Confessions of a cf girl

3 months old

2010-05-10T20:38:00.006-05:00

Yes its official, I am a terrible mommy blogger. Life has been so different and crazy, which I expected I just feel so bad I have not kept everyone updated. So here is the latest with us :)

Nicolas is now 3 1/2 months old almost and he continues to make us smile and laugh everyday. He has recently found his hands and cant believe how neat they are. He will sit for an hour just moving them in front of his face. He has also figured out that they can go into his mouth, again pretty funny site. He has started talking to us more. His favorite spot in the world is on his changing table. He LOVES LOVES to lay on his changer and he will just smile and laugh for as long as he lays on it. I think we could leave him on it for all day and he would love it. He is now sleeping about 9 hours a night. Its a great thing, they only thing is that he sleeps on his tummy and in the night scoots his little butt all the way to the top of his crib then cant scoot anymore and will wake up crying. So if we could get him to stop night scooting then it would be better :) We got him an exascauser and he is small for it so we prop him up with blankets and he is learning to look at things and follow them with his eyes. It's amazing to see how he grows everyday.

He is now about 13 1/2 pounds, wearing a size 3 diaper, wearing 0-3 month clothes and size 1 shoes. His hair is staying a light blond and his eyes are becoming a lighter blue everyday just like his daddy's.

Love to everyone!!

Love,

Nick, Alisha and Nicolas

Nicolas Playing at 7 weeks

2010-03-20T23:02:00.003-05:00

Yep I cant believe it either, 7 weeks since my baby boy was brought into our lifes. Life here in clarksville is crazy. After nicks wreck we had to go out and get a new car, after looking we ended up with a 2010 Maxium ( of course I only looked at cars with 0% intrest! ). Its nice and it has more horsepower then the camary did so that really got nicks attention! When I find a moment I will post some pictures of it. Other then that I am starting to go back to work more, of course taking nicolas with me and all our customers are so excited to see and meet him! I cant tell you what amazing customers we have, at least 4 of our customers actually brought me a baby gift. People keep telling me how great it is I can take nicolas with me to work, I tell them if I didnt cathy and gail would tell me to walk back out the door and go get him! :) Mom will be comming down to visit this week Im so excited. I know she is having some MAJOR nicolas withdrawls! If I miss a day on texting her his daily picture I will get a text from her asking where its at :) All in all things are going great. I am so blessed, Nick is alive and unhurt, nicolas is healthy and happy and I am doing great and loving every moment of this woonderful life God has blessed me with.

So Much In Such Little Time

2010-03-15T00:26:00.005-05:00

First off I want to thank GOD for Nick being safe and alive. Last friday morning nick was comming home from PT and a lady on the other side of the highway hydroplaned lost control of her car, came across the 50ft medium spinning around and came into nicks lane on the other side of the higway. He had no where to go and slammed head first into her and spun into the medium grassy area. He thank goodness was not hurt, just sore. She was worse off but ok we believe, we went to the hospital later friday to try and she if she was ok and she had been released. Nick was in our new 2010 camry that we have had for 6 months. We are hoping that they total the car because a crash like that at 70 mph did alot of damage. The car will arrive at the body shop tomm and they will start to estimate it and see what has been done to it. Below are the pictures that nick took friday morning. I have not seen the car yet but will tomm.

As for everthing else things are great. Nicolas is getting so big so fast. He is starting to try and hold his head up. He is sleeping about 5 hours at night so thats pretty good and he is on a 3-4 hour eating schedule during the day. I am just loving every minute with my wonderful family! I go tuesday for my post partdum visit, I cant believe its been almost 7 weeks :)

This is a view from the front, the other lady's car is in the background, she is closer to the side that nick was driving on.
This is a view from the drivers side of the car, where the car had the most damage, they had to cut the battery out of the car.

This is a view from the passangers side, you can see how big the medium is that she spun acrossDaddy and peanut resting on the couchMy baby boys first Mohawk :)

Being a big boy and trying to hold his own bottle :)

One Month Old

2010-02-28T23:01:00.006-06:00

I can not believe that my baby boy, yes MY child is one month old today. It's still unreal to me and seems crazy to call him my son. Crazy but the most amazing thing ever. This past month has been pure joy and yes some insane times. Times where Nick and I have been going on no sleep and wondering how in the world we even managed to dress ourselfs that day ( trust me there were days that we just stayed in our pj's all day ). We are trying to learn all the cries of nicolas' but that will take some time! Nick returns to work tomm so our whole schedule will be up in the air now and not sure how this will work but it will somehow. Below is a link to nicolas' newborn picture session for those who have not seen it. Mollie did an amazing job and we cant wait until his 3 month pics! Also take a look at some of his pictures from today. Also tonight is the first time that we are trying to have him sleep in his crib, my anexity is deff up on this one. I mean look at his presious face in this pictures, its so hard to leave that baby alone in a room all on his own :(

Nicolas Sneak Peak

3 Weeks Old

2010-02-19T23:49:00.002-06:00

Nicolas is 3 weeks old now and I cant believe it. He is doing great, eating every 3 hours. He is starting to stay awake 2 times a day for about an hour at a time. Mommyhood is amazing. We had his newborn picture session done thursday night and here is a sneak peak of his session. I am so excited!

http://mbcochranephotogaphy.blogspot.com/2010/02/baby-nicolas.html

Love to you all,

Alisha, Nick and Nicolas

Only one CF person in this house :)

2010-02-13T01:08:00.002-06:00

Quick update..... we got nicolas's medical records from the hospital today and...

Nicolas does not have Cystic Fibrosis!!!!!!!!

God has blessed us!

Love,
The Browns

My Baby Boy Is 2 Weeks Old

2010-02-11T22:10:00.003-06:00

I can not believe that it has been two weeks since one of the most amazing things in my life happened. These past two weeks have been AMAZING, some of the best of my life. Nicolas is doing great, he had his two week appt today and he is up to 6 lbs and 3 ozs. The doctor said he is growing good, but he is still a little rugrat :) His next appt will be his two month appt. His umbilical fell off today, WHOO HOO! Also nick and I have also both been peed on when changing a diaper, nicks pee on me actually went and hit the wall :) Here are some pictures from his first two weeks of life.

Nicolas Christian David Brown's Birth

2010-01-31T21:38:00.001-06:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

What A Difference A Year Makes

2010-01-01T19:15:00.002-06:00

This day a year ago is much different then today. Last year the hopes and dreams that I had carried for so many years are a reality today. I spent last year with my pregnant friend wondering every hour if she was about to go into labor (she was due on Dec 23) and this year I am the pregnant one who is only 5 1/2 weeks from her due date. I never thought that this year it would be me, me the one who couldnt drink the beer last night, or had to take the zofran after dinner so that I didnt get sick :) It's more of a miracle then I ever could have imagined. I am so very very blessed.

Well as of now we are 5 1/2 weeks from D day :) I am so ready for him to be born! The sickness is really getting to me. I cant keep food down, I am sick to my stomach all the time and when I do eat I am lucky if I eat a handful or two of food at a time. I really really just want to go back to normal life where eating is not a challange that I dread so much every day. Also I am starting to have more trouble breathing and a cough comming back after getting off the IV's. I think it is a mixture of pregnancy and asthma b/c taking an inhaler does give me some relief. I just wonder if I can go on for 5 more weeks with my chest feeling like this but one day at a time.

