4th of July Celebration and Camping

So we had one of the most exciting 4th of July celebrations we have had in YEARS. If you remember, this time last year, Cody and I were on a plane heading to Disney for our honeymoon part 2. So this year I was thrilled to be here and Mom and Morgan happened to be able to come down! On July 3rd Morgan and Edgar were celebrating with his family and Cody and I met mom at the place we took our prom pictures over 6 years ago and took our anniversary pictures. I was SO glad we were able to squeeze that in before the 5pm Collegedale fireworks show. So after anniversary pictures in the 95 degree weather, mom and I quickly took my van to get a thorough cleaning at the car wash. We vacuumed, windexed, and everything! Who knew rain alone didn't wash your car?! #adulting. After that I went back to mom's house to go through some of our old stuff sorting give-away piles, keep piles, and storage piles. After 2 hours of sorting and going through mom and dads old wedding albums we were done! My mom was such a pretty bride.

Then me, mom, and Morgan had some mother-daughter time and met at the local greenway to walk for an hour and a half. It was so hot but we made it. The company and conversation was so great. I so look forward to when they both can come back to live here in Chattanooga with me (maybe in 5 years?). But that will be here before we know it. 

So I went back to our apartment to get it cleaned up and have dinner ready for Morgan, Edgar, and mom. An hour and a half later they rolled in (avoiding the collegedale traffic), we ate dinner, and headed to my apartment pool to swim. It was an absolute blast. When it started to get dark we knew the fireworks would start soon so we hoped out and got dressed.

We pulled Cody's truck around facing the fireworks show and sat in the tailgate with blankets, glow sticks, and were excited to have front row seats. 

Of course we had to get our glow-in-the-dark spinners!

Snazzy!

Cleopatra 

My husband. Wolverine. 

After the fireworks show it was 10:30 and we still had our own poppers and fireworks to shoot off. So we found a nice empty flat place to shoot off our fireworks. It was so much fun! After we realized it was 11:30pm, we were extremely tired and all went home and fell to sleep. 

The next day on the actual 4th of July, Cody and I woke up and headed to the most american restaurant for breakfast, Bojangles, haha just kidding, but we really did go there. Then we headed to Academy to pick out some pre-birthday sunglasses for Cody. The rest of the day we went home, relaxed, and got ready for the next day, work day, after such a long fun weekend. 

.............

So the next weekend Cody and I decided to spend our birthday together a weekend early just the two of us. We headed to the campsites his parents own in Cedar Bluff Alabama. After work Friday we headed straight there just in time to see the beautiful sunset off the docks. We got the camper all set up and headed to the Piggly Wiggly for hotdog stuff, smores, and waters. 

The camper his parents own is so spacious and comfy. It is so perfect for a nice special relaxing  getaway together. We fell asleep pretty soon after we got there because the time change threw us off a little bit. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early (because of the time change) and ate our breakfast at the campsites restaurant. Cody had to work on his masters degree work the whole day but that didn't stop us from getting in fishing, campfires, and roasting marshmallows. It was the most relaxing day I had had in a long time. As Cody typed away, I read my book on the dock, holding the fishing pole and watching the sunrise and sunset. I even got a little tan without a sunburn! At sundown Cody made one of his famous fires and we sat around the blazing fire just talking and holding hands. Togetherness. 😍

For lunch Cody was busy with his 5 papers so I surprised him making us peanut butter marshmallow sandwiches. Yes, that really is a marshmallow in that sandwich. Don't knock it until you try it!

There's my hot hubby taking a break from studying fishing off the dock. I love watching him fish so much. It is one of his favorite things to do. 

My hubby building his fire 😍. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early because we had to get back to Chattanooga for his football meetings and we packed up and made the drive back. Cody went on to football and I walked Sasha with mom at the greenway and dog park. I love spending quality time with mom. We also managed to get some training in for Sasha. She will behave. She has to or she will like kill someone or something ha. Silly crazy dog. 

Kayla Raborn

7-15-17

24th Birthday!!!

I AM 24 YEARS OLD!!!! It's my birthday!! I am so incredibly excited to celebrate every birthday especially with family!  

Since my family wasn't able to come down to Chattanooga the weekend before or after my birthday, we celebrated all together two weekends before. Both of my grandparents came down, and mom, Morgan, and Edgar (oh and Sasha). I was thrilled to have everyone there!

So when I walked into the house I saw the beautiful banner and decorations mom had put up. I was shocked. She went way above and beyond to make my birthday so special. She decorated the house with a beautiful Kate Spade themed birthday party. I love Kate Spade so incredibly much! The birthday banner was so me! Mom is awesome!

