Sick days...

I apologize for not blogging yesterday. Hubby is sick. He has a stomach bug, a bad one...

Tomorrow when he goes back to work, I'll be posting regularly. We think Hawaii didn't do him so good! lol

Today I thought I would post a few pics from our Honeymoon in Hawaii, a sneak peek if you will...

In the Austin airport about to head to LA for our flight to HI

Just landed in Hawaii and got our gorgeous orchid leis

view from the sidewalk in front of our room

Gorgeous Hibiscus flower at What's Shakin cafe in Hilo

Southernmost point of the U.S. with waves splashing up on the lava

Kilauea Caldera Crater, the most active Volcano on Earth

Alrighty, back to my sick hubby I go!
Have an AWESOME day!

Who needs a silly APPENDIX? {part II}

 This is my continued story from yesterday about my emergency appendectomy. Go see Part I of this story!  

 Brian and I with the gorgeous plan he got me right before surgery!

 They started wheeling me away! He snapped pics, thank goodness!

 

They took me downstairs and I started to get nervous {see in the pic above, yah, lots of praying, and breathing happened at this moment.} Then I started crying once my parents and Brian had to leave me. I was knocked out quick. I remember getting on the operating table and that was it.  The surgery was laproscopic, which meant that they went through my belly-button and two other small incisions. Minimal scarring is the best way to put it. However, when you have junk, such as extra cushion like me, it takes a little bit longer to find an appendix, lol. I apparently have a small abdominal cavity too. The surgery took an hour, and went very well. My appendix was definitely the problem. It was inflamed and infected, and within a few days would have ruptured *gross*.

After surgery, it was all kinda blurry. I remember alot of people in my room when I got back, and it was loud. I wanted Brian right away, and him, my mom, and my dad stood by my side immediately. I called out for Brian and he said he almost started tearing up. I'm sure I looked horrible when I came out. I was doped up, and had an oxygen mask on. Scary.

Most everyone left the room after my mom asked them to. I was tired, blacking out, and wanted to sleep. I got up to use the restroom within an hour of the surgery, and ended up not using the restroom, but getting sick to my stomach instead. My mom was terrified and thought that something was really wrong. I was vomiting from the anesthesia, and it was totally normal. 

Family started trickling in and out, and then they all left. It was great to have them there. It meant the world to me and I joked before surgery several times that they were my 'entourage'. 

I finally had a liquid meal of chicken broth, and orange jello. I became obsessed with that jello. It was so good to finally have something in my stomach again after another full day of no food. 

I slept most of the night, it was split up in two periods of time by the nurses coming in to check my vitals and my draining my overflowing bladder from the IV! I had some severe pain, and was starting to feel my incisions throughout the night, and had to have pain meds, as well as gas meds too. I got addicted to graham crackers and peanut butter as well as the orange jello. Apparently those are great things to eat after surgery!

 Brian was with me the entire night, holding my hand, and taking care of my every need. He is such an amazing man, and I could not imagine how scared he was. Our relationship grew a bit stronger after this past week {even though I thought I couldn't possibly love him any more than I already did.} My cup runneth over.

The next day we waited and waited for word about when I would be going home. I had a solid meal of toast, canadian bacon, and more jello, of course. {I'm starting to want orange jello yet again.} We finally got the word, and we took off to El Campo.

I slept alot of the weekend, napping, watching videos, and taking a good rest per doctors orders. Brian and I had to get out of the house on Saturday so we went and saw the new Pirates movie. It was good, not great, but good. I wore myself out and we took it easy Sunday and Monday. Tuesday was my post-op check up with my amazing doctor from the University of Texas. He told me all was well, and that I should be back to my normal self within 2-3 weeks! YAY!

 I've been doing well, and was humbled by all of the wonderful love that was expressed during this time...I have great family and friends, nuff said. God was watching over me, and I thank Him so much for letting me continue on with my life.  Here are some more pics of the flowers...I edited these with Instagram on my iPhone 4 of course, lol!

   

 

Who needs a silly APPENDIX ?

Who needs a silly APPENDIX ? {Part One}

Wow, what a crazy past 2 weeks it has been! 

