Seasons

I have nothing nice to say about winter anymore. I'm over it.  Bring on spring.  Now that that's out of the way, we'll move on to more interesting things, because clearly spring isn't listening to us.

We braved the blizzard warning and grilled the other night!

This will be a picture laden post. Which will make you happy Grandma and Grandpa!  We have been keeping busy despite the treacherous weather. For my own records I want to document the last few months with Tenley specifically.  In November of 2014, Tenley started having very random high fevers. These would come and go. A fever would stick around for a few hours and then be gone, or sometimes it would last all day and really wipe her out. That was the only symptom. Until we noticed how tired she was getting. All of this was around the same time she started school and stopped taking a nap, so I really just thought it may have something to do with that. I took her to the doctor in late November, because I thought that she had a UTI and that could have been the reason for the fevers. Everything came back clear though. We made it through the holidays, but fevers would still pop up. I started keeping track of them and it was rare for her to go a week or two without one. I couldn't ignore my gut any more and knew in January that I needed to get her in to the doctor again. At the end of January 2015 we took her in and I asked them to run a blood test. I hated to put her through that, but due to the random fevers, fatigue, and leg pain that had popped up I wanted to be thorough. She was a trooper and was very brave. I held her tight as they did the blood draw and prayed that everything would be okay. The doctor came back in to talk to me about all of the things they were testing for. The biggest concern was cancer. I had really prepared myself for that word. Mike and I had talked about it, we had thought it, but hearing it out loud from your child's doctor is a completely different feeling. Thankfully, the blood test came back normal. So they sent us to Memorial Children's Hospital to a Pediatric Infectious Disease specialist. Dr. Ansari. He has been very informative. At the appointment with him we heard a few more scary words. Cancer and tumors. We weren't out of the woods. But after he did a couple x-rays and an examination everything was still coming back normal. At this point I was beginning to feel crazy! But I guess better a crazy mama and we know for sure that Tenley is healthy!

  Tenley was very brave during her appointment.  She liked her new bracelet that they gave her when she had to get x-rays. Her next appointment is this coming Tuesday. She will have an ultrasound done of her stomach and also another appointment with the specialist. She has been on an antibiotic now for a couple weeks and I have seen an improvement in her. We're praying that this was just some crazy virus!

Paisley has stayed a constant joy through all of this. I can't imagine our family without that sweet little girl. She is so compassionate and is always asking "mama ok?" when I cough, sneeze or anything else. She's so sweet.  Paisley is starting to become a daddy's girl! She asks for him every morning and when I have to say that he's at work she often says "ohh no. Daddy hold me!" This of course makes Mike so happy!

I have started a new, and very much needed, journey to losing weight. I don't often talk about this publicly, but I think this would be good motivation and accountability. I am working out every morning, I haven't had pop in over two weeks (whoa!), and I am eating mostly lean protein and fruits and veggies. I am currently down 8 pounds and about 9 inches total.

I know that the struggles will come. I know that I'll want to give up, there will be set backs, but I also know the struggles will be SO worth it when I get to my goal.  Once I get a good handle on my cravings I'll be able to have one cheat meal per week. I'm looking forward to my first one already :) I think they will be much more satisfying when they are only happening once a week. For now though I'm sticking to this strict plan and inventing new ways to eat grilled chicken!