It's Christmas Time!!!

I have just delivered my last Santa gift & wrapped the few presents that my hubby purchased. Now all I have to do is get this house clean & get us packed! We will take off at some point on Friday....and I can not wait to hug my niece, and then share an adult beverage with my sis! Oh and seeing my bro-in law is cool too! LOL! It is going to be a great Christmas! Mommy Kay & Grandma Vick will join us middle of next week. Oh how I love the holidays & how blessed we are to get to spend them together this year!

Merry Christmas Everyone, JoRie

Brickle Cookies

Hello blogger pals: Our family lost a really special person a little over a year ago. Grandaddy passed away while my mom was visiting us in Italy. So we changed everyones plane tickets and flew the long trip home to NM. Although it was such a sad occasion, we were all there together which was joyous. My grandmother remains in a nursing home for alzheimers patients, and it depends on the day if she remembers us or not but we go visit her each time we are there...just in case!

Anyway, this brings me to some of my favorite holiday things....mostly cooked from the loving hands of my grandmother, mom, or Aunt Linda. This year I decided to give my favorite cookie recipe a try, these are the cookies that Grandmother & Grandaddy always made & they were so yummy. I always thought they were difficult for some strange reason. Anyway, tried them yesterday & seriously the easiest recipe ever. I have to admit that I got a little emotional when I took the first bite. It made me think of the warmth and love that came from my grandparents as I remember them. I am so thankful to have so many wonderful memories of two amazing people, one in heaven looking down on me, and one that occasional remembers me.

Anyway, here is the recipe...it is great for Christmas parties or gifts as it makes three dozen medium cookies or six dozen small cookies...

1 Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix (or any yellow cake mix brand)
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 package brickle or almond toffee

Mix and roll in Large balls (3 dozen cookies) or small/medium balls (6 dozen cookies). Bake @ 350 for 8-9 minutes. Cook until barely brown around edges.

ROLL: You can use a small or medium cookie scoop to make this process super easy and takes the guessing game out of how big to make them. It also makes them a more uniform size if you are taking them to a party or giving them as a gift.

EXTRA: You don't have to use brickle, my mom uses white chocolate chips & macadamian nuts, or really any mixture of items. Depends on your taste.

I have provided pictures of the brickle (Heath English Toffee Bits). This stuff is hard to come by & is typically only out during the holidays. I found mine at Walmart in the middle aisle with all the Holiday ingredients. There were only four bags so I of course bought them all....and will probably take a look around to see if I can't find more at other grocery stores, as this treat is nice even out of the holiday season.




This is what the bits look like out of the bag...



This is the cake mix I used, and it worked beautifully!



Ta Da....soooo easy!



I hope that you try them out & enjoy! Because they are my absolute favorite, with special memories attached to every decadent bite!

The fun of Charity!!!

There are so many ways to help those in need during the Christmas season. Some of my favorites are sponsored by our church, and the salvation army. First and foremost, I also give to the salvation army person volunteering their time to ring the bell in front of various shopping areas. A dollar here and there really helps out! We also typically choose a young child off of the Angel tree at church. This year; however, we chose an elderly lady that simply asked for a pair of cloves, placemats, and some stockings. I felt so humbled by her requests that I put in a few extra things! Just today I spent a wopping $40 on a stocking that will go to a teenage girl that lives at one of the salvation army shelters here in Alabama! Lastly, I am organizing the gift giving for three single mom's that are having trouble this Christmas season. So there is plenty of giving this year, but a little less effort is going in to those gifts for family and friends (sorry LaDawn :), and into ones that will provide families with things that they not only want but might need to survive!

I urge you all to also participate in at least one charity event this Christmas. These events are all around you.....just pick the one that fits best for you & your family!

Merry Christmas!

Stretched too thin!!!

Why does it always seem when you travel on the holidays or any other time to see family, that you feel stretched by both arms. There is never enough time to see everyone, or even spend quality time with the ones you want to see. We drove twelve hours from Alabama to Miami to surprise our in-laws for Thanksgiving, as I prepare our bags for tomorrow and that twelve hour drive lingers in my mind. I begin to wonder why did I decide this would be a good idea for only a few days. Then I remember my inlaws faces when we showed up & the excited call we got from Javier's brother and our sister-in-law! Of course it is all well worth it when I snuggle my twin nephews into my neck & give them as many kisses as possible! So tomorrow we make the twelve hour treck....UGH! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays!

