Meet Rachel Pennington: How I See It

I'd like ya'll to meet Rachel Pennington. She's a mom of two teenagers, and a wife of 20 years. She lives in Northern Georgia and according to her profile photography is her passion. Rachel has been blogging since around the fall of 2004 and uses blogger. Her topics of blogging include her two teens, Brooke(19) and Cain(16), her photography, family, and her life. Besides photography, her other interest include hiking, camping, and being involved with her family. She takes wonderful photographs and has gobs of them that she has uploaded to Flickr. She's been behind the camera (so to speak) since she was 8 when her parents bought her her first camera for Christmas. Since then it's been non stop. Her fave subjects are her son and daughter although after so many photos they may feel that it's time for her to find new models. Besides her children, she also loves shooting nature and sports. Rachel describes her passion in these words, "I am crazy about photography. I love shooting nature, & sports, mostly American football and baseball. I'm just starting to get brave enough to shoot random people. I love looking at a person's face or hands and wondering what their life is like. I also love macro photography." Rachel also has her own website of her beautiful photos that she has for purchase, Rachel Pennington Photography. While online this week, please take a moment of your time and check out Rachel and tell her that I sent ya.

A Beautiful Day

As you can tell, I didn't go in to work today. I had a doctor's appt. today, and I am so glad that we got out of the house. It was a beautiful day. A little chilly, but the sun was out, and the birds were singing. While out I ran into someone that I hadn't seen in awhile. We spent a few minutes catching up and then she had to go. I enjoyed being out with my hubby today. Wish we had more days like this one, but with us working on Saturdays now, it makes it kind of hard. On Sunday, we usually just want to be home and relax. Work was really trying my patience yesterday. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. I somehow managed to get through the night and went home not feeling so stressed out. I even didn't get upset when I couldn't get online. For some reason, hubby can get online late at night, but I can't. I just simply gave up, played Zuma, and then went to bed. Not looking forward to going into work tomorrow, but I feel like I'm starting to have a better outlook. Later

I Feel Like a New Person

Well, work Saturday night started out okay, but ended not exactly how I wanted it to. With hubby and I making plans to attend church on Sun., I figured something would be pulled at the last moment, and we would have to work over. Sure enough we did. Hubby was waiting on me for a change when I got done. Instead of heading straight home, we went to Wal-Mart and picked up the weekly groceries. Shopping at around 1:00 am is so much easier than trying to go during the day with the crowds. At around 2:30 we were heading home and discussing how Sunday would go. He wanted to go to the morning service, and I didn't feel like I could get up in time. So I was wanting to go to the evening service. Luckily, I won out. I got up Sunday around noon to discover that my sis was coming down for a short visit. Her hubby was going to his dad's, and so she decided to come see us. I don't get to see her very often with both of us working odd hours and her living in another county. I was enjoying the day until I felt like I could hold my eyes open no longer. I only intended a short nap, but ended up sleeping for about 3 hours. I got up and got ready sort of in a rush, and then we headed on our way. When we arrived, people were greeting us at the door, and as we went in there was a table set up with items on it. A girl was "manning" the table and reached out to welcome me. To my surprise she recognized me right off the bat, but I was having a little trouble trying to figure out why I should know this girl. When she said her name, her face from when I remember her years ago popped into my mind. I was so surprised and happy to see her. It had been 20+ years since I last seen her in 8th grade and then had to move abruptly. After our little homecoming, hubby and I found our seats and listened to some great music. The singers were awesome and so was the band. This was kind of overwhelming to me, but hubby was used to it. The church we decided to go to was the one that he grew up in, so he was familiar with the preacher and pretty much everyone there. During the sermon, the preacher was saying some things that were so inspiring. It's almost like someone was trying to tell me something. I was so uplifted that tonight I went before the altar and finally accepted Christ into my heart and accepted the fact that I'm not a perfect person. It was moving. Now comes the hard part. It's 3:21 am here, and I need to get into bed so that I can get some sleep to handle work when I get up. Now, when things seem to be getting out of control for me there, I can talk to God and ask his help to get me through the day. Later