At our 34 week appt last monday nicolas was weighing in at 5lb 5oz!!!! Also he had turned head down so that is great! That explains all the kicks and punches in the different spots that I feel them now. I am being seen every week from now on and will have a growth ultrasound every week also. Last monday the tech was able to point out that he has hair!! It was so neat to see it waving around on his head. I said with all this sickness he darn better have hair :) Hopefully on monday we will be getting a better set of pictures from a different ultrasound place at the hospital and I can post them for all to see. Well I am heading back to my indent spot on the couch :)

Love to you all! Below is a picture of the best christmas present that Nick and I ever recieved....

31 Weeks Down...9 Weeks To Go

2009-12-09T21:45:00.005-06:00

Well I am offically at 31 weeks now and really just still in shock that I have made it this far. Yesterday we had our OB appt and everything is looking great! Nicolas is weighing in at 3lb 13oz. He gained 1lb 3oz in 3 weeks, I was shocked at what a fattie he is I guess with my Cf I wasnt expecting him to grow so well. He grew 1lb 4 oz from weeks 24-28 (4 weeks) and 1lb 3 oz from weeks 28-31 (3 weeks) so he is gaining some good weight. They said everything looks normal and good he is in the 48th percentile tile and that is normal. So our next appt is in 3 weeks and that will be 34 weeks, they told us that after 34 weeks if I go into labor they will not try to stop it and let it progress naturally. HOLY CRUD thats 3 weeks!!!

Today I had a CF visit and I just got off 3 weeks of IV's. My last PFT FEV1 was at 83% and I went on Iv's so that I can get as pumped up as I can for the delivery. Today my FEV1 was 96% so I was super excited and shocked that it jumped so much. So I guess it was CF playing a factor and the pregnacy is treating me good.

Just 9 more weeks to go AHHHHHHHHHH................... Is it Feb 9th yet?

Here are some pictures of Nicolas from yesterday :) And then a picture from me on thanksgiving at 29 weeks, and tonight at 31 weeks :)

Love to you all!

Alisha, Nick and Nicolas

Third Trimester :)

2009-11-19T21:37:00.002-06:00

Holy Cow look where we are at...... Third Trimester

As of tuesday we entered week 28 and also our thrid trimester. It is starting to become more real everyday. I am starting to have more pregnancy side effects. One big one is the swelling in my feet and legs. My ankles will get as big as softballs. The swelling will go down some but only when I lay on the couch with my feet above my head for hours. So pretty much if I am not working then I am on the couch with my feet up for the rest of the hours of the day. I have a feeling that is how I will be spending the next 12 weeks. My blood pressure is not high so they are not worried about the swelling at this point but needless to say I am wearing my slippers at work because by th end of 2 hours of working I cant fit into my shoes :) My stomach issues have gotten better so I am very thankfull for that, the morning sickness is still around. I am deff starting to feel like a stuffed turkey.

We had an ob appt on monday and nicolas is looking great! He is weighing in now at 2 pounds 10 oz ( of course there is like a 6oz possible up or down ). So in 4 weeks he gained abou 14 oz which is awesome! As for me I gained a whopping 8 pounds! So I am up to about 12 pounds for the pregnancy :) Needless to say I think the whole 8 pounds is in my belly and the water in my legs and feet :)

I know I have been a bad bad blogger but I will post a picture of my growing belly soon and I will see if I can scan one of the latest pictures of nicolas :)

Make sure to also read the the post below I am not sure if the update for it got sent out.

Love to all,
Alisha, Nick and Nicolas

27 Weeks

2009-11-10T21:45:00.004-06:00

27 Weeks Today!!!!!

I cant say that I ever thought I would be pregnant but when it happened I never could of imagined making it this far. It all is becoming a reality now and a bit overwhelming at times. This is real and I am going to be a mom, it a feeling I can not explain. The past couple of weeks have been hard in many ways. Pregnancy has given me some new issues and some old ones like morning sickness have stuck around still and even come back with a little vengeance. My feet have begun the swelling process. I can not wear a lot of shoes and have to wear socks with no elastic and every night I fall asleep on the couch with my feet propped up on a pillow. So when I wake up and can actually see my ankles it makes me smile :)

I have noticed that I am starting to become tired again, seeing as I am in the last week of my 2nd trimester that is to be expected. I will go to the OB next monday for our next appt and I cant wait to see how much nicolas has grown.

Nicolas did dress up for halloween this year :) Just take a look.............

21 Weeks

2009-10-04T17:05:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, Im bad! Its been forever since an update it jsut seems latley that if it isnt laying on the couch Im not up to doing it. I have been very tired latley but thats ok with me. I still am having morning sickness. I am back to taking my sickness meds 2 times a day, and still getting sick on some days so I have a feeling it will stick with me until he is born. Nick is back home now and its so wonderful to have daddy home! We have picked out the paint color for little mans room, it is a beautiful blue called carribean coast. Nick installed a fan in little mans room last night so thats exciting, we are on the way to making it offically his room. We went to a pumpkin patch this morning with shauna and jared and taylor, here is a picture of us :) Here is a link to our new shutterfly site http://thebrownfamilyclarksville.shutterfly.com/

How far along: 21 weeks

Best moment this week: Laying in Bed with my hand on my stomach and feeling a kick from the outside for the first time!!

Movement: Yes, mainly all inside you cant really feel it from the outside

What I am looking forward to: Getting another week further along

Milestones: Choosing the color for his room

Week 16 - Offically 4 months pregnant :)

2009-08-27T20:27:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

Yep its true, not only am I 3 weeks into my second trimester but I am offically 4 months now! So I am super happy! I have been tired alot lately and going to bed around 9 and then not sleeping well thru the night. I feel bad because I havent been able to spend alot of time with nick, it seems like once he or I get home from work, its eat and then sleep. I am working 2 days a week and every other sat and its really nice to have something out of the house to keep my mind off another day of indigestion and growing pains. Other then that things have been pretty normal around here, the puppies are getting big! They are running around and playing and barking. Needless to say they are a handful! Next week on tuesday I have my next OB appt and next wednesday I have a CF appt and then work thur, friday, and saturday so its going to be a really long and busy week. Well thats pretty much the latest from us here :)

How far along: 16 weeks

Best moment this week: Being able to talk to our little BOY and know that its our son that is growing in me.

Movement: Tiny flutters is what Im feeling but no real kicks yet

Milestones: 4 months along now

Our Little Man

2009-08-23T21:00:00.010-05:00

Im sure most of you have heard us yelling it from the roof tops........

IT'S A BOY

Here are a couple of pictures from the ultrasound, I will try and upload the video of the ultrasound so that everyone who did not get to watch it can see it :)

ULTRASOUND INFORMATION

2009-08-17T21:17:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone :)

Well the last week has been eventful. As most of you know last wed morning I woke up at 3:30 in the morning coughing up blood. It was about a full cup of blood which was the most I have ever coughed up. I knew that being on my blood thinner was not helping the situation so I was worried. I woke up nick and asked him to call 911. By the time they got here I had settled down and was not coughing up stright blood anymore but still a mixture. They took me by ambulance to the local hospital where they did test and then talked to my doctors and decided to send me to vandy in nashville which is where my doctors are at. They transported me by ambulance to vandy. My first time ever in an ambulace and 2 rides in one day! So I spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital so they could make sure that there was no more blood. Since then my chest has been really tight. They extended my IV's and extra week so hopefully that will get down to the infection that is down in my chest.

Well friday is ultrasound day :) As long as little bug coroperates we will find out if we are having a daughter or a son and if you can be around a computer at 11:30 central / 12:30 eastern you can find out live with us! Yep we are having the ultrasound streamed live so that everyone can sign onto the computer and watch live as the ultrasound is being done! Below is the info on where to go and how to sign on. Now I would suggest that you try to sign on before friday and make sure that you can get to the page. When you get to the page a windows media player ( your computer must have windows media player ) box will appear in the middle of the screen. Now on friday I am not sure if it will just start to play at the time 11:30 / 12:30 (depending on where you live) or if you will need to press the play button. My suggestion is at the start time if it does not seem to start playing on its own every minute or so I would press the play button.

