5 Days Post Op

Last Friday, I had three procedures. I had abdominal skin removal, a tummy tuck, and liposuction. I was pretty nervous, but it was something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and it ended up going fairly well.  I did not only do this for cosmetic reasons, the extra skin has also caused me health issues. As I would get rashes underneath the fat rolls, and I have suffered with back pain, throwing my back out on multiple occasions.

I am pretty pleased with the results. It is so crazy to me to have a flat stomach.  The fat roll the surgeon removed from my abdomen weighed 15 lbs! And in weird news, they made me a new belly button, as they removed my old one. That fact blew my mind.

Recovery is going OK. I haven't been in an immense amount of pain, but I'm taking my pain pills on a regular schedule to avoid pain. I do have a lot of medications, even one in shot form. I have two drains attached to my abdomen in order to drain excess liquids from surgery. But those are having to be emptied less and less as the days progress, and I'm hoping to go down to one drain pretty soon.  I also have to wear a binder around my stomach at all times to keep it compressed.

I've been overall pretty tired, napping a lot, and taking a shower takes up almost all my energy. But I'm starting to walk more and more, and just today I walked to the end of the street and back, which is good progress. 

I've been overwhelmed with gratitude for Adam, and how well he has taken care of me. Every morning he empties and cleans my drains. He makes sure I get my blood thinning shot and all my medications on time. He reminds me to stay hydrated and makes me walk around, even when I don't want to because my incision is hurting. He has prepared almost all my meals. He has helped me shower. And since I have to sleep in the recliner downstairs, he has slept every night on the couch. We are having a family camp out in the living room. He is amazing, and it is such a reminder that I am so lucky to have him. 

Heck, he even filled in for me at bowling league night.

Even Link has been quite the sweetheart. He seemed to understand when I first came home that I wasn't feeling well. He stayed by my side, and he often times looked concerned. And not once has he tried to jump on my lap or up on me, like he typically would. He has such a gentle heart.

My friends have also been super supportive, checking on my frequently with text and calls. My friend Lark stopped by on her day off to visit, and she brought me Starbucks & cookies. And another friend, Anna, sent me some adult coloring books and colored pencils. How sweet and how fun!

The best part of having this operation done is that it has reminded me how loved I am. I'm usually pretty independent, but it is nice to know when I need help, there are so many people willing to do so.

Click here to follow this blog on bloglovin and keep up with all my posts!

We Bought a House

It is kind of a crazy, whirlwind when I think back about the last 3 months of house hunting, and all the steps it took to get to the moment, pictured above, holding our SOLD sign at our home Monday night. Yes, we officially closed on our house Monday. Signed, sealed, delivered, it is now ours, all ours.

And when I say whirlwind, I mean a whirlwind of emotions. The first of which was fear. I remember how nervous we were when we first walked into our new realtor's office, having no clue what we even needed to do to begin looking for a house.

Then there was the excitement of finding what we thought was our dream home, putting in a bid, and  having it fall through a month later, which was devastating. Not knowing there was something even more perfect for us just around the corner!

With this house, everything fell into place. We got the right price, in the right neighborhood, in the right city. The whole process was smooth from start to finish, with very little nail biting along the way. 

Adam and I have dreamed about owning a home together for the last 6 years that we have been living together. It's weird to have wanted something for so long and to now finally have it. I just can't wait to see what new memories we make there.

I am definitely feeling a lot of gratitude tonight. Gratitude for our lovely realtor and mortgage broker, who made this experience such a fantastic one. Gratitude for my husband and how he managed the budget the last couple of years, allowing us to have the down payment we needed. And a lot of gratitude to the big man upstairs for helping us find the perfect house at the perfect time!

Now it is time for packing and boxes and one of my least favorite tasks ever MOVING! But at least this time, we are moving without the expectation of having to move again. When we were in California, we knew we would be moving to Alabama. Once we got to Alabama, we knew we would be buying a house eventually. 

I'm tired of temporary living, and I am ready for something that feels more secure and permanent. Can't wait to put down our roots.

Click here to follow this blog on bloglovin and keep up with all my posts!

Home Sweet Home

I don't know any other way to start this post other than to say WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! It is beautiful home, and it has almost everything that we were looking for. No, this is not the house I shared with you a few months ago, that deal fell through, and we were devastated! In fact, before we found this house I was feeling pretty defeated about it all.

Adam found this house on the internet, and he was so excited about it, he went to tour it without me while I was in Memphis. He called me so thrilled about the home, and said I had to come see it that night. So I rushed home! As soon as I walked in, I just knew this was our house. We loved so much about it. So we put a bid in, and it was accepted. OK, it was a little more complicated than that, with some nervous days in between and some countering back and forth. But we got it done.

I have to mention the previous owners last name started with a "M" like ours, and they had a big M on the front door. Which to us, felt like a sign.

