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Thursday, April 25, 2013

National Infertility Awareness Week

Today I am full of gratitude in my heart for Megan at And Here's to You Mrs. Robinson she had a guest on her blog by the name of Amanda from A Royal Daughter and her post was exactly what I needed in my life right now.  As most of you know I am suffering with infertility, and if you didn't know you can read my blog post here.  This week has been a really hard week for me and I feel myself struggling with not having a child more frequently.  But today I came across her post and I am so grateful.  She informed me that it was National Infertility Awareness Week, I had no idea.  She has a lot of great posts about infertility and her journey and what she has learned.

Here are the links that I loved the most:



This has helped me tremendously this week, she has a lot of great words and insight to help you.  If you are going through this journey I hope you take the time to read these links and I hope this can give you insight, hope, and clarity into infertility.


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Lottery, Dream House, and More!

Haile over at Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots has this fun weekly link up that I thought would be fun to participate in so here it is!

This week's First Things First topics are:
First thing you would do/buy if you won the lottery
First person you call when you get amazing news
First thing you do when you've had a bad day


So here are my answers!

1. First thing you would do/buy if you won the lottery: The first thing I would do is pay 10% of it in tithe to the church that I belong to.  After that I would pay off our debt so that we could live debt free.  Then I would buy our dream house in our dream area and have a farm with chickens, horses, pigs.  With a lake that we could have ducks and fish and go boating.  Then I would buy my husband a GTO that he dreams about having and then if there is money left over buy me something nice.

2. First person you call when you get amazing news: Along with everyone else I am sure, the first person I would call is my husband then I would call my mom and dad then Derek's family.  I love sharing good news so I usually share it with a lot of people, I always hate sharing bad news.

3. First thing you do when you've had a bad day.  I usually call my husband and vent about the situation and he usually makes me feel better.  Then once I am home from work I veg out and eat ice cream and cookies and watch a movie with my husband and try to forget about the day.



Now it's your turn! Answer the questions in a post then click on the picture and link up with everybody!  Can't wait to see what your first thing first answers are!



Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Way We View Ourselves

I am sure by now that many of you have seen this video being liked and shared on Facebook, but if you haven't here it is.  This is such an amazing video that I think every woman should watch and take in.  It's one thing to just watch the video but it's another to really take something from it and apply it to your life.

This video was produced by Dove for woman about how you view yourselves and how other view you.  

I love this concept.  I am very harsh on myself I look at myself in the mirror and think about all of the things that I could change about myself.  When in reality we are just being very hard on ourselves and others view us in a completely different way.  I am going to set a goal for myself to look at myself and not tell myself all of the things I wish were different and try to look at myself as how others look at me. 

What do you think of this video?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Prayers for Boston

My heart goes out to those that are affected by the Boston Marathon Bombing.  It's amazing to me how so many people came together to help those affected in the race and ran towards them instead of away.  I know it can be hard to think that there are so many awful people in the world but I know that there is more than double the amount of amazing and helpful and courageous people out there to the horrible ones.  We as society like to talk about all the awful things going on because it's "news" when there are people every day risking their live for others or striving to make this world a better place.

I wanted to share this video with you.  I know this talks about crossing the finish line and may be a hard topic for some of you out there but the message itself is what is important.  Through all of these awful things that go on in our world we are not alone. "Fear not, I am with thee oh be not dismayed for I am with thee and will give thee aid, I'll strengthen thee and help thee and cause thee to stand omnipotent hand."  I know that we can all come together and help those that may have gone through this terrible ordeal.  Send messages of comfort and love.  Let them know that they are not alone.

 


Here are a couple of links that could help as well.








Monday, April 15, 2013

Life Lately...

Today I wanted to take a break from talking about serious stuff and share with you what we have been up to lately.  My husband Derek lost his job the end of March and we finally found him a new one that he just started last Monday he is loving it and it so nice to know that he has a job again.  He will also be graduating with his Bachelors in Communication on April 26th and I am so excited for him to be done with school.


