What's going on now????

Hello All!
All tests have come back great!!!!The mass on my Thymus appears to be part of the Thymus itself turning into fatty tissue (which is what it's supposed to do:). The results weren't actually inconclusive, the nurse gave me the wrong answer. the doc just wanted to see me to go over ALL the test results from the last couple months. I have to get another MRI in about 6 months, just as a followup, but all looks good!!!!!
We're going to Ocean City this weekend, so I'll come back with plenty of pics:)

Good News! I DO NOT HAVE LUNG CANCER!!!!

This will be a good news, still don't know news, and extra cute pics entry.

Seriously. I don't have Lung Cancer, that is VERY good news. The nodules on my lungs are just scar tissue. They still want a followup CT in 8 months, but nothing to worry about. When I had that bout with pleurisy so long ago, it left lots of little scars on my lungs, so that's what the unidentified objects are:)

Problem: when they did the CT on my lungs, they found a "mass" on my Thymus gland. They wanted an MRI on that. I waited on another approval from the insurance company. I had the first MRI on Tuesday (today is Friday). They called me back in for more views later on Tuesday, but because I have a son and am his sole caretaker during the day, I couldn't make it back in until yesterday. Went in yesterday for the extra views. The doc called yesterday at around four to tell me the results are "inconclusive". She wants to see me in her office and I have an appointment first thing Monday morning. After talking to a couple nurse friends of mine, they told me that she'll probably refer me to someone for a biopsy, but we can't be sure until Monday.

For those of you who don't know (I didn't until a couple weeks ago), the Thymus is a gland that helps the immune system until your out of puberty, then it does nothing but shrink until it's nothing but fat (when you're about 60). So the gland itself isn't all that important, or is it????Remember, I said helps the immune system. Does everyone remember that MY immune system has always worked AGAINST my body instead of for it? That's what Rheumatoid Arthritis does, that's its job.Anyway, people who get masses on their Thymus gland generally have, or end up with, an autoimmune disease. Yay Me!!!!! So, could be something bad, could just be nothing. If it's something bad, they'll just take out the entire thymus, they don't mess around with just removing the mass, the thymus is too small and it doesn't do anything. So, still alot of speculation right now. But I feel fine, except for the fact that I haven had a remicade infusion in about four weeks, so I feel like I have arthritis, but my "spa day" is next Thursday, and then I will feel much better:)

OK, and because these were too cute to pass up, here's a few pis of my Boy (or boy's or friend and boy....)

Michael and Geoff with a sign that says "(I'm cute, but I may have rabies" PERFECT!!

Michael and our good friend Marcia roughhousing in the tee-pee. They don't look like their very happy, Do they?(Insert sarcasm..)This was up at Mexico point, so beautiful and Marcia was an excellent tour guide!!

And last but not least. Michael has been given ALOT of Time-Outs lately. Here's one when we were on a fishing trip. He decided to run into the woods.....

OK. That's it for now. Will definitely update after my appointment on Monday. Plus, I'm sure we'll make it to a fun park or something this weekend...

I'm a square

So, this is the afghan Christina and I crocheted for our wonderful Mother in Law. I'm pretty sure she liked it, though I was the first to nap with it:)

Pictures and updates

First, let me say this. It's not my fault. It is not my fault that the doctor didn't send in for the pre-approval for the chest CT when he was supposed to. It is not my fault that the pre-approval has not been received yet. So....it is not my fault that I have NOT had the chest CT yet. Still working on that, it will be a relief to get that over with..

Below are some pictures of our fishing trip to northern Arkansas. Every person in the pic was with us for our three day fishing trip. All Geoff's siblings and their significant others. Geoff's Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Aunt and Uncle and their children. Plus, the three of us and Nora (Christina's Mom). It was a HUGE cabin and we all had a great time!!!!

This was taken after the second day of fishing. Check out those fish eyes:)

While we were at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house in Little Rock, Michael decided he was ready to start using the potty for everything and made us all very proud:) As his special present, he requested a ride on Paw Paw's tractor. Ask and you shall receive:)

He actually took quite a few trips on that tractor after this. He went for rides with Alison, Jeremy and Geoff too:)

When we got home and I had the kidney stones, Geoff decided I needed some cheering up, so he planted a pretty little garden in our from patch of dirt. I think it looks lovely! The stuff in the little pots is some Yellow Moss that came home with us from Arkansas. It doesn't look very good in this pic, but it is finally starting to look alive! He also planted the two hanging plants.

We also have some tomatoes and other flowers growing in the back in some pots (more sun back there) but there's not much to see yet...

We went for a bike ride this weekend, all three of us had a great time!! There's lots of place to go bike riding around here and Michael is loving the family time outside on his bike.

We went fishing last weekend, but none of us caught anything. Hopefully we'll find someplace good to go fishing soon.

It's Tuesday and I'm back to the normal routine. Hope all is well!

Over a month?????

OK, we went to Little Rock and had a great time. Such a huge loving family all under one roof. Luckily, it's a big roof, so it wasn't too crowded. We went fishing in Northern AR on the White River and I enjoyed myself and learned to fish a little and can't wait to do some of that here!! I'll post pics of that very soon!
About four days after returning home I was taken to the emergency room. Go figure. Kidney Stones AGAIN!!!! OK, so it's been four years since the last one, but that really wasn't long enough! After 4 trips to the ER and 3 CT scans and two X-Rays and a couple ultrasounds, I am finally feeling better and able to move, That was two and a half weeks go and I just started feeling better this past weekend, which is why I've been absent.
With all those CTs we found I had more stones, they're just resting there, so I'm waiting for another Bomb to blow. They also found a number of "Pulmonary Nodules" . The bottom of my lungs showed up in the abdominal CT and showed a lot of little bumps on it. So, now I get to go in for a CT of my chest. We'll see how that goes. I thought that would be tomorrow, but now it might not be until next week. Pray.....
Other than that, we're doing well here. Geoff planted me a little garden of plants while I was sick and a couple of hanging baskets. Geoff did the housework and the cooking and most of the caring for the child. So I think he should get a good fathers day gift...
I will post pics of the trip and the garden once everything is downloaded

It's Been Awhile

Sorry about the lack of updating, been a little busy, and a little down, so I didn't feel like writing. I am back in the mood now! It's been a busy month and a half, here's the rundown:

I turned 33 on March 1st. woo-hoo. Geoff made me a nice dinner, my "new" camera was my birthday gift:)

We had snow in March, I'm pretty sure we had snow on the first day of spring. I CANNOT wait till spring REALLY starts!

We found a pre-school program for Michael to start in the fall.

Michael has been re-evaluated for speech therapy and occupational therapy, looks like he'll get both of those next year.

We had a visit from Jen-Jen and Mike. Had a wonderful time at the MOST and Michael is still talking about his "favorite cousin" (she bribes him:)
Michael turned four on April first. We made cupcakes with blue icing and had dinner at a restaurant. Fun was had by all!!

On April 3rd, I got a car!!!!!!!!It's been a year since we moved up here and we've had only one car between us, so I was a little stuck out here when Geoff was at work. I'm not anymore!!It's a 2003 Saturn L200 and it only had 33,000 miles on it.

We had a really warm day here a couple weeks ago, we were able to go to the park and climb. Then we had snow again and the deer came back, on our side of the fence this time! We have birds in each one of our birdhouses this year. I love watching them, can't wait to see babies!!

We leave for Little Rock tomorrow, we are all looking forward to it:) Will come back with more pics:)

The house hasn't sold yet, but there has been more activity on it, so keep praying!

Today Will Be Over Soon

Ok, had a checkup. My Blood Pressure was 143 over 93. Seriously, hasn't been this high since that infamous Kidney Stone right after Michael was born. But really, I think it's to be expected. I am in pain, and today is the two year anniversary of Mom's passing. I'm really a little surprised I'm as composed as I am.

Boys Are Funny and I Need To Get Out Of The House

So, potty training is going well. He still has accidents, but he's doing #1 and #2 in the potty most of the time. He has taken to hating clothes when we're in the house, so I'm getting alot of good pics of the boy in his underpants!! Santa had sent a present for Michael to open once he was using the potty, he sent CARS underpants!!! I thought Michael was going to have a little heart attack he was so excited!!!!

We made Valentine's Cookies last Thursday and Michael had a great time. Obviously, a little stressful to me, but he loved it!!!He was also easy to clean up, since all he was wearing was his underpants:)

This is a picture of Michael's first outing in big boy underpants. We went to the Post Office and then to the swan pond. It was actually 55 degrees outside. Now it's 23 degrees.....ugggggg And yes, that is ice around the fountain. I have no clue why they don't turn it off in the winter..

Our Valentine's Day weekend was terrific. We went out to a nice cheap dinner on Friday night, me and my boys. Michael is finally to a point where he does pretty well at a casual restaurant. Saturday, I woke up to Michael screaming "Happy Valentine's Day!!!" and Dunkin Donuts. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out around the house and playing. Geoff made a wonderful dinner of miniature gourmet cheeseburgers, crab cakes and hummus (he bought the hummus and I actually liked it, the first kind I've ever liked) and he made me strawberry shortcake for dessert. Sunday was more just hanging out and enjoying every one's company. We had a very nice weekend:) Can you tell my boys are happy? I love seeing them together like this, It seriously makes my heart melt!

