news from today

Thanks for everyone who read, commented, called, it.  Everything went well today.  My existing nodules are the same size (good news)  but I have a few more small ones (fine news). I will know more when I meet with my endo later this month.   I am in Savannah with my parents and just had a wonderful dinner.  I will update asap when I get home.  Love you!!!!!

A bit nervous....

I am sitting here in Panera (thanks Phil for taking the morning off) drinking coffee, eating a bagel and trying to grade a few last minute papers. But what am I really doing.....blogging! See I have an ultrasound in 30 minutes on my thyroid. It is a follow-up from 6 months ago. 6 months ago they found 2 nodules (growths) on my thyroid. Each one was 1cm in size. They start to investigate more once nodules reach 1cm. Getting nodules is VERY common in people with Hashimoto's Disease....so I was not too suprised when they found them in January. My doctor decided not to biopsy them in January and instead wait till July for a 6 month follow-up ultrasound. If there are more or the existing two have changed at all, we will continue down the road of investigation/etc.

In my heart I think everything is just fine. So why am I a ball of nerves right now on the verge of tears? All these thoughts go through your head. I remember when a friend went for her ultrasound when her mammogram came back funny.....and when a friend had to wait 8 weeks to find the details of her lost baby.....and another friend started IVF and wondered when it will FINALLY happen.......I guess I just am kindof in the same boat. It is the fear of the unknown. The fear of "what if". The fear of hearing what you DO NOT want to hear. I have gone along since January trying not to think about my thyroid issues. They bothered me so much for so long and I decided that I needed to just let what will be....be. Every once in a while, I get upset, confused, scared, etc. but that passes. And then your appointment day comes and you cannot run away from it. In a few minutes I will be laying on that table with gel all over my neck wishing/hoping/praying/etc. that the tech says "You have two nodules about 1cm each". I will never be free and clear from the risk of thyroid cancer but I sure would like some good news today.

I will let you know.

Naked

Can someone PLEASE tell me why it feels so good to be naked? It is COLD, unflattering, and just plain weird. So why do my kids love to be naked????? I really think they would spend 100% of their day in the buff if I would let them.

This is me:

Someone comes to the door: "Oh please excuse my naked children!"

Time for dad to come home: "Before we go outside, you MUST put on clothes!"

After bathtime: "Who wants some underwear??????"

Several times a day: "Cooper, where are your clothes?"

Before swim lessons: "The first one to let me put their clothes on wins!"

Time to run errands: "But it is NOT appropriate to shop naked."

Bedtime: "You have to wear pajamas. You will get cold if you do not."

This is NOT normal. Someone please tell me why kids LOVE being naked? Maybe I should just give in and our clothes budget would greatly improve.

To answer Krista

My friend Krista asked what the "in thing" to do with pictures was these days. I was answering her and decided it was blog-worthy. I am a freak!

Krista, funny you ask.

This is what I do (a bit much)

1. each kid has albums so I print one copy of each picture and two of the ones they are BOTH in for their albums.

2. I make one of those photo books on shutterfly each year for my inlaws, parents and us as a keepsake.

3. I put the best ones in their baby book.

4. I have a ton of framed ones in the house.

5. I make slideshows on windows moviemaker.

6. Shutterfly and walgreens albums

7. BLOG

8. I have a scrapbook for each kiddo too that I work on about...ahhhh, once a year.

Oh my goodness.....I think I have a problem. LOL. Was this a trick question to make me re-evaluate my nuttyness?

Favorite Pictures

I was looking through pictures the other day and realized that I got a new computer in May of 2007. Anything before that was on my old Dell. I went to Ofoto (the site I used when Cooper was small) and saved all those pictures to this computer. I had Samantha's baby pictures on here already. While looking through, I was reminded of some of my favorite times....

Cooper's First Bath

Cooper's Announcement Photo...I was so proud!!!

Phil and I at our 1st 80's party!

The first time Cooper met his baby sister.

Samantha's trip to Amelia Island....at 3 weeks. (Were we CRAZY?)

Samantha's first REAL smile. This melts my heart!!!

It is so fun to look through old pictures/memories. Even though Cooper is only 3, time sure has flown by! Thank goodness for pictures, baby books, letters and blogs!

Another fun weekend

I redid the kiddos bathroom: paint, light and beadboard.

Phil built a workbench for the garage!

We spent the day at the beach with wonderful friends.

And ended the weekend with some movie and cuddle time.

I hope your weekend was equally as wonderful.

The Human Race

Did you know the average refugee spends 12 years in a camp?

On August 31, 2008 I will be participating in The Human Race. This is a 10K (6.2 miles) race that will occur on the same day all over the world. You can choose to run in a city sponsoring the run (by Nike) or run in your hometown with your Nike Plus system. The race if free to register. Each person who registers chooses one of 3 charities to run for. The miles you run between now and the race day will raise funds to help the charity of your choice.

