Just wanted to share something cute my mom found. It's a bucket list with "must-do's" during the fall season. Who doesn't love that the air is cooling down, trees are changing colors, and Starbucks is serving Pumpkin Spice Lattes!? I think it might be my favorite season (top 4 at least). It's especially nice to have some cooler weather now that I have an internal heater keeping me warm all of the time. So as these last 74 days of pregnancy linger on, I'm going to try to soak up Autumn as best I can! Who's with me??
Apple Picking: CHECK!
Drink Fancy Coffee Drinks: CHECK!
So much more to do! So little time! Before we know it the PSL's will be replaced with Red Cups! Yippee!!
Back on April 1, 2011 our lives took a dramatic turn. No longer was it just the two of us newlyweds. Living peacefully in our home. Just us to think about. We opened the doors of our hearts and our yard-less town home to this little cutie, and we are forever changed because of her.
Her name is Keystone Atkins (aka Stonie, Stoner, K-love, KS, pup, dumb dog). She is a Jack Russell Terrier who loves to eat, play...eat...and play. I think maybe it was my back to back surgeries that left me wanting something soft to cuddle. Or maybe my mom's voice sticking in the back of my head when she said that before I have a baby I need to prove I can keep a plant and a pet alive...yikes. Oh, and about her name, it comes from Keystone Colorado, where I grew up skiing/snowboarding and where Stuart and I try to go everytime we make it back to CO. It does not come from the cheap alcoholic beverage...her middle name is not "Light". Just wanted to clarify that. :)
So anyway, I just wanted to give her some web-space before her little sibling comes along and takes over everything. She is very smart...sometimes too smart for her own good. Right now her tricks consist of sit, stay, lay down, go to your room, get on your couch, get off our couch, and she rings her little bell whenever she needs to relieve herself, or be on neighborhood watch. I made some videos for my family to see (my Aunt Dawn's dog had puppies and one of them was K-Love). These were obviously not made by my cinematographer husband, but she is just so dang cute, I couldn't resist sharing them with the world. Here she is...Keystone from 9 - 12 weeks old.
(The high and mighty YouTube master decided to disable the audio for this video...sorry about that).
This is a long overdue post, but now you've all met her. She's pretty much grown up now but just as sweet. The vet says she's "very-calm" for a Jack Russell (which is hard for us to believe, but we'll take it!) Here are a few pictures. They are cute but don't do her justice. Stop by and say hi/let her take you for a walk! She loves making new friends.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner:
Her favorite place to be:
Mug shots:
Here she is, just over 7 months old...preparing to be a big sister!
*warning: this post is not for the weak of stomachs...or for those who don't like ugly legs*
February 15, 2011...the day that changed my leg forever. Sounds a bit dramatic, but I wish I was kidding. As I mentioned before, I tore my ACL back in 08 and my meniscus this past year. I had surgery in February and Dr. M fixed it all for me. If you want to try to picture my knee, picture this below, except there is no ACL at all and the meniscus is folded under itself.
The surgery went great, just as planned...if only I could say that about the healing process. Fortunately for me, maybe even more fortunate for Stu, my mom came out to stay with us for about a week post-op. She helped cook, clean, pamper, and play while she was here. It was perfect.
Many came to visit, although I don't remember much from those first few days, thanks to all the drugs. Apparently I did give some pretty sound job hunting advice to one friend who eventually got the job! Those days weren't so bad because I had plenty of medicine, the nerve block from my waist down, and my leg felt great (like it wasn't even there!)
On day 3 after surgery, we went back to the doc to have the dressing removed. My leg was still numb but I was having an allergic reaction to the pain meds. It was not fun feeling itchy nonstop, but worth it in the long run. I was so thankful for pain killers.
My mom and hubby toted me to the doctor's office, which was my first big outting. We were expecting that everything was going as planned so far..and that's when we saw it. Yes, my knee was very swollen, the scars were still bloody, but worst of all was the thing that didn't belong: a huge burn on my shin. Where it came from is still a mystery to all of us. The doctors swear it's from the cold therapy that I was using, but it's hard to understand how an insulated tube, sitting on top of ace bandages, circulating ice water, could do this to my leg. Here you see the 3 incisions (which are supposed to be there) and there is a small scar further down my leg, if you squint and tilt your head you can see it.
At the time, I thought everyone came out of surgery with a large burn on their leg. But you know it's not a good sign when the PA taking care of you has a surprised look on her face and says "hmmm...I wonder what that's from?" Oh boy.
