I have enough Motrin in me to not feel a shotgun blast to the face…still feeling cramps #tmi
happiness
Let’s talk tornado protocal:
We don’t suffer from many natural disasters here in Michigan, just the occasional tornado here and there in the spring, like last Tuesday.
It had been raining and storming all day (side note: I LOVE storms). When I got home, letting the dog out, I heard a tornado siren go off in the distance, but it was so far away, I didn’t think anything of it and proceeded to start making dinner.
10 or so minutes later, my phone is chirping, warning me that there is a tornado watch in my area, so I immediately turn on the news, and sure enough, warnings all over the place! The ticker tape across the bottom of the screen is telling me to seek shelter, get away from windows, get in a basement if I have one, and make sure I have supplies just in case. The only “supplies” we keep stocked in our basement is booze and beer, so note to self to make an emergency kit for the basement.
Anywho, the dog has since come back inside, dinner is progressing nicely with water boiling, oven pre-heating, when the sirens in my neighborhood go off. It was my understanding that sirens only go off once a tornado has touched down, so I immediately begin gathering my kids (dog and cat), to head to the basement. Peyton always sleeps under the couch, so I run over to it, pick it up, and all but throw it to the side, and grab her out from under it. With Peyton under one arm, I grab Max’s collar to head downstairs.
At the top of the stairs, Max comes to a dead stop, pushing both front paws against the door frame and refuses to go any further. He is starting to whine, trying to back up, shaking his head. He has never had a problem with the basement before! Why now?! My idiot brain immediately thinks, “OMG it is haunted down there and he knows it!”, but I would rather take on a ghost than a tornado at this point. And yes, I do watch too much discovery channel.
As I’m pleading with Max to just come with me and to trust me, Peyton starts to notice that her big brother is freaking out, so she starts to freak out. Meowing and twisting and trying to get free.
The dog is whining, the cat is freaking out, I am fighting with them both at once, the water is boiling over on the stove, the oven is beeping because it is fully heated, sirens are going off, so I let go of both kids and just yelled, “FINE! We can all die together while I make a delicious meal!”.
They both just sat there and looked at me as I overhead the weather man on television say, “If you are in Lansing and hear sirens going off, you can ignore those. There is no immediate danger or threat of a tornado in your area.”
Well, fuck you very much…
Dinner was delicious at least.
Max and Peyton being so good during the last tornado scare we had….
Please, excuse my absence…
It has been a while! I guess that is what happens when you are busy having fun 🙂
I will do a quick recap of what life has been handing me, using mostly photos:
Classically AWESOME!
I can’t even remember where I left off, so we will just start with this awesome car that we stumbled upon outside of Home Depot one Saturday when my bestie, Julie, was in town. That whole weekend was fun, complete with shopping, drinks in the sun, waffles at the City Market, just good times had by all.
Julie, being cute and stylish 🙂
Paul and I have been cooking up a storm:
Vegan Pot Stickers and Orange Chicken (Gardein brand… not a fan of imitation meat, but we went for it)
Kale-Quinoa Salad, compliments of Runners World magazine
Tempeh Sloppy Joes… I had forgotten all about this childhood favorite
Baked apple chips: because only a fool doesn’t like snacks
There was a cool benefit in a barn with beer and music!
It was a double date with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Janice
I took a tour of the magnificent Michigan Capitol, and it was AWESOME!
The dome
Took a day trip to the Upper Peninsula for work allowing me to cross something off of my bucket list: hiring my brother to fly me somewhere 🙂
Big bro doing is thing 🙂 So proud of him!
Leaving Escanaba, flying over Lake Michigan, heading back to the lower peninsula
I took a moment after a meeting to stop and appreciate the world:
Red Cedar River on Michigan State’s campus
Received over 90 pokes for my allergy test… and am allergic to everything! (and should also never get an upper arm tattoo:
I guess this is the mark of my tribe…?
Loved on my kids:
Went to a Detroit Tiger’s game with our best friends, and my true boyfriend:
This was his first pop ever! We had to keep reminding him to call it “root beer” and not just beer
We stopped in Greek Town for some pre-game food:
From some angles, Detroit doesn’t seem so bad
Then headed to the game where we witnessed a Tiger’s loss, but still had a great time:
Life has been busy, but things are good! I am excited that summer is finally here!
This weekend, we are going camping, so cross your fingers that it goes well.
What have you all been up to?
Tuesday meeting at the Capitol
Back to Normal! (or as normal as I was before)
Yesterday, I was given a clean bill of health at my post-op appointment! Blood work was normal, my cyst was nothing more than that, and my left ovary appears to be a rock star, so future issues shouldn’t arise. Of course I won’t know until we try to conceive, but it doesn’t look like it will be a problem.
