Merry Christmas!

Meetaversary

We can no longer call today our anniversary... but we still celebrate it since it was the first day that we were "official" and we have done the same thing for the last 4 October the 28ths. I leave you with this:

:)

Wedding Picture Update

We have them! So here ya go:

• A 13 minute "recap" of the night. A highlight reel, if you will. (There is sound)
  (You do have to download a small program to run it, but I promise, it is ok. (It also doesn't like Macs, so beware Mac users))


• Wedding Pics (Professional)


• Wedding Pics (Non-Professional)


• Disposable Cameras


• Honeymoon Pics

This is too funny not to share.

Holtzen Honeymoon: Memorable Moments

Sunday, 10.04.09: Travel

• Two hideous wrecks, arrival delayed by 2+ hours


• Hotel is meh, nice view of trailer park and a parking lot.


• Bought two 3-day passes for Disneyland shuttle...realized after they printed, I was already given a pair my AAA.


• Dinner at Blue Bayou in Disneyland.  Rode a few rides.  Realized Amanda would need a wheelchair for full-day excursions.

Monday, 10.05.09: Universal Studios

• First room service ever...AWESOME!


• See pigeon get hit by car!  AWESOME!


• See pigeon get turned into feathery nothingness by second car...best event of the day.


• Had car parked by valet...1 minute walk from entrance.


• Amanda in a wheelchair.  Sign says "Wheelchairs do not grant front of the line access."  Bummer.


• Realize that the sign LIED...should have said "Wheelchairs do not grant front of the line access on ONE of our rides."


• Pictures in a "Saw" contraption.


• Zombies EVERYWHERE for Halloween.  *CLAPS EXCITEDLY*


• Universal is kinda boring.


• Dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Tuesday, 10.06.09: Disneyland

• Second room service ever...still awesome!


• Amanda in a wheelchair.  No sign.  Given pass that grants Amanda and up to 3 other people front of the line access.


• SPLASH MOUNTAIN!  Attendant: "Where do you want to sit."  Amanda (semi-quietly): "The very back."  Me (very loudly): "Oooooooo, lets sit in the FRONT!"


• Amanda is VERY wet...not happy with Jason.


• Getting off Splash Mountain, Amanda (in a cast, mind you) is trying to step off of the log-cart thing.  Nowhere for Amanda to go but out.  B!@#% in pink shirt's friend stands in the way.  Amanda:  "Excuse me."  B!@#% in pink shirt: "Yeah, excuse you!"


• Amanda waits in line at the Splash Mountain picture counter with me, steaming (no longer at me) and watching for B!@#% to exit.


• B!@#% exits...I wheel Amanda away before she can say anything...honestly, I'm on Amanda's side, there was nowhere for her to go but into this lady.  She was that close to the log-cart.  However, there is no reason to ruin the rest of the day because some prissy B!@#% is being just that...a prissy B!@#%.


• We bought LOTS of stuff...the backpack is full of crap.


• Finish Disneyland early thanks to Amanda's killer wheelchair access.


• Wheelchair sidenote: The entrances to the rides for wheelchair peeps are kinda jacked up...usually at the exit.

Wednesday, 10.06.09: Hollywood

• Moar room serviss


• No wheelchair  :(


• Park at Hollywood & Vine


• Meet Adron and Jo who just happened to be in LA at the same time.


• Ride my first subway


• Lots of pictures of stars


• Got some hand/footprint pix too.


• Jo and I invent a system to derail the "tour pushers" who hand out lots of paper junk and want you to take their tour.  The system involves all of us making "pew pew pew" sounds (yes, like a laser) to anyone that approaches us trying to push their junk on us.


• System works remarkably well.  One guy was so startled, you could look at him and realize it.  1 point for us


• System backfires, "tour pusher" has retort.  "You sound like two-year olds."  Little does he realize that this was our intent.  2 points for us.


• Eat at Cole's French Dips, originators of the French dip sub.


• Drive to San Diego.


• HOLY CRAP!  This hotel is SOOOOOOO much better than the last one...here's why: View of Mission Bay, Robes, balcony, shower doesn't suck, minutes from SeaWorld, Friendly people, close to the elevator, better parking, bigger room, more towels, awesome toiletries, softer bed, less children...I could go on.

To be continued...I'm freaking tired.

Let's get this show on the road people!

It is currently 2:40 am (when I started this) and I cannot sleep.  Why?  Probably because I have a million and one things racing through my head.  Jason and I spent the majority of Sunday cleaning.  I must say, since the wedding has gotten closer, we have been super lazy with the upkeep of our house.  I also must say, I can’t understand how two people can createso much trash.  I went through some parts (read: not even the entire house) and filled up our almost empty trash bin.  Granted I super cleaned out our fridge but that was only two bags.  I am also amazed at how much stuff expires and you wouldn’t even know it.  Yuck.

I have started to flip out about our caterer.  She seems vaguely crazy, and controlling.  I just figured out tonight, that when she wouldn’t let me round up when I asked, she actually rounded down, and I don’t know if we are going to have enough place settings for everyone.  I spent most of yesterday flipping out about how I had 18 spots of bridal party and family to seat in 16 seats, and totally missed this one.  This also messed up our table decorations as we got enough for 6 tables of 10, and she has given us 7 tables of 8.  I also forgot to decorate the sweetheart table for Jason and me.  These are the kind of things I hate because you can’t really know until the very last minute exactly how much you need.  I’m super frustrated because we have some “definite maybe” people that we still don’t know if they are coming or not, and I hate to say this, but I hope they don’t because we will be screwed if they do.  I’m sorry, but don’t wait until we track you down almost 2 months after the RSVP date, and then tell me you may be coming, and that you’re still not sure.  I am pretty sure bridezilla will come out on October 3^rd, and she will not be pretty, and heads will fly if I see someone who is not expected to be there.  Just sayin’.

I finally got my test results back from my MRI, and that was also not good.  It wasn’t “bad” just not good.  I have a 4mm tumor on my pituitary gland.  Sure, 4mm isn’t big, but when my pituitary gland is only 9mm, it is pretty large in comparison.  Jason and I have seen my regular doctor, who couldn’t (or wouldn’t, I’m not sure) tell us much; but she referred me to a neurosurgeon to discuss options—the appointment isn’t until the 14^th of October, but it just adds to my list of worries.  She also stated that there is a likelihood of having to be rescanned and several more tests.  Not what I am looking forward to.  I do not want another MRI.  If you have never had one, they are horrible.  I felt like I was in a lighted coffin with jackhammers on top of me.  It was so close, and so noisy, I seriously felt like this device was meant to drive people to insanity.  Mine took 45 minutes, and it felt like hours or pure hell.  I left with one of the worst headaches that I have ever had.  There are a few things that bother me about this entire situation.  My insurance denied this claim.  Why?  They went through my records, and found out that I was on a specific drug that can elevate levels of prolactin.  Fine.  They did not go through my records enough to see that I hadn’t actually used this prescription in over a year.  Not fine.  They did not notify me (and my doctor) until a month later, at which point, I had already had the MRI done, and paid out of pocket for it.  Also not fine.  The original denial was just that I was on a specific drug, not which drug, so I didn’t know to stop it, for how long, anything.  Neither did my doctor, or the facility that I was going to get the MRI at.  I called them last week to see if I could get reimbursed, and they basically told me to screw myself.  I am glad this is not life threatening, because they honestly expected me to wait a month, and wait for them to tell me the drug, then schedule with my doctor, then wait for my doctor to write a note that I wasn’t on this drug (or that I had stopped it for a week) and to resubmit the referral, then wait for them to approve or deny it again, and then wait for my actual MRI to take place.  Thanks for being a quality insurance company.  No thanks.  Another scary thing was that the list of drugs was long.  Some of it included anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, stuff for bi-polar people, stuff for people with ADHD, etc.  I’m sorry, you’re an insurance company and you want people to stop taking drugs that they (sometimes) need to survive their life, and function in society as normal people for a WEEK?!  Are you kidding me?  Seriously, I’m not one for naming names, but Aetna is a JOKE.  Now, here’s the kicker.  I finally found a doctor who examines every possible angle in every situation, and I really like her.  She may have found the solution to many of my health problems, including the massive weight gain over the last 4 years… and if I drop my insurance to go to Jason’s insurance (which is beyond awesome) I will lose her.  If I take Jason’s insurance, most of my medical procedures are covered with a small fee; surgery would literally be like $75; if I stick with mine I have something like a $3,500 deductible before my insurance kicks in.  I’m sure with all of my doctors visits, blood draws, and tests I have at least half that covered, but it is still so frustrating.

I have three days of work this week, and then a week and a half of freedom from it.  I wouldn’t say freedom from work though.  Freedom from the 8-5.  This week is still going to be a ton of work I am sure.  I am going to try and see if I can maybe get Wednesday off as well to tie up some loose ends here and there.  We have people coming in starting Wednesday.  I am so excited, and so nervous because there are so many things still up in the air.  Eeek!

