H is for Holy Crap.....

Ok things I can say Holy crap...or Holy cow, depending on the mood.

Holy Cow, ipods are the most amazing invention ever! 205 songs on that bad boy and room for like THOUSANDS more! Amazing. Songs on repeat today? Take me away. Kind of feel like that. I found myself realizing something this week......Holy Cow I love my kid a whole lot. I get so frustrated because simple tasks are soooo hard for him, like 2 task instructions, or doing a few math problems. In my head I am saying, JUST DO THEM already so we can get on with our lives. But it's not that he doesn't want to, he can't "just do" anything. Unless it's drawing or singing. Oh that he can do. I asked him to stop singing just so we could get through some math problems, and he got so frustrated, and said "mommy, I try to stop the singing and I can't, it won't stop." I can illiminate all music from his life, but how torturous would that be? Music is just a way of life, I have music in my head too even when it ain't on, but I've learned in my 36 years how to tune it out (for the most part) so I can accomplish tasks like getting dressed or paying bills. Imagine how frustrating it would be to not be able to tune out the music, so instead you sing a long, sometimes delightful to those around you and sometimes.....not so much...same song gets kind of annoying after a while. Imagine, a lovely concert continuously, you're enjoying it whenever you want, except theres this annoying voice calmingly (for now), saying "please stop", "Perry please stop singing"......Interrupting the concert, but you keep singing......and then the annoying voice gets loud....PERRY PLEASE STOP SINGING.....In Perryland, that can be a bit frustrating.....guess what people, mommy has to live in that land, and a girl can only take so much!
Saw a child psychologist today, more of a specialist in the field of ADHD, I liked him. He suggested adding back strattera (I liked it when he took it before) with the concerta he's already taking. So maybe that'll allow him to tune out the concert, just tune it out so that it's always there whenever he wants to tune in.
I did a mid-week spark for the art journal, but I'll wait to show off the second assignment I am contemplating. Stay tuned.........

G is for GOOD ARTWORK!

I am taking a Art Journal class online here
It's very fun and cool to see what folks come up with! I really enjoyed creating the first page, it's the first I've been creative and loved it in a while. I so needed this! You can see what other peoples first pages look like here.

Goodness....

Geez, I've been on the G's for a while now. But I am going to make an attempt at doing a psalm of goodness. Here goes, it's gonna be lame I can feel it.

God how amazing are you
You created smart people
Amazing are you God
Smart people who make really cool things
Like Ipods
Of which you can load up with tons of tunes
for that life is amazing
Smart people who create marketing gimmiks
like cool colored Ipods
Like Metalic, green, blue, and more importantly
PINK!
You are amazing Oh God!

Ok so again, I never claimed to be David, but I bet with the right music I could dance like him. That's right I got me a Pink ipod! Ok so ultimately I wanted the green one, and my husbands real mad because he doesn't understand the concept, but I do, and had to have one.....life is good. Ok so the green ones have to be special ordered, and I wanted a cool color, blue is lame...black, white, silver......Lame......but pink very unpredictable and flashy....and it's very pretty. So any of you folks out there in blog land got any ipod tips....send them my way....do you use the calender? Is it hard? I'm a happy happy girl.

Greater Story Part 2

G is for....more of the Greater Story.

Tonight Allan led us through a study of Psalms. Holy cow who knew all of that was in there? 3 types of Psalms.....Goodness, Lament, and Hope. Goodness is your just there, nothing happening all is fine. Lament is going through crap, and Hope is what comes from the crap. Interesting, I've completely simplified what took him an hour and half to teach. He's the bomb by the way, very real, a bit of a spaz, but real. Which I can relate to real. He challenged those of us who may be writers, which I don't consider myself much of a writer, although I write here and have been writing since I was 12 in a journal. Once was a creative writing major in college, but all of those thing do not make me a writer. Not sure what that makes me, maybe a writer wanna-be. Ha! Ok so maybe I could try my hand at writing a psalm? I can only think of a lament right about now, just the mood I am in I think. Lemme give a try.

God I seek your face
and see nothing
I pray for help
and just get more troubles
You trust me with your creation
and I often feel I am failing
Why do you hide
why must I dig further
I trust that you are there
but often do not feel your presence
disorganization haunts my every turn
God you are probably under all that rubble
rubble of disorganized living and chaos.
Yet I continue to seek your face, and
believe you will show up.

Hey I never claimed to be David. Tomorrow I'll try my hand at a happy goodness filled psalm.
PS I don't think Connie is a regular blog visiter....hee hee...I've not been yelled at for the posting of the lovely picture. I am sure she'll show up at some point. I'm not telling her though...so shhhhh.....

Connie's going to absolutely kill me! But this picture is freakin' hilarious! This would most definately be defined as G is for GOOD WINE!
For a lovely photo of Connie go to Memory Creators, that's how she looks without a bottle of Riesling. Ha Ha Ha! Oh man don't kill me! See you Wednesday, unless you hate me!

Good Stuff!

Don't feel much like writing anything readable today. So check out this blog entry, pretty much how I feel. And I am not even remotely baptist. It's actually kind of shocking to me a baptist is some much like me in how they think. Guess I've never given it much thought. My house is clean, at least the parts that is open to the public is.....very unusual for my house to be clean, maybe I can keep it that way for a while.

Greater Story

Trying to stay with the theme of G, also wondering why I ever started this nonsense! What happens if I wanna say something that starts with S, when I am still in the G's?? Thus the way my mind works, must complete what I start, see it through, not leave it undone, just a work in progress.

Went to bible study at church tonight. It's on the Old Testiment, I missed the first 5 weeks because I had Ethos on Mondays, and cub scouts on Tuesdays, adding something on Wednesday would have been crazy. So Alan began with Job tonight. Wow.....ever read it? I mean really read it, seems like I've read bits here and there, but not the whole thing. When God finally responds to Job's crys.....God goes on for chapters, describing how big he is. Amazing! The description in The Message, starting with chapter 38 is freaking amazing to me. I mean Job basically represents all of mankind, and all the suffering we do. And God cared about him. And this was all before Jesus even came onto the scene. The descriptions in those chapters about creation is awesome, it's a new perspective then what's described in Genesis, seems to have more detail. So what did I come away with? Simple really. God cares about little old me. I may think that there are bigger problems God has to conquire, but he still cares about whats going on with me and wants me to spend time with him, even if it's me praying I have time to clean my house, or if it's me praying my kid does well in school, or it's me praying my husband gets enough sleep. And so it Gods...........and and Bob and Larry, oh and Perry would say.....

"God thinks your special and he loves you very much!"

G is for........

Greys Anatomy: Man that show is good. Talk about a guilty pleasure! Dr. Burke is actually kind of sexy, and Patrick Dempsey, I've loved him since "Can't Buy Me Love". I love this show, it's one show I watch all the way through uninterrupted.

God: Much talk about God here. But what can I say, I believe, and it's the reason I breath. Just wish I could hear him. Wish he'd speak louder, or his direction was clearer. Or maybe I need to shut up and listen, and everything would be more clear. Got to hook up with some wiser older women after church today, it was great just to sit and listen, I didn't really have much to say or contribute to the conversation. Not sure why. It was just nice to listen and absorb what they had to say. And to pray with them.

Speaking of God, man we are so fortunate at VCC, we get the amazingly talented singer Kate Miner to come and lead worship like once a year. She is my absolute favorite if I was a talented singer I'd sing like her and command the Holy Spirit to show up just like she does. Check out the link, theres a video on there shot at VCC 3 years ago, it's awesome. My challenge to you is give it a play listen with your eyes closed and worship, you won't be sorry!

Friggin Idiot!

F is for Friggin Idiot!
Ron absolutely hates this movie! I think it's the funniest thing ever!
Here's a little Napoleon Love.

F is for Fode.........

Ha Ha Ha....don't let her fool you she's famous! Just take a look here! Only famous folks have fancy head shots! Oh and a fancy blog with a head shot. See what happens when you deny your famousness?? You show up as the subject of Jodi's blog. So the rest of you better fess up or when I get to the letter that your last name starts with....your name is fair game!
Apparently theres been a small request for the F- BOMB!

F-Bomb: Otherwise the mother of all cuss words. I will not actually spell it out here so as not to offend, but I'll drop it all over the place just to prove my point. It's quite a powerful word, but honestly it's lost it's true meaning I think. I mainly use it to get the point across that I am really pissed off. Or extremely frustrated it flows freely. Yesterday I'd say I dropped it quite a few times. My child ADDness has consumed me this week. The meds are working I saw that last weekend, when he suffered through a 2 hour eye appointment, with no problems. And he was extremely good on the cub scout camp out. But then this week, he was so dang hyper! Granted when I actually see him in the AM he's not medicated, and in the PM it's worn off. Doesn't seem fair that school gets him medicated and I don't. He's all over the place, running from place to place the second his feet hit the floor in the morning. If we go to a store if he's not confined to a cart, he's gone. In a resturant he's in the chair and off constantly, or rolling around the booth. He won't sit still to eat, unless it's fast food (thus the name). I don't like the stimulant medication like what he's on Concerta and Adderall, both stimulants. I actually like the anti-depressant strattera best, because it doesn't have the on/off effect. You can probably tell my frustration, STRESS OUT! So I've said many times this week.........."f-bomb"!
Famous people quit stalking my blog, and comment already!

FAMOUS

F IS FOR FAMOUS

So because I am a scrapper, and I am a celebrity scrapper blog stalker like the rest of the scrappin world. I too did a self portrait photo shoot. Fun fun fun.....I think it's a cool picture, I got a couple cool ones. Ali Edwards made the challenge so like the rest of the scrappin sheep I had to do it. Ahhh yes famous. The scrappin world is full of famous people. I even know a couple. But my peeps know who I know, and the famous folks know who they are, lets not go and name drop right here on my blog. Besides if I really do know famous folks, they will be readers of my blog and they will actually comment. Ok heres what makes you famous. Being published more than twice in a scrappin magazine, being published in a local newspaper at least once a year or so that would make you famous. Theres other ways to be famous. But you people know who you are so just leave me some comments and then everyone will know yes, Jodi knows famous folks, her name dropping is leggit! Now celebrity status is much bigger than famous, and those are the people who have blogs that are amazingly inspiring, and their blog entries get like 50 comments a day. I won't name drop with those folks, because I don't know them, but wow if they are stalkers of my blog, I could then call my obsession leggit. I wouldn't call my blog all that inspiring, funny upon occasion, thought provoking maybe, but I don't think I've reached inspiration, unless you call that big headed picture inspiring. Ha.....Tomorrow I feel a blog coming on about the big F word. Get ready because it should be good!

F is for FREEDOM!

Freedom: Can mean a lot of things. Like my belief in God, gives me freedom from a lot of worry, because I know God will take care of me. What do people who don't beleive do? Do they just worry about crap all day? I can't imagine. Freedom is living in a country where we are free to worship however we see fit. Freedom is having a "listen to you body" day, of which is today, exhaustion and lack of sleep caught up with me so here I am. Gotta have one of those days every once in a while I learned that from my friend Weezer. Thanks Weezer! Creative freedom, I am spending way too much time here, and here, the books they recommend are full of really cool creative fun stuff, I need to have those. Or maybe just one. Live out Loud would be cool. And for photography and inspiring words I go here. Sure glad so many folks are blogging these days, just keeps me at my computer longer. Ha!

Fire: Camp fires are so awesome, warm and they smell so good. Kids sure do love to play in fire. We have taught those littel cubscouts well and no one got burnt, they know if a sticks in the fire it stays in the fire. With camp fires come Smore, gooey sticky yumminess! Oh and we made Banana boats more sticky yumminess.

I promise to do something creative today, and I'll post whatever creation comes out of me. Even if it's a cool recipe.

P-man loving the outdoors!
Doesn't get any cuter than this! He had a blast this weekend, campin out with the cub scouts!

E....humm..how about F?

Haven't I done enough with E already? I think so How about we move on to F, If I think of anymore E's I'll throw them in, no rules it's my blog!

F is for FANTASTIC!

As in fantastic weekend. Work has been annoying, just boring office crap, and politics you'll get it anywhere. So a fantastic weekend was very welcomed. Ron had National Guard this weekend so P-man and I were on our own. Camping with the scouts was our activity of choice. I being the procrastinator extraordinary, I had NOTHING ready to go to leave on Friday after work. Heck by Thursday night I had decided it'd be too cold at night to camp and I wasn't going, by Friday morning I had changed my mind back to going.........can someone say ADD??? Very much! It's no wonder I can get dressed in the morning honestly! I drive myself crazy, but decided after hearing from one person, it's how I operate, and it works out for me time and time again. Why waste valuable vegging, or brainstorming time on planning when you can fly by the seat of your pants at the last minute, and get stuff done in minimal time? I thrive on chaos, I welcome it, it's like a rush, a thrill! Why do you think I stay up so freakin late? All the planning is going on in my head, theres nothing organized about it. Much more creative to just throw things together really it is. So did it work for me this weekend.....yes....yes it did. Me and P, got to the campsite around 8:30 just at dusk, minimal light. Got our tent set up, air mattress and all just before the sun went down! We weren't too cold Fri. night, even though it was 39 degrees, but we had 4 blankets on us. He went right to sleep, so precious. Him waking up on Saturday morning, listening to the birds chirping, he takes a deep breath, eyes closed and says "Mama....I just love the outdoors!" Moments like that make me freezing my arse off all worth every second.

Farting & flatulence: One in the same. But did fart come from the word flatulence? It does happen at our house I'll admit it. Oddly Perry doesn't do much farting. Either that or he just doesn't announce it like most boys would. So polite that kid. Lots of smelly farters in my extended family. Ok why did I go there??? I'm a lady......really I am! Geez what's wrong with you people honestly!

Friends: I've heard many of my friends fart.....wait what's happening? Ha! I'm a lady lets try and remember that!

Friends: I have a great network of friends, each with their own unique gifts as to how they deal with me. No easy task really. I have close friend varying in lengths of time they've known me. Some I feel close to, even though I've not known them as long as other friends. New friendships are fun, when you really click with someone. Those people you feel like you've known for years. You talk to them like they know everything about you, but they don't, which means you get to share stories your old friends have heard many times. Love hangin out with my peeps, I have church peeps, scrappin peeps, old time faithful peeps, and stale peeps left over from Easter, I'll have to remember to give those to Layni, a friend who loves stale peeps!

E IS FOR EXHAUSTED

I am seriously exhausted. And I am not the one working 12+ hour days. That would be my husband. I am just exhausted from life in general. And starting a project at midnight last night. Duh....When the creative juices are flowing I forget the fact that I have a job, that I go to during the day, and a hyperactive kid I have to keep up with at night. It's just when I get in the moment and I have an idea, I have to go with it, because I am afraid it'll be a while when it'll happen again. So then all the sudden it's 3 am and I have to get up in 4 hours. It was worth it though because it turned out cool. I'd show you but the recipient may be a secret blog stalker, so I'll wait so they can be surprised. More about being exhausted. I think it's just running in general. How do people with multiple kids do it? I mean, he's only involved in one thing but add, my mom in a nursing home for rehab on her replaced knee, and running there every other night, and that's enough. Thank goodness I am on break from the one thing I am involved in, because then I wouldn't get any me time. Speaking of the one thing I am involved in, not many folks responded, see Ethos can't you see I really wanna know what people think theres no right or wrong answer it's just what you think. I'll just pray for you if you give the wrong answer that's all....ha ha....fairly harmless right? Ok Ok so I won't pray for you, unless you ask me to, really....I won't, how will you know actually? So leave me comments. Please don't make me beg!

Elephant: Melinda mentioned Elephant. Not really given this animal much thought as my favorite or anything, too big, not cuddly. Although either someone told me this, or I read it somewhere once a long time ago. If you just mouth Elephant slowly for folks who may be reading your lips, it looks like I love you. Not sure what use that info is, maybe if you want someone to think you are saying it but you don't want to, you could just mouth elephant.

Elegant: My friends dad likes to use this word, often when someones, usually a lady or a girl, is dressed all fancy.

Eclectic: Very much my style of decorating.

Earthtone: Very much my color choice for dressing.

Did I mention Exhausted? Yep I am!

EXCELLENT

E is for Excellent!

Lots of excellent things to talk about just from today. First of all this picture, that my brother found in my basement, (my mom used to own this house), brought it upstairs to take home, and well forgot it. Hee Hee...so here it is. My brother Kelly in kindergarten. Wasn't he cute? His little dimples! And my mom made that shirt, painted the tiger on it and everything. I believe the tigers butt is on the back....excellent. Notice his hair over his ears? We went to a baptist school then, and I bet you my mom got a talking to about his hair, boys had to have their hair cut above their ears. I'll talk more later about more excellent things from today.

What else was excellent was the new Jars of Clay CD I hooked myself up with today. It's a must have, all cool reworked old (very old) hymns. Love it! Love Jars of Clay, although I feel like I've abandoned them and missed a lot. Their second album wasn't the greatest, I gave up on them after that, and now sampling some of their stuff on amazon, I feel kind of bad, and feel like I need to catch up. Martin Smith from Delirious sings on one of the songs, as does Sarah Kelly. Love her cool raspy voice. Nothing like some cool Jesus jams to keep you on track!

