Tomorrow is Red Envelope Day!

Please participate and help support life!

Click here!

Well, I'm going back in for another x-ray on my right shoulder today.

My elbow was hurting last week (common carpal tunnel side effect), but it wasn't that bad.  Then I had my adult student over with her baby.  After she folded up her playpen, I grabbed to pick it up.  I jerked it up with my right arm and it was super heavy.  I felt something wrench in my shoulder (the same one I separated before).  The shoulder has been getting worse (not nearly as bad as last June, but not great either0 and so has the elbow.  Last night my right hand went stiff and it had to be massaged in a pressure point before I could really move it.

I could use the prayers!  I'm flying out to spend a long weekend with Tiffany at Biola on Friday - Why do I always fly with a hurt arm?  So the prayers will be very helpful!

Thanks!

    Today, on Brad’s half birthday (21 ½!), is the anniversary of our first “meeting.”  It was the day I exchanged the first “words” with him on Xanga.  He posted a short introduction to his blog and announced that he had joined us on Xanga to harass his friend Mark W.  My first sentence to him was, “Good for you.  Mark/Smokey needs harassment!!!”  Famous last words.  His harassment would soon descend on me - something that made me fond of him on the spot… *ahem* (or soon after.  )  This is a tribute to the sarcastic and ironic conversations that Brad and I exchanged during the very first two months of knowing each other (January and February of 2006), before we fell hard for each other and ever would have guessed that we’d be engaged three years later.  That is… before I ever knew.  Brad had a crush on me fairly quickly. 
Happy anniversary, my Braddy.

Here are our Famous Last Words…



(Brad posts a blonde joke. At this point, he had only officially seen a black and white photo of me as my profile pic)

RJ: Not you!!!  *moan*

Brad: Hey, I loved that joke.  Wait -- you're not blonde, are you?

RJ: That's right.  You've only "seen" me in black and white.  I'm as blond as they come.

Brad: Even in black/white, I think photo suggests that your hair has at least a light shade of brown. False advertising!

Mark W.: RJ, actually you did have a couple of color pictures on before, but that might have been before Bcon's time.

RJ: Yes, BBC.  (Before B-Con).

Brad: Fool, there was *nothing* before me!


    Spoken in jest, but soon to be true, there was nothing before in life like my Brad.  
    And, *groan*, this was also the start of the incessant blonde jokes that led to a blonde website, blonde t-shirts, and even being called “Blonde” more than any other name!




    This conversation began after Brad’s intriguing post on his puzzlement as to why women have fruit-shaped soaps…

Brad: Does everything have to match? For example, would you want your boyfriend to dress to match you?

RJ: What is it with you guys and the topic of boyfriends or girlfriends???  I don't have a boyfriend and never want to have one, so the question of dressing alike is null.


    I think this was both a relief and a worry to Brad at the time! 




RJ: You get to keep your wisdom teeth!  Like me!  So you have a big mouth too?  But you say they're not fully in?  How old are you?

Brad: I'm 18, and I guess that you could say I have a big mouth -- at least when it comes to polotics

RJ: You're eighteen!!!  PAR-TAY!!!!  I'm older than you!  Uh-huh!! Party, baby!
Sorry, but that just made my night.  (I'm older than Jake too, which is *snort* soooo obvious).
Ha ha!  Also, young one, it's spelled "politics".


    Do I look at all older to you?  


    Never for a day have I felt older than Brad.  I think it was relief to find I was older because I was always in awe of him. 




(This was one of my silly worded quotes that I had posted, along with many others, much like I still do today.)

RJ: "Greet each other with a Christian kiss of love."

Brad: I just really, really hope I never meet you in person, RJ.

RJ: Don't worry, Brad, I don't smooch little boys...

Brad: Yeah, so you claim. I have never met you in person, so I can't validate this claim personally

RJ: You're not little OR old enough, kid.  So move it along...


NO comment.



RJ: Actually, I live on Mountain Dew...

Brad: I have found my long-lost sister!


    Still want to be brother and sister, Brad?  *wink*




RJ: Thanks for the compliment!!!  I love looking younger!  You're so kind!  (I'm really serious)

Brad: You took that as a complement?  Darn it, I can't even insult somebody properly. I'm losing my touch.  I can't go looking like I'm sensetive or nice or anything, I have a rep to keep up....


    Still laughing at this one.  This is the guy who had my ring specially made, proposed in a flower garden that he researched endlessly before deciding on, and called me his princess when he presented the ring. 



RJ: I personally like green diamonds the best...



    I promise I wasn’t hinting back then!




(Brad’s post for that day)

    I'm sure that by now you guys are hoping for a bit more in site into my life and who I am, because all I've really done on my blog so far is whine about wearing ties and insult RJ for being blonde. Those are definitely worthwhile activities -- no doubt about it -- but for some reason it just doesn't cut the mustard for everybody. Some people actually want a deeper level of content and intimacy -- if you can imagine there actually being anything more intimate than insulting the color of someone's hair.




Brad: I'm going to boycott RJ, because I don't like popular blondes. Or people named Rachael.


    Doesn’t look like you’re still boycotting me, Brad…





Our first Valentines’ Day ever knowing each other.

Brad: Whatever, you blonde nerd.

RJ: YEAH!  You called me a nerd!!!  My day is complete!!!  Ha!  Blond nerd!  Yes!  I've achieved the oxymoron!  The impossible!  Woohoo!

Brad: lol. You have a strange sense of accomplishment -- but one that I like

RJ: As if I would've cared whether you liked it or not!  Good night - and may the bed bugs chew you raw (Rachael version).

    How tender and sweet we were to each other!  ;-P



(after my friend Connie commented on my post)

RJ: Love you more, Con-Con!!!

Brad: Everytime you say "con" I think you're refering to me, as my primary name is "B-Con" and a couple people abbreviate it to "con". It always confuses me for a split second when I see that.

RJ: Dream ON, Bradford!!!!!!!!

Mark W.: I totally agree with Brad. Several times I have looked at a line saying 'Love you more, Con-Con!!!' and have to remind myself that its NOT Brad that your talking about.

RJ: EWWWWWWWW


    I didn’t really think that, I promise.  Hehe… I love you, Brad!



And finally, Brad’s ultimate vow:

Brad: When I become a multi-billionaire, I will buy myself an orca and keep it in a large swimming pool in my yard. The pool will be horseshoe-shaped and go around the front of my house, moat style. When door-to-door salesmen or Jehova's Witnesses come, I will raise the drawbridge and let them shake in terror of my orca. When friends come, I'll lower it and let them walk safely over my orca and feed it fish. When blonde girls named Rachael visit, though, I'll let them get half way over the bridge before yanking it out from under them, dropping them in with the orca.


Happy Anniversary, my dear!  Glad you won’t be a multi-billionaire when I marry you!!