FOOD and FUN in Cali

While in Cali all we did was EAT!! I knew I didn't want to eat places I could eat at home. I wanted to eat at different places I've never had before. And we did :) Our first night there we ate at my favorite sushi place and my mom loved it!! It was amazing. The morning of the transfer we had breakfast at Headlines and man that place was SO good!! My only complaint is that I was really wanting some hash browns and I'm not sure if its a Cali/west coast thing or just what they do but the hash browns were liked sliced potatoes but my mom and I got the healthy omelet and it was so good!

 

After breakfast we headed to the transfer and then back to the hotel after that. Since I was on bed rest for 24 hours we took advantage of room service/the hotel restaurant. We stayed at Hotel Angeleno and those beds were AWESOME!! The room service was great! My mom and I ordered the Chicken Cobb Salad and it was so good!! We also got an appetizer but it wasn't that great(I can't remember what it was called though).

After 24 hours was up I still took it easy. My mom and I went to my new favorite coffee place, Peet's, to have some coffee and breakfast. I am seriously obsessed with that place but we don't have one any where that I know of :( So I took advantage of it while in Cali. After Peet's we headed to a nail salon that I happened to look up the night before. I wanted to find one with good reviews BUT was in our price range not in LA price range. Wynn Nail Spa seemed to have a nice atmosphere and be in a decent price range.. Once we got there we realized they didn't open until later than we expected so we did some sightseeing. It was so neat seeing all the different houses and areas. It was crazy seeing how the houses were painted. I would NEVER paint my house the color some of those houses were but on that house, in that area, in Cali it looked good. Finally we got back to the nail salon and I am so glad we went with that place. They were so friendly and did a great job. I don't remember how much everything cost but it was a good price. My mom and I both got a pedicure, eye brows waxed, my mom got her gel nails redone, and we had tons of laughs. During my pedicure I almost kicked the lady in the face!! And this time it was not due to my extremely ticklish feet! During the pedicure they did lots of foot rubs. BUT during one foot rub she put some liquid on my foot and my foot reacted by pulling away extremely fast. It was a little warm. Not too bad but I was expecting cold so the warm scared the crap out of my foot apparently. Thankfully though I didn't kick her and we all laughed about it.

 

 Some other places we ate at were Danny's for lunch. The service was HORRIBLE! But the food was amazing! The bus boy was the one who took care of us most of the time, the server was not good.

My flight home from Cali was supposed to leave at 10:55pm on Monday well my mom and I decided we would go to the airport that morning and see if we could get me on an earlier flight. Well the ONLY flight that left before my flight was 11:10am so we had to head up there early. Before we headed to the airport we went to get breakfast. Traffic was horrible(DUH! It was Monday morning in LA!!) so we decided to go to a place near the airport. I used google and found a place called Good Stuff and that's where we went. My mom had another omelete but I went with french toast. They were both really good. BUT what was amazing was the fresh squeezed orange juice and the salsa!! That salsa was AMAZING!!!!U.S.. Airways wouldn't allow me to get on an earlier flight because of their rule, the only way you can try and fly stand by on an earlier flight is if the flight is no more than 6 hours before your original flight! Well the ONLY flight before my original flight was 11 1/2 hours before it so we did more sight seeing and more eating. So once we left the airport we went to Pete's again so we could get free wifi and kill time.

After a few hours we headed to the beach to see what we could find around there. Cali beaches are SO cold but so peaceful! Once we started walking away from the beach an older man struck up a conversation with us and towards the end we asked if he knew of any food places near that he would recommend. That's how we found a place called The Counter, its a burger place kind of like which wich. They give you a paper and you mark what kind of burger(beef, turkey, chicken, veggie, ect), bun, sauce, veggies, etc. if you don't know what you want you can go off the menu and just mark what each burger on the menu has. Then they come get the menu and paper from you and go make your burger. MAN I was not expecting such a HUGE burger! But it was amazing!!!

