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Whether the Weather She is A Coming

This is the California Connection and suitably enough for this Blog – GrammaRain has also entered into uncharted water’s <—-a theme is emerging! The rain has started and the drop’s are huge. Yahoo Weather says 2 inches to 5 inches by Saturday and the Utility Company I work for (OMG don’t get me started, that’s a Novel not a Blog) opened the ‘Storm Room’ this afternoon at 3:30 PST. Wind will gust to 50 mph and my Cat and I will hunker down and turn up the TV we both hate the wind! The point to this is…I’m so sorry that for sure Texas and then Missouri will get this storm and have a feeling it isn’t going to be pretty! So the question is are you ready for whether the weather is coming? Sure hope so!

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Welcome Me to the Blogosphere

Since I told my little sister that I wanted to be a guest blogger and she has already run out of content on the second of her 365 days of blogging, I guess Sweet Bippy had no choice but to give me the login and password to blog in her world.

My name is Leslie and I am a wannabe blogger. I am a dedicated blog-reader but have never ventured into the world of writing blogs. Oh sure, I de-lurk and post comments from time to time on my favorite blogs but by no means am I considered a blogger.

All that is about to change my friends…you will be seeing me at Sweet Bippy and not just as a random commenter named “Sister”! No, no. Be afraid. Be very afraid. I have a lot to say and until now my audience mainly consists of girls at work that have to listen to me because I’m their immediate supervisor, my dad and Penny the Beagle. Lucky for them me my audience just got bigger.

Stay tuned for random musings about my life, my struggle to stay sane in this crazy world and my perpetual quest to be a better person.

You have been warned. I have the password to this blog and I’m not afraid to use it!

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Day 2: aka The day I almost threw my new laptop out the window.

I have been sitting here all day trying to come up with something to post for day 2 of Blog 365. No such luck. I looked at quizzes, surveys, and name generators. I thought about taking the stuff out of my purse and labeling everything. Boring. And… I would actually have to get up and take the picture. Too much effort. I might have to rethink this whole 365 days of blogging. Man, that is a lot of thought and brainpower for no pay, kind of like my job. Yuck Yuck.

Where do I sign up for blogging for pay? Oh wait, I would actually know how to write! Dang. Oh well..I’ll leave that to my husband whenever he gets around to it.

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Friends = Family

Happy New Year!
This year promises great things. The continuation of a job I love, time with friends; both new and current, more web cam chats with my Mom and Dad, and precious time with my husband and kids. At first it was hard to have Christmas without my Sister, Dad and Mom but I came to the acceptance of it and made the best of the situation. We spent time on the web cam, online, and through phone calls. It made it less painful to miss them.
As I worked through the vacancy of our home, I began to have a sense of purpose and the need to get the house in order not just for company, but for my family. These 25 days off of work for school break has given me back some time and energy to do the things that I have neglected for so long. It feels so good to be on top of my house instead of it consuming and overwhelming me. There are still a lot of little things to do, but I have full confidence that they will get done and I will keep up with them.
Debily talked about her New Year’s Goals and think that is a great way of looking at things. Goal setting instead of resolutions, as they tend to feel insurmountable and every year they go undone anyway, why set yourself up for failure?

My goals in 2008 are:

  1. Keeping up with my home and cleaning tasks. I know they are attainable with some time management.
  2. Keeping my marriage fresh and fun. Taking the time to spend with my husband and committing to a study time together or a renewal time for just us.
  3. Being more involved with my children’s activities. Too often I am there, but I am somewhere else in my brain. Turn off the world more and connect with them one on one and in what they are doing so I can support them and their endeavors.
  4. Blog more. Be more revealing and structured in my thoughts, instead of spewing out my laundry list of things I do each day.
  5. Work on our debt management. With discipline and focused attention, we can reduce our load and make the improvements to our home that we so badly desire.
  6. Work on my relationship with Christ. He and I need to spend more time together and I am committed to studying his word weekly.

I think that is a short but sufficient list of goals to work toward in 2008. Who am I kidding? They probably won’t all get done, but that is the best part about goals. They are what you work for in striving for excellence, not perfection.

We had a great time over at Matt and Debbi’s. It was like being with family except they like us <wink> and want us to stay more than 1 night! No seriously, they are the next best thing to having family live close and we enjoy them time we spend together very much. Friends are family and I am so grateful for them. Happy New Year Y’all!

Oh, and in true Texan tradition, I ate Black Eyed Peas for lunch for “good luck” and I feel lucky alright! Lucky that I can’t smell my own gaseous emissions. They are after all beans. Poor Jon. He didn’t eat any and he wasn’t so “lucky”. Honk!!

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Girl Power!!

Today I spent my birthday with the people I love the most! No, not my kids and husband, but Debbi, Sherri, Laura, and Valerie. They were there to share in my special day! I left the family at home to play the Wii and headed out for a day of girlie fun. I had such a wonderful time, I am still on a high!
We all met for lunch at La Madeline and then headed over to Sam Moon for some shopping! I bought a new purse and wallet. The purse is black and white Zebra print with red accents and rhinestones. (I bet you are visualizing a rocker chick with tight leather pants and a tube top with feathered hair, but my friends assured me if anyone could pull off the white trash look, I could! I hope they didn’t steer me wrong! LOL) I also got a red wallet to coordinate! Laura bought me a necklace and earring set and I bought another necklace and earring set (like I need more, but what the heck! It’s my birthday!)

