• I just created the graphics I’m using in my Random Randomness© today. I totally dig ‘em…if I may say so myself…and I may since it’s my blog. :p

• I’m in a freakishly good mood today. Normally I’d be happy about it, but wow…what the heck? I haven’t been this cheerful in quite some time.  Don’t get me wrong - I’m not complaining…just trying to understand.

• I added a couple items to my sidebar last night. The first one is a Twitter widget.  It displays my most recent Tweets. The other item is a translation widget. It’ll translate my blog into several different languages. I have no idea how well it works since I only speak English, but I thought it’d be a good idea to offer that option for those of you whose first language is something other than English. I did my best, anyway. If it doesn’t work well, I apologize.  

• I’m really happy that I didn’t decide to do away with this blog. I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit lately. It just needed to be updated and whatnot. I’ve been spending more and more time over here and less time on My Opera …although I still spend an unreal amount of time over there.  :lol:

• My daughter has been drawing a lot lately. She’s always enjoyed drawing, but lately I’ve really noticed that her skills are improving drastically. She drew pictures of our two cats…they were very impressive. She’s only ten years old, but I would say that her drawing skills are about the same as someone who is around 15 or 16.

• Lonnie bought me some pink legal pads the other day. I was touched that he thought of me while he was at Office Depot.  He also got me some pink Post-It Notes that have a big ‘K’ on them.   8o  I was so excited when I saw them! I’ve been doing my best to use them sparingly so I won’t run out of them anytime soon.

• If you’d like me to link you on my sidebar, please let me know and I’ll do so. I have a few of my friends’ links over there already, but I am always up for putting more junk over there.  :D

• I like these smilies way more than the default ones…although they’re still not perfect. I might end up making my own and using them instead.     I’m super picky.  (EDIT: I just published this entry and noticed that lots of my smilies aren’t working. I’ll fix it as soon as I figure out why the heck it’s doing that.)

• We haven’t done any back-to-school shopping yet.  All four of us dread doing it…it means that school is right around the corner and none of us want that.  Well, maybe that’s not totally true. I don’t think Lonnie shares my dread for the kids going back to school.  He pretty much looks forward to it like most “normal” parents do.

• I’m listening to “Doggy Style” by Snoop right now.    I’m not exactly a fan of Rap, so this is a rare occasion.  There are very few Rap songs I can tolerate…but I oddly like this entire album.  I guess Snoop’s the exception to the rule for me.  Freaky, I know.

• I’ve only had two cups of coffee so far today. I’m kinda trying to take it easy.

• I just cranked my sub-woofer up.

• I’ve got some chicken thawed out for dinner tonight. I’m not sure what to do with it yet.  Maybe chicken tacos or something.

• My Wakoopa thing isn’t accurate. I’ve been using Photoshop like crazy lately, but it says that only 9% of my computer use is on Photoshop? BUNK!  :(  Not true! I’ve also been using CuteFTP Pro a whole lot as well…but its’ not even showing on my little pie chart thing!  I’m irritated….but still happy at the same time.  :shock:  I’m just a loon.

• I wonder how many times the ‘F Bomb’ is dropped on this album?  I should start it over from the beginning and count each time that word is used….but even I have better things to do than that. (believe it or not)

• Lonnie’s feeling better lately. His gums are finally healing after having that dental catastrophe happen.  :(  My poor Baby.  I hated seeing him go through so much pain and suffering.  It was so bad that I wanted to put a hit out on his dentist….but then I remembered that God will take care of the revenge side of things, so I concentrated all of my energy on spoiling my man.  8)

•  :lol:  I think I’m enjoying these new smilies a bit too much. I’ve used like 23948732 of them so far!  :o

•  I guess I’ll bring this edition of Random Randomness© to an end. I could seriously continue to babble on and on for hours, but I will spare you, my badass readers!  I hope you have a really good day…if you have any awesome chicken recipes, please send ‘em my way! I need a change. It’s boneless chicken, BTW.  ;)

Lonnie and I went to church this morning…as we do every Sunday morning unless something prevents us from being able to attend. Both of us were SO tired when we got there. Speaking for myself, I’d not slept very well at all and got up really early because I couldn’t get back to sleep - no matter how hard I tried.

