Today is Brought to You by the Number 3

Yes, the title of this blog does both refer to the fact that today is our third anniversary and to Sesame Street.  A lot sure has changed in three years, haha.  We definitely might not be as exciting as we were three years ago.  We went out more.  Spent more time with friends (although sometimes I wish we could do this now too).  Even though we did have Sophia on our last anniversary, we weren't at the toddler watching Sesame Street stage yet, so we had a pretty normal couple-with-a-baby life style.  On our first anniversary, I was early in pregnancy, so things were just starting to change for us as a married couple.  In this last year, she has run the show around our house.  The funny thing is, even though when I married Michael three years ago I wasn't thinking ahead to all the years when our lives wouldn't be quite as exciting as they were at first, I really sort of was.  I was looking forward to watching him get home from work, picking up our daughter and playing with her and reading to her and giving her a bath each night.  On our first anniversary I loved him for the great husband he was and the great dad I thought he would be in the near future.  On our second anniversary I loved him even more for the great dad he was learning to be with our daughter and how well he was doing with her and how he was becoming an even better husband.  And today, on our third anniversary, I love him even more still, for being such a wonderful father to Sophia, for loving her and me and taking care of us and for the prospect of him loving future kids that we might have, just knowing that he'll be great at it.  Next year there will be something to add to that love I'm sure, that will make my love for him grow even more.  It hasn't been a perfect three years....of course, no marriage is perfect, but really all the good things that have happened in the last three years far outweigh any arguments or disagreements that have occurred.  If anything, each year that goes by gives us something to work on for the coming year to improve and strengthen the marriage to make it stronger.  I look forward to our fourth year (and fifth and sixth and seventh and so on)....I hope it brings exciting things.  But if it only brings more non-exciting Sesame Street watching with our daughter....that will be a happy and exciting enough year for me!   

Weekend Recap

Michael and I had an awesome anniversary weekend (even though our actual anniversary isn't until tomorrow).  We dropped Sophia at my parents' house and then drove downtown to check in to the Four Seasons....that place does it right.  As soon as we got into our room, this was on the TV screen!!

And these were on the table by the window!  Glad I took a quick picture, we ate them immediately.  :-)  The card was nice too, it said happy anniversary and everything.  We probably checked in a good half hour before we thought we would and check in itself only took like 5 minutes but these touches were still ready and waiting when we got into the room.  That is the kind of service I could get used to!!

We had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservation so we went to the hotel restaurant to get a light lunch and after that just relaxed in the room.  We exchanged gifts....year 3 is leather and we had set a fairly low budget...Michael did awesome and surprised me with a gift from Coach, which I absolutely love...can't go wrong with Coach!!  And he knows me so well, it was something I definitely would've picked for myself and will use a lot.  I got him a personalized leather box to hold his watches (can hold up to 6, which he only has two now but the other slots can be used for other things too, not just watches)...he seemed to like it a lot and it will give him a place to put his watch instead of just putting it on his bedside table (which Sophia likes to grab things off of and take off with all the time).  Plus I love getting him personalized gifts.  :-)
Here we are, all ready for dinner:

The restaurant, Veni Vidi Vici, an awesome Italian place, was only a couple blocks from our hotel, so we just walked.  It was a little windy, but not totally freezing.  I had a bit of a challenge in my super high heels since normally my day to day shoe is more like just slippers, haha.  But we just walked kinda slow.  The restaurant was awesome.  They told us happy anniversary as soon as we told them our name for our reservation and then escorted us back to a corner table.  We spent way too long choosing a (middle of the road) bottle of wine, haha.  The food was totally awesome.  I had caesar salad and veal parm with a side of linguine and Michael had a caprese salad and some pasta dish with duck in a mushroom sauce.  The cut of veal was huge but it was so delicious I tried to eat as much as I could of it.   

After dinner we thought we were too stuffed for dessert but we looked at the menu anyway.  Nothing really caught our eye so we passed.  As we were finishing up our bottle of wine, the general manager brought this over to us anyway.....

I can't wait to back and eat there again!!