Then I walked into the dining room through the streamers so find the bright pink Kate Spade table decorations and GORGEOUS light pink and white peony bouquets. They were so super sweet reminding me of my wedding bouquet. (The funny thing is, just weeks before I had been posting about Kate Spade themed party decor on pinterest because I was slightly envious but mom didn't even know I had been posting that. She doesn't have a pinterest! Mom knows me so well!)

Just look at those peonies!! They are by far my favorite flower!

The babies breath and greenery were such a nice touch!

Mom had also themed the party food around watermelon (my favorite) and decorated them with beautiful cotton candy balls reminding me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book. 

Now to my favorite treat, my chocolate dipped watermelon cubes. I was so surprised! Mom has never been able to make something so creative with food. She worked so hard to make these and they turned out so perfect!

Even the table set and silverware were Kate Spade themed! So beautiful!

I tell you, one of these days I am going to be able to save up enough money to buy my very own Kate Spade purse!

I loved the banner!

So after I arrived at the house and admired the decorations, we all went to VW to hike the trails. It was so hot but SO MUCH FUN! I love hiking more than you can imagine!

After 2 hours of hiking we came back home and opened our presents. Everyone was so sweet, I loved everything! 

Of course Sasha was here to help me open my presents when I was struggling. 😂 Little stinker.

For those who know me, I love baths (closest thing to swimming, my favorite thing ever) hence, the bag. And for my birthday I got 6 new bath bombs!!! I am so excited!!!!!!

Then was the much awaited cake after eating our chicken and zucchini noodle diner. We had my aunt's best friend make this key lime pie cake for us and it was drop-dead amazing. She is such a talented baker and this was the best cake I had ever had. It was all eaten by the next day. 

I mean just look at those layers!

After cake it started to rain so we thought it would be a great idea to play with our water balloons that Morgan got for us (one of my favorite presents)! We threw them at each other and bounced with them on the trampoline. I love still being a kid at heart. When we ran out of water balloons it was time for everyone to go home. So we put Sasha in the trunk of the car on her blanket and went back inside to get our stuff. We all came back out so send off Gigi and Granddad and you wouldn't believe what we saw. Sahsa had climbed over 3 rows of seats and was sitting in the DRIVERS SEAT!!! It was like what?!?! There's no way she could fit over those bench seats and climb that far. She just kept looking back at us like, so where are you guys going to sit? She is a hoot and keeps all of us on our toes. Speaking of dogs, Cody and I can't wait to get a dog in 3 years! We have been thinking long and hard about that too. We don't want to overwhelm ourselves with a dog yet either and have to pay it's expensive medical bills, food, toys, and have to worry about trips and it destroying our apartment. We will not get a dog until we have a house. We will be in our apartment until November 2019. We are thinking about getting a lab one day! The color? We can't agree on one yet ;). 

Anyways, back the birthday. I am so thankful for everyone coming and making it one of my favorite birthday's yet. I love you all!

..........

On Cody's actual birthday, I wanted to make him his favorite dinner which consists of chicken noodle soup with dumplings but I have no idea how to make it as it is my mother-in-law's famous dish. So I called as asked if she could whip it up for me and she sweetly agreed! I was SO thankful! So I surprised Cody with the dinner when he got home late from his football teams scrimmage. 

I then showed him his surprise dessert! DONUTS!! Donuts are his favorite! I got him chocolate and caramel donuts. Unfortunately the candle I randomly found around the apartment was from his great grandmothers funeral (which I didn't know) and I about stroked when he told me. Sorry babe!

I then had him sit and open his presents which he loved! I surprised him with a protein powder and really cool shaker he had been wanting. We also went to Academy to get his dream pair of sunglasses. We ended the night with more Grey's Anatomy and snuggles!

I've always loved having our birthday's a day apart! It is so much fun! Our kids will never have to remember or forget our birthdays since it is so easy!

On my actual birthday day, I came home from work to a clean apartment, my favorite, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a sweet sweet card and not pictured, a beautiful set of earrings and a bracelet, and my favorite meatloaf in the oven. Cody is always so thoughtful and sweet to me. For the rest of the night we watched Grey's anatomy, went on a walk at the local greenway, and got a Sonic drink to go home with us. It was a good birthday! Oh and also, I love Cody's humor so much. The card he gave me had a one dollar bill in it. I laughed for 5 minutes straight. I should have put $100 dollars of our own money in his card just so he could put it back in his wallet. He is a hoot. 😂

So now as I look ahead to my next birthday (25), I get a little sad. I have always enjoyed celebrating another year older but just thinking about 25 really hit home. 29 is your prime, you will never get those years of youth back (and won't know what you are missing until it is gone), and you have hit your aging peak before you slowly slowly start to go downhill for the rest of your life. Realizing that the prime of my life (the 20's) is right now and next year it will be half way over is so difficult for me to think about. In your 20's you don't have many real life responsibilities (besides marriage and your apartment/house) and you can just come and go at a whim and take small vacations/trips whenever, and just relax. When you hit 28/29/30 years old, you have to worry about pregnancy, birth, and raising your child into a successful member of the world, and also just worried about keeping them alive and happy....for the rest of their life. That is a huge task. A huge task God thinks we can all handle one day. That is stressful as heck and I am so blessed just to have this time now to literally not worry compared to how it will be in 3-4 years. When Cody and I decide to be parents, I am going to put 1,000% effort into it and take it extremely seriously. It will be my biggest job. That reason alone is the actual truth of why we will wait so long to have kids. Also to be financially stable enough to support our kids and be able to buy them the things they need without giving it a second thought. I'm sorry I talk about kids a lot, they are on my mind a lot. We like to make life plans but we do ultimately realize God is in control and we may never be blessed with children, we may have difficulty conceiving, or we may find ourselves pregnant before the 4 years. I am realistic and see all three scenarios everywhere I look. Whatever God's plan is for us, we will follow it. I just wanted to make that clear. But until God's plan for us is unveiled, we have to plan ahead. 

Anyways, back to being old. So yes I will be sad my next birthday and EXTREMELY sad on my 30th birthday. But I have to remember that aging is not always terrible. Aging means you are one year closer to having kids, or one year closer to them becoming older and more relatable, one year closer to one day having grand kids, retirement, and meeting the Lord one day. Aging throughout your life is not bad, it is the inability to let go of something out of your control and our human desire to want to hold on to what we know is good in our life right now, when we don't even know what great things God had planned for us next. It is difficult for us as humans to see our bodies not be able to do what we once could. It is the hardest thing now for me to remember as a kid hearing my parents/grandparents talk about this stuff, but now hearing them wish they were where they used to think they were old back then. It is all perspective. When I was little I heard all of the adults in my life talk about that but it honestly never occurred to me that it would happen to me too. I used to listen to them thinking aw that stinks and went on my merry way. I never really thought things changed, and you would kind of be a kid forever. As kids you have a difficult time being able to visualize the future. 

But out of all of these deep thoughts, I've come to the conclusion of just living in the moment and enjoying every step you are on. It is all part of Gods plan for you.

I'm sorry for all of the deep thoughts, I truly believe I am an old soul ;).

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn

7-15-17

Anniversary Pictures!!

So for our first anniversary I thought it would be a sweet idea for us to have some anniversary pictures taken! So I thought about the idea and what we would wear, who would take the pictures, and where we would take them and I was talking to mom about the idea and she loved it! I decided that mom would be a great photographer for us (which she is), and Cody and I both met mom at the exact place that Cody and I fell in love......the place I knew I had just found my husband..... The place we took pictures on prom night. We didn't exactly fall in love there but it was that whole night. That prom night was very special to us. We had only been dating one month at the time, and we were both still very nervous around each other (we were too nervous to even hold hands for the pictures). We had gone to this special little area before prom with both of our parents to take pictures before the big night. So I found it very fitting to go back to that very place that started it all. Perfect for our one year. I could never have imagined that that night, over 6 years ago, we would be here now. I just can't help but think where we will be in the next 6 years. So here are some of the exact poses and locations that we took prom pictures over 6 years ago! :) :)

Keep scrolling to the bottom for a picture of us when we were just babies!

This is one of my favorite ones!

This was a new well put in recently, so this is the only "new" picture.

Here's a little throw back for ya ;)

Love,

Kayla 

7-9-17

P.S. Thank you mom for all of the amazing pictures, you are so sweet and have such a gift with photography!

The Truth About my LASIK Experience

*DISCLAIMER, THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART AND CONTAINS REAL LIFE UNEXAGGERATED TRUTH OF A SCARY SURGICAL PROCEDURE*

So I am finally in a place to share my lasik experience. It has taken me over a month to work up the courage to relive this life altering day. So here I go.... well my lasik experience was far from easy. I went into the surgery knowing it would be challenging for me. I have always had trouble touching my eye and putting in contact lenses so I knew an extremely invasive and scary surgery would be a challenge for me. And it was just that. I was as prepared as possible, I prayed very hard, and just held Cody's hand. If it hadn't been for Cody there I don't know if I could have done the surgery. 

