Our 7th *and hopefully final* TWW!!

3 DPO already?! Wow! Seems like it was just last night that we made a baby!! :) God, I pray...

Yes, we are officially in our 7th TWW!! What a weekend it's been!! First and foremost, my best friend in the whole wide world was here visiting from Alabama!! Her and her hubby and 3 beautiful daughters came up Friday and left yesterday. Just to set the tone, Jennifer and I have been BEST friends for 10 years! Ours is a very special friendship, in that our entire relationship has been built long distance. We met through a mutual friend (thank you, Kelly!), but didn't really "click" until she moved from Ohio to Alabama. We haven't seen each other in 7 long years!! The last time she saw me, Liam was in my belly and her little Heather was in her belly!! Our kids are exactly one week apart! :) Well, as if that wasn't fantastic enough, I had sort of calculated that we "might" be doing A.I. yesterday or today, which today happens to be Jennifer's birthday. **Happy Birthday, my BESTEST ESTEST friend!** Anyway, as cool as that would have been, it worked out differently. We ended up doing AI on Saturday while they were here!!!!! :) It couldn't have been more perfect!!

I know God is the one who makes all this happen...I have NO doubts...but there's just so many reasons I have to believe THIS is the cycle for us!!!! First of all, Liam was concieved on lucky cycle #7...this was #7 for us. Next, we used donor #514...5 represents May (Jay's bday) and 14 represents Valentines Day (Liam's bday)! And then there's number that crosses my path on a regular basis...1013. It represents a lot of things, including the time that my husband died (10:13 a.m.). I come across this number so many times...and it wasn't until Saturday evening just before we did AI that I realized it was 10/13/07!! Not only that, but we ended up doing AI at 13 hours post +opk!!! I know it all sounds so silly and juvenile, but I really believe things all fell into place the way they did for a reason. And that reason is the creation of our baby!!!! Nothing could have made it more perfect than my Fer-Fer being here!!!! :)

So everyone, if you would, please say an extra little prayer for us when you read this, and throw in a little jar of baby dust if you wouldn't mind also!!

I'm adding some pics taken this weekend, but there are TONS more on www.myspace.com/chicagirl70 for anyone that wants to look!! Thanks in advance for the prayers and FX! We appreciate it soooooo much!!! I'm so ready for our little bean!! :)

Blah, blah, blah Tuesday

Ok Aradia, thanks...I love these things!

Jobs I've had
1) Babysitter (so overrated!)
2) H.R. Specialist for staffing company (also overrated!)
3) Dough-maker at pizza joint
4) Telemarketer

Places I've lived
1) Florida
2) Tennessee
3) hole-in-the-wall one room apartment with my ex-fiance!! (WHAT was I thinking??)
4) Next door (in a side-by-side duplex) to my mom and step-dad (highly un-recommendable)

Food I love
1) pizza
2) apples & caramel
3) chips & salsa
4) garlic cheese bread

Places I would rather be
1) Australia
2) Scotland
3) Living next door to Ellen D*generes
4) Anywhere near water!

Movies I love
1) Because I Said So
2) Meet the Parents/Fockers
3) Catch & Release
4) Anything of Liam when he was little! :)

TV shows I watch
1) Brothers & Sisters
2) Biggest Loser (I wanted to be on there!!)
3) Nanny 9-1-1
4) Private Practice

Books I love (this is a hard one ~ I don't like to read!)
1) Hugs~Daily Inspirationals for Moms
2) LTD Catalog :)
3)
4)

Bloggers I am tagging
1) Tracey of Baby Steps
2) Aradia of Milk-Induced Coma
3) Laine of Two Florida Mommies
4) Soooooo many more!! :p

C'mon...who's next???

A new look!

Finally...Saturday!! :)

I decided on a whim Thursday that I was sick of my dry-looking hair and that it was time for my yearly "Fall look" color change!! So I called my hairdresser, who happens to be my cousin, and she said she would LOVE to do it!! She LOVES coloring my hair, because she knows I'm pretty open to anything and I'll let her try new things! lol I usually have my hair a dark auburn in Fall and Winter, then lighter with hi-lights for Spring and Summer. I was looking online at celebrities and I really like the way Sharon Osbourne always had her hair when it was that deep dark red.

...Well, this is the result! Not exactly what I was going for, as it's a little dark for me, but she reassured me that it will fade out in a couple washings and be more like what I was going for. ??? Hmmmm.... She did offer to redo it on Tuesday if I want, but the more I look in the mirror, the more I'm getting used to it. As much as I wash my hair, I'm sure she's right. So be honest...what do you guys think??? I can take criticism ok. Especially when I'm not ooohing and aagghhing it myself! lol Against my better judgement, I'm posting before & after pics!

