Cruisin the Southern Caribbean

Last year a couple of us decided that we would take a cruise together February of this year. We had talked about it off and on beforehand and decided to go for it this year. We didn't think we could get it all worked out this soon but I am so happy we were able to. Jarod and I love taking trips together but it was nice to go with some other couples too. We don't get to see them as much as we would like because they live in Evansville but this trip allowed us to spend a whole week together:) After talking about this trip for months it finally came but I didn't want it to get here too fast b/c you know as soon as it is here it is over with. Trips always go WAY too fast!!!!!

The other's have never been on a cruise so that is how we decided on what to do. Plus all of us girls have always wanted to see St. Lucia so that is how we decided on the southern caribbean cruise. Totally worth it!!! We ported from San Juan and visited St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Marteen. All beautiful places with such great people. I have a lot of photos I uploaded to look at:)

I have already told them we need to do this again for sure next year or the following year. You know me I am always up for visiting places. Seriously I think I need to be a travel planner on the side. They get free vacays too, don't they?? haha. Thanks for such a great time Wittmer's, Yoder's and of course my hubby!!!!!! And like I always tell people if you ever want any info. on places we have been to just ask because I would love to tell ya!

Here you go

Getting ready to check our bags in at the airport at 5 in the morning.

In San Juan and reading to get onboard the Carnival Victory. Our water home for a week.

Our room. We finally decided to get an oceanview room and loved it. I would always be looking out the window.

Leaving San Juan

Just hanging out

Hello St. Thomas

Sapphire beach in St. Thomas. It was so pretty!

Us:)

Walking around the beach

Someone got a little sleepy. haha

The Valentine's dessert. I love my chocolate!

What we were greeted with every night when we came back to the room.

Hairy chest competition. All I can say is hilarious but kinda gross too. haha

We had one day at sea. Just relaxing.

Us girls hanging out and trying to get a tan....except we got a little burnt usually!

Love these girls!

The boat was a rockin. haha

Me and my sweetie!

On our catamaran in Barbados.

We got to swim with sea turtles. We were looking forward to this for a while. So fun!

The catamaran we were on for the day!

In St. Lucia

It was so lush in St. Lucia. Just what we thought

Green

Tipping back the bottle a little too much. haha. Just kidding.

Our guide made us angel fish out of palm leaves.

Wild monkeys in St. Kitts. This was so neat! They said the monkey population is double the human population....I thought that was crazy.  We watched the monkeys half the time we were at the beach.

The beach in St. Kitts

Back to the boat

Oh no I had to pull the boat back in before it left us. Glad I had my wheeties that morning. haha

Love him more than words can explain!

Orient beach in St. Marteen. Beautiful!

In our taxi.

Maho beach in St. Marteen. If you ever go to St. Marteen visit this place b/c I don't know of anywhere else like it. The planes take off right behind that fence. Notice the sign on the right. lol

The guys holding on. And this wasn't even the biggest plane.

Watch out

Our last evening on the victory:(

I love looking out and seeing nothing but ocean everywhere. I still think it is crazy to be out in the ocean that far!

Leaving St. Marteen.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!!

Projects and The Big 30

A couple weeks ago Jarod's aunt Mary and cousin Darla painted our living room/dining room I wanted to post some pics. After living in our home for over 3 years we FINALLY painted this room!! I wish I would have done it a long time ago b/c I love it so much more:) I kept putting it off b/c I could deal with it (just a little plain) but then I started looking at pictures and getting ideas. Well......after seeing a fellow bloggers picture (Courtney Owens) I seen a color that would fit our living room!!! Thanks so much Court!!!! And thanks to Mary and Darla's awesome painting skills! Next room is the bedroom. haha. Because you know there is always a project!

  

Tried to get a close up. The color is Norman Brown at Sherwin Williams.

Before

 After- In person you can tell even more of a difference.

