We Learn Crafts, the Babies Learn to Swim!

We had an unexpected, fun evening last night!! Chris and I went to an Etsy event at a space called "Made" on Cherokee Street. Etsy sent some supplies to various cities throughout the US that were selected by a poll (I think), and St. Louis was one of the cities that was selected to receive some supplies for the event.

For a small donation, we had access to a nice variety of crafts that came with instructors who taught the craft. Chris was a good sport, and didn't let his manliness get in the way of embroidering! I love that about him!

We both learned to embroider using a chain stitch. We chose our fabrics, then used a light box to trace clip art images onto the cloth, which we then embroidered over with embroidery floss.

We also tried out the porcelain paint that Etsy sent. You can paint whatever you want onto porcelain, let dry for 24 hours, then bake in the oven to set. It's dishwasher safe too!

Katie was working the plastic bag area where they ironed plastic grocery bags together to make clutches! Very interesting. Here she is with the unfinished product.

While we learned several new crafts last night, our dogs learned something new a couple weeks ago on our camping trip!

They finally learned to swim (and like it) as well as to retrieve objects from the water. We were such proud parents!! Afterall, Ollie (the poodle) is a water dog, and should have been swimming for a long time now!

Of all the dogs (there were 5 with us!), Ollie and Wembley were the only ones that would set foot in the water (and 3 of the 5 are supposed to be "water dogs").

I like Schedules

I talked to my RE's office today about my upcoming IVF schedule for August/September. We are still going to Thailand in July, but I wanted to know when I could expect to start all the fun shots when we returned!

I had asked my Dr. if I could use the one frozen embryo we have along with a fresh cycle. She talked it over with the group of REs at the office (they all meet and discuss various cases every week), and they decided that it wouldn't work out. The embryo that is frozen is a 5 day embryo, and they can't guarantee that my fresh cycle would be a 5 day transfer. Therefore, if my fresh cycle were a 3 day transfer, then I'd have to have the frozen embryo transferred two days later, and they don't want to interrupt what is already happening in the uterus by doing a second transfer. It made sense to me! I hope I get another frozen embryo or two this next time so that we have a frozen cycle in our future (whether it be because we have to do a 3rd IVF, or if we can save them for a 2nd child!).

So, it looks like I will start my suppression end of August, and begin stims September 3rd (I think that's what she said -- I was driving when she called). The estimated retrieval date is set for September 13th! This would time out really well with the end of the next school year if it worked! Although, I shouldn't even think that way -- too many ifs. I'm effing tired of iffing.

It's nice to have something to look forward to as soon as we get back from our trip!

A Fateful Gift?

The other day, as my dad picked me up from the car dealership where my car was being worked on, he mentioned he had a present for me in his car. I couldn't have imagined how cool of a gift awaited me. My dad's Aunt Evelyn, who is now 100 years old, had sent us a blanket that she crocheted herself. She has made a baby blanket for nearly everyone in the family. The blanket she sent is beautiful and simple (in color, not in skill level), just my taste. Aunt Evelyn is whom we plan to name our child after, should we have a girl. Not because she made us this blanket ;) but because she is an amazing person (and her name is lovely as well).

Here are a couple photographs of the blanket that don't do it justice whatsoever:

I titled this blog post "fateful gift" as I'm hoping that this blanket is just what a baby was waiting for before it made its debut. Maybe it just needed to know that it would have a warm, homemade blanket to snuggle into before it would let itself be conceived. I know, it sounds silly, but not if you've been trying to have a baby for two medicated years.

Whittaker Music Festival and my new book!

You know Summer in Saint Louis has officially begun when the Whittaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens starts back up again! We went this past Wednesday. It was a little hot, and quite buggy, but still a lovely evening.

While I waited for my friends to show (I went early to scout out a good spot), I drank this pear cider and began to read my new book that I won from the giveaway over at The Road Forks! I am so happy to have won this book, and can't wait to read more. I will tell you more about it after I know more. ;)

Thanks again, Akila, for this lovely book!

An Assortment of Summer Break Meals

I really haven't been good about blogging more regularly, have I? I do have some excuses, I guess. I got a Summer school position! They called me VERY last minute to see if I was interested in an early childhood position, and I gladly accepted. It works out really well, because it's only 2 days a week for four hours, for four weeks. So, it ends just before we go to Thailand (the day before in fact)!

But, I have made a few meals that I have photographed so far:

My breakfasts lately have been consisting of a fried egg, bagel thins with random toppings (above is MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter and our CSA blushing peach preserves), and fruit! Very filling -- holds me over until 2:00!!

We have only grilled once so far, and it wasn't on Memorial Day! We grilled up the rest of our CSA bison meat filled with our CSA cheddar to make a "juicy Lucy". If you don't know what a "jucy Lucy" is -- we were introduced via television on some Travel Channel show. There are two famous bars in the twin cities that have a competitive rivalry with their burgers that are filled with oozing, hot, molten cheese! We had to try making them ourselves, even though we have never tried the original(s). They are GREAT!

A very unflattering photo of our outdoor meal, without the main components that were still on the grill. See, that's my problem, I get so excited to eat, that when the meal is actually ready, I forget to take photos and just dig in!

Then for lunches, I've been having salads with greens and pea shoots from our CSA and homemade croutons made with stale bread from our CSA (we can never eat the bread fast enough).

This is some AWESOME balsamic vinaigrette I made from a recipe from the book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian".

This is my favorite "tool" for making sweet potato fries! We bought it in NYC, but I bet you could find it at World Market or someplace like that. It is whole pieces of cinnamon and cubes of sugar that you grind to make a delicious seasoning for the fries!

YUM!!! I LOVE me some sweet potato fries -- 450F for 30 minutes -- I eat them with ketchup.