Highs and Lows

It has been a little over a week since I last posted.  To be honest, life has been pretty chaotic in the last two weeks.  I debated on whether or not to even type this post but figured the whole point in me starting this blog was to write about my feelings before the wedding as well as my life as a Bolton.

For the last 2 years of my life, I feel like I have been constantly sick.  Crawford actually tells people that I have been sick for the last 4 years because when we first met, he thought I was just making up a random sickness just so we didn't have to hang out.  After a colonoscopy, endoscopy, gall bladder surgery, appendix surgery, and diagnosis of a peanut allergy and wheat intolerance, I just figured the wheat was the culprit for making me feel bad and I should be in the clear for no more surgeries.  The only thing that did not make sense to me was that not all wheat products hurt me but I just went with it and assumed that every time I felt sick was because I was not eating the right foods.

Fast forward to August of this year.  I randomly developed an extremely excruciating abdominal pain that eventually hurt me every time I used the bathroom (TMI, sorry).  After seeing my regular doctor, she referred me back to my GI doctor.  I went and saw him and his NP and after an examination, we figured out what was wrong and they gave me some medicine and about 2 weeks later, the pain was gone. 

Then, one day about 3 weeks ago, the pain returned.  Except much MUCH worse. I knew something was not right.  I made another appointment with my GI and after that appointment, he stated he wanted me to come in next week for a colonoscopy.  Not going to lie, being 3 weeks away from the wedding and having to deal with a health issue is tough.  I remember breaking down that day because 1. I didn't feel good 2. I knew I would have to meet my deductible for the procedure and I already had so many wedding expenses 3. I had way to much on my plate to have to worry about this and 4. I just needed a major cry.

I immediately texted my prayer warriors to pray for me and they gave me the calm and reassurance I needed.  I went in for my colonoscopy last Thursday which was 2 weeks and 2 days from the wedding.  After waking up from the colonoscopy, the doctor told me that my colon and small intestine was extremely inflamed and were covered in ulcers.  I also had an extremely high white blood count.  He stated that he could not confirm anything until the pathology results came back but from the looks of it, he was pretty sure it is Crohn's disease.  My mind immediately went in to overdrive and I was flooded with so many questions. 

What does this mean? How long will it take to find out? What is Crohn's? What types of treatment will I need? Can I still have children one day?

(because I am about to get married and kind of need to know that)

He told me that he did not want to answer any of my questions until we confirmed whether or not it was Crohns and he scheduled my follow-up appointment for 1 week later.

My mom went with me to my appointment yesterday. I felt very prepared because I had done a lot of research and I really just wanted to get treatment so I could start feeling better.  Let's just say that appointment did not really go how I expected it.  He basically told me the test results were very generic and he still did not know 100% whether or not I had Crohns.  The results showed that the inflammation was caused from either Crohns or taking too many NSAIDS (ibuprofen, BC powder, motrin, etc).  I don't take NSAIDS so I told him it couldn't be that.  He then told me that the only way to confirm that it is Crohn's is to have a DNA blood sample sent off to the lab.  That will take about 3 weeks to get the results so he said he wanted to go ahead and start my treatment because he is pretty sure it is Crohns.

So here I am.  Still don't know 100% what is wrong with me but I am getting closer to some answers.  Today was my first day of taking my steroid treatment and I can already tell a major difference.  I have been pain free all day. 

In the last two weeks, I have felt so many emotions that have at times overwhelmed me.  Regardless of what the tests show, I know that I am loved and I have the biggest support system imaginable.  If it turns out to be Crohn's, while it is a chronic disease, it is treatable and for that, I am grateful and know that the medicine that I am on will help me feel better. 

I debated on whether I wanted to type this since we still don't know for sure but I want to be able to look back and remember this time in my life.  I would also like to give a major shout out to Crawford and my parents.  Without their love and support, I would be a mess.  We are now 1 week and 2 days away from the wedding so I am asking for your prayers.  Please pray that the medicine will continue to work and that I will be feeling my best for the day that I have anticipated since I was a little girl.

-AAO

Wedding Q & A

When are you getting married? 

We are getting married on November 8, 2014.  Exactly 17 days, 2o hours, 33 minutes and 49 seconds from now but who is counting?

Got the marriage license this week!!

How did you meet?  

We met at Mount Olive College (now University of Mount Olive) while playing cornhole.  It was my sophomore year and his freshman year. I blogged about that night here.

What is your Engagement Story?  

