I love you, you're perfect...

...now CHANGE!

Well, not really a fitting title but...whatever.

When Mr. S and I were house hunting, we had a list of things we wanted in a home we'd call ours. Just as every house hunter does, I suppose. For starters, we knew we wanted a town house and not a single family home. Neither of us are ready for the responsibilities that come along with owning a single family home. We're not interested in mowing lawns or planting shrubs. Neither are we interested in watering the lawn or trimming trees. We knew we wanted a three bedroom home , with two and a half baths, a garage, a finished basement. What was most important to Mr S. was that it be an end unit. We finally found a house that met all our criteria, and in a very nice neighborhood at that. Given the market, we were able to negotiate a pretty good deal on the price of the house. We especially love the fact that we own an end unit and have no neighbors on one side of our house...just space and road. Well, there's a little playground thing about 15/20 feet from our house. A few days ago, when we had a warm spell, there were parents who brought their kids our to the playground thingy. It was cute...for all of 15 seconds or so, till we realized we could hear every noise they made. And if we leave our windows open, there'll be no privacy cuz they'll be able to see right in. Bummer, the summer's gonna suck big time if folks keep coming over to this measly playground thingy. Daggoneit!
Well, well. We also realized this end unit perk may not only be annoying in the summer. One afternoon, after a snow storm, a bunch of kids, along with their parents, came over to the side of the house and proceeded to go sledding ... really close to our house! Hmm, I don't know. We might have to tell some folks to back away from the house if I keep getting irritated. Man. Maybe I'm just jealous...I should have just gone sledding along with them.

That's Mrs. S to you!

Give me a name...and I'm yours forever
~ The Cadets

It only took four months and fifteen days but I finally did it! I finally dragged myself to the local SSA office and changed my name!!! Woo hoo! I was apprehensive as I've read soooo many not-so-nice stories about the name changing process with the SSA and thus was expecting a similar horror story. I got to the SSA office a few minutes after 12pm on thursday. A very windy thursday at that. I walked in and looked around quite expecting someone to point me in the right direction but as is the manner of uncouth people, everyone looked at me and then looked away not even acknowledging my greeting smile. That gets me everytime. Will a measley 'hello' damn you to hell for all eternity? Why not just say it! Why am I always digressing! Anyways, I walked in and looked around for some direction when the "Start here!" sign caught my attention. I moved closer to the sign and noticed the computer screen underneath the sign. On the screen were three options indication pretty much asking 'Why da heck have you come here to bother us today?'. I made a selection and out came a ticket with a number on it. I went to sit down while I waited for my number to be called. There were all of 7 folks in the waiting room, including one security officer whose job I assume it was to point people towards the computer to sign in. He was busy chatting away with a military guy talking about '...all them Koreans' and '...all them Chinese'. I tried not to listen as I didn't want to be inundated with mind numbing ignorance. Has any intelligent conversation ever contained the words 'All them Koreans'? Coarse rednecks.

Behind the counter were two SSA officials who were as slow as molasses! Cheese and crackers! When they were done with a customer, it took them a full five minutes to call the next person. What the heck?!?! Needless to say I was irritated at the lengthy wait and redneck talk it was all I could do to keep from walking out. I verified and re-verified that I had all the necessary docs. When I could no longer kill time by verifying, I watched Friends on the 13 inch TV in the waiting room. Do they still make those any more? (13inch TVs I mean) I made a mental note to myself to get the DVD set of all seasons of friends. "N130!" I jumped. Yaay, my number had been called! I walked up to the counter, gave the SSA official the form I'd printed and prefilled, a certified copy of my marriage certificate, and my passport. and that was all. I was out in 10 minutes. I spent a total of 30 minutes and now, I'm Mrs. S! My new SS card should arrive in the mail in two weeks.

I was excited until I went through my list of all the other stops on this name changing bus...and there are a LOT of stops. So many different companies and organizations to contact. Why on earth is this process so tedious? It's a wonder anyone actually changes their name? This process really should be streamlined and simplified.

