Woo Hoo!

Let the inspections begin, the packing commence and the new house fall in our laps!

Holy Cow!

This looks like a cheap little pen that you would get at a trade show or left with your bill at a restaurant, right?

Oh no, my friends, this is a Gonal-F pen filled with what has to be liquid diamonds. It costs $1445! And, I need 2 of them!

As Marcus would say, "how 'bout you give me a Bic Stic, a sewing needle and some rubbin' alcohol and I'll give you a buck 85?"

Sold?

We received an offer on our house yesterday- Day 5 on the market! We are countering, so we'll see what happens. I'm excited to quit making the bed every morning, but stressed to think of packing and moving in three weeks. Yep, she wants the house in March. We are house hunting on Saturday and hope to put in an offer on our favorite from last weekend.

I'll keep you posted...

PS - The realtor praised our "immaculate" house and told our realtor the staging "rocked". My hours spent watching HGTV was a well spent investment. :)

I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

We spoke to our medical team today and the IVF process is all set-up with our frozen friends set to do their job the first week of April which if everything worked properly would give us a Christmas-time birth date.

So, I'm dreaming of a pink (okay, blue will do too!) Christmas! I recognize not to get my hopes up, but at the same time we need something to look forward to with hopeful optimism!

We Are For Sale!

Our house is officially on the market. If you know anyone looking, please feel free to share pics with them. For our safety, I am not posting the outside or our address, but feel free to email me for more details. We are listed at $184,900.

Here is the view from the entry of the living room. It has a good long wall for the entertainment center, a gas fireplace, crown molding and is open to the kitchen and dining room.

The kitchen has crown molding, tin backsplash, a huge pantry and a connecting laundry room. The dining room is just to the left of this picture. It was taken from inside the living room.



This is the newly neutralized master bedroom. It has a connecting big master bath with his and hers closets, crown molding and a double door entry.



This is the sunny guest bedroom. It is one of two bedrooms this size. Both has closets with double sliding non-mirrored doors.

Tomorrow we start house hunting for our next house. I can't wait! My heart has already been broken twice.... homes that sold before I ever got to see them in person. This could get emotional!

Birth Control, WHAT?

We got the good news today that I am approved to start IVF. Yea!

The first step is taking birth control for 3-4 weeks. I know, why take birth control when you want to get pregnant? I asked the same question. It essentially creates a baseline, puts everything on a predictable routine and therefore gives the doctors a measuring stick for determining what days to do the subsequent steps and what levels to measure from.

As an official IVF patient, I now need to give up my caffeine! My regular Sonic lady will surely wonder what happened to me!

reflections...

So as I lay here at 3am, in the post Hydrocodone glow...I have a little spare time to think...and have had a minor epiphany to the state of being.

You see, I was thinking about how in some spiritual sects, the center of ones self, is the core....the true middle of the body...which is placed right below the navel. It is around this area now....that I have some frozen peas. You see. I have been focused to my core, and therefore reflective of myself, and my center because of these peas. I must in turn..be focused on that area and state of mind. That is...I must be in awareness of my pea like awareness, or if you will, my pea-ness.

You see, right now, I have to be focused on preserving my pea-ness from harm. It is in a fragile state now, easily harmed, easily fractured or shattered if you will. Every move, step, and action I am self aware to protect that stay focused on my pea-ness and that area. We take our most basic of activity for granted. But now, I must focus on the well being of my pea-ness in order to ensure a safe, and easy recovery.

Not every one can have a pea-ness. Obviously, you need peas in your core or center area. But I believe that this experience has led me to respect my pea-ness. I think that even after this, I will be trying to live very aware of my core. I want to retain adoration for my pea-ness, and never take it for granted.

So what I believe I am trying to say is, a computer at 3am with pain pills, is an interesting combination.

Marcus

Recovery

Recovery does not appear to be all that bad!

I Am A Lucky Girl....

