My Birthday

Well today is my 34th Birthday (and Oprah's 56th). Haha! It has been a really nice day. It started off with Mom and I pallin' around, then we went and picked up Sweetness. All 3 of us had a very nice lunch together. Then I went into work for awhile. One of my co-workers gave me a small gift. It really was so kind, because we are very new friends, but I have a feeling we will be great friends.

Then I headed to teach my class this evening, planning to let them out very early so I could go to dinner with my family. Well when I walked in, the students all sang Happy Birthday to me. Then they gave me a very sweet card, which they had all signed. Here is a picture.

They then brought in all these beautiful cupcakes for everyone to eat. It was really very touching. They just met me on Monday on the first day of class!! Then I gave them a quiz, lectured on one quick chapter, and we dismissed by 7:30pm. I then headed over to the Cheesec.ake Fact.ory to meet up with my parents and Sweetness.

We had such a nice dinner, and then I got to open my presents. Here is the incredibly sweet card from my husband.

And one from my parents......

And then, I got to open my present from Sweetness. Here it is......

He bought me a diamond "Journey" necklace. I have been wanting one for awhile! It is really just gorgeous!!! Wanna see a close-up???? Okay here ya go......

I am so blessed. I mean I truly am. I have an amazing marriage, an equally amazing husband, a great job, wonderful parents and great friends. It is hard to think that today I am now only 1 year away from the dreaded 35 year old mark when your fertility "drops off significantly."

I never dreamed I would be this old and not have a baby, but I am really trying to trust the Lord, who has given me all my other blessings. My prayer is that by the time I am 35, I am either pregnant or holding a baby in my arms.

So we are home now finally, and we are all snuggled in waiting for the snow storm to start. We NEVER get snow, but they are actually saying we are GOING TO GET IT TONIGHT (6-12") !!!!! I can not wait!!!

I am going to do my next blog post on how Sweetness and I met, as I have received a lot of questions on that, and it really is a very neat story.

Thank you to everyone who has called, texted, faceb.ooked, and sent cards to me. I have an awesome support group!!! I am really looking forward to this next year in my life......I know it will be great!

Our 1st Anniversary!!!

Well today is my first anniversary with my Sweetness! It is so hard to believe that one year ago today, I met my precious at the alter, and saw him crying before I even got there, and then I started too! I remember our wedding being the most powerful worship experience as we praised our Lord who brought us together!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of the wedding ceremony. Our pastor asked all of our friends to come up and pray over us as he prayed for us also. It was such an awesome moment!!!
This truly has been the best year of my life! He truly treats me so wonderful, he is so kind and loving, I mean the Lord truly sent me my soul-mate!
And it was sooooo cold that day (a high of 13 degrees), I had to wear my little white fur capelet!!
Moments after becoming Mr. and Mrs. Marsden....

Because my Sweetness is so romantic, he booked us a weekend this weekend at the Cyprus Moon Inn Bed and Breakfast. We both took off Friday and headed on down to the Outer Banks in NC. And it sure was beautiful!!! Here is a picture of our room.....

Friday night we went to dinner at the Black Pelican. Many friends suggested it and it was very yummy!

Then we went back to the bed and breakfast, and had some wine on our patio off our room, and this was our view! Just breathtaking!

And another look......

Then yesterday, he had booked us for a couples massage. It was really nice, although I am so sore now in my shoulders, I think the guy did a deep tissue one on me, even though it hurt pretty bad, I was too embarrassed to speak up. Dumb I know!!! Then we went to dinner at a really nice seafood place. When we got back to the room, we had some sparkling cider in our toasting flutes we used for our wedding!

I hope you can see how pretty these flutes are. And the inscription on them says "Two Hearts joined in Love Sean and Heather 1-17-09" I did not really think I was so sentimental about these glasses, but the thought of something happening to them just makes me so nervous. We also cut our top layer of wedding cake. It was still really good after being frozen for a whole year. It was just a really wonderful weekend all the way around.

We just got back home, and unpacked, and are watching some football. Then we are going to watch our wedding video tonight and relive the commitment we made to each other one year ago today. My prayer is that our marriage would stay as wonderful, loving, committed and happy as we are one year later!!!

Ending with my Scripture for our relationship:

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine...."

Song of Solomon 6:3

What a week....

Wow! I am so busy with this new job, I am just exhausted. I think my body is feeling it too. I was 8 days late this month. Of course we were hoping maybe.....just maybe.....but as usual in the IF world, it was not to be.

