Christmas day my Papa passed away. For those who have been reading my blog for a while you will probably remember that me and Papa were extremely close. We have gone to church and brunch every Sunday since I moved back to New Orleans about 2.5 years ago.  Although it was an extremely sad day, I know he was at peace with all of his children and grandchildren by his side. And I take comfort in the fact that he isn't in pain anymore. We had just celebrated his 90th birthday party, so he definitely lived a long and fulfilled life. The service and burial will be on Wednesday.

I went to church today for the 1st time ever without him. I didn't think I would be able to do it, but a cousin offered to go with me so I went. We go to a relatively small church and he had been a member for over 50 years so I knew everyone there would be sharing in my loss. It turned out to be a wonderful morning. I heard so many fun stories and memories from his friends.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I'll be doing my pre-op on Jan 6th and then having surgery one Jan 12th. I'm really excited, but nervous as well. I've read lots of blogger's experiences so that is helping alleviate some of the nervousness. We have to TTA for this cycle since I'll be on CD22 when the surgery is performed. Hopefully I will have the lap, get my period shortly there after and be able to start trying again in FEB!

On Saturday December 26th, some girlfriends and I are hosting a wedding shower for one of our friends. In anticipation of this, I've already started setting up a bit because this week is obviously really crazy. So I thought I would share a few picts:

1 stark line, that's what was staring up at me this morning @ 12 DPiui. And I've started spotting. Sigh.

I've left a message for the RE and am hoping I can get the laparoscopy scheduled quickly.

There's so much to blog about, but so little time! I have been a busy little bee since school ended and the holiday madness began.

First, I've been working tirelessly to try to get my in-laws' presents bought and wrapped, so I can ship them up to KY in time for the holidays. I'm missing just 2 more things, and then I'll be done. But in the meantime you should probably admire my wrapping job:


So its been a busy few days!!

In TTC news, I'm feeling sort of blah about this 2WW. I was really trying to be hopeful, but to be honest I'm really not. I told my husband over the weekend that if I don't get KU this cycle I'm going to press the RE to do the lap on me next cycle. I am having some discomfort on the ovary that has the cyst, and I can't help but think I have endo. My husband was upset because he said it sounded like I was writing off this cycle already, and in some ways I think I have. Maybe its just an ego-defense mechanism but I just can't seem to lift my spirits and really get behind this cycle, if you know what I mean? I'm currently 7DPiui so we'll see. 1 week down, 1 week to go.

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

Its done. Now, I just have to wait 2 weeks. But with the holidays and everything I have planned these next two weeks I hope its going to fly by!

In very exciting news, I am finally done with classes for the semester! I have a paper to write which I am going to try to knock out tonight and then I will really be done until January! YAY! I know getting an MBA will pay off in the long run, but working full time with school in the evening is a bit much these days. I am really looking forward to a break! And next semester I only have class twice a week so it should be much more manageable than this semester was.

...A lot like Christmas! This weekend I was able to do a little decorating.

I still need to finish the outside of my house but I ran out of garland, so I've only got half the porch done! Woops. DH has promised me a run to the Lowe's tonight so hopefully we will get it done tommorow.

So I went in this morning for another round of labs and B/W. I was in a rush to get to work on time so I didn't get to wait and see what the results were, but I just got a call from the clinic and I am going to trigger tonight. They called me at the office so I couldn't really ask all the details as to my follicle size or what the B/W revealed, but must have been good. IUI #1 is set for Wed AM. I have to bring in DH's specimen at 7:30-8:00 and then go back for the IUI at 9:00. Very exciting stuff!

I went in today for my CD 13 B/W and U/S. The U/S revealed that my follicles are growing. I have one 12mm, and two 10mm, and a few smaller ones that probably won't develop. I'm not ready to be triggered b/c they're still small (they will trigger me when the follicles are around 18mm) but the good news is that it looks like I'm have a good response to the clomid. After they get my B/W back this afternoon, they'll call to set up an appt for next Monday or Tuesday for another U/S and B/W to recheck them. So hopefully we'll be getting IUI #1 sometime next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This weekend while vising my ILs, I was able to sneak away for a little bit to meet the most precious little girl in the world:
I'm in love.

