The Surgery Outfit

Did you know you needed a cute outfit for surgery? Yes, it's true. I'm now officially set for my surgery tomorrow, and though I'll be drugged up for sure, I'll be lookin' pretty darn cute leaving the hospital.

My friend and I were supposed to go shopping last week for our surgery outfits (she's also having surgery later this summer). But things got busy for both of us and unfortunately we never got to shop together in time. And I hadn't really had time to grab something myself, but I realized today was the last day of the big Lilly sale at Off 5th (which is about a mile from my office - so I often drop in on my lunch break!). Goodness, they had a TON of Lilly, but I had to restrain myself and stay focused on my mission. I was looking for a cute terry set - something that will be comfy on my belly, you know. I was initially thinking I'd get a cute Juicy set, but when I realized today was the last day of the Lilly sale, and obviously the last day I'd be able to find something, I knew it was meant to be! I looked at the Juicy stuff too, but it's hard to find a matching set at the outlets... it's usually random pieces. Plus I just couldn't beat the deal I was getting on the Lilly stuff, so I was sold! The above pic (though a rather bad one, since I took it with my camera phone) is the winning outfit. I didn't get a good pic of the skirt, but it falls just above the knee and flares out just a bit. Super cute. And I got both pieces for $80. Off 5th is the best.

So tonight I hope to be able to just relax, and take some time to get my remotes, books, phones, magazines, etc in order so I have everything at my fingertips when I come home tomorrow. And of course, go to bed early since we have to get up at the butt crack of dawn. I hope to get back on soon to blog about how everything went and how crappy I feel! ;-)

Under the knife...

So this Friday... I'm having surgery. I just had my pre-op appointment this morning, so I'm feeling a little less anxious than before - now that I know exactly where to go the day-of and what to expect, etc... but still - the idea of being put to sleep is scary! It's like you lose a good 2 or 3 hours of your life! My husband had hernia surgery earlier this year - and that was the first experience with surgery of any kind for both of us. If someone had told us this past Christmas that we both would be having surgery this year, I would have laughed. What in the world?

My husband's came about rather fast. He developed a hernia and well, it had to be taken care of. It was rather quick - he went to the doctor one day and literally the next day he was under the knife! It was so fast that neither of us really had time to process it. It wasn't so much of an emergency as it just worked out that way. He went through a lot of pain during recovery, so when we learned I needed surgery, he was rather hesitant because he just didn't want me to have to go through what he had just gone through. My situation is a little different though...

We have been trying to get pregnant for about a year and a half now. I started to get suspicious that something was up after about six months of trying. I think during the second six months was when I began to get pretty frustrated. There were several times when I really thought I was pregnant, but sure enough I wasn't. Perhaps I was but miscarried really early - who knows. I started reading into fertility statistics online and reading horrible stories and numbers and percentages... and finally I just had to stop myself. The internet is so great for so many things... but self-diagnosing on the web is not a good idea! There's a lot of great information out there, but I decided to just stop and to just roll with it. As much as we wanted a baby, there's only so much we can do ourselves - we're not the ones ultimately in control here! And through all of this, I think that has been the biggest lesson learned. Lots of prayer, lots of patience, and lots of prayers for more patience. Honestly, without my faith I have no idea how I would've handled all this. Like I said, I went through this period of real frustration, but I've really come to a point now where I'm just pretty laid back about the whole thing. It's gonna happen when it's meant to happen. And maybe God has an entirely different plan for us - who knows... but anyway...

After about a year of trying, we started initial fertility testing with my OB/GYN - whom I love. She is great. She experienced problems with infertility as well, so she's been where I've been and where I'm about to go. Well we did a bunch of bloodwork, my husband had his boys tested, and I also had an HSG. Don't ask me to spell out the formal name for that procedure - but it's a dye test to see if your tubes are open and to examine the shape of your uterus, etc. Well I'm lying there on the exam table looking at the image of my uterus on the screen and the radiologist informs me that I have uterine horns, which could mean a couple of different things. Either way - it meant my uterus was abnormal and some kind of "procedure" would have to be performed before I could carry a baby full term. My doctor later ordered an MRI to further examine the uterine abnormality. The MRI films (which are freaking weird, by the way!!) showed that I have a septum - a wall of tissue down the middle of my uterus. So the surgery I'm having Friday is to remove this wall of tissue. The MRI also revealed an ovarian cyst, which will also be dealt with AND, just for kicks, the surgeon (my fertility specialist) will check for and remove any endometriosis found. A 3-for-1 special! I DO love a bargain.

It's funny how we suddenly have all these medical bills rolling in this year. OK not funny - they're not exactly fun... but I just would never had seen all this coming! I'm looking forward to getting past the surgery and finding out more. It's hard to say what the next steps are until the doctor gets in there and really sees what we're dealing with. I'm still very young, so age is not a huge factor yet, but I'm definitely ready to move forward. We've been married for almost 5 years and we feel like we're ready to take that next step and start a family. But you know, although we've been wanting this for so long, we're having a blast with it just being us right now. I cherish the time we have together just being us - able to do whatever we want. We can pick up and go meet friends for dinner at the drop of a hat... we can fly out of town for the weekend without looking back... all things that will come to a hault (or at least require more advance planning!) once we have little tots running around. So while we're looking very much forward to those days, we're doing just fine with our two doggies and us. While my previous posts have been pretty light and fun, I look forward to using this blog to share our journey into parenthood. :-)

Two quickies...

