Impeccable Timing :/

Life is funny. It seems that every time something super amazing comes our way we get hit by a reality check. Unfortunately for me, that reality check came in the form of a Thyroid Cancer diagnosis. Back in February during a routine yearly physical my doctor felt a lump or nodule on my thyroid. This was not surprising because that same doctor had found it back in 2011 and after a sonogram then I was told "your fine, everything looks fine". Well I hadn't had a sonogram on it since 2011 so we decided to schedule one to check in on it. After the results from the sonogram came in, as well as routine physical blood work, I was referred to an Endocrinologist. The nodule had grown slightly but more concerningly my blood work showed I had antibodies against my Thyroid. On March 26 at my first endocrinologist appointment I was told I have the autoimmune disease, Hashimotos. It is a super common disease where for whatever reason your body starts attacking the thyroid and will continue to do so until the thyroid ceases to function at all. My thyroid function is normal, for now, but whether it would be in a few weeks, months, or years my thyroid would stop working and I would need to be put on hormone replacement drug for the rest of my life. Not devastating news especially since I feel fine.  Because the nodule is a lump of some sort I was told to get a biopsy done just to cover all the bases and then I was sent on my way. Fortunately I was able to get scheduled for the Biopsy that following Monday, March 31. I don't know how many of you have every had a biopsy, let alone one to your throat, but man it is super nerve wracking.  You lay on a table where one man is doing a sonogram of your throat while a second man jabs you in the throat with a needle while following it on the sonogram to make sure he gets the right thing. geez. Anywho, the whole process took maybe 5 minutes if not less. The thing I like is they test the tissue sample right away and actually give you the results right then!

knock knock knock
Dr.:" I'm sorry it is indeed a Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma"
Me: "Well Shit"

That is pretty much how that played out.

So apparently I have Thyroid Cancer, of course this news would come less than 24 hours after signing our papers to sell and buy a new house.
I had to wait 2 days before I was able to go and see my endocrinologist again to find out what exactly is the next course of action. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really eat and or sleep for those 2 days. My mind was racing ALL the time.  Wednesday April 2 came and I finally had a ton of my questions answered.
Yes I have Thyroid Cancer and I will have to have my Thyroid removed. We will not know what stage it is in until they remove it. The stage will determine if any other treatment will be necessary. I will most likely have to receive at least 1 radio iodine treatment post surgery(radiation). I will have to be on a hormone replacement for the rest of my life.
Next step is go for my surgical consult at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on April 29th. There I will hopefully set a date for surgery and find out more details about the actual procedure (whether they have to take out surrounding tissues and lymph nodes ect.) as well as have many questions hopefully answered about radiation and the limitations included with that treatment. After the surgical consult I will have a special pre op sonogram for Lymph Node Mapping of my throat (this will be on May5th, the day we close on our new house HA).
It is a lot to take in but we are hopeful that it has not spread and that I will recover in a quick fashion. I will post more when I know more :) but for now we have to focus on packing up and moving. Go big or go home right?

Good Bye Leesburg...

BIG NEWS The Christensen Clan will be leaving Leesburg! We have been talking about putting our townhouse on the market for quite some time now and the deciding factor for selling now rather than wait one more year was, our neighbor got a motorcycle. No joke, he turns that thing on every morning at 6am and lets it just idle for 30-40 minutes. It is super effective at waking up my children. And on weekends, well he doesn't get it started in the morning, he conveniently waits until the exact moment Jordan falls asleep for her afternoon nap to take his kids on individual motorcycle rides around the neighborhood, all 4 of them, grrrrrr.  Anyway... we spoke to our realtor about possibly listing our TH, he said if we could have it ready for photos in 5 days then his photographer would be available then. So we scrambled to de clutter and straighten the best we could. Pictures were taken on a Thursday and BOOM our TH was listed at 2am Friday morning.  No joke 12 hours later we had a showing scheduled for Friday night and woke up to a full price offer on Saturday! Unbelievable. we did not accept the offer until later that weekend only because I think we were in shock at how fast everything was happening. We officially close on the TH May 1st.

It just so happens that a few weeks prior to listing our TH we saw a beautiful 3000 sqft single family home in Purcellville,  on .3 acre, with a garage that would fit Peter's Truck(harder to find than you think). Did I mention it has a wrap around porch! so cute! Long Story short we made an offer and stood our ground when they countered and we got it for what we wanted! Once again Unbelievable. Things are moving crazy fast and we close on our new House May 5th.  We are super excited and can't wait for this new journey for our family to begin :)

Good Bye Leesburg... Hello Purcellville.

Dropping the Ball

Holy Cow it has been 2 years since writing anything on this blog! It is safe to say I have officially dropped the ball on this one :) Leyah is now almost 5 and doing amazing in Preschool. I get to register her for Kindergarten next week, KINDERGARTEN. Unbelievable. She swims and plays soccer. Something a little special this soccer season is, I'm her Coach, haha, we shall see how that ends up. Jordan is now a little over 2 and doing amazing. Heart wise she is good to go. We are on a  once a year cardiology schedule which is pretty much the best you can do. She is still struggling with her milk protein allergy but we have all adjusted to making sure meals are dairy free. She is registered to start pre school next year, eeek. My baby, tear. Jordan is super smart too. She amazes Peter and I everyday with something she has picked up somewhere. As for Peter and I we are hanging in there. Peter is a machine when it comes to work, he travels a lot still but he enjoys it. He is in a flag football league for the second year in a row, woo hoo Go Team "Suns out, Guns Out" Hahaha Alrighty that was a SUPER quick little update about the fam, stay posted for more in depth posts.

unseasonably warm!

This weatehr is CRAZY! haha almost as crazy as the way I just spelled "weather". Anyway, Peter has been breaking down our deck and by doing so all of our summer time toys can now be seen from our living room windows. Leyah has been wanting to do the water table for awhile now and with these 70-80 degree days it was perfect. We don't have pictures of it but Jordan splashed her little piggies a few times as well :)

happy little lady

With this nice weather we have also been able to go to the park almost everyday and have picnics all the time. We found out last weekend that Shorty Jordy LOVES the swings woohoo!

Love her !

keeping busy

Being a stay at home mom is tough. I love it, don't get me wrong, but if you have never done it well you just don't know. I do my best to try and keep Leyah entertained yet educate her as well. I wish I was disciplined enough to have a circle time and lesson plans for her but that just doesn't happen. I have been taking her to the library lately where we pick out books on a certain subject and then try and focus on doing stuff that week with that subject, it's been pretty fun. For our bird week we made bird feeders and hung them all around the neighborhood, the best part was checking them everyday haha

finished product

one happy little girl

We had a water and science day which was pretty cool. Thanks to pinterest Leyah was entertained for an HOUR by dropping colored vinegar onto a pan of baking soda, I played too it was quite cool

Here comes Peter Cotton tail

sorry this is so late. Our easter was a ton of fun. The weekend before we kicked off festivities by going to the Ida Lee egg hunt. Leyah had a BLAST and we got to see the Easter bunny, Leyah had wanted to bring him a salad but we compromised with bringing him a carrot instead :)

Poor bunny carried that carrot for HOURS hahaha

egg hunts with Braden are the best

Leyah found a "special" egg and won a small prize

I completely forgot to take pictures of the girls getting their baskets on Easter morning, but they both enjoyed them, at least I'm assuming Jordan did :) Leyah got HOP the movie along with a few small chochkeys, and Shorty got a sweet rattle, bathing suit and rubber ducks. If you didn't know the easter bunny does NOT bring candy to our house haha b/c we all know he brings a ton of it to grandma's house haha.

Every year Cannon Ct. has a neighborhood egg hunt and we are fortunate enough to still be included, even though we aren't cannon courtonians anymore. I'm so used to Leyah being the smallest and youngest hunter on the street but this year she fit right in! That's crazy!

the hunt is on

growing up and fitting in

Easter lasted a long time thanks to a package coming everyday for about 3-4 days in a row, Leyah now thinks every package is for her with a treat. Thank you everyone for loving our girls!

Jordan with her sweet bunny hat :)

yiayia with crazy fun gifts haha

Jordan Update

SO it has been just about six weeks since Jordan's surgery and she is beyond thriving! We are loving to see her grow and change each day. At Jordan's 4.5 month appointment she weighed in at just under 12 pounds and a week later at her cardiology appointment 12.9 pounds!!! I/we are so excited. She has rolled over a few times, is eating solids and being a general baby bad ass. WE LOVE YOU SHORTY JORDY!

First time in the baby command center

modeling a tutu I made for a charity event

Jordan turns 5 months, AT HOME :)

love my baby's blue eyes <3