Wednesday, February 24, 2010

From Photo Booth to WordFUL Wednesday

Here are some of leftovers from Photo Booth Saturday. I forced the poor kid to participate, and as you can see, it took a lot to get a smile out of this kiddo at 8:00 p.m. on a Friday.


Momma sacrifices a sane look for one little smirk.



Can you tell I love the 60's effect?

WordFUL Wednesday: for those of us who can post a photo and keep our mouth shut.







Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Stick 'Em Up!





One more thing...AHHHHH - I changed my followers gadgets and somehow lost everyone who was following my blog! This didn't happen the last time I changed the colors! I don't even know what to curse!!! So, if you were following please sign-up again. Geez. I 'll figure all of this out one day.

Friday, February 19, 2010

*Click*~*Click*~*Click*





Finn and I decided to try out the Photo Booth on my computer yesterday evening. We had been to see my mom at work and to have an early dinner with some of my buddies from school. We sat with Zac out by the now weekly bonfire, and Finn loved loved it. He doesn't get to wear his hat and mittens very often. Anyway, back to Photo Booth. I learned two things: the further back you sit the better the contrast, and I will never be able to take a series of four photos without looking possessed in at least two of them, hence I have cropped from the various series of four photos that we took and put the decent ones together as one series. Yes, there were only four thanks to the steroid-inflicted abundance of face and neck - glad I was wearing a turtleneck! =)



CLICK THE TIME AT THE END OF MY POSTS TO COMMENT OR READ OTHERS' COMMENTS. A FEW PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME ABOUT THIS, THINKING THAT THEY CANNOT COMMENT. 


*~*HELP*~*
MY OTHER BLOG SAYS "COMMENTS," AND THIS ONE DOESN'T. THEY USE THE SAME SYSTEM. WHO KNOWS? IF YOU KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS WITH INTENSE DEBATE LET ME KNOW!



Wednesday, February 17, 2010

WordFUL Wednesday: ♥

Babe, ya did good!

My poor hubby goes through the ringer on birthdays, holidays, and special events because I don't like typical girly stuff outside of clothes, shoes, and handbags, which he would never dare pick out. Also, I tend to leave friends and family high and dry when it comes to figuring out what it is that I want for a gift. My previous Valentine's gifts in the past from Zac have been random pieces of jewelry; however, this is my favorite Valentine of all, believe it or not. I am not a jewelry and flowers kind of girl, so when one of his friends asked me for gift advice for his new girlfriend this weekend I promptly warned, "I am not the girl to ask." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will say this, my favorite gift EVER was actually jewelry. On my 25th birthday, I had been in the hospital for two weeks two hours from home with no clue when I would be able to return home or if I even would. My family gave me a great lil party right there in the room. Hubs gave me an silver oval locket with "Love Z" engraved on the back and b&w pics of him and Finn on the inside. I was hysterical. Click the photo above to read my mother-in-law's journal entry from that day, September 24, 2009.









Wordful Wednesday is for those of us that like to showcase a photo(s) but that just can’t seem keep our mouths shut about it (them).


Sunday, February 14, 2010

And You Can Quote MEme on That!


       Today’s meme prompt is about your favorite quote and why. Of course, if you know me you know two things that rock my socks off: words and music. Sometimes the combination of both is almost too much for me to handle, so I just picked my most recent discovery. A lifetime of loving the written word and being an English teacher keeps me constantly discovering new favorites.

The clock of life is wound but once 
and no man has the power 
to tell just when the hands will stop 
at late or early hour. 
To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, 
to lose one's health is more. 
To lose one's soul is such a loss that no one can restore.



     I discovered this printed on a little yellow card in the lab Ochsner when I was having blood drawn a few months ago. The nurse told me a patient had given it to her. I felt like it was speaking to me: that quote I had been searching for since my experience.

Upon reading it, I flashed back to those first few seemingly hopeless weeks in September when I was thinking: “This is crazy. I am only 24! I have never smoked, and I only drink on special occasions. There are people who drink everyday and smoke like chimneys for longer than I have been alive that barely have a cough!” I thought, “I just want to walk through my back door, across my back porch, and through my   back door.” Then I remember with almost complete certainty knowing that would never happen, that I would never go home again, never scoop Finn up again (at the time he was only six weeks old), never see the gulf again, never feel the sand again, never sit on the swing with my husband again. I remember thinking: he is going to have to raise this little boy on his own. He is going to have to answer questions about where Finn’s mom is or if Finn’s mom is coming, then worst of all knowing that Finn would never even remember me at all. Would Zac change Finn’s name to Levon? ;) -That’s what he so desperately wanted to name him - after Levon Helm of The Band. 

If I have learned anything through my experience, it is to LIVE. I was already dead. I was doing things I didn’t want to do, and not saying things I wanted to say - my hubs thinks it is the pain meds that makes me “talk like a man,” but really I feel like I have lost that filter. Maybe they took it out with my heart thinking that it would prevent so much stress on my new heart. I could talk on and on about the significance of these words, but the truth is if they are going to speak to you they have already done so.

I do not want to leave this entry without honoring an angel who left us entirely too early, who truly lived life the way it was meant to be lived, who gave her all in everything she did, and loved her family with every fiber of her being and showed it every chance she got: the vivacious woman of faith and character that I strive to be. -In loving memory of a dear family friend lost three years ago.




Saturday, February 13, 2010

Photobooth Saturday: Valentine's Edition


A Special Valentine's Day Photobooth Saturday


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

***The New Meme***

Cardiocandyography


Welcome to the first carnival hosted by Cardiocandyography.com! Here’s how it works: You are going to finish the phrase “This is” by using a photo and a sentence or two. See my example from today or scroll down to my February 6th post. You can do as few or as many as you want. You can even post it as a collage. Feel free to be creative! 

