Memories

This past weekend we packed (I think I mentioned that. A lot.)  Part of my job was to go through the closets and pack up the remaining crap we had just shoved in there.  A lot of it included "memory boxes" I've saved as I grew up.  One of them included all of the cards and programs I had from my law school graduation.  Another included all of my pictures from junior high and high school.  And another?  I found mementos from my father's family. 

I don't often talk about my father's family because we've grown apart since the passing of my Grandma.  When I was a kiddo, I was super close to my Aunt Linda, and we went over to my Grandma's house all the time when we were up from Alabama.  Aunt Linda was like another kid.  She was older, yes, but she was young at heart.  And she was crippled terribly with arthritis so she was stuck in a chair all of the time.  So I sat by her side and watched cartoons with her and made her laugh.  She was a buddy to me, a lot like I was to my oldest nephew.  I was devastated when she passed away from cancer at the young age of 34.  I was 12 at the time.

I used to write letters to my Grandma and Aunt Linda all the time.  I think that's where my whole writing obsession began.  A few years ago, my Dad got a box of items from my Grandma's house, and in there, were my letters.  I now have them in a box, and when T and I were packing we came across these.  And man were they funny.  The things I wrote in the letters were just so funny.  I could only imagine the smile she had on her face when she received them.  I'll treasure these letters. 

I also came across this card my Aunt Linda made way back in the day.  It says "Someone up there cares" and on the inside it says "And so do I."  It's not signed, but it has her initials on the back.  I have looked at this card through rough times in law school and on, and it means so much to me. 

It's amazing how much finding items like this can touch you.  And it truly made me miss both of them. 

On a funnier note, we came across a tape.  A cassette tape, for that matter.  One that I recorded back when we moved to Indiana from Alabama.  I used to record "radio shows" on my boom box, and we found one of them.  And MAN, the southern accent I had!  Hilarious!  T and I listened to the entire thing, and I can tell you this much:  1)  I had a strong accent; 2) I had quite the active imagination and 3) I was stubborn.  Very stubborn.  You could already tell from the tape. 

Oh the things you find when you clean out stuff....I can't wait to see what I find next!

  



Wordless Wednesday

As promised...here are some photos of my favorite spot in the new house...the kitchen:  

This picture simply doesn't do it justice.  Quartz countertop...loooove it.

Under mount sink - and isn't this counter top beautiful?  I wanted to hug it... 

And the view from the kitchen into the living room.

Okay, so....can it be April 18th now?

 



30 pictures

So I got this idea from my good friend Chloe at My New Life as a Housewife, go this idea from Busy Bee Lauren, called 30 pictures.  It looked like too much fun so I had to do it, too :-)

[A picture of someone you spend a lot of time with]

[A picture of you]

[A random picture of you and your sig. other]

[a picture of something that makes you happy]

My new house!

[an old picture of you]

 

 My cousin Emily's wedding - November 2006

[a picture of your siblings]

 

 Um, yeah...my siblings are the weird ones on the left....

[a picture you've never posted on your blog before]

 

 Chicago - December 2007

[a picture of a person you miss]

My Grandma...I miss her every day....

[ a picture of people who know you now and then ]

[ a picture of your favorite place ]

The Guinness Storehouse...where else?

[ a person you can tell everything to ]

T - he's my best friend, you know?

[ a picture of your everyday life ]

No, I don't work at the state house, but I'm a lawyer, so I figure this is the best depiction of what I do.

[ a picture from a place you love ]

Ireland...can I go back?

 

 

 

[ a picture that reminds you of great times ]

Taken the day Tim proposed

 

[ a picture of one of your favorite foods ]

 

Guinness, I realize, is not a food, but to me, it's a staple of life.

 

 

[ a picture from the best day of your life ]

 

 

 

[ a picture that always makes you laugh ]

Not sure what we were doing there, but....

 

 

 

[ a picture of your spare time ]

Me writing

 

[ a photo from a great night ]

 

Our first "Night out on the town" in December 2008

 

 

 

[ a picture of the people who are closest to you ]

My family

 

[ a picture of someone you always have a good time with ]

My cousin Emily...good memories

 

 

 

[ a picture of your parents when they were your age ]

How bad is it that I don't have any pictures of my parents when they were my age?

