"Things you might like to know about me..."

 

♥) I crave shades of white down filled furnishings at home.
♥) I need to be around those I love frequently....and often.
♥) I strive to stay positive.
♥) I don't always succeed.
♥) I have learned to create & savour everyday moments, you never know.♥) I believe in the power of keeping a journal...of any kind.
♥) I Love my children & grandchildren more than words can speak or measurements can conclude.
♥) I still cling to the simple philosophy that one should wake each day with a smile, do your very best always, never hurt anyone purposely, be grateful, humble, and kind. End your day on a positive note, and never ever go to bed angry.

Thank ♥ you for reading....♥
Always,
Tamra J
Charming Urban Chic

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love quote taken from the TV series "In Plain Sight." (13bof14)

“When it comes to Love, I yearn for blind devotion. Unthinking. Unwavering.True and Real. Your Love is like a cause, a thing, a principle worthy of absolute loyalty. A truth self-medicating, a love un-abating. Something, anything to which we can relinquish all personal responsibility. Semper Fi. Till death do us part. In Nomine Patris. Let’s go, Mets. To the true believers, the lucky few, of thee I sing. Let our love last forever.”
~♥♥~~ Mary Shannon (actress) Voice Over

quotes..

February is here ♥ . a love quote from the movie,
"When Harry met Sally" (#13aof14)

I love that you get cold when it is 71 degrees out.
I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts.
I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes.
And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.
And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
~♥~♥~~ When Harry Met Sally

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love quote by Shana Abe' (#11bof14)

"...I’m not the silly romantic you think.
I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars.
I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already.I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved."
~♥~♥~~ Shana Abé (writer)

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love quote by anonymous. (#11of14)


" Love is what makes two people sit in the middle of a bench
....... when there's plenty of room at both ends. "

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love poem by E.E. Cummings (#10of14)
(and my personal favorite)...i carry your heart with me...

i carry your heart ♥ with me (i carry it in my heart ♥)
i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear, and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life, which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart ♥........( i carry it in my heart ♥♥♥)

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love quote by Ed Hird & tweaking by me..(#8of14)

" Inside the heart of each and everyone of us there is a longing to be loved by someone who really see's us truly as we are. When a person is loved completely without reservation or question he or she can put up with almost anything else in the world."

quotes..

February is here ♥ . a love quote by Wolgang Amadeus Mozart (#7of14)

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination, nor both together go into the making of genius. Love love, love, that is the soul of genius.
~♥~♥~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

quotes..

February is here ♥ . a love quote by Nicholas Sparks (#6of14)

"Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Loves is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It dose not take offense and is not resentful. Love take no pleasure in others people's sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes."
~♥~♥~♥ Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)

quotes..

February is here ♥ . A love quote by Sam Keen (#5of14)

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person,
but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."
~ ♥~♥~ Sam Keen

"Quotes..."

 February is here ♥ . A love quote 

by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (#3of14)

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

~♥~♥~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"quotes..."

February is here ♥ .

A Love Quote by Louis de Bernieres (#2bof14)

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

~♥~ "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" ~♥ by Louis de Bernieres

"Quotes..."

February is here ♥.

A love quote by Oscar Wilde...enjoy (#2aof14)

" Men always want to be a woman's first love.

Women have a more subtle instinct. What they like is to be a man's last romance.."

~♥~♥~ Oscar Wilde

"Quotes..."

February is here ♥. A love quote by John Lennon...enjoy! (#1of14)

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.
~♥~♥~♥ John Lennon

"Birthdays & bad parents ??!"....

Bad parents & birthdays??! What?? Say it isn't so.  Call Hallmark there must be a card for this, right?Those are two very scary words when combined together... bad & birrrthdaaays. Tell me this story does not end badly? Do I need kleenex now or will there be an intermission before the end?? I can't stand it. Tell me...!! Please.


Our household was always a flurry of activity...busy, busy, busy! Although there were technically only two adults and two small children being raised ( or kids raising us. take your pick! ) There was an undercurrent of activity above and beyond what you could appreciate as an outside observer. Let me lay this out for you.  Mommy-O type A ( need I say more? nah ) and moving quickly to Daddy-O type L2...huh? type L2 ( as in laidback/with a twist of constant motion) think the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland with the pocket watch...I'm late, I'm late for a very important...well you get the idea.


