1 MONTH FROM TODAY!

Yes that's right! 31 days until I become a Mrs., a daughter to another set of parents, a sister to other siblings, an aunt, a wife, a nurturer, and so much more!
Last weekend my mom, sister Katie, Jacob and I all drove to IL for my bridal shower that his mom and Aunt threw for me. It was all Pampered Chef and it was so much fun! We got a bunch of great stuff for our new place but I also got to spend time with his family and their friends. It was also fun to be there with my mom and my sister :) This next weekend my sister Lauren is throwing me another shower here and I can't wait! I can tell already it's going to be a lot of fun!

Jacob starts his job in a few days and for the first week, he actually gets to stay in Indy so we get to hang out for 1 more week before he moves to Chicago. But then we will only be apart for 3 weeks until I get to be with him in Chicago.

I have seen my Dr. since my last post and he said everything is going really well. I don't have to go back to see him until 2012! woohoo :) Pain has been great, but only after really long days, does my right hip hurt a little but my left has done so well. Jacob was really worried about going to Hawaii this soon after surgery because he didn't want me to be uncomfortable and in lots of pain but heck! I'll be on some of the most amazing beaches, how could that be bad!? Haha

I have also been pretty sick since Christmas. I have only started to get better this past week. It started off as a sore throat right before Christmas but then turned to hives. After my first break out, I had fever blisters, then I lost my voice, had an awful cough, back to a sore throat, throwing up, hives/rash again, chills, fever, cough and now I'm FINALLY starting to feel normal. I went to the Dr. and they did a bunch of blood work and they couldn't find anything wrong. I broke out at the Dr.'s office so they saw the rash but they had no clue what it was. I just pray it never comes back. It was NOT a fun thing to go through in the span of 2 and 1/2 weeks.

Today has been a snow day. A day to stay in my comfy clothes, do some wedding planning and just watch the snow fall to the ground and build up a wonderful white blanket of snow all around me. It's been so peaceful, and a wonderful time to think. I started reading this book last night, "For Woman Only". I couldn't put it down and it was the first thing I picked up this morning when I woke up. Jacob has the "For Men Only" book and his friend's wife let me borrow her copy and I love it (and I'm only on chapter 4!) I'm excited to learn more about how I can be more supportive, respectful, and loving towards my husband. I know I have my life to figure that out but I'm excited to always learn more.

31 days to go! I can not wait! <3

58 days!!!!

58 days until I am a wife! Things are coming along well and we're sending off invites in the next week... we met with the wedding planner last week and got a time line set up for the big day and got most of the lay out set for the ceremony and the reception.

There is big news to share and things are far enough along I thought I would share now (for those who I haven't told already....)
Jacob got a job!!!.... I got a job! and we're moving to IL! Jacob got a job in the western Chicago area a couple months ago and we're looking for apartments now in the G.H. area. I have been interviewing with a couple jobs and I got a notice of employment for my job yesterday! We will be about an hour from down town and we're looking forward to trips we'll be taking there and we're really excited about everything that is falling into place. It's nice because I know a few people within 30 min of where we will be living and I'm looking forward to seeing them again and hanging out with them since it's been almost 5 years since I have seen my friends!

Now, there is still a chance things will change again (if Jacob gets a job he's been in the process for for 5 months... it's a VERY long process and can take up to a year to find out if you get in...) but for now, these are our set plans!

We have also ended our counseling with one of the most amazing and Godly couples Jacob and I have ever met. We had to end our meeting with them at some point and we thought now was the right time and last night was a very special time with them. They wrote us an amazing letter that Jacob and I will be framing and putting up in our room at our apartment and they gave us a gift that they said out of years and years of counseling couples they have never given this gift to anyone outside of their family. It was a very humbling moment that we will never forget. Jeff and Pam have been such a blessing to Jacob and I and we can't thank God and them enough for everything they have done for us. We love them with all our hearts and we know God crossed our paths early last year for this very reason, thank you Lord.

I wish everyone a very Merry CHRISTmas, and I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Goodbye November...

Today marks the 10 weeks post-op from my LPAO! Things are going really really well but now I'm starting to have more pain in my right hip. I go to see my doctor tomorrow so I'll talk to him about it then but I know it's just because i have been putting all my weight on it for over 2 months so it's just getting a little over worked. I need to take it easy though because I have been walking around more than I should without my crutches and I went up and down the stairs today for the first time without them and I was really tired and a little sore after so I think that was too much... I want to be off everything by Christmas so I need to work hard at the gym and go by Dr.s orders and I hope to be good by then!

I'm thinking of Marcie and Jess C today because they both had their PAO's done today! They both went good and they are doing well but I know it's not always easy, now comes the days of being really good and some days are just pure crap. Girls, you will be just fine and you have so much support behind you and I know you both are soooo strong! You can do this! Love to you both!

