Catching Up

Well, I'm back everyone. Sorry for the long delay. My life has been chaos pretty much since the miscarriage. So I have a few months to review with you to catch you up to what's going on in my life now. I've missed you all by the way and missed blogging. I'd have some days where something would happen and I'd think "Oh, that'd make a great blog post." But I just never had time to sit down and post.

Let's start with the big news first. For those of you who don't know me personally, I am pregnant again! Yep, I was totally not expecting for it to happen that quick. Two weeks after my miscarriage, I got pregnant. Whew, the Dr must have done some serious cleaning when she did my surgery! I will be 17 weeks along tomorrow. I am thrilled! We, of course, told our families first but here's how we decided to tell everyone out there in Facebook Land:

Boy, was it an adventure trying to get Elijah to cooperate for this series of pictures. But I'm so happy with how it turned out. Everyone else loved it too! The baby is due May 22nd. Elijah turns 4 April 24th and our sweet angel baby would have been due April 1st. By the way, we decided we still wanted to name our angel baby and since we didn't know if it was a boy or girl yet, we picked a neutral name. His/her name is Ezra. We won't find out what our other little bundle of joy is going to be until January 2nd. So stay posted for the exciting news! Here's a pictures of the baby at my 11 week ultraosund:

Ok, now...back to August. Just a couple of days after my miscarriage, Eric and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. Five years already?!?!?! I was still feeling down about losing the baby and still recovering from surgery too but I really didn't want to cancel our plans we already had planned. After all, 5 years is a milestone (sort of, right???). We had already booked a room at the Hilton in Greenville (about a 20 minute drive from home). So, we dropped Elijah off for his overnight stay with Nanny and Papa and headed to Greenville. They have a pretty nice restaurant on site and so we got dressed up and ventured downstairs. I was glad because I didn't have to do a lot of moving around. The food was good and we had a good time too. Here's a picture of me and my handsome hubby at dinner:

September, my friend Stephanie came down from Illinois with her little boy, Felix. I hadn't seen her in a couple years as it is quite a drive between us. But she stayed for a week and our little boys had fun getting to know each other and play, play, play, play. Here they are eating lunch together (Steph, hope you don't mind a took your picture and am posting Felix on my blog lol):

My sister got married September 8th and I was honored to be her Matron of Honor. She was such a beautiful bride and she's got herself and awesome hubby too! And the wedding was so pretty. It was a little country wedding. Her wedding was at the same place Eric and I had our reception. Isn't she beautiful?

October, I turned the big 2-7! Yikes. Thirty is creeping up on me fast! Eric and I also went on a cruise in October as our gift to each other for our 5 year anniversary. I will make a separate post about this one later.
For Halloween Elijah wanted to be Woody from Toy Story again. He loaded up on enough candy to last him until next year. Here's a picture of him in his costume (which also doubles as pajamas...money well-spent). I couldn't get him to hold still long enough to get a decent picture on my phone, but you get the idea.

November, Eric turned 28. Yep, 30 is sneaking up on him too! lol. And then came one of my favorite parts of the whole year....Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas! We had 3 Thanksgivings with different parts of our families (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), which was just fine with me because that's 3 fewer meals I had to cook that week. We set up our Christmas tree early this year because Elijah kept begging us to; it went up the week before Thanksgiving. Also this year, Santa sent us an elf to the house via Elf On The Shelf. We have named her Snowflake and boy has she been busy! I will catch you up on some of her shenanigans during the individual posts I'm going to be making now since I have reached December.

I think this is enough to keep you busy reading for one night. I need to go make some dinner now. I am starving! Good night, friends!

Hospitals and Heartbreak

I know I promised an update for everyone 2 days ago. I spent over an hour typing out my whole post and then it got deleted. Ughhhh....so here we go again. By the time I finish it, It'll probably be Saturday  (It's now Sunday) before you get to read this. Oh, and just like the previous post, I'm giving you a disclaimer that this post is detailed and not for the squeemish. If you can handle it, then continue reading.

