It's been over 13 months now that we've lived in our home.  Sometimes things seem like just yesterday they happened, but not moving here.  Actually it seems like we've been living here forever.  For me it was just so normal to get settled here.  I love our home!  For my husband I think it's a completely different story.

As a matter of fact I think mentally my husband is still moving to the city.  He labels himself as a country boy... Even though I wouldn't say he's from the country.  Just a small city in Northern IN.  It's been 3 years that he's been here in the "big city" and so far we haven't had many spasms about it.  I know he gets homesick often, but I also know now that he's been exposed it'll be hard to return to small city mentality.

So we've been here in our home for this time and it's interesting what you do with rooms until you can furnish them.  This house is three times bigger than our previous home and my husband will tell you that I've found plenty of things to put in our newfound space.

I finally committed to using the color scheme and decorating they way I planned before we actually moved.  Had we done this originally I wouldn't have lived so long with white walls feeling like I live in an asylum.  Dear just couldn't see how I had picked out colors and materials without living in the home yet. lol.  He didn't realize that after he talked me out of it that it would take me this long to come around again... poor soul.

Now while it's been 13 months not many of the plans have changed.  I mean I'm still w/ the original colors for most of the rooms.  The guest room is up for debate right now... and I changed colors for my office, the kitchen and the family room.  So far we've gotten 2 rooms done as planned.  The guest bedroom looks wonderful.  I still have to hang one more set of drapes, but the decorating is done.  We actually had our first guest in it a couple weeks ago.  I guess we got a thumbs up.  Put it this way, we didn't get any complaints... but the guest we had wouldn't have complained if it wasn't.  My office is almost complete.  I still have a couple pictures to hang and some plants to incorporate in, but I think it looks great!  It's sunny yellow and red, but not overpowering.  I'm loving it.

Next... the master bathroom and then the kids' rooms.  I guess I need to go ahead and finish our room too while we're in there, but nobody ever sees it but us.  Although that sounds like more reason to finish it.  So that we'll have our own sanctuary behind closed doors.

So over the next couple weeks, we'll have our paint brushes out paint our home beautiful!  God I thank you for sight... I can't imagine the world without color.

 

I hope I tell my husband this everyday, but just in case I haven't today... I love you Dear.

Momma, I love you.  Daddy, I love you too.

First, I want to thank everyone for sending the search party out for me. I appreciate your prayers as I was MIA.

Just so you know I was missing in body, but not in spirit.

Secondly, I want to thank the old management "team", my employer, and my new manager for the reason I was MIA:

The management team did a wonderful job of informing me of the projects and where I should be in the planning stages. But I had no clue that my old manager leaving me (well us... the rest of the team) would put us knee high in crap that I had no clue was going on or how to resolve. Kudos! Those actions gave me the push I needed to become something and determine what I want from my J-O-B.

My employer for keeping me gainfully employed even though I had no clue about the projects that were left in my hands. I appreciate your patience and giving me a limb to walk out on and test the waters.

And definitely my new manager.  How awesome is it to just figure things out... Because of the patience extending to me I did finally figure out what was going on and where I needed to be working on those projects.

 

I also could not have done this without my family. My husband, parents, son, and extended family who handled this like a charm.  Thanks for not letting me skip a beat, take a breather, or miss a step.  I'm sure i would have definitely gained some sanity had any of those happened. But I acknowledge your diligence and look forward to much more pressure from you all.

 

If you were not mentioned above, let me take the time now to say thank you __________. Good looking out!

 

Now that I've taken care of all the accolades I just want to say that I will be back here posting and blogging and everything else. Nothing has changed. I'll update you over the next couple of weeks on things that have happened. My lovely digital camera seems to be working fine and will be put to use as I decorate this place and drive a nail to hang my apron on.

 

And of course.  I love you MOMMA, and I love you Dad.

 

(ps. & on a serious side note... today was one of the few days my mom said she loved me. I almost couldn't believe it, but I seized the opportunity and told her back before she lauged me out of the moment.)

