Friday, September 30, 2011

Learning+serving= LOVE

Can I be completely up front with you, I mean very honest! I know a lot of people who are married, a lot of people who aren't and the majority of them who aren't, are happier than the ones who are... how could this be when you married "The one that made you happiest!"  I don't understand how someone could go through so much trouble to get married to someone and not put the effort into the relationship afterwards;  learning about that person or spending time getting to know them, who you chose to live forever with.  Happiness is always the consequence of serving others or looking at the bright side of things (which are two things that we should practice on a daily basis with our spouses).  I was speaking to a friend earlier and everyone they know has a halfway failed marriage.  Why do we keep living life... learning, bettering ourselves at our job and dreaming of what life has to offer, when what's great about life is sitting right in front of you and within arms reach.  We go to school to learn and to have a better life in the long run, we would never go just to be in a chair for eight hours a day just for the heck of it, so why would we get married "just for the heck of it."  It may not be easy, but we need to remember to keep working on ourselves and learning about our spouse to have a better life in the long run; we don't know and never will know everything about them, so why do we think that after marriage our education ends?  Why is it the pursuit of a person, "the wooing phase," is where we learn and think that once it ends, it's time to stop learning.  It is so important for us to keep wooing our spouses, even more important, hello... they aren't going anywhere!  Why are we so quick to spend time and money on someone when we don't even know if they're going to stick around and then when you have that someone that will stick around, they are the least likely person that you'll ask their favorite color, if they'd like to go on a picnic or even "what can I do for you to make your life easier?"  Why do we assume that marriage is an excuse to be a lazy person who happens to be in a long relationship?  Let's all start doing it, lets learn about our spouses together and keep the music alive;  we don't throw it away just because someone put a scratch in the disk, you just buff it out and try it again...







Live 'n' Love Out Loud!! 

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Why Me!!!

I'm thoroughly enjoying some fudge covered Oreos and milk right now to help ease the pain!  

As for what I have to say today, well...
Life happens and you have to learn to roll with the punches, but I have been really stupid lately.  Such as letting my kid play with my phone without me anywhere near her, making darn sure that she isn't doing anything that I wouldn't do and today I put on this t-shirt that is beyond see through with every intention of putting a tank under it. Let me explain, the tank- top was downstairs when I was getting dressed this morning and I was going to put it on when I got down there, but I have two kids and since I don't forget anything (haha), I can't imagine how I forgot to put the tank-top on.  So I have been wearing this see- through shirt all day today and had one person this morning drop off her kid while she ran an errand and had an unexpected visitor at my door passing down a couple of dresses to my little girls.  Needless to say, my neighbor left as fast as she could when she normally chats it up for a bit and I wondered why when I came back into the house I saw my tank- top sitting where I had left it earlier when I really had every intention of putting it on, but had to grab the baby instead.  Oh boy, did I loose my mind while I was pregnant, maybe after, but needless to say... it is not the same!  I make people uncomfortable too often nowadays for it to be the same (LOL).  Oh well, at least I was wearing a bra, there are a lot of people that don't even do that nowadays!     
It wasn't quite this extreme, but you get the point!! 



Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Home Sweet Home


In my house there is always something to do, it was a foreclosure and my husband is an Architect major who works at Sherwin Williams... need I say more!  Basically, our house was a clean slate to do the craziest, out-landish, whatever you can come up with kind of things.  Lately we have begun painting walls, I pick the color while my husband does the work.  He finished our family room, which looks incredible by the way; mostly because of the design that my husband came up with and I completely love it! Now he is painting a part of the ceiling that we can see from the bottom floor, Im loving it.  Oh yes, not to mention, I'm in need of some advice of whether we should leave up this painting poster thing that my husband purchased behind my back, he does that when I say "No" to something that he wants... do all husbands do that?  All I know is that I am home all day and he is not, so I am the one who has to endure it on a daily basis and that makes my opinion much more important when it comes to anything in the home (I think anyway).

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Laptop... yup, the laptop!

