We're Back!

We're back from our trip and we had a great time! Disney World was SO much fun! And we had a great time in Massachusetts too, despite the blizzard and having to stay 3 extra days. Here are some pictures from our trip!

As for now, Joseph is back to work and I am still on medical leave for my jaw. It is starting to feel better though! I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel!! I keep telling myself that this time it's different and that I'm not going to slip back into pain because I'm actually healing this time since I had the surgery. Positive thinking and LOTS of prayer :)

We spent New Year's Eve with our friends and had a great time! Good food, fun games and great company. We played the Newlywed Game, and seriously, one of the TV couples had crazy murderer eyes! Creepy and funny to watch :) (I'm a nice person on the inside :)). Hope you all had a wonderful time as well!

After the Yankee Swap

Joseph's First Time Shoveling. I let him have all of the fun with that. I've had my fair share of "fun" shoveling.

Playing Wii games

Our Snowmen

Rockin' Roller coaster. I waited a several years to ride this ride! It was awesome!

Fantasmic was Amazing!

Almost Christmas!

Sorry it has been a long time since I've blogged. My surgery went well. After it was over, the doctor told Joseph it was a good thing that I had my surgery when I did because my bones had started to fuse together and there was a lot more damage to my joint than the MRI let on. He said there was no cartilage and no tissue left in my joint so he had to take more fat from my stomach than he anticipated to cushion my joint. I can't really complain about that! LOL. There is still a little indent where he took the fat from. I think it's kind of funny.

But since my joint was so damaged and because I have fibromyalgia, my doctor told me (and these are his exact words) that "it will take forever to heal". Awesome. I went back to work a week after surgery, but I was in so much pain from talking that I went straight to the doctor. That's when he told me it would take me forever to heal. So I stayed home another week. Then I went back 3 days before Thanksgiving and then most of the next week. But by the end I was in so much pain that my doctor and I decided that I shouldn't go back to work until the beginning of next year. Now I get to stay home and the only one I can talk to is Sammy.

I order to relieve some stress and to take my mind off of my pain, I started making Christmas crafts. I was actually able to sell the majority of the crafts that I made, so I was really excited. I am trying to set up my own little business called Apple Blossom Creations. Here is the link to my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apple-Blossom-Creations/173692049321933 Please show it to your friends. I am going to start working on some more upcoming seasonal designs as well as traditional every day designs. I am also doing custom orders. I have my own silhouette sd machine and I'm able to cut out vinyl and scrapbook paper. So if you want some vinyl letter, framed art, or original design in your home, let me know and I can give you a good price on it :)

We are gearing up for our trip to Disney World and to Boston. I'm not sure what the weather will be like in Florida, but it's going to be COLD in Boston! I'm not really used to that anymore! I was freezing in my house today because it was 69 degrees. Oh well, we can dress warm :)

Merry Christmas!

Grateful

As you may have noticed, I stopped posting about the Insanity program. The pain my jaw has become so bad that it is difficult to workout. However, I was thinking today that I am truly grateful for a lot of things. I have an amazing husband who helps me and supports me. He has helped me through this really trying year with my TMJ.

Over the past year my pain has gone up and down. It was starting to get better in August, and then it took a sharp turn for the worst. I decided to fast in September for help with my jaw and to have this over with. Two days later I went to my TMJ doctor who told me how my birth control could be hurting my jaw. One week later I went back for cortisone shots to help with the pain. During the ultra sound we found out that my cartilage was pretty much gone and my bones were rubbing against each other. A week after that I had a CAT scan that showed my jaw bone was jagged and breaking apart so he referred me to an Oral Surgeon.

After reviewing my CAT scan, the Oral Surgeon told me what type of surgery would be best for me. The down side, our insurance doesn’t cover TMJ surgery and it is going to cost us $12,000. After some more prayers and guidance for what to do, our amazing family members have pooled together enough money for us to start the surgery and then we can pay the rest off in a year. I’m scheduled to go into surgery on November 8th and it can’t come fast enough! Joseph asked me what I’m excited to eat once I the pain is gone (because right now I’m basically on a soft food diet). There really isn’t a food that I’m excited for (except for maybe pecan pie at Christmas), but I’m excited not to have this stabbing pain in my joint anymore. I’m excited to go to a funny movie and not have my face hurt from smiling and laughing too much. I’m excited to wear my head set at work without pain. I’m excited to have a long conversation without pain my jaw joint and my face feeling tired. I’m excited to bend down to pick something up and not have my jaw hurt. I am excited to go running and not have the impact hurt my jaw. I’m excited to wear my ear buds without the pressure from the bud hurt my joint. I’m excited to not have any more cortisone shots because it really hurts when the doctor has to push apart your bones to stick a needle in there. I’m excited that I’ll be able to go to Disney World and not have to worry about getting bumped the wrong way. I’m excited that I will be able to lay on my left side again without the pressure from my pillow hurt my face. I’m really excited to be happy without this pain.

Thank you to my amazing husband. Thank you to my wonderful family who is making this surgery possible. Thank you to my friends who have let me vent about the pain. Thank you to Heavenly Father for answering my prayers. When I fasted that day I was truly fasting with a broken heart and contrite spirit and I am so glad I did.

