James is Walking!!!

I really don't blog enough on here. I have a MySpace so I always post information on there, but I realize that not everyone uses MySpace so I will try to post on here more often. James is full-blown walking now. He walks any and everywhere and it is absolutely adorable. I definitely need to take some pictures of it...it's crazy to think that almost a year ago he was just born. This year has flown by. Call me crazy, but I already want another one. As much as a struggled with post-partum depression, after I got through it, it was totally worth it. :-) I want a girl. Not that I wouldn't be happy with a boy. But I want a girl.

Adam & I initially said we would "meet up" again in July and discuss the issue, but it really is just going to depend on finances and his school. Obviously we don't want to go broke so we really just need to make sure we have all our ducks in a row.

Any ways, James turns 1 on December 31! I'm very very excited, but also sad. It's like he's not really a baby any more!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and has a very blessed Christmas!

XOXO

OnStar?

So, Adam locked my car this morning on accident and my keys were inside so I called OnStar to have them unlock my car. Well, I dialed what I thought was their number and this is what I heard:


"Hey man whats up, never mind, I know whats up and I can help you take care of it man."

I was like, OMG, what did I just dial? So I went to a website that tells you what your phone number spells and the number I dialed spelled:

1-888-HOMO-RUB.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Four Generations

My YiaYia came into town this week to visit James for the first time. (She lives in North Carolina and it's hard for her to travel). Any ways, she came with my Aunt Phyllis and we had a good time. Although I did get a little annoyed at times because it was so draining to have them here, I'm really glad they came and got to see James. Here are some pics:

My YiaYia, Mom, Me & James

My YiaYia, Aunt Phyllis, Mom, Me, James

(James was laughing at my Dad banging on Adam's head LOL)

Any ways, Adam's birthday was yesterday and he is now the big 2-5. He had to work which was no fun, but thanks to my good friend Rachel who babysat James, we got to go to dinner and a movie last night. We went to see Max Payne. It's not my kind of movie but it was still pretty good. I'm glad Adam got to do something fun for his birthday. :-)

Our Beach House and New Pics of James

It's been too long since I blogged. A lot of people know that my family has a beach house so I just wanted every one to know how it fared thru Ike. The good news: it's still standing. The bad news: we need to do A LOT of clean up. My parents were able to go there one day a few weeks ago and it was pretty bad. They dug through some stuff and it was infested with bugs and snakes. We are going to go down there after there is power and water to clean up. My biggest fear is finding a body in all of it. Here are some pictures:

This used to be our side yard. Now, it's just a pile of rubble. Btw, that's not our paddle boat (well, I guess it is now, but it wasn't before).

This is my mom pointing at the water level downstairs. She's just over five feet tall, so the water got to about 7 feet.

This is my Dad's boat ON the dock. Also, not our white chair before the storm, but if it's in good shape, we'll keep it!

This is how my parents found the downstairs. Obviously, it wasn't this way before the storm.

On a lighter note, I have taken some really cute pics of James!!! There is one of James @ the park and one him on his new toy!!!

Update!

Hello! We finally have power! I hope all my friends and family out there finally have power & did well thru the storm. We lost power around 4 am Friday night (the 12th) and got it back the 20th. I never realized all the things I take for granted! I love washing clothes! LOL.

Our house is fine. A few trees went down on the line between our house and the Oggero's, but they fell toward the street and no damage was done. We are extremely lucky we sit up on a hill, because a lot of people in the neighborhood behind us got many feet of water in their homes. We feel extremely blessed to have made it thru the storm and that we have such a happy, easy-going baby who wasn't at all bothered by the whole mess!

A few days after the storm passed, lucky me, I got a stomach virus. Ugh. But I am over that now and am feeling better. So much better that I played baseball with the kids on the street yesterday. I scored twice, yay! Our house is used as 3rd base. Lol. I LOVE our neighborhood!

Adam is going to California today for training @ his new job. I am very sad but I hope he has a good time & learns a lot.

I will post more as I get more organized, but I hope every one is doing well and you are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Best Husband EVER!

