It’s a NEW YEAR with new adventures, new goals and a whole new outlook.

So, each year most everyone has at least one “New Years Resolution”. For me I always try to set a few and sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t.  I work well with being held accountable. So I thought what a better way to be held accountable than to be held accountable to my blog.  That way I can look back each month and see how I’m doing and what needs a little readjustment.  I don’t have anything really major or even that interesting but they are things that I would like to work on.

1. Complete my Photoshop course by the end of March.

2. Exercise at least 3 times a week.

3. Cook dinner for myself (other than eggs, popcorn or a bowl of cereal) at least once a week.

4. Learn to say “NO” and not feel guilty about doing it.

5. Learn to sew with my new sewing machine and complete 3 projects.

6. Become more patient.

7. Take Buttons for a walk more often (that wont start until the weather is better. LOL)

8. Read a magazine and feel free to throw it out when I am done.  I have some weird thing about wanting to hold on to them.

9. Not buy another pen, pencil, marker, crayon or post it note until the ones I have are gone. (those of you that know me know that this is going to be the most difficult one to work on)

10.  Organize the mail the day I get it and not let the junk mail take over my desk.

11. Blog at least once a week even if I don’t have something special to talk about.

12. Read the calendar and publish the holiday of the day. It always puts a smile on my face.

13. Be happy/content with what I have and remember how hard I worked to get where I am.

Ok, I think that is enough.  Here goes to a fabulous 2011!! Wish me luck. 

2010

This is going to be a long sappy post so if you are looking for some entertaining reading this isn’t it. Feel free to skip over this one….

The last few days I have had a lot of time to myself and it has given me the opportunity to look back at this past year and think of all the things that I was blessed with as well has some trials that I have had to overcome.  The year didn’t start out well with Indy running away right before New Years and being hit by a car a couple weeks later but the year ended well with me finally getting the keys to my house.

I have been so blessed with a wonderful family and friends that have stood by me in difficult times and laughed with me at some of my most crazy times.  I have come to realize how much my friends and family care about me and how difficult it is for me to tell them how I feel. I will always be the first to say Thank You or I really appreciate what you have done but the very last to say I love you and as all of you know I HATE to be touched so a hug is definitely out of the question unless you are Thomas, Noelle Karly or Tyler. I know that I need to be better about that.  So here is a start….

My Mom- I know that I can count on my Mom to teach me something new.  Whenever I have wanted to start a new project as crazy as it maybe she always supports my decision.  Instead of doing what would be easiest for her (which would be doing it herself) she takes the time to sit down and teach me how to do it myself. 

She allows me to make mistakes and learn from them.  She loves me unconditionally and although I may not always do as she would or make the right decision she has never once said “I told you so”.

My Dad- He is about the hardest working man I know.  Not only does he work hard at his store but he gives of his time almost daily to his family and friends.  He never says no when asked to help and he does whatever the project is with a smile on his face. No matter how big the project is.  If he doesn’t know how to do it he will find out how and he will do it to the best of his ability.  

Like my Mom he also allows me to make mistakes and learn from them.  He loves me unconditionally and although I may not always do as he would or make the right decision he has never once said “I told you so”.

Troy- Has always been the strong one. If I need advice or someone to help me think something through and see both sides before making a decision.  I know that I can always count on him to tell a story and make me laugh. 

Kelly- Is in a league of her own.  She truly is my very best friend.  I don’t know many sisters that are as close as we are. We think the same things, we come out of the house wearing the same thing, we laugh at the most ridiculous things (like  “they need a good home.. not one with druuuggggs”)  and we share our most embarrassing moments but most importantly we are always there to support each other.   I don’t know what I would do without her. I know that I can tell her anything without her judging me.  I can count on her to pick me back up when I’ve fallen. I know that I can call her at all hours of the day even if it’s just something crazy without her asking why I’m calling at 1:00AM. I know that she would do anything for me.  She is my rock and I have no idea where I would be without all that she has done and sacrificed for me.  

