Good Times in Troy

I had the absolute delight of seeing my BFF and four other dear sisters on Saturday. I'm ashamed to say this was my first visit to my BFF's house and she moved in fourteen months ago. Ok, I admit it - I organize my sorority gatherings for a reason - I can stay close to home and still connect with the ones I adore. I'm not much of a traveler and my life is too hectic usually to find an entire day or two to devote to out of town trips. I am glad we went on Saturday!! K & K drove to my house to pick up me and my daughter, then we drove to Burleson to meet M at Taco Cabana and then we all headed to Troy. The best part of the day (besides being with my daughter and sisters) was seeing one sister after a seven year absence. G pledged A Phi after I left Commerce but she used to come to my apartments in Paris and Denton all the time w/ BFF. We used to have some great times during my newlywed years - wild parties, noisy Monopoly games!!! Good times, good times. Then she sort of faded out of the picture for awhile, only resurfacing for a short time around the time my brother got married (7 years ago) and attended the wedding w/ BFF. Then she disappeared from our lives again. Thanks to the wonders of myspace and google...BFF found her again and invited her over on Saturday. And she made it!!! It was so great to turn around and see her standing there after all these years. The six of us sat around and talked for hours (after we bought great Scentsy stuff). As a matter of fact, time flew by so quickly that we didn't leave Troy until after 9pm and had a very long ride home. Thank you K for driving us in the fog!!! It's always such a great time when any of us get together but it is especially exciting when we bring someone back into the fold and can share stories of the good ol' days. Our little group is growing as myspace and google helps us to reconnect with more sisters from Commerce. Here's to more good times, good times!!

Burrr!!

Man it is cold outside!! I live in Texas for goodness sake, it is not supposed to be this cold for this many days in a row. I'm ready for a nice warm Texas winter, not this mess. I'm tired of drab, dreary, freezing days. If I wanted those type of days, I would still live in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana. There are so many projects I need to do in the garage but every time I think about going out in the cold for a long period of time....I quickly come to my senses and find something to do in the house instead. House = WARM; Garage = COLD; Cold = BAD.

Cameron inherited this great old roll top desk and I am just chomping at the bit to get it cleaned up, refurbished and moved into the playroom to be used as my new computer desk. However, there is lots of work to be done and the thing is sitting in the garage (the forbidden frozone!!). The worst part is that hubby is forced to park outside until I get this desk moved into the house and I hear alot of complaining about how cold it is in the mornings when he takes A to school. Oh well, I'm too acclimated to the usual warm TX weather to subject myself to hours in the forbidden frozone!!

Guess the desk will have to wait til spring. Sorry hubby!

My word

I was reading the blog of my dear friend T and was inspired to go to the blog of scrapbooker Ali Edwards to find my "word" for 2008. Apparently, T used the word "Hope" last year as her word of 2007 and was looking at Ali's blog which encourages readers to find their word and use it as inspiration or encouragement thru the new year. She then lists all the words she received from her many readers. As I browsed the list of incredible words, several popped out at me but I think one was already in my mind before I ever went to the list and that word is create. To affirm the value of this word, I checked to make sure it was on Ali's list and it was right there between crafty and cultivate. Not too far down the list was another word that popped out at me - debt-free (technically two words but if you hyphen that it counts as one, right?). Although my goal for 2008 is to become debt-free, it is not a word that inspires me. Create makes me think of many things: create new things, create stronger friendships, create something meaniful, create a happy, healthy environment for my family, create a new me in 2008!!! So thanks to T, I now too have a word for 2008 and I'm thinking of making a t-shirt with the word on it to keep me inspired.

Also, a side thanks to T for a fabulous dessert night out at Cheesecake Factory! Yum, yum!! I so enjoyed the girl time, the conversation and the cheesecake (the big tasty Martini didn't hurt either).

All Hail 2008

Well, according to my hubby and some very dear friends, I welcomed 2008 in with the bang I asked for but unfortunately - the mixture of decongestant and Zima put me in a early evening fog and I remember very little of my own NYE celebration. No regrets though - my friends all said I had a good time, they had a good time and no one got hurt. A great way to start the new year.

So I was trucking along thinking 2008 was going to be my year.....it cannot possibly be worse than 2007, right? I sure hope not!! All in all - so far, so good. There have been a few bumps on the road and I was beginning to question whether or not "karma" hated me but I'm trying hard to be rational in 2008 so I'm trying to keep the "karma" thoughts out of my head. See, I watch "My Name is Earl" so after seeing Earl turn his back on karma this week only to have it chase him down and try to do him in - I had karma on the mind when I made the mistake this past Friday of thinking "life isn't so bad, maybe 2008 is going to be my year". Then WHAM - my toddler slams his face into the side of the recliner while running laps around the family room and proceeds to come up with blood gushing out of his mouth. Oh boy...here we go again. After some blood (his), sweat (mine), tears (both of ours) and ice, I realized in a panic that he'd put his tooth completely thru his lip. When I was 10, a friend threw a plastic baseball bat at my brother and my mouth stepped in the way. I also put a tooth or teeth thru my lip and ended up with stitches inside and out. Although I ended up with my first dog and the world's largest container of pudding from the boys parents, I couldn't think of the bright side when thinking my baby boy was going to need stitches. Luckily, common sense prevailed and I had hubby call my dear friend Dr. T. She calmly told him that unless the gash was larger than a quarter of an inch - we were fine. Main thing was to check for loose teeth (there were none - tragedy side-stepped). So the ice did the trick, the bleeding stopped and all the trauma put my baby into a sound sleep for the rest of the night. He looks like he has a soul patch under his bottom lip and a fever blister inside the lip but other than that - he seems fine. Bless his little resilient heart.

So on Saturday, I'm thanking God that his injury wasn't worse and again thinking "life ain't so bad". Then I get the call from hubby after church that Petsmart had called and the groomer clipped our dog too deep and created a gash in her neck. I needed to meet them at the animal clinic to pick her up from getting stitches. Ok, so now I'm really railing on Karma or who/whatever doesn't like me to think that my life is okay. Geesh, can't a person have a happy moment where they just enjoy the way life is going? Does every good have to be countered with a bad? Every happy with a sad? Sure seems that way in my life and the lives of the people I know and love. The dog was okay and only 1/3 groomed when I picked her up. Petsmart paid all vet expense (as they should have) and another tragedy side-stepped. The vet said they actually clipped right above her jugular so had they gone any deeper she might have bled to death. Nice visual.

Needless to say, I started off Sunday thinking - "okay Karma, you win. No happy thoughts today". So I spent yesterday trying to keep my mind completely clear of happy thoughts and I actually had a pretty miserable day. I wasn't enjoying anything we did as a family (Chuck E Cheese, buying a new light for the entry way, putting together a puzzle w/ my grandmother). So last night, I came to the realization that I cannot be afraid of Karma and I certainly can't hide from it. I just have to live life and accept what it brings, good or bad. I so want 2008 to be great but I also know that sometimes bad things happen. I'll just have to hope that the bad things in 2008 are manageable.