What Do You Wear on a Day Like Today?

I was seriously freaking out looking through my closet this morning! I wanted to look young and vital, but grown up enough... pretty, but not like I'm trying too hard... confident, but flexible... smart, but not know-it-all... 

So, what do you wear to meet the guy you hope will get you pregnant?  

I mean, I met my husband and future baby-daddy wearing a mall cop uniform (in case you didn't know me back then, nope, this was not a Halloween costume)... but, that particular outfit was replaced long ago with blouses and jeans :-)  

That's right... today was our first appointment with my new infertility specialist.  We really, really like him... he is casual and unassuming but very sharp, which is a trait combination I can work with in a doctor.  In fact, he reminds me a little bit of my beloved Dr. A... who unfortunately wouldn't move to SC with us.  We asked.  Anyway, I think I spotted a little bit of a glimmer of excitement to work with an infertile type 1 diabetic... I have a unique combination of symptoms and conditions that doesn't come up every single day!  

He ordered pretty standard blood work on both of us, since it has been over a year since we did all of that at the Ohio fertility center... and gave me a script for some Provera to hopefully entice my dear Aunt Flo... who, it seems, decided to stay up north when we moved. After the lab work comes back, we'll go from there!  We're both feeling pretty optimistic.

One of the (accidentally) cruelest things well-meaning fertiles tell us is that "this is all God's timing, His will."  And even though we truly believe that God loves us, wants the best for us, and has a plan for us... it HURTS to contemplate WHY His timing and plan are causing us pain.  Why would he give us this desire to be Godly parents, raising beautiful, Godly children... then make it so hard, or even impossible? 

As we prepared for this move, we began to realize something.  Moving is hard.  It is a lot of logistics, a lot of hard physical labor, and exhausting in every sense of the word.  And that was to move two able-bodied adults and a tiny dog... a baby would have made that SO much tougher, as would a wife who was nearing the end of a pregnancy, or just starting out on one.  So the idea of not having conceived yet being a blessing is actually starting to make a little more sense to us.  Not that it doesn't still stink, but... you know.  :-)  

Always,

Katie

The Big Move

Okay, so the details behind that crazy, last-minute surprise move:  

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that my husband is a high school teacher... and maybe mentioned that he is pursuing an Ed.D.  He has reached the stage in his doctorate where he has finished all of the coursework and passed the comprehensive exam, and "only" has the dissertation left to complete.  So, knowing that he is about a year from completing the degree, he began scoping out the higher education employment scene, just so he'd know what he'd be getting into in the next year or so.  

To his (and my) amazement, he found a position for which he was wonderfully qualified!  It's at Anderson University, in South Carolina.  Anderson is a private Christian school, looking to expand their education program, and they had a rare, mid-year job opening in their secondary education department. 

It would be really tough to describe all of the things that let us know just how God had his hands all over this situation.  We learned of the opening sometime in early-mid November, flew out to interview on Black Friday, accepted the job a few weeks later, moved most of our stuff over his Christmas break from school (one big Penske load, and we towed my car behind us.  AWESOME!), flew home, he taught the last few days of the high school semester (til a Friday), piled a few stray essentials in his car, drove down that Saturday, and he was in college faculty meetings on Monday.  

With barely enough time to catch our breath, he went from this: 

to this:

I am so proud of my professor!  And so glad that he found a job with encouraging, Christian colleagues and mentors and students who WANT to be there... in a beautiful, thriving Southern town.  And so proud of US for taking the leap of faith and being open to God's direction - even when it was really, really scary! We are so excited about our "new life" together!

Always,

Katie

InstaFriday

 I'm joining in (for the first time) on the InstaFriday linky party at Life Rearranged.  Here are a few of my cellphone pics of the week!

After seeing this little darling on Pinterest, I decided I needed another pet.  (This was an iPhone screenshot, so I'm totally counting it as a cell pic.)

I adore my Charley, but he just doesn't fit in a measuring cup anymore. 

 My hubby and I had a WONDERFUL date this past weekend - we went to one of our new Southern favorites (Cheddar's Casual Cafe) and saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D.  Am I a lucky girl or what?

And, even if he doesn't fit in a measuring cup anymore, my precious Charley was a wonderful nurse on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had another big, big ovarian cyst rupture, so I spent the afternoon in bed... and the evening in the ER.  I had a few other symptoms that made us a little extra nervous.  But, everything checked out fine :-)  This is Charley sitting on my chest, having just cleaned my face!

Always, 

Katie

Guess What...

Yep!  

It came as a huge surprise to even us, but Ethan and Charley and I all packed up and moved over 500 miles away from most of our family and friends, his job, and the towns where we were each raised.  And we did this in the span of about two weeks!

Later, I will fill you in on some of the details of our move, as well as some of the highlights of our crazy life that y'all missed during my extended (not entirely intentional) blogcation.  But for now, I thought I'd share the change of address cards we sent (today, actually) to most of our Christmas card list... since we totally didn't make time for Christmas cards this year!!

Thanks to Pinterest, and long before we had any inkling that this move might be happening, I found this idea for handmade paint chip address cards.  I have a slight major addiction to paint chips, and a huge collection that I have stolen borrowed obtained from Lowe's and WalMart, so I thought to myself, "Hey. It could happen.  One day when we're in our nineties, we may leave our sweet little honeymoon home and move into an assisted living facility and want to let people know where to find us.  I'll pin it, just in case." 

Whelp.  We're not ninety yet, and it's not assisted living, but... I'm glad I pinned these!  (PS: Anybody else on Pinterest?  I'm SUCH an addict!  Follow me!)

I adapted her design a little bit.  Mostly:

• I used business card specialty paper that I happened to have laying around for the actual address card.
• I used a wide paint chip for the background, and a contrasting color for the little strip.  I love that hers is an illusion, but I liked the idea of a little more color and I didn't have to worry about how many chips of which colors I had.  
• I did not tape down the white address part... and I only taped down the ends of the skinny strips.  Which means that my business card sized address card will come out of the bigger card and can be easily tucked in someone's address book, basket, whatever. :-)

Stick around - I'll post details, apartment fun, some goals for our new life, and maybe a recipe or two that make us happy people... haha!  

Always,

Katie