I had a friend, Katie, who lived across the street that was 5 years older than me. I remember the day when she came over and tried getting me to wear my jeans low past my belly button because it was the new trend. Remember those days where we had to make sure our hair was perfect when putting it up. Katie told me to trust her and put my hair up in a messy bun. I remember cringing at the feeling of my jeans being too low and my messy bun style hair! It was a torture at first to get used to. (Thanks for all the advices & fashion help, Katie!)

2000 – Haley and me

One of those fun nights we had playing dress up especially for spirit week at school.
This was the era of bangs for me.
Blow drying it with a round brush every single morning!

2003 – Senior Picture

My hair looks ORANGE! This is one of those times when I bleached my hair.
I can’t believe I had twisted my hair on the top for my senior pictures.

Overalls, don’t you miss those? and how it was so cool leaving one strap off.

The beanie hat phase in college. A few of us bought the same hat and wore it all the time.
We even took “we’re too cool for you” pictures. Pfft!

Click on the image to see a short GIF animated video I created years ago

Transcript of video:

Me: My shaw (HOT) boyfriend!

‘Shaw’ is one of the many words we made up in high school. I never use that sign anymore. Did you see the necklace Tyler’s wearing in the video? and his earrings? Tyler stopped wearing them since he got a job. Thank god! I can’t imagine him wearing them again… I think he moved on.

Now I’m sure years later from now we’ll be laughing at the clothes we’re wearing now and the hair styles too!!

I was coming up to the scene and saw that the first car was the same as my Mom’s car. I quickly glanced over at the driver and it was my Mom! She was staring up ahead and just sitting in her car. Everything was happening too quickly while I was driving and by the time I realized I wanted to pull over… I couldn’t.

It hit me hard that I just passed her and I couldn’t do anything or pull over. I started wheezing and crying. Also it’s the time of the month so I’d like to blame some of it on that too. I was a hot mess!

I got to work and finally after a while she got to work and e-mailed me.

Mom: Basically I was just driving along, about 10-15 mph when I heard the impact from the 3rd car hitting the car behind me, then felt the impact from the second car hitting me.  It all happened so fast, and needless to say I was very surprised when it happened. My bumper is all screwed up, and will need replacing.

Me: I saw the accident and recognized your car then saw you and I know no one else in Phoenix has the same hair do so I knew it was you.

Mom: My bumper and side panels are popped off. That makes me feel good to know that no one in Phoenix has the same hair do. Is my hair really that weird???

Me: LOL no it’s not that weird. Just that you’ve had the same hair for SO many years that I can recognize you from anywhere. The guy got out to talk to you?

Mom: Yes.  They both got out of their car on the passenger side.  I had a skirt on and decided I didn’t need to throw my back out trying to crawl over the middle console to get out.  I think I made a good decision!

Me: I can’t imagine you trying to do that anyways!

Mom: I would have if I was 30!!

My Mom is fine with no injuries. I’m grateful for that! Gotta love her sense of humor with all of this though. I also realized that every car accident I’ve been in I have always cried. I think I don’t do well in those kind of situations. I just hope I won’t be 60 and still crying in these kind of situations. Pfft!

Oh, and I still have energy!!! I think all the coffee lovers are exhausted by now…unless they’re drinking more coffee.  I don’t hate coffee lovers… I’m actually jealous because I have tried to like coffee and I hate it but love the smell. Bummer, I know.

There was a huge crack in the wood frame around our front door. My dad came over and helped Tyler fix it by clamping the wood together while gluing the cracks. We had to leave the front door open for almost 4 hours. It was so windy & cold. 55 degrees is cold for us! But I’m glad this didn’t happen when in the summer when it’s blazing hot and 110 degrees.

We got my Dad a chocolate pie in return for helping us with the door. On our way over to my parents’ house for dinner the sunset was beautiful. Being the sucker I am for beautiful sunsets, I had to pull over and take pictures. Tyler used to roll his eyes at me for doing this all the time but now he’s used to it. He better be!

How could I NOT take a picture of this!?

It seemed like the town all stopped whatever they were doing outside to admire the rainbow. amazing how your mood can change from just seeing a rainbow. It was indeed a perfect way to end the weekend and prepare for March!

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” – Lord Byron

 
I only got 2 and a half hours of sleep before waking up to shower and get ready to go to the hospital. I was so quiet waiting for my family to leave the house. Once I headed out the door to the truck, I felt queasy and sick. I carried a bowl with me all the way to the hospital and didn’t throw up. We didn’t arrive in time so I could see Allison, who just had her cochlear implant surgery a few days before by the same doctor. When we were registering, the lady printed out my wristband but it wasn’t my name so she had to print new ones out. That part made me nervous!

