29.7.14

The Girly Girl In Me

It's been awhile, but y'all know how life gets. Let's play a lil catch up.

Recently I've figured out that as I have gotten older, the more "girlish" I have become. My tomboy tendencies aren't as prevalent anymore and I find that I'm okay with it for the most part. However, I have never been a fearful person (aside from dogs, but that was irrational and I am NOT ashamed). I didn't care for bugs and the whatnots, but there was no immediate issue of needing to get away unless it was a dog.

Things have changed especially over the past couple months. And last week, I actually did the whole girly girl "eewww" thing in my car after seeing a rodent of some sort crawl into our garage. You know what I'm talking about right? The fan the air irrational shaking of the head and actually saying "eeww, eeww, eewwww!" Yeah, THAT I am ashamed of; I began my exercise regime that day because I have got to do better. That day, I also realized that I hadn't been down in my basement since the whole bird in the basement incident. Ain't that sad?

Over the weekend, I did get down there, but still ... I have reservations. I'm on guard at every sound and I won't go down unawares anymore (i.e. listening to my audio books). I also will only go down when my comedic knight in shining armor is home. The basement is not sound proof so he'd at least be able to hear my distress and figure something out with me.

See ... even that. I've always been the "I am woman, hear my roar" & "I don't need a man to do anything for me" type. Yeah, I said it. You can hate me for it, but you don't know my life or the men that were present/absent so don't judge me. Either way, I now actually appreciate my husband and some other men for being there and being men. I now have the option (and actually sometime choose that option) to just let my man handle the "manly" things. Heck, I even ask him to open bottles & jars after my initial try doesn't work.

So maybe I am not a girly girl, but instead a grown woman who has finally come to grips with not having to take care of everything and actually being able trust in the man beside me. So I should rephrase the sentence up top to something like:

As I have gotten older, wiser, and stronger in my life, I have come to trust my husband more and more with my life. I have come to learn more about myself leading to actually accepting my fears and knowing that I have someone who's willing to set aside his fears all because I am his.

Hhhmmm ... this post just got real. The Lord ever teach you something through yourself and it take you a minute to see it? Well, that just happened to me. As I was rereading this to type my conclusion, I came across that awesome testimony. I've struggled with being a woman all of my life simply because I REFUSE to have a man "rule" over me and dog me out the way I've seen many of them do the women in my life. I've observed (and apparently internalized) the abuse, neglect, lies, and cheating that surrounded me and I had decided that that wouldn't be me. Nope. I wasn't her and I ain't gone be her. Not only that, I took it upon myself to put those jokers in their place when they were around me cause I wasn't having it! I embraced that to the point that I never really accepted the men who were loving, kind, and uplifting to women.

Now, don't get me wrong. I realized a LONG time ago what kind of man I wanted and I knew when the Lord provided. I also tried my best to love him back and not to give him slack because of the wrongs of other men. However, I'm not sure how great of a job I did with not giving him the bill for other men's wrongs.

So while he's been the Great Husband Ever, I haven't exactly been the Greatest Wife Ever. I need to do better. So here's to a refocusing mission. Time to up my wife game. And I think I know just the way to start this off.

I really don't think y'all got that like I did, but it's cool. I can praise Him for myself. I'm accepting this lesson and expectant of the blessings. Amen! Amen! Amen!

4.6.14

Are dinosaurs really strong?

Greetings peoples!

As I drove in today, I had the pleasure of driving my son to preschool today.  It's always an adventure when I get to take the boy with me, where ever I go.  Now I try to be the good, responsible father to him, but I also try to be the fun dad too.  And yes, I am still weird {and corny} so that makes for a very interesting conversation.  I've also learned that all little kids, especially mine is a little sponge that absorbs EVERYTHING that goes on and is said.