After all the food places we headed to the mall so I could get a backpack to carry the rest of my luggage that I got while in Cali and from my mom.. Out of all the food places I'd have to say my FAVORITE place was Danny's, besides the crappy service. So if any of yall are going to Cali(LA) area you might want to stop by at least one of these places :) Also if you like Sushi you HAVE to try B.A.D. Sushi it seriously is delicious sushi! I've only been to Cali twice but have eaten there 4 times now haha. My mom also loved it. Hope y'all enjoyed my reviews :)

What to Expect When Your Expecting..

Before I get into detail about today let me tell you about dinner last night and breakfast this morning!
Last night as you read in my previous blog post we got in late due to the shooting at LAX so whenever my mom and I finally met up at enterprise we decided to go straight to dinner. Since I am in L.A. I HAD to get my favorite... SUSHI!!!! I am in love with this place called B.A.D. Sushi. OH MY GOSH! IT IS AMAZING! My mom agrees :)

This was their sweet green tea and it was so good!

My mom got some 911 sushi and I got the dragon roll. 

After dinner we came home and got ready for the next day. BTW my mom had to give me a shot thankfully she did pretty good because after my shots on Halloween night I was terrified(Adam hit a vein on Halloween night but thankfully he didn't inject the shot it was just not fun that he had to pull the shot out and stick me again in a different spot) 

This morning I woke up at 5:45am!! I guess I'm still stuck on NC time. We ended up going to eat breakfast at a place called Headlines right by the fertility clinic. It was a cute diner and the food was very good. The only thing is if you ask for water be specific and ask for bottled water because my mom got carbonated water.

After breakfast we headed to the clinic to get ready for the transfer. They walked me back to the transfer room and it was GO TIME! Well the doctor came in and informed me that he spoke with J&J about the embryo quality and since the embryo quality wasn't that great they decided they wanted to transfer 2 embryo's instead of 1. I had already thought about them wanting to transfer 2 and I'm okay with that. I would never agree to transfer 3+ but 2 okay. I am still hoping only 1 takes but if 2 takes it will be an extra blessing for them. Also J&J did not come to the transfer because they are wanting to come visit us in NC during the pregnancy instead of going to the transfer. The transfer part wasn't too bad just uncomfortable very uncomfortable. The worst part was probably holding my full bladder for so long and trying so hard to not pee on myself while I was laughing at my mom being goofy..

5 day embryo's

After the transfer I had to lay in the bed kind of upside down for an hour and then bed rest for 24-36 hours. So we headed home and ordered room service and watched movies for the rest of the day. Now let me say I am so thankful that I have never been on bed rest and am hoping that I never have to be. This bed rest is for the birds.. We are so bored sitting in this hotel room when we should be out enjoying beautiful Cali. but we have racked up $35 in hotel movies so far and I have learned that I am the worst at eating in bed.. I think I dropped more food on my bed than I actually ate. Now time for the 2WW(two week wait) to see if the transferred embryos implanted.

BTW I keep mentioning my mom and haven't given you a picture. This is my crazy mother. I don't take her out in public often because she doesn't know how to act ;) haha but really we have had a great time while here in California and had tons of laughs :) I'm so glad she was able to come with me.

So take a guess.. Do you think there will be 1 or 2 babies in there? I have a big feeling it will be 2 but I am hoping for only 1..

My 30 Hour LA Visit

I had an AWESOME time in LA. It was amazing. I completely forgot that it gets chilly there in the evening but thankfully it wasn't too bad.

