FET #5 Update: Aunt Flow is MIA!

This post is for my EA buddies and to my male family and friends...you might just want to skip this one.

Our plans for an October FET have been delayed!  In August when we found out we lost our babies from my pregnancy in FET #4 the last words Nurse A had for me were, "give us a call when you get your period."  After I went off my meds I miscarried surprisingly fast (on September 7th).  I decided to let my body rest for one menstrual cycle and figured we would just begin our next FET cycle at the beginning of October when my next period was due.  Well...my body has other plans apparently. It has been 46 days and counting since my miscarriage and still no period.  While this is not totally unusual, it is unusual for me.  I can only assume my body is readjusting after my pregnancy and miscarriage in August.  I know what you might be thinking...I am not pregnant.  I took a test; it was negative.  At least we've had additional time to raise the funds for our next transfer.  We are only $823 away from our goal of $2500 we need for Dr. K's FET fees!  My EBAY sales have been steady.  In fact I need to prep a bunch of items to restock my store because the inventory is so low!  It has been really neat to see how my EBAY store has allowed family and friends to support our adoption and be part of this process.  Here is just one example:

This is a package of love; an item one friend donated to our adoption fund eBay store and then bought by another friend.

Hopefully "Aunt Flow" will make her appearance soon.  We have a fun family adventure planned at the end of November for my cousin's wedding and I would hate to delay my cycle or have our FET be too close to our trip.  Stay tuned!

UPDATE....(10/30).....54 days and counting...

Long Beach Half Marathon 2013

The "Shack Mama" crosses the finish line again!

Long Beach Half Marathon 2013

Finish Time: 2:38

PR by 13 minutes!

My traditional post race victory pose!

On October 13th I competed in my second half marathon this year.  This time I raced in Long Beach and it was a beautiful day for a nice long run!  It was hands down the most scenic race I've ever done. It was incredible to run next to the Queen Mary, around a lighthouse, over the bay bridge while the fire boat did a water spout salute, run next to the ocean while the waves were crashing, and then down Ocean Blvd past historic buildings and palm tree lined streets.  It was a very well run race too!

An areal view of the start line.  You can see the Queen Mary in the background.

The Long Beach fire boat doing their water cannon salute.

 This time I raced with Team Mike who all run in honor of my sister in law's father who was a fire fighter who passed away two years ago from pancreatic cancer.  Several friends and members of my boot camp were there to run as well.  It was fun to see some familiar faces as I made my way through the 13.1 mile race.

Some of the Team Mike crew!

I decided to run this race just six weeks before race day so I didn't have much training time.  In fact I only ran twice to get ready for this race and mostly focused on putting on muscle through my boot camp workouts.  I wasn't sure how my body would handle such a long distance without adequate training but everything went surprisingly well!  The first six miles I ran a 9:30-10:30 pace which is pretty fast for me.  I felt really good and didn't hurt like I did in my last half marathon.  After mile 8 I began to get really hungry and lose steam.  That is where my lack of training caught up with me. I had the strength but not the endurance.  I came across several inspiring runners that kept me motivated and helped me push through to the end and my last mile I finished really strong.  I ended up finishing 13 minutes faster than my last half marathon and my body felt MUCH better than last time too.

Going strong at mile 7!

Crossing the finish line!

It was fun to have lots of cheerleaders in the race.  Dan also loaded my phone with lots of great songs to run to and I always run faster with good music in my ears.

My brother Sam who completed the LB Full Marathon in 2012

My sister in law Kristen who completed the LB Half Marathon in 2012 while 7.5 months pregnant and the Full Marathon in 2011 to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Dan my ever faithful supporter.  He had the hardest job taking care of Lena while I ran.

My littlest cheerleaders: Lena and cousin Riley

The Long Beach Half Marathon was such a great race and I had such a strong run that I am pretty sure my running days are far from over.  I can't wait to race again!

I think she would jump into the water if she could.

"FISH!!! FISH!!!"

We had such a fun weekend as a family.  On Saturday we took Lena to the Long Beach Aquarium for the first time and she LOVED it!  She ran around yelling "Fish! Fish!" for the first 30 minutes and kept calling all the seals and sea lions "dog dogs".  Then we ate a nice lunch on the boardwalk and checked into our race hotel so we could have a relaxing evening and morning before the race.  Can't wait till next year!

It was a great race day but by the end Lena was "toast"!!!

Exciting FET #5 Fundraising Update!

