With all the sickness, surgery, and cars scraping brick walls I'd completely forgotten that on January 13th was my ten year anniversary of moving to Kentucky. 

It boggles my mind that I've been here in Lexington for 10 years. It really doesn't seem like it was that long ago. So much has happened. We bought our first house, got married, I FINALLY graduated from college, we had Ruby. I've traveled to New Orleans, Mexico, Hawaii, Florida, Boston, and Italy. I have made a ton of friends, some whom I love dearly, and met so many really cool people. 

As far as art goes there are so many programs and opportunities for artist available here that I've been able to take advantage of. While I was in school in Minneapolis I was pursuing a degree in psychology-so if I hadn't moved to Kentucky I might not even be making art! the art world weeps, I know. Sorry, feelin' a little sarcastic at the moment, it's 3am.

It's hard to explain why, even though there are so many great things going on here in Lexington, I can't just let go of the desire to move back home to Minnesota. Back to a state that voted for Obama, that is probably years closer than legalizing gay marriage than KY will ever be, back to the land of Target, Byerly's, The Walker,  Uptown, and of a bajillion lakes. Not that Minnesota doesn't have its own issues *cough*Michelle Bachmann*cough* but whatever. I'm still proud to be a Minnesotan despite having been gone so long.

Instead of a post about my weekend woes (Ruby/fever/car/brick wall/puked on/peed on/Downton Abbey) I'll just share with you some of the picture from our photo shoot at the Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota with Katie Jeanne Photography. I booked the photo session hoping to get some cute snow shots of Ruby (since it hardly snows in KY) the only problem was that there was no snow! No snow in mid-December in Minnesota. Whaaaat? Well, that changed the day I flew in. We arrived around 1pm and by 5pm a major storm was rolling in. I think in total about 14" fell at my parent's place. 

There were a few tricks used to get the photos: 
1. Drop and Run. I'd quickly put her down in a photogenic location, run behind Katie, and wave my arms around and/or dance around like an idiot while Katie also tried to get her attention. Thankfully no one else was as dedicated as we were to get adorable photos and the park was empty. 

We are just not a well family lately. First there was laFunk right before Christmas, then Ruby had an ear infection, then I had the flu. Last week Heath had bronchitis that had him coughing so badly that he couldn't sleep at night and then yesterday on the way home from work he started experiencing abdominal pains. At first he thought that it was gas but after 8 hours and anti-gas medications he was still in terrible pain. At 2am he came into the bedroom practically in tears and I made him go to the ER. Yes, I made him drive himself. I thought it best to let sleeping toddlers lie. The thought of dealing with a tired, crank toddler in the ER did not sound appealing to me nor do I think it would have helped Heath relax or get some rest. 

Soon after he got checked in he texted me and told me that they suspected that it was his gallbladder. As soon as I read his message I was like, "DUH!"  I went through that same exact pain myself (on and off for over a year) before I had my gallbladder out. I totally should have seen what was going on. After a cat scan the doctors determined that he did have several small stones, including one or two that we blocking the duct. They recommended that he stay to get them removed and he was admitted to the hospital around 5am.

I called into work (again, ugh), dropped Ruby off at daycare, and went to the hospital. Heath was sleeping when I got there so I let him rest until the surgeon came to speak with him. Then they wheeled him down to prep him and I was able to sit with him again until they took him back. Then it was a lot of waiting-waiting to go into surgery, waiting for the surgery to start, waiting to talk to the surgeon afterwards, and waiting for them to bring him back up to his room. Thankfully the surgery went well. Apparently he had one pissed off gallbladder and we nipped what could have been a very bad problem in the bud before it got worse.

Compared to what I remember about my recovery from my surgery Heath is being a friggin' rock star. I don't remember even being coherent for at least a day but by the time they brought him up from recovery he was fully awake and functioning normally. He ate all of his "clears", jello, popsicles, cranberry juice, and broth-the first thing he'd had to eat in over 24 hours-and thankfully he hasn't had any issues with the gas they pumped into his body cavity.
 
Heath is now home resting and will be off of work for the next week. I am hoping that this is the last of our health woes for a while. One, two, or all of us has been sick at practically all times for the last month and it is beyond old at this point. 

Right before the new year I started drinking smoothies. This is what I've learned so far:
 
Make sure the lid is on tight. I bought a small personal blender that you can just blend and go. I brought it to work with me and was drinking the smoothie while I was working on the floor before the store opened. All of the sudden I felt all this wet gooshiness. I looked down and the smoothie had dumped out all down the front of my shirt. I ran over to Food Avenue and rinsed my shirt off. I was grateful that the FA person hadn't arrived yet and that the store was closed because I'm sure I was flashing the goods. 

Green smoothies are an acquired taste. My second smoothie ever had spinach, kale, lemon, apple, and cucumber in it. Dis.Gus.Ting. I choked down about half of it before I added a banana which made it at least bearable. Don't put lemon in a smoothie. Ever. I guess I shouldn't say EVER, maybe that's a little harsh, but in this particular instance parts of the lemon didn't blend all the way and I kept getting sour bits which didn't help its case. Here's the recipe in case you're more accustomed to green smoothies. 

Order of operation is important. (or I need a different blender) For example, don't put spinach in first. On my little mixer it just chops it up and and then spins and spins without getting to any of the other ingredients and then you start to get that metallic-y smell coming from the blender. Not good. Kind of along these same lines is don't put a whole frozen strawberry in there and expect it to blend with no problem. Target sells frozen strawberries that are sliced though, very handy. 

Overall I am really happy with the smoothies and I will keep making them. It's nice to get a big chunk of my fruits and veggies for the day out of the way in one fell swoop.

Last night I took the Jeopardy quiz. I signed up for it a couple of weeks ago figuring what the hell. 

Hahahaha.

I don't think you'll be seeing me anywhere close to the above scenario anytime soon. 

If it were Jeopardy: No Political, Geographical, French Literature, or Sports Questions Edition then I might have a shot. Pop Culture and Art questions, I'm good. I'm fairly confident I answered all those correctly. 

 I think there was a question where Nelson Mandela was the answer, one that was definitely The Hunger Games, another that was definitely The Lovely Bones but other than that everything was moving so fast! You have 15 seconds to type your answer in the box (not in the form of a question). The whole time that damn theme music is playing which is a little unnerving under the circumstances. (I wonder what kind of psychological crap went into composing that) Then of course I wasn't sure how they scored it and if spelling was all that big of a deal (I may have put Nelson Mandala...oops) and then my typing skills are terrible under pressure...

So, yes. Probably won't be hanging with Alex anytime soon. It's funny how much I was stressing about it even though I don't place that much importance on getting onto  the show. That being said, if they just happened to call me for another round would I go? Heck yes! 

All plans for posting on a regular basis are postponed until I rid myself of this lovely Influenze type A. Hopefully I will be well enough soon to function as a normal human being.

Blah.