and one organ later...

My surgery was this past Friday, the 20th, and I'm well on the road to recovery. I may no longer have a gall bladder inside my body, but look at the cute one I have outside my body!

you thought I was going to show you a picture of the gall bladder they took out, didn't you? Well, I'm weird, but I'm not that weird. This guy was a gift from my good friends Chrissy & Wilson - he's so awesome! I took him to the hospital with me for surgery, and he was such a hit. After surgery, while I was in my room recovering, my nurse took him out and showed him to everyone on the floor.

I'm really excited because I got lots of new, exciting yarn to try out! My wonderful friend Ashley sent me this yummmmmmy skein of Silky Merino Malabrigo in a gorgeous color - can't wait to try it out! 

My in-laws went overboard and really spoiled me:

2 skeins of Art Yarns Silk Rhapsody

Prism Lace Wool

Mountain Colors Winter Lace

The last picture doesn't even come close to doing the yarn justice - it's gorgeous. The colors are so rich and fall - just beautiful. All this yarn makes me think maybe I should have surgery more often.......

But in all seriousness, I can't thank my friends and family enough for everything. Both my parents came from NC to be with me, my mom stayed all weekend, Jake's dad surprised us by driving from VA to be there, my grandparents drove 2 hours to be there with me, and of course Jake has been by my side every second of each day. Thank you to everyone who sent text messages, left voicemails, sent tweets, and just sent good thoughts and prayers. They were all very much appreciated, and even though the past few days have involved a lot of this,

I'm feeling better every day, and have had a fairly easy recovery so far (the snuggling kitties have helped).

a week of ups and downs

Well the past week has been a roller coaster here in the Sadler household. Last Wednesday night, I woke up around 1:30 am with severe pain in my abdomen and spent the next 2 or 3 hours either hugging the toilet or curled up in pain. This happened to me once before in mid-June, so I knew there was something wrong. After a trip to the cleanest, quickest and nicest urgent care I've ever been to (seriously - for once in my life I'm not being sarcastic), they sent me to get an ultrasound and scheduled me an appointment for this past Tuesday to follow up. Needless to say, those 4 days crept by. I've never actually wished for the weekend to be over, but in this case, it was all I could think about.

Anyway, long story short - I have gallstones. And I have to have surgery next Friday to have my gallbladder out. And, as every doctor I've seen has told me, I'm not a typical candiate for gallstones, so this is a strange occurance. Apparently, most people that have gallstones are fat and in their forties, which I am neither.

So as a person who has been really healthy for the almost 27 years I've been alive, I'm totally nervous. I don't like the idea of being cut open (although the surgery is lapriscopic, so does it really count as being cut open?), I don't like the idea of going through a few hours of my life and literally not being able to remember any of it. I mean, if I liked that, I'd be a heavy drinker. Really, I just don't like the idea of any of it. Besides being able to lay in bed and be waited on hand and foot for a couple of days. That sounds pretty nice.

So after I scheduled surgery with my surgeon today, I left feeling pretty crappy. So you can imagine how happy I was to receive an email telling me some great news....

I'm going to be published!


My victorian lace fingerless glove pattern has been accepted into the Independent Designer Program on Knit Picks! I'm seriously so excited. The pattern won't immediately go up on the website - we're still working out some of the details (pictures and whatnot), but I was just too excited to hold it in! The pattern will also still be available immediately on Ravelry, or on the Knit Picks website (probably sometime in the next few weeks). I really feel like this is a great first step for me in terms of getting my designs out there and it also lets me know that other people like what I'm doing!