Home again

I must say that at times like this, I'm reminded that I am definitely aging. We are back from our trip to Daytona, sunburned/tan, tired and happy. We had a great time but I am so tired and so happy that tonight we get to sleep in our own bed! I'm sure Charlie is happy about that as well, given the fact that he slept in the closet while we were in Daytona! :) His parents can't sleep well with all the moaning and groaning that comes from his little person (for those of you who haven't slept near a baby, they sound like farm animals when they sleep), and he requires almost total darkness and a white noise machine to get his shut-eye. So into the closet he went and he slept great, just like he does at home. What a trooper.

Some of the highlights of our trip:
1 - Parasailing! We went parasailing on Wednesday and it was so much fun! I expected more of a rush since it has always seemed to me to be such a daring and exciting thing to do but it really wasn't scary at all. Quite the opposite, actually - it was surprisingly peaceful and quiet a thousand feet above the beach. The speedboat ride from the beach out to the boat was fun and take-off was a blast (you just sit down, all hooked up, while the captain speeds up and then the wind just lifts you off the boat). But my personal favorite part of the adventure was when the pilot repeatedly dippsed us into the water as the flight was ending. But I am left wondering...whoever thought to suspend humans from a huge kite and let them soar through the air attached via rope to a boat?

2 - ME TIME! For about 4 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, I was able to sit by the pool and beach and just read. Ryan's parents stayed up in the room while Charlie napped and I had the best time. I realized that I have not had more than an hour to myself since Charlie was born - 4 hours seemed like heaven.

3 - The food! Ryan's parents treated us to all their favorite restaurants and we ate so much. I'm going to have to go to the gymn every day until 2009 to work off all the extra pounds I packed on but hey, it was worth it. Our favorite place was a seafood/ribs/wings place called Charlie Horse. Ryan ordered the all-you-can-eat crab leg special and consumed over 2.5lbs of crab in one sitting. Needless to say, he was a little uncomfortable for the rest of the night! As for me, I ordered the ribs and they were SO DELICIOUS! By far the best ribs I've ever had. We highly recommend it.










4 - You can drive on the beach in Daytona! And not like you drive on the beaches of the Outer Banks in NC. Daytona is a crazy busy beach with tons of sunbathers, walkers, joggers, kids, fishermen and...drivers! It's very bizarre to see such heavy traffic on a busy commercialized beach but it was still neat-o. The parasailing shuttle drove us right down the beach, directly to the tent where we signed up. Very convenient. One more thing: the icecream truck even drives on the beach!

And now for the pictures...I admit they aren't the most magnificient pictures we've ever taken and posted but I know everyone prefers pictures to written blog entries anyway. :)

Charlie in his SPF 55+ beach garb - isn't he a pale little guy?















Ryan "scaring" Charlie with his crab legs















Ryan, his mom, Charlie and I hanging out on the beach




















Dad and his little man















Charlie & Me
































Charlie chillin' on the beach in his car seat















See, I told you the icecream truck drives on the beach!

So long, Blog

Tomorrow we are leaving for our first official vacation as a family of three - we are going to Daytona Beach, FL with Ryan's parents. They own a timeshare down there and have been asking us to join them for years. So this year we decided to take them up on it. We're hoping for some free babysitting and maybe a date or two while we're gone. :) So don't get lonely, blog, we'll be back next week with lots of pictures!

Update

I'm so happy to report that my sister is doing well and while the official pathology report won't be back until next week, we have every reason to believe that this was a benign tumor. Below is the update from my brother-in-law. I couldn't have said it any better!

"Anna's surgery was yesterday morning. Everything went perfectly! Anna will be sore and have to take some pain medication for a couple of days and then should be back to her ole self! The surgeon said that looking at the tumor there is NOTHING about it that shows any signs of any cancer. They have sent it off the the lab to be tested to make 100% sure and we should know that some time next week. Basically the Doctor didn't want to go "on record" saying it was cancer-free, just in case, but that look in his eye to us, was basically saying not to worry at all, because it's not Cancer (just like all the biopsies showed)!
So many folks that we all have known & loved over the years have struggled, fought and battled with cancer... so we are overwhelmed with joy that God's sovereign plan for our little family right now was not to have to fight that battle. But what a comfort to know that that same
faithful God would have led us even if the news would have be bad!
Thank you all for your prayers. It's a true blessing to have so many friends and family praying, calling, and emailing... and having the 2 grandmothers cooking us lots of food is nice too!!! But hard on the diet!
Thanks Again, We love you guys,
Anna, Tyson & David!"

And in other news, I have a new phone! Whew - Nokia to the rescue!

July 4th

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ryan and I spent the week-end of July 4th with my family at Jekyll Island, GA. Jekyll is a quaint little island about 1 1/2 hours from Savannah. It is part of my childhood as it boasts the water park nearest to Savannah, Summer Waves. I spent countless hours during middle and high school riding to and from Jekyll in the IPC van, sunburned and car sick. Fun times. Anyway, back to 2006: Ryan and I drove down to Jekyll from Savannah last Sunday night and checked into the hotel. First order of business was to take the dogs down to the beach (yes, Tyke and Scooby went on vay-cay with us). They loved it, of course. Unfortunately Tyke drank too much salt water and got ocean water diarrhea but that's another story. After taking them to the beach, we went to a fabulous restaurant right on the water. It's basically just a window on the end of pier where you can order alcohol and various types of fresh seafood. We opted for the ever-popular low country boil (a.k.a. frogmore stew if you are from South Carolina) and margaritas. Yum. My fam joined us at the hotel on Monday and we proceeded to do nothing but eat, drink and sit by the pool for the next 2 days. Charlie enjoyed the time with his aunts, uncles and grandparents and we enjoyed all the free baby sitters. One last bit of info from the trip: we saw the space shuttle shoot across the sky shortly after take-off on Tuesday. Very cool experience. Everyone at the pool was captivated by the sight and we all looked on in awe together.

Here are some pictures...

Such is life

I've been "MIA" for the past week, unreachable via phone or email and (obviously) not blogging. There are 3 reasons for this:
1 - My phone broke last Wednesday/Thursday so I don't have anyone's phone numbers (I haven't memorized a phone number since I got my first cell phone in college). I can only call people that are on my speed dial and even then it works really unreliably.
2 - We just got back from a trip to Savannah and Jekyll Island, GA last night. And we didn't get cell phone service on Jekyll.
3 - A family crisis...I am still too stunned to really type much about this one so I'll paste an email that my brother-in-law David sent out this morning.

More on all of this later after I've recovered from the trip and the news below...


From David Gross:
"About 2 weeks ago Anna found a large bump on one of her breasts. About a week ago she had several needle biopsy samples taken to determine what the bump was. After 2 nerve-wrenching days we found out last Friday that the growth was benign (not cancer). All 7 samples that were taken were benign.
The bump is called a fibroid adenoma. It is already large, and the doctor said it more than likely would continue to grow. That, combined with the fact that Anna has a family history of breast cancer means that she will have surgery to remove it.
Her surgery will be next Wed. 7/11/06 at St. Joseph's. She will be put under, however, she will be able to come home that same night. So no overnight stay!
We covet your prayers that Anna's surgery & recovery would go well and that 100% of the growth is benign (they are 98% sure it's all benign, but they are never 100% sure until they take it out and examine the entire thing.)
Sorry for the mass email, but thankfully we have way too many family and friends to call everyone. Again, thanks for your prayers and thoughts, and I'll be sure to update everyone next week after her surgery. "