What's in a Name?

Our daughter's name is Xenia Renee Hansen.  I know the "X" can be intimidating, but don't let it scare you away.  Here's why we picked the name ...

These are the letters we made for above her crib

Xenia

First off, we didn't make this name up - It's actually a fairly common Greek name.  See Wikipedia or do a Facebook search for Xenia if you don't believe me. For the first name, we wanted a Greek name that sounded good to us in English as well. We were also looking for something that had a good meaning behind it. - Xenia means hospitality.

In Greek tradition, you would often name your first daughter after the father's mother. While we didn't do that exactly, Eugenia (John's Mom's name) does share Xenia's nickname: "Nia." Eugenia Hansen doesn't go by Nia, but many Greek's with the name Eugenia do (e.g., Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

John and I intend to switch between the Greek pronunciation of the name ("Ksenia") and the nickname ("Nia"). We do not expect Americans to use the Greek pronunciation - that "Ks" sound at the beginning can be difficult for a native English speaker. However, the American pronunciation uses a "Z" sound at the beginning (think "Xena", but with an "i" in it), and we are perfectly happy with all our non-Greek-speaking friends calling her by either her nickname ("Nia" - pronounced: "Nee-a") or the American pronunciation ("Zeneeaa").

Think of it this way: My husband's name in Greek is Ioannis, or Yanni for short, but there's a good chance you call him "John."  If you are in the habit of calling my husband "John," keep things simple and stick with the American pronunciation.

Greek Pronunciation
Ksenia
PronounceNames.com (play the first video "Submitted from: Greece")

American Pronunciation
Zeneeaa
YouTube Pronunciation Guide

Renee

Renee, which we will be spelling exactly like it is written here - no accent, means "reborn" or "born again." More importantly though, Renee is my mother's middle name.  I have my grandmother's (mother's mother's) middle name, so it seemed only fitting to continue that tradition by giving our daughter my mother's middle name.

I think most everyone knows how to say Renee, so I'm not linking to pronunciation guides, but feel free to Google it if you're unsure. :)

There you have it - Welcome to the world, Xenia Renee Hansen!

Our Infertility Journey

I want to tell our story because when we started this journey, we only really knew of one other couple who had gone through fertility treatments, and their story was very different from ours.  Many people don’t want to talk about their struggles with infertility, and I completely support that. – This is a very personal journey, and it’s your right to decide if you want to share it or not.  If that’s you, please don’t take my openness as a judgement on your request for privacy, but I firmly believe that discussing infertility should not be a taboo if you want to discuss it.

I want to share our story because I hope that it will help educate those who have never experienced this and because I want the couple who is standing where we were 3 years ago to know they are not alone. 

As we’ve been travelling down this path in our lives, we have met many more people than that first couple we knew with infertility issues.  When we have had the opportunity to share stories, the only thing that was consistently true was that every story was different.  That is probably the first misconception I had to overcome with infertility – I thought fertility treatments were for when some particular combination of diagnosable conditions was preventing a couple from conceiving.  It turns out that there are a wide array of reasons a couple may seek out fertility treatments from an inability to conceive to repeat miscarriages and beyond.

After three years in this process, no doctor has diagnosed anything to be “wrong” with me or with John, but in those three years, I have only had this one pregnancy and no miscarriages.  I know nothing of the heartbreak of losing a pregnancy, but I did experience the fear that I would never get pregnant.  I never imagined that I could be so incredibly disappointed in listening to a doctor say, “There are no more test I think we should run” followed by “There’s nothing wrong that we can diagnose.”  There is definitely something wrong – It’s just not one of the things current medical science can feasibly diagnose. 

Here’s a summary of our story …

2012

In the summer of 2012, we took a vacation to Europe, and due to jet lag and being out of our normal routine, I missed over a week’s worth of birth control pills and experienced a very odd cycle that made us think I might be pregnant. I wasn’t pregnant, but that experience got us thinking it might not have been so bad if I was. – In July 2012, we stopped birth control.

At first we called it “not preventing pregnancy” instead of “trying to have a baby,” but because we are both planners, that quickly turned into reading up on how to conceive and what to expect. For those first few months, we weren’t trying very hard on timing, but we did at least make sure there was one viable attempt per month. From our research, we expected it would take 3-6 months, and we were in no rush.

