Learning to Ride a Bike

No not me. I know how to ride a bike. In fact I have owned several bikes. The first one I remember was pink with a pink banana seat with white hibiscus flowers and a white basket that had pink flowers on it. I put these little neon colored pieces of plastic on the spokes that clacked when I rode.

Behind the seat was a raised metal bar that my Pap (grandfather) would hold onto while I rode. No training wheels for this girl. One day he just let go. I looked back and realized he was gone. I was so happy until I totally wasn't watching and rode right off the sidewalk and crashed. Good thing Pap was a great cheerleader and got me right back on the bike. It is such a great memory I will always cherish.

A couple weekends ago we took our friend's daughter to Cycleworks in Wrightsville, PA. She's almost big enough for one size bike, and a little too big for the size down. She rode the littler bike for a while because it had training wheels.

She leans a little to the side, but she's new. She'll get the hang of it.

Unfortunately although she liked the little purple bike, it wouldn't have lasted long as she would have outgrown it too quickly.

Luckily they had a used bike in the next size up that was in the basement. No training wheels on that one, so she needed daddy's help.

Still got that lean. :-)

She was a little overwhelmed with all the grown ups talking so I grabbed her and we went to the front of the store to have a little alone girl talk. Very maturely we discussed the two bikes. Did she like the purple one because of the color and how it rode, or because it had training wheels? Or was she ok with the white and pink bike, but just wasn't comfortable because of the lack of training wheels that could be put on.

After some very adult discussions (she's only 5) and some snuggling, we called her mom up to talk about our decision. She then called daddy and Josh up to let them all know. We had decided that the pink and white bigger bike was what she wanted, but she wanted training wheels. Smart girl.

Well luckily, not only did they have some training wheels for the used bike, BUT they also had a brand new bike that was the same (just a year newer). Hmmm. Mommy and daddy were looking for a bike for her grandmother's house too. After some discussions with the bike guys, they agreed to lower the price on both if they bought both bikes.

So our little goober got a brand new bike for her parent's house and the same bike in the used version for her grandparent's house!!

The newer bike is in the foreground.

I only hope we can create some fun memories for her when she's older that she will look back on fondly as I do mine.

Love you my little goober.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Photos from My Life Break

February 15-21

Usually my parent's house has snow even when we don't. They are about 2ish hours north of us and in the mountains. This time though they missed BOTH of the big storms that we'd had. So when I got home the ground was mainly bare of all snow. Weird.

Monday night though (my first night there) look what I saw!!

Apparently I brought it with me!

Other notable photos that week. I sent this one to Josh and told him I bought a new hat.

He was not amused. Such a weirdo. Lol.

Mom and I were playing dress up while shopping obviously.

I also found these at Walmart.

They are super yummy and not at all gross like people think. Mainly peanut butter flavored with just a hint of strawberry, everyone I've forced to try them love them. SUPER addictive.

I did try to get a photo of it actually snowing.

But with screens in all the windows it didn't turn out too well.

And here is a photo of Sassy watching the snow and waiting for her two boyfriends to come visit.

They evaded me all week. I think she told them I was mean or something because the evening after I left they showed up. Ugh.

I got home on Friday and we had a party to attend. It was a fondue and game night at our friend's house and it was SO MUCH FUN. Josh was super sleep deprived and it made him absolutely hilarious. Next post will discuss Josh's sleep deprivation. Lol.

Saturday was a lazy day.

Sunday I was back up near my parent's house. Unfortunately, my family couldn't meet me. I had gone up with Kandice to pick up a puppy. Long story, but the puppy is Kandice's new puppy Masi (MAY-cee)'s sister. Did you get all that?

Here is the former Lucy Lou. Her new owner's renamed her.

Kandice and I did get to eat lunch at Wegmans with her parents. Oh I love Wegmans. We also grabbed some premade sushi for when we got home for dinner. And when we stopped at Sheetz I found some coconut M&M's (Can you tell I'm on a chocolate kick lately?? - Easter is around the corner!) that I shared for dessert. Lol.

So that is all for now about that week. Can't wait to tell you what Josh was doing while I was gone!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Day after surgery #3 post

Because apparently the medicine REALLY went to my brain. I was typing and then kind of just stopped and wrapped up. Even though I hadn't actually wrapped up. I was MID story. WOW.

So where was I? Josh was there, Dr. Prats stopped in...

He gave me the information about the weight loss, the exercise, the coughing etc. Oh right. He then asked if I had my upper GI. I had not. He said he would ask around and see what could be done. About 30 mins later the guy with the wheel chair shows up and IT'S THE SAME WEIRDO FROM LAST YEAR!! Seriously!

He takes me down and the ride was bumpy and I was nauseous. Then I had to wait for them to be ready ready for me. I should have taken my iPhone.

The girl comes and gets me and tells me I have to drink the gastrografin. BUT, this time it was mixed with barium and it wasn't NEARLY as bad. I ended up with the same doctor as last year, but he was MUCH nicer this time. He really felt bad for me when I explained all the stitches, the fact I was there last year and this was a reoccurring issue. That worked out well for me.

The test was much quicker this year, all looked good and I had no leaks.

When I got back to my room I was told it would still be a while until I was released. I was in a ton of pain, so I requested more morphine. My mom decided to run to our house and shower and while she was gone they came back and were like "ok, you are ready to go!" So Josh helped give me a little birdie bath, got me dressed, I signed the paperwork and I was finally out the door.

Getting back to the house is a blur. I know the car ride was painful hitting the bumps. I know mom answered the door to our house. I know I was set up on the couch. I think I slept a lot. I know I cried from the pain. I know I slept more and I know mom and Josh were a little worried about me. I also know Josh had beautiful flowers waiting for me!

Kandice and Jason stopped by with some awesome goodies. I was in no state for company, so I didn't see them. Sorry guys! They brought me some cookies and cream ice cream, fudgepops and juicebars. They also brought FLOWERS!

I took my percocet every 4 hours faithfully, drank juice and slept a lot. Mom stayed an extra night even because I was doing really bad.

We got up on Sunday morning and mom left early. Everything is kind of a blur though. Lots of pain, lots of drugs. Unfortunately the drugs didn't completely eliminate the pain. They take the edge off, but not a lot. They also make it hard to think and focus. Ugh.

Speaking for forgetting things. I ALSO forgot to mention the book my friends Nina and Greg sent me that I got on Thursday night!

I will read it soon!!

More thanks to everyone! I am going to try to get this completely up to date before the end of the week! We will see.

Doctor follow up tomorrow.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Details later, but I just needed to say

Friends and family are the best.

I survived surgery although it was really rough. My mom stayed up with me all night in the hospital. She brought me another orange snuggie!, chocolate covered raisins for when I start eating more and some books and magazines.

My friend Nina (and her husband Greg) sent me a super cute card and a book.

Kandice and Jason stopped by yesterday with a bag full of goodies (fudge pops, cookies and cream ice cream and juice bars) and some awesome flowers.

Doug and Lisa stopped today and dropped off a coloring book (Yay!), flowers and a card.

Josh also had flowers waiting for me when I got home.

A BUNCH of other friends have texted, emailed and facebooked me so many good wishes it makes me feel warm and snuggly.

I may feel awful and have been sleeping non-stop really (and when I'm not sleeping I'm drugged up, so you are lucky this is all coherent), but all the love and support makes things just a little easier.

THANK YOU!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

I'm now sad Christmas is over.

No more presents for a while. *le sigh* Maybe if I'm good I'll get something for Valentine's day! Until then let's recap Christmas shall we?

I think we need the abridged version.

Thankfully I DID update about my excision and the stitches I got. So on to the whirlwind Christmas.

Here were some prep pictures.

In my wrapping room.

Some of the finished products.

Christmas Eve day we decided to clean up the house and buy a dishwasher.

Did you read that right? Yep, we decided to buy a dishwasher. From Craigslist. In MD. So instead of cleaning and the like for Christmas Eve dinner we were having for Josh's family, we were driving to MD to pick up a dishwasher.

Now there is nothing WRONG with our old dishwasher. It runs fine. It cleans dishes. Anyone want to buy it? I have photos!!

Anyways, we wanted a new one for the large bike water bottles. Yes you read that right. JUST for BIKE BOTTLES. Otherwise they sat in the sink (or on the counter or in a bag somewhere) until Josh decided to clean them (because we would have to hand wash them) and then there was the mold. Okay, this is not the abridged version huh?

Found dishwasher. On craigslist. Retail $850. Never used (floor model in a showroom, but never installed). In MD. Purchased for $200. YAY!!

Looks... like a dishwasher huh? But that left area fits WATER BOTTLES.

Unless you are a cyclist or married to one... you just wouldn't understand.

Stopped at a WALMART on our way home (on CHRISTMAS EVE - ugh). Installation went smoothly (go Josh!). Was done in time for Christmas Eve dinner.

Before everyone got there I got one of my Christmas presents. A NEW lens for Nik!! It was the 35mm f/1.8. I didn't take a photo of it, but I let it take LOTS of photos for me. It wasn't really a christmas present since we had saved the money for it, but I didn't want to spend the money, so Josh did it for me. Good husband. :-)

Josh's family came over. We ate BBQ (his family tradition - but Josh made my mom's recipe) and then opened presents. Josh was our Santa.

After this we went to his grandparent's church for Christmas Eve service. His grandfather is the music director and his grandmother sings in the choir. They probably won't be doing this much longer (they no longer live in our city and have to commute) so it could have been the last one. They were surprised. I think it was a good surprise. Who knows.

THEN WE HEARD THE TRAIN WHISTLE. There is a story about this whistle. Apparently when Josh was little he was so excited to hear it (he grew up in this area until grade school) that he ran, slipped and fell cracking his head open.

He hadn't heard it since then (we'd never in our hometown on Christmas Eve).

So we hear it and... huh what? THAT was the much anticipated train whistle? If you have seen Finding Nemo when Dory calls the whales, well that is what it sounded like. If Dory was dying. And speaking gibberish. It was BAD. We spoke in whale speak the whole way home!

So home. Pack up. Open presents to each other and then at 1AM we left for my parent's house. Why? It was supposed to sleet and freezing rain with terrible driving conditions. We arrived at 3AM. I drove. Josh slept. Jerk.

Oh. And see this gift. Notice there are two? We got the SAME gift for each other. So weird. Lol.

IT NEVER PRECIPITATED. Ugh.

So up at 6AM, presents opened by 7AM, back to bed until 9AM and then up again.

Family time. Family photos (see).

Dinner at Aunt and Uncle's house. Relax - sort of. Sleep. Up again. Drive. Christmas again at Josh's Aunt and Uncle's house. More photos. Home. Sleep. Up again. Prep. Christmas for 17 at OUR HOUSE. This is how we fit 17 people in our kitchen/dining area.

I realized I petered out there at the end. I am not sad Christmas is over anymore. I got tired just typing it all out again. Lol. This was a photo from the first night. Maybe I just KNEW.

(and doesn't my hair look so SHINY and AWESOME?)

So that was Christmas. All four crazy days of it. Oh, and the materialistic side of me wants to show you part of our take this year.

I think next year we might want to go on vacation during Christmas. Just maybe.

Ending on a fun note. I totally loved our Christmas tree this year.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It's December 1

Which means only 24 days until Christmas. I love Christmas and normally adore this time of year, but things have been less than fabulous around here.

Let's do a list of things that is going crazy in my life as a way to deal with it and MOVE on.

1. My alien baby. Surgeon appointment on Thursday. I better get some answers.

2. Family issues. Teenagers are stupid. I love them, but stupid. *sigh* I screwed up too as a teenager, but when I was a teenager there wasn't the social networking or INTERNET or the over abundance of cell phones. Stupid.

3. A week from Thursday we leave for CO. The Ativan test went exceptionally well on Sunday. I'm still nervous about getting everything together and about the whole... you know... FLYING thing.

4. My christmas/holiday cards are out. Now I'm afraid I forgot people. Awesome.

5. I'm getting sick I fear. My throat is sore. Really sore. I have a tree to buy and decorate on Saturday!!

6. Still have presents to buy and wrap, and yet when?

7. Need to buy all the ingredients for Christmas cookies, make said cookies, wrap and distribute. Oh, and before all THAT I need to figure out WHAT I'm making.

8. Oh, and I have to pack for the trip.

9. The house is barely half decorated.

10. We are hosting TWO family Christmases at our house. This means we need to clean the house.

So want to be able to properly stalk my movements?

Thursday Dec 3 - surgeon appt

Friday Dec 4 - pick up friend WEDDING dress

Saturday Dec 5 - get Christmas tree

Sunday Dec 6 - pack and maybe make cookies

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 7,8,9 - work

Thursday Dec 10 - fly to CO!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Dec 11, 12, 13, 14 - hang out in CO and try to get together with some friends

Tuesday Dec 15 - fly back from CO

Wednesday Dec 16 - do lots of laundry

Thursday, Friday Dec 17, 18 - work

Saturday Dec 19 - finish shopping/wrapping for Christmas

Sunday Dec 20 - enjoy the day... or most likely clean the house

Monday Tuesday Dec 21, 22 - work

Wednesday Dec 23 - have my arm cut open to remove the pre-skin cancer cancer cells

Thursday Dec 24 - work early and begin food prep, then have immediate family Christmas

Friday Dec 25 - Christmas! Open gifts with Josh, then drive to parent's house

Saturday Dec 26 - Drive back from parent's house in time to make it to FIL side family Christmas

Sunday Dec 27 - Get up early to make food, and then host MIL side of family Christmas

Monday Dec 28 - SLEEP

Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 29, 30 - work

Thursday Dec 31 - New Year's EVE

Friday Jan 1 - Thank God it's the freakin new year and hope it's better than the last one!!

I might update now and then. If not either I'm doing the above things or I'm dead. Weeee!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our house to yours.

We have lots to be thankful for this year.

I am especially thankful for the friends and family who have supported us both in real life and through this blog, email, facebook and good old snail mail.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Rest of Halloween 2009

After the super busy whirlwind morning of travel, Josh and I got home with just enough time for him to shower away his nastiness and me to take a cat nap. 20 minutes of wonderfully restful sleep. Yay!

Then it was time to get my costume on and head over to our friends house to trick or treat. I had gotten a dress and some goodies to go as a flapper but I ditched that idea and went with my costume from two years ago... a ballerina! Last year I went as a cat toy (complete with bells and feather boa - and since I am always the photographer... no pictures of me) while my friend went as a cat. It was cute. I am always cute.

But two years ago we went as "fairies" which were ballerina costumes and... well nothing. But our littlest member was tinkerbell and we went with her.

I am protecting the innocent and possibly embarassed. I am on the right. Lol. I LOVE this costume. We (the adult friend and I) picked these up at a dance outlet store. They sell imperfect costumes and ones people never paid for. I think I paid $10 or $15 for mine. I kind of sort of want to go back and get another one...

Back to this year though.

It was raining. And cold. I decided to put on my ballerina costume, but add an off the shoulderish sweatshirt and leg warmers. Some over applied pink blush, blue eyeliner/eye shadow and a bun on top and voila!

See?

I took up the whole car seat!

But I did NOT take up the whole top of the costume. Although I have no pictures to show the top of the costume was now ROOMY instead of all squished uni-boob like before. LOVE the smaller boobs!!

Here is our little flapper...

She loved handing out candy!

And here is the lovely lady and I. This is the internet. I don't care if you see my face... hers I do.

A fun fact about those toe shoes around my neck... they doubled as a beer/cell phone/camera holder. Seriously. BEST accessory! Again no pictures. *sigh* Talk to Josh.

After trick or treating we took our friends Mikey and Amie (who had come to visit and brought their friend) back to our place to show them the "new" digs eat some dinner.

I made some pizzas and some mutual friends stopped by with their new BABY! Cash was SUPER cute.

Then it was time to head to a halloween party. Apparently only a few people got the memo and dressed up. I was one. Amie decided not to.

Here we are striking a pose.

And here is Kandice and I.

She was a "gold digger." Get it? The gold shovel??

Jason went as... Jason. Lame.

Mikey was eating while we were shot skiing. It was Amie's first time ever. Thumbs up!!

Kandice and I before we left.

So after we left there was a plan to go to gravity hill (the info for the closest one is at the bottom of this link). Then maybe Gettysburg to do some ghost hunting.

No one wanted to do any of the above except Mikey and I (which was just like college. The difference was in college we were still pretty self centered and would just hop in the car and go anyway. Now that we are adults we are more responsible, blah blah blah).

Instead we drove down the main college street and people watched all the slutty girls and drunk people and headed back home to watch a movie.

Sunday we played with Mikey and Amie's dogs Sam and Cooley.

Sam is the little one (yorkie?) and Cooley is the ewoky one (shitzu?).

They had to leave so we went out to Round the Clock Diner for brunch where the waitress was totally Mikey's match. LOVED it. Lol. He didn't even have a comeback to her!!

We saw them off, entertained Josh's family for a couple hours (they stopped by to see the painting progress, tile floor and finished 1/2 bath) and then headed to our friend's house for leftovers.

After dinner they showed us the chicken hat costume they got for their cat Sidney.

Here are the boys putting it on him.

"Seriously get this thing off me and quit taking pictures or I'll jump you and slash the camera."

"Come on. Please? This is embarrassing?"

Yes I added my own commentary. He was a good sport though!

And thus ends my Halloween extravaganza.

It made me tired just typing it all.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It's someone's birthday today!!

My Mom is celebrating her 29th birthday (for the 22nd time)!!

Actually I celebrated it with her last weekend at her house. And this weekend down here.

And I called her today.

She got a new camera too. It was a this one.

I've been busier than usual.

Life is good and filled with lots of family and friend time. I have no idea when I'll get a chance to blog again. Someday I'll get back on the bandwagon.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Weekends Are Not For Relaxing!

Well at least ours aren't! Here is a quick recap in pictures.

Friday night we went bowling with some friends!

The little pink, green and yellow skirt belonged to our soon to be 5 year old friend Fia who was trying out bowling for first time. She had a blast. Well until she got to frame four and then she just wanted to spin on the chair. I may have shown her that. Lol.

Saturday found us up early and traveling to reading. Josh's parents are moving soon and need some packing help. I only took my point and shoot camera, and I remember why I still love it. It may not take the crispest pictures, but it still takes good pictures. Maybe it's the photographer though. :-P

Josh's "stuff." That was all that was left of his stuff in the house.

The weather looked bad, but the rain held out while they loaded the truck.

The window of Josh's childhood room.

So Josh's Uncle came to help out. He brought his work van (he works for himself doing home improvements for people). The ground was WET and guess what? He got stuck.

They tried putting boards under the tires and rocking it, but it just dug further in the mud. So Josh was like "suby has a tow hook." So they attached a rope thingy to the front of the van, and the back of the subaru. And guess what?

Success!! Our little "car" towed the big van out of the mud.

This was the rut it left.

After leaving Josh and I headed home to shower and head over to Jason and Kandice's to meet our "niece" Olivia. OMG. SO freakin cute.

Me and Olivia. Me, Olivia and Olivia's Mommy Kandice.

Awww... Olivia and Josh.

Hanging out on the Penn State rug.

All the ladies at the party.

Everyone at Olivia's First Party. Except me. Someone had to take the picture!!

The new family. So sweet.

Olivia was such a good sport, but all tuckered out here!

And that's our weekend in review. Have a great Monday everyone!

*hugs and kisses*

mj