To get to the place go to http://www.4dpeek.com/

Scroll down the page until you are under the map and see Clarksville, TN and click on that,

Up in the right corner you will see the middle option is LIVE Log-In click on that and a sign in box will pop up, then enter this in the spaces

username: family

password: child

TA DA!!! You should be at the page :)

If anyone has any problems getting there just let me know and I will get back with you :)

Well thats alot for tonight so thats all my posting, below are some updated pictures :) Me at 14 weeks and the puppies at 2 weeks :)

WE HAVE PUPPIES!!!!!

2009-08-02T16:30:00.008-05:00

Well one girl in our house has delivered and its not me :) Yesterday Jayden had her puppies :) We are blessed with 6 yes count them 6 puppies, three boys and three girls. Mom and puppies are doing good. Below are some pictures of the new members of our family :) But dont worry everyone we are not keeping any of the puppies, three dogs and a baby on the way is enough for us!!

Male - Born First

Name - #1 (he is our first)

Born at 2:10 p.m.

Female - Born Second

Name - Hershey (she is black as can be and dark like a hershey kiss)

Born at 2:50 p.m

Male - Born Third

Name - Neiko Jr. (he looks just like neiko) Born at 3:00 p.m

Male - Born Fourth

Name - Whinner (that's all he does)

Born at 3:31 p.m

Female - Born Fifth (the runt)

Name - Bat Girl (the only on with a black mask)

Born at 5:25 p.m

Female - Born Sixth

Name - Knee High's ( she has white up at least 3/4 of her leggs and so they cant be called socks they are to high so they are knee high's )

Born at 6:07 p.m

Mom and all the puppies

Who is Bigger...Mommy or Puppy? 11 Week Pictures

2009-07-28T20:37:00.006-05:00

I know I am behind and as many people have reminded me (fea) :) I really need a new picture up. Well here is the latest picture taken tonight as I am 11 1/2 weeks.

The question of the day is who is bigger me or jayden :) I have to put my vote on her. She is due to have her puppies within the next week and a half so you will see the puppy updates soon!

Needless to say poor nick is dealing with 2 pregnant women in the house and jayden is at the about to pop misrale stage and I am entering the ughhh where Im actually starting to feel pregnant in the stomach area. So our house is intrestering :)

One thing checked off the list

2009-07-23T22:10:00.005-05:00

Well we have one big thing checked off our list.....the nursery furniture (except the chair). We already have a dresser and night stand in expresso that we had bought for the adopted child. So we didnt really see the need to buy another one. So we looked at some and found one that I liked ( as nick says there all wood to me ) and he thought looked nice so we went to the baby store to look at the changing table for the set and was not that impressed. Nick mentioned that he would really like to have an all wood crib since this will be our childs bed for years to come. So we came home and looked some more and found a set that has a solid wood crib. So here it is........................

Better late then never

2009-07-12T23:30:00.003-05:00

Its been about 2 and a half weeks since the latest update. Things around here have been very busy. We went on our family vacation with my family to FL weeks ago. It was a great time even thou I spent my time "tossing my cookies" and sleeping on the couch most of the time. We had a really good time! Getting back home and back into the routine was alot on both of us.

For about 3 and a half weeks now I have been visted by what I call all day sickness. Morning, noon and night time does not matter to my stomach. The docs put me on zofran and phenegren to help stop it but even on that I am still getting sick. So hopefully by week 13 it should settle down.

On July 6th we had our first OB appt, which was big because we graduated from the RE to the OB. Our ultrasound meausred out at 8 weeks 3 days putting our due date as feb 12, 2009. They said the ultrasound looked good and little bugs heartbeat was measured at 180 bpm. We will go back on Aug 4th for our next appt and ultrasound.

I have been browsing nursery furniture just to get some ideas and try and find something differnt then every single person I know has. I found a set that I really like at jcpenny and nick says he likes too, but you all know men, its all the same to them :) So I am deff keeping that set in mind! It's a little bit more then we were hoping for but like I have told nick all along. I really am not holding back on little bug, never in my wildest dreams did I think that the dream I had as a little girl to be a mom would come true. I am only able to do this once and I want to make it as special as it can be, so what if the furniture is like $400 more then I was expecting, we are never going to be able to do this miracle journey again in our life.

We have added a guessing poll to the right side of the page, go ahead and play our game and give us your guess of what you think little bug will be....boy or girl :)

I will update with some new 9 week pictures this week soon

Love to you all!

Week 6

2009-06-21T11:39:00.003-05:00

How far along: 6 weeks

Best moment this week: Seeing Bug's heartbeat

Movement: I'm sure there is but nothing I can feel yet

Milestones: Morning Sickness is here! It's all day long!

Miracles Do Come True

2009-06-19T23:56:00.002-05:00

I AM PREGNANT

Yep, you read it right our IUI #3 worked we are pregnant!!!! As of day we are around 6 weeks and 3 days so 2 months pregnant. We had our 2nd offical ultrasound today to confirm that everything was going good before we told the public. Today the ultrasound looked great they saw the fetal pole, the yolk sac and we even saw the heartbeat, I swear it was the most amazing sight I have ever seen. The heartbeat measured at 113 which the ultrasound lady said was a good rate and our little bug measures at 3.2mm :) Other then being very tired I am starting to have some nausea during the whole day starting 2 days ago. Being able to wear the Seaband bracelets for nausea has helped alot!! Hopefully little bug will let mommys tummy keep her food down! :)

Lots of Updates

2009-05-21T22:36:00.002-05:00

Well lots have gone on latley that we need to catch up everyone on.

Tuesday we had our IUI. Everything went good with it. Nick's sample came back ok, his motility is on the low side of normal. We had a differnt girl do the IUI and I had an extreme amount of cramping and even some sharp pain during the IUI and some strong cramping all day tue and wed. I told nick I think she put the catherder futher up this time then before. I think she hit a fallopian tube :) So now we are on the 2ww. With 3 eggs hopefully one was able to be "our miracle". Today my cramping slowed down but Im feeing bloated. I am still having hot flashes due to the meds and Cathy ( my boss and great friend ) keeps laughing at me when I have to grab a stack of paper and fan myself down :)

Yesterday I also had my CF appt. My FEV1 was at 90% WHOOO HOOOO. That is what it was last time and I am so excited. It started out at 85% and I was able to get it up to 90% with the tech teaching me a little bit different of a way to blow during the test. So that was great, espically with the whole TTC thing going on. I need the best numbers I can get.

Well thats about it with us right now. Tomm morning I go to the accupunture doc for the first time. CF girls and girls dealing with infertility both swaer by it. It is suposed to help open up blood vessels and allow more blood to flow to your areas. So for the CF it is supposed to help open up the airways and for the infetility it is supposed to increase blood flow to the uterus which helps implantation. So I will let you all know how that goes!!

Love to you all!!
Alisha and Nick

Just Call Me....

