Jeremiah 29:11

It has been a long few months for Jeremy and I. We have been busy with work, raking lots of leaves, prepping our home for winter, Christmas decorating and preparations, trips to visit our favorite people, and lots more. Aside from all this, we have had a lot of medical testing done.

As many know, we have been trying to get pregnant since we were married. Basically it's been like a year and a half now. So when I had my yearly check-up, I asked my doctor if there was anything we could be doing to help us out. She had me in for some blood testing, to see if there was anything glaring. Now, this seems simple for most people, but for me, its not so simple. I have issues getting my blood drawn. My veins are super skinny and they roll really bad. I usually have to get stuck 4-5 times before anything will come out. And then my blood clots REALLY fast, so virtually nothing can be drawn. So after passing out in the dr. office and a series of pokes and prods and very ugly bruises, they found that one of my hormones is VERY high. After testing one more time to be sure, they had to do an MRI. Usually the reason for this hormone being high is brain tumors (YIKES). Well, that came back clear so they sent me to a specialist to see about getting that hormone level lower.

In a nutshell, after LOTS of testing, they found that I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). While this is treatable and mine is not severe at all, they also tested Jeremy just to make sure everything was good there. Well, it wasn't. He produces about 1/100 of the amount of sperm that most men do. Of these small amounts, virtually none of them move.

So what we learned was with my inability to regularly produce healthy eggs and his inability to produce healthy sperm, we most likely will not be able to have kids on our own. While there is still a VERY slim possibility, it is not likely and it certainly will not yeild the big family that we want.

This was a very hard reality for us to hear, and while we want to have hope, we also want to be realistic. We have prayed very very hard about this the last few months. It has not been easy and I don't think it will get easy any time soon. However, we know that God's plan for us is for us to adopt. This has been made very clear to us and we are ready and willing to accept that this is God's plan and it is how He intends for our family to grow. With that being said, we have begun to look into the adoption process. We have a meeting with a counselor at Catholic Charities next week to get all of our questions answered and are looking forward to that.

We know that Adoption is a long process and it is a lot of work. However, we are looking foward to the road ahead and we finally can move forward in our desire to have children. It helps tremendously that we know a lot of families who have adopted, some very recently, and we can see that a family is a family no matter what their make-up or blood. We also have prayed and discussed at great length the openness towards children of other races, backgrounds, cultures, etc... We really feel that our home is open to any child that needs a home. While we are going to do an infant adoption the first time, we are not opposed to adopting waiting children either in the future. Each and every child deserves a safe and loving home. If the child that needs us most is green with purple hair, we will embrace that child as our own and raise it in a loving, Catholic home. That being said, we are not going to limit our options, as this significantly increases your waiting time, but also could significantly alter God's plan for our family.

So what I would basically like to ask all of you is your prayers. We would ask that you pray for us and for our future children. We just keep reminding each other that there are children out there who need a home and we are a loving and willing home for whatever children God brings to our door. Again, we are very eager to begin the process, but we ask that you bear with us as this is an emotional time and a very busy time for us as well.

Jeremy's aunt sent us a wall hanging that has this Bible verse on it and we have always had it hanging in our kitchen. It wasn't until recently that we really read it and realized what an impact it had on our home and on our lives. Having this on our wall has become a reminder to us daily of God's grace and His goodness and His infinite mercy.

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your good and not for harm, to give you a future of hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Job Change

Things have been crazy around here as always. We've been on lots of trips in the last few months, culminating with my "Birthday Bash" in St. Louis. We went to a Cubs/Cards game and had party box tickets and had a blast. We then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory (one of my favorite places ever). I think that's our last trip for a while. Of course that is not counting the mini-trip to Starved Rock on Oct. 17-18 for my parents 25th Anniversary party. And then finally topping off the year with our much needed trip to Minnesota to see our favorite family ever! We miss them sooooooo much!

