Author Archives: Janice

Mother’s Day 2012

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This link was my motherhood status in 2009. I was the mom of a two and a half year old and a seven month old baby. I remember it almost clearly. It was really the hardest job in the world, but together with my husband and the help of my parents, we made it! I almost can’t believe how we were able to travel by plane and survive the airport in those days. Dex and I were always positive thinkers and could not give up our lifestyle. No matter how hard, we did it. We went there and we did that! We packed snacks and baby food and breast milk and all sorts of toys and pacifiers and baby bottles and diapers and extra clothes and bibs and vomit clothes for mommy and daddy and strollers and car seats. Every day at that point was a struggle to get out of the house! It was literally a whole morning affair to get anything done and ready for the outside world. Sometimes, I was too tired to get out after the whole preparation for it! 

Now three years later, I am in such a different state of thought. I have an almost 6 year old and an almost 4 year old! I feel like I have survived the hardest part of it all.With every age that they add every year, I feel like the challenge is always different, but still a challenge in and of itself. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommy’s out there, especially to the first time mom’s who is at the beginning of their journey. I’m not a fan of Hallmark Holidays, but I gotta go with the flow on this one! It is a deserving holiday to be celebrated! I always say that I have been blessed. This is the reason. My two girls are truly the best gift a mom (and dad) could have on this Mother’s Day! Enjoy the beautiful meaning behind this day! 

 


Five Years and 10 Months Later

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Once upon a time, a husband and wife slept together in their beds- in peace and quiet. They went to bed past 2am on a regular day before their scheduled day to work. On most days, when they went out, they went to bed much later for a couple hours and got ready to start work at 7am. When they didn’t have work, they would sleep until 2pm and then maybe take another nap later in the afternoon and then get ready for more fun when the moon came out. Then they had a baby and all that changed literally overnight. There was no warning of what was to come. They brought their baby home from the hospital and it has been that way since. They never slept alone in their beds again… UNTIL NOW. Yes! Five years and 10 months later, the husband and I have finally slept in our beds, ALONE, for the last five days and counting! I never thought I could get to this point! Although “sleeping in” until 9am is considered a blessing, I am happy to take this step for now!

We never ever intended on having our newborn baby sleep with us. Of course every parent dreams of their first born’s nursery, but ours was very far from that dream. We had just sold our town house at that point, moved into an apartment with our dog Tyson, our newborn baby, my parents and my brother. We stayed there for about a year waiting for our house to be built. We did two moves in one year of having our first born. Talk about whoa! Jasmyne never got used to being in her own room. I was determined to make sure my 2nd baby did not follow into her footsteps. She was well trained to sleep from 7pm until about 730am all by herself in her own room. That in and of itself was hard work. It was like living through a strict army schedule. We had to be home by 6pm everyday to get her ready for bed. My brother stayed in the room right next to hers and shared the connecting bathroom, so every slight noise he made was a nightmare for us. That soon fell apart with our love of being out of the house too! Basically Dex and I traded our privacy in the bedroom to be able to keep our late bedtime and also afford a later wake-up time on our days off. Fair enough, right?

Well all that needed to change when Jasmyne started Kindergarten. She obviously could no longer afford to sleep late, so either Dex or I had to start sleeping early with her in our bed. It was almost a paper-rock-scissor game that neither one of us wanted to lose. Believe me! We are both not meant to sleep early at all. So when we moved to our new house, I had a plan. We bought their beds and started having them feel comfortable in their own room that they were going to share with each other. My chances of them sleeping in their room doubles if they shared their room. Three months ago, we started the process of them sleeping in their beds while we slept on the floor. YES! Three whole months of sleeping on the floor and enduring worsening back pains! After two months, they both finally stopped coming down to the floor to sleep with us. We advanced from the closet light staying on to buying a fish tank with a nice dark blue light to be used at night. Then we bought them fishes to keep them company at night. This week we started our sticker prize calendar and it worked like a charm. They look forward to what the next prize will be. For every night they stay in their bedroom, they get a sticker in the morning on that box. They can’t move forward to the next box unless they work together as a team and stay in their bedrooms. IT WORKED and I can’t believe it. It’s been five days and counting. Last night was a little hard due to the thunderstorm, but they still stayed in their room. I am so proud of them, especially my little 3-year old. I couldn’t expect that from Jasmyne when she was that age. They are really looking forward to reaching the end when they can have a shopping spree at Toys R Us. In all honesty, they are super excited because they have only been to that store once, which was for their shopping spree of 2 toys once they stopped coming down on the floor to sleep with us. I can’t say that we will ever get back our “sleep until 2pm” back, but I honestly don’t even want that back. I just want to be alone, in bed, with my husband without feet sticking in my face or finding myself almost falling off our king sized bed because my two little ones have taken over. Please pray that we continue to move forward in a positive way. I have been able to achieve more of what I need to do at home and at the same time, sleep somewhat earlier because I no longer have to sneak out of our room after they’ve fallen asleep. The best part is I can finally watch ID (Investigation Discovery Channel) all night long. Yahooooo! Good night everyone!