Tuesday morning, the doctor's office called me with my quant count. It went up to 623. Not much, but it went up. I wasn't feeling very well at all and decided to go over to my mom's house (somehow moms always know how to make you feel better). I got to her house around 11 AM and my cramping was getting worse and my spotting was more like bleeding than spotting. I took some Tylenol for the pain (because that's pretty much the only thing you can take when you're pregnant); It didn't help in the slightest. So I laid down on the couch and my mom brought me the heating pad. I stayed on the couch for the next couple hours until finally I couldn't stand the pain any longer. It was getting really bad. I told my mom I was going to have to go the hospital. I got in the car and started driving. I wanted to go to St. Francis Women's Hospital but it was a 30 minute drive and Hillcrest Hospital was only a 5 minute drive. Since I almost passed out 3 times from the pain, I decided on Hillcrest. I parked and walked in to the ER. I checked in with the receptionist and he was so nice. He was genuinely concerned for me and he didn't want me to pass out so he put me in a wheelchair and parked me in front of his desk until the triage nurse could come get me. At this point I was in tears and out of breath because I'm pretty sure I was having contractions. Two people were ahead of me and finally the triage nurse called me back. I told her what was going on and she was extremely rude to me. She said "Why did you come here? We don't have an OB here." I was furious at this point so I snapped back and told her I was in excruciating pain and I couldn't drive myself any further without passing out and if they had doctors at this hospital, I'm pretty sure they knew a little bit about OBGYN. She shut up after that and got me back to a room. I sat in the room by myself waiting on my nurse to make her rounds. It seemed like forever and I just laid there looking up and the ceiling, cried and then I prayed for Jesus to just come hold me and comfort me. It was amazing at how quickly I felt reassured and at peace. Finally my nurse came in and got my IV started and then she had to give me a catheter. Let me tell you, I'm pretty sure the whole ER heard me at this point. I was already having contractions and then putting a catheter in only made it 10x worse. But they had to do it because I needed to have an ultrasound done and they needed my bladder full. The two ultrasound techs came and got me and pushed me down to the ultrasound room, I had to get off the bed and walk into the room and lay on another bed. Then they proceeded to squeeze liquids through the catheter and into my bladder. And yes, I was still having contractions at this point and every time she would squeeze I would pull myself into a sitting position, with a death grip on the bed railings and scream out loud in pain. I was having a hard time holding still, which made it harder for them to try to find what they needed to find on the ultrasound. I apologized to them for being so difficult but told them how much pain I was in. They paged my nurse and told her they could tell I was in severe pain and they needed her to come bring me some medicine. She came in and put morphine and phenergen into my IV and within a matter of seconds, I was feeling much better and was able to cooperate with them so they could finish the ultrasound. I told them how the day before the tech at my OB was able to find the gestational sac. They looked and looked but they couldn't find it. They walked me back into the hallway and put me back on the bed that came from my room. As I was climbing back onto the bed, I noticed a golf ball size blood clot laying there on the bed. They quickly cleaned it up and helped me back onto the bed and wheeled me back to my room. My sister was waiting in my room when I got back. The ER doctor came in a little while later and talked with me. He said he called my OB office and spoke with one of the doctors there. They wanted me to call first thing the next morning so they could see me. The ER doctor wrote me a prescription for pain and one for nausea to hold me over the rest of the night and then discharged me. Amber drove me back to my mom's since I couldn't drive.