...Or at least that is how Clomid makes me feel. Yikes.

Yesterday my grandfather turned 90! We had a big Birthday Party over the weekend for him, which he loved. A ton of his nieces and nephews (he is 1 of 9) came in from all over the country, so it was really neat to meet a lot of them. On top of that all my cousins and one of my sisters came in town, which is always a lot of fun! All in all it was a great day!

YAY! I'm feeling very hopeful for this cycle. I really hope I will be getting a great Christmas miracle!

DH picked up my meds and it looks like my prescription coverage is going to be some help!
Dexamethason = Price: $4.09, Paid $4.09
Novarel (HCG) = Price: $104.74, Paid: $10.00
Clomiphene = Price: $12.76, Paid $10.00
So we only had to pay $24.09, which was a pleasant surprise.

Lots to write about this weekend, but I have to run and get some school work done! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Follow-up appt was today. I have mixed emotions.

So the cyst is not gone. It has shrunk a little (from 17mm to 14mm), but is generally "not responding" to the BCP treatment. Dr. D thinks is may be a endometriomas which is basically endometriosis which invades the ovary, producing blood filled cysts. (previously they thought this was a a Hemorrhagic cyst, which  occurs when a very small blood vessel in the wall of the functional cyst breaks, and the blood enters the cyst.) So basically the good news is we can try to get KU this cycle when I get AF (more on that in a sec). Bad news, I may have endometriosis. Dr. D said he would want to do a few cycles before he performs a Laproscopy. I guess my worry is that if I do have Endo which is preventing me from getting pregnant, I hate to be wasting all this money on treatment. Now I know the Dr. knows best, and from my limited research all signs indicate that endo may prevent you from getting pregnant, but its not definite at all. Anyway. It just leaves me feeling a little.... meh.

So onto medicated cycle #1. I'm going to stop my BCPs on Friday so I can get CD1 on sat or sun. Protocol for this cycle will be:
CD1 - OV = Dexamethason (to control the elevated Dhea Sulfate)
CD4 - CD8 = 100mg Clomid
CD13 = U/S + Labs
CD? = HCG Trigger Shot (day depends on what U/S shows)
CD? = IUI #1 after the trigger

Overall I am excited to be moving on  and actually starting treatment. But I am nervous about not being monitored until CD13. I have ovulated before that on my non-medicated cycles, so I am afraid this will be too late. I mentioned it to the nurse who preparing my calender and she seemed unconcerned, so I guess we'll just try this and adjust if we miss the mark this time. I may try OPKs this cycle just as a precautionary measure in case I do O early.

So....Let the OOP game begin!! I'm bringing my prescriptions to the pharmacy tomorrow, so we'll see what the meds are going to cost me. I also didn't ask how much the IUI is going to set me back, but I'll probably call tomorrow to ask. My insurance has been covering the B/W and U/S up to this point since they consider them all part of the "Diagnosis" process. The office manager said they should cover all monitoring up until the actually IUI as well. I guess I should be thankful for the little bit of insurance coverage I have, right?

When ever I tell people about a Maggie incident, they always tell me that around 2 years old labs really start to calm down. I am beginning to think these people are lying to me.

