You Know Who You Are

I do not ask to be judged.
I do not ask to be laughed at.
I do not ask to me made fun of.
And least of all, I do not ask to be hurt.

By you, I have never had any of those happen except the last. I have forgiven you many times for that last one but in the end, being hurt by you is inevitable. I do not wish to hurt anymore.
It isn't your fault, really, it isn't.
I am so glad you finally found happiness in your life after all these years. I wish for many more days of happiness for you.
Happiness for me was not found in the closure I got from you, so don't think it was. Happiness, for me, is found when I see my son smile. When I hear him sing songs he has NO clue what they mean. When I hear him say statements like "Oh gosh!", "What the heck?!?" and "Get out of here" as well as "You got to be kidding me!" Those crack me up! Happiness for me is living for a week in peaceful surroundings of the Great Smoky Mountains. Happiness for me is achieving a goal it took me long to succeed at. Happiness for me is seeing others happy and that even goes for you.
I have no contact to you. No phone number. No email address. And definitely not Facebook. My world to you has been cut off. You, on the other hand, have my phone number and my email address as well as access to this very blog. That is why I am typing this to you. You know who you are.
I do not ask you to stop reading my blog because you have been my very best friend for 11 years and in one post I asked to continue this friendship. It hurts a bit much to do that right now but I know we will talk again in the future. I want you to know I am trying hard to have a decent marriage and TRYING is the keyword. The counselor is out of the picture for the time being so we are having to do ITTY BITTY baby steps to solve our issues on our own without anyone mediating. Trust me, it is hard. I also want you to know I am dissolving myself in things I enjoy like gardening (even though I have NO green thumb), photography and least of all job hunting (we need the money).
I hope you are happy and I wish you the best life anyone could hope and wish for. I do not want to be cut off from you completely but just give me time is all I ask.
I hope you can respect that!
Always and forever----I do mean that! STILL!!!

Meet Me on Monday

I am back from my Spring Break vacation and that is why I missed last weeks.




Questions:

1.  What jewelry do you wear 24/7?
2.  Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?
3.  How many siblings do you have?
4.  Were you named after anyone?
5.  Coke or Pepsi?
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My Answers!

1.  What jewelry do you wear 24/7?
I usually wear my wedding band/engagement ring 24/7. I am not wearing it today because it has been hot lately so my fingers were swelling up.

yes, this is really my engagement ring and wedding band along with hubby's wedding band

2. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?
Both. At home, I twirl.....it is an Italian thing to "twirl" your spaghetti. At restaurants, I am more polite and I cut it before I eat it. 

3. How many siblings do you have?
I pretty much have 6 siblings (that I know of) but only 3 of the siblings, I grew up with and actually know. 

Taken back in 2007: Youngest to Oldest, my younger sister, my younger brother, me and my older sister

4. Were you named after anyone?
I have been told I am but I don't remember the story and I am not sure who it is! Ha! How is that for memory?

Mother Teresa

5. Coke or Pepsi?
They taste the same to me. I am no longer drinking sodas but when I do, it is normally Coke.

Home Sweet Home

Within the first hour of being home, I had all our bags packed and all lil man's bags unpacked. I even got the car vacuumed out. Today, I need to wash it. It is a rental so it has to be spotless and back at rental place tomorrow.
Tennessee is always great. Well, no matter where you are, it is always great to get away from it all. The weather could have been a BIT more cooperative but can't always get what you ask for.
The boys helped papa get his storage organized/cleaned and some stuff moved to the new storage building. The older boys shot some guns off as well as went hiking for a day. Dear hubby and I took a stroll down Gatlinburg strip while eating some fudge and enjoying the scenery....too bad it was cold. Other than that.....I sat on my bum most the time. That is how I cannot figure out how I lost another 6.6 pounds while on vacation. I had 5 pieces of pizza in a matter of 2 days, several bites of fudge, candy galore and LOTS of water!

WARNING: LOTS OF PHOTOS ABOUT TO FOLLOW!!!

Daddy with lil man at the Fort Loudon Dam

Lil man and step son at the Fort Loudon Dam

Step son with a pellet gun

Step son hiking

Me at the "sinks" (dangerous water current)

It was a bit cold at the sinks next to the water

Me and hubby at the sinks

Me and hubby on the way to the "Top of the World" 

Me and hubby at the "Top of the World" 

"Top of the World" state lines 

In laws BEAUTIFUL cabin

Hubby shooting off a .22

Hubby in the National Park 

Me in the National Park 

Me and hubby 

Hubby at the state lines 

Lil man and Daddy riding the mower

Lil man driving the mower with a little bit of daddy's help 

There are over 200+ photos but these are the "gist" of the trip.

Will post more about our vacation when I get stuff done around my house first!

Me! Challenge: Week 10

Wow, where did this week go? I'm not sure I will be posting anything for week 11 as I will be out of the area on Spring Break with family so not sure there will be a lot of "me" time happening.
Either way, what did I do for myself this week?
I went to the dentist, yet again but actually hubby set that appointment up for me so that wasn't "me time". Who wants to spend their time at the dentist anyways? Not me! Then again, I've been in pain for the last couple months and I am SOOOO ready to get this situation handled.
Another thing I did for myself this week was I bought a book.

