Here's A Good Story

Last night I was lucky enough to hear a lady read this story...

A young lady was in an airport waiting for her flight. Since she had some time to spare she brought along a book and a bag of cookies. She sat down opened the book and the bag of cookies. A man was seated right beside her. After sometime she picked up a cookie from the bag. The man did the same. This irritated her and she was thinking, "how dare this man." But because she did not want to cause a scene she let it pass. After awhile she again picked another cookie and the man did the same. She picked one and the man did the same. She was really getting mad now but again she had to control her temper. Finally there was one piece left and she was wondering what the man would do. She did not have to wait long. The man took the cookie, and broke it in half. He ate the other half leaving the other for her. She almost exploded but managed to curb her temper. Finally her flight was called. Still fuming from her experience she went into the plane and took her seat. She opened her bag to look for something when she noticed that she still had her bag of cookies. Untouched and unopened. Then she realized that she had forgotten that her cookies were in her bag. She was eating from the man's bag of cookies. And to think that she was mad and irritated. And to think that she wanted to get mad at the man for his lack of manners. And to think that the man shared the last cookie. He did not say anything, he just broke the last cookie in half and left. She realized that she would never be able to explain what she had done. And what she felt. She felt so stupid because she realized that he not she was sharing the cookies. She wanted to apologize but the man was no longer there with her.

How wrong our assumptions can be! Have you ever jumped to the wrong conclusion about someone? It can happen easily. All the evidence, as we see it, seems to point in a particular direction.At times, these situations, like the cookie story, are embarrassing, but do no harm. At other times, however, they drive wedges between people, cause pain, hurt feelings, and bitterness. Marriage breakups, family feuds, congregational in-fighting, and synodical discord are frequently the result of faulty understanding of "evidence."Individuals, church bodies, even nations have been ravaged because of misinformation or misunderstanding. Our sinful nature thrives on gossip, loves a juicy story, and willingly believes the worst.

I really hope everyone who reads this will be able to think about this story next time they get upset or angry with someone. It's not always the other person. Just something to think about.

Nothing New To Write About

I just thought I'd stop by and jibber jabber for a few before I go to bed. I just posted on my scrapbook blog about how bummed out I am. I don't think it's just about the scrapbooking subject though, but that's what I'm blaming lol. Ah, family sucks, life sucks, my scrapbook pages suck, but I rock! Yea, I had to spice that up, I couldn't depress everyone. Anywho...Sanjaya...need I say more??? He wasn't even in the bottom 3! Unbelievable. But Blake was so awesome! I think that was the best performance American Idol has ever seen! Loved it!

Monday night Travis and I are going to be iniatied into Eastern Star. I'm excited about that. I will probably spend my Saturday shopping with my Mom for a nice outfit to wear. Yippee! I hate shopping for clothes. It's not that I don't like buying them and having new clothes, I mostly hate trying them on. That is the time I realize how much weight I've gained. Then I get mad. Then I get upset. Then I get depressed. And so on. Blah. I'm having another blah day. Great.

Oh, I almost forgot...we had a cookout with my Mom and Dad...here's some pictures.

Me and my Momma

Me and my Dad

Me and Travis

Have a great Friday!

My Weekend

I had a pretty good weekend all in all. Friday night Travis and I went out with our friends, Angie and Joe. We all went to Outback in Parkersburg for dinner. I had a great time. It's nice to have friends to go out and do things with.

Saturday I had knitting class. Anna got to go with me this week which was great. And I'm happy to say I showed my teacher a ...FINISHED dishcloth!!! And she said she was proud of me...how bout that?! I told her that I'm not going to use that one...that baby's goin in a frame! Ha ha! I started on the dreaded scarf pattern. It's more difficult to do but only because I have to really concentrate counting the stitches. But I've seen how the pattern turns out and it's actually really pretty. I figure if I can get through making this thing, I'll be darned...I'm wearing it!!!

Anna and I also went to the scrapbook store. I love it there. I just wish they would get in some new stuff. I cranked out so many pages last week I was really running low on supplies though. I did get some pretty paper. Anna said that she got alot of new supplies on her trip so I'm really anxious to see what she comes up with.

