On a serious note.

Early in my pregnancy, before I even told anyone I was pregnant, I discovered I had hyperthyroid levels. It was found in the whole blood screening that was ordered during my first midwife appointment. It was recommended that I go to a perinatalogist since she was concerned what my hormone levels would do to my unborn child. But they were too busy and didn't have an opening for an appointment for months so I instead was sent to an endocrinologist. He wasn't worried at first when he saw me. He said pregnancy can sometimes throw off hormone levels a little, and mine weren't too far off. Then he felt my thyroid and felt a growth. He was surprised, he didn't expect to find that. He brought in a little ultrasound machine and measured my growth. He recommended a needle biopsy to check for cancer.

So a week later I went down to the hospital. There I laid on a table while a tech guided my doctor with an ultrasound to put needles in the middle of the growth so he could draw out some samples. It was an uncomfortable procedure, but not bad enough that I needed painkiller. It felt like getting several shots in my neck all at once.

The biopsy came back unclear. He couldn't say if I didn't or did have cancer from the results. To get more answers I would need a full biopsy by completely removing the whole growth. But he didn't think it was pressing enough to push for further action during my pregnancy. I was so happy to go back to just visiting my midwife and preparing to meet my new baby.

A couple of weeks after my baby was born I met with my doctor again. I was hoping that I could push the surgery back a year until after I finished nursing. My doctor was really uncomfortable with waiting that long. I talked him into letting me wait until by baby was three months old.

My saint of a sister and her husband volunteered to spend their Christmas with us since my surgery was scheduled just a couple of days before Christmas. We had some fun playing and exploring in NM before my surgery date.

The surgery went well. We didn't have to wait long in the waiting room. The nurses and doctors all explained things well and answered our questions. I didn't get nauseous from the anesthesia, so that's wonderful. After the surgery I was really out of it, but the preliminary results from pathology looked like I was in the clear.

We had a great Christmas. I got to feeling good again really quick. It was about four days after my surgery and I was feeling basically back to normal outside of some localized discomfort. I never really needed much pain killers.

At my post-op appointment I met with the surgeon who gave me the full pathology report. It turned out that there was a small area that was malignant. I did, in fact have thyroid cancer. But it was already gone, they took the whole thing out during the surgery. She didn't seem to think that I'd need any further action beyond periodical monitoring to make sure it didn't grow back.

I'm feeling really blessed that my brush with cancer has been relatively minor. If I hadn't been pregnant it's not likely that I would have found the growth on my thyroid. I could barely tell it was there after it was pointed out to me. I really doubt that the perinatalogist would have found it either, since their specialty is concerning babies and not thyroids. I feel so blessed to have been in the care of such great medical doctors who gave me sound advice, even when I didn't want it.

This is me the day after the surgery, the orange tint to my skin was an antiseptic they instructed me to leave on for a couple of days. Now my scar is just a faint pink line that most people hardly notice.

From 2009_12_23

Carlsbad Caverns

Just before Christmas our family plus two of my sisters and their families went down to Carlsbad Caverns. It's quite a hike to go in from the natural entrance. This cave is amazingly huge.

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

One of the kids described this formation as piles of jellyfish.

From 2009_12_19

This one is called the "Lion's Tail"

From 2009_12_19

Hannah and Will

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

Eve being a cave ranger

From 2009_12_19

On our way home we stopped in Roswell at the McDonalds. I think this McDonalds playland is worth a visit.

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

From 2009_12_19

The entire building is shaped like a spaceship and they had a lot of fun in keeping with the city's theme.

Art

We've had a little bit of a artistic bug lately here. This mostly means mess in our house. But we've enjoyed it nonetheless.

This first project was in our garage. I hung an old sheet up and let the girls paint away. I couldn't just watch for long and joined in too. It was so fun I think I'll keep buying old sheets at the thrift store to keep on hand as cheap canvases.

From 2009_10_15

From 2009_10_15

From 2009_10_15

From 2009_10_15

From 2009_10_15

The next project I got out glitter, colored sand, paint and glue. We all had fun making a variety of pieces. If you haven't finger-painted in a while, you should. The feeling of paint squishing in between your fingers is therapeutic.

From 2009_12_07

From 2009_12_07

From 2009_12_07

From 2009_12_07

From 2009_12_07

From 2009_12_07

This last activity isn't so much art, but a tactile experience, since you don't end up with a product. I buy shaving cream on sale to keep on hand if ever a rainy day comes along. We were lucky this time to have Aunt Hannah and Uncle Will here to play too.

