Blessings

Back in February, Jay was laid off from work.  He had worked for this company for 11 years...it's the job that drew us to this wonderful town we've come to love so much. He was cut loose and escorted out of the building with about 25 other people.  No severance package. No thank you. Nada.    Suddenly, we were faced with countless unknowns.  Would we stay?  Would we go?  Would we lose everything? Each month that passed, (and there were NINE of them), found us wondering and worrying.
 
I'm not going to lie...it was hell.  Seriously.  We fought, we cried, we were angry, confused and depressed. And we were scared.  There is no way to sugar coat unemployment and the toil it takes on a family and a marriage.  It's a humbling and degrading experience. The money stops coming in, but the bills and financial commitments do NOT. He and the kids lost their health insurance, and even though I could not afford to put them on mine, we didn't qualify for ANY other state help in that aspect.  He applied for countless jobs and was rejected time and time again.    We went through all of his state unemployment and then started on his federal unemployment.  I have learned more about the "system" than I EVER cared to know, and quite frankly, I am very disappointed in it.   But despite all of this, we prayed.  All. The. Time.  Our friends prayed.  Our family prayed.  Our pastor and staff prayed in their morning meetings.  And God was listening and waiting to blow my mind.

In the 9 months where we only had my little salary and his unemployment, we didn't miss a single bill. It doesn't really feel like we went without a thing.  Friends stepped up in ways I never imagined I would need them too.  Some gave us money. Some gave us food. One paid for 6 months worth of Weight Watchers for me to keep going. Jacob's Boy Scout Troop gave him a scholarship so he could go to Tre Ritos and the other adult leaders paid for Jay to go, too. They have also awarded Jacob another scholarship to attend Philmont in June!  My parents paid for Jacob to attend both out of state band trips, and they sent money for Michaela's cosmetology tuition. Michaela also received a scholarship for that program. My girlfriends  paid for a scrapbook trip we all had planned LAST November.  One friend gave Michaela money just to go shopping with.  Jay's parents sent money "just in case we needed it". Both sets of our parents paid for M's prom dress and shoes. Friends treated me to several lunches/dinners just so I would feel "normal".  My hairdresser refused my tips.  And just this morning, she told me that someone I know, who wanted to remain anonymous, paid for my next hair appointment! I've lost count of all the hugs and encouraging words and emails from everyone we are in contact with. But I will NEVER forget them.  And finally, God blessed Jay with a new job in a Christian environment that has SO much more to offer him than his old job did. We are excited to see what the future with this company holds for him. I truly believe it will be amazing!

 With each thing that happened, my kids learned that God REALLY does provide, one way or another. Their faith has grown like never before, and mine has had a healthy boost! If those are the reasons we went through this, then every single second was worth it.  So don't you EVER think for one SECOND  that God isn't taking care of you.  Because He is. And He want's to blow YOUR mind, too.

There will never be enough words to thank everyone for everything they have done for us.  But just know this: we love you all more than you could possibly imagine and we are praying for you, too!
Love
Mel

My little pond

I built a little pond in my back yard this summer. I spruced it up and added more rock and fresh flowers  this past weekend, now that the weather is cooling down.  It's been so freakishly HOT this summer that it was neglected for a couple of months.  I got the idea from a project in Bible School at my church.  My friend and I created an indoor pond using a small blue plastic swimming pool we bought at Wally World for about $5.  They we added fake flowers, as well as some real ones, and filled it with water.  My dad gave me a small pump and we used that to create a waterfall.  The effect was so charming, I decided to re-create it in my backyard at home, using real flowers in place of the fake ones.  I love sitting out in my swing and listening to the waterfall while I drink my coffee.  I used potted plants around the back of the pool and I can change these out seasonally, or when the OK hot summer kills them.  All in all, I like the way it turned out.  What a nice way to spend a quiet weekend morning with my coffee!

The Woman in Black

I took Darling Daughter and her Boyfriend to see The Woman in Black last night, because the 3 of us love, love, LOVE scary movies.  We weren't disappointed.  In fact, we did a lot of jumping in our seats, cringing, eye covering and clinging to each other. ( well, DD and BF were clinging)  It stars Daniel Radcliff, (yes, Harry Potter) who travels to a town for his law firm to close up the estate of a deceased client.  The house is, of course, empty and the town mysteriously doesn't want him to stay. Leaving isn't an option for him, so he heads out to the house.  He isn't there long when he starts hearing noises and seeing "things".  Children in the village  have a habit of dying horrifying deaths if anyone sees The Woman in Black, because she then appears to the children and forces them to their death. Daniels character tries to solve the mystery of the Woman in hopes to spare the remaining children of the village and to save his own 4 year old son, who is on his way with the nanny to meet him.  This is a good, old fashioned haunted house  movie,full of creaky doors and dark corners with things that jump out and make you scream. (And there are creepy dolls, always guaranteed to be spooky.)  It scared the pants off of the three of us and broke my heart in the process.  <-----And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.
 I give it a 10 on the Melscale.  Rated PG-13