E is for Ewwwww!

Ewww: The sound one makes when their child does something gross. Case in point on tuesday, Perry had a den meeting. He insisted on wearing his flip flops. When you are in a hurry, it's really not worth it to argue with a child. So I grabbed his gym shoes just incase they were doing track and field or something. We get to cub scouts and he immediately flipped his flip flops off and began running around the room barefoot. Granted he wasn't the only child running around while the Den leader was trying to talk, but sometimes if feels like it. Fast forward to end of meeting time. Perry no flip flops on his feet, the kids are standing in a circle getting ready to play silent ball. They have to be quiet for this game, and oddly enough Perry doesn't do too bad unless he has to catch the ball. Suddenly apparently Perry's left foot must have felt a bit dry. So what would one do if the bottom of their foot was dry and it was not in some sort of footwear??? Well what you do is, while standing on one foot you pull the other foot up to your mouth and you lick the bottom of the dry foot..........:::::sigh:::::::.........What's that? No that's not what you do? Well it's what my kid did. In front of all the onlooking parents. I was speachless at first, then I yelled EWWWW....Perry that is gross. So then he just licks his fingers and wipes them on the bottom of his foot. Equally as gross. Note to self: Footwear that ties and ADD medication is necessary for all Den meetings.

Ethos: A new ministry that I am involved in. Right now it looks very similar to Alpha, but in the fall it will not. Right now we are getting the framework for it and using Alpha material. In the fall we hope to have new curriculum so it looks very different. So what is Ethos you say? Allow me to do a little explaining and advertising for local folks who'd like to come or if you know someone send them we'd love to have them.

Ethos- (noun) The distinctive spirit of a culture or an era.

It's a safe place where folks can come and learn about God and ask any questions they want and hopefully find the answers. The coolest thing about Ethos is it's not at the church, so those who feel intimidated about a church enviroment can feel comfortable. Another super cool part is FREE DINNER at Rileys in Greenhills. So if you wanna check it out and want a free dinner for 5 weeks. It starts April 19th 6:30....call Rileys to register 851-8810 ext 301

Ok a little survey: Anyone is encouraged to answer this, whether you are a believer or not. Or even if you know folks who aren't believers, and you know what they are thinking. (like it's been discussed) What keeps you from knowing God better? What keeps you from becoming a follower of Jesus Christ? Or if you believe you are a follower, what keeps you from going to church on a regular basis (like every sunday)? If you are a believer, and do attend church on a regular basis, what keeps you from allowing others to know you are a believer? If you fall into any of those questions I welcome your response. If you know me, and don't want me to know who you are feel free to answer anonymously.

D is for Delightful.....which kids are in our magnolia tree on a lovely spring afternoon.

How so very glad we are that spring is finally here! You know it's spring when the blooms on our magnolia tree finally bust open. The kids sort of cooperated and let me take some fun pictures. Harolds has brought Maddie and Ashton over the past 2 days to play at the park with Perry, he's had a blast.

Drugs: Which my mom is enjoying after her knee replacement surgery this morning. It's a wierd human ritual, when a family member has surgery, one must go and sit in a waiting room full of other people waiting while someone is getting operated on. The wait is usually intensely long if it's a major procedure. This is a good time to people watch, which is what I've done in the past, however modern technology has allowed me to do other things with my time. My brother loaned me his portable DVD player it's really small, smaller than a lap top. Perfect to lounge on a vinyl hospital couch, and sit it right on your lap. I watched the Pianist, I just think Adriene Brody is dreamy. I must have a thing for guys who have a big nose. He was really good in The Village too. Something about his hair and his eyes I think. I watched most of it. Those of you keeping track via my blog. My mom is just fine, not in a persistant vegitative state, so there was no need for any big decisions on my part. Ahhhh....I told myself I wasn't going to go there. For the record I made sure she told me what I was to do in front of her pastor so I had a witness....geez why didn't she write that stuff down? People write it down! Sign it date it and put it on file at all area hospitals!

I promise to start doing E's tomorrow. So if you got some D stuff you wanna chime in on, now is the time!

D is for.........DREADLOCKS!
oh my that kind of makes me laugh. I say dreadlocks because, I just got a few new CD's, I am on a CD buying frenzy. But one of them was the John Butler Trio, and the lead singer has dreadlocks. Very cool. I had a friend in college that I worked with at Kings Island, Buffy, she had dreadlocks. Her dreadlocks were good and dready (is that a word), around the time I got married. She came to the wedding. My super conservative family didn't know what to think. One of my Aunts said...."who was the girl with the cocoons in her hair?" Ha Ha....

Disciple: Dave gave a good message on being a disciple this weekend. Something from the message that stuck out for me was how when you are really going through some stuff, and God just seems so distant. Like you know he's there, but he's not all up in the business like you gotta look hard for him. It's like he don't wanna make it easy, he wants you to pursue him, he wants you to seek him out. Sometimes don't you wish it was just freakin EASY? You're like ok this sucks, um God where are you? You see him, like very distant, like a shadowy figure....ok it's coming to me now. He desires for you to come to him a little closer, and then that is when he won't seem so shadowy, but very clear. I think that made sense, it just came to me as I was typing. I guess that's what makes a disciple? Some one who seeks to see God clearly.

Discipline: Much like the word disciple in looks only. Ah yes the dreaded discipline, nasty word. Especially when you have a kid who doesn't respond to it. He's not too terribly bad, but in a group setting like cub scouts it's insane. Granted he's not been on any meds the past 2 days, because we ran out, and the doctor was out, plus we changed his meds. So he's been off the hook. I don't even want to know what's going on at school. The only one I've heard from was his reading teacher who has him literally for an hour each day, so you know he's off the hook if she's communicating with me that he's out of control. Just like the book Driven to Distraction, being ADD is like being driven by a motor that never stops. Or it's like a gift that's really hard to open. The hard to open part is no joke. Perry is so hard to figure out, he's so inconsistent. One minute he's present and with you and you can converse with him and ask questions, the next minute he's bouncing off the wall and you can't even talk to him. Soooo frustrating. I pray that God allows us to open this gift, and that he's able to control his gift to use it to his advantage. God is quite distant in this stuff that's for sure.

D is for DOG!

DEFENESTRATE: (verb) the act of throwing/being thrown out of a window, usually a high one.
This is on my friend Stacie's blog. I've never heard that word spoken before in my whole life. Although thought about doing it with a xerox machine almost on a daily basis at my job. Possibly my computer upon occasion but not too often. Mostly the xerox machine. (thanks Stacie I was desperate for some material.)

Drugs: My cousin mentioned this. I am not in need of any drugs, other than something to make me not feel so blah, maybe something that would make me feel excited about cleaning my house. Drugs also make me think of my poor kid who takes drugs for ADD, he's on strattera only right now, and during spring break he had more good days than bad. Got emotional occasionally, but for the most part seemed ok. But it'll be a whole different story once he gets back to school, and is in a very structured enviroment. UGH.....He's very smart and gifted, draws very well for his age. Amazingly well actually. For as little as he pays attention, he's learned quite a lot if you asked me. Hopefully he'll be able to stay in a regular classroom for next year. He does need a lot of extra help. In a regular classroom they can't provide all the help he needs. Who knows maybe he'll switch meds and he'll be fine, and able to focus, and become a model student. We shall see. Very stressful.

Dishes: Ask anyone I HATE DOING DISHES! My friends know this about me. Its probably discussed in a great deal of length when I am not around. "Why does Jodi not own a dish washer as much as she hates doing the dishes?" In all my years of living on my own and being in charge of my own life, I have never had a dishwasher. Odd, I don't have anything against dishwashers, I've just never had the good fortune of owning one. Well everyone can now do a happy dance....we hooked ourselves up and here it is.
D is for DISHWASHER, so now stop talking about me! Check out item number DWD1500AWW
That's the one we got. An off bran made by maytag.

C is for Cousins.....

Cousins- Wow I miss that connection. I can remember kicking it with cousins all the time when I was growing up. Going camping with Grandma and Poppie with my cousin Jennifer almost every summer. Then when we became teenagers we'd hang out and Grandma and Poppies for a whole week. I can remember seeing my cousin Susan on the weekends also at Grandma and Poppies. She is 6 years older than I so she'd hang on the phone with boys and I'd listen. I thought she was so cool. I can remember visiting my cousins Leah and Aimee in florida one spring break. So now what has become of all my cousins. You get older and have your own life, and everyones scattered all over. Jennifer lives in KY not too far away, I've seen her once or twice in the past 8 years. I am probably the only one in my family who trys to stay connected. Man is it hard. I miss the connection, and the fun relationships.