Lastly, on a note not about Jason and I:

If you like to eat, and you like to feel good about doing good in your community, I would like to offer you this:

Monday, September 28^th, 2009, is St. Jude’s Day at Chili’s.  One HUNDRED percent of your food and drink bill goes to St. Jude’s on this day.  Please eat, not only to fill your bellies, but to help childhood cancer research at this wonderful facility.  Just think about it.  For two people you could be making a $30-$50 donation, and you’re getting a meal out of it!  Please eat out at Chili’s today, Monday, September 28^th, 2009.  There is seriously, no easier way to donate, and you have nothing to lose, but your empty stomach!  You can read more here:  St. Jude's.

*Last year, Jason and I unknowingly went, and sadly the restaurant was empty.  We ended up racking up close to a $70 bill, all of which went to St. Jude’s.

Holy crap busy.

Sorry there hasn't been a post in a while everyone. We are busy like a mofo right now. I'm sure we'll have lots to blog about after the wedding/honeymoon. STAY TUNED!

So you Think You Can Camp?! - Season 4

So...Amanda and I decided we would try to get in one last camping trip before the absolute chaos of the wedding kicks in full force.  We both took a day off of work and gave it the ol' one-two.  I find this best to be told in timeline form...so here goes.

Friday
8:00 am - Take Landon to the Vet to get his butt-sack things released to prevent him scooting on the carpet.
8:07 am - Holy cow, that was quick.  Heading home.
8:25 am - Load car (forget a few essentials...more on this later).
9:00 am - Leave for Payson (We actually went to Forest Lakes though).
9:10 am - Realize that gas for the car would help us get there.  Stop for gas and pick up foodz.
11:30 am - Arrive in Payson, stop for firewood and ice...proceed to Forest Lakes
1:00 pm - Arrive at Knoll Lake Campground.  Spot 33 is taken.  Amanda is heartbroken.  Settle for "lucky number 13."
2:30 pm - Tent is up.  Shower is up.  Campsite is officially a go.
2:35 pm - Meet campsite host on the way to go fishing.  Leave Amanda and kids in the car since transactions with hosts are generally spoken in caveman.  "I stay two night...how much want?"  "Two night fourteen bones.  Wood six bones.  You need?"  Walk in on host telling story about "scar" on neck (by scar I mean once gaping wound/second smile) that goes from just under one ear all the way to the middle of his jaw on the other side.  Notice host is wearing pants made of some sort of animal hide...later find out he made them himself.  Listen to story about how bear tried to eat host.  Host KILLED THE BEAR...no gun...just killed it.  Notice necklace of bear teeth/claws around host's neck (you'd think he'd want the teeth a little further away).  While listening to story, notice various things like fossils, animal jaw bones, and animal skins.  Camper asks host if he sees many bears around the campground.  Host replies "Nah, they don't like to pay."
2:45 pm - Host finishes conversation with other camper.  Realizes I wasn't with other camper.  "My friends call me Mountain Eddie...I don't know why" (I do, you freaking whackjob).
2:55 pm - Back in car.  Explain last 20 minutes to future spouse en route to lake.
3:00 pm - Holy crap, the lake is closer than we thought.
4:00 pm - Not even a freaking bite.  Decide we will come back tomorrow with corn because "They'll bite corn...if they're bitin' corn."  Really?!  No kidding!  Sometimes I go pee if I'm going pee...imagine how that works.  Let me add a sidenote here...trout bait SUCKS.  Imagine Play-Doh that smells like your butt and will not come off your fingers.  Of course this is figured out AFTER we've stuck our fingers in.  We mold this stuff onto our hooks and cast...we come back with nothing EVERY TIME.  Screw trout bait.
4:05 pm - Back at the campsite.  Start fire for dinner.
4:45 pm - Cook steaks and potato pockets on fire.  Steaks were REALLY good.  Bug landed in Amanda's potato pocket...we shared the remainder of mine.
5:30 pm - Look around for more firewood.  Find HUGE log, only slightly rotten.  Should burn well.  Get out bow saw and start sawing away.
6:15 pm - Are you freaking kidding me?!  Sawing sucks.  I'm not even halfway through this thing.
6:20 pm - No measuring device packed.  Time to eyeball it.  From one side of the fire ring to the other is length of bonesaw plus length of axe head.  Log is a little bit longer than that, but only due to some small pieces where it broke unevenly.  Remove said pieces with axe.  Length of log now equals width of fire ring: one axe head plus one bowsaw.  PERFECT!  Throw log on fire...[see illustration]

6:45 pm - Try to fit a square in a round hole...while square and hole are both on fire.  Hack away at corners of square to make it bloody fit.  Mental note: when measuring three dimensional objects, do not only measure in one dimension.
7:30 pm - Amanda finally stops laughing.  Decides it is time for s'mores.  Mmmmmm...smores.
8:00 pm - Enjoy fire and talk.  Go to bed after a bit, dunno what time.

Saturday (note that Saturday times are really vague...we had no clock)
10:00 am - Wake up and get fire started.  It was a little chilly last night.  Lucy turned into a popsicle.
10:30 am - Realize we didn't pack eggs.  Make our "skillet" with potatoes and ground sausage.  Forget to add jalapeños.
11:30 am - Time to go fishing.  Dogs were heathens first time.  Leave them at camp.  Remembered the corn.
12:00 am - Amanda: "Y'know this is the best, most successful camping trip we've had so far.  There's been no rain, no snow...haven't caught anything yet, but so far it's been great." (Mark these words...as you read on, come back to them several times)
12:30 pm - Amanda: "I'm starting to get a little pink."  Me: "Did we bring sunscreen...?" (answer is "no")
1:30 pm - Still haven't caught any fish.  Mental note: Look up how the hell to fish trout...do not listen to other fishermen.  Take "Lobster-Red Amanda" back to campsite.
1:35 pm - "Is that a blow-up doll?"  Realize that answer is "yes."  Slap palm on head as we realize blow-up doll is now inhabiting campsite 12 along with an older guy and a young-to-mid 20's college-type guy.  Host is nowhere to be found.
1:45 pm - Eat lunch.  Turkey sammiches.
3:00 pm - Original jackasses in site 12 joined by three more jackasses.  New jackasses bring bongo and crappy music.
3:45 pm - Realize that bongo jackass couldn't hold a beat if he had a Metronome in his hand.  Also realize that multiple males in jackass party have laughs that make me want to slit my wrists.  Lucky me...I forgot my survival knife.
4:30 pm - Jackasses leave to go somewhere.  Blow-up doll was left.
4:45 pm - Take showers while jackasses are gone.  If 5 guys go in the woods and bring a blow-up doll, you know a little skin from a REAL woman like Amanda would just be asking for trouble.  Don't wanna take our chances.  This is the first time using the shower-tent thing...results: works freaking great.
6:30 pm - Dinner time.  Bleu Cheese Burgers and Grilled Corn
7:00 pm - Jackasses decide to throw fireworks and 12-GAUGE SHOTGUN SHELLS into their 6-foot fire.  Jackasses do not break up huge log, but rather drag a 6-foot fallen tree and lay over fire-pit (this is actually illegal).  Host is nowhere to be found.  Spend the remainder of the evening consolling our scared-to-death Landon.  Jackasses seem to think it's funny.
9:oo pm - Jackasses turn off loud music.  We decide to turn in for the night.  "We can deal with their laughter and voices" (no we can't).
10:00 pm - Finally fall asleep.  Fireworks/shotgun shells have stopped going off.  Some of jackasses go to sleep.
10:29 pm - Leave tent with axe in hand.  Kill jackasses, chop them to pieces, and throw in fire.
10:30 pm - Wake up from really good dream to realize jackasses are still alive...and the music has come back...so has the bongo.
11:00 pm - ***BANG!***  Landon goes nuts inside the tent, frightened to death.
11:01 pm - Pants on: check.  Trusty axe in hand: check.  Balls grown to the size of watermelons: check.  Really pissed off: check
11:02 pm - Arrive at jackass encampment.  "Look, it's an hour past f***ing noise violation and you guys are still being loud and obnoxious.  It's time to knock it off.  Your g** d*** fireworks are spooking my dogs and I'm getting pissed.  I know you're trying to have a party, but it's time to knock it off."
11:03 pm - Jackasses apologize, turn off music, and quite it down considerably.
11:15 pm - Jackasses are too quite.  They have to be up to something.  Quietly slip into "night camo" pants (black, and shades of gray) and pure black hoodie.  Sneak out of tent, armed with axe.
11:25 pm - Sneak through woods in pitch black, scouting the jackass camp to make sure they aren't up to anything.  Old man went to sleep before nine.  That leaves four to account for.  1 sleeping by fire.  One having smoke on other side of camp.  2 are "making s'mores" but have no graham crackers, so they are sandwhiching the still-flaming marshmallows between chocolate bars.  Being a ninja is fun.
11:59 pm - Realize the full extent of idiocy contained in the jackasses...they are too stupid to be of any harm.  Head back to camp and sneak back in tent.