I have been having a hard time with life lately dealing with infertility and life stresses so last week my husband Derek surprised me with an amazing date night to help take my mind off of things and relax. I got home and he jumped out of no where and put my scarf on my head and told me to close my eyes and not to peek. This didn't work out too well because the scarf had holes in it and I could see so he grabbed a towel from his back seat and but that over my head. 


He drove around and around taking roads left and right and confusing me so I wouldn't know where we were going.  With all of his stopping and going and turning I got really car sick, I almost puked.  We finally arrived at our stop.  I had no clue where we were or what we were doing, other than we were going to eat first.  With all the bumps we were hitting and slow moving and stopping and going I thought we were in the mountain some where.  Little did I know we were in downtown Layton.  Derek came to the car to let me out but still told me to close my eyes, so I kept my eyes closed the whole way.  I was proud of myself for not peeking it is so hard for me to not know where we were going.  I suddenly heard country music playing and I was trying to figure out what restaurant we were at.  I didn't know until we sat down and he let me open my eyes.  We had arrived at Texas Roadhouse.  I was so excited!! I looked on the table and there were these beautiful flowers on the table.  I was very impressed.  Underneath the flowers were two tickets the a movie, The Host.

My handsomely, awesome, amazing husband!!! And the beautiful flowers.

Us at the movie The Host.  It was actually pretty good, a little long but good.


Have you ever been surprised with a date night?  I would love to hear from you!
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Capable of More Than You Know!

Have any of you seen the new move "Oz the Great and Powerful?"  We saw it a couple weeks ago and we really enjoyed it.



Yesterday on Studio 5, a local program here in Utah, they talked about this movie and how you can bring Oz into your home.  They had some really cool ideas of activities to do with your children.  Click here to see the ideas they shared!

There was a quote that Glinda, the Good Witch said in this movie that I absolutely loved when I heard it in the movie then they mentioned it on Studio 5.  She said, "you are capable of more than you know."  I love this quote, sometimes I tell myself I can't accomplish things for fear of really not accomplishing them.  However, I have seen myself accomplish things and tackle hard life challenges better than I thought I ever could. So always remember:


You can download this file here.





Inspired Tuesday

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Awesome Giveaway!!

One of my very best friends Amberly Lambersten who has been a mentor to me in this blogging world is having a giveaway on her blog to celebrate 100 followers.  She was sweet enough to invite me to be part of this giveaway along with 7 other girls:


 -Amanda {We & SerendipityGiving away The Family a Proclamation to the World (poem, quote or song of winner's choice) overlaid photo.
-Kristin {Be You. Love You}(that's me!) Giving away a Date Night Pack (This Means War, A Gift Certificate to your favorite restaurant, Sparkling Cider and Champagne glasses for two.
-Megan Robinson {And Here's to You, Mrs. RobinsonGiving away a surprise date night pack.
-Alesha {Lifeology} Giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to The Cheesecake Factory.
Kaitlyn {WifessionalsGiving away 5 Free Redbox Rental Codes.
Amberly {Life with Amberly & JoeThe Five Love Languages and The Five Love Languages Men's Edition books.
-Sierra {Oh, Just Living the DreamAn awesome book on marriage and relationships


Enter here!!! It is open from midnight last night to midnight Friday night.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Big Elephant in Blog World





Pregnancy the Elephant in Blog World
Warning: Depressive content.  This is really hard for me to share with you all.  It is a sensitive subject with everyone.  Understand that these are only my feelings.  I don't want to offend anyone but I just needed to share my feelings in hoping that I may feel better.  I think I have read this 10 times and have anxiety pressing the publish button but here it goes.

