The Appendix Adventure.....some of these photos are a little scary

So here is what happened. It's kindof crazy. Apparently I had a very tempermental appendix. It was a little bit of a drama queen. It all started Friday night with extreme abdominal pain that had me laying on the floor. I thought I had the flu real bad and that it would go away but it didn't after 24 hours. So we had to go to the ER.

Here I am in the ER not so happy. I was being wheeled to do a CAT Scan. I had to drink that nasty nasty NASTY stuff and wait 2 hours so they could see the contrast in my abdomen.

Turned out that I needed my appendix taken out! So they took me in. Here I am after surgery still cruising on the happy juice! Whatever it was, it was great! The doctor said since my appendix hadn't burst that the surgery was pretty textbook and that it only lasted about 15 minutes (not including knocking me out and all the prep and post op stuff)

Oh yeah...feeling good. That's about to end suddenly in about 10 minutes. All of a sudden I was not happy. The pain and muscle spasms were pretty awful!

People kept calling me. I don't remember much of the phone calls so sorry if I was a little out of it! The tube they put down my throat during surgery made me lose my voice for a while too.

The jello they gave me was so good! It felt so great on my sore throat. The really sweet nurses even surprised me with a popsicle! I was so excited I almost cried. It felt so good on my throat!

Sorry if this picture offends anyone. Of course it was taken by my husband who thought he was being funny. LOL. You lose all shame in an instance like this.

They told me to get up and walk around after I had some painkillers to jumpstart the healing. Well the drugs made me feel funny so I thought I would walk like Frankenstein and be all spooky in the hospital. Yeah....I blame the drugs. Check out those tread socks. I am so styling!

This one is for you Mom. I had to take the Peach Elevator when I left. Since Peach is my nickname we found it very fitting.

Yep.....the famous hospital bracelet that I had to wear until I saw the doctor again in case I had some other kind of emergency. No Fair! The last time I wore a bracelet like this I was in Jamaica. Although...I must say. The nurses at Kaiser are SO NICE! It was ALMOST like a hotel stay. I loved the leg massager socks I got to wear that blew up even now and then and gave me a massage. Where can I get some of those?

And here is the damage. They were able to do it laproscopically so I have 3 incisions. I know....a little personal but you know you want to see it. At least I would. I'd be too afraid to ask so here it is. Hopefully it won't scar too much! The top right is the biggest incision. The rest are all pretty small. But my stomach is so swollen still. Some of my pants won't fit. LOL. Doc says that will go down in about a week. And I get to take the TAPE....YES.....TAPE that was holding me together and keeping me from bleeding out.....TAPE??!!!!! no stitches....TAPE!!! off next week. Can't wait!Thanks everyone for your meals, thoughts, and prayers! I have the best family and friends. Love you guys!

I No Longer Have My Appendix. Just in time for the holidays!? Not Super Fun!!!

Hi all! I will be posting pictures soon but I just wanted to let you know that I am ok and doing well. Just feel like I have had the ab workout of a lifetime. They did the surgery laproscopically (is that a word?) so I should recover quickly. Here is a link to youtube so you can see what they did. This isn't actually my surgery. A warning to the people weary of blood......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQiXPxqqWaM

Merry Christmas from the Adams!

You have to watch this!! Click on the link below. Starring Chris...

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/UCnCbUejM5ZV5jr1Bpbp

Santa Came Early!

So...when it comes to Christmas, I just can't live up to my name. Ok maybe it's more than just Christmas but during Christmas especially. If I don't shop the night before Christmas I end up giving away all of the presents I bought Chris before it's even Christmas. But since those of you who know me know that I do things MONTHS in advance, this poses a real problem. A situation always come up when it's the perfect timing to bring out the gift. In this case it was before it was even December. But it was VERY close to December. Thankfully Santa still has some things for Christmas morning......

Our little puppy dog got a new bed. The new versions at Costco had these comfy pillows with them so I had to get one for Maximus so he stops begging to sleep in our bed because that ain't happening any time soon.

Chris has been wanting an ipod for a long time and The Bose store was having an amazing deal for Black Friday so I got him the new ipod 160GB Classic with a Bose sound dock. And that's pretty much all he will be getting for Christmas besides a few minor other things. LOL. I just couldn't wait. ugh! I hope I can get over this weakness someday!