While waiting in the waiting room for 3 hours for the surgery I just knew I was waiting to be tortured. I felt like I was electively being apart of a real life criminal minds episode or something. After the second Valium pill, my heart was still palpitating out of my chest, I decide to take the plunge and walk into the surgery room. It was my turn, the last patient there, at 5:45pm. I walked into the surgery room and laid down in the chair as they ask my my name and birthday. I can't even remember what I tell them. I start to breathe faster and faster. Without realizing it I am panicking as the doctor without hesitation places the metal spectrum in my eye, forcing my eye way further open than it should EVER go. At this point everything is moving so fast and my eye is being poked prodded, and cut and I am at this point squeezing Cody's hand to death and hyperventilating. The nurse urgently tells me to calm and slow my breathing and it is taking everything in me to keep my head up and straight and my body on the chair because all I desperately wanted to do was be anyone else, being anywhere else but there right now being slowly tortured while i'm awake and fully aware. The Valium had absolute zero effect on me, I was too panicked. Against the doctors wishes I had two Valium pills before promising him I would not be out of it. At this point in the surgery, I bet he was hoping I was out of it a little bit (he later told me I took 5 years off of his life). So then my eye is forced open to the point of no return but the strange thing is I was still blinking. Well I mean I wasn't because it is physically impossible, but my eye muscles were still working so my muscles were moving like they were blinking and I fully felt like I was truly blinking. That was a nice perk because I was so worried about that part and having to hold my eye open for so long without it being 'lubricated'.

So next, the pressure of my eye was taken with this scary device and the worst part of all, a suction ring was coming towards my eye, and after watching all of the informational videos I knew what it meant and how awful it was going to be. It seemed like it was coming towards my eye in slow motion for like a minute as I could do nothing but cry inside because my eyes wouldn't produce tears. The suction ring went on my eye and the most insane pressure of my life. It felt like the doctor was standing on my eye and it was going to sink into its socket forever. I couldn't even get the words out that I was beyond freaking out. Then came the vision lost. Like they had warned me, my vision was 100% gone. All I could see was pitch black. All I could hear was the distant voice of the doctor saying to keep looking at the light. It was like the feeling of passing out and you are in a dark long lonely tunnel. I couldn't see the laser one bit but tried my hardest to look in that general direction and pray the good Lord gives me my vision back. And then came the cutting of the flap of my eye. You will never feel pain as you would someone cutting a microscopic layer off of the whole front of your eye, like peeling a layer off of a grape with a potato peeler. Even though my eye was numbed, I still felt the feeling and strange pain as you would imagine as he cut the flap off of the front of my eye. I will never forget that feeling. He then peeled the flap back and checked the pressure again. As my vision slowly starts to fade back I smell the smell. My eye was completely burning from the laser as it shaped my eye into the correct shape and fixed my astigmatism. The smell my eye made as it was being burned will be etched into my brain for the rest of my life. I will NEVER forget that smell. It was a horrible, horrible rotting flesh smell like someone being burned alive. That smell alone is what gave me the majority of the PTSD problems. Then the suction ring was released and the flap was replaced as he painted it in place over my eye. My vision was no longer blurry. The worst part was I was only half way done and they taped my finished eye closed and started with the other eye repeating the same process. It felt like a year had gone by with each eye but it was only 5-7 minutes.

 The second eye was a little worse but went better surgically than my other eye. My left eye, the second one, was painfully pushed by the suction and the flap had a lot of trouble getting in the right place so I because extremely nauseous as he toggled with my entire vision field for a good minute. It was so gross and I was so panicked. And as my second eye was started I surrendered to the defeat of surgery and the lack of control I had over my eye and what was happening to me so I laid there like someone who is beaten after they are dead. I had internally given up and let the surgeon torture me. My eye could have been cut off at the root and placed on a plate beside me and I wouldn't have done a thing. I was defeated and so scared. 