Jacob and I have a BUNCH of stuff to do before the wedding, it's insane! Here are just a few things on our list: Continue wedding/honeymoon planning, 3-4 wedding parties, find a house then pack and move both of our stuff to IL, buy me a new car ... and Christmas, new years and birthdays are all thrown in there too! It's a lot but I'm so excited about where God is taking me (us) in a new life together! Sometimes I get in bed and I'm so tired but I start thinking about the wedding and I get so excited it takes me forever to fall asleep!

God has taken me on such a journey since last year and I have learned so much about myself and I'm so happy to keep learning more. Yes some lessons have been hard and difficult to accept (because of pride) but with God's unconditional love, mercy and grace, I can hand issues over to Him freely and give Him complete control. That is an act that is a challenge by itself because most of us want to do things and change things ourselves, but we will always end up falling short. I just have to keep reminding myself (or be reminded by others) that I'm not always right and I'm a very selfish person by nature... but I need to be reminded (as I think, we all do) that it's not about me (you). We need to continually ask, 'What can I do in my everyday life to bring a smile to God's face and that will glorify Him?' Or 'what can I do to bring happiness to others around me and not make it about me?' If you make every day about you, you will end up seeing very little and have a small view on life and God but if you open up your eyes to what God has around you and see what He is doing in the lives of those around you, you may just see something you never saw before.

To kind of explain a little about what I was talking about:
Jacob and I were both learning that we can't make him get a job without God's help. I think it's safe to say that we both had faith that something would come along but we weren't really giving God control of the job hunt. He was trying to get into places where he knew someone, or he had a foot in the door and he got some great leads and ended up in the top 2 or 3 choices for many of them but they all fell through. Then one night after a big let down, he got advice from someone, that maybe Jacob wasn't allowing God to show him what God could do in times of need. He wasn't really letting Him provide for Jacob when he really needed it. A few days later he got a call (the first out of over 40 jobs applied for) and they called him for an interview! In the end he didn't get that job but after letting God lead him, God started to let things happen. I look back to when he got the good news and I really think one day God spoke to Jacob and he picked up the phone and contacted an old company he used to work with and in just over a week, he got a call saying "I hear ya need a job?! Well, you got one..!" God has provided for Jacob and I in ways we didn't see but we're excited about it and we're going to go into it strong knowing He is showing us the way.

Ok well, thanks for listening me rant on and on but I think it's time for bed!
~~

UPDATE:

I saw my Dr. today and he says things look wonderful. The bones are healing great, and my pain is good. He did ask if I notice a difference in hight in my legs and I did say my right leg seemed a little shorter even before surgery and he said he thought so because he measured and it is a little shorter and my right femur is mushroom shaped so that could also play a part in the pain i'm feeling on my right said because it's not round the way my left femur is. But he said it's not a big deal and just to take meds as I feel I need it. I'm also allowed to walk crutch free!!! But he did say, again, if I feel tired or sore, to use them or my cane and to take it easy.

Thankfulness...

(not so much about the hip this time around...)

I am very thankful for what I have been put through these past couple of years. It is hard to say that but when I know that great things will come from it, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for how God has lead me to the place I am right now. From where I was, feeling really lost and alone, to being here now with the people in my life that play real parts in my story; thankful for the healing and strength God has given me with going through 2 major hip surgeries less than 9 months apart from each other; and thankful His love and continued protection, that of which I don't deserve but I am His and He died for me and for that I am forever thankful.

I don't want to sound... prideful(?) here but I want to say I feel that Jacob and I are "maturing" more quickly than a lot of people our age, in the aspect of learning how to deal with issues that lot of people don't deal with (at all) or until after many years of marriage. I'll spare you the details but the one subject I will touch on is the faith it take to believe God works all things together for good. In one day our plans got turned upside down at a time and a way neither of us saw coming and it has changed our lives for good but forever. We have truly been put to the test, time and time again and we know the Lord is telling us to look to Him, lean on Him because we can't make these things happen, but all we can do is look to Him and let God show us the way. Jacob and I look back now even over the past 6 months and see God working in wonderful ways when we weren't sure why things were playing out the way there were. There are so many questions we still need answered but only time will give us the answers we need. All we can do right now is to pray and wait patiently on the Lord, for His way is the only way.

