Following My Bliss

I’ve been really bummed about not being able to go to Blissdom. I’ve actually never gone to a blogging conference (Although after hearing about BlogHer last summer, I wasn’t so disappointed that I missed out on all that drama).  Besides all of the learning opportunities (Getting Published workshop, I’m looking at you), Harry Connick, Jr. will be there.  Harry!  Y’all know how much I adore Harry.  And my dear friend Darcie will be there.  Since we live on opposite sides of the country, our chances to meet up are few and far between (Namely, WDW every October).  And on top of all of those good reasons to go, the conference is right in my backyard!  It’s in Nashville, city that I love, and oh-so-conveniently located for me.  So close, and yet so far. 

Alas, because of some unexpected bumps in the road of life, our disposable income is, um, less-than-plentiful these days.  We’re more in trip cancellation mode than trip planning mode.  I’m not bitter about it, but I am disappointed.  So when I heard that Mom in the City was giving away a Blissdom pass, I decided to give the dream of Blissdom one more shot.  As such, this is my entry in her giveaway – wish me luck!

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The theme of Blissdom 2010 is “Follow Your Bliss.”

2009 was a year full of challenges for me.  Unfortunately the year began with my beloved grandmother’s death.  We were very close – she was like a second mother to me – so this was an emotionally devastating event.  I am very fortunate to know that she was a Christian, and that she is in heaven with my grandfather right now, so my profound grief is also mingled with joy.  After her death I blogged about her, and about choosing happiness.  Because I do believe that happiness is a choice.  You don’t always feel it; sometimes you have to deliberately choose to be happy.  Over and over again. 

I spent a lot of last year choosing to be happy, in spite of my sense of loss.  In spite of the Grama shaped hole in my heart.  And then last fall, another devastating blow came in the form of a medical prognosis for my husband.  A very overwhelming diagnosis, and a future that is very uncertain. 

I will be happy, I will be happy. 

Fake it ’till you feel it.

I wish I could say that I’m feeling it.  That I’m not still faking.  But I’d be lying.

I’m an optimist by nature.  When I have a few pounds to lose, I appreciate living in a country where food is so plentiful.  When the kids are sick, I’m thankful that it’s pneumonia and not cancer.  As the medical bills pile up, I’m grateful that we are alive and here to worry about them. 

And worry isn’t the right word, really.  I’m not a worrier.  One of my favorites quotes is, “You can tell the size of your God by the length of your worry list.  The longer your list, the smaller your God.” 

I serve a big God.

And I know that God’s hand is in our situation, just as it always is.  I know that God is watching over us and providing for us, in good times and bad.  I know that others have it far worse than we do.

I am trying to be faithful.  But it’s hard not to be fearful.  It’s hard not to think about what the future might hold. This is a constant struggle.

2009 was largely spent choosing to be happy.  Choosing to find Bliss, even when it was lurking in the shadows.  Choosing to accept the flicker of candlelight, when a spotlight on my path would have been easier.  Choosing to believe that true Bliss will come again one day, and faking Bliss until it does.

I do not know what 2010 will hold.  I wish I could say that something has changed, but it hasn’t.  My husband’s medical condition remains the same.  I write this on the 1-year anniversary of my Grama’s passing.  Maybe that’s significant.  Maybe this is a day that, down the road, I will look back on as a turning point.  I hope so. 

For now, the future is uncertain.  I am grateful to know that whatever it holds, I have a Savior who will carry me through it all. 

And that’s enough. 

That’s where my Bliss lies.  Today and forever, in Him.

Jesus, bring the rain.

So I have this friend…

and she’s totally amazing.  Rock-your-world, lift-your-spirits, where-have-you-been-my-whole-life amazing.  I’m so blessed and so grateful for her, and today I need to brag about her a little.