Good Morning! I apologize for being MIA lately, I have kind of been struggling a little bit lately.  I titled this blog post "The Big Elephant in Blog World" this elephant's name is Pregnancy (for those of us who struggle getting pregnant).  It seems lately that everyone in the blogging world is announcing they are pregnant, giving 'bump' updates, talking about their experiences and talking about children.  Don't get me wrong I am so extremely thrilled for them and so happy for their new journey in life.  However, for those of us who are struggling getting pregnant it can be a stab in your heart every time you see a blog post or a status update on Facebook about babies.  Today I would like to talk about something that has been really hard for me the last couple of years and getting harder day by day and that is Infertility and my journey with Infertility.



My husband and I were married four years ago, we knew that we didn't want to get pregnant right away so I went on birth control like many other newly married couples. Growing up no one really talks about Infertility and not being able to get pregnant so I didn't think it was going to be that hard and that I could get off birth control and get pregnant right away.  Boy was I naive! After a couple of months I was starting to get really emotional and felt like my husband couldn't do anything right and just really rude.  I talked to a couple of friends who said that their birth control made them really moody and when they got off they weren't as moody. So I got off of it right away, hoping that would help and my husband and I could go back to being happy. This worked for us as a couple but little did I know that it caused some other issues inside.  I started gaining a lot of weight, I started having irregular periods and with each month there was no pregnancy.  I was confused and frustrated as to why I wasn't getting pregnant with not being on birth control or using protection.  I tried doctor after doctor to figure out what was wrong but with each one they gave me a shot to force my period to start and sent me on my way.  There was no taking the the time to help me figure out what was going on.  I was frustrated and sick of doctors and not helping.  I finally went to a doctor that a friend of mine went to with the same issue and he really helped. her.  He did an ultrasound and found cysts all over my ovaries and told me that I had PCOS = Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which if you look it up online it is condition in which a woman have an imbalance of a female sex hormones. This may lead to menstrual cycle changes, cysts in the ovaries, trouble getting pregnant, and other health changes. Knowing this made things clearer in my life but also made things a lot harder.  My doctor told me that with PCOS it makes it a lot more difficult to get pregnant and depending on the severity of the cysts I might not be able to get pregnant at all.  This was the hardest thing for me to hear in my life, I wanted children so bad and I felt like I was ready to have children but this was stopping me. My doctor suggested some things that we could do to remove the cysts and see if that would help, we tried three different things and none of those worked.  I got so discouraged and depressed and just so alone.  I felt like everyone else was able to go through this wonderful journey of having children but I was having to watch and pretend I was fine.  My husband of course being the sweet man he was tried to help me and make me feel better but he just didn't understand what I was going through.  It got harder and harder to attend family dinners and having my sister-in-laws talk about their children and especially when my younger sister-in-law got pregnant having them talk about pregnancy and what she should be feeling and going through and then labor.  Every time this is talked about my heart aches so bad and I feel like there is something missing within me.  My sweet sister-in-law Natalie came up to me and said, "I now have a small understanding of how it feels to not be pregnant.  It's like having something you want the most out of anything being just ripped right out of your hands or dangling in front of you and you not being able to have it.  I am so sorry for what you are going through"  You are exactly right Natalie.  I am so grateful that she said this it is was so sweet of her. Again, I am so happy for them in their lives and that they have their children and I love their children to death.  I don't want people to stop talking about their children or announcing that they are pregnant because it is a glorious thing and they should share it.  I just wanted people to know how hard it is to go through Infertility.

I am sorry for being a downer on a Monday but I felt like it was time to share my Infertility journey.  This is really hard for me to share because I don't want people to take it the wrong way.  For those that are pregnant I am so extremely happy for you, I can't wait for you to go through that journey and to see your precious babies! For those that are struggling, join me, you are not alone, we can get through this together. We can share what we have gone through and what has or hasn't worked for us.  Lets kick this Infertility battle in the butt!!!

Oh. P.S. my husband got a job!!! Yay, it is a great job with awesome pay and great benefits.  I couldn't be happier!!!