We gave up trying to fight the weeds ourselves and hired a company to come out and take care of it.

They were at the house for over four hours. And they trimmed the bushes too. Joseph and I feel like we got our moneys worth.

They had a truck and trailer, so they parked sort of on the side of the road, but mostly in our driveway. They were not in the neighbor's driveway, but off the the side.

I was reading my book on my lounge with the door open, and I heard a loud noise. I glanced up and the landscaper's truck is kind of rocking back and forth. I was wondering what the heck happened when I hear someone start yelling, "Why the F*** is this parked here? What the F***?!" Over and over.

The kid next door hit the trailer with his car.

He must have realized it was his own fault, because he didn't say anything to the landscapers.

Later, the UPS guy came to drop off Joseph's ladybugs (for his garden) and hit the other side of the trailer.

The landscapers asked us what is up with our neighborhood.

The yard sure looks nice.

Beautiful Women

My very beautiful sister Megan lives in Texas with her family. When I posted the blog about my eyes she requested a picture. I had Joseph take this tonight (my hair is fairly OK looking...doesn't happen very often).

I had pretty low self-esteem growing up. I really couldn't tell you why. I thought my thighs were fat and would agonize how they spread out over the chair in music class when I was in the fourth grade.

A few years back I was looking through pictures and realized all that agonizing was pointless. I'm an alright looking girl. Not model material, but I think I'm cute (wow that sounds so vain). I realized how critical I was being of myself, and also I knew quite a few cute girls who were doing the same thing.

And I decided I would stop. Or try to at least. My hair doesn't always cooperate and even though I am twenty-freaking-five I still have acne, but Joseph thinks I'm beautiful.

And you know who is also beautiful? My Mom. Look at this picture.

She cracks me up...look at her face. So all you beautiful women out there who don't see it...cut it out.

And quit dating the idiot boys...Danielle.

Saturday

This weekend I had a to-do list. I woke up at eight (which is dang early for me) and got my oil changed. Which my Dad taught me to do myself, but I like to have the pros check everything and make sure Marcus the Truck looks good. He is middle aged and in need of special care. Then I came home and told Joseph we were going to replace the cartridge in the bathtub faucet so that it would stop leaking (something I have been meaning to do since we moved in....but it only leaks when you use the shower, and I think the guest shower has been used about three times, so it wasn't high on the list).

I got the handle off.....no wait, I couldn't get it because the screw was stripped. I had to call in re-inforcements.

Joseph is my loosener. Taking apart the handle was tricky, because we didn't want to damage anything, but we weren't exactly sure how it came apart. We finally got the cartridge out (which smelled like dead fish), took it to Lowes (in a plastic bag so as not to offend) and bought a replacement for $15. Putting the faucet back together took about two minutes (using a new, un-stripped screw).

My friend Renee told me she paid $150 for someone to replace her cartridge. She said she would call me next time. I said I only do my own home repairs, because if I mess up, it's my own home and I can always call a professional. Plus there was a part in this project where the cartridge would not come out and Joseph and I just kind of looked at each other and said..."What do we do now??" Brute force was the key to that one....Glad I've got my Joseph.

After we turned the water back on and made sure it didn't leak, Joseph planted my rose bushes for me in the front yard. My Mom has rose bushes, but they are in an area where they get a lot of shade. We put ours in the front next to the house, so I'm hoping they do alright. Our neighbors have rose bushes in full bloom and they are just gorgeous. I don't have pictures of the bushes just yet (they are small and not blooming) but here are some of my flowers Joseph planted for me.

I love Gerber Daisies.

I am glad Joseph has a green thumb and likes to do stuff like that. I sat outside to keep him company and painted my toenails. Then I made muffins for a party we were invited to, and went to a friend's house to play games.

It was a good Saturday.

My Eyeballs, Part Two

So I decided to go with Schwartz and have the ICL procedure done. Before they implant the lens in your eye, they have to do an iridotomy. Basically, they have to poke holes in the iris (the colored part of the eye).

That made me a little nervous. Poking holes in my eyes? But it's not a new procedure that was invented just for the ICL; you have to get it done for glaucoma treatment as well. It's necessary for the ICL because when the lens is implanted, it messes with the balance of fluid flow in your eyes.

I made my appointment for my iridotomy the following Monday. For the implants, my left eye was going to be done Wednesday, and my right eye the Wednesday after that.

The iridotomy required my pupils to be constricted, which is the opposite of dilation. The woman put eye drops in my eyes and told me if I developed a headache to let her know and she would give me some painkillers.

Eye drops give me a headache? I scoffed. Yeah right.

It gave me such a migraine I was trying very hard not to die. I had to sit in a chair under really bright lights waiting for my eyes to constrict enough so that holes could then be shot through them.

The woman was so nice; she gave me painkillers, got me crackers, got me water.

Although it didn't do much good, because the migraine was so intense that it caused me to vomit.

After that, I had to sit and have the holes poked in my irises. Then I had to wait an HOUR so that they could test the pressure in my eyes. I slumped onto Joseph in the waiting room and tried to lose consciousness.

One of the worst experiences of my life.

The contact implantation went much better. My eye was foggy for the first day, and the next day I was so groggy that I slept during most of it (did do a half day at work but I was exhausted). By Friday everything was good. I am still taking eye drops and I have one last follow up appointment, but I have been getting compliments since I've ditched my glasses (if you don't count my nephew, who told me I look weird).

My Eyeballs

A little over a year ago my eyes were really bloodshot and I couldn't really figure out why. Long story short, it ended up being my contacts. I went to the eye doctor and he said let's try different contacts, different solutions, etc. No go. So I was stuck in my glasses.