Sunday
12:00 am (midnight) - Pass out.
6:30 am - SERIOUSLY!?!?  The f***ing fireworks AGAIN?!
7:00 am - Get fire going.
7:15 am - Group consensus:  Skip breakfast, breakdown camp and get away from the jackasses.  We can eat at Taco Bell on the way out.
10:00 am - Fully packed.  Leave camp and flip-off jackasses as we drive off.  We're heading home
10:45 am - Lid comes off of one of our storage containers located in the roof rack.  Lid forces its way through the bungee spiderweb thing we bought and flies over a cliff.
10:46 am - Pull over and rearrange stuff on roof rack, putting container with no lid in car.
11:00 am - Driving through mountains.  Speed limit is 65, I'm going 72ish.  Pass car going 60ish.  Large, lift-kitted truck comes out of nowhere going about 90, comes within 2 feet of my bumper while flashing the 82 different lights on his truck at me.
11:01 am - Finish passing car and pull into right-hand lane.  Roll down window and flip guy the bird.  Glare at him as he flies past.  Watch as he continues to drive like a jackass, nearly running every person he passes off the road.  What am I a jackass magnet?  Get yelled at by Amanda
12:00 - Home...sweet...home

Sidenote: I smelled like sausages in the shower before I washed, but after I got wet.

Hug something.

It is absolutely heartbreaking the things people do to animals.  We were at Kohl's tonight to return a pair of shoes that we had purchased on super mega sale, and because I had my foot doctor appointment today, and am still in the brace, and can never wear cute shoes again, I had to say goodbye.  Well, anyway, when we were pulling out of the parking lot, I saw an animal run across it.  Me being the super animal freak that I am, was like "OMG!  STOP!  AN ANIMAL!  WE MUST SAVE IT!"  So Jason, as per usual, humored me, and drove towards it... until we saw it was actually injured.  It was a small black cat (my cat weakness) and it literally looked like someone ripped half it's tail off.  :(  It was pink, and shiny, and fresh.  We tried to catch it, but after about 10 minutes of chasing it in the105 º darkness, and it running away, to go to the Petsmart catty corner from where we were (completely forgetting there is a Petco in the same parking lot.  We rush to Petsmart to frantically ask if they know of someone, anyone, who can help us.  The cat shelter is there, and they are "closed" minus the lady sitting there reading a book.  She hands us a pamphlet, and tells us that the Humane Society works out of the Petco across the street (thanks, where were you 5 minutes ago?)  So we head back across the street.  Consensus:  We need to catch it before we call one of the 8 million numbers.  We try to catch it some more.  It's limping as well.  Jason says he will try to catch it, and I go to Petco, who is even less helpful, especially considering that the Humane Society isn't even working out of there anymore.  Frustrating.  Basically, it is up to us to save this thing.  Good luck and a nice shove out the door.  More frustration.  Attempt, for the next 30 minutes to catch this thing, hopping from car to car, looking creepy, me in all black and limping around, and Jason... being... Jason.  Heh.  No luck.  Gave up.  Unless the thing walked into our lap, there was no way we could catch him, or help him.  Ugh.  I just hate what people do to animals, with no thought or consideration to them.  It kills me... kills me like I want to kill them.  SO MUCH.  I hate people more than I could ever imagine sometimes.

A three part series.

Since I can't seem to get my act together, I guess I will just post bits and pieces as they come along:

Blah blah blah, I know neither one of us hasn’t written in forever, but we have been super busy, and / or super lazy depending on what day it is.  (*cough* and Jason never feels the need to update anyone on anything *cough*)

Anyway, Saturday, we had tons to do, guess what? None of it got done.  We were planning on building a step for Landon so that we could let the dogs use the doggie doors again.  Well the screws we bought work for one part, but not the other.  Super.  Jason is currently out buying longer screws for support.  We also bought a shelf-stand-organizer-storage-thing for our beverage fridge.  Now we can store more crap!  Too bad its ½ inch too short to fit our fridge, so we have to build an “extension” as we’re calling it.    Yay!  We also bough stuff to put more shelves in our laundry room, so that my habit of buying in bulk when I can save money, will no longer continue to clutter our house.  However, the shelves were too short, so we will use them on another project, and have to buy more tomorrow.  Ho-hum.

In Amanda news:
I’m dying.  No really, I feel like it.  I got a second run of blood tests to check out some wacky results, and the results were still wacky.  My doctor is guessing there is a growth on my pituitary gland, and she ordered an MRI of my brain.  Well, since my insurance is so super duper, they denied it and I don’t know when or if it will ever happen.  However, since mid-July, I have also been having massive headaches, which I never used to have.  Don’t really know if it’s related or not, because they are generally in the front/facial area of my head, and I’m pretty sure that the pituitary gland is towards the back, just kind of scary (and annoying.)  She also found that I have severe inflammation “somewhere” in my body.  The test she ran I guess, from what I understood runs on a specific scale, if your levels are between 2-3 you are at risk for coronary problems, mine was between 8 and 9 which means there is severe inflammation somewhere, they just don’t know where.  She’s told me to go to a rheumatoid specialist for that, which I haven’t done yet.  I also went to see her because my foot had been hurting.  It really started killing me on Memorial Day.  I worked that day, but was on my feet a ton more than normal, so I let it go for a few days, and told her at a normal appointment I had.  I had it x-rayed that following Friday to check for heel spurs with no luck.  Well, now it’s been two months, and she referred me to a podiatrist.  Well, he said the x-rays they took weren’t showing everything they should because they had me sit down.  He redid the x-rays with me bearing weight on them, and poked and prodded a bit.  Well turns out, just like everything else in my life, my foot issues were a domino effect.  Started out I have plantar fascia, when that got to me, I walked different and caused a contusion on my heel, which later developed into a hairline fracture, and when that got to me, I started walking different and messed up the tendon that goes from my ankle to my foot, because its rubbing up against bone that fused, and got irritated, and voila!  I am now in a boot that goes up to my knee for at least two weeks to hopefully correct the heel and ankle problem, and if all goes well with that, then we will start attacking the plantar fascia.  Super.  Well like that wasn’t bad enough, on Thursday, the day after I got the boot, some “wonderful” person decided to use the shredder that is across from my desk, while I was on the phone, and since we got a talk about how we have to be nice to everyone, because “someone” (who happens to be this particular person) felt that they were treated worse than everyone else, I just decided to move to a new phone rather than deal with drama.  Turns out, that was a bad idea.  I walked to the vault, and WHAM, the boot slid out from under me, and I went into the splits on the tile floor, with my other leg folding behind me.  One person saw it, and I thought they were going to have a heart attack, and I just started bawling, not because I hurt anything, but because I was just so frustrated.  He called someone else in, which just made me feel more stupid, and they were both asking if I was ok, but I just tried to focus on not crying, and getting back to my phone call.  Turns out, when the guy who made this all possible left, he called me a gimp, and I had just snapped.  I spent the next two hours in and out of meetings with supervisors and managers, because I was so pissed.  It didn’t really do much, as all I got was an apology and an “I heard someone else say it, so I thought it was ok” out of it.  Meh.

To wrap up my exciting week, I got jalapeño juice in my eye (even though I’ve washed my hands twice after cutting them, and it huuuuurts, they were red, and now so is my eye.)

More, coming up!

I know, I know.

I had a looong post started about whats been going on, but as of tonight, I wish that we had eloped long ago, and told everyone a long time later.  Nothing makes me want that more than the bullshit drama that went on tonight.  (And no, actually it didn't involve Jason and me directly, it's those around us...we're still great.)

Bleh.  Maybe later, when I'm a little less pissed off.

The many adventures of Enigma Girl and Enigma Dog.

Where to start?  We sent out invitations, so far two people’s spouses didn’t know who we were, and were shocked to get invitations for a wedding of someone they didn’t know.  My personal favorite response to the invitations was:

I am still laughing about it.  :P  Thanks John.