I must say, my two year is gorgeous, adorable and has a lot of spunk... everything a mother can ask for, but as of yesterday, did the worst thing that a child can do! My daughter was about 8 months old when she started eating some adult foods and things didn't go so well, basically never ate!  I was given a laptop a few months ago because a friend of ours had a laptop that his work was getting rid of and we put it at the end of our kitchen table to entertain our daughter in high hopes that she would start eating at every meal.  Sure enough it worked!! I was joyful of this because our daughter is so small that she is in the 20% percentile according to the pediatrician, when she started out at the 80th! This kid needed to start eating frequently rather than every other meal.  It was so nice, she came to know that if she wasn't eating then she doesn't watch a movie, this had solved our problem completely... as of yesterday.  Yesterday our daughter was left alone for a few short minutes just as we always do (in and out of the dining, just for checkups to make sure she's eating) and as I came in, she had water dripping from her mouth and leaning over the laptop; I freaked!  I was hoping that she hadn't done anything yet, but I lifted the laptop to move it and sure enough water spilled out, I mean spilled- out! While I knew there was little to no hope for saving the thing, I put it in front of the floor fan for the next 12 hours, as I had done with a couple of cell phones in the passed, but it didn't work.  My poor laptop was ruined... kids (could you see my head shake back and forth in disbelief?);  you can't live with them and you can't live without' em!

Live *n* Love Out Loud!!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Embarrassing Moment!

Children are beautiful, but they do not so beautiful things sometimes... such as post a video on facebook where it shows you half naked!!  Yes, this happened to me today and my cousin texted me to say, "Did you know the video you posted on facebook this morning shows you half naked?" I was looking at the video and it seems to be my wakeup call to loose some weight and I can't help but laugh at this very moment!  This is life, life happens and I must say, out of all the videos she could have picked, I don't know why it had to be the only one where I had been getting dressed and found myself half naked as I videoed my daughter, why does it always have to be that one in which you intend no one to ever see, why does that always happen!!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

You are a someone

My heart goes out to all those who have lost someone, especially the ones who have lost someone to a choice that your someone has chosen.  Someone I know died a few days ago... by choice.  He had severe depression, but was trying really hard to get his life back on track.  When he quit those things, his life seemed harder, not easier, which makes complete since; life is hard and if you are taking something to cover up the difficulties so that you never have face them, then it would seem easier at the time.  If we allow depression to take hold, you never know where it'll lead us; some become severely overweight, some choose be homelessness instead of with their family, some kill themselves, the list goes on and on... unfortunately there is always a consequence and typically a bad one.
This young boy had so much to offer, he was a baseball star in high school, an incredibly nice kid with a love for the outdoors that most people couldn't even fathom.  I wish I would have known what he was going through, I wish that he wouldn't have had a fake smile every time I saw him, I wish I could have known about his deep depression; I would have reached out, I would have given him a friend, not a family member.
You or someone you may know is worth it, it's worth making a big deal about. Be honest with yourself and those around you;  you see someone that you can trust or someone that you know that would make a great friend, tell them what you are going through, tell them so that you can save your life, the one that you should be living rather than "just getting through."  You have so much offer and someone out there needs you in their life, there is a reason you are on this earth today.  Maybe no one has told you lately, but you are a remarkable person, you have so much to offer, you just aren't focused on that right now, but are an incredible person and there is nothing that can stand in your way once you make the decision to start living your life.
It's not worth faking your way or killing yourself, someone, maybe not you, pay for it, so why not just be real with yourself and those around you.  For everyone out there that might be walking too close to the cliff, why do you do this, why do you like taking a chance with the one life you have.  Why don't you try walking closer to the mountain or even better, anchor yourself to it so you have something to grasp if you should happen to fall.  Take away all the things that cover up what you might have to go through on a daily basis, face your demons so you have nothing to fear when you decide to wake up.  Although you might not become president, a famous actor, a doctor or anything; there is someone who thinks that you are important, you mean the world to them and believe me you are worth every moment of their time and they will help you and see you through your sadness.  You can be whoever and whatever you want to in this life, not years from now, not tomorrow, but right now and every moment that you are here on this earth, but once you decide to leave, there is nothing that you can change, that moment is gone in an instant and you can never get it back.
          
                                   
 A poem that I found on a bookmark in Oxford, England...
The Lord can see you through,
but you are the only one
that can let him in.

God hath not promised skies always blue
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
  Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

If you are going through tough times and feel as though no one is there for you, I am and even better, drop to knees, the Lord will heed your words and know that you are humbled; he too will see you through the storm.  You can talk to the both of us anytime! 

Live 'n' Love Out Loud!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

New Kid on the Block

What happened to the good-old-days when the employers came searching for their employees; they valued who they found and gave them every means possible to become successful because they hired you; they believed in you, so they made a way for you to become great at your job.
We all know that school is a joke; you get a degree, but few and next to none of us learn what it is that we will actually be doing after we earn that sheet of paper and even fewer people end up in the work force they studied in school.  It is only when we enter the job force that we truly find out what the job is and what we will be doing and every business has a different way of doing everything, so one job hardly ever relates to the next.  We have to be creative in how we go about finding jobs nowadays and you have to be the perfect fit in order to keep one because everybody knows that if you aren't, there are thousands of others who are wanting your job and you are completely replaceable.
My brother and sister 'n' law are on the search for a new job; twice they have been victims of, "Quick to hire, quick to fire (as she would put it)" positions.  This economy is tough, really tough to get a job and just as tough to keep one.  What are these employers thinking, why are they wasting so much money and time hiring people that aren't quite what they are looking for and firing them so soon.  Why aren't they giving new kids on the block a chance; time to learn and get the hang of things.  Don't these people realize that eventually they will have to hire someone straight out of school, that they will have to train them to do their job; the ignorance of some of these people is absolutely baffling to me.
George Washington at Valley Forge
I worked at an eye clinic and they would invest a ton of money in training someone and they would fire them within a year (it worked that way with nearly 80% of their employees).  It's no wonder our economy is in such a slump, we have businesses who waste a ton of money on employees that they hire, fire, hire and train all over again.  Then we have our government who spends more money on space exploration than keeping our society out of poverty.  What gives!!  The government needs to hand the budget to a group of stay at home Mothers that don't have the choice to print more money to cover their behinds, they live within their means and come up with creative ways to make ends meet.  Crazy yea, but what has worked... absolutely nothing so far, the true definition of ignorance "doing the same thing over and over expecting different results."  Our government says things in a different way, but always does things the same as before... do it completely differently and maybe we might finally get somewhere!!!
Our people deserve to have a government and jobs who care more about us and our family than themselves, that is how it's supposed to be and yet, it hasn't happened in decades!  Politicians just keep acting as if they care, but continue to waste money where it isn't necessary.  Whatever happened to the love of which this country was founded, the love of God and family... none of that seems to matter to people when they talk about money and politics, they emphasize nearly everyday that if we are supporting Wallstreet everything else will be ok, but really if we are supporting the family, everything will be ok.  We are in the middle of the windstorm, it keeps pounding us and there is someone right inside the house holding an umbrella, just watching us get pounded with dirt, rain and wind.  They don't have the decency to invite us to take the umbrella and most certainly would never come out to help;  they just continue to watch and think about what they could do; that is our government and our jobs, they are not active in their contributions because they hold all the cards and it's much too easy to say they care rather showing it.  
We need to start helping  one another, thinking of each other, the little things add up; f your neighbor leaves out their trash can and you know they can be fined for it, put it next to their garage, don't just walk or drive by it each day thinking about how many fines they may be racking up.  You walk by someone's parking meter and it's out of time and you happen to have a dime in your pocket, put it in... do unto others as you would want done unto you and maybe karma will start passing along some good stuff rather than, "it's not my problem."  We need to take care of each other, as neighbors... as family.  Everyone needs help one time or another and we should take it upon ourselves on a daily basis to provide inspiration to become a better people all the time, not just in time of need and desperation.

Live 'n' Love Out Loud!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A Day Of Memories

Today has been one of those days full of smiles and countless wonderful thoughts, but then tears start to fall of what's missing in my life, my children's lives and even those around me who miss out on knowing someone as pertinent as my mother.  She lead a very full life despite the fact that half of it was lived fighting to keep her head above water; that's the hard part, you want for someone like that to be able to live a part of their life in peace, being able to enjoy their family and all that they had worked for on this earth.  My mother was only able to do that in very short bursts; between phone calls as a realtor or even before that, being a vending machine company owner and having to work her life away just ends meet.  She died never knowing what it was like to live in the moment; her mind was always somewhere else, always focused on what needed to be done to make the next dollar... I guess that's what happens to someone who lives more of their life as a single mother than anything else (for the good ones anyway).
A year ago today my mother passed away from cancer, she had it in everything from the neck down; they thought it probably started out as breast cancer, but by the time they knew anything about it, it was everywhere, stage four and they gave her six months to live.  I never can get a grasp on something like this, someone who goes from healthy, so strong (inside and out), to someone who didn't even have the strength to smile, little alone, to fight any longer.  Those two things were the very description of my mother and what she was known for; those two things became impossible for her the last week that she was here on this earth.
The greatest team that ever lived.
For all of us; young, old, weak or strong, death comes when you least expect it or even more, when you don't think it's even a possible.  It's something that happens in the movies, not real life... at least for me and yet it's becoming all too familiar on the day to day basis, with the memories of a Mother who did so well at raising her children on her own without a helping hand.  She is my everyday inspiration of Living my life for my family, my husband and my children, she helps to know the true importance of this life through all that she had to give up just to keep a roof over our heads.  The most giving, selfless person that I ever known is not walking on this earth with me hand in hand anymore, but her spirit remains and walks with me in mind and purpose.
We are your legacy and we will
never forget your dedication,
your strength and how you paved
the way for us to live a
life of true happiness... it's all
because of you, MOM!
Mom, I miss you dearly and I remember you sitting there at my bedside, taking a moment to be the Mother you wish you could have been.  "I love you forever, I'll like you for always.  As long as I'm living, your mother I'll be."  You are my mother... for Eternity, forever and ever;  I would never have chosen it any other way.





