Home Sweet Home: Family Room Inspiration and Plans

If you guys remember our list of "would love to have's" for our new house, a gas fireplace was on the list... it was practically a must-have, but as relatively easy as they are to install, it wasn't QUITE a deal breaker.

Happily, our new house comes with a nice, big family room with a great fireplace!  Yay!!  It's open to the kitchen, which I love for entertaining and for spending time together during supper prep, and has four big windows that provide a ton of gorgeous natural light.

In another happy little detail, we like the color of the walls.  Maybe not - "Oh my gosh, that's the exact color I've always dreamt of having in my family room!" - but more - "Hey, this is pretty and it will definitely work with the overall style I want this room to have."  It's a little less olive in person, and little bit softer and more neutral.

We love the entertainment center we bought together before we moved to South Carolina, and are so glad that it will blend with the hardwood floors and cabinets in the kitchen!!  And there just so happens to be a wall that is plenty big enough to accommodate this massive piece of furniture :-)

Ashley Furniture, from about 2010

(Forgive the grainy phone pic - two thirds of this is in the POD, and the little middle part is in the basement, so I had to dig to find this old photo!)  We love that this is big enough for our big TV, and all of the storage it offers.  All of our DVD player/Wii/whatever other gizmos I don't recognize, binders of DVDs, video games and accessories, etc fit in the glass part, and the drawers hold board games, camcorder, books, blankets... all kinds of stuff! Love it!

We went out last week and picked out furniture for the family room - a couch and a loveseat - and put a deposit on it.  We'll pay it off as soon as we close, but for now... we are being very careful not to derail our mortgage process!  I can't wait til these arrive... I love the soft blue!  Light enough to go with the soft, calming, clean look I want for the room... but not too feminine for a man to enjoy ;-)

via Ashley Furniture - Kreeli Sofa (and Loveseat) in Slate

The couch and loveseat both come with the pillows shown, which actually, I don't like as well in person as I do in the picture.  Ethan agreed with me that they didn't stand out well and were awkwardly matchy-matchy with the sofa fabric.  But they're still really pretty, so we will use them someplace else in the house, and we are getting pillows in this floral fabric to toss on them and provide most of the palette for the room.  We were able to see the pillows in the show room, and put them on the couch to see how we liked it... perfect :-)

via Ashley Furniture - Kylee Accent Chair

We're planning to use a recliner we already have for some additional seating, and we want to get a storage ottoman/bench like this one to put in front of a window for some extra storage and seating.  We also kind of suspect Charley will make it his spot for squirrel-watching :-)

via Kohls

Our old coffee table and end tables will still work in the new room, so we don't need more of those... I would like to eventually get a console table to kind of anchor the loveseat that we think will probably float beween the kitchen and family room, and our beloved "periodic tables" will be the additional surfaces needed for any entertaining we do...

As amazing as these windows are, I don't want to do anything to darken them too much.  I'm thinking maybe some buttery yellow curtains that will pull in the yellows from the accent pillows?  

And I'm picturing something simple for the mantle, along these lines but with a big mirror instead of the multiple little prints (and leaving the mantle as-is, not painting it white).  Some silk flowers should help tie in the colors from the pillows that aren't necessarily already in the windows, furniture or walls :-)  I'll echo that in some of what I put on the display shelves of the entertainment center, too.  

via

The appraisal on the house was done a couple of days ago, so we're just waiting for the mortgage company to compile the paperwork and we should be ready to close... probably in the next two weeks... then we can take immediate possession and I can start putting these plans and pictures into action!  I SO can't WAIT!!!

 

PS: If you missed it, here are my plans for the formal dining room!

An Infertile Rite of Passage

I am really not sure why I have put off writing this update for so long.  Part of it may be that the things that are already written on the subject are often contradictory and ultimately intimidating, and I hesitate to be a part of it at all, even though my story is one of the more encouraging, because it may just add one more confusing voice to the din.  Part of it may be that I’m still not 100% comfortable talking about the more nitty-gritty details of infertility testing and treatment in a public forum.  And part of it may be the sense of dread that fills me when I think about medical procedures of any sort – past or future – no matter how well they may have gone (long story, bit of trauma from all my DKAs and stuff years ago).   

