Tuesday Tidbit

Alright Ladies, I did not get up and work out this morning, however, I slept last night!!!  I’ve been waking up at least twice a night for forever…I’m not even sure how long anymore.

Yesterday, I decided to make a bedtime rub to see if it would help the kids at nap time.  I have one that just doesn’t sleep long and he’s here the latest and just is not the happiest camper because he didn’t get enough sleep (by the way, he slept over 2 hrs., so hopefully it wasn’t a fluke).  I have had a cough that just doesn’t want to go away despite my oils (just found some tips this morning to try though) and it’s been trying to turn into a full fledge cold.  I was so tired and felt so crappy last night that I was in bed by 8:55 (a good hour or more earlier than normal).  I rubbed some of the bedtime rub on my feet and J said I was immediately out.  I did wake up at 11:45pm and turned the tv off, but I didn’t even get out of bed to go to the bathroom and I always do that!  I did not wake up until my alarm went off at 5am (I was planning to work out).  I still felt just yucky and achy so I reset the alarm and slept til 6:30am.  Oh my goodness…it felt so good!  That stuff is going on every night!!!

Here’s the recipe:  1/3 cup coconut oil, 10 drops of lavender, 10 drops of cedar wood, and 10 drops of Peace and Calming (I actually only did 6 because I know I have one dc kiddo that has the opposite reaction to P&C so I didn’t want too much in there, lol).

As always, I only recommend using Young Living Essential Oils because of their Seed to Seal Process and independent lab testing.  If you would like to order these oils, you’re more than welcome to order through my website:  www.youngliving.org/drunning

You would click on “Sign Up Here” on the left side and that will let you sign up as a member (the best deal) or order oils as a retail customer.  If you have any questions, please feel free send me a message via the “Contact Me” button on this blog.  I always LOVE talking and sharing about these products.  🙂

Have a Beautiful Day!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Monday Randomness

Good Morning!  How was everyone’s weekend?  Mine was pretty low-key.  Saturday, J spent most of the day taking the boat to storage (yeah for both vehicles being back in the garage), sighting his gun for deer hunting and bow hunting.  I went to a craft fair with our neighbor, cleaned part of the house and then napping.  I’ve had a cough that’s just been hanging on and trying to turn into a full fledge cold so I just wasn’t quite up to par this weekend.  Sunday, we watched Church from the comfort of our couch and then headed to J’s Sister’s house for lunch (more about that later).  When we got home, J headed outside to do yard work and I went back to the couch.  Watched the Packer game which started off great and quickly went down hill.  😦  I didn’t even stay awake for the 4th quarter.  I couldn’t take it anymore!

So, J’s Sister.  I’m not sure how much I’ve actually written about her so I apologize if I repeat myself.  She’s an interesting character…one of those people that’s not happy unless there’s drama.  She always says she hates drama but she’s also the first person to start it.  She’s not happy unless she’s mad at someone and we take turns getting to be that person.  I’m nice and civil when we’re with them (at least most of the time) but I would rather not spend time with her.  She’s just a very selfish person and everything is always about her.  She’s so the opposite of J that I don’t even know how they can be siblings sometimes.  She has added so much grief to the infertility from her statements and attitude that I would rather not discuss it with her at all.  You can tell that she’s asking not out of concern, but to be nosey.  Oh well, what can you do when it’s family…and not even your side?!  However, despite everything being about her yesterday (as usual) the afternoon went quick and it was nice to see J’s parents..I hadn’t seen them in awhile.

Okay, now for the randomness:

I’m normally a one book at a time kind of girl, but not right now.  I’m reading not 1 book, not 3 books, not 5 books, but 7 books right now (this does include my Bible which I’ve been trying to be in way more often)!!!  This is just crazy to me, but I keep finding or being given books that are interesting or helpful to me.  This is so crazy to me that I took a pic of it (Maybe I should start 100 Happy days, because all of these books make me happy or make me think which makes me happy):

The other thing that’s making me happy this Monday morning….I got my new glass water bottle that I order from Amazon this weekend.  I needed glass because Young Living’s citrus oils eat through toxins so you can’t use a plastic water bottle with them.  Today I have it filled with water and tangerine oil…so yummy (and healthy)!

Other than that, I have logged onto MyFitnessPal for 25 days in a row now.  I will admit that up until this weekend I haven’t been staying under calories most days but at least I’m tracking and paying attention.  I also set the alarm for 5am this morning and got in a workout.  I did not make it through the whole DVD which I used to bang out no problem, but I burned 300 calories and that’s a start.  I also got in my devotional and some Bible time before the kids arrived so that was a bonus.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Indecisiveness

J and I are being very indecisive lately.  What does that mean for ttc?  We will be doing yet another natural cycle this month.

Last month’s cycle ended up being 24 days, which, if I ovulated as early as I think I may have, it would have still given us a 13-14 day luteal phase.  I woke up to spotting on cd25 and was full flow by the afternoon turning it into cd1.  By cd2, neither one of us knew if we should go forward with our 5th IUI so instead, I called and made an appt to meet with Dr. R on Nov. 5th to further discuss our options.

Honestly, despite seeing several of you get BFP’s lately, some from IUI’s, I am okay with putting it off for at least 1 more cycle.  We sat down and went over finances the other night and J is completely freaking out about credit card debt and the fact that we have to make payments instead of just paying them all off like we normally do (Well, like he has always done, I never did that!).

Apparently, telling him that other people dealing with infertility are way more in debt than we are doesn’t help, lol.  The conversation ended up with me in bed in tears because part of the debt is due to surprises I had planned for him to get away and help with all the stress of infertility.  Instead, it just caused him more stress.  I ended up canceling our weekend away to Door County for our anniversary but we are still going to Minneapolis for the Garth Brooks concert.  It sucks, but what can we do.  I also think we will be staying home over Christmas instead of doing a road trip to FL like we were hoping to do.

Other than that, not much happening.  I’m crazy busy working on pulling events together for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week in November and I’ll be very happy when it’s over.  If you wouldn’t mind saying some prayers for Family Promise of Monroe County, I would totally appreciate it.  We need to get 8 more churches in the county on board and so many seem to be in-between Pastors right now.  We also need to raise the funds, but if we could just get 500 people in the WHOLE county to donate $180/yr or just $15/mo, the program would be completely funded for the year.  We are really hoping to open some time this winter.  We fear if we don’t make it happen this winter, it’s going to lose steam and go by the wayside like every other time somebody has tried to something for homelessness in our area.

Have a great weekend, Friends!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Canada

To my Canadian Friends, I am so sorry for the tragedy that happened this morning in your country.  I hope they are able to apprehend all those involved very quickly.

And The Winner Is…..

Before I tell you who the winner is of my first giveaway, I want to say “Thank you” to all of you who are following our story.  You offer so much encouragement and love and it is truly appreciated!  I also want to say “Welcome” to all my new followers.  I hope that our story helps or encourages you in some way and I look forward to learning more about you and watching your stories unfold.

Ok, onto the fun stuff….The winner of my very 1st giveaway is…………….drum roll please……………………………………………………………………….Finding Hope!!!

Congratulations Finding Hope!  If you could please email me your home address, I will get that out to you this weekend!  My email is pdot95@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone who commented and/or shared my blog to help me surpass the 50 mark.  I look forward to doing the next give away when I hit 100 followers.  🙂

Lots of Love~Dawn

50 and Counting

Woohoo!!!!  Thanks to A Calm Persistence for re-blogging my last post…I’m at 51 and counting.  That means give away time!!!  If you’d like a chance to win, please comment below along with your favorite color.  🙂  I can’t wait to send out a fun package to one of you Wonderful ladies.  You have until tomorrow night (Monday) at 11:59pm to leave your comments.  Have a fantastic week, Everyone!!!

Hugs~Dawn

49 and Counting

I can’t believe it!  I am at 49 followers…that’s awesome!!!  This blog started as a way to vent about this journey but instead, I have met (well, cyberly) some of the most fantastic, supportive ladies ever!  As soon as I hit 50 followers, I will do some sort of giveaway.  🙂  Hope you all had a great weekend…my Packers are kicking butt (had to DVR the game so still watching) so I’m in a super good mood right now!!!!

Hugs~Dawn

WI Proud!

Ladies…I don’t know what got into me this weekend but I did something I have never done before and J totally went along with it!  We went to this big sweatshirt sale on Friday night.  It was held in this big convention center in the city closest to us.  While we were there, we found these:

And I bought them!!!

Now, I know a lot of you buy things for your eventual baby, but we never have.  This was a big step for us in proving to ourselves that we have faith that God is going to bring us our baby (hopefully soon, lol).

In other news, unless there is a second immaculate conception, there is no way we are pregnant this month.  I’m all most positive that I ovulated way early this month (like cd11, I think).  J wasn’t feeling well at all last week so we did not have any kind of fun.  It would seriously be a double miracle if I got pregnant this month.

I’ve also been doing good on logging in and tracking my food every day on myfitnesspal.  I’m not always staying under my calories, especially on the weekends but I’m tracking and paying attention and that’s a huge step.  Last week I didn’t have any soda during the week and I’m going to try and do that again this week.  I completed week 1 of c25k and amazingly enough managed to get up at 5am today to get in the first day of week 2.  I’m having dinner tonight with one of my good friends that I haven’t seen in forever so I knew I wouldn’t have time to get it done tonight.

It’s a rainy, gloomy day here in WI and I totally wish I could curl up and nap with the kids right now!  I hope you all have a great week!

Hugs~Dawn

Fall, Food, and Fitness

I love Fall!  I love being back in my sweats and sweatshirts.  I love the changing leaves.  I love football.  I love baking in the Fall. Unfortunately, I think our Fall here in WI is going to be pretty short lived.

