Home.

 

I hosted Thanksgiving at my house last year, so that meant I had to clean it. Well, at least the front half of it. So then I took pictures! To blog!

I believe the last time I blogged about my house was before I even moved in last March. I’m coming up on a year renting from my friends. Being down the road from them means I get to see the kids every day, and I wouldn’t have that any other way. Plus, Laura and I have standing TV dates throughout the week, which is always nice.

Keep in mind that I am the world’s worst decorator, have no sense of style, and most of my walls are empty. My idea of organizing is tidying up piles of stuff into bigger piles of stuff. I’ll get there one day. I have big plans for this little house of mine.

 

Standing in the dining room, looking into the living room. Note to self: CLEAN the bookshelf and the TV stand off before taking photos.

My lovely canvases. I love how they turned out.

Standing on the rug in the living room, looking back towards the dining room.

Again, messy messy bookshelf. And for all things good and Holy why didn’t I hide the trash can??

See that chifforobe there in the corner of the kitchen? I scored that at a garage sale. A GARAGE SALE. My sister has my great grandmother’s and this one is identical. I love that we both have one now.

 

So. That’s the front half of my house. It only took almost a year to post these. One day I’ll have the bedrooms presentable. Plus my office. I can’t wait to tackle my office.

Until next time!

Project Life Tuesday–Week 2

 

January 8-14, 2012

I slacked majorly this week in taking pictures. I told myself I wasn’t going to limit this little project to only camera pictures, so this week will have a lot of phone pictures. It’s just so much easier to whip out my phone sometimes…especially out and about in town.

I was home from school 2 days due to a yucky stomach bug. I spent a majority of those days in bed watching NCIS.

My sewing machine had been broken for a few months, and I never had time to take it to the shop, so I made time this week. He replaced all the gears and all is well now!

 

It’s 63 degrees in January. I know it’s typical for Louisiana, but it’s just weird to wear short sleeves in January!

 

We had a birthday party for Steve, and after the sun went down, we lit one paper lantern and let it go to kick of the bonfire that followed.

Project Life Tuesday–Week 1

 

 

Last year I attempted to start Project 365/Project Life, and did well up until about February when I got the flu. After that, everything went downhill pretty fast. This year, I’m doing Project Life, and I’m not going to pressure myself in taking pictures every day, but taking pictures throughout the week to document what went on. Some weeks I may even have a theme, there may not be a total of 7 days that week, and I might include things that aren’t pictures! I’m not a huge fan of my own handwriting, something that I think will be my biggest issue with this, but I’ll learn to like it.

Here we go!

 

During one of our Skype sessions, Seth was still awake and was signing “I love you” to us. He’s come a long way since he got his implants, and I love getting to see and hear about all of his improvements.

 

Cade and Melain were dying to pop fireworks on New Year’s, so we went to the store to get some. Melain decided she didn’t like them after all, but Cade had a blast…especially indulging in our photog playfulness.

For Christmas, one of Laura’s friends gave them some seasoned pretzels. They were so addictive, so I decided to make some myself. They were very yummy! Landry calls them “cookies”, and I can’t stop eating them.

 

She wants everything that belongs to her sister, so it was no surprise when she came around the corner sporting her princess bike helmet. After securing it underneath her chin, she went on her merry way!

 

 

Landry has been an eating machine lately, and anything dealing with food cracks her up. This night, I was playing with a roll and she thought it was the funniest thing ever!

 

A girl from work set me up on a blind date Friday night. We met for coffee and conversation. It’s not likely to go any further than that. Now there’s already another co-worker wanting to set me up again!

 

Here are pictures of my title page and the first week. I’m probably going to go back and jazz them up a bit with some scrapbook-looking stuff, but until I get some things, this is how it will look for now!

 

Linking up to Jessica!

one word: joy

 

My friend Alece started this movement called One Word 365. Basically, you pick one word to focus on for the entire year. One word that will push you, inspire you, change you. This year, my word is joy.

I blame my friend Sara for this. Her life motto was “Choose Joy”. And boy, did she ever. Her disease left her in so much pain every single day, yet she chose joy in her daily life. She never left her condo, yet she found joy in her struggles.

