Remember when I said I would write a nice entry yesterday ’cause it was Valentine’s Day?  Well, I lied!  :)  But I’m here now!  I’m sitting here with Katie and Catherine, watching “Platinum Weddings”…it’s so ridiculous how much money these people spend, but it’s entertaining for us!!!  We just finished watching “Pretty Woman” because my mom never saw it before…can you believe that?  She really enjoyed it…I mean, who wouldn’t?

By the way, there’s a bride on tv now who has three separate dresses…one for her reception, one for the ceremony, and one for I don’t know what.  Craaaazy!  It looks like it’ll be a cool wedding!  I’ll let you know what the grand total comes to.

All is going well here.  Friday, I went to my ENT, and I drove myself to my appointment.  It just feels nice to jet around solo, listening to my music and singing along.  I love driving with others, (Rachel, Mom, Mrs. Tuminaro, don’t be offended!) but it feels good to drive.  I missed it.  By the way, in case you were wondering, my ENT took out my ear tube (the one he put in back in July)…I’m scheduled for a hearing test this week (sometimes the treatments I’ve had can lead to hearing deficiencies).  He also told me to put a couple of drops of olive oil in my ears every week…have you ever heard of that?  I guess my wax isn’t easy to get out…I’ll have to get a bottle of olive oil for my bathroom!  Although I do use that sometimes to mix with lotion to help when my skin is extra dry.

By the way, they didn’t give a total for that bride’s wedding, but every time they mentioned the price for something…the dresses…food…jewelry, etc., each one was several thousand dollars.  It was beautiful, but it just seemed ridiculous.  Here’s my idea of an ideal wedding:  no cake….ok, there’ll be cake, but it will be from Costco or Safeway because they taste better than the fancy ones.  Also, there will be homemade pies (rhubarb for me!, cherry, apple, etc) and cookies.  I don’t care too much about what the place looks like or whether the chairs have covers on them; I just want to make sure they’re comfortable for the guests.  Here’s the most important part of the wedding:  music and photography.  Dancing will be verrrrry important, and the music will go on for a long, long time.  As for the food, how about just some dips and chips, hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, coleslaw…hmmm…what else goes with that type of food?  Beer and cider, of course!  Ideally, it would be outside, of course.  Sounds like fun, don’t you think?!  :)  I think watching all these Platinum shows makes me realize how crazy people get with this stuff.  And I think my experience with leukemia makes spending all that money seem even sillier.  The main idea is to have a wonderful party to share with your friends and family, people you never see together all at once!  Do they really care how fancy your event is?  Ideally, they would all stay a couple days so everyone can spend time together.

Geez…I didn’t mean to go on and on, but it’s fun to watch those shows and think about how you would do things differently.  It’s pretty funny, actually, if you get a room-full of women watching that show…you hear lots of “Oh, I would never do that.”; “That’s pretty cool, but look at her dress!”; “HOW much was that?…oh, that’s just ridiculous.”; “They don’t even seem happy….why are they getting married?”; “Oh, it’s all about the money…I mean, look at that necklace!”….yup, we have lots of opinions when it comes to weddings!

Anyway, I digress.  Let’s see….where was I?  Oh, back to Friday!  I went to Petsmart and got these cool new toys for Jameson and Guinness.  One is a wiffle ball bat that comes with a tennis ball, and I was really excited about this, because I haven’t swung a bat in years!!!  I figured it would be fun for all involved:  myself, Jameson and Guinness.  When I tried it out in the yard though, I felt a bit clumsy.  I kept throwing the ball up, swinging with all my might and watching the tennis ball fall on the ground.  Jameson would grab it right away, probably wondering why I would get such a defective toy…he loves me too much to think I’m defective when it comes to sports.