On Sunday, Travis and I went to visit his dad again. Things seem to be going really well. I don't really want to get into all of it on here, so if you're curious, just ask. Steve, his dad, is painting our motorcycle's gas tank. He was working on it while we were there and I was really impressed with his skills and the process itself. I got to see the primer coat go on it, the the base coat of black. It was a flat black paint which means no shine, but that tank looked better with that on it than it did when we took it to him! I guess now he has to tape of the designs which will take alot of time. He is so good at mixing paint too! I am really impressed! He had this can of dark green paint he pulled out while looking for a blue color for the American flag part of the design and said, I can mix something with that to work. I'm thinking, "Nah! That'll never work right." I was wrong! He grabbed a dark purple and swirled the two together and it was perfect! I told Travis he must've done really good in Kindergarten! Angie could tell me..lol. Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Have a great Tuesday...American Idol's on tonight!!! And be sure to tell everyone to vote off this guy...Sanjaya you need to go home!!!

Contest Update

You all will be very happy to know that I finished 3rd place in the Scrapbook Layout Contest. Thanks for voting for me to those of you that did. Here are the results...

love my camera 2
unforgetable 14

heroes / cowboys 1
becuase of you 85
afternoon snake encounter 1
best friends 1
blue eyed beauty 1
cincinnatie reds 0
most memorable celebration 3
crazy 2
daddy's girl 1
everyday 1
spring (2 page layout) 2
princess needs a crown 0
6 - six 0
sweet heart 0
you're beautiful 90
doodle bug (2 page layout) 0
illusive perception 6
imagine 3

Maybe someday I'll figure out how those other two got 85 and 90 votes???????? Anyways, I'm really happy that I did so well, especially since there were 20 layouts.

Vote for Me!

I know I've sent out emails to everyone, but I wanted to remind everyone to please go to http://www.serendipityscrapbookdesigns.com/sLayoutContestEntries.html and vote for my scrapbook page called "Unforgettable". The contest ends on March 15th which is only a few days away and whoever has the most votes wins a prize. I'm already so excited just seeing a page I made on a scrapbook products website, it's awesome! Thanks to everyone who votes for me in advance.

I also wanted to share this with you.

Do you know how to catch a polar bear???

You just take a can of peas, cut a hole in the ice, and line the peas around the hole. When the polar bear comes to take a pea, just kick him in the ice hole.

Ha ha! I'm sure you can tell, for those of you who know my dad, it came from him.

Later!

Bedroom Remodeling

Anyone who has talked to me lately knows that Trav and I have been relentlessly working on remodeling our bedroom. It has been a big job taking off the wallpaper, and in some places 50 years worth of it! I am vowing now to never in my life put up wallpaper!!! It is the biggest pain in my backside! Anyways, we have finally said we're done! We had to come to a certain point where we had to say we aren't putting any more money into this room for now. But I just think it's absolutely beautiful now! Here's some pictures...

This is a view of our bedroom from the door. You can see the paint color really well in this picture. It's called Ancestral. It's a pink/light purple color. I love it!

This is the new light fixture that we bought. Above the light is the ceiling medallion that we got. It really adds to the room. It also matches our molding.

Here is a close up of our molding. It has a beautiful rose pattern that goes all the way around the room. So pretty!

And last but not least because it was the hardest project in the room is the shelves. These shelves started out with about 5 or 6 layers of old old wallpaper on them. Travis worked on this for over a week. I think he did an amazing job. And I like how the boards are in the shelf backing, it makes it look more "country" styled.

On a different subject, remember the picture of my knitting that I had posted? Yea, it's wrong lol! Ahhh! I went to knitting class Saturday and I couldn't figure out why I was accumulating stitches on my needle. Hmmm, because I was doing it wrong!!! The instructor showed me what the problem was, so now I'm back on track, but a week behind everyone else. That totally figures! Most of the ladies brought in their nice little dishcloths all completed looking like they were ready to jump in the sink and start scrubbing something. Mine got torn out. :-( I told Travis that it doesn't matter how long I have to sit there and work on it, it will be done before this Saturday's class! Everyone else started working on a harder pattern that makes a scarf. I would definitely like the practice, but a scarf? I don't wear a scarf, I'm lucky if you can get a coat on me in the dead of winter. Anyways, here's a picture of my dishcloth progress.