I'll spare you too many of the melodramatic details about my recovery, but let me sum it up for you. Once my mom left I had a few breakdowns. Why me?!? Why did she leave me?!? What am I going to do?! How will I survive?!? Somebody just amputate already!! I wish I was over-exaggerating. I spent the next 2 weeks unable to bend my leg. The next 4 weeks I was unable to put weight on my foot and hobbled around on crutches, mainly from the couch to my bed and back again. Stuart was my chauffeur and it was great spending the extra quality time together in the car, right Stu???
I was miserable as I was stuck on the couch, totally dependent on others to help me. We were so thankful for all the wonderful support around us. People cooked dinner for us, brought flowers, helped clean, etc. We have a great family here :) And the actual work that was done inside my leg was healing great, according to the doctor. It was everything on the outside that was not so pretty. There was the horrible burn, and the doctor realized I was allergic to sticky stuff he put under my steri-strips...which were on my leg for 2 weeks, causing some kind of chemical burn around the incisions.
The reaction caused red bumps to spread all over my thigh and was terribly itchy. The burn continued to get less and less pretty as it "healed". And then there were the blisters...
Yeah, it has been fun. On the heels (or shall I say the knees?) of my emergency appendectomy back in December, I've had more than my share of hospital visits for now. The good news is that I'm fixed and my new ACL is in tact. My whole leg started to heal, as my muscles atrophied, adding to the attractiveness. This is at my two-week check up.
And here it is one month post-op. Two thumbs up for my birthday and first day off of crutches!
So now I am 2.5 months out of surgery and slowly things are getting back to normal. I'm going to physical therapy once a week and I really enjoy that, especially now that I'm doing some heavy duty weight lifting to strengthen my scrawny leg. I can't fully bend my leg without some discomfort, but my therapist has been impressed so far as to how quickly I gained (forced) my range of motion back. No pain. No gain. My next big feat will be walking down stairs with little effort. Right now if I don't take one at a time I have to hold on for dear life and hope I don't take a tumble. Once that is conquered perhaps I'll be able to start some cardio exercises...but we'll just wait and see. It should be all easy from here, except that I might have to do another MRI in a few months to make sure my meniscus healed properly. If it didn't...that means another surgery. I won't dwell there though. Here is what my leg looks like today, much better eh?
And even the scars are healing better. My burn is pretty severe so there is still some numbness and tingling all along my shin. Not sure what the darker parts of the scar are about, but I'm supposed to go see a dermatologist in the next couple of weeks. The actual incisions have always looked great. Funny thing is, Dr. M was very careful about how he stitched these close. He wanted to make sure they were minor so he did the stitches on the inside. He said he wanted to make sure my leg would still be aesthetically pleasing...HA! I can't change the past though, so I'm just glad it's all getting better.
Thanks to my PT, here's how much I can bend my leg. I can't sit "Indian style" yet (is that still PC to say? Sorry if that offends someone...) which is the most comfortable position for me to sit in, but soon and very soon I hope to be able to.
So there you have it! Despite the drama and pain, I am glad I had the surgery. Not only is my ACL on it's way to 100%, but this also really gave me an incredible perspective on life. As I was crying on the couch because I couldn't do anything, I realized there was a light at the end of my tunnel. There are so many people who find themselves stuck on the couch for life, their legs will never heal. I don't have much to be worried about. I'm thankful to God that I am still able-bodied with a few minor scars on my leg. He is the giver of all good things, and I thank Him for this experience.
Tomorrow I finally go in for surgery on my knee. I say finally, because it's been a while that I've been living with this bum knee. This has caused major frustration in my life and inhibited me from doing many of the things I love to do (i.e. cardio kickboxing, playing dodgeball, tackling middle schoolers...). As you can imagine, I am thrilled that it will finally be repaired.
As I was preparing for life back on the couch, I started thinking about how long it has actually been. In doing all of this pondering I've realized some very strange coincidences. See, I originally tore my ACL while skiing in college at 'Annex at Aspen'. After this retreat I went to the doctor but since there was no swelling and I had a good range of motion, he sent me home with a prescription of ice and Tylenol. Yeah, thanks. My knee continued to buckle whenever I did any cutting motions and I eventually had an MRI where they discovered I had no ACL. Strange coincidence #1: this past weekend marks the 3 year anniversary of when I first injured myself, and tomorrow I am having surgery.
For the past three weeks I've been hobbling around in a knee brace because I re-injured myself a few weeks ago at camp while I was showing my small group how to do this awesome cheerleading stunt. (Go Mustangs! Alright, I know, I'm not in high school any more. Got it.) This time my knee actually did swell a lot and was very painful to walk on. When I went to my doc they told me to suck it up until surgery, so I'm doing just that. Strange coincidence #2: I had finger surgery 8 years ago today. What's weird about that you ask? Well, Strange coincidence #3: I broke my finger doing that same cheerleading move in high school!
