As promised here are the Q's I received and my A's. I loved receiving all the questions even from those I have never met. I even received one all the way from New Zealand and Turkey! When asking people I don't personally know how they came across my blog many said they were doing general searches and in one way or another was led here. One looked up homemade laundry soap (still one of my most popular blog posts), one infertility, and another bad haircuts (umm thanks for the reminder!). I am happy people stepped out of their comfort zone to shoot me an email with their questions. Not sure I would have the big girl panties courage to ask someone a question having not ever met them, but they were happily received! It was also nice to get questions in from close family and friends and more surprisingly some distant family and old friends (holla facebook for keeping us in touch!).
Now for the answer button to your questions!
Where are your fence pictures?
Good question! Umm on my phone to be exact! We did finally have our fence put in but it was around a super busy time in our lives. We were dealing with a lot going on with the holidays, traveling, fertility cycle, Brian's grandma passing away, and scheduling with the fence company. Finally we made it all come together and we are now sitting back wondering why we didn't do this earlier?!?! Our dogs loved the fence and were able to romp around in the backyard without having to be leashed. For those who do not know we live in front of an elementary school so especially had to make sure our dogs were leashed. We also had one dog who was a little bit on the temperamental this is my property and people type dog so had to be weary of that. Unfortunately we had to put our dog Levi down which completely broke our hearts, I'm planning on a post about that to come. Now Meeko is on his own in the back and hasn't romped around without his beloved buddy, but it has kept him off leash and able to get in a few sprints before running in out of the cold. I'm sure once the weather warms up with Spring around the corner we will be able to really utilize the backyard and appreciate being able to have Mr. Meeko out there with us while we grill, lay in the hammock, and soak up the warm rays....man makes me yearn for warmer weather! Hopefully I will post up the pictures I took of the fence installation as well as our new shed we had delivered all the way from Amish country.
Are you pregnant? Where you lucky this month? Did "IT" happen?
When this first question came in I had just found out that I had not ovulated at all during this cycle. Yes the same magic potion that last time not only did I ovulate with but became pregnant with had completely failed. It was a major bummer and disheartening....to say the least. I never intended for me to be so honest and open about our struggles with infertility for the past year and a half, however I find comfort in knowing we have so many cheerleaders and people who have an invested interest in us building our family. Can never have too many prayer warriors is what I say! This ended up being the most popular questioned subject I received from four separate people so I decided to share. So where do we go from here? Well we are on the verge of starting up another cycle and am in the talks with my endocrinologist on if we will just bump up the clomid by another 50mg or if we will take a whole different new approach. We shall see. I have no intentions on continuing each and every month updating on our current "trying" however I left an open platform for questions so here's your answer!
When are you foster parents and when do you get your first baby?
I had to laugh a bit at this in reference to when we will be getting a baby. Brian and I are currently in process of becoming foster parents. We were working on our classes that run every Thursday for 3 hours. We have classes for 12 straight weeks for a totally whopping 36 hours then we will be having our home study done. This is a meeting both in our home to check for safety (there is a ridiculously long list of safety features we need to have in our home) and location for where children will be staying as well as in office meetings with our social worker to go over our personal histories individually and together and pretty much knock their socks off with how we are complete rockstars (hopefully)! It is a long process and slow feeling at times. The homestudy can take anywhere between 6-12 weeks and will not start until the end of our classes or in the last two weeks of classes. Once all those pre-service classes and homestudy are done and we are approved by the state as foster care providers we will then have to do another 6 hour foster parent FYI course then we will be able to start taking in kids. Notice I say kids! Brian and I are both burdened with how often times sibling groups are split up in the system. Both of us have fond memories of growing up with our siblings all in the same home and could not imagine losing our parents let alone our siblings on top of all of that. While our hearts are burdened for sibling groups we also know at this point we are open up to two children. There is no minivan here and we do have intentions of *fingers crossed* having a biological child by the end of the year so know we are maxed out at 3 car seats so 2 foster children be it siblings or two completely unrelated separate case children is what will work best for us right now. As new foster parents we can take up to three children then larger sibling groups after 2 years of fostering, however we know what our limits are at this time and are keeping to them. We are also not just open to taking in a baby, but we are being certified for newborns-8 years old. We originally planned up to 6 years old, however we found there is a newborn-2, 3-5, and 6-8 age ranges so what the heck why not up to an 8 year old?!?! My little sister Mary Grace is 8 years old and she is a true rockstar that we love having over on weekends and spending time with, we so got this! We may get some weird looks being my husband looks like a 15 year old and here we may be toting around elementary school children and navigating the local school system, thankfully we live right in front of the school they would attend...I don't even need to get out of my pajama's or pretend to to do anything with my hair! So logistically we are hoping to be fully licensed and ready to open our home to children from the county needing care come Spring like May-ish time.
What happened to those siblings needing a home? Why don't you adopt those siblings?
I have kept my eye on those two and unfortunately no one has stepped up to make them their own....yet! Two people asked about them which puts a smile on my face to know at least those two read that posting and those children are on their minds and hearts. too I still am holding hope that they will beat the terrible statistical odds and will find their forever family. The great news is that their grant has climbed to over $1000 at this point so my heart is keeping hope! I still feel so burdened for those children in an unspeakable way as they captivated every fiber in me. As for why don't we adopt them well we would not be able to start the process until December so about a whole year away due to our ages. One of us would need to be 25 years old to start the process off. There was some going back and forth between us and the facilitator about the age thing as we were prayerfully considering it but in the end we would need to wait the year to begin. The little boy is living in a terrible invalid home and needs out yesterday so they can't be waiting. I'm sure the question will come what if they are still waiting (which chances are high) come this December? Well we will reevaluate our situation then and decide if we will take the plunge or not. It is my true hope that they will be home with their family by then...keep praying for them!