In December 2012, I had a my annual well-woman checkup, and I mentioned to my doctor that we had started trying about 5 months earlier – “Should I be worried yet?” I asked. She gave me some pointers on timing and underwear and said to let her know if we weren’t pregnant after a year of trying. “You’re young,” she said, “It will probably happen soon.”

2013

A year goes by with increasingly intense attempts to make something happen (e.g., boxers, morning temperature readings, dietary changes, etc.). At my December 2013 well-woman visit, I let my doctor know it had been 17 months, and she suggested that we get a few simple tests to see if there’s something easily correctable we can fix.

We hesitated for a couple months … “We don’t need fertility treatments.” We were afraid they’d laugh at us. We were so young, there couldn’t possibly be anything wrong other than our impatience.

2014

In February 2014, we met with a fertility doctor for the first time who recommended 7 “simple” tests:

• 4 blood tests – these were in fact simple
• A sonogram to check my follicles
• An HSG test – this one is why I put “simple” in quotes – it was probably the most unpleasant thing I did in this whole process (until the egg retrieval)
• A sperm analysis – John was very proud that his result was dubbed “Excellent”

In March of 2014, the doctor announced that given these test results and our medical history, there weren’t any other tests he’d recommend, and he could not diagnose why we had not conceived yet. There was one other test we never did, but I showed none the common indicators that would lead to recommending that fairly invasive screening.

This was our first really disappointing day in infertility – I had really wanted there to be something we could fix.

The doctor recommended IUI (Inter-Uterine Insemination) – AKA: Artificial Insemination. We were not ready for that – we had only gone to the doctor to see if something was wrong, and since nothing was wrong, surely we’d get pregnant on our own.

January 2015

Fast forward to January 2015 … We felt like our life was a bit in limbo – we never planned anything more than 9 months out anymore just in case we got pregnant, and 30 months of living by a schedule was exhausting.

Neither of us is much for New Year’s Resolutions, but we decided that we needed to know if it was possible for us to conceive, so if it wasn’t, we could move on with our life. We jokingly decided to make 2015 the year of fertility treatments – we had no idea how right that prediction would be

February 2015

At our first visit back with the doctor who recommended IUI a year earlier, he seemed perplexed that we waited a year, and he explained some statistics – I’m just going off memory here, so please refer to actual medical studies rather than take my numbers as truth.

• An average couple doing the right things to conceive has a 20-25% chance of conceiving each month of the first 12 months
• After 12 months of trying, the odds decrease dramatically to a 2% chance per month

By this point, we’d been at it for 2.5 years and were definitely in the 2% group – meaning (statistically speaking) it would take us 5 years instead of the normal 3-6 months. This actually gave us pause. “Maybe we just need to wait longer,” but no, 2015 is the year of fertility treatments … We pressed on.

For couples like us, IUI raises the odds back to almost normal – 20%.

February, March, and April 2015

3 failed IUI attempts, each including:

• Medications: 5 pills and 3 self-administered abdominal shots – very scary at first, but eventually we actually liked this needle over the others
• Multiple sonograms to check on my follicles
• Lots of careful timing and calendaring
• A sperm wash and a procedure with a catheter to transfer the sperm
• Two weeks of waiting and progesterone suppositories
• A blood test that confirms I’m not pregnant

This is a Follistim needle - It went in my abdomen - Scary at first, but eventually it was "old hat"

After the 3rd IUI, our doctor shared some more statistics – I don’t remember the details, but essentially IUI success rates diminish over time, so we were no longer looking at 20% odds with each attempt – we were now back in the single digit odds

When the doctor first explained the stages of treatment, IUI was the 2nd of 4 stages:

1. Clomid pills only – didn’t apply to us because initial tests showed I was very regular and producing plenty of follicles
2. IUI – what we’d just done 3 times
3. A more intense version of something similar to IUI – I can’t remember the name of this step
4. IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)

We learned in the visit after the 3^rd IUI that step #3 would be unethical for us because our sonograms during the IUIs showed 4+ follicles every time – If we went with step 3, we could end up with sextuplets. The doctor was recommending we switch from IUI directly to IVF.

