Favorite Things - January

I have been off white sugar and white flour for a month now and I have been feeling so good. It has gotten a lot easier over time. Luckily I can have whole wheat, brown rice, and other sweeteners like agave and honey. Eating out is the hardest while trying to eat this way. So when I order, I think I am doing a good job and then they throw some sauce in that I know has sugar in it. And after I feel gross. I am glad that I am sticking to the no sugar, no flour. I am going to stick it out until school is out, and then only have it when other people cook it for me, or special occasions. 

I have 2 favorite snacks that have helped me to not go crazy. 

Healthy Fudge- This is so addictive! I have to cut it in small pieces so I don't over do it. I love using coconut oil. I also don't add any nuts. 

Black Bean Brownies- These have a similar taste to banana bread, and I think they get better each time I eat them. (Since I don't have sugar in my diet and love these, you may not like them...)

We both got passes to the new gym by our house. It is less than a half a mile away from our house. I have been spending 45 minutes everyday at the gym. I can't believe that I forget how good I feel after going to the gym. Now if I can only keep it up. 

Once I married into the Barber family, I became a gap lover. I had shopped there before but never really loved it. But the more I do, the more I like it. I especially like the Gap Fit line. Last year for Christmas I got some work out clothes that I absolutely love. My most favorite item is the yoga work out pants. I don't do yoga, but I lounge in them and wear them to the gym. I was gifted a black pair, which are slowly fading, but still in good shape. But I wanted another pair. Gap has the charcoal gray on sale for $17, and I bought another pair. I was so happy! 

I have been having the same breakfast everyday for the past week and I absolutely love it. Not being able to have flour and sugar put a small damper on my choices. I have enjoyed all of the Kashi cereals, but my ultimate favorite is the Honey Almond Flax. 

And last but not least my new favorite cracker. They do have rice flour in them, so I try not to eat them very much. But sometimes you need a crunchy snack. I have only tasted almond, but they do have other nut flavors. I have found them at Winco and Good Earth. 

Recap and Goals

January: Bob started his 2nd semester in school, we were excited to be done with the first semester. I dove into eating healthy and exercising for the 1st time in my life. I was hopeful of getting pregnant with a healthy body.

February: We celebrated Valentines day, Bob planned and surprised me with a scavenger hunt. I went to a fertility seminar with my friend Jolene, it was held at Dr. Foulk's office.

March: Bob and I spent a lot of time watching basketball cheering on our cougars and loving March Madness.

April: I started seeing Dr. Foulk and did a lot of testing to diagnose the reasons for my infertility. Bob finished his 2nd Semester at Rosemond University.

May: Bob started an internship at the Costco pharmacy. I learned that I would need surgery to fix my fallopian tube. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and ate at the Melting Pot.

June: I finished my 3rd year of teaching, went to Lake Powell with my family, and had surgery. Bob continued working and started his MBA classes. I attempted my first decorated birthday cake for Bob's 25th birthday.

July: The Hales Family reunion was held and I went with my family. My body continued healing from surgery and we started our first round of clomid. Bob was stuck at school... all summer long.

August: Bob finally got 2 weeks off from school. We went to Hawaii with Bob's family for 2 weeks of Heaven. We continued fertility treatments and we were very hopeful!

September: Continued treatment, still hopeful! Bob and I both went back to school. Bob's 2nd year of Pharmacy school and my 4th year in 3rd grade.

October: We moved onto IUI's and were even more hopeful! We dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite and Deb for Halloween.

November: Thanksgiving break was greatly needed and we celebrated with the Andrus side of the family. Made pies for the pie contest, but didn't place. We changed from clomid to femara to see if the drug change would help. Found out our best chance of getting pregnant would be to do IVF.

December: Took the month off from fertility treatments. Relaxed, much needed relaxation! And had a wonderful Christmas break in Washington. I turned 25!

Do you notice a pattern of what I remember from 2011? I do, my life revolved around getting pregnant, and obviously that didn't happen. I think 2011 was a year of being hopeful, and then a year of let down. It was also a huge year for growth and learning. I have learned (over and over again) that you can't plan anything. As much as I would like to have control over everything, I don't. I've learned that I need to rely more on my Heavenly Father and trust in him, that my time will come to have children of my own. Do we know how or when? No. Do we know what our next step is in getting a baby? No. But we do know that it will be ok, and that we can be happy regardless of our circumstances.

