Week 3 of Insanity=Complete

Whew! Just the thought of finishing Week 3 of Insanity is exhausting! It has been a tough ride, but it's one I'm sure I will never forget.  I also KNOW it will change my life... for the better!  I've been itching at looking at results from when I started.  I know it takes a while to see results and I've also been told the second part of Insanity is where you will see most of the results.  But, I decided to go ahead and snap some pictures at Day 22 (not even half-way into the program-- It's a 60 day program).

So, here are my results:

 

 

I will keep updating you along my journey and hope to have a YouTube of an Insanity workout that I'm doing... I haven't been that brave yet! ;)

 

And, stay tuned for after pics around August!

Introducing... Vanilla Shakeology!

I am SO SO excited to announce that Beachbody officially has Vanilla Shakeology available NOW!

It took nearly 2 years for them to come up with the right flavors that would not compromise the nutrition.

It was introduced at Summit (a HUGE conference for the Coaches) last week and I've heard amazing things about it!  Some even say it tastes like cake batter.  Can you say YUMMY?!

Here's a little video talking about how they came up with the Vanilla Flavor:



Also, this is something I JUST saw and I am SO EXCITED about- the different Vanilla Shakeo Recipes.  I've already fallen in love with MANY of these and cannot wait to give them all a try.  I LOVE my chocolate Shakeo BUT I am a vanilla girl ALL THE WAY (give me vanilla ice cream over chocolate ANY DAY!)

If you are interested in getting Vanilla Shakeology, click here!

A review will come as soon as I get the Vanilla Shakeo in! :)

August already??

Is it really already August?  Where in the world has summer gone?  Although summer flew by, I am so ready for Fall.  Cooler temperatures, pumpkins, leggings, boots, scarves, FOOTBALL!  Those are just a few of my favorite things about fall ;)

I'll try to do a brief update on my summer and make it {somewhat} short and sweet.

First off, most of my summer involved working... and working... and more working...

I did get to enjoy a short weekend getaway to Charleston with my best friend and another friend of mine.  We got to enjoy Isle of Palms for a couple of days and got to sight see and shop in Charleston.  It was the perfect little vacation and it's moments like this that I will remember forever.

My favorite fountain in the whole world!

Down at the Battery in Charleston, SC

At a Rooftop Bar in Charleston-- very neat place!

Next on my summer festivities was my birthday party! My parents were down in SC for the WHOLE summer!! I loved having them here and hope they will be back soon!  My dad fixed frogmore stew- one of my favorites!  My Aunt Lisa and cousin Kristen and her boyfriend came down from NC to celebrate with me!  I love them very much and I was glad they were able to come.  Also, my boyfriend was in town so he was able to come as well as my two very best friends, Kasey and Ashley.  I had a WONDERFUL night and was reminded how blessed I am to have the life I do.  I have the BEST friends and family in the world.

Blowing out my candles.  I loved my sprinkle cake that my sister made!

Josh, me, Kasey, Ashley

The Saturday before my party- My parents, me, and Kasey went to Elberton (about an hour away from our house) to watch the Swingin' Medallions play a show.  My parents had never seen them and really wanted to see Josh in action before they left to head home to Kansas.  Despite a downpour and thunderstorm on the way to Elberton, the weather cleared up and we had a great time!

Kasey and me before the show

Me and Josh :)

To celebrate my actual Birthday, which was on a Sunday, I went to Greenville to watch a Greenville Drive baseball game with Josh, Kasey, Matt, and Kasey's friend Jeff.  We had a ball at the game and then afterwards went Downtown to a local Sushi place and then went to a little bar and played some pool and darts! I do believe this was one of my best birthdays, ever.





At the Drive game

Things slowed down a lot after my Birthday.  My parents are back in Kansas and I've continued to work.  I am going to take off some time from work tomorrow to help my sister get her classroom organized for the start of school.  I'll try to write another post if anything else exciting happens in my life.  ;)



My Addisonian Baby

Whew! What a busy past couple of weeks and not a good busy either!  Things are finally starting to calm down and get back to normal... at least as normal as can be.

I don't want to bore you with a million details because, believe me, I could.  But, I do want to update you on how things happened and how they are going right now.

About 3 weeks ago, Stella got sick.  It only took a few more days for her to go from sick, to deathly ill.  She vomited a couple of times (once a day at night) for 2 nights in a row.  I knew something was wrong so I made an appointment for her to visit the Vet.  We left the Vet thinking she had a bacterial infection in her intestine, so she was put on meds.  This was when she was sick.  It took a day from going to the Vet for her to get deathly ill.  She stopped eating.  All during this time, she was so weak she could barely walk and literally laid in the same spot 24/7.  Of course I had her bundle up the entire time. :-)

These are all from when she was very sick.  See her all bundled up and then she slept 24/7

Of course, she stopped eating on a Saturday morning.  I called the Vet first thing Monday morning and took her in that morning at 11:30.  She was immediately "hospitalized" due to the fact that she was SO dehydrated and weak.  They wanted to run blood work and get fluids in her ASAP.  Since the Vet does not have people there 24/7 I was able to bring her home that night and I took her back to the Vet Tuesday morning.

