My Love of Shopping

I have always loved to shop. My mom says that I was "born to shop" and that when I was little she would take me shopping and I would calm right down when I was fussy. ( My love of shopping started very early lol!) I love shopping of any kind. I'm not picky!!

Some of my favorite places to shop for clothes for myself  are Old Navy, Gap, Kohls, Target, New York and Company, and Maurices. I have a few online and local boutiques that I really like. The Blue Door Boutique, AMAVO boutique and Modcloth.

When I'm shopping for things for our home, I love Gordmans, Hobby Lobby, and Pier One Imports. I also have found some really cute stuff on Etsy. I could spend hours and hours looking at the things on Etsy!!

For Layne's clothing, I love Old Navy and Gap Kids. I also love the brands Hurley, Carters, and Osh Gosh for Layne. I also find a lot of cute clothes at Target but our Target sells out of kids clothes fast so his size is usually really picked over. :(

5 years Ago....

5 years ago I married my best friend. We have been through alot the last 5 years but I'm so happy and thankful that I've gotten to spend it with my husband!! He is my rock and I would truly be lost without him. He is an amazing husband and father and I'm so unbelievably happy that I can call him mine!!

10 Things About Little Ol' Me

   I thought I would share some random things about myself. And trust me, they will be RANDOM. I'm kind of a random person.

1) Since Matt and I have been married (almost 5 years) we have owned 6 dogs, 3 snakes, 1 turtle, 1 raccoon, and a quaker parrot. Currently we just have two dogs and two snakes.

2) I HATE Snakes. This is kind of strange since we have two snakes but those are Matt's. I DO NOT do anything with them because they scare me.  And their cages are securely locked down. I wouldn't be able to sleep if they weren't!

3) I used to be terrified of swimming in lakes. I still don't like it. I don't like the idea of not being able to see the bottom and of swimming with fish. I'm totally fine with swimming in the ocean though. (Yes, Weird I know.)

4) I HATE socks. I only own about 5 pairs.

5) I've always been fascinated by anything that deals with Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal. 
    (Yes, I'm a nerd!)
6) I can't sleep unless I'm covered up with both a sheet and a comforter. If Matt steals my covers I almost always wake up right away.

7) My favorite movie of all time is One Fine Day. Love George Clooney!

8) I can't make chocolate chip cookies. For some reason I always seem to screw them up!!

9) I could eat chips and salsa everyday!

10) I like visiting odd places...I've been to the SPAM musuem, seen the worlds largest ball of twine, and to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Birth Place just to name a few.

Infertility Sucks

   Since I was little, I dreamt of being a mother. I had always dreamt of having a huge family with five plus kids. As a grew older, the number change slightly but the dream stayed the same. About six months before Matt and I got married, I got baby fever bad. And I mean BAD. I wanted kids NOW!

  As soon as my baby fever hit, I started paying attention to my body more. That's when I noticed something might not be right. I hadn't had my period yet. Was I pregnant?? I immediately bought a pregnancy test and took it. It was negative. I went to the doctor to see if something else could be wrong with me. The doctor dismissed it by saying I was just extremely stressed out from planning a wedding and the stress was causing me to not get my period. I believed that to be a logical answer and decided to not worry to much about it.

  Months passed and I still never got my period. Our July wedding day came and went and by August, I had finally got my period after eight months!! I believed that my doctor had been right. I had been just too stressed to get my period. Matt and I decided to start trying for a baby. After three months of trying, we were pregnant!! We were both extremely excited to be starting a family!!

  On July 15, 2008, we were blessed with our amazing son, Layne Matthew. I was in heaven!! I was so extremely happy to have been blessed with my son Layne. By the time Layne was about 5 months old, I began asking Matt when we should start trying for another child. (We both had agreed that we wanted our children to be close in age.) We decided to start trying again for our second child a month later. That was in January 2009.  Matt and I both thought it wouldn't take us very long to get pregnant again. We were both wrong.

Two months into trying for our 2nd child, I stopped having my period. I thought that I must be stressed again and tried everything to relax and ease my stress. For the next ten months I got my period three times. In December 2009, I made any appointment with an ob/gyn  to get checked out. Sadly I couldn't be seen until March 2010.

I was nervous to see my doctor the day of the appointment. I just knew that something else had to be wrong with me. It couldn't be stress that was causing me to not have my period.  I talked with my doctor and she decided to run some blood work tests to figure out what was going on. She didn't believe that stress was causing all of this.

After my blood work came back, we finally found the problem. My hormone levels were screwed up and that I had PCOS. I was so glad to finally know what was wrong with me. The doctor explained to me my options and started me on clomid. After taking clomid for six months and three dosage changes, nothing had happened yet. I wasn't pregnant. Back to the doctor's office I went. She decided to put me on Femara. My doctor told me that she had had good luck with Femara and that is how she had conceived all three of her kids. I took the Femara as for one month that's all it took. I was pregnant again!!