So...Adam & I went to the mall tonight with the Oggeros. We all hung out for a few minutes but Megan & I wanted to go shopping and so did the boys so we split up. Megan and I went to a few stores while the boys did their own shopping. After Megan & I were done, we were going to meet the boys at the play area but when we got there George said Adam was in the bathroom. We figured since Adam wasn't there we could go kill a few more minutes in Macy's. (I found 2 shirts for $4.99 each!) Any ways, after we got done in Macy's we went back to the play area and met the guys. Since the mall was about to close we decided to leave. We walked out to the car and Adam asked if I could strap James into his carseat. Well, after I strapped him in, I went to sit down and there was a little gold giftwrapped box in my seat with a bow on it. I opened the box and there was a little black velvet box. I opened it and there was the most beautiful ring in it EVER! He is so sweet. He knew I had been wanting this ring for like, a year and he got it for me!!! I LOVE IT!

I LOVE YOU, ADAM!

Here is a pic of my ring:

Time Heals All Wounds?

If so, why can't I get over it? I understand that we don't have a lot in common...but did we ever? Most of you probably know who I'm talking about without me even saying her name. Which is good, because I'm not going to call her out on the internet. Every one keeps telling me to get over it. People change, they grow apart, etc. But I'm not okay with that explanation. I have friends that I don't have a lot (anything?) in common with. But even so, I'm not going to cut them out of my life and pretend they don't exist. Especially not if we'd been friends for 21 years. How can you just pretend that everything that happened, all the years we spent getting into trouble, going on vacations, everything, just doesn't matter any more? I just don't understand. Last time I saw her, we hadn't seen each other in a few years, and we just picked up where we left off. So why when I got married did it all change? I know I said somethings out of bitterness & anger. But even when it was all said and done, she said that our friendship ending wasn't because of that, but because "we're just different people now." I know I made mistakes. I know I said things I shouldn't have said. But I'm human. I so badly wish I hadn't said the things I said, even though it ultimately may not have made a difference in the demise of this friendship.

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

I don't want to live this life knowing that I didn't do all I could to apologize. I know I have though. A few months ago I called her...just to see how she was doing and wish her well. I left a voicemail. I guess it was wishful thinking that she would call me back. It's worse that she won't even acknowledge my existence. I feel stupid for caring. It would be so much easier to not care. So much easier. And please don't tell me to let go, because believe me I want to. It's just not that easy.

Back on Track

After I had James the baby weight started flying off...for about 6 weeks. Then it stopped and I started eating junk food again. Shame on me! Any ways, I'm back on track to losing weight. I don't consider it a diet because diets don't work...just a lifestyle change. I pretty much started focusing on Monday. Being extremely conscious of what I eat and how much I eat. I've already lost 4 lbs. That's a testament to how much junk food I was eating. LOL.

Any ways, I use this really neat program online called Fit Day (www.fitday.com). It's free and you can plug in what you're eating and how much and it figures your calories (or you can create custom foods and enter the information in yourself). And it tracks your weight and your weight loss goal and how much weight you need to lose per week to meet your goal. It also tracks your activities and creates graphs and a bunch of neat stuff. My favorite is when you look at my goal graph and it shows the line of my goal (x lbs by x date) and then it shows my actual weight line and it's plummeting. Awesome. LOL.

So, any how, I just wanted to share that with every one because I'm really excited.

:-)

Good Times...

Yesterday we got up for Church and realized that James still had a stuffy nose and a cold so we didn't want to put him in the nursery. Luckily my mom was nice enough to watch him for a few hours so we could still go to Church. So, after we dropped James off at Yiayia's, we went to Sundale for Kolaches, which is a tradition for us! The service was really great today...it was all about confession and I really like the Pastor that delivered the sermon, Tierce Green. After church we went and picked up James and came home and did normal Sunday stuff...clean, work, watch TV, etc.

Well, later that evening the Oggero's called us and invited us for dinner and to the park. Dinner was great (pizza!) and afterward we headed off to the park. We decided to bring Daisie because it's been awhile since she has swam. On the way to the park, she pooped in the car. And not a normal poo, a hard to clean up poo. Luckily we had a blanket down in the back so we just rolled it up and tossed it. If you don't know Daisie, she is a hard core fetcher. Sticks, fuzz, balls, pieces of paper you lost under the sofa. Anything. Well, of course she found a stick to play fetch with at the park and she loved swimming out in the lake to get it. Well...Grace decided that she would toss the leash in the water. It was only at the edge, like, not even really in the water, so Adam fished it out. Then, like, 5 minutes later Grace chunked it in the water and it sank. (It's one of this retractable leashes). So Adam turns to Megan and tells her what Grace did and Megan tells George that he has to go get it since Grace is the one that tossed it. Well, George takes off his shoes and starts to get in the water. Adam says "grab my hand!" and Adam is helping him in. Well, at some point they lost their grip and George totally ate it. It was awesome. Luckily, he had taken all of the stuff out of his pockets so his phone and stuff didn't get ruined. But it was freaking hilarious. And, because George is such a good sport, he let me take a picture:

To top off the park trip off, Daisie proceded to jump into the car and then barf. Goooood times. And since we had tossed the blanket she doo-dooed on, we actually had to clean it up. Eewie.