Remember to come back here and use the gadget below my post to post your link

I try to make my photos from the past few days (for family and friends), but that is up to you. Have fun & remember tomorrow is FRIDAY! 

Don’t forget to post the badge for this meme at the top of your post, as well. 

Since this is my first hosting venture please feel free to ask questions or give me some feedback via twitter or email. 

Most important of all: have fun!

By the way, there are some great gals out there with the best memes & carnivals. I have posted their buttons in my sidebar under "Carnival Queens." If you know of one I don't have posted feel free to let me know.










...what desperation at the back door looks like.



...this is buckling under pressure.



...what 6 months of no hair color on the hair I actually have left looks like: thank you Prograf.




...this is pure tug n' pull fun for Finn!




In Honor of Valentine's Day & In Case You Missed It...

Saturday, February 6, 2010

This is...

...why thinking I could stick to a heart-healthy diet during Mardi Gras may have been stupidly optimistic:

...what you see screaming your name from a glass case in a New Orleans mall:

...why I seriously lucked out with my hubby:

...this doesn't hurt his case either:

...what makes adjusting to being a SAHM such a dream:





Wednesday, February 3, 2010

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Yesterday I cruised on over to NOLA for my monthly biopsy, echo, and clinic visit. Rather than staying in the hotel the night before, I decided to drive over early in the morning because I did not feel like the whole packing/unpacking deal. Well, let me tell you. I needed an industrial crane to keep my eyelids open nearly the whole two hours over. 
♦ Two Reminders ♦ 

  • The morning of labs you are NPO from midnight the night before until after your labs are drawn: usually around 8:00 a.m. NPO = no food or drink (nothing per oral) 
  • Prednisone (steroid) wires you, keeps you awake, prevents any hopes of an early bedtime - Those of you that have kept up with my CB from the beginning know of my sleeping horrors. Even though my dose has been drastically reduced, my sleeping patterns are still completely unpredictable, and I never know when I will fall asleep.
Of course I did not fall asleep until around 1:00 a.m. Monday night and I had to get up at  a little after 4:00 a.m. and be on the road by 5:45 a.m. with no fuel...in my body. i.e. no coffee, no PowerBar. Plus, it was dark for the first hour of the drive. I was really nervous about falling asleep, but my hubby called to check on me a little before seven and that helped wake me up. 
When I got to the lab, it was slammed! I have never seen that many people waiting for labs. I waited for 45 minutes which left me only 30 minutes to find something to eat. Typically this would not be an issue; however, Stacy (Mandras), my main cardiologist, suggested that I eat something heavy and salty the nights before biopsies because the excess water make the vein in which they insert the catheter in my neck much easier to navigate. I also have to have enough time for the anti-anxiety medication to kick in before the procedure. For some reason, my neck is especially sensitive to everything they to do to prep for the procedure. This is very unusual because needles do not bother me, and medical procedures in general do not bother me. Anyway, that is why I have to take an anti-anxiety meds on biopsy days. Immediately after lab, I ran down to Zucchini, the hospital cafe, and had some sausage, bacon, and cheese grits. It was like a little vacation from bland and doctors orders. =) 
The procedure went well and even though I have been feeling some different feelings around my heart everything looked fine on the echo. I will have to wait on the biopsy results for more details if there are any, and if everything looks good then I can come down on the steroids again. Yippee! 
As I was getting was getting my stuff together and chatting with the girls in the cath lab, Dr. Mandras was watching me while I was talking about my blogs and my Go Red group that I am trying to raise money through. They all told me how good I looked, how amazing it is, etc. Then Dr. Mandras looked me square in the eye and said, “I lost sleep over you...I was scared to death.” Then she began to tear up, couldn’t speak, and began wiping her eyes. She just rushed over and hugged me. This was funny because she about a whole head shorter than me; we giggled. How lucky am I to have such an amazing staff holding my heart in their hands? They are amazing from the top down: the attendings, the fellows, the nurses… I also got to see the other members of the transplant team that have worked so closely with me: Patel, Alkadri, Ventura. They are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! They are like family to me now. I never thought that I would feel so comfortable with a bunch of cardiologists. I discuss books, writing, and education with Patel, movies with Alkadri, and hair, journals, and food with Mandras. Oh, and I didn’t to leave out the P.A.s: I you, Moriah! 



Upon leaving the hospital I decided to hit the quarter and enjoy the weather. Though I didn’t make it far (my boots were pinching), I soaked in every minute of it. I dipped in Peaches, the last true record store; Urban Outfitters, cannot believe I walked out empty-handed, a true sign of increasing self control; and Hard Rock for fajitas. I am usually not a big Hard Rock fan since it is typically food I can get anywhere, but it was by far the cleanest and the cool breeze just blew me right into their open doors. (I still have to be uber careful about germs.) Let me just say, those were the best fajitas that I have ever had! I do not know what they sauteed the onions and meat in, but it was divine and probably loaded with sodium. It’s ok to cheat for a day every once in a while. 
After being in the hospital for three months, careful watched for two, and a few weekend stays, I have begun to relish those moments on my own. It was such an incredible feeling just strolling down the street yesterday in a hat, cute outfit, and boots - not pj’s and slippers. I could have walked for hours. Next time I will have to remember to slip some Dr. Scholl’s in those boots so that I may extend my stay. 


I go back tomorrow for a neurology appointment and hitting up some antique stores and markets for some dirt cheap home decor. I am trying to warm this place up a bit; it’s coming along slowly but surely. 























To tweet or not to tweet? I am thinking of joining the masses. Do you like it or is it all a bunch of hoopla? 

Wordless Wednesday