Doctor

The doctor appointment Monday went well, in case any of you were wondering! We decided to drive down Sunday night (mostly because we were BORED!!) and watched a movie. Got to sleep in til 730! That is better than 530.

Doctor said everything looked good! Now we just play the waiting game for a few weeks. Thank you all again so much for your prayers. We covet them.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16b


Here's sweet Kinley in her pool while mommy and I "layed out by the pool" :)

Pray

I had a doctor's appointment this morning early. Mom went with me because Kyle was loading/unloading hay all day. Everything looks great and is good to go. I have 4 eggs, 2 on the left and 2 on the right. The doctor said I may have 5 by the time they do IUI. We are scheduled to go back Monday morning at 8:30 for the IUI.

Please, please pray that at least one of those 4 eggs will take. I know I've prayed all along it be God's will, and I know it's all in his timing. But this once I'm praying specifically for it to work. Our insurance's balance is smaller and smaller and I just pray we do not have to do the IVF. IF we do, that will be fine. But for emotional sanity (again, me being selfish) I would really, really love for this to work. So please just pray that this month is it.

Monday at 8:30 :)

Love you all and thank you for listening to me vent, gripe and tell you our story.

Venting

Sunday at church was a hard one for me. I have been on an emotional roller coaster the past year or so. I really try not to act like it. I don't feel sorry for myself, nor do I throw myself a pity party. Each month, I just look forward to the next one. But after so long, I am thinking, "what's wrong with me? What am I doing so wrong that I do not deserve a growing family?" Then I bring myself back down, am hopeful for another few weeks and it all hits me again. I've prayed and "not worried about it" but really it gets to consuming my thoughts. Not necessarily my life, but my thoughts. I don't really want to talk about it though unless I am ready to. And now is a time when I am ready.
Sunday the pastor spoke on Moses as a baby. It seems like the past few weeks at church have been about someone being "blessed" with a baby in the bible. Which is great, right? Yes, it is. But when you can't have one, it makes me wonder why I am not "blessed." So this Moses story (as Moses got older) was about giving up what you have for God, even if it means a different life than what you are used to. Then, the altar song was I Surrender All. Which I could sing every word to. But I didn't sing. I stood there in my pew and it hit me like a brick wall. Surrender...
One of those words that is easier said than done. So my prayer is that God will teach me how to surrender because I know if I pray, "I give it to You, it's in Your hands," that won't happen because I don't know HOW to do that. I can pray that but my actions do not show it. So I am trying. Really, really hard to just surrender what is mine to God and am hopeful that one day we will have a blessing of our own running around here. (But I will not put him in a basket and send him on his way :)  )

Busy, Busy

I apologize for the HA-UGE pictures last post. I just wanted you to see the awesome storm pictures up close!

Lots going on here lately. Easter was a success! We went to Disney on Ice (I think I mentioned that earlier), had an egg hunt and Allie's shower on the Saturday before. Thank you Lord, for giving us a reason to celebrate this special holiday.

In baby news...we have decided to take this month off (from doctor's visits). Kyle was gone for a week and the doctor advised us to just take a break and think about our options. So that's what we are doing. I go back probably within the next week or so. We are thinking one more IUI try and then if we need to go to IVF that is what we will do. Not looking at it as a last resort but just the next step to our hopefully growing family. Just a lot more invasive procedure with lots of self-giving shots. Ouch.

Here's a little preview of the bride-to-be. Remember I am not a photographer...these are just pics of the photographer taking her pic mostly. Photographer was Michelle Hayward. Longtime friend of the family.

(Allie's dress is a "remodeled" version of mom's wedding dress).

 I cannot wait to see them all!

Oh...I won an apron today from my new favorite store, Riffraff (click on store name to go to their facebook site)!! Yay for drawings!! :) Will post a pic when I get it. 

Storms, storms and more storms

I'd like to think we live in a safe place, and never have I felt scared at all. I have heard the tornado sirens more in the last two weeks than I have my whole life! The last one Kyle and I stood on the back porch watching the rotation and wall clouds move just to the north of us. Pretty stupid actually since a tornado could drop from those things at any moment, and there we are in all our glory on the back porch watching! Got some good pics though...

 This was the wall cloud moving over us but mostly moving to our north. Scaaarrrryyyy. But cool.

Taken from our back porch. This is mom and dads house and all the storm behind it.

I have never seen such a thing.

On to a lighter note...

Allie had her shower last weekend for their wedding. She had a GREAT turn out. I think probably 50-60 people there and she got a lot of good things. I was so excited for her. Here are all of the bridesmaids and bride.

Kyle is in Nebraska turkey hunting. They have done well so far, and I think are moving down to Kansas in the morning. I find it odd that you would travel so far to kill something you can kill right here. But, I don't complain. Because I like to do things that he thinks are weird and he has no problem with it. So I guess we are even. I do miss him though, my house needs the daily sweeping it gets when he's here!

One last comment, I went to see Water for Elephants with Kristen last night. Had a GREAT time and the movie is fantastic. I recommend.

Birthday Girl

April 15 was Kinley's birthday. And, oh was she cute. Charity had her party and The Jump Place. 

...and this one is my favorite!  Cute little girl with a cute little personality!

Fun Fact: I don't function well when I'm scared

*see comment at bottom, and my apology for the orientation of this picture :)*

I've been the busiest yet since Christmas working on these Easter buckets. I have to admit they are really cute! I think I want to make TOMS my next project. I've painted a couple but I've got another pair lined up to paint HOGS on them...after Easter is over of course.

We had a storm, well, I think it was a tornado, come through last Thursday. There were confirmed tornados in our county but it didn't say which town. Pretty sure it was here. I will say I have never been more scared in my life. Mom texted me and told us to either go to their house or get somewhere safe because it was coming. We turn on the tv and watch the radar. It was mostly west of us. Then it started to hail. Of course Kyle was intrigued by this unusual occurrence (as always) and has me running all over the house to "look at the hail!" At this point, it was getting loud. He told me to call my parents and see if it was too late to get off our hill. My phone did not go through so I started freaking out a little, while Kyle was admiring the hail. Our ceiling fan was shaking so much so that I was afraid it was going to fall out of the ceiling. I finally said (or maybe screamed), "I'M SCARED AND YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!"Well, then he grabbed some blankets and pulled me into the bathroom. Oh yes, our power went out by this time. It was so loud for about 30 seconds that I couldn't hear Kyle talking to me and he was right next to me. Then it was silent...and I said, "Oh no, it's coming...we are gonna die!" Then it was over I guess because when it was quiet it was quiet for good, other than the occasional thunder. I was praying so hard my stomach was hurting when we finally settled down. Kyle said, calmly, "Dear, you don't function well when you are scared!" Uh, no, apparently I don't! Never been that scared!

Here's some damage we discovered once it calmed down enough for us to check it out...

 The dog pin was over the concrete slab. Picked it up and moved it over, poor Oscar P. He was so scared!

The back of dad's barn behind the house

This was not a support beam for the barn...it was just stuck like that after the storm

The view from the bottom of the hill


Then we moved right on into prom. Audrey's senior prom, and she went with her friend Brian, who is adorable. Here are some pics:

I do apologize for the sideways photos. I imported them and rotated them but when I added them on here...no rotation...grrrr... You can turn your computer sideways or turn your head until I figure it out. :-)