This Is The Way We Paint The Walls.....

Good morning! Not sure if you were able to catch on to the title but it is running through my head like that little nurssery rhyme, "this is the way we go to school, go to school, go to school......" and also that today we are going to ATTEMPT to paint Bri's room! She has been asking for quite some time to have her room painted pink and green (I know, I know, but just go with me on this one! I promise it will look better than it sounds and will figure out how to post pictures of the finished product!). She so eloquently reminded me the other day that she has been asking for several years now and it has been put off and put off until now she only has ONE MORE YEAR to enjoy it! :( :) (sad for me, happy for her maybe?!) I just wanted to bawl my eyes out because she just had to remind me of the big elephant that looms in the room at all times but is most of the time successfully avoided, that she will be going away to college in a little over a year but also that I had procrastinated on yet another thing that was important to her. I am so sorry Bri! Until I finally admitted to myself that I needed to make some major changes in my life, I never realized how much I had let you and Bub down! Can't go backwards, MUST go forward! I am working on doing better!

So, as soon as I get done "talking" to y'all, I am going to go wake that little sleepy head up, and off to Lowe's we go! Jeff had won a gift card for Lowe's in a little competition thing they had going at work and we were going to save it for a new lawn mower but sometimes we just HAVE to have priorities and my baby girl is a MAJOR priority! We will just get a used one if we have to this year and next year (oh, no, let's don't talk about that again!!) or maybe even at the end of the season when they are crazily marked down we can get one then. Like I said, priorities, priorities!!

We had a WONDERFUL visit yesterday with the family! Thank you Aunt Lou (Brenda :)) for lunch! It was a totally unexpected but MUCH appreciated surprise! We love you! It is so difficult for me to see all of us changing as we get older. I know that it is an inevitable part of life but still so difficult to watch. I am so thankful that my parents instilled in me a love and respect for my "elders". They have so much that we can learn from them and they need to know that we love and care for them always!

It was a day full of many emotions. We laughed and cried. After we visited with everyone at Brenda's we went over to Uncle Bill's. Bill & Lyla live in the house that my parents owned many years ago. We were driving down the road and Jackie said "they're not home yet" and I was thinking to myself "how does she know that because we're not even there yet", when she flipped on the turn signal and I realized that we were at their driveway. I didn't even recognize it. It had changed so drasticly. The fields that once surrounded Aunt Lou & Uncle Jesse's house, the house and the old rickity barn were all gone. Replaced by commercial real estate. Commercial real estate upon our many wonderful memories. Sad. So sad. Just another proof that life goes on around us.

I miss those days. Those days of carefree living, loving & family. Those days when there wasn't so much ugliness in the world. People had compassion and respect for others. We can get it back. It will just take a committment to God and to ourselves that we deserve, we desire and we want to be better. kinder and loving people! I am striving to begin the change inside of me!

Well, there is a paint brush & beautiful pink and green paint that are calling my name! I pray you all have a WONDERFUL day!

Until tomorrow,
Beth