So my hubby and I always get into this discussion around this time of year. After Halloween and before Thanksgiving, I typically say Happy Holidays to the people I meet or run into when out and about. I think that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now after Thanksgiving I give the Lord all the glory by proudly saying Merry Christmas to anyone in sight. Does it bother anyone else that we have become so politcally correct and so far off of our biblical base, that the media can not pronounce the Christ filled holiday as Christmas? We are such a busy society that Christ is getting "X"ed out of it everywhere. Especially when writing email messages from a blackberry or typing your update status on facebook. I hope that during this holiday season that people will realize that Jesus is the reason for the season & they will spell out those few extra letters to make it clear that Christ is the reason for Christmas!

I love Christmas so much! I even taught myself, with the help of youtube, to make beautiful bows just like my mom. So I got really excited and wrapped the presents that I have, which is all but three, and quickly decorated them with my mad bow making skills. After that I got the energy to get my tree up, simply because I like to enjoy it as long as possible. Some people think that I am weird, but I really do love Christmas that much!

Here is the website for the bow making,

As for the shopping. I am way OCD, and typically have most if not all of my shopping done by Thanksgiving. A few reasons for this...1. people are so grumpy when they shop in a rush & I think the Christmas spirit gets lost in it all....2. my hubby's side of the family is very difficult to buy for, so if I get an idea no matter what time of year it is, I purchase the item...3. my hubby kind of has that all too common Christmas money meltdown, so now he has it at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. My family along with many of my friends will tell you...that it is just because I am way to organized for my own good, and this too has a little bit of truth!

One that note have a happy turkey day & good luck with your Christmas shopping the day after.

It is all so exhausting!!!

I only have a few followers, but my sister frankly informed me that I needed to be better about updating this blog...oh and not be so depressing all the time. I must admit that it is hard to share stories of unexplained infertility & not be depressing. My actual mental state is fairly positive considering the circumstances, but the subject will stop a conversation in it's tracks.

I am a planner. I think it is a trait that I 100% inherited from my mother. So, in order for me to have a positive outlook, I have to plan. So our fertility plan is going, but going slowly. This past week I received an outpatient lapro for endometriosis. They only found a little bit and were able to cut it out with only one incision. My doctor continues to be very positive, and for this I am very thankful! I am confident with our plans to attempt conceiving through clomid and then the last few months we are in AL to try a fertility treatment known as IUI. This treatment is basically a turkey baster procedure & will only require clomid and my normal ovulation cycle. After these treatments, we will have our next assignment and we will 100% devote our efforts to the adoption process.

So, as the holiday season begins, I am happy to admit that I am comfortable and at peace with the plans that we have made for our family through God's grace and love. I know in my heart that God will bless Javier and I with a baby, and in our heart of hearts it doesn't matter if this child is conceived by us. We are thankful for the journey God has presented us, and we will gladly continue on his journey to give us the life that he has planned out! My new goal is to not only speak or write these words, but to walk the walk. By this I mean that I will work daily on lifting my desires up to God & accepting with love and admiration the path he chooses for Javier and I. All the while praising him, and loving him even more. He did after all give his only son for our sins, so in the grand scheme of things it seems like a small gesture on my part. In all things God is Good & God is Good in all things!

So, brings the holiday season, which normally magnifies my longing for a baby. This holiday season, and I say holiday because it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, brings forth hope for Javier and I. We have too many blessings to count. God has blessed us with each other, a roof over our head, food of plenty, and the ability to help those in need. This Christmas we choose to concentrate on the family that we currently have, and look forward to spending time in Indiana with my sister, brother in law, precious niece, mom, and a dear friend of the family. We also hope to get to Miami to visit our sweet little nephews, sister in law, brother, and Javier's parents within the new year. We find such joy in shopping for little trinkets for the niece and nephews that God has so graciously blessed us with, and we continue to be thankful that their parents allow us to be such an important part of their lives.

This Christmas we will concentrate on the birth of our dear Lord Jesus Christ and all that is involved with that incredible journey. I ask those of you who are following along this journey with me, to take some time this holiday season and put Christ first and foremost in your life & the rest will fall into place.

Happy Thanksgiving.......

Round 2

Well, My friend came to visit this weekend. I had been spotting for a few days, and kind of felt like it was coming. The good news is that we can try the clomid again this coming month. I have began to eliminate things from my life, that might help in the whole pregnancy process. So caffeine is gone & so is alcohol ... at least for the time being. I will continue to workout & try to keep my mind on other things. xoxo

A Waiting Game!

