Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We spent the afternoon with my mom, step-dad and uncle and his family.  We enjoyed great food and great company!

On Friday, I spent the morning decorating our house for Christmas with the help of Kinny.  We put our tree up last weekend but we had a bunch more decorations in totes that needed to be swapped out with our Thanksgiving decorations.

Mom, I'm supervising.

 We also put together the headboard we bought for our guest room.

Where's the mattress? I'm ready for a nap.

The finished product!

 Friday afternoon, D and I braved the crazy Black Friday shoppers and went out to do a bit of shopping for our families.  While it was crowded, it wasn't completely out of control and we were able to get a few good deals.  Once we were finished shopping on Friday evening, we came home and started wrapping Christmas presents.

Kinny was in charge of boxing up the gifts.

Kinny was also in charge of bows and hiding in gift bags.

We also did a bit of Small Business Saturday shopping at Main Street St. Charles.  Thankfully the weather held out and it wasn't frigid walking around.  We picked up a few special gifts for family and I was also able to get those wrapped before we left for the Blues-Wild hockey game. D and I split a partial plan hockey tickets with my Aunt and Uncle and Saturday's game was one of our nights.  We invited my mom and step-dad to attend with our two extra tickets and it was definitely an exciting game.  The Blues ended up winning in a shootout!

Today we've tried to get back into our routine and get ready for the work week ahead.  Besides a bit of much needed sleeping in, I meal-prepped our lunches and dinners for the week, did a few loads of laundry, paid some bills and got the address labels made for our Christmas cards.

Tomorrow starts another extremely busy week at work. We're short an Accountant and we're headed into month-end on Wednesday. The extra days off for Thanksgiving were much needed but I also know it puts us behind a bit. I'm hoping that it doesn't put me so far behind that I'm working a ton of extra hours. Going into the holidays, the last thing I want to be doing is working 50+ hours a week.

I am excited for the holidays though, even though they are stressful with all of the travel we do, I am really feeling the Christmas spirit this year.

Halloween 2016

Monday was Halloween and while we didn't have near the number of trick-or-treaters as last year, we did have a bunch.  Kinny loved Halloween, well, except the costume part.  Yes, we dressed up our sweet girl again this year but it was only to snap a pic for Instagram and Facebook and then we let her take it off.

She loved seeing all of the kids come to the door and waited patiently for more to ring our doorbell when there was a lull.  In fact, the past couple nights she's still been waiting by the door for more trick-or-treaters and we've had to tell her she has to wait 365 days for Halloween.

Here's a few pics of our Halloween...

Mom, not the costume again!

Where are the kids?!?

These aren't for me, but I'll check them out anyway.

I'm ready to pass out candy!

Dad, the trick-or-treaters need to hurry here!

I'm done with Halloween, I'm going to chew my treat/

This afternoon we're headed back to the surgeon for a post-surgery follow up appointment.  Kinny has been a champ after her surgery and is getting around great and really is back to her old self. I'm hoping to learn more from the doctor based upon the results of the biopsy too.

Post Surgery Update

Our sweet girl is on the mend!

We picked her up from the hospital yesterday evening after work and it was definitely a rough night on all of us.
Obviously Kinny was frightened a bit coming home and wanted to hide right away but had some trouble since she can only hobble around on 3 legs.  Not to mention she's on pain meds and had surgery only the day before.  But, we all were so glad she was home! She's slowly coming around to her home surroundings again and we had a good day together today.

Thankfully, I was able to take today off of work.  (Actually, I was taking today off no matter what because I was not going to abandon my girl once we got her home.)  We were worried about her hurting her recovery, so she slept in her cat bed in the living room and I slept on the couch right next to her, in case she needed me.  Around 4 this morning, she woke up and had a bit of food and some water which were also right next to her bed and then let out a huge wail.  I woke D up and we all sat in the hallway for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong and what we should do before deciding to all go back to sleep in our bedroom.
D had to get up for work so Kinny and I decided that we'd just keep sleeping for awhile and that we did...well after 10 am in fact.

Thanks D for taking a pic of us sleeping this morning.

