Cruise to the Bahamas? Irene said NO! (And other adventures...)

So, first of all, this will be my last post before going private! I have a few stories and posts I've written, but I'm waiting to post until I'm private. So, last chance to get on my list (Or you can just email me at emlynnkim@gmail.com)!

When Sung and I were poor, broke, deprived...I mean, humble college students, newly married, and having gone on not much of a honeymoon, Sung promised me (the wants to see the world girl) that on our 5 year anniversary I could choose to go anywhere. Now, I had dreams of London or Paris, Europe or Asia...I looked up plane tickets, I looked up how to REALLY travel to Europe, but along the way my wonderful, frugal, thrifty (miserly...don't worry I love him for it!) husband has rubbed off on me. So, when I saw how a plane ticket to Europe would cost AT LEAST $800 each PLUS having to get a hotel room AND paying for meals and activities, I chickened out a little about putting out that much at once and looked for other alternatives. So, we decided to go the cruise route! Makes us all happy! Sung gets to eat as much as he wants (and there's gym access)! I get to see a very little bit of another country and we both don't have to stress about booking hotels or choosing where to eat or stressing about almost anything! So, we found a few friends and decide to make it a group trip! Despite our cruise getting detoured to Mexico, instead of the Bahamas, as was planned (thanks, HURRICANE IRENE!), we had a blast! We would totally do it again! So here's a few pics from our wonderful vacation to Key West and Mexico!

Mexican government building in Merida (Capital City of the Yucatan Peninsula).

Little bakery we found in Merida...DELICIOUS!

Sinkhole in the same area as some Mayan ruins (Dzibilchaltun). Look at how CLEAR the water is!

Temple at Dzibilchaltun.

Snorkeling in Cozumel!!

The group after our first snorkeling swim! We all survived!

Sung's making sure the ship won't leave without us!

Our rock climbing/rappelling/zip line/ snorkeling guide in Cozumel.

Jet skiing in Key West!

The post card...I mean RESORT (with the snorkeling, rock climbing, etc...) in Cozumel!

So we got back from our cruise on Saturday and Thursday morning we left for Canada for Labor Day weekend! Sung's Halmoni (grandmother) turns 80 year old this year!! So, Sung's cousin in Montreal, Toby, wanted to try to get all the grandkids (and great grandkids) together and surprise her for her birthday! She had NO IDEA that we were coming. Sung's nephew, Daniel, walked in the door first, and she said she thought it was some boy selling candy. She said she was wondering why he just walked in and then saw who it was! She was thrilled to see us all! And, I enjoyed meeting more of Sung's family up there. His Halmoni and uncle and aunt came to our wedding, but I hadn't met any of the cousins. It was a wonderful trip, and there will definitely be more visits to come (if we can't talk them into come down here!!)!

Sung's uncle and Toby gave us a good taste of Montreal. It's a beautiful city and Canada is very beautiful as well!

Old Montreal

A park on the edge of the island Montreal is on (with a view of the city).

Some art on a little drive around circle in the parking lot next to the park.

From L to R: Sung's sister (Yang), Sung, Me, Sung's brother (Doug), and Yang's son, Daniel. Yang's daughter, Sophia, was zonked in the stroller!

She didn't stay asleep too long. Toby, Yang, Daniel, and Sophia went on a little boat tour while Sung and Doug and I went exploring Old Montreal.

Group picture! (Yes, Yang is holding Sophia's sleeping head!)

On top of Mont Tremblanc, a popular ski resort a couple hours north of Montreal (as you can see...no skiers in the summer!)!

Having a snack of clementines and cheese "on top of the world"!

Birthday picture of Halmoni and the GREAT grandkids! Happy birthday!

I have SOO many more pictures, but I think this post is massive enough already! Don't forget to email me/facebook me if you want to follow my blog after this post! (And, don't get too jealous of the amazing adventures we've had!) ;)

Injections-Day 5

I'm a pro. That's right...stab me, shoot me, I can do it! Okay...so for real...I still get a little bit of a freak out shiver whenever I think about shots, giving myself a shot, looking at people getting shots etc...AND, it does take me like a half hour to actually do the shot (20 minutes of motivation: "it won't hurt, Emily. You KNOW it won't." "Don't worry. The needle is not big enough to stab any vital organs!"). BUT HEY! I CAN do it! And I am the most needle-freaked person out there!

