Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Christmas was wonderful this year. Kelly and I have been in California for a few days and having a blast. Kelly has been spending time playing X-box with my dad and my mom and I having been shopping like crazy! When we got here my mom didn't have any of the Christmas shopping done so we were able to it all together. I had SO. MUCH. FUN.

Here are a few other highlights from the week:
We went for a long bike ride up Mt. Diablo and Kelly slipped on the way down. Chad had to check out the damage when we got home. Kelly had a few scrapes but he was just fine. He was lucky to fall in the dirt instead of the cement!
I was able to meet 6 of my high school friends for lunch at Chevy's. It was great to see everyone and catch up. We are growing up and it's weird to hear about all the "adult-like" things we are all doing. I only have a picture of Nedda and I from this event. That's okay because she's probably the only one who reads our blog anyway!
After our long days of shopping my mom and I turned on Miracle on 34th Street and spent 3 hours wrapping all the presents. Don't they look beautiful under the tree?
On Christmas Eve we went out for a steak dinner at Tahoe Joes. I filled up on salad and appetizers and by the time the food came I could only eat one bite of steak.
When we came home from dinner we decided to get a few pictures by the tree. This was my favorite.

My family has a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve but no one wanted to do it except for Chad. He could tell by the shape that this particular gift was a DVD so he was really excited to open it. We woke up on Christmas morning to Chad knocking on our door yelling, "it's Christmas, Santa came!" Before we opened any of our presents we decided to support those who are forced to work on Christmas and go to 7-11 to get some diet cokes!
Kelly and I got his and hers Ipods. We are excited to be able to listen to music while we work-out!

Merry Christmas!

Worry Free Fun

I cannot believe how much fun we have been having since school is out for the semester.

• On Friday night we went out to dinner at The Olive Garden (thanks to my Grandma Drena!) and then we drove out to Blackfoot to see a Christmas concert. My best friend Ashley goes to school in southern California and she is dating a guy from Blackfoot. Ashley and her boyfriend Dan are both amazing singers and Dan put on a Christmas concert and Ashley sang in a few duets with Dan. We had a great time seeing both of them.


• Saturday we slept in late and did our usual Saturday morning routine of Diet Pepsi's from Horkley's and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Great Harvest. Then Kelly decided to join me at the gym. Afterwards we went to Quizno's and shared a sandwich and then we went to the dollar movie theater and saw Fireproof (it turned out to be a Christian film about a troubled marriage). Neither of us knew what the movie was about but it wasn't half bad.


• On Tuesday we went to the temple and then made dinner together.


• Tonight we met Ashley and Dan at Texas Roadhouse. We had a ton of fun talking and catching up with them.

It has been so much fun to be worry free since we don't have to be concerned about tests and homework or surgery and doctors! Tomorrow we are heading to California to celebrate our nephew Nicholas' 1st birthday and to spend the holidays with my family. We are also going to meet with my brain surgeon on Friday for a post-op check up and to talk about fertility. I will make another post to update about what we find out!

Looking Back on the Semester

Finals are over and Kelly and I are truly enjoying our free time together!

We are really glad that this semester is over. Looking back over the semester I realize that we have been through a lot but have also grown a ton from our experiences.

As the semester started I was taking a steroid drug that was supposed to shrink the tumor I had on my pituitary gland. I hated taking this medication because of all the horrible side effects. I was constantly exhausted, I got dizzy all the time, not to mention I gained about 15 pounds in the 3 months I was taking it. The worst part about the medicine was the fact that I was going through all of that for nothing because my tumor was not getting any smaller.

This semester we had to make one of our toughest decisions yet. Since the drug therapy was not working for us our next two options were surgery or radiation. We spent many hours praying and contemplating our decision. We decided that surgery was the way to go. Since pituitary tumors are not very common it was really hard to find a surgeon that was experienced with this type of surgery. 100% of the credit goes to my mom who spent countless hours on the phone and Internet trying to find the best doctor out there. We are so blessed to have found Dr. Kunwar.
*On a side note Kelly is so grateful to him he wants to name our first child after him...how do you incorporate 'Sandeep Kunwar' into a kids name?*

We were so grateful to be able to get into see Dr. Kunwar so quickly and set my surgery date for October 20th. We were happy that we were going to be able to get everything done so quickly but also quite nervous because it would happen so fast. The surgery has an 80% success rate and we were worried that we were going to be part of the 20% but to our absolute glee everything went perfectly and I am tumor free!

We have been told that it takes 3 months for all the hormones to go back to normal. I seem to be doing a lot better in that area recently and I am excited to finally be able to start trying to get pregnant. We have a post-op appointment with Dr. Kunwar on Dec. 19th and I'm hoping we'll be able to start some fertility treatments then. It is expected that it will be a bit of a challenge to get pregnant because of all the changes going on in my body but Kelly and I are in good spirits and are hopeful that pregnancy will happen quickly.

This was one of Kelly's toughest semesters yet and he did awesome even though he was traveling to and from California for my surgery. It really feels like such a triumph to be done with this semester, not just because it's a few more classes out of the way but because we finally got some good news when it comes to my health. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!