So Pretty!

We've lived in our house for four years now and have slowly replaced all of the major applicances.  The last happened today, the washer and dryer.  I'm not sure how old the ones that came with the house were, but they were way past time to be replaced!  The washer would dance all over the place and the dryer only worked on one setting.  We'd started saving up and then found a really good sale on labor day.  The hardest part was waiting til today for them to be delivered!  We almost went with a platinum finish, just to be fancier, but then decided to save the extra money.  I'm so excited to be able to wash lots of towels or comforters!

Back to Normal?

I know it's been months since I've posted anything, and I actually do have things I've wanted to post about, just haven't had the time.  So, while I have some down time at work I thought I'd tell you about my horrible week!
Monday - On the way home from dinner at our friends' house I start feeling this allergy-like tickle in my throat, so I take benedryl before bed.
Tuesday - I only got two hours of sleep and finally got up at 5am with a full blown cold.  I managed to get through work, with a lot of blowing my nose, taking medicine, and using hand sanitizer.
Wednesday - I feel about the same, so my boss sends me home at noon, I take a nap and more medicine.
Thursday - I felt a tiny bit better.  Chris left for a business trip to Vegas and to see his family in Utah.  I go to work, usual stuff, come home, have soup from Panera for dinner (yum!).  Around 7pm I started having this horrible stomach pain.  I wondered if it was from taking too much medicine and not enough food, or maybe the soup didn't agree with me because of the cold, I didn't know.  So I curled up on the sofa and watched tv for awhile.  When it had been over an hour and it still hurt a lot, I called my mom to see what she thought.  She wasn't sure what it could be, so I decided to play it safe and go to Patient First.  At this point I couldn't stand up straight, it hurt so badly.  My mom asked if I wanted her or my dad to come out and take me, but it would have taken too long and Patient First would have been closed by then, so I said no.  So I go and they take some blood, but can't find anything.  Since I was in so much pain the doctor told me to go to the ER where they could run more tests.  He tried to call an ambulance for me, but I didn't want to leave my car there and the hospital is literally right across the street.  So I call my parents to let them know what's going on and they decide to come out and meet me at the ER to keep me company and make sure I'm okay.  Chris got off the plane in Vegas a little after 11 while I was in the waiting room at the ER, so I called to tell him what was going on.  He felt bad for not being there, but was glad my parents were coming out.  They got there after I'd been put in a bed and given an IV and had blood drawn.  The doctor said all the bloodwork looked fine so they were going to do a CT scan to see if it was my apendix.  For those of you who have never had a CT scan, you have to drink 32 ounces of stuff which they flavored with crystal light so it didn't taste bad, but man did I have to pee afterwards! Then you wait an hour and a half, get the scan done, then wait another hour for the results.  And the dye they shoot into your IV right before the scan does some weird things to your body! I started drinking it a little after 1am and we didn't get the results til a little after 4am.  So my poor parents and I were up all night.  My dad found a recliner to drag into my room, but then decided to go take a nap in his van.  My mom and I chatted most of the time, inbetween me peeing and calling Chris to update him.  We both dozed off a little, but I don't think it counts as sleep.  The ironic thing is, I hadn't had any pain since midnight, so I was starting to worry that all of this was for nothing.  Turns out it was an ovarian cyst that had started to rupture.  I was glad there was a legitimate reason for my pain, but very glad it wasn't my apendix!
Friday - I got home about 5am, set my alarm for 7:30am to call my boss and tell her I wouldn't be in that day, fell back asleep, got called at 10:30 by Chris to check on me.  I couldn't fall back asleep so I stayed up the rest of the day.  I didn't have anymore stomach pain, but my cold was worse than ever!
So the rest of the weekend I stayed home and tried to recuperate.  I missed my brother's birthday, my friend's welcome home open house, and a cancer walk, all of which I'd really been looking forward to.  The good news is, I finally started to feel like my old self Sunday night, just in time to go back to work this morning!
I've never had to call out of work and have never been to the ER, but I'm glad I did both.  I almost had my mom take a picture of me in the hospital bed, but decided it was too silly.  I have to follow up with my doctor on Wednesday to make sure the cyst dissolves, but other than that and this cold I'm back to normal!
Sorry this was so long, it was mostly for my own benefit.  I hope to never have another week like it again!

