The Foot Story

As many of you know I have spent the last year plus dealing with some foot issues that have now resulted in surgery. Many have asked about what is going on, how I hurt it, and how long the recovery will take. So I thought I’d fill you all in.

The History:

May 2009: Left foot has started to bother me, I blame it on the shoes I wear. Make a special trip to Saxon’s to visit a dear friend and pick out a good pair of shoes to help the feet. At the end of the day we settled on some Danskos. I wasn’t a huge fan of the shoes before that day, but after trying them on, I was in love. For my starter pair, I bought the Mary Jane style.

July 2009: Go to the doctor for the annual physical…everything was good. Talked to her about my foot pain, and she said I just need to keep wearing shoes with a wide toe box, like my Danskos. If I kept it up, I should be fine.

(Time went by, the foot seemed to be doing okay…and definitely liked it best when I wore my Danskos…..so I bought a second pair)

(I immediately feel in love with the feel of these. She’s not the cutest shoe, but boy is she comfy.)

May 15,2010: Have a beautiful garden wedding to attend. I opted to wear these really cute white shoes that I bought at La Target Boutique 😉 the summer before. By the end of the night, my feet were not happy. I blamed the pain on the shoes…I mean they’re heels, even if they’re low they can hurt your feet. Back to the flats for me!

May 30, 2010: For this lovely wedding, I opted for a pair of cushioned kitten heels that would match well with my dress. But, by the end of the night, even those shoes were hurting my feet. This got me thinking that may be I should just stay out of all heels period. *sigh*

July 10, 2010: Off to another great wedding ceremony with a cute pair of black heels (that have been my default comfy heels in the past)….and they absolutely kill my feet. Get back to the hotel before the reception and promptly change into a pair of flats before heading down.

July 11, 2010: Wake up the next morning and feel like I’m dying from the pain. My foot hurts worse than ever. I now know that we have a serious problem. I’m going for help!

July 12, 2010: Call my doctor’s office for the recommendation of a good podiatrist…they recommend Dr. Shadbolt (who conveniently works in the same building as them)….but he’s booked up for the next week and a half. *ugh* Call around Richmond until I find a podiatrist that can see me that day. Meet Dr. I’m-not-going-to-say his name. He tells me that my problem is metatarsalgia and that I don’t have enough fat in the pads of my feet. Awesome! What can I do about that? Well nothing. Or wear running shoes (oh, so stylish!) because they’ll give me the cushion I don’t have, ice them, soak them in epsom salt, rest and take some Aleve. Also, might need some orthotics, they’ll help give my foot better support to alleviate the pain. We’ll be in touch after we talk to the insurance company. Call if there’s a problem.

July 18-24, 2010: On a mission trip with my middle schoolers, and feel like I’m dying from the foot pain while trying to work alongside them. Talk to Dr. I’m-not-going-to-say his name’s office, find out the orthotics aren’t covered, because they’re only covered for diabetics, and he prescribes some higher dose pain meds, and wishes me luck on my mission trip.

July 28, 2010: Fit for the orthotics. Dr. I’m-not-going-to-say his name, insists the entire appointment that I must be a runner, that would expain why there’s not enough fat on my feet. I tell him no, I’m not a runner. Z tells him no, I’m not a runner. He looks at me in disbelief. I mean, if you’re chasing me, I might run.

August 17, 2010: Get the orthotics. Talk again about me being the runner that I’m not. Given a refill on the pain meds to help get me through pre-wedding festivities, told to call if I need more meds to get me through the wedding and honeymoon. Wishes me luck and told the orthotics, running shoes, ice, epsom salt, rest and aleve should do the trick. Tells me there isn’t much else to be done about the metatarsalgia and says so long.

Do okay for a bit. Wear the orthotics, stay in running shoes (so unfashionable!), try to be good about icing my feet and soaking them. Rest and stay off of them when I can.

October 9, 2010: Wedding day! Take my pain meds, iced my feet while getting my hair and make-up done. Wore a cute pair of patent leather eggplant flats (to match the bridesmaid dresses) with cushioned inserts for the ceremony and pictures. Feel like my feet are going to die. Change into running shoes as soon as we get to the reception, and felt much better.

October 10-20, 2010: Did alright throughout the honeymoon….which I attribute to staying on the pain meds everyday, and taking time to rest as soon as the feet started to hurt.

