oh man

So I'm currently sitting in my living room watching the Olympics while a dude from my complex is fixing my A/C. Apparently it was leaking on my downstairs neighbor. Oops. I have no problem sitting in here while he works...except...after him being in here for who knows how long I just realized what my apartment looks like. I didn't take down any of my decorations from the party. And I still have framed pictures of people like they're my BFF's, but I don't know them. I can only imagine what he was thinking when he walked into my apartment today. Or what he thought about the weird Aly Raisman framed picture where he set some of his tools. I wish I could be around when he meets up with his other maintenance buddies and tells them about my place. They will probably be really jealous and want to come and watch the Olympics with me. I mean, it is really festive in here.

i'm feeling very olympic today

Friday night were the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, and so of course I had to have a themed party! I have always loved the summer Olympics. I think my love for it grew even more when we were able to go to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and see the women's gymnastics individuals and team finals. Anyways, I decided a few weeks ago that I should throw a party, and from there things got a little nuts. 

I started my planning with the food. Obviously. I wanted to have different appetizers from different countries, so I started looking through Pinterest to find the perfect ones. Once I had the food planned (antipasto plate: Spain & Italy, chipotle chicken tostadas: Mexico, cucumber and avocado summer rolls: Japan, Asian pork meatballs: China, bangers (from Whole Foods) and mash (tater tots I tossed with season salt): London, pulled pork sliders (the pork was from Franklins BBQ): USA, vegetable hummus tart: Greece) I started working on the food flags. I wanted to make one that labeled the food in English and in the language of the country, and their countries flag that I drew. I bent them and put them in one of my medicine bottles to make them look like they were moving. They turned out pretty cute!

The food all laid out

After I had the menu planned, I had to figure out decorations. I had talked to my mom about it and she was on it! She sent me a box full of awesome stuff. There was a magazine about the US athletes, one of our Olympic flags (yeah, you read that right, ONE of our Olympic flags. I don't know what family needs one, but two flags. Apparently we do), a London flag, stickers, and copies of games we could play. I decided to pull all of the pages out of the magazine and use them in every single frame I own. I also brought my US flag home from my classroom to use, and pulled out the extra decorations for the 4th of July parade I was in. My friend Sarah had some random medals that she gave me that I used to give out randomly throughout the night. 

Welcome to the Olympics!

 The backside of my door.

 Above the tv

 Drink table.

 Food table

 Game area

Bathroom decorations. By the end of the night there were more messages on the mirror in lipstick.

My friend Patricia was in town and she helped me finish up the food stuff which was an awesome help! Luckily I had made most of the food the day before, so day of I mostly had to put things together and warm them up, and set everything out. She definitely was one of the medal winners for being awesome! I was so excited for everyone to get here and see their reaction to my insane awesome looking apartment. I also loved that without me saying anything, everyone was dressed in red, white and blue!

 Go USA!

Derrick and Katie brought ingredients to make red, white and blue martinis, but it didn't stay separated like it was supposed to. So instead everyone took a purple shot to start off Opening Ceremonies.

 Getting ready. Larry was really excited.

 I don't think I missed anything...

When all of the countries started coming in we figured it was time to play some games. (Well, mostly Katie because she really wanted to win a medal.)

Checking to see if the answers were correct. I don't just hand out medals to whoever gives me their paper first! This is serious stuff guys.

Some of the winners! Alli: Fastest Word Find, Derrick: Fastest Crossword, Katie: Fastest Olympic Sport Match.

It was a really fun night! I'll now be spending the next two weeks glued to my tv, eating leftovers and sitting in my still decorated apartment. Go USA!

back update #2

People have been asking about my back, so I thought I should do a quick update. Things are MUCH better! It is only a little irritated when I'm running because my sports bra rubs against 2 spots, but nothing too terrible. None of the spots are still raised which is also great. The skin is starting to peel, so instead of a dark brown color, it's now an awesome dark brown ring around bright pink spots. Here are some before and current back pictures.

First day I took a picture of my back

Eric wanted to take a picture of my back last night. He was pretty amazed...or grossed out. Not sure which.

Here's what my back currently looks like.

It still looks crazy, but I'm just glad my back feels so much better! Now I just need my back to not look gross. Sadly I am officially done with water and laying out for the rest of the summer.

glass cutting

I saw on Pinterest a way to cut glass to create drinking glasses, or other awesome things from wine bottles. While my dad was in town last weekend we tried it out.

All of the supplies, minus the nail polish remover.