But I am so looking forward to this weekend. On Sunday, Sweetness and I celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary! And to show you how amazing he is, he has booked us a weekend getaway in the OBX at an awesome Bed and Breakfast, AND scheduled a couple's massage for Saturday afternoon. Woo hoo!!!! So we are leaving Friday around noon, we are both taking Friday off, and heading on down. I will be sure to take lots of pictures. We plan to get some sparkling grape juice and use our toasting flutes form our wedding and eat the top layer of our wedding cake, I can't wait!!!

So hope you have all had a good week. My heart breaks for the sweet people of Haiti tonight. I know the Lord sees them and has them in the palm of His hand. Thanks for stopping by my friends' blogs and showing them support in their terrible time of loss. Jeanna did deliver her twin boys, and she is home now trying to heal.

I will post our weekend pictures when we get back!!!! :))))

My heart is hurting for some friends today.......

Yes girls, I am still here. I can not tell you how busy I have been! This new job is keeping me hopping even when I am not in class teaching, I am studying and preparing for the next class. I mean I told Sweetness the other day that I feel like I have gone back to school. Really.......I am studying as hard as when I was in school myself! But I am so very thankful for this opportunity and the Lord blessing me with a job in this economy when so many people are out of work.

Soooooooo, next weekend on Jan 17th, Sweetness and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary! I can not believe how fast this year has gone by, but I have been so happy with him that I guess time flies when you are having fun! So being the sweet incredible man that he is, he booked us a weekend get a way to a beautiful bed and breakfast in the Outer Banks in North Carlina. We are both taking next Friday off and heading on out! This week he came home and surprised me by telling me he also booked a couple's massage for 3pm on Saturday! Wooo Hoo! He is just so wonderful!

In other news, my dog Maggie is real sick. After $400 at the vet on Thursday they have determined she has a kidney stone that is lodged in her kidney. Her kidney function is not great, but not enough that they need to intervene. So she is loaded up on pain meds and we are hoping she passes it soon. Poor Baby!

And in the infertility world, we are just taking it day by day. We are still trying naturally of course, but I am trying not to make it the focus of our life right now, and just enjoy being with my best friend. We need an emotional break from it for awhile.

But I follow so many blogs of infertility and most of my blogger friends have gotten pregnant. Well this week has been filled with unspeakable sadness for two of them. My blogger friend Jackie lost her baby at 11 weeks, and having a D & C on Wednesday. And my other friend Jeanna was pregnant with identical twins, went in on Thursday to find out the genders and there were no heartbeats. She was 19 weeks 3 days! My heart aches for these ladies, especially Jeanna as she is currently in the hospital, with her labor being induced to deliver her angel babies. I ask that my praying friends that read this, remember them and their husbands in this terribly difficult time. I always remember the verse in the Bible where it the psalmist says that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. Lord Jesus, I pray you bring healing and peace to these very broken hearts today!

A Look back at 2009!

I thought I would the opportunity this New Year's Eve to look back at the good, the bad, the ups and downs and oh the many, MANY blessings that I have been blessed with this year. This is probably the longest post I have ever done, filled with many pictures, so please grab your favorite cup of java and let's get started.

JANUARY- truly a HUGE month, so busy, but Sooooooo happy!

On Jan 17, 2009 I married my best friend. He has been truly an amazing gift from the Lord. I can't believe we will celebrate our 1 yr anniversary in 2 weeks! Here are some pics of that glorious day!

It was seriously the coldest day of the year! It was only 13 degrees out, notice the ICE in the background on the fountain! Brrrrrrrr
A beautiful shot.
My BFF Kate and her precious daughter Katianna. She lives in Minneapolis and I sure miss her. One day sweet Kate we will live closer! Thanks for being my maid of honor!
And anyone who reads this blog at all knows, my Sweetness LOVES Clemson. Here is his groom's cake....."The Paw says it All!"
Thank you everyone who made our day the most magical and beautiful day we dreamed of!

And after every great wedding, is a fantastic getaway called a honeymoon! My Sweetness booked us an amazing trip to Colorado to go snow skiing! Awesome!

Here we are walking the streets of Vail.

A shot of us on the slopes in Breckenridge!We even met RiperRoo !

Sweetness booked us a magical sleigh ride in the snow, complete with hot chocolate!

We posed in our condo before we left!

Then we came home to a house full of tons of presents! We had a ball opening them all up! Thank you to everyone who blessed us that day and all year! Precious memories. I will never forget.......

Then on Jan 29th was my 33rd Birthday. I felt like we were celebrating all month!

We went to dinner with my Mom and Dad at PF Chang's.

FEBRUARY- I started off the month taking my first trip ever to Utah. My job had their National Sales Meeting there in Park City, good times!!

