Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Getting Out of the Box



I can't say that my 2 week silence and not writing on my blog is due to lack of things to talk about. There is PLENTY going on, it's just a matter of taking the time out to put it all into words and not feeling like I am just rambling on and on. The photo to the left is a great example of some of the changes that I've been putting into place over the last few weeks. I have never, EVER colored or highlighted my hair (well, at least where anyone else could see it). One summer, I thought it might be fun to experiment with SunIn and make it lighter. But I only did that on the underside of my head so that just in case I messed up, it would grow out & no one would know the difference. While this project was something that most of my friends had been encouraging me to do, I can't say that they were the sole influence for me deciding to have the courage to make the change. I had a blast picking out hairstyles online and emailing back and forth with my girls (you know who you are) in the days leading up to the "big day". I have to say that going to the salon was a lot of fun! I enjoyed that uneasy feeling of anticipation and thinking "I wonder what it's going to look like when she's finished". I LOVE the way that it turned out! I also LOVE that the way it is styled in the photo is not the end all be all. I have experimented over the past few weeks and I guess I never really realized how versatile my hair is! I don't think it looks the same from one day to the next -- that's not a bad thing -- it keeps things interesting and is helping me break the mold of the mudane day to day boringness that I had been feeling that I was falling in to.

Another change that I made just this past weekend was redecorating my bedroom. When I first moved out on my own, in 2001, my thought was that, for me, apartment life was a temporary home for me so why in the world would I take the time to decorate or buy nice things or make it "mine". I was under the impression that things like that would come along when I moved on to the next stage of living called "buying a house". After being on my own & out of my parents' house for 8 years, I see that I was sadly mistaken on that line of thinking too. The apartment that I live in now is the first one where I have really felt at home. I have lived there for almost 2 years and have actually tried to take the time to make things nice and presentable not just for me (even though, I'm usually the only one who sees it) but for anyone who might happen to come by and visit by invite or not. This past weekend, I bought a really nice comforter/bedding set and a decorative lamp to go along with it. My room is completely clean and I am working really hard to keep it that way! :) In light of that, the past 2 nights of sleep may be some of the best that I have had in a very long time. I am starting to see that the way you feel about your surroundings influences how you feel IN those surroundings.

These 2 examples are just a glimpse of some of the changes that I feel like I am starting to make in my life right now. There are a few more and while I have the space to write about them, time is not going to allow me to cover everything in detail today. Also, when I have more time, I really want to write about the things in my life that are still really difficult for me to change and branch out in.

Thanks to all of you who read this blog faithfully. You are such an encouragement to me! I look forward to seeing some of your comments on this post AND look forward to reading your next posts (*hint, hint.. some of you haven't been writing at ALL! -- you know who you are!**).

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Rest of the Story

I truly do apologize for leaving everyone in suspense about the rest of my weekend. This is going to sound weird but I was so tired at one point that I couldn't sleep. And my mind was not forming complete thoughts very well -- I guess you could call me a zombie so I had to take a break from the blog.

You all will be glad to know that I made it to the end of the weekend! Saturday was a pretty good day with the kids. We took them to Chick Fila for lunch & then to a $1 movie. A cartoon that I had barely heard of. It was a pretty cute little story but I think that the adults laughed more than the kids did. Seeing as how it was the only movie rated G at that theater, we had to go with it.
Sunday morning was a little rough at the beginning because the kids were fighting and we were tired (the adults). Once we got to church and got the kids in child care (free, I'll add) - things started to look up. As I sat down in church and the music started to come on, me & God started to have a pretty serious conversation. The moral of the story was that if I was going to get through the rest of this day with these kids... I needed HIM so I'd better recognize that pretty quick, change my heart & move on with the day. After I did this & called in the prayer warriors to cover us all day long - it was a good day. My teammate (Aunt Lindsey) had to go catch her flight at noon so from then on it was me & 3 kids! Only by the grace of God did I survive. My first course of action was to take them to McDonalds for lunch & LOTS of playing! We were there for almost 2 hours... they actually came and started asking me if it was time to go yet... LOL.. never seen that happen before. Bribery was my strategy for naptime and getting everyone to sleep. It ACTUALLY worked!! I told the kids that I would have a surprise for them if they all went to sleep -- they did so I got to sit in the quiet for 2 hours and watch... hearing the laughter now... HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2!!!! :) Don't worry, I followed up with my end of the bargain - they each got 2 cookies when they woke up! It's the little things, right? Mom & Dad arrived home around 9:30pm so while I still didn't get to finish watching the Grammy's, it was really, really, really good to have them home! I even got souveniors & presents from their trip! A Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane Glass to add to my collection AND a love offering ($$$). :)

Lessons Learned (just because on Project MBA we ALWAYS had to wrap things up like this): After this experience, I still like kids (surprised?). However, I do not like babysitting especially for a long period of time like a whole weekend. A few hours might still be okay but extended vacations are not something that I think I specialize in. I think that if (big IF) I ever get married and have kids, I see myself as overweight and broke because I'll spend A LOT of time at McDonald's eating those yummy french fries and spending all kinds of money on myself & the kids. Just an observation.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Project Daycare: Day I

Now, as most of ya'll know -- I always call the major undertakings that I start up "PROJECTS" -- today's (and the next 2 days') adventures are no different. What exactly is: Project Daycare? Well, my best friend decided to surprise her husband with a weekend getaway to Georgia to go eat at Paula Deen's restaurant. He ended up finding out but nevertheless, what was he going to say? - "no, absolutely not, I won't go on this awesome trip that you've gone to so much trouble to plan for us?" SERIOUSLY.. what guy would do that?!? I mean, she even went so far as to call his boss to make sure that he wouldn't try any funny business like planning his OWN little trip for them by taking the day off and basically got his entire calendar cleared for the weekend so they could do this. As far as I know at this point, the trip is going marvelously despite the fact that their itinerary for the entire trip is sitting on the coffee table in their living room....

So where do I fit in to all of this? Well, my friend has 3 kids - 10 yr old boy, 5 yr old girl, 3 yr old girl -- there are times when they are little angels & you think "aww, they're so cute and so well-behaved" and other times when you start praying for the Super Nanny to walk through the door and start giving folks the business :) These 3 kids are my "weekend project" this weekend while their parents are out of town. Luckily, my friend's husband has a sister who is just a little younger than me and single and she flew up from Corpus Christi so we could do this as a team effort. After day 1, I have a new respect for single mothers. There is NO WAY that I think I would or could find the strength to raise children on my own. There is a reason why God created man AND woman to be helpmates for each other. I couldn't do it on my own. It really wasn't that bad when just one kid was there but as the others started coming home from school - the time slowed wayyy down and the drama level intensified. One kid had to be put in time out twice for talking back to us and.. well, that might be about the worst of it. Tomorrow, we have our day pretty much planned out which I think is important because the more that we are doing with these kids, the faster the time will seem to go by and we won't feel like we are sitting and doing nothing, ya know? I will keep the blog as updated as possible but lesson learned for today -- if I am going to raise kids, Imma need a husband.

One last note (just for a good laugh) - I am reading this book right now called Marriable: Taking the desperate out of dating. I just read a quote in here that I laughed out loud at and thought I'd share. The chapter is called Men Lie to Get What they Want: the author says:

Sex is the biggest bargaining tool a woman has in getting a man to commit. Just remember you can play him the way he was meant to be played by not rewarding the big fat horny liar until you get a ring, a cake, and a binding legal document!

LOL.. and this book was at Mardel's - the Christian bookstore. too funny..