So you wrap string around the bottle a few times and tie it. Once you do that you take the string off and you let it soak in nail polish remover for 10 seconds or so, and then put it back on the glass where you want it to be cut. Then you light it on fire! (I made dad do this. After my whole back fiasco, I didn't think luck was on my side and figured it would be better if the glass shattered all over my dad instead of me.) You turn the bottle around in circles until the fire totally goes out.

Once the fire goes out you put the glass in ice water. You don't need to use a tub, but we did because we weren't sure if the glass would totally shatter or not. 

The second it touched the water the top popped off! Dad and I both jumped not expecting it to happen so fast. We then sanded it down, and now it's ready to be a drinking glass!

We tried this on wine bottles, but no matter what we changed (the amount of times around the bottle, the amount of time soaking in nail polish remover) we couldn't get the top to separate from the bottle. BUMMER! I'm going to try it again though. The only thing I can think of is putting in more ice and making it colder? It wasn't as cold as when we started because we ran out of ice, so that's the only thing I can think of. I'll let you know if I'm successful in later attempts.

If you've done this before and had success on wine bottles, please tell me how you did it in the comments section!

back update

My mom was awesome enough to come up from Houston and has dutifully rubbed cream on my back 3 times a day, cleaned my apartment, done laundry, reached for things when I couldn't, basically she has been awesome. As the days have passed the coloring in my back isn't as firey red as it was, and the pain has decreased. Don't get me wrong. It's still pretty crazy looking and it still stings some, itches some, and sometimes is a little painful. It just feels more like a sunburn than actual pain which is great. As I write I am currently sitting back (probably not for too long though)! Something I haven't done since last Sunday!

My insane amount of supplies. Cream, antibiotics, 2 different pain meds, latex gloves, and gauze pads. (The box on the right are leftovers from when my dad was shot! I was surprised those didn't disintegrate when we touched them.)

Today I went to the dermatologist to see what he would say and make sure I was doing everything I should be. Since things were getting...better, I wasn't sure what all he would say other than keep doing what you're doing. When my doctor saw it he said it wasn't a staph infection, it was phytophotodermatitis. Excuse me, what?! Apparently it's when something, like citrus fruits, or celery, or other random things, touch your skin and then are exposed to the sun they can break out into a "rash." It shows up within 24 hours, check, and the reaction peaks at 48-72 hours, check.

My friends had been checking in on me, and several knew I had a doctor appointment today. When I told them what it was they were cracking me up with their responses. 

Emily: I googled it and you may have some in contact with some bad celery. You really shouldn't rub root vegetables on your body.

Sarah: Were you in the same pool as the dead guy? You should make your apartment pay for your medical bills. Also stop using the dead man's pool.

Angie: Well who the heck is trying to kill you by squirting your back towel full of juice?!

So basically it's going to take quite a long time for the redness and rash spots to fully go away. He said I could start running again, but I need to make sure to not work out past my discomfort in my back. So probably no Crossfit for another week or so. I'm just glad I know what it is now. I guess this means no more laying out for awhile. And no more swimming in the dead man pool.

i've always wanted to ride in an ambulance

Before I get into the explaining, there are some gross pictures of my back. This is your warning so you aren't allowed to complain about the gross pictures.

I need to back up to Sunday to explain what happened yesterday. I went out to the pool on Sunday and was laying out for about an hour, not too long. That afternoon I looked at my back and it looked like a sunburn, but it was patchy, so I wasn't sure it was a sunburn. Ever since then it's gotten redder and more painful. It's been so painful I haven't been able to sit back or put any pressure on it since Sunday. I was with some friends Tuesday night and they were really worried about it and said I needed to go to the doctor. We tried googling it too, but couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Tuesday night

 Wednesday night. The white stuff is the cream.

Yesterday, Wednesday I was able to get a doctors appointment in the morning which I was glad about. When the doctor came in she looked at it and said it could be shingles but probably not because shingles sticks to one side of your back. She then said she was going to touch it, I don't really know why. She decides she wants to touch the worst spot super hard, and I have literally never felt so much pain in my life. When she stopped touching it it felt like all my nerves were still on fire. 10 seconds later I tell her I'm feeling really light headed and the next thing I know I'm laying down on the table and she's asking me what my name is, what year it is, and where I am. (The doctor at the hospital said when you are in excruciating pain like I was you can literally pass out from the pain. That's what happened to me.) She was also super panicky in her voice which was really helpful for me and my nerves. At this point they're giving me oxygen, IV's, checking my blood pressure, checking my sugar levels, etc.

