What's new, what's new

I always feel like I'm catching up on here. Maybe it's because I'm too busy living. Maybe it's because I'm lazy or uninspired. Maybe it's because I just plain forget. Yeah, it's probably a little bit of all of them. Oh well. Here goes:

I have been making a 2010 calendar for my family in the midwest for christmas. On a purely physical level - it's been kind of wild to see how far Aaron & I have come! I mean, just look at this.

It was shocking to see this picture. I didn't see myself like that before. It really is like looking with new eyes. I guess we've had our own 'Biggest Loser' going on around here this year. Except it's taken us 10 months rather than 10 weeks on the show ;-)

In other news, we are headed to Disneyland in less than 2 weeks! Yahoo! I will be sharing TONS of pics when we get back! We have been planning this for a year and a half, and it's finally sinking in that we're actually GOING!

In an effort to save money, we decided to take care of our gargantuan piles of leaves ourselves this year. We've gotten the back yard done, but apologize sincerely to our neighbors for our front yard. Hopefully, this will be the week we get it done.

We sent our good friends, Steve & Morgan, off to Nashville last week. It was terribly sad (for us). Of course, we sent them off in style with a couple of parties and then we helped them pack all of their stuff into a truck. I am excited for them too. I know that this is what they really need to do for themselves. No 'what ifs' and all of that. But, I'm sad for me. I'm sad that after the years of prayer, tears, and utter joys that we have shared over their beautiful little girl that is FINALLY here we will miss out on seeing her grow in the next who-knows-how-long. I KNOW what moving does. I've done it several times. It doesn't mean you don't love them, but it does change things. We all change and grow, which is good. Distance just makes it harder to 'get it'. So, for me it's been a little bit of a mourning period too. I am excited for them, but I'm sad for me. It's okay - it's life. But these are the times, I wish 'tele-porting' was a real thing!

That's all for now, I've got to get my kids to preschool!

31 and stuff

I am officially 31. My mom came to visit me too, which was so fun! We drank tons of coffee, and gabbed 'til we could gab no longer. We shopped and shopped. We even went bra shopping and ended up buying the same one, just in different colors! Isn't that funny? I guess the apple doesn't fall far or something - HA! THEN, I found out that my mom suggested the same bra to my mother in law, and SHE ended up buying the same bra too! How funny! I went to tell my husband this funny fact, and he didn't seem to appreciate it's humor. Instead, he plugged his ears & yelled "GAH". I guess it was TMI. :-)

For the rest of the time my mom was here, she would smile & say 'sit up straight & boobs out. They look so good after all'. Hehehe. I just love my mom! She's hilarious!

So, I'm 31 - which I am indifferent about. Just another year. Isn't it funny how some years are a bigger deal than others?!

The count down to disneyland has begun though - less than a month to go! YAY! Now, if only we could get a big influx of cash. It'd be SO helpful! :-)

Old Lady

I need to dye my hair once a month. Now need is of course not accurate. I don't need to dye my hair to save my life. I guess I mean I want to dye my hair once a month.

I am probably about 30 to 40 % grey. I am only 30! Okay I turn 31 in 11 days, but still, that is too young to be so grey...isn't it? I guess not, because I AM!

Anyways, I am so grey that I cannot even use the 'cool' hair dye. Nope, no Feria for me. I held on as long as I could, but that dang dye doesn't color the grey! So, now I get to use old lady 'special for grey coverage' dye. Awesome.

So insulting!

We have a few friends that are really into 'The Secret'. I would like to just say plainly that I think that it's kind of crap. Not the being positive part or having dreams part, but the part that claims that all you need to do is be positive & you'll get anything & everything you so desire.

We were talking with one of our friends about life and he started talking about how all you need is to visualize your life & all the things you really want, blah blah blah. Then he started using Aaron (and our family) as the perfect example of positive thinking. "You wanted to be a teacher. You visualized your life & now you're a teacher!"

Can you believe the audacity of that? I mean, hello?? Where were you the 6 years it took to get there? Aaron was in college. It wasn't just positive thinking or visualizations. It was a hell of a lot of work!

I mean, was it just thinking happy thoughts that got all those papers written at 3 am? Good LORD! It is just so insulting!! And, really it's not just about us...I find it so insulting to anyone that has EVER worked hard to get somewhere in life. It's insulting to the people that show up to their jobs everyday to provide for their families!

