Our story thus far...

I have been wanting to start this blog for a long time and after some encouragement from a long time friend I finally got this thing started. I apologize in advance for the long post. 

Where to begin or how do I start to sum up the milestones of the last 8 years?! My husband and I met back in 2005 as we both worked at a local movie theater, while he finished his career at Clarion University as a marketing specialist while I graduated high school and chased my dreams of becoming a pharmacist. Fast forward a couple of years of dating, fighting and making-up again to 2007 where I landed my acceptance into Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy.

Pharmacy school definitely had its up and downs, while we had long days and even longer nights it brought me into the lives of three girls that would change the rest of my life. When we arrived on our first day of school seating was done alphabetically of our last names. This led me to meeting Jenna, Mary and Kelly ( who I had actually known through my undergrad) we didn't all hit it off right away but months into our schooling we became a close knit group of friends that would help each other toward surviving the next three years. Still to this day we make it a point to meet up at least 3 times a year to keep our friendship alive!

                              

Another group of people that have been absolute staple in our life is the six pack you see below. We have been through it all together from halloween parties, countless dinner nights, moving houses, finishing school, starting real jobs,  getting married, having children and all the different paths that life has taken us. 

"We may not have it all together, but together we have it all."

After an excruciating first year of pharmacy school the following year on November 1st 2008, Travis asked me to be his wife, of course I said yes and we set our wedding date for September 18th 2010. While this seemed like a long engagement I had priorities of graduating pharmacy school, passing my boards and then getting married.

The next 2 years was a whirlwind while Travis and I maintained our long distance relationship as he worked and lived in Clarion, and I went to school in Erie. We made several trips back and forth until the fall of 2009 when it was time for me to move home, finish my clinical rotations, and plan a wedding. 2010 was an iconic year for two of us and it approached faster then I ever thought it would, where I graduated pharmacy school in May, became a licensed pharmacist July, started my career as a staff pharmacist for a retail pharmacy and married my best friend on September 18th, 2010.

After we got married I knew we wanted to start a family right away. Little did I know this would not come easy to us and after a year of struggling with "infertility" we made an appointment to start seeking treatment. In January we had our first appointment and the doctor ran some blood work and determined I would need to take Clomid which is a medication used to stimulate ovulation. I took the medication in February and fast-forward one month and we got this...

We couldn't have been more thrilled with the news and continued to pray for a healthy pregnancy. After making it through the first trimester we felt safe enough to announce our BIG news. 

                   

We had a wonderful pregnancy and I loved every moment of being pregnant. We decided to not find out the gender of our baby which made for such an awesome surprise. (Everyone was certain we were expecting a baby BOY) We spent the next several months preparing the nursery in our duplex apartment, spending time with family, and getting maternity pictures.  Finally come November 14th, 2012 we headed to the hospital we checked in at 10:00am and Noelle Katherine Siegel was born at 2:37pm 8 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long. You can check out her amazing newborn photos here!

I had taken an extended maternity leave (18 weeks) to be at home with her and honestly could never imagine going back as a full time pharmacist driving 1 hour each way to work. Half-way through my leave a job opportunity started to present itself and before I knew I had decided to leave my previous job and would be working in Clarion at a new pharmacy only 27 hours a week (which was still considered full-time with full benefits) . It was the perfect balance that I was looking and had been praying for. So I now like to considered myself part SAHM and part working mom and I love them both! Also while on maternity leave we found our perfect home, bought the house and moved in! What a crazy journey those 18 weeks were!

So here we are today my family of 3! Looking forward to blogging about our journey through this crazy life of infertility, organizational tips, family trips, recipes, and DIY projects. 

 Kelly Erin