Celebrate We Will

Bathroom Makeover!

2011-07-12T10:11:00.009-04:00

I know I know, I haven't blogged in forever. I hate blogging when I don't have "real" pictures and I hate my camera (and blackberry camera) so I never get pictures. It's a vicious cycle. Anyway, I finally have some pictures of one of our bathrooms that I finally finished! This is our only half bath, so you would think it would have been the first project (because it's small and easy) but I just couldn't decide what I wanted in there. Here is how it looked when we moved in (we have had some stuff on the walls since then, but I forgot pictures of that):

And here is how it looks now:

The mirror is actually the Ung Drill Frame from Ikea, I just had the original oval mirror cut down to fit it. The lantern is the 18" Casablanca Lantern from Z Gallerie. I wanted sort of a tropical vibe in here without the cheesy factor that often comes along with tropical decor. I really want some zebra hand towels in there for some reason, but we'll see how that goes.

So, what do you think?? Much better, right??

Surgery Update

2011-03-01T10:47:00.005-05:00

Last Thursday I finally had my "big surgery." Let me just go ahead and say that in the three weeks between the two procedures, I was a MESS. I have always had a little problem with anxiety, so all of the unknowns of the surgery were just too much for me. I pretty much stressed myself out to the point of tears every single day for 3 weeks. It actually got to the point that my doctor had to send me some valium to help me chill out. Most of my big fears were about not being able to conceive a baby in the future after removing my fibroid. I said in an earlier post that I had a "good" fibroid but I found out later that that wasn't exactly the case. I guess my fibroid was partially impacted, meaning that my uterus would have to be cut a bit to remove it. Having the uterus cut is obviously not a good thing, and can lead to problems later on. So being the "glass half empty" person that I am, I was convinced that everything would end up with the worst possible outcome.

I'll spare you all the intimate details of the surgery, but basically it ended up being only about 45minutes long, and I have 4 incisions. I was surprised that some of the incisions are so high up on my stomach. The highest incision is about 5 inches above my belly button. That one is definitely the most painful and makes standing up and sitting down a little more eventful. But anyway, after I was in recovery for about 2 hours (I think?), my husband came in to get me dressed to go home. At this point, I had not talked to my doctor, only the nurses. Well, while Ryan is helping me get dressed, he said "I can't believe they didn't have to cut your uterus. That is amazing." I guess I gave him a strange look because he said "Um, didn't anyone tell you that?" So he goes on to explain everything and how the surgery was perfect and that the fibroid placement was much better than expected, and that our doctor was able to use the robot to just "scoop" it off (gross, I know). The doctor also told my family that I have a "pristine pelvis." HA HA HA.... isn't that hilarious?? Definitely never thought I would receive a compliment on the internal makeup of my pelvis, but I'll take it!!

So, since Thursday I have basically been laying around doing absolutely nothing. I am a terrible patient. I hate having people do stuff for me, and I hate laying around with nothing to do. My doctor said that I should try to lay around for most of the first week post-op and that I should be able to do normal stuff again in 2 weeks. I am extremely lucky to have the best family and friends in the world, and this surgery has made that more obvious to me. My sweet husband has stayed at home with me for 5 days so that I would not have to worry about doing anything. My brother has also been here every single day since the surgery to help us out, and even spent the night last night because he is staying with me all day now that Ryan has gone back to work. I don't know what I would do without the two of them! The rest of my family drove up last week for the surgery and left me with lots of treats and a kitchen full of soup and other "surgery friendly" foods that my mom made for me. I have been SO surprised and comforted by the care packages I have received from family and friends. Here is the current pile of goodies (or at least the ones I can reach from my bed!)

I think I have received every current issue of every female-oriented magazine on the market. I also may or may not have eaten an ENTIRE BAG of Reese Cup easter eggs. Just trying to be a responsible patient and keep my blood sugar up for faster healing!!

Also, in the weeks leading up to the surgery, I recorded FORTY TWO HOURS of stuff on my dvr to keep me busy. I recorded anything and everything that seemed remotely interesting. My newest obsession from that little experiment is this:

Have you seen this show? I am OBSESSED. And I hate Dave, he drives me crazy.

