The Valenzano Family

The Valenzano Family

Thursday, May 27, 2010

INK, and Zoo visits

For Alex's friend Ava's birthday party, we went to a place called INK in Gainsville, GA. This is a really great place, it has an airplane and police car and fire truck that the kids can climb on and in & then it has all these rooms, each one is set up on kids scale and has a grocery store, doctor office, dentist office, restaurant, bank, hair salon, etc. Alex spent most of the time in the grocery store. Below are photos of Alex and Sander in the Airplane, Alex and I on the fire truck, and Alex shopping.


With our membership to the zoo, we have gone quite a few times recently. Alex loves the zoo. Unfortunatly, we forgot the camera when we went last week with our neighbors, but here are some of our Zoo visits with Thomas and with Marta & Carmen.










Monday, May 24, 2010

Big Boy Bed!

OK, so based on the fact that the first 4 months of this year have been taken up by doctor appointments and biopsies and surgery, I am behind.

In March, we moved Alex to his big boy bed and new room. He LOVES it! This was the first night and morning in his new bed.


Recovery

I am doing much better. Surgery was completed late on Monday, I went home around lunch time on Tuesday.
1 week follow-up was very good. All testing was cancer free. As of this week I am off the calcium pills and down to just my synthroid. Now on to endocrinologist to continue to work on my levels.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Surgery

For those who do not already know, I will be having surgery at noon on May 3, 2010 to remove my Thyroid. I have a nodule in the right side of the thyroid and a few very tiny cysts on the left side. Biopsy came back indeterminate [not sure if there is cancer or not], so after discussions with my doctor, my endocrinologist, and my surgeon/ENT, and a few neighbors/friends who have had this done, I have decided to remove the entire thing [right side was not an option, it had to come out, just whether I left the left side was an option, decided I could not live with the uncertainty]. So please keep me and my family in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey. We are hopeful that the surgery will go off with no complications and that any resulting pathology will be clean and I will be able to get my medication easily leveled out. I will be at Northside Hospital in Atlanta and should be released the next day.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Job Update

Hello all, for those of you who do not yet know, I have left my position at The Simpson Organization and have moved back to Cox. I am not back with AutoTrader, but with Cox Enterprises, they own ATC, but I am working for the Cox Media Group within Cox Enterprises, just a few blocks up from where I used to work. I am still part time, working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The commute is much better and it is easier on Carl and my parents as I now get Alex to and from them each day. I am also only a few blocks from his school which he attends on Tues and Thurs mornings. The job is much more in line with my work experience and I am working with a few people who I used to work with/for at ATC.

He loves school now, has wonderful teachers and a great group of classmates. I am excited that I will now be more available to attend his class parties with my new location.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a great beginning to the new year.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Train Museam and Snow

My twin cousins turned 40 and so we had a party here in town for them and while they were here, we took all the kids to a train museam. If you are on facebook, you can see most of the pictures there, but here is one of Alex with his cousin Katy Lyn working in the kitchen and one of Billy taking him to see the big train.
We had our annual dusting of snow here in Atlanta, so when Alex woke up, he immediatly began begging to go outside to play. Once we got all bundled up, we headed out get some play time in.
Alex is all about helping right now, so he insisted on putting the logs in to the fireplace all by himself, oh and yes he did get ashes all over himself!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Santa and his helpers were quite good to all of us. Alex really got into it this year which made it so much fun.
On Christmas Eve we went to the Childrens Service at Grandma and Grandpa's church, then went to dinner and came home and got ready for Santa to come. Santa did come and left a train table and all sorts of other various fun items. We then went to Uncle Billy's house for Christmas lunch with all the cousins, then came back home and had Christmas Dinner at home.
Alex is quite into his train table and his Home Depot workbench with all his drills and tools as well as his medical set, Lincoln Logs and playdough and painting sets.
Here is a family photo as well as a few photos of Alex and his various items.