The Year of Selfies

2015 was the year of selfies. Ok, it wasn't. A couple days ago I noticed my phone puts selfies in their own photo album. Handy, huh? Anyway, here's a few of my favorite selfies from 2015.

Running Half Marathon Selfie

Vacation Selfie

Fat Camp Selfie

Tiny Tank's First Selfie

Surgery Selfies

What a year of selfies!

Goodbye Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. It was a good Christmas...full of family, food, and friends. Here's a few pics from the busy time.

Lunch with old friends. We still look as good as we did in High School.

Sister #2 showing off a present.

Trying out Sister #2's selfie stick.

One of my presents.

It was just another day to Postcard Puppies.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!! 

The many looks of Tiny Tank

Each day Canada Travis sends me pics of Tiny Tank and Postcard Puppies. I have to brag, because my furry friends are the most photogenic pets! Today, I give you Tiny Tank's greatest hits! Enjoy...

Seriously, I can't get enough. Isn't Tiny Tank the cutest thing ever? And I don't care if this makes me a crazy cat woman. He's stinkin' cute!!!!!

Favorite Things- Christmas Edition

Ok, enough with the emotional posts! It's time to get back to normal on this blog.

Blogger World, throughout the years I've posted many of my favorite things. This post is no different, except this list is a Christmas theme. As always...love them, hate them it's your choice.

1. Christmas Cards 

I love receiving Christmas cards from family and friends!!! 

2. Christmas in a Cup

I've always said Chai was Christmas in a Cup. The holiday season is a great time to try Chai! 

3. Hallmark Christmas Movies

Go ahead, you can laugh. However, in the past couple years Hallmark has made some really cute Christmas movies. I'm for real!!

4. Christmas Parade

This was my second year to be in the Christmas Parade with Canada Travis. I was so happy the parade fell between my two surgeries. I had a wonderful time passing out candy to the crowd.

Folks, this concludes My Favorite Things-Holiday Edition.

Life Lessons from God

I truly believe many events our lives are Life Lessons from God. It might be a small lesson, or it could be a knock you upside the head lesson. 

I guess you could say, my recent medical events have made me recognize these Life Lessons from God. As a good blogger, I'd like to spell out these simple yet important Life Lessons. 

1. Family!! 

My family was beyond amazing during all this crap. From Sister #2 driving me to the ER in Oct; to my dad staying up all night to give me pain pills. Let me stress I could not have recovered so quickly from 2 ER visits and 2 surgeries without my family. They made me strong. 

You would think these fantastic people in my life would never be put on the back burner, but sometimes I put them there. Life Lesson from God #1 is that my family does not belong on the back burner. 

2. Pay Attention 

Everyone is busy. You are busy raising your children, working two jobs, or training for a killer marathon. I do not argue that anyone is not busy; especially during the holidays. However, if you take extra second to check on someone who's ill it makes a world of difference. I am horrible on checking on people who are ill or just had surgery. I'm going to partly blame Facebook. It's easy to Like someone's recovery post. Heck, I just Liked one of Khloe Kardashian's post on FB. But that's what God called us to do, he wants us to make a connection with people. Life Lesson from God #2 is checking up on people. 

I'm thankful for these Life Lessons. I plan to make more of an effort on becoming a better person, and a better friend. 

Remember when...

Blogger World, do you remember when doctors said I couldn't poop? Do you also remember the doctors were WRONG and the problem was a ruptured ovarian cyst??? Oh good, you remember these events. Well if the poop turned ruptured ovarian cyst wasn't bad enough, I was hit with more great news. 

Turns out I didn't have a ruptured ovarian cyst. Nope, it was a borderline tumor. What does this mean for me??? Another surgery! 

Monday I had surgery to remove my right ovary, right Fallopian tube, and the endometriosis in my pelvic area. 

The surgery was successful. There's been a few hiccups with my pain pills, but overall I'm doing well. My family and Canada Travis have been great. Also, my aunts, uncles, and cousins have been great. I appreciate all the calls and texts. It's nice to know people are thinking of you. 

Blogger World, please excuse the lack of posts. It's due to the fact that my stomach keeps going under the knife. 

Since we last spoke

A few things since we last spoke...

1. Tiny Tank is a ball of cuteness

2. I have volunteered to make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I'm using PW's recipe. 

3. Yesterday, one of my surgery battle wounds came open. I'll spare you the picture. 

4. The upside, I lasted a full day at work! Six days after surgery and I'm back at work. 

5. According to The Chew's Turkey Timeline, today you should make cranberry sauce, pie dough, stock, dips and appetizers. 

