Sara and Avery visit Texas!

Gosh, I haven't blogged in a while! I have been busy blogging my photography and have been lax on posting here. I have a lot to catch up on.
My sister and niece flew home today after spending 5 days here. Sara was kind enough to come help while I had another surgery. Yes, you read that right. I had a diagnostic endometriosis laparoscopy on Thursday morning. I have been having ongoing pain for years, and it worsened after having Sadie. While trying not to be too graphic, about 3 days each month I feel like I am in labor. It's excruciating. The only true way to diagnose someone with endometriosis is by having a laparoscopy done. Not great, but not the worst thing either. I fully expected to come out of surgery and learn that I had it everywhere. Well, Adam briefly spoke with the Dr following the procedure and she said there was no endometriosis. I am still in shock. Part of me is relieved, but the other part of me is left feeling very confused and with less answers than before. Why so much pain if there was nothing there? Did she miss it somehow? Do I get a second opinion? Do I just suffer? So many questions.......
I did recently test positive for Celiac (gluten intolerance) and there is a huge link between gluten/endo and pain. I have an appointment on July 21st for another blood test after a month of eating more gluten than I had been) and then another appointment that Friday for them to look down my throat with a camera. I hope that maybe that will give me some answers and that maybe it is all intertwined. I am looking forward to after those dates later this month when I can stop eating gluten again, as I do think it has a major link to everything.
Anyways, in spite of the reason for Sara and Avery's visit, we really enjoyed having them here. Sadie LOVES being a big cousin to Avery. The way Avery looks at Sadie is just precious, as well! For living so far away, I am thankful that the girls have already seen one another twice this year, and will see one another at least one more time, if not two. I know how hard it can be to fly with a toddler so I really appreciate my sister's willingness to come.
My surgery was originally scheduled for Wednesday morning, but the Dr moved it to Thursday, giving us a day where I felt well for their visit. We had fun playing with the girls together. Thursday morning, Adam took me to the hospital while Sara stayed and took care of the girls. Adam also had a final exam to get to (I know, worst timing ever) so she continued to entertain them while he was away, even so much as taking them to Target. I am still feeling kind of crummy post surgery, but nothing compared to my shoulder. I'm not in a lot of pain, mostly just very uncomfortable, as they fill your abdomen with gas in order to best see your organs. I have been trying to get up and walk around the house as much as I can, and we even wandered around the university yesterday a tad. Anyways, I will leave you with a few photos of the girls in their 4th of July outfits.

Welcome March!

Every February or March I take Sadie to the pottery painting place here in town and we do a plate with her hand print, and then she gets to pick something else to paint as well. She LOVES it. Painting is truely one of her favorite things to do. It is such a joy to watch her do things that she loves. Ususally I just watch her, but decided I'd pain something this year too. I made a little "to go" coffee mug that says in German "this cup may have wine in it," and "Good Morning." We had fun!

Yesterday it was 75 and sunny and today it SNOWED! We love it! We took just a bit to walk around the neighborhood, but quickly went back in to avoid freezing! Ha! Enjoy these pictures from my point and shoot, which I am LOVING btw. I am still figuring everything out, and mainly shooting into auto just for convenience sake, but it is great not having to lug my giant camera everywhere!

                                                        Below is our blueberry plant

                                                                       Our rosemary!

                              

 

                                                   Love the excitement on her face!!

 

                                                       Precious daddy/daughter photo

 

     She was being extra quiet and we found her passed out while she was supposed to be cleaning!

Frustration

I have been really lazy this weekend. My shoulder still hurts a lot from surgery, and I really can't do much yet. It's not like I am setting out to be lazy-there is actually a lot that I want to do. It's getting frustrating. I really want to clean and organize. Sadie does a good job destroying the family room, which drives me nuts. It's even hard to do things like dishes, since I can only lift things one pound or less. Adam is gone studying most of the time, so he can only do so much. I am just ready to be back to normal! You'd also think I feel rested from not doing much, but I am not sleeping well at all, as I like to sleep on my left side, that I wind up tossing and turning a lot. I really want to get rid of the majority of Sadie's toys once I am more recovered. Do you think she'd notice? Probably. The kid is such a hoarder. I just can't stand having STUFF everywhere!!! Need to make a list with one project for every weekend or something, but it will have to be something I do without Adam's help-I don't think he'd be thrilled if I made him help, haha! Anyways, here's hoping I am back to normal sooner rather than later. At least 3 more weeks of not lifting more than a pound....

Missing Germany

Lately I miss Germany soooo much. I know I didn't grow up there or live there that long, but I feel homesick. I really do! I wish so badly that I could take a leave of absence from work and just take Sadie there all summer. She is so ready to travel long distance and excited to explore. I'm not a patient person, so having to wait a year or year and a half is really hard. It's like it's ingrained in me to travel. For someone so type A, I sure to hate staying in one place for long! 

My little traveller

I love how excited Sadie gets about travel! The other day we pretended that we were taking a trip to Paris, France. She packed her bag (with horses) and we pretend drove to the airport and boarded the plane. Then we pretended to take the skylink to the big plane that would take us across to Europe. She thought of this all on her own. I think it's so cute that she even talked about wanting to be able to take the skylink! Can't wait to actually take her across the pond soon! 

Sadie bakes with daddy!

Tonight Sadie and her daddy baked lemon bars together. It was pretty precious!

Thanksgiving 2013 and Sadie gets her passport!

I can't believe I never blogged Thanksgiving!!
Our friends Dory and Mike came out from Huntington Beach, California. We had the best time!
The day after Thanksgiving, we went to a Christmas tree farm and picked out two trees, one for Sadie, and one for everyone, that would go in the family room. We had a blast at the farm, as the had a seesaw that Mike and Sadie went on, and then they took you on a hayride to get to where you could go cut down a tree.
I took some photos of Mike and Dory while Adam and Sadie looked for the perfect tree. Once they found it, Adam chopped it down! So fun for Sadie!

We got back to the house and Sadie immediately started decorating. She had so much fun! We also checked the mail and her passport had arrived!! She was SO EXCITED about it, because she understands that she needs it to travel to other countries. We can't WAIT to use it! I am having travel withdrawals right now BIG TIME. But, with Adam in school full time, we will just have to wait until he is done. It won't be long, but I have to be patient. (Something I am not good at, haha!)

Enjoy these pics!

Valentine's Day 2014

I worked in a Hallmark store throughout high school and then when I went off to college they would let me come work when I came home at Christmas. I loved Valentine's back then, but something changed. I guess maybe from working there for so long I feel like I just started seeing it as such a corporate holiday. I mean, why do you have to have a day that you get guilted into showing others that you love them? As a result of that, Adam and I have never really done the whole Valentine's thing. I remember one year when we still lived in Arizona that we went to our favorite restaurant, Pappadeax's Seafood Kitchen, and we were shocked to see what a large crowd there was, as it was a random weeknight. We then realized it was Valentine's Day, haha!
Anyways, since having Sadie I have become much more of a Valentine's fan! Especially now that she is older and starting to understand it. Last night she and I put together her teacher gifts, including the cards that she chose very carefully for each one. She then helped put together all the Valentine's for her classmates, which included dog tattoos and skittles lol! She is such a trip!
We wound up having leftover dog tattoos, so after her bath she got a whole row of tattoos on her arm, haha! After I got her to bed, I made some heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes for her for the morning. I am SO not a morning person so I had to do this the night before and just have ready to quickly heat up. :) I also ordered her a shirt that I found-purple with a horse on it! Something that combines her two favortie things in the world! I got her gift all wrapped up and her card together, and then headed off to bed.
This morning I got up and got myself ready, then got her pancakes out. I got her up and took her to the table, where I had everything waiting for her. She was so excited!

These shots are from my new Canon G1x, which is a top of the line point and shoot, but I am still trying to figure out the nitty gritty on it, so these are not the best photos. Anyways, enjoy though!

After breakfast, she got dressed in her new purple horse shirt, and we headed off to school. Adam had dropped off all the teacher gifts, Valentine's, and the bananas that we brought for her class party, to save me from having to figure out how to lug all that in with just one arm. She was excited to show her teachers her shirt, so had an easier time with me leaving her today. (She'd been home with me for a week and a half following surgery, so we really got used to just hanging out. Her first day back, Thusday, was really hard on both of us!)

Today at the office I made chocolate covered strawberries, as they are one of our favorites, but especially Sadie's. Well, I went to Super One yesterday to get bananas for her class so picked up strawberries there as well. Not a good idea-it was slim pickings and the basket that I wound up with turned out to be more bad than good. Bummer. To top that off, I did not take into account that the work microwave would not let me adjust power while melting the chocolate, so I wound up burning the chocolate. Needless to say, NOT my best batch of chocolate covered strawberries ever. Sadie was still excited when I waked in the door with them, though, and had one right away.

Today was a hard day for me pain wise with my shoulder. This morning when I got out of the shower I attempted to wrap my hair in a towel, as I always do, and accidentally pushed too hard with the left arm, and really hurt myself. It set me off for a pain filled day. So, Valentine's to me is having a husband that let me crawl in bed the moment I walked in the door, cooked dinner, and is now entertaining her. THAT is what love is.

Hope however you celebrated, it was a good one!