New Year's Eve Looks

Whether your hitting the town with friends or grabbing a low key dinner, I am loving both of these looks. This year I will be heading over to one of my closest friends house for a yummy dinner, movie watching, and a bit of bubbly. I am officially trading in sequins and pumps for yoga pants and slippers and quite honestly, could not be more excited!

Yours truly & Happy New Year!

Emily Ann

Back At It: Holiday Recap

Somehow my blogger scheduler was feeling sluggish after the holidays and my post did not make it up yesterday. Here's Monday's post:

Happy Monday friends. Anyone else absolutely struggling this morning back at work? My alarm going off this morning seemed like a bit of a joke after several days off at home but Monday is here and this girl is back at work. I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed my time at home, it was thoroughly needed and I am already missing my friends and family.

Before I get into my recap of my time at home, I did want to mention something I am very excited to share and that is that I will be moving AGAIN in just a few weeks! As of last week, I signed a house with 2 friends and will be moving to Raleigh. For the past few months I have been living in Durham, and while my commute to work has been short and sweet, I am so far away from where most of my friends live in Raleigh. I am beyond thrilled about our sweet little home and can't wait to share more pictures once we move in!

Now back to the Holidays...

I got in town late Tuesday night and pretty much immediately went to bed. In the morning it was coffee, enjoying all of my mom's wonderful Christmas decorations, and relaxing before spin class. My best friend, Alison teaches spin and I was thrilled when she told me she was teaching a 90 minute class on Christmas Eve morning. 

After spin, which was amazing and left me already ready for a nap, I headed home to get ready for our Christmas Eve party. My mom, grandma, and I went to Christmas Eve mass at 4 then hopped home to finish some last minute touches and dishes

Christmas Day and the day after we're spent visiting family and more friends and lots of relaxing. I got to fit in another spin and core class on Friday and I think my legs are still sore. Friday night was pizza and movie night with my family and one of my favorite parts of break. 

Saturday it was time to change out of pjs for errands and shopping with mom before having friends over and heading out for a bit. Two of my friends from college were in town for the Redskins/cowboys game and we decided to venture downtown annapolis that night for a few drinks. 

Sunday I grabbed lunch with the family and more snuggle session with this guy before getting on the road. 

Overall it was such a great time and I am so thankful for the time off. This week will be spent unpacking, lots of laundry, and getting back into the routine of things. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! 

Yours truly, 

Emily Ann

Merry Christmas To All

As of late last night I am officially home for the Holidays and beyond happy to be spending 5 days at home with my family. Today will consist of some last minute wrapping, Christmas Eve mass with the family, and then our annual Christmas Eve open house. I look forward to tonight every year and love getting to catch up with all of our friends and family. I hope everyone has a wonderful and 

blessed Christmas!

Yours truly, 

Emily Ann 

A Little Bit of What I've Been Up To...

I am going to attempt to do a bit of a catch up for the few weeks I was away and not posting. Thank you again to everyone for your sweet comments and emails. For a quick health update- I had my appointment with the liver specialist who going forward would like to perform a biopsy. She feels this is the best way we can get some answers and figure out why my enzymes are so high. Again, I can't thank you all enough for reaching out, it meant more then you know!

Moving on... here's a bit of what's been going on before and in-between all these doctor appointments and tests! 

Whipping up a cheese plate is one of my favorite things. This was just a small one for my roommates and I but normally I go all out with a few different meats, a fruit, and olives. 

A trip to Richmond to catch up with friends and attend my first Tacky Light Tour. 

Nights spent watching Christmas movies, sipping hot chocolate, and wrapping presents. 

Checking out a new yoga studio- Durham Yoga Company. 

Anyone else in utter disbelief that Christmas is just days away? Between moving a few months ago to dealing with doctor appointments I feel like the Holiday season completely got away from me. As for my plans and the Holidays, I will be headed home in just 2 days and can't wait to spend an extra long weekend with my family in Annapolis. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Yours truly, 

Emily Ann

Getting Personal- A Health Update

Today's post is a bit different and more personal then my average every day post. A few weeks ago I posted that I was taking some time away from the blog due a recent health concern that deserved most if not all my attention. First, I would like to thank everyone for the sweet comments and emails I received, you have no idea how much each and every one of them meant to me.

