Maui Day 2...Marriage licenses and Ziplines.

Second day in paradise: Wake up, eat a huge breakfast (isn't this what you do on vacation?), sit on the beach for a while (since we were still on Seattle time and got up at literally like 5am), drive to black sand beach and explore around, get our marriage license!, head to east Maui to do ziplining for the rest of the afternoon, go to Kanapali beach and play in the waves at sunset, eat at Nick's fishhouse for dinner (possibly the best restaurant ever). Here are the pictures:

On the way to breakfast in the morning I found a little horse statue. It looked fun to sit on for a picture op until I realized that the sprinklers had just been on and it was wet.

At the black sand beach. It wasn't a dark black sand but still very cool.

The islands off in the distance at the black sand beach.

Me at the black sand beach.

Ziplining... totally awesome experience. A bit scary at first but I would highly recommend it for whoever feels like an adventure. It is so much fun and the views were amazing. You start off down in Kanapali and they take you up the huge cliffs of eastern Maui. There are seven ziplines up there (the longest is 1000 feet). Some are steeper/faster because of how much pull the line does or doesn't have. Midway through you stop to have lunch at the top of one of the cliffs overlooking Maui. It's pretty awesome. You can't really see me above but I am on the line (at the very top of the picture). This was one of the first lines we did... I happened to hold the thing wrong so I kinda smashed my middle finger on my right hand. I think I pinched a nerve or something. I literally still don't have feeling in that part of my finger. It's pretty funny.

Tim on the ziplines (in the middle of the picture).

Look at that landing! I think my form on this landing was actually pretty good. I landed well everytime so that's good. Midway through they switched out Tim's and my gear... he was going super fast and I wasn't really going that fast at all. I think it was some sort of weight issue... After they switched, I didn't feel like much changed. It felt fast everytime, regardless!

All decked out in my head gear... although I'm pretty sure if you fell, this would not help much. You are basically really high up above any sort of ground just hanging by a cable. I mean, you're going back and forth between cliffs. If something happened, well, we just won't think about that because it didn't!

Tim all decked out in his gear.

At the lunch spot. The mountains were behind us and we were looking towards the ocean (and down at Kanapali in Easter Maui). It was a gorgeous view.

Look at that posture! Perfect! You're supposed to kinda lean back and kinda squat/sit. Not really sure why but it did seem to make it smoother and faster.

Getting all hooked up! This guy was one of our tour guides, Frank. Funny guy. I couldn't remember his name for the life of me and did not stop hearing about that when he realized I knew his partners name and not his. What can I say?

A running start! Once we had a couple of lines under our belts, they let us start taking off by running. This made it so much more fun!

Tim in the middle of a long zipline.

...and coming in for the landing.

A view of the ocean and eastern Maui from one of the lines. Beautiful.

Getting hooked up to the last and longest line.

I don't have any pictures from Kanapali beach or from Nick's fishmarket... I think we were tired of taking pictures after all of the pictures we took ziplining. Kanapali was AWESOME after getting so hot and dusty from ziplining. The waves were perfect so we body surfed some and watched the sunset. Nick's fishmarket is known as one of the best seafood restaurants on Maui. It's at the Fairmont which is why we decided to go there since we didn't get back until it was dark. The food was amazing and fresh, and the service was incredible. I would highly recommend it to anyone who visits Maui.

Maui, Day 1- October 15, 2008

On the first day, Tim and I got up at the asscrack. Try 4:30am on for size. And for the record that is 1:30am Hawaii time. This was not particularly fun but I think the anticipation of going to MAUI! made us forget about the early time. We got to the airport by 6:30ish for our 8am flight and landed in Maui after a 5 and a half hour flight at around 11am. The flight was not particularly long, I think because we couldn't wait to get out of the freezing Seattle weather and into the sun. Here are the pictures- they tell the story best:

Our first picture in Hawaii... after we got "leid" after walking off of the plane.

Look Seattle! Maui has Starbucks too. It was our first stop for iced tea. It felt SO HOT since we had layers on because when we left Washington, it was freezing.

In our POS Sebring Convertible (seriously, who buys these cars?!) and on the way to the Fairmont in Wailea. It was cloudy the first day. But hot and fairly humid. It was so nice to have a convertible.

Taking pictures while trying to get out of the rental car place.

Our view to the ocean when we first walked into the lobby of the Fairmont. Beautiful!

Our room wasn't quite ready so we took pictures while we were waiting.

Lovely. He looks totally thrilled.

We walked to the spot on the Fairmont grounds where we would be having our wedding night dinner together on the 20th. It was right next to the ocean and very secluded. So perfect.

More of the same spot without the view of the ocean.

Kissing picture down by the ocean while we were waiting on our room.