Aside from all of the traveling, I have been really really missing teaching. I took a year off after student teaching since we were doing so many major things, like getting married, buying a house, buying a car, going to Italy, etc... However, after this semester started, I realized how much I really want to be back in a classroom. Therefore, I decided to go for it. Beginning in January, I will be quitting my job a Little Jewels (which will NOT be an easy thing for me to do) and I will begin subbing in the Catholic schools (Epiph, HT, CCHS) in town. I am hoping to get a position in the fall then after that, my own classroom.

While it is super hard to leave somewhere that I have spent almost 5 years, I am really excited about this change. I will be working much easier hours than I am now, with a lot more time for getting things done around the house and spending time with my husband. However, I will miss seeing my babies every day, I will miss the awesome parents that we have, I will miss seeing my mom every day, I will miss all of the people. I will also miss getting lots and lots of baby-sitting jobs, since a day care is a prime place for that.

The other kind of negative about subbing was my summer plans... At this point, I'm don't need a summer off and we could still use the extra money. However, God answered that prayer as well and a family that I baby-sit for frequently was looking for a sitter for their 9 year old all summer next summer! How convenient as I am the one person they will leave their kids with overnight and feel comfortable about it. So basically I answered their prayers and they answered mine and life is good.

I am very ready for this change in my life and I am looking forward to a new adventure. So... If you know any teachers in those schools or are one yourself, if you need a sub, sign me up!!!

Updates

Busy is an understatement for our lives lately. We have had a lot of fun things happen this summer!

So besides finishing the house and finally having everything put away, we started to have serious issues with our car. The power steering went out a few months ago, but had gotten progressively worse since then. So it was like real physical work to drive our car. In addition, it was having issues starting off and on (not really what you want when you only have one car). So we decided to do a little car shopping. We researched and fell in love with the Toyota Rav4. We had a toyota and loved it and the amount of space it had, so we didn't want to lose that. We found a 2008 test-drive model, brand new, never been driven except for test-drives, on the Toyota lot. It was their basic model and was priced right where we wanted it. So we decided to go ahead and buy it before our car went completely dead. We traded in the Avalon and drove the Rav4 off the lot that day! We absolutely love the car and are so happy to have something reliable as our only vehicle.

We then went to David and Stephanie's wedding in California. We had a blast, it was so fun to go out there and so fun to see them get married. It is wonderful to go to good solid, Catholic weddings. You could just see the holiness and love of the two fo them the whole weekend. I posted more pictures on Facebook, but here are a few highlights. The first one is the people we travelled and stayed with, Amy O and Justine and Jon Bator. Then its us with the bride and groom!

We also went to Chicago for the Fourth of July. We went to see friends from high school and spend time with them. Again, we had so much fun and it was a wonderful weekend.

My grandma celebrated her 80th birthday! That's hard to believe because she acts and looks way younger than she is! But it was so fun to see all of my family and to see all of the people who love my grandma and wanted to wish her a happy birthday.

In addition, Jeremy got braces on his top teeth. This is to hopefully align his teeth so that his jaw can sit comfortable and be a more permanent solution than the yucky retainers he has now. So he of course was excited to get orange and blue rubber bands on his brackets. He gets them tightened for the first time in a week or so, so we will see how that goes...

He also found out he did not pass his exam, so he is continuing to study for 3F in the Fall and he's off to a racing start, studying 3+ hours a day, in addition to work! This means, I am filling my time with lots of baby-sitting, reading some good books, and keeping the house spic and span...

Well, thats it for the major things, but here's a look at our lives coming up:

This weekend: My cousin's bridal shower, going away party at SRBCNC

Next weekend: Our one year anniversary!!!! Weekend at Starved Rock

25th/26th: Mom's birthday girls day out, House Blessing Party

July's pretty full, in between, I am baby-sitting 2-3 times a week and Jeremy's studying! Hopefully August brings some down time!

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was completely wonderful.