As my surgery was finished I thought the torture was over. Man was I mislead. That's the only part no one had prepared me for and I was not mentally ready for it's reality. As soon as I sat up my vision was perfect but foggy (as expected). And I was given sunglasses and whisked away to the post-op room. The other patients cracked jokes and happily left as I sat in shock. Poor Cody was really really bad. I hadn't prepared him for anything that would happen to me as he is extremely squeamish, more so than even I, so he was traumatized watching my surgery from the outside. I don't think I could have watched it from the outside. It was hard enough seeing the little bit I did. So it was like he went through it with me. He was white as a ghost. In post opp I was told surgery went perfectly and I was sent home to sleep the night away. So me mom and Cody went home and put me to bed (as sweet Cody made me my favorite meals for the next day). I had to put stinging eye drops in my eyes every 4 hours and had to wear eye guards to bed and avoid water for 3 days. My eyes stung like they were on fire and I fell asleep for a long time. I woke up every few hours in a mad panic, just covered in sweat crying. Every time I closed my eyes I was back in that chair feeling the torture being done on my eyes and I could vividly smell my eyes burning. The next morning I woke up and my vision was the clearest it had ever been in my entire life. It brought tears to my eyes. It had actually worked but for a price I didn't want to pay. Each blink, thousands of thousands of blinks a day, felt like a million eyelashes were stuck in my eye with no way of getting them out as I wasn't allowed to touch my eyes whatsoever. I was so uncomfortable and in pain and my depth perception was off and they were so so dry no matter what I did and I was a mess. On top of all of that I had to go to work the next day and was cleared to by the doctors but was in no condition to go (I went but really shouldn't have, I was in so much pain). So I spent the next day sleeping and praying and putting in my liquid fire eye drops. That night I looked in the mirror and screamed. There wasn't a millimeter of white in my eye, all I saw was blood. The whites of my eye were literally bleeding under the new flap. I was so scared but reassured by my doctor that it was completely normal. 

So as I patently waited for my eyes to not feel like sand was stuck in them, days after day went by and nothing changed. I was scared to death. I was depressed and miserable that I wasn't healing like the other patients and the doctors couldn't explain the sensation in my eye. I 100% truly thought I was cursed to deal with that the rest of my life. Depressed was an understatement. I pitifully sat on the couch for the rest of that week unable to read, use my phone, take a shower, watch tv, or go outside. I am not going to lie, I cried a lot. Plus that felt good on my chronically dry eyes. The doctors couldn't explain why they were so dry even with the drops and I continually could't open and shut my eye with the dryness to the extent it was. I was so doomed thinking about my future having to deal with this and how in the world I could possibly cope. I really don't think I could. At this point I regretted getting the surgery and couldn't enjoy my new eyes at all since I was so miserable. 

So I woke up on the one week mark and it was like the skies had opened and a rainbow appeared, my eyes felt....normal! I was so relieved I cried. I couldn't tell what had changed to make my eyes feel normal again. Then it hit me, the night before I had finished my eye drops as they had instructed. I had been having an allergic reaction to the eye drops and had no idea. The second I stopped using them I never had that painful terrible eyelash feeling in my eye and the dryness significantly improved. The doctors said no one has ever had an allergic reaction to the drops but I have to believe that I did because all of my symptoms disappeared 6 hours after I stopped my drops. That is not a coincidence. I was able to enjoy my eyes and really experience my beyond perfect vision as I had drive around to celebrate. I was in awe. Unfortunately my eyes still looked the same with the redness but I would take that any day over how they felt. It was really sad when I was in public the way people stared at me and the questions I got. I truly got a taste of what it was like to be truly 'different' and it stunk. I understand now to an extent of what individuals feel like that have physical abnormalities now and I feel for them and say I can relate to a level. As the days and weeks went on, my eyes felt better and better and the dryness eventually almost went away. I went to the eye doctor Friday morning and my eyes look perfect and the redness is almost gone. My eyes are 99% healed. And the best part....my vision is now 20/15. It is truly a God given miracle. I couldn't believe it as my eyes teared up in the doctors office. I never thought I would ever be ok, or the surgery would actually work. I now can say my surgery was 100% worth it. I just wish I really was given a realistic recovery talk. If I had known what I would face in the week following and ultimately being ok, I wouldn't have been so panicked or depressed. But now I know. 

As for now and the future, I am just celebrating every day that my eyes are 20/15 because the surgery isn't guaranteed for forever and God may choose to bring my eyes back to the way they were but that's ok. I am just taking it one day at a time, enjoying what God has given my now. For the time being, I am loving how I look without glasses and without the hassle of keeping up with them, cleaning them, and worrying about them getting damaged. I also now only see one moon instead of 3, the way my astigmatism made me see. My life has opened up with opportunities now. I can play sports with a peace of mind, I can see when I go to the swimming pool and I never have to wear them again. Out of habit I still look for my glasses every now and then 😂. I am glad to lead this path for my sister and cousins and can be REAL advice for them and hope to not have scared you out of lasik. Thank you Woolfson Eye Institute and Dr. Woolfson for changing my life!

This was me hours before I left to the surgery center. I was so nervous. You can see it in my eyes.

The next night after surgery. I had to wear these glasses 24/7 for three days.

4 days after surgery. I was terrified to show anyone my eyes because they looked so scary. 

This was three weeks after surgery and my eyes had healed significantly. The redness was so much better. 

Now I am reaping the rewards of my struggles. I can wear cool sunglasses now!

And today my eyes look 99% normal!

Love,
Kayla Raborn

7-3-17