Julie- Tells it like it is.  I know that she will never holds back and she will be honest.  I love that she calls me just to say hello and see what’s going on.  I love that she tells me stories about Tyler and I love our webcam time.  I love that she makes me laugh and that I can be myself around her.  I really did gain a sister when she and Troy got married!

Thomas- I love this boy more that I can put into words.  It’s the strangest felling and I really don’t know how to explain it.  I love that he is so loving, I love that he will ask to go on a “date” with me, I love that when he sees me walk in the door he runs to give me a hug and yells “Auuuntie”. I love that he thinks of others and their feelings.  I love his smile and bright blue eyes.

Noelle- Is a miniature me.  She teaches me patients and how to slow down and just enjoy the moment.  I love her bright smile and all of her facial expressions.  I love her intuitiveness. I love how she cares for her babies.  I love how much she loves her baby sister.  I love that no matter how busy I am she will make me stop to have a conversation with her, read her a book, or sit and play with her.  She makes me laugh on a daily basis with her imagination and perspective.

Tyler- I love that he calls me Auntie Shell.  I love that no matter how much time goes by that I haven’t seen him he knows me and isn’t hesitant to play with me.  I love his bright hazel eyes and his contagious smile. 

Karly- She may only be 7 months old but she has taught me more in the past year than anyone or anything.  She strong and she is a fighter. She has a huge smile and bright blue eyes and she loves to be held.

Dave- I love that he has compassion and wants to do the right thing.  Even when it isn’t easy or the “popular” thing he does it anyways.  I love that he has compassion for the little kids at the hospital. I love that he watches over me and always wants me to feel safe in my home. I love that he is always willing to help me with something around the house. I really really love when he mows my lawn and plants beautiful flowers for me.

Chris- I love that each time I see him he asks how “my people” are doing (meaning my clients). I love that he treats my Mom with respect.  I love that he is always willing to help.  I love his stories about work and I love that he isn’t shy about telling them.

Christina- I love what an example she is to me.  I love that I can call her after not talking to her in months and how it feels like it was yesterday.  I love her generosity and the love that she shows to those that she comes into contact with.  I love getting her perspective on things.  I love that she sets goals and she really does accomplish them. 

Wanda- I love that she gets me.  I love that I can make a plan with her and be able to call and say I’m just to tired and she isn’t upset and that she knows and does the same thing to me.  I love that she calls me daily on her way home from work to just see how my day went.  I love that we can laugh about the difficult things that come up and that we support each other when life gets difficult.  I love that I can trust her with a secret. 

Cassandra- I love that she loves me for who I am and doesn’t expect or want me to be anything but who I am.  I love that she feels free to question me about what I believe to be true and why.  I love that she laughs at all my idiosyncrasies.  I love that she calls and asks for advise and that she knows that I will keep what she says between us.  

To all the rest of my friends and coworkers I want you to know how much I have appreciated your support, kind words of wisdom and the love that you have shown me over the past year. Thank you for being who you are and doing the things that you do.

Thank you all for the role that you play in my life and for love and support that you have given me.  I am truly blessed to have each one of you in my life. 

I love you all!!!

My first Christmas in my house

I’ve been thinking about decorating for Christmas since the first day I moved in.  Trying to figure out how I would fit all my decorations in a much smaller living room than I had last year.  My original of putting the tree in the front window didn’t work but I think it turned out great and I love looking at the Christmas each night.  I wish I could leave them up all year long.

 

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with two delicious meals. The Sunday before we celebrated at Kelly’s house with my Dad.  My Dad made a fantastic prime rib. Kelly made fantastic deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pies and baked potatoes.

 

Thomas washed the celery and did the dishes

Kelly and I made a fresh blueberry pie

We had a great day!

Then on Thanksgiving day we went to Mom’s house and had a fabulous dinner with Chris and his Mother.  We started the day by giving Karly rice cereal for the second time (the first time a couple of weeks ago didn’t go so well). The second time didn’t go so well either.  She has no desire to eat cereal.    The the kids and I headed to Grandpa’s house for the day.  That evening we met Kelly and Dave at Mom’s for dinner.

Mom made another fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional fixings.  

Buttons vs. hearing aids who won?

