What a productive weekend!

Since my little niece Alyssa Lynn was born on Tuesday, I have been dying to meet her! So on Saturday morning Leah and I headed downtown to my brother's to meet this sweet little girl. We got an early start and were at their place around 10:30 am. I just wanted to stop in for a little bit so we could see her. I know how crazy it can be with a brand new baby at home. I totally forgot how "little" newborns are when they are only a few days old! Obviously I know they are small, but it slipped my mind just how tiny they are! She was a perfect little angel and slept our entire visit. Leah and Annabelle had a great time playing together and running around the house. Annabelle is a great big sister already! We stayed for an hour and headed home. Next time, we'll plan to spend more time together.

Alyssa Lynn Zettek

Silly Annabelle

The girl's playing together so nice

Leah slept the whole car ride home so I knew there was a slim chance that she would actually lay down for a real nap when we got home. We had a bunch of errands to run, so we picked up Rob and headed back out. I needed a ton of stuff from Target so that was our first stop. We picked up some crates and organizers so I could finally pack away all of Leah's winter stuff and try to bring some organization to the play room. We put away a ton of the toys Leah no longer plays with. I got sad folding up and packing up all of Leah's clothes. My little girl is getting so big! I brought the crate to the basement, where it joined the 8 other crates full of all of her girly clothes. After Target, Rob needed to run to Lowes and  I decided to stop into Carters. I picked up our little man some sleepers and clothes and got Leah some new summer jammies. We went to Toys R Us too to pick up some things for Leah's Easter basket. We also went to Babies R Us and found the bedding we want to get our little baby boy. Finally, we stopped at Cribs to College to look for furniture for Leah's room. We are not going to buy another crib, so we are going to move Leah into our extra bedroom and the baby will go in her room. We found the furniture we wanted, but I remembered I had a coupon at home for free delivery so we decided to wait. After all of this running around, we worked up an appetite and went to grab dinner. Lately, Leah has been hit or miss (with her behavior at restaurants). Luckily it was on a good day and she was really well behaved. We headed home and relaxed the rest of the evening.

This morning I was up early and started cleaning the play room. How did we end up with so many toys!? I packed away a bunch of toys, but there were still so many left! We cleaned up around the house and finally got moving around 11:00 am. We went back to Cribs to College and bought Leah's big girl bedroom set. We got a new headboard, footboard, dresser, mirror and night stand. It will take 2-4 weeks for it to be delivered. In the meantime, we will need to find a new comforter and paint her room before it is delivered. We are going to try and sell the current bedroom set that is in the extra bedroom on craiglist. I was just relieved to have another thing checked off our long "to-do" list. We ran a few more errands and headed home. It was such a gorgeous day. We grilled out for lunch and then took a long family walk. The weekends always fly by way too fast, but I did feel like we got a lot done! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

It's a Boy (and a Girl)!!

Today we had my 20 week ultrasound with the hopes of learning the gender of baby bean! My appointment was in the afternoon so I took a half day at work. Rob also took the day off so he could be there too. My aunt watched Leah so we didn't have to take her with us. I was nervous and excited for the appointent. I was so eager to learn what we were having. I had several girl dreams over the past few weeks, but then last night I had two back-to-back dreams that Baby Held was a boy. Dr. G. started the ultrasound and began examining everything about our little baby. He soon after announced that it was a BOY! Rob said he could "see" that it was a boy before the doctor gave confirmation. We were so happy (but we knew we would be happy with either)! He continued to check everything out and all looked good! I am measuring right on track. We scheduled the c-section for July 30th. So unless he decides to come  early, this will be his birthday!

After the appointment we went and picked up Leah. We told her the exciting news and she kept shouting "Little Brother, Little Brother - yeah, yeah, yeah." We decided to head over to Buy Buy Baby to do some shopping! We are going to need to stock up on BOY stuff, because right now it is girl city over here! We wanted to go look around. We are going to need to buy a lot - everything from new bedding to clothes to basics like bottles and bibs! We did end buying a double stroller today so that is one thing checked off our list! We also purchased our little man his first article of clothing - a "Little Brother" t-shirt.