Spring Cleaning

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Summer came early for us here. With my two girls, summer means BUBBLES. They love bubbles like every other child does. They can literally consume a lot of time just playing with their bubbles. So because of that, I bought them several bubble machine guns and colored bubbles and even plain old bubbles they can blow themselves. This world we live in now just accommodates all that, so why not? I realized that they kept asking for more and more bubbles as I was doing some cleaning. Okay I admit that I hated to be interrupted as I watched TV. So what is the lazy mom solution to adding more bubbles without having to get up or stop what you’re doing? VOILA! I saw something similar on Pinterest and thought I’d make one to call my own. Okay okay fine. To all you people shaking your head at me, I honestly did it for decorative reasons as well. It looks cute and I just couldn’t help it. I have been so inspired to organize and make my new home “homey” and this went perfect near their outdoor basket. Besides it’s so convenient for them and for me. So while they are out playing their bubbles, I am able to get my house in somewhat of an order. Of course it is with the help of my handy manny daddy. I would probably spend thousands of dollars if it were not for him. If anyone knew me very well, they would know that I am not a clean freak or anything like that, but what I absolutely HATE the most is CLUTTER! I think this is the reason why I have no problem tossing anything. My bedroom is a mess, but I want my living space to be clean. Living space being the kitchen and basically all the space that takes up my first floor. It’s the stuff I see on a daily basis and I spend 100% of my time in it when I am not sleeping, so I would like the space to be breathable. It’s gotten so much better with the help of baskets and other such things. It just keeps my clutter looking classy! LoL! My husband always gives me a look when I go out buying these things, but in the end, he ends up loving my ideas. So with that note, I will end my PINSpirations with a picture of my pantry door. I can’t believe that I have never ever thought of this. Not only is it organized, but everything is now easier to find. I love this idea so much that all our bedroom doors have one hanging on it. I use it for my craft stuff, the girls’ ponytails, markers, pencils and whatever else you can think of. Like I said, the object of the game is to have an organized mess in order. I will say that in about two months, my house will be exactly where I want it to be! It’s not easy making sure the girls have my same vision, but it has been manageable. I just tell them that I will throw out whatever they don’t clean. I seriously would do it too and they know it!

Tune in for more later. Trust me. I have so many that I can’t share them all at once. Hahaha. I have become the organization freak as of late! Now that I have spent 10 minutes writing this, let me go outside and make sure my baby girl is not spilling all the bubbles! Have a great day! =)

I Love Love.

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So I am not big on Valentine’s Day or Sweetest Day, to name a few of The Hallmark Holidays. I guess in my high school days, I loved it. I loved receiving little tokens of love from another person, particularly from the one who would end up being my husband. As I got older though, I realized that I was not into it anymore. I think Dex and I celebrated it our first 2 years together until I demanded him to stop giving me flowers and gifts. I didn’t want to go out Valentine’s Day or the weekend of it, because we went out to eat all the time and went on our dates to great place on a regular basis. I didn’t want him feeling the pressure to get me something or do something special for that one day in the calendar when he always did it for me anyway. Why would you have to give someone a gift of love for a day in the year? Maybe it is because Dex has always showered me with gifts on a daily basis ever since we have been together that he killed it for me. Dexter has always been very unselfish and giving, not only to me, but to people he comes into contact with. I remember when I was struggling with school and working two jobs. He told me to quit one of my jobs. He paid for my car, insurance payments and credit card bills. He helped me pay for things I needed for school. He took me on full paid vacations and cruises and showed me the world. He has always spoiled me rotten. I think that is the reason why Valentine’s Day is just like any other day for me. So of course, even though Dex knows I don’t want any gifts or that trip to a fancy restaurant, he never fails to get me even a little something on Valentine’s Day. I woke up to a card with a beautiful message on the inside. He also always gets me my favorite chocolate- Ferrero Rocher. Since I am trying to cut back on chocolate, he gave me just three pieces- symbolizing I Love You! He’s so sweet! But not to spoil it- I still wish everyone a day and life full of love and romance on this Valentine’s Day.

