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! 

It’s not so much that I never wanted to throw her her own party, but I just never got into the mood. It’s no excuse, I know. On my better days over the summer, I had envisioned her Halloween Extravaganza. Then of course it got cold. Dreary. Ugly. Blah. Sad. Depressing with an increase of dosage in my Vitamin D necessary. Slowly, my plans began to dwindle to nothing. If you know me, you know how I love to PLAN big parties. It’s not an excuse, but it is my own reason. Next year, I will definitely make it better and make it a point to start my SAD Treatment earlier in the game. LoL!

It’s really simple actually. I asked my baby girl what she wanted for her birthday and her answer was this: a face painter and a big cake for me. It almost brought tears to my eyes as I lay in bed last night trying to plan a last minute party for my little princess. Then I decided to check out all the summer birthdays and actually really cried as I sit here alone, staring at the above pictures. My little baby loves birthday cake. If there’s a cake, she’s there! She’s the first one to get her finger on the icing for the first lick! So as you can see in the pictures, she is just so amazed by the birthday song and blowing other people’s cake. I never realized that she would have possibly wanted her own- as her gift! 

So before she went to bed, I told her it would be her birthday when she woke up. She looked extra happy and said: Yay. Everyone will sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME! Yes baby. I invited everyone I know. It will be loud and it will be all yours! It was all last minute, but we’ll make sure you enjoy it. I can’t believe that you’re turning three! You’ve always had a strong personality every since you were in my belly. Through you, I have experienced the pain of labor and the true joy of parenthood. May you be blessed with a beautiful life full of love and a good heart. Mommy and daddy loves you. Happy 3rd Birthday Baby!

My little newborn baby less than 24 hours old!

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!

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!

Click to view slideshow.

]]> http://jaesbeeswax.com/2011/07/28/happy-five/feed/ 0 Jae http://jaesbeeswax.com/2011/07/10/picture-a-day-july-6th/ http://jaesbeeswax.com/2011/07/10/picture-a-day-july-6th/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:19:08 +0000 Janice http://jaesbeeswax.com/?p=857 Continue reading →]]> 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! 

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. 

May 21

We’ve put our bikes into good use so far this year. I didn’t realize how challenging it could be. It looks easier said than done is such a fitting term for biking. The girls also love their trailer. They just sit back and relax with their munchies as they stroll away. It’s been one of the best purchases we’ve made! It will definitely be put to good use this summer as we’ve already started on it! It’s one of the better things about living in the suburbs: great roads and trails just for this!