How in the world did these two raise children together? 
As well as everyone else that's how!
One would have thought we had an assembly line of several dozen children and a flurry of activities going but somehow it worked for us, that is ...until it didn't.   
( that's a  story is for another time.)


My week was chiseled down for maximum use of every available mini micro-second I could pack into my bag and carry around. Those of you who remember me running crazy through town will laugh just thinking of the sight. ( laugh all you want )


I was up at the crack of dawn daily, which was fairly easy for me since I rarely slept. ( type A remember? ) I liked ( yes, I liked ) to stay up after my husband and children went to bed, to clean the house and do every stitch of laundry in and out of sight, down to the pair of socks that were on everyones feet when they climbed into their beds that night for slumber...Zzzzz.


My poor family. 
I am fairly certain they had a little built in glitch to their REM sleep cycle subliminally ignoring my touch and occasional cursing when I slipped my hand under the covers to take the socks from their feet as they slept to wash before morning. I mean really? They were bound to kick or pull them off during the night anyhow. Laugh as you will, but you know those socks that end up stuck in the sheets over the end of the mattress in the sock abyss?? ( I am fairly certain this is where the sock thief conjured up its role in the laundry room, a brewing conspiracy.)


My week....


I have been a nurse forever ...plus a day I think. So being a young family attempting to make ends meet, and apparently "keep up with the joneses" (whoever they were?? do you know?? I don't know them??)
We as their parents were the young overachievers with our crazy schedules. I did mention the 'nurse thing, right?' okay just checking. My schedule was all over the map. The kids spent many a celebration in a nurses lounge off the Emergency Room or Labor & Delivery. Where I would dutifully run in and out smiling, blowing kisses, hugs all around and off I would go!


Being a nurse actually helped and confused us as a family but we dealt the cards we had. I changed my work schedule  as the children were born and grew up. Working during the day, evenings and sometimes into the night. My husband was at the time, attempting to get a business off the ground which took an extraordinary amount of time, but on the other hand being your own boss also gave way and left quite a bit of flexibility. The word as parents we thrived for , flexibility. Just rolls off your tongue.


Now we all know that time period pre-kindergarten, where you want to stay with them every second and hear and see everything they do, then the days where you would kill, yes I literally mean kill to speak to anyone over the age of 4 or height of 36 inches tall.  I know you all had those moments too. I am absolutely positive. Looking back now....Hhmmm. Well needless to say strict planning was a necessity in our home, or so I thought.


My children were the type that would celebrate a holiday and the very next morning be counting on the calender how many days till it came again, especially when it came to birthdays. My daughter would launch into her very best "can't wait till my birthday in 364 more days" routine which readily turned into a date of January....because counting backwards was boring after the first few dozen times until the week before the happy event. Then counting down again was fair game!


She was three going on four years old. And had been happily chanting for about  360+ something days.."my birfday janwary 10th!" My husband and I had heard this for so long we had a special dance our hips would break into like robots the minute she began her janwary 10th song...to the left to the left, to the right...whoo hoo! Anyhow...


My entire family had moved away when she was a baby to the deeeeep South as in West Tennessee
( another story for another day! )  My husbands parents were local, and all of our marvelous friends. Life was good and apparently one of our offspring was ensuring her place on the very best list for gifts. I could now, on command like pavlov's dogs, not only do the dance but sing the janwary 10th song simultaneously. Do not attempt this unless you are a parent with much practice!


The night before the big event I could hardly get her to bed, of course this was cutting into my cleaning and washing routine. The sock abyss would gain ground on me darn it. Would we all survive with dirty clothes in the basket and the house not perfect? We were about to find out.


With family scattered, the time difference, and our calls coming from Tennessee and California, our Arizona telephone would always ring at the crack of dawn on the celebratory day awakening the whole house to giggles and squeals as the child in question would come bounding into our room to receive their special phone calls! It was all so terribly exciting.


In preparation the night before I would set their breakfast dishes out with party plates, placemats, balloons, flowers, cards, lions, tigers and bears....what? Oopps got a little carried away. Needless to say we enjoyed the moments we celebrated in our house.


This particular year was..... different. Very, very different.