• She’s smart. So smart, and not just in a brainy factoid kinda way (although she’s got that book smart thing down too), but in a clever, resourceful kind of way.  She approaches things in a way that I wouldn’t ever think of, and she gives me the best and sneakiest tips on how to get great seats, hard to snag reservations, and the very best deals.  (I so never knew that you could get free groceries!)  How cool is that?
• She is strong. Strong in a way that I find both inspirational and intimidating.  Life has thrown out some curveballs and she didn’t bother dodging them, she swung her bat and knocked them out of the park.  It’s true that sometimes you have no choice about what comes your way, but you always have a choice about how you react and her reactions are remarkable.  Where some would wallow in self-pity, she forged ahead.  When some would wail about the depths of despair, she created a new normal.  She has a beautiful and blessed life because of her beautiful and blessed heart, and I am in awe.
• She’s funny.  Wickedly funny.  She can make me laugh like few people can, and who doesn’t need more of that in their life?  How wonderful is that!  Humorless people are such a drag.
• She’s a great writer.  She writes in a way that instantly connects with you, across time and distance and differences.  She makes you feel exactly what she is feeling, and she has a unique way of blending raw emotion and sarcastic wit that is really unforgettable.  She’s made me laugh and cry out loud more times than I can count, and she’ll be doing it for you one day too. I’ll give you a heads up when her book is published.  I hear it’s fantastic. Not that I’ve been able to read it yet… ahem. Moving on.
• She’s thoughtful. Kind. Generous. She is a giver, of herself, her time, her resources, her emotions.  She is such a loving, caring person and she doesn’t give herself enough credit for it.
• She is beautiful, inside and out.  Her self-deprecating humor makes mention of a blueberry muffin, but pay that no mind; anyone who has seen her knows that she’s a hot mama. If you don’t believe me, just ask the broom boy.
• She is honest.  She’ll tell you what you need to hear no matter what, even when it’s unpleasant.  She’ll talk about the embarassing stuff that only the very best of friends will talk about.  She’ll tell you what she really thinks, no holds barred.
• She gets me.  She just gets me, no words necessary.  Of course we do share lots of words, because when we know we’re thinking the same thing it’s really nice to be able to share that. Rant a little, laugh a little – ok, laugh a lot.  People who get it so easily and comfortably are hard to find, and I have The Mouse to thank for bringing this one into my life.  Another way that Disney has been good to me.

Happy birthday, my forever friend. I love you.

Water Safety

My dear friend Darcie just posted something that you absolutely must read.  I have no words more profound than hers, and nothing to add to what she said.  Please visit her site and take her warning to heart, so it will not happen to your family – your child.

Ta-Da!

It’s a whole new me!

Well ok no, it’s still the same old me.  But it’s a whole new beautiful look, anyway.

I was really fed up with the Blogger platform.  It was an easy, un-intimidating way to get started with a blog, but I had outgrown its capabilities and was frustrated.  I knew I wanted to switch to WordPress, and at the same time there were some other changes I wanted to make as well.

Enter Darcie – yes, Such the Spot Darcie.  She’s multi-talented!  I gave her an idea of what I wanted, and poof! this beautiful blog appeared.  Ok, so maybe it wasn’t quite that easy on her end, but on my end it was like magic.  She was fast, and if I do say so myself I think it is a beautiful design.  Did I mention that this is the first one she’s ever done?  Wow! If you’re needing a whole new look for your blog, or just want a button made, I highly recommend Darcie!

So…if you were following me over at A day in the life…, please change your bookmark to reflect the new site.  I’ll be leaving that site up and live for now but it will not be updating, so if you want the new scoop you’ll need to hop over here to Hopelessly Flawed.  Thanks for joining me on this crazy ride!

PS) If you find any broken links, errors, or other assortment of bugs and glitches, please let me know.  Still feeling my way around here!

And the Dare goes to…

Darcie at Such the Spot!

Congratulations Darcie – your book will be in the mail as soon as I find your address!

Darcie winning this actually gives me a great lead-in to tell you something else about her. Namely, she rocks. And as evidence of her awesomeness, she is now a finalist in the Mabel’s Labels scholarship contest, just a few votes away from a trip to BlogHer. Could you please take just a moment to pop over here and vote for Darcie? You don’t have to take my word for it – read all the essays and I know you’ll agree. This girl needs to be BlogHer bound.

