I dunno who opened the floodgates...

Life for me the last couple of weeks has been CRAZY. And I don't mean a little crazy, I mean the "if-you-were-a-person-I'd-have-locked-you-up-and-thrown-away-the-key" kind of crazy week.

It all started last week with my AMBUSH interview. A few weeks ago, I had made application at a company that services contracts with the Department of Defense. Out of the blue, a man called me and started asking me interview questions. Maybe I should have been expecting it, but after 3 weeks passed, in all honesty, I kind of forgot about the application that I filled out on a whim (and before I took Littlest Prince out of kindergarten). That was Wednesday. I didn't get to fill out the application he sent me via email until Thursday (and after two calls from him making sure I got it) and went to Kinko's to fax it. Friday, I received a call from the HQ lady in Washington, DC, but I was feverishly getting ready for the Halloween party I was throwing for the neighbors that night, so I let it go to voicemail. Monday, I called the woman back and was pretty much offered the position. Yes, sometimes those companies move slow and sometimes they move quick. Today, I accepted the position. So I'm now a working gal. Yay! The job sounds kind of cool, too. It's basically a guidance counselor position for people retiring out of the Army. Should be interesting.

Last Friday was my annual Halloween party. I do three major parties a year: Halloween, the Superbowl and the Kentucky Derby/Cinco de Mayo. This year was no exception. Nevermind that we just moved here and don't really know that many people. We invited a lot of people from our neighborhood and had a rip-roarin' good time! Here are some pictures from the evening:




































In other news, my personal life has gone kind of loopy lately. I won't go into gory details on the blog, but suffice it to say that questions and confusion abound, which only adds to the dose of crazy in my life right now. I have a lot of push-pull... tension... feelings to sort out. I'm not my usual chipper self, and I don't like it. I need to work through this stuff pronto!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs

What would you do if you thought you had received a sign? Would you do everything in your power to answer that sign, or would you run away? Could you muster the courage, or would you shrink in fear? What if someone you cared about deeply questioned your so-called sign?

I find myself in this position tonight. As I've written before, I'm a highly spiritual person. My daddy is a preacher and I've grown up in the Christian faith. Yes, I had a rebellious phase in college where I didn't really go to church (and had the same experience while in Germany because I really didn't like the chapel on post), but my faith-- my core beliefs have never left me. I mean, in college, I was a Religion major, hello! Anyway--

This move back to the states has really thrown me for a loop. While I was in Germany, it was quite difficult to find a job that didn't involve fast food, hideous fashion or snotty kids (none of which I wanted to do). It probably didn't help my cause that I am in a highly specialized field and there just weren't a lot of therapist positions open. Social workers, yes. Therapists, no (MRM, no worries. I'm sure you'll find something lovely). I was initially thrilled to come back to the states because it meant I could pursue my career and finally feel like a whole person (in my eyes) by contributing to the family nest egg. Although finding a job here hasn't been a cake walk, either. When I didn't get any offers within a couple of months, and because Littlest Prince was having a time in Kindergarten, I just decided to be a stay at home mom and home school him. I'm having great success with that, but I just don't feel like staying at home is my calling. I struggle with that daily.

I've prayed and prayed and prayed that God would show me what he had planned for me. I read a quote recently that said, "When you pray, you talk to God. When you meditate, you listen." I took that to mean that I just needed to shut up and listen for God's guidance in my life. And I tell you what, within the last two days, I think it's worked. Yesterday, I got a call from our In Touch ministry contact person from church just checking in to see how I was. Today, I got a letter in the mail from my church telling me that I had been nominated to serve on the Education committee for next year and at Wednesday supper, a woman asked my family and me to light the Advent candle one week. I took all of this as a sign that God wanted me to be more involved in church. When I shared my thought with a dear person to me, that person said, "Don't you think maybe it's just the church reaching out because it's a church and it needs people to do their stuff?" How am I supposed to react to that? What would you think if you were in my predicament? I'd love your input because right now, I'm at a loss.

A few updates and a Southern Song Post

I'm getting very slack in writing blog posts, I know. In all honesty, in addition to some changes in time and responsibilities for me around here, I've been sucked into that which is Twitter. A friend of mine sent me a rather fitting T-shirt which says, "I'm Not a Blogger, I Just Tweet a Lot." That's me right now.

I do have a couple of updates to share with y'all, though. First, after writing my complaint blog, I found resolution with both companies. Yankee Harvest came through in a big way and sent my package rapido, rapido. And after a couple more calls, At&T finally came out and finished taking the temporary wire out of my front yard. I figured out they weren't listening to us that the burial of the wire had already been completed because the guy who came out to do the work brought a Ditch Witch. Oh well. It's done now.

Also, after the first 9 weeks, I decided to pull Littlest Prince out of his kindergarten class and home school him. In all honesty, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. He is excited to learn with me and show me what he can do, and that makes me very happy as a parent. He's already reading! Yeah, two days into homeschool and I got him to read. He was primed for this, which, in my opinion is why he was having such issues at school-- he was bored having to go over letters and sounds when he already knows that.

