Shhhhh........It's a secret!

So I know it's been quite some time since I've posted, but it's been kind of crazy. First we were dealing with Derek's grandfather's cancer, then my brother-in-law (age 36) passed away, then Derek's grandma was in the hospital, and then Derek had surgery to remove the bone tumor in his pinky. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this time!

Derek's grandfather is up and down with his health still. He's better for a few days and then he's down for a few days. My sister-in-law and her son are doing a little better and have been dealing with the loss of Jason. Andrea is involved in some young widow groups and has been attending a church regularly with one of her friends. Derek's grandma is doing better, but she is still having trouble with her balance and thus she has fallen several times. I certainly hope that she doesn't seriously injure herself. It's been bumps and bruising so far and I hope that it doesn't get worse than that. Lastly, Derek's surgery on his pinky went very well! It was quite amusing actually:)

Derek is very (I mean VERY) sensitive to drugs....in that I mean Tylenol makes him a little loopy and tired! So prior to surgery when they were prepping him they were only supposed to make him be semi-sedated. Well......he was out cold! He woke up and didn't know anything had happened. Then his arm was numb for about 8-10 hours. It was like having a giant club that he couldn't control! Ha! When he started to regain feeling in his arm he started popping the pain pills. This is where it got interesting. He was so silly! As most of you know, Derek doesn't drink, but when he was taking his pain pills it was as if he was drunk. No inhibitions whatsoever! He said some of the funniest things. Ha! All in all, the surgery went well and he'll go back in 2 weeks for his final follow up appointment and he won't have to wear his brace anymore. Yay! Meanwhile he is still doing all sorts of things that he's really not supposed to. Typical guy I guess! (Oh....and the results of the tumor came back as benign! Praise the Lord!)

On to the big secret......

Okay......well not any more! (And I know there has been much speculation from those around me.....Abby......Lindsy......) After 3 long months of trying to contain our news we have successfully made it through our first trimester! Praise the Lord! We have been so excited and have been trying not to spill the info until making through 13 weeks. Thankfully I haven't really had any symptoms other than being really tired! No nausea or vomitting or any other typical symptoms! So far we have been blessed and it has all gone very well! Yesterday was my latest appointment and I heard the heart beat! It was 130-140 beats per minute and my doctor said that if I believed old wives tales that it means it is a boy! I won't hold to it, but I can't wait until 20 weeks when we will be able to find out what the sex is. I would be perfectly happy waiting until delivery to know but Derek really wants to know before hand. I guess it will make it easier for preparing and shopping, but I really like surprises! We're still trying to decide how we're going to share the news with D's family but we have a few ideas up our sleeves. My parents will find out on Tuesday when my mom gets her mother's day card! She'll be soooooo excited! I sent her a grandmother card with a picture of the sonogram from week nine (which is the same as the one you see here.....I know it's not much, but it's our little kidney bean:) Ha!). She won't know what to do!

I really will try to give updates, but as you all know by now.....I'm horrible at this!

Prayer Request

Derek's grandpa is in the hospital battling cancer. He has been sick for a while, but has taken a turn for the worst. He went to the hospital for his chemo treatments on Wednesday but was way to sick for them to administer the drugs. Derek and I are going to the hospital today to visit.
If you remeber, please pray for him and his wife (Grandma and Granpa Smiley).

Another day....

As you all know, it's been quite some time since I've posted! Well, a few things have been going on. I've been training with Lindsy and Courtney for our 6.5 mile trail run in Chattanooga, TN. It's been great! But let me tell you, there have been some killer hills in the last couple of runs. This past Sunday Courtney and I returned to Shaker Village where Lindsy and I had run the week prior. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! However, poor Courtney was still recovering from a bad cold and had cotton ball lungs. I felt so bad for her, but we made it through it and ran for about 45-50 minutes. It's really hard to gage distance when doing some of our trail runs because the terrain varies so much that you can't keep a constant pace. We quesstimated that it was about 3.5 miles though....not too bad I guess. I would have liked the distance to have been greater for that amount of time:) Anyway, Courtney and I plan to run at the Pinnacles this weekend. It should be beautiful but a little chillier than last weekend! We only have two more weeks until our race. Yikes!

After the run, Derek, the dogs and I loaded into the car and headed to my in-laws for an afternoon of family fun. It was so good to see everyone! My S-I-Ls all asked if we were prego yet..... not yet, but we'll keep praying it happens soon. They are all so anxious for Derek and I to have kids! Especially Derek's sister Andrea. Her baby, Isaiah, is almost a year old and she wants him to have a cousin close in age. I keep telling her that we're trying:) It's all in God's timing though. We can't make it happen without him! Other than the talk about babies we just had a great time visiting with everyone.

On Sunday, Lindsy and Chelsea arrived bright and early (well let's just say early, it was daylight savings) at 7 am to run 8 miles. Chelsea just started running at the end of last August and already up for the challenge of a half marathon! What an inspiration! It has been great running these long runs with Chels and Lindsy. I love them! I'm considering running the derby half with them.... However...it is 60 bucks!!! Wow! That's just a lot of money to run a race. So I'll think about it some more before I commit to anything:) I plan to continue joining them or Courtnery and her friend Tammy for long runs on the weekends. However, it won't happen this weekend....Lindsy is out of town and Courtney and Tammy are doing their run on Saturday. I'll be running a short little St. Patricks Day race with Abby! It's such a fun 3K race and we have two newbies joining us this year! I'm so excited! Tasha and Nevada will be running their first race with us. Hopefully Derek, Jonathan and Marty can come cheer us on to the finish line!!!

Today Derek had an MRI. You're probably thinking "for what??" Well about a month ago he broke his pinky. He went back to the hand doctor on Monday for his followup appointment and they were a bit disappointed. Okay, well maybe I should have started with this.... About a year and a half ago Derek had surgery on his left pinky finger to remove a tumor. Well apparently that tumor had weekend his bone. When he broke his pinky about a month ago (which was a very minor fracture) they had simply taken xrays. When he went back to the doctor on Monday they discovered that the bone was healing okay, but not like it should. So today Derek went for an MRI. And why don't that have an MRI machine that doesn't require your whole body to be in the tube, I don't know! It was for his pinky for crying out loud! Ha! And yes he had to be in the silly tube for 44 minutes with his arms over his head. His arms were asleep in minutes making the whole experience that much worse. They determined that the tumor on his pinky is back. He scheduled surgery for the 13th of April. He said that the doctor told him it will be more painful than the last surgery and on top of that they have to send the tumor and bone that they scrape out to the lab to be sure that it's not cancerous. The doctor told him that he hasn't seen one show up as cancer, but he also said that the tumor shouldn't have come back. But, Dr. Umansky also didn't think there was anything to worry about. So now....I leave it all in God's hands!