This is my Story, this is my Song

I originally wrote this note on Facebook on July 11, 2008, just a few days after leaving the hospital. I like to re-read it, often to remind myself of the smallest details that occurred that normally slip my mind. It is 5 years to the day of being admitted to the hospital, and I cannot even imagine the road I'd be on if it weren't for this experience. Prior to my hospital stay, I was a teenage girl, attempting to fit in with my peers, unsure where my future was, and stressed out because I couldn't do everything. I have since learned to trust fully in He that holds my life and have faith in His plan. My prayer for you, the reader, is to read my story with an open heart. 

This is a post explaining everything that went down in my 10 day hospital stay, read it if you want or were curious about why I was there. Enjoyyy

June 27th started out as a normal day, until I had my mother pick me up from hanging with Erin and Alicia and drive me home, where I stayed in bed all afternoon until about 9.40 when I had a 103 degree fever and stomach cramps like no other. I ended up in the emergency room and after getting a catscan, we learned I had Crohn's disease. To break it down: a portion of my intestines was inflamed and infected and my over active immune system was basically trying to kill myself. I then was 'admitted' to the hospital and began what became my 10-day hospital stay in room 314 in the H.E.B. Harris Methodist Hospital [[side note, there was no room 313, apparently the hospital didn’t have any room 13’s or floor 13]].

Originally, a colonoscopy was scheduled for Sunday morning, which was freakin’ sweet let me tell ya. But their plans changed after an episode of acute pain and high fever Saturday afternoon, and they moved the surgery to Sunday morning. The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent in agonizing pain, where I had to get help from my parents to get in and out of bed, anything involving ab work was not possible and I just couldn't do.

So surgery was scheduled Sunday, June 29th at 7:30 a.m. and I don’t really remember much about that day...until that evening after most the drugs wore off...and the next few days were filled with fun recovery and morphine. Every day was a fun adventure, seeing which nurse I had every day. Since their 12-hour shifts ran from 7am to 7 pm, I got this thrill twice a day! I was woken up many times each night by the pcts to check my temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. Surprisingly, my heart rate was 'too low' when they would wake me up from my sleep to take it, go figure... I had an IV every day I was there, but the hand/arm switched about every 2 days because they were giving me so much by IV, it would overwhelm my veins. In fact, once it began seeping into my arm not my vein, which was fun and painful experience. I actually named my IV stand Edward, I figured since he went everywhere with me, he deserved a name.  Edward got moody though and beeped whenever the antibiotics or other liquids going into my IV were close to out. So if I wasn't waking up from the pcts taking blood pressure or someone from the lab taking blood, it was Edward beeping rather loudly, not to mention if I had to use the restroom...Going into the hospital I had a huge fear of needles, crazy how that went away after a shot in the stomach every morning and drawing blood at 4:30a.m. and switching IV's about every other day changes things... 

After surgery, getting out of my bed began as a hard enough experience, let alone walking.  But one of the most rewarding times was being able to get out and into bed by myself. I couldn't move or do anything that consists of much ab work, so I had to re-teach myself how to move and get up or down using my arms and legs more than my abs. This movement, along with walking, was something I took for granted before the surgery. The joy of being able to walk my circular hall at a speed my grandmother could beat really can't be put into words.

On about Wednesday [[I think, all of the days run together really]], I had to get two blood transfusions. Apparently my hemoglobin count was down to a 7...where a normal person's was around 14. Basically, I was anemic.

I couldn't eat anything before the surgery, so my last meal was noon on Friday until a popsicle on either Wednesday or Thursday. Until then I survived on ice chips. [[3 days after leaving the hospital, after being able to eat normally for 3 days, I weighed in at about 15 pounds lighter than I was pre-surgery]] Luckily I surpassed hunger and didn't feel my body starving. But don’t worry, they were pumping me full of good nutrients to keep me alive via my IV. On Thursday or Friday, I began my 'liquid diet' which basically consisted of all the jello, cranberry or apple juice and chicken broth I wanted! Whoohoo!

I watched TV & movies, colored, thought, texted, prayed and slept to pass time. But let me tell ya, those 10 days were the lamest days I’ve ever experienced; just sitting in my hospital bed, losing weight and muscle tone, and probably brain cells.  The highlight of my days was when I had visitors. People from the outside, bringing cheer and laughter into my room; definitely sunshine on a rainy day... I owe a lot to my Aunt Karen, who spent so much time pampering me with pedicures, hair washings, and laughter; spending time with me; time away from her husband who is recovering from stomach and lung cancer. A full healing we will continue to believe in.

