TGIF- Wedding planning between hospital visits

I am so happy today is Friday simply for one reason- i can maybe sleep later than 5:45am tomorrow. I hate the fact that i'm not a good sleeper. I have always been this way when something is on my mind. You should see the large black circles/luggage under my eyes. Good grief! I am a worrier and i cant NOT worry about my Dad right now. The latest is that he got the tube taken out of his throat yesterday and he's so happy for that. His raspy whisper last night was music to my ears. Being able to kiss him goodnight without all those tubes in his mouth was also so joyous. The good news is that his stats and tests look good and the surgeons approved him and he's officially back on the transplant list.  So now we wait and pray and wait and pray.

In the meantime to get my mind off  Dad for maybe 2 minutes, i think of my wedding. I have bought a few things for the wedding during my lunch hour and online so some progress is being made. What's left is very minimal now. We still have to decide on the cake/cupcakes and i'm looking forward to the testing of cakes. I sent out the invitations and we have a few weeks to get all the responses back and can start planning on the tables and seating arrangement. The wine tasting has to be done for the reception ( we are getting married at a winery and we HAVE to buy 4 cases of their wine). I have a lot of the decorations done but a few things left to do there.  A coworker is doing my flowers such as the bouttoneires and corsages. I think the only thing left that is no big deal is my hair. I loved the way Lauren did my hair for my bridal portraits but the funny thing is that Todd wants it up higher. I guess he has some hairdo envisioned in his head and he wants me to have that but he doesnt know how to tell me what he wants. LOL.  There's a place around corner that does wedding updos but its 50$ and they dont do "practice runs". I feel confident that the week of wedding, Lauren and i can practice and have something figured out.

Here are some things that i bought this week:

These are letter candy dishes. I bought H & T ( 3 dishes) online and should get next week

I bought 3 of these ties from Kohls (score for my 30% off coupon)

Yes, i bought these for myself yesterday online. I didnt buy the necklace because it was 78$ and couldnt afford the whole set . Maybe in August.

I cant thank you enough for your sweet comments and support during this roller coaster with Dad. I will be greedy and ask for all the good thoughts to keep coming our way. Dad will be in hospital for a while and maybe the transplant will happen soon. I am there everyday after work until they kick me out of ICU visiting hours.
I linked up with Tiffany at The Dwelling Tree on blog hop called Lets be Friends Blog Hop.
Have a great weekend.   xox Holli

Dad's transplant- Hurry up and Wait

Hello my sweet blogger friends. My mind is very scattered so please bare with me on this post.  The day before yesterday (Monday) turned to be quite a roller coaster chain of events.

Dad got THE CALL that morning around 10:00 am and the hospital said how soon can you get here, we have a lung.  Something that was so funny  is Dad was literally sitting in the bathtub ( he has a special whirlpool bathtub that he can sit in) and he told the hospital “ well my wife isn’t dressed yet but we can be there in an hour”.  He totally blamed my stepmom and she was more dressed than him. LOL If you knew my Dad you can see the sense of humor he has. So ornery!

 They had a team waiting for him once he arrived and they took him back to OR and got him prepped. I didn’t get to hospital until 5:15 pm and they were still determining if the donor lung was good.  My aunt, myself and my stepmom Deb were in the waiting room when we got the call from the head nurse saying it was a GO and the lung was being put on a jet plane from East Texas (Tyler) and would be there very quickly.  The nurse said that we would get an update every 2 hours and the surgery could take up to 7 hours.

Todd got to hospital around 6:30 and the 4 of us were playing cards that Todd brought by Deb’s request. I said I needed to run out to my car and get my phone charger and I would be right back.   When I got back to the table there were 2 surgeons speaking to my group and my heart sank. It was one of those feelings that you get when you know its not good. I had missed a large part of the conversation but one of the surgeons was very patient and filled me in once she knew I was Dad’s daughter. Come to find out there were 2 huge strikes that occurred. The first one is that Dad’s blood pressure literally crashed dangerously low. Then as they had the donor lung out and looked closer by their inspection, they find pneumonia around bottom of lung . The whole operation was aborted at that time.

What’s our next step? Well, the surgeons had told us Monday night after the fiasco that now they know Dad definitely needs a double lung transplant instead of the single because apparently its easier to do the double. The kicker is that Dad had heart surgery 4 years ago and those surgeons did a terrible botched job. There is a lot of scar tissue and other complications now due to that. We were SUPPOSED to get some tests done early yesterday and hopefully some answers but things got crazy in the CT at hospital. He didn’t get his tests until last night at 9:30 pm. We waited and waited and waited and without tests, Dr’s have nothing to discuss with us. Needless to say, yesterday was just a day of resting for Dad. He is on a ventilator and has the tube down his throat and is not liking that at all. 

