Freedom comes from Confinement

Look at that child and tell me I was not the most adorable thing on the planet. Seriously, try it. I mean check out how awkward I was, the priceless expression on my face, my pot belly. How awkwardly wonderful. This was my wheel barrel. I'm not sure why I loved it so much, but I really loved that wheel barrel. My grandparents on my dad side got it for me one year for Easter. My grandma loved to get us gifts for any holiday. Sometimes they were bigger gifts, and other times just random small things that always brought joy to me because they were from the heart. I never wanted anything material from my grandparents, I never expected anything from them, but gifts small and large were what my grandmother loved to do. She did not shower us with stuff all the time, but she certainly enjoyed giving. So anyway, I got this thing and apparently my whole day, week, month was spent with this wheel barrel, my family thought it was the cutest thing ever. Don't believe me how ...

This is me and Julio in Greenfield Village when I was two. I do not remember much about this trip except one thing, getting lost. My mom says that I managed to wander away in a crowd and away from the family in a split second like kids often do. It wasn't as big of a deal back then because that was before predators and pedophiles. lol. But like I said, I remember being lost. I still remember that terrifying feeling of being alone, terrified as the crowd cleared and my family was no where to be found. I remember being at the end of a building, similar to this one and being completely alone and I was terrified. I'm sure my screaming and crying is how my mother found me, I could scream and cry with the best of them. I remember feeling the relief of seeing my family again, the warm hug after being found. That feeling is still inside of me. Now it's not always when there isn't anyone around, it sometimes happens in groups as well. Not as often as it used to, bu...

Not every family is lucky enough to have an Aunt Julie, I was pretty lucky. She was young enough to have the time to give us, she was energetic enough to put the effort in, and she was genuine enough to give us something to believe in. That's me she's holding obviously, I guess it was one of the nights she was watching me and my parents came home to find us sleeping. I was not an easy baby, I was constantly sick, constant ear infections, and very, very clingy. It took some energy to watch me, ask anyone that did it. lol. It wasn't until I was school age that things got even slightly easier for my parents. My mother said that as a child I used to sneak down stairs to their room at night after they moved me to my own room and would either crawl into bed with them or they would wake up and find me sleeping on the floor in the corner of their room. For awhile they gave up fighting it and put a fold away bed in the corner of their room for me. I told you I was a cli...

So early in our family we were linked with another cousin. My family seemed to multiply in pairs and sometimes threes. Each of us on my mom's side has a cousin that is within a year or so in age. It's freaky and makes me think things I don't want to think about when it comes to family. lol. So here is two examples. Julio is the blonde kid on the left and Gretchen is the girl on the right. They are a little over a year apart. Then there is me next to Julio and my cousin Jason to the right of me. We were born about a week apart, one in New Jersey and me in Ohio. Growing up our cousins were our friends, it's not to say we didn't all have friends outside of the family but our family used to get together a lot so it was always nice to be able to have your cousin by your side to play with. Jason and I were as close as we could be with so many miles between us, what helped in my case is that my cousin Andy who I've spoken about on here before was born less...

This is proof that my obsession with kitchen items goes all the way back! Granted I don't still chew on them.....for the most part. I could always be found as a child in that drawer constantly pulling out kitchen stuff, then after my sister was born and she started to get kitchen stuff I was all over that stuff like white on rice. Somewhere there is a picture of me a little older than this somewhere messing with my sister's toy kitchen. She could never even cook plastic food right, I always had to correct her. What's funny is for years I never had any interest in cooking. I loved food obviously, but was never into cooking for myself. I tried a few dishes when I was growing up with my mom's help, but never really got into it until I moved out on my own the second time. The first time I was just too poor and busy to worry about cooking anything, but I'll cover that when the pictures from that time frame comes up. I love to create and I guess that feeling ...

It's summer time!!! We waz livin large in Nappy! Check out the awesome pool. We were so popular everyone came over to enjoy the pool, it was like lifestyles of the rich and famous up in there. Seriously though, this was big time for us, we used that pool to the last inch of its life. That's me being held by non other than my aunt Julie. That is my uncle Jon in the back of the pool with the dark hair, my brother Julio is the very blond kid reaching into the pool, and I'm not really sure who the other two kids are, I think the girl standing up is my cousin Kathy, she is about Derek's age, but I have NO idea who the other blonde kid is. You can see all the diapers hanging on the clothes line behind the pool, back in the day when people still used cloth. The yard is looking kind of rough, but honestly I think there is something wrong with their yard because it has never really looked nice. No matter what my dad does to it, he just can't seem to get it right, i...

