around the web

a few days ago june at bye bye pie offered to host a 'random acts of kindness' event for december. we all got matched up. there are some really brilliant ideas there on how to surprise people with kindess. june has decided she can no longer match people up because it's ALLOTA work and she's now self employed editing a statistic book (stick a needle in my eye) but if you want to come along the journey and see what everyone is doing - it's quite fun. and read the comments. hilarious people over there. here's the linkey dink bye,bye pie!

annieology blogged about tiger woods this morning. excellent post. check it out - Been There, Done That, Got the Scarlet Letter

if you're looking for a worthy cause i cannot speak highly enough of heifer international . for twenty dollars you can purchase animals for a family - HI teaches them how to care for the animals and make it a food source and then a business. chicks, ducks, heck, you can even buy a cow.

recently i heard of another great place to put your buck. joyce meyer ministries 'rescue a life from human trafficking' . for $25 you can support a woman who has been rescued from s*x slavery. amazingly brilliant.

on a lighter note...here's me

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

stupid internet

i have meant to blog since black friday. but the internet and/or my provider have been slammed.

so i have lots to say...if i can remember. ha!

thanksgiving was good. it ended up being the three of us eating turkey. with Christmas music. thanksgiving is the traditional day where our household breaks out all things Christmas. someone tried playing music a few days before but i had to put the nix on that. isn't the Christmas decorations in the store in October enough? really people.

we were invited down to the Springs for dessert and games. that was lots of fun but the poor man didn't get much sleep. we just spent more time down there than we expected. oh, and my first taste of egg nog for the season. yum.

black friday. we do this. only one year were there things that made us get up in the middle of the night and do crazy things - we don't do that part anymore - but we do go out. a few bargains here and there but more just to be out in the season. you just have to load yourself with alot of mercy, grace and Christmas spirit.

saturday we had surprise overnight visitors. being out by dia and all - it's just really convenient. flights had cancelled, family was stranded. so it was ordering pizza in and watching "Elf". it was much fun watching it with them - they had never seen it before - laughs all around.

i actually have all my shopping done. don't hate. it's because i'm going out of town for several days for work and i want to get everything wrapped and shipped before i go.

the eldest is coming home for Christmas. yeah! although the youngest said "when is he coming? when is he leaving?" yep, they get along just great. *eye roll*

i hope i've remembered to tell you everything i haven't been able to say...but before i go - check out my name in lights! yeah, me. it's free - it's linked - just register at The Lilypad, put it in your cart and off you go!


and if you haven't heard it yet -

Merry Christmas my peeps.

who wants to move Christmas?

i have a love hate relationship with christmas. let's just put aside the whole fact that this is really a pagan holiday and Jesus wasn't born on December 25th and talk about the whole other bits about christmas.

i love love love the sights, sounds and smells of christmas. it makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. i love the holiday movies with 'elf' being my all time new favorite. i love getting the perfect gift for that someone.

i hate that christmas always comes at a bad time. financially. it never comes at a good time. now, my choice is to own that christmas will never pick up her skirts and move to...let's say...august 1st...me. i get to own this. i need to do something different. and every year when i'm faced with this same ding dang problem i think "i need to do something different"...but that's not getting me anywhere.

okay i'm going to stop now. hatin too much. off to stbux today to see the holiday roll out. that will help bring back the love.

paradoxical

many times...most times...things have to get worse before they get better. sometimes the doctor gives us pain medicine to help us get through the healing process. sometimes there is no pain medicine just holding onto the knowing that healing is coming. that's one part of choosing to be authentic. it doesn't always 'feel' good.

Isaiah 55:8 (New International Version)

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

6th subscriber

this is what greeted me when i meandered downstairs to get my second cup of coffee this morning. this is why i love living where i live. what is hard to see in this photo is that the far off mountains are all dusty white. the reason you can't see the mountains very well in this photo is because the sun is out in all it's brightness glory. that's the best thing here. snow - beautiful, clean, hiding alot of yucky stuff, snow but bright, blue making everything glisten, sunshine. by this afternoon much of this will be gone. brilliant.


i spent four splendiferous hours with my 6th blog subscriber yesterday. have you ever met someone who without much explaining or work just fits so well into your life? you speak the same language? you have similar life stories? that's my 6th subscriber. you fill me up 6th subscriber.

for the rest of my faithful 5 i'm sorry i didn't blog. it wasn't intentional. it first started out that my heart was aching in ways that seemed unbloggable at the time. so many parts of my life are becoming authentic. but there are still some places that...well...it just may have come out as emotional vomit. and as ugly as a picture that paints - once you say words you just can.not.take.them.back. this is me finding the balance between real/authentic and literally scaring the poo out of my faithful readers.

then i went away for a week. it started out having company for two days, then a women's retreat, then some work out of town. just no time and space to blog in all that.

so i'm back. a little more authentic today than yesterday.

my pleasure

yesterday morning the man came to me and said .."are we spending the day together? seeing as how you missed me all week..." squuueeee! so we did. it was filled with some mundane things - pick up suit, blood draw, bank deposit...but then some fun stuff as well...see's candies, lunch out, mall walking and a movie! woot!

we viewed 'couples retreat' -- i really wanted to like this movie. i really did. but you can just pass on that one. you don't even have to rent it. wait until it comes out on tv. and the only reason even remotely possible that you would want to watch it is because it might be a topic starter between you and your other regarding the status of your marriage.

having said that. i would totally go visit where ever it was filmed.

it was just very nice to spend a whole day with my man.

still keeping up with the artwork! yeah me!

let's just say that if you ever plan a trip to england you can completely skip sherwood forrest.


but york was pretty fab


oh. and the time change jacked me up. at least i gained an hour.

peace love and bobby sherman.

even steven

kids just have to have equality. probably something in our brokenness that cries for justice. and at that age - why not? they have plenty of years to learn that life isn't fair...probably already have...in fact i know they have. they are very aware of their life these days. the good and the not so good.

my exercise yesterday was shoveling snow. guess who misses her men? and the fair headed one doesn't get asked to do such things. her coach's nickname for her is princess. lol. yeah. again. why not? she's had some hard days. she takes a full load at college. works hard. is trying. so why not treat her as a princess when possible? besides. some day she'll get married and have kids and then...well...you know.

thank you to my 6 subscribed readers. i heart you.