Big Changes

As things continued to progress with my pregnancy Josh and I began to realize we had quite a bit of money saved up, and the dream we'd had for years of owning our own home began to tug and tug at us. It hurts so bad to throw away money month after month on rent when you could potentially be building value in a home of your own. And Seattle's amazing real estate market combined with their ridiculous rental market only made it more painful. So in in March Josh and I found a financing company and got started on our hunt for an affordable fixer-upper. (SUPER challenging in Seattle in case you're wondering.)

Using an awesome app called Redfin Josh and I found lots of homes and toured several of them. Our financing made it tricky. We had to find a fixer-upper in our price range that wasn't too far gone, and whenever we found one it got snatched up by super rich people with cash who wanted to flip it or tear it down completely.

And then we got lucky and found a place we fell in love with. We put in a full price offer the day we saw it, and the next day our offer was accepted! And without further ado, here are a million pictures of the place.

Street view...there is a house back there. I promise.

See!

 Front Porch

Living Room

Dining Room

Basement Bedroom

Open Basement

Garage

View to the backyard

Fabulous derelict greenhouse

Kitchen

Back porch

Nursery

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Oh, and right about when we bought our house we found out that we were having a boy! Pepe!

Growing Baby

After Katelyn left we finally started telling people besides family about our baby. This first photo was when I was just 9 weeks pregnant. In my mind I thought the first ultrasound would look like one of those grey screens where the technician is like, "there's your baby." and you're like... "I see nothing." My mind was blown when this little guy popped up. I can't believe you can almost make out facial features. Abortions. Ugh. Don't do them.

If only Fiz knew that he was holding such an attention sucker. Sorry Fiz.

Katelyn Visits!

After the exciting adventures of jail time Josh and I made it the rest of the way to Utah without any further mishap. With so much stress from the trip we waited until the following day to tell family about our pregnancy. We did it while we were out to breakfast and were chided for doing it at such an inopportune time. (What can I say? We were new to the whole "we're pregnant" announcing thing.) There may have been a scream from Lisa and tears shed by most and it was all very great and happy. We weren't going to see my parents until later on in the week, but I couldn't wait to tell them too, so we met for dinner that night and I filled them in on the exciting news. More tears and more happiness. It was all around a great time.

The rest of our trip was great pretty low key. Pregnancy is EXHAUSTING for me in the beginning so I did a load of napping. And Josh couldn't do much because of his broken leg. Soon our vacation had come to an end, but happily we were heading home with Katelyn.

Quick side story. All in all my pregnancy was amazing. In the very beginning I was incredibly tired, but after a few weeks that ended and I was mostly left with a pallet for very bland foods. Sometimes I would get slightly nauseated, but it really wasn't too bad. The worst of it happened on our drive home from Utah. We had stopped to grab a bite to eat, during which Kate and I switched places in the car. While climbing in I somehow stepped in some sort of weird goo that looked like snot and accidentally got it on Kate's backpack. I felt bad and was trying to clean it off, but couldn't stomach it. I kept gagging every time I looked at or touched the goo. It was funny and also pathetic, but in the end the goo won and my Panda Express ended up on the pavement.

Anyway, back to Kate's visit. Sadly Josh and I both still had to work, but Kate was cool with it and did her own thing some of the days. Other days she came on a few dog walks with me. When Josh had a day off we hiked Rattlesnake Ledge again. It was MUCH wetter this time. I was sitting two dogs that we brought with us and we all got thoroughly soaked. It was still great fun though.

At one point Kate tried "farmer blowing" to rid her of some boogers and ended up with the most amazing snot string EVER! Yummy. Clearly Fiz and Harlow were interested. 

Josh and Kate road bikes across the Lake Washington floating bridge when I was at work one day, and we spent some time at Seward park looking closely at rocks... and taking pictures of witchcraft... Seattle is always full of interesting things. We wished Kate could have stayed longer, but she left us for Oregon and cute kiddos after just a few days. Come back soon!