I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been, and I am SO sorry that I haven't been around!

Last Thursday, May 19, I had an emergency appendectomy! A week before that I was having horrible upper abdomen pain, and was having trouble breathing. I finally took ibuprofen to settle it and I never had problems after that, until last Tuesday. I was having some massive cramping going on in my lower abdomen, but shook it off as gas, lol. WRONG!

The next morning I was driving into Rosenberg {45 minutes away from home}, when I was having excruciating pains every 3-5 minutes that lasted about 30 seconds to a minute long each. Some were so severe that I started shaking and had to do breathing exercises to calm myself.  After about 30 minutes or so of these scary stabbing pains, I started to get worried. I walked into Hobby Lobby to grab a few things, and found myself curled over in pain. I quickly left and called family in our hometown, as well as my mother.

I started heading home thinking that I would just see a doctor in El Campo, when my Aunt, whose had several female surgeries hooked me up with an appointment with an amazing Gynecologist in Sugarland. I headed back into Sugarland for my appointment and called Brian asap. Brian was on edge the entire day, thankfully my Aunt Jackie met me and stayed with me that entire day! I saw the doctor, she did an ultrasound {the not so friendly kind if you know what I mean}, and several samples, needless to say there was nothing wrong with me, female wise. However, while we were talking and doing all the testing/exams, I was having some major pains especially after the ultrasound.  I actually started tearing up because I was in so much pain.

Immediately the doctor insisted I get a CAT Scan, to see if my appendix was the problem. I had to drink disgusting contrast. It's a liquid that they have you drink ALOT of. It's horrible, they gave me the berry smoothie kind. Bleh. I hadn't eaten anything that day at all, and I couldn't until after the CT Scan.
They scanned me finally, and I headed home. They told me that the doctor would call me with the results. At around 5:15pm I got a call from her telling me that I had acute appendicitis. I was shocked. Then she insisted that I get back to the hospital asap before it ruptured or caused any more problems. I was to be admitted into the ER that night and would have surgery the next day!

My mom was already on her way to my house once she knew I took my CT scan. {She lives in Johnson City, 3 hours away from El Campo, remember}. She was going to be at my house at 6 and we would leave and head back to Sugarland. I packed, we got the dogs set up, and I started to have a little pain again.

I was starving so we stopped at Texas Roadhouse, and we pigged out on Prime Rib. YUM. I knew I wouldn't have normal food in a while, so I figured why not. We headed to the ER, where we were welcomed by my wonderful Aunt Cindy, she lives in Houston, and was around there anyways. She came with a bag of awesome goodies for me, magazines, facial wipes, socks and more!

Brian left that morning to go to Center, TX, 5 hours from Houston. Once he heard about the surgery and my condition, he came home as quickly as possible. My uncle, Brian's boss, told him to get to me asap. Thank goodness. He arrived around midnight, and him, and my mom slept in the room with me on a couch and a reclining chair, while I tried to get comfortable with an IV on a hospital bed.

I stayed pretty optimistic until right before the surgery. The night was long, and I wanted to be at home so badly. The next morning all my family started to trickle in. We found out that I was having surgery at 1pm, and that they were taking me to the operating room around 11:45am. It was great having so much support around me. It kept me in good spirits. I also got great flowers and plants from family and friends. It was wonderful....


 * Tomorrow I will finish this story. It's so long, I wanted to split it up, for reading purposes.* Stay tuned....
These are flowers I received during my hospital stay, more pics tomorrow!

 

 

Hubbs-To-Be at Home with Me!

We went to Dr.'s Office this morning at the butt-crack of dawn, literally. Hubbs-to-be has an upper respiratory infection. It seems to be going around. He's on some antibiotics now that will hopefully kick this infection to the curb.

Hubbs-to-be has been home for 4 wonderful days. He will be home all day until Monday. He leaves to go work in West Virginia on Monday. I have the next 3 days with him as well. All in all, it will be a total of 7 days of him being home. Which is pretty darn amazing considering the fact that I haven't spent an entire week with him in entirety in over 2 years. He started this current job/career in December of 2008. Our relationship has gone through alot in these past 2 years, and we are so much stronger and our love has grown deeper and deeper.