After dinner we walked back to the hotel.  It was a bit colder and we were much fuller (of food and wine).  A bum approached us and walked half a block with us until Michael was able to fish a dollar out of his wallet to give him so he'd stop following us. We went up to the room to go to the bathroom but it really wasn't too late, maybe ten, and I had the great idea (or not so great) of going down to the hotel bar for just one drink.  We were having fun, after all, and we never got to do things like this so I figured we should take advantage of our night out.  Even if we had been home with Soph we wouldn't go to bed until at least 11, so we couldn't turn in so early!  It all started so innocently, haha.  We sat down at the bar, which wasn't very crowded at all.  Michael got a beer and I got a mixed drink (although keep in mind we had polished off an entire bottle of wine at dinner...over the course of a couple of hours, but still).  We started chatting with the bartender, one drink led to another, then he was letting us sample some things, maybe a shot was had.  All in all, I think I had three mixed drinks, two shots and a couple tastes of who knows what.  Michael had I think four beers and various larger tastes of various who knows what.  Ugh.  Given the fact that, as I mentioned before, we definitely never do things like this, we may have had way too much to drink.  Scratch that.  We did have way too much to drink.  And it was probably only about midnight or so when we headed back up to the room.  I am glad we didn't stay at the bar longer, although I felt like I probably could've at the time.  I don't think I have had that much to drink since my bachelorette party.  And, just like at my bachelorette party, I never really have a problem the night that I drink too much....the morning after however.....well, let's just say that I had Michael cancel my room service order for eggs benedict and instead had some toast and ginger ale, hahaha.  I used to (I guess before I was a mom...maybe even well before that) have fun going out and drinking and all that...now I feel like Michael and I would've had just as much fun with our bottle of wine at dinner and then sitting at the bar and talking without the drinks.  We had a great time....but we spent too much and I felt like crap the next morning.  It's ok, we don't do that often, obviously.  And it won't be something that happens anytime soon either (repeat, felt like crap the next morning).  I am lucky that I get to spend quality time with my husband and while next anniversary we will probably just spend it together with us and Sophia, doing something as a family, I am glad that we had this weekend to go out and celebrate in style alone.  It was a fun, memorable, awesome weekend to celebrate three great years together.  :-)     

Celebrating 3 Years

Today Michael and I are dropping Sophia off at my parents' house to spend the night...not something we do too often but we are having a date night to celebrate our three year anniversary! 
Our actual anniversary is on the 28th, in the middle of the week, so we decided that we would do something this weekend.  Last year we celebrated two years as a family...Michael took off of work and the three of us went to the GA Aquarium.  It was a nice, low-key day and we had a fun time together.  The year before that, for our one year anniversary, we stayed at a hotel in Buckhead, went to dinner at the Melting Pot downtown, then got up the next morning and went to brunch at the Sundial restaurant at the Westin Peachtree hotel.  It was nice and romantic...of course Sophia was just a bun in the oven at that time, haha.  We figured this was a year to get back to the romantic celebration, or at least something with just the two of us, so we were thinking more along the lines of something like our first year celebration.  We sort of got busy with planning our Maggie Valley trip and put off making anniversary plans until the beginning of the week....yes, the beginning of this week!  But it actually worked to our advantage!
Let me back track a little.  We actually knew we wanted to have dinner at one of the Buckhead Life restaurants....Michael has had a gift certificate for quite some time now (a substantial one at that) we have wanted to use and we really wanted to use it for something special and most of those restaurants aren't really kid appropriate anyway, so we thought using it for our anniversary would be perfect.  Well, wouldn't you know it, this Saturday is the start of Buckhead Restaurant Week....basically a number of pricey restaurants put together a menu for a week at a bargain price to entice customers in.  I am not arguing with the concept of restaurant week at all...it is super cool and in fact, Atlanta Restaurant week is something Michael and I have gone to a number of years in the past.  We even had our first date at one....and then got engaged after eating at the same restaurant about a year later.  Anyway.  The problem is the restaurants fill up very quickly and we were having trouble getting a reservation for our anniversary dinner because of Buckhead Restaurant week.  Except.  One of the restaurants in the Buckhead Life group isn't actually in Buckhead.  It's in Midtown and it's an awesome Italian restaurant called Veni Vidi Vici and I am so excited that we were able to get a reservation and are going there tonight!!  I know my parents have been a ton and neither of us have ever been so it will be a treat.  Once we figured that out, we wanted to find a hotel semi-close.  And boy, did we find one. 
We found a super awesome deal at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown!!  I am definitely excited about this.  I'm not sure if it was so cheap because we are such last minute or what, but whatever the reason, it was well lower than the (ridiculous, might I just say) regular nightly price that we would never pay for just one evening away, even though it is a special occasion.  I am not really a person who likes to wait until the last minute to make plans...but in this case it seems like things fell into place nicely and the best possible outcome of hotel and restaurant landed in our lap!  We are going to to have such a romantic anniversary celebration this year.  I know three years might not be one of those milestones that should be some huge celebration.  But I think that we get so few chances to just spend time with each other now that Sophia is here (not that I would have it any other way...just that I want to take advantage of any chance I might get to spend time with my husband alone), if we can find a way to afford an awesome anniversary celebration (the dinner is basically free...we are paying with a gift card....we are paying for the hotel....but we were able to get a room at a deep discount) then I am up for doing something great every single year of our marriage.
I'll probably be doing a special post on our actual anniversary, but I couldn't resist blogging today to say how excited I am about our plans for tonight.  I love my husband.  I am still in love with my husband.  We will miss our sweet little girl while we are away from her but will be glad that Gamma and Gampa and Uncle Dill will have fun playing with her and taking care of her while we enjoy time alone together eating yummy Italian food and relaxing at the Four Sesaons celebrating three wonderful years of marriage!