Lonnie got more sleep in than I did, but it still wasn’t enough. He didn’t sleep very soundly, either…he did the tossin’ and turnin’ thing all night long.

We missed church last Sunday due to Lonnie’s medical/dental issues, so we had agreed that going today was a must. Were were in the church for about 5 minutes when we both realized just how tired we really were. Neither of us could keep our eyes open very easily. I grabbed a Post-It pad and a pen from my purse and started to take some notes. I figured writing would be a good way to keep myself awake.

I just looked at my notes a couple minutes ago and started laughing. I don’t even remember writing 85% of it! Here’s what the notes look like:

• Mandles (The pastor showed a funny commercial for them.)
• Prayer = Gift?
• Coffee ASAP!
• There’s no clock in here!
• What a goofy looking baby.
• Awana? What is it?
• Matthew 28
• B to the O-R-I-N-G
• Raiders of The Lost Lark
• Lonnie sleeping 11:33
• Lonnie twitching 11:37
• Lonnie denies sleeping 11:38
• I NEED COFFEE!
• What the heck is he saying?!
• Droopy eyes
• “Last thing”…I hope so!
• Mrs. Wally - Awana Leader
• Digression!…Hurry up! Sheesh!
• Prayer…FINALLY!!!

As you can see, I’m not the best note taker in the world…but at least it kept me awake! I told Lonnie that unless I get a full night’s sleep on Saturday, I won’t go to church on Sunday anymore. It’s not worth going to just be miserable…and besides, nothing they say even sinks in when I’m that exhausted. I honestly have NO idea what the guy was talking about this morning.

 I really don’t have a lot of time to write lately, but I’ve decided to make time. I’ve been so busy with serious stuff lately…the not being able to goof off on the Net is getting to me. I’m not a serious type of person, so having time to chill and be immature is really important to my sanity…what’s left of it.

Lonnie’s dental nightmare is still continuing. He had four teeth extracted…his lower right side. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he ended up getting dry socket in all four holes. Ouch.  The dentist he went to had to scrape the holes out and then pack some clove oil soaked gauze strips in there. It was totally heinous. There’s a lot more to the story, but I’m honestly sick of having to explain it to people, so I’ll just leave it at that.  ;)

Things have really been coming together for us lately. It seems as though we’re being rewarded for all of our hard work, perseverance, and faith. I’m certainly not taking any of the good things for granted. I never fail to stop what I’m doing and silently say, “Thank you so much!” I hate it when people pray and pray for good things to happen and then when the good things come their way, they fail to be thankful for it. Nobody is perfect, and we all make mistakes…but still. Be thankful, people!

My Mom’s birthday is coming up on the 17th. She’ll be 61. I’m not sure what we’re going to do for it, but we’ll figure something out. We went to the beach on her birthday last year. Lonnie said he doesn’t really want to do that again this year, so we’ll have to think of something else. If anyone has any neato ideas, feel free to send them my way. I’m having a difficult time thinking of things that she’d enjoy doing.

My Dad goes in for heart surgery on the 13th. I’m really nervous about it. I think it’d be kind of unhuman not to worry. I’m glad he’s getting it done, though. It’ll really pay off in the long run. It’s too bad I can’t go to Minneapolis with him and be there for him for it, but that’s okay. His girlfriend, Michelle, will be there with him. She’s really good to him. It makes me feel pretty awesome to know that she takes such good care of my Dad. If not for her, he might not even be here. I’ve actually been wanting to write an email to her to let her know how important she is to me, but I keep chickening out. I’m not sure why…I just feel uncomfortable opening up too much to people.  I guess that sounds kind of odd coming from a habitual blogger.  :lol:

