Chalkboard: Picture Recap

As I bragged, I mean blogged about last post, Brandon made me a beautiful chalkboard :)  Here is the picture tutorial of how my amazing husband made my perfect chalkboard.

 

Isn't he so manly? I am so lucky to be married to someone to handy :)

Mr. Amazing and the Chalkboard :)

If you read my blog, you know that my husby is some kind of wonderful.  He is supportive and compassionate, especially during this trying time.  He is my constant source of support and in the last few weeks, he has really worked on being better about this whole fertility thing.  Not that he wasn't great before, but now he allows me time to talk to him about it without changing the subject or getting frustrated and cranky.  He has started to open up about things and let me know where he is on things.  He has really surprised me with this change.  I have felt so much better about things and our relationship has taken on a new dynamic.  I am usually the level headed calm one, pushing for optimism and he is the one that flirts with the realist/pessimist line.  Now, while I worry about the negatives, he is the positive one, pushing for optimism.  Seeing this side of him makes me fall in love with him all over again.

Last year, along with the rest of the world, I started following the blog little baby garvin. I was instantly hooked and obsessed with her pregnancy chalkboard.  This chick is seriously creative and absolutely hysterical.  Now that baby Garvin has been born, she updates about home projects and crafting, entertaining and being a mom.  I love it.  I mentioned to Brandon in passing my obsession with her chalkboard.  I was not convinced he paid me any mind.  Regardless of that, I thought that was the coolest idea.  Clearly, I was not the only one - so many people I know who are currently pregnant are doing the chalkboard timeline too.  It's adorable and a great way to really remember every little moment.  As a scrapbooker, I was obsessed with an idea that would lead to obvious scrapbook pages.

How are these two things related?  I will tell you.  Last week I had an absolutely terrible dream.  I was reliving a conversation I had had with someone who told me that my miscarriage was God's way of saying I wasn't meant to be a mother.  Only in my dream - the person kept saying it over and over again.  It was a constant sucker punch and I couldn't wake myself up to get out of the dream.  Eventually, Brandon woke me up and all I could do was cry.  I was so angry.  I didn't understand why this was happening to us.  We had done everything right, everything in order.  Why was life so unfair?  Ok, a little dramatic, I know, but if you are going through this then you completely understand.  Brandon just hugged me and let me cry.  He kissed my forehead and promised we would get through this.

Wait, what does that have to do with a chalkboard?  I'll tell you.  This weekend, Brandon surprised me with the most perfect homemade chalkboard.  It is beautiful.  And he said it's my reminder that this is going to happen for us and I will get to document every step of the way. How friggin' romantic is that?!

Seriously - could I be married to a more incredible man?  I am very lucky to have such a supportive, encouraging and crafty (in a manly way, of course) husband.  Thank you, Lori, for raising the man of my dreams. 

The Two Week Wait

Ahh, the infertility world's infamous two week wait.  The time between the IUI and the first blood pregnancy test. For many couples this is one of the worst parts of the whole process.  I mean, you're waiting to find out if you're pregnant, if your dream of starting a family is finally coming true.  There are websites built around this agony... think I am kidding?  Google "two week wait" and see what happens.  There is literally a website twoweekwait.com.  I wish I was kidding.

For me, the two week wait was the easiest part about the whole process.  For someone who had been trying to months to get pregnant, who had one too many "does this look like an LH surge?!?!" or "is that line pink enough?!?" conversations, this was simple.  I had monitored my blood levels to know when I was surging which made the IUI pretty idiot proof, so we had done everything that we could.  Now, it was in God's hands. What, God can't be involved because we are seeking infertility treatment?  I disagree.  I think a person can do whatever treatment they want IUI, IVF, whatever; I think God determines when the treatment actually works and will actually take.  You can do 10 IUIs and have them all be negative but number 11 works - because number 11 is when God knows you are ready.  You can do an IVF cycle and have it not take, but the frozen cycle that you do next works because that's when God says you're ready.  He is the one who determines the final verdict, my friends.  Whoa - religious rant.  Where did that come from?  Sorry about that... Let's hop back on track...