The Snoring Cure?

One of my pet peeves is snoring.  I know it's not really the other person's fault if they snore (I guess) but it annoys me all the same and the older I get the harder time I have getting to sleep so if I have to share a room (or a bed) with someone who snores I know that I am going to have a tough time sleeping unless I can get to sleep before that person.  And since my husband snores, and can fall asleep in about 2 seconds flat, you can imagine how often I fall asleep before him.  To be fair, I don't think he was a snorer (is this an actual word?) when we first got married.  I can't pinpoint when the snoring started, nor can I pinpoint when I started sleeping like crap.  But needless to say, here we are, married for almost three years (exactly, on  Feb 28) and I am a crappy sleeper and he is a snorer. 
Now.  He is not the first person in my life who I have encountered as a snorer.  After my freshman year of college started, my parents decided to turn my room back into an office and I had to share a room with my sister whenever I came home from school.  This was before they moved into the house that they now live in (with all the nice extra space and room for everyone).  It was the only time we ever had to share a room and at first I thought, well, that won't be too bad.  Ugh, I was wrong, and only for the fact that she snores and snores loudly.  All.  Night.  Long.  When I wasn't there she kept a huge menagerie of stuffed animals on the second bed (the one that I slept on when I was there)....throughout the night I would throw an animal across the room at her to try and get her to turn over and stop snoring.  I am sure that as the night went on, my light toss turned into a fast pitch style throw straight at her head.  I was more than relieved when my parents bought a new house, complete with my own new room.  And my brother-in-law must sleep like the dead to have been married to her for six and a half years (no offense, Sara!). 
Even my sweet, gorgeous little girl snores like a sailor.  When she was much younger (three months or so) we noticed how loudly she was snoring and brought it up to the doctor.  The fact that we could even hear it over the monitor some times made us wonder if that was normal.  In fact, within a few months, it was the snoring that made us realize that she was skipping some breaths, which led us to the doctor recommending us having the sleep study done for her.  Thankfully everything turned out ok with that...but she still snores quite loudly.  Whenever we stay away from our house and she stays in the same room with us....well, I don't sleep all that well because she isn't a quiet sleeper. 
Michael has mentioned before that he has seen at the dentist that they can make some custom trays or something that can help with snoring....except they are around $400 or something ridiculous like that.  Truthfully if I added up all the hours of sleep I have lost to snoring it probably would be worth it, but that just isn't something we can afford to spend money on and there are so many other things we could do with money like that so it wouldn't make sense.  Ah well, no sleep for me.  He has worn breathe right strips for over a year now, those things don't really do much at all in the way of stopping snoring.  He uses a nettie pot often to try and clear his sinuses, but as far as preventing snoring, none of that really works. 
Finally, a couple months ago, he came upon a site that sold a mouth gaurd called the ZQuiet that you sleep with that supposedly prevents you from snoring.  It was $70, but he found a coupon that would make it $50....so financially this could work.  Michael never buys anything without reading as many reviews as possible so he read as many as he could for this product, sharing some with me.  My main concern was if he would be able to breathe while he was sleeping with it in his mouth...I just didn't want him choking on his spit or something and gagging or worse from the thing.  He didn't really seem to have those concerns, he just wasn't sure if it would really keep him from snoring.  I thought for $50 it was worth a shot, just as long as it was something safe to try.  Even if he hadn't found the coupon I would've been open to trying it!!  So he went ahead and ordered it. 
It took a little bit to get here, not too long, and finally we were able to try it.  I say we, because even though Michael was the one actually trying it out, I was the one who was hoping that it would work so I wouldn't have to hear any more snoring while I tried to sleep.  On the first night....he didn't wear it the whole night, he said it hurt his jaw after a while.  But those few hours that he did wear it....NO SNORING!!!  I could not believe it.  I actually stayed awake to make sure I could hear him breathing normally but everything sounded ok and as usual he fell asleep fast and when the snorning didn't happen....I was actually able to go to sleep myself as well.  At this point (he has had it now for a couple weeks) he can wear it the whole night and if I can't sleep it is not because of him snoring and once I fall asleep there is no snoring that wakes me up in the middle of the night.  It is awesome.
So now I am enjoying snoreless nights, thanks to ZQuiet (yes, they can contact us if they would like to use us in a commercial, haha).  Although not always sleepless nights, I guess snoring isn't the only thing that keeps me awake (there are always the million things that go through my head that need to be done, various worries, reading blogs, etc).  Oh and the people in the condo upstairs stomping around at all hours of the night, the dogs next door barking all the time....just a couple more things that keep me from sleeping.  But hey, now I can at least cross snoring off the list!!   