We got engaged on November  11th, 2013 in Crawfords apartment.  It was not planned and very spontaneous.  He had a very elaborate proposal planned for 2 weeks later but the minute he got the ring in his hand, he knew he could not wait.  WE CANT KEEP SECRETS and I was totally catching on.  So in his gym shorts, tank top, and flip flops, he got down on one knee and after some lovey dovey words, he asked the million dollar question.  I of course said YES!

Where are you going on your honeymoon?

Crawford and I are going to St. Lucia through Sandals.  I CANNOT WAIT!

How many bridesmaids did you choose? How did you go about choosing them? 

I have six bridesmaids.  Hillary (sister) is my Maid of Honor and that one was a no brainer.  Rebekah is my Matron of Honor and has been my best friend since the day she was born...2 weeks after me.  Jennifer has been my "big sister" my whole life and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding back in 2008.  Kat, Alex, and Alyssa are my best friends/roommates from college.   Picking my bridesmaids was probably the easiest task of the entire wedding and it worked out perfectly with Craw's groomsmen.

The day I revealed my dress to my bridesmaids.

What is your color scheme, and what made you choose it? 

My color scheme is everything fall.  It is my absolute favorite season and my wedding had to be a fall wedding.

Cranberry red is the color my girls will be wearing and they will be carrying yellow sunflowers.  The church will be decorated with mums so there will be tons of reds, yellows, and oranges.

What are you looking forward to the most? 

I would have to say that the moment I am looking forward to most would be when the church doors open and I see Crawford.  I find myself trying to envision that moment all the time but I just cannot fathom it.  Definitely going to be an emotional moment for me.

What is the most stressful thing about planning your wedding?

The most stressful part of planning the wedding was by far the guest list.  We started out by each submitting our list of names and that just did NOT work.  We were at about 400 people.  We then had to sit down and start cutting people out.  It was terrible.  We finally settled on a final number but it was by far the hardest part.  I can say that we warned that it would be tough.

Road to Dating Part 2: Creepy C

So I blogged about the night we met here.  Today, I will share our journey of what came next, and believe me, it was quite a long BUMPY ride.

So if you refer to my previous post, you will remember that Crawford and I only said one word to each other the first night we met.  A couple of nights later, I noticed that he added my roommate Alyssa on Facebook.  Being the social media guru that I am, I thought to myself, "maybe I should add him, what's another friend."  (Side note: I was bad for adding people I did not really know).  He accepted my friend request right away and IMMEDIATELY sent me a facebook chat.

Crawfords version of the story is that he added Alyssa to see if I would notice so that way I would friend request him first.  It is so funny to hear him tell this part because the night I added him, he literally did a "dance" in his dorm room in front of 3 of his closest guy friends.  He pretty much assumed this was putting him on the fast track to dating. NOT!

Fast forward the story (I don't want to bore you).  We chatted pretty much off and on for a week or two.  I found that he was really easy to talk to and not like any guy I had ever met.  I am not even kidding you, I thought he tried too hard in the beginning and tried using every pick up line known to man.  He would type out these long paragraphs that were extremely deep in thought and I would just sit at my computer and laugh.  Little did I know, that is just how his mind works 99% of the time.

I had to go home one day to get a new phone and Crawford asked if he could ride with me.  Looking back on it, I was probably insane to let him ride with me.  It was our first time actually "hanging" out and I had only known the boy for about 2 weeks.  Regardless, I did not want to ride by myself to Wilson and thought that this would be a great time to hang out with a new friend.

So off we went to Wilson.  Crawford was wearing his famous outfit that day: gym shorts, tank top, calf high socks, and Nike flip flops.  Little did I know that we would end up meeting my parents, hanging out with them in a phone store for a solid hour, and then going on a nice little double date family dinner together at  Texas Steakhouse.  Yeah, he didn't make the best "first impression" on my parents.  They still joke him about that to this day.  In his defense, I did not realize we were meeting them that night.  Plus, we were just friends that rode together, right?

School got out the next week so I moved back home for the summer and started an internship at a church in Clayton.  We skyped every single night.  I found him so incredibly easy to talk to...not to mention, it was nice having a guy interested in me.  I knew he was not my "type" AT ALL so I only looked at those Skype dates  chats as talking to my best friend at the end of every day.  I honestly love that we did that because that is where our friendship started.  We told each other everything that summer.  He truly became my best friend. 

