For those of you who have been wondering why I haven’t been talking about my fertility treatments…

It’s because

I’m PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a picture of our baby at 7 weeks 4 days. We got to HEAR and SEE the heartbeat on this day (December 17). Today, I am 9 weeks 1 day. My due date is August 1st. We waited to announce it to everyone because we wanted to at least get to see the heartbeat. We were talking about waiting until the 2nd trimester, but we decided we wanted everyone to know! We are several weeks past the point of our previous miscarriages and are feeling very good about this baby. If you are wondering, this did happen on the cycle where we had "taken a month off". ;) I wasn't on the clomid. We are very excited about that! I know the Lord has chosen this baby for David and I and I am SO grateful to Him and Him alone for the privilege He's given me to try to be a good Mommy. We appreciate your prayers for us up until this point and hope you will continue to pray with us through this journey we are now on. There are many months before we will be able to hold this baby in our arms, but we know it will go by fast and look forward to that time. If you have any questions, please ask. I am an open book about it, so I don't mind!

Coupons

As a request from a sweet friend, Joni Bergoon, here is the blog that I follow that MAJORLY aids me in my couponing. I hope this helps some of you!

Southern Savers

Christmas Decorations

Just thought I would share a few of our Christmas decorations this year. Enjoy!

Couponing!!!

I have recently gotten back into the whole couponing game and am doing much better than before. I have found many good blogs that have helped me figure out how to get the most for my money. I am going to list two recent trips where I did pretty well.

K-mart recently doubled coupons up to $2.00. That meant you could get up to $4 off of a product! Here are my results.

Cost of products pre-coupons: $53.92
Money saved in coupons: $37.16
Money out of pocket: $16.76

That’s a 69% savings! This was my first big trip where I was able to save so much money. Some of the things were already on sale so I had those savings too, but I don’t remember what the original price was for those products.

BI-LO Grocery Store has become the place where I most watch for sales because they double coupons EVERY DAY up to $.99. That means you can save up to $1.98 per coupon. Here are the savings from my most recent trip.

Cost of products pre-coupons: $10.67
Money saved in coupons: $7.60
Money out of pocket: $3.07
That’s a 71.2% savings!

There are actually some other savings I incurred from just the normal sales at BI-LO that I didn’t have coupons to use. They had great sales on different meats and produce. Below is my total savings including the products I used coupons on.

Cost of products pre-coupons: $51.76
Money saved in coupons & sales: $31.80
Money out of pocket: $19.96
That’s a 61.4% savings!


I think I did pretty well for my first two big transactions. I am hoping to get even better in the future! This is making an amazing difference for David and I. It’s saving us money plus we are able to get more things that have been on the “absolutely not” list previously!

Our Precious

It's been a little rough for the Emigh family lately. (That's my maiden name) Our beloved poodle, Precious passed away last Sunday. I am thankful that she had a very long life with us. She would have been 15 this past week (that's 105 in dog years)! She has been a major part of my life since I was 12 years old. We have definitely lost a member of our family. Home will be much different when I arrive in a couple of weeks. I am not looking forward to going home and her not being there. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to see my wonderful family, it just won't be the same to walk in the house and not see my little Precious. She got me through many tough times by just letting me cry and hold her. Even after I moved to NC, when I would get home, she would always come running so excited to see me after being gone for so long. She will definitely be terribly missed. Below is a picture of me and her on the day I had my bridal portraits done. I am glad that we thought to get that shot!

New Table Wreath

I made a wreath for the first time yesterday and I am very excited! I think it looks pretty good for my first one. It only cost me $3.25 to make! What do you think?

3rd and Last Cake

Notice the heart in the middle of the top rose. I think it's fun, but I didn't do it on purpose. :)

Last night was my last Wilton Cake Class. I finally learned how to make a rose. I made many not so good ones and a few good ones. I hope you enjoyed the cake pictures!

2nd Cake

Here are pictures of my second cake! I hope you enjoy!

I've Been Tagged!

Joanne at Blessed tagged me to share fifteen things that I'm not afraid to admit. She only listed ten. We'll see if I can think of that many.

1. I have an absolute obsession with baking!

2. I cry at things that you would never believe I cry at. (Ex. the movie Transformers) Surprising, I know.

3. I am really passionate about Alabama football and I didn't even turn off ESPN Gameday when my husband left the room today.