Tearing my hair out...

...and it hasn't even started yet.

I was in the seventh grade when I had my first encounter with cramps. Well, not personally, but a classmate of mine was lying down across two desks, writhing in pain from menstrual cramps. She was in so much pain and no one could help her. When school was over that day, she had to be helped just to walk out of the school premises. Ever since that incident I've always felt MAJORLY blessed not to know the horror that is cramping. I've never felt cramps, in fact, if I'm not watching the calendar and being cognizant of the day of the month, my period has a tendency to ummm surprise me. Which is why I always have extra pads (yes, I'm one of the few who finds tampons pretty icky) in my bag and in my car. But I digress, as I said, I've never felt menstrual cramps before. That is, until a few months ago :(. On day one of my period i began to feel this dull pain that I practically ignored until it stopped me dead in my tracks and I almost couldn't breathe. I was rather surprised initially but it didn't take long for me to realize what it was. The dull pain would intensify, and then subside, intensify, subside. I knew i was officially cramping. Honestly, I thought it was kinda cool. It was nice to feel the same pain numerous females had complained about, missed school for, and called off work for. The nice feeling lasted all of 5 seconds...and then reality hit. Not. Fun. Not . Fun. At. All. But at least it only happened with every second period or so and then only the first and maybe the second day.

Fast forward to today. I'm cramping so bad right now, and my period hasn't even started !?! WTF!?! Is that even normal. Off to find my Aleve.

Intentionally untitled...

Sometimes I wonder...why?
Why do we act? Why fake it? What's so wrong with being...real?
What's wrong with being...truthful?
Why does no one speak the truth? but instead hide behind a facade of utopia
Where all is perfect and blissful and glorious
But that's the facade. Reality is much less desirable.
Why does she say - to all - that she's blissfully married
when - inwardly - she's constantly crying about her husband's addiction to <...>
I couldn't help but stare in disbelief at her as she attempted to propagate the lie...coupled with a huge smile... a farce. Why?
Why does she giggle and profess her marriage is grrreat when the truth is...her husband is an ass...if I do say so myself. An insensitive ass who ignores her half the time?
Why does she praise her husband all over town...when he, not too long ago, flew his girlfriend in from London and shagged her for a week or so.
Why?
Why the lies?
Why can't we all just tell the truth. James 5:16 - "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed" If we do not communicate the truth, how will we know to pray for one another? Why are we afraid ...or too embarrassed to be honest about our lives?? After all, the bible states in 1 Cor 10:13 - "You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test a way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it."
In essence, there is nothing you are going through that someone else hasn't gone through before. Whatever you are facing, someone else has been there! So why lie? How can we help each other out if we hide our testimonies??!

When I went through a very bad breakup I kept asking 'why me'? When my friend went through a pretty bad breakup very recently, I was able to relate and (hopefully) help her out because her situation was eerily similar to mine. Is the fact that I was able to help her out the answer to my "Why me" question? Did I go through all that heartache just so 4 years later I'd be able to help my friend out?Honestly, I don't know. Would I have been able to help her out if I hadn't been through something similar? No, no I wouldn't. Not to the degree to which I helped out anyways. It's best to communicate our issues. You never know whose life you can make better just because you've 'been there'. At least they'll know they're not alone and maybe, just maybe, there's a light at the end of that tunnel.

Fab Find! Dirt cheap greeting cards

Now anyone who knows me knows I'm a Hallmark gal myself. Give me a card and I turn the envelope over to look for the Hallmark logo before I even look at the card. I don't even do it consciously any more - I just hope no one's offended when I do that.

So I ended up at 'Tarjet' today and perused the greeting card aisles when I saw a section of 99cents and even better, 50cents! now, you'd ordinarily think these cards would be utter rubbish but they are sooo not! I had to take a few pics just in case I don't believe myself tomorrow, lol, as proof. Excuse the crappy pics from my camera phone - not sure why that last one pic is upside down but I can't be bothered to fix that right now...off to bed!