We then trekked to the pool bar for some lunch and fruity drinks. Here is Tim with a strawberry daiquiri. It was the best way to kill some time even though both of us wanted to have our room so we could be in our swim suits! And let me just mention this pool bar (and all of the Fairmont restaurants, really) were unbelievable. They were all natural, all organic. These cups are made out of corn. We felt really at home here. It was perfect for us.

Maui Mojito. Drink of the whole trip, hands down. It was amazing.

After lunch and after we got our room, it was mid afternoon and we made our way just south of the Fairmont to Makena. There is a little hidden beach down there, appropriately named secret cove beach. This is the beach that we got married on. We went to check it out on the first day. It was absolutely pristine and more than we could have hoped for.

Standing in the water at secret cove beach.

The waves here were so gorgeous. It was still so weird that first day was so cloudy.

More of the beach... in the background is Molikini Crater- a popular snorkeling spot.

More beach.

Feet in water... it was so nice to be in WARM water again!

More of the secret cove beach.

Climbing the lava rocks above the secret cove beach. Let me just say- I did this 5 days later in barefeet and a wedding dress. THAT was a riot, I am sure (well, I know... I have the pictures to prove it!) It was probably good I practiced climbing here.

Leaving the beach in the sebring.

A view of the Fairmont grounds.

A view of Polo beach at the Fairmont.

More of the Fairmont grounds. It was a beautiful resort.

There is a pathway that goes all the way from the Fairmont to the Grand Wailea to the shops at Wailea. We walked this on our first night to see the scenery and to just be on the beach. It was gorgeous. We saw huge green sea turtles along this first walk as well. And, funny enough we literally saw about 4 weddings on that first day along all of the beaches between the resorts. Apparently Hawaii is a popular place to get married... not really a big surprise given the scenery.

Our first sunset of our Hawaii trip did not disappoint.

More sunset. We walked back to the Fairmont and spent the rest of the sunset just sitting on the beach and listening to the ocean. It was the perfect beginning of our two week trip.

Probably not the Hawaii recap you were looking for...

But I just want to request that everyone out there who reads this keep my family in your minds... pray if you do that or just send good thoughts our way.

My parents and brother along with my aunt and uncle were headed out to the great northwest this coming weekend for a little shindig we are having. However, as most people know, my grandma (mom's mom) is 89 years old and still lives by herself. She has actually been in pretty good health, not exceptional but not bad considering her age.

Lately she has been falling a lot more. This week alone, she fell twice in a day (on Monday). Last night she called my mom around 6pm to tell my mom that she was going to bed. Earlier in the day during physical therapy, she was very disorientated and didn't even recognize herself in a picture (it was her at my mom and dad's wedding 34 years ago). Late last night my mom was driving home and just had a feeling that she should stop and check on my grandma. When she got there, my grandma was on the floor in the hallway. She had fallen again.

She wears a necklace around her neck that she can push if it's an emergency to summon paramedics/call 911. But it was not functioning last night. At least my mom had the gut feeling to go check on her. We aren't really sure how long she was lying there but my mom called 911 when she got there. It took the paramedics 2 hours to get an IV in. [As a sidenote, Tim could not believe this. He said it's absolutely ridiculous. But then again paramedics in different states- like washington- get trained a lot more than in other states and have other methods if they can't get an IV within 2 tries.]

At around 1:30am my mom and grandma finally made it to the hospital. My grandma has severely broken her femur and will require surgery if her heart is strong enough (her blood pressure has been extremely low lately). A CAT scan also revealed that she has had a stroke that has affected the right side of her body. Understandably, she is in excrutiating pain and it has been difficult to keep her pain at a tolerable level.

My uncle is flying out to KC today to be with my family. My dad and brother are still flying out tomorrow, my aunt is no longer coming up here and my mom is going to try to make it at some point this weekend depending on what happens in the next few days and when/if my grandma does have to have surgery.

That is all I know right now and I will update if I find out something further but mainly I just want everyone to keep my family and my grandma especially in your thoughts and prayers. I love her very much and wish I could be there with her.

Hawaii Recap

I am going to start a little bit of a Hawaii recap. I am going to try to be diligent and make a post a day about various days of our Hawaii journey. If I miss a day, no emails. I will try my best. There is an incredible amount to post. But lucky enough, I have pictures that tell most of the story better than I ever could.

I thought that last week was Halloween?

I guess since Tim and I had only been back for a day on Halloween, we are celebrating the creepy holiday this week.

Several days this week, we have gone down to the garage in the morning and Winston's windows have been wide open and he has been unlocked. Ok, let me just say- we just got back from 80 degree, sunny Hawaii weather. It is, in comparison, FREEZING in Washington, not to mention it has been pouring down rain for the whole week we have been back. Yep, rainy season has started. (Apologies to all people who are coming up to visit us in the northwest next week. It will not be pretty).

