New Blog!

Hi All!

If you still follow this blog - Thought I would let you know that I now post on another blog. Check out http://theacreagelife.blogspot.com to follow me in my new adventures!

Melissa

There she is!!!

For those of you who I don't have on facebook - there she is! Our beautiful little girl :) Hard to believe I am 22+ weeks now. It seems to be flying by so fast!!!

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Well, this blog has been a long time coming. I just want to thank everyone who has lifted us up in prayer and has been so encouraging to us over the past two years as we have been on our fertility journey! What amazing friends you have been and we/I have been so grateful for all your support! It is with great JOY that we announce we are EXPECTING A BABY!!!!!!!!!!! At the end of January, due date is January 29th, we are expected have a new addition to the McCullough family! God Is Good!

God Is Good, yes, he really is. It is actually kind of humourous as we found out we were pregnant the month before our fertility treatments were suppose to start. I had my prescription waiting to be filled. I took off the month of May from all charting, temperature taking and anything being "timed". I found it was funny that I had no idea what day of my cycle I was on and when I finally looked at a calendar I was day 34. I took a test and sure enough, I was pregnant!

We have had 3 ultrasounds and at each one the baby has been healthy with a strong heartbeat! Last week was our 12 week (3 month) ultrasound and it was amazing to see our perfectly developed little peanut on the screen with 2 arms, 2 legs and loud beating heart. How long I have been waiting to see that image - it was a moment I will never forget!

So thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love and support. Please continue to lift us up in prayer throughout the next couple of months as this baby grows and develops. This baby is a miracle and such a blessing, I thank God every day for this special opportunity to carry another child and to one day meet this gift from God.

Just another quiet Monday!

Another Monday night here in the Greens on Gardiner Show Home. I will take this quiet opportunity to once again update my blog and reflect on my crazy life. I look forward to Monday nights in the Show Home, even when I know they will be slow. Sometimes peace and quiet is a welcome to change, especially to a mom with a busy 2.5 year old!

The new house is coming along nicely. We had a minor set back when we had a record amount of rail fall and our basement flooded. Unfortunately the carpet all got wet and so did some interior doors, etc. What was really annoying was that the house became too humid and the hardwood floor people had to pull out from doing upstairs. This has probably set us back a couple of weeks in our possession date. Fortunately we still have time before the possession of our current house so this minor hiccup isn't too big of a deal. Now, if we could just get things rolling a little faster I would be happy. I deal so well with assuring my clients that they will get their house on time but I am nagging James and he says I am the worst homeowner he has had to deal with. Ah, the joys of being married to the boss!

Bedtimes with Sommer has come a long way since my last post! James has been working on the house till late at night so I took the chance to get Sommer on a good schedule which has included being in bed by 9. Now, what I think has really helped us is that I have cut out her nap completely so she is exhausted by bedtime. Luckily I have also convinced her daycare provider to do the same. It did take some convincing and she still isn't 100% keen on the idea but it has really helped... a lot! I have done the three warning rule at night because Sommer is the QUEEN of excuses and it has made her stay in her room. Usually the first warning is given up to letting her come out to pee and I have just come to expect this. But after that she is fine! I always hate telling her she can't come out to pee because since the day she became potty trained she has also been sleeping in underwear so really if she has to pee and wets the bed then it's more of a pain for me. (By the way... she has never peed the bed once... not in 8 months!!!) Tonight James is putting her to bed so we will see how he does with the new schedule. I am sure he will have a harder time because he seems to get her SO wound up before bed!

We got home last week from 10 days vacation. We spent 2 days in Calgary and took Sommer to the zoo. She loved it. Love all the animals. I think 2.5 is a perfect age for the zoo! We had beautiful weather and had so much fun seeing my best friend Lyn, Sommer's namesake. After Calgary we went out to Chase, BC for a week with my family. It was such a relaxing time. We had a lakefront house so we put out boat right in on the first day and took it out the last. We went to a neighbouring town and did some shopping. We played croquet, did some fishing, boating, tanning, reading - it was wonderful! Sommer was a trooper on the way home as it was a 16 hour drive! Of course she wanted out of her car seat every once and a while but I did too!