I started feeling better and about 10 minutes later I tell the nurse I am insanely hot. She said that was normal-I don't believe her-and she starts fanning me off. I then start to feel like I'm going to pass out again and tell her this and she starts kicking the door to get another nurses attention to get the doctor. The doctor takes my blood pressure again and it was 70/30! She starts almost yelling for crash cart cardio sensors or something, and then said call 911 we need an ambulance here now. WHAT?! At this point I think the only reason I didn't pass out again was because I was trying to pay attention to everything she was saying. 

The EMS guys come and get me on a gurney and at this point I'm feeling pretty ok. Scared, but ok. When we got into the ambulance the EMS guy said he would take my picture so I could put it on facebook. I also asked if it was a free ride since I was a teacher and we were LITERALLY going across the street. No joke. Across the street. I should have just walked. I get to the hospital and they put in an IV and a second one with an antibiotic, take tons of blood, and two different doctors come in to look at my back. They said the fainting had nothing to do with my back, it was just I vaggled or something from the pain. All of my blood tests were totally normal, and he said he thought it's a sunburn that got a staph infection. He said if it doesn't get better in 3-4 days I need to go see my dermatologist. I have antibiotics I have to take, cream to put on my back 3 times a day, and they gave me pain meds to take as needed. 

All in all I wouldn't have had to go to the ER if that first doctor wasn't an idiot and pushed my back so hard. My mom is here and she's going to stay until my back is better so she can put the cream on. My back still hurts, of course, but hopefully the pain meds will help with that. And that, is my insane story about what happened to me yesterday.

running adventures

While in Chicago I decided to go for a run and head for the lake. When I got pretty close to the lake I came upon a homeless couple and was about to run around them when I saw something peculiar. Look and try to find it...

I wonder how long it took you to realize there is a saw in that dudes backpack. Of course I pulled out my phone and took a picture of it. Afterwards I wasn't sure what I should do. Run around them? They were taking up the entire sidewalk and if I did I would probably bump into them and then I would get sawed to death. So I figured it would be safer to just walk behind them for a bit. The smell got too bad so I chanced it and ran in the street to get around them.

I talked with Rebecca afterwards and we decided he is either, 1. a super normal homeless guy that likes to do woodwork, or 2. a crazy person who saws other people for fun.

Either way, avoid homeless people carrying saws. You're welcome for the advice.

miles love

I left Kansas with Rebecca, Michael, and Miles and headed to Chicago for the week. I know Miles is super cute and awesome, but it's really funny to see random strangers start talking to whoever is around him about how cute he is, and then trying to become BFF's with him. I get it, he's pretty awesome. It's also really clear that he truly is a babe magnet. (Michael's words, not mine. He may not have actually said babe, but it felt appropriate.) I was worried how awful the flight would be since I had a lovely morning of throwing up in my cousins yard. It wasn't too bad though because I was feeling much better, and Miles was nice enough to just lay in my lap half of the time reading books with me. 

The week went by way to fast, like usual. We spent everyday visiting different parks during the day, and then hanging out with Michael at night. It's so different visiting Chicago without my parents because then we don't have a babysitter and the three of us can't go out. It was still a lot of fun getting to spend so much time with them. I don't think Rebecca and I have spent 10 days together since she lived at home in high school. It was great, and we didn't get on each others nerves! (I guess I can only speak for myself. But really, how could she get annoyed with me? I'm pretty awesome.)

Getting ready for take off.

He loved playing in the baby pool on their deck. He kept slamming himself into the water and cracking up every time he landed. I couldn't stop laughing at him!

After our trip to the children's museum. He didn't want me to sneak any Cheerios while he napped. I like his style.

Did I mention Miles is on a soccer team? It was hilarious! He and his best friend Jack, next to him, could have cared less about actually kicking the ball. They were more interested in running the opposite way they were supposed to.

This was the closest he got to actually kicking it. He finally decided he would pick it up and hand the balls to me instead of kicking them.

 At the park before heading to the pool.

 Miles and I taking our typical photo shoot.

I took him to the park one morning and he was more interested in the ice cream cart bells. Luckily the man was nice enough to let Miles bang on them forever.

One of the last nights I was there I was invited to join Rebecca and some of her friends for their wine club. They are aware of my food issues, and one of her friends is just starting to have food issues so their theme reflected that. Wine clubs theme for the night was "Food allergy awareness wine club". Everything had to be gluten free and the wine sulfate free. It was awesome! I was able to eat everything except the cheese plate. 

There were about 4 more things that were added to this table as the night went on. Delish! All in all it was a great week. Sadly I won't get to see them again until Thanksgiving. Maybe they should come back to Texas for another 3 week visit!