{Ali}: {The Merry Merry Month of May}

Hello, June 3rd!

Seriously, I cannot believe it is already June! I'm loving the warm weather though! Summer is here! Since I barely posted during the month of May, I thought I would just do a little recap with instagram photos. If you don't follow me on instagram, please do (I'm alimoll).

Anyway, the month started off with a visit home from my favorite son, Tyson!

A bunch of his friends were graduating from the University of Utah the first weekend in May, so he came home for 2.5 days for all of the festivities and parties! We had a great time hanging out with some pretty fabulous friends celebrating. It was great to have Tyson home, if only for a short time!

This photo was taken on a Saturday morning in May, a week and a half prior to my neck/back surgery . I woke up feeling so good! I actually got some sleep the night before and I wasn't in too much pain. I went for a nice long walk at Sugarhouse Park with some great friends and then out to lunch. It was nice to feel good enough to get some exercise in!

We celebrated Mother's Day by having my Mom over for dinner on the patio! A quick photo of the girls, including our Mal-Shi, Chloe!

The highlight of the month was being able to attend BLEND with my daughter Madison. We had such a great time! Even though I wasn't able to really participate 100% due to my back, it was fabulous to spend time with Madi and meet so many wonderful women! I came away from the retreat feeling so optomistic about my surgery and getting back to working out and being back to myself again! You can read about my Blend Retreat Recap HERE. I am so thankful that I met Janetha and found out about Blend!

We were also able to get the patio furniture out, and get some flowers and pots of flowers planted. I knew I wouldn't be able to do any work in the yard post surgery, so getting it pretty was a priority! Even though the weather was a bit iffy in May!

Finally, it was Surgery Week. I have been in pain since last November, and finally realizing that I might be pain free was almost too much to imagine! I was nervous, a bit apprehensive and scared, but mostly I was excited and optimistic!

I handled the surgery really well, and immediately felt relief. My arms and hands had been going numb daily, and the pain in my neck (LOL!) was almost constant. Waking up from surgery and finally coming out of the anesthesia fog, I could already tell a difference. It was crazy! I am almost 2 weeks post surgery and I am doing so much better! Praise God! One odd thing - I'm not a real jello lover (except jello shots, holla!)...but I couldn't get enough jello in the hospital. Every hour throughout the night, when the nurses would come in to check my vitals, I asked for ice chips and jello! My throat was so sore from the tube down my throat, as well as the agitation from surgery, and jello just tasted sooo good and was so easy on my throat! I couldn't get enough. Smile.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to my Zumba friends, who along with my family made sure we were well fed, and I was well taken care of, the week after surgery! I really am the luckiest girl!

And so the month of May has come to a close. It was a great month, and I am looking forward to summer and what the month of June holds for me! I am back to work, and feeling so much better! I'm not able to exercise much yet, but I have been taking some nice long walks! Trying to get those endorphines going and burn some calories!