Lately

Hi!! I hope you all had a very happy holiday and a lot of fun celebrating the beginning of a new year!I didn’t expect to take such a long break from the blog, but travel and my health got in the way. I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I’m hoping (and doing everything I can) for better health than I had in 2016. Perhaps my body also felt the change my life went through this year, but I’m ready to start feeling better and healthier.

The day before I flew to Michigan was our 2nd wedding anniversary, and since we were both craving sushi, we went to Ran in Guatemala City before I boarded my red-eye flight to Chicago. I loved the design inside, and while we have both been incredibly spoiled with the best food in Chicago, we agreed the sushi was pretty good 🙂

After landing in Chicago, my sister picked me up to drive to Michigan. We were greeted with a lot of snow and the coziest house, decked out for Christmas.

A couple of days before i flew to Michigan, I went into the ER for horrible back pain (like so horrible I couldn’t even walk). The first night I was there, I was sitting on the floor, wrapping presents, and when I was done, I couldn’t stand up. The pain continued on and off for the next week, but I had fun cuddling my niece and eating a lot of Christmas cookies 🙂

drank some ridiculously good wine (only a half glass for me because of all the pain meds)

spent time with family

played a lot of Mario Kart

drank my brother’s homemade beer (this one was a DELICIOUS black IPA)

ate a lot of delicious food (Guatemala is missing out on sweet potato fries)

and got spoiled with a lot of wonderful gifts (stocking stuffers were on point this year).

I flew back to Guatemala on the 28th, and it was awful. My back pain was so bad by that point that it took me 10 minutes to re-tie my shoes after taking them off to go through security. I had a connection in Newark, and the flight to Guatemala was 5 hours of torture. I was, however, impressed with the Newark airport (make your own salad bar)!

I went straight to the ER after landing in Guatemala, where I stayed for a couple of days to get the pain under control. Thanks to this guy for staying with me and sleeping next to me in a tiny little hospital bed.

The breakfast in the hospital got two thumbs up from me….fresh fruit & fresh squeezed OJ!

New Years Eve was spent in bed, listening to all of the parties and fireworks happening around me 🙁 Thanks to Christopher & Maya for bringing me dinner and tiny glass of wine to ring in the new year!

This year didn’t exactly start as planned, but here’s to going with the flow and doing everything I can to make this year better than the last!