The Luckiest No Matter What!

So it's been a long time since I've blogged.  I am feeling the pressure of work and life a lot more lately and have not felt like I've had anything enlightening to say.  I apologize for that.  I did, however, feel it was so necessary to give a nod to tomorrow.....the due date I was given for our second miscarriage. For this baby, we have an ultrasound picture that I haven't brought myself to look at in a long time.  For this baby, my mother-in-law baked a cake with the date 'October 29th' written on it to have for dessert one day while we were all eating together to tell my brother and sister-in-law about the pregnancy.  I have a picture of that too....again, tucked away.  After our miscarriage in early April and the TWO surgeries that followed, October 29th seemed like an eternity away, but here it is...tomorrow.  I think having an actual due date even made this miscarriage harder than the first.  It's crazy how fresh the tears can be even after so ma

On Thursday, Josh surprised me with this note: He later shared with me that we would be spending a weekend away in Ann Arbor.  I felt this was a thoughtful, smart, clever, and genius idea for so many reasons. Ann Abor carries with it a lot of emotion for Josh and I all revolving around doctor's appointments.  It reminds us of statistically bad news, lots of early mornings, blood work after blood work after blood work, ultra sounds after ultra sounds after ultra sounds, and a few surgeries mixed in.  As you can see, those aren't positive memories. For my birthday, Josh decided we should make positive memories in the city of Ann Abor.  We should go and enjoy the city.  He wanted us to experience Ann Arbor seperate from the Center for Reproductive Medicine.  He also wanted us to be able to see Ann Arbor during the day as opposed to 7:00am when we usually are around.  How perfect :) During the weekend, we went to the farmer's market, ate lunch at Zingerman&

If anyone asks me "how do your fertility doctors show you they care?" I have a lot of answers.  I'd say that they speak to me in a way that Josh and I can understand.  I'd say that they ask about my job and personal life, and even notice when I cut 8 inches off my hair.  I would add that they are overly cautious making sure that my body and my pregnancies received the best care and that both my Real Doctor (I need to come up with a better name for him..hmmm..) and Tall Fellow are super personable, considerate, and friendly.  Recently though, I also would mention that they give "great" compliments.... So when we got back from our trip, I was hoping to be put back on medicine.  Unfortunately, my uterus seemed to look a bit "abnormal" on the ultrasound so they told me to take yet another cycle off...GRRRRR! I went back in to get a scope and had the pleasure of taking my mom to Ann Arbor with me this time instead of Josh, who had an important meeting

I'm a teacher.  What this brings is a great blessing we call summer.  This leaves me a lot more time than I'm used to.  The hope for the past three summers was that I could spend that extra time getting pregnant and going to whatever doctor's appointments I needed to.  I could be at the Center for Reproductive Medicine's beck and call.  Unfortunately, these past three summers have turned out to be somewhat wasteful.  I have been able to try one month out of these summers at the most.  This is annoying...period.  I need to always be doing something to move me forward in this journey.  So this summer, I've been dabbling in two new endeavours that I thought I'd share....adoption and acupuncture.  I checked out many books from the library about adoption and have been taking vigorous notes.  I wanted to use this summer to get knowledgeable about adoption in general because I know so little.  That way, whenever Josh and I feel it's time, we can hit the ground

PARIS By Josh WOW!  We can't believe that it is time for us to head home.  Just like the contrasts we saw throughout Europe, we are having contrasts about the end of our vacation.  We are sad to be done with the AMAZING sights and wonderful times together, but happy to see Primrose, our families, our friends, our flowers, Quality Dairy, and to have a glass of ICE COLD water.  Our day began with an attempted departure around 8:00am, but we encountered our first rain fall of the trip and had to head back to our hotel.  During the light rain, Josh went to get a croissant, crepe, and waffle for us to share for breakfast.  After about an hour of packing, the rain stopped and we took the subway to see Sacre Cour and Moulin Rouge.  The views from Sacre Cour were splendid.  We also saw the Montparte Cemetery and Moulin de La Galette during our time in that neighborhood, which were both hidden treasures.   The steps we walked up to get to Sacre Cour.  Next to the steps is

