California is not the place to be...

Image by Welfl via Flickr

Things just don't seem to work out the way you would want them to sometimes. I had this grand picture in my head, before I packed up and moved 1600 miles away from my family and friends, of a wonderful life with the man that I love in a new place. I imagined that I would be able to find work immediately and be starting a new journey. Well, this journey was short lived. California, that is. The economy here is so bad and is looking to get worse. I have been here 7 months now looking for employment with no luck whatsoever. None of us can find work. The cost of living is high and with no work we are forced to make a decision of what we are going to do.

I only have 1 option, and that is to go back to South Dakota. I have family there and good friends that will help us to get on our feet. We have decided to journey back that way. Now what is going to happen once we get there is unknown. That is the scary part. I am almost positive that if we go back to my hometown that I could get a job at the place where my son works. It is about the highest paying job in that little town. It is not my ideal job, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

My friend said that we could stay in her basement for a little while as she doesn't have any kids home any longer. She has the room, that is not the problem. The problem is that I have never had a good experience from living with a friend. We have been best of friends for 30 years and I don't want anything to jeopardize that. And we have a little dog that will have to come with us and I don't know how that is going to work. The dog isn't completely house trained and she keeps her house in immaculate condition, so I don't know.

It is all a little scary not knowing what is going to happen. My unemployment is going to run out by the end of the year and right now that is all we have to live on. Not a lot to be able to get our own place. Don't even know if it is possible. Although rent in South Dakota is considerably less than in California, my little amount right now is not going to cut it.

I am not sure on when this is going to happen. We would like to be there before school starts but don't know if that is going to be possible. We don't have anything to move except our clothes and a few personal things, so we don't need a truck. I do have furniture back in South Dakota so that is something. Just don't have any place to put it...:(

I do know that things tend to work themselves out and I believe that we are on the path that we are supposed to be on. There are lessons in everything that comes our way and the choices that we make will be the guide to these lessons.

I will make sure to keep you informed on what and when we will be leaving. I cannot lie and say that I am not happy about being closer to my family. I just wish that there were different circumstances to lead up to this.

3 Things

First thing is I want to say happy birthday to my first born! You are almost a quarter of a century old now, and I love you more today than I did when you came into this world. I never thought that would be possible, but it is. Through all of your struggles and hardships you have grown into a remarkable human being! I knew you would. Happy Birthday Anthony Michael!


Second thing is that I won a contest! Whoo hoo, and it was one that I really really really wanted to win. I entered over at J. leigh designz for a set of ERGO baby products for my first grandbaby, and I won! I was so excited when I came back from my road trip to find the notice in my email I bout peed my pants! Thank you so much Jennifer for having these awesome contests! You guys should check her site out if you haven't yet and enter some contests. Who knows, you may be the next winner!


Third thing is that I have been gifted with 4 new awards! Another very happy thing to come home to. The first 2 are from Stacie over at Super Mommy to the Rescue. Thank you so much Stacie for these awesome awards!



The next award I received is from a woman of whom I have found to have quite a lot in common with besides our love of Stevie Nicks! LaShan from A Lil Enchanted. Thank you my friend for this award!




This award was given to me by Kat at Soy Wax Candles Blog. Thank you Kat for the awesome award, it is truly appreciated!


That's all I have for now. Phew...hehehe. I hope you will take the time to check out these wonderful blogs that I have mentioned here.




Oh dang, I have to get my site of the week up...hehehe, is it going to be YOU?!

The Redwoods!

This is at the entrance of the Redwood Grove around Santa Cruz. The 4th pic is a close up of the 3rd one showing how old that tree was.

As I started walking down the path, the beauty of it all calmed my whole being.

We even spotted a couple of critters along the way. I'm not sure what the first one is, it looked like a giant mouse. It just sat there and let us walk around it. The first couple of deer that we saw was a momma and baby. Then down the path a little farther there were 2 mommas and 2 babies. They didn't seem to be much bothered by us.

