To Grandmother's house....

Piper weighs enough to make the alarm on the passenger seat in my car go off for the entire drive, so as a solution I fasten the seat belt. Usually she moves out of the way, and ends up sitting in front of the seat belt. Or in the back seat. Or on my lap. Ok, let's be honest most of the time she ends up on my lap as I drive. However, tonight on our way to my parents' she just let me buckle her in, and then laid against the seat. It was adorable. I got a poor picture with my phone, but it is so cute, I am going to share it anyway, despite its quality.

Bumping It to a whole new level

My mom and Ali came over tonight to visit and bring some pizza. It was a lot of fun, although my belly wounds hurt now, because they make me giggle so much and then my belly stretches. We watched our new favorite show Whatever, Martha that I had on the DVR, and gossiped about the day's news.....Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jon and Kate, you know, the important issues.

We also tried out the Bumpits I received in the mail for my birthday from VaRonica and Nathan. I am apparently better at putting them in the hair than Ali, although Ali was far more adventurous in the hair styles she would try to create. Patti indulged us and let us do her hair, but did not allow any photographic evidence. Trust me, she looked fabulous! Ali and I, on the other hand, had no problem gathering all the evidence possible of the Bumpits. And even though, I have no make up on and look 12, Ali looks super hot, so I am still going to post them.

The Bumpit is in place....what will Ali do with the rest of my hair?

Hair style numero uno as I finish my Creamie.

Bumping it twice...one in front and one in back!

I look 12, and like a polygamist in this one!

Ali and her casual Bumpit hair style.

From the back.

Ali looking sultry again!

The tallest of all Bumpits!

Patti reading her mag.

Piper hanging out with the girls.

I totally love my Bumpits, and I am pretty sure I am now confident now in my ability to affix them that I will be wearing them in public this weekend.

No rest for the weary

I had surgery less than 48 hours ago, and now I am sleepless in Salt Lake. One would think after having an internal organ removed one would be sleepy, and want to take advantage of all this free time to sleep in bed for hours at a time.

And I do want to take advantage, I do! I do! I do! Instead, my body has had other ideas. It involves small stretches of sleep, like two hours here, three hours over there, etc, and that was only the day of the surgery! I got four whole hours of sleep for last night with a two hour nap during the day (it is almost 6 am, and I have been up for two hours, so although I am considering it still "night" I think I have to classify that sleep as last night's sleep now....blah) I did set the record the night of my surgery with five whole hours of sleep in a row.

The main problem has been I can fall asleep, but it is very light sleep, and I have very strange dreams, that are more like thoughts, and I do not feel like I am truly sleeping. I think maybe my pain meds are at the root of my sleep problem, so I am going to take them now at a less frequent rate, and see if I can fall asleep and get some decent sleep. It doesn't help much with the pain in my belly, but I am not unbearably uncomfortable either, so we will give it a whirl.

Today is also the day I get to shower! Maybe washing all the dried blood from my belly button, and taming my wild bird's nest that was once called hair will help me relax enough to get some rest too! We shall see. The husband is resting just fine now. He was the one orginally behind in his sleep schedule, however, there are no problems there now. The dog is also resting just fine. She is snoring away on her bed, while I am typing away on the couch. Blah. If anything the dog is pissed at me for not sleeping up in bed, and "making" her sleep down here in her little bed. Spoiled!

What does one do when they cannot sleep?

1. Catch up on facebook....leave lots of messages for people on their pictures and statuses, because who doesn't want to hear from me in the middle of the night.

2. Read hours of gossip concerning Jon and Kate's divorce. It is a lot of speculation and assumptions, but it is so addicting. Go here if you have some time to waste.

3. Spy on blogs. People you know, people your people know, people you don't know at all....

4. Get excited when people are actually getting up and commenting on your facebook comments. Awesome! It is morning!

5. Wish you were a little more like McKay, and that you could fall asleep anywhere, anytime, and even with your eyes open.



6. Get super duper excited that someone sent you some Bump Its in the mail, and you have wanted them for so long, and now they are here, unannounced. I think I know who the anonymous donors are, but I will hold out on confirming their identities until it becomes official. That will probably have to wait until a more decent hour. I have received all of my infomercial wish list items this year, by the way! How lucky am I? My Snuggie, my Strap Perfects, and now my Bump Its! I need to make a new list, I guess! I also need to wash my hair, so I try out my Bump Its.

Surgery

Overall, my surgery went pretty well. Before my surgery even started I received three phone calls from the hospital. One to get my insurance information...again. One to get my health history...again. And one to give me my scheduled time. I was scheduled early in the morning, and the hospital was running on time. Ya-hoo!

We got there, checked in, and they got my insurance information...again. I was then put into a hospital room and I had to go put on hospital clothes. The nurse came in to start my I.V. and take my health history...again. The nurse, bless her kind heart, struggled to start my I.V. I told her to go for the right arm, because that place is vein heaven, and she could not get it work. My arm is bruised to hell, and I almost never bruise from needles, blood draws, or I.V.'s. She eventually started it in my left hand, which was bothersome, but better than being poked repeatedly.

Next, I was wheeled up to the operating floor. I was given a blanket, and then was parked in the hall waiting for a room for about ten minutes. The anesthesiologist put his special liquid magic into my I.V. and the last thing I remember was looking at the clock, and it was 8:55 am, and the clock was super blurry.

Then, I woke up downstairs in the recovery room. I have no memory of them taking the breathing tube out, the elevator ride down to the recovery floor, etc. This is all fine with me, apparently, I got in trouble according to Dalan for only giving my birthday with the month, and the day, and not the year. To my credit I had given it about 50 times by that point, and I was so out of it.

I had trouble taking deep breaths and using the restroom in recovery, plus the I.V. kept getting tangled up and not giving me my liquids. This delayed my my discharged by almost two hours. Blah! Poor Dalan had only gotten two hours of sleep, and ended up taking a sick day to so he could stay home and rest too. Plus, they ended up discharging me without me using the restroom, which is not good, and if I had not pee'd by 9:00 pm we were going to have to go to the E.R. for further treatment. However, I did end up peeing by 5:00 pm, so thankfully, that did not happen.

We got home, and I felt so, so, so sick. I managed to take a little nap, and woke up knowing my mom and sister were here, but did not want to wake up a maybe sleeping Dalan, so I whistled for my family. They were impressed with my whistling skills I was feeling a little silly at this point, and learned that laughing hurt so bad. I took another little nap and woke up feeling extremely nausea. Cole was here, and I was not a good host. He brought me beautiful flowers, and a nice card. My mom and Ali left during this time, taking Piper with them. She was very concerned with my well being, and kept trying to lie (lay?) on my belly. I took a longer nap, and woke up feeling better. I finally ate some toast (I had some jello earlier), and took another nap.

Throughout the night I have only been able to sleep for two to five hour stretches, but I am not too tired. My belly is still very sore, and my movement is limited. I have had pain in my shoulders from the anesthesia leaving my body, and some pain in my back. Ice and my pain meds help quite a bit. I have no idea if this is comparable to a C-section, but I have no desire to find out. If a woman get this sore and has a baby to care for, I cannot even imagine. However, I think by tomorrow or Thursday I will be feeling almost back to normal, as there has been an amazing difference in how I felt the first 12 hours versus the second 12 hours!

Wow, that was long. I think I have turned into an old lady who makes people look at my vacation photos, and hear about my surgeries. Hopefully, the rest of my summer stories will be more age appropriate.

Party like it is 1979!

Last night, some friends and family came over to celebrate my 30th birthday. Dalan and I had planned a big barbecue, with lots of outdoor activities. However, mother nature had other plans, and it ended up dumping buckets of rain all day long. So, we moved the party inside. Dalan barbecued on the porch, and everyone ate and visited indoors. After dinner, the sun made a rare appearance and we were able to break the pinata that Erin brought for my birthday. It was a monster pinata, and full of fun candies! As the night went on we continued to visit, and the we ate the red velvet chocolate dipped cake balls Ali made me for my birthday. They were so delicious. I pretty much want to eat them everyday now. I had such a wonderful birthday party. I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but I truly have the best family, friends, and husband. I am a very lucky lady!

