My day

[Amber]

Fun has been an important part of my recovery ...it might be doing fun things, or doing really wild, silly thing just for the fun of it. Today was one of those days. :D I spent a good deal of time shopping thrift stores looking for my Halloween cosutme. I hope I don't offend anyone by the fact that we do dress up and hand out candy to the kids on Halloween. At church we do dress up and hand out candy as a Trick-or-Treat alternative and I LOVE to dress up. I think I'm going to be a biker this year. I found a pair of leather pants at the thrift store and I'll get a vest and a "skull with flames" headwrap ... oh and let's not forget the studded leather wrist band. ;) Oh and heart tattoo with my hubby's name through it. (A fake one this time ;) )

We also have "Western Day" at our church every October. It's really a day to raise money for the mission trip to Haiti but we make it fun my dressing "western" and having free chilli after the service. Over the years I've been putting together my outfit and I think I've almost completed it this year. I've got a red cowgirl shirt, a matching skirt (or maybe jeans) boots and a black hat. Since we don't live anywhere near real cowboys its a little harder to find cowboy stuff at the thrift shop so I've shopped at the Western Store over time to get it all together. Who knows ... maybe I'll win for best outfit this year. :eek:

Yesterday was HOmecoming at our church ... a rather bittersweet day for me and my husband. We celebrated our pastor's 33rd year at the church. That's nice and I really like that we do that, but it is hard when there is never any mention of my husband being there for 18 years. Once in the time we've been there they have had a day to celebrate our anniversary with the church. Gifts are not really important but it would be nice to have our anniverary recognized and celebrated. Its hard for me to watch what my husband goes though .... and it also makes me appreciate him more because I believe most anyone else woudl have been gone long ago if they were in his situation. Oh well .... this too shall pass.

Back to the fun .... I'm going to freak my husband out when he comes home and finds me in black leather pants. :eek: :D Of course I'll change before we go out tonight. Just gotta see that first reaction though.

[Theodora]

DO let us know your husband's reaction when he sees you in those pants!!! ;) :D :D

!!!

I'm SO very thankful that you've found a way to ENJOY your world. Your shopping etc. sounds like a FANTASTIC "antidote" to all you've been through lately....yes...including the stress and neglect at your church. (BUMMER!!! :( )

WAY TO GO!!!

Thanks so much for posting!

Love and prayers--

Theodora

[Oopsie Daisey]

Amber, I love your imagination and the way you think. I don't celebrate Halloween but that is my preference and I used to so it isn't like it was never something I done but I just don't but I love to do things like you were just talking about. Oh that is so much fun. We had Old timers day one day in my dad's church or Old Fashioned day and they sang all old songs and people were supposed to come dressed in old fashioned clothes...talk about insulting. LOL...
My daughter was wearing clothes from the 60's and the 70's and I was wearing clothes from the 30's and 40's and my mom was wearing them back from my grandma's day and all we could do was giggle because we realized everyone had a different idea of Old Fashioned day and what old fashioned songs were. I wanted to sing "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and my daughter is saying, "Hey, lets sing "They will know we are Christians By our Love" '

Anyway, I am excited for you and please do tell how it turns out.


And the celebration of the pastor, I can totally identify with what you are saying. My dad never gets recognized unless I call one of the board members and say HEY do you mind if I send a cake since it is my dad's birthday and maybe you all can help him celebrate...That is the only time it happens. IT is like I have to initiate and I can get away with it living 7 hours away ...so I send the money for the cake and ice cream and someone picks it up and then goes from there and then they kind of acknowledge him. This year they done great but geesh...it is really hard when you know you put a lot of hard work into the church..... but like you said, it is so much better to stay on the happy side of things. They probably haven't even got the slightest clue that it bothered you even for a moment. I know a lot of people think my dad and mom, just because they are pastor and wife were put in the church to say I forgive and don't worry about it and all that jargon... Sometimes though there is a surprise. Like when I through my parents a 50th wedding anniversary party the whole church showed up and they took up a collection for my parents to go on vacation and then the came with beautiful cards and the one gal made the cake for me and it was like oh my word...one of the biggest things I was concerned about. The whole town showed up for it and I don't even know the people but my daughter and I put it in the paper an open house and the mayor and all the elected officials and then all the town bosses and all the business owners showed up that owned businesses including the funeral parlor sending them a card. It was a blast to see my parents so celebrated.

It will happen Amber. Some people are just slow coming around. My parents have been in the ministry since oh my goodness the 60's????? They just had my dad go to a pastors conference so they could honor him for something like 35 years of service.