But.  Last Friday, the day before we toured those six houses, I had my first hysterosalpingogram (HSG).  I had counted myself extraordinarily lucky that none of my doctors had ever suggested doing one (because, like, EVERY infertile woman gets at least one!), but the results of the CT scan I had had a couple of weeks before warranted a closer look at the integrity of my right Fallopian tube.  As a blogger and reader in the infertility community for more than 3 years, I had read plenty of horror stories about them, and how much more painful they can be when a tube is blocked (which I surmised from my radiology report, was a good possibility with the 3.6 cm x 6.3 cm cyst currently hanging out in the vicinity, as it could have been pressing it from the outside or lodged inside).  Several of my wonderful infertile Facebook friends (love y’all!) tried to comfort and reassure me that it was less painful than menstrual cramps, but I prepared myself – mentally and physically – for the absolute worst.  

Thankfully, Ethan was allowed to hold my hand for most of it, the radiologist was skilled and kind, the RE had recommended a LOT of ibuprofen, and my tubes are (presumed) CLEAR (praise God!!), so my pain during the procedure was manageable.  In all honesty, I have pretty rough period starts (the first 12-18 hours or so, especially), and this was a little bit worse than that.  However, the cramps were a breeze compared to a rupturing cyst!  You’ll hear that the cramps only last about 30 seconds, and I would agree that the worst of it is pretty brief.  But I cramped pretty steadily for the rest of the day, and felt pretty tender.  My pain level fluctuated (as high as what I would call moderate pain, or strong cramps) for the next couple of days, but by Tuesday, I felt completely back to normal.  This is a lot slower than what the doctors’ offices tell us to expect (go back to work that afternoon? Uh huh!)… but that may also be because of my other health issues making me a slow healer.  All in all, it was a small price to pay to learn that my tubes are most likely clear :-)

I am headed to the doctor in the morning to find out the official results of the CT and HSG, as well as all of my blood work.  Please pray that all of the good news from the preliminary results makes it to the official report as well! 

Home Sweet Home: Formal Dining Room Inspiration and Plans

One of the must-haves in our new house is one that I think seems to be falling out of favor with most prospective home-buyers: a formal dining room.  But, I like the idea of a place to have extra-special meals on our good china - birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Tuesday... and it's important to us that our house is inviting and allows us to host big family and friend events.  So, a formal dining room was a must.  

Our new house has a nice, big dining room that the previous owners used as a sitting room, we think.  

We BY NO MEANS hate the walls in here.  They've been sponge-painted beautifully, but we don't think that the little bit of dining room furniture we have will work with them.  Too Halloween-y :-)

We bought this china cabinet a few years ago, mostly for storage and to display some of our china.  We are planning on using the china pattern as the major inspiration for the room.  This cabinet holds MASS amounts of stuff - at one point, I had all of our china and table linens, as well as all of my bakeware (which is a considerable collection, haha!) in it, easily.  It's no longer available at Value City Furniture, but we are very pleased with its quality and price, and with the service we got there, so we'd recommend them for anything you may be looking for!

This is our china pattern, around which we plan to decorate.  It is Royal Doulton's "Mystique," which as been retired since I was 4. :-)  We got it for a GREAT price from a friend's consignment and decor shop (where I can't wait to go shopping for the new house)!!  The newspapers in was packed in were from 1994, which I thought was pretty neat.

So basically, we are looking for simple black furniture with clean lines to coordinate with our china cabinet.  We found a set we like (it's in the collage... we'd probably do black all over instead of the wood top, and maybe a cream or grey cushion instead of the brown).  Planning on sticking with the soft neutral carpet... for now.  Maybe someday, a long way away, we'll do hardwood or a laminate that looks pretty doggone close :-)  We want to paint the bottom half of the walls a soft grey (with the slightest hint of purple undertones), and the tops soft white, with a white chair rail. 

