Facebook Fast

Last Sunday, I dropped my totally awesome touchscreen smart phone and the screen shattered. I realized pretty quickly just how dependent I have become on my phone for staying connected 24/7. I used my phone to check my email and my Facebook a zillion times a day. And when I wasn't checking my email or Facebook I was playing a game or watching something on Netflix. I never went anywhere without my phone.

I decided to use this time to suspend my Facebook account on my computer as well. I didn't want to be tied down to my computer checking updates that were sent to my email. As strange as it sounds, now that I am "off the grid" I feel a sense of freedom. I plan on reactivating my account once my phone is fixed (I sent it off Monday to get the screen repaired) but for now I am on a Facebook fast.

Handbook for Life

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. MAKE TIME TO PRAY
6. Play more games
7. Read more books .
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minute walk daily, and while you walk, smile.
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't overdo. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree....
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend more time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So ... be happy.

Three is the Magic Number

In the mornings Lucas usually crawls into bed with me sometime after Curt leaves for work. He will snuggle with me while he watches TV and it buys me a few more minutes of precious sleep. When he starts asking me to make breakfast I will roll out of bed. However, if we have cereal in the house he will usually fix himself breakfast, even going as far as getting out a bowl from the cabinet. We no longer keep locks on the fridge or cabinets because he seems to have outgrown his old habits (knock on wood!)

Well, this morning I found his little table set up with three cups and three bowls of cereal. One bowl was empty, Goldilocks style. I was starting to wonder if maybe Luc now has some imaginary friends when he told him that he made breakfast for himself, me, and his father. Of course a few minutes later he changed his story and said the extra two bowls were for Shane and Colby, and then Gabe and David.

FINALLY FIXED

So after almost 2 weeks and 5 different techs coming out to our house (and countless phone calls and 2 emails to Comcast customer service) we are finally able to get online anytime we want. We were also credited $25. I think what finally helped us get things fixed were the 2 emails I sent in. After the emails were sent suddenly I had the Comcast corporate office calling me and moving my appointment up from Thursday to Tuesday and crediting me back the money without me having to call billing and dealing with it myself.

I'm not the only one hating Comcast lately. Turns out Grandma's aren't fond of Comcast and soon people that use a lot of broadband will be jumping on the anti-Comcast wagon.

It's ComCRAPstic

Yeah, still doesn't work. We had our 3rd tech come out and tell us that there was no problem. Less than 2 hours after he left it went out again and is still out (I am at my parents' house.) I called CS for the 4th time and now they say nobody can come out not until Thursday. I am seriously thinking we need to switch to another provider.

Annoyed

Since last Friday our Internet only works when it wants to (usually a few random hours everyday.) So far we've had 2 crews come out and check it and the problem is somewhere outside. We're supposed to have a 3rd crew come out on Friday. Customer Service has assured us once the problem is fixed (whenever that is) they will credit our account for the time our service was messed up. So if I don't post as often or it takes me FOREVER to respond to your email, now you know why.

We Won!

I entered Curt in the Ultimate Outdoor Dad Photo Contest and we won a yearlong ParkPass to all of Georgia's State Parks and Attractions!

Me Too!

When Curt hurt his back a few months ago Lucas started going up to him and saying "My back hurts!" We thought it was funny and ever since when something happens to him he either exaggerates the details or if something happens to someone else it of course happened to him too.

A few weeks ago when we were at the beach and Lucas had the tiniest little cut on a finger it was "a shark bit my finger!"

Today while watching Clifford he came up to me while I was folding laundry and said "my foot hurts like Clifford's!" Then when I was doing the dishes while Lucas was watching Caillou he ran over to tell me "I'm scared! I don't want to go down the slide?"

I hope Lucas doesn't grow up to be like Penelope. :-)

Happy Mommy Day

Why we celebrate Mother's Day

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
'If you're going to kill each other , do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL .
'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
'Because I said so, that's why.'

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.'

7. My mother taught me IRONY
'Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about.'

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA. '
You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.' 1

2. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.'

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
'Stop acting like your father!'

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
'Just wait until we get home.'

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING .
'You are going to get it when you get home!'