4. My husband says I way overuse the word "ridiculous". It's ridiculous!

5. I definitely have a soft spot for musicals. I love them!!! I know every word to all the songs in The Sound of Music and most of the words to the songs in Grease.

6. I am slightly OCD.

7. When I get tired, I sound much more like the stereo-typical Alabamian than I do on a day to day basis.

8. I have driven (x that), ridden from Alabama to North Carolina (a 12+ hour trip) and only seen about 2 hours of it.

9. I don't like yellow gold jewelry.

10. I am from the coast, but I don't like seafood!

11. I love Christmas time so much that I never take my decorations down until well into the new year. I can't bear to see them put away knowing it will be a year before I get to take them out again.

12. I really love to play games, but I take them WAY to seriously sometimes.

13. If it wasn't for the money, I would redo my wedding EVERY year!

Well, I made it to 13 (with the help of my husband). Let's see how my friends can do.

Angela

Jake & Diana

Angey

Abby

Jessica

Chandra

Surprise!

I always know when David gets home because I can hear him pull in the driveway. At about 4:30 on Thursday I heard him pull in. I was, of course, wondering why he was home early. Looking through the back window, I see my sweet husband walking up to the back door with a dozen roses in his hands. What a sweetheart! I thought you guys might enjoy some pictures!

Winnie the Pooh

I am taking the Wilton I Cake Decorating class this month and I made my first cake this past Monday night. It was a Winnie the Pooh form that I borrowed from a wonderful friend. Here are a couple pictures. Look back for pictures of my future work. ;)

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!!!

This is a bit late, but oh well!!!! David and I went with my parents to the BAMA vs. Ole Miss game on October 18th. We had a blast! We won 24 to 20 and truly had a great time! Roll Tide! Here are some pics.

My parents eating our marvelous pulled pork sandwiches! (Dad, I think we should go back to the same place next time we are there. They were so good!)

Mommy and her sandwich.
The Biggest, Best Pulled Pork Sandwich EVER!

Me and David. First time we had seen each other in 10 days. We were so excited to see each other!!!

Pre-game warm up

The Million Dollar Band before the game

The team coming out from the locker room ready for the game

Nick Saban leading the pack!

The team coming out on the field ready for the game!

Kick-off

After first touchdown. You can see the ball in the air being kicked for the extra point.

The Million Dollar Band at half time

I had just said to my mom that I really wished they would face us for once and they did!

It was AWESOME!!!

Final Score! Roll Tide!

Updated Cake Picture

This is a bit late, but that's ok! The day after our celebration of David's birthday, he decided to have another piece of cake. He sliced it and the picture below is what it looked like. This picture is much more of what I had in mind except for the fact that I didn't want it to remain in the pan. Next time I do this cake, I will definitely do it the day before and definitely not allow the ice cream to melt as much as I did this time.

Coffee For Less Giveaway

I thought some of you guys might be interested in this.

http://www.frugalmom.net/blog

Happy 25th Birthday, David!!!!

Ok, so his birthday isn't until Sunday, but we celebrated tonight. We really had a great night! I fixed dinner and set the table with our china and stemware! I love using our china and stemware! You can see pictures of them below. I also made one of his most favorite desserts - ice cream cake. More on that later.

I am so thankful for my husband! I can't believe that God chose to bless me with such an amazing guy! He is godly, caring, kind, loving, smart, funny and so much more! I am truly blessed!

Happy Birthday to the best guy in the land! I love you!

My baby about to blow out his candle.

Blowing out the candle

Ok, so here is the story on the cake. I baked a chocolate cake in a tube pan. I sliced it in half and started spreading softened ice cream on the bottom half. The ice cream was way too soft and was just melting down the side, as you can see in the picture below.

So...............I ended up putting the top half of the cake back in the pan. I spread the ice cream on top of that, then put the bottom back in the pan. I put it in the freezer so the ice cream would harden. Then, I made a chocolate ganache and poured it over the top and back into the freezer it went. It didn't turn out like I intended it to, but David said it tasted better than the Baskin Robbins' cake he has always enjoyed. That was the best compliment ever! You can see the final product below.

I will probably do this again, but have to change it around a bit. We'll see!

