Friday Five: Ways to Obsess While Trying to Get Preggers!

Baby Isla

Happy Friday everyone! Today's Friday Five takes a peak at what to do when you are ultra-focused on getting preggers! As in pregnant. Like, now already, right? Oh have I've so been there! This month I am going to post  the story of our path to parenthood. We've been blessed with two beautiful girls via invitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. Here's the way I made it through the long hours of waiting for that moment when I first held them in my arms!

Teagan at 5 months old in Ireland

1.  TwoWeekWait.com - This brilliant trying to conceive(TTC) and pregnancy community is a miracle in disguise! I can not tell you how many hours I've spent on this site but it provided sweet distraction when I needed it most! You can join forums based on your age, fertility treatment type and more. This is the spot where you can also obsess with others on your early pregnancy symptoms, ask questions and get a ton of support! Then we you do get your BFP (or positive pregnancy test) head on over to their pregnancy boards to meet other women with your due date. Elle has really put together something special with this site!

2. Nameberry - While you are dreaming away of that little baby in your arms check out trending around popular names, meanings, and more! I think I could have at least 50 children before I used up all my favorite names! I am still in shock that this site predicts Isla will be in the top 10 here this year! Wow! I'd never met an Isla before but there is one in her church nursery, Kade's school and more so I suppose the numbers are climbing. We still love the name along with Teagan's and wouldn't change anything.

3. Conceive Magazine - For every woman who is tired of sitting in a doctor's office full of magazines covering pregnancy or parenting, Conceive is a breath of fresh air. Full of tips and information on how to get increase your odds of getting pregnant, this is the online version!

4. Can You See A Line.com - Join over 20000 members to vote on pregnancy tests or submit your own, post in our forum and more! If you are willing to look at another person's pee sticks, zooming in and darkening to determine if there is any sort of line then consider yourself in Super Baby Obsessed status. Still, kinda fun if you are testing and want to compare your results against others who went on to have a successful pregnancy!

5.  Betabase.info - This site collects beta scores from pregnancies and makes the information available as a public service. You can enter your beta numbers to find out how they are doubling and where they are charting according to other women who are the same number of weeks pregnant. For those of you going through infertility treatment this is an awesome site in that it can take your beta numbers and tell you statistically if they indicate a multiple pregnancy!

Wherever you are in your trying to conceive journey I wish you well! Feel free to shoot me questions or prayer requests below or at teaganstravels@yahoo.com.

*Babydust* to you!
  Michelle

Friday Five: Ways to Get Your Craft On! And a Single Mom Story

Happy Friday everyone! If you are popping over from Kelly's Korner you are so welcome! Kelly's is one of my very favorite blogs. As part of her Show Us Your Life linky party I can't wait to introduce you to my twin sister Melissa who adopted my nephew as a single mom at the end of my post.

First, I am starting a new weekly series today called Friday Five where I will list five sites, books, recipes or other inspiration around a theme for each week. I got this idea from Katie who writes for another of my favorite blogs that I'll be guest posting on very soon. By the way, I welcome guest bloggers too or more ideas for an awesome Friday Five theme so shoot me an email at teaganstravels@yahoo.com if you are interested!

#1
For this first Friday Five I am spotlighting my new obsession with crafting. It seems a wave of inspiring websites, books, shops and more have taken over making this a pastime that appeals to everyone and every budget. But in my opinion this popularity is primarily due to a little 'ole site called Pinterest. Trust me when I type that this site is serious. Seriously addicting, that is!

A basic rundown of the site is that you have a profile where you set up boards such as Favorite Recipes, Crafts, Kids Room Ideas, Party Themes...the sky is the limit and the themes can be customized to include whatever makes you swoon!


Above is a mini look at the boards I have set up. Now when I am on the web and see something I like I can "Pin It" using a button that I've uploaded to my computer. In addition, I can see what my friends and others I choose to follow have pinned recently. This.is.awesome. They have similar interests so I get so much inspiration repinning what they've found!

There is a big push to respect intellectual property with this invaluable tool so it's important to link your finds back to the original source...and if you are inspired by a craft or project give credit where credit is due so we can continue to enjoy the inspiration! Teagan's Travels is on Pinterest too! This week I will add new buttons at the end of my posts where you can begin to follow me and pin items from my blog which I so appreciate!