It is 2 stories like we wanted. It is spacious. It is in a WONDERFUL neighborhood. There is a fenced in yard, so we can get a puppy soon. I can have my Petit Trianon (home office).  The details are so pretty, like the tiling on the columns that separate the kitchen from the den. There are walk in closets galore and a whirl pool tub. It has this detached extra garage/workshop that will give us enough storage for a lifetime. 

We will be moving in August. In the meantime, we plan to get some painting done. The bedrooms upstairs were children's bedrooms, so they have very LOUD colors. 

Adam and I laugh about how empty our house is going to be for a while. How little furniture we actually own. How it will take years to fully furnish and decorate the house. But it will be fun, and I can't wait to share everything with you guys! 

Graduation Day!

Saturday morning was my graduation ceremony from my Master's Program. And when I woke up on Saturday morning, I was in a really, cranky mood.  I wanted to stay in bed, I didn't feel like driving an hour each way. I thought, "I've graduated from high school and college already. Been there, Done that. No Big Deal." Plus, even though my husband was with me, I really wished my family could have been there too. Hey, sometimes it's hard to live on the Left Coast when almost everyone you know lives on the Right Coast.

But when Adam and I pulled into the parking lot of the arena, I ran into my fellow graduating MFTers (marriage & family therapists, holla), and I put on my cap and gown and my master's hood. I started to buck up. OK, I got down right excited. The ceremony was nice and I didn't trip when I was on the stage (which is always my number one fear!). And they even put my name up on the Jumbo Tron (I would almost bet my life that my name will never be on a jumbo tron ever again). Not to mention, Adam cheered so loud for me from the balcony, it sounded like a million people were there to support me. And when the ceremony was over, confetti and streamers were shot into the air.

After the ceremony, we went to a lunch hosted by our good friends, Albert and Rianne. Albert graduated with me, and we have become close couple friends with them throughout these last few years. But our friends were so busy hoisting their party, that they didn't eat a thing, and Rianne is pregnant so that just wouldn't do. So we ended up tagging along with them for a second lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (they pretty much forced us to eat again, we waddled out of that restaurant).

(On a totally, unrelated side note: Them not eating at their own party, kind of reminded me of our wedding, where all our guests got to enjoy the delicious food, but Adam and I never ate a bite. We got to the hotel that night and we were STARVING to death. Our amazing friends had surprise decorated our hotel room with roses, champagne, and candles for the wedding night. They had also tossed out the left over pizza still in the pizza boxes from our joint bachelor/bachelorette party the night before, and they left them outside our hotel room door. So we snagged the boxes from outside, and we ate the pizza like people who had been trapped on a deserted island with no food for weeks).

I was so happy I went to my graduation because it was the only time I really got to reflect on the accomplishment of getting my master's. I've just been going and going for the last few years, turning in papers, taking tests, and not thinking about what it all really meant. It was just something I was doing because it was what I needed to do to get to the next step.  So while I'm not going to spend the rest of my life basking in the accomplishment, at least for that one day, I took the time to pat myself on the back.

I guess that corny statement rings true, "The Tassel is Worth the Hassle."

Song of the Day: Graduation Song by Vitamin C

Graduation Celebration

Monday night at ten o'clock, I had officially finished all my classes and earned my master's degree. And by Monday night at 10:30, I was sitting at The Cheesecake Factory having drinks and cheesecake with my friend Albert in celebration. Albert is my friend in the way only someone you have shared two and a half years of group presentations, last minute papers, and internship woes can be.

This last class we had to take was pretty insufferable. It was a class that most people in the counseling program take in the very beginning, but because of how our particular program progressed we had it at the very end. So we were in there with a bunch of wide-eyed, excited newbies (God Bless Them We Were Once Just Like Them) to the program, and we were the oldies suffering with massive senioritis. And to top it off, the class was only offered in Pasadena, which is an hour and a half drive through downtown L.A. traffic.

Albert and I carpooled together every week, and we manged to get lost every week. Don't ask how, I still can't figure it out. It wasn't that complicated. On the first night of this class, we saw a Cheesecake Factory while driving around and we almost skipped class completely and went out to eat. But we decided to be good little children and go to class, but we made a promise that on our last night of class, we would go there to celebrate.

I'm so glad that we kept that promise. Because we had a blast reminiscing, taking tequila shots, drinking pineapple mojitos, and eating the best cheesecake ever! (And we did the sweet thing and brought home dinner to our respective spouses). Although I think the alcohol was a bad idea, considering I already had a killer cough, and the next day I was diagnosed with bronchitis. So yeah, I spent all day yesterday on the couch watching redbox movies.

In fact, I'm so sick that when I picked Adam up from work yesterday he told me, "I looked pale like a potato...". I had no clue what that really meant, but it sounded offensive. So I pouted for a hot second, and then said, "It's not really nice to tell me I look like a potato." He was confused, "What are you talking about?" We finally figured out he had told me, "You look pale, like you don't feel well." LOL. Funny misunderstanding.

I still can't believe I have my Master's Degree. I'm so proud of myself, but at the same time it just doesn't feel real! Now I just have to get out there and put it to use. Which is the truly scary part!

Song of the Day:  How Lucky We Are by Meiko