Just Simply Holly

Plane, train or taxi cab, all the choices HIP! LOL NO, I’m not losing it, I promise!! But I need to let you know that at the end of this month I’m going to be going away for a few days. My best friends daughter took a job offer in San Jose, California and we are going to accompany her on the drive out to sunny California. We’re planning on taking our time and stopping to see some of the many wonderful sites this country has to offer. Once we reach San Jose we’re hoping to be able to make the 50+/- mile trek up to San Francisco so I can see something that I’ve dreamt of seeing my entire adult life, The Golden Gate Bridge!

We’ll be leaving either Memorial Day night or the Sunday night before. And I’ll be flying home very late on the night of Monday June 2. I’m so very excited about being able to take this trip, but I also feel guilty…LOL! This will be the first time I have ever gone away from my husband in the 16+ years that we’ve been married and it is also the first time I’ve ever gone away from my kids for more than a couple of days. I know that they will be fine while I’m gone, but I also know that I’m still going to worry about them!

But for once I’m going to be selfish and do something for myself! I need this, I REALLY REALLY need this! Life has been VERY stressful lately, not that it hasn’t always been filled with stress. But the things that have gone on in the past month or so have really pushed me to the edge. I think getting away is going to be just what I need and am hoping that when I come home I will be a little less stressed and maybe even a little more happy!

I apologize for my absence, it’s been a busy couple of days preparing for Christmas with my mother tomorrow and my husbands company Christmas party that was held tonight. But is has truly been an amazing chain of events that started with my amazing experience Thursday night that changed me in ways I cannot explain.

As you may have noticed from a few of my comments, I was EXTREMELY blessed last night. This website/blog was one of two that was drawn in a big Christmas drawing and I won $1,000.00 from the wonderful folks at PayU2Blog. With the financial struggles that my family has been going through this amazing gift could not have come at a better time. But in all honesty, if it weren’t for a VERY special person in my life, who happened to introduce me to PayU2Blog, I’d never had even been entered into that drawing. So I decided that the right thing to do with my wonderful gift was to share it with them. Yes, my family could have very easily used all of it, but I’d also like to think that I’m an unselfish person, and when I see that someone that is important to me needs something, I help if I can.

Sharing my gift started the most amazing chain of events that have literally brought me to my tears dozens of times in the past 24 hours! We had been waiting for our landlord to come home from work Friday so that we could take Decembers rent over to him. We had already gotten the money orders before the PU2B drawing, but the landlord didn’t call to say he was home until after the drawing, and after I had shared my winnings with my friend. My husband went over and gave the landlord the rent, the landlord wrote out the receipt showing the rent was paid in full, turned around and handed my husband the receipt then handed him part of our rent back saying “God just told me that I needed to give this back to you. I will not take it back, your rent is paid in full for the month, use this for heat or Christmas presents, but I will not take it back”. My husband tried to tell the landlord no, that he would not take it back, but the landlord wasn’t taking no for an answer. When he got home, he was in tears, he looked at me and asked “Holly, what is going on, this type of stuff doesn’t happen to us (i.e. winning the drawing then the landlord giving us part of our rent back even though he marked the receipt paid in full)”. I didn’t know what to say to my husband because I was in just as much disbelief as he was.

So, let’s do some math real quick before I go on. I won $1,000.00, but gave half of it to my best friend. $1000.00 - $500.00 = $500.00. Then the landlord gave us back $250 of our rent. $500.00 + $250.00 = $750.00.

Tonight was my husbands company Christmas party. I’ve been upset with his employers a few times over the months that he has worked for them and I wasn’t too thrilled at the thought of going to this. But I also felt that it was important for us to go because this is his employer and they were shelling out a pretty penny for this party because it was their first one ever. So we asked my sister if she’d watch the kids so that we could go and not worry about them being home alone at night, and she said sure. And since I had been lucky enough to win the drawing the night before, I now could afford a nice outfit to wear to the party, which was a bonus for me because I never spend money on clothes for me, unless it’s jeans, or flannel PJ’s….LOL! So we got ready and took the kids up to Michigan, then headed back down here to go to the party. It was a wonderful party, the food was awesome and we were having a good time. About 2 hours into the party they announced that they were going to give everyone a ticket and they had door prizes for everyone, but that they had five “BIG” door prizes. There were approximately 50 people in attendance, they kept drawing numbers and mine kept not being called. They were down to one last “BIG” door prize left, it was the whopper of them all, a $250 gift card, and guess who’s number was drawn? Yup, you guessed it, MINE! I had to do everything I could to keep myself from falling apart right there in front of everyone. They had no idea what had happened to me in the past 24 hours, and I didn’t feel like embarrassing myself because I got over emotional…LOL! So I went up and accepted my gift card and sat back down and looked at my husband. He had tears in his eyes, because he knew what I knew!

