NEWS ALERT.....

                     

 

It's that time of year again!  For those of you have been around JLand for a year or more then you will be familiar with what I'm about to refer to.  LOL...now I was only in J-Land a month when this celebration occurrred last year so I'm clueless.  (I copied Jackie's entry because it was perfect for spreading the word.)  But you may have noticed those little tags in people's journals that state they were a 2005 nominee or winner.

 

The VIVI awards!

 

For those of you who don't know what those are... well, let me briefly clue you in.  They are basically the academy awards of the Journal community, specifically JLand!  It's community based, and there are several categories that go up for a vote, by you the journal community.

 

The thing is we need to spread the word.  I need for each and every one of you who has a journal to do two things.  One.. go to Vivians journal  Awards anyone? :) , and cast your vote as to whether or not you would like to see the VIVI Awards occur again this year.  After you've done that, please go to your own journals and spread the word.  We need to have everyone in JLand particpate in voting, because when it all comes down to it, this is a community celebration, and we need everyone's input.  Once the voting is complete the outcome will be announced on Vivian's journal. 

 

We will then go from there with plans to celebrate another year of outstanding journals in our wonderful little JLand Community.

 

Vivian gives you a little more insight into the goings on, so if you scoot on over there, you can read more about it.....and don't forget to vote!!!

 

I hope you all  decide to vote yes!  The VIVI'S are so much fun and it's a time to walk the red carpet once again, and let the world know about your journal and the journals that you love!

 

So... go vote...  and spread the word!!

 

Hugs CHRIS   (Thanks, Jackie!  Hope you don't mind that I used your splendid entry...)

Soothing lavender to calm the crazy lady.  Ok...I'll fess up...this was one of the easiest tags I ever made, and everybody seems to love it.  Actually, Shelly, Roxymama, should get half the credit.  She made the moon window background and sent it to the PSP group.  All I did was slap the lavender tube on it with some sparkles and voila....a tag.

Things are pretty quiet...shhhh...don't say anything.

We went to the 16th floor to see our new office space.  I don't think Rose and I are going to get our own offices.  Not that the boss doesn't want us to but it seems to be creating a commotion among other divisions, I believe.  But it looks like a huge, beautiful floor.  Way more space than I ever worked in.  LOL...I think we're going to be lost.  I mean, cmon, we work for the govt. and are used to be stacked up on top of each other.  Where Rose and I end up, it's hard to tell but anywhere on that floor is really pretty.  The move isn't until the middle of October.

 

  LOL...Chelle, the Bag Lady, made this for me.  HUGS, Chelle!  Only problem is today I have nothing to whine about...imagine that.  But I had to post my new Whine Zone tag which will signal a rant, rave or serious whining is about to begin.

Ok...I'll whine because I want a new camera.  Darned if I know what I want.  I've gotten so many suggestions.  I hate those circles that show up on my pictures.  Last night I was supposed to be online scouting out lawnmowers...yeah right.  I was online scouting out digital cameras.  Becky made some suggestions.  Being the artist and photographer she is, none were under $300 and probably way beyond my technological ability, which is sorely lacking.  I need something super easy to use.

I'll pawn my old one off on Megan.  I know she wants one; just not mine.  But oh well...see I have no sense.  I need a lawnmower and so many other things but I want a camera.  My BF, anal person he is, lost the receipt for my camera I have now.  I can't believe it.  He is so organized.  He sees how some of my pictures come out so he looked for the receipt and swears I have it.  No way...he keeps all my receipts.  If he could just find the darned thing, I could take it back to Wally World.  It has a one year complete warranty on it and can be exchanged there.  I think he threw it away when he moved in the spring along with my vacuum receipt. 

That's my whine for tonight.  One more day and a long weekend.  Joey isn't leaving for camping until Monday and is going for the whole week.  I might end up cooking on Sunday or maybe not. 

Good night everyone.  Off I go to  1. look for my keys so I'm not scrambling around tomorrow morning;  2. get my clothes together; and 3. bath or shower?  I think I'll slip into my Calgon mode again.

  Mocha, Megan's kitty, says Good night.  She's on Megan/my vanity.  I think she really resembles Jeannette's Nina. 

CHRIS

Stop the World; I Want to Get Off

Today actually started out well.  I was up at 4:30 a.m., put my pot of coffee on, and promptly sat my butt at the computer.  I didn't have much e-mail to read or many journals to catch up on.  I was zipping up and down my AOL favorites and noticed I hadn't read Becky's MySpace blog in a while.