2009-05-18T21:16:00.002-05:00

JUST CALL ME THE EASTER BUNNY BECAUSE I HAVE THE EGGS :)

I went for my ultrasound this morning and the clomid did its job. I have not 1, not 2 but 3 YES 3 large eggs. On the right side I have a 23 and 21 mm egg and on the left side I have a 20mm egg. They want you to have over 18mm to be considered a good egg that will release. SO with 3 that gives us a bigger target to hit, also means a chance for multiples. So I received my trigger shot at 9:45 this morning and will go in tomm at 2:30 for my IUI. I am having alot of cramping tonight, wondering if I am ovulating. You have to remember that we are doing this 2 days latter then last time so I am more closer to when I would naturally oulate. So who knows but heres to hoping :)

I Would Die For That

2009-05-12T22:51:00.002-05:00

GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE AND PAUSE THE MUSIC BEFORE YOU START THIS VIDEO

Our New Deck

2009-05-09T22:19:00.010-05:00

Hey everyone,

We wanted to send everyone some pictures of our new deck and our new patio furniture. As most of you know our house was built in 1996, which means the deck was built in 1996 too. Needless to say that it was a big mess. I have always wanted a huge deck that we could enjoy in the summer. That is one of the best things to me is being able to sit outside on a sunny day. So here is what we have now................. (remember the old deck was 12x10 the new one is 16x35)

IUI #3 WITH MEDS :) Clomid this round

2009-05-06T19:29:00.002-05:00

Well after 2 natural IUI's I wasnt having much faith with the natural way. So I called the doctor and asked if I could be put on fertlity meds for my next cycle and he said yes. The clomid is supposed to block the progesteron in your brain and tell your body to produce more eggs. So hopefully this will produce more eggs or just better quaility eggs. They warned me about the side effects of clomid and thankfully they havent shown up to much yet.

# 2 Offically a bust

2009-05-03T23:52:00.002-05:00

Well today I started my cycle. For those of you counting with me I was 2 days late. Not really sure why since I am always on time. It could be the stress of losing a friend. Im not sure what it was but this time was much harder then last. Most of the day I was not in control of my emotions, I couldnt stop crying and didnt know why. Emotions ran very very high this past 2 weeks. All I have to say is that I have the best husband in the world, with all these emotions needless to say I have not been the nicest to him. I dont relize it when the emotions come out but afterwards I do. This journey has taken a hugh emotional toll on me and nick and I am so very blessed to have the most amazing man as my husband and always here with me! Thank you nick....I LOVE YOU!!

Love,
Alisha

BFN = Big Fat Negitive

2009-04-28T12:00:00.002-05:00

Yeppers thats what I saw this morning on the home pregnancy test.....a BFN ( which is one line not 2.... I'm starting to think that these things really dont have 2 lines ). Of course today is only DPO 11. There is always a chance that the HCG hasnt built up enough but I really doubt it. So im chalking this one up to a no for round 2. Im not really sure whats up next. The doctor orignally said that he wanted to go 3 months and then talk if it didnt work but not trying to sound vain each attempt we do we have to pay for out of pocket so I dont think the natural way is working to great I would like to look into a better option. Who knows???? Not me :) All I know is that the 2ww (2 week wait = the time from when you have the IUI until your cycle starts again, meaning that those 2 weeks are the time that you could become pregnant and you have to wait to know for sure) is the most emotional straining thing that I have ever done in my life. It makes CF look like a walk in the park on a summer day. I honeslty dont know how my cousin Mandy had such amazing strength to do this. She is a true insperation to me.

Alisha

Child To Place

2009-04-27T18:37:00.003-05:00

On friday I got a call from a local DCS worker, I was getting my haircut so I didnt hear the call. She left me a message saying that she wanted to talk to us about the placement of a 12 year old girl. Now Im sitting here thinking you have to be kidding me all this time and now? I called her back but had to leave a message since it was later friday afternoon. Today she called me back and talked to me. They were looking for a foster home for this girl. So needless to say it wasnt what we had been looking for. Nick and I are keeping all the options open at this point. We are not sure what God has planned for us. Right now we are on DPO ( day past ovulation ) ( even thou in my case it means days past IUI) so we are on DPO 10. I took a home pregnancy test on sunday night and it came back negitive meaning that all the HCG hormone that they gave me in the trigger shot is out of my system. So if we do get a positive in the next couple of days then it should be the real thing. My cycle is due to start over on friday May 1st, so we will just wait and see. Not much else that we really can do. I could go get a blood test from the hospital but at this point I feel it didnt really work so I dont really see the point in wasting my time to go do all that even thou part of me feels that it might tell me, but it might not. You shouldnt start testing until DPO 12 which would be wed for me. I dont think that they had the timing right again this time I mean there is only a 6-12 hour window to get it right then its up to nature too so it seems like it has to be perfect.

FYI #1 - How CF is Passed from Parent to Child

2009-04-24T21:58:00.004-05:00

Another Cf girl who is going thru IUI and fertility treatments just like nick and I posted this and I thought it was great and so I wanted to pass it along to everyone - Thanks Kristin!!!!

At the suggestion of a few people who said they'd like to hear more about CF, I've decided to do a series of "FYI Posts.". I'm glad to have this opportunity to spread CF awareness! I will try not to get too technical with these posts, but, as I am an engineer, that might be a challenge ;)So, here is my first one.Cystic Fibrosis is a recessive, genetic disease. The key word here is "recessive." Recessive means that a child must inherit two copies of the CF gene in order to have CF. A child who carries only one copy of the CF gene will not have CF. And, because a child receives one gene from each parent, if one parent is not a carrier of the CF gene, it is impossible for the child to have CF. CF is just like just like blue eyes - remember that lesson in high school science? Well, if you don't, here's a recap: Every parent carries two copies of a gene for eye color. Blue is a recessive gene and brown is a dominant gene. If a child is born with one brown-eye gene and one blue-eye gene, the child will have brown eyes. A child must have two copies of a blue-eye gene in order to have blue eyes.As I mentioned before, a child gets one gene from each parent. For two parents who are carriers of the CF gene, (e.g. my parents), here are the possible outcomes for a child.So, as you can see, when two parents are carriers of the CF gene, there is a 1 in 4 (25%) chance their child will have CF.Now, let's look at the case in which one parent has CF and the other parent is not a carrier. This almost certain is the case for Greg and I. The reason I say "almost certain" is because genetic testing, (which Greg has undergone), does not account for all of the CF genes (I will explain this more in the next FYI). There is still a 0.4% chance that Greg is a carrier. However, for the moment, we will look at that 99.6% chance. Here is a chart for a CFer having a child with a non-carrier.As you can see, it is impossible for a CFer and a non-carrier to have a baby with CF.Now to look at the 0.4% chance that Greg is a carrier. If that were the case, our chart would look like this:If one parent has CF and the other is a carrier, they have a 50% chance of having a child with CF.What all this means is Greg and I have a 0.4% x 50% = 0.2% chance of having a child with CF. In comparison, the average Caucasian couple has a 0.04% chance of having a child with CF, (so I was wrong in my comment response the other day).So yes, Greg and I have a higher chance of having a child with CF compared to an average couple. However, 0.2% is a very small chance. To put it in even more perspective, 0.2% is the same chance a woman my age, (32.5), has of having a child with Downs Syndrome. It is a chance that we, and my doctors, feel very comfortable with.

Round 2

2009-04-20T19:22:00.002-05:00

Well we are onto round 2 of the IUI's. No luck with the first one so we will see where this one ends up at. Last friday was when the IUI was done, so now about 9 more days until we will know anything. I feel alot less stressed about this time Im not sure why, I think that I have a feeling now that there is nothing I can do to control what happens. I either get pregnant or I dont, of course I am hoping for the latter. We are really hoping that this doesnt take a year worth of trying but who knows. We think that everything is ok with both of us so we have no reason right now to hope that it wouldnt happen soon. The doctor said 3 tries then we will look into something more so maybe they will look into a medicated IUI with fetility meds. They say they can control that some more and give you more targets ( follicles ) to go after. But all in all it comes down to the timming. I really dont know how this is done, there is only a 6 hour window and it seems near impossible to hit it. Whats the point of doing everything if you dont have your IUI timed right in that window. I tell you its alot that goes into this.