We went to McDonald's yesterday to meet a new friend. it feels like I've known her forever and I can tell that we're going to be close. We had a great time watching Michael play in the playplace and chatting. It took about 5 minutes for Michael to warm up to Miss Marcia, but once he saw that she brought him trucks, he was hooked. he even woke up this morning saying we had to go visit Miss Marcia. So lovely when he likes someone!!!!!I meant to get pictures of the outing, but I got a little caught up, so I didn't get any. Next time I will, I promise:)

Last thing. Christina and I have been working on a crochet blocks blanket for our MIL since Christmas of 2007. I think we may actually finish it by our fishing trip this year. All that is left to do is connect the blocks....Here's what it looks like on my front room floor:)

Snow

Just posting a few pictures of what the snow looks like here. I did get a new camera, I pretty much love it, it's just a point and shoot (of course, that DSLR will have to wait a few years...) but it works well. It's a Fujifilm (which is actually the very first brand of digital I ever got, it was a gift from Geoff's mom and dad and was a great camera...). So, took some pics and I'm still playing with it. Since we just got another big snow storm, I thought I would add some pics of that...

First, this is our neighbors back stoop. You can almost see it under the snow.

Here's Michael's old Fisher Price Slide and Jungle Gym (the pink and green thing under the giant ball)...

Here are just a couple of pics of my boys, being boys

And here are a few of the puzzles we've done lately. Seriously, I'm and addict. Luckily, friends have donated some...

And here's the Cardinal that caused my old camera to finally break. Actually, right after this one was taken, Michael stole my camera, ran into the kitchen and accidentally dropped said camera on the hard wood floor. Camera then died.....

Daina, You're Not In Chicago Anymore

So. I went to my back door to look outside at all the marvelous snow (insert sarcasm). I saw snow. I also saw DEER!!!!Two of them. they were just hanging out, trying to find some green left on the trees or bushes. they're still there, napping. Of course, I had to get pictures. i think I'm in love:) I never would have thought I'd see a couple of deer in my backyard. These are the times I really enjoy living further out from the city....
Both of them are in this pic. You just need to look closely.

The next two are of the same deer. She came really close!

I also wanted everyone to see the massive icicles right outside our bedroom window. They've melted a little because we're having a heat wave. It's 38 degrees outside!!!

Hope all is well. Life is going on here. We've had a fun week and had a good play date yesterday. Now Michael keeps asking for his friend David:)

So true!

A friend of mine e-mailed this to me. It is so awesome and definitely gives me a little validation:)

New Year's Resolutions

Ok. Every Year I say that i won't make new year's resolutions. Seems to me, they always get broken. This year. I didn't make any resolutions, but I will be doing some things differently..

• I will eat healthier. I would love to drop that prednisone weight, so I will try. I don't think I'm actually going to set a number goal though. I think that would mess me up.
• Cutting WAAAAAAYYYYYY down on Soda. This was actually decided on by my beloved husband. I haven't had but one soda in the past week. At least the headaches are gone.
• I will continue to try to find a job that will employ me working from my home. out of the home is close to impossible because of my health issues and the child.
• I will read more this year. Last year I only read three books. I have NEVER read so little in my entire life. This year, I've already read 7. I may start listing them on the side, if anyone is interested.
• Once the snow melts, I will walk more. I really cannot walk in three feet of snow.
• I (we) will continue to try to sell our house in Chicago.
• I will find new music I like. I am open to any and all suggestions. So bring em on!
• I will make a conscious effort to keep in contact with my siblings and family and friends. that's harder than one would think.
• Michael and I will get along better this year. Michael and I seem to share the same temperament. So that can blow up sometimes...
• I will be more diligent with my bible study. I always feel better when I do it, I just need to be more disciplined.

I think that's it. And here's a picture of Michael to end this post. Geoff got it taken for my Christmas present this year. he's so cute!!!

Happy New Year!! And Merry Christmas!!

Yes, I realize I'm a little late. I've been busy. I'm sorry. I have TONS of pictures to show everyone, but first, a little bit about our trip...

It started on Dec 22nd about 4:00pm. We should have known to just wait, but we were excited and wanted to see our family. So we left Syracuse in the middle of a HEAVY snow storm. According to the weather, we would be done with the storm by the time we hit Buffalo. It did get a little better, but by the time we got to Erie, PA we were on solid Ice, so we decided to stay there for the night. That meant our drive would be around 11 hours on Dec 23rd, instead of 9. OK. We could handle that.

