Projects New and Old

It's been a while since I've posted because we've had a lot going on. That may be the Cannon family understatement of the year! This summer we worked on the house quite a bit. I'm realize our house will always be a work in progress. As soon as we get something scratched off our list, we add three more. It's possible to get caught up that way.

One project I'm really excited about is the front porch. Blake worked hard to get me the front porch swing I wanted for mothers day and stain it. We also painted our front door red and I LOVE the cheapo tv tray I painted to match. It's a perfect little sitting area!

Another project I love is the new jewelry pegboard the hubs built for me. Thank you Pinterest for the fabulous idea.

Lastly, we finally found plexiglas covers for our kitchen lights. This particular project probably shouldn't have taken over a year but it was harder to find the covers than expected. We didn't want to pay $100 for 2 4x2 pieces of plastic! Fortunately while wandering around Home Depot one afternoon Blake found exactly what we were looking for and they cost about $7 each. Now that is in our budget :)

The next big project I have Blake working on is building a DIY farmhouse table. Again, thank you Pinterest! We are still in the design phase but hope to have it complete by Christmas! Pictures to follow!

Sun, sons, shots and sangria

Day 1 at the beach was amazing, as expected! We wanted to get to the beach early so it wasn't so hot. We arrived around 930 and Austin immediately wanted to jump the waves. I swear I could post pics from our beach trip two years ago and this years trips and you couldn't tell a difference. Blake and Austin are both in the same trunks!!

We had a blast at the beach and headed to Poes Tavern for lunch. Unfortunately they had a no shirt, no shoes, no service policy and Austin didn't meet the first criteria! Our waiter hooked Austin up with a cool new tee and we enjoyed an amazing burger topped with a crab cake!

 

After we returned from the beach, Bri and I headed to the store to make a yummy dinner. We bought groceries and decided to hit the bar for a jäger bomb for old times sake! Next stop was the liquor store, followed by one last shot!

Lastly was dinner and Sangria and both were awesome!! Fresh strawberries, peaches, oranges and limes plus wine and ginger ale! What's not to love!!

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

2ww

Ahhh the 2 week wait. It really is a difficult process. I've been over analyzing every single twitch my body makes. I'm not sleeping, am I pregnant? I'm cranky, am I pregnant? I sneezed, am I pregnant?? Ugh!! There should definitely be a better test that tells you instantly. But no such luck. I've tested about three times in the last couple days, all BFNs. Big Fat Negative if you aren't well versed in fertility lingo. I've been reading the message boards constantly in my off time. No wonder I can't sleep. I've told myself over and over that God has a plan for us and it might not include a baby right now. I know that's true but it's still hard to swallow. I am such a newbie at this and can't even imagine the anguish others feel going through this month after month after month. If you are reading this right now please stop to say a prayer for those hopeful parents! Many have a long journey full of loss and heartbreak.

I don't feel pregnant, though I'm not sure you can feel it this early. I've not given up hope but I am trying to be realistic and the reality is the iui only gave us a 25% chance at pregnancy. Odds aren't great. Ok, no more whining here! Just had to get that out. I think this will be our one and only cycle so I'll find new topics to blog about, promise!

I'm going to go tuck my little guy in to bed now and be thankful for what I have because I am blessed!

Austin and God

Several months ago when we first found out my brother and his wife were expecting their first child, we were all talking about what the baby might be: boy or girl.  Austin said very matter of fact, "its a boy."  I questioned him a little by asking "so you want it to  be a boy?" He said "no, it is a boy."  I said well honey what makes you think that?   He said, "God told me."  Simple and clear.  Several months later I wasn't surprised when we found out they were in deed having a boy.  

Last week Austin hit God up for another favor.  We were saying our prayer before dinner and Austin adds in "God, please bring Mary Katherine to karate and let her do karate with me." Mary Katherine is one of his favorite little friends at school.  Today when we arrive at karate, there is Mary Katherine all dressed up in her Lil' Ninja gear.  She is going to start doing karate! Austin acted very shy but he was thrilled to have her there!  

Well lucky us, we got the hormone surge this morning and go in for the insemination first thing in the morning! 

That smiley face was a welcome change from all the empty circles I was getting! I was starting to get nervous.  

Today Austin had made a wish and wrote it down...

Notice that & in there?  Not a brother OR sister but a brother AND sister!  This is one time I hope Austin and God disagree on what is best for us, lol.  We could handle twins, just not sure I could do it with my sanity still in tact.  And I'm pretty sure Blake would permanently move into his man cave.  

