One Grain More

Someone posted this on facebook this morning and it went right along with my mini rant about gluten, so I had to share!  Pretty funny stuff... enjoy!

News, News, News

Sorry for the long delay in posts, all.  I have been busy, busy with life... the usual excuse, I guess.  I have a few updates for you...

First up, we can discuss Hadley's arm... although no actual progress has been made, we have finally scheduled an appointment for an MRI on June 10.  She will need to be sedated so they can get the clearest picture possible, so that is a little scary and we will hate to see her strapped down and knocked out.  The MRI should tell us more about the lump (ie. where it is located within her arm, whether it is part of her muscles or veins, how to best reach it for biopsy, etc).  As far as we know, the only changes we have noticed are in color.  At first, it looked like a slight bruise and over time, it has gotten darker blue and now is greenish.  It's weird to see a bruise on someone's skin for over a month.  Please continue to pray that she will be healed and this is nothing too serious.

Secondly, we are heading up to MN tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited... I haven't been back to the homeland since Christmas of 2011, so I am looking forward to seeing some of my closest friends and of course, my family.  It may be the last time my family is all together there because both brothers are planning to move before year's end.  We will have to make the most of it!  The drive out and back is the only thing I am dreading... hopefully it will go smoothly.  *Update:  Since I began this post, we have completed the dreaded drive out and are enjoying all MN has to offer.  So far, that has included an Origami Owl jewelry bar hosted by my mom, cheering for my sister in law, Tishri, in the Med City Half Marathon (I hope to run this race next year while I am in operation lose baby weight), a feverish day for Hadley, a night away in the cities with Mark for our 8th anniversary, a visit to Mall of America, a trip to the library, time with cousins and lots of gloomy weather and rain.  It has rained at least once a day every day we've been here... in fact, it's raining now.  Thankfully the girls and I will be here for another week, so in that time we should get a chance to see the sun and play outside.  We will also be getting together with some dear friends and their kids, so there is a lot to look forward to before we make the trek home... seriously, if you would like to pray for that, I would love it.  Mark drove out here with us and stayed a few days, but had to get back to work, so he flew home, which leaves me to drive us home.  Normally, this wouldn't be as bad as it seems to be now because I would probably attempt to drive through the night or drink all the caffeine I wanted.  However, that is where life happening number three comes in...

If you haven't figured it out or have been hiding under a rock, I am pregnant with #3!  I am 17 weeks along and feeling pretty good, except that I am just exhausted.  Even with a good night's sleep and half a cup of coffee in the morning, by 2pm I am beat.  The mere thought of driving 11 hours home with two whiny kids makes me very anxious.  If need be, I will stop mid way and get a hotel room, but even that doesn't sound appealing because we don't do that well sleeping in the same room.  If I must, I must, though.  ANYWAY, back to the BABY!  We found out we were expecting the day before my birthday when we were down at the beach in Florida.  He or she is due November 4th.  Mark would love to have a boy, as would I, but we have a  name picked out for either and we have everything done for a girl and we would love her all the same.  I pray little Acker is healthy and strong.  I have been feeling movement for a couple weeks so that is nice reassurance for me that all is well in there.  Most of my food aversions have gone away, but I do give in to cravings the majority of the time.  I was very sick for the first trimester-- between nausea, vomiting, and migraines, I will admit that most of life's daily duties went ignored.  But now that my energy is coming back, I can tackle housework and sometimes cooking more often and make our house feel like home and not the eye of a tornado once again.

So that is my rambling update for you guys.  Sorry that took so long... you would think that with all that down time from being sick that I would have had time to write, but all I wanted to write about was the baby and we weren't sharing about the pregnancy yet!  Such a dilemma!  Until next time!  

Prayer Request

Hello Readers!

I know it's been a long time since I last updated the blog, but we have been busy and I haven't felt like I've had enough time to sit down and write for a while.  Right now, though, I have a prayer request for you to consider as it is weighing on my heart.

Last Wednesday began as a regular day and it must have been raining because Mark was home for a little while in the morning.  We were playing with the girls and I noticed a strange bulge on Hadley's arm, up near her shoulder.  It was pretty large, maybe the size of a grape and we were instantly concerned.  We called her doctor and they said that it could just be a deep bruise so we should watch and see if it changed or went down in size for a few days before calling back.