Jacob asked me the other day, if we have never met, where do I think I would be right now. And I answered "Probably in Washington" It's funny because a couple days before that, I had been reading notes I wrote after I moved back to Indiana and I had already been planning on moving back to Bellingham that summer/fall after I finished school. I was going to get a job where I had been working that summer, a place to live, I have family out there, and I love to town, and I really felt I left my heart there when I moved... then 4 days before I graduated college, my brother-in-law tells me of a guy that saw my picture on their fridge and wanted to meet me. From there, well the rest is history and I'm still here in Indy, but it just shows that God may have something for you, and in a split second, your life can change. If my sister had never said "Should we tell her?" I don't know if I would ever have met the man who now, is my Fiance! I'm learning that I don't need to worry about tomorrow, because even if I plan for something, anything can happen.

I'm living today and going to hope God gives me a tomorrow...

CUZ I WALK WITH A LIMP LIKE AN OLD SCHOOL PIMP

Good news! Everything looks great! The healing is going well, I'm allowed to start bearing 25lbs/week, working out on the bike (but I have orders to only go 10 min, and I can work that up every week) and I got the A-OK to drive!(AFTER I get my car back from the shop, that is). And I found out my OS goes to the same church I do! Small world...

Here is the newest x-ray I had taken, this morning at my appointment...



NOW...here is the funny part. You see the black circle? Well, if you look hard enough you can see a little dark line from the edge of my body down about an inch or so until you see a little wider piece of screw. Well, I asked Scheid what that was since there was no head to the screw. He looked at me and said "That's not a screw... it's a drillbit." Yup! He said after making the cuts and putting everything in place, he was drilling a hole and the bit broke off, and there was no point in drilling again to go down and try to maneuver it out, so he left it in there. It won't effect me in any way, it's gonna act just like another screw so including the bit, that brings the count to 9!

Now, here is the outside image...


This surgery, has been so much easier! Stephanie was soooo right! The second time around is so much better. Even Scheid said that I'm doing so much better than last time, and even that time around, he said I was recovering better than anyone he had seen before. I can't say how blessed I had been, and I'm so very thankful!

Ok, enough for now...
;-)

4 weeks Post-op!!

Yes it's true! I'm 4 weeks post-op today and I'm down to 1 pain pill every few days! I'm really excited! These days I can do almost everything myself, but I do need help getting up and down the stairs and I'm still unable to drive, but I see my dr. next week and I hope he gives me the green flag to drive!

I'm still having trouble sleeping through the night but I can only hope it will get better in time... And this past weekend was not such a good weekend :/ I must have had something bad to eat but I got sick Saturday night and then Sunday and Monday I had horrible heartburn/stomach pain and my mom remembered I had similar trouble last time after surgery with my pain meds giving me an upset stomach at times, but I'm feeling better now and I hope it continues!

Thursday marks 17 wonderful months with Jacob!!! We're leaving Friday morning for IL and we'll be back on Sunday. It will be good to see his family and we're also visiting Chi-town on Saturday with Jason and Michelle and we're going to see baby Luke in the hospital. I'm excited to see Jacob's nephew again.

It's a wonderful time of the year and today was a great example! Mom, Lauren and I packed a picnic lunch, went to Eagle Creek and spent a couple hours looking over the water and having a good time together! the weather was beautiful, the food was great and it was oh.. SOOOOOO nice to be out of the house! Hahah!

Jacob and I had a hard past weekend with news that 3 of the 4 jobs he was interviewing for and waiting on, fell through. It's been a very rough struggle for us and we're really depending on God to get us through these times before the wedding and getting ready for a life together on the right foot. We know the Lord will provide for us, and we have faith something will come along, it's just hard not being able to control our own future but leaving it in the Lord's hands is the best and only option we have. Please keep us in your prayers!

Alright well I'm gonna go watch Friends and relax in bed! (pretty much all I do these days! hahaha)

PAIN --- Please go away!

Yesterday was great! No pain at all.......and then it began. From the time I went to sleep at 11:30pm - 5am I woke up 3 times and in horrible pain in my (L)hip and in my back. The third time I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, I had had enough so I took some pain meds (the first time in over 24 hrs) and around 6:30 I fell back asleep an woke up at 8. I hate not being able to sleep at night. and what makes it worse is I am not a back sleeper but that's what I have had to resort to since Sep. 21st, I love to be on my sides or stomach but NOOOOOOO I can't because my sides are still sore from surgery and there is too much pressure if I lay on my stomach.. this blows! Pretty much everything else is going ok though. I'm starting to use my crutches a little every day but most of all, I use the walker. Tomorrow Jacob is taking me to his gym and I hope to get in the pool from some water therapy, and i'm really looking forward to it. to be able to walk around with no help for the first time in almost a month will be an amazing feeling! I can also finally shower without help, but I still need help getting up and down the stairs, getting dressed and putting on shoes and socks.

Not much else to report on... I go see Scheid on the 28th where I HOPE he gives me to OK to drive again, but until then, I go out with my parents or Jacob whenever I get the chance..

Ok.. I'm gonna go read then take a nap...