It's That Time of Year!

The time of year that everyone graduates...

(except us... maybe ONE DAY...)

It's such a nostalgic time of year as you remember your own graduations and review what you've done in the past school year.

I love this time of year.

We made a bet a couple years ago with one of our dear friends in Vicksburg; that if she graduated as Valedictorian then we would make it to her graduation.

AND against all odds- she pulled through.

So we paid up.

We drove out to Mississippi...

 And saw her graduate...

 We cheered really loud when they announced her academic scholarships to BYU!

"Go Cougars!"

Everyone looked at us strange.

 She gave a lovely speech.

 And even though it was super warm and humid...

(outside graduations in the South should be illegal)

we're glad we got to see it!

 And while in Mississippi, we got to see some of our long-lost friends.

We enjoyed the Mississippi sun...

And enjoyed the Mississippi evenings...

(only with bug spray ON)

And can't wait to get back there in a couple weeks for the WHOLE summer!

Southern life is quite nice.

Seminary Smarties

Jon finished his fourth year of teaching seminary, phew!

He has been enjoying the sleep-in time.

Last year not a single student read the whole Old Testament so he wanted to provide some incentive to read the New Testament this year.

A steak dinner.

Now... he may or may not have thought this one all the way through...

I've never even bought steak before.

It's too expensive for our measly budget!

Five kids completed their reading- so a steak dinner we had!

(almost burning down the kitchen in the process... but no matter...)

These kids worked hard- and they deserved it.

 Caught him mid-laugh

Hooray for seminary!

And hooray for sleeping in!

Well... at least for Jon... 

Just 7 more days... 7 more days...

Memorial Day BBQ

We've had many a BBQ with these beloved friends...

unfortunately this will be our last one all together.

Why do people have to graduate and move on?

Can't believe these two were just newborns not long after we all moved here...

and now they're going on four!

Time flies...

and it makes me sad...

The Longest Road I've Ever Traveled...

Infertility.
Let's just cut right to the chase shall we?
Something that I never thought I'd have to deal, something that a LOT of women have to deal with, and something we have HAD to deal with for the last 3 1/2 years.
Hopefully our journey is on it's way out the door-
but my heart aches for those that it has only just begun.
It's a hard road, with ambiguous questions and sometimes no answers.

Two days ago I had surgery to clear out the endometriosis that we think has been causing all the problems.

We've been through all types of fertility treatments this past year and none of them worked- although my body responded well to them.
We knew that I had endometriosis (from a surgery three years ago) and for whatever reason, endometriosis tends to mess things up...
thus my doctor felt like the best thing to do, would be to clean out the endo.
And it's a good thing we did! I had some pretty severe endometriosis going on inside...
The worst part about endometriosis is they dont' know why some women have it, they don't know what causes it, and there's really no cure for it...
Super frustrating.

 They gave my ever patient husband a restaraunt pager to know when I was done with surgery...
"Mr. Brame- your table is ready"

 And I was out the same day.
Feeling pretty good!

 And I had these movies to get me through the days of restlessness ahead!

Now hopefully with some clean insides- we can have another go at fertility treatment.
Sigh.
It's a beast.
I think it's interesting when people think infertility is a taboo subject and one can't talk about their kids or getting pregnant for fear of hurting feelings.
I ALWAYS feel happy when friends or family tell me that they're pregnant...
I ALWAYS feel happy when people tell me about the successes of their kids...
It only makes me sad when women who CAN get pregnant easily take it for granted or act like it's no big deal.
Don't forget, that it's such a beautiful gift.
Hopefully, whether through adoption or other means, this road of infertility will be over for us soon.

Another Year Older and Wiser, Too!

Happy Birthday...

to me!

The big 28 snuck up on us pretty quick this year.

Thankfully the busiest week of school (for me) was the week previous, so we could actually relax and enjoy some birthday time.

We like to get away for birthdays when we can- and this year we got out of the city and headed to the small town of New Braunfels; about 40 minutes outside of San Antonio.

Why New Braunfels?

Good question- it's a small country town but is home to a huge water park, Schlitterbahn.

And to Schlitterbahn we went.

 We brought some friends along with us, the day was beautiful, and we had a great time. We didn't get very many pictures... because our camera is unfortunately not waterproof.

After spending eight hours in the sun and fun we cleaned up and headed to the historic district section of town.

It was so adorable and quaint.

 We wandered  into their antique shop...

 and found some surprises of our own!

We TRIED to be sneaky...

but then just had to take her picture.

She looked ridiculous.

She provided lots of entertainment.

 Which was good- because we had to wait 1.5 hours to get a seat for dinner!

Apparently the old cotton gin on the river is the most popular spot in town to eat.

 

But we were in good company, and they even had live music while we waited...

and it was worth the wait!

They had some delicious food

AND they gave us free strawberry shortcake for my birthday.

Score!

On the way home I tried to be artistic and take a picture through my cheez-it...

but it didn't exactly turned out as hoped.

 We made some birthday salsa...

and ate nearly the entire thing.

 And opened some birthday presents!

 Well- really just one birthday present.

But it was quite the present.

I am so excited to learn how to use this bad boy!

Happy birthday!