Earlier this year my Dad ventured out and got himself hearing aids.  Kelly and I were very impressed and proud of him for doing this on his own. So, during the summer when we noticed him not wearing them anymore we were disappointed.  Every time we saw him we asked him why he wasn’t wearing them and he would say he didn’t like wearing them on the weekends, he forgot to put them in, he already taken them out for the day excuse after excuse. 

Then one Sunday when we were at his house watching football he went in to take a shower and came back down with a little baggie and said this is why he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. 

Buttons was staying with him while I was living with Kelly.  Well one day (months earlier) when he went into to take a shower he took them out and put them on a towel on the bathroom counter. Buttons had gotten the towel off the counter and got a hold of the hearing aids and chewed them up!!! 

My Dad knowing that I would be devastated to know that she destroyed them decided not to tell me or Kelly.  He thought he would save up some money and get new ones and then tell us.  So the day prior to him telling us he decided to call the audiologists office to order new ones and found out the his warranty covered them 100%.  Now that’s a good warranty.  He had new ones within a couple of weeks.

Bad Dog Buttons, Bad Dog!!

 

HOME SWEET HOME

Back in January I decided that I was going to purchase a house this year.  I didn’t really have any expectations and I had no idea how to do it but I knew if I was ever going to get to be a homeowner that now was the time.  Kelly was planning on putting the house that I was living in up for sale and had hoped to have it sold by the time Karly came.  Although I knew I wanted to buy a house the whole idea of it made me nervous and gave me anxiety.  So I put it off and put it off until it was too late.  Kelly put her house up for sale in April and it sold the first week that it was on the market.  I had to be out by the end of May.  I ended up moving in with Kelly and Dave the second week of May and Karly came just a couple weeks later.  After Karly came buying a house got put on the back burner.  Everyone's focus was on Karly and getting her well enough to come home from the hospital and then once she was home other things took priority. 

For some reason things in my life have always been just a little bit harder to achieve than normal.   I honestly never thought that I would be a homeowner.  I have always dreamed of having a house of my own but in the back of my mind I never thought that it was possible for a single person that makes just a decent living would be able to afford to buy a house alone. I tried to prepare by saving as much money as possible, staying out of debt and keeping my credit score high.  That way if the time ever came that it would be possible I was prepared.  I had learned to appreciate the things I had and be grateful for the opportunities that I had to experience new things. I was content with my life.  I have a great job that I love going to each day,  a job that allowed me to support myself and have a little extra at the end of the month to put into savings,  a great family that is loving and supportive,  a few really good friends that genuinely love me  would do anything for me,  2 nephews and 2 nieces that I adore and make me happier than they will ever know and a dog that I love. 

Then one day my Mom called and said that a house came up for sale down the street from her and she thought I should take a look at it. At first I was really resistive and didn’t want to go see it because I thought I would get disappointed and in my mind there was no way that I would ever be able to get a house on my own. She didn’t give up though and called me everyday for a week asking if I had called to set up an appointment to go see it. I decided to call, Sheri Midgley she had just got done selling Kelly’s house and she has been a family friend for several years.   Sheri got right on it and scheduled an appointment for later in the week .  I ended up  really really liking the house and thought it was perfect for me and Buttons.  I went ahead and put an offer on it.  After several days of not hearing from the bank that owned it the call finally came in.  I was out bid. I was really really disappointed.  After that one I kept looking at houses in the same neighborhood. I ended up putting offers on 3 other houses.  One of which I actually got and had a contract and then someone stole the air conditioning unit from it and the owner didn’t want to replace it so I ended that deal. At that point I was done.  I was tired of getting disappointed and I didn’t really see anything in my price range that I liked.

Then out of the blue one day I decided to look at a house that had been listed for awhile that I really liked but it was out of my price range.  It was my lucky day though. They had lowered price  that day and it was in my price range.  I had Sheri take me by to see it again and then had my parents look at and decided that this was the one!  I put an offer on it on August 16th.  Then a week later found out that there were other offers and the seller wanted time to think about the offers.  He finally decided to take my offer! I was so stoked and so grateful.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I can honestly say that I have never been so stressed and filled with anxiety as I was during this process.  I was physically ill for weeks and was on the chicken broth, 7- up, yogurt and graham cracker diet for several weeks.  I vomited in more parking lots and public bathrooms than I can count.