Hallelujah!
I started feeling more like myself last Friday, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I didn’t hit that wall of exhaustion. Paul and I even went for a bike ride last night. The weather was gorgeous, I had cleaned out my closet and prepped it for summer, and I was feeling great, so it was my re-introduction to working out. Today, it will be a 3 mile run.
I am just happy to feel like life can go back to normal. I don’t play the patient well, I don’t like sitting still for very long, and I definitely don’t like depending on people to take care of me (it is a weakness).
Paul was amazing, though, and so were all of my friends and family. Thank you to everyone for all of the love, support, prayers, and good deeds. I am a very spoiled and blessed girl 🙂
I hope everyone is having a fabulous May so far!
30 Days of New: The Final Day
We find ourselves at day 30 of this “30 day challenge”, and my new event for this final day is hardly epic, but here it is:
Today I came face-to-face with my incisions. Day 7 after surgery is when the bandages come off, and let me tell you what, I am damn impressed! The one on the right side is probably a quarter of an inch long and not even a pen line thick, same as the one in my belly button, and the one on the lower left side is maybe an inch long and just as thin.
How someone can go into my body and operate on a huge cyst and remove an organ through 3 tiny incisions is beyond me, but my doctor is a magician (I know that this is common medical practice, but I am biased to my awesome doctor).
Tomorrow, May begins, a clean slate to start fresh. I will be back at work, out of the house, living life without George. Granted, I can’t run or workout for another week, but Paul has dedicated himself to living a vegan lifestyle with me (to the best of his ability), so there should be lots of cooking adventures and healthfulness in the next month.
Here is to an interesting month; I have always hated April because it has a habit of throwing me curve balls. This April was no exception.
Sleep tight, kids, and I will see you in May.
30 Days of New: Day 29
Today, I signed up for a half marathon that I have never run before: the Dexter-Ann Arbor on June 2nd.
I am very familiar with the course and the area, which is BEAUTIFUL, but it is supposed to be a hilly course. I, whether it be to my benefit or detriment, don’t generally check out race courses before I sign up or run a race. I don’t check elevation, water stations, restrooms, etc. I just lace up, show up, and follow the pack. So we will see how this one goes.
I can’t believe that tomorrow is my last day of this. I am excited for May to start. I like the idea of a new month, getting back to work without George weighing me down, an actual change in the seasons. It kind of feels like a fresh start.
What are you hopes for May?
One more day until my re-release into the
One more day until my re-release into the wild! I can’t wait!
30 Days of New: Day 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28
Surgery really takes it out of you! I am happy to report, though, that it went as well as we could have hoped, and I am now down 1 massive cyst (goodbye, George. It was fun while it lasted), and only 1 ovary.
Let’s skip back to last Monday quickly:
It was finally nice enough here in Michigan to enjoy lunch on a patio (new event)! So a few co-workers and I sat in the sunshine and enjoyed part of the day. I also had a run-in with one of my favorite people ever! Some people just light up your day, and Crystal definitely has that affect on me.
I didn’t sleep very well Monday night, probably just nerves for Tuesday’s surgery, and I was anxious to get there and just get things rolling. It was hard mostly because we wouldn’t have any answers until my doctor was inside me checking things out, meaning I wouldn’t have any answers until I was awake and it was all over with. I was also a little on edge just because this was my first surgery ever. I have never been put under anesthesia, never had a tube in my throat, or a catheter, all things that I wouldn’t be awake for, but I didn’t know that going into it. But, I signed over my power of attorney to Paul, and hopped into my surgical gown.
I had amazing care and support the whole way through. Paul was wonderful, a good friend of ours who is a doctor at the hospital I was in checked in on me before, during, and after my surgery, and my aunt and uncle were there for support and backup. I had text messages pouring in from friends sending their love, and I felt very confident under the hands of my doc.
Paul thought it would be fun to take pictures of me pre-op:
I clearly didn’t agree…
I woke up a few hours later to horrible cramps, terrible pain in my shoulders (gas pains), and just wanting drugs and Paul. I got them both, along with the good news that it was a success. She was able to remove the cyst and my right ovary all laproscopically, I would be in pain for a few days, could expect some bleeding for about a week, and needed to plant my behind on the couch until at least the weekend.
No one had explained to me yet why I should expect some “bleeding”, and I felt like I needed a rape kit. I thought my vagina was a random thing to hurt seeing as I didn’t think it had anything to do with the surgery. I apologize for the graphic detaisl to those who don’t appreciate this sort of thing, but apparently, they had actually used my vagina to manipulate my cervix and hip position during surgery. No wonder it hurt! They were steering the whole boat with it!