This week, the week of her 2nd birthday, Maggie wanted to prove that she was not going to follow the norm. On Tuesday night, while DH and I slept comfortably in our bed, Maggie passed the evening eating one of my favorite pair of work shoes. Grrr. Then on Wednesday night, as I laid in bed watching the CMA awards, I suddenly smelled a strong bubble gum scent. I asked DH to look and see what Maggie had because I could hear messing around with something. He walked in and found his blackberry battery laying on the ground. He picked it up and it was scalding hot. He immediately ran into the bathroom and threw it in the sink. After examining the battery, he realized she had puncture the battery releasing the acid in it. Crap. Now I jumped out of bed and ran to Dr. Google to see what results I could find on "Dog Ate Battery". After a little research, I realized the the type of battery is important in what the appropriate protocol was. We looked at my blackberry and realized its a Lithium Ion. Back to Dr. Google. All signs point to call the vet. So then I call the emergency vet (which is hind sight I should have just done in the beginning), and he told us that as long as she didn't have an soars in her mouth, and wasn't acting sick she probably fine. Phew. But needless to say, I'm hoping she "calms down" soon!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

One week from today I will have my follow up with Dr. D. Let's all say a little prayer that my stupid cyst has shrunk and that we can get this show on the road!!

Maybe cycle 16 is cursed? Seriously.

Went to the RE this morning. My cyst was at 16mm last U/S; its at 15.5mm today. So basically it hasn't shrunk at all. I'm so disappointed. The nurse was nice enough to call the Dr. for me so I didn't have to wait for him to come in after the U/S tech told her what she found. Dr. decided to put me back on the BCPs for another cycle and requested that I go back for a follow-up U/S in 2 weeks. Since he wasn't in the office yet, I wasn't able to ask him what the plan will be if it doesn't shrink in the next 2 weeks. So who knows.

I'm just so sad and disappointed.

Let's call this Cycle 16 part deux. I'll call my RE tomorrow morning to get set up for CD 3 bloodwork and U/S on Tuesday. I am REALLY hopefully that everything with my cyst has cleared up and we will be able to try again this cycle.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Time is flying right now it seems!! Its been a whole week since my last post. I should finish my BCPs on friday, which means I should hopefully be on CD1 Saturday or Sunday. Unless of course the 2+ weeks of spotting has drained my ute of all its blood. I am SOOO hoping that we are able to get back to TTC this next cycle and that the cyst is gone. Only time will tell I guess. This little interlude has confirmed in my mind that I never want to voluntarily go on hormonal BCPs again.

The work stuff has taken an interesting twist, but based on conversations today with my boss it seems like I will probably end up managing the billion dollar contract rather than the other team. At this point I'm ok with either option, I just want them to make a frickin decision so the rumor mill at work will simmer down.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is excited about Halloween! I am supposed to be visiting with a girl friend in Atlanta this weekend, but as she is 39 weeks pregnant today and having lots of contractions, I am hoping her little girl will be arriving this week!! (in which case I won't be going obviously)

Got a call from the RE's office today while I was in my training; luckily, I was able to grab it and step outside. The good news is that all the follow-up B/W came back normal. So who knows why the Dhea Sulfate was elevated? But the good news is we are ok to proceed next cycle assuming the cyst shrinks. 10 more days of BCP to go!!

I am pretty done with all the waiting crap. The BCPs are making me feel really bloated which is annoying. To be honest, I am feeling a little depressed about how fat I feel right now. I mean seriously,  I am gross. I have been going to jazzercise 3 days a week, but I still feel so fat and bloated. I hope that when I get off the BCPs I deflate. In the mean time I am going to continue to try to eat good (which I haven't been doing great at) and exercise.

...9 years ago today my Husband and I went out on our first date. I can't believe its been so long!!

In other news there has been a bunch going on in my world!! 1st and foremost, I awarded a $100M contract on Friday that I have been working on for MONTHS!! I am super super excited to be done with it and hope to have a little calm at the office now that it has been awarded. Speaking of work, I have been presented with two very interesting promotion opportunities at work. The first is becoming a team leader in one of the other branches (so I won't be supervising my current peers). The nice thing about this option is that I stay working in my same location, and get to move back into a management role which I haven't been in since my last agency. The negative of this opportunity is that this branch has a large amount of seriously tedious work. The work they do is generally not high profile, and can be extremely time consuming. But the people I would be managing for the most part are great, and I think I would be able to make a positive change in their current environment. There is also a large need for training, which is something I love to do.

