A New Mr. and Mrs.

Two posts in one month?? What sorcery is this? I know that's what you're thinking.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid for my great friend Erica. She has been such a staple in my life. We met at both of our first nursing jobs, she let me live with her for 3 months when I moved down to the Lowcountry before Hunter and I got married, she basically got me my job at when I moved to the Lowcountry as well, is such a freaking great baby nurse that I want to be like her when I grow up, and I just love being around her. She and her now husband met at our hospital in the cafeteria, and it's been so much fun just watching their relationship grow and to be a part of their wedding! 

I've been a bridesmaid something crazy like 11 times. So I pretty much have that gig on lock. But I was thinking about it the other day, and I think I have only lived in the area of the wedding in which I was a bridesmaid once, and I had only recently moved back to the upstate like a month before the wedding, so I'm not even sure if that counts. I felt like I had been a bad bridesmaid for Erica because I had only been able to come to like 2 of the pre-wedding events and hadn't been very much help otherwise (not that she can't handle herself, because she is incredibly organized and can completely fend for herself, but it's always nice to have help). So I'm hoping I made up for it this weekend.

Sadly, I don't have many pictures with the bride, because I didn't want to keep interrupting for picture time when she was either spending time with other people or just enjoying herself. There are pictures of the bachelorette party, but a lot of the time those pictures were followed by, "That better not end up on the Crumley Chronicles!"

Lauren, Sami, Ian, and Rosa Parks. ;)

Some of the girls with our bridesmaids gifts! P.S. Erica - you did WAY too much for us, but I loved all the gifts and everything fits and is beautiful!

The photog wasn't arriving until 2 p.m. and we were supposed to start getting ready around 10 a.m. (which we clearly were late because let's face it, I'm involved). So I snapped a few (okay, maybe a lot of) artsy pics for Erica to have if she wanted them since we were already supposed to be dressed when the photog got there.

Part of the bridesmaids gifts were these awesome hangers for our dresses.

Short story about this kid. I love this kid more than words can describe. I had on a camisole and my bridesmaids jacket, and when I picked this guy up in my arms to give him a hug and a kiss he says, "Take off your jacket." I asked, "Why?" He said, "Because I want you to take your jacket off." So I said, "What do you want to see beneath my jacket?" He leans really close to my face and whispers, "Your bra..." I said, "Ian! That is NOT nice!! You do not ask ladies to see their bras!" And his mother proceeded to say she had no idea where that came from. He tickles me beyond all reason. Short story #2 about this kid. When he was little, I always called him "sweet boy" in hopes that he would actually be a sweet boy, because he could be kind of a terror. So he has always associated me with that phrase. I asked him later that day if he was my sweet boy, and he said, "Yep. I your sweet boy. I not mommy's sweet boy, I not daddy's sweet boy, I not Austin's (his big brother) sweet boy, I YOUR sweet boy!" I said, "We can share, you can be all of our sweet boys!" He said, "No, I YOUR sweet boy!"

Erica got some ROCKIN' jewelry from her husband as a wedding present. He did a wonderful job and made everyone tear up with the precious card he gave her.

The ceremony was PERFECT! The weather was wonderful, nobody fell out, the animals cooperated, and none of the children had breakdowns and were exceptionally adorable. Afterwards, we went to the reception where we danced the night away. I didn't take over with my nice camera until the photog left, so a lot of my pictures of the reception that I took with my little point-and-shoot are blurry. But these and more turned out nicely!

Ian loves him some Baby Garrett. All the little girls at the reception kept trying to get my little stud muffin to dance with them. So finally he asked his mom, "Mommy, can I just go play with Baby Garrett?"

I sure do miss these crazy ladies (with Daniel lurking in the background)!!

It was such an exhausting, fun weekend and I am so honored to have been chosen to be by your side, Erica! I'm praying that your marriage is awesome and that you are perfect help-mates for each other! Have SO much fun in the Dominican Republic, I am incredibly jealous! I love you!

Meet Murphy!