After shopping, we went out for a celebratory dinner! We did this after we found out Leah was a girl. We went to Kona Grill (one of my favs). It was beautiful outside so we were able to sit on the patio. It was still early that we were able to catch their happy hour specials. Leah enjoyed her dinner and even managed to eat a California Roll using her chopsticks. She is one smart cookie!

In other EXCITING baby news, my brother and sister-in-law welcomed a new addition to their family yesterday! My new beautiful niece "Alyssa Lynn Zettek" was born on March 20th at 12:59 pm! She weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long. I am so anxious and excited to meet her! I hope to see her this weekend! Mom, Dad, Annabelle and Baby are all doing great! Here is a picture of this beautiful little girl! Welcome to the world Alyssa!!

I wish I would have thought of a more exciting way to announce our baby boy news (with everything that is out there on pinterest) but it just didn't happen! My Blog and FaceBook will have to due!

Update on my Dad / My Sick Little Leah

Well, my dad is still in the hospital. I stopped there this morning before going into work and they said he was not going to be released today, but it looks like he "might" get to go home tomorrow. The doctors confirmed (yesterday) that he has the flu and his body just couldn't fight it. I had to wear a gown and a mask when I went to go see him. He has been receiving antibiotics and steroid shots in his stomach (ouch) to help him. He is still weak (although is doing much better than when he arrived on Monday). He has been working with a physical therapist that has got him up and moving around. The doctor did say he is lucky that he went to the ER when he did because his White Blood Cell counts were dangerously low. A normal person's White Blood Cell Count is around 6,000 and when my Dad went to the ER, his were just around 500 - very dangerous. They will not release him from the hospital until his WBC's are up somewhere around 2500. As of this morning, there were up, but still not where they need to be, but thought they may be high enough tomorrow to go home. He has continued to receive radiation treatment while staying in the hospital (no chemo). So – at this point we are still taking it day by day.

On top of that, daycare called me yesterday afternoon and told me that Leah was acting off – very sluggish and crying on and off all day. She was still not acting like herself last night and by 8:00 pm she spiked a 103 temperature. I had dinner plans with the girls yesterday and Rob kept texting me saying Leah was crying for her momma and asked if I could hurry home.  We gave her Tylenol and it brought her fever down slightly to 100. This morning when she woke up, she still had a fever of 102.8. Rob stayed home with her today and has kept an eye on her temperature. He said she was acting goofy/silly one minute and then relaxing on the couch the next minute. I am hoping this is a non-issue for tomorrow, but if her fever doesn’t totally break, I don’t have any options but to stay home with her. When I got home from work she was in a pretty good mood and she wasn't warm anymore like she was. I gave her a cool bath so I am sure that helped. She is now happily eating yogurt at her table. We'll see how she does tonight and and she is feeling in the morning. She couldn’t have gotten sick at a worse time!!

Prayers for my Dad

The past couple of weeks have not been easy. As some of you know, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in the beginning of February. It’s tough because it seems like it is one thing after another, first with my mom and now with my dad. I am at the end of my rope in dealing with this kind of stuff. My pregnant hormones don’t help the situation either. My dad has been a heavy smoker for 40 years, so this news should not be shocking to any of us….but when it actually happens, it of course is. Back in December he started having really bad pains in his upper right chest/shoulder area that would run down his back and right arm. He called his doctor and they instructed him to go to the emergency room. They did blood work, chest X-rays and a CAT scan. They didn't really find anything, so they wrote him 2 prescriptions for pain and released him. A few weeks later, the pain continued and intensified. Even his skin was painful to the touch. He went back to his doctor and they ordered additional tests. He went in for a CAT scan, a PET scan and also a biopsy. After going through these tests it was confirmed that he has a malignant tumor and he has lung cancer. After learning the news we were able to get in with the oncologist right away. At his appointment, the doctor went over all of his scans and made things easy for us to understand (and explained how cancer works). He said the tumor had probably been growing for at least 2 years. He felt he would be able to help my Dad with a combination of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. He couldn’t lay out a treatment plan until it was confirmed that the cancer had not spread anywhere else. My dad had a handful of additional scans to make sure the cancer had not spread to his brain, bones, lymph nodes, etc. Luckily, all of the results came back good and it had not spread.

