2006 Blog

Lively Days Blog Posts from 2006 www.livelydays.blogspot.com Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 SUNDAY, JANUARY 01, 2006 2006 Has Arrived! HAPPY NEW YEAR! We rang in 2006 at home last night. My parents are spending the weekend with us, and all of us watched the ball drop on TV and then toasted the New Year with champagne at midnight (Andrew and Beth had grape juice in their little champagne glasses). We even poured a little champagne in Goldie's bowl. She really liked it!! :) She drank it quickly and it must have gone straight to her head because she kept shaking her head afterward. It was really funny!! We are having the traditional pork and sauerkraut for lunch today. My mom is actually fixing it though. She offered so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to avoid spending any time in the kitchen. ;) However, my New Year's resolution is to cook more in 2006. Leon said that he will believe this when he sees it. :) (Everyone knows New Year's resolutions are made to be broken though...) I'm off work tomorrow and then back to the grind on Tuesday. Like I said before, I'm looking forward to going back though. I get bored when I spend too much time at home. I may complain about how hectic things can get, but in reality I would much rather be too busy than not busy enough. Well, I better go downstairs and visit with my family now. I hope 2006 brings good things for all of us! POSTED BY AMY AT 11:36 AM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 04, 2006 I’m 0 for 3 on those New Year’s resolutions! I was looking forward to going back to work (what a glutton for punishment I must be), but yesterday wasn’t all that great. I spent all day preparing for a council meeting and it didn’t end up going so well. Sometimes people don’t seem to appreciate all the work that you do for them behind-the-scenes. I was so drained by the end of the day that I did not feel like going home and cooking dinner for my husband (attempting to feed Leon more than just frozen dinners was my #1 New Year’s resolution). So instead, I took him out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Vaquero’s. My #2 resolution was to get to work on time from now on. I woke up at 7:15 this morning (I blame my snooze button for malfunctioning) – that doesn’t work out very well when I have to leave the house by 7:30 to get to work by 8:00. So I was a few minutes late to work again this morning, as usual. 1 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 I decided my #3 resolution will be the same as every year – eat healthier and work out more. It’s time for our treadmill to be used for something other than a place to pile our laundry! ;) I’m not sure I’ll have the energy to fire up the treadmill tonight though…I assume I will have to work late since I am on deadline (again) for the next issue of the magazine. Speaking of which, I better get back to work! POSTED BY AMY AT 12:41 PM SATURDAY, JANUARY 07, 2006 It's The Weekend Again This is the first weekend we haven't had the kids in several weeks. Feels strange! I got my hair done this morning (you didn't think I was a natural blonde, did you?!) and then did some shopping. Darlene's 29th birthday was on Thursday and one of her co-workers is having a birthday party for her at his house tonight. So Leon and I are going to that. It scares me because sometimes I let myself think, what if this is the last time we get to celebrate her birthday? I know none of us are guaranteed another day, but with cancer everything about the future is so uncertain. I'm glad that all of Darlene's friends and family are coming to her party tonight. She needs all of the support she can get right now. I only work one day this week and then on Tuesday I am flying to Orlando for the Builders Show. Three of my co-workers are also going. I'll be there through next Saturday. I've never been to this show so I'm looking forward to it. And then the week after next is Leon's and my trip to Las Vegas! I've been planning this since August so it doesn't seem possible that it's almost here already! I have to get ready for Darlene's party now. I'll write again soon! POSTED BY AMY AT 5:27 PM 2 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog SATURDAY, JANUARY 07, 2006 2006 Terminal. I hate that word. We just got home from Darlene's birthday party. It was a very nice get-together. All of her family and friends were there, and Darlene seemed genuinely happy. As soon as we left though, I broke down crying in the car. I talked with Darlene's aunt a long time tonight, and apparently Darlene's prognosis is much worse than she let on to me. Her aunt told me things I wasn't aware of. I can tell that Darlene tries to be vague with me when I bring up her cancer. Her aunt said that Darlene wants to protect me and not let on how bad things really are. The word that struck me the most tonight was when her aunt told me that this cancer is "terminal." When she said that, it's like I held my breath and my heart skipped a beat. I knew things weren't good, but I didn't know that her cancer was terminal. She had been in remission, and I truly believed that she could beat this cancer. Apparently she had known about the tumor in her back for over a month, but she didn't tell anyone because she didn't want to ruin anyone's Christmas. But the pain got so bad that she couldn't ignore it anymore so she had to have surgery. The doctors weren't able to remove all of the cancer. She is going to start radiation again on Tuesday and may do another couple rounds of chemo. But they also want to do some experimental treatment too since they don't know what else to do at this point. Darlene's aunt said that we have to spend as much time with Darlene this year as we can because they don't expect her to live through the year. I wasn't ready to hear all of this. Maybe that's why Darlene never told me in the first place. She knows that she is the strong one, and I am weak. She has been battling this cancer for 2 years now. This news isn't surprising, but it still stings. In fact, it REALLY stings. I have known Darlene since we were 12. I lived with her the entire time we were in college and a couple years afterward. She is like my sister. I love her. I am not sure how I can live in a world with no Darlene. I know all hope is not lost, and miracles do happen. But my heart is still broken. I know that I need to pray for her recovery, but at the same time I need to be realistic and prepare myself for what this year could bring. It takes something like this to happen to make you realize how precious our time in this world really is. POSTED BY AMY AT 10:03 PM 3 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2006 2006 Back In Ohio...For Now Well, I'm back from my Orlando trip. My flight actually got in around noon yesterday, and Leon and the kids picked me up at the airport. I got spoiled by the weather in Florida for the 5 days I was there. It was in the mid-70's and mostly sunny...and then I came home to snow flurries and 30-degree weather. Yuck!! I appreciated the opportunity to attend this conference, but I can't say that it was all that exciting. Over 100,000 people attend this show, so it was overwhelming and extremely crowded. The traffic was awful, but we usually got to take the shuttle buses so at least we didn't have to drive in it. The opening ceremony was great. Colin Powell was the guest speaker, and he was awesome to listen to. I had no idea he was so funny, but his speech was really entertaining! I went to a few seminars which were interesting. And we had a cocktail party for our members one evening at Planet Hollywood. One of my co-workers and I stayed at the Disney Port Orleans French Quarter hotel. I thought it was a very nice facility. I wish we had the time to visit one of the Disney parks, like Epcot or the Animal Kingdom, but we really never had much free time to ourselves. I wish I had been able to bring Leon. It's always more fun to travel with him! But he and I will be on our way to Las Vegas at this time next Sunday! :) One funny story that happened at the airport on our way to Orlando... Even though I didn't set off the alarm when I went through security, I guess I was the random person they chose to frisk. I had to stand behind a glass partition while a female security guard completely patted me down. She commented "There's something in your pocket." I said "Yeah, that's my Blistex." If you know me, you know I cannot live without my Blistex so I have to carry it in my pocket! It just cracked me up that she thought my Blistex was a dangerous weapon or something! ;) I know this will be a busy week at work since I'm on vacation the week after. I'll write again when I can! POSTED BY AMY AT 9:51 AM SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2006 Viva Las Vegas! It's hard to believe that the vacation I've been planning since last August is finally here! Leon and I leave for Las Vegas at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Since our flight is so early, I want to get as much packing done today as possible so we don't have to do 4 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 much in the morning (neither of us are morning people at all!). We'll be in Vegas for a whole week, until next Saturday. I'll be sure to take pictures and post some on here when we get back. We decided to board Goldie while we're gone. She is going to be staying at a place called the Bed & Biscuit! :) She is such a spoiled baby though, I know she'll be very sad while we're gone. I hope she does alright there and doesn't sulk too much. Viva Las Vegas! I'll post again in a week. POSTED BY AMY AT 11:34 AM SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2006 Back To Reality Our vacation flew by, just like I knew it would. It was a jam-packed week with lots of activities and sightseeing. I wish I could say we struck it rich in Vegas, but that's not the case. We mostly played the nickel slot machines, but we still lost our money. The little bit that we did win was put right back into the slots and disappeared quickly. It's amazing how fast you can lose $20 in Vegas! ;) The weather was pleasant while we were there. The temperature was usually in the upper 50's, lower 60's, although it cooled down to the 30's at night. It's strange, but 50 degrees in Las Vegas feels like 6570 degrees in Ohio. So we could walk around with short sleeves and no coats during the day. The sun was out every day too, which was nice to see. We stayed at Circus Circus. The room was fine, nothing too fancy, but I couldn't pass up the $30 a night rates that they offered. We walked up and down the Strip and went in most of the hotels and casinos. We ate at a variety of different restaurants, including the Rainforest Cafe (in the MGM Hotel) which has a very cool atmosphere. One night, we had drinks and listened to a live band at the Starlight Lounge (in the Stardust Hotel) until the wee hours of the morning. Leon and I may or may not have had a little too much to drink that night, but I can tell you that we danced and Leon may have even attempted break dancing (remember the Worm?)...but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? ;) We went on a Haunted Las Vegas Tour while we were there, which was fun. The tour consisted of a bus 5 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 ride around the city, where our tour guide pointed out supposedly haunted locations. One evening, we went on a helicopter tour of the Strip at night. We were probably only up in the air for 15-20 minutes, but the view was incredible. We also got suckered into going to one of those time share presentations, but we did get free tickets to 2 different shows (Splash and Crazy Girls) and a free buffet dinner at Circus Circus as a result. On our last day there, we took a horseback ride through the desert. I had never ridden a horse before (I think I rode a pony at the fair when I was little, but that was the extent of my equestrian experience). It was actually a lot of fun! I did get nervous though when my horse, Tex, took off running a couple times, which I was not at all prepared for! But I managed to get him to stop. Tex was feisty too. He acted like he wanted to fight with a couple of the horses on several different occasions, and at one point he got impatient and bumped the horse in front of me! But all in all, it was still a very cool experience. We ate dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere on our last evening there. The view from this restaurant is beautiful, especially at night. The food is pretty expensive but very good and worth the price. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll try to get them developed and post some on here soon. I do have one picture to share for now. Leon and I found out that Elvis is alive and well in Vegas...at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum anyway! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 11:13 PM SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2006 It's Good To Be Home Even though we had fun on our vacation, it's always good to be home again. It was nice sleeping in our own bed last night (we have one of those memory foam mattress pads which is very comfy and hard to live without once you're used to it!). We missed the kids and Goldie very much too! Andrew and Beth came over this morning around 11:30 and spent the day with us. I took Beth to her soccer practice around 5:00 p.m., and Leon and Andrew went to pick up Goldie at the Bed & Biscuit (they 6 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 only allow you to pick your pet up between 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. on Sunday for some reason). I can tell Goldie is glad to be home! She looks skinnier too!! I know she didn't get nearly as many treats as she does when she's at home (I seriously doubt she got any people food either!). We'll fatten her up again in no time! ;) I have a lot to do around the house this week. I haven't completely unpacked yet and there is a lot of laundry to do and the house needs cleaned too. I imagine I'll have to work late a few nights this week, to get caught up. I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow though. I'm going to try and get to work earlier than usual tomorrow morning so I can start my day before other people get in...I'll let you know if I actually accomplish this! ;) I'm going to call Darlene tomorrow too and make plans to get together with her this week. I went to dinner with her one evening before I left for Vegas, and it was difficult. It was the first time we saw each other since I found out the "news" (that the cancer is terminal)...and now she knows that I know. I hugged her and cried for quite a while, and then I felt guilty because I know she needs me to be strong for her. I kept wiping tears away during dinner though, practically every time I looked at her. I hope I can put on a brave face for her the next time I see her. It's just so hard for me to look at her now and know...that she won't be here with me much longer. Here's a picture of the two of us that was taken at her birthday party at the beginning of January (the night her aunt told me Darlene's cancer is terminal). You can see that her hair has grown back (for now anyway, until she starts more chemo), and it's curly now (she used to have very straight hair before all of this). She has birthday candle sunglasses on her head too, in case you're wondering. Well, I need to get ready for bed. I think I'm still on Vegas time so my body thinks it's only 7:30 p.m. right now (instead of 10:30!). I'll write more this week and try to post those Vegas pictures soon too. POSTED BY AMY AT 10:42 PM MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2006 There's Nothing Like a Burglarization to Start the Week Remember how I said I was going to wake up early this morning so I could get to work before everyone else? Well, that didn't happen (surprise, surprise), and I'm actually glad it didn't! 7 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 When I pulled into the parking lot at work this morning, one of my bosses was standing there and told me not to go inside because our office had been broken into! My other boss arrived a minute later, and the three of us went inside to survey the damage. Seven of our eight computers had been stolen, along with the monitors. It doesn't appear that anything else was taken. I just got a new computer and flat-screen monitor back in the fall, so it really sucks that they took these things! The police came to our office and dusted for fingerprints, but they didn't find anything. It appears that our back door was pried open because all of the other doors were still locked and there were no broken windows. The ironic thing is, our alarm system was not set over the weekend because we had arranged to have a carpet cleaning company come in on Saturday. We had given a key to the owner of this company so they could get in, but we decided not to set the alarm because we didn't want to give the company our security code. Even though the person(s) who broke in didn't use the key and pried the door open instead, doesn't it seem convenient that our alarm system didn't happen to be set? If someone from the cleaning company tipped off their friend(s), they may have figured that they could break in without getting caught. At any rate, so much for me getting caught up on my work this week! We ordered new Dell computers and monitors today (just like the ones we had before), but they won't be in until late this week or early next week. Then our computer people will have to come out to our office to reinstall all of our programs and restore all of our files. Thankfully, our server wasn't stolen so our files and e-mails are backed up on there. It's incredible how dependent we are on our computers!! There isn't much our staff can accomplish without using our computers. I spent the day filing, cleaning up my cubicle and answering the phone. I don't know how I am going to get much of anything done this week. It's disgusting that there are people out there who are willing to do things like this. They obviously have no regard for the mess they leave behind or for the people their actions affect. I seriously doubt these particular thieves will get caught this time, but I firmly believe that what goes around comes around. What an interesting way to start the week! The excitement never ends, does it?! POSTED BY AMY AT 8:52 PM 8 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2006 2006 Ramblings on a Friday Afternoon Another work week is winding down. We finally got our new computers and got all set up with our programs and files yesterday. So at least I was able to get a little work accomplished this week! I never did get our Vegas pictures developed. I think I have about 6 rolls so I’ll try to do that soon! (Don’t hold your breath though...I still haven’t even developed my pictures from Christmas!) We don’t have the kids this weekend. Leon and I are going to our favorite restaurant, El Vaquero’s, for dinner tonight. Afterward, we’re going to go see that new spooky movie (remake) that opened today, “When A Stranger Calls.” Yay! :) Other than that, we don’t really have plans for the weekend. Leon mentioned that we might do some more painting. We’ve started painting all of the bedrooms, but we haven’t totally finished any of them yet. And of course, Sunday is the Super Bowl. I’m not into sports, but I usually watch the Super Bowl anyway. It’s interesting to see the commercials and to watch the half-time performance (I wouldn’t want to miss any incidents involving wardrobe malfunctions). Leon is rooting for the Seahawks because he’s a Cleveland Browns fan...and of course, the Steelers are the Browns’ biggest rival. So he told me he can’t possibly root for the Steelers for this reason. (By the way, I knew that the Steelers were in the Super Bowl, but I just had to check the Internet to see who they were playing...so that gives you an idea of how pathetic I am when it comes to sports!) ;) I could care less who wins or loses. I’m the world’s worst sports fan. I always have been. I know next to nothing about practically every sport that exists. I never played sports, never watched them and I couldn’t speak intelligently about them if I tried. My stepkids are both into sports, and I feel terrible because I make a horrible soccer mom! ;) Oh well... So that’s the latest! Exciting, right?! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 4:40 PM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2006 Coshocton Celebrity I talked to my parents over the weekend, and they told me that a girl who I went to high school with has a music video playing on Country Music Television (CMT). The girl’s name is Danielle Peck, and her song is called “I Don’t.” She’s apparently touring with Toby Keith as his opening act. I never knew Danielle very well, but I do remember her from school (River View High School in Warsaw, 9 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Ohio). She lived right down the road from my parents’ house so we rode the same bus. She graduated a couple years after I did so I didn’t have any classes with her. I do recall that she liked to sing, even back then, and she used to perform in our school talent show. I’m not much of a country music fan, but Danielle’s song is nice. She has a pretty voice. It’s always nice to see someone from Coshocton make something of themself. I can’t recall any other celebrities from my hometown so I’m sure this is a big deal back home. I told my husband last night that you don’t usually see too many people from Coshocton on TV unless the show is Cops or Jerry Springer!! ;) hehehehe (sad but true!) POSTED BY AMY AT 11:22 AM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2006 Fun With Pictures! I was cleaning out my closet over the weekend, and I came across some of my old pictures. I scanned them in so I could share them with you on here! ;) The first one was taken when I was about 7 months old or so, in 1977. I was born in May and I believe this was my Christmas picture from that year. 10 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 The next one was taken when I was about 3 or so, probably sometime in 1980. Notice how my mom dressed me like a little hippie! :) The following picture was the portrait I had taken when I was a senior in high school, in 1995. I think I was 17 when this was taken. Do you like my big hair?? ;) As you may recall, it was the style back then to make your hair as poofy as possible! This is actually my natural hair color (brown) and texture (curly). Weird, huh?? Fast forward 10+ years later to 2006...here is a picture of Leon and me that was taken at the Stratosphere restaurant during our recent trip to Las Vegas. POSTED BY AMY AT 3:25 PM 11 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2006 Must be the Weather... After several weeks of spring-like weather (which is very rare for Ohio this time of year), it seems like winter is back. It’s very cold today, and it’s snowing lightly outside right now. I hate cold weather, but I think the worst part of Ohio winters is the lack of sun. It’s always so dreary this time of year. The dreariness reflects my mood at the moment. You know the phrase “When it rains, it pours”? That’s how I’ve felt lately. Of course, the most upsetting thing in my life right now is Darlene. She was in the hospital again for 4 days last week because she had 2 blood clots in her lungs (pulmonary embolism). She was allergic to the medication the doctors were giving her to treat the clots and she almost died! Her organs began to shut down! Thankfully, the doctors realized she was having an allergic reaction to the medicine and they gave her something different. I spoke to Darlene yesterday and she said that she has so many holes in her arms (from all the blood that was drawn) that she looks like a junkie. Tomorrow, she gets to start chemo again. Happy Valentine’s Day to her, right? Even though other things in my life distract me, the pain of infertility never goes away for me. I can forget about it for a while, but it’s always there. I haven’t cried about it for a long time, but the hurt is still there just below the surface. There’s never a good time to start treatment again. That whole process is so painful (emotionally), I’m not sure I can go through that right now. So all I can do is wait. And I don’t want to go into this story on here, but Leon and I are also having some issues at the moment with his ex-wife. So that just adds to the stress and tension in my life. I hope the sun comes out soon. I miss the days when life was simpler. POSTED BY AMY AT 11:05 AM 12 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 2006 Happy Valentine’s Day! POSTED BY AMY AT 8:53 AM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006 Goldie's Eyes I’ve been worried about Goldie lately because the pupil of her right eye looks cloudy, with a grayish tint. I just started noticing this within the past couple weeks. So I took her to the vet this afternoon to have her eye checked out. It turns out that she has the beginnings of a cataract in her right eye. Her vision doesn’t seem to be affected yet, but we need to keep an eye on her. The cataract could develop slowly and never require surgery, or it could get worse quickly and require surgery soon. At any rate, we will have the surgery done on her eye if it comes to that. I wouldn’t want her to go blind! She is my furdaughter and I have to take care of her!! Goldie will be 6 in June. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for dogs her age to get cataracts, especially larger breeds like golden retrievers. I just hope that everything is alright with her eye and that her vision doesn’t worsen quickly. Just one more thing to add to my “stress list”...... POSTED BY AMY AT 2:35 PM 13 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2006 Weekend, Here Again Darlene is moving in with her dad and step-mom today. They live near Akron, about 2 hours away. She's so upset that she has to move, but she can't afford to live on her own since she isn't working anymore. And her roommate actually asked her to move out, which I think is kind of cruel considering everything that is going on in her life right now. But I think her roommate is just scared...afraid of how sick she'll get and afraid she'll die at home. Darlene's family will still have to bring her to Columbus at least once a week because her doctor is here. So I hope I get to see her when she's in town. I'll make the effort to visit her at her dad's house too. It's just one more thing about cancer that sucks. Now that she's 2 hours away, I get to spend even less time with her. And it's not like time is on our side anyway! I don't know how much longer she'll be with me. Anyway...on a happier note, Leon and I are picking Andrew and Beth up at 1:00 p.m. today and heading up to Medina for the weekend. Leon's brother Rob and his family are in town to celebrate his son's 1st birthday. My nephew and niece are so adorable and we don't get to see them as often as we'd like since they live in Maryland. So it will be good to see everyone for a couple days. Have a good weekend! POSTED BY AMY AT 12:14 PM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2006 Everything Happens for a Reason (Reading back over my post, I realize it sounds somewhat “preachy.” It’s about religion, a touchy subject. Everyone is free to believe whatever they want, and I am not saying my way is THE WAY. I’m just rambling about my own beliefs. Because these things are what help me get through the hardest times in my own life.) My title says it all. By telling myself this – by believing this – I’m better able to accept the things that happen in this life. So many things happen in our lives, in our world – things we live through or hear about or see on the news. So many bad things. Why? I don’t know. No one knows. I don’t believe we are meant to know the “why’s.” Not while we’re here on this earth anyway. Let me start by saying I believe in God. I have struggled with my beliefs over the years, but the conclusion I came to was this: It’s easier for me to believe that not to believe. 14 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Everyone has their own ideas about religion. That seems to be the one thing in this world that no one can ever agree on. I guess what bothers me the most about religion is that people are always doing things – often terrible things – in the name of God. A big example that I can think of is 9/11. The terrorists believed that killing all of those people was their ticket into Heaven. Everyone is free to believe what they want, but if there is a God I can’t imagine He would be ok with killing anyone in His name. When I was in my early 20’s and went through some difficult times in my life, I turned away from God. I was struggling with depression, and my reasons for my so-called Atheism were selfish ones. I thought if there was a God, He would never let me feel as low as I did at that point in my life. He would never allow wars or murder or famine or children dying or any of that. One day a couple years later, I just changed my mind. I don’t really know what happened. Maybe I just wasn’t as angry anymore. I actually got down on my knees that day and prayed, something I hadn’t done in a VERY long time. I asked God to forgive me from turning away from Him. I asked Him to come back into my life. I really felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders after that. Growing up, my family rarely went to church. Leon and I don’t go to church now either. I’d like to go, but Leon is always hesitant. He believes in God but he doesn’t believe in “organized religion.” But I do pray and I do believe that everything happens for a reason. I think God has a plan for all of our lives, but we’re not meant to know or understand His plan until our time on this earth is through. I can’t grasp what Heaven must be like, but I think it’s a place where we finally realize what our purpose in life was. Applying these things to my own life helps me cope. Darlene is dying of cancer for a reason. I am unable to have a baby for a reason. It would be so much easier if only we could understand what these reasons are, but I don’t think we’re meant to understand. Life can be so difficult. But life can also be so beautiful. It’s the most precious gift we’ll ever receive. That much must be true. POSTED BY AMY AT 2:26 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2006 Allergies(?) Strike Again!! I assume I have allergies. I can’t believe I would catch a cold every few weeks. I’ve been to the doctor in the past complaining about my (almost) monthly symptoms and he told me that I most likely have allergies. What kind of allergies? I don’t know. I would have to go to an allergist and have one of those tests where they poke your back with different things to see what exactly I’m allergic to. My best guess would be the weather. Ohio has to be one of the worst places to live if you have allergies because the weather and temperature can be so drastically different every day. It’s always the same thing. Almost once a month, I become stuffed up and my throat gets sore and I 15 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 cough and sneeze and get one of those sinus headaches. I don’t feel terribly sick otherwise, but my sinus/nasal symptoms are still a nuisance. I haven’t located a magic cure for this yet either. I’ve tried all kinds of different over-the-counter cold/allergy medications, but nothing ever really helps. I took the "100% satisfaction guaranteed" Airborne pills which are supposed to nip cold symptoms in the bud (or prevent them from even starting), but they didn’t work for me at all. I actually got terrible cold/allergy symptoms AFTER I took an Airborne. It’s like it caused me to get sick. They also taste disgusting! You have to dissolve the pill in water and drink it. I got the orange-flavored pills, and they taste so awful I could hardly get it down without gagging. I’ve tried prescription allergy pills and nasal sprays and humidifiers too. Nothing seems to work. I’m desperate for a magic cure! One of my co-workers said that her son uses a prescription nasal spray called Rhinocort so I left a message with my doctor asking him if he’d call in a prescription for me. I’m still waiting for him to call me back... Being sick all the time gets old. I know it could be much worse, but it’s still not exactly fun. My doctor mentioned once that maybe I’m allergic to Goldie. I just laughed and said that if I was, I’d just have to grin and bear my symptoms. There’s NO WAY I’d give Goldie away even if I was allergic to her! That would be like giving away your child!! And Goldie is most certainly my baby. So...for now, I just have to load up on tissues, cough drops, inhalers and allergy pills that put me in a detached, zombie-like state (or make me extremely sleepy). Either that or pack up my family and move us to Arizona or Nevada or some other state with dry, desert air – and unfortunately, that doesn’t seem like a reasonable plan at the moment. *achoo!* *sniffle* *sniffle* POSTED BY AMY AT 12:54 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2006 Wedding Bells My sister recently told me that she and Jamie, her fiancé, are planning on going to the Virgin Islands – St. Thomas, to be exact – to get married. They are thinking about going in November, the week of Thanksgiving, and then spend their honeymoon there as well. Julie doesn’t want a big wedding. Jamie has been married once before (he has two small children) so he doesn’t want a big wedding either. They don’t even want to invite anyone to their wedding! But I told Julie that I really want to watch her get married. She’s my only sister and I don’t want to miss it. So I hope that Leon and I can go to St. Thomas for just a few days to be there for the wedding. My parents aren’t even sure that they are going to go though. They’re disappointed that Julie wants to get married in a place so far away. My mom is also afraid to fly so it’s going to take some convincing to get her on a plane. Ideally, I’d love for my parents and Leon and I to all go together. We couldn’t afford to stay long (maybe only 3 days?), but at least we’d be there for Julie. I guess we’ll just wait and see. Julie and Jamie haven’t even picked a date yet, and they tend to change 16 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 their minds. A lot. So it’s possible that this wedding will never even happen (did I say that out loud?). But in the case that it does, I hope I can be there. ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 4:26 PM MONDAY, MARCH 13, 2006 Ants are marching... The kids were with us this weekend. Beth had an outdoor soccer game on Saturday, and it poured! She was a muddy mess by the time the game was over. It was funny because she even had mud on her nose! After we got her cleaned up, we took the kids to something called the Pet Expo at the fairgrounds. It wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. There were some exhibits, and there were a variety of animals there like dogs, cats, llamas, fish and reptiles. But I guess I thought there would be more exhibits and a lot more animals. The kids seemed to enjoy it though. On Sunday morning, Beth woke me up and told me there were ants in our kitchen! So I went downstairs to survey the situation. There was a trail of ants from underneath the refrigerator and through the hallway all the way to our front door!! I had just swept the floor so I don’t know what they were doing there. It has been warmer lately so that’s probably why they’re back. We have a problem with ants in our kitchen every year when the weather gets warmer. If you know me, you know I have a terrible bug phobia. I just hate bugs, no matter how small. Tiny little ants freak me out and make me very squeamish. So needless to say, seeing all of these ants disturbed me greatly! I woke Leon up and made him come downstairs to take care of it. He grumpily got out the vacuum cleaner and sucked all of the ants up! Of course, later that day the ants crawled back out of the vacuum and were all over the floor again. I cleaned the house from top to bottom last night, but I still noticed some ants here and there. I don’t know how to permanently get rid of them. We can’t put down poison or even use Raid because I wouldn’t want Goldie to get into it. Then, while I was cleaning the house I had the brilliant idea of supergluing this magnet back together that had broken a while back. I had this adorable basket of apples magnet that had fallen off the fridge and the handle on the basket broke off. So I thought I would just glue the handle back on. Well, my great plan didn’t work out so well. The superglue squirted out of the tube and got all over my fingers! Two of my fingers on my left hand were superglued together, and the magnet itself was superglued to one of the fingers on my right hand! :) It was pretty comical. I went upstairs and told Leon that I needed help. I’m sure he thought I was nuts! He poured nail polish remover on my fingers, and I finally got everything unstuck and was able to resume my cleaning. I didn’t get to bed until after 1:00 a.m. though because our house always takes such a long time to clean. I hate cleaning it anyway, so I procrastinate to the point where it’s really dirty and takes even longer than usual to clean. It’s a vicious cycle. When I woke up this morning, my throat was sore. Again! I am so sick of being sick with a cold and/or allergies. I just can’t seem to shake this stuff. I have been using my new prescription nasal spray called Rhinocort, but it can take up to 3 weeks to see any effects from this. So for now, I just have to tough it 17 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 out. If this continues, I think I’ll make an appointment with an allergist to try and get to the bottom of these allergies. :( I’m at work right now. The next issue of our magazine is due to the printer by Wednesday so I better get back to that. Hopefully, I can avoid ants and superglue and