St. Andrew novena

I just wanted to post a reminder that the St. Andrew novena starts today, the feast of St. Andrew.  The prayer to the right is prayed 15 times each day from November 30 through Christmas.  DH and I usually pray all 15 prayers right before bed during our normal prayer time.  I've found it to be a nice way to quiet my mind and really reflect on the birth of Christ as we prepare to celebrate Christmas.  Even though it's a short prayer, I find myself focusing on a different phrase each day (like "in piercing cold"), which helps me imagine what it would have been like to be there.  I thought the timing this year is perfect because it's also the beginning of Advent, so we'll be praying by candlelight (from the Advent wreath).

DH and I have prayed the St. Andrew novena for the past few years.  I know some IFers have conceived after praying it, and I still pray that it might happen for us and others who are still waiting, but even if we don't conceive, it has become one of my favorite prayers and a family tradition.  (Family=DH+me)  :)

Two years ago I made a chaplet with 15 beads so I wouldn't have to count while we prayed.  If you'd like to make one, it's pretty easy to do.  I have no prior jewelry making experience...just taught myself from an online tutorial.  And the supplies aren't too expensive.

Happy Advent!

Surgery's done

Dr. E found stage I endo in a few spots, and at least one of them is in a tricky place to reach, so I'll need another bigger surgery with the robot to remove it.  There were no new fibroids.  She also did endometrial cultures.  We're heading home shortly, and I'm looking forward to a nice long nap.  I'm offering up the pain for all of you.

Surgery tomorrow

My laparoscopy to (hopefully) remove endo is first thing tomorrow morning.  We have to be at the hospital bright and early at 5:30 a.m.  I'm thankful that I'm not feeling nervous yet.  I received the Anointing of the Sick last weekend at the retreat, so I'm sure that has been helping me stay calm.

Somehow I lucked out and don't have to do a bowel prep today.  (I'm glad you can only throw virtual tomatoes at me right now...)  I'm offering up my day today on a clear liquid diet for all of you.  :)

DH will post an update here tomorrow when I'm out of surgery.

There's a hole in my soul

The retreat center.  St. John XXIII, pray for us!

The IF retreat that Rebecca organized was this past weekend.  It was just what I needed. I've been having a pretty rough past month or so, and the retreat was able to put a lot into perspective.  More people attended than last year, and something about seeing all of them in one room together was healing in itself.  In real life, I've only ever been in the same room as a handful of other IF ladies.  Having a whole room full of others carrying the same cross was a huge reminder that I am not alone.  It really hit home when one of the presenters (who was infertile) asked everyone whose life had been impacted by infertility to raise his/her hand; everyone's hand went up.  That visual alone was powerful.  Being able to see their reactions (i.e., tears) during the presentations was reassuring that I'm not just being too sensitive when I feel the pain of IF.  The pain is real and profound and even though everyone has a slightly different perspective, it is very much a shared experience.

very comfortable room where I did not spend much time

The presentations were excellent, but like last year, I got the most out of talking to the other retreatants.  It's rare to have time for fellowship with others who can relate to what I'm going through.  The IF blogs and the IF Fac.ebook group are great, but it's just so nice to sit and chat with people in person (says the shy phlegmatic).  Not having to put on a fake smile and pretend everything is fine with people I just met was rather refreshing.  Several of us stayed up rather late talking.  I figured I could sleep when I got home.  :)

One priest gave us a blessing with
a relic of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

While the retreat did shine a big spotlight on the pain of IF, it also encouraged me to try to move beyond the pain.  Often, when you're sitting at home on CD1, for example, the sadness is so great that all you do is turn inward.  That is the big problem with pain of any kind.  When your focus is only on yourself and what is making you miserable, it's harder to attempt to see the bigger picture of what God might want for you or your life.  The priests who attended the retreat struck a good balance between acknowledging the suffering of IF and challenging us to accept this cross and discern how to move forward in the circumstances we find ourselves.  They also reminded us that if we pray for very specific things, we run the risk of expecting God's will to match our will, a lesson that has been hard for me to learn over the past few years.

The retreat did help me to have an epiphany of sorts.  For a long time, I have had a question swimming around in my head that I could not answer.  I had studied St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body (beginner level) before I met DH.  It definitely deepened my desire for children.  There is so much more to TOB than having children, but that's a practical part of what I took away from it.  Since we started experiencing IF, I could never really mesh TOB with IF.  Granted, it has been a long time since I delved into the specifics of TOB, it kind of bothered me that I couldn't answer this question:  In light of TOB, how do you view IF?  No answer anyone gave me satisfied me, including my stab at an answer (that IF is a tragedy).

Here's my train of thought as a non-theologian:  The Trinity is a communion of persons.  God loves the Son, and the love between them is so powerful that it becomes a third person, the Holy Spirit. Marriage images the Trinity.  But if the marriage experiences IF, there is no third person.  According to that analogy I described, marriage with IF seems to not image the Trinity, at least in the physical sense, and that's why I came to the conclusion that IF is a tragedy.  I realize all analogies of the Trinity fall short in some way, but it doesn't feel so good to think of your marriage as some broken image of the Trinity.

But finally I think I have an answer that satisfies me:  The main way marriage images the Trinity is in the self-gift of the spouses.  Yes, in the majority of marriages that self-gift results in (biological) children.  But focusing on the presence (or absence in our case) of children as the main sign misses the foundation of self-gift that all marriages are built on.  I might be the only person that was hung up on this, but I'm really glad going to the retreat was able to shed light on this.

One of the presenting couples played the song below for us.  While it's not about IF. there were two parts of the song that really hit me.

"There's a hole in my soul. I can't fill it. I can't fill it.
There's a hole in my soul. Can you fill it? Can you fill it?"

For a long time, there has been a child-sized hole in my soul.  It's still there, but I'm slowly learning to fill it with God and all the other blessings in my life.  It's definitely a work in progress.  :)

"You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve,

And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground."

This describes DH and me in regard to emotions about IF.  I don't hide what I'm feeling, and he is more likely to keep his hidden inside.  I think going through IF is helping both of us understand the other better in this area.

"Flaws" by Bastille

I've been listening to it almost non-stop since the weekend.  Such a good song.  :)

There will be the same IF retreat in Omaha in March.  I highly recommend going if you're in the area...or even if you're not.  Quite a few of the retreatants from this past weekend drove five or six or more hours in order to attend, and I'm guessing they would all say it was worth the drive.  :)

If you test, she will come

I had heard of this phenomenon that if you (an IFer) take a home pregnancy test (HPT), AF will arrive shortly after.  I can say now that it happened to me.

I took my first ever HPT a cycle ago.  In over five years of TTC, I had never made it long enough to test.  I broke my rule of waiting until P+17 this time because it was a crazy cycle, and I needed to rule out things. I was pretty sick during the "fertile" time of the cycle and had pathetic mucus, so all signs pointed toward a double peak (assuming ovulation had not actually happened yet).  I've been charting for a looooong time and have never double peaked even amid significant stress, but there's a first time for everything.  :)  So I waited for the second mucus build up to start and did not take my HCG, which I normally take after peak day.

Ten days after the first peak, I had good mucus for two days.  I thought it was my second peak. That was followed by spotting...which didn't make any sense.  Another interpretation could have been that I did ovulate during the first peak, and this second patch of mucus was implantation mucus.  We had used P+2, so it was a possibility.  When the spotting continued for the third day, I was scratching my head.  I needed to rule out something.  Anything.  Taking my temperature wouldn't have helped at that point because I was post-peak regardless (either P+3 or P+14).  So I did the only other thing that I could think of that might shed some light on things—take a HPT.  DH came along to the store for moral support.  I found one of the $0.88 ones that I had heard about from NFP circles.

The before picture.  Prior to opening the box, I didn't even know
what the test would look like.  This was foreign territory.

I read the directions about twenty times because I didn't want to mess it up.  I was nervous, even though I was 99% sure it would be negative.  It was.

My first ever real BFN.

AF started the next day.  What a messed up cycle.  Dr. K thought the two days of good mucus post-peak was just premenstrual mucus/fluid that some women have.  I didn't know you could all of a sudden develop premenstrual mucus, but I guess you can...?

In that same cycle review, I mentioned that I have pain again during my period.  Boo.  :(  I've had a couple cycles lately with premenstrual spotting (three or more days of spotting before AF), and Dr. K had thought that was due to inflammation because my hormone levels were above normal. Does pain + inflammation = endo??

Well, we're going to find out.  In a week.  It all came together really quickly.