I'm not sure I even know where to begin when it comes to my current situation but I guess I will start a few months ago when it all started- the itching. For the past several months I have been dealing with severely itchy skin, not just a few itches throughout the day, I mean scrapes all over myself from scratching. I never had any sort of hives or rash, my skin always looked normal just very itchy. I wasn't using any new products-lotion, detergent, or soaps and to my knowledge have never been allergic to anything. When I first saw a doctor they suggested I try a few days of steroids to see if that would clear it up. Turns out the steroids did work and my itching subsided but I ended up breaking out in small bumps all over my skin. The next step was to take a skin biopsy to look for possibly answers there but unfortunately that also turned out to be normal and have no explanation for the itchyness. In the mean time my doctor had started me on a slew of medicines to help me sleep at night as I often was unable to sleep due to the itching. 

Fast forward a few weeks and it was time for me to move to Raleigh. My itching remained about the same and would be severe at times but tolerable at others. I still wasn't using anything new and had started using clean and free detergents, soap, and lotion. About a month ago I saw my new PCP in Raleigh and recapped everything thus far on my itchy skin and tests that had been done. She prescribed me a new itching medicine that could be taken up to 3 times a day and was planning to do research on chronic urticaria aka itching all the time. 

The week of Thanksgiving was by far the worst week I have ever had, itching wise and I found myself only getting about 1-3 hours of sleep a night. I became delusional at work and was unable to focus on nearly anything. One night after scratching so much my skin began to burn, I decided enough was enough and took myself to the Emergency Room. Now I know what your thinking and believe me, I would not have taken myself there if I was not so sleep deprived and absolutely miserable. While I was in the E.R they thought it would be best to draw some blood just to take a look at my different levels to make sure all of counts looked ok. While waiting for the labs to come back they gave me ice packs for my skin to soothe the burning as well as some relaxing medicine to see if that would help me sleep. About 30 minutes after the labs were drawn, the doctor came in and said that he thought he had found the reason I was so itchy and that my liver numbers were 5 times what they should be. A sign of liver disease or a liver under stress is often itchy skin, in addition to elevated numbers, both of which I had. He recommended I receive an outpatient ultrasound ASAP to rule out any tumors, cysts, or possible gallstones. In the meantime it was recommended that I stop all medications, prescription and over the counter to see if I possibly had drug induced hepatitis. I was also told to not drink as alcohol could easily increase my numbers and put additional stress on my liver. 

Since my visit to the Emergency Room it has been an absolute roller coaster of emotions and new information. Since then I have had a clear ultrasound which ruled out tumors and cysts and a clear chest x-ray to rule out lymphoma. Next up is a CT scan and appointment with a liver specialist, who will hopefully be able to give myself and my family some answers. Thankfully both my mom and grandmother are coming in town tonight for these appointments tomorrow and I am so thankful they will be here. It has been terrifying going through all this without my family and call me childish but sometimes a girl just needs here momma with her! As for today and tomorrow I am leaving everything in God's hands and trusting everything will work out just as it's supposed to. I am so thankful to be able to see one of the top doctors at Duke and hoping all will be sorted out before Christmas.

If you are still reading all this you are a saint and I apologize for the lengthy post. I have missed blogging 100% and am looking forward to getting back into the swing of regular postings. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday season so far!

Yours truly,
Emily Ann

Stepping Back

Hello Blog friends. I apologize for the silence over the past week, I wish I could say the Holidays were my excuse but unfortunately that is not the case. Over the past week I have been experiencing some health issues which I am choosing at this point not to get into on the blog. I am hoping to have some answers and have things resolved over the next week but this is only my hope and may not be reality. During this time I am going to be focusing on my health and will unfortunately not be on my regular posting schedule, if posting at all. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will be back as soon as I can!

Yours truly, 

Emily Ann