A Peek in my Purse

The lovely Darcie over at Such The Spot gave me this idea a few weeks ago, and now it’s time to cash in. However, reading my post just isn’t the same unless you’ve read hers first, so hop over and check it out here . Go ahead – I’ll wait.

All caught up now? Alright then, here we go.

Remember that lovely picture of organization Darcie gave you? Not so much the case in my world.

I have a cute bag, if I do say so myself:

But the contents are, ahem, slightly less organized:

Now I’m supposed to answer a few questions.

Describe the contents of your purse. Um, well…approximately 31 pieces if miscellaneous paper, including store receipts, vet receipts, tax donation form from Goodwill, doctor’s appointment card, Chris’s paystub, and a cry cleaning tag from 2006. Not joking. The we have two Shout wipes, sunscreen in a stick, lip gloss times two (if you haven’t tried Mark cosmetics yet you should!), bag of crayons, diaper cream, credit card checks I keep forgetting to shred, business card from a lady who I need to quilt something for me – I met her last year, diaper, wipes, cell phone (HATE the Razr, BTW), broken cover for cell phone, keys, a tupperware lid I need to take back to my mom, three Cheerios, two broken bits of the phone faceplate, and one googley eye from a craft project. And now I really must say that this is a pretty good day mess-wise in my bag. Scary huh?

What is the most important thing in your handbag? Well it’s not like I ever have money in my wallet, so I’ll go with car keys. I have remotes on there for my van and Chris’s car both, and those suckers are expensive to replace.

What’s the most embarrassing thing in your handbag? The almost-three-year-old dry cleaning tag. Seriously, at no time in the past few years could I have spared a moment to throw that away?

What’s the smallest thing in your handbag? The broken bits of faceplate. FYI, you get what you pay for when you shop at Dollar Tree.

Is there anything illegal in your handbag? Um…no.

I love Darcie, and we have a lot in common. I often feel I can look at her and not say anything because she just gets it, and that’s such a rare quality to find in a friend. Kindred spirits, Anne of Greene Gables might say. But tidiness is clearly an area where we part ways:

Poor Darcie is probably cringing as she sees this. (And if you are my friend, let me assure you that the rest of my life is in a similar state of disarray. Anytime you’d like to fly in and help me organize would be great!)

Would you like to play along? Here is the fine print:

Find a safe quiet place free of significant others, nosey meme makers, priests, nuns, all things religious and men in general. (If you’re a guy just reverse this process to male and tell us about your wallet, tool box, briefcase or metro sexual accessory.) Hello?!?! I believe that’s called a European carry-all!

1. Dump the contents of your handbag in a pile.

2. Take a photo of your handbag and the contents.

3. Be brave and explain to your fellow bloggers what lurks inside the handbag.

4. Tag others who might want to embarrass themselves.

5. Answer the above questions in your blog.

And leave a comment here to let me know if you’re playing along. I wanna see if your mess can top mine!

Boo to you!

My friend Darcie from Such The Spot told me about a fun neighborhood game a few months ago. After our conversation I googled it and learned that apparently it’s all over the country, but our little Kentucky town seems to be behind the times (shocking, I know!) So we decided to jump-start the tradition locally, and thus the Bardstown Boo began.

Now if I was a really good blogger like Darcie, this is where I’d show you a picture of the baskets we assembled. But since I’m just me, this is where I will tell you what was in the baskets that I forgot to take a picture of.

The girls and I hit the dollar store for ours, figuring that we needed to do several baskets to ensure the game took off. We bought black wire spider baskets and filled them with little battery-powered pumpkin lanterns, Halloween paper plates and cups, a little resin home decor piece, Halloween pencils and erasers, candles, I made applique hand towels, and of course the obligatory candy corn. I think that’s about it.

Then we cut out large ghosts and put “We’ve been BOO’d” on them, and included this poem:

At the second boo we decided to pass it on to another neighborhood or two, so we went to some people who live on the road near our house which isn’t part of any subdivision, and we went over to my parents’ neighborhood as well. The kids were delighted to suprise Pappap and Grama, who of course had no clue who Boo’d them. Even after Grama called to tell Annie that she got Boo’d and Annie said, “I know! I wonder who did that?” LOL Gosh, we sure fooled them!