We set out early on the 23rd. Good thing I've learned to pack a simple overnight bag, so all of our stuff (except for that) could stay in the car. Got gas and coffee and were on our way. Everything was smooth (a little slow at points, but smooth) until we got to Indianapolis. We had ice again. ALOT of it. BUT.........by the time we knew what we were going into, we had already passed the last exit for about 15 miles. From 5pm until around 1:30am we were stuck on highway 70. Mostly in completely stopped traffic. When it was going, very slippery, so only going about five MPH. We finally made it off the highway (along with everyone one else in the free world) and wouldn't you know it? All hotels booked solid. We couldn't get back on the highway, too slippery and Geoff and I had been up for about 20 hours driving and very sleepy. We told Michael we would have a BIG Adventure and we would sleep in the car. That's what we did. Pulled into the jammed packed parking lot of KFC. Turned of the lights. Locked the doors and slept (very uncomfortably) until about 5:30.

By 9:30 am on Christmas Eve, we were in St. Louis and very tired. But safe. All three of us took very long hot showers that morning and very long naps early that afternoon.

Ok. Done moaning about that part of our trip. the rest of it was fabulous (stave for lots of the family getting a stomach bug). Christmas Eve we did a big family gathering and did secret santa gifts with the family (we draw a name each year, it's alot of fun:)
Geoff made these Christmas Trees for Aunt Holly, his Secret Santa Recipient. He got orders from Mom for more. Guess we know what she's getting for Christmas next year:)

Christmas Day Santa came to Grandma's house. We were so happy he knew where to find Michael and Jessica and the other kiddos!), we went to the Stock's and played with the little ones and had great family conversation and that evening we were back at the Kleisly's for more family fun. Such a wonderful place to spend the Holiday!
Santa brought Michael another piece (huge piece) for his Thomas track. All that stuff came in one box:)

The day after Christmas, we all went to the City Museum in Downtown St. Louis. if you live close and haven't been there, GO. It's amazing, it's all made out of recycled or re-purposed stuff and there are tunnels and slides for kids of all ages. Even Mom and I made it down the 7 story slide. Thanks to Alison and the other kids Michael was able to do EVERYTHING!!!He had the best time. he went in the highest tunnels, inside and out. Aunt Ali had a heck of a time trying to keep up, but she did a really good job, despite all the bruises she acquired. I spent a good deal of time admiring the fantastic mosaics and sculptures. It really is an awesome adventure.
He fell asleep while we waited for everyone to finish their fun. He hasn't fallen asleep in my arms for a couple years, so I was pretty happy!

We all took a moment to kiss the frog on our way in. Our cousin, Corrinne Foster, passed away in April of 2004 and she worked there and loved it there. The frog was placed there in her memory and she is greatly missed.

Saturday we went ice skating (obviously, this is a royal "we", Daina doesn't do skates..) Michael had a blast, but Big Michael, Daddy and Aunt Alison got to get him around the rink. So comical and lovely!!!!

Sunday, we (Geoff and I in one car and Michael, Aunt Ali, Maw Maw and Paw Paw in the Suburban ahead of us) left for Little Rock. A very uneventful trip, thank goodness!!!

While in Little Rock, we spent lots of time relaxing with Michael's Aunts and Uncle and taking in the Scenery.We went to Pinnacle mountain and did a little "hiking" it was a good outing with both the Chocolate Lab (lottie) and the Yorkshire Terrior (Chelsea) in tow. Michael walked both dogs during the hike and had an awesome time. It was really hard keeping him off the giant rocks though:)

This picture is just for reference. I am actually this much taller than Geoff's sisters (and mother) I feel like a giant sometimes:)Then, Michael got a time-out. While at the mountain. Seriously.

On New Years Eve, we worked puzzles and drank Champagne and lit sparklers. It was very low key and very wonderful. Michael got to do a sparkler before he went to bed at about 8:30.

We left Little Rock on January 2nd and had another uneventful trip. Stayed over-night in Columbus and got to see Jamie for about an hour. Left Columbus at about 7 on the 3rd and Got home around 3. We've been trying to get settled back into a routine here, after being gone for two weeks are are gradually getting back to that.

I have an infusion next week. It's two weeks late because of vacations between my doctor and I, and I've been feeling that for about a week, so the next week won't be too much fun, but I'll probably get alot of reading done:)

Don't forget. Don't use the 708 area code cell phone number. No longer valid. If you didn't get my e-mail, e-mail me and I'll send you our new cell phone numbers:)