I Married A Criminal

It was finally the end of January and time for Josh and I to make our trek to Utah for a belated Christmas with family. We were super excited to go, and having made the decision to tell our family we were finally blessed with child we couldn't get there fast enough. Unfortunately... Josh was speeding just a tiny bit, and as his luck goes with coppers we were pulled over in Montana. (Heavy sigh)

That was when a fairly ordinary occurrence for us turned very not ordinary. After the cop took Josh's drivers licence and did his little research in his car he returned and asked Josh to get out of the car, As Josh was asking if there was a problem the cop placed him in handcuffs... And as Josh was being led away to his patrol car I heard him say that Josh's license was suspended. Then I sat in the car and waited and waited for the cop to give me my husband back, positive that there was a mistake. Unfortunately that never happened and instead he came back and told me I needed to follow him to the police station where he was going to book Josh.

So I need to back up a little. When we were driving away from Virginia for the final time a couple years back Josh was pulled over for speeding (go figure) and was given a ticket. He decided he wasn't going to pay said ticket because we were never going back to VA and it didn't matter to him because we were under the impression that doing that would only effect his licence in that state. Months later Josh received a threat in the mail from VA telling him that they would suspend his licence if he didn't pay up, so in the end he decided it wasn't worth the risk and paid the ticket. Apparently he was late and they suspended his licence anyway. We had no idea because he got another licence in Washington no problem, and we assumed he wouldn't be able to had they already suspended his old one. Guess we were wrong.

Josh got booked into jail for driving with a suspended licence, speeding 6 over, and failing to show proof of insurance (which we couldn't do because we had misplaced our insurance card and the internet wouldn't work in the canyon to pull it up online). His bail was set at about $600 and I was told he would have to stay two nights in jail, the requirement for driving with a suspended licence. Not stressful at all.

Luckily (I use this word liberally) they were able to get the traveling judge to come so Josh could plead his case that day. It took several hours, during which I grabbed some food from one of the 10 buildings in the entire town and hung out with Fiz. They wouldn't let me see Josh who just had to sit in a cell and wait. He was looking quite fabulous, might I add. Two nights before he had worked an overnight, after which we drove straight to Spokane so he could get more work done on his missing front tooth. We were both still in pajamas, he had a limp because of his broken leg, and he had left his flipper in the car making him toothless for his entire stay. The lady who helped book him was chatting with him and when his career came up she could hardly believe he was a doctor. Finally, after more than 4 hours, the judge showed up. Josh was chained and shackled, and I mean CHAINED and SHACKLED. Feet chained together, and a chain around his waste that his handcuffs were linked through. For a suspended licence... Seems necessary. After pleading his case we were able to post bail and they told us Josh could pay some jail somewhere else to spend his required two nights at another date. I can't even believe that's a thing.

Weeks later, Josh was giving a lesson in church and told the story of his arrest. He was blessed when a member offered the help of a lawyer friend from Montana. He helped Josh fight the charges arguing that we never knew Josh's licence was suspended. Had he known he would have taken care of the issue and never would have been driving. We ended up getting some of our lost money back, but most importantly Josh didn't have to spend the required 2 nights in jail for driving with a suspended licence since thy dropped the charge to driving without a valid licence. Technicalities. It was a terrible terrible experience, and one that opened our eyes to how bad our justice system is. If you want to hear our opinion on that you'll have to hit us up directly though. I've written enough.

Sadly we have no actual pictures of the incident, but here is a FABULOUS depiction of  our story. Our nieces Emory and Tessa built this mock up of Josh in jail while I was waiting for him. We're such good role models.

Soccer

While Josh and I were living in Spokane we made friends and joined up with an indoor soccer team. Josh had never really played so it was all new for him. He was a quick learner though and fell in love just like me! So when we moved to Seattle we wanted to keep playing. We both played outdoor for a co-ed team, which was a whole new learning experience for Josh. He also started his own indoor team composed of fellow anesthesiologists...and some others. (It was a bad experience. Apparently teams made up of doctors means no one shows up for games.) Two games into the season Josh turned into one of those no-show people, but for good reason. Game two he broke his leg.

He hobbled around on it at work for a day or two before getting one of the ortho docs to take a closer look. Josh thought it might be broken, and the ortho guy agreed, so Josh got an x-ray and a brace. I think the brace lasted just a few days though. I guess it hurt more than going without. At least his first broken bone didn't ruin his love for the game!

Surprises

Warning: Talk of cycles and pee. Read at your own discretion.

It was the beginning of the new year and I had mentioned to Josh that I was late starting my cycle. At the same time I also told him I was pretty much refusing to take a pregnancy test. In the past four years I had been late many times and had taken several pregnancy tests, all of them coming out negative, and then almost always I would start my cycle the very next day. It was super frustrating, and though pregnancy tests are cheap I was always bitter about the wasted money.

