'Let's hope there's not a gate-opening challenge on the Amazing Race'

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted.  And I apologize.  I have been quite busy, which is no excuse.  I acquired a "mammoth" kidney infection (quoted from the nurse practitioner that saw me) a few days after my birthday.  It was terrible.  I don't recommend getting them.  But my last fever was 2 weeks ago.  I've also been working a lot.  My casual job in Savannah in the intensive care nursery has been going well, and I have been enjoying it a lot.  That also means I have been working 4-5 nights per week.  Tiring, but worth it.

The past few days have been spent with great friends that I haven't seen in many many months. My college roommates have been planning to spend a weekend together for a long time.  The reunion was so wonderful!

We spent some time on the beach, had time to read, went out to eat, laid by the pool, played a pretty heated game of Phase 10, and just enjoyed each others' company immensely.  I was the palest person there.  And I don't think that has ever happened to me before.  Kathryn is very anti-getting-skin-cancer, so usually I'm at least more tan than her.  Not this time.  It was a new experience.  In an attempt to darken my skin, I got sunburned on my kneecaps and in a line down my shins.  It was pretty attractive.  God blessed us with awesome weather for a beach day yesterday, complete with no run-ins with the very aggressive seagulls.

Today, the guys met us for lunch and everyone was able to be together for a while!  I think we need to make this a tradition.  Possibly bi-annually.  I love all these individuals very much, and I am so thankful to have them in my life.

We also spotted a little tiny lizard at the pool this morning.  It was probably about an inch long, and it was incredibly adorable.

I'll try to be more frequent with my posts.  Thanks for being so patient and forgiving!

Happy Birthday to us!

So, Hunter's and my birthdays are 5 days apart.  (That's an odd sentence, and I apologize if it's worded incorrectly...)  Hunter's birthday is on June 28th, and mine is today!  I LOVE birthdays!  It comes from the fact that they were kind of a big deal in our house growing up.  The dining room would be all decked out and birthdays were just a lot of fun!  In the past, Hunter and I have just kind of had to celebrate our birthdays at the same time since we didn't get to see each other very often.  This year has been especially fun because I could make his birthday more about him and special.  I blew up balloons, decorated the table, and I got a dozen cupcakes from the same little bakery that my patient gave me cupcakes from last month or so on Hunter's birthday!  When he walked in and saw them, he said, "Man!  I was gonna get you cupcakes from the same place!"  Great minds think alike.

I knew he loved the Oreo cupcakes, so I got several of those.  They are DElicious.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to take the lid off of the cupcake container to take the picture.

I want to publicly wish my AMAZING husband a happy birthday!  He is so good to me and there is no other reason why he would be so awesome except that Christ's love just flows through him and pours out all over me!  I could not be more thankful for the relationship we have!

The birthday kids.  P.S. this is the day it was 108 degrees in Columbia.  And apparently the restaurant's A/C gave out after it got to be around 105.  So forgive the shine.  FML.

We all met in Columbia went out to dinner for both of our birthdays with Hunter's family and my sister.  It was so nice to see everyone!  I miss my family when we're not together!  It was awesome getting to spend some time with Anna, and we basically talked the whole time!

My wonderful family-in-law!  God has also blessed me richly with them!

And last but certainly not least, my fantastic little sister, who makes me look unreasonably pasty.  Disclaimer, she had spent the whole day on the lake.  And is much more tan than me in general.  Plus I am kinda pasty.

My dad and Robin weren't able to make it for very good reasons, but they sent us some great gifts that we absolutely love!  They got us a purple little canvas-y basket with "The Crumleys" written in orange on it, and a Clemson Tervis tumbler!  I do love a good Tervis!

So tonight, I got sent home from work early because once everything calmed down, we were overstaffed.  Hence, why I'm blogging at 3 a.m.  I texted Hunter that I was leaving, and my sweet man was waiting at the door and threw balloons up in the air to greet me because he knows how much I love birthdays!  I freakin love that kid.  And he's been giving me a present a day.  I don't know what I did to deserve him.

We are blessed beyond measure!  Thanks for all the birthday love!

Father's Day and birthday wish!

