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It’s sleeting it’s snowing, it’s a slushy disaster
Last week I went to the doctor and he discovered I had a minor issue caused by my first surgery. Since we wanted to get this taken care of as soon as possible, they were able to squeeze me in yesterday. We were told this procedure would take about 10 mins and they would use a milder sedation.
Matt and I arrived at the surgery center around 9am. By 9:30 I was back in pre-op going over the necessary information, getting an IV, and waiting until the doctor arrived. I asked the nurse if he was running on schedule and she said I was his first appt so who knew. Around 11:00 she said he was running late, shocker, and it would be about 11:30 before we got started. Matt and I chuckled a little knowing he is always late. We were pretty surprised when he popped his head in a few minutes later. The OR nurses came to get me and by 11:15 I was headed to the OR.
I was much less groggy when I woke up this time. The nurse asked me a few questions and then sent someone to get Matt. I finally asked him what time it was and he told me 1:30. What should have been a 10 min procedure took about an hour and a half. There were other issues from the last surgery he found which caused the procedure to run longer. I felt relatively well considering and the nurse said once I got dressed we could leave.
We got home around 2:00 and Matt got me settled on the couch. Then he ran to get my meds. I spent most of the night lying on the couch. Unfortunately I felt more nauseous this time which kind of sucked. I went to bed early knowing I would probably just work from home today. The weather report was calling a wintry mix. Plus the nurses said I couldn’t shower for 24 hours. No way I was going to work unshowered. Nor was I going to risk driving on ice on pain killers.
This morning Matt and I got up and set up shop downstairs. He decided to work from home as well because our new TV was being delivered. Thankfully the delivery guy got here about 9 because around 10:30 it started sleeting and then it turned to snow for a while. About noon it stopped snowing and starting with the freezing rain. Matt ran out to grab some lunch before the roads got too bad and then salted the driveway. Now our pretty snow-covered street is a slush filled disaster. I was really looking forward to snow but per doctor’s orders there would be no sledding for me even if we got snow. 🙁
Oh, I forgot mention I got a sled last weekend? I got a sled last weekend at Target for $5.00. Woo hoo!
Also Mr. Julio has been a great, yet needy, coworker today.
~k
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Matte polish
Several months (or like a year) ago when my obsession with Pinterest began, I ran across a picture of some matte nail polish from OPI. I began searching for it but I was never able to find any in stores so I kind of gave up. Well I mentioned that I went to Ulta after Christmas and bought a matte polish topcoat.
Last night I finally sat down and redid my nails for the first time in probably 2 weeks. I really like to file and polish my nails about once a week. Sunday is usually my day of choice but I just haven’t had the time. Last night I decided I would sit down and see what this topcoat really looked like. I’d seen a picture on Pinterest, shocker, the other day of a grey matte. Well I have grey polish and I have a matte topcoat. 🙂
While Matt and I were watching the sorry excuse for a game (Thanks State!) I filed, soaked, and buffed my nails. Once all of that was finished I used a clear base coat and proceeded to paint my nails grey. I have to say this is one of my favorite colors right now. I started out really good but that quickly went downhill. First I bumped one nail, then another. Really it was just a disaster but I wanted to try to matte topcoat so I just went with it anyway. Once the topcoat dried, you could see the matte finish. It’s not quite as matte as I would like, nor does it really have great finish. Maybe it was the poor paint job? Maybe the polish just doesn’t work that well. I think I am going to try again this weekend. I might use a different color and see if the results are better/worse or the same.
Here are a few pics. You can clearly see how bad the grey paint is.
~k
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Where have I been?
I woke up the other day and realized the month of January was almost over. Whew, what a crazy few weeks!
We held a private funeral for Patrick on January 4th in Ocean Isle. It was nice to say our good byes without a crowd of people around us. The next day several of Jill and Steve’s neighbors organized an open house for their neighborhood. The ladies did an amazing job of coordinating food and people over the course of the afternoon.
The next weekend, January 13th, we headed to ATL to celebrate Pat’s life with his Atlanta friends. Several people pulled together and secured a venue, two bands, and food for the night. We didn’t know many of his ATL friends but everyone was super sweet. I think we were all a little blown away with the fact that this was an “event” and not just a gathering of people. It was wonderful to meet everyone and hear stories of Patrick.
This past Saturday, the 19th, several of Patrick’s Raleigh friends (this was more high school and college friends) hosted a gathering at their house. This consisted of many people the family had known for years. While very different from ATL, to me, this was his memorial. Several people give speeches. We laughed, we cried and we drank a lot. All in all it was a very good night.