Did okay for the next couple of months. Made sure to rest, ice, and soak my feet on Mondays…Sundays were rough on my meet from being on them all day at church. Tried to just maintain.

December 20, 2010: Hit the breaking point, the feet are hurting more than ever. Decide to give Dr. Shadbolt a call for an appointment (turns out he’s my stepmom’s podiatrist as well).

December 27, 2010: As soon as Dr. Shadbolt touches my foot, he can feel that something isn’t right. Does an x-ray, and sees that there is/was a tibial sesamoid fracture. For those of you that don’t know…there are two little bones at the ball of your foot called sesamoids which function much like the patella (which is a sesamoid bone as well). He thinks that the fracture along with my bunions are the root of the pain. Tells me that the options are a cortisone shot or surgery to go in and fix the problem. *YIKES* I opt for the shot.

Did well for a week, but on Sunday, January 9, 2011, the pain came back with a vengeance.

January 18, 2011: Appointment #2 with Dr. Shadbolt…we’re both disappointed that the cortisone shot didn’t work, and know that the next thing is surgery. Reason being, is that from looking at the x-ray, there was a questionable white spot in the area of the great toe. Dr. Shadbolt thinks that it could be cartilage damage, can feel that something is off in the toe, but not quite sure what it is until they get in there. Whatever the white spot is is not supposed to be there and it needs to be fixed.

Feburary 4, 2010: Surgery….more tomorrow!

Productive Wednesday of Wedding Planning!

So I’m super excited to share that three big things have been checked off the wedding to-do list!

Zach purchased our plane tickets for Morroco! (The best part of it all, is that we get to fly out of Richmond, and we only have a brief layover in New York.! And to top it all off, we arrive on Monday, rather than Tuesday, giving us an extra day!)
The Florist is officially booked! (Vogue Flowers – Zoie the event coordinator has been wonderful to work with!)
The caterer is booked! The food is going to be super delicious! I would tell you, but I would hate to ruin the surprise for you!

So, Wednesday was a great day in wedding planning in my mind….LOTS of things checked off the list! Wahoo!

Who is Keisha?

Several months back, the calls for Keisha began.

At first it was this lady…

Me: “Hello”

Lady: “Hi, K-something?”

Me: “I’m sorry you have the wrong number”

Lady: “Is this K-something?”

Me: “Not it is not, I”m sorry you have the wrong number”

Lady: “Is this ***-###-###?” (note the last 7 digits of the number are the exact same as my own)

Me: “No, this is ###-###-###”

Click

A few weeks later with the lady…

almost the exact same phone call as before

A few more weeks go by and the lady calls again…

Me: “Hello?”

Lady: “Hi, hunny”

Me: “Excuse me, who is this?”

Lady: “Your mother”

Me: “I don’t believe so, I think you have the wrong number.”

Lady: “Is this K-something?”

Me: “Not it is not, I”m sorry you have the wrong number. You’ve called me a few times before.”

Lady: “Is this ***-###-###?” (note the last 7 digits of the number are the exact same as my own…YET AGAIN!)

Me: “No, this is ###-###-###”

Lady: “Oh, I think I know what the problem is. You see my daughter K-something has the same number as you. But her number is 860-###-###…she live in Connecticut. I just forget to dial the area code when I call her, you and me must be in the same area. Sorry hunny”

click…she hangs up

A few weeks go by and I get a text message:

Dude Man: Keisha

Me: No, this is not Keisha.

Dude Man: Chris i met u in da store

Me: I have no idea what you’re talking about

Dude Man: Is ur name keisha

Me: No

Dude Man: Mayne u jus gave me ya numba at da gas station

Me: No, I did not. I have not been to the gas station today.

Dude Man:

Me: Sorry, I have no idea who you are. Someone gave you the wrong number. I believe you just got played.

The texts stop

A few weeks later I get a call from a doctors office reminding K-something about her child’s doctor’s appointment.

A few more weeks go by and I get a text message:

Playa McRandomson: Wazup

Me: Who is this?

Playa McRandomson: Mike u gave me ur numba a min ago bt waz waz busy

Me: No, I did not.

Playa McRandomson: Dis kiesha

Me: No

texts stop.

