Broken Toe and a helpful brother!

Yesterday I was getting ready to mop the kitchen floor. So I moved all my kitchen chairs into the living room. I was walking by the chairs in a rapid pace to reach Mason before he got into something he wasn't supposed to be in. In my haste I stubbed my toe on one of my kitchen chairs. I stubbed it BAD. The chairs are wooden and it isn't the first time I have stubbed a toe on them. It hurt very bad and almost immediately started to swell and turn purple. But I could still walk on it so I just thought it was stubbed. Here it is about 3 hrs after it happened

As the day wore on I felt more pain and it was more swollen. Dave & Mom came over for dinner as well as our friend Landa. They all thought it was getting worse. So we took some more pictures as the night progressed.

When I compared the 2 sets of pictures there was NO denying that it was worse. I took some ibuprofen for the pain and tried to keep it elevated and even iced it for a while. After my guests left and I got the kids into bed I went to bed myself and slept with my foot elevated. In the morning I woke to see this:

Yeah I am pretty sure it is broken. Either that or it is VERY very badly bruised/stubbed. I don't think a Dr could do anything for it and I still can walk on it (albeit not for long periods of time). So I am hoping in few days/weeks I will be back to normal. I am way too busy to deal with a broken toe!
Ignore the fact that my feet are dirty. I was outside trying to help my very loving and helpful brother Dave. He had mercy on me and came over to mow my lawn. I wanted to get it done before Tim got home. Tim has been gone for a week and will be home on Sunday. We are not sure how many days he will get off. It may be just one before he goes back out of town. I did not want him to spend his one day off mowing the lawn, so I had planned on mowing it before he got home. When Dave heard I needed help with that he came over at like 8am to get it done for me. What a sweet brother!

Thanks Dave. You are my hero for the day!!!!!

WOW!!!! So proud of myself!!!

I will spare myself the actual starting numbers..... but I will share my progress!!!!!!!

Since June 9, 2008 to August 29, 2008 (81 days) I have Lost:

14 pounds

Which resulted in an inches loss of:

10 inches

Those inches came off as follows....

1 inch off each upper arm

1 inch off my bust

2 1/2 inches off my waist

2 1/2 inches off my hips

1 inch off each thigh

And I reduced my BMI by:

2.3%

I was beginning to wonder why my pants are too big and my bras don't fit quite right!

Hooray for me!!!! This revelation has given me motivation to keep moving forward for my health!!!!

Anyway, thought I would share!

TTC Update 8/28/08

I had an appointment with Dr. M this morning. He is my OB/Gyn. He is a mild mannered, soft spoken, practical and easy to talk to Dr. Despite the fact that he is male (which normally means I won't even see a male Dr.) he is very compassionate and understanding. I really like him and I really like his approach to prenatal care as well as other gyno issues.

When I received my diagnosis of PCOS with Insulin resistance (IR) I was actually diagnosed by my Endocrinologist, Dr.L. Now Dr. L does not normally deal with women of child bearing age. He primarily deals with thyroid issues and diabetes in older adults. So I am not his normal clientele nor am I his area of expertise. But he was covered on our Ins and he is a good thyroid Dr which is my main reason for seeing him. But when I was diagnosed with PCOS, I was somewhat hesitant to believe whole heartily in that diagnosis. I honestly thought the reason I was not accepting of the diagnosis was because I was in DENIAL! LOL! But now that I have seen Dr. M I am thinking that maybe I wasn't so far off the mark.

Dr. M reviewed the lab results that Dr. L had made his PCOS diagnosis from and came to a different conclusion. Dr. M's basic feeling on "pcos" (every time he said PCOS he held his hands up and made quotation marks. LOL!) was that Drs use that as a label for women with unexplained infertility. Basically he thinks of PCOS as a dumping ground diagnosis. He thinks that IR can cause infertility. He thinks that cyst on your Ovaries can cause infertility but you can have one or both of those conditions and not have the "typical PCOS". About 1/2 way through the conversation he just stopped calling my infertility PCOS and just said to deal with the symptoms and see where we are at.

