Valentine's Day 2010

We had to kind of skip Valentine's Day last year because I was being discharged from the hospital. I did get flowers and a funny card though.

And yes I realize it is an overly commercialized day. It is also the day Josh and I started "dating" 8 years ago - or as I like to say it "the day we decided to stop having sex with any other people." Lol.

All I asked for this year was a bacon, egg and cheese mcgriddle (I even had a coupon!)

This is what I woke up to!

Yum! I hadn't had McDonald's in well over a month or more!

When I went downstairs I was surprised to find these.

Even though I said no card or flowers. They are beautiful though!

Later that day we did our usual celebration type thing - a mom and pop sub place.

This time we placed our order at Jim and Nena's in Hallam, ran down to Mack's ice cream for some of their amazing cookies and cream ice cream, picked up our food that was ready and headed home to snuggle, watch movies and eat.

I love spending any day like that.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

The second large snowstorm of 2010

This storm didn't start so late. The first snow flakes started around 3:30-4PM on Tuesday Feb 9, 2010.
This was taken at 5:30PM. Yeah... lots of snow already.

SNOWFLAKES!!

This next photo was taken for Josh.

This is an NSX. It was all OVER the road.

Do NOT drive a car like this in the snow if A. you aren't familiar with driving this in this type of weather and B. if it's snowing. Lol.

On the other hand we were out in it too...

This was 83. Kind of a mess. Thank goodness for our subaru AWD!

Another shot of 83. It was pretty dead on our side. Going the other way it was lots of traffic.

Why were we out though?? So Josh could go snowboarding at Roundtop! Lol. I can't ski or board due to my stupid surgery thing... BUT I play an amazing lodge bunny. You should see me!

These next few pictures are what happened when we got home from Roundtop. It took forever in the car to get there and back. Everyone else got plenty of snow play time. Suddenly I felt the urge.
"Josh, grab the camera. Yes the camera. TAKE A PICTURE OF ME IN THE SNOW"

*jump*

"tee hee hee I am making a SNOW angel!!"

"Look at my cold wet butt! It's cold... and WET!!"

My masterpiece snow angel -->

Doing this made me so happy and excited. I can't describe how good it feels to feel NORMAL and not want to sulk on the couch and cry all the time. So anyways...

I took this photo on the morning of the 10th. It was STILL coming down.

Looking out back.

The black at the bottom of this photo is the bottom of the sliding glass doors.

They are 18" off the ground. The mound of snow was well over that.

More of the backyard.
Buried suby... again. Poor Josh keeps having to dig out the car!

Obviously you can't tell from this photo, but the plow truck was stuck. Really stuck. Over 20 minutes it took him to get himself unstuck. Ugh.

This was all the better the road looked when he was done.

I also want to note I am taking more photos again. YAY!

This is a good thing obviously.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It should be getting better

but currently it is not. The pain is still there. Still not letting me sleep comfortably all night. Which is making me tired. Which is making me not want to do anything during the day. Which isn't helping me sleep at night. See the pattern?

There is a lot of frustration right now. A lot. I'm also crying. A lot.

And can we discuss how I just got my period which means cramps and bloating on top of the stomach pain, swelling and uncomfortable feelings from surgery.

Can we add my typical period crazy feelings to the frustration too?

Holy whine fest huh?

Yeah, I try not to be this person. SO...

On an better note - I had a great time going out for my friend Kandice's birthday on Tuesday night! We went to Mitsuru and had sushi. I do love sushi!

And last night Josh and I snuggled on the couch for a little while.

Tonight Josh and I will be going on a date to TARGET to pick up more pain meds.

YAY!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Post #150 has graphic photos

Seriously. Graphic. As in they are photos of the inside of my body. I know the inside of my body is pretty gross. I have seen photos before. I got a 4 set during my last surgery. I don't think I posted them. Maybe I did. I don't see them though. Hmmmm... Oh well.

Honestly they look a lot like these photos. Honestly I don't really know what I am looking at. You probably don't either. Unless you are a medical professional and then - why are you reading my blog? I'm really not that interesting!

So there are only 8 photos below. There should be 12, but my every amazing husband apparently scanned the same set twice and missed one set. Oops. Maybe when he goes back in to scan set 3, I'll see if he can scan in the set from last year since they are SO different. Lol.

On to the photos. Now these aren't ultra sound or anything fancy like that. They are literally photos taken with a small camera that was placed inside my abdomen so that the people performing my surgery could see what they were doing without flaying my stomach open.

