I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one...

Like that blog title?   ha - a little Jay Z in the hizzzzous... 

This pretty much says it all... Can't sleep...don't ask me! 3:48 am and I am up writing a blog. Not because i was driven from my sleep by anything I had to put down on paper(so to speak) but because I haven't been to sleep yet. I tried - went to bed at 1am exhausted. hell I was exhausted at the beach today. So relaxed all I wanted to do was curl up on the sand and sleep.


Meanwhile, laying beside me, hogging the fan and bed space, is Jack.

Now before you preach - i have no problem letting my dog sleep with me... I do have a problem with him hogging the covers, the fan and with the fact that he sleeps like a baby while I toss and turn like a raw nerve.

So i get up, take some mucinex and antihistamines, almost fall asleep at my kitchen table, and then I blog. Hi! whatcha doing? you sleeping?? damn it!.

I am a little stressed... my cell phone died an untimely death today. I took out the battery to charge it in kelly's lithium universal charger, and something happened. The phone won't recognize the battery now. it keeps telling me to use a genuine battery (wtf) and then it powers itself down. charged or not nothing is working. So i had the option of paying for a new battery - running the risk of it being the phones issue, Or I could order a free replacement phone comparable to mine but not the same one.

I ordered the new phone. I think my old one may have baked after 2 days at the beach. and NO it did not get wet. So no phone until Wednesday. House phone doesn't work... wire issues. Did i purchase the wire plan? No... does anyone? I went on and added it to my account on Thursday but need to wait a month or so before I call them to come out and fix it.

Don't like the idea of no phone in case of emergency - so now i need to go buy a burn phone.. oops I watch too many cop shows. I need to buy a cheapy pre-paid phone.So i can use it for 2 days. OY

Add to that the fact that my kitchen faucet sprung a leak. Not a drip from the faucet.. not a leak from the connection. Nooooo an actual leak - 4 pinholes where the faucet bends that have been worn there by time.

So when I turn on my kitchen sink it looks something liek this...

Only from the actual faucet -

See that red circle above in the picture? Right in the center of the circle is where the leaks are. Friggin squirting all over everything every time I turn it on.(LMAO just reread that sentence... giggling like a 12 year old boy.  such a dirty mind i have)

Anyway - i went and bought plumber's tape. didn't work. So I went and bought a brand new faucet. 30 bucks - not bad right?? Exact same as the original cause I ain't no plumber and I have no idea what I am doing.

Yeah ok now I get it... install it like this pic. No Problem. Jeesh! This is when I wish I had a man in my life. i am not so liberated that I wouldn't like to have a boyfriend specifically for this reason. So that I could tell him..."Honey - it broke - fix please" I mean for sex too and friendship and blah blah blah but fixing things would be really good.

I think my friend (with out benefits), Kent, would appreciate that as well. 

That is why we call him McGyver and I bet if he was down here, he would have fixed the damn faucet with a piece of gum, a ballpoint pen and a clothes pin or something. 

He's probably like - "Jesus woman - get a yourself a man to do this shit for you - i ain't sleeping with ya so whats my payback!" LOL Tho i did take him out for a big steak dinner. When I get more money I'll do something fun for him to pay him back for helping me so much. Of course he is a true, loved and treasured friend so he expects nothing for helping me - but still...

I know, i know "quit yer bitchin, you live at the beach" Not really bitching, more venting. And on that note...

The antihistamines are kicking in and I may actually be able to sleep now! Off I go to dream sweet dreams and hopefully enjoy the full air flow from my fan. No dog hair included! Thanks for listening! ~S

        

there's no place like home...

It's funny how quickly a place can feel like home. And how quickly a place that used to be home can feel like it belongs to someone else. That's a good thing tho...I missed my home, my beach house, the minute we we hit the first bend after the main drag. I wasn't going home, i was leaving it. And i didn't want to. Don't get me wrong - I was looking forward to seeing the kids and smooching my dog and seeing my parents and my friends, BUT I knew when I left, I was visiting West Chester... not going home to it. I notice my words have changed as well, I no longer say home when I am talking about the apartment and instead say it about my house in Rehoboth.


All of this is good stuff. It's transitional stuff that makes things go more smoothly. My love and excitement for my new home make it so I don't miss my old one quite as much. The idea that I won't see Kelly every day or my parents when I want doesn't hurt quite as much because I know that I am where I belong. It's like finding that missing puzzle piece and having it fit perfectly. 

All this time I thought my missing piece..or pieces, would be wrapped up in a man. I didn't feel complete because I was single. I had fallen in love a few times but it never worked out. Somewhere out there was the guy who would, in the words of Jerry McGuire, "Complete me". But what if this move, buying my own home, living at the beach on my own, is what completes me? What if the parts of my soul that I thought I needed to find in someone else, were really there all along. In the ocean and the sand and the cry of the seagulls and the smooth rocks on the shore?

What if I am still single, because the universe or God, felt that I needed to complete myself BEFORE I found someone to share my life with? Someone to compliment my life instead of completing it?


How many people can say they've figured it out? Found their BLISS? Completed themselves and are exactly where they are supposed to be? 