If the day we found out there were no more tests to find something wrong was our first disappointing day, this was our second – Remember: There’s nothing diagnosable that’s wrong with us, so we never expected to hear that the only other treatment recommended for us would be IVF.

May 2015

The recommendation of IVF was a surprise that we weren’t ready to handle, and the doctor agreed to do one more IUI in May 2015, which resulted in yet another negative pregnancy test

This is the point where we knew, even though there’s nothing we can diagnose, there is definitely something wrong. It’s not just the odds of normal couples conceiving that we’re compared to now. We had 4 IUI attempts where we know the follicles were good, the sperm was good, and the timing was right (down to the hour) – There is still no medical explanation for why we had never gotten pregnant.

We asked the doctor if we’d ever conceive without IVF, and his response was that he couldn’t say for sure. He was unsure because it can’t be medically explained, but he said that given all the results we’ve had trying normally and with IUI, he would be very surprised if we decided to skip on IVF and ever got pregnant naturally.

We were very unsure of what to do. Our resolve of 2015 as the year of fertility treatments was fading in the face of $15K estimates for IVF when we’d already spent $10K on various test and IUIs …

• Adoption can cost $20K – what if we’re just throwing away 75% of the funds for an adoption?
• Is IVF removing the miracle of life and conception? – we had similar concerns with IUI, but it’s not as extreme
• Are we being desperate?  Should we just wait?  The doctor didn’t say there was 100% certainty we couldn’t conceive without IVF
• What if we get 6 or 8 embryos? – we don’t want that many kids, but we couldn’t imagine throwing out an embryo

In the end, we decided that IVF would finally put to bed our questions of if we can conceive and we needed to know. So we moved on to IVF and once we were on that train, it felt like the doctors controlled our lives for the next few months …

Egg Retrieval

We had a couple more test in preparation for IVF.

Then, when the medicines arrived, it filled a whole drawer in our refrigerator. If we thought the medicine schedule was intense with IUI, we had no idea. Now some of the medicines required mixing and there were days with 2 or 3 shots on the same day (thankfully, we were still on abdominal shots at this point).

At one point there were sonograms every other day to check on my follicles, and by the time we got to egg retrieval day, there were 27 follicles the doctor was watching. I was completely knocked out for the retrieval and woke up to find that they had retrieved 12 eggs – less than I expected from 27 follicles, but the doctors were pleased.

The days following the retrieval were painful in 2 ways …

1. My lady parts HURT – I was walking like an old lady who’s too stubborn to give in to her family’s insistence the she use a walker

2. Every other day we’d get calls from the embryologist with increasingly disappointing news

• Only 10 of our eggs were mature enough to try to fertilize (all 10 were injected with John’s sperm – a process called ICSI)
• Only 6 of the 10 developed into embryos (typically, they’d expect 8 or 9 embryos)
• After 5 days, when the embryos were ready for freezing, only 2 were still alive (we had been expecting 3 or 4)

Over the course of 6 days, we went from 27 follicles to 2 frozen embryos. We hadn’t wanted 6+ embryos, but we had hoped for 3 or 4 so we have a few chances. "Nothing works on the first try," we thought, so we need some backup-plan embryos because by this point we’d heard of people going from 6 embryos to only 1 kid. We were told that both of our embryos were very high quality embryos, but we didn’t really understand what that meant yet.

This was the third really disappointing day of our journey, but in our minds, at least we knew we were near the end because we could attempt 2 transfers before the end of the year and close out 2015 with certainty that it wasn’t going to work for us.

There was even one embarrassingly tearful dinner at a restaurant where I couldn’t stop crying, and I think I scared the waiter. I know that sounds crazy because there are many people who would love to have 2 good embryos, but that’s where we were mentally.

Embryo Transfer

Waiting to do the embryo transfer was agonizing. Because of all the meds I was on, I needed everything to clear out and have a natural menstrual cycle before the transfer, which meant after the egg retrieval at the end of July, we had to wait until October 1^st for the embryo transfer.

