No Babies!! (includes some TMI) Part I

I like babies. And sometimes toddlers. Almost always kids. Occasionally teenagers.

They can be interesting, fun, enlightening and wonderful.

They are also moody, bratty, needy, life changing, money pits. Lol.

I enjoy them in small doses. I enjoy them more when I can give them back.

All this is not only true of myself, but the husband is also on this same wavelength. We like this wavelength and would like to continue riding this out for another couple of years.

I've done the hormonal birth control thing for YEARS. YEARS AND YEARS. Ugh. I started taking hormonal birth control in middle school. Not because I was sexually active, but to control my horribly bad periods/cramps/mood swings. After a while it was due to sexual activity and after that it was just because it was what I did. About three years ago I switched to the Nuvaring because it seemed so much easier to remember to pop a ring in my vagina once a month and then take it out once a month.

But after telling everyone about the great advantages of this handy little ring (which turned a few friends onto this circle of fun) I had grown tired of it. It still works fantastic and was oh so reliable. I had no complications or issues. Well besides my own issue of... after not having it in for surgeries I kept FORGETTING to put the stupid thing back in. So one month of "oops, I forgot honey. We have to be careful this month!" wasn't too bad. Month two of "oops, forgot again!" was annoying. Month three I was like "OMG I FREAKIN FORGOT AGAIN! DAMMIT!!"

So I saw my trusted fantastic health professional for my yearly pap and mentioned my dingbattedness and what we could do to resolve it. I ashamedly asked about an IUD because Sharon really sold me on the Ring and I do still love it, but I needed to move on. Kids aren't in any near future and I needed a more permanent birth control and possibly something without hormones.

She was receptive and sent me off to find on OB/Gyn in the area that did IUD insertions on women who had never been pregnant/had babies. White Rose OB/GYN on Market Street in York was that place for me.

I was convinced I wanted to do the non-hormonal Paragard vs. the hormonal Mirena. Why? I have plenty enough hormones for EVERYONE. Lol. And these past few hormone less and birth control less months have proven to me I am okay without it. My periods are still disgustingly regular and SHORT (two days - MAX).

So after extra hormones for about 15 years, it was time for a break.

I went in for my initial consultation after a lot of research and consideration on my own. The doctor asked some basic questions (smoker, drinker, multiple partners, etc), did a culture for gonorrhea and chlamydia (these infections can lead to the IUD causing scarring and eventual sterility), said it would be ordered, and told me to call them the first day of my next period.

Why? They do the insertions on non-baby producers during their period so that the cervix is more open for the insertion. Maybe they do it on baby producers, but that was what he told me.

I'll do the insertion discussion tomorrow. I'm exhausted from today. Bet you can't wait for THOSE details huh?

*hugs and kisses*

mj

I managed another good picture!!

It wasn't of Josh... but oh well.

This is Andy, one of Josh's teammates/coworkers at the bike shop.

Here are more pictures from the race on Saturday.

And since he is my husband and all... here are two pictures of him from Saturday too. :-P

This is Josh off the front (WAY off the front) on the first lap.

And here is one of those blurry background pictures.

Not as good as the one of Andy though.

It was a HOT day (the first one of those we've really had this summer) and things were all out of whack. Josh got some pretty bad overheating and DNF'd. He actually ended up sick all the rest of the day. Stupid weather.

That's my only update currently.

I do appreciate all the messages, emails, comments and chats I've had with everyone who is still reading my blog and likes it. :-) Thanks for stoking my ridiculously narcissistic ego. It needed it.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

What things have I missed blogging about recently??

There are a couple of problems with me blogging. Well at least when you're entire blog is just an ongoing self-centered dialog of one person's relatively uneventful and monotonous life. See my blog STARTED as an informative blog about my upcoming surgeries with lots of detail, my experiences etc. I did throw in some personal non-related stories - but mostly it was useful. Now... not so much.

The Problems:

*Does anyone even read this thing? I mean I guess I could consider it a journal and just be okay that *I* can look back and remember the fun things I've done. BUT there is some comfort knowing that others appreciate my narcissistic self proclamations and stories.

*Even if they read it, do they care? When I was younger I wanted to be famous. I thought I was special. I wanted to be a writer, an entertainer. Not really an actress/singer/model fame - but a fame because of me fame. I find myself amusing and insightful. I enjoy writing and talking (I may be a bit of a loudmouth). I read other bloggers who have become famous and I admire them so much. I thought I had that charisma. I am starting to think it's just me who thinks that.

So to my few blog followers. Leave me a message. Even if it is just to say "hi." Help feed my narcissistic self please. Kthanksloveyou!!

Some things I've missed and not blogged about. Not going to do it now either really... but here are some links with pictures.

Two weeks ago today on July 11, 2009 Josh's sister got married. Here is her rehearsal from that Friday night. And then here are the wedding pictures and the reception pictures. Taking wedding photos is HARD to do. I don't have another wedding for a while to practice with, but hopefully I'll start figuring out how to use this camera. *sigh*

What else have I missed?

Well - my grandparents anniversary (july 9), my parents anniversary (july 18), and Josh's littlest sister's 9th birthday (july 14) - which we celebrated at his middle sister's wedding on the 11th.

Ummmm... lots of dinners at Jason and Kandice's new house. Wings with friends. Tuesday night Zumba classes.

Oh, and my final appointment with the plastic surgeon until April 20TEN. Lol. It seems so far away. He said all looks well, blah blah blah. Mammogram next April. Ugh. And unless I have questions or issues, he'll see me then. It seems so weird that pre-surgery this was such a big deal. And although it's still a big deal (I still sometimes find clothes I used to wear that I haven't since and it's like "whoa") it doesn't even really feel like I had surgery. I mean I recovered so quickly with such little pain... I expected more pain as a reminder. Nope.

Although - there is a little pain currently. My boobs are sore. But more like period sore than any other pain. So that's excellent.

Okay, off to get ready for a bike race today. Wish Josh luck!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Can't this update itself sometimes??

I had a random dream last night that I logged onto my blog and someone had updated it on 7.16.09 for me! I was so happy that it was done and I didn't have to take care of it.

Unfortunately this morning proved my dream wrong *sigh*. I think this is the longest I haven't blogged since starting all this at the beginning of the year.

Why you may ask? Well if you are blogger that uses pictures you'll know. It takes a while to upload, rearrange, and write about pictures after first figuring out which ONES you want to include. It's a pain. It's time consuming.

So today I am doing the lazy person's update about only one topic. Tile.

Last time I left you we were finishing up tiling, but the grout was the wrong color. Let's finish up that story line first. Grout dried WHITE. Call grout company. They refuse to even suggest anything since they DO have a disclaimer about the final color not being their problem. Thanks asshats. We didn't want you to fix it, just give us some advice.

Fine. Josh looks up a company called Aquamix that makes a grout stain/paint product that also does the sealing portion of this adventure. Awesome. No retail stores carry it. Fluck. BUT, an industrial tile place in Hanover does. Josh calls the Baltimore office and explains what we need to which Ashley (the Conestoga Tile sales person) responds that they have a color that exactly matches the SMOKE GREY we bought. Josh is excited and makes me run to Hanover to pick this up. Hanover is like 45 mins away.

When I finally look at it (more than half way home) it looks... tan. Not grey. Eh, maybe it dries another color. We test a small section. It's tan. Not even a tan that matches the tile.

Josh calls AGAIN and the PERSON THAT ANSWERS (no, he didn't get her name) tells us they will gladly exchange the product for the right color.

I am heading to Baltimore to go to Ikea that day and also to pick up mom and Ian from the airport (Ian placed third). So I go to the Conestoga Tile in Baltimore. The lady is RUDE and tells me no refunds on cash sales. I don't want a refund - I want the right color. Then she gets snotty and tells me THIS is why they don't usually do phone sales and have people pick it out themselves. GUESS WHAT?? ASHLEY did NOT suggest that. No one did. And apparently ASHLEY heard smoke and thought it matched their smoke color. When did you associate SMOKE color with tan??

The RUDE lady also refused to put me in touch with dear Ashley who refused to answer her phone or any emails we sent. And rude lady also suggested that THIS is why they don't work with the public (I'm assuming non industrial tile people is what she meant). I walked out of there with my product, but having had to buy another bottle without a return. I'm still angry about this and might just contact corporate or something.

To wrap this up, the product worked perfectly and the tile is done. We're still slightly bitter about the whole experience and will probably never tile again. But then again - never say never because I'm sure we'll forget how bad this really was after some time... :-P

Okay, I have to end this sooner rather than later. Plastic surgeon follow up at 11:15 today and then it's off to Ikea (again) with Suzy!! Yay!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Why would one do renovations on a NEW house?!? Idiots. Oh and Happy (belated) 4th of July

Remember in my last post I said I would do this post the day after. Yep... or like 4 days after. Whatever. We've been doing the stupid renovations okay? :-P

Wednesday night wasn't all relaxing with our anniversary and such. We also had to make a home depot run. Why? So we can buy MORE things to finish our downstairs.

Now when I say finish, the downstairs WAS finished. It had walls, flooring, doors, etc. There was NOTHING wrong with downstairs. See? Normally there is a bench under that shelf, but otherwise it is finished. BUT (this is a HUGE but) see that door on the left side that is just cracked a little bit?? THAT door is like the door to Narnia. It can create a whole other world when you open it. And unfortunately that whole new world makes the OTHER world (aka the entryway) look... boring.

How do you remedy boring? Well you decide to rip up the flooring and install TILE!! Yay!! Well actually, you convince your husband to do these things... but really it's a great idea (insert eye roll here - sorry Josh). The key to this convincing is to start out helping.

But in the end Josh ended up doing 99% of the work.

So after all the scraping and such it was time to actually physically lay the tile. We had NO idea what we were in for.

Day 2: July 3, 2009

It started out fun and interesting, the tiles looked so shiny and fabulous. We started laying out the "pattern" and all was well. Then Josh started using the adhesive, and trying to line things up... and all hell broke loose.

This shows the first tile all straight and level in place.

Tile #2, leveled, looking good... Josh checked and double checked it's levelness, even lines, etc.

This is the last picture of the day. The adhesive looks yummy right?? *sigh* There was a lot of frustration after those few tiles. The cameras were turned off as the subject matter was too intense to be captured on film. Lol. And FYI, if anyone out there has this brilliant idea to tile themselves. RENT A WET SAW. Just trust me.

Life would have been much more pleasant had the husband not tried to save a few bucks (that we spent in the end anyway...).

Needless to say the tiling did not get done...

On to the FOURTH of JULY!! That morning we spent helping friend's move into their first house. We'd spent a little bit of time there prior helping them take down wallpaper, clean the kitchen, rip up the carpet (to find hardwood floors that are in great shape - kind of jealous), etc.

Saturday morning we got up and helped them move from 9:30ish until about 3. After some showering it was back to their place for food, friends, fireworks and wiffle ball (I just couldn't make that one an "f"). I can't get any of these pictures to upload. *sigh* Oh well. Maybe another post (which I always say and never do...).

Sunday we were back to tiling. This time renting the wet saw late that evening and using it that night and Monday.

Tuesday Josh worked all day but finished the last of the tile that night!! Wednesday Mom and Ian came down and spent the night. Thursday we took them to the airport and then Thursday night (well last night) Josh and I did the grouting. Well he put it down and I wiped it up.

Finished tile, no grout.

The mixing of the grout.

And grout application.

This wasn't as much fun as it looked like but it's DONE. Oh wait... not really.

I got up this morning to find an email from Josh. "What do you think of the grout color today?"

I went downstairs. That beautiful medium gray grout is now... white? Well super light gray.

*sigh*

We'll have to figure that mess out later.

For now we have a rehearsal dinner tonight, wedding (yes another one) tomorrow at 10AM. Then reception and then the Iron Hill Twilight Crit in West Chester. THEN staying with friends that night and coming home Sunday sometime.

I am unfortunately missing what I know will be an awesome get together in NYC with my favorite MM nesties on Sunday. BOOOOOOOOOOO.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Three year anniversary recap...

Wednesday evening Josh took me to Left Bank for dinner. OMG so yum! We got

Crispy spicy Ahi Tuna Spring Rolls, wakame seaweed & firecracker drizzle

for an appetizer

with

Bikini Tini – ketel 1 citroen, svedka vanilla, coconut rum, finlandia mango vodka, midori, banana liquer, pineapple

and

Mochatini – svedka vanilla, godiva, baileys, frangelico, espresso, chocolate syrup

for drinks ( I got the Bikini Tini - duh! ).

Dinner for me was the

NEW ENGLAND STYLE PASTRY TOP CRUSTED SEAFOOD POT PIE
Maine Lobster , crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, potato, sweet peas, carrots in herb

which was as good (maybe better) than it sounds.

Josh got the

SOUTHERN COFFEE CHAR CRUSTED DELMONICO RIBEYE STEAK
baked sweet corn & risotto pudding, skillet matchstick vegetables & jus

which was good... but even he admitted it wasn't as good as mine (which he helped finish).

His baked sweet corn and risotto pudding was off. Not sure what it was (as I am not a huge foodie) but it just... I don't know.

And since it was our anniversary we HAD to get something for dessert so we tried a

BLACK RASPBERRY CREME BRULEE
Vanilla Creme Brulee with Local Black Raspberries, seasonal fruit and sugar cooki

which was delectable.

I have pictures of nothing (we took a few pictures before but then I didn't grab the camera), but this place is fantastic. It has tons of book shelves filled with hard back books and they even bring your bill out tucked into a book!! I looked at the book title to remember for this post and... well yeah. Whatever. It was just one of those things. Lol.

When we left it was storming so bad I had to slip my shoes off to run for the car!! I know, classy right?

Who would have guessed it would be so bad since when we left it looked like this??

It was so bright we couldn't keep our eyes open (you like the squinting right? haha.)

This was the first picture that went

Melissa: "how does this remote work?"

Josh: "you have to point it at the camera. Didn't you read the instructions I got for you?" Melissa: "Shut it. Well I didn't know THAT part."

Josh: "Did you read the instructions?"

Melissa: " What are you talking ab *click*"

And yes I look tall here too. I had my heels on. But when I got frustrated I took them off (I have no idea why) which is why the second picture (that is actually first here) I am shorter.

Ohhh... and before dinner I got some FLOWERS and a card. The flowers are so pretty.

And the card is well...

Yes yes, it is kind of funny. No presents this year as we have a project we are working on for the house...

But back to our fun night.

After dinner we came back and I had Josh snap some shots of me in my cutie patootie dress. I got it for a rehearsal dinner on Friday, but had to wear it since it was our WEDDING colors. I am a HUGE dork. I know.

I wore three of these bad boys

in my hair on our wedding day. For how much they cost,

I try to wear them on special occasions.

Wait just one minute... I had something fun to show you...

Tada!!

It's my wedding dress!!

I couldn't do THIS before without flashing

the whole crowd. Yay for new boobies!

Full length picture

And YES it laced up the back still.

Josh just got tired of lacing

after try two (the ribbon was all wonky the first try) so

he only did every other one.

And one final shot...

I can't even MAKE the cleavage I used to have. Yaaaaayyyyy!!

Overall a great anniversary.

Tomorrow's post will be titled "Why would one do renovations on a NEW HOUSE?!? Idiots"

That's all about us and our first major house project. Lol.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Three years ago today...

we were getting MARRIED!! That was fun. :-P

No seriously, we had an awesomely good day. Check out my last minute highlights that I chose today (my favorites change all the time... lol). My mom and I got our hair done.

I hung out with Meme a little bit.

"It's this big..."

"Lol... okay you're right..." (Sorry Josh)

Then Ian and I hung out for a little brother/sister bonding time.

Honestly I have NO pictures of Josh getting ready. We only had one photographer and she was hanging out with me. Sorry sweetie. Love you. :-D

Next I had to put on my face ,

Put mom in her dress,

And after getting my dress on put on the garter.

Here is a picture of my BFF D! and I pre wedding. She was a HUGE help throughout the whole wedding process. She lives FAR away (well at least a couple hours), but came down for my bridal shower and even a couple days before the wedding to help us get everything ready. The morning of she helped feed me and keep me hydrated, entertained and nodded her head often when I kept asking if I looked pretty. Love you D! !

It was finally time to walk down the aisle,

And meet up with the husband.

I got my ring.

Struggled to get his on (I thought we were going to have to break out the WD-40...)

And here we are kissing as a newly married couple!

(Behind us you can see Darin, our officiant. He was Josh's youth pastor. He and his wife Kelly drove ALL the way for IL to do this. It was really special having them there and I know it meant a lot to Josh. And me! Thanks guys!!)

Here we are walking away from the ceremony.

We then hugged some family

And friends.

Took some pictures.

Made our way from pictures to reception.

Got announced at the reception.

Was thankful someone put the sunglasses on our table.

Ate a little dinner (with bib)

Smashed a little cake (Trashy? Maybe. Fun? Definitely.)

Danced a little.

Enjoyed our family...

And our friends...

Showing off the ring!

Enjoying each other day...

And night...

Thanks for checking out my tribute to our day. More pictures can be found here.

And you can see full size of all of these just by clicking the pictures. Enjoy!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj