Oh Happy DAY!!

For those of you who know me personally you know the saga of my Brother Andy and his leg. For those who don't here is the quick and dirty. Betsy was driving Andy to work the day after Thanksgiving 2003. They hit a driveway rolled the van they were driving. Andy ended up with a shattered tibia. This all this the Friday before the poor boy turned 16. They placed 6 "pin" in his foot(3 at the ankle and 3 below the knee) with connecting rods. He has been recovering for 10 months now. And today there came happy news, Andy gets to FINALLY have his fixater taken out! It will happy the week of the Wedding. The Dr says that he should be able to walk without a crutch by Saturday......OH HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!! This is something that my family really needed right now!!!!!

Showers of Love

On Saturday was the Bridal Shower thrown by my Maid of Honor. I was a little worried to be prefectly honest. N has been VERY busy with her own wedding and was VERY stressed out on Saturday to say the least. The shower was scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm. I arrived at 12:20pm to find Josh's parents already there. Not to far behind them pulling in was his aunt and grandma. They the guests began flocking on the house. We had a wonderful lunch of bbq'd pork, many salads and my Sister in Laws famous Taco Dip.

We went around the room and introduced evereyone. It was cute as to what different ppl said. My mom was so cute, she said I am Julie and she's mine. That is enough to bring a tear to your eyes..... We played toilet paper bride. I got to be dresses up in a dress made of TP. The fun part was dressing each other up as my bridesmaids. My little cousin Lucy was the cutest of them all so she was declared the winner.

I recieved many wonderful gifts. I appreciated everything that we received. I cannot wait to go through our stuff and pack it up for garage sale. Yeah!

The final "game" of the afternoon. I had a rose and for each petal that I removed I had to list a reason I loved Josh. Now I thought about this earlier in the day. I thought that this may come up. So I had many reasons thought up, but when you are on the spot like that your brain goes BLANK. I think that I did pretty good. There was only one that I thought of later that I should have said.

Lower than Dog Shit

Many of you know that Josh's parents were invading our house of sin this weekend. I have always felt judged by Josh's mom so this is a hard thing for me. I want her to "feel included" in the wedding then maybe she would show some emotion for us. I don't understand how someone whom I love so much could have been a product of his parents. He is so much like his dad in his mannerisms but looks like his mom. But he was a warm heart, a wonderful personality and partakes in mortal sins which are things his family lacks.

Where do I begin??? My sweetie was helping out at my parent's on Friday by mowing the lawn. Which is something Josh did for a living one summer. I met him at my parent's house, stayed for a short while then headed off to home so he could take a shower and prepare ourselves for the planned invasion. I arrived home to find Josh on the phone with his parents. They were in Spring Green already at the gas station. Josh hopped into the shower and his parents arrived. I went out to greet them with our bastard dog (our first child and he is out of wedlock). His mom brought Rachel's wedding pictures in and "Oh aren't they just SO WONDERFUL?" Sorry I don't know what came over me. Oh that's right I work for the devil. I hoped by looking at the pictures then it would prevent the anticipated "let's look at Rachel's wedding pictures at Jessica's Shower. She doesn't deserve a day to celebrate her and Josh's love. The whole world revolves around Rachel" scenario. Which it did, so much to discuss between now and then.....

So we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant and the location of our rehearsal dinner, The Shed. We got to see the upstairs all ready for a rehearsal dinner which was nice. I think that we are going to be very happy with it. We had a long wait for our dinner so we had some time to talk. The good news first, it seems as though Ben, Josh's brother, will be able to make it home. That is really good. He may actually get Friday-Sunday off so he can spend more time with us.

Now for the bad news, if you have a sensitivity to curse words stop here. I asked Josh's mom how Rachel was going get down here on Saturday. She replied "oh she isn't coming, Michael had three concerts in Indiana and she couldn't live without him for that long. My simple reply was "oh". I practically had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I must have looked pissed because Josh picked up on my frustration right away. All of this anger boiled up inside of me. Hang on here it comes again. I drove 4 count them 4 fucking hours to go to her shower. The shower was at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning. SO I had to get up at 7am to leave early. I drove through SHITTY weather. And all to be there for a 2 hour family function. I did not do this out of obligation. I did this because that is what you do for your family and friends. You drive ridiculous amounts of time to spend a little while with them. I cannot believe that she wouldn't come. On top of that she is a FUCKING BRIDESMAID! She made sure everyone of her girls were there. A bridesmaid's role is to be there and support the bride. Fucking Bitch!

Ok so I calmed down from that news, to have my blood begin to boil again. Josh's parents have promised us many things and hasn't really followed through yet. They promised that they would come down on Friday morning and help us throughout Friday with things that need to be done. So Josh's mom informs us that Michael has a concert on 10/22. That is the date of our rehearsal dinner. He isn't sure if he is going to attend it. If Michael does come they are going to have Rachel drive down with them. Rachel cannot skip her classes that Friday because attendance is vitally important. So is this wedding she has known for a year and a half when it was going to be and that she was a part of it. Then Michael will have to drive down early Saturday morning. ANYWAY, his parents then inform us that if Michael gets out of the concert they will drive down with Michael and Rachel on that Friday. They aren't sure when Michael will be able to get off of work though. It may be 12:30 -1:00ish. What the FUCK! Didn't you PROMISE that you would be down FRIDAY MORNING?!?!?! Now you are telling me that you may make it down before the rehearsal but you are not sure?!?!

I am PISSED about this for the following reasons:
1. Josh and the guys will be picking up their tuxes at 2 on Friday. If Josh's dad's tux has a problem there isn't a way to get it fixed if it isn't noticed right away.

2. I worked 4 fucking 10 hour days so that I could have Friday off to attend Rachel's BORING personal shower.

3. I went and helped at the church when Rachel did NOTHING she didn't not lift ONE FINGER to help decorate for HER OWN WEDDING!

4. Josh's parents PROMISED that they would be down to help us on Friday!

5. I wanted my girls there in the afternoon to help with things.

6. Rachel cannot SKIP TWO FUCKING CLASSES FOR US! It would be one thing if there were exams but there aren't.

7. I am trying SO HARD to feel like a part of this family but when they don't let you in it is frustrating. You know Rachel never invited me to be back with her on her wedding day, her cousins did. Her cousins offered to have me come and get ready with them. Why does she have to be so COLD. Is it because I will be another daughter and take away her attention? Why?

8. Why couldn't she be decent enough to return the favors that I showed before her wedding?? Why can't she show me the respect that I deserve?

9. Why can't we ever win?

10. Tears flow freely here......

Spray Painting?

I have been tanning for a month now. Well as many of you know I don't have the complexion for tanning. So I have been "basting" myself 3 times a week. I am to the point where I do not burn each time that I go anymore. Which is a small but important victory. Maybe this will change the way that I tan for the rest of my life. So anyway, I have debated on trying the UV free Mystic Tan. My package ran out yesterday so today I was going to tan per usual, I had been thinking about buying the tan accelerator and trying than. On my way out the door I got involved in a conversation with M and J my two co-workers about tanning. They are boys and don't truly understand the need for me to be tan. As I said they are boys so I will let that go. They pretty much convinced me that I am not getting my desired results from my tanning sessions that it would be better for me to try "getting spray painted" The conversation took a turn for the worse when they were arguing that they wanted to get a job at the tanning place as "the spray painter".

