Going the Distance: October 2011

Heart Attack, Halloween, and everything in between

Hi all! It's Monday and I'm actually posting today. Not sure if you noticed, but I didn't post Thursday or Friday, and that's because, Thursday morning as I was getting ready for work, I found out that my dad had had a heart attack the night before and been taking to the hospital around 2am. When I talked to my mom around 6:30 she said that he had had a heart attack during the night and that they had put a stent in one of his arteries, which had been 100% blocked. (Apparently it's the artery that is called "the widowmaker".....my dad is lucky). While talking to her (and panicking), she assured me that my dad was doing ok and I even talked to him on the phone for a few. So I got dressed and headed to Maryland. When I got there my mom said I should come straight to the hospital, and while I was talking to her, I am hearing CRAZY beeping in the background, so I asked if everything was ok. She said that about 5 minutes after we had gotten off the phone, my dad started to code. No heart beat, etc. They did chest compressions and then gave him sort of shock pads as a temporary outside-of-the-heart pace maker to keep his heart beating.

I got there a few minutes before they took him back for the procedure to install the temporary pacemaker and got to see him. The first thing my dad says to me (as he is getting shocked) is "I really wish you didn't come and see me like this." (My dad, always worrying about me)....I quickly told him to not worry about that, and to concentrate on getting better. Luckily the procedure went well and my dad stabilized. The next morning his heart rate started to go crazy (120's to 150's fluctuating) and they had to give him meds to get that under control. As of yesterday morning, his heart rate was finally where it's supposed to be.

Luckily the nurses that my dad had (and doctors) were great. They were so kind, and helpful. The kind of care you hope for for your family members when they need it. I'm so thankful to them for doing everything that they did for my dad.

Sunday my dad had to be transferred hospitals due to insurance (the hospital the ambulance took him to was close to my parents house, but not affiliated with their insurance. Awesome.)....luckily everything with the move went well, and my dad now has his own room which is nice. And now he only has the pacemaker hanging from his little rolling hangy thing (you know, the thing that holds all of the meds and liquids and stuff that have lines into your arms). No more drips, no more oxygen, etc, so things are good from that standpoint.

Today we find out if he needs a permanent pacemaker or not. Either way, the temporary pacemaker is coming out today...just whether or not there will be another procedure for a permanent one. I'm glad that my dad has been stable for the past two days, but it definitely worries me as we do the "next steps" since something could change. I'm just hoping that he will be ok. I made it to work today and am ready to leave at a moment's notice once we find out what he is going to have done. Any thoughts and prayers you could send my dad's way today would be greatly appreciated :)

I went out for a bit on Friday night to get a little distraction from everything that was going on (with my dad's permission/insistence) and MG and I went to a local bar with a group of friends where there was a Halloween costume contest going on. I'll make another post about that...maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm trying to get caught up on work and keeping positive thoughts going for my dad.

I'll keep you guys posted as to what happens. In the meantime, thanks for all of your support through this--it means a lot to me (and my dad).

WILW and Oh, How Pinteresting!

Happy Wednesday! Since this is my first week back to work after a vacay, I'm gonna just jump right into my two favorite link-ups of the week.

First up, What I'm Loving Wednesday, with Jamie at this kind of love:

I'm loving that it's finally the middle of the week. This week has been dragging. Doesn't help that I am still wishing that I was on vacation, butttt, what are you gonna do?

I'm loving that I just found out that my school is going to pay for myself and the other SLP (speech pathologist) at my school to go to our annual conference....IN SAN DIEGO!!!! Wooohooooo! We'll see if this actually pans out, but we just got the approval written in an email, so that's the first step!

I'm loving that the weather is still nice out. In the mornings it's a bit chilly, but by the afternoon, it's been beautiful. Fall is on it's way, but it's coming in slowly, and I like it!

I'm loving that I got some quality time over break to do some reading. It's hard during the work week to read (I do most of mine on the Metro when Im commuting), and having two weeks off to read at my discretion was awesome!

As always, I'm loving Michelle, at The Vintage Apple's link up for Oh How Pinteresting!

This week, I've been pinning....

I love these wreaths and am planning on attempting my own sometime soon!

