Friday, January 10, 2014

Five on Friday

Finally back from a Five on Friday hiatus, ready to get back into my regular groove now that the holidays are over!!

One. IUI #2=BFN
If you haven't read this post, then you didn't hear the devastating news that we got on Monday. After two positive HCG tests (low range results on Monday & Thursday, 20 & 50, respectively) I retested again this Monday & my number had completely dropped to negative. Not only was that a hard pill to swallow, but they determined that the bleeding I was having was in fact my menstrual cycle so now I have to wait out the rest of this month for AF (Aunt Flow) to show before we can start treatment over. On the positive side of this awful news is that we now know that we can get pregnant with this procedure which is good. Joe and I also are planning to try naturally, which we have not done since I had the surgery to remove the endometriosis back in October. The X's have started, the OPK's are being used, and the BD (baby dance, aka, sex!) will be scheduled for sometime next week! Oh the joys of infertility!


Two. House Plans
We took another big step in the right direction this week and I'm so excited to say we finally got the proverbial ball rolling on our house plans. Joe had hand drawn our plans up a couple of years ago, but we need to have them made into blueprints that will include things like floor joists & window placement. We should be expecting to see a rough draft in the next week or so with up to three revisions. The plans have been sent off to Bloomington by Maze Lumber here in town. If we decided to buy our material through Maze they will reimburse us for half the cost of the blueprints as well. I can't believe we are finally going to make this dream of ours a reality. We first started looking at the lot back in 2008 & within just a few months of being together. For around six years now we have had a vision in our heads of our forever home and now we finally get to start the real thing. We purchased the lot in 2010 & have been working on paying it off & saving up a substantial down payment. We now feel as though we are financially ready to really begin building. Check out this post for some pictures & some of my idea boards.




Three. So much F'in Snow.
We got so much snow last weekend & early into this week it was pretty sickening.  I've lived in Illinois for my entire life, I'm used to a lot of snow, cold, driving in poor conditions, etc.  People act like they've never seen snow before when we get the amount that we did.  I think Saturday & Sunday we got over a foot.  The snow drifts in our driveway were probably about a foot and a half, my poor dog could hardly walk outside. He wanted nothing to do with going potty.  I know it's only January, but how many days til summer!?


Four. 52 Week Money Challenge
So far so good.  Week one, in which you are supposed to save $1, turned into us putting around $13 in.  I think we might just put whatever dollars we have in our wallets at the time, but definitely make sure to put at least the amount in that corresponds with the week we are on.  I think it's going to turn out to be a great way to save a little bit of cash easily.  We have a savings account with the bank & I have a credit union savings account through work which we also stick money in as well.  What's a third!  At least this one we can see the progress & watch grow as the jar lives on top of the refrigerator!


Five. Healthy Eating. 
This week I decided to really hammer down on my eating habits (that's not without a few slip ups of course, Casey's pizza Saturday & a whole lotta alcohol Monday & Tuesday).  I grocery shop at Hyvee and they have newly renovated & added a magnificent organic & whole food section.  You can buy all kinds of grains & trail mixes, coffees, etc now by filling up your own bag with as much as you desire.  I loaded up on quinoa.  I bought a ton of fruit, the strawberries were surprisingly about as good looking as they were over the summer. I bought mixed veggies for snacking at work & made my dip out of plain Greek yogurt & Hidden Valley dill seasoning.  All you need is about one tablespoon of seasoning to one container of yogurt.  Sooo much better for you than ranch or veggie dips.  I also bough Silk Almond Milk, I've always drank 1%, but decided Silk was worth a try.  I bought ground turkey (bonus, 2 cents off a gallon of gas per package bought, saved myself 4 cents), tuna, whole grain waffles, & the list goes on.  Feeling much better about my eating habits this week. We'll see how long I can keep this up.




8 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear your news. Such a heartbreak. Hang in there. Love the house plans!!! :)

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  2. So sorry about your news! I will say a little prayer for you! The house plans are gorgeous!

    agirlandhersparkles.blogspot.com

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  3. Your house plans are beautiful and I am so impressed with the smart $$$ choices you have made to make it a reality.

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  4. girlfriend, you have so much going on... how do you deal?! I'd be going crazy!!

    And I'll be praying for your baby journey!

    Happy weekending :)

    xo

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    Replies
    1. you ain't kidding! but it is making me a strong person, & I try to stay positive about it. thanks for stopping!! xoxo

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