Well I am rambling and I have a long day tomorrow and I hope you will keep us all updated with your fun.

Melanie:)

[Amber]

DO let us know your husband's reaction when he sees you in those pants!!! ;) :D :D

!!!

I'm SO very thankful that you've found a way to ENJOY your world. Your shopping etc. sounds like a FANTASTIC "antidote" to all you've been through lately....yes...including the stress and neglect at your church. (BUMMER!!! :( )

WAY TO GO!!!



Hey Theodora!

About the pants ... he didn't even notice. LOL I shouldn't be surprised. I've always said that if I come up missing my friends will have to tell the police what I look like because my husband doens't have a clue. :D He did notice AFTER I pointed them out. But I think the man is beyond shockable as far as I'm concerned. :p

For our "date night" we went to eat the went to the costume shop and tried on varous costumes just for fun. Then we came home and had coffee and watched a couple of stupid TV shows.

In other news, you may be interested in knowing that my oldes son is seriously considering moving to the Pine Ridge reservation. He's looking into attending the Oglala College there to get his degree in Education and a Certificate in teaching. Apparently he can get a Federal loan which will be forgiven after he completes one year of teaching on the reservation. his main concern is finding a girl to marry who is willing to go there to live. :rolleyes: Not an easy task ... not many girls would want to live out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest city of any size is 2 hours away. Of course mom isn't nearly as concerned about that problem as he is. :D

My younger son (age 15) now has his first girlfriend. Its really cute to watch them together ... they both like each other a lot but neither of them have any clue as to what to do. We had a dinner at church yesterday and I was watching them .... she sat leaning away from him until he got up to get her mom a napkin. She then straightened up - until he sat back down at which time she again leaned away from him. :D Its been amusing to say the least.

Well, I'd better get some sleep.

[Tim]

[QUOTE=Amber][SIZE=2]Fun has been an important part of my recovery ...it might be doing fun things, or doing really wild, silly thing just for the fun of it.

Play is as important to life as work. I can remember in the early days of my own recovery reading Carmen Berry's book, "Are You Having Fun Yet? How to Bring the Art of Play into Your Recovery."
It was a good book to read then, as I thought that sobriety would be anything but fun and about as colorful as the spectrum between charcoal grey and pitch black.

Play is God's gift to us. Look at G K Chesterton; his entire life was play and the tremendous enjoyment of God's great gift of life. It's small wonder that Phillip Yancey got out of the religious dumps by reading Chesterton and had his faith restored after the small-c church had crushed it beneath the heavy burden of rules.

[Theodora]

Hey Theodora!

About the pants ... he didn't even notice. LOL I shouldn't be surprised. I've always said that if I come up missing my friends will have to tell the police what I look like because my husband doens't have a clue. :D He did notice AFTER I pointed them out. But I think the man is beyond shockable as far as I'm concerned. :p

For our "date night" we went to eat the went to the costume shop and tried on varous costumes just for fun. Then we came home and had coffee and watched a couple of stupid TV shows.

In other news, you may be interested in knowing that my oldes son is seriously considering moving to the Pine Ridge reservation. He's looking into attending the Oglala College there to get his degree in Education and a Certificate in teaching. Apparently he can get a Federal loan which will be forgiven after he completes one year of teaching on the reservation. his main concern is finding a girl to marry who is willing to go there to live. :rolleyes: Not an easy task ... not many girls would want to live out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest city of any size is 2 hours away. Of course mom isn't nearly as concerned about that problem as he is. :D

My younger son (age 15) now has his first girlfriend. Its really cute to watch them together ... they both like each other a lot but neither of them have any clue as to what to do. We had a dinner at church yesterday and I was watching them .... she sat leaning away from him until he got up to get her mom a napkin. She then straightened up - until he sat back down at which time she again leaned away from him. :D Its been amusing to say the least.

Well, I'd better get some sleep.

Ah ((((Amber))))!!! Isn't life "fun" sometimes??!?! Glad you can retain your sense of humor about all of this and that your family DOES seem to be well "ON-TRACK!"

Hope you've been able to get some good sleep. Your prayers appreciated for me and my on-going insomnia problem! I was sort of expecting this with all that is going on, but it really is "inconvenient" right now to be this much "out of synch" with the world. I THINK my Marine and his bride are coming over "today," for example, for various purposes AND my husband has "comp" time today and we need to do some errands. Not sure how all of this is going to play out, so I need to try to go get some rest too.

Thanks for posting. You must be so proud of your sons!....I know I would be. (And thanks for sharing that cute story about your younger son. Suffice it to say that this brought back some fond memories of my own. :) )

Love and prayers--

Theodora