BEDM Day 27 - Day Trip to Seattle

Today Mom and I drove over to Seattle VERY early in the morning for a doctor's appointment.  See a few years ago now I announced that I was trying to get pregnant by IUI using a donor.  I don't have a partner and time was ticking.  Well after 3 different doctors, 3 years of trying this and that and losing 50 pounds to get my BMI down I have come to IVF.  My cycles just wouldn't sync up and I tried two rounds of IUI with no success.  They said IVF was my only option.  So this April I started my first IVF cycle with 12 eggs recovered.  Out of those 9 were injected but only 7 fertilized.  Out of the 7 only 3 made it through to day 3.  On day 5 my doctor called and said that it didn't look like any were going to make it, but they would hold them to day 6.  On day 6 the embryologist called and said that one matured to a 5A-B(close to the best embryo possible) and another was a 2B-C.  He froze both of them together.  Day 7 my doctor called me and said I had 3 embryos.  I told her, "No only 2 made it," and she said that the embryologist had held the last one another day (which they don't usually do).  This one also matured to a 5A.  So I currently have 3 babies in the freezer section at UW waiting to be put back.  I'm currently running back and forth trying to get ready for my first transfer.  So we are used to leaving at 6 AM for the approximately 3 hour drive (with morning traffic) to Seattle for 9 AM appointments.  Today was one of those days...

We typically drive half and half on these trips.  Mom drives from home up to the top of Snoqualmie Pass, we get coffee and take a bathroom break, and then I drive into Seattle.  It's the reverse on the return trip.  I get the joy of driving in Seattle traffic because I'm decisive enough to stick my car in the next lane in a tiny space.  And because it's my car we're driving and Mom doesn't want to be responsible if it gets hit.  After the appointment (about 10-15 minutes for 3 hours of driving) we usually do something fun and eat at a nice place.  Today we went down to the University Village Shops and strolled around.  We found a lovely garden shop called Ravenna Gardens that had an adorable little building outside it.  I'm thinking of building something like that in our yard and call it the Reading Cottage.  I'm hoping to find old mismatched windows at the ReStore in town and just making it really quaint.  This gives me some good ideas!

They also had amazing plants and grouped them together in color families which I loved!!

There was also a cute little covered bench that I just wanted to curl up in with a blanket and read a book...

So many ideas, so little time.

Next we went to Teavana and picked up some herbal teas.  Mom got a Pomegranate Cranberry Crush tea and I got a blend of Pineapple Kona Pop and Blueberry Bliss Rooibos teas.  They had my blend made up for tasting as an iced tea.  Wow.  It was so good!  I think both of our teas would taste great on ice on a hot summers day.  With also got a couple of their tea storage tins, which I had been told were awesome by the Great and Powerful Tina, who had already been.  Next we strolled over to Mrs. Cook's, because I cannot go to UVillage and not stop there.

This time I picked up two hammered tea spoons for tea time.  We still had some time to kill before the restaurant we wanted to eat at was open so I went through Eddie Bauer.

And left with a shirt and two more being shipped to me.  My will is weak.

We also needed a bowl to give the dogs some water (because of course they come on these road trips!) and I didn't have anything in my car.  We were over by Williams-Sonoma at this point so we stopped in and picked one up (and some of Mom's favorite brownie mix).  Then we needed water and stopped at Starbucks to pick one up.  It was close to $3 (nothing but the best for my babies) while the guy in front of us got a drip coffee for a dollar and change.  Seriously?  Brewed coffee is less than bottled water?  Only in America folks.

With our time well spent it was time for food!  Today's eatery was Tutta Bella up on Stone Way.  We started off with Bruschetta and Minestrone soup...

Always delicious.  Their Bruschetta is so fresh and I love the basil and tomatoes.  The Minestrone soup is a little spicy which just makes you want to eat more!  And I love the little bread slices on the side...yum.  For lunch I got the Lasagna (which was the BEST lasagna I have EVER tasted, I cannot stress this enough, if you want to taste a piece of heaven order the lasagna)...

And Mom got the Pizzeta (small 8 inch personal pizza) in their signature Tutta Bella combo.  It has pomodoro, fresh mozzarella, italian sausage, mushrooms, onion and basil.  She had them hold the onion for my side because we always go splitzy on our meals.  I eat half of mine, she eats half of hers and we switch.  Really the Tutta Bella is the way to go on pizza there.  Sooooo gooooood.

Then we finished off our meal with gelato (because at a certified Neapolitan Pizzeria how else would you end?).  I had Pineapple...

Mom had Salted Caramel...

And they were divine.  The meal was so good that I fell asleep on the way home (but not during my half of the driving!).  I think the look on Mom's face says it all...