Birth Control is Evil

We all know the warnings of birth control... you know the blood clots and etc. Well, there are now new studies showing that almost all forms of the pill are causing your jaw bone to deteriorate!!!!! Yes, that's right, that is what is happening to my jaw. So, per orders of my doctor, I will be stopping the pill as soon as this pack is done. I am not sure if I will see improvements right away as I had stopped it earlier this year only to get back on it 3 months later, and I didn't see any remarkable improvements.

My thinking is maybe the pill was preventing me from getting better. So hopefully once I get off the pill I will be able to begin the healing process. It just kind of stinks because the only reason I'm on the pill right now is because I'm on a bad pain killer that you should not get pregnant on... and (probably) the only reason I'm on this pain killer is because of the birth control.

Here's hoping to a better next few months!

One Year Anniversary

So we made it! We've been married for one year and one day :) To celebrate our anniversary, Joseph and I took Friday off and drove up to Sedona. We stayed at a really nice place called the Sedona Views Bed and Breakfast. The views were beautiful, the rooms were nice and relaxing, the breakfast was delicious, and the owners were really nice and very accommodating. Since the place was pretty expensive (for us), we decided to only stay one night. But it was worth it!

This was the view of the B&B as we walked down the stairs from our room.

Those two pictures were from our balcony.

The bedroom

The fireplace would have been nice if it wasn't between 95-100 degrees. But unlike Phoenix and Maricopa, it does cool down in Sedona at night.

They knew I was coming :)

Neither of us had ever been to Sedona so we were amazed at the beautiful red rocks!

The first day we were there we just walked around Uptown Sedona and went in all of the little shops. After that we went to dinner at Dahl & Di Luca per suggestion of my friend Sarah. It was pretty good. The atmosphere was very romantic. My dinner was ok, but Joseph's dinner was really good. For dessert I had ordered an anniversary cake from the place that our wedding cake was made. I would have taken a picture of it... but when I picked it up it feel out of my hands as I was putting it into the car. Luckily the frosting was only a little messed up!

The next day I thought breakfast was amazing! The first course was a cored baked apple stuffed with raisins and pecans and drizzled with a cranberry sauce. This was probably my favorite part of the meal. Then for the main course we had a breakfast burrito. But this wasn't just an ordinary breakfast burrito, it was probably the best breakfast burrito I've ever had! It was served with peppered turkey pastrami and homemade bread.

After breakfast, next to the stairs that led up to our room.

After that we had "orientation" with one of the B&B owners. He gave us a map and told us about all of the best places to go in Sedona. We decided to go to one of the Native American Trading posts that he talked about. We pulled up and saw tons of steer skulls.... so we had to take a picture:

I know that this is what people do, and I shouldn't disrespect it, but this place was creepy! There were so many bear, fox, wolf furs, skulls, and spinal cords. It just gave me a weird feeling being in there.


The next place we decided to go was supposed to be a Vortex. I had never heard of these vortexes before, but I guess they are spots of energy on the earth. Some people believe these spots have healing powers. We thought, why not.... I mean, that's what happened in LOST... so maybe it could be true? One of the vortexes was in a national park. It was very beautiful there, but I don't think we experienced any of this amazing energy.

Joseph found some craw fish in the water.

This was probably the biggest tree we have ever seen!

On the way home we stopped at Montezuma Castle. This was pretty cool. Many many years ago people built these homes in the side of the rocks. It was pretty amazing. I just wish we could have gone in there! We had a great time. It was a wonderful 1st anniversary!

Almost a Year!

Our 1 year Anniversary is coming up in just a few short weeks! I can't believe it. It has been a busy year. I love Joseph even more so now than I did when we got married. It's truly amazing how our love for each other just keeps growing.

We decided to go to Sedona, AZ for our anniversary. We are still trying to decide where to stay and what to do up there, so if you have any ideas, please let us know :)

Week 3 (re-do) Results

For one reason or another, I only worked out 3 times during my first go at week 3, so I decided to do that week again. I did better this time and worked out 5 days. I am still not seeing huge results in weight loss, but I have lost 2 pounds since I started the Insanity workout. Since I started eating right and doing general workouts, I've lost a total of 5 pounds. I'm pretty happy about that :) The coolest thing is that I've lost 12.75 inches! The majority of these inches came from my thighs with 3.25 inches gone from each leg! That makes up about 1/2 of the inches I've lost. I wish that I measured my belly when I first did my measurments because I think I've lost a lot there as well. From 8/10 -8/15, I lost 1.25 inches around my belly!

I only have 2 more weeks left of month 1 and then it is on to month 2. I'm really nervous about month 2. Month 1 is hard enough and I still can't make it through an entire workout session without taking breaks. Month 2 is Max Interval training. On my sparkpeople.com Insanity group, people are saying you can burn between 600-1,000 calories during a single workout! Right now I burn between 350-400, so adding 20 minutes and upping the intensity makes burning 600 calories totally possible! :-o

I talked to my health coach on the phone on Thursday (my company pays for us to work with health coaches to reach our goals.. pretty awesome!). I told her about my amazing inches lost and how my weight still isn't coming off. She said that is to be expected and that I will probably see the weight fall off in month 2. Cross your fingers!!!