Overdue Update!

Ok so its been a LONG time since I have written anything, but things have been SO insane and crazy that I now finally have a moment to breathe and write.

Ok, Tyler has been with the Army for 2 drills now, his most recent was this past weekend. Here is a pic of him in his new ACUs. I know I am bias being his wife and all, but he looks handsome!

Last month Tyler got in a horrible accident. Completely totalled my car. I am just so thankful that he walked out it alive. After seeing the car I know our little angels were watching over him that day. We are still fighting the insurance company, I never knew it could take so long to write a damn check.

Thanksgiving was a blast. I completely enjoyed the day with my boys, no hosting anyone, and I wasn't rushed to get things done either. The weather was great and we spent the day playing and having a great time as a family.

I have been getting things ready for Christmas, my house is decorated, the tree looks great, and soon I get to start the baking. I can't wait. I have been wrapping presents as I get them to save me the trouble of wrapping them all at once. That and Charlie is starting to get to that age where he notices those things, so this way if they are wrapped he has no idea where they are.

Yesterday was the Christmas party for Tylers unit. It was a blast, they had a photographer there to take some really nice pictures, I can't wait for them to come in, they should be here before Christmas. I plan on surprising my mom by sending her one, its of the three of us standing in front of one of the blackhawks. Charlie had a blast, he got to play in the bouncy house, and see santa, plus he got to sit in the pilots seat of the helicopter.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Charlie & Tyler while Charlie is trying to fly.

Me & Charlie next to the blackhawk

My boys getting ready to make a jump for it.

Well, that is a quick short update. I will be writing more later. More to come.

We are in the Army!!!!

Well, after months and months of waiting. And dealing with idiot after idiot. Tyler finally got his release papers from the Air National Guard earlier this week; and enlisted in the Army Guard earlier this morning!

It's been a long time coming. And Tyler was meant for the Army life. He has the skills, the passion and the drive. I kept telling him, that the ONLY reason he enlisted in the Air Force was so that he could find his family. Now that he has us, it was time for him to move into the life he was meant for.

He will have his first drill this weekend. Hopefully he will get his uniforms issued to him so he can dress to impress come Decembers drill.

Here is a picture of him with his recruiter:

Needless to say it was a great day. As soon as we get all of his uniforms, I will take and post pictures. I am sure he will look awesome in Army Greens as opposed to Air Force Blues.

Counting down to a day of fun!

Well, our little boy will be 5 on November 4th. It seems that every 5 years my son will have a birthday land on an election day. lol.
Tyler had already planned on taking Halloween off so he can take Charlie trick or treating. It is his year afterall. So, we decided to have some serious birthday fun all on the same day.
While charlie is at school I will be picking up his duel sided Spiderman Balloon, as well as all the other balloons to decorate with. I will also be picking up his Spiderman cupcake cake that we will take to his class. (are you noticing what the child loves?)
We will decorate the house, and towards the end of the day we will take his cake to class for him and all of his friends to enjoy.
Afterwards we will head from school to go have some birthday fun. Stop one, Glow Golf. Charlie LOVES mini golf and this place is 100% glow in the dark with black lights and everything. Stop two, Playworld, for some video games and family fun. Stop three, Cici's Pizza, per request of the birthday boy himself. He has to have some birthday pizza. From there we will head home to have birthday cake and to open presents. Then it should be time to change into our costumes and hit the streets. And guess what he is being... Black Spiderman.
My theory is, he will either come home completely tired and ready to hit the sheets, OR on a serious sugar high. I mean afterall, he has asked me to make him a chocolatey chocolate birthday cake!
So keep your eyes peeled, I will posting pictures of our wonderful day after all is said and done.
BTW.... I can't believe my little boy is turning 5!

We met Yoda yesterday!