Anyway, to say that it does not make any sense why the windows are down in Winston every morning would be an understatement unless coming home from work I unconsciously decided that I wanted to take a freezing cold bath. Plus, I am somewhat compulsive with locking the cars so it is pretty much a guarantee that when I got out of the car, I locked him.

So the first day this happened, it was just a "what the hell?" kind of a moment. That moment was compounded by the fact that standing there, the FJ decided to beep continuously at us even though neither of us was touching the remote to that car.

The second day was just eerie creepy. I decided to start a routine of trying to not make Winston or the garage haunted. That basically involves not shutting myself in the garage and booking it out of the car and the garage as fast as humanly possible. Pretty much I imagine a fire in my ass and book it up the stairs. It scares the living c-rap out of me and TWICE since I've been scared like this in the garage (after the Winston incidents), Tim has managed to ALMOST make me pee my pants. The first time he was sitting on the stairs when I walked in. I was all, "What in the f*** are you doing there?" And then almost fell over and died because my heart was beating so fast. He was sitting on the stairs calmly so he wouldn't scare me. Um, really? The second day, he was not around after I almost lost my life the first day but he turned on the light for me WITHOUT. ME. SEEING. HIM. making me think that our garage ghost was trying to trip me out even more.

Needless to say, I'm freaked. It feels like it should be Halloween week. Now I want this to be over and the garage to stop being haunted. I am willing to flirt with the thought that MAYBE Winston has an electrical problem. But since I started doing my little routine of booking it into the house (along with making sure everything- including the radio) is turned off on Winston, he has not rolled his windows down and Duncan has not been making any strange noises as he did at the beginning of the week. Hmmm. What does this mean?

It should be mentioned that his windows have been down at varying heights and he doesn't do this anywhere BUT in our garage.

Stay tuned for updates on Mr. Garage Ghost.

And we did it...

I am so proud today to be an American. For so many reasons.

It wasn't just about Obama winning and McCain losing, it's about the change that I am now hopeful will occur for us now and for our kids in the future. It's about a nation that is hopeful, accepting, and willing to take steps forward.

VOTE bitches!

I do not personally care who you vote for or why... whether you are ignorant and just pick someone based on what the media says or just because you like their, um, style, but the point is that everyone should get out there today and vote. I did, several days ago actually.

I have been following politics religiously this year and like to think that I am much more informed than I have made myself in the past. I have read both candidates policies have watched countless hours of both right wing and left wing media, have read articles and articles of opinions, policies, personal addendums... It has become somewhat of a passion. Because whatever you do or don't believe, this country needs a new leader, a change, someone in a time that is uncertain at best.

It is in ALL of our best interest for our future, our kids future, our country's future to take an active and vested interest in who we want that person to be. We can all make that choice for whoever we respectively believe that person to be. For me, I have no hesitation saying that I voted for Barack Obama.

Now your turn- go vote.

The countdown is on...

We leave for Hawaii in about, um, a day. Actually less than a day if you want to get really technical. Aside from the fact that I developed a cold yesterday, a cold that I have fighting so freaking hard not to get, I am still pumped. I think that sun and beaches will be the cure for the cold so it's all good.

We had a fabulous weekend... so fabulous in fact, that it probably weakened my immune system. Hence, the stupid cold.

Ashley got in around 9pm Friday night. We took her out to our favorite Thai restaurant and then headed to Rhett's house for his birthday party where a little game of flip cup indoctrinated Ashley in to the folks of Washington. Of course she was a pro... apparently flip cup is popular in Missouri too.

The next morning we headed out early to ride the duck. It was essentially a land/water tour of Seattle. Awesome. We met some nice folks from Wisconsin so that was fun too. We then headed up in the space needle. Then went to pike place market and then walked to the best sushi place ever. If anyone is ever in Seattle, check out Wasabi Bistro. If you like sushi, naturally. Then we went straight to the Angels and Airwaves/Weezer concert. It was such a high energy/amazing concert. Loved it.

Sunday we got up and threw on our hiking clothes and went into the mountains then to Snoqualmie falls. It was awesome.

All in all, it was a perfect weekend and I'm pretty sure Miss Welch had a good time exploring Seattle too. I actually took a fair amount of pictures but of course have not downloaded them yet. When I do, I will post them. They tell the weekend story better than I can.

Now onto the next journey... Hawaii!

500th post anniversary

Today my blog is 500 posts old. I may not always feel like I am very dilligent in posting but that is noteworthy.

Happy friday thoughts...

