A year end review.....

This was a year of learning, and discovering, and sometimes a little bit of fear.

We had our new golden retriever come down with an odd tumor on her hiney..gave us a bit of a cancer scare, and she had an operation to remove it, only to bounce back and be a sweet baby girl. We love our Olivia, the counter surfer she is.

Mom is continuously doing better, and better. Her numbers are climbing higher all of the time, and we are able to say "remission" a bit more freely than we had before. I clearly don't want to miss my kids aging, but sometimes I wish that 5 years would just fly by fast so that we can get to that point where she is 5 years remission, and the scares of her cancer coming back are less and less. We will take the happy news that she gets each and every time she goes to the doctor as a blessing.

Kate was given great news at her yearly cardiologist appointment that her heart is working great, and that even though she is short one leaflet on her aortic valve, there is little leakage at this point, and they will continue to monitor her yearly. She is growing in waves, and waves, and shows no signs of being "behind" on the growth charts, and she is not showing any signs of having Turner's Syndrome. This was thought to either lay dormant in her, or she may be a gene carrier. We aren't going to karyotype her just yet. I want to enjoy her, and not have added stress to my punks.

I got a new JOB! I work in the sleep center of our new hospital, and it is a great job, and I work with a great group of people. Some days are hectic, some days I find to be wishing to do something else, but I think that is normal? I go into work happy each day, I leave happy each day, and I love my paychecks. They are considerably larger than they used to be, and I work less. I can't beat it.

Mike's sister gave birth to a beautiful new baby girl, who incidentally, will be turning one year old in about a week. Wow! Now that was a fast year!

After dealing with this pesky lump for 18 months, I finally got it diagnosed as a tubular adenoma. Mostly found in the colon, these can also turn up in the breast, and strangely, in the pituitary gland. I am totally benign, and my reports all finally say benign. I have mailed personal thank you cards and letters to all of the doctors that had their hands on this, as I just don't think they get to get thanked on a serious level every single day. I felt it was very important to tell them how relieved as a patient I was.

Looking forward to many fond memories of the coming year, and looking forward to laughs, love, bonding with my kids, watching my daughter prepare for possible kindergarten..(we will see!) and looking forward to another amazing year with the love of my life. xo