Spring Cleaning, cooking, & crafting!

This has been the best week for us! After recovering from my cold/sinus infection last weekend, I was finally able to enjoy a few days this week with my hubby. Even though the week was filled with Dr's appointments, we were able to squeeze in some rest, relaxation, spring cleaning, cooking, & crafting!

The big item that was on our agenda was working on Jason's storage room. It was definitely one of those rooms that was just a total male storage room & has been neglected ever since the day we moved in.

Here is a before pic.

The horrible lime green and checkered wallpaper that was halfway coming down...

It looks like it's snowing from all of the dust off of the floor & after sanding the wall.

Here is after! Sorry about the snow picture, dust was still flying!

Now that's it's all cleaned out, Jason is going to build a fancy shelving system, complete with storage for our car washing supplies, fishing, & golf stuff. I'll have to post another pic once we get it all finished & organized, but at least we were able to clean it out & throw a bunch of things away.

We also worked in the yard on Friday & I started potting flowers for the patio. I still haven't found a patio set that works yet, but it really did look so great with what little effort & money we had put into it so far. I was so happy with the outcome. That night, we went to watch a panther baseball game & when we got home, our sweet little Wiley has completey destroyed the biggest pot I had. Dirt was ALL over the patio & I was sick. So...I relocated my flowers to the front porch & plan on saving it all for whenever I get my patio set & we decide to stake Wiley.

I also crafted quite a bit. Here are a few of my newest projects.  I also have them listed at my etsy shop (Just Add Sparkle).  For all of my blogger friends, I am doing a 20% off promo code this week (Expires April 1st). Just type SPRING12 into the coupon code box to receive 20% off your entire order!

As you can see, we've been really busy around our house this week! I've had several ask about our Dr.'s appointments this week.  Several were just routine check ups & eye appointments, but there were two big ones that we were both nervous about. Jason's yearly checkup to test his blood levels, blood pressure, & cholesterol (which we still have not heard back from about, but are still praying for good news from that!).  And my appointment ....

First, I must say I have definitely felt the prayers this week! I have gotten cards, texts, & such sweet phone calls and each one has meant so much. 

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always dreamed of the day I would be a wife & a mother. God has blessed me with such a Godly man in my life and he is a wonderful husband to me.  On Halloween day 2010, just five months after being married, we decided that we were ready to try to start a family.

I really expected it to happen almost immediately.  I have so many friends that weren't trying or as soon as they decided to, it happened, so I just assumed the same would happen for me.  Also, Jason's brother & his wife have been trying to have a baby for over 5 years now.  She has been through everything and they got back the diagnosis "unexplained fertility", but they have started a new "plan" to try this year.  She has been such a great support for me and helped me so much with getting through this.  I guess I thought that since they had had so much trouble, that we wouldn't.  What are the odds of both couples in our family going through the same ordeal?  I thought I was ready, but still prayed that God knew what timing was right for us & was patient. I tried not to focus on it and just enjoyed our first year of marriage.  With that, it felt like everyone around me was having babies.  I know some of you have been in my shoes before.  At church, every woman in the Sunday school class across the hall was pregnant.  Kids I worked with had babies.  My friends from high school & college were all having babies.  It felt like every week I was buying a baby gift or seeing a new ultrasound picture on facebook.  I was so happy for all of my friends!! But at the same time, I just had to ask God what was going on with me.

By this last October, it was time to go back to the doctor for my yearly & by this point, it had been almost one year since we decided to try for a baby.  I was so nervous the morning of my appointment. My mom went with me and the whole way there I was a nervous wreck!  I had no idea what she would say or what I had to do. I was so scared.  When I went in, the Dr. told me I was young and not to panic. She gave me instructions to start getting serious, start tracking, & keep a calendar and to report back to her in 6 months.  I couldn't believe she wasn't doing anything! I was so frustrated, but decided to do what she said and keep praying to God to keep us in his will. 

I went home & bought an ovulation kit and got a smiley face the first day I tried it. I was estatic!!! Things were headed in the right direction. I honestly felt that God was working and I just knew it would work and we would be able to tell our family at Christmas (& all of you around valentines day! :) October went by and it didn't work.  Then November...Then December...By the holidays I was very discouraged and decided to take a break for a month or two and just enjoy my time off of work. 

Fast forward to now. Last Thursday, Jason & I went back for our follow up appointment. I have been praying about this ever since my last appointment and hoped I would be going in for my first appointment to see hear my baby's heartbeat by this point.  This visit was much different than the last. I really felt at peace going into the appointment.  I was calm and so thankful to have Jason there with me.  We went in together and talked with the Dr. She gave us a plan and ran some tests.  I'm also scheduled for more tests that I will most likely do in April or May.

I really feel that God has placed so many special angels in my life.  The week before my appointment, a friend of ours had told me she had had a dream about us & that we were expecting our first baby.  She also said that we were wonderful parents! Even though I have probably mentioned to her about wanting a family, she had no idea about our appointment the next week. I just cried and cried when I got home. I told her about our appointment and found out she had went through a very similar situation. Her story was so inspiring to me and it meant so much to hear what she went through to have her "miracle baby". 

I know God has the same thing planned for us. I know this is an incredibly long post, but I just wanted to fill in all of our friends about what's been going on. I thought it was definitely time to blog about this. I hope that by keeping a blog record of our progress, it will help build us a prayer team to surround our baby with God's love. I really believe in the power of prayer and I think we need all we can get! I also think it would be good to show our baby one day what all we went through to conceive to show how special he/she is to us, even before it was born. 

Please keep us (& Jason's brother & sis in law) in your prayers. I just know that I will have good news to share soon!!