Our Christmas in Photos

We had a really great Christmas this year. It's always awesome to see the magic of Christmas through the eyes of your children. They had a blast and were thrilled with everything they opened.
Sadie got her beloved cleaning cart. I kid you not, the child asked for a cleaning cart that looks an awful lot like hotel maid's cart. She was ecstatic. She opted to put it into the playroom, which is ready to packed up so the girls aren't allowed to play with any of it, so that her sisters would leave it alone.

Lilly got a vanity that she loves. She has spent a lot of time sitting in front of it brushing her hair, and her sisters hair too. We also got her a computer game for kid's about 1st to 3rd grade. She loves it. She could spend the entire day sitting in front of it if she could. She's a quick learner too, so she is able to figure out most of the game with minimal help from us, even though we're there when she asks.
Ruby didn't really have a particular thing that she loved. She loves all of it and seems to play with everything equally. She did love breakfast though. We had cinnamon rolls and orange juice and the whole she just kept saying,'mmmm. Dis good!' and rubbed her belly.

Steven and I made cornish hens, ribeyes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and gravy for Christmas lunch. It was all really good, but I look forward to next Christmas when we go much simpler on the food. We all had a great day and it was pretty relaxed for the most part. I can't wait to see what this next year brings, hopefully happiness and good health. 2011 was a crazy year filled with good and bad things, but I'm ready to say good riddance 2011 and hello 2012!

Happy New Year!
-K

December in a Nutshell

December has been a crazy month. The month started off with a biopsy. And that biopsy came back suspicious so to say my nerves and psyche are rattled would be a severe understatement. I also got that news on Ruby's 2nd birthday just made everything worse. I have been trying my darnedest to be calm and not to ruin the girls' birthdays or holidays. Keep your mind off things like this is a feat though. Mood swings don't help either. But we've done our best and the girls and Steven have been amazing patient and caring with me. I have truly been blessed with the best kids and husband in the world.

Now when did Ruby think it was okay to turn 2 and then the next day Sadie turned 4 to boot. I have no idea where the time has gone? It seems like just yesterday we moved here with a 3,2, and 2 month old. Now we are about to leave and have an almost 6, 4, and 2 year old. The girls had a lovely and quiet birthdays at home. We got Ruby a battery powered quad that she loved. She put on her helmet and was riding it all around the living room. It had rained for a few days straight so there was no way that we were going to let her outside with the thing. She had a blast anyways. Lilly and Sadie picked out a Lalaloopsy doll for her too and she has loved the crap out of the thing since it came out of the box. She named it Cutie Pie and dragged it everywhere for at least a week and a half. She also got some pretty horses from Memaw, Papop, and Shelby. She was so excited for her cake and candles to blow out that she blew the candles out the second it was placed in front of her. So, we had to light them again and she got to blow them out twice :)

Sadie's birthday was very chill. Daddy had to work so we played Disney video games all day. She is definitely the gamer out of the three of them. Her favorite thing to do is just to sit with Daddy and 'help'/watch him play video games. Whenever I had to go out into the city for doctor's appointments he would stay home with Sadie and Ruby and they would just sit around and 'play' video games together. So if you think the child had a boring birthday and had no fun at all, you're sorely mistaken. She had a blast and when I told her it was time for a break, she pouted and got all whiny. Instead of having cake 2 nights in a row, she opted for some birthday ice cream sundaes and then have cake the next night. She got a Nintendo DS for her birthday, a Disney Princess game, and a Hello Kitty carry case for it. She also got a pink camera from Memaw, Papop, and Shelby! She was in heaven. She had a blast playing with everything. So much so that she killed the batteries on both the DS and camera in less than a day!

Yiayia and Papou sent gift cards so the girls could 'do their own shopping', which they love! They even get to swipe the cards like credit/debit cards. Ruby picked out another Lalaloopsy doll. She carried the box around all by herself until we got home and she needed me to open it for her. She promptly named her Cutie Pie and went off to show her other Cutie Pie the new Cutie Pie. Lilly and Sadie desperately tried to change Ruby's mind on the name. The really didn't like her giving the doll the same name as her other doll. Sadie found a Disney Princess game. It's like those electronic poker games but with Princesses, for kids, and in pink. She loves it. I told you, the girl loves video games. They were both so happy to 'pay' for their own things. They just keep growing too fast.