From 2009_12_24

From 2009_12_24

From 2009_12_24

From 2009_12_24

Our most recent art medium I don't have pictures of. I bought a 8-pack of dry erase markers. We have been filling up our sliding glass door with pictures and notes. It's really fun to mix it up and get away from paper and crayons sometimes.

Eighties Day at school

From 2009_12_02

I thought they both looked so cute. They had the eighties down to a T.

Merry Christmas!

I know it's a little late, but I hope you had a very merry Christmas.

From 2009_12_12

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is the Thompson Christmas-Time Update

Grant’s biggest achievement this year was being born. A feet most people only complete once in their lives. Grant came with hardly any announcement, arriving three weeks early and after a very short labor. He surprised us all coming out a boy! He is now three months old and charming his entire family (and most strangers) with his smiles and coos.

Abigail is a loving girl who enjoys playing with her sisters. She is always a princess and often asks Daddy to be her prince. She loves to dance color and sing. She had her first haircut this year, initiated by Eve. She loves to copy whatever Eve is doing and has included learning to write, so Abigail is working on learning her letters, her favorite is, of course, the letter “A”. Abigail participated in a playgroup this year and has made several friends. But everyone knows her very best friend is Nathan. She asks to play with him every day and he makes it into most of her prayers. Her prayers have really developed this year, as she sincerely prays for family and friends and she has long lists of things she’s thankful for.

Eve loves to camp. If it were up to her she would camp every day. Since that’s about how often she asks to go. She is extremely creative. She makes elaborate stories and games to play. Eve is learning to write. Her favorite writing game is to make shopping lists. She’ll often follow Mom around demanding help spelling the words for her shopping lists which regularly include: fruit, Polly Pockets, Diamond Castle Barbie Movie, grapes, ice cream, plums, meat and chocolate. Eve graduated from speech therapy, which was a happy and sad time. We are glad to her speech has improved so much, but sad we don’t get to see Mrs. Oates every week any more.

Lily turned eight this year. We were able to have Lily’s baptism up in Utah so all of her grandparents and most of her aunts, uncles and cousins could attend. Lily was so excited to be baptized by her dad and felt so loved being surrounded by her family as she took this big step. We are so proud of the testimony we’ve seen her develop. Lily has been a big help as a big sister. She has gotten much better about helping out around the house and doing harder chores as mom needed more help this year while pregnant and with the new baby. Lily has even changed some diapers! Lily is doing fabulous in school. She has been with a good group of kids through the years and has some close friends. They are all reading Harry Potter and playing wizard games as often as they can get together. Her teachers rave about her. Reading Harry Potter has really helped Lily’s reading skills; her ability has jumped leaps and bounds since she started that series.

Katie’s most important activity this year was growing a healthy baby. That made her tired and a little emotional at times. Katie was blessed to give birth to Grant at home, something she really wanted to experience. Katie also went back to school to work on finishing a bachelor’s degree in business. It’s been a long time coming, and we’re glad the time finally arrived. Amid the craziness of raising 4 kids, and supporting her husband in studying and working, Katie finds joy in the friendships she is developing here in Albuquerque and online. She loves being a wife and a mom, and is truly grateful for sisters, and friends that she can count on.

Gordon took and passed his very last actuarial exam!!! We are all so proud of Gordon for working so long and hard on this huge goal. Because of this Gordon and Katie were able to go to Boston where Gordon was recognized for becoming a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Now that Gordon doesn’t have to study every waking second of the day, Gordon has tried to find some new hobbies. We’ve gone camping as a family a bunch. Gordon has started fishing and he has done some woodworking. He’s working on making us a new coffee table.

We’re glad to have you as friends. We love you and hope you have been as richly blessed this year as we have been.

Love, the Thompsons.

Keep in touch!

When you're on a road trip...

From 2009_11_29

Make sure to bring your window washers. :)

Abigail's birthday

From 2009_11_22

We had a party with cousins, aunts and an uncle.  Abigail helped make the cake and chose the colors.  She was really excited about her cake and still mentions it now. (Two months later).

This is the poster we had made to announce our pregnancy.

From Katie's Documents 1

Abigail made her big entrance into the world the day after Thanksgiving, a week before her due date. 

From Abigail 11-24-06

From March Photoshoot

From 2007-11

From 2008_11_08

From 2009_11_26

We love you Abigail!