Who knows what all of this means? Maybe it just means that I need to grow up. Maybe February is an unlucky month for me. Maybe the doctors get some sort of bonus for February surgeries...who knows? My surgery is scheduled for 9:30 tomorrow morning. Since I hurt myself after the MRI, they are really not sure what they're going to find when they get in there. This means they don't really know how long recovery will be either.
With my appendectomy and then my little fender bender at camp, I've been quite dependent on my husband these first two months of 2011. I know he was probably starting to get bored since I'm walking around on my own just fine now. He doesn't know what to do with all this free time. Just last night he said "Babe, I can't wait until your surgery so I can start doing everything for you again!" :-D Just kidding. But in all seriousness I do have the best hubby. He's a pro caregiver (always has been) and I wouldn't choose anyone else to be by my side. It's definitely not a strange coincidence that I have Stu in my life to take good care of me. He's a gift straight from the Father of the heavenly lights. Fortunately we are surrounded by people who love and care about us too. Thank you to everyone who has pitched in so far and will continue to do so in the next few weeks! Fortunately, my mom will be in town this weekend to help us out. There's nothing like a momma's lovin' to help with a speedy recovery.
So wish us luck and say a prayer for the surgeon, for Stuart, and for my knee to be repaired so I can get on with my life. My goal is to play a full game of American Eagle next year at camp. Look out middle schoolers! No mercy.
Read more...
Most of you reading this probably clicked on the link from Facebook...or you got our Christmas card and saw the sticker inside! I hope you enjoyed our card. Andy-photographer-extrodinaire took our picture for us. What would we do without him? Here we are trying to go green again (remember our wedding invites?). This way we can show you more pictures and come back and edit things we regret saying after we post it! (I would say "jk"...but I'm not). hehe. This way, our letter is much more interactive as well, so I hope you're sitting down. Alright, on to our Christmas letter...
Is it just me, or do we all say "I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by!" every year? It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my parents' basement, trying to keep my eyes open, celebrating the new year. My biggest question is...what will we call it when we reminisce about the year 2010. We've got Y2K, and then '01 through '09. I've heard a few people awkwardly call it "oh ten", but that just isn't right. I suppose Twenty-Ten has a nice ring to it. And then we'll have "twenty-eleven", not as smooth, but better than "oh eleven".
Enough of my rambling, I'm here to tell you about the great things that happened in 2010. January through March, Stu and I were still living in our apartment. I don't remember much about that time...except for waking up at 6am, while it was freezing cold, and going for a run almost every day. We trained and trained and trained, and on March 21, twenty-ten, Stuart, Jake and I ran our first half-marathon. I blogged all about that process earlier. It was quite the undertaking but we were very proud of ourselves. Upon completing the race, we took advantage of the 50% discount and signed up for next year's race too. You'd think we were actually runners...ha!
April 5, 2010 marked our one year anniversary. That flew by just as fast as everything else. We did a little stay-cation in Atlanta to celebrate. We kicked it off with the incredible Good Friday service at Passion City Church. We stayed at a hotel in Buckhead for the weekend, went to the Dialogue in the Dark exhibit, used some Groupons for dinner, and just had a great time pretending we were tourists. I'd recommend that to everyone. Look how happy we are just driving around Atlanta...
Once summer rolled around it was crazy as usual. Stuart took middle schoolers to Louisville, KY and Student Life Summer Camp. We both went with high school teams to New York, NY and Panama. Those were all awesome. We also had the great opportunity to stay at a friends condo near Daytona Beach, FL. That was a week of paradise! While in Florida we stopped by to see the Hembree's AND the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Check that one off the bucket list! Another fun trip, that wasn't really during the summer (but over Labor Day weekend), was when we went with our good friends, the Brophy's, to Jenica's hometown of Shannon, IL. We had a blast learning all about corn, getting to know Jenica's family, and we even spent a day in Chicago. Awesome.
Two days after returning home from our trip to Panama, we bought a house! It's a nice 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom townhouse located about 15 minutes from work. We love it because of the two car garage, large kitchen, swimming pool across the street, and ample parking places for our guests. We also love having two extra bedrooms. One is always ready for guests to stay and the other is Stuart's office. It's great. Have a look:
Here's the main level:
The upstairs...
The basement/garage...