Then came Steven's trip to Landstuhl. He was there for a week for a sleep study and sleep testing. He doesn't sleep very well and on top of it had been on night shift for over 9 months and finely a few weeks ago got back onto to day shift. But it didn't last long. When he returned home from Germany, he was informed that starting in January he would be back onto nights until we PCS is February. PCS means permanent change of station, also known as moving to another base. Anyways, he had to wear a monitor on his wrist for a week that was very similar looking to a watch. The doctor checked the readings it was getting and was not too pleased because he hadn't actually slept much. He doesn't sleep very well to begin with but the boy can't sleep at all when I'm not with him. Sweet man I have. Well the day of his overnight study she told him that if he didn't sleep than he would have to stay for another 10 days and wear the monitor again. Way to put the pressure on. If that happened he would have missed Christmas with us and would still be up there right now. Thankfully he slept, despite several vivid dreams in which he didn't sleep, and got wonderfully normal results. Had any abnormalities shown up, we risked Steven being medically discharged and out of a job. Praise the Lord, the guy is fine. When it rains in our house, it pours, huh?!

Despite everything, we had a great Christmas. It was awesome to be able to spend time together. We decided that next year we will go all out with home cooked, from scratch food for Thanksgiving, but Christmas we are just going simple and maybe even take out. We wanted to spend time with the girls and not standing around in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes. The girls got some great gifts this year. Lilly got a vanity, Sadie got her coveted cleaning cart, and Ruby got a pirate ship play set/ride on from Santa. The biggest disappointment, Lilly and Sadie's Huffy scooters. Steven was so excited to get them for them and when we took them out of the box to assemble, the back wheels for both scooters were not there. The boxes were sealed shut and we had just opened them and the wheels were no where to be found. I'm hoping the company will just mail us some. I have to give them call but with the time difference it's a little hard to find the right time. The girls got some awesome presents from Memaw, Papop, and Shelby. Lilly got a battery powered horse and a basketball. Sadie got a full doll house that she was ecstatic about. And Ruby got a Baby Alive. The girl loves her some baby dolls. What she doesn't know that we will be donating all other baby dolls except for her Baby Alive and Lalaloopsy dolls. We've had to hide them for now because she will line them all up and try to take every. single. doll. everywhere with her. They also got some more gift cards from Yiayia and Papou so that when we get to Nebraska in February they can buy some new toys to tie them over until our household goods get there.

Next week I'm headed to Germany for another biopsy and a consult with the Endocrinologist there. Hopefully the test will be easy and pain free and I get the results before I leave. I am having some anxiety over it all, not only for the test and implications but traveling internationally by myself. Traveling is kind of difficult for me, especially when there is more than one language barrier to get past. I know I'll get through it and I'll be fine but I have a hard time coping with change that I can't control. If you know me you know I'm a huge control freak. But say a prayer for me anyways. I can always use an extra prayer.

In better news, all of our PCS paperwork is submitted and we are now waiting on dates of plane tickets and a set of orders so we can pack out. We still have to clear our car and beyanname. A beyanname is a form with all of the furniture and electronics we brought into the country in our household goods shipment. It's because there is a huge black market here, the beyanname is the Turkish governments way of trying to contain and control it. Luckily we had a great guy do ours and he only put a handful of things on it so it'll be no problem to clear it. Hopefully it won't be as difficult to clear the car as it was to get the car. Either way it'll work itself out. The biggest thing we really have to worry about is what to separate into the suitcase pile, the unaccompanied baggage pile, donate pile, toss pile, and household goods shipment. I'm really not too worried about the housing inspection. Every time we've moved out of base housing we've had to pay something and since the exchange rate is in our favor here and it will come straight out of Steven's paycheck, so we don't need to worry about making a payment, I'm really not stressed about it. It feels like everything is finally coming together and in  2 short months we'll be in our own house in Nebraska. Hopefully 2012 is a much better year for us.

Here's hoping that everyone has a happy and healthy 2012!

-K

Prayers Needed, Please

So I am the statistic that throws off the curve. You know that .1% that's left when something is 99.9% sure, accurate, or effected. My first pregnancy was ectopic. Meaning the fetus was growing in my tube and than the tube burst and lost half of my tube and ovary. My second pregnancy, and third and fourth, resulted in pre-eclampsia, or toxemia as it used to be called. In my fourth the pre-eclampsia actually presented after I had the baby.
We also had a terrible scare when I got pregnant with Ruby. During routine blood tests they due at the beginning of every pregnancy, it was found that I had a rare blood antibody, Kell. I didn't have it before, so they did a blood test on Steven.We learned that Steven carries the Kell antigen and he must have passed it onto Sadie-Mae, so when Sadie was born via c-section her blood mixed with mine. My body then produced an antibody to fight the antigen off. We were worried that Ruby may have the antigen as well, in which my body would try to kill her because it was trying to fight off the antigen. With lots of monitoring and some great American and British doctors, she was born healthy and happy. During the whole ordeal and many ultrasounds, they also had a large cyst on my left ovary which had to be removed during the c-section.
Now fast forward to a year ago. I was just not feeling right and was having some trouble losing all the baby weight. I went to the doctor and he did some blood work. Right after that we went home on our COT leave, continuous overseas tour leave, for a month. When we got back I found out there was something wrong with my blood work. So off I went to a University Hospital, a local Turkish hospital, to see an Endocrinologist. Let me just say that going there was a real eye opener. It was old, run down, and pretty dirty. There were patients on gurneys just hanging out in the corridors. I couldn't believe that I was actually at a hospital like this, it was truly something out of a World War II movie. I had a translator with me, but there was still a loss in translation. I visited this hospital a handful of times and the last time I was there the doctor diagnosed me with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. He told me I was just fine and that my hormone levels were normal at the moment, but with thyroiditis my levels would go up, or down, or could be normal. He told me to return to an endocrinologist every 6 months to recheck everything. I was one of the handful of women who develop thyroiditis after pregnancy.
Over the summer I noticed I was more tired than normal, but I quickly dismissed it because 1) we traveled to the states for the summer and we were jet lagged, 2)the girls were sick a lot and there's 3 of them, and 3)I was a single parent with Steven still in Turkey working. I experienced a some weight gain and a couple other little symptoms. When we got back in August it was time to go back to see the doctor. This time I was able to go to  a much nicer hospital. It was like a smaller version of an American hospital. Everything was clean and modern and I felt much better going to this one. I had some tests done and found out that I had 2 nodules on my thyroid. A week and a half later I went back in to have a biopsy done. Now I was under the impression that this was not serious at all, just a simple biopsy to see if the nodes had to be surgically removed or not. I equated these nodes as cysts that sometimes they form and grow and need to be removed, like the cyst I had with my pregnancy.
When I went in last Friday for the results, I was a little nervous. I thought it was a simple they need to be removed or not. She told me they needed to be removed, I thought I would be able to wait to have them removed after we moved to Nebraska. We were hoping that we could wait until then so that a language barrier wouldn't be an issue, and so that we could have family come in and help with the girls so that Steven could be with me. The doctor said the nodes needed to be removed sooner rather than later and tried to send down to the General Surgery right that moment, but I needed a referral from my primary care doctor first, so they translated the test results an told me to bring them to my doctor right away.
I couldn't help but read the test results on the ride home. I didn't comprehend the results at first, but I did after I reread it. The nodes were 'suspicious of malignancy' and 'suspicious cytomorphology for papillary carcinoma'. I started to panic in the car and I was with people I didn't really knew. Cancer? That word had never been uttered in the year that I was diagnosed. Not once. I didn't know anything about thyroid cancer, at all. Luckily I was able to get an appointment with my primary doc that afternoon and Steven was able to stay home with me and the girls, instead of going back to work like he was supposed to.
Steven and I have a wonderful primary doctor who explained everything and took in our concerns. Steven wanted to make sure that I wasn't treated or have surgery in a Turkish hospital. He is very protective when it comes to things like this since our ectopic pregnancy experience at Kent General Hospital in Dover, DE. They were absolutely horrible to me there and I was so out of it from the pain that I couldn't even comprehend what was going on or the fact that nobody there had any sort of bed side manner. Our doctor agreed with Steven that I should go up to Germany and have the surgery there. Sometime in the next 2-3 weeks I will go to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for the surgery. So for now I sit and wait to hear when the surgery will happen. Steven is actually on his way up there right now for his sleep study so he'll know his way around there when the time comes for all of us to head up there.
The Air Force will pay to send me and Steven up there but not our kids. So we are hoping that we'll be bale to take the rotator up a few days earlier so that we don't need to pay for plane tickets for the kids. We'd rather pay out of pocket for the hotel stay than the pay the price of air fare, especially since it'll be sort of last minute. We'd also like to get up there early so that we can get a a lay of the land and have the kids settled in before I have to spend time in the hospital. The girls are pretty good at adjusting so I'm not really worried. I'm more anxious than anything to get this done and over with, especially since we move in February and Lilly is in school now. I just can't wait to return to a sense of normalcy, ha! I say that like we've ever had a 'normal' day. Between the 5 of us, life is always interesting. I just pray to God that He sends peace and patience our way in order to get through this. I know that I'm strong and we're strong and we will get through this no matter what.

-K

Catch Up Time

I seriously need to get on top of things. I'm so behind. Partially because we've had colds go around house constantly since mid-November. Partially because I've had doctor's appointments and tests off-base in the city. Partially because we are preparing to move in the beginning of February. Partially because Ruby turns 2 tomorrow and Sadie turns 4 on Saturday and Christmas is a little more than 2 weeks away. The list goes on and on and on..... I really have no idea, energy-wise, how I make it through the day anymore. It's been hard to go out and do anything because there is so much going on that we just want to veg out on the couch when we have minute.

The last weekend in November we went to a couple of playgrounds that we hadn't been to yet.  We loaded up the girls, including Sophie, and headed out. While the girls and I played at the playground, Steven went for a run with Sophie.

The girls all had a lot of fun. Poor Sophie is just such a small dog that after her run she was licking her paws. We love her so much, but we're going to get another dog when we get to Offutt AFB. Steven wants a bigger dog, since he's had bigger dogs in the past, and a running buddy. The girls keep talking about how they want another cat too, so we'll have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I don't know if that will happen though. Steven's not the biggest cat person, but Milo is without a doubt his cat even if he won't admit it. I think Milo knows he's the only other boy in the house :)

After the playground we headed to the golf course. I've been wanting to take some sunset photos of the girls and the golf course gets some great light. I'm trying to get one good photo of all 3 of them to hang in the living room. I want a large print, so I've been trying to get that shot for a long time now. Plus Ruby is getting ticked that there are no recent pictures of her hanging on the walls. She sees old pictures of Sadie at 2 and throws a little fit because she thinks it's her and not Sadie. I'm determined to get one before we move so that we can hang it in our new house. Our living room furniture is so dark, so I want to get some lighter, brighter colors in there.

I'm hoping life slows down a little bit, but probably not. I'll at least try to be a better blogger and update more. Especially because my babies are turning 2 and 4 tomorrow and Saturday. Days just keep getting shorter and shorter.


-k

Who is this big girl and where did Lilly go?

Lilly lost her very first tooth this past Monday! She was so excited for it to finally fall out and would ask if Steven or I would give it a tug to help it out. Monday night she asked me again to check and tug on it so I tried again. I knew it was ready to pop out so when I tugged on it came right out, but just after it came out Lilly started whining about how it hurt. Steven and I started laughing because we knew it was already out. A few seconds later her eyes bugged out and she stuttered, "You got it out? My tooth came out!!!" All we could do was laugh. We were all so excited for her.

That night we went to the Christmas tree lighting on base where all the elementary school kids sang some Christmas songs. It was really nice. And I just have to mention this part. If you know me you know I love Boondock Saints and so does Steven. One of our favorite parts is when the detective asks Agent Smecker what the "symbology" of the evidence is. Then Agent Smecker says "I think you mean symbolism. What is the symbolism?" We always crack up at that. Well someone said a few words at the tree lighting ceremony talked about the symbology of the what the Christmas tree meant for everyone on base. Steven and I couldn't help but crack up.

Back to Lilly. After the ceremony we were walking to the car and Lilly was talking about what she was going to get with the money from the tooth fairy and she finally decided on a horse. We asked her how much she thought she was going to get and she said 1 coin. Unfortunately we had to tell her that was not enough. The tooth fairy ended up giving her $2 and she was thrilled! After a walk around the BX and explaining how all the things there cost a lot more.

She was such a good sport about and maturely decided to save it. We tried to find her a nice, decorative box to save her money in, but we had no luck. Hopefully we find something good soon because I think she is going to loose the other bottom, middle tooth sooner rather than later. Her big tooth broke through the gums yesterday and she is just as thrilled about it as she was when the baby tooth fell out.
And she has been growing like crazy. It is really nuts. She has never grown this much this fast. In August while we were at my parents' house we did some school shopping for Lilly. We always try to buy the girls clothes that are a little big so there is some room to grow. We bought size 5 clothes for her and a size 10 in shoes. Everything we bought was big for her. In the past month she has gone into a size 6x and almost an 11 in shoes. We bought some corduroy pants for her in a size 6 and when we got home and tried them on the fit perfectly, like a glove. We returned them the next day for the 6x ones. This was the first time we bought clothes for one of the girls and thought it would be big but we were completely wrong. She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She's starting to read and help out more. It is crazy to us how big she's getting, I just wish it didn't happen so fast. She impresses us more and more everyday. At her Thanksgiving Feast at school, she tried everything. She sat at her table and ate while the parents sat at bigger tables. The whole time she was giving us the 'thumbs up' after she tried her food. She isn't picky when it comes to eating, so she more than willingly tries new foods and usually loves them. She also did a 5 Little Turkeys song and did great. She also made a Thanksgiving decoration that we can hang every year.

And on top of that Ruby and Sadie are turning 2 and 4 in a week. Pretty soon they won't look like babies or toddlers anymore. More on those two another day. It's time to pick Lilly up from school :) Oh and Daddy, aka The Sucker because he's a sucker when it comes to the girls, picked up a hot pink Hello Kitty Christmas tree for them even though he told them last year there was absolutely no way we are buying a pink Christmas tree ;) Ha! He cracks me up! And pay no attention to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Since we'll have Christmas in the good 'ole USA next year we'll have the big beautiful Christmas tree we've always wanted :)

K