He explained it to me like this: Due to diet or actual IR the cells in your body can become resistance to insulin. Your body needs insulin to convert glucose into energy. So if your cells are resisting the insulin then your pancreas has to produce extra insulin to force the cells to covert glucose into energy. With the excess glucose not converted to energy it gets stored as fat in your body. Which is why IR folks are typically overweight. IR effects fertility because with the extra Insulin coming from your pancreas, your pituitary it tells your ovaries to produce more androgens and then your body turns androgens into testosterone which suppresses the estrogen and without estrogen your ovaries do not produce follicle to ovulate. Without Ovulation, no pregnancy.

So even without the whole cysts on your ovaries thing which is the primary symptom of PCOS you can still be infertile due to the IR and that can be called PCOS. What I DON'T have that is typical with PCOS is annovulatory cycles, male pattern hair growth, or excess androgens. I do have mild case of IR which the Metformin is treating.

I also asked Dr. M about my cycles and if he thought I was actually Ovulating. He asked me some questions about my cycle. I told him I have the normal thermal shifts, normal cervical mucous patterns, typical cervical positions, normal luteal phase length, normal cycle length, Periods that arrive on time, the bloating, breast tenderness etc of typical PMS symptoms. He said that given the obvious hormonal changes (evident by my symptoms per cycle) that there is a 95-98% chance that I AM ovulating. He felt that giving us some more time to try to conceive will most likely result in a pregnancy.

I asked about Clomid. He said that he feels strongly that I AM ovulating. He felt that using Clomid would NOT improve my chance of actually conceiving but WOULD improve my chances of conceiving a LITTER of children. He said in women that are ovulating, (which is where he feels I fall) that using clomid increases your chances of twins or triplets to 30%. That is NOT a risk Tim and I are willing to take.

Now if I fall into the 3-5% that have hormonal changes but still don't ovulate then there are 2 tests that he would like to do. The first being an Ultrasound study that looks at my ovaries before Ovulation to measure the follicles and determine which is the dominate follicle and then again an ultrasound after ovulation to see if the dominate follicle was actually released. If my ovaries are releasing the egg and I am STILL not pregnant then they would have to look at a few things. They might do a semen analysis on Tim's swimmers and also check my fallopian tubes. They would like to do a procedure (i can't think of the name right now) that involves them injecting dye into my uterus and tubes and then taking pictures to make sure the tubes are clear and no blockages are present. If that test comes back clear then they would probably want to take the next step in fertility drugs, which we would decline. In actuality we would probably not do the semen analysis or the dye test either. The Dye test is WAY to invasive for my taste. And if there is a problem with sperm mobility or my tubes the only answer/treatment is high tech (read $$$$) Intrauterine insemination or straight IVF. We would not spend the money on either of these procedures, so we would most likely decline the test as well.

Now the U/S might be something we would consider. The treatment for ovulation failure would be a low tech medication like progesterone trigger or clomid. In the case that I am NOT ovulating then the risk of twins or more when taking Clomid is only 10-12%. So we would consider that as a possibility.

I also got my questions answered about taking Prozac and Metformin when you are pregnant. He refilled my script for Prozac and we talked about the risks and benefits for Metformin during pregnancy. He also gave me a script for progesterone suppositories that are less expensive (albeit more messy) than the progesterone pill I was on. The suppositories are less expensive and covered by most Insurance. We will see how that goes. I have to use them twice a day. So that means MESSY all day. I could handle it if it was just at night cause I could shower in the morning. But twice a day means Messy all day! So we shall see.

Anyway, Bless you if you actually read this whole thing. I wrote all the details out for you to read but also for me to have a record of my appointment. I sometimes forget things and so I wanted to write this out while it was fresh in my mind so that I could re-read it when I forget what Dr. M said in a week!

So for now Tim & I will just be trying and trying.... and lets face it, that is the funnest part of the whole journey!

Diane & Robert come to visit!