Yippee! That has been the alert sound on my corporate email for quite a while… so long that now there isn’t any excitement anymore when I hear the yippee. However, yesterday I bellowed out yippee for so many reasons that I cannot remember them all, but here are a few:

• Yippee to having the Thanksgiving gathering at our house. Cooking for long periods or for an abundance of people induces taste testing throughout the preparation. When dinnertime came, while everyone else pigged out on dinner I sipped on a soft drink with plenty of ice. I was full from all the tasting so I didn’t overstuff myself with the dinner.
• Yippee, for having a very handy man as an uncle who stayed with us during the holiday. He fixed the hot water supply to the 2^nd bathroom, he tapped and ran the water supply to the automatic ice/water dispenser on the refrigerator, he transported tables to the house for everyone to sit at, and he motivated Dear to finish picking up all the fall leaves in the front yard.
• Yippee for the Black Friday early bird specials. I almost knocked half my list this year in about 2 stores and 3 hours.
• Yippee because my husband was given an extra day off on Monday. The downside of having guests over the weekend altered our tradition of putting the tree up on Black Friday. That also delayed the decorating of the six trees and putting up the house decorations. We were able to put up our “main” Christmas tree yesterday though since he was home with me. Otherwise, we would’ve had to wait until this weekend when we plan to have a few friends over anyway.
• Yippee, for vacation that was actually vacation. I didn’t do the “ball and chain” at all on the days I scheduled off.
• Yippee, for the many blessings that is bestowed on our family. We gathered for another year to give thanks for ALL the wonderful things God has done for us. After watching a special on Africa this week I remembered that while I was grateful to have water coming out of my refrigerator now instead of the kitchen faucet for cold drinks there are several places on that continent that do not have plumbed water. No water for facilities, faucets, or even to drink which is further creating a vicious cycle of disease, infection, malaria, and unwarranted deaths.
• Yippee for having a ball and chain to go back to after a vacation. I really enjoyed my time off this go around and I look forward to the next one starting the middle of December, but it’s also great to have a place to go to that isn’t all that bad. I love what I do and while I do not always like the job, it is a very honest living that has afforded me travel and luxuries I may not have seen had my occupation been different.
• Yippee to having our home to ourselves again, making the late night run downstairs for a drink of water very simple… in skivvies only!

In retrospect, I guess Yippee is just my way of saying Thank you Jesus! Not to discount him or the blessings I receive by any means. That is just my lamen terms to communicate to the world how blessed I am for the simple things. To often we do not take the time to thank him. There are so many small things to be grateful for... like the vision to see what he has enabled my fingers to type at this very moment. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I have experienced that much to recently or deeply… His blessings will not be unrecognized by me.

I love you Jesus, I Love you Dad, I love you MOM!

Today was the third day of my vacation.  Seems the days are coming by quicker than I can adjust to time off from work.  I worked over the weekend leading into this vacation just so I wouldn't have the urge to pick the laptop up and log into the network... yes, some things about me are workaholic traits.  Thus far it has seemed to suffice.

What baffles me is how hard I'm 'house working' on my vacation.  I've cleaned every room in the house including the refridgerators, I've ran more errands than I care to recall, and I have visited more friends this week than I have in a very long time.  Now I know why people say they need another vacation after their vacation.  Since I have been playing catch up this week on a lot of 'like to do things', I haven't had a chance to do another one of my favorite things... sleep!  I was up this morning at 4:30.  Cooking on my mind for the festivities tomorrow.  But I haven't slept in or taken a nap all week!  That's just unusual for me.  I was beginning to doze off today and remembered I had a load of clothes drying so I never took that nap.  Dear says that the naps I take are sleeps... because I'm resting for more than an hour.  That is a gene I inherited from my dad.  Dear is right.  We both could sleep the day away.  But I just haven't had a chance to do that on this vacation.  I'm working my little hiney off!  I guess that is what I get when I commit to having a very large group of people over smack dab in the middle of my time off.

So if I really work hard around the house, running errands, cooking and I do not get at least ONE good nap (sleep) in... is it really a vacation? IMO, I cannot see how it could be.  I am sure if I explained to my manager that the last few days was not vacation time, she would have a totally opposite response.  One thing is for sure.  I have already resolved that when I take my 3 weeks off next month there will be plenty of sleeps, days of doing nothing, and definitely no errands!  Now that's really a vacation...

I love you Dad, I love you Mom!