doing it. Literally he walked into the house with the stuff already mixed and the gun ready to start shooting.

With the texturizing down we could get onto painting rooms. Sharon and I got the Craft room and Guest room painted. Now onto the Dining room, Hallway, Bathrooms, Kitchen and Living room....goodness, I feel like the painting is never ending.

We have come to the realization that we are not going to be able to afford real hardwood...tear. But we found an awesome alternative which is more durable since we have very active doggies. You lay it down like hardwood in planks but it is just like a vinyl or laminate. It comes in so many different colors. Here is the color that I'm in love with...Allure Flooring.

Until next time...

The House Update #2...

Memorial Day weekend...

After a week of basically doing nothing at The House we got back to work. I was beginning to feel that we were starting too many jobs without getting any of them done. But finally this weekend I started to feel like we were getting jobs done.

Sharon and took all the doors down, hardware off and sanded them down to get them prepared to paint during the next couple of days. We painted the Master Bedroom in French Grey (walls) and Swiss Coffee (trim).

Colors for the House

Dustin fixed the drywall hole in the dinning room he made when figuring out if we could take down the fire place. Then actually walled in the fireplace with drywall.

Overall it was a productive weekend. I felt we got a lot done and still had a social life.

Tuesday May 31 - Sharon took it apon herself to finish removing the popcorn from the hallway and dinning room that Dustin had started but got side tracked from. She did a great job! She now has plans to do the Kitchen in the next couple of days. She has been such a great help, never asking if we needed help, always just showing up and picking up a tool.

This weekend we have my Father's birthday party in Sac on Sunday so I have a feeling not much will get done.

Until next time...