As for me, Enigma Girl,  I went to the doctor twice this week.  The first time was to get an ultrasound (no, I’m not pregnant, thanks.) of my bladder, and kidneys, which appear to be fine.  Then I went in for a cystoscopy (fun!) which I thought I may die at.  I did survive, and nothing is wrong with my bladder.  This sucks for so many reasons.  First, I have obnoxiously high co-pays for specialists, which I have now paid three times, for absolutely nothing.  Second, there is something wrong with me, I still have to pee all the time, and sometimes I think I have to pee, and I don’t.  It’s really more miserable than it sounds.  Another medical condition, not found, and undiagnosed, and another doctor saying , “Sorry, don’t know what’s wrong with you, try again.”  On a happier note, the inside of your bladder looks pretty nifty, although the places where your kidneys drop fluid into it, are sorta creepy, if I do say so myself.  : )

As for Enigma Dog, (Jason said he takes after me) Landon, he had a punch biopsy last week, which left him with one stitch in a quarter sized hole about 1/4 inch deep, with no wound covering.  He had to be in an E collar so that he wouldn't chew it.  The vet didn't get the results until Wednesday, and didn't have a chance to review them and call us until late Thursday (we were told we'd know by Tuesday.)  Turns out Landon doesn't have cancer (yay!) However, that leads to either bug bites, or self mutilation.  Either way, we figured it was self mutilation because if he went after the bugs, he'd more than likely bite himself more than the bug, until we came to one realization: the way his tail hits the inside doggie door.  This sucks for a ton of reasons.  One, we're pretty sure that this is it.  He hasn't gone in or out a doggie door in almost a full week, he was without the E collar all day, we put them in the kitchen, gated up, with no doggy door access; tail was fine when I got home, and he had all day to chew on it if he wanted.  As soon as I opened up the laundry room door, allowing them access to the garage, his scab mysteriously went missing, and a few more in-and-outs, and his skin was torn, and bleeding.  (Albeit, his tail as a whole looks SO much better.)  We can either get a new, larger doggie door (which stinks because we just forked out $600 for these two to be installed) or figure out some way to rig this one so that it doesn't scrape his tail.  This also obviously is a pain in the ass financially because of how much money we have spent trying to figure this out, as well as putting this poor dog through a myriad of painful tests and procedures.  Ugh.  We are such bad parents.  : (  This is like letting your child stick it's finger in a socket and not being able to figure out why he's smoking and his hair is all crazy.  His stitch gets taken out tomorrow.  I guess we could ask the vet for suggestions as well.

[caption id="attachment_434" align="aligncenter" width="255" caption="Pre-biopsy and stitches :("][/caption]

Hard Times.

Marriage counseling went well. We figured out our one major problem, and now we just have to work on it. We look forward to doing more of it, but now we are kind of crunched for time as our reverend will be out of the country for most of August, and he doesn’t want to necessarily take care of this in September, as he thinks we will be bogged down with last minute things. (And he is probably right.) Why are you doing this, you ask? Because, well, we actually discussed it before it became an option, because honestly what could it hurt. Then we discovered there are actually two different kind of marriage licenses. The difference is this:

The main difference between a contract and a covenant is the enduring commitment between two people, while a contract is based on convenience.

“A contract is convenient as long as the agreement is lived by. A contract in a marriage is nothing more than a non-binding contract between two people sustained only by emotional feelings. It is easily terminated through a no-fault divorce. When things and feelings turn sour, it takes the easy way out rather than working through the problem,” he explained.

“But that’s not what the Bible tells us our relationships should be based on. Our relationships are to be based on a covenant. It is based on an oath spoken between two parties and a covenant is a blood-bond for life. It says no matter what happens, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, that nobody leaves this relationship. A covenant marriage says ‘I’m yours by covenant, you’re mine by covenant, and that means that neither one of us is going anywhere.”

Who’da thunk marriage was supposed to last forever? Hrm. Anyway, we have to go through marriage counseling in order to obtain a covenant marriage license, and we have to have an affidavit signed by our “representative” stating that we have gone through the counseling, and that we understand the ”rules” if you will. So there you have it.

In bad news; Landon had two scabs on his tail on Memorial Day. We waited a few days, and when they didn’t get better, we took him to the vet. Originally thinking it was a bite; she shaved the area, and found another lesion on him. She sent us home with antibiotics, and a wash that we had to do twice a day. After 9 days, we went back, and the problem was not better (just the swelling was down) and now the 3 had grown to 4 lesions. Her first thought was either Valley Fever or Cancer. Both of which would possibly lead to amputation should the infection be bad enough. We got the Valley Fever test done on Saturday, along with a Blood Panel. Monday, we hear back that it is not Valley Fever, but no word on the rest of the stuff. Today, Jason hears back that everything checked out normal. Next step: Punch Biopsy. This is where they will basically knock him out, and take a punch of tissue out and go from there. She is not certain what to tell us, except that it is probably something in the bones since the lesions line up with the vertebrae in his tail. I hate this, it is so heartbreaking. He has been through so much, and I feel like we have let him down. :( We also took Lucy with us the second time we went so that she didn’t think we were neglecting her, and she FLIPPED out when they took him to take his blood. Like howling and whining flipping out, looking at us like, “What are you doing!?! Why are you letting this happen to him!?” She loves him so much… I think she’d die of a broken heart if anything happened to him. :( So sad. I can barely stand to talk about it.

Today...

We have our first day of marriage counseling.  The person who is marrying us is the person who is doing this.  His first assignment?  List your expectations of marriage.  His warning to me?  You will probably have a lot more than Jason will.

Great.  We may kill each other before this is over.  :P

More later...

A picture says a thousand words

Except in this case, not really.  I'm just lazy, so here, have some pictures:

Invitation Madness

All Done

 

I wish I had a job at Food Network. Look at that presentation!

Memorial Day Corn. Why yes, yes it was delicious.

 

That's all.  Goodnight.

 

Poll Time

We need your opinions!  (Pretty please... and be honest.)

  

poll by twiigs.com

P.S.

We finally registered!  Go us.

• Target (If you go into the store, make sure you choose Club Wed, we had a registry with them when we first moved into the townhouse, which was a looooong time ago, and it won't let me delete it.  It will automatically default to that list if you don't choose Club Wed.  :( Boo)


• Bed, Bath & Beyond

I guess I could give these their own tab, eh?  Also, I think it's funny that someone bought us shower curtain rings... and we haven't even given this list out yet... I wonder if it is a mistake?  :P

And, I think I'll type up a breif trasncript of the dog whisperer thing, for Lucy and Landon too, I remember a lot of Lucy's and some of it is kinda hard to hear.   I know you're as excited as I am.  :)

Tra la la

Jason is working until 2 am, so I am trying my hardest to stay up until he gets home.  It is currently 42 minutes after my absolute bedtime (10.)  Generally, if Amanda doesn't get to be in bed by 10 she is a TERROR.  I can only imagine what the children will be like.  :P  I need my sleep, and I value it completely.  I did take a nap this afternoon as I have NOT been sleeping well at all... however, I slept through the timer, and woke up at 6:05.  I flipped out, thinking it was a work day, and why hadn't the alarm gone off, and OMG, where is Jason, why is he not in bed with me, where did he go... a few minutes later... I realized: oh, it's Friday, work is over, and it is 6 pm not 6 am-- we are all good.  Phew.  That is how much sleep I have been getting.  I don't even know what day it is.

So as a few of you may know, Jason caved into my crazy last weekend, and he allowed me (I didn't give him a choice really) to take our pups to a Dog Whisperer.  Not The Dog Whisperer, but a really good one, that not only helped us communicate, but gave us a lot of help with other things in training aspects.  Her name was Krista Cantrell, she has actually written several books, and been on TV and blah blah blah... and totally not a hoax, as I am sure know some of you thought she was... She had some AMAZING insight and knowledge.  Jason was skeptical until she got to Lucy, and then he was sold.  I recorded the session, that we went to with two of my co-workers (as one had been to her before, so we set up a "group" like session) but unfortunately, we had to stop recording during Lucy's session, and when I went to save it, having not used the program, screwed something up, and the last hour (which was ALL Lucy) was not saved.  There are some interesting tidbits in there from Maggie (co-workers dog who went first), Landon, who is a ham, and Sadie (other co-workers dog), plus about 5 minutes of Lucy before we had to stop.  The file is about 2 hours long, but interesting.  You can find a zip version, and the straight MP3 version, here. 

A few weeks ago, I built a garden.  I think I mentioned it.  I put up pictures of it in the gallery.  Well, our sweet devil of a dog, Lucy, decided to jump into it, and have a hay-day in the dirt yesterday, demolishing everything in there.  I was so upset, I didn't know what to do.  All the onions were shredded, and there was no saving them, and I got to save five out of the 6 jalapeno plants.  Luckily, we have a separated yard, and we moved the garden into the back yard, where they cannot get into (now anyway.)  Sadly though, I don't think the jalapenos are going to make it.  I replanted them yesterday, and when I went to water them today... they were all shriveled and... almost dead.  So sad.  :(  Luckily she only got into one bin, and not both.  The tomatoes, cucumbers, and artichokes still have a chance.

As for the gallery, I added a few new pictures / categories:

• Camping


• The Garden


• And the kids and Jason sleeping on a Sunday  (really important, I know.) 

Enjoy!

I am so bad at this...

But at least I update... unlike someone... who is half of this site.  ; )

Things have been crazy busy... still... I don't think it is ever going to calm down...  Ugh.

Things that have happened since the last time I updated, ages ago:

We went camping for Easter.  Super excited to use our new stuff, packed it all, left early Friday morning, got a great camping spot, got to fish for about 45 minutes... and woke up to SNOW the next morning (at about 2 am.)  Prime camping spot, actually camping spot from hell because it was the furthest one away, and we had to haul ALL of our crap back, soaking wet, in the snow.  I eventually wore down and put on a trash bag because I was freezing and my clothes were sopping.  Ugh.  Needless to say, we didn't get to use much of the new stuff except the portable toilet, and our water jugs.  Don't worry, there are pictures... which brings me to the next thing:

Someone reported my Windows key as stolen (which I guess, technically, it is) so my computer has basically been crapping out on me for the last 3 weeks.  :(  I have reformatted and tried and tried to find a legitimate copy of windows, with no avail.  I may have to... buy it. Disgusting.  I really wish that I could use something more basic... like... anything, but unfortunately, there are so many programs out there that wont run on *nix based systems, that I really... just can't switch to anything free or Open Source.

School is done for me!  (And will be done for Jason in a week, I think.)  I got an A in all my classes but one, where I got a B (which was lame, because it was an 89% and they wouldn't just bump it)  8 out of 9 isn't bad though, right?  I'll never be THAT crazy about school again.  I do have my Certificate of Completion in Computer Applications and Usage (i.e. I know how to use a computer, go me, and whooopie!) which I should receive in the mail in a few weeks,  and I have to have one more class to get another Certificate of Completion in Web Design.  What do those all mean?  Nothing really, except that I am done with two chunks of my education on my way to an... associates degree.  Ugh.  The school system is so ridiculous sometimes.  All these classes, all this work, and I can't even get a degree that will get me anywhere.  I suppose that is partially my fault for dragging my feet for so long and changing my mind every semester.  :P

Last week, after I was done with all my finals and homework, I built a garden!  I will eventually post pictures of that too... but I am still working on that computer issue, so I may end up using Jason's computer to do so.  I have planted tomatoes, jalapeños, yellow onions, white green onions, purple green onions, cucumbers, and artichokes.  The tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapeños were already grown to a small size, and they are doing fine, everything else was planted by me, so far the onions are kicking ass though.  The white green onions have already sprouted, and I have seen little sprouts (that literally look like alphalpha sprouts) coming up where the yellow onions should be.  I will have my own salsa factory soon!  The jalepeños, even though I don't know how old they are since I didn't sprout them, already have a few buds for peppers.  Who knows if the first batch will be good, so I guess we just wait.

Lastly, from last Monday, until yesterday (Monday, so a week) this is what has happend:

• Jason got a kidney stone.  - Monday


• Amanda got a sty. -  Tuesday


• Jason passed said kidney stone.  -  Friday


• Amanda gets rid of sty (for the most / painful part anyway.)  - Friday


• Jason gets another kidney stone.  -  Monday

I swear, he is really pushing the limit on "in sickness and in health".  NO MORE KIDNEY STONES.  I swear, he is trying to start our family early in his kidneys.  :|

 

And... I swear, once I get all this computer hubub straightened out... I will update more... promiiiise.  :D

Frugalista

I heard this word the other day, and fell in love with it.  I am probably not classified as one, but I sure am striving to be one!  I am currently in the kitchen whipping up another batch of dog bones.  I’ve given out a TON of free samples, and people just seem to love them!  Pretty soon I think I will need to start charging for them.  I finally got my butt to the grocery store and priced all the ingredients so that I can have John (from Omega-3) help me figure out the pricing structure.

Another thing I’ve done this week is I’ve made my own laundry detergent.  I was pretty skeptical at first, but I did it, and it works GREAT, and it is SUPER CHEAP!  Two of my favorite things, something that works and isn’t costly.  I don’t know if it is just because I have sensitive skin and have to be careful with what we use, but laundry detergent is SO expensive.  The ingredients for this cost about half the price, (about $9 for everything) and will make at least 3 batches of enough detergent to do approximately 64 loads of laundry.  Can’t beat that, now can ya?  I think our box of fragrance free Arm & Hammer does about 72 loads and costs about $17.  You can see the difference.  I made the first batch up on Thursday night, and used it Friday night with some hesitation.  While the detergent has a very strong smell, it doesn’t transfer in the washer, and it doesn’t bother my skin at all!  Jason even said that his socks felt softer.  If you want the recipe, please feel free to contact me for it. 

Two other household tips we discovered were:

• Wadding up a ball of aluminum foil about the size of your fist, and sticking it in the dryer helps eliminate static!  (Another cheapie!)


• For those tough to get off baked on pains, putting an Alka-Seltzer tablet in hot water and letting it soak works wonders.  I’ve also heard that it helps get rid of the ring around the toilet, but I have yet to try it… because amazingly… our toilets stay pretty clean (and I don’t think we’ve cleaned them since we moved in… which was almost a year ago!)

School is almost over for me… and I think for Jason too… but he is a few weeks behind me.  We have a super busy week ahead of us next week.  Monday we need to inventory our camping stuff because we got a whole bunch of new stuff, so some of the old stuff can go (like our fancy schmancy toilet paper, because now we have biodegradable… eeesh) and we also need to menu plan for our trip and not just throw a whole bunch of random crap in a cooler like we did last time.  Tuesday, we are going to order Jason’s wedding ring that we picked out last week, but there was no SKU on it, and Tuesday was the earliest when a manager’s schedule worked with ours to get it taken care of.  Wednesday, we will buy the planned food for camping, Thursday we have taste testing with our caterer and Friday thru Sunday is camping!  It will be so nice to get away from phones, computer, TV, and video games and just get back to reality.  We’ve invited a friend to go with us, but I’m still not sure if he is going to come or not.  Regardless, it will be nice to get 2 ½ days of relaxation… minus the dog barking at everything that moves… including the trees.  ; )

The Happs

Ok, so I will be writing this in between homework assignments and random flitting around. (Because that is what I do... I flit.)

So I shall start off with an amazing story: Jason constantly teases me about how creepy I am because I "stalk" people online.  I don't see it as stalking as most people have their information on there, put there by themselves for other people to read... I mean there are some specific cases where I may be seen as creepy... but meh, we're not talking about that right now. Anyway, when I was a wee one, I had this best friend named Sharifah, we hung out, and did little kid things like play with Barbies, play on the swings, run around like maniacs, you know, that kind of stuff. Well, she moved away when I was in first or second grade, back to Kuwait. I was heartbroken. She wrote me letters, well letters as far as little kids can be concerned, and we kept in contact for what was probably a short while and then the letters stopped. I didn't really know what happened to her after that point. I never heard from her again. To this day, a good nineteen to twenty years later, I wondered about her.   I looked for her online, on MySpace, on Facebook, and just google-ing her name to no avail. Disappointing to a pro like me.  Anyway... SHE FOUND ME!  After such a long time, I was so amazed that she even remembered who I was, especially since she is still living in a country so far away from her life back then.  It was great to know that she was not only still alive, but that she missed me as much as I missed her.  I love hearing from her, and although her English isn't perfect, it’s pretty good, so I can understand all of what she says to me.  She got married, and has a 3 year old daughter, and she looks completely different, but I think this has been the one friend reunion that I have been looking forward to all my life! (Almost literally!)  Ah, I love the powers that the internet has to bring people together, who have been lost from each other no matter how long.  

Next up:  Tax Money!
Tax money is quite a confusing and exciting topic.  First off, we got a lot of it!  So much, that we have spent most of it!  We love it!  Money, money, money!  What sucked for me was that when we bought the house, they told us to lower the percentages taken out of our paychecks because of the interest write off.  So we did, well, they forgot to tell us, that only ONE of us should do that since we can't file jointly.  Since Jason had more deductions, it was more beneficial for him to take the home credit, which left me owing the government (state) $57.  Not bad really... except I haven't paid it yet.  Today I get a notice from the Arizona Department of Revenue.  Thinking they are mad because I was supposed to have mailed them money by some unknown deadline, I started flipping out, only to find a nice $420 check saying I had overpaid.  Overpaid what, I am not sure, since I haven't paid anything, but a nice little reward nonetheless.  I'm not going to do anything with it until Monday when I can call them, and find out what the heck is going on, because while the extra money may be lovely now, when I don't have it, and have to pay it back, it will not be so lovely.  As for the rest of the money, we paid off ALL our high-interest loans / credit cards, and our "big" debt is now the house, and car.  The only outstanding credit card we have is my David's Bridal card, which is soon to be paid off anyway.  It is so nice to be free.  We also got caught up on our house payments since we had fallen a smidge behind with Jason pretty much being jobless for two months.  The remainder of the money went towards some down payments for wedding stuff, invitations, doggie doors, and hopefully replacing our fence.  Unfortunately, we didn't really think enough when we first got the money, and didn't allot the practically half we would need for a block fence, so we are getting some estimates on new wooden fencing instead.  Disappointing, but new wood fencing will hold up better than what we have now.  

