Week in Review: August 25th-31st

I'm very excited to be starting my "Week In Review" posts.  I'm always saying that I want to be more intentional about taking photos and writing down memories of our everyday life, and I believe this is a good way to keep me accountable to those goals!

On Monday, Joseph and I met our friend Meredith, and her little boy, Isaac, for lunch at Rearn Thai.  We do this every few months and it is so much fun!  I totally meant to take pictures, but totally forgot.  Sweet Isaac is 10ish months old, and I had a ball holding the little guy.  He is precious!  Thanks, Meredith and Isaac, for making our Monday great!

On Tuesday morning, we had our friends Jessica and James over to our house for a play date.  James is 6ish weeks younger than Joseph and has always been one of Jojo's best buddies since they were teeny tiny babies.  These boys love to play together, and they just get funnier and funnier as they get older.  Jessica managed to capture a video of the hilarity.  We don't know what they found so funny about each other, but they were obviously having a good time!

Wednesday night, I gave myself my Ovidrel trigger shot to prepare my body for our 2nd IUI procedure on Friday.  I have no pictures of this, LOL, but I will say it is the easiest shot I can ever imagine.  I give it to myself each time in the stomach and I truly hardly even feel it.  So easy!

On Thursday, we started our homeschool preschool year with Joseph.  I am using a toddler curriculum and I think we are going to have a wonderful time!  In fact, I'm so excited about the next 16 years (or more, if we have more children) of homeschooling for our family...I know it will have it's challenges, but I also believe it will be an amazing journey!  The curriculum I'm using is very low-key, play-based, and can be done in about 30 minutes a day, which is really perfect for Joseph's 22 month old attention span...not too long, but not too short.  So far this week we have read some books, talked about some Scripture, built some towers with blocks, done some coloring, sang some songs, learned how to say "bear" in Spanish, and prayed together that God would give us guidance in our homeschool year.  We even talked about why God wants us to learn - for His glory!  I love how we have our homeschool area set up.  Since we are blessed with a large den, we've dedicated the entire back half to our homeschool room.  We converted the bar closet in that area to a homeschool closet where we can keep all of our supplies.  We have a desk, lots of toys, a bookcase, a whiteboard, and a bulletin board.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of the whole set-up next week.  Here are some pictures from our first day...

Here, we are building towers to learn which one is "tall" and which one is "taller."

Time for a little coloring, and Joseph is eager to get started!

Early Friday morning, we had our 2nd IUI procedure.  If this one fails, we have one more shot before we move on to exploring other options to further build our family.  We will know if I am pregnant within a few weeks.  I'm so thankful for a husband that takes off work for my IUIs in order to be with me and hold my hand as we go through our crazy infertility journey together.  I am very excited to see what God has in store!

Pre-IUI Selfie :-)

A little post-IUI rest before leaving the fertility clinic (this picture makes me laugh because it totally looks like I'm at the dentist office lol)

Sadly, David and Joseph both came down with cold Friday/Saturday.  This is only the 2nd time in his little life that Joseph has been sick, but he's handled it like a trooper.  I have no idea how I've avoided getting it from them.  Joseph looked like he felt so bad on Friday afternoon, and I was worn out after IUI, so I laid down with him for a little co-napping.  Joseph slept right up in my face, breathing on my constantly.  And of course, I've been smooching both of my sick guys.  But so far, so good for me.  Thank you, immune system (although I'd rather be sick than them).  Luckily, I think that today (Monday) they are both on the upswing as I am writing this (yesterday David was at his worst, but he is feeling a good bit better today).  I hope so.  We've really gotten into natural medicine over the past few years, and so for this cold we've used some natural remedies along with a few conventional ones.  The guys have been consuming coconut oil, using some peppermint essential oil to open their sinuses, David has been drinking homemade honey and lemon tea (with some ginger for immune support), and I rubbed Joseph down with a mix of coconut oil and peppermint oil to manage his slight fever on Friday.  Thankful for Western medicine, but also equally grateful for alternative medicine. :-)

Their illness didn't stop us from going to the Carolina-Liberty football game on Saturday, though!  Joseph took a morning nap and then we immediately headed to Chapel Hill.  The game wasn't until 6pm, but we wanted to get down there early to have most of the day in Chapel Hill.  Here is Joseph, sporting both Carolina AND Liberty attire, in order to remain neutral, right before we left home...

We got there and immediately ate a late lunch at Carolina Brewery.  One of our favorite places, so yummy, and a great place to go before a game...

After Carolina Brewery we went to University Mall to walk around A Southern Season, another one of our favorite traditions (it is a gourmet grocery and cooking store...sort of like a Fresh Market on steroids).  After that, we stopped by Walgreens to get some stuff.  While there, Joseph spotted a Carolina toy tractor-trailer truck that he was so excited about.  We couldn't help ourselves and bought it for him.  Here he is, outside of the Chapel Hill Walgreens, with his new prized possession.

We had a parking pass for this game in the School of Government parking deck.  I have to say, it surely beat parking on Rosemary Street and walking all the way across campus for the game like we usually do!

Joseph rode in David's camo Boba from the car to the stadium.  No strollers allowed in the stadium and so much easier than carrying him all that way in our arms.  Thanks, Boba!

We stopped at Tar Heel town before we went into the stadium.  I love Tar Heel town (although I admit I miss the days when I was at Carolina when it was on the quad - it was so much cooler and more shady there!  Still fun, though!).

The game itself was so much fun, but it was packed and it was, above all, HOT.  I'm pretty sure it was the hottest game I have EVER been to.  When Liberty was ahead in the 3rd quarter, we started to leave, and Joseph was past his bedtime and getting fussy.  So we watched the last two touchdown down in the mezzanine area of the stadium while Joseph walked around.  Here are some pics from the game itself...

If we look REALLY hot and sweaty in these selfies, it's because we were.

So there you have it, our week in review!  Looking forward to seeing what adventures this week brings!