Thanksgiving 2009

Another great turkey day for the Hoffman's! We made our 1st stop out in Sunnyvale at Pappaw & Gramma Hoffman's! Pappaw is known for his fabulous koi pond he built in his backyard! The kids had a great time and even an adventure with their cousin Colby!

Next stop Granny Bell & Grandad Harvey's house (Jeremy's mom & step-dad)! Aunt Jordan was brave and tried to make a gingerbread train with all 4 kids! Not an easy task! LOL!! We had a wonderful dinner there and the kids always love to be with their cousins and play!

Jeremy with both his sisters!

I hope everyone had a GREAT thanksgiving! Next post, our Christmas decorating!!

thankful

As we prepare to give thanks, I wanted to share what I am thankful for this year. In light of my personal health issues, I have so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband! Who knew when I met you almost 15 years ago that I would still be with you now! That doesn't happen often and I am so very thankful that it did for us! You are truly my very best friend, and the best husband anyone could ask for!

I am thankful for my beautiful, fun, spunky daughter! Madison is truly a joy! While I may get tired of the non-stop chatter, and the never ending question asking, you are a pure joy! I am thankful as I watch her turn into this wonderful, caring little person! She loves with fierce loyalty, she cares about others, she loves to play, she loves to "help" with things, she takes great care in being a big sister! She is an amazing little girl!

I am thankful for my wild, rambunctious, loving son! Austin is wonderful little boy! It has been amazing raising both a daughter and a son, watching them grow and change is a wonderful gift! Austin is 100% BOY! But at the same time, he gives the best hugs and kisses! He knows when to be sweet and when to be his rough little self! I love to watch the pure joy on his face when he discovers something new, or spots his daddy when we get home from school, or goes to get Maddie from her class!

I am thankful for my very large, and wonderful family! There are too many of you to go into each individually, that would be one LARGE blog! But I love all of you! Without your support and love I most certainly would not be where I am today!

I am thankful for my new wonderful house! Jeremy and I talk a lot about how now we cannot wait to get home! Those of you that know us well, know we are true home-bodies, even more so now!

With that I say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! May all of you have a wonderful day! (And if you want to go Black Friday shopping...Niki & I are planning our TRIP!!)

5 Years with Madison Lee

To My Sweet Madison Lee,

Happy 5th Birthday my baby girl!

I have truly enjoyed watching you grow & learn over the last 5 years!

I cannot wait to see what the next 5 bring!

We have watched you pass all your milestones with flying colors,

you are amazing and sweet, a true joy to be around!

You care about others, you are fiercly loyal to your friends!

You are smart, and funny, and wacky!

You are a wonderful girl and we love you very much!

Now a look back...

On the day you were born, such a sweet face! You were such a

great baby from the very beginning!

Madison's 1st Birthday, you did NOT like the cake! ;-)

Your 2nd Birthday, at a local park! It was lots of fun with family & friends!

Madison's 3rd Birthday at the Little Gym! It was Scooby Doo Theme!

(And you had that left-over black eye from a shopping cart incident!)

At your 4th Birthday party, we shared a party with your very best friend, Evan!

It was a Halloween Costume party!

Happy 5th Birthday my beautiful girl!

Madison's 5th Birthday Party

Madison's 5th birthday is tomorrow, 10/27! My baby girl will be 5yrs old! Where has the time gone? And who is this magnificent little girl before me?

Our 1st official birthday party in the new house was quite a success! Madison was so excited to show all of her friends her new house & "playground" she couldn't wait for the party to begin! We all had a great time!

Let the WAITING begin

I met with the new surgeon yesterday. She was GREAT! As much as I truly adore my ENT surgeon that did my 1st major surgery, I wish I had this doctor from the beginning. She was cool as a cucumber, not afraid of my massive scar and even more massive history. She was collected and very well educated, she explained things in a way that I completely understood, she even drew pictures! That being said, it would have been nice if my other doctor had sent her all of my medical records BEFORE I arrived so that we would not be wasting her precious time, or mine for that matter. But I guess when you collectively have a TEAM of doctors they can't be bothered with exchanging paper! Seriously, that's another rant for another time though.

Now we will wait. As I have learned, having multiple doctors, means having multiple answers, and having the diagnosis change. This doctor, without reviewing my complete medical records, says her 1st diagnosis is to hold off on surgery at this point. To that you say, but you have cancer!! This I know. But apparently due to the size of these 3 lymph nodes (less than 1cm each), and the massive amount of scar tissue that I obviously have in my neck, she would prefer to wait. We will monitor their size every 6 months. At some point they will have to come out, but not now. When they go back into someones neck for a "reoccurance" (which I kept correcting her b/c mine is NOT a reoccurance!!) they do a procedure called "plucking" so much for crazy medical terminology, it is exactly what it sounds like. They simply go in and pluck out whatever lymph nodes that are diseased, and any others in that same chain of nodes. Well, that is a little more difficult to do if the lymph nodes are less than 1cm in size, and if you have significant scar tissue, they won't be able to see them. So now we wait. I'm not sure what is worse, walking around knowing that there is cancer inside me, or having another surgery? I think I'd rather have the surgery and get it over with. But that is my opinion and my opinion doesn't count for much in this aspect of my life. I am under the control of doctors, I now have 5, 6 if you count my OB/GYN (who just about cried at the sight of my scar, i absolutely adore him!!) The new surgeon said I fit the bill for Pappillary Thyroid Cancer to a T, young woman, mid 20's-early 30's. It also occurs to me that that bill also fits most of my friends!!! I do not wish this disease on anyone, so that I say CHECK YOUR NECK! You know your body better than anybody!! A great resource is www.checkyourneck.com!!

Now my next post probably won't be until after Madison's birthday party this Saturday, a much more FUN topic!!! I can't believe I'm about to have a 5yr old!! (WHO CAN READ!!!!) Yes, I am a proud Mommy!!