Hunter came to me several weeks ago saying he'd like to get a dog. I've been mostly anti-getting-a-dog since we've been married. One of the biggest drawbacks to a dog and apartment life was picking up poop in a bag, which I refused to do. So now that we have a house, I was way more willing to revisit the dog situation. At first, I was so pessimistic about it that I almost had Hunter talked out of it, but then I felt bad because he seemed really excited about the prospect. So I told him that I was sure that as soon as we went to see the puppies/dogs at the shelter, I'd fall in love and be on board with everything.

How right I was. We met this guy and have never turned back. This is Murphy!

He was around 10 months old when we adopted him 5 weeks ago. We know he has some pit bull in him, and we think he's part lab, too. I LOVE his brindle coat. I was so drawn to his sweet personality. At the shelter, he had a kennel-mate and whenever anyone came to visit, Murphy (whose given name at the shelter was Loverboy) would kinda box them out to get petted through the bars, wagging his tail the whole time. I felt sorry for his roommate, but it was so sweet! He had been at the shelter for almost a month before we adopted him, which surprised me because he is so sweet! However, he has a really bad case of RBF (Resting B*tch Face), as evidenced by his picture the shelter posted of him online:

His case of RBF is still pretty serious, but I don't really see it anymore because he has such a cute personality. He LOVES other dogs, loves most people, and loves playing tug-of-war with almost anything. He wanted to play so badly one day that he grabbed my sleeve and went to town.

He also loves his blanket, car rides, rolling around on his back when he's playing, and one of his favorite things to do is give kisses.

If you're not careful, he'll kiss you right in the mouth. He also likes to lick the cabinets in the kitchen. He's a weird guy. The biggest downsides are that he (understandably) whines while he's in his crate during the day if I'm trying to sleep and Hunter is at work, and that his gas is super noxious. But otherwise, he's already blessed our lives immensely! Stay tuned for funny Murphy stories!

New Year

Okay, so I promise I'm going to try to get it together in 2015. I did pretty good my first few months of blogging, but life gets away from me. I shouldn't try to find excuses, but night shift is a pretty good one, if you ask me. When I work for several nights in a row, I feel like all I do is work, eat, and sleep. Another excuse is that I'm lazy and reeeeeally like my "me time". So neither of them are really good excuses. I will try to do better.

For now, I'll recap what happened in our life since my last post in... what was it, August??

*Side note: I recently learned that I am only supposed to put 1 space between a period and the start of the next sentence unless I'm using a typewriter, which I'm obviously not. So I'm trying to only use 1 space, so bear with me if I forget and my spacing looks uneven.

We went on our annual family beach trip in September. I left out the seven billion pictures of dinky-dinky birds that I took. But here are a few of my faves:

I had so much fun watching this little guy work. He would pop his head out of his hole, take a look around, and cautiously take a few steps to his right and throw a claw-ful of sand away. He would then quickly skitter back into his hole. It was really neat to watch.

The first weekend in October, we went apple picking at SkyTop Orchard with some friends of ours. It was SUPER crowded, but still a lot of fun and the apple cider donuts were TO DIE FOR.

I freaking love apples.

For those of you who know me, camping is not really my thing. I thoroughly enjoy being warm and comfortable. But I did have a lot of fun on both of our camping trips this year! We went camping with a few couple friends in mid-October, and then the next weekend we went camping with a large group of family friends. The second weekend was miserably cold for me. I legitimately had on 4 layers on my lower body (including fleece-lined leggings) and at least 7 layers on my upper body, wrapped in a double fleece blanket, and I was still shivering. But it was still a lot of fun once the sun came out and I thawed out a little.

This was on the first weekend after we put up the tent, and I was incredibly helpful, if I do say so myself. I did not do a good job of taking pictures, because I was too busy making memories.

I think this was on the day we were packing up and leaving from the second camping trip. Again, I did not do a good job of taking pictures.

Between the two camping trips, we closed on a house!! Hunter and I are now homeowners! It is such an amazing house and I love it so much! It has been a lot of work repainting and decorating to the best of our ability at this point, but so worth it!  I will do a whole different post on this subject, because there's a lot.