I spent the night at my mom's house because Eric had to be at work early the next morning and I needed someone to keep an eye on me. I called my OB around 9:00 On Wednesday and they asked me to come in as soon as I could get there. We got ready and my mom drove me up there around 10:00. They got me back for another ultrasound and the tech confirmed that she too couldn't find the sac that was showing up on the ultrasound on Monday. Then she sent me in to one of the examination rooms where I waited to be seen by Dr. Kofoed (she was the doctor who delivered Elijah when he was born). She reviewed the ultrasounds from the last 3 days and then did an examination and pushed around on my stomach a little bit. She was torn between my diagnosis. Either it was ectopic or a miscarriage, but either way, my pregnancy wasn't viable. The fact that my HCG kept going up, made her suspect ectopic, but when she pushed on my stomach, I wasn't jumping up off the table and she said women with ectopic pregnancies usually cannot stand to have their stomachs pressed on. So then she told me there were 3 solutions: 1) Wait it out and let my body cleanse itself naturally...but she told me this really wasn't an option for me since we didn't know if it was ectopic or not and I could stand the risk of something rupturing if I let it go. 2) Get a shot of this medicine that would basically cleanse my body out over a period of 4 days or so. 3) Have surgery- A laparoscopy D&C. She told me she suggested the shot because with surgery I stood a chance of losing one of my fallopian tubes. She told me to think it over for a few minutes and she would be back to get my answer. I honestly did not like the option of getting the shot. It just felt wrong to me. It somehow seemed like an abortion and the thought of it made me feel sick. I called Eric and told him what was going on and told him how I felt about the medicine and told him with the surgery I stood a chance of losing a tube but he agreed with me as well that the surgery seemed like the better option for us. Plus, right after Dr Kofoed gave me my options I heard this voice loud and clear telling me "Do the surgery. Do the surgery." So when Dr. Kofoed came back in and asked what I decided, I told her I wanted to do the surgery. She seemed shocked and said "Really?" and when I nodded she was like "Ok, I'll go call the OR and I'll be right back." She came back a few minutes later and said I would be having surgery at 4PM and to go ahead over to the hospital (which was right next door). So me, my mom and Elijah headed over to the hospital. I called Eric and he was going to leave work early to come up there. I got checked in and pretty soon they called me back to a room. I had some of the nicest nurses. They talked to me and seemed genuinely concerned for me. They got my IV started, did some bloodwork and other things. And then I just sat there and watched TV until they took me back for surgery, which ended up being closer to 5PM. The anesthesiologist pushed me back to the OR and he was asking me questions and joking around. I could feel myself slowing down and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. I was in severe pain but couldn't tell them because I lost my voice from having the tube stuck down my throat during surgery. I just whimpered and that seemed to get my point across. It took 3 doses of medicine before the pain finally went away. Dr. Kofoed came in shortly after to tell me how the surgery went; I vaguely remember bits and pieces of it but my family caught me up on what happened. When she went in to do the D&C she got a scraping of the tissue in my uterus and had the pathologist test it. He came back and said it wasn't pregnancy tissue, which meant one of two things; either I had miscarried the day before when I was in the ER or the pregnancy was ectopic and was somewhere else in my body. She called in one of my other favorite doctors from the practice, Dr. Alt for a second opinion to see if they could noticeably see the pregnancy somewhere else in my body; they couldn't. Dr. Kofoed was afraid to open up my tube to find the pregnancy when she wasn't absolutely sure it was in there because I could lose my tube. So she decided to just sew me up and give me the shot that cleaned everything out. Before she closed me up, she found a mass of scar tissue from the laparoscopy I had done last year to remove endometriosis. The scar tissue was pulling up on my uterus and probably causing me a lot of pain and possibly fertility issues. This surgery was a huge blessing in disguise as it helped Dr. Kofoed to remove something could have potentially caused me a lot of pain and problems down the road. I don't doubt I heard that voice telling me to do the surgery for a reason. I could hear Dr. Kofoed and the nurses talking about moving me to a room because they wanted to monitor me for a few hours once they give me the shot. All of a sudden one of the nurses came back with the results from the blood work they did when they put my IV in before the surgery; my HCG levels had gone from 630 something the day before down to 160 something. This meant that I did, in fact, have a miscarriage the day before when I went to the ER. So now they didn't have to give me the shot. I stayed in recovery for a little while longer and then they got me ready and discharged me. I went back to my mom's and fell asleep on the couch almost immediately. I've been resting a lot as the medicine keeps me pretty drowsy. I'm on light duty until I go back in 2 weeks so I've been trying to take it easy. I overdid it yesterday and one of my incisions opened back up and started draining. It smelled pretty bad so I had to call the on-call nurse who called me in an antibiotic in case it's infected and she told me to call back on Monday and see what the doctor says about it. As always, keep me in your prayers as this week has been incredibly hard on me emotionally as well as physically. I randomly break out in tears and it seems that all I see everywhere I look is something to do with babies. It breaks my heart every single time.

The Waiting Game

*Just a warning: If you are squeemish or can't stand reading about medical "issues", you should probably stop reading now.

I was supposed to go in Wednesday for my ultrasound/doctor appointment but over the weekend I've had some bleeding/cramping as you probably read about in the last post. It continued to get worse over the weekend and kept me awake most of last night. So I woke up this morning and called the doctor's office and they asked me to come in at 1:30 this afternoon for my ultrasound/appointment instead. Eric couldn't leave work so I asked my mom to come with me. I really didn't want to be alone. We got there and they got me back pretty much right away. The ultrasound tech said "hopefully we can have some good news for you today." It perked me up a little, but I still watched the screen anxiously as she scanned. I've had enough ultrasounds and studied enough female anatomy throughout my last pregnancy to know pretty much what I was looking at on the screen even if the tech was telling me what was going on. I pretty much already knew what she was going to tell me before she did but hearing her say it, didn't make it any easier. She couldn't find the baby. And as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm having trouble coming up with the next thing to say because all that keeps flashing in my head is "She couldn't find the baby. She couldn't find the baby."

Ok. Focus. Breathe. Easier said than done.

I sat there with tears rolling down my face, trying to remain calm but really all I wanted to do is scream as loud as I possibly could. I have waited 13 months for the baby to come along. 13 months! Not that if I had only been trying for 2 months it would've made it any easier.