So we got the call from the doctor, that we did in fact ovulate. Of course we kind of alreayd knew that since the ever famous smiley face. So now we wait. This is my least favorite time, because it seems as if it takes forever for two weeks to pass. Not only that any ache or pain, your mind starts playing tricks on you. So I am trying to stay busy, and be easy on the workout until we know for sure. Unfortunately, I won't share any good news until we know we are safe but I will still blog about general stuff! BTW....Happy Fall everyone! Ciao, JoRie

Okay...so it has been awhile since I posted. We had an exciting week. All I can say is smiley faces are the greatest. We have used ovulation strips since the beginning of time (okay more like three years). They never & I mean never work...no line, no shapes, and definitely no faces. So we are trying out our first month of clomid prescribed by our amazingly positive new fertility doc. This past Wednesday I did the ovulation test, like I always do because it is habit by now. I went to bed, and realized I didn't check the results. I picked up the stick & a big ole face smiled back at me. I said in a hushed voice "Praise God it is a smiley face" my husband said what? I said a smiley face & he said what does that mean....I explained it would simply mean that he would go to sleep that night with a smile on his face! LOL! I have been pretty much on cloud nine since then! I know it doesn't mean we are pregnant, but God is giving me little signs of hope that something will happen & hopefully soon!

On a lighter note, one of my favorite shows started back up last week & that is Dancing with the Stars. I was so pleasantly surprised by Kelly Osbourne. She really shocked me with her poise and attitude for life. She didn't do so well last night, but all my votes went her way & I hope she hangs around for awhile!

Anyway...cheers to my post happy face week!

Ciao, JoRie

Working it Out Girl!

Why o Why is working out so darn hard??? If it is suppose to be good for you, then one would think it would be a lot easier! As I sit in front of my computer, I think if I will myself long enough the gym will simply appear around me. Well we all know that is not going to happen, so off my fanny I get & off to the gym I go. Have a wonderfully blessed day! Ciao, JoRie

And So It Begins

This as you can tell is my first blog, and I am a little nervous. I simply wanted to share my journey of being a military spouse, a PhD student, and trying to begin our family. My husband and I met in Phoenix Arizona in 2004. We got married and immediately moved to Monterey, CA in 2005 to attend language school. After language school we moved to Italy for a three year exchange assignment that we had hoped would allow us to expand our family. After actively trying for a year & half we saw the military doctors & were prescribed clomid, amazingly we got pregnant on the first try. We soon realized that the pregnancy wasn't normal & the fetus wasn't growing, we opted to have a D&C and over a year later are still trying to conceive.

We are not back in the good ole US of A stationed at Maxwell Air Force base & loving life in AL. We recently visited our new fertility doctor & can I tell you how pleased I was to have a positive, upbeat, and generally nice guy as my doc! I have had such reservations about the whole getting pregnant thing & really just thought about it way too much. This doctor made me feel so comfortable and at ease. He said "you are relatively young ;), have had a successful fertilization in the past, and there is no reason to think that we should do anything but adjust your dosage of clomid". Can I just say WHEW!!! I mean all along people have been telling me you are thinking too much about it, you work out too much, you this, or you that & here sits this smiling doctor telling me everything is going to be okay. Even if we don't conceive on our own using this doctors techniques at least we have a positive educated person on our side, helping us do all that we possibly can to make it happen.

On a more positive note, my hubby & I early in our relationship determined that we would adopt one day. We had anticipated it would be our last child, but we are now prepared to adopt not only our first child, but our second & third if this is the Lord's will. So we have used this small amount of time that we have been here in AL to research this option. We soon realized that since we will only be here one year we would not realistically be able to adopt a baby during our stay in AL. That is just fine with us, we will use this time to work on having one of our own...exhausting our options (those of which end at clomid induced IUI, because that is as far as we are willing to go on this fertility journey). So our adoption plan is this....as soon as we get our next assignment (which determines where we will live the next 2 or 3 years) we will begin researching non profit adoption agencies in that community. We were able to visit the social worker at the AL Catholic Social Services and she was able to answer all our questions & get us a good plan of action for our next home state. So basically we have the knowledge and ammunition it will take to accomplish adoption in the future how ever far or near that may be!

I don't plan on talking about fertility and my obsession with it daily on my blog, but I will take you on our journey, and see how it all plays out!

I can't wait to connect with people through this blog, and am so happy that I have other blogs such as www.momdiggity.com to encourage me along the way! I wish you all a blessed day & will hopefully come up with something clever to write tomorrow, and the day after that & so on!!!

Ciao, JoRie