End of the break :)

How And yet another school break is ending. We really didn't do anything exciting this last week, which I am totally fine with. Audree, Eliott, and I just hung out, watched tv, and played. 

I snuck in some work here and there it nothing major. I always tell myself that breaks will be so productive and then they just...aren't. 

We have people coming to see the house tonier so hopefully that's a good thing! That means another morning running around and tidying up. I am excited about the new house but constaby getting ours ready to show isvexhausting with two little kids! I mean, did you SEE the mess Eliott made in the pictures up there? He did that in a few minutes. Seriously, like three minutes. I swear he hears me clean up his toys and he runs to get them back out. They have to be accessibly to him. On the floor. Making a mess. And creating little land mines for us parents to trip on and (silently) curse at. 

How can you not just love that face?! Audree was hiding in her fort with her iPad. Today she only came to me when she wanted food or her Valentine's Day candy. 

She has a game tomorrow bright and early so she told me she needed to relax today. This girl is a drama queen. Apparently I got what my parents rushed for, a little girl just like me! 😉

I was able to steal a picture of her dressing up yesterday and teaching Eliott how to build a house with his Legos!

Freezing!

Well, we are on our mid-winter break and it has been FREEZING. Sure, some people think, "well, duh..." but we live in Georgia. I like that our winters are short and our summers are long. If I could, I would live at the beach somewhere year-round where I wouldn't need to own a winter coat. Maybe one day!

Since my last post (I told you it takes me a while to get in the swings of updating often) our little man has turned 1! He is absolutely perfect and is constantly playing, smiling, talking, bossing us around, and laughing. I can't help but look at him and see a little person who loves his life and his blanket. I feel so blessed every time he laughs and others say, "He's always so happy!".

We've also been having a lot of fun watching Audree play her first season of basketball! I'm helping coach so I get to be there for the practices each week and she has really shown so much growth!! I'm hoping that she loves basketball more than softball, even though I have a whole family of in-laws who might disagree! 

Speaking of softball, that starts up this week! At least, it will if the fields are completely thawed. Thankfully, I am in charge of the indoor sports and Alex takes care of the outdoor. ;)

As far as everything else going on, we have been busy! We are moving! But not far. We love our neighborhood (and our house!) but we are buying a family member's house and moving 10 houses down. The new house is bigger than the one we have now. It's beautiful and I am super excited! We are hoping to sell ours pretty quickly so once the weather warms up we should have people in here and falling in love with it! 

Also, Alex and I have been counting calories to try and lose weight. After all of the thyroid surgery stuff and having a second baby, I felt like my weight was out of control. I'm about 6 weeks in and I've lost 10 pounds, just by watching how much I'm eating! I've been able to go to Zumba a couple of times (my favorite!) and I'll be picking it up more often once Audree's practice schedule changes next week. I still want to lose more but I definitely can feel the difference and I'm starting to feel like my normal self again. Whew! 

Everything else is the same. We are busy with work, school, sports, and freezing our butts off. I'm ready for the weather to warm up (have I said that enough??) and for spring activities to get started!

Isolation: Day 3

So today is my third full day of isolation. (4th if you count Wednesday). I consider myself to have accomplished a lot: 

*washed all of the laundry that I've used (sheets, towels, pjs...)

*washed all of the dishes

*cleaned the kitchen

*organized the bathroom drawers

*folded the last load of laundry

*hung up the kids' clothes

*watched way too much Grey's Anatomy (if there is such a thing)

*spent too much time on social media

*took a nice, long bubble bath

*took a nap

That's it. I cannot seem to get myself motivated to do anything else. 

Oh! I did break out of my quarantine for a drive to Chick-fil-A for a peppermint milkshake. That was totally worth it. 

Tomorrow everyone gets to come home. We are going to go on our last round of Christmas shopping. I am so ready to have everything done so that I can wrap them and not stress this week! 

I'm trying to think of some wonderful, witty, humor-filled entry to provide everyone but I seem to be lacking in ideas. 