Hoping For Sticky Thoughts

2009-03-22T21:01:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

Well since the last post much has changed. As most of you know the doctors gave me the go ahead to carry our child myself. So we went and talked to all the doctors and decided to do IUI. An IUI is different from IVF. In an IUI they take the sperm and with a cathder insert the sperm into the uterine cavity. We chose this due to the fact that with CF you produce excessive mucus and conceving naturally is very hard. Our fertility doctor says that he sees no fertility issues or problems that would cause us trouble other then the CF and thinks that we should have a good outcome with the IUI's. Now just as with natural conception there is only a 20% chance each cycle to become pregnant.

So on the 10th of march we met with the fertility doctor and he told us to start checking my ovualtion and when we see a postitve call in and we will do an IUI the next day. By tue I had not seen a positive so I called in and they had me come down on wed and have an ultrasound to make sure that I was producing a follical, in english an egg. The ultrasound turned out good we had a good egg and they gave me an HCG trigger shot to make ovulation occur. Thur morning nick and I went down and had the IUI done. So now we are in the 2 week wait. In two weeks either I will start my cycle over again and we are not prego and we will try again next month or the hopeful thought that i will miss my cycle and the outcome will be that we are prego.

Well thats where we are at right now. Today is 3 days post IUI. 3 down and 11 to go. Im telling you these 2 weeks are insnane to wonder and hope all at once.

Side note, when you are given an HCG shot you will test positive for pregnant with a home pregnancy test. Since the hormone they give you in the shot is the hormone that is produced when pregnancy occurs. They tell you that you should test positive for at least 10 days after the type of shot that I recieved. Just to test it I took a home pregnancy test on thursday afternoon after the IUI and it tested positive so that shows that the shot was showing up on the test. That will give me a good basis on what to go on and hope that we get a negitive soon so that we can begin to test for the real thing in about 8 days :)

No News Yet

2008-11-06T21:51:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to update everyone and let you all know that we didnt hear anything about the meeting today. If we dont recieve a call tomm by 1 then I am going to call our caseworker Donna. So hopefully I will have an update tomm. Thank you all so much for all your prayers and comments. We are so lucky to have such amazing family and friends supporting us!

Love,
Alisha and Nick and the Pups

Tomm is the big day

2008-11-05T09:23:00.002-06:00

I just got off the phone with Mrs. Howell's ( Mariah's case worker) boss and she has let me know that they have everything they need from us for her placement meeting tomm. They will be doing the meeting tomm but due to the time of the meeting she wasnt sure if she would get back with us tomm or on friday. All I can ask for right now is prayers from everyone that we are the parents that will be a best fit for Mariah's needs and if we are not that they find a set of parents that will be a goof fit for her. As for today and tomm this has become my only quote......

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

I will be sharing this with nick tonight when I talk to him, im sure he will be taking this quote also.

Love to you all,
Alisha and the pups

Just Have To Believe

2008-10-20T11:07:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to give everyone an update on whats going on with us. Nick is still at scholl down in Va. We have about one month left until he is back home with us :) I cant wait!!!! Everything here in Tn is going ok. I have about 5 days left on IV's. I feel about the same. But my numbers were not too low so Im not sure if I should feel a huge change. I really need to rest more, yes I admit it I do. So everyday that I am not working this week you will find me here at home on the couch, with at least one dog if not all 3 piled on top of me on the couch.

We still have no news on the adoption. I talked to Donna our caseworker this morning and she still has not heard from Mariah's case worker. There is nothing we can do, I dont understand why she wont return our calls. I am having her call about a little girl in Missouri today, maybe we can learn about this little girl some more. I dont really know what to do or say but we just have to believe. God has our child picked out for us and he knows how all this is supposed to work out so we just have to give it all to him.

Other then that life is pretty much normal, I spend my time with Shauna and Taylor trying to get as much as we can ready for Taylor's big entrance to the world :) And with my pups just waiting for daddy to come home to us!

Love to All,
Alisha

It's Offical...Homestudy Sumbitted For Mariah

2008-09-28T11:58:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Well yep its true. Our caseworker offically submitted our homestudy to Mariah's caseworker in OH this past week. I will add a link below to mariahs page. She is a 12 year old girl who is in Dayton , OH. She has been in foster care for about 4 years now, she has some health problems which is why she has been a hardplacement but for those are no big deal at all. Its normal life to us. So we are hoping that our medical life that we have will give us a hands up on the other applicants. From what I know her caseworker will look over our homestudy and let us know if we might be a good match, if so then our homestudy is taken to her placement meeting on Nov 6. That is where all the people concering her sit down and look at all the applications and see if they think any applicant would be a good match. So right now we are just waiting to hear if we have made it thru the pre screening for her. Please say some prayers for us. We know that God has his plan for us but we really are hoping that Mariah is it. We feel that we could help her so much.

Hello, my name is Mariah, and I am eleven years old. I have a sweet disposition and like to smile a lot. I enjoy singing and dancing all around the house. My favorite country singer is Kenny Chesney and my favorite television show is Survivor. My foster mother says that I should be in the school drama club when I get older!I do well in school. I really enjoy playing soccer, cheerleading and roller skating. I am also in the Girl Scouts. Continuing to be active is important to me.My new family needs to know that I have a few medical conditions that will need monitoring. I can manage my conditions with the help of adults. I have frequent clinic visits that will likely need to continue. It would be great if my new family had some experience with my medical conditions.I have been in the same foster home for four years. I really want to continue contact with my foster mother. She is very special to me.

Nick is back at school in VA. He had a 2 week break where they sent him home and he came back to work for 2 weeks then back to school. Other then the fact that the people next door blast mexican music till 6 am and he gets crappy cell phone service in his room he is off to a good start :) I told him to switch rooms so we will see if he sticks it out in that room or changes. Back here in clarksville all is pretty much normal. Im working 2-3 days a week and then babysitting some nights when needed. Its that time of year for me so health is kinda on and off. I figure I will need iv's again sometime this winter so Im almost wanting to get it done later this month in the case and hope that we would go to the placement meeting and then I would have everything done and out of the way and I would be feeling my best. We shall see, im on steriods for about another 10 days and then we will see how im feeling.

Shauna's baby shower is this weekend, i cant wait. Mom is comming down on thrusday so we can have some time to hang out. Im not sure which daughter she cant wait to see more, me or shauna :) Taylor is doing great, getting big so christmas baby here we come!

Well thats pretty much about the most thats going on around here right now. I will keep you updated on the adoption process as soon as I hear the next news. Please keep us in your prayers that this may be our one!

Love you all,
Alisha and Nick

Nick's At School

2008-08-17T11:46:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that nick made it to VA just fine yesterday. He hit some traffic and made a couple of longer stops then he planned but made it there safe in 12 hours. He checked into his hotel room last night and was impressed with it. He said it was a decent size room with a mini fridge a microwave an a two burner stove. So at least he can cook a little something if he wants too. He got to ride his bike around the outside of post for sometime today. He starts classes tomm so he will find out some more of the info about this whole time down there. Here are some pictures of nick and the babies before he left. Also a picture of the baby that he took with him:)

Just Truckin Along

2008-08-10T23:12:00.002-05:00

Well all is well here in TN. Nick and I are both good, getting ready for him to leave for school next weekend :(. All the pups are doing good. They are knocked out at the foot of the couch right now, what a surprise. The last few weeks have been busy. Nick was able to go home for his brother Kevins wedding. I had to work but I was so thankful that we could get nick up to philly! So he enjoyed the golfing and beer drinking :) I stayed here, worked on sat and then shauna and I went baby shopping for taylor :) Heads up for all who are close and reading this we are planning on doing her baby shower the first weekend of Oct. Jared hopefully will be home by thanksgiving ( her husband) YEAAAAAA! So today we talked about what we are doing for thanksgiving since our holidays always iuculde each other :) Still no decision on that one yet. I know at christmas I am not able to go anywhere with work. It is the busiest time of year for me and time off isnt a option but thats ok with me I love what I do! Im hoping to maybe to a family christmas here this year :) Nick wont be home untill late nov so we will have to see what is up with his work schedule after he gets home from school.