I wish this chick would stop giving out my number! Is it always Keisha and just using the wrong area code or two different girls with K names giving out my number? I just wish it would stop. Should I change my phone number?

HONEYMOON!

As some of you know, Z and I have settled on a honeymoon destination…MORROCCO!!!

We wanted to pick somewhere that neither one of us had ever been, that wasn’t a cruise or resort, a place where we could experience the local culture, somewhere we could get the biggest bang for our buck (a.k.a. not in the euro zone), and have unique once in a life time experience for just the two us. I think we’ve succeeded in picking Morrocco?

So…being that things are on a tight budget for the wedding we definitely want to make each aspect our honeymoon be as affordable as possible.

Money Spent in Country: Not too big of a stressor for since things are supposed to be affordable in county… from what we’ve been reading, we should able to get by on $100 a day or less for the two of us
Flights: This is where we need to be as smart as possible with our money! Getting to Africa isn’t cheap….but it’s definitely terribly much more than say going to some other places. We also keep reminding ourselves, that yes the flights may be a little more than we would like to spend…but it’s going to be cheap in country.

So here our adventures of finding the best flight prices…..

Idea 1: Fly out of Richmond into Casablanca (Mohammad V is the international flight hub in Morrocco) – this is ideal since we would not have to travel far, wouldn’t have to pay for parking (someone can drop us off…right mom?), just wake up and go. BUT, this plan costs the most…current flights are going for $1161 *ouch!*

Idea 2: Fly out of Washington D.C. into Casablanca – when we first checked on this idea, flights were around $800-$850….not a terrible prices….but much more than say going to central America. Do we really want to spend this kind of money on plane tickets?

*INTERLUDE* Well we then went back to the drawing board. We toyed around with the idea of going to Central/South America/Carribean: flights to Costa Rica were only $280 round trip out of D.C.; free if we used my frequent flyer miles for me to some countries (but why not save it and go somewhere in USA for both of us free) ; I wanted to go somewhere non-Spanish speaking; didn’t want our honeymoon rained on (it’s the rainy season and/or hurricane season).

So we decided this was a bad idea…we still wanted to go to Morrocco!

We just needed to figure out the most affordable way…and then came idea 3!

Idea 3: Fly out of Richmond into Madrid, then take an EasyJet flight from Madrid into Marrakech. Flying to and from Madrid was about $650 (could get one ticket free if we used my miles)….then flying on EasyJet would only be 36.98 Euros. This didn’t seem like too bad of an idea….$49.49 per person….but then we realized the luggage issue! It was going to cost us 22 euros ($29.44) per suitcase! Not too bad if we weren’t planning on taking much or bringing much back! We talked with friends who had used EasyJet…and the resounding theme was not to check 2 pieces of luggage each to accommodate or clothes and goodies. *UGH*

Back to the drawing board we go!

Idea 4/Idea 2 revisted: Washington D.C. to Cassblanca! After playing with flights, we think this is going to be our best bet! Last week flights were $852….then the volcano erupted in Iceland…the flight is now $997!

So now, I’m just trying to be patient (yeah right for me!) for the flights to come down….I will go on my honeymoon to Morrocco and it’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg!

Stressed about invitations…to no longer stressed

Like I was saying yesterday…

I lost it, I was completely stressed out about wedding invitations, frustrated with all the companies, and irritated that I couldn’t settle on the right invitation….

I went to Michael’s with my mom. I found one do it yourself invitation that was okay…

Then we went to Party City. I looked through one binder with my mom, and made 1/4 of the way through a second binder, and then I thought I was going to scream. After looking through 1 and 1/4 binders, I didn’t see a single one that I really liked. The thought of looking through the rest of that second binder and the several other binders that they had was pure torture to me. So I told my mom, “I QUIT! I can’t take it anymore! If I look through one more binder, I think I’m going to vom. Let’s go please.” She easily agreed, and said she was willing to come back another time if I wanted. I LOVE MY MOM!

So for the rest of the week I suffered through looking at countless websites American Wedding, Wedding Paper Divas, Rexcraft, to name a few…

THEN….Last weekend Zach and I went to Michael’s to have another look, and we found two that we sort of liked…

Zach came up with the great idea of simply designing our own. So we got a picture of one more invite that we liked, so we would have some inspiration….