Well that's my post surgery update for you. I need to get back to my 23 episodes of The Office. Any suggestions on what else I can do to pass the time??? :)

Best Super Bowl Commercials

2011-02-07T12:02:00.004-05:00

In case you haven't noticed... all of this laying around and recovering has given me a LOT of time to blog! Here are my picks for the best commercials from last night's game...

Volkswagen, "The Force" -

Teleflora, "Help Me Faith" -

Chrysler, "Imported from Detroit" {the Eminem Commercial}

NFL, "Best Fans Ever"

Overall I thought the commercials were pretty good this year. Wish I could say the same about the halftime show... yuck!! What were some of your favorite commercials?

Well... that sucked.

2011-02-05T13:33:00.004-05:00

First and foremost, a HUGE thank you to those of you who shared your laparoscopic surgery experiences with me as well as those of you who passed along well wishes via comments, tweets and facebook messages. Each and every one of them was greatly appreciated!

The surgery... sucked. Basically, they got in there and the doctor realized that my fibroid was in a weird place on my uterus and that they would need to use the Da Vinci robot for removal. Well, that means I have to have surgery AGAIN. The "good" news is that the type of fibroid I have will not affect any future pregnancies that we may have. So, needless to say, I'm feeling a little depressed over the thought of having to do it all over again. As far as the recovery goes, I feel pretty good other than having some muscle pain where the incision is still healing. I am also pretty dizzy and still feeling a little dehydrated because my IV came out of my hand in the recovery area, so I only got about 20% of the fluids that I was supposed to get before leaving the hospital. I have heard a lot of people say that recovering from any surgery is 50% mental and I fully believe that. If I knew I was fixed and didn't have to worry about it anymore, I would probably have a much better attitude about getting better.

At least I have lots of good TV to distract me while I lay around and sulk about having surgery again. The Cats have a BIG game tonight at Florida... and road games this year are generally quite an adventure. {Feel free to subsitute "adventure" with "joke"} And I'm also really excited about the Super Bowl tomorrow. I can only get into the Super Bowl if there is a team I really like, or a team I really hate playing in it. Here's how I feel about this year's game...

Are you excited about the Super Bowl? Who will you be rooting for??

The S Word

2011-01-31T10:53:00.004-05:00

This Wednesday, I am having surgery for the first time in my life. I am 30 years old and I felt like I was about 5 years old and someone told me there was no Santa Claus when the doctor dropped the S word and said I would need immediate surgery.

{via}

The thing is, the surgery I'm having isn't even a big deal in the grand scheme of serious surgeries. {Warning: scary and gross medical terms ahead. Consider yourself warned.}

I have a golf ball-sized fibroid on the outside of my uterus. This little gem is also pressing down on a fallopian tube, causing it to dent inward. Let me just say, IT HURTS. So I am having a laparoscopic surgery to remove it. A lot of my doctor friends have referred to laparoscopic surgery as a "band-aid procedure," insinuating that it is not a big deal at all. I, however, feel like I am going to have a triple bypass or something. My best friend had the surgery last year for endometriosis and she said the recovery was more painful than the recovery from childbirth.

WHAT?!!?!?! MORE PAINFUL THAN CHILDBIRTH?!?!?

Obviously, that didn't help my anxiety level. Several of my other friends who have had similar surgeries have told me similar horror stories. Things about not being able to sit upright for 3 days and painful "air bubbles."

So my question to you is, have you had this surgery? How was it for you? Are my friends just big wusses? {Please, please let this be true.}

Regardless of how this surgery goes, I know one thing for sure. I will never, EVER look at golf balls the same way again.

What We've Been Up To...

2011-01-05T11:42:00.007-05:00

I thought I would do a quick Holiday recap post since I am actually feeling the urge to blog about other stuff again! Here is a mini recap of our Holidays. First up, our sweet ugly sweater Christmas Card photo. We just weren't feeling the sophisticated look this year...

A few of the presents at my mom's house. Seriously, this is just a few...

Ryan helping Carter open one of his gifts...

My sweet nephew Jake. I have NEVER met a kid that loves Christmas and Santa as much as this guy...

A cheap-o $5 wreath I made for our front door for January. I didn't want to put too much money into something that wouldn't be up there for long!

And last but not least, the only picture I have of us from New Year's Eve. Yes, my hat is HUGE and pink and sparkly, and no it is NOT a harry potter hat!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Christmas at our house!