We took a short vacation in August (our first trip since January because you can’t travel when you have a schedule of medications and doctor visits to keep up with). In the meantime, we learned a lot about embryo grading – while we only have 2 embryos, one was an AA and the other is an AB – that meant that on separate trials, each embryo had about a 60% chance of turning into a live birth. Our best odds yet!

The medicine regimen for the embryo transfer had only 3 drugs, which seemed like a relief at first – until we saw the needles for the butt shots!  Ouch!

This is the type of needle that was used for the butt shots

The actual embryo transfer was a really neat experience, we got a picture of our embryo, got to see it on a video screen under a microscope right before they brought in in to the procedure room, and then saw a flash on a sonogram as they guided the embryo into place

Our baby's first glamour shot - This is the picture of the embryo we received on transfer day.  The cluster of cells on the left is what would eventually develop into a baby.

10 days later I took a home pregnancy test, and we cried tears of joy to finally see two little pink lines!

Pregnancy

Unfortunately, we had to continue the butt shots for 63 more days, which a literal pain in the ass added on top of normal pregnancy nausea, but we were, of course, thrilled to finally be pregnant and move past this “trying to conceive” stage.

Since then, there’s been a nagging fear that something will go wrong.  In August, I was convinced that this wasn’t going to happen for us, and despite our joy now, I still can’t completely shake that feeling.  I guess that’s the switch to motherhood they talk about where you never stop worrying about your children. 

I also frequently think about that other embryo.  Eventually, we want to go back to have another transfer, and we’ll be back at a 60% chance of that embryo surviving to become a successful pregnancy.  It’s odd to think that the sex of our second child and many other genetic factors are already determined (if that embryo is successful) – we just won’t know for several years.  Now that we’ve had a success, it’s funny how that completely changes my positivity about only having one embryo left.

Another thing I worry about is eventually telling my child how she was conceived.  Not that I expect that to be an early childhood conversation, but it’s bound to come up eventually.  I hope that when that time comes, there’s less of a stigma around the whole process – I don’t want her to feel like a “petri-dish baby,” which is pretty much what I thought of IVF before I started this process.  Technically, it’s a true statement, but it sounds unnatural and reminds me of the movie Gattaca. 

Summary

And now that I’ve written over 2500 words on the topic, I’ll end with just a few summarizing numbers about our journey:

• Over 3 Years: 38 months, 41 menstrual cycles
• 43 Office Visits: 6 formal consults, 13 blood tests, 16 sonograms, 3 medication instruction sessions, 4 IUIs, 1 egg retrieval, and 1 embryo transfer
• 49 Suppositories: not in the butt, thankfully
• 115 Injections: 21 Follistim, 9 Menopur, 4 Ganirelix, and 81 Progesterone (why is the largest number for the painful butt shots?!)
• 242 Pills: 20 Clomid, 13 Birth Control Pills (weird right? – this was during the embryo transfer month), and 209 Estrogen tablets

(All that and I know that our journey can be considered "simple" compared with the journey that some people take with infertility.)

Our sharps box was pretty full in the end

Results: 

• 12 eggs retrieved (10 mature)
• 6 embryos (2 survived)
• 1 embryo transferred
• 1 pregnancy
• 1 embryo still "on ice"

That’s our story.  If you read this far, I hope you got something out of it.  If you are currently struggling with infertility, I know there is absolutely nothing I can say that will make it all better.  (Take me as an example: On the day we found out about the embryos that would lead to my current pregnancy, I hit my lowest point thinking it was all over and would never work).  I will say this though: Your story is unique, so no one can tell you definitively what you should do.  While there is no "right" answer for those tough decisions, I hope you can find the right decision for you, and I hope you are able to make a decision that gives you peace.

Baby Hansen is due June 18^th 2016.

12-12-12

Sometime in the early 90s, I realized that my birthday would eventually fall on December 12th, 2012 (12-12-12)... and I waited...

Finally, that day has come and gone.  John and I had a very nice time celebrating what would ordinarily be an un-monumental birthday made special by a trifecta of twelves.  I told John about 12-12-12 back when we were dating, and I think he took it as a personal challenge to make the day great... he spent all day calling it "The Birthday of a Life Time".  (I guess he thinks the odds of my living to be 127 aren't that good... not sure why)

Here are 12 ways we celebrated:

1. I took the day off of work and John didn't schedule any work.  It was a Wednesday, so that made 2, 2-day weeks on either side of my birthday.
2. We slept in... for a little bit at least.
3. John gave me a headset to use when I work from home, the honor of throwing away a shirt of his that I hate, and a bucket of Andes mints.
4. We drove to Glen Rose and ate lunch at a sweet little shop called Storybook Cafe.



Storybook Cafe is a bookshop and cafe in one.  It was charming and particularly cute with all its Christmas decor.



They had neat little table decorations and games... this one is holiday dominoes.



And there was a snowman!



5. After lunch, we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park.

6. We saw fossils and dinosaur models.




















7. We took a hike.

8. We expressed our inner children on the swing-set.

9. Then we took a break to enjoy the nice weather at the park.  I read a book and John decided to take a nap.
10. After the park, we returned to Glen Rose for a nice dinner at The Riverhouse Grill, which is an old mansion converted into a restaurant.  
11. We had chocolate cake for dessert.
12. We drove home and enjoyed a movie on our early Christmas present to our-selves (a TV and DVD player in the master bedroom)

In my opinion, 12-12-12 was a great success... well worth the wait... not sure what we'll do to top it on the next 12-12-12 for my 127th birthday.  :)

Thanksgiving 2012

It feels important to take a little time this time of year to think specifically about what I'm thankful for.  It seems like once a month or so, John and I find ourselves saying to each other that we're incredibly blessed in our lives, so I know that as I set out to write this post, I have no shortage of things to be thankful for this year.

• Always first on my list: My wonderful family.  My fabulous husband of a year and a half, excellent parents who are still so encouraging in my adult life, great in-laws who hosted John and I on our Greek excursion this year, a brother I seem to love more with each year that we grow older (and further from our sibling rivalry years) and a brother-in-law that I'm still enjoying getting to know better.
• The prospects of potentially adding another heart to that beautiful family (no, there's not any news on that front yet, but the prospects are an exciting part of life)
• An extended family that sometimes seems even more eager than John and I about said "prospects" :)
• Many close friends that bring joy to our everyday lives through dinners, parties, UNT athletics, and many other get-togethers.
• A comfortable home with a successful renovation project this year (Thanks Hillary!)
• An employer that respects me and my contributions and celebrated them with a manager promotion this year.
• 2 adorable dogs - Happily, both now in good health!
• Randi, for introducing me to my new favorite hobby: Crochet.
• That John and I have no major trials or health concerns, and that those in our lives who do have health concerns are under the care of first-class doctors. 
• And... that I'm pretty sure the Mayans are wrong, and John and I will have many more years on Earth to celebrate our lives together. ;)

Thank you Lord for your many blessings!

1 Year

Our wonderful baker doesn't believe in freezing cakes, so she made us a deal... if we gave her professional photographs of our cake from the wedding, she would re-make the top layer of our cake for our anniversary.  It's just a delicious as the first (which we ate when we got back from our honeymoon... never frozen)!

I can't believe it's already been a year.  We're still loving married life and looking forward to many more years and all the adventures those years may bring.

Managing Milestones

When I graduated from Baylor in December 2007, a lot of people asked me where I wanted to be in 5 years.  I don't think I really had a good answer for that question.  I wasn't sure if I'd like consulting or if it would be a good fit for my skills and personality.

At some point in the early months of my employment at Hitachi Consulting, I did set a goal for myself to reach the Manager level at Hitachi.  I didn't know how long it would take, so I'm not sure if that was really my 5 year plan, but it's probably the closest I got to a 5 year plan at that point in my career... and after a year or two, my motives and focus changed a bit.  In the end, I found myself making decisions based on the ever changing working world... I didn't keep the "Make Manager at Hitachi" as a hard target for myself.

Now, it's a little over 4 years since I started at Hitachi Consulting, and despite the fact that my long-range planning motives have changed, I just achieved that original goal.  It's neat to meet the first career goal I ever set for myself.

Look Out World: Marleta's a Manager!


(PS I'm a little too proud of the title of this post... it's my first triple-meaning blog post title)

Goals - 10 Pounds

I posted a little while back about my weight loss goals.  In total, my goal is to lose 24 pounds by June.  This week, I reached 10 pounds!

