Thanks God

Gary and I are continually amazed at the wonderful blessings in our life. Some people call it luck, some say it's just chance, or we make our own life happen. I choose to praise God for any good that comes our way. There is nothing too small to thank him for. I'm probably weird but Am I the only person who stops and really wants to question the good too? I mean I know it's easy to question God when bad things happen and play the "why me" card but I often wonder "why me"? Why us? What did we do to ever deserves such incredible blessings? I mean in the last year alone we have had such amazing blessings poured over us that it boggles my mind. We aren't even asking for these things! In my twisted way of thinking I start to wonder if it means that a lot of bad is going to come our way......but first,the good. Then I have to remind myself that God is only good and he does not send us good to then send us bad. I don't know. I do know that we surely can't out give God! And I know there is nothing we are doing to deserve it either so it has to be a blessing. Maybe it's like when we give gifts to our kids. When they are so thankful and appreciative it makes us want to give them more. Or even when they don't deserve it, we give it to them anyway because we just love them so much. God Loves us so much and sometimes that truth is almost too much to handle because I know we are sinful people. The truth is I will never understand or know so I will just continue to give God thanks for all these wonderful blessings in our life. Which brings me to why I even wrote this blog.......my hard working husband got another promotion at work. It's unbelievable because he is again one step closer to running his own dealership. He will be the GSM of Champion Toyota! That's the number 2 guy of the store. Not bad for someone who is 37. We give GOD all the glory and thanks and praise!

Pinkalicious

Or Fancy Nancy? Or Princess? Or no theme so as not to exclude boys? Agh.... who knew planning a 5 year birthday party could be so stressful! I don't usually throw parties for my girls. Not big ones anyway. They are usually pretty low key with just a few family members but this year for Bella's 5th I have decided to do it big! I did gave Hannah a big party with a clown and all her little friends when she turned 5 or 6 so I figured Bella needed one too. This one will include a petting zoo for sure. How fun would that be to have little baby animals running around our back yard for the kids to play with. I just don't know what to do for the "theme". If I do something too girly then it kind of eliminates inviting boys so I'm not sure. I think it could easily get out of hand with wanting to do this and that and then it's this big stressful production and I don't want it to be that either. I just want it to be nice and fun for the kids. We shall see. A few ideas.



Isn't this pretty

Everything can be nice and pink!

Fast/Cleanse

I decided to try this. I originally thought I would try the master cleanse but upon further reading it did not seem like the best choice for a 1 day fast. The master cleanse actually suggests 10 days! There is no way I would want to go 10 days with-out food. I love food too much! If I had like 30 pounds to lose maybe but I will be fine with just 2-3. Mostly though I just want to feel better. I feel yuck and I'm sure it has to do with eating lots of heavy,unhealthy food ( pf changs,chuy's, a whole package of chocolate chip cookie dough ) in just this last week. And you probably think I'm joking about eating a whole package of cookie dough .......but I'm not. Blech! So I'm thinking a good cleanse will do me some good. I started today and did not have any food until about lunch time when I read further into the master cleanse.....and read further into the one the naturopathic doctor,that I go to,suggests and it's different. Wohoo! I get to start over. Which meant I got to eat! It was so hard going grocery shopping this morning on an empty stomach. Hahaha..... Everything looked good! So I have to go buy the ingredients for this other cleanse which I hope tastes better than the master cleanse recipe because......ick......it made me nauseated. My doctor has a blog though if anyone is interested in reading what she has to say about taking care of your body.

http://excelonhealth.com/wordpress/


Ciao!

Does anyone still blog?

