J+P: 2013

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Thailand here we come!!

This trip has been 4 years in the making!! But we finally did it, we purchased our tickets to Thailand!!

I can't wait to have this boy be my tour guide!

Picture taken on P's mission in 2006-2008- he served in the Bangkok Thailand mission.

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed down to LA to visit my brother. It was such a fun weekend and it went by way too fast. Matt lives in the heart of LA so it was fun to be so close to everything, especially Thai and Korean town- P especially loved that!

We did a lot of eating, a little bit of sight seeing, here are some pics from the weekend...

Hiking Runyon Canyon

We followed up our hike with Diddy Riese. P and I tried to go here when we lived in So Cal a few years ago but it was closed. So it was on my list of things I wanted to do. They make yummy ice cream sandwiches with delicious cookies. It's super cheap too!

Kind of looks like we are eating a hamburger though :)

Matt's friend hooked us up with VIP tickets to the Dodgers game, complete with an all you can eat buffet, right up our alley. Great seats too ;)

We saw Eric Stonestreet, (Cam from Modern Family) you can see the back of his head in this picture, he was a few rows down from us.

We went and took pictures with these lamp posts in front of some museum. They are lamp posts from all around the world (I think!) and their were a ton of people taking pictures with them.

We also had to check out the LA Google campus, it was pretty rad, we had a fun time there.

Check out their awesome outdoor furniture. Those huge lamps were heat lamps.

Thanks for having us Matt! I really, really wish we lived closer :( Love you!!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Ty and Jess take San Fran

My cousin Ty works for an airline and since he gets flight benefits he took a trip out here to see me! I took two days off of work (which was heaven!) and we spent both of the days in the city. Thanks for coming Ty, and come back already!

Sausalito

Ft. Mason

His visit wouldn't be complete without a tour of Google! On google bikes, of course!

We also saw Billy Elliot together, it was such a great show. We both loved it! Thanks to Matt for the recommendation. Love that I can call my brother to verify whether or not I should see a certain Broadway show. He's seen basically all of them!

Eating our burgers in Sausalito.

We ate Bi-Rite ice cream two days in a row, they have the best flavors.

Love you Ty!!

A few updates/things to be thankful for

I FINALLY found someone who has been able to help me with the chronic pain I've been experiencing. I found a chiropractor online, through yelp, who had amazing reviews (like every review was 5/5 stars, he seemed too good to be true). I had to wait a few weeks to get into him, but it was well worth the wait. He actually listened to me (!) and for once he didn't assume that the problem was coming from my back, like most of the drs/PTs have thought. He actually was treating me where the pain was instead of treating me where the pain wasn't! Seems kind of crazy but seriously no one (besides an amazing chiropractor in Utah who is our close friend) has really approached my symptoms in a way that actually made sense! Here's how it's usually gone when I see a Dr/PT

Dr: Where is your pain, what are your symptoms?

Me: Pain in my right buttocks, hurts when I sit, feels like a really tight muscle that I can't ever release. Almost like there's something in there.

Dr: It can't be a muscle, muscles heals and you've had this pain for too long for it to be a muscle, it must be your back.

Then they proceed to touch my back, have me bend from side to side, touch my toes, all while asking "Does this hurt?" over and over. Well no, it doesn't hurt, I already told you where my pain is and it's not in my back!

Anyway, Dr. Vanderhoof approached me in a way that NO one has and I'm so thankful.

Long story short, I have what's called the piriformis syndrome or a really, really, tight piriformis muscle. So tight that one of the chiropractors thought it was a bone and said it was the tightest he's ever seen. He's been treating me with power tools, seriously! It's a drill without the actual drill on the end, something less sharp. Then he has one that looks like a sander, I like this one much better, it's not as painful as the drill one. He uses these tools to release the tension, kind of like deep tissue massage. I believe it's called Active Release Technique (He also uses other techniques and digs his elbow into my muscle). It has taken away 95% of my pain. After the first visit I was sore, mostly just from him digging these tool and his elbow into me, but I had no pain. I still have a ways to go but he has assured me that it's going to take time but it will eventually be all gone and won't come back unless I decide to run a marathon or something crazy like that. I will always have to be diligent in stretching it, rolling on a ball after I work out, and occasionally icing it, but these are things I am more than willing to do.

I'm so thankful I found him, Heavenly Father heard my desperate prayers! We also have great insurance which is a huge blessing. Being able to sit without pain makes life so much more enjoyable. I have been such a happier person!

In other news, I will be leaving my current job to be a nanny for a cute little boy. I'm excited about it, and a little nervous. With change comes nerves, right? I'm so happy to not be sitting all day, to be able to be outside, and to have a much more flexible schedule! I'm definitely going to miss Katie, we share a desk at work and have gotten to know each other quite well. She's great and I will miss our chats.

I thankful for my husband who has been working a lot lately. He's working on a cool project at work and I'm proud of him for working his little tail off. I know it will pay off. Thanks for working so hard for us P!

I'm also going to miss the fun walking paths at my work. I work right by a bay and it's always so fun to walk or jog around, during my lunch break, because it's such a pretty view.