Merry Christmas Y'all

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight!

I will be back to regular blogging after the holidays, just needed some time to focus on the family. Also the Rapscallion is on track break so that makes even completing a thought when he is around a challenge!

Love, peace and family from our home to yours!

A Toast to my Sister and Brother-in-Law

My little sister got married this weekend, I was asked to give a toast and here for your reading enjoyment is what I shared:

I met Lil Sis a while ago, I was living with my parents at the time and they let her move in. Things were pretty good in the beginning, but you know how roommate situations go.

Bro-in-Law, I want to welcome you to the family. To be honest, I always thought I would be saying this to Michael Jackson or Alex Trebek, good luck.

I want you guys to start your marriage on a fresh note, so here is the $1 Bean and I owe you for sneaking out your window that one time.

I love you guys and wish you a lifetime of happiness.

A Series of Unfortunate Situations

Dear Hubby and I have a theory that good things cannot happen to us for too long, we both instinctively start to worry when we haven't faced some sort of challenge for too long. We were worried on the way back from our little trip to San Diego and then the tire caught on fire. Dear Hubby was then bit by a spider, the breaks on my car went out and now to top it all off Dear Hubby has broken out in a terrible rash as a reaction to one of the medications he was given for the spider bite. On a plus side this can mean that the tides can turn and we can get out of this phase, I just feel terrible that he has been so uncomfortable during all of this.

I will update about the vacation to Colorado we just got back from, we had a great time with our families. We are lucky!

Short Break

I will be on a short absence from blogosphere, the family and I are going to visit the folks back in Colorado. I will be back Tuesday with updates.
Peace, Love and Jellybeans!

On Death and Dying

While the world stops to remember Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. While people take the time to acknowledge the death of Ed McMahon, David Carradine and Billy Mays. Death goes on around us without most of acknowledging unless we are personally affected but when it happens in our lives we want the world to stop and see the pain that the loss of our loved one has caused.

Yesterday on Facebook a friend mentioned the death of Billy Mays, her friend responded that she didn't care about Billy Mays, Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett. She had lost her beloved Grandfather this week and in reading her comments her pain was palpable. She wanted people to know she loved him and in her life her Grandfather was more influential than anyone else being talked about this week.

My family experienced a loss this week also, I have not mentioned it because I felt it was too private. My Aunt passed away Wednesday after a 2 month struggle, my Uncle had to make the heart wrenching decision to take her off life support, he knew it was her wish not to be kept on artificial respiration but the choice to actually take her off was painful. She was a beautiful soul, when I was a bratty teenager she would write me letters. I thought she was great, even when I wanted nothing to do with the rest of family, she was artistic and sensitive. In my own life she was influential and she will be missed.

I was a huge Billy Mays fan, I am a sucker for infomercials and Billy could convince me I needed whatever he was selling. Especially after I bought OxiClean and it worked. I am still sad I never got a Big City Slider for my birthday, the people who know me in real life know how bad my addiction can be but apparently didn't get the hints that I do actually need the Big City Slider.

My little sister was adamant at a time in her life that she would marry either Michael Jackson or Alex Trebek and while she is getting married in December (sorry not to Alex Trebek, I think his wife would be annoyed) she was still sad at the passing of Michael Jackson.

The Rapscallion has become a full fledged MJ addict, he has sat for hours watching videos on YouTube. He has driven all of us in the household a little batty with having to listen to Beat It over and over again. I am all too happy to allow him to explore his new musical interest, I remember myself when the death of Kurt Cobain spurred my own interest in music.

This is me and Dear Hubby heading to Fort Collins for a random trip. We bought the tickets at 3 pm and flew out at 8 pm.

I called my Sister-in-Law to make sure she could pick us up from the airport in Denver, she told us that she could but that they had bought a new house and were moving this weekend. Dear Hubby had no interest in helping his brother move and called his Dad to pick us up instead. Nice, I guess that is how brothers roll.

We got into Fort Collins around 12:30, and basically went to sleep. On Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast with my Father-in-law and SMother-in-law. I had the best whole wheat pancakes and then SMother-in-law and I went shopping while Dear Hubby and his Dad went to a car show. We stopped at a little brewery called Coopersmiths and had a green chili beer, they are the best.