Random thoughts: 

*not having a "topic" is what has been my blog downfall in the past. 

*Is it bad that I caught myself wondering if I could get into the school next week to maybe get a few things done? 

*The theme and date for Eliott's birthday have been set so I get to start planning all of that once this week is over! 

*We are going to surprise the kids (mostly Audree) next week and go to Snow Mountain. I think it'll be so much fun! 

*I hate that I'm missing Callie's wedding right now. I'm sure it's beautiful and that she is a perfect bride. Alex is there so I'll try to pull as many details from him as possible! Can't wait to see pictures! 

*I am SO ready to HOLD Eliott! 

*Audree has her first loose tooth and you can see the one coming in behind it!! Poor girl, it looks like it's so big! We may need to start saving for braces now. 

*I want to know where everyone went to class to learn how to wrap presents. Because I'm the worst at it! I pick the ugliest part of the present and stick a bow on it to try and cover it up. It's brutal and I'm glad my kids won't know to judge me. 

Okay well that about sums up what has been going on with me today!

Welcome!

Hello! I'm Elyse and I have been kind of a spotty-blogger in the past. I'm working on it and decided I needed to start a brand new one because it has literally been two YEARS since I last posted on my tumblr. I have a teaching blog that I'm also working on and it's on Blogger so I decided to make it easier on myself and start the new one here! 

Anyways! Like I said, I'm Elyse. I am 27, a mother, a wife, a teacher, and I'd probably be more if I had the time. I have two BEAUTIFUL children named Audree and Eliott. A is 5 and E is 10 months. 

My husband's name is Alex and we have been married for 6 years. We met FOREVER ago and he is willing to put up with me and all of my craziness! 

I am a 4th grade teacher and I LOVE it! I am in my 4th year of teaching and it's my first year in 4th grade. I've taught 1st for three years and while I loved every minute, I am definitely more of an older-kids teacher! 

As I mentioned before, this is not my first try at a blog. I recently decided to get back into blogging because I am in "isolation" from radiation. I have had hypothyroidism for the past few years and everything was going normal. Over this past summer I realized that my symptoms were coming back and it was time to get my levels checked anyways. I made an appointment and I went during our October break. During the visit, my doctor asked me if I had ever had an ultrasound done on my thyroid. I said no and she said she wanted to get one done that day. Across the hall we went and she showed me a nodule that she said she could feel during the exam. She then told me that it was at about 1.5 cm and that when they reach 1 cm she likes to do a biopsy. I asked what that meant and her response was that she wanted to do a biopsy right then. It was an in-office procedure with 5 needles right in my neck. No numbing! She told me that 95% of the time it's nothing. 4% of the time the nodule can be taken care of with an adjustment in medication. less than 1% of the time does she say that the thyroid should come out. 

She called two weeks later and said that she wanted my thyroid removed. My results came back as "atypical cells" and (even though I wasn't supposed to look) everything online says that it usually means cancerous or precancerous. Three weeks later I was being prepped for surgery and my thyroid was removed. 

Two days later they called to tell me that the pathology on my thyroid showed Stage 1 Thyroid Cancer. Weird! 4 weeks after that, I have to take this scary high dose of radioactive iodine and I have to be at my house for five days with no one else. The kids have gone to my mother-in-law's and Alex is staying there too. 

5 days of peace should be wonderful, right? No. It's boring. I LOVE having the kids running around and Eliott destroying anything he can get his hands on. I LOVE Audree showing us the interesting outfits she has come up with as she does a fashion show for us multiple times each night. I'm sure there will be one day where I look back and regret not soaking this all up but right now is not that day. Today is day 2. I have two more before they can come home. I just want to be normal! This has been a whirl-wind last couple of months. I cannot believe I had an entire organ removed and that it had cancer in it. I cannot believe that I had to take radiation to kill any thyroid cells that are left over in fear that they will regenerate and be cancerous again. Like...seriously? 

So anyways, my goal for this blog is to document how things are going with the four of us! Here we go!