allergies for the rest of the week. POSTED BY AMY AT 1:48 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2006 My silly husband lost his wallet Leon lost his wallet. How, when, where and why have yet to be answered. He last remembers seeing his wallet on Sunday, but he didn’t discover it was missing until yesterday (Tuesday). I’m not sure how it never occurred to him on Monday that he didn’t have his wallet! ;) But anyway... We looked everywhere for it last night. We got a flashlight out and looked under the car seats, underneath the couch and cushions, in cupboards and drawers, in every pair of pants he owns, etc. I still think it’s just misplaced and it will turn up eventually. But at any rate Leon went ahead and cancelled his credit cards and requested new ones, and he got a new license today. Luckily, there wasn’t any money in his wallet, but it’s a pain to have to replace all of the cards that were in it. Leon told me last night that he thought someone picked his pocket at the Pet Expo on Saturday. The thought of someone taking his wallet at a pet expo is amusing to say the least. :) But I told him that couldn’t be true because he gave me money out of his wallet on Sunday! I was getting ready to take Beth to her soccer practice, and Leon pulled $5 out of his wallet and told me to pick up some Diet Coke while I was out. So somehow, he lost his wallet after this. Who knows?! It’s always something! That’s for sure. POSTED BY AMY AT 2:58 PM MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2006 A Rose By Any Other Name... In honor of the first day of spring, I wanted to talk about my favorite flower – the rose! I LOVE roses. I think they are so beautiful! I carried red roses on my wedding day. I also have a lot of rose collectibles in my house. I even have a rose tattoo!! :) 18 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Ever since I was in high school, I wanted to get a tattoo. I always knew I wanted a red rose tattoo. I used to think I wanted it on my ankle, but I eventually decided to get one on my lower back so I could hide it if I wanted to. It took me over 10 years to get up the courage to finally go through with it though! In June of 2003, when I was 26, I was determined it was time to get one. I knew I wouldn't regret getting a tattoo. Instead, I knew that I would have regrets if I DIDN'T get one. I started researching tattoo parlors and finally decided on a respectable one not too far from where I lived at the time. I found a small red rose design I wanted on the Internet, and I printed it off and took it with me to the tattoo parlor. I went all by myself to get my tattoo! Leon wouldn't go with me because he said that he couldn't stand to watch me being poked with a needle! ;) I felt pretty brave though and didn't really mind going alone. I can't even remember the name of the guy who gave me my tattoo, but he was very nice and professional and made me feel at ease. He was a big guy with lots of tattoos himself and several piercings. He took the design I had printed off the Internet and retraced it onto the right-hand side of my lower back. I didn't want the rose to be much bigger than a 50-cent piece. He had me look in the mirror and make sure that the drawing was where I wanted it. Then he began outlining the rose with black ink. I remember him telling me that the black ink outline would be the most painful part (it wasn’t that bad). After outlining the rose, he filled it in with red ink and the leaves with green ink. He would frequently stop to make sure I was doing alright. I wasn't sure what to expect beforehand, but the pain was not that bad at all. A funny thing I remember while I was getting my tattoo......there was a tiny little black ant crawling around on the wood floor and I concentrated on that ant to get my mind off being poked with the needle! :) Although it did hurt, it wasn't an unbearable pain. It was actually a very cool experience. Almost three years later, I still love my tattoo and I am so glad that I had it done! POSTED BY AMY AT 3:14 PM 19 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 2006 At work... This afternoon at work, we are having a chili cook-off for our members. We had one last year and it was a lot of fun. We have about 15 people entering their chili this year! We have a local chef coming in to taste the chili and choose which one he likes best. This event is basically just an opportunity for our members to get together and network, which is what they enjoy the most. We have over 60 people registered to attend. We host so many events at work! Almost every day there is some kind of meeting, seminar or event taking place. It keeps us all really busy! Our web gal recently put pictures of the staff on our website (click on “Contact Us” which is the button near the bottom left-hand side of the page). Our association president also wrote about the staff in his monthly column, which will appear in the April issue of our magazine. Kind of makes me feel like a celebrity! ;) hehe POSTED BY AMY AT 3:36 PM FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2006 Snowy Friday It’s spring in Ohio, but it doesn’t seem like it! We had a very mild winter with very little snow to speak of. But all week it has been pretty chilly, and today it’s snowing big fat flakes! It doesn’t look like the snow will stick...but still! It’s just the idea of it. I want the sun and warm weather!!!! I am just not made for Ohio weather. I’ve lived here all my life, but I really hate our weather. It’s just too unpredictable. I want to live somewhere warm where the sun is out most of the time. I told Leon that we should move to Arizona or Nevada someday...someplace dry that would be good for my allergies! But it’s hard to pick up and move so far away when our families are in Ohio and the kids are still in school. Maybe someday we’ll retire in the desert! ;) I’m glad it’s Friday though! We have the kids for the next 3 weekends because their spring break is the first week of April, so they will be with us that whole week. Leon is taking that week off work, and I am going to try and take 2-3 days off. We don’t have anything planned yet, but there are a lot of things to do in Columbus that we can take advantage of. I better get to work now. It’s easy to slack off on Friday because my mind is already in weekend mode! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 9:19 AM 20 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006 I am sick AGAIN! Arghhhhh! I must have the world’s worst immune system. If I’m not suffering from allergies, then I’m sick with a cold or the flu. I know I could be a lot worse off (I don’t have cancer after all, so what do I have to complain about?!). But still...being sick is never fun. I woke up yesterday morning with an awful headache and a really sore throat. So I took a sick day. Which is quite unlike me! It takes a lot to get me to call off work. But I just felt awful. I slept most of the day. I just felt achy all over and stuffed up and my throat hurt. I couldn’t get warm and I kept shivering, but I didn’t have a fever. Last night, I was so restless. I tossed and turned all night, and I think I woke up every hour. I finally got up at 3:00 a.m. and turned on the TV. I felt like taking another sick day, but I didn’t. I haven’t felt good all day at work though. I am still cold and my throat feels even sorer. Thank God it’s almost 5:00 p.m.! I’m ready to go home and try to recover. POSTED BY AMY AT 4:12 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2006 So now I have a "virus"...... I ended up going to an Urgent Care center after work yesterday because I felt so awful. The doctor did a throat culture, but he said that I didn’t have strep throat. He said it’s just a virus, but unfortunately it has to run its course. There was nothing he could give me. He just recommended ibuprofen and throat lozenges. This virus can last from 5-7 days though. I do feel better today. My throat is still sore, but I was able to get more sleep than I did the night before. When the doctor took my temperature yesterday, it was 101.5. So that explains why I was so cold yesterday. Andrew was sick with something very similar to this a couple weeks ago. He missed 4 days of school. So maybe I caught what he had. I was planning on visiting Darlene at her dad’s house this weekend, but it looks like that won’t be happening after all. Her immunity is already low from the chemo so I don’t want to expose her to anything. Hopefully I can visit her the following weekend. I miss her! I haven’t seen her in about 3 weeks. 21 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Well, I better get back to work. I was pretty useless yesterday so I hope to get more accomplished today! POSTED BY AMY AT 8:44 AM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2006 I must still have a fever... ...because this picture that my husband just e-mailed me struck me as really hilarious!! :) POSTED BY AMY AT 10:58 AM THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006 I lost my voice! I know the doctor said that this virus has to run its course, but this is getting old! My latest symptom: I have no voice!!!! Of course, Leon is devastated that I’m not able to talk to him!! (insert sarcastic smiley face here!) :) I started sounding really hoarse yesterday afternoon and by the time I went to bed last night, my voice was pretty much gone. I’m at work today, but at least I have an excuse not to help answer the phones! ;) I am seriously contemplating taking another sick day tomorrow. It will be Friday after all, and I wouldn’t be missing much at work. What I need to do is buy some Nyquil or some type of cold medicine that will completely knock me out! Because I haven’t been able to sleep well for 4 nights now. I feel worse when I lay down to sleep. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. again this morning and could not get back to sleep. So I got up 22 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog and watched TV until it was time to get ready for work! 2006 My posts the last few days have been very whiny!! ;) So I apologize to anyone who reads my blog for complaining so much! I am not much of a trooper when I’m sick. That’s why it amazes me that Darlene has been so positive, so upbeat, the entire time she’s had cancer. I think it would be so easy to feel sorry for yourself if you were dealing with an illness like cancer. I guess that’s why I love and admire Dar so much! I only hope I can be more like her when it comes to handling obstacles in life. So anyway...back to the subject of anyone reading my blog. I’m not sure anyone actually does read it. I only know of one person for sure who checks in (HI SARAH!! *smiles*). When I read back through what I’ve written, I’m sure it must not be that interesting to the casual observer. I guess it’s more of a journal for my own purposes. Maybe someday I’ll read back over this and get a kick out of it! Or maybe I’ll just think the whole idea of blogging is really lame and sooooo 00-ish. Is that what we call the early 2000’s? The "00’s"?? I mean, I can refer to the 80’s or the 90’s but what the heck do I call the time period we are living in right now? The "oh-oh’s" sounds stupid! But that’s a topic for another blog entry. ;) I better get back to work now if I’m taking a sick day tomorrow!! :) POSTED BY AMY AT 12:38 PM TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006 I'm behind in my blogging! I know I haven’t posted in a while. That virus I had really kicked my butt! I was sick for about a week before finally going to my family doctor. He confirmed that I did have a virus (just like the dr. at Urgent Care told me) as well as a sinus infection. He put me on an antibiotic. A couple days later, my left ear started feeling plugged up. So I called the doctor again and he gave me another prescription for that! It’s been about a week since my ear has been plugged, and it’s still not 100% better. My voice finally came back though, which is nice! Andrew and Beth stayed with us last week since they were on spring break. I felt bad that I was sick for the first part of their vacation. All I did was sleep! I finally felt well enough to hang out with the kids by the middle of last week. We had some nice spring days so we went to the park near our house a few times. I also took them to see a new movie called "The Benchwarmers." It was cute. The kids only wanted to see it because it had Napoleon Dynamite in it! This week is already shaping up to be a hectic one at work. Since I missed 3 days of work when I was sick and then took another 2 days off last week to spend time with the kids, I am really behind! The magazine is due to the printer on Friday, and I am not even half-way done with it! It looks like we are having Easter at our house. Leon’s family is supposed to come down and stay with us 23 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 this weekend. I assume my family will be there too. Leon bought us a brand new, stainless steel oven last weekend. It’s really nice! I guess he’ll expect me to cook Easter dinner now, huh?? ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 4:36 PM FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2006 TGIF! I haven’t had much time to post lately! I have been busier than ever at work. This is an especially busy time of year as we prepare for our big home show in June. We also have two smaller home shows in May and I coordinate one of them so that’s always a lot of work. It’s a good thing I love what I do because it seems like I work all the time!! I’m glad it’s Friday though! We have the kids this weekend. They are always busy with their extracurricular activities too. I know Beth has soccer and a Girl Scouts event at the zoo, and Andrew is the referee for two soccer games this weekend. Leon bought us a new TV this week! It’s the same size as our old TV (55-inch), but it’s not nearly as big and bulky as the old model. It isn’t a plasma screen, but it looks similar to one since it’s flatter. We need to get a stand to put it on though. It’s a very nice TV! Leon is really into the high definition channels, etc., and this TV has an awesome picture. It’s like having our own little movie theatre, which is cool! :) Leon is giving the old TV to his brother John since he has helped us so much with our home improvement projects. The "old" TV is still fine, there’s nothing wrong with it. Leon just wanted a more high-def model and the old one was so large. I’m actually embarrassed to admit this, but we have 6 TV’s in our house! That seems excessive!! Well, it’s almost quitting time and I have to go pick up the kids! Until I blog again... :) POSTED BY AMY AT 4:37 PM TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006 Cancer Sucks. Period. I just got off the phone with Darlene. Her doctors have decided to stop doing chemo because her cancer continues to grow and spread in spite of the chemo. I guess the doctors are trying to get her into some 24 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 clinical study at the University of Michigan. At this point, experimental treatment is really all that they can offer her. I don’t like the word "experimental" because it makes it sound like Darlene is just some guinea pig that they are going to poke and prod and see if their "experiments" do anything for her. I’m sure that being a part of these experimental treatments is a wonderful and selfless thing to do though. If you’re dying anyway, then why not try something that might help cure cancer in the future? At least that’s what I tell myself to help this all make sense. I know there are always miracles and there is always hope, but at this point I believe it is just a matter of time. Darlene is supposed to stay with me the weekend of May 5th. I haven’t seen her in over a month. I hate that she moved 2 hours away from me. I hate that she is dying at 29. I hate that I am going to have to live the rest of my life without my best friend. I hate everything about this disease. This isn’t the way it was supposed to go. Darlene and I used to talk about how we’d grow up and get married and have kids and our families would spend holidays together and on and on. Instead Darlene is going to die before she even got the chance to get married and have kids. And I got married, but I can’t have kids (other than my stepkids of course). How ironic. Life never seems to go according to plan. Some days we think we have it all figured out. And then something like say, cancer, comes along and we realize that we have nothing figured out. We’re just standing in the middle of this whole mess, thinking ‘Should I laugh or should I cry?’ POSTED BY AMY AT 3:47 PM MONDAY, MAY 01, 2006 This n’ that... I have been keeping so busy lately, so I haven’t had much time to post! Sorry for the lack of updates. At work, we’re getting ready for our big home show in June – the Parade of Homes. It’s a 16-day event, and we typically get about 40,000 people in attendance so it’s a lot of work preparing for it! I’m usually out of the office at the Parade site the whole month of June. Andrew and Beth will be staying with Leon and me the first half of the summer this year. We trade halves of the summer with the kids’ mom every year, but the second half of the summer is more ideal. I’m so busy with the Parade in June, I feel like I don’t get to spend as much time with the kids as I’d like. But what can you do? The kids’ last day of school this year is June 8, and they’ll be with us from then through mid-July. Andrew turned 12 last Wednesday. He will be starting a new school next year as a 7th grader, a middle school. I can’t believe how fast he’s growing up! Although it was 17 years ago, it seems like just yesterday that I was 12 years old! I remember junior high pretty vividly. It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been 17 years!! It’s hard to comprehend how the time flies. 