Household changes…

My wife and I have been discussing making changes to our home. The first up on the list is to paint the living room. She has been wanting a yellow accent wall since she moved in.  So, that is project number one. We went to Lowe’s and picked out some samples. There is one color that I would like to get from Home Depot. I had the color swatch for it, but would want her to see it on the wall. So, out of the four we have up, let me know which one you like.

My wife picked yellow from a chair that we have in the living. The sofa is red, but the pillows on the sofa match the color of the chair.

Of course once I paint the accent wall, I am going to need to paint the rest of the room. I am thinking antique white, with crisp white trims. I will probably end up painting each room in the house. It’s time for a nice new coat.

Other projects will include tearing up the carpet in living room, tv room, and the guest bedroom. Hopefully the floor underneath is in good shape. If not, we will need to look into having the floors done. We plan to turn the guest bedroom into the baby’s room once we get closer to adopting. My own personal project is in the basement…turning one side into my craft room. I will post pictures of that as I start and work through the project.

Once we have picked a color, I will load pics of our progess.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Go Saints!

Seasons Change, and prayer changes things…

I am going through a time of growth and change right now. For me, that is a good thing. I try to reflect on my life, and see what is working for me, and what isn’t. I like to think about the people who are in my life, and those who may not be worthy of that spot. I have a quote on my facebook page that says, “The hardest thing to do in life is to figure out which bridges to burn and which ones to cross.” I think this statement is so true. I am currently in this place. I have people in my life whom I love, but there are certain aspects of their character that I do not like. There are times when I find that I must love that person from afar.

I am at the point in my life where I don’t want to deal with the foolishness of others. I don’t want to deal with the drama anymore. I want to deal with people on a mature, adult level. I don’t want to have to deal with the issues that should have been dealt with back in the day. I am growing as a person. I want to live out the fullness of my life. To do this, I may have to say goodbye to some things or some people, but I know that the journey will be worth it. As the old saying goes, “I love you, but I love me more.” For once in my life I am learning to put myself first. I am learning to care about what I need to grow, not just giving to others what they need, then being cast to the side.

Aquarius Soul recommended that I read The Prayer of Jabez, and this book has been a complete blessing to me. I am not completely done, but I am receiving it into my spirit as I read.  I had been praying to God for a renewing of my spirit man. As the scripture says, “Though the outward man perish, the inner man is renewed day by day.” It is so important to me that my spirit man stay fresh.  I needed to hear a word from the Lord, and I believe that He used Aquarius Soul to deliver that word.

The Jabez Prayer goes as follows:

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.     ~I Chronicles 4:10 (NJKV)

I am allowing God to take over control of my life. I want to be the woman that He wants me to be. One of the things that stuck with me while reading the book is where Mr. Wilkinson talks about how we have become jaded by the word “bless” or “blessing”, and I find that statement to be a true one. We bless people when they sneeze, we bless our food, we ask God to bless our friends and families. Somewhere in all this the meaning is watered down. As I read this book, I am asking God to open my eyes to the things in His word that I may have glossed over, or become jaded by. I want to live in the fullness of God’s power.

I am embracing this spiritual journey. I have my spiritual ears open so that I can hear what God would have me to do. One of my favorite scriptures keeps coming to mind, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.” This is where I am in my journey. If that is not your goal in this life, then I pray that you get there. I want to get what God has for me.

My goal is to say this pray daily, and expect that God will do new things in my life. I want to not only be blessed, but be a blessing to others.

As I journey on, please pray for me. Pray that I will remain open to God’s will for my life.

Oprah

My wife and I are huge Oprah fans…I think my wife is moreso. For the past few years we have been trying to get tickets to the show. A friend let my wife know that reservations were open for the show. So, myself, my wife, and our friend went online to submit our names for tickets. In addition to yourself, you can bring 3 other people.

I woke up at 5:30 am for work. I check my email every morning. I received an email stating that I had been granting tickets. In my excitement, I ran upstairs to wake my wife and let her know. She checked her email, and she received the “sorry” email, so had our friend. So, against I don’t know how many odds, my name was chosen. On Wednesday, January 13, 2010 we will sit in the audience of a woman we all admire.

I just started my 101 in 1001 list on the 1st of January, and on Wednesday I will be able to cross number 12 off my list. Yes!

We are all excited, and cannot wait. We plan to document the entire journey, so I will post pics when we come back.

Peace and blessings,

Michelle

Some of my Flickr Faves

To see a larger image, or more pictures from each person, just click on the corresponding number.