I am so blessed. So truly, truly blessed! 


"In this journey we call life, so many people search for something outside of themselves to complete their lives, complete their souls. What if we realized everything we need can be found within ourselves. It just has to be rearranged a bit to fit together and make us whole. Wouldn't that be the most wonderful thing?" ~Stacey Charter

Note to self: Just Breathe

Working my butt off trying to get everything done and it hits me...You own this place! What you don't get done today, this week, next week, you will have all the time in the world to finish.  Pretty awesome feeling if I do say so myself!


Sleeping on my queen size bed like a baby - even alone in the house. I haven't had the PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) bullshit pop up at all which, if you have read me for a while or you know me, is a huge huge thing. 

With my disorder , change can be an issue - especially a change that includes moving 2 hours away from everyone you know and love to live in a house you bought when you aren't even employed.

Part of me wonders why I am not huddled in a ball on the living room floor but then I realize, this is different. i am starting over and I am fantastic!


Finally got m cable hooked up so tonight I sat my butt down and watched a little C-Wench Anthony stuff, NCIS and My Phillies. YES! Worth every bit of pain in the butt stuff I went thru the past 2 days to get it.


Soon - i will have my car down here as well as my furniture. Then I will feel 100% like a beach person. Oh and maybe a trip to the beach would help too... LOL Yep - haven't seen the water yet but never fear, I will be there in the next few days. 


After all, I've got all the time in the world to get stuff done. 


Yep Life is Good!

Beach House Proud - the transformation....

Happy Tuesday! Hoping your Independence Day was full of fun and fireworks. Mine was filled with family and good food. Oh and I own a house at the beach!!! 

Settlement went off without a hitch and I've been working on the house since Friday. Had some friends down with me over the weekend and with some blood(got my hand hit by the ceiling fan) sweat and tears(mine... i was exhausted lol) we began transforming my house into a beach cottage.


Here are some before and after shots...

before - furniture is still here but going to Kelly in West chester

After... I say it's green - everyone else thinks it's blue - either way it looks AWESOME!

that is a drop cloth on the floor - I am a messy painter!

couldn't wait to paint these cabinets in bleached linen

I handpainted simple white knobs for all the kitchen cabinets. Different colors-either flowers or dots.

Friends may miss you when you leave, but true friends help you move and paint your house!! Kent and Tami - God Bless 'em! Alos the before pic of the lovely wallpaper in my kitchen soon to become...

Renoir bisque..aka TAN or i like to say, Sand. It is at the beach after all!

before...

and after. Kitchen is beached linen and renoir bisque. behr ultra paint with primer. Fantastic stuff!

The "Diva Den Tiki Bar"

soon to be open

I will write more later tonight, for now - I have some more painting to do!

It JUST got INTERESTING....

Quick, short and oh so sweet because I am still sewing Eagles numbers at 2:48am and will probably be sewing them until I leave for working the morning... 


I BOUGHT A HOUSE!

My kitchen - which made me fall in love with the place

I AM MOVING TO REHOBOTH BEACH!!


I will be living about 5-10 minutes from all 4 lower Delaware beaches - Rehoboth, Dewey, Henlopen and Lewes. Right smack dab in the friggin middle of  everything. WOOHOO

Bucket List item crossed off, as I start over at the beach. 
I know the area well, BUT
I don't have friends down there
I don't have a job down there.... YET
And it's just me and the pup moving in to my own place.... which i will own in about 5 years!


Settlement is on Friday - July 1st and I make the final move in August but will be down there off and on for the month of July. Place is Turn-key but I want to paint it.


July 23rd is my Good Bye party at my beloved Blarney Stone, just a night out to say good bye to all those I'm leaving behind.


And I have never been happier or more excited about anything in my life. (well except for when the kid was born...)


Follow my Journey as I reinvent my life!

Welcome to the world, Jadiel Xavier Rios

He's here!!!

Say hello to my new Great-Nephew, Jadiel Xavier Rios... Jax for short (and for those who can't pronounce Jadiel, like me LOL) My niece Shannon and her husband Carlos had their 3rd baby on Friday. 


Jojo and Jiselle now have a new little brother!

Jax was due July 4th , then June 30th. He apparently didn't listen to the Dr's time frame tho and decided he would be born on June 17th. Weighing in at 7lbs 1oz,  I would say he was more then ready - regardless of what his due date was. 

Shannon didn't carry Jiselle or Jojo to full term and they both were in the nic unit for a while. What a welcome relief and change to have Jax over 7lbs and going home with mommy and daddy! Needless to say we are all so happy for them all and already in love with the new family addition!


Hope your Father's days were filled/are filled with family, love and laughter. ~Stacey

In honor of Father's Day

I know... i have been MIA! But it's been with good reason. i have huge news but can't share it yet...so it stymies my writing. I will be back on a daily basis soon, I promise. In the meantime, here's a hysterical, so true at times video of a book that I post in honor of Father's day weekend. Stick with it - if you have kids or ever tried to get one you babysat to sleep, you will laugh your butt off. Enjoy!