A Peaceful Night

I actually had a peaceful night tonight. Surprising for that place. Things did not grate on my nerves near as bad as it usually does. I'm tired, but not so mentally tired like I usually am when I come home. Yes, I've already changed my theme. I couldn't help it. I was already getting bored with the other one. So I guess this is Theme of the Month-April design. I chose this one for it being blue. I haven't had one with my fave color yet, and it just now come to mind that with the coming of April we have those April showers, and I chose a water theme. Just a thought. I believe me and my hubby have decided that we will attend church on Sunday. My hubby was raised in church, but I wasn't. He was raised Pentecostal. Now I've only been in one church that was Pentecostal, and I was kind of shocked and embarassed by the shouting of "amen" and "hallelujah" and the running up and down the aisles. I'm a quiet person so I wasn't used to anything of that sort. I don't know how I'll be in hubby's church. He's also wanting to go visit with his Grandma and Papaw. Have to tell ya about a proud mom moment. My son has been nominated for the Who's Who Among American High School Students. I recieved this achievement when I was in high school, and it makes so proud that my son is recieving this also. I'm planning on having his photo added and ordering the book when it is released. Later

What a Difference One Day Can Make

I want to thank Rachel and Val for believing in me even during my lowest times. I was all ready to come home and go on the defensive again. This whole ordeal has really bothered me, but I thought of something today that I believe is a long time in coming. For years people have approached me out of the blue and called me a "lost soul". I don't doubt them one bit. I've alwasy believed in God but never truly followed in his steps. All through my life it's like he's been watching out for me and would drop little hints here and there like he was saying, "I'm here when you're ready." Well tonight while working I just came to the point where I almost just gave up and was saying to God, "I'm tired, I can't take anymore, I'm leaving myself into your hands." And then on the way home, hubby and I had one of those heart to heart discussions that we so rarely are able to have, and he kind of basically said that he was talking to God himself. I guess you could say that we have both come to a crossroads, maybe? I don't know. Hubby knows about my my posting, and he knows that I need to release my feelings somehow, and he's not upset with me about it. He never really has been. He told me tonight that I shouldn't worry myself so much about what other people think of me and what I do. When he put it into this perspective, I was able to see the bigger picture of the situation. He asked me, "Did the world come to an end?" "Uh, no." "Did the house burn down?" "Uh, no." "Then it doesn't really matter what someone else thought of you. They're opinion didn't matter and you'll get over the bruised ego." Yes, he's right on this one.(I won't admit that to him directly, though) If that's the way someone feels then that's okay for them. I have the right to feel the way I do and that's okay, too. Any which way, my hubby didn't have a problem with my post entry, so really noone else should either. Each of us should enjoy our blog/space that way we need or want to and if noone wants to read mine then that's fine. I know two who will and keeping this space will still be better for me.(I was thinking of deleting it.) I think that I maybe seeing a light at the end of my tunnel. Later

A Soapbox of My Own

This is how I'm feeling right about now. It seems like there is absolutely nothing that I can do right or make people happy. Is this or is this not my space? I believe it is which means that I can put in here whatever my heart desires. The previous entry was a venting of frustrations with my dear hubby. It has been construed as husband bashing. In actuality, it was me expressing my feelings of how every time I open my mouth it just seems like something comes out wrong, and I know that is not the case, but it's how I' made to feel. For years I have made myself completely miserable in order to keep everyone close around me happy for the simple fact, that I can't handle anyone being upset with me. So usually whatevery is going on, I will cave in and agree with the other person even though I don't and then hide my own feelings from others. Just recently I've been getting the courage to speak up for myself and speak out on my feelings on matters hence the previous post. Well, I discovered tonight after coming home from work that that wasn't the right thing to do and that I was bashing my husband. With just this one comment, I have so many insecurities going on in my head right now that I doubt I will be able to sleep peacefully tonight. See, that's how AvPD works. I open my mouth, someone doesn't like what I say, I feel totally humiliated by them, upset, and like an idiot, that I end up just keeping my mouth shut and pretend that everything is hunky dory. Even though someone commented and expressed that they totally understood how I felt, everyone else's idea of my bashing my hubby will overshadow it and I will feel yet again insecure of my words, opinions, and feelings. Such is life with me. Later

