Off to the crop

and I can't wait!! I've got my pages picked, my pictures prepared, my sketches printed out. I've got my food (as in HEALTHY!!) bought, my snack to share (Poppycock on sale for $1.75 from $8.00 originally) packed up.
My goal is to:

laugh till I cry at least once (no doubt I will with Glenda and Theresa around)

get some sleep thanks to Theresa's new snoring mechanism

relax, have fun

spend nearly zero

scrap at least 75 pages

make at least 3 cards

complete 5 challenges

Theresa won't be there till late on Friday...but I'm gonna be there as soon as it opens!!

Today in Three Acts

Act 1

Home~Woke up too early for my tastes~put away the laundry that's waited 5 days (4 baskets!!)~ate whole grain waffles for breakfast~~savored my chocolate tea with mint creamer in my favorite polka dot cup~checked my email~spent too long on Cafemom trying to read journal on my favie group~texted Lauren in FL~Called Cassie/no answer

Act 2

Work~Listend to midday connection on WMBI on the way to work and literally laughed out loud several times over the "Man Rules"~Called Paul, which I never do, to tell him how funny it was and laughed all over again!!~Cindy wasn't there so there was a computer for me to work on~the farm house was warm today hallelujah!!~Mouse in the upstairs toilet makes me never want to use it again!!~Found out I totally forgot the Baptism student books. Ugh.~Did the usual Monday work…it was very quiet there today. Usually there's so much more convresation~Will be doing the bulletin while BW is in Hawaii~left with things still to do

Act 3

Called Cassie on the way home; no answer~talked to Melissa for a while as she flipped her stuff on Sable (something about a hussy) for getting the sheets dirty~Home again~roast in the over for dinner smells delicious; didn't end up as tender as I thought~ate dinner and laughed with Joseph and Paul; it's a good day to be here~worked on my swap~printed out sketch books~threatened Theresa with death if she doesn't take care of the snoring for this weekend~starting planning what to bring~Facebook for 2.5~Joseph off to surprise Lauren at the airport~Tired and ready for bed!!

What is happiness really?

HAPPY  /ˈhæpi/

 

1. delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing: to be happy to see a person.
2. characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy: a happy mood; a happy frame of mind.

 

So I'm in this journaling challenge for the year, and today's prompt is what makes me happy...I think this is great...sometimes I just get in a FUNK where I think I'm not happy because (I think) sometimes I define happiness by how my relationship with Paul is going...and I weigh it against how things used to be. So for me this is great...and I may remind myself often to read this particular post. There are so many other great things in my life...things to truly be happy about.

 

There are many small daily things that make me happy.

• A nice cup of tea every morning...made from my fabulous tea maker that is bubbling up, and noisy and I just don't want to get rid of!!
• Stopping at some point during the day and having a non-salty snack...popcorn(the cheap stuff has hardly ANY salt!!), yogurt, a bowl of fruit.
• Hearing Ronnie laugh or say GIGIGIGIIGGIIGGI
• Being organized...and maintaining. Finding what I'm looking for WHEN I'm looking for it!!
• Praying and feeling God's presence.
• Watching movies
•  Texting people I love
•  Watching a football game...especially if I'm watching it with someone as intense as me
• Doing ANYTHING Creative
• Helping out at church
• Listening to Dr Michael Rydelnich
• Music
• Having great conversations with Cassie and Joseph, catching up with each other's life.
• My flannel sheets and remote start

And then there's the deep stuff

• A Solid Spiritual Foundation
• Spending time with my children
• My relationship with Melissa and Michelle
• When our entire family is together
• Having friends in my life that I know will always be part of my life...no matter where we are
• When I am accomplishing what I need to do
• Staying on target for long term things (the basement, working out, eating for my health).
• I am Happy that I live in a FREE country
• When I help other people, either by what I do for/with them or by giving my excess or no longer useful to me things and knowing it will bless someone.

 

 

Dogpile day

yesterday started with a message basically yelling at me for someone else's behavior, and ended with me crying over the last person of my day telling me that was I was doing didn't measure up with lots of other crap in between...it was not a fun day to be me. At least it was just one day.
On to more fun things:
layouts. I've gotten 12 layouts done this year, am planning my megacrop in two weeks (hoping to get 75 pages completed there), and actually bummed around all day today...it was a GOOD day to be me.
Made some decisions, just need some verification. I've got too much going on in my life. I need to cut out the loud for the important. Cut out the demanding for the necessary. My word for the year is PRIORITIES and some people are going to be disappointed, but I'm living my priorities for me and my family, not public support.

I scrapped these pictures, which have been sitting on the pile of undone pix on my desk for years. Got the layout done and was really happy with it...then found a random picture of Joseph which I stuck between the two on the right side. Looks good. Then Paul comes home from his parents' house with an entire envelope of pictures, including 5x7's of the pictures on the left!! LOL

These two pages honor an amazingly great period of time in my life...I had two great girlfriends with whom I could completely be myself, they lived close and we got together alot. I went to a church that I loved that had great programs for women, and we had married friend who got as silly as we did. Dori moved one summer and Judy moved the next...I wept both times and still feel the loss. I have other great girlfriends with whom I can be myself, and I still keep in touch with Judy pretty regularly, and we are finally making couple friends who also are silly and real. I have a church that I love even more than the one we were attending then. I am blessed...and I don't want to forget this period of time. That's why I love scrapping. It's the stories as much as the pictures for me.

