Disclaimer: Hopefully this blog post does not sound blithe. I'm not blithe about it per se, but I prefer to write about it with a certain degree of blitheness. It's a skill I learned from Gilbert Blythe. Oops, there's that blitheness.
Once upon a time, at the start of 2012, I was with child, but spoiler: I'm not anymore. I'm not saying that to get pity or whatever (though of course I won't turn down pity)--it was very early and it's just one of those things that happens. But it does play a pivotal role in the rest of the story so there it is.
So back in the early days of 2012 (ie, January 3), I was at home with Drewbles. I'd started bleeding the day before and it was getting worse the next day so we decided to get a professional opinion on the situation. We tried one place, then another and were finally sent to the ER, which makes this story sound much more urgent that it really was. It's much more dull when you know that insurance coverage and a lack of certain equipment was the blame.
And so began my first foray into the ER. It mostly consisted of Drew and me sitting there talking about how we had been sitting there forever. But in the process of our stay, which lasted several hours, they did a *ahem* quite invasive ultrasound and the doctor casually announced there was "a mass." After which he proceeded to leave and never return. Thanks, doctor!
The doctor arranged to send us to a nearby women's clinic two days later so they could pilfer some more of my blood. He also set up an appointment with another doctor, who turned out to be totally MIA the day of the appointment. Thanks, doctor!
Luckily one of the nurses came to talk to us and actually was interested in the mass! Thanks, nurse! So what was that mass? A uterine fibroid. (Fibroid=a benign growth) Can you guess how big it is? Yep, it's the size of a tennis ball. Just a fleshy mass the size of a tennis ball all up in my bidness.
By the by, I don't recommend doing a google search for pictures of fibroids.
It was another few days before we could meet with a third doctor, who actually exists AND was very helpful. He confirmed the miscarriage and we talked a long time about this fibroid. Since they're benign, doctors often will just leave them if they aren't causing any symptoms. But given the size of mine and the possibility that it is squishing my baby-making vitals, the doctor said it would be best to take it out. He also said there's a chance it could be an ovarian cyst, which means I could wind up one short in that department. BUT we'll be optimistic and stick with the fibroid theory. So this is what is going to happen this Tuesday:
Just imagine that penny is a tennis ball. Okay, so maybe that isn't *exactly* how the surgery will go. Actually the best part about this whole thing (besides having the tennis ball removed, I suppose) is what will actually be doing all the work:
Tiny robot hands! That may not be the official term but you get the idea. Here is how it actually all works:
The doctor sits yonder and controls the robot hands while utilizing a tiny robot camera to see the insides. In the past they removed fibroids via c-section so let's give medical science a big hurray.
So instead of having a baby AND a tennis ball, we now just have the tennis ball. Hopefully sometime we will have the one and not the other, but at any rate, come Tuesday the tennis ball will be history.
Remember the magnets I made to improve my running motivation? Well, they were not *entirely* successful, but I did keep using them. It was encouraging to see a board with at least a few magnets on it, but my motivation for running was just MIA until last fall or so. Even so, it has been a good long time since my board looked like this:
5 days of running, 3 times with Pilates and one 5K! I'm hoping this will make up for not doing a lick of anything next week, and I'm also hoping this same motivation will stick around until the week after. It's so much easier to sit at a desk all day when I've been running beforehand.
And just because you asked, here are pictures from the 5K this morning. Drew's Pop came along too and both menfolk placed first in their age group. Drew also won a frisbee of all things. I got um...well, anyway, it was great and fun and very cold.
(Check out those guns!) 
(It was so bright I thought my eyeballs would burn up.)
Oh, did I mention that there was a frozen yogurt walking around?
Tonight we're supposed to have this white bean soup for dinner (pureed white beans and I get along). It's healthy, it's good for me and it requires using my immersion blender, which is always a treat. The trouble is that I keep thinking about something we had for dinner last week...
