Year recap: 2016

January:
- Clark and his friends played a video game tournament at NC State in Raleigh it was the best and nerdiest thing I have never been apart of haha.

-My Dad, Stepmom and little brother came to visit Clark and I in North Carolina. It was there first time visiting North Carolina and getting to see our place. We also traveled to Myrtle Beach, Pinehurst, and Duke University while they were here!

February:

-Clark and I visited Savannah GA for the first time for my birthday and Valentines Day!

-My mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday and I loved learning about it and doing projects on it. And I finished my first quilt.

- Clark and I painted ceramics!

March:
-Knox and I went to the Outer Banks and saw Jockey Ridge State Park and Currituck Lighthouse.

-We got our official orders for Naples, Italy!

-I took photos of our friends wedding while Clark was the best man!

-We went to Washington, DC to see the cherry blossoms!

-Knox started obedience class.

April:
-My brothers finance asked me to be a bridesmaid at there wedding in January 2017.

-Knox graduate obedience class as MVP of the class.

-I took a road trip with my friend to Massachuets and spent a few days there then flew back to NC.

May:
-We flew home to Washington State to visit family before we moved to Italy in July.
~Watched baseball
~Jumped off cliffs
~At taco wagon and lakeview drive in
~Went to the casino
~Had family BBQ
~Hosted a brial shower for my brothers finance

June:
-Enjoyed NC for the last month. Like seeing lightning bugs for only the second time while having lived in NC for 3 years!

-Clark made SGT!

-Clark had an emergency appendices.

- I started designed and selling iPhone cases on Casetify

-All our stuffed got packed up to ship out!

July:
-Celebrated our last 4th of July in America for a while

-Flew to Spain and to Italy

-Explored Naples and made some great friends in orientation.

-Went to Rome on the train.

-Boated around the island of Ischia

August:
-Moved into our new home!

-Hiked Mt. Vesuvius with friends.

-Traveled to The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg!

September:
-We spent 2 weeks traveling to London, southern England, and road tripping around the entirety of Ireland & Northern Ireland!

October:
-Started painting a mural in our spare bedroom

-Got a free good couch, lawn chair and have been thrifting the best Christmas stuff!!!

- Enjoyed our first Halloween in Italy

-Explored Pompeii for the first time.

-Visited Positano, Italy - whooooooon

November
-I BROKE MY LEG!

-Spent 5 days in the Italian hospital, got medevacted to Germany then to Washington DC where I had surgery.

December
-Came home to WA state to recover from surgery (will be none weight bearing for 12 weeks)

-Spent time with friends and family for the holidays.

It was a very strange year. Some good, some bad. I didn't start off the year very well and the year also didn't end very well. You know, with me breaking my leg and all but the middle was really good. Gotta take the bad with the good I guess. I am excited about 2017, I am excited to heal and be back to my old self only 100% times better and get back to Italy. I shared my 1 Second Everyday video to my personal Facebook page and everyone loved it and were sharing the nicest comments. I have watched it through about 10 times and even with the bad and the ugly I love that video of 2016 and the positive memories definitely out weigh the negative so that is great. I am going to continue doing the 1SE project in 2017! I'll share my 2016 video here on the blog in the next day or two. Thanks for following along.
love, Carlee

I broke my leg

Warning: some slightly graphic content and I didn't proofread very well. Process with caution. 

I broke my leg. I know I already said that. I broke my leg on November 12, 2016 and it was/is awful. Clark and I were north of the town of Caserta, Italy when we were exploring an ancient Roman aqueduct, after we visited the town sant'agata de' goti. The aqueduct is now an ancient t monument so there is a little parking area and trail were you can climb up onto it. So we did. There was a little ledge were you could walk around the pillar and of course I did. Clark told me it was a bad idea but for some reason I thought I was invincible. We were walking back to leave. Clark walked on the ledge first and was fine and when I went to walk back I lost my footing. In all honesty, I wasn't being very cautious, I didn't think anything of it. I just wasn't being safe. I lost my footing and within a split second I knew I was going to fall. So instead of letting myself fall backward I kind of jumped feet first. It was about 20 feet up. I hit and immediately knew my leg was broken. I was in shock so I didn't cry and I could barely feel it but I looked down at my leg near my ankle and it was very disfigured.