Every year, the last weekend of September we have this little festival in our small town called Octoberfest. Well, it's this weekend. So last night we walked uptown for a while and let Liam play a few games, ate some bad-for-you fair food (although it was soooo good!) and ran into tons of people we know! You can't fart in this town without everyone knowing it!! lol Especially when over half the town is somehow related to you!!! Then Jay, Liam and I came home and we decided to have a "slumber party" downstairs in our living room. We blew up the air mattress, watched "Night at the Museum" and curled up together with the cats! ....Well that lasted til about 2 a.m. when I woke up in excrutiating pain!!!! Apparently our air mattress has a small hole and had DEFLATED!! Since I'm a side-sleeper, I was laying hip-to-hard-floor!! Ugh...yea....nice! So I moved up the couch and it was all downhill from there!!! First I started hearing this cat outside our window (we live on an alley and there are tons of strays around here), so it meowed all freakin' night...then the trains started coming through, laying on their whistles allllll the way through town, then this big truck pulled into the alley and was revin' up his engine right outside our window!!!! AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!

...So...I'm thinking we will NOT be doing the "slumber party in the living room" again anytime soon!!!!

On that note...

I am so blessed!!

Well the BIG DAY came and went. As it started out, I was beginning to think "if this is how 37 is gonna be, then I'm skipping it!" I woke up with a splitting migraine that seemed to last through the day up until about 4:00. Turning 37 was literally a PAIN IN THE NECK! But finally it went away and turned out to be probably my BEST birthday yet!!! My Mom went with us out to dinner at Olive Garden, which is by far one of my favorite places to eat!! They did the whole singing thing, brought the cake, I got embarassed, and all that jazz! Liam, with a little help from Jay, got me the new Season One 6-disc set of Br*thers & S*sters. That happens to be my favorite show! As you'll notice in the picture above, my wonderful, romantic, ever-so-sweet Jay, got me a beautiful white gold diamond ring!! NO, not "THE RING" (note to self: YET!), but gorgeous none-the-less!!! She sure knows how make a girl happy and she also learned early on that diamonds ARE a girl's best friend!! ;) I just love her so much!!! No, not because she got me diamonds, although that helps (lol), but because she is the most caring, giving, loving person I've ever known. She goes out of her way, day in and day out, to make Liam & I happy. I just hope she knows the joy and love that I feel for her and hopefully I do as much for her as she does for us. I truly am blessed. :)

Today is MY day!!

And not afraid to say that I am the big 3-7 today!!!!!

Great day on the boat!

Not much new going on here, but I wanted to share some cool pictures we took Sunday. Jay's parents have a real nice pontoon boat and decided to take us out for a few hours. The weather was perfect. About 70*, sunny, cool crisp day!! Fall is just around the corner. :) I'm so excited! It's definitely my favorite time of year...especially here in Ohio.

Yesterday wasn't such a great day in our world! Liam had to go to a pediatric dentist and have 5 crowns done!!! They said his teeth are perfectly aligned, but they sit very tight together, so that's what's causing the cavities. He doesn't eat much candy at all, doesn't drink pop, only averages one juice box a day (if that!) and consumes milk like it's going out of style!!! He was a trooper though! I expected last night to be a nightmare, and other than the codine had the REVERSE effect on him, it wasn't bad at all! I sure wish they told you all this kind of stuff in childbirth classes or while you're pregnant! Being a parent is the hardest job in the world!! I'm sure I was much more stressed out than him! I sat in the waiting room for 2 hours, worrying, anxiety, knot in the pit of my stomach and ended up getting a splitting headache!!!! I mean, that's my BABY!!!

On the TTC front, I've been tracking O this month and finally got a +OPK today (cd17)!!! WHAT?!?! I never ovulate this late!! So now I'm wondering what's going on. Stress?? Freak cycle? I'm having my progesterone checked Sunday on cd21. Then on cd1, I'll call my doctor and they'll call in Clomid for me!! Then we'll order up what we need and be on our way to baby toes!!!!!!! :)

Mixing things up a bit!!

For any of you that are like me, change is fun!! I'm one of these people that NEED change! I get bored very easily. So, to "shake things up" around the house, I conned Jay into helping me change our living room around this past weekend. We have a pretty good size room, but it's long, not so wide. From the day we moved into our house, exactly 19 months ago, we've always had our TV at the far end of the room. Well, I've had my furniture just about every way imaginable in this room!!! So I finally got smart and said, "hey, lets move the TV!" DUH!! So we moved it to the other end and now I can finally have my couch and love seat in the traditional L shape. OMG, we LOVE it!!! It's soooo much cozier now and the room just flows, if you know what I mean!! Last night I lit some candles, dimmed the lights and it made for a very romantic setting.

....This being said, it was, afterall, our 2nd anniversary of our first date!!!! Wow, looking back, we've come a long way in 2 short years. So many great memories and yet a whole lifetime to go!!! She surprised me last night by taking me to our absolute favorite mexican place for dinner! Liam stayed with his Nana, so it was nice having some quiet time for a little bit. He doesn't eat mexican anyway.

For those of you following our TTC journey, things are looking up and I think we may be back on the road to baby toes next month!!! I called today to see if our donor is still available, and he is, so I'm going to at least order tomorrow. I should be ov'ing in the next few days, so I'll chart this month and start on Clomid again when AF arrives in a couple weeks. So hopefully this time next month, I'll be in my LAST 2ww!!!!! :) PLEASE send lots of baby dust our way!! This has to be our lucky #7 cycle again (Liam was concieved on lucky #7!!)