I am so thankful there have been so many wonderful people who have come together and worked to organize, host, and coordinate all of the events of the past few weeks! Patrick touched so many people’s lives and I hope he knew just how special and loved he was!
~k
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It’s a beauty post
I ran to Ulta the other day armed with a few gift cards. I had a few things in mind that I wanted to purchase and well I felt like buying girly stuff. 🙂
First item on my list was some gel eyeliner. I saw a good tutorial on Pinterest and decided I wanted to pick some up. Lucky for me the Ulta brand gel eyeliner was half the price of M.A.C, which they didn’t have anyway soI picked up a jar and a brush.
My shampoo and conditioner was on sale so I picked up a few more liters and grabbed some Orly matte top coat polish. I really hope this stuff will make my regular polish have a matte finish. I haven’t tried it yet since my nails are currently painted with a clear coat.
Last on my list was the Olay Pro X cleaning system. I’ve had my eye on this bad boy since last year. So this year I decided it was mine. (I read the reviews after I bought it and that made me even happier with my decision.) When all was said and done I walked out of Ulta with a ton of stuff and only spent a little of
Matt’sour money. 😉That night I tried my new Olay cleansing brush. It was kind of weird at first and I’d been blowing my nose a lot that day so the brush was definitely a little rough on my nose area but overall it wasn’t bad. Last night was much better and I think I enjoyed the experience a little more. I haven’t noticed any real changes in my skin just yet but it’s only been 2 days. I feel like it might take a few more before I really start to notice anything different. I will say my skin does feel a little softer.
I have a lot of small blackheads on my chin and nose so I’m really interested to see if these babies will disappear. I saw several comments on the Amazon reviews that said the blackheads disappeared after using the Olay brush. So I guess we will see.
Happy Friday!
~k
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Daily Dose of Cute
This week has flown by. I am really surprised Friday is just a few hours away. Not that I am complaining. It’s definitely better than when a day or week drags. Anyway, I haven’t done much this week so I’m gonna just post a cute pic of Julio.
~k
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African Violet
I remember having these around the house as a kid. Eventually mom thought they were causing her headaches so we got rid of all the African violet. I always thought they were cool because their leaves were soft and fuzzy and they always had pretty little flowers.
When we moved to our new office I decided I wanted to get a few plants for my new desk. I knew I wanted some sort of air plant and I found 2 small ones at Lowes. I thought I had a pot big enough to plant them together but I didn’t so they ended up in 2 separate containers, which was fine. I also knew I wanted some sort of flowering plant. The only thing I could think of was an African violet. So while I was at Lowes I found a pretty purple one. I bought it and decided to use a container I already had. It was pretty much the same size so I broke up the roots added a little new soil and plopped that baby in there. Honestly I wasn’t sure what would happen. To my surprise, it is doing wonderfully. The first few weeks it looked a little rough so I dead headed what I could and removed the few leaves that weren’t growing but now it looks really nice.
Every few days I will have someone ask me what it is. When I say African Violet, most people respond with “oh my grandmother had those.” 🙂 I am not ashamed people! Not many people have flowers on their desks day in and day out but I do!
The flowers look blue in the pic but they are actually a pretty shade of purple.
~k
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2012 – A year in review
I’m not really sure how to follow up my last post. I mean where do you go? How do you follow what happened?
In light of recent events, I’ve decided I am going to recap 2012. List out some highs from each month. I’ll link to the original posts.
January – I received a nice little “gift” from my company. According to the letter I received, I was not automatically enrolled in our 401k once I became a full time employee. My company matched what they thought I would have contributed over the course of the last 3-4 years. SCORE!
February – We got paint! I’m not really sure there is much more to be said. Matt and I had our main floor repainted. Best. Money. Ever. Spent!
March – Oh March….My wonderful in-laws took the family on a cruise. So many fun memories from this trip. And now, it means even more.
April – Seems like this month was filled with home improvement projects. We painted and planted and added some light.
May – May was a pretty big month for us. It started with Matt’s new car that he bought like 2 days before our anniversary trip. Then we spent our first anniversaryy weekend in NYC.
June – not much happened this month but Matt did win the best husband award for this little beaut.
July – the big home improvements were completed in July when we got new carpet!!!. Clearly I still love our new carpet! It looks and feels great!
August – was pretty darn boring. Aside from baking my first loaf of bread not much happened. I did realize I have some wonderful friends who send you flowers just because your day sucks.
September – we celebrated Matt’s birthday with another cake fail, my parents moved to Cary, my first big sewing project and I had surgery.