Then we set out for the shoe mart down the way and browsed at their thousands of shoes that my poor feet can’t wear, but we had fun looking at them none the less. Then a quick jaunt over to this other clothing store for a New Year’s Eve top for Sherri. We had fun looking at all the strange and wonderful tops and Red Hat Society couture while Sherri modeled some for us. The sales girl there was shadowing us the whole time and we felt like another gal had joined the birthday celebration! It was kind of creepy! LOL
We were thirsty and ready for some dessert, so we headed over to the corner bakery and I had a Hot Chai and a raspberry square. It was yum-o and I filled my new purse and wallet while we chatted. Then! (I’m exhausted just typing this!) we made one more pit stop at Old Navy to see if they carried plus sizes, which they did NOT and then headed home. I’m sure our husbands were wondering when we were coming back because we had been gone for about 7 hours! It was girl fun at it’s best! Thanks girls for sharing in my day! And thanks Val for the book and Debbi for the earrings! I love you all!

I think 35 is going to be the best year yet, I can feel it!

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Christmas at the Nut Hut…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4a9pCFDa4U[/youtube]

This Christmas was a little different. I’m sure my  Sister is tired of hearing how much we miss her (like anyone would get tired of hearing that!) and my Dad. All in all, this turned out to be a special Christmas after all.
The link above is a video clip of what the kids opened last. Gramma Rain pulled out all the stops and although she couldn’t be here either
(PG&E sucks) we were able to capture this memory for her and our kids for years to come. I was able to take video of this because I got to open my new Birthday Present early in time for Christmas. I got an RCA Small Wonder Video camera, the same one I got my Mom for her Birthday. It was so cool, I had to have my own!
Between the screaming, fainting, and tears of joy, we had an awesome Christmas and one for the record books. Long gone are the pink bikes with streamers and Rescue Heroes. Now we are at the age of MP3 players and cell phones. The girls are excited to own new GoPhones, and Dan and happy to be able to tune everyone out with his new jams. Michael Jon thinks Santa should have brought him something other than a basketball, but was totally delighted with the Ninja set in his stocking, so being 5 isn’t so bad after all. Santa was good this year and so were our kids. They can be stubborn at times, argumentative, and antagonistic to each other, but they are sweet, loving, kind, and obedient children.

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It’s all about the shoes people.

I went shopping for a warm sweater since its getting cold here. I found lots of cute things at Ross. Did they fit right and look fabulous on me? No they did not. While I wandered around aimlessly trying to convince myself not to jump off a bridge because I have a big butt, I spied these.

This lovely little number. Sitting there all by it’s lonesome. For 14.99. That retail for 69.00. I am the Queen of Bargains too! Who knew a little ‘ol pair of shoes could take someone from the brink to such joy?

They are without a doubt my favorite shoes so far. I can’t wait to wear them tomorrow with jeans and a black sweater. I’m back baby!!
Yeah!!

Ok, like OMG. I just looked these shoes up on Zappos.com and well..they aren’t just flats. The buckle swings up to be Mary Janes!! Do you know how cool that is? It two, two, two shoes in one! Woot!! I am so happy. I think I am going to cry.

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I’m the Queen of FREE!!

It’s amazing how good it feels when the world works with you and not against you. Most of you know we purchased a LOT of furniture from IKEA in Sept. of ’05. Within months, the cushions on the sofa and chair were misshapen and uncomfortable and when I informed IKEA of the situation that Dec.,  they dismissed me and I never heard from them again. Until yesterday!
I got a call from the Sofas Manager and Curtis was very helpful. He said he would replace all of them because of the 10 year warranty and I should bring them down and exchange them. Mind you, I lost the receipt over a year ago, I figured I didn’t need it anymore anyway since they weren’t going to do anything about it. He said I didn’t need the receipt because he wanted me to be happy with my purchases!
I was expecting a fight when I got there today and the ones who didn’t know of the situation balked and complained that Curtis needed to stop telling people things that he wasn’t authorized to do. I kept my mouth shut and said lots of thank yous along the way.  It worked to my advantage not to get too worked up, because I think getting riled would have caused more drama than nessessary and I would have looked like someone trying to take advantage of the situation, which I wasn’t. I just wanted a sofa that worked like they claimed it would; one that would stand up to years of abuse and a 220lb man sitting on it 50,000 times!

I got my wish. I now have all new cushions, both seat and back on the couch and two new cushions on my matching chair. I couldn’t be more thrilled. Best part is, they have been redesigned since I last bought mine. These “new” and “improved” ones have a layer of down/goose feathers and not only look more plump, but are firmer when you sit down. I expect these to last quiet a while and if they don’t, oh I’ll be back….you can guarantee it!!

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Saddness, Pain, and Sorrow=Hope and God’s Promise

This weekend a friend died. She was a wife and a mother, daughter, and aunt. She will be missed. It still seems unreal, yet the raw emotion is very present. I deal with emergencies very well. I am strong under pressure. It’s when things are quiet and still that I feel it. It comes on like a blanket smothering me and draining my energy and emotion. I tend to sleep when I am grieving, something that helps me deal with it all.
I think know she wouldn’t want me to grieve her in such a way. I think she and her family would want myself and others to celebrate her life, the memories we have of her and the commitment she made to Jesus when she asked Him to be her Lord and Savior. We are sisters in Christ and I will see her again.

I am so thankful for many things. I am thankful for my salvation in Jesus Christ. He saved me from myself and gave me a life filled with hope and promise. In Him I have been given a gift of life because He died on the cross for me. I am so thankful for my family; my husband, my children, my parents and sister. I am so thankful for friends and their love and support. Without these relationships, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Thank You.

I wish you a happy holiday!