The joys of being an adult...

This picture is from two years ago but it's a funny one of me and my youngest brother, Jim. We're about 8 years apart and our birthdays are a week apart. He's a bundle of laughs, if you couldn't tell from the pic.

Jimmy is at the age right now where he things he is all grown up and he can do anything that his older siblings can do. Anything that we do that he finds "fun" that is. Stuff like watching movies that he's not allowed to see yet or being able to go to parties and social gatherings with our friends. He thinks he's old enough to do all of that and yet still young enough to play on the jumpy castle with the little kids. Jim is at that awkward "in between" age  right now where he's still "little" when it suits him and then he's all grown up when he wants to hang out with the older kids.

What Jim doesn't see right now is how good he's got it. He doesn't have to worry about learning how to drive, finding a job, looking at health insurance, managing your finances, getting married, buying a house, taking care of your kids, etc. etc. All he has to do is school and chores and then he's free to play computer games or legos to his hearts content.

Lucky kid.

Currently, I'm still getting the whole driving thing down (almost there!), I'll be looking for a job before the summer's over, gotta learn how to manage the finances, I'm on a hunt for new health insurance (when I turn 21, I lose my coverage under my dad's job in the military), and the biggest stress of all... I'm getting married next month!!!

Ok, totally kidding on getting married. :-) But all the other ones are true.

It's hard being a grown-up and it's hard to make choices like health insurance and jobs and what you're gonna do with your money because you can't see into the future to know if you're making the right decision. I just want to bang my head into the wall a couple of times when the stress of things get to me. But that's a part of growing up, right? Even though I might feel a little crushed under the weight of responsibility, I know I can rise to the challenge because I have the help of my family and friends.

Do you ever wish you a kid again, free from big responsibilities and worries over whether you're making the right choices? I do.

My current project

Hey y'all! :-)

A lot has happened in the last few weeks that it was a real chore to try and keep up with the blog but now it looks as if things are settling down a little bit (a lull in the storm, maybe? I'm such a pessimist.) and I have some things to share with you. Ok, well... one thing actually but there will be more, I promise.

My current project right now has been a huge overhaul of my bedroom. I'm pretty sure I wrote before about having my own room for the summer (and most likely longer since my sister is heading off for college after camp) and that means trying to get it arranged and organized for one person (me) while still being available to another person (my sister) or two (friends!) should my sister come back for visits or need to come home for whatever reason and God forbid it's for anything similar to why I had to come home.

Unfortunately, my sister and I pretty much never organized anything when we shared the room together and that means there are years (not kidding) of stuff that was shoved in boxes and pushed under the bed or up onto closet shelves that I am now needing to decide if they belong or if they're trashed.

Plus, the closet needed to be painted and the walls need some major touch ups done. I just painted the closet yesterday and put in another shelf/clothes rod so that's a major improvement, but it also meant everything in and around the closet had to be moved aside so I almost had a pile of clothes that went halfway to the ceiling and I know a stack of boxes made it higher.

I do not have a bedframe anymore either, so I've currently been sleeping on my mattress on the floor, but  that will change this Friday if me and my dad can make it down to my Uncle Dave's house to get this cute little daybed from him. My plan is to make the top part of the daybed all nice and pretty and treat it like a couch and then I'll pull the trundle out from under at night to sleep on and in the morning, I don't have to make my bed very much at all because it's shoved back under the daybed out of sight! I know, I know... I just hate making the bed. And then my sister or a friend can have the top part of the bed whenever they're here. Super great space saver!

I've made a ton of progress on this since I started, there's still a lot more work to be done but most of it will be fairly minor compared to the major mess I'm working on right now. So there's no "after" pictures but here are some "before" and "during" pics to show you.

 Forget monsters in the closet, I'm scared I'm going to be swallowed by the stuff that's spilling out. 

Trying to stack stuff around the perimeter because I have nowhere else to put it.

I can see the floor of my closet again, and it's almost ready for painting.

I am a messy painter. This is a bad picture but you can see most of my paint "freckles" on my hands and arms. There were more on my elbows and even on my legs, how'd that happen!?

Closet is painted and my extra shelf is screwed in. So much more closet space now, I love it!

Not lovin' this so much though. Most of the stacks of boxes are gone but I still gotta deal with the pile of clothes and get them all hung up in the closet or folded in the dresser. 

I know I'm gonna love it once it's done, but the process of getting there is not always fun. It's been really good to have something to keep myself busy, though and I'm glad to be able to get the room fixed up real nice for once. I'm thinking the place needs some more lime green... :-)

"Blessings"

My mom shared this song with me a while back but it's been on my mind again lately after the death in my family (see previous post).

It's a beautiful song and a good reminder to me whenever I feel overwhelmed by the disappointments in my life that sometimes God's blessings come through "rain drops", His mercies may come masked as difficult times, and when I can't sleep at night it's because He wants me to know He's close.

Enjoy.

In the blink of an eye

Time flies so fast sometimes. I didn't mean to take such a long break from blogging but I know all too well that life does not go by plan (well, not by MY plan anyway).

I had a great time in El Paso and hit up two big malls with my sister-in-law (we know how to shop, let me tell ya!) while my dad and brothers were checking out the Carlsbad Caves in New Mexico. I ended up driving home on Monday (another little thing that didn't go as planned) and on the way home, my mom called and said that my Grandpa had taken a turn for the worse, was back in ICU and that she was going to go down and see him that day and wanted to take me with her if I was up for it.

So I was home for about two hours re-packing and then I got in the car with my mom to go down to Fort Worth to see my Grandpa. We stayed with my Uncle for a week watching my Grandpa get worse and realizing the gravity of the situation until last Tuesday when he passed away about 9:00 that evening. My mom and I came home the following day to get the rest of our family together before going back down Saturday for the memorial service. My sister and my older brother were both able to make it home so our whole family could be together during this time of loss for us.

When stuff like this happens, it gives you a perspective on things that you didn't have before. How short your life really is. That the choices you make have consequences. That your life affects every person around you in one way or another. That it's more important to love and be loved than anything else. That every life has it's end and that we need to be ready for what comes after.

I'll get better pictures up soon but for now, this one will do. My Grampa Bob gave this angel to me when I was in the hospital for my 18th Birthday.