Sisters!

Ali came over to hang out the other night, and we got a little silly. At one point we put on some new lipstick that I had bought. It was a little dark for our pale complexions, and it made us giggle. Next, Ali decided to do our hair like "cheerleaders"...she learned how to do it on MTV's Made. Then, we decided to take some pictures, and the wackiness ensued. Yes, we act like we are 12 years old when we get together, but we always have good times. We were laughing so hard, I got a belly ache, and may have pee'd my pants a little. Plus, it proved even further that I have no ability to make a sexy/sultry/model face.

This one turned out a little artistic. We were trying to take a picture of ourselves in the mirror, but instead only got part of the mirror, and all of Scarlet.

Next, we tried the self portrait and smiling while still in the bathroom. The lighting was off, and the smile did not do full justice to the lipstick.

Then, Ali suggested we look sexy....the lipstick looks dark, but I do not look so sexy.

We then tried it again....but I just feel more comfortable smiling than doing the whole puckered lips things.

Then, Ali insisted we look sultry. This is the WORST picture EVER. I look a lot of things, but sultry is not one of them at ALL. Ali looks mean, however, I look just plain hideous.

We tried one more lips picture. This one is maybe a little cuter...maybe?

Finally, one with our big smiles and super dark lips. This one is fun!

San Fransico....part 2

Here are just a few more photos from my trip to California.

The girls in the hotel room, the morning after the Cake concert. We had to take a few photos to get the self timer to capture all of us perfectly.

Eating frozen yogurt in Santa Rosa at the Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon always reminds me of going to the mall as a young teenager. It was delicious. So delicious, that my eyes were half shut!

This is us doing our "model" poses, even Drake is busting out the blue steel! I suck at doing a model face, at doing a sexy face, at doing a sultry face....trust me....more proof to come very soon....

My birthday in review

June 17, 2009

My 30th Birthday

The middle of the night:
While sleeping, I semi-woke up and told Dalan it was my birthday. He told me, "Happy Birthday." I then told him I wanted a surprise. He asked me what sort of surprise. I told him I knew, but could not tell him, because then it would no longer be a surprise. Awe, you have to love my sleep talking. I remembered having a conversation with him, but had no memory of what was actually said.

The morning:
I woke up and went to work. I was going to wear my birthday crown that Dalan bought me, but I chickened out. In our morning assembly, all the kids sang Happy Birthday to me. It was adorable. When I returned to my classroom, I found that VaRonica had dropped off an adorable flower arrangement in the shape of a birthday cake, and a nice card. It warmed my heart. One of my co-workers also made me some cake. Yum! My phone was flooded with text messages, and I felt very loved!

The afternoon:
Came home, and my super cute husband had flowers waiting here for me, and then took me to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious, and we got some cheesecake to go, which we ate for lunch today. Nutritious! My email and facebook were flooded with even more birthday messages, and Hilary dedicated her blog to me, Wow, I felt the love even more. I also received a lot of mail, including a pajama gram from Aubrey, and my passport! I am finally legit to travel outside of the country with my married name. However, during this portion of the day, I received word that my mama, Nana, and auntie were stranded in Price, Utah. Boo! They were returning from a little get away to visit another auntie, and ran into major car trouble. In the end, Cole had to make the journey to go get them, but they still endured a long day in small town, Utah.

The evening:
Went over to my parents' house, and hung out with my dad, Ali, and McKay. We chatted it up, and ate some dinner. It was fun! The rest of my family finally made it home, ate some dinner, we opened gifts, and ate Watergate cake. I had seen the recipe in a book, and it seemed so deliciously retro with its pistachio pudding that I instantly wanted to try it. Plus it is called Watergate cake, and not only was it my 30th birthday, it was also the 37th anniversary of Watergate. (see previous post). I had never tried it before, but Ali made it, and it was so good. Also, my family was totally overly generous with their gifts, in fact, I even got a Wii Active. Personally training here I come!