Love those gentlemen ninjas!

Because it's still between summer and Fall here in DC and I like this outfit!

Crockpot Tortilla Soup I'm totally planning on doing this next week!

Because I miss cuddle time during the day with my puppy and this reminds me of that
and makes me smile :)

this just made me giggle.

What are you finding pinteresting this week?? Go link up!

Real Housewives

Hey everyone....happy Tuesday! (what??? ONLY Tuesday?? How is it possible???) I'm surviving my first week back to work relatively well, it just seems to be going by very slowly. It also didnt help that my first day back I had a parent meeting that lasted two hours at the end of the day (and went an hour later than I usually stay til). No bueno.

But, anyway, I'm not here to talk about serious stuff. I'm here to talk about the Real Housewives!

First up, New Jersey!

The second part of the Reunion show was this past Sunday and BOY do I dislike Teresa. Now, at the beginning of the season I was more on her side, and I seriously did not like her cousin and sister-in-law. It also seemed like a TON of stuff had gone down before taping, because the feuds just didn't seem to make sense.

And then the season went on. And you saw the true colors of Teresa (and her weirdo, trashy husband Joe). Everything she said in the reunion show was a contradiction to what she had previously said. For instance, all of the ladies were upset about Teresa's comments in her cookbook, to which she replied "It was a joke. Don't you have a sense of humor?" BUT, when the table is turned and Kathy's husband joked that they needed garlic when Teresa came over, she's all "that was offensive"...and when she was told that it was a joke she says "well, I was offended". Ok, Teresa.

I also enjoyed when she said that Kathy's daughter having a brain tumor made her stop taking things too seriously, but throughout the entire reunion (and much of the season), she keeps taking these TINY things that people say and making them into a HUGE deal. She is the new Danielle Staub to me. DISLIKE!

Meanwhile I was sad to hear that Caroline and Deena are in a fight. Hopefully Deena will see what a coo-coo head Teresa actually is and make amends with Caroline.

Now, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills:

This season, there are two new players attempting to get into the action...

Brandi Glanville and Dana Wilkey

Dana: not a ton can be said for her yet except it seems like she is the chick who is down to stick behind whoever in order to continue hanging out with the regulars on RHoBH. And she likes to talk about how much money she has. Or how expensive her things are. Lame.

Brandi: She has already caused a bunch of drama, and I find her kind of annoying. It's obvious that she has low self-esteem since she is always saying that she is a slut or white trash, and I think it's kind of crazy how she launched into her attack on Kim, saying that she was doing crystal meth (and then, in yesterday's episode, really didnt seem to think that she was wrong for saying that). Given, Kim is a weirdo this season, and wasn't very nice to Brandi when she first met her, but DUDE....ease up a bit.

Not to mention, she showed up in an outfit, sporting a MEAN camel toe:

This was the only picture of her I could find from this episode, not in a bathrobe. Seriously, the camel toe was out. of. control.

Anyway, I'm super interested in seeing the next season of New Jersey and hearing about all of their feuding and drama. Beverly Hills is keeping me entertained for the moment. Atlanta is sure to be full of catty craziness as usual.

What do you think of the seasons?

Meh Monday

It's Monday. And, here I am, back at my desk at work......

Now, I know you will find it hard to muster ANY sympathy for me since I have just had two weeks of time away from work, BUT...I don't like where I work. Sadly, since I work in a school, I'm stuck here until the end of the school year. So, the 2 weeks off felt like HEAVEN! But, now that I am back, my body is like "Wait, did you ever leave??"

So, I have a feeling this little "stress reduction kit" might be getting used today:

hehe, just a little humor to get through a Monday (and an even worse Monday since it's the first back in a while).

I might be back later with an actual real post, but I also might be swamped with crazy kid antics (of which I will be sure to post about at some point).

I hope you all have fabulous Mondays! Keep your fingers crossed for me that I survive this day, and preferably without a concussion (from above "stress reduction") :)

Friday's Fancies: Thinkin' Pink!

Happy Friday, lovies! I'm enjoying my last official day of Fall Break (and am quite sad that my 2 weeks off have gone by so quickly). I'll be being a true lazy butt today, just to soak up the last of my vacation properly. In the meantime, let's do a little link-up, shall we?

