Happy Birthday and other things

I think that I have figured out how to add pictures to this blog so I am going to catch everybody up on some of the events of the past few weeks or so.

First, I have to start out with our camping trip with all of out friends. Two weekends ago Bob and me, Traci, Anna and Caleb and Joan, Loren and Parker all went camping. Camping is not really what it was. It was actually RVing, but some of us roughed it by sleeping outside of the RV. We all went up to Canyon Lake which is about 30 minutes from our house. We had this great plan to go up to Flagstaff or some woodsy remote area, however, 4 days before the weekend none of us had found a location. Thanks to Joan and Loren, they suggested Canyon Lake and we were sold. So we went from remote campground to paved park with electricity and running water. Ahh Camping! We had such a blast, though!


We built a fire, ate gourmet meals cooked from Caleb's smoker, let the dogs play in the lake and cuddled in the RV when the temp dropped below 60.


Yeah I know, we Arizonans freeze at 59 degrees. It was just normal self preservation! Truthfully, the highlight of the trip was when Shep got skunked.....right in the face! Both Rocky and Shep (Anna and Caleb's dog) had to be tied up and we made them sleep outside. So...here is the scene. Anna, Caleb, Josiah, Joan and Loren are all sleeping soundly in the RV, Traci and I are sleeping soundly in our tent and Bob and Parker are sleeping with the dogs by the fire. At about 3AM I woke up to Bob yelling "No Shep, No Shep, No...Arghhh!." Apparently, there is a large amount of skunks that go scavenging during the night. Well, Rocky and Shep had no idea what they were getting themselves into sniffing that behind. So a meandering skunk walks right past the sleeping dogs and they jump off of the ground to investigate. Fortunately, they were both tied to Bob's chair. Unfortunately, Shep's lease was somewhat longer. So Shep jumped up to investigate, stuck his nose right in the skunks behind and as Bob says "All I could see was that big tail go up and Shep drop to the ground." Well it didn't take long for the stench to waft into the tent. Traci and I have never moved so fast at 3AM. The smell was awful! Poor Shep was like the smelly kid for the whole weekend. We laughed and laughed and laughed. We were rolling. It took us an hour to clear the tent of the skunk but it was the best memory we could have made.

I spent most of the weekend holding little Josiah Fields. He was so adorable all wrapped up with socks on his feet plus he was a little heater. At 4 months he was a great camper!



Well today is the day I turned 27! Yeah! I know I am getting older, but don't feel any different than yesterday! Although, my husband did point out that he is younger than me! I was so excited because my birthday didn't fall on Thanksgiving or Black Friday this year! Bob and I went out to See "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." We loved it! Then we came home and made pies for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Bob is such a great guy, he helped me with apple peeling and mixing! They look so good I can't wait to eat them. What do you think! I can only take partial credit, Grandma Fran is the master behind the pies....I am just the student! Thanks Grandma!




Well enough for now, wish me luck! I am running the Turkey Trot 10k tomorrow, you know.. to store up extra calories for all those pies.

Lets Start at the Beginning.....

A very good place to start!
Well let's see, Bob and I have been married almost 5 and a half years. Marriage has been wonderful and challenging! There never seems to be a dull moment as you are figuring out how to live with someone!
We began the family making process about 2 and a half years ago. I have always been sure that I was meant for motherhood. I can remember growing up and telling mom and dad that I wanted to be a housewife and a mother. Now that I am a little bit older and I hope wiser, the desire to be a mom and raise a little one has grown exponentially.
For the first couple years of our baby making attempts I was absolutely convinced that our fertility issues were my fault. Maybe I wasn't ovulating? or maybe I needed more weight (cake and more cake please)? Maybe less weight? Less stress? Less caffeine? I was constantly wondering what in the world I was doing that prevented the pregnancy we so desperately wanted.

So in April of this year we decided to get Bob checked and discovered our problem. Bob is a carrier of a genetic abnormality on chromosone 13 and 14 which dramatically impacts his body's ability to produce the necessary number of swimmers. After his first test the doctor said that he had 3.8 million on his team. I remember thinking, "That is plenty of swimmers, after all, you only need 1 right?" Well apparently, although 3.8 million is impressive, he should be fielding 20 million. Holey Moley! I thought this was supposed to be egg meet sperm, not egg meet the entire population of Denver and pick the lucky one. Geez this was going to be more difficult than I thought.

So we were referred to a fertility doctor in the posh area of Scottsdale. I remember driving to our first consult thinking, "we are going to get some drugs, add some diet changes and get pregnant". Our doctor took us into his office, sat us down and told us without even hesitating that the only way we were ever going to get pregnant is through IVF with ICSI and PGD (don't worry I will explain).

IVF is where they take a few eggs and some sperm, put them in a petri dish and get them together. Once they are embryos, they stick them back into me and in 9 months voila...BABY! ICSI is where they actually inject the sperm into my egg instead of a petri dish. It is kind of like a junior high dance. Instead of putting the boys and girls in a room and hope they get dancing, the teacher takes the little boy's hand over to the girl and makes them dance. Not as scientific as you thought, huh? The PGD is pre-genetic diagnosis. With Bob's abnormality the chance of genetic problems and defects goes up significantly. The PGD allows for our embryos to be diagnosed so that only the healthy ones get into the oven. So after all of this explanation he easily shared that the cost for all of this would be $23,000. Our stomachs dropped.....this was not the answer we were hoping for.

That appointment started our journey into the infertility world. We have seen 2 fertility doctors, 2 urologists, 1 geneticist and have had copious tests. Still, no baby and everyday feels like a mixture of fear, uncertainty and hope. Strange, huh? Through it all though, Bob and I have drawn closer to each other and closer to the Lord. While we don't understand the reasoning behind all of this we know that we serve a Big God and He can work the impossible.

Hopefully, the start of this blog will lead all of us to the day when my head line reads, "Pregnant at Last", until then I will do my best to keep you all updated on the Longmire's life and infertility. I will also learn how to add pictures.

Getting Started

So one of my dearest friends began a blog over year ago and it is such a hit that I decided it might just be the best way to share what is going on with the Longmires! It is so easy to loose touch with people and family in this crazy busy world.

Many of you know that Bob and I are trying to have a little bundle of joy and are dealing with major infertility problems. I was planning on starting a blog once I got pregnant, but since that is not in the cards right now I thought I would share our journey with everyone. The more prayer that I can rally the better.

I will continue the story when I am not at work......