During my own two week wait, I was able to keep myself pretty busy.  I had work that was a good source of distraction (thank you, Dr. Levy, for always having a project up your sleeve).  I was stuck in spreadsheet hell compiling international donor cycle stats and getting said stats into lovely little graphs, first total UK stats, then by center and finally by physician (oh God, I love my nerdy little life).  Besides that, my birthday was coming up, my parents were coming into town and we were about 10 days away from our first Halloween in the new house - seriously, I had no shortage of distractions.  In fact, I had everything to look forward to.  I was even more excited to host Thanksgiving - I had the perfect way to announce to our families that we were expecting.  I would get a shirt that said "this is what we're thankful for" with a little arrow that pointed down to my, eventual, bump. And right before dinner I would take off whatever sweatshirt or jacket I was wearing and BOOM someone would notice the shirt.  It was perfect and fun and thoughtful.

My birthday came and went, my parents came and went, Halloween came and went... and so did my period.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't buy that "this is what we're thankful for" shirt after all.  Whatever, October is such a lame month to get pregnant in anyways.... I hear all the cool people get pregnant in November :) ... at least, that's what we can hope for. 

Just call me Handy Manny

Over the weekend, I got to make good use of my new Lowe's app.  I had found a ceiling fan that I really like on the app and I saved it and over the weekend, Brandon and I went to Lowe's to look at it... Well, actually, we went to look at dryers and I decided that while we were in the neighborhood it couldn't hurt to look at ceiling fans too... and lamps, and flooring, and front doors and paint samples and new numbers for the house... What?  I love Lowe's.  Brandon really liked the fan, so things were looking good for me when it came to sneaking in a little project.  He said if the dryer issue was as simple as I thought it was, then we could replace the ceiling fan.  He took a page out of Evan's book and went with the yes, I guarantee not thinking that I could actually be as brilliant as I know I am.

We got the hoses and a new outside vent for the dryer.  Turns out, our dryer vent was COMPLETELY blocked.  The vent was sealed shut.  No wonder our clothes weren't drying.  It looked like Brandon had pulled a small furry friend out of the vent and he said it was still pretty clogged.  We replaced the vent and for good measure replaced the hose that goes from the back of the dryer to the outside.  The loads of laundry that once took three hours to dry, not took less than 45 minutes.  Hell yes.  Downside: our dryer is more powerful than the circuit breaker wants it to be and every now and then we have to go downstairs and reset the circuit breaker.  A small price to pay for dry clothes if you ask me.

Since I was right, Brandon upheld his end of the bargain.  On Sunday morning we went back to Lowe's and picked up the new fan.  This project, while a little bit time consuming, was far easier than Brandon thought it would be.  We got the old fan down in no time and it only took us a little over an hour to get the new one into place.

The Old Fan

The New Fan

 Tell me that is not an improvement.  I am so happy to have the green monster out of my house and I am totally smitten with the new fan.  The light is nicer and brighter and come Brandon's spring break the fan will perfectly match the cabinets.... that's right ladies and gents - the man has agreed to refinish the kitchen cabinets.  I am loving life.  Thanks to that Lowe's app - my husby is on board with so many more home improvement projects.  I am indebted to that thing!

Pinterest: Healthy Chicken Salad

So this weekend, Brandon and I did our pinterest meal on Saturday and used it again on Sunday.  I love this chicken salad.  It's so fresh and so simple.

First you boil a couple of chicken breasts (see SO simple), then shred the chicken.  Add a little cumin, salt, fresh cilantro and lime juice.  We also added garlic and pepper too - those are staple spices in our house.  Then we added an entire jar of fresh salsa, some diced green and red peppers and some onion.  YUMMO!