On October 28th I was sitting at the table carving pumpkins with the kids and just started to cry out of nowhere.  I was supposed to hear from the mortgage company earlier in the day  if the loan was going to be approved. A few days earlier I found out that the bank had made a mistake on my credit report regarding an old student loan that had been paid off years ago but showed up as disputed.  It had to be removed from my credit report immediately in order for the loan to be approved. I thought it was going to take a miracle for the bank to notify the credit reporting agency and for the credit reporting agency to get it removed within the time frame that the seller gave us. All of the sudden that evening  it just hit me that I hadn’t heard anything from the mortgage company.  I took that as bad news.  But 5 minutes later I received the call saying that the house was MINE! I just needed to go to the title company to sign the papers the following week.  I couldn’t believe it.

 

Finally after almost 2 1/2 months I got the keys to MY HOUSE on November 1st!!!  I have never been so excited, proud, or grateful in all my life.  I had finally done it.  I finally had something of my very own that I worked really hard for and earned on my own.  For a few moments (in private) I shed a few tears.  I was getting ready to start a new chapter of my life and I am excited to see what will happen next.

 

The day had finally come!!!  The following day I went and ordered the carpet and had it installed a couple of days later.  Called the moving company and scheduled them for the day after.  My Dad and Dave worked really really hard for several days before I moved in to get an indoor/garage kennel made for Buttons. They mowed the lawns (I have a corner lot so there is a HUGE front and backyard) and installed locks in the house. And Dave spent an entire day hanging up blinds throughout the house.

 

Horrible picture but the only one I have.  Sorry guys!!!!

My Mom came in and lined cabinets.

Chris fixed the leaky bathroom sink, caulked the shower, and hung the blinds in my bedroom.

I choose the absolutely worst day to move.  The first big storm of the year. Moving in the rain stinks!!!  Hiring a moving company was the best decision and use of money that I have ever made.

After the movers left, Kelly came with the kids to help unpack.

     

Then Kelly came and spent the following week with me.  She helped me unpack and organize everything. She bought me shelves for the garage, a new shower head, a doorbell, more things than I can even list.  I truly have the most supportive and loving family and I couldn’t have done any of this without them.   They stood by me through the entire process.  Putting up with my tears, my disappointments, excitement, my vomiting, and never once was there a complaint by any of them. I will never be able to repay them for what they have done.

I also have to say that I had the best real estate agent around.   She walked me through everything and kept me calm when I thought I was going to loose my patients with the whole deal. Every single time I emailed her I got a response within 30 minutes.  If I left her a message she called me back within the hour. It didn’t matter what day it was or what time it was. She went out of her way to explain things to me that I didn’t understand.  She went above and beyond in every aspect of buying this house. So if you live in the area you should contact her.  Her website is http://sherimidgley.com

Here are some before and after pictures of the house. I haven’t gotten everything decorated the way it should be because I’m going to decorate for Christmas this coming week so I didn’t want to put everything up and then take it all down again the next week. I’m hoping this coming weekend to get the rooms organized a little better and all of the holiday decorations up.  I’ll put better pictures up then.

 

Family room  

Kelly and I put the cabinet together and hung it all by ourselves!

my room

Thomas’ room

Noelle and Karly’s room

So there it is My HOME SWEET HOME!!!  I have just spent my first week here alone and it is going to take sometime to get used to but I’m loving every minute of it. 

 

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween. The kids had a blast carving pumpkins at Grandpa’s house and with Grandma at home. I decided this year to carve a polka dot pumpkin.

Thomas was a ninja

Noelle was a cupcake

Karly was a chili pepper

Thomas was with his Dad on Halloween so he didn’t get to trick or treat with us.  The girls went around the court and to a few houses down the street.  Then we went to visit Grandpa, Grandma and then to the hospital to visit Dave.  Noelle loved getting all that candy.