Thanksgiving!

After much debate, we decided to stay home and have a quiet Thanksgiving for ourselves this year. Chris is taking boards next week and he wanted to take the time off to study. It was really nice to do our own thing and start some traditions for our own Holidays. I mean...it's about time right....we aren't quite kids anymore. Sadly....

Our Appetizers for the afternoon while we listened to music, watched movies, watches some football, and cooked up a storm.

Here's our dinner table feast!

Trying to work some magic in the kitchen.

Hm.....what was Chris doing while i was cooking? Playing with the camera....I posted the least embarassing picture. It was hilarious!

He got a nice close up of our cute little pup.

The table all set.

I was FINALLY able to make a meal fit for Great Grandmother's china. I was so excited to use it!

Our place setting. Looks....a little off....that's what happens when you let your husband place the silverware. Great Grandmother must have been turning in her grave!

Our harvest centerpiece.

The turkey.....since it was just us I just bought a turkey breast. We aren't really fans of the other parts anyways. I stuffed it with some stuffing and here it is.

Cranberry sauce. One of my personal favorites.

Chris cutting the turkey.

We even let Maximus have some of the feast. He's a funny dog. One of the first tricks we taught him was sitting with two paws up. Now he will beg at the table in the position. His thought process must be "Hey...if I do a trick they have to feed me". It usually works when we allow him to beg. It's cute!

Dessert. Since it was just the two of us I didn't make my apple pies this year. Just a Costco pumpkin pie. You can't do Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. Sadly....over the course of the weekend we ate this entire thing ourselves!

And that is my wonderful husband doing the dishes after our meal. I made quite a mess!

In honor of the Pilgrims....we played a game of Settlers of Cataan. Maximus was so hungry for our attention that we gave him a seat to watch us play. I think he was my good luck charm because Chris had a hard time winning. LOL. Sorry babe! You'll have to find another game you can beat me at. JK!

Steffi's Shower

So in case you are wondering why I haven't blogged in a while....I've been very busy with a lot of projects. This shower was one of them. I also helped Steffi (The girl the shower was for) completely remodel a room in her house for a nursery. I'll post more pictures of that later. Sorry I've been MIA for a while! Unfortunately....I forgot my camera AGAIN and had to rely on pictures from friends so there are a lot missing!

Here's Steffi....Junior still inside. Poor girl has been on bedrest! Christina is the other girl who co-hosted the shower with me. It was at her house.

The food table

I found this great vinyl lettering and you can't see it well in the picture but the wall says Now I lay me down to sleep....

And we did this one too with photos of them as a couple and a small framed ultrasound picture that you can't really see. The lettering on the wall says Family is a gift that lasts forever.

One of the 4 games that we had. This was the Price is Right (Thanks Kara for the idea!). Unfortunately I'm missing those pictures. We had another table with baby trivia, a fun madlib, and a diaper game.

Steffi's loot. This picture was taken before everyone showed up. She was all set for everything after the shower! Lucky gal!

Our favors. One of Steffi's favorite treats..."The Wicked Goods". My famous peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. It was a fun shower and A LOT of work. Hence the lack of blogging. I promise to do better!

Halloween

We had a very quiet Halloween this year. I'm sorry that I didn't take more pictures. We decorated sugar cookies, carved a pumpkin, and dressed the dog up in a devil costume (Thanks Mom). Sorry I didn't get a better picture. This was taken by a friend when we dropped cookies off at their house. The costume was a big hit. Reverse Trick o Treating is fun!

Welcome Katelyn Elizabeth!!

Born this afternoon weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches long. Welcome to the family! And CONGRATS to Eric and Tiff and big sister and brother Ally and Logan. We hope to see you soon!

Cream Cheese Frosting....You are on my hit list!!

So with all that talk of baking last night I decided to make a cake. We are going to this great dinner party tonight and I wanted to bring something. I only designed it last night. No cooking into the late hours which may have been my mistake. This was an afternoon creation and very disappointing. I now know that cream cheese frosting is very difficult to work with!

So here it is.....a two layer spice cake with a pumpkin cream filling. It's supposed to look like a pumpkin. The picture makes it look more square.