I wouldn’t give up though because I was having too much fun!  I made several good connections with the ball, and that motivated me to keep trying.  I think I was probably getting just as worn out as they were!  I couldn’t wait to see someone else try the bat to see how he/she would do.  Katie was the first to give it a go.  I watched and waited, wishing her failure (sorry Katie, but I didn’t want to be the only one who couldn’t hit it!).  She missed the first time, and the second time and the third time.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  Katie laughed and criticized at the same time:  “This bat is just too light to hit the ball.”  “I don’t think it’s possible to really hit the ball well with this bat.”  “It’s just not made properly!”  “You see here, where the top of the bat has the basket to hold the ball?  That just makes it all off balance and that’s why I can’t hit it.”   hahahahahahaha  She did make several good hits though, and she too became addicted.  “Just one more…can I try again?” It did my heart good to see that she was behaving just as I had.

Then my dad walked by.  We convinced him to come over and try it out.  He hit the first ball halfway across the yard.  The second time he missed, so we started laughing.  The third time, he hit the ball across the yard again.  He left with a good record of 2 out of 3, and Katie and I sat there.  I guess he showed us, huh?!  We were eager to include him in our people-who-couldn’t-hit-the-ball club.  Instead we learned that he could teach us a thing or two about it!  I’ll see what my mom, Laura, Tiso, Ronnie and Kathy can do.  Jameson and Guinness will love that!  The more people out there playing with them, the better!!

Moving on with the weekend, we had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  My dad and I took Jamie and Guinny for a walk and then drive around the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and they were happy to be out enjoying it.  We ate some pizza for dinner, and then Rachel came over to watch some cheesy movies.  I’ve always liked Valentine’s Day even though I’ve never been dating anyone at the time.  It can be a lot of fun–hanging out with the girls or my family.  Honestly, it doesn’t bother me too much…I think when I was in Spain for a semester it made me a little sad, but that was my fault.  I decided to go out and enjoy the gorgeous weather in Sevilla, so I walked down by the Guadalquivir River by myself.  I felt like the only single person around.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was coupled off (except for me!) and they were being all lovey dovey as they strolled along the river.  I just kept thinking, “Gimme a break!!!  Is this for real?  Aren’t there any other single people out enjoying the day?!”  :)  Even pets were all coupled off….hahaha just kidding.  But that would have been funny, wouldn’t it?

Yesterday, Susan came to visit!!  I didn’t even know she was home visiting from Texas, so that was a nice surprise.  It was so good to see you, Susan!!  She also helped me remember the spelling of another one of my favorite flowers…I wanted to include it in the list I gave you before, but I didn’t know how to spell it!  Anyway, here it is:  http://www.fiftyflowers.com/flowers/AllFlowersMatsumoto_258.htm Aren’t they cute?  Speaking of flowers, I never told you what kind of flowers I’d want for my wedding!  Paloma, Rachel, Susan, Laura and I constantly discussed our ideal flowers.  I like so many different ones, but I think for my wedding I would want something really bright and cheerful.  I’m thinking sunflowers, statice, anthurium (red)…I know, it sounds weird so far, but it’s actually pretty together…I can’t remember all the other ones I wanted in there, so I’ll have to go hang out in the flower shop again, but you get the idea…yellow, purple, red…something vibrant!…oh, and definitely some Bells of Ireland in there…I love those!!

I know, you’re sick of reading about what I would want at my wedding, but it’s these shows…I can’t help but think about it!  :)  OK, no more, I promise.  This post is already long.  In fact, you’re probably not even reading it anymore?!  Let’s just see if you are.  So yesterday, I went and hung out at the mall with a crowd of sick children playing on those things they have for kids to play on in the mall.  I played with the kids, let them snot all over me, and I never washed my hands afterwards.  Is this true or false?  If I don’t get any answers, I’ll know you didn’t get this far. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures I included of Indie, Laura and myself (and a couple other ones I threw in there). We had a wonderful time taking her to Great Falls…she’s such a laid-back li’l pup (OK, she’s not so little).

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day, everyone!

I hope you’re enjoying your long weekend!

Love,

Julie