flower killer

My whole purpose of starting my bloggy poo was to document my life as a new wife

While I have kept it up, I have noticed my little blog has become an outlet for my views, opinions and feelings. While that is fine and dandy, its not exactly documenting my journey as wife.

So now, I am going to get back to the root of this blog.
I have learned something about myself. I am a flower killer.

I have never meant to become this. I had the best of intentions. I love flowers, their colors, scents, and the fun pots you can use to show 'em off.


I am very good in the beginning, with the watering and trimming. Then, something switches off and I become a flower killer =(

I need to be better about this, here are my poor victims :

Dead plant, once was so vibrant!!!!

This used to be chock full with beautiful purple flowers, till I forgot to water it, lol!!!

Well, isn't the pot cute???

 

Happy birthday Daddy....

As an FYI, this is a longie post.You have been warned =)

Happy birthday to the most wonderful, fantastic and amazing father a girl could ever have.

I am really dissapointed that I don't have some pictures of him on this post like how I did with my mom. I wasn't able to drive up to my mom's and scan some. Its okay, I'll do a follow-up picture post. =)

His birthday is the day after mine. I was named after him (his name was Carlos) He often said that I was his "gift", hee hee.

This upcoming October will make it 6 years since he lost his batter to cancer, but honestly it still feels like yesterday.

His passing has left a huge hole in my heart, but God is continuing to heal me.

I miss everything about him, miss hearing him call me "Charlie" (random daddy nickname for Karla, lol), how every birthday he would blast "las mananitas" (a Mexican birthday song) on the CD player to wake me up, his fun, silly jokes but I especially miss his sweet spirit and the amazing wisdom that he had.
He was a fantastic father and a wonderful husband to my mother.

He was the kind of daddy who was very protective of his girls, encouraged me at every phase of my life, whether I was a third grader struggling in math or 21 year old not sure if my calling was in teaching (thank you Dad for convincing me that it was).
He was always there for us.

To see him detoriate because of cancer just ripped me to shreds. I think my mind has partially blocked out the last week of his life, because it was beyond traumatic for my father and my family, and I refuse to remember him that way.

There times I would plead with God to heal him and make him better. Sometimes, there were times I was screaming to God, demanding that he heal him.

I remember getting married, feeling like my heart was breaking because I longed for my dad to walk me down the aisle. Or the very thought that my future children won't have the honor of ever knowing him makes me want to cry.

Lord needed dad a whole lot sooner than we all would have liked. At the same time, the Lord knew what he was doing.

Its times like these that I wish I could hug him one more time and have a nice heart to heart with him.

It also times like these that makes me grateful that I married my hub. He has lost both of his parents to cancer, and competely gets my emotions. My dad would have adored him. He was the kind of man my dad hoped I would marry.

I hope my family and I have made him proud. We miss him terribly. Daddy, happy birthday.

Isn't she lovely?

Isn't she beautiful??? It's my mommy!!! And I love her to death. Now I know Mother's Day was last week, and I had originally wanted to post that day, but you know, we should celebrate our mommies everyday.

My mom is an amazing lady. I can't stop raving about her. What is she like? Well, she is sweet, beautiful, kind, compassionate, a little sassy, a strong, Christian lady, and has killer style (in these old school pics, I am so loving her clothes and accesories, lol) The fact that she could put up with my sister and I, well, it makes her amazing, HAHA.

One of the things that I love about her is her patience. As a little girl, I never remember her yelling or losing her cool with me or my sister. She was firm, but patient with us. She was loving and kind, and was always willing to give kisses or hugs whenever we wanted.

As we got older, my parents made it very clear to us that they were our parents first, not our friends. At times I felt frustrated with my mom when she wouldn't let me wear whatever I wanted, or let me stay out till 3 am . If anything, I was a brat about it, trying to argue my way through it, but my mom (and daddy too) always stood firm. I really respected them for that.

As my sister and I progressed into adults, we would see our family endure a tremendous heartbreak.

My daddy's cancer returned and my mother was the rock of our family. She never once left my daddy's side, went to every appointment, was his advocate and put every need before hers. It was truly heartbreaking to see them at this point. When he passed away in October of 05', my mother was completely broken. She lost the love of her life, the man she was married to for 31 years. We lost our other best friend, our daddy.
My mother had to pick up the pieces, but of course, for ALL of us, it wasn't easy. I always admired her though. The way she was able to wake up each day and carry on was an inspiration to many.

