Many of you know that Todd' squadron recently launched the first ever US based air attack. They literally were told on Friday afternoon that they were sending jets to Libya to support Operation Odyssey Dawn that Sunday and Todd was selected as one of the 5 crews. It was a whirl wind weekend with the worst possible weather conditions but very successful in the end. This is just a short "highlight video" from the weekend. You can briefly see Todd in his camo flight suite just after the start of the Sunday section. I am so incredibly proud of Todd and the other members of the 34th Bomb Squadron and what they do to protect our freedom.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
**AMAZING NEWS**
Todd spoke with his squadron commander today and was told that he plans to send him home half way through deployment (around October 10) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So barring any unexpected changes or surprises he WILL be here for the birth of baby Saksa!!! The slight down side is that in order to come home half way he will have to go to Squadron Officer School (SOS-where he learns how to become a flight commander/squadron commander,etc) in December for 5 weeks in Alabama. I will not complain about this because he will be here for the birth and I'll be able to talk to him every day while he's gone!
YAY!! So very happy and relieved to have a plan for this deployment!! Another wife and very good friend of mine is also pregnant and due about a week before me and her husband is getting to do the same thing so double happiness today!!
YAY!! So very happy and relieved to have a plan for this deployment!! Another wife and very good friend of mine is also pregnant and due about a week before me and her husband is getting to do the same thing so double happiness today!!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
12 Weeks!
I can't believe we've made it this far! Time certainly isn't 'flying by' but I am very happy to finally be coming to the end of the first trimester. I finally took a 'bump' picture. I'm now convinced that it isn't just bloat anymore (i.e I wake up with it) Let me preface the pic by saying as of right now I'm not someone who is obsessed with baby bumps. Right now I just feel gross. My face has been breaking out for weeks and aside from any nausea, headaches, back aches or gas my body is slowly being taken out of my control and I'm not loving that right now. I feel like to the world I just look like a slob thats 'letting myself go'. Yes I know its the hormones talking and yes I know that its all changes to grow a baby but for about the last week to week and a half there is really nothing about being pregnant that I like. While I'm eternally grateful and thankful to be pregnant after all we've been through, all things aside, its just how I feel right now. I am feeling better though. I haven't had a day with nausea in about a week and I'm starting to feel my energy levels pick back up. I just wish there was more to be said about the "pregnancy glow" you hear about. I'm definitely NOT glowing!
Sorry, no face shot...no makeup, acne and bad hair do not need to be made public.
We're finally at a point were we are comfortable telling people, although the thought of putting it out there on facebook is petrifying to me! I'm also very anxious for people at work to know. My boss has known since about 6 weeks for a number of reasons but none of co-workers know, except for my 2 closest friends, neither of which are in my department. Its very strange but for some reason there is a strange stigma in my department that if you don't wait until you're over 30 to have kids you're too young. I think it makes me feel like I'm going to be looked at like the pregnant teenager who made an oops. My boss's first response was actually "why do you want to have kids so young??"...I didn't realize 27 was 'so young'. My mom had my sister at 27, most of our friends already have kids..many of which are on their second kid. I don't know... coming out at work is just making me very anxious.
Ok, enough with the Debbie Downer post of all my anxieties. We made it through the most critical time in a pregnancy and I finally feel like we can breath and start actually planning for this child to come into our lives.
Sorry, no face shot...no makeup, acne and bad hair do not need to be made public.
We're finally at a point were we are comfortable telling people, although the thought of putting it out there on facebook is petrifying to me! I'm also very anxious for people at work to know. My boss has known since about 6 weeks for a number of reasons but none of co-workers know, except for my 2 closest friends, neither of which are in my department. Its very strange but for some reason there is a strange stigma in my department that if you don't wait until you're over 30 to have kids you're too young. I think it makes me feel like I'm going to be looked at like the pregnant teenager who made an oops. My boss's first response was actually "why do you want to have kids so young??"...I didn't realize 27 was 'so young'. My mom had my sister at 27, most of our friends already have kids..many of which are on their second kid. I don't know... coming out at work is just making me very anxious.