Other then that not to much to tell, its just been work, babysitting, and resting that has been the main parts for us the past couple of weeks. So thats it for now :)

Love,
Alisha and Nick

Pics From Vacation

2008-07-20T22:57:00.003-05:00

Living Our Life

2008-07-17T21:35:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

Its been a busy month for us so I thought I would update you. Work has kept nick and I busy. It's kinda weird to have him waiting on me to get home sometimes, but I think its great :) All the pups are doing great. Jayden is growing like a weed, she still continues to jump over our 4 foot fence, any ideas to keep her in the yard would be more then welcomed! We have had some great weather latley and have been able to ride our bikes alot. Its really relaxing to just go for a nice ride after work. Dan ( our roomate ) is gone with work right now so its just the 5 of us and its knida nice having just us here.

We spent the 4th with my family in ryland ky, first time nick had ever seen a turtle race :) Then we went up to cleveland to spend a week with Jason and Missy and the boys. Mom B came down to visit for a couple of days and it was great getting to see everyone. I cant believe how big the boys are getting, they are huge!!! All our photos are on nicks computer so I will put some of the boys up soon. They are so cute I just wanted to bring them home :) But I would fedex them back in a week or two, LOL. While we were in OH we took a night and went up to niagara falls and stayed in canada for the night. I can now say I have been to another country, one thing marked off on my bucket list. It was an amazing trip. We even had a room that you could a part of the falls from.

So we are back at home now, nick just went back to work offically today. I went back to work on tuesday to find out that yes us Goin Postal girls had started the working out like we had talked about. Cathy, rhonda and I are doing this thing called crossfit. OMG I am so freaking sore. Its an amazing thing, its all about working hard, working out right and doing it fast. you only do about 30 mins a day. 3 days on, 1 day off, 3 on, 1 off and so on. A customer of ours has made her whole 2 car garage and backyard and accredited crossfit gym, its amazing. So before work we 3 go work out. I am loving it, hurting alot but loving it. Here is the website, it even has our pic on it :)

www.crossfitclarksville.com

Its really cool and I am really excited about getting back into working it, its so great for my health and I have wanted to do it for a long time. Well thats it for now :)

Alisha and Nick

Port Update

2008-06-16T22:17:00.008-05:00

Well its been a little over 3 weeks with my new port so I thought I would give an update. Well Im alive :) For everyone who went thru the last ports last flushing you will understand that when I say that. Today was my first port flushing since deaccesing the port and finishin my iv meds on sat. I offically had the port with no flushing for 48 hours. My nurse came out today and we flushed it and it was great, she said it flushed like new, well heck it better, its is new :) So it all went great and I cant even begin to say what a relief it was to get the 2 day flush done, next we will try to wait 4 days and see how that goes. So I have attached some pics below of the port, ignore the discoloring of the shin around the port, we just didnt get all the bedidyne off from the sterlizing the port area this afternoon. So I put on a bathing suit top to take the pics, figured that would be the most approitate way to show the port and not be in a bra in pics that my brothers and brothers in law and step dad will see, lol.

Well nick is gone now in FL. Yep on the beach, butthead :) So its me and the pups right now. It finally happened. Jayden has offically started her first heat. So she is walking around the house in a demim diaper. Hopefully this will help protect her from any unplanned pregnancy's!! So thats a quick update here. Im heading to bed, I am babysitting tomm at 7:45 so after this treatment its off to bed for me. Hope everyone is doing well!!

CAN YOU FIND THE PORT??????????????????????????

Surgery Update

2008-05-25T07:12:00.004-05:00

Well all went great with the port surgery. We went in around 7:20 am on friday to vandy and they took me back around 7:40 to the recvoery /prep room. Nick went back with me and mom stayed in the waiting room they only allowed one back at a time. They went over everything and gave ma a regular iv to draw some blood and check my clotting time. The then told me that I would be awake for the whole thing and that they had to also do an incision in my neck to pull the guide wire thru in my juglar and that at certian times they would have me hold my breath then breath and do it again to make sure there was no air in the line. Also the only surgen Iknew at vandy the only I specificly set up this surgery with was out that day b/c his kid was sick. The doc looked at me and was like did your anexity just jump a couple of knotches I said oh yea just a couple, so they gave mea valum to calm down, I wasnt that impressed with it after all the hype I hear about it, not so impressed by this girl. So they took me back got me all cleaned up and drapes and sheets all over me the doc came in and the started to lidocan me up so it would numb the area, they gave me 3 iv shots of verset to sort of calm and relax you so you dont really feelmuch and a shot of a pain med thru the iv. I swear it was great, I was awake the whole time talking and never felt pain just pressure and him tugging on the wire in my neck. I was so impressed I woud do that again any time. Not that I want to have another port soon! He asked me on the table if I had brest implants b/c if so he would have to guide the wire a differnt way at that poing, I busted up laughing and said have you seen heckno I dont. He laughed and said well I handt seen that low yet so I wanted to ask b/c the wire could pop them its happend before. Wouldnt that suck they pop your boob :) But I told him since he already has an opening in my chest if he wanted to put something down there Iwould complain, I thought the nurse was going to pee her pants she laughed so hard at that. He its worth a shot to ask :)

So needless to say I was expectin like a little hole in my neck/collat bone area and when I came out I asked nick if you could see a spot and he said nope but you can see the 1/2 cut they did. I was like WHAT????? So yea that one is almost more pain at the moment b/c I cant really turn my neck or bend it down. Hopefully it will get better and just sore and no pain the next couple of day. I am attaching some pics if your faint at heart dont read down. You will see the cut on my collarbone and the stickes with the glue over it and then the stiches for the port with the glue over it. The black thing is the needle that acceses the port so I can get my ivs. After the 3 weeks of Iv's the needle will come out and they gacvene a mini port b/c its smaller and doesnt stick out as much and you really cant even see that I have a port its still swollen now so in a couple of qweeks we will see the real look. The next pic is of my frist flush and drw back at home, it had been over 7 hours since it was flushed at the hospital and no SHEATHS ( small kind of clots ont he end of the line). Its so amazing that it had no sheaths with a pic I couldnt go 4 hours without flushing and getting sheaths. The last pic is jayden snuggling with me on the couch, shes my snuggle bunny :)

Update On Alisha - Surgery on Friday

2008-05-19T22:07:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone,

As of right now we are still in the holding process of the adoption, no new news. On the other had with me there is. I havent been feeling well recently as most of you know. I called and asked when I go back on June 4th if Im not doing better are we going to do Iv's b/c if so then I want to look at a port again. I know it scares the poo outta me to think about a port again after what happened last time but I just have to have faith. So she said tell me what day and we will schedule it. Long story short I am having PFT's done on thur to see if I need IV's but I know I do I can feel it. Then we are scheduled for port surgery at 8 am on friday. I talked to my hemotologist at an appt last week and we decided to do this as outpaitent. No lovenox(blood thinner) shots and go on an asprin routine and see how my clots go day to day on how much to flush it a day. My last 2 piccs were placed my a intervenous radiloigy surgeon who told me each time that I need to get a port and he would place it for me. The nurses kept tellng me he was the best around here. So I made sure to have him as my surgeon. So I am as happy as I can be about everything. Mom is comming down thur to sat which will be amazing! Thanks so much mom, I only hope that I can be as good as a mom as you are to me. Nick will be off b/c it is a holiday for them at work and then mon he is off so that will be great to have someone with me. Last time I had the surgery the combined it with sinus surgey and I just remember being really really sore and not being able to move my sholder/ arm much for a week and then it was limited for about a month. So thats the latest with us. I will send out an updat thur afternoon before the formal and let you all know how my PFT's went.

