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.

Almost Christmas

I can't believe it's almost Christmas again. I think I do this every year. I Marvel at the pace at which life has passed us by as if it's such a surprise. Anyway I wanted to look at some of the pictures I took last year of my house decorations, hoping it would motivate me and excite me to do it all over again. That led to me reading some of the blogs I posted last year about what was going on at the time. It made me realize that it's actually a neat thing to have these blogs to look back on. I really have forgotten about a lot of the things I wrote about. It was almost this time last year when we were hit with the possibility of Gary losing his job and it was such a scary time and here we are a year later and he is thankfully still employed. I started slacking on writing down or writing about our day to day happenings probably because I lost a little desire and I also figured there really was no point to it. But I just realized that I like looking back and reading about our life and it surely served as a great reminder of just how Thankful I am and how worrying really served no purpose. So I've decided to start writing things down again. For me! Well at least that is my hope anyway. We will see how long this renewed desire to document lasts. So okay, back to the post. It's almost Christmas and I did not get that desire to decorate that I was hoping for.....but at least there is an ember burning. Maybe I will listen to a Christmas Song. Or maybe not. I wonder what Christmas song puts people in the mood. The Chrismas Mood! Here is a fun one. It's Frosty the Snowman performed by Fiona Apple. .

October 19th, 2009

Wow. I can't believe I have not written a blog post in this entire magnificent month of October. Ocotber has long been a favorite month of mine. I also can't believe we are on the down ward slope of the year. Hello...... didn't I just put away all of my Christmas decorations like 5 minutes ago.

My little family is having family portraits taken this Sunday. This makes me quite nervous because none of us are what I would call "photogenic". We all tense up and muster the strainiest of smiles when the camera is about to click. I pray the photographers have some mad photo taking skills and will work some kind of photographer magic to capture some decent photos of us. I hate the way I photograph.....my nose is too large and my chin is too pointy that I feel like I end up looking like the wicked witch of the west. I think I posted about that before. But other than that I am really excited about it because we have never taken professional pics as a family of 4. What do we wear! I feel that will be a major project this week. Picking the outfits.

And if that is not going to keep me busy enough my Purse Party is this Saturday! Well, it's this Saturday if the swine flu does not make an appearance in one of our bodies again. Yep, Hannah had the swine flu a few weeks ago and it really kicked her in the behind. Thank God none of us were infected. Thank God for Hand sanitizer and Lysol becaues I think I just drank it daily to kill any and all sickly germs I may have inhaled while caring for her. So, hopfully all goes well and the party will actually take place.

Gary recovered very nicely from his "surgery" and No,he did not have a Vasectomy! Haha... I had several people think he had one. Trust me....he would have happily taken a Vasectomy over what he actually had and that' all I have to say about that! Well and that I am thankful for all the prayers. I know with out a doubt it was the prayer that allowed everything to go as smootly as it did.

Bella....my sweet Bella. We'll see how she does this week with mothers day out. Girlfriend had a MAJOR meltdown last week and was taken out of class by the teacher because there was just no returning to her normal, sweet, easy going self. Girlfriend was apparently having a bad day in the highest sense of the word. It's hard to see her like that. We'll see how this week goes.

Fiction

So I think I may have posted before of my disinterest in fiction. However, having read 2 fiction books in the last few months( one I did not care for and one I more so did), I'm finding myself looking for my next book to read. I browsed down the aisle's of the Target book section the other day, picking up numerous attention grabbing titles, just to be disappointed. I was waiting for one to pull at my interest.......and nothing. I considered just holding off since I'm more than likely going to join a " book club" that my best girl friend from back in high school will be hosting but then again I want to read a really well written, not light and fun, piece that I can indulge in on my own. Maybe that's just the loner in me..... Who knows. Anyhow Memoirs of a Geisha keeps popping up in my mind and I think 2 people have recently commented on how great a book it is so I'm thinking of reading that. If you've read it let me know.....if not if you don't mind leaving me a comment with a book recommendation.....I'd truly appreciate it.

Oh and I am just LOVING this gorgeous fall weather.

Time wounds all heals

And it begins again. If you feel like praying for me that would be greatly appreciated.

What did I get myself into

I'm not sure if it's common knowledge that I am not the most social person in the world. I think if you have at least met me once that you might catch the drift. Not that I try to emit "stay away from me" vibes or anything but I have been told a time or two that I am kind of just quiet......aloof. Not all there. I assure you, I am. My brain just operates at 500miles an hour and when you are trying to carry on a conversation with me I have wandered off into lala land and that accounts for the blank stare because I probably have no idea what you are talking about. So it's just easier to not talk to people. I can't count the times people have told me they think I'm a snob! Ouch. I'm not a snob, I don't think I am better than anyone else so much as I think that I am not. Going back to, I think it was high school........I've never been one to enjoy being around large crowds, making mindless chit chat about the weather or in high school about getting drunk and partying. It's when I started feeling kind of like an outsider or like something was wrong with me because I did not seem to fit in with all the other kids my age. I had no interest in their immature shenanigans and I guess that made ME weird. Anyway.......WOW.... Okay so just to be to the point.....Yeah, I'm not all that social of a person. Or maybe I am, I just have a hard time finding people I actually can relate to or that I actually want to relate to. Oh my goodness.......maybe I am a snob! It has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like people because on the contrary I do. I like people very much. I just get caught up in this mind game with myself that I won't bother typing out but the scenario typically plays out in my head and usually ends up with....Monica, you're lame and people don't like you. I always think people don't like me....and it probably in turn makes people not like me. You see?? Yes, it's very difficult living with a mind like mine.....but it's what I got and so I must find a way to get on. So all that to say that I somehow found myself organizing and hosting a "party" and I am terrified! I mean what in the world did I get myself into? Oh Dear Lord please give me the brain function of a normal person for this party and let me get through it with as little internal conflict as possible. Agh!!! What if people don't come? I can't believe I am putting myself out there so that when people deny the invite I can carry it all on my shoulders . Then I will really wallow in lameville.

I can't believe I just admitted this for who ever reads this to read. Oh and I was kidding......I'm really listening to you when you talk to me.

; )

4 years ago

This was me 4 years ago! Not so patiently, and miserably waiting for Bella to make her appearance. I can't even remember how many times people would ask me if I was having twins since my belly was humongous!