Leave Something to the Imagination...

Okay so I've been seeing the above sentence a lot lately. It's one I've heard many times, but I've just been more aware of different people saying it lately. And I'm going to be honest here...it's been added to my pet peeve list.

This sentence is usually used when people are talking about modesty. Haha. Oh. My. Lord. How I do hate that topic. I have rarely experienced this topic talked about with anything other than finger pointing and judgement. I believe that modesty is decided on by your own personal beliefs and convictions. End of story. You have to make your own decisions and not make them the universal rule for others. Love people where they are at. Whether they are wearing next to nothing or dressed like Amish folk. It's really hard to do, but each of those girls has a story and believe it or not how you choose to dress has a lot to do with your story.

When modesty comes up it is closely followed by contempt.

We either are too modest or not modest enough. We point and laugh at the girl who wears a big denim jumper and point out their lack of fashion. Or we point and "tsk tsk" at the perky boobed girl who is pouring out of her top. Then there's all the in betweeners who get laughed or tsked at all in the name of Modesty's sake. We all do it. Comparison is always about contempt.

I know plenty of people who would look at me and say I wasn't modest enough. I like my jeans to fit me snugly. I also like them long, torn, and holey. I wear sleeveless tops and short shorts. And my tops can vary between fitting me loosely or snugly depending on the style. And yeah, I don't mind a little cleavage. I like the way I dress. I choose clothes that help me feel beautiful, sexy, and confident. And sometimes they make me feel comfy, lazy, and relaxed. They are my clothes. I like them and approve and so does my husband. He absolutely loves when I am feeling sexy in an outfit. I love it even more when he sees me wearing something cute and grabs my ass, brings me in close and...hahah...well...I needn't go into details! :-)

So many people would look at all that and be like "She isn't modest. She's causing our brothers to stumble." And I lovingly and laughingly say back to that... "Frankly my dear, I don't give a freaking damn!" I'm not even going to get into the "brothers stumbling" argument. Lol. It cracks me up and I have some pointed thoughts about it, but that is neither here nor there right now. My husband approves and that's all I care about.

All that to say, I believe that modesty is a personal decision.

But here comes my new peeve -- the point to this post.

"Leave something to the imagination."

So usually someone is saying "You need to dress modestly...blah blah blah...Don't wear blah blah like blah blah...You should always leave something to the imagination."

So what you're saying is...I should not wear shirts past my collarbone or shorts past the middle of my thigh so I can leave something for guys to imagine about?! Haha...in reality this makes me feel gross. I'm sorry I don't want to purposefully wear something that will leave guys imagining what else my curvy body is hiding. I already know guys think about stuff like that. And if your guy says no to that...sorry ladies...he's lying. Right or wrong...he's a guy. And I believe that men were created to admire and long for our beauty.

Now don't get me wrong (if you are sitting in a little pool of contempt please pay attention to what I'm about to say), I completely understand what this sentence is trying to state. I understand it, but I wish they would use a different sentence...a different way of getting their point across. When you really look at the sentence doesn't it make you feel a little...uhh...weirded out? I even asked Nate and he agreed.

How about "leave a few things covered up"...not "leave something to the imagination". I don't know. I just think it's funny and creepy and at the same time annoying.

I love clothes and fashion. I may not be the most fashionable girl, but I love picking

out something that is me...and cute. I don't look for "modest"...I look for "Mal".

Save a bookcase, buy a book.

Tomorrow Nate & I are going to a used book sale. If you know anything about us then you know that the words "used book sale" make us very happy and excited! It's going to be at the Blossom Athletic Gymnasium. The whole gym is covered with tables (front to back) and on those tables are tons of books. They have every book imaginable! Sigh. It's amazing!

Anywho, I was thinking about all the books we are going to be bring home. And then I started thinking that all the bookcases we have are already filled with books. Which means that we'll need to buy another bookcase. And then I'm going to have to figure out where to put our new bookcase. Upstairs? Downstairs? I'm thinking upstairs because Nate has a bad habit of taking books upstairs and never bringing them back down. So I'm hoping that if there is a bookcase up there than our bathroom and his nightstand won't be overrun by piles of books (and yeah, I said piles.) We love to read.

Someday when we get the chance to build our own home there is definitely going to be a library room. There will be one big window and a window seat. And then every other wall will have built-in bookcases. Floor to almost ceiling bookcases with a sliding ladder (just like in Beauty & the Beast!!). I say almost ceiling because we want molding up there that has famous author's last names going all the way around the room. And in the middle of the room comfy furniture that invites you to curl up and read all day. Oh! And blankets are a must. We even want to spice up the door! We to make the door look like the Tardis. Everytime you walk up to the door to go inside of the library you'll have to open the Tardis doors. The idea that you'll be transported to any world you want is so perfect for us!