I had this really cool design that I was going to do but since the frosting was so BLAH....I ended up just swirling two colors of orange together to give it a somewhat presentable look. I at least know it will taste good! So I have now left it in the fridge to set and hope by the time I take it to the dinner it won't be a pile of muck. I just couldn't look at it any more. Maybe I will think of a way to save it. Yikes!

I'm NOT a Gingerbread Cookie...SORRY!

Warning: Metaphor coming....

So....I feel the need to vent. Perhaps this isn't the best venue but sometimes I feel things need to be said. I am not a gingerbread cookie! What if I want to be a chocolate chip cookie, with a little peanut butter? What if I want to be made of rice crispies and not in the shape of a little man at all. Maybe I want to be some other fun shape. What's wrong with that?

So....why is it that the gingerbread cookie cutter people want us all to be gingerbread? Is it to justify that they are a gingerbread? Does it make them feel safe in their flour based crunchiness? Is the only way to live life is with 3 little gumdrop buttons and a smile on your face? Is it really a smile? Did you think you wanted to be a gingerbread cookie then decide you really wanted some frosting on your legs, belly, and arms before the gumdrops? Is that what this is all about? Must we all come from an oven? What about no bake cookies?


My advice to traditional gingerbread cookies?? You still taste great! If you are happy to be a traditional cookie. Go on and be happy. But let me be the gingerbread cookie I want. Heck...let's break the mold a little. Some of us aren't happy with the mundane. There is more than one recipe and more than one way or shape. We don't need advice or judements on conventional recipes. Everybody knows those. Some of us like to create our own stuff.... Do things at our own pace. Worry about your own tastiness and less about how other gingerbread cookies taste. Maybe find a nice cup of milk....and learn to appreciate my star shaped, no bake, chocolate chip, peanut butter, rice krispy, pink frosted gooey goodness version. LOL. Maybe you'll venture out one day and add some sprinkles. Other gingerbread cookies like me know what I mean.....

Now....shall I go make some cookies? It's my prime time for genius in the kitchen....1:30 am! LOL

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH TRADITIONAL GINGERBREAD COOKIES. I'M JUST NOT ONE. SORRY TO DISAPPOINT! BUT PLEASE GET OVER IT! ENJOY THE CHANGE FOR ONCE!

Our Birthday Boy!

Our little Maximus' birthday was yesterday so he had a very great doggy day. I took him to the doggy park and then shopping at the pet store for a new toy and some treats. When the people found out it was his birthday they really spoiled him with hugs, kisses, and more treats. We came home with a whole bag for free. This dog is really spoiled!

I made him this cute birthday hat which he of course tried to shake off but eventually got used to it!

Here he is eyeing his doggy birthday cake. He's an Adams so we figured he would like an ice cream cake. Who doesn't? The pet store sells doggy frozen yogurt so I made it into a little cake. Peanut butter and banana flavor. Yummy!!

He didn't like the candle so much....OR our singing....but he loved the cake once he got to eat it! Happy birthday buddy!

Our Trip to Jamaica

For our 5th wedding anniversary we went to Jamaica to an all inclusive resort. It was probably the most relaxing and fun vacation that we have been on so far. It was so hard to come back from a vacation like this!!

We had a 4 hour layover in the Houston airport and were so tired! So here is Chris after getting frustrated that airport chairs just aren't comfy. Why don't they make them so you can sleep??

Here we are just arriving in Jamaica and so tired from the long flight.

This was our pitstop on our way to the resort. A little rumcake factory. You know you are in pirate company when things are named Tortuga. We watched pirates of the Carribean on the plane there so we were all excited!

Ahoy matey! Aaarrrgh!

Our coach to the resort.

The entrance to the resort.

Getting off the bus and heading to the lobby.

We're in Jamaica baby!!

It was really hot being in jeans so we were really happy to be greeted by cold drinks. This was the first of MANY pina coladas, Jamaican Oranges, Volcanoes, Strawberry Daquiris over and over again.

It was so refreshing because it was so hot!

One of the two lobbies.

Our wristbands that we had to wear all week. Ours were red which meant that we got special treatment because we were celebrating our anniversary.

One of the two main staircases.

We had a few minutes before we headed to our room so we checked out the main pool. It is the biggest pool in Jamaica and right on the beach. It was like swimming in open water in parts.