Ok, first let me explain the title.
My OB has been voted the best OB/GYN in the state of Arkansas for 5 years running, and then last year he was voted as one of the best doctors in the country.
So, when he referred me to a RE, I knew he would send me to someone who would take really good care of me. BOY, I had no idea!!!
My RE was my OB's resident advisor when he was learning the tricks of the trade. So, in a way my RE is my OB's Yoda!!! I thought ok, if I think my OB is great than this man has to be greater.
So, he wants to go over my films from my HSG, and look over some operative reports from past surgeries... then when I have another period I will be doing blood work on day 3 to check my eggs... and from there it looks like we will be trying an IUI with clomid.
Then to make matters better, I called my insurance company to find out what if anything would be covered, how much etc... and I got wonderful news. I have a unlimited lifetime maximum. When it comes to the IUIs there aren't any limits.They even cover IVF!!! Up to 4 retrievals in my lifetime... I personally think that is absolutely wonderful!!!
So, now its just a waiting game, but I am excited.
Tyler is very excited about this game plan. I am still trying to soak it all in. He had a good feeling about the doctor prior to going and when we were done he had this "I told you so" attitude about him. It was pretty funny actually.
'Yoda' as Tyler keeps calling him says that I have a few things in my favor. My age, the fact that I have had one successful pregnancy, Charlie is the proof of that, and also that only one of my miscarriages was past 6 weeks. Not to sure how that is a good thing, but I will roll with it.
Tyler and I are finally feeling like our 2 plus year battle has some light at the end of the tunnel. Given its still a matter of some tests and getting a more concrete plan, but either way... something tells me that the Lutz family will be announcing a healthy pregnancy soon in our future.
We are both just walking on sunshine since the appt. Tyler has been working like a mad man on one part of the remodel and I have been painting like its nobodies business. And this extra bit of good news just seems to make us want to get it done that much faster.

My Miscarriage

What happened was this, on Friday the 26th I got a very unexpected BFP. I really thought I was out of the running for the month. I called my doctors office and was prescribed progesterone due to the fact that I have had prior miscarriages, and also because my cd21 blood test should that my progesterone was a little on the low side.
Everything seemed to be going great. Signs of morning sickness were approaching and I was welcoming it with open arms.
Tuesday morning I noticed I had some light light bleeding, like pink in color. So in turn I wasn’t worried. By that afternoon it was gone. Then Tuesday night the bleeding reminded me of how I bleed on a light day of my period. So I put on a pad and told myself that if any blood went to the pad I would head to the ER. 15 minutes later a friend of mine was driving me and my son to the ER while I was just trying to cling onto some hope.
While I was waiting to be taken back a nurse had me give a urine sample so they could do a test. Finally I got back to a room where another nurse sat down and told me that the test was negative. I felt my heart drop to the lowest level. She went onto to telling me that the doctor wanted to do a pelvic exam to check my cervix and then they would pull some blood for multiple blood work.
Well the tech came in and pulled 7 or 8 things of blood, better safe than sorry they said. Then the doctor came in and did an exam and told me that my cervix was open. Strike two. At this point I pretty much know that there is no hope. But my friend being the endearing person she is told me to wait till the blood work came back, and it was a BFN!!! My HCG was 1, which meant I had already completely passed everything.
So at this point Tyler walked through the exam room door. He was at work (night worker) and didn’t bother to wait till I called him to tell him if I needed him, he just came on his own. I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see him as I was at that moment in time. I just couldn’t stop crying. I felt like I failed.
The doctor gave me some meds for my pain and told me to call my OB in the morning.
I called yesterday morning and talked to my nurse and explained everything that had happened the night before. She told me she was going to call the hospital and the lab to get everything and then her and my doctor would look over everything and she would call me with a plan of attack.
Well she finally called me yesterday afternoon and the first thing she asked was, “Did they give you anything for the UTI?” and I explained that they didn’t even tell me I HAD a UTI. So after that was squared away she went on to tell me that my doctor wants me to take a month off. Give my body a chance to heal properly. Then she went onto telling me after that month break that we would go back onto the clomid and go from there. At which point I ask her, “Is it possible that it could be something else? I know I have had all of the testing done and everything looks fine, but this isn’t my first miscarriage. I haven’t had a successful pregnancy since my son and he is getting ready to turn 5.” She then said the words that broke my heart, “Well, in that case I am not sure if there is anything else we can do for you. Let me and the doctor look over your chart and he might want to send you to the fertility clinic right away.”
So early this evening my doctor himself called me. He wanted to tell me how sorry he was for my loss and to talk about everything. He answered my questions and reassured me that there may very well be something going on that is preventing me to keep a pregnancy. There is a fertility clinic in Little Rock and he knows the doctors that work there very well. He told me that on Monday morning he was going to call one of them and get me an appt. I know that I can feel comfortable with whomever he sends me to because his policy on referrals is, “I won’t send any of my patients to anyone I wouldn’t feel comfortable sending my own family to.” With that said now I have to wait for an appt and then for the appt to actually happen.I was feeling like giving up on this whole TTC thing. I have 7 angels in heaven and really don’t feel like sending anymore, but I figure it can’t hurt to at least meet with the fertility specialist. Thank you again to everyone, it really means a great deal to me. Please continue to pray that my journey can have a happy ending.