This year I want to work on a few things:

1. Working on my relationships with my family and friends.
2. Building upon my relationship with my Heavenly Father.
3. Being healthy and happy with who I am.
4. Less focus on getting pregnant and more focus on enjoying life.

What does 2012 have in store for us?
I will start my 5th (YES 5th) year of teaching.
Bob will start his LAST year of pharmacy school. WAHOOOOOO!
We will celebrate our 3rd anniversary.
We will turn 26!

Here's to a great year!

Christmas 2011

I've been putting off blogging, because I have just not been in the mood to blog lately. But the farther I get behind in blogging, the worse I feel.

We had a wonderful Christmas break. School got out on the 16th and we flew out that night to Washington to spend 2 weeks with Bob's family. Those weeks flew by in an instant, we had an amazing time.

(The day before we left I had an appointment and my new strategy is to take some supplements to help with my endometriosis and take white flour and sugar out of my diet. I decided to dive right in and stopped that day. It was pretty hard not to eat all of the wonderful treats over the break, but at the same time I am glad I didn't go overboard like I usually do.)

 Some of the highlights of our trip include:

- Cooking with Shannon in preparation for the Barber Family Talent Show
- Watching the Barber Family Talent Show
Bob was the MC and he did an amazing job, so many laughs!
- Playing numerous games, I upped my strategies this year and won a few!
- Getting to see my nieces and nephews almost everyday.
- Holding baby Matthew, our newest nephew.
- Spending Christmas morning with Bob's family, my first away from home.
- Going to my in laws ward on Christmas and hearing Brad sing
- Getting my own personal phone call from my brother
- Experiencing my first Christmas dinner (going all out)
- Doing a session at the Columbia River Temple
- Shopping with Heather and Staci
- Playing Just Dance on the Kinect
- Sleeping in every morning, Glorious!
- Birthday lunch with all of the adults.
- And so much more!

I didn't pull my camera out once. I took some pictures on my phone and may add them later. I just want to write it out before I forget.

When we got home we were able to spend a few days with my family before school started.

- Sherlock Holmes and El Gallo
- Making sushi with the family
- Watching the BYU bowl game
- Celebrating my birthday with a flour less cake!
- Playing Rage on New Years with Brent and Andrea
- Changing to 9 church! Wahoo.

plan "get a baby"

Last night Bob and I had a meeting with our doctor to discuss what the next step is for plan "baby Barber." We are now in our 5th month of working with our fertility dr. We have done clomid for 3 months, and this is the 2nd month of Femara. Our Dr. explained that since I had surgery to fix my issues and then with the boost from the drugs, my problems should be fixed. Once they are fixed, you should get pregnant within 3 months. Oh ya did I mention we are on month 5? So after this month, continuing what we are doing will be a waste of money. Basically my tubes are having issues since the past 5 months there has been both good eggs and sperm. My Dr. thinks that my endometriosis is affecting my tubes. The only option to get around those dumb tubes is IVF.

I remember leaving one of my first appointments with Dr. Foulk where he told me I had endometriosis and that I may end up having to do IVF. I left his office bawling and I was devastated that I might have to go through IVF to get a baby.

Before going to the appointment last night, I knew that we were headed towards the path of IVF. And I was excited to know that we have that option. It's funny how your perspective changes. I also feel so blessed that we have IVF to help me get a baby, since my tubes struggle.

We are also trying to be hopeful for this month, we haven't given up. We still have this month where we will do insemination with Femara. If nothing happens then the plan is to take December off, and then figure out all of the IVF stuff in January.

And that's our update.

October Craft Update

To occupy my time and distract my thoughts, I have been crafting a lot this month. With the help of my friend Amber, I finally opened my sewing machine that I got for Christmas. She had to show me how to thread the bobbin, and the machine, but I can now say that I know how to use it by myself.

We picked up a pattern and attempted to sew a skirt. At one point I may have unpicked the same part 5 times before getting it right. But in the end, I had a skirt and I was very proud to say that I made it. I wore it to church the following Sunday.

Next up was a craft found on pinterest. We first found the pattern for these cute baby shoes, and then decided to make a dress to go with it. The first shoe took 3 hours, but the 2nd was quickly completed. (After that I made 2 more pairs, in a lot less time. But I do have issues with being able to make the 2 shoes look identical though.

Our next craft was for ourselves and Halloween themed. We spent the afternoon pinning lots of pieces of material to a spray painted pool noodle. Please ignore the ugly door. One day we will repaint it.