I woke, smiled stretched slowly and turned it was barely light leaned over and looked at the clock, and....what? 6:44a.m.?? What wha..? How could this be? I jumped over Daddy-O waking him in the process with an  excruciating elbow to the ear grabbing the phone to check the dial tone. Dial tone there check, phone working. Uh-oh.... Where were the happy happy happy phone calls ?? Panic began to set in. What in the world??


Tip toeing around  our bedroom in my most indignant Perry Mason/Matlock interpretation I was trying to figure out how this could be so? My precious little baby girl would be four without all the pomp and circumstance?? Nooooo...! I could hear my heart beating in my head faster and faster with sheer panic. I began at that moment plotting to disown my entire family. I could see his family forgetting, but certainly not mine! 
( uh...did I type that out loud? nah.)


But wait " No One " had called. Quick! Check the phone for the 18th time. Dial tone there. Now what? We have a routine, right? Yes, my husband assured me this was disastrous! Again with the now what?
Think, think, think...!! 


It is times like these, as parents we all dread. Okay, I switched gears immediately. Hhmmp! Who needs them? Bunch of selfish, inconsiderate only think of themselves family? Mumbling incoherently under my breath. Let the disowning begin!.......tomorrow.
Today was all about damage control.


We made our own plans. Running through the house into her room singing Happy Birthday to our daughter who awoke beautiful, happy and squealing with delight! We jumped on her bed and laughed and sang attempting happy faces while she was watching. Inside my heart was broke. How could anyone forget my sweet baby? My whole world had tilted that morning off axis.


We changed our entire day to revolve around her. An all day party ensued in our house. It was amazing, fun, delightful, memorable and exhausting. I just could not understand how " my family, my family " could possible have forgotten her. Now I know we just had Christmas and New Years...but we have to have Birthdays where ever they fall right? I was truly sick over the whole ordeal. But watching us no one would have ever guessed our little family secret.... 
( forgot your baby girls birthday? what? what? what? ) 


She was delighted and never noticed. I on the other hand felt as I did the year someone told me Santa Claus wasn't real. No wind under my sails, I felt ten years older. Lunch out, snacks , dinner out, cake, ice cream, presents, presents and a few more new presents and our day was done. The kids were tucked in and we were exhausted. Nary a word was spoke as we finally went to bed that night. I tossed and turned and turned and turned. No lovely dreams. Actually I think I was plotting even in my sleep for my daughter, then it was dark.


I was awoken by the shrill of the telephone.  Rrrrinnggg! Rrrrinnggg! Never a good sign when it is apparently still the middle of the night. I glanced down at the handset....my parents name & number lit up the caller ID. In my best I will never speak to you again ( after this ) voice I said "Hello?"
My Mother asked to speak to our daughter. 
What? Oh really? Ever heard of a day late and a dollar short? 
Well, well...well??..... 
I couldn't believe it, had I not been sound asleep I would have cried at the injustice. 


So I sat up in bed a bit and said "Mother?" from the other end I heard "Yes, honey?" 
I then said "Why didn't you call for her yesterday, on her birthday?" 
When her reply set me bolt upright in bed.
"Because today is her birthday." 
"Today is January 11th Mother!" 
Now I am sitting upright on the bed holding my pillow tight 'The Lioness protecting her cub.' Daddy-O has rolled over to attempt a few more winks of sleep. 
Again she says, "Because today is her birthday, January 11th." 
My eyes are batting open and closed so rapidly that had I weighed a few lbs less I could have taken flight. My ears are ringing and I have gained Daddy-O's full attention. 
He is sitting and staring at me. Not sure how to help. 
My Mother from 2000 miles away repeats herself, 
"Because today is her birthday, January 11th."  I relay this to him. 
"Moooother!"....is all that comes from my mouth. 
We try to explain that we all know the Janwary 10th dance and song as we have been doing it for 360+ days, trust me!
Again she repeats herself. I look at him in disbelief, he looks at me, we start reciting all four of our birthdays. Fingers counting and flying, drivers licenses on the floor, mumbles, get her birth certificate! mumbles, grumbles, and OMG! omg!......


Needless to say Our Daughter was born premature but indeed on January 11th 1984. 
See what a busy household, repetition and programming/training your parents can do? 
Who says Pavlov didn't know what he was doing?? 


And who said, 
"We were raising the children and not the other way around??" 
Enjoy every celebration as you see fit. 
We learned a lot that year, and an extra birthday never hurt anyone especially at age four....enjoy!