1. sibemolle99 2. pinklovesbrown 3. Malonda 4. pinklovesbrown 5. pinklovesbrown 6. decor8 7. mudpig 8. h_t_a 9. redwhiteandyou 10. alexandrasm 11. callipygianchronicles 12. amyeallen 13. genevieve_vev 14.  raikenn 15. kay 16. bahketni 17. janetfo747 18. spring_peeper 19. GFTC

Time to say farewell to 2009

For the past week I have been reflecting on the things that happened in my personal life in 2009. I want to go into 2010 with a clear head, and a clear perspective.  I won’t go through listing everything that happened to me, but I do want to list a few. I know that God has a plan for my life, and each thing that happened contributes to making me the person that I am, and draws me closer to God’s plan. Whether those things were deemed to be “good” or “bad” really doesn’t matter because it is what it is. So, I take the time to embrace every tear, every moment of laughter, every new thing that I learned, and every bit of love that I shared, because each of those things helped me grow.

My list is in no particular order:

1. I married the love of my life
2. My Aunt had to talk my Dad into coming to my wedding
3. I graduated with my degree in Social Work (I walked Cum Laude)
4. I finally got connected with my passion, mentoring aged-out foster care children
5. Found a place that would allow me to work close to the field I love…Boys Hope, Girls Hope
6. Didn’t talk to my Dad for 7 months after my wedding
7. Was outted by my Aunt to some family members who didn’t know
8. After said outing, I learned that you should never allow someone else to have power over you. By not coming out to ALL of my family, I gave that power away.
9. I learned that I would never be able to have a biological child of my own
10. I went natural. I had been trnasitioning for 6 months, and I finally did the big chop in November, and I am loving it!!!

My goal for 2010 is to learn more, love more, learn more, and most of all, give more.

Tonight I will bring in this new year as I do every other one…in Church. Each time that I live to see another new year, I must give thanks to my Lord and Saviour for allowing it to be so. Wherever you choose to bring in the new year, stop and give thanks to the one who allowed it to be. Be safe, and have fun.

Peace and blessings,

Michelle

A Few Days Left to the New Year!

I am checking in to see if you all had a wonderful Christmas. My wife and I spent Christmas Eve at home. That night we opened our Christmas stockings. We both got some really cute stuff in our stockings. My wife is a stickler for opening gifts on Christmas morning. My family tradition is to open them at midnight on Christmas Eve. So, as a compromise, we opened the stockings on Christmas Eve and the gifts Christmas morning.

We got up around 7-ish and went downstairs to open gifts. Some of my gifts include, an iPhone (YAY!), car charger, slippers, Spa day gift card, socks, Mary Tyler-Moore season 3 (YAY!). Some of my wife’s gifts include, the Keurig single-cup coffee maker, coffee to go with it, K-cup coffee holder, tickets to see A Christmas Carol this Wednesday, a University of Cincinnati Sugar Bowl long sleeve tee.

After we opened our gifts, ate some breakfast and my wife had her first cup of coffee from her new coffee maker, we got ready to go to Columbus. My wife is from there. We visited her grandmother and most of her family. We had a nice time at her grandmothers. We ended up coming back home Christmas night.

My sister-in-law bought me a bottle of Barefoot Moscato Spumante Champagne. She is on top of things because this is a new release. I didn’t even know it was out, and I am a big lover of Barefoot Moscato. We are going to drink it on New Year’s. Can’t wait to taste it.

We got up and did a little day after Christmas shopping on Saturday. We left the house early and didn’t come home until after 4, but we had a wonderful time. Lunch at Chipotle. I love Chipotle!!!

We are now watching the Bengals game,while waiting for 2 of our friends to come over so that we can exchange gifts and watch the rest of the game. We are ordering LaRosa’s…pizza and wings. Nothing like good friends and good food.

Oh Christmas Tree…

Christmas Tree 2009

I did some more Christmas shopping today. It was snowing a little, but not enough to keep folks off the roads. I picked up some more gifts for my wife, and a gift for “Cupcake”, who is the daughter a friend. After I finished the shopping that I planned to do today, I swung by Meijer to pick up some groceries. Our cupboards were really low!!! When I got home I helped put away the groceries, and then I wrapped my wife’s gifts. I only have a few more items to buy and I will be done.

Last night I went to Scrap Mania with my friends K.S. and D.T. We had a wonderful time. It was the first time for D.T. and I, but K.S. is a pro. As a matter of fact, she went back today. K.S. and I made Christmas cards, while D.T. worked on a scrapbook that she’s doing. They fed us, and they gave away free prizes. I would definitely love to go again. Here are two of the cards that I made last night.

The scrap was from 5pm to 11pm. The next time that I attend one I plan to work on our Christmas scrapbook. It’s been a while since I’ve done some scrapping, so I am excited about it.

