We’ve got grass!
April 29, 2008
While we’ve had grass in the backyard for quite some time, our front yard was lacking in horticultural design. When we finally had a free weekend, Dustin laid new grass and helped me (eeeerrr…helped himself with my directions) plant some lovely new flowers in the tiny garden I wanted by the walkway to our front porch. Everything looked so nice once he was done, I had to take pictures. Every time I pull up into our driveway, the new flowers put me in a springy mood. We’ve since added some solar panel lights up the walkway — I hope to get new pictures of those up soon! Click the photo below to see what I’ve uploaded so far.
First of all, thank you very much for all the birthday calls, messages, cards and gifts – I have such a wonderful family and the best friends a girl could ask for!!! I wanted to share a few of my gifts with you all.
1 – Dustin gave me a beautiful pearl ring for my right hand! It is exquisite with 1 large pearl in the center sitting in a setting of white gold that kind of curls around the pearl – on each side of the pearl there is a small diamond that adds just enough sparkle. I LOVE it and I’ve attached pictures.
2– I broke down and traded in my car for a new 350Z – a CONVERTIBLE! I’ve wanted a convertible for a VERY long time (like since I was 12) and have just never gotten one. Dustin’s dad got one on trade at the Nissan lot that was in really great condition…so, with Dustin’s help and persistence (for some reason I was having buyers remorse before I bought the car), I traded ‘Itsy’ in and drove ‘Peppy’ home yesterday! It’s the exact same as my old car with the exceptions that it is silver and of course, is a convertible…check it out.
Love you all and thank you again for all of the nice messages!!!!
Hello Everyone!
We hope this blog finds you wrapping up a wonderful holiday season. We had a great time over the holidays and luckily got to visit with most of our family (planning on seeing the rest very soon!) and we feel blessed to have had such an amazing 2007. To recap our year in a nutshell, Jennifer changed jobs in January (she’s now a competitive Analyst for USAA), we sold a house (Dustin’s condo), built a house (our new condo in Terra View), planned a wedding, Dustin changed jobs (he’s now a staff Underwriter for USAA), got married, went on a 2 week honeymoon, Jenn had major back surgery – and we both survived! We’ve been trying to wind down from an extremely busy few months and we are getting familiar with not having anything to do after work (before we always had something to do for the wedding). It’s been nice having a little bit of time to sit on the couch and enjoy our new home and just be married!
We wanted to share our wedding and honeymoon pictures with everyone who helped make them a true success. You can view our wedding pictures two ways. One, go to www.TiMachine.com , scroll to the bottom of the webpage and enter JDTrimmier as the online ID. Two, ask me to email them to you – the email I send won’t have all 1500 pictures, but it will have several hundred of them at a higher quality than the ones you see on the photographer’s website. If you would like to order any pictures, please let me know as I can get you a better rate than the one listed on TiMachine.com!
Likewise, there are two ways to view our honeymoon pictures. A few of them are included in this PDF file ( Download trimmierhoneymoon_mod.pdf ) which also contains our honeymoon journal – a day by day rendition of our adventures and mishaps while in Hawaii. All of the honeymoon pictures (538 of them!) can also being sent via email if you’d like.
We are in the process of having our wedding website changed into a family website and we will be posting our wedding and honeymoon pictures on it as well. So check it out in a few weeks to see the changes – www.TheTrimmierLife.com In other news, San Antonio Weddings (a company that publishes a wedding website
and magazine) contacted us to do a story on our wedding. Our pictures are posted on the Snapshots section of their website (http://www.sanantonioweddings.com/snapshots.asp ) and we will know within the next few months if we’ve been selected to be in the print version of their magazine – wish us luck!
There were a few items left behind at the wedding – we have 2 pairs of women’s black high heeled shoes at our house. If they’re yours, let us know and we can mail them to you! There was a also a Kodak disposable camera lost at the wedding, so if you happened to pick it up thinking it was yours and you still have it, let us know so we can get it from you.
We wish you and your families the very best in 2008! With Love, Jennifer & Dustin
*UPDATED LINKS TO WEDDING PHOTOS!
View wedding photos here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/thetrimmierlife/main/wedding
View honeymoon photos here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/thetrimmierlife/main/honeymoon?