 

 

[ a picture from last summer ]

 

 

Our bridal shower last July 4th

[ a photo of your closest friend of the opposite sex (not sig. other) ]

 

My bro

 

 

 

[ a picture of you on a favorite vacation ]

 

 

I feel I have posted too many pictures of Ireland, so this is a picture from our first vacation together in Chicago in April 2009.

 

 

[ a picture of an accomplishment ]

 

 

I don't have a picture of me passing the bar, so this is the next best thing.  This is me getting my hood and diploma at my law school graduation.

 

 

[ a picture of your closest friend ]

 

 

 

[ a random pictures from a photobooth ]

Sorry!  Have never been in a photobooth!

 

 

 

[ a photo that makes you smile ]

T and Roo

 

 

 

[ someone you will never let go of: ]

All of these people are treasures to me so I'm linking this up to Chantel's Small Treasure Tuesdays!

Motivation Monday

Happy Motivation Monday everyone!  Here we are, another week, another reason to be motivated!  I'm proud to say that I did follow through on my Motivation Monday goals last week.  I worked out every day - whoo!  Personal trainer was on Tuesday, exercised in the afternoon on Monday, and I got up at 5:15 to head to the gym Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Don't think that I didn't try to talk myself out of going as I lay there in bed, hitting the snooze and debating what to do.  But I did it, and as expected, I felt good afterwards. 


So my motivation this week is to keep it up.  I've got the mini-marathon coming up just a few weeks down the road, and I need to build up some endurance.  Unfortunately, they will be doing a longer training this upcoming Saturday, walking for 1 hr 45 min, but I will be in Cincinnati for a Mary Kay conference.  So somehow I need to make up for that and try to walk that much on my own.  We shall see!  That and to keep from snacking...must do that.  It does become hard when Easter candy has come out, and my stress level at work has risen, causing me to want chocolate that much more.  Must....resist...


So that's my motivation for the week...what about you?  How do you participate in Motivation Monday?  Well, it's as easy as pie (mmm...pie...that sounds good, too...)  Just type a post any time this week about what is motivating you, comment on this post with a link to your post, and you'll be linked up!  Easy peasy! 


Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Chloe @ My New Life as a Housewife
Audra @ Rediscovering Domesticity
Amber @ Amber LaShell Rants
Robin @ Find Good In Every Day

   



This is what we did this weekend

We packed!  And then packed some more! 

We still have a lot left to pack, but we got a good start.  The landlord is showing the house tomorrow, so the possible tenants will have to navigate the boxes, but oh well.  We also made a trip to Goodwill, and man, you should have seen how much crap we hauled there.  T started joking and acting like he was one of the therapists from Hoarding:  Buried Alive.  It was good to get a lot of the stuff out, though.


As promised...here are pictures of the boxes T got from the box store.  You know?  The ones labeled "Hazardous:  Medical Waste."

These boxes are ALL over the house.  So we might scare off these future tenants.  come....Oh, and I have no intentions of hiding the mousetraps in the pantry.  These people need to be aware of the crap home they are moving into.  And the other "tenants" who reside in this house....

More packing to come...and are you guys ready for Motivation Monday?  Be thinking of those posts!  I know I can use some motivation this week!

 



The strength of love

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."  Laozi  

 I chose this quote for the front of our wedding program out of a series of quotes my mom had given us.  I wanted one that truly fit both of us, and I felt that this one did best.  Or at least I know it meant something to me.  Before T, I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as the most courageous person.  Or strong for that matter.  Sure, I know that friends of mine would tell you differently.  I had been through quite a bit a lot by the time I had met T - an emotionally abusive relationship, a series of not-so-great decisions in dating, loss of a job, and basically the loss of my identity and self-worth.  I was going through life on auto drive by the time T came along.  But he's my miracle.  I truly believe he was brought in my life for a reason - to show me the strength of love and to allow myself to be changed by it.  And I think if you asked him, he would tell you the same about his experience with love.  So when I chose this quote, I chose it with that reason in mind.  Our wedding guests might not have known that just from looking at it, but T and I both know what it truly meant. 

The other day, I came across this quote in one of the motivational emails I get sent to me on a daily basis.  Usually I just delete them, but for some reason I chose to open this email, and I happen to see this quote.  I stared at it for a bit, trying to figure out just where I had seen that quote before.  It hit me - this was our wedding quote!  And it got me thinking...

