Don't Postpone Joy

Friday is finally here!!! Oh, how I am so glad to see it. I feel like I haven't updated in sooo long. I have been so busy, it's crazy.


One thing that has stuck out in my mind lately has been a bumper sticker that I have seen a lot. It's so funny how God puts little things here and there for you. This particular sticker says "Don't Postpone Joy". It really stuck out to me because we spend a lot of time running around, always on the go, and sometimes forget little simple things like that. Cleaning, working, laundry, functions. They usually are the things that come first. Most of us live like this: get the work out of the way, and then if there is time we'll play. So of course I googled "Don't postpone joy" and came up with a few things. First of all, in order to put joy back into your life, you have to do a few things. Get out a pencil and paper, and make two columns. One is for "Things that Bring Me Joy" and the other for "Stress". Put 10 in each column. Now, during the week and as you continue doing what you normally do, cancel out some of the stresses with some joy. If writing an English paper=stress, then look at your joyful column and cancel it out with something else. Instead of doing all the laundry this weekend, do a few of the necessary loads and then go outside for the day. Play with your pet, visit some friends, go for a jog. Tomorrow is not always promised and if you were to be gone tomorrow morning, the dirty bathroom will be alright. Upon my google search I found this quote: "

"Don’t ever postpone happiness; now is the time for:Living fully, Loving dearly, Feeling deeply, Hurting profoundly.Exploring the heights and depths of  joy and pain, Drinking long fromThe well of life."~Excerpt from “Unwrapped”by Minda Magero

April Fool's is today and it never fails...every year Mollie tries to play trick after trick on me. Today, she made up an email account for OC Tech-one of the schools I have applied to- and sent me a letter of regret, saying I didn't get in the program. I totally fell for it and called my parents and all. That sneaky little thing!

Well, not much has changed here besides these things. Next week, Mommy will be celebrating her 46ish birthday :), Jeremy will be 20 on Thursday, and The puppies will be 6 months the following week!! Wow, everyone is getting old. Here are a few pictures of these lovebugs of mine.  (Sorry they are all jumbled up!) 

So take some time this week and be joyful! Remember the song: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us REJOICE and be glad in it!" -Psalm 118:24

Exciting Things!

So, I was just sitting around thinking about all of the MANY blessings that God has given me that I don't deserve, but am so thankful for. Yesterday morning, I had the privilege to attend the SC Governor's Prayer Breakfast with our company. We go to various prayer breakfasts every couple of weeks, so I figured that this one would be the same. To my surprise, the speaker was very interesting and Governor Nikki Haley gave a great, short but to the point speech-her main focus was on South Carolina being the best that it can be. For us to go back to our communities and do little things that will make a big difference. So, all day I was thinking where I could do something that matters. This morning when I was getting ready for work (rushing), a thought popped into my mind. I just started volunteering at Lexington and Baptist hospitals for multiple reasons. I figured it would be a good use of my time in the evenings, get me into the healthcare field, and for some reason I felt this tugging on my heart to do so. I ended up in two units that I have a lot of passion and interest in-Mother & Baby and High Risk OB. I am so excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for me there. This got me thinking.
As I was wheeling babies into their mommy's rooms I noticed that there were soo many gifts and balloons and stuffed animals-all for baby. Most of the time when babies are born, the mommy delivers and is then forgotten about. There are not gifts for them. So, my new project....drumroll...mommy buckets! I am going to make some Palmetto Tree buckets with the cricut and fill them with goodies for mommies! Little things that will make them happy and comfortable at home, so they know that they are important too-fuzzy socks, lotion, chocolate, nail polish, magazines, etc. I will start to deliver them on the nights I am at the hospital and hopefully it can turn into a bigger project. I am so excited to start!
I am also working on the final touches to my "admission packet" to Orangeburg Tech. I take the SAT Saturday and next week I will take the TEAS test to hopefully qualify me. I am nervous but excited to see where this might take me. 

I have been thinking about all of the exciting things happening in my life and for some reason the song from Toy Story keeps playing in my mind...Strange things are happenin' to me. So here, enjoy! :) 

Happy Thursday and Happy Birthday to my beautiful Nansy- the Queen B who taught me how to be a princess!! Love you Nana-Peasel

Friday Friday Friday!