 First we ate the chicken salad right out of the bowl.  Brandon said the chicken salad almost tasted like Chipotle.  Mission accomplished.  Then we added some sour cream to some of it and ate it on chips - YUM.  The next day, I put some on a toasted egg bagel with some avocado and danggg it was good.  Then yesterday afternoon, Brandon made nachos with it.  HOLY MOLY - this stuff is legit.  Those were the best, healthiest nachos I have ever eaten.  They were so light and so delicious.

Tonight, we put it over lettuce and had it as salad.  I am telling you this recipe is so dang versatile and so dang delicious.
 
Grade:
Brandon - A+
Victoria - A+

IUI v IVF

Something that amazes me now that I work in the infertility field is how little people really know and understand about infertility treatment versus how much they think they know and understand about infertility treatment.  Many people, who are not affected by infertility, think the only option for infertility treatment is IVF.  That’s it, nothing more we can do.  As much as I love some of these people, they are delusional.  I have said before that I wanted to educate people on this and dagnabbit, I am going to educate.  What you didn't think I was going to jump those two weeks and tell you what happened next did you?  Please - give me a break.  I had to wait and so do you.

There are two basic kinds of infertility treatment: intrauterine insemination (IUI) and invitro fertility (IVF).  I will explain a little about each of them in a way that even the most simple human, my dear husby, can understand.

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

Basic breakdown, the doctor minimally monitors a woman’s cycle and when she has her LH surge an insemination is done where a concentrated amount of sperm (seriously, stop giggling) is inserted directly into a woman’s uterus. This allows the sperm to be closer to the egg and increases the chance of fertilization and really, pregnancy.  Sounds simple, right?  That’s because it is. 

There are three different kinds of IUI cycles: natural, clomid and injectable. A natural IUI cycle has no medications, just monitoring.  This allows the physician to watch the ovaries for the size of the follicles and the blood levels to make sure the hormones are doing what they should be doing and allows the physician to pin-point when the patient is going to ovulate and when the IUI needs to occur.  Clomid is the next step up from there. It’s just an oral medication taken between days 3-7 or 5-9 that helps a woman ovulate.  Scary part about Clomid is the chance for multiples increases.  Woof – so not my thing.  Finally, for the patients who need a little more help getting their hormones on track, there are injectable IUI cycles.  This means patients use medications to increase their hormone levels.  The nice thing about doing IUI cycles with a fertility specialist, as opposed to with an OBGYN, is the monitoring.  You really get a better idea of what your body is doing and what it is going through.

In some cases of infertility, IUI is just not an option.  A more aggressive treatment option is required.  The next step up from IUI is invitro fertilization, IVF. 

InVitro Fertilization (IVF)

Basically, on a very simple level, a woman's ovaries are super stimulated in order to produce multiple eggs (generally 10-15 but age plays a factor here) using injectable medications (but not too much because we want to avoid over stimulating) and then when the eggs get to be a good size, they are retrieved.  Then in the embryology lab, the eggs are inseminated and watched for 3-5 days, sometimes 6, and then transferred back into the woman's uterus.  Seriously awesome stuff.  There are different protocols and different medications and whatnot involved in IVF, but that would seriously take away from my whole "keeping it simple" idea here.

I am hoping that this little blog post sheds a little light onto the infertility thing.  I work at the most amazing place and I get to learn all about this stuff on a daily basis.  Almost three years later, I am still learning so much every day.  If you are interested in learning a little bit more, which you totally may not be and that is ok with me, then I recommend checking out Shady Grove Fertility's website, especially this article.

The Lowes App... My newest addiction

Completely by accident, Brandon and I found the My Lowes App on the way to work this morning. This is the best and worst thing to ever happen to my life… and our data plan. Seriously. If you are a homeowner and you have a smart phone and you do not have this app, then you are an idiot… Ok, that was mean, you’re not an idiot. You’re just living a very sheltered life. I have already found 1000 things that I want to re-do in our house and I have only had the app for two hours. In fact, I am now in the process of planning out the projects and pricing them out.