Before- Don't mind Khloe's toys. haha

After

Finally made my fabric necklace. Still working on the flowers and trying some different fabrics out.

My hubby turned the Big 30 on January 29!!! Had to get a gift shot!

Coldstone Cake. Yum!! And of course reese's:)

Went out to eat at Mi Pueblo for the birthday boy's b-day!

Right after they came out singing. haha

Last picture of the night. I Love you Jarod and I am so happy I could spend another birthday with you!! I met you when you were 20 and now I can't believe you are already 30.....oh how time flies.

Still the same

I wanted to update on our infertility journey since I haven't in a while.....well there wasn't much done for a while so maybe that is why too. Last week Jarod went for a semen analysis (SA) AGAIN. They wanted us to wait a couple months after his testicular biopsy done Nov. 1. Usually they say every 3 months the count may vary because of the production cyle of the sperm. Well Jarod has been taking the herbs I was talking about (blue steele and false unicorn- I know they sound strange), an L-Carnitine vitamin, B12 vitamin and a multivitamin everyday since the biopsy hoping it would improve his count knowing we would be doing another SA. Well last week it did show Jarod had very few sperm but NO motility. So really not much of a change since the past SA's and I don't know if there is going to be much of a change......everytime we do this I go in hoping maybe this time it will be better!!! But nope! I just need to accept it that this is what it is going to be. Taking the vitamins was the last thing I wanted Jarod to try since there are no medications out there to improve sperm production:(  I am still going to have Jarod take the vitamins but after these herbs are gone I don't think we are going to buy anymore of them.

We had an appt. with our infertility doctor the same day we did the SA and he said, we probably won't be able to use sperm from a SA and the only chance we may have of using Jarod's sperm for IVF is by doing ANOTHER testicular biopsy and trying to aspirate sperm. The only thing is that it isn't a 100% that they will find sperm. IF we would want to do that they would have to have back up sperm meaning donor sperm in case they would not be able to find any of Jarod's sperm. They have to do this b/c the the egg retrieval and sperm retrieval is done at the same time and they would have to implant the egg within a certain time frame. Now that is scary to think about!!!! I would awake from the surgery finding out if these embryo babies are going to my husbands sperm or someone else's.

Our options keep getting more and more complicated and it is SUCH a HARD DECISOIN to think about!!! We don't know for sure what we want to do but I do know we would love to try to have atleast one child that is ours. Is that too hard to ask for?? I know it may sound bad since there are so many kids out there to adopt. BUT I don't know about other people but I think most couples would like to have a child that is a part of them. We may have to adopt and we are still up for that option but I hate to give up on trying. I know there has to be a stopping point but deep inside I don't know if I am ready....I may have regrets down the road and wonder what if! We made an appt. with another infertility doctor in Indy......well the same one I had made an appt. with before. I cancelled though b/c I wanted to wait till we did this past SA but I wish I would have kept it b/c now we have to wait till MAY to see him!!!! I would have never imagined we would have to wait 4 months. So more waiting.......the story of infertility life. When I found out we had to wait till May I was bummed b/c I am soooooo ready to try/do something. I guess this is a way of God telling me to wait and have patience!!! For some reason he keeps testing me.....I know in the future I will know why. But until then I guess we won't know too much more.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. - Romans 12:12

Christmas Photos

This year wasn't a crazy Christmas at all and turned out to be pretty laid back! Meaning we didn't have a lot of get togethers on the same day and could spend quite a few hours enjoying each get together with no time frame! The week-end before Christmas we were able to celebrate with Jarod's family and my family which was really nice.   

On Christmas we usually do the same thing every morning! We get up whenever we feel like it (yeah), make breakfast together (usually try a different recipe every year), open presents, watch a Christmas story (who else likes that movie?) and relax till we have to leave. We had Christmas lunch at my g-ma Nelson's this year but weren't able to make it to the Schroerings Christmas b/c they were both at the same time which I was kinda bummed about:( 

Lots of pics. to follow that I posted from all the wonderful memories!!! We loved spending time with our family and enjoyed every bit of it. Now we are just trying to get back to the swing of things and get back to not munching on all those sweet goodies that have been sitting around the house. Hence "have" b/c we pretty much ate almost all of them. haha. They are always soo tempting! But we appreciate all the goodies we received from our wonderful neighbors! Thanks again!

