Happy thanksgiving!  I pray that you had a great holiday.  Ours are always busy and include at least two get togethers.  This year, sandwiched in between the typical family gatherings, I managed to squeeze another in - our towards State College with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and the other newly found family member and her family.  We shared a meal together and had some time to chat and get to know each other more.  It was a very different experience from the meeting with the other new family member -- which was a one-on-one thing.  I do think there will be more get togethers and communication - and I'm excited for it.

I'm tired from the driving and running, but feeling extra blessed this year.

Well that is a first!  I saw my first nomadic round of robins in the winter!  I know that robins don't migrate, but still I always comment when I see the first ones in the spring because historically they've been pretty absent.

I was out back with the dogs and there was a good bit of chirping and birds all about in the trees behind the house.  I have to admit, I feel bad.  I can't help but think one of them led his friends here saying "I know this lady, she has food and water, let's go there." - and here I am without having filled the winter feeders and the bird bath is down as to avoid it freezing and damaging the concrete.  Ok, I looked - they're still unlikely to hit up feeders, even in the winter.  I feel less guilty but I am looking to see I have any apples, grapes, etc that need tossed that I can put out.

Yep, I'm going to change Avery's name.  I'm thinking Mary, as in typhoid Mary.  Damnit.  My head is stuffed and runny and making my throat hurt - AGAIN.  I've heard that another layer of precaution might be changing her clothes when she comes home (in addition to washing hands etc).  I'm thinking about it, because this is getting ridiculous.

The humidity hasn't dipped yet, so I haven't seen the need to start running the humidifiers - but the hot shower sure helped last night, as has the hot soup and tea today.  If I could just go ahead and submerge myself in boiling water that would make me feel better and kill the germs, right?

Today I messed up the date for the 10th anniversary celebration of the daycare.  But the service at the Presby church was nice!  Avery kept pointing to the pastor and saying "Superman" (apparently he dressed up for the kiddos when they did superheros week).  She really enjoyed the hand bell choir too.

After I brought her home and headed to a second service, this one at the local Lutheran church - where my newly found family member was preaching today!  It was such a delight to meet her and enjoy a bit of lunch post-service.

I like to document when the first robins start appearing in the summer, and when the first snow happens in the fall/winter.  Well today it happened - just a dusting, but it sure got chilly over night.

When I do Avery's hair in the morning and I ask one piggy or two... more often than not she says two.  She holds up two fingers.  "Two, two mommy, two."  When I put Avery to bed at night she says "two blankies".  Ask her how old she is?  she's got that down two... er, too.

It's kind of interesting that what I'm posting about now is two.  Look at my previous post.  Yeah, I didn't find one half sibling.  I found two.  And this second one is on the other side.  This one hurts my heart more because I know this one hurt that parent's heart.

The good news is I am able to gather some information.  This person also wants to talk with me and get to know more.

I am so distracted and so overwhelmed right now.  Nothing changed with who I am or my life as I know it today but at the same time everything changed.  I wish I could talk to Mom and Dad directly about all of this.

Today was a bit mind blowing.  Someone reached out on Ancestry - showing as a second cousin or so in DNA match.  It caused me to log in and look at all of my matches.  Aside:  I can see several cousins marked appropriately as first or second cousins.  There were two people marked as way closer of relationships.

I reached out to both out of curiosity.  One has replied, the one I was very curious about, because they made mention of a name in their profile.  We've sent a couple of messages back and forth... I think I may have another half sibling.  (Older than me, and from before my parents married.)

If that wasn't enough to make the day memorable - Avery pooped on the potty for the first time!  It's been an interesting day.

The tick testing is complete.  Negative for lyme, babesiosis, and powassan virus lineage II.  However, it was positive for anaplasmosis. A quick google makes that sound potentially scary too.  Given that the ticks were removed on Oct 31 - nearly a week ago - I'm not sure what the timeline would be to see effects.  As such, I made a call to the vet for recommendations and I'm awaiting a response.  More to come.

Yesterday we ran to the outlets both to get some Christmas gift ideas and to get my ring* in for it's every 6 month inspection at the jeweler.  *ring = the ring Avery and I picked out on my first Mother's day.

Several of the stones were pretty lose, so the ring was sent off for repairs and my finger is looking and feeling bare.  I didn't even smack it off of anything recently, so what's up with that?  I hadn't paid for the protection plan, so even though had I lost a stone it would have been covered the work to fix it wouldn't have been, so I had to spend a chunk of change for that protection plan, but at least that's good for a  lifetime.  In the mean time I miss having my local jeweler in Jtown.

I'm still so glad I bought that ring.  I look forward to the day that Avery is old enough that I can give it to her as her first really nice piece of jewelry.  I hope she'll understand how much it means to me.

As a follow up to my thyroid tests - the bloodwork is good and the other test resulted in being told I have a "beautiful thyroid", so I have that going for me.  I am quite happy to hear that there is nothing to worry about there.

It was a bit of a medical long weekend as the morning of my thyroid test (Friday) I got a call from daycare that Avery had gotten hurt and I was off to pick her up and take her to MedExpress. She too got lucky, but not as lucky as me.  The door stop won this one.  Fortunately the most feared injuries when someone bangs up their face are not a concern (teeth are ok, nose isn't broken) we just need to get the swelling down and black and blue marks have to heal.

As we came back in the house last night from trick or treat I noticed two dark spots on Saffy's forehead.  It looked like a vampire swooped down and bit her between her eyebrows.  Ticks.  *cringe*  Fortunately my Favorite Egg was here to help with the situation and we got them removed.  Needless to say I applied their doses of biospot immediately thereafter.

I've been avoiding using the biospot as I'm not a fan of unnecessary chemicals, especially with a little one who likes to pet and touch her puppies.  But we crossed the line to necessary.  I haven't had to deal with a tick on a dog since I lived in NC.  Ugh, it skeeves me out pretty good.

Side note:  if you're not aware - if you are in PA, you can send your ticks for testing for free!  Check it out:  https://www.ticklab.org/  I'll report back on what comes back once our report is back.

Now on to other news.  I head back to the lab today for a scan of my thyroid.  I went to the doctor on Wednesday to get checked as I've had a reoccurring sore throat.  This is the third time in 6-8 months I've had a crazy sore throat.  One of the times it was best described as feeling like I had hot sauce sitting on the back of my throat.  Cough drops don't stop the feeling and it lasts all day, peaking overnight.  When I've had a sore throat in the past it kept itself to night and early morning and lasted a short period of time.

With a little one here I went to the doctor on the side of caution.  I feared some weird strep thing or something even though I didn't have all of the symptoms.  She did not test me for strep, but felt it was allergy/sinus related.  The thyroid finding was incidental as she was checking my lymph nodes.  We drew blood on Wednesday and scheduled this scan.