1) It's sunny in Seattle! It turned fall here about two weeks ago and started to get more rainy and um, FREEZING. But today it is nice, crisp, and sunny!
2) Fall color leaves. Love it when they are just pretty colors but haven't fallen yet.
3) Thrilled to see an old friend this weekend. Miss Welch is visiting from Missouri.
4) Plans this weekend include: friends birthday party tonight, and Weezer/Angels and Airwaves concert tomorrow night. Um, awesome!
5) No more lost kittens this week.
6) FIVE days to Hawaii day! YAY!!! :)

Run Away Kitty

Monday...

Following an insane weekend of running around, I started a new audit of a new client. A HUGE client, probably one of the biggest ones I have ever had. Tim has been taking me to work because my Arizona plates are um, suspended because I don't have Arizona car insurance. Reasonable since I now live in Washington but apparently it suspends my plates. I know, I know, I have been up here a year and a half! Anyway, poor Winston has been inactive lately. I don't want that ticket.

As a sidenote... I do have a Washington driver's license AND the FJ is in my name in Washington so I am PERSONALLY legal. Just Winston is not. But that is not entirely my fault. The state of Washington is being difficult and even more difficult is the lien holder who 1) never transferred the title to Arizona (WTF? How was I even able to get plates there??!) and 2) never transferred the title to solely my name in accordance with the divorce decree, which, by the way, I can't even tell you how many times I have called them/talked to them/faxed them this information. Ugh. Such a mess. I have been going back and forth with the Washington DMV and the lienholder for literally months now.

Anyway, Winston has been MIA as a result so Tim has been taking me to work. We leave in a week for Hawaii and are absolutely swamped trying to get ready for that and for everything else. So Monday night, I get home late and we are working on stuff until about 10pm. We relaxed for about 20 minutes on the couch until we realized we were both falling asleep and should just go to bed. We go to find the boys (the cats) and only find one. It occurs to us that we are horrible parents... both of us cannot recall the last time we saw Tyson.

Both cats are indoor cats and Tyson especially is absolutely paranoid of anything. Case in point: I was getting dressed one day and placed a shirt on the bed... he jumps 10 feet in the air and runs and hides. He, however, is very athletic and likes to show off his abilities.

We used to let both cats roam the decks so that they could be outside and lay in the sun if they wanted. This was not a problem until Tyson tried to show off his athletic abilities and would jump up onto the two inch metal rail and almost fall two stories down. He had been better lately about it so we had been trusting him more.

Unfortunately, it occurred to us on Monday that in the midst of everything going on, the door had been open earlier in the day for about 20 minutes and we were not dilligent on keeping an eye on him. He must have slipped out, jumped off, and then either slipped (because it was raining) or jumped down two stories.

No idea but at 10pm that night, we were freaking out. We scoured the house, walked around the neighborhood, call 24 hour pet watch since the boys have chips (which, by the way is totally stupid because as we found out, they do NOT act like GPS tracking devices and the only way to find your cat is if they somehow manage to turn up at one of the scanning facilities... and there are only 500 in the whole US). Ugh.

At about 11:30 we decide to go out and look again... keep in mind that it is FREEZING, dark and pouring rain. We pass a raccoon and freak. We look behind bushes, and nothing. We call his name, nothing.

All of a sudden under some stairs, hiding in the very back corner, I see a kitten. It's Tyson. Holy shit.

I say his name and he starts screaming... he is scared shitless, he is cold and wet and dirty, and he is starving. We take him up (he actually was too scared and disorientated to get far-literally he was only about 30 feet away but hidden very well) and give him a bath, food, and water. He purrs the whole time. Now he is happy as a clam after his little adventure.

Needless to say, even though our story had a happy ending, it was seriously scary (especially when we were told that only 4% of lost cats are ever found!) I have never had any cats do that and it was definitely a lesson learned. Here is a picture of the little adventurer:

Emily and Ryan's Wedding. A crazy day typical of probably any wedding day.

Tim's sisters wedding, September 20, 2008.

