Counting My Blessings

I am thankful for:

~ My husband. He makes me laugh and puts up with all my goofiness. Everything he does is with me in mind. I couldn't have dreamed of a better person to share my life with and I am so very honored that he is willing to share his life with me.

~ My animals. I've always loved animals, but I didn't quite understand how strong the connection could be until I had pets of my very own. They are my babies. They sit and listen to me, let me cry on them, make me laugh. They purr in my ear and give wonderful head butts. They fill our little home with so much love and I couldn't imagine life without them.

~ My family. For many, many years now it's just been me, my sister, and my Mom. We've shared a house (I called it home before I had a home of my very own with the husband) with two other women who are very much like family. We made our own little tribe, so to speak, of loud mouthed women that don't take a lot of crap. My extended family on my Mom's side. I love them. We are a large German family that have practically been raised as brothers and sisters rather than cousins. We truly are one of a kind.

~ My home. As frustrating as it can be to own this house sometimes, it is my safe haven.

~ My friends...real and 'imaginary' (you know who you are). It's hard to find people that either have the same sort of crazy you do or that are willing to put up with your special kind of crazy. Thank y'all for 'getting' me or at least putting up with me. I would be insane (more so) without you.

~ My life. More and more, every day, I discover the woman I am meant to be..or at least the one I THINK I'm meant to be. I love the person that I am growing into, even if I do put my foot in my mouth a lot, or give too much advice, or over think things. I might not have it all together, but I am very...very blessed.

Some Christmas Humor

Kids say...

Last week two of Jeremy's aunts drove down from PA and VA for a week long visit. The two of them, along with my in-laws, had a grand old time hanging out and shopping for souvenirs at the Wal-mart. Can you tell that their visits don't happen very often?

Anyway, you know when you get together with someone that has a great sense of humor? How something can start and turn into something else and the whole thing can carry on all day long? Well, something like that happened which ended with Aunt Lisa buying my Mother-in-law two pair of neon colored thong underwear. Don't ask! Because I don't know. Probably one of those 'you had to be there' moments. I LOVE those moments.

So last Wednesday, when we were out there for dinner, my Mother-in-law still had the underwear out (still on the hanger with the tags on) and my 7-year-old nephew picks them up and shows them to me. He turns them to the back and says 'Look at these' and I was all 'yeah..isn't that funny' and he says 'These things are going to get lost in Nanny's butt!'

Everyone bust out laughing, even my Mother-in-law. I love that kid!

Wordless Wednesday

Busy Busy Busy

I keep meaning to post but then the day gets away from me and before I know it..it's 10:00. I've been in training for the last two weeks, which even if it were JUST training my brain would still be a mushy mass inside my head preventing me from coming up with anything worth posting. But it wasn't JUST training, oh no. We also had required OT for the other work that wasn't getting done because everyone is in training. So, with the ten hour days and my brain having to do gear shifts while going 100mph...left me with nothing at the end of the day.

Throw in family visiting from out of town on both sides of the family. And helping my sister pack up her room to move into her first apartment..five hours away (and that move isn't for another two weeks..thank goodness). It's a wonder I can put two words together right now.

So, busy...that's me. And this week...month...REST OF THE YEAR, looks like its shaping up to be more of the same.

Ten hour work days are still a go and probably will be for the rest of the year. Can't complain about the extra money, but it doesn't leave me a lot of time in the evenings for much of anything other than eat, walk the dogs, watch a show, and go to bed.

My nephew is turning seven (I think, dang that's awful) on Saturday. And it was my bright idea to take him to Wal-mart and set him loose with $50. That will probably happen on Friday.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I get two days off work...thank goodness. But then that weekend I'm off to Dallas to help my sister move all her stuff up to her brand new THIRD FLOOR apartment...Oy Vey.

And then two weekends after that my sister and I are meeting in Austin for a Post Secrets event. Never heard of Post Secrets? Well check it out right here. While there I'll get to visit my friend Jennifer and see her new house. And also love on my cousin's baby, Cohen. He pooped on my sister...love him. lol.

Weekend after that is my family's Christmas. People are flying in from way up north. AND my cousin is graduating with her Master's degree. Go Briana, Go Briana!

And then it's Christmas, which is when we will do all of our other Christmas's. Good thing about THIS is that I will be off for one blessed week. I will be off starting the Thursday before Christmas and then I don't have to be back to work until Monday, Jan.4. Ok, so a little longer than a week but I totally deserve it.

This is what I think about NaBloPoMo right now..

