Ooh! Forgot to tell you!

I decided I needed a professional look for my classes, so I bought myself this apron from a local company called Beelart Embroidery . Beautiful work, and Colleen the owner/embroideress extraordinaire even rushed the job and delivered it to me personally. I plan to order some more--I want a longer apron just for kicks. (this is the shorter one, like you see in restaurants....) Good stuff though! If you are looking for something similar (or bags, blankets, other good stuff), I recommend them wholeheartedly!

Enjoy!

Running through my Mind....

So I've had so much going on, I just didn't have time to sum it all up in one post, but I'll try to anyway....

Joel is in ENGLAND right now. First foreign travel for either of us. He's enjoying himself, although he said the food tastes different, and NO ONE told him that our bank has all of their debit cards blocked in the country of England, so he is without a lot of money. Thank goodness for American Express! His plan was just to withdraw cash as needed from an atm, but no such luck. Apparently England doesn't like Credit Unions. I spent some time on the cell phone with him on one side, an IM window open between us, and on the other side, a very nice girl named Sara from the OSU Federal Credit Union on the other phone trying to explain the situation to us. DH's response? "Well, tell them to UNBLOCK my debit card then!!!?!" My response, "Uh, Honey, it's not just you--it's debit cards in general. England doesn't seem to like them. You'll have to talk to the Queen to unblock yours...." Ah well, things you learn....next time it will be better.

We've had the same cold off and on since December. Last night I decided I'd had enough of it. I've been coughing so hard I can't breathe this week, and my youngest son has been coughing until he pukes. NOT FUN! Supposedly, there is a three-month virus going around the Willamette Valley. This was our fourth month. All four of us (me, dd, ds#1, ds#2) went to the doctor today. $60 for doctor copays; another $50 for drugs. This had better be the END of the cough!

I've been thinking about goals, dreams and aspirations lately. When I was super-involved in MK, someone once said, "God doesn't give you dreams without also giving you the way to achieve them!" I really believe in this statement. I believe that our Heavenly Father isn't mean or malicious--that he really wants us to be happy. I have some big dreams for myself when it comes to creating and scrapbooking and papercrafting and writing. I just can't see now how to achieve them. Right now I'm in "education mode." I'm reading all I can about collage, paper art, digital design, graphic design, art in general, and other things. I'm hoping that the right inspiration will come my way, and I'll just get a glimmer of how I can achieve these big dreams.

I may not know how to do it yet, but I do know that I have to try.

And that's the other side.

In 10 years it will all be different

So, I just got off the phone with a very dear friend who has been in my life for about 14 years now. We started being friends shortly after Joel and I got married--in fact they were our first "couple friends." Time being what it is, we've drifted apart some, and we just spent the last 2 hours on the phone catching up on the past 2 years. Even though we haven't lived more than 20 minutes apart during that time, we just haven't been close on a daily basis. It was nice to touch base with her again, to get a snapshot view of my life right now as we talked.

I have to remind myself when I get caught up in feelings of desperation (are we EVER going to get out of debt? Will I EVER get the career I want out of writing and scrapbooking and papercrafting and paper art? Will my 3 year old EVER eat anything more than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets? Will the house EVER be relatively clean and clutter free on a daily basis? And so on...) that my life is SIGNIFICANTLY different than it was ten years ago. Ten years ago I was going to school and managing apartments. Joel was working weekend graveyard at HP and thinking about going to school--and maybe he had a class or two--I don't really remember. We had one child, a very precocious one year old. I worried about school assignments, daycare for my baby, finding time with my husband, handling difficult tenants and empty apartments. I know we were busy with church. We were pretty broke.

Now, We're still pretty broke, but with better cars, nicer furniture, and we can pay for things like cable, a mortgage, taekwondo for H and J, a Trendwest membership for fun family vacations, this very nice HP laptop, my very nice HP Photosmart 945 Digital camera, and so on. We live pretty comfortably, all in all. We can meet our monthly obligations and still have some left over. Our marriage is still pretty strong, our kids are polite and well-behaved and well-liked. Things are good for us.

In ten years my daughter will be 21 and most likely not living with us any more. My baby will be nearly 13. I will have had the opportunity to work full-time (once the baby is in school all day, that is the plan to reduce our debt) and hopefully our debt will be gone and we'll have a comfortable retirement savings in place. That's my lesson for the day--start planning your financial future now! But enough of that soapbox.

My point is, ten years is a SHORT long time. Much will change, and while I KNOW I'll have new things to worry about, most of the things I worry about now won't be issues any more. I just have to remember to take a break from my worries and enjoy the now.

And that's the other side.

Sometimes you just gotta sleep...

So today was one of those days. We have a virus going around the Willamette Valley that comes and goes for several months before you are well. I think I'm on my third bout, so hopefully that's at an end soon. I just didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning. Thankfully, my church responsibilities today were covered, and my son also wasn't feel well, so we stayed home. I slept until 1:15 this afternoon, and probably could have slept longer, but wanted to be able to sleep tonight.

Sleep--It's a good thing.

And that's the (still) sleepy other side.