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!

wine and song

Feeling a bit introspective tonight. A good introspective tho, the smile, remember, and breathe deeply kind of introspection we all need a lot of. Listening to music on youtube and drinking a glass of wine. (Barefoot Reisling ice cold - my new fave) Change is in the air and it's Fabulous but friends beckon and pull at my soul.

Sometimes, maybe more then sometimes, you can remember the past and appreciate it so much more in the present. You can realize that the people and the places and the tears and the laughter have brought you where you stand.

I've usually split my life in 2 parts, pre and post divorce. When ever I wondered if I had made the right move, the right decision, I've always known I did. The people i've met, the friends i made after i left my husband and moved to west chester, have been so diverse. Each one shining a light on the prism that is me. They love, and hold up and pick up and stand by me. They lean on me and let me lean on them. They make me laugh and cry and miss them, even tho I know they are always only a phone call away.

I know that what I have learned from those I have been lucky enough to surround myself with, will stay with me forever. And while some are across the country and others right next door, it's the love I feel from them each day that makes me who I am. The unspoken bonds of true friends are strong and unbending.

To all of them, to all of you, You turned me into somebody loved!


~Thanks to Aimee for showing me this one, and so many others...

What's going in?

So it's been a busy few weeks filled with wonderful surprises that I will write about in June. Was at the beach this weekend with my parents and made some progress on my eventual move to the beach. Stay tuned for upcoming news. I am a superstitious woman so I won't discuss fully until I have everything in place.

The weekend was great tho - always love spending time with my parents and Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. And we survived the "rapture"...lol. But wow, was it ever busy down in slower lower... like a holiday weekend. I was going to go back down this weekend for memorial day but I think i may have some work up here this coming weekend so no decision made yet!

Watching the Casey Anthony murder trial on my computer. Unbelievable charges from the defense yesterday that had my jaw hitting the floor. This is the girl whose daughter Caylee vanished and she didn't report it for 31 days. Zanny the nanny supposedly took her. The defense now contends that Caylee drowned in the family pool, and Casey and her father found the baby dead. Casey's father supposedly got rid of the Caylee's body and then because Casey's father sexually abused her from the time she was 8 years old she blocked out what happened.Oh yeah and her brother did too... WHA WHA WHAAAATTTTTT??? 

Holy crap!! George, Casey's father, got on the stand and denied it all. Which i almost expected him to say yes he did it just to try and get his daughter off of what could be death row. 


I am a true crime nut and love this stuff. I could watch the trial all day - which I am basically doing. LOL


I have to , on another subject, that I am finally in a place where it looks like everything is working out for me. I feel like i can breathe freely for the first time in a while. The book is coming along well and still on track for an October release date. I am finally starting to work on the website that I am building for it and for my written work, so that is a plus as well. I will probably eventually mirror the blog on my website as well so you can choose which one you go to for reading it.

Summer is working it's way into our lives, AC is on because my allergies are atrocious (oak trees ) but it seems like pool time will be soon. I think it opens on Saturday.  Hoping all is well in your lives and in case I don't say it enough, thanks for taking the time to read the blog. Please feel free to pass it along to others and also to comment.


Happy Wednesday!