The dr’s are specifically checking out his legs, abdomen, groin area because to do the double lung transplant they want to use this machine called the bypass machine. Essentially all the blood will drain into this machine and it will be pumped through his body by the machine and is easier for the Dr’s. They will hook the machine up to his veins in his groin so they want to make sure dad’s veins are large enough and strong enough.

What we are wanting-needing is that Dad will be placed back on the top of  the donor list and a donor for 2 lungs happens very quickly.  They have to wean Dad off some medicines and the ventilator as well before he can be released.

We should know SOMETHING today. I’m at the office today trying to work because I was at hospital yesterday.

I would appreciate any prayers  and good thoughts sent to the family.  I even missed my own Tuesday Tunes yesterday while at hospital. Crazy!

Another random survey- its been a while since my last one

1. Do you like blue cheese? Love it!!!

2. Have you ever smoked a cigarette? Yes. Tried it- did NOT like it!

3.Do you own a gun? Not yet

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Cranberry lime

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Nope. I make the appts so I know what I’m going for

6. Do you like hot-dogs? Yes, and I eat them a certain way. They have to be burned and covered in mustard

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?  Before work I grab a large sweet tea everyday at McDonalds. So bad!!

9. Can you do push-ups? Not if I don’t have to

10. What’s your favorite meal? Changes but I could eat pasta almost everyday

11. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring.

12. What do you drive?  I love my red Toyota Tacoma 4door truck

13. Do you work with people who idolize you? I doubt it but I do idolize my boss. She’s an amazing woman

14. Name a trait that you hate about yourself? I’m not disciplined enough around eating and exercising

15. Middle name? Ann.  You want to hear something funny? My initials will spell out HAM when I’m married.

16. Name 3 thoughts at this moment: I don't want to be at work, my cough is killing me, holy crap my wedding is basically weeks away

17. Name 3 things you bought yesterday: sweet tea (refer to #8), stamps, gas ( I hate pumping gas!)

18. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Water, sweet tea, wine

19. Current worry right now? Money

20. Current hate right now? that my truck needs new tires and windshield

21. Favorite place to be? On couch with my honey watching movies- in a cabin in Hill Country

22. How did you bring in New Years? At a wine tasting party at friends house

23. Favorite place to go? Hmmm too broad. Fave local place: Target fave state: California or Boston

24. What is your most recurring dream? I actually have a few and theyre too weird to put in words

25. Introvert or extrovert? Extrovert for the most part but believe it or not I can be introvert around certain crowds

26. What color shirt are you wearing? It's chartreuse and light gray
27. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Yes but my head slips off the pillow

28. Can you whistle? Not if my life depended on it

29. Favorite color? orange

30. Would you be a pirate? Me? On a boat forever? Sure why not

31. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever comes to mind. Lately it’s cheesy pop song by Selena Gomez

32. Favorite girl’s name? Maci

33. Favorite boy’s name? Not sure I have one. Lou Diamond Phillips. LOL

34. Who is your loudest friend? Kimi

35. What’s in your pocket right now? I don't use my pockets. I'm a girl with a large bag and we don’t have enough time to list all the crap I have in it

36. Last thing that made you laugh? My honey. He’s so silly!

37. Bed sheets as a child? I so loved my Holly Hobbie

38. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Ok seriously, I’ve had a few but I’ll mention this one. I was riding on the handle bars of my friends bicycle (we called it pumping) and we went down fast hill and we hit large rock and I flew off , mouth first in the concrete and broke out my tooth

39. Do you love where you live? not in the exact city I’m in right now. Hopefully we will move next year closer to Dallas

40. How many TVs are in your house? 2

41. What is your worst habit? Worrying.  I could wear a crown for being the queen worrier

42. How many dogs do you have? None yet

43. Does someone have a crush on you? I would hope Todd

44. Do you own slippers? Yes.

45. What is your favorite book? Wicked which is also my fave musical and both are very different from one another

46. What is your favorite candy? Almond joy

47. What is your favorite sports team? Dallas Cowboys. Its true I love them

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Roll me away by Bob Seger

49. What were you doing at 12 AM last night? Sleeping.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? What in the heck am I gonna wear to work today?