So that's about all that is new around here! Hope everyone is having a great summer!!

I hate bedtime.

I am tired of bedtimes. I hate bedtime. Little Miss Sommer also hates bedtime - so you can imagine my frustration level at this particular time of night. Usually bedtime isn't until 10:00 pm because Sommer is the ultimate night owl. It's like she thinks she will be missing something SO important if she goes to bed early. Usually it's a fight - it starts off nice, sweet, quiet. Patience is in my voice and all my actions. After the 3rd time of her door opening I start to get a little less patient - I start to threaten ("There will be no park tomorrow", "I will take your noiseybox (music box) out of your room"). After this I am starting to get MAD - I will threaten to spank and then I will spank. UGH. Tonight was no different. I am exhausted.

I use to have the perfect child at bedtime. Kiss good night, say prayers, go to bed. And I wouldn't see her to morning. PERFECT. But for the last while (actually for a really long time...) we have had WWIII at bedtime. Doesn't she understand that I would give ANYTHING to go to bed early. Please, someone send me to bed!!! Kids are funny that way. I can remember fighting my parents over an afternoon nap. Why nap when the world is still going on outside my window? Now, I would PAY someone to send me to my room for a nap. Kids have it easy - if only they knew that.

Well I think she is finally asleep. I guess I will start my mountains of laundry that are waiting for me. Please tell me I am not the only parent who hates bedtime???

Thank You

Thank you to all of you who prayed for our appointment today. It went so well and smoothly. We are able to continue to move forward in our journey and get some answers today. It is such an amazing feeling to know that people all over the world are praying for us and are lifting us up to God. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are to have you all in our lives. Thank you! Please continue to pray for us as we keep moving along the road God has planned.

What to write???

Sometimes I don't even know where to start when I sit down on my computer to update you all on my life. I don't know whether to write about Sommer or the dogs or James. Maybe it's should be an update on the business or maybe that is too boring. Sometimes I just wish I could really share what's going on inside my heart but scared at the same time that is getting to personal in the blog world. I don't want to depress you with my complicated journey of fertility. I just want to share my heart. Can I really, freely, truly do that? I am not sure.

I think today I will just ask you to pray. Please pray for me as a Mom. Please pray for patience with Sommer who is trying to learn independence - and I try to teach her independence but all within arms reach of me. She is a beautiful little girl and I am blessed to have her. Please pray that I will always remember what a blessing she is to us and how lucky we are to be her parents. I find it hard sometimes to look at what a little girl she has become when I am trying to hold on to the baby side of her. I love the snuggles she still loves to give, the new phrases she comes up with every week, and watching her discover new things around her.

Being a Mom is not the easiest job but I want to be able to say that I did my best. My favorite part of the week is Sunday mornings. When Sommer was younger it was easy for us to skip church because we were tired or something else came up. Now that Sommer is old enough to learn about Jesus we have made it a priority to go to church every Sunday. Our amazing church has such a great kids program. Every Sunday morning before they are dismissed all the kids go up to the front for a quick little lesson. Every Sunday Sommer is the first one up there - sometimes beating the Children's Pastor. It just makes me smile to watch her eagerness and passion at such a young age. I love picking her up from Sunday school and getting the run down of what she learned. I challenge each christian parent to make Sunday School a priority for your child - you will not regret it. Please pray for us as we teach Sommer about her Heavenly Father and the love he has for each one of us.

We have an upcoming appointment on Monday(June 14) and I ask you to pray for us. I always feel nervous about appointments with our specialist and such doctors. Please pray that God will go before us and that his peace will surround us while we are there. Of course, I ask you to pray that God will have this appointment turn out for the best and that we will continue to move forward on this journey. So please, mark it in your calendar and pray for us on the morning of June 14th... I could use everyone praying!