The other option is being in charge of a very special and high profile contract ($1B). The benefits of this option is obviously the high profile nature of it. If it succeeds, it would be a HUGE career booster. Its a different type of contract that we usually do which means professionally it will be really challenging. I was signed up by my boss to attend a 1 week training this week about this type of contract so once I learn a little more about it I will have a better feel for what it would entail. The downfalls of this opportunity is that I'd have to be on-site in a work trailer at the project location which is literally in the boondocks. I'd be the only one from my office assigned to the contract, which means I would be fairly isolated; and most importantly, I wouldn't have easy access to the wonderful subsidized daycare my work provides (which I fully intend to use should I finally get KTFU). It would still be available to me but because of where I live and where the project is located it wouldn't make sense to use it. The head of my office wants a decision by Wednesday. So we will see. I can't really decide.

In TTC news, I am dutifully taking my BCPs but have been spotting for about a week now which is really odd for me. I never usually spot between my periods. I will ask my Drs office about it when they call with the results of my B/W which I hope they will do tommorow!! (or I will be calling them!)

Hope everyone had a GREAT weekend!

3 years ago today my husband and I were married. I can honestly say I love him more today than I did that day. He's such a wonderful man and I am blessed to have him in my life.

Tonight we are celebrating by trying a new yummy restaurant. It should be a great evening! Below are a few of my favorite pictures of us from our wedding day!

I got a message from the RE friday afternoon requesting that I call them back. Unfortunately, I got it after the office had closed for the day but I was able to reach them during their Saturday hours. My Dhea Sulfate was high (434) on my CD 3 blood work, so they requested that I come in for some follow up blood work this morning.

Dr. Google hasn't yielded much except, "Elevated levels of DHEAS may indicate an adrenocortical tumor, adrenal cancer, or adrenal hyperplasia. Increased levels of DHEAS are not diagnostic of a specific condition; they usually indicate the need for further testing to pinpoint the cause of the hormone imbalance." So we'll see. Results should be back in a week.

I have today off work for Columbus Day, so I am looking forward to a little shopping with a girl friend. After we find her some shoes for a BM's dress, we are planning on doing a little lunch and then seeing Capitalism: A Love Story. Should be a fun day!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

So I had my first RE appointment. It went really well, until the very end (more on that in a moment).

My husband and I arrived on time, and were taken back in a matter of minutes. They did weight and height on me, and took our picture for the file. We were then lead into an office, and we went over our medical history with the nurse (who is actually a patient of my mothers so was super excited to have us in the office). She was really sweet, and once she finished reviewing everything, she left us there to wait for Dr. D. He was doing an IVF ER so he ended up running really late (like almost an hour). DH started to get a little agitated, but luckily the Dr. came in right in time.

He went over our medical records and basically said that as far as he can tell everything looks fine. He said as of now we are technically "unexplained". He was very happy that I am on CD3 because we could actually use this cycle. He said he wanted to put me on 50mg of Clomid this cycle and try au natural. He was going to draw blood today, do an U/S and then have me come in again in 10 days for monitoring to see how many eggs had developed. Both DH and I were excited and off we went to the U/S room.

I got ready, and Dr. D and U/S tech came in to do my baseline U/S. My uterus looked good, left ovary looked great and then the show stopper came into focus. I have another hemorrhagic cyst on my right ovary. So now we can't do anything this cycle. He put me on BCPs for the cycle to hopefully help shrink/heal the cyst. I never got my follow up U/S from the one in April so there is the chance its the same one and just didn't heal, or there is a chance that its a new one. He is interested to know the results of my blood work are and asked me to call my hematologist to get them. He thinks maybe there is something that is going on that makes me prone to hemorrhagic cyst. So we'll see. The plan as of now is to do BCPs for 24 days (ending on Fri Oct 30th), then go in for baseline U/S and B/W on CD 3 of my next cycle. So I'm out for a cycle, but hopefully the cyst will clear itself up and we will be able to move forward next cycle. They did go ahead and draw blood today to check my CD3 hormone levels since it'd never been done before.