Look at them sitting there so innocently, stuffed with cheese and eggs and bacon. True, it would require a stop at the store while the poor white beans go neglected and unloved. But do I really care about beans in the face of this possibility?
No. The answer is no. Those beans never had a chance.
I've been thinking a lot about tennis balls lately. I know that sounds ambiguous at best and random and stupid at worst, but it's still true. One of these days I will explain my tennis ball thoughts, but for now I will talk about food. Food > tennis balls.
On a side note, is anyone else still frustrated with extra holiday poundage? Harumph. Though I have to say, all that fudge was worth it...at the time...and now...
First, I have made chili. Not once but twice! In the same week! This is impressive because I have never been a big chili fan, mostly because I am not a big bean fan. Black beans and I are great friends. White beans and I are acquaintances. All the other beans and I are frenemies--I'll eat them when I must and make barfy noises the rest of the time. Black beans are the sole reason why I liked these two chilis:
Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken & Black Bean Chili
I am a fan of anything in a crock pot. If I could make everything in a crock pot, I would. Anyway, this was super tasty. I'm not really sure exactly what the chipotle taste is, but it was good. And hot. Side note: if anyone knows what else to do with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce let me know...
Healthy Spicy Beef and Black Bean Chili
Super fast, super easy and tasty. I think if you spent a little more time on it it could be better and more interesting, spice-wise. But sometimes fast wins out over interesting.
Crock pot Mango Enchiladas
I combined these two recipes, and they were so very delicious. I don't know when exactly I became such an enchiladas fiend, but they're so good. They have quickly climbed up my list of favorite foods.
Bloomin' Onion Bread
My advice is to make this today. Maybe even right now. Then proceed to devour the whole thing in one sitting. Okay, don't do that, but that's what you'll WANT to do, despite knowing how much butter is in it. But I cannot say enough that you should make it RIGHT NOW.
Crockpot Cheddar Beer Chicken Tacos
Okay so ours were minus the beer. Still good! Yep, that's pretty much all I have to say about this.
Tomato sauce with Onion and Butter
We had this just last night and today I keep thinking about how good it was. I was skeptical--I mean, three ingredients? How could that really be so great? No, let me tell you--it was really, really good. It might have converted me from ever using bottled sauce again. It takes a little while, but for how much effort you actually have to put in it's totally worth it.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Yeah, it really doesn't look like much, but you'll want to keep eating it anyway! I almost halved the buffalo wings sauce so that it wasn't too hot.
Chicken Taco Soup
More black beans! I should start my own black bean farm. This was another victory for the slow cooker (I didn't sautee my onions before hand), but since we had it the same night as the Bloomin' Onion Bread it got a little overshadowed.
Well, now you know what we've been eating lately. You can sleep well at last.
PS: No, I didn't get any of these from Pinterest.
PS: Bonus recipe for fudge (I left out the nuts because they just don't belong in my food).
...to our art blog! I can't even remember if I ever mentioned our art blog on here, but it's been humming along (more or less) for a good while now. Tonight I finally added a link to my sidebar and here is another one, just in case anyone has been missing out on it all this time.
That's all.
Eating a lot of delicious Indian food
(In case you're wondering--we had Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb with mushrooms, garlic naan, regular naan and cucumber Raita...so good)
Playing some Harry Potter
Having this fellow wait on my every whim (you're doing great at it, fellow!)
I hope you've enjoyed your night, Tennis Ball, because you aren't getting Indian food and snuggles where you're going. 
5 days of running, 3 times with Pilates and one 5K! I'm hoping this will make up for not doing a lick of anything next week, and I'm also hoping this same motivation will stick around until the week after. It's so much easier to sit at a desk all day when I've been running beforehand.
(It was so bright I thought my eyeballs would burn up.)
Oh, did I mention that there was a frozen yogurt walking around? 
And of course the picture on the box wasn't big enough to be terribly helpful.
Even so, what fun is a puzzle without a challenge? We will surely put this one together again and again.