Then on Sunday, Zach and I went over to his parent’s house and his mom and I spent the afternoon looking at invitations…having some idea of what we both liked and knowing that we either wanted something grape/winery/vineyard themed or with some type of design like the pictures above, we looked through the catalogs she had, looked at websites, looked at the options for designing our own

Then we stumbled upon Invitations By Dawn! Within minutes of looking through the website, I found an invitation that Zach and I both thought was okay….

The sample arrived a few days later in the mail…the sample was not like what I saw online and I realized, this invite was not what I wanted after all. *UGH* All this searching, and I thought I found what I wanted…

But all was not lost!

When Zach’s mom and I were browsing the internet, we found Wedding DNA, a website for downloading the graphics or templates that you like. I knew there was something on there that I liked, showed it to Zach, he liked it too…and the decision was made…we created an account with Wedding DNA, got the graphic we liked, and began designing our own invitation!

Now it’s time to work on the honeymoon!

stress-free wedding planning….to stressed about invitations

Throughout the wedding planning process I’ve had a few goals

To remain as calm and relaxed as Catherine…she was the calmest bride I’ve ever known! Had 5 months to plan her wedding, never seemed to worry about anything leading up to the wedding or on the wedding day itself. She’s my bride-idol!
To keep things as an affordable as possible. Just because you place the word wedding, bride, or bridal before a word does not mean that the price needs to double, triple, or quadruple! I’ll do something myself before I overpay for something!
I want to go on a great honeymoon! Of all the wedding things we’ll do, this is probably what we’ll remember the most. Yes, I could spend tens of thousands on an event that lasts a few hours or spend a few thousand on a trip that last several days….i’ll take the trip!
I want a nice invitation that sets the stage and gives a preview to the theme of our wedding day. And just like all things before, I don’t want it to cost an arm and a leg.

So this brings me to the point of this post. Through most of the planning process I’ve remained fairly calm….not quite Catherine calm, but calm for me.

Wedding Dress: Found the dress on the first and only day I went shopping with my mom, stepmom, and cousin Meg. No worries that day, knocked dresses off the list, and settled on one that day.
Ceremony Location: I knew exactly where I was getting married, at Z and I’s home church. Easy, stress-free decision.
Reception Location: Originally planned on my dad and stepmom’s house, but decided that it was best to do things indoors rather than chance the weather. Moved things to a beautiful indoor location! Easy, stress-free decision.

I’m not one of those girls that has a dream wedding color, bridesmaid dress style, flower, etc…I’ve known from day one what I didn’t like, liked, but had nothing that my heart was dead-set on…

Bridesmaid dress: Managed to get 4 of the 6 bridesmaids together for shopping and picking out their dress (I didn’t care if they picked different styles) and the color they all liked. Turned out that the girls all settled on one dress that they picked out and looked stunning on all of them. They decided to go with eggplant as the color because it would look great at one of the picture locations. Easy, stress-free decision.
INVITATIONS: This is where calm, Catherine-inspired, relaxed Crystal lost it. This was not an easy, stress-free decision. How in the world could there be so many choices?! How in the world could invitations cost this much?! How in the world was I supposed to sort through BINDERS of invitations at Party City without losing my mind?!

To be continued….

New Beginnings

It’s been a few years since I last blogged…since college to be exact.

I used to blog when I was in college, and then seminary happened.

Life got busy! Who had time to blog when seminary classes, reading, activities and the like keep me busy?! Plus, college taught me that i had facebook to keep up with too, so i ditched the blog…

But now, seminary is done (in may of last year) and so is CPE (clinical pastoral education)! Then I got to thinking, why not try again.

So here I am…today begins a new beginning for me…blogging again and learning to adjust to some new things

It’s nothing all that strange to adjust to really…I will only have one job to focus on (full-time youth minister), no school commitments, no second job to balance time against, just life and work. I know to most people it must seem weird to think that this will be an adjustment. See, for the past few years I have juggled my undergraduate work or seminary coursework plus a job (full or part-time) and perhaps a second or third job. It was crazy. I’m not sure how I managed it, but those times are now gone.

Now I get to focus on my work at the church, plus having more free time to spend with my wonderful fiancé, family, and friends. And to top it all off, I have a wedding to plan for! I think that will help fill up some of the free time, but not as bad as school or extra jobs.

Here’s to new beginnings!