So this was Theresa's great closet purge. I don't think I've laughed that hard EVER. We emptied 5 big garbage bags of WHAT NOT TO WEAR clothes...and I wanted to make the page feel messy and chaotic, like that night.

Melissa's college graduation picture. I couldn't be at her MBA, so I relived her college one, and I am loving these journaling boxes that I bought out in Seattle and NEVER USED!! Fabulous!!

A quote and a layout

I read this quote the other day...

“I love you...and I probably always will. But we go days without having a meaningful conversation. And I used to miss you so much when that happened...but it never seemed like you missed me...and because of it, I stopped missing you!" -One Tree Hill

My first layout of the year...the story of me and Dori...

New Year’s Resolutions

Ok, so I get a lot of crap from people about my New Year's Resolutions, but they work for me!! So here are my 2010 resolutions. Some are already finalized, being specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and time oriented. Some are not that specific. We'll see how it works

1    Organizing         Clean out the basement. Finish purging and get it to Goodwill by 3/1

2     Financial        Pay off bills. Keep chipping away and no travel plan probably for another year. Sucky but effective. Get at least 3 medical bills paid off and continue to live on cash.

3    Treat myself        Get a pedicure in May, July, September. See 10 movies, and read 12 books

4    Stay in Touch        Call Mondays-Judy on the way to work; Melissa on the way home. Thursdays-Michelle. Lunch with Lauren once a month, hang out with Cassie 2x/month Go to Scrap Cabana crops with Theresa

5    Give time        Continue to volunteer at the Bin, work with small groups and SW office. Step away from RFKC.

6    Health            Be aware of what goes in my mouth; stay on eating plan; work out 30 minutes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays

7    Scrapping        365 pages, 12 projects from the tower o'projects and get my pages in albums immediately. Focus on Joseph and Cassie at Scrap Cabana crops.

8    Spiritual        Read through the NT this year. Be aware of what is coming out of my mouth..especially when I'm frustrated!

9    Marriage        Be intentional with Paul…not sure what this is going to look like in action, but something needs to change!!

ice storm here...

so I stayed inside all day!! Ok, I went to the mailbox, which was frozen shut. I chipped it open to put a POSTCARD inside!! LOL
Got all my presents wrapped except Ronnie's big one...need some man help with that one. There's a problem with wrapping when you have ghetto paper (on clearance last year...I hate that you can't open up paper to see how thick it is!!) and crappy tape. It rips. I ended up using packing tape on some of the more challenging gifts. GHEEETTTOOOO!!! Like anyone's gonna notice when they are ripping into them Christmas morning!!
I went looking for a picture of Cassie and Chris as a family from 2009...found 2, neither of which were good. Made me really pause and think how often Chris is not a participant in family things. We literally have more pictures of ANY of Patrick's or Lindsay's exes than we do of Chris...much less Chris, Cassie and Ronnie.
Continuing on in the melancholy tone, my mom friended Melissa today on FB. She has 11 friends. At least she's got a profile picture now. I'm not even sure why that makes me melancholy...well, ok, I do. Her friends consist of: her daughter's ex-husband who we all hate; her new son in law's ex-wife who spends more time suing for ridiculous support issues than she does anything else; and her "granddaughter" who has let it be known for YEARS that we don't make the cut. I find it sad that she is so isolated, but then am reminded that she chooses this lifestyle. I would find it unbearably lonely not to be in touch with my family.
Got my cookies all ready to bake with Cassie and Lindsay tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it...I realize that doing stuff at my own pace, without the pressure I feel from Paul, I enjoy it alot and it still all gets done. He's done nothing for Christmas this year...wanted me to wait until Christmas Eve to start anything so he wouldn't miss it all. GOODNESS NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I've been making gifts, doin cards, sorting things and wrapping, shipping packages, making lists and checking them twice (or more) and would hate it if this was all done tomorrow after 4, when he'd be home and ready to get started. I am saving a batch of cookies to make with him, and he's still going to have to wrap my presents (and probably buy them!! LOL), so he gets it all on a smaller scale and I get to feel like I'm not stressing and waiting...
Tomorrow we have 1:30 service for church. Also looking forward to that, while at the same time, afraid I'm going to forget. Shoot. I just realized I have the girls coming for cookies about an hour before church starts. Hmmm...gotta figure that one out. Maybe they will want to come to church with me. Gotta text that one!
I need another crockpot. I wish the crockpot fairy would come and deliver one to my door. I'm sure we'll work it out...but I'd rather have all my little crockpot soldiers lined up on the counter and me not have to think AT ALL!! Well, I've minimized the need to think and that's the best I can do.