Of course, by the time I finished the one entry, I was in tears; happy tears.  I am so emotional lately. "Letting Go" it was entitled.  Becky was my angry child and had every right to be.  Her father was a verbally abusive alcoholic; physically once in a while.  She enclosed her heart in a shield of stone to protect herself from the hurt and pain.  I didn't realize any of this at the time.  In her entry, she refers to the hatred she carried for years at her father when "she was an angry, hormonal teen."  She can't continue to do this to herself anymore.  It is making her sick to her stomach and have heachaches to hate.  Her words.  She also opened her entry with the fact that each week when she attends church, it is amazing to her how the sermon is about something she is dealing with.  Last week was trying to control your surroundings and life.  Becky is my control freak or was.

What I am finding amazing is that the rock hard shield she has guarded for so long around that heart of hers is slowly but surely disintegrating.  I can tell by her writings that she is becoming more at peace with herself and her life.  She hasn't forgiven her dad yet.  He has never asked for forgiveness or thinks he did or ever does anything wrong.  She has to accept the fact that he is the way he is and only he can change himself.  Megan called her dad last night for money.  He said he had to to discuss it with his wife since she is the major breadwinner now and would call her back.  Did he?  Nah...but she was going to call him today while step mom was at work.  So, I thought this might be the beginning of more peaceful times to come.

Silly, silly me.......

 

LOL...You are about to enter the "Whine Zone" (I'm really praying this zone will disappear soon.

I went online.  Megan's loan was sent to the university and just needs to be processed.  They usually do it once a week.  Her rent is due; she needs her books by the end of the week; and the food I bought her before she left last week is gone.  She needs gluten-free food because of her celiac disease which is outageously expensive although she is a wonderful cook and has created a lot of her own dishes that are gluten free with stuff from the regular grocery store.

I called Financial Aid this morning to see when they would process her loan and have a check ready...OK...Friday, Sept. 8th.  I was stunned.  How in the world is she supposed to buy books, pay her rent, buy food, etc. until next Friday?  She has enough in her bank account to cover books and a meager amount of food.  Daddy dearest won't answer her phone calls or messages.  She's like the bill collector in his eyes.

I ran to the bank at lunch and took rent money for her out of my savings and put it in her checking account.  My head was spinning and drat...I was crying once again.  When this savings is gone, it is gone...no more.  It's from a home equity loan, and there "ain't" no more equity left.

Since June when my gas line in the car broke the day before my trip to Ohio to meet Penny, there has been a non-stop drain on my budget with car repairs, electrical repairs, etc. 

My head was pounding the rest of the day.  I pray my ex finds it in his heart to help her out but I know him far too well.

Of course, Joey called later on and said the lawnmower had finally taken its last breath.  I knew I was going to need a new one pretty soon but I was praying it would last until fall so I could wait until spring to buy a new one.

My BF...grrr...was less than sympathetic.  He seems to forget his panic attacks a month ago when he thought he was going to lose over half of his retirement each month to spousal support while his divorce is pending.  Wow, how quick he forgets what it's like to scrounge every day.  He says lawnmowers are half off now.  I could get a decent one for $250.  I just laughed totally hysterically because it might as well be $2,500.  My darned tranny is leaking like a sieve and I'm supposed to buy a lawnmower.  Joey managed to pound it for a half an hour and got the grass cut.

And while I'm on a roll...I will never understand family law in Pa.  Roll back five years or so.  My ex was making what my BF is now.  I had the same income as his spouse plus two children.  Their children are grown.  There is a pay scale for both CS and a different one for spousal support.  How in the world can a woman with no dependent children get twice as much as a mother with three dependent children?  His attorney said spousal support is greater now than child support.  Lord have mercy...go figure.  Who makes these laws?

   Well, anyway, it's hump day...YEAH!  I still feel like it should be Thursday but that's ok.  Two more days to go and then a long weekend.  Joey is going camping and Megan is staying in Pittsburgh.  The new manager never scheduled her to work at Eat N Park Labor Day weekend like she had asked.  This new manager is a piece of work.  Not that she couldn't have used a couple hundred in tips...oh well..........

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that my phone doesn't ring at work tomorrow.  Lately, it's never a good sign.

Off I go to have Calgon take me away for a while......  

                        Thanks to Missie again for my cute siggy!

Monday

            

Not a bad day for a Monday.  Maybe I'm getting used to my work schedule or maybe summer is fading fast so I don't mind being at work.  Fall is beautiful but fall also means that days are getting shorter and winter is coming...yuck.

So I tagged myself for the last remants of summer in Pa. Feel free to snag it if you want. We only had about a month of summer weather this year so I feel short changed.  Sheesh...I do love summer; always have.

I'm moved into Megan's room.  I had intentions of taking some pictures but the room is not quite tidy yet.  There are still remnants of Megan everywhere.  I don't seem to be making much headway.  I was going to take a picture of my old room with the Disney babies but the blinds are filthy yuck.  A drawback of working everyday is I don't get anything fully done around this house.

