new(s)

It's been a whirlwind of a week, but since I'm on doctor-ordered couch-rest for the rest of the day, I guess I'm out of excuses for not-blogging. More on the couch-rest later, promise. But first...stuff I have pictures for. :)

We started last weekend with a little stop by Academy, one of our favorite stores. We've been hoarding a gift card for there since last Christmas (I know, can you believe I had that much self-discipline?) and stop by every so often to see if there's something worthy of buying. For quite some time we've been planning to use the card towards getting a glider for our porch. They've had one all summer that we like, we just keep putting off getting it. On Friday night, we discovered that all their summer porch furniture stuff is marked WAY down since it's the end of the season...so we not ONLY got the glider we've been wanting all summer (for almost half off), we had enough money left on the card to ALSO get an adorable little table-for-two set for our back porch!!


I was just SO excited that we were able to get these things-- it was a nice reminder that good things will come to those who wait. :) And we've enjoyed eating a few meals and having coffee out on our porch. That is, when it's not 94 degrees. And the flies aren't rabidly attacking. Well, whatever.

The main goal for the weekend was to get a car. Without making this story way too long...let's just say that by Saturday afternoon, I was OVER the whole car-buying thing. I was tired of shopping and comparing and debating, and I really just did not want to spend a bunch of money. Let's face it: right now, I'd rather save as much money as I can towards our infertility treatments. So we decided to just get a car (rather than another SUV) that will hopefully meet our needs for the next few years and to get it as cheaply as we can, saving the rest of the money we'd set aside towards the vehicle towards our medical bills. God totally pulled through for us on this one-- one of my dad's old friends (who lives in Savannah) sold us his 2004 Toyota Matrix for a really awesome price. Even though I agreed to buy it basically sight unseen (other than a picture online), it turns out that I absolutely LOVE it! Not only is it cute and sporty, but it has way more technology than I've ever had...so I feel like pretty hot stuff!

And since it's a hatchback, with the seats folded down it looks like there will be more than enough storage space for whatever we need to haul. So I am really excited about the whole thing. Also, since we had to drive to Savannah to get the car, it meant we got to spend the weekend with our friends the Moores...an unexpected and excellent bonus to the weekend!

I love my new car-- but I think one of the funniest things is this warning label on the back of the visors. Now, it's probably not all that funny if you speak/read French. But I don't. So I think it's hilarious. Please notice the words I circled in red.

Now, I have enough brain cells to realize that the "BLESSURE GRAVE" is probably the French equivalent of "SERIOUS INJURY". But to me, the word "blessure" looks an awful lot like the word "bless" or "blessing," which to me, are words with positive connotations. The word "grave" looks like...the English word "grave," which does not really have any positive connotations. You're either talking about a hole dug for a coffin, or it's an adjective meaning "serious"...like "there will be some grave consequences for your actions, young lady." So the idea of some "grave blessings"...I don't know, it just makes me laugh. And the whole thing also makes me wonder...why French?? Is that really the most useful second language they could think of to put on this visor? Anyway...

Ok, so...is it possible to have a butterfly infestation? Not inside my house...but in every single flower bed on my property? And don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining...it's just really weird. I have a bunch of sedum (the plant below that's starting to turn pink) and apparently it's where it's AT for these brown butterflies. I tried to capture the essence of the situation in a photo...but a lot of them fly away (not AWAY...just off the flower they had just been sitting on) when I got close...but if you look carefully (where's waldo??), you can count 5 of them in the shot below! But I'm serious...this bed below is around our mailbox. When I go to get the mail, I'm almost SWARMED by these butterflies! I'm swatting them down! I'm worried they will fly in my mouth! They're some devoted little suckers! And it's just really weird. The end.

So today I had an IUI. Things did not really go according to plan...but compared to last month, it was a lot better. **WARNING: Personal medical information ahead!! If TMI might not be your thing, then move on!! But leave a comment before you go! :)** Our post-wash sample was not good at all. They let us look at the slides under the microscope, which was REALLY cool. I think that deep in my heart, I'm a scientist. But that's just a side note. Unfortunately, there was only ONE living and swimming sperm on the whole slide. That's not really a "good count." Although yes, it "only takes one!!!!!" (as many well-wishing people will want to point out)...well, most people get a couple MILLION (post-wash). That's gonna help your odds a lot more than ONE. Our other slide had 2. So my doctor said that it was completely up to us, but we were probably wasting our time/money going ahead with the procedure. But you know me-- I'm just made of time and money! (hahahahahaha) I said go ahead, because if we went ahead, we have a chance. It might be a microscopically tiny chance, but it's a chance. If we didn't do it...well, we'd have no chance this month. So we went ahead...but unfortunately, even this rather simple procedure wasn't in the cards for me today. The doctor (two of them, actually...I appreciate that they exhausted every possibility trying!) wasn't able to *ahem* get the equipment where it needed to go because my cervix was not cooperating. They think there may be some scarring there from the HSG. Anyway, what was supposed to be a relatively quick and not-too-uncomfortable procedure (discomfort akin to a Pap smear) turned into a much longer, quite painful procedure. And in the end, they were still not able to complete it. So it turned into an intra-cervical insemination (versus intra-uterine), which is not nearly as good...and given that there were still only a couple of viable sperm...well, basically it was a failure. A painful failure, at that. BOO!

But unlike last month, I am totally okay with what happened today. I don't feel sad or discouraged. I am disappointed, but I still feel like we made progress. My doctors said that it's not at all unusual (the scarring from the HSG and the cervical muscles spasming closed due to the anxiety/pain of the procedure) and in no way indicative that I won't be able to successfully complete the procedure next month. They were even SUPER generous in charging me for only a fraction of what it should have cost, since they felt so bad that they weren't able to complete the procedure. They are going to be talking with Matt's doctors (and getting in a bunch of new lab work he had done this week) to make a plan for next month...looks like it might be a DOUBLE MEDICATED cycle, meaning we BOTH get to be jacked up on hot-flash-inducing, mood-altering fertility drugs-- what fun!! They're also going to do some ultrasounds to determine my cervical length and a few other things that may help them next month. So...that's good.

And as an added bonus, I got to take the whole day off from work, not just the half-day I'd planned. Since the extra hour of pinching and stabbing on my inner parts induced a lot of cramping and bleeding, they said I needed to just rest and *hopefully* let the one lone sperm find his way to what he's looking for. So yay for an afternoon of laying on the couch and Keeping up with the Kardashians.

So that's all the news here...let me get back to my regularly scheduled SLOTHING. Happy Thursday!!