Thursday morning I dropped the kids off with Kelly, a friend of ours who lives down the street, and headed to the Raleigh airport. For those of yall that dont know Kelly was one of the first 3 people I told about me wanting to be a surrogate(she may not even know this haha) I had to tell a few people and use them as references. Well one had to be near me and not be my husband. Kelly and I had just recently started hanging out with the kids and she was NORMAL! I have met other normal people but its very rare to come by haha. I liked hanging out with her and the kids liked her kids. I didn't want her to take it badly and not want to ever hang out again. Thankfully she took it great and offered to help anytime I needed it. I didn't want to abuse her offer but I REALLY needed someone to keep the kids while I went to LA. Adam was warned ahead of time he'd be in the field and I have no family here. I thought about interviewing people asap but was really nervous about some random person watching my kids for 2-3 days(I was leaving Thursday morning and wouldn't be home until Saturday morning. Adam was told he would be home Friday but you never know with the military he could of came home Sunday for all we knew haha) these kids are my life. I already knew I trusted her and the she has a son the same age as Brett and Brynna doesn't care as long as she's with Brett. PLUS she also has a baby and Brynna LOVES babies. Finally I asked her and SHE SAID YES! This took a huge weight off my shoulders but still made me super nervous. Not because I didn't trust her but because of what I was trusting her with. My babies. This was the first time Brett and Brynna have ever stayed overnight with ANYONE other than family. And I will show you the picture she sent me the first night that shows how the sleepover went. Another girl I know that lives across the street from us(I don't want to post her name because I don't know if she wants me to or not) offered to watch Boidoe for me while I was gone. She didn't know why I was leaving because I hadn't made it public yet but they were both HUGE lifesavers and helped out tremendously. Just because it wasn't my kids doesn't mean I would say yes to anyone who wanted to help with Boidoe. I needed to trust this person in my house. I had a few people offer but I was giving someone a key to come into my home without me there. And also Boidoe is our 3rd child if yall haven't noticed on facebook :) haha. So I wanted to give a BIG thank you to both of them :) Now back to the LA trip.

As you can tell they had a great time :)

My flight left at 11am but I had to leave at 7am to get there on time. Well I could of left about 8am but thankfully I left by 7:30 because what I didn't know was that the highway I PLANNED on taking was shut down and I had to go back and take a different route. Finally got to the airport and got on the plane..

Yup I got the VERY back of the plane. It was extremely LOUD! And to top it off there was no window? You know whenever you get on the plane or get your ticket and your like YES WINDOW SEAT? I don't know about you but I love the window seat. Then you get back to your seat at the VERY back of the plane and guess what Sorry about your bad luck we had a budget cut and couldn't afford a window for this row? BUT you get to enjoy the wonderful smell of human pee and crap. Hope you enjoy your flight. As soon as we landed for my second flight I went to the delta desk and asked to change my seat for the second flight. They only had one option available. It was only like 8 seats up but I didn't care haha. My second flight I tried sleeping but it just didn't work out. When I sleep I'm a mouth breather and I sleep with my mouth completely open. It's far from cute. And every time I'd start to doze off I felt my jaw drop open and I'd wake back up. So for the rest of the flight I played games.

I felt so old doing crosswords and drinking coffee but this flight was kicking my butt and I needed something to keep me awake. The coffee was disgusting but I just dealt with it. I NEEDED COFFEE!  

I played candy crush A LOT on this flight and even during the trip because I had a lot of down time. Well GUESS WHAT? I still have not passed this darn level. I even paid $2 extra to try and pass it and NOPE! (BTW don't tell Adam about me paying money for a game haha)

I finally got to the airport and the super shuttle picked me up and took me to my hotel. OMG TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE! I have only been to LA once and it was years ago we didn't really stop we just drove through. So I was glad I did not get a rental car. I got to the hotel and at first was a little disappointed. I thought it was an outside hotel. You know like those cheap motel/hotels where the doors are OUTSIDE and it just seems cheap and scary. Well once I really looked around I realized that it was an indoor hotel its just that the breakfast area was in the center of the hotel and that they had that open. It's hard to explain haha. 

I got to my room and was ready for bed but also starving. I knew I really wanted sushi but I also didn't want to go too far so I decided I'd just walk down the street and see what I found. Well as I was walking out the door I decided to ask the people at the front desk and they recommended a place called BAD Sushi and it was about 1/2 a mile walk but I was fine with that

The Sushi was AMAZING! And then I treated myself to some ice cream afterwards.

The next morning I woke up and got breakfast then got ready for the day.

Breakfast was okay. The coffee wasn't all that great but I'm picky when it comes to coffee so thats to be expected. It was better than the airplane coffee though haha. The chocolate muffin was good and the eggs were okay.. The cinnamon roll was a little too sweet. All in all I had a good, stay customer service was great and the people were really friendly. 

