My Bridal Shower

My Maid of Honor co-hosted my bridal shower with my Grandmama.  It turned out spectacular.  The shower was just wonderful and so many of my friends and family came to shower me with love, marriage advice, and PRESENTS!  My Maid of Honor did all the decorations and prepared/bought all the food for the shower.  She made her own purple and green deviled eggs, colored to match my wedding colors.  She also got all of the guest drunk off of mimosas. That was super fun.  My Maid of Honor and my Grandmother really went above and beyond what I could have ever imagined for my bridal shower.  It was magical.  Her are some of the details from the memorable day.

Homemade by the Maid of Honor purple and green deviled eggs

Flowers as gifts to give to guests

Champagne for Mimosas!

The food complete with a purple table cloth

My Bridesmaid made this cake for me.

The presents!

More food

Mimosa supplies

Me chatting with guests

Chatting with my guests

Getting my grub on

The cutest guest arriving

Im handing out my wedding invitations to my guests

Chatting with my Aunt and my Mom

More Food

 These are the flowers I gave my mom

Flowers for my Mom

Chatting with my Bridesmaid

Flowers for my Grandma

"OMG Seriously?"

Presents

Hurry up and open the presents

Open the presents

Yeah gonna get freaky on my wedding night

More Sexiness

I think I am holding a condom

A scrapbook page

Pretty Outfit

My Mom looks happy

My happy friends and family

What are those two giggling about

A little model made an appearance at my shower

Me and my sweet friend.  Look at her nails.

My Aunt, she made that apron for me that I am holding, which I love by the way

I wonder what she is thinking

Thats my maid of honor

She is also my Sister

I love her Argyle Sweater

That's my pretty Grandma

My Aunties

My wonderful Aunt who made me an apron

My Aunties

This is my second mom (my bff's mom)

Mi Tia Bonita

My Bridesmaid

My honorary bridesmaid (she got preggers)

My Aunt

Auntie,who also helped take out my wisdom teeth

Tia

Grandma, me, Mom

My Bridesmaid Teeny

My friend Canada

My fam

Everybody keep your eyes open

Getting better

Here we go

Chit Chatting with the fam

Bridesmaid

So Adorbs

My VS presents

Having so much fun

Those flowers back there I got for my Maid of Honor

Love this girl

What a model, she never stops

My Aunt

Chatting with my Mama

My surprise scrapbook gift; everyone brought a page

All of my friends and family are so beautiful as you can see, but the best part is that they are beautiful inside and out.  They showered me with amazing love and presents. I will never forget my bridal shower.

Invisible No More Campaign

Imagine a World Where People Living With Illness, Pain, and Disabilities are Invisible No More.

The Invisible Disability Association has a Campaign, Invisible No More.  There are so many stories, and so many people living with invisible disabilities.  There are so many of us, we arn't really special or rare, just misunderstood.  If you know someone with an invisible disability, just let them know that you believe them and maybe share your story as well.  It is good to know that a you are not alone.  One day my Aunt called me to tell me that when she was my age she was in a horrible car accident and hurt her back really bad.  She was in so much pain and it was hard to walk.  She had two kids and couldn't pick them up or care for them by herself.  Doctors either didn't believe her or just drugged her up with narcotic pain killers.  My Aunt called me to tell me that she believed me and understood what I was going through.  Just by sharing her story I felt so much better. 

There are so many people living with some sort of impairment that makes navigating the world challenging.  Lets share, understand, believe and support each other!

Me and gym got back together and he is rather abusive

I'm a couch potato

Sunday Gavin dragged me to the gym at Oracle.  It is a very nice gym by the way.  It felt really good to work out but I was very limited in what I could do because of my hip.  After the gym I felt invigorated and hungry but my hip also became inflamed and painful.  My hip hasnt been bothering me a lot lately because I have been taking it so easy.  At work I just sit all day, and because I work all day, Gavin has been helping me with more and more housework.  My sedentary lifestyle has made my hip hurt less but it as also made my muscles whimpy and spongy.  Being sedentary has also taken a toll on my metal health.  Saturday I insisted on taking a stroll around the block even though I am paying for it now.  Before my 2010 surgery I was very active.  Walking to the gym, doing martial arts, yoga, pretty much all the things I am not suppose to do.


Today is Tuesday so it has been about 2.5 days since the gym. MY HIP HURTS SO BAD!!!! Grrrrrrr... It is back to being in super bad shape.  So painful.  My Voltaren gel is still helping but it only does so much.  When my hip is feeling good I forget that I even have a bum hip and sometimes I question if I should even have the surgery.  Having my hip flair up like this again reminds me off all the pain I have gone through up until this point and there is no doubt in my mind that I want to have this surgery.