Live 'n' Love Out Loud... all you can, life is too short to do it any other way!

Ticks, YUCK!!!



Here I am, in my kitchen, my daughter is watching Chip 'n' Dale while somewhat eating (the worst eater on the planet) and my newborn is in a bouncer sitting next to me, struggling with discomfort (she despises being on her back!).  My house is clean and looks fantastic, thanks to the help of my husband who decided to help me a couple of days ago when we decided to have my sister and brother 'n' law over for dinner.
There are a few things driving me absolutely bonkers!!!  No matter how clean I keep our house, we have tiny little sugar ants in our house, it's as if they fly, I don't see them craw up my arm, but suddenly I feel one on my neck and I don't see a trail or them walking anywhere from the sides of the kitchen, just out of nowhere I see several in the middle of a surface.  I hate insects with the passion and especially ants and ticks!! Ticks are absolutely disgusting and it makes me so angry when I see them on my poor dogs or on my children.
Yesterday I had to take my German Shepherd to the vet, it was a nightmare!! I didn't have any help with loading the two girls plus the dog that can't stand any other dog, but her best friend, a little Scotty, which is the type of dog that my husband brought home as a gift to me on my birthday last year... really it was my German Shepherd's gift, but he needed an excuse to get him at the time.  I go outside, start the car, take the dog out and then have my two year old walk while I carried my bag and the baby.  We are finally on our way when I look over at the dog and I immediately see 4 ticks on the inside of her ear... AHHHHHHHH!!!  Gives me chill bumps while writing it!


We had just sprayed all our trees and the lawn for ticks, not to mention used flea and tick killer on each of the dogs just two weeks ago; what had gone wrong, I just kept asking myself about what else we could possibly do!  I was so sick to my stomach the entire time we were riding in the car because there was nothing that I could do to remove the ticks until got home.  I'm a doer, I see something that needs to be done and I do it right then to ensure that I don't forget because it's undeniable that I most certainly will.  I dropped my daughters off at my sister 'n' laws, who is the most awesome baby sister you will ever meet and she loves playing with my older daughter  (who has an amazing, open, fun personality... she's hilariously entertaining!), which definitely helps.
We get to the vets office and luckily they have a cat side and a dog side of the office (brilliant idea if you ask me).  We always go to the cat side because my dog cannot handle being in close proximity to other dogs and I hate to chance anything.  I had two people wait on me, I had sat there for nearly 20 minutes before someone says, "Your appointment isn't till next Tuesday at 4:10... "Great, just my luck."  I told her what it took to get there and begged that she please see if the doctor could fit me in.  She came out and told me that it would be a little bit, but that the doc would see me, thank goodness!!
Our appointment was a consultation to get our poor dog debarked and shots.  Debarking sounds terrible, I know, but it sure beats having to get rid of one of your little ones, doesn't it?  This is an awesome procedure which only lasts about an hour and they heal within days and it's super cheap ($100) compared to the gimmicks out there that don't work anyway.   Believe me, we tried everything else and this was a last resort; we tried shock collar, she just kept getting prong marks from all the barking (the pain didn't seem to phase her), we tried the secret whistling bird house (which was a joke) and the collar that shoots nasty stuff up at them when they bark, nothing works and luckily, Petsmart takes all electronics back within 30 days of purchase as long as you have your receipt!
So Thursday morning my poor Shepherd (who I dearly love) will be debarked.  This is a great alternative to getting rid of a pet, which, I would never do... you make that decision to get one and you should stick by it till the end, as you should with a child.  Debarking is a deceitful word, it doesn't mean that they will not be able to bark at all, just that their bark is muffled and not so intense, which is exactly what we need.  Our dog's bark can be hear from a couple blocks away and I'm shocked that our neighbor hasn't complained about their 4 am bark-a-thon that happens almost on a daily basis.
When I arrived home from the vets, I immediately began de-ticking my poor dog, I only got out the ones that I could immediately find, so I know that there is probably a ton more to be found, so we are getting more medicine to put on her today and hopefully when we spray again, we will get rid of these buggers once and for all!!  The tasks never end around this house and there is always seems to be something else that needs to be done.


  Live 'n' Love Out Loud!!