(This post is lovingly dedicated to my Daughter without her presence my life would not be complete...) 

Christmas through my children's eyes....

As Christmas once again approaches (wow times flies, didn't we just celebrate Christmas?? I am certain we did) I sit here quietly, nostalgically and remember those times when my son & daughter were growing up. Time really flies when your not looking. Every year I decorated our festive Christmas tree in a different theme. I had six sets of assorted ornaments and items to pick from and rotated depending on the mood that struck at that precise moment.
One particular Christmas I decided to forego tradition (throwing caution to the wind & be unique my rebel moment *wink*). Since we were living in Lake Havasu after much debate with my conscious  I bought tons of large simple silver 'cookie cutters' shaped as cowboy hats, boots, cactus, jalapeno peppers, indians etc, etc, etc (you get the idea) and tiny metal/rustic bells to add the final touches! Simple white lights  graced our  soon to be grand tree. I then went about scattering the cookie cutters as ornaments (which of course I moved a bazillion times....type A that's me *wink wink*) sitting for hours tying bows out of brown raffia, (who came up with this beautiful but oh so annoying product? do you know how long it takes to unravel and open those strands to make a elegant bow? nah...didn't think so, ugh. and just as you got the last piece open it would tear making it impossible to use and thus the the process would begin again). I continued to place the bows scattered evenly between the western cookie cutters, then came the tiny little bells here, there and there to! It was my masterpiece and I was proud of how great it actually was coming together! I called it our 'vintage unique eloquent western tree'. It was marvelous.... (well at least I thought so..beauty is in the eye of the beholder folks)
Sticking with the theme I wrapped every single gift in thick brown paper (like we used to ship packages in) and brown natural twine to tie them, you know it all had to blend or I wouldn't sleep at night.....( ho ho ho)
But my very very very favorite addition were the tags. Instead of going with store bought tags or labels , I spent hours copying tons of old photos of everyone on white paper, then cutting them precisely and glueing each one to the top left corner of each present. No name was written just the photo...(hee hee) I am not certain to this day who was more amused Me or the Children. It was simple and a mystery all wrapped into one big adventure for the impending day!
From when they were very young my husband  & I taught our children that if you ever 'touch' a present under the tree whether or not you think someone is watching or may catch you, the next day when you got up that present would miraculously disappear to points unknown to this day. This was a lovely holiday myth that my mother in law passed down to us and she told them in a way they were skeptical but absolutely convinced, as neither were brave enough to risk losing a gift. And as we all know children push the limits (of course! it is they're duty..) so if they touched a present that was not theirs but for the their sibling, two of their gifts would disappear (fear is wonderful motivator!)
I would arrange the gifts so you could see the tag on every package by just sitting back and gazing.....
So everyday after school or early evening when we got home they would dump their backpacks and any other worldly possessions in the foyer (certain to kill anyone attempting to enter the house after them!) and with lightening speed run to the tree and throw themselves down on their bellies, resting their chin on their little hands side by side giggling and in the spirit of olympic champions proceed to count how many each had seeking out new gifts that appeared while they were away that day. Every so often I would rearrange a few just to throw them off...what an amusing sight. As the parents we would quietly with the stealth of trained ninjas peek around the corner and watch them with delight listening to the conversations they carried on. (to have that time back *sigh*).
Of course as siblings they would dare one another to 'touch' but the shear prospect of what may happen would delude them to chicken out and just look, laugh and chatter together. (*priceless*).
The neighborhood kids would come to play (they were always at our house...) and we would peek in to see a fleet of adorable children laying on their bellies, knuckles or hands on chins looking at all the gifts, and laughing till I had to cover my own mouth so they would not hear me giggling too. They would pick out whose picture was on each gift and remember the moments those "actual pictures" had been taken telling stories amongst themselves. Of course the stories were much grander each time they repeated them to a new child that wanted to come see what it was all about. What fun we had...!!
I so wish I had video taped some of those moments, but alas I shall always carry those images in my heart and memory to pull out whenever I need a giggle or a cry when feeling nostalgic.
Christmas is a magical time of year for young and old. Always remember it is not about the gifts....the true meaning is different for everyone but it goes beyond words. 
I love you my two sweet children, your presence completes me. (does anyone have a kleenex?? hand it over!!)....
Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night!