I think I should start adding health to the list of things I am thankful for when I pray each night. Seeing your spouse in a hospital gown and in pain is the most heart-breaking feeling. Knowing that he is doing it all for you, is even more of a gut-wrenching feeling. I can't even imagine how parents feel when they see their child in the hospital.

Marcus and I snapped a picture before the big procedure! We recognize that besides our wedding day, today was prepped to be the biggest day of our lives. Marcus' surgery had the opportunity to close the door on us having a child biologically. We are blessed that although we were not given the news we wanted, we still have the opportunity to biologically produce a child together. The team of doctors ended up taking tissue from Marcus to analyze, freeze and hopefully extract high quality sperm that will be viable for IVF.

As the doctors have mentioned, it is a "sensitive" area, so frozen peas are the delicacy of the day. We stocked up on a few bags to rotate out. Marcus is now beyond the loopy stage and resting nicely in the bed with his DVR loaded up.

We are so grateful to have the prayers of our friends, family, co-workers and former co-workers today. We said our prayers before we got out of the car this afternoon and just asked the Lord to hold our hand and show us the way. He did that and so much more.

Our doctors are meeting tomorrow morning to discuss our case and we hope to start the IVF process at the end of the month with a pregnancy having the chance to occur in early April. Please pray that our frozen friends survive the next few weeks, that Marcus' nards stay numb and that we can move forward with IVF soon.

Love,
Marcus and Anna

tomorrow.......

Normally a Marcus blog involves a youtube post, or something random, but I actually have a point this time...

Tomorrow afternoon, I will have a procedure that will determine the next step in our journey to expand our little family. This is....frankly...either the last step for me.....or a chance to enter into a long, drawn out process...that will tap us greatly on time and a resources. and I tell you what..I am so excited and ready that I can't wait to have that opportunity.

We are sometimes made to suffer and trial in order to have God show us what we really truly need and want...I believe that we have had that happen...pain....cost...time....all this is trivial now...I hope to bring it on.....and not let my portion of this journey end...

There is a verse in the Bible, Philippians 4:6, that states; "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." So I wonder the question...why do we pray? Do we just pray for endurance through God's way? But I have learned recently that we pray to petition to our Lord...for his will to be done through us in a way FOR us...when Rebekah and Zechariah gave birth to John the Baptist, it was because of their petition to the Lord. (Luke 1:13)

As Paul writes in this verse in Philippians, we are ok to ask of God what we need and desire.

So...I ask....everyone...please pray for us tomorrow, that the procedure is successful and we are able to continue our journey.

My dearest thanks,
Marcus

The Paint is Dry....

Here is our new blah bedroom....

Marcus did a great job painting and putting it all back together, but I hate the paint color. I picked it, so I have to blame myself. I think it is way too light and to closely matches the curtains. I thought I had picked a little darker shade to give the bedroom warmth and show off the crown molding and bright white blinds.

Our realtor says it looks fine and to leave it. I think neutral is boring. Let's hope it sells quickly so I don't have to look at it for too long!

while the paint dries....

So this weekend is a busy one....lots to do....Mainly....paint the bedroom. Something nice, neutral, that won't offend. Not looking too bad....I just hope that the new owners don't paint a blue bedroom.....that would be irony!

So the paint is drying on the touch up....The final result is still pending....I just need to get a blog of the current work out there for Orlando viewing...

The other part of this weekend for me was juggling for the kiddos at Sunday school today....I don't think much of it....a goofy guy comes in, juggles, leaves. Im sure the kids like it, but come on...4-5 years have attention spans that last seconds. The memory of me gets bumped by the hope of candy.

Well, I was surprised today as one of the teachers brought little Eli Ruddle to me after my third act (I do 5). He had been crying because he had missed Marcus the Juggler, because they did dedication for his new baby sister. So I let Eli be my assistant for the next two classes. He beamed.....beamed.....man...that was fun to have that kind of ability to make a kids day like that. Good stuff! So crazy that getting to hold a bag of plastic chickens makes a kid happy......

Marcus

M I C K E Y M O U S E

It is my second trip to Orlando in 3 weeks and I still have no time to see Mickey, but this time I bought a shirt!