Summary:
I had an excellent 30th birthday! In the past 9 months, a large majority of my friends have turned 30, and have been looking forward to my celebration for almost a whole year, and the celebrating is not over yet! Come to my birthday party on Saturday, call me if you need details. I am very grateful for all my friends and family, and feel very blessed to have had such a wonderful day. Here are a couple pictures of the birthday girl, and of course, one self portrait that Ali took of herself!

I am super psyched, and shocked as confetti fell out of my card.

One of the many awesome books I received....I am going to get my read on this summer.

My Aunt Kathleen and me.

Blowing out my sparklers...that supposedly were not trick sparklers, but would never fully blow out!

Ali thinking about how awesome it would be to turn 30!

Ten minutes left of my birthday

I have a lot of fun and crazy stories to tell about the big day.....but I am tired, so I will blog about them tomorrow. However, I will post two short videos of Ali's birthday celebration dance from Tuesday night. It was hilarious and awesome all at the same time. Hopefully, she will bust it out on Saturday! They should be longer, but the batteries in my camera kept dying. Thanks to everyone for all the kind birthday messages. I really do have the best family and friends EVER!

Exciting things that have happened on June 17th

In 1775...
the Battle of Bunker Hill.

In 1885...
the Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC.

In 1928
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman (as a passenger) to fly across the Atlantic.

In 1950...
the first kidney transplant.

In 1960...
Ted Williams hits his 500th home run.

In 1970...
the Polaroid camera was patented.

In 1972...
five men were arrested after breaking in the Watergate Hotel.

In 1979...
I was born.

In 1994...
O.J. Simpson gets chased in his white Bronco by the LAPD.

If you are going to San Francisco....

This last weekend I went to California to surprise my friend Aubrey for her 30th birthday. Aubrey and I have been friends since we were four years old, and have spent more time in different states than we ever spent in the same one, however, our friendship has always been very strong and she is one of my most favorite people in the world.

Aubrey's husband, mother, and sister devised a plan to totally surprise her for her birthday. Her sister flew out last Tuesday, and acted as her birthday surprise. She watched Drake, Aubrey and Sam's son, so they could have a night out together. Aubrey's mom and I flew out on Thursday, which was her actual birthday, and surprised her at the restaurant for her birthday dinner.

We had a fun weekend that included pedicures, movies, good food, good conversation, lots of driving, and baby time. We also went to the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa to see Cake. Aubrey and I had seen cake together about nine years ago, so it was a blast to see them again. The Harmony Festival was a total hippie fest. Lots of organic and vegan food, and lots of very high and very natural looking people. My favorite quote from the Harmony Festival is, "Say yes to smiles, and say yes to deep breathing." Words to live by I tell you!

I hope Aubrey had a fun and memorable 30th birthday. I took limited pictures, because the battery in my camera was dying, however, her mom took some more, so when I get those I will post a part two...or something. Here are my pictures:

It's my birthday week....

Let the celebrating begin!

One week until....

....if you have to ask, you don't even know me!

au revoir monsieur gall bladder

A date has been finally set for the removal of the thorn, er, I mean internal organ that is causing me immense amounts of pain, in my side. On June 22, 2009 I will be saying good bye to my gall bladder. We had a good run.....it will be 30 years and five days together when the sucker makes its appearance on the outside of my body. However, the last six weeks or so have been pretty rocky (get it, rocky, because I have gall stones. hahahaha), so it best that we go our separate ways. I will be going home to recover, while the gall bladder will be put into some sort of hazardous/medical waste disposal, unless of course, they let me keep it. Then it will be heading to Portland, Oregon since Jan Harrison (best man at our wedding) has requested to possess it post removal. Also, Ali has already called the stones, so sorry people, all of my innards have already been spoken for this time. If you are interested next time, let me know a little sooner.