Last week, I went and finally got my tattoo that I have been waiting to get done in the last couple of years. I finally found the picture I wanted and have been searching for. I love the infinity sign and I knew my mark had to have something associated with it. I got married in the month of August, which is the number 8, for that very reason. 8 is the infinity sign turned in a different direction. I Love Love. I have always been a very emotional person when it comes to Love. It melts my heart and I am glad I have it in my life. So this tattoo that I got symbolizes infinite love. That is what I have with my husband and that is what he has given me- my family. It was painful, but it’s done and I LOVE it.

I absolutely do LOVE it. It is everything that represent me. My infinity sign that I love so much. My anniversary month. My marriage. My family. Our love. It looks bigger than it actually is in this picture, but it is the perfect size. It is right on my neck/back. What matters the most is that my husband loves it too. He was really against me getting another tattoo, but he loved it after seeing the concept. I don’t regret doing it at all. That is all. May your everyday be filled with more than just flowers, candy and that gift. I wish you the REAL thing on a daily basis. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! 

Falling in Fall…

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Isn’t that picture I took up there lovely? Doesn’t it just make you feel so at peace with nature? The colors are beautiful aren’t they? WRONG! For me, it does everything but that. It only means that we are closer to winter and it really gives me butterflies in my stomach. It got so cold so fast this year. I have already started on my Calcium regimen. I haven’t started on my tanning yet, but will be looking forward to some sun in my coming vacation. In fact, I have increased my dose from last year. It did work wonders for me last year. I got a huge Christmas tree. I decorated the inside of our house. I even bought lots of decoration for outside the house too. I wrapped the Christmas gifts in style. I made up Christmas games and I really was feeling the opposite of blue. Thank goodness we had a burst of summer last week to up my spirits a little bit. I find it odd that it hits me almost as soon as the sun don’t shine after 5pm. My SAD symptoms don’t gradually occur. It hits me like a train. Maybe it’s also because of all the changes going on in my life at this time. Well whatever it is, I hope I cure myself just like I did last year and actually enjoy the holiday shopping!

Speaking of the holidays, I’ve already gotten ahead of myself and ordered our Christmas cards. November will be a busy time and I don’t want to fall behind on my favorite thing about the holidays! This year, I decided to have our pictures taken on location as opposed to a studio. I find that is much more fitting when you have young children. There are no appointments or people waiting behind you. It’s just more natural. I got my proofs last week and was so excited to see them. They turned out great and I’m really excited to share the best part of Christmas with everyone. The only thing I would probably enjoy about the holidays even without taking my happy medicine is receiving XMAS cards in the mail. I’m like a freaking child receiving the best gift ever when I get ‘em. So email me and request my home address so you can send me one too! Come on. Don’t be shy! *insert smiley face*

Anyway, it’s been a very good and productive last couple of weeks. I’m also enjoying decorating all over again and trying to figure out what goes best where. Color schemes. Style. All of that. I just want it all to be finished and I can truly be happy and comfortable. I’ve been busy with all of that and finishing up on my favorite thing to do- making my cherished albums of memories. I finally was able to finish our Orlando Vacation. I got the album and wished it was a little bit bigger. I currently just finished my July 2011 album as well. July was jam packed this year and I can’t wait to get it in my hands- all 60 pages of it! I know. I know. I sound obsessed, but I truly am the one who takes a crap load of pictures and preserves them for the future. I’m the one that has had a journal since I was in elementary and still reads them every now and then. I am the one who has this website (still) and prints it off getting excited of what I would think when I read it many, many years later. I even sometimes read my entries from two years ago and can’t believe some of the things I have written or how amazingly fast time really is. I even think what my kids will think when they read it when they are older! I’m the one who wrote a letter for my daughters this year for them to open on their 13th birthday. It’s a different perspective writing it to them when they are such precious, innocent babies! I think everyone will thank me for it later. I THANK myself actually. So shut it! LoL! Have a good week everyone! Stay warm!

I Have A Kindergartner

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Speaking of Kindergartner, I had to Google spell check that one. How ironic, huh? Yes. I am very excited for my little big girl. She started school on the right foot and is an extremely happy child. She is always excited to get the day started and be with her new friends. I only hope and pray that she keeps this enthusiasm going. I was very nervous about her first day of school. I had all these negative thoughts flowing in my crazy head about all the things that could possibly go wrong. I don’t even want to put it out here because I may make it obvious how crazy I was. We had so much fun “back to school” shopping and I may have gone a little over board. New shoes. New book bag. Matching pencil case. Cool little gadgets, that believe it or not, were in her school supply list. On a side note, I don’t ever remember having such things as “the school supply list” when I went to school ages ago. Anyhow, it was quite helpful and at the end of the day, her backpack was much too heavy for her to carry on her own. This is no joke. Thank goodness her teacher emptied it out and left most of her supplies in her own personal cubby. They also have school uniforms, which saves me a ton of money and time deciding what she should wear. It didn’t fail though. I bought her all sorts of pants and uniform dresses and shoes and socks and such. I couldn’t help it. We are now on Week 2, and we are all still ever so excited to drop her off in the morning and pick her up and wait for her stories of how her day went. It gets better and better each time. 

My journey has just begun. I’m looking forward to the next decade of “firsts” and all the adjustments we have to make as parents. I wish to build her a great foundation, which starts NOW! Good luck to all the first time parents out there going through this change with me. Let’s make this good!

Pic 1: Jasmyne excited on the school playground area on her first day!

Pic 2: Jasmyne is first in line. She’s starting off on the right foot alright. LoL! By the way, I shaded everyone’s faces for privacy.

Pic 3: Jasmyne is one of the shortest and most petite girls in the class. These kids are huge!

Picture of the Day: July 6th

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JULY 6

I love favors and little creative things that come with it. Here’s a picture of baby shower favors that I made for my co-workers party at work. I pretty much had to do it the night before since I was dragging on ever getting it started. I packed it with one of my favorite candies and it blended perfectly with the bright pink-

LEMONHEADS! 

 

Rogers & Hollands Scam

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I hope that when people Google Search “Rogers & Hollands”, this posting comes up and people get access to it. I’d like you all to repost this and share it with the world so that you can stay away from this company if you had a choice at all. I also want to help people become more aware and careful consumers regardless of what jewelry store or diamond seller they go to. Let me tell you a little something, which happens to be my own personal and true to life experience. It was something so unexpected and I am writing of it now after two and a half months of heartbreak and drama in dealing with this company- Rogers & Hollands at Woodfield Mall. Yes! I will keep repeating that name throughout this posting in hopes that it will be found if anyone searches their name somewhere in this world of WWW.

My husband proposed to me on July 15, 2004. That was SEVEN years ago. He worked hard to get me the ring he knew I would love. Every 6-9 months I get my diamond ring cleaned and polished to keep it looking spanking new and shiny. I’ve handed it to the same lady for the last seven years. She is the same lady who I buy all my jewelry from at Rogers & Hollands at Woodfield Mall. They have also had the same jeweler who works in the back room for the last 10 years. Each time I hand it to them, I sign a piece of paper and come back for it the next day. Sometimes when I don’t have time, I have even left it for a couple of days without ever doubting anything could happen to my ring. I’ve never even had to sign a piece of paper stating that I have taken possession of my newly cleaned diamond, except the first 36 months, if even that. I actually loved that Rogers and Hollands does resizing and cleaning and all sorts of things FREE OF CHARGE and at an UNLIMITED number of times FOREVER! Now in retrospect, I wonder if there was a hidden agenda behind that warranty and guarantee. After some searching I have seen some complaints against them from consumers. They even have a few complaints with the Better Business Bureau. So here is where my story begins. 

About four months ago, a co-worker of mine was checking out rings she could upgrade hers to because her 10 year anniversary is coming up. She was randomly talking about certificates and diamond switching and how well she knew her diamonds. After all this talk, I realized that I didn’t know a damn thing about mine. Beside the shiny bling bling outer aspect of my diamond, I didn’t know what it’s characteristics were. She encouraged me to buy a loupe magnifier and even showed it to me on Amazon.com that very same day. I did end up purchasing one that week out of curiosity. When it arrived, I was super excited. It even had a built-in-light. Now in no way am I saying that I had a perfect diamond, but when I looked into my diamond with this magnifier, I didn’t know what to look for. I couldn’t see a thing. I’d look at it before bed sometimes trying to find that “fingerprint” that I could use to identify my diamond and I honestly couldn’t find something. I must have looked at it in different angles and in different shades of light and still could not find that one mark that I could use to identify my rock. I was kinda bummed!

About a month later, my ring was due for it’s rhodium plating and cleaning. I dropped it off and my husband picked it up two days later as scheduled. For some odd reason, I went shopping at Macy’s for a last minute gift we needed for the next day and had the husband pick it up. I think because of the fact that I examined my ring with a loupe for the whole month, I asked my husband to make sure to check my ring before leaving. For the first time in 7 years, she actually tested it with the light to make sure it turned green- meaning the diamonds were real when we got it back. My husband was pretty upset, telling me that my coworker has made me a paranoid freak. It was also the first time in the seven years that I was not present at the time of pickup. It was a a sign from above that something was going to go wrong- and I didn’t even take notice of it. 

