Say hello to my siblings

Yes, I have two - my sister, Amanda, and my brother, Mike (Michael). Amanda is my "blood" sister (look at the pictures, can't you tell?) and Mike is "adopted." He's not legally adopted, but when he was very young, my mom tutored him and since he had such a bad homelife (lived with his uncle when we all met) he spent a lot of time with us and became an "adopted" member of the family. I've never had a "blood" brother, but he's as real as any brother could be.

Despite being of no blood relation, we had a picture taken of the three of us by his wedding photographer (sorry, don't have a copy) that we look very much related in - funny how people can look like each other when they don't share the same genetics.

Here is my sister:


This is her and her boyfriend Mike - I know, two Mike's. :) Bro mike and bf Mike.

Here is two pictures of Amanda and bro Mike at his wedding last May.


and for good measure, here is my brother and I.

Bad picture of me, but you know what? I MADE that dress - hence the panel thing in the front because I didn't include the correct amount of material to make it a v-neck... LOL!

So now I've shared my siblings - the wonderful, sweet, good looking duo they are... and now I need to go to bed, haven't been to sleep yet!

BTW: Got my hair done, soon as I do the color and style it so it looks nice, I'll take a picture.

Stupidity disturbs my peaceful, happy world

An you know what? I'm about to dedicate this whole entry to it so watch out!

I have certain, shall they remain nameless, people on my AOL list due to their connections with family - not people I've voluntarily chosen association with, but have added to my list because I thought they were nice people - you are nice to my family, and then nice to me as well, you get on my AOL list, simple as that..

Well, I have this tendency to, shall we say, MELTDOWN when people screw with my family, especially my sister. That is my sister, and even I'M not rude or mean to her (heheh mostly), but even if I was, any and all rights to say anything bordering on rude, mean or inappropriate to her are mine by blood, sweat, tears, and GENETICS!

So that in mind, I decide to log on to AOL. Normally I check away messages first before doing anything else, so I do that. I get to the bottom of my list and click to read this:

"I hate it when stupid happy people put crap in their profiles like "I love Blah D. Blah soooo much" and "I am the happiest person in the world because Whats-his-face." They just want to rub it my face and remind me of how unhappy I am. Thanks a lot!!! Go kill yourselves......"

Umm, ok, how is that for a super pyscho away message - I mean, ranting about your unhappiness is fine, but "Go kill yourselves" is WAY past the line of acceptable personal conduct, online or elsewhere.

So I check the user name, trying to figure out who it is, when I realize it is in the category that denotes association with my sister. I'm not sure which among a set of people it is, but I do know it is one of the ones I should remove from my list as they have caused nothing but grief to my sister by being rude to her and her numero uno - have I yet? No, hadn't really needed to, been too busy to use AOL. Now I definitely won't because I am drawn to drama - the whole "trying not to stare but can't look away" mentality that makes forum trolls so interesting to me.

So, of course, I could try to be better than this person and go about my business, but as I know exactly who she is talking about because she has made my sister, and her boyfriend - who I quite like and would definitely never hurt a fly, let alone be mean (at least, i think, maybe I'm wrong, LOL!) - the target of her vicious, bitter, twisted little mouth for quite some time now. However, I realyl am not in that kind of mood! So here is MY away message:

"I hate bitchy people who whine about people who like to write how happy they are to be with someone. ESPECIALLY when they say stuff like "Go kill yourselves"... You know what I think? Maybe you should take you own advice you heinous, black hearted people."

Granted, not MATURE at all - the last tiem I resorted to writing mean things in my away message was when I was 17, I think. Wow, i've been using AOL for seven years, that disturbs me in a way I can't decribe - well, maybe I can partly - it makes me feel OLD!

But, the away message does nto satisfy me becuase I have to actually be away for it to stay there - I cn't message anyone, so I decided so come here and have a rant about it.

