I do at the zoo

Just got back from phase 1 of holiday 2015. It was lovely. J's cousin got married in Calgary at the zoo and it really was a wonderful time. The wedding went great and we stayed with my sister and her husband so we got in a visit with them too. Since it was at the zoo I even got to go and watch the penguins (meep) between the ceremony and the reception...so hooray.
we clean up pretty good
 Now we're back home for a few days before we head out for the weekend to the Connect music festival. It's only a few hours away but we've never been. Usually we're doing the Fringe festival thing but this year J is working at one of the festival stages so he is going up early today and I'm heading up with a friend on friday. Should be fun. We can still get in some shows next week, so we won't miss out completely. An old aquaintance of ours, T.J. Dawe, is doing his thing at the Fringe this year and is in town staying with us for a few weeks as a billet. He's keeping an eye on our critters while we are away which is nice. Plus he's a great guest - and he's just an amazing guy J got to know during his years covering the past Fringes. TJ's one man plays are really some of my favourites that I've ever seen at the Fringe...if he's ever doing his thing at your Fringe go and see him - you won't regret it. It's been nice catching up with him. Kindred spirit, definitely.

But I must say that for right now,  once J is on his way, I'm going to go get in some Xander time and laugh up the evening with Heather and nuzzle ze bebe.

Yup. I like holidays :)

I've just got to put these wings to test....

It's an Annie Lennox kinda day. She's one of my diva heroes...I've
been humming old Eurythmics tunes all day and am now onto her greatest
hits as I work away here on SOPs and the last of the documents before I
get to go on holidays for a few weeks.

I can't wait.

This last week I've been working on doing the Bodyrock 21
day beach bootcamp and it's been a good challenge so far. 30 seconds
work and 10 seconds rest is something I can get into. The workouts are
less than 30 minutes so I can fit it in my morning without too much
fuss. I'm determined to be as active as I can until my surgery in
September. Still don't have a date set yet. Hope to know soon...Then I
can start psyching myself up for it.

For now it's just keeping my head down to get all this stuff done and I can go away and relax for a while with my family.

Soon.

:)

To flap or not to flap. That is the question.

I just had a follow up appointment this morning with my plastic surgeon. I thought it was just to check in with him about what we'd talked about previously and get clearance to book my recon surgery in september. It was a strange meeting. After looking at my chest again he felt that although I have healed up well my radiated skin might not be robust enough to survive the surgeries and expansion and that there is a risk that that whole route might end up with me having to have it all undone and then try another surgery. I can't do a flap surgery from my abs or butt (since I'm pretty healthy he heh...the first time it's been a bad thing to be thin and healthy) but apparently they can take some of my latissimus muscle from my back and move it forward to my chest to create a pocket to put a small expander and eventual implant into and take a piece of skin from my back and use it to rebuild my breast so that it should stretch out better and be healthier. It's called latissimus flap breast reconstruction surgery. There is a 95% chance that this would work very well and be quite natural looking....except for the scar it would leave on my back, but it would be a straight line along where the bra strap sits, so I'm trying to make my peace with it. There are other back muscles that work to support your back and shoulder so I wouldn't be significantly weakened by it all...just might not be able to play tennis or row in a boat...
I'm trying to make my peace with it. I was all gung ho and ready to book in for my expander and eventual swap out - as frustrating as it will be for the whole process I was ready mentally to get that all going. Now it's a more major surgery and I have to stay overnight after...but in the end it should work out to be a good result. Total recovery time is about the same, just more pain since there's two sites and not one that they are working with. Ugh. Still...the more I look at it I feel like I would be too vain to try and do the original way and end up having it fail  just to save a scar...and it's not like I'm not scarred already. Plus, apparently flap reconstructions look much more natural too, so if I'm going to do this I would like to have it look as good as possible. I'm just sitting here at work on my break trying to wrap my head around it. I should hear in a week or so what my surgery date is. If the scars bug me later I'm planning a beautiful tattoo to wrap around from my back across my chest. I plan to do this on my terms.
BUT
On the plus side, and on a totally different topic, I just learned that there is going to be a live reading of the Welcome to Nightvale podcast in Edmonton on my actual birthday in October...he heh. SO I'm getting J and I tickets and we're going to make a birthday weekend of it and go visit friends and see it. I have really been enjoying the podcast and on our recent road trip we listened to a few and J is now a fan as well. Should be a fun way to celebrate my birthday.

Anyhoo...should go get some work done. I feel like I've slacked a lot since I was away for my appointment but I after a talk with J on the phone I just had to get this out from rolling around in my head so I can concentrate on what I'm doing. Thanks interweb peeps.
Later taters.

Where does the time go?

Hullo. I've been off doing things.
Sorry I haven't popped by much lately. It's been so warm and lovely and I just had a whole 10 days off work so I've been away and out in the world. We went on a road trip to northern Alberta and went to a music festival in the forest and met up with so many old friends that I haven't seen in forever. It was wonderful. Danced. Drank mojitos. Laughed. Smiled until my face hurt. The weather was great, and I even had a day or 2 at home after to just relax with J. It was wonderful. I have a slight tan even... the time off was so nice. AND only a few more weeks until I'm off for 3 whole weeks for a few family weddings and then a bit of a holiday to Ottawa to see my whole famdamily for a bit for my neice's wedding- it's been forever since we've all been together and I can't wait. We've found a huge acreage on airbnb that all 12 of us plus the kidlets can fit into for during the week we're visiting there...with a pool too! Plus J and I are staying a few extra days to explore the city and celebrate our anniversary. It'll be a wonderful time - so looking forward to it. I just need to get through the next 2 weeks and I'm free again for a while. Giggedy.
Summer is here. It's hot (almost too hot) and relaxing and I am loving it. On the downside the forest fires are raging in the north of the province - it hasn't been this bad in over a decade. They're bringing in the army and firefighters from all over to try and save the northern towns. The smoke is making it's way all the way down to us some days. We're hoping for a big prairie rain soon...we desperately need it. There's a fire ban right now. A friend of mine has been evacuated from her home because there are fires raging 1.5 Km from her town...rain dance for us people. We need it.
Since we've been back I've started up a batch of crabapple wine (finally) and watched J play with his lasers at a live performance with a friend. The friend played his music and J used his lights and lasers and some custom mount mirrors we'd built frames for together with friends to create a really amazing light show.
Yup. Lots going on. I'll try and post more when I can. I've been able to get back to workouts again as of this week so I've tried to do things and walk to work every morning to work to be good. So far so good.
Have a great day! :)