Around The House

We moved into Green Lea (that's the street we live on) over a year ago. Actually, we moved in the weekend we returned from our honeymoon. When we first moved in I was extremely motivated to decorate and make this place our home. By the time everything was moved in and the necessities were in place I was worn out. The last thing I wanted to do was make more work for myself. Over the past year I have slowly started to decorate and really make Green Lea feel like it's ours. Being typical newlyweds, most of the decor around this place includes our wedding pictures. Jeff actually said the other day, "JoLee, let's not put up any more pictures of us, ok." But, I feel like we paid a lot of money for that photographer, we just need to get our money's worth and actually use the pictures.

Anyway, in an effort to try and decorate with something other than pictures of ourselves I have worked on a few other decorating projects around the house. Since we are on the topic of the wedding, the first item is actually my bouquet. I saved my bouquet but by the time it dried out and made the flight down to Southern California it was pretty pitiful looking. I decided to shadow box it - see picture above. I took an actual picture of the bouquet from my wedding day and then took some of the flowers that were left and hot glued them around. The ribbon behind is actually the ribbon that wrapped the stems. Who knows, maybe some day I will have a daughter and she can wrap her wedding bouquet with that same ribbon. The other thing I decided I needed to do was get some funky throw pillows for our couches. Our couches are hand me downs from my mom. I love these couches. They are quite possibly the most comfortable couches ever (at least they were in their prime) but unfortunately they are purple. Who has purple couches? I do! After about two hours in Pier 1 I finally settled on these. Please note that these were picked out exactly one week from returning from South Africa - which probably helps you better understand my inspiration. They actually match our throw rug perfectly too.

Finally, back to the shelf hanging incident in which I left four gaping holes in the wall. Well, the hubs returned and like a pro hung that shelf and made my little African animal frame collage come to life. Didn't turn out exactly how I envisioned it but I should just be thankful that it has now been up on the wall for about a month and has not fallen down. I am really starting to enjoy decorating my house to make it a home. Many more projects to come during my Life As A Wife.

Dirty Dancing

I love to dance. It is quite possibly the one thing that has a 100% success rate of taking me from a bad to an exceptional mood. Just something about making my body move to the music has the power to always put a smile on my face. Naturally, as a girl who loves to dance, Dirty Dancing was one of my all-time favorite movies - it's like Dancing with the Stars for the average person, with a love story attached (what could be better, right?). The other night a commercial came on TV that Dirty Dancing, the Broadway musical was coming to Hollywood. I thought to myself, "I have to see that," but I figured I could never talk Jeff into going with me so it was probably unlikely that I would get to. Not but a week later my boss sent out an email that she had two tickets to see Dirty Dancing and unfortunately, due to a last minute work event, was unable to attend. I immediately threw the idea Jeff's way and to my surprise he said yes! I knew he really did not want to go, but was sacrificing for me. What a guy!

I was sure to let Jeff plan out the rest of the day. We hit up Pinks Hot Dog stand in Hollywood before the show. As you know, I am still on my vegetarian kick so I ended up standing in line for over an hour for a side of french fries. But that hour was totally worth it for Jeff - he claims it was the best hot dog he has ever had. After that we barely made it to the show on time. Our seats were great and I was so excited to be there. From the opening number to the closing bows I was enamored the entire time. I used to love being on stage and performing. Watching other people do it gives me that same thrill, excitement and those butterflies in my tummy. The show was just like the movie with a few extra songs - it didn't disappoint.

After the show we had a nice dinner at the Geisha House. It has a really cool atmosphere and the sushi was great (despite being a vegetarian, I do have a little fish when at sushi restaurants - guess that makes me a pescatarian). I have been telling my friends and family recently that I feel like I need to take advantage of Los Angeles and all that it has to offer a bit more. My Dirty Dancing, Pinks Hot Dog, Geisha House day definitely helped me take in some of the sights around. And, it definitely motivated me to do more things like this during my Life As A Wife.

I'm Married To A Thirteen Year Old

I grew up in a household full of boys - more specifically, boys that loved toys. Between the three of them they were into everything and had all the cool toys. Remote control cars, dirt bikes, motorcycles, ATVs, go-karts, skateboards, boats, jet skis, trucks, snowboards...you name it, they had it. And, to this day, they still love their toys. My oldest brother (at 37) still hits up the skate park, rides a dirt bike and more, and my youngest brother is still picking up new hobbies like kite boarding. I am used to boys and their toys.

When my husband starting talking about wanting to get a skateboard a few months ago I kind of chuckled but I understood. The chuckle came from the sheer irony of my husband purchasing a skate board. He works as a business consultant in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, he wears a collared shirt and a tie to work, and he typically is telling high level executives in their mid-50's how to run their businesses. The thought of him going from professional by day to skateboarder by night just made me giggle a bit. Finally, last weekend we went to make the big purchase. It was an early birthday present and let me tell you, he was thrilled! It was so cute to see my big burly man revert to the little boy that he once was. To see him so excited over a skateboard - picking out the board, the trucks, the wheels...so cute!