Ok, enough with the Debbie Downer post of all my anxieties. We made it through the most critical time in a pregnancy and I finally feel like we can breath and start actually planning for this child to come into our lives.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I Love Being an Aggie
I don't think I say that nearly often enough. I'm so proud to have gone to such an amazing university with such time honored traditions. Its been almost a year since we chartered the Black Hills A&M Club and have been getting together with a WIDE variety of Ags to watch football games, eat some BBQ and, today, honor the tradition of Muster. For those of you who have NO CLUE what I'm talking about, here is a quick blurb on Aggie Muster...
"Aggies gathered together on June 26, 1883 to live over again their college days, the victories and defeats won and lost upon the drill field and classroom. Eventually the annual gathering evolved into a celebration of Texas Independence on San Jacinto Day – April 21st. Over time the tradition has changed, but its very essence has remained “If there is an A&M man in one hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas.” Muster is celebrated in more than four hundred places worldwide, with the largest ceremony on the Texas A&M campus in College Station... Muster is a time to look to the past, present, and future…not only to grieve but to reflect and to celebrate the lives that connect us to one another. A gesture so simple in nature yet so lasting in spirit, Muster is the lasting impression every Aggie leaves with us; it reminds us of the greatness that lies within these walls, of the loyalty we possess, of the connection that binds us, and of the idea that every Aggie has a place of importance – whether they are present in flesh or spirit."
Since I'm the "Vice President of Events and Muster" for the Black Hills A&M Club I was, of course, in charge of putting this evening together. I've spent several weeks over the past several months preparing for this event. We held it in one of the convention center rooms at a centrally located hotel here in Rapid with dinner catered by the very delicious restaurant inside the hotel and we stayed true to both parts of the tradition; getting together and eating a meal and remembering our times at Aggieland and we remembered those we lost in the past year. It was a very nice evening topped off by the other officers in the club presenting me with an amazing Benjamin Knox painting as a thank you for my work on Muster as well as our other events throughout the past year. I was truly touched by the appreciation.
Here are 2 pictures from the evening...
"Aggies gathered together on June 26, 1883 to live over again their college days, the victories and defeats won and lost upon the drill field and classroom. Eventually the annual gathering evolved into a celebration of Texas Independence on San Jacinto Day – April 21st. Over time the tradition has changed, but its very essence has remained “If there is an A&M man in one hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas.” Muster is celebrated in more than four hundred places worldwide, with the largest ceremony on the Texas A&M campus in College Station... Muster is a time to look to the past, present, and future…not only to grieve but to reflect and to celebrate the lives that connect us to one another. A gesture so simple in nature yet so lasting in spirit, Muster is the lasting impression every Aggie leaves with us; it reminds us of the greatness that lies within these walls, of the loyalty we possess, of the connection that binds us, and of the idea that every Aggie has a place of importance – whether they are present in flesh or spirit."
Since I'm the "Vice President of Events and Muster" for the Black Hills A&M Club I was, of course, in charge of putting this evening together. I've spent several weeks over the past several months preparing for this event. We held it in one of the convention center rooms at a centrally located hotel here in Rapid with dinner catered by the very delicious restaurant inside the hotel and we stayed true to both parts of the tradition; getting together and eating a meal and remembering our times at Aggieland and we remembered those we lost in the past year. It was a very nice evening topped off by the other officers in the club presenting me with an amazing Benjamin Knox painting as a thank you for my work on Muster as well as our other events throughout the past year. I was truly touched by the appreciation.
Here are 2 pictures from the evening...