I think my vacation in the fall will be a thorough declutter and housecleaning.  Fun...hunh...but needed.  Hopefully, I'll have my old room turned into the guest room.  Hint, hint, Penny.  Fall means art festivals in Pittsburgh so Becky tells me.

I don't like my digital camera.  I keep getting those "dust" spots.  It is totally annoying me so maybe I'll have to ask Santa Claus for a new one again this year. Lisa Jo....e-mail and let me know what camera you have coz I love your pics.

Megan called today and, of all things, does not have enough money for books if she pays her rent.  I told her to call her dad.  Of course, I have no expectations with that one.  He sent her $20 last year.  Her loan won't go through for at least a week.

At least there is a long weekend coming up.  Sheesh, I'm so tired all the time.

                

                        Daughter #2, Miss Megan.......

I'm off to find some clean clothes to wear tomorrow.  Night everyone!

                          

                 Thanks, Missie, for the cute siggy!

The Long and Not so Short of it All

  Rarely, anymore do I get to say good morning to everyone.  I believe Lisa Jo sent me this one.

It's been a crazy last half week for me but I'm liking Jackie's  HOPE FLOATS style of opening with the good and then a little whining.  Although she "whines" with such style and class.

My good this week....my 25 year old daughter, Becky...Lord, that child has gone full circle.  She sent me pictures from her photo portfolio...lol...not a good thing because once I get ahold of them and butcher them in my Paint Shop, they aren't nearly the same.  Monday, Becky starts grad school at the University of Pittsburgh.  OK...I'm braggin again, big time.  For those who don't know, Becky graduated from college with a bio/chem degree and worked in genetics research for three years at Pitt.  She was accepted into the stipend Ph.d. program there this past spring majoring in microbiology.  She is also a gifted artist/photographer.  Becky grew up in the house of hell with a verbally abusive, alcoholic father which damaged her soul far more than I realized.

This is my first baby.  Awful picture, out of focus but she actually has a smile on her face, and she is getting wet.  Becky never liked to be wet or dirty so I'm amazed that she has become carefree enough to stand in a fountain.  The guy she is with, Ray, is her future husband (she just doesn't realize it yet).  He adores her and brought her back to her religion.

Becky had the past two weeks off as a paid vacation before her studies start.  She got a tattoo on her wrist.  Ok...now, I had to question that but she can cover it with a watch.  She said it's really no big deal in the world of science.  She does silk screening and designed the cross she had tattooed.

  This is a Christian tattoo parlor sponsored by the church she goes to to provide a safe, certified place to get tattoos done.  There is a Bible study held upstairs a couple of nights a week.  She actually went to Bible study with Ray and then had her tattoo done.

               She has to go back and get a touch-up done on the one side of the cross.  I'm still not sure what I think of a tattoo on the wrist but she's a big girl now.

Warning:  You are about to enter the Whine Zone.......

I'm loving my new job; just not the five day week.  It's taken far longer for me to adjust than I thought it would.  Wednesdays are a bit melonchaly because I keep thinking of it as my day off.  I was a little blue Wednesday morning to begin with.  I had to go upstairs to my old area to retrieve a lost folder.  No biggie, except something looked odd in my cubicle.  Then it dawned on me that the coffeepot I was storing there because I had no room downstairs was MIA.  I asked the one guy about it.  He said "they" threw it away last week, then quickly tried to clean his statement up when he saw the look on my face.  I had just bought it before I got the new job.  I paid $32 for it which is not a big deal but yet it is.  I was furious at first.  Luckily, no one touched the two boxes I had stored under my desk with my personal things in it.  So...I got a cart and promptly removed everything I didn't want tossed.  I whined a bit about it and then thought that someone must have been angered that I was gone and did it out of spite...childish but so be it.

I then got a phone call from Joey telling me that my car is losing its tranny fluid.  I flipped a bit because I can't even begin to think of adding a car payment right now.  I'm sort of hoping the Lord will just drop a new car out of the sky into my driveway.  LOL...now I'm rethinking my previous idea of torching the darned car when the gas tank was leaking.

Next, I applied for a school loan for Megan's university.  Her school is so out of this world expensive.  Every year I've had to co-sign additional loans for her.  Now, if that child, will only focus on school instead of the education of partying, I would be a happy camper.  When I got home, I went online, and the loan was declined.  I dissolved into a total puddle of tears.  I called the 800 number but couldn't get any answers because they hadn't received the processed application yet.  They said it had to be my credit rating.  I ran a credit check on myself.  I was in the outstanding range (Lord only knows why but I do keep my credit accounts current always.)  I figured my income was just too low to support the amount of loans I have applied for with her.  Finally, after a number of 800 calls and transfers to different depts. I got the answer.  I had transposed Megan's SS#. 

