Happy birthday Carrie!

I know this one probably won't go down as one of the greatest birthdays for Carrie, but hopefully next year's will be one fitting the incredible person she is. She deserves the world and we (Park, Zoe, Luka and myself) plan to give it to her someday soon.

Until then, happy birthday!

Update

Yesterday afternoon we went to see the ENT who told us that I'm going to need an operation to not only remove the cyst, but the entire half of the thyroid it is attached to. This wasn't exactly the news we were expecting, in fact, we thought there was at least a possibility that they would just drain the thing in the office. Probably the most alarming part of the appointment was finding out that I'm less in the clear of cancer than I originally had thought due to the fact that I'm a male and the overall size of the cyst. The doctor gave it a one in five chance of being malignant (or as I would prefer to think of it: four in five chance it's benign).

Right now my operation is set for January 9 but it could move up. It's basically an out-patient procedure, but I may need to stay overnight for observation. If the biopsy comes back positive (I should have results in a couple of days) I would have to go back in and have the rest of my thyroid removed. If not, which I have every extremity crossed for, I should be fine and most likely wouldn't need any further treatment.

Here's hoping that the odds are in my favor.

Once again, I would just like to thank everyone for their love and support.

Talk about getting a lump in your throat.

2011 has been a pretty crappy year for us, and to cap it off, this past week has been one of the worst ones I can remember. I'm not going to go into all of the details but I will tell you that the most recent episode involved a bit of a health scare for me.

I've been dealing with a string of issues since this summer and last week saw me visiting the doctor for an EKG, a chest X-ray and a cardiac stress test due to some chest pains I had been experiencing. Everything turned out normal and it seemed to all just be a false alarm until I got a call from the doctor's office saying they saw something abnormal on my X-ray. Apparently while they were looking at my chest cavity, they noticed that my trachea was curved and were concerned. To take a closer look, they recommended I get a sonogram immediately.

This is where I began to start freaking out, thanks in large part to Google search.

So, after a very stress-filled weekend, Carrie accompanied me to my sonogram on Monday morning during which they found a large mass on my thyroid.

Commence further freaking out.

Tuesday, I spoke to the doctor's office and they said I now needed to get a CT scan, so yesterday Carrie once again accompanied me to the office. I'd never gotten a CT scan before and I've got to tell you, it's pretty scary, from the iodine drip that makes you feel like you pissed your pants (which I actually might have) to the possibility of them actually finding something, I was pretty worse for wear. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long to get the results, my doctor scheduled an appointment for later in the afternoon to go over everything.

Yes, even more freaking out.

My appointment finally rolled around and after what seemed like an eternity, my doctor finally got to the point of discussing my results. It seems that I have developed a rather large cyst on my thyroid (about baseball size, although my doctor described it as "half a basketball" which sounds more impressive, so maybe I should go with that). While that sounds pretty bad, the important word here is "cyst" as in fluid-filled which means it's very unlikely that it's cancerous which was my primary concern. My doctor was pretty amazed by it and by the fact that it doesn't seem to be effecting my breathing or eating. In fact, he was so impressed by it, he brought in the PA to look at it too (I thought about charging a nickel a touch and hiring a carnival barker).

All in all, it was great news, which should tell you a little something about just how crappy things have been for us.

I go in next week to see an ENT to determine what the course of action will be to get the thing removed. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my Christmas break, but maybe I will be able to get it all taken care of this year so that we can start 2012 on a good note. For now, we're just going to focus on giving Park the best Christmas possible.

I'd like to thank everyone who has known about everything we've been going through and has offered their love and support. It has meant the world to us. More than anything I would like to thank Carrie for being the amazing person she is and Park for being the motivation to get through it all.

Now for the photographic evidence.

Looking up.

Traditions

With Park now two, Carrie and I decided that it was time to start some family holiday traditions. There were lots of ideas thrown around, but we really didn't know what we wanted to do, then we stumbled upon this catalog that made its way into our house after a trip Park took with Grandpa Sam and Grandma Barbie to the local train shop. Actually, "stumbled upon" really isn't the right choice of words, we'd been forced to look at it every single day since Park brought it home and suddenly one day it just hit us over the head.

Like a lot of boys his age, Park loves trains. He loves to look at them, he loves to talk about them and most importantly he loves to play with them, so much so, that we can't drive by the local Barnes & Noble without him freaking out because he knows they have a Thomas train set for kids to play with inside. So it was decided, we were getting a holiday train set and each year we would add a new piece to the display. The set we ultimately decided on was the "Santa's Flyer." It comes complete with a full track and five cars including a peppermint tank car and a music box car. The biggest selling point? Scented smoke. Your choice of apple pie, Christmas tree or candy cane. We went with candy cane.

The one stipulation was that Park was not allowed to play or operate it by himself. That lasted approximately five minutes

Sew and Tell: Apron

I haven't been very good at a) sewing enough or b) showing what I sew, but here's the latest project I accomplished for Maisy's second birthday last month. What does every little future chef need in their wardrobe? That's right. An apron. Miss. Maisy was going to get a kitchen play set for her birthday so my sister asked that I make her an apron to go with it. Easy peasy. She also asked that I make a matching apron for her big sis Kailey. Not a problem. But why do these things always take more time than you think they will?

I don't have a picture of both girls wearing their aprons - it was hard enough to get the birthday girl to stand still for this photo. She was usually chasing after her cousin Park (especially because he was trying out all of her new toys). But I was happy with how these turned out and I think the color choice fit each girl perfectly. Yes, they're Wildcat fans, but I chose the fabric because it suited each personality and I thought they'd love the glitter in the solid pieces (which you really can't see in the photo).

In the process of making these, I learned that the instructions on McCall patterns are really bad. I've read sewing bloggers who prefer one brand of pattern over another, and I never got it until now. Maybe I just had a bad example, but the wording of some of the instructions didn't make sense and I questioned why I was doing certain steps. By the last three steps, I was just doing it my own way.

Happy 2nd birthday Maisy! I wish you many, many more!