The REAL Nightmare Before Christmas

OK, so it appears I was a bit premature with my lost post. Having my flight canceled due to the snow storm turned out to be a blessing. Yesterday afternoon I was getting ready to head to a hockey game. I was actually pretty excited since it had been sooo long since I was last at a game. All of a sudden, out of no where I get this sharp pain in my lower back on the left side. I had no idea what had caused it.. all I knew was that the pain was getting worse by second. I was literally buckled over in acute pain. The best way to describe it is that it felt as if someone had stabbed me with a jagged knife and was twisting it around inside of me. The next thing I knew I was getting sick. It was at the point that I knew something was wrong. I called my parents and told them what was going on. We decided to monitor it for a little bit and see how I was feeling. I knew something was REALLY wrong when I peed blood (sorry if that is TMI). I started crying and was scared out of mind. I called my parents and decided I needed to go to the hospital. My friend Tamara came to pick me up and off we went. The entire car ride I was telling her that I did not want to wear hospital gown nor did I want to spend the night!!

I won't bore you with all of the details of my stay in the hospital but I will share these tid bits with you:

--Tamara and I entered the ER from the back which is NOT the way to go in. We got to see all of the behind the scenes including trauma and people on their death beds. Not the way you should enter an ER!!

--I got to wear a hospital gown OVER my clothes. Not sure why they made me do this but I was A-OK with that!

--I got to cruise around the joint while in my hospital bed

--EVERYONE told me that passing kidney stones would be the most painful experience EVER. Seriously, I did not need to hear that 1,000,000,000,000,000,000+ times. Seriously!

--When I had my CT Scan the lab tech told me that without moving I had to take my bra off because of the underwire. Umm... how am I to take it off without moving?!?

There is so much more I could tell you but I wont subject you to all of the fun details. In the end I was diagnosed as having two kidney stones. I think I passed the one last night and the other is still hanging out in my kidney. It was by far the WORST pain I have ever experienced and I hope I never have to experience it again. And I shudder to think what it must feel like if my stones were larger -- mine are/were 1-2mm. That's basically the size of a grain of sand. I am just praying that I did in fact pass it last night and that I am in the clear!!

On another note, I am scheduled to fly home late tomorrow night (only available flight before Christmas and I got the 2nd to last seat!). The Cape has about 18" and counting and Rob & Margaux got just shy of two feet!! Fingers crossed I can make it home tomorrow.. and that I don't experience any kidney stone attacks on my trip!

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Remember what I was saying in a post not all that long ago about how I have the worst luck when it comes to traveling?? Well, that luck has returned!! I am supposed to fly home to the Cape later on today. The only reason I am still in Raleigh is because NC State has graduation today. Yes... NC State is that university... the one who holds graduation on the Saturday before Christmas. To say faculty are not pleased is an understatement. Who knows what they were thinking when they decided to schedule graduation. But anyways... I digress.

So my plan for today was to go to graduation and then head straight to the airport to catch a 5pm flight to Providence. Rob & Margaux were to pick me up and I was going to spend the night with them. The three of us were then going to make our way to the Cape tomorrow morning to celebrate the Holcomb Family Christmas since Rob & Margaux will be in Maine this year. Well Mother Nature had different plans. Instead the mother of all storms is slamming the east coast -- from Florida all of the way up to Maine. Raleigh even got some snow/ice yesterday before it turned over to rain (on a side note, the Weather Channel keeps showing footage of NC drivers sliding all over the place -- classic!!). I was supposed to change planes in Baltimore. But as luck would have it, Baltimore is getting the worst of the snow (1-2 ft!). So it's looking like I won't be flying any where today. But what has me concerned is that the storm is supposed to turn into a blizzard for the Cape Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. If this holds to be true who knows if and when I will make it home. To say I am sad and disappointed is an understatement. I am not sure when we will be able to do the Holcomb Family Christmas now. I am sure when this is all said and done I will have some good stories to tell... right?!? So wish me luck as I attempt to make my way home for Christmas!!

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

It's hard to believe that this our third year putting up a Christmas tree together! Where has the time gone?!?! It's one of my favorite memories with Ryne and I always look forward to it every year.

Each year we find a tree that tends to have a certain Charlie Brown flair to it. Some years the flair has been more pronounced than others (e.g. last year we had to trim some limbs off from the tree so that it would fit in the tree stand which resulted in the tree having a great big hole on one side!). This year we found plenty of Charlie Brown trees to pick from but even they were just a little too Charlie Brownish for us. After failing to find a suitable tree in Chadron we decided that we would find a tree when were up in the Black Hills. After much searching we finally found our tree. We brought it back to Chadron with us on Sunday and put it up that night. It seems that every year we always have major issues with the tree stand. I am not sure if the issue is us or the stand itself but without fail something always goes wrong (e.g. last year's tree). Well this year our problem had to do with the tree having a fairly small trunk. The small trunk made it hard for the screws of the stand to actually screw into the tree. We thought we had the tree all set and secure so we began stringing the lights. The next thing you know the tree is toppling over!!! Thankfully we caught and nothing was damanged. But this lead to a few stressful moments as we tried to figure out how to get the tree to stand firmly in the stand.