There are a basic ten things everyone should know about their debit/credit cards and I thought I would share this little bit of knowledge with you. 1. You do not own your card, it is property of the issuing bank and can be taken back, turned off, or destroyed at any time. Overdraft too much? They can shut it down, making crazy charges that look like fraud? They can shut it down. Depositing empty envelopes in the ATM? They will shut it down. It may be your money but it is their card they are allowing you to use. 2. Your activity is monitored 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If we suspect someone has stolen your card, or if we think someone has counterfeited your card, we will shut it down. If this is going to be a problem, make sure your bank has all of your correct contact information because if we can't reach you, you have to wait until the bank is open to figure out why your card is not working. 3. Planning on traveling outside of the US? Take a moment an...

Ah yes, the day I arrived home from the hospital. Oh what a glorious day, the house was never the same again. That's my older brother there holding me, I've taken to calling him Julio thanks to Bethany. lol. He looks so happy to be that close to me doesn't he? It took another 21 years for him to smile that close to me again. lol. That's my grandma (mom's mom) to the left of me, beaming about her 5th grandchild in what would turn out to be a list of 20 grandkids. lol. That picture was taken in our living room. That couch lasted about another 6 years at least and that afghan is still in my parents house somewhere, maybe the attic. I believe there is also a piece of that blanket in the attic too, but I'm not sure they were the same thing, my blankey might have been from something else, I'll have to ask my mother. My brother and I had a rough time growing up with each other. We didn't get along very well as I'm sure most brothers don'...

Ah yes, another one from the day of my baptism. I apparently had changed into some more comfortable clothes for the party, I was a fashionista even then. Of course you'll notice, I'm once again sleeping. Being the life of the party is no easy task let me tell you. The man holding me is my uncle Denny, my dad's brother. Yes, I used the term uncle, which is strange as this was probably the last time we were really close. I never really talked to my uncle Denny all that much but I had no bad feelings towards him either. He and my aunt Betty were not able to have children and I just don't think he ever got used to being around small children much, especially as we were growing up, but he did think of us. When he and my aunt Betty built their house they built a house slightly bigger than they needed for themselves because they knew if anything ever happened to my parents it was in the will that they were to raise us. They considered that as they built their house...

O.K. so I can't post it on Facebook because the announcement at work has not been made, but I am not the one that got the supervisor position. I'm o.k. with it, I really am, I thought it was a shot in the dark anyway and I don't regret going for it. All this means is that this position is not right for me, at this time. In a company that is growing by leaps and bounds (we hired over 80 people this month) there will be plenty of opportunities and I'm o.k. waiting it out right now. I'm a little disappointed that I won't have the nice pay check, but it's really o.k. My boss's boss met with me in person to let me know and told me that I will make a great supervisor and she has no doubt in my abilities, she just had a candidate that had 8 years of actual fraud supervisory experience with a specialty in one of the systems that we actually use, and also had a great personality so she had to choose her. I told her I was o.k with that, I have been on both...

So I decided to finally get started on a little project I have been thinking about. I'm pulling photos from my past and going to do a post on them. We'll see how long I can keep this up, but I think it could be fun, I love old photos, well before I hit that awkward stage in my life...you know around the age of 5-present. lol. So here we go, hope you enjoy! The year was 1977, it was a warm spring day....well I don't really know what kind of day it was, but anyway I was born and here is a picture of my on the day I was baptized. I had three official sponsors, two of which are seen in this picture. The one on the left is my dad's sister Linda and the one of the right is my aunt Julie. Oh and that little cute adorable want to hug and him and squeeze him baby in Julie's arms? Yeah, that would be me. Not much has changed really right? :) My third sponsor who is not pictured is my aunt Bonnie who was not able to make the trip from New Jersey that wee...

It is a firm belief of mine that if you are having construction done and intrupting my lunch hour, the least you can do is hire some hunk construction workers to make it worth my while. I mean really! How rude. Lol. The kitchen remodel has begun and it is already making me crazy. I just spent half my lunch figuring out the lumber I have to pick up in the morning. Not to mention the countless moments I've spent pondering the electrical situation, the plumbing situation, the flooring situation and the cabinet situation. On top of all this I have to figure out the situation happening in my mouth and the legal and financial situations because of that. I also need to plan a menu for the weekend for my family visiting while we have no kitchen. I realize this is not really my house to stress over, but can I cry too? I am living there and doing most of the construction myself......oh, and I'm working ten hour days. I know the lord only puts on us what we can handle, but man my shou...