 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” James 1:2

She was the epitome of that verse. And I want to be like her when I grow up.

I see my tattoo every day. And every day I’m reminded of Sara. I don’t need the tattoo to remind me of her, but it helps me remember to always choose joy. Even when things are hard.

Joy. Always and always.

Those people.

 

It’s hard to explain online friendships.

Like, really hard.

“Have you ever even met those people? What if they’re not really who they say they are? Are you insane?”

So when my friend Sara’s health took a turn for the worse, most of my friends and family here didn’t get it. They didn’t get why I was so sad over someone who was dying when I’d never met that person.

Never met her? I beg to differ.

I may have only blogged about it once, but those Skyping sessions would happen once a week or so. I looked forward to them so much. And while I may not have ever physically hugged Sara, she was very much a real friend. A close friend. One of those friends you can tell anything to, who will keep your secrets and not hold them against you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have many of those kinds of friends, and the ones I have, I’m holding onto.

When we got word that Sara was going to Heaven soon, the girls and I were crushed. I’m in Louisiana, Mandy’s in Texas and Ellyn’s in Indiana. Needless to say, we’re all over the place. We knew we needed to be together for this, yet it felt so wrong without Sara.

I got a text from Mandy saying she’d booked a flight to visit Ellyn the last weekend of September. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to miss school because I was already out one other day that week for meetings. I managed to work around it, booked my own tickets, and then we waited. We waited for that weekend to come, and we waited for updates from our other sweet friends who were kind enough to include us in what they knew. Basically, we waited for Sara to die. It was the strangest and hardest 10 days ever. My heart would jump out of my chest every time I had a text or a tweet from one of the girls.

Sara passed away the weekend before we left. We never thought she would’ve hung on as long as she did, 10 days since the initial post of her declining health, yet in a strange and weird way it was so relieving when she was gone. She wasn’t in any more constant, agonizing, debilitating pain. She could take deep breaths now without gasping. Her body wasn’t betraying her anymore.

The amazing thing about Sara? As heartbroken as we were about her passing—she was ready. She had told us time and time again that she had lived a full life. She had no regrets. As crappy as her quality of life was, she damn well made up for it with love. She may have been confined to that tiny condo, but she connected with people all over the globe with that little blog of hers. A minute-long conversation with Sara and you felt like you were the only person in the world when she was talking to you.

Mandy and I kind of were in the same mindset as far as going or not going to the funeral. The 3 of us had planned so many trips to see Sara that fell through at the last minute that it didn’t seem right for our first trip up there to be for her funeral. Instead, we knew Sara would be crazy happy for Ellyn, Mandy and I to get together, so that’s what we did. We went to Indiana.

For Sara.

 

We snuggled babies. We drank Moscato and ate frozen Oreos, both Sara’s favorite. And we lit lanterns for her.

 

Ellyn and I got tattoos of Sara’s life motto “Choose Joy”, and we got them done in her handwriting. El’s is on her foot, mine is on my wrist. They’re unbelievably pretty.

 

We spent the weekend together, just like Sara would’ve wanted. We mourned our friend by making inappropriate jokes at the worst times, and then laughing because we knew if we stopped we’d cry. It was the best weekend in the worst way.

And by the way, “those people”?

 

Are the real deal.

She’s Home

Sara went Home to Jesus around 11:15 last night.

Judging from the lightning storm outside right now, I’d say her and her dad are having a blast taking pictures at that reunion.

I’ll see you again, Sara.

Always and always.

Sweet Sara

If you have a moment, please pray for my friend Sara and her family. She’ll be meeting Jesus soon.

All the single ladies

 

Last weekend, Cade and Melain were in a wedding of a friend of mine. Melain was one of the flower girls, and Cade was the ring bearer. To say they were excited is an extreme understatement.

 

 

To bribe them To get them prepared, Laura got each of the kids a wedding outfit for their Build-a-bears. Cade’s got a tux, and Melain’s got a wedding dress.