Ryne finally got the tree secured in the stand after much twisting and pounding. After we were satisfied that it was stable and not going to topple over again we went to work hanging our ornaments.




I have been collecting and making ornaments for our tree over the course of the year. I just love the personal touch that personalized ornaments have. I think this year's tree is our best looking yet. It turned out to be a beautiful tree and it smells so wonderful!!

Christmas in the Midwest

Last week I flew out to spend a week with Ryne and to celebrate Christmas a little early with him. It's hard to believe that I have already been here a week and that I have to fly back to Raleigh tomorrow. Needless to say I am not ready to leave and I am going to miss Ryne like crazy.

The weather out in Nebraska has been FRIGID!! There have been several days with temperatures below zero and a few days with snow. This past weekend when we were at his parents' house we saw about 8" of snow fall in the span of a few hours. But now that I live in NC and have gotten used to southern winters I must say that while I do miss the snow, I do not miss the cold. Brrr!!

The past week has been a busy and fun one! Ryne and I had started watching True Blood together when I was last out here. For those of you who have not seen the show, it is pretty messed up. I had no desire to watch it alone at night so we decided we'd wait and watch it when we were together again. So we spent the first few days watching True Blood and catching up on it. On Friday we drove up to spend the weekend at his parents' house. It was good seeing them and as always it was so relaxing to be in the Black Hills. Ryne, his mom, and I all went shopping on Saturday and we were quite successful. I think that was one of the quickest and painless Christmas shoppingn trips I had been on in a long time. We also enjoyed lunch while we were in Rapid City. Sunday morning we got up and joined Ryne's aunt, uncle, and cousins for a big family breakfast at the Old House (the Old House is Ryne's grandparents's old house and was the homestead for the family farm). Breakfast was soooo good and it was fun catching up and visitng with everyone. While we were at breakfast it began to snow and it started coming down pretty quickly. It was at that point that we knew we would have to head back to Nebraska a little earlier than we had planned because of the storm. I was a little bummed because I enjoy being in the Hills but also because I hadn't seen any of the bald eagles hanging out in Ryne's parents' yard (I will spare you the details as to why they were hanging out there). But as we were pulling out and heading home I finally saw some eagles -- 6 to be exact! And let me just tell you, those are IMPRESSIVE birds. I could not get over how large they were. It was so cool seeing them in the wild.

Monday night Ryne and I headed downtown to see The Blind Side. It was such a good movie and we both really enjoyed it. After the movie we watched the last episode of season one for True Blood. Now we just have to wait for season two to come out on DVD. Last night we cooked chili for dinner and relaxed in front of our Christmas tree. It was such an enjoyable night. Tonight we will exchange our presents and have our own little Christmas celebration.

It's been such a wonderful Christmas with Ryne...I just wish I could last longer!

Tis the Season to Be Merry...Right?!?!

Anyone who knows me knows I have the worst luck traveling. And I mean the WORST luck! From lost luggage to endless delays to canceled flights I have seen and experience it all. I have even been on board a plane that was struck by lightning during our landing -- and yes, the emergency lights do light up in the case of an emergency. Yet despite all of my travel headaches, I still continue to travel and fly on a regular basis. There are times where I feel like I spend more time in the airport than I do in my own home. I try to stay positive and often keeping telling myself it can't get much worse... this was just a once in the lifetime experience, etc.

Well yesterday I had another enjoyable experience while flying. I was on my way out to see Ryne for the holidays and my plane had just landed in Denver. Now, it's pretty basic and a simple rule that you wait for your row's turn to disembark the plane. Apparently some woman did not get this memo nor have the common sense to follow the pattern that all of the other travelers were following. I eye this woman pushing her way up the aisle from the back of the plane and just rolled my eyes. She was one of those passengers. You know, the ones that you pray don't sit next to you or come any where near you. So I continue to make way off the plane when all of a sudden that woman slams into me from behind. I mean seriously... where did she think she was going. And for the record, we got in 40 mins early so it's not like she had a close connection. So anyways, she slams into me and I could feel something fall into my carry-on bag. Turns out it was her bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper. I did not realize it was her soda that had fallen into my bag until MUCH later and she was long gone. When I went to the restroom I noticed my bag was all wet. I peaked inside and saw my bag was FILLED with her soda. My Christmas cards that I had been working on during my flight were wet. But worst of all so was my laptop. No!!!!!! I quickly grabbed a bunch of paper towels and tried to dry it off as best I could. But it was too late... the soda had made its way into my monitor. My poor monitor looked like a lava lamp.. you could see the liquid and bubbles behind the screen. It was all I could do to not cry.

After many phone calls and support calls I was told to leave my laptop off and to take it in to get fixed ASAP. Apparently soda will corrode a laptop in a matter of hours (but diet soda is "better" than regular since it doesn't have all of that sugar!!). So Ryne took my laptop off to work with him this morning to get it cleaned and fixed. I am just praying that it is OK and I can get it back soon so I can do my work and grading.