Since he is home, I don't have much time to blog, which is bad for me and my readers, but great for me and my love...So I want you to know that I'm thinking about ya'll and actually discussing blogging with B alot. He's proud of my small successes, and I'm going to rack his brain later to get his opinion on post ideas. I love getting new ideas. I have a few that I plan on scheduling for this weekend so that I don't completely lose my readers. So bare with me these next few days, and understand that my personal life is so important when the love is home with me. {no, its really not that important when he's gone, lol}

He's actually begging me for attention right now. He's driving me nuts. He's bored, restless, and running a muck around my house. He has now claimed himself as dog warden. He has put each pup in prison {kennel} once today. So I hope ya'll have a wonderful evening, and tomorrow I will have a more interesting post...I think it will be a new recipe...you'll just have to wait and see!

Before I leave you, here is something I designed today just to play around with. Enjoy! Just something inspirational, if you want to put it in use, go for it. If you sport it on your blog, make sure to either link it to my blog, or let your readers know that I designed it. Whichever way you sport it, just don't claim it as your own, please. Super simple, just like the design. Quiet, yet loud at the same time! Hubbs-to-be actually helped me design it too, so props to him.

   



Wedding Planning

Hubbs-to-be and I are sick today. He was home sick yesterday, and now today, and it looks like tomorrow too. I have jumped on the bandwagon as well...I officially feel like poo... I'm not really in the mood to write today, but of course I am stalking! I wanted to share more info about our wedding with my loyal readers {and of course the newbies}, hehe, so check out these websites/inspirations for our wedding. Enjoy! Our Wedding Website countdown to our wedding: 255 days to go ♥ 

In case you didn't see our engagement party invitations, this is a scanned copy of one. I personally made them with the Corel Draw program. Just wait til I show ya'll the Save The Date magnets that I'm perfecting as we speak!

 God Bless, 



Homeade CHILI and a rough day

Sunday I made an awesome pot of CHILI!!! It's my mom's homeade chili recipe. I thought I would share it because it is sooooo good.
Mom’s Chili Recipe
Ingredients:

2lbs of ground beef
1 whole onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic
5 tbsp chili powder
5 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp oregano
1 large can of tomato sauce
3 ½ cups water
1 can of black or pinto beans (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a pot cook onion and beef until meat is brown and onions are tender.
Add garlic.
Add dry spices, cooking for 5 minutes.
Add tomato sauce and water
Cook for 2-3 hours on a low simmer
Add beans 15 minutes before serving
DO NOT COVER or chili will be like soup
Top with shredded cheese and raw minced onions, serve with Saltine or Oyster crackers!
Even though this chili would be better with *chili* weather, it's still the best chili I've ever had. Really.

(don't you just love this cute lil post divider from Shabby Blogs!!!)

Today started off very rough. I'm sick with a cold/allergies. I woke up to Brian kissing my forehead *sigh*, and then almost coughed in his face :( He told me that it was time for him to go to work, and I was shocked. He said he woke up early and made sure his alarm didn't go off because he knew I hadn't been getting much sleep and he realized that I was dead asleep. So he didn't wake me up! He is so sweet! I told him I wanted to go back to sleep when he left and that I wanted to take some medicine to make sure I actually got sleep. My mom told me to take a shot of whiskey when I was restless and couldn't sleep. So proceeded to take my half of a shot of room temperature Crown Royal. I've taken plenty of shots before ;) not for sickness, either. That was THE worst shot I have ever taken in my life. I will never be taking a shot of whiskey again unless I feel like I did this morning. I walked my sweet fiance' to the door (a routine I haven't been used to in a month or so because he was gone), and kissed him for a good day. He left, I went and layed back in bed intending to go to sleep, and then I see "Brian Lee" on my phone, and his ringtone starts playing. He tells me that he is on his way back to our house to pack to head to West Texas, Pecos, to be exact.