Although my glasses are cute, I really hated them. They bug my ears, they slip off my nose, and they are just a general pain. Plus, I tend to be a paranoid person. And there was always the worst-case-scenario of, if something happened to my glasses I would be so completely screwed because I am so completely blind.

My contact prescription is negative eight, negative nine, for those of you to whom that means anything. Translation: without any contacts/glasses, I can see about two inches in front of my nose and that's it.

So. I decided I was going to look into eye surgery. I started calling around different places and I found, to my surprise, that they won't just give you a price. You have to come in and be examined so that they can give you an "accurate quote" (which is all a bunch of crap, because let me tell you that they do not personalize the quote, it's all the same number).

I already knew from my eye doctor that I wasn't a candidate for Lasik because I was so blind. I scheduled an appointment with Barnet, Dulany Perkins, because my sister got her eyes fixed there and they weren't going to charge me for the consultation. After about two hours of having weird different tests and having my pupils dilated, they finally told me I was a candidate for ICL, or implantable contact lens.

What is that? They actually stick a permanent contact lens in your eye, behind your iris, in front of your natural lens. The cost? Six grand. It's actually better than Lasik, but because it's more expensive, those who are a candidate for Lasik usually just go for the cheaper option. ICL is reversible; they are not burning your cornea. If for any reason you need the lens removed, they can do that.

Alright. I finally had what I wanted: a price. Now I had to wait. Joseph and I were buying a house, and all of our money was being squirreled away for an emergency fund (because those things are important!) and for our down payment/closing costs for our house.

Fast forward to present time. I finally have my eye-fixing money. I started talking about my procedure because I was excited, and someone told me she heard the lenses only lasted ten years.

Ten years?? That didn't even make sense. Wouldn't someone have told me about that??

So I call Barnet Dulaney Perkins and ask. After making me spell my first and last name TWICE (they can't find my history), the girl can't answer my question and says she will transfer me to someone who can. The second girl makes me spell my name again, still can't answer my question, and says she'll call me back.

She never called me back.

Well that was too bad for them because Joseph, scared about my eyes, was pushing for me to "check out other places" and if you've heard the advertisements for Schwartz, you know they do the Phoenix Suns' eyes.

Seriously, how much more of an endorsement do you need?

So I called Schwartz. Made an appointment. Liked Schwartz better. And Jay Schwartz told me (himself, because I thought I was going to get a partner doctor) that he does one eye at a time because it's safer. And he wasn't talking badly about Dulaney behind his back, because he's told it to him to his face. Risk of complication is pretty small, but he had one patient who reacted poorly to the medication, and they actually had to take the lens out, and she couldn't see out of one eye for a week. Wouldn't she have been really badly off if she couldn't have seen at all for a week?

Oh, and that whole ten-year business is some weird rumor and Schwartz laughed about it. He said he's heard all sorts of crazy stuff and he doesn't know how that got started.

I was sold. Schwartz got my business. It was going to be a little more expensive, $6400, because to do the two eyes separately is a little more cost-intensive.

This is a very long post. I didn't mean for it to be so long. It will have a part two of my surgery experiences. I just got my second eye done today so I will wait a little bit and then you can hear if I'm happy or not once the "temporary" side-effects wear off.

Joseph's Garden

I was minding my own business when Joseph approached me carrying one of those plastic tubs that plants come in. He told me to look at what he had, and I figured it must be a little seedling or something of the sort from his garden. Wanting to be a supportive and encouraging wife, I eagerly looked into the pot that he outstretched to me. I did not recognize what he had. That didn't really surprise me, because I don't know much about plants, but I continued to stare at it, thinking maybe it would look familiar. It was small, cylindrical, and covered in his new, expensive dirt. Was it a root? It didn't have the little dangling parts that roots have. I finally gave up trying to puzzle out what it was, glanced at Joseph and asked, "OK, what is it?"

With disdain on his face, he exclaimed, "It's cat poop!"

Joseph was very distraught that there was cat poop in his garden.

I was very distraught that he had just put CAT POOP under my nose and let me STARE at it.

I didn't know whether to yell at him or laugh. I ended up doing a bit of both.

I'm not looking at anything else Joseph Lee. You are officially untrustworthy.

Joseph's Garden and New Dishwasher

One of these Saturdays I am just going to relax. I promise myself I will....

Joseph and I don't even know if this dishwasher works. It was disgusting inside. My mom made suggestions to clean it out, but we have just been hand-washing our dishes. I really can't believe that only two people go through so many dishes.....We didn't have a new dishwasher as a high priority just because it wasn't really necessary. Although washing dishes by hand is not ideal, there were other projects that we really wanted/needed to get done first. But we've finally saved up, and Joseph checked consumer reports, and we are the proud new owners of a dishwasher. Da da da daaaaaah.

Joseph is hooking up the wiring.

That is me. Inside the cabinet under the sink. Connecting the drain hose. I seriously had to crawl in there; I don't know how a big burly man would have been able to reach that connection.
There is always a point in a project that I wonder to myself why we didn't just pay the extra $150 for installation. When the pipe is leaking everywhere even though we turned the water off, or my connection isn't fitting properly, or there are additional steps that we didn't anticipate.....I seriously kick myself and promise myself that next time, I'm paying someone to do it.

But then the dishwasher is installed, or the toilet is installed, or the closet doors are hanging straight, and I feel such pride. I feel like I've learned something and I understand a little bit more how things work. And dangit, I saved myself $150. It only took us two hours.

So next, we will be tackling the garbage disposal. :)

Switching subjects, here are the follow up pictures of Joseph's garden.

Look at the watering system. I hope everything works out for him. He's really excited about his little vegetables.