Enough with the C's on to the

D's

Directions- Man am I directionally challenged. If I am not on familiar roads, you better believe I am going to get lost. I've lived in Cincinnati for most of my life and have been going downtown on my own since before I could drive. Still to this day I get lost all the time.

Doing Nothing- Sometimes it's ok to just do nothing like right now I am not feeling overly creative, although I have scrapped 2 nights in a row. Notice, I did not post anything scrapbook related? That would be because they pretty much suck. Should have chose to do nothing. Like this blog right now is not overly creative or humorous, should have chose to do nothing. See how that works? Wonder if that could catch on as a new slogan? Instead of "Just do it!" It could be,
"Do Nothing", and it would be a picture of me vegging on the couch, channel surfing. Ok maybe that wouldn't be such a good picture.

Ok I am at a loss for D's, so those of you who aren't leaving comments, need to come out come out where ever you are and give me some D words that you'd like my comments on or that could stir up some creativity in me. This is open to usual comment givers as well.

C is for Cool......

Of which I once was. All having a blog and all. Then all these famous scrappers discovered blogging. And frankly they are way cooler than I, so now I don't feel quite as cool as I once was. But honestly I'm fine with not being cool, I'm 36 years old, if I'm not cool now I may never be cool. Who cares anyways.......but I had a blog first!

CD's- I got 2 new ones this past weekend, first it was Prince-Musicology why did I buy this, the reviews say it all. He'll never do anything like Purple Rain ever again. I keep giving it another try, and it still only has like 2-3 good songs and that's it. Then at the recommendation of some other people's blogs I checked out some Sting- Sacred Love I decided to get it since it had been recommended by respectable folks then the lyrics were quoted during Easter Sundays service....so had to have it. It's really really good, and I've never been much of a Sting fan.

Cleaning- man I hate to clean. But it has to be done. I can't live in a messy house forever. So this weekend it's time. We are going to spring clean! So look out stuff getting thrown out.

Crazy- My schedule is starting to look crazy for April. Just when I thought it was wide open stuff keeps getting scheduled. It's fun to be busy, but sometimes I like to just veg and not have to do stuff.

Ok sorry my blogs been lame lately. No one has posted anything for C in the comments, once that happens I'll move on to D! So come on people surely somebody has something to say!

Comments- Yeah I got lots of love for Melinda and Stacie, but they can't be the only ones showing me some love. The cool scrapper blogs get like 10 or more comments per post. Told you they were much cooler than I. (said in a whiney Napoleon voice)

Alphabetical break.....

Ok I was doing a little blog surfing. This thing is quite popular with the scrappin crowd now. But came across this website. And am I alone here thinking this is a great idea? I'd totally join in. I'd definately sport some boxers, I'd play along for real. Ok seriously I'm so done blogging for the night, time to go play easter bunny!

C is for cute!
And for chapstick of which Hannah likes to eat. Prime example of Mardie is way more laid back than any of us. I said "um should she be eating chapstick?" Mardie said, "yeah she likes to eat chapstick, it's non-toxic." LOL.....ok have at it then.

C is for Crack
As in Baby butt crack, how stinkin cute is this picture??? This is my friend Mardie's little girl Hannah. I'll post a picture of her cute face too. But this is definately a cute butt!

C time!

Crucified: Of which Jesus was this very night a long time ago. In my opinion Good Friday is the most significant night of the holy weekend. And now that there is the passion, those images will be forever embedded into my brain. How could I not be eternally greatful with all that I am for what Christ did for me? Went to church tonight. Good Friday service is always so somber, as well it should be. Last years service they show'd a short movie called the Train. Very meaningful, wish I could find it. I'll do more C's tomorrow or later, tired.

Last of the B's.....baby! Kylie is now 16 weeks old and I swear she weighs 20 lbs! 

B.........

Beat-down: What you threaten one with if they don't do things your way. "Clearly so and so needs a beat-down". Or you could threaten a child with a beat-down, "Straighten up or you're gonna get a beat-down.

Beat-down can also be an adjective. Such as right now I feel extremely beat-down. My child has me at my wits end. He is a prime example of uncontrolled ADD. I am praying that he will find a way to channel all this energy, to function in a normal world. Because right now whatever it is we are doing IS NOT WORKING. My mom got me this book today for my birthday and I hope it has all the answers I am looking for. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them my way. Otherwise just pray for Perry. He's definately not unhappy. But he's a little too oblivious to the world around him. If he could only do whatever he wanted all day long then there wouldn't be a problem. But at this point that is not an option. I promise to start some C's tomorrow.

B....

Bling: Term often used to refer to fancy jewlery, or money.

Bing: As in Crosby, great movies, and christmas music. As in cherrys, love those.

Biatch: Another curse word. I got issues. This one usually used for females, I'm really annoyed with. Mostly used when joking around with my friends.

Boxes: Alot of my stuff is still in boxes from our move over a year ago.

Basic Grey: Stacie mentioned this, probably my most favorite patterned paper used in my scrapbooking and book art stuff.

Blessed: Even though I am incredibly frazzled at the end of the day from dealing with all I have to deal with. A kid who is charming and funny, which he uses against me to stay out of trouble. A husband who works really hard, gets little sleep, but still is able to remember to take care of a few of the domesticated duties around here. A job that is NOT my dream job, but I got one and that's a good thing. Great net work of friends, those who I share a hobby in common with and my church peeps, plus those who have had my back for years. I could go on for days about being blessed. How bout we say I got a cool immediate family, cool friends, so therefor I am BLESSED. (Geez some of you were like get to the point already)

Butt: Just a fun word to say. Go on say it.....funny isn't it.

Bookstore: I could sit in a bookstore for hours and just read stuff. I love a good bookstore with comfy chairs, and cool magazines and books.

Bebo: As in Bebo Norman, great worship music. Ever wonder if that's his real name?? I do, I mean Bebo, how many could there be?

Belly: My mom wouldn't let me say belly when I was a kid. Wierd, why is that anyways. She always said it was an ugly word. Ok maybe in the 1950's but it was the 70's and belly is a perfectly exceptible term. Now I can say it all I want BELLY! Love being in charge of my own life. At least most of the time. There are some days though, wow, not so much! Ever have one of those days? When everything is going crappy and you are screaming ok I'm done being a grown up someone else take over. Like last week was like that. And this weeks kinda crazy too. I could use a personal assistant.....I'll have applications ready next week for those who'd like to apply.

B time!

On that note....adorable, which is by child, I'll move on the the B's. Maybe this time I'll get more B comments. Come on people I know you are out there my tickers ticking...(see below) but you people are saying nothing. Thanks to my faithful following Stacie and Melinda. Who are the rest of you stalkers??

Birthdays: Yeah I had one this past week on friday, yeah thanks for the card! Ha Ha....I did get a whole lot of love this year on my birthday. It's almost like I am celebrating the whole month. Those of you keeping score....I'm 36. Abby hooked me up with a set of wine glass's....felt sorry for me since at my christmas part, all I had was Winnie the Pooh wine glass's. OMG stop laughing they are functional! I just learned the art of wine drinking, why does there need to be a special glass?? Well no longer a problem I now have 8 beautiful wine glass's.....why must one have a glass anyways?? If it's Boones Farm your gonna drink the whole bottle anyways!!! Ha Ha Ha.....Ok I officially gave up the boones farm many years ago, trust me I can afford better now. Calm down people I'm not some crazy wino an occasional glass is it, and only among friends while socializing. Riesling Spatlese if you still need to get me a gift....I may even share, I got glass's for it now.

Bible: From wine to the bible...go figure! Hey it's in there. Ok Ok, I'm on Bible now. Just heard a AWESOME talk tonight by Justin on the bible. I've been a christian for over 20 years and that very short talk he gave was the most educational talk on the bible I've ever seen. And it's only 20 minutes. Goes to show doesn't take much just important stuff crammed in a short period of time. I'd have to say scripture meditation has been for me the most effective way to read the bible. This book Read, Think, Pray, Live is a great book on scripture meditation, it's published by the same folks who publish The Message, so it's pretty modern.

Bubba: My son's nickname. Not sure why, sounds like a nickname you give to some big bully type kid, of which he is not. He's tiny. Poor thing only weighs 44 lbs, and he's 45 inches tall. I really do feed him. He doesn't realize he's so small so that's good. Hopefully he'll never had the short kid syndrom, you know those punk kids who have an attitude, because they are short, so they make up for it by being a punk. Perry is not like that at all.

Bubba Gump: From Forrest Gump. I have a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company baseball hat, I used to wear it all the time, and everyone loved it. I wore it when I went to Mexico, on a mission trip. The kids we worked with in some of the city churches thought it was a cool hat.

Blog: Man you can get sucked into some blog reading. You feel like it's a waste of time, but it can be so enlightening when you come across a good one.