I chose The UN Refugee Agency ( www.ninemillion.org ). Ninemillion.org is a UN refugee agency campaign committed to providing refugee and internally displaced children around the world the chance to learn and play. Could there be a better reason to run?

So, between now and the end of August I will be hitting the pavement for kids. Each time I put on my shoes and head out the door I can feel confident that I am helping to improve the lives of refugee children.....one mile at a time. If you have a Nike Plus system or even if you do not (it is on $25 but you have to have a Nano) please consider joining me on August 31st.

On that note, the pavement is calling.....

Hair Washin' Day????

(This is one of my favorite pictures because it makes me laugh. Our kids LOVE to take "sink tubs" together.)

Cooper thinks that I have a huge calendar for the year devoted to bathtime. On the calendar it says if it is a "Hair Washin' Day" or not. Every night when the kids head off to the tub Cooper, and now Samantha too, ask "Momma, is it a Hair Washin' Day?". I reply, "Hmmm, I don't know, let me check...." and they are always ok with the answer. I do not really know how this all started but I do know it works wonders. We never have fights about not wanting to wash hair when the calendar says it HAS to be done. I am not looking forward to the day that my kids realize I am full of bologna.

Uncle Ken

Thanks for letting me follow you around for 18 years!

Thanks for chasing the kid down in the football field when I was in 4th grade and got a black eye.

Thanks for teaching my children to follow their dreams....wherever they may lead (even Perth, Australia or Denver, hehe!!!!).

Thanks for being patient and kind. Not many people would spend 25 minutes on a Skype call while their nephew and niece showed them every toy in the house!

Thanks for teaching us about strength, courage and committment.

Thanks for being the best brother and uncle around. We love and miss you so much.

new bloggers

So blogging is like an addiction. We were trying to explain it to our friends Kelley and Justin. Clearly they probably just think we are nuts. Anyway, I have had a few friends start blogs recently.....which makes me VERY happy. I am encouraging several more to start as well (as few have them but will not share the address yet!).

Check out the blog links on the left-hand side of my blog. My friend Jennifer, who I know will have one of the BEST blogs out there in a few weeks, wants a disclaimer stating that she is a BEGINNER!

Enjoy and thanks again to all my friends with blogs. I truely love them!!!!

The life of a camera addict

This is the link for our summer pictures. I am warning you there are 240 of them!!!! I have shared the best on here so no need to spend the next 25 minutes of your day browsing the photo album. They are on shutterfly this way though for those of you who asked about ordering them.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Abt3LRk5ZNmL5Q&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Thought for the day....

In May we had both sets of grandparents here to celebrate birthdays and Mother's Day. As we were eating lunch Phil's mom, out of the blue I might add, said "Phil, I think you look like Obama." Then my mom started giggling and said "I have thought that too!!!! I just did not want to be the one to say it first!". We all started laughing and ever since, Phil and I have joked pretty much non-stop about it. It is pretty hilarious! You be the judge:

Personally I think Phil looks more like Brad Pitt but no one asked me. ;)

Samantha Scissorhands

"Look at my hair mom!"

This is what I heard Cooper scream to me from the playroom. I had bought the kids lots of art supplies for the week and they were doing a "project" (cutting paper and gluing it to posterboard). They had kid safety scissors so I mistakingly thought it was ok. Until I heard the JOY in Cooper's voice screaming for me to come look. Both kids were SO proud of what had just happened. Samantha stood there holding blue scissors with a BIG smile and Cooper was holding a chunk of hair.

Luckily Cooper has curly hair and it is not noticeable. I was also lucky that they let me in on their little secret early on or Cooper would have been sporting his first buzz-cut for Fall.

(I posted two posts today. Do not miss the one below.)

Here we go again....

Well....school starts in one more month meaning my BABY will start preschool. AHHHHHH! There are several things to worry about like what to pack her for lunch, her first outfit, dropping her off for the first time, should she or shouldn't she take her "night-night", who her friends will be and so on. The biggie though......POTTY-TRAINING!

Lots of the kids in the 2 year old class will NOT be potty-trained. However I found it easier to train Cooper over Christmas break so we did not have to worry about school getting in the way. I do not want to wait until December for Samantha so we have started!

Samantha has basically been potty-training since she turned a year old because she is a girl and also sees her brother do it. Therefore, this should be very easy for us. Last night the kids were eating their dinner and Samantha screamed "POTTY MAMA!!!!!" and we ran to the potty and there she sat, covered in sour cream and applesauce. Even potty-training does not stop for perogies and sour cream. (I had to crop the picture for obvious reasons but I thought she looked hilarious!!!!) A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Wish us luck.....

