*tap tap tap*
Is this thing on?
Now seems as good a time as any to jump into a bunch of random life updates!
It has been raining for over a week now and I am over it. I don’t know how my Pacific Northwest friends and family handle it! I suppose you get used to it, but dang it I need some clear skies and sunshine — even though I know that means the arrival of summer heat and humidity. This constant rain is so, so dreary.
Over the weekend, we celebrated both Jose’s birthday and our 12-year anniversary. Both were nice and uneventful. Jose requested brownies, so I made “My Go-To Chocolate Brownies” from Dominique Ansel’s cookbook and oh man, were they chocolately! Yum. And on our anniversary, Charlotte goaded me into putting on my wedding dress — and when she found out that Jose’s wedding attire was “borrowed” she made him go pick out something from his closet. Good thing he still has a suit, I suppose! It was fun.
We went down to Galveston for a few hours with friends yesterday to celebrate a 2-year-old birthday. It rained. (I’m not kidding when I say it’s been raining for over a week.) Nonetheless, we had a good time. The surf was rough, but the girls were able to play along the shore and generally just run around while the adults got to chat. When the drizzle turned to a bit more steady rain, we relocated to underneath a souvenir store that sits on stilts and kept the gathering going for a bit longer before heading home.
Back at the beginning of the month, I had my gallbladder removed. It was both sudden and not sudden. I’d been experiencing some issues since January, but it wasn’t constant pain so for a while I procrastinated on surgery. But with summer coming up and travel plans, it made sense to go ahead and address things now instead of taking my chances in June and July. This was the first time I’d ever had surgery and while I know that gallbladder removal is pretty common, I was still nervous about it.
Happily, it went well! It was a laparoscopic procedure so I was only at the hospital for about 5 hours total. I had trouble getting up and down for the first couple days, and was pretty sore for the first week. But each day felt a bit better and now I’d say I feel about 95% recovered! It is honestly kind of mind-blowing that I literally had an organ removed 3 weeks ago and now I’m totally fine.
The silver lining of the gallbladder surgery was that my parents offered to come down for a week to help out while I was in recovery mode. We hadn’t seen them since Christmas 2019 and despite the whole surgery thing, it was such a wonderful week.
Emma has 3 more days of school and she will be done with 3rd grade! She’s excited for 4th grade and the whole family is already anticipating August, when Charlotte will head to kindergarten and join her at the elementary school. Charlotte will stay at the daycare through the summer, but I still have nothing scheduled for Emma. I think we’ll probably let her alternate weeks of staying at home with me while I work and sending her to a camp or other program.
With vaccinations on the rise and covid cases decreasing, I’m cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind us. I’m still looking forward to my kids being eligible for a vaccine, but at least I can be reasonably confident that Jose and I can’t catch it and give it to them.
Jose and I even enjoyed our first date night in 15+ months! We went out to dinner and sat inside a restaurant for the first time since March 2020. It was…fine? And also weird? But also nice? Lots of feelings! After dinner, we tried to go to Barnes and Noble to browse in peace but they were closed! They’re still operating on reduced hours due to reduced shopping traffic I guess.
We are also anxiously awaiting two planned vacations this summer after not having gone anywhere significant since our 2020 spring break trip. We’re going to Colorado for a week in June, and then back to Lake Lure with my whole family in July. I can’t wait!!
I’m still quilting, of course, but have admittedly been struggling with motivation and inspiration for the last few months. I’ve gotten several projects done, but I’m not feeling as enthusiastic about it as I normally do. I always have a bit of a post-QuiltCon funk, but 3 months of it is a lot longer than usual. I’m hoping that my creative juices will start flowing more freely again soon!
Happy anniversary! We’ll be celebrating our 15th this week! I wish I could dress up in my wedding dress again (unfortunately it’s at my parents’ house in Germany!). I loved that dress and always felt sad that there weren’t any opportunities to wear it again. It looks similar to yours (very pretty!).
Glad the gallbladder removal went smoothly. Is that an “optional” organ? Like an appendix?
It’s nice (in some ways, I guess, ha) that your girls get out of school so early. Mine still have nearly another month!
Yep, you can be totally fine without a gallbladder. So weird how our body has both organs that are absolutely critical…and several that are superflous!
I’m about 40 pounds out of the range of wearing my wedding dress again lol (to be fair I was young and naturally very thin back then). You look lovely!
I had my gallbladder out about 13 years ago. I found nobody warned me about pain from the gas they use during laparoscopic procedures. My shoulders aches horribly. Glad you’re past that!
Funny enough, our date nights used to consist of going out to eat then to B&N. Good times 🙂
A friend who had hers removed last year warned me about the gas pain so I was anticipating it — but it wasn’t an issue, thankfully! It was a bit comical how every time I got up for the first day or two, I burped. But it didn’t cause any noticeable pain. I did have a mild allergic reaction to the surgical scrub they used and that was probably the most annoying part! My whole abdomen was pretty itchy!
Such a sweet anniversary photo! And yay for date night. We went to a restaurant recently for the first time and your description fit beautifully – fine, weird, & nice! Glad your surgery went well and that is behind you.
Thanks Debbie! And hooray for normal-ish dinners out!
Happy belated anniversary! I didn’t realize Emma was going to be a fourth grader! Wow! Ah, and getting to eat out in restaurants is very exciting! I finally sat inside one last weekend after doing patios before. It’s like normal but also not!
Your summer plans sound fun!
I know — 4th grade, so crazy. As for dinners, now we just have to find a new babysitter so we can do it again. (Our one regular babysitter moved to another state, waaaah!)