Boyz II Men

So as one of my very last Young Women Personal Progress leader goals I needed to memorize the 13th Article of Faith and attend a performance using the Article of Faith as a guide to evaluate what I saw. So I bought tickets to the annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival tonight and took my cousin, Katie. We arrived, and they were unable to locate our tickets at the will-call desk. I told them I'd bought the tickets online several days before and received an email confirmation about it. The performance was sold out, but they said they'd trust us. So they printed us off a couple tickets, and in we went. It was packed solid with people, but we finally found a spot to spread our blanket (it was an outdoor amphitheater) and settled in to hear some great stories. We pulled out the program they'd given us, and on the front cover in all their glory was a picture of Boyz II Men. Live! Thursday, August 28th! Scera Outdoor Amphitheater! I knew there must be some mistake. Sure enough - the mistake was mine! The Storytelling Festival didn't start until the next night, and I had accidentally snuck into the sold-out Boyz II Men concert to fulfill a Personal Progress goal. Hmmm. Boyz II Men was totally in when I was in junior high and high school. We had a good laugh about it and left to get ice cream instead. We'll try again tomorrow night. :)

At It Again

We're full swing into our next In Vitro cycle. I started my shots on Wednesday, and this time around I get to have 4 a day. We'll be traveling to Boise for the main procedures this time, which will require three trips (we've already done one). This has been a motivation for me to calculate our gas mileage. I found that our truck gets about 20 mpg on the freeway, and my car gets about 31 mpg in town, which probably means more like 35-38 on the freeway. Big difference!

My brother Bryan and his wife Sarah moved out this week. They lived with us for the summer, and it was so fun. We'll miss them. We don't have anyone to play Scrabble with now. :) And Rocky (our guinea pig) isn't getting nearly as much attention as he did all summer.

I'm back at work 3 days a week (loving it!) and looking forward to babysitting my niece Lilli on Mondays while her mom does student teaching.

Walt's High Adventure Trip and De-boning Chickens

Walt returned late Friday night from a scouting High Adventure trip to the Tetons in Idaho/Wyoming. He and another leader took 9 boys (14-18 years old) on two days of hiking and one day of whitewater rafting. They had a wonderful time, and they came back a day early, which made this wife very happy. Now the girls at church are asking when they get to go whitewater rafting. Sounds fun to me! Walt has been great about organizing outdoor trips for the boys. Last fall they went mountain biking in Moab, and in May they went backpacking in Coyote Gulch. They boys learn outdoor survival and recreation skills, they learn how to pack and organize their things and how to work together to plan food for different types of trips. Lots of great skills.

On Tuesday morning Edith, a friend in our ward, came over and showed Sarah, Liz and me how to debone a chicken, lay it flat, season and prepare it and come out with a lovely and delicious rolled chicken dish! It was amazing. The poor chicken didn't stand a chance. We've been eating it for a few days, and I will try making it myself in the next couple weeks so I don't forget how. See pictures.

Summer of Family Reunions!

We have had four family reunions this summer and loved every one of them.  Last week my grandmother turned 80, and we all went to Seattle to celebrate with her.  She is spunky and energetic with naturally brown hair still.  She started a cherry pit fight with me while we were there.  :)  We also celebrated my grandparents recent 60th wedding anniversary.  While in Seattle we took a side trip to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound and stayed in a cabin for a couple nights, hiking during the days and eating and playing games in the evenings.  There's nothing more fun than just spending time with family.  It was the first time all of us including Jonathan (my new step-brother) had gone somewhere together.   Yea!

Weekly Update

Monday night we hosted a neighborhood BBQ in our front yard. We provided hot dogs, water, foosball, and popsicles and asked people to bring a potluck dish to share and something to sit on. I made flyers and we distributed them to every house in our ward boundaries on Sunday. Monday night at 6:30 we were ready and people started to show up - and they didn't stop! We had almost 100 people there, with dozens of kids running around the backyard, playing foosball, playing in the cul-de-sac. We had 60 hot dogs (we got 40 people last year), and we ran out by 7:15. It was a blast! We met several families I didn't know, and I was busy the whole time talking to people, re-filling water, replenishing paper products (again!), getting ice for owies, etc. We'll definitely make this an annual tradition.

So now for our In Vitro update. We went in Tuesday morning for the egg retrieval. As I woke up from the anesthesia I heard the doctors explaining to Walt that they had gone in and retrieved all the fluid from my follicles, and not a single follicle had an egg in it. They explained that they've never had this happen in their clinic, and they've been doing this for over 10 years. This puts us back at square one, starting over with the rounds of shots (at their highest dose this time) and things to try one more time in September.  I have had several moments of intense sadness about this. At the same time I realized that there are two reasons I've wanted to do In Vitro. My number one reason is to show God that I'm willing to do all I can to have a family because I believe family is one of his great purposes for us.  My second reason is to become pregnant so we can start our family. So even though a pregnancy didn't happen for us this time, my first reason for doing In Vitro was accomplished. If my second reason isn't met through this process, I have faith that it will be met through some other way at some other time. 

We had an absolutely delightful (though quick) trip to Cedar City for a Stevenson family reunion last week. There we surprised Beth, Jocelyn, and Jessica with a trip to Seattle to celebrate Grandma's 80th Birthday and stay on Orcas Island with our immediate family (see picture). It was a big surprise, and we can't wait for the trip. We orchestrated everything through Randy.

We went camping for the 4th of July! Walt and I love camping. We hardly had any neighbors, and there was an outhouse and water spigot right across the road, so it was luxury camping.

I started my in vitro shots last Wednesday. I have three a day to give myself, and to be honest, they aren't too bad. If you jab yourself fast and hard enough it doesn't even hurt. The problem is, there is something built in to your body that tells you it isn't okay to stab yourself. So if I think about it too long, my hand won't do it. My tummy is getting tender because the big shots leave bruising. There is just so much fluid to push in there. This week I'll have three ultrasounds to see if my body is producing the right amount of eggs for the egg retrieval.

Summer Half Over!!

We've been enjoying every minute of summer, especially now that my brother Bryan and his wife Sarah are living with us.  Fun!

Our patio is done in the backyard, and we've had several bar-b-ques to initiate it.  It looks great!  There are three zucchini in the garden as of this morning, and the tomatoes are really taking off.  We have 6 in rows that are doing great, and five extra tomato plants have sprouted up randomly all through the garden, so we're encouraging those.  I want to have enough to can.

We're gearing up to do In Vitro soon.  As part of the medication cycle, Walt and I started taking an anti-biotic a few days ago.  Yesterday morning was the first time we remembered to take it in the morning.  We didn't want to forget, so first thing after we got up we each downed one.  About thirty minutes later I was bending over the toilet and Walt was looking green.  We learned the hard way that it should be taken with food!  We went downstairs to eat breakfast, but our stomaches were rebelling, our appetites were gone, and it was all we could do to swallow a few bites each before heading off to work.  We felt great a couple hours later, though. The whole incident was so funny!  We kept giggling about it even while we were feeling sick.  

I have a baseline ultrasound on Sunday, and my shots start on Wednesday morning.  Apparently I can give this first round of shots to myself - one in the morning and one in the evening for 10 days - in the stomach.  Lots of women do this every day.  No big deal. (right?)

We're heading down to Cedar City on Monday for the bi-annual Stevenson family reunion.  I love those.  We stay in the dorms on SUU campus and hang out together.