We went over to Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Laws new house in the afternoon after they had finished moving all their stuff with their friends. We went out that evening with them, it was crazy hanging out with them and their new house is awesome. It was owned by a hippie woman who built a rock climbing wall in the garage. I also got some bling, my Sister-in-Law convinced me to pierce my nose and I love it!

It pinched a little, and my eye watered just a little as you can see from my smeared eye make-up. I love that the shop we went to was showing Ratatouille in the background.

On Sunday we had dinner with SMother-in-Law's parents and everyone played on a Slip 'N Slide, turns out my Father-in-Law isn't as areo-dynamic as he thinks he is. Dear Hubby's cousin also came in from Aurora and it was great to see them, they just moved to Colorado from Tucson and they really love it there also.

We headed home early, early Monday morning. We were tired but it was a great trip, I love the family we have out there and we will get to go back out at the end of July when Dear Hubby's oldest brother will be out visiting also.

My Dad Wants to be Your Facebook Friend

I am lucky, I have wonderful parents. They have always supported me in whatever I want to do, I don't think I would have lasted one day as a Stepmom if I hadn't had my own mom as a wonderful example of how to be a mother/stepmother with grace and dignity. I am my Dad's daughter, I got his sense of humor and his ability to stick his foot in his mouth at just the right occasion. My parent's are proud of me, they love Dear Hubby and the Kidlet.

I know my Dad is proud of me because I can read it in his Facebook posts. Now I will admit I feel like a little kid when I read something he has posted bragging about me, especially since he likes to do it to my group of sarcastic, sh*t talking friends. Dear Hubby and his friends Tico and Sickboy started a little club, it is basically a social drinking club. Sickboy started a Facebook group and my Dad joined the group. No worries my Dad is cool! Except when he outed me as a nerd to my "cool" Facebook friends.

Oh well, I am blessed with parents that care. I am not really complaining and if you want my Dad will be your Facebook friend!

LBDCOL4L

"...Sinner"

I think I have firmly established that I am not perfect, in fact I am far from it but I received the above message from someone that stung a little. I know I should not care what other people think but sometimes I do, there was a time when I lived my life with more consideration of what people thought and since this message came from someone that knew me well during that time I guess I am a little more sensitive about it. The humor is this person doesn't know the beginning of my transgressions, they were making a statement based solely on my body art and their prejudice against it.

My path to this place in my life has not been easy, I have struggled with and against myself mostly. I have some things I am not proud of but at the same time I am not ashamed of anything I have had to go through, it has made me who I am and most days I like the woman I am. I wish I hadn't been so stubborn, maybe I would have learned the lessons that life was trying to teach me sooner.

I don't think I am done with this topic, just done for now. I need to contemplate more on why this struck me the wrong way before I can articulate it fully.

Distance and Perspective

I haven't written and alot has happened but I needed to gain distance and perspective before I could post. After leaving a friends house two weeks ago Thursday night I ended up hitting a median when my water bottle spilled. I was not aware at that moment but I had busted a hole in my oil pan. I kept driving and about a mile up the street the car started making a weird noise, I pulled over off the road and then the engine seized. Did I mention that it was 1 in the morning? Did I also mention that I was in an area of town that I don't want to be stranded in at one in the morning? I called my dear husband who came to pick me up. While he was driving us home at 2 in the morning he was pulled over for a speeding ticket.

So now my life is a battle with the insurance company, they don't want to cover the damage because they say I left the scene of the accident, remember I didn't know I had damaged the car this badly. I feel insanely terrible about this, I just don't have luck with cars. If the insurance company won't pay for the damage I am afraid that we will not be able to afford to repair the car. The car isn't paid off yet, I feel sick just typing this and thinking about the potential damage to our already shaky credit score.

My anxiety has been through the roof this last week, my husband and I have been at each others throats fighting about the most inane things because of the stress. Last week it seemed like every day was another drama or another stress added to the pile. I physically didn't know how much more I could handle.

During all of this I had my Weight Watchers meeting last Thursday, I only gained a pound. Not too bad since I was not tracking my points the way I should have been. I have moved up a notch on belt. I have been feeling a little under the weather but I think that is mostly leftover stress.

The biggest issue from all this is learning that I maybe share too much information about myself with too many people, who then feel the need to tell me how they believe I should be living my life. It is so silly but too often I still feel like a child when I talk to my parents, I guess I am still seeking their approval when I should be concentrating on my life and my family. I guess I need a little distance and perspective on that before I can post on that topic further.