In the Last Month...

I have been absent. I have done a ton of things: some fun, some not so fun. Along with my bullet point update, I plan on doing a whole post on a few of them. There were some pretty big events that I want to elaborate on, but I just don't have the time right this second. So here is the last Month in a nutshell:
--April 14th we went over to EW's brother and sister-in-law's place to celebrate McKenna's 2nd Birthday! It was Tangled themed, and so adorable! She was very excited to blow out her candles and open presents. It's been so great to watch Kenna and Ben grow thus far, and I really can't wait to see them grow into awesome young people. Thanks for letting us share in the special moments!

Can't believe she was that small!

--April 19th I traveled to Rockford for a weekend wedding of my friend Ashley, and her now husband, Paul. Thursday night was the bachelorette party, Friday the rehearsal, and Saturday the Wedding. Talk about a full weekend! EW met up with me on Saturday. He drove in with some friends. It was such a wonderful wedding, and a FUN reception!

Mr. and Mrs. Rupp

--April 22nd We came home from the wedding, and had Easter with my parents. They came up to our apartment to watch Bandit while we were at the wedding. Mom was awesome and made dinner, so it was ready when we got back. Bandit was super excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, as always!

Grandpa and Bandit hanging out

--The week after the wedding I came down with some nasty infection/strep. I had a fever for 6 days...yeah, not so fun. I missed 2 days of work, and it took me another week to actually get back to normal. Even though I went to the Dr. and spent over $50 on meds, it still took forever to feel myself. EW was lucky and missed being infected (though I tried to give it away).

--Mother's Day weekend, EW had to go to the festivities on his own. The Friday before Mother's Day I started having horrible pain in my abdomen and back. At first I thought maybe I had a kidney infection, but the pain became almost unbearable. I was taking an advil almost every 1.5 to 2 hrs. I contemplated the ER, but I really didn't want to spend the money. I sucked it up, went to work, but made a Dr. appt for Saturday morning. Good thing I did because the pain kept up. At the Dr. they thought it might be my appendix, so off I went for a CT scan. Well, it wasn't my appendix (thankfully), but I have a large ovarian cyst. Dr. said most women don't have pain, but some do, and since it was so big, it might be pushing stuff around. Lovely. I need an ultrasound in 6 weeks, and hopefully it will show it has dissolved. I made an appt with a gyno, to see what happens if it doesn't go away, if these become chronic, and how this will affect getting pregnant. My Dr. said it doesn't have any affect on pregnancy, so I'm hoping that is true. I did find out that heat was the only thing that helped the pain, and meds really don't, so if I get another, I will put the heating pad on asap!

--This past weekend EW and I went to the Civil War Days at Naper Settlement. We went a few years ago, and had a lot of fun. We were really happy that it was such a beautiful day. It was a bit warm, but we slathered on the SPF and hit the road. I am a huge history buff when it comes to old houses, barns, etc. Growing up, my family vacations were made up of seeing historical places, and it has stuck with me. EW was really good about letting me go into each building and take it all in. We had a really good view of the field for the battle. However, we ended up right next to a cannon, and we had to watch so we could plug our ears! Then we headed over to downtown Naperville to walk the Riverwalk, and grabbed some dinner. Or course what would a hot day be without ice cream? We got some of that too! It was such a great day! We haven't just hung out together doing something we both enjoy in awhile. The day was perfect :)

 Loading the Cannon!

The South

Yay! The North Won :)

As I said above, I plan on expanding some of these into their own posts, hopefully by the then of the week!

-Brina

Easter(ish) 2012

    Well, Easter has come and gone, and we have yet to celebrate with my family. Our family is cool like that. Half of all holidays are celebrated on a different day. I believe this is because it was hard to always get the family together. Also, growing up, we always split the holidays with the each set of grandparents. We hardly ever did both families on the same day. Even though my mom's parents only lived about 30 minutes away, they thought it was just too hard to fit everything in one day. It amounted to rushing, and not being able to enjoy the time spent with family. Even though this sometimes meant celebrating Christmas a weekend before or after, we always made it feel like that holiday.
    The 21st my parents are coming to spend the night to take care of Bandit while Eric and I are in Rockford for a wedding that I am in. Then the next day we will come back to our apartment and we will all have Easter. Really excited that my mom will have the dinner ready by the time we get home!
    This past Sunday, the real Easter, we went to church, and then went to EW's parent's house for Easter brunch and then dinner. The food was great, as was the company. Of course the only pictures that I got were of the little munchkins. I didn't even get a picture of EW and me. The kids had a little egg hunt, and everyone ate candy. Overall, the weather was pretty good for Easter. It wasn't raining or snowing, so that is always a big plus. I remember many an Easter that we couldn't go outside because it was raining or too cold. Having good weather just makes it that much better!