Back to the ultrasound. She's still looking around, and just as I think it's pretty much over, she spots a little something. It's a sac. The gestational sac. When a woman gets pregnant, her body automatically forms the gestational sac, which becomes the baby's home for the next 9 months. One thing; she couldn't see a baby in it. She then asked me about my blood levels that they had been taking over the past two weeks, I rattled them off from memory. She then asked me if they told me what the levels meant. I told her yes. She said she was concerned about an ectopic pregnancy (where the baby has implanted somewhere other than the uterus). She said that the gestational sac always forms when a pregnancy happens but sometimes the baby isn't even in there, it's somewhere else. She told me two possibilities 1) Either it's just too early to see the baby yet because it's so small and it really is in the sac, we just can't see it or 2) It's ectopic and the baby is somewhere else in my body. She gave me a slight glimmer of hope in saying that she looked around and didn't really see anything anywhere else that showed the baby is somewhere other than where it should be. I walked out of the room pretty much just wailing and a couple of nurses gathered around me and just held me for a few minutes. They are so precious to me, as it my mom who pushed past her migraine and came with me for support. She's so awesome. Oh, and of course, my awesome little man Elijah. He just looked up at me as I was bawling and said "No worry, Momma. No worry." I swear, that little boy makes my heart melt. He's wise beyond his years.

So now comes the waiting game. I got my blood drawn again. They should be calling me in the morning. We'll see how my levels are. Hopefully they've gone up but not too far up indicating something's wrong. So we wait on those results, and then go from there. Did I mention I hate waiting? I'm trying everything to keep my mind off of it, but it's so hard. Especially every time I have to go to the bathroom and all I see is blood on the toilet paper. I cry everytime I go to the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I've cried all I can cry. I should probably drink some water and rehydrate. But as my friend Christine reminded me earlier today, God is in control. He's the one with a plan for this pregnancy whether I can see it now or not. It's so hard sometimes when you just want to solve the problem yourself.. But really, you can't. There's no way we as humans can handle problems like this on our own. That's why I'm glad I serve such a big God. He has a plan for me and my baby; exactly what that plan is, I don't know yet.

As always, prayers are needed and appreciated. Thanks for your concern and outpouring of love. You guys are awesome!

Worry, worry, worry.

So, it's been a crazy two weeks since I found out I was pregnant. Lots and lots of worrying, stressing and praying. I'll catch you up on what's been going on and I ask that you pray for me as well.

The Monday after I got a positive pregnancy test, I went in to have my blood drawn because I was having some spotting and cramping. My HCG(pregnancy hormone) levels came back at 41, which is really low...indicating I was really early on in my pregnancy. They're supposed to double every 48-72 hours so I went back that Wednesday to have it drawn again; it was 104. I was really excited because that's almost triple. I thought I was in the clear after that. Just to make sure everything was going in the right direction, they wanted me to come back one more time that Friday to have it done again; it was only 160. Not good. Soooo....back again Monday and this time the doctor wanted to see me afterward. I went in at 9:30, had my blood drawn and went back at 2:30 to see the doctor. My levels went up to 304. So that was pretty good. She checked me out and said everything looked ok. But she wanted to see me for an ultrasound this upcoming week. I went back Thursday because it was my prenatal workup with the nurse where they go over family history and then details about the rest of my pregnancy and then delivery, etc. They loaded me up with two bags of goodies, formula, coupons, etc. (do I even have to tell you how much I love free stuff?). And then the nurse gave me an order to go down to the lab for the standard bloodwork you have to get done when you're pregnant and she also wanted me to get my HCG checked again...so, had it checked again and it was 514. Heading in the right direction, not going up as quickly as it should but at least it's going up. I go back again this Tuesday to have it drawn yet again and then Wednesday is my ultrasound and doctor's appt. I started cramping and spotting some bright red blood today and I'm in a panic right now....seriously, I'm worried sick. The nurse on call told me to relax and keep off my feet for the rest of the weekend and then call back on Monday.

So if you would, please keep me and the baby in your prayers. I really don't want to lose this precious gift that God has blessed us with.

The Big News

Hey friends...it's been a while. I've been having some blogging withdrawals and decided it was about time for another post. Plus, I've got some exciting news to share, so I pretty much had to write a new blog post.

 How about I just let Elijah share the big news?

`That's right! Elijah is going to be a big brother...we have another baby on the way!!! YAY!! We are so excited!

Yesterday was my turn to run the video slides for both of the services at church but I wasn't feeling well at all. I ended up leaving after the first service. I came home and decided to take a test since my period hadn't started yet. Within seconds, there were the two lines I have been waiting 13 months to see! I was soooo excited. So I went ahead and took the second test that was in the box just to make sure; 2 lines on that one right away too!