It was not too long after when the nurse came to bring all of us (my parents and sister were there with me) upstairs to the pre-operating room but my dad and sister had to wait in the waiting room. At this point I was getting so nervous, and because of that my blood pressure was too high. The nurses were so nice. They put an IV in my hand which hurt a little bit (and I hate needles!).

I was in my hospital bed waiting while my dad and sister came in to see me before my surgery. My mom left with the nurse and came back wearing a blue gown and a cap on. We got some giggles out of it and it was a nice brief distraction from being nervous.

The doctor then came in to tell me he had just seen Allison and that she wanted him to tell me Hi. His hair wasn’t combed which made me nervous if he was awake enough to do my surgery!

The nurse gave me a “cocktail” and put it through my IV. Within minutes I felt a good buzz like I had too much to drink. The nurses scrolled me down the hall to the operating room with mom on my side. I was trying so hard to comprehend everything that was going on but it seemed impossible with the cocktail in my system. I saw an interpreter in the room and she looked a bit disappointed because mom was already in the room to interpret for me. The nurse and doctor asked me to move onto the surgery bed and the last thing I remember is my mom signing to me. 

I woke up in the recovery room a few hours later around 10AM to a really nice nurse and her name was Dawn. Every time I woke up she would be in my face smiling. Her attitude helped me feel so much better. There were a lot of other people in the recovery room with their own nurse and they were not happy campers. Dawn said I was the happiest patient in the recovery room. I did not feel any pain but mostly pressure on my head from the bandage which was a very uncomfortable feeling. My mom and sister came in to see me a few times. Later around 1PM my sister came to see me by herself and told me that a friend was being mean to her about being at the hospital and not hanging out with her. This pissed me off and while I should have not… I sent her friend a message through her phone. While I was typing away on the phone Dawn quickly came over and looked concerned since my blood pressure shot up from being pissed off. So I decided to leave it at that and let my sister deal with it because after all I just got out of surgery and I should not even need to be dealing with this.

It wasn’t until around 4:30pm when I got my own private room so my mom could stay overnight with me. My dad had already took my sister home and came back around 5PM to see me for the first time since I got out of surgery. He brought me two mini-balloons on a stick with flowers. My mom’s company also sent me flowers which was really nice. Dad stayed with me while mom went outside to call some relatives to let them know how the surgery went. That’s how close our families are! I kept falling asleep on and off and asked for more medicine because I was afraid I would feel pain. It was a pain having to get up to go to the bathroom because mom had to unplug the machine that I was hooked up to then I had to walk to the bathroom with the machine. 

The worst pain I had was air bubbles coming out of my ear. Mom and I then decided to turn the lights off around 9:30-10pm to get some sleep. That didn’t work out very well since the nurses kept coming in about 10 times throughout the night to check my vitals and make sure everything was fine. They always had to check my wristband and ask me what my name was and my date of birth. Due to being half asleep and drugged up this was hard to keep up with.

I woke up the next morning to a bad ache in my upper back and that was probably from sleeping in one position the entire night. The nurse told us we were able to leave so I went to the bathroom to put my clothes on and all of a sudden my nose started bleeding. The doctor told me I could not blow my nose for a few days and this almost made me want to cry.

A nurse pushed me in the wheelchair down to the car and a lot of people were looking at me with pity. I wondered to myself why they were and then I remembered it was because of the bandage on my head. They probably thought I had brain tumor or a freak accident.

My whole experience was great which I am really grateful for since Allison had to do the surgery again since there were problems with her cochlear implant. The only time I did get sick was when they removed the bandage. I think I got scared of having it removed and seeing my stitches. I mean… seriously I thought someone was going to rip my ear off!

Chase & Haley

We hung out with friends and played Pictionary Man.
Poor boys, they had a hard time winning especially trying to draw an invisible man.
How are you supposed to draw that?!

Lindsay, Me, Haley, Jana.
We won the game!

Me, Tyler, Haley.
Haley and I have known each other since 1st grade.
She’s one of the few who has been there since the beginning of my relationship with Tyler.

Midnight snacks are eeeevil and no longer welcome in my house.

Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun!

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Tyler is the best husband I could ever ask for!

Yesterday I came down with the cold and was feeling fine until it really hit me hard last night when I got drowsy. I tossed and turned all night and basically stayed in bed until 3PM today. I kept apologizing to Tyler that I ruined Valentine’s Day even though we didn’t really have any plans other than to run some errands.