Friday afternoon around 11ish I finished packing and getting ready and at 11:45am they called for me a taxi to take my to my appointment. I got in the taxi and he asked me for the address I gave him the address and it took him a minute to figure out where it was. I didn't want him to know I was not from Cali so I told him it's about 5 minutes away(I mapped it on my iphone before we left) and he laughed and said "more like 20" then I realized CRAP I'm in LA not Fayetteville! LA traffic SUCKS! It was horrible! Thankfully it only took about 15 minutes but that was a $10 taxi ride and we only drove 2 miles! So I finally got to the appointment around noon and my appointment was at 12:30 so what did I do while I was there facebook, instagram, and took pictures. This office was GORGEOUS! Like I wanted to live bring my blanket and just move in haha. 

YES I had to make it EXTRA LARGE so you could see all the gorgeous details! It had 2 flat screen tvs, a pretty bench that is not pictured, Some coffee thing that I was too scared to use it made all different types of drinks, these 2 neat bench/seating things, and a bunch of pretty chairs. Oh and those pretty flowers. Just everything was gorgeous. Now lets move on haha.

So I got called back to the Doctors office. He had a bunch of questions. Do I smoke? No. Do I drink? On occasiona. Where do I live? Fayetteville. How many times I've been pregnant? Twice. How many children do I have? 2. Have I had an IUD? Yes. CRAP! I did not want him to ask me this. I already knew what would happen if he asked me this. WHY DID HE HAVE TO ASK THIS?? Well if you have had an IUD you have to go through something called a Mock Cycle? What is a Mock Cycle you ask? It is where you go through all of the pain and suffering for the transfer BUT you don't really do the transfer. The reason they do this is because say if my uterus has scarring from the IUD then my body would not react correctly to the mock cycle and they would not approve me to be a surrogate yet. So he gave me the prescriptions for the mock cycle medications and the instructions on what to do. I was so bummed out this was extra time and money being spent to see if I was going to be approved or not. I seriously wanted to cry. BUT I sucked it up and dealt with it. Then we went into a room and I had to have a ultrasound to check my uterine lining, ovaries, and just see how my baby making parts looked. His exact words were, "Well you know how I told you, you needed a mock cycle??" "Forget I ever said that." I was so confused and terrified? What was wrong? Was I pregnant? Did the IUD screw up my uterus THAT MUCH? WHAT? So all I can say was Oh no whats wrong? And he said, "Your uterine lining is perfect." YAY!! NO MOCK CYCLE!!! I was so excited! GO KAYLA AND MY SUPER BABY MAKING PARTS! After that I had to have my blood pressure checked. My blood pressure is normally 110/70 even pregnant my blood pressure is never over 120/80. The night before I started thinking to myself watch my blood pressure go high during the screening and them disqualify me for my stupid blood pressure. Well they checked my blood pressure and GUESS WHAT? It was 141/82? WHAT THE HECK! I was literally freaking out. I kept telling the nurse how my blood pressure had NEVER EVER been that high. So she checked it on the other arm. It went up to something like 144/84 or something like that. I was freaking out. Didn't understand why it was so high. So she told me to quit thinking about it, they would do the rest of the screening and someone else would check it. So I had my blood drawn.

I HATE getting blood drawn. My veins SUCK. I mean literally SUCK! Do you see a vein there? Nope! NOTHING! Thankfully they could faintly see the vein and only had to poke me once. The first nurse didn't want to do it because she didn't want to chance me having to get poked more than once. THANK GOD! Because that would of been a record breaker! Even though my veins are most of the time not visible I have only been poked once every time I have had to give blood. Now bad to getting my blood pressure taken again. HOPEFULLY for the last time.. A new nurse checked it and this time it was.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....  150/90!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! Was I dying? So the doctor came in and told me to lay down for a little bit and he would personally come check it... 30 minutes later he came back and check it manually and THANK YOU JESUS IT WAS BACK TO NORMAL! 104/74 or something like that I don't remember it was just NORMAL! 