It's interesting what my mind latches on to.  10 pounds isn't really a special number in my plan... 8 was 1/3, 12 will be half way.  12 will also be the weight that is at the top of the generally accepted "healthy" range for my height and sex.  For some reason though, 10 seems like a big number.  I was really excited to reach 10 pounds this week.

Today, I'm actually at 11 pounds.  Only 1 pound away from half way and the "healthy" range, but I'm still most excited about reaching 10 pounds this week.

So, Yay for 10 pounds of weight loss!

My Goal

When I graduated from college, I was pretty close to my ideal weight and fitness.  Thanks to a fitness class I took in my last semester to get my last PE credit, I was exercising 2-3 times a week and I was only about 5 pounds from the ideal weight for my height and bone structure, well within the normal range for BMI.  I felt pretty good.  That was 4 years ago.

Since then, I've felt like there were more important things to do than exercise... I was dating this hot guy, ya' see... and then later, there was wedding planning (I know a lot of people get on a "must lose weight" kick before their wedding, but that wasn't a trigger for me at all).  In the first year after I graduated, I was concerned that my diet was unhealthy (see the post about my first salad at age 25), so I tracked my caloric and nutrient intake for about a month... it turns out that my diet was actually pretty healthy nutrient wise (as long as I take a multivitamin).  That was good news, but not much motivation to lose those last 5 pounds to my ideal weight or to really worry about my health at all.

I've gained 20 pounds and only exercised about 50 times since my college graduation.  The weight gain was a very slow progression, and I always told myself that I was still in pretty good shape compared to the obesity trend you hear about on the news.  For about 2 years, I've been telling myself that I need to get in shape before I have kids because if I can't get healthy now, having never been pregnant, no kids to take care of, and in the supposed "prime" of my life age wise, there's no hope for me after having kids.

This isn't a New Year's Resolution.  I made my last New Year's Resolution in my senior year of high school: Never let myself make a New Year's Resolution again... other than that last one, they never lasted past January 5th anyway.  It just so happens that after 2 years of giving lip service to getting healthier, I finally reached my tipping point over the holidays.

I think I just realized that the 20 pounds I've gained since college really is a lot (a friend of mine is 34 weeks pregnant and she's barely gained that much).  I look at some of my female family members... mom, grandmother, aunts, and cousins... they've all had children... and none of them are as overweight as me... I've got no excuse for my behavior, and I don't want to find myself unable to keep up with my kids in 5 years because I've neglected my body.

I don't mean to write this so that people will feel sorry for me, but if I put this out there, I'll at least think twice before I let myself slide.  When it boils down to it, I like the way I look (and I know John does too), and that's probably been my biggest hindrance to getting healthier.  But I can, and should be better about how I take care of my body.

This last week I started tracking what I'm eating again.  I don't intend to make major dietary changes... nutrient wise, I'm still doing a pretty decent job, but I've been using a calorie tracker that sets a target, and I have to exercise each day to get down to the target calorie level based on what I ate that day.  I'm finding that to be a neat motivation: You wanted to butter your roll at lunch, that's fine, just add a little time to that exercise. :)

I've set a 24 week plan to lose 24 pounds.  I put the weight on slowly, and I know if I'm going to make this a sustainable lifestyle, I'm going to have to take it off slowly too.  I one week in, and I'm proud to say that I'm on target for the week, and except for 1 day, I've exercised 30 minutes each day.  I know 1 week is hardly a habit, but after 4 years of nothing, it's a really good start.

1 week & 1 pound down - 23 to go!

Tradition

I like traditions.  It's nice to know what to expect and to remember previous occurrences through traditions.  John and I have a New Year's Eve tradition that we celebrated for the 5th time this year.  Every New Years Eve / New Year's Day that we've known each other, we've been at Cafe Brazil for midnight.

Cafe Brazil doesn't have any special New Year's Festivities, but they have a TV that's watching the ball in New York, and most of the restaurant participates in a pretty subdued count-down for the last 10 seconds of the year.