Well, Monday rolled around and we decided that it was time to take her in because it was still there and Mark would be going out of town for work for 3 days starting the next day, so we wanted to see the doctor before he left.  After examining her, he wasn't sure what it was and said at worst, it was a cancerous tumor, at best, a deep bruise or possibly a cyst or hemangioma under the skin.  He sent us right away to Children's Hospital to get an X-ray and said he would let us know immediately what the next step should be.

Yesterday, we heard back from him and he said that the good news was that the mass was not attached to any bones, but he did see a mass and was still unsure of what it was and what had caused it.  He advised us to next get an MRI done in hopes of finding out more.  Apparently, MRIs must be costly because before we can just get it done, his office needs to contact our insurance to ensure they will cover it.  We are waiting to hear if we have been approved.

Please pray for little Hadley.  Pray that it isn't serious and if it is, that we will have the best doctors to know how to treat her.  Pray that we caught it in time.  Pray that the insurance will indeed approve the MRI procedure and anything else that may need to be done.  Pray that we will have peace as we wait and enjoy our baby girl even more than ever.

Thank you, all!

Little Annoyances

Lately I've been in "a mood."  Things that probably should not matter to any sane person have been irritating me.  You will probably think I'm crazy when you hear the sort of things that have gotten under my skin... but I need to vent!

So it seems like all these people I know have recently decided to outlaw gluten, so much so that they almost seem judgmental towards us "uninformed" crowd who still partake in gluten goodness.   Facebook is inundated with post after post of "know what you are putting in your body" and "wheat toxins" and "my life is so much better now because I'm gluten free" yada, yada, yada.  Seriously?  I get that some people have celiac's disease where they are allergic to gluten.  I also know that it can have an effect on kids with autism so it is good for them to avoid it.  It can also hurt those who struggle with fibromialgia, so I understand those with that problem not wanting to eat it.  However, most of the population does not fall into these categories and can tolerate gluten just fine.  I'm happy to be able to enjoy all that gluten has to offer.  I love whole wheat bread and pasta.  I love that I don't have to spend an arm and a leg to buy gluten free rice flour.  I love that I don't have to limit my dining out to places that only provide gluten free options (that are usually gross, IMO).  As long as this body can handle good food, I'm going to eat it.  Maybe you would like to restrict yourself, that's cool, it's your body and your decision.  Just please don't judge me when I eat a sandwich, bread and all.  I don't need you to tell me that I am poisoning my body.  I'm good, thanks.

So that's how I really feel.  I'm not sure why this bothers me so much.  It really does bug me!  Is there anything in particular that has been driving you crazy lately?

Blair's Winter Wonderland

Although everything did not turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, I think things looked pretty good overall.  These are the pictures I took with my phone so they aren't the best quality.  I should probably look into getting a nicer camera some day...

This is the beautiful shelter we were able to secure for the morning.  Blair's banner is one of my favorite decorations!  I used scrapbook paper and cut the letters out with my cricut.  The hanging snowflakes were from Menard's.

The food theme was brunch.  Instead of my typical fruit salad, I wanted to do something handheld.  Mini fruit pizzas were super easy and so pretty!  They were a hit!

After the last birthday party cake fiasco, I went with the ever-trustworthy Sam's Club for all things cake.  This round cake and thirty cupcakes came to a beautiful 28 dollars and they tasted delicious!  Please note that those strange little groupings of tiny balls on the "4" cake were a bad decision add-on on my part.  I should have left the original plain cake alone.  If only someone had been there to say, "Step away from the sprinkles!"

I wish you could see this better- my mom has a better picture so maybe I will swap this one out when I get her copy. Anyway, this was the hot chocolate bar.  My sickie brain forgot the whipped cream in the fridge at home, but the toppings we remembered were mini marshmallows, toffee bits, mint chocolate chips and chocolate jimmies.  As you can probably imagine, this station was highly frequented.

These were the centerpieces I made.  Mark collected the tree branches from his landscaping shop and we assembled them the night before.  I loved how they turned out.

I found these giant teal ornaments at Menard's (Who knew??)  and placed them on both sides of the fire.

Here is the birthday girl with her daddy and buddy, J.  They were taking advantage of the fire, of course!

So there you have it, everyone!  The only pictures my frostbitten fingers could manage that day are all right here for your viewing pleasure.  Like I said before, I'm just glad it's finally over!  Onto the next birthday party that is thankfully in the summer!