Yum is an Understatement!

Ok, so it hasn't been very long since I posted this blog about a banana bread recipe that I like.  Well, I have probably made the recipe about 4 or 5 times since then.  Probably a little excessive for banana bread, I know.  But I freakin love it!  I might be addicted to it and need an intervention.  And a major increase in fiber in my diet to counteract the banana overload.  Anyway. 
I thought I would do just a short blog to add my comments on things I have noticed about this recipe or things I have tried (or plan to try) that work well with or do not work so well with this recipe. 
First of all, four bananas is definitely better than three.  I have tried three, but in that batch I added some chocolate chips.  I was not as much of a fan with the added chocolate chips, but Michael said that he did like the chocolate with the bananas.  I thought it would taste better, and you might like it as much as my husband did, but I like my bananas alone.  Also, I only had normal sized chocolate chips on hand...mini chocolate chips might be better?  I used 3/4 a cup, just so you know. 
While I do just like the banana on its own, I would like to try some cinnamon mixed into a batch of batter as well.  Maybe just a teaspoon?  Will have to experiment with that. 
Also a couple of cooking notes.  I always just use 3/4 cup of sugar...no need to use a full cup, the bananas themselves have sugar in them so it's sweet enough (even though the recipe says you can use a full cup).  The first time I used Pam to coat the pan....it was okay but the second time I heavily margarined a paper towel and buttered the pan up and the loaf came off so clean and the edges didn't burn or brown too darkly at all, they were just perfect so that is what I do now with each batch.  And I wasn't sure about the hour baking time so I kept checking (at like 50 minutes and then 55 minutes, etc) the first time around and sure enough, it took a complete hour.  Now I just set the timer for an hour and then take it out only after the timer goes off.  And it comes out perfect. 
Why am I so obsessed with this recipe?  I couldn't tell ya.  I can say that it does give me something better to eat in the morning than a poptart (yeah, I know that is a crappy breakfast but Sophia would rather I play with her after she is done eating instead of me eating and a poptart is something quick I can shove in my mouth) and I may or may not consider a banana a meal (yes, I have had a banana for lunch and that is better than having nothing for lunch, right?).  Also, it is literally the easiest thing in the world to make.  It has very few ingredients, doesn't take up every bowl/utensil in your kitchen, takes like 5 minutes to prepare, and then you stick it in the oven and forget about it for an hour, then it is done.  Oh, and, if you happen to like bananas, tastes awesome. 
The one thing I need to figure out is how to get the bananas to over ripen quicker.  Our Publix sells the greenest looking bananas you've ever seen.  You can't even eat them for days after you buy them.  So I make Michael buy like 8-10 bananas, of which we will only eat half of so I can have the other half to make the bread with....but we still have to wait a couple weeks till the bananas are ready to use in the bread.  There might or might not have been a time when I have told Sophia that she can't have a banana simply because I have to save it to over ripen so I can use it in the bread.  She's mistreated, I know! :-)  She loves the bread though too so all three of us get to enjoy it when I make a loaf.  I'd love to figure out how to just buy overripe bananas so I could make a loaf whenever I wanted to...then I could give loaves for gifts or give them with gifts or bring them with me when I went to visit with friends (ok, this isn't something I get to do often, but something I'd love to do more...and I'd bring banana bread!!) or to bake sales or whatever.  Oh well.  I guess I'll just try to deal with my banana bread obsession the best way I can for now....just making as many loaves as I can! :-) 

Weekend in Maggie Valley

For Presidents Day weekend my brother had both Friday and Monday off so Michael decided to take a half day on Friday and we rented a cabin in Maggie Valley so we could head up to have a nice long weekend in the snow.  Well, it really didn't snow!  The boys had fun snowboarding most of the day on Saturday while Sophia and I just relaxed and played at the cute cabin.  It actually wasn't even super cold on Saturday so we got to enjoy the porch a little bit too before Sophia's nap time.  The cabin was on a steep hill so we didn't explore too much but Sophia liked being outside and looking for 'birdies'.  Once the snowboarders got home, we ate some dinner and watched a movie....there was snow in the forecast for the next day and we had plans to go snow tubing.  Well, when we woke up on Sunday it was definitely much colder....but raining, not snowing.  We got all geared up and went to snow tube anyway.  The rain let up and Dillon and I had a fun time snow tubing....I guess because of the rain people stayed away so we were able to make a lot of trips down the hills.  The session was for two hours but after a little over an hour we were exhausted!  We had a good time though and felt like we got our money's worth.  It was pretty muddy from the rain so we were wet and dirty and our feet were cold...two hours would've been a bit much.  And maybe white wasn't the best choice for color of my jacket.  Oh well, at least it can be cleaned.  Sophia and Michael watched us from the side (and sometimes the car when it rained a bit) and took some pictures of Dillon and I while we were tubing.  Then we went back to the cabin.  Sophia took a nap while we watched a movie and snacked and mostly we just chilled the rest of the day.  It was supposed to snow but never got cold enough.  And I got a migraine that ended up making me sick so Dillon and Michael played with Sophia for the rest of the night till bedtime.  We got up Monday and packed stuff up and ate breakfast and then headed home.  It was a short trip but I am glad we got to go and spend some time with my brother and that he got to spend some time with Sophia....she pretty much worships her uncle.  :-)  In fact, the first night we were there, she didn't want to go to sleep and was crying in her pack and play.  After she figured out that crying for mommy and daddy wasn't going to get her anywhere she started crying for Uncle Dill, haha.  (That didn't get her anywhere either though, so she gave up and went to sleep)  I only really had a couple complaints about the trip.  The main one was that it didn't snow!!!  How could the Weather Channel be SO wrong??  I was sick of seeing those little snow flakes on my weather channel app but not seeing anything but rain out the window.  Disappointing, but didn't ruin the trip.  The other thing was the lack of hot water for showers.  I can definitely take a quick shower when I need to but on Saturday it was just me and Soph at the house while the boys were gone so I figured once she went in a nap I'd have a nice hot shower and then relax for the afternoon.  Um, no, it didn't quite go that way.  I'm super thankful I didn't have to shave my legs and I don't know what possessed me to think I could condition my hair that day!!  I literally was in the shower for 7 minutes (I had looked at my cell phone right before I got in to see about what time Soph fell asleep) and the hot water didn't last that long.  I had to rinse out my conditioner with cold water...and I'm pretty sure it didn't all come out, since my hair has gotten pretty long and has always been fairly thick.  It's not even like there had been any showers before me at all that day!  And I was sort of going fast anyway, just because Michael had read that they had a small tank or something so I knew I couldn't really take a long shower...but is 10 minutes too much to ask??  I guess so.  The next days I eliminated the conditioner and was a little more successful with not running out but there is really only so fast one can take a shower and actually get all the soap off your body/out of your hair.  Whatever.  Again, it wasn't really something that ruined the trip.  It did make me glad that we didn't have a ton of people staying with us though and that we all staggered our showers throughout the stay!  Overall the weekend was short but a lot of fun.  I am super annoyed that a migraine interrupted the fun and that the medicine I have didn't do its job and I got sick but that is another post altogether.  I really enjoy getting to spend time with my husband and daughter and my brother...he'll be going to college soon and who knows how many more of these little trips he'll want to take with us?! 

