A New Start

I officially started my last semester of grad school.  It's crazy to think about all the things, academically and spiritually, I have learned since May.  I seriously cannot believe this journey started eight months ago.  I'll finish my winter project in two weeks.  Then all that's left is a 16-week online class, an eight-week online/in person class that starts after spring break, and my capstone that lasts all semester.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I get teary-eyed just thinking about walking across the stage and being hooded.  I know that will be such a happy moment.  I'll look back and flashes of God's provision will spin through my head.  God is good.  I'm sure I might also be thinking about getting married eight days later. :)

Wedding progress: You all know how much I love checking off things from my to do list.  I've made quite a bit of progress the past few weeks.  I ordered my wedding shoes and will pick them up today on my way to class.  I ordered ten Wal-Mart giftcards as thank yous to the groomsmen, ushers, and other lovely friends who are so graciously helping us with the wedding.  We'll hand those out at our rehearsal dinner.  Robert and I addressed the wedding invitations.  I'll put stamps on them January 23 after postcard stamp prices go up (ugh).  Then we'll mail them out February 20.  Eek!  All my bridesmaids were in town for winter break so we planned my bachelorette party.  It will occur the night before the rehearsal dinner.  So excited to have fun and be silly with my girls.  We also planned my personal shower which will occur in March.  Kelsey and Elise are hosting.  Additionally, we planned my SBU girl friend shower that Tarah and Tiffani will host.  Finally, my mom and I chatted with the host for my main shower.  Sandy Maupin has volunteered to have it at her house.  I'm so pumped!  She has already secured 14 co-hostesses.  I'm amazed at the love and kindness people show.  The shower is going to be March 10 from 10:00 a.m - 12:00 p.m.  Mark your calendars!  We also registered at Roweton's Home Center which was super fun.  Ray bought us to place settings of our dishes for Christmas.  So perfect! We added our bedding to our Bed Bath and Beyond registry.  My wonderful MOH texted me last night and asked for another project.  Today I mailed her tulle, ribbon, and money for birdseed so she can make the little birdseed bags for each guest to throw birdseed at us as we leave.  I ordered a glam comb for my veil.  Aunt Dana came for a visit and took the mason jars back to Texas with her because she is going to dye them blue.  How awesome!  The next big thing on my to do list is a gown fitting on February 4.  I am so incredibly excited to wear my dress again.

I lost another three pounds.  Total weight loss to date is 23 pounds.  It feels so good!

Robert's knee surgery went well.  He tore his lateral collateral ligament.  The doctor removed the frayed part.  He also drained some liquid that was causing bursitis.  He gets his stitches out today.

In other health news, I burned my finger very badly a week and a half ago.  I was at my dear friend Leslie's house for dinner.  I put spaghetti noodles on my plate.  When I went to pour some sauce on the sauce dripped onto my pinky and ring finger on my left hand. (!)  There wasn't a napkin nearby so I rushed to the sink to wash it off.  Initially it honestly didn't hurt.  However, a few minutes into dinner I found myself in extreme pain.  I tried to play it off by holding my two fingers with my cold right hand to provide some relief.  I held onto my cold glass of ice water.  Basically I just sat there thinking, "This is the most pain I have ever been in before."  The second I got into my car I called Robert and said, "I'm coming to your apartment.  Have a bag of ice ready.  I'll explain later."  I zoomed to his apartment and immediately put on the ice bag.  I found out later that you should never put ice on a burn.  Oops.  We went to my house.  My mom had me soak my finger in cool water.  I soaked it in cold milk as well because I thought I remembered my high school algebra teacher saying that was helpful.  I put aloe on it.  I held it upright so the blood wouldn't flow to it.  We started watching Dumbo.  The entire time I was seriously writhing in pain.  Finally Robert noticed I was crying so we decided to go to Walgreens.  He was still on prescription painkiller for his knee and couldn't drive so I had to drive with my disabled hand.  We went to Walgreens and bought Solarplast.  It was 8:05 p.m., so of course the doctor's offices were closed.  And the walk-in clinic closes at 8:00.  Go figure.  Therefore, I couldn't get a prescription that night.  The only other option was to go to the ER.  And seriously, I would feel so dumb going to the ER for a spaghetti burn.  What would they do?  Hook me up to an IV and do an x-ray?  I went to sleep that night with a very tiny blister near my cutuicle.  I woke up the next morning with this:

Needless to say, I was horrified.  I called Robert immediately.  I went to his apartment.  He was shocked.  I had his roommate Wade close his eyes.  When he opened them he was shocked.  I searched blisters on webmd and found conflicting perspectives one whether or not to pop blisters.  I decided to leave the blister unwrapped and went about the day with my hand in the air to avoid the pounding of my pulse in my fingers.  I saw the former SBU school nurse at the park and decided to tell her my story.  She looked at my blister and said that in her 30+ years of nursing she had never seen a blister this tall before.  That night as I walked to my room in the dark I hit my finger on the doorframe.  This didn't officially pop my blister, but it did start oozing.  It oozed through the night, occasionally waking me up from the liquid streaming down my hand and arm.  Now that the blister was partially open I could no longer put Solarplast on it.  It was time to go to Kansas for the weekend to have a belated Christmas with the Varners.  Before we left Mom bought gauze, paper tape, and antibiotic ointment for me.  I alternated between wrapping my finger and letting it air out.  It still hurt like the dickens.  Finally, one day last week I decided it was time for medical attention.  I went to the SBU school nurse.  She looked at it and said it was either a second or third degree burn.  She told me to call my doctor and ask for a prescription for Silvadene.  I was able to get the prescription without an appointment, and the ointment only cost eight bucks.  I've been putting on the ointment 3-4 times a day, and I continue to alternate between wrapping it and letting it air out.  One embarrassing aspect of this situation has been the fact that I have lost my gauze wrap in public places two times.  Somewhere in the Esquire Theater there's a gauze wrap floating around.  A few days after the initial incident my finger looked like this:



So we decided to take medical scissors and cut off the flap in order to prevent it from getting caught on something.

As you can see, I had a huge blister on my knuckle and a smaller blister on my cuticle.  I think I got a burn underneath my fingernail as well.  The burn on my ring finger never formed into a blister and is totally healed now thankfully.  Although this is an incredibly strange and gross injury I must admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed people's reactions to it.  It's gross but cool.  On a more serious note, the nurse told me that I will most like have a scar from this blister.  When she told me this my eyes teared up.  I know it's incredibly vain, but in just four months I'll be getting married and I don't want pictures of my wedding ring with my scarred finger.  I also know that lots of people will say, "Let me see your ring," and I will hate the fact that when they look at my ring they will also see a huge scar.  Once it is fully healed I am going to do everything in my power to prevent or minimize the scarring.  I've heard vitamin E oil is good.  We shall see.