The funniest thing is that he doesn't need anyone to "co-sign" on his humor.  He cracks his own self up, and that, in turn, cracks us up.  This kid will come into the family room where me and Lady Wife are sitting, and say, "Mommy, Daddy, look!" and then proceed to jump "reeeaaaalllyyy high" and then fall on his bottom and start laughing sooooooo hard.  You can't help but to laugh at his silly-behind.

Today he asked me a very thought-provoking question: "Daddy, are dinosaurs really strong?"  Now he's also into the "why" stage of his life and if not careful, he can go on and on and on...  {It's gotten to the point where sometimes I tell him he has a 5 "why" maximum at a time.}  But back to the question.  So here's a snapshot of our conversation as we drove in:

The Boy: Daddy, are dinosaurs really strong?
Me: Yes, they are.
The Boy: Are you strong?
Me: I would like to think so.
The Boy: Is mommy strong?
Me: Yes, she is.
The Boy: Why are you strong?
Me: Well, there's all kinds of "strong"...
The Boy: Like sometimes, I have a lot in my backpack, and I carry it all by myself, that makes me strong, right?
Me: Yes. Yes it does.
The Boy: Daddy?
Me: Yes Jairus.
The Boy: Where do dinosaurs sit?
Me: Any where they want to... Why?
The Boy: Why are they strong?
Me: Because they have this thing called leverage
The Boy: Why do they have "leverage"?
Me: Well, they have it because they can use their weight and height to pick up and move anything they want.
The Boy: Well, then, they can help me clean up my toys tonight...
Me: -_-

The boy just laughs...

Like I said, this is a snapshot of our conversation, but whenever I talk to him, he always finds a way to part "his knowledge" on me...  One of these days I'm going to record our drive in...

28.5.14

Beak To The Cheek

Heeeyyyy y'all! I know it's been a minute from me and I was supposed to have done something as a countdown each day up to my birthday. Well, my birthday has come & gone. I've been extra busy preparing for my summer work season and haven't had the time to do what I need to do here. We still good right?

Hopefully so because I have a story for you!! Best story I've had in a long time. Y'all ready? Here we go.

I'd gotten home, put the lil man down for his nap, and eaten my lunch. It was time to get down to the business of preparing dinner and completing my current kitchen project [post to come]. I get out my Playaway, place my ear buds in my ear and get to getting. Well, I know there's no meat in the fridge so I needed to run downstairs real quick to get some out of the freezer. So off to the basement, I go. Flip the light switch, close the door, and proceed down the stairs. I got to the bottom of the stairs and heard fluttering and saw something fly past me. BOOM! I snatch my ear buds out and listen. Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet. What the??!! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet. Aaww man! Something is down here with me. The only weapon near me are lil man's plastic golf clubs and balls. I think maybe if I throw them to the other side, the thing will go towards the sound so I can get up the stairs and out the door. I throw 2 of them and nothing happens. I take the other and peek around the corner. I see this up on the light closest to the door out:
Bird in Basement Cousin
May not look menacing to you out in its element, but in my not so bright & open basement, it looked as though it would attack. I flipped the lights on & off and ran back over by the freezer. It didn't move. No flutter at all. I peered around the corner again and the thing fluttered, looked around, and stayed perched there on the light. Keep in mind this is a light on the wall, not the ceiling and it's right at the door leading out of the basement. I quickly proceeded into the storage area of my basement - it has a door - to think.

Cheap White Curtain Rods
My first thought was "I have so lost my I am woman, hear me roar" card being afraid of a doggone bird. Also, I had no phone or any kind of communication option down in that basement. I decided that noise was my only option because I couldn't let this thing get into the rest of my house. My baby was sleeping upstairs. So I armed myself with one of those cheap white curtain rods and thought some more. Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet.

