Christmas and Beyond

Here are the pictures from our Christmas :) It was very relaxed and small - which didn't bother us at all!

On Christmas Eve, Dad took me to see The Nutcracker performed by Ballet West at the Capitol Theater. He took me when I was 5 back in 1986 and it's now 26 years later and we got to go again. I LOVED it! We have to do it more often!

Here I am in the lobby of the theater.

 

Me and Dad trying to take a self-portrait - didn't turn out too well :P

 The ceiling in the theater was AMAZING and had an awesome chandelier!

Our view of the stage before the curtain rose.

Christmas Day before we started opening presents. 

Chris and Tara came over in the morning to make a large breakfast for us and we spent the morning having Christmas with Dad.
Here is Chris with the dogs piled on the couch with him.

A ham sandwich!

For one of Dad's presents I got him an Airborne poster to hang in his room.
Here he is opening it up...

 ...and his smile after seeing it. He was really excited to have it!

 Chris and Tara got him a gift card for the iPad Mini he won from work!

Ramin got Chris a pre-order of the new Sim City computer game. Because it's not actually out yet, Ramin wrapped an "air" box of the game :P  Chris was confused at first and couldn't figure out what it was...

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...this was Ramin's reaction when Chris couldn't figure it out!

Dad got Ramin a gift card to Lowe's and Ramin loved it!

Dad got Tara and me some similar items. Some perfume and makeup :)

 This was another one of Dad's gifts from me and Ramin. Keeping with the Airborne theme he got a fleece jacket with the logo embroidered on it

 I got Ramin a remote control Audi A6. He had joked earlier in the month that he wanted an A6 for Christmas after seeing a commercial for it on TV. This was my compromise :P

Here is a video of Belle chasing around the car. It's OK...it wasn't very expensive and I knew she'd have fun chasing it :)

I got Tara some good hair products now that she's gone darker. She seemed to like them :)

Chris and Tara got us some new dishes. I LOVE THEM! I think I may need to go buy another set of them because I love them so much and I want to throw away all of our other plastic crap!

I got Chris some Ninja Turtle glasses. He seemed to like them :)

Dad had to go to work that afternoon and so Chris and Tara went to spend some time with her family and then later that evening they came back over to our house and so did Mom and Bob.

Tara bought Dingo and Belle some candy cane treats....here's Dingo with his.

Ramin opened some more presents from me. This was a new Puma shirt.

My mom got Tara some card-making supplies.

We wrapped a few of our gifts in funny boxes...this was one of them - cat weights! 

I got Chris a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation t-shirt. We also happened to be watching that movie on the TV at the same time so I had him stand next to the TV holding up his shirt :P

Tara had some actual good dog reindeer antlers and so we put them on Belle and made her sit cute for a treat....she is soooo sweet when she does this.

And that was our Christmas - we also had my mom's famous lasagna for dinner and then went to bed. It was a great day.  Here are some other random photos from the past 2 weeks.

I snapped this cute picture of Liesel and baby Lizzie on New Years Eve Jenn and Matt the other week. SO CUTE!

That same night we came home to find a few candy wrappers on the floor...I looked in our bedroom and sure enough my stocking (which was still filled completely with candy) had been torn open and all the candy and most of the wrappers had been consumed. The only culprit was Belle as Dingo was in his crate. I wasn't that upset actually....I get to make a new one now and I didn't have all of that candy distracting me from starting my new P90X workout plan.

It's been DAMN COLD in Salt Lake City the past week...it never gets above freezing and it's usually in the single digits...this was the temp when I went to work one of the mornings this week.

And here is Belle again...invading the bed. I had literally just mad the bed all nice not 10 minutes before I found her like this. She somehow takes the corner of the comforter and moves it down so she can lay in the bed. What a little punk...but she's a cute little punk!!

Anyway! Happy New Year 2013!! I'm sure there will be more pictures over this next month...but I won't be doing too many extracurriculars as I'm spending a lot of my time working out. I work out for an hour+ every day, except for Sundays....which is why I have time to write this blog post :)

A Month's Worth of Updates

I could lie and say I haven't the updated the blog because I've just been too busy. That would only be partly true....but mostly, I've been avoiding the blog because I was in a continuous "wait" mode for a few weeks.

The fertility stuff....needless to say it's taken an emotional toll on me but I'm doing better. Having constant communication with Ramin about everything - how I'm feeling and the next steps we need to take - has really helped keep me in good spirits!

We've decided to stop seeing the fertility specialist for a while. Why? Because I don't like having to squeeze into their "protocol" and model for PCOS patients. Their goal is to get you pregnant as quickly as possible, by whatever means necessary. Yes I want to get pregnant, but I don't necessarily want to do it by any means necessary. Case in point, they wanted to start me off at 100mgs of Clomid...after doing my own research (extensively) I already knew that 50mgs was actually the starting dose. When I pressed the doctor for reasons why she wanted to start me at 100mgs, she basically told me it's "standard procedure" for PCOS patients and that it's what my main doctor wanted me to do. Things just didn't feel right to me. I wanted to give my new medication (Metformin) another few months to try and work on my cycle by itself before introducing a whole new drug into my system.

So I'm not a few weeks into my next cycle with just Metformin and I'm hoping for good results. Ramin and I have discussed the possibilities of it not working and we know our next steps. I'm pretty hopeful about things right now.

Starting on Monday, December 31st, I'll be starting an entirely new workout/diet plan - more like a lifestyle plan. I'll be going on my insulin resistance diet (to help me control my hormones) and I'll also be starting the P90X workout program. The workout program lasts for 90 days and I've got a calendar all ready to go. Ramin will even be my coach and help me stay on track. I even have negative consequences for myself if I don't workout every day I'm supposed to! I also have a good reward at the end if I complete the entire 3 months - a trip to Disneyland!! So I'm looking forward to working on some health goals.

As for what we've been doing over the past month - it's basically been the usual. I decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (pictures below) and we've just been getting ready for the holiday.

I'd also say that I've been a bit more nostalgic lately and I've been reminiscing about the past. It's always funny to me how the choices you make lead you to your current circumstances. I always like to think and trace back to how I got where I am today, whether it be in work, education, relationships, etc. It's always fascinating to me think about my path up to the current point and sometimes I like to think about how things would be different if I'd chosen a different path. Not that I am unhappy with my current circumstances, quite the opposite, I just find it interesting to think about what could have been.

Here are the camera phone pictures from the past month!

Belle and Dingo laying on top of me on the couch - they are my cuddle buddies!

A beautiful sunset one night as I was driving home from work.

Belle loved watching the AKC Dog Show on Thanksgiving. 

Day after Thanksgiving shopping with my friend Jenn and her daughter Liesel - she loved trying on all of the different glasses in the store :)

A look at some of my Christmas decorations

Ramin's brother Babak requested that there be a picture of the dogs wearing reindeer ears - they didn't like it very much!

The holiday wreaths I made - this one is the indoor one to match my jewel-tone Christmas.

My outdoor yarn wreath in peppermint candy-cane style

I actually finished my stocking in time for Christmas! Now Ramin and I can have coordinating stockings!

Closer up view of my Snow Queen stocking

The second week of December I had to fly to San Jose for work for a few days. Here's a shot of my hotel room - it was rather nice :)

While I was in San Jose I met up with my great friend Marci and her husband Lock and their new little baby boy Aiden! Here is Lock enjoying his massive ice cream sundae from Buca di Beppo!

Here I am with Marci and Aiden - that little guy is so stinkin cute! I'm so happy for them :)

The day we left the hotel in San Jose I saw these lovely flowers and had to snap a picture.

I came home and made Christmas cookies that weekend. It was the first time I used my Kitchen Aid that Chris bought us for our wedding! It was way easy and fun to use!

And then I got sick....this past week hasn't been too fun but I've been keeping my spirits up listening to good music :)

Fertility Update

I don't like to bore everyone with my fertility updates, but I figured I just HAD to write this update so that I can keep record of it for myself at least. 

Last time I wrote I said that I was taking 10-days worth of pills of Provera (a progesterone supplement). The Provera was supposed to induce a period so that I could essentially flush myself out to start over. I went into the fertility clinic on cycle day 4 so they could check to make sure things were good to go before I started taking Clomid to help me ovulate. I don't EVEN want to write about the hassles it took just to make that damn appointment. The office pretty much pissed me off from the get-go even after I followed THEIR instructions.

Anyway, I have my appointment and of course they need to do an ultrasound of my ovaries to make sure we can still do the Clomid. The nurse practitioner (not the Dr. mind you), tells me that I have one rather large cyst on my right ovary. Her face is somber and very serious. I ask her if this cyst is different from my other polycystic cysts and she said yes. She tells me that she wants to find out if the cyst is "functioning" or not. If it functioning - meaning it's releasing hormones - then she wants to put me on birth control pills in order to stabilize the hormones and hopefully shrink the cyst. If it's not functioning, then we can proceed with the Clomid as planned.

I get my blood drawn and I leave the place feeling kind of defeated because I don't know what to expect. I wait anxiously the entire day (the day before Thanksgiving) for her to call me back with the results. 

She calls and starts off by saying she likes to see estrogen levels under 75 before starting Clomid. My levels were at a 217! I kind of freaked out. I didn't know what to think. She tells me I need to take the birth control pills and see her in 3 weeks to check again.

Thank goodness I'm part of a special online message board dedicated to PCOS. I posted my story up in the Trying to Conceive section and immediately some of the girls through up some red flags. They tell me my "cyst" may indeed be just a follicle getting ready to release the egg! They tell me the size of the follicle - 2cm - is perfect size and that my estrogen levels - 217- were also perfect for impending ovulation!! 

After doing much research with Ramin and discussion with the ladies online, I made the decision to NOT take the birth control pills and just see what would happen. Obviously ovulating on my own is the better option than forcing it to happen another way. 

Friday morning comes and I take an ovulation predictor test (OPK) and it comes out positive for the first time! I have a Clear Blue Digital kit and it makes it very easy to interpret the results. I have not yet seen a positive smiley face yet. The test indicates that I could potentially ovulate within the next 24-36 hours. Of course, there are still other signs to watch out for - signs that I am very comfortable with monitoring for myself.

Most of you won't understand this chart...but I'm posting it anyway because it will serve as my personal reminder of this entire cycle. 

It shows me taking the Provera, my temps spiking because of it and then leveling out again. I decided not to include the time I was bleeding from the Provera withdrawal because it wanted to start a whole new chart. I consider this to be one huge cycle at this point.

There's way too much information to post on here about the other "signs" of impending ovulation but I know what this chart means....and that temperature spike this morning is all the proof I need at this point to tell me that I did indeed ovulate on my own yesterday at some point. I'm hoping and praying it's not a false high temp and that it stays high for the next 2 weeks at least.

I will wait until 12 DPO (days past ovulation) before I take a pregnancy test. That puts me at December 8th before I will test. I hope I can hold out that long!!

Birthday Weekend 2012

This year for my birthday, all I told Ramin was that I wanted him to make it special for me. It's funny because somehow that translated to "We need to go away somewhere" in his mind.....so we planned a short weekend trip to St. George/Vegas/Zion National Park.  It kind of sounds like a lot to do in one weekend, but really it was fun. Ramin and I LOVE road trips and up until this year, we'd never really taken them together just the two of us. Back in May, during the annular eclipse, was when we took our first mini-road trip together and I realized it was tons of fun having him to myself.

My original plan was to leave Friday afternoon after work and drive to St. George and stay somewhere down there and then visit with our friends/Ramin's co-workers on Saturday (the boss' kid was having a 5th year birthday party)...but...Ramin likes to play football on Saturday mornings and he opted to leave around noon on Saturday so he could play ball...having us arrive in St. George around 4pm...which is about when we got there, an hour or so into the party time. We did arrive in time for food, cake and presents though.

During the week I'd been talking with my cousin Maria from New York via email and realized that she was going to be in Vegas the SAME weekend we had planned this mini-spontaneous trip! So I arranged with her via email to meet up on Saturday night after we got done with the party.

So we left the party around 6:45pm - a bit later than I'd planned, but we were able to make it to Vegas by 8:30....we met up with Maria and headed for an easy dinner together. It was great catching up with her....but I'm waiting for her to email some of the pictures we took. Once I get those I'll upload them here! The next morning we also had breakfast with her at Denny's (Ramin's favorite place). By 8:30am we were ready to head out and make our way to Zion National Park.

I think we made it to Zion's around 10:30 or so - I can't completely recall. Ultimately, we were both there to visit the park for the first time AND to climb Angel's Landing! Ramin had heard about this hike and has been wanting to do it for a while....he told me some scary stories that it's really scary and hard to do and people have died. My friend Jenn told me she'd done it and was super scared (came to find out AFTER the fact that she didn't actually climb the entire thing....part of my motivation for going all the way was knowing she'd done it too - even though she actually didn't! Hahaha). Ramin told me the hike took 4-5 hours so we knew we had to get going by 11am if we wanted to have enough light left in the park to drive around a bit. Oh BTW, we chose this weekend not only because it was my birthday, but also because the National Parks had free entry because of Veteran's Day...at Zion's, the fee is $25!!! Most of the other parks we've been to are only $12.

Anyway, on to the pics!! Most of the pics are of us hiking Angel's Landing but near the end we have some other shots of the park....here we go!

Here is the lovely sign you get to see at the start of the trail head - nice inspiration people!

This picture was taken at the bottom, near the road...and we are gonna climb THAT huge mountain!?!?! Ummm....I was thinking "are you serious?!?!" when I saw this.

This hike really kicked my butt....but I only stopped for 30 second - 1 minute breaks. I only stopped long enough to slow my heart rate a bit. There are TONS of switch back in order to climb this thing....you can see where we started at the road below and then the trail snaking it's way.

Time for another break....at this point I'd say we were almost to half-way up the mountain...maybe not quite that much. 

These switchbacks were the worst...Ramin went up them no problem....you can see me waaaaaay down below...Ramin went up faster than me and took this picture.

Done with the last set of switchback! Now - time for the hard stuff!

We need to climb ALL of this...plus the stuff behind it to the far left! If you make this picture larger, you can see the tiny people scaling the side of this thing!

Same shot, only with me in it! It has a better perspective of the ridge we'll be climbing....all of the stuff directly behind me.

This is looking down from where we were onto "The Organ"

This was some sort of resting spot....this is after a bit of the hard stuff but not quite to the REALLY intense stuff.... Essentially, we had to go down a bit from where Ramin is...and then climb up again along that ridge behind him.

Now we're into the intense stuff.  The ridge is basically a bunch of this stuff, pulling yourself up with chains and trying to not fall off the cliff!

We made it to the top!!! You get a 360 degree view of the park and it's amazing canyons and just the overall massive-ness of it! We made it to the top in about 2 hours - even with my breaks!!

You can see the road down below - where we started. 

  

This is a GREAT shot of the ridge itself...cliff on either side of us! Don't make a wrong step!

Here I am holding on to the chain for DEAR LIFE!! 

Ramin found a nice little cubby hole to enjoy the view from!

 

This is a pretty typical shot of what the ridge hike looked like!

Some of THE best pictures of the ridge itself...the very top of that was where we were!

 

This is the same resting place we were at before, only this time we'd made it to and back...we had a newfound appreciation for that ridge!

My favorite shot of myself!

Coming down the switchbacks we noticed a cool cave! On the way up I barely paid attention to anything but the ground and going up! Coming down is so much more relaxing - it was all worth it!

Ramin found himself a cave too!

Half-way down the mountain! Gorgeous!

 

A couple in front of us spotted this male deer eating. By the time we came down from the hike TONS of deer were out eating in the twilight.  This guy was literally 20 feet away from us and could really care less.

After the hike we drove through the park. There was an AWESOME tunnel built in the 1930s that had little windows out into the park...here's one of the views from the tunnel.

And finally, our entrance shot! We loved this park so much - if we move to St. George we will definitely be visiting more often!