#2
Next up is a site called Craft Gawker. It is not as well known as Pinterest but has a similar concept. I find tons of inspiration on this site along with dwellinggawker, weddinggawker, and foodgawker. I wondered how much overlap the two sites have so today I ran a search on St. Patrick's Day crafts. Here's the return I received. I don't see any projects listed here that I've bumped into on Pinterest...verrrrry interesting!! That's what makes it number two on my list for today as more inspiration is always good inspiration in my book!

So with these sites and a plethora of others which should definitely include linky parties such as my Destination: Inspiration Tuesday linky parties and other crafting bloggers (see my side bar and Linky Love page for some crazy talented Mama's) you should have no less than a million projects pinned online or at least in your heart.

#3
So off we go! Now you need the materials to get started. A must-see site is Save-on-Crafts

Save-on-Crafts has it all. Get your fill of gorgeous apothecary jars, vase fillers, wall decor, greenery, moss, chandeliers and so much more. And the best part? It is always 20-50% off! What do we say about that? Super score! By the way, if you know of someone planning a wedding tell them about this site immediately. They will thank you. And maybe even mention you in their speech. Yep, the site is that good.

Last April I used a bundle of wheat from them as a centerpiece for Teagan's second birthday, a pink cowgirl theme. Here is one of the centerpieces. The bundles were huge and of such great quality. For the same money I would have spent at Michael's I was able to get four times as much wheat in one order!

In the fall I used another bundle in a simple but favorite vase as a day-to-day centerpiece. Loving' me some Save-On-Crafts!

#4
Pick Your Plum is another great way to get crafty and it is simply a-mazing. This site posts a deal a day at 7 am (MST). They list the retail price versus their own, amount remaining and maximum number you can buy per order. I also receive an email each day from them and it is ever so tempting to buy something daily as their offers are just that wonderful. Look at today's sweet deal that made my heart race with visions of neighborhood kids gathered round my yard on July 4th with these homemade treats in hand. Sigh.


#5
If you still need inspiration and just wanna craft without having to get the idea, search for materials and the best deal then look no further than Linda's incredible site Craftaholics Anyonymous. I simply can't get enough of her tutorials and plethora of inspiring ideas. One of the coolest things she offers is a craft of the month club. She provides the idea and materials inexpensively. One click and you are on your way!!

Here's one of Linda's craft kits from February. Who is with me that this is just too cool? I so want that banner, like now. I can't wait to see what's coming up in March.


There you have it. My first Friday Five. I would love to hear from you if you have another inspiring site. And I so hope you will join my Tuesday linky party. This week was our second week and we had over 40 crafty linky party submissions that were all of just outstanding quality. I'll be featuring the top three and choosing those will be no small feat! If you've got a family-friendly craft, recipe, domestic goddess or inspiring tip we'd love to hear from you!

Show Us Your Life: Single Moms
Now before you go, when I saw Kelly's Korner was featuring single moms today I knew I had to include my twin sister Melissa in this post. Melissa never married but always felt God prompting her to adopt a child. Five years ago on February 21st she did just that as a single mom. The courage it took was inspiring in itself. I've said before that Kade was a gift from God to us too as Brian and I suffered through multiple miscarriages and fertility issues. Our entire family embraced this baby and he will always be our special little boy in so many blessed ways.

Me on the left with Melissa on the right.
Melissa is a Senior Technical Project Manager which means long hours, high-pressured deadlines, and late nights. When she adopted Kade as an infant we worried for her but she just takes one day at a time and we try to help as much as we can too. But 99% of the time she is a mom on her own and I wanted to take a moment today to tell her how proud I am of her.

And in awe. Many is the night when I can't wait for Brian to come home so I can take a hot bath, not have to cut up someone's food or brush teeth. I am not sure how she finds the energy to do all of this by herself. In addition she makes sure he goes to church on Wednesdays and Sundays, birthday parties, soccer games and to our local adoption support associate meetings where she serves as a board member. They are a team, this mother and son.

I love you Melissa. Adore you. Thank you for being so special and for being strong, perservering, unwavering.

Kaden, Age 5

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Every Good and Perfect Gift....and Giveaway Winner!!!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

I am starting with my sister's favorite Bible verse because this post is dedicated to my twin Melissa and her son who was adopted into our family as an infant. Today we celebrate Kade as he turned four years old today! For anyone who is considering adoption I have to say it has been the most wonderful blessing not only for mom and son but for every member of our family. We love him dearly and can't remember a time (BTWK)-Before There Was Kade!