Why Does He Have to Hurt Me

My husband can be such an outright pain sometimes. Actually, to put it bluntly, he can be an a**hole. Just about everytime we have a converstation, somehow it gets completely turned into him getting upset with me and there is nothing that I can do to turn things around. He can be so unfeeling and uncaring sometimes that it just really hurts me to the point of tears. I am the way that I am and there is nothing that he can do to change it. I'm not a people person. I never have been, and I probably never will be. I can't help the way that I feel about things. If I am invited to go somewhere or over to someone's house, I'm sorry, but my attitude is that you should pay attention to me. I shouldn't be expected to just jump in and start conversations or just join in. That's not how I was raised. I've always believed in "two's company, three's a crowd". That's just me. I'm not meaning it to be hateful or mean, but if you ask me to go somewhere with you, then I expect you to give me your undivided attention. If you're going to be paying attention to someone else and expect me to mingle, then you are sadly mistaken. I would rather be at home where I'm comfortable. My hubby just don't get it on this concept. He feels that it is my fault if people don't pay attention to me if I don't strike up a conversation or jump into the midst of things. I just can't do that. People have to approach me first and keep the conversation going and even then I feel like everyting I say isn't right. As you can tell, I'm pretty upset. He nearly had me in tears, but I managed to get myself together. I've accepted the fact that this is the way I am and this is something that he is going to have to come to terms with himself. Later

Runaway

She’s riding the train to nowhere And watching the world go past her eyes She’s living the life of a runaway And trying to run from the lies She’s fourteen years too young But she’s been forced to see the truth The family that was supposed to love her Stole her innocent youth She’s lived through things that no one else has Her daddy’s actions have left her scarred Her mama’s deaf ears and blind eyes Have taught her to harden her heart She’s running to the city But running to what she doesn’t know Her home was a place of hell But she doesn’t know where to go This is the story of many young children Teens, on the run in the night Can’t we make it better for them Can’t we make it alright? This and all other works contained in this site are copyrighted©. No reproduction in any manner is permitted.

Red Face Free

It was so nice to be out in public without the noticeable flaming red cheeks, forehead, chin, and nose. I tried my new makeup, and it pretty much lasted for the whole shift. One cheek was starting to show a little pink, my nose was starting to shine through a little bit , but other than that, I am very well pleased with the foundation. It felt so light like I didn't have any makeup on at all. I am totally satisfied with the product. Work, work, work. It puts a damper on things that I would like to do. I really need to get up off my lazy butt and do some studying, but by the time I get home, I just don't feel like using my brain anymore and end up just relaxing in front of the computer before I go to bed. Speaking of bed, that's where I need to get in about an hour. We need to get up early and head into town for some errands which we were supposed to do yesterday morning, but the hubby goofed around until it was too late. I'm going to try again to get him up and going. I believe I will be adding a new module and have my own "Pick of the Week". This will of course be blogs of my choosing and possible some websites. Site/blogs will be chosen for either content and/or template design. I love surfing blogs and looking at the different template designs. It's like looking into the blogger's personality. I may do an introduction in a blog entry and also add to the module. I don't really know just yet. Well, it's time for me to wind down, get some shuteye, and start a new day. Later

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I bought this movie a couple of weeks ago, but with working, I just hadn't gotten around to watching it. Now I'm not great with reviews so bear with me. I love the Harry Potter series(books and movies), but this one just seems lacking a little. Don't get me wrong. It's still a great movie, and I loved it, but with Rowling's books getting longer it seems like the next movie just gets more hurried or so. This one didn't have the flow to it like the first two movies did. The special effects were great, and I really loved the ending, but you can tell that they're really having to work to keep this movie in the time constraints. All in all, it's still a good movie and a must have if you're a die hard Harry Potter fan.