I got to snow ski again! Wooo hoot!

Then we all celebrated at our good friends Robin and Mark as they became husband and wife!!! AND they just found out yesterday they are expecting their first baby!!! Love you guys!

Then the next couple months of Spring kind of flew by........ just settling in to married life.

JUNE- I prepared for my Sweetness's big 40th Birthday for months! Finally on June 9th- he went over the hill with an all day celebration!!!

The cake I had made for him, Snoopy the flying Ace!! He LOVES Snoopy!

We went para sailing earlier in the day....so fun!

He was pretty happy about all his presents! Just LOVE him!JULY- The month I started this blog! When I look back at all the posts, it really is a nice way of "journaling" so to speak!

Also, My sweet Mom had her knee replaced in July. She had a tough recovery but looking back now, she is sure glad she got it done. I am too, she is not in so much pain all the time. The Lord really had His hand in so many things with regard to this surgery.

And in July.......we had our first IVF. Here are our two precious ones that we lost in the first IVF attempt. I know they are in heaven with the Lord, but it does not make it hurt any less when you look at them.......

AUGUST- We remodeled our guest bathroom......It sure was some back-breaking work, but we are happy with how it turned out.

SEPTEMBER- We purchased new furniture. We have since gotten rid of this coffee table and purchased a neat leather ottoman that stores things inside. Very Comfy!

I also took another trip out West to Arizona for another National Sales Meeting. It was sooooo hot in Scottsdale, but very posh!

OCTOBER- I was let go from my job, but it sure has turned out to be such a blessing! I knew at the time that God had something great in store for me, it was kind of exciting to see what it would be. We also started IVF #2 with our frozen embryos.

NOVEMBER- One of the highlights of the year was going to the Clemson game with Sweetness. He just loves his alma mater and we both LOVE college football! We had an amazing time and I will never forget this amazing experience.

AND...... we had our second IVF transfer on Nov. 19th with these three precious embryos. Again it was negative. To say we were heartbroken is an understatement, but as with ALL things, we must keep going and keep our faith. I know all 5 of my precious babies are in heaven, loved and happy; but oh how my heart aches for them. I loved all of them.

DECEMBER- The best time of the year!!! To get us started and get into the Christmas Spirit, Sweetness and I went to Busch Gardens and saw ChristmasTown. Awesome!!! Here are some highlights.....

And also, I landed a wonderful new job as a college professor, teaching Anatomy and Physiology. The Lord really has blessed us with this opportunity, and I feel like I am making a real difference. I love it way better than sales, and not so much stress. When I left my last job, my company car went with it, so it was time to buy some new wheels. Here is a pic of my beautiful 2010 Toyota Camry. This is a sweet car, and I am enjoying it!

That brings us to CHRISTmas! Truly the best time of the year! My BFF Kate sent me a surprise package to my Mom's that I found under the tree. Thank you Kate! I sure do miss you and KK- and am so jealous of all that snow you have!!!!
And Sweetness wanted a Clemson Snuggie ever since we saw them on TV. Well here he is trying it on for the first time. Funny thing is, I ordered him a Clemson one and me an Alabam Roll Tide one at the same time. Well his came in like 4 days, I still have YET to get my Alabama one! But at least the important one came!
And something we will never forget.....Sooo funny! The day after Christmas, my mom and dad were taking my grandma's car down to her, well it was stuck in the mud in their side yard because we have had like 126" of rain this year......Seriously nothing but mud here in VA. Well me, Sweetness and Mom all were pushing on the front of her van while my dad tried to put it in reverse and well what you see below is what happened.

We laughed and laughed, I just had to take a picture of my mom! Love her!

And a final shot of me and Sweetness. He is my most precious gift!
So there you have it, our year in review. What a crazy one it has been!

I think I have experienced the highest-highs and lowest-lows this year on our journey, but it is our journey together. In our broken times, it is when we find more of HIM, it is when we see how far we have come and what we have left to work on. Our journey to parenthood is not over, we have no idea where we will be next year, we could still be in this same place or have a baby in our arms and their stocking hung on the mantle. But through it all we WILL believe in our Lord, His Sovreignty and His Will.

Through the highs and lows, the great and the not-so-great, I feel His grace fall like rain on my life. I still believe in His faithfulness, I still believe in His Truth, I still believe in His Holy Word......and even when I don't see........I STILL BELIEVE!!!!

PS- I know many of you "lurk" out there and dont comment (like I do too on some blogs) but if you have enjoyed reading this blog, please leave a comment- I would love to see who is really reading all my ramblings!