It was so good I started it around 4pm the day I bought it and I finished it around 6pm the day AFTER I bought it. I would recommend it to anyone to read. It has very short chapters, it is a very easy read as well as a "dont-put-me-down" book.

Another thing I did for myself was go to the store this week to get things for our upcoming vacation and I got myself a bag for my "feminine toiletries" (if ya know what I mean) so I am not bringing bags and boxes with me to make it noticable what I am bringing.

OOOOOHHHH OOOOHHH, I think my favorite "me" thing I did this week was go get my hair trimmed. It may seem to some I got it cut but I really just got my layers trimmed so it does look slightly different. I have been meaning to do that for the past 3 weeks and just have been so busy. Well, I finally got it done!

Now It's Your Turn!

What did you do this week to get your groove back?

Recap-Things I've Been Meaning To Do

Apparently my mess is being spread all over Facebook land so here is a recap of my previous "Things I've Been Meaning To Do" blog post.

It all started with one tiny...large blog at I'm a Lazy Mom She has a link up on her blog and I fell victim...took time out of my day to link up with her.

1. This phone is STILL sitting on the stairs. Really? What is wrong with me? Why can't I pick up a phone and put it in a box with all the other unused electronics. It doesn't a disease. Oh, I know, maybe because the "Velveteen Rabbit" story is still fresh in my mind and I don't want it to feel neglected. Okay, that isn't realistic. Moving on.....

2. This load of laundry DID in fact get put away but only to be replaced by yet another load done today. We are leaving out of town this weekend so I had to wash some laundry. There is a basket sitting on the bed in our room with folded clothes waiting to be put away as well. It will get done before the night is up. I promise! I think....!!!

3. Yup, this mess still remains and I think some of it mated over night as there is a bit more mess on the dresser today.

4. I never did go through the magazines. I was too caught up in a new book I bought yesterday (and finished today) so therefore, I just stashed the magazines out of sight, out of mind in the "cook book" drawer in my kitchen.

5. This gingerbread town still sits there. Taunting me. Teasing me. Irritating me. Half the town is telling me to throw it in the trash while the other half is just laughing at me because it knows it will never be put up with the gingerbread house.

6. Well, it was on my to-do list to fix this train track today but instead, it was destroyed even more by a large monster truck with diesel tires that my son was playing with in his bedroom today. RIP train track!

7. * STILL Embarrassed* None of this got put away but it will be soon put in a suitcase (at least some of the shoes) this weekend. Just don't look at it. Cover your eyes and I will tell you when it is gone and you can look again.

Cleaning Out The Fridge

Late last week, I read a post on a blog I follow A Slob Comes Clean called "Cleaning out the Fridge" and I kept thinking to myself....man do I need to clean out my fridge. But like many, I procrastinated....just didn't do it because I wasn't in the mood was lazy! There I said it!

Like the author, Nony, I took hadn't cleaned out my fridge in a while. I can't say "since I don't know when" because I swear I just recently cleaned it out at least 2-3 months ago. But, unlike Nony, I did not take a photo of everything I was cleaning and all the disgusting mess in there! Technically, it really wasn't THAT messy. It just needed to be reorganized. I even cleaned out the freezer.

This is my before photo of both the fridge and freezer. The blue handled pitcher in the fridge, really doesn't need an explanation, but it has been so darned windy lately that the wind knocked a gallon of milk off my tailgate as I was reaching for more groceries and broke the gallon. Thankfully hubby was able to save the milk today! And don't ask about all the beer bottles on the bottom rack of our fridge as we don't drink beer and they have been in there since hubby's last "man trip" last year. Our poor freezer, each trip from the store just crams more CRAP into our freezer!

After about 30 minutes of rearranging, tossing and cleaning shelves, we get this

Before fridge

After fridge (not sure why photo is sorta blue) 

Look at ALL that space!!!

Before freezer

After freezer. Ignore the spot on the bottom of freezer as I hadn't got that cleaned up yet.

That was a task I believe EVERYONE should partake in at least once a month.

Things I've Been Meaning To Do

I am not sure how or when I found and fell in love with the I'm a Lazy Mom blog, but I did and now I am obsessed...urrrr addicted....umm an avid FOLLOWER!!! She has a link up on her blog I recommend you link up to. It takes maybe 2 minutes out of your time. At least it did me!

Things I've been meaning to do....

1. Put this phone in a box with the other electronics not being used. It has been sitting on our stairs for about 2 weeks now.

2. Put away this load of laundry which has been hanging in the laundry room for a week now. The comforter, I have to find space for and has been there since Monday.

3. Clean off this mess of a dresser in our bedroom.

4. Finish going through all my "cooking" magazines and make my own cook book so I can throw out or give away this heap of magazines.

5. Put this Gingerbread town up on the top of the cabinets with gingerbread house made 2 years ago. Not sure why we are keeping it.

6. Fix my lil man's train track in his bedroom.

7. *Embarrassed* Put away my heap of boots/shoes that are in my closet as well as the purse and belts laying around (when I come home from a long day of running around, I just kick off my shoes...literally...that is my excuse)