Material Girl

Last weekend my dear, darling mother-in-law took me shopping. This is dangerous. My mother-in-law loves to buy, buy, buy, and I don't know how to say no, no, no.

Luckily I realize this, which means she hadn't taken me shopping in about a year and a half. But it was time.

I came to the conclusion that John's mom has bought me more clothing in the past 3 years than my own mother has in my entire life. This shouldn't be surprising since my mom knew how to say no for me, and most of my clothes growing up were second-hand (I am the youngest of ten belonging to an elementary school teacher, after all). 

I don't want to get you the wrong idea. I love Carol and I love shopping with her. I had a blast spending time with a woman I adore. And let's face it, I'm not perfect; I thoroughly enjoy being spoiled rotten to the core.

Okay, hopefully I'm not rotten to the core.

But I am definitely spoiled.

Two hours in the dressing room and I am exactly

6 cardigans, 7 dresses, 10 shirts, 4 pairs of jeans (one coral colored), and 3 pairs of shoes more spoiled.
That's just attire.
And that's with me saying "I don't think so" a lot.

Oh, and see the heels on the right?
These:

That's right. I own sparkly heels.
This makes me muy happy.
I would never have bought them for myself. I just don't need them, so I simply wouldn't buy them. Carol, however, has no such inhibitions. I tried them on just to try them on, and she insisted I get them.
Isn't she cute?


I gave John a fashion show the next day:

This would make my Sarah Lynn proud (even if there is a lack of scarves)


I bought while with Carol something that John and I have been searching for: a comforter.
We painted our bedroom purple and cream and have been trying to find the right bed spread to go with it. We've found plenty of purple comforters, even in King size, and for a good price. But there's always been something wrong with them. Too "90's," too silver, too tan...so we had finally decided we might need to settle. But then the magically perfect one showed up.

Isn't it purdy?
We've been loving it.

I love our bed. I convinced John that we needed a King size. He thinks it makes us too far apart and he'd be perfectly happy with a double. Ugh. I'm glad I convinced him. Though our bed is somewhat...enormous. We got my brother's old bed frame when they switched, so it's free even if it's not what we would have picked out. But now we have our comforter and our purple sheets (several sets) and as soon as we get the all right pillows it will be perfect.

Almost there.



There is a vague point to all my ramblings here -- surprisingly enough.
As I skipped giddily around my house this week I realized how happy having nice things makes me. This is weird because I don't consider myself very material...and yet clearly I am. So I thought about it more.

Yes, I am a material person. I value material things.
Material things give me happiness, even lasting (time-wise) happiness.
My huge house continues to make me happy. My painted walls continue to make me happy. My gadget-stocked kitchen continues to make me happy. My collection of books continues to make me happy. Some of my random purchases from the dollar store continue to make me happy.

However, my happiness does not hinge on material things. I am quite happy without all these things, and was before I had them. All of these things are just added bonuses on an already wonderful life. That's how I see them. And that's why I think my life is amazing.

I have everything I could need: a wonderful husband, loving and lovable family and friends, my basic needs taken care of
I also have everything I could want: A loving and successful marriage, a home of our own, time to spend with those I care for, financial security, health, the ability to learn and grow,
Then I get all these extras: A house we could never outgrow, an overflowing wardrobe (with a closet that makes it seem small), a gorgeous kitchen, the money to buy most whimsical desires, a cute puppy to keep me company

People who know me know I am a very happy person. I always have been. But I'm pretty sure everyone else would be too if they had my life. My life simply rocks.
Yet, that's not really what makes me happy.
Choosing to be happy makes me happy.
And I choose to love the small things.

Paradise Permeating

I've talked about my obsession with lilacs before:

Day 12: Lilacs
Day 23: 15 Facts
Day 1: 15 Facts by Johnny

So I don't think I have to explain back story. :)
In the second link it shows a picture of some of the lilac-smelling things I own. Despite my desire to smell lilacs all the time, I have purposefully procrastinated using most of them. Why? Because I didn't want to waste them on places that simply didn't deserve this divine smell.

Well, I'm in my own home. I've had one of my oil-heater thingies set up in the front room for a while, but I didn't have any unscented votive candles to use (I have plenty of lilac smelling votive candles :P). I bought a bag of tealights (discounted!) the other day so...go.

