Time for Turkey!

Yay for Thanksgiving week! I just love this time of year and this is one of my favorite weeks of all! So many fun things... Well first, it's a really quiet week at work -which is nice! Our office is closed Thursday and Friday and I'm taking off Wednesday, so it's only a two-day work week! Second, we have a really fun spaghetti dinner at a dear friend's parents' house Wednesday night that we go to every year. Always such a fun kick-off to Thanksgiving! And then of course there's Turkey Day itself... I of course adore the FOOD and family, but I also love the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the dog show afterward on TV. And the turkey-induced napping that afternoon, followed by a plate of leftovers that night! Sometimes we do the Black Friday thing, sometimes we don't... I'm not sure what the plan is this year! If we go, it's just for fun because our Christmas shopping is 95% done! And then finally Thanksgiving weekend is always topped off with the big Georgia / Georgia Tech game on Saturday night. Gonna be a good one! It always is...

Still hangin' in there with dot. We actually had dinner last night with our 2 to 1 ministry team at our leaders' home and they all prayed over us and for dot to stick, stick, stick! A very cool moment - so grateful to be surrounded by such caring friends. (Oh and on that note, I must give y'all the pasta salad recipe I used last night - delish!) We're of course continuing to pray everyday. We certainly want this to be our answer, but our biggest prayer is for continued trust and peace. We're so thankful for our little frozens, regardless of the results of this cycle. Just reciting over and over... "God's timing is perfect."

Now you know the two questions I'm getting most often right now are (1) "When do you find out?" and (2) "Do you think you're pregnant?" OK well first, we have a blood test at RBA on the Monday after Thanksgiving, so that will be our definitive answer. But we do plan to test on our own before then. As to exactly when, well it's nice to keep SOME things to ourselves - at least for a bit. So, mum's the word on that. And apparently some IVF'ers are dead set against peeing on a stick before the actual blood test. Well, not me. I rather know. My life is not riding on this... I just rather know. If it's a *no* - I'll be OK, but I just want to know. The "not-knowing" is truly the hardest part... all these scenarios running in your head. I don't want to go into the doctor's office Monday absolutely clueless and be waiting by the phone all day. No thanks! And, secondly, do I feel like I'm pregnant? Well I must tell you I really *hate* this question. First, how the hell would I know? But really, I hate this question because I personally do not like to speculate AT ALL. Of course I am feeling symptoms (but symptoms of what exactly?). My boobs are sore as hell. But I know that means nothing. Need I remind you of all the massive hormones I'm on and oh yeah, the big dose of the actual *pregnancy hormone* itself that was injected into my butt earlier? So yeah, to that question you get my standard "I really don't know - we'll see" with a stink eye. Sorry.

Yeah someone told me like 5 years ago that I would just "know it" as soon as I got pregnant. I'm calling bull shit on that theory. Maybe that's true for some, but not for me! I've been fooled before, so I really just try to stay chill and not speculate either way. I just hope, hope, hope, and pray, pray, pray... and do everything I can to make sure I'm eating right and taking all my crazy pills and drinking my nasty Noni. That's all I can do! The rest is on you, God!

So aside from the wait - which is actually going by pretty quickly - we've got lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! A huge surprise announcement at church caught me by surprise yesterday. Our church is building a Gwinnett campus in the next couple of years... it's going to be a hop and a skip from our house! This we knew - that was not the surprise. We knew about the Gwinnett campus and figured we would go there once it opened - it only made sense. But we love, love, love our Buckhead campus so very much. We just feel very invested there - we have always been there. We make the drive because we love it. And a big part of that is Jeff Henderson - the head pastor at the Buckhead campus. Well yesterday he announced that he is leaving Buckhead to head up the Gwinnett campus!!! That was a huge prayer answered that I didn't even know I had prayed! I am so, so stoked about this. I am truly sad for Buckhead Church to lose him, but so very excited and grateful that Jeff will be leading Gwinnett! And now we're of course sold on the idea of going to Gwinnett now that we know Jeff will be there. So huge!

And gosh, so much else to be thankful for this season... An amazing husband who gladly walks the trenches with me. Our two silly doggies who keep us smiling! Our amazing family and friends - seriously, we are blessed. Our little embies on ice! We got our own little army chilling in the lab - so grateful! The hub's new job - what a long way we've come since the beginning of this year! God is good. And just thankful for persevering over all this year... through baby drama, through money woes - we've nearly made it! We stuck to our guns and never faltered on the budget. We've got a long way to go with our financial goals, but I feel like we have steady feet now. Just continuing to trust and seek God's wisdom there. I think there are good things to come!

So what are you thankful for this year?

Oh PS, here's the pasta salad recipe I made yesterday. A huge hit! It's basically a caprese salad in pasta form. Love! I of course made it gluten-free with some good GF pasta courtesy of Wally World (and no one could tell the difference). I did nix the shredded parmesan, but I did leave in the fresh mozzarella. The mozz is in big chunks, so it's easy for me to scoot those to the side (sadly enough) to make it dairy-free. I so wanted to devour that cheese - ugh! Fresh mozz is one of my absolute favorites!!!