1) Supposed to be an outdoor wedding. It's Seattle. You'd never guess, it POURED.
2) Bride was obviously upset and crying because it wasn't the wedding she expected.
3) Three flower girls. At 2pm on the day of the wedding, two come down with the flu. Over the course of the next 6 hours, they puke 6 times.
4) The three year old flower girl made it, albeit with a fever, but made it.
5) One of the other sister's was in the wedding party. She changed her name a few days prior. Hard to remember in the chaos that her name was not what it used to be.
6) Same sister that was in the wedding party that changed her name decided an hour before the wedding that she did not feel comfortable being in the wedding. FREAK OUT.
7) Try to find a stand in. I was an option.
8) Beautiful ceremony, no glitches except the fact that the bride forgot to carry her bouquet and the groomsmen boutonnieres were about an hour away in a different city.
9) Lots of interesting people at the wedding... lots of diversity. From kids to grandparents to clean cut to piercing/tattoos like I have never seen before even to someone who was rumored to be a meth addict. The diversity was actually lot of fun... it made it interesting!
10) Tim and I somehow ended up as designated babysitters, which was awesome for us! I loved it!! I was watching the 3 year old flower girl Savannah (our niece) and Tim was watching our cousin Talia (I think she is 8 or 9)? We were all dancing together and during the toasts, I was teaching Savannah how to cheers with juice. It was a lot of fun.
11) Tim and I did not get home until very late that night due to the fact that we were helping clean the place up since we had a strict deadline to be out at a certain time. At one point, I saw someone dancing with a broom and I started dancing with a pile of trash in my hands with Tim who also was cleaning tables and had a pile in his. Crack up.
12) A great day and at the end of the day, of any wedding, the couple is married. That's all that matters. [And, as a side note, that is also why I do not personally ever want to be a part of the married chaos again for my own wedding...]

Stupid neck

Even though I wanted to adorn the chiropractor as king of the world after Tim's back ordeal, I have come to decide that I do not like chiropractors. Or maybe they just aren't right for me.

I went to the chiro about two weeks ago. When I was taking Tim in for his back, the chiro wanted to see me. He said that he could help the headaches that I seem to get rather frequently (I've always had headaches). So finally I went. He took some x-rays and found that instead of having a normal curved neck, mine was straight and instead of a straight spine, mine was curved.

Start adjustments, cool.

That weekend I felt ok.

On Monday of last week, I went back in for another adjustment.

Tuesday, I literally could not function. I was at work for 20 minutes. I could not do anything without feeling unbelievable dizzy, like I would pass out at any second unless I laid down flat on my back. That coupled with feeling like I would puke was unlike anything I have ever felt before.

I went to the chiro Tuesday to see if he could help more, and it did. Back Wednesday and felt ok. Thursday, didn't go but at Tim's sister's wedding rehearsal, we had to leave early because I almost passed out and puked again. Unbelievable. I was literally jealous of people who could walk around normally. THAT is not normal at all and should not be a problem for a healthy 26 year old!

Friday went again and did ok for the whole weekend. I have not been back since Friday and am not feeling dizzy at all...it gets better every day. I am feeling more normal than I have in two weeks. There is no reason that going to the chiro should make me feel like I am dying! I do not care how out of whack my body is... I can deal with headaches but I cannot deal with feeling like I am going to just peace out and die (it was really bad!!) So needless to say, I am boycotting chiros for the moment.

I am a HUGE proponent of healing bodies naturally, but I also believe in the power of the human body. I think that sometimes the more input you give it to try to heal itself, the more whacked out it becomes because it's just too much to handle (unless, like Tim's back, something is seriously wrong). (As a side note, I am a huge proponent of not taking any medications for this same reason). My body is extremely sensitive so I think that this was just too much. I think if I were to go, I would go more spaced apart and just until my neck and spine look more normal. Then hopefully my body would just adapt and I would be able to fix any minor problems without any sort of dizziness.

Family Fun Time

Like I briefly mentioned in my last post, my parents came out to Seattle to visit at the end of August, as did my brother. This was a HUGE DEAL because I have lived out here for almost a year and a half and they still hadn't ventured to the pacific northwest. They are not a huge fan of planes and 3 hours on one is not exactly their idea of a good time. But, much to my delight (and Tim's with the exception of the whole back ordeal that was timed right before they got out here), they made the trek.

During their stay, we saw more of Seattle than I have ever seen in the two years that I have been visiting/living up here. It's a pretty cool city! I mean, I have gone sight seeing and stuff but nothing like the sight seeing that my mom is capable of. Much of that is due to the fact that she bought these "Go Seattle" cards that you pay upfront for... it's either a 3 or 5 day card to do all of these touristy activities in the city and surrounding areas. It was awesome. We hit all of the places I have seen- pike place market, space needle, etc. but we also saw many things I've never been to- the SAM, music museum, other museums, boat trips, etc. Since I live here most of my activities revolve around the beaches in the summer and mountains in the winter- and of course all of the stomping grounds/restaurants that I love. I never really explored museums or anything of the sort! It was awesome and even more awesome that my parents paid for us to do it all!