2010-12-11T10:55:00.011-05:00

Since I feel like I have been decorating non-stop for the entire month of December, I thought I would share some pictures of our house this year! Enjoy the pictures!

I'm linking up to The Nester's 2010 Christmas Tour of Homes...

3 Reasons Why I LOVE This Weekend...

2010-10-18T12:01:00.006-04:00

1. The PERFECT Fall weather. I've said it before and I will say it again. There is NOTHING as beautiful as the Bluegrass State in the Fall...

2. Our women's basketball coach executing the near-perfect "dougie" during Big Blue Madness... (skip to about the 50 second mark for just the dancing)

3. aaaaaaand of course this little thing that happened down in Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night...

I really can't imagine a more perfect weekend! GO CATS!!!!!

DIY $6 Fall Wreath!

2010-09-22T16:40:00.004-04:00

Since today is supposedly the first day of Fall (it's 90 degrees outside...I'm not buying it), I thought I would share a VERY cheap and VERY easy DIY Fall wreath. When I started this project, I could not find my camera to save my life, so I don't have any "before" pictures, but the supplies that you need are soo easy that it really doesn't matter. I used:

1 18" Grapevine Wreath from Michael's ~ {$2.50}
2 5' Leaf Garlands from the Dollar Tree ~ {$2.00}
1 Bag of Fall Leaves from the Dollar Tree ~ {$1.00}
1 Fall Berries Pick from Michaels ~ {$0.49}
My Glue Gun & Glue Sticks ~ {Free!}

Basically, all you do is take all of the leaves off of the garland, and out of the bag and begin gluing them one by one onto the wreath. I sorted mine by color so I could spread out the colors. I did 3 layers of leaves so it would be more full. Once I had all the leaves on, I just randomly glued on little sprigs of the berries wherever I saw a spot for them. Here is the finished product:

SO easy and I love that it adds so much color to our black door. I also purchased 3/4 yard of orange & cream striped indoor/outdoor fabric for $3.77 to make some Fall accent pillows for the chairs on our porch. Normally, we only have the black & cream damask ones out there, so I left them because I like how they look with the orange. Here are some pictures:

Can anyone see our dog Carter in the second picture?? He pretty much sits right there in that spot looking out the window all day, but I didn't notice him until just now!

So these two little projects cost right around $10 and took about 1.5 hours to do. I could not be happier with how they turned out!

OBX Mini Vacay & Wedding

2010-09-17T13:02:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone! We are back from our mini-vacation in the Outer Banks and I have a few pictures to share! First of all, thanks so much to everyone who offered suggestions and tips about OBX, since it was our first time going. They were all VERY appreciated. A lot of you have asked how I enjoyed it, and I'm sort of afraid to answer that. Let me preface this by saying that I am a total, TOTAL beach snob. I like beaches to be very relaxing and without a whole lot of "stuff." For example, I really dislike Myrtle Beach and Panama City because of all the "stuff" and touristy-ness (sure, that's a word). I'm sort of middle-of-the-road about the Destin area because although there is a lot of stuff, the beaches are so huge that it is less noticeable. My favorite east coast beach area is Hilton Head. I love that everything is up-scale, yet it is still so much cheaper than most of the other places I just mentioned. I shoot myself in the foot every time I go to a new beach by comparing everything to Maui and, let's be honest, nothing compares to Maui. But again, that's just me. As far as OBX, I can't say that I am a huge fan. I agree with everyone who said that the Corolla/Duck area is a different world than the Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, etc. area. But still, there wasn't really anywhere that we went that felt homey and relaxing to me. I have a small problem with there being no palm trees. I need to see palm trees to feel like I'm at the beach. And what the heck is up with those flies that sting you or bite you or whatever while you are laying on the beach? We didn't get the memo on this one, because EVERYONE else at the beach had bug spray with them. Oh well.

Regardless of how I felt about the Outer Banks, the wedding that we went to attend was gorgeous. The wedding was on the beach and the reception was in the lawn of the big beach house behind the ceremony. They did most of the decor on their own, and it turned out great. I was hoping to steal some pictures off of the groom's Facebook page before doing this post, but there aren't any available yet so I'm stuck with the ones I took. Here are a few pictures from the day, including a couple of funny ones when the bride, groom and some guests took over the band's stage when they went to take a break...