The Tardis doors. When we do it, it won't be a cutout. It'll be the legit thing!

Thinking about bookcases makes me think about other people's bookcases. I've seen bookcases filled with books. Old books, new books, famous books, and books I've never heard about. I've also seen bookcases with a mix of books and decorations. But the ones that confuse me the most are the bookcases that don't have any books at all. They usually just have pictures, vases, etc.

Like I said, this confuses me! Why do people use their bookcases for things other than...books?! Haha! Our bookcases are filled with books. Before we moved they were overflowing with books. Since the bookcases were in a different room we didn't care about that, but now that they are in the living room where everyone can see them we thought it might be nice to keep it a little organized. :-)

It makes me sad when I see a bookcase without books. I literally want to go buy some books and sneak them in so the bookcase won't be "lonely". Poor bookcases. There should be a refuge for bookless bookcases.

Save a bookcase, buy a book.

Little Tidbits of Thought

1. This is totally random. I thought I'd see what 10 songs would pop up on my Itunes Library and this was the order:

Firework - Katy Perry

Sunrise - Nicole Nordeman

Better - Regina Spektor

4 In the Morning - Gwen Stefani

Resentment- Beyonce

Ready - Kelly Clarkson

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

Littlest Things - Lily Allen

Daydreamer - Adele

Shoots and Ladders - Korn

Man...Hahaha....I love how it started with Katy Perry and ended with Korn. Their styles of music couldn't be further apart than... well... than a chocolate chip cookie and a rock. :-)

2. I finished reading Mommie, Dearest. It's not a long book, but it took me a whole weekend to get through. I really should've been finished with it in like two days ago. But it's intense. It's not a book you can just run through. Reading about someone's abuse is not something I can just "run through". And yeah, in case you were wondering it's written by Joan Crawford's daughter Christina Crawford. I'm not even going to say if all the stuff written is true or not because it's not my story. I do find it interesting that regardless of our stories the vows and messages, the ways we learn to survive and so on are so very similar. It makes my heart hurt for my own story and for others.

3.

"I believe in the sun even when it is not shining...

in love even when I am alone...

and in God even when He is silent."

{Inscription found scratched in a wall in Germany by someone hiding from Nazi concentration camps.}

I saw this written on a block (it's a medium size square block that holds three tea candles at the top...it's beautiful!!) at Hallmark a couple weeks ago. I remember looking at it and just standing there. Those words were so powerful. Those words do not always feel true to me, but I desperately desire them to feel true all the time. I went ahead and bought it because I knew it's something I needed to see. Everyday. A constant reminder. Every time I look at it the world seems to just stop... I feel a quiet calm enter my being. It's a hushed stillness. A reminder that my God is always there. Even when I feel His silence so strongly. And I can believe that He's always here with every once of my being. It's easy to write that...and easy to believe in the good times...but it's hard to hold onto those words so tightly and believe them every day...no matter what.

4. Conversation A:

(I'm in the kitchen tearing and cutting up junk mail)

Nate: Babe...what are you tearing up??

Me: MY DIGNITY!!!

(said very dramatically while throwing paper in air)

Nate: Hahahahahaha!

(he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me)

Nate: Oh Babe, I love you. Hahah.

Conversation B:

(the first part of this conversation was me telling Nate about a movie I saw on TCM about this dude who pretended to be crazy to get into an asylum to solve a murder and then at the end he goes crazy himself.)

Me: What would you do if I started seeing things that weren't there?

Nate: Well. I'd take you to a Psychologist.

Me: No. You would take me to a Psychiatrist.

Nate: What's the difference?

Me: A Psychiatrist can prescribe you medication.

Nate: Well at least the first could ask you about your feelings to figure out why you were crazy.

Me: Well it's a good thing I'm not. I mean, come on, if I were crazy would I be seeing that cat run across the street??

Nate: Where? (looks for cat on street then sees my mischievous face) Hahahaha! I cannot believe I just fell for that!!

Me: (i couldn't stop laughing at this point)

I'm so glad I can make my husband laugh with my goofiness! :-)

Giving Up Soda

I don't observe Lent...all though one year I did go to a Lent Service on campus... I don't really remember much of it.

--Beginning of rabbit trail--

This year my "sick number" was called. The Evil Sickness Society called my number and I then (unwillingly) accepted my fate that consisted of a really bad sore throat (and when I say "really bad...I mean like...hurt = so painful it felt like my throat was burning.), stuffy nose and cough. Even though my lungs are bad and my getting the tiniest cough results in weeks & weeks of coughing (last year I cracked a rib thanks to me coughing like a crazy person for two months) I'd take all of that rather than a burning throat. I literally went four days without talking. Um. Yeah. That totally sucked.