This Is Absolutely Amazing (Talking About Rosacea)

And no, I don't mean that rosacea is amazing. I'm talking about this new makeup that I ordered. Sheer Cover. I never in my wildest dreams believed that I could get rid of the red on my face and the small veins, but, voila, it is totally gone and looks so natural. I had the makeup applied in just seconds with no messes or anything like I usually do. I'm not very makeup savvy(that's my sister's category), but this was just lickety split and you're done. It actually does what it advertises, and there isn't that heavy makeup feel that you have with ordinary cosmetics. This will be perfect to use during the week at work and on the weekends just dress it up with eyeshadow mascara and blush. I'm completely amazed and totally satisfied. Will post before and after photos later on for those that are interested. I'm sold with Sheer Cover! Later Later

Aggravations

Grrrr. I'm still having connection problems. One day I'll be online and the next I can't get online if my life depended on it. Wireless is a real pain. For some strange reason, I cannot edit my profile. Every time I click on the edit button it takes me to the page that says "space is temporarily unavailable". What??? This is proving to be really irritating. If anyone out there knows how I can edit my profile without getting that annoying unavailable page, would you please leave a comment and explain how? Posting it to work this weekend was absolutely a waste of time. Everything that we done could have been done during the week and we really didn't accomplish anything tonight. On a little brighter note(if you can call it that), I actually won a battle on Battle of the Blogs at BE. It completely shocked me. Anyway, I need to head off to bed and get some shuteye. Later

Things I Wish I Had the Courage To Do

Learn To Drive: This is a big issue with me. I'm 34 years old, and I do not have my driver's license. I've never been comfortable behind the wheel. It's almost like I try to drive and the least little mistake I make causes me to fall apart. I'm always worried what the other driver's think of my driving(if I'm too slow, too fast, not turning fast enough, turning too fast, etc.). If I could get that worry out of my head, I can go places that I've never been able to go before, and I won't have to hear my hubby complain about having to take me wherever I need to go.

Publish My Own Book of Poetry: I am so negative about my own work. Everyone has told me that my poems are really good, but I just can't believe that they are. I love to write poetry, and I would love to someday be a published author, but my constant fear of people rejecting my work gets in the way.

Stand Up For Myself: I have a real problem with this. I am constantly letting people use me as a human doormat. I've never been able to stand up for myself or issues that I believe. I'm always afraid that other people will be upset with me, and for some strange reason, I just can't have that.

Self Confidence: If I had the confidence in myself that others have in theirselves, I could do so many things. I am the happiest when my nose is in a computer. I love to learn different things, but I'm terrified of making mistakes in front of people. I can't handle criticism very well, either. If I was beaming with confidence, I would have graduated from college, be working with computers, working with web design, and so much more. This is what my anxiety and personality problems have prevented me from doing over the years. I have basically become a turtle of some sorts and withdrawn into my "safe" shell. I would give anything if there was a magic pill that I could take that would make all of my insecurities go away. Later

I've Had a Fairly Good Day

As you can already tell, I'm home from work. The hubby and I took a holiday today in order to take my son to the eye doctor and schedule his classes for next year. His appt. was at 1:45pm so we went to the school and signed him out. He was happy over that. We arrived at the doctor's office and had to wait for about 15 minutes. Once back there he went through the regular routine of "is it clearer with one or two". After about 20 minutes we got our explanation as to why he can't see the blackboard anymore. He's switched from farsighted to nearsighted. He also has astigmatism and lazy eye. With all of this he requires new glasses. His new frames he picked out look really good on him, and I thought that it was time for him to have transition lenses. He seemed to think that was really cool. After the eye exam, we went back to school to sign him up for his classes next year. We listed 14 choices some being his actual requirements and others electives. We won't know what he actually has until sometime in July. His definite classes that he will have are: English 10, Integrated Science, Algebra II, and Political Science. His other choices were: World Civilization, Advanced Computer Applications, Word Processing II, Spanish I, Spanish II, Arts and Humanities, Life Skills and Multimedia. Man, if I had half of the classes to choose from that they have now, I would have had a ball in high school. We got treated to a hamburger and milk shakes from hubby afterwards. All in all it was a nice relaxing day. Later