Or a better question might be does anyone still read blogs? Seems like the fad has passed a little and they aren't quite as popular as they used to be. I guess we have facebook to thank for that because it's kind of like mini blogging and you can post a picture with a title in an instant and catch up on every body's business while catching them all up on yours. All at once. I know there are people out there with very successful blogs but that usually seems to be tied to having a skill like cooking or decorating, or redoing furniture or something like that. All of which I dabble in ( okay fine redoing one desk in 35 years is not considered a dabble ) but I am no expert at anything by any means. I'm no expert at anything. Hmmm..... That's kind of depressing. I'm in my mid 30's, I should be good at something by now, right? Yet, I'm just kind of just not. I waited too long to decide what I wanted to do so I've just been trying to be a good mommy and wife. Unfortunately that does not stand for a lot in the real world. People look down on me because when I say, "I'm a stay home mom" they kind of just look at me like I'm all of a sudden irrelevant. But I really feel blessed to not have to work outside the home because I am my own boss ( well, for the most part ) and I do what I want and when I want ( okay...that's for the most part too ) but I can't imagine having to have some lame 9-5 job that at the end of the day has no real relevance in the grand scheme of things. Family, faith, friends..... that's what matters. Not a job! Thank God I have a husband who takes care of that for us. I get to take care of me and him and the girls. I can't imagine it any other way. So in a way I guess you could say I'm an expert at being a stay at home mom. I've done it for almost 5 years! And I'm alive! That says a lot because being a stay at home mom is a lot of work and it's not for everyone. And now that my little baby girls is going to be 5 and in pre school next year I get to indulge in some things that are all for me! And things that I have wanted to do for a long time and I am excited! I also have some new things that I'm interested in and one is TRAVEL! I hope we get to see more of the world. Travelling to Europe was one of the best experiences in my life. Life changing.

ANTS

I have not logged into this blog in a while now and I also have not read my friends blogs in a while. Looks like I have many things to catch up on! Not a lot of interesting things going on with the Cliftons. I've been trying to keep myself busy and occupied. I think I literally lost my mind recently. No worries.... I am on the right track to getting it back but it's a slow process. One that requires immense focus and a retraining of my thought patterns. Oh and a lot of pleading with God. And God is good! All the time. Yes, that's another thought I must replay in my head all day long. I had to say goodbye to the ANTS. ANTS stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts. I learned that, courtesy of Dr. Amen from his book regarding Anxiety and how to beat it. It's really interesting to learn that negative thoughts can really wreak havoc on you and your body. There is power to positive thinking and dwelling on truth and scriptures. I've just begun this mind transformation so it's still all new to me and I do have my good days and bad but I'm learning.

Way back when

In the spirit of Valentines I thought I would post a photo of Gary and me when we were dating. When we were first falling in love. Well actually we were already engaged when we took this photo. I believe it was November 03. It hardly even looks like him anymore...hahaha. I myself have aged a bit and put on a few pounds and marriage and kids must have really stressed him out because he's aged quite a bit! Sorry babe... we don't mean to stress you out.

Redo

One of the things I love to do most is to redo something. I recovered my dining room chairs last year with some left over fabric my aunt had from the draperies she made me. The fabric is very sensitive so it was not really a good idea. We had a Family Christmas Party last year at my house and by the end of the night my chairs were ruined! I did not treat them with fabric protector so lets just say I learned my lesson. Its been bugging me ever since so I think it's time to redo them again. Yay... a project! This put me on my quest to find fabric. I love looking at fabric on line. I could do it for hours just like I could look at paper on line for hours too. I'm afraid that it will be hard to pick one because there are just so many options. Here are a few so far..... I was wondering if I should go a little more modern than usual because I can always change it later to something a little more classic. But I think I am drawn more to these types of fabric. Not sure what these would be classified as. Old Ladyish? Hahaha




This one reminds me of the pattern of my sofa, love seat and chair. It might be too much of the same.



I don't think I would actually use this fabric on the chairs but I loved the pattern and colors.



This one might be a little much. But I love black and cream together.

I'm no interior decorator or designer by any means so I'm not sure if there are rules to follow when picking a fabric for a certain room. I want it to look nice and not cheesy.

Other's Stupidity

I don't often or I'm not sure I have ever rambled about the moronic behavior that is Hannah's dad. I try hard not to bad mouth him and I guess I figured that one day he would stop his insanity and grow up. But he has not. And here I am once again having to pay for his stupidity. I try not to let Hannah know how much he annoys me but I'm really starting to wonder if he has mental issues. I'm also starting to wonder if she should even be around him. I mean I know letting a 9 year old glue fake nails on her fingernails with superglue isn't THAT big of a deal. But it's a big enough deal when she's freaking out because I told her she is not going out of the house with them on her fingernails and she can't get them off. DUH! You super glued them to your fingernails child! What were you thinking? Oh that's right you weren't and that's why that man you call your Father should have told you you could not buy them! And where did she put these on anyway? On the sidewalk? When I picked her up yesterday at South Park Meadows she and her dad were sitting on the outside wall of Target with her humongous back pack and about 5 bags. He himself was carrying a backpack and they looked like homeless people. It was a sad sight because he literally is a hop away from being a homeless man. In fact he can't even get Hannah on the weekends anymore because he no longer can afford electricity so his apartment is dark and cold so that's not really an environment that is conducive to raising children. Who can live like that? He has not had electricity since before Christmas! Is that weird or am I just over reacting? How can a 30 something year old single man who only supports himself ( he owes me probably $50,000 in unpaid child support ) not afford electricity? I mean who can live like that? That is just beyond my comprehension. He does not have a car so when he does see Hannah he takes the bus to her school and from there they catch a bus to South Park Meadows area and just walk around for a few hours and hang out. I know she terribly misses her dad and I'm sure he misses her but wuouldn't you think that the love you have for your child would motivate you to better yourself and your life. He has no license, no car, no electricity, no phone, he's about to get kicked out of his apartment. How much lower does he want to go? He does not care about my wishes for Hannah. He lets her see movies that are inappropriate for children and lets her listen to music that is inappropriate for children and he let's her do whatever she wants when she is with him. It's so dangerous. And I am helpless. There is nothing I can do. I will forever have to reap the consequences of my bad choices and not only that.... Hannah will. All I can do is pray that GOD has a handle on it and everything will be fine. In the meantime I hate that I'm STILL having to pay for his stupidity.

We did it

Well I should say my husband did it. What started out as a story I only intended to share with our Pastor and his wife ( and maybe our small group ) ended today with Gary reading "Our Story" in front of the entire congregation. For both services! A few weeks back I for some reason felt lead to write our financial story. It Documented the impact Dave Ramsey, giving, and God has had on our life. I felt lead to do so after my pastor's sermon a few weeks ago. He was revisiting Dave Ramsey and it's been 2 years since we went through FPU and I was re inspired to continue living Dave Ramsey style. "Like no one else!" After sharing with our Pastor he approached us and asked if we would be willing to share it with the church. Hello! I wanted to tell him he was crazy because I had already annoyed my husband by writing and sharing it with him and my family ( Gary is VERY private) and I told him I would not share with anyone else and here he was asking me to read it to the world! Okay so our church is not the world but it's like 200 people too many. I politely told him there was no way that I could stand in front of the entire church and read it because I would more than likely kill over from nerves alone! Does he not know how I twitch? Haha.... Anyway with out really thinking I jokingly said that maybe Gary could read it( Hello..... am I trying to get divorced!) or even better he could just read it himself. He said no deal because it would mean more coming from us. He liked the idea of Gary reading it and said he himself would edit it down to about a 5 minute story (it was really really long)and reword it coming from Gary's perspective. He said we could take a couple of days to think about it and let him know but that we should say yes and quickly....*wink wink*. He then said no pressure but we really did feel like we could not say no. I mean is it wise to reject your pastor? He's in good with God ya know. But nothing inside my husbands body wanted to do this. He felt it was my story and I wrote it and he didn't really want it shared in the first place. So he did what any decent, loving husband would do and he agreed. Isn't that sweet? I was so proud of him and I assured him I would never get us into this type of situation again! Especially since I myself could not even come through for myself and do what Anthony was asking us to do. We survived though. Yes, it was nerve wracking but I think my nerves are all settled down. Thanks Babe for coming through for us!

I heart shoes

There I said it. And yes it's shallow and yes I know there are poor people in the world who don't even have a pair of shoes and I really should try to love other things like eating broccoli and flossing my teeth but I just can't help it. Buying a new pair of shoes makes me happy! Buying a pair of shoes on sale makes me even happier! Side note **To be balanced my next post will be about how I support charities or how I recycle okay** I recently went shopping because My Christmas present cancelled his Austin tour date so with the refunded money I went and spruced up my wardrobe a bit. Well I spruced up my pedidrobe.........okay.... I just made that word up for my shoe collection but I am so excited to wear them. Can you believe I did not buy any new boots this winter?? I can't. This has to be the first time in a long time that I went a whole year with out doing so. I was frustrated about not being able to find some so I skipped boots this year and just bought heels instead. I got a new pair of pointy black Nine West Pumps. I bought a camel colored pair of rounded toe Steve Madden pumps and my last pair are some green Mary Jane style shoes from Nine West that I think are just too cute. And they were only $19.99! I'm not sure others will like them though. I'll let you judge for yourself.

Are they old ladyish? Well if so.... I am almost 35.