What is it About Me?

What is it about me? I am just not sure! I had a friend ask me this very question and I told him that if he could figure it out for me, I'd be most grateful, cause I've been asking that question for quite awhile now and have come up with nothin'.

Last night the topic came up of 'lines' and should a person give creepy guys/girls a chance if the creep vibe is minimal. During this conversation my last months experiences somehow came to light. I'm not sure why I've had an increase in the creep factor or why I keep having these kinds of experiences but I do. I was trying out a new ward and I ended up talking with a guy (who had targeted me just 2 yrs prior). Luckily he did not remember me. Maybe because I was a blond back then. But too years prior he stopped me in my tracks and began laying it on pretty thick. He told me I "walked like a latin dancer". I didn't realize that he meant that I walked 'sexy'. My guy friend had to explain that to me later. Anyway, I was pretty turned off by this guy then and found myself talking to him now. What are the odds. Guess what, he was still creepy! As I was talking to him, I felt a hand caressing my back as 'the hand' was walking by. I turned to look and another guy with a huge excited grin said 'HI' in a very creepy voice. Oh dear. As much as I like being caressed by a complete strangers, I think I'll pass there too. Sigh. This will be my third experience this month (counting the guy who got 'lost in the beauty of my eyes'). So as we talked about these experiences, he asked me what it is about me that draws these kinds of experiences. Well you got me! I seriously do not know. And here's my theory and experience, if you are getting the creep vibe from the beginning...that doesn't just go away. In fact, it usually just gets worse. Sorry. So no, I don't give the creepers a chance. I pretty much stay away. What we didn't discuss much (to my disappointment), was what the heck is my deal? Why me? I am not sure why I am the one with the target for the creepo's. Sheesh.

Anyway, if my lovely friends have any advise or suggestions so that I can turn that creepo attracter OFF, I welcome it. :)

Refuge, Whatever that May be...

As you are aware or simply can imagine, life hasn't been all peaches and cream the last little bit for me or my family. We have been dealing with a lot. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was pooped. But in this time, I've done a lot of reflection and trying to find healthy outlets myself. Which I feel is the key for anyone in hard situations. One may simply need a good friend, or a book to escape to. Whatever your healthy outlet, great. Just so long as you have one. I went to the temple last week. What an amazing feeling it brings to be in the House of the Lord. I'm so grateful every time I step into those doors, that I'm able to partake of the simple blessing of doing that one act. Yes I love being able to serve my gospel sisters in the Temple, but really, I love that I'm able to simply go. That we have Temples. That we have a place that serves as a refuge from all the world. That I, Tandy, have a place I can go that makes me feel closer to my Heavenly Father when I have crummy weeks. That I have a place that I can REALLY focus on spiritual things and not think about all the other junk. Did it make my problems go away? No. Did it make my family's problems go away? No. Did it make me feel better regardless? Yes.

I also had the privilege to have a little R&R with just a few of my kidlets. Now, my sister-in-law may beg to differ, but my job is not the same as hers. You see, I get to play aunt. She has to play mom. TOTALLY different. Anyway, it was my nephews birthday. He's 5!!! I surprised the kids by stopping by Carl's Jr (where they were). It never ceases to amaze me at their excitement level to see me. My sweet Ethan opted to not play on the playground just in order to snuggle with me on the bench. Oh how I love that kid! It's almost as if he always knows when I need that! :) My sister-in-law had had a long week with the kidlets so I opted to go to Ikea with them. Good thing cause the playground was full so that meant the kids stayed with us while shopping. I just loved every second with my kids. We played different games in the store (non-rowdy games of course) and hopefully I helped Heather just a little bit. At one point we were waiting and I sat on a chair and Ethan climbed onto my lap and snuggled right in. He said "TT, I am just SOOOO comfortable right now! I am so comfortable right now cause I'm with you." This my friends, would be one of my outlets. My kids always seem to make me feel the love and peace. I'm just grateful my sisters frequently share. :)

In a Child's Eyes

As a little girl, I grew up watching my older sister. She was a popular, blonde, beauty. In my eyes, she had it all.