I came up with a plan to make a bit of noise in the storage, get the bird down the doggone stairs, and run like **** out of there. I banged the storage room door a few times to lure him. I heard the fluttering and then bang into the vent above the door leading into the storage room. More fluttering and quiet. I gather my nerves and remember that I have got to get out of this doggone basement to my baby without being attacked my this menacing bird that somehow got into my basement. I peeked out of the storage room, see the bird perched on lil man's basketball hoop and immediately run like **** up the stairs and out of the basement closing the door as I hit the landing. Flutter! Flutter! Swoosh! Boom! Flutter! Flutter! Flutter! Quiet.

Heart pounding, feeling like it's gonna jump out of my chest, I head straight for the phone. Picking up my phone with hands shaking, I call my protector. He answers. I respond with, "We have a bird in our basement and we're not having meat for dinner." After explaining that I'll tell him the whole story later, but I'm okay, he laughs. If you know my husband, you know it was to be expected. Laughter is his cure-all. He promises to get it out with my help later and we hang up. I'm still shaking and can't concentrate on my kitchen project. I go print my birthday coupons so I can begin to organize my freebies.

So fast forward ahead. I finally stop shaking, finish up my prints, and wake lil man from his nap. We head down for snack and a lil TV time. While watching Cyberchase ... Boom! Flutter! Flutter! Boom! Flutter! Quiet. That doggone bird had heard the TV & prolly followed the lights to our living room vents. Oooohhh NO! Not while my baby is up here. I cover up all vents with dark heavy items and settle back down. No noise is heard anymore.

Through Hangouts, we devise a plan to get this bird out once Husband has arrived home from work. I researched a few sites about removing birds, but I wasn't feeling the whole towel & box options I found. Didn't want to have to control that fluttering bird. It seemed frustrated and I totally understood. I'd be frustrated stuck in a basement too. Anyway ... on to our plans.

We planned to lead the bird out with old sheets. So when he got in, we put up a sheet right by the door of the basement to prevent the bird from going towards the rest of the house. Then he covered the mud closet on the other side to prevent the bird from finding a nook to perch there. Husband had the garage door up and opened the door out to the garage. We were ready. The bird should fly out of the basement out into the garage and out into the world ... out of my basement.

1st try: Husband opens the basement door, turns on light, and hides behind door. No sound is heard. I make noise from my perch behind the sheet (on the side of the rest of the house). Nothing. He closes the door and we make more noise to see if we hear anything. Nothing. Okay, so we decide to try again. This time, husband peeks to see if he can see anything first. He saw it & completely understood my earlier issue. HEH HEH HEH! (My turn to laugh behind the safety of that sheet.)

2nd try: Husband prepares himself and opens the basement door again, turns on light, and hides behind door. Nothing happens again. We make noise back & forth to lure the bird. Nothing happens. He decides to head into the garage (for his safety goggles). He's looking for them. I'm waiting. Flutter! Flutter! I yell, "The bird is coming. This bird is coming." He apparently hits the garage floor like shots were being fired. Saw the black flash of bird go by, perch into a corner of the garage, look around, and then fly away. It's out.

Total relief! Laughter ensued for a LONG time!

We took the sheets down and went on about our day. We haven't checked the basement for where that bird got in just yet, but that's on deck for later today. I'm not ready to go down just yet, but it'll be fine. My comedic protector of a husband will be right by my side when it's time. {Ssshhh- he may not know that just yet. Heh heh heh!}

Oh yeah, we discussed the whole incident later and found out an interesting fact about myself. I can take a burn to the face, but not a beak to the cheek. LMBO!

And that folks is my story of yesterday's healthy dose of laughter.

Laugh on folks & close up any openings into your house.

Flutter! Flutter! Boom!

25.5.14

I don't condone it... But I am a mean sarcastic son of a ...

What up my friends?

Today, I had an opportunity to sit back and chill while Lady Wife drove.  It doesn't happen too often, but every now and again, she drives and I get a chance to sit back. Sleep, play on my phone, text, look at twitter, etc... Well while I was looking on twitter, I saw a tweet about something Ray Rice's lawyer said.  In case you don't know, Ray Rice was indicted for assault against his, then, fianceé.  Now this is no real surprise.  Not so much because he is a professional athlete or anything, but really, I see stories of domestic violence EVERY day via twitter, the news (and of course) TMZ.  What does surprise me is that Rice's Lawyer could go as far as to make a statement, or excuse as to what happened that night.