Now, I feel better - we'll, I'd feel better if people weren't writing "Go kill yourselves" to my sister and her boyfriend. Maybe Paint Sho Pro-ing the photos of them my sister took with my camera would make me feel better? No, I don't go for that, really.

You know what? I don't feel better, I feel quite pissed that there are people out there that would tell someone to kill themselves for being happy, especially when they weren't being ooey-gooey about it. I know ooey gooey, DH and I DID ooey gooey and I can tell you my sister does not. Mainly because... well, because I did it and she hated and got on my case so now if she did it I'd have to get on her case! :)

Basically, it all boils down to - don't mess with my sister. I love her, she's awesome - she's one of the best people in the world... wanna see her? I'll get a new entry in when I get the photos uploaded.

Well that is it for me, my rant is done. :)

I'm going to go for it! And my good non-pregnancy news.

I've decided, I'm getting my hair cut... and not just cut, but layered. I'm going to go for it on Thursday. When the rechargeable batteries are charged, I post a picture.

The main reason is to get the last of the disasterous dye job off my hear - I had my hair highlighted two years ago, right before the wedding. The stupid hairdresser pulled my hair through a cap (which I was not happy about) instead of doing foil. I've had my hair done that way before and it can turn out ok if done PROPERLY... guess what? She didn't do it properly - she ended up pulling 3/4 of my hair through the cap and turning it hooker blonde while the hair from mid skull down underneath stayed brown. It was awful, I cried like a baby. Luckily, the wonderful girl at Cost Cutters saved my life becuase after a hot oil treatment the next day, I went it and she fixed it. She said my hair was in really good shape, so I was lucky because that meant the color would take. she created this mix from a bunch of different color types (solutions for grey hair, etc.) and it turned out great - you can see the color in my profile picture.

So anyways, for the past two years I've had to dye my hair frquently to even out the bright blonde ends with the dark blonde and brown hair growing out. I haven't had it cut in awhile so it is about mid-back right now, all one length, and I'm ready for a change. I think I'm going to go with a longer version of my high school hair, since I liked it and I think it looked good on my face. It will just be long layers, but I think it will help out my hair since it has a tendency to lay pretty flat.

Below are some of my senior pics that are good shots of my high school hair (click for full sized images)...




Ok, enough about my hair... on to my good news!

Zane got his promotion to Pet Department Manager!

I'm really happy about it - it means he works 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday now instead of 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

So now I don't sleep alone at night anymore! :) Actually, I had been almost on his schedule anyways, so I need to learn to adapt back!

So while it isn't pregnancy news, I'm really happy. I'm proud of him as well, because he has worked so hard at Wal-Mart and now he has something to show for that hardwork. The store mananger has asked him twice in the past few months to do assistant manager training, but that would involve relocation we don't want to do, plus the hours are awful. This is really the next best thing for him.

This way, if he doesn't find a computer job, he has a better schedule for when we have a baby so he'll be here at night and actually be awake when the rest of us are! :)

That's all for now, gotta go do more things for the conference!

No money? It's ok, just sell your EYE!

Yahoo! News - Desperate Mother Puts Eye on Sale

I'm sorry, but this is just so idiotic! And how exact does one SELL an eye? Are there doctors out there that would remove the working eye of a person? If not, do you cut it out yourself?

And what exactly would one do with a purchased eye? Can it be inserted on those who have bad or missing eyes?

This is gross...

Pierogies and Britney Spears

It's 5 a.m. and I want cheese potato pierogies with melted mozzarella on top. Badly. I'm trying to resist, I'm trying so hard... I'm not pregnant, so I don't have an excuse for this "craving" at all.

