I'm Back & Still Kickin'

Hello there! How has the last week and half been for you? Mine has been a whirlwind of... not much.  One of the blessings (and curses) of having surgery is the inability to move around much.  So for about a week, I spent my time sleeping and laying in bed.

Let's get into the surgery a little bit.  Justin and I had to arrive at the hospital by 5:30 a.m. in order for me to have plenty of time to be prepped for surgery.  Let me tell you, that was no feat getting us both up and out of the door that early, but we did it and we made it in time.  It was also at that time when I finally started freaking out about the surgery.

I honestly was not sure how I was going to react when the time came and even thought I was not going to react at all, but when I sat down in the waiting area before surgery, I started to get really scared and started to cry some.  

Around 6:00 (after filling out what felt like a hundred pages of paperwork, they took me back to get prepped for the surgery.  This part wasn't all that bad with the exception of getting the IV.  Then Justin came in and we hung out for about 45 minutes watching "I Love Lucy" and "Dog with a Blog".  I know, random TV choices right? Well there really is not much on at 6:30 in the morning on a Thursday. 

The next part really is a blur.  They told me they were giving me medicine in my IV to help me relax and the next thing I know, I'm waking up and in the recovery room. The first thing I remember asking the lady to do was to "please hold my hand" and she did and then I went back out until they started giving me more oxygen and I woke up.  Once I was officially awake and ready to go, they dressed me in my own clothes and delivered me to a very eager Justin to make our way home.

Upon arriving home, my cousin Stephanie showed up with a cute Eeyore balloon and a card.  She happened to arrive at the perfect time because it gave Justin a chance to run out and get my pain medicine script filled.  She hung out for a half hour or so before he got back and I promptly fell asleep for a few hours.

Later that day, my mom and Danielle stopped by to see me after they got off of work.  I managed to grab a Snapchat of Danielle hanging out while she was there.  She also brought me a super cute coffee cup and some calming chamomile tea to drink for when I was in pain.  Such a sweet gift.

My mom brought me a delicious slurpee because I had a severe sore throat from the breathing tube they had to put in during surgery.  She hung out for a little bit before she had to make her way to another event she had planned.

 My friend Sarah was actually making her way to California to see her boyfriend so she wasn't able to stop by after the surgery, but she made sure to send me some beautiful flowers.  And my in-laws also stopped by with a pretty daisy bouquet.  I absolutely love daisies!

I spent the next nine days recovering by laying in bed/sleeping/eating and repeating.  There really is not much I was able to do until this past weekend when I went out with the ladies{but that deserves it's own post}.  

I wanted to give my mom a shout out because she was SUPER helpful while I was recovering.  Between the meals she brought over and the time she spent helping me with chores around the house, she really was a blessing to both Justin and me.  

Overall the surgery and recovery was not too bad.  Yes, there was some pain, but it was not too terrible.  If you are in the position where you need your gall bladder removed, I would recommend that you do not put it off.  The longer you put it off, the worse it gets.

Question of the Day:

What types of surgery have you had and how long was the recovery time?

Surgery is Tomorrow

Hi There! Just wanted to drop in really quickly to let everyone know that I will be having my gall bladder removed tomorrow morning!

This means that I may {or may not} be posting much in the next week or so due to the recovery time.  I'm hoping I can get a few posts in, but I don't want to make any promises.  Once I've recovered 100% I will make sure to give everyone an update.

A lot of people keep asking me how I'm doing today and it seems my most natural response is: I'm okay.  But let's be honest, I'm pretty scared.  Surgery (even laparoscopic) is scary and has risks.  Luckily for me, there are little to no risks associated with this surgery - outside of some minor pain and a few other small things.

But, in every bad situation there is humor! 

And maybe if I am lucky enough, Justin will get a silly video of me coming out of the anesthesia, like this guy:

If you all are lucky, I might just share it with you all {maybe}. 

But on a more important note, I wanted to give a nod to the importance of today.  Today represents a day of severe tragedy in our country, but it also represents how strong we are as a country and represents the amazing unity we have.  Never Forget.

See you all on the flip side! 

Totally Awesome {Fort} Sleepover

Hey there! How is everything? I hope all is well!

You know how they say that as you get older, the things of your childhood are not as entertaining as they used to be? Well not for my girlfriends and I.  In fact, I would have to say that, if anything, we run toward doing "childish" things.  And we did just that a few weeks ago when we had a {totally awesome} fort sleepover.  

At our last get together, we were talking about how fun forts were when we were little and how it would be so amazing to build a fort and stay the night in there.  This then hatched the idea of planning a night where we could all stay over and build a fort just for the fun of it.  It only took us two months to plan, but here it is!

The fort literally went from one end of my living room to the other and was tall enough for us to be able to stand and walk around (until you got to the door anyway).  We had snacks, wine, coloring books, henna ink, beads for bracelets and a plethora of great movies to watch.

The building process for the fort was rather complicated because we did not really have too many objects that were tall and sturdy enough to hold the sheets up.  However, we got creative and used ribbon and pushpins to hold the fort up as tall as it could go.  At one point, Kimmy was standing on the table to get enough height to reach the ceiling.  

After the fort was finished, we made sure to string up some twinkle lights to add to the ambiance of the room.  We also made a sign to go up so that Justin knew that the fort was "girls only" or "The she woman man haters club" {special nod to The Little Rascals}.  

