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.