Love,
Alisha

Update On The Chils Search

2008-04-30T20:30:00.002-05:00

I got ahold of donna today and talked to her about tabitha. She has the access to look at the real profile on the children not just the edited version they put on the website. Long story short she is a child that would need experienced parents and would need much more then we would be able to give her. She would also require to be the only child and if in the future we would like to adopt again we wouldnt be able to do that with her. I love donna so much she kept saying I dont want to scare you off but I want to be honest with you, we couldnt of asked for a greater case manager. So I gave her heathers case number this morning and hopefully I will hear back from her maybe tomm and see what the situation is with heather. She is listed under mild for all catorgires so maybe this will be a child that will work with us :) I will send out the next update as soon as I hear something. If you called today I am sorry that I didnt get back to you it was a long bad day, went to clinic at vandy and on the way got a ticket, unreal then my numbers were way down but she thinks its only asthma so steriods and more meds and a follow up in a month. So the whole day was spent their then nick had said he had a surprise tonight and he took me and maddie bowling it was really fun to have some us time of course with maddie too :)

ALL HOMESTUDYS ARE DONE

2008-04-29T21:56:00.003-05:00

YEEAAAHHHHHH the day is finally here. Donna came out to do her last homestudy today. She was literally here only 5 mins if that and did a quick run thru of the house, she didnt even walk into the kids room. She just sat down and checked everything off pretty much. I am guessing that she knows how we are and how on top of everything that we are, and she isnt worried :) So the visits are done with and now all there is to do is have her type her paper on us and send it up the line to her 2 bosses above her. We are hoping for a approval date of around June 1st. I asked her today if I gave her a case number if she could see what the status is of the child. She said yeah I can look it up but you cant do anything until we finsh the paperwork and I said of course. So I gave her the case number of the girl below and she took it and put it with our paperwork. She said we are all done and that if she needed anything she would call. She has recieved 2 of the 5 refrence sheets, she has nicks mom's and shauna's so far.

Well tonight maddie and I were out trimming the willow tree and nick came home from work and came out to help us. We didnt come in till around 6. I left my phone inside and when I came into check it I had 3 missed calls. All from Donna. She left a voicemail saying that she checked on the child I gave her and asked me to give her a call back so that we could have a little brief dicussion with me. So im thinking this must be a good thing b/c she already told me that we really cant do anything until after our paperwork. But when she looked at the case on the internet this afternoon with me she kept saying that child looks familiar. So who knows. I called her cell tonight but it was around 7:30 and im sure she was with her family. So tomm morning on my way home from taking maddie to school I am going to call her and see what is up. Who knows??

I will give you an update tomm :)

Here is the link to Tabitha................ scroll down the page until you see her name

http://www.adoptuskids.org/states/tn/browse.aspx

also just posted this afternoon was the little girl heather on page 10, we are going to ask about her too.

2nd Homestudy Finshed, 3rd and Final Next Thursday

2008-04-17T22:19:00.005-05:00

Well 2 down 1 to go :) Last night went fast and good. We are set for next thursday at 5:30 for the final one and she will go thru and check out our house. Dans family will be in town so it might be a little crazy but it will all work out. Well we know that she approves of us the first thing she said when she sat down was I have a question for you. She told us if we sid no it wouldnt hurt her feelings or us in any way we were just one of the few that met this criteria. She asked if we would be intrestered in adopting a sibling group of 4, yes I said 4. a 8,7,5,4 year old, two boys and two girls. So if she would have our homestudy done to be sumbitted by tomm if that was somethigng we wanted then I believe that we have no problems with her finding us fit, it just the 2 that need to sign off on it above her. Needless to say with dan we dont have room for 4 kids and 4 is alot to start off with :) We are hopefully looking to be totally approved and done by end of May begining of June. Of course it depends on the higer ups. So thats were we are at.

Oh I also included some new pics of my new hair :) Leave me some comments on what you think. * Just a side note this was after the salon and it will of course never look this good again*

1st Homestudy

2008-04-09T21:24:00.002-05:00

Well it finally happened, we had our first homestudy tonight. It was set for 5:30. I got out of work arond 5:07 to pull into my driveway at 5:10 and see a car in my drive way. Man if you havent seen me run you should of seen me running up our drive way. I walk in and say am I late it was 5:30 wasnt it. Donna was sitting at our kitchen table and said oh no your not im early, im usally late but got here early, Whew im thinking, what a bad start that would have been! So we all sat down and for about an hour and a half we talked. She went over some questions about the quesionaire that we had filled out that she had for us. Over all we think it went really great. She said that we will do only 3 visits not 4, yeah thats a good sign. She is really upfront and honest and I really like that about her. So we have our next appt next wed night at 5:30. So things are looking good, everyone kwwp your fingers crossed :)

Homestudy Set For Wednesday

2008-04-07T21:19:00.002-05:00

I talked to Donna today and she just called to double check that wed at 5:30 was still good for us. I was like darn right it is :) WHEEEE WHOOOO. She was so thankful for me bringing her down those papers to her, she said it was a huge help. She said that we will start on the interviews on wed so im not sure how many more meetings we will have but she did tell me last week that she wants to puch us thru this b/c they want to get us done with the paperwork fast and they know we want to also. So we have another date and are running with this one.

No Homestudy

2008-04-03T21:28:00.001-05:00

Well we know that everything happens for a reason and this one we dont understand fully but I know God knows why. Donna didnt come for the visit tonight b/c we already had the paperwork that she was going to give us and go over with us. So I am dropping it off at her office tomm morning and we will read it and call me tomm afternoon. Looks like we may set the next date for next wed. Kinda a good thing, I got all my jitters out and stress about worring about it and am feeling alot better about it. We were disapointed that it didnt start tonight but after some roast and choclate cake it felt better ;)

It'd Offical

2008-03-31T23:13:00.001-05:00

Yep its true we got the call this morning for our first homestudy visit :) This thursday at 5:30 p.m. We are so excited but nervous at the same time. We are finshing up that last to do's around the house and I have the cleaning lady comming on wed :) So fingers crossed everyone!!

Spring Is Here

2008-03-30T22:53:00.004-05:00

So Its getting closer and closer to summer, yea!!!! As the days get longer and the sun shines more I feel better and better. Life in Tn has of course been a constant up and down like always. If it wasnt then life would be dull! Im still working at Goin Postal and LOVING it. Cathy and Rhonda are my girls :) Nick is of course still doin the army thing :) As of right now he is home, he was due to go to school for awhile but as always with the army plans change. Life seems to be going by in a whirlwind latley. We have finshed our adoption classes and now waiting to hear this week from our case worker about an appt for our first homestudy visit. We have everything we need done excpet we both need to finish our autobiographys. We are both kinda nervous about this, its so scary, is our house good enough, is all the stuff out of reach that they need, is all my meds locked up right ( hahahaha now how easy do you think it is to lock up our pharmacy??). Just all these crazy thoughts running thru our heads. We offically have the kids room ready, complete with a chalkboard wall, stars hanging from the ceiling, glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and a lava lamp for starters. The computer room doesnt even look the same. Its like oh wow its really for real. Take a look at the pics below and tell us what you think. The only thing that isnt in the pics is the dresser and nightstand that we got yesterday I will update with those pics.

