Here are 25 things about Janet...1. I am originally from Illinois but moved to VA when I was 6. Even though I have lived in Charlottesville since I was 8, I still get asked if I am from the Midwest due to my “accent”. My baby sister, on the other hand, has a true southern accent.
2. I have 3 sisters. My older sister is 7 years older, and my baby sister is 2 years younger. I have a twin sister.
3. We are fraternal twins in every way. We don’t look or act anything alike. There were some kids in high school that had no idea we were related, even though we had gone to school with them since elementary school.
4. I am a carbon copy of my older sister. We just visited her beautiful family in Florida this month where my husband had a case of mistaken identity. He gave her a “love pat” on her behind because he thought it was me!
5. All of our names start with the letter “J”: Jennifer, Jackie, Janet and Joyce. My mom swears she didn’t mean to do that! Jennifer married John, and have two sons, Joseph and Jack
6. I had a lot of pressure when naming Jeffrey. He is named after my husband’s late brother, Jeff. Since it was a “J” name, it seemed to be the perfect name. When the time comes, we are not sure if we will name the next baby with a “J’.
7. Speaking of my husband, he is my soul mate. He makes me feel so loved and beautiful every day. We got married in November of 2008.
8. I met my husband, Guy, at work. He was my boss. I truly enjoyed working for him and would work for him again in a heartbeat.
9. I went to Mary Washington College as an undergrad and Duke University for grad school. I think I had the best of both worlds; a small, intimate college experience and a larger, university experience.
10. Some of my favorite memories of Duke were centered on basketball. You cannot go to Duke and not enjoy basketball. However, the process to get tickets to the games is insane. For graduate school, you have to camp out in a parking lot for the entire weekend. Most people rented U-hauls to sleep in. Whenever the whistle blew, you had to check in. The goal was to not get caught in the bathroom or be passed out (you can only imagine what people did to pass the time)! At the end of the weekend, everyone who made all the check-ins got put into a raffle to get a season pass. You did not necessarily when tickets, just the chance at tickets.
11. I’m THRILLED Duke won the National Championship this year!!!!
12. I studied to become a Pathologists’ Assistant. I examined all tissues that come from the OR for disease, specifically cancer. On cancer resections, I would assess the tumor for type, margins (if surgeon removed all of it) and for the presence of lymph nodes. What I did helps determine the stage of the cancer and whether or not the patient would need chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
13. My job was physically demanding, dangerous, but very rewarding. I once put a scalpel blade through my thumb because a uterine tumor rolled while I was cutting it!
14. I also trained to do medical autopsies. I do not like to them because of my size. I am only 5’2” and found it difficult to work on people twice my size. One of my favorite parts of my job was doing the fetal pathology and autopsies. I knew that I had a very important duty to try and find an answer for the grieving parents. As sad as the cases where, the information derived from them could potentially affect future pregnancies or their current children. However, I had to stop doing those once I became pregnant (I was constintly terrified something would go wrong in my pregnancy).
15. I feel blessed and lucky to be able to stay at home with my son. I do miss work a bit, but I wouldn’t give up being a SAHM for anything.
16. 2007 was a really bad year for me. That January, I came home to find that over 250 gallons of heating oil had been dumped into my basement. The deliveryman was supposed to deliver the oil to my next-door neighbor. Instead, he found a pipe that led into my basement. It flooded the entire basement and everything in it.
17. I spent the next 4 months living in various hotel rooms. This was a very depressing time for me. The basement had to be gutted. When I finally was able to return home, the house began to make me very sick.
18. I suffered severe migraines from the residual oil fumes. These headaches left me sick for 3 days at a time. At the height of them, I had 2 migraines a week. I even had 2 ocular migraines that caused me to lose my vision for 2 days. I was told many times by the oil company that the house was clean. At the insistence of my attorney’s they finally tested the basement, which showed residual oil under the concert slab. When they tore up the slab, there were pools of oil present. They had to remove 6 feet of dirt from the basement to get clean oil samples. I was afraid my house was going to cave in.
19. During that time, I had to spend another 2 months in a hotel room. It took almost 3 years to finally settle with the oil company. They never did admit fault. Thankfully, I was able to sell that home and move on with my life. We settled on Jeffrey’s due date!
20. I love my dog. His name is Cameron (after Duke’s basketball stadium) and is a white labradoodle. He doesn’t shed and is very smart and loving. I have taught him how to whisper, bow, and ring a bell when he wants to go outside. He is very good with Jeffrey.
21. I LOVED being pregnant. I think it was all the hormones, but I had someone tell me that I was the happiest pregnant person they have ever known. If I could be 5ish months pregnant at all times, I would be!
22. I put on an astonishing 47lbs (can’t believe I admitted to that) while pregnant. And what is worse, over half of those pounds were put on the last two months. I still don’t know why I gained so much weight at the very end. I was careful with what I ate; I just don’t think I was paying enough attention to how much I was eating!!
23. I was in labor for almost 40 hours. I wanted a natural birth because I was terrified of having a c-section. Unfortunately, Jeffrey just couldn’t make his way out so I got a c-section anyways. I would do it again in a second because Jeffrey is the world greatest little boy. I love him dearly and can’t imagine my life without his smile.
24. I have lost over 10% of my body weight since joining Stroller Strides. I still have a good 6 lbs to go before I return to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I know that I can do that if I keep coming to class.
25. I am so grateful to Stroller Strides for helping me feel like my old self again. It is amazing what pregnancy can do to a body; the support I have found at Stroller Strides is just priceless. Not to mention, it makes me strong enough to lift that darn infant carrier!
