words of wisdom from Carolyn Hax, a Washington Post advice columnist:
Most “impossible” decisions mean you actually do know what you want but feel internal pressure to talk yourself out of it.
Base your decisions on what you know, not just on what you fear.
Unlike Garfield and Karen Carpenter’s song – it isn’t Mondays that gets me down, it’s Thursdays. For some unknown reason, or maybe it’s Murphy’s Law that is only applicable to me – it always rains on Thursdays. I know, I know, we need the rain but it isn’t only now that this happened. It always rains on Thursdays. Which I hate because it’s dark and cold and gloomy outside and it affects my mood big time! Add to that the fact that I have to drive the kids to Taekwondo at night and I might as well be as blind as a dingbat. Rain and dark nights are a bad combination for me and my mediocre driving skills are put to the test. I drive slowly in the rain, as the car behind me must have been cursing me to high heavens for doing a 25-30 on a 35 while others are doing a 45. Oh well, at this point, I don’t care. All I want is to be safe and to get to the destination safely.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the rain. In fact my favorite poem is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Rainy Day. And I know how vital rain is to living things. It is driving in the rain that gets to me. If I can, I’d rather stay home. Cuddled up with a good book, a hot cocoa and a fleece throw, I’m all good. But we gotta go what we gotta do and so I do it no matter how much I hate doing it.
The only thing I like about Thursdays is Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy. Like I said, they’re the only shows I look forward to every week. But this season, on Wednesdays add to that Pushing Daisies to the list of our must-see TV.
A new forensic-fantasy-love story. Even my kids watch it. They like how the main character Ned has the power/ability to touch dead people and bring them to life, tell them how they died and solve the murder/mystery. The visuals are stunning too! Think Edward Scissorhands. Anna Friel, Ned’s love interest in the show looks like Audrey Taotou. She’s really pretty and charming. And the storyline about them not being able to touch – oh the angst! the drama! the suspense! I love it. I’m in it for the love angle, the kids are in it for the dead bodies coming to life.
So therefore, I might bitch and moan about hating Thursdays but I do look forward to Thursday nights. And that’s what gets me through the day.
image credits: www.abc.go.com
Rachel of Heart of Rachel gave me this award. She is an awesome Mom, blogger, internet friend and awesome, thoughtful person all rolled into one. And to receive this award from her just blows me away. So thank you, Rach. From the bottom of my heart.
I would like pass this on to the following people who I consider my net buddies:
TeacherJulie – she’s always been there to offer advice and to offer kind words and encouragement.
Tina - we’re practically neighbors and she’s always there to give advice if needed.
Maps – a new found net buddy who share my GA obssession
Cookie – she always comments on my posts. like a friend who’s always there.
Lizzz – she’s such a cool and hip Momma!
Lizzz gave me this Nice matters award. Like I said, she’s a cool and hip Momma. Thanks for inspiring us to be cool, Lizzz. More power to you!
I give this award to the following people:
Rachel – she’s such a thoughtful and nice person.
Bang – have you guys seen the stuff she bakes? Yummy!
purplegirl – she’s currently overvolunteered right now but she’s a cool Mom too!
Belle – nothing is simple about this woman. she rocks!
Thanks for the awards, Ladies. And for the awardees, I congratulate you. I wish I can name more but I’ll save them for later and I want others to give other equally awesome ladies the awards. Pass it on!
I am running low on my pressed powder. And even though it works for me – good coverage, SPF and all, I want to switch brands and try a different one. Not that I am being disloyal to the brand but that because I wanted to know if there is something out there that can be better than what I have. This attitude of mine drives FishermanHubs nuts! I do it to my recipes too. I tweak recipes even though to him it’s perfect. But then to me, it’s not. Because I want to make it better. And to him it’s okay the way it is, don’t mess with a good thing. For me though, I have this itch to make it better. What if I revised a recipe altogether and make a really really good recipe. Good enough to build an empire around? To live off of when I get rich famous for devising a recipe that is so good, people would crave for it and order it by the dozen? Okay, so maybe it won’t happen like that but hey, a girl can dream! I read about those success stories about people who create their own recipes and make a living out of it and live comfortably and still love what they’re doing. Provide jobs to people, be comfortable enough to buy their own dream house, pay off the mortgage and travel once in a while to exotic places. “Have a craving for pho? Let’s go to Vietnam!” That kind of thing. But oh well, back to my face powder.
FishermanHubs wants me to stick to the brand. “It works for you”, he said.
Me: “But the thing is, sometimes my face still looks oily even with the powder.”
FH: “Yeah well it’s better that your face is oily. Then you won’t have as much wrinkles”.
I roll my eyes and don’t say anything. At this point I don’t even know if I want to buy pressed powder. Maybe I’d hold off until the very end. When I can see the bottom of the container. Then I can decide. Should I stick to the old? Or try something new?
What do you do when something you want to do is restricted by your husband? Do you give in and just resign yourself to this horrible fate? Or do you fight back and stand your ground? In my case, I did both.