 Bubbles!

 Perfect Bubbles require Concentration!



Benny liked the trucks...

Change of Topic:
       If you don't know what Pinterest is, you have to try it! It's the most amazing website for everything from home decor, recipes, fashion, crafts, and just anything that you like! I have many boards from cute pictures, baby gear I will have to have, to yummy looking food. If I see something that I think I could do, then I get right to it.  I found this really cool way to change an old frame to a cute 'white erase board'. It is pretty simple, and I'm even thinking of selling them through my store, Bits of Brina. The link will take you to my FB page, and you can also get to my Etsy store from there also.
    Here are the Before and After pictures:

 Goodwill frame w/ glass.

Elegant white-erase board!

    When looking for a frame, I made sure it was wood so that I could sand it. I found some scrapbook paper that I liked, and then picked the spray paint. I went with a glossy black. This project was super easy! I don't have a dry-erase marker, so I couldn't write my grocery list yet, but it will get up there asap. If you would like one of these, and don't want to go through the hassle of doing it yourself, leave a comment with your e-mail, or contact me through FB. I really liked making it, and I can't wait to make more!

-Brina

Never as Planned

    Things have been a bit crazy around here. Not that it isn't always, but more so than usual in the past week or so. As I mentioned in my last post, Bandit tore her ACL and needed to be on bed rest. A month has now passed, and she went in this past Monday to see how it was going. We were told she just needed rest, and that it might heal, but I guess it's more critical than we thought. The vets that have seen her (2 now) both agree it's not IF she will need surgery, but WHEN. Lovely. I spent a good 30 minutes talking about our options, and what can be done to prolong the surgery as long as possible. We decided on complete bed rest, again, and see what happens.
    In case you are not familiar with dogs/dog surgery, this surgery will be very expensive and intense. Not every vet does it, and most are done at places like UofI or Purdue. If you don't know me, I take the health of the ones I love very seriously. I really wanted to get another opinion from a vet I know and trust. Also, I thought it might be cheaper down there. Up here they said upwards of 3,500. I decided to call my parent's vet in Indiana. She helped my parents' cat through an eye ulcer that was pretty serious, and Binky came out ok.
    I left her a message and she got back to me that night. She totally understood and answered all my questions. Without seeing Bandit, she tried to give her best advice: keep her down as much as possible, keep up the benadryl, the joint supplements, and get stairs for everything. She also agrees that Bandit will need surgery at some point. Purdue is cheaper, but we would need to be referred, so we plan to make a trip down there to see what she thinks.
    This brings me to the fact that we were planning to go to Georgia during the summer to see my Grandma who moved down there this past November to live with my Aunt and cousin. We were very excited because we really didn't know if I was going to get some time off, but it seemed to be working out...until we found out Bandit needed surgery. This was definitely a game changer, since the surgery could cost up to $2,500. YIKES! Unfortunately we have already bought tickets to see the Braves vs. Yankees (so if anyone wants 4 family pack tickets, let me know!). I was really upset a few days ago, but now I am thinking we will hopefully just have to postpone our trip until this fall.
    We are not even a week into 'complete rest' and it's not going very restfully. Bandit is a terrier, she loves to run and play no matter what I do. She has a leash on at all times, and I try to help her onto/off the furniture as much as I can. The only thing that is really worrying me, beside the surgery is that once the hurt one is fixed, she will be using the other leg more, and it is at a higher risk to tear also. Surgery is not a cure all, so really it's a crap shoot. Just because she gets it done, it could make the other one tear, or even tear the fixed leg again!

On to a different topic:
   I have been thinking hard about if I want to apply to teaching jobs for this fall. I'm about 98% sure that I won't be. There are a few reasons of why I came to this conclusion: I have been out of the classroom for awhile. I don't even know if I want to work for a public school, and even if I did find a job, I would most likely get pink slipped my first year anyway, with no guarantee that I would get hired back. Also, I really like where I am at now. It's a stable job, and I love going everyday. I don't want to call it work, because they say you shouldn't 'work' but have a 'passion' for what you do. I think I have a passion for working with 2/3 year olds, yet I'm not sure I want to do it forever. It's the wandering soul I have in me. In the long run, I really see myself getting a masters. In what, I'm not sure yet, but psychology is looking good. I love understanding how the brain works, and why people do the things they do. Or maybe even sociology or anthropology. I have a huge interest in any medical field, and love reading about new medical techniques, advances, or setbacks in all of the categories. My teaching assistant is a nursing major, and she is always telling me I should have been a nurse or doctor. Ha! But what's funny is, that if I get interested in something, I will want to find all the information I can about it. I have a hunger for knowledge, and I think that's why I wanted to be a teacher. Who knows what I will be when I grow up.....I might just end up being a mommy ;)

-Brina

A Sore Leg, and other News

Again, I have not posted as often as I would have liked. One of the main reasons is that my camera battery has been dead and I couldn't find the charger. I think my posts are so much more interesting with pictures, hence the long time between posts. Well I finally found the charger! So here is an update on the what has been going on in the Witko household:
   
    First off Bandit had her comprehensive exam about 2 weeks ago. She has been favoring her back left leg when running, and thinking she's just a goofball, I really didn't think anything of it since she didn't limp while walking. We had the vet check it out anyway, and of course we find out she tore her ACL. Seriously. Thankfully everything isn't tore, but it needs to heal. That means 4 weeks of rest. Yeah, have you met my dog?! If not she's a bit wild. She's half boston terrier, half beagle. She doesn't really ever run on low. The vet said we could give her benadryl to calm her down a bit, which worked...for the 1st week. She has gotten used to it since. Her follow-up appt is tomorrow, so we shall see if the 'rest' thing is working at all.

Resting, but still needs to see what's going on!

  
 EW was chosen to be the Godfather of our nephew Benson. We went to his 1st Birthday Party/Baptism last weekend. It was alot of fun, and great to see EW in the role of Godfather.
It has been awesome to see how great he is with his niece and nephew. EW hasn't been around kids much, so I wasn't for sure how he would do around little ones. In the past year or so, he's really become hands-on, where as before he was a bit hesitant. We've already discussed that when we do get pregnant, we will be taking a parenting class to brush up on our skills, and I am confident that he will make an amazing Daddy. If some of you are wondering if we are expecting, or planning on it anytime soon, the answer is no. We are taking it all in, and not really making a decision at the moment. Basically we are putting it in God's hands. (Ha, I sound like a Duggar) But seriously, if the time is right God will give us a baby, we are just waiting for that time.

Benson with his parents (Rachel and Brian), Godmother (Kristen) and Godfather (EW)

  Last night we went to Amy and Tristan's wedding in Fox Lake, IL. I know Amy from EIU, and we were very excited to celebrate with them, especially on St. Patrick's Day! We didn't make it to the wedding, but were able to eat and dance at the reception. The bride and groom looked amazing, and it was great to see them. Not sure when we will be able to again, since they live in Arizona!

Bride and Groom cutting the cake

 Our Festive Green wedding attire!

    The rest of this month will fly by I'm sure, and so will next! I'm gearing up for my friend, Ashley's wedding the weekend of April 21st. As a bridesmaid, I have been trying to get everything ready: dress, shoes, figuring out hair, and where I need to be at what time. I'm leaving that Thursday night for her bachelorette party, then staying for the rehearsal dinner Friday night, and then wedding, Saturday. With just one vehicle now, it's been interesting figuring out which of us is going where, and how the other will get there, but I think we mostly have it together.

     We have been in Lent for a few weeks now, and I decided to give up french fries. I am in love with McDonald's fries, so I thought I would try to become healthier and give something up at the same time :) So far is has been going well. Even though I miss them, I know I can live without them.
  
    I am loving this weather, it has been lovely to open windows and get some fresh air, however, this means there are more noises from the outdoors, which makes Bandit go nuts. She barks and barks over people walking by, or a distant dog barking. She has amazing hearing. I'm really thinking about getting a bark collar, not for shocking, but for the noise button. The high pitched noise is supposed to work. I really don't want to zap her, but the barking is getting to me. Any ideas from animal owners/lovers? I don't want her to stop barking altogether because she is an amazing watch dog, and I feel safer with her barking when someone is at the door, or at night when people are walking by our sliding door. I just can't stand the barking at EVERYTHING.

     I've already mentioned this, but I finally have pictures to share. We got EW a new chair a couple weeks ago, and I finally have a picture to show the before and after! Quite a difference, right?

 Old (above), New (Below)

Have a good week!

-Brina