The rest of the day we just decided to rest and take it easy.  I know I have not had a day off in a few years where I did nothing besides rest; probably the last time was when I was hospitalized back in 2013. It was definitely needed on my part and I'm hoping it helped Kinny's recovery.  My mom is coming over to spend tomorrow with Kinny and then D and I will be home the remainder of the weekend.  We are relieved to put the surgery behind us and we know Kinny has quite a recovery ahead of her but we're ready to help her any way we can.  She's our baby and the best kitty girl ever!

Stress makes us stronger...or so they say

I have been meaning to post another update because so much has happened over these last 7 months but somehow I never found the time or just thought whatever was going on wasn't exciting enough to talk about.  Maybe my normal suburban life isn't all that crazy or exciting but I am going to make more of an effort to blog about it.

It's crazy that my last post was about the 2 year anniversary of adopting our sweet girl Kinny back in March.  She's still the best part of my life besides D and honestly she's the one who keeps me going when all I want to do is give up.

We had quite a bit of stress we've been dealing with over the last couple days with Kinny.  What should have been a routine checkup at the Vet has turned into one of my worst nightmares and I'm hoping that my faith and constant prayer will help mend her.
On Saturday, we took Kinny in for a checkup and teeth cleaning.  Thankfully we have Banfield's Wellness Plan that allows for us to take her in twice a year for a comprehensive exam and medical tests.  This was her normal checkup and really we weren't worried about anything taking her in.  She's still her same sweet, cuddly and bubbly self.

Kinny hitting the weights.

The doctor at Banfield ran all of her tests and noticed that her Potassium was in a dangerous level.  She also noticed that the tumor on her right arm, which was previously benign, had grown in size.  We have the tumor checked on every visit and in the past it was even biopsied to make sure that it was not cancerous.  We were told that it was just fatty tissue and over the years we've accepted that because it hasn't caused her any problems.  To be honest, I'm not sure if it is causing her problems right now or if she's just that strong of a girl that she's pushing through any pain and discomfort. Knowing my feisty girl, she probably just figures she's not going to let it slow her down.

In any case, we had additional tests and x-rays completed just to make sure nothing was life threatening.  The results have been terrifying.  After a biopsy and x-ray, our Vet showed us the results. The reason why Kinny's Potassium is high is due to the tumor. They believe she has Tumor Lysis Syndrome.  Kinny's tumor, if left untreated will eat away at the bones in her arm, causing her to become paralyzed.  There is not a prescription that will treat this and the only treatment available is amputation.  It has hit both D and I hard!

Our Vet also encouraged that we visit an emergency vet clinic last night to have her Potassium levels checked again.  Thankfully, her Potassium levels were back to normal but they are still fearful that left untreated her life with be shortened.
So we're proceeding with the recommendation from our Vet and we've got a consultation tomorrow morning with the surgeon at the specialty clinic.

I've been beating myself up over the past day and a half wondering what I could have done differently so that my sweet girl wouldn't have to go through this.  I feel like I've failed as Kinny's protector and mom.  My only hope is that once the surgery is complete, she is back to 100%.  I know there are a lot of animals that survive with only 3 legs and that many cats thrive after facing this sort of health issue.  My girl is definitely a fighter and I will always try to be the best protector and mom I can be to her because she's my companion and #1 fan.

Please keep my Kinny girl in your thoughts and prayers.

Our Kinny

I posted on Instagram and Facebook this morning that 2 years ago today, we adopted our Kinny.  Really its seems like its been so much longer than 2 years, she just that loveable.  She's an absolute doll and she has been the best companion to both me and D.  And really, I don't know where I would be without this little girl!!  We adopted her when I was going through an extremely rough time and my hopes were that she would make me realize that everything else is just peanuts in life.  And from the time she climbed up on D's lap at the shelter, she's definitely made my life better!  She's made me slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life and most of all she's taught me how much love I have to give.

She's bright eyed and bushy tailed every morning when my alarm goes off and patiently waits for us to feed her.  Each night after work, she's waiting for us as soon as we get home and just loves cuddles and curling up on the couch with us in the evening.  She's our travel buddy and our snuggle bug and sometimes even our dinner partner.

Hi Mom, where's dinner?

I'm still waiting for my plate.

She truly is the best and cutest kitty in the world and I'm so lucky she chose us to be her parents!







Come on Spring

Last weekend we enjoyed an unusually odd 80 degrees on Saturday so D and I decided to take a walk around Main Street St. Charles and Frontier Park.  We reminisced about our engagement pictures that we had taken at the same spot back in May and overall we had an enjoyable, fun day in the nice weather.