Today I put together these candy corns with yarn. I love a simple project that doesn't take much effort or time.

Stay tuned, I am attempting to put together a quiet book. I'm working on the first page this week and hope to do a page a week until Christmas... or until I give up. Haha!

School Days

Once upon a time on pinterest I saw some fall leaves. They were made of crayon shavings. I have TONS of crayons, and we needed an art project to show off at parent teacher conferences. Well, making 28 leaves with an iron in your classroom is basically a disaster. I had to have the kids use sharpeners to get the shavings and somehow they can sharpen a pencil, but a crayon is a lot harder. I feel like it would be a great project for a mom with 3 kids, but not for a teacher with 28 students. (They did turn out cute, but this year will be the only year my students make crayon shaving leaves...)

This last week I got 3 new students, I now have 31 students!!! My 31st student's name is Jayden. I now have 3 Jaydens. At the beginning of the year all of the 3rd grade teachers had 31-32 students on their lists. I only had 26 students show up. Since August I have gotten 5 new students. So I finally have caught up to the other teachers, and won't be getting the next new student!

Here are a few funny things my class has been saying in regards to church...

A cute boy in my class who was in the "developing incident" has been spending a lot of time with me during flex. (Flex is the last 1/2 hour of the day where all of the kids pick an activity, and the teachers can hold back a small group of students to work on math or reading.) Every day his watch would start beeping at 2:00. One day I asked him why his watch went off everyday. He said that he had set his alarm so that he knew when church got out on Sunday. "Church is SOOOO long and I can't wait to get out, when I hear this alarm I get so happy."

I had 3 boys at the back table for a reading group. I was introducing a new book to the kids and we had just learned that the main character had lived a long time ago, was in the woods, and his name was Joseph. One boy turns to the other and says, "I know who it is, it's Joseph Smith, he is from the Book of Mormon." The boys had a discussion about how one thought it was and the other thought it wasn't. The 3rd chimed in listing a few other people who are in the Book or Mormon. We came to the conclusion that it was not him.

And last but not least, we were doing a math assignment together as a class. I was doing each problem on the projector for all of the students to see. Before I started I told them I would be helping them and that it would be WISE for them all to pay attention. One boy bursts out, "I know a wise man, he built his house upon the rock and not the sand."

It makes me happy to know my students are going to primary and church, but I also wonder if they are as naughty for their teachers there as they are for me. haha.

A little bit of this & that

Wow, it has been forever since I have posted but life is just crazy and that's my only excuse. Here are just a few things that have happened in the past month.

Conference weekend was a great weekend. My parents were in Italy so Andrea, Ayrika, and I went to the Trolley for dinner. It was fun to have a girls night, but we also had another person join us. Ayrika is taking a class at school that you have to take a fake baby home for the weekend. She had to feed, change, and burp the baby all of the time. When we went into dinner her baby started crying and Ayrika got so embarrassed and went back to the car to get the baby to calm down. Andrea and I were laughing so hard, poor Ayrika.

After we went to JoAnns's along with everyone else in Spanish Fork that night. We bought some material and spent the rest of the night making headbands. I had to stop after only 3 because the glue gun burnt my fingers a little too much. We tried them on Ayrika's fake baby....

The next week was parent teacher conferences. I was at school for 12 hours, 3 days in a row. I was dead by the end of the week, I am so glad we don't have to do that again until February. More about my class later...

Bob's parents came into town for the weekend. We went to the BYU Spectacular and watched Brad sing with the Men's chorus. The next morning we went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple with Brad, in preparation for his mission to Bulgaria. We stuffed our faces at Tucanos afterwards. And that night we went to the BYU football game. It was a late and chilly game, but I am glad we were able to go especially when we were there to see them win. It was a quick and busy weekend, but we loved every second with Bob's family. (While just trying to download my pictures, I realized that Shannon and I had swapped cameras at the game. They are both so similar. Ooops!)

We found out that our 3rd month of clomid didn't work. This month we did an IUI with the clomid. (IUI is where they take the sperm, clean it so you only have the best, and then inject it around the time of ovulation.) I was so disappointed when it didn't work out. I am trying to be more optimistic this month, and also more patient. This month my Dr. put me on a different drug that will hopefully help with better egg quality. (The past 2 months I got a lot of eggs with clomid, but they weren't the best quality.) So here's to hoping for the future!