Tuesday Tunes with Amazing News- Dedicated to my Dad

I am dedicating today’s post to my Daddy. Most of you know that the whole reason I started this blog was to help myself process and deal with the pain of my Dad’s rare lung disease. In just over 2 years I have watched my Dad go from a vibrant man on his Harley to a frail man in his wheelchair completely on oxygen.  I just don’t even know where to begin because there’s so much I HAVENT blogged about. Truth is by typing this it makes it more real and its so painful to admit how much it hurts to see Daddy suffer. I have left out a year of tests and processes but to make a VERY long story short- last Friday the best Father’s Day gift imaginable happened. Daddy was approved and is now officially on the donor list. He is only a candidate for a one lung transplant now because of his age. When we started this process he was supposed to be candidate for double lung AND heart transplant.  We have to trust the Dr’s and just be so happy that they feel that one lung will be enough.  Daddy is 3^rd on the list. His nurse said she felt it could happen within a few months because the one lung transplant is more common.  My dream of Daddy walking me down the aisle and dancing with me is within my grasp.

This song is the song that Daddy and I danced to when I was in junior high and Dad to me to a country bar and restaurant. It’s a very special song and its funny the things you remember.

Fire on the Mountain- Marshall Tucker Band

Have a great Tuesday Y'all!!!

More wedding stuff - hey its all i got right now

It's Friday and boy am i so happy!! It was even a short week for me because i called in sick on Monday. For the record i really was sick. This cold turned into an upper respiratory infection and i have been poopy now for 2 weeks. I got prescription for antibiotic last night though so i'm on road to recovery.
A week ago today i took a vacation day because my most awesome cousin/photographer  Lauren  flew into town from her new home state of North Carolina. It was time for my bridal portraits. What what!!!
It was so exciting to have my hair all done up, i even wore eyeshadow and thats a big deal y'all! My dress and shoes all looked great and so we headed over to my wedding destination of the winery. One note to self along the way- must have car with large backseat for me to get there on wedding day. Just not enough room for me and dress in passenger seat of my pickup truck.
I had taken a Mucinex DM before we got started so that my nose wouldnt be as red and snotty for a few hours and it worked so i'm so grateful for that. I had so much fun having my pictures taken but i sure wish i felt better. Anyway, Lauren and i were there a little over an hour and we got some really fun pictures taken. It was good for Lauren to see what the lighting and scenarios will be also the day of wedding. I cant show you any of the bridal portraits until after the wedding of course because i have to leave some surprises. Todd also stumbles on my blog every now and then and we are doing the traditional thing of him not seeing me in my dress.  Funny story, Lauren was driving my truck so that i could sit with my dress all around me in the passenger seat  and as we are leaving the apartment , Todd drives into the complex. He knew what we were doing but he had momentarily forgot because he pulled next to us and rolled down his window. I put my hands over my face and ducked down and then he realized and said " Oh crap i got to keep going".  It was so funny at the moment.
Here are some ideas and pictures from Pinterest that i am using or considering.

I'm not having a wedding party but we did capture this moment at my bridal portraits

isnt this so pretty? wedding picture on book page

I bought a unity candle but we are going to do this instead

Ive been working on our wedding list for weeks

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I plan on taking it easy .

Tuesday Tunes

So my allergies turned into a wicked cold and i would just about cut off a finger if i could never have to cough ever again in my lifetime.  My song today is Cough Syrup by Young the Giant

 Congratulations to Heidi who won my book giveaway. Thank you to all who signed up.
Have a great Tuesday Ya'll!!  You guys are my internet friends and you mean so much!

Minted- The one stop shop for all wedding stuff

Hey Y'all, how's everyones weekend been so far? A few days ago i signed up for a giveaway to win some free business cards through Minted on someones blog. I didnt win BUT someone from Mint came across my blog and i was asked to blog a post about their website to show off some of their wedding invitations they have to choose from. Unfortunately , I already have my wedding invitations ready to go and are about to be in the mail. I love this website though and i am super excited because i think i found my thank you cards to use after the wedding.
The website is: http://www.minted.com/wedding-invitations  and i want to show you some of my favorites i came across. If you are planning a wedding or know someone who is, you have to check out this website. I love their stuff and i am sad i just found them AFTER i already made mine. One part i love about the website is their Inspiration Boards. I think that is so clever and i love to see other brides ideas.  Click HERE to see more of the boards.

These were my favorite invitations i saw and wanted you to see how dang  cute these are.

My invitations look very close to this style so i love it

I think i want these

I would have totally gone with this one! Love it

For a wedding at a winery , how cute is that Little Wine Charmers Invite?! Minted has some very classic, unique styles that has a style for every one.
Minted isnt just wedding invitations though. They also do business cards, party invitations for any occasion, birth announcements, you name it.  I'm so excited that i was asked to let you guys know about this website.