PARIS By KMH Today we went to Disneyland Paris!!!!  We took a long subway (about 50 minutes) and then had to wait in a long line to buy tickets.  Upon going into Disneyland a little after 10:00, it quickly felt like home: the train, Main street USA, the castle, etc.  Entrance of Disneyland Paris Aurora's Castle Main street USA: just like Disney world and Disneyland in the U.S. Luckily they had a Haunted Mansion ride although it was called the Phantom Manor.  We then navigated through that park for a bit, riding Space Mountain 2 and Buzz Lightyear and then went over to Disney's Hollywood Studios around 11:00ish.  We went straight for the Tower of Terror to get a fast pass.  Always our favorite ride no matter which Disney we're at :) Rockin Roller coaster...closed that day :( After that, we went to Disney Village to eat and so some shopping.  We ate at Annie's Diner getting a burger, fries, and onion rings which totally hit the spot (God

PARIS By Josh The train from Venice arrived promptly at 9:29am in Paris and we were on our way to discovery...sort of.  With Kristin's disdain for spending money and my hatred for lines, we decided it was a better idea to walk the 2.5 km to our hotel instead of riding a cab like most people would do.  Amazingly, we found the hotel and were able to get a room immediately.  The "Love Capsule" at the 5 Hotel.  This hotel gives you an experience for your five senses. There are twinkle lights, bright colors, amazingly soft beds, and smells in each individual room.  After a few minutes looking around the most different hotel room we have ever stayed in, we were off to see Paris.  We began our journey with a delicious sandwich on french bread in the Jardin du Luxembourg overlooking the Palais Du Luxembourg. This was truly a wonderful spot to eat.   Luxembourg Garden  YUM! We made our way to Notre Dame Cathedral, which is considered to be the heart

VENICE By JEH On our final day in Venice and Italy, we slept in until 9:00am, which was needed and by far the latest of the trip.  Today we were entirely on our own and after leaving bags at the hotel we walked through the two neighborhoods that we had not seen.  These two neighborhoods seemed to be less touristy and took us literally around the outer edge of Venice in a complete circle.  On our journey, we saw the Ponte dei Tre Arche (three arches), bridge with no parapet, one of the only two bridges without a railing, the bridge called Ponte de Pongi where rivals used to fight.  We had a final venetian meal of gnocchi and pizza and of course another hearty helping of gelato.   Ponte dei Tre Archi  Bridge with no Parapet  Ponte dei Pungi  Lastly, we went on one final walk through the center of Venice before boarding our train for Paris.  We are in a first class sleeper hoping to get lots of rest so we're fresh for tomorrow!  Ciao Veni

VENICE By Venice Obsessed This morning we took a water taxi out to a Murano glass factory.  We watched a guy blow a vase and a horse in a flash and then walked around their showroom and laughed at how expensive everything was, but my how beautiful.   Murano Glass Factory  After, we walked around some side streets of Venice with Patricia and saw a cool hidden treasure.  We heard a folktale about a fisherman falling in love with a mermaid in a tragic love story and walked under their supposed house and touched a good luck heart.  Once we got to St. Mark's square we had free time.  Us with the Bridge of Sighs   Make a wish!  Josh and I went up the bell tower and saw great views and got to see and hear the bell ring at noon.  We walked around, did some shopping, had amazing sandwiches and gelato and had to meet our group at 3pm.  At 3, we got to do a gondola ride which was awesome!!! Everything was beautiful and the gondola that housed

VENICE By Joshua Earl Hundt *SIDEBAR= In case you didn't know, I (Kristin) have been dreaming of going to Venice it seems like my whole life.  I've been OBSESSED with it forever* The morning started with our final goodbye to Florence and our last bus trip too, this time en route to Venice!  On our way to Venice, we stopped at the town of Ferrara for lunch.  In Ferrara we saw the castle of the Deste Family.  This castle and town were both letdowns and quite boring. At about 3:00pm our bus dropped us off for our short water taxi to our hotel in Venice.  Our hotel is on the Grand Canal just steps from the bridge Ponte Degli Scolzi, which happened to be on the list of sights we wanted to see.  Since Venice is so hard to maneuver we decided to just start walking and see whatever we happened to see.  With this plan we got to see many exciting sights as well as some little back alleys that aren't on any maps.  We had a delicious dinner (Kristin got a ravioli who's r