Tyler went to the store to get some groceries for lunch & dinner. He woke me up and suggested I move into the family room where it was colder. It gets hot in our bedroom during the day because of the sun (we really should get sunscreens soon). I came out and saw he got me a card & roses! At that moment I did feel a little bit better and especially after we ate chicken sandwiches.

I knew I probably would feel better if I showered and cleaned up. Also I didn’t want Tyler have to see an ugly & sick wife all day long. I did feel better as long as I didn’t move around too much. Sometimes the best Valentine’s Day gift is just lounging around the house together watching movies.

We saw more than 10 hot air balloons in the sky today and it was beautiful as the sun was setting. Love was in the air today for sure!

Even our furries got some love today! It is a reminder that we should also be pouring our love for everyone we love everyday… not just on Valentine’s Day.

September 2008 – taken by Jason Gervase

I’m behind with Google Reader and my TV shows. I really don’t want to know what I have been doing instead. I think it has to do with being way too addicted to Super Mario Bros. I can now say we finally finished it so I’m done with video games for a while! I don’t know how Tyler can play video games all the time and not get sick of it. I guess it’s something I’ll never understand…

Recently I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life right now. Tyler and I need to take advantage of it now while we are still young and do not have children. We do want to have children some day but right now we still have things we want to do for ourselves. I do not want to have children until I lose weight first anyways. When we do start a family we want to be able to say we accomplished things we wanted to before becoming full-time parents.

I recently discovered that they have a boxing club in the area. Their website and FAQ page has me convinced to join. I’m going to check it out on Monday anyways. Trust me I’m not joining to become a professional boxer…that’s not my goal. I love their insight of how you can lose weight and become fit with punching bags, exercising with kettlebells, jump roping, drills and conditioning. Both my parents are interested too but I’m not sure which one of them is going to join me. On the other hand, Tyler loves dodgeball and unfortunately they don’t have a team here at our community center. He is going to look into trying to set one up though and I hope it works out since I want to see him do something he loves.

I’m excited to see what this month and upcoming months will bring for us especially becoming more involved in our community.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

I was on campus in the computer lab working on a project. A few hours later I decided to take a break because I couldn’t really receive text messages in the lab since RIT is a brick school! I checked my phone and received messages from Tyler and our roommate that said something brief like,

“The ceiling in our apartment fell through!”

I had no idea what to expect or think since they both were not responding back to my messages. I quickly got my things together and left. That was the longest 4 minutes drive home… unsure of what to expect or think. Is the old lady downstairs okay? Are our things okay?! Every possible thing was running through my head about what could have happened. I arrived and left everything in the car and walked up to the door and saw this…

Then I walked up and saw all the damage to our things…

(and that’s not snow – that’s wall insulation)

It turns out that the pipes were frozen and burst. Luckily for us, our roommate was home when it happened and had to call the office to have them shut off the water. The smell was so bad! The management crew did a horrible job handling the job. They didn’t leave a drying fan to absorb water from the carpet. They left us with a hole in the ceiling for days until they fixed it. And it took them weeks to replace the carpet.

This isn’t the first time I had my fair share of home disasters though. When I was younger we lived in Seattle and there was a really bad thunderstorm one day when I was at school. I thought it was an awesome day at first since the power was out and we were all playing games in the dark in our classrooms. I clearly remember the principal coming to my classroom and pulling me aside to tell me that my grandparents were on the way to pick me up because a huge tree fell on our house. I didn’t think anything too serious about it. I never really thought about asking my parents where exactly it had done damages to. I remember driving home with my parents and seeing that the impact was MY BEDROOM! There was a long branch poking down on my bed. For days after that I refused to sleep in my own room.

Have you ever experienced any house disasters like this or worse!? Do share!

I also have a tendency of changing my mind too much. I know it drives my family and Tyler nuts. Believe me… I drive myself nuts sometimes too. Being indecisive is not fun to deal with when being a new homeowner.

I got the curtains I wanted from West Elm for Christmas. I love how airy it looks during the day when the sun is beaming in through.

I got a sconce for Christmas and it took me weeks to decide where to put it up! I couldn’t even watch Tyler put a hole in the wall and hang it up. It’s like your kid getting a shot at the doctor’s office.

People can stop hinting that our walls are bare. We are very aware our walls are boring right now and hopefully I’ll get over this lame weakness and find something we both love to hang up. SOON!