Sherwin Williams "Wishful Blue" is about what I'm envisioning... but I've been trying for an hour to get it to show up right here.  The best I can do is add it as the background of my inspiration collage.  For some reason, THAT shows up correctly, but it doesn't show up if I save it as an image from Sherwin Williams's site! :-\

I'm not certain what we'll do about curtains.  I may have to just shop and see what strikes my fancy :-)  I'd love to do a medium grey, with maybe some silver in it?  But I don't want to darken the room too much, and I'm afraid that those curtains with black furniture would be too dark.  A very greyed-out purple might be pretty, or even white (but ugh, keeping THAT clean!).  We'll see :-)

The chandelier will be changing!  I might attempt to paint it like a brushed silver, or I may do the smart thing and just buy a new one ;-) If we get a new one, I'd like something pretty basic, not too ornate... but with the option to get pretty bright if we're doing something that requires more light... like homework or card games or something.  :-)

So... here's an inspiration collage with all these elements included.  Can you tell I'm a little bit on the excited side? Please pray that the government shutdown doesn't delay our closing too much!

Hunt for Home: We Have a Winner!

Well.  I had planned a post for today about the houses we toured this weekend, and our thought processes in narrowing 6 homes down to a short list of 2 or 3 to revisit.  

But things didn't go quite like we planned - happily!  

The fourth house we visited, we fell in love with... we looked it up and down, compared it against our needs and wants lists, searched desperately for downsides... then called Ethan's parents and asked them to meet us there in an hour.  We went through the last two houses, just to be thorough, then went back to the fourth house to meet my in-laws.  We took them through it, and these veterans of many home purchases with their critical eyes came to the same conclusion we did - we wanted this house!

We wrote out an offer right there, and after a couple of back-and-forths today, we came to an agreement and signed the contract.  I can't believe how fast it went, but mostly, I can't believe how perfect this house is for our needs!  We also can't believe how wonderful our realtors have been - they even prayed with us over the original offer and for my health and fertility.  This house hunt really seems to have had God's hands ALL over it!  

I'll share more pictures and details a little bit later :-)  And then... inspiration boards, painting, decorating, ohmygoodness, YAY!!! 

Random Outfit Post: Lunch Date!

I had a hot date today... got to pick Ethan up at work and whisk him away to Culver's for lunch!  It was so wonderful.  As grateful as I am that he has a job (REALLY, REALLY grateful!!!), we had been home together for four months, and my days are pretty lonely without him.  Kinda like the guy!  We didn't get to have lunch dates too often when he was at the university, and when he taught high school, I had to take a sub gig for an English or Social Studies teacher. :-)

Speaking of sub jobs... I had an orientation session yesterday (despite having subbed for three years!), so I will hopefully get to start subbing the week after next, after all the paperwork is processed.  Our area schools have recently delegated hiring subs to a joint group of two counties' educational service centers, so by getting hired by one agency allows me to sub in 16 different school districts! Yay!! Lots more opportunities to actually get out in the buildings and earn some Christmas (and furniture?) money!

This is what I wore out to lunch with Ethan today :-)  And, y'all... I stepped outside in jeans, a tank, and a cardi... and was still chilly!  Boy, I hope autumn is really here... so excited for crisp days.  I love summer... love winter... love spring... and I'm glad they each only last about 3 months because I'm always so excited for the next fabulous season to arrive :-)

• Jeans and Booties: Kohls (Clearance jeans, current booties)
• Cardi: New York & Company (couple years ago)
• Sequined Tank: Dress Barn (last year)

Happy fall, y'all!

Book Review: Shooting Blanks: A husband’s perspective on missing the mark and dealing with infertility

I was approached last week to review a new e-book, “Shooting Blanks: A husband's perspective on missing the mark and dealing with infertility" by Jonathan Boldt and Steve Ruiz, two men who are each half of an infertile couple.

The book’s description on Amazon is

"Infertility is one of the most gut-wrenching and emotionally draining experiences known to man (and woman) and finding ways to deal while learning to still live a satisfying existence can be a difficult task—even for us guys. We may not say it out loud (and probably won’t); we may not seek help emotionally (honestly, the odds of that happening are slim to none); and we for sure never want to admit that we just might be shooting blanks. But we feel it all. One of the best ways to numb the pain is with the opiate of laughter, and while it may not be a cure, it sure as hell can get you through a lot.”