It began with Jeremy taking his Actuary Exam. We will not find out the results for 8 weeks, which kind of stinks, but on a good note, that means he does not have to study for 8 whole weeks!!! So all of those things that I have put on his "Honey Do" list will get done now, because he has time! He thinks he did well on the exam, so we'll see.

Then, we had our "Date Day". We set aside a whole day to devote to each other. We got a ton of stuff done, didn't answer our phones and didn't worry about work, email, whatever else gets in the way. So we went shopping. Jeremy was in desperate need of some new clothes. He's worn his work clothes out to the point where they're not even Business Casual anymore and they should go to the rag pile. So after a lot of money spent at Kohls, he came out looking professional like he should. It was fun to pick out clothes together (not as much fun at the checkout line, but whatever) and now he has polos that don't look like they're from 1979.

Then we went and got some flowers for our house. We put this off so that we could do it together and we planted flowers around our mailbox (after I dug out all of the weeds). We got some porch flowers and it looks really nice now. We also picked up a concrete Mary statue for our front area. Jeremy has been dying to get one and we found one we like and it's the right size and looks perfect, so we put some flowers in front of her as well.

Finally, we went and got Jeremy's birthday gift. His parents and my grandparents and basically anyone who gave him anything gave him money towards a Wii. However, he said that he wouldn't buy it until after his exam so that he could actually enjoy it. So, a month and a half after his birthday, he got his gift. We got the Wii and Wii Fit and a few other small games and have enjoyed that now that there are not more pressing matters. The other part of the deal was that every box had to be unpacked before we could get it. I upheld my end of the bargain as we only have like 3 boxes left that are not put away. However, these require sorting and getting rid of things and that is occurring next weekend. Then our house is 100% complete, all our furniture is here, all our painting is done, carpet looks wonderful, all our stuff from our parents' houses is here, sorted, and put away, and our storage room is completely organized. My stress level shot down this weekend as all of those things were completed.

Then on Sunday we went to Mass and then came home to get ready for a cookout we had with our families. My family and his family as well as Amy and her family came over to enjoy the wonderful weather and our beautiful deck and patio/furniture. It was a lot of fun and we love to entertain. It's great to see them all and to enjoy time with our families and friends.

We then took a walk together around our new neighborhood and it was so nice to just talk with him without more pressing things happening all around us. I love spending quality time with him and just relaxing. It was so nice.

Finally my good friend Annie came over and we caught up and played some Wii and really enjoyed that as well.

All in all the weekend was completely wonderful and although it seemed like it was getting a little expensive at first, we were able to do some much needed errands, spend some much needed time together and enjoy the beautiful weather and our wonderful home!!!

100% Disgusting!

While I try to be a good wife everyday, today I really tried to step it up and help my husband. His next Actuarial Exam is in two weeks. This means he needs to be studying ALL THE TIME so that he can pass. Well, with all of the rain, our yard (even though it was done a few days ago) needed a major mowing. So I decided that I could help out and do it since he needs to be studying. This turned out to be eventful as the mower simply SHUT DOWN on me while I was mowing. We then found grass stuck inside of it and filled it with gas and half an hour later (a half hour where Jeremy wasn't studying and was helping me) I finished mowing. So anyway...

We have these bushes out front that are really pretty and are trimmed nicely, but they're right in front of the hose. You can't get to it at all. So we are going to trim them down. Since it's a beautiful day and Jeremy should be studying, I volunteered. That was until I trimmed out a nice hole to get started and found A DEAD RABBIT STARING BACK AT ME. I'm sure I drove the neighbors crazy when I screamed and yelled for Jeremy. The rabbit is like totally rotten and covered in bugs and leaves and all kinds of nastiness. Ugh! So, even though I was trying to be nice and help Jeremy and let him study, I actually cost him study time since he had to remove the dead rabbit (What do you do with dead animals anyway???) and help fix the mower.

So in the end I learned that I'm not much of a help with yard work. Maybe I'll just finish unpacking boxes instead, while he studies...