One of the BEST DISCOVERIES EVER during their visit was this:

I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING YOU THIS PLACE WAS AMAZING. They make crumpets, obviously. I have never heard of these things. It is basically kind of like a biscuit/pancake type thing that they put cream cheese and organic home made jam on. And they toast it, but it's not really like toast. I am not doing it justice. Anyone that comes to Seattle and who is down by pike place market should try crumpets. They also have a HUGE selection of teas... it's like a teahouse versus the million starbucks that are around here, including the original starbucks that is just around the corner from the crumpet shop. I am not a coffee drinker but drink more tea than anyone would imagine so this was just the place for me. I believe I had their house tea which was an oolong/green tea mix. SO YUMMY. The day my parents left, Tim and I went back. And went again a week later when we had to run an errand in Seattle. It's that good.

Luckily when my parents were out here the weather wasn't horrible. Wasn't too great either, especially for August. If any month is really predictable up here, August would be it. Who am I kidding though? No month is predictable. My parents had a couple of beautiful 80 degree days but on a day when we were golfing it POURED. We thought it would hold off but then on the fairway of hole #11, it starting dumping literally harder than I've ever seen it rain here. But we got in a fair amount of golf so that was ok.

All in all, it was a great trip. They are coming back out for a few days in November and we will make the trip back to Kansas City around Christmas. Yay!

A pain in the back

Tim has grown up riding BMX bikes and rode them professionally for several years of his life. He still rides them when he can but doesn't ride as much as he used to, obviously, since he doesn't do it for a living. A few weeks ago on a sunny afternoon, he decided to get out of the house to ride for a bit. Afterwards, I get a text from him saying that his back was sore and he can barely walk. We both just figured he'd pulled a muscle and it would be fine in a couple of days. He went to his mom the day after for some body work to try to get the muscles to relax a bit and it definitely helped.

Fast forward two days later: we are at lying at the beach and all of a sudden I glance over and Tim is in excruciating pain. I ask him if he needs to leave and he says, yes definitely. He cannot move. He cannot walk. The lifeguard comes over to ask if we need help or to call 911. It looked bad. I let him lean on me and led him a little ways away from the beach to a spot where I can pick him up. We get him in the car and it seems like an isolated moment that was just weird.

We get home and have some snacks. He is sitting on the couch and all of a sudden just starts screaming in pain. He cannot move and is almost moved to tears by how bad it hurts. We try to get him up to walk and he cannot move. He walks 5 feet leaning on me and then collapses on the floor onto his back, in tears, where he lays for the next three hours because he simply can't move. We are both soaked from him crying. It is bad.

Meanwhile, I am researching back problems, calling doctors, etc. I decide that he needs to get to the emergency room stat. The only question is how? He can't move. What the hell are we supposed to do?

Three hours later, somehow, someway, we are able to get him to the ER. Mainly with the aid of a back brace and me using every once of me to hold him up and support his back. He is relatively ok during the time we were at the ER- especially compared to the rest of the day. The ER doctor is -sorry, mom- a complete asshole. He gives no consideration to the fact that we are not there because we want painkillers. Tim appears to not be dying so he says, "Yeah, back pain just sucks. Here's a prescription for pain medicine."

We go to Walgreens to get it filled. All of a sudden he is hit again with unbelievable excruciating pain. For the next 4 and 1/2 hours, he cannot get out of the car. We tried 800+ mg of Ibuprofen, Percocet (that the doctor had prescribed), muscle relaxers, ice packs, heat packs. He ate in the car and just stayed there. We tried baby steps. It did not work.

Finally around 10pm, his parents came over and with the help of his dad and some ice we were able to get him upstairs in to bed. For the next three days, he would require constant care- he was essentially flat on his back. He literally could not move. He will hate me for saying this but he was peeing into bags! I was giving him sponge baths and when the weekend was over, I made him lunches and left him pee bags to pee in if he had to. It. was. horrible. For both of us, obviously... more him than me! At least I was not in pain but it is hard to watch someone in that much pain.

We finally decided that he was only getting worse. We decided to try to get him to a chiropractor. Getting him out of the house and up off the floor was the only issue. His dad came over to help him. We find out that he has essentially dislocated his back. HOLY. SHIT.

The next two weeks would consist of daily trips to the chiropractor to get him to the point where he can actually be able to be mobile again. At least after just a couple of trips to the chiro, he was at least able to get up to go to the bathroom.

My parents came into town when he was just starting to be mobile. He was out of commission for their first couple of days. On the third day, he was able to come with us. Unfortunately, his body was so used to being flat on the floor that it kind of freaked out. When we were just about to start a tour in downtown Seattle he passed out on the bathroom floor. We rushed him back to the chiropractor, and luckily everything was ok.

Needless to say, the whole experience has been a huge learning lesson... don't take anything for granted- your loved ones, your health, your life. Everything can be a lot worse (and I know that even this is not the worst that it could get!) but times that are challenging and hard makes you really appreciate what you have in your life. Luckily today I can say that even though Tim is still seeing the chiropractor some and still having a bit of back pain, he is on the road to recovery and doing much, much better.