Our humble group photo
A very thoughtful gift at the end of the night
Like I said...I love being an Aggie :)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Hawaii
32 Days!!!
I feel like a kid counting down the days until Christmas that is how excited I am about this trip! I'm excited for so many reasons. First and most obvious, its a much needed vacation that will come after a very busy spring for both myself and Todd. Second, its conveniently just before my intern starts for 3 months and about a month and a half before Todd leaves for deployment. And last but not least it is an absolute celebration of the blessing that God has given us. This trip would absolutely not be possible if we had to go through with IVF. This is our Babymoon, our last big trip as just the two of us, or 4 of us as we can't forget our wonderful furbabies :) :)
The details? We leave Thursday May 19 and will fly to Honolulu. We'll get there pretty late Thursday so not much will happen that day. We have all day Friday and Saturday to spend in Honolulu where we will go to Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, The North Shore and go to a luau before boarding the Norwegian "Pride of America" Saturday night for a 7 day cruise where we will spend 2 days in Maui, 1 day each in Hilo and Kona and 2 days in Kauai before returning to Honolulu and heading back to Rapid City. We're still researching all the islands and what we want to do but I know we plan to get to all the National Parks since we still have our National Parks pass. I want to do the bike ride around Haleakala Crater, spend lots of time in the sun and eat my weight in fresh pineapple. I have several co-workers and patients who have been to Hawaii so we have gotten lots of ideas but if you've been and have a "must see" please let me know!!
Can't wait to post pictures when we get back!
I feel like a kid counting down the days until Christmas that is how excited I am about this trip! I'm excited for so many reasons. First and most obvious, its a much needed vacation that will come after a very busy spring for both myself and Todd. Second, its conveniently just before my intern starts for 3 months and about a month and a half before Todd leaves for deployment. And last but not least it is an absolute celebration of the blessing that God has given us. This trip would absolutely not be possible if we had to go through with IVF. This is our Babymoon, our last big trip as just the two of us, or 4 of us as we can't forget our wonderful furbabies :) :)
The details? We leave Thursday May 19 and will fly to Honolulu. We'll get there pretty late Thursday so not much will happen that day. We have all day Friday and Saturday to spend in Honolulu where we will go to Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, The North Shore and go to a luau before boarding the Norwegian "Pride of America" Saturday night for a 7 day cruise where we will spend 2 days in Maui, 1 day each in Hilo and Kona and 2 days in Kauai before returning to Honolulu and heading back to Rapid City. We're still researching all the islands and what we want to do but I know we plan to get to all the National Parks since we still have our National Parks pass. I want to do the bike ride around Haleakala Crater, spend lots of time in the sun and eat my weight in fresh pineapple. I have several co-workers and patients who have been to Hawaii so we have gotten lots of ideas but if you've been and have a "must see" please let me know!!
Can't wait to post pictures when we get back!
Monday, April 11, 2011
10 Weeks!
Yesterday I had this great post about our upcoming trip to Hawaii all typed and then Blogger went and deleted it before I could post it. So instead of re-typing it today I decided to just write about our 10 week appointment we had today.
I have to take yet another moment to say how much I LOVE my doctor. When Lyndee called me back she told me he was already running behind but he still took his time with us and answered our questions and talked about things with us without making us feel rushed. He tried to hear the heartbeat with the doppler first but he couldn't get it which is fine because he said it isn't as likely to hear it before 12 weeks with the doppler but he wanted to try. Fortunately he didn't pick it up because then we got to have another ultrasound! All the rooms were busy so he had to use literally the oldest ultrasound machine I have ever seen! It was like an antique! Either way, it got the job done- we saw our little blob bug again. It was actually moving its arms which was cool to see and still had a perfect beating heart :) Sadly, it will be 9 LONG weeks before we see baby Saksa again at the very long, level 2 ultrasound on June 13. At least at my next appointment we'll be able to hear the heartbeat. Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful appointment and he said everything looked good. He gave me the okay to continue cycling this spring (YAY!!) This has been an area of argument for me and Todd because Todd doesn't want me cycling with my clip in pedals (refer to post last summer when I crashed and broke 4 ribs) but I refuse to ride a road bike without clip in pedals- yes, I'm aware that this is slightly ridiculous but if you cycle at all you understand. He also gave us all the travel tips for our vacation. I love that he's very concerned for his patients and gives them all the info but also tries to not make you stress over little things.