I eventually started having friends ask me what was going on with us.  Let's just say, this is where I started to deny everything and this is what caused most of his friends NOT to like me.  When talking with my friends, I would act as if Crawford was a guy that would not leave me alone.  I know, IM TERRIBLE.  I told them that we were friends but he wanted to pursue me and I was not interested. My friends ended up giving him the name "Creepy C" and it haunts him to this day.  HE HATES IT! I mean, I can understand why but this is all part of our story.

Crawford's freshman year was a pretty dark year for him but I fully believe that it made him who he is today.  He grew up a lot like me, very involved in church.  When he got to college, lets just say he started to make some choices that led him down the wrong path.  When we met, I could tell that he was in search of something different but had not quite figured out the proper balance of college/studying/friends/partying.

 In July, I was busy with summer camps and missions trips and so we eventually stopped talking.  It was during that time that he started dating/seeing/whatever you want to call it, a girl from back home.  We didn't talk for the rest of the summer and he eventually started back partying pretty heavily.

And this is where part 2 ends.

Road to Dating Part 1: The Tennessee Shirt

The road to dating was definitely not an easy one for us.  For me, it was just needing time to figure things out and for Crawford, it was a pretty agonizing process.  The night we met, dating was probably one of the furthest things from my mind.  I had been freshly single for about a year and was just not ready to dive back in to the dating scene since my only/first/serious relationship lasted nearly 3 years. Yeah, you read that right. 3 years!  I was pursuing God's plan for my life and dating just was not part of that mix.

It was Crawford's freshman year of college, my sophomore.  Sophomore year for me was THE. BEST. YEAR.  Now, don't get me wrong, every year was pretty dang good but that year was just my blessing in disguise.  I was somewhat depressed and God provided exactly what I needed.

Meet the girls that quickly became my blessing.  My bestfriends.  Two of my bridesmaids.  I knew Alyssa from Wilson, I met Alex the year before through choir, and Anna was assigned to live with us because we needed a 4th roommate.  Chance God brought us together that year.  All 4 of us were going through different things and we just hit it off in a way that words cannot really describe.  

Now, lets fast forward to the spring of that year (2010).  Alex had cornhole boards that quickly became our nightly entertainment because 1. What else is there to do in Mount Olive and 2. What else is there to do in Mount Olive?  Can I get an AMEN?

Crawford and I met on April 12th, 2010.  You're probably thinking, "Wow, what an amazing memory" right?  No. This picture was taken on that night and luckily my camera date stamped the picture.  Crawford can tell you exactly what I was wearing.  Tennessee t-shirt (this was a gift because I am a Duke fan- GO DEVILS), jean skirt, and my hair was crinkled.  It was a typical night for Alex and I- cornhole with friends.  

*Enter Crawford and Larry*

Larry is one my good friends and is a groomsmen.  Crawford had recently broken up with a girl so Larry was trying to introduce him to more people on campus.  All I remember about Crawford from that night was that he was wearing gym shorts, a tank top with a jacket, a hat that was backwards, calf-high Nike socks, and Nike flip flops.  Let's just say, not my cup of tea.  I don't think we even spoke that night other than saying "hi."  Apparently, that's all it took for Crawford.  He asked Larry who I was and Larry told him my name but pretty much told him to stop thinking because it wasn't going to happen.  Remember, I told you I wasn't ready to date and all my friends pretty much knew that.  Somehow, without even uttering a word other than "hi," Crawford knew that night, on April 12th, that I was the one he would marry.  He told Larry that night he would marry "that girl one day."  As you can imagine, Larry just rolled his eyes while thinking "this guy is insane."  

And that is pretty much how it started.  Cornhole. Gym Shorts. Tennessee T-shirt. And the word "hi."

twenty-six days.

That's right.  26 days from this moment and I will be a married woman.  I decided to start this blog as a way to document my journey to becoming a Bolton and the start of my life as a married woman.  Our journey started in 2010 at Mount Olive College (now known as the University of Mount Olive).  I plan to blog about how we met so I will save that story for a later date.  Just know that this is where it began...

 Our first picture together as an "official" couple.  We were young, happy, and pretty in love from the start.  God pretty much had a way of perfectly orchestrating our relationship before we even realized it.  Now we are here...

An engagement, two jobs, a new house, a new car, a pup named Hank that we are crazy insanely in love with, and 26 days away from the biggest day of our lives.  Cheers to the next 26 days flying by super fast and remembering to enjoy every second.