"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway."

~ Mother Teresa

Auntie Time

My sister called me this morning to see if I could hang out with "Peaches" for a little while. I'm always game to hang with this hilarious little nugget. She'll be three in July and talks a mile a minute. I told her we could have some girl time. We painted our nails and she did all of her own makeup - which was hilarious. I handed her a palette of about a dozen lip colors and a lip brush and she went to town. We looked at her baby pictures on the computer, took a walk around the neighborhood, and just had an all-around good time. I love this kid.

Very focused.

She loved it and would NOT let me touch it up for her.

The blush had sound effects that sounded like the "Zs" in Zsa Zsa Gabor. I call this her Anna Nicole face.

Blush on my neck? Don't mind if I do.

She kept giving me these super serious looks and when I asked why she didn't smile, she told me she was feeling serious. Diva. 

She hooked me up too. She was thrilled when she arrived and we were both wearing pink sun-dresses.

So proud.

I found Uncle Grit's candy! Bliss!

Checking out the backyard. She was concerned that we don't have toys back there.

This one is my favorite.

I love how determined she is. She knew right where she wanted to go.

LOVE

Singing with Heart? Yes, please!

Divas |Divas Photos |Divas Video |Celebrity News

My new fave.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. I just bought tickets to go see them next month!!! I'm so excited!

Divas |Divas Photos |Divas Video |Celebrity News

When I Grow Up...

I want to be Erica Domesek.

Check out this tour of her very cool home.

Now I want one of these to organize my life with.

*sigh*

Better Late than Never!

Halloween 2009. Hee hee.
Featuring: Me as Medusa, Grit as Zeus, Peaches as some kind of Sparkly Princess and as Herself with Wig, Boodj as a Mummy, Cheeks as a Police Officer/Spider Man, Ritz as Hermione, Mika the dog as Herself, Shiny as Himself and as Himself with Wig, Spanky aka Dewey also as Himself and Himself with Wig.

Forgive me for the awful photo formatting - blogger changed it and I haven't got it wrangled yet!

Kindness

While I was stuck in traffic that literally moved at a snail's pace for 30 minutes, I saw several acts of kindness on what is otherwise a very unfriendly freeway. People drove slowly and cautiously. They paused to let one another move lanes since we all had to merge from six lanes to one. People nodded and smiled at one another and there seemed to be no rushing or rudeness. Several people cleared a path and several more jumped out of their cars to help push when an older vehicle stalled from all the idling. I still don't know the extent of the accident we passed, but I know that 4 fire engines, 4 ambulances, and several police cars usually isn't a good sign. Neither is a slow moving ambulance and a red tarp on the freeway. I prayed for those involved and for their families as I passed. I was touched by the small acts of kindness I witnessed today.

Watch This

Watch this short film, it's sweet. It's about 20 minutes long. I'll get back to posting soon.

it's all good

I love that I can vent on my blog. Kinda like how I did in my last post. This post is NOT like that. This post is about happy things.

First:
My health has improved. Naturopathic docs are AMAZING. Instead of getting a surgical consult like I was told, I made an appointment with my sister's naturopathic physician. She put me on a special diet and gave me supplements and a special herb tincture and you know what? It's working. I haven't had any gallbladder attacks and my blood work looked better after just one week. I feel so blessed. We're still taking it a day at a time and there is still a chance that I could need surgery, but it's less and less likely every day.


Second:
I'm making ends meet and have some maybe potential job prospects. Things are okay.


Third:
So far, nobody is hurt. Everything is not completely resolved and I don't know that it ever will be, but I'm okay with it. I processed it and moved on.


And last but not least...
I'm in a relationship with an adorable man. Truly. He's great. We've been keeping it on the down-low, but I'm over all that. Aren't we cute? Even though these were taken at 2am after a really long day and we're both crazy-tired... and we couldn't get our faces in sync very often? For reals... we're so adorable sometimes I can't even stand us. Hee hee. Yeah right. I can't get enough.

Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy

My birthday was yesterday. I am now 29. I was kinda freaked out about the number 29, but I got over it. The past few days have been fantastic!

