Friday night Tim and I were up in Brigham City spending some time with his parents. We forgot our toothpaste so we used some of theirs. We were using Aquafresh at home but his parent's had Colgate. The conversation went as so:

Me: Aquafresh is the best.

Tim: Really? I feel like it doesn't make your mouth feel as clean.

Me:It gets as fresh as the water, the ocean!

Tim: Fresh as an orphan?

Me: Ocean!

I've been trying to sell my wedding dress the past few weeks. We just don't have room in our tiny apartment and I'm not huge into momentous things or holding onto things. Anyways, I have an ad up on KSL that says something like, "modest, size 2, petal sleeves, etc"A lady calls and says, "it's a size 2? Do you think it will fit my daughter? That seems awfully small. How tight was is it on?"

I had to keep from laughing. First off I have no idea who her daughter is so how would I know if it was going to fit her or not? A size 2 is a size 2, so if that size normally fits you it probably will I would think.

Tim and I were at a ward bbq on Friday night. Seeing as we are new in the ward we decided to try to get to know as many people as we could. I was talking to the couple sitting next to me and I heard the man say his name earlier but I couldn't quite remember what he said.

Me:"what were your names again? Jake?

Him says: Dan.

Me: Jan?

Way to get tongue twisted. 

This all happened after I dropped a hot dog on the ground, a spoonful of watermelon, and a cup full of lemonade.

I'm so good at first impressions!

It's only been like a week since my last cardiology appointment where Dr. Hwang told me NOOO jogging, running, exerting yourself etc. So I go to the gym and looked at the treadmill. I know all I was suppose to do was get on that beast, walk for a mile and then maybe do some stretching, ab work, etc. Instead I jumped on a stationary bike and pumped up the resistance and pedaled my little heart out (literally) for 30 minutes. I took my heart rate on the convenient handle bar monitor things and clocked it at a speedy 190 bpm. So dumb. So I slowed down and got my heart rate down then walked out of that gym feeling frustrated.

I don't mean to be negative or pessimistic but sometimes it just helps to write things down. The rest of the day I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I woke up at about 1 am because my heart was racing and I couldn't get it to stop. I finally broke down in tears while my sweet husband just held me close to him. I didn't/don't understand why my heart does this. Why can't it just be normal? Why won't they just try doing the ablation again? Why is my heart so crappy when I'm only 22 years old? 

Someday I'll understand. Maybe things will get better and my heart will return to normal. My doctor said we would consider doing the ablation again when I go back in January. I know this is how things are suppose to be. I know that I will learn from this and be grateful someday. But for now it just stinks.

I get jealous watching other people sometimes. I want to be that girl running down a trail, biking for hours, taking fun fast paced work out classes, etc. 

I want to be strong, athletic, and confident in my body. Instead I feel like I'm trapped in this skinny, gangly, 110 pound body. 

I didn't mean for this post to be so negative, but honestly it really helped writing this all out. I just want to delete it and say I feel better now but I'm hoping this post will help someone out there.
So anyways, boo to atrial tachycardia. I'd be just fine if you would find your way out of my body :)

Saturday morning we headed over to RC Willey for their tent sale in hopes of finding a comfy chair for our living room. We have an awesome couch courtesy of Tim's parent's but we were hoping to find a chair so there would be more room so we can invite friends over. :)

We looked around the store and couldn't find anything in our price range but there was a sign that said they were giving away bags of Colby's Kettle Corn on the 2nd floor. So OF COURSE we wandered around the store for 20 minutes searching for it. About every 5 minutes a salesperson would ask us if we needed any help and we would reply, "no just browsing, thanks!" Really we were just thinking, "where is your kettle corn?!" Finally when the last salesperson approached us Tim just blurted out, "we're just trying to find the kettle corn!" Have I told you yet how awesome my husband is? Anyways, he told us the wrong way to go, so we asked another guy, and another, and they all said different directions. Finally I spied a box hidden behind the ipad's and tv's and snatched up that delectable bag. 

SO worth it my friends. 

The rest of the weekend was spent watching football games, going on long walks, watching the beautiful Brigham City temple dedication, eating, and napping. So perfect. 

Monday morning I was taking a shower just taking my time when I saw a hideous, disgusting, big, black, yucky spider. It was crawling along the curtain rod. I was too scared to even scream. My stomach just dropped and I leaped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and sprinted into my bedroom and slammed the door. I got halfway dressed and then decided I needed to kill the beast otherwise I would  be too scared to even be in my apartment until Tim gets home from work. I grabbed a bottle of hairspray and entered the bathroom. The beast was nowhere to be found. I checked every crevice and corner. Nowhere. It finally crawled up between the shower curtain and the liner. I waited until it was on the rod and then sprayed the sucker. It started twitching so I knew that I could now smack it to the death. I grabbed a lint roller (best spider killer might I add) and waited again for the opportune time. It crawled up the the shower rod again and I smacked it as hard as I could. It flew across the bathroom and landed, squished and dead, on the sink. Down the drain it went. I think I can finally relax now. 

I thought it might be fun every once in a while to include some posts about esthetics. I feel like I learned so many interesting useful things during my time at the Aveda Institute that it just might be worth sharing!

I'm sure we are all familiar with those fluffy little balls we often times use in the shower to suds ourselves up. They are great for making just a little bit of product go a long way, but did you know that they can easily turn into the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and mold? Loofah's should be replaced every 30 days or so. They are only a dollar so that shouldn't be too hard to do. I can't tell you how many people I have talked to who have been using the same loofah for months and months! 

