Fertility Update

Jake and I decided we needed to get more aggressive on the fertility front. So this month in conjunction with clomid, I will be injecting follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) on day 7 and 9. This will make me produce more than one egg and is supposed to make the eggs a bigger better quality.

I was so nervous to give myself a shot. Jake was really supportive and helped me feel better about it. He even offered to give me the shot even though he doesn't like needles. In the end it ended up being easier for me to give myself the shot. Jacob gave me a big hug from behind and I stuck the needle in my belly. It really didn't turn out that bad. The needle is small and short and doesn't hurt that much. It is just so weird to watch myself put it inside me.

On day 10, I went in for an ultra sound and the Dr. looked at the eggs to see how many of them there was and to see if they were ready to be fertilized. I am so glad to now be doing ultra sounds. It takes all of the guess work out of knowing whether we timed the artificial insemination right. It also creates more confidence that things are working when you can look at the screen and see the eggs.

I had 3 eggs that were a good size and ready. That night at 12:30 am I had to inject a shot of HCG. This is neccessary because we confused my body by taking the FSH. The HCG will force the eggs to get released and be ready and waiting for the sperm during IUI (artificial insemination).

Even though, we are taking a more aggressive route, Jacob and I are still doubtful that it will work. We have been waiting so long that it just seems like we won't ever get pregnant. I don't really think we will never have children, but I will definitely be surprised and grateful when it does happen.

Anyhow, we both think we will probably have to do invitro. The scary thing about invitro, besides the cost, is the toll it takes on your body. It is so stringent everything you have to do just to prep your body for invitro. I have heard the shot I have to inject myself with on invitro hurts like h*%& and it has to go in the bum.

Our game plan is to do the less expensive FSH injections 3 more cycles then if I am still not pregnant we will start invitro.

Happy Thanksgiving 08

Fee Fi Fo Fum, who stole my turkey drum? I love this picture!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a lot of fun. This year all the family congregated in Provo. Those visiting took turns staying the night at our house and John & Amber's. The Thanksgiving meal was pretty typical with turkey, Amber's famous candied yams, my delicious mashed potatoes (the secret is cream cheese, honestly these are so good that you don't even have to add gravy or butter.), rolls, and a specialty salad by Joe, of course. Although there was plenty of food to go around, I'm always surprised at how small Andersen Thanksgivings are. I'm used to the Oler Thanksgivings with about 40 different families all contributing.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at John and Amber's house. Jake and I sure do wish they had a basement where the kids could go play. :) Before we went over to John & Amber's for Thanksgiving dinner Jake, Joe, and I went to play at the park by our house. We played free-for-all-b-ball and football. The boys took turns playing defense and quarterback while I played receiver the whole time. This was my second favorite thing about this years Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun and I was totally worn out.

On Friday each family rented a room at a hotel in Midvale with an indoor swimming pool. We had so much fun swimming! We had races to see who could swim the farthest under water, races to one end of the pool and back, and competitions to see who could walk on their hands the farthest. I think Dave won all of the competitions. :) Then we split up into teams and played water football. Joe, Jake, and I were on one team and John, Nae, and Dave were on the other team, Aylee would be on the offensive team. We had so much fun dunking each other (mostly Dave dunking everyone :) ) wrestling for the ball etc. It was so fun! This was my favorite part of Thanksgiving.

Jake also instigated playing "Spoons" in our room and we went to the Planetarium on Saturday.

Nae and Dave fighting ove the spoon.

Side Notes:

• Jen went to the emergency room on Wed. before Thanksgiving. She was unable to relieve her bladder. The hospital finally had to put a catheter in her bladder and make an appointment for her to see a specialist on Monday, after Thanksgiving. Scary and expensive. Things were also further complicated because Jen had a root canal and is pregnant. Her tooth had quite a lot of infection and it was all swollen and looked so sore. We all felt for her.


• Both Jen & Amber are pregnant again. I am happy for them but sad that I cannot get pregnant. We started trying to have kids BEFORE Jen and Dave and yet they will soon have two kids and we don't have any.


• I know Jake's family feels for us not being able to get pregnant. I really felt that everyone was making a special effort to make me feel comfortable; it seemed like Amber, Jen, John, and everyone were trying to avoid talking about pregnancy too much out of consideration for me.


• I love Jacob's family so much! They are so loving, caring, and accepting.

Fall Floral Arrangement

For Enrichment tonight we made our own fall floral arrangement. I had a lot of fun. The class is taught by a professional flower arranger. K-I know this doesn't look the best, but we are going to do more arrangements throughout the year and I feel like the next arrangements I do will improve and I will hopefully get better and better. :) I still giggle to myself when I think back to my Ricks school days and remember when I wanted to be a professional flower arranger...until I took a class and that cured me real quick. :)

Kitty Wonderland!