The trees stood so tall and majestic. I felt their strength. It was really an incredible place, and I am so thankful to Michaels mother for taking me on this little journey.

A lot of my pictures were pretty blurry. I tried to clean them up the best I could. I hope you have enjoyed this little view of the Redwoods.

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Image by mozzercork via Flickr

Whoo hoo! I'm back and feeling rejuvenated! The Redwoods were spectacular! I do have some pics that I will be posting, hopefully later today. I have a lot of catching up to do in the blogosphere with cards to drop, posts to read, comments to leave. I just wanted to first let you all know that I so appreciate your continued drops and comments while I was away. Thank you!!!

And second, I want to say to my husband...Baby, you're the BESTEST!!!!! I love you so much!!! Thank you!

Hi Everyone...Hubby here

Hi all,

Just dropping in to let you know that I'll be guest hosting for my baby PJ for the next few days. I can't tell you for sure if I'll make another post, but I will be keeping PJ's Prose caught up, in terms of dropping cards. I figure to be pretty busy keeping 3 blogs caught up, but you gotta do what you gotta do, you know?

I'd also like to let you all know that you can call me Mike. I'm ok with that.

Really.

Especially seeing as that way cool 125 X 125 banner she made for me to your lower right says "Mike's Blog Marketing Tips", not "Hubby's Blog Marketing Tips".

Just saying. :P

And thanks to all of you who've been dropping on my new blog from here. Believe it or not, I wasn't privy to her planning to feature that blog. But I appreciate her doing so all the same.

I'm off to drop some more cards.

Thank you all for making PJ Prose what it is today. I'm very proud of her.

I hope this finds you having a great day.

Mike

May I have your attention please...hehehe

Image via Wikipedia

To my entrecard friends, I am going on a little trip with my mother-in-law. I will be gone for a couple of days. We are going up to northern California to look at some houses for her. She also wants to show me the redwoods and a little sight seeing, as I have never been there. It should be fun.

I am sure that I am going to be going through withdrawals from my blog hopping, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. My husband is going to try and drop on the ones that drop on me through my inbox. I usually drop from my blog roll first and make sure that I drop on those every day. Then I go to my inbox and drop on those that have dropped on me. As he won't be able to drop from my blog roll, I just wanted you to know what was going on. I will try and get my tomorrow drops done before I go to bed. See ya when I get back!

Thank you!

Last week I received 2 awards. I apologize for not getting these out right away. I want to thank Jennifer from Oils For Wellness for the Spread the Love Award. It is very much appreciated!

The second award I received was from Grampy at Grampy and You . Thank you so much Grampy for this wonderful award. You're the best!

Just a reminder, please check out my site of the week this week. You just might enjoy it.

Couldn't do 1 without the other

I know the photo tag I did ended up being a picture of my daughter. But after a couple of days went by I started feeling guilty for not posting a picture of my son.

Meet my son, Tony, he is my first born. This picture was taken last Christmas while he was playing Texas Hold Em. I think he must've had a good hand as he is doing a little finger dance...hehehe. He loves playing cards. Well, there you have it, my 2 wonderful kids! I love them with all my heart, and am very proud of the amazing adults that they have grown into.

Photo Tag

Theresa over at Theresa's Treasures had this photo tag where anyone could pick up. It is to take the sixth file and the sixth photo out of your pictures.

This is a picture of my beautiful daughter who is the new mommy-to-be. This has to be at least a year old. She is such a ham and was always taking pictures of herself...hehehe. I just told on her, hope she doesn't get too mad.

So if you would like to play along, please let me know so I can see your sixth of the sixth.

Site of the Week

Image via Wikipedia

I have decided that I am going to do a site of the week. I will randomly pick a site that I love to frequent and post their graphic link at the top of my side bar. I like to give my fellow bloggers a little recognition, letting them know that I love their site. Check them out, you may find something that you haven't come across yet and decide that you like them too. Have a great week!

Quite a day already...