When FishermanHubs restricted my yard sale shopping a couple of months ago, I reluctantly agreed. But deep inside, I know I can never turn back on yard sale, flea market, vintage store, bargain shopping. And so I devised an evil plan – I called on the help of my friends and asked them to clean their closets and declutter our lives. Yup, I told them that we will be hosting a multi-family yard sale. At first we scouted flea market listings so we don’t have to do the advertising ourselves. All we needed to do was pay for a table and we’re in business. Another friend had a better idea: why don’t we do it in someone else’s front yard, have a pot luck/barbecue and the kids can all gather and play in the backyard. It sounded like a plan and that’s what we did. Everybody was happy, we unloaded a lot of stuff (whatever didn’t sell was donated to the Salvation Army), we had fun while doing it and earned money too.
And so after emptying the attic, I turned around and bought more stuff. Silently, slealthily and carefully. 
Here then are some of my yard sale finds:
sterling silver earrings still in box, shaped like flowers with punched dot effects – $2.50 (the Lady was asking $5.00 but I got it down to $2.50)
black and white photos of local places in the area. I was kicking myself when I got home for not buying everything. These would look really nice framed in black. The seller said her sister took these shots themselves, mounted them and never got round to framing them. $0.25 each
These were just some of my finds. I am getting really picky now and not buying something just ’cause I like it. I am, after all, restricted. 
It is comforting to know that despite all the ups and downs and the ever-changing tastes, some things remain the same. One of which is my older son C’s love for his teddy bear.
He’s had “Teddy” since he was 3 and has been inseparable ever since. Once, our dog (which was a puppy then) got ahold of Teddy and bit off his nose. My son was hysterical and crying like an injured animal when it happened. I had to sew Teddy’s nose back on and he bears the scar to this day. A ghastly reminder to his near-death experience.
Last week, as I was tucking C to bed, I noticed that Teddy was a little flat, his nose pressed flat on his face. Looking more like a Pug than a teddy bear, you can see that he’s been squished and loved to death. I told C that I needed to stuff him. “What?! NO!” And I told him that stuffing Teddy would make him more huggable and more “pleasant looking”. He reluctantly agreed on the condition that I do it when he’s not watching. Somehow he feels like I am going to “hurt” Teddy by cutting him up and stuffing him. “It’s going to be a small cut” I said. “It doesn’t matter, I still don’t want to see it being done to him”. Now here is an 11 year old who refuses to show affection to me in public, trying to act all teenagerly and he doesn’t want a stuffed animal to get hurt? I assured him Teddy will be okay.
A pound or two of stuffing later and Teddy is muscular, softer and more loveable. My son won’t have it any other way.
What do you do when 2 people confide in you about the other? Such is my case. And I am torn between trying to mediate between the two and just letting them vent. I have chosen the latter, for world peace. Not that I’m afraid that my own relationship will suffer because of my meddling but because I think they really don’t need mediation at all. On one hand, I feel good that people confide in me. That means they trust me to keep their secrets, which I do. I never divulge any information about another person which will truly hurt that other person. I’m no saint but there are really some things I keep sacred, keeping one person’s secret is one of them. On the other hand, sometimes I want to tell the other about what the other might have been thinking that would have started the misunderstanding in the first place. But there are times when we need to keep our mouths shut and just lend a shoulder, an ear, and our time.
There are times though when the burden is so great, I can only pray for these people and hope that one day they’ll resolve all their differences as quickly as possible. And then I think about my own life. Sometimes I feel so down in the dumps that I am totally convinced that I am alone. But it turns out I’m not. And in the face of adversity, pain and tribulations, I am surrounded by people who I love and who loves and cares for me in return.
There was something about the way my son C was talking yesterday that made me realize that he’s 11 years old now. It wasn’t the content or the essence of what he was saying. It was the way he said it – his voice, his intonation, his expression, his gestures. He acted almost like a teenager. I didn’t know how to react – would i be sad because he’s growing up and has lost some of the “innocence” or should i be happy because he is becoming his own person, developing his sense of identity. In the end i decided on both. Motherhood is overwhelming at times. Not to mention how age is creeping up on me. I feel so old these days. I feel like i am sprouting up gray hairs every day. Wrinkles are making an appearance on my face. The bags under my eyes are getting puffier and the tummy pouch is getting harder and harder to get rid of by the minute. And so yeah, i feel old. And your son showing signs of aging kind of reminds you of that even more. My husband still insists on having another baby. “We produce good looking babies” as if it’s the latest product on the market – “newer! better packaging! new look!” I refuse to budge. The thought of bringing a baby in this world once again where i have to battle with strollers and car seats is very intimidating. Heck, I can’t even get my niece out of her car seat! Both my sons don’t want another baby brother or sister. “Too much work” they said.
I am still going through life changes. It’s a long and winding road. But i have taken the time to pause and think otherwise it’ll drive me crazy. Still busy, but still blogging. I have a lot of plans – better looking blog, a cooking blog,regular contributions to the pmn ezine (sorry Raq and Dexie!), books to read. places to go. poems to write. stories to tell. I have a lot of them. There’s a lot of me wanting to go out and share. Until then, these are bits and pieces of me.
Thanks to FeistyMomma for this award