As for my Southern Songs, I got this idea from Gracie Beth at Preppy Southern Princess. She had a Southern-Style Playlist the other day and it got me thinking about songs that I listen to that make me feel southern. Yes, GB, I was one of the 118 people who read and neglected to comment, but here is a list of mine, inspired by your post (which I thought was great, and I hope a shout-out on my blog makes you happy!).

1) Southern Girls by Gary Nichols - I've only heard this song from his fan page on Myspace and other undownloadable media, but I L-O-V-E it. It's fast-paced, catchy, and oh-so-true!

Southern Girls - Gary Nichols

2) Carolina Girls by General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board - Seriously, since I'm from South Carolina, how could I not have this one? This song reminds me of summers in Myrtle Beach, shagging the night away on the boardwalk (and for those of you who are non-southern or non-Carolinian, this "shagging" is a dance of the vertical persuasion).


3) Boondocks by Little Big Town- "You get a line, I'll get a pole, we'll go fishin in the crawfish hole. 5 card poker on Saturday night, church on Sunday morning." Pretty much describes how I grew up, and how I live to this day.

Boondocks - Little Big Town

4)Southern Girl by Amos Lee- I don't know what it is about the Southern Girl, but apparently, she's a muse, ladies and gentlemen. Here's further proof of that: a song by Amos Lee that is absolutely beautiful...

Southern Girl - Amos Lee

5) Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd- I don't care where you're from in the South, once this song starts playing, you lift your glass (if you're drinking) or hi-five all your southern friends and start dancing (if you're not drinking) in honor of the Southland.

6) Sweet Tea by Florez- It's no secret I love sweet tea. I missed it greatly when I lived in Germany, and tried to make my own, but the commissary made it difficult by not carrying the family sized bags of decaf Luzianne. Love love love this song... and it's by Florez, a band out of Nashville, with a guy in it who used to live in Greenville, SC and was on Survivor!

Sweet Tea - Florez

7)Pink Lemonade by Jump, Little Children- I spent much of my high school and college days following this Charleston, SC band around the south. They came to both of my colleges and I made it a point to catch them at the Music Farm when they were in town when I was home. This particular song just reminds me of home-- plus it has a sample of "You Are My Sunshine" in it, which everyone knows, was written by a southern governor for his wife.

Pink Lemonade - Jump, Little Children

There are lots more songs, but I may save those for another post when I don't have much to say (at the rate I'm going, that will probably be tomorrow! :P ). Thanks again, Gracie Beth, for the idea. I love finding reasons to explore my iPod.

Hope y'all are having a fabulous week--

An Etsy Review: Everyday Diamonds

A couple of days ago I was contacted by Robin of Everyday Diamonds to ask if I would do the honor of reviewing her Etsy shop. Sure, I thought. Anything to help out the handmade revolution! She sent me a link to her website and it was love at first sight!

The shop is run by Robin and her sister Jess. Robin makes the purses and bangles on the site; Jess makes the flowers. I have to tell you, everything on the site is BEAUTIFUL.

The purses:

The Mini Blue Bird, I think, is my favorite purse. It's so cheery! A beautiful robin's egg blue (or Tiffany box) with brown polka-dots. It's the perfect little arm candy to take with you to the park, or a church picnic, or an afternoon in the park. I have a good friend I may have to buy this one for for Hanukkah. At $10, it's definitely a deal!


The Mini Licorice Lollipop is a black and white dream. It's perfect for an evening at the theater, or a hip, trendy pub. Also $10.

















The Mini Cherry Blossom is tied for my favorite purse on Robin and Jess's site. It's black and white, with one of Jess's flowers for a gorgeous splash of color. I could see this bag accompanying me to church, to the spa, on vacation, to the grocery story... you get the idea. It's $15 and a wonderful value.

Robin also has some larger bags, ranging in price from $16-$28, so feel free to check the rest of her collection out here.

The flowers:

Jess makes some beautiful silk flowers that can be worn either as a brooch or a hair accessory. I was very excited about that prospect because I remember growing up, I had a gorgeous red silk flower that I absolutely LOVED to wear in my hair. Now I can do it again! Or, I can wear the flowers as a chic splash of color on my jackets, blazers or outerwear. Check some of these out!


























All of the flowers range in price from $4.50-$6.00. Custom orders are possible.

You can also read Robin's blog, A Handmade Revolution or follow Jess on Twitter. Please head over to Everyday Diamonds on Etsy and support these sisters! And as if the prices in their shop weren't already great deals, they've been gracious enough to offer my readers a 10% discount code (South10) when ordering through October 31. Happy Shopping!

What Might Have Been

I've been listening to my iPod pretty much nonstop for the last couple of days. Today, while it was on random, What Might Have Been by Little Texas came on. I don't know exactly what it is about my electronics and social media "speaking" to me lately, but they do. I get "quotes from God" daily on Facebook, and many of them have been eerily apropos. Today, I was feeling a bit of nostalgia, a bit of regret, a bit of wonder over the roads not taken in life and this song comes on:



It's a beautiful song and it sums up a bit of what I'm feeling.