I got distracted and temporarily forgot about it.
Then I smelt this absolutely heavenly amazing smell, and I was confused. I've been too busy since I got home from school (ending in Zumba) to shower yet, so there's no way it was me. Even my perfume from this morning has faded. I didn't get it.
Then I did.
And I'm in paradise.

I am SO glad that it works. I've been worried that none of them would work since the house is big and there is a lot of open air to permeate. But it does it well. And I am happy.

I Should Be Packing...

We are going camping tomorrow until Sunday. To quote my facebook:
"Camping alllllll weekend! Hello Torrey Pines, dirt, kiddies, worries over food, a soon-to-be frustrated sister-in-law, lots of pictures, and some good times. Goodbye my normal world of glowing rectangles. Except the handful we will bring with us..."

Sleeepy...
I just took out the garbage. It's strange to have it full of garbage instead of weeds. The recycling is also full. I said I just took out, but actually Johnny and I fought over it. We compromised with me taking out one and him taking out the other. We didn't fight over the work, but the service. If that makes sense.

Johnny has been super good to me...always, but especially lately. Today he came home from work and insisted that I needed a relaxing evening. Baby, I may have had the supposed two-year-old terror that is Carson (who was practically an angel) for two days, but really I've just been watching Heroes all day. Okay, so I did that while finally getting down the insurmountable mound of dishes, doing the laundry, and dancing around Carsy, but still. I'm a lazy bum, or I feel like it. I don't need no relaxation. But the thought was nice.

Regardless of his desire, we both ended up..where? Staring at our glowing rectangles. I may have made a necessary and wonderful choice to marry a techie, but it means the computer is an addiction that both of us crave, even when we've had too much. :)
He just wanted to finish a couple things from work, and since he was on it I had to get on it. :) So my excuse is lame. John's isn't, actually. He never does work from home, except the one time he was supposed to. I don't blame him this time. He took the holiday on Monday and he's taking a vacation day tomorrow so that we can go camping. So he's only had three days of work and his project is due soon and they're nowhere near done.
I'm glad hubs loves his job. Everyone needs to, but so few do.

Haha, so while he was doing that I went searching for something to do. I've never been good at web surfing. I usually just go to my 4 regular sites about a million times, waiting for something interesting to happen. Facebook is really not that entertaining, but I'm addicted, regardless. My calendar is not going to suddenly get packed with super amazing things to do no matter how long I stare at it. I wait around for a juicy good letter in my inbox, but when they come I'm too lazy to read them. Netflix will always have something to entertain me, which is horrible because then I become a zombie.

So that leaves Blogger. There's usually a new post from someone every day, but that takes about 2 minutes to read and I'm done. I could catch up on all the posts I've been meaning to finish...but that sounds like work.
This.is.my.life.

Anyhow, today I was mindlessly clicking and found myself on my favorite blogger's site. I don't know her, but she's hilarious. I purposely do not follow people I don't know because then I really could be sucked away forever reading about things that have nothing to do with me. But she followed me first, and then I got sucked in.
Anyhow (again), I was wondering how she started her blog, so I went to the beginning...and kept going. And 2 1/2 hours went by before John was finally done with what he wanted to do so I stopped.
I am now nostalgic. And a little disoriented. She's still in High School and I realized that she was 15 when she started the blog, which started me thinking of when I was 15 which was six years ago. (How did I get so old so fast?) And I started thinking of things I was saying and doing back then. Holly and I were best friends, boy crazy, bored out of our minds, counting down the days to our birthdays, writing notes constantly...
those were the days.
Seriously, High School is SO fun. You get to see friends every day, you're always doing stuff, summer doesn't feel like a waste of time when you don't do anything, you don't have to worry about anything but yourself. All except that annoying thing that is school.
Now I'm all grown up and married. We own a house. I have housework to do and I'm not getting paid for it or fighting/avoiding my mom about it. There's no such thing as summer break, which means when I'm a lazy bum my life is a lazy bum. We live "out in the boonies" so I can't go do stuff with friends. Even if I lived closer to friends, all our schedules don't mesh so spontaneity is a thing of the past.
What I would give to be spontaneous.