I love my mom to death. I am fiercly protective of her and would seriously do anything for her and her hapiness. My sister, myself, our hubbies and her grandkids are beyond blessed to have her. I love you mama!!!!

Happy.

I sort of cringe writing this. I feel like I could be burned at the stake for stating my opinion...well, we are entitled to one, right? I think I need to get it off my chest. Once I do, I am so done on this topic.

So as you read this, please, read this with an open mind.

So we all know what happened to Osama.

Like everyone else, I found out Sunday night and within minutes it was all over the net. I thought it was a joke, but it was very much true. Within the hour, crazy posts of people literally ready to rip each other's throats came about like wildfire. It was so crazy that it was kind of funny.
In short, many people were infuriated with others for "rejoicing" in his death, while others felt it that it was okay to be happy in his death and that justice has prevailed.

Where do I stand?

Well, first off, I am not parading in the streets, holding a fake bin laden head and screaming "Freedom!" (an ode to hub's fave movie, Braveheart, lol). I'm not running around like a loony and causing a circus, lighting off fireworks, starting rallies, etc. If anything, I am afraid because we all know his followers ain't too happy with us. I'm nervous for what repercussions might come.

However, am I happy? Yes, I am. Now, if that makes me a horrible, awful, disgusting Christian, well so be it. But wait, isn't that for God to judge? Moving on...

I am glad that we were able to achieve this and more importantly, I think it brings a sense of closure to the victims and families of 9/11 and to those courageous soldiers and their families, many who have died so that we can live the way we do. My heart is bursting with pride for our soldiers and those who brought this man down. I couldn't be more proud.

Which brings me to this...as this happened, I rememebered my fantastic friend Brian Piercy, who served in the military beyond courageously for our country and was killed in action last summer in Afghanistan. His amazing wife (who is like a sister to me) was the perfect and dutiful wife, praying for and supporting him each step of the way. Brian was the perfect soldier and gave his life to protect us and he, like so many, wanted to bring Bin Laden down.

I shared with Chrissie, his widow, what others have been saying and she shared some things with me. What she shared was powerful and important. I felt if anything, she has the right to say what she wants and I felt that what she wrote was on the behalf of the families and victims of 9/11 and the war. We both felt that it should be shared (and yes, she gave me permission, obviously)...so here it is, from my friend Chrissie Piercy:

Ok...time for me to weigh in on this. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Anyone who can look on the acts (rather atrocities) that Bin Laden perpetrated and the insanity he inspired as anything LESS than evil, I would question your sense of justice. Do you honestly think that had this man continued to live, he would have established "right relationships" with others? Would Hitler have established right relationships with the Jews and all other non-aryan races had the US and her allies done nothing? Sure we could have waited around to find out, but I am sure the world would have been sorely disappointed by the results. It is because of the hatred and murder towards people whom the extremists had never met (i.e., all Americans were subject to their hatred) that 9-11 occurred, and that many Americans, including my husband, Brian Piercy, lost their lives. Were Americans to sit by and do nothing, and allow evil to triumph, no, I do not think that would have been justice. Bin Laden wasn't going to surrender, ten years have taught us that. so, yes, I DO feel justice was done, lest we FORGET the sacrifices made by so many Americans and go about our complacent lives of peace and so-called justice, untroubled by the sufferings of our soldeirs and other innocent civilians over there who have been hurt tormented and killed by this evil man (who, might i remind you, used a woman as a shield from bullets). Yes, I do have cause to celebrate when I see evil being condemned and undone. I hate evil and I hate Satan who inspires the evil that is in our world today. I don't care if you don't agree with me and I don't care if you're a pacifist or not but DO NOT forget that the reason any of us have these freedoms is because of the men and women in our country who have fought AND DIED for them...so yes i do rejoice that evil has been fought, and I rejoice that possibly the people over in the Middle East are a little closer to the freedoms we take for granted in this country. Know that i might be ranting but i am speaking from my heart and thank God I have the freedom to do so.


I am proud of our troops and country. God Bless America.

I'm obsessed

Like the rest of the world, I watched the glorious and the so fabulous royal wedding. I was waiting for this day since I heard they got engaged. My biggest reason for watching?? Oh, here is my reason:

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't Kate fabulous and stunning?!?!?!?! I have been DYING to know who she would be wearing. And dear Pippa girl looked great too (I noticed my bloggy chopped her out of the pic), I so want her dress.

The wedding itself was so amazing. At the end of the day, it was truly and simply a gathering before God of two people committing themselves to each other and God.

