Easter and an Update

I'll begin with Easter since that will be a load of pictures. It was our first Easter without my mom doing the cooking. She and Rich were in Tennessee to visit his family so the Secret Six were left on their own for the preparation of the Easter feast! It went oh-so-well. We even hosted Amberly's in-laws. How much do we rock?

Haha, ok, so for some reason Leo refused to smile for me. I was persistent and asked him to please smile so I could take his picture, and this is what I got.......

He's a real comedian, isn't he?

Then he just got carried away making faces and thought it would be fun to make this one.

I guess this counts for a smile..?

This is what we call a "Gregg Face"

Evan decided things had gotten a little too wild for him so he sought refuge in the dog crate

"You didn't see anyone follow me here, did you?"

So that was our Easter. I can't believe spring break has come and gone. It's kind of like Christmas or your wedding day. You look forward to it for sooooo long, and then when it's over it feels like minutes. I had a busy spring break and got to catch up with a bunch of people I don't always get to see, so that was nice. Now I only have 9 weeks left in the school year before summer time! I'm very excited for my summertime [another huge event that seems to go by lightning quick].

I also want to give a quick update on the moles I had removed. I know you've all been biting your nails and praying non-stop. I got a phone call from the dermatologist on Tuesday and she said that the results showed mild-moderately atypical cells. They weren't cancerous but had the potential to cause problems later if left alone. Additionally, I need to have a re-excision of both spots (removal of more tissue) for further testing and to make sure that everything problematic is gone. So while the news wasn't devastating, it definitely doesn't give me warm-fuzzies. I'm upset that there were atypical cells in two different places on my body and wonder where others might be. I don't like that the cells were atypical enough that they want to remove and test more tissue. I really hate that I feel scared to go out in the sun. Summer is my absolute favorite and as stupid as it sounds, I love a good summer tan. I'm going on a cruise for 9 days in the caribbean. I don't want to come home as white as the white-sand beaches I was too scared to lay on.

I think the key is not burning. And it makes sense that the atypical cells were found on the backs of my shoulders since that is probably the place that has seen the most sunburn in my life. My first reaction was to go out and buy SPF 70+ [aka, a parka] to wear any time I go out in the sun, but the truth is my skin is just not that sensitive. I wore SPF 30 in Aruba [just about ON the equator] in December and came home the same color as my husband who slathered himself in SPF50 and sat with the sun to the back of his beach chair with a cover over it and a towel over his head [see the slideshow in my sidebar]. So maybe I'll take some 15 and some 30 and see how that goes.

I'll let you know when I schedule my reexcisions so you can pray for them too. I have to have them done at 2 separate times since they will leave pretty decent incisions [about 8 stitches] and they are in a very moving-part location. They really advised me not to do much with the shoulder I have stitches in right now, so when it's an incision twice the size I'm sure it will be a little more inhibiting.

On a more exciting note, Jenna's stepdad Tim was generous enough to come to our house and give us some flooring advice. He does construction for a living so he knows how to do flooring and knows what a decent price is. He directed us to a place that he believes will have the very best prices on the flooring itself [www.lumberliquidators.com]. He also said we should get an installation estimate from them and if they can't do it for less than $1200, he and a friend of his will come do it for that much. Yippeeeeeee! We did some online shopping right away and didn't find exactly what we were looking for, but we plan to go to their store to look around some more next week. I'm very very excited. This also makes me wonder if I should go ahead and paint my kitchen before we put the floors in, then I don't have to worry about dripping paint on my brand new floors! I will update on that as soon as we know more - I'm very excited about this [if you couldn't tell :)]

And finally, I'm off to pack and prep for our annual Deep Creek weekend!!! We go every spring to visit my grandmother for her birthday. This is our 3rd annual trip. We started the tradition two years ago when she was turning 89. Grandmom has given us a few scares over the years and so we decided we'd better go visit since we don't know how many birthdays are left. Her birthday is April 12th - which was Easter Sunday this year, so we planned our trip for this weekend instead. It usually proves to be a BLAST and it's the perfect time of year to book a hotel room at Wisp Resort - skiing season is over, and the summer / lake activities haven't quite started up in full force yet. We get a killer cheap rate on a room and get to spend a few days enjoying the mountain air :) This year will be a little different because we'll be taking my dad up with us. Before his stroke he went to my grandmother's every fourth week (he and his 3 brothers all took turns) to take care of her. Now he hasn't been up there since before then. I'm sure they have missed each other, and though he put up some resistance about going he finally admitted that if he didn't go with us he'd "never live it down." Hahaha, so true. So Josh, myself, my dad, Ben and Jenna will all be piling into Sue for the 2+ hour trip to Deep Creek. There are a few hiccups I'm anticipating, but hopefully it won't get much worse than those. My dad will stay with my grandmom so we're planning on getting there in the early afternoon, visiting until evening and then heading over to the hotel to get ourselves settled in. We'll probably have dinner with the Cookes since they live so close to there and it would just be a pity not to visit with them when in such close proximity ;) Sunday we'll visit a little more and then get on the road back home. I'm looking forward to it, and I know YOU are eagerly anticipating the pictures!

Was this post long enough for you? I started to feel like Jenna [ha! I love you Jen and your SUPER long blog posts!!! :)]