The next day, I took my ring out of the box and put it on. For some odd reason, when I looked at it once it was on my finger, it didn’t have that shine that it normally had. I knew it right away and my heart was beating really fast just looking at my diamond ring. My husband calls me absolutely crazy and says my coworker has really made me crazy and paranoid. I explained that I have been looking at my ring for SEVEN years and I know how it shines. A corner of my diamond was completely blurry looking. So I got my loupe magnifier and my heart started beating faster. There was a big bubble right on that corner. I knew my ring had been switched because I had such a hard time looking for an imperfection for over a month. 

I went back into the store the very next day and calmy/nicely told my saleslady what I found. She told me I had to get my certification. She was absolutely positive that this was my ring that I had been wearing for seven years. Two weeks later, I get my certification from New York with a diagram of where the imperfections should be. Let’s just say that my original inspection was probably correct. Nowhere in the diagram did it indicate that there should be a HUGE bubble in the corner of my ring. 

To make a long story short, Rogers & Hollands completely denied any wrong doing for the next two and a half months. They stated that I had the wrong certificate or could have probably switched the diamond myself due to the fact that they didn’t check my diamond before I gave it to them, nor did we check it when we picked it up. My original receipt also did not include the certificate number of the diamond purchase. That basically means that I have no proof that the Certification Card belongs to me and not anyone else. They tried to do many different things to keep me satisfied, but in the end, I realized that they were truly trying to still scam me. They refused to give me a refund of the value of my diamond after 7 years. After much debate, they did agree to refund me the original price paid after trying to scam me into getting “higher quality” diamonds in exchange of my original one. They basically stated that they could not get laser inscribed diamonds in their store, but they would inscribe it after I picked the diamond I wanted to replace my “switched” one with. They were also only showing me copies of the actual certificate which looked like it was copied 10 times over. This was total BS because pre-inscibed diamonds are found in almost all diamond sellers stores, especially diamonds that are high cost. My husband also had to sign a statement that HE could not sue them or do anything else to try to go after them. I had HIM sign it, because if HE didn’t they refused to give me my money back or replace my diamond. I say HE, because this diamond actually belongs to ME and not him. Thankfully, I WAS NOT required to sign this paper, which was pretty stupid in their part. 

This has been one of the worst experiences of my life. It was totally unexpected. I learned so much about diamonds and the business of diamond sellers only after it was too late and it has already happened. I watched people come in and out of the store during my almost two months of trying to resolve this and couldn’t help but think that they are just like me- NAIVE. There were so many guys buying the rings and they probably had no clue what was going on. So here is what I learned that I want to share with all of you. I wish that I was this educated before this happened to me. It’s kind of sad that the ring I’ve had blessed at the church on the day I got married is gone. I am currently ring-less, happily married and somewhat excited to get another ring back on this finger soon. Good luck and always be careful. This does happen more often than people think because when it does happen, people are just not aware because they’ve never taken the time to know their diamond. So read the following and hopefully, this will be a lesson for all of you diamond owners and those of you also getting ready to buy that diamond for your loved one!

PLEASE SHARE SHARE SHARE!

1. Only buy certified diamonds (preferably GIA certified) and only the ones that have been pre-laser inscribed. These diamonds have the certification number laser printed on them and can be viewed under the loupe magnifier. Make sure this number matches the Certification Card you are getting at the time of purchase.

2. Get a copy of your certification with the diagram of your imperfections. This certification has all the information you could ever need about your diamond. Make sure you get this BEFORE you purchase the diamond so you can compare the diamond with the actual report. GIA certifications have a hologram of authenticity. Here is their link: GIA

2. Make sure that the Certification Card number is printed on your receipt at time of purchase. This proves that you bought that particular Certified diamond.

4. Make copies of your official (GIA) report. When you get it cleaned or rhodium plated, check the report with the jeweler. Make sure you both compare the report with your diamond. Sign off that your diamond was laser inscribed and matches the report. When you pick it up, sign off that everything is the same. In my research, I have learned that doing this alone will decrease the chances of your ring being switched by 99.9%. They will not mess with you if you have this information.

5. For those of you who already have a certified ring, find out who certified your ring and order your official Certification Report with the diagram. Get yourself a loupe magnifier. It costs as low as $5. Mine was $18.95 with free shipping. Get to know your diamond and always sign off before giving it to the jeweler for any reason.

This is the picture of my so-called-ring that I knew was not mine. You can even see the bubble with the naked eye located in the right upper corner in this shot. I can’t believe I have to replace the original, but I am at least happy that I discovered the switch by the simple fact that my friend from work had warned me just a month before. I know in my heart it was all a sign from above.