Melain’s wedding dress came complete with a garter. Laura and I were trying to explain to them what a garter was, and that Tommy would take it off Maegan’s leg and throw it. Also, we explained the throwing of the bouquet. Then Cade and I proceeded to have the following conversation:

Cade: “Who does Maegan throw the bouquet to?”

Me: “Well, all the girls who aren’t married stand behind her, and she throws it to them, and then they all try to catch it.”

Cade: “Oh, ok.”

Cade: “Ahmee?”

Me: “Yes?”

Cade: “How many girls there won’t be married?”

Me: “I’m not sure.”

Cade: “I bet it’s just you and a few others.”

 

He’s lucky he’s cute.

Unknown.

 

It’s 2am 3am. Why am I up, and more importantly: why am I blogging at this hour? Insomnia sucks, and I want to kick it in the teeth.

My heart just feels so heavy lately, maybe that’s why I can’t sleep. I have so much to say, so many feelings and emotions I want to get out, yet don’t know how. I’d like to talk about how my Goddaughters have so much of my heart and make me swell with love, but I feel like I talk about them all the time, and that gets old. I’d like to talk about the 3 possible teaching opportunities that may come my way for next year, but I don’t want to get my hopes up again.

My work schedule is changing next week. I have to go back to working nights. Well, until 9pm. I had no vote in the matter, no choice. And 9pm was the earliest ending schedule offered by the time I got to pick. It’s silly, but it hit me fast and hard and made me cry. I’ve been there long enough and have paid my dues working nights and weekends before, and now I have to do it again. I feel like I’m moving backwards, not forwards.

At the end of the day, this is the one place where I’m most comfortable.

 

Laura told me tonight that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And I do see it, but it’s very faint. All I can do is keep walking towards it.

Movin’ on up

 

About a year and a half ago, my friends decided they wanted to buy an older house down the street from them. At the time, my friend Laura was hugely pregnant with her 3rd baby, and her husband was working away from home for weeks at a time. They asked if I would be interested in renting the house after they bought it. It would keep someone nearby if Laura needed anything, and I was out there all the time anyway, so I might as well live out there.

The house had been empty for about 2-3 years. They ran into all kinds of issues trying to figure out who owned the house, who was on the deed, getting all the legal work straightened out. There was so much red tape, the whole thing fell through.

Fast forward about 9 months later. Laura had Landry, I was in back in school, Stan was working from home now. Laura’s dad, Steve, who lives behind them, had been interested in buying a piece of land that was behind the house. In the process, he decided to get back in touch with the lawyer they’d been working with on the house and see if he could get the ball rolling.

Longer story short, they got the house, everything is done, and about 2 months ago they basically gutted the whole thing! The offer for me to move into it still stood, and I agreed, so now I’m trying to pack up my apartment and get out of here this weekend!

I need to get some updated pictures since lots has happened since these were taken. The first 6 pictures were taken before any work was done.

Meet my house!

 

 

     

 

Let me know what you think!

Missing

 

I’ve been missing my grandparents a lot lately. They passed away several years ago, long before I was mature enough to really appreciate having a meaningful relationship with them. Pop passed away first, a little over 7 years ago, followed by Granny, a mere 9 months to the day later.

I always loved going to their house during the summer. Mom or dad would drop my older sister and me off for days at a time. They lived in the country, and there wasn’t a lot to do other than ride 4-wheelers, swim in the pond, or curl up with a book on the porch. It sounds cliché, and it totally was. I loved every minute of it.

Granny loved us so much. She would do anything for us. I’ll never forget how she would tell my mom, and all of my aunts, how each of her granddaughters were the “cutest little thing ever”.

And Pop. When he could hear us (heh), he listened to every word we had to say. He took us fishing, helped us practice shooting guns, and showed us how to work in the garden. 

After they passed away, my dad and his brothers decided to keep their house. It was paid for, was smack in the middle of their hunting lease, and it was a great commonplace for the whole family to gather. We go there several times a year, usually for family reunions and right after holidays for bonfires and fireworks. 

Honestly, I don’t think my dad and uncles could bear to part with the house and the memories quite yet.

   

 

And that’s okay with me.