While I worked on actual Halloween, we had a Halloween party with our Bible Study group. Hunter had already decided that he was going to be a lumberjack on actual Halloween at another party, but I thought I wasn't going to be able to do anything fun. So last minute costume idea was for me to be a tree. I think it worked out well!

In mid-November, it was time to shower Erica and Cullen with gifts for their upcoming wedding! It is always so much fun seeing my coastal friends again, and this was no exception! These crazy girls bring so much fun and love into my life!

And then it was Thanksgiving, and I arrived late due to having to work the night before. And then I feel like I worked my life away until Christmas. Which was the first one we got to host in our new house! I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and I think it went really well!

And then it was the new year, which I also worked. And now it's a few weeks in and I'm trying to get on the ball as far as writing new blog posts is concerned. So stay tuned, friends!

Funny quote of the post: While talking to Jonetta about Erica's rehearsal dinner, we were talking about wearing little black dresses, and I said something about the one I have being pretty low cut.  Jonetta said, "No. You can't wear one like that. Yours has to be like Audrey Hepburn. Mine has to be more Nicki Minaj..."

"that girl"

Hi friends!

Fun things have been happening since I last posted!  First of all, one of my dear friends, Kristi, got married!!  It was awesome seeing true love celebrated like that.  And it was awesome getting to hang out with some wonderful people.

Three-fourths of the girl junior/senior roomies and their husbands! (Well, at the time this picture was taken, the bride and groom were just that, but now they're officially wedded!)

Julie, Kristi, and me.  I love these ladies!

I'm generally pretty frugal, so I opted not to get my hair professionally styled.  Instead, I used this wonderful creation called Pinterest and found a hair tutorial for Elsa's Coronation Bun from Frozen!  First of all, I freaking love that movie.  I don't really like loving such mainstream things and somewhat overdone things, but I can't help it.  I first saw it with my sister, which was perfection, and I have loved it ever since.  I got the soundtrack as a going-away gift because everyone knows how much I love it.  Anyway, it worked out really well, in my opinion.  When I'm in weddings, I normally have to put my hair up because when I bust a move, I get my sweat on, and hair down doesn't function well when damp.  Anyway, when I saw Julie's sister, one of the first things she said to me was, "Your hair looks like Elsa's!"  Mission accomplished.

This wedding was the tenth wedding I've been in (not including my own), and every one of them has been unique and precious in their own way.  I'm planning on writing a blog on how to be a jam-up bridesmaid, so get excited.

Then, I got all my hair chopped off.  Not super exciting, but it was a big change in my daily life.

Then, it was birthday time and July 4th!

Hunter's birthday dinner! (His family was there, too.)

My birthday dinner!  (Hunter, my family, and Anna's boyfriend were there, too.  Check out my awesome pocketbook back there on the hood of the car.  I love that thing.)

Happy 4th of July!

Earlier in May, I started doing CrossFit.  I have never particularly enjoyed exercising or working out, but I do it to keep my health somewhat in check.  It keeps my blood sugars so much more consistently normal.  I also love to eat, particularly junk food, so exercising is pretty essential.  And while I don't enjoy traditional exercise routines, CrossFit is so much fun for me.  The box where I go is wonderful.  The sense of community is so encouraging, the trainers are big on using correct form and keep you going at a pace where you're comfortable.  I could feel myself getting stronger and more toned.  I tried to avoid measuring my success by the scale, because muscle weighs a lot more than fat.  I don't want to be "that girl" who talks about CrossFit all the time, but it is such a worthwhile thing for me, and I really recommend trying it if you think you're interested.

