back from new jersey where the good meat products reign

so yeah we've been back almost 2 weeks now. looking forward to being among the gang.

joe, i'm so sorry that we didn't call you guys :( david and i weren't able to rent a car, and we had such a limited time back home. sorry excuse, we know, but it's the awful truth. there were a lot of friends and family we weren't able to visit or have time to even call up. david and i were plainly worn out from his job, and the hell of having to go through we happened to us. and finally being around our family and they were more than happy to help us with jayden so that we could rest a little.

when we left l.a., jayden was just starting to walk, but as soon as we hit n.j. soil..BAM! she got up and just walked over to my parent's 17 stairs and went up them as though she always lived there!

she got to "swim" in the atlantic and literally went after the waves, we had to hold her back so she wouldn't float away!

we had a great time back home. got to see jon and amy at their house in the philly area, it was great seeing them again. we miss them both very much. tried to see john stone, but it just wasn't possible.

so we brought back a new child, as well as new changes in myself. i had a mini makeover :)

now that my depression is more under control, tonight i start my betaseron. the plan is to be on it for 6 months at the very least. by then we'll see what to do in terms of having another baby, actually have a plan. i need to be off the treatment for at least 2 months before ttc(trying to conceive) again. the biggest concern is that if we lived closer to family, then we would have the help that we need. but first i need to protect myself with the treatments.

i say protect loosely as i was on treatment when my relapse started. i HATE to self-inject every other day. there are other self-injectables that are either everyday(copaxone) or once a week(the needle on that one is HUGE, made to go into the muscle, called avonex and you can have a nurse administer it for you at home), once a month(that one is administered as an IV, called tysbril), or every 3 days(i think that one's rebif). i am protected when prgt, women with ms and are prgt, our bodies go into remission, but can have a relapse afterwards(which did happen to me earlier this past summer).

BUT

i'm thankful that there is something out there. before there wasn't as many choices or none at all.

overall, being at home, i did well with the mugginess. i did have some problems with my right arm, it went numb and tingly from my entire hand up to my shoulder and it lasted a little over an hour. and i exp'd "some" problems with my right leg at times, but it never lasted too long. just a reminder about what i have :P

being with family and old friends was GREAT. i got some feedback on my work that opening a studio in my town would be very well received as so many there know me and my family as i'm a "townie". some of the business owners there are family friends of ours, so they said that they would be more than happy to let my dad hand out mini postcards with my business on them to advertise my digital retouching and restoration. preservation is very important in my town, so we'll see what happens.

david is back to work and already wishing he wasn't there. the day after jayden's l.a. party, i was on a set of a small indie film and david was offered the job of cutting it the night before we left. so with the help of our other laptop and borrowing the latest final cut pro, he was able to do a rough cut while we were away.

even with an injury....

we drove over to selinsgrove, pa to visit his aunt betty and his parents. my parents have never met her, so we all went together. it was a great visit and aunt betty was just thrilled to see jayden in person for the first time :D

dave was holding jayden in his lap and she reached up to his face and scratched his right eye. so bad that in fact he had to go to the ER. since our stay in selinsgrove was an overnight anyway, he held out until we back to nj. we were then thrilled to find out that robert wood hospital in hamilton was in our ppo network! WHEW! still had our $75 co-pay, but we were covered. turns out dave had a really badly scratched cornea and had to go on a little perkaset and eyedrop antibiotics. he healed up really well and was able to function normally.

overall, jayden remains a very happy, thriving baby/toddler. walking a lot, signing more, even MORE curious about everything:D no problems on the plane at all, not even during take off and landings. actually she enjoyed the rush of speed :D she's been climbing more and more too, so we've been searching through craisglist to get a little tikes/step 2 outdoor play area with a slide. we found some, but being on a strict budget, we're looking for a great deal on something for her.

so yeah, we're looking forward to seeing everyone again :D

love,
us