About a month ago we began fundraising for our next FET which will hopefully be sometime at the end of this month.  Our half.com and eBay sales have been steady and we have so many more items to list!  This week we realized that while the fundraising is going well it is slow and we won't have the cash in hand to pay Dr. K which means either postpone the FET or put it on the credit card.  Then at the end of the week I got an email from someone who found our Aruba vacation rental on Redweek.com and within 24 hours we completed the rental agreement!  We now have an additional $900 in our bank account for this FET and will get the other $900 in the spring which we will save for future adoption efforts!  How awesome and timely was that!?  I only had it listed for six weeks and it is rented already.  We have another 2014 rental week in Palm Desert, CA that we will list this week and we still have our garage sale that we will do (probably in November).  That brings our current total for FET #5 to $1327!  I made five more eBay sales this weekend and will list a few more items this week so our total will hopefully keep rising. We need $2500 for Dr. K in a few weeks and I will have to order about $350 in FET medications this week so we are about halfway to our financial goal!  This was so encouraging to us and we are so thankful for the way that God has provided for us financially.  We look forward to seeing what God has in store for our family.

Favorite Things: FOOD! How I lost six pounds in one week!

My overhauled bread bowl is now full of veggies for this week's recipes.

I am a total self professed foodie.  I love to eat, to bake, to savor lots of different flavors... I favor most cheese and baked goods.  Dan is also a foodie.  We encourage each other's foodie habits and spoil each other with our favorite foods.  I am one of those wives that shows her love through food.  I bake Dan treats, make yummy dinners, layout out spreads of our favorite cheese and accompaniments, I even bake homemade bread.  I am solely responsible for the baked goods addiction that many of Dan's co-workers have developed because I send baked goods to his office so often.  But this week things have begun to change....

I have come to the realization recently that when I bake really delicious but unhealthy treats and meals for my family (on a regular basis) I am not showing the right kind of love.  I have decided that I want my meals to say, "I am super delicious...I took time and thought to prepare...AND I will nourish your body and keep it working the proper way."  If I truly love my family I will take time to make them food that will keep them healthy, not send them to an early death.

Shopping for week 1 menu! (Plus a few extras like milk for Lena, Goldfish crackers for Lena, Spaghettios for Lena...etc.

I have wanted to change the way I cook for a long time but I put it off.  I didn't want to take the time to research recipes, restructure my pantry, and honestly I didn't want to give up making the baked goods that I love to make.  BUT...I didn't lose any weight from June until the end of September and I knew with my boot camp and triathlon training it wasn't because I wasn't exercising.  I knew that if I wanted to push through this weight loss plateau I was going to have to change the way I ate.

Crockpot meatballs and spaghetti squash.

Recently, I became acquainted with a food blogger online and in real life (I teacher her daughter piano lessons.) whose nutritional philosophy is: "It's time to change the way we eat.  It's time to cut out processed foods and to return to a diet filled with wholesome ingredients." I began following her blog www.realhealthyrecipes.com and her Facebook page (of the same name).  I was surprised by the variety of recipes she has posted and by how good they looked.  Still I was hesitant to try her recipes out because they called for some ingredients I hadn't tried before like blanched almond flour, coconut oil, coconut crystals, nutritional yeast, etc.  Then Diana, the food blogger, offered an 8-week menu planner with accompanying weekly shopping lists and I bought it and last week I began my 8-week boot camp towards a healthier lifestyle.  Here are my thoughts on my new food plan:

• I love shopping for all my meals in one shopping trip at the beginning of the week!
• I love not having to wonder what I should make for dinner every night.
• It is fun rating each meal on our menu so we can decide which ones we want to make again or tweak.
• It is surprisingly easy to make your own meals from fresh, non-processed food five nights a week.
• After not losing a pound all summer I lost six pounds in one week on this new meal plan.  
• Lena (my super picky eater) tried, ate, and liked,THREE new vegetables in one week.  Her favorite is cauliflower rice. (She has tons of variations of this rice that I can't wait to try!)
• I am a fan!

Most of the new ingredients were not that hard to find!  These were some good deals I found at Costco! (Coconut oil, coconut crystals, blue agave syrup)

Since I am such a fan of baked goods I love that Diana has tons of healthier cookie and dessert recipes for me to try.  My favorite so far is a blondie recipe that is awesome!  I am so glad that I have taken the plunge into learning healthier cooking techniques and some great new recipes.  I am certain that I will still eat cheese and have some of my old favorites occasionally but I LOVE that I have finally found a way to eat healthy food without getting bored and feeling deprived.  I will have to update once we get a few more weeks into our 8 week Real Healthy Menu.