Please do sign my guest book!

Decades or Dec-aches?

Now that I am walking three or more times a week (to keep some sort of figure), I have a lot more time to reflect on my life.

Today my thoughts went to the sad shape of our economy. How my company is going to be laying off more of my co-workers today or tomorrow. We already went through a 40% down sizing and now more to come. I have been told I am again safe through this round of cuts. I started feeling guilty about not losing my job. I know some that will lose their jobs are soul providers for their households.

I tried to think of encouraging things to tell them. I began to reflect on times in my life that something heartbreaking or painful happened and how I dealt with it. I came to the decision that those of us that carry the belief that:

Things happen for a reason.
That there is a plan in place for all of us.
That God won't put more on us than we can bear.
When one door closes a window opens.
(are you getting my drift?) hehehe

That these people probably will land on their feet every time. I do believe all of those things but with a clause! God (your creator of choice) doesn't really have my next job lined out. He doesn't have every day of my life planned. He does provide me with the power to choose right from wrong. He gives me compassion to help others in need. He gives me family to lean on when times are tough. He is always there for me when I feel I can't make it another day.

Those things bring peace to me when others feel abandoned in a time of crisis. For those who suffer from Why Me?, and Bad things always happen to me!, or whatever label they apply to their pain.... it adds more suffering and hurt to a bad enough situation. Now don't get me wrong, if I were on the cut list I would most certainly be stressed, scared, worried, etc. That's only human and how we grow. But in the end I would pick up the phone and call Mom or Matt or D or M or SR or DJ or Christi or Leigh Ann....etc you get the picture... that's my family.

No matter what happens with material things or even my health.. BEING NUMBER FIVE is the greatest blessing I ever received.

Must Read.....

A couple of my best blogger galpals are writing chapters in an ongoing story. I was hooked from the first glance of the title. "Past Lives"


Please take the time to read it. It is short and you will be hooked as I am.
First click here --> Lillys Life and read the first chapter. She has a link to ---> Vikki's blog for the second chapter.

You never know where the next chapter takes David the main character! (or who will be writing up coming chapters).....hmmmm


Past Lives
To read each of David’s Past Life Regression Stories:

Past Lives Part 1- Lilly/ Lilly’s Life

Past Lives Part 2- Vikki/ The Red Chair Gallery

Past Lives Part 3- Lilly/ Lilly's Life

Past Lives Part 4- Lou Ceel

Past Lives Part 5- Dina/ Deepwater Journal

Past Lives Part 6- Vikki/ Red Chair Gallery

Past Lives Part 7- Jules/ Arduous Nincompoop

Past Lives Part 8- Rocksnowhite (coming soon)

My hero!

If yall get sick of me bragging about my family, DEAL WITH IT! hahhaaha
I can't help but share my awesome fortune with yall.

Today my post is about my little brother. We will call him "M" for privacy sake!
(hehehehehehe we all know who he is)
Anyway.
He is one of the most considerate humans on the face of the earth. Seriously.
Starting with when I was young and always embarrassed when Valentines day rolled around and all the girls at the office got flowers and candy but me. M caught on to that and immediately started a tradition of sending flowers to me and my mama every single Valentines day and Birthday!

He puts considerable thought into gifts. Not just the ol walk around the mall and find something they may like. He thinks of your hobbies, your daily activities, and every possible thing to find the perfect gift. One that pops into my mind is a Swarovski crystal horse he got me one year. I owne a palomino named Gator. I loved that horse. I also adore anything from Swarovski. He saw it and knew I had to own it. Even though he would NEVER consider spending this amount of money on himself, he did't think twice about buying it for me.

He is the least self important person I know. I think he spends most of his time worrying about his family and friends. He adores his to dogs Rex and Beasley. When he does purchase something for himself much research goes into the process.

I feel guilty for trying to push him into charity work too, but feel his calling is helping others. If I had one wish for M, it would be that he won the lotto. I can't even imagine the good that boy could do with millions of dollars. I can guarantee ya, he wouldn't be living in a mansion. He wouldn't employ a servant. There would be new programs for the homeless, SPCA, and orphans.

What a blessing God gave our family.

My honey and my pet family!

This is the view from my back patio. I sit at my computer and view that every day! What a blessing.









One of the twins we raised after his mama died.










Okay girls, eat your heart out. This is the love of my life! How lucky am I?











This is me and Elvis. He is a very special angel dog!

This is Willie giving me a kiss! What a sweetie..














This is my bestest buddy's in the whole world, my mama, my sister and me!












Now I might be prejudice, but now I ask you...is this a handsome guy or what? (my brother Matt) heheheheheheh he's gonna kill me.

How I ended up here.

I was inspired by GAfarmgirl to tell y'all how we ended up here in the country, 40 miles NW of everything.

When I was 24 years old I bought my first house. I was single but working very hard as a finance manager at a car dealership. The pay was very good but the hours were unbelievably long.