At this point, I didn't know what was wrong.  I thought that once she had fluids in her that she would be OK.  Little did I know, this was not the case.

I went to get braces on (terrible, I know) Tuesday morning after I took Stella back to the Hospital.  It wasn't until I finished getting them on, walking out the door when I realized something was terribly wrong.  Stella's Vet called and left me a message to call her back.  When I did, I was informed Stella's health was declining very fast and that her Sodium levels were continuously dropping and that the Vet (Dr. McNinch) thought she had Addison's Disease.  I was told that if I did not take her to a specialist that she might not make it.  I drove my hour back to Greenwood from the Upstate to pick up my baby and take her BACK to the Upstate to the Specialist. 

I freaked out this whole morning, I couldn't even remember the name of what Dr. McNinch said she probably had, and I'm thankful for my mother who helped get everything straightened out for me.  All I knew at that moment was I needed to take Stella as soon as possible to get help.  I literally thought she was doing to die on the way to Greenville.  She was as pitiful as I've ever seen anyone.

Okay, I said I wouldn't bore you with details, but I am.  Needless to say, she was immediately hospitalized at Upstate Veterinary Specialists (and this was a REAL animal hospital- staff there 24/7).  She was officially diagnosed with Addison's Disease and after 5 long nights away from home, she was finally discharged from the Hospital.   

This was the first time I got to see her after being Hospitalized.  She was very tired and completely out of it.

This was the day before she was discharged.  Finally starting to act like herself.

This photo was taken right after she was discharged.  We were coming home!!

In case you were wondering about Addison's Disease, I will give you a little overview: Basically, Stella's adrenal glands are not working.  When she gets put in stressful situations, her body does not produce the steroids she needs.  Normal dogs and humans produce steroids when we are stressed, but her little body cannot. 

Addison's is not curable, but it is definitely treatable.  She is on medication daily, prednisolone and will be getting injections of Percorten about every 28 days.  She will be able to live a normal, healthy life and I'm happy to report she is back to her old self and doing very well.  Here are some pictures of her recently:

Let the mouth work begin....

The ortho work on my mouth has officially begun! Ready or not I am going to tackle this with all I've got for the next 2-3 years....

I find myself thinking about things A LOT! Things such as: why me? why do I have to get all of this stuff done?  Why can't I have a perfectly normal mouth, just like my brother and sister? THEN I begin to think about things such as: I can't wait to get braces- I know my mouth is going to look SO much better.  It's a struggle for me.  Should I be excited about this or should I let it get me down?  After all, who DOES want braces?  No one.  Even though I will have hard days, I am going to stay positive throughout this whole experience.  I mean how long is 3 years?  It will all be over before I know it and I KNOW i will have NO regrets!

I went in yesterday for my first official appointment.  I got 11 spacers (separators) put between my teeth.  One already feels loose, but it has not come out yet.  I am praying it won't :)  I go back in 2 weeks for the actual braces... freaking out! The spacers are opening up space between some of my teeth so that they will have room to place the brackets for braces.. at least that's what I think. 

I have read through blogs and such on the web, and most people said that spacers were the absolute worst part about braces.  So far, I have had some soreness and tenderness but nothing like I expected.  I woke up this morning with my mouth hurting, but I've been taking ibuprofen on a regular basis.  I have had so much work done on my mouth, the pain I feel is nothing out of the ordinary.  I'm hoping it doesn't get any worse now that I'm saying its been more than tolerable. ;)

I am excited about the braces part- I am ready to get them on and done and over with.  I will be getting ceramic braces on my upper teeth and regular metal ones on the bottom.  The ceramic will be clear with a silver wire.  I have read about how they stain easily, so I have already started thinking about which foods I should avoid.  Among those are mustard, RED VELVET anything (this is going to be hard, especially at Christmas since my sister makes the BEST red velvet cheesecake) and coffee (this will be hard smelling it everyday at work).  I also read that eating salads with braces is difficult because lettuce will get stuck in the braces.  I am SUPER bummed about this because I LOVE salads and salads are my favorite meals at many restaurants around town.

I want to update this blog throughout my whole orthodontic journey with updated pictures and such.  I plan on taking some pictures of my teeth soon with the spacers so we can see before and after pictures after my mouth-work is all done! Stay tuned for more updates :)

Updates on Stella

Between Stella and me, it seems as if one of us is either sick or having a surgery.  This time it was my princess, Stella.

This picture was taken this morning of Stella.  I woke her up from her sleep... oops :) Notice her arm in the picture. She had to have some of it shaved for the IV cath to be placed in her. 

As you saw from my last post, Stella had surgery this past Friday.  She had her teeth cleaned, was spayed, and had 2 growths removed.

We first thought she had one growth, but it was actually two small ones right beside each other.  They are both sent off for testing to see what they are.  Stella also had her teeth cleaned and had to get 3 teeth extracted.  My poor baby hardly has any teeth left.. it doesn't matter to me though, I love her just as much as I got her.. if not more.

The surgery went well, as I was told.  She is in the recovery process now, and I feel so helpless for her.  She has 3 incisions and my biggest challenge is to keep her from licking her stitches.  She is a HUGE licker and I just knew she would try to lick them, and she definitely has.

Knowing that she was a licker, I bought an Elizabethan collar (E-collar, Cone) for her.  She HATES it and I HATE it even more.  I put it on her and she immediately ran into a shoe of mine.. go figure.  She then proceeded to freak out.  She darted out of my room, hitting the wall with the cone.  I had to hold her down just to get the cone off.  I then put it on her last night in my bed, thinking that it would be better since she wouldn't run into anything.  I calmed her down and for about 10 minutes she was alright.  She wouldn't sleep, but finally stopped breathing heavy.  After about 10 minutes, she jumped up and tried to run off the bed, like a crazy dog.  Thankfully I stopped her just in time and have since tried putting it on her.  A stern "NO" from me usually gets her to stop licking but I am in a pickle as what to do when I have to go to work tomorrow and for the rest of the week.  The thought of putting her in the E-collar and having her have a panic attack while I am gone tears my nerves up.  I am actually scared she will hurt her incisions more trying to get the cone off than licking them.  When she has the cone on, she goes into panic mode only thinking about getting it off.

Other than her licking, I feel that she is getting better.  Her personality is starting to show again, and she has picked up her pace when walking her (short walks only). 

I am thankful for another day home with her, to monitor her and to love on her.  I have never been through anything like this before.  I've never been responsible for someone or something who has just undergone a major surgery.  I have learned many things from this but the biggest thing I learned was that I love Stella more than anyone else.  She is my world and knowing she is in pain kills me.  For now, we will be resting and I will be giving her all my sugars.  :)



Updates on my life

We'll its been a while since I've blogged and I'm not happy about that.  I have been SO busy lately, which is totally not like me!! I will talk about a lot of things that have been going on and update you a little on Stella and her whole situation.

The weekend after Valentines Day, my sister, Noah, and I went to North Carolina to see my beautiful cousin compete in her school's Scholarship Pageant.  I might be a little biased, but I do believe Kristen was the most beautiful girl in the pageant, and I felt like she did AMAZING, especially for being a newbie to the whole thing.  She did win Miss Congeniality out of the whole group of girls, and I could not be more happy for her.  I felt like the title of Miss Congeniality is better than anything else.  I always knew she was such a sweet, genuine, caring individual and it's amazing to know that everyone else feels the same way.  Although the trip to NC was about Kristen, I did enjoy spending time with a lot of my family and I always cherish the moments we get to spend together since I don't see them as often as I would like to and should.

Me, Caroline, and Ashley before the Pageant

Kristen and me after the pageant. Isn't she just beautiful?!

The next weekend after the NC trip, was the Abbeville Woman's Club Mardi Gras Dance.  I helped set up things that Saturday morning and my sister and I went to the dance that night.  They had a DJ, and finger foods and everything looked awesome! We had a blast!

I also had a Thirty-One Party the following Monday and had so.much.fun! The turnout was ah-mazing and I am still in awe over who all showed up.  I do have some of the best friends and co-workers in the world.  I often take these things for granted, but I am very blessed.  I decided to make a couple of homemade things for the party, so I ended up making Snickers Cupcakes (super yummy) and homemade pizza rolls!  I think they both turned out great and I have pinterest to thank for that.

Snickers Cupcakes... to.die.for

Now to the news about Stella!  She has been such a joy to my life and I am falling more in love with her everyday.. I think about her non-stop and I don't know if this is good or not :)

I took her to the vet this past Monday for bloodwork and x-rays.  While there, I found out that she has an ear infection.  I have a solution for her ears and a gel-like substance to put in her ears.. one goes in 1 time a day, and the other one 2 times.  This is torture for both her and me! She does not bite, but she wiggles and squirms and makes it near impossible to get anything in her ears.  I am constantly left wondering if I even put the stuff down far enough in her ears.  The last thing I want is for her infection to stay around or get worse! Prayers please.  On to the bloodwork and x-rays... Everything looked GREAT! Praise the Lord.  Her heart and kidneys are in great condition.  She has lost some weight, but the vet said that she is not underweight and is in good shape!  I am SO happy she is healthy, but this also means that she is ready to have surgery! AND she is having it THIS FRIDAY! She will be getting spayed, her growth removed, and her teeth cleaned all in ONE surgery!  I constantly think about it and I am so scared for her.  I had a chat with her and told her what was going to happen but she has NO idea.  Bless her heart.  I am trying to prepare myself for what to expect, but I have never been through this before so I have NO idea what to do! I pray that the surgery is successful and that I have the patience and ability to care for her after and that she has a speedy recovery... As my momma told me over the phone Monday night, you will do whatever you have to do because it's your baby.  Regardless of what's to come, I know this is true.  Stella is my heart and I will do everything to protect her, keep her safe, and to nurture her back to health as fast as possible!





This is the latest picture of Stella (right after she came home from the groomers)

:)