YAY! I was able to leave the clinic now and go get something to eat. Last time I ate was breakfast around 8:30am and it was now 3:30pm! I WAS STARVING! So I started walking right across the street was this cute pizza joint and on the sign it said it was healthy. Healthy pizza? Sure why not haha. I got a veggie pizza to make myself feel a little better about it :) and it was delicious! I mean really really good. A lot better than pizza hut and papa johns ;) 

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After I was done with pizza I thought about calling for a taxi to take me to the mall or something but instead remembered I saw a massage place down the street.. It wasn't really down the street it was like a mile away but I still decided to walk. It felt great out and I just wanted to see what all was around the area since I would end up going back in a few months. So I walked, and walked, and WALKED. It seemed like it took forever but I finally got there. I was SO excited to get a massage it had been months since I last had a massage. I planned on getting one on vacation but it was like $280 for Adam and I to get a massage at the condo so we decided thanks but no thanks. This place in Cali was only $45 for an hour. She told me to get undressed. I was only expecting a back massage so I took off my shirt and bra and kept my pants on. She laughed and told me to take everything off. So I took everything off but my panties. I cover up and lay down and she came back in. The first thing she did was pull my panties ALL the way off my butt! I was a little freaked out but I REALLY wanted this massage! She covered me up with towels and massage first on top of towels. I was like PLEASE dont let this be what she does the WHOLE HOUR! Where is the lotion and the skin to skin I want a real massage. 5 minutes go by and nothing. FINALLY she takes the towels off and gets the lotion! You don't know how excited this got me! My back has been killing me lately and she could tell once she went to work haha. That massage was AWESOME! I was a little uncomfortable and at times WAITING for her finger to go up my butt or something and that would of crossed the line. I would of grabbed my clothes and bag and ran out of the place BUTT NAKED! Not even kidding. The massage went great and I got over the fact that God and the massage therapist could see my butt for the whole hour massage. BTW WHILE I was getting this massage my phone kept ringing. I had it on silent but it still vibrates. I secretly charged it while I was getting the massage. I was using their outlets because my phone only had 8% left. I thought it was Adam but before I went into the massage place I text him and told him I was leaving the phone behind a counter to charge and not to call me because I wouldn't hear it. So I didn't know why he was calling. I think my phone vibrated like 10 different times. And it was not short vibrates they were long and loud -___- So once I was done and got dressed I looked at my phone. I had 6 missed calls and 2 text from MY MOM! I called her back and the first thing she says is "I thought you were kidnapped! Why didn't you answer my calls?" I told her mom I was getting a massage and you kept trying to interrupt me! She was like your in another state far away don't scare me like that! I didn't understand why you told Adam you were putting your phone behind a counter what counter were you using? You could of been kidnapped Kayla! I was like MOM I didn't put it behind a counter I just wanted to wait until AFTER the massage to tell Adam haha. But I was busted about half way through. I paid for the massage with my card and we have a joint account so he checked out account when my mom started to worry and that's when he realized that I wasn't kidnapped I was just getting a massage.. BUSTED! But whenever he realized that it was a 1 hour FULL body massage for just $45 he didn't care haha. Plus it could of been worse. 

I COULD OF BEEN KIDNAPPED! ;)

After that I headed back to the hotel. It was about another mile walk but I was in no rush. During that walk I saw about 8 different homeless people and seriously wanted to feed every single one of them. If I would of passed an atm or something I would of pulled out cash for each of them. It seriously broke my heart.. I have seen homeless people before but nothing like this. Once I got to my hotel I still had another 2 hours to kill. So I headed to BAD Sushi again! If yall can't tell. I'm in love with Sushi and this place is AMAZING! I plan on going back to this place whenever I go back to Cali for the transfer. This time I took my time walking and looked at all the different stores that were near it. I found a place called Blick or something like that. It was an art store and I almost didn't go in. But I saw these ugly cute stuffed animals in the window and decided to spend a few minutes in there to see if I found anything for the kids. I found something called a munny for Brett and got Brynna the ugly cute stuffed animal.

 If you must know what a munny is I have no idea. They have different kinds and colors. I got the iron man one because Bretts room is the avengers and it matched his room theme. Brett was so excited to put all the stickers on it whenever I gave it to him. Whenever I got back I will probably get a few more because he loved them.