The Monday after July 4th, I hurt my lower back REEEEEALLY badly while doing a complicated lift at CrossFit.  Like tears-when-trying-to-stand-up hurt.  (Just so we know, I wasn't engaging my core like I had been told to and my back was too straight instead of leaning over like I was supposed to, and the trainer corrected my form as soon as she saw what I was doing wrong, so it wasn't CrossFit's fault for those of you who would try to blame CrossFit.  But the damage was already done by that point.)  I went to the chiropractor that afternoon and next morning and was feeling much better by Wednesday.  Then, much to my displeasure, on Thursday morning when Hunter's alarm went off, in my half-sleep state I sat up and twisted a way that did not mesh with my back.  It almost felt worse than it had when I initially hurt it.  It took a good few weeks to feel normal.  Back pain is honestly no joke.  I have such a new appreciation for people suffering from back pain, and I feel so bad for people who have it chronically.  I have always appreciated Chiropractic, seeing as how I've been adjusted my entire life by my dad (he is a miracle worker - and it's amazing), but now that it has corrected such a horrible issue, I appreciate it that much more.

Anyway, I'm feeling SO much better and was able to start CrossFit again last week, and foolishly went 3 mornings in a row, ending with 150 sit-ups.  My abs were sore for literally 5 days.  But that's something I would probably never do on my own, and I felt such a sense of accomplishment once it was over, which is why CrossFit works well for me.

So once I'm super ripped, if anyone wants to buy me this shirt from Etsy, it would be much appreciated:

***ADDENDUM***

After reading this post, Hunter turned to me and said, "You didn't say anything about me being in the hospital..."  I said, "I completely forgot about that!"  Hunter was also in the hospital during June.  His abdomen had been cramping worse and worse.  I was still working day shift and he texted me that he was thinking of going to the ER because he felt really lousy.  Being the nurse that I am, in my head, I was thinking, "Yeah yeah, whatever.  He's fine."  (This is coming from the guy who, when he was 20 years old, was convinced that his abdominal pain was pancreatic cancer.  It turned out to be "gall sludge" which required no intervention whatsoever.  So sue me for being skeptical.)  So then he texted me right before my shift was supposed to be over and said something to the effect of, "I vomited a lot.  I'm definitely going to the ER.  I think I have an intestinal blockage."  And I'm still like, "Uh huh, it's nothing.  But let's go rack up a huge ER bill anyway..."  

Long story short, I had to eat some humble pie as the ER nurse told Hunter that he would be admitted due to a bowel obstruction.  Turns out Hunter has Crohn's disease.  So fun times.  His symptoms aren't severe, but he has to be on a restricted diet as to not aggravate the stricture he has in his small intestines.  The week-long hospital stay may be a whole separate post, as it was a huge learning experience as a person and as a nurse.

All I can say is, thank God for medical insurance!

Ch-ch-changes

So, I was alerted the other day that it has been 11 weeks since my last post.  My bad.  But a WHOLE LOT has happened in those weeks.  This post is gonna get a little picture-heavy in a bit, so gear up.  First really big thing is that we moved!  Not just like across town but from the Lowcountry to the Upstate.  It was not really planned, but we feel like God opened all the appropriate doors and that the timing was perfect.  First, Hunter got a new job, and our lease was up in the next few weeks after Hunter found out about the job opportunity so we didn't have to pay bookoos of money to break the lease.  Then I got a job and moved out literally the day before our lease ended.  Oh, and Hunter was already in the upstate for the last like 5-6 weeks before I moved, so we had a mini long-distance thing going on.  The decision was not an easy one, by any means.  I had massive anxiety about the thought of moving away from all of my friends I've come to know and love over the past almost 3 years.  I cried and cried at the thought of telling my work wife.  And I cried some more after that.  And then some more later.  And had some emotional breakdowns while I was packing up almost all of our stuff by myself and trying to figure out the logistics of how we were going to move.  It was tons of fun.

Thankfully, my new employer offered a moving allotment, and we were able to have a company come and pack up the remainder of our belongings and move all of our crap at no cost to us (up to a certain amount - which we didn't go over - Hallelujah!!).  Mainly they just had to pack up the kitchen.  I had packed up mostly everything else, but I was NOT looking forward to packing up the kitchen.  I don't know how we came to accumulate so much stuff, especially in the kitchen department.  But somehow we did.  We are, for the time being, living with my in-laws while we save up a good downpayment and are hopefully going to be buying a house in the near future.

