Hi, friends!

It’s been a hot minute but we’re finally all moved in. The boxes are unpacked and almost everything has a found a place in the new house. We’re well on our way to being completely settled. We’ve had a chance to meet our super nice neighbors, and we’re looking forward to when we can all safely gather and be more social. We’re excited to get to know them better and really become part of the community.

Welcome home!

Updates

Nick and I continue to work from home and will not be going back into an office until the beginning of the year at the earliest, if we even go back at all. We started out sharing an office space in the new house like we did in the old one, but I have recently kicked him out of the shared office and into his own little nook in the playroom. We were distracting each other too much, and it was a nightmare trying to coordinate simultaneous video calls in the same room. Oof! This arrangement is working for now.

Sebastian has started a Spanish-immersion daycare which we’re all pretty excited about because he’s one step closer to learning Spanish. And it gives me even more of a chance to practice mine. Yesterday he came home and told us all about a new word he learned: amigos. “Amigo means friend!” And last night he was singing a little Spanish song to himself at bedtime. I’m not familiar with the song but he was singing “Aquí estoy” which means here I am. So cute!

Style & Beauty

I finished my Invisalign treatment and feel more confident with my smile again. And I’m slowly starting to get photos of my outfits again. New outfit posts will be coming soon! Here’s one in the meantime:

I’ve had several health-related appointments lately and this is an outfit I put together to wear to one of them. I often wear this outfit with flats or heels to the office, but I decided to give these new sneaks a try and I think they turned out to be a really cute touch to an otherwise professional look.

Blouse: Banana Republic | Pixie Pants: Old Navy | Lace up Sneakers from Rothy’s

What I’m Digging…

Cottagecore. So, I first heard about cottagecore on NPR’s 1A when they interviewed a trend and culture reporter, a trend expert, and an influencer about this aesthetic is and how it became so popular. According to Fandom, cottagecore “is an aesthetic inspired by a romanticized interpretation of western agricultural life. It is centered on ideas around of a more simple life and harmony with nature.” Y’all, I don’t know about you but as I get older, a more simple way of life sounds heavenly so I’m really enjoying all of these filtered photos of aprons, gardens, lace, and little farmhouses. You better watch out… I  might pull out some old peasant skirts and rock a bonnet (I’m only half kidding)! What are you digging lately?

Example of cottagecore, photo source: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Cottagecore

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. With the holidays coming up, we’ll be just as busy. I’m also trying to figure out how to celebrate safely. After all, Halloween is my (and Sebastian’s) favorite holiday.

Xo, Nikki

Three years ago today I experienced the scariest, most traumatic event of my life: I had a heart attack at just 32 years old.

I had just returned to work from a brief maternity leave and was looking forward to a long weekend of baby snuggles and a nice family picnic. However, instead of spending that time on a blanket in the warm sunshine with my boys, I spent it in a cold hospital room in the cardiac ICU recovering from a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). Because I didn’t get that picnic three summers ago, I decided to make it a tradition, a picnic every year around May 27 to celebrate each year of survivorship. Of course this year we’ve skipped the picnic due to a lot of factors like the constant dreary weather, the pandemic, and being in the middle of packing everything up for a move.

But I’m still in very good physical health and my mental health has improved tremendously, though I still occasionally deal with some PTSD stuff. But I get to watch Sebastian sing songs and learn new things and run around, and I’m extremely thankful that I was so lucky, that I’m still here to watch him grow. I’ve always felt that all the little things count so much, but now I know just how much.

In this third year:

–I signed up for and started training for the inaugural 5K SCADaddle© for Research to run 3.2 miles and raise money for more important SCAD research. The race was originally supposed to be held in April but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so my training has also been postponed but I’ll get back into it soon!

–I continue to be active in several online support groups, including a SCAD Survivors NC Facebook group where I can connect with and support survivors who truly understand what I’ve been going through these last three years because they’ve experienced it, as well.

–I’m still eating better. My diet has never been horrible but we now make it a habit to cook at home more and to ensure we’re eating fresh fruits and veggies.

All in all, I’m doing very well. And I’m *still* looking forward to a long lifetime full of sunny, warm picnics!

Y’all, when the doctor tells you to throw away your toothbrush after suffering through strep throat, you really should listen!

About two weeks ago, I wrote about having strep throat after I asked my friends for homemade remedies for a hellacious sore throat I was experiencing. Turns out Sebastian and I both had strep and were put on Mommy & Me antibiotics – pills for me, tasty pink liquid for him – for 10 days. The doctor had told me to replace our toothbrushes at the end of our treatment so we wouldn’t get reinfected and, being the good mother that I am, I promptly tossed Sebastian’s toothbrush and marched right to Target for a replacement and splurged on some Paw Patrol-branded toddler toothpaste. However, 

As Memorial Day came and went, so did the two-year anniversary of my heart attack.

Two summers ago, I had just returned to work from a brief maternity leave and was looking forward to a long weekend of baby snuggles and a nice family picnic. However, instead of spending that time on a blanket in the warm sunshine with my boys, I spent it in a cold hospital room in the cardiac ICU recovering from a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). It was truly one of the most scary things to ever happen to me. Because I didn’t get that picnic two summers ago, I decided that a do-over was just want I needed to celebrate my first year of survivorship. I had planned to have another picnic this year to start a new tradition, but unfortunately, Sebastian came down with a fever so we’re having to postpone it for another time.

I received some good health news recently!

Since the heart attack in May 2017, I’ve been seeing a cardiologist every six months to make sure I’m healing well and that I’m not having any complications. So far, everything has been fine. At my most recent check up, I mentioned to him that sometimes when I stand up, I feel slightly lightheaded with a throbbing in my ears that lasts few seconds. This was a fairly common occurrence when I was on a concoction of medication right after the heart attack, which included a beta blocker to keep my blood pressure and heart rate low, but having been off of those meds for about 6 months now, I wasn’t sure what was happening.