Broken Sandals

We went to see an old fort in Arizona, it was where cheese was made to pay the workers who were building the St. George temple.  I was just wearing sandals and it was 107 degrees.  I didn't think much of the heat, after all it was much drier than Maryland, until I took a step and left my sandal behind.   At first I thought the velcro had come undone, but I looked at it and realized that it was the other side of the sandal that had broken.  Chris tried to rig something with his belt so I could still walk, but that didn't last long.  I just chalked it up to cheap sandals that I wore too much until ten minutes later when the same thing happened to the other sandal.  Turns out it was so hot that it melted the glue holding the sandals together!  We still had to walk back to the car, so I tried  standing on Chris' feet while he walked, but that didn't work for more than a minute.  So I ended up running, barefoot, ahead of everyone else to that car, to get across the hot sidewalk as fast as possible! Luckily I had my running shoes in the car.  The sandals went right into the trash.

Caught In the Rain

Today after dinner my mother-in-law and I decided to take a walk and she'd show me the alpaca's that someone in her town has as pets.  We stepped outside and realized it was drizzling so we decided to wait a few minutes.  After about five minutes I went outside and it had stopped raining, so we headed out.  I didn't have my camera with me to get a picture of the alpaca's, but they were cool looking, just kind of stared at us.  Then we were watching some swallows fly in and out of their nests when it poured rain for a few seconds.  We decided we should probably head back.  We start walking and it starts POURING.  Keep in mind this is Utah, where a big rainstorm is five rain drops.  Just then, Chris comes driving up and saves us! We were very grateful to not have to walk all the way back to the house and get completely drenched.  There was a very cool double rainbow so I took a picture from my in-laws backyard.  Apparently their town gets a lot of double rainbows, but I thought it was really cool.

I Wore Pink.........................

.......................................AND SURVIVED!!

I'm not sure how it started, but somewhere in middle or high school I decided that I couldn't wear pink or red or yellow or orange or anything that would clash with my red hair.  I would cringe when my friend would put her red haired daughter in any of those colors.  My closet was filled with mostly greens, blues and purples, with an occasional black or white.  Recently I've been trying to branch out a little bit in my colors, I discovered brown doesn't look too bad and there are some purples I've been buying that have been closer and closer to pink.  Well, this shirt I bought online and it looked very purple on the website and when I got it I decided just to try it and what do you know, I survived wearing it for a whole day!  It might just stay in my closet!

My New Favorite Gadget

My friend Dawn and I have been walking together for a couple weeks and finally last week we started jogging.  She had used a program before for beginners to work up to running a 5k and since it had been awhile since she'd been running she was okay with starting over on the program with me. The first time we went jogging we used a kitchen timer, but then I found this awesome interval timer online, so I bought it right away.  I tried it once without reading the directions and it worked okay, but then I read the directions and the next time we went jogging it worked great! It's small and light and clips easily onto your clothes, it times one or two intervals for as many rounds as you'd like.  I've never considered myself a runner, I tell myself I would like to enjoy it, but have never spent enough time building up my endurance.  Yesterday was our third time doing the intervals and I'm happy to say it felt a little easier.  I do say that with a grain of salt, because on Wednesday we have to increase our jogging time.  I don't know that I'll ever want to run a 5k, but I hope to be able to finish the program with Dawn and be in better shape and maybe a couple pounds lighter!

High Tea

My good friend Sarah is getting married this summer and while she was visiting we had a Bridal Shower themed tea party!  It was so much fun to get dressed up and use china.  Everything was so beautiful and yummy.  We tried four different kinds of herbal tea, Very Berry, Mystique, Rosamint and Creamsicle. 

Here is the table set so beautifully.

We loved the china, and the tea pots and the sugar cubes.

Even the food was beautifully arranged and worthy of a few pictures!

I didn't take too many pictures of me, but this is my best pinky picture, you have to stick out your pinky when you're drinking tea out of china!

Here's Sarah holding her miniature tea cup, we each got one as a souvenier.

And as if the day wasn't special enough for Sarah, we walked outside and in front of the floral shop next door was a sign that said if your name is Sarah come in for a free gift! She got a lovely rose!

It was a really fun day and a great way to have a small, intimate bridal shower. 

I can't wait to have an excuse to go back there!