the long awaited (...right?) invitation post

Our invitations were going to go out tomorrow, but since the USPS is a giant FAIL (grrrr) that may or may not be the case. But since only like...one person who will be receiving an invite reads my blog (well, occasionally two...but I still don't care), I am still posting pics and I don't care who knows it. Except you guys. Since you now know it.

Anywho, these are iphone pics, so my apologies for poor quality/lighting. Our "theme" is what I'd call vintage-rustic-chic. The color is off in these pics - the pocketfolds and ink are dark brown, the green is chartreuse, and the blue is a pale but not quite baby blue. It is the color of my favorite Coach purse actually, but that means nothing to you unless you've seen it.

This is what the invite page looks like. It is attached to the inside of the pocketfold.

This is what the RSVP card looks like. The menu icons are for macadamia nut and pesto crusted chicken, pineapple teriyaki pulled pork, and the star is for special dietary needs or vegetarian request.

This is the pocketfold closed. I used the twine as a rustic bellyband...the flower is made of different layers with a bronze brad in the middle. The detail is gone in this pic but they are really cute. Got them from an etsy seller.

The whole thing open again...you can see the paper is a pearlescent ivory.

I used pearlescent vellum envelopes, and used 4x2 inch labels for the address. I used a corner punch that had 3 different shapes (fiskars "baroque") and I used a combo of the 3. This looks pretty awkward in the pic, but it is really cool in person.

And that's it! I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats, so I hope you were able to contain your excitement for the entirety of this post. :P

What do you think?

my surgery adventure

so, I had my surgery on Thursday, March 11. It went pretty smoothly overall, and now I am just trying to recover. A breakdown of my adventure since then:

Wednesday night, before surgery:

• 6:30 PM: eat a "light" dinner of stir fry, and drink as much water as I can since I will be cut off in one hour.
• 7:00 PM: eat some ice cream as a treat.
• 7:15 PM: start panicking because I am already really thirsty, and I'm still drinking water.
• 7:30 PM: ughhhh, mouth feels like the desert already. need to distract myself.
• 7:45-10:00 PM: work on cutting/stamping and assembling invitations; periodically complain about lack of hydration.
• 10:30 PM: finally give in and go to bed - after all, I do have to get up at 6 AM for the surgery.
• 11:00-6 AM: toss and turn, consider running away to avoid surgery, sleep little if at all.

Thursday morning:

• 6 AM: wake up. brush teeth, whine that I cannot actually swallow any liquid even though it can hang out in my mouth for a couple minutes. Wipe off any lotion/etc. as instructed, shuffle into "comfy" sweat pants ensemble for post-surgery. Tell loved ones it was a good life.
• 6:20 AM: arrive at hospital, which is approximately next door to my house. Check-in, pay ridiculous co-pay (although...$100 for a $40k surgery is probably not too shabby, eh?), get escorted to surgery wing. Answer approximately 4000 questions, which I just answered at check-in, and also with the check-in phone nurse the day before.
  
• 6:45 AM: change into sweet gown, cool blue hair net thing, and slipper socks. Plus some kind of leg squeezing contraption so I don't get a blood clot while they cut me up. Nurse hooks up my IV on the first try (miracle with my veins); several comments about how cold my hands are and how the finger scanner won't register my vitals because of it (not the first time this has happened).
  
• 7:00 AM: am apparently looking panicked, as surgeon comes to talk me down from a ledge and tells nurse to give me the sedative, which she calls "like a few shots of tequila."
• 7:00:35 AM: already "drunk" from shot. No longer care what happens.
  
• 7:15 AM: tell Chad bye, wheeled into surgery room. The last thing I remember is them telling me I was too tall for the table and having to adjust it before I could be moved onto it. Then I was out.

The surgery was supposed to be over by 9:30. It didn't end until about 10 because when they started cutting into me, they were having trouble cutting my abs (gross) because apparently they are muscular. Who knew? Also, when they finally got to my gall bladder itself, it was longer than usual, and surrounded by scar tissue from all the attacks/pain I'd been having (of course). So it took some time. When they woke me up from anesthesia around 10:15, I was hyperventilating and outright sobbing. I have no idea why, but the nurse was shaking me and holding my head still and yelling at me to BREATHE.

