Archive for the 'Family' Category

A few of my favorite things!

I just wanted to post something a little more bright and fun on my blog. You’ll have to pardon the cruddy image quality; I used my phone to get it done quickly.

These are a few places in my house that I love. They make me smile when I look at them. It may be because I got something for a great price or if it was a great gift. It may just be because I like how it turned out…how I designed a neat little area.

Enjoy!

This is one of my bookshelves in my living room. I love how the books look and the photo of my husband and I as well as John Corbett (Aidan from SATC) and I.This is one of my bookshelves in my living room. I love how the books look and the photo of my husband and I as well as John Corbett (Aidan from SATC) and I.

These were edding gifts from my mother. They are banana leaf drawers/tables. The look a little pukey in this lighting.These were wedding gifts from my mother. They are banana leaf drawers/tables. The look a little pukey in this lighting.

This is my bedsite table. It was a perfect find for the space and with banana leaf drawers. The bowl on top with shells? was a $2 find. Handmade!This is my bedsite table. It was a perfect find for the space and with banana leaf drawers. The bowl on top with shells? was a $2 find. Handmade!

This is another great find! $17 for this mirror. I love my bathroom. Were going for a spa feel hence the mud colored walls.This is another great find! $17 for this mirror. I love my bathroom. We’re going for a spa feel hence the mud colored walls.

This is a small wall in the bathroom. Teak candles on top. A cool image and frame on the bottom. Magazine cutout. ;)This is a small wall in the bathroom. Teak candles on top. A cool image and frame on the bottom. Magazine cutout. ;)

This is my bookshelf in my office. Full of design books and fun stuff. And Betsey Johnson!This is my bookshelf in my office. Full of design books and fun stuff. And Betsey Johnson!

My favorite little nook behind my laptop. Good smelling candles and my favorite frame that I got for only $3. Waiting for that perfect family photo!My favorite little nook behind my laptop. Good smelling candles and my favorite frame that I got for only $3. Waiting for that perfect family photo!

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Someone to lean on.

As I said last week, I had an appointment with a psychologist. It was on Friday so I had to leave work. Yay….time away from work.

The lady was older and pleasant….she wasn’t intimidating and she didn’t have any signs of judgement coming off of her. In case you don’t know, I don’t like doctors and I avoid them at all cost. I even told her this and she asked why I don’t like doctor’s and I told her it’s because if you go then that means there is something wrong with you. She smiled and nodded like duh and then I continued, “and I don’t want anything to be wrong with me.” I grew up feeling like I had these high expectations to meet, like things had to be done perfectly, but I was never shown what “perfect” was. This came from my father. And he grew up the same way. His father is a very strict Southern Baptist and follows OLD beliefs (i.e. women don’t wear pants).

Anyways. I told her I think that a lot of this is the source of my anxiety. I told her I’m a mess and she asked me to elaborate so I did. My anxiety is through the roof right now because everything around me is falling apart. Financially, we are crippled. There is such a strain on our relationship that my husband told me two weeks ago that he has been thinking about leaving me, even at the cost of losing Aidan. He said it’s that bad and I know he was serious. I have been treating him like shit because I maintain a professional attitude at work so it all comes out at home. I’ve done really well at not bringing my work home with me; I hardly ever talk about work at home. But the stress from work lately has rolled over into my personal life. Our staff turnover this year was 48% of just front line staff (me and my partners) left this year…and that’s not including the 3 or 4 leaving in the next month. Policies have changed. We have kids there who shouldn’t be that are very difficult to deal with and staff who are still here are all new. They’ve all been there less than 6 months. And the solution to the problem right now is to just basically deal with it.

I like being able to foresee how things are going….having plans. I’m not a good spur of the moment, deal with huge change kind of person. I don’t like change.

But I have to make change, now. My therapist suggested I cut back my hours and start taking some medicine. I can’t cut back my hours and I don’t have the $30 copay to see my doctor. She asked that I figure out a way because she thinks it’s very important for me to see him.

Last time I saw him he told me he thinks I may have sleep apnea. If you don’t know what that is, it’s where you stop breathing during sleep. And you can die from it. And treatment is life-long. So of course, with this assertion, I opposed. I didn’t go get a sleep test done like he wanted. I didn’t want anything to be wrong with me.

So I’ve decided to finally follow through with it because she said that the lack of oxygen to my brain is causing me to not feel rested and to be irritable. And I’m going to give the meds a try.

I cried nearly the entire time of my session, but it was good. I’m seeing her again January 2nd.

As far as the finances go, we are just going to pay for what we can and what we really want to keep. I predict over the next 2 months, we will lose our house and Mike’s car.

