The Happiest Place on Earth

I'm a small town girl, and for the vast majority of my life (outside of a 8 year stint in Va Beach when I was a little girl) I've been a small town girl.

The town I grew up in has a Wal-mart. That's really it. We also have a lot of closed down stores and farms and people who sell corn on the corner in the late summer/early fall. I live in the middle of nowhere and I see deer and animals in my yard, not city buildings and sights.

In very late 1999 I was a Junior in high school, and a giant chorus nerd. If I could redo high school all over again I'd still be a chorus nerd. Anyways, when it was announced that the music department of my school was going to be taking a trip to Orlando, FL to go to Disney World, you can imagine that something so huge and seemingly unattainable to my small town eyes shook my entire world.

After begging my parents to go (and raising something like $2000 from selling crap and help from my family) we were on our way, leaving the day after Christmas to spend the Millennium in the happiest place on earth.

We all piled into 4 tour buses and got ready to start the 21 hour drive to Orlando. Literally 3 miles away from the school, however, one of the buses broke down and the air lock on the luggage compartment under the bus got stuck so we spent an extra 4 hours crammed on the buses, not moving, still in PA.

But when we got there ... oh it was magical.

I've got to tell you, I'm pretty sure Disney is the epitome of awesomeness and as an adult (who hasn't been there in 10 years) I'm still so very in love with that place. And I can't wait to take my kids there!


Here is Tigger and I, who literally followed me around the place there for like a solid 15 minutes and rubbed my back and gave me countless hugs. I was too excited at the time to realize how strange that was, and after a few hours and my friends commenting on how gross that it was I realized, with a huge laugh (because I didn't care and I was in Disney World for crying out loud) that Tigger was coming on to me.

The best part. I was watching the news a few years later and saw THIS. Tigger, my not so secret admirer, was arrested for "pawing a 13 year old girl while posing for a photo". And here I just thought he was an overly friendly Disney character. :)

Memories!!

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Feel like reliving some old school memories of your own? Then head on over to the fabulous blog of Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback of your own!

Anxiety in the Fog

Sometimes I feel a tremor in my universe. Perhaps a redirection. Maybe a tiny truth I’ve been missing. Something…what is it? Just outside of my grasp…and I stop, drop and role…so to speak.

Emotionally, physically and mentally everything grinds to a halt. (Heck, let’s throw in spiritually too.) Right after the “tremor” I can see it rolling in, there in the distance and before I know it I’m under a blanket of …something. I shut down and I freeze. Or maybe just go into slow and deliberate motion…

It rolled in last week. Something or the other came out of left field…not true, it came from inside, anyhoo, it’s familiar for me so I did what I always do… I started to batten down the hatches.

Here’s how that looks (for me)…I turn off the television and the radio and let the quiet of the house seep into me for hours at a time. I don’t talk. It’s probably a good thing The Husband is really tired when he gets home…

I go one day without eating anything, sipping just water and loving the feeling of being empty inside. I think more clearly sometimes without thoughts of food.

Then one day I bake. Cupcakes this particular day. And I let myself be comforted by the step by step instructions. I feel more ordered when I add the flour into the buttery sugary mixture. I’m utterly mesmerized by the simple action of folding colorful sprinkles into the caramel colored batter.

I read…read and read and read. Reading is my escape. My mental visit into someone else’s life. Sometimes I get answers there…right in the middle of a good story. Right in the middle of someone else’s life…God speaks to me that way on occasion…but don’t fret…

I also take time with God. Ask questions and try to listen. I journal. Read my Bible.

And, I exclude myself from everyone and everything around me. I continuously find busy work and clean random things around the house, keeping things all to myself without having to look anyone else in the eye. I expend all the energy I have. I sweat a lot and tire my muscles until they shake when I lift the water bottle to drink. Then I shower and pile the Gage into the bed with me, smack in the middle of the day, and together we take a nap.

And sometimes I cry. Just a good long sobbing cry.

And each day I wake and hope the fog will be gone. But as of the time I’m writing this, it still weighs heavy on me. I’ve always had these times and although it’s not always been this way, I’m fortunate now, that I have the luxury of downtime. To be able to pause. Without having to go to work or taxi little ones around. I always come away from these time-outs with something I needed to begin with.

It is what it is, oh how everyone loves to say this…but it’s true.

It is what it is.

I know from experience that “what it is” will pass. Burn off, like thick, heavy early morning fog leaving me with fresh vision and pristine crystal clear focus.

But for sometimes it’s foggy in my world and lately I've been low on energy and motivation.

I do think that the fog is clearing now, though.

Clearance on all Spiral Bound Journals

All of my Spiral Bound Journals are on Clearance!!

They are currently marked down 30% so get em while they are still here because afterwards they will officially be gone forever.
Thats right, I'm phasing out spiral bound journals from my etsy shop!

So if you're looking for a totally awesome Christmas gift, and if you have an Oh Mandie journal that you love and want to snag up another one, now is the time!

Click here to check them out ----> Clearance Journals

10 Things

The goal is to list 10 things that you are thankful for. The first 10 things that you can think of at that moment, plucked straight from the top of your head.

1. Late nights reading

2. Oranges
3. The Wizard of Oz
4. Sleeping in on the weekend
5. Listening the Brayden sing along to the songs on the radio while we drive
6. Family dinners where someone besides me cooks
7. Gage finding the utmost joy in his 3 little Wonderpets toys
8. Curling up with a soft, warm blanket on a chilly day
9. Christmas shopping for the kids
10. Singing and dancing in the shower thanks to the speakers Mike put in the bathroom