I have just finished Nursing Orientation at my new job.  I am SO happy to be going back to my 12-hour shifts.  Kudos to those of you who do the whole getting-up-early-5-days-a-week-and-probably-Sundays-to-go-to-church-too thing, because that junk is for the BIRDS.  I absolutely cannot stand being up early and being out when everybody else is out.  I miss my 12-hour shifts so bad.  My body was not built for going to sleep early and getting up early - just ask my classmates who watched me come in borderline late every morning senior year of high school and put on my make-up during the first half of Mrs. Dunlap's class.

A few weekends before I moved, I attended the March of Dimes.  It was a lot of fun, even if I do look glow-in-the-dark in the pic below.  I generally have fun when these two are involved.

Before leaving the lowcountry, my coworkers threw me a surprise going-away party.  So here comes the picture portion of your blog experience:

The cry-fest officially began within the first few minutes.

My Carolina fan friends actually picked out this shirt!  I was probably eyeing my work wife in this picture, who is a die-hard Gamecock.

And then I got hugs and cried.

And more hugs and cried.

And more hugs and cried more.

And even more hugs and cried some more.

And guess what else happened?  I got hugs and cried.

This is my work wife's "I am not amused by this" face.  She actually was in denial for a few weeks after I told her I was leaving.  But never fear, our relationship is back on track now.  We also FaceTimed Erica for a little bit.

My friend in this pic was the photographer for the partay.  I learned that I do not like candid photos of myself.  There are approximately 100 pictures and I look like a blubbering, double-chinned fool in the majority.  But I love candids of other people.  Go figure.

My friends at work bought me a mustache balloon and he hung out with me until he had to go in the trash can RIGHT before I moved.  Literally, he was one of the last things to go.  And only because I couldn't have safely fit him into this packed to the brim vehicle you see below.

And then I packed up the Escahpay and rolled out.  And cried some more.

So while I'm missing all of my Lowcountry friends TERRIBLY, Facebook, FaceTime, and picture messages are wonderful for keeping in touch.  I'm excited to see what the future has in store!

I have a funny story to share that is completely unrelated to the topics in this post, but I giggle thinking about it and I have to share.  There are probably going to be repercussions to this, but it's worth it.  Relevant background - 1) I absolutely love corny jokes and 2) Hunter and I were sitting on the couch.

Hunter:  "I thought up a really funny joke the other day."

Me:  "Oh!  What is it??"

Hunter:  "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?"
Me:  "Elephino."  (Pronounced like "[h]Ell-if-I-know")

Hunter:  "How did you know that?"

Me:  "I heard that joke about 20 years ago.  Have you never heard that one?"
Hunter:  "No!  I just made it up a few days ago!  You stole my thunder."
Me:  "Then what DO you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?"
Hunter:  "NOTHING!"

Post-op

Hi Friends!!

My surgery on Friday went well!  Approximately 48 hours ago I was in the OR.  It was a pretty crazy experience for me, especially since I'm a nurse.  I tried to be a good patient, and I think for the most part, I was.  Pre-op wasn't bad.  Everyone I spoke to was really nice and the nurse used lidocaine before my IV so it didn't hurt at all.  The doctors (2 of them were residents, I think...) came in and asked me if I was willing to participate in a study to figure out why some people like me get nasal polyps and some people don't.  I said, "Sure!  Why not?"  They said that the only thing they'd do differently was get some extra blood work while I was asleep and take a few strands of my hair to check for nicotine.  I told them, "You won't find any, but knock yourself out anyway..."  The nurse gave me some Versed before Hunter got kicked out and I wheeled back to the OR.  I remember them placing some foam things under my arms and strapping me down with something - it wasn't uncomfortable at all.  I actually enjoyed it... I love to be snugged in.  And that's pretty much all I remember until voices I didn't recognize were waking me up after surgery.

Apparently I have a stent up there somewhere, some sutures, and some dissolvable packing.  But that's all he-said-she-said, because I wasn't conscious for all that.