Family and Friends –
After 3 ½ years of being in pain every single day and after trying every alternative treatment available, Dustin and I have decided that now is the time and I have scheduled spinal fusion surgery on Tuesday, December 4th. I have suffered with a ruptured disc for several years and over the past 4-5 months I have lost most of the feeling in my right foot, have had persistent tingling sensations in my legs, and continually have excruciating pain in my lower back. The pain has forced me to quit participating in the sports and activities that I love and has made my lifestyle much more sedentary than I can handle. I know that there are risks with this surgery, but I am willing to take those risks for a chance at being my active self again. I pray that my body will heal quickly and completely and that I will be back on my feet within the next year. Several of you have asked about specifics of the surgery and recovery time, so I wanted to pass on some information so you can understand what I am about to go through.
The surgery: Spinal fusion at L5-S1 – A spine fusion surgery involves using bone graft to cause two vertebral bodies to grow together into one long bone. After cleaning out the injured disc, my doctor will place a cadaver bone between my L5 and S1 spinal bones (in my lower back, L means lumbar and S means sacrum – so right between my back and tail bone) and secure the bone in place with screws (it will be attached to my L5 and S1 spinal bones). Then, my body will act as if it has a broken bone and ‘fuse’ itself together. This process can take 6 months to a year. For a more in depth look at the surgery, go to this website: http://www.spine-health.com/topics/surg/overview/lumbar/lumb05.html
The website even includes an x-ray of what the fusion will look like when complete. I will be having Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF), meaning my incisions will be in my stomach (yes, the doc will operate on my back by going through my tummy!). This approach eliminates the cutting of large back muscles and speeds up recovery. This link has information about the ALIF approach: http://www.spine-health.com/topics/surg/overview/lumbar/lumb08.html .
Here is the timeline for my surgery and recovery:
Surgery – Tuesday, December 4th at 7am at the Spine Hospital in San Antonio, TX
Out of hospital/Dustin take’s ½ day – Friday, December 7th
Dustin takes off – Monday & Tuesday, December 10th & 11th
Mom in town – Tuesday night through Sunday, December 11th through 16th
Besides getting home on the 7th, I will not be able to ride in a car the first few weeks I am out of surgery. I should be able to start physical therapy within 3-4 weeks of my surgery. I will be out of work between 8 and 12 weeks.
I would love to have visits and calls from all of you since I am sure I will need support and entertainment while I am at home. Thanks for all of your love and support in dealing with my injury and pain all this time. I know you will continue to support me throughout this time in my life and I am thankful to have friends and family and that I can count on through the good and bad times in my life.
I love you all. Love, Jenn
Inspired to blog
April 27, 2008
I’ve been inspired by my friend Natalie’s blog for over a year now and I am finally getting around to creating one for myself. One of the "fears" I always had about starting a blog was that no one would read it. Today, as I made my weekly calls to family and friends I realized that having a blog would keep those very people apprised of mine and Dustin’s going-ons during those oh-so-busy weeks and months that we don’t have time to make the contact that we should make a priority (given that I keep this thing updated!). So, here it is…the life and times of the Trimmier’s. You may be wondering why I titled the new blog ‘The Trimmier Honeymoon"…well, there are 2 reasons: 1) My dear cousin Mandy made that banner for me to use on my honeymoon journal and it is so darn cute I wanted to use it again – and 2) Technically mine and Dustin’s honeymoon has truly just begun. You might have thought it was over when we returned from Hawaii, but to the contrary we are finding that each day we spend together is better than the last and we are having so much fun as husband and wife. So for us, the honeymoon isn’t over and we don’t ever plan on ending it!
My plans for the blog: As I get started, I am going to transfer some of my old blogs over from Myspace – so some of the content posted within the next week might be outdated – you may or may not have already seen it. I’m going to try to date the material so you can have a time reference of when it’s from. Once I’ve done that, I plan to use my new Typepad blog as a place to share our pictures, stories and anything else I feel like sharing. I hope that you enjoy hearing about our lives and what we are doing as I know I enjoy hearing from my friends and family and seeing new pictures as everyone takes on new adventures and chapters in their lives.
So, off I’ll go now to start binge-blogging (a term picked up from Natalie). Enjoy!