"God has a reason in every NO"

The blog below talks about what I am trying to live out day to day in my life in all areas. The area most on my mind where this is concerned is of course, fertility. I hope you are encouraged by what is said in this blog today. It definitely encouraged me to remember that God is in control and therefore I can trust in Him that His answers are perfect for my life!

This is compliments of my dear friend, Angela, who is such a wonderful friend and is always encouraging me. Words cannot express how thankful I am that God chose to give me her as a friend (and I got the bonus of 5 beautiful kids that are the most encouraging, loving and fun-loving kids I know). Thank you, Lord, for such a wonderful blessing!

http://onesoblessed.blogspot.com/2008/10/he-keeps-all-promises.html

On to another cycle...

Well, my period started yesterday. Sorry I haven't blogged about it until now. Yesterday was a very, very hard day. I really had gotten my hopes up more this month than I have in previous months. I called the doctor and the latest they could get me in was Wednesday. That would mean I would have had to go home 4 days early (today). I talked to the nurse and she said that maybe it was a good idea to enjoy the vacation and try to de-stress a little bit and just skip treatment this month. So, my options were either to have no help TTC this month or go back home to Statesville very early. Of course, I would love to see my husband, but I also am enjoying being with my family. After many tears and much discussion with my husband yesterday, we decided that it would be good for us to sit a month out. Last month was really stressful, so maybe this is just what we need. SO, the plan is for us to meet at the Alabama game on Saturday and I will go back with him then. OH, on top of all that, this is my 2nd cycle with a combination of metformin, clomid & an hcg shot. The first cycle worked great, but this cycle did not work! The nurse told me that when I called yesterday. I just can't believe it! Why would it not work the 2nd time? Why did I get pregnant on my own 2 times and miscarry and now I can't even get pregnant again? This all just doesn't make any sense!!! So, the next time I do go in, she will be upping my dose of clomid again. I think that means that I will be taking 150mg now. We'll just have to see how it goes. But, for now, David and I will try to enjoy this month without trying to perfectly time everything and being told exactly when to "have fun" with each other. That will be a relief. I am praying that it will not be on our minds much this month. That's a hard feat, but I know the Lord can help make this happen. Thanks for listening! Today definitely was a better day, but I am still emotional. I suppose that is to be expected since it is "that time of the month". I hope you all are having a great day in the Lord!

Bye Bye Beach :(

Well, we just got home from the beach in Gulf Shores, AL. It was sooooooooooo good to be back down there! I really loved it! My family has a timeshare. We used to go all the time when we were little so it holds some good memories! I didn't realize how much I missed the beach and getting in the waves! The trip was really good. We went to the Shrimp Festival a couple of days and spent some time in the gulf and the pool and on the deck. What fun! I just had such a great time, can't you tell? On the way home today, we went to the outlet mall in Foley to go shopping! Woohoo! We had a great time and came home with alot of loot! David even got some stuff that he will have to see later. ;) I will say that the worst part was waking up last night feeling so sick I was about to throw up. I did and after that, I was ok the rest of the night. I have no idea why I got so sick, but I am glad to be feeling better now. I don't feel great, but I feel ten times better than I did last night. Sorry for the aside, but blogs include the good and the bad, right? So, here are some pictures from our trip (none from last night, of course ;) ). I hope you enjoy!

Mr. David, Mrs. Katrina(2nd parents to me ;) ), me, my mom, my dad on the beach the first night for sunset.

Me and my Mommy (Diane)!

The sunset on the first night. Isn't it beautiful???

My mom, me and my dad.

Isn't this a good picture that my dad took of the moon?

My brother-in-law, James; my sister, Carrie; me and my dad, Curtis

Having fun in the pool!

"Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!" I love her and am so glad I got to spend this time with her!

Daddy and his girls!

Me and my Daddy. I am a remake of him.

The whole Emigh family minus my David, of course :(

The whole gang that went down to the beach. (Shhhh, don't tell the people we had more than 6 people in the condo!)

For those of you that know my sis and I, you know how different we have always been. As we have gotten older, we have gotten more alike. This night we had both decided to order the same thing without each other knowing so we ended up sharing. We even both ordered Sprites! It was fun and a great memory! I am so glad we get along so much better now!

This is me walking along the beach the last night we were there. I am on the phone with David. I wish he was there in person!