This and That

I have lost track of what has been said and what hasn’t.  The last few weeks have been so filled with ups and downs, good and bad, big, exciting moments and little wonderful ones.

Did I ever update you on our house?  We went up to Gillette at the end of April, did some work on the house and managed to get renters in.  We ended up listing with a real estate agent, but we aren’t holding our breath waiting to get an offer since we raised the price quite a bit to cover the real estate agent’s fee.  At least we have renters covering our mortgage…that is the most important thing for right now: bills getting paid and one less thing to stress about.

On the c-word front (I don’t even want to write it), I got some news at the end of last week.  They cannot schedule the second test my doctor recommended within three months of an initial biopsy because having fine needle biopsies back-to-back reduces the accuracy of results.  With this news, I was given the choice to either wait three months or to go ahead and schedule a surgery.  Before deciding either way, Chris and I asked that they send my initial biopsy for a second opinion.  It was sent to Beth Israel; on Tuesday of this week, they told me that the second opinion was the same: inconclusive.  After weighing our options and doing a lot of research, we came to the conclusion that it would probably better to remove the nodule even if benign; thus, Chris and I decided rather than waiting to do a second biopsy in August, we would go ahead and schedule the surgery.  And so I have surgery scheduled a month from now.  I’m trying not to focus on how nervous I am about surgery and to look at it as a means of finding a definitive answer sooner rather than later.

There are plenty of things keeping me busy from now until then, so mostly I’m just trying to focus on other things, like Nora’s preschool graduation

(which included all the kiddos singing to us in graduation “robes” they decorated themselves)

and also her dance recital.

I actually sat and watched this one instead of volunteering in the back, and boy was I proud of my big little girl.

She did so very well and looked ridiculously cute in her costume (which is now making frequent reappearances as her “Elsa dress”).  I cannot believe that we almost have a kindergartner!

And someone else is doing her darnedest to continue leap frogging over milestones.  

Zara delights us every day with her curiosity and willingness to learn all sorts of things.  Nora especially is enjoying teaching her new words — just this week she taught her to say both “ball” and “apple.”  She’s fiercely independent and wants to do everything big sister does — Zara’s not even 18 months and we’ve already transitioned her from crib to toddler bed (much earlier than we did with Nora), because of her super climbing abilities.

I started to get afraid she would try to climb out of her crib and fall, so last week we took the side off her bed and she (and I!)  has (have) been enjoying her new ability to come to my room on her own in the mornings.  She’s still the great sleeper that she was on day one, and although I was worried the transition might mess with her awesome sleep schedule, so far it has not.

We did some dry ice experiments this week and, as neat as the dry ice was, I was more captivated by watching my two little girls.  One can hardly call Zara baby with how much she is growing and changing every day; she’s just as engaged with our world as is Nora, if only at a slightly less verbal level.

It’s pure joy to watch the two of them discover and marvel at new things.

Besides being with the girls, the last couple weeks have found Chris and me very busy with our own project.

We were super sad to have to leave the swing set my step-dad built for the girls in Gillette, and found ourselves constantly discussing how much we wished that we had one down here for them to play on.  After some discussion, Chris found a used one on Craig’s List for $100 and we decided to buy it.  With the help of a friend, we took it apart and moved it to our rental house.  The girls were so excited — they found ways to play in it before it was even put back together!

Chris sanded it all down, we worked together to reassemble it without directions (that might be the true test of a marriage), and then Chris sprayed the whole thing with a solid stain.

It took us a couple of days to get it back together (longer than it might have if we didn’t have the two cutest helpers in the world).

Then, we had to wait for some dry days before we could stain it, but we managed to get it built less than two weeks from when it showed up in our backyard and I am pretty happy about that.