Since my job was to sell car loans to bankers, I made some good friends at the local banks. One of the loan officers was shocked I was paying $900 per month for a 2 bedroom apt. He suggested I look at some of their foreclosures. It was a scary thought to buy my own home but I decided to look in to it.

The first house I went to see was located in a gated golf course community. It was a nice home for the times. (circa 1986) It was what I ended up buying after looking at half a dozen more houses.

8 years later I met Bobby. He was totally different than my previous boyfriends and I was totally smitten. He moved in with me (yes we lived in sin) and quickly decided he hated the "Stepford Village" mentality of the neighborhood. Everyone was nosy and there was no privacy. We had a fleeting idea to go look at land in the country to some day move to and build a home on.

Like the quick decision on my house we fell in love with the first property we saw. It was 25 acres and owned by a family that I swear must have been related to Fred Sanford! There was junk from on end of the property to the other. Luckily we could see the potential. There was a beat up old 1976 single wide mobile home that was used primarily for hunting lodging.

Bobby and I talked about keeping my house and spending weekends at the trailer. Once we decided that we liked staying there more than in town, we gutted the trailer and totally remodeled the interior. Now I am blessed with a husband that can weld, plumber, electrician, and so on. I also am blessed with 6 multi-talented brothers!

Everyone pitched in and put a brand new kitchen and bath. New floors. Turned one of the two bedrooms into my closet-dressing room. It was darling! The place came with a long covered porch and a hot tub on the end.

My co-workers and family members didn't have faith that I would adjust to country living and roughing it. Bobby and I made a decent wage but wanted to stay in the trailer for 5 years and get the land paid for before we built our dream house.

We did very well at paying off the land and decided to build a 30 x 50 shop for Bobby before the house. Most people told me I was a sucker for that but Bobby explained that he could do a lot of the work himself on the house if he had a shop!
Well as it turns out, every time I would ask B to do a project he would explain how if he had this saw or this tool he could do it. hahahha He's no dummy.

We took all the new kitchen cabinets and etc from the trailer and put it in the shop and built an apartment to live in while we built the house. It was so much like camping to me. I always looked forward to coming home to the country after a day of work in the city. The drive was over an hour one way but didn't bother me at all. Still doesn't.

That's all for now.
More later gators!

How I ended up here part II

We spent 5 years in the little trailer. It was cramped but fun. Like I said, it felt like camping! Bobby was so sweet. He did everything to make sure I was happy out here in the country.

I had a few conversations with him about his lack of interest in Birthday, special occasions, any gift giving occasion really. Since my last relationship was a total exercise in emotional bankruptcy, I didn't want to experience anything similar with Bobby. I explained to him it's not the $$ value of a gift, it's the idea that someone sat and thought about something that they wanted to do for you on that special day. He got the idea but felt even more pressure. It's just not in his thought process. He will do anything for me on a daily basis so why is a BD or anniversary any different. He had a point I have to admit.

One thing I honestly missed was soaking in my bath tub. I loved it when we would visit Mom or his parents for the weekend and I would get to take a long bath. Our trailer had only a shower. When we built the shop we built a full kitchen and bathroom with a steam shower but again, no tub. One evening I came home from a very long hard day at work. (By this time we were living in the shop and construction started on the house)

Bobby greeted me when I pulled up and handed me a glass of wine. This was strange for him to greet me outside but the wine was welcomed! He took me by the hand and opened the door to the shop and it was dark save for a path of candles leading to a water trough filled with hot soapy water! Yes friends he took a big long water trough we bought at tractor supply (for me to use as a tiny swim pool but never did) and cleaned it for my tub. It took him hours to fill it. He used all the hot water our small water heater had and had to boil more. He said it kept cooling very fast being a galvanized tub on concrete. I never arrived home at a precise time so that also was tough for him to gauge.

I was blown away. I soaked in that tub until I was a prune. That is one of the best gifts I had ever received. I will never forget it.

Another year in the trailer he planned yet another wonderful surprise. When we were dreaming about what features we wanted in our new house, I constantly asked about water features. I spend countless hours watching HGTV and decorating shows. I always love the ones where they incorporate a water fall or fountain right in the house.
He hated the idea! He said it's a maintenance nightmare. I knew i was going to press for something!

One night I was watching TV he came in and asked me if I wanted to see something cool. I grabbed my sneakers and headed out to find our 4 wheeler with a trailer attached. He had put blankets and pillows on the trailer and asked me to climb on and drove me down to our pond. He parked on the edge of the pond and disappeared in some bushes off to the side. I was wondering what the heck he had planned. All of a sudden lights came on under water in the middle of our pond and a plume of water shot up to the sky. He had made a fountain for me in the center of our pond!

He climbed on the trailer with me and our golden retriever "Chloe" and we three sat and stared at our glorious fountain under a starry sky! Now Girls did my talk pay off or what???