October 3rd = Half marathon number 2. We like to think of it as completing a full marathon...do you think that counts? Two halves in a year = a whole. This one was much much more difficult. Since we had already trained for one race, we thought it might be good not to train for the second race just to see how we would do. Ok, or we're just lazy. As great as our new house is...it does lack the awesome workout facility that our apartment had. And when it's 85 degrees outside with 100% humidity, running does not sound that appealing. We could definitely feel the difference on our second race. I had to give a little pep-talk to my legs a couple of times during the race just so they would keep moving. However, at the end of the race we had to walk because I was having some intense pain in my knee. I hated that. I told Stu he could keep running, but of course, he stayed by my side the whole time. (More about my knee in a minute...)
Another big thing this year has been Stuart's videography. Aside from his multiple wedding videos, he did a video for a mission organization, one with "stillmotion"for the NFL Network, and went to India with Andy to donate their gifts and abilities in videos and photos for an awesome ministry called As Our Own. God has blessed him with the amazing talent of capturing moments on film, and He is using that ability to bless others. It's awesome.
Yes, 2010 was a success, and it's not over! Stuart and I are meeting my family in South Africa to spend Christmas with his family! Christmas during the summer?? YAY!!!...screeeccchhhh! As most of you know by now, those plans have changed quite a bit! Last Wednesday I started feeling some severe abdominal pain. I went to the doctor on Friday, and on Saturday morning had my appendix removed. We were supposed to fly out on Sunday and meet my family in Dallas so we could all travel to Cape Town together. Unfortunately we had to cancel that flight, but my family proceeded with their plans. After many hard discussions and even more tears, we decided to cancel our trip altogether. We hope our families have a great time of bonding and creating memories. We'll enjoy making memories of our own here on the home front :) Trying to make the best of things...
(okay so I was fake sleeping in this picture...there's no possible way to try to be photogenic like this)
.....AND THIS IS WHY WE'RE GLAD WE CAN GO BACK AND EDIT....my family never made it to Cape Town after all!! London airport was snowed in, so American Airlines re-routed them through Brazil, but Brazil did not have enough seats for everyone on their outbound flights. LOONNGG Story short...they will be in Colorado for Christmas and we might be joining them! It's very strange and very unfortunate that none of us will be joining Stuart's family. A years worth of planning, for what? If you're sitting there shaking your head with confusion, welcome to our lives for the past week! And I think I'll just stop typing now in case something else happens. What a strange turn of events this has been....We don't know why, but we just trust that God is with us through all of this and He is Sovereign...
Despite all of the Christmas Craziness, we have so much to be thankful for. It really has been a phenomenal year. We praise God for the ways that He blesses us, even though we recognize how unworthy we are. We strive to make His name famous in everything that we do. He is good. We truly believe that. His plans supersede anything we try to force.
Looking forward to Twenty Eleven gives me mixed emotions. Remember that knee situation I mentioned? Turns out that 3 years ago, when I fell skiing, I tore my ACL, unbeknownst to myself. All this time I have waited and waited for my knee to "heal", thinking it was something else. I went to the doctor several times to get it checked out, but it wasn't until I was running our second half marathon and slightly tore my miniscuis in that same knee, that I had an MRI done. Needless to say, the doctor will give me a new ACL and repair my meniscus in February. Fun stuff. Can't wait to be back in the hospital. I think the worst part about that is that I have to take out all my jewelry again. What a pain ;) Don't worry, I'll still be by Stuart's side during that next half marathon...cheering him on from the sidewalk!
We do have sweet expectations for 2011 as well. Andy and Jenica are expecting their first baby boy at the beginning of February. Our great friends Gretchen and Micah are getting married in April. We are taking another trip of high school students to Cape Town (Lord willing!). Stuart has many more excellent video opportunities. It will be a good year, we know it.
We hope all of you have a very merry, Christ-centered Christmas. We are grateful for our "Georgia Family" here and everyone else who loves and supports us. We pray that your lives will be blessed in 2011. Hopefully next year's Christmas card will end on a much calmer note! At least this one has created memories for all of us. Love to you and your family!
-Paige & Stuart
...In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hi Everyone! Welcome to my life...blog edition. I used to update this pretty frequently so that you could try to stay updated on all of my adventures. Now that I've settled down and gotten hitched, I'll just be adding the more momentous events in my life. I married the man of my dreams on 4/5/09 and we recently bought our first house in Lawrenceville, GA! God has called us both to work with the youth group at Sugarloaf UMC. He is on staff and I am a committed volunteer. We love what we do and we make a great team. The rest of my family is in Colorado and his is all the way in South Africa. So this is my life, for all the world to see. Enjoy!
