Michigan Trip 2018 - Part One

The story of our Michigan trip starts a few days before we left. I mentioned in my last blog post that I had been suffering from cramps that I thought was ovulation related. But two days before we left to drive up to Michigan, I got very sick. The pain in my right side was off the charts and I couldn't keep anything down.

I had sat in the bathroom for a while, and when Todd got home from work, I made the decision to go to the ER. Todd woke up Emily and off we went. We spent several hours in the ER - an actual emergency came in after they had put in a room so it took them a while to get me some drugs. And the stuff they gave me at first didn't touch the pain so it was morphine time.

They did a CAT scan and it was a kidney stone that I was close to passing. So they gave me all the drugs, told me I should pass it soon and sent me home. I spent the majority of the next day sleeping but once I woke up, the pain was gone. My arms were super sore though, from all the heaving I had done, so Emily had to help me pack.

But we got everything packed up and we left in the middle of the night on June 30th. Todd drove and I napped since I was still really wiped. We got to my dad's house, got our

stuff unloaded and then went to meet my friend Rebecca - we were good friends in high school and are still Facebook friends We ate at the Russ' that was near the house I grew up in, and it was exactly the same as it was when I grew up. It was nice to hang out with Rebecca!

Once we were done with dinner, we went back to my dad's house and he was home - he had been in Bay City for the day. We talked with him and just hung out watching a movie. I was getting really tired so I ended up going to bed.

The next day, we got up and got ready to go to the beach. We swam and Emily played in the sand. Todd ended up having to go stand in the shade because even with sunscreen, his poor ginger self was

getting burnt up. As we were leaving, Emily stepped on a stick and got a sliver / cut on her foot. She was very upset about this.

We went back to my dad's house, got showered, checked out Emily's foot and got a bandaid on it. Then we went to Captain Sundae for ice cream. I was starting not to feel very good, so I skipped the ice cream. We went back to my dad's house and I took one of my pain pills because I was having pain in my side again. I took a nap and I felt much better after I woke up.

Todd and I went to the movies at the theater I spent a lot of time at when I was younger. We went and saw Incredibles 2 since Todd hadn't seen it yet. We don't get a lot of time without Emily so it was nice to go on a date night.

We turned in early again because we had a long drive in the morning to go to Todd's parent's house.

Up Next - Michigan Trip 2018 - Part Two!

Concert Memories - Red Hot Chili Peppers

This is the 5th post in my Concert Memories series! To start at the beginning, click here!

This one is really out of order but since it's recent I wanted to post about it! A week and a half ago, Todd and I dropped Emily off at a friend's house for a sleepover and then we headed off to Charlotte.

We got into Charlotte early so we could go eat at Cabo Fish Taco. We've eaten there before and really liked it. We originally heard about it because it was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

After tooling around the city for a bit, we got to the Spectrum Center early and were one of the first in line to get into the building. We found our seats, which were pretty decent for what we paid and we just waited for the show to start.

A drummer started things off, and it was good but I'm not a huge fan of just drums. Mostly because it leads to migraines. Of course, I knew going into the show that I was going to be hurting something awful once it was over. The price one pays when one has chronic pain.

The opening act, BabyMetal, came on. BabyMetal is a Japanese group of girls who wear school uniforms and play hard rock. I actually have one of their albums and it's pretty fun music. I usually listen to them when I'm working out.

Their set was ok, but they were singing in Japanese so it made no sense at all. Plus everyone was sitting down in our section except these two guys in the front who were in the handicapped section. They completely blocked a couple of peoples' view and didn't care at all.

Finally it was time for the Chili Peppers to come out and their show was so worth the migraine I had later! They played a ton of favorites and quite a few songs from there new album. Flea is my favorite of all the band members, even more so than the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis. Both of them were jumping around the stage the whole show and took off their shirts at different points as well.

There was a screen behind the stage that showed a variety of things. Sometimes it was video of the band, and other times it was weird images that made me feel like I was on a bad acid trip. Several of those images flashed, and I would have to hide my head in Todd's shoulder because it was making me super dizzy.

They finished up and the crowd cheered and cheered for an encore. Todd wanted to leave, he didn't think they were going to come back on but I wanted to wait. I was right and they came out and played a couple more song, finishing up with Give It Away. We got out of there after that, and managed not to get stuck in traffic which was pretty awesome!

I spent the car ride home feeling pretty miserable, but it was worth it. One of the best concerts I've ever been to. The only one that beats it is the Korn / Evanescence (and a bunch of other bands) show we saw in 2007.

Up Next - 3rd Eye Blind!

Date Night!

Image: wikipedia.org

When you are married with a child, alone time can be a rarity. Luckily, Todd and I have fun with Emily in tow quite often, but we do like our occasional date nights.

This past Saturday we went down to GA to visit my aunt and uncle. We missed the holidays with me being so sick so we went down mostly to see family. We spent several hours - my cousin, Casey, and his wife, Serella, brought their kids over. Emily played with them happily - their oldest is only six months younger than Emily.

Seeing family was great, but my aunt and uncle offered to watch Emily so we could go to a movie. Todd and I left a little early so we could also go to dinner. The movie theater we picked was party of a huge mall and we misjudged the time so we had plenty of time.

The mall was great! We just had supper in the food court and then did some looking around / shopping. I may have squealed out loud when I saw they had a Disney store. They also had a Lego store and a cool Japanese store that had a lot of anime stuff.

I only bought something at the Disney Store though. I got Emily new pj's because they were having a sale. Todd also found a great Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie for me and a Sofia the First stuffed griffin for Emily in the clearance section. It was a great deal!

We took our stuff back to the car and went to the theater. We saw Kingsman which was excellent and we saw it in this fancy theater that had reclining chairs. It was an interesting experience. The chairs were very comfy and it was almost iMax like with the sound quality. The screen seemed bigger too.

It was really nice to get some one on one time with Todd outside of the house. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon!

First Time Camping

The weekend before Memorial Day weekend my in-laws came to town. They generally don't stay with us because my MIL is allergic to our cats. Last first they just got a hotel room but this time they decided to rent a cabin at a nearby rv park.

Both Todd and I camped quite a bit when we were younger and we have talked about getting tents and going camping. He thought Emily was too young though and that she'd pitch herself in the fire. So when my in-laws came down, Emily got to experience her first camping trip.

The weather was oddly cold for the end of May, but she had a good time anyway. She stayed over a couple of nights, which was nice since Todd and I got to have a date night. We went to see Godzilla. And of course, gave Emily time to spend with her grandparents.

One of the highlights for Emily was making s'mores. She also had a good time putting twigs in the fire - and she didn't pitch herself in. There was also a small playground she liked going to. The pool looked nice but it was much too cold to swim.

It was a nice introduction to camping for Emily. Hopefully we'll be able to get a tent (and maybe a pop-up in the future because I'm not a fan of tent camping) and be able to have our own camping adventures like Todd and I had as kids.