Y’all know I am a big believer in finding what little humor can be found in infertility. Unfortunately, much of that humor is borderline “blue” humor that can be a little bit uncomfortable to read, so if you are easily offended, this is probably not the e-book for you.

I am also a little bit disappointed in how every book or book chapter I have read that endeavors to speak to men on this topic, speaks to the inner caveman. I promise, my husband is not a caveman, and I’m betting yours isn’t either. Mine is academically and emotionally intelligent, and does not need to be condescended to when discussing matters of the heart or of the reproductive system.

Those two considerations aside, this was a quick and humorous read that helps fill the need I often have to remember that we’re not alone in this. It’s the same need that keeps us (mostly women, I suspect) scouring the internet for new blogs to read. Sometimes, reading parts of our own stories and our own thoughts in someone else’s voice is what we need to reassure ourselves that we are not, in fact, nuts. While the book may have largely “missed the mark” with us, the overall message and goal are great – get men talking about infertility. Infertile female celebrities are starting to “come out” and talk about their struggles to have children, but their infertile male counterparts are still sadly missing from the scene… which I believe is partly to blame for the double standards “normal” couples face regarding discussing their infertility. Until it becomes less taboo for our husbands to talk openly about their MFI or about dealing with the emotional aspects of having an infertile wife, books like these are one of the few sources providing a male perspective (even if they do tend to be a bit caveman-esque) to them or to us, and as such are a valuable contribution to infertile literature.

You can download your own copy of this e-book on Amazon, here. :-) Mine was provided free-of-charge to me for the purpose of my review, but rest assured... the opinions expressed here are my own :-) (More disclosure – all Amazon links are my affiliate links.)

A New RE and a New Plan!

We met my new RE last week, and left the office feeling encouraged and optimistic, and awed at God’s obvious involvement in this match up.  Such a wonderful feeling for a couple who has spent the last year and a half or so wandering in the desert - so to speak - and waiting for a comforting sign that He was still paying attention!  

I am seeing Dr. G. now, who is a partner in the practice I used before we moved to SC (the doctor I saw there moved just before we did), and happens to be down the hall from my ob/gyn.  When we sat down in his office, Ethan saw a Calvin and Hobbes anthology on his desk and took that as a sign of a kindred spirit :-)  And he was pretty much dead-on!  

He seems very fascinated by my case, which is really encouraging.  Hopefully if he’s fascinated, he will be aggressive and creative in treating me!  He does want to see my hemaglobin a1c down to 7 (and I honestly have no clue what it is right now.  With all the moving and stuff, endo appointments have kind of gotten lost in the shuffle).  To that end, he referred me to a new endo here, Dr. K., who will hopefully not yell at me the way my old OH endo did!  Yelling is so not helpful!  

via Type 1 Diabetes Memes Which is hilarious, by the way.  You should visit them.

Dr. G. is also addressing my ridiculously high DHEA-s level, which is probably responsible for my fatigue and hair loss.  I have orders for a CT scan of my adrenal glands, because he thinks I may have a nodule on one of them, and for some blood work – to check some diabetes-related levels and my AMH and prolactin levels.   We’re going to try to get that scheduled on the same day as my first appointment with Dr. K.  May as well kill a whole bunch of birds with one of Ethan’s leave days!

We are likely headed toward a surgery or two.  If he finds nodules on my adrenals, he will want to remove them.  Not just the nodules, but the whole surrounding gland(s) which COULD result in my needing steroids for the rest of my life.  So please pray THAT’s not needed!  The other surgery would be for ovarian drilling, for which Dr. G. thinks I am probably an excellent candidate.  It can dramatically – albeit temporarily – reduce PCOS symptoms including cysts, excessive androgens (and resultant hair loss), and INSULIN RESISTENCE!  This surgery, I’m actually fairly excited about (oh, the things sick people say!), so I hope it works out that I can do it and it makes enough of a difference to help me attack my a1c!   :-)

The thing that just shocked and delighted us about this appointment though, was when I mentioned the name of my RE in SC, and Dr. G. said, “OH!  How IS [firstname]!?! He was my research mentor!  I just love him!”  Leaving Dr. L. down there was easily the hardest thing for me about leaving SC, so to find out that we are being cared for by someone who was trained by him, who is a big fan of his and who reminds us so much of him in his academic curiosity and personality… just feels miraculous, and helps us feel that we are in the right practice!