The first time I came to Dallas to visit John we ate at Cafe Brazil for dinner because it was one of only a few places open after the game we went to.  Then for our 1st New Year's celebration a few months later, we went to Cafe Brazil because it was open and we had enough time to get there after John finished working on the evening news.  We had wanted to go to one of the big New Year's parties in town, but it would have been a logistics nightmare by the time John got back from work. 

We eat at Cafe Brazil throughout the year because we like it, but I guess the Cafe Brazil tradition started because we were settling for something to do at the New Year.  It turned out to be perfect for us.  We're not much for the crowd of strangers party scene.  So, ringing in 2012 was our 5th New Year together, and we were at Cafe Brazil, just like 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

2011: A Review

I started this blog after 2011 had already started, but a year in review post still seems appropriate.  This is the closest I'm going to get to a Christmas letter, so if you were eagerly waiting by the mailbox to receive our Christmas greeting; sorry, this is all you get:

• Work: I spent most of the year working at a client that could have been the inspiration for both the TV show: The Office and the movie: Office Space. (You may have noticed my recent increase in blog posts... my tour of duty at that client finally ended Nov 30, and I'm looking forward to exciting new client ventures in 2012.) John started the year doing free lance work, even directing some commercials in Hollywood, and has spent the last few months doing a steady gig for Hit Entertainment.
• Pets: Nicippe and Nestor are still our favorite little furry friends.  We had a scare earlier this year when we learned that Nestor has cancer, but given the elapsed time and lack of symptoms (other than the very obvious lump in his abdomen), his prognosis now seems very good.
• Parties!: From 2 fabulous wedding showers to many poker nights at our house to the best Cinderella Slumber-Party Themed Bachelorette Party a girl could dream of, we had a great time partying with friends and family this year.
• Our Humble Abode: At the beginning of 2011, we had only about 3 months experience as home owners.  Now, we have a small do-it-yourself project turned full bathroom remodel, new oven and washing machine, and new furniture to add to our home making experience.
• Travel: We took several trips this year - Hot Springs, Arkansas to watch North Texas Basketball in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament; Tortola and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands for our Honeymoon (with a stop in Puerto Rico and an unplanned stop in Miami); Los Angeles, California to watch more North Texas Basketball; and several trips to Houston to see my parents, grandparents, and cousins.
• Getting Crafty: I've started to get a little crafty this year.  I made a door hanger 'H' that's now on our front door.  I finished Christmas stockings for me and John.  And I even made some custom jewelry.  I've been taken into the Pinterest phenomenon and I'm excited to try more new things.
  
• April 30th: John and I made everything official and tied the knot! We had a great time at our wedding and cannot express enough the thanks we have to our family and friends who helped to make the day special. I think a good summation of how things went is this - Several people asked me after the wedding, "If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?"  I have pondered this question over the months since our nuptials, and I can honestly answer: "Nothing. I wouldn't want to change a thing."

All this leads to the question: What lies ahead for the Hansens in 2012? Obviously, we don't know for sure, but a few things are on our horizon:

• Another trip to Hot Springs for more Hot Hoops
• A vacation to Greece for me to meet some of John's family
• Maybe, possibly, conceivably, after more consideration, and with no promises - taking steps in the direction that could result in me needing to make another stocking.
• Some new home ownership adventures in renovation
• A new client experience for me that will likely be my first introduction to the world of traveling for work
• And hopefully many other fun and exciting things

I hope 2011 was a good year for you and yours, and I wish you all the best possible 2012.

Happy New Year!

I'm Thankful for...

It seems a bit cliche to write a thanks list on Thanksgiving Day, but it's a good cliche, I think.  I feel very blessed in my life and I think it's important not to lose sight of the many things there are to be thankful for.