I am personally a big fan of the picture of my husband and the groom breaking it down on the dance floor. They were re-creating a picture of the two of them doing the same dance at another wedding a few years ago. The couple even brought their new puppy Murphy along for the week. I think this is probably the first picture of the three of them as a new family! I'm so glad we were able to be a part of their big day. Congrats, Brent and Nikki!

Cheers to 30 Years!

2010-08-30T11:38:00.008-04:00

Last Saturday, I threw a party at our house for my husband Ryan's 30th birthday. Honestly, I do not know how you moms get all the stuff ready for your kids' birthday parties, because just planning the "old man party" (as I lovingly like to call it) took me almost a month! I am sort of a control freak when it comes to having parties at my house, so everything in the house needs to be clean enough to eat off of, and everything also needs to be very festive!! I made all of the decorations, the cake and cupcakes, and all of the food for the party, so it was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. Here are a few pictures from the day:

I didn't really get as many pictures, or the specific pictures that I wanted because really, WHO has time to take pictures?! I really wish I got some pictures of the cornhole action that was going on in the backyard, because there were some heated games going on until well after it was pitch black outside. And yes, his birthday cake is somewhat lumpy and lop-sided because fondant is an evil, evil entity. But all in all, it really was a great party! We had about 30-35 people, and he got a lot of great gifts! I think I better go ahead and start planning his 40th!

Boring Guest Room Before & After

2010-08-17T10:13:00.008-04:00

Last week, I decided that I had finally had enough of our cluttered, boring guest room. After a year of living in this house, it hit me that no one should have to be a guest in that awful room. Because pictures are always better than words, here is the proof of our messy, depressing guest room before:

Yes, that is exactly what it looked like, including the random stuff everywhere. It became a catch-all room for anything that didn't otherwise have a home, or stuff I was just too lazy to put away.

And now for the after. I will say that it isn't totally an "after" just yet, because I still haven't picked out curtains or put anything on the walls or the corner shelf, but there is already a BIG change in here. Here it is after some paint, new bedding, new lamps, etc:

I don't know about you, but I would MUCH rather be a guest in this room than the awful one above! It just feels so much warmer and happier to me. The walls really are a bit more cream and less yellow than they look in the pictures, but this is still a pretty good idea of how it looks. And please disregard the messy making of the bed. I can do many crafty things, but making a bed and all of the pillows look just right is not one of them. So what do you think? Better, right?

The Outer Banks: HELP!!

2010-08-09T12:55:00.004-04:00

Ladies, I need HELP! At the beginning of next month, we are traveling to the Outer Banks, NC for a friend's wedding and we STILL don't know where we are staying. Neither of us have ever been to the Outer Banks. When we have taken vacations to east coast beaches, they have always been to Hilton Head, SC and Charleston, SC. We know NOTHING about OBX and quite frankly, the general setup of the area confuses me. The wedding we are going to is in Corolla. I have been scouring various travel websites for hotel, condo or home rentals with basically no luck at all. As far as hotels go, it seems that there are just a few in the vicinity, which means that the ones that are available are highly overpriced for the actual quality of the hotel. When it comes to condo or home rentals, there are very few options when it comes to just needing one bedroom. Since it is just Ryan and myself, we don't need a home that sleeps 15-25 people. I have really only found 2 or 3 options for condo rentals on the VRBO and HomeAway websites, and they were both booked months ago. And besides all of this, I don't really know what area to stay in? There seem to be many little towns nearby, so I really don't know which areas are the best. So lovely blog friends, I know that many of you have been to the Outer Banks and that it is always a popular vacation spot, so if you have any experience in the area, can you PLEASE offer up some help on nice places in the area where you have stayed, or nice areas to stay in general that are close to Corolla? I would appreciate ANY help that you can offer!! :)

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HullabaLOU

2010-07-28T10:56:00.005-04:00

On Sunday, Ryan and I went to the HullabaLOU Music Festival in Louisville. It was a 3 day concert featuring various bands like Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean and on the third day Dave Matthews Band, Zac Brown Band, Avett Brothers and more. Of COURSE we had to go on day 3 for Dave! The festival was at Churchill Downs and I have to say, having been to many, many concerts, festivals, etc. over the years - this one was set up SO much better than most of the others. The parking was easy, the bathrooms and port-a-potties were immaculate and there weren't long lines for either, and the drinks were actually pretty cheap! The festival had other attractions like a large set of tents where local artists could sell their wares, cornhole tournaments, and a lot of sponsored tents and trailers as well. I took a bunch of pictures throughout the day, but ~~because I drank too much~~ because I was busy enjoying the concert, a lot of them didn't turn out. Here are a few that survived:

I really hope that they continue this festival again and again. If you live anywhere near Louisville, you MUST try to go!!

