catching up

Wow! It's been a little over a month since my last post. I didn't want that to happen, but when school started back up, my time to sit at the computer became limited.


So, what has been happening in the last month.


1. School/Work began - so far so good... I like my schedule and my classes have been behaved. But now that I am out for 2 weeks, I shall see how they are the last 4 weeks together... which brings me to..


2. I had my hernia repair surgery this past Friday. All went well, except for waking up, that was rough. I was vomitting and in and out of reality and then the dizziness from the pain medicine topped the cake. I am 5 days out from surgery and feel pretty good for the most part. I still have dizziness without the medicine, and some minor pain. If I am upright for too long the pain sets in, and by too long I mean a shower's length of time.


3. Our kitchen is almost complete. As I speak, the bottom cabinets are being installed! Jake has been up late the past 3 nights priming and painting, and it looks wonderful! The new stove came today so we are almost there. If the cabinets are finished today or tomorrow I can call to have an in-home estimate on countertops and then we just need the backsplash to be complete and the countertop of our choice and new sink installed!! Will I have a new/usable kitchen by October? Only time will tell... But check out the a picture from the kitchen.

Zoo

On Friday, Jake and I took Audrey for her first visit to the zoo. It has been about 9 years since I was last at the Baltimore Zoo and it has changed, a lot! And let me say also, that the change is not for the better. Things have been moved to the 'back' of the zoo, and now instead of tigers when you walk in, the pairie dogs are there. And the old walkway that took you to the back of the zoo is blocked off, so you must walk AROUND the zoo to get to the 'back' for some animals. And the animals! Geez, they are far and few! No hippos! And every exhibit is lowly supplied with animals. But, going to the zoo was something I wanted to do this summer with Audrey and we did it.

4 years...

... and we're both still alive! All jokes aside, Jake and I have been married 4 years today. Four years ago I promised to love him forever, and so far I have kept my promise :) Together we have experienced new things such as buying a house, visiting Key West and having a beautiful daughter. I know the next 80 years (by then I will be 109 and Jake 113, so I'll stick with 80) will be filled with more new experiences, and a lot of love.

Tonight is also the first pre-season game for the Baltimore Ravens! I wish my dad had given me his ticket, but alas, he did not, so I will be watching the game from the comfort of my basement.

Wedding Week #2

Today was suppose to be about the girls getting ready for the big day, and I realized, I don't really have pictures of that process. But I will give a run down of how the morning went. First off, the wedding was schedule for the early evening due to the fact that I hate waking early and did not want to wake up before the sun just to get pretty for the wedding. With that being said, I was still up by 7am, was it nerves? Nope, it was my 2 month old nephew crying that woke me up. All day my MOH kept asking "Has it hit you yet that you are getting married?" and my response was "No, I feel the same."

The morning started off with begals and champange with strawberries and then the hustle of a house full of people getting ready. In the house that day there were the following people; myself, Nicky, Penny, Dad, Pauline, Jimmy, Sonia and Jason the baby, all in need of showers. Being the bride I was able to shower first and being that my dad had to go to work in the morning he was in his shower. After the showers, my dad pulls me into his room and sits me down. He beings talking to me, and I honestly can not remember what he said. He handed me a card and a box and I preceded to cry while reading the card and then open the box to a beautiful heart locket bracelet.

Now we need to go get our hair and makeup done, and realize we don't have a car, so we end up taking my dad's pickup truck. I can only imagine what I looked like driving back in a veil in a pickup truck!

Then it was time to sit around and eat delicious food and wait until the photographer got to the house to take pictures, there was no way I was putting on that dress and wait with how hot it was that day.

Anyway, flash forward a bit and we are doing pictures and waiting for my dad to get dress to do pictures with him. When he came down the stairs, my back was to him, and I heard my mom gasp "Oh, Mike.." and I turned around. There was my dad, in full dress blues, down to the white gloves, smiling at me. I began to cry (again) and he came and gave me a huge hug. You see, my dad retired from the United States Army National Guard the year before and told me there was no way he'd be able to fit into his dress blues, I was heart broken. I always pictured being walked down the aisle with him in those blues. But he 'squeezed' into them just for me. It was the best surprise ever! I wish I had a picture of that online, but I do not :o/

Well, that's the extent of the before wedding details, and I'm teary remembering the day.

Ok, so a fun picture of us (minus MOH) 'playing' pool to relax.

Wedding Week

On Thursday, Jake and I will have been married for 4 years. So I figured that this week would feature some pictures from this time 4 years ago.





This is a picture of how I thought I was going to have my hair done for the wedding, but did not...





Next is a picture of Jake and the G'men trying on their tuxes, they are a silly bunch of guys!



Tomorrow will be the girls getting ready....

Surgery part2

I called the surgeon today to make a pre-op appointment and it is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 11. I asked what the recovery time was for a hernia operation and was told 1-2 weeks before I could lift anything.... anything!? Really!? I have a daughter who loves to be picked up, and who I love to pick up. So I asked when I would be able to return to work, and again was told 2 weeks. It has to be done, I've waited too long as it is, and knowing my luck, if I wait it will get worse. It just sucks. It just doesn't seem like there is ever a good time to do this. This is just a big headache. The surgeon's office said they could schedule me for surgery as early as Friday, so that I would be ok to return to work on the 24, but I have a full weekend planned and I don't want to cancel any of it. Selfish, yes, but I don't care! It's my 4th wedding anniversary and a O's game for a great friend's birthday, and I don't want to miss any of this. So I lied and said I was going out of town, somewhat true, I'm out of Essex for the weekend, just not the state ;o)

Cheerie

As promised, a more cheerful blog!

So besides Audrey having a first of playing on the beach, she had two more first while in OCMD. One is she went into the ocean and had no fear, the other was she wore pigtails for the first time (more exciting for me than her). We worried that she would not like the ocean, but once the water touched her toes she was all in for the ocean! Jake had to take her out once to rinse off and she apparently was giggling while out there. No fear = bum rushing the ocean in a year or two!

I couldn't decide on what picture to post, so enjoy them both!