As much as we could have used the entire $1,000.00, I knew that I had to share my winnings with my best friend. And within 24 hours of sharing my wonderful gift, I had in turn, gotten back exactly what I had given. Me, the person who NEVER wins anything, EVER! I can’t even win on a $1.00 lottery scratch off ticket. And it all started, with a single evening when I stood with a group of people to make our voices heard about the injustices to people that commonly aren’t heard. We were all there to let them know that they mattered to us! And I opened up my heart that night to the reality that I am very blessed even when I don’t think that I am!

OK, last night I asked you all to cross your fingers and wish me luck at my job interview, and I promised an update when I got home. I forgot to update and you all must have forgotten to uncross your fingers because tonight I had the most AWESOME thing happen!!! To see it, you can watch this

Yes, that’s THIS blog that PayU2Blog drew in their weekly banner drawing! And if you look to your left at that pretty badge in my sidebar, you’ll see that my prize in the drawing was $100!!!!! I’m so excited and so thankful! YAY FOR ME!!!!

And for my update about the job interview, it went pretty good, I think, but I have to wait and see if they call me back for a 2nd interview or not. If they do, then I have a better chance of getting the job, and if they don’t, well, I obviously didn’t get it. I’ll let ya know what happened!!!

Have you ever had one of those mornings that makes you think you’d be better off going back to bed? I tell you, I’m at that point right now, and I’ve only been up an hour! I was sitting here drinking my coffee and watching the news when out of the blue I had a chunk of something in my mouth. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was, so I grabbed a tissue and spit it out. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I had lost one of my fillings. Now mind you, this isn’t just any filling, this is a tooth that had a major filling done less than 2 years ago.

I know that I’m not a dentist, but I did question my dentist when I realized he had put one of the newer white fillings in the tooth, rather than the traditional silver filling material. He assured me that this was how they did things “these days” and that I didn’t need to worry, it would last as long, if not longer, than the traditional silver fillings do. I guess he didn’t know what he was talking about, did he?

I could have dealt with this missing filling except for one thing, the pain from the filling falling out and the cavity being exposed made it impossible for me to drink my coffee. Now, I’m not one to make a big deal out of dental pain, but when it prevents me from drinking my morning coffee, then we have a major problem. Thankfully my hubby is the wonderful, sweet, kind and loving person he is, because this poor guy headed into town and went to the 24 hour pharmacy that was open and found a product that I had just recently heard about called Dentemp OS.

I heard about Dentemp OS from a friend who recently lost a filling. Her dentist was unable to get her an appointment until the following day and suggested this product to her for a temporary fix. She was very impressed with Dentemp OS, she said that it not only stopped the pain from having an exposed cavity, but it also allowed her to function as if the filling were still there until she went to the dentist the next day.

My husband “volunteered” to run to the 24 hour pharmacy and see if they carried Dentemp OS, and fortunately they did! So far I am very pleasantly surprised! It really does provide fast, temporary relief from the pain and discomfort, it’s ready to use right from it’s packaging and requires no mixing. I have another 10 minutes to wait, but according to what it says, you can eat on it within 30 minutes from the time it sets. It definitely is a wonderful temporary dental repair and a product that I’m going to make sure I always have in my medicine cabinet!

I’m honestly unsure how to feel. My 14 year old son has been “addicted” to an online game for quite some time now. It’s not a bad game, I’ve watched him play and have a monitoring program on the computer, so I know it’s nothing that is going to harm him, but he can sit and play it for hours on end without batting an eye. It’s caused a few heated arguments in our home, but nothing too outlandish. Anyway, last night he announced that he simply didn’t want to play it any longer. When I asked him why he said “I’m sick of sitting at the computer and there is something else that I want to do again”. Imagine my surprise when he said he was giving it up because he wanted to get back into RC helicopters. This is something that he and his dad used to do several years ago. His dad is THRILLED that they’ll be getting them back out again!

NOOOOOO, not the “IT” you’re thinking about, get your mind out of the gutter….LOL! We spent the day car shopping. As much as I love my old Honda, she REALLY is in need of some major and serious work! It’s to the point that my husband won’t even let me drive it back and forth to school any longer. So, like I said, we spent a good part of the day car shopping. Our biggest hurdle with buying a new to us car is the fact that neither of us have any credit to speak of. I haven’t financed a vehicle in 18 years and it’s been longer than that for my hubby. We don’t own our home, so there’s no mortgage, and until the past couple of months I haven’t had any credit cards or loans. So we’re lumped into that “high risk/no credit” bracket. It stinks, but there really isn’t anything we can do about it.