25 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 The weather has been very nice lately! I’m so glad that it’s springtime. It’s just so good to see the sun again! Leon and I went to the movies yesterday to see "Flight 93." It was well-done but obviously very depressing. Not that I wasn’t expecting it to be depressing because the subject matter is just so sad. September 11th was one of those days that you will always remember what you were doing when you heard the news. I suppose when an event is so horrific, so shocking, that it stays forever etched in your mind. Darlene is supposed to come to Columbus and stay with us this weekend. The last time she was supposed to stay, she wasn’t able to after all though. I really hope she can come. I haven’t seen her in over a month and I know in my heart that my time with her is limited. If she can’t come this time, then I am going to make arrangements to visit her at her dad’s house. Well, I better get back to work. I’ll try not to wait so long between posts next time! POSTED BY AMY AT 3:03 PM WEDNESDAY, MAY 03, 2006 Mouse in the house, thanks to Goldie! The funniest thing happened last night! It was about 11:30 p.m., and I let Goldie outside one last time before bed so she could go potty. Since we don’t have our backyard fenced in (yet), we hook Goldie’s collar up to a cable we have tied out behind our house and let her run around on that when she needs to go out. Anyway...Goldie scratched at the door to come back in after a few minutes. I opened the sliding glass door, she stepped inside the house and I reached down to unhook her from the cable. I noticed that she dropped something white on the floor. I thought it was a crumpled-up piece of paper and reached down to pick it up...until I noticed that the "paper" had a tail. That’s when I realized it was a mouse! At first, I thought it was dead. But then it ran toward Goldie. My immediate reaction was to jump up on the couch and start screaming! I can’t remember exactly what I was yelling, but it was something along the lines of "Leon!! Goldie brought a mouse inside!!" Leon ran downstairs and told me he thought there was an ax murderer in the house because I was screaming bloody murder! :) Goldie sat down by the couch, and the mouse ran in front of her and stood still. I remained on top of the couch while Leon grabbed a garbage bag. He told Goldie to "stay" because he was afraid she would chase the mouse and make it run. Leon put the garbage bag over the mouse and carried it back outside and let it go. Even though I was terrified of it, I was glad he didn’t kill it. Afterward, we couldn’t quit laughing! The whole scene was so ridiculous!! We realized the reason the 26 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 mouse was so calm was that it may have been someone’s pet. It was a white mouse, and mice in the wild are not white. I think Goldie thought she had made a new friend and she wanted to bring him inside. It was raining last night so Leon said that Goldie wanted to bring the mouse in out of the rain. Goldie is truly a "retriever." She loves to pick things up! I once caught her outside with a baby bunny in her mouth. She didn’t hurt him, she just picked him up and was carrying him...just like she did with the mouse. Goldie is actually very gentle and picks animals up very carefully with her mouth so as not to hurt them. I think she simply wants to play with them. She loves stuffed animals so maybe she thinks they are living stuffed animals! At any rate, even though it was hilarious it totally freaked me out. I hope Goldie doesn’t bring us anymore surprises anytime soon!! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 9:54 AM WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2006 Almost 30! Today is my 29th birthday. It’s hard to believe next year will be the big 3-0. Time flies, that’s for sure! Happy Birthday to me! :) I’ve been so busy lately so I haven’t had much time to post. Leon and I went to Medina over the weekend to visit his family. While we were there, Leon bought his mom a Mother’s Day present and me a birthday present – he gave us both a new Motorola Pink Razr cell phone!! It is so cool! I love it!! :) My new pink Razr – ain’t it cool?! I’m on Verizon and it was time for me to renew my contract anyway, so I upgraded my package. I can now send unlimited pictures and text messages. My previous cell phone didn’t have a camera or text messaging, so I am loving the new features!! I also got some new ring tones, including a couple that 27 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 every horror movie buff would appreciate – the theme songs to “Halloween” and “Poltergeist.” :) I’m going to Coshocton this weekend to visit my family. This is our weekend with the kids and they have a very busy weekend with sports and extracurricular activities, so Leon is staying home with them. But my parents wanted to see me for my birthday and I haven’t been home since Christmas I think! So I figured it’s time for a visit. My sister wants me to meet her fiancés family on Saturday. They’re having some kind of a get-together and she wants me to come. Jamie (Julie’s fiancé) has two children, a 7-year-old son and an almost-4-year-old daughter so I’m looking forward to meeting my future niece and nephew. A couple weeks ago, Darlene spent the weekend with us. I hadn’t seen her in over a month so I was nervous to see her. She actually looked really well though! She has never looked as sick as she really is. She doesn’t have any hair, but she was wearing a bandana. Although she doesn’t have much of an appetite, she hasn’t lost that much weight. And she has always been fair-skinned anyway, so she didn’t look overly pale. She wasn’t even using her cane! She walks really slow and with a limp, but she forces herself to walk without her cane or wheelchair. Darlene is such a tough girl! It’s incredible. After everything she has been through, she’s still hanging in there with all of her might. We had a nice visit. She talked quite a bit about her cancer, but she talks about it almost as if it’s happening to someone else – as if she’s just an observer, with little emotion involved. Maybe that’s just the way she copes with it all. She’s trying to get into the experimental treatment clinical study at the University of Michigan. She admits that this treatment is her only hope and if this fails...well, she will die. Her cancer is spreading quickly and the chemo, radiation and surgery weren’t enough to stop it. So all we can do is hope and pray that the experimental treatment will work. Darlene has always wanted to visit Paris so her aunt bought her a plane ticket there. She said that she’s going to go after she finds out what’s going on with the Michigan study and when she can start that treatment. I hope so much that she gets to see Paris! My license expired on my birthday so I went to get it renewed yesterday. Visiting the BMV is always an experience. The people that work there are so unpleasant. They apparently hate their jobs. Not that I blame them, but if you’re in a customer service position would it kill you to be somewhat friendly? Anyway, I hate getting my picture taken so I knew my license photo would come out terrible. And it did. I’m smiling slightly as if I’m confused. And now I have to carry around this God-awful picture until 2010! Oh well! ;) Leon said that he would take me out to dinner tonight for my birthday. We’ll probably go to Olive Garden. That’s my 2nd favorite restaurant next to El Vaquero’s (and we just ate dinner there on Friday night!). At work, we get to choose a cake for our birthday celebration. I picked Boston Cream Pie so we’ll have that this afternoon. :) Well, I better get back to work now. Even though it is my birthday, I should probably try to do a little bit of work! ;) Until I blog again... POSTED BY AMY AT 9:11 AM 28 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2006 Busy time of year...so here’s one LONG post to tide you over! My posts are most likely going to be few and far between for the next month. Things start getting really hectic at work this time of year. Our Parade of Homes (which is a huge, 16-day home show with about 40,000 attendees) starts on June 10th. I’m one of the lucky staff that gets to be out at the Parade site pretty much every day in June. ;) I guess it’s nice to be outdoors and out of the office, but it’s such an unbelievable amount of work that I’m always glad when the Parade is over. Which is sad because that means I’m wishing the whole month of June away and summer is my favorite time of year!! :( This year’s Parade site is only about 10 minutes from our office and probably only a half hour from my house, so it won’t take me long to get there at least. It’s a really beautiful site, in a park setting. There are 12 homes this year, and they’re in the $400,000 - $700,000 price range. Click here if you want to find out more about the Parade of Homes! :) My family has all kinds of things going on this time of year too. Andrew and Beth’s last day of school is June 8th, and then they’ll be staying with us from that time through mid-July. Beth is very active with soccer so it seems like she constantly has practices/games. Andrew is playing baseball this summer so he also has practices/games. During the day while we’re at work, the kids will be attending a YMCA summer camp. They went to this camp last summer too, and they seemed to enjoy it. We don’t have any vacations planned for the summer yet, but we’ll probably take some small trips – possibly to Cedar Point or Kings Island or the zoo or something like that. Leon’s 37th birthday is on June 6th. :) The kids will be able to spend the evening with us to celebrate their dad’s birthday. We’ll probably take Leon out to eat and then have a small party for him at our house. Goldie’s birthday is on June 11th! She’ll be 6 years old (or, actually, 42 in doggie years!). We’ll have a mini celebration for her too! :) She’ll get extra treats and a new bone that day, I’m sure!! :) I went to Coshocton last weekend to visit my family. They had a birthday party for me on Saturday night – it was just my parents, my grandma, my sister and her fiancé. We went out to dinner at my favorite local dive there – the Eagles! :) My dad has been a member of the Eagles for years. It’s a pretty rednecklooking place, but they have good food and you can’t beat the prices! I eat there every time I’m in Coshocton. :) Earlier that day, I went with my sister to her fiancé’s son’s birthday party. His son’s name is Andrew too and he just turned 7. Jamie (Julie’s fiancé) also has a 3-year-old daughter named Chloe. I had never met his kids before so I really enjoyed meeting them. They’re adorable! I also got to meet Jamie’s parents, his two brothers and his sister-in-law as well as the 5 dogs that were there! His family seemed very nice. As for Julie and Jamie though, I really think that’s still up in the air. They’re still engaged, but they don’t get along very well at all. Plus, my sister isn’t very fond of his kids so I find it hard to believe she’s prepared to be a stepmom to them. I seriously doubt they’ll get married in the Virgin Islands this Thanksgiving like they talked about. We’ll just have to wait and see... Our bosses are letting us leave work at 3:00 p.m. today and then we have Monday off for Memorial Day. 29 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 So it will be a nice long weekend! The kids are with us, so it will still be a busy weekend though. Beth has a soccer tournament both Saturday and Sunday so she has 4 games to play in (she’ll play in a 5th championship game if her team wins the earlier games). Leon and I are going to attend a brand new church on Sunday too! I’ve wanted to get involved in church for a long time now, but Leon has been reluctant. He believes in God, but he has problems with “organized religion.” He’s Lutheran (my family went to a Methodist church when I was younger), so I picked out a local Lutheran church and he seems to be ok with that. I’m excited about attending! The kids are very involved in another local Lutheran church with their mom, so they won’t be going with us to this new church. I feel that I need support from a church family now more than ever. There are so many emotionally exhausting things I have to deal with in my life right now, and I could really use some spiritual guidance to get through it all. Speaking of emotionally exhausting, Darlene is still hanging in there! She was accepted into the clinical study at the University of Michigan, and she’s supposed to begin the program next week. Similar to chemo, she’ll be hooked up to an IV filled with this experimental drug to receive doses of it for 24 hours. I can’t recall the name of the drug and it hasn’t been approved by the FDA yet, but it has shown promise in people with soft tissue sarcoma like she has. She’ll go back to Michigan to receive a dose of this drug every 3 weeks. She’ll be monitored at the local Ohio State University Hospital so the doctors can determine if the drug is shrinking her tumors. Darlene is very enthusiastic about this new treatment, and we are all extremely hopeful that this will save her life!! Another ongoing emotionally draining task is dealing with the kids’ mom. She and I have always gotten along just fine, but lately she has been very difficult (to put it nicely). For the sake of the kids, I want all of us to get along but it’s been extremely hard to grin and bear it recently. I don’t know what’s changed to make her act the way she has been but I don’t have the time, energy or patience to deal with her drama. :( Well...now that I’ve written a novel, I should probably get back to work (only about an hour to go before quitting time!). :) If you’ve read all of this, bless you! And if you haven’t read it all, I don’t blame you!! ;) Until the next installment... POSTED BY AMY AT 1:01 PM TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2006 Just checking in... I have a day off from the Parade of Homes (actually I’m in the office through Thursday) so I can work on the latest issue of our magazine. But I thought I’d take time out to post the latest. ;) Things have been busy as usual. The Parade seems to be doing well so far. We had a really good turnout opening weekend. Last week was crazy, preparing for the opening, but I survived! I’ll be glad when the whole thing is over though!! 30 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Andrew and Beth are staying with us now. I drop them off at their sports camp at the Y before work, and Leon is usually the one who picks them up after work. They get to play outside and spend time with other kids, so they seem to enjoy it. My sister and Jamie will be in Columbus tonight. The three of us are actually going to a concert. My sister loves Rob Thomas (from Matchbox 20), and he and Jewel are in town tonight. I’m meeting Julie and Jamie at the concert after work. On a completely different subject...I stumbled across my high school’s alumni website this morning. I logged onto MySpace to see if I had any new messages there (I didn’t), and I checked out the MySpace forum for my high school. Someone posted the link for River View’s alumni website. If nothing else, it’s interesting to see where the people I went to school with ended up. Well, I better get back to work. Shhhh, don't tell anyone you saw me here!! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 3:54 PM TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2006 We got our picket fence! Isn’t that the American dream?? :) Well, we finally got our backyard fenced in. Leon did computer work for a local nursery, and as a trade they installed a picket fence for us last Friday. Last fall, this nursery installed all new landscaping in our front yard, including a new walk-way to our front porch with brick pavers. It’s very nice. We’ve gotten thousands of dollars of landscaping done free of charge! Of course, Leon has probably put in thousands of hours working on their computers, network, website, etc. so he’s definitely earned it all. Goldie is very happy! She loves being able to run around the entire backyard. We used to tie her to a cable when she had to potty outside, but now she has free reign of the whole backyard. :) I don’t have any pictures of our new fence yet, but here is a cute shot of Goldie "standing guard" on our front porch. She is so vicious! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 10:21 AM 31 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2006 {sigh of relief} The Parade is over! The Parade of Homes is behind us for another year. I am so relieved! I’ve come to dread this time of year and all of the work associated with getting a Parade site ready for about 40,000 people. I’m always so grateful to have it over with! Next year’s Parade will be in Grove City. We have to begin planning the 2007 event by the end of this summer! Here’s a picture of me at the Parade (in the ticket booth) that someone took last week. I look exhausted, don’t I? Hopefully, things will be calm at work for the rest of the summer. The phones aren’t ringing much, which is a nice change! The kids are only with us for about 2 more weeks, and then they’ll go back to their mom’s. Their half of the summer with us has flown by since we’ve all been so busy! Beth got her braces off yesterday. She’s only 10-1/2 and she wore them for less than a year. Her teeth look beautiful! I’ll have to take a picture of her new smile and post it on here soon. :) I got braces the summer before 7th grade (when I was 12) and didn’t get them off until the summer before 9th grade, when I was 14. Two years vs. less than 12 months! It’s amazing how quickly the kids get their braces on and off now. Andrew and Beth both have colds right now. They are coughing and sneezing up a storm! I’m sure Leon and I will be sick before long too. :( The kids both stayed home from camp today to rest. Andrew has a baseball game tonight so hopefully he feels better by then. Leon’s mom and sister Becky are coming to Columbus tomorrow and will be staying with us through Saturday. Tomorrow night, all of us are going to a concert at Germain Amphitheater – Chicago and Huey Lewis & The News will be performing. Becky is bringing her golden retriever Bailey to Columbus too, so Goldie will be able to play with her cousin while we’re at the concert! Darlene went to Michigan yesterday to get her second treatment of the experimental drug she’s been taking. She’ll have scans done in another week or so to find out if the drug is helping. Unfortunately, this particular drug has made her very sick – it seems to be even worse than the chemo for her. A couple of her friends that she used to work with are holding a golf outing/dinner benefit for her on Saturday, July 15th. Even though none of us play golf, I decided to sign Leon, the kids and myself up for a golf foursome. I’ve never played anything other than miniature golf, but I figured what the heck! It will be fun and the money is all going to help pay for Darlene’s medical bills. I better try to get some work done. I’ll try to post more frequently now that the Parade’s over. And maybe 32 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 I’ll finally have time to develop and post those Vegas pictures (from January!) that I promised you! ;) Until next time… POSTED BY AMY AT 11:37 AM WEDNESDAY, JULY 05, 2006 Happy 4th of July! It was nice having a four-day weekend for the Fourth of July! I feel like I was finally able to get rested and recover fully from the Parade of Homes! Leon’s mom and sister Becky came over Friday night, and we all went to Germain Amphitheater to see Huey Lewis & The News and Chicago perform. It was a good concert, although the kids got bored. That obviously isn’t their kind of music! ;) Becky brought her golden retriever Bailey, so Goldie enjoyed playing with him! Both goldens were very well-behaved and had a blast running around our newly-fenced backyard! :) On Sunday, Leon and I took the kids to see the new Superman movie. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was actually a very entertaining movie! On Monday, the four of us went bowling. I hadn’t been bowling in almost 10 years, but I bowled better than I thought I would. We all had a really good time and decided we’ll have to go bowling more often! :) Andrew and Beth were with their mom for the Fourth of July, so Leon and I just stayed at home and relaxed. We watched movies and took naps and pretty much did nothing at all, which was nice for a change! The kids are only with us for a week and a half more, and then they’ll go back to their mom’s for the rest of the summer. I’m going to miss them being around every day! I’ve gotten used to having them there. We have fun together. The kids are very entertaining and are always making me laugh! :) We decided not to play golf in Darlene’s benefit outing after all. It would have been fun, but unfortunately we didn’t have the things we’d need (like clubs and shoes, etc.) since we never play golf. After the golf outing, there will be a dinner which also raises money for Darlene’s medical bills so the four of us will 33 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog attend that instead. That’s all for now! POSTED BY AMY AT 11:57 AM 2006 WEDNESDAY, JULY 05, 2006 So long Harvey! My parents’ dog, Harvey, has been missing for about a month now. Harvey was an outside dog, and he broke his chain and ran away several weeks ago. He had run away in the past but was never gone for this long. My dad said that animals often sense when they are going to die, and they’ll run away to die alone. I hope Harvey is at peace now. He was an old dog and not in very good shape. His back legs shook, and he couldn’t stand or walk for very long (which is why it seems so strange that he would be able to run away very far!). He didn’t seem to be able to hear at all anymore either. Harvey used to be my dog when I still lived at home. Harvey was one of our neighbors’ puppies, born in May of 1992. I got him that summer. He was a Chow/German Shepherd mix. He was short and stocky like a Chow, but if you made his ears stand up, he looked like a German Shepherd! He also had fur like a Shepherd. He was a sweet dog. My dad never allowed us to have animals in the house though, so that’s why Harvey had to stay outside. Even though he had a hard life in the sense that he was outside in the cold, snow, ice, rain and heat over the years, he still lived for 14 years! That’s a pretty decent life span for a dog. My parents said that they miss having Harvey around, but they don’t plan on getting anymore dogs. Here is a recent picture of Harvey that I took with my cell phone, just a couple weeks before he ran away. He will be missed! POSTED BY AMY AT 1:55 PM 34 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2006 2006 Everything feels like it's ending... Yesterday was the golf outing and dinner benefit to raise money for Darlene's medical bills. I didn't golf, but I still went to the golf course around noon yesterday and helped sell 50-50 raffle tickets to raise money. Leon, the kids and my parents met me at the golf club that afternoon, and we had dinner there. There were close to 100 people at the dinner, and the people hosting it said that they raised "thousands of dollars." So although I don't know the exact amount, I know that every little bit helps with Darlene's medical bills. Darlene's first clinical study/experimental treatment made her too sick, so she wasn't able to proceed. It was actually doing more damage to her liver and making her blood counts drop too low. She has to go back to Michigan this week, and they're going to try a different combination of drugs. I hadn't seen her in over a month, so seeing her yesterday was difficult. Since she has been so sick and unable to eat much, she has lost about 30 pounds. She has her hair (it's very short and very fine), but she is so tired and has no energy at all. Since her blood counts are so low, she is very weak and can hardly walk. It is so unbelievably sad to see her like this. I really feel that she doesn't have much time left. Unless the treatment she will be trying in Michigan this week is a miracle drug, it's very apparent that her body is failing her. It breaks my heart and makes me so sick to see her like this. Moving on to another subject...today is our last day with the kids. Our half of the summer with them is already over! They go back to their mom's house at 6:00 p.m. today and will spend the rest of the summer with her. We'll still get to see them every other weekend and one evening a week and alternating holidays like we usually do, but it still makes me sad. We've gotten so used to having the kids around every day, and Leon and I are both going to miss them. So I definitely feel sad today and a sense of loss. It feels like everything is coming to an end. POSTED BY AMY AT 4:40 PM FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2006 Summer is flying by! Things seem to be back to normal at work...and by normal, I mean busy. We had a brief (2 weeks, if that) period of time right after the Parade of Homes ended when we weren’t busy at all. Then things seemed to pick right back up again. We’re back to the usual crazy, hectic schedule of constant meetings and/or events. I’m glad it’s Friday! 35 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 We don’t have the kids this weekend. They’re actually going on vacation with their mom next week to West Virginia to visit some family there. Leon and I were hoping to take the kids on a small trip this summer, even if it’s just to Cedar Point or King’s Island or something like that. But the summer’s already half over! It’s hard to believe. This has been the summer of weddings...of course, I haven’t actually been to any of these weddings, I just know a lot of people who got married! My cousin Jenna married her long-time boyfriend in June. They got married somewhere in the Virgin Islands though, so none of our family attended. They’re having a reception in Cincinnati (which is where they live) at the end of August. A friend of my sister and mine who we went to school with (Jimmy) also got married in June. But he lives in Los Angeles now and was married there, so we didn’t get to go to that wedding either. The last wedding we weren’t invited to because it was that of my sister’s ex-boyfriend Craig! He also got married in June to a woman he’s been dating for a couple years or so. Julie and Craig dated on and off for about 4 years, and I thought they’d end up getting married but it didn’t work out for them. I always liked Craig a lot...he was like a brother to me because he was always around! My parents and I really missed him when he and Julie broke up. I actually sent him a card for his wedding, and he sent me a thank you note and said that he would like to visit Leon and me when he’s in Columbus. It would be great to see him again...but shhhh, don’t tell my sister! ;) She doesn’t like anyone in our family talking to him now, although she’s the one who broke up with him! Speaking of my sister, I don’t know if she and Jamie will end up getting married or not. They’re still engaged, but they decided not to get married in the Virgin Islands this Thanksgiving after all. There are no immediate plans for them to get married, which is probably for the best! They fight all the time (but you didn’t hear that from me!). ;) Well, I better get to work and finish up for the day! POSTED BY AMY AT 2:54 PM FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2006 Columbus: #8 Best Big City in the U.S. I thought this was interesting. Money Magazine recently picked the 10 best big cities in the United States, and Columbus, Ohio was ranked #8. It’s nice to know I live in one of the best big cities in the U.S! :) I love Columbus. I’ve lived here for 9 years now. My hometown of Coshocton was so small, but of course I never realized that until I left it. But now that I’ve lived in Columbus for so long, I could never live in a 36 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 small town again. I would never be content. I love being close to all kinds of different restaurants and stores and things to do. My parents have lived in Coshocton their whole lives so they don’t really care for the “big city life” that Columbus offers. They think the traffic here is terrible. There is a lot of traffic, but I’ve been to bigger cities (Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, for example) and our traffic is nothing compared to theirs! Even though Columbus is considered a “big city,” it doesn’t feel that big when you live here. I think it’s because it’s so spread out. Our downtown is really not that large (nothing like New York City or even Cleveland!), but Columbus is made up of so many different suburbs that it appears to be much bigger than it feels. All of the suburbs are like their own little self-contained towns, so I never feel like I’m living in a huge city. Of course, Ohio’s weather is the worst part of living here in my opinion. If we could have weather like Las Vegas (that dry, desert heat is excellent for my allergies!), then I think Columbus would truly be the perfect place to live! :) POSTED BY AMY AT 9:33 AM THURSDAY, AUGUST 03, 2006 Exciting News!!!! We haven’t told everyone about this yet, but I am so excited I want to share the news with as many people as possible! Leon and I have decided to adopt a baby!! We are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Russia. It’s a long process, but hopefully (God willing!) she will be home with us by Christmas 2007. :) :) :) :) I already started a separate blog about our adoption journey. It’s entitled “Our Journey to Elena” because we have decided to name our daughter Elena Marie. We realize that she will already have a Russian name, but we plan to change her name and possibly move her Russian name to her middle name. So more than likely, she’ll end up with two middle names. I won’t go into all of the details here because I’ve already written quite a bit about the whole process on my other blog. But we’re working with a local adoption agency called European Adoption Consultants, Inc. We want to adopt an infant girl, although by the time we bring her home she’ll probably be anywhere from 12-16 months old. We have to travel to Russia twice, and we can bring her home with us on our second trip there. There is A LOT of paperwork involved with the adoption process! I’ve already started to tackle some of it. We’re trying to raise money for the adoption, starting with our upcoming garage sale on August 19 and 20. If you know me (or if you’ve read my previous posts), you know that Leon and I have been trying to have a baby pretty much ever since we got married. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which basically means I don’t ovulate. I did some fertility treatments a couple years ago, but it was the most emotionally exhausting process I have ever been through. I decided that I don’t want to pursue further treatments at 37 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 this time. But I still want to be a mother more than anything!! And I realized that I don’t need to get pregnant to become a mom. Adoption is an incredible thing and I feel very much like an expectant mother right now! I know my daughter is out there, already born or waiting to be born, and I know we’ll eventually bring her home. :) Leon and I decided to pursue international adoption as opposed to domestic adoption. There’s nothing wrong with the domestic route, but we just don’t feel that it’s right for us. Our concerns about domestic adoption are how long it might take to adopt a baby in the United States (there are obviously MANY people in the U.S. who want to adopt), the need to be “chosen” by the birth mother/parents (what are our chances of being picked over the thousands of others who also want to be chosen?), the birth mother/parents changing their minds after the baby is born (I’m not sure I could stand such a heartbreak!) and the possibility of the birth mother/parents contacting our child (this is just not something we’re comfortable with). Since we’re still in the early stages of the adoption process, we haven’t told many people about this. We haven’t told Andrew and Beth yet. We think they’ll be thrilled, but we’re waiting for the right time to tell them. I told my parents and sister, but we haven’t said anything to Leon’s family yet. His mother is adopted though, so we know his family views adoption in a very positive light. I’ve told a couple of my friends, but we haven’t really made an “official” announcement yet. Although I guess this post is an “official” announcement though, right? :) I can’t really put into words what an incredible feeling it is to know I’ll be a mommy soon!! With infertility, there’s NEVER any certainty that you’ll ever get the chance to be a mom. But with adoption, you KNOW that your baby is waiting for you and it’s only a matter of time until you’re really a mother. I was in the store the other day, and I walked through the baby section and looked at all of the baby things. I kept thinking ‘I can buy this for Elena’ and ‘I want Elena to have one of these,’ etc. Any woman who has ever dealt with infertility knows that you usually avoid the baby section of the store like the plague! There have been times when I couldn’t even LOOK at the baby section without getting teary-eyed. Infertility is so incredibly painful. I can’t even begin to describe the emotions that an infertile woman goes through on an almost daily basis, but I can tell you it’s a physical pain – my heart literally ached. I may still be an infertile woman, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to be a mother now!! I have wanted this for so long, and I thank God every day that He opened my heart to adoption. What an incredible gift Elena will be!! (Ok, I better end this now because I’m making myself cry! I’m so emotional about all of this!) Be sure to visit our adoption blog to find out where we are in the journey! :) POSTED BY AMY AT 12:31 PM 38 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2006 The weekend is almost here! It’s almost the weekend! It’s incredible how fast the weeks seem to go by. It makes me sad that summer is winding down. I hate the thought of winter being just around the corner. I really need to move somewhere warm! ;) Andrew and Beth start back to school on August 24. They’ve already started practicing their sports for the upcoming season. Andrew will be playing 7th grade football and Beth is on a more advanced soccer team this year. Between the two of them, they’ve had practice every day this week! They’re with us this weekend and I know they have practice on Saturday and Sunday too. Leon has been sick with a really bad cold all week. We went to Medina last weekend to visit his family, and his mom was sick with the same thing. I was hoping neither of us would catch it, but no suck luck! I just hope I can stay healthy. Knock on wood, but my allergies/colds haven’t affected me this summer like they have throughout the other seasons and I’ve enjoyed living without those symptoms for a while! Work hasn’t been as busy for me recently, but I know it will pick up as soon as fall is here. I’ve been contemplating ways to earn more money because we have a lot of expenses coming up in order to keep moving forward with the adoption process. It would be difficult for me to get a second job because sometimes I have to work in the evenings for my current job if the magazine is due or if we have events for our members, etc. I’ve been looking for some kind of legitimate, work-from-home type of jobs that I could use as supplemental income, but it doesn’t appear that many exist. Most websites that claim you can make $1,000 a day working from home, stuffing envelopes or typing, are obviously scams. I started an experimental blog asking for $1 donations for our adoption fund to see if anyone would actually read it and donate! ;) So far, no donors though. It's such a good idea though, right?!?! All I need are 40,000 people to donate one dollar and our adoption would be paid for! :) What a nice thought, as HIGHLY unlikely as it is to actually happen. I hope we have a successful garage sale next weekend. Tomorrow is my "clean out the basement day." We’ve lived in our house for almost 3 years and we’ve managed to let our basement get really cluttered in that short time. So I have a big job ahead of me! But I know there is a lot of stuff down there that I could sell because we’re obviously not using things if they’re just packed away in the basement. And if we don't sell everything at the garage sale, then I'll attempt to sell it on eBay! Well, in 5 minutes the weekend starts so I’ll end this blog for now. Stay tuned for the next ever-soexciting installment, coming soon! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 5:01 PM 39 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2006 I jinxed myself... In my last post, I commented that I had not been sick for a while. Over the weekend, I caught Leon’s cold. I’m really stuffed up today! I can hardly breathe out of my nose. Leon is still battling his cold too, over a week later! Needless to say, I spent the weekend resting and I never did get around to cleaning out the basement! So now I have to do that one evening this week after work because our garage sale is this weekend. I talked to our adoption counselor, Cortney, yesterday. She explained some of the paperwork that we need to fill out. The most important form to submit next is the I-600A (immigration form), so I plan to mail this document by the end of the week. I have to submit $685 along with this form. I also need to send copies of Leon’s and my birth certificates, our marriage certificate and Leon’s divorce decree. We’ll need to submit a copy of our home study when it’s complete, which is still several months away from happening. So the I-600A won’t be approved for us for a while yet. I’ve been working on the magazine this week at work. I suppose I better get back to it so I can wrap that up today! POSTED BY AMY AT 11:06 AM TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2006 A thing called fate? I posted this on our adoption blog too, but our garage sale wasn’t very successful. We made $200. I suppose that’s better than nothing though! It’s $200 we didn’t have before and we got rid of some things in our house that we didn’t need. I boxed everything up that didn’t sell and I’m going to donate those things to the Kidney Foundation the next time they call. It seems like they contact us about once a month, asking for clothing or household items. The garage sale was a lot of work though! I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. I ended up taking a vacation day yesterday because I was so tired. I slept the whole day! Last night, I went to this Mary Kay facial that I was invited to. It was strange how I ended up getting invited to this. Last Thursday evening after work, I was shopping at the Kroger store near our house. I was in the frozen food section and I noticed this girl who kept staring at me. She was younger than me, maybe in her early 20’s, and I kept wondering if she knew me somehow. She came up to me and said “I’m sorry but I have to ask you this. You’re striking – would you like to be a face model for me?” 40 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 At first, I thought she was hitting on me! :) I didn’t understand what she was talking about. Then she pulled out a card and said that she was a Mary Kay representative. She asked for my name and cell phone number, and she said that she would call me about an upcoming event. She called later that night and invited me to last night’s facial. Her name is Monica and I met her at the Mary Kay training center in Worthington last night. She showed me different facial products and let me try on different types of moisturizer, cream, foundation, blush, eye shadow and lipstick. I was the only “consumer” there, and there were about 10 other Mary Kay consultants there too. After I put on the makeup, Monica explained to the other consultants what products I was wearing. So hence, I was the “face model.” :) Of course, I felt like I had to buy something from her so I ended up getting a few of the products that I tried on. The products really are nice though. Before I left, Monica talked to me about becoming a Mary Kay consultant myself. There is a $100 start-up fee, but then you just buy the products as you need them. The idea sounds really tempting. I’ve been thinking about ways to earn some extra money for the adoption and maybe this is it. I’m going to meet Monica again next Monday evening to discuss this further. Of course, this got me thinking... In the past, I never believed in what you might call fate. I assumed we made things happen, and there was really no rhyme or reason to the sequence of events in our lives. But as I’ve gotten older and had to face difficult situations in my life, it suddenly occurred to me that things don’t just happen randomly. The psych major in me says that this feeling of “fate” is just a coping mechanism that I have created in order to make sense of things in my life that otherwise make no sense – and maybe that’s true. But I’d like to believe that everything happens for a reason. I’d like to believe that we may not ever understand those “reasons” in this life, but someday when we die and move onto the next plane of existence, everything will suddenly be made clear to us. Everything will make sense then. I believe in God. I believe that God has a predetermined path set for all of us. I’m not sure that “fate” is the correct word for this path, but I believe that we are all here for a reason. It helps me, in my life, to believe that there is a reason for everything that happens to us, no matter how painful. For example...I believe there is a reason why I can’t get pregnant. I believe that I am meant to adopt my daughter from Russia. I believe that this is the path that I’m meant to take. It’s just a feeling that I have in my heart, and I’ll continue following that feeling until I bring our daughter home. Why am I supposed to travel halfway around the world to get our daughter? I don’t know, but I do know it’s what I’m supposed to do. On a smaller scale...why did Monica from Mary Kay approach a complete stranger in the grocery store and ask her if she wanted to be a consultant? It seems like quite a coincidence when I’ve been contemplating ways to earn extra money for our adoption. So was I meant to meet Monica? And earning a few extra dollars selling Mary Kay is just part of the sequence of events required to bring Elena home from Russia? I’m just thinking out loud here. And I guess this all probably sounds crazy if you don’t believe in this sort of thing! ;) But I’d like to believe that all of our lives are meaningful and we’re all here for a reason. POSTED BY AMY AT 10:57 AM 41 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2006 Mary Kay®! Well, I did it! I am now an official Mary Kay® beauty consultant!! :) I hope this turns out to be a good way to earn some extra money for our adoption. Please visit my Mary Kay website and feel free to place an order online. It doesn’t matter if you don’t live in Ohio. I can mail orders anywhere within the United States. Thank you for your support! Please visit my official Mary Kay® website: www.marykay.com/amylively Send me an e-mail at my official Mary Kay® e-mail address: amylively@marykay.com POSTED BY AMY AT 3:57 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2006 Weekend... On Saturday, my parents, Julie and Jamie, my grandma and my great aunt Arline all met at our house so we could drive to Cincinnati for my cousin Jenna's wedding reception. Leon and Andrew came too, but Beth couldn't go with us because she was invited to go horseback riding with her friend. We hadn't even gotten outside of Columbus when we got caught in a traffic jam on the interstate, so we ended up sitting there for about an hour! A semi had overturned and was blocking traffic. Once we got past the accident, the trip wasn't too bad. 42 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Jenna's reception was held at a park next to a lake in Cincinnati, not too far past King's Island. Jenna and her husband Jason went to the Virgin Islands in June and got married there. The reception wasn't anything too fancy. We had picnic-type food and they had a wedding cake. They had a DJ playing music so they did the father-daughter, mother-son and bride-groom dances. It was nice visiting with my aunt and uncle and cousins since we don't get to see them very often. It was so hot and humid that day though! There wasn't anywhere to go to escape from the heat since the reception was held outside. Our digital camera is broken so I took a few pictures that day with my cell phone... Leon (my grandma is in the background) Amy and Leon Andrew was too busy playing with his Play Station to have his picture taken! 43 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Julie and Jamie (my great aunt Arline is in the background) On Sunday, I got to see Darlene. She was in Columbus for the weekend because one of her co-workers had a bridal shower on Saturday. I am AMAZED at how well she is doing!! Compared to when I last saw her for the golf outing fundraiser in July, she looks and acts like a completely different (i.e. HEALTHY!!) person!! In one of my previous posts I mentioned that the first experimental treatment Darlene was involved in made her too sick, so the doctors had to switch the combination of drugs they were giving her. Since then, she has had three rounds of this new combination of drugs at the University of Michigan. She has gotten her energy back and she said that she feels better than she has in months. We had lunch at the Olive Garden and then we went to the mall because she wanted to walk around there. She isn't using her cane and she was walking very well! She didn't even get worn out. At the golf outing, she couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs without being exhausted. She told me that she was so tired a month ago that she was ready to give up. At that time, I truly thought she would die within a matter of weeks because she was so sick. It's almost as if Darlene is taking a miracle drug now. Her hair has grown back and she even has color in her cheeks. She seemed like the old Darlene. It was so wonderful seeing her like that! I didn't realize how much I had missed "girl time" with her. It had been a very long time since we spent a day like that together, without the constant reminders of cancer all around. She was supposed to have more scans done yesterday so the doctors can see if the treatment is stopping and/or slowing the spread of her tumors. I haven't heard from her yet, but I pray that she finds out good results! POSTED BY AMY AT 11:19 AM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2006 Stop Reading My Blog and Get Back to Work! I recently read an article in The Columbus Dispatch that listed statistics about how much time people waste at work. The article made me laugh so much that I cut it out and hung it up on our refrigerator. 44 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Why did I find it so funny? Because it's true! 2006 Everyone who works in an office knows how easy it is to get distracted, surf the Internet, socialize with co-workers, balance your checkbook and generally "space out." Here are some of those statistics that the Dispatch quoted, from the article "Wasted Time At Work Costing Companies Billions" by Dan Malachowski from Salary.com. Top Time-Wasting Activities (%) * Surfing Internet (personal use) = 44.7% * Socializing with co-workers = 23.4% * Conducting personal business = 6.8% * Spacing out = 3.9% * Running errands off-premises = 3.1% * Making personal phone calls = 2.3% * Applying for other jobs = 1.3% * Planning personal events = 1.0% * Arriving late/Leaving early = 1.0% * Other = 12.5% Top Time-Wasting Excuses (%) * Don't have enough work to do = 33.2% * Underpaid for amount of work = 23.4% * Co-workers distract me = 14.7% * Not enough after-work time = 12.0% * Other = 16.7% Time Wasted During an 8-Hour Workday (Number of Hours/Day) * Assumed by HR = 0.94 hrs. * Suspected by HR = 1.60 hrs. * Admitted by Employees = 2.09 hrs. Who Tends to Waste the Most Time at Work? * Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about the same amount of time per day. This, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women wasted more time at work than men. * Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following statistics show, the older people are, the less time they waste at work (Year of Birth = Time Wasted Per Day): * 1930-1949 = 0.50 hrs. * 1950-1959 = 0.68 hrs. * 1960-1969 = 1.19 hrs. * 1970-1979 = 1.61 hrs. * 1980-1985 = 1.95 hrs. 45 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Top 5 Time-Wasting Industries (Job Category = Time Wasted Per Day) * Insurance = 2.5 hrs. * Public Sector (Non-Education) = 2.4 hrs. * Research & Development = 2.3 hrs. * Education = 2.2 hrs. * Software & Internet = 2.2 hrs. Top 5 Time-Wasting States [State = Time Wasted (hours/day) Salary Dollars Wasted (per year)] * Missouri = 3.2 hrs. = $28.1 billion * Indiana = 2.8 hrs. = $25.1 billion * Kentucky = 2.8 hrs. = $15.4 billion * Wisconsin = 2.8 hrs. = $23.8 billion * Nevada = 2.7 hrs. = $9.8 billion Ohio ranks 25 on the list, with an average of 2.1 hours wasted a day costing the state $28.6 billion in wasted salary dollars. The average yearly American salary is $39,795 per year ($19.13 per hour). If the average worker wastes 1.15 hours more than employers suspect, per 8-hour work day, that adds up to $5,720 per year, per worker in wasted salary dollars. So with the American workforce 132 million (non-farm) employees strong, the total in lost salary dollars adds up to $759 billion per year! One of my favorite movies is the cult classic from 1999, "Office Space." Everything about that movie rings so true if you're familiar with office life and all of the politics that go with it. I love it when Ron Livingston's character Peter Gibbons is talking about his job and he says: "I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way (my boss) can't see me. After that I sorta space out for an hour. I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work." Speaking of wasting time at work...I should probably quit writing in my blog and get back to my work! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 10:58 AM 46 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006 God Bless America It’s hard to believe that 5 years have passed since September 11, 2001 – that terrible day when life as we knew it in the United States changed forever. Looking back at the summer of 2001, it seemed like such an idyllic time. I remember the feeling of being carefree and safe that summer. We were certainly blindsided that September morning. Who could have imagined the terror that we watched unfold within a matter of hours? I remember such a feeling of terror that day, wondering if and when the next attack would come. It almost felt like the end of the world was here. Remembering all of this still chokes me up...makes my heart skip a beat...brings tears to my eyes...makes it hard to breathe...makes me sick to my stomach. A year after the attacks, on September 11, 2002, I wrote about my memories of that day on The September 11 Digital Archive. I know that everyone remembers what they were doing when they heard about the attacks. Below is my story. It’s funny how a moment can be permanently etched in your mind. But I will always remember exactly what I was doing the moment I learned about the horrors that occurred on September 11. I was sitting at my desk, talking to one of my co-workers who had come into my office. Our conversation was lighthearted. It was a beautiful September morning in Ohio, and the sun was shining brightly outside. Then, I heard my cell phone ringing. I told my co-worker, "My purse is ringing," and we both laughed as she left my office and I answered my phone. It was my fiancé. He had taken the morning off work and was watching TV. He told me that there was an explosion at the World Trade Center. I remember a feeling of disbelief at his statement. I told him that had happened a long time ago (I was referring to the bombing at the WTC in 1993). He told me that it was happening right now, that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. He had seen the second plane hit on live television. I hung up and wandered out to find some of my other co-workers. By then, a few of them had also heard about it, and we all gathered in the center conference room and turned on the TV. We were horrified when we learned that a plane had also hit the Pentagon. Later, I watched both towers collapse on live TV. It was sickening to witness, knowing that people inside were dying at that very instant. We stayed glued to the TV all morning and afternoon, none of us quite able to grasp how this could happen to us here in America. I called my parents and sister and best friend and talked to them about the events. One thing was clear – every one of us was in shock. 47 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Our boss ended up letting us go home early because none of us could concentrate on working. I remember driving home, listening to the radio, unable to understand how something like this could actually happen. I drove by a flag, which had been lowered to half-mast, and felt all of this emotion well up in my heart. Although I did not know anyone personally who died in the terrorist attacks, I still cried for all of those people who lost their lives that day. September 11 was a terrible day in our nation’s history, one that none of us will ever be able to forget in our lifetimes. Today, September 11, 2002, the one-year anniversary has been a solemn day. No one at my work has laughed much, the phone has not been ringing much, there is a respectful silence in the atmosphere. September 11 is a day that should never be forgotten. I am so proud to be an American! I love my country and I pray for her healing. POSTED BY AMY AT 9:34 AM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2006 My Friday so far... Thank God it’s Friday! I say that every week, but it’s always true!! ;) I had a rather comical experience on my lunch break today so I thought I’d share. Today is pay day, and Leon and I finally have the funds now ($685) to pay for the I-600A (immigration) form we need to submit for our adoption. I still hadn’t deposited the money that we made at our garage sale so I went to the bank on my lunch break to do that. Leon and I also had a BUNCH of coins in our house so I’ve spent the last couple weeks counting all the coins and putting them in coin wrappers. I had $80 worth of coins to deposit (mostly pennies), and I had them in two big Ziploc bags. When I got out of my car at the bank, one of the bags ripped and one of my penny wrappers fell to the ground. Thank God I only dropped one roll! So I had to spend time gathering up the pennies and putting them back in the roll. When I finally went inside the bank, the teller looked at me like I was crazy. She said “We have a coin counter here” – so technically, I wouldn’t have had to count all the coins myself. I didn’t realize that my bank had one of these. I’ve seen the coin counting machines at grocery stores, but they always charge a fee and I wasn’t about to part with any of the $80 worth of change Leon and I have saved up over the years! ;) The teller ended up taking the rolls from me even after I offered to use the coin counter instead. But she made a point of acting very annoyed about the whole situation! Afterward, I went to Kroger to get some frozen lunches for work (since I usually don’t go out on my lunch break – I eat in the office instead). I went up to the customer service counter after I paid for my groceries because I needed to get money orders to send in with the immigration form (they won’t accept a personal 48 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 check). After telling the woman at the counter what I needed, I took out my check card to pay and she informed me that you have to purchase money orders with cash. I must have appeared very stupid, but I didn’t know that! So I apologized and said I’d have to come back later with cash. I decided I couldn’t go back to the bank and face the mean teller again (and I don’t believe you can withdraw more than $500 from an ATM machine). So now I’ll have to go to the bank tomorrow before they close and get cash out...and then go buy the money orders then. I have to buy three separate money orders. I need to submit $545 for the I-600A form, and the woman at the grocery store told me today that money orders only go up to $500. So I have to get a $45 money order too, and we’re required to submit a separate money order for the fingerprinting fee ($140, or $70 for me and $70 for Leon). I need to send the form/money orders through FedEx, so I have to make sure there is a FedEx pick-up on Saturday...and find out where a FedEx drop box is in my area. Whew!! It’s been a lot of work to submit just this one form!! Leon and I don’t have the kids this weekend. We’re actually going to Coshocton tomorrow afternoon and having dinner with my parents. My mom’s birthday is on Sunday so I wanted to see her this weekend. I also got to see my parents and my sister and her fiancé last Sunday too. I had a Mary Kay party at my house. My team leader Monica actually held the party for me because it was supposed to be like a “debut” since I’m a new Mary Kay consultant. Anyway, my mom and sister and one of my friends Debbie were able to come. Leon entertained my dad and Jamie while the girls tried on make-up! After the party, I had cake and ice cream for my sister because her birthday was on Tuesday. My friend Debbie (who was actually Leon’s friend first which is how I know her!) is coming over to our house this Sunday afternoon to watch the Browns game. I’m not a football fan, but I’ll still watch it with them so I can visit with Debbie too. So far, I’ve only sold Mary Kay products to three people – obviously, my mom, my sister and Debbie. My mother-in-law also told me she wanted to buy something from me. I hope I sell more soon because I placed a small