Going back to Cali-Day 2

Friday was quite eventful and stressful. Our plan was to meet with Ed, the guy in charge of everything at the Woman's Club. Ed calls an hour before our meeting to say he can't make it. He had travel issues and a wedding the next day. I was pretty upset, it's not like I can meet with him whenever. But we went to the club anyway and saw the place and I ended up talking with I'm later that day over the phone and I now have my price to get married there. It's a really good deal that includes the cake, dinner, tables, linens, bar, champagne, etc. SO in the end it turned out fine. Plus my mom and dad met his mom and they all got along. Over all, it was pretty good day. Plus I got to see Jessica, the bride, at her rehearsal dinner. I'm very excited for today too. First Lori's shower, then the wedding, and last I get to hang out with Tiffany in Oceanside until early Monday morning. I can finaly relax at that point. I can't wait to see Robert on Monday, we haven't been apart in over a year.

Going back to Cali - Day 1

I flew into LAX yesterday afternoon and it's weird coming back here. I'm here mostly for my friend Jessica's wedding but I get to see friends too at Lori's shower and my best friend Tiffany on Sunday. I can't see everyone and I wish I could but I'm only here a few days. I picked up my rent-a-car with my mom who picked me up from LAX, a stylish Ford Focus, then I went to a place I missed dearly, In-N-Out! I got a #2 animal style and it was awesome! I'm staying at my parents house so my mom stole many of my french fries while telling me how bad they are for you. I went to Diamond Nail and got a long overdue pedicure, the first since I moved. I hung out with the parents for a bit and then picked up my dear friend John and headed to my brother's house to see him and his 7 months pregnant wife, Christina. I can't post a picture of them because she'd kill me, but they're having a girl. She showed me the baby stuff they've received so far and all the ultrasounds, from a little bean to a little baby. We hung out for a bit and then headed home, I dropped off John and went to my parent's house and passed out. My body thinks it's an hour later, that's why I hated waking up today at 7 thinking it was 8. I couldn't even sleep in. That's all for now, today will be another fun-filled day. I'll post again tomorrow morning.

Our first tornado (warnings)

We had our first encounter with tornados in Colorado. A total of 9 tornados touched down in various counties all around us. All we had in Loveland was severe thunderstorms, wind and huge chunks of hail. The city that got the biggest amount of damage was Windsor, Co Please pray for the people of Windsor, CO. Look at the map below and compare Loveland to the path of the tornados. Pretty scary!

My sick boy

Robert had a pretty crappy night on Tuesday. We had a little BBQ at his friend's house. Robert cooked a delicious pork tenderloin and steak. When we finally ate at 9 Robert was ready to chow down. Big mistake! After swallowing his second bite of steak it got stuck in his esophagus! This has happened to him about a dozen times before. He has a narrow esophagus, or so he always thought and was told when it happened in the Navy. He sat in the bathroom for about an hour trying to get the chunk out but it wouldn't budge. We finally went home where he spent another 2 hours trying to get it out. He finally caved and we went to the ER at 12:30 am. He doesn't have health insurance so we were trying to avoid more doctor bills. After another 2 hours of retching in an effort to be able to breathe normally the doctor called the endoscopy people in. After 5 hours of torture from steak they did a 10 minute procedure that pushed the steak down with a tube and a camera. The steak was stuck in mid esophagus, way farther down than he thought. They discovered he has eosinophilic esophagitis, try saying that three times fast. In other words, has an inflamed esophagus. That's why it's narrow and it's been that way for a long time. We finally left the hospital at 4:00 am with a Flovent prescription in hand. The inhaler should decrease the inflammation. He was pretty drugged up for awhile yesterday while I did my wifely duties of getting him a smoothie for nutritional value and filling his prescription. Now life is back to normal besides still being a little tired. I think we'll have soft foods at our wedding, pasta anyone?
***Warning, the following pictures are not for the queasy (Lori).

The last two are his inflammation, the rings you see. Notice the steak on the second picture (pretty gross!)

Hooray!

In true Natalie fashion I am 14 months ahead in finding my wedding dress. The one I wanted FOREVER didn't flatter me at all. I was pretty sad for a bit but some women(who don't have long necks) aren't made for strapless dresses. It just looked odd on me so I will be wearing a dress that I never thought I'd wear. This fits me though because I'm marrying a man I never thought I'd end up with. But we fit together and the dress looks pretty good on me too, obviously I can't post pics for fear of a certain man seeing them before the big day. But it's white and long, no train and it resembles a 1940's dress. It's "glamorous" as my friend who came with me put it. I am getting it from David's Bridal and it was pretty inexpensive. Here's a picture of the dress I went in wanting so badly, notice the space between dress and neck, not much.

Prince Caspian

For our first date, Robert and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Finally, over 2 years later the second movie is out... Prince Caspian. I am so excited, you don't even know! Of course we will be seeing it soon and it will be the first movie we have seen in the theaters since we moved here about 9 months ago. Here's a theater trailer...