Wednesday they predicted snow for the area and not just a dusting, some areas were supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow.  I woke up to a text from a co-worker on Wednesday morning saying he wasn't coming into work because he had already shoveled his driveway and spun out twice in his town and it was still coming down in buckets.  His town ended up getting 6+ inches of snow.  Our city, just 45 minutes west of St. Louis, got nothing that day!  Apparently we were on the line and the snow missed us, but as I drove east to work, the closer I got to the city, the more snow there was.  The last 8 miles of my commute were awful and it took me twice as long to get from there to the office as it did the other 11 miles.

Today we're enjoying another 70 degree February day only to be faced with snow again on Tuesday and Thursday.  My sinuses and allergies are completely out of whack and while spring is usually the worse for me, I'm ready to finally see spring for good!

A Long, Overdue Update

Where have I been and what have I been up to?  Wow...there are so many ways to answer that, but I'll try to provide the condensed, non-boring (ok...not too boring) summary.

After the wedding and the weeks that followed, we tried to start getting our house organized.  We bought our new furniture and started turning our house into our home in the few spare minutes we had on our weekends.  Somehow it seemed like every weekend we were going in multiple directions throughout the month of September. 

Finally in the beginning of October, D and I decided to get back into our fitness routine and joined the gym right down the street from our house.  It's another location to the gym I used to go to before I moved in with D downtown so I was excited to get back into the groove.  With the wedding and craziness leading up to it with the move and new jobs and blah, blah, blah, neither of us realized that we hadn't really devoted much time to actually getting decent workouts in so when we had an orientation session with trainers our first week, we both realized we're not the spring chickens we used to be.  And with that, we opened up the wallet and each purchased 6 months of training with a personal trainer.  So far, its going well and it's pushed us to be more dedicated with working out. I look forward to those Tuesday and Thursday night butt-kicking sessions every week!

The holidays rolled around soon after that.  For Thanksgiving, we stayed home and enjoyed the holiday with both sides of my family.  We drove to Michigan the week before Christmas and spent time with all of D's family throughout the state, making our drive back home on Christmas Eve.  We actually got to enjoy Christmas Day in our own home for the first time ever and we had my mom and step-dad out to spend the afternoon with us.

Headed to my Company Christmas Party

Road Tripping Back to Michigan

Kinny Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

Going back to work after the holidays was less than fun.  It was extra long work days and prepping for year-end close.  You would have thought coming back to a company after leaving years ago, I would have some idea as to what we needed to get done but it just seemed like this year was 10 times harder than years past or I just forgot how crazy it really is!

D's cousin came down to spend New Years Eve with us and my cousins and we had a blast ringing in 2016 at my aunt and uncle's house.

NYE 2015 - Go Green!

Happy 2016!!

I don't know where the month of January went.  Seriously, the month was gone before I had a minute to think and with that, I turned 33 on the 29th of the month.  33...never imagined being that age and never in a million years would I have thought I'd be married, with a mortgage, living out in the 'burbs with our kitty.

My co-workers all came out to help me celebrate my birthday.  It was so much fun reliving some of my younger days out dancing to a great band at a spot not too far from my house.

Work has pretty much been non-stop for both D and myself over the last few months, we've done our best to try to hold everything together though, but it's been rough.  Weekends have been catching up on household chores, meal planning, grocery shopping, running errands and working out.  It hasn't left us much time for fun or planning our overdue honeymoon. 

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel at work.  I took last Friday off of work and I have a few more days off over the next couple months to tackle some projects around our house...you know, things that we wanted to do when we moved in but didn't find the time to complete.  And, believe it or not, I was really excited to take off and paint trim work!  Right now, getting all of our projects started and finished is my main goal....D probably thinks otherwise though....say like planning a honeymoon!

Enjoying a warm February day!

PIVOT!