The photos were scanned in, emailed, and then cropped so the picture quality is probably not great. Sorry.

The only really cool thing I can see is that the two right bottom photos and the one left bottom photo is the AlloMax that was attached to my diaphragm. That is the human tissue that can't be rejected, can't degrade, and has to hold up or we'll be going through surgery again.

Please send your positive thoughts to that gross looking piece of soggy thick paper towel thing.

Josh had scanned these photos yesterday and sent them to me last night. He sent them while watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Now Mike Rowe is an amazing guy who I swoon over every time he comes on TV. Maybe I'll talk about him another time.

The particular Dirty Jobs episode was Season 5, Episode 21. It was titled Fireworks Technician. There was an offshoot segment about a cow that has a hole in it's side that they fish inside of to study cow digestion. I couldn't watch. I felt like that cow. At least my holes got closed up. This cow has people digging in its guts daily. Sorry cow. :-(

And speaking of closing of holes - that will be a nice transition for the final segment of today's blog post.

I had 5 incisions last surgery. I had no stitches to close them up, just some steri strips and about a weeks worth of healing time and they were fine.

Dr. Prats used the same incision sites as last time to do this surgery. This time though he needed stitches for the one incision due to how much stretching was done with the instruments. That incision looks awful. See?

If you click on the photo it will get larger, but I just want to make sure you guys see how really gross it is! So I cropped it closer. See below.

The small white piece at the bottom right of the incision is the internal stitch that has once again made its way to the surface of my stupid body. I learned my lesson LAST time in regards to pulling on things around incisions.

Okay, well if you didn't lose your lunch from the photos in this post KUDOS! I think these are all the gross ones for a while. Unless Josh gets those other ones scanned in and then I'll post those too. Lol.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

First post surgery 3 follow up

I planned ahead for my Thursday morning appointment and had showered the night before. Glad I did. It gave me time to put some makeup on and do my hair. I figured I might as well as least try to look cute while feeling miserable.

Cute see?

Well I thought I looked cute. We also did some pictures of the not so cute parts of me.

and a close up

Okay, I realize nothing looks bad. But people, please realize that all the work was done on the INSIDE. Stitches, cutting out scar tissue, yanking things, moving things, stitching more things, adding human tissue to reinforce things. Ugh. My stomach is also a big bloated, swollen mess of mush.

And you know where my almost biggest pain is from? My shoulders. They pumped so much air into my body so they could work, and it was in there for so long, that it is trapped and causing a lot of pain. Ouch and boo.

When we set off for the doctor's office I was only in a little pain, but the car ride really did me in. I couldn't even stand to check myself in and Josh had to do it for me. Got back to the room and it was the really nice nurse. Dr. Prats came in soon and we started talking. About 3 seconds into our talk I started crying. Oh god. I HATE crying in front of people. And I HATE that it probably made him feel bad.

I was just in SO MUCH PAIN. All that frustration led me to cry more and both the doctor and nurse were super sympathetic. I am very thankful they weren't upset with me. I was prescribed more pain medication - this time vicodin - told to come back in three weeks and to just take my time and heal. No rush, I needed to take my time and it was okay that I wasn't bouncing back immediately. This surgery was very intense with more work than anticipated.

My mom had told me all this the day before, but it made me feel better to hear it from the doctor. I know I know. Sorry mom.

After the appointment, Josh took me home, got me all situated (can I seriously nominate him for husband of the century??) and went back to work. We agreed I'd be okay with the rest of the percoset until he got home from work. I got so bored and frustrated and keyed up yesterday I asked Josh if I could go to Target with him to get my prescription when he got home from work.

This is where my story turns kind of funny and really really gross. It made my mom laugh hysterically, but I am an even better in person story teller than on here. So you're only getting half the funniness.

Seriously, really really gross. Continue reading at your own risk. I've warned you.

Josh told me it would be too much for me to be at Target. I didn't listen.

So we get to Target and Josh goes to make a return while I lean on a cart and make my way back to the pharmacy. Josh beat me there. Even with a return *sigh*.

I sit on the bench while Josh puts in my prescription and they told us 20-25 minutes. We then worked our way back to the men's clothing section so Josh can find a new pair of wind pants. He wanted to try them on so I found a bench in the shoe section and flopped. Now Josh had told me he didn't bring his cell phone so don't go anywhere.

After about two minutes of sitting there I HAVE to go. Like I have to poop. And it has to happen RIGHT NOW. I try as hard as I can not to poop my pants and then Josh shows up. I tell him what is going on and that we have to go RIGHT NOW. The bathroom is at the front of the store. I am at the back. I'm in pain, not as mobile, I have trouble breathing and I have to POOP. That bathroom was MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY.

We start out to the bathroom and Josh is all "are you okay? You are kinda of pale, sweaty and have goosebumps." I was like "it's because I HAVE TO GO."

I think I almost sprinted the last little bit, but I MADE IT!

And how amazing was it that the bathroom was free of all people? I think I heard angels sing. But I'm not sure because of the awful pooping I was doing. I have been taking miraLAX, colace and benefiber to keep things moving so I don't have any issues with all this abdominal work. For some reason Target has this effect that I always feel like I have to poop. Well apparently that combined with the above cocktail - well let's all have a silent moment for that toilet.

I feel as though although it was horrible and disgusting and all of that, that I lucked out because the bathroom had no one else in it. Just as I'm about to clean up, someone comes in. Oh god. Oh no. I am slightly weak from terrible parting of my last few meals and my body. I KNOW it smells. Oh god, I am THAT person that smells up the bathroom. I can't leave. So I figure I'll let unknown person (who I will most likely never see again, so why DO I care, but I do!) pee quick, wash their hands and leave. Nothing worse than facing the person who you almost gassed to death at the sinks.

So I am waiting and then... girlfriend in the stall two down STARTS POOPING. OMG. So then there is the debate: do I wipe my ass, run to the sinks, wash my hands and hope she doesn't meet me out there - do I wait her out and hope her smell isn't worse than mine since I am not allowed to gag or cough - do I wipe my ass, go to the sinks and give her a nod if she meets me there? Do not laugh. If you are not a woman, or not a woman who has ever disgraced the "all ladies smell like roses and don't poop" then you just won't understand this dilemma.

I waited her out. I snuck out as soon as she was gone, washed my hands and departed the bathroom.

Josh asked how it was in there. I told him I just had to sit down.

My prescription was done, we paid and left.

I had to go home and lay down.

That was my most exciting day since surgery. Seriously. Super exciting.

Today I have done nothing. I've walked around the house a few times. I needed to do nothing today.

Tomorrow is a new day. I think I'll have less pain tomorrow. That's my plan.

*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

All about surgery day.

But, I like to talk about everything - so we will start with the night before. My mom came down the night before since we weren't exactly sure when surgery was. I found out a little after 3 that surgery wasn't until 12, but mom had already left at 3 so... yeah.

Anyways... we went shopping at Border's first. The lady at the register mentioned this book that was supposed to be so AWESOME and it was right there on the counter. She mentioned it because I had a Stephen King book and a Dean Koontz book. It was called A Reliable Wife. I am not usually gullible, but I was intrigued. Thank goodness Mom was there to pick up the tab.

I didn't read the book, but apparently it isn't ANYTHING like I would like. It's more of a historical romance with a murder twist. Oh UGH. And NOW we are majorly off topic.

So Border's first and then we headed to GinMya in York. While Josh, Mom and I were on our way, Kandice called that she had gotten out of work early, so she met us there.

Sushi is a GREAT meal before surgery. Seriously.

I slept relatively well that night and even got to sleep in the next morning! I had to be at the hospital at 10:30. I was nervous, but mom and I did a little photo shoot.

Me and my mom!

Just me - all ready to go!

When we got to the hospital they didn't even have a bed for me, so we ended up waiting in the SUPER crowded waiting room. It was only like 10-15 minutes but it was enough.

A cool new feature in the waiting room though was patient tracking! There was an LCD mounted to the wall that had the case number that was assigned to each patient and let you know when they were in surgery, in recovery, etc. I didn't get to really enjoy it, but it was nice for mom and Josh.

So I finally got my bed. It was the same as before. Strip naked, put on the gown and socks and wait to answer lots of questions.

Here I am! Waiting somewhat impatiently.

So questions were answered, arm bands were put on. And then it happened. Again. WHY CAN'T THEY EVER FIND A VEIN! The first lady dug, and dug, and dug until I started getting tears and begged her to stop.

Mom and Josh then noticed my savior nurse from last time who was able to stick me last time in the hall. She came in, took about 2 minutes, prepped the area and got it first shot. THANK YOU GOD!

Dr. Prats came in and told us that tactics were being switched around. No more Strattice (pig tissue). Another material came out in between my scheduling appointment and my surgery. It was called AlloMax (not to be confused with the non-working AlloDerm). It was human tissue. He said the rep was there even and had delivered it to be used. If he liked the way it worked that is what would be implanted. If not, he did have the Strattice too that he could fall back on. Okay, game plan was set. Let's get sliced and diced!

It felt like I waited forever, but then I was being wheeled back to the OR. I got back there, I think they talked to me.

Then I was waking up in recovery. I couldn't talk really. And the woman next to me was SCREAMING about something. I just kept smiling at the nurses (which probably looked crazy scary as I am sure it was more like a sneer than a real smile). Unfortunately screaming lady took everyones attention and I was left to attempt to smile my creepy smile in the nurse's direction in between falling asleep. It seemed like I was there for a while. I don't know.

Then I was being wheeled into my room. I saw mom and Josh and they hugged and kissed me. I asked what time it was and it was after 6!! WHAT?? Did it take me that long in recovery? What was going on?

Well apparently the surgery did not go as planned. At all. Here is what went down. Dr. Prats got in there and tried pulling my stomach out of my chest and back into my abdomen. It wouldn't stay down. After cutting away a lot of scar tissue and eventually taking my stomach into my abdominal wall with three stitches it was down. That took two hours. That is not good.

He went on to close up my hernia with 5 stitches (he used one before - 2 is usually the max). Then he broke out the AlloMax, liked it, and went on to place that around the former hernia. That was then all placed and tacked down with more stitches.

So the 2-3 hour surgery was a 6 hour surgery and that was why the recovery room was so much rougher!

Then I ask if someone can please get me some water or ice chips because the tube down my throat had irritated it. Nope. Not until after my upper GI the next morning. SERIOUSLY?? Jerks. I ended up suffering all night with nothing really to quench my thirst. The nurses were MUCH nicer this time and kept bringing my zofran and toradol. I even got a morphine helper when it wasn't time to toradol yet.

The night was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but I made it through. 8AM Josh got there. 9AM Dr. Prats showed up (he had said he would be there at 9AM) and explained the surgery to me. How much rougher it was than he had planned on. That now I had to start walking to get the blood flowing and get things healed up.

I am not allowed to gain any weight. I am not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs. I am not allowed to cough (yes, seriously). I am not allowed to get into a car accident. I can however eat small portions, take lots of stool softeners and laxatives, and walk as much as I can so that I can get to 0.5 miles before I see him Thursday.

Wish me luck! If I remember anything else (which could happen because these pain meds are messing with my memory) I'll make another post.

*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

Our updated house projects in 2010

We have a fantastically tiled entryway at our house (Josh is a MASTER tiler now - or something). Problem? It still needed a rug of some sorts. Otherwise everything got tracked up the stairs. Ew. So after over a YEAR of searching we came up with a new idea after not finding the right size, colors, availability or price.

FLOR tiles. Josh doesn't usually get my visions, so I have to map them out quite specifically. When I found out Lowe's carried the FLOR carpet tiles I drug Josh there to show him. He agreed it would probably work. We figured out how many we would need and placed the order. Unfortunately they take almost two weeks to come in (boo) so we didn't have them in time to host our multiple Christmases here.

Josh picked them up on Wednesday and we "installed" them on Friday morning. More iPhone photos so don't critique them too terribly.

This was the first configuration we contemplated.

It was okay, but a little too expected for me. So we switched it up to this.

Ignore Josh's foot at the bottom. Lol. My mom said the other configuration was better, but I like this one. If you look at it walking in the front door, it looks like a big "C" which is our last name letter! It's subtle, but I thought it was cute. I am SUCH a dork.

So total cost for this little project was about $65 for a 80"x40" (6.5' x 3.5' ish) rug. Not bad!

We may get two more tiles for a little rug in front of the garage door. Hmmm.

So then SATURDAY we started another of my hair brained projects. I wanted shelves in the kitchen above our island thingy. The color is WAY off on the walls, but you get the idea.

Here is Josh hard at work on my vision.

And the final results!

I LOVE them. Before all those wine bottles sat on top of that island and so if you wanted it as a work space you either had to move everything, or it got all messy. The glasses took up tons of space in our cabinets that I wanted for other stuff. It also looks neat and clean (well for now).

Total cost for this project - $50

2 shelves at Lowe's - $8 each

3 - 2 packs of brackets at Lowe's - $8 each

2 wine bottle holders from Ikea (I found them in the CLEARANCE section) - $1 each

2 wine glass holders from Ikea (ALSO in the CLEARANCE section) - $1 each

1 can of spray paint to turn the white wine glass holders into silver to match - $4

2 packs of screws - $1 each

So far our house is becoming more homey. After never really doing much in all of our apartments that we lived in, all these projects make this place feel more and more like ours. I love it. *smile*

Up next is some frame painting I'm working on (I got them super cheap on clearance at target, but they were white and banged up). We also have the hallway from the 2nd to 3rd floor to paint and all the bedrooms and bathrooms. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

A Chilly Start to September

The temperatures took a nose dive at the start of the week. Last week I was in shorts and tank tops "glistening" - bwahahah, who am I kidding?? I SWEAT! This week I'm in jeans and light sweaters shivering.

My favorite part of slightly cooler weather though is Josh letting us keep the windows open! Oh how I love the smell of fresh air circulating through the house. It's so crisp and refreshing. That is where my love of cooler weather used to end.

Because then morning hits. I can NOT get out of bed when we have the windows open. It's so cool in the bedroom and so warm and snuggly in our bed. Only when the need to pee outweighs the snuggle factor can I force myself out of bed.

This morning was no different. I layed there for at least 30 minutes just enjoying the snuggly warmth of the bed and the cool breeze on my face. When I got downstairs I heard the kids at the daycare down the road yelling and laughing. It put a huge smile on my face.

Something is not right though. Warm summer mornings and HOT summer days used to put the smile on my face. I used to GREATLY anticipate the hottest weather of the year. For some reason this summer did nothing to lift my spirits. Nothing.

And yet today, when it's slightly chilly, I feel good. Really good. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?? My theory is when I went in for one of the two surgeries Josh paid off the surgeon to do something to alter my love of hot weather to a love of cooler weather. Other than that I am just a freak of nature.

BUT, I do anticipate one thing around this time every year...

HALLOWEEN, PUMPKINS and indulging my obsession with ORANGE!!

Halloween Decorations in Living Room 2008

My PumpkinJosh's Pumpkin

*hugs and kisses*

mj

A Swell Sunday

Originally today we were supposed to hit up Virgin Mobile Freefest today in Columbia, MD. I managed to score some tickets thanks to a friend I chat with on the internet. :0)

And even with the awesome line up (Girl Talk, Weezer, Blink 182, Taking Back Sunday and more...) we decided to bag it. Why? Although the idea of a concert is fantastic, the actual concert makes me cringe. I am NOT a crowd person. As much as I love people and LOVE being in FRONT of a crowd, being IN a crowd make me want to ball up and cry.

Oh wait. I've done that. The last time was in high school (it was fourth of July, I lost my friends, I sat on a curb in the middle of a crowd and cried until someone found me). I was 18. *sigh*

Since then I have managed to not actually do the whole sitting down and crying thing, but I still start to hyperventilate a little sometimes. I do slightly better at concerts if there are seats. This concert was not to have seats. And there would be LOTS of people at this sold out event.

The closer it got, the more nervous I got. Josh is the best husband in the world, knew I was getting apprehensive and this morning we decided to just stay home. We did manage to find some friends interested in the show who took the tickets from us today (hope it was good!).

THEN I made Josh a happy little camper. He's been missing his favorite Skull Candy ear buds (that I bought on clearance because they were blue and Josh was all like "WHY did you buy those for me?" and I was all like "because they were on SALE and they were BLUE." And he was like "You'd probably buy crap - literally - if it was on sale." And I was all like "Only if it was blue." And he rolled his eyes. And then I said "Fine, I'll return them." But then I didn't and then he fell in love with them and he completely ignored the fact he didn't want them in the first place. So I win.) since FOREVER and he was soooo upset.

Guess who found them today? Oh yes. I am the freaking most awesomest person ever.

As my reward he agreed to grab some dinner and go to a park. We grabbed subs at Jim and Nena's. I had suggested Same Lewis. Josh wanted something new. So instead we headed to Highpoint Scenic Vista (the Mason Dixon Trail goes RIGHT through here).

This whole post started as a reason to post some pictures. That was a lot of words just for some pictures. Lol.

There are more pictures. And more story (involving ice cream!). But it's late and I'm tired.

*hugs and kisses*

mj