Potty Potty

Well this is the end of the week and I am not sure I made much progress in teaching Nemi to use the potty. He thinks if he pees - anywhere - he gets candy. He does not understand that he only gets candy if he does pee in the potty. So anyway, I have my work cut out for me.

More to come... stay tuned.

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Pre-Op Appointment

Today was our pre-operation appointment with my GYN. It seems like things are not as dangerous as I thought them to be. They will be removing the left ovary, but there is no reason what so ever to do a hysterectamy even if things get complicated. He assured me that one thing had nothing to do with the other. He even told us that in the next month or two we could begin to try to expand our family. That was really exciting - we look forward to that.

So I will post again next week and tell you how it went.

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Day Three of training

Well, today he went again. I was quite excited. He was not as scared as he has been. Of course, he was super happy once he got his candy. More to come tomorrow.

The joys of Potty training

Well, we have finally drawn the line in the sand and we are determined to completely potty train Nehemiah this summer. We began yesterday (again) by just letting him walk around the house without a diaper. We had originally decided to potty train him back in January when he had just turned three and began school, but it proved difficult since his school day began at noon. He knew he would get a diaper on to go to school and it became too much of an off-on thing. Wake up at 9 diaper off. go to school at noon diaper on. come home at 3 diaper off. go to bed at 9pm diaper on. It was difficult to keep it consistent.

But now his school days begin at 9am so I wake him up and put a diaper for school and when he returns at noon until he goes to bed at night he is diaper free. It has only been two days, but today he went peepee in the potty. Yeeeeppppeeee!!!! I am sure he will continue to do it because he just realized that his prize is a piece of candy, and what child would not do anything for candy.

Will keep you posted.

Physically Better...

but an emotional mess. I am beginnig to feel a bit overwhelmed. I think it is sinking in what is to come and I am getting nervous, and scared and even edgy. I do not want to be all over the place like this emotionally, but whoah! this is serious. I hope it is a simple process. One of my good friends (Leah) came with me to the Dr's appointment where they said what was really going on and she took some great notes. This is basically what the doctor's said and how the consultation went after he did an ultrasound, which was (I want these notes for future reference):


It looks like a big endometrioma (the fuzzy-looking cyst on the ultrasound) by your left ovary, which could mean endometriosis. The cyst could weigh down your ovary and cause torsion, which is extremely painful and requires immediate surgery - torsion is when the cyst is at least 6cm and twists on itself.
You have three options:
1. Do nothing and see if it goes away (if perchance it is not an endometrioma).
2. Take birth control pills, which suppress the ovaries.
3. Undergo surgery, if the supposed endometrioma does not resolve on itself (or if you think it won't).

It's an outpatient surgery called a laraposcopy or laparoscopy (?) - a small incision below the belly button going down as far as they need to go to get out the whole cyst. Possible chance they will also have to remove the left ovary - don't remember why, might be if the cyst has gotten in there or damaged it or is not possible to remove without also removing the ovary.

Questions asked:
1. Will this make you ovulate half as much, with 1 less ovary? No, your one remaining ovary will work double time and pick up the slack from the missing ovary. You will still release an egg every month; just always from the same side. This may make you go into menopause earlier because your ovary can only do so much work in its lifetime, and will run out of time earlier.
2. The surgery requires a general anasthetic, which will completely knock you out. Kimani can be with you before and after the surgery. Recovery will technically take three weeks (and then you can go back to work - haha), though you'll really only be off your feet for a few days.
3. Will there be scar tissue? Yes, but that is always a factor with any surgery and it should not be a problem with future pregnancies. I'm assuming the scar tissue would be not more of an issue than with a c-section.

Outpatient Procedure

Well, it has been a heck of a week. Last Wednesday and Thursday I was in bed with so much pain. The same pain that keeps coming occassionally since March, but it has been getting much much worst. My good friend Marisol came over to take me to the ER and after some tests they found some suspicious mass on my ovaries, so I followed up with my OBGYN the next Monday and it turns out I have an endometrioma on my left ovary which has to be removed and most likely so will the ovary itself. The doctor told me that the endometrioma is the most likely culprit for my infertility and he assured me that after the removal of the mass and the ovary the chances to conceive will be much greater.

I am so scared and I feel so wierd knowing that I will be walking around with one less body part. I mean am sure that it is for the best, and I am confident in the fact that if this were not necessary he would have suggested another option, but even when you logically know all these things your emotions are still on a rollercoaster. Kimani has been really supportive and amazingly understanding in terms of my lack of ability to do much around the house any more. He has really stepped up his game even when his plate is already so full of other things. I am so lucky to have him.

Not only that, but the family has really come in to show their support and have been giving me so much help in so many different ways. I am so thankful for each and everyone of them.

That is all for now, I will certainly keep you posted.

Visitors In town.

Great news! My sister in law is visiting from Florida. Yiiipppeeee... How exciting? I cannot wait to see her. We talk on the phone all the time and I always tell her she should move here and she always tells me I should move there. We just want to live near each other. I miss her and I cannot wait to her my little nephew too. He is just to cute and I am sure he is very active by now too.

Well, I guess I will tell you all about it later.

Business update

Ok! so only about 500 people have given me the same advice in terms of what to do about getting my business off the ground. I keep thinking that the first thing for me to do is to get some money (about 5K) and make all the cards at first and them they will just automatically or magically be sold, but I reckon I am thinking about this all wrong.