Please say extra prayers for us tomorrow!  We should know something, one way or the other, in early July!

Maybe baby???

Before I start this post let me say Blake and I love Austin dearly.  If we never have another child we will still consider ourselves blessed beyond belief and will never feel something is missing in our family.  I think it is because our family seems so strong that we want to bring another baby into this world.  I have my moments, so does Blake, but we are good parents and we have a lot of love to give.  And Austin will make an AMAZING big brother.  Which is why we are working on having another little Cannon.  

We actually started trying to get pregnant a year and a half ago.  I tracked my ovulation, used predictor kits and blah, blah, blah.  No luck.  I had been trying to get Blake to go to the urologist but it never seemed to be a huge priority to either of us.  We took the if it's going to happen, it will happen approach.  That is until about a month ago.  Blake went to his specialist who treats his Behcets disease and they prescribed him a new medicine to take in addition to his infusions.  They warned him this new medicine may cause birth defects and not to father a child while on it.  WAIT!!! What?  Well that kicked us into drive for sure and we've been working very intentionally to identify the problem and find a solution to get pregnant.  We made an executive decision over the doctors that we would postpone Blake's meds for a couple of months and try to have a baby.

When I first called the doctor to get myself an appointment they scheduled me for June 5 (yesterday).  After a couple of phone calls and pleading my case, a super nice nurse moved me up by 2 weeks.  Thanks to my wonderful friend Jennifer, Blake went to see Dr. Emery for an analysis the day after we called.  It's good to be friends with a doctor's wife!  Blake was diagnosed with low count, probably due to all the meds he's been on for the Behcets.  That was a bummer but it did make us a candidate for more aggressive options. We were referred to Arkansas Fertility and our first appointment was yesterday.

I had no idea what to expect.  My biggest fear was that we would get a doctor who would take his time and try to do a lot of tests and time was the one thing I didn't feel like we had.  But I've heard Dr. Batres is the best so we went to the appointment very hopeful and having said a lot of prayers!  Batres was as amazing as his reputation.  He carefully explained our insurance benefits, or lack thereof, and to my fear said we will need to test you for ABC...XYZ.  Then he said "would you like to do this today?"  Yes, today! So of course, I said YES!  Then he said, we also need to take an X-Ray of your tubes and tomorrow is the perfect day for that. Can you come back to Little Rock?  Wonderful news!

So yesterday we did a bunch of blood work and an internal ultrasound.  Everything looked good.  Today Blake took my back to LR to the hospital for an HSG, which is an x-ray of the uterus and tubes using contrast to make sure everything is open.  This made me really nervous, mostly because I was given a prescription to Vicodin for the procedure.  I mean, I watched Dr. House, Vicodin??? How bad was this going to get?

A couple pictures of me "before" waiting for the nurse to take me back. I knew I was going to blog this, so why not take a few pictures!  All smiles at least.  I was very nervous.  I had a bad feeling it was going to be painful.  

What a fashion statement!  I had to get a pic of the hospital gown and socks/shoes.  Hey, they told me to put them back on.  
 
My "friend" for the procedure.  One before, one after.  It really did calm me down and relax me. 

And the hubs reading his kindle while we waited for the Dr.  Blake was a true trooper today!  He even thanked me for going through with the procedure.  I thought that was amazingly sweet!!

There are no after pictures, just suffice it to say it wasn't pretty.  The procedure HURT something awful even with the pain meds.  They gave me a topical too.  Can't imagine what the procedure would feel like without that.  It was fairly quick and uneventful.  One of my tubes had a spasm or something and it took a minute for the fluid to go through.  While it was building so was the pain.  When it was over I almost passed out.  They had to sit me down in a chair while my vision was coming and going.  I was so weak I couldn't hold my own water cup and I came very close to vomiting.  Fun times.  

Fortunately, the tests were clear.  It made me really sad to think of all the women who go through that without getting the same positive results as I received.  As much physical pain as I felt, I know it pales in comparison to the emotional pain of not being able to have a baby when you want one.  

After the X-ray we went back to Dr. Batres office for a treatment plan.  We are still waiting for 2 more blood test results and we should have those tomorrow.  If those are clear I will start using an ovulation predictor kit on Sunday and as soon as I get a hormone surge we will go to LR the next day for a little 'turkey basting' :)  I wanted things to happen fast, but wow, this is fast!!  

The odds we get pregnant are still a lot lower than I would like.  Just 15-20% which is about normal for most couples.  If it doesn't work, we can probably afford one or two more cycles but will likely have to freeze the swimmers because Blake will have to start taking his new meds.  

