I'm Embarassed

I have been a bad girl lately. A VERY bad girl. Every ounce of my energy is going into the million other things going on in my life right now (traveling, holidays, school, work, internship, THESIS), so the blog has taken a backseat. As soon as this week is over, I'll be coming up for air, and hopefully doing some much-needed updating. Hang in there with me.

Much love and holiday greetings to everyone!

Fall in Pictures

Every ounce of writing energy I have is going toward the first 2 chapters of my thesis, so you all are going to have to put up with a post of mostly pictures.

Labor Day Weekend in Ventura & Santa Barbara:

{Crushcakes in Santa Barbara=best cupcakes EVER!}

The late summer wedding of our friends Robyn & Phil:

The Montana State vs. Sac State football game (In case there is ever any confusion among our friends and family, my loyalty will always be with Montana State above Sac State. Go Cats!):

{Tailgating}

And last, but not least, a weekend trip to Montana to watch my little brothers play football:

Ty (the younger of the two)

Trev & I. His team is undefeated right now. :)

Nothing says fall like a little Friday night high school football. Oh, and windstorms and terrential downpours if you live in Sacramento.

This post ought to tide you over for awhile, right? I can't promise I'll be back to blogging in full force anytime soon, but I'll at least check in once in awhile.

Stay Tuned

If there are still any loyal readers out there (Mike, I know you read this, you may be the only one these days), please don't abandon me. I am a terrible blogger lately because this little thing called my thesis has completely taken over my life. I still have some pics to post from Labor Day weekend (I know it's been a month, so sue me), as well as from the Sac State-MSU football game this past weekend. I will try to make time to get to it on Sunday, so please be patient with me.

Goodbye Summer

So here are the last of our Summer 2010 pictures from the last month or so. About a month ago, we went to a bbq/birthday/poker party for one of my good friends and her fiance, whose birthdays are only about a week apart. It was a great time with good food, yummy drinks, and great company. Here are a few pics from that:

Me with Dee, the birthday girl and Bride-to-be (her wedding is coming up in November).

You should never underestimate the importance of good, quality girlfriends. This is my California support system. :)

Rewind to July, when we spent the day in the Bay Area for an Oakland-Boston game. Tickets to this game were my "paper" gift to Pat for our first wedding anniversary, although by that time last year, Boston had already been in town so we had to wait until this year to go to a game. Unfortunately, Pat's coveted Red Sox lost, but we had a blast nonetheless.

Wearing our Red Sox gear (Pat's shirt was my "cotton" anniversary gift this year; it's one of those certified team shirts and he wears it at least once a week).

The Red Sox Emperor. This guy was a character.

Pat enjoying the game (minus the horrendous sunburn. Poor guy).

I've been saving the best for last. This is my favorite recent picture of us, taken at Dee's party:

Hope everyone had a fantastic summer!

I'm a Bad, Bad Blogger

I cannot believe that I did not post at all in August. Not once. I hope you all haven't given up on me after my unintentional hiatus from the blog. It's just that, well, it's been a busy summer. And living my life has gotten in the way of my blogging. How is it that summer always seems to fly by so fast? And now it's September, back to my routine. Work, Intern, Study, Workout. Rinse & Repeat. Not that I am at all bummed. My long-awaited summer of what was supposed to be relaxation and rejuventation turned into a summer full of traveling, research for a few different projects I've been working on, class, training for my first 5k on Thanksgiving and recovery from my procedure in June (which really put a damper on said training). Oh, and cram a move in there as well. A pretty stressful move, with a doozy of a landlord who got so sick of our "constant demands" that he hired a property management company so he would not have to deal with us (um hello, general cleanliness is not a "command" so much as it is common courtesy). Speaking of the move, here is a picture of our new place:

Anyone who has been to our last apartment will be able to easily tell how much of an upgrade this is for us. We have a garage that we can fit both cars into (plus some storage), an actual guest room, which is actually serving as a workout room at the moment since it is housing my treadmill, two and a half baths, and an office. [The downside: we also have stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. Which didn't really concern me during the move, as I did not yet have the ok from my doctor to lift anything heavy. Ask Pat and Cody how they feel about stairs, however, and you will get a totally different response.]

I promise to be a better blogger from now on, and thanks to all of you who probably thought I was going to let the blog go.

Now we're off to SoCal for the long weekend. You know what that means--beach and sunset pictures will be forthcoming. Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Montana Family (Dogs Included)

Noticably absent from these pics, of course, is Pat. Unfortunately, he was only around for the first few days (most of which I wasn't feeling that great), and not much went on the way of excitement during that time. Also missing is my stepdad, who was in Washington for a baseball tournament for most of the time I was in Montana. Such is the life of a baseball dad, I suppose.

The Homeland

Sunsets, mountains, the Yellowstone River, fishing, cow crossings. Oh, and my Happy Place, on a chair with the sun shining on my legs with a good book in hand. :)

The Time I Needed an Emergency Appendectomy

By now, I think most of you who read this blog are well aware of the events preceding our 4th of July trip to Montana, but just in case, here's all the details.

I woke up on the morning of June 28th with a killer stomach ache. Aside from your average indigestion or heartburn, I never get stomach aches, so I immediately knew something wasn't right. Although I tried to convince myself that it was some sort of flu bug, so I immediately crawled back into bed to try and sleep it off. Later that afternoon, the pain had moved to the right side, and I called my mom, who advised me to at least get checked out at the Urgent Care. They took one look at me (or feel rather), and sent me straight to the ER. After roughly 3 hours of waiting (the ER was one busy place, as that day was the first triple-digit day here in Sac and there were many people suffering from ailments caused by the heat), I was finally admitted. After a couple nasty cups of that orange, sugary contrast fluid and a quick trip through the CT machine, the doctor diagnosed me with an infected, swollen appendix. Apparently there were three of us who were admitted that night for appendectomies via the ER, and I was second on the list. I went in for surgery around 2:00am, and was back in my hospital room around 4:00. I spent the next 12 hours in the hospital, and was released upon being able to prove that some of my body's systems were back in working order (I'll spare you the details), and was back in my bed less than 24 hours after entering the ER. The surgery was laproscopic, so it was minimally invasive (I only have 3 small incision marks which are now mostly healed). But this left me with the false impression that my recovery would be easy (boy was I wrong). And I was absolutely crushed about the prospect of canceling our trip to Montana to see friends and family. So after all of 24 hours at home, we packed up the car and made the 15-hour quest to Montana. Pat drove the entire way (have I mentioned how much I love this man??) while I rested comfortably in the back seat, knocked out by narcotics and sleeping like a baby. Those first four days or so were more painful than I anticipated, but I'm proud of the fact that despite my seemingly bad luck when it comes to medical issues, we were able to make our trip and spend some time with loved ones. Pat left Montana after five days, as he had to be back to work, and I spent the following week in Montana, and then jetted off to Las Vegas to visit my friend Christie for 5 days.

[Let me make the following disclosure about spending time in Vegas with someone who actually lives there. We did not booze it up. We did not go clubbing. We did not gamble. We didn't ever even set foot on the Strip. Totally different experience than what you'd expect, right? There's a whole Vegas scene that exists beyond what goes on downtown, you should really check it out if you have a chance].

Anyway, as usual, I have many, many pictures from my travels over the last few weeks, so I'm going to have to separate them into a few posts.

First of all, here are a few pics from my latest hospital stint:

An artist (or rather doctor) rendering of the size and location of the appendix.

Pat trying to catch a few winks. He slept for all of 2 hours before having to leave to view a townhouse that we were looking at renting (we're moving this weekend!!!!)

Ok, that's all for now. More pics to come...