October – we finally bought a new bed and mattress. We also gave our front yard a little make over.
November – Mr Julio turned 3! Matt and I hosted Thanksgiving and I made a wonderful, made from scratch apple pie!
So that’s our year in review. 2012 wasn’t the worst year but it wasn’t the best either. Here’s to 2013, may it bring more love and happiness.
~k
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With love
The other week when the Sandy Hook shootings occurred, the only thing I could think about was all of the families that would have unopened presents under their trees. Presents for children who would never return home. Little did I know that our family would face the same fate.
Sunday Matt’s parents called to let us know that Patrick, his younger brother, was sick with food poisoning and they were headed to ATL to see him. He wouldn’t have enough time to come home since he was sick. Their plan was to spend Christmas morning with Patrick and they would meet us at their house later in the day. This seemed to work well for us since we had planned to spend Christmas Eve with my parents, have Christmas morning with the two of us, and head to their house a little later in the day.
Yesterday Matt and I had a few errands to run before my parents came over. We got home around 2 pm when Matt received a call from his dad. I could hear Steve through Matt’s phone. He said he had bad news, then I heard him say Patrick was gone. Almost immediately I saw the tears.
Once Matt was off the phone I grabbed him and hugged him. He laid on me crying while I called my parents to let them know what had happened. Mom and dad couldn’t believe the news and I told them I’d call later.
Matt and I laid on the couch for awhile. I finally managed to get him to go upstairs and lie down. I called my parents and told them to come over. I couldn’t sit in the house in silence. And truthfully, I wanted them there. They came over a little while later and we talked for a while. I filled them in with what I knew but it still wasn’t much. At this point, it looked like Patrick had slipped in the bathroom and hit his head. An accident.
A little later Matt came downstairs and we talked and had a few drinks. I attempted to make dinner and we opened gifts. It really helped to keep out minds busy. Matt managed to get some our clothes washed and dried and put away. Anything to keep busy. After dinner mom and dad left and Matt and I busied ourselves with house work. We finally agreed to open gifts so we could leave first thing Christmas morning. Matt thought we should drive to ATL to be with his parents.
Neither of us slept much last night and around 7 this morning we got up and got ready to leave. We left Raleigh around 9 and made it to ATL by 3pm. We talked to his parents and they recounted the events of the day before. Then we headed to the hotel lounge for a few drinks. We talked and teared up and finally managed to eat a little.
Tomorrow we will go back to Patrick’s and pack his things, then we will head back to Jill and Steve’s house in Thursday.
The past day has been filled with tons of fb posts from Patrick’s friends. There’re are tons of heartfelt posts all saying the same thing, what a great guy Patrick was and how much he will be missed. The words are so hard to read but at the same time it’s wonderful to see how many people’s lives he touched.
We love you Patrick!
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Countdown to Christmas
Is it sad that I use Angry Birds as my Christmas countdown? I love they make the seasons Christmas version a day by day play. Sort of like an advent calendar only you try to kill the piggies. 😉
But seriously, there are only 6 DAYS till Christmas! Whoa! Where has this year gone?
~k
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Family Christmas Weekend
Now that my parents are back in NC and my cousin and her husband live in Greensboro, I thought it would be fun for us to have a “family Christmas”. The weekend of the 15th worked best for everyone so the ladies started planning. Matt and I provided the turkey and we split up the side dishes.
Everyone arrived at our house around 1:00 pm on Saturday. Matt already had the turkey in the fryer and I was just about done making the rolls. We stood around and talked for a while and then mom started pushing people to open gifts. My dad had carried a large box into the house but I had no idea what it was or who it was for. Mom told me it was for me and Matt (but mostly me) and to open it. I was super surprised to find a 3 ft tall nutcracker in the box! WOO HOO! Last year I decided I wanted to start collecting them and then a few weeks ago mom and I saw one and I mentioned how cool it would be to have one beside the fire place. 🙂 (PS I’m on instagram set to private but you add me I will accept – aukelly)
After we opened our gifts, we started cooking dinner. We planned it perfectly and the turkey was cooked and cooled just about the time the side dishes were finished.
I’m not super crazy about my table setting. I think it needed *more* but I love the reindeer I found at Home Goods after Thanksgiving. My plates were from the dollar store a few years ago and I found red placemats at Wal-Mart on Friday. I used ornaments I had laying around for a project as place cards for everyone.
All in all I think everyone had a wonderful time. It was great to see my cousin and her husband for a few hours since Matt and I will head to the beach on Christmas day.
~k