I'm kinda bummed. But on the bright side I really liked Dr. D and his staff, and look forward to working with him next cycle.

Blah.

I'm looking forward to my RE appointment on Wednesday.

Spurred by a fellow blogger's recent post,  I realized that October is usually a really good month for me too!!

On a personal level, My husband and I met on Oct 18, 2000 as students at the University of Kentucky. We got married 6 years later on October 14, 2006. And in October 2007 we bought our first house together! So for us October has always been a really great month.

Professionally, October 1 signals the start of a new Fiscal Year in the government which means I usually have a few weeks of down time from the normal craziness of my job.

This October, I am really hoping we get our long awaited BFP, but if not we will be starting with the RE on Oct 7th which is definitely something to look forward to! And to start the month off right, tomorrow DH and I will be headed to the beach with his family. Its a short trip because I have to be back in time for work & school on Tuesday. But a long weekend at the beach is just what the doctor ordered!

Infertility: The diminished ability or the inability to conceive and have offspring. Infertility is also defined in specific terms as the failure to conceive after a year of regular intercourse without contraception.

Infertile. Its not a word I can honestly say I have come to terms with. I don't feel infertile. On the contrary, I feel as though I should be quite fertile. I'm young, healthy, and ready. Furthermore, all tests thus far indicate that we should be fertile, so am I really considered "infertile". According to the definition above, apparently yes. And although I have been dutifully trudging toward the RE, which will in my mind solidly my infertility status, I can honestly say I don't really believe this is happening. (or more appropriately put, not happening).

I am increasingly more hopeful that we will be able to get pregnant on our own. Why? No idea. After hearing stories of people getting pregnant after their HSG, or right after they made their RE appointment, I feel like  we should get pregnant. right? I mean if the stars were going to align, it should be this post-HSG-RE-appt-made-cycle. Its got to happen eventually. Why not this cycle?

And as my hopes get increasingly higher, I try to prepare myself for the possibility of another BFN cycle. For my hopes to get crushed by my own bodies inability to cooperate. Simply put... Hope Sucks. But where would we be with out it?

I just wanted to share some picts we got from the photographer who shot my sister's rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was held at the top of Aspen Mountain and was absolutely stunning.

So this week I read Midnight Sun which of course reignited my love for all things Twilight. So on that note I thought I would share this with you all!



I am rediculously excited! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

October 7th @ 9:30. Me and Dr. D have an appointment to discuss my infertility! Very exciting.

I have some forms that I have to fill out and I need to get my medical records from my OB. Seems like we're moving forward!!

Today I got out of bed at 5:45 and went to Jazzercise. Its a start. Now I just need to keep going. :-) A friend of mine from my MBA program teaches the 6am class at the Jazzercise studio down the street, so I thought I'd give it a try. I must say it was really fun! I've always loved classes, over the gym. Something about having other people around me, makes me more committed to actually doing the whole work out. I mean who wants to be the girl who leaves half way through a class?!? So I think I'm going to sign up for the monthly pass. I really liked it and feel great this morning (and a little sore).

The above picture closely resembles where I work. Cube-land as I like to call it. And the problem with cube-land is it makes it very hard to get anything of a personal nature done. We sometimes pretend like we can't hear everything our neighbor is saying, but the truth is if you are having a conversation with in a two cube radius of me I probably know exactly what you're saying.