Well, thanks for lifting our family up and following us through the good times and the trials. I appreciate each one of you!

Baby Bentley and Baby Update

Another Monday night in the show home so I might as well keep everyone updated on what is going on in our lives!!! So much has happened this past week!!

The biggest news is that we have a new family member - Bentley McCullough has joined our crazy household. Bentley is a 3 month old Miniature Pinscher who has endless energy! I have always wanted a Min Pin and our local pet store had Min Pins and I just couldn't pass him up. There have been days where I have wondered what I have got myself in to but he his absolutely adorable so it makes up for all his accidents and mischief! Lexis seems to tolerate her new brother and Sommer is absolutely in LOVE with Bentley! I honestly forgot how much work puppies were - I think a newborn was easier than a puppy! He doesn't really sleep through the night unless he is in our bed in my arms - something I am not too fond about. Just like a newborn....

We went to our doctors appointment last Thursday. Turns out there is nothing wrong with us - really??? My levels are all perfect and James is good in his department. I am not sure what the heck is wrong, haha. So now we start a treatment called Clomid and pregnyl. Here is what it is - Clomid is a pill that I will take on days 3-7 of my cycle. This drug encourages strong and healthy follicles to grow. Starting on day 10 I will go through a series of ultrasounds where the tech will measure the size of my egg that will be released during ovulation. Once that egg reaches a certain size and ovulation will be occurring soon I will be given an injection of Pregnyl, a drug that causes ovulation to occur within 24 hours. This will allow for intercourse to be timed with ovulation. Quite the science involved! We will try this for 4 months and then if we still aren't pregnant we will move up to the next stage of fertility treatments - hopefully this won't have to happen. One exciting thing is what when on clomid your chances of twins is 10%! Wouldn't that be something!!

So those are the 2 major developments in our lives this past week. Just thought I would update you!

Road to a Baby Update

I am such an emotional person today that it is actually annoying! I finished all my fertility testing a couple of weeks ago but I am still waiting for James to do his test   (he assures me it will be done this week – I am no longer going to nag him). I always have such a positive attitude throughout the month while we are trying but sure enough the end of my cycle comes and I am met with despair over again. I read something the other day that really hit home: “For a woman who is TTC and every cycle end is met with the reality she is not pregnant it is like she is mourning the child she lost that month.” And that’s how I have been feeling these past couple of months. I have moved on from mourning the little baby we did loose in January and now I am mourning the loss of the baby that “should have been” each month. I must get out of this depressing state! I am sure it is because I am hormonal right now but still, what the heck!! I had a little meltdown today on the phone and my mom assured me everything will be fine.  I am lucky to have a supportive family (and friends) who are lifting us up in prayer and encouraging us in our journey. We have an appointment with our fertility specialist on May 6th so we will get some answers and look at our options. I am curious to see what the results of the tests are as I feel like my body is all over the map. I am really excited to have some help finally and some guidance. To be honest, I am sick of trying…. Just tell me when to do it, haha, and please let it work! Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for our appointment with the doctor – that we will have answers if tests came back not normal, that the doctor will have the knowledge he needs to decide what we should try first, and that we will have peace about what is set before us. I will let you know what we find out!

By the way, I appreciate all the comments you all leave! It is encouraging to see who all is praying for us. So please, if you are keeping updated through this blog please leave a comment, even just a “hi”. And if i don’t know you personally but you are reading this I would love to hear from you too. Thanks for your prayers :)

Learning to Measure

Let's just say that Daddy would be proud... sort of proud. Give her props that she is using a tape measure, on the job site, pretending to measure openings, etc. and she is 2. Never mind that she is yelling out measurements that make completely no sense and would confuse all framers. But she is darn cute pretending to know what she is talking about!