Hi, me again. I know, I know, who decides to make monthly posts but then posts a mid-monthly update? Sigh. Lately there has been too much going on, to compensate I've tried my best to diligent write it all down, someday I think I'll need the strength that I'm hopefully leaving here.

    My Doctor had Graham and I on a long regime this month, I've already written exclusively about the procedures and blood work and what have you below. The main concern of mine has been the wait for all of the tests- what does it all mean?

    Graham first, since I get all of the attention usually. They specifically looked at his sperm count, motility, morphology, liquidation and the ability to move. He was very much so middle-of-the-road on a variety of scales. According to the RE, this may indicate one of two things. One, this was a bad batch, as they reproduce very frequently and sometimes are subject to less than desirable specimen. Two, Intrauterine Insemination may be the only way we can get preggo (now and in the future). In July there is going to be an additional round of testing for him, to figure out which of the two it may be.

     My turn. I received excellent news on my Anti-Mullerian Hormones which indicated that my body has a very high egg reserve! Finally a bit of great news came in our direction. Time for the bad news: My Vitamin D levels were incredibly low though, and for the next three months I am supposed to take multiple pills to boost this. My Follicle Stimulation Hormone were also low,  which is unfortunately since this is the section in the brain that tells my body that it is or is not a good time for a baby. After lots of questioning, it was determined that this is coming from psychological stress. And my Cortisone levels were too high, which goes back to the Follicle Stimulating Hormone and, you guessed it, stress. I have got to figure out a way to eliminate more of it from my life.

    The good news is now that I know what some issues are, I can begin to work on them. In addition to working on stress and Vitamin D, I am required to get 7-8 hours of sleep, eat every 3 hours (150 calories), no aerobic exercise, little carbs, practically no sugar and eat lots of fat. Oh, and there is a good chance that I am pre-diabetic and have insulin resistance. Anyone else's head spinning? Mine certainly was as I scribbled the notes ferociously as he spat them out. Phew.

    Out of my own request, we are pushing back the IUI for a bit. My doc informed me there was no medical reason to, however I decided that I wanted a break to mentally and physically prepare myself for these next big steps. This has been extremely overwhelming process! It hasn't helped that Graham can never get off work long enough to go to my appointments with me, so I tend to call the shots all alone. I want to make sure I don't slip back into a depression because that was a miserable time. The newest game plan is for me to get back on birth control for a few weeks, Graham will have another Semen Analysis test and I still need to call to schedule the IUI. We have an approximate date in mind, but that can definitely fluctuate according to my body.

    When I think about each of these things... I'm anxious. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I feel overwhelmed. I feel confident. I feel sad. I feel happy. I think about another negative test. I think about finding answers. I think about how much effort I have (and will have) to work for this future kiddo. I cry a lot. But know I can do hard things- I will do hard things.

Sunny and Lisa's Wedding Day

    After a wonderful ceremony in the temple, which we were honored to be witnesses of, here was everyone's first glimpse of the newlyweds leaving the temple (^). Congratulations to Sunny and Lisa Jagtiani! We have been, are and will be so happy ya'll found each other. A couple that compliments each other, that everyone can see the love between them; what a perfect match.
    We spent the morning at the Temple, enjoyed the evening celebrating the new couple nestled in the mountains and that night ate at Bruge Waffles. All in all, it was a g r e a t  day!

Sunny taking advantage of Graham's unawareness.

The burn of the snaps... and a rogue best friend.

Also, I must note that the two of us totally forgot about my purse when we left the temple grounds to get lunch. Inside it was BOTH wallets, debit cards, credit card, camera case, my only car key, etc. We went back about 40 minutes later to find the bag completely unharmed. Only in front of an LDS Temple, am I right?

For 3 days I demanded to go here, finally finding success, and behold: the Monster Waffle. It was crunchy with a soft center, specaloos slapped between the layers, ice cream to combat the warm waffle and strawberries. Perfection. 

The old gang together again! We can't wait until next time!

Rehearsal Dinner

    Is it ironic that the GRAHAM froyo was next to the ALEXANDER precisely on the one day we visit? I think not ;) We saw this as we caught up with Graham's friends after Arches on Thursday and meet the infamous Lisa. We joked before about Sunny pulling out a cardboard cut out of her for the wedding pictures- luckily, she was real and in the flesh! After visiting their new basement apartment (apparently a huge think out West) we gratefully returned to our friends home for the now beloved air mattress.