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.'

19. My mother taught me ESP.
'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .
'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.'

22.My mother taught me GENETICS.
'You're just like your father.'

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'

25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE
'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.

Painted Pots

*And yes for the record my son is wearing the same shirt he wore yesterday afternoon, but he's got nothing on this kid.

Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked her daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked,'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup,a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May we all be like the COFFEE!

Magnetic Poetry #2

Give it a try. You know you want to!

Magnetic Poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month why don't you go play with your words.

Now You Know My ABC's

Leah is said I had to do this so I am. ;-)

A- Attached or Single? Married almost 7 years
B- Best Friend? My sister.
C- Cake or Pie? Cake, but it has to have frosting (Mom)
D- Day of Choice? Tuesday. I get to watch Lucas play with his friends at playgroup in the morning and then in the evening I go to my small group/bible study and hang out with mine over a good cup of coffee.
E- Essential Item? camera
F- Favorite Color? it changes from day to day
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Bears
I- Favorite Indulgence? nachos
J- January or July? July! I love the 4Th and it is also Lucas birthday month and I LOVE planning his birthday party. Plus you can go swimming in July.
K- Kids? I have one and want one more in the future if I can ever get Curt on board.
L- Life is not complete without? music
M- Marriage date? 08/10/01
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 1 sister, 1 brother, and tons of siblings-in-law
O- Oranges or Apples? Apples
P- Phobias and Fears? Don't really have any but when I was younger I was scared of waterfalls.
Q- Where is q?
R- Reason to smile? my friends and family
S- Season of choice? Spring. I love watching the flowers bloom and when the weather starts to warm up
T- Tag five people? Kirsten, Lindsay, Lini, Lisa, Stacey
U- Unknown fact about me? I would love to sing with a band but I hate singing in front of people. When I was in chorus in school I would never sing loud enough for anyone else to hear me.
V- Vegetable? I like most vegetables. I won't eat asparagus though and I only like onions if they are cooked and in something else.
W- Worst Habit? Not cleaning
X-ray or Ultrasound? This is really an odd question. I guess I would rather have an ultrasound. You don't have to wear a special cover for those.
Y- Your favorite food? cheese, it makes everything taste better.
Z- Zodiac Sign? Capricorn

Want to Play Guess When We Can Get Online?

Last night when I got home the Internet was on again and it was still on this morning. Silly me called and canceled our appointment with the service technician and then an hour later our Internet was back out. Obviously there is something wrong since our service is randomly coming on and off so I called Comcast Customer Service to reschedule the appointment and now the soonest we can get someone is Tuesday evening. Currently the internet is back on but we don't know when it will go out again or why.

Here Comes the Sun

Curt has his MRI today but we won't know the results until Monday. We do have some good news however, his boss has offered to pay him his entire 40 hour check until he is able to come back to work. He won't even lose any of his paid vacation or sick days. This has been a HUGE relief for us!

Also, we found out today that the IRS has our refund money back now and will be sending out a check soon! When we get it we will be able to get our cars tuned up and pay off a large chunk of debt. I realize now that I had been putting too much faith in the refund that it would fix all of our problems. I kept thinking everything will be okay when we get our refund not ever thinking that because of a silly error I made that we wouldn't be able to count on that money when we thought we would. I should have been putting my faith elsewhere.

Tonight I also got a chance to get out of the house and spend sometime with some of my girl friends. It was the first time I've been out on my own in weeks and it was so nice to have a break from everything. I have been blessed with so many great friends.

Our Internet went down today (I'm using my Mom's computer) so I'm not sure when I will be able to update again. We are SUPPOSED to have a repair man come tomorrow. So hopefully we will be back online tomorrow evening.

At Least it is Almost Spring

Today I was at my friends house telling her about all the craziness that has been going on in our lives when I dared to utter the words "I don't think anything else can possibly go wrong this week." Five minutes later my sister calls me in tears telling me that my Grandma had been taken to the hospital by ambulance because of a possible stroke.