I did manage to go to the nearest Uno Pizzaria again. We may pick our vacation locations based upon if there is an Uno located in that city. There is no pizza like it! Plus, on this trip, I discovered they have Mint Tea just like Macaroni Grill.

Stormi and Andrea- it made me think about our lunch at County Line and laugh. We ordered mint tea during lunch one day while I was at KW and they spiked our icea tea with mint liquer. A 32 oz. cup of tea with liquer. Who orders that?

In Honor of My Man

My friends Susan and Kristi blogged about their men recently and since mine is at home painting our bedroom I figured I should honor him....

1. Who is your man? Marcus, Marc, Quitos, Marcus Lamont, Numnut
2. How long have you been together? Dating for 13 years next week, married for 9 this summer.
3. How long dated? We dated for over 4 years before we were married.
4. How old is your man? He is lucky number 33
5. Who eats more? He does- he usually cleans my plate.
6. Who said "I love you" first? I wanted to say it first, but I think I waited for him to say it.
7. Who is taller? He is much taller. I need a good 2 or 3 steps to be his height.
8. Who sings better? Oh no, we don’t sing.
9. Who is smarter? He would beat me at trivia most days.
10. Whose temper is worse? I don’t think I have a temper, so I think him.
11. Who does the laundry? He brings it downstairs, I wash it and we both fold and put away.
12. Who takes out the garbage? I don’t touch the trash. It goes along with mowing the yard and cleaning the toilets.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does (when facing the bed). It is closer to the bathroom which he uses during the night.
14. Who pays the bills? I pay them with our money.
15. Who is better with the computer? He is much better!
16. Who mows the lawn? See #12.
17. Who cooks dinner? I probably do a little more than him, but it is pretty even.
18. Who drives when you are together? He does.
19. Who pays when you go out? Usually he does, his wallet and bank card is easier to grab than mine.
20. Who is most stubborn? I probably am. I know what I want.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I think we both do.
22. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine live much closer, so we see them more.
23. Who kissed who first? The anniversary of our first kiss together is next Tuesday. I am a date girl, what can I say?
24. Who asked who out? He checked me into his dorm room first. He was a junior and an RA which meant he had no roommate.
25. Who is more sensitive? He just might be.
26. Who has more friends? That one is surely me- have you read the blog? We do have lots of joint friends though.
27. Who has more siblings? Me! Marcus is an only child.
28. Who wears the pants in the family? God is teaching me how to give them to Marcus :)

The Buck Stopped Here!

Is that a photo taken from the inside of an airplane? What? I didn't know Anna was traveling again? Isn't she listing her house next week and spending her weekend painting, cleaning and prepping her house?

Oh yes, when I woke up Friday morning I told Marcus that I could not wait for Saturday- sleep in, make pancakes and paint our master bedroom a more neutral color for our house to be listed next week. I had plans alright and those plans did not involve flying on an airplane!

Well a phone call from NPI (the Michigan-based half of my job) changed my plans. NPI had a conference starting in Orlando on Saturday morning and a series of bad events (death in the family, illness, prior plans and husband out of town) meant that none of my staff had boarded the plan to meet our 40 boxes and 30 people in Orlando. Less than 5 hours later, I was sitting inside a SWA airplane on my way to Orlando. BTW, love love love Southwest. I booked a flight, direct, on the same day, and it was only $600. It was more than $1200, not direct, with a sleepover in DFW on American and United.

I am at the Buena Vista Palace. What a cool hotel! It is very modern with cool chairs, comfy bedding and a great location.





This is the somewhat blurry view from my balcony. It is of Pleasure Island, an adult late-night Disney property. My father actually gave Marcus and I passes to PI during our honeymoon. It is dancing, comedy, great food and drink set around Lake Buena Vista.

So, you ask, if Anna is in Orlando, what is happening to her house? I'm sure Marcus will post his exciting house adventures later. This, my friends, is another lesson in control. The decorator in me is very uncomfortable that my house is being painted and prepped for sales pictures and I am 800 miles away. I trust Marcus and hope his feminie side can overrule the bachelor this time around. Let's hope his rug-fluffing and towel-straightening side emerges!