Thankfully I have been using Ryne's laptop today. And I keep reminding myself that tis the season to be merry!!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I must admit that I had my house all decorated for Christmas before I went home for Thanksgiving. I figured I might as well get it done so that when I came back my house would be all decorated. I didn't go all out this year since I will be traveling a lot during the month of December. But since I just love Christmas and decorating, I couldn't not decorate.

I have had this little tree in my bedroom ever since I was a little girl. I always loved having a tree in my room. I loved falling asleep to the twinkling of the lights. I now now have this tree in my family room since it's my "main" tree.

I also have a mini Christmas tree in my kitchen. I really enjoy this tree as it's my Clemson tree. I am still searching for some ornaments to add to it. I was surprised that I was able to find mini lights for the tree.

This year I added a third tree to my house. I was really missing having a tree in my bedroom so I find this tree at Target. Since it was on sale and I already had ornaments for it I could resist. I still enjoy falling asleep to the twinkling lights.

This year I also "made" my own wreath for my front door. I purchased an plain evergreen wreath and added pine cones, berries, and the bow myself. Granted this was pretty easy to do but I was quite pleased with my final product.




Next week when I am out visiting Ryne we will get a tree and decorate it together. I just love decorating Christmas trees!!

Thanksgiving Break Recap

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving was over a week ago and I am just now getting around to blogging about my week at the Cape. Things have just been crazy with the semester winding down! (*Pictures have been added!)

I flew home to the Cape the Monday before Thanksgiving. I hadn't been home since August so I was really looking forward to being home and spending some time with my family. My parents picked up Monday afternoon and we did a little shopping on our way back to the Cape. We went out to dinner at a new restaurant and enjoyed catching up. On Tuesday I was absolutely lazy and spent the day lounging around with Mistress. It felt so good to have a day of nothing!! On Wednesday I helped my mom get ready for Thanksgiving. We hosted it this year which meant that we were also have over night guests since everyone would be coming from Connecticut. In all we had 10 people staying with us so there was no room in the inn!! But it was so nice to have everyone with us for turkey day. My parents also have their friends, Bob & Gwen join us for Thanksgiving. We had so much wonderful food, including 5 different kinds of pie!! While the men watched football all of the ladies headed up to my room to watch a movie. We ended up watching The Ugly Truth. While it was funny it was definitely not the kind of movie you want to watch with your mom and aunts!! I think the highlight of Thanksgiving though came late night. My cousin Dawn (who is in her 40s) had on a pair of leopard print flannel PJs. My dad took one look at her and called her cougar. We all died laughing because it was kind of fitting for Dawn. So later that night as I was walking through Dawn's room to get to mine she sits up in bed and starts talking to me. She asked me questions about the morning.. if we were all set.. what else do we need to do to get ready... etc. I just figured she was talking about the breakfast we were going to make before we all went to Chatham for the day. I then went downstairs only to be followed by Dawn. She then starts talking to everyone about the meeting and how we were going to be on the morning news. She also kept saying we were late and kept tapping her wrist. It took us awhile to figure out that she was sleep walking!! It was pretty funny because she started talking about all kinds of things.



On Friday everyone headed to Chatham for the day. Our first stop was the Chatham Bars Inn. This was my very first time stepping foot on the property as it is a pretty swanky place. We wanted to see the train display (well my dad did at least). I must admit that it was pretty neat since all of the buildings were made out of gingerbread and were actual buildings from the surrounding area. After the CBI we headed to Main Street and did some shopping in the stores. I was able to get some of my Christmas shopping done which was nice. We all had lunch at the Squire (which is Chatham's version of the Land Ho! but is not nearly as good!). After lunch my aunts and cousins left and made their way back to CT.






On Saturday I got up super early and made the three hour drive back to CT. Unfortuntalely this trip was not for a happy occasion. My friend Melissa's sister was killed in a car accident the weekend before Thanksgiving and her funeral was on Saturday. Katelin was 28 yrs old and had just picked up her wedding dress the day she died. The funeral was so sad but I was glad that I was able to be there for Melissa and her family. After the funeral I stopped by and got to see my cousins, Michelle and Kristin, and my aunt and uncle. Michelle and Ron were up from DC so it was a special treat to see them. I had a nice time catching up and visiting with them.

Since I had gotten up so early on Saturday morning I decided that I would stay with Rob & Margaux on Saturday night. When I arrived at their house they were in the midst of decorating their house and I was promptly put to work. After the decorations were up we watched a movie and I fell asleep on the couch. I was soooo tired!! Sunday morning I got up and helped Rob put up his Christmas lights outside. It was actually a nice day so it was a good day to that job. When I got back to the Cape around lunch time my mom and I then headed out to do some Christmas shopping for my dad. Our trip was a success and I was able to wrap up my Christmas shopping aside from a few smaller gifts.

Monday was another relaxing day. My mom and I did little shopping and then had the BEST dinner ever!! My mom and I picked up fresh scallops from Cape Cod Bay. OMG.. they were so good!! I could have easily have eaten every single one of them!! I told my mom that we need to have them again when I am home for Christmas!

I flew back to Raleigh on Tuesday and returned back to crazy world of NC State. It's amazing how being back at work for one hour can wipe away all of the peace and relaxation that a week away brings.