The 2-for-$79 sale is over, but Smart Bargains still has a lot of great Lilly shoes marked down to $39.98.

Also Horchow is offering 20% off site-wide until midnight tonight. Enter code TODAY620 at checkout.

My kids have four legs.

I'm a dog person. I love dogs... more than some people even. Our two poochies are totally our pride and joy - they're truly our kids. My husband and I of course look forward to having little humans running around someday soon, but it's hard to imagine loving something more than we love our two sillies, Belly and Charlie. We adopted Belly, the little black border collie mix, soon after we married. She's a crazy little girl - full of energy, sass, and is too smart for her own good. A year later we adopted Charlie, an Australian shepard mix. He's pretty much the opposite of Belly... completely laid back, likes to stay indoors - preferably on the couch. The two are best friends and they clearly love each other so much. Belly is a daddy's girl and sweet Charlie is a total mama's boy. They're the perfect kids.

I know non-doggie people probably think we're nuts... but our little sillies brighten our world. My mom, who is also a big dog lover, sent me a quote the other day that totally rang true... "If you've never loved an animal, then there's a piece of your heart that hasn't been touched." I couldn't have said it better! Dogs are maybe the only creatures on this earth that have absolute unconditional love for their humans. They want nothing more than to be with you, love on you and please you. Besides a new pair of shoes, dogs are about the best therapy out there. I truly believe God reveals his love in all kinds of ways... and perhaps he created "man's best friend" for this purpose.

People always tell us that when we do have kids, our dogs just won't be quite as important anymore. I understand that our world is going to be turned upside down and our priorities are going to shift, but my dogs will always be my babies. You make time for what's important to you. Charlie will still get to spoon with me in bed at night.... he just may get a little irritated when I have to get up for a 2am feeding. Belly will still get to play in her pool.... but she may have to share it with a toddler one day. Besides, I really want my kids to grow up around dogs. I just can't imagine our little family without them! Woof! :-)

Design your own shoes!

This is one of my FAVORITE new finds. Design-your-own shoes at Steve Madden! I just received my first pair so now I can fully share the experience with others. It all started with the dream of the perfect yellow shoe. I love that yellow is so hot this year and I just had to have the perfect pair of yellow heels. I searched and searched, but couldn't find exactly what I was after. I have a few pairs of Steve Madden shoes, so at some point I wound up on his site browsing around and it was there that I stumbled upon his DYO shoe collection! How brilliant is this? I found the perfect shoe and I was able to customize every last detail - from the color, to the fabric, to the heel material - AND size.

With the DYO collection, you don't have to worry about your size being sold out, because they're made just for you! And that's another huge plus with these - the DYO variety are offered in those very hard-to-find sizes like 4 and 4.5. One of my girlfriends has itty bitty feet and has the most awful time finding cute shoes in her size - so this discovery has been so exciting for her because of the size availability! So after I designed my yellow pumps, I put them in my basket and checked out. Three weeks later they arrived on my doorstep - just as I had designed them and they are perfection!

Yes, they do take a while to arrive - so if you're creating shoes for a specific occassion, order early! And also keep in mind that the DYO variety are NOT returnable or exchangeable since they are made just for you. So it's best to know how Steve's shoes typically fit you before ordering. For me, they are very true to size. I was so excited about this discovery that I actually emailed the Steve Madden team to send my kudos! I haven't seen anything like this elsewhere - if anyone knows of other designers with similar programs, please share! Happy shoe shopping!

Lilly Pulitzer shoes - 2 for $79!

How yummy would your feet look in these? Go to Smart Bargains to take a peak. Lots of styles and still a good selection of sizes left. This is by far one of my favorite sites - love it! You can't help but have happy feet in Lilly.

Shop it to me!

You'll notice soon enough that I love to chat about shopping - especially finding a killer bargain. I do a lot of online shopping - probably moreso online than in an actual brick and mortar store these days. I still love to stroll from shop to shop and gab with girlfriends along the way, but I've found that it's hard to beat some of the online deals that are out there.

One of my favorite shopping services I've found is a site called www.shopittome.com - you have to check it out! Spend a few minutes to create a profile... it will ask you what kind of products you're interested in as well as all your sizing info. Then you're given an expansive list of designers and retail stores to add to your list. Lastly, you choose when and how often you want to receive emails from shopittome.com (I get mine daily!). Then you'll receive emails with links to items on sale from your favorite designers and favorite stores - in your size! They pull from a lot of different sites - including some of my fav's - SmartBargains, shoes.com, and Bluefly just to list a few... But it's all right in front of you - the stuff you want, on sale - just a click away without having to hop from site to site digging through the stuff you don't want. Now sometimes I do find some of the more exceptional bargains are sold out by the time I read the email and click on it, but more often than not, this is a great source for finding bargains on designer duds because it does all the legwork for me! Happy shopping!

So, this is fun!

OK my best friend got me into this somehow... I do the occassional blog on myspace, but this seems to be a way more fun way of doing it! My musings tend to be about shopping and creative stuff... and then I sometimes find myself ranting about my latest pet peeve. This blogging thing is just a fun way to share ideas or broadcast the occassional vent session. So here I am, world!