I finally took a few deep breaths, and immediately passed out. I woke up again at about 10:45 in a recovery room, where they finally gave me some juice, and when I was like "um...pain" they told me I had to eat before they could de-pain me. I choked down 2 crackers (throat was sore from the oxygen tube thing), and they gave me vicodin - I'm sure those 2 saltines made a difference...

Anyway, they let me go around noon, with a bottle of vicodin, which ended up doing NOTHING but make me completely nauseous and dizzy. I got no sleep the first night, and spent that day coming in and out of consciousness and drinking water. I didn't eat anything for a couple of days. I also had a sweet oompa-loompa orange tan from the disinfectant stuff they used in surgery. The next morning, my dad called the surgeon to get a different pain pill (the pain was worse than when I woke up at this point). It worked for awhile, and I got some food down, and got to take a quick shower...but then I immediately threw it all up. Just some friendly advice: vomiting with open surgical wounds on your abdomen is miserable...don't. I spent that night coming in and out, so I at least got a couple hours of sleep, but the nausea...lord.

The next morning, I completely gave up on the pain pills and just took some ibuprofen. Believe it or not, this worked WAY better than either of the hardcore pills I had. I have been doing that ever since, and now that everything is out of my system today (still had nausea yesterday from the remnant meds), I actually managed to eat some toast and part of a Subway sandwich. I also managed to walk around the kitchen some today and take another shower. I am feeling a lot better now, and just need help sitting up/down since I can maneuver with my arms pretty well. I have a post-op appointment next week, but my wounds look good and I haven't had a fever at all, so that is good. I am not allowed to lift anything over 8 pounds for 6 weeks, and I don't have *too* much pain at the incisions, just a lot of swelling. Since I'm otherwise healthy, the surgeon was able to do everything through an umbilical incision, so my belly button area is the worst. I still have the other 3 minor incisions around my abdomen for the laproscopic procedure, but they didn't actually have to open those small incisions so they are healing quickly.

Thanks for the happy thoughts before, and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery! Should have an invite post this week, since I got delayed finishing the RSVPs due to my nausea.

stolen!

this seemed like a fun thing to do, so I stole it from Christy. I am waiting for my printer ink to get refilled at Walgreen's as we speak, so I will post some invite pics today or tomorrow once I've had a chance to actually print one! Also, we did our last catering tasting today and it was SO GOOD. I'm so pumped for our food now, and I cannot believe the price we are getting. They could charge wayyy more but I'm not complaining. Anyway, here's what I stole!:

Copy the list, bold the ones you've done (with explanations if needed), share with friends.

I have:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii (in June!)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Disney World, but not Disneyland)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Europe)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (I was a baseball master as a child)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (I'm German/Russian/Native American. Been to Germany and America! ha.)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (today is not that day)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (this is one of my mom/my favorite things to do.)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (during my field camp we were in the background of a scene from the most recent Terminator movie. They digitally deleted us though, of course.)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (and it went terribly wrong, ask my friends.)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (truly disturbing, but something I think everyone should do.)
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (HELL. NO.)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (does laid off count? because that happened to me when the economy first started tanking.)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (fingers, wrist, ankle, knee, toes, etc)
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (so cool!)
80. Published a book (does my thesis manuscript count? because that was published)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (or at least from serious injury)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (I stood around on the shore, it was way too gross)
97. Been involved in a law suit (class action)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

ask me anything?

this is going to be another quick post to encourage you all to formspring me and ask me questions.

I promise another big update should be coming next week, with pictures of our finished invitations. They are getting sent in the next couple weeks, but I want to try to get them done (or at least half) in the next week. Our final catering tasting is Monday, and then we will know what our menu choices are and can print the RSVPs.

Today I was scheduled for jury duty, but got dismissed early (my juror number was really high...1800 something. so not shocking).

Next Thursday, I am scheduled for surgery - finally getting my evil, stone filled gallbladder removed. Turns out not only does this problem run in my family, but a prescription I took for about 3 years causes gallstones. So, thanks doctors for never warning me about that! I will be spending my spring break week recovering from the surgery and enjoying pain pills. Unless there are complications. So, you know, happy thoughts and all.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!