Goals!

So this time, I will talk about my goals!

1. Travel to 1 new place
2. Read 52 New books this year!
3. Blog each week
4. Watch Downton Abbey
5. Eight different projects at my house
6. Work on my lists

#1, I am skipping right now, since that one is in the planning process!

#2 has been a fun one.  I make no apologies for my love of reading.  I also love to re-read books, especially ones that I love.  The hardest part of this goal for me is finding new books to read.  This is week 4 of the new year, and so far I have read 7 books.  4 have been fiction, and lesbehonest--two of them were a little much!  They were by authors I had read before, but I didn't know that either one of those books were that way.  I have read 3 non-fiction, which I enjoyed much more! No Easy Day and The Lone Survivor were both stories of Navy Seals.  No Easy Day was from one of the guys who was in the raid that killed Bin Laden. The Lone Survivor was about a Navy Seal who was involved in a deadly attack in Afghanistan, where all his team was killed but him, and the rescue team was killed as well.  Both were excellent books!  I love our Armed Forces, and appreciate everything they do to keep our country safe.  The training they go through, the dangerous missions, all of this to protect our freedom.  The other non-fiction book I read was Manhunt, and was about the journey to catch Bin Laden from the CIA/espionage view.  I went and saw Zero Dark Thirty, and wanted to read more about this.  I love anything about the CIA!  Those people are brilliant, and I cannot think of anything more exciting to be than to work for them.

#3, I am doing right now!  So, yay, Me!

#4, I have not started! I really just need to sign up for Netflix!

#5, Eight of these projects around my house, are 25% done. They mostly involve just finishing decorating, like hanging curtains or pictures.  The only major one is to finish our bathroom, but that involves money and time.  But I WILL do this! :)

#6, Ah, my lists!  I love lists!  I was talking to my friend, Rachel, at work one day.  She said after her grandfather died, they found a bunch of journals, that he had written in.  He had a bunch of lists of trips he had taken, where and when.  So, I really want to keep lists of my important dates, all the places I have visited personally, as a family, and couple.  Or keep a list of the states, countries and continents I have been to.  This should be a fun project, and it will be fun to re-live all these events in my mind! 


A quick story -- I told one of my other friends at work about my plan for this year and my journal.  A couple days later, she told me I had inspired her to do the same thing! It made me happy that I helped influence someone else to improve their life or to plan.  I think it is in our human D.N.A. to want to help, to inspire and to be inspired.  I know this whole little process, has helped me get through the post-Holiday slump.  I absolutely hate this time of year, when Christmas is over, and football is over!  I have to have something to look forward to and to plan ahead for the future.  This has helped me so much!!!
 

A New Year Part 2

I'm doing good, another blog post in less than 24 hours!

So, how am I going for it? Well, there is a possibility that I may do the Disney Princess Half Marathon with some girls from work. I have not ran, ever, much less run a half marathon. When I first heard about it, I said there is no way. Then I thought, why not try! I have a whole year! Go for it! I am trying everything to motivate myself. I bought new running shoes, some workout clothes, a good sports bra. I downloaded two apps to help. One is Run Keeper, and the other is Charity Miles. The Charity Miles app tracks your run, then a corporate sponsor, gives a donation for each mile you run. I am running for Wounded Warrior project. I have been reading books about Navy Seals, and want to help the veterans.

I decided to "Be Bold", and I was invited at work to be part of the group to evaluate our core values and their implantation. I am the quietest in the group, but I have been able to speak up during our meetings. I feel like it has been an excellent opportunity for me to be more involved. But it wasn't until I said to myself, I wanted to do more bold that I received the request.

I am still working on the cheerleader thing. I had a meeting the other day, that do not go as well as I would have liked, but I did encourage myself and my boss, of the positive things we could take from it. It was still a big step for me!

I also have one more BIG thing to do this year! But it is still in the secret stage. I hope it happens!

Ok, besides my mission statement, I wrote down some other goals:
1. Travel to 1 new place
2. Read 52 New books this year!
3. Blog each week
4. Watch Downton Abbey
5. Eight different projects at my house
6. Work on my lists

My next blog will be about the goals!

Next time, I will let you know about

A New Year

It's a New Year!!! Well, actually, 24 days into a New Year. 

A friend from work gave me a Moleskine Journal.  As this New Year started, I decided I wanted to keep a journal with my goals, mission statement, and various lists.  I have the Note App on my I-Phone, but there is just something about writing something.  It also is good to look back at the journal frequently as a reminder. 

First of all, the Moleskine journal was inspiring in itself.  They were made originally in Paris, and used by authors and artists, such as Van Gogh, Picasso, and Hemingway! 

The first thing I decided to for this upcoming year is to live my life by 3 statements.  I know they sound corny, but I want to have some focus in my life and change certain aspects.  I realize I have been living my life at not my fullest potential.  I can do more than I am doing.  These statements are my inspiration and my catalyst to being happier:

1. Go For It
2. Be Bold
3. Be a Cheerleader

The "Go For It" comes from my lack of ability to take risks and the way I over- analyze each decision. I can talk myself out of trying new things or opportunities, either because I am afraid of failure or insufficient motivation. I feel like I am missing out on so much of what I could be, because of my fear and effort.

The "Be Bold" is because I stay quiet too many times.  I am an introvert, and I definitely have opinions.  I love to share them on social media, but I rarely verbally speak up. I do think about a lot of things, but I hate to share my opinion because of ridicule or being shot down.  I want to express myself if I feel hurt or taken advantage of, as well.  I could go into greater detail of why I keep things to myself, but with talking with Tim, I realize that this is a deep issue I have to face.

The third item is "Be a Cheerleader"  I need to be more encouraging to those closest around me.  I am a melancholy person, and I'm analytical.  It doesn't take much effort to shoot down plans or ideas, we can all do that.  The true strength comes from finding a way to help others achieve their goals, and encourage them on their path.  I don't want to be so cyncial, that when I hear something Tim wants to do or my kids, that I roll my eyes, and say "We'll See..." I want to be able to see the strengths of their dreams and say, you can do it!

Ok, this is enough for now.  I will share next time the opportunities that have came up, since I decided to have a mission statement for my life.

P.S. I also want to do my blog more this year!  So, be ready for that!!!

My Bucket list

I am glad I was able to grow up & be an adult. When I was 12, 13 or 15, all I wanted to do was grow up. I couldn't wait until I could drive, graduate high school, go to prom(or in my case JR/SR Banquet). I dreamed what it would be like to fall in love, get married, be pregnant, have my own family, buy a house! I wanted to ride in a airplane and travel to another country. There seemed like so many things I wanted to experience!

I'm 35, and thank goodness, and I did grow up! I experienced so many of my dreams. There are still a few things left I want to do:

1. Go to NYC
2. Go to Paris
3. Go to Hawaii
4. Have my grandchildren
5. Live in another state, preferably Florida!
6. Visit two more continents. Already been to 3- N.A., Europe and Asia
7. Go to a home Pittsburgh Steelers game
8. Build my own house
9. Travel across the country by car/camper.
10. Surprise my hubby by taking him away for a week without him knowing, or him doing that for me!

I am sure I could come up with more, but that is what I can think of for right now!!!! What is your bucket list?!

Why I am poor

Clever title, huh?

Yesterday was just a normal day, and this is why I am poor.  This is just a list of day-to-day expenses, and why I never can get ahead with money!

$6.00: Something Boys needed for school

$5.40: My lunch(maybe a little extravagant, but I have to leave the office or I'll go nuts, and a sandwich with chips and a brownie just don't cut it, when you sit for 9 hours a day)

$42.00: Gas(not to be political but when Obama took office gas was 1.85, and I paid 3.59 a gallon yesterday, almost double.  Am I better off now?)

$14.86:  Papa John's Pizza - I bought pizza for the kids and Tim for dinner.  Could I came out cheaper cooking, I'm not so sure - 2lbs of ground beef, spaghetti sauce and pasta for 5 including two teenage boys who just got out of football practice, very, very close!)

$110.00: Insurance for my 2 boys to play football.  (Mind you, I already paid $20/each for physicals.  And from what I understand, this does not actually cover them if they get hurt, this is just to protect the school district, from being held liable)

This adds up to $178.26 in miscellaneous expense.  This does not cover the house payment, power bill, and other household bills that got drafted from my account.  If you split up our household bills, and divide by 30 days, it is about $130 or 26 a day per person in our family.  This includes our house payment, food, gas, and car payments.

Today in our chapel at work, we had our reps from Bangladesh here to share about the work.   According to WHO, the extreme poverty level is $1 a day per person.  One of the outreach projects that our reps oversee is for people with leprosy who have disability and their income is less than 30 cents per person a day.  They can never get ahead, they struggle to have one meal a day, of just rice.  These are the poorest of the poor. 

So, am I really poor?  NO, and I get depressed sometimes because we have a hard time paying for all the extra's or the power bill is $305.00 in a month.  But I can feed my kids, and give them a comfortable life, and take them on vacation.  I am rich, and most of the people who live in this country are too, compared how to others in this world live.  I think most of us in the county are the true 1%. 