 Our tree!

Khloe's present.....she hates when we tell her to stay. I was trying to get a pic. of her with her treats but she was wanting them pretty bad. haha

And now chowing down on it:)

This year I ordered Jarod a Dremel and he found the box before I got to it. He had no idea I ordered a Dremel but this is what the box looked like! I guess he knows me to good! I do love surprising him but it is sooo hard but then I see this and it just makes me love him even more for how he is. haha. I did surprise him with the other gifts I got him though......a new cooler, socks and this LL Bean led light you can strap around your head. I forgot the name of it?! 

My mom with her present....a gift card for a massage. So we can spend some more mother/daughter time together:)

My parents got Jarod an Ipod!!! We are so out of the technology loop and still have a lot to figure out about it. He loved it though!!!

Every year I buy an ornament in Memory of Lindsey! As the years past it is sad to see the ornaments adding up b/c that shows how many years she hasn't been here with us. We miss her sooo much!!! I do know she was with us and wathcing over us on this special day. I can't imagine what her celebration looked like above!

Our little family!

Maybe next year there will be one more person in the photo or in my belly!

Me and my mom and dad!

Me and my momma!

Jarod with our little nephew Dre'......he is such a cutie pie!

Hanging out.

I had to take a pic. of the yummy desserts. I know kinda odd but it is nice to look back at everything we did and had!

Dru and Aidan

Dru LOVES these remote control cars! So we knew exactly what we were going to get him:)

Opening gifts. We usually do a gift exchange but we all ended up just buying gifts for the younger boys. It was nice just to watch them.

Love spending time with this man especially!

We got my g-ma a rug with all her grandkids names on it.

My cousin's little girl Hope Lindsey. She has the bluest eyes!

My cousin Hannah and her boyfriend Steve.

My cousin Keith and uncle Rich and uncle Jeff. I don't think they were too thrilled with the whole picture taking. lol

Some of my cousin's kids.....they were wild! We had a lot of fun with them though!

Just look at their faces.....they were up to something!

Me and Jeff!

That is all of them!!!!

Cincy

Last week-end Jarod and I went to Cincy for a little Christmas getaway to see some Christmas lights, spend some time together and to enjoy this time of year!!! Oh, and to go to Jungle Jim's. Yeah baby! If you haven't been there before it is a huge grocery store that has foods from all around the world. We spent 2 hours in there and could have spent more time if we wanted. We have been there one time before and it is def. one of our favorite stores....too bad it isn't closer:(  When we were there it was snowing the whole time and it was so pretty! I always say if it is going to be freezing there might as well be a little bit of snow too, right! Here are some pictures if you want to see what we did:)

 

Getting close!

Our brochure of things to see and do....just a little excited. haha

We stopped at a look out and it was just beautiful! We could see so much of Cincy!

Inside Khron conservatory. A neat little place to look at all kinds of plants. And it was free!

Just outside Khron's. I thought this was so pretty. I LOVE the snow covered trees and the old bridge!!!

We went to the PNC festival of lights at the zoo. This was at the entrance.

My camera wouldn't take very good pictures in the dark but there are a lot of christmas light's back there. You can def. see the snow falling though.

I think they were shy;)

Reindeer!! Really where do reindeer live?? The only time I see them is around Christmas time! Is santa hiding them all. haha.

Trying to get a shot of Santa. Can you see him? I was cracking up when I seen this pic. b/c the little girl is totally smiling for my pic. lol.

Me and my sweetie! I love him soo much! 

I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year as well! Take in every moment and cherish it:)