It's amazing how life's experiences change us. How if we allow them, our experiences can either affect us for good or affect us in a damaging and unpredictable way. I don't think any one person chooses to take life experiences badly. But I truly believe we must actively make a decision to take all experiences in life and learn from them. Grow from them. The hard truth is this, we ALL experience hardships. We all have our ups and downs. But the key here is that we ALL do. No one is a victim here. We are all blessed with opportunities. The question is, are we taking those opportunities and learning from them?

As I walked into the hospital room of the ICU, I didn't know what to expect. My heart was guarded. My feelings in check. What would I see? I didn't know. This wasn't the first time I had gone to the hospital to see her. But it was certainly the first time for this reason. I felt wrong. I felt like I wasn't the right person to be there. Maybe I shouldn't have been chosen. Maybe I should let my brother handle it. As I stepped into her room, she weakly looked up at me and smiled. It was then that I was once again her baby sister. I was once again the little girl at my beautiful sisters feet, sitting with her and holding her hand. Trying to understand. You see, my sister tried to take her life last week.

Since only close friends and family read my blog now, I feel this is a safe place. I almost don't even know how to express my feelings on this experience. No, this is not something that is 'public' knowledge. However, my family could really use the prayers right now. And I truly believe there is a great power in 'specific' prayers. I would ask that you all pray for her. She needs all the prayers she can get. I thank you in advance.

Much love.

A Different 'Gardening' Perspective

As I was weeding my garden the other day, a few things happened. For one, my thoughts wouldn't shut off. I must preface this by saying that I loath weeding. Truly. I dislike all aspects of it. I hate that when I do it, my allergies kick in to high gear and then I'm sniffling, itchy, and surrounded by creepy, crawly things that I've accidentally unearthed while pulling out the unwanted weeds. So I say again, I DISLIKE WEEDING. There, I think I've made my point. ;)

Anyway, I rarely have the time to weed and lets face it..it's not really on my list of things to do when I do have a spare minute. Before I know it, I have tree weeds growing in my planters. It's pretty bad. Well, the other day I had a little bit of spare time that I thought I should weed. Mistake #1 was not having weeding gloves. My weeds apparently have swords growing out of them. Mistake #2 was not having tools to help me dig up the flat weeds that just spread out rather than up. Mistake #3 was allowing them to grow so crazy that it is now a huge job to try to clean up. All of these mistakes were coming to mind as I was pulling the weeds (carefully) and adding them to a pile to be thrown away.

I tried tackling a bundle of my tree weeds at the same time. Let's not waste time, right? They would not budge. I gave it my all, determined to have them gone. Still, no budge. I was not going to give up. So I took one tree weed and pulled. Up it came. I took another tree weed, and up it came. So amazing. My thoughts wondered to how SO like life this is. We all have 'things' in our lives.. 'weeds' if you will. Whether we like it or not, sometimes they just appear out of no where (or so it seems) and muck up our lives. They will not just go away by ignoring them. We must pluck them out of the ground and toss them away. And often times, it is not as easy as grabbing all of these undesirable things at once and getting rid of them. But rather, we must take them one by one and take care of it. But if we take those undesirables one by one, we find that they usually come up. Some easier than others, but they come up none the less. Root and all, so we can toss them aside and get rid of them. But we need to be willing to put in the time. Ideally, we would do this on a regular basis so that we are not overwhelmed. But oh how satisfying it is to know we can take care of the undesirables and have them gone and out of our 'gardens'. :)