Image by Rickydavid via Flickr

I opened up the subject of moving closer to my family. It went just as I thought it would. I don't know what will happen. I know that when I am not close to my family I am not totally happy, and when I'm not with Michael the same holds true. I don't think he wants to move. He doesn't say anything definite. When I moved out here, so far away from everyone that I know, I didn't think it would be so hard to find work. I figured that since it was such a big place there would be work. I have never been unemployed this long, and that is starting to really bother me. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my independence. And I know that is something that I can only figure out. No one can help me with that.

We are all living in Michael's mothers house and maybe being around each other all day/night every day/night is wearing on our nerves. The tension in the air is sometimes suffocating. Everyone seems to be walking on egg shells, except of course his daughter. She doesn't think about anyone else except her. Of course not, she is a pre-teen, that's what they do. I have been through this twice with my own kids so it doesn't bother me quite as much as it bothers her grandmother. But what does bother me is that she doesn't respect her like she should. Well...I'm not going to get into all the drama of this. I'll just leave it at that.

Lynn (Michaels mom) had to have her dog put down today. He was really old. He had lost his sight and his hearing and his arthritis was getting bad. He had to be rescued out of the pool a half a dozen different times. So that makes the day a little sadder. He is crossing the Rainbow Bridge right now and he can see and hear and play once again.

I search for the answers, and they don't come. I need to search deeper inside myself and listen to the answers that are within me. I know they are there.

First picture of my grandbaby!

This is my first glimpse of my first grandbaby! How exciting! My daughter sent it to me through the cell phone, so it's not a very good pic, and she said the baby wasn't in a very good position. She was hoping that she was going to be able to find out the sex of the baby, but that didn't happen. They are hoping for a boy, but will be happy with whatever sex it is. Last year she had 2 miscarriages within a couple of months from each other so she is still a little concerned. She is 20 weeks and 1 day along, and past the critical stage.

It just makes me a little sad that I am not there for this pregnancy. When she tells me that her boyfriend's mom is giving her a baby shower and that she had to go show her this ultrasound, my heart gets heavy. I'm relieved that she does have someone there for her, but it should be me. Oh well, can't have it all I guess.

Topics of Conversation

Image by DailyPic via Flickr

Keeping the conversation going in a fairly new relationship can sometimes be difficult if you are together 24/7. If you don't go anywhere or do anything or interact with other people, how can you have something new to talk about. If you are generally comfortable with the silence, does it make it harder to start up a conversation? If before this relationship you were always interacting with many different people and multiple topics of conversation, how do you transition yourself with only having this person to talk to without repeating the same things?

Here are a few ideas:

• Where do you want to live in the long term? City? Mountains? Country?

• What are your retirement plans?

• What is your philosophy on money within a marriage—is what's yours mine and vice-versa, or will you prefer separate accounts and a roommate situation with bill paying?

• How do you feel about taking in family members during a hard time? Elderly parents?

• What's your take on getting the housework done if both partners work outside the home?

Communication is essential in a healthy relationship. Take the time to really be there and genuinely listen. Don't try and think about what you are going to say next while you are supposed to be listening. Listen with your heart as well as your ears. Sometimes people have emotional messages to share and they will weave it into their words. Ask questions if you don't "get" what they are trying to say. Show your interest. Remember that total honesty is the only answer if you expect to have a long, healthy, loving relationship.

Thanks for stopping by. I would like to hear from you if you have any other tips in this area.

Award!

I have received this wonderful award from LaShan at A Li'l Enchanted. She is a new friend of mine that I met through my blog hopping at Entrecard, and have found that we have a lot in common. I'm sure we will be friends for a long time. Thank you so much my friend, I am honored.

The rules to this say to pass this on to 10 of my blogging buddies, but how can I just pick 10!? You are all so awesome! I invite each one of you to snatch up this award and start spreading the love!

Pics of the River

Been feeling blah lately. Between the menopause, the unemployment, the homesickness, and the depression that is starting to set in, I just don't have the desire to post. So I am just going to post some pics of the river that I love. I hope you enjoy them. Have an awesome day my friends!