The past three weeks have been absolutely nuts-o in the Ball household. Scratch that - the past three months have been nuts-o in the Ball household. We moved, we changed daycare schedules, Blake took comps, I had surgery, Maleah started sprouting teeth...
Really, I'm complaining about nothing. Things haven't been that bad - just different. And this coming week, Blake is going to California for nine days - right after I just had abdominal surgery! We're crazy.
Comps
Blake's PhD comps started the last week of August and ended this past Friday. Anyone who has not lived through this has truly not lived! Comps are every bit as awful as they sound. It's just a terrible time for the whole family because the person taking comps, in our case - Blake, becomes a different person. He was staying up late at night, constantly worried, constantly reading, easily frustrated, etc. I feel like I earned a PhD, too, because somehow I managed to stay relatively sane during all of it, as well. But, comps are over and now all my husband has to do is write a small book, have it approved, and get a job! Yay! We are praying that he will be able to secure a job for Fall 2015. Praying!
Surgery
On Monday, I had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. The cyst turned out to be a teratoma (google it, it's really gross!) that had caused damage to my ovary, so my ovary also had to be removed. The surgery was laparoscopic so the damage isn't too extensive, but it has definitely been painful! This is the second surgery I have had like this, so I was a little nervous going in. At 16, I had my appendix removed and while they were in there, they also found that I had endometriosis and removed those adhesions. So, naturally, having a second surgery on my reproductive organs was unnerving. My doctor said that everything looked great, though. She did see some spots of endometriosis, but nothing concerning and she actually left those spots where they were because they have not caused any problems.
Santa Rosa
Blake is leaving tomorrow to go to California on a research trip. Yay for him. That means Maleah and I will be roughin' it (literally, since I still am not "allowed" to pick her up). Thankfully we have help lined up all week and I will just enjoy the time with my sweet girl and our helpful friends and family! Blake wanted me to be able to go on this trip with him because he went by himself last year. After having to use a lot of my PTO for sick time (for me and Maleah) since January, we decided that I should stay home and save up my PTO. Well... now I'm using all my precious PTO to heal from surgery but... WHATEVER! I will get to go to Santa Rosa eventually!
That's about it for us. I haven't blogged in so long and for that, I'm sorry. I promise to get back to it. But I am running out of topics other than my boring life. So if anyone has anything they'd like me to discuss, let me know! You name it, I'll write about it!