We told our parents over Christmas that Layne was going to be a big brother. Everyone was excited. Shortly after we had announced the news of our pregnancy, I started spotting. I immediately called me doctor because I was convinced something was wrong. The doctor saw me a couple days before my scheduled appointment and did an ultrasound. Everything was fine but the doctor told me to take it easy for a little while. The spotting eventually stopped. A week before I was to hit the 12 week mark, I started spotting again. This time it was a little different because it was heavier than the previous time. I immediately called the doctor again. The nurse assured me that nothing was wrong and that I could wait to be seen the following week at my scheduled appointment. I knew in the back of my mind that something was wrong. I ended up calling back and demanding that I be seen by someone in the doctors office. Matt and I headed straight for the doctor's office.

We sat in silence most of the ride there. I was so worried that something was wrong with my baby. The wait to see the doctor was excruitating. After waiting about 20 minutes to be seen, it was finally my turn. The doctor went over my symptoms with me and wanted to check for a heartbeat. She couldn't find it but assured me that that happens alot and sent me to have an ultrasound done. The ultrasound tech started the ultrasound but wouldn't tell me what was going on. I ended up flat out asking and that's when my worst fears were confirmed.

My baby didn't have a heartbeat.

We were devastated. I don't really remember much after that besides a lot of crying going on.  I couldn't believe that after waiting for so long that it was all done and over with. I had a rough miscarriage. I ended up in the ER because I was losing a lot of blood. Thankfully the doctors and nurses got it under control.

A couple of months later we started trying again with the same medicine. I ended up getting pregnant again but about three days after taking a pregnancy test I had another miscarriage. We decided to stop trying for a while. I was way to emotional and need some time to think about everything.

This past spring, we made the decision to start trying again. I'm hoping that things will work out better and that we can expand our family. Our struggle with infertility has really made me realize to not take anything for granted and that everything is a blessing.  I believe that everything that has happened has made me a stronger person. I just hope that our prayers will be answered and we can expand our family!!

I Love...

I love my adorable son, Layne. I can't believe that in about a month and a half he will be FOUR already. Time should not be allowed to go this fast!

I love my husband. He can always make me laugh and smile and always keeps me on my toes with his crazy ideas!

I love shopping. I have always loved shopping. Purse shopping has to be my favorite!!

I love puppies. I'm a sucker for puppies. Their cuteness gets me everytime. Lab puppies have to be my favorite!

I love walking around barefoot outside. In the summer I rarely have shoes on when I'm outside at home.

I love rollercoasters. I have been known to ride Wild Thing at Valley Fair numerous times (even by myself) in one day!

I love chocolate. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, I love it all. (Except Mexican Chocolate, I'm not much of a fan of that.) Chocolate is almost an addiction for me!

What do you love?

My Reading List

I love to read!! I just wish I had more time to do it!! Last year for  mother's day/ my birthday, Matt and Layne got me a Kindle. I absolutely love it!! While I mostly read only the books in the free section on the kindle, I've read some great ones in the past year.

Some of my favorites that I've read this year have been:

Three Girls and a Baby by Rachel Schurig- This is such a cute book. I can't wait to read the others that this author has written.

True North By Marie Force - I loved this book but it reminded me of a romance novel you'd pick up at a drug store or something.

One True Love by Barbara Freethy- I had never heard of Barbara Freethy until I found a couple of her books on Kindle. I loved them!! Such a good romance novel.

Ryan's Return by Barbara Freethy- This was another great book by Barbara Freethy. Loved it!!

The Help by Kathyrn Stockett- LOVED this book!! If you have not read this book, you must!! Now I need to see the movie!

I have a few books that I'm hoping to read soon. Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connely, The Pioneer Women by Ree Drummond, and Two Kisses for Maddie: A Memoir of Loss and Love by  Matt Logelin.

The next book I plan to read is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I can't wait to read it Something about historical nonfiction and sci fi stuff mixed together intrigues me! I will definately post about it when I'm done reading it.

Is there any other books I should have on my reading list??

My Birthday

I had a great Birthday!! It was very relaxing which is exactly what I wanted!! Layne and I did a little shopping in the morning. Then we spent the afternoon in the pool because it was so hot outside!! For dinner, we went out to eat at with my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, Braccos. They have the most amazing nachos there. So Yummy!!!

                                                    

  Mommy and Layne in the car!!

                                                      Layne on his "cowboy noodle"

My parents spoiled me this year with presents. I could not believe it!! I got a cute centerpiece for our coffee table, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 on DVD, and a gift card to AMaVo!! I can't wait to do a little shopping today!!

It's my Birthday and a busy weekend!

Today is my 26th Birthday! I can't believe that I am that old already!! Tonight we are going out to eat with my parents to celebrate. Can't think of a better way to celebrate than with yummy food at Bracco's. Layne is excited because we are going to eat outside on Braccos patio by the pond. He loves eating outside right now.

We have a busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow night we have a graduation party to go to and Matt's 10 year class reunion. Besides that we have work to do on our garage to finish it up. We almost have it all sheetrocked. Then comes the mudding, texturing, and painting!! Can't wait to have it all done!