Madison's 10th Birthday

I can't believe that I'm even typing the words- Madison's 10th birthday!! 10 years!!! Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was holding this little, sweet, red-headed baby in my arms. For those of you who have small children- babies, toddlers- enjoy every minute of it!! When you want to pull your hair out because they won't sleep through the night, soon they won't need you to rock them to sleep. I'm going to sound like an old granny but I'm going to say it anyway... They grow up soooo fast!! I think grannies say stuff like that because they've experienced it and they know it is true. It happens so gradually that you don't realize it is happening until one day you wake up and your little baby is 10!!

I'm probably being dramatic about her turning 10 because it's not like she's going away to college or getting married but I guess I see how quickly that will be here too.

Dave and I are trying to get pregnant. Every month I am so anxious to find out if I'm going to have a baby or not. Then I find myself impatiently thinking about how long 9 months will be before we will actually get to meet the little one. When I think about how much I am always wishing for the next thing, the next step, the next stage I realize how silly that it. I'm wishing my life away!! I'm sure I'm not the only one who is guilty of this.

If only we (I) could be completely content with what is going on right now...

So it brings me back to my original thought- Madison turning 10. I'm going to do my best everyday to enjoy Madison being 10, enjoying all that comes with having a 10 year-old, pre-puberty, enthusiastic (for those of you who know Madison you know I really mean emotional!!) daughter.

Then when Dave and I do have another bundle of joy, I'm going to be very clear that he/she is not allowed to grow up!!


*Pictures of Madison's as a little one and from her birthday at the Braves game.

Girls Nights

About once a month a group of girls and myself get together for Girls Night. There are five of us in the group and at one point we all worked together. We have a great time eating, talking, and a lot of laughing. Girls Night is one the things I look forward to the most. Thanks, girls, for your friendship. I look forward to many more Girls Nights to come...

Surgery

I had my surgery yesterday. The doctor found that the cyst was actually growing out of my pelvic wall (whatever that is). It basically meant that she was not able to just drain it and snip it off. To remove it would have meant a major surgery to cut it out. So she just drained it. Which leaves the possibility of it filling back up (sounds pleasant doesn't it?) She also squirted dye into my fallopian tubes to make sure they were both working properly. And as it turns out, my left fallopian tube is blocked. I'm not really sure at this point what that means. She spoke with my family after the surgery about a procedure that can be done to try and unblock it. I go back to see her in about 10 days.

So for now I am trying to take it easy. I'm in a moderate amount of pain. Nothing too bad. I have small incisions in my belly button and about 3 inches below that. The worst part is the gas that they filled my belly up with during the surgery. They do that so they have more room to work. It takes a couple of days for the air to dissolve. Until then you have all this air floating around your chest, back, and shoulders. It hurts really bad and feels really gross.

* I apologize for the graphic pictures but I thought it was really cool. I think it is amazing how a woman's reproductive organs work. God is so amazing!!

Sonogram

Well I had my follow-up sonogram on Monday and unfortunately the cyst had not changed as we were hoping. I met with my doctor today and she wants to go in a remove it. It should be a fairly simple surgery but I can't help but be a little nervous. We are probably going to have to wait a couple of weeks which is the worst part for me. I just want to get it over with. I'm not the most patient person. So hopefully it will all go well and will be able to be removed laparoscopically.

Ovarian Cyst

I went to the doctor about a month ago (ob/gyn) because I had been having some spotting between my periods. It has been going on for quite a while and it was becoming more noticeable. So my doctor ordered a sonogram just to be on the safe side (I'm really not even sure what she was looking for).

So the next Friday I went in to have my sonogram. In the middle of the procedure the lady doing the sonogram very bluntly blurts out, "You have a huge cyst on your ovary!!" Then she told me that it was about 9 cm (which is about the size of a baseball!!) and asked if I have been in pain. I told her that I had not been in any pain. Then she tells me that she is going to get the on-call doctor to come in a explain this to me. At this point, I 'm not really sure what to the think. She came back and said that he would not be in for a while and she would just have him call me. Partly because I was in shock and partly because I usually just do what I'm told without asking questions, I left. When I got into the car and called my mom and sister they quickly instructed me to go back and demand that someone speak with me.

Again, doing what I'm told, I went back. I waited in the waiting room for a little over an hour before the nurse finally came out to get me. Finally, someone was going to explain what this meant. She took me into a tiny room and basically said that the doctor couldn't do anything for me today so he wanted me to make an appointment with my doctor for Monday (keep in mind that still no one had explained what a cyst on your ovary means). The only other thing she said was that I was not allowed to exercise or have sex over the weekend until I could see my doctor on Monday and we could "make a plan".

So I spent the weekend googling all the possible outcomes of ovarian cysts. It turns out that they can be very common and don't usually cause much trouble. After talking with my doctor I found out that my cyst, she believes, is a paraovarian cyst. This means that it is not on my ovarian but beside it, probably on my fallopian tube. She said she wanted to wait 6 weeks and see if it changes or goes away on its own and if not she would do surgery.

So my sonogram is scheduled for March 30th. I hoping and praying that it will be completely gone. Dave and I are going to start trying to get pregnant and this has put a little bump in the road. Even though the surgery is not that invasive, I don't want to have surgery right before getting pregnant. But for now, I still have no pain, which is hard to believe considering there is a cyst the size of a baseball in my stomach!!!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

We usually try to take a ski trip before Christmas but this year the ski thing just didn't seem to work out. Since we fly standby (and now so does Hank and Holly) we started looking at place we could go where the flights seemed to be open. I think it was Wednesday when someone suggested Cabo in Mexico. The flights were great leaving on Thursday so we packed our bags, made few arrangements and headed to the airport on Thursday morning.
To start the trip off, we were late getting to the airport and missed the one hour before flight arrival requirement. The computers would not let us print our tickets and it looked like we were not going to make it. Finally, a really nice Delta employee helped us out and printed our tickets for us. We made it!!
When we got to Cabo Dave realizes that he left his driver's license at home so I had to rent the car which also meant I had to drive!! Yikes! I don't know if any of you have every actually tried to drive in Mexico but it is quite an experience. The one rule of driving is that there are not rules. If you come to an intersection, there are no stop signs. It is basically first come first serve. Really scary, especially when you decline the rental car insurance!!
We only stayed until Saturday but we had the best time. We ate at local taco restaurants where they serve authentic Mexican food. It was so yummy! The beaches were beautiful and the people were so nice. We will definitely be going back to Cabo in the future!

Dave's Graduation

Dave finally finished all of his CFP classes. He had his graduation the other night. We were so proud of him. He has worked extremely hard for this!! He took the exam before Thanksgiving and we are still awaiting the results. Either way, I couldn't be more proud of him!!