Well, it's back to laundry. Happy Monday!

Blah Blah Blah....

I couldn't really think of a good title other than that. Blah is just how I'm feeling. Blah. Blah! I'm convinced that when one area of my life starts going good, everything else falls apart. Do I just give up? Should I quit trying so hard?

I haven't really been doing much this week, other than the typical housework routine. I just haven't really felt like it. I feel blah! I think that depression is getting the best of me right now. I absolutely hate it. I hate feeling like crap all the time. And I hate it that other people make me feel so worthless, despicable, and rejected. I could just be a hateful b-word, but I'm not that way. I want to be able to let things go of things in several aspects of my life, but people keep throwing the issues back in my face. I don't really have anything else to say about that. Blah!

I watched Americal Idol tonight. I'm not sure who else has been watching, but the guys are terrible this year with the exception of a couple. I really like Chris Sligh. He's got a really unique voice. Whenever I see him perform I think of Blues Traveler.

The other guy contestant that I really like is Blake Lewis. I love his how he makes those sound effects in his songs. He's very unique in the competition. I think he'll be one of the top 5.

The girls sang tonight. I only have two words to say about their performances...Lakisha Jones! She absolutely blew me away with her song. She sang a Whitney Houston song of all things, like it was no big deal for her. She has amazing talent. In my opinion, she's the one to beat this year.

I Can't Believe I'm Knitting
On Saturday I went to the knitting class with Anna. Let's just say it was interesting. During the first half of the class the instructor went over handouts and was telling us about websites and books that she often uses for help or patterns, one was called "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting." Ha. Once we began to "try" to knit Anna says, "Oh, I can't believe I'm knitting!" I go on to say, "I know, this is great." Needless to say I had a "brunette" moment there. As many of you know I have those alot. :-) But that's why you love me.

Well, I finally got the hang of knitting. I think the instructor got alittle irritated with us because we weren't getting it at first, but by the end of the class Anna and I both had one row of a dishrag done! It is a miracle that I accomplished that lol. Since then I've found some online instructional videos to help me out so I've been able to make some progress.

Anna on the other hand, I think she is needing some help. Read what she had to say about her knitting here.

Over the weekend Travis and I got the movie "Nacho Libre" from Netflix. If you are in need of a great laugh, I highly suggest seeing this movie. I laughed from the beginning to the end! Jack Black cracks me up! And I promise you'll love his Mexican accent.

In other news, I was at the grocery store this afternoon in the checkout line glancing at the magazines and happed to see where McDreamy and his wife had twins...

Well, that's all for my celebrity gossip for today :-) Hope everyone has a super Monday!

"Chillaxing"

Not much has been going on this week. I've just been "chillaxing" as my friend, Angie would call it. I really like that word.

It's weird not going to work. It's starting to hit me that I don't really have anything set that I have to do. I'm trying my best not to let that get me into the whole "I'm not good enough because I don't work" kind of mindset. It has been sort of hard dealing with losing my job and how it came about. For those of you who know the story, I actually got an apology for what was said. That does make me feel better, regardless if the apology was sincere or not. Here's how I look at it, God forgives people of their sins when it is asked of Him, so why should I not do the same? God has forgiven alot worse. I have really gotten alot better at forgiveness in the past few months. For me though it's just easier to forgive someone when they ask for it, but we aren't always so fortunate.

I have been doing alot of scrapbooking this week. Check out my Scrapbook Blog to see what I've come up with. I have been trying to step it up and do more advanced pages. Other than scrapbooking, Trav and I have been working on remodeling our bedroom. We're almost finished! I figure we'll have it done this weekend. We had to tear off wallpaper, patch some holes and cracks, paint, install a new light fixture, and put up molding. It's really looking good. He also installed a new doorbell and put up our new house numbers. Now if the outside of our house was painted (Sighs). Any volunteers to scrape? LOL.

This coming Saturday my friend Anna (who I copied the idea of my slideshow from, hope she doesn't mind) and I are going to a beginner's knitting course. I'm really excited and hoping I can learn how to do it. I can crochet a few different patterns, but I think knitting would be fun also.

Well that's about it for my week update. I hope Angie had a good parent teacher conference. And Happy Birthday to my brother in law, Matt!