Mother's Day

Oh my gosh did I have the best Mother's Day weekend ever! The weather was unbelievable and Dr. F was actually home both days of the weekend (which will be the only weekend he's actually home the entire month of May.) What a great gift that it coincided with Mother's Day :)

Just to brag little, he actually looked up a recipe and prepared everything completely on his own for the most amazing challa french toast breakfast. He substituted the french bread for challa and it was sooo the right call.
Seriously, it was soooo good (probably because he used real butter and cream...and all of my calories for the next 3 weeks. It was worth it.. He let me sleep in and then gave me so many great gifts including a weed whacker (I am really pumped!), an encyclopedic Better Homes and Garden's book on plants, and a beautiful hanging plant (notice a theme?). Then we went to church and LM was pretty well behaved (thank you goldfish crackers!), we all took naps and went for a late afternoon family jog by the river. We capped the day off with a great dinner on our patio and entered the week feeling rested and rejuvenated

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Are Crocs allowed in the real world?

Oh hell yes they are! Especially when they look like this:

I don't care if you are a major croc hater. I needed shoes that were more supportive than flipflops and could handle playtime with a two year old. You know, I still want to look cute and be able to chase after him at picnics... and did I mention they are waaaaay comfortable? Don't be jealous :)

waxing and waning

I have made no secret of my desire to have more babies. Dr. F and I feel so strongly that our family is not yet complete and are excited to have several more children. My little baby isn't a baby so much anymore as he continues to amaze us with his humor and intelligence...and oh that adorable little face

Sometimes I want to be pregnant soooo badly I can almost feel it in my teeth. Sometimes I'm more content to just think about having another baby sooner or later. But today? OH MY GOSH I AM HAVING MAJOR BABY BELLY ENVY (yes, this is me screaming) of every friend or stranger or celebrity who is busy growing another person. I just can't contain it. I mean. WOW.

I know that a large part of this is because I'm still smack in the middle of thyroid-hell. Ok, that is a tad melodramatic, but it feels like being stuck in this giant limbo while we're waiting for a second opinion before I let them cut my neck open and remove all or part of my thyroid and put me on replacement thyroid meds for.the.rest.of.my.life. So of course, we dont want to start trying until everything is settled down and my levels are within a normal range.

The other part of this is that I realized (DUH!) that it is May, and we are still hoping, (but being realistic that it might not happen) to stick to our plan of getting pregnant at the end of summer/early fall. There it is, I just put our timeline out there, but I can't keep it in anymore. Whew! Well, who knows if this will actually happen, but that could mean getting pregnant in 3 months. Y'all. 3 MONTHS!!

I've been struggling lately what I should pray for because I kinda feel like, if God has a plan, shouldn't I just pray for the courage and grace to be patient and let it unfold? But then I think, we'll, it couldn't hurt to ask directly for what I want too, right? So maybe, I'll just pray that my plan and God's plan are the same thing.

For the first time since our honeymoon....

Last weekend Dr. F and I managed to get away for a night with no obligations of places to be and people to see! Sure, we've done several nights away from LM, but those were for weddings and other events. But not this time! OH NO, we were totally without any time constraints except a 4pm wine tasting and an 11am check out time the next morning. To say it was GLORIOUS is the understatement of the year.

My mom and dad came up for some quality one on one time with the Little Man and we headed off the Poconos*. This is were we stayed:

It was pouring rain and we had a cozy room and a delicious dinner. We even had the pool all to ourselves. Dr. F declared that we are definitely doing this again, and maybe for 2 nights if we can get grandparent babysitters :) I am soooo down with that :)

Original wood paneling

Perfectly cozy for a rainy, mountain night

Well rested and ready for breakfast

The dining room with 2 large fireplaces.

*I cant drive the Pocanos without thinking of this movie:

Shout out

This year my parents' rented a house in the Outer Banks for a week and invited us along. I am soooo pumped! I also realized we are going in 8 weeks.... and I need a bathing suit! SO I ordered this little number from Lands End* 

 I love that it has removable straps and side drawstrings so I can make it more or less tunic-y. I also love that it will match the black bottoms I bought on clearance at the end of last season. But most of all, I love that it went on sale (almost $20 off!) two days AFTER I bought it. So, what is a cheapskate budget conscious girl to do? Try the Live Chat feature on their site and ask if its possible to have a price adjustment. Guess what?! It totally is!! So, today's lesson: it never hurts to ask :)

Serious Face

The other day Little Man was in time out for throwing his food on the floor. As I was sternly explaining to him why he was in time out he interupted me to ask, "Mommy, is that your serious face?" (I had to run to the other room to keep him from seeing me crack up)Well, a bit later I was able to capture his serious face. Enjoy!

Thank you all so much for your support!! It means a lot and I'm definitely feeling more positive and relaxed about the whole thing. Now I'm just looking forward to getting the all clear to start trying to get pregnant, because that is so much more fun to think about :)

Relief

I've been ignoring this blog lately (although I have been enjoying everyone else's blogs) because I've recently had a health scare and just haven't been able to think about much else, and didn't want to write about it here until I had a better idea of what is going on. Don't worry, I'm ok!

Since Feb. I've not been feeling quite right, and after several trips to the doctor and a misdiagnoses of a migraine, it was finally identified that I'm having thyroid issues. The ultrasound showed sizable thyroid nodules that looked suspicious and last Friday I went to see an endocrinologist who specializes in thyroid issues. Turns out that i don't have the scary form of thyroid cancer (which of course is what I convinced myself that I had...thank you Google). However, there are still several things on the table that do include an extremely curable, easily treatable thyroid cancer, although it could actually be as simple as a passing episode of basic hypothyroidism.Next up is more blood work to make sure there inst a pituitary issue going on and an uptake scan, which means I'm going to be radioactive for a few days! The long and short of it is that even if it is worst case scenario of thyroid cancer (and this is pretty unlikely), I'm going to be totally fine. And, over the last few weeks I've learned a few important lessons:

1. DO NOT Google/webMD/Mayo Clinic self diagnose. I determined that I was dying of everything from cancer to multiple sclerosis. Turns out I should just let the doctors do their thing...they went to med school, not me. (I would have saved myself ALOT of worry)

2. TRUST MY INSTINCTS: I knew I felt off for some time, but just kept trying to convince myself that I was imagining my symptoms. I even figured out the migraine misdiagnoses and went back to the doctor because I just knew something was wrong.

3. ASIDE FROM DYING, I'm most terrified of not having any more children.

4. I'VE REACHED A CERTAIN AGE: The endocrinologist asked if we were planning a pregnancy soon and I said yeah, but not for another 6 months or so. The doctor said, "OH, that is no big deal. I was worried about in the next month." Then it hit me.... it is TOTALLY ok for us to be planning a pregnancy. Yes, I already have a kid and wonderful hubby etc....but we are actually old enough to be having kids. Who knew?!

Anyway, we now have a plan for figuring out how to address this pesky thyroid and I feel MUCH better. Not having a plan felt like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.And I can get back to posting pics of the Little Man, our finished bathroom!, and weekend getaways.

Happy Monday!