Throwback Thursday

This little gem is from the 8th grade and the photo booths along the boardwalk in Daytona. I was lucky enough to have my Dad work a mile from the boardwalk at a beachside hotel so my friend Stephanie and I would tag along to work with him. We'd hang out by the pool and then wander down to the boardwalk...where this would happen.

A morning with the Oliver's

4:10 am…… Pssssssssss……….

Diana: Dammit Blue!

(I shoot out of bed despite my Tylenol PM induced haze and throw open the bedroom door. The dog is now hiding under the computer desk)

Diana: (insert Exorcist inspired voice here) Get your ass in the garage. NOW!!!

(Guilty dog click clacks across the tile and lays down on a blanket in the garage and immediately falls back asleep)



I am now scooping OxiClean into a bowl and marching to the kitchen sink.

Joey: (groggy voice as he stumbles to the bathroom) Whachya doing honey?

Diana: Mixing up Oxiclean since Blue pissed on the damn carpet.

Joey: Oh where?

Diana: Just go to bed; I’m taking care of it.

An hour and half later….

The house is lit up like a Christmas tree and I am burrowing under the covers to savor the 20 minutes of sleep I have left to catch.

Joey : (As he lays down on top of me) Hey wifey! Love you. Smooch smooch

Diana: (As I try to pull the covers further over my head) mrph grrr arr smmm

Joey: Ha ha ha baby. You are so funny. Blah blah blah blah….

Diana: (still burrowing) hbdbidebewb bbbewwilh soiqwhoi

Joey: (now bouncing on the bed) yadda yadda yadda ya…….I love you! I’ll see you after work.

Diana: swimndo friureil love you too ewliubfiu snuiwhe

30 minutes later… and a few snooze button pushes

I swing open the garage door –

Blue: Sorry Mom! It was just a tiny spot though!



Diana: ueiuweliw Outside! It’s okay. Diuebbfbfile

Blue: (Bounce! Pant! Jump!)
Diana: Back inside Blue!

Then I turn the TV on for the dog, give him water and food and shut the door to the little room so he can roam freely between the room and garage.

I then open the window up for the cat that has been clawing at it for the past 5 minutes and scoop all the cat food off the floor back into his bowl while he watches me.

It’s so nice to be Queen of my Castle.

Happily ever after...

As my blog posts from June reveal – Joey and I were going through a really rough patch last month and it was really rough on both of us. Luckily when I got back from my trip to Houston we took the time to really talk to each other and sort through all of the stressors and other factors that were making us argue. It wasn’t easy – we both shed a few tears (along with a few laughs) but in the end we buckled down and decided on a plan of action. We agreed to talk about things that were bothering us and to take on everything “together”

Ever since then our marriage has truly been amazing. I quite honestly have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Joey has gone from this agitated, grumbly bear to the man I fell in love with in the first place.

I knew going into this that marriage wasn’t going to be easy but both Joey and I decided from the get go that divorce just wasn’t an option. Unfortunately both of us tend to fight dirty and we are learning to just back off after stating what we are upset about and coming back to it later. Now though – its like walking into a fairytale land in our house. The two things you will hear the most is “I Love You” and the sound of us kissing. Nauseating, I know but oh so true. The other really nice thing about this is that we willingly help each other out now. Our house is tiny and tends to get cluttered/messy quickly so we both need to stay on it to keep from letting things get out of control. But when we aren’t getting along we both slack just to spite the other person – now – we clean together , cook together, and actually (gasp) enjoy spending time with each other and with friends.

You know – I think we just might make it after all!

Not Me Monday

I’ve decided to try this Not Me Monday thing . First the important stuff - Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Now onto all the things that didn’t happen to me.

1) I did not do an entire load of laundry without checking Joey’s pockets first which did not cause the entire contents of his pockets to me mixed with the washer water and permeate/stain all the clothes that were mixed in. This did not force me to rewash the load when I was almost finished with my Mt Everest of wash.

2) We did not discover that we had left a plate of chicken in the cooler after coming back from the springs last Sunday which did not lead to maggots crawling all over the inside of it.

3) Joey did not almost throw out a scratch off ticket that he had not won $100 on. I did not luckily come home and be my usual nosey self discovering our good fortune.

I’ll leave it at that since I don’t want to incriminate myself too much in my first stab at this!

Throwback Thursday

I decided to start this after reading about it on the Pink & Blues blog so here is my first submission for the Throwback Thursday -



If you look in the lower righthand corner you'll spot my sister Karolina holding me.

Now I bet you are wondering what the hell this is a picture of. Unless you happened to attend PS 186 - then you obviously know its from the dance festival. I'm estimating this to be circa 1986 or 1987. Now wtf is a dance festival?

Basically each grade k-3 would do these big circle dances in the school yard wearing coordinating outfits while all the parents came and watched. I remember doing it to such gems as - East Side West Side and of course, C&C Music Factory - Everybody Dance Now! Ahhh, the memories.

I swear, I'm alive

So, there once was this girl who had very, very good intentions of starting a blog and keeping it updated. Then for some reason she decided to make 3 cross country trips in 2 weeks followed by a weekend with her nieces and realized her blog sucks now because of it.

Quite honestly since we left for Mississippi on June 26 my life has been a whirlwind. I've spent more time in a car, airport or plane than any person should ever have to. Since I know that no one wants a big drawn out entry to read through I will shoot you the highlights.

The Keys were hands down the best part of our summer. Joey and I were desperate for a vacation and this surpassed our expectations. We got to snorkel above a coral reef, Joey caught Blue Crabs with his hands, we canoed through the canals, spent time with family. Every moment was memorable and we definitely plan on returning. I'll upload the good pictures after I pull them off Joey's camera. My camera drowned while we were at Bahia Honda so....I'll be getting a new camera this weekend!

This is me getting licked by a Key Deer. They are tiny and oh so adorable!

Our gorgeous view!

The Monday after the Keys I had an appointment with my new Ob/Gyn and what an amazing difference it was from my previous Dr. He spent about 20 minutes talking to me initially. Got my whole history, asked a ton of questions and really got to know everything that was going on with me. Some of the reassuring things he told me were - technically it hasn't been a year we have been trying to conceive with no results.

It's actually 12 cycles without a result that they start to get concerned and due to my longer cycles I actually have another 6 months before they would start to worry. He said to continue with the OPK's and really pay attention to any changes with my body around that time. Since I had already scheduled an RE appointment he is not going to do any bloodwork. He saw no reason to run all of the same tests twice and said the RE I chose was really good. He thinks that she will probably just place me on some Clomid, if she'll do anything to just push my ovulation up earlier rather than CD 24. I was so happy with how thorough he was.

I was also there due to the cyst followup. He scheduled another ultrasound which I will do Saturday but he also did a pelvic exam - which my previous gyn did not do. He felt another cyst (or possibly the same one?) on my right ovary. Only about 2cm and he felt it was benign. I went ahead and asked him if he felt I could be polycystic since I still have the cyst or another cyst and he didn't think so. I don't exhibit any of the symptoms of insulin resistance. I weigh 98 lbs at 5' tall and my cycles are regular just longer. He said the cyst is probably just a byproduct of the longer cycles. Then he asked me if I had any other questions or if he needed to explain anything else. He must have spent an hour with me in total!

So the next day I flew out to Houston after a 3 HOUR delay at the airport for a food show. I finally made it to my hotel at 8pm. The next two days flew by as we were setting up for the show, attending the dinner, working the show (a 10 hour day!!) and then finally break down and a well deserved dinner out at Flemings. Friday saw me with more delays at the airport and an Olympic sprint through the Atlanta airport to make my connection. I finally got in and picked my nieces up to take them home with me for the weekend since I had been promising it for ages. My house was a complete and total disaster after leaving Joey there alone for 4 days. I wanted to cry when I saw it!

I had my Ultrasound Saturday morning which did show a cyst about the size of a grape. I haven't heard anything else from the Dr's office so we'll see what they say about it. I started the Fertility Blend and Dong Quai again in hopes that this gets rid of the cyst like it did last time. I went back to sleep when I got back home since the girls were still sleeping and then it was off to my mom and dad's for some pool and beach time. Once we got back home the girls and I did some crazy Libby Lou hair dos and rented a movie.

On Sunday we headed over to the Springs to celebrate my hubby's 31st birthday. Karolina and Shane joined us and we all had a blast. I had woken up early to bake him a cake and then picked up all the snacks and drinks for the cookout. Once we got to the springs Karolina and I realized the water was way too cold so I rented inner tubes and we floated on those so we wouldn't have to touch the water. Joey declared it was too cold to even get near and decided to man the grill instead. After that we went home, ate some cake, everyone left and Joey and I spent a few hours talking and really planning things out. Its taken Joey a long time to get comfortable with opening up to me and knowing he can count on me so each time we have these moments they are really special to me.

Monday saw me back in the office (Boo). Joey and I went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday that evening and then we crashed - hard. Yesterday was the hubby's 31st so we celebrated by... going grocery shopping and cleaning the house. Lol. There was Steak for dinner and all Joey did was mop and that was by his choice.

Today I will tackle a mountain of laundry and hopefully go to bed earlier.

Less than 2 weeks to our RE appointment! Woo Hoo!

KEYS bound

I'll be MIA for the weekend since we are heading down to Marathon Key tonight to spend the 4th with my family at a friends house down there. Go ahead, be jealous - I would be! I promise lots of pics and funny stories upon my return!

Wordless Wednesday