There simply aren't enough hours in the day.

The crazy whirlwind that we call our life has continued to spin despite my desperate pleading for it to slow down.

Last week I was crazy busy with work as we were vendors at a convention in Grapevine.  I would spend part of the day in the office and the other part manning the booth and talking to complete strangers.  I'd come home just in time for Josh to leave for one of his games, it was a very, very busy week.

Thursday night, however, turned out to be a lot of fun.  My sister in law had a sonogram that day and they found out the sex of their baby.  I begged my brother through text messages to tell me what it was but he held firm and said he'd let us know that night at dinner.  Josh and I invited the family over for dinner and games, Tony and Melanie showed up with cupcakes, blue, white and pink ones. :)

Dad and Tony wrestled as the rest of us helped prepare dinner. Ahh, the memories of childhood.

Mom succeeded in burning off the fingerprint from her middle finger while cooking.  And you wonder where I get my gracefulness. :)

Dinner was delicious.  But we were all so consumed with the impending news that we just stuffed our faces as fast as we could.

When we had finally finished and gotten the table cleaned up Tony and Mel grabbed the gender coded cupcakes and tried their best to throw us all off.  I captured the big news in the video below:

We were all so excited to hear that the little Koch peanut is going to be a baby BOY!!!

He should be here by mid-October.  Just in time to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary!  Here's a picture of the little guy courtesy of Melanie's facebook page. :)

We finished the night off with a game of Settlers in which my brother finally took it to us Morgans.  We both have excuses though, Josh wasn't able to be his normal color because Melanie stole it from under him and I was distracted by mom's whining about her poor blistered finger (tee hee) and Dad's jaw dropping comments about what pain pills can do for a whiny woman. :)  It was a fantastic night though.

That following Saturday, May 15th, or as Melanie and Athena call it, the most bestest day of the year, we celebrated Athena's 14th and Melanie's 25th Birthdays.  Bug-a-boo had a Luau birthday party and God was gracious enough to clear the skies and bring out some sunshine for the poolside fiesta.  It was originally supposed to be a boy girl party but surprise, surprise, none of the boys showed up.  :)  Ah, to be 14 again.  

It was so much fun getting to watch her interact with her friends and to spend time with my family.  Here are a few pictures from her party.  You can find more on my dad's photography website.

That night the entire family went out to celebrate Melanie's birthday at Uncle Julios.  Not surprisingly, I forgot my camera, so I stole this picture from Mel's facebook page once again. :)

Oh - and I completely forgot to add Friday night's festivities in there!  Kellie and Cameron had a little get together with insanely good fajitas and yummy drinks, it was really great getting to spend some time with friends we hadn't seen in a while.  Thanks again for having us over guys!

I know that things are only going to continue to get busier for us as the summer months approach.  Jamie's wedding is less than two months away and I'm preparing for showers, parties and wedding festivities as I write this.  Little baby Matthew will continue to grow inside of Melanie and soon enough I'll be writing about his arrival!  We continue to be thankful for every single blessing given to us and love being able to share our lives with you all.  We hope that you'll keep checking back for more updates!

It's May already???

I cannot get over how quickly this year is passing.  It's already May!

Surgery Update:  I realize that it's been 10 days since surgery and I haven't updated y'all on the results.  I found myself unusually calm leading up to surgery that Friday morning.  Before I knew it I was waking up in recovery.  The doctor found NO SIGN of endometriosis, praise the LORD!  He did however find an adhesion that could have been causing me some pain and had it removed.  We were so happy with that news.  Recovery wasn't too terrible.  Friday I was out of it most of the day, Saturday was miserable spent throwing up and feeling like death, Sunday I finally felt a little more human, still very sore and tired.  I was back to work Monday, though, thanks to my mom who graciously lended me her laptop so I could work from bed.  It's now been over a week and I feel like I'm 95% back to normal.  I still have the steri-strip on my belly button that will come off either today or tomorrow, and I cannot workout or do any heavy lifting yet.  But after this week I should be back to 100%!  So thankful.