I'll be back Monday night!

Feel all that love in the air...

I hope everybody is having a great Valentines Day...because Anna and I sure have....

Nothing like a romantic Italian dinner, fine art, and high end technology gadgets to make a night complete...

We actually had a pizza here from Buddy and Al's up in Hutto....now...a pizza on Valetines...you have to understand how good this pizza is. This pizza is so good...this was the dinner that Anna wanted for V-tines. That good.

and as for the fine art and techno gadgets...well this is the time of the year for Ipods and art....below is the pic of our gifts.....can you see mine?

Marcus

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was just made for cupcakes! Here are the sweet treats Marcus and I handmade last night for our offices. Luckily, my new C&B cupcake holder helped me transport them in style.

I hope your day is surrounded by people and things you truly love!

All About Eggs!

Sunday Marcus and I started a book club to study the book Love and Respect with other couples from our church. The book is about how to enrich your marriage based upon Ephesians 5:33 which states that men are to love their wives and women are to respect their husbands. I think showing respect is a very difficult task, so I was excited to participate in this study.

Anyway, the author Emerson Eggerichs (egg theme #1) discusses a long standing annoyance he had where he thought his wife was disrespecting him. She always peppered his eggs. He didn't like pepper on his eggs (egg theme #2), but she thought they were better that way, so she peppered them.

As part of the discussion on when the issue isn't the issue, Marcus and I talked about the first fight we can remember happening. We were in college and decided to make breakfast for dinner one night. We discovered that our Moms made breakfast differently and we both thought eggs (theme #3), toast, and bacon could only be cooked the way our Mothers had done it. The issue was not the eggs, it was more about doing things the way our families did them.

To round out the egg theme, we joined 2 other couples after book club for dinner at IHOP. I just had to have eggs (#4) and made sure to pepper them up nicely!

If you have not ever seen the book, I highly recommend reading it. We are just two chapters in, but I know that it will open up great discussions for improving any marriage.

More Christmas Presents?

Since Carol (Marcus' Mom) was unable to join us for Christmas this year, she delivered presents via Marcus when he went to see her in January. We saw Kyleigh for a short time on Sunday and she opened her presents.

She loved all of the fun bath products and the cool purse/backpack combo they fit in. Her favorite was her super soft PINK princess blanket. She was filled with glee! Thank you Carol for thinking of Kyleigh and knowing that every 6 year old loves pink princess stuff!

Cohen wasn't with K this weekend, so he still has presents to open!

Better than an Oscar...

Our friend Meg, President of the Beach Zoo, has bestowed upon us the E for Excellent Award and the Bodacious Blog award. As CEO of Journey with the Jenks, I am honored to accept this award on behalf of the wonderful friends and family that smile for our photos, give us blogworthy moments and leave love notes on our blog. I also would like to thank Meg for guiding me along the world of blogging- I've learned so much from you. Meg does the best job of sharing Travis' every moment at the zoo. We did dinner together when I was in Dallas more than a year ago and although I had never met Travis or her husband Matt, I knew them so well. I love reading her blog and watching her family grow up.

As the winner of these prestigous awards, I am excited to move them onward and bestow them upon 2 of my favorite blogging friends- Kristi and Erica.

I award Kristi the E for Excellent award as she has found a unique way to share her family and her faith on her blog. I am so proud of you for letting everyone who reads you blog know who you are and Who you stand for.






And Erica's blog is hereby proclaimed a Bodacious Blog. Erica is super creative and has made her blog so fashionable. Everything matches down to the html code for the colors. To top it off, she gives me free advice to help make my blog fashionable. We were blog friends long before we met each other! She is even bodacious in person!

Congrats to you both! I love reading your blogs! And, big thanks to Meg for making me an award winner!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday Steve! We hope your day is filled with all of your favorite things!