I feel like I have let my family down

Well, after battling ovarian cancer for almost 3 years and being cancer free for 2 1/2, I really thought that would be my biggest challenge.
But here I am 25 years old and have only had 1 complete pregnancy. I have lost 6 other babies, 1 being a set of twins and it has all happened since Charlie was born.
So, now after trying for another child for so long, I had to finally start fertility testing. I got tested, Tyler got tested, and we are both fine. So, basically I have Unknown Infertility, or Secondary Infertility.
Now I am taking fertility drugs, and this was my first month on them and no such luck. I just don't know how much more I can take.
I mean I am 25 years old! I should be able to spit kids out like a pez dispenser. If nothing happens by the first of the year I will be going to the fertility clinic in Little Rock. I am really hoping that it doesn't get that far.
I feel like I have let down both Tyler and Charlie. Tyler and I have always wanted at least 2 kids and Charlie has been asking to be a big brother for well over a year. And here I can't give them that. What is wrong with me? I mean my doctors all believe that I should still be able to have kids despite the cancer, but for some reasoning it just isn't happening.
So, I figure I will keep going with the meds, and make a decision about the clinic if/when that time comes.
I just hope I haven't gone through all of this for nothing.

All I can do is shake my head

Ok, I had some idea as to what I was signing up for when I married Tyler. The military life, which meant that things were done the military way. And in 5+ years of marriage I have seen things that just make my jaw hit the floor. I have watched people lie, trick and be down right cruel to others in the service. I always thought the same thing, and these are the people who are supposed to protect and serve the American people.
But despite all of that I could get over it, put it behind me... and the main reason for that was because it didn't directly affect me or my family. Sure there have been some things, but in the end it was something that would pass quickly.
As of this weekend, I watched Tyler go through something that made me sad, and ashamed to be a military wife. I know as well as the next military wife that the motto of the Armed Forces is 'Hurry Up and Wait'. And let me tell you, that couldn't be more true.
Back in April Tyler decided that he would see about getting to the Air Force base in Little Rock. Traveling 50 minutes would be much better than driving the 2+ hours he has been driving to Fort Smith. So, after backdoor deals were made and promises were given they didn't give the open position to Tyler, they would rather give it to some newbie fresh out of high school. Which makes no sense what-so-ever, but hey what do I know.
So, after weighing the Pros and Cons of everything I convinced him to contact an Army recruiter to see what it would take to switch over to the Army Guard.
We ended up with a great recruiter... really the best. He said we needed to have a form signed and that would be that.
In July Tyler took this form to his commanders at Fort Smith and they told him he would have to go through this entire process of writing a request, that the request would have to be sent up the chain of command and finally to LR (little rock) for approval.
No biggie is what we thought. Boy were we wrong.
First they lost it when they were supposed to walk it across the hall (still trying to figure out how thats even possible), then they said Tyler didn't sign it, (I watched him do so), then they said they would mail it out, (that took 3 weeks), then once we finally got it, someone has changed it so we then had to have someone on the base correct things and wait for them to fax it back to us. After all that was FINALLY said and done, Tyler got a phone call from his shop chief saying, "Tyler your paperwork was approved, your checklist is waiting for you whenever you want to outprocess."
Well Tyler is no idiot, he knows that if he were to go during any time other than a drill weekend that he would be taking a risk of over half the people not being there, so he decided to wait until Septembers drill... AKA this past weekend.
We are both 100% excited and very ready to do this. It was like he was always meant to be an Army man, and he just took the long road to get there.
So, he arrives to the base at 7:30 Saturday morning and was told go outproccess. And he spent the whole day getting his ducks in a row, with just a couple of things he would have to wait and do till Sunday.
But instead of Sunday being a day to celebrate, that was when the dark cloud fell over his head and let out the BOOM!!!
He gets up to his commanders office to get his signature on his checklist when he informs Tyler that the paperwork was NEVER sent off of the base for approval! That Tyler was still a part of that base and he was not supposed to outprocess. Tyler then in turn explains EVERYTHING he was told etc.
Well, now he can't work on the base because of the fact he outprocessed. But since the paperwork was never sent to LR for approval he still has to report to the base for duty until something changes. So basically he will drive 2+ hours to just sit on his butt because he can't work... and at the end of the weekend he will drive the 2+ hours back home.
I couldn't believe that so many people had lied to him in telling him that his paperwork was approved and that he was supposed to outprocess. This whole thing has turned into such a mess!
So, hopefully someone can get this fixed and Tyler can be done working with idiots like that. Its like I said... and these are the SAME people who are supposed to protect our country and the American people... YEP I feel safe!

New to this

Well, I have seen so many of my friends start one of these and I figure... why not. I love to write and it will be a great way to keep everyone in the loop as to whats going on without having to send a million emails or make a hundred phone calls.
With that being said, keep your eyes posted kiddos, because lots of new and exciting things have been going on in the Lutz household and I have tons to share with all of you!