So I convinced myself on the way over that I would do it. I had to watch the cute little video to learn about what to do in the booth so that I didn't end up like Ross in that one episode of Friends. The girl escorted me to the room gave me my instructions and left me to prepare. I undressed and removed my jewelry. I then applied the cream to my hands and feet so that they didn't end up brown. I decided against purchasing the nose plugs and goggles for fear of passing out from not being able to breathe and raccoon eyes. The girl assured me that they weren't necessary just keep your eyes closed. She informed me to breathe through my nose as much as possible not to breathe through my mouth as the tanning solution tasted bad. Boy was she right. It is amazing how quickly you feel like you are going to die from chemical overload. I know have a headache like when you spend all day in a swimming pool. I nervously stepped into the booth. Shut the door and bravely pressed the green start button. I couldn't remember how long she told me before the spraying would start so I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I did feel like I wasn't able to breathe. But I did fine. The spraying lasted for 14 seconds. I quickly turned around and waited for it to begin again. All you have to do next is exit the booth, towel off the excess solution and get dressed. I have to wait 8 hours to see the maximum effect. We'll see how it goes to see if I would like to go again....

Why Can't We Just Get Along?

This weekend was a fun/stressful weekend. I had a bridal shower thrown in my honor by my Step-dad's mom. It was fun! I had a nice time and got several nice and much needed gifts. As my mother so nicely put it "Josh and I still live like college students" Meaning we have a mishmash of furniture, pots and pans, flatware and dinner ware. That is VERY true. One of the most exciting things about getting married is picking out MATCHING stuff to register for. Yeah Matching!!! You know also the whole actually GETTING MARRIED thing, that's ok.....

So during the shower my mom received a phone call from my Step-dad. He has been having troubles since he had his teeth pulled being tired and feeling ill. My step-dad has had a problem with infections for the past 2 years. He gets them very badly, so badly that he has to usually go into the hospital for antibiotics and to stay for a couple days. Well he went in and had blood drawn on Thursday by Friday the blood culture had grown up. So he went in Friday to have more blood work and have an ecocardiogram. The blood work again grew up. My step-dad called during the shower to say the Dr. had called and that they suggested that he come in immediately. So we ended the shower as quickly as possible and left.

Now I am having a shower this weekend thrown by my MOH at my parent's house. Now there is a lot of work to do there as far as cleaning and fixing up. My parent's house is a 150+ year old farmhouse. It gets dirty pretty easily as most houses do. So my parents, are fixing up the house before the shower and the gift opening. They have torn the bathroom apart and are putting in a new floor, toilet, and vanity. The house also had to be pretty deep cleaned as far as washing the windows, cupboards, and all the glassware and knick knacks my mom has. So Saturday night while my mother was at the hospital my sister called. She was telling me that I HAD to come over on Sunday and help clean since my mother was going through all of this for me and that it would be selfish for me not to. Well, I really didn't appreciate that. I know that my mother is going through a lot right now. I had already promised that I would come over this week and help her with whatever needed to be done. I just really wanted Sunday for me to clean my house. My in-laws(to be) are coming as well as we girls are going to crash there Saturday night after the Bachelorette Party. I thought that I should have a clean house. I tried to explain this to my sister and tell her I already promised to be there this week. She wouldn't listen. I told her that I would come AFTER I got some of my stuff done at my house. I had to wash curtains, bedding and organize the wedding room (the spare bedroom). So I did that stuff ran and errand and got to my parent's around 2.

I helped cleaning the cupboards, removing all the tins, wiping them down and then putting them back up. What a pain and a filthy job. Like I said the house gets dirty quickly and easily when you live on a farm/dirt road. In the middle of cleaning I stop to help my sister hang the clean curtains. We get into a fight......didn't take long. My sister and I have fought like cats and dogs for many years. Needless to say I stopped helping her. I continued cleaning the tins/cupboards. I got to the last cupboard and was getting irritated by the dust and dirt so I went into the living room to sit down for 5 minutes. I wanted to see how the Nascar race ended. Most importantly I wanted to see where my hero Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished and see how he ranked in the points standings. She yelled at me for sitting down, then watching TV. I finished watching what I was watching got up finished my cupboards, took my "rotten ass dog" and left. I honestly don't think she understands the stress that I am under. Planning a wedding is NO easy feat. I wasn't planning on leaving my mom high and dry with the cleaning, I just was going to help when it was better for me to do it. I think she felt that if she didn't see me there she wouldn't believe that it would be done......
Stupid sister.........