Sentimentality

In an effort to condense the amount of junk we have I have been going through boxes after boxes of papers. To give you an idea, I had about 5 good sized boxes of stuff with just papers in it. I have shrunk it down to one....and my filing cabinet. What I found in these boxes are slightly disturbing and baffles my mind in what the heck I was thinking. For example. I found my Spanish language notes from 6th grade, all of which I already know those words, so why am I even considering hanging on to it?!? Notes from Junior High and High school classes. In my defense I do remember Ms. Smith once saying to hang on to your notes in case of a catastrophe and your notes might be the only thing to teach your children from, and she was a history teacher. Looking back on it now, I think she was kinda joking. At least I hope, because the notes are now in the recycling bin. My calculus assignments, my art history flash cards, my chicken scratch chemistry notes, my gender roles in America college course guide, along with many many others.

What I came across with that I just couldn't seem to part with. That is the picture you see in the top corner. In it contains any scrap of paper that meant anything to me that was given to me by another person. In it contains birthday cards, thank you notes, notes from my friends. As I got older it started to include missionary farewells, wedding announcements. Among some of the people who might read this blog, I guarantee to you that your name is somewhere signed in among this stack of papers and cards. Try me and I can tell you what it is that your wrote and around what age we were when you wrote it. It further went on to include my children's cards, important events that happened that had a piece of paper attached to it like zoo trips, first movie trips, etc. The thing that I found that cracked me up the most, but I am still hanging on to it, is the top of a to go box that my husband and I drew on top of together while we were dating. Given I have all of the other endearing and loving cards and hand written notes he has ever given to me, along with every petal from every time he ever bought me flowers. I may have to become practical and give up the petals. The bag is quite large, and he has upgraded to live plants that I have to keep alive. The current one is an orchid sitting on my kitchen table. The other is the mum planted in the planter box in our front yard from the year we moved in. It has since gone wild, and most of the other plants have died....like the hydrangea. So I am a sentimental fool. Also to note that by the time I was done compiling everything I had another box just as big as these two filled with sentimental papers as well.

The one last thing I found was a paper full of quotes that I used to stick up in my friend Allene's lock every day (or at least I tried) through at least one year of high school. I will end my blog with the quotes that were left.

"All you need is love"- John Lennon

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love"-Lao-tzu

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it"-Mark Twain

"Peace like charity, begins at home"

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable"-Benjamin Franklin

"You never know what happiness a simple act of kindness will bring about"-Bree Abel

"If God can work through me, he can work through anyone."-St Francis of Assisi

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my goodness you learn"-C.S. Lewis

"The more we know the better we forgive. Whoever feels deeply, feels for all who live"-Madame de Stael.

The rest of the quotes I didn't have credit for, as is due to the original authors.

*Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, event and outcomes. It is a catalyst....a spark that creates extraordinary results.

*A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. In the end, leaders are much like eagles....the do not flock, you find them one at a time.

*What we can easily see is only a small percentage of what is possible. Imagination is having the vision to see what is just below the surface; to picture that which is essential, but invisible to the eye.

*Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed...every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter weather you are a lion or a gazelle...when the sun comes up, you better be running.

*I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good I can do, or any kindness that I can show, let me do now for I shall not pass this way again.

*Believe in yourself. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face...You must do that which you think you can not do-Elenor Roosevelt.

*Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

*The race goes not always to the swift...but to those who keep on running

*Every job is self portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence

*Greatness is not where we start, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it-but sail we must, and not drift-Nordic Afancher

*Wisdom is knowing what path to take next. Integrity is taking it

*A ship in the harbor is safe...But that's not what ships were made for.

Ring

I think I've learned my lesson to not tempt the fates. After being at work for about 10 minutes yesterday, with knocking things over and spilling things multiple times I joked with the pharmacist that she would have wished I would have just stayed in bed that day. Now more than her, I am almost wishing that myself. For those of you that don't already know, I have lost the big diamond off my wedding ring. I have a nagging feeling that it made its way into somebodies prescription bag that I was helping. FYI if they tell you when they sell you the ring to be weary of the diamond falling out, also make note that the prongs that attach the diamond to the rest of the ring need to be checked too. The most ironic thing about it is, that when we bought the ring the jeweler said that sleeping with the ring on it would wear it down and we would likely loose one of the diamonds. I was a good wife and never slept with it on, for crying out loud I wouldn't use the restroom and keep it on my finger for fear it would fall off in the flushing basin by some odd twist of fate. I only wore it when I went outside the house, because it kind of felt like leaving the house with out pants on if I did. Stewing about it won't bring it back. My husband still loves me, and that's more important than the ring itself.
The other interesting fact is that one of the girls I work with got a call earlier that day from her husband to call him right away. Come to find out he got his hand smashed under a forklift, and when they pulled it back off his hand was obviously bruised, but his wedding ring that was supposed to be indestructible was in 3 pieces. Last I heard his hand was alright, just sad about the ring.
The one good piece of news is that Ali now has her 6th permanent tooth coming in after literally pushing out the baby tooth today. Started to dejunk around my house and realized that I was indeed starting to become a pack rat. I will stop that dead in its tracks!!! So my project for the next little while is discovering hidden treasures and junk to throw out.