Soon after, we had an appointment scheduled to meet with the surgeon to figure out when/if the tumor could be removed. The surgeon went over all of my dad’s scans/results and gave us some bad news. He said that he has a very rare tumor called a pancoast tumor. Basically, where the tumor is located, it is completely wrapped up in all of his nerves (which is why he has all of the pain). The surgeon said he has only seen one case like this in his 30 years of doing surgery. He said it is going to be a very risky surgery and he did not feel he was experienced or equipped to do his surgery. He referred us to a top surgeon at Northwestern that has expertise with these types of tumors. Luckily, we were able to get an appointment with him right away. Even though my dad has a rare tumor, it is not rare to this surgeon (which is a good thing). He feels he would be able to help my Dad. So the new surgeon coordinated with my Dad’s oncologist and radiologist and they came up with a treatment plan. My Dad was scheduled for 6 weeks of radiation (5 days a week) along with 6 weeks of chemotherapy. Hopefully his tumor responds to the treatment. If everything goes according to plan, they will remove the tumor 6 weeks after his last radiation/chemo treatment. The surgery is still going to be a challenge and will have a long recovery time.

Shortly after, the surgeon “installed” a chemo port in my dad’s chest and he was scheduled to begin treatment the week of March 5th. The radiation appointments are quick 5 minute appointments and then the chemo appointments would be scheduled on the same day and would last anywhere from 2-3 hours. The doctor said he would be able to drive himself to the appointments. Towards the end of the 6 weeks, he may start to feel weak and may need a ride to his appointments. Well….things have not gone according to plan. On his third day of radiation and chemo, he had a SEVERE allergic reaction to the chemo. His entire face swelled completely, he couldn’t breathe and was in a lot of pain. It was scary – I didn’t know what to do to help him when I spoke to him on the phone. He sounded horrible. Luckily, my uncle lives close and was able to go over there (since I was at work) and took him to the doctor right away. At the doctor’s office , they gave him some Benadryl and had him on oxygen (because his oxygen levels were dangerously low). They still gave him chemo that day but changed up his chemo “cocktail.” He had a break on Friday (only radiation) and he was scheduled to have chemo on Monday (today), but then not again until March 30th. They gave him a few different prescriptions to help with his breathing and swelling. I felt really bad for him. He was absolutely miserable…..and it is only the start of his treatment. I am hoping that since they have changed the chemo mixture, he won’t have this type of reaction again. I talked to my Dad a few times over the weekend and he didn’t sound good. He said he felt awful, but better than he did a few days prior. He was still having a very hard time breathing. He was not well enough to go to Annabelle’s birthday party (which I knew broke his heart). I stopped over there on Saturday morning and he was very weak and just didn’t look good.

This morning I called my dad when I got to work and he sounded bad. He said he had a horrible night and didn’t feel good. My uncle was on his way over to pick him up for radiation so my dad said he would call me later when he got home. When my uncle got to the house he had a hard time getting him out of bed. He was shaking uncontrollably and wasn’t making much sense when he spoke. My uncle immediately decided to take him to the Emergency Room. At this point, I was in a meeting at work this morning and when I got back to my desk I had 8 missed phone calls on my cell phone from my uncle, my brother, my aunt and one of my dad’s friends. I immediately freaked out and tried calling everyone back and no one answered. I finally got ahold of my uncle and he explained what had happened so I left work and headed to the hospital. Luckily he was at Good Sam, which is right down the road from work. By the time I got to the hospital they had already done several tests and an EKG on my dad. He had started running a temp of 103 so they gave him Tylenol to bring the fever down. The doctor’s determined he has a bacterial infection but don’t know its cause yet (we should know tomorrow). They admitted him to the hospital and they said he would be here for the next day or two. All of his doctor’s (his primary, oncologist, radiologist) are coordinating a plan (he was supposed to have treatments today and the whole week). They have given him two breathing treatments to help because his breathing is erratic and he will continue to receive them every 4 hours. He could barely breathe - they thought he might have pneumonia (but he doesn't). So now, I am just sitting with him in the room while he doses in and out of sleep. He hasn’t eaten all day so he had a light dinner and is just trying to get comfortable. He was not happy that he has to stay the night, but in all honesty it is probably the best thing for him. I would be too scared to let him go home, considering the kind of night he had last night. They have given him a few antibiotics to help clear up the infection and hopefully he will start feeling better and he can go home tomorrow. His white blood cell counts were really low. I hope this is the only “bump” in the road we have with his treatment plan. Smoking is definitely not worth all of this! My dad has committed to quit and hasn’t smoked in over a week. He said as soon as he started treatment he was done. I hope that is the truth. Please keep my dad in your thoughts and pray that we get through this.

19 Weeks Prego and a Busy Weekend!

Well we are almost half way there! I hit my 19th week this weekend. I am finally feeling much better! It seems like this pregnancy is going much faster - probably because I have Leah to chase around and life is just busy! We have our ultrasound appointment next week (on the 21st) and hope to find out if baby bean is a boy or girl. We are also hoping to schedule the c-section at this appointment too. I really don't have one inclination one way or another (of baby beans gender). I have had a few dreams the baby was a girl (no boy dreams yet). When I was pregnant with Leah I had 5 girl dreams (and no boy dreams) and sure enough she was a girl. I've looked at a few Chinese Calendars and some have said "girl" and two have said "boy." I downloaded this silly app on my phone and it is showing "girl." I guess we'll have to wait and see!

When I was pregnant with Leah, I was a sweets MACHINE. I was always craving something sweet - it got so bad that I was putting peanut butter on my waffles and would devour an entire coffee cake in a matter of days. This go-around I've had a taste for sweets, but am not craving them like I did before. I actually haven't had any cravings besides cheese whiz or Doritos or salads. I haven't had the heart burn that I did with Leah (although I can't remember exactly when that set in before, so maybe that is still to come). I also got really bad bloody noses when I was prego with her, this time I've only had a few. I do know that my belly is much bigger this time and I am showing way more now at 19 weeks than I did with Leah.

Me at 19 weeks now - yikes!

19 weeks while pregnant with Leah in 2009



Based on the pictures - does anyone want to take any guesses on Baby Held? We'll be sure to share our news once we find out. My wonderfully thoughtful husband surprised me with an early "push present" (even though I won't be pushing with the c-section). He gave me a new Coach Diaper bag. I love it!



This weekend was busy! On Saturday, we had two back-to-back birthday parties. First up was Carter's "karate themed" 6th birthday party. His party was at a pizza restuarant that also had a game room for the kids to play. Leah had a great time running around with all of the kids. We had pizza and pasta for lunch and yummy cake for dessert!  

Gavyn and Leah

Leah not wanting to pose for a picture with the birthday boy. Happy Birthday Carter!

Before we knew it, it was time to scoot off to the next birthday party for my niece Annabelle. Annabelle's birthday is not until April 4th but my sister-in-law is due within the next two weeks and decided to have her party early. They too were doing pizza so we it twice in one day! She had an Elmo themed party and Leah loves seeing her cousin. Last week when we were out to lunch she asked if we could go see Annabelle. I told her we would the following weekend and she said, "But Mom, I want to see her SO bad." Leah was going on no nap when we got to the party and I had a feeling a meltdown was in her future. Luckily we got through the whole party with no incident. Annabelle had her other cousins at the party too, so all of the kids ran around and had good time! We left around around 7:00. It was a long day, but we had so much fun celebrating Carter and Annabelle's birthdays!

We were wiped out when we got home and everyone went to bed early. Today, we had so much running around to do. Changing the clocks an hour ahead really threw us off in the morning! Since it was so beautiful outside, we decided that we would start our errands/day at the Outlet Mall in Aurora. Leah needed shoes. Striderite was having a sale so we picked up two cute pairs of shoes for her. We also got her a pair of crocs from the Crocs store. She lucked out too and got some clothes too! We had a few other stores to stop at before we decided to grab some lunch at Lime Stone Brewery. We were hoping to make it to the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Plainfield but we had too much running around to do. After lunch we had to go grocery shopping too. We got home around 3:30 and it was still gorgeous outside, so we deided to take Leah to the park to have some fun. She ran around for a bit and loved being outside. We brought some bread and fed the duckies. When we got home we brought her new scooter outside and let her try it out. For Christmas, Leah also got a t-ball set so we played with that too in the front yard. I hope this weather continues! Based on the forecast, we are in for a good week! I hate this time change - it is already almost 7:00 pm! Agh!! Well I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Why not make some Pinterest recipes

Things have been pretty uneventful around here lately - not much to report on. Work has been really busy and I am wiped out by the time I get home. We didn't have any plans this past weekend, which was nice. Friday night we went out for Sushi and it was yummy! Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I have had no taste for it, but now that I am finally feeling better - I was craving it. It was SO good. Saturday we spent the day furniture shopping looking for a bedroom set for Leah's "Big Girl Room" she will soon be transitioning to in the next few weeks. We decided that we are not going to buy another crib. We are going to put the baby in Leah's room and then move Leah to the extra bedroom. Leah was so excited looking at big girl beds, so I am hoping we have a smooth move! We didn't find anything that we loved and decided that we are going to keep looking.

Sunday we went over to my Dad's for awhile and then went to the mall. When we got home, I was in a cooking mood. I've found so many recipes on Pinterest and I decided to give a few a try tonight while I had some time on my hands. (I've already made a ton of the recipes I have found). I love when people share new recipes with me, so I thought I would go ahead and post the new recipes I tried. I had come across this one blog with several "freezer bag crock pot recipes" where you can make everything ahead of time and freeze it. Once we are ready to make it, you take it out the night before and toss it in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. Usually, I am so tired by the time I get home from work I don't feel like cooking. These recipes were perfect! If all goes well, I will plan to make more. I also found this other website that all sorts of quick and easy meals that you can plan and freeze. They will definitely come in handy when I am home on maternity leave and can easily prepare dinner. For the Freezer Bag Recipes, I made Teriyaki Chicken and Sausage and Peppers. (Recipes compliments of http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/). While we haven't actually eaten these recipes yet, I am excited to try them over the next week or so!

Teriyaki Chicken
Medium – Large bag of carrots
Red Onion into Large Chunks
2 large cans pineapple (undrained)
4 Garlic Cloves
4 Chicken Breasts
1 cup teriyaki sauce

Split everything into two gallon freezer bags. shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Instructions for Bag: Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to crock pot, Cook on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Serve over hot rice

Sausage & Peppers
6 Italian Sausage (or chicken sausage) **I used kielbasa instead, because that's all I had
2 green peppers
1 red pepper
1 large red onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans italian diced tomatoes
drizzle olive oil
1 Tbs Italian seasoning

Put everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Instructions for
Bag: Cook on low 8 hours, or grill. After cooking, serve over hot pasta or on hollowed out, buttered crusty bread.

I also made a casserole type dish last night that we had for dinner tonight. When I got home from work, all I had to do was throw it in the oven, It was an Enchilada Casserole, although to me it was more of a taco casserole. It was pretty tasty and Rob seemed to like it. I've made variations of it in the past. We have plenty of leftovers! This is another recipe that came from Pinterest from the http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/ blog.

Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

(Recipe from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake)

Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
1 large onion, chopped or season with Onion powder or minced onion
2 1/2 cups salsa
1 can (15 ounces) black beans or red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup reduced-fat Italian salad dressing
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium taco seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
6 flour tortillas (8 inches)
1 small can of drained corn, or about 1 1/4 cups of frozen corn (optional)
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream *Note: I used 1/2 cup
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

**the recipe doesn't call for it, but I added 4 ounces of cream cheese.

Directions
In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in the salsa, beans, dressing, sour cream, corn (optional), taco seasoning and cumin.
Spoon a generous layer of meat mixture on bottom of 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
Place a flour or corn tortilla on top of meat mixture. Layer with half of the meat mixture, and cheese. Repeat as many layers as you like.
The last & final layer should be a healthy dose of grated cheese.
Cover with foil that has been sprayed with pam or other and bake at 400° for 25 minutes, or until hot & bubbly.
Let stand for 5 minutes before topping with lettuce, tomato and cilantro. Yield: 8 servings.