Quote of the day

"Today she decided to be suitably ambiguous, so you can think whatever you like about her (Amount of time scheduled for the opinions of others= zero)."

-Brian Andreas, StoryPeople.

Summer fun and other ramblings...

It has been noted by several people that I have not updated this blog for a while. Um, yeah. Sorry about that. I have no good excuses other than I've just been trying to figure out how the hell time goes so fast!

Here's a recap since July of the major events (to be followed by pictures, as soon as possible):

-July 4th was spent in a rather mellow way... just a nice barbecue with T's family. We had every intention to go see fireworks that night but by the time we left the family party, it was already 10:30 and fireworks started at 10:30.

-Mid July- Rich and Stacie's housewarming party. http://www.stacie-rich.blogspot.com/. They had their housewarming party almost a year to the day when they will be getting married next year. They are such a cute couple. I got to know them when I first started at my job up here... they were both seniors as well at the time (and they had met at work!) Within a couple of months, they had both left for private accounting controller jobs and I was the lone senior. Shortly after they got engaged. They are a ton of fun to be around and it was such a good day to hang with them and other friends, see their new house, and even play flip cup. Um, that took me back to the day.

-Late July- work golf day. Good times. I'm on the event committee and we were in charge of coming up with a theme for the day. We picked most ugly golf outfit- basically meaning come mismatched. I hope that someone has a picture of me that day. I looked fabulous. Black flowery shorts, pink striped golf polo, blue and white knee high soccer socks, red shoes, pigtails, and a purple flowery visor. Classy. I was on a team with my friend Rhett and we had a good time playing, looking ridiculous and drinking mimosas at 8am. I actually played really well. Afterwards, we all headed out to the beach. The company gives us the afternoon off so why not seize the opportunity to lay on the beach and play beach volleyball?

-First week of August- SeaFair in Seattle kicked off on Friday night by a gathering at Rhett's house. Fun times. It took me a year to actually figure out what SeaFair means. I'm still a little sketchy other than it means that everyone spends the entire weekend on boats on Lake Washington. I think there are boat races or something. Also on SeaFair weekend, we hung out with the little girls all day on Sunday. I think I've mentioned before that they are 5, 3, and 1. They are very cute. And also good birth control.

-Last weekend we went to our friends Steve and Krystal's wedding. I work with Steve and have hung out with him and Krystal on numerous occasions. It was a pretty small wedding and usually if you plan a Washington wedding in August, you are almost guaranteed sunshine and warmth. Um, it rained Saturday. For seriously the first time since June! But their unprotected ceremony was rain free. As soon as we moved to the reception, it started pouring. Luckily, that was covered. Interestingly enough, right as Krystal was walking down the isle, a bird pooped on me. Lovely. The row of us was trying not to absolutely die but it was so huge and disgusting and strangely hilarious. I have bad luck with being pooped on by birds. It's actually very odd.

I think those are the major events that have happened in the past month or so. More blogging to come (and pictures!)

Happy Fourth of July!

Hope everyone out there has a wonderful day with family and friends.

Mailbox Peak-June 22, 2008

Crazy, insane hike. There really are no words.

After hiking on a trail blazed by mountain men (meaning lots of stepping over tree roots, climbing rocks, trying to make sure you were going the right way), you get to the tree line and see this. Straight up- your pick, snow or boulder field. I picked snow, Tim picked rocks. The snow was actually fun and for a second I regained some energy at this point because I thought we were almost done. Quite the contrary, after this there was about another mile of climbing the to the peak.

We finally made it! The guy next to me is hiking Rainer in a couple of weeks. He asked if that's what we were training for too (or if we were just trying to kick our own asses). In the mailbox, people leave whatever memento they feel like and there is a log to write down your name and date. Not sure who actually decided to put a mailbox on top of a peak, but it works.

Resting against the mailbox, snow in the background. I just can't get over the fact that there was snow. In June. At the end of June. Crazy.

What we were looking down on...

The nice lady training for Mt Adams took our picture together.



Absolutely astounding view. On the way down the sun totally broke through the clouds.

Gorgeous. Would do it again in a heartbeat even considering the next day I was thinking cookie sheets as aids to get down stairs.

Mount Si-June 14, 2008

This was a round trip 8 mile hike to the top of a peak close by us- in North Bend (which is only about 30 minutes away). It was a great day hike- the path was well marked and it was not too challenging and the view was fantastic!




Looking over the side of the mountain.