When Eric got home from church, I had Elijah pull the test stick out of his pocket and give it to Eric and say "surprise!" It was really cute and I got it on video. Debating on if I should post it or not. My dad came over a little later so Eric could change the brakes on his car. My dad and Elijah were playing around and my dad kept stuffing the basketball under Elijah's shirt and then he asked Elijah if he was having a baby. It seemed like the perfect time for me to speak up so I said "He's not, but I am!" My dad's face was priceless. He was completely shocked and he said "No, you're not!?!?!" And I nodded yes and he just looked so happy. I wish I had gotten that one on video but it just kind of happened. Then last night we ran out and got Elijah the shirt (in the picture) that says Big Brother and we were off to Eric's parent's house. His dad didn't notice it but then when his mom came in the room she was playing with Elijah and she told him she liked his boots (he had rainboots on and was totally unmatching) and so I piped up and said "Do you like his shirt too?" She was excited too. Then after that we went to my mom's and stepdad's. I carried Elijah in so my mom wouldn't see his shirt before I could start recording. She went in the other room to get something and didn't even notice his shirt so we were just sitting on the couch waiting on her to come back and from the other room she starts going "Soooooo....." and I was like "Sooooo....." and then she repeated herself again and then Eric looks at me and goes "She knows." I was like "She can't know, she didn't even see Elijah's shirt." Then she said "Do you have some news for me?" and I was like "Yeah, how did you know?" And she goes, "Well, all three of you don't usually come over here together so I figured something was up." She caught us!

So by my estimations, I'm somewhere around 5 weeks 3 days along. The baby is due around March 24th, which I find ironic because Elijah's birthday is April 24th. But my calculations could be off too so I'm gonna wait until I see the doctor before I get those cute little pregnancy tickers people have on their blogs and on facebook that way mine is actually accurate.

FYI: I am seriously gonna try to keep up with this blog from now on so I have a record of my pregnancy events and life events. But be prepared for a lot of pregnancy stuff over the nexr few months because I am SUPER excited about this!!! We've been trying for 13 months so I've been waiting on this for a long time! The doctor was just about to put me on fertility medicine too. Crazy how God works isn't it?

As always, prayers are much appreciated!

Lots of love,

April

Valentine's Day

So, I don't know about you, but my Valentine's Day was awesome..Yes, I still get excited about this cheesy commercialized holiday.

We had a babysitter for the night. I got all fancied up (high heels and everything). Eric got home around 6:30. He walked in with his hands behind his back (although it really is hard to hide a bouquet of flowers behind your back). And he goes "I guess you were kind of expecting this." It still made me smile and I was so happy to get them. They were purple roses.

 Then he goes "Oh, wait. I forgot something else in the car." I was not expecting anything else so it kind of surprised me. He walked out to the car and came back with another gift (complete with Target bag wrapping and all). I opened the bag and it was a new can opener. Ok, this might not sound like much to you, but you have to understand how bad I've been needing a new can opener. I had one of those that you just set on top of the can and press the button and it opens the can, but it stopped working. So one night, I just ran down to the dollar store and got another cheap can opener. You cannot even begin to understand how much I despised this thing. It worked when it wanted to work. I mean the motor ran and everything but it would not cut into the can. It would take me 6 or 7 minutes just to get a can open. So anyway, this one is a dream come true. Stainless steel and has a bottle opener and knife sharpener on it (don't know how much either of those options will be used though).

Then he said again "Oh wait, there's something else in the car." This I DEFINITELY was not expecting. He came back with something else that he again, not-so-successfully hid behind his back. It was a Keurig coffee maker!!! I was so excited. He got some major points with me on this one :) I have used this thing every day since I got it! And I finally have energy to do stuff around the house. Before now, I've just gone without a coffee maker. For a few reasons really.

1. I'm the only one in the house who drinks coffee
2. It's way to much hassle for me to make a whole pot of coffee for just me
3. It's really wasteful since I only drink one cup anyway

Now, I can brew a cup and it only take about 15 seconds. I can change up my flavors everyday. I don't waste any coffee. You can adjust the temperature on it, so it gets it exactly the right temperature for me. And you can pick your cup size! I swear, whoever invented this thing is a genius! (I'm starting to think they should pay me for this mini advertisement I just did. Feel free to contact me if you happen to work for Keurig.)

Ok, then we had a slight misuderstanding. Eric said we were having dinner so I assumed we were going out, and he assumed I was making something. We compromised and ordered in and watched a Netflix movie. It was really nice.

The Greatest Show On Earth

Whoah! I've got some serious catching up to do. These past two to three weeks have been really busy around the Sorenson household. To spare you from having to read a blog entry a mile long (because let's face it, I know we all have things we need to be doing apart from sitting in front of a computer for hours on end) I'm going to break up the events into a few posts of the next couple of day. Plus that gives me a reason to post every day.