Our Kade as we call him, has changed us forever. He has brought so much happiness and smiles. It amazes me that just as Brian and I were weary from multiple miscarriages and infertility treatments God gave my sister this gorgeous baby boy...and being as sweet as she is she shared him with me letting me rock him, change him, shower him with kisses and even walk proudly into restaurants with him on my arm! It was the salve I needed and my first taste at becoming a parent. Brian and I will always consider Kade our son and are raising him and Teagan as if they are siblings. Brian just bought him his first set of golf clubs for Christmas and can't wait to get him out for lessons as the spring weather rolls in.
Kade is the funniest little boy always looking at this silly side of things. He's great at impressions and practically bounces off the walls with energy and excitement 23.5 hours of the day. He's a hugger, which makes him fit right in around our house. And he's so amazing with Teagan. She's his little tag-a-long and wants to copy all he does. He fascinates her and she usually starts each day asking where he and "Auntie Wiss" are. We love you both, Melissa and Kade. Thanks for adding so much joy to so many of our lives.
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I have not forgotten to announce our super special first giveaway winner on Teagan's Travels! But first I'd like to thank our sponsor KaydenAshley for so graciously supplying the fabulous personalized recipe cards! I'll be featuring this Etsy business again in an upcoming blog so stay tuned!

And to you readers who have joined us in the past few weeks and have taken the time to follow our family and friends, a very big thank you! You are always welcome here and I look forward to seeing what adventures we all get up to in 2011! Keep those comments coming as I'd love to hear from you!

Drum roll...

Our winner is Brittany McNamara!!!

Congratulations Brittany! Please email me at teaganstravels@yahoo.com so we can arrange to have your recipe cards personalized, printed and shipped to you along with the digital file.

Tripping into the Third Trimester

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great few days and got up to something fun! We just wrapped up a super busy time here. It was Sanctity of Human Life week so we had a great service at church on Sunday where we heard from amazing families talking about how adoption and foster care has transformed their lives. It totally made this pregnant mommy tear up I tell you!

Also, I hit the third trimester this week, hurrah!!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 28 Weeks
Size of baby: Baby Kelly is the size of a Chinese cabbage
Gender: We are waiting for the surprise
Movement: He/she has become super active especially in the afternoon and at night
Sleep: I'm getting bits here and there!
What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach and a good cuppa Kona coffee!
Cravings: I've lost my appetite at night especially and am eating more small cups of granola for dinner (usually in the wee hours after everyone has gone to sleep)! I think maybe my stomach is running out of room! With Teagan I only gained 15lbs and hope this will be the case with the new baby.
Symptoms: Much more nausea

Best Moment this Week: Everytime I feel the baby move I get so excited that we will have a new addition to our family in just a few months!

In addition to this excitement I had so much fun helping our local Christian radio station with the "Largest Baby Shower" where we took in tons of diapers, wipes, clothes and more in donations going to area crisis pregnancy centers. I have to take a moment to give a shout out to Chick-fil-A. Kudos to this incredible company! Not only do they offer hand sanitizer packs for little, busy hands, plastic table mats for toddlers to eat from when a plate just can't and won't stay on the table, have mom's helpers to get high chairs and refills for you, but also fresh flowers on the tables ...and get this, employees who aren't snarky at all and instead seem genuinely happy to be there! These traits make it my first choice when eating on the run. But in addition to all of this they have a great, big heart for helping our communities. At Christmas they hosted our Samaritan's Purse table collecting boxes for Operation Christmas Child and this week they allowed our station and crisis centers to accept donations for newborns and their families. Awesome job, Chick-fil-A and keep it up!!!

On Friday we had a Soup Swap night at our house where a few friends came over for a bowl of our potato and leek soup, cheese, breads and fruit tart. At the end of the night we swapped soups to freeze or have for later! It was great fun and I can't wait to try everyone's delicious soups! These women can cook! But I was so distracted by all the fun that I took not.one.single.picture. Bummer!

Saturday I had a girl's night out where I went to the cutest French bistro and had the best time catching up with some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. These are girls that Melissa and I have known since our college days in Texas and since we moved here over four years ago. They are super special women to me. They were getting together to as an intro for some newbies going on the big girl's weekend trip in April where they will run a 10k. I ran with them last year and am so sad to miss out on the fun...but baby Kelly will be due in mere days and I don't want to risk being too far away from Brian and home. I can't wait to see their pictures...especially Brianne and Jen's who have vowed to walk at a leisurely pace capturing all the firemen and those dressed in funny costumes!

I'm off to another busy few days and promise to capture more pictures for the next post- not of me, mind you. I feel huge and it is getting harder to find a decent angle...:)! Until then my friends...