Again, moving on with my weeding experience. As I was in my garden and seeing all sorts of different kinds of weeds populating my garden. I must stay that I try to be VERY aware of the creepy crawlies around me. I cannot be near anything that might surprise me. Hence the being aware part. So let's just say, if ever I become a rich person, a gardener just might bring me peace of mind. haha. Oh sorry, I digress. Anyway, as I was making a mental note of my surroundings, I noted 2 honey bee's!!!! Yes, you read that correctly!!! They were sucking from a few of my sparse flowers. :) Yay!!! And for anyone who has been reading up on honey bee's, you may have heard that the prediction is that they are going extincted. I'm not sure how they are basing this prediction because I'm not one who has read up on this, but I've heard this over and over. So honey bee's in my garden equals happiness in my heart as long as their stingers stay away from me. :) Well as I'm pulling away, I note that the bee's start to multiply and I now have 4 bee's!!! And then it goes up to 8 bee's!!! Holy cow! And here's the kicker, they aren't just going to my flowers, but they are going to the weeds that have flowers on them. That's interesting. So naturally I had to stop weeding. I couldn't take away their tasty treat. So there you have it. My logic for not pulling the weeds with flowers on them. I couldn't disrupt the harvest the bee's were having. I simply couldn't. Ok and plus my hands were raw (I had a lot of weeds and still do).

But I am determined. I will just have to find a time that is not harvest time. Oh yeah, and I need to get to the store and get me some gloves/tools to help finish the job in order to spare my poor hands :)


P.S. I did look up Bee Extinction to see if it is even true. Apparently Honey Bee's are exotic to North America. The 'wild' honey bee seems to be doing fine. The problem is with the 'domesticated' honey bee colonies which are experiencing colony collapse disorder. Sad. But it's good to know so now I don't feel so bad about pulling my weed flowers. :) They will just move on to another flower. I guess I was just hoping my flowers were special or something. hahaha

It's a Toss Up

I have 5 nieces at this point in time. 4 of which were born in the month of July. This idea of mine all started when once upon a time, I only had 3 nieces who all shared the same birth month and well...we just wanted a reason to play together. :) Let's face it, we know how to have a good time.

So...I started a Sleepover Night With Auntie T on their Birth Month! So clever, I know. The girls have such a blast ever year. But I have to admit, it's a toss up between them...or me. I love to watch their clever lil minds at work with what our next game will be. We have a great time.

Um...what can I say? Silly faces are pretty much a MUST!!! No you don't get to see mine. I've had 31yrs to master my skillz. My sweeties are still learning from the master. I don't want to put them to shame by my silly face wonderment and all... yeah that's it. :)

Our dinner in the park was a HIT!!! We had so much fun playing there...that we didn't even have time to paint our nails that night! I mean, this is serious business friends! But, it's ok...cause they each got a mini nail polish later in their birthday grab bag. But we ate, played ghost in the grave yard, the girls took turns taking pics w/ my camera (which is why there is a pic of them fanning me w/ branches) haha. Again with the creativity. :) Check out the pic with Valarie hiding on the slide while the girls are trying to find her and climbing right by her. Boy did she scare the pants off of em. :) What I don't have was a shot of them playing 'their version' of red light, green light. I couldn't stop laughing when I was videoing it. It was funny. I guess it's just one of those times when it will only be a memory in our hearts. Sorry I can't share the footage. I ruined it. Drat!



Total opposites, but still Best friends. Regardless of whether or not one is annoying the other at the moment :)

Ok, so before popcorn and a movie in our glorious sleepover attire, I HAD to have our birthday time. I've never heard all three of them scream like that. Again, my laughter ruined the video. I really must learn to control that. :) By golly, I think they like their gifts. :)



Don't tell their mothers...but we watched the movie until 11PM!!! Whoops. I figure, that's what sleepovers are for. And...perhaps that's what an auntie is for. Right? ;) I let em sleep in. Don't worry, they got 8-9 hrs of sleep. See....



I even had a mattress for them. :) Unlike last year when we did a camp out in the lumpy grass (backyard) and it was like 150 degrees out. What can I say, always a surprise, but always a blast. :) Love my girls!!!

Though there's just the four of us now, the tradition will not change. Once the other two are old enough for sleepovers, the party will just get a little bigger. I'm totally excited for that day too. But until then, I will enjoy my 3-musketeers. :) I know the girls look forward to our Summer sleepover ALL year long, but I think it's a toss up. Cause I do too. :)