Lemons and Lemonade

The short story. Ok....no the short story is even too long.
Recent events: We paid off our 2nd vehicle on the 6th in the morning. That afternoon while my husband went to pick up our kids from school the "Transmission" light went on. Ok, given we knew that it was going south, but we were hoping that it would last a little longer. So we are once again a one car family. Mind you we drive an OLD 2 door escort with 3 kids. Surprisingly the fights in the back seat have not gotten worse, only stayed about the same. The lack of radio has inspired more talking amongst the family. The lack of a good working heater has helped convince my kids in the morning that they HAVE to wear a coat, because it is obviously cold. So on the bright side...we still have one vehicle. :) So if something else gets added to this pile of things that aren't great in my life, go ahead. I don't know what could be thrown at me that I couldn't get past...with enough time. I think I eat stress for a regular meal, and my body has become dependent on it like smokers to nicotine. Ok, I really hope not, but it does seem a little plausible. Any of you out there have a regular dose of stress for daily consumption?

I was tagged....Honest Scrap

Ok, so apart of this tag I am supposed to give 10 "juicy" things about myself. "Juicy" and me have never really coincided or really ever been in the same room for that fact. So I guess I will give 10 things about myself that most people won't know, or those who do will remember vaguely. That and considering my sister tagged me almost a week ago, I need to stop slacking and figure it out. :P

1. I enjoyed the wrong part of highschool. To put it simply I didn't really break out of my shell till about a year after I was married. I liked going to classes and learning, looking back on it, but the social aspect just reminds me of anxiety. If I had relaxed a little bit maybe I would of had more fun.

2. My sister who "To dink or not to Dink" once told me when I was little that I was so uptight that she could put a piece of coal between my butt cheeks, that she would find a diamond there by the end of the day. I was a pretty uptight child.

3. I LOVE stale popcorn! It started when "Sea Monkeys" would have movie nights at our house growing up with friends or boyfriends. I had to go to bed early and couldn't have the treats that they had, and it utterly annoyed me. So I would wake up early the next Saturday morning to watch cartoons and eat their stale left over popcorn and treats that they left out.

4. I hated my dimples growing up. I would hide my face if I were smiling so that people wouldn't see them, even tried a modified smile that didn't really look like a smile, but it all still showed my dimples despite my efforts to conceal them.

5. I had a mild crush on the same boy growing up for most of my childhood. Thought he was cute at a young age, and never really changed that opinion. I even asked him out once but completely blew the date.

6. I once warned my son who had hit his sister that if he I saw him ever hit her again that I would tape his hands together. So he did about 5 minutes later, and I taped his hands toghether and he couldn't stop laughing. After a half an hour I took the tape off (because he was in time out in his room still laughing) when he promised he wouldn't do it again. He then proceeded to tell every one we ran into for the next week, store clerks, family, neighbors, strangers, the whole time laughing about it. I learned that he does better with time outs and privilidges taken away.

7. Let me preface that I am the youngest of 5 kids, which means I have 3 older sisters and one older brother. When I was little and didn't know about the facts of life I kept thinking that my sisters were unwrapping chocolate and eating it in the bathroom, around the same time every month.

8. I've seen at least 3 Planet of the Ape movies, and have to say that it took a great deal of stamina to stay awake to watch the whole thing... I may have to change that number to 2 and a half.

9. My poor cousin Jodi! To add to my list of uptight children aspects. She was making me a peanut butter and jam sandwich at their house that was directly behind mine growing up. She didn't make the sandwhich the same way that my Mom made them. She put the Jam on one side of the bread and the peanut butter on the other side and then put the two pieces together. My mom would put the peanut butter on and then spread the jam over the top of the peanut butter, then put the other slice of bread on. Apparently this upset me greatly, because I remember running out of their kitchen and all the way home crying.

10. We lived close to a shopping complex that was a walk away from our appartment when we were first married. About a month into the marriage we were walking with friends to go to dinner at Wingers that was just a walk away. While we were walking two teenage girls started eyeing my husband and his friend and said "hi" rather enticingly. My reaction is not what I would have expected. I put my hand in her face showing my wedding ring and said "Excuse ME!" Not my finest moment. My husband still laughs about it though. He thought he was going to have to stop me from fighting her. (I'm rolling my eyes at the thought)

So now I am supposed to tag people. To be honest there are very few followers of my blog. That would leave the person who tagged me, which now is inellidgible, and then there is the people that she already tagged... So I guess who ends up getting tagged are the people who come upon my blog that know me. The only people I can think of that might pop in every once in a while is Anita, Wendy, Heather, and Susan. So tag if you are "fortunate" enough to pop in and read my blog. :)

Mermaid Hair

There is a tradition that was started by my Aunt Robin. It all started with me as a little girl, not wanting to take a bath. We were visiting in Nevada my mom's relatives, and she was given the job of watching me while I bathed. (I must have been too young to be by myself). After saying I didn't want to put my hair in the water, she asked me if I wanted to find out if I had mermaid hair or not. Ok, what little girl could resist that? My hair was long, so I thought I was a shoe in, but I had to know for sure. Sure enough, my aunt Robin confirmed that I had mermaid hair as I let my hair float around in the water. The trick to getting me help wash my hair as a little girl.
So as I fought with my three year old to get her hair wet in the bath tub this morning, when it dawned on me this morning. Can we find out if the cheesy child has mermaid hair?! The answer is yes, and it is so much easier than hearing her scream when I pour water over her head. The trick to getting her out of the tub, is ask her to look at her fingers and tell her that her fingers are going to turn in to prunes, and when she sees that her fingers are that way, she is ready to get out. Oh the tricks we play to get our kids to willingly comply with what we need to have done.