For a funny side story from the appointment. The room we were taken to today was the room Dr Diehl does the IUI's in. Todd was never there for the actual procedure so I told him as we were sitting there "this was where our baby was conceived!" Its nice that we can laugh about it :)
I have to take yet another moment to say how much I LOVE my doctor. When Lyndee called me back she told me he was already running behind but he still took his time with us and answered our questions and talked about things with us without making us feel rushed. He tried to hear the heartbeat with the doppler first but he couldn't get it which is fine because he said it isn't as likely to hear it before 12 weeks with the doppler but he wanted to try. Fortunately he didn't pick it up because then we got to have another ultrasound! All the rooms were busy so he had to use literally the oldest ultrasound machine I have ever seen! It was like an antique! Either way, it got the job done- we saw our little blob bug again. It was actually moving its arms which was cool to see and still had a perfect beating heart :) Sadly, it will be 9 LONG weeks before we see baby Saksa again at the very long, level 2 ultrasound on June 13. At least at my next appointment we'll be able to hear the heartbeat. Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful appointment and he said everything looked good. He gave me the okay to continue cycling this spring (YAY!!) This has been an area of argument for me and Todd because Todd doesn't want me cycling with my clip in pedals (refer to post last summer when I crashed and broke 4 ribs) but I refuse to ride a road bike without clip in pedals- yes, I'm aware that this is slightly ridiculous but if you cycle at all you understand. He also gave us all the travel tips for our vacation. I love that he's very concerned for his patients and gives them all the info but also tries to not make you stress over little things.
For a funny side story from the appointment. The room we were taken to today was the room Dr Diehl does the IUI's in. Todd was never there for the actual procedure so I told him as we were sitting there "this was where our baby was conceived!" Its nice that we can laugh about it :)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Time to let the cat out of the bag
Several of my (very small group) of readers have noticed the drastic decline in my blogging. Yes, there is a reason and many of you already know because I wanted to make sure I actually TOLD you and you didn't read it on my blog or facebook (this is not facebook worthy yet either) but if you are in that unfortunate group that I have not personally talked to don't be offended, you're still ahead of the game.... I'm PREGNANT!!!
Pause for shock to settle. Take a deep breath ;)
As you know, my last appointment with Dr. Smith ended with her telling us it was way past time to move on to IVF. However, we had already started our last cycle for our 5th IUI, second with injectable meds and she said to finish the cycle and "pray for a miracle" because we only had about a 10% chance of it working. So pray we did. But we also got our finances in order (since we were going to be OOP for IVF), made our plans to travel to Denver the weekend of my birthday and made our appointments at our main RE's office. Fast forward to the week of the IUI. Everything went wrong. I had to stim 4 days longer because my ovaries, of course, were not responding. Todd's schedule (and mine) was a mess and we were stressing over whether or not the IUI was actually going to happen. Dr. Diehl was scheduled to be out of the clinic the day the IUI actually took place and he GRACIOUSLY came in JUST to do my IUI, even joking that he had "the most fertile women in the clinic" bless the sperm first. It was an emotional day. After an IUI you have to lay on the table for about 15minutes before leaving and after Dr. Diehl left the room I started crying and praying. I remember telling myself, and God that I was done. That I couldn't keep doing these IUI cycles. My body and mind were tired of the whole process. I put that cycle in God's hands and just asked for His will. We were prepared to move on to IVF if it failed and if that was His plan but I couldn't keep doing what we had been doing for the past 8 months. I felt horrible from the extra days of Gonal F and was very bloated/crampy for about 4 days after. I went about my 2 week wait as normal, not overdoing it but also not having a lot of hope either. I was ready to get it over with and move on. Then the week we'd find out came. I was going to Dallas on Thursday, only 13 days post IUI. I started testing on Monday, negative. I woke up Tuesday and tested, still expecting a negative and literally almost had a heart attack when I saw a faint but definite SECOND LINE! It took everything I had to keep calm, go to work and "patiently" wait until I could call Lyndee...who cried when I told her and said I made her day. She ordered the HCG blood test and since I conveniently work at the hospital I just ran down to the lab at lunch and had my blood drawn. The number came back at 34, which is "low" but at 11 days post IUI, not concerning low. She told me to repeat it on Thursday to make sure it doubled. Literally 30 minutes before we left for the airport Lyndee called and said that the number was 131!! So then we waited 2 LONG weeks before we got to see Dr. Diehl and do an ultrasound. Seeing Dr Diehl and Lyndee, with Todd there, for an appointment that didn't include scanning my ovaries or adjusting my meds was amazing. We laughed and joked and we saw one little bug with a perfect beating heart that looked like a lightening bug. Everything looked perfect and we have continued in our cautious state of shock since.