Injections-Review Day 1, 2, 3 & 4

So, we started injections on Saturday. I've been really REALLY nervous about them. Needles are my greatest fear in life. Frogs, nope. Spiders, nope. Flying, no problem. Needles, **cringe**, freak out moment just thinking about them. Needless to say, I've had lots of time over the past couple years to get used to them. I've learned to cope (not even tolerate) having my blood drawn (thank goodness Dr. H has an amazing phlebotomist in his office). When you have your blood taken 4 times in 2 weeks, you have to learn coping methods (breathe deep, poke your hand with fingernails, and don't look, repeat DON'T LOOK!). Anytime we've had to do an at home injection (only 1 per cycle, not daily injections), Sung has given it to me and I NEVER look! So, with this next step in our journey being injections (at least a week of daily shots), I decided my goal was to give it to myself. Might as well take this opportunity to overcome a phobia! So, here's a review of my progress for days 1, 2, & 3 of injection giving:

Day 1: I held the needle and tried and tried, but I couldn't put it into my skin (I guess it means I'm not naturally masochistic!)...So, Sung poked me, but I watched (which I NEVER do)...And, I pushed the plunger (the painful part). So good job!

Day 2: We were at a friends house for dinner and I haven't really told anyone about us doing this, and I was nervous about making sure I gave the shot in time...SO, I still couldn't do it by myself! BUT, Sung held my hand and poked me (the poking part doesn't actually hurt that bad) while I held the needle and again I pushed the plunger (Youch!).

Day 3: I DID IT!!!!!! We were at a friends house again, and let them know what was going (since it was just Sung and I and the two of them). So, after much coaching and encouragement (and a timer from Sung--he tried to give me only 2 minutes...let's just say it took more like 9 min), I finally did it! And it wasn't too bad. And, I felt so liberated to know that I could do it myself!

Day 4: I'm a pro! Okay...not quite...but I can now give myself a shot! I tried it in my thigh this time instead of my abdomen. I felt like the skin was a little tighter so it scared me a little to poke it. But, it was fairly easy and the injecting the medication part didn't seem to hurt as bad. So, I might have found a new spot to shoot myself. ;)

I've been a little worried about the prospect of doing more shots. If we were to get into more intensive procedures (ie IVF), we might have to do intra-muscular shots at home, and that TOTALLY freaks me out! Instead of a little half inch needle, the IM needles are like and inch and a half!!! AHH! I can't do it! ...Yes I can...breathe...Yes I can...If I have to, I will...breathe...

Okay, so here's to big success this week! I'm still freaked out by needles/shots, but I can give myself a baby one!

Injections to Begin Shortly

So, I got my wonderful package of injections today! YAY! After the pain of having to get my prescription and order my meds with my usual, wonderful, extremely knowledgeable and dependable nurse on vacation, it was great to finally get my the meds in on time. Since my insurance doesn't cover injection medications if we do ANY type of infertility procedure (even IUI), we're doing a couple cycles without any procedures and "stocking up" on the meds for the future. (If the insurance is going to work me over, I'll work the insurance right back!) I've determined that my goal in doing these couple of "small scale" injection cycles is to get the courage to give myself the shots. So far, anytime we've had to do an at home shot, Sung has given it to me. BUT, I'm determined to be able to at least do the sub-cutaneous shots myself (after all, with IVF there is a VERY good chance I'll have to, if Sung isn't around). So, tonight we start the shots. I think I'll go ahead and try to do it tonight. Here's to hoping for success on my part! YIKES!

That Word You Never Thought You'd Hear...

Infertility. That's right...(I originally decided to go private to tell my story, but being quite the blog stalker myself, I decided I really didn't know who needed to hear my story to get through their own.) Being in a religion where families are the central focus of everything, it's a hard word to hear and a hard condition to accept. But, we have and we're dealing. A little history:

We've been trying for a few years now to start a family. We started infertility a couple years ago. We don't know what's happening. So we're categorized in the "unknown problem" group of infertility. Here's a little about our/my medication history for those curious infertiles out there, we've been through 5 rounds of Clomid (oh, the hot flashes!), then 3 cycles of Femara (no IUIs with either). Then, I got my current "big girl" job and we took a break from infertility treatments for a year (but to no avail in the baby department). We started back earlier this year and so far we've done two more rounds of Femara (2nd one with IUI), switched and did 2 rounds of Tamoxifen (both with IUI), and now we're about to start a round of injections (Menopur).

It's been a rough road. Good days, bad days, days that I can tackle the world, days that I want to crawl in a hole, days that I've had to call a friend on emergency to give me a shot on my lunch break (I like to call it a shot and run!), but overall I'm still determined. We've been so blessed in our life that we can't complain about much else. So, it helps to know that we've accepted this as a part of our life and know this is our journey that we need to go through. So, I've decided to use this forum as an infertility journal for now. I want a place I can vent about meds or fears or exciting results or whatever! Hopefully it will be a VERY short story and I won't have to write about it for long. But, if not...that's life...gotta make lemonade!