Wedding Stuff
I still don't have my dress, and although David's Bridal is an "on the rack" store allowing you  to walk out of there with the dress you want that day, I have had to order mine.  And then another one... and then ANOTHER one.  I am sure glad I did this early.  My third order will hopefully be the last and that is just because my hips and chest don't match classic measurements.  (Heh, imagine that.)  Luckily, the order time they have given me so far has been about 2 months too long, and the dress comes in about two to three weeks after it is ordered.

A few weeks ago, we met with a photographer, and liked her from the moment we met.  She is an odd-one, oddly similar to Jason, so of course they hit it off right away.  She also seems very meticulous, and anal about her work, which I think is a good... even a great thing.  She also does PhotoShop (Hurrah!)  And uses a Canon (super hurrah!)  You can check out her work at JenniferWeems.com

We ordered our invitations, and letting a very limited number of people see them (2) they were proofed, and perfected, and should be in my little hands on Monday.  Our RSVP date isn’t until August, but I want to send them now, I don't want to wait for June!  I'm sure we will have to assemble them though, which will put a halt to my over-zealousness.  We are also waiting on a few more addresses from people.

As for the rest of our life:
Jason is back to normal.  Being his annoying (yet loveable) self again.  He has been told to stay off the salt, soda, and red meat for 6 weeks, and then he gets to pee in a bucket for 24 hours, and then they will see where his kidney stones are coming from.  He has been a trooper so far, but I will admit, I am taking pleasure in all the steak and burgers that I get to eat in front of him while he gets stuck with chicken or fish.  He has eaten the greasiest, unhealthy, delicious foods in front of me when I have been on diets, and now, I finally get my bittersweet revenge.  When I asked him if he would change the next time, now that he is on the receiving end of it, he still said, “no.”  Can’t win them all.

Speaking of chicken, Monday I made some chicken wraps, Tuesday (like right when Tuesday hit at midnight) I woke up sick as a dog.  I am pretty sure that I got salmonella (again) which is odd because the other two times I’ve had it have been right around this time of year.  So I ended up staying home Tuesday.  I went back to work Wednesday, and felt miserable most of the day, and was mediocre by Thursday and ok by Friday.  I have been having some trouble with my hearing though, and I have been super sensitive to smells lately (which sucks working at a mortuary.)  I hate being sick so much.  It was really cute though, I got up because I knew something wasn’t right, and was sitting in the computer room so that I didn’t wake Jason up.  Well, Lucy heard me puking into the trashcan and tried to wake Jason up.  When nudging and licking him didn’t work, she actually bit him to wake him up.  She didn’t leave my side the entire day Tuesday, and she was a bit protective on Wednesday.  My puppy loves me. ♥ 

As for school a few weeks ago Jason and I both knocked out a few of our classes with finals, so the schedule got cut in half, which is nice school wise, but life wise, I swear our schedule just got worse.  I am so looking forward to being done before mid-April.  Unfortunately Jason started the majority of his classes after I did, so he ends closer to (and maybe even in) May.  Sometime in April we hope to take a much needed camping trip.  We have tons of new gear from Christmas, and we got some cooking stuff as well as a portable toilet, and some water canisters to take with us so that we can camp in more remote areas shall we ever run into a holiday weekend again.  Jason says that he is pretty sure we got everything on our camping “needs” list, but I am sure we will find something once we are out there.

This weekend we got our doggie doors installed.  We had to get two, one through the laundry room to the garage, and one from the garage to outside, or we’d have to go through a wall.  We figured their new-found freedom to come, go, and bark as they please would be an incentive for the dogs, but they just don’t get it.  Well, Landon kind of does, but Lucy, the wimp is scared of the flaps, and basically has to be shoved out, or have the door opened for her.  I hope they get it soon.  We got these so there would be less work involved… not more.

I hope to keep on top of the updates once again… but you know how it gets you get behind, and then you mean to catch up and then when you try to more stuff gets piled on… but I think I have really caught up to where we are at at this very moment… so hopefully you will be hearing from me soon!  : )

We are...

• So anxious to get out of here and get some rest and relaxation... we bought pretty much any camping gear that we may need to have tonight, our fishing licenses, and a portable toilet because camping may be in the near future.  (Crosses fingers)


• So busy lately, I don't even feel like we get weekends anymore, because they are filled with work, and business.


• Getting doggie doors installed tomorrow!  Yay an inch of freedom! (And maybe some sleeping in days once things calm down.)


• Exhausted, and have to get up early, so now, by the time you read this... are probably in bed.

Night.  ♥

Small importance

I blocked a few IP addresses this morning because I am sick of having 400% increased traffic, and 85% of all traffic being spam.  

It's annoying.

 In short:  if you go to the page someday, and can't see it: let me know.  I don't think I've hit any real people just the ones that are visiting 40 times a day.

short

I know I keep promising to update, and I mean to, I really do, we have just been so, soooo busy.

Like this weekend, Jason worked Saturday morning, and then in the afternoon we met up with a photographer, went to dinner, came home and did homework until 1 am.  Then Sunday, we had the doggy door guy out, and went to Lowes to look at fences and other random crap, and then to Chipotle to get our FREE burrito (yummmm) and then back out to Home Depot to look at more stuff.  Monday, we went grocery shopping (which sucks with Jason's work schedule by the way) and we didn't get finished until 9 (because we had to eat first) and then even with everything not being put away we didn't get to bed until almost 11.  Today, I came home from work, fed the dogs, and then took Landon to get Furminated.  Then I headed to Joann's to get some fabric for a project I am working on, and then Jason and I went to dinner (because we were told Landon would be ready by 8) and headed to PetSmart at 7:50, where Landon was not ready, and so we shopped for 30 minutes, and then headed home, and we are both exhausted.  However, this did not stop Jason from wanting his head shaved, and thus, it is now 10:15 and we are still not in bed, and Jason is bald... more bald than he wanted to be.  :x

To resolve this, I think I will make a list, and just post one thing per day until my list is done.  :P

As promised, and late :D

The Renny Fest pictures are up at the gallery.

Here is a video of our lovely sword swallower:
Thom Selectomy

I have a ton to say, but it is late so I will try to make time tomorrow, if not Tuesday.  So much has gone on in the last month (shocking, that a large amount of time will do that to you!)

<3

Neglect.

I know, I know, I've been keeping everyone out of the loop as to what has been going on... but we've been really busy.  I'm still trying to catch up on homework that was due last weekend, because last weekend I was too busy trying to catch up on the week before.  I'm sure you get the point.  Good thing Jason and I have understanding teachers... and good thing after next weekend, half my classes will be overwith and gone!  Wahoo.

Anyway, I need to still work on that homework, so I am going to cut this short.  We are headed to the Renaissance Festival today (finally) so you can expect a bigger update, and pictures later this week.  : )  If you're board, you can see some of the crappy animations I have been working on for school over at Look What I Can Do, I suggest the UltimateTours5 as it has the most going on, as it has been a step by step process and small lessons besides that.  I do have to warn you though, there is a LOUD sound at the end if you click the Lighthouse Cruises button... so mute or turn your speakers waaaaay down.

Ciao!

The Perfect Pair

First off:  Happy Valentine's Day.  Now, lets let it never happen again.

The last few weeks have been absolutely awful, and today has been the icing on the cake, most definitely.  Since we've been back from Oklahoma, Jason and I have been out of doctor's offices more often that we have been to work it feels.  I started off with the never ending medical issues that I have (I swear I am not a hypochondriac, I am just searching for the cause of my issues that never seem to be solved.)  Anyway, basically what stemmed it off was a picture that Jason and I had together while in Oklahoma where my parathyroid (or so it seemed) was bulging out of my neck.  See figure 1:

[caption id="attachment_341" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Figure 1"][/caption]

I have had medical issues up the wazoo over the last 3 to 4 years, and most of them have gone undiagnosed / ignored when all the "obvious" answers have been shot down.  Well, after seeing this, I decided to try another (I say another because I have been through a good 7 or 8 at this point) and see where it took me.  Well, it took me into an imaging clinic where they ultra-sounded my neck, because this doctor didn't think it was my parathyroid, but soft tissue that had formed.  What does that mean?  I don't know.  I won't fund out until the 26th, along with the results of my blood test.  Super.  What ever it is, I hope it explains all these medical marvels that have happened to me, and will help get me back to normal... and soon, like... oh, I don't know before my wedding, maybe?  So that's my crap.

Last Monday, Jason went to urgent care because he had blood in his urine.  They gave him a shot in the bum, some scrips, and sent him on his way, telling him to come back the next morning for a check up, make an appointment with his primary, and come back if it worsened.  He went Tuesday, things seemed to get better.  By Friday, he still had blood in his urine, and his doctor told him to get a urinalysis Saturday morning... that brings us up to date to yesterday.