Sunday my family had a barbecue for me and I took a bunch of photos with my hilarious nephews. My sister now has four chickens in her backyard and when I asked Cheeks what he named his chickens he said, "SuckyLucky." One word, two chickens. When I asked Boodji what he named his chickens he said, "Jaw and Rit." I asked him if Rit was named after Ritz, and he blushed head to toe. He is seriously crushin' on Ritzy. Can you blame him? Jaw is named after Jaws, the shark.
My sister told me that Sucky had a mishap on Sunday morning.
The boys had been playing outside when they came screaming into the house, "Luke killed Sucky! Luke killed Sucky!" My sis and bro went running out to find poor little Sucky laying motionless under a tree. Apparently, Sucky had gotten a little too close to Cheeks and he got nervous, so he smacked her with a shovel. But miracle of miracles, she was only stunned! As soon as they touched her, she jumped up and started running around. Now Cheeks preaches the importance of being nice to animals and babies to whomever will listen. It's an important lesson to learn when you are very nearly 4 years old!

Monday consisted of:
Chillin' and not working.
Quality cuddle time with my new friend.
A sleepover at Ritzy's.

Tuesday:
I woke up really early and started singing random birthday songs to myself.
Ritz took me to breakfast.
I got lots of birthday phone calls.
I spent time with Cheeks and Baby E and said hello to Sucky the miracle chicken.
I took a nap.
I went to dinner with Ritzy and Steph (thanks ya'll!!) and saw "Angels and Demons" which was AWESOME.

It's been great!! I have the greatest family and friends!

Gratitude

I have a lot of good things going on in my life right now so I'm going to make a list of things I'm grateful for.

Having a job. It may not be my favorite, but my bills are getting paid.
My ZANY and amazingly loving family.
My 2 nephews and niece who live close by and who are always as happy to see me as I am them!
My supportive, forgiving, and hilarious friends. Ya'll just get me. Thanks.
Quiet moments of introspection - there've been a lot of these lately.
Journals with lots of pages that help me get my crazy jumble of thoughts out where I can see and organize them.
A loving God who allows me to make mistakes and helps me learn from them.
A new and unexpected friend who takes long walks with me and holds my hand and is patient while I get back into the swing of this relationship thing.
Sunshine, even though I like the heat less this year than ever before.
Air conditioning.
Sundresses and flipflops.
23 lbs gone... forever.
A trip to Utah in July (20-27). I can hardly wait!!!
Life is good.

Awww, Em!

I was tagged by Em.

Here are the rules:

1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Mention the rules on your blog.

3. Tell about six quirks you have.

4. Tag six fellow bloggers to do the same.

5. Leave a comment to let them know.

Quirk #1

I am an intermittent insomniac. Sometimes I fall asleep early and sleep all night and sometimes I'm up until the sun comes up. I did not sleep last night.

Quirk #2

I secretly want to be a wedding planner... but now it's not a secret. I collect wedding magazines and have a binder with tons of ideas. I'm also kinda uptight about wedding etiquette. Call me.

Quirk #3

Sometimes when I'm sick, I put a lot more effort into the way I look. I can't stand feeling bad and looking worse. (This is also usually when I actually have the down-time to do more extensive grooming.) Sometimes employers haven't believed my claims of sickness because I showed up to work looking super hot.

Quirk #4

I love pharmacies. I can wander around in them for hours. It's weird, I know, but I really can burn a lot of time in an Eckerd or Walgreens. What? You don't read magazines all the way through before you buy them?

Quirk #5

I'm fascinated with unusual looking people and nontraditional beauty (hence my massive crush on Adrien Brody). Noses are a particular obsession of mine. I think ugly is a character trait, not a physical one.

Quirk #6
I can eat the same thing every day for months. I usually eat brown, black, or mahogany rice with a vegetable and a protein. I get on oatmeal kicks too. Chicken and rice is my comfort food. Broccoli is a miracle food! I change it up slightly, but the basics are the same. My mom thinks I'm nuts. I am, it's called OCD. Big deal!

I tag Nama, Kayla, Jon, Erika, Melissa, and Brandi... and anyone else who feels like it!

Mud

Here are some photos I've been meaning to post. A growing baby, my hilarious nephews playing in the mud, and my new-ish haircut. I've said it before, fall in the desert is like summer everywhere else. I'd really like some cooler air!



Yeah, she's wearing a 6 month dress at 3 months! Babies in my family are chubby! I love it!
The best big brother ever.
Chillin'. She really likes HGTV.
The Princess with her Daddy.



Mud, mud, mud. What more could two little boys want? I still haven't gotten all of the mud out of the pants I was wearing!



These are alligators in the mud.







This gave me flashbacks to my childhood! My Dad used to hose us down when we'd been playing outside!



It's been a few weeks, this is my new-ish haircut. These were taken last week.