My mom is a Dr, and has a friend/colleague who is an RE at our local fertility clinic. I looked up his information and was happy to see that their clinic had email contact info. Living in cube-land, email communication is key to getting personal things done. So last Friday, I sent in a "information request" from their clinic website. Within 2 minutes I got a response back from the clinic asking if this was a appointment for infertility and telling me that the Dr was in my preferred office location on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So I quickly responded back that yes this is for infertility and Tuesday or Wednesday would be good (I asked for a mid October appt). Then nothing... no response. I emailed her yesterday to check in. Still no answer. So I guess I am going to have to take to my cell phone and the hallway in another attempt to make a appointment. Hopefully I will have good news to report soon!

Because if you had walked into my house today, you would have thought it was the 1800's. I spent about 3 hours this afternoon polishing silver. My aunt recently handed down our family silver to me. It hadn't been cleaned in quite a while, so today I decided to devote some serious time and elbow grease to get it back into shape. I will now subject you all to pictures of my newly polished silver because someone needs to admire it, and my husband was less then enthusiastic.





The pattern is Royal Danish:


Hope everyone had a great weekend!

So I am home from my HSG. It went well, but was bit more painful than I anticpated (I couldn't take Advil/Tylenol before hand because of blood work I had today). Both tubes are totally clear which is the good news. My OB thinks I should try a few more cycles (until the end of this year) because the HSG might do the trick. If I'm not KU by then she suggest putting me on clomid which she does not do monitoring with (I asked at my last appt).

So basically I know I won't do clomid with her b/c I won't take it without monitoring. So my question to my faithful blog readers is should I go ahead and schedule an appt with a RE or wait it out a few more cycles. One part of me feels like just skip to the RE now since that's where I'm going to end up either way. The other part of me feels like she is the Dr. so I should listen to her and wait it out a few more cycles. Thoughts/opinions?

On a side note I finally got my clotting blood work done so hopefully they can figure out why I am bruising so much. YAY!

I started spotting over the weekend and right on time Today CD1 has arrived. I'm trying really hard to focus on the positive. I have my HSG Thursday, and really hope to get some answers from that. If nothing shows up on that I will schedule my RE appointment. At the end of that day at least that's some progress, right?

And by it I mean SEC football. And so begins the 4 month struggle in our household for control of the television. Since its opening weekend and we are out of town with my sister and her husband, I gave in with out a fight. (I'm such a good wife!)

She and I played tennis and worked out, and the boys have been in front of the TV all day. The good new is our alma mater, UK, did well. The bad news is we have to get home from dinner in time to catch the LSU... on that note I better RUN!!

Hope everyone is having a great labor day vacation!!

I had to scroll back A LOT of post to find my last weigh in...

Weigh In Week 11
Previous Weight: 156.6 (August 13th)
Current Weight: 157.4
Lost this Week: +0.8
Total Lost: 7.6

I was really bad at my sisters wedding, and have been off the wagon since. But I got back on it this week, so here we go again!! If I can't get pregnant, I should at least look fabulous, right?

I saw this on another blog recently and it literally made me cry in my cubicle. So I thought I would share it with all of you. Get your tissues ready :-)



In other news I am in my 2WW. Not feeling at all optimistic about the cycle even though we had good timing, ect. I am looking forward to my HSG which is just over a week away.

When I was driving to work the other day I heard an interview with the director of a documentary about migrant children entitled Which Way Home. I woke up early this morning and was waiting for my husband to come home from his morning ride before I had breakfast so I decided to pull up the documentary on HBO On Demand. I would recommend you all check it out.



Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday.

First of all its Friday, which is always a good day in my book. I got 3 contracts awarded this week so I am not going to have to come into work this weekend, which I was totally dreading. And to top it off, I'm meeting some friends for drinks at one of our local favorites to enjoy some Blueberry Mojitos!! YAY!

Oh and I found out I got a 4.0 for the summer semester! Double YAY!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Today I had Jury Duty, which was actually not to bad. I went, played on the Internet for a few hours and they let us go before lunch! Best news is that I'm now exempt for 2 yrs!! I met my husband for a yummy lunch at one of our local favorites, and then decided to treat myself to a movie.