There goes the neighborhood

Screeching tires is not something you want to wake up to and 1:30 in the morning. But that's what I was hearing this morning as my husband leaped out of bed to look out the window. 'What the hell was that?', he said as he hurried out of the bedroom to check it out. I hadn't bothered to get up..not yet anyways. I heard the front door open and screen door slam and I waited..and listened. When he didn't come back in I started to worry just a little. I propped myself up in bed peering down the hallway. Please tell me someone didn't steal our car...that's what I was thinking. When he finally came back inside he wasn't cussing. I took that as a very good sign and laid back down. He came into the room and turned on the light. 'AAAgghhh, what's going on?' I exclaimed as I threw my hands over my eyes. He didn't even warn me! He was searching for a shirt to put on as he sort of mumbled something about a hit and run and someone chasing down someone else. And then he was out the front door again. What the....

I laid there for a few minutes in the dark...he was nice enough to turn the light back out before leaving again. But then I started thinking about some drunk crazy person being out there with my boxer wearing husband so I got up to peek out the window. There was a truck in the middle of our street with the driver side door open, but no one was in it. I also saw that there were other neighbors outside. Ok, so I didn't have to worry about him being out there all alone with a drunk crazy person. I got back in bed and laid there in the dark some more. I hear muffled voices and I hear more cars driving down our street. I get back up and look out the window again. I see a cop car show up, and then another, and then ANOTHER. There is now a nice little group of neighbors hanging out in the street, including my boxer wearing husband. I see a police officer bang on the door of our next door neighbors. I don't wait to see if anyone answers. Back to the street, police officer one is examining the truck while police number two is looking at another vehicle..a sports car parked in front of the next door neighbors house. They are new to the street, college kids. And they've already had a few rowdy parties so I got back into bed thinking it was one of their drunk friends.

About an hour later my husband comes back inside and gets back in bad. 'What happened?', I ask him. It turns out that there was a party at a house down the street...the kids are underage as far as I know. The truck was driven by someone leaving this party, they found an opened and half full can of beer inside, which came down the street and slammed into the sports car. The truck hit the little car so hard that it busted the front axle, making it undrivable...so the driver ditched it. Just left the driver door wide open and took off down the street. That's who my husband saw running away when he first looked out the window. There was another truck parked in front of the sports car and thank goodness, because if it hadn't been there the sports car would have been in our front yard.

The police ran the plates and called the owners, who have a teenager but claims he was home all night (sure) and that the truck had been stolen...except they never reported it stolen. Uh-huh. And this use to be such a nice quiet street.

Weekly Winners

See other weekly winners over at Sarcastic Mom

Yay for snack time!

Are you eyeballin' me, Rooster?

Two pretty girls

Cheese!

He wants to play board games...how refreshing.

Alright, alright..I get it. I'm already a bad mamma jama.

Now let me get this straight, Jinny: You want things that you don't yet have, people in your life who you don't yet know, and events to take place that haven't yet occurred, so that once these "things" come to pass you'll feel happy, confident, and fulfilled; accomplished, desired, and appreciated; treasured, adored, and like one bad mamma jama, a beautiful sight to see?

But... wasn't that your rationale for all the other stuff you wanted, that you now have?

Whooohoooooooo!
The Universe

Thinking of Christmas

!! RED ALERT !! RED ALERT !!

There are only 49 days until Christmas! Have you thought about holiday cards? Christmas presents? What your bringing to the family pot luck?

Hurry! There isn't much time!

LOL...ok, that might sound a little extreme. But it is how I feel sometimes. I can't help it. My husband has to remind me that Christmas WILL happen. I ordered our Christmas cards earlier this week. I can't wait to get them! We didn't even send Christmas cards last year, so already we are moving in the right direction. I have a gift list in mind, or at least a few good ideas. Now its all a matter of finding the fundage to get this gift at this time. Sometimes I wish we could do all our shopping at once, but the budget never allows for it. So it comes down to planning.

I've had a very hard time coming up with things to ask for. Oh, there are things that I want. Lots of them, but I feel really bad asking for them. I want a Wii! I'd love a laptop or a telephoto lens. A treadmill. Money for our trip to Hawaii. These things are all too expensive to ask for...and I have the guilt. lol. So, I'm not sure what I will end up asking for..or getting. But no matter what it is I know I'll love it all....because I always do.

Time can change everything..

I remember there was a time in high school..maybe in my 10Th grade year..when my friend and I were not speaking. Honestly, I can't even tell you now what it was that we were fighting about. All I really remember is that it didn't have anything to do with me directly but another mutual friend. Isn't that how it always was in high school? Two people get in an argument and all of the sudden everyone is involved. *shakes head*

Anyway, the friend and I were not talking and hadn't been on speaking terms for quite some time. This 'fight' went on for much longer than the normal ones. And for some reason my friend convinced one of her friends, who did not go to my school and who was also not involved in the original disagreement, to come to my school and kick my butt. I can't help but laugh as I type this out, it all seems so silly now.