Happy late Father's Day to my dad, Craig Gagnon!  

My dad is a lot of things.  He is hilarious, very outgoing, dedicated, hard-working, and one of the most intelligent men I know.  I swear, if Anna and I were studying something and we asked Craig about it, we'd get the entire history of the subject.  If we were studying osmosis, we'd know the root of the word, who discovered it, what the process was, like 12 examples of how it happens, and a full history of hyper/hypo/isotonic solutions.  He is brilliant.  I remember one time one of us asked him about something bug-related, and he started talking about this random moth that he remembers.  Mom asked, "How on earth do you remember that?"  Dad replied, "I remember a picture of it in our 4th or 5th grade science book.  Don't you?"  Mom said, "Um, no..."  Dad thought it was the most normal thing to remember pictures from an elementary school textbook.

He coached all my t-ball and softball teams, he played with us for countless hours on the floor when we were young, and was such a support when Mama died.  After Mama died, Dad and I would take walks downtown, and it was so neat getting to know him as a person rather than just a dad.  He is a very interesting man.  He has been through a lot in his life and has come out strong.  I strongly believe that some of my friends in middle school or high school would come over to my house just to hang out with Dad.

Some famous Craig phrases in our family include:
- "You can't argue with illogic." - Craig

- "It could be worse, we could be listening to talk radio..." - Anna about Craig's love of talk radio, especially on long car rides.

- "Yeah yeah, freakin' weekend gonna have me some fun, etc. etc." - Craig

I used to love sitting in the same room with him as he played snippets of all these random songs.  A lot of my taste in music came from my parents.  From Mom, I get my love of early 70's music, and from Dad, I get basically everything else.  He went through a Klezmer music phase, and I'm not sure if the general public knows what that is, but Craig does, and he loved it.

I am so thankful for my dad, and I love him very much!  And so we're going to pretend today is Father's day and I'm not a week and a day late.

On another note, I have been very busy this past week.  I am starting a casual position in the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery in Savannah, GA.  I am so excited to be getting back to my sweet preemie/sick babies, even if it is going to be just two days a month!  I am not leaving my current hospital (I love my coworkers too much), but it will be nice to keep my skills up.  I had hospital orientation this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all day, and then I worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night.  So I hope that makes up for the fact that I've been negligent with my posts.

Yesterday was also my grandpa's birthday!  He is 86 years old, if I'm not mistaken.  I can only hope to make it to that age.  So happy late birthday, Pop!  I hope it was a wonderful day!

This is my cousin Kaylin, Pop, me, and Anna in April of 2008 at the Dillard House in Georgia.  If you want some great family style cooking, this is the place to be.  P.S. I'm lovin the puffy hair, Ann.

Happy Monday, all!

Not the creepy kind of crustache

I'd just like to start by saying that this guy makes my life awesome.

God really knew what he was doing when he got Julie and Will to hook us up almost 6 years ago.

So I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday, the two left ones pulled and the two right ones cut out.  I was nerrrrrvous that I was gonna be able to hear things and know what was going on.  Friday morning when we got to the oral surgeon's office, they got me settled and started the IV.  I thought this was pretty impressive considering I felt majorly dehydrated because I hadn't eaten or drank anything since before midnight, and that is very unlike me.  About 15 seconds later, I started getting drowsy and said, "Oh, I'm starting to feel it...", and I woke up what seemed like 2 minutes later (and was actually more like 45 minutes later) to the assistant telling me that it was over.  I couldn't lift my head, I could barely lift my arms, and all I wanted to do was cry.  The nurse assured me that it was normal, that our female hormones make us either want to laugh or cry.  And lucky me, mine had chosen the waterworks.  I didn't actually cry, but I was on the verge, especially trying to walk out to the car where Hunter was patiently waiting to go get my meds and our veggies from the CSA.  I felt like craaaaaaap on the car ride home.  But once we got home, I was pretty much alright.  


My face swelled up nice and big though.  Ice packs were my best friend on the right side of my face.  (Sorry, no pics.  I didn't want my chipmunkiness forever documented.)  So as I bit down on gauze for several hours and kept ice to my face, I basically wrote a lot of notes and sent a lot of texts to Hunter so I wouldn't be tempted to talk and irritate my gums.  I started feeling a little crappy several hours later, and Hunter felt really bad for me.  When he asked me if he could give me an early birthday gift to help me feel better, I wrote, "Sure!"  

My amazing husband gave me this:

That's right!  It's a "Crustache" - a mustache sandwich cutter!!  When I think of crustache, I think of like a creepy little crusty, sparse mustache that creepy people have.  But this kind is WAY better.  I don't know what has spurred my obsession with mustaches lately, but they tickle me to no end.  I scribbled a big "THANK YOU, HONEY!  I LOVE IT!" and we immediately started goofing off with my new gift.  I made him pick his favorite mustache and let me take a photo.  Hence the above photo that just makes me smile.  Even though it hurt to smile for a few days.


Hunter took very good care of me.  I felt worse the two days after surgery than I did the day of, and today I'm feeling better than I have the past 2 days.  Saturday night, my cheek was on FIRE, like I'm talking serious scorcher.  I iced that puppy like it was going out of style.  I'm still a little swollen and pretty bruised on the right side, but I'm keeping heat on it now and keeping up with my Motrin to keep the swelling down.  And I have a gnarly bruise on my arm from the IV.  All in all, it was a good experience but I hope I don't have to go through it again.


On a brighter note, our CSA boxes have gotten better for us lately!  We're almost able to use everything we get now!  We got a big juicy cantaloupe on Friday.  It's reeeeeally good (and soft, so I'm actually able to eat it).  Terri would have loved it, and I'm sure if Craig lived closer, he would love to enjoy some with me!

It's okay to be jealous.  ;)  Of my cantaloupe AND my Crustache!!

The best part about work...

...is this.

Let's be serious, if you don't love cupcakes, you're a freak.  But I appreciate you, because that means more for me.

One of my patients last night got a gift of a dozen cupcakes yesterday, and she still had 10 left over by the time I left this morning.  I convinced her to keep one for herself, and I gave away another 5 to coworkers.  The other 4 came home with meeeee!  They're from a local bakery that I've been wanting to try, so this was a perfect opportunity.  I had about 1/4 of the one in the foreground last night at work.  It was a banana cupcake with a peanut butter icing with banana chips on top.  OMG.  It was delicious.  My patient's sister said that the Oreo one on the right was her favorite.  I think they're all gonna be spectacular.

That's not my really the best part about work.  There are a lot of things I love about work.  I love my co-workers, I love seeing patients feel better, and I love seeing a baby bond with their new family.  But leftover goodies are always nice and appreciated!  I told my patient that she was going to make my husband one happy man, and she told me to tell him that I had made her one happy patient!  It was so nice and very much appreciated!

I told Hunter that if he comes home and all of the cupcakes are ripped apart, it's because I sampled them all.

I'm assuming that I can eat a cupcake today because I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow and will most likely not be able to eat solid foods for 24-48 hours after surgery.  So indulgence today, liquids tomorrow.  Get excited.

Now for an update on my plants.  We got a peace lily from our new chiropractor and I was told that they were basically indestructible.  So in my mind I'm thinking, "I wonder how long it's gonna take me to kill this thing."  Answer: 1 week and 2 days.

My poor lily's petals are all brown and crumbly.  So go me.  (She's just on the back porch for a while to try to get some better sunlight to perk her up.  She's been hanging out on the dining room table.)

And my dang lantana flowers keep falling off and growing back, falling off and growing back.  But I've pretty much gotten used to that happening.  I do very much enjoy all the plants/flowers, though.  I feel like they make our little apartment so much more homey.

My wisdom teeth appointment is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., so say a prayer for me!  (And for Hunter, as I'm not sure how well I'm going to handle this and he has to be my primary caregiver.  Oh, how I love that guy!)  Any tips/suggestions on how to make this experience easier would be very much appreciated!

Mama's 4th Heavenday

My mama was one of the most beautiful and special people I have ever known.  She was thoughtful, compassionate, funny, smart, and most of all she was loving.  She loved unconditionally.  She loved the Lord, she loved her babies she cared for in the NICU, she loved flowers and pictures, she loved her friends, but most of all she loved her family.  We never for one second ever doubted that Teressa Louise Hardee Gagnon loved us with all her heart.  She would always rather buy us clothes and toys than buy anything for herself.  As we got older, we practically had to make her go buy herself things.  She went to every sporting event we had (whenever she wasn't working to provide for us all these things that she loved giving us), she attended every church performance, and chaperoned countless school field trips.  She read unending bedtime stories and snuggled with us for hours.  When I was a little girl, I used to miss her so bad when she would go to work at night that she recorded herself reading a book on a cassette tape and gave it to us to play before bed.  She loved being in our business, which could get a little overwhelming, but looking back, it was just because she loved being involved in our lives and talking about everything with us.  When her mom was sick, she drove to Georgia at least 50 times, even if she only had 1 or 2 days to spend with her first family.  She was an amazing woman and such a great role model for my sister and me.

Terri was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on March 25, 2008.  4 years ago today she went to be with Jesus.  Those 2 months and 4 days held many a prayer session, fluid administrations, a prom, a Relay for Life where Terri had her own team, a beach trip, a wonderful Mother's Day, and even a day that my dad drug out the old recliner and put up the umbrella on the back deck to let her get some sunlight to try to get her bilirubin level down so she could have more than 1 chemotherapy treatment.  

Craig (my dad) fixing up the umbrella for the day on the deck.  And apparently Anna was laying out.  I didn't initially remember that until I just found this picture.

There are so many times that I wish I could call my mom and talk about my life.  She would always listen to my successes, my problems, and my little day-to-day questions.  There are things that she won't get to do on this earth that I know she was so looking forward to doing, like seeing Anna and me graduate and get married, and being a grandmother (at which she would have been amazing!).  But my sadness for myself and my family is assuaged by the fact that we will get to see her again someday.  It might seem like such a long time coming, but once we get there, we'll have all eternity to be together and praise the God who created it that way.  So we won't have to be separated from Him or from our heavenly family ever.

We are so very thankful to all of you who knew Mama and who showed us such support and love throughout that hardship in our lives.  The food that you brought, prayers that you offered, and visits and laughter you provided are priceless.  Just thought I'd say thank you again.

So happy Heavenday, Mama!  I miss you so much but am so excited to see you again someday!

Vacation

On Saturday, we got back from spending a glorious week at Garden City Beach with Hunter's family.  It was soooooo wonderful to get a break from the real world for a while.  We shopped, hung out on the beach, the guys (and Stephanie) went fishing, we played dominoes almost every night, and had a great time in general.  I also got a chance to bond with my camera, Posh.  Again, I still have a lot to learn, but I LOVE the pictures she takes.  I took 405 pictures.  Half of them were pretty unnecessary.  Although I did get to have a mini photo shoot with Stephanie and Cody on the beach, and it was a lot of fun.  I won't post any of the pictures because I don't know what Stephanie has in store for them, but we got some reeeeally good ones!  Here are just a few of my favorites from the trip or ones that tell a story.

Hunter's family likes to stay at a house on the channel and across the street from the beach.  This is the view of the sunset from the back porch of the house.  It was absolutely beautiful to watch every evening.  It just reminds me how big God is and how small we are, but how he creates such beauty and wonder for us to enjoy because he loves us so.

I was borderline paparazzi-ing it up on the beach when Hunter and Steve came down with us one day, so they decided to pretend like they were going to moon me.

Bocce ball is a favorite beach past time for us, and here's Hunter in action!  He was starting to get sunburned, so his shirt had to be replaced.  As long as we were close to the ocean, the breeze kept us cool, but in my opinion, bocce ball is more fun when it is played in the softer sand.  On the hard sand, the balls just roll and roll and roll.  No bueno.  Steve beat us all pretty badly.

Hunter and I on the dock before we went shopping at Broadway at the Beach.

But now it's back to the real world.  Work, bills, not spending frivolously, etc etc.  We're so thankful that we have such a wonderful family and that God blesses us so much that we can take trips like this!