Friday update

It's been a busy week around our household. Last night I went to my close friend (and fellow cancer survivor) Amanda's bachelorette party which was fun. I am feeling my age though and couldn't stay out long. Knowing that you have to get up with the kids makes it harder to stay out late partying it up. Amanda is getting married this afternoon. I know she is a little bummed that it's thunderstorming all day, but I remember hearing that it is good luck to have rain on your wedding day. From experience, I know couples (including us) who had some rain on their big day and are really happily married. So it must be true!
Me and the bride on her last night as a single woman!


I got my lab results yesterday from my latest blood test. Good news/not-so-good news. The good news is that my TSH is right for the 2nd time since I started this whole cancer misadventure. What the heck is TSH you ask? It stand for thyroid stimulating hormone. Since I have cancer, this number is very important to me. My TSH has to be under .05 to keep these thyroid hormones suppressed. In theory, if I have any thyroid cells lingering in my body (and my doctor cannot definitively tell me there are none in there), a high TSH could stimulate the cancer to come back and grow. My TSH number is also important because it is a gauge on how I am feeling. If the number is too high, I feel like a zombie. If it is too low I am also tired, but experience other icky side effects. The bad news is that I'm still not feeling very good. I don't have a lot of energy. There is one other part of my thyroid panel called Free T4 that is running towards the higher end of the "normal" spectrum so I will be researching if that may be to blame and talking to my doctor. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to give up my partying night owl ways. Ha ha. If you know me, you know that I am such a homebody!

A few random photos and an update

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend. It sure was nice to have the 3 days off and have Josh and the kids home. We didn't do a whole lot. Saturday was a busy day for me during which I got my hair done and went to a scrapbooking session with my friends. Monday we bathed Gracie which is always an adventure since Gracie hates baths. We started the bath outside with the hose, but she kept slipping free from her collar and running away from us. I really wish I'd had the video camera rolling then! We finally got her bathed and then brushed. During the brushing, about a grocery bag's worth of her hair came out. I guess that's the winter coat finally shedding. I was surprised at so much hair for such a little furball.

Gracie is finally using her doggie bed. Photographic evidence below:




Some more photos from Friday's campfire:




Here is also a video from that night with Abby telling us a Chuck Norris "joke":


A few small changes we've made around the house. We don't have much time for home improvement projects these days, so I am celebrating even small victories.

New here is the tapestry above the fireplace which came from India (via Ebay) and finally got hung up. I really love it and hope that eventually it will be the inspiration for painting that room.


And finally tonight was Abby's spring sing for school. I am hoping to have video to share soon, but it is currently too large to upload. Josh is working on editing it to be small enough to share online.

It's hard to get good photos in NIU's music hall, but Abby is the one in pink in the middle.

Campfire S'mores

We can't really take Abby camping because of her eczema but the most fun part of camping (in my opinion anyway) is the sitting around a fire and making s'mores. For Josh's birthday the kids and I got him a fire bowl so we can have campfires at home. Tonight we had our first one and our friends Amanda and Dan (who are getting married next week...yay!) came out to hang with us.

My amateur photo shoot/trip to the lagoon

In an effort to not deal with taking the kids to a photo studio (and not pay their prices) I decided to take photos of them together myself and get them printed at Walgreens. It was way cheaper and I uploaded the pictures this morning and guess what--they are already done! Wallets, enlargements, you name it. We took the kids over to the lagoon at NIU for some outdoor photos. I think they turned out decently considering that I am not a photographer, my kids were cranky and Abby insisted on wearing hot pink socks with her capri pants. Here are some outtakes:







After the photos, the kids ran around and climbed stuff. Josh and Abby took a little walk and saw two geese families. I would love to know how soft a baby goose feels, but unfortunately I don't think we'll meet a Mamma Goose who will let us pet her babies.



The ones I chose to print are:

Goodies in the mail

I recently purchased Legally Blonde 2 from my LJ pal Heidi and it came today in the mail. Hey, I love that movie! Don't judge. Anyway, along with that fabulous DVD, Heidi included some cute goodies which of course Abby snatched up right away. Here she is modeling one of the tattoos and the bracelet.





Thank you Heidi for making our day!

Weekend update

Although it was chilly yesterday, we still enjoyed some time outside. Josh and I took Abby to the park and took some photos while we were out.





Abby making dandelion wishes:













Giving me a look that says "enough with the pictures Mom, I'm trying to play!":













And finally a video of Abby's dandelion wishes. The shaky part is when I tripped (ha, ha) I thought it was adorable that she did this every time she saw a fuzzy dandelion on our walk to the park.

Woohoo

Today Josh graduated! He got his Associate's of Science in Computer Science. We are all so proud of him. It's so hard as a non-traditional student to make it through and Josh has not only done that, but done it well.

Josh's parents flew up to celebrate the big day with us.



And here's what he looks like getting his degree:

Josh's 29th birthday

Yesterday Josh turned 29. We had a wonderful day celebrating his birthday. He took a 1/2 day off from work so that he, Abby and I could have a celebratory lunch together. We would have loved for Evan to join us, but he was still in school at lunchtime. We had a lot of fun as a foursome later on with opening gifts, hanging out and a yummy home cooked dinner. I felt bad that Josh had to cook his birthday dinner, but at least that way he got what he wanted. Josh also got the "Anthony treatment" when he had his hair cut by the fabulous stylist that my sister is friends with. Now the 3 of us all look fabulous with our Anthony 'do's.

Enjoying our windy picnic lunch on campus. Josh had Indian food and Abby and I had hot dogs. The hot dog buns had poppyseeds on them but to Abby they were sprinkles.









Josh's new 'do:



Opening gifts:



Showing off the finger paint picture that Abby made for Daddy:




Pile of fried chicken!





Blowing out the candles on the yellow cookie cake:

A rainbow of books

Since I wrapped up the spring semester last Tuesday, I've been staying busy with the usual craziness of our household and starting up some new projects around the house. There are about a dozen things I have been wanting to do all year but just never had the time. Ever since seeing someone's books in a photo arranged by color, I have been wanting to do it with our bookshelf. Reading is a huge thing in our family. Josh, Evan and I read a lot. Abby is learning to read on her own, but we still read her a lot of books. So it was nice to turn something that is ordinary looking but important to us into something pretty to look at.
Here is a before picture:


And after:



I am still debating how to handle my display on the top of the unit. I'm sure I'll play with it some more before I'm done.

PS: Scroll down. I've been a busy poster. Tomorrow I will post pictures from Josh's birthday.

Winery pics

A couple of pictures from when we went wine tasting with Matt in Wisconsin. We had a lot of fun sharing our hobby of wine tasting with him. Josh and I are finally case club members at Wollersheim. I can't wait to go to some of the members events this year.

Wisconsin Dells

This past weekend Josh and I went for a quick trip to Wisconsin Dells with our best friend Matt. It was great to get away and relax overnight.
We ate:












We enjoyed the scenery:






Goofed off:




We also swam, played mini golf and went wine tasting. It was a really nice time.