Flashback Pt. 1: June 2009

Pardon my 2 week hiatus... but remember, i never promised a post everyday or every week... so there.

But alas, here I am again, and as promised, i'm going to walk you through what you've missed since i know you're all just DYING to know! :P

So we're going to start with June 2009... since that's where i left off!!

My last "update" before my 6 month leave of absence i left you with a picture of a boy and i... his name was Mike and the picture was from our first date... This post was also posted on June 16, 2009... so you might think... "we already know about june"

... but you don't... b/c little do you know, and little did i know at the time... 3 days later, i'd have myself a boyfriend! :)

On June 19th of the year two thousand and nine, Mike and I discussed our relationship and decided we wanted to date exclusively, based on this decision, Mike wanted to talk to my parents, and make sure that he had their blessing to date their daughter (me). So we talked to my parents and they gave us their blessing, a bit of advice about dating, and then prayed for us, it made me very happy :)

This was a very strange beginning to a relationship though... my sister did not know this boy, and it sorta freaked me out! In the past my sister knew every single boy that i ever had a crush on, and here i was with my first boyfriend and she'd never met him! So we decided to fix that... through skype! :)

Mike meeting Cara on Skype :)

Mike & Cara again, chatting away while I got ready :)

Now i know this is an extremely unconventional way for one's sister to meet one's boyfriend... but Cara wasn't going to be home until late July and i couldn't date a boy for 2 whole months without my sister meeting him, so i had to do what i had to do! :) (btw... I met my sister's boyfriend, Tim, this very same way :) )

As for anything else in June... nothing quite as significant as this that I can remember! So there you have it... a short little peak into my first month of last summer!!!

Stay tuned for Flashback Pt. 2: July 2009

Coming soon to this very blog! ;)

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays!

This week we had two big birthdays in my house here in Winona.  Monday was my roommate, Kelsey's 21st birthday and Tuesday was my roommate, Shadia's 21st birthday!  Monday night we went to Ground Round for drinks and dessert after eating a yummy rotisserie chicken, potato wedges, and caesar salad at our house.

Kelsey carving our chicken for dinner

When we got home from dinner my roommate Katie and I gave Kelsey and Shadia their presents... we got them each a birthday martini class and a post-secret book.  If you haven't heard of Post-Secret you can check it out here.  It's pretty cool.

Kelsey & Shadia with their presents

Tuesday night we went to Schyde's (a local bar here in Winona) for "Wing Night" (20 cent wings) and some more drinks.

Kelsey, Me, Katie, and Shadia before Schydes

Kelsey and Shadia at Schydes with their first legal drink at a bar!

Me & Katie at the bar

Both celebrations were very fun! We're all done with birthdays now in our house for the 2009/2010 school year! :)

Stim Therapy

Beginning this past October my left knee started to cause me some discomfort... after sitting "indian style" or if i were to tuck my left foot under me while i said (basically if my knee was bent to an angle less than 90 degrees with a little pressure on it... it would be extremely uncomfortable to straighten it.
I ignored it at first, figuring it was just temporary and that it would get better on its own.
It didn't.
Mid-November the discomfort turned to pain... not horrible pain, but definitely pain i didn't want to have.
From there my knee also started to get a little swollen... and when i say a little... i mean a little. it was hardly noticeable... but i noticed. I became VERY in-tuned to my knee and how it felt and what it looked like and such.
Beginning of December this pain also happened when i would straighten my leg after being curled up in a ball while sleeping... ie no pressure on my knee, just bent. With this knowledge i made a chiropractor appointment, and a doctors appointment.

My chiropractor appointment was on Monday January 4th. At this appointment i was told that i have the following:
-a low right shoulder
-a low left hip
-the start of a bunion on my left foot
-bad knots in my shoulders ("student knots")
-shin splints
-and ALLLL sorts of tightness in my lower legs
who knew!? My chiropractor then suggested i do "stim therapy" and that it was "really simple and only takes a few minutes, we just put a few needles in your knee and hook them up to a 9-volt battery to send a pulse into your muscles to contract them several times in a matter of minutes" etc. i'm not sure exactly what she said considering i started to panic what's she mentioned needles.
I get VERY panicky when it comes to needles... i hyper-ventilate sometimes, almost always cry (yes, at 21 i STILL cry when getting a shot) while crying or prior to crying tend to get the nervous giggles and just get very very freaked out.
I asked her if she meant we were going to do this today, she told me yes. My palms started getting clammy, i started my nervous giggles, and did my best to take deep breaths.

She then took me to another room and had me lay on a comfy cot with 2 pillows under my head and 1 under my feet. My boyfriend, Mike, was also with me at this appointment and was seated in a chair facing the cot.
As she was prepping the "materials" she was continuing to give me more details about what she was going to do as the tears came on. She said that they were acupuncture needles and that they were hair thin and didn't hurt a bit (once she stabbed me i disagreed). She then placed 3 needles in each leg around my knee as i blocked my eyes with my hand (i also get very nauseous if i see needles going into my skin, or anyone else's skin for that matter)

These needles DEFINITELY caused less pain than getting a shot would, but if i had to choose to ever get acupuncture, i don't think i would. Part of the reason it was more painful for me, especially on my left leg, is because that leg is stiff. While she was putting the needles in, Mike decided to make matters worse by asking the chiropractor why she was "putting such LARGE needles in my leg?!" which although i knew it wasn't true, still made me very panicky and made me continue to cry.
This chiropractor though was very much my friend and told him that she was going to stab him with one to see how he liked it. So after she had my 6 needles in my leg and had them hooked up to wires which attached to the "battery" she walked over to him and asked where he wanted his.
Mike was quite surprised and asked if she was serious. She was. She ended up sticking it in his right shoulder/neck area and that shut him up a little bit :)

After it was over she told me i would need about 3 more sessions of this... for the 2nd session she used sticky pads since i had such a hard time with the needles last time... but today for my 3rd session she used needles again, because as much as i hated to admit it, they had a MUCH better result with the pain reduction. This time she only did 4 needles and all in my left knee. and we got pictures! (oh! and i didn't cry today! :) )

Me laying on my cot after the needles had been inserted today with my nifty silver blanket :)

the 4 needled in my left knee! eek!

my support :)

sorry that was so long folks! but that's it! you're done! wooo! thanks for reading! :D

Back with a Vengeance!

So I just finished watching "Julie & Julia" and it has inspired me to keep up with my blog! :) Now this does NOT mean I'm promising a blog every night (i'm not my mother... yet.) it doesn't even mean I'm promising a blog every week... i'm promising that i'm going to make a valiant effort to blog more often... i'm just not sure how often "more often" is yet!


In my next few blog posts i'm going to catch you up on all you've missed over the past 7ish months of my life! I'm not going to do it all in one blog, b/c that would be just TOOOO much! so i'll break it up... the rough plans in my head right now are telling me I'll break it up by month... but we'll see :)


ANYWHO as far as the here and now.... I'm back at school (Winona State University for those of you who don't know!) and tomorrow starts what is known in the college world as: "Syllabus Week"... the week that you spend all your class time getting the syllabus and going over rules and schedules and expectations and BLAH. it's also known as torture to many college students.. but better than lecture and homework i suppose... although who knows, maybe i'll get a lecture and homework tomorrow!
A brief glimpse at my schedule? Mondays = 1 class... 12:30-2:20 woo hoo!
and after class it's home for "stim therapy" on my knee and dinner with my boy and my rents :) woo!




and pssssttt.... HAPPY 21ST BIRThDAY KELSEY!!!!!


over and out :)