inventory order so I’ll have a lot of make-up in my house if no one buys anything from me! ;) Only an hour and a half left in my workday until quitting time! Leon and I are going to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse tonight, where they cook your dinner at your table in front of you. We love that place, but we haven’t been there in months. I thought it would be a nice change since we go to El Vaquero’s almost every week. :) POSTED BY AMY AT 3:27 PM 49 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006 2006 Latest News... I posted an update on our adoption blog yesterday, but I finally submitted our I-600A form and payment last week. Leon and I are scheduled to have our fingerprints taken this Friday at 1:00 p.m. at the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in downtown Columbus. After we complete our homestudy (which probably won't be until next spring/summer), we’ll need to submit a copy of this to the USCIS office and then our application will be considered complete. I believe we'll need to fill out more paperwork for USCIS once we're approved and after we bring Elena home as well. Leon and I are heading to Coshocton on Sunday because the Coshocton County Fair will be going on. I always enjoy going to the fair, although it seems to be pretty much the same year after year. But as far as I know, I've gone to the fair every year since I was born. So I guess this will be my 30th fair! The food at the fair is worth the trip alone! There's nothing like fried cheese on a stick or fried vegetables dipped in cheese sauce or corndogs or greasy French fries...all of the heart-attack-waiting-to-happen types of food! ;) My parents are going with us to the fair on Sunday. We don't have the kids this weekend, which is too bad because they always enjoy the fair. I talked to Darlene yesterday and there is a possibility that she may go with us to the fair too, if she's not busy. She mentioned that she may have some family things going on this weekend though. She sounded well when I talked to her yesterday. She did mention that the experimental treatment she's been taking at the University of Michigan is hurting her liver again though, so another combination of drugs will need to be used instead. I continue to pray that Darlene will make it through all of this!! She amazes me every day with her will to fight. I can't imagine ever being as strong as she has been. Tonight is our last Intro to Adoption class in the four-week series Leon and I have been taking at Children's Hospital. I've really enjoyed these classes. They have been very informative! Tonight's class will feature a panel of adoptive parents and their children so that will be fun to see. Our next four-week series focusing on International Adoption starts on October 30. My Mary Kay sales haven't been too impressive. So far, I've made four sales to my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law and one of my friends. It's much harder to get a new business like this off the ground than I originally thought! I was hopeful that I'd earn some extra money for our adoption by selling Mary Kay, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get rich from this business any time soon. I did buy some of the new Fall/Holiday Mary Kay catalogs and I plan to deliver them to some of my neighbors and see if any of them are interested in buying anything. With Mary Kay, you're supposed to give regular skin care classes or facials and that's really how you make your money. But to be honest, I don't really have the time or the desire to do any of these classes. I'd rather sell products through my website or through the Mary Kay catalog. I suppose this route won't earn me as much money though. I have to admit (and I swear I am not saying this just because I sell it!), I really do love the Mary Kay products. I've bought almost one of everything to try for myself and I really like all of them. They are more pricey than something you'd buy at the store, but I really can tell that the Mary Kay products are 50 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 high-quality and worth the money. I would recommend them! I may be the only customer I have though!! ;) Next Thursday, October 5, is Leon's and my 4th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been almost four years! We don't have anything special planned. The kids come over on Thursday evenings, so maybe we'll all go out to dinner or something. Last year, I surprised Leon with the trip to Las Vegas! That was a lot of fun. :) I don't have a gift like that for him this year though since all of our money is going toward the adoption. Speaking of anniversaries, I started this blog and posted my first entry on October 4, 2005. So my oneyear blogging anniversary will be next week too! :) I wanted to share a dream that I had a couple nights ago. It was so weird and more like a nightmare I suppose...but it was something right out of a horror movie (and since I love horror movies so much, I can't say that I was too scared by this dream!). I dreamt that I was in a huge house with a bunch of people...and outside the house were hundreds of brain-eating zombies, just like the ones in the "Night of the Living Dead" movies! The zombies kept trying to get in the house and they finally did, and then they started biting people and turning everyone into zombies. I got bit on the arm toward the end of my dream, but I woke up before I had the chance to turn into a zombie! Crazy huh?! Speaking of horror movies, there are some new ones coming out in October that I want to see like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" on October 6, "The Grudge 2" on October 13 and "Saw 3" on October 27. Upcoming Horror Movies is a great website to find out anything and everything about scary movies! Well, I really should get back to work. Until I blog again... POSTED BY AMY AT 4:59 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2006 If it wasn’t for bad luck... My dad’s younger brother, my Uncle Jim, always used to say “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!” He died of cancer in 1993 in his early 40’s...so I guess luck certainly wasn’t on his side. I took Jim’s catchphrase to heart and have thought of it often in the years since he died. Maybe luck has nothing to do with it, but it certainly appears that some people are “luckier” in life than others. When things go wrong in my life, I try to remind myself that I could have it so much worse though...and when I look at it that way, I realize that I don’t have it so bad after all. However, this morning was one of those mornings when Jim’s phrase popped into my brain. I overslept and didn’t leave the house until 7:55 a.m. – which really isn’t great considering I’m supposed to start work at 8:00. I was driving down the street, just a few miles from my home, when I got pulled over by a cop. He pulled the car in front of me over too and told us both that although he wasn’t going to give us a ticket, we were speeding in a school zone. It wasn’t a friendly reminder either...he was very rude about 51 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog the whole thing. 2006 To be honest, I don’t even know how fast I was going. It couldn’t have been much more than 35 but considering the school zone speed limit is 20, I was still going too fast. I was just following the car in front of me though and wasn’t paying attention like I should have been. Thank God he didn’t give me a ticket though! I’ve gotten two speeding tickets in the past four years and I did not want to add another one to my collection!! When I finally got to work, I found out that there was a water pressure problem in the city I work in – so everyone is supposed to boil their water before they drink it. Since we don’t have a place to boil water, that means no coffee! I don’t do well without coffee in the morning. Last week was not a good week at work anyway...and so far, this week isn’t starting off much better. I can only hope things improve as the day goes on. POSTED BY AMY AT 9:48 AM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2006 Happy Bloggiversary to me! One year ago today, I wrote my first entry in this blog. It’s interesting to read back over everything I’ve written the past year. It seems really hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since my first post! I just wanted to share this milestone with anyone who reads my blog today! :) POSTED BY AMY AT 1:35 PM 52 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2006 Another Fundraising Idea!! I wanted to start by mentioning that today is my anniversary! Four years ago today, Leon and I got married in my hometown. We were married in the same church that my parents and my grandparents were also married in. We don't have anything overly exciting planned for our anniversary, but we're going to take Andrew and Beth with us to our favorite Mexican restaurant tonight, El Vaquero's. Unfortunately, I don't have any surprises for Leon this year...last year, I surprised him with a trip for the two of us to Las Vegas. :) I came across a very cool "business opportunity" on a message board (aka infertility support group) that I'm a member of. It's called Stuff A Friend, where you can buy a stuffed animal and "stuff it" yourself at home. It's similar to the Build-A-Bear concept. We have several Build-A-Bear Workshops at malls here in Columbus. Anyway, one of my friends in the support group has a Stuff A Friend business so I decided to join her team. Unlike my Mary Kay business, there are no start-up fees. You join for free and can earn up to 30% commissions on sales. You also earn 10% commissions on any team members that you have. You even get your own personalized Stuff A Friend website when you sign up! Want to join my team? Please go to my Stuff A Friend website for more information. Who knows? Between my job at the BIA, my Mary Kay business and now my Stuff A Friend business, maybe I'll earn that $40,000 to bring Elena home yet! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 2:11 PM 53 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2006 2006 Mary Kay Inventory: Products For Sale! Below is a list of Mary Kay products that were included in my initial inventory order...and I'd love to sell them! I've included the name of the product, the price and how many of each item I have in stock. For more information about any of these products and to see pictures of each item, please visit my Mary Kay website. If you live near me, I'll deliver your order to you. And if you live far away, I'll mail your order to you free of charge. Since I live in Ohio, a 6.75% sales tax will be added onto your total. For the mathematicallyimpaired such as myself, here is what I mean . . . If you order comes to $20, you will multiply 20 by .0675. This gives you 1.35 which means you add $1.35 tax to your $20 order, which would be a total of $21.35. :) If your order comes to $40 or more, you also receive a free gift! Even if you don't see any items of interest to you on the list below, please visit my Mary Kay website to see all of the other products available. **TimeWise® Products** TimeWise® Miracle Set (for Combination to Oily Skin) - Includes 3-In-1 Cleanser, Age-Fighting Moisturizer, Day Solution, Night Solution and Foundation Price: $104 * 1 in stock TimeWise® 3-In-1 Cleanser (for Normal to Dry Skin) Price: $18 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Age-Fighting Moisturizer (for Normal to Dry Skin) Price: $18 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Day Solution Sunscreen SPF 25 Price: $30 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Night Solution Price: $30 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Microdermabrasian Step 1: Refine Price: $30 * 3 in stock 54 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog TimeWise® Microdermabrasian Step 2: Replenish Price: $25 * 3 in stock TimeWise® Age-Fighting Lip Primer Price: $22 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Even Complexion Essence Price: $35 * 1 in stock TimeWise® Visibly Fit Body Lotion Price: $22 * 1 in stock 2006 **Facial Creams and Gels** Intense Moisturizing Cream (for Combination to Oily Skin) Price: $30 * 1 in stock Oil-Free Hydrating Gel (for Normal to Dry Skin) Price: $30 * 1 in stock **Foundation** Medium-Coverage Foundation - Ivory 100 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Ivory 200 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Ivory 202 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Ivory 204 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 300 Price: $14 * 2 in stock 55 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 302 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 304 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 400 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 402 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Beige 404 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Bronze 500 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Bronze 607 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Medium-Coverage Foundation - Bronze 708 Price: $14 * 1 in stock 2006 **Pressed Powder** Dual-Coverage Powder Foundation - Ivory 104 Price: $14 * 3 in stock Dual-Coverage Powder Foundation - Ivory 200 Price: $14 * 2 in stock Dual-Coverage Powder Foundation - Beige 300 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Dual-Coverage Powder Foundation - Beige 304 Price: $14 * 1 in stock 56 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Dual-Coverage Powder Foundation - Beige 400 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Signature™ Bronze Highlighting Powder Price: $16 * 1 in stock 2006 * Please note, the following items to be used with the pressed powder are sold separately: Foundation Compact (re-usable) Price: $9 Cosmetic sponges (powder puffs) Price: $2 (pack of 2) **Loose Powder** Signature™ Loose Powder - Ivory 2 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Signature™ Loose Powder - Beige 1 Price: $14 * 1 in stock Signature™ Loose Powder - Beige 2 Price: $14 * 1 in stock * Please note, the following items to be used with the loose powder are sold separately: Round Powder Brush (re-usable) Price: $4 Retractable Powder Brush (re-usable) Price: $10 **Concealer and Highlighting Pen** Signature™ Concealer - Light Ivory Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Concealer - Ivory Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock 57 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Signature™ Concealer - Beige Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Facial Highlighting Pen - Shade 1 Price: $18 * 1 in stock 2006 **Mascara** Ultimate Mascara™ Price: $15 * 1 in stock Signature™ Waterproof Mascara Price: $10 * 1 in stock **Lip Products** Signature™ Creme Lipstick - Sweet Nectar Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Creme Lipstick - Apricot Glaze Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Creme Lipstick - Raisinberry Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Creme Lipstick - Toffee Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Pink Diamonds Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Pink Allure Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Cranberry Price: $13 * 1 in stock 58 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Signature™ Lip Gloss - Tiger Lily Price: $13 * 2 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Watermelon Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Cream & Sugar Price: $13 * 2 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Beach Bronze Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Cocoa Creme Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Gloss - Natural Price: $13 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Liner - Dusty Pink Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Liner - Chocolate Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Lip Liner - Neutral Price: $9.50 * 2 in stock Satin Lips® Lip Mask Price: $9.50 * 2 in stock Satin Lips® Lip Balm Price: $9.50 * 2 in stock 2006 **Eye Products** Signature™ Eye Color - Lucky Penny Price: $6.50 * 1 in stock 59 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog Signature™ Eye Color - Vintage Gold Price: $6.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Eye Color - Copper Beach Price: $6.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Eye Color - Hazelnut Price: $6.50 * 2 in stock Signature™ Eyeliner - Bronze Price: $9.50 * 2 in stock Signature™ Eyeliner - Charcoal Price: $9.50 * 1 in stock Signature™ Eye Primer Price: $12 * 2 in stock 2006 * Please note, the following items to be used with the eyeshadow are sold separately: Color Compact (re-usable, holds two eyeshadows) Price: $8 Dual-End Eye Applicator (sponge tip on one end, brush on the other end) Price: $2.50 **Blush** Signature™ Cheek Color - Island Spice Price: $10 * 1 in stock Signature™ Cheek Color - Sunny Spice Price: $10 * 1 in stock * Please note, the following items to be used with the blush are sold separately: Color Compact (re-usable, holds one blush) Price: $8 Cheek Color Brush Price: $2.50 60 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog **Skin Care** 2006 Satin Hands® Pampering Set - Includes Extra Emollient Night Cream, Satin Smoothie™ Hand Scrub and Hand Cream Price: $30 * 1 in stock Velocity® Facial Cleanser Price: $10 * 1 in stock Velocity® Lightweight Moisturizer Price: $12 * 1 in stock If you've read other posts in my blog, you know that I'm trying to raise money for our adoption. By purchasing Mary Kay products from me, you're contributing to our adoption fund! :) Log on anytime – www.marykay.com/amylively/ Thank you for your support! POSTED BY AMY AT 5:15 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2006 No new news really... I know I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve been pretty busy with work. I had a consumer remodeling show to prepare for last Thursday, but hopefully things calm down now that it’s over. I’ve also been really stressed out over some recent events at work. I don’t want to elaborate on here...if you want to know, ask me and I’ll tell you. A few other things that have happened since my last post... Beth turned 11 on October 20. Leon’s mom and his brother John and John’s wife Karen came over that weekend to celebrate with us. Leon and I painted our bedroom a chocolate color. It’s very pretty! You know how Leon is such a huge Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fan? Well, Leon wanted to attend Brian’s concert in New York City on November 21 (which is the week of Thanksgiving). We plan to make a quick trip to NYC that week. I imagine we’ll fly in on Monday and fly back out on Wednesday. It would be nice to 61 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 stay an extra day (Thursday) to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but we both feel obligated to come back home to spend Thanksgiving with our family. Leon and I start our next series of adoption classes at Children’s Hospital tonight. The courses take place on Monday evenings for the next four weeks and focus on international adoption. I still hope to start our homestudy by the end of the year, but other than that nothing at all has happened on the adoption front lately. Well, that’s really it for now. Stay tuned for my next, ever-so-exciting post... POSTED BY AMY AT 4:03 PM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 01, 2006 Happy Belated Halloween! I meant to post yesterday, but I forgot! Happy Halloween, one day late! We didn’t get as many trick or treaters last night as we have in years past. I think the weather may have kept them away. I usually sit on the front porch to pass out candy, but I decided to stay inside since it was damp and chilly. Goldie barked every time children came onto our porch though, so I didn’t miss any trick or treaters by staying inside. Goldie made sure of that! Since I haven’t posted very much lately, I forgot to share a few pictures that I took recently... About a month ago, I was driving into the parking lot at work when I saw a double rainbow! It was so beautiful. I took a couple pictures of it with my cell phone, although only one rainbow is apparent in the pictures. 62 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 I also took a picture of the flowers that Leon gave me for our 4th anniversary on October 5 – a dozen multi-color roses. They were so beautiful and they lived longer than roses usually do. Speaking of cell phone pictures, the camera on my phone stopped working. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. I need to take it in to see if it can be repaired. My phone should still be under warranty since I just got it in May. My car is also in need of repair. It’s a 2001 Ford Escort ZX2 and I’ve had it since November of 2000. It was brand new when I bought it and it’s held up fairly well over the years. I finally got it paid off last spring. Although I would ideally love to trade it in and get a four-door (it’s going to be difficult to get baby Elena in and out of the backseat of a two-door!), I decided to hold off for a while yet. It’s great not having car payments and we need all of the extra money that we can get at the moment for our adoption. I think my muffler needs replaced because my car is so loud. It also vibrates and makes a funny sound when I drive at slower speeds. I had the brakes repaired back in the spring and new tires put on over summer, so I’m trying to fix some things along the way. I’ll probably try to take it in for repair this weekend...I can only imagine how much it’s going to cost! But I guess it’s cheaper than buying a new car (that’s what my dad keeps telling me anyway!!). My dad’s 65th birthday is tomorrow, November 2. My mom’s 58th birthday was on September 17 and 63 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Julie’s 25th birthday was on September 12. Since I didn’t post then, Happy Belated Birthday to my mom and sister! And Happy Birthday to my dad! Well, it's almost lunch time and I need to run to the store on my break. Until I post again... POSTED BY AMY AT 9:18 AM MONDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2006 It's Monday again We had a busy weekend. The kids were over, and Beth had a soccer tournament and had four games this weekend! We even had to be at one of her games on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. Ouch! Both kids had friends spend the night on Saturday so we had a full house. Andrew recently received his school pictures (Beth didn’t get her pictures back yet). I thought his photo turned out very well! He looks so handsome. It’s hard to imagine he’s in middle school now. He acts more like a teenager every day. Leon and I have our second international adoption class at Children’s Hospital tonight. We have one more next Monday evening, but we’ll miss the last class in the series the following Monday because we’ll be in New York City. I hope we can do some more remodeling on our home this weekend. We’ve been in our home for three years now and there are so many thing that we’ve meant to do but never gotten around to it. We painted three of our four bedrooms upstairs, but we never actually completed any of the jobs. We need to touch up the paint, finish painting the baseboards, replace the doors and carpet, etc. I really feel motivated to complete some of these jobs, especially since we’ll probably be starting our homestudy after the first of the year...and I’d like our house to look good for the social worker! Everyone tells us that we don’t need to go all out to make our home look perfect for our homestudy, but it gives me an excuse to get some work done! ;) 64 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 I still never took my car in to have it looked at. I probably really should try to do that this weekend too because for all I know, I’m making the problem worse by continuing to drive it! POSTED BY AMY AT 10:34 AM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 07, 2006 MyThoughts on MySpace... I'm sure almost everyone on the planet has heard of – and probably even has a profile – on MySpace. I joined MySpace almost one year ago, on November 12, 2005. I actually joined because I had a celebrity crush of sorts on Jonathan Tucker at the time, after seeing him in an episode of the Showtime series "Masters of Horror" called "Dance of The Dead." I read on an IMDb message board that Jonathan had a MySpace page and I wanted to send him a message, so I created a page for myself too. (And just so you know, Jonathan actually did reply to the message that I sent him and he seemed like a genuinely nice person!) You have to admit, he's kind of adorable right?!?! (On a side note, Leon knows about my celebrity crushes...he doesn't care because he has crushes on celebrities too! But anyway, I also sent Jonathan a fan letter and he sent me an autographed picture in return. I showed the picture to Leon and his response was "Who the hell is Jonathan Tucker?" I guess Leon is not a fan...) As a result of MySpace, I've gotten back in touch with some people that I went to high school with. And MySpace can be addictive...it's fun to log on and see if anyone sent me a message or a friend request. But the more time I spend on the site, the more annoyed I often become. The site can be very, very slow, and the majority of the time you can't even view certain pages because you get a message saying "Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group." I sent a message to MySpace just the other day commenting on how slow the site is and how many errors 65 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog seem to occur on all of the pages. This is the response I received: From: MySpace Contact1 [mailto:contact@myspace.com] Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 6:24 PM To: Amy Lively Subject: MySpace - Error on Site Hello, That issue is currently being resolved. Please be patient. Thank you, MySpace.com 2006 Patience, huh? The errors have been happening for the past 365 days that I've been a member of the site, but I suppose I'm not being patient enough. ;) If you have a MySpace page, then you know that Tom Anderson is the very first "friend" you make on the site. Tom is the president and co-founder of MySpace (although the site has since been purchased by Rupert Murdoch). It doesn't take long for most people to delete Tom from their Friends list though. I quickly became annoyed with Tom as well. I know he isn’t personally responsible for all of the “technical errors” that occur on the site, but it’s nice to have someone to blame for it. ;) I found a great website dedicated to the antiTom movement. Leon also has a profile on MySpace, and even Andrew has jumped on the MySpace bandwagon. He claims that all of his friends at his school have MySpace pages, although Leon and I both keep a close eye on Andrew’s page. MySpace does seem to have an abundance of teenagers. What really cracks me up are the people who post all of these party pictures on their pages as if to say “Look how cool I am! I have so many friends and I live a fabulous, fun-filled existence.” Sure you do…but you still seem to have quite a bit of free time on your hands in order to create that ultra-cool profile page with hundreds of pictures and colors and music and videos and links!? ;) When I logged onto MySpace this morning, I discovered that my profile has been viewed 999 times. I'm almost up to 1,000 views and it's only taken me one year to get there! I can't even believe how popular I am!! (And yes, I am being 100% sarcastic.) Ok, so MySpace is lame. But I’ll continue to log on just out of curiosity, to see if anyone sent me a message or wants to be my friend. We could all use more friends, right? And I currently only have 83 friends on MySpace so I have a long way to go . . . . . . POSTED BY AMY AT 9:29 AM 66 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2006 I ♥ New York? (yeah, maybe not so much) I know I haven’t posted in a while! Leon and I were traveling all last week. We flew to New York last Monday morning, flew back to Columbus Wednesday afternoon, drove to Cleveland for Thanksgiving on Thursday morning and came back to Columbus Saturday night. Whew! As for our New York trip, I really can’t say that I was very impressed. I had always wanted to see New York and I’m glad that I got to, but I don’t know that I’d go back anytime soon. I think you build something up in your mind so much and then when you actually see it, you’re disappointed. New York always looks so cool and glamorous on TV, but in reality it’s no different than any other big city...crowded, chaotic and dirty. We flew into JFK, which is not a very nice airport. It didn’t appear very clean anyway, but I guess that’s why it was the cheapest location to fly into near New York. We stayed with Leon’s friends, Carol and John, in Palisades, New York. They recommended that we rent a car because it would have been very expensive for a taxi since you sit in traffic for so long. We got a cute little red PT Cruiser, and Leon was brave enough to drive in NY! After we left the airport on Monday, we decided not to go into the city that day because we wanted to wait and get directions from Carol and John. So we found a mall not too far from where they live and walked around there for a while. We ate in an Outback Steakhouse in the mall because everyone knows there is a shortage of Outbacks in Columbus. *wink wink* On Tuesday morning, we drove into the city. We parked in a garage near the Beacon Theater, where the Brian Wilson concert was being held that night, and then took the subway and walked to the places we wanted to see. We saw Times Square, which was interesting. We saw the Empire State Building from the outside, but we didn’t go inside because there was an hour wait to see it. We saw the Statue of Liberty from afar, but we didn’t have time to actually go over there. We also went to the site of the World Trade Center. It was very sad and emotional to see it. There was a fence around the entire site since they are rebuilding there, but they had pictures from 9/11 hung up all around the fence as well as a timeline of events from that day and a list of everyone who died there. I know property is worth a lot in NY, but it seems so wrong for them to rebuild there (in my humble opinion). I would have much rather seen the site turned into a memorial park. So many people died there, so that site is essentially their cemetery, their graves, so putting another building on top of that just doesn’t seem right. The subways were confusing to us as well. We took the wrong subway and ended up in Queensboro (wherever that is). We were riding an escalator up to the next level to get on the correct subway to take us back downtown (or uptown or whatever you call the location where the theater is). As we were riding up, this group of black people was riding down. One of the black guys in the group screamed at Leon and me. He said that we were going to die because we were British Imperialist slave owners. Okkkkkkkkk...... Leon just said “Peace brother” and we ignored him, but it made us feel uncomfortable!! I know my judgment may be tainted by that experience, but overall we did not find New Yorkers to be very friendly at all. The Brian Wilson concert was good though. Afterward we were standing outside the theater waiting for 67 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 Leon’s friends, and we saw Kevin Bacon walk out! He must have been at the concert. Leon yelled “Kevin!” but he didn’t hear him (or pretended not to). Similar to seeing NY in person, seeing Kevin Bacon in person is also a bit of a let-down. ;) He looks larger than life on the screen, but in reality he is short (shorter than me anyway and I’m 5’7) and very skinny!! I was like, ‘That scrawny little man was in Footloose?!?!’ :) I haven’t gotten all the photos from our trip off the digital camera, but here is one that Leon took and sent to me. He approached these two (really cute!) NY cops and asked if I could have my picture taken with them! :) Our Thanksgiving was uneventful. Andrew and Beth weren’t with us for Thanksgiving this year. We went to Leon’s mom’s house in Medina and his whole family (except his older brother who lives in Maryland) was there. We ate a lot and then just relaxed. We stayed in Medina through Saturday. The next couple of weeks at work are busy, but hopefully it slows down after that (until after New Year’s anyway!). I’ll try to post more frequently in the meantime! POSTED BY AMY AT 11:46 AM MONDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2006 Awwww! Goldie loves her teddy bear! I just had to share this picture today. :) POSTED BY AMY AT 2:53 PM 68 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2006 Pulse Last night, Leon rented Pulse. We try to watch every horror film that comes along, so of course we had to see what this one was all about. It wasn’t a terrible movie, but obviously it’s no Oscar contender either. The funny thing about Pulse is that it’s supposed to take place in Columbus, Ohio...but it’s unlike any part of Columbus I’ve ever seen and I’ve lived here for 10 years! ;) Maybe it was supposed to be a futuristic Columbus, I don’t know. At any rate, if you watch this movie and you’ve never actually been to Columbus you will believe the following things: * * * * Columbus Columbus Columbus Columbus is a has has has real dump – trash and graffiti everywhere an abundance of deserted skyscrapers a subway system mountains Those were the really noticeable things that struck me. Funny stuff!! :) Maybe as a result of this movie, I had a really strange dream last night! I dreamt that aliens tried to land on earth (in Columbus?) and I watched their space shuttles in the sky. But someone (our military?) shot them down before they could actually land. As a result, someone set off a nuclear bomb and I was stuck in this room with a bunch of other people and animals and bugs! We tried to tape up all of the windows and doors so the radiation didn’t get in the room. I tried to go outside, but it was raining and the rain burned. Weird huh?? I better get back to work. I have quite a bit to do! Until next time... POSTED BY AMY AT 3:51 PM TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2006 He's bringing sexy back... Christmas is almost here. So this morning, I bought myself a gift – tickets to see Justin Timberlake in concert! :) I think Justin is such a cutie! ;) And his music isn’t bad either. :) 69 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 I Tivo’d (or DVR’d or however you say it) Saturday Night Live from this past Saturday because Justin was the host and musical guest. Last night I watched it. (He was too adorable in it, by the way!) During the show, I saw a commercial advertising his concert at the Schottenstein Center here in Columbus on February 19. I bought a ticket for myself and my sister on Ticketmaster this morning. I haven’t been this excited about a concert in a long time, and I’ve been to a lot of concerts over the years! (Leon asked why I would want to go watch Justin lip-synch on stage. I don’t think he lip-synchs. Leon is not supportive of my taste in music. hehe) ;) Anyway...I finished my Christmas shopping after work last night. Now I have to wrap everything. I decided not to send Christmas cards this year because postage is so expensive, and we’re trying to save our money for adoption expenses. So if you wondered why you didn’t get a card from me this year, that’s why! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! :) Leon and I both get Friday through next Tuesday off work for Christmas. The kids will be with us until about noon on Christmas Day. We’re all going to Medina on Friday and staying until Sunday, so we can celebrate Christmas with Leon’s family. After the kids go to their mom’s on Monday, Leon and I will head to Coshocton to see my family and stay there until Tuesday. We always have a lot of traveling to do at the holidays! I suppose I should get back to work. I just wanted to share my Justin excitement with someone! ;) POSTED BY AMY AT 12:03 PM 70 Lively Days: Amy’s Blog 2006 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2006 As the year comes to an end... This week is a short work week, which is great! We got Monday and Tuesday off for Christmas, and we also get Friday and next Monday off for New Year’s. Our Christmas was nice. It’s too bad everyone doesn’t live closer though. We spent the weekend in Medina with Leon’s family. We came back to Columbus on Christmas Eve because the kids had to go back to their mom’s at 1:00 p.m. on Christmas Day. After they left, Leon and I went to Coshocton to see my family and spent the night there. Goldie ate so many treats and people food over the weekend that she ended up puking when she got home on Tuesday night! We have a bunch of family coming to our house this Saturday too! My mom’s sister and her family live in Cincinnati, so they’re all meeting at our house on Saturday to celebrate Christmas. My mom, dad, sister, grandma and great-aunt will be there too of course. I think we’ll have 17 people in our house! I don’t think any of them are spending the night though, so Leon and I don’t have any plans yet for New Year’s Eve. Darlene called me last night with some very sad news. She has decided to stop her cancer treatment because it’s not working. She told me that it’s a matter of pain management now because the tumors are pressing on nerves in her pelvis and spine. I don’t want her to be in pain...I just hope the pain meds make her comfortable. She’s leaving for Las Vegas on January 2 and she’ll be there through the 6th. I think she told me that 19 of her family members are going to Vegas with her. Her 30th birthday is on January 5th. I’m so happy that she’s getting to take this trip and celebrate her 30th birthday. Darlene has been battling cancer for almost 3 years now. I knew this day was coming, when treatment would no longer be an option for her, but that doesn’t make the news any easier to hear. My heart is broken. I don’t even know what else to say about it. POSTED BY AMY AT 11:25 AM 71