On any other day I think I would have cried or been scared but honestly my first reaction was to laugh (after I hung up the phone of course.) I know that might sound a little sick or demented but I think if I didn't laugh at these crazy situations lately I would go insane. I've finally started to realize there isn't much I can do to control certain situations but I can control my reactions. Even though right now it seems like we are in a middle of a giant crap storm we do have a lot of things to be thankful for. I am now making a conscience effort from now on to focus on those positives.

Right now my Grandma is back at home and doing much better. They don't think she had a stroke after all but was in a diabetic coma for a little bit. Tomorrow Curt goes for his MRI in the morning. I am going with him and I think I am more nervous then he is right now but I've learned not to ask "can anything else go wrong!"

Keeping the Faith

I feel like lately all I do is come on here to complain about what is going wrong and I hate that but is seems like when one thing goes wrong everything just snowballs. Right now we are in snowballs right up to our ears.

Our tax refund money is still up in the air. I have called both the IRS and the GA Department of Revenue and both told me that the only thing I can do is wait 2-3 weeks and then call back and see if the funds have been returned to them from Wachovia. If they have been returned then they can tell me when I will be issued a paper check. If the funds have not been returned then they will have to do a trace and see if they can find the money. Since Wachovia has told me that the account number I used was not a real account (THANK GOODNESS) I don't see any reason why the money shouldn't be returned with any problems. Now it is just a waiting game.

Saturday afternoon I walked out to my car just to go take the trash out and get the mail and let Lucas and I have 5 minutes out of the house. When I walked up to my car I instantly noticed that my front driver's tire was flat. My spare is already on my car from the last flat tire I got about a month or so ago. We had been trying to wait to get it fixed until we got our tax money back.

As if all that wasn't stressful enough Curt is home on the couch. He has thrown out his back AGAIN! He was at work a whole 37 minutes again today when he somehow hurt his back. His work sent him to the DR and he won't be released back to work until he can pick up 75 lbs without hurting himself! He has already used 3 of his 5 sick days from when he was sick the last time.

If anything I guess he can take his vacation days. He is being really calm about everything and doesn't seem worried. However, I am freaking out. Normally it is the other way around and I get this peaceful feeling that God will take care of us and everything will be okay. For some reason though this time I just have this feeling of dread and I can't stop worrying. I feel like God is testing me to see if I have faith enough that everything will work out and right now I am failing.

Eclipsed

I went out last night to try and take a couple pictures of the eclipse. I didn't feel well enough to search for my tripod and set it up so this is the best photo I got while trying to hold my camera still.

With night photography you REALLY REALLY need a tripod though because the shutter time needs to be slower to collect more light and even the movement from your breathing will shake the camera.... and obviously even much more so if you cough.

Another post in which I complain (and yes we are STILL sick)

This afternoon I heard Jadie barking at the door and knew that meant the office must have put a new letter on our front door. Those are always fun! I opened it up and it was a water bill for almost $60!!!

Where we live a certain amount of water is included in our lot rent. When we first moved here there was not a limit on the amount of water you could use before they started charging you for going over. For every 1,000 gallons over $5,000 they charge $5. Starting in 2008 they doubled the over use fee to $10 for every 1,000 gallons over 5,000. We rarely if ever go over our water so I was VERY surprised to see this big of a bill.

When I looked closer it the bill it said it was for November-February. They are supposed to bill every month so I'm not sure what is going on. The office makes ALL KINDS of mistakes all the time. Twice in a row we have gotten notices that they were going to take us to court because we hadn't paid our rent (When we had paid and ON TIME and they just forgot to write it down) and a few times we have been sent other people's bills. I always end up having to go down to the office and getting everything straightened out.

Well, when I go up to the office to find out what was going on the normal woman that works there wasn't there. When I asked the guy that was filling in for her to help me he could barely understand what I was saying because he barely spoke any English! He told me that the lady might be back on Thursday, or Friday and then added "I hope!"'

Now I understand I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and more power to the office for hiring someone who can help the Spanish speaking residents to communicate with the office but COME ON! Don't get me wrong. I am not anti-immigrant. I know people don't move to the US and instantly know how to speak English. However, I expect to be able to go to the office of where I live and be able to talk to the employees in ENGLISH!!!