This week I have to finish two cards (one of them for my nephew's birthday) and then I will create a catalog with order forms and we are gonna have to hit the town and shake hands and kiss babies. It is time. this is the summer. I do not want to let yet another year go by of me just dreamin', and hopin', and wishin', and thinkin' - it is time to get the party started.

see you at store shelves. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend, and boy was I glad Kimani had the day off. We had family time!! We rented a couple of movies yesterday (Happy N'ever After and Music and Lyrics) and we were just happy to be with each other. I was thinking about how glad I felt that Kimani was gonna be with is and it dawned on me that after five years of marriage, it is a good thing that I still look forward to being with him. I was really elated! Nehemiah was attached to him the whole time. He showed just how much he missed his daddy.

I was excited also about the sun being out and getting a tan. I slathered on my dark tanning lotion and went out to the park with Nemi and Kimani. I want to get a tan this summer.

Well, I look forward to the rest of the summer. The good thing is that it did not rain this weekend and I hope it is a 'forecast' as to what the summer will be like.

talk to you guys later.

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Another day, another week

Hello! How is everyone doing this week? Hope you are all ready for Memorial Day. We have no plans whatsoever. We are just looking forward to having a family weekend with nothing on the agenda. That feels food. Knowing that there is no running around to do or any place to go. Though we risk staying home all weekend cooped up and bored. But I do not think so the weather is looking nice and I am sure we can find a park somewhere to just hang out and soak up the son.

All right, let's make this Memorial Day Weekend memorable.

Enjoy yourselves.

Lots of love,

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Mary Kay

In addition, I became a MaryKay consultant just this week and I am excited to get a stream of income so help subsidize the expenses for my passion Xpressions of Love. I really want to get the business off the ground, but I do not want to get another loan and be in more debt, so hopefully MK will bring in some money to pay for all of the thing related to XoL. We will see how this goes.

Mother's Day 2007

As for my mothers day, it was the best. Kimani gave me a marvelous gift. He gave me a shopping spree at the Woodbury commons. I came home with three pairs of shoes, a dress, earrings and necklaces, and 5 outfits, from skirts to jeans and everything in between. Thank you hunny. It was the best gift ever. I had such a great time. He topped off the evening by taking me to Applebees where I was able to have my fav sandwich and the apple chimicheesecake (yum yum). That really was sweet that he would come along and allow me to walk around and pick out things and put them back and pick out other things and then wait for me to try it on and let me know how he liked it on me or not liked it on me. All the while he was in full charge of Nehemiah, so I did not have to fuss with him at all. I could just fully focus on getting the task done - a new wardrobe. It really was the best gift ever - doing it together.

Nehemiah

I am so excited to share with you that Nehemiah will be attending the summer program in his school starting next month. I was really hoping he would be accepted and he was. He has been improving significantly since he began school in January and his teachers and I both agree that we want to keep the momentum going and hopefully he will blossom even more when there are less kids.

Unexpected things

Well, it is really an eye opener to see how much we are dependent and consumed by computers now-a-days. My home computer crashed and I had no access to the Internet for about a week and a half and let me tell you.... that was one hard week and a half. I was really beginning to go crazy, yet,, it was such a productive week and a half. I worked on several pending projects I have here and they were completed. Finally.

Ok so I have created different postings regarding what has been going on this week so check those out.

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Lovers for Life

Click on the square above/Play to hear songs.

Fall in love all over again with these wonderful songs.

I love you Kimani. You prove to me everyday that I made the best choice ever to marry you.

Well, kids will be kids

Oh! Our little Nemi. Since he was born, I keep telling myself that he is a boy and he will have his share of booboos and scars. But let me tell you, it is one thing to think that and another thing when it happens. Little Nemi was playing with some boys and he fell, somehow he did not put his hands out to break his fall and he fell on his face, chipping two of his teeth. Awwwww! poor kid. Thank God they are the baby teeth and one day they will fall out, but just to imagine how much that hurt was pretty hard.

Another Week...

I have been trying to update this blog weekly, but of course I did not get a chance to last friday. So here I am, first thing Monday morning. I cannot believe this will be the last entry of April. The months are just melting together - May will be here in less than 48 hours and the summer events will begin.

So, I have a full schedule next month, which Kimani hates it because the weekends are his time to rest while it is my time to go out and hang out (after being in the house all week). I am gonna hang out with my friend Michelle, I am also hoping to create some nice pottery gifts for my mother and Kimani's mom for Mother's day, and then have a Mary Kay party with some of the girls from the church. I am determined to have a 'GREAT' summer this year.

Anyway, until next time.

Has spring really sprung

At times it seems like the warm weather will never reach us. It gets warm for a few days, and the really cold for the rest of the week.
Recently we celebrated Kimani's birthday by going bowling, but it was scheduled for a day when a nor'easter of rain was scheduled to 'be in town'. I thought many people would not come out to bowl, but we had a good crowd and for the two hours that we were there we completely forgot about the storm and the floods outside. We had a great time.
I was so happy to see Kimani enjoy himself and just relax around people who love him and appreciate him. He kept saying that he did not have the best score on the boards, but he was sure that he was having the best time. Awwww! Nehemiah was so into the balls too, he even bowled a spare. Kimani and I would help him push the ball down the lane, and at times he would go down the lane after the ball. He was so good, and super cute, of course.
I wish I had taken pictures. Maybe next time.

Welcome to our Blog

Wow! I cannot believe we actually did this. We have been talking about getting a blog for a while but our computer never really supported the program. So I am pretty excited to finally be able to get one.

Well, we look forward to talking with you all.

Lotsa love,

the smiths