So now you're probably asking yourself- when are you due? how far along are you? how are you feeling?
I'm 9 1/2 weeks along and due on November 6, 2011-my father in laws birthday. I felt amazing from weeks 4-6. I had a ton of energy but was super hungry all the time and life went on as usual. Weeks 6-9 the nausea and food aversions set in as well as the fatigue. Now don't get me wrong, I AM NOT COMPLAINING!! When I say nausea...I mean if I didn't eat when I was hungry I got nauseated and was only able to eat very specific foods because the thought of some foods made me feel sick. I haven't thrown up (thank God!) When I say food aversions nothing has made me want to gag but some things I usually love just haven't sounded appetizing too me. Gum is the weirdest one! I usually chew gum because I have a fear of having bad breath around my patients but gum has made me want to gag so I suck on small pieces of candy. I've also had some headaches and have felt tired but I've told everyone that as long as I can make it through my day and can do what I need/want to do then I will not complain. It has been very manageable and I'm very thankful. This week I feel I'm turning the corner on the first trimester (knocks on wood) I'm still tired, and currently battling a cough/chest cold but am feeling 10x better overall so hopefully this is the upswing. Dr Diehl has given me the OK to keep running/working out as long as I'm not spotting, getting exhausted or getting dehydrated and I've been able to maintain my usual routine with no problems and feel so much better after a run.
God has proven to us once again that we are not in control and He is. Even dealing with infertility we tried to plan our IVF cycle around deployment and what would "work best for us". We're still not sure how deployment is going to work. Best case scenario, Todd will only deploy for half the time and be home in late October. Worse case scenario Todd will be sent home for about 2 weeks to be here for the birth but then will have to go back. I'm honestly not worried. God is faithful and has shown that time and time again so I will just trust Him.
Well this blog is long enough. I promise I will start blogging more regularly now. We go to the doctor on Monday so I'll update about that. AND we planned a big Hawaiian vacation for May that I'll blog about another time!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continuous love, support and prayers through this journey and your continued prayers through this pregnancy.
God listens and is still performing miracles!