But we are not going to sweat it. We’ll move our stuff into storage and find an apartment to rent. If that happens, then we may be able to pay on more bills and get some paid off. Once we start getting bills paid off, our credit should start improving. It’s also possible that child support may go down. We filed for another modification last week, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

We are trying to look at the positives in all of this. We can get the monkey off our backs and possibly move even sooner. We would have to start small, but you never know when things will start to really look up again. We are both dying to move right now and just start over.

Right now I’m just working on my mental health and improving my attitude so that we can get back to the love.

Baby Number 2

This past week, I had 2 dreams that were so surreal. When I woke up I had to check myself. The first one I dreamt that I was going into labor and I could actually feel the contractions. I remember one of the nurses wetting me with something to keep me lubed up.

The second dream I was pregnant and I was just walking around. I really don’t remember much about it.

So what does this mean? Nothing.

Just that baby number 2 will always be in my dreams.

Three’s Company….the more the merrier!

Today Sorayah and Sadie came over to hang out with us. It was such a pleasure seeing them now that they are several hundred miles away and visits are few and far between.

Sadie seemed elated when Sorayah opened the car door. She was such a well behaved baby the whole time – all of about 3 1/2 hours. I couldn’t bribe my child to behave well for that long. Guess that’s what happens when you’re possessed with demons.

It was so weird holding a baby smaller than Aidan. I’m used to how heavy he is and holding a baby who weighs a lot less is just weird. It was nice, though. I didn’t feel like I was going to throw out my back lifting her up and playing airplane with her.

We were also doing some planning as far as their next photo shoot (which I am excited to do). It will be a Victorianesque type setting and then we will be doing some other fall shots. We have to find a good leaf location first. I must keep an eye out in some areas. I’m thinking the rec center near Logan’s, Sorayah.

Afterwards I made some spaghetti and we went out to Target to exchange and get new PJs. I found a doormat for 50% off. It’s a skull that says Keep Out. We’ve needed a nice mat outside for a while now. Hopefully it will keep the dirt down in the house.

We also got Yo Gabba Gabba for Aidan. He loves that show. We plan to get him a lawn mower kids electric tractor for xmas. It’s so cute.

busy bee

Inspired by Jess @ the tattooed mama I wanted to write down my fairly crazy regular schedule each day and on a weekly basis.

As I’ve said before, I’m a busy little bee, so I wanted to see just how full my schedule is.

8 until 8:30am – Each morning, we wake up and cuddle.

8:30am – turn on computer and check my myspace, email and blog.

9am – feed Aidan breakfast and watch cartoons.

10-11am – watch Curb Appeal and play with Aidan.

11:30am – give Aidan his snack and start doing web design stuff or photo editing.

12pm – watch House Hunters

12:30-3:30pm – put Aidan down for a nap, shower, do laundry, clean and do some more work.

3:30-4:30pm – Aidan usually wakes up and wants to play. feed him his lunch around 4:30.

5:30-6pm – snack time and Mike usually gets home. Play some more.

6:30pm – feed Aidan his dinner and start on cooking ours.

7:30-8:30pm – eat dinner if we’re lucky. Do some more work.

8:30pm – give Aidan a bath.

9-9:30pm – cuddle with Aidan for about 30 minutes then put him to sleep.

9:30-11:30pm – spend time with hubs and do some more work on the computer.

Most nights, these times are pretty close. Then there are some nights like last night where Aidan was up until 12:30am.

Now on Thursdays at 4pm, I leave for work. Drive to Knoxville for an hour and a half. Stay at work until Monday morning until 9am working 16 hours a day. Drive the hour and a half trip back home.

Repeat everything you previously read.

Nifty buys!

Aidan and I ventured out to the thrift store today. We found some really cute stuff and some things we could really use (like new interior doors – ours are the cheap wooden ones). I didn’t really take the time to dig through stuff. Since becoming a super-busy mom, I don’t spend a lot of time out. I’m always, “GO GO GO!!”

He’s napping. GO! Shower! GO! Do some web design! He’s in bed. GO! Give hubs cuddle time. GO! Back on the computer!

So when I go into stores, I usually have my shopping list in hand and I’m driving around like a mad woman. I don’t even bring the diaper bag in because I know we won’t be in there long.

It’s the story of my life.

I do need to slow down and breathe.

I used to stay out because it would put Aidan to sleep. Now I hurry so I don’t cut into his nap time/my free time. Sad, huh?

Anyways.

Back to Habitat for Humanity. I looked at the sewing machines and wandered around the entire furniture section (which has grown since I was last there). I found a cute brown chair, probably from the 60s that was in pretty good shape. It didn’t really grab me so I kept going.

Once I got to the back, there it was!!! A cute little velour, green chair that has a ruffley skirt around the bottom. It looked as though it was meant for young kids – say 6 or 7. Or little people.