Clark ran and jumped down to me. He was very freaked out at first. He called the emergency number and was trying to get help of some people walking by. Some people stopped and helped and talked to the emergency number people because we didn't know exactly where we were so they translated for us. And they actually stayed with us until the ambulance arrived. It was the Italian ambulance and no one spoke English which was probably the scariest, most surreal thing. I ended up in an Italian hospital. Luckily our landlords only lived a few minutes away so they came and stayed the whole time in the ER with us and I was in the Italian hospital for the next 5 days and they came and visited everyday. They truly are wonderful people. No one spoke English at the Italian hospital so we learned the crash course of Italian medical terms in 5 days and we also used a lot of Google translate which the Italian nurses that was a lot of fun. I even made the Italian paper after the accident.

After 5 days in the Italian hospital I got transferred to the US Navy hospital on the base in Italy. We requested that I get sent back to the USA for surgery because the injury was/is that bad. The doctors thought so as well so I was at the US NAVY hospital for a few days until I got on military plane for a medivact to Landstuhl, Germany. I was in Germany for about 5 days. I got an external fixation on my leg on November 17th and had it on until my actual surgery on November 28th. We flew from Landstuhl, Germany to Washington D.C. on Thanksgiving we didn't get any turkey but some really nice nurse did get us pumpkin pie. So I was in DC for 4 days until the surgery on the 28th. This whole time I was in the hospital, Clark was right by my side. My mom flew in on November 25 and stayed until December 2, it was awesome to have my mom there for the surgery and a few days after for recover.

So like I said, the surgery was on November 28, 2016. It was a long one. I went in around noon and didn't come out of it until 6pm. I have 3 plates, a rod, and tons of screws, they even did bone graphs. They actually said it looked better once they got in there then they thought it would. So that was good. The day after the surgery was probably the worst pain I had been in. Obviously since it had been about 3 weeks since my initial break so I couldn't remember the pain as well but that day after surgery was terrible for a while until they gave me a shot to numb the pain.

Each day after that the pain got better and better. I was doing PT each day and got released on December 4. My follow up appointment was on December 8th so Clark and I stayed in the Fisher House (a hotel for people staying in the hospital) for 4 days. My follow up appointment went well and they said the skin was healing really well but the stitches weren't ready to come out. So we were trying to get me an appointment at the base hospital in Tacoma WA so we could go back to Washington State. That was a headache but we got it figured out and we flew home to Washington State on December 9. I went to my follow up appointment on December 14th and they took the stitches out and put a new cast on my leg.

The next 2-3 days were very uncomfortable on my leg. The cast felt way too tight and honestly I wanted a second opinion. I also wanted a DR that was closer to my hometown where I was going to be living. That way if I had a problem I could call and talk to MY dr. Not just A dr. So I had another appointment closer to home with a DR that would be my DR from now on, on November 20th. He was shocked at how tight the cast was a removed it right away and took knew x-rays. He said it looked good and that I should be in a boot and he wanted to see my again in 3 weeks. So I have been in a boot for the last 3 days and it feels better but obviously it still hurts. I am happy to be seeing my Dr again in a few week and see if there is any progress.

I am doing everything I can to make sure my bone heals correctly. I have a bone stimulator that helps with healing and I have been taking Vitamin D and Calcium supplements. Resting a lot and staying off my feet. I am going to be 12 weeks non weight bearing on my right leg. After that I will be doing PT and working to get my strength back for the next 3-4 months. So I will be staying in Washington State until probably March or April then heading back to Italy after that. Clark will be heading back to Italy after the New Year so really soon :(

I am sure there is a bunch of stuff I missed so if you have any questions let me know and I will do my best to answer them. It has been a rough 6-7 weeks since I broke my leg. But I am handing in there and I am thankful to be surrounded by family and friends to recover. 
love, Carlee 

Random Gifts for Her

The title of this post says it all. Super random gifts, aka things I want for Christmas this year. I feel like the photo speaks for itself so I won't say much more. I haven't been posting much and for good reason. I broke my leg. More on that later. I just figured I would post this since it was in my drafts and still before Christmas haha. okay. peace. 
love, Carlee