Going Private

So, I know I have avoided blogging recently. It's not that there isn't much going on. It's just that I haven't wanted to publicly announce everything in my life. BUT, I need an outlet! I need a place to document and journalize our journey right now. So, I'm going private so that I can freely vent my feelings and tell our story to those who truly care. If you would like to follow our journey we're going on right now, please just comment with your email address or Facebook or email me it! I plan on making this officially private around the beginning of September.

25 and Counting!

Sunday was my 25th birthday! ! I was going to do some big to-do post with 25 things about me, but we ALL know THAT wasn't going to happen! So I'll just tell a little about my birthday weekend! I aimed for a nice, relaxing weekend at home with Sung. I'm a total homebody, so I didn't want to go out or have a bunch of people over. I just wanted a quiet weekend reading, watching some Battlestar Gallactica (Yes...I'm a nerd. Thanks a lot Matt), and some ice cold IBC rootbeer (which I got!). Sung and I did actually go to the movies on Friday and watched Hanna...pretty good movie...not exactly what I expected. My mom and sisters came over Saturday and helped clean my house (best birthday present EVER) and brought over birthday cookies and Tangled to watch (hadn't seen it...SO CUTE)! On Sunday, Sung made me breakfast in bed, I brought some of the cookies to my Primary girls (they were so sweet and sang "Happy Birthday" and everything!). Sung cooked dinner also, and then we had some friends over for ice cream cake (thanks Doug!). So...No stressful decisions had to be made...Delicious food and drink (mmm...IBC...)! Overall birthday success!

What did YOU do on Valentine's Day??

Sung brought home Chinese food, chocolates (a very sweet card), and we had a night in watching tv together (without Sung studying)!

(This is my excuse of an update! Please forgive!)

New Job, New Shed, New Season!

I love Spring! I think it's a tie between Spring and Fall for my favorite season. I notice all the changes of Spring much more now than I did when I was younger. I love to see the trees turn green and then the blossoms of Spring bursting with color! It's soo refreshing and happy. I have to admit I am SO not a fan of Winter. So I love to see the signs of its departure.

I have been very busy lately. I started a new job in February. After a time of odd jobs and unemployment, I finally found a job. A REAL job. I got my degree in Math with a minor in Economics, and my job is in a cost estimating department (what I'd been looking for 1 1/2 years ago when I graduated) working for the government. It's FAR from perfect. And, it's entry level, so I spend most of my time learning and taking training courses and not doing a whole lot of crazy important stuff. But, after you've spent so long working to fulfil your plans for the future without ANYTHING happening...you appreciate something, anything working your way.

On another note, Sung bought a shed last month. But, not just any shed. It looks more like a barn then a shed! (Let's just say there were a lot of "tense" moments during that decision...lol) But, hopefully I won't have tools on my table or counters, maybe not even in my kitchen AT ALL! Which of course brings me to Sung's new "project." He's building our fence. YES...HE is building our fence (with help from Doug, Doug's roommates and my fam-thanks Dad!). Sung loves to do things himself, and he is very meticulous...so he'll do a good job!

I'm still in Young Women's and Sung and Doug work with the cub scouts-Webelos- in our ward. So, between work and callings and home projects, we've managed to stay pretty busy, and I've managed to avoid updating my blog. HAha!

I guess the last thing that's gone on is that I got to go to Washington DC a couple weeks ago for a work conference. It was my first time there, and I LOVED it! The weather was PERFECT! Food was AMAZING! And I had a wonderful time!

Hope everyone is enjoying this BEAUTIFUL Spring weather as much as I am! Hopefully I'll post again before summer starts! Here's some pics from my trip!

(Albanian Embassy...It was just a few blocks north of my hotel so I had to get a pic!)

(Metro Station...I know I'm weird, but it looked cool!)


(US Treasury Department... The Cherry Blossoms were just starting to bloom!)

(Tiny Washington Monument...Or is it a BIG Emily?)

(White House)

(New Spring blossoms....Did I say that I LOVE Spring?)

Quick Update

I know it's been forever since I posted anything. I guess you wait for something BIG to happen in your life, but then you end up waiting and waiting and not posting. I guess I'll just update on how things have been going.

One big thing is that Sung is not working as much! He changed full-time jobs, so now he works during the week and is off on Saturday and Sunday! YAY! Between the times that we moved back here and he switched jobs, Sung had only made it to church two or three times. Now I won't be one of the single women at church!

I too have not been working as much. In fact, since the beginning of September, I have not been working at all. Talk about going stir crazy! So, if anyone else is bored and wants to get together...give me a call! (Do I sound desperate yet?)

Anyways, I've been looking for work, and hopefully I will be starting a job in January. I'm not saying anymore, so I won't jinx it!

Hopefully there will be more going on later this month!