Yep....that's still all the main pool. It was huge!

The bathrooms were all marked by Jamaican men/women heads.

Then we headed to our room. This walking up the path to our villa #18.

The entrance....

This is the courtyard of our villa.

Our room.

Our room complete with an awesome ocean view. The bed was in the center and the couch folded out to a bed. We never used it but it would have come in handy with kids.

The other side of our room. It had a very open floorplan with no wall for the bathroom except for the toilet closet and shower which both had an opaque glass door.

Our balcony.

The fun little beach by our balcony.

Matching robes and slippers.

Breakfast by the pool.

The fruit was FANTASTIC. This isn't the best picture but every buffet had the most amazing fresh fruit. The mango was SO GOOD! The best I have ever had!

Afternoon water aerobics in the main pool. It was really fun and ended with a massage!

The pool by our room.

Here we are! Chris showcasing one of the main walking paths from the lobby to the villas.

Sunset with a volcano drink. Perfect!

There was a storm coming in that night as the sun set and the clouds were amazing. It was really cool looking!

One of the many turndown services. I didn't take pictures of them all but a few of my favorites.

The resort map. It was so big we didn't even get to see all of it.

The Marley themed disco. It was hopping at night not so much during the early evening.

One of the murals. They had a great one of the GG bridge but I didn't get a picture of it.

The lunch buffet. It always had warm fresh breads. We didn't always eat lunch of the buffet because we wanted to try all the resturants but the food here was phenomenal.

The swim up bar of the main pool. The bartender had never heard of a volcano drink which is basically a pina colada with strawberry syrup at the bottom that swirls up when you pour in the pina colada. So he named the drink the Patience. Lots of people started ordering them and he told me he needed lots of patience.

The coconut shrimp. Again...food...AMAZING!

This is Richard the super kind bartender of the game room. He always gave us a selection of desserts with our drinks AND he taught us how to play dominoes Jamaica style. He showed us a bunch of card tricks and we left him with a couple decks of ours so he could get some good tips. He was really fun!

This is James our pasta guy. They had a made to order pasta bar as part of the lunch buffet and James made the best pasta. And he was really nice!

We played so much beach volleyball. We did it almost every morning and almost every late afternoon. Our last night there we played probably 2 hours during sunset. It was so cool!

The beach with all the watersports. We took out the kayaks and paddle boats. They also had windsurfing and catamarans. The water and weather were perfect for it!

Eating one night at the Mexican place El Mariachi. I can't say enough how great the food was!

The Lotus resturant was really good too. We sat at sushi bar for our appetizer. The chefs there spent so much time on detail with the garnishes and explaining it all to us. It was cool.

The Tiramisu at the Italian resturant called the Pastafarian. It was to die for. REALLY!! We loved this resturant because it was open air and close to the beach so you could watch the sunset and listen to the ocean. It did tend to get hot though.

The entertainment staff. We LOVED them! They were so fun and they got to know us really well because we did basically everything that they put on. Some of the names were Chocolate, Sugar, Lucky, Dr. Dre, Mr. Bond, Mr. Go, Mad Ras, and Happy Feet. We learned all their real names too but their other names were more fun.

Chris with Happy Feet. He was the most AMAZING dancer. He had all the Micheal Jackson moves as well as moves we have never seen before. He could move his body like crazy! You can tell who has more rythym in this picture. He taught Chris some fun dance moves!

We saw this little wild hermit crab on the walking path one day.

Ok.....so let me preface this with I DID NOT WANT TO DO THE ARM WRESTLING COMPETITION. BUT I got suckered into it. I have laughing so hard in this picture I am almost crying!

I kept winning so I had to keep going. This girl was REALLY tough but I beat her. Once I won one I was NOT going to lose.

I had to wrestle everyone back to back so here in the staff giving me a massage after one of the wrestles. My arm was really starting to hurt!

What?? Left handed? That's not fair.

And my friend Brenda who got me into this whole thing. I won the tournament which ended up being really fun. But I couldn't move my arm the rest of the day!

Chris and I doing the darts tournament. We won this one too!

Playing pool with our friend Jay. He was really fun. He was there with his family from London. They were hilarious.