Before I continue with this post, allow me to fully disclose how I feel.  I do NOT condone the hitting of anyone, unless in the case of self defense - Especially one that you share a domestic relationship with.  That's childish, cowardly, and downright disrespectful, and I will not stand or allow it, ESPECIALLY if I'm near enough to stop or do something about the situation.

With that being said though, I had to stop and think, what possibly the lawyer could have been thinking to justify or rationalize the situation.  He made the comment that he could hypothesize what possibly took place the night of the incident.  But being the person that I am, I can only imagine (and trust me I did) what reasons the lawyer may have come up with to justify Ray Rice's knock out blow on his fianceé.  Here are just a few reasons that I could think of that he could have come up with for his defense:

10) She kept tickling him.
9) She didn't tell him that his zipper was down.
8) She kept hogging the mirror in the elevator.
7) She didn't think he could swing with his left hand.
6) He really meant to just give her a "love tap".
5) He wanted to make a quick get-away, and she was slowing him up.
4) She didn't straighten his tie "right".
3) She rubbed her feet on the carpet and gave him a static shock.
2) She's a Denver Bronco's fan.

And the top reason that he knocked her out in the hotel elevator:

1) She pressed all the buttons on the elevator, just to be funny.

Now once again, I do not condone domestic violence at all.  I just find humor in all things, and good, bad, or ugly, I believe that all things happen for a reason, and we all should learn from these experiences.  But in the mean time, I can always laugh at what has been thrown at me...

16.5.14

Even a broken watch is right twice a day...

Good day everyone!

Have you ever heard those expressions that make no sense, but make sense? I've always been around older people that used to voluntarily give out little pearls of wisdom like the title.  They would crack me up, but now that I'm older, I find myself actually "getting" their meaning.  Not just understanding or comprehending what they are saying, but really "getting it".  It doesn't help that I married a woman that, while she is 7 years younger than me, she has an "old soul" and a 3 year old little boy, that acts like a little old man most days. {This interaction between the 3 of us makes for a very interesting day by the way.}

But back to the post at hand.  Statements like, "even the sun shines on a dogs ass every now and again" or "a watched pot never boils" always throw me for a loop.  Yeah, I get them "literally" but their figuratively meanings - have me all types of confused. When I look back at what people are trying to say when using these phrases, I used to ask myself, "why not just say what you mean, without having to go all 'Confucius' on me?" But I realize that the point is not to simply state what you want, but make the other person think about why they should take that statement into account.

Dealing with the boy, I've learned that saying something, once, twice, five times, does not always yield the expected result.  But when he comes up with the answer himself, he is more likely to find a way to make what he is doing. On top of that, I find myself doing what I swore I would never do, saying them myself...

I'm always dishing out little nuggents of wisdom to those around me, i.e. the boy.  Even my wife looks at me sideways when I say things to him.  The other day I told him that he has an "inner ear listening deficiency" issue.  But I am not alone in this "journey" to random literary expressionism.  Lady Wife told my son, during one of his fits as we were leaving the house, that he better stop crying before his tears freeze on his face.  But in her defense it was hella cold this past winter.

I've even come to the point where I realize the necessarity of these statements.  While I would never want to be convicted of saying stuff "out the side of my neck" It's quite fun to get your point across.  Especially that little pause I get from my son when I do say things to him.  He stops and can't quite figure out if he should laugh or he's in trouble.  Most of the time when I say these things, he's not.  But every now and again, I have to admit, I still confuse myself...