After MUCH haggling and looking, we finally decided on a 2004 Chevy Malibu Classic. I’m not 100% thrilled with the thought of driving a Chevy, but we got a little bit of an “incentive” which kind of helped. My biggest fear with buying ANY used car is reliability, I drive 40 miles one way to school on the expressway and my fear is breaking down. With my hubby’s new job he is WAY out of town most days, so I can’t call him to come and pick me up. With the place that we’re being financed through they require and provide a bumper to bumper warranty with a $50 deductible for the duration of the loan/lease. They also give you a loaner vehicle if your car ends up in the shop. That means that if I am on my way to school and I break down, I call them, they come and pick me and the vehicle up, take us to the dealership, the car goes in the shop and I get a loaner car. Thus ending my fears of breaking down, kind of. I still don’t like the thought of breaking down, ya know?

So, without further adieu, I present you a photo of the exact car that I will be purchasing next week, unless something happens and it falls through. I’m nervous, but excited at the same time! Wish me luck!

I will be the first to admit that I do as little exercise as necessary. But when it comes to something that I believe in I am more than happy to break that bad habit!

Alzheimer’s disease is a sad disease that affects not only the person who has it, but every other person in their lives. Although Alzheimer’s disease most commonly found in people over the age of 65, people of all ages can become a victim of this disease. Currently over 24 million people world wide have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and the numbers are growing at an alarming rate. That is why it is necessary to do what can be done to support the research in finding a cure for this disease!

The Memory Walk, sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association, is the largest event in the nation to raise both awareness and funding for Alzheimer research, support and care. Since the first walk in 1989 Memory Walk has raised more than $225 million dollars. For this years walk they are currently looking for Team Captains. If you wish to be a Team Captain you need to sign up early so that you have plenty of time to organize your team and raise funds for your walk.

Although my current commitments to school, work and my family prevent me from having enough time to be a team captain, I do plan on walking this year. I am very fortunate in the fact that I have 2 chances to walk in the Memory Walk. One walk is here in Toledo where I currently live and the other is in my home town which is only 45 minutes away. So hurry up, team captains are needed ASAP and walkers are ALWAYS welcome! But get out there and walk to help us fight Alzheimer’s!

Since the Big Game was last night, my countdown to that event is now over.  But now I have an even bigger, and longer, countdown going!  If you haven’t noticed, up at the top of the screen is my countdown ticker that is counting down the days until we leave for vacation!  Although we’ve taken some family vacations in the past, this is our first “big” vacation.  Previous vacations have usually been camping trips within a few hours of home, or a weekend away at Cedar Point.  This vacation is different because we’re going all the way to Florida!

My sister and her husband own a time share “thing” (not exactly sure what to call it), and are getting a large condo in Orlando in February and have invited us to come and share the condo with them for a week.  We’re undecided yet as to whether we’re going to fly or drive it.  If we fly we’ll end up sharing a rental vehicle with them unless we want to pay full price for one of our own.  Which will put us in a situation where if we want to go somewhere we’ll have to either watch the time, or take a total of 8 people along.  If we drive, although it’s a heck of a long drive, it will give us a little more freedom as far as where we can go and what we can do.  Plus if my sis and her hubby end up feuding we can always take off and do something in our own.

No matter what we end up doing I’m very excited about being able to take this trip!  I’m looking forward to taking the kids to Disney World and to the beach.  They’ve never seen the Ocean before and I can’t wait to see their reactions!  So watch my countdown ticker!  If I remember right today is 6 months and 5 days until we leave!  YAY!!!!

The one under that cute little bunny? That widget tells you all about this years Bengals games. Who we play, whether it’s at home or away, and the day and time of the game! Now, if you look at the next little widget below that one you’ll see that it’s a countdown. And it’s a countdown to a VERY special occasion! You see, my hubby is a lifetime Detroit Lions fan, and I am a Cincinnati Bengals fan, and that countdown is a countdown until the Bengals play the Lions up in Detroit for the first pre-season NFL game. It just so happens that I managed to pick up a couple of tickets to this game the other day as a belated birthday gift to myself. The only thing is, I’m not sure who is going with me. If the hubby isn’t working, then he will go with me, but if he is working, then I’m taking my daughter instead.

You can see from this seating chart about where my seats are:

Although I’ll be sitting on the Lions side, I don’t care because I’ll be able to see my beloved Bengals!  I’ll be sure to take my camera along and take TONS of pictures!