Think about it.... 

We're getting there!

Sorry, it's been a while.  I have been lazy with my posting, and mainly because I have been lazy at home.  Not truly lazy, I have been busy with other things, like getting kids started in school, working and football.

Here is the progress so far on our house.  The foundation is bricked in the first picture, and the floor has been laid in the second.  I am so excited!  Tim and I are adding a walk-in closet and a bathroom.  We wanted to get a big garden tub for the room.  I really did not want a jacuzzi.  I have heard they are hard to clean, but I just wanted a big tub.  Well, we didn't have the money for it at first(as it's taking all our money just to do the building part), but we really needed to get it bought, before he framed up the addition, since it would be too big to bring in through the house.  Tim and I were not sure what to do.  THEN, this past Sunday the church had a reception for Tim's 10th Anniversary there.  They took up money for him, and Tim and I decided to use it for the bath-tub.  We went Tuesday night to Lowe's and there was absolutely nothing in our price range and time frame.  The one I wanted was close to $700 and would take a month to get in.  Then our contractor told us about a couple plumbing wholesale places here in town.  Tim went after lunch yesterday, and they had the one I wanted - get this - for $375.00.  They told us it could be in by next Friday.  We were so excited!!! So, I placed the order, and then the guy called me back and said they had one at their other location in Greer, we could get it today!  Even better news!  We are going to have to wait until we have enough money to run the plumbing to it, but at least it will be in the house and ready to be ran when the money comes in!

 

Here is a link to our new tub, http://www.maax.com/en/UtilityPages/BuilderSpecHelper.aspx?modelid=%7B62B094BA-1C17-4B5F-B5E1-CF9030635C0F%7D.  If you want to get a sneak peek, at what it's going to be like!

 

 

I still have a couple projects left in the Katy's room and the boy's room.  But I am so proud to say they have a done marvelous job keeping their rooms cleaned.  Tim and I have been so surprised how well they have done.  We said we should have done this a long time ago, if we knew giving them a source of pride would have helped them keep their rooms clean. 

 

Enough for now!!



Sorry

Well, sorry, I haven't posted in a few days.  What a whirlwind of days...

My husband's grandmother passed away Sunday, and it was pretty sudden.  Today is the receiving friends and funeral. 

My sister, mother, and my niece and two nephews have been here since last Thursday from Arkansas, as well. They left to drive back to Arkansas today.  I enjoyed seeing them, and my kids loved it too.  All 3 of Anna's kids thought Katy was the greatest thing ever imagined.  Graham who will be 2 in November, would just come up to her and hold his hands out for a hug or to be held.  Last night was hard to say good-bye.  Graham pitched a fit, and kept wanting to give Katy a hug and kisses.  It was like he knew it was good-bye.  Those kids are precious and I will miss them.  They did like riding in their Aunt Kelly's car, since she has a tv/dvd!   Here's the pic of all 6 of the grandkids

Yesterday was finally my birthday.  I took half a day off and went shopping to the outlets with the family.  Then we went to Portofino's for dinner, and they gave me a free dessert.  I had Cheesecake!  Then my mom made my favorite cake - Coconut! 

Christian told me to tweet celebrities to see if I could get a retweet for my birthday.  I tweeted two: Hines Ward and Donald Trump Jr.  Donald Trump Jr. has tweeted with me a couple times, because I replied once to his, and we had a political discussion.  So last night, I get a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.  I WAS SO HAPPY!  I love the Apprentice, and he's my favorite.  He's really smart and sees through people's craziness, and a he's a savvy business man. Anyways, it made my night!

So, I still have a lot on my plate, with the house.  Tim is having some football coaches over this weekend, and I will be mad-rush cleaning.  But I work best under pressure and deadlines. The challenge is on!

Well, enough for now... it's almost time to leave for the funeral home... I hope everyone is on their best behavior today.  If you know anything about Tim's family, it's going to be a miracle!



3-5!

A week from today I will be 35...Half way to 40! Most likely, half of my life!!! Just thinking about this has made me more melancholy than normal.

One of the reasons, I decided to blog, was to share about my life and my feelings.  I seem to do this better through written words than verbally.  I am an introvert -- an ISTJ according to Meyer-Briggs.  To understand me, I have attached an ISTJ profile.  One thing that is profound to me about me, is "ISTJs are likely to be uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others."  This is me 100%.  I am trying to express more about how I feel through this blog.  But please don't try to hug me, I still need to work on that! :)

But every year at my birthday, I become super-introspective.  As this quote says,
"Under stress, ISTJs may fall into "catastrophe mode", where they see nothing but all of the possibilities of what could go wrong. They will berate themselves for things which they should have done differently, or duties which they failed to perform. They will lose their ability to see things calmly and reasonably, and will depress themselves with their visions of doom."  So this is where I am today--- full blown catastrophe mode and full of visions of doom!!!

I am disappointed in myself.  I wish I could re-do the last 10 years of my life.  I am super-happy I married Tim, 16 years ago.  He is truly a phenomenal husband, and we are sincerely meant for each other.  I love my kids, with all my heart.  I do wish I was more loving with my children, than just fulfilling the duties of a mother.  Christian is 13 now, and I realize our time with him at home is quickly coming to an end.  I just wish I could have been a better mother to all 3 of my children.  A single day does not go by, where I do not have regret in my parenting skills.

I wish I was not working full-time.  But in the same breath, if I had planned on working full-time, I wish I was more qualified and had a better job.  I enjoy what I do, but I could have been a lot more than what I am.  I just didn't know, I would end up working instead of staying home full-time. 

There are a couple other things, I wish I could have changed. I just really wish I could redo the last few years, and have a fresh start.  But I guess, it doesn't work that way.  I am just going to try change the future, and pray I will stop dwelling on the past.  But that doesn't happen easily for me!  But if an ISTJ, is super capable of achieving goals, than I am going to try!!!

Oh, 35.....

T.G.I.F.

It's Friday!!! I am so glad for the weekend!  Last night was actually very relaxing, the kids went to Tim's sister's house.  Tim and I decided to relax last night and catch up on our DVR'ed shows, and we were so exhausted from being up so late on Wednesday. 

The boy's room flooring is about 85% complete.  After I left for work yesterday, Tim called Daniel, a guy who used to be in our youth group, and in 2 hours, he did more than what took the other guy and day and a half.  Plus, he's coming back tonight as well to help us get finished! Cute story though...it was supposed to be a surprise, Tim didn't tell me and wanted me to come home and be shocked.  But he should have told the kids that. Brock called me, and was so happy to tell me all the work Daniel had done.  I had just talked to Tim a few minutes before, and he didn't mention him coming.  I pieced it together pretty quick, what was going on.  I told Brock, I don't think you are supposed to be telling me that.  He felt so bad, and didn't want me to tell Tim.  Brock is like me, he HATES to disappoint people.  It bothered him.  So I acted shocked, and then told Tim later last night, how cute it was. I was glad he did, cause him telling me caused a lot of my anxiety to go away in the afternoon at work.

Now, in a perfect world, I would go to Ikea Charlotte today or tomorrow.  There are several things I wanted to buy last time, but didn't have the room to bring home.  I really, really wish I had a truck!!! So if anybody with a truck, wants to driveup to Ikea and take me with you, I would be very grateful :)!!!

The yard sale is not happening this weekend, I really want to get everything back in their rooms, and sorted through before I have the big yard sale!  I have a lot to sale, I mean a LOT!!!

So, hopefully before this weekend is over with, I will have pictures to post of the rooms and furniture! I cannot get to the mattresses yet, until we move her dresser back to her room.  I will be so happy to get my house back in order, instead of look liking a house from Hoarders: Buried Alive!!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Again, feel free to comment!!!

Epic Fail

I'm sitting on my sofa about to have a nervous breakdown. Tim and I were up until about 1:30 trying to lay flooring. I really should not have bought cheap flooring. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it would not go together.

We realized we were not going to get it done last night before the furniture came this morning. We conceded that they can just bring the boys beds in, an not put them together. After realizing all this, we decided to get sleep, since we both have to work today.

I hate failure, I hate losing. I hate feeling like I wasted money. I hate giving up. I hate feeling powerless. I hate feeling incompetent. Needless, to say, I tossed and turned all night. My neck is sore, and my jaw hurts.

The last two days have been a rollercoaster. I have had two stressful days at work. Tuesday we had all day staff team building day, which culminated in a scavenger hunt. I was on a team with our CEO, who is ultra competitive, and another girl, who is the same way. We worked hard and won. But it was very draining. Yesterday we had another half day of staff training which ended up us each having to do a presentation. I absolutely hate speaking!

In good news, my IRS situation is resolved! But the issue with my kids is still up in the air! I'm one step closer for it getting fixed, but we had to make a decision yesterday, and turn down a possible scenario, because it just didn't work.

Well, I'm still waiting for the delivery. Feel free to comment on anything I have posted!

Grrrr!

So.... Tim's guy did not do so well! Katy's room has one board left. And this is the boys room. Looks like we will be pulling an all-nighter! I just hate we paid someone and we will end up doing most of the work.

Updates & Bracelets

The floors are not done yet, and are going a little slower than planned.  I am praying that they will get done today.  I mean, they have to - the beds are being delivered between 7 and 11 AM tomorrow morning! Ah!!!

On to the bracelets... I saw these bracelets on Pinterest a while back.  They are made from Ribbon and the tabs from soda cans!  I thought to myself, I can do these and Katy and I will love them.  The first thing I did was to get my co-worker friends to help me collect the tabs!  I have such great co-workers.  Kristy, who I call KC, is my cube-mate, and Beverly, who is my manager, were very enthusiastic to help!

I collected enough tabs to do 3 bracelets(which is about 45 tabs - 15 or so for each bracelet).  I went to my pin, and it took me to a girl's blog that had made them.  Unfortunately, she did not give instructions, but she did reference a you-tube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeGfHEZXKgI&feature=related) that the instructions were on!  I was like, "Yay! Instructions!"  The only problem, once I clicked on them, was that instructions were in Spanish!  Now, don't get me wrong, I took high school Spanish, and did quite well, I even did Academic Testing Competition for SCACS in Spanish and was 4th in the state!  But that was 18 years ago, and though some Spanish does come back to me, like when I went to Mexico and Nicaragua, this did not!

So, I observed the video!  I did learn you needed to coat the tabs with something.  On the video, she used clear nail polish, but I just sprayed them down with my acrylic clear spray!

Now, the bracelets are super easy to make, once you get the hang of how to weave the ribbon!  I've made two so far using grosgrain ribbon that are multi-colored!  I am going to do some more before football season starts, in solid satin ribbon in our team's colors!  I am going to make them for Katy and our coaches daughter.  Heck, I will make myself one as well!  They really are super adorable!!!

BIG DAY

So today is the big day... Tim knows a guy :), and he is coming to install our laminate flooring in Katy's and Brock and Christian's bedroom.  Two weeks ago I decided to buy Katy a new bed from Room to Go Kids.  We bought our living room furniture there a couple years ago, and I just paid it off. 

As you may hear me rant on twitter, Katy is extremely messy, and under her bed was the worse.  We spent about 6 hours cleaning out her room.  She also kept the kittens in there, and it was getting a funky smell.  The cats have been kicked outside as of last Friday!  Woohoo! 

After buying her bed, I looked and found nice beds for the boys as well.  They have had bunk beds, but since they are 12 and 13 now, neither wants to sleep on the top bunk.  Well, I decided to go ahead and buy theirs as well.

THEN, back in June we refinanced our house, and are going to do an addition.  We were supposed to get back our escrow money from our previous mortgage financer.  We expected a certain dollar amount but instead got triple that money back.  Tim and I talked and we decided to play with the money, and take the kids to Atlanta for a couple days and then pull up the nasty carpet in their rooms, put down laminate flooring and paint! 

Our very good friend Darrell Smith(who was so instrumental in Tim and I getting together) came Friday while we were gone and painted their rooms.  Katy's room is Paris-themed, with black, white and Pink.  So, I had her room painted a pretty shade of gray-Pebble Gray.  We went a little darker in the boys room, and it called Seal Gray.  I posted a pic of the boy's room.

We got back into town Friday night, and pulled the carpet and padding out of the boy's room.  Then Saturday afternoon, we pulled up Katy's carpet and padding, and all the staples and tack strips in both rooms! Exhausting work! 

So now, the flooring gets put down today!!! 

I will be so glad...All the stuff from their two rooms is in my den, kitchen and living room.  Our house is chaos.  The boys cannot get to their dressers, and Katy's dresser drawers are spread out!  Ahhh! But anyways, it ends today hopefully! I hope to start putting everything back in there very soon. The beds come on Thursday, so we are close.

My new blog

So, here it goes!  I had a blog a few years ago.  But I mainly used it to air my opinions, which were mainly political with a little religion added in for some variety.  BUT now I want to have a blog to chronicle my Pinterest adventures and my current remodel attempts at my house!

Pinterest... what can I say!  It's addictive and inspirational!  I am not a creative person.  I wish so much that I was but God did not give me those abilities.  I am still figuring out what abilities God did give me, but it seems like there are none.  I am not even being falsely-modest.  I have no redeemable or marketable qualities. But enough on that subject...

I do like to replicate what I see that I like, and can follow directions!  So over the next few days I will catch up with what pictures and stories of the Pinterest crafts I have done so far!

Thanks for reading...