A few days later I finally gave in. I bought the cheapest tests I could find and peed on a stick while I was home for lunch in between dog walks. The test came out inconclusive. It was the first time I had received anything other than a negative. Annoyed, I chalked it up to the cheap test. There was another stick in the box, but I was out of pee and had to get back to my walks.

The rest of the day was busy, and as a new years resolution I had set the goal to attend the temple with Josh monthly. That Wednesday (Jan 7th) happened to be the first night we were going with friends from the ward, and we didn't get home until late. While getting ready for bed I remembered the other stick and took the second pregnancy test. Positive. I remember just walking out of the bathroom and holding the stick out to Josh. He looked with confusion and asked me what it meant. "It came out positive." We both just stared at each other. I told him I didn't believe it. He said he didn't either, and suggested I take the second test from the kit. I then mentioned I had already taken the first one earlier that day, repeating my mistrust of the cheap tests. First inconclusive and then positive?! They had to be faulty.

We couldn't wait until morning to try again. Hurrying out in our pajamas we drove to Kroger to get a new kit. They were locked up and the pharmacist, who had gone home for the night, had the only key. On to Rite Aid. The lady was literally locking their doors as we got to them. Finally, after what seemed like we had gone a million different places (which we clearly had not) we picked up another (not cheap this time) pregnancy test. I still remember at check out the lady looked at us and asked, "Should I wish you good luck?" which Josh and I both laughed at. YES lady. Definitely yes.

Now, close to 11pm (that's super late for us oldies okay?) I peed on my third stick with the little pee that I had built back up during our hunt for tests.

You guessed it. Second positive. I don't know how either of us ever got to sleep that night.

We were still hesitant to believe it, not wanting to get our hopes up, but I remember sending a text to Josh at work the next morning with this picture and the caption, "I think I'm starting to believe."

Zero Babies

Lets talk about fertility shall we?! Or rather infertility I should say. Sorry, it's a lot of words and little pictures. I'm writing it more for me than for anyone else though, so read if you want and don't if you don't. :)  The beginning of our adventure began about 2 and 1/2 years after Josh and I got married. We decided it was time we let nature take its course and I went off birth control. Unfortunately nature isn't always predictable and after several months of no change we realized getting pregnant might not be as easy as we had originally thought. Josh kind of knew the steps that a doctor would take in our situation so we tried for a year before I went to see a doctor, hoping that we could then get a dose of Clomid and it would be an easy fix. After taking a few tests she suggested we try a while longer and didn't think Clomid would do anything.

Fast forwarding a few months. Josh and I decided that I would move to Utah early and look for a job, while he finished up a few rotations before joining me. We knew that we would likely be in Utah for less than a year so I held off on seeing more doctors, knowing that any further steps we would take with our infertility would take longer and cost lots.

More fast forwarding. About 9 months later we found ourselves in Spokane. Since it had been over two years of trying with zero results we decided it was past time I saw a specialist. I began seeing Dr. Robins at the Center for Reproductive Health, and it was lame. (Not my favorite office. It left me feeling like I was just one in a herd of cattle.) After running tests he concluded that we should start with 3 rounds using an ovulation induction drug called FSH. After going through one round Josh and I talked and decided to skip the next two. We had already spent a fair amount of money running tests and rerunning tests. Our insurance offered zero coverage for infertility, making each round cost just under $1,000. Based on the tests we had run there was no reason to believe that ovulation induction was going to be anymore successful than the last two years had been. We opted instead to start saving our fannies off, anticipating spending the big bucks on IVF. (It's really difficult to build up any sort of savings while going through medical school.)

Fast forward, fast forward, fast forward...We spent the rest of our time in Spokane saving as much money as we could, and then after moving to Seattle I met with a doctor from Pacific Northwest Fertility to see if they agreed that IVF should be the next step. They did, and after getting the cost info we realized we would still need more money and continued trying to work and save. The first round of IVF would cost about $15,000. Then we would have to pay several thousand a year to freeze any eggs we wanted to keep for future rounds.

Months later after working, saving, working, saving, working, saving, and working and saving, we were close to having enough money for our first round of IVF. And then we got a surprise.

And since I have no pictures of ...infertility... (I don't even know what that would be.) Here is a picture of our fur child. We love his weirdness.