Wedding photobooth! Come Take a Peek

It's never Lupus

I went to a rheumatologist who turned out to be a total idiot. He said that my test results must be wrong, as in someone at the lab made a mistake.  He also disregarded any symptom that I did have that matched lupus, like a sore on the roof of my mouth, and my blue fingers.  I didn't like this reaction at all.

He told me I defiantly don't have an autoimmune disorder of any sort.  Uh, how can he tell, just by looking at me? At the doctors office, I observed that most of his patients were coming in for allergy related complaints, so maybe he just specializes in allergies. He also had never heard of my condition, FAI, and so he totally blew that off.   He had no patients for any of my questions that I had and told me to direct the rest of my questions to his receptionist.  Uh, what the hellno!  I didn't like his attitude at all.

He told me to redo my lab test at a better lab to confirm his lack of diagnosis and to see him again in two weeks.

Why would I go back to see him so he could tell me again that nothing was wrong with me.  I am not going to pay him to tell me nothing. Besides, I don't trust him and he acts too annoyed to answer any of my questions.

I did decide to go get my labs done again.  There is a chance that that the idiot doctor is right and the first lab technician made a mistake.  Even if the doctor is right, he is still an idiot.  I chose to have my labs sent directly to me so that I can read it with my own eyes at no cost to me.  Next time I see my primary doctor,  I will go over the results with him as well.

Phone convo with Dr. Sampson

Dr. Sampson called me in response to my email to answer some of my questions and put my mind at ease.

He said that I should have a very different and much more positive experience compared to my previous surgery.

Addressing my retroversion, he said many patients with retro version are treated with this same procedure.  Anterversion is much more difficult to treat.  I probably wont need surgery to correct my retroversion.  Yay!

Version Surgery.  I don't need this!  I hope

As for traveling, Dr. Sampson said to give myself 6 weeks minimum before traveling, and to give myself 3 months to be on the safe side.

As for driving, I will be able to drive after 5 days of recovering.  Much different than my first surgery.  I couldn't drive for 5 months.



I can return to work after three days off.  I am going to take off three days plus the weekend for a total of 5 days.

I will be on crutches for about 6 weeks with partial weight baring as soon as I can stand it. 

As for my leg length discrepancy, I forgot to ask him about that.  Oops.  I will have to call him again.

I felt much better after talking to Dr. Sampson and feel that I should go ahead with my surgery.

Hello, my name is Cookie Monster

I know my post many weeks ago was all about losing weight, but like I said before, you have to have a little fun in your life.  Little, as in, the size of a cookie. Cookies are my one true love.  Cookies and I have been together long before Gavin and I met.  Luckily, Gavin understands that my cookies are not going anywhere.  Cookies have been with since I learned to eat solid foods, through skinned knees, breakups, late night study sessions, and yes, they were there all through my pre-wedding stress.  I consider myself a connoisseur of fine cookies.  Today, I am going to tell you about my top 5 favorite cookies of all time.

5) Buttered Rum Cookies

It has rum in it!  It couldn't be bad.  These coookies are covered in powdered sugar.  They are soft and chewy and melt in your mouth. Yes, these cookies  contain actual rum and you don't bake these cookies so the alcohol is still in the cookie.  I wonder how many cookies it would take to get drunk?

4) Chocolate Mint Cookies

There is something so magical about the taste of chocolate and mint together.  It is like the two are made for eachother.  When you combine chocolate and mint into a cookie that is just amazing.  Chocolate mint cookies are one of my favorite treats.  I like to buy the all natural cookies and eat them from a box, but I bet it would be fun to make these cookies too.

 3) No Bake Cookies

Yummy.  These are so good and good for you too right?  These cookies have oatmeal and peanut butter as part of the ingredients.  The best part about these cookies is that they are so easy to whip up and you don't have to wait for the cookies to bake or cool down before you eat them.

2) Whole Foods' Flour-less Chocolate Chewy Cookies

I discovered these cookies when I was living in Pittsburgh, PA.  These babies got me through many late night college papers.  They are so fricken good.  These cookies have a hard outside and a soft, chewy inside.  The cookies are crumbly, yummy, and super rich.

1)  Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My grandma makes the best cookies of all time and they are chocolate chip.  Chocolate chip cookies are timeless and never too rich, so you can always have more than one.  My Grandma's cookies are pretty hard to get your hands on because she only bakes her famous chocolate chip cookies a few times a year, and in limited quantities.  Fortunately for you, she isn't stingy, so she doesn't keep her recipe a secret.  In fact, her recipe is published.  Yeah, you can find her famous recipe on the back of a package of Nestle chocolate chips.


 So tell me, what is your favorite cookie or other sweet snack?