A Typical Monday

First and foremost, I want to personally thank all of you who have stopped by and taken the time to look around and leave a comment. It really means alot to me knowing that my space isn't nearly as interesting as some of yours that I've seen. Thanks bunches. We started our day by going to Enterprise to pick up the rental that the other person's insurance is providing us. Progressive has been very good about getting us into another vehicle while ours is being worked on. We dropped ours off at the body shop, and they told us that we may have our car back possibly by Friday. I didn't mean to be laughing at my hubby, but it was so comical. I don't drive so I don't really know what it's like, but I can imagine that when you get used to driving one car and then switch to another makes it kind of annoying and a little difficult to manage at first. Now, my hubby is a big guy(sort of) and the car that they provided us is a compact. Hubby is almost 6' tall so when he tried to get in he was smooshed between the seat and the steering while. It took him a moment to ease the seat back. After a few times of getting in and out of the car, he finally found the controls on the side of the seat to lower it. This made it a little easier for him to get in. If that wasn't enough, where they had the controls for the wipers, he kept hitting them every time he turned the wheel. Needless to say, he can't wait to get ours back. I had a therapy session today and it boiled down to my problem of dwelling too much on what people think of me that it keeps me from trying anything. In order to keep everyone happy and okay with me, I give in to what others want and try to please them to the point of making myself miserable. This is so bad that I will literally hide and not try anything(driving for example)in order to keep anyone from becoming angry or disappointed with me or what I'm doing. This has become a real problem over the years. I've pretty much been this way since I was a little girl, and with each passing year, it just gets worse and worse. Visits now will concentrate on how I can overcome this obstacle in my life and be able to do more things. Work is becoming a pain again. They posted it for overtime and rumor has it that we will be working weekends until about the middle of April. This is a big issue with me. My weekend is my relief time to gain my sanity back so that I can endure that place for another week. When they take both days away from me, it's usually then that I become mentally exhausted and have more trouble functioning. It's also when that need to be particular on things kicks into high gear. I mean I will waste time picking the area where I work clean so that I can stand there and not get anything on my shoes when in reality I know that it is impossible to keep my area perfectly clean. I'm hoping that I will be able to keep it under some control. Need to close for now. Hubby will want some attention a little later and then I need to get some sleep to handle tomorrow. Later

And With the Coming of Spring

Follows the tormenting of the storms. We've had a few this week along with some tornadoes in the tri-state area. My grandmother called early this morning to tell us that we were under a tornado watch. They usually get up real early in the mornings while we sleep in. It wasn't long after she called that our power went off, but no major storm blew our way. We had some thunder and rain, but that's about it. What's so annoying about our power going out is that I have to make rounds after it comes back on to reset clocks and reprogram VCR's and TV's. I've added What's Your Story under my websites listings. I checked it out a little while ago to see what new spaces were listed and found to my surprise that I had already voted.? Now how I did this I don't rightly know since I haven't checked out the new listings until just an hour ago. This proves irritating cause I'm actually enjoying voting for the space of my choice. Any which way, while I was checking out one of the spaces listed I found a space that I deem noteworthy and deserves a "looksy". Libby Dawn Abraham is a soldier's wife whose hubby is in Iraq. Her most recent posts stresses that she hasn't heard from him in a few days and is making her uneasy. If anyone is reading this, if you don't mind stop by and give her a hello and maybe some comforting thoughts. Well I did it again. I entered my space in the Blog Explosion battle of the blogs. I am now 0-2. You just can't win for losing. Oh, well, it's just for fun anyway. Need to head off to bed and try to get some sleep. Therapy is tomorrow and that is always a joy for me (not!). Later