But afterward the Oggero's had us over for ice cream and brownies so it all turned out ok.

She is the Queen of Bitchy Letters...

...when people deserve it. But she is also the Queen of knowing exactly what to say and exactly what I need to hear to make me feel better. I am talking about my mother-in-law. I feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful mother-in-law. There are times when we haven't seen eye to eye on everything and times that we've driven each other insane...or when we flat out didn't like each other (though that was also when Adam when I were broken up, but still). Any ways, she apparently reads my blog. Note to self: Don't bitch about mother-in-law on blog. ;-) Any ways, she read my post last night and this morning I woke up to this wonderful e-mail:

Precious Jessica-

I read your blog this morning and it made my heart ache and my eyes tear. I know and feel your hurt. Justin has been gone a very long time. He is at a different place in his life. You all may never be close again. Speaking from recent experience, you will always have a bond and through distance love still remains. When we have children our sense of family strengthens. We "get it." We want everyone we love to feel what we love. We want everyone we love to know the joy of family and our faith. We want them to want to be with us and celebrate just being together. Just love him for who he is. Pray for him that he may one day know the happiness you know. Pray for peace for yourself and soothing of the hurt you are feeling now. Be thankful for the time you have these few days to share with him for in the blink of an eye that opportunity can vanish. Continue being who you are and hopefully he too will some day "get it."

I love you so much. You are one of the most important people in my life. You are a fantabulous mother and wife. We are all works in progress and you are the most beautiful work I have ever seen. I thank God for you daily and always pray for you as I have since before you were born. I am humbled and honored to have you as my daughter, friend, wife to my son and mother to my grandson.

I love you-

Carol


*Love you too, Mom*

Some things never change.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when my brother came to town. I guess I was just hoping he would some how understand my lifestyle. But when we hung out, it was like, he was with me out of obligation not because he wanted to. I love my brother and we don't have a lot (anything?) in common, but I don't want the distance between us. I know this is terrible to say, but if he died, I wouldn't have any idea what to say in a eulogy. I don't know him at all. And he seems to be okay with that. I guess that's why I'm bothered.

My Bestie & The Origin of Bananas

I could not be more excited...my bestie finally got into town!!! She was supposed to come in Tuesday but her flight got screwed up because of Edouard (the stupid tropical storm) so she ended up coming in today!!! We probably looked like idiots as we screeched and hugged each other and I think we squeezed each other so hard we might have broken bones...but it has been a long time coming!!! I am so looking forward to the next couple of weeks together!!!!

Now, to the bananas. The most interesting part. I was asked how I came up with jessica-bananas. Yes, I am bananas. But that's not how it came about. Before we left Dallas we went out with one of Adam's co-workers, Mike, & a bunch of other buddies to the Gayborhood. On that very special occassion I wore a denim mini skirt and a shirt with a picture of a bunch of bananas on it that read "Bananas." When we were at the bar, I ordered a Sprite (you know me, wild child!) and then a few seconds later the bartender came back to give me my drink and to get my attention he just called out, "Hey Bananas." And that's my story. Not very exciting, but an explanation. Here is my bananas shirt.

See, Bananas.

A New Beginning

I don't think that my life is a random occurrence of events that led me to where I am. I just don't think it's possible that I have been blessed this way because I am lucky. I don't think that I am on this Earth for my benefit, but to do God's work. This is just a pit stop on the way to Heaven.

Those who knew me years ago probably know that I wasn't very religious. Not that I am incredibly religious now, but I am learning about my faith. I know that not every one will understand my beliefs and that's okay.

I can't quote bible verses or tell you all the stories. I probably couldn't even write an outline at this point. But I hope that in time I will get better at applying His word to my life. Right now, I am just a work in progress. And when I am done and have served my purpose, I will be complete.

"Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. " ~Victor Hugo