My first Book review and Giveaway-

I’m excited to talk about my very first book review on my blog.  I signed up to receive a free book in exchange for blog post on the review and it was so worth it! The book is called One summer in Arkansas and the author is Marcia Kemp Sterling.  The book won an award in the North Texas Book Festival this year. Its funny that the book follows many similarities  that apply to real life for the author. Marcia is actually from Texarkana, Arkansas, she practiced law and lives in California . The main character Lee is also from Arkansas who practices law and is living in California.

 I enjoyed the book personally because I also used to live in San Jose, California and was very familiar with all the places mentioned about California.   There are also some exact descriptions of life in the South that unless you’ve lived here (in the South) or spent a great deal of time, you just dont get the full effect of the accuracy that was described.   I love to read and when I get completely in a book it becomes my full focus. The author did well on building all the characters personality and I couldn’t put it down until I knew what the outcome would be on the books cliffhangers.

What I appreciated in the book  is the religion aspect to it. To me that part really captured the South and  the book displayed it from an interesting point of view.  Religion traces down to our roots and then we all have that choice to see which way we take it.  Unfortunately there are still racial struggles in the South and one of the main plots touches on this subject.  There is a great character named Etta in the book that brings things around to the religious aspect and I loved her!

The book has many real life scenarios that can happen to anyone and it also has a love triangle that makes you wonder who will “get the guy”.  It’s an easy read and i like that it makes us stop to think about our surroundings and how we think it should be.  One thing I’m just not sure I liked was that the book was so strong and detailed leading up to the very end and then basically all the scenarios were wrapped up in the last 3 pages.  Have you ever came across that?  Where you’re reading a book and there’s 2 or 3 scenes that need an ending and you look to see how many pages are left and I’m thinking to myself- there’s no way there’s an ending to everything or maybe it will be a series and pick up on Book 2.   Don’t get me wrong, it worked but I just didn’t expect it this way.

It’s hard to continue writing this review without spoiling the good scenes and ending for you. There was very little if at all foul language, the few love scenes were very clean and but you got the point and very tastefully done, and the detail was great. Overall I really did enjoy the book. 

It was such a treat to read the book ( for free) and then write this review.  I want to return the kind gesture and give the book away to one of  you lucky readers in the next few days. Comment and tell me if you’re interested in putting your name in the hat( coffee cup) for the drawing of names.

Have a great day y'all!

Tuesday Tunes

Good morning everyone. Is your week off to a good start so far? I do believe i'm coming down with a fun spring/summer cold. Oh well...
The songs today are not current but i enjoy hearing them.
This first one is from Pat Benatar and its one of her rock ballads. We Belong

 The last one is by the Dire Straits - So far Away



Have a wonderful day.

Some randomness today

I was on the Harley all day yesterday and with all that fresh country air i lost my voice. My allergies are killing me and i'm curently on Craigslist looking for a full-faced helmet. I think it will do me good.
I wish i was home to eat some of my new fave ice cream by Blue Bell ( made in Texas). Italian Cream Cake- Oh my!

On Saturday we got a knock on the door from a Fedex delivery guy and i was so excited to show Todd the beverage napkins i ordered for the wedding. I was in shock to open them up and see they are printed on Hunter green. We can no way use these at the wedding. I called the online place i ordered from and they made sure i checked off the color orange originally. Thank goodness it was an error on their end and not mine. They should be here by Thursday! Thats customer service folks.

Lovely but wrong color

Speaking of customer service, my nightmare at Davids Bridal continues. When i dropped my dress off for alterations and the bustle added, i was told my dress would be ready in May. No certain date or appointment was made with me. I thought it was strange but i thought Oh well- they will just call me or email when its ready. SO, last Tuesday i called since it was the end of May and i have bridal portraits scheduled this weekend and i needed my dress. Come to find out they've had my dress ready since May 1 and NO ONE bothered to call me or email me. I had to hunt it down myself. I asked to speak to manager and all they said was there was a checkmark by my name indicating to them that i was contacted. I feel that i should have been called every fricking day if my dress is ready. They really dont care about the brides once they get their money! Good news is that the alterations went good and i have the dress in my hands- safe and sound.

On the wedding topic i wanted to show you how funmy centerpieces are turning out. My friend Holly is decoupaging a different pic one each bottle for the tables. I love them!

Last weekend we jumped on the bike and went to a Memorial Day party at a Harley dealership in Ft Worth. I have lots of pics that i will split up and show some today and another day.

Badass skull paint job i saw

Have a great Monday and dont forget tomorrow is Tuesday Tunes.