So far, I have resisted my usual Fall baking.  I did make banana bread yesterday, but I don’t like it so it’s easy to resist, lol.  I made one loaf with chocolate chips and one without.  The dog managed to grab the one without off the counter when I was giving pieces to the babies…grrrr!  Luckily, I got it away from him before he managed to eat it, but it was still ruined.  😦  I have put off making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread, but I think I’m going to have to cave soon and just try to keep it to 1 or 2 a day with my coffee in the morning.

I started myfitnesspal again this past Friday.  Out of the 5 days, I’ve gone over twice…both times were way over.  The first time was Saturday and although I was purposely tracking, I wasn’t purposely being good yet.  Last night, we went to Outback.  I LOVE Outback and had been craving it quite awhile.  I resisted getting soda and stuck with water, but there’s no way for me to resist the Bloomin’ Onion.  It is just too darn good!  I also got the filet and lobster tail.  I ate the lobster tail and part of my baked potato and saved the steak and the rest of the potato for today or tomorrow.

I also skipped Zumba which I fully intended on going to until we found out that a friend of J’s and Best Friend to one of dc parents passed away Monday night.  I didn’t want to leave J alone with his thoughts last night so instead we went to his little cousin’s football game, grabbed dinner and then had a fun shopping trip at Shopko.  I need to go back because I found quite a few things to get J for Christmas.  🙂

So between bible study and meetings, I have yet to make it to Zumba.  However, I have restarted the c25k program and did that on Sunday afternoon and Monday night.  Sunday went well but Monday was not easy, graceful or fast.  My calves started acting up again but I kept at it and got it done.  We also did a ton of raking on Sunday afternoon so I burned a lot of calories that way.  I will get back on the treadmill tonight after work.  My goal is to do something at least 4-5 days a week.  Even if it just means fitting in a walk with the babies.

On the TTC front, I thought for sure the cyst on my right ovary was about to burst at about 3am this morning, but the pain has subsided for the most part.  I should also be ovulating this week so I’m not sure if that’s all it is.  Hopefully, that’s not what I was feeling because this is cd11 and it’s a bit early for me on a natural cycle.  Normally I only let the babies nap for an hour in the morning so they sleep well in the afternoons, but they all have colds and are grumpy and my right side is still sore so I’m letting them sleep til they wake up today.  We still have no decision made on whether or not we’re going to try another IUI before the new year.  I was sure I was done and then I started seeing different success stories on Fertile thoughts this past month and with bloggers that I’m following and so now I have the itch to try again.  I just do not know what to do.  I’m trying not to think about it too much right now.

Only 23 days more to go until we head out for our Anniversary weekend in Door County and taking a page from Elisha at Waiting For Baby Bird, I also planned another outing for November to help re-ignite the spark in our marriage.  Not that it’s totally gone, but I would say it’s dimmed slightly.  November’s event is going to see Garth Brooks in Minneapolis.  I’m so stinkin’ excited!!!  Our seats are in the nosebleed section at Target Center but I don’t care.  I can’t wait to share this experience with J.  Now I need to start thinking up something good for December!

I know many of my IF Sisters are going through a rougher time than usual right now.  Know that you all are in my thoughts daily and I’m sending lots of love out to all of you!

Hugs~Dawn

See What I Mean?

I told you I’m terrible at forming habits!  I forgot to do Fact Friday again…although, technically, I didn’t forget.  I did remember at some point in the day, but not a point when I could actually write the post and then the day just got away from me.  Oh well, I’ll just hold onto my fact til next Friday.

Remember when I told you that I asked God for a very specific sign (if not, you can read about it here)?  He did not come to me how I asked…however, I did have a dream the Sunday night after I asked for a sign.  I dreamt that my chiropractor was telling me I needed to go on bcp and I kept telling him no, we want to get pregnant and bcp defeats the purpose.  Then he said to me, Dawn, you need to go on bcp because your heart cannot handle a pregnancy.  Say What?!!!!!  Now, I do not know that this was actually God trying to tell me something because everything in the dream had been talked about that weekend so it is more likely just a manifestation of that.  On Friday, I had weighed myself and told my Mom I was almost 160lbs. (I’m 5’1).  She had said to me, “You don’t look like you are but that’s not good for your heart.”  Saturday morning when I was talking to the nurse about what to do this cycle, she mentioned going on bcp to make sure my ovaries have a quiet month.  And then on Sunday I hurt my back and had an appt with my chiro on Monday.  So see, it is all very explainable why I would dream what I did.

However, I couldn’t really get that out of my mind.  My Dad had open heart surgery when he was younger than I am.  I’ve gained a ton of weight.  My calves have been seizing up, my arms have been going numb and so I am going to finally call a Dr. tomorrow to get a check up.  I haven’t seen anyone other than a gyno or an RE since forever.  I haven’t had a physical since I left for college.  I’m hoping my gut is totally wrong and I’m fine, but I feel like at this point, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I have been better since Friday about paying attention to what I’m eating and getting some exercise.  I’m not fantastic on the food yet, but I am plugging it all into my fitness pal and I have been getting at least a walk in each day.  This afternoon I restarted the c25k program.   Here’s to making some healthy changes in my life!

Have a great week!

Hugs~Dawn