We’re completely in love with the new house. We’ve been here for three weeks and couldn’t be happier with it. We even like our neighbors a lot…which is a first!  There isn’t a divider between our front yard and our neighbor’s front yard. We have a fence separating the back and side, but not the front. Well, when we first moved in here, our grass was almost totally dead. Three weeks later, it looks like something from Better Homes & Gardens! The neighbors are little old ladies, so I told them that I’m going to mow, water, and fertilize their yard for them. That way they don’t have to bother with it…and I also benefit from it because they won’t have weeds anymore that’ll work their way over to our side.  They really appreciate me doing it…and I completely love doing it. I’ve got a knack for gardening. Lonnie keeps saying that I should run a landscaping business, but nah. That’s not my thing. I’d rather just work on my own yard…and the neighbor’s yard.

Unfortunately, the time has come for me to wrap this up. Lonnie has another dentist appointment in about a half hour, so I need to go put my make-up on and whatnot so I look presentable. I’ve enjoyed writing this…I can’t tell you how therapeutic it is for me to write my feelings and thoughts out. If not for blogging, I’d keep everything inside. I’m really crappy with communicating my thoughts to other people.

Anyway, have a terrific day, and thanks for dropping by! I’ll probably be using this blog a lot more than I have been….I’m enjoying it more than before.

 It took me taking a walk a couple days ago to realize how negative I’ve become. That really bothers me. I have tried so hard to overcome all of the negativity in my life, so to come to the realization that I’ve been creating so much of it is quite disheartening.  :(

I’ve been whining and griping about the rain so much lately. This is my first full year in Oregon. I knew it was going to be a pretty rainy place, but I guess I wasn’t mentally prepared for the actual gloom that goes with rain. It’s really been getting to me…especially lately. I’ve been pretty depressed and have been finding it difficult to be happy about anything.

Well, the other day I took a walk…which is something I do regularly. The thing that was different about this walk was that I brought my camera with me. I figured that I’d probably see a random person or two and I’d take their pictures. Before I even got around the corner, I began to realize how beautiful this area is becoming. I’d been concentrating so much on the rain and gloom that I’d overlooked all of the really pretty and uplifting things that are everywhere!

I walked for a couple miles…and took a few pictures of my surroundings along the way. I’m so happy that I brought my camera with me. If I hadn’t, it would have been like every other oblivious walk I’ve taken.

By the time I finished with my walk, my mood had gone from depressed and stressed out to happy, smiling ear-to-ear, and grateful! I’ll post the pictures I took now. None of these were taken in my own yard. They’re just random shots of random things I saw while walking…

There are so many tress with really pretty flowers all over them right now.
Here is one of the many trees…

Here’s a close-up of the same tree…

Please keep in mind that it was very gloomy and sprinkling on and off during the time these pictures were taken. The pictures don’t do the actual plants, trees, and flowers justice! They’re much more beautiful in person.

Someone had a cute little patch of flowers popping up by their mailbox…

You’d think this picture was taken in Fall due to the color of the foliage…but it wasn’t…

I totally fell in love with this little shrub!…

Here’s a small portion of a huge patch of Daffodils I stumbled upon…

Lastly, here are some pretty little flowers under someone’s tree…

I realize the pictures I took aren’t anything too spectacular to look at…but they meant SO much to me at the time I took them. I was very depressed, sick of the rain, and finding it difficult to smile - let alone be happy. I learned a valuable lesson. NEVER forget to count your blessings! Even when you feel as though nothing is going your way, you’re wrong. There is always something to be grateful for and happy about.From now on, I am going to live on the positive end of the spectrum instead of the negative end. The only person I’ve been hurting with my negative outlook is myself. After all, without all of this rain and gloom, Oregon wouldn’t be the truly beautiful state it is!

I apologize if all of this seems like something a lame motivational speaker might say. I realize how cheesy it may be coming across. That’s okay, though. I’m still smiling!