Boobalicious: Term used to descibe someone who dress's unnessesarily sexy. Or a women with too much clevage! Not sure I've ever heard anyone use this term other than myself and a few close friends, so if you use this word, use with caution because you could get smacked.

Business Casual: Defined differently by many people and it depends on where you work. For me it means no jeans, sweat pants, shorts, or gym shoes. Everything else is fair game!

Bombdigity: Term used when something is REALLY cool. Such as "that shirt is the bombdigity." again it's a good possibility this term was also made up by someone I know, so use with caution.

Buca Di Beppo: Only the best resturant on the planet!

ADORABLE: My son in his Tiger cub uniform, getting his Tiger Cub patch at the Blue and Gold banquet.  

Ahhhhhhh......hee hee the weird noise Napoleon makes when he's sighing. Still trying to figure out why I love this movie so much?? Probably because it wasn't funny the first time, but then you watch it again, and you laugh because it's just so freakin STUPID. Then after you watch it the third time, and you have friends who have also seen it this many times or more, and you start quoting it. That, right there is when a movie becomes incredibly funny.

Taking a break from the encyclepedia thing for a momet. Went to scrappin time this saturday, I am in a major creative funk. I got nothing. I did 2 pages and I hated them both. I made 3 cards and they looked like crap. Maybe it's scrappin time?? I need to clean my scrappin table and just make some time to scrap at home. Sometimes other people can just suck the life out of you, and then you just don't feel like scrappin I guess??? Or you just feel like socializing with folks and you can't scrap. I just got sucked into reading blogs, man that can be addicting, but you find cool stuff, like cool music to listen to, and cool books to read. So I'd encourage a little blog surfing every once in a while, you won't be sorry.

A.....

Abstanence: Best form of birth control. And very hard I might add. But I'd have to say it's how God intended it to be, for you to wait till you are married. For some reason, I've always felt weird telling people I waited. Don't know why?? I should celebrate the fact that I waited, but I figure the majority of people I encounter either don't understand or they don't believe me.

ADHD: How is it, that is seems like this was only discovered a few years ago? Or is it more widely accepted? I obviously am ADD, my son has actually been diagnosed. I think most people if they just embrace it and accept, hey that's just who I am they can and will be very successful and secure people. Most folks I know who are this, are VERY interesting people, myself included.

Artist: I wish this was my profession.

Alpha: Only the coolest ministry team at the Vineyard ever. I love being part of the Alpha team, I feel like I've found my niche for now. I say for now because being a part of this thing called the vineyard for nearly 18 years, things are evolving and changing all the time, and sometimes your niche gets shifted and moved. But for now this feels right.

More A's...........

analytical: Of which I am not. Man I am in the wrong job.

Asshole: Most favorite curse word that I use to describe someone I am extremely mad at.

Analyst: I know people with this title, why do I know these people. If this title is all that was used to describe them, I would not want to know them. Numbers are not my friend I do not like numbers. Refer to job reference.

Army: Melinda mentioned the Army in her comments....hummmmm.....this word conjures up many feelings of ill will. Don't get me wrong I am all for folks being in Iraq and being deployed for the reasons that I trust are good reasons. But the Army I have found to be full of leaders who are disorganized morans who haven't a clue about what the hell they are doing as far as administration type stuff. The only Army personnel that can be trusted are WOMEN!

Anthropology: Most amazing store in the whole world. Everything about that store makes me feel happy. And what a cool name Anthropology

A......

A:
Albatross....first word that comes to mind. Theres a song that goes to it, but the last time I sang that little tune the person thought I was nuts. When my brother entered kindergarten, and I was in the 4th grade. My parents decided to put us in a Christian school. Immanuel Baptist Church. We had been going to daycare there for years, and they just started a school that went all the way to 12th grade. So in Kindergarten that is how they learned their letters, I only remember A and B. And my brother didn't even learn how to read, we went there just 2 years, and when they put us back in public school. My brother was terribly behind and had to repeat second grade. So so much for their nutty alphabet songs.

Fun has begun!

Previously my life seemed boring and uneventful. Until my husband took me to dinner at my favorite resturant and we went shopping in my favorite store. And at that store I bought my now new favorite book. This book is so awesome. Because I am unable to come up with my own creative ideas, I am going to take this concept and use it on my blog. I mean after all it is a book about an ordinary life, and my life is just that Ordinary. So I'll start with A and write all the meaningful stuff I can think of that start with A. And those few people who leave comments please feel free to join in, comment on something that starts with A and so on. So here goes!

In Search of Fun!

My friend Weezer and I went to Columbus last weekend and visited a friend. It was a lovely time had by all. We watched chic flicks, drank wine and margarita's, and ate way too much. Abby made me a birthday cake, like she does every year, spice cake with Penucci icing. OMG....love that stuff. Not at all WW friendly, but it's my birthday month and I'm celebrating the whole month. Hopefully there will be a weight loss tomorrow, or I will have to cut down on the celebrating. Sorry nothing else fun and exciting has been going on. It's fairly boring around here. Sure would like some excitement!

Good News Please!

Ok enough already. When you go to 2 funerals in one week, somethings wrong with your week. I've cried enough tears in the past week to last me a good while. A friend had a baby this week, only it was born too soon. It had a genetic birth defect that didn't allow it's brain to grow. So she gave birth to baby James, at only 24 weeks. He lived for 53 minutes. She said if he was born alive, she'd celebrate that life no matter how long it was, and that she did. There was a beautiful memorial service on Tuesday night. So therefor, Jodi is spent, done finished through! I need some shoe therapy. There seems to be a void of sadness that needs to be replaced with a new pair of shoes. I'll let you know if that happens. In the mean time I could use some good news please!

Preparing for a Gain

Ok tomorrow is the dreaded weigh in. I've been completely surprised for the past weeks. But this week was different. I did a whole lot of emotional eating. Went to Buca Di Beppo for dinner on Saturday with some friends and it's been all downhill since then. It was as if I completely forgot I was trying to decrease my size. So it's back on the wagon for me come tomorrow. I'll try to keep things under control this weekend. So start sending up some words I can maintain control. And get this eating back on track. By the way Buca Di Beppo is now officially my favorite resturant. And splenda is my favorite artificial sweetner.

Lenora Jan. 2, 1928- Feb. 18, 2005

Lenora 

Motivation at an all time Low!

Death and grieving must just do it to you. A dear friend of my mothers passed away on friday. It was her sister in law. The second to die in the past year. I've known her my whole life from church, but wasn't ever that close to her. I feel it's one of those things that was taken for granted. Growing up at Lindenwald United Methodist, she was one of those people who was just always there. I thought of my best friend on Sunday, and how hard it was to go to church that particular sunday with no Lenora.
My best friend moved down the street from Lenora 2 years ago. Ashton her 11 year old daughter formed a relationship with Lenora. She would visit her and keep her company pretty much everyday. Lenora shared stories with her, the kind that her grandkids and children probably heard a million times. But with Ashton she had fresh ears. Ashton leaned on her every word. And to Ashton Lenora knew everything. Tomorrow is the funeral and I am taking Ashton. It'll be hard to hear everyones memories about Lenora. I am glad Ashton got the oppurtunity to develope this special relationship. It then doesn't seem that we missed out, since we will get to see Lenora through Ashton's eyes. Once I figure out how to post a picture I'll do a proper memorial post.

Wheres the Flavor?

Ok so I gained 8oz last week. To me that's basically just staying the same, I could have pee'd out 8 oz. It's tough though, as big as I am, I'll have to eat like this for the rest of my life. It just doesn't seem like fun. Will it ever get fun? I mean ever since I've started on the journey to lose weight all I want is chicken wings! Not just a few but like 10. And man that would send me over the edge for sure. Why does everything that's bad for you have to taste so good? And things that are good for you.......not so good. I had one of those skinny cow ice cream things last night, it tasted cold, and wet. But there didn't seem to be much flavor! I am helping with the Valentines day party at school today. Oh help me! I like my kid and maybe 1 friend but 24 of them.....yikes. I would imagine there will be some out sick so that's less kids.

Oh my!

It's been a while. I did lose 3.5 lbs in the second week of WW. So I am down 8.5, maybe. I didn't go last week since I was heading out of town to FOOD HELL, otherwise known as a weekend scrapbooking retreat. The kind where counting points just ain't gonna happen. Treats available 24/7 and these people like McDonalds are just trying to kill people. I mean they are my friends and they do love me, but spinich dip, cheese balls, roll ups, brownies, cookies, mexican dips, it goes on and on.........so I splurged, mostly grazed and never made a plate. Figured if I just grazed I'd eat less.....Well I grazed often. So we shall see come friday. It's been really hard to get back in the swing of things after FOOD HELL.

What the?

Ok seriously Spongbob is not gay so shut up already. Leave him along he's a sponge for God sake and he's in love with a diving suite wearing squirrel named Sandy.

5 Lbs Lighter

That's right, the fat girl has taken the plunge, and started Weight Watchers. Didn't want to go public till I knew it was possible, with a bazillion pounds to lose 5 lbs the first weeks, not too shabby, and had I actually excersized I would have lost more. Oh and had I stayed strictly to healthy foods only, I would have lost a lot more, but WHO CAN LIVE LIKE THAT? I felt deprived as it was, but not really. I am just used to eating whatever whenever, and as much as I want, thus the reason I am not a small figured women. But when you realize what is in the foods you love to eat and you actually think about it, WOW....that shit could kill you in large doses! Plus I watched the movie Supersize Me, yeah that'll change a girls eating habits with the quickness, and I don't eat Mcdoogles all that much, but they are murderer's those Golden Arches, they are slowly killing people one Big Mac at a time, stay away! Sure I got the fat gene, I've seen pictures, but I am determined to break the family curse and avoid being cut open, and having most of my stomach sectioned off to gather gassy juices, and be forced to eat 1 cup of whatever per meal. It's not that extreme, but you get my point. So I got the rest of the winter to lose some weight so that once it's warm outside I don't look like a large fat women trying to ride a mountian bike. I'll just look slightly pudgy, and by summer, I'll need to buy a new swim suit because I will no longer be able to fit into the fat suit, I've been forced to wear for years. So whose with me? Seriously pay attention to what you eat, the fast food resturants are trying to kill folks, Oh and Olive Garden with the Fettucini Alfredo? Come on, why must so many fat grams be in one dish?? Nuff said!

Laundry

Man I can't stand laundry. I wish I could get away with wearing the same thing everyday! And my clothes would never get dirty. I avoid the folding and putting away of laundry at all costs. Thank goodness wrinkles can come out in a dryer. Well Ron was on vacation this week, and he couldn't take the mountian of clothes any longer, so he basically forced me to fold...ugh....and put away like 3 baskets of clothes. Theres still probably like 6 in the laundry room. Why do I have so many clothes?? I am at least pretty good about Perry's clothes and I keep them put away, but mine....whose got time for that? Ron does his own laundry for obvious reasons. Speaking of laundry I should go do some. Thank goodness tomorrows friday. And no work or school on Monday.....yipeee.....

Empty

Ok so two in one night compared to none in a week. I must have a lot to say. I have felt spiritually empty for a while now. A small group that basically just didn't happen, and I wasn't a leader at the last Alpha because it's better to do every other one, so you don't get burned out. So I've not really been connected and have had no one to hold me accountable regularly in a while. Thank God for Christian radio! I was late to work this morning, was under a Perry schedule which has no time frame and no kind of hurry for nothing. So I got to hear most of Focus on the Family which Ravi Zacharias spoke. He has got to be the most amazing Christian speaker I've ever heard. Everytime I am lucky enough to hear him I am in awe that after being a christian for over 25 year I am still able to continue to learn and grow. He's indian and has this super cool accent, and he uses big words and sounds as if he's speaking way over my head. But then I scare myself a bit because I totally understand what he's saying. Which to me has to be because God is speaking through him because otherwise I wouldn't understand a word he was saying. Ha Ha! There is so much he said, I wish my brain could record and play it back whenever I wanted to make a profound point to someone. His topic was Mirror for the Soul. There was so much he said in such a short time. But the jest of what I got was how important it is for us to raise our children to live with a moral code based on scripture. God intended for the bible to be the moral law, he designed it so that we could live by it. Humility, Spirituality, and Faith must be carved into our conscience. My hope is that I am raising my son to fight against the moral decay of our world, and that he doesn't get swept up into it.

Tonight his faith like a child was a true display that I am doing something right. As we watched the 20/20 special on the Tsunami, I was able to see true devastation through the eyes of a 7 year old child. His first reaction was, is that going to come here? I assured him "no".
Perry: "Mommy did all that water take away those peoples houses?"
Me: "yes"
Perry: "What about the kids, did it take away their toys?"
Me: "yes"
Perry: "Did some of them die?"
Me: "Yes many of them died."
Perry: "Oh Mommy, that is very sad, it makes me kind of want to cry.'
As I hug him he says "we should pray for them"
Me: Ok when you go to bed we'll pray for them tonight
Perry: "No, I think we should pray for them right now."
So we held hands and prayed. And his special request was "Please Jesus take that giant wave away and don't let it come back again."
We see so much devastation in movies, and 911 was like watching a movie on TV, as was the Tsunami, it's hard to realize how real it is. Until you are thrown into reality by a child with simple questions about life and why things happen. It was only then that I was able to react as one should and cry for the lives that have been lost.

Whoa it's been a while.

Christmas took over my life and I've not blogged in sometime now. The cat vest story was funny enough to sustain my addoring fans for sometime though. The vest was a big hit and not as dreadful as the story made it sound. I did get my shoes. And there is a lovely story behind that adventure. First off a brief run down of the holiday events. God decided to dump an outrageous amount of snow on us a few days before christmas. Probably all the crazy's praying for a White Christmas, be careful what you pray for. Most everyone was stranded in their homes on Thursday because of the 16" of snow on the ground. Many folks were without electricity. Not us, thank God! So since the snow was dumped on Wednesday I didn't make it to the Christmas play at Church, considering it took me 2 hours to get to my hair appointment, trying to make it to church for the play was not a good idea. It ended up being cancelled anyways. That just started the dominoe effect of things that happen to mess up tradition. We usually go to my cousins in Indiana, well they don't believe in snow plows in Indiana so four wheeling through the back roads of Indiana and getting stranded in the middle of nowhere didn't sound fun. So we ventured out and went to the Movies instead, (not a tradition) Polar Express in IMAX 3D very cool! We then came home and had appetizers for dinner, another non-tradition but fun anyways. Perry went to bed with no arguement so he could quickly sleep to greet his presents from Santa in the AM. Ron and I exchanged gifts finally a tradition happens, we always exchange gifts to each other on Christmas eve after Perry goes to bed. His packages were low in numbers since Mr. Last Minute didn't anticipate the snowstorm, and expected me to finish his christmas shopping to myself for him when I ran around early on Christmas eve. Didn't happen! I did however receive Kitchen aid pots and pans.....woooohooo! They have the non-stick surface and the cushion handles. Lucky Lucky me! And even cooler they are red! I got a cookbook and My Fair Lady on DVD also.

Finally on Christmas day a few traditions began to happen. Had to wake Perry up so we could get an early start. Crazy, what kid doesn't have their internal clock set for 5 am on Christmas morning?? We always did. He was delighted with his parade of toys and none too pleased with the gift of clothing from Santa. "I didn't ask for clothes, those are stupid, why would he give me clothes???" Rotten kid, the even more Rotten Nephew Zack was just as displeased with the clothing he received from Grandpa, both boys flung their clothes to the floor in protest. So we didn't thaw the Turkey for Christmas day, and couldn't find a decent ham, so my brother resorted to Holiday Hamburgers! What??? Yep, Holiday Hamburgers, that he burned. MERRY CHRISTMAS....ha ha ha.....We did have a wonderful Christmas Breakfast which we always look forward to. So all was not lost. And we had Jodi's Potatoes and Pumpkin Crunch, so it was all good. We'll be skipping the burgers next year. This was the second year not going to Grandmas (Ron's) and it still stinks. Theres just something about going to Grandma's on Christmas that just seems so right. But dysfunctional family issues keep us from going. We did however make it to Geegaw Migrages house the day after. In regular people language that would be Grandma Mugrage, which is my best friend Abby's parents house. Love going there because theres always a ton of kids running crazy and Perry just falls right into the mix. Then you just hang out chat, and play a board game usually. Didn't have to miss the Vineyard play completely, they did it on Sunday during church so I wasn't completely disappointed.

Snowstorm 2004 

Festive Cat print t-shirt that's going directly back to the store! 

What the???

OMG.....what's going on? Have I become that person? Has it happened? I went to the mall yesterday evening after work, went to sears got Perry some new Sketchers, and eyed some super cool Sketchers for myself that I did not purchase, but wanted really really bad. They are the bomb, I want the brown ones! Ok so I take Perry's shoe's back and exchange them for the right size today. That was all I was going to do, I looked at my shoes again. And thought Lazarus sells Sketchers maybe they have them on sale. So I go out in the mall. And thought as I crossed the threshhold of Sears and the mall.....Lazarus is way far away from Sears. Do I need those shoes. I always need shoes, but those shoes??? Then I spy a place called CJ Banks...hummm....sells plus sized clothing. Ok time for a side story........
I have lunch with a couple ladies almost everyday, they are 10 years older than me, but I won't hold that against them. They are wonderfully nice, respectable women. They enjoy coconut deserts (yuck) and like to wear festive clothing. Nothing wrong with that, I just look pretty dorky in festive clothing. At least that's what I think. They look, festive in their festive clothing. I own one Christmas sweater, that sometimes I wear during the holidays sometimes I don't. It's not overly festive or flashy, just your average Christmas zip up cardigan. Well these women, and they aren't the only ones. They have all kinds of festive clothing for all kinds of holidays and seasons. I generally recycle the same 5 outfits from week to week, and it wouldn't be uncommon for me to wear Monday's khaki's again on Friday. This I would imagine would be unheard of to them. However I think they are awear of my fashion sense and lack of festive clothing and accept me for who I am, strippedy socks and all. End of side story.......

Back to CJ Banks. Apparently the festive clothing ladies, often buy their festive sweaters at Christopher & Banks. I've been in there once, and didn't see anything I was drawn to, and left, this was years ago. Well now they have CJ Banks which is the same store for plus sized women, apparently the country is getting fatter me included. I had been considering getting a new sweater not necessarily a festive holiday sweater but a new sweater. They had all kinds of nice soft lovely sweaters. Solid colors as well as some prints. A nice sweater with a dog on it, and dog bone buttons....yeah I'll need to pass on that one. I was drawn to this particular rack of sweater vests, that were a brown and black color. It was a christmas sweater vest, with stick figure cats embroidreied on it, they were cool and artistic looking which I usually like, but not on something I am wearing. But this was a cool unique looking holiday sweater vest, nobody would have one like this. So the battle to win me over was on. It looks nothing like the Reindeer Sweater from Brigette Jones Diary so I'm good. They had my size, it was one sale. So I carry it around for a minute. The whole time thinking WHAT AM I DOING? I look for a turtleneck to match, held a few colors up to it and nothing look good. Go to the clearence rack, and well look they have a white long sleeve t-shirth that coordinates perfectly with the cats on the sweater. And it's on sale. So all the sudden I am at the register. And I am buying this coordinating outfit! Oh it gets better. Those of you that know me I don't generally talk to strangers unless I have to. I mean I am not rude, I'll say please and thank you or have a nice evening but generally unless it's appropriate I don't talk to folks. Well this lady, wants to talk ABOUT THE CAT SWEATER VEST.
saleslady: "Oh I think you got the last one."
me: "no there was one more."
saleslady: "it's really cute." (should have been my clue right there NOT FOR YOU)
me: silence
saleslady: "Do you have cats?"
me: "I have a cat."
saleslady: " Yeah me too, well 12 of them."
me: "WOW!"
saleslady : Crazy cat lady laughter
saleslady: "What color is your cat?"
me: (at this point a little bit scared and wondering where I am exactly) "oh she's a tabby, so she's black, brown and white.
saleslady: "oh very pretty, does she have long hair or short hair."
me: "short" (wanting to cry, barf or run out of the place.)
other crazy sales lady: "yeah she pretty much buys anything we have with cats on it."
me: smirk..."oh" Are these people serious???
Crazy cat sales lady starts to fold my items I've somehow purchased against my will. She then pulls out a shelf thing and lays them gently on some tissue paper, folds the tissue paper around the cat clothing and places a sticker neatly in the center to hold it together, then puts it into a lovely bag that looks like a gift bag. Odd.....they don't do that at walmart! I've apparently stepped into a high class store. Total cost for my festive clothing $42 which included tissue paper, gift bag, and a shiny gold sticker. So I call my brother on the way home, just to see if what just happened was really against normal Jodi antics. He immediately started yelling at me that I needed to turn around and take them back. As soon as the words "cat head buttons" came out of my mouth, I knew I was in trouble. I stopped to get Perry from my mom's she thought my sweater vest was very nice, with the matching t-shirt. She would though she wears sweatshirts with doilies sewn on to them, and she owns more than her fair share of festive clothing. Once Perry was in bed I talked to my best friend regarding my purchase, and her comments were. First she gasped as if she was stabbed, and then said it's happened, you've become a festive sweater wearer. This can't happen you need a shopping assistant to keep this from happening. Well when I tried on the sweater vest with the matching shirt underneath, and looked in the mirror. Immediately, I was like what the heck, that looks insane! Theres way too many cats going on. And it says "meow" all over the shirt. I took that off with the quickness. The vest is fine, I tried it on with a red long sleeved t-shirt and it's ok, still a bit flashy so I may have to hunt down my black turtleneck so as not to draw attention to myself. But the t-shirt is going directly back to the store. I just pray crazy cat lady isn't working.
Not to fear faithful friends, I promise to never own, easter, halloween, or valentines day clothing. I'll include a picture of the print that's on the shirt I am returning.

Baby Kylie 

Gotta see the Baby!

Ok my brother and his wife finally had their baby. My sister-in-law makes it appear to be so freakin easy. How does one push out a 9lb 10oz baby and walk out of the hospital 2 days later?? Nuts I tell ya. She beautiful though. I've not been to see her since she's been home. Gotta give some folks some space to get used to having a new critter around, I'll go this week sometime. Oh her name is Kylie Morgan. Good name, but dag how's my brother going to veto, his sisters middle name, not cool little brother. Kylie Joelle would have sounded nice, and looks cool too. Somebody will use it someday. I'll post a picture in a second.

TURKEY MADNESS

Wow survived another thanksgiving without incident. I had it at my house this year. Oh and the hispanic gentlemen did not show up. All the drama for nothing. I did however hook up a mean thanksgiving meal. My nephew had PB&J, he did that the last time I had thanksgiving at my house. That's just nutty, or peanutty....hee hee...couldn't resist. We had roasted turkey with herb butter and carmelized onion gravy, which at first I wasn't sure I'd like but when on the mash potatoe's and turkey it was way yummy! I'll be making that gravy again for sure. We all had a lovely time, and played Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit.....which my brother was surprised at how much useless information he actually knows. He was the big winner, we ended early so I (reality TV aholic) could watch survivor. Went to bed early, because I was getting up before the sun on Friday to go SHOPPING. I honestly haven't stopped shopping since 6:30 am on friday. I got a lot of christmas shopping done, and got some major deals. My dad went ahead and got me my present yesterday too, a new digital camera....which came with a free printer. So now we have 2 printers hooked up to our computer....a bit over the top I think, but one prints pictures really good and the other is a scanner/copier too....so we need them both. So here we go heading full speed into the holiday season, christmas letter to be written, cards to be sent, presents to buy, party to plan, gifts to make.......how will I ever get it all in....????

I did this pretty cool page tonight, for a contest at a Local scrapbook store. Hopefully I make first place. I thougt it turned out pretty cool. I moved the sticker on the left side over towards the title bar to give it more balance. 

Being a Parent.

In my quest to break the generational curse of being crazy. Craziness on mine and my husbands part. I think I may have driven myself crazy. Sunday mornings are the worse day of the week for me. I mean horrible. Sundays are not good for me until I reach my seat at church and begin to worship, and I close my eyes and allow God to wash over me. Thank God for worship music. My heart breaks every Sunday because I am standing next to a man who doesn't want to be there. I struggle with the fact that I so desperately want him to desire to be there. I can't understand the concept, of feeling so let down by God that you have no desire at all to seek him. Am I wrong for thinking that is selfish? You pray and you pray and you pray for something you want so much, and God just doesn't give it to you for whatever reason. So you acted pissed off at the world, and God. My husbands not the only one in my life who has done this. Honestly it drives me nuts. Am I some freak of nature who when something I pray for just doesn't work out, I might be let down for a day or even less but I pick up and move on and am ready for whatever God has for me next. Should I just be thankful that he's wired me that way? That's great and all, however.....it doesn't help when I have to deal with these people who are close to me and are pissed off at God all the time.
So I titled this Being a Parent.....I had another idea in mind before I began to write....something happened. So my idea when I titled it Being a Parent was, my desire is for Perry to NEVER feel forced to go to church as my husband felt his whole life growing up. I want him to feel as I felt, and he grows up going to church every sunday, and when he's old enough to "want to" or not, that he'll chose to want to, and see what it is he's getting there. I don't want him to see me fighting with his father every Sunday because of church. I want him to see a happy family going to church because they want to be there. Part of me just wants to leave Ron at home every Sunday rather than deal with his attitude, but then I know God speaks to him once he gets there and if that stops....I am terrified of what happens next.

Holiday Madness!

Blessed to be a blessing. Thank goodness for WAKW, or I'd be a mess! My mother decided to invite a few hispanic gentlemen to my house for Thanksgiving. This would not be a problem had she ASKED! Instead she just tells me I am bringing Alajandro Lopez to thanksgiving.......that was day one. Next day it's Jose. Theres many days till thanksgiving, and I already need a translator. I am totally fine with sharing my home with people who wouldn't normally celebrate Thanksgiving in their homeland, they should take part in the american tradition afterall they are in america. But if you know my husband, he's VERY shy, and normally isn't a fan of strangers of any kind let alone ones who speak little english, and are in his home. I thought of many ways to present this to him so I waited till he was in his element, working on his trains. It's very important to talk to someone when they are most comfortable. So at first he had a few choice words for my mother, many of which started and ended with the word CRAZY. But anytime Ron is put into an uncomfortable position he usually stands his ground and doesn't back down. This time which is clearly an HG hook up, he became ok with the situation, only aware of hispanic gentleman number 1. He wasn't tense, or freaking out continuously like he normally does when placed in situations beyond his control.

See the thing is I go to the Vineyard, and they pretty much started the whole idea of Servant Evangelism , so having been going there for over 15 years, it should just come natural for me to serve others right? I will say it is easier, however not natural. I think it has a lot to do with how you are wired, and who influences you the most. Which would be my husband. After 13 years you begin to take on some of their little quirks that make them who they are. He wasn't raised to serve others. I wasn't either, so it's still something we have to work on everyday. He more so than I. Sometimes it does come very natural, to help someone, and not expect anything in return. Often times you'll ask someone for help at work or whatever, and you can tell they are thinking.....sure I'll help you but what will you do for me in return. I will say that never cross's my mind. I'm just being real. Do I sound like a horrible person? I am a nice person, really I am, it's just not all that easy sometimes. Sometimes you just wanna do you thing and not have to encounter other people, and be forced to be nice. Thank goodness I am a christian, and want to show God's love in a practical way or I'd be just horrible. LOL........I'm nice, really I am, it's my husband that's not nice, but we're working on that.

Weekend Fun!

Ahhh the weekend, always nice when you have a busy weekend huh? I had a stampin party on friday night, a few of my peeps stayed afterwards to play and hang-out. We made paper bag books that turned out fun. We just did it with no rhyme or reason, just to see if it could actually be done because we had heard of them and wanted to try it. Super easy and really cool. It was fun just to hang out and play.

Saturday, Ron and I attended his cousins wedding. We haven't seen any of his family since his going away party (of which he didn't go) in May, for no other reason than he is pretty much astranged from his parents, so therefor the extended family stays away as well because they don't want to be involved. This could be the reason, Ron was the only cousin who attended the wedding other than the bride, and there are many cousins. They all seem astranged from their parents. Must be some conflict dealing issues all around. We had a very nice time, and as nutty and wierd, or a better way to put it would be complicated the family is, it was nice to spend time with them. And the bride (Amy) and her parents were genuinely glad we came. That meant the most to me, that our efforts to be decent people were appreciated.

Trick or Treating tonight was fun, Ron missed out since he had to work. But my dad came over and we drug a disgruntled trick or treater for what seemed to be miles. And I got lost in my own neighborhood. Somehow we made it back home.

Ok so now that this layout is completed, it's hilarious! That's my best friend Layni attempting to feed the giant deer with her mouth. I actually pieced 2 photo's together to make it look like a giant deer. I may have to submit this one, too funny! 

I got my scrap on this weekend. Did 5 pages, as always had a great time with my peeps! 

Ok cast your vote, should we do retakes, I think his smiles a bit crooked, but Ron thinks they are cute. We'll have a good laugh years to come I am sure. Tell me what you think!

Everyone else sick!

Now the kid and the husband are sick. Perry's just got a cough and a runny nose, he doesn't really feel bad, acts normal. Ron however is achy and whiney! Probably from lack of sleep, the man doesn't sleep when he can, says he can't. What? I don't care what time of day it is if I am tired and need to sleep I can make myself sleep. But heck if you aren't going to sleep and you are home all day with "nothing" to do, do something domestic, all that crap ain't my responsibility! UGH.....MEN....who trains them like that anyways? While I am on the subject of husband haters. Why can't he just say nothing when he doesn't like something I cook? I made scrambled eggs for breakfast on saturday, and I got fancy and put some cream cheese in them (shhhh he doesn't like cream cheesse). Makes them kind of creamy and gives them a yummy taste. I didn't brown the scrambled eggs, I like them pretty and yellow. He ate them, and said nothing, until 24 hours later, he says as we are leaving church, "were those eggs yesterday over easy?" What? You are 34 years old and have ordered eggs over easy, what kind of crazy question is that? He said "they were kind of runny". I reminded him of the rule if you don't have nothing nice to say don't say it at all. Ok I'm done being a husband hater.

Still Sick!

Ok so I feel a bit better today thanks for the 2 of you who are concerned about my well being. How is it that a man who knows his wife is ill can't put some sheets on a bed? They are clean in the dryer all he has to do is put them on the bed, I didn't ask him to iron them, just put them on the bed. Why am I the only who who notices that a 7 year old can't aim? For the toilet that is. Why am I the only one cleaning pea off the wall? I mean granted I am probably the worlds worse house keeper, why is it just my job? Is it just my husband who thinks his only job is to cut the grass, and that's enough? He is a good husband and father, I will give him that, and he runs on little sleep usually. Which for the lack of sleep I have no simpathy for, because he could get more, but he abuses his free time and doesn't sleep like he should, I ain't complaining cause I do the same thing, but my theroy I'll get all the sleep I want when I'm dead. Ok just thought I'd take the time before the nyquil really kicked in to complain about my spouse, a woman has that right! Feel free to leave you complaint in the comment section.

Sick!

Man I hate going to the doctor. Ecspecially twice within less than 2 weeks. Last time they gave me the choice to be weighed or not. I know I'm WAY overweight so lets just skip that so my whole days not ruined. This time she said "hop up on the scale".....UGH....why not close my eyes? I didn't and it wasn't pretty. Stupid fat gene, as I break the curse of mental illness from my family, and refuse to be crazy. Why not break the curse of the fat gene? I guess it's impossible to do both, be sane and fat or be skinny and crazy. Not sure which is worse. Well I missed work today, that's 2 mondays in a row. Hopefully they won't hate me. They like keeping employees so they probably won't be too upset with me, but I was up ALL NIGHT literally coughing my full head off. I slept for maybe 30 min total, so I was pretty much useless to anyone. I am going to bed now and it's before 11pm so that's a record.

Crazy!

Well if you read my blog yesterday and tried to click on the fancy links I added, they probably didn't work. It ain't my fault, something went crazy with the blogger folks, I did everything right. So re-read yesterdays blog and it should work the way it's suppose to.

Random Life Stuff

What the? I tell you what I just typed this long long blog, and something crazy happened and it disappeared! Talk about Random life stuff testing my patience! Argh! Tonights alpha talk was on resisting evil. I can hear that same talk a million times and still get something new out of it. Steve Fuller does a great talk on resisting evil. I guess to be able to fight off evil in this world you first have to admit that evil exists and not pretend like it ain't there. Good heavens we are surrounded by it. All that stuff of the world, leaves you with nothing but an empty lifestyle, full of doubt, guilt, and shame, which eventually leads to broken relationships. My thought is all that stuff isn't God testing you, it's satan testing you to see if you are for real about this Christian stuff. Anyways I am sure I've offended a whole lot of folks by now, but I'm just keeping it real. It's just who I am deal with it. You got your thing, this is my thing, I'm just telling you what I know to be true, nuff said. Now you wanna talk about some random life stuff testing your faith....check out my friend Stacie's blog, holy crap that's some serious madness! Oh and can I mention again how amazing Switchfoot is? I figure if I mention it enough everyone will run out and own that CD. My latest obsession is "I dare you to Move." That song is the definition of what it's like to get that good God feeling and then random life stuff happens...and well "I dare you to Move." Great song.

blah!

Life just seems so blah, lately. Nothing all that exciting happening. Nothing all that exciting to look forward to really. Could be just my mood I suppose. Theres some good God stuff going on, but nobody to really share it with that gets all that excited about it, like I do.

I guess my problem is nobody seems to "get" me. If I were to tell any of my friends that the reason I cried everyday 2 weeks ago, could possibly be, because the Holy Spirit was working on me, they all might respectfully agree for the moment but then probably later think I was nuts, and clearly in need of some kind of mind altering medication. I so enjoy being involved with Alpha, and seeing the transformation that people go through, how God touches them in such a simple way. It's like you go into it, and the first week you peg folks like "oh yeah this is the time we have people who just aren't going to get it." And I've been at 3 tables now and every single time everyone gets it, and their lives are transformed.

Lots of good God stuff going on at the Vineyard, guess that's something to look forward to huh? Just watch and see the lives that are changed by God's grace, it's as simple as that.