I almost forgot my most important announcement for today!

I'm wearing a hat!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I, the plain jane of my job, decided to be trendy today, and am wearing a hat! Slightly too big and kinda lopsided in a faschion-concious way.  It's very cute and I think I may become addicted to hats!!

It's been a lovely week altogether. 

Monday I accomplished about half of my impossibly long list of things to do.  The dishes got done, the bedroom's a smigon cleaner...

I have now crocheted 5 scrunchies, but I have 3 to Denise yesterday cause she liked them and it made me feel good.  :) 

I finished my banner for Melba's new blog.  It was oddly liberating... just sitting, watching Stargate, surrounded by a table full of artistic supplies! Realizing that I was having enough fun that even if everyone hated the things I was making, I'd still want to make more!

Got tired about 3:30 Monday and was going to just sit and read... but it was SOOOO nice outside temperature-wise!!! I couldn't stay inside, so I put on walking shoes, got my camera, and embarked on a journey to the park by my house.  The first time I'd ever walked there actually.   Took pictures of whatever caught my fancy, and happened to see a really cool tree root! That's where the inspiration for my SPT came from! :)  Saw all sorts of interesting people... saw a man walking his dog, a business woman in her business clothes (how uncomfy!), and a family with their kids.  Also was followed by some male college students.  *shuddering at the thought* 

Last night I had nothing going on, so I went to the library.  I picked out 5 new books, all totally different.  I choose The Ice House, which I saw on Shelly's Book Shelf Blog, East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (both for bookclubs I joined),  one book I choose just because the author had my same last name lol, and one is a sci-fi book about a woman sucked into a parallel universe. 

Came home, watched NCIS with my roomate, and she taught me how to knit! So now I know the basic knitting stitch! How cool is that?!

Now I'm at work, with PMS.  And to top that off, the men's toilet is broken so they may use ours. 

I swear, if there is even a SPECK of urine on that toilet seat, someone will die!

Okay, I found this meme last week and I've decided to start subscribing to it... so every Wednesday you'll find something spiritual on my blog.  I still have this deep uncomfortable feeling when I post spiritual stuff on my blog though.  I'm guessing it's a leftover fear from the childhood days when I was going to the ultra-traditional "First Church of the Hypocrite" (the kind the Mississippi Squirel song was written about).  I have this horrible fear of becoming one of the women from that church... the kind Jesus would have called a "cutely decorated tomb... beautiful on the outside but full of dead decomposing yuck." 

But yet, the spiritual part of me is really what DEFINES me.  I want people on my blog to know me, to connect with me! But they can't really know me, or connect with me, if I'm hiding who I really am.  I want to be whole and in balance, and I want the people in my life to see the whole person.  So...  in the spirit of transparency...  Here's today's meme:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Click on verse to read in a seperate window.

1. In your own words what does it mean to be in Christ? To me, it means to live your life connected to him, to be a part of him. It's really hard sometimes, and I consider it a constant process... to be and stay connected to him.  Not to put anything in my life to where it seperates me from him.  Does that make sense?

2. Do you remember at what point you became a new creation? Daily... I'm constantly being made new.  I didn't suddenly become new, because I was still holding on to the old junk in my life.  But little by little I trade the old in for the new, and become less of that old person and more of the new.

3. What are some of the old things that you had to give up when you became a new creation? What are some of the new? Well, I gave up a lot of things... but by far the ones that were the hardest for me were my alternative music, (the songs I listened to when imagining myself murdering someone, & the ones i listened to when contemplating suicide) and my porn.  (Well, aren't I just the transparent one today?! Hahaha)  Through my life though, I've continually found things that I've had to give up... some forever, but most temporarily... either because I've begun doing them in excess, or because they are distracting me from the truly important things in life.  
New things?  Well... joy and peace have replaced depression & thoughts of suicide.  Patience is slowly beginning (notice the word SLOWLY) to take the place of all-consuming anger. 