My husband and I love going to the movies, so it had to be something he wouldn't want to see. Given the timing I settled on Julie and Julia. I guess I was feeling overly emotional because I cried at this preview before the movie even started:



Well, then of course the movie starts and bam... Infertility! I guess I missed the memo on this. I didn't realize that Julia Child struggled with infertility. The scene where she is crying after receiving news of her sister's pregnancy really hit home with me. I cried. there by myself in the theater. But overall, I thought the movie was great. And I think there is a lesson to be learned from a woman who struggle with infertility and decided to still make the most of her life. Her courage and passion are inspiring.

Have you ever thought about how lucky we are? What if we were born in her time? In the days before Clomid/IUIs/IVFs. I mean really. What would we all do if there was no treatment, no options. I can't imagine what that must have been like. Although no one wants to struggle with infertility, and this is certainly a hard road to walk, I think in a small way we should be grateful that we have options.

So I was finally able to schedule my HSG. I will be going on Sept 10th (which should be roughly CD 7-10ish of my next cycle).

I spoke with my Dr's nurse and she wasn't very helpful as far as figuring out what to expect. She told me that I will report to the radiology department, but beyond that she wasn't really helpful. For those of you who have had this procedure, did your RE/OB or the radiologist perform this? Just wondering who to expect in the room. Also did you have to report with a full bladder? I assume I will get some instruction in the mail from my Dr., but now I'm all curious!

Its nice to feel like we are moving forward, but on the other hand once we get past the HSG its on to the RE which is a little overwhelming to me. I honestly can say I never ever thought I would be here. I still have my fingers crossed for a Hail Mary BFP in the next few cycles.

Yesterday I attended the memorial service for my friend. The service was simply amazing. There were no less than 500 people there which is a true testament to the type of person he was. He was the type of person that everyone loved. I don't think in the 15 years I knew him I have ever heard someone say something bad about him. He was the type of guy that would give you a great big bear hug every time he saw you. He was always the life of the party and he will be truly missed by all people whose life he touched.

At the service you could feel the love that everyone had for him. His wife, his parents and brothers showed such strength in the face of this enormous loss. Although the service was full of tears, we all know that he is in a better place now.

The last time I saw him was at the wedding I stood in recently. He wasn't feeling well so he didn't make it to the service, but he did make it to the reception for about an hour. It was so great to see him out and about. Here's a pict from that night:


I hope you all having amazing weekends!

So I'll start with the lows first. A friend of mine from high school passed last friday night after his 8 year battle with cancer. He was diagnosed when we were sophomores in college and handled his diagnosis and the ensuing battle with such poise and grace. He had been moved into hospice last Tuesday so it wasn't a complete shock; never the less, it was really hard news to hear. My heart breaks for his young widow, their families and all our friends. Please say a little prayer for all of those grieving his loss.

Besides finding out that very sad news on Saturday morning, the whole wedding weekend was amazing! Friday night the rehersal dinner was at the top of Aspen Mountain. We were up the mountain before sunset and the view was spectacular. During dinner a huge storm blew in and we ended up getting trapped on top of the mountain for about an hour and a half after dinner. It was actually gorgeous it see the storm from the top of the mountain. It finally stopped lightening so they let the gonadolas start running again. The morning of the wedding we woke up and it was raining. We all freaked out a little bit, but luckily it cleared around 11am. We started getting ready around noon and were all done up for pictures by 4:00. The ceremony was outside at 5:30 followed by a cocktail hour and a seated dinner. At around 8pm, the band started and we danced like crazy! Picts do it more justice than I ever could:

The ceremony location:


All 4 of the sisters were bridesmaids


The newly weds:


Me, my sister and two of her friends.


I totally wish I was in this pict, its so cute of all my sisters!


She changed before they left. So cute!


These picts were all stolen from facebook. I can't wait to see the professional photographer's pictures because she looked amazing, so I am sure they are going to be incredible!