I was going through inner turmoil because Cuddles obviously wanted to be outside. She would meow at the door so pitifully. She would even take a running start and hurl herself against the downstairs sliding glass doors. My dilemma was that I did not feel it was safe to let her out. The yard is not fenced and I felt sure that she would get run over. I did some research online and my conserns were verified. All of the animal humane centers support an indoor only rule for cats. One site quoted that more cats die from being run over than are euthanized each year. Sadly blank million cats are put to death each year.

Shanty Panty

Jacob was kind enough to sign me up for some free samples of tampons. If you look closely, you can see that he had them sent to "Shanty Panty," a nickname he call me quite often. (Lucky me :)) But boy does this kid make me laugh!

When I was younger I always thought it was weird when women would jokingly count their husbands as one of the kids. However, now I understand. Jake is always pulling pranks and keeping things light. I love it and need that in my life. Just another reason why I love this kid.

I love Flowers!

101 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

1. I copied this blog idea from my sister-in-law, Brittnay


2. I have been a gospel doctrine teacher for over 4 years in 3 different wards.


3. I make it a goal to have as few condiments stored in my fridge as possible.


4. I discovered that I truly enjoy the domestic art of canning food storage.


5. I love and adore my cat, Cuddles.


6. I ran the Spudman Olympic Triathlon in 2008.


7. I love free things!


8. I love finding good deals on everything. For women, finding a good deal is like getting the kill in the big hunt for a man.


9. I love reading all sorts of different books.


10. I totally recommend the series of books in the Four Story Mistake by ...


11. I hate looking for parking spaces and so generally I end up parking far away in the first empty parking place I find.


12. I love the rain. I used to go on lots of walks on the farm when it was pouring down.


13. I will frequently eat something more along the lines of dinner for breakfast, such as soup, a turkey sandwich, mashed potatoes, etc.


14. I love air-fresh popcorn. I probably make it about 2-3 times a week.


15. I have traveled to Florida, New York, Oregon, Illinois, Arizona, Porta Vollarta, The Bahamas, England, Scotland, Can Cun, Belize, Cozumel, as well as all the boring states around Idaho. I have not however, made it to California.


16. I prefer drinking warm water


17. My favorite fruit is a tree-ripened peach


18. I once threw up Nacho Cheese Doritos and have never eaten them since


19. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was going to Moab w/ my parents and Tydon


20. I was named after my maternal grandma, Ruby Alkire


21. All my grandparents were deceased by the time I was 21-years old.


22. My mom had me when she was 29-years old.  This meant she had five kids ranging in ages from 7 to newborn.  Crazy!


23. I was on a city swim team when I was 10 years old and competed in the backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle.


24. I was once temporarily blind in one eye after a racquetball injury.  My pupil was filling up with blood and this blocked my vision.  I had to be on bed rest for an entire week!


25. I have never broken a bone.


26. I had braces when I was 19-21 years old.


27. I collect matchbooks.  This started because when I was little I read Nancy Drew books.  Nancy was so smart, cool, and always prepared.  Once when she got trapped in a cave she had a matchbook in her pocket.  She would light the matches and watch the flame and knew the direction to go to get out by the flame bending because of the wind outside the cave.


28. My first job was a salad bar girl at Sizzler.  I think minimum wage was $4.25 when I started.


29. When I was 23-25 I had a personal trainer and could leg press a thousand pounds!!  This is when I lost a lot of weight.  Muscle is where it's at.


30. In first grade, I can remember having to stand with my nose in a corner during recess.


31. I pooped my pants after taking an anti-gas pill when I was pregnant.  We were driving home and I made it to the drive way, but lost it as I was running up the sidewalk.


32. I have a mail phobia, it's not that I'm scared of mail, I don't trust the mail.  I drove 45 minutes (one way) to hand deliver my Ricks College application instead of mailing it.


33. My brother, Tydon, used to call me Shantelly Lace (like the song) because I was a big tattle tale when I was little.  And believe me he gave me a lot to tattle about!


34. I started working for my dad in the spud harvest when I was in the first grade.


35. There is a lame three-way stop by my house and I often run it.


36. People tease both my mother-in-law, JoAnn, and me about thinking it would be a great idea to go out and buy a bunch of US postal stamps before the price increased.   Younger Jo thought it would save her lots of money to buy all the stamps to send out her wedding announcements before the price increased.  When grandma Dorma was telling me this story, I was nodding my head in complete agreement.  I thought it was a great idea to save money.  Everyone cracked up laughing and said I was just like, Jo.


37. The first time I saw Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was at my 12-year-old birthday party.  I don't need to tell you, it was a BIG hit!  In fact, I still like the movie.  It makes it on my classic list.