It used to be a St. Patricks Day green, but since it has aging and has had many butts put up on it, it has faded. But not bad. It’s still so lovely. I plan to use it in photo shoots for babies and young kids. I CAN. NOT. WAIT!

Sorayah, Sadie gets first dibs!

I’ve got to get a background for it. I plan to get some kind of wallpaper type background that will look like Victorian style wallpaper: you know, with the raised velvet prints? Love it. I hope I find the perfect background that I envision!! Hobby Lobby, here I come!

After that, we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and I found a toy for Aidan that is so cute! It’s drums for the bathtub! How have I missed these all this time?!

He thoroughly enjoyed them tonight while taking his first big boy bath. We took away the blow-up duckie tub.

I have pictures, so I’ll post them later.

Right now I have to

GO! Do some web design.

Sex and the City release

The Sex and The City DVD release was yesterday, in case you didn’t know or you forgot. I was anxious all morning and couldn’t decide if I could wait on my husband to get home and bring it on his way in or if I wanted to get it myself.

Then I remembered he’d be working late, so off we went!

I waited until he got home and after we had our homemade chili to watch it. I fell in love all over again. I haven’t watched any of the episodes in probably a year. I’ve been a SATC fan since 2000ish.

As I watched all of the episodes – often waiting for the day of a new release – I grew connected to the characters and felt like a part of their lives. I was a lot like Miranda with a blend of Carrie’s fashion sense, except I’m a purse-aholic where she’s a shoe-aholic.

Hello luvah!

My opinion of the movie is coming. Now.

I thought it was perfect. Perfect in that Candace Bushnell knew exactly how to please her SATC audience and knew that she’d be hung at the stake if anything differently had happened. Looking back on it now, I am happy that things ended in a pleasant way, but kind of wish that there had been some kind of drama because that’s what I expected. (Bigger than Big)

I loved the music – and so did Aidan. I bought the cheap copy that came with a copy of some of the music from the movie. I’ll buy the extended version later.

My favorite part of the movie was when she gave Louise the Louis Vuitton. That bag was awesome!!!

And an awesome $5400 if you want one!!

Overall, I loved the movie. I cried the whole time. Even Mike commented that it’s a “tearjerker” all the way through.

Now I want to go buy some bright, frilly clothes and start dressing up again.

Will work for food!

Well, kind of.

I was thinking over the past couple of days about how I should make a sign that says:

I’m not homeless or a vet, just overwhelmed with debt. Struggling to support my family. Could you help me out? Proceeds will NOT go to drugs or alcohol!

and stand at the intersection that seems to be a popular location with the land dwellers and homeless folk around here.

What really sparked this was thinking about how I’m going to even be able to buy my kids gifts for xmas this year. At this rate, we won’t be able to.

I got a call…

Today (Sept 2 – my birthday) I received a call from Joan, my step-daughter’s mother.

It was a bit of a surprise as she never calls me and when she said she had something to talk to me about, I figured she had somehow found out about all of my posts online about child support.

Of course that wasn’t it.

She said that after my vacation Alex realized how much she misses seeing me. I never see my step-kids anymore because of my work schedule and the last time I had seen them before my vacation a month ago was in January.

I really didn’t think of what kind of an impact it may have on them until after my vacation. I had actually thought about this, too. I was excited to see them and sad to see them go.

She asked if there was anyway we could work out a schedule so that Alex can see me more and of course I agreed. Really I should’ve suggested that she lower CS so I can get a new job as that’s the main thing holding me back is my fear of taking even the slightest of a paycut.

Wishful thinking…

I told her that I am in the process of working things out so I can get a new job closer to home that will be M-F, 8am-5pm. I am also working out daycare with that. I don’t know if it will work, but in the meantime we agreed on a weekday when I am home.

I just thought that it was really sweet that Alex talked to her mom about how much she misses seeing me. She didn’t want to tell Mike this because she was afraid he might think she doesn’t enjoy time with him. I don’t think that’s the case. Him not knowing her for the first 7 years kind of dampened their bond. Bond between a father and daughter is harder to create than man to man or woman to woman.

I am excited about changes and hope that I can spend more time with all of my kids!

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A Jill of All Trades


31 year old mother of Aidan, born January 27, 2007. Wife to a music man and tattoo artist on the side. I blog about everything under the sun and don't care if I offend anyone. Hopefully I can put a few stitches in your side.
I love music, fashion, tattoos and web design. Without those things, I'd feel lost. I always want more, more, more...like Billy Idol says. More fashion, more music, more tattoos.

AND....I am not the same person who owns jillofalltrades.com nor am I affiliated with her. My web design business is known as The Design Parlor.




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