Today I'm linking up with {av} at {long distance loving} for Friday's Fancies, where this week's theme is all about PINK!

So, this week, I put this little number together:

Friday's Fancies: Thinkin' Pink! by jamiffer featuring pink tank tops

What do you think? I like the pops of color on this one...and Im really digging the blazer! I think it's a hit! :)

Hope you all have a great end of the week and weekends!

Dominican Repub Recap

Happy Thursday, bloggie friends! Im still recovering from the stupid cold I picked up traveling back from the DR, but Im glad that I have the time off to be a sicky at home. I figured since I'm sick (and have finally loaded all of my pics from the trip) that this would be a good time to show you some of the pics from MG's and my trip to the DR last weekend. (wow....I just realized that we left for that trip almost a week ago. It seems like AGES ago already).

We had easy flights down to MIami and then to DR and landed outside of this airport:

Doesnt look like your average, everyday airport, does it?

Then we took a shuttle to our hotel where we checked into (and upgraded) our room to this:

I didn't get a picture of the bathroom area but it was really nice, with a glass door shower, a separate room for the toilet and had a jacuzzi too!

The view from our balcony:

(there was also a lap pool to the right of this, directly below our balcony)

And the view of the rest of the island from the hallway outside of our room:

This was a more overcast afternoon, but the view in the mornings and near sundown were gorg!

And then there's the view from our lounge chairs every day when we were on the beach:

And these are a couple of pics of MG and I throughout the trip:

First full day on the beach

Before dinner our second night

Before dinner on our last night, significantly more tanned. Woohoo!

As you can see by the amount of drinks on our table, we took FULL advantage of the all-inclusive
aspect of the vacation! And, at this restaurant, they had THE best margaritas that I have ever had. No joke!

The resort was beautiful, and had SO many different places for you to go throughout the day. The main pool had a swim-up bar, and daily activities, but there were 4 or so more pools throughout the complex (like the ones you can see in the balcony pic) that you could go to if you wanted a more low-key, quieter atmosphere.

The sand on the beach was SO soft, the water was super clear and warm, and the weather was phenomenal. I dont even think we ever saw one raindrop, which was nice considering the forecast had said scattered thunderstorms for every day that we were there. The food was also really good, with a buffet of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with a snack bar throughout the day, and 5 or more restaurants to choose from for dinner. And, I think MG and I counted at least 5 different bars throughout the resort.

Of all of the all-inclusive trips I have done (this was my third) this resort, the Be Live Grand Punta Cana, was the best! I would totally recommend it to anyone (but I would say to read reviews and do the first upgrade for your room. You wont regret it!).

So, after all of that fun, I'm now nursing this cold and hoping it clears up before I go back to ~~hell~~ work on Monday!

Hope you enjoyed the pics of my trip!!! Happy Thursday!

WILW and Oh, How Pinteresting!

It's Wednesday, peeps, which means that my break from work is coming to an end. It's been an awesome 2 weeks off (despite the fact that Im now sick) and I am not looking forward to going back to work. Buuuuut, we're not gonna focus on that--instead we're gonna talk about some of the things I'm loving today for WILW with Jamie at this kind of love.

I'm loving that my trip to the Dominican was a success! The weather was phenomenal, the resort was awesome, and MG and I got to spend some quality time together soaking it, and some relaxation, in.

I'm loving that for three days, this was my view from my lounge chair on the beach in DR:

I'm loving that MG offered to come over and bring me food and meds last night since I'm feeling sick. It's nice to feel taken care of, esp when you're not feeling great.

I'm loving that, even tho I am sick, I have a few days to try and recover before I have to go back to work. Yay for not having to take a sick day when you're actually sick!

I'm loving that I'm reading the book One Day after several bloggie friends recommended it. I started it while reading on the beach in D.R. with the breeze blowing, the waves crashing, and a tropical drink by my side. Not a bad way to get some reading in :)

I'm loving the link up Oh, How Pinteresting with Michelle at The Vintage Apple.

These are a few things that I have been pinning lately: