For the past month, I’ve heard one particular question often:

“Why the heck are you going to Alaska?”

My favorite response was “I told my brother I’d take him anywhere in the world for his birthday. He picked freaking Alaska!”

But then I set foot in the savage, stunning, completely breathtaking beauty of Alaska and now I can’t thank Matthew enough for picking this wonderful state. I got to go whale watching, ride a four hour train through White Pass in Skagway, past sprawling jagged mountains bathed in snow and waterfalls dancing across all of them, close and far. So many waterfalls! Beautiful conifer and broad leafed trees, jade green and bright yellow. Snow everywhere and yet we enjoyed 80-degree F weather.

You can see all my Alaska pictures (and some from Sedona on my birthday) here on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/warwagon/sets/72157619419238765/

I can tell you right now when of the best parts of this trip was being reunited with my travel partner and best friend, Rachel Rofe! Now that she lives quite a ways south of me, it’s hard for us to hang out as much as we’d like. But this cruise was a blast.

One day our entire ship coursed up Endicott Arm, through ice fields and fiords toward a massive glacier. Most will enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity nestled in heavy jackets, mittens, hats, and scarves, bracing themselves against a torrid wind and icy air.

But for us, we sunned ourselves in tank tops and bathing suits. 90-degrees that day. Clear blue skies.

I got a lot out of this trip. More than I could have hoped or imagined.

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After we returned home from Sedona it was Thanksgiving Weekend. So we went back to my parents’ house and I attended my high school 10 year reunion that weekend as well. It was 1 part traumatizing, 1 part fascinating, and 2 parts VERY VERY STRANGE.

It’s surreal to return to a time in your life that has almost become myth you’ve churned it around in your head so many times. I remembered being made fun of and attacked by my classmates - coming home every day with gum in my hair or pretending not to hear snide remarks tossed at me from across the hall…

But no one else remembered those things. They just remembered I was the shy quiet tall girl that intrigued but intimidated them.

Who’d have guessed?!

Following Thanksgiving Weekend, I had two days to pack up my apartment as my brother and I were moving into our brand new house on Dec. 1st. Of course, then we did our walkthrough and got so excited we decided to move in THAT NIGHT!

So Matthew drove back with me to my apartment in Venice Beach and we packed up the entire place, starting at 7pm. By moving up our truck rental to that night, the only truck they had available was their largest one. THANK GOODNESS is all I have to say! We had gotten two sizes smaller originally. And we barely had enough room for all our stuff with the large truck!

The only hiccup in all this was that the truck we rented didn’t come with a dolly! We rented one, but it was nowhere to be found. As per usual with me, luck has a random way of working out (actually the Law of Attraction, but I’m not going to knock you over the head with how well that works just now). We went to all the local stores to buy one, but none were available. Then as we walked back to my apartment, we noticed an unlocked, empty Uhaul in the 99 Cents store parkinglot.

Yep. It had a dolly.

We “borrowed it,” did our dirty work and then replaced it at about 3am. Well someone must have noticed, because now their truck had a lock on it! Oops! We placed the dolly next to their driverside door with a thank you note.

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The other part of my incredible birthday was the day trip to Sedona. It was pure magic. Truly. What an incredible way to ring in my new year. We drove the road out to Sedona from Flagstaff and the leaves had just turned their bright oranges and yellows.

And the creek along the road…

We went to one of my favorite lookouts called Airport Rock (near the airport in Sedona) that has an incredible 360-degree view of the entire valley:

Here’s one Matthew took hanging over the side of the mountain:

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But the experience, as incredible as it was, couldn’t compare to what we witnessed next…

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I’m making a serious effort to come out of blogging retirement. Life has been crazy, intense, with ups and downs…but mainly ups.

I’m quickly recapping the past six months, post-fibroid surgery and pre-my new glorious life, starting with:

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My 28th Birthday (November 22)

My brother and I took a road trip up to Flagstaff, AZ and Sedona, AZ. We had a blast. Here’s just a sampling of the magical moments:

My birthday dinner with my brother. We were getting ready at the hostel in Flagstaff and a random traveler by the name of Robyn checked into our room just as we were leaving. Cool as she was, she was easily convinced to come tag along with us! We had a fabulous time.

First stop: Sushi:

Okay so remind me to stop chewing when a random photo of me is taken…

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Of course when a birthday is being celebrated, most of us aren’t thinking about the camera! We’re too busy having the time of our lives.

And the night was just getting started…

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I know it’s been AGES since I’ve posted any updates. I have no excuse, except that I have tons of reasons why I was too busy.

But I know I should have posted something. There was just so much to say and never enough time to do it justice.

I wanted to blog about my amazing birthday trip to Sedona and Flagstaff and post all the great pics and video my brother took.

I wanted to gush emotionally about the random phone call I got on my birthday inviting me to be the Chief Copywriter on the biggest launch in Personal Transformation history and how I now get to work with all the Stars of “The Secret,” and more.

Now I want to have a panic attack as we go live with our pre-launch push for that project and tell you how exhausted I am after the past 72 hours that pushed my boundaries of energy, excitement, and terror.

I promise I’ll catch up soon on everything. There’s so much to tell!

But at least here is a teaser.

I’ll be back soon.

Here’s a bit of insight into the wackiness that is me:

Before I went into surgery, I convinced myself that I would be healed and ready to work again in five days’ time (it actually took two weeks).

So I set the goal for myself that on the fifth day I would celebrate my success by baking our family carrot cake from scratch. This is no ordinary cake. It is three layers, involves about a pound of carrot shavings, and we make the icing from scratch as well. But this has been my favorite cake since before I can remember - my mom would make it for me every birthday. So it was the perfect present to gift myself upon the day of my complete recovery…or so I’d thought…

Perhaps if I had fully recovered by day five it would have been fine, but…

It took me all damn day to bake this evil cake!

Pure tenacity and pride baked that stupid cake, because it sure as hell wasn’t made with love. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had so much blood loss that I couldn’t move, walk, or do anything for more than 30 seconds before utterly exhausting myself, getting light headed, and blacking out.

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It’s been ages since I’ve updated my blog. I apologize.

Healing from the surgery was far more difficult than I could have imagined! I was bed ridden for about 3 days where I just laid in the same position and never moved except for the excruciating journey to the bathroom. My neck and back locked up so bad, that once the pain of the surgery began to reside, the migraines and neck pain were so bad I had to keep taking the vicadin! Some of you may think, “hey I like vicadin.” But I HATE it. I refused to take it initially until I was literally sobbing from the pain.

My parents finally put their collective foot down. “Take the vicadin, Jaime. This is crazy!” So I did. And it was blissfully helpful.

What couldn’t be helped, unfortunately, was my energy level. I had a lot of blood loss and for whatever reason, I couldn’t do ANYTHING without exhuasting myself literally after about 30 seconds. So it took two weeks for me to recover to the point where I could take care of myself and return home.

Another two weeks had to pass for me to return full-steam to work.

So now, almost a month after my surgery, I am finally returning to my blog and other long-neglected friends.

Forgive my absence!

OH! And the GREAT NEWS

The surgery was a huge success. They were able to get all five fibroids completely out and reconstruct my uterus so that I can still have kids! The first thing my surgeon said to me when she walked into my post-op appointment was, “Wow those were BIG.”

Turns out the average uterus weighs about 60 grams. Just my largest tumor weighed over 700 grams. It was so large that it filled the entire area (extending my uterus as though I was 4 months pregnant) and when they went in, they feared they couldn’t operate on it. Luckily it was mobile (whatever that means) and they could move it enough to see how it was attached and get to work removing it.

Now that I’m past the pain and discomfort of recovery, I feel 1000% better and am so glad to be on the other side of this whole process. Now I’m ready to tackle the world again!

My trip to Arizona was absolutely incredible. I cherished every moment of it. I particularly loved Flagstaff and Sedona.

But I ended up having to cut it short and return home a few days early. Why? Because I started having incredible abdominal pain.

I knew before I left that I have uterine fibroid tumors. These are benign tumors that grow in the uterus that, if too large, can cause extreme pain, discomfort, and destroy the uterus. Talking to my doctor while in Arizona it was clear I needed to return home immediately and schedule a consultation for surgery.

Then the Real Pain Started…

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Yesterday I went whitewater rafting along the Colorado River in the INSIDE of the Grand Canyon. Words cannot describe how incredible this experience was.

I haven’t seen the Grand Canyon from above, but from inside it’s like being amongst giants, as cliche as that sounds. I just kept thinking over and over that I was surrounded by Gods. It really does feel that way. Just breathtaking.

I shot some video for you to give you an idea…

The beginning is my trip to the Grand Canyon including Lake Mead and my trek through the Hoover Dam. Then video of my trip and shots of the beautiful canyon, followed by my helicopter trip.

Hope you enjoy! I couldn’t edit the video enough or make it truly amazing - I was going to add music and cool edits, but I just don’t have the time and frankly I want to enjoy my trip!!!!

Alright, I know I”m late in getting this update out, but I didn’t have connection while in the Grand Canyon (not to mention I was busy screaming my head off as we held on for dear life in the huge rapids of the Colorado River!).

Below is a video update from our final day in Vegas:

Next will be my whitewater rafting experience in the Grand Canyon!