I have said for a long time (probably since we moved in) that I want to re-do the main level bathroom. I hate that mirror and the vanity is kind of blah. Welp – with my new Lowes app, I can sit at work… I mean at home… and price out the vanity and the mirror and figure out exactly what I want… which I have already done. Turns out, this project is not nearly as expensive as I thought it was going to be! I am sure that is because I want something SO simple in that bathroom, but that’s not the point. The point is, we had been avoiding this project because we thought we would have to sell organs on the black market to make the updates. I learned today that for less than $250, I can replace the vanity, vanity top AND mirror in the bathroom on the main level. So I have informed Brandon that next weekend, we will be updating that bathroom. Hello bonding time! And updating that bathroom only increases our resell value… and my sanity. Have I mentioned that I really hate that three-part mirror – it does NOTHING for my figure!

Also, with the Lowes app, I looked at dryers. We need a new dryer. Our dryer takes 2 -3 cycles to dry anything which is annoying and does nothing for our electric bill. I want something energy efficient. Out with the old and in with the new! Turns out, Lowe’s is having a GREAT sale on dryers so Brandon and I are going to go this weekend and look at them in person. I have a few saved on the app that I really like that I want to see in person.

See – this app is saving us time in Lowe’s which is a good thing because I could spend all day in Lowe’s looking around and coming up with projects I never knew I absolutely 100% needed to do. And isn’t it better that I sit at home and come up with these projects, then spend the day at Lowe’s coming up with them? Also, I think Lowe’s should be paying me for this advertising – like $5 for every person who downloads the app because they read my blog. Seriously… go download the app. Even if Lowe’s isn’t paying me to advertise for them.

Information Overloading

Let's just jump right into things, shall we.  Over the last month or so, we have covered day three blood work, new patient appointments, HSGs, ultrasounds and the tubey thing from hell.  We have almost completed our, in my opinion, quite informative blog near takeover about infertility treatment and how it helped me to regain control of my life.  Seriously, when you want a baby the way that I want a baby, it consumes you.  It makes you a crazy person and since sitting down with Dr. Levy, I have felt like a human again.  I have my relationship with Brandon back to normal where we can talk about things other than my desire to have a baby.  The thing is, as you know from my crazy rantings, I want a baby something serious and I can't control that desire at all, I can't just make it go away, but I can have control over how that desire makes me feel and FINALLY, I have that control again.
 
The Thursday after our first sit down with Dr. Levy, Brandon did his semen analysis.  The man has swimmers and they look good, but we'd like to see more of them.  Unfortunately, there really isn't much more to say than that.  He has that one little shining moment... well, for now anyways.  And honestly, his role in this thing is much bigger, my husby has been an incredible source of support for me during this process, but I will try to steer clear of the mushy gushy today.  I did the ultrasound that Dr. Levy requested on the Friday after our appointment with him.  My lining looked great, my follicles looked great, I had a great AFC (antral follicle count), and it looked like I was about to ovulate.  Shoot. Seriously?

To do a quick breakdown: we did day three blood work on day two (which is fine - day three blood work can be drawn on days two, three or four), on day five I repeated the prolactin blood work, on day eight I had an MRI, on day twelve I had my HSG and we had our new patient consult with Dr. Levy, on day fourteen Brandon did his semen analysis, and on day fifteen I did an ultrasound and I was ovulating.  Holy crap - talk about information overload.  That's a lot to process in just over two weeks.  What was the plan?  Intrauterine insemination.  (If you don't know what that really means - stay tuned, I will be explaining that in one of my next posts.)  So we knew that I was ovulating, what better time to do the IUI.

Before a patient goes through an IUI cycle, they need to sign consents and do infectious disease blood work.  The consent is basically just saying that you understand what your treatment is and you are consenting to the different levels of treatment.  So now that we've had information overload, we have to sign a piece of paper saying that we are ok moving foward with the next steps?  Ok, sounds good.  Then the blood work has to happen.  All patients need to have infectious disease blood work done. 