Either way it is exciting and we are both hopeful for the future.  It's hard for me to say let God's will be done if I am going to such extremes to get pregnant.  Maybe his will was for Austin to be an only child.  And if that's the case I have no doubt this procedure will not be successful and I'm ok with that. I'm not trying to take it out of God's hands, just use the modern technology he provided :-)  I do hope He's ok with that.  

Well there is our story.  If you know me at all you know I'm an open book and will continue to share our journey.  It's emotional but in a good way.  My birthday is July 2, so maybe I will have good news to share at that time.  And if not, I'm still going to have an amazing birthday with the best husband and son!  I'm thankful for all the blessings I have been given. I look forward to the future, whatever it may hold!

Memorial Day in Plano

We spent a long Memorial Day weekend in Plano with my wonderful in-laws!  As usual, we had a BLAST!!  I was able to talk Blake into leaving Thursday night after karate rather than waiting until Friday morning.  I always prefer to to travel in the middle of the night because there is less traffic and it gives us another full day at our destination.  

We stopped at Sonic for dinner on our way out of town.  

And this is my GIANT coffee!  It was super yummy and helped me drive the first leg of the trip.  I made it just over halfway.  But I was cranky.  Poor hubby.  Austin slept most of the way but did end up having a night terror.  It was awful but we finally got him awake and settled back for the night.  

Our first day was not planned so we did my favorite activity ever...pool day!!

 My hubs is such a dork!  :)

Day 2 was a bit more eventful.  We went to the Dallas Zoo with Lili, Poppy, Uncle Alec, his girlfriend Lenore, Cici and her niece and nephew Natalie (5) and AJ (3).  It was so much fun!  

First we stopped at Poor Richard's for breakfast!  Blake ordered the most monster omelet I've ever seen:  bacon cheeseburger with home fries AND onion rings.  I'm pretty sure he finished it. 

Austin and I giving the spiderman hand sign???

You will just have to take my word that the zoo was fun!  I haven't uploaded those pictures yet.  I will do a separate blog post just for the zoo trip.  

After the zoo we stopped at Rockfish for dinner.  This was my first time at a rockfish but I can't wait to go again!  Super yummy and their shrimp appetizer tasted just like my favorite Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish!  

Henry enjoyed dinner too.  Especially his "adult beverage."  I like Henry.  

The drink special was half-priced wine bottles.  Why order a glass when you can get a bottle??

I love Texas.  You can brown bag your leftover alcohol!  How cool??

Day 3 was another fun day filled with family, food and sunshine!  Gran gran and gran mimi came over and we had way too much food and spent the day by the pool.  That is one of Austin's favorite activities at Lili and Poppy's!  Being the good sport that I am, I stayed out by the pool with him ;)

On our last day we had a yummy brunch with the fam before we started our trek home.  When we were making fruit salad we found a genetically mutated strawberry.  Hmmmm...

We had a safe and uneventful drive back to Arkansas and can't wait to see the Texas Cannon's again in July! 

3 years in the making...

While I know he doesn't realize it, Austin really missed having a dad in his life when he was younger.  I remember going to visit Lorrie and Rhom and he would call Rhom "dad."  Another time we went to watch a tball game and he was calling my friend's husband daddy.  I mean to him that was their name, just like his name was Austin.  Other children called those men dad and he didn't know what a dad was.  My greatest worry used to be how I would ever explain to Austin why he didn't have a daddy and other kiddos did.  Where his dad was and how it was not his fault his dad didn't wasn't around.  Then 3 years ago that all changed.  God sure knew what he was doing when he brought us Blake!  Austin was calling him dad very early on in our relationship.  At 2 I think he just "knew" :)  Then my biggest worry became how I would explain to Austin why his name was different.  Now that will no longer be a problem!  In the very near future he will be Austin John Miller Cannon!!  And we can't wait!

We got AMAZING news today! Our attorney called and Brandon finally returned the signed consent to adopt paperwork!!  Great news!  Laura emailed me the paperwork and we signed it immediately!  Luckily for us we have a notary in our office so she did her thing and a runner from the attorney's office came and picked up the adoption paperwork to file it.  Austin will be a Cannon in less than a month if all goes well!  How  will I ever beat this birthday present???

Yes, I'm a dork... I had the camera out taking pictures of each of us signing the paperwork.

And then Vicky jumped in to help us get one together.