Next Friday, I'm having a laparoscopy with Dr. E, who did my last surgery 21 months ago.  Surgery #3.  Honestly, I hope it IS endo and that it can be cleaned out with just a regular laparoscopy.  Last time Dr. E had the option to switch to the robot during my surgery if she needed it (and she did). This time there will be no switching, so if there is too much endo or it's too hard to reach, I'll need a second bigger surgery with the robot (and a two week recovery).  If this is endo again, I must have some crazy aggressive form that it keeps coming back.  :(

I really don't expect this surgery to help us get pregnant.  DH is more optimistic.  I feel like we're fighting an uphill, losing battle against endo and infection/inflammation.  It seems like we can never fix both at the same time. The infection/inflammation had been taken care of for several months, but who knows if I had endo sneakily growing back during that time.  And now if we remove the endo again, I don't know that the antibiotic that used to work will still be strong enough to beat the TEBB.  Dr. E will be doing cultures of my uterus during my surgery, so we'll see what the bug status is in there.  I hope I haven't picked up any new bacteria like last time I was cultured.  :(

I'm disappointed to be having surgery again.  Being pain-free would be really nice.  Maybe the third time's the charm and this will keep the endo away longer?  A girl can dream...  :)

Tomorrow I'm headed to the IF retreat Rebecca is running this weekend, so hopefully that will take my mind off of surgery.  I'm looking forward to some IRL conversations with other IFers.  :)

I almost wish I would have tested

Does IF ever make you feel like you want to crawl in bed, bury your head under your pillow, and not come out?  That's kind of how I've been feeling lately, hence the lack of posting around here.  Maybe it's an introvert thing or an attempt to hide from my problems.

DH had ample opportunity to think
this while I was PMSing...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the previous cycle where I experienced some unique symptoms in the 2WW which had me convinced I was pregnant when in fact I was not.   So I vowed the next cycle I would try to ignore everything in the 2WW until I hit P+17, the day I could theoretically take a pregnancy test (via blood test).  When that next 2WW arrived, my plan was going well because I didn't have anything that mimicked pregnancy symptoms.  Great.  :)  I did however have some of the worst PMS DH has ever seen, the kind which includes the Mrs. Hyde-esque if-you-disagree-with-polkadot-you're-wrong-so-prepare-to-face-her-hormonal-wrath" attitude. Why?  I only had enough HCG for one day's shot, which I took on P+4. I tried to order my refill three weeks before I needed it, but the pharmacy said it was on back order. They didn't call me to say they had a new supply in until P+13, but by then it was too late. I survived (and so did DH) but it wasn't pretty.

So there were no fake pregnancy symptoms.  Then I had brown spotting on P+12, and it lasted five days.  That was new for me.  I have never ever had that many days of spotting before AF, and I have only had a 16-day post-peak phase twice since starting TTC five years ago.  So where does my mind go?  That I must be pregnant. Or (far more likely) my progesterone is close to zero since I didn't take all my HCG.  I tried really hard to assume it was low progesterone.  As it turns out, it was neither, but that's a story for another paragraph.

Since my doctor was not going to be available on P+17, I thought I should ask for the necessary blood draw requisition form ahead of time.  I had the e-mail to Dr. K's nurse all typed up right before bedtime on P+15 (figuring they would send it on P+16 so I'd have it ready for P+17).  I hovered my mouse over the "send" button, but didn't click.  I had this feeling like it was a waste.  I didn't want to be the girl who cried wolf and got their hopes up.  I closed the e-mail and left it in my drafts folder.  (It has since been deleted.)

On what would have been P+17, AF showed up for real.  It was definitely AF because it was moderate flow. The next two days I had light flow, and it tapered off from there.  I've never ever had that light of a period before. Usually I have at least two moderate or heavy days, not one.  I thought it was strange but was just planning to move on until I was doing a little light Fac.ebook reading.   One girl commented that her NaPro doctor considered early miscarriage to be a possibility whenever AF is unusual in any way for a couple TTC.  She also mentioned having a post-peak phase even just one day longer than usual adds to the suspicion.

Both of those were true for me...

I lost it. The tears were instantaneous.  The thought that I had possibly conceived and miscarried was totally overwhelming.  In the moment, I prayed something like, "Baby, if you exist in heaven, pray for me."  Of course it can never be proven one way or another so I won't know this side of heaven.  At that moment I started wishing I had taken a home pregnancy test.   I admit, the thought did cross my mind by the fourth day of spotting (P+15).  I figured that the HCG from P+4 would have been out of my system by then, so it actually may have been accurate (and not a false positive caused by the HCG injection).  If I'm being honest though, I'm not sure I would have truly believed whatever the result of the home pregnancy test would have been (either way), so maybe it's better that I didn't test.  Until proven otherwise, I go forward assuming that I have never conceived.

I thought Dr. K's cycle review might shed some light on things. It was definitely not what I expected.  My P+7 estradiol and progesterone values were above normal like they've been since eliminating the TEBB months ago.  In fact, my estradiol was higher than last cycle when I took all of my HCG on schedule.  I was scratching my head because I only took one dose of HCG this cycle and I had five days of premenstrual spotting.  But there was no way my progesterone could have gone from above 50 (normal P+7 is >13) to under 10 in just a few days (to cause the premenstrual spotting).  Dr. K's thought was that the premenstrual spotting was due to inflammation and is having me increase the turmeric from 2 times a day to 3 times a day.  I have never heard that premenstrual spotting could be caused by inflammation, but I guess you learn something new everyday in the NaPro world.

Dr. K also wants to repeat a semen analysis with culture.  That came as a shock and a disappointment.  I guess it has been 14 months since we did the culture that identified the bug we've been fighting since then.  I wonder if she thinks we have a new bug?  DH's sperm counts have always been normal.  I knew DH would not be thrilled to hear this, and he wasn't.  Last year's drama requiring two attempts just to get the culture done was no fun.  I decided to let his reaction guide what we would do next.  If he was not willing to repeat the test, we wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't ask again.  He was upset when I told him about it, but he didn't refuse it outright.  Perhaps part of that reason is that there is no lab within 60 minutes from here that is capable of doing a semen culture (and I don't even know if the nearest big city an hour away has a lab that could do it); the lab that successfully did the culture last year is in the city where my parents live, a plane ride away.  We're not visiting them again until Christmas, so that is the earliest we could do the test, giving DH some time to consider it.  He seems willing, which surprises me a bit, since we'd have to do the collection at my parents' house again.  We'll see how he feels as Christmas gets closer.

Given what happened this new cycle, I think the culture could prove to be very informative.  My TEBB returned.  Four days of it.  :(  (Dr. K doesn't know this yet.)  In the cycle review about a month ago, I had asked if we could take a break from the antibiotics that DH and I have been on the first 10 days of each cycle to see if it was the turmeric (and lemon water) that was responsible for eliminating the TEBB.  Dr. K was out of the office, so one of the fellows responded and said it was fine to skip a month.  Because I don't get the results of the cycle review until after CD1, I couldn't implement this until a month later (this cycle).  So we didn't take the antibiotics this cycle, and the TEBB returned.

I'm wondering if this is some sort of coincidence that the lack of antibiotics has nothing to do with TEBB's reappearance.  The first month we took the antibiotics:  no TEBB.  The second and subsequent months:  TEBB increased little by little.  When we added the turmeric (and lemon water and bromocriptine, if I'm listing everything) to the antibiotics:  no TEBB for five cycles.  Now turmeric et al. without antibiotics:  TEBB in full force.  The math just doesn't make sense, so I wonder if the TEBB was going to return this cycle regardless of antibiotic use...OR there's some synergistic effect going on that the antibiotics work together with turmeric et al. to prevent TEBB.  I'm really curious what is going to happen next cycle (and clearly there will be a "next cycle" because I have some raging infection/inflammation going on) when we add back the antibiotics.

There's never a dull day around here.  :P

Prayers about IF, miscarriage, and pregnancy

A friend of mind showed me this prayer book (more like a little booklet) that she had.  She thought I would appreciate the prayer about infertility.  When I paged through the book, I found several prayers that others might be interested in.  They might not appeal to everyone though.

-Prayer to Conceive
-Prayer after a Miscarriage
-Prayer at the Death of a Child
-Prayer to a Child in Heaven
-Miscarriage Prayer (Mother Angelica)

There were two about pregnancy that could also be for those anticipating adoption.  I didn't include them in this post, but if you click on the two titles, it will take you to a separate page with the full text of the prayers.
-Prayer for an Unborn Child
-Thanksgiving for Conceiving

This one has been floating around online. I don't know
who wrote it, but I gave it a pretty background. :)

Prayer to Conceive

Dear Mother Mary, you received from God the treasured blessing of divine motherhood.  In the name of the joys you knew when you pressed your beloved Baby to your breast, please hear and bless my petition!  You are the Mother of Mothers and you hold Motherhood very dear.  You know the great and real dignity of motherhood.  You know the great privilege of bringing into this world a new soul destined to praise God forever in heaven.  Dear Mother, I ask that through your intercession God would grant to me and my husband the grace to conceive a child.