My sister in law will be here soon.  Just a few more days until she's in Texas for good.  I'm so eager for her to get here!

We finally recieved our wedding pictures and I couldn't have been more excited.  There are so many beautiful images and I am very thankful to Miss Kay Turner for all of her hard work and for taking the time to shoot our big day.  Flowers were complements of Miss Tami Winn and the cake was made for us by Mr. and Mrs. Milam.  Here are a couple of my favorite pictures.  You can find these and more on my facebook albums. Here and Here. 

Other than that things are pretty much the same.  Josh and I are both busy working during the week and relaxing/playing on the weekends.  We're looking forward to our sister, Jamie's wedding, in July and all of the events that are leading up to it. 

More posts as life rolls on...

Quick Update

I am fully aware that I've been slacking on the updates.  Things around here are crazy busy as usual. 

This morning is my pre-op appointment for surgery tomorrow.  I'll be doing some blood work and getting details on the procedure.  I'm anxious, but I also know that I'm in God's hands and He already knows the outcome.

Surgery is scheduled for 10:00 tomorrow morning, April 23rd.  Hopefully it will be a quick in and out surgery with no complications.  Prayers are definitely apprecaited.  As soon as I'm up and functioning I'll be sure to get an update to you all. 

God is good.... All the time.

Holding God's Hand...

Yesterday was a much anticipated doctors appointment for me.  Back in 2005 I had my right ovary removed.  It was a routine surgery to remove what they thought was a cyst.  After opening me up they realized that it was not a cyst at all but a tumor, and it had completely taken over my ovary.  We were so thankful to learn that it was benign and that everything would get better. 

Here we are five years down the road and I still have terrible pain every once in a while.  I've been in and out of doctors offices, on medicines, off medicines... I have recently started to feel like a guinea pig.  A test subject.  Well, we just don't know what's wrong with you so let's try this out.  It's always, let's give it some time, come back in a few months if it's still bad.  Well I've finally had enough.

I met with the surgeon who preformed my surgery to talk yesterday.  They ran some tests, did an ultrasound and he gave me two choices.  The first choice was to take the passive route; wait another three months or so, if the pain and other issues continue, come back and we'll do a laproscopic surgery.  Or take the aggressive route and do the surgery now.  Tired, defeated and absolutely at the end of my rope, we scheduled the procedure. 

One possible diagnosis that keeps getting thrown around is endometriosis.  A word that I absolutely despise.  A word that makes me cringe.  A word that sends worries and anxieties shooting through my brain.  This surgery is the only way that endometriosis is diagnosed.  Sure I have all of the symptoms but it's not easily diagnosed... the only way is to open me up and take a looksy.  If they happen to find this while they're in there they will burn what they can find.  There is no cure for endometriosis.  It is something that I would have to live with my entire life.  It is manageable, but the one word that comes up that breaks my heart every time is infertility.  I've known several women with this who have had children, so I am hopeful.  But I am also human.  I worry, I get anxious. 

Another option is that I have scar tissue from my surgery 5 years ago that has attached somewhere in my abdomen and is causing issues.  THIS is what we're hoping for.  If they go in and find this they'll burn it, stitch me up, and we'll all move on with our lives.  Lord willing.

If they find nothing.... they stitch me up and we look at other possible options.  This surgery will give me peace of mind.  Answers.  No matter what, when I wake up I will have an answer.  Even if it is, "sorry we couldn't find anything."

The procedure is scheduled for April 23rd.  It will be quick and hopefully minimally invasive.  I'm not writing about this to get sympathy.  That is not what I want at all.  I'm writing about this because it's on my mind.  Its weighing heavy on my heart and this is where I go when I need to vent.  Prayers, of course, are always appreciated.  I'm taking a deep breath right now, not thinking too far ahead, and taking a firm grip on God's hand, clinging tight to the knowledge that He already knows the outcome.  He already knows if there are children in our future and He has already started to prepare my heart for the journey.  I am holding on tight knowing that He is walking beside me.  Not letting go. 