    Friday morning we awoke with little to do. Every other day had a long list of to-do's and to-see's, while our schedule for this day simply said "Las Brisas hangout" and "Rehearsal Dinner." After figuring out everyone wouldn't be in town until lunch time, Graham and I visited Temple Square together. Now that I've visited some of the most beautiful places in the world (Venice, people! ) I can still say that this area is still my most favorite, particularly as far as cleanliness goes. While there we went into the Observatory (the tower we wanted to visit was closed, unfortunately), the North Visitor's Center and stood on the cement pedestal to take pictures of ourselves. I truly adore Temple Square, it's such an ideal place.

    Afterwards we met up with a few of Graham's favorite people for lunch. The Las Brisas (which I'm shortening to LB from here on out) crew was halfway formed. Everyone ran around Target for a minute looking for various items, meanwhile I was surprised that there weren't more modest clothes, especially since I heard they would generally cater to the consumer. Regardless, we left and went to get ready for the main event of the night!

    As we walked up to the Joseph Smith Memorial building and reached the 10th floor we felt classy. Were we Fred Astaire and Ginger Roberts? Maybe. As we ate a delicious meal, the next few hours were filled with talks about Lisa and Sunny, individually and together. That truly was their night, there were dozen of stories shared; tears were shed and we laughed continually. 

    A Bachelor party soon followed the commencement of the dinner, wives of the LB group included. To my intense joy and gratitude, it was decided that we should go to the racing go-karts! The last time I had went was at the other LB wedding last year. Being the crazy competitive person I am, I sped past people, kept my foot on the accelerator and stared at the scoreboard as I went by it. Everyone was having such a great time! As soon as it was over, we snatched off the horrid socks on our head and checked out the scores. The Groom placed first, ironically. He was also given a trophy to remember his moment on the podium :) And if you scroll below you will see G&I on the podium, wellll, that's because I placed third overall. I was (and still am) stoked about it (as you can probably guess from my mentioning it)! The moment we checked the stats we all signed up from another go around. Unfortunately, I did worse on the board the next time, but had a friend take videos for us that turned out great! We finished at midnight and went straight to our friends to get prepared for the wedding the next day. 

ARCHES

    As we left the grossest hotel we have ever had the displeasure to stay in, we were relieved. Of course for the obvious reason (to get away) but also because we learned a few things the day before. We decided to fill up Graham's car at the local station, bought plenty of snacks to hold us over and additional drink bottles to add water into. On the way over I remembered I had packed a moisturizer that had 20 SPF in it, quickly had to apply it to Graham's neck which was so incredibly sunburnt from the day before. We felt like professionals as we drove on over to our next destination.
    Pulling into Arches National Park, we were surprised to see that there were several cars turning on the road, whereas there were very, very few at the other locations. We took an obligatory "proof that we were here" picture, paid our dues ($10, FYI) and went in. The Visitor's Center gave us many options oh this one is a rigorous hike (that's gonna be a no) and 3 miles, no shade but a nice view (still no).
    We drove for maaaany miles, stopping at all of the viewpoints. The trip took about 45 minutes to get to the end, then 45 minutes back, but then getting out of the car added on about 3 extra hours. Again friends, only one water fill up station in the front of the park and one at the back. This trip simply is no doable without water. Moving on.
    My personal favorite was Double Arches! It was an easy place to get to, though I def needed better traction on my shoes, and has super nice views. The pictures hopefully give it some justice. It was here that we received a tip to wear my bandanna backwards (as in on the neck) after dipping it in water to yield off the sun and to cool off a bit. Graham, whose neck was much worse than mine and would be in a wedding in 3 days, wore it and looked cowboy-esque to me. So dang cute, check out my pictures below for proof!
    Other places we went to included the Skyline Arch, which was nice and small,  though not near as cool as the first arch. While we were there, we someone dressed in all black longsleeves, pants and a beanie to take a picture of the two of us, where he promptly took it without putting in the actual Arch. Sigh. Luckily there was one more visitor down the way who understood the concept. Onward we trudged. Another pretty place was the viewpoint of Delicate Arch. This is the most famous one in the park, a large chunk of Utah has this one on their license plate. As much as we wanted to hike to it, that was a 3 mile round trip, uphill and with no shade: aka not happening. So instead we went to the viewpoint, where we drove right on up, walked .15 of a mile and took a photo from a distance! Easy peasy :) And lastly, as we stopped at the Garden of Eden I could not get over how much similar Thunder Mountain (all my Disney peeps, you know what I mean) looked to this terrain. It was pretty impressive to see how well it had been engineered!
    Arches would be our pick, if we had to choose one between all 3 parks. While it had the biggest variety and amazing views, we were also much more prepared for this one (so basically I'm saying I am straight up biased). It was really amazing to see all of the diversity in the desert! As we left the park I was so glad for my boy to say, "I'm really glad we went to southern Utah!"