Trying... failing. I failed, they are heating in the microwave right now. Yes, I boil them in water, I'm too lazy to try them in a frying pan. I know I'm sending plenty of people into fits right now, as most peopel do not like them. I can only eat them with melted mozzarella because otherwise the outer part is gross. I'm offically off my rocker, eating them at 5 a.m. - LOL, like I wasn't before! So now I sit here, waiting on my cheese potato pierogies with melted mozzarella. Yummy... :)

You know what? I hate you Britney. Ok, I don't really hate you. I don't really hate anyone. I just envy you like crazy because you are pregnant and I am not. I envy you doubly because you also have children via your low-life husband.

And it's not fair, damn it!

Why pregnancy has to be so hard for some people, I'll never understand. I've had my fair share of grief with two losses, but what about the people with four? Or the people with stillbirths, etc. It is all so incredibly unfair. Yeah, I know, whine has officially commenced. I really shouldn't do these entries after being up all day and night ESPECIALLY because I should still be doing PennACCA stuff right now. Problem is, I felt sick last night and not so good today, so I think I've been up too long to be entirely effective anymore.

I also need to stop looking at other people's cute newborns. I saw one today that was just so gorgeous I cried - I want a baby so bad and this baby was just so adorable, asleep and stretching.
*sob*

The PennACCA Conference crunch is on!

Just over two weeks to go until the state cheerleading coaches conference! I can't believe I've planned this whole thing almost entirely by myself, from the general idea a year ago to the big conference of present day. I've had help, for which I'm grateful to our great secretary, but the majority has been all me! This is possibly the largest task I've ever taken on (planning my wedding enitrely myself is running a super-close second)...

It really sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, but this is a big deal for me - starting PennACCA (Pennsylvania Association for Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors) last year was such a huge thing. It banded together cheerleading coaches across the state where before, no contact was being made. Other states have had a state organization for years, but Pennsylvania had nothing until I decided to step up and organize it. Now we're having our first state-wide conference, the first step along the path to making sure coaches get educated and certified to keep cheerleading in PA fun and safe.

I should not even be blogging right now, I have so much to do!

First post - A blogger I've become

We'll, here it is - I've become a "blogger" too! :0) "Becoming a blogger" is deceptive though, as I've been journaling online since July '04 - with my personal website instead of a blog service. That journaling has mainly focused on my journey to conceive a child, but has managed to include day to day events as well.

I decided to make the switch because I was impressed after viewing the blog of an online friend. I read a little more into blogger.com and really liked it. I've been doing my journal with handwritten code in HTML, and I really liked the format of the blog, with archives and past post links - things that would take more coding on my part that I really didn't want to do. I'm lazy, what can I say?

Anyways, I really liked all the things I could do with this service, like the feedback options, but my favorite is AudioBlogger, that lets you call from any phone and leave a message that is immediately posted as an MP3 audio file. I realized how perfect that would be when I finally get pregnant and give birth, Zane will be able to call to make the announcement so it can be posted in the blog. Now that is something I know I can't do with HTML! :)

I started online journaling as a TTC (trying to conceive) journal for a few reasons - to save my sanity by writing it all down, to share my experiences with others (it really bites to feel all alone when you are trying so hard to get something that is just out of reach) and because I really wanted to be writing a baby journal during the waiting part of cycle #3. I thought a TTC journal would pass the time while in the "2ww".

It became more than a "TTC Journal" as I experienced two of the most devastating events of my life - miscarriages in November '04 and March '05. The normal parts of my life began to leak into my writing as well, so it became a journal of major life events and minor life events, not just a journal of temperature fluctuations and body changes.

I also had separate journals for both of my pregnancies, because it meant a lot to me to record the changes and feelings so someday my children could read them - well, at least MOST of them, some of this journal/blog they really don't need to read! :) I've realized all those journals were part of one journal, the journal of my life, my world, so this blog brings that all together. Enough separating all those parts, it is time to keep them all together - besides, it's easier on me to have it all in one place.

Now this blog will be a place for everything - from dull everyday moments to exciting TTC journey events, because it all needs a place to be recorded... especially when baby milestones get to join the throng of events and observations!

P.S. My past journal entries will remain here for viewing.