Bridals by the lovely and talented Hillary Anne

I posted a while back about going on my bridal photo shoot with Hillary.  Well when we were visiting the other weekend she dropped the CD with my images in my bag!  I'm thrilled with how they turned out.  She never, ever ceases to impress me.  PLEASE, if you're looking for a photographer consider Hillary as a great option!  Thanks again, Hil, you're incredible.

Why can't we play a time out in real life?

So... It's been a while since I've blogged here.  Some of you may think I'm slacking.  Rest assured that I am not!  Life is just a whirlwind of events, parties, lunches, dinners, games, sleeping.... Today I'm calling a time out to make some time to write.  I may have a growing to do list at work, laundry piling up in the closet and a pup that could use a good walk... but I need this for me.

Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to lately.

A couple of weekends ago we headed out to McKinney to spend some time with our friends Brian and Hillary.  They made an incredible meal of chicken and beef fajitas and we enjoyed some delicious frozen margaritas made by yours truly.  We stayed up all night playing games and decided to spend the night to get as much time with them as possible.  It was the first time Josh and I had spent the night at a friends house together.  It was pretty cool.  I couldn't help but to pass a giggle when we said goodnight.  Maybe someday I'll get used to this whole marriage thing.  The following morning they took us to breakfast at the Original Pancake House... I had the best egg white omelet I've ever tasted.  We had a blast spending time with them and just wish we could do it more often.  Here are a few pictures from our time together.

Brian and Elle during game time

Playing some Settlers... Brian won the first game and I won the second!

Then we played a game of Guestures... Where Hillary and I kicked some major butt. 

Let's see.... So what else is new?  Hmm... Well I got my hair done, needed to get ready for spring so I threw in some beautiful highlights complements of the beautiful and talented Cherie Wiggins.  

Josh and I attended a pre season game for the Rangers thanks to Derek who was kind enough to give us his tickets.  The seats were awesome and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We made a date night out of it and ate at BJ's (one of my favorite restaurants). To top it all off the Rangers won their game, too!

Josh has been keeping busy with flag football on Sundays and softball games every Tuesday and Wednesday nights. 

Easter weekend was great.  My mom invited everyone over to their house to celebrate with games and great food.  She asked me to bring a few things for dinner so I decided to make my grandmother's homemade rolls and my great aunt Carolyn's sweet potato casserole.  Lucky for me they both turned out beautifully!  Sunday morning after church we headed over to my parent's house.  My aunt, uncle, two baby cousins, Tony, Mel, Athena, Mom, Dad, Gary, James and his fiance Amanda were all over for dinner.  It was a packed house but we had a great time hovering around the busy kitchen and chatting the evening away.  I'm always overwhelmed on Easter- its a beautiful time to embrace the love of Christ and to remember the great sacrifice he made to save us all.  I am so thankful that He is Risen!!!  I slacked on picture taking but managed to capture a few...

Teaching Claire and Victor how to play Settlers

Sweet Little Ryan and his adorable little hat

Mom making some yummy food

Finally a picture of my brother and me!

The day before Easter my dad got all of us kiddos together for a family photo shoot at the sculpture by the museum.  It's become a tradition and this would be the first time our entire family would be together, including husbands and wives (and little unborn peanut babies).  It was so much fun getting to shoot pictures with my family!!  You can find more images on my dad's photography website here.

Other than that.... not too much has been going on here. :)  Just living our lives the best way we know how.  I was fortunate enough to meet my girlfriends for dinner last night, a much needed night out with girls I love so very much.  Josh will be away this coming weekend spending time with his friends at Lee's bachelor party.  He is SO excited... I'll miss him like crazy, but I know he'll be having the time of his life. 

I'll be making more posts today.  Gotta chop it up a little bit.  Thanks for keeping up!!