So I immediately broke into tears, had 2 minutes to get myself together, and walked to the front door. He packed, and I decided then that I would be packing too. My parents thought that they would come to our house in EC for Thanksgiving, but there was a possibility that Brian would be out of town for the Holiday, so they weren't sure. Needless to say, I made the decision to travel to Johnson City this morning, because I did not want to be home alone, sick, for Thanksgiving. He helped me pack up our puppies, Peaches and Citori, and then was on his way. We gave each other a few kisses, and then I hugged him tightly. When he had to pull me away, I noticed I had soaked a wet spot on his uniform coveralls, and he chuckled and told me that everything would be fine, and that he would see me in a few days. I told him that I was extremely proud of him, and he responded "I'm so very proud of you too." ♥ My heart melted, I began to tear up, and I told him to get going, or I would really start to break down! He left again for the second time this morning, and I sucked up my tears (and snot) and started packing!

So here I am in JC, drinking some Earl Grey Tea with honey and lemon, watching Glenn Beck. I miss Brian very very much, especially because I am sick and just want to snuggle with him. I am so so so proud of him for leaving to take care of our life, when I myself couldn't be strong.  I thank God every chance I get, because I have such an amazing life. Even though things didn't go my way, I managed to let it go. Our King has a plan for me and my future husband, and this is part of it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?!?!? So I leave you with this...what an amazing man I get to marry...Thank You, Lord.


For Now & God Bless, *Amber*

Since I've Been Gone

Since my last blog:

I went to Huntsville last Wednesday to visit my best friend and maid of honor, Lesley. We went to a Wade Bowen concert at Shenanigans. It was a group of us, all Lesley and her boyfriend James' friends. Wade Bowen was AMAZING! This was the first time I have ever seen him LIVE before. I've listened to his music for 4 years now, and I finally got the chance to see him live! Let me tell you, his music is even more beautiful than on an iPod! I got to make Lesley and the group Chicken Parmigiana with Bruchetta and Gorilla Bread as dessert! :)

Thursday came along, and Brian came back home to Texas! He's finally home now! Another 3 weeks down in his book for West Virginia! This would be the 4th or 5th time of being in WV now. I'm sure he'll be going back soon!!! I'm so glad he is home. I'm not quite sure if he will be home for Thanksgiving. He is on call for the holiday, so it's now a toss up between cooking Thanksgiving here if he is here and possibly having my parents and brother over; or going to my parents for the holiday; or going to my grandparents for the holiday! Our schedule is always spontaneous, so this is all nothing new to me!

On Friday we went to Columbus to meet my parents and brother for lunch. They were in Columbus on business for my brother. We ate a HUGE meal at Nancy's Steakhouse and it was good seeing them! Then we had plans to go see a movie, HARRY POTTER!!!

Harry Potter came out on Friday! We went to see it Friday night in Rosenberg. Before we saw that, we went and got new iPhone 4's! For the both of us! I'm so excited to have faster service! But back to HP; I LOVE Harry Potter! The books, and the movies! I started reading around book 5: Order of the Phoenix. Since then I have read each book twice. I wish that I would have started from book 1, but I wasn't in to the Harry Potter scene 10 years ago! I got addicted by the movies, and then the books. I have to say this first installment movie of the last book was extremely good, and it was a very good depiction of the book! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD and then for the last movie of HP!

Saturday went by way too slowly. We went back into Rosenberg to fix our phones. Apparently our SIM cards deactivated after we left the store :( We fixed the problem and drove back home. Our phones are now working!

We had planned for most of the day to be consumed by the Cory Morton Fundraiser, which we couldn't have been more happier about! It was an awesome day, and they had an awesome turn-out! The kids activities was awesome! If Brian and I had kids, they would have loved it! Then we ate a chili dinner that was just ok, but it was worth the $15 we paid for Cory. We bid on several silent auction items, and got out-bid, (thank goodness because we did not need any of the items). We also bid on several live auction items and won 2 items, both of which will be christmas presents for others!!! They had a band that followed the live auction. We had a few drinks and then were home by midnight. They made $30,000 in the live auction alone. They have a raffle as well that ends in December. Hopefully, the money raised will cover a good portion of the medical costs for Cory and his family. GO TEAM CORY!!!