We've made it through another week! How is is fair that the week is 5 days long and the weekend is 2? Who made up that rule? We are excited to see today because we are going to visit some good friends this weekend!! Abigail, my old roommate from College of Charleston and Caleb, Chad, and Jonathan at Georgetown! I am so excited to get away for the weekend and have a good time. Miller is staying with Mom & Dad (her grandparents) and they are excited to have her. And to top it off, it's PAYDAY! Have a great weekend :)

Egg Donation

Today has been one of those days! You know when nothing is going how you wanted and every little thing is wrong and makes it even worse. Bingo, that is today. But on the bright side, I am on my merry way to Lexington tonight and hopefully those little tiny newborns will make me smile! I love the hospital!


Since today has been so rotten, I figured I would write about something that I am very passionate about-egg donation! I have had a LOT of people ask me about the process recently so I figured that I would explain it and make it a little more clear for everyone. It's a little bit TMI for some, but it is interesting.


I am an egg donor. An egg donor is a woman who gives her eggs to a couple or individual who cannot achieve pregnancy with their own eggs. It has been a long process-I began the process in about September, so it has been about 7 months and I am finally "official and waiting". This is how it works. I had an initial visit with Southeastern Fertility where they explain everything to you-I'm not going to lie it would scare most people off, but it sounded cool to me so I decided to proceed. I had to fill out a loooong questionnaire that took about 2 hours. These questions create a profile of you in their database. You include baby and young pictures of you. I had a doctors appointment where they did a vaginal ultrasound of my ovaries and the follicles. 


Every month, your body (if you're a girl!) produces 6-20 follicles and your body chooses one to become the egg. The rest die off and are flushed out. As you know, each woman is born with a certain amount of eggs, and when they're gone, they're gone. A common misconception is that they take eggs away from you-wrong! They never harvest eggs that you could use, instead the medicine you take turns all of the follicles into eggs instead of them dying off. So really, you are using what your body would consider waste to create usable eggs for someone! 
So, once they look at your ovaries and make sure you are good physically, they move on to mental and genetic evaluation. I went to see a psychotherapist (the appointment took a month to get!)  to make sure I understood the process, and also a genetic counselor to look at my family history. 


Finally, after you're cleared you play the waiting game.My profile is now active, so when potential parents are searching the database (it is private, only parents can see it) they can find me and hopefully pick me! My location, name, age, etc are not visible to them. The potential parents are from all over the world. The woman told me she has seen matches come from all of the continents! 


Once I am picked by a couple, I will begin taking birth control to regulate my cycle with the woman's. I will do one week of injectable medication in my leg once a day to stop my own body from ovulating normally. The second week I will inject myself with another medication that makes my follicles turn into eggs. When they are nice and ripe, I could potentially have 6 fertile eggs waiting. (Sextuplets..yikes!) The night before retrieval, I take one final medication to get them ready to 'harvest.' I will have to see my Fertility Doctor just about every morning for a week to check my hormone levels.


The day they are ready, I will travel to Charleston for retrieval. They put me to sleep, take a loooong needle and insert it vaginally. They suck the little guys out and wake me up! The process takes about 45 minutes and only puts you out for a day or so. It is painful afterwards and I will be sore for a few weeks. After one cycle, my body should go back to normal. The entire process if confidential unless myself and the family decide differently. They will never be in the same facility as me, they will never see me, know my name or my location. I won't know theirs either. In fact, they don't even tell me how many eggs matured, whether the in-vitro fertilization worked for the other couple or if she even became pregnant. 
I think it is so cool that measly little me can give a couple the best gift that they will ever receive. I also think that God puts it on certain people's hearts to do this type of thing. Some people are really freaked out by the whole thing, and I happen to think it is beautiful and so perfect. I am so excited to be a part of it.


So, now that I have completely wigged you out, feel free to ask me any questions you have about it! I am not so patiently waiting to be matched with someone so that I can finish this journey! 

Fabulous weekend!

Here we are again, back at Monday. I can't believe that today is the last day of February! The beginning of March is tomorrow which means...RENT is due! No fun. But the gorgeous weather that has been hanging around makes just about anything ok. This weekend was laid back, but any weekend is a good one. Saturday I spent the entire day at Baptist hospital for the last leg of my training for Personal Touch. I will get my certificate when I finish my vaccinations this week...finally!! And I will also find out what unit I will be assigned to- I am hoping for High Risk OB but will be happy with anything. It is neat to meet all of the new people at the orientations and make new friends- they are from ALL backgrounds and are all different ages. It was fun to learn about the hospital and what our duties are. We got a lot of training on what to say to patients when they tell you things unexpectedly. For instance, if someone was to tell you "I can't stand this anymore, I am thinking about just killing myself." Um hello, what DO you say to that?? Well now I know! We also spent a good amount of time learning how to do a "nursing backrub". If I were in the hospital I would definitely be tracking a volunteer down to do that! We spent Sunday relaxing. We went to eat at Cracker Barrel-our favorite place, we took the dogs to play in the sunshine, (they just layed around) and finished the night with home spa night! 