What hobbies do you have?
Hmmm hobbies. You mean how many things have I gotten into then just left half-finished? Haha! On a more serious note I love photography, anything crafty or artsy, home projects, and lately really been getting into freezer meal cooking! I have a post stewing up (get it?!?) about the freezer meals and how our lives have been changed for the better with them. So easy peasy and inexpensive!
How did you meet your husband?
The story we will tell our children or the real deal? Ha! The story our children will hear is that we met at the church on campus and fell in love and we lived happily every after never partying and only staying in studying our college days away in blissful harmony! The real deal...and likely what our kids will sniff out....I met Brian for the very first time after going to a bunch of parties early freshman year and that night came back and was hanging out in the boys dorm. I was with another girlfriend and we met some guys at a one of the parties we knew from classes and decided to go back and hang out. Yes hang out is all we did and intended on doing! Brian among a bunch of other guys hung out with us as we all looked at random pointless youtube videos and such. Not far after I started dating another guy and Brian was dating someone else too. We weren't really friends quiete yet. I ended up being lab partners with a girl who was telling me all about how she was dating someone for the first time and while she really liked him she thinks she is better off single and the whole dating thing freaked her out. I gave her advice to how to just be honest and tell him and see what happens. The next week she came in telling me she did it and it wasn't as bad as she thought it would go, he agreed and they decided to just be friends. Little did I know I gave advice to a girl to break up with my future husband! This is what happens when you go to small schools! I wouldn't know this for sometime or even who this guy was she had been dating.
I was still with the same guy when a friend of mine told me she really liked this guy in one of her classes. She wanted to invite him to go to this free college cosmic bowling event us girls were going to but didn't know how to do it. I told her just facebook him since he was on and ask him, the least he could do was say he was busy or something. She chickened out so I told her to move aside and as the other girls crowded around I pretended to be this girl and asked Brian to meet us up at the Laker to catch the bus over to bowling. He said sure and brought along a friend with him. We all met up and my guy last minute was busy so all the girls, Brian and his friend all went together. The same girl we were trying to hook up with him was refusing to even really talk to him. I kept trying to get the two to interact and even he said she was acting weird. After we all hung out and this girl decided to go to bed early which again was weird especially if you like someone and wanted to possibly date them. Looking back it was His master plan. This girl (keep calling her this girl as half way through freshmen year she did something so mean that we ended up no longer friends) even after I would invite Brian over after would hang out then leave a few minutes later leaving me and the other girls and guys hanging out. I ended up becoming friends with Brian. Nothing to do with Brian but I found myself breaking up with the guy I was seeing and became single again. I was in the "talks" with several guys but not really seeing one or the other. Brian was in the strict friend zone and the thought never crossed my mind for this kid who had become like my annoying little brother friend to even be in the running. Then everything changed.
I was to go to a dance with the guy I had just broken up with when problems came up and I found myself date-less. Brian already had tickets and asked me if I would go with him since everyone else in our friend group was going with someone already. I told him no. Yup so romantic! Then he asked again via aim (remember those days?) and I said no again. Then we were on a walk the two of us and he called me out on why I wouldn't go with him just as friends. All of our friends were going with mostly friends from our friend group anyways, why couldn't we go as friends too? Why should I stay in my room that night when everyone else was having fun? So with less than 24 hours till the dance we jumped in my car and took the 2 hour trek to my parents house for a dress and then on our what should have been 2 hour drive back we got lost and ended up being a 4.5 hour drive back. The whole time we sang, chatted, and had some deep conversations. We had so much fun at the dance with each other and with out friends and started to hang out routinely more and more. Little by little that friend barrier went down and next thing I know we decided to start dating and see where it would go and that's all she wrote. Sorry not readers digest edition, but you asked so you got the WHOLE answer!
How are you doing all your home remodeling?
Not sure what you are exactly asking here. As for remodeling we have redone our master bedroom (not too much master in size!), guest bedroom (still haven't blogged about that remodel), our main entryway, family room, and main hallway, and most recently finished our half bath remodel. The half bath I haven't blogged about but I'm also not too excited about it. Let's just say yellow highlighter on my walls, as bright as the sun. Maybe it's not as bad as I think....maybe it's worse! I guess I will have to post to see what others say but it's good to know it could be an easy painting fix. It definitely is cheerful in there now! We also have paint already purchased and the main wall decor item for the main bathroom but after the never ending half bath experience I'm weary to start ripping wallpaper down. Also our basement is starting to take shape. We cleared out, cleaned, and organized our basement area and the first wall actually went up tonight! Hoping to get it all done especially that new multi-room area that will become our new office/craft room/guest bedroom/treadmill room, etc. A room full of everything for everything. As I said above, we also had a shed put in that we bought from Amish country and a fence that we hired a company to do. Some things are just way over our experience or time capabilities so we hire out but everything else we have done ourselves with the help of family. It has saved no doubt thousands of dollars, especially ripping wallpaper down, pulling out the carpet, tack board, staples, and cleaning our original hardwood on the first floor ourselves. The only carpeting left in our home is our current office/craft room which once cleared out will be remodeled and carpeting yanked out for the original hardwood floors like we have on the rest of our first floor. As for the basement still not sure what we will end up using for flooring but carpeting may just be in the running but we shall see.
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