Tim's Mom Diane and her boyfriend Robert came to visit us last week. They live in Arizona. We haven't seen Diane since Spring of 2007 and this is our first time meeting Robert. They only stayed 2 days in Spokane and then headed out to see other family and friends. Their visit was short but we feel blessed that they got to see us and the kids even for that short time. The kids really loved connecting with Grandma Diane. We talk about her alot and the kids write to her, but seeing her and being able to play ball with her was a special treat for them. It was also so nice to get to meet Robert. He is a very sweet man and Diane and him seem to be very happy.

The kids were shy at first with both Diane and Robert but after a short time they were climbing in Diane's lap and playing ball with her Robert and Tim. Here are a few pictures.

Jasmyn was the first to climb into Grandma's lap.

Then Mason joined them

Pretty soon Kaleb was playing with them as well.

They stopped playing long enough to pose for this cute picture!Robert
Grandma Diane also got to fix Jasmyn's hair. Jasmyn was just thrilled!
On the last day we went outside to get some family pictures.

Grandma Diane and the kids
Diane & Robert
Tim, Diane, & Kids
The whole gang!
We were sad to see Diane & Robert leave to travel home. We look forward to seeing them the next time they visit. One of these days I would love to travel down and see them. It is warmer in the south. Maybe we will take a nice warm vacation in the middle of the winter one year! We can dream!

Mom has a birthday

I won't reveal the secret of her age. A Lady never tells and a gentleman never asks! LOL! Anyway, she had a birthday on August 10th. We didn't celebrate until the 11th and then we combined Dave's birthday in with hers since he wasn't here in June when his birthday was. I will tell you that Dave turned 35. He likes to think that he is only 30, but since I am 33 and he is 2 years OLDER than me, that makes him the big 35!
For the festivities we all went swimming in the pool at Mom's house. Here are a few pictures of the kids, Tim, Dave and my Mom hanging out in the pool.

Mason Loves to float on his back and kick his feet.

The whole family, except me (hey someone had to take the picture)

Dave. He is such a super star!
After swimming we went up and made dinner. We ate outside on the deck. It was fun. The food was good and the company was great!

After dinner we had Cake and ice cream. I decorated a cake for them. I am starting to really like creating cakes for birthdays. It is fun and lets me be creative. Beside the fact that if it I hate the way it turns out, it still tastes DELICIOUS. No one ever complains about cake! It is a win win even if my decorating looks like a child with a big crayon drew it!

So this cake is a picture of the 4 kids. Kaleb Future Jasmyn & Mason. Dave & Mom both thought the cake was very sweet!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dave. We love you and wish you many more happy birthdays to come!

Vacation Camping Trip

For our family summer vacation we went on a camping trip. We went with Sara, Gerry and their kids. 6 kids, 4 adults... yeah we were outnumbered, but we still had a great time. We went up the North Fork of the Coeur d' Alene River. From I-90 you take the Kingston Exit and head North. The road takes you along the river. The drive up there is just beautiful. The trees are so tall, the water is so clear, the mountains so big, the air so fresh. It is the most beautiful area I have ever seen. I just love it. It is peaceful, calm, serene and sacred. I just love it.

The best part about it is sharing it with the kids. I want them to remember how awesome it is and how beautiful our earth is and how we as a family enjoy that beauty. They loved running around in the trees and playing in the dirt. They spent alot of time down at the river. We got to camp at one of Sara and I's favorite spots. It has easy access to the river down a very short path. And the river is actually a stream feeding into the bigger river. The only bad part about that is that it is primarily from snow melt so the water is VERY cold. But it isn't as deep or as fast moving as the camp sites right on the river. We felt that given the kids ages and the ratio of kids to adult that shallow, slow moving water was a better idea. It worked out beautifully. We could see the kids from our camp site and the water was shallow enough that we felt the kids were very safe. They picked rocks, looked at the water, found crawdads, and water bugs. They spent most of the time in their swim suits when the weather was warm enough to, and sometimes when it wasn't!