We're settling nicely into married life so far and finally focusing on getting our new house in order now.  A week after our BIG day we decided to visit my bro and see what kinds of deal we could score on some new furniture for our house.  Luckily for us, we came in at a good time and were able to get a new dining room table and a new sectional for our living room.
Since D and I both have small cars and aren't able to transport a table, let alone a sectional, we opted to have our new purchase delivered to our house at a later date.
The store my bro works for set up delivery for this week, Tuesday to be specific, which left D and I to move our current sofa and loveseat to the basement living room on Sunday so we could make sure the delivery wouldn't be compromised.  I figured moving a sofa and loveseat wouldn't be that big of a deal.  Sure, they are a bit heavy but D and I both work out and I figured if anything we could walk them outside and around our house to the walkout basement.
D had other plans....he thought we could take them down the basement stairs and through the doorway that separates our downstairs from our upstairs.
I don't want to say "I told you so" to my new husband, but D, "I told you so."  Yeah, it didn't work so well.
Anyone remember that episode of Friends?!?!  D has never seen it and the entire time we're fighting with the loveseat to get it down the stairs and through the door, I'm yelling over the loveseat, "PIVOT!"  I was seriously perturbed but at the same time I couldn't stop laughing.

"PIVOT!"

"PIVOT!"

"PIVOT!"

D did not find this as funny as I did as I'm yelling "PIVOT!." But really, it was our own Friends episode.

After about 45 minutes of fussing with the loveseat, we finally got it back upstairs with the legs of the loveseat taken off and we walked it around the house to the walkout.
Once the loveseat was situated we started moving the sofa.  It was a bit heavier and longer and I knew that it had to go around the house to the basement.  We started the trek and after stopping 4 times for me to get a better grip around the sofa, we got it to the door.  We opted not to take the legs off of the sofa because we were sure it would fit through the door.

Sadly, it did not and we continued our little debacle in the backyard.  Finally after taking the legs off of the sofa and pivoting a few more times, we got the sofa into the basement as well.  Mind you, the task that we both thought would take us 30 minutes top, took us close to 2 hours.

Once we were finished, I found the clip of the Friends episode to show my husband.  Yeah, he still doesn't find it as funny as I do.
Thankfully we get our new sectional tomorrow, maybe I can get him to watch the whole episode with me and then he'll think its absolutely hilarious.

"PIVOT!"

Just call me Mrs....

10 days ago I married my best friend.  It's been 10 whole days....so crazy!  And so far we're enjoying marital bliss!!
Since our marriage license came in the mail yesterday, I was able to officially change my name today!  Yay!!  Maybe people will stop calling me by my last name when they address me in an email. Who wants to bet that I'll still get called by my last name since it's also similar to a man's first name just with an S on the end?!?  It'll happen I'm sure...

We had a few issues arise about a week beforehand (not us, others who tried to complicate our pending nuptials) but everything happened nearly perfectly and it is the best day of my life! There is nothing that could top the feeling I had all day long.  While the STL can sometimes be extremely brutal weather-wise in August, the day was mostly comfortable.  Sure, it was hot taking photos in the middle of the afternoon outside in Forest Park but I wouldn't have changed it for the world!

I could go on and on about everything but let's just say, we had by far the greatest bridal party ever! Our group was a combination of both of our families and longtime friends and from what I could tell, everyone had so much fun together. Usually weddings can be stressful, but the few days leading up to the main event were actually calm and it was so nice having everyone together. We missed Grandpa R who couldn't make the trip from Michigan but we were able to live stream it to him so he got to watch it from the comforts of his living room.  (Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he still is trying to recover.)

I owe a good part of my sanity to Shell who was my superhero maid of honor!  I'm forever grateful for our friendship that spans 25+ years and thousands of miles!

Our photographer was amazing as well and truly captured everything I could have asked for.  I wanted to post a pic or two but I couldn't settle on just a couple so here's a montage of our day:

First Look!

We're Getting Married!

Don't Drop Me!

Just hanging out with the groomsmen

Me and my girls!

Dustin just hanging with the bridesmaids!

The Flying V

Everyone Jump!

Our adorable ring bearer!

We're husband and wife!

Mmmm, cake!

The best cake ever

Our first dance, Nickelback "Never Gonna Be Alone"

Dancing with my Dad

Photobooth time!

Me and my sweet Nicole

My awesome Maid of Honor

How many can we fit in here?!?

In case that isn't enough wedding fun for you, click here to watch our ceremony.

And if you're really into our wedding, click here for our first dance.

With the house and now wedding complete, D and I have to figure out what sort of excitement we're in for next or maybe we'll just enjoy the quiet for now!