I honestly had no idea what to get Brynna but she loves stuffed animals and loves pink so I got her this ugly cute stuffed thing. And she loved it! 

Once I was done with getting them these things I went and ate sushi and headed back to the hotel to wait for my shuttle. I got to my hotel probably 10 minutes before my pick up window started. My pick up window was from 7:30-7:45pm. The guy didn't get there until 8pm! I wasn't that worried UNTIL I realized holy crap we are picking up other people! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME MISS THIS FLIGHT! I WANT TO GO HOME! Thankfully it was only one other person after me and we headed to the airport. It was 3 girls in the car along with the male driver and what do girls do? We talk haha. One of the girls and I were flying delta and the other girl was flying Korean Air. Turns out she was flying back home to Korea! A lot of yall may not know but about 11 months ago I moved back home from Korea. Adam was stationed in Korea for a year and the kids and I ended up moving there with him part of the time he was there. It was so neat meeting with someone who did kind of the exact opposite and moved from Korea to the US. She asked me how I liked it and I told her I LOVED IT! I asked her how she liked it and she said it was different but she really enjoyed it. She told me thank you for liking her country and I told her I was glad she enjoyed it here. It was so neat meeting here. SO I HAD to take a picture with her. She was so sweet and more than happy to take a picture with me.

Not the best picture but it was night time and I was using my front facing iphone camera and its not always the greatest. I got to my area printed out my boarding pass, got through security with no issues. Then got to my gate, sat down, and charged my phone. All the charging docks at the airport were taken so me being the rebel I am I sat down by an outlet that was not marked for charging purposes. Yep, I know.. I'm hardcore :) 

My flight was supposed to take off at 10pm. Do flights EVER take off on time??? NO! This did not make me happy. I was already exhausted. It was 1am North Carolina time. And I'm normally in bed and asleep before 11pm at home. They finally had us all loaded around 10:30 and we finally took off! This was the MOST uncomfortable plane ride! You know that massage I had earlier.. I needed another one. But just the butt massage part. My butt was SO numb and uncomfortable. It was miserable. I'm fine with tight spaces but the seat needed a LOT more cushion. I'd fall asleep for a few minutes and wake right back up. It was not a good sleep like I was expecting.. BUT on a good note. I sat 4 rows back from first class so I was considered at the FRONT of the plane. AND I got a window seat!! BIG BALLA!! I was so excited. Also I HAD A WINDOW. You remember at the beginning of this blog where I said my row did NOT have a window seat because I was the VERY last row of the plane. Well this time I got the window seat AND a window. I was pretty excited about that :) 

My plane landed at 6am North Carolina time. And they could not get me off that plane fast enough.. I was so uncomfortable, exhausted, I STUNK, and I needed sleep! But I was not cranky. I was still super friendly to everyone. Thats my southern hospitality in me :) So I got in my car turned on pandora and JAMMED OUT! I mean hardcore. My volume was on 30+ it ranged haha. Those of yall that think 30 isn't that loud.. Well in my car... IT IS! It only goes up to 40. I think? But I seriously JAMMED OUT! The whole way home. If I didn't know a song. O well I acted like I did. If I knew a song I sang it loud and proud like I was singing on stage for thousands to hear. THE WHOLE WAY HOME! I sang and sang and sang. That is what I do when I drive tired. Because if I don't sing. I chance falling asleep. And I did not want to do that. So I SANG! BTW it wasn't a short trip it was about 1 1/2 hours. I got home and guess what. I DIDN'T HAVE A HOUSE KEY! I gave one house key to the dog sitter and Adam had the spare. So I called Adam and thankfully he answered on the first try. I got home a little after 8am and crashed out. 

I was miserably tired but I MADE IT! Yes this is me after a 4-5 hour flight and about a 2 hour drive on about 3 hours of sleep! I don't look that bad do I haha.

I honestly have no clue if EVERYTHING is in here and right now I don't want to go back through and proof read. I'm so darn lazy haha. I will go back and reread it in a few days. My blog post will VERY rarely ever be this long because I'm not a fan of long blog post. But there was a lot that went on in those 30 hours it was hard to make this post short. So I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Kayla