When Jason got home from work, the dogs were going NUTS.  Not nuts like they do when children are throwing stuff at them from the street and teasing them, but worse.  There was a little puppy trying to get into our yard.  I have no doubt that these dogs will defend us if necessary.  We corralled our ferocious beasts into the house, and picked up the puppy, who was scared but friendly.  He immediately found a place in my heart, as Jason's turned cold.  "No, we can't keep him!" (keep this statement that was repeated throughout the night and following day in mind.)  We ask a few surrounding neighbors who are out if the dog is theirs, but no one seems to know.  We set him up in the kitchen with the baby gate, (see figure 2) and decided that if he was a jumper we better put boxes and something heavy in front of it (like the trash can.)  We headed out the door to go out to eat, and decide that we should tell our neighbor, Cheryl that if anyone comes looking for it, get their name and number.  She then informed us that her neighbor has a small dog, but she couldn't describe it, so we decided to get back into the house to grab something to write a note on to leave for them.  Guess who greeted us at the door? The little booger jumped onto the top of the trashcan and vaulted himself off!  So we decided to put him in our bathroom while we headed back out.

[caption id="attachment_342" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Figure 2"][/caption]

We came back from dinner, and he had jumped on the toilet, and then the counter and knocked everything into the sink.  He was a crafty little guy.  We then gave him a bath, since he was absolutely filthy, ratty, and stinky, and a bit of food, because he was also very skinny.  We figured that he hadn't been out for long because the pads on his feet were still soft, and his nails were pretty overgrown.  He didn't leave our side for the rest of the night.  At one point, he didn't like the way that Jack (mean ole' grumpy cat) was looking at him, so he picked up his food bowl, and moved it across the room.  I am telling you, he was a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!  For the night, we put him back in the bathroom, where he yipped and yelped for a bit, and then quieted down until he had to go to the bathroom.  He may have been young, but he was very well trained.  He didn't pee or poop in our house at all, even after we had left him alone for two hours, plus the entire night.  The next morning, we wake up, see the neighbors we left the note for took the note, but didn't call us, so it wasn't theirs and headed to PetsMart to look for a microchip.  No chip.  We posted on their Lost & Found board, and headed home to make some signs.  We made about 10 signs, and as we head out the door, we see that the neighbors we left the note for were home, but getting ready to leave.  Jason walked over, and asked if they were missing a dog, and he said yes.  The guy could barely describe the dog, but described it enough to where we knew it was his.  He couldn't even tell us if the dog was neutered or not... when it was quite obvious.  The saddest part is, it is his son's dog, they didn't even BOTHER to look for it, it had been missing over 12 hours at this point, and someone had left a note with two phone numbers on their gate,.  When they were in our yard, he was running around, and he cowered in fear when the guy went to pick him up!  I had to pick him up and hand him to the guy because he kept hiding behind me.  I hate to think about how they must treat this dog considering how concerned they were over it being missing and all.  Once the guy left, the regret started coming... shockingly more from Jason than myself.  Jason was super upset, and I think he may have even, dare I say it, been kind of attached to him.  Its just sad to think how this isn't someones pet, but a toy for their kid.  The most stupid part was when the guy said "I don't know how he gets out, he must be lonely."  Ya don't say?  I tried, politely as I could, to tell him he was retarded and that the dog can fit easily through the slats on the gates, considering he casually walked through ours on the way back from PetsMart, but he didn't really care.

After we went in and recouped for a bit, I asked Jason when he was planning on going to the lab, and he said he wanted to go to urgent care, as he was having a lot of pain.  We headed to urgent care, where they nicely took our money, took Jason back, asked him why he was even there, and not the emergency room, and then sent him off.  (Annoying, thanks for wasting our time.)  So we head to the closest emergency room we can find, and got in pretty fast.  We got there just in the nick of time too, because it was basically empty, and then got super busy.  We were there for a good 3 hours, Jason got some morphine, saline, and scripts to help him survive the weekend as well as a CT scan with a diagnosis of an 8 mm kidney stone, which, if he doesn't pass this weekend, he will have to have surgically removed on Monday.  Eek.  He actually has a few stones (no specific number, which would have been nice to know) ranging from 2-3 mm all the way up to his monster 8 mm one.   When we got home from the hospital, we picked up his meds, and some food (since he has to eat when he takes them) and took a nap for about 2 hours, that we both needed.  We woke up about 4:45, and started to work on our homework, that was due... today!  About an hour into it, Jason runs to the trash can and starts horking up everything under the sun.  Personally, I feel that I have a strong stomach.  I can tolerate blood, guts, dead bodies, you name it... except vomit.  I cannot handle vomit.  If there is vomit in the picture, there will be a second dosage from me... even if it's my own... it will make me go for round two.  I sat at my desk (because I was pretty much trapped in the room) trying not to hear it, trying to focus on something... anything else, when he asked me to get him a washcloth.  I grabbed a washcloth and started to run the water, I got as far as asking him if he wanted it hot or cold, and then there I was... joining in on the party in the sink.  Sure enough, when I saw my own, I just couldn't stop (where was it going to go, it was the bathroom sink, and we had Arby's in our system.)  I ended up having to grab some tongs from the kitchen, and close my eyes while I fished for the drain after about 10 minutes of heaving to try and get rid of the aftermath.  Ugh that was so gross.  Jason, being done, comes in to comfort me, and gets me a washcloth.  We are quite the pair, eh?

As for now, we are headed off to bed.  We have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow plus all the catching up on what we were supposed to do today.  Here's some pictures of our ER adventures though!

[caption id="attachment_344" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="When we first got there."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_345" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yick."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_346" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jason doped up, with his strainers on his head..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Jason doing "homework" note the mouse pad on the ground. E for effort."][/caption]

We're in the money!

We've been spending fools this weekend, because I finally got my school money.  We got caught up on all of our past due bills and even paid one off completely.  Jason also purchased parts for his computer (which he is in dire need of) we got some organizational things, and we got to Costco to get our massive amounts of stuff.  We also renewed our vehicles, and both put in for personalized plates.  We don't know if we get them until we actually get them in the mail 4-6 weeks down the road... but be watching out for us!

Wahoo!  We're so excited.

In other news, all of my bridal party has accepted their invitations to watch me gracefully turn into bridezilla, and I have picked out and ordered my gown.  It's soooo pretty.  Jason went with me to go look at them, and he liked it too.  (Blah blah blah, we already got yelled at enough at the store because he was there... but he is the only one who will tell me if I look bad, if I actually do!)  We also picked our DJ (did I mention that before?)  So now we have cake, flowers, and invitations, and then I think we are done.  Oh yeah, and registries also.  It's crazy how many people have asked us when we are going to get one up.  We still have 8 months to go!  Yikes!  :P  We will get one soon.  We both love going through stores and zapping things ;).

This afternoon, after I worked Jason like a horse to get our garage organized and clean, we headed off to a movie.  It is crazy how expensive they are.  For the two of us, at a matinee, with a small popcorn and a medium drink we spent almost the full $25 gift card my mom gave us for Christmas... we have a whopping 50¢ left over.   Anyway, we saw Taken, which was surprisingly good, and suspenseful.  I love me some Liam Neeson (and his accent!)

Anyway, I tried to jam a whole bunch of information in here because I haven't updated in like, a week or more... but I need to go to bed!  More later.

…and I’ll cry if I want to

So…yeah. I dinged (nerd joke meaning I had a birthday). I don’t really know why, but I’ve never really liked my birthday. Maybe almost killing elderly German women on your birthday will do that to you? I don’t so much mind celebrating it, but I just don’t seem to really get into it.

Anywho, the day started out with the alarm going off and Amanda doing the whole Happy Birthday kiss. I then received my teapot. (What?! I like tea, okay?) After the teapot cleaning, I got ready whilst the water boiled. Phone was dead, so I didn’t notice the call from Mom…sorry Mom. I then went to work, which was uneventful. I charged the phone while at work so that I could talk to people. What I forgot to do was take it off of silent when I got off work. This leads me to the call from Lawrence that I missed…sorry Lawrence…another call from Mom missed (sorry again)…and the call from Lynn (Mom-in-Law) that I missed…sorry Lynn.

When I get home, I am greeted at the gate by my always-too-excited puppies and Amanda. I get a kiss and go inside to find my other gifts…a car charger and extra USB for my Zune, a case for my Zune, and RENAISSANCE FAIR TICKETS!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GEEK FAIR (please note that the use of sarcasm was not used here)!

