ScrapHappy

I’ve realized that I haven’t posted anything about scrapbooking yet.  So, here goes.  Here are two of my favorite layouts as of late…and I mean in the last, mmm, maybe 6 months since lately I don’t get alot of time to scrap for myself…

It’s about beer…y’all knew it’d be one of my favorites.  And…

 

This kid is great!  She’s always happy and smiling and always wants to play.  And even though I’m not big on pink, I like how it turned out.  Her mother HATES the color pink and she still loved it!

 Well, I’m a bloggin’ fool today…I guess only 3 short entries isn’t really a fool, but I’m close to a fool, like a bloggin’ lunatic or something.  I think I’ll actually go scrapbook!!  To see more of my layouts, go to my ScrapJazz gallery in the sidebar links.  Tootaloo…

Enough to make me sigh…

Here’s a live version of a favorite song of mine…it may have some familiar lyrics.

The Cadaver Calculator: How much is your body worth?

I took a test to find out how much my dead body would be worth if I kicked the bucket today…and Wow!! Alot more than I thought.  Guess the drinking isn’t hurting me as much as I thought…

$4105.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Be the change…

So…the weekend was pretty nice.  Very “easy.”  Not alot to do.  No prior commitments.  Just time to relax and time to hang out with sort of new people.

It’s funny…I have friends that I’ve known forEVER…okay, five years maybe…and I feel like I don’t know them anymore.  I don’t know hardly anything about their families, pasts, or day-to-day lives.  My friend M has been dating a girl for over a year and I still don’t know her last name.  We don’t talk much.  You know, everyone’s so busy with stuff (said in my best smug, whiny voice) that they decide (maybe even unconsciously) to disregard things and relationships that do not require immediate attention.  And, sadly, I am the biggest culprit I know.

The really sad thing is I’m not that busy.  Atleast not with things that can’t wait.  And I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only one who claims to be busy as hell, but still has time to sit around and watch Scrubs for an hour a day when I could be making an effort to call said forgotten friends and remind them that I am still alive and available for contacting. 

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, I get to the heart of this entry…I love to go see Eddie, LeeAnna, the kids and all the other four-legged family members and friends and what-have-you’s (I’m thinking of asking if I can move in…).  They are wonderful people.  They have a genuine interest in our lives and getting to know us.  It’s very refreshing to meet people who don’t use the “I’m busy” excuse, even though they are very busy (and I don’t know how they stay that way with that damn porch).  With children and full-time jobs and pet dogs and hunting dogs and horses and chickens and cats and kittens…geez, I’m tired just typing all that!!  And they still make time to enjoy their friends’ company.  Hmmm…now I have another suspicion.  That maybe I could do that, too.  Skip the “I’m busy” excuse.  It’s no good anymore.

C and I don’t see Eddie and LeeAnna often (and that’s sad), but we still seem to pick up where we left off.  LeeAnna listened to me bitch and moan for half an hour on Saturday before I think I even said hello!  What a jerk I am…but she listened to me.  And she wasn’t upset that I sort of unloaded on her.  That makes me smile.

Life really comes down to relationships…good and bad.  Although we’d all like to avoid the bad ones, they teach us.  We know what NOT to do next time, what changes to make and what our own limits are as emotional beings.  The good ones help us through life.  They help us smile (and sometimes cry) and laugh (at others and ourselves) and create memories that will hopefully never be forgotten.  I guess what I’m saying is that I want to try harder on other relationships in my life.  Say to myself, “Pick up the damn phone and call your friends!”  What do I have to lose?  And as Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see.”  And this one is easy…because it’s all about me!!

I can watch TV later.  I can blog later.  I can even (gasp) scrapbook later.  Relationships matter more than ya think, so make them last.  Live life.  Make time.  Smile more and definitely laugh more!  When I’m on my way outta this world, I don’t want to say, “I’ve seen every episode of Scrubs 327 times.”  I’m going to say, “I love my life and the people in it.”  And hopefully I’ll have some friends there with me…I will be the change.

The BNPL Generation

That’s Buy Now, Pay Later, for you unsavvy about abbreviations people.  Actually, I (think I) just made that up, so don’t feel bad.  Just yankin’ yer chain.  And I’m including myself here, but only to an extent.  See, I went to help brother, T, with his budget last night to see if he could afford to buy a house.  That’s a negative, Ghost Rider…as he would say.  Except all of my 7562 hours of number-crunching (”Your cable bill is HOW much?!?”) and an additional 3281 hours of sound advice (”You’re an idiot if you pursue this right now.”) didn’t help AT ALL!  I’m so confused as to why he would ask me for help and then, as I’m sitting there, tell me that, regardless of my time and effort to dissuade him, he is ABSOLUTELY NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO ME!!! 