Oh Hey, Pink Eye! So Glad You Could Make It!

Phew!  Blair's birthday party is officially done and on the books!  What a whirlwind of a week leading up to the party!  I have to say, I'm so glad it's over.  Here is a recap...

We drove back into town around 1:15 AM on Tuesday morning.  Blair has Tuesday School every Tuesday morning and because we had been driving the entire day before, I decided that if the girls slept in, we would skip school.  Little Miss had other plans and got up at the regular time of 7:30, leaving us plenty of time to get ready for school.  No one could believe it when I told them we had pulled in just that morning a few hours earlier.  We managed to make it through the day fine, but I just didn't have the energy to do any party prep-- typical procrastinator.

Wednesday was much of the same, everyone just trying to get back into the daily groove.  Mark went to work and by the time he got home, I was ready to get out of the house and run some birthday errands.  He agreed and when I went into the bathroom to get myself ready to go, I noticed my right eye was very red.  I wear contacts, so red eyes aren't totally uncommon, but this was different and I knew at once that it was probably pink eye.  Since we had to get the cake ordered and some food purchased, I wore my glasses and we went anyway.

The next morning, I awoke with crusties around my eyelashes.  I went to Urgent Care and the doctor there confirmed my suspicions, giving me ointment and a heads up that it could show up in my other eye too.  At this point, I had developed a pretty yucky sinus cold that was also affecting my chest.  I really wanted to call off the party, or at least postpone it, but my parents had left MN to drive all the way out here just for the party and I couldn't cancel.  So I hoped the ointment worked, washed my hands, wore my glasses and went on with the show.

Friday morning, I woke up to a new surprise: the pink eye had now entered my left eye.  Also, my voice was very hoarse and my throat was on fire.  It was going to be a great day!  My parents had arrived safely the night before, so my mom and I went to work, getting the last of the groceries and baking up a storm.  I also made the birthday banner and centerpieces.  We worked long into the evening and were exhausted when bedtime finally came.

Saturday morning was the day of the party!  We rented out a local park shelter that had a lovely fireplace, complete with firewood.  The party started at 11, so my goal was to be there by 9 to start setting up.  Timing didn't work out that well and we didn't arrive until closer to 10.  The shelter is outdoors, but I figured by early March it wouldn't be miserably too cold, especially with a fire raging and a propane heater blowing.  I figured totally wrong as it was in the 20's that day.  Our fingers were freezing as we tried to hang banners and decorate things... my grand idea of how it would look did not come to fruition, but all things considered (freezing cold, I felt like trash, etc) it looked pretty nice.

Sadly, even though several of Blair's little pals were invited, only 3 came.  Some were out of town, others had family visiting, one was even being punished for being naughty and her punishment was that she couldn't come to the party.  Also, the original plan for the "fun" part of the party was that the kids could go sledding.  That was a no-go because even though there were small, light flakes falling, there was not nearly enough snow to sled on.  The party was supposed to go from 11-1, but because everyone was so cold (we spent the whole time huddled around the fireplace or the propane heater), things started to break up around 12:15.  I feel a little bit sad about how it all went down, but honestly, I was super cold myself and feeling completely awful that I couldn't wait to get out of there either.

Will it go down as the worst birthday party in history?  Maybe?  But amazingly, despite being cold and having so few friends show up, Little Miss wore a smile for most of the day and enjoyed being celebrated.  She happily played with her friends, ate her cupcake and explored the stone look-out "castle" behind the shelter.  For me, yes, it was just an awful day.  But to have made the birthday girl happy, despite everything else, that was worth it all.

Disney Pics

These pictures were taken with my phone, so don't judge their quality.  Also, my phone pooped out on me about three hours into the day so these were the only pictures we have, other than those that Disney Photo Pass took.  At least we have a few to help us always remember that day!

Meeting Alice, Tweedledee, Tweedledum and The White Rabbit

Getting ready to ride Dumbo!

Daddy rode with baby girl

The girls and I meeting Daisy Duck

This was so sweet!  I love how she is holding Minnie's face!

Baby girl wasn't shy at all!  She grabbed right onto Minnie's nose!

Just us girls with Minnie Mouse

Riding the Carousel

Daddy helped baby girl hang on

Classic shot in front of the castle

I hope you enjoyed the few pictures we have from that day!  We had such a great time and one day, we would love to go back and stay longer and see more!