Also, as you can see in my title, I am practicing my French for our trip to Montreal Canada. It is going ok. As with Spanish, I think I will be far better at reading it, than actually ever speaking it.

au revoir

Self Portraits

Dalan and I are big fans of the self portrait shots. You know when you hold the camera out and take a picture of yourself (or selves) by yourself. (Ok, I am the big fan, but Dalan is down to participate too.) There are a few reasons we dig this form of picture taking.

First of all, when there are only two of you and you want a picture of the two of you together it is sometimes your only choice. It is often better than getting one picture of the other person standing there alone, and then switching. And it can be better than finding a random stranger and posing awkwardly as they try to figure out your camera. Although, often times when people see us doing our self portraits they will offer to take a photo for us.

Second of all, with digital cameras you can now take as many as you want to get them to look semi-decent...or not. It is up to you. Dalan has little tolerance for multiple self portraits in a row. I, on the other hand, could keep going for minutes until we get a good one.

Next, they have kind of become our thing. Our vacation albums, and all our important life events include self portraits of us as a couple. Here are a couple self portraits of us last weekend. I did not bring the camera with us this weekend, so that will just have to be a boring pictureless entry in the near future.

Dalan and me at his cousin's wedding. The sun was bright, and Dalan was not feeling well, but I think it turned out nicely. Dalan looks very handsome in his shirt and tie. The weather was perfect for a wedding, and the bride and groom were so happy on their special day. I love weddings!

Dalan and me at Marie and Kate's birthday party after the wedding. The tie has come off. Dalan often holds the camera high so I feel I need to look up to be in the picture. Not so flattering. However, if I hold the camera I often look extremely large headed. Dalan looks quite sexy however! We are still working out the kinks in our self portraits.

Dal and me at the Bees game. It was bring your dog to the park day. We left Piper at home due to her hate for all other living creatures. Ali and my mom brought Griffin though and it was a lot fun. Another hot and sunny day. Ali, my mom, and the dog were in the shade, thus the need to take a self portrait. This picture is also not the most flattering. However, we had already taken one picture that was even worse, and Dalan was done with the photo shoot after the second picture.

Awesome!

First of all, as you all know, we booked our hotel and flight for our honeymoon yesterday. I did this using the computer and a credit card, therefore taking my wallet out of my purse and having it near me on the couch with the computer. After I finished up all my reservations, I ran to the grocery store. We had not been shopping for some time, so I had a cart full of items. I get in line and go to pull my wallet out. No wallet. I call Ali since she has our spare key. No answer. I call my mama, and she kindly volunteers to meet me at the store and pay for my groceries. Nothing quite like being nearly 30 years old (15 days and counting) and waiting at the grocery store for your mom to come pay your bill. Awesome!

Second of all, I was driving to work this morning on the freeway when I moved my left foot. It some how bumped up against the lever for the trunk, and popped the trunk open. Wow! Who knew that was even possible. So I had to pull over, and take care of the business of closing my very open trunk on the freeway in the middle of morning traffic. Awesome!

Finally, came home tonight after going to an awards ceremony for my students and visiting with the in-laws to find that garbage mouth had struck again. Piper used her super dog powers to knock over the entire garbage can and spread trash from the kitchen to her bed in the living room. Awesome!

Garbage Mouth

Garbage in the hall.

Garbage in the kitchen. AWESOME!

Honeymoon booked!

Dalan and I took our mini-moon to Las Vegas right after the wedding. It was wonderful, fun, quick, and relaxing....everything a girl (and a boy) could ask of a mini-moon.


Now, it is time for our real honeymoon/summer vacation. We wanted to wait until summer, so we would not be so rushed, and so we would have time to recover from the wedding chaos. We also wanted to go some where that we were unlikely to return to anytime soon, especially after we have some babies.

After much debate, we decided on.....

Montreal, Canada.

It is a part of the world that neither of us have ever been before, and we are super excited. We are looking forward to romance, leisure, exploration, and adventure.

(.....seven and half months ago)

We are also looking for activities, recommendations, suggestions, ideas, etc from people who have visited Montreal before, so please send them our way!