We also spent some time doing henna on our hands and feet, coloring in some coloring books and making bracelets anklets for us to wear.  You can see my henna and anklet below :)

As a group we always try to celebrate everyone's birthday, so we made sure to have a cake and a card for Danielle for her birthday ~yes a month late~ and she was totally surprised when I walked crawled into the fort holding a cake and a card.  I have to say, it is not easy to crawl with lit candles in front of your face.  Check that off the list of things to never do again!

And what is the fun of doing a sleepover without trying to grab a few good shots of everyone.  I figured out that my camera has a "face detection" feature on it, so you can set it anywhere and it will take a picture once it detects a face (or two depending on the setting).  So we tried out this {totally fun} feature by taking group pictures of all of us.

We definitely failed on that shot, but it appears that the camera will take a picture once it detects the right number of faces haha

And of course you have to throw in the silly shot!

We stayed up until 3:00 am talking about anything and everything before we all passed out one-by-one.  Of course, we did not get too much sleep because Leilah decided to try to jump on top of the fort from her tower, pulling it almost all the way down.  Such a great way to wake up at 8:00 in the morning.  Oh well! It was such a fun evening.

 I cannot wait to see what new adventures we will come up with in the future! 

Nicole's Bachelorette Party

My day of festivities did not end with Nicole's bridal shower because as soon as we got home, we were getting ready for a night out on the town! Nicole did not know that her bachelorette party was going to happen that night, so she was pretty pumped when her sister (and matron of honor) told her that we would be going out to celebrate her upcoming nuptials. 

The evening started out with all of us girls heading to Casa Real for dinner and margaritas.  I had a delicious {appetizer} size chicken quesadilla.  Let me just tell you, their regular size quesadilla is way too much food for one person.  If you end up going there {which I totally recommend} make sure to plan on splitting a meal with someone or taking some food home.

During dinner, we also made sure to give Nicole our gifts before we headed out for the evening.  On top of all of the wonderful gifts, the restaurant also provided her with a wonderful song, hat and a shot of tequila.  Now that is how you start the night off.  

After dinner, Nicole was surprised with a totally awesome party bus {stripper poll included} for us to drive around for a few hours before heading off to our next event of the evening.  Of course we had a wide variety of alcohol from jello shots to rum and coke which we gladly consumed while driving around.  We also enjoyed a game of "banana" ring toss (not picture) and everyone showcased their stripper poll dancing skills.  Mine... are severely lacking. 

After driving around for an hour or so, we made it to our final destination for the night: Drag Queen Bingo! I really was not sure what to expect from Drag Queen Bingo because I have never really been around any drag queens, but I can honestly say that it was a ton of fun.  The interesting thing about this was the fact that the there were hardly any men there.  I mean, there were literally three men out of over 75 people in the room and September Murphy made sure to draw attention to them. 

Any time she called O69, she made one of the men come up on stage, take off their shirt and dance to your traditional "strip club" music.  It was highly entertaining and I enjoyed the free "show" that we got.

If at any point during the evening you got a Bingo you were required to go up on stage to receive your prizes.  And ironically, two people in our group got Bingo: Kellie and I!  I wish we had gotten a picture of me up on stage getting the prize, but we did not.  I DID get a picture of Kellie though! We each got a t-shirt and a funny coffee mug.  You can see a picture of my mug below, but due to inappropriate language on the shirt, I will not be posting a picture.  I will say, it's pretty funny!

The evening ended with us all hitching a ride home on the party from Drag Queen Bingo and a few lovely ladies crashing for the night at my apartment (Jamie, Elizabeth and Kellie).  We stayed up until about three in the morning before finally crashing.  Such a wonderful night!

Congratulations Nicole! Can't wait to celebrate your big day! 

Nicole's Bridal Shower

If there ever was an appropriate time to use the phrase, "Strugglebus" this would be it.  I am so sorry that I have not been around in over two weeks! I am going to work very hard to get the ball rolling again and keep you all updated on my adventures.

Over the last month or so I have had two bachelorette parties, a bridal shower, two weddings, built a totally awesome fort AND started working on my very own Etsy Shop! Which means that I really do have a ton to share BUT I also have been very busy!

The first event I really want to share with you is my cousin, Nicole's, bridal shower! Her bridal shower was held at The River Church in Holly, MI (which happens to be my parents church).  Because of events happening at the church, the shower was held at 11:00 am and honestly, I feel like it was the perfect time for a brunch shower.  

As a way to help out for the shower, my mom and I were responsible for doing all of the decorations, and I have to say that I am excited with how perfectly they turned out.  If I get a chance again, I will make sure to share a tutorial on how to make each piece of decoration on another post.  In the mean time, check out these pins: here, here and here for inspiration.

During the shower, we played some fun games similar to the ones we played at my cousin Jamie's bridal shower in June.  We played bridal bingo, guess who and did a who knows the couple better game.  I am ashamed that I did not know as much about them as I thought I did {sorry Nicole}! I guess that gives me and excuse to spend more time with them which is always a blast.

The shower ended with the bride and groom giving an excellent thank you give and the guests leaving with full bellies since the food was delicious! It sure seems like I cannot seem to remember to take pictures of food that is too yummy.  

I cannot wait for Nicole and Nick's wedding in October! It will for sure be a total blast!

{Congratulations Nick & Nicole!}