Thank you facebook for teaching me a lesson

So I discovered something about myself today and I really didn't like it. So it started with Jeremy finally realizing that all of his contact info on everything still has his ilstu email address. So he decided to change all of that. This included his Facebook account. So, he changed it to our email address which is all good fine and dandy... except... that was also the email address I used for my facebook. Therefore, what happened was stupid facebook deleted my profile, everything I had ever done on it and basically deleted me from cyberspace so that Jeremy could change his email address.

First discovery... I really wanted to blame Jeremy for this. I was mad at myself for even wanting to blame him. Then I realized how innocent his mistake was and I blamed Facebook.

Second discovery... Facebook kind of ruled my life... Now my inital reaction was to say "okay, forget Facebook, i'll do without." This sounded kind of liberating. Until I realized that it was my sole means of communication with many many people. I realized that without it, I would be missing out on a lot of relationships. As sad as this seems, it is totally true. It has become our form of communication. I don't like it really at all. It's fast, it's easy, and it's totally impersonal I decided. But, because the rest of the world is doing it, I'm doing it too...

Third discovery... I hate the fact that this bothers me so much! It shouldn't!

So basically, it allowed me to step back, see where my priorities were and I decided instead of fretting over it and stewing at the computer, I would go help my husband sort through his childhood stuff...

Which brings me to the next event of my evening. So it was 9pm and Jeremy decided it was time to go through all of his stuff (which basically filled our garage) that his parents dropped off from their house. Let me preface this by saying that he is a total packrat and he knows it. He keeps virtually everything. I, on the otherhand, only keep things that serve a purpose. If I've used it in the last year, I can keep it, otherwise, to the curb.

So while I was stewing, he had begun sorting. When I got over my tantrum and decided to be a grown-up who is dedicated to her family and faith versus facebook, I went out and almost cried because he had already sorted 80% of the stuff and was keeping very little. He did this because he knew it meant a lot to me to have him get rid of unnecessary things. We laughed and talked about his childhood memories and enjoyed those moments together.

So basically, this really long post ends in this simple lesson that I learned tonight: It's okay to allow things like facebook to enhance relationships but its not okay to let them come between them. My husband is the most wonderful man in the whole world and I thank him for being so selfless each and every day.

This is Jeremy and I in front of St. Peter's Basillica in Rome (or as Jeremy would say, Catholic Disneyworld)

Painting

We've officially owned a home for a week now... However, it still doesn't quite feel like ours. We haven't actually moved in yet. We have been painting non-stop for a whole week.

First we painted the gypsy gold room. We turned it brown instead. It looks awesome and I absolutely love the color (pictures to come later, its a little, okay, a lot messy right now). We then painted our living room/office a bright blue. Our master bedroom is now chocolate brown with a cream accent wall. We took down loads of wallpaper in our kitchen, I HATE WALLPAPER! and we painted it a darker blue. We then decided, since those have gone so smoothly, that we would go ahead and paint the spare bedroom that was white. The old owner's son had put a hold in the wall that they had patched up, but it needed a fresh coat of paint. We painted it gray and it turned out really really cool as well. Finally, we went for the fun room. The basement is going to be Jeremy's "man cave" or at least part of the basement. So, he got to pick the colors and for all who know him, I'm sure you know what colors he chose... Orange and blue of course. So we spatter painted the brick walls orange and blue. Then we started painting the dry wall blue, but the paint on there before was some kind of weird paint that other paint doesn't stick to... so we had to peel all of the blue paint off, prime it, then do three coats of the paint! What a pain! So anyway, we're still working on finishing that up. Then we just have to paint the hallways after we move in this weekend. We're getting new carpet and washer/dryer next week and then our new furniture should be here the following week.

So things are moving along. The house has pretty much consumed most of our time/lives for the last week, but the end of that is in sight and we are sooooo looking forward to this summer when we are settled in and our jobs are calmed down and our vacations are all over and we can just do some much needed relaxing! I know its still kind of a ways off, but at least it's something to look forward to!