These past few months have been rough ones for T and me.  The health scare, while a trying and difficult time for both of us, did bring us closer together.  We were each other's strength when we both needed it the most.  Usually I'd fall apart when faced with a situation like I was faced, but I didn't this time.  I knew I had T by my side, and I knew that no matter what we found out, we would get through it.  Together.  His love gave me strength and courage to undergo testing, to wait those several weeks to get my results, and his love was there for me as we got the amazing news that everything was alright.  Without his love, I'm not so sure I would have been as brave as I was, as I lay there in that MRI tube, thinking of the possibilities of what could happen.  I've done it before, but this time seemed different.   Having T's love gave me strength to undergo whatever it was I needed to undergo, but at the same time, loving T as deeply as I do gave me the courage I needed.  And that made all of the difference in the world. 

  



Can I get more time?

Lately, I feel like such a slacker.  Perhaps I'm being way too hard on myself, but I have seriously let my writing slip.  With the health scare, my new job and the move, I haven't worked on my manuscript.  At all.  I took a break from my critique group, and I really want to get back into it.  I don't want to be that writer who starts a project and gets so far and then stops.  I want to see my project to the end, even if it doesn't get published.  It's one of my new year's resolutions, after all. 

The tough part is finding time.   I've been on overdrive with the new job, trying to learn everything and meet deadlines that hit right as I started.  (It was a pretty sharp learning curve and still is, I'm not going to lie).  And mentally I couldn't add more to my plate with the scare about my heart.  And whenever I'm home my energy is spent on packing.  But still, I want to find time.  I need to find time. 

It amazes me how others manage to juggle it and handle it all.  My critique girls - they have jobs, they have kids, they have busy lives, and they manage to finish manuscripts.  And do queries.  I can't manage to even squeak out a few chapters in my rough draft.   And I don't have children demanding of my time. Man, I feel like a slacker.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself, but what can I say?  I am my biggest critic.  But to all of my writer friends out there...how do you manage?  What's the key to finding that time and making it work?  Because I could use all the help I can get!

  

Useless information

T and I have odd TV watching habits, I'll admit it.  The things we find amusing on TV, others may not find so amusing...laughing at the guys from Ghost Hunters on the Travel Channel, watching Las Vegas Jailhouse or Hoarders and cracking up at these people....it's a pastime we've come to enjoy sharing together.  And making fun of infomercials is also one of those things we love to do.

The other night we came upon an infomercial for this huge CD set of Rock Ballads.  And as soon as we started watching, I began to sing along with the samples of songs on the CDs.  And the sad thing?  There wasn't a song on that CD that I didn't know.  And they went through a good twenty songs at least, and I knew them all.  Even some of the more obscure songs.  It's kind of sad if you think about it, and T started teasing me asking "imagine what you could do with all of that used brain space?" 

But hey, if I were ever on "Don't Forget the Lyrics" I'd totally kick some ass!  So you never know...all of this information could come in handy some day!

  

Pay it Forward

So my good friend Chloe over at My New Life as a Housewife got this idea (I forget from who...sorry, Chloe!), and I was one of the first five on her blog to comment so....I'm doing my part and paying it forward,too!


So the first 5 of you to comment on this blog will receive something special and homemade from me.  Now I feel that I must give a disclaimer at this point.  I never have been, nor will I ever be, a crafty person.  Trust me on this.  Whenever my sister-in-law used to try to help me with crafts for gifts or showers, I'd usually end up throwing my hands in the air in frustration exclaiming that I sucked at life.  (This is not an exaggeration.  This was what happened when we were making my sister's baby shower invitations and I couldn't manage gluing little pastel squares on the front of each card.)  My mother tried to teach me how to crochet once, and that lasted a matter of 2 minutes.  I threw the needles on the coach and said I sucked at life.  (See a pattern here?)


BUT, I'm willing to take the challenge here.  Because I do love my readers, and well, I do love a challenge.  However, I cannot be held responsible for the quality of my handmade products.  So I'm just putting that disclaimer out there because the attorney in me feels I must :-) 


So the first five of you who comment will get a special handmade surprise from Nain.  But you must repost this and do the same in order to pay it forward!


Now what to make, what to make....