I reapplied; got an e-mail back that it was accepted.  Thank the Lord!  Now, if Megan will only take school seriously and please, Lord, let that child budget the money this year.  She is going to learn the hard way.  Mommy is applying tough love.  I've removed my name from her checking account.

Next problem was my own creation.  My car registration was due in March.  I had the car inspected in February and totally forgot the registration.  How Megan and Joey drove that car for five months with an expired tag and never got stopped I'll never know.  An angel sitting on my shoulder for this one because it's a $400 fine.  I went to good old AAA yesterday and renewed it.  They are online with PennDot.  Pa.'s DMV is crazy...it's split up between licenses and registrations.  If you want an instant renewal on tags, AAA is the only place than can do it.

This past summer has been aggravating but I'm thankful it's only aggravations and not life shattering traumas that others have been suffering from here in J-Land.

I'm not the only one who can't sleep at night with financial problems.  I'm thankful that I got a promotion.  I need to bepatient to reap the benefits of this promotion, which will take a year or two.

I'm thankful that my ugly marriage produced three awesome children, even though, at times, their problems also keep me up at night.

I'm thankful that the Lord is watching over me and won't let me sink; most definitely thankful for that.

I want to wish Deb Frosty Thoughts a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!!!!!  Stop by Deb's or send her snail mail and wish her a good one.  Deb, you're a sweetie!!

Longwinded today, I must say....Have a blessed day and weekend!

Chris

Taking my Bow...LOL

                     

The party is over, the celebrating finished, clean up all done.  I thought I would come home from work today and get some much needed rest.  Not to be...lol.  I started reading my comments.  What??? Not me, surely? But yes, I won the best dressed award on the Red Carpet.  Love that cybershopping.  Must have been the Vera Wang that did it.  Of course, you all know that this is a real picture of me...yes, it is....I use fictitious photos of me in my journal so I don't get stalked...rofl.                                             
               

Best & Worst Awards of 2006

 Chris of "A Day In The Life"
Has
captured
the
glazed-over
eye
of
this
fashionista,
landing
her
the

Best
Dressed
of
2006!
 

 

And of course, what would any Red Carpet be without the worst dressed?  Was there any doubt?  ROFL...my girl, Brenda, outdid herself.  Of course, she did get the attention she was so craving.  Just when I promised myself only wholesome images in my journal.

 

Well it was a serious chore
to pick Best & Worst of the JLand 3rd Anniversary party goers,
but I think Brenda, of Brenda's Way misunderstood. 
We said "Red Carpet Walkers, NOT Streetwalkers!"

 I do believe Brenda is in the sleezy black number.  Brenda, you were supposed to wear a dress with those boots.

 

Now, it's back to the normal days in my life.  Dishes to be done, trash to be dragged to the curb tonight (is it only Tuesday?), and getting caught up with my tags.

 

Here's to J-Land and many more celebrations to come!

             CHRIS

My Past Year in J-Land

  Where do I begin?  I'm never usually at a loss for words but this one is escaping me a bit. 

I started my journal on Oct 5, 2005.  Why?  I have no idea.  I had heard of blogs and clicked on the journal community and thought I would give it a shot.  My intentions were to write some witty entries about the perils of raising three children (nearly grown now) as a single mom.  That's how I began.  I wasn't concernd about readers.  Just sort of a history to keep for my own use.

I needed some assistance and found a message board for journals.  It was a want ads type of thing to promote your own journal.  I started clicking and reading a few.  I actually got a couple of comments.  I liked that.  I then began clicking on the links in other favorite journals and lurked for a while just reading.  I wasn't sure if there was some sort of etiquette about commenting or not...lol

I soon noticed how pretty the journals were decorated and wanted to make mine pretty.  It took me about two weeks and much tutoring to figure it out.  Readers were being added.  LOL...I liked that even more.  My next observation was that some graphics were far prettier than others.  Surprise, many made their own.  My interest was stirred.  I wanted to make my own.  Thanks to dear, Shelly, RoxyMama, who sent me PSP 7 and patiently tutored me, I was on my way.

J-Land is far more than just a blog site.  It is a community that is unique, in my opinion, to the web. My journal has changed courses a few times.  Many times, it is a refuge for me to post things that I probably wouldn't relate to most of my friends.

It has also become a huge, addictive hobby to me...making tags in PSP, which, in itself, is also a refuge at times when the waters are rough in my life.

I value most the friendships I have developed over the course of10+ months I've been a part of this community.  I look forward to many more.  As with anything, there is the good and the bad.  I focus on the good.  J-Land is only what you make it to be for yourself.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY AOL JOURNALS....thanks for many wonderful memories!

Thanks to Viv and her hardworking team of talent who made all the events for this celebration possible.

Thanks to Krissy and John also....may all our prayers be answered for the two of you.

              Thanks to D and Julie for the wonderful tag!