Lovely distractions...

A few weeks ago my sister in law and her family hosted a soccer coach from the UK as part of the Challenger Soccer Camp program.

His name was Rob and we (my husband and I) found ourselves completely smitten with his thirst of knowledge, his "up for anything" attitude and (of course)...his accent and slang.  ; )

We took the family out to the best flat water in Richmond to teach Rob how to Stand Up Paddle for the first time, hung out with him at a family cookout and accompanied him to DC to show him some of the sites.

He was absolutely wonderful to be around.

We had such a good experience with Rob that my husband and I also volunteered to be a host family for any other coaches that might be in our area.

As it turned out....Challenger needed a host family for two coaches this past week.

And so we welcomed Roisin and Ben into our lives!!!!

Roisin is from Scotland and Ben is from England.

Their schedule was pretty relaxed which was great...they left the house by 8:30 every morning for camp and returned around 1 p.m. and had the rest of the day to do what they liked.  When we were available to take them out we did....and oh my how I realized a 31 year old body can barely keep up with 21 and 23 year old bodies.

During their stay with us we underwent our 3rd (and hopefully final) IUI cycle.

It was wonderful to have Ben and Roisin here as distractions.

We took them paddleboarding, club hopping, threw beer pong and slip n slide parties, took them for thai food, etc.

It was awesome having a full house.

What made it even better was that having Roisin and Ben stay with us also gave us more excuses for get togethers with friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

I was incredibly grateful for that.

We had a full week of being surrounded by wonderful, wonderful people.

And we're about to do it all again....

Challenger camp asked if we could host another coach this coming week.

Bring it.  ; )

Here are just a few of my favorite "snaps" as Roisin would call them of our time with Roisin and Ben (in no particular order):

Operation Jellyman Kelly: Final IUI's

DISCLAIMER: Any blog posts titled "Operation Jellyman Kelly" will no doubt gross you out. These posts will describe our current treatments for infertility...so if you have a weak stomach or don't know how you'd have a conversation with me in person after reading this....stop reading now. ; )

Ultrasound yesterday showed I had only 3 follicles (even though they doubled the drugs) so I'm pretty frustrated.  The good thing however is that all three of them are very good sizes according to Dr. R. (Dr. T is on vacation).

This morning we did another IUI procedure and tomorrow will be (I desperately hope) the last IUI procedure before closing this chapter and moving on to the next.

IVF......here we come.

Operation Jellyman Kelly: Holy Double Dosages Batman!

DISCLAIMER: Any blog posts titled "Operation Jellyman Kelly" will no doubt gross you out. These posts will describe our current treatments for infertility...so if you have a weak stomach or don't know how you'd have a conversation with me in person after reading this....stop reading now. ; )

So here are a few things I've been up to while hopped up on infertility meds:

Cage fighting - I've been picking fights with my husband, myself, my computer, my dog, my dog's cage....it's been ugly.

Buddhism - That is to say I've developed a Buddha belly since starting the Clomid alone so my belly is ripe for worship.

Saving trees - My toilet paper consumption has dramatically decreased since starting this cycle.  Gross, I know.  But the drugs have officially freaked out my body. It's going to be bittersweet when we return to regularly scheduled programming.

Developing mind control - I'm pretty sure the pain in my head is a superpower growing in there.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

And all of that was just on the Clomid!

Today was the first FSH injection. 

I'd almost forgotten how scary it was to see my husband coming at me with a needle!

He was extremely sweet and patient and took the time to make out with me to calm me down first. 

It wasn't terrible.  ; )

I'm scheduled for the next U/S on Sunday where Dr. T will see if my follicles are big enough and from there we'll determine when the IUI's will take place.

I'll keep you posted....

Obon Festival 2011

This weekend we traveled to Ekoji Buddhist temple for their annual Obon festival, a festival that honors departed ancestors.

I was extremely fortunate to grow up with such a lively way of celebrating the lives of my lost loved ones and I will always be grateful for that. 

Great food, great music, superb people-watching, traditional dancing and wonderful friends made for a fantastic evening....

The candle memorial ceremony is usually the most powerful part of the evening for me.

Last year we added a candle for Gridgery.  This year we added a candle for Kea.

It weighed heavily on me to see their names together like this. 

We miss them so, so much.




We also lit candles for my Papa, Gigi, Uncle EJ, my father-in-law and one for Seth, our friends wonderfully charming cat that passed away shortly after Kea.