I'VE BEEN TAGGED :
1 - The tagged victim has to find 8 points about what their perfet love would be like.
2 - They have to mention the sex of the target.
3 - Tag 8 victims to play the game and drop a comment on their tagboard saying they've been tagged.
4 - If tagged a second time, you don't have to post again.

Target : Male
1) He has to be short.  Or at least medium height... but not tall! I don't want to be stared at every time we go out in public!
2) He has to be energetic.  (Okay, was gonna use the word "passionate", in the context of a passion for life and a passion for God... as well as the obvious implications... but then figured that'd be taken wrong...but energetic isn't much better... so... I give up! Hahaha)
3) He has to challenge me.  Not pressure me to grow, but challenge me to grow. He can't encourage my bad habits!
4) He has to love to laugh, and get my wierd sense of humor.
5) He has to like to travel and/or hike. He has to be decently in shape.
6) He can never ever, for any reason, make fun of me.  Not in a teasing way, or a serious way, or especially in a "serious but pretending to be joking" way. Or he will die.  *eyes narrowed menacingly*
7) He has to love people, especially kids.  I want a big family.
8) He has to be "The One"... God's chosen man for my life.  Without that one seemingly small detail, all of the other qualities are worthless. 

I'm supposed to tag 8 people but good grief... I tag Toria, Bekka, Romi, & Lawrence... I don't know any other single people do I??  Well, at least none who aren't dating anyone lol  (Except now I'm sure I've forgotten someone!)  And I'm lazy, so I'm not looking for anyone new to tag.

This week's Self-Portrait Tuesday's theme is "Personal History."  I decided to make this collage because I'm really into geneology, and in a lot of ways it's helped me to heal & work through the issues from my past.  It's given me a way to connect with my family, and helped me to find that although I may be different than my family members, I still do have a place in my family that no one else can fill. 

Hey guys!  Wanted to apologize that I probably won't get a chance to blog-hop or read posts until tomorrow afternoon at work, maybe even later.  But I WILL read them, so be encouraged LOL

Todays goals are completely and totally impossible.  Yep.  Entirely.  Wanna hear them?

OH but first of all... I am not dating James.  He is my FRIEND, and we hang out.  That's all.  No worries! :)

Anyway, today's goals:

I really want my roomate to show me some new crochet stitches, because I won't really see her much until the weekend. 
Self-Portrait Tuesday's weekly challenge is Personal History.  I have to either find pics that I've already scanned on the CDs all around my house, or I have to get them together and take them to James brother's house to scan.
I promised to make a banner for Melba's new blog.  That has to be scanned too.
I want to get my project ready for Mixed Media Memoirs first week online. It looks fun.  It has to be scanned.
I'd like to join Illustration Friday too.  It looks fun.  I'd need to get it done too before I went to Marks house to scan.
I have GOT to get my room & kitchen cleaned before I completely loose my sanity! I need to do that worse than ANY artistic project!!!
I wanna post movie reviews of the two VeggieTales movies I watched over the weekend! They are DEFINATELY worthy!!!
I need to get laundry done and everything ready for work tomorrow.

I'm back everyone!!!! I had a lovely Christmas celebration with the cousins.  The scanner/calendar drama got worse before it got better, but that's just life.  

Got two very special presents, both in honor of my Grandpa that passed away this fall.  I thought it would be a hard day, and for me it was.  I had to hide upstairs and cry a while.  They say grief comes in waves, and it is definately the truth.  One of the gifts was really neat.  At the funeral, as you came in the door there was a pile of pretty stationary.  Each person was instructed to write down their best memory of my Grandpa.  For Christmas, my Aunt Ruth made each of us a copy of it.  I haven't had the courage to read it yet, but just knowing it's there means a ton to me.

I went out to eat with James, his brother, and his mom tonight.  We had a ton of fun, and afterwords we went to Books-A-Million and I bought a new book (bargain priced of course LOL) about hiking.  I'm hoping that will inspire me to get in better shape before it gets warm, so that I can do a LOT of hiking this year! Then we came back and I showed all of my new yarn (the ones my roomate got me for Christmas) to James's mom.  Altogether a very nice time. 

My cousin Jo and I were talking (while racing around trying to get the calendars printed off LOL) and she commented on how everyone in the family is so into crafts... and that I just started late.  I had never thought of it that way... I just always felt like I didn't belong, because while everyone else was passionately pursuing a craft, I've never really gotten into one for any period of time.   Jane sews fancy stuff, Debby quilts, Amy makes stuff, Jo crochets intricate things,... and then there was always me, the littlest cousin.  The one who couldn't ever really DO anything. So now that I'm becoming so frightfully obsessed... I noticed that they don't love me any more than they all did before, cause they loved me before I could do anything special.  Talk about a warm fuzzy feeling!

Well, enough warm fuzzyness... I need to get off the puter and try and get some crocheting done before my roomate gets home so she can help me with the next step in decypering my first crochet pattern! 

Adios my blogging friends!!!! 

I wanted to let you all know that I'm getting ready to leave for my cousins house (the family Christmas is tomorrow) so I'm not sure when I'll be blogging again.  

Have a wonderful New Years everyone!!!! 

From: Question of the Day

What specific aspect of being a child do you miss the most?

Unlimited hours to be outside!!! Beating up on my friend Trish's little brothers (who are now much taller than I am! hahaha), going to the woods with my dad.

From: Five on Friday

In the new year...
1. List one person you've lost touch with that you will look up.  My dad.

2. List two places you want to go. Middle East, Ireland

3. List three habits you want to change.  Sleeping too late, sleeping to little, not exercising enough

4. List four things you hope to learn.  Html, Better Arabic, Better Spanish, Paint Shop Pro.

5. List five goals you would like to achieve.  Exercise consistently.  Stop overextending myself.  Pay off my debts.  Become more social.  Travel outside of the US.

From: Four for Friday

Q1 - Time: Comparing the last 365 days to the previous 365, do you have more, less, or about same amount of free time on your hands? If more or less, what changed over the last year?

Less time, because I took a second job.

Q2 - Money: Do you think having more money would buy you more, less, or the same amount of happiness as you have in your life today? If more or less money, how much more or less would it take?

More happiness, because I wouldn't have to work the second job.  Then I could spend more time on fun things.  It would take about 3000 to pay off debts and then enough to get a more reliable car. 

Q3 - Dating & Kissing: Thinking back to when you were in junior and senior high school, do you ever wish you would have kissed/dated more, less, or about the same number of people that you did back in the day?

The same.

Q4 - Exercise: Do you plan to exercise more, less, or about the same amount in 2006 as you did in 2005?

Definately MORE!!!!!! 

From: Friday Fun

As the new year approaches, I thought we'd take a look back at 2005!

1. What is the best thing that happened to you personally this past year? DEFINATELY moving to a new town and getting a new job. 

2. What is the best thing that you saw happen in the world around you? Ummm... Well... I saw dirty-faced kids from who knows what kind of families  being loved by adults with "normal" lives.

3. What is the biggest lesson you learned this year?  I learned that who I am is what matters, and what others think of me has GOT to take second place.  If I can't like me, then nothing I do to please others will matter.

4. What things do you hope change for you personally in the next year? I want to pay off my debts!!!!

5. What things do you hope change in the world around you?  Well... umm.... I have no idea.  I mean, the usual things... no more voilence, abuse, etc... but, nothing realistic.

6. Do you have any resolutions?  I have 10 daily resolutions I'll try to accomplish each day of 2006

OH while I was ranting I forgot to tell you that I also tried to get my blog listed at Technorati. 

THAT went even worse than the scanner saga!!!! Have any of you bloggers tried to list your blog at Technorati?? I could REALLY use some help!!! All this stuff about RSS feeds, and "claiming" my blog at Technorati... it's pushing my "badness level" up WAYYYYYYYYYYY too high!!!!