At this time I would like to thank everyone who came up to see me, texted, messaged, called, prayed and kept me in your thoughts. Thanks for everyone who visited with me after I returned home and showed concern. It meant and means so much to me to have everyone there for me. I love y'all so much!! I would like to report that I have been able to eat. I can eat beef, sweets, milk products, and things I haven't been able to eat in months without any pain. I’ve been healed and fixed! 

And I would now like to talk about how God works in mysterious ways. If this experience has done anything, it has surely strengthened my faith in my Lord and Savior. Everything about this condition has worked in perfect timing for his plan for my life.

My excruciating pain didn't start until a Friday, in which my doctor's office was closed, so my parents took me to the E.R. instead [[which just happened to be empty so I was seen to immediately]]. Otherwise a doctor would have diagnosed my condition incorrectly as he would not have the same ability as the hospital. The doctor at the E.R. was able to diagnose my condition quickly as his two children also had Crohn’s disease, which was really just a working of God for me to have had that doctor. Furthermore, this surgery couldn't have happened at a better time. If it happened during the school year I would have missed school; my classes, my GPA, Marquettes, senior year activities, anything and everything would have been affected. Instead, I was able to graduate after having an amazing senior year. I was able to celebrate 2 of my grandparents' 80th birthdays just days before going into the E.R., and getting out I was able to celebrate my Aunt Karen’s birthday and will be able to celebrate my little brother’s birthday. If this episode would have happened later, I would have fallen behind in my semester studies at A&M and I can't even imagine having this surgery 4 hours away from home in a hospital with doctors nobody knows [[the thing about staying in the hospital in Bedford is that my Aunt Karen works there and has for a long time and knew the best doctors and nurses and I was treated very nicely and efficiently]].

The largest healing miracle came in form of the catscan and the day that followed actually. Originally the catscan revealed a very large section to be removed in surgery. The Saturday before surgery, when we met with the surgeon, I was told he was going to have to remove a combined ten feet plus of my intestines, that which appeared inflamed and infected in the scan. The night before the surgery I went without a pain for twelve hours. Specifically, from late afternoon when Pastor Kyle and Jordan visited and we all prayed, laid hands and I accepted God's healing in my life, maybe around 5 p.m., to the actual surgery, I experienced no pain. Additionally, I didn't have a single pain killer in that time. The night before surgery I slept without pain, something which hadn’t happened in a year and 2 and a half months. I was jumping in and out of bed, something unusual for the amount of pain I was in the night before and that morning; seeing how all day Saturday people had to literally pull me and push me to move me out of bed. It was then that I knew I was healed.  That whole night I felt Jesus's presence in my hospital room, specifically holding my hand through the night.  This night was the most frightening night for me to ever experience. The night before I, Rachel Faith Armentrout, went into surgery.  I have never experienced surgery, and in fact, the only time I remember going to the doctor’s office was when I had strep sophomore year.  But I knew God had healed me of any further infection and I couldn't and can't thank everyone enough for praying as hard as they did. There was once in the night when I awoke in a sweat, but with no fever or pain. Later that week, we heard from some people that God woke them in the night to pray for me, all at 1 a.m., which was when I awoke. I thank God for everything he has done for me in this experience, for when I went to surgery, the surgeons removed the bare minimum of only 3 feet of my intestines, and that all the other problems the catscan had shown in my intestines were gone. Additionally, they removed my appendix, which was reported near hardened and two cists on my ovary. I had 11 external staples and have stitches, and according to the doctor, a whole lot more on the inside. But that’s a whole lot less than the surgeon anticipated the day before.

My mother stayed the night in the hospital room for the two nights prior and after the surgery. However, Tuesday night after my surgery, she decided to sleep at home. I don't blame her; the pullout couch couldn't possibly be comfortable. Waking up in the middle of the night in a dark hospital room had to be one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced. In the middle of the night, all alone, the room was so empty, lonely, and frightening. I don’t know if it was my fear amplifying the sound of the air conditioning, or if it was the devil himself storming outside my window, but I could have sworn there was a horrible rain storm that night [[which the next day my parents assured me there was definitely no storm that night]]. But at that time, I called out to my Lord and in the shadows of the room I saw Jesus. Maybe you think the pain killers went to my head, but the peace and tranquility that encompassed my body and soothed me back to sleep convinced me otherwise. For the rest of my stay, I did not find that room scary, because I knew Jesus was by my side, the entire time.

If you do not believe in miracles or in God's healings, I wish I could fully share everything I have felt with you to prove to you otherwise. To me, this experience was a strengthening of faith, as Jesus has further proved his love and power to me. I’ve never felt so carefree or pain free than how I felt going into this major surgery, knowing that God had his hand over me the whole time. If you are questioning God right now in your life, to really see if he's there, I wish my experience could be enough proof of an omnipotent and merciful God. 

If I could, I believe I would relive this experience. I really did see God and it fully solidified my beliefs in him. I wish it didn't have to take a $5k surgery and 10 day hospital stay to do so, but am so grateful it did. The most important thing I learned was that sometimes God works in ways we just don’t and can’t understand.  You can be in a situation where you've been questioning God for a long time, maybe longer than a year and two and half months. In that time you can be upset, mad, depressed, looking anywhere for answers, but maybe it’s not time yet for an obvious answer. Whatever your case, trust fully in the Lord and he will direct your ways to align to his perfect plan in your life. He will protect you, and if you stay with him, everything will turn out exactly how it should. I was always the child wanting to see God, wanting proof of his existence by being able to walk on water, or seeing a bruise instantly disappear. I have no doubt that this whole experience of God healing me of Crohn’s disease and guiding me through a minimal pain free healing was part of his plan to reveal himself to me. Sometimes our human knowledge can't understand the way God works, but that’s ok, because it's not for us to worry about.

If you have read my memoirs this far, I hope you get something out of it. Maybe you think I’m just crazy. Maybe you just think I’m a Jesus freak. If that’s the case, then bring on the label because I’m not denying it.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008, the day after being discharged from the hospital, I received a call from my grandfather, who just returned home as well [[he broke his hip just last month and was in rehab until this day]].  He shared this verse with me, and said he was praying it over me the entire time I was in the hospital. [[Funny how we were praying for each other, while we both were in a hospital/rehab center.]]  I wanted to share this with everyone else:

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not; I will help thee." -Isaiah 41:13

And finally, the verses that have gotten me through life since the 7th grade:

"Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?...take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." -Matthew 6:25-26, 34

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." -Hebrews 11:1

And with that, I’d like to close my memoir with a deserving: Thank you Jesus. Amen.

My name is Rose....This is a true story.

Since James and Rocky were gone this evening, I ran a few quick errands after work and ended up at my parents' house for dinner. We spent the evening chatting, laughing, playing with Jack (my parents' dog) and introducing my parents to movies from Redbox. At the end of the night I almost escaped without my mother pushing a box of my things into my car to take back to my house. Included in this box, she gave me recently re-discovered schoolwork masterpieces.

In case you are unable to read that beauty, it reads: 

"Hi! My name is Rose. I got my name from my mom. She said I was a Rose and my brothers are two thorns." -Rachel Armentrout 

Now that you are done laughing and thinking that my mother is counting her lucky stars to have a daughter so that she doesn't only have to deal with thorns (just kidding brothers), I have to focus in on a detail. Guys.....  "This is a true story." No, I didn't actively expect to be called Rose, but as many of my current friends have heard me share, whenever I would 'play house' with friends, I would love to pretend my name was Rose, (sometimes Crystal, but there's no significance there). I'm sure this is a mere coincidence, right? LOTS of little girls choose this name to play with, right? Well I'm unsure about the exact number of Rachel's in the world going by the name 'Rose', or 'Rosie', but I don't believe in coincidences.

If you know me now, you know I am a Rosenbaum. Yes, my married name is German for something along the lines of "Tree Roses".  Now before you jump to any conclusions, no, I did not marry the first guy I found with a last name similar to a play name from my childhood. That sounds like a horrible reason to date or marry anyone. In fact, I had no part in planning this out, it all just fell into place. It's as though it was the plan all along; some people choose to call it 'destiny.'  Who knew at the ripe age of 8 years old, I would choose to go by a name eerily similar to my future husband's nickname, Rosie? Well, there is One who knew this.

When I went off to college, I had every intention upon majoring in accounting.  After all, I knew I liked numbers and didn't see myself anywhere else but in a business degree, but all along I knew my number 1 priority was to get my MRS Degree. My biggest dream was/is to someday be a "soccer mom"; I look forward to having a family.  You say, "Yes Rachel, we know this, we've seen your 'dress up in sports apparel' theme attempts." Well, about 2 weeks into my first accounting class, I realized that perhaps Accounting wasn't for me, and I better figure out what I did enjoy.  I quickly decided upon Marketing as my major.  Over the next few semesters, I, Rachel Armentrout, made the decision that actually, I was also possibly more interested in floral design, and maybe I'd figure out how to include this in my future plans, as well. One minor in Horticulture later, I graduated with the ability to do most of my own flowers for my wedding. I did so, and just this year I have actually started a floral side-business.  I'm looking forward to making flower arrangements and seeing how this new dream pans out.

Where am I going with this? I have had a dream to work with flowers and a dream to have a wonderful home garden for about 2 years now. It was about my Junior year in college that I said, "Hey, I think I like this flower stuff enough to seriously pursue it. I don't know why it never stuck out to me before. How could I go my whole life without enjoying the love of gardening and flowers?" Seriously, I thought this was a new endeavor, a newly found love. After all, I spent too much time dressing up before to get dirt under my fingernails.

 Oh. 

 

I guess I was the only person who didn't see that decision coming. Are you meaning to tell me that mayyybe flowers and gardening was an inherent love I had, and it just took me 20 years to finally make the conscious decision to pursue this path?


The second piece of artwork my mother gave me was a poster-board. Unlike the first masterpiece that my mother and I have laughed at for many years, I had completely forgotten about this project. I don't know what compelled my mother to save it for all of these years...funny how these things just work out, right?

   "A Fragrant Rose" -2002

 

OKAY! I GET IT! "Deciding" to love everything about flowers wasn't something new to me, as much as I thought it was! Perhaps I had this love deep down and was unable to pinpoint it earlier on because I wasn't able to see how it could be a lifestyle.  Last year I thought it was a revelation that I related everything to nature. Well, looks like I've been reppin' mother nature metaphors since at least 2002. 

On my drive home from my parents' house, after I was done laughing at just how funny it was that these two pieces of art just so blatantly show how much of my life I have been in love with flowers without realizing it, the Lord spoke to me. Perhaps, it took a while for me to start following my real dreams, but He already had those planned out for me.  It is not a coincidence that I loved the name 'Rose', found my soul mate whose nickname was 'Rosie', & I would use his nickname as my business name. When I saw these as three separate events, the sweet Lord showed me tonight that in fact they were all just a part of His plan.  Before I 'discovered' my love for flowers or was even thinking about my future, He had implanted in me a dream to have a flower shop. 

At 8 years old, I would play with a name that would be my professional name and dream life, but without realizing what I had done.  In my mind, I thought it was funny how my new last name resembled this play name; I had never stopped to consider how maybe the Lord had planned it all along. When I spent my childhood praying for my future husband and dreaming of my wedding and married life, God had me calling myself by my own future name. All along, I have been a Rosenbaum. Once I was able to look beyond God's sense of humor, I was surrounded by pure peace. There was a stillness as I was in awe of just how truly perfect God's plan for my life has been, will be, and is.  I thought this was a new adventure; I hadn't considered it had always been my adventure. While I have been viewing my life as a new journey every day, unsure of where God will take me, He has seen it as a rose, just continuing to bloom as every day goes by.  This was His plan all along, and I have finally seen and acknowledged that it wasn't a backup plan when my first major didn't go well or a degree I had to get while pursuing the MRS Degree, but rather, this was God's plan for my life.

Hi, my name is Rose, and this is my handsome husband, Rosie. 

And this is just another example of how God has my life perfectly planned. It only look me 23 and a half years to finally comprehend it (or at least up to this point).  I leave you with this hope, that every step you take might be your decision, by the Lord has planned your path already.  When you follow Him, He will lead on your most rewarding life journey.

~Rachel

 

The Song of the Rosemary: Waiting for my Season

For about 7 months, I had a plant on the ledge by my sink.  It was a plant I started from a leaf clipping in a Horticulture Lab, and I liked it because it looked like it was splattered with white paint. Like all my other leaf clipping plants [that are still alive], this plant was growing constantly, until I brought it into our new house and placed it by the sink. Then it just started to collect dust. It wasn't dying, but it wasn't blooming. It was just, being. 

About a month ago I had the novel idea to move it from the ledge by the sink to a window ledge.  Since its move, it's not as droopy, and I have high hopes of it returning to grow more.  What an extraordinary idea: moving my house plant so it could receive more light and actually grow, because the environment near the sink wasn't "doing it" for the welfare of the plant.

On another note, my Rosemary is not growing. In fact, it hasn't grown since the weather changed and the northern wind came to Texas. Like most plants, winter is its dormant season.  During this time, my Rosemary is just living to get by and, like the brown Texas grasses, growing in its roots so that in spring it's growth will be abundant.  So, I do not trim branches from my Rosemary plant, since it is not growing.  It is not dead; it is not blooming; it is just getting by, waiting for the spring and warmer weather.

Where am I going with my plant talk?
 
Has anyone else out there been in a Stale State? Maybe lately, awhile ago, for a bit, or for long period of time? I just recently felt 'stale'.  I was at a standstill where I felt trapped, unable to move forward with my career, not enjoying my work, feeling as thought I wasn't working at full capacity. I was unsatisfied. I looked around and saw friends and coworkers loving what they're doing, pursuing their dreams, feeling content and satisfied.  I kept asking myself, WHY am I not like them? Why can I NOT be content with my work? What IS my dream job in life?

Eventually I reached a point where I couldn't handle it anyone. I threw my hands up in the air and was getting ready to walk away.  But to where would I go?  Well, I figured it'd be a good time as any to pursue my passion for wedding flowers.

And just when everything fell apart, it all fell into place.  New opportunities have arrived in my work, and I am knee deep in planning my floral business, including preparing for 3 weddings this year!

How do these two topics relate?

The Lord spoke to me the other day and showed me, just like the plant, in the wrong environment and my Rosemary in its dormant season, I wasn't blooming because it wasn't my time.  I am emerging from a portion of my life where I spent time developing my roots, broadening my foundation, and I was just out of season.  I desired to start blooming, but it wasn't time yet. I kept doing my day to day, but nothing new was going to come of it. It wasn't until I pursued my God-given passion and started acting on my ideal dream job, that everything else in my life turned for the better.

There was no room for blooming in my previous environment when I was just scraping to get by; there was no blooming during my dormant time.

Just like a gardener watching his plants, my Lord moved me into the right environment when the season changed, and now I feel like I'm about to explode in flower blooms. New growth is just about to arrive in my life and I am beyond excited. 

~RR

"If your goals are too vague,
they are still dreams." -Dave Ramsey

Fall Baby Shower Part 2 of 3: The Diaper Cake

Another baby shower crafty gift I wanted to make was the Diaper Cake. Not to be confused with an edible cake, this cake is in fact, made entirely with rolled (unused) diapers. My experienced friend helped me out with my first cake, but there are plenty of How-To's online.

The "ingredients" needed include:
-A package of diapers (We used the newborn size so the parents could use the diapers after the shower almost immediately when the baby was born, but a bigger size diaper would have allowed us to use less in the cake by creating bigger rolls. Of course any sized diaper will be used by the parents, so it's a decision that's win-win.)
-LOTS of rubber bands
-A piece of cardboard (I used a pizza box lid)
-Sturdy support items (to help connect all layers; I used straws)
-Various baby items (the other half of all the baby items used in the wreath)
-Ribbon
-Themed decoration (in my case, pumpkins and cutesey Halloween items)

Essentialy, roll and rubber band diapers, then start arranging layers. Rubber band all layers together, weasel the straws into the layers for keeping all layers together, then cut cardboard to fit bottom layer and magically get this below base layer. (Yes, this is what we did, or you could start with cutting a cardboard circle and build the layers by size according to this. But let's be honest, does anyone actually follow logical steps?)

The decorating the cake was the most fun! Arranging items to fit and cover the rubber bands and any odd areas becomes a skill. I think my first cake turned out pretty well. Transporting the cake was a bit of a....process. But if anything fell off in the transporting it was super easy to re-decorate upon reaching its final baby shower decorative destination.

In all, this took one evening to do, maybe 2-3 hours? But we probably spent more time talking and laughing. The rolling of the diapers took the longest time for sure! Incorporating the fall theme into the diaper cake by using the same decorative items as I used in the wreath really helped tie the shower decorations together.  Also, I learned to keep this item away from the dog, so he could not help with chewing, I mean, decorating with the pumpkins.

                                         ~RR

"If you're not practicing a dream, you don't really have one."

A Fall Baby Shower-Part 1 of 3

On this Crafting Monday, my husband and I painted blinds (The blinds in our house were blue...blue!!!!), I spray painted some bottles while in the process of creating some fun decor, saved some Cilantro following the same method I harvested basil in this last blog, and I washed the dog and reapplied his Canine Advantix flea medication...stuff. Phew! So while on a roll, I figure I'd bust out a blog:

I helped host a fall baby shower last October. Normally when you think of baby showers, you think of baby ducks and/or pink or blue parties. We did not know the gender of the baby, so we had to work with gender neutral colors. Also, baby ducks are born in the spring, so that theme I will have to wait to use. We finally picked the theme of "Boo! It's a Baby", and we decorated with pumpkins and cute Halloween decor, using orange (a major no-no for us Aggies, except when associated with fall pumpkins), purple and green.

A friend helped me with the invites that I printed off at Target, and I my friends helped me research baby shower games. Note to self: throw the first shower for expectant mothers, that way you don't worry about re-using games! I decided on 3 games:
1. Guess the baby food-I bought 6 jars and removed the labels and had the guests guess just by color and appearance! Having 2 orange colores jars but neither being carrots threw everybody off! Not surprisingly, my cousins who have the youngest children did the best on this game!
2. TV Show Children- Another mental game where guests had to remember the number of and names of children for a list of TV show families! Fun, and a good game for multi-generations when you throw in older and newer tv shows!
3. Baby Items ABC's- guests filled in the alphabet with baby items. For example: B=bibs, C=crib, D=diapers. This was fun to see how creative people were! The soon-to-be mother won this game; she must have been doing her baby homework!!

I've had to divide this shower into three parts, because I did three main decorative items and want to be in-depth about all! So part 1: The Baby Shower Wreath

I found lots of online ideas for baby shower wreaths, some made completely of diapers, others made completely of pink flowers; some for indoor use, some for outdoor use. After compiling ideas and doing some research, I finalized my plan! Since I'm a bit thrifty right now, I created a wreath base that would be used for fall decor once baby items were removed. Then I added on the Baby items!!

The total cost of the wreath was minimal, as I like to keep a lookout for seasonal flowers on sale. The baby items, including socks, onsies, pacifiers, toys, and travel sized lotions, etc.. All came from Walmart and weren't that expensive. I used half of those items from packages in the wreath and the other half in the diaper cake I'll share in part 2.

Of course I had some help in the creation of the wreath.... Sock thief Rocky just loved how the small socks fit perfectly in his mouth. (Don't worry, these were washed before baby wore them.) After the wreath was made, he managed to steal a sparkly pumpkin off the wreath, too, which I didn't photograph, but later found an online picture from someone else who also had a problematic pumpkin thief lab pup! How cute is this?!

I LOVE making wreaths and definitely plan to make this a tradition going forward! After all, I'm running out of places to store all of my wreaths... I can't make more for myself! Here's the final Fall Wreath for my door after the shower:

I'll be sure to post the final bottle crafts when they get done!

~RR

"It's up to you to seize your destiny"

Happy New Year!

Wow! These past two months have been a whirlwind! Hosting a baby shower, family birthdays, the birth of our niece, Thanksgiving, Christmas, parties galore! For the New Years Eve, James and I hosted a "black-tie" party with our friends. Appropriately I found instructions online to create these Penguin appetizers! I absolutely LOVE penguins and black olives, so this appetizer was the ultimate food!

Although many of my friends aren't black olive lovers, like myself, they enjoyed the decorative value of the food.They were super simple to make, using carrots, cream cheese, black olives and a toothpick! And the best part was I got to eat all remaining black olives (not to mention the majority of these penguins)!

 

Additionally, I made Banana Split Bites,  Stuffed Mushrooms, Sherry Shrimp, and Mini Caprese Salad Bites!  They were all gluten-free too! So that was a plus! I believe the Mini Caprese Salad Bites were the biggest hit! 

Wishing a happy new years to you and yours!

~RR