That night we hit up the parking lot across the street from our house. I had seen Jeff on a board before but only briefly. Watching him "shred" (ha, did I really just say that) and do some tricks was adorable. He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him as well - I felt like a groupy! I think a part of me even reverted a little back to my teenage years - not a care in the world watching my guy show off for me. It is so nice to have a man in your life, a man that is not afraid to be a boy every once in a while. Jeff's skateboard, and his inner thirteen year old, brought out the kid in me during my Life As A Wife.

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Look ma, I learned me some big words! Ha, just kidding. No, I am not just throwing big words out there for the fun of it. Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, more commonly referred to as ITP, is actually a disease. A disease that I have recently been diagnosed with. Now, don't you worry, I am ok and I am going to be okay, it's just something I have to monitor and live with for the rest of my life, but honestly, I am okay. Here's the scoop.

About a year ago I went in for an annual check up with a new doctor, due to the move to California. As my new primary physician, my doc decided to check out everything. The results of my blood work showed that I had a low platelet count. In short, platelets are responsible for helping blood to clot. The fact that I have a low platelet count means that my blood, should I begin to bleed, would not clot and therefore it would be difficult to stop the bleeding and/or I could be bleeding internally and not know it. When my results came back, my doctor was somewhat confused. Typically if a person has a low platelet count they also have another irregular number, i.e., a low white blood cell count combined with a low platelet count is typical of leukemia. I didn't have any other irregularities so my doctor referred me to a hematologist - a blood specialist. Just so you know, a normal person has a platelet count somewhere between 150,000 and 450,000 (pretty big range if you ask me), and my platelet count seems to be hovering somewhere between 40,000 to 60,000.

I have now been working with a hematologist for about 6 months. I have been checking my blood count regularly, weekly, and have absolutely ruled out anything and everything that this disease could be - so the good news is that I don't have cancer, leukemia, hepatitis nor a slew of other horrible diseases. So, yah for that! ITP is my diagnosis. As a treatment, I was put on prednisone, which is a form of a corticosteroid. Typically, while on that medication, a person's blood count shoots up quite a bit. Mine did nothing - but I did suffer the side effects of being on that medication: weight gain, puffy face, not being able to sleep, headaches, sore joints...and the list goes on.

For those of you that do not know, the I in ITP - idiopathic - means "of no known cause." In other words, they, meaning the "medical world," know what is going on (I have a low number of platelets) but they do not know why. They can only try to figure out what is making my platelet count low, but they will never know why. To do so, they to try and determine if A) my body is not making enough platelets, or if B) my body is making enough platelets but something in my body is attacking them - typically antibodies (are you starting to feel like you are in a science class again?). In order to determine if either A or B is the case for me it is recommended that I get a bone marrow examination - which I hear is quite painful and yucky all around. I will keep you posted on those results.

I apologize for all of the fancy words and the overall long story. This is something I have been meaning to share for quite some time, but was kind of hoping it would all just go away. There truly is not a cure for ITP, all one can do is monitor their platelet count numbers - which involves going to the lab on a weekly basis to get blood drawn - and try to find a medication that will increase your count should it fall to a life threatening level, under 20,000. It is frustrating and definitely a change for me - I have been healthy as a horse since the day I was born. But, I know that I am beyond thankful to have my husband by my side each and every step of the way through these new changes during my Life As A Wife.

I Can Keep Up With The Kardashians

Not really, but I tried too last weekend. Jeff and I wanted to have a low-key weekend. We had both been in Reno the weekend before and we were expecting visitors this weekend, so we thought it would be nice to just lay low and not spend a lot of money. On Friday evening we were discussing options for the night and we threw out either renting a movie or going to a movie. Then out of nowhere I said, "how about we try not to spend any money all weekend" (obviously this part of the story has nothing to do with the Kardashians, them not spend money for a whole weekend, ha ya right!). Jeff thought that the plan was a great idea though and he accepted the challenge.

Saturday morning we woke up and sat around being lazy and wouldn't you know it - we found a "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" marathon running on the E! Channel. About 3 episodes into that Jeff had enough. But, the marathon inspired us to go for a drive into Calabasas and try to find the house of the Kardashians - as well as other random celebs that live in Calabasas (Britney, Denise Richards, etc.). While we were driving in the fabulous city of celebs we, I mean I, decided to check out Dash - the little boutique that the Kardashian sisters own. This is a picture of me outside of the boutique. Honestly, not that impressed. The store actually was a little bit dumpy. Nothing in there was all that fabulous. And, the girl working there looked like it was "the morning after, walk of shame" if you know what I mean - bed head, strange tossed together outfit, the whole nine yards! When I first walked in I thought she was a homeless person who had stumbled in and I was waiting for someone to kick her out - ok, not really...I made that part up, but she was pretty bad and I definitely thought she looked extremely out of place.

Obviously I didn't buy anything A) because it was our weekend of not spending money, and B) because the only cute thing in that store was a dress and it was $1,500!!!!! Are you kidding me? It will take a little time before I can truly keep up with the Kardashians during my Life As A Wife.