I hope you all have finished your Christmas shopping, or you’re at least close. Don’t forget to help someone less fortunate than yourself this holiday season.

Peace and blessings,

Michelle

‘Tis better to give than receive…

As stated in one of my previous posts, my friends and I adopted a young college student. He is a very humble guy, and is eager to learn from others. We took him to Old Navy on Friday to get some clothes for him. B.M. picked him up, but did not tell him why they were going to Old Navy. My wife and I met them there. When they got there my wife explained why we were there, and he was so humble, and completely amazed. He is a very inquisitive young man. He asks questions about education and other things.

At the present he wears his clothes kind of baggy, and he made the statement that as you get older, you make changes. So, we bought him some jeans that weren’t so baggy, and he seemed to like them. There was a young man in the store who was older than D. and he was giving him some advice about clothes. Telling him that when you wear your clothes properly, and you change from the “hood” look to a more professional look, you feel better about yourself. So, we are going to try to work him up to that. But for now, less baggy jeans is a start.

I am happy that we were able to help him, and I wish we could do so much more. I plan to start a Christmas fund for him next year, and take him shopping to get some of the things that he needs. In the meantime, and between time, I will try to help him out during the year. He doesn’t only have needs at Christmas time. My wife and I were talking in the car after we left Old Navy; just talking about how many D.’s there are out there. It saddens me to even think about it. For now, we’ll help the one that we know, and try to reach more and more as we move along.

Get out and help someone.

Peace and blessings

Michelle

Giving back…

I have been looking for a volunteer opportunity for a little while. As each day passes, I realize my need to give back. I have been blessed beyond measure. I want to reach back and help others in need. I know that there are millions of ways to give back, but I wanted something that really filled my passion. Imagine my shock when my wife sent me an email about a program that fit my passion. Her friends daughter is the director of a program for aged-out foster kids. I have finally found a program that’s geared toward what I have longed to do.

While in high school I came to the conclusion that I wanted to work with aged-out foster kids when I became an adult. I had a few friends who were in the foster care system, so I learned about what they went through first hand. I can’t believe that there are people who become foster parents just so they can get a check. They don’t have the best interest of the children at heart at all. My friends went through their lives without being taught the basic essentials in life. They didn’t know the things that they would need to prepare them for the next level in their journey.

I am so excited about this opportunity. I will meet with A.D. for an interview on the 8th of January. The next step after that is to go through a full day of training, which will take place on the 23rd of January. After that, I get to meet my mentee. I was once a “Big” in the Big Sister, Big Brother program, so I know the ropes of being a mentor, but I am sure this one will be just a little different. I am ready. I have been ready for a while now.

I will keep you all posted on my journey.

All I want for Christmas is…

I love the holiday season. I have since I was a child. Even though I grew up poor, I can remember some very nice Christmases…most of them having nothing to do with presents. Although I like receiving gifts, I love the feeling that’s associated with Christmas. See, even though I didn’t have much growing up, my Mom always tried to make the holiday special. I love spending time with family and friends.

As we get closer to Christmas – 22 days to be exact -I think about all the families who do not have enough money to buy food or clothes for their children…let alone presents. I think of my friend Anita who passed away last month, leaving 3 young children without a mother this holiday season. Thinking of all this let’s me know how truly blessed I am. So, my plan is to be a blessing to others this holiday season.

I plan to get gifts for each of Anita’s children this season. They are the sweetest little kids. I know this holiday will be extremely hard for them. I am glad that they have their mom’s sister to help them get through it.

My wife and her friends started a group called the PSer’s, and when I married her I was “grandfathered” in. My wife came up with the idea to pay $10 a month into an account, and at the end of the year use it for a community project. We had gone back and forth about what the project should be, until the night of Edwin and Erin’s wedding. 10 of us went to Applebee’s late that evening. Sitting around the table, S.D. started talking about a former student of the school that my wife worked at. She talked about the fact that he wore an Ohio State hoodie to UC and the kids were making fun of him. He stated that it was all he had. So, S.D. took him to the campus store and bought him a UC shirt. He is lacking in some other areas financially, so we decided that he would be our project. Those of you who have gone to college know how lean those times can be financially…especially if they were lean to begin with. I am glad that we will help him. He seems to be such a sweet person.

One of my other acts of kindness this holiday season will be to feed the homeless either on Christmas eve, or Christmas morning. I have to look for the shelters in the area to decide where I am going. I think being around those less fortunate will help me keep things in perspective. I was homeless when I was 6 years old. I know how it feels not knowing where your next meal is coming from, and it’s not a good feeling at all.

We can never forget where we come from. As we move forward, it’s so important for us to reach back and help someone else along the way!!!

Peace and Blessings,

Michelle