So now I had to explain to Brandon that we were going to do an IUI in two days and that he had to go to LabCorp that afternoon because he needed to do blood work.  He was less than thrilled.  He had no time to process, no time to understand, no time to let everything sink in.  Obviously, I was able to process this much faster than Brandon was, but that's because it's what I do for a living.  I was insensitive about this.  Why wouldn't Brandon just sign the piece of paper that puts us one step closer to the end game?  It's a lot to process, that's why.  I was an asshole.  Regardless of me being such a jerk, Brandon, my ever loving husby, came around, did the blood work and signed the consent so that we could move forward with the IUI.

That Saturday (aka two days later) we did the IUI.  What happened after that?  Something that I am miserable at... we waited.

Pinterest: Baked Tacos

So it seems as though trying new Pinterest meals have become our Friday date night and I have to say, I am loving it.  It's nice to plan a nice little Friday night date without having to leave the house after a long week.  Last night we made Baked Tacos and they were delicious.

These look seriously delicious

Brandon and I opted to use ground turkey instead of ground beef in an attempt to be healthier and I will tell you what - I will never make ground beef tacos ever again.  The turkey was so might lighter and so much better.  We didn't follow the instructions to a T, but who ever does except bakers?  We browned the turkey meat, seasoned it with a little garlic.  We used a packet of the reduced sodium taco seasoning (which is easily 1000x better than regular taco seasoning) and then when the turkey meat was almost done, we added a diced up onion and some salsa.  We just eye-balled the salsa.  Then we let the flavors meld together, stuffed the tacos, added cheese and put them in the oven to bake.  The tacos were in there for 8 - 10 minutes at 400*.

We learned that we need to put something under the tacos, like a wire rack or something, because the grease and juice kills the bottom of the tacos and they just fall apart.  I don't know how this was avoided by the original poster of the recipe (he/she probably included that information but Brandon and I didn't pay attention).  It didn't matter though, they were so friggin' good. 

I don't know how my pictures don't end up looking as good as the originals... I mean seriously, my iphone needs to step up it's game.  This is definitely something that we would make again... and again... and again.  I have never enjoyed tacos so much.  I think a big part of it though was using turkey meat instead of ground beef.  Food for thought.

Overall Grade:
Brandon  B+               Tori  B+
(we both would have been given higher grades if the shell hadn't been soggy)

Infertility: fact or fiction

Infertility (noun): not fertile; especially: incapable of or unsuccessful in achieving pregnancy over a considerable period of time (as a year) in spite of determined attempts by heterosexual intercourse without contraception.

Ok, infertility… hmm, that’s a lot to wrap my head around. I mean, Brandon and I have not been trying for a year.  I mean yes, I stopped taking birth control in December 2011 but at that point it was just a matter of, “let’s stop trying not to get pregnant” and we really didn’t start talking about trying until March and we didn’t really start using ovulation predictor kits until… You know what, it doesn’t matter, based on that definition, I am not infertile.  Yep – that’s what I can keep telling myself or I can own this, whatever this is, and take steps towards making more people, especially the people close to us, more comfortable with this (seemingly) taboo topic. Obviously, I am choosing the latter.  You weren't sure?  Did you not see my post about the HSG?  Seriously - you better read it.  I'll wait. 