I've been dealing with some issues as of late, and I often look back to my past when difficulties arise. Maybe I'm looking for the decisions and scenarios that got me to the point I am at today, maybe I'm looking for what could have been if different paths had been taken, maybe I'm looking for absolution... I don't know. What I do know is that in the dark corners of my mind, I often think of what might have been and find a deep sense of longing wrapped in solace. Yes, I'm able to find solace in what might have been because it very well could end up What May Be...

I've figured out that life is rarely accidental. Things, no matter how small, happen for a reason. People drift in and out of your life for a reason. I'm a spiritual person and believe that God directs our lives in ways we can't even fathom, and that if something is meant to happen and we fail to act on it, God puts it in front of us again for another opportunity.

In the meantime, In Between Time...

I am working on a very creative blog that will hopefully be done by the end of the week, but in the mean time, I wanted to share some awesomeness I recently found on Youtube. Do they put just about everything there?

I was on iTunes orginally, looking for songs that I remember from the 90s. When I went to my one and only NKOTB concert when I was in 7th grade, the opening act for them was The Perfect Gentlemen. Do any of y'all remember their breakout hit, OohLaLa?

I remember listening to this song over and over again on the tape I made from the radio.

So, in my search for that song, I also remembered listening to a group called The Party. They were a group that spun off the All New Mickey Mouse Club (for which I tried out, sort of, but that's another story) before the pop princesses Britney and Christina. Here's one of my favorite songs from their self-titled first album:



Now that was some serious pop! And some serious hair! I look at this video and remember the mad crush I had on Damon and his big ol' bouffant!

Ah, this retro-rewind just made me smile so I thought I'd share. Hope y'all are having a good week!

I really hate to do this, but...

I've been a little more than perturbed over some customer service issues that I've come across lately. While I love using my blog for good and singing the praises of companies or products that go above and beyond my rather high expectations, there have been a couple of instances in the past few weeks that I feel I must address in my blog.

1) AT&T- We signed up for new phone and internet service with them when we moved into our new home, which was 3 months ago. We got the technician to come and hook up our house to the service box on August 7. He said that someone would be out within two weeks to bury the hideous cable that ran across our yard. I thought, ok, no problem.

Two weeks went by and one day I looked out my window and saw a man burying some cable in my yard and thought, great! They're right on time. Only he stopped burying and just left the yard when he got to our sidewalk. He just UP AND LEFT. No knock to let me know what was going on, no explanation... So after a week of wondering if anyone was going to come and get the huge pile of cable out of my front yard, I called AT&T. But I could never get past the voice-prompted automation. It couldn't understand what I was saying enough to get me to the right place (must be that southern drawl). I got fed up and tried to make the husband call, but his fuse is even shorter than mine, so he hung up after the system wouldn't accept our phone number.

Finally, after a few MORE weeks, I was able to get a very sweet person on the phone at AT&T who promised me they would get someone out to our house ASAP. And she delivered-- later that afternoon, two men came to the door to let me know they were there to bury the cable. They brought a Ditch Witch and all the tools, so I thought they would get done fairly quickly that afternoon. After about an hour, I look outside and find that no one is there. I see where they buried cable in the yard and see that the cable has been laid all the way to the service box. But the buried cable is not connected to the box, the box is left open and I STILL have my temporary cable going across my yard. UGH!

So, I'm forced to call again. Only it feels like it took an act of Congress to get the phone number I was supposed to call for home repair/service because AT&T doesn't have a helpful contact list on their website that's in plain view. I had to get a text from my neighbor who was having AT&T service connected to let me know that there were some techs coming out to hook her up and she thought that maybe I could ambush them to come over when they were done with her house (which they goofed up and now she's upset) to finish my job. If I were wire-literate, I'd do it myself. It looks like it would be an easy thing to do-- hook the buried cable to the service box where the temporary cable is hooked up currently, hook the buried cable to the house and remove the temporary cable. Voila! It wouldn't be that hard to do, but apparently, it's harder than it looks. Yeah, right.

The guys who hook up my neighbor's house tell me because of the rain/ lightning they can't work on my house but they did give me the right number to call to get someone out to finish my job. I call and do you know what they told me? The guy on the phone said a tech would come finish the job between now (which was September 20) and October 10 at 7pm. W-T-F??? Don't they know that this cable is the bane of my existence right now? It's been hanging out in my yard since AUGUST 7! I have to move the cable to and fro when I mow the lawn or weed or edge. It's a nuisance. And I've about had it.

2) Yankee Harvest I love their products and most of the time love their service, but this past month I ran across a little problem. I had participated in MRM's beverage swap and placed an order at the beginning of September to send to my swap buddy. I got a confirmation email that my order had been placed and I thought that it would be very soon that the shipment would be made. I never received a shipment confirmation, though. I waited a good 2 and a half weeks and finally emailed them about my order. I didn't receive any response from a customer service representative, but three days after I sent my email inquiring about the status of my order, I did receive the UPS tracking number. I should get my package delivered by Wednesday. Which means that my swap package to my buddy is way late. I hate when that happens.