But I’m pleased to report that it caught on in both places, and ghosts are popping up all over our end of town! If I had unlimited resources I’d be popping a basket or two into every neighborhood in town, but maybe this will get the word out, at least, and a few others will take the initiative next year. All because of Darcie, a thousand miles away. Thank you my friend, for the fun you brought into our lives. The girls (and I!) have had a blast with this!

Totally stolen from Darcie

A few of my favorite things around our house:

Hand beaded tablecloth from India:
TV my dh mounted in front of the treadmill for me:

My wall organizers for the sewing area:
This sign above our breakfast area:
pictures in the stairway:
pillowcase (framed) from Thailand:

Eggs from Kuwait:

Picture from Kirklands (ha, ha!) – the first home decor item that Chris & I picked out together as newlyweds:
My Senseo coffee maker and my appliance garage – a two-fer:
My wii fit:

And the not-so-muchs…

love the uplight, but not-so-much the dusting of said light (as evidenced in this picture):

The wrought iron piece I bought for our bedroom and only after hanging it I realized it was HEARTS! Grrrr….I hate hearts. This is also a two-fer, as I hate the popcorn ceiling in our bedroom as well:

This lamp. Chris told me it was ugly and I didn’t believe him until much later. Now I realize it is ugly, and also very crooked:

Just one more reason to love the mouse

The Disney Moms Panel opportunity has been wonderful for me in many ways. Sure, there’s the obvious honor of it all, the good fortune to be chosen, the excitement over our rewards, the many ways Disney has ‘plussed up’ my life, the magical memories, the daily pleasure of helping others plan their first Disney vacations…not to mention the micro-celebrity status. So yeah, of course that’s fabulous. And all in all, it’s more than I ever imagined. Certainly more than I dreamed would happen to me!

But beyond all of those things is the biggest gift I’ve gotten from Disney, and I am so thankful. I have made a wonderful friend named Darcie. I’ve bragged about her fabulousness here before (if anyone was paying attention), but today I need to do it again. Today dear wonderful Darcie sent me a present.

Not only was she thoughtful enough to remember my birthday, she was generous enough to send me a very lovely, very pampering present. And as if we had a telepathic connection, she knew exactly what to buy. You’d think she had flown over and peeked in my window about 2am. Because I am so desperately in need.

Now really, my ugly point-and-shoot picture aside, are those not the cutest jammies ever? I currently sport gym shorts and my husband’s old tee shirts, so this is a huge step up. And I am ever so grateful. For the cute PJs for sure (they are so going in my suitcase tomorrow too!), but more importantly for the gift that is Darcie in my life.

Thank you so much. Thank you for being so sweet and so thoughtful. Thank you for being such an awesome, inspirational person. Thank you for always knowing the right thing to say, and for saying what you really believe no matter what. Thank you for injecting a little pixie dust into my life. Thank you for being my friend.

She’s amazing y’all, seriously she is. I’m thinking of starting a fan club. You should hop on board now – membership slots are filling quickly.

Aw shucks

The very lovely Darcie at Such The Spot has bestowed on me my first bloggy award. Thank you so much!

For those of you who don’t already know her, you really should. She’s one of the coolest chickies in cyberspace, and a great writer to boot. Her blog makes me laugh on a regular basis, and I’ve even shed a few (good) tears too.

So paying it forward, I’m going to award my dear friend Peppi at It’s All About Me. She’s another great lady that I am honored to call a friend. She’s a rare find in a friend – that person who knows what you’re thinking because they are thinking the same thing. And even if you don’t talk as often as you’d like, you don’t feel like the friendship has been affected by the passage of time. An all-around high quality person, you might say.

I am also sending this out to Tracy at Sellabit Mum. She has a great sense of humor, fantastic fashion sense, and really amazing gardening tips. She always has a new post up when I read her blog (more than I can say about myself!) and she always has amazing pictures to go along with it. And she is THE source for everything Matilda Jane. And really, who doesn’t need a little MJ in their life?

Thank you ladies for brightening my day with regularity!