A Moment of Silence Please

Our dear Fishy has passed away. After being rescued from an evil craft store he lived a long happy life with us in a beautifully planted tank. We weren't sure how old he was, but a good guess would be at least 2.5 if not 3 years. Rest in peace Fishy, we will miss you. :(

Live Unplanned: Redux

Well it's been almost a year now. January 29th I was put on an antibiotic and had a severe reaction to it. Everything went downhill from there. Panic attacks, depression, severe pelvic pain, bladder irritation and pain. No one could find a reason, no one could find anything wrong. Test after test, hospital trip after trip, 8 ER visits, 2 urologists and 3 months later I was in surgery and woke up to the news that I had Interstitial Cystitis. It is incurable, and mostly untreatable. It takes months to a year or more for medications to start working, if they work at all. My life, in ruins. No more could I have the foods and drinks I enjoyed. No more could I go on long photo hikes with my now husband. No more could I take long rides in the car. No more could I work a job. Ruins.

It's been a very long and hard road and while it's better, there is still no end in sight, no end to the suffering. Sometimes I feel ok, almost normal. Then some days I am in pain and some days I can barely do anything from fatigue and lack of energy. I cope though. I try to live, It's all I can do.

Life, planned.

I'll start with the planned part. :) On July 26th 2009 overlooking a foggy pacific ocean in Newport Oregon, John and I were wed. No one noticed the weather though. It was a perfect day spent with close friends and family. The three days of beautiful sunshine that followed for our honeymoon trip down the coast just made it all the better. The wedding was held at Stone Crest Cellar Bed and Breakfast who did a wonderful job with all the planning, decorations and food. I'm glad the stress leading up to that day is gone, but I do wish that week could have lasted much longer and that more time could have been spent with everyone. Perhaps we'll plan an anniversary bash next year there on the coast.

Life, unplanned.

Yes, it's been a very very long time. Not always a good time either. I won't get into details in this post, but some bad things have happened health wise and some great things have happened such as the wedding! I'm going to try to get back into the blogging. Right now though I've spent too much time at the computer today already. I'll post details later. Just know this past year has not been what I wanted, not been what I planned for, but instead has been both a nightmare and yet everything I could have hoped for at the same time.

The Photos Say It All :)

So I'll let them do the talking. Obviously I said yes :)

How Time (And my Sandwich) Flies!

Saturday was my one year anniversary of moving to Portland. We can't believe it's been a year already! I know it's cliche but time really does fly when you are having fun. Well Saturday we had quite a bit of fun. The day started with flowers (ftw!) and a card that read 'Happy one year of adventures'! After situating those in a vase we headed out for Mount St. Helens. The goal was adventure, and the scenic twisties of the Windy Ridge drive. Despite a road closure cutting the drive off sooner than we'd hoped, it turned out to be a fantastic trip. We mostly went for the roads, but we did make a few stops along the way for pictures and lunch.

Our first stop was the volcano overlook at Bear Meadow where we shared a picnic lunch; just us... and 10 hungry grey jays. I had packed cracker crumbs for them but they seemed to have other ideas. I made it halfway through my sandwich before they decided it looked tastier than crackers. Every other time I took a bite a bird would swoop down, brace it's little feet on my hand and face, and snatch a piece of crust away. I finally gave up and let them pick at the last bit of bread. I put out more crumbs for them and tried to eat my apple only to have one little jay abandon the crackers, hop over to me and then up onto my apple. It couldn't quite figure out what to do with it though so it ended up just perched there. Needless to say, I didn't eat that part.

After lunch we drove down to Iron Creek Falls where I had a losing battle with gravity, and fell down a small embankment. It didn't do too much damage, just a little bit of hurt pride as I had a bit of an audience. To the amusement of some though, I gave them a shrug and a thumbs-up from the spot on the ground where I had so inelegantly landed. We spent time taking photos there at the falls before heading back in and ending the day with dinner on the river at McMenamins on the Columbia in Vancouver. Photos from the trip are on my fotki!

Triple D Goodness

No trips this past weekend as Portland has reverted back to winter weather mode (I'm wearing a sweatshirt and watching it rain as I type this). We did manage to hit the Pearl District and enjoy some fantastic food though. Triple D (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network) is one of our new favorite shows. The only bad thing about watching it is, well, it makes me unbelievably hungry and a majority of the places are very far away. It also doesn't help that we watch at night before bed so I can't get any food at all! Guy did visit one spot here in Portland though so we headed there on Saturday. Let me tell you... the Byways Cafe has some of THE best french toast and pancakes I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, and I've had a lot of french toast and pancakes! John got the blue corn pancakes and I got Amaretto french toast, both slathered with their special honey pecan butter and pure organic maple syrup. The food was so good that we both ate well beyond the point of being too full to eat anymore. We are making a second trip this weekend to try the corn beef hash and fresh made desserts (also featured on the show). Weather is supposed to improve this weekend so we've rescheduled a drive/hike for then. Watch for a trip post and pictures!