So, February 3rd, I took Elijah to see his first circus (thanks to my awesome sister for getting us tickets). He had a blast. We were only 8 rows up from the ring so we had excellent seats.

It was cold outside so I put my jacket on Elijah while we were waiting for the doors to open. I thought he looked so cute with it on!

This was taken the day before the circus when we went to the box office to get our tickets.

Elijah got a snowcone in an elephant bowl. It's so cute!

When the elephants came into the ring, Elijah held up his elephant bowl. He was so excited.

The show this year was called "Dragons" so they had these little cars they would drive around the ring that looked like dragons (or as Elijah calls them, dinosaurs).

The elephants entering the ring. Isn't the little baby one soooo cute? I want it!

When we went to my mom's house after the circus, Elijah decided he wanted to be the Ringmaster and out on his own circus. So he put on his top hat from the circus, got out his toy elephant and put on an awesome show with the help of his lovely assistants, Mommy and Nanny!

Another Doctor Visit

What a week...and it's only Wednesday!

Elijah woke up Monday morning with a runny nose and a cough. No big deal.

Then the cough got progressively worse. As of last night, he was sounding pretty nasty everytime he would cough. I ran the humidifier and gave him some Children's Nighttime Triaminic.

This morning, the same thing. Only when he would cough, he couldn't stop. He would have a 5 minute coughing spell then stop for about a minute (or less) and then start right back again. Sometimes he sounded like he was choking. (Did I mention he was up at 6:30 this morning?)

Then my dad called about 11 this morning and asked if we wanted to go to lunch with him. So we got dressed and hopped in the car and met my dad at the restaurant. As we were eating, Elijah just laid his head in my lap and wouldn't eat. By this point he felt like he was running a fever and his eyes were red all the way around them. My dad said, "He really doesn't look like he feels well. You need to take him to the doctor." If you know my dad, he never goes to the doctor. So when my dad said it, it confirmed that I should take Elijah. Being the same day I needed an appointment, I knew we would never get in at the family doctor, so I took him down to the Minute Clinic at CVS.

When we got there, there weren't any seats left but this sweet teenage boy stood up and said for us to take his seat (true hospitality!). We were the 3rd on the waiting list. But that same teenage boy, who was the next to be seen let all 3 people go in front of him. I couldn't believe it. The doctor and I were talking about how sweet he was and that his parent's definitely raised him right (you don't see that too often anymore). So anyway, the doctor looked at Elijah. Right away she noticed he has a double ear infection and said that his ears were neon red. She said they looked really bad. This makes his 10th ear infection he's had since he was born. She also said his throat was red and he possibly has strep throat but she wasn't going to test him because she was already going to put him on an antibiotic for his ears. And then we got more bad news. She pulled out the stethescope and listened to his chest then looks at me and goes "Did you know he has a heart murmur?" I told her that our family doctor said something briefly about a funny noise his heart was making when we followed up with her about his case of the croup a few weeks back. But she never specifically mentioned a murmur. She recommended we went to see our regular doctor ASAP. Probably Friday so his antiobiotics have a chance to kick in and they can check up on them when we're there as well.

Has anyone out there in blogland had a child with a heart murmur? This scares me. I need some advice. He already has quite a medical history in his (almost) 3 years on earth. Now just one more thing to add to it. :(

Hopefully this medicine will kick in soon and my wild and rambuctious little boy will be back on his feet.

On the right track...

I meant to post sooner. I really did. But I'm having major writer's block right now.

First of all, I guess I should update you on my progress with losing weight. I am down SEVEN POUNDS since last week!!!! WOO-HOOOO!!!!! You have no idea how encouraging it was to step on the scale and see that. So what did I do to celebrate? I hopped on the treadmill and put in 2 1/2 miles. I'm feeling pretty good about this. Now, if I can keep losing that much every week, I'll reach my goal in no time at all! My problem is when I get bored or upset about something, I eat. I just need to find something to occupy my mind so it will stay off of food.

I'm really contemplating writing a book. It's something I've really wanted to do for a few years now. I love to write (if you would've told me this back in my high school and college years, I would've laughed in your face). I'm debating right now as to the genre. I have a few ideas though. We'll see.

Right now I'm trying to build a website for my photography business (any suggestions?). I've been searching for a website builder that's cheap but has all the features I'm looking for. So far, I've found homestead.com. I think I'm going to try their 30 day trial and see how I like it. If you haven't already, go "like" my photography page on Facebook...oh, and friend me too while you're there (for those of you who I don't know already). Just make sure when you send the friend request that you put a little message that you're a blog reader so I'll be sure to accept the request.

So, along the lines of my photography business....I did a photoshoot Friday before last. I took the memory card out of my camera and went to put it in my laptop so I could get started on edits and what did I do??? I stuck it in the CD ROM drive instead. Genius. Yep, it's still in there. I need to get Eric to dismantle it (he's the computer whiz), but he hasn't been home most of the week (well, he gets in really late at night). He's been working on his car, which decided to break down on him a month or so back.

Well, that's all I got for today. Feeling a little sick still, so i'm pretty exhausted. I'm hoping Elijah will decide to lay down for a nap soon so mommy can too :)

Have a great day!
-April

Where in the world have you been???

I'm baaaaaaaaaack.........

After a 6 month hiatus, I am sure you are wondering where in the world I have been. So here's a brief explanation. It started out as a temporary break from the internet. I just needed to get out of the virtual world and back into the real world. Spend more time with my family, live a little, etc. Then, after the break, it was just laziness I guess. I have a link to my blog saved in the taskbar on my computer and I would look at it EVERY time I logged on. I knew I should at least give you a little update but I just had no motiviation I suppose. I even started a post one time, but never finished it.

So, I've decided 2012 is going to be my motivational year. I really want to accomplish so much this year. Get off the couch, stop my laziness that pretty much consumed the last half of 2011(I blame a lot of that on depression). One of my friends posted on facebook that he encouraged everyone to make a list of 50 things they hope to do, accomplish, see, make, etc in 2012. So I did just that. Yep, 50 things. Seems like a lot, but why set your goals low. Go over and beyond. So what if you don't accomplish them all, but if your list is longer, it seems like you might accomplish more than if you had a short list. I won't share all 50 of my goals for 2012, but I will share a few.

1. Keep up with my blog (seems easy enough, huh?)
2. Lose weight. This is on there every year, and last year I actually lost 25 lbs.(although I gained a few back since then). But this year I am going to try extremely hard to get it off and keep it off. I will keep you updated on my journey to being healthy and fit.
3. Fit into this pair of pants my mom got me for Christmas that is about one size to small...This one I'm hoping to accomplish by the end of January.
4. Make my photography business grow and flourish! *Insert shameless promotion here* More Than A Memory Photography
5. Get back into couponing and actually get good at it. Another thing I started last year after I quit my job. I just got so discouraged and eventually gave up.
6. Do something fun and exciting for mine and Eric's five year anniversary. It's coming up in August (where did 5 years go???). Five years is kind of a milestone, right? So anyway, I just want to save up some money and go somewhere cool that we haven't gone before. Any suggestions?
7. Get on a budget. I've been sort of stalking Dave Ramsey's total money makeover website. By stalking I mean going on there and looking at stuff but never actually doing anything about it. I really would like to get on the road to being debt free. Everytime I come up with the money to get started in his program, something comes up that I have to use the money for instead. :(
8. Be a better mom. I want to get out and do more with Elijah this year. He's getting to where he's learning so much each and every day and I don't want to waste that. I've been doing daily classroom lessons with him on abcmouse.com but I also want to do some fieldtrips and other things with him. At least once a week or every other week. I want him to be prepared when kindergarten comes along. And, well, I just want to spend more time with him. He is just growing up so quickly and I don't want to miss a precious minute with him.
9. Fix up and sell my house. We've been here for almost 5 years. It's a great house, we're just outgrowing it. We've been saying we're going to get our house ready to sell for the last year and a half, and we haven't even started. I want to change that. I want to be motivated!!!! I want a house where we can spread our wings and have room to grow.
10. Get pregnant. I think it's time for Elijah to have a little brother or sister. He's lonely, I can tell. And he really wants someone to play with. I don't want my kids too far apart, so I think it's time to get started on that. With endometriosis and PCOS, that's easier said than done though.

Ok, so there's 10 out of 50 things on my list. What does your list look like? I would love for you to share. Maybe we can encourage each other to work towards crossing off everything on our lists this year.

And now, for a brief recap of everything that's happened to me since I last posted:

August

Elijah and I went on a few more playdates with our Mom and Me group

In August, Eric and I celebrated our 4th anniversary (you'd think I would've gotten a picture of us lol). We went to dinner, a movie, and night of games at a local arcade. This is what I won with my tickets)

We took Elijah to his second baseball game. He loved it! Now, all he thinks about is baseball.

September

haha I just love these pics of us being silly. We took about 50 different ones.

Eric and I went to see one of our favorite bands, Mute Math,  for like the 5th time.

We were right by the stage

My sister Amber and I took Elijah to see Sesame Street Live

This is why his mouth was blue in the previous picture

Too cool

Eric got a 2nd degree burn on his leg from welding with pants on that had a giant rip in them. Guess he learned his lesson.

My sister, my grandma, Elijah, and I went to the apple orchard and picked half a bushel of apples

Then we went to my mom's house and made apple pies :)

We found out Elijah has a bad allergy to fire ants. This is what one bite did to his poor ankle.

Elijah really enjoys ice cream!

I think this picture is hilarious! Elijah  is wearing my sister's hat and he also has her stethescope around his waist lol

My stepbrother is the drum line director at a local high school. They were hosting a showcase of bands so we went to see him. This was Elijah's first time meeting his Uncle Trey.

October

We went to the mall and they have a train that drives around for 15 minutes. Elijah was so excited!

Me and my awesome sister, Amber. She took me to see my favorite band in the whole world Hanson for my birthday. This was my 6th time seeing them and her 5th. Oh yeah, I almost forgot...I got pulled over on the way home. It was like 2 o'clock in the morning, I was driving Amber's rental car (she was in a 6 car pile-up and totaled hers) and I wasn't used to it. I tried to put on the turn signal to merge into the next lane, instead I accidentally turned the headlights off. And it just so happened, I passed a cop right as this all happened. I had no idea he was even there until I saw blue lights flashing in my mirror. I think he must of thought I turned them off on purpose to avoid him. When we explained what happened and showed him the paper from the rental car company, he said he understood and just gave me a warning. Phew!

We were making silly faces at each other

Elijah was a bumble bee for Halloween this year. My sister and I took him trick-or-treating at an event our town has for the public. He got 1 1/2 buckets full of candy. INSANE!

November

No pics for this month, but...

 

 

• My husband turned 27 (along with his twin brother. Their mom also had a birthday the day after theirs).
• We had a pretty good Thanksgiving with family. Except for my grandpa took a tumble and cracked a rib. I swear, something eventful always has to happen at family get-togethers. He's doing just fine though now. In fact, he was fine after he fell. He didn't even feel it. He thought nothing was wrong. It was until we insisted he go get checked out at the hospital that he finally did. He's a tough man. I only hope I'm as strong and stubborn at his age ;-)

December

Our church had a Christmas party for the kids in a local neighborhood that is "the bad part of town". We had bounce houses for the kids, a hot dog lunch for them and their families, and then Santa even came to visit the kids and bring stockings full of gifts for each kid. It touched my heart to be part of such an amazing outreach and to just get to spend time and get to know these awesome people.

Our annual family Christmas photo. Elijah yelled "CHEEEEESE!" right as we snapped this pic.

Our family doing a "silly picture" on Christmas day. Starting in the back left: Jonathan (my sister's boyfriend), Cali (my mom's dog),  My sister Amber, Remi (My sister's dog, although she has a new home now), My stepdad Don My mom Laura, Tippy (our dog...you can only see his body though in the pic). Front row: My hubby Eric, Elijah (he was sick in this picture), Charlie (our dog), Yours truly, and Cinder (our dog).

Elijah on Christmas morning

My dad and Elijah...and Santa. Every year we get the opportunity to photograph the annual Christmas party at the assisted living home my dad works at. Santa always comes to visit and this year he snuck in the picture because Elijah was to afraid to sit on his lap.

We went to Charleston for 3 days right after Christmas. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were in town from Texas so they went, and Eric's parents went. This was taken at the aquarium. Elijah and his Uncle Matt(my husband's twin brother) were feeding the sting rays some shrimp.

Other eventful happenings in December:

•  Elijah wasn't feeling well when he woke up Christmas morning. I asked him if he was ready to open presents and he said "no" then went and crawled back in bed and slept for another hour (SOOOOOO not like him). Then he ran a fever pretty much all day which topped out at 103 degrees. Later that evening he was so miserable, I alternated between giving him ibuprofen and tylenol every 4 hours but the fever still wouldn't break, so I finally gave him both and called the doctor. He said to go to the ER. So, I wrapped Elijah in a blanket and headed to the hospital at 1:30 AM. We were there until 4. He had the croup and possible flu. I went to the pharmacy and got his prescription filled. Got in bed around 5. Had to be up at 7 to leave for Charleston. I was exhausted to say the least.
• Elijah was feeling much better (besides a bad cough) the next day. We toured Charleston, went to the aquarium, went to the U.S.S. Yorktown and toured the Calhoun Mansion, which was in the movie The Notebook (it was the inside of Allie's parent's summer home).

Well, I guess that about sums up the time I've been apart from you. This post has taken me two days to write. I hope I don't overwhelm all of you! Thansk for reading and leave me some feedback so I know I still have some followers out there in blogland :)