And for a last little bit of humor - I made these to wear to all of my RE appointments :-)  The nurses and receptionist were tickled pink... good ice breaker!!  I also have a clay embryo necklace to wear closer to transfer time, haha!

Follow-Up to Prayer Requests

This news is awfully late, but I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers for Ethan's job search.  He starts his new job tomorrow :-)  

We are very excited and thankful - the timing was incredible and the job seems like a perfect fit for him. Our insurance coverage will be uninterrupted, and we didn't even have to pay to Cobra a single month!  Major praise right there!  He will be able to use his grad degrees and administrator's license in curriculum, and the schedule allows him a lot of flexibility as far as when he takes vacation or time off for - say - IVF appointments :-)  Also, the location allows us to still be able to live within half an hour of his parents and grandmother, and within two hours of a bunch of our friends! 

I am so proud of him, and so very, very thankful for all of the prayers, support and encouragement from all of our friends - it looks like one of our biggest challenges is behind us... and we're looking forward to tackling the others!

September Pinspired: A New Way of Thinking about Clothes and Style

This is my fourth Get Pinspired linkup, and I wanted to take this opportunity to do a little bit of reflection on what I have learned over the past four months.

I've never been one to buy clothes excessively... and I've never been one to buy things I didn't love.  But Pinterest has helped me to buy deliberately, strategically.  I am actually looking forward to cleaning out my clothing when we get moved into a house, and those who've known me for a while know that that's kind of a big deal ;-) 

Last week, Ethan and I were out shopping, and I had been talking about trying to find one of those slouchy sweaters that are all over Pinterest, and look so comfortably stylish.  I finally found one, and tried it on.  Then tried it on in a bigger size.  Then tried stripes instead of solid.  You know what?  The look does NOT work on me.  It just doesn't.  And I'm over it :-)  Same thing happened with mint jeans a month or so ago.  They are so cute on some models, but they just didn't do anything for me when I put them on.  Pinterest made me try them on, but Pinterest also gave me the shopping philosophy to walk away when they didn't flatter my figure or fit my personal style.

 

I've learned that, as much as possible, I demand multi-taskers.  You can see from my red pants post, white skirt post, and denim jacket post that I want almost every piece in my wardrobe to be able to be worn multiple ways and in a wide variety of outfits over the casual -> dressy spectrum.  Now, every time I try on a piece, I ask myself: Does this flatter my figure (from all angles!)?  Can I wear it multiple ways (ie, button-downs as shirts, cardigans, or under a sweater)?  Do I have something that serves the same purpose (ie, do I need a red cami when I have that red short-sleeved v-neck)?  Then the really tough question:  Will I actually reach for this when I'm getting dressed, or do I like the IDEA of the piece more than the piece itself?  The result so far has been that every.single.piece of clothing I have bought in the past few months is something I LOVE and I enjoy wearing. 

Okay.  Moving on.  Here's a photo I just had Ethan snap of me tonight, wearing one of my favorite new shirts.  I have worn a lot of "pinspired" outfits this week, but... I've been having some depression problems the past couple of weeks, and most pictures I've tried to take have made me want to cry.  My recent hair loss, that extra weight courtesy of PCOS... fun stuff, y'all.

These were loosely inspirational pics for this outfit... I actually wore the shirt with dark skinnies earlier in the month, but they were in the wash when I got dressed tonight :-) But these were some of the outfits that helped me determine that the plaid shirt was versatile enough to come home with me.

via Cranberry Chic

Could not find original source

Couldn't find original source for this one, either.

Also!  I was so excited about this!!  I've loved everyone's chunky, shiny watches, and I finally got my own.  It looks SO much like this $500+ Citizen watch, but it cost me... drumroll... under $11, thanks to the off-brand and stacking sales and discounts at Kohls.  Yippee!!!

I hope everybody has a lovely September!