Be positive, remind yourself of what you want, let that drive you to work hard or make the choices you need to make to get where you want to be. BUT, you don't get to minimize what others have done & sacrificed, just to delude yourself into declaring that it was just happy thoughts to make yourself feel better.

Dear Diet Pepsi

How I love your 0 calories.

I love your taste and flavor too.

(so much better than Dt. Coke)

You give me a boost when I need it.

Thank you for always being there.

Did I mention your 0 calories?

Love.

Has anyone noticed...

the increase of door to door salesmen, lately? Well, I HAVE and I am ready to punch the next one square in the face!

This is not without reason, mind you. A couple of weeks ago I had one guy claiming to work for a carpet cleaning service, who wanted to clean one area for free so we'd recommend him to friends. At the time, I was excited because my family room carpet was in great need of being cleaned, and what's better than FREE?

So, about 20 minutes later the man shows up...with other people & boxes. 20 minutes later...the man is putting together a kirby vacuum & carpet cleaner. This man was selling a friggin' vacuum! No ordinary vacuum, mind you, a $2500.00 vacuum!! Of course we could make payments of $25 or $50/ month payments if we wanted to (for the next 5 years). Two and a half hours later this man was still in my house! His entire sales pitch was to vacuum up dirt, and ask me 'how I could let my children live in this kind of filth', 'don't you care about your children & their health?' 'You must NOT care about your children', etc. After two hours, I started agreeing with him, 'I must not care.' 'If caring equals paying a bunch of money that I don't have...I guess I don't', etc. Once we passed the hour & a half point, I didn't really care what I had to say...I was gonna get my carpet cleaned! By the end, the guy realizes I'm not buying his crap, and he says 'well, if you're not gonna buy the vacuum, can you give me some of the dinner you made for your family?' I was so desperate to get this guy OUT OF MY HOUSE...I DID it! I made up a plate of food for this guy - just to get him out!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part of this story...while I am putting up with the guy that would never shut up & leave my house - my dad was sending suicide texts to me & my brothers. Yes, in the middle of all of this, I am running in & out of the room, so that I can deal with my verbally abusive & CRAZY father, my brothers who are freaking out, and my husband & myself!! It was truly a HELL of a night!

Seriously, the whole sales tactic of manipulating a person into buying the thing one is selling, makes me CRAZY! I had a home security system guy try to sell me security alarms & crap in the same way: 'you must not care about your children's safety', 'Are you just going to wait for something bad to happen before you protect yourself?'. I was LITERALLY answering 'YES' to all of his questions. 'You must not care about your children's safety' (yeah I guess I don't...seriously??) Thankfully, the guy gave up a lot quicker than the first guy.

I get that it's a tough economy, and you gotta do what you gotta do, but seriously - it'd be more effective just hitting your head against a wall!

A sad blog

I was talking to my mom today. I told her that I'd love to have my aunt Diane come out for a visit in the fall with her (my mom), just for fun. We spent a couple of days with her in Iowa when we were there a month ago, and it was so fun! She LOVES the kids, and they love her.

A little background on my Aunt: she no longer has kids of her own. She & her husband had a son named Dustin. He was the joy of their life! They were also pregnant, but lost their other baby boy just short of him being born. It was such a terrible time. They were great parents. Eventually, they were at peace with things, knowing that they had Dustin was such a comfort.

Dustin was 7 years old when they were driving on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere in the midwest. The 3 of them were all together, and had no idea there was a tornado warning in effect. The tornado ran right into them & destroyed the van and their life as they knew it. Dustin was killed in that terrible storm. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced. I won't go into further details, because they are truly what nightmares are made of for any parent. Dustin would have just graduated from High School in June.

All of that background, is to preface this conversation that my mom was relaying to me. She was telling me that in her last conversation with my Aunt Diane, she was crying and talking about how fun it was to be with my kids. She then went on to say how desperately she wished she could have kids of her own to experience that with. As soon as my mom said that I burst into tears...my heart aches for my aunt. I SO wish that she could have that. It's these types of things that I just don't understand. I don't understand WHY. Why this happened, where God is in all of it, and just how deeply unfair it is.

It also makes me want to be there for her even more, for her to know how important she is to me & my kids. I'm just so damn far away! I hate these parts of living so far away.

So, I cry, and I pray. I don't know what else to do.