Thursday, September 03, 2015

All Things September



Go figure the first week of September it would be 95° here in Illinois!  The temps for this week and early next are all in the high 80’s and 90’s, definitely not what I want or expected for September.  Luckily the mid 70’s are coming in just a couple more days and I cannot wait!  Until the week we had a steady couple of weeks of weather in the low to mid 70’s and it was amazing to be able to have the windows open and the AC turned OFF! 

I think September is a favorite for a lot of us, we are all ready for cooler temps, PSL’s, bon fires, boots, scarves, etc. and September usually kicks that off for us.  It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “favorites” post of any kind so here is my list of favorites for this month:

Open windows & fall scented everything…
I got a great deal from my Scentsy girl on some new scents and I told her I wanted all fall inspired flavors.  Right now I have Zen Garden going in my Owl warmer and I really love it.  I guess it’s probably not the most “fall” flavored bar I got, but it’s a good transition.  It would be great for the spring too.  I also got Autumn Maple Blaze, Dulce le Leche, Amber Road, and Huckleberry Sage.  I love having a breeze blow through the house and carry those yummy scents all throughout.  I also picked up a pumpkin honey candle from Marshalls that smells divine!



Wardrobe Changes…
I’ve gotten some great pieces so far that I’m really excited for.  At one of our local boutiques, CNJ Style, they had Not Rated boots for $20!  I couldn’t believe it!  She was originally selling them for $80-$90 x pair, and she wanted to get rid of them so I snatched up two great pairs!  I also finally got myself a Camp Brand Goods Happy Camper sweatshirt which was on sale (I would never buy one that wasn’t, too pricey for my budget) and I’m loving it, it’s so soft and I know it will be one of my staples for the upcoming months.  I’m sure most of you have heard of or follow McKenna Bleu, she wore this perfect stripe sweater from UO and I had to have it, again, pricier than I would’ve liked, but I know this will be another staple that I will use for both fall & winter, I couldn’t pass it up.



Our Anniversary…
It will be our FOURTH anniversary on 9/24 and I cannot believe it’s been 4 years since our wedding!  This reason alone makes September one of my favorite months of the year!  It has been an amazing 4 years and I think this last year was probably our biggest year yet with building our house.  It may have also been the one with a lot of heartache as we suffered another (and probably the worst) failed IVF cycle.  We have been through so much, not just in our 4 years of marriage, but in our almost-8 years of being together and I wouldn’t want to go through it with anyone else.  Cheers to 4 years!


Staring IVFx5/FETx3
September will officially start (speaking of IVF cycles) our 5th cycle of IVF, 3rd frozen cycle.  I never, in 1 MILLION years thought that I would be going through 5+ cycles of IVF, but we are and we are dealing with it.  AF will be here in the next several days and once she comes I will be starting either BCP or Lupron to suppress my hormones.  Our consultation with Dr. G (our 1st RE) is on 9/14.  Although we won’t actually have our transfer until early October, we’re kicking things off this month!  In the meantime we also have our consultation with CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine) on September 25th.  It’s just a phone consult and I doubt that we will choose to move forward with treatment from them as it’s a 13+ hour drive or an expensive plane ticket, lots of vacation days, sick time, and just doesn’t seem to be the best choice for us at this time.  If we hadn’t just built a house we might be able to swing this option.   We will also have a consultation at AFCC (Advanced Fertility Centers of Chicago) but that won’t be until at least October/November.


Fall in our Forever Home…
I am really excited to finally experience fall in our new house!  I’ve been really wanting a chilly night to be able to put a fire in the fireplace, cook a pot of chili, and enjoy all my fall decorations.  I’ve actually already started to decorate for fall with some small touches here & there.  If you follow me on Instagram then you saw my centerpiece.  We should also be completing our front porch this month & hopefully planting grass, 2 really big steps towards completion!  Unfortunately, with no neighbors I won’t be passing out any Halloween candy at the new house!



Sorry for the insanely long-winded post.  Like I said, it’s been awhile since I’ve done any fun posts lately and it’s nice to be able to take my focus off of (well not entirely, see above) infertility.  I hope you guys are enjoying September as much as I am!

12 comments:

  1. Happy Early Anniversary! My husband and I will also celebrate our 4 year anniversary on September 24! Great date :)

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  2. Happy early anniversary!! Obsessed with that black and white sweater, so cute! And yay for spending your first fall in your forever home! So exciting!
    <3, Pamela
    Sequins & Sea Breezes

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  3. I love that happy camper sweatshirt! And so ready for all the fall scents!

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  4. Yay for September anniversaries. Elena I'm beyond proud of you. Although I know these failed cycles have been of a lot of pain, I know you will be a mom and God has used you in so many ways with others as myself in this journey. I'm praying that before the year ends you have your wish granted. Keep your faith up high. xoxo BTW that owl I LOVE IT

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  5. It has been around the same temperatures here! The highest this week was 91-92 in MD and PA. I couldn't believe it. Go figure that it would reach the highest temperatures after the dog days of summer are already over- makes no sense. I'm ready for it to be in the 70s and maybe even the 60s and I'm more than ready for pumpkin spice lattes to be here.

    http://dogmomchic.blogspot.com/

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  6. We don't have any neighbors either....which is a shame because we always used to hand out full sized candy bars at our old digs. I love decorating for Halloween....I almost want to bypass fall decor and go straight to spooky!! (PS- I gave you a little love on the blog today!)

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  7. Happy 4th Anniversary girly! Hope u have many more to celebrate. Fall is also my favorite season ready for this insanely hot weather to be over . Hope u have a great holiday weekend.

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  8. I love all of this!! Happy 4th anniversary!! I am loving your decorations they are beautiful :) I need to get on board with this now that I have a nice big table to decorate.

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  9. I am definitely looking forward to these 70 degree days, so not a fan of this week in the 90's that we've had - seriously what's up with that?!

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  10. Love your fall decor! I agree - I was loving those 70 degree days and wish we would have those this weekend! And yay for September anniversary months! Ours was the other day. :) Hope you have a good weekend lady! xo

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  11. He exciting that September kicks did your first holiday season all moved into your forever home! And IVF starting soon too! So much excitement!!!

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  12. Hello, I just came across your blog, because I'm in my third iVF attempt. My situation is a little different than yours, but I wanted to let you know what we did differently. Our first cycle, we decided to do PGD, because I am 36 and I understand the statistics of chromosomally abnormal eggs at this age. This cycle never made it to transfer, because 100% of our embryos were abnormal on the day 5 biopsy. As disappointing as this was, imagine the disappointment of a second set of every single embryo being abnormal. All of these, as RE explained would have resulted in either no implantation, or in miscarriage. Finally, on our third full cycle, we got 3 "normal' embryos. I am in the middle of the dreaded 2-week-wait now.... on day 6, and got my BFP on a HPT yesterday! If PGD was something you are considering, in our case, it saved about a year's worth of failed cycles. We did the same vitamin protocol you mentioned for our last cycle, if that means anything. I wish you the best of luck, and praying for your miracle baby!

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