Designer Tabletop

Several years ago, my mother gave me a lovely brown table with a small, side drawer.  The drawer was packed with pictures of her and her parents from when she was a little girl.  I'm a scrapbooker and the pictures hiding in the drawer were eating away at me!  So I decided to do a little something different with them, instead of sticking them in a scrapbook.  I took them out of the drawer, trimmed some of them, and modge-podged them to that table top.  There are 3 layers of the modge podge on right now, and when it's good and dry, I will seal it with a clear coat of some kind. It turned out better than I had expected and now I'm left with a gorgeous, personalized table that is still functional.  I wasn't worried about tagging the pictures because I stuck with pictures of my mother and grandparents.  There are a couple of very old pictures included, but I don't know who those people are.  You could scan the pictures before you apply them to the table, but that's not the way I decided to go.  I did leave some of the borders on the pictures where my grandmother had written the date they were taken.  I love that I have that personal touch of hers!

Friends With Benefits

Stayed home from work with a sick kiddo yesterday, so when she was sleeping, I rented Friends With Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.  It's about a couple who decide they dont want a complicated relationship and instead just want to remain friends with "benefits."  (Those being sex without complications.)  But they both realize that sex does complicate their friendship.  It's funny and sweet and I thought Justin did a GREAT job as leading man.  Yes, there was a lot of sex, but not entirely throughout the whole movie.  Jenna Elfman appears as Justin's sister, who is taking care of their father.  The dad is suffering from Alzheimers which throws a whole new set of complications into the mix for Justin's character to deal with. All in all, it was a really good movie.  I give it an 8 on the Melscale.

Dream House Movie Review

Last night, my Scary Movie Buddy and I went to a late showing of Dream House.  (The rest of our friends were too chicken to go with us.  You know who you are and you know I love you anyway. )  Yes, I know it was a weekday and work was the next morning, but we HAD to see this movie.  The trailers led us to believe that this was a scary movie. And yes, Scary Movie Buddy DID scream once, but it turned out to be more of a murder mystery than a horror movie.  Which is ok by me, too.  True, there were ghosts and they were haunting, but not in the traditional horror- movie -kind -of- way.  The movie stars Dainel Craig (Bond, James Bond )and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy),a husband and wife who relocate from New York City to a quaint New England town with their 2 little girls.  As they settle into their new house, they discover that a mother and her children were murdered in it 5 years before.  When Daniel starts investigating the tragedy, his only lead comes from the next door neighbor, played by Naomi Watts. As he digs up the past, the mystery he exposes is heartbreakingly shocking.  I won't go into any more details than this because I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone else who wants to go see this.  And I highly recommend it!  It had a plot twist that I didn't see coming...and those are the BEST kinds of movies for me!!!  Scary Movie Buddy and I LOVED it.  I give it a +10 on the Melscale!! 

My Wedding Ring

22 years ago today, Sept. 9, 1989, I married my best friend.  As I was sitting at my desk at work today, I was looking at the wedding ring he gave me and thinking about all the years we've been together.  When we got married, we didn't have much money.  Who does?  So my ring, by today's standards, is very simple and understated.  But it is a one of a kind, quite by accident.  He bought the engagment ring at one jeweler's and we found the band at another. And he didn't have to go into debt to purchase them. The stones are sapphires, my favorite stone and incidentally, it is the birthstone for the month of September.  That wasn't planned...it was just a coincidence.  I had originally picked out a single pearl ring to be the engagment ring for a couple of reason.  1.  I am not a big diamond fan and 2. I wanted something entirely different than the traditional solitaire.  But after months of thinking about that pearl ring, I decided that since I was so clumsy I would most probably knock that pearl off its setting the first time I wore it.  So we started looking around again. And we found the engagment ring.  He proposed in April of 1989 and slipped that ring on my finger.  I remember the night in early September when I went to pick up the wedding bands before the wedding.  His band does not match mine.  Again, we wanted to be different.  Even though I knew it was considered bad luck to put on the wedding ring before the wedding, I wanted to see the two together on my finger.  So I put it on and spent the drive home admiring how well they went together, even though they were from different stores.  As corny as this sounds, that's the way I felt about us...how well we went together.  I've had the ring for 22 years now.  I've never owned ANY jewelry that long!  I got it caught on a fence the week after our honeymoon and twisted the band and lost a sapphire. I cried and cried. It was repaired and you can't tell the difference.  I don't wear it around the house to avoid repeating that episode.  I couldn't wear it when I was pregnant due to the swelling in my fingers.  Then I gained so much weight that I couldn't even get it on my finger.  (One of the things I'm most happy about since I joined Weight Watchers, is being able to wear my wedding ring again.) When we hit our 20th anniversary, I thought about asking him for a bigger, more modern ring.  But then I looked at mine....and I can't do it.  It reminds me of who we were when we were just starting out.  It reminds me of where we came from.  It reminds me how perfect we are together and a new, modern ring just wouldn't do all of that.  In my heart, it would not be MY wedding ring.  It would be a replacement.  And I don't want a replacement.  It's too big now, and will probably wind up really to big for me when I hit my WW goal.  The band is a little twisted  but that doesn't matter. I'll have it sized down when the time comes.  And I'll wear this ring that my best friend gave me for the rest of eternity.