Another turn down service with real flowers.

Chilling out in the spa. I didn't get any pictures unfortunately but the spa was really big and had murals of stone that looked like people at Roman baths. It was really nice!

The main pool at the spa with steam room and sauna doors in the background.

These fountains were fun and also gave a good massage. The pool in the background was like sitting in a cup of Sprite it has tons of tiny bubbles that were very theraputic. There was also a long river type pool to swim in. It was all warm like bath water and it also had hot tubs. Very relaxing!

They had about 6 showers with different jets and things but this was the most interesting. It looked more like a practical joke than a shower but if gave a cold splash.

This resturant served jerk chicken for lunch that was really good! The spice burned my lips a little bit after. Or was it from being in salt water all morning snorkeling?

Ever hear of lunch dessert? The chocolate cake was the best I have ever had! SO moist!

Great food to go with the great view. This was during the half hour rainstorm we had pretty much every afternoon. Then the sun would come out. We said to the waitress that we wanted to watch the storm come in and she said "What? This isn't a storm this is rain! The sun be shining in just half an hour mon". Guess storms are reserved as hurricanes?

Chilling out on one of the beaches trying to figure out how we can vacation more often. LOL. Thanks Nate for the good read!

Goofing off by our big tub. Is it a pool or a tub? LOL

Bubble bath time!

Sooo.....I guess that the little bottles of bubble bath are meant to last more than one bath. I shortly became almost engulfed in bubbles when I turned on the jets. But it was fun! Now...where's my rubber ducky?

This turndown service was my favorite. Two loving swans going to their lovenest.

I didn't get pictures of all the shows but this one was really fun. They did a bunch of dancing from all the regions in the Carribean. I loved these costumes!

Playing dominoes with this great couple Mike and Antionette. They played in the darts tournament with us too. They were a lot of fun!

A friendly pool tournament with our friends Tom, Brenda, Micheal, and Antoinette.

One of the days we decided to rent a jetski and explore the coast a bit. We didn't bring the camera with us because I didn't want it to get wet so at the end we took a few shots from the shore with the resort in the background.

Coming back from out day out on the jetski. We took turns driving because it was so fun to jump the waves.

One day, they had fresh coconuts on the beach. Chris couldn't resist a "Cocos Frios" since he got addicted to them on his mission. Except this one wasn't cold. But still really good. I had some too.

Hmmm....fresh coconut and Jerk Chicken. A true Jamaican meal. This jerk chicken was SO GOOD. It was done at the food stand on the beach in true jerk fashion.

One day we took an excursion to Ochos Rios. We stopped at the Wassi pottery factory where we saw a lot of pottery made that was sold in the stores.

This guy made some really cool stuff on the wheel. He made it look so easy!

And I don't know how....but we always seem to happen upon the church on our vacations. We were getting cash out of an ATM there and we looked across the street and were like "HEY!" and there it was! Right above a market which we thought was kindof weird.

What a great idea! Aloe with Lidocaine! I wish we could get this in the states!!

This place was called Fern Gulley. It was orginally a riverbed. There was a big earthquake that changed how the river flowed so this became a road instead perfectly carved out.

And when the river changed it created this MASSIVE waterfall called Dunn's River Falls which we climbed up. It took us over an hour and a half and was so fun to play in. Unfortunately since there was water I didn't get a lot of pictures with our camera but the guide took this one. LOVE IT! It was so much fun!

At the end of our tour to Ochos Rios our driver took us up to this lookout point right at sunset. We could see all of Montego Bay.

Chilling out by the main pool with Tom and Brenda. They were so fun. We played a lot of cards together.

Reggae lessons with the ENT crew!

They always wanted to take our pictures by the grand staircase before dinner. We grabbed our own this night.

The steel drum band show was really good and so were the dancers with it.

At one point in the show they got audience members to play the drums. YES that is me in the center back playing the drumset. I actually could do it! It was really fun!

Chris watching the Red Sox game in the sports bar one night. It was our last night there. These pictures aren't even half of what I took and don't even come close to our Jamaica experience I just didn't want to make the blog 100 pages long. The resort was wonderful, the food AMAZING, the desserts (well....I ate WAY too many), and our anniversary VERY MEMORABLE. Now...when can we go back. We loved it!