The guys took some time to play paint ball on the other side of the road from our camp site. They enjoy shooting each other with paint! LOL! I have no idea why, but they love it, so we made sure they got kid free time to spend together doing something they love. And in turn they gave Sara and I some time to spend together. We did our outdoor spa treatments and my fertility ritual that I previously blogged about here. After the boys played paintball they let the kids shoot at a rock with the paint ball guns. When I saw these pictures when we returned home the only thing I could think of was Jeff Foxworthy's comedy bit about, "you might be a redneck if....."
Well you might be a redneck if you let your 2 year old son shoot a rock with a paintball gun! LOL!

The pure look of GLEE on his face!

Jasmyn's turn

Kaleb LOVED it! He thinks he wants to go play with Dad and Uncle Gerry next time. I think he can ....in about 10 years!

Meals in the woods are always interesting. We try really hard to not just eat hot dogs and hamburgers the entire 4 days. So this time Sara & I along with the hot dogs and hamburgers brought along steak and potato salad, Stuff for Taco Salad (an adventure in cooking in the woods to say the least), and we even served Sauteed veggies with the steak. We "sauteed" veggies over the campfire. Certainly not a recipe Martha Stewart would ask for, but tasty none the less.

We didn't have a lot of table space so the kids got to eat on a storage tub in their camp chairs. It worked pretty well.

Rowan sat in the high chair to eat.

The kids really enjoyed camping. They can't wait to go again. Next summer I am sure it will be the first outing we do!

They certainly baptized themselves with plenty of CDA River Dirt! I wouldn't have it any other way!

The Bray Luau!

I know that a few of my readers have mentioned that you would like to see the pictures from the Luau. I will try to share just a few. In reality there are so many good ones that I am having trouble keeping it down to just a few. So hopefully I won't overload you! LOL! Ok I Know I probably will. But I hope you enjoy the pictures!

So we will start with the decorations. Cause what's a luau without a bungalow, Surf Boards, Flowers and a bamboo hut????

So this is what the back yard looked like. We put Bamboo looking stuff on house and then strung lots of paper flowers around. Some of the flowers I made, some I bought.

Then we had the "Bray Bungalow"

The whole back of the house.

Surf Board leaning up against the Bamboo Hut

We were very blessed to have lots of family and friends come join us for the celebration! I think we had 12 children at the party plus all the parents. It was very fun and we felt the love from all our guests really getting into the spirit of the party and our celebration of the Bray Family Birthdays.

This is Isabella. She is trying to get warm after swimming in the kiddie pool.

Her parents are Mindy and Karl

Mindy & KarlMy Mom with Future, Jasmyn and Mason at her side!
The kids played in the pool for most of the afternoon.

L to R: Melody, Hanna, Duncan & Kaleb (his back anyway)

L to R: Hanna, Melody, Future, Kaleb, Sierra, Mason & Jasmyn

My friends Sarah and Sara. Not the greatest picture. They were behind the camera for most of the day so I only got a few photos on them.
Roselyn Isn't she beautiful?!?!

Katie Gorgeous. Simply Gorgeous.
Gerry & Rowan

Keagan

Future and Sierra

Our Friends from the west side of Washington, Stephanie and Mark drove over to attend the party. We are so blessed to have them as friends and feel so fortunate that they drove 5 hrs just to attend our celebration! Thanks Stephanie, Mark, Duncan & Sophie!
I somehow failed to get a family picture of them. In fact the only pictures I have of Duncan are of him in the pool. He spent most of the day in there. But here is the rest of the family!

Mark

Sophie & Stephanie


We also feel very blessed to have our Nephew Future with us to celebrate. The kiddos had so much fun playing together. He looks happy, huh?!?! LOL!
Tim's sister Crystal and her family drove about 1 1/2 hrs to attend. We are very glad to see them and feel blessed that they were able to spend the day with us.

Crystal and Melody


Hanna

Melody lounging with Mason.
Tim & Mason

And what is a party without CAKE!!!!
Here is our Birthday cake.


Lighting the candles
Jasmyn, Jen, Tim & Mason blow out the candles!

And we ended the day with a group photo of our kiddos!

Fun was had by all! I am already starting to brainstorm next years party! I hope you all plan on attending! See ya next year!!!!