Hi, remember me? I’m that chick that owns this blog. Sometimes I write 200 posts in one day and sometimes I go a week or more without posting. Yeah? That ring a bell?
Anyway, I’m here. Here I am! I really don’t have a whole lot to say that’s of any substance. So howsabout a bullet list? Who doesn’t enjoy a good bullet list now and then?
Surgery in 15 days. This means tomorrow, I have to start my ’2 week pre-op’ instructions which include things like: no aspirin or ibuprofen, no herbal meds, no diet pills, no mega-doses of vitamin E. And no smoking, which I don’t anyway. These things can affect anesthesia and blood clotting. Also, I have to go get my pre-op blood work done tomorrow and have a pee pregnancy test (which seems silly since my tubes are tied but whatev)
I’ve got spaghetti sauce simmering away on the stove right now. Smells good. Half of it will go into the freezer. I’m also making homemade French bread. Go, me!
My freezer is almost full. I am thrilled! My kids won’t live on corndogs and McDonald’s cheeseburgers for the week or two that I feel the worst!
I gave in and bought 2 more cherry tomato plants. I want tomatoes! Now… will we have a long enough growing season to make it worth my while? Will I even feel well enough to stumble out there and pick them? We shall see. At least the kids will be able to munch on them when they’re outside playing.
Husband has two work trips coming up. On the plus side, this has earned me one free trip to anywhere of my choosing. I’m hoping to redeem that for a twitter meet-up with my best twitter girls. Yay!
I’m reading a book about two little girls that go missing. Why do I do this to myself? It’s taking me forever to get through it because I just don’t want to read it. But now I have to finish it to find out what happened to them. Dammit!
This is one of my favorite recipes. The issue is, it’s so delicious that you have to just kind of expect to feel like a ginorm bloated whale afterward because you can’t stop. It’s addicting. So maybe you actually should not make this. Go make it right now and we can feel squishy together.
Also, here’s your warning: This recipe breaks a huge food ground rule for me. It’s got a pound of processed cheese (shudder), which I normally do not eat. We all have our moments of weakness, this soup is responsible for many of mine. So worth it.
Chicken Enchilada Soup
1 Tbsp oil
2 C cooked, diced chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken from the store because I am a huge cheater)
1/2 C diced onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 C chicken stock
1 C masa harina
3 C water
1/2 tea salt
1 tea chili powder
1/2 tea cumin
1- 15oz can mild, red enchilada sauce
16 oz Velveeta, cubed
Garnishes: shredded cheddar and/or jack cheese, chopped tomatoes or fresh pico de gallo, sour cream, avocados, tortilla chips
Heat oil in large stock pot. Saute onion til translucent. Add garlic, saute about a minute. Add chicken stock. In a bowl, combine the masa harina with 2 cups of water. Mix till no lumps remain. Add this to the stock pot. Add the other cup of water, the seasonings, and the enchilada sauce. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Add the cheese, stir til it melts. Add the chicken and heat through. Serve topped with garnishes. Eat two bowls and regret it later.
Ok, I officially give up on the garden this year. It is nearing the end of JUNE and we still don’t have warm enough weather to make my stuff grow. There’s a couple things still sprouting so we will see how those go but I wanted tomatoes most of all… and they all died. I’m not even sure I want to re-plant at this point. I won’t feel well enough for a few weeks to even go out and tend to them anyway. I’m so bummed.
Oh well. We are talking about maybe building a small greenhouse sometime, so maybe we will have some lovely tomatoes next year and then I will can them and I will be rad with my home canned tomatoes. This year, I will be rocking the store bought canned tomatoes.
I am very much tired of this weather though. Here it is, June 21st and it’s not even 60 degrees outside right now. I need some warm weather! Sigh.
I thought I’d say a little bit more about the surgery. I’ve had several people ask for more details and thought this is a great way to get all this info out there for those who are looking to do this… or are just nosy! (Hey, it’s ok if you are. I’m nosy too.)
For those who are curious, I am about a 36C right now in bra size. My build is not small by any means, so that size doesn’t really fill out my tops like it should. My plastic surgeon agrees that a D cup or possibly even a DD would be more suitable for my frame. The way she determines this is by putting temporary saline implants in and then sitting me up during the surgery. She will fill the implants with saline to a D cup size and then a DD and determine which looks best with my frame. She uses the volume of saline to determine which size silicone implant should go in. I’ve decided on silicone for a number of factors. While it is far more expensive than saline, it’s also longer lasting, feels and looks more natural, and is lighter in weight than saline which means drooping as time passes. I have a significant amount of drooping, so there is a chance that I will also need to have a breast lift at some point. It’s possible that the implants will fill my breasts out enough that I won’t require a lift, but the chance is there. My surgeon won’t do both a lift and augmentation at the same time because she feels the risk of loss of nipple sensation is too high. So for now, we’re going with the augmentation and we will see from there. The implants are going in through the creases under my breasts.
As for the abdominoplasty… aka tummy tuck… she’s going to cut around the inside edge of my belly button and then right along where my c-section scar is. As is common after pregnancy, my abdominal muscles have separated, which is why I can’t tone my stomach no matter how many reps of ab exercises I do (and trust me, I’ve tried.. and tried… and tried!) So those muscles will be pulled back together and stitched up. Most of the skin below my belly button will be removed and then the upper skin will be stretched down over the muscles and sewn shut. She will be making me a new belly button. The plus side is that all the stretch marks below my belly button currently will be gone. The minus? I have stretch marks all the way up to my ribs, so those will still be there- but possibly they’ll be pulled taut and won’t show quite so much.
And finally, after all that, she will be doing a bit of liposuction on my sides just for the best waistline contour she can give me (no, not my hips… don’t need it. My hips and butt are smokin!)
The surgery is in Reno, which is 170 miles away from Winnemucca, where I live. She does office visits here once a month but practices out of Reno. I’m being sent paperwork telling me all I need to know for the surgery, and orders for my blood work that I will have done at the hospital here. I have a pre-op consult with her here in Winnemucca on July 13th (the day before), in the morning. Then Tim and I will head to Reno and stay the night with my aunt and cousin. My surgery is at 7:00 am on July 14th. It’s expected to take roughly four hours. The surgeon pays for a suite at a hotel for her out-of-town patients, so once I come out of recovery we will head there where I will likely be in a lot of pain but can hopefully get lots of sleep. The following morning, I’ve got a follow-up appointment with the doctor to have my bandages changed and my incisions checked, and then we will head home to Winnemucca.
And of course, everyone is curious about the cost. They’re estimating that this will be a little over $11,000. Yep, that’s expensive. Luckily, my surgeon’s office accepts the CareCredit card- so that’s a really good option if you’ve been considering plastic surgery but it just feels out of reach due to cost. Definitely check the site out and see how it works, because it’s not limited to just plastic surgery- it can be used for all healthcare purposes, even some vet’s offices accept it. There are various monthly payment plans, even some with no interest.
So this got a little more long-winded than I intended it to, but I hope it answered some questions. If you have any other questions at all, please feel free to ask me! Here, facebook, twitter, email, whatever. You can even ask me anonymously if you’d prefer.
In all my research about plastic surgery, I have come across a few users on YouTube that documented throughout the process. I think that is so cool! I mean, it’s one thing to just read what to expect after surgery but it’s so much more informative for me to actually see the process firsthand. So, I thought to myself- I am going to do that! I am going to vlog my way through this, starting today with a video on my reasons for getting the plastic surgery done. I will continue, probably with another pre-op video with my feelings right before the surgery, how I feel immediately after, and even more in the weeks following the surgery. My hope is that it will help other women who are thinking about the “mommy makeover” know exactly what to expect, from how nervous I am before, to how sore and tired I am after, to how my scars are healing as time passes, and ultimately, how pleased I am with the results once I’m all healed up.
Oh- I tried really hard to talk loud but it still wound up being pretty quiet. Adjust your volume accordingly and I will figure out how to make it better for next time. Enjoy!
One more thing: This video does have a belly reveal. So. Don’t be eating or anything while you watch. You’ve been warned.
If you win one of my giveaways and you don't receive your item, please contact me WITHIN A MONTH of winning and I will try to get it figured out for you. If you wait much longer than that, it's unlikely I will be able to do anything for you.
On the plus side, this has earned me one free trip to anywhere of my choosing. I’m hoping to redeem that for a twitter meet-up with my best twitter girls. Yay!
Enjoy!