When they tried to get me out of bed for the first time, I was not having it.  All I wanted to do was lie there.  I kept saying "no" but I was doing what they wanted me to anyway.  I felt sick to my stomach when I stood up, but I took some deep breaths and they gave me an IV anti-nausea medicine and I was all better.  It was horrible trying to keep my eyes open.  The recovery nurse was like, "Leah, we need you to keep your eyes open, it'll be easier for you to move with your eyes open."  I kept trying to tell her that I was doing my best to keep my eyes open, but then my eyes would immediately close.  I hate the way anesthesia makes me feel.  But I didn't puke and I wasn't itchy or anything like that.  I was just suuuuuper tired and really wanted to drink water.  So once they got me into the chair, I just sat there with my eyes closed and sipped water.  Hunter asked me yesterday if I remembered what I told the nurses my pain was, and I said "Nope..."  I was apparently at a 4/10, which I don't think is too shabby for someone just having screwed around in my sinuses for close to 4 hours.  And then they somehow loaded me into the car (I have no recollection of that...) and Hunter drove me home.  I vaguely remember that he tried to stop at a fast-food place for dinner for him but I feel like the speaker box wasn't working, so he drove away.

When we got home, Hunter somehow got me up the stairs and onto the couch.  I made some phone calls letting people know I was alive, had a little nosebleed, and slept on and off for a while.  Oh!  And I have to wear this little "drip-pad" for 3 days after surgery...

It's actually quite brilliant.  It's 2 rubberbands for the ear holes, a piece of tape that's been taped back on itself except for a little piece with which to attach the gauze.  It keeps any random dripping from going everywhere.  It makes it a little difficult to breathe through my nose, but that's nothing new.  Anna said I should draw a mustache on it, which I might.  (Please excuse the hair, I'm performing a Pinterest experiment.  This Little House on the Prairie hair do is supposed to make my hair curly.)

So there are a few things I've learned about myself and about life through this situation.  And I will share them with you.

1.  If you ever needed to torture me for information, here is what I imagine would be very effective:  making me itch yet unable to scratch anything, depriving me of food and water, and making me cold.  Not being able to eat or drink after midnight of the day of surgery was zero fun.  I had to get allergy tested during this whole ordeal and I am not sure how I went without scratching as a child.  Here are the photos of my torture sessions:

This two-step process entailed placing the little tray of prickers on my forearms and then after 10 minutes of staring at my red and irritated and itching arms, having 27 small subdermal injections on my upper arm and letting them get red and itchy for 10 additional minutes to measure my body's response.  It was not enjoyable.  I am pretty allergic to almost everything.  Yay for me.

2.  Having a breathing tube down your throat does not feel good for the rest of the day.  That was actually what was causing me the most discomfort after surgery.  So when people that have surgery that involves having a breathing tube, take them throat lozenges.  You'll have a new best friend.

3.  I have the most amazing friends and family in the world (I already knew this, but it was confirmed this week).  I cannot begin to count the number of people who reached out in some way to me or to Hunter to just show support and let us know they were praying for us.  In the face of such a potentially scary situation, it was so wonderful knowing that we have so many people who are there for us.

4.  I open things incredibly close to my face.  Examples:  Cabinets, doors, refrigerator.  (Mostly things in the kitchen...coincidence??)  Like I know a safe distance and open it to where it comes veeeery close to whamming me in the nose.  Which is now scary.

4.  My husband is entirely awesome (but I already knew this, too...).  He has been taking such good care of me without a single grumble.  I like to think that I don't ask for much, but when I do ask for stuff, it's like all in a row.  "Can you get me some more water?  Can you turn the fan on?  Can you turn that light off, please?"  Even though he forgot to turn his alarm on the day of surgery and he got up late, he's been amazing through this whole situation!

5.  Whoever invented steroid nasal washes is a sadist.  I have to do them twice a day and I hate them.  That is all.

I will end with a quote that I thought was funny, but unless you're a Harry Potter fan, you won't think it's funny.  My work wife came by this morning after she got off work to check on me, and as she was leaving, she got to the bottom of the stairs and stopped and looked around before proceeding.  I said, "What are you doing?"  She said, "Just looking for nargles..."