14.5.14

Scarface

It's 6:30am and I'm getting ready for school. I wrapped my hair the night before, but my lil side curl needed a bit of a touch up. That meant breaking out the curling iron. So I heated it while I dressed knowing it would be the last thing I did before headed downstairs. It's quiet in my household as I ready myself. I begin to curl my hair, taken care because of the heat. Then a loud yell comes and startles me so much that I jerk the curling iron. It hits my face before I catch it and place it on the counter. I immediately grab a face rag, wet it with cold water and apply it to my face as I head down to catch my ride to school. I grab a couple ice cubes from the freezer and wrap the rag around them to go back on my face as I head out the door on my way out to the car. I enter the car and my mom immediately asks me about the rag. I explain and show her the burn. She cringed, but I tell her I'm okay. I walk around all day at school with this rag on my face replenishing my ice as needed. {Meanwhile (I found out later), my mom was at work fearful that she'd get a call from CPS or a visit from a colleague (she worked at the police station). It was funny when she told me later that day.}

After school, I headed over to Ebe's and discovered I had a 3rd degree burn. She doctored on it and handed me a piece of her aloe vera plant. I had to keep rubbing that plant on my face throughout the day after I cleaned the wound several times each day. As the weeks went by, a scar appeared. I received the nickname "Scarface" until the scar faded away over the next few months. I still have that scar today.

Yesterday, I received a few more. Same side of the face. Smaller than the previous, but still. This time I responded quicker and with more knowledge than the last so I'm not walking around with a rag on my face. However, I'm beginning to think that my face likes the burns. Oh well ... I still live to see another day.

Burn baby burn ... #11days

13.5.14

Hair Journey

Good Morning!

So I've been growing my hair for about 5 months now. See, it was cut real low & I loved it. I decided to grow it out this year to check out the natural scene. Well, my natural hair is NOT for the light of heart especially if you want to be stylish on a time budget. So I've been itching to chop it off again. However, I'm trying to keep up the growth so it's that time to do something to keep my head from looking all kinds of messy.

Because we're approaching upon Summer, I should be fine until the Fall, but I'm a planner. During the Summer I can easily do the whole wash & go thing which looks fairly nice when I get my curls activated {heh heh heh ...}. However, that gets old real quick for me so I'm already looking for that next thing to do.

Here's my current "style" I'm trying to perfect for the Spring. Kind of a wash & go twist.






And here are my current hairstyle choices that I'm debating for the Fall. I might even get them earlier if I make my decision sooner than later.

Texturize vs Twists

GHE has asked that I texturize it cause he'd like to see my curls loose. Well, I bought the kit before I did my research and found that may not be what we really want. It's a mild perm and I don't really want to perm my hair at the moment. Plus, my research says I shouldn't do it on my own the 1st time just like a perm so I'm a little fearful of messing up my hair if I was to do it. It'd mean another big chop is on deck and I just said I'm trying to keep up the growth. So we've moved on to thinking about the twists and other such styles.

Twist vs Locks

I love being able to change up my hair because it's pretty much how I differentiate between looks since I'm not big into makeup. I could learn to make myself up, but I'm not too inclined to keep up stuff like that {have you seen my eyebrows lately?} so I'll stick to the hair. Twists are really easy to get and take out, BUT I'd have to get them redone regularly. Locks are a bit more permanent after how ever long. I've been advised that maybe I should do twists for however long to really determine if I want locks or not. I get that, but then I don't know.

Locks: Sister vs Dread

Locks look great on certain people to me. They also seem like something I could handle given I used to braid up my hair all the time in high school and style them. However, they are so permanent. I thought I would have to chop my hair again once I wanted something different, but would I? I was told Sister Locks take time before the really lock up. I think dreads lock sooner. I'm still researching, but we'll see. I did see someone the other day with dreads and she had the highlights going on and I really liked it. I'm thinking if I do decided to lock, I'm going to definitely have to try out the red coloring cause I love that color on myself. Wait ... what would y'all think of a deep purple color? Purple is my favorite color. Why not try it eh?

Well y'all, that's it for now. #12days