Prisoner of my home!

Home Sweet Home

Home is where the heart is.

Home is where your story begins.

So if "home" is so wonderful, why am I going crazy being here???? Samantha is still very contagious with her Hand, Foot and Mouth so I have decided we have to stay home. She needs to get better and we have no business sharing her germs with all of Jacksonville. So Saturday, Sunday and today were mostly spent in our house. Do not get me wrong, I love being home. It is just now that I HAVE to be here that I would rather be at Target, the park, the pool, a friend's house, etc. Cooper and Samantha have about a 10 minute attention span, meaning we change activities several times an hour. It is only 12 and the house is a mess and the kids are bored. I think I will venture to the garage to my bins of teacher stuff and plan some crafts for the week. It is the only way we will survive. Ok, so that was dramatic but you know what I mean......

Here we go again!!!!!!

So the doctor said "It is just horrible luck." when I took the kiddos to see her today. Cooper had a fever when we returned from Boston and later developed about 10 bright red, non-itchy spots on his face. They have not bothered him a bit. Samantha's fever started a few days ago and yesterday she started to develop red spots EVERYWHERE. As of today she probably has 200 spots and many, many, many in her mouth. She cannot eat or use her paci (life ends when Samantha cannot have a paci!).

Drumroll................Hand, foot and mouth disease. Disgusting! They most likely came in contact with a contaminated surface while in Boston (maybe when Samantha licked the seat of the Duck Tour?????) and 3-7 days later.....BAM!

So now we just sit and wait. No meds or anything, just a miserable baby girl. I feel horrible for her. Last night I slept with her and all night she just tossed and turned and moaned.

This is 2 NASTY germs in one months. I have requested bloodwork (even though the doc said I was nuts and she was just unlucky and this is very common, etc.) just to make sure we are not dealing with a weak immune system or something. I hope it is just bad luck.

So, apparently washing hands, lysol, hand sanitizer, etc. is not good enough for my munchkins. We must stay home for the rest of our lives and live in a bubble. The good news about this virus is that once you have it, you usually are immune. I just cannot wait to see what my little munchkin brings home from the first day of school.....

Grandparents

This post is dedicated to:

Grandmommy and Granddaddy

Granny and Pappy
Grandma Marion and Grandpa Lou

Grandma (Mary) and Grandpa Joe

Dede and Papa
and

Grandma and Grandpa Surgala

When I think about my grandparents (in fact tomorrow is Granny's birthday) I am surrounded by warm and fuzzy feelings of love. I remember BIG breakfasts, beach vacations, great stories, homemade ice cream and coke in a bottle. I have had the pleasure of enjoying my grandparents for many, many years. I have been lucky.

Now my parents and my in-laws are making memories with my children. I can see it happening and love every minute of it. I hear that it is amazing to become a parent but even better to become a grandparent. I cannot wait!

Phew, I am tired!

( Aidan, Cooper and Bryce)

A We are home! What a wonderful 6 days we had traveling in Vermont and Massachusetts. We started the trip in Burlington, VT. It was a fun-filled 4 days of familytime, love, laughter and wrestling (with cousins of course). Cooper and Samantha were in HEAVEN with both sets of grandparents and their 3 cousins; Aidan, Bryce and Blake. We enjoyed live music at a vineyard, a tour of Vermont Teddy Bear, a rehersal dinner on a boat, a beautiful wedding at Shelburne Farms and fabulous cool weather!!!!

(Cooper enjoying candy from the candy bar at the wedding.)

(Aunt Sarah and Samantha)

(Aunt Becky, the bride, and Cooper)

(Dede and Cooper, the ring bearer)

(Samantha, flower girl)


(Dede, Katie and Samantha)

(Papa, Samantha and Cooper)

(The BEAUTIFUL wedding flowers: by the groom's very talented mother)


(Sweet Samantha)


(The wedding party)

(Our family)

After our stay in Burlington we drove to Boston. We stopped at Kelley and Justin's new house for the afternoon. They grilled a fabulous lunch for us and let the kids get sticky handprints on all of their nice furniture. (Thanks!!!!) The next two days were spent exploring the wonderful city of Boston with Dede, Papa, Justin and Kelley. We had a blast!

(Cooper driving the Duck Tour boat in Boston)

(Aunt Kelley and the kiddos)

(Katie and Kelley at Kimball's)

(Samantha at the NE Aquarium in Boston)

(Good-byes are never easy!)

Cooper spent some quality time with his Aunt Kelley (his Godmother and my best friend). Unfortunately we do not get to see Kelley (or Justin..I threw your name in since I KNOW you read this, hehe) enough. Thanks for spending so much time with us. We enjoyed it all!!!!

Now I have to go do about 5 load of laundry......