So of course with the inability to drink anything without tears pouring down my face I was completely soda-less for a week. "So what?" you might ask. Well, it's kind of a big deal to me. You see I'm a...sigh...a soda addict. I used to be a caffeine addict for years. I would drink Dr. Pepper for breakfast. Well...Dr. Pepper and a honey bun. I would do that every day (sometimes just skipping the honey bun) and then I would have at least two more Dr. Peppers in the afternoon and then at least one for dinner and then maybe one more while studying. I didn't even think anything of it. I was thirsty...and it tasted good.

After I got married my Dr. P count went down and up depending on what was going on. If I went even a day without it I was punished with a horrible migraine from hell. Then I realized I was drinking too much of it. So I committed to drinking only 1 a day. I never wavered from that until one day I got food poisoning. I was sick and feeling a migraine coming on since I hadn't had my fix for the day. So I wibble-wobbled over to the fridge, grabbed a can, and took a couple sips. I then ran to the bathroom and hurled that up. Just so you know, throwing up Dr. Pepper is nasty. So nasty that I went cold turkey. It took me months and months to just try it again without remembering that taste & feeling. From then on I decided I'd drink non-caffeinated soda. So everyday I'd drink either a Root Beer or Twist. Everyday. Every week. Every month. Until my "sick number" was called up this month.

I couldn't believe that I went a whole week without any soda. Not of my choice, but still!!

--End of rabbit trail--

Like I said, I've never observed Lent, but after that week I decided I was going to give up drinking soda "for Lent". I even thought it was going to be easy. I mean hey! I went a whole week without it...how hard could it be right?!

It's been hard. Very. Hard.

I figure that I made the right choice.

I'll even be honest and admit that I screwed up one day. I went with a friend to Chick-fil-a and got a Sprite (and water) with the order. I kept thinking "It doesn't count if I'm like eating out...you know." But I knew it did. I only had three sips of my soda before I stopped and went with my water. I haven't touched any since.

I guess you can say I'm not even doing it for Lent...I'm just doing it until it's over. I'm doing this because I know it's important to me. It's important for me to see myself be strong in the place of an addiction I've had for years. I'm sure some would scoff..."It's just soda?! How lame!". But then that's why you aren't doing it...it's not important to you... but it is to me...that's why I am doing it. I have believed that I "need" soda. I "need" to have it every day. I'm slowly realizing that I don't "need" it. I can drink water or juice instead. I've gone 19 days without soda. I can keep on no matter how much I'd rather have one. I even feel better without it. My body feels better without it.

That's cool to me.

There isn't anything exceptional about this post. No amazing revelations. But I'm kinda proud about how strong my strength can be...even if it is just about soda. And yeah, like I said, that's cool to me.

I love...

...that my husband can find and squash the hell out of internet viruses so I can get back to blogging. lol.

....Sugar, Sugar! Nate found this game and got to level three before he quit. I decided to try it and now I'm on level 29! Woot! I don't know why I'm obsessed with this game hahah... It's highly addictive if you're into games like this.

...Spending the whole day shopping. I went this past weekend to La Cantera and shopped for hours! And yeah, I got some pretty cute stuff. :-)

...finding cute decorations for our place!

...watching TCM. I've abandoned all my other channels and it's been TCM all the way. I seriously love the classics. When I was younger that's all I watched. My dad would take me to Hollywood Video and the library and instead of getting the "modern" movies we just got the "oldies". I remember there was a family my mom & I would house-sit for and their movie closet (yes, they had a literal movie closet) was filled with classics. That's where I fell in love with Deanna Durbin!

...that we're taking our first vacation this year! Well, exactly in 39 days! :-) I'm so excited! The last "vacation" we went on was our honeymoon. I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!!!! Hahaha!

...that this year I'm turning 25! Yeah, I'm old now. But 25! It's pretty scary, but pretty awesome at the same time.

...that I have such crazy ass dreams when I sleep. I think that's one reason I love to sleep. My dreams are so wacky it's unbelievable. I still maintain my best dream was when I got married to Johnny Depp and we owned a zoo maintained by Oompa Loompas & a shrimp factory aaaand held grace groups for zombie-like people. Hahaha. Nate has never let me live down that I was married to Johnny Depp in my dream. Oh Lordy.

...watching Harry Potter with my favoritest girl in the whole world!

...waking up to my husband cuddling me before he has to get up to go to work. Mmm.

...my nose ring. It's cute and me.

...the opportunities I've had to watch two of the cutest little boys ever. It's made me realize how fun it's going to be when I have little boys!