 I’m finding that he isn’t the idiot here…I am.  I continue to put my time and effort into helping him when I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he will NOT listen to me.  He never has and he never will.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!?  This could potentially ruin him.  He can NOT afford this!!  I have even shown him on paper that he cannot afford this. But, lo and behold, he WILL have a house.  Even if it means he won’t get to keep it because he can’t pay for it because he doesn’t have any money because he won’t quit making more bills for himself because he doesn’t have any discipline when it comes to money because he is a 2 year-old in a 25 year-old’s body and he wants it ALL and he wants it NOW!! ( how’s THAT for a run-on?)

Anyhooben, I just can’t figure out people like this.  I have done my fair share of buy now, pay later, but I know my limits.  If I want something, the first thing I do is research how much it will cost.  I then go directly to my budget sheet (do NOT pass go and, even though the $200.00 would be nice, do NOT collect $200.00) and look at my income minus bills minus savings minus emergency and see if the end result is enough to afford said item.  I have bought things on credit with 0% financing.  I am still paying those bills…WITHOUT defaulting.  Everything I’ve bought 0% interest I’ve paid by the end-of-promo date.  I, like T, also want a new house.  I went to the budget, looked at the income minus bills minus savings minus emergency minus realtor fees for selling current house minus repairs to current house to make it sell minus closing costs of new house minus new mortgage fees minus things potentially being wrong with new house and decided that the end result was about -$452193.15…or something…the actual number isn’t important.  It’s the moral of this story that counts.  And all this means???  CORRECT!!  I can NOT afford a new house.  What is so effing difficult to understand here????

 So, done helping T.  He is going to drive me to drinking.  Which may not be a bad thing.  Because I can afford that since I’m not paying for that new house…

Under Construction

At this point I think only one person reads my blog…but, just in case, I’d like y’all to know that I am still learning things about wordpress so I can add things to my sidebars and get things situated just how I want them.  The title change came from a car ride home from work.  I was listening to Jack Johnson (again) and heard one of my favorites by him, Traffic in the Sky.  I relate so well to that song that I’m wondering why I didn’t think of it before.  I will eventually learn how to put a link to the song in the sidebar (just as soon as I learn some damn html…that language is just ridiculous).  So, just letting people (or person) know why I’m not writing interesting things.  Most of my computer time is spent learning widgets and html.  I’ll get a handle on it soon enough…

Big Car, Caviar, Four Star Daydream…

…think I’ll buy me a football team.  Ahh…Pink Floyd was right.  Money, it’s a crime.  I’m sitting here at my computer staring blankly at my old and now defunct “budget.”  I say “budget” with the quotes because it’s really more or less a joke.  Atleast it is right now.  But that’s it!! No more needless spending!  According to my hypothetical budget…you know, earnings minus things to pay out, I should be placing a whopping $200.00 PER WEEK into a savings account.  Where the hell is that money?  I’ve even included things such as entertainment budget, nail appointments and stuff for my dogs.  Am I really wasting $200.00 per week?

 So, anyhoodle, I’ve decided that this is where all that ends.  Why, you ask?  I’ve been reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.  It’s actually quite interesting.  I think that even if you are able to manage money well, this book is worth taking a look at.  It’s enlightening to see that there are more people than just me that have issues with this type of thing.  But here’s the kicker (and what made me amend redo altogether my budget)…

APPROXIMATELY 70% OF AMERICANS DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY SAVED TO COVER 1, YES 1, MONTH OF THEIR BILLS IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO THEIR INCOME.

That is quite alarming.  And, unfortunately, I’m one of those Americans.  Man, sometimes I hate that I can read.  See, if I couldn’t read, then I wouldn’t know this.  Okay, stupid logic, I know…but why didn’t I think of this sooner?  What IF something happened?  What would I do?  So, I leave you with this…

IF, I said IF, something catastrophic were to happen to you or your job, would you be able to pay your bills until you could work again/found another job?  It’s definitely something to think about.  Dammit…I HATE being an adult.

A Blog?? I don’t know about this….

So, I’ve said for a rather long time that I’d start a blog at the same time that I started going to Starbuck’s, wearing Crocs and dealing with Ebay.  Well, I began dealing with Ebay about 6 months ago.  I was fine with that because I still hadn’t gone to Starbuck’s, wore Crocs or started blogging.  My dearest husband informed me that when we went to Vegas the first time, I ate a cinnamon roll from Starbuck’s!!  What?!  How did I not remember eating a cinnamon roll from the coffee shop that I have dubbed the root of all that’s evil?  I guess I did drink alot.  So I guess now I have to go buy a pair of Crocs.  And my world has been turned upside down.

 I’d like to say that I’m gonna use this blog to update my family members who live far away and that I’ll post deep, philosophical questions to make people use their brains (like, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”) and then lie awake in bed at night and think of my blog (delusions of grandeur much?), but I’ll probably really only write about what’s going on in the chaos that I call my mind.  I’m sure it’ll be interesting at times.  Maybe?  Just bear with me…