In June I will be losing my maddie boo. Amanda is moving to nashville which is what is best for her and maddie but that means that my baby moves too and I am torn to pieces. I am a wreck, that little girl is like my own. I love her with all my heart and cant even think about my days with out her here with me. Its going to be really hard not to have her here.

All the doggies are doing good, jayden is growing like a weed. She is now 7 months and 46 pounds. We think she might get as big as neiko! Those are going to be some pretty puppies :)

Well we have a loss and 2 new additions to our house. We finally sold the boat, we just didnt have the time to use it like we thought, and litterally on the way back from selling the boat bought 2 bikes (we love you mom for still loving us after that!!!). We bought nick his dream bike, a yamaha R1 and me a kawasiki 750. So we both ride together now and its so great. I know he loves to ride and I like it to and its awesome that its something that we can share together. I will put some pics up soon of the bikes.

I have been doing pretty good cf wise latley. Got a cold about 2 weeks ago, got rid of it I thought but it came back so the past 5 days I have been totallly wiped and coughing like I smoke a pack a day :) But ya know its all good :)

We painted the walls in the house recently and I LOVE IT.Nick says they look like walls to him but if Im happy he is happy. What a goober he is.

Here are some pics of the walls, the kids room and a pic from the day of our last adoption class :)

Long Time Since An Update

2008-01-16T21:54:00.000-06:00

Well its almost been a year since we wrote a post so I figured that we needed to get back into it! Humm lets see things that have been going on here. Well first off I got a job, omg I cant believe it too. My dream for the past 4 years has come true. I talked with Social Security and we found a way that I can work. I am so exicted. I work at a place called Goin Postal ( very approiate ) and it is a packing and shipping store. There are only 3 of us and one is the owner. These ladies are the sweetest, I would go mail nicks packages and talk to them for like an hour. I love, love ,love it!! As far as nick he is going to be sticking around here for awhile it looks like. Which is something new to us :) So seeing as he is here we signed up and have started our adoption PATH classes thru the state. We meet every thur night from 6-9 for 10 weeks. We have been to 2 classes and tomm night will make our 3rd. If you could lonly see the binder of stuff that we have to do its crazy!! But we are super excited, after the classes are done then they will start our homestudy :) So we are offically on our way. Below is a picture of us on our first night of our adoption classes :) The beggining night :)

All our babies had a great christmas! Jayden is getting so big. She is much smarter then neiko we all agree on that one! But we still love our bighead. We painted an accent wall in the living room 2 weeks ago. I will have to get a picture to put it up. I love it, its a maroon color and I really think it adds warmth to the room. Nick and I have an ongoing list of things we want to do to the house come summer, seems like it gets longer everyday! Well thats a small update for now :)

Love,

Alisha and Nick

Another Year.. Time for Deployment

2007-04-10T22:54:00.001-05:00

Well its that time of year again. Yep you guessed it, its deployment time. At least its nice and springy instead of cold and wintery. So with nick gone right now the boys and I are having alot of one on one time. They really miss daddy, but really enjoy his spot on the bed. Nick can see the boys on the camera and I know that it makes him happy to see them, even thou most of the time they are sleeping on the floor. As for around here in clarksville, its pretty much been the normal day to day thing. I am babysitting a 4 year old girl named maddie who is jsut a doll. I watch her 2 days a week and the other days I watch a 1 year old little angel named ava. So that keeps me pretty busy which is good. I am playing poker on monday and saturdays and sat mornings maddie plays soccer, so its to the soccer field I go. Im telling you I feel like im always on the go, which is good. I went home for easter which was great to get to see the family. Dan and I have been playing online poker at night so its pretty funny to hear one person yell and then 3 mins later another one yell. But hey it keeps us entrained. I planted some tuplis in the front garden this year, and some hostas plants. Im pretty excited about that. Dan is on grass cutting duty right now since I am allergic to grass. Which of course leaves me on inside cleaning duty, it works out pretty good. Our riding lawnmower broke last week, so sad I know. So its back to the push mower for now. Right now we are done with our remodling in the house. We are deff not going crazy like we did last time he came home :) Maybe just a new lawnmower. We are going to take a mini honeymoon when he gets home, not the crusie that we want, but we will take that before we adopt, or heck maybe we can take it we adopt our child and it can be like the famly honeymoon, a honeymoon celebrating that we are a family. Ummm I think I sort of like that idea :) I will have to run that by nick. Well thats about it from clarksville right now, below are some pictures of nick when he was leaving, just wanted to share!

Love to you all,

Alisha and Nick

Two Wisdom Teeth Out

2007-02-06T01:12:00.000-06:00

As most of you know I have had a tooth that has been broken down to nothing and dead for many years. I also have not been to the denist in a long time either. Well over christmas it began to give me bad headaches so I ended up in the ER where they told me I had an abcessed tooth. I was put on antibiodics for 10 days. I felt better and they told me I would be ok untill feb 1st when dental ins. started. So the week before ins started I went to a denist and he didnt even look at my mouth, just at the xray and refered me to an oral surgon. He coulndt see me untill the next tue. So I saw him on tue and told me that 3 wisdom teeth needed to come out and we might as well take all 4 out. It was on hold for a day while he talked to my hemotoligst down at vanderbuilt to see if with extractions I would need a blood transfusion. I decided to use local instead of seadion due to my CF. So we got it all set for the 20th of feb to get all 4 out, hoping with no transfusion, just going one by one and watching the bleeding. Well on thursday I ended up stoping by the office b/c the gum around the tooth seemed to be swelling some. I told them that I didnt think the infected tooth would make it to the 20th. They walked into the room and said ok we can take it out today, and we will also take the other one on that side on the top out too, ahhhhhh I was not expecting that at all!! So I had no time to run or hide :) He took out both on the left side under local and it went great. I was soooo impressed with this Oral Surgon. It was really painless and good thing the one on the top came out too b/c when he pulled it out it showed that it had an abcess in it too. So they stiched me up and I am 5 days after now doing good. I have been eating soup, and mashed potatos, pudding, and everything else soft you can think of. Man just the thought of chips, and steak, and yummy hard food sounds soooo good right now!! They do have me doing an IV soultion mouth was every 6 hours to stop the bleeding so I dont need a transfusion. So thats the latest with me :) As always nick is as healthy as can be!!! That stinker :)

Our New Addition

2007-01-14T16:24:00.000-06:00

This weekend we added a new addition to our family. Yep thats right. A 2000 GMC Sierra 1500 extended cab. Which you all know what that means, mytchie is now gone. But he was a good car for the time being, now he is with others. So today we took the boys for the first ride in the new truck. Just like every car ride they loved it. So they are all ready for a tip where they can relax in the back I think :) Just take a look at them in the back of the truck, what goofballs!

Starting The Year Off Right

2007-01-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone,We decided to make this page so that all family can keep in touch with us. So let's start the year off right.We spent our new years at home with some great friends, Shauna and Jared. We even attemped to make jello shots, in which I was the one who made them a little bit too strong. We played cards on nicks new poker table that he got for christmas. Then we went outside and light a TON of fireworks. The boys had a great time lighting them off. We also made our christmas dinner on new years. Seeing as nick came home the night before christmas we didnt have a chance to go shopping for christmas dinner since walmart was closed on christmas. How dare they be closed on christmas, we needed ham!!! So we just waited and cooked it all for new years, but darn can we cook, just take a look at our dinner :)