Our {slightly ghetto} Garden...

2010-07-19T11:36:00.007-04:00

I know that Ryan will kill me for saying that his sweet little garden is "slightly ghetto" but, it's sort of true. He has been diligently working on a few little plants for a couple of months now, and they are finally starting to show some signs of life! The garden is definitely his project, because I am far too impatient to ever grow anything. His garden is as "green" as it could possibly be, and he even planted everything in these:

And while I do appreciate that he was re-purposing those containers and saving money all at once, I finally came to a point where I could no longer handle seeing those things all over the back patio. So, this weekend, we bought some cheap-o $1 flower pots from Target, and got to work on making our garden slightly less ghetto. Here are some photos...

And one more, because I couldn't resist getting a picture of the garden helper checking out the hydrangea and dahlia plants...

I'm sooo much happier about how our little garden looks now, because in my world, everything needs to be 1)organized and 2)labeled. And believe it or not, I actually think the old glass recycling bin that he has been growing his tomatoes in looks sort of cool! This set-up works out much better for us: the sweet, earth-loving, simple husband; and the anal-retentive wife who just wants everything to look presentable. We are thinking of adding a few more things to the ghetto garden, like maybe some herbs or other easy-to-grow plants. Any suggestions?

{Beach} House Beautiful

2010-07-16T10:49:00.004-04:00

I was looking through some of my favorite online magazines this morning when I came across this amazing beach house from House Beautiful. To me, this house is everything that a beach house should be: colorful and happy, light and airy, simple and functional. I can't imagine how anyone could ever be in a bad mood while in this house. Feel free to join me as I pretend that I'm having mimosas on that perfect little back patio!

Drab to Fab Mirror Makeover!

2010-07-14T16:24:00.009-04:00

A few months ago, we did some re-decorating to our kitchen because I was SICK of the color that we put in there to begin with. Since that time, I have been able to pretty much finish the room except for one large wall. I wanted a big, horizontal mirror with a dark frame to hang on that wall. I found one I loved at Ikea, but the frame was just solid, and I really wanted something with a little design, but still simple enough to fit our style. One afternoon while I was strolling through HomeGoods, I found EXACTLY what I wanted. Sort of. Here is what this little number looked like when I found it in the store:

I think you need a close-up to realize the utter tackiness of this thing...

Pretty bad, right? Not to mention it was sort of falling apart on the corners. But regardless of all that, I LOVED the trellis-like pattern of the wood, so I knew I had to have it. It was already on clearance for $40, but since it was falling apart, and possibly because she felt bad for my lack of style, the manager gave me another 40% off, so I got it for around $25. I definitely got some funny looks from other shoppers while I was wheeling this thing out of the store. Clearly, they didn't see what I saw. Anyway, I took it home and peeled off all of those little silver jeweled things (yes, they were stickers!), glued and reinforced all of the corners, and then sanded the whole thing down. When all of that was finished, I covered the mirror part with newspaper and tape, and just took it outside and spray painted the frame. Here are some pics of the progress:

And here is the finished product, after my husband spent approximately 674,875,949 hours hanging it up and making sure it was straight:

Don't you LOVE it? Or maybe I should play it safe and say, don't you think it looks at least 100 times better than it did before?! It's hard to tell in this picture, but it has the same design as the brown pillows in the window seat to the left. I'd like to think that I knew that when I bought the mirror, but that is a lie - it was a complete coincidence. I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out! What do you think?

Welcome to my NEW blog!

2010-07-14T16:00:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by! I am excited to finally be back into blogging, and I feel like I have so much to share! I'm sure many of you recognize the title of my blog as a line from a Dave Matthews Band song. It's a line that I love, and it always makes me happy when I hear it, so I thought it would be a fun blog title! Whether you found me from my wedding blog or some other way, I hope you will check back often and follow along with me! Talk to you soon!