Ok, I guess that covers everything. 

Insta-lately

Insta-lately is when I pretend to have an Instagram account. Here are some of the pictures you'd see on my Instagram account.

Tiny Tank loves Pioneer Woman too.

A tasty meal before surgery.

My chicken coop.

Maggie wanted me to shut the blinds.

OU basketball is back!

I made my first Apple Pie. I still have some work to do. 

See, no need to have an Instagram account. 

That one time doctors thought I was constipated

This summer I started having stomach pains. The pain wasn't constant. However, every so often I'd have a painful stomach episodes. The symptoms were always the same; nausea, sharp stomach pain, paleness, sweating, and vomiting. 

I consulted three different doctors about these stomach episodes. Each doctor diagnosed it with constipation. Not the sexiest diagnosis but I ready to feel better. 

Fast forward to October...I was still having these stomach episodes. One evening it was so painful Sister #2 had to take me to the ER. It was at the ER that we discovered the cause of my pain; ruptured ovarian cyst. Each time I had a stomach episodes it was the cyst rupturing.

Yesterday, I had surgery to remove my beloved cyst. I'm happy to be on the road to recovery! Praise Jesus, the cyst is gone and I can poop. 

I'd like to give a shoutout to my awesome family. Thank you for dropping everything to care for me. You're the best!

Thank you to Canada Travis for caring for me after surgery; and for taking a pre-surgery selfie. I know you hate selfies.

So yeah...this has been my world for a few months. 

Happy Halloween

The Sisters and I completed our pumpkin for the family carving contest. What do you think?

Founders of Sunday Night Dinner

Sunday Night Dinner started when Sister #1 was still in college. As a recent graduate, I knew the campus could be somewhat depressing on Sunday evenings. The campus was empty and cafeteria food was questionable. Therefore, Sunday Evening Dinner was founded for Sister #1 and her friends: 

I adore each of these girls! I have great memories of cooking dinner for them. They were gracious enough to eat my crappy/burnt dishes, and daring enough to try my made up dishes. They had guts! 

This weekend, The Founders reunited for a wedding. One of their own got married. 

The Founders have grown up to be exceptional women!!! I'm so happy I was able to cook for them. They were the start of a great tradition.

Tank the kitty

Blogger World, I'd like to introduce you to Canada Travis's newest friend....

This is Tank. He's a teeny-tiny kitty someone dumped on the side of the road. Thankfully Canada Travis's dad witnessed the dump, so Tank was instantly rescued. 

Tank has become the newest member of the family business. Once he gets a bit older he will assist in mouse and rodent hunting. Until then, he gets to come visit me on the weekends with Postcard Puppies.

Preparation

I just wanted to give everyone a day's notice about National Dessert Day. 

Tomorrow, October 14, is National Dessert Day. I encourage everyone to celebrate. What's life without a little dessert???

National Smile Day

Today, is National Smile Day. What makes you smile? For the most part, I smile pretty often. Here are a few things that make me smile...

Blogger World, life is too short not to smile every once in awhile. I hope you find a few things that make you smile.

#81

Number 81 is the amount of new recipes I've tried in the past ten months. I challenged myself to try 100 new recipes. I didn't put a timeframe on this, but I'm certain I'll complete my challenge in 1 year. I've kept a running list of all the recipes on my phone. A more organized person would have blogged about each recipe, or kept a photo album on Facebook. I'm not that organized...you'll have to be happy with the list. 

Many of the recipes were tried during Racecar Woman days; so you haven't been kept in the dark too much. But since I'm a great blogger I have a few additional pictures to share. 

Grasshopper Pie

Banana Bread

It appears, I literally only have a few pictures. Sorry guys, I thought I had more pictures you haven't seen. Anyways, here's to another 19 recipes I'll be trying out!

Weekend Update

It was a great weekend! It was fun, busy, and relaxing. Here's a recap of the weekend:

Friday Night

A group of friends and myself attended a fundraiser at the OKC Zoo. This is the third year for us to attend ZooBrew. We always have a great time hanging out with animals and tasting delicious adult beverages. 

Saturday

The first half of Saturday was relaxing. It was nice to rest and enjoy time with Postcard Puppies. They're so cute! 

Saturday Afternoon/Evening 

My family and I ran a 5k in support of a family who lost their son a few years ago. 

My mom and Canada Travis were our cheerleaders. It's important to have cheerleaders. After we ran 3 miles it was time to eat! 

Hamburgers are not complete without S'Mores! 

Sunday

The day of rest; which is what happened! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!