We got two parakeets at the Flea Market yesterday. Mollie of course talked me into it, and they are fun to watch and play with. The dogs are still trying to figure out what they are. We named them Brennen and Dale, from one of our favorite movies Stepbrothers. They are too funny.

 Dale and Brennen on my wine glass :)

 My big girl!

 The dogs terrorizing things

 Me and the babies

 Spoiled Rotten!

Another big deal in our house this week was the new crate. Miller has long since outgrown her old one, so I figured why not get the biggest one online so that I never have to buy another one? HA! It is plenty big alright. They could both be in it and be comfortable-it is crazy big! But definitely worth the money.

This week I am busy with the final interviews and meetings for Baptist, arranging my TEAS test for the Nursing Program Application at OC Tech, and getting transcripts sent. Busy, busy, like always but exciting too! 

First Volunteering Day!

I am home sick today-the pretty weather comes and also brings the sickness for me. I woke up with a very sore itchy throat, and itchy ears! So, I'm waiting for my Dr.'s appointment. :(

But, on a brighter note, I had my first volunteer shift at Lexington Medical Center last night! I have been so excited to start volunteering. I am going to be at two different hospitals, at Baptist and at Lexington and am looking forward to what I will be doing at both. Baptist has a "Personal Touch" program that has been a LONG process to get into, with recommendations from 2 people, Doctor's clearance, orientation and interview! It is very hands-on and you actually get to work and interact with people. Since I am interested in OB-GYN, they are probably going to have me in High Risk Pregnancy or the Nesting Place there. I have already had one corporate training that lasted 6 HOURS! And I have another this Saturday from 9 to 5:30! A lot of training to be a volunteer... At Lexington, I am just a general volunteer on Floor 2-Mother & Baby. I was in the nursery last night and made hats for the babies. It was so exciting to see the little guys (and girls) and you could definitely tell that it gets pretty hectic but so fun! I can't wait to go back and to also start at Baptist.

I am currently in Pre-Nursing at Midlands Tech, but it will be next May before I can start my clinicals, so I have been looking at other options. Tonight is my meeting with Orangeburg Tech to discuss their program and hopefully I can get into it in the fall of this year! That would definitely be a blessing for impatient me. It is hard to remember, but I have to keep reminding myself that God has got the master plans for me and will get me to where I am supposed to be in His time-not mine!

I hope everyone has a fabulous day with this sunshine! 

This is Miller last night...on Ben's new Valentines memory foam pillow that he left with us to "break in"... with her new toy! So sweet.

Monday (not so) Funday!

Today is a slow day. Mondays are never any fun! Especially coming off of this great weekend that I had! Benjamin has been sick for almost 2 weeks now-walking pneumonia first and then a stomach bug. So he wasn't feeling 100% around Valentine's Day. So we decided to wait and do a Valentine's weekend at his family's place in Cameron, SC on the Santee. I don't know why, but it is one of my favorite places to go! Ben first took me here in high school, 10th grade. I loved how peaceful and quiet it is there, and I also love to hear his stories from when he was younger and the memories that have been made there. We try to go every few months. His parents have done a lot of hard work to update and keep it nice for everyone to use. So, we decided to take off Friday afternoon and head down for a little vacation. We had a great time-the weather was GORGEOUS! Sunny and warm. Miller came too and she had the best time running around, playing in the leaves, and swimming on Saturday. We grilled out steaks on Saturday night and just enjoyed the weather. It was a perfect weekend. The girls and I sang some karaoke on the machine we just set up, and cooked dinner last night. A great way to end a fun few days. I am so loving this warmer, sunny weather and I am looking forward to baseball season and all of the exciting things coming up! Here are a few pictures from this weekend! 

Miller and I after a long day of playing!

Mills eating up my leftover Porterhouse!

Sunday morning 

Ben and little girl taking a break from raking!

Looking forward to watching the Bachelor with the girls tonight and having a much needed "home spa" night!