The reality is that one in six couples will experience some degree of infertility.  In order to really understand what was going on with the whole elevated prolactin level thing, Brandon and I sat down with one of the physicians I work for at Shady Grove Fertility, Dr. Michael Levy.  Turns out, we’re totally not infertile because we were able to conceive.  Brandon and I experienced something that I hope no other couple ever has to go through.  In the spring of 2012, I was 10 days late, I had taken probably 10 pregnancy tests, all positive, I had planned out the perfect way to tell my wonderful husband that it was a good thing we bought that house because our little family was growing, and then it happened. I started cramping and I spiked a fever. I had some spotting and then (to keep it more G-rated) I got my period. (I know – that’s a little TMI, but not so bad about the HSG post, so deal with it).  I never got to tell my husband that I was pregnant.  How do you tell someone you miscarried when you didn’t even get the chance to tell them you were pregnant in the first place?  You don’t.  At least, I didn’t.  I bottled it up and I kept it in and I mourned it by myself.  It took me over a month to finally talk to my husband, my wonderful, caring, undeniably supportive husband, about what had happened.  He had noticed a change in me, but didn’t bring it up, just walked on egg-shells to avoid a fight and that's no way to live.  Opening up about my miscarriage is the best thing I have ever done.  It has made the experience easier to deal with.  I am extremely blessed to have the support system I have.

Now enough with the sad stories and the mushy gushy – I decided to educate, and that’s what I plan to do.  When I had originally approached Dr. Levy with my day three blood results, he told he that he didn’t want to piecemeal my treatment together.  He wanted to do a full prescreening work-up and do things the right way.  He wasn’t going to half-ass my care.  Gotta love him.  I explained the situation to Brandon and got him on board which was easier said than done.  Going to see a fertility specialist is a lot to take in.  I mean, we all know that fertility treatment isn't cheap and there are insurance plans that don't cover infertility treatment at all (thankfully, we don't have that kind of insurance). Before Brandon and I sat down with Dr. Levy, Brandon was convinced that Dr. Levy was going to immediately suggest the most expensive, most intense treatment options and that we were going to have to take out a second mortgage on the house in order to afford treatment and get a baby.  Honestly, I don’t think Brandon knew what to expect, but I think he found himself pleasantly surprised. 

Before we met with Dr. Levy I had done my day three blood work and I have great numbers (minus that whole prolactin drama), I had done the MRI of my brain (with and without contrast) and my brain looks great (we can't 100% rule out any prolactinomas, but we can say that I do not have worrisome prolactinomas), and I had done the HSG and Dr. O’Brien told me that I have a “beautiful uterus” – how’s that for a compliment you don’t hear every day!  Dr. Levy reviewed these results with us and said that he did not want to do invasive treatment.  He did not want to take drastic measures.  Dr. Levy is a "less is more" kind of guy.  He did say though, that he wanted to do an ultrasound the day after our visit with him to make sure things looked good and he wanted Brandon to do a semen analysis to make sure things looked good there too. So the plan was:  we get my prolactin levels under control and look at timed intercourse and, if needed, intrauterine insemination (IUI).  Don't worry, I'll explain IUI later; after all, I am a teacher these days...  

So let’s recap, shall we?  I work for the leading fertility center in the entire country and I work as the clinical assistant for one of the founding physicians of said fertility center and one of the most wonderful and talented female physicians of that practice.  I mean, I am literally working for the best of the best in the field.  I can totally own this (whatever this is) and know that I am in the most capable hands in the country.  

Dang, this whole infertility/non-infertility/elevated prolactin drama thing was easier to digest than I had thought it would be.

Pinterest: Shrimp Pasta with Tomatoes, Lemon and Spinach

So last night Brandon and I made our first Pinterest meal together: Shrimp Pasta with Tomatoes, Lemon and Spinach.  I was particularly excited about this because for a long time Brandon was convinced he was allergic to shellfish.  I had told him time and again that what he experienced was food poisoning but after being that sick, nothing was changing his mind.  I took matters into my own hands - over the last couple years I have been secretly feeding Brandon shellfish.  Now before you jump to judgment, it started innocently.

We had ordered Chinese food for dinner and we ordered extra egg rolls.  I didn't know the egg rolls had shrimp in them.  Brandon had eaten 3 or 4 and there was one left.  We cut it in the half and the cutest little shrimp fell out.  I immediately pushed it into my half and said nothing.  I just waited to see what would happen.  I told Michelle about my unintentional poisoning so someone else was aware as well.  Twenty minutes went by. Forty minutes went by. Nothing. The whole night went by and nothing - he was fine.  So then I would feed him shellfish in little amounts carefully watching his reaction.  I would give him Maryland crab soup - telling him it was chicken - he loved it. Finally, Brandon got the nerve to just try it, on his own.  He didn't get sick.  Since that time, we have learned that Brandon likes crab cakes and crab dip and he likes fried shrimp.  All this made me so much more excited to have him try a nice shrimp pasta dinner.