The chanting during the ceremony puts me back at home in Hawaii....listening to my Gigi chant at the alter we had in our house and smelling the burning of the incense.  I never understood the words he chanted..............but I felt them.....

gosh I'm home-sick.

Operation Jellyman Kelly: Here we go again

DISCLAIMER: Any blog posts titled "Operation Jellyman Kelly" will no doubt gross you out. These posts will describe our current treatments for infertility...so if you have a weak stomach or don't know how you'd have a conversation with me in person after reading this....stop reading now. ; )

Well I must say....it has been absolutely wonderful for me having taken the last 3 months off from treatments.

No drugs.

No going crazy from the drugs.

No needles.

No ultrasounds.

No charting.

No false hope.

But alas....like all good things....it must come to an end.

IUI #3.....here we go again.

Dr. T has doubled the dosage of all the drugs to see if I can produce more eggs this go round.  This IUI cycle will also be used as a test to see how well this dosage works so we have a good idea of how much I'll need to take when we go into our first IVF cycle.

First U/S was this morning and first dose of Clomid was this afternoon.

Headaches, mood swings and extreme bloating...here I come!

Plan B's

WARNING:  Selfish post ahead

I mentioned in my previous post that the husband and I were considering several Plan B's in the event IVF doesn't work for us....

Plan B (#1)
Rent the house out, pack the dog up and move to Hawaii.  Where we'd live in Hawaii, what we'd do, that is all up in the air.  I just want to be back with my family.  I miss them so, so much and I realized on this last trip that just being around them nourishes my soul.

Plan B (#2)
Adopt.

Plan B (#3)
Sell the house, quit our jobs, pack the dog up and travel to some of the most awesome SUP destinations we can think of.  This is obviously the least realistic plan, but it's on the table.  ; )

Someone asked me why we needed Plan B's.  Why we wouldn't just stay here and continue living the life we have (child free).  The answer to that is simple.....

I don't think we'd be happy here if we remained child-free.

Our friends are growing their families and have less and less time to spend with us.

This house is too big for just the two of us humans.

And more importantly.....if we go through IVF and fail......I feel it will absolutely be time for a change of scene.

Of course there are TONS of reasons to stay.....but honestly, the other big reason I need a Plan B is so I have something to look forward to if we can't start a family.

Pity party of the night complete.  ; )

I'm Alive! ; )

Where to begin.

First off I’d like to apologize for seemingly disappearing off the face of the planet.

We lost Kea, and then we were immediately flying home to Hawaii to surprise my Mom for her 50^th birthday.

It was a very bitter-sweet couple of weeks.

Losing Kea was a nightmare, but being home and with my family celebrating 50 years of the most amazing woman I know was exactly the distraction I needed.  Being home kept me sane.

We spent 3 absolutely amazing weeks in Hawaii with my family.

It was (honestly) heaven.

I’ve always missed my family since having moved away so long ago…but this trip really (really) got under my skin.  It was just so….fun…having everyone together again. 

A lot of amazing things happened in those 3 weeks that I wish I had the time to blog about but alas….I don’t.  

So here are just a few snapshots of my favorite moments in Hawaii (in no particular order):

Once we got back to Virginia we needed to jump right back into our daily routine.

Our boxer Kozy had been staying with my sister-in-law and her family (including Kozy’s cousin Mocha) so he had a little trouble adjusting to a house without any other dogs when we got back.  It was actually quite sad.  He could still smell Kea on the bed, in specific areas of the house and didn’t seem to know what to do.  He also became very needy.  He needed to be in the same room with us at all times.  He couldn’t go out and go to the bathroom unless one of us walked outside with him.  He wouldn’t eat unless we were in the kitchen with him.  It was not pleasant. 

In addition to getting Kozy accustomed to being the only dog in the house, we had to get ready for a few upcoming events…like SUP Enduro and SUP Cross.

Our very first "official" Stand Up Paddle events!  Check out our blog posts at SUP Virginia for the skinny on that!  =) 

We’ve definitely kept ourselves busy since being back and it doesn’t look like we’re about to slow down anytime soon.

Lots of events taking place in the next few months.

We’ll also (fingers crossed) be starting our first round of IVF in the next few months as well.

In the meantime, we’re playing hard and entertaining the idea of several plan B’s if IVF doesn’t work (one such plan being moving back to Hawaii).

More to follow!