Paul was wonderful enough to stop on our way home and grab the prescribed pads. Me, being in the drug induced haze that I was, did not bestow the cardinal rule upon him as he ran off into the pharmacy: WINGS! Always wings! To any male readers, if you are ever given the job of buying pads, always get pads with wings. Just trust me.
So, for the past week, I have been waddling around feeling like I’m in middle school again wearing a big ol’ diaper pad, resting up on the couch with my support team:
As boring as it sounds, day 24, 25 and 26’s new were all new movies or television shows (day 23 was obviously the surgery).
Yesterday, on day 27, I finally ventured out of the house for the first time so that we could go watch our best friends’ son play soccer. It was a beautiful day out, and the sun felt amazing! I didn’t last very long, but it was nice to be off the couch for a bit.
Paul’s only competition on this planet… I LOVE this kid
Today, Paul brought me take out from a new food cart in the Lansing City Market: Wandering Waffles. To know me is to understand my love for breakfast carbs, and this woman makes waffles in all kinds of varieties, and she did not disappoint. Her whole business plan is providing an inventive food that requires no utensils and can be eaten on the run. Well done, ma’am.
So, that is the scoop. I tried to keep a week’s worth of updates short, and I will write more later I am sure. But for now, I am alive, and still a little bit tired.
A toast to the fallen cyst and ovary!
Hope everyone is well.
When I need comfort:
My favorite song in the entire world, Look After You, by The Fray.
If I don’t say this now I will surely break
As I’m leaving the one I want to take
Forgive the urgency but hurry up and wait
My heart has started to separate
Oh, oh,
Be my baby
Ohhhhh
Oh, oh
Be my baby
I’ll look after you
There now, steady love, so few come and don’t go
Will you won’t you, be the one I’ll always know
When I’m losing my control, the city spins around
You’re the only one who knows, you slow it down
Oh, oh
Be my baby
Ohhhhhh
Oh, oh
Be my Baby
I’ll look after you
And I’ll look after you
If ever there was a doubt
My love she leans into me
This most assuredly counts
She says most assuredly
Oh, oh
Be my baby
I’ll look after you
After You
Oh, oh
Be my baby
Ohhhhh
It’s always have and never hold
You’ve begun to feel like home
What’s mine is yours to leave or take
What’s mine is yours to make your own
Oh, oh
Be my baby
Ohhhhh
Oh, oh
Be my baby
I’ll look after you
30 Days of New: Day 21
Sunday was such an amazing day!
It started right off with a new event: I was going to cheer friends on in the Lansing Half Marathon! I have never been on this side of things before, and I have to say that I loved it! Not that I am going to be making a full-time deal of it. I would still much rather be running, but Paul didn’t think that was a smart idea 2 days before surgery (damn his practical ways!).
So, Max and I headed out to the 1st mile marker bright and early to give my friends a send-off. Max was less than impressed during the wait and could not understand what we were doing on the side of the road so early in the morning. He is really not an early morning creature:
He got into it once the runners approached us, and was even sweet enough to cheer for them (any husky owners will understand what I am talking about… they are a very talkative breed). But once our friends passed, as if on queue, he turned his back to the street and laid down. If that isn’t motivation I don’t know what is…
We then picked up Paul and raced across town to cheer between mile nine and mile ten, and then rushed off to see them at the finish line… well, Paul and Max headed to the finish line, I headed to mile 12 to run the last leg of the race with a very good friend of mine. It was so much fun standing there and high-fiving strangers, seeing people you didn’t even know were running, cheering for the girl whose birthday it was, and just seeing the whole experience from this angle.
And then being able to help one of your best friends make it to the finish line. It. Was. Awesome.
She had run such a hard race and just to be there to help her finish was such an honor. Even though I am terrible because I had no idea what to tell her other than, “just make it to the corner and then you are at the finish”, “you got this”, “keep going”. Should you be conversational? Tell her more about George? Talk about what a crappy course set up this was? I did my best, and she rocked it to the finish line.
From the half marathon, Paul and I headed down to Novi to attend the Veg Fest Expo, a vegan/vegetarian event. My driving motivation to go to this was to hear ultra-marathoner, Scott Jurek, speak. He is one of my idols, if that is the proper term to use. He is a vegan, an amazing athlete, a writer, and probably one of the nicest people on the planet. If you have never read his book, “Eat and Run”, I highly recommend it.
I decided to bring one of my race bibs for him to sign, and even though he was technically out of time for his meet-and-greet session, he went all the way through the line signing items and taking pictures for everyone that was there. He looked at my bib and said, “Hey! Congrats on the race!”, as he proceeded to sign and write something on the bib. “I am not going to tell you to dig deep because you clearly already know how, but I am going to put it on here anyway.” Just completely down to earth and kind.
Yup, I was pretty much in love with this Sunday.
Adventures of S 