...(and thanks to Anna texting me today about this) CAKE POPS!!!! Hahaha! Starbucks now sells cake pops. Next time you go in for your coffee just ask for one and experience the yuminess of cakepops. I really want to put one on a cupcake haha.

My Toys...

I can remember almost toy I ever had. Raggedy Ann & Andy, a Rainbow Care Bear my mom made me, Water Baby, horses, cars, American Girl dolls, a Precious Moments princess, Madeline, a ballerina doll that would twirl around when you held her hand...i could go on.

I always thought my toys were real. I talked to them, cried on them, played out so many stories with them, and held them tightly. I made little "books" out of paper to teach them school and I even scheduled sleepovers with them. I would choose some of "my friends" and we would pile in bed together. Each one had a corner or pillow of their own. When the lights turned out I would talk to them quietly and giggle and then surrounded by my dolls I'd fall asleep.

There was this one baby doll I had that was mine & Ricky Martin's love child...Ricky Junior. Haha. I had bags full of soldier guys. I'd spend hours outside playing war. I used little rocks as the "bombs" and "bullets". I had a ton of paper dolls and people, houses, rooms, and cars I cut out of magazines.

I remember pushing my Madeline on a swing we had at one of our houses. I remember twirling around with her and talking to her. I remember the little scar she had on her tummy. I would pretend I had one too.
I had a huge boar once. And a big bunny that I got at Alabama. I had a ton of beanies babies too. One of those beanies babies was a floppy dog that went with me to PCC.

I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, but I always had my toys. In all honesty, I considered them my friends.

I always thought they were real...even before Toy Story came out. I love the Toy Story movies. Andy's toys were loved and played with the same way I loved and played with my toys. I finally saw the last Toy Story and yes, I cried. Once again I was reminded of my all my toys and all the memories. And yes, I couldn't help, but wonder if my toys ever felt abandoned like that...wishing for the days when we played for hours.

I even wondered about my poor old bear that I gave away. I don't remember where I got that bear, but he was a big one. He had light brown fluffy hair, dark eyes so shiny you could see yourself, a cute brown velvety nose and a plaid bow wrapped around his neck. He sat on my bed everyday. He wasn't a bear I would "play" with. He was the bear I would hold when I was lonely or tired. He was the bear that caught my tears when I was crying. He was the bear that heard my whispers in the dark. He sat on a pillow right next to me while I slept. Mr. Bear was special. I bagged up a lot of toys when I left home. Most stayed in my old closet. Some were donated. But a few moved with me. He was one of them. He was placed in a bag with my two American Girl dolls. But after a lot of moving around he began to show the wear and tear of his old age. In one of the moves, I pulled him out, remembered all the memories, held him and then placed him in a bag to give away. Who knows what happened to Mr. Bear after that. I hope maybe a girl like "Bonnie" got him...like in TS3.

This post really doesn't have a point. I just woke up this morning with one of TS's songs in my head. "When Somebody Loved Me"...the one Jessie sings about Emily in TS2. And yeah...I cried a little when I looked up the song so I could hear it all. So after some tears and remembering my days with my toys I just thought I'd write a little bit of it down.

I can't wait to peek into my little girl or boy's room and watch them playing with their toys. And I hope to snap a picture of it for them when they're older so they can remember too.

I sure did love all my toys... :-)

When somebody loved me,
Everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together lives within my heart
And when she was sad,
I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy,
So was I
When she loved me

Through the summer and the fall
We had each other, that was all
Just she and I together,
Like it was meant to be

And when she was lonely,
I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me

So the years went by
I stayed the same
But she began to drift away
I was left alone
Still I waited for the day
When she'd say I will always love you

Lonely and forgotten,
I'd never thought she'd look my way
And she smiled at me and held me just like she used to do
Like she loved me
When she loved me

When somebody loved me
Everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together lives within my heart

When she loved me

Our Corpus Trip

I'm loving these little trips with my hubby! We headed down to Corpus for a little R&R since we had a Groupon for a hotel down there...a hotel room was pimped out with a Sleepnumber bed (wow...um...best sleep ever!) and a jacuzzi (yes...in the room!!). It was veeeery romantic!
We even went to the Aquarium for the first time while we were down there. And as boring as this might seem to some people we found a HalfPrice Books (Omg!! It was HUGE!) and browsed for awhile there. I totally scored with 2 Doctor Who books! Most of the time we just walked around or drove trying to figure out where we were going haha. While walking we discovered the most delicious seafood place, Pier 99! The mussels were to die for and the shrimp was breaded and fried to perfection. Yum. I totally want to go back.

The most delicious mussels EVER.

Very windy...so much for keeping my hair under control. haha.

*sigh* very happy