Seriously - how good does this look?!

 The dinner was really simple to make.  Saute some garlic, add some halved cherry tomatoes, add the shrimp then the cooked pasta, toss in some spinach and boom. You're done. 

How friggin' cute is my husby cooking dinner? :)

Somehow my picture doesn't look as good as the original pinterest picture, but whatever - it was delicious anyway.  The recipe calls for basil, and I used more basil than was required, but we didn't really taste the basil which was a let down.  I wish I had used more garlic than I did, as does Brandon. The meal was light and the lemon was really refreshing.  Brandon was not impressed with the shrimp - but he also expects to be seriously wowed every time he has shrimp now. 

Overall Grade:
Brandon - C             Tori - B+

 

Happy New Year!

Every New Year's Eve/Day people make a big hoopla about the end of the year and how the next year is going to be different.  In the next year they are going to be richer and skinnier and healthier, they are going to quit smoking and they are going to live each moment like it's their last and it's all a load of crap.  Let's be serious - after the first month of the year, more than half those people don't use their gym memberships.  All that healthy organic eating has definitely gone out the window and the ho-hos are making a come back.  All those people who said they were going to quit smoking are totally still smoking like a chimney, or have decided that smoking Marlboro lights is totally better than smoking Marlboro reds.  And as for living each moment as their last - well, we don't even need to go there.

This year, Brandon and I made legitimate resolutions, especially since we are hoping that next year we will be ringing in the new year with a new little Wilkinson.  We decided that we should make the most of this last year of just the two of us.  We live five minutes from the adorable little downtown section of the city we live in and there are TONS of restaurants in the downtown area.  Do you know how many of those restaurants we have been to in the almost year that we have lived here? Three. We haven't even touched the tip of the ice berg.  So New Year's resolution number one (it's two-fold): Go on more dates and try more restaurants in downtown.

Seriously - how cute is this place?!

Another thing that Brandon and I used to be really good at that we are not so good at now is taking pictures.  I used to make Brandon take pictures everywhere.  I can't even remember the last time we took a picture together.  So we made a resolution to take more pictures.  I mean, besides the fact that I am going to want to document my pregnancy (whenever that happens), I love to take pictures.  Not only do I love to take pictures, I love to have pictures hanging and framed in the house and to put them into scrapbooks so that we can look back and remember all of the really wonderful things that we have done together.  I know that in the last year we have done some really fun stuff and some really wonderful and exciting things happened, but we don't have any proof that we had a life in 2012 and that saddens me.

Our third and final New Year's resolution is to cook more things from Pinterest and not just cook them, but do it TOGETHER.  I know it's not a typical resolution, but we aren't really a typical couple.  We actually like each other and want to be spend time together :)  I always see things on Pinterest that I think danggg I want that, and I pin it and then I never get around to cooking it.  What is the point of pinning it then, besides the fact that spending time on Pinterest kills time for me?  There isn't one.  So Brandon and I are going to try to have Pinterest meal Mondays or some equally clever name.

totally wasn't kidding - lots of yummy things I want to try!

We wanted to have resolutions that meant that we would be spending time together and growing together.  It's terribly cheesey, but we are totally okay with that.  For us, 2013 is not just about building our family, but also about strengthening the foundation that we are building that family on.  Yea yea, I know, I am being way too mushy gushy.  So let's cut the crap, we have a much better chance of maintaining our resolutions of making meals from Pinterest, taking more pictures and going on more dates than the Joe-Schmos that joined the gym... but so do the people who resolve not to make resolutions in the first place.