Hello Again

It's been awhile hasn't it? Honestly, this week has been kind of irritating. I've had to wait on hubby at work this week while he worked over. I've been getting home around 2 am so I haven't felt like posting anything. I've gotten behind on reading my friend's blogs too. Also, my hubby has had problems connecting to the internet. When he called tech support they said that the router(or whatever)was going out so they sent us another modem and router. Let's just say that wireless modems are for the birds. I've been having trouble connecting to the internet now since he hooked the stupid thing up. I got lucky today and got connected. I guess I'll be spending today catching up on email, blogs, and other things. Later

I Lost the Battle...

But I do have to say that it was a good fight, and if I had to lose I'm glad it was this close. The score was 8-7. It was fun, and I might just do it again. If ya'll don't mind please take a look and say congrats to Mik at Nonsensical Flounderings. Later

Battle of the Blogs-Blog Explosion

Okay, I did it! I entered my space in BE's Battle of the Blogs. I can't believe I actually am doing this. It was a spur of the moment thing. So for any of you that read my space please go to BlogExposion and vote for me. While there why don't you join and add your blog/space to their listings. You can earn traffic to your space/blog by surfing other blogs, playing Blog Rocket, and many other things. And yes this is a shameless self promotion by me begging for votes. Later

Yesterday Was Interesting...

to say the least. First off our weekend was ruined because they felt the need to exercise their powers and post it for weekend work. As the hubby was dropping me off, I was turned around trying to get my belongings out of the backseat when our car was bumped into my shoulder and leg. When I looked up, I was surprised to see someone else's car in our driver's side door. Hubby was surprised as well cause he was still in the car when it hit. The other driver(poor woman)was terribly upset. She was dropping off her son at work, and I'm still unsure as to why she backed into us. The hubby and the other driver were exchanging information and waiting for the sheriff while I was in medical with ice packs. I'm fine except for sore spot on my shoulder. Our car though is a different story. There's a big dent in the door. Hubby will be spending the next few days gathering estimates while I will be contacting our insurance tomorrow. Then I guess we just sit and wait until the insurance contacts us. I would like to say thank you to two bloggers that have added me in their links on their blogs. I know it's a little late, but I haven't felt like posting when I got home from work these past couple of nights. I'm linked to The New Century Notebook and Shelley's Scoop. The New Century Notebook is already added to my Blog list. As for Shelley's Scoop, I found Latte Lady by reading Tea and Bon Bons with Amy. Latte Lady is a realtor and coffee lover. She's just started a spaces of her own after reading others and getting bit by the blogging bug so she's just posted a little. Try giving her a "looksee" and tell her hello. The weather here has just been aggravating. First it's warm and then it's cold. My chest and sinuses are clogged up yet again over this constant weather teeter totter. I will be so glad when it warms up and stays warm. It's annoying not knowing exactly how to dress for outside after work. Hopefully next weekend I won't have to work and will have more time to play on the web. Like someone said, I am totally addicted to the Web and love it. Later

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

I can't say that I do or don't believe, but I can say that in no way will I ever be in a place that is rumored to be haunted. This subject has always fascinated me ever since I was a little girl. I would spend my time checking out books of haunting stories from the public or my school library. It was nothing for me to spend my time inside reading than outside like most kids. Now that I'm older(and have cable), I spend time watching haunting programs if I'm able to find them. I used to be a regular watcher of Ghost Hunters until it just got to be a pain to keep up with taping it. I would also watch that one show which Linda Blair was host, but I just can't remember the name of it right now. My reason of asking this question is because on the way home from work the hubby and I were listening to Coast to Coast on the radio and their guest was Erika Frost, a tour guide on board the Queen Mary. Why my hubby listens to these type of radio programs I will never know, but this one time it piqued my curiosity. Do any of you believe in ghosts or have had any type of ghost encounter? If so, would you please share your story? Later