So here I go; I'm thankful for:

• 26 (almost) years of good health
• Loving parents that encouraged me to be the best that I could be
• A solid faith community that not only taught me about God conceptually but also showed the love of Christ in their daily lives.
• A school system that allowed me to cultivate a love of the arts, gave me an opportunity to experience the classics, and challenged me to grow while giving me the educational foundation to build upon the rest of my life.
• A brother who knows and loves me deeply, and who, despite some sibling rivalry growing up, I cherish as my childhood companion.
• Sisters who welcomed me just as I am into the fold of Alpha Delta Pi.
• A culture where, as a woman, I am encouraged to go far in my career without giving up who I am as a woman.
• Baylor University, of which I have many fond memories.
• A great young career where I am both challenged and respected for my contributions
• My extended family that I love dearly... and all of their beautiful children (my brother and I are the only cousins who have yet to add little munchkins to group)
• The many friends and family who supported, encouraged, attended, and/or thought of us from a far during our wedding this year.
• The ability to own our own home despite economic turmoil around the world.
• Many close friends that join us for basketball games, Hot Springs trips, tailgating, poker nights, and any other general merriment.
• The best in-laws one could hope for.  I look forward to many new memories I'll make with the Hansen family.
• A great Thanksgiving dinner... and Chocolate Pie!

And I cannot summarize in short bullet the many ways that I'm thankful for the man who changed my name this year... he is my rock and my right hand.  I often joke that he must be psychic because he knows what I'm thinking before I say it.  When I was young, I often dreamed about getting married, but I never imagined how much I would love the man I married or how much fun it would be.  So, I am thankful for Mr. John Hansen, my husband (still not tired of saying that... "my husband"... he's my husband... sorry everybody else, he's taken).

I am truly blessed, and I cannot say thanks enough to "deserve" any of it... Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I'm glad to take a moment to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

What Now?

Since we got back from the honeymoon, we've:

• Unpacked
• Cleaned up the mess that was our front room
• Opened all our gifts and put them away
• Written all the Thank You cards
• Hosted 2 poker nights
• Gotten the pictures from the wedding (http://johnchristopherphoto.com/marleta+john/)
• Spent a portion of the money and gift cards we received on registry items we didn't get and other things that have been on our wish list for a while.

I just finally got the Thank You cards in the mail yesterday. Now, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next.  For the first time in over a year, I don't have a project or any deadlines in my personal life. (We were only engaged for 9 months, but before that we spent about 4 months choosing and buying our house.)

It's a nice feeling to not have something big looming... We've watched movies at home the last two nights, which we didn't do as much in the past year because there's always been some task to focus on. I like being able to goof off and not feel like I'm shirking some responsibility. I hope it stays that way for at least a little while.

In 42 Days

In 42 Days...

• I can end my career as an amateur event planner.
• I get to wear a beautiful dress and have my hair done up all nice like.
• I get to spend the day with 6 of my best friends... 4 of whom I hardly ever get to see because they live in other cities (3 in other states).
• I will enjoy one walk as Daddy's Little Girl and another as a grown woman.
• I get to play dress up with my friends.  It will probably be the first time my many fashion advisers have to take my advice instead of the other way around... I hope they taught me well.  :)
• We will enjoy the company of our family and friends from all over the country (all over the world in John's case).
• I will eat cake!
• I get to see the vision I've been planning for 8 months come to life.
• I will walk down the isle barefoot, like I've been insistent on doing since I was about 8 years old.
• I'll be 2 days away from an island beach vacation with my best friend.
• I get to be queen for a day.
• I will laugh, and knowing me, probably cry.
• I will be in a LOT of pictures.
• I will marry a funny, intelligent, tall, dark (haired and eyed), handsome, kind, genuine, and loving man.
• I will be Marleta Hansen.
  

Here I Go Again

I've had a blog before, but I stopped posting when I graduated from college.  I miss blogging; if for no other reason than to chronicle things as they're happening so I can read about it later and reminisce.

As things stand now, I'm an IT Consultant working for Hitachi Consulting.  I'm engaged to John Hansen.  We bought a house last fall and have been deep in the joys of home ownership recently (shower remodel because of mildew in the wall, repairing a fence that fell down).

But most exciting is that we're getting married in 44 days.  I can't believe it's almost here.  I met John almost 4 years ago and those have been some of the best 4 years of my life.  I'm thrilled that I get the honor of marrying this man.

The wedding plans are almost complete now, and we're about to move into shower and party season!  I look forward to being able to record the final steps in the wedding planning, but we'll just have to see how this whole blog thing goes... I suspect I'll be pretty inconsistent in posting, but maybe I'll surprise even myself.

I guess that makes for a good first post.  Until next time... I leave you with a picture of our most recent project: The Shower

Before and After