I remember that my friend Kim followed me around all day long at school, even skipping her own classes to wait outside of mine. I didn't quite understand what was going on because I was totally unaware of the coming butt kicking. But Kim apparently had been tipped off. At the end of the day as I was walking with my group of friends to the parking lot we ran into the friend I wasn't speaking to and her friend that wanted to kick my butt. They followed us all over, talking a lot of trash, you know..the usual butt kicking stuff. Once we were in the parking lot the friend that wanted to kick my butt and the friend that WAS the other part of the original disagreement got into it. I think there was a few punches thrown and some keys were tossed and it was over as fast as it had started. I don't remember if anyone got into any serious trouble. It was probably a bunch of slaps on the wrists all the way around.

That has been over 13 years ago and I never ran into the friend that wanted to kick my butt again..until earlier this week. She sent me a friend request on facebook. And I approved it.

Wordless Wednesday

I haz a sad

Many moons ago..back in 2003..I think, maybe, I started working in a different department at work. There I met my bestest friend, her name is Jennifer and she has a thing for J names. Don't ask my WHY I wanted to be her friend. She is tall and skinny and gorgeous. Totally someone that I shouldn't be friends with just so I don't have to stand next to her. But, despite her good looks I liked her anyways. Turns out that she and I went to elementary school together for ONE year. She was talking about some of the kids she remembered from school and I was on the other side of the cubicle (you know, in the cubicle farm). I just happened to overhear, not that it was hard seeing as our walls aren't even five feet tall. I recognized many of those names so I had to butt in and ask her about it. We also discovered that she only lived two blocks over from me at that time and would ride her bike down my street all the time. Why? Because I happened to live next door to one of the cutest boys in school and she was totally in love with him. Do you hear that Shay Davis, Jennifer B. was totally crushing on you in the 4th grade. Her and every other girl in school. And we ALSO discovered that my aunt and uncle bought the house she lived in, the fort that was in the backyard that I use to play on was built by her dad. But we never knew each other back then. Weird! Anyway, we became partners in crime...literally, but not on purpose.

For a few years we were pretty tight. Making each other laugh as we poked fun at the management, making 15 minute mad-lunch runs to Sonic for $.99 banana splits. Spending Friday nights on her couch watching HGTV and making mudslides. Becoming the SWB's...stupid white bitches..you totally had to be there, don't even ask. And THEN she did the unthinkable and MOVED away from me. *tear* All the way up into the metroplex, which is hours and hours and HOURS away from here. But luckily, she moved jobs within the company so we were still able to keep in pretty regular contact via emails (which were all totally work related, absolutely..uh-huh). And for the last three years, this is how its been. I go see her, she would come here and visit me, we would keep each other entertained...er..I mean INFORMED...through email all day long. But now, now she has really gone and done it. Today was her last day with our company. *double tear* She is moving to Austin with some boy. Some boy that happens to treat her like a queen but STILL. Plus side, at least this way she will only be hours and hours away...instead of hours and hours and HOURS. Way big time negative side (besides the one where she isn't here still sitting next to me at work) is that there will be no more emails to keep me sane during the day. I don't know how I'm going to survive without her.

The Ying to my Yang

Many months ago, my husband broke the lamp that was on my nightstand. He did it while cleaning, so I could hardly get mad. Besides, I didn't really care for the lamp anyways. For one, it was too small. And it was 'themed', with the body being two palm trees. I wasn't all that sad to see it go but that still left me with no lamp.

A few months later, while in San Antonio visiting friends, we ended up in a Super Target. We weren't looking for lamps. Actually we were looking for a storage ottoman in brown. All any store had in stock was the black. Anyways, after not finding the brown ottoman we happened to wonder onto the lightening aisle and I fell in love with this curvy glass lamp base. It was even on sale, so I bought it and a new golden-toned lamp shade.

More months went by, and I started hinting at my husband that maybe we should get him a new lamp as well. There wasn't really anything wrong with the lamp he already had, I mean it worked. But, with my pretty brand new stylish lamp on one side of the bed, his little boring iron lamp looked dinky. And I was still of the opinion that it was also too small. Despite my gentle nudging, I couldn't seem to get him motivated to actually go and look at new lamps....until this evening. And it was even his idea! Whoa.

At first he said he would go with whatever I picked since I might want it to match my lamp. I told him that the lamps didn't have to 'match', they just have to compliment each other. So, instead of going with glass, like mine, or even brushed nickel, we decided on wood. Dark wood, with a chocolate like stain to it. The base has a strong architectural feel to it, which I think works well against my curvy lamp. We tried nearly every shade that was available at the store but I finally decided on something with the same shape as mine but it has a grey tone to it. Both the lamp shades have a subtle sheen to them. Jeremy is playing it off like it's not a big deal, but I think he likes his new lamp. And I love it.

I Am...

Sassy

Silly
Reflective
Giggly
Shrinking

In love

a Reader

a Photographer

a Mother

A Daughter

A Sister

An Aunt