But oh the pomp and circumstance! I could hardly stand it, it was so fabulous (yes, I am using this word a lot but its true!). And the hats!!! Yowza!!! This craze (I think) is slowly creeping to our side of the pond, but I love this look. When we honeymooned in Ireland, we happened to see a wedding take place and all the gals had the most amazing hats. While I loved so many of them (nice job Victoria Beckham!), I was not a fan of these guys, sorry:

Oh, I loved every tiny second of this wedding. My favorite pic of the whole day??? This one right here:

And no, its not because of Wills and Kate, check out their 3 year old bridesmaid on the bottom left corner.

Oh, I love this child. She has no clue the importance of what is going on. Love it.

Ahh....the wedding is over and they start their lives. I love these two because they genuinely seem like very nice people. I have this crazy dream that one day hub and I will journey to England, we will magically somehow bump into Wills and Kate, maybe grab a pint at a local pub with them, and then we will become BFFs....well a girl can dream right???

The laundry room battle

I sometimes think my marriage and life with my dear hubby could be a comedy show.

We always seem to find ourselves in silly scrapes, somehow mainly with our house.

This past Thursday afternoon, I came home, did some housework, changed into gym clothes and settled down to fold some laundry and watch old reruns The Hills. I started a load of laundry and accidentally left the laundry soap on the washer. No biggie. I was looking forward to a nice afternoon.



As the washer started to do the spin cycle, it shook so much it knocked off the laundry soap. No biggie, its done it before.



5 minutes later I go back to pick it up and something beyond horrible happened.



LAUNDRY SOAP EVERYWHERE.



AND I MEAN EVERYWHERE!




And basically, this was me:







I FREAKED the hell out. I loathe cleaning huge messes (I know, how will I be when I am a mom???) and I called my hub for help (he was at swim practice). It was literally covering every inch of the floor and went well under our water heater.


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....


Obviously my hub couldn't come right away, and I was on my own. I put on my big girl panties, stopped freaking out and started to clean. It took forever. I got a good chunk of it done by the time hubby came , but we ran out of towels. Shannon came in and just laughed. I was so grateful for that because our plans were ruined for the evening. However, it did get kind of better since we skipped the gym, had chipotle, bought more cleaning supplies and more flowers to plant for later.

After coming back, we went to work cleaning everything. It worked out since we were our laundry room was a mess anyway. In the end, we laughed it off, as really, its not that big of a deal.

We now have a sparkly, clean laundry room. Good things can come from crazy disasters!!!!

We are pink....

Haha, the title.... Well its not what you think. Sorry. Not the time yet. BTW, this is a longie post. Just so you are prepared. Hubs and I are both officially pink slipped. I know y'all knew about me, but hubby got one too. Yep, its happened it again. Lately my attitude has been very indifferent regarding our pink slips. Does it mean that I don't care that we will lose our jobs and health benefits? No way, I definitely care. In fact, I am pissed off. Pissed that myself and so many gifted teachers have to endure another hell and that the kids suffer at the lack of good money management in our govenment. No, I definitely care. Its just that its the 4th time its happened and God always provides and pull through, despite our situation looking so incredibly dim. It brings back memories of a post I posted last year: http://thewonderfulworldofthepotters.blogspot.com/2010/06/control_03.html it talks about hub and I being pink slipped. It was a very bad time for us. We both lost our jobs and bad things kept happening, one after another. It was sheer insanity. I thank God for Shannon. He was my rock through this time, and we were able to turn and lean on each other, which is what you should do during the "for worse" times in a marriage. I love that man more than anything...ok done being mushy. It makes me shudder remebering it. I remember times being on the phone with my mom, bawling in pure hysterics, not knowing what we were going to do because everything was falling apart. I felt like I had bruised knees because I felt like every 5 minutes I was praying and praying to God to help us. And did he? Oh yes he sure did! For one, Shannon got his job back, the craptastic things that were happening God was able to bring us through it, and God provided work for me by allowing me to susbtitute teach again ( which I hadn't done in years), and then later, getting rehired to a regular teaching position. As I reflect and see how we grew and were molded by this experience, how even more my marriage to Shan became even more solid and strong, I see how God will help us through this bad time, and if we survived last year, we will survive this. I also hate to do this, but please vote yes for the tax extension. Its going to save all of our jobs. I know people have different views, but at the end of the day, think of the kids. Without this, education is really, really going down the drain.