Pause for shock to settle. Take a deep breath ;)
As you know, my last appointment with Dr. Smith ended with her telling us it was way past time to move on to IVF. However, we had already started our last cycle for our 5th IUI, second with injectable meds and she said to finish the cycle and "pray for a miracle" because we only had about a 10% chance of it working. So pray we did. But we also got our finances in order (since we were going to be OOP for IVF), made our plans to travel to Denver the weekend of my birthday and made our appointments at our main RE's office. Fast forward to the week of the IUI. Everything went wrong. I had to stim 4 days longer because my ovaries, of course, were not responding. Todd's schedule (and mine) was a mess and we were stressing over whether or not the IUI was actually going to happen. Dr. Diehl was scheduled to be out of the clinic the day the IUI actually took place and he GRACIOUSLY came in JUST to do my IUI, even joking that he had "the most fertile women in the clinic" bless the sperm first. It was an emotional day. After an IUI you have to lay on the table for about 15minutes before leaving and after Dr. Diehl left the room I started crying and praying. I remember telling myself, and God that I was done. That I couldn't keep doing these IUI cycles. My body and mind were tired of the whole process. I put that cycle in God's hands and just asked for His will. We were prepared to move on to IVF if it failed and if that was His plan but I couldn't keep doing what we had been doing for the past 8 months. I felt horrible from the extra days of Gonal F and was very bloated/crampy for about 4 days after. I went about my 2 week wait as normal, not overdoing it but also not having a lot of hope either. I was ready to get it over with and move on. Then the week we'd find out came. I was going to Dallas on Thursday, only 13 days post IUI. I started testing on Monday, negative. I woke up Tuesday and tested, still expecting a negative and literally almost had a heart attack when I saw a faint but definite SECOND LINE! It took everything I had to keep calm, go to work and "patiently" wait until I could call Lyndee...who cried when I told her and said I made her day. She ordered the HCG blood test and since I conveniently work at the hospital I just ran down to the lab at lunch and had my blood drawn. The number came back at 34, which is "low" but at 11 days post IUI, not concerning low. She told me to repeat it on Thursday to make sure it doubled. Literally 30 minutes before we left for the airport Lyndee called and said that the number was 131!! So then we waited 2 LONG weeks before we got to see Dr. Diehl and do an ultrasound. Seeing Dr Diehl and Lyndee, with Todd there, for an appointment that didn't include scanning my ovaries or adjusting my meds was amazing. We laughed and joked and we saw one little bug with a perfect beating heart that looked like a lightening bug. Everything looked perfect and we have continued in our cautious state of shock since.
So now you're probably asking yourself- when are you due? how far along are you? how are you feeling?
I'm 9 1/2 weeks along and due on November 6, 2011-my father in laws birthday. I felt amazing from weeks 4-6. I had a ton of energy but was super hungry all the time and life went on as usual. Weeks 6-9 the nausea and food aversions set in as well as the fatigue. Now don't get me wrong, I AM NOT COMPLAINING!! When I say nausea...I mean if I didn't eat when I was hungry I got nauseated and was only able to eat very specific foods because the thought of some foods made me feel sick. I haven't thrown up (thank God!) When I say food aversions nothing has made me want to gag but some things I usually love just haven't sounded appetizing too me. Gum is the weirdest one! I usually chew gum because I have a fear of having bad breath around my patients but gum has made me want to gag so I suck on small pieces of candy. I've also had some headaches and have felt tired but I've told everyone that as long as I can make it through my day and can do what I need/want to do then I will not complain. It has been very manageable and I'm very thankful. This week I feel I'm turning the corner on the first trimester (knocks on wood) I'm still tired, and currently battling a cough/chest cold but am feeling 10x better overall so hopefully this is the upswing. Dr Diehl has given me the OK to keep running/working out as long as I'm not spotting, getting exhausted or getting dehydrated and I've been able to maintain my usual routine with no problems and feel so much better after a run.
God has proven to us once again that we are not in control and He is. Even dealing with infertility we tried to plan our IVF cycle around deployment and what would "work best for us". We're still not sure how deployment is going to work. Best case scenario, Todd will only deploy for half the time and be home in late October. Worse case scenario Todd will be sent home for about 2 weeks to be here for the birth but then will have to go back. I'm honestly not worried. God is faithful and has shown that time and time again so I will just trust Him.
Well this blog is long enough. I promise I will start blogging more regularly now. We go to the doctor on Monday so I'll update about that. AND we planned a big Hawaiian vacation for May that I'll blog about another time!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continuous love, support and prayers through this journey and your continued prayers through this pregnancy.
God listens and is still performing miracles!
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