All in all it turned out to be a pretty amazing day.  For me the hardest part has been waiting for Brandon to sign the paperwork.  I've never had a good relationship with him and he has never had any type of relationship with Austin.  Although I gave him one hell of a deal, sign away the rights to your child and you don't owe a dime in child support and you never have to deal with me again, he still stalled, lied and tried to fight about it.  Needless to say, I have deleted him from my phone contacts and hope I never have to deal with him again.  

The next step will be when we actually go to court.  I'm really excited about that!  Austin gets to go and we can make it a family affair.  Definitely this will be a hot topic in an upcoming blog post.  Our attorney, Laura, said it could happen as early as June.  That would be the best birthday present I could get!  A father, a real father for my son.  Not that Blake hasn't been a father already, but this will make it official!!  I'm actually wondering if the judge will talk to Austin.  I imagine a conversation like this... judge to Austin: do you want this man to be your dad?  Austin: WHAT?? He is my dad!  And as usual, Austin is right.  Blake is and has been his dad for 3 years and we couldn't be happier!

 

Happy Birthday!!

Happy happy birthday to the most amazing man I know!!

We didn't do much, dinner at the Mexican restaurant, super yummy!! I tried to get him ice cream, but he refused. He's watching his girlish figure I think :)

Love ya babe!!

Pre-k graduation!

Where did the last 5 years go??? My little boy is almost grown. He graduated preschool today. Unfortunately since his birthday is mid August, he will get to graduate preschool again next year too. I was a little teary eyed today, I can't imagine how many tears I'll shed next year when it's official. They are tears of joy though. Im a lucky mom and I know it. I couldn't be prouder of my graduate.

Today was a reminder to slow down and smell the flowers or play in the dirt or whatever else my little boy wants to do.

I heard a quote the other day: your children are not given to you; they are only loaned until the Lord calls them home. Great advice and I will do all I can to enjoy my little boy as long as I have him and he has me!

Mother's Day part II

For the month of May I wanted to do a blog post every day just to get the hang of it and see if I liked it.  Unfortunately after only 4 hours of sleep I did not post one yesterday so I decided to make up for that by doing 2 today.  That counts, right?  Sure it does, I made the rules! 

In honor of Mother's day I wanted to show the little guy who calls me "mama."

Yes, this is him at his only quiet and still time: sleeping!  But look at that sweet face, how could you not love that kiddo!  

My mother's day started off on Friday when my amazing step-mother brought this beautiful flower arrangement to my work!!  Sadly I was in a meeting but they made for a wonderful surprise when I returned to my desk.  Thanks, Gina!!  

This morning by boys brought me breakfast in bed!  My favorite, biscuits and gravy and coffee!! Yummy!  

And my card from my monkey had a monkey on it!  It was the perfect card from my favorite boys!  We even made it to church on time, making a great day even better! 

Freezer Cooking

In January I started freezer cooking, an awesome idea I stole from my MIL, Lea Ann!  So far it has worked out fantastic for our family and this Saturday it was time for a big grocery shop/cook so I decided it would be my Saturday blog (which I was too tired to actually post on Saturday).

The process started on Friday night getting my list and coupons ready then I hit Kroger! 

I actually thought I would cook Friday night so I didn't have to mess with it on Saturday but Kroger was out of rotisserie chickens and that is a staple in my cooking plan.  I did start Friday by getting all of my containers out and my ingredients ready. 

We were in no big hurry on Saturday morning and when I say "we," I really mean WE!  My husband is amazing when we do a big cook.  He takes on the role of sous chef and does all they icky things like keeping the pots and pans washed, grating the cheese, stuffing the burritos, etc. 

I'm really glad I didn't start on Friday night because it would have been a late one!  About 2.5 hours after we started we have food to last us 3 or 4 weeks, yahooo!! 

I made 2 pans of lasagna, a batch of tomato basil soup, Mexican chicken Alfredo, 2 packs of salmon marinating in a maple butter glaze, teryaki chicken, filling for 2 pans of Mexican casserole, taco meat, black bean, corn and beef nacho mix, chicken and cheese quesadillas and a ton of chicken and black bean burritos!!  Yes, my family really loves Mexican food!

I think our favorites are the burritos!  They are excellent for lunch or a quick dinner and super healthy!  Yes, I did make way more than 3 but Blake had already loaded them into the freezer and it seemed silly to pull them all out just to take their picture.  So I pulled these lucky guys back out :)

The restocked fridge!!  Using ziploc bags instead of containers for the meats and sauces was an excellent trick!

And here is the mess we were left with :(  I did tackle the kitchen but not before I laid down and rested for a little while.  I mean, it is Mother's Day weekend after all!