About halfway through dinner, I think to check my phone and find it on silent. Literally 10 seconds after I put the phone back in my little belt holster thingy (hush…it makes me feel important), Dad calls…during dinner…sorry I didn’t get to talk long Dad. Oh, by the way…dinner was at Buca diBeppo which is freaking awesome. We watched the Sioux Chef, whose name is Duane work his magic bossing around the chef underlings. He brought us a free plate of calamari…I lied and said I was allergic. That stuff has a horrible texture and I didn’t want to get into how if I took one bite I would lose what I had already eaten. I ordered a Stella Artois (dunno on the spelling there) beer, antipasto salad, spicy arrabiata pizza, and sausage & spinach stuffed shells. All in all, a very good meal, but I’m not done. I got a Danny DeVito Lemoncello, which is basically a very sweet, very alcoholic shot-type drink that you are supposed to sip. It’s supposed to aid with digestion as well. Then I split my free apple crustada with Amanda. I ate the vanilla bean gelato and most of the crust while she ate the apples and some of the crust. Then I had another lemoncello…which means Amanda drove home.

On the way home, I tried to call Lawrence and got voicemail. Then I called Lynn back and she did the happy birthday thing. I later found out she sung to me on my voicemail. We got home and I was pretty much ready for bed. I played some Fallout 3, and was feeling particularly evil so I told some lady I would help her, took the item, and shot her with my shotgun. I then tried to pickpocket someone at the local tavern and got caught…whoops. I had to kill everyone so that the town didn’t hunt me down and kill me. At this point, I decide I should probably stop before the entire town of Megaton is lying in the dirt.

So that’s pretty much it. Sorry to those who couldn’t get a hold of me (noticed another missed one from Lawrence when I woke up this morning). Thank you all for your wishes of wellness and happy birthdayness. But it’s starting to get late tonight and I need to start getting ready, so peace out.

Chaos Circle

Things have been go go go since we got back.

Sunday we drove to Tucson to get the kids, who were less than thrilled to see us.  That took up a big chunk of the day and we got a whopping two loads of laundry done and were completely exhausted.

Monday was back to work, which was just wretched trying to figure out who did what and what went where etc.  After work we went to Sprint to look at new phones because I am sick of constantly exchanging mine, and it not working.  Then we headed to IKEA because Jason bought a desk with the money his dad gave him for Christmas / Birthday and I bought some lamps for my desk because I can't stand dim light; however, the lights we bought didn't fit my desk, they only fit one side of desk (they were clamp lights) and so we had to return them.  We get to IKEA, and Jason grabbed the wrong receipt.  We toss the lights back in the car, and go get different lights and head home, crash pretty much as soon as we get there.

Tuesday night we head out to IKEA again, because light set number two also didn't work because my desk is very thick, and the clamps opened up about 1/4 inch too little, so now we have 4 lights to return.  Go us.  We head upstairs, measure the desk that I have, and went on a mission to find lights that could clamp on.  No luck.  Ended up setting on a swing arm lamp with a 12 lb base to it.  :P  The light is amazing with such a tiny bulb.  It's literally about half of my thumb and lights up my desk perfectly.  Once again IKEA, you impress me.  Our house is slowly becoming IKEAized... one day all of our furniture will probably be from there.

Wednesday we had an appointment with the stationer.  Sad to say we will not have the invitations we want, and will probably end up doing them ourselves.  Wow, it is crazy how expensive things are.  CRAZY.  Unfortunately, it took us 50 minutes to get to the stationer, 15 minute appointment, and 50 minutes back.  Again, there was not much time left to do anything once we got home, and we pretty much went straight to bed.

Thursday morning, both doing our own thing at work and Jason gets a call to remind us of our appointment tonight, and if we can change places where we were going to meet.  Uh, appointment?  What appointment?  Heh.  It was with one of the DJs that we met at the bridal show, and let me say that I am so glad he called to change, because we were really impressed with this guy and the services that he offers / provides--but we totally forgot we even made an appointment.  (Hell, we haven't even had a chance to look at briday show information yet.)  Once we get paid next week, we will be placing the down payment with him.  We really need to buckle down and get back to the wedding business though because we still haven't purchased my dress (which I have been told can take 4-6 MONTHS to get in) and we still haven't picked a photographer.

I created a gallery, since I don't have a paid Flickr account anymore, and therefore am limited, and I have uploaded all the pictures from our trip to  Oklahoma.  Still working on some of the descriptions, so bear with me a bit.  But you can check it out here: fendiandemo.com/gallery

Alsoooooooo, a co-worker of mine has planted a little seed that is slowly growing.  She told me that I should seriously think about opening up my own business selling dog treats since her dog goes nutso over them.  If everyone else hasn't been lying to me, than I know that other dogs besides mine also love them, and sometimes even prefer them over their regular treats, and I have been talking about it with Jason.  I think the inittial start up would be kind of rocky, but I think it would be a fun and beneficial hobby.  I've brainstormed a ton of ideas with Jason and he's being very supportive of the entire idea, and even offered to help, but I am wondering about other opinions out there... anyone?  Anyone!?

Where we're at...

The airport actually, on our way to Oklahoma.

Things have been so crazy since the holidays have been over.

School started, and I think I lost my mind.  I am taking 9 classes this semester, and Jason is going full time this semester (with 5) and our classes started last Monday (well all of mine did, and 3 of Jason's did.)  What the hell was I thinking?!?  A few of the classes are going to be a breeze, but I had to sit and do two weeks worth of homework Wednesday night, and what a pain in the ass!  I still have some to do by Saturday, and Jason hasn't even looked at his new classes becuase he still isn't finished with last semester.  Ugh.  Obviously it will be easier once everything calms down and we don't have a bajillion plans on the weekends, but yikes!

Also, I finally finished a knitting project!

Who wants to jump in the Way Back Machine?!

Whoops.

I put a contact form up, and it didn't really work.  So luckily, only one person sent us a message, and we were able to deduct from the information that they sent us who it was, but other than that... I got a contact form up now that actually tells us who sent the message.  :P  Also, I created us an email account that sends it to both of us, and it's easy to remember because... well, it matches the site.   fendiandemo@gmail.com (Sorry it's not linkified, but I wanted to protect us from spam.)

In other news, we sent out the first batch of save the date cards.  Most of the people on my side that we're inviting got them (or should have) but a lot of Jason's side, we either don't have the address for, or we sent it, and have the wrong address.  :P  Be sure to update us if anything is wrong as well.  We did the list with one person reading information, and one person typing it out... we've had two mistakes so far, one on a person's name, and one on a street name, so feel free to tell us, so we don't feel like a jack-ass later on.  :P  Also, welcome to the site, and thanks for taking a peek into our little journey!

As for a little update:

Tuesday was our lucky day, not only did we win $21 on scratcher tickets (that we shouldn't have purchased but it looks like that was a $5 well spent) but Jason got his job back at Desert Schools.  This is good and bad, because he hates this job, but he's making almost twice the money (which means he got a raise), and he will have twice the hours, and he's really not digging the mortuary scene.  I think one of my friends has totally destroyed his dreams from Friday on.  We're pretty twisted there, but you kind of have to be.  :P

This coming Monday we have a meeting with our potential Pastor.  He is actually my runner (for work) and used to be in radio, and has been a pastor for years.  He does church services every Sunday (threw that in there to make the parents happy ;) haha) and does funeral services as well.  He is so calm and gentle, I just love him!  He said he's done 2-3 hundred wedding ceremonies and they have all been different, so we are having coffee to discuss all of our options Monday after work.

Today, Jason and I fought moron after moron at the Bridal Fashion Debut but we got a ton of information.  We spent 5 hours there, but got there 2 hours after it started and were basically kicked out at 3 when it ended, and we definitely could have used it.  :(  Anyway, we got toooooon of flyers and cards for photographers, and DJ's a few for floral and a few for cakes, pretty much the only things that we need now.  We also picked up some invitation stuff, as we haven't yet decided whether we want to do our own or not.  We got a few free samples, but man there are some crazy people out there.  Jason literally got hit 3 times by the same dumb girl with the stroller she was pushing, and every time he glared at her, yet she never even apologized.  I swear.  I realize it is a crowded place, but if you injure someone then at least have the courtesy to say sorry.  And I know it's a bridal fair, and you should bring someone with you, but omg, you do not need to bring your whole family and children along with you.  There were so many wretched misbehaving children around, and some people brought like mothers for both sides, and their entire bridal party plus some more friends, which totally blocked some exhibits, which was super annoying.  I even saw someone with a stroller that said 'Please DO NOT touch the baby."  Well lady, if you don't want strange people touching your baby, don't take it to a place with over 4,000 people crammed into it, hello common sense, obviously that was checked at the door.  Sadly, we missed the 3 bridal fashion shows, didn't win any of the gown give-aways, and the huge sale on bridal gowns (seriously 20-80% off!) because we found it as we were being shoved out the door.  They seriously need to make that thing longer as half of the 5 hours we spent there was waiting for large masses to pass by or shoving people out of the way.  Oh well.

 

And that is it for now.  I need to work on my bridal party invitations...