Heavenly Father, for You all things are possible.  In Your Word You tell us: "Children too are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, His reward." -Psalm 127:3

O Father, I trust in You and in Your unconditional love for us.  I believe that You will hear my prayer, offered through the intercession of your Mother Mary.  I believe that you You will answer me according to Your Divine Will, for You have promised to give us the desires of our heart as we delight in You.  O Lord, increase in us always the presence and power of Your Divine Life.  Thank You for Your mercy, grace, peace, and provision.  In Jesus's name.  Amen.

Mother of mothers, pray for us!


Prayer after a Miscarriage

Dear Mother Mary, I come before you today with a heavy heart.  I have lost the beautiful child from within my womb, the child God gave me.  I do not want to accept this, yet I bring my sorrow to you, O Mother of Sorrows, because you understand.  I am filled with a deep sadness, O Mary, and I cry sometimes silently for this my beloved little one, now with you.  O Mary, I feel so alone, although my family and friends do their best to comfort me.  Still, I trust God, even when I don't understand.

O heavenly Father, You know what is best for us always.  Perhaps my child would have suffered greatly in life, or wasn't ready yet to come into the world.  I ask you, dear God, to please send Your mercy on all parents who are experiencing the loss and pain of a miscarriage and console them with the sure certainty that they will see their little treasure again.

I admit I feel some fear for the future, an apprehension that this could happen again.  Nevertheless, O Lord, I put my trust in You.  You are the God who heals me; You are the Good Shepherd who will neither leave me nor forsake me, so I am at peace.  Please kiss my little angel, and tell my child I yearn for the day we will be together again, with You, in the Kingdom of heaven.

O Lord, grant my husband and me the grace according to Your Will to conceive again.  Help us continue to make our home a welcoming place for all life.

Jesus, Comforter of all who mourn, we put our trust in You.  Amen.


Prayer at the Death of a Child

O most sorrowful Mother, my child is gone, and what can I say?  I feel so lonely, so sad; I miss my child so very much.  O dear Mother, I just want to run into your arms and your consoling embrace.  I need the comfort of your sorrowful heart.  I have lost my child, the light of my eyes, just as you lost your Son, Jesus, when He died on the cross for us.

O Mary, I don't understand why God has allowed this sorrow to come into my life.  However, I trust Him as my loving Father Who knows what is best for me.  O Mother Mary, help me put all my trust in Him.  Please take my child now under your mantle, and hold him/her close to your heart.  Please pray that God will give my family and me His grace and strength to carry on.  May I, like you, O Mother, be faithful to the end.  Amen.


Prayer to a Child in Heaven

My dear (name), you are no longer with us here on earth.  I miss you very much, and I long to see you.  Still, my faith tells me you are now with Jesus, Mother Mary, St. Joseph, and all the angels and saints.  It is hard for me understand why you were taken from my arms, but you can never be taken from my heart.  I love you and I will love you forever, until time is no more.

I find a certain peace in knowing I had a part in bringing you this great joy, the joy of heaven.  I also find strength in my hope to be someday reunited with you, never to be parted again.  Please pray for me, my dear child, that I may be faithful to my duties here below and thereby come to hold you again in my waiting arms in heaven.  Amen.

From Mothers' Manual by Bart Tesoriero

Miscarriage Prayer by Mother M. Angelica  (source)

My Lord, the baby is dead!

Why, my Lord—dare I ask why? It will not hear the whisper of the wind or see the beauty of its parents’ face—it will not see the beauty of Your creation or the flame of a sunrise. Why, my Lord?

“Why, My child do you ask ‘why’? Well, I will tell you why. You see, the child lives. Instead of the wind he hears the sound of angels singing before My throne. Instead of the beauty that passes he sees everlasting Beauty he sees My face. He was created and lived a short time so the image of his parents imprinted on his face may stand before Me as their personal intercessor. He knows secrets of heaven unknown to men on earth. He laughs with a special joy that only the innocent possess. My ways are not the ways of man. I create for My Kingdom and each creature fills a place in that Kingdom that could not be filled by another. He was created for My joy and his parents’ merits. He has never seen pain or sin. He has never felt hunger or pain. I breathed a soul into a seed, made it grow and called it forth.”

I am humbled before you, my Lord, for questioning Your wisdom, goodness, and love. I speak as a fool—forgive me. I acknowledge Your sovereign rights over life and death. I thank You for the life that began for so short a time to enjoy so long an Eternity.

I went there

Last cycle I went there.

I entertained thoughts that I really, really might be pregnant.

Normally I don't do this.  I realized whenever I'd enter into this quasi daydream of, "Oh, this could be the month!  Maybe this breast tenderness means there's a baby growing!" I found that it really didn't help my sanity and often made things worse, especially when CD1 inevitably came.  The anxiety it caused plus the mind games when I would get to peak+13/14/15 were enough to make me go crazy.  ("Am I pregnant?  No, I can't be.  Oh, but AF hasn't arrived so it's possible..."  Ad nauseam.  Pun intended.  haha)

I've posted this picture before...

Believe me, I know how tempting it is to analyze every little post-peak symptom and google them until I assume that I have to be pregnant because there is no other explanation.  But I decided a long time ago I would stop paying attention to post-peak symptoms—especially breast tenderness because I have that practically every cycle—unless I reach peak+17 because I just don't need all that drama.  I think it's saved a lot of mental anguish.  :)  In that respect, I daresay my usual 2WW is almost peaceful.  (Almost.)  ;)

So, why, you may ask, did I have myself practically convinced that I was pregnant last cycle?

This:

Peak+8 is most definitely the wrong time to have the stomach flu (gastroenteritis).  It started at 3 a.m. with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.  Repeat several hours later.  Then I was back to normal.  I honestly can't remember the last time I had any of those three symptoms.  You just can't ignore nausea and vomiting.

According to Dr. Google, diarrhea is actually a more common pregnancy symptom about eight days after ovulation (my estimate) than vomiting.  Did you know that?  I didn't.  Since I had eaten 95% of the same food as DH the two days prior to getting sick, it surely couldn't be the stomach flu.  And what kind of stomach flu lasts for five hours total?  When DH had the stomach flu a few months ago (probably from unwashed spinach), it lasted a solid 36 hours.

Dr. Google also told me about some women who had just a single day of morning sickness and nothing more.  I was drawn into the illusion of pregnancy hook, line, and sinker.  I started thinking of my favorite baby names and how I would tell DH.  There were a few more strange symptoms in the days after the stomach flu incident that I've never had before during the post-peak phase.  All of this really had me convinced.  A 15-day post-peak phase plus just a tiny bit of spotting in the morning on CD1 (and nothing the rest of the day) wasn't much help in the let's-bring-polkadot-back-to-reality department either.

When AF did arrive in full force on CD2, my little dream world came crashing down.  I didn't take her arrival well at all:  tears, more tears, a little anger, a one-sided dialogue of "but God, I thought I was pregnant..." and even more tears.

Dear body, please don't do that again post-peak unless it's the real deal.  None of this imitation stuff that just messes with my head.  :P

Hopefully this cycle I'll be able to go back to happily ignoring any and all symptoms during the 2WW...  :)

Fun questions

For a little change of pace around here, below are my answers to Stephanie's questions:

1.) Why do you blog?  to connect with others in the Catholic IF world

2.) What is your favorite smell?  coffee

3.) What would you have as your last meal? Include appetizer, main course, and dessert.
Croissants and Caesar salad, chicken piccata, tiramisu

4.) If you could master any skill overnight, what would it be?  photography

5.) Who's your favorite Disney character?  Belle

6.) What movie did you most recently watch?  "Emma" (with Gwyneth Paltrow)

7.) What song are you currently listening to on repeat?  “One Thing” by Finger 11

8.) Cupcake or slice of pie?  pie

9.) If you could have a miniaturized animal as a pet, what would you pick? (For example, John tells me he wants a mini-bear.)  Panda bear

10.) If you just found out company was coming over in a few hours, what dish would you whip up for them?   chicken tortilla soup

I gave in

I succumbed to the temptation.  I joined Pinterest.  :)

plumpolkadot1

If you want to see my boards, click on the icon above.

These are the boards I started:

1. Encouragement from the Bible - any Bible verse that addresses suffering or provides encouragement (and was the cutest image I could find)
   
2. Christian encouragement - other quotes or sayings that could lift you up if you're feeling down
3. Saints quotes on suffering - mostly from saints but does include other famous Catholics
4. Catholic infertility - quotes related to the Catholic view of marriage and infertility (I'm really hoping to find more pins to add to this one, so if you know of any, please tell me where to find them.)
5. NFP Natural Family Planning - images, quotes, and articles on NFP (including the Creighton Model and NaProTechnology)
6. GF DF SF recipes - gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free recipes (or those that could be easily made that way) that I've tried
7. Infertility humor - memes, cartoons, etc.

I'm trying to limit my time on there, but I can see how people spend hours and hours looking for fun things to pin.  :)