Valentine's Day 2012

We had a very nice Valentine's Day in the Santoro house.  We had discussed before hand that we would stay pretty low key this year, wouldn't spend too much (our budget for each other was around $10 and we would not go much over on Sophia since she really doesn't understand the day anyway and has plenty already), no plans to eat out or anything like that, would just be together and enjoy each others company.  I had decided that I would cook a special meal while Michael was at work and also make something for us to have for dessert as well.  Thankfully, Sophia took a great nap so I could get everything done (although she really naps pretty great everyday so I was counting on the time to prepare).  When Michael got home we had an early dinner and then opened up some presents...mostly candy for each of us and both of us had picked a movie the other liked (without the other knowing we chose the very same gift!).....and we had a few cute things for Sophia...some bath toys, a Sesame St movie, a Minnie Mouse book and a small Belle doll., which she loved. Sounds like a lot, but most of the stuff was on clearance. Then we tried to take a few family pictures (Sophia didn't seem in the mood for that for some reason, oh well!) and after that had a yummy dessert and just relaxed and hung out together until bedtime.  It seems like we don't get to do that often enough (always something to do or rushing on to something else) and I hope we can take more time to just enjoy each other because I love my two valentines so very much.  I am lucky to have both my wonderful husband and my precious daughter to share Valentine's Day with me each year.  Hope everyone else had as wonderful a Valentine's Day as I did! 

Some Random Sophia Pics

Not too much to say for this post, the title says it all.  Maybe just a few captions to go along with some random cute pictures.  :-)

Sophia picked this shirt out herself.  Notice her hand on Elmo, she wanted to make sure he was the focal point of the photo!

She is looking like such a big girl these days!

Playing chase over at my parents' house.  Love this smile. 



Gamma (as she calls my mom) got her!  Or did she get Gamma??!!  Either way, she was loving it!

And she loves pushing around this stroller...even with no baby in it!!

Snow Suit/Boot Solution

I am so boring that I am actually updating a previous boring blog.  But I am excited that less than a week before our trip to snowy areas I was able to find snow boots for Sophia that not only match her snow suit, they were on sale and they will be here in just a couple days, and will ship for free (thanks, Zappos, you are awesome!).  I actually had given up the search.  But realized that she really truly didn't have anything that would hold up in the snow and keep her feet warm.  I had considered just using some of her ponytail holders to close the footed ends of her snow suit...but that is obviously stupid, haha.  So glad I got on Zappos today (actually Michael got on there and started the search for me) and found the perfect thing.  I have attached first a picture of Sophia in her actual snow suit (taken with my cell phone so it's a little blurry)....she is, as you can tell, very excited to be wearing it over her pj's.  She was probably sweating off a few pounds as I was taking it.  We made it quick, don't worry!  And then the picture of the snow boots...love them!  They are a size bigger than she wears now so I am hoping that they will work for next winter too....if not that is ok, they will look great with her snow suit and since she has started liking shoes so much I am sure she'll wear them around the house a bit too! :-)  Also, I love Zappos VIP....free one business day shipping?  Yes, please, perfect for any and all last minute snow boot shopping!!  



My Little Cutie Pie

It has been quite a few posts since I have posted pictures of my cutie pie so I am going to try to make the next several posts contain at least a few pictures.  We haven't been doing anything super exciting but I have snapped some good pictures of her lately in our day to day life that I am looking forward to sharing. I thought about doing a 'cell phone dump', like I have seen people do before on various blogs, but when I uploaded pics from my iphone last night there were over 600 (including videos)....so I'll have to do a little weeding out before that happens, haha. Anyway, here is the first of a few picture posts! 
Friday of last week I realized that Sophia and I hadn't been out of the house all week long (well I went out once for my MRI....that didn't really count as a fun outing) so we decided that as soon as Daddy got home from work we would go to the mall for a bit.  While we were waiting for him to come home I got out my camera and we had a little photo shoot.  Sophia decided to be a little ham and we had fun.  :-) 

Cheeese....with Mommy!



Silly face!

No more pictures, Mommy!  Pretty much trying to pull the camera out of my hand!

Ok...I guess we can do some more....

Hey!  I got my bow out!  Nothing new there!! :-) 

Of course I took more than this, she was just being so cute and cooperative while the camera was out (not always the case) but just wanted to post some of the cutest.  Usually we have to take like 20 pics to get 2 or 3 good ones but this time almost all of them were good!  And she is actually getting better about picture taking too.  She will even say cheese when we want her to...most of the time.  :-)  More cutie pie pics to come!!

Round 2 and A Doc Who is Not So On Top Of Things

It has been one week and one day since my second MRI.  I haven't really blogged all the details of it yet...because well...it was sort of similar to the first.  I guess it should've been better, I knew what I was getting into.  And I guess in some ways that made it a little better.  But in some ways that made me even more apprehensive.  Oh, that and the fact that the doc didn't call in my prescription for the so-called 'relaxation' drug until ten minutes until six on the Friday after noon before (I had been calling all day because I knew that I wouldn't be able to get anything the morning of...it was scheduled for 7:45 on Monday morning)...I was pretty close to actually cancelling the whole thing.  I barely made it through the first one with the help of the prescription, I knew there was no chance that I would make it through without. 
Anyway.  Michael and I decided that bringing donuts and bagels would be a nice thank-you to the people there who had already helped me get through the first one and perhaps an I'm sorry to those that still had to deal with me for the second.  It was a lot more crowded, even though it was so early, and we had to wait longer to go back.  This did nothing for my nerves.  Oh and I had taken both pills at the same time, a good couple of hours ahead of time this go round (instead of on the pharmacists suggestion of just 45 min in advance)....I'm not sure exactly what sort of relaxation level I was supposed to get to but all in all I only got a little drowsy. 
I had to have an IV in my arm this time around.  No biggie.  We were in a different room than the MRI machine (thankfully) so I had a relatively low heart rate at the time and I probably didn't even blink as my new tech (poor guy, he seemed really nice, had no idea what he was getting into, haha) put in my IV and capped it off.  Then we had to head into the room of terror, I mean, the room with the MRI machine. 
As soon as we stepped foot in there, I swear, my heart rate went up.  Same as before.  Lay on table.  This time, no blanket, which I think was a little better, not that it helped much but that was one less thing holding me down, so to speak.  Michael was right at my side and the tech at the other, putting the dye in my IV.  One thing I was nervous about (and had asked about a thousand times) was if anyone had ever had any kind of reaction to the dye.  The tech said no.  I just pictured myself getting nauseous and throwing up in the tube and then not being able to sit up or turn my head to the side (remember, cage and something keeping my head straight) and then choking to death on my own vomit before they could get me out.  Sure, it was trendy for Jimi Hendrix to go out that way but he wasn't doing something as commonplace as having an MRI and he was way cooler than me to start with anyway. They let me lay there a minute to try and 'relax', which didn't ever happen, but I never felt sick or anything so I figured my worse case scenario (with the dye, not necessarily the machine itself) wasn't going to happen. 
It wasn't as long as the first time around, I will give them that.  But just as loud and dark and closed in.  I needed one break, after a particularly long set.  Michael did good, talked the whole time and held my hand.  I may not have felt quite as panicked as the first time, but still just very very scared and I really don't think that there is anything I could say or do or think or take to make that different.  As we left, the tech said that maybe if I had to have another MRI I could get it done at Northside and they could put me under, like they do for babies and small children.  I am not at all insulted, that sounds like a wonderful suggestion, one that you'd think my doctor would've suggested after hearing about the debacle of my first MRI. 
And that is another story, really the main topic of this post.  Michael had asked every day when he has gotten home from work if I have heard from the doctor yet on the results of the second MRI.  Nope.  Apparently, he is being asked a lot, haha.  I have even been asked what is the status.  But I just figured that no news is probably good news.  And also I have figured that if they didn't call to say I have to go back and do more tests, that this is good news for me.  Although not necessarily results.  Anyway, I finally called yesterday, in the morning, and left a message for the assistant to my doctor.  She called me back, close to 5 and said that the doctor hasn't even looked at my scans yet.  Um, what?  She said he wouldn't be in that office today and she would have him take a look at them on Wednesday and then she would call me and let me know what he sees.  Uh, ok.  I guess.  That is surely not the same as 'no news is good news'.  That is more like 'no news is the lazy doctor hasn't even looked to see if there is any news' news.  So now I guess you could say I am a tiny bit more apprehensive than I was before.  I could still hear that I need to do more testing.  Or that he found something on the scans?  A possibility that I haven't really thought too hard about....one that I will just wait to see what he says before I start googling like crazy or worrying like crazy or anything like that.  But I am still pretty annoyed that it took him over a week and a half to just look at the scans.  The last time he sure jumped on them and ordered another more testing before I could even recover from the torture of the first test....just saying!