Blahhhhhh...I need sleep. I don't want to.

Puppy is with Grandma for the weekend. It is seriously weird not having my shadow. I'm sure she misses me more. Silly dog.

I put up stuff on the walls today. It made my house a home, even with the half painted walls. I'm happy :)
My laundry room is now crowded and I know John hates that so I was worried. But he likes it, and said that's what laundry/mud rooms are for. To be filled with all the junk you need that isn't for show. So yay :) I now have my big cork board, our big white board, a clock (it's green to match the someday-to-be green walls), a mail basket, a calendar, and my note roll/corkboard/key hook thingie, not to mention three doors, one of which is covered in magnets, all in the 6x6ft mudroom side of the laundry room. I'm in love. I need my crowded spaces in this spacious home. There's too much emptiness here.

I have the Harry Potter theme song stuck in my head.

We're still not packed.

Funny how that happens. Me not packing gets us still not packed. Unless John's been working on it...that's nice.

I have the best Johnny in the world!!
Even if he didn't do any packing.

HPMM Cleanup

So yesterday finalized the Harry Potter Movie Marathon. It was a blast! Only one friend came, though, silly busy people. But I did have lots of family come. Because my family is awesome like that. And we like Harry Potter. Perhaps a little too much. Hey, when they get more excited to come for Harry Potter than to play games or simply to talk with family, there has got to be something wrong. Or I just plan things the wrong dates. Always the wrong date.

Anyhow, on our blog I will tell you all about the marathon, because it was an event and it included John. That's the criteria for the other blog. This blog is dedicated to rants, and other such things.
I said I liked details. I know what posts go to which of my blogs. How can I have two blogs if I don't determine what goes where?

But don't go rushing there yet. I haven't written about the HPMM yet. I don't have time yet.
I have dedicated today as cleanup day. Luckily for me we did a little pickup here and there throughout the weekend so it's not a complete tornado.

Sarah rinsed some dishes after lots of food was made and before the movies were started Friday. That was nice. They've been hidden in the dishwasher so I could forget about them. I don't use my dishwasher because the top rack washing part is broken and we don't have a water softener so all my dishes come out looking filthy anyway. And I enjoy washing dishes by hand :)

Joy, Hillary, John, and I did basic pickup yesterday.

I took out the garbage all weekend. We went through FOUR garbage bags in three days. FOUR! John and I fill up half of one in a week. Oh, and then the recycling was spilling all over my pantry floor when I finally took it out. Luckily there was a door to smash it all behind so I could wait that long :)

I condensed the kitchen Sunday before church. It was a disaster, but I didn't have time to do dishes. But it made me feel much much better when I had them stacked neatly in the sink corner. Not in the sink, mind you, because that's a no-no.

I don't believe I have any useful dishes left in my drawers and cupboards. Utensils are down to a couple serving and plastic ones (which is funny to me). Even though we used plastic plates more than half of my flatware is gone. Not a single mixing/serving bowl, cutting board, knife, pitcher, or bite-sized bowl is clean. Many were used over and over.

Bowl is a funny word. Bowl bowl bowl bowel bow wow
hehe

Yesterday was Christmas in July, right? Well it sure feels like the holidays. I thought I had a complete kitchen with more things than I could ever use at one time. I think I better stock up a little more before the real holidays come :)

We even used up all ten of my parings knives!

The best was when we tore down the window covers yesterday. I kind of liked the adventure of putting all the poster boards and blankets up. John was going crazy living in a cave. When we took it all down it was amazing. We do have a gorgeous house! And there is so much light! It was kind of strange, actually. :)

It makes me even more anxious to paint, though. Ugh I cannot deal with all this orange. It's awful.
But that's a post for another day.

I think I've ranted on about the cleanup I get to do today. I'm excited. It's going to be fun :)

Family Update -- March 2011

I realized that I never posted this, though I did make a post for it. 

John and I are doing well :) Our biggest news is that we got a dog. Her name is Silk and we think she's pretty much the perfect dog, or at least pretty darn close. Last week we were called as joint Sunday School teachers for the 16-17 aged youth. We may go without a class many weeks, as they go to serve the care center during the Sunday School hour. We continue to look at houses and might have news of an acceptance by next month, but it's still all unsure so we'll see :)