Marcus and Anna

Getting the House Ready

Before we officially list our house, Marcus and I had some work to do and we got started this weekend. Every good home improvement project starts with a trip to Home Depot! We picked up some flowers, mulch, potting soil and a new wheel barrow.


Marcus spent the entire day mulch the front and back flower beds! In all, it took 26 bags to cover all of the beds. It is amazing how mulch can define a space and make it seem more purposeful.



I spent the day undecorating our house and patching and painting holes from my undecorating. I also bought some new items for the back patio that Marcus had stained. For a short second, it made we want to sit outside and enjot the view. Then, I was back to work!

I Heart James Marsden

Last night I went with 7 of my girlfriends to see 27 Dresses with Katherine Heigl. What a cute movie! It was a nice, clean, light hearted movie about a perpetual bridesmaid with a secret crush. I loved it!







Even more than the cute plot or Katherine Heigl's cute smile, was the cuteness that is James Marsden. He plays the nice reporter that keeps popping up at weddings with Jane (Heigl). How could you resist those eyes, that chin, those chisseled cheeks, that... you get the idea! Cutey!

Time for the Fish Combo!

It is that time of year again- time for every restaurant to pull out their best fish combo to compete on who has fresher fish, a more creative dish using fish and the ever popular super cheap fish sandwich. I don't eat fish at all and I surely don't think 99 cent fish is appetizing.

However, with "fish season" comes lent! So, as a good practicing Baptist girl it is time for my annual sacrifice. For the past few years I have given up buying shoes or even looking at Zappos; Marcus has given up cussing or pledged to eat healthier and work out. This year since Marcus and I have so many big decisions and life changing siutations happening in the next 40 days, we decided to spend lent giving in and not giving up.

We are both committed to spending time every day in prayer, scripture and quiet time- giving our time to the Lord and asking Him to really bless us and guide us through the process of infertility and selling/buying a home. I have the hardest time stopping everything daily and just studying the word or reading books with spiritual enhancement. I am hoping that together we can really make this a habit starting with 40 days!

I'd love to know if you are giving anything up or committing to anything this year.

GIANT Super Bowl Party

Marcus and I watched the Super Bowl with our friends The Lauves and 40 other people from our sunday school class. I had the perfect dish to take, thanks to Heather. My stadium cake pan was lots of fun and I made sure to decorate it for both teams.





This is Marcus and I during the early 4th quarter when Wes Welker, a fellow Red Raider, was doing well. We were all smiles!

Playing with Zee in the Park

This afternoon we met up with Bill, Kay and their daughter Mackenzie (aka Mack or Zee) at the park near our home. I had not seen Zee in months, so it was fun to see how much she has changed since last time.

They develop so fast at this age- she is 19 months old. ee loved the slides, even those for the big kids. She just needed a little reminder to go down on her bottom and not face first on standing up!


Once she discovered that she could walk under the playscape, she had fun checking out her Dad above her. Here she is at the "bar" serving us some "drinks".





Although Zee did not like the balance beam idea, Marcus and Bill had fun pretending to be gladiators and knock each other off.

The weather was beautiful and the park was lots of fun, so we hope to do it again soon!

Breakfast with Dad

This morning we met my Dad and stepmom for breakfast at Maudie's Milagro. If you have never had breakfast there, it is wonderful and super cheap!

They have a lovely patio with heaters and serve everything from pancakes to migas for breakfast. You can order most anything for around $5! Plus, there is no wait!

We celebrated Dad's 62nd birthday since I was in Florida on the actual day. We bought him a collapsible walking stick ith a compass since Dad likes to take long walks. Enjoy and Happy Birthday!

We met with our realtor tonight!

Scary and exciting!

We met with our friend and realtor Chris tonight to discuss listing our house. He gave us some great pointers to get our house on the market and hopefully sold soon!

Our next few weekends will be spent mulching the backyard, repainting our bedroom and packing away all of those personal touches!

We'll let you know when the house officially goes on the market. If you know of anyone looking, email me!

February Desktop

I hope this month brings you lots of love!