Today, I woke up sick as a dog! I had a sore throat, stuffy nose, tummy-ache, headache and just dead tired feeling. :(   We went to Walmart and got a few things to cover my nasty cold/allergy attack, and then came back home and have been lazy all day. I made my mom's homeade Chili recipe and pumpkin swirl brownies for dessert. Needless to say, Brian is loving every minute of being back home!!! Now it's time to go snuggle with my love for the night, if I can get him away from Sunday Night Football :(

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Have a blessed week ahead!!!

For Now & God Bless, *Amber*

Soggy Days

It's been soggy in EC since Thursday. No sunshine, no birds chirping. Just a wet, sloppy, soggy mess. The weather has brought my mood down with it. I've been unproductive since Thursday.

On a better note...I've actually stayed to my plan of weight loss. Don't get me wrong, I'm starving, but hopefully (key word here) by Oct. 1, my hunger will disappear. Today, I joined Weight Watchers. I get to track points of food, and it's mostly for me to have some more structure to my "weight loss program". It's alot like AA. I need to have a program, so hopefully WW will be a great way to start out.

Brian is doing good in WV. We're both struggling with not being able to speak much. However, tonight we had a good conversation about some wedding details and genuinely talking. It was nice. We've recently started emailing each other, because we seem to have more time to read emails, than talk on the phone.

Tomorrow I have to get the ball rolling on getting my house cleaned up from this ugly weather, finish the tutu's for EC prairie days, go get plywood and sawhorses to make items for prairie days, and do a bit of crafting in between. I may be a little stressed, but at least I will be accomplishing things. 

It's getting to be my bed time, lol...so I shall update more tomorrow! Thanks for following! :)


For Now & God Bless, *Amber*

Getting Healthy

Today was a really hard day in my "getting healthy" adventure, if that's what you want to call it. :)



I started out by waking up and taking a walk with Melissa and her mom. We walked 2 miles at the park. It was nice...I was very surprised that I actually walked that much. It hurt of course, and I have a knarly blister on my heel from my shoe rubbing as always.

I spent the rest of the day with Melissa and Baylee. We went to Subway and had a healthy lunch. Then we watched Letters to Juliet and The Last Song. They were both great movies!!! Everyone told me not to even bother buying The Last Song, but I loved it. :) I love sappy love stories that make me laugh and cry! Especially when they have good endings!

We had spaghetti and fresh veggies with garlic toast for dinner. It was SOOOOO goood! I had about half of what I usually have! I would usually have 2 pieces of toast, almost half a plate of spaghetti and tons of ranch with my fresh veggies, and most of the time I would go back for seconds. However this time was REALLY hard not to eat as much...I'm starving right now. I could totally eat everything in my house right now. It's so sad :( But i'm trying very hard...It will be extremely hard for the next few weeks. Hopefully I can get into a routine of not eating as much and when Brian gets home, I can be well on my way to total fitness/healthiness.

My goal is to be physically healthy! Of course I would like to look good, but I'm trying not to worry about the weight so much as thinking about how much better I will feel after I've shed a few pounds.

I'm struggling with finding healthy recipes to use for me and Brian for lunch and dinner... Our usual dinners consist of pasta, rice, and fatty meats. I love chicken so this will be much easier for me than for Brian. I have a feeling I will have a harder time during the winter cooking great healthy meals that are harty and not so much comfort foods. I think as long as I portion control and exercise I can still eat those meals, but of course not in the way I used to. I'll have to find different, healthier ways to cook.

So if anyone knows of a great website I could get some healthy recipes, pass it over!!!

Goodnight world!

For Now & God Bless,

*Amber*

Sick Day of Packing

Today I was sick! Minor sore throat and some sneezing!

Tomorrow is New Years Eve!

I'm riding with Melissa, Baylee and Debbie to head to my parents house in JC.

Brian, Randy & Deric are coming up in my truck tomorrow night!

Justin plans on hanging out with us too!

Well I'm gonna get to bed! Got a early day tomorrow! Gotta do some extra shopping in the morning for Jackie, Nana, Hunter and Kay!

Good Night!

*@*

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