Here is the breakdown.

Bathrooms become warm and moist with each bath or shower use. That creates the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Dead skin cells and other debris from your skin collect on the sponge and as they sit stagnant, they begin to multiply and grow.

How to avoid this.

After each use rinse and ring out your sponge. Hang it in a well ventilated area to dry between uses. After a month of use it is time to toss it and throw it away. By this time it is usually stretched out and has lost much of it's exfoliating properties as well. You can spray it with a disinfectant every few days to prolong it's life. You can also run it through the dishwasher, however, I'm not huge on mixing my eating utensils and bathing products. 

Hope you enjoyed and maybe learned something new!

I just thought I would write out how my check up with Dr. Hwang went for family or whoever cares to know, ha!

• Resting heart rate was 106 when I went in
• I'm supposed to walk a mile every day (absolutely no jogging or running) should be about a 30-40 minute mile he said
• He is starting to consider doing a 2nd ablation but he said he is warning me now that there are risks but he is fairly confident that the machines doing the operation are precise enough
• Next appointment is in January
• My inability to gain weight is almost completely due to the heart racing issue
• Metabolism is extremely high, may slow down if resting heart rate slows

That pretty much sums things up! Things are looking good. I think I'm going to enjoy my mile walk with Tim everyday. 

 (He even said make your husband go with you ;) )

Life is good and I am so blessed!!

For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about here is a brief synopsis.

My little problem with a big name is called Atrial Tachycardia. It basically means that my heart sometimes beats too quickly and often times misses a beat.When the heart beats too quickly, it cannot fill completely so the body doesn't receive the blood volume it needs to function properly. 

I always noticed that I had a hard time with aerobic exercise and I seemed to get out of breath relatively quickly. I didn't realize there was a problem until I started donating plasma regularly and I would get sent away multiple times because my resting heart rate could not get below 100. I decided to go into a family practice doctor and get it checked out. She thought it was nothing and I went on my way. I started having a few fainting spells so I went to a cardiologist who thought that I was just out of shape and told me to start exercising more and I'd be fine. 

After one of those fainting spells I ended up in the ER because I had seizure like symptoms while I was unconscious. While in the ER I was introduced to a different cardiologist who had more of a background in electrophysiology rather than heart disease. Think plumber vs. electrician. 

I had multiple tests done before deciding that we needed to do an ablation to my heart. (A catheter is fed through an incision in my groin threaded to my heart. The part of my heart that is misfiring is destroyed. It usually takes 4-6 hours. This has a 90% success rate. )

Unfortunately right in the middle of my procedure my doctor realized that the part of my heart that is misfiring was too close to my heart's natural pace maker. If the machine doing the operation wasn't precise enough and bumped the natural pace maker it would damage it causing me to need an artificial pace maker for the rest of my life. 

I woke up after the operation and felt pretty bummed after hearing the news. I just wanted all my problems to be fixed. 

Currently I am working with my cardiologist trying different medications to find a better alternative. At my next appointment in January 2013 we will discuss trying the ablation a 2nd time. 

You can read more about my experiences here and here and here.

People are Kind

Yesterday I was unloading my shopping cart into my car and just as I finished up and was about to return my cart this super sweet older gentleman grabbed my cart and put it away for me. Even though it was just a small gesture I thought it was the sweetest thing.
Today I was in the waiting room at the eye doctor and there wasn't anywhere to sit so another kind gentleman stood up and gave his seat to me.
I've been trying to do just a little thing to make somebody's day as well. It may seem so insignificant but I really feel like it's important.

Today marks 2 weeks of being married to Tim!

Pretty much anything that could go wrong on a wedding day happened on our day, but it was still the most perfect day for us. Okay, so a lot more could have gone wrong but I did forgot pretty much any important document that I needed at the temple that day. 

My lovely friend, Maren, stayed over at the apartment with me the night before the wedding and we had a ball. It was so nice to spend time with her. She was sweet enough to drive up from Vegas by herself just to be here for the big day! We got up around 5:30 so that we could both get ready and she could do my hair. My parent's came by to pick me up to take me to the temple. We had some really bad communication along the way and everybody thought that somebody else was grabbing certain things. 

Needless to say we showed up to the temple without my wedding dress, temple bag, marriage license, and my temple sealing cancellation letter from the 1st presidency. My sweet dad made multiple trips back to the apartment (we realized each thing was missing at different times... doh!)

We ended up getting married around noon instead of 9:40 which was our scheduled sealing time. I felt horrible that our guests had to wait around so long. 

I was so embarrassed that I had been so forgetful and had a full on breakdown in the temple. Tears and all. They were very reassuring and everything ended up working out perfectly. I was stressed that we wouldn't have time for pictures, we would be late for our luncheon, or that people would leave thinking we had called it off or something. 

It ended up being perfect. We had an incredibly beautiful, touching ceremony that I'll remember forever.  We were able to take some quick pictures with the photographer and made it just in time to the reception. Best of all at the end of the day I was married to the love of my life, and that's all that matters.

 Since that day we find ourselves yelling out "we're married!!" It still seems too good to be true. It has been so fun to be able to do everything together. I love everything about it. I really don't know how I got so lucky. Anyone that knows him knows how fantastic he is. I'm just so fortunate that he feels the same way about me. 

We finally have our apartment almost all the way put together. Once it's finished I'll post some pictures.