I had to put the above picture of Tim in because I spent 10 freaking minutes trying to get it perfect. We have identical frames that he wanted to put pictures of us in (me in one, him in another) on top of Mt Si. He took an identical picture of me first so then I had to try to match it. I am not a very patient person so that was not a fun 10 minutes.

Pretty waterfall close to the base.

Bellingham, WA

Tim and I took a trip up to Bellingham (which is about 30 minutes south of the Canadian border, 1.5 hours north of here) right after we got Duncan, the FJ back in February. We wanted to take the FJ for its first cruise so we decided to explore up there since I had never been there. It was a pretty cold day but Bellingham was a pretty cool town. It's pretty like here but it has a much more small, college town vibe.




We look very northwestern here. Which is I guess what we are... but Tim even has a flannel jacket on- that's rustic! Now I need one I guess to really fit in..

Stunning views of the ocean.

Um, ok, so the purple star fish was a little weird to me.

I think this picture is from right around the same time period but on a different hike called Edgewick just east of here... it was FREEZING that day but we wanted to get outside so we did Edgewick which is easy but also has a huge waterfall so it makes you forget you are actually freezing to death.

Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis

Ugh.

This is the phrase of the day for me that FINALLY explains my stupid eyes for the past two months.

So, at the end of busy season, I went to the eye doctor up here since I needed new contacts and hadn't been since 2005 in Phoenix. I got new contacts, an eye exam, and was on my way. I think I may have posted about my experience with eye dialation but other than that, no issues. The dude changed the type of contacts I had but they seemed fine so no big deal.

A few weeks later, I arrived in Phoenix after experiencing dry eyes for a couple of weeks. That night my right eye was insanely dry and I spent the better part of the night attempting (and failing) not to itch it. I woke up with it swollen shut and looking like someone had implanted a golf ball into my eye socket. At 8am the first morning I was in Phoenix, the day I was supposed to see all of my friends, I landed myself right into urgent care. I got a few drops of stuff that made the swelling go down and thought I was good to go.

Three weeks later, my eye is still swollen but you can't really tell unless you're two inches from my face. It's gooping yellowy crap which is very unusual for me and I can't really keep my contacts in because they get dry and my eyes start to itch.

I go to the eye doctor- again- explaining the whole Phoenix debacle, what eyedrops I had been using from them, etc. I say that maybe I have dry eyes or allergies- I'm not sure. Then...

He. is. a. total. asshole.

He gives me some sort of retarded attitude telling me that "it is allergy season here" and "since both eyes itch, it's definitely allergies." The whole time he's talking to me like I'm a total idiot or hypochondriac and shouldn't be there wasting his time. This is my problem with arrogant pricks like him- ESPECIALLY when I am paying for his services. I mean, seriously, dude, what the hell?!?! Oh and then the best part at the end of my visit, he doesn't even thank me, he just leaves me sitting in the exam room and I figure out I'm done when he walks in with another patient. Nice, now it's my turn to thank him for wasting MY time.

So I leave feeling pretty pissed and like I'm stupid because apparently "it's just allergies" but I have another dose of some eye drops that should help, assuming I do just have allergies. I start using these eyedrops and they seem to help but I'm still getting the gooping and itching. I start taking over the counter allergy medicine thinking that HAS to be what's going on.

Finally, this past week, I have had enough. There is no crease in my right eye because it's so swollen and I just can't believe that it's allergies anymore. I've NEVER had allergies like this. So I make an appointment with a new eye doctor. SHE. IS. THE. NICEST. LADY. EVER.

Thank god.

But apparently, I have this giant papillary conjunctivitis which guess what that means?! I am allergic, all right. To what, you ask? TO MY NEW CONTACTS! UGGGGGGH! That stupid idiot switched the type of contacts I use because he claimed they were better (according to this new amazing lady, they are actually a cheaper kind and not better at all). So these new cheap contacts he claimed were better are made of materials that apparently my eyes absolutely despise. She said she has never seen a worse case of this in terms of inflammation of my eyelids, specifically my right eye. Lovely. And she didn't even see any of the goop! Gross! So now, I have to start wearing my glasses for a month (after getting that prescription filled since I haven't since, um, college) and then start aggressive treatments to treat the inflammation and THEN once that has gone away I get to wear new contacts... which are actually going to be the old type of contacts I wore. What. a. pain.

She said it would most likely be a long road. It is totally annoying but I am just glad nothing is really wrong. I actually called her as a final resort because I got freaked out from looking at the internet and reading everywhere that I was going blind. That and I was sick of dealing with swelling goopiness. At least now I know that I am going to be ok even if I do go insane from having to wear glasses for a month...or more.

Thunder?

I just heard thunder here. THREE times. I think that is the first three thunders I've heard in about 5 years. SO. AWESOME.