Tuesday, January 17, 2012
It's Steve's Birthday!
Happy Birthday to my best friend and husband, Steve! He's 55 today! We've been married (26.5 years)almost half as long as he's been alive. I wonder if he's calculated that up or looked at that in such a way? On the other hand, I've been married to him longer than half my life at 48. It's a happy day, let's talk about something else. lol
Steve and I have shared many good times together, bad times together and everything in between. With the help of God, we have two beautiful daughters, Sydnee and Sloane and a beautiful home. I bet your mind went to the house we live in made of white vinyl siding and brick. But, I'm talking about the home you see in the picture below.
This home is a shared bond of love that keeps us warm when the cold winds blow, makes us feel safe to sleep at night, welcomes us with outstretched arms, is always waiting for our return and keeps a light on in the window of our hearts for each other to find our way. Yep, I definitely love my husband and as one commenter said on Facebook, this picture represents "Total Happiness".
I'm not a sentimental person or a hopeless romantic, must've slipped off there for a moment. I made Steve some pretzel Rolo bites for his birthday to share with his co-workers. I also put on my makeup today, on a Tuesday, so he wouldn't have to strain his aging eyes to see my beauty!
Truly yours,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
p.s. If you haven't watched the video at the top lefthand of the screen, please do!
Steve and I have shared many good times together, bad times together and everything in between. With the help of God, we have two beautiful daughters, Sydnee and Sloane and a beautiful home. I bet your mind went to the house we live in made of white vinyl siding and brick. But, I'm talking about the home you see in the picture below.
This home is a shared bond of love that keeps us warm when the cold winds blow, makes us feel safe to sleep at night, welcomes us with outstretched arms, is always waiting for our return and keeps a light on in the window of our hearts for each other to find our way. Yep, I definitely love my husband and as one commenter said on Facebook, this picture represents "Total Happiness".
I'm not a sentimental person or a hopeless romantic, must've slipped off there for a moment. I made Steve some pretzel Rolo bites for his birthday to share with his co-workers. I also put on my makeup today, on a Tuesday, so he wouldn't have to strain his aging eyes to see my beauty!
Truly yours,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
p.s. If you haven't watched the video at the top lefthand of the screen, please do!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
I've got a hitch in my get-along!
I am looking forward to 2012! Are you? I have set myself some goals, not resolutions! I want to lose another 10 pounds. I lost 12 in 2011 and want to add to that victory. I also want to speak and share my testimony at least two times a month. You can help me with this goal. If your church would entertain the idea of me sharing my story at some point, please email me at tammy.stafford@hotmail.com and I will be overjoyed to contact them. My third goal is to finish one of the books I have started. You can help me with this goal too. Please leave me a comment on facebook and let me know which title you would be most interested in reading: How to lose your life for Jesus or How to land your man the old fashioned way! My fourth goal is to re-enter the college world and seek a degree in Christian Counseling. Wish me luck! My 5th goal and final written goal is to recruit travelers for my group tour to Venice, Florence and Rome, Italy. For more information please contact me or click here.
My final thought for 2011. I am currently reading Bill Clinton's new book "Back to Work" and Steve Jobs' biography concurrently. I'm figuring when I get finished with both, sometime in early January 2012, I should be able to solve our current economic crisis on an Apple "i" device! Happy New Year!
Gettin' along pretty well,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
Saturday, December 24, 2011
All I want for Christmas is memories!
Who knew? Just who knew that in 2011, technology would have changed so much that it would control my memories? Actually, the technology is being controlled by a photographer but I am still a slave to it. All I want for Christmas is memories from my daughter's wedding this year. One little hard plastic disk with data. Data that has magically embedded four hours of one day in October 2011 that cannot be relived or recreated. I'm not a very sentimental person either but I would love to have the pictures from my daughter's wedding. But I want you to know, if we don't get them, I'm still a very happy, sorely disappointed, handicap! My emotions run deep today and it feels better to talk about them. :)
On a lighter note, with faint kidney stone pain and everyone present and accounted for, we opened our gifts this morning. I got things I've been wanting, a blow dryer, an iPhone car charger, Sydnee happily married, the new Bill Clinton book "Back to Work", a nice stand mixer, a successful gallbladder surgery for Sloane and money. I'm already reading the Steve Jobs biography and I'm figuring that when I finish both books, I'll be able to use my Apple "i" products to solve the current world economic crisis! I got Steve a Cracker Barrel rocking chair, maybe he'll have it put together by the time he retires! lol
I hope each of you create a memory or two of your own this Christmas. We are all blessed beyond comprehension in our least favorite moments. I don't really even like pictures but the day of my daughters wedding, I was so busy making sure everything was going correctly (being Tammy) that I didn't really "enjoy" the day, I was managing it without a thought that we would still be picture-less 10 weeks after the wedding. Pictures are nice but I've learned a valuable lesson. Don't rely on them to enjoy and reminisce big events in your life. Breathe in each moment you live embedding your own data or images into your brain and then you can random access them whenever you choose, even without a power supply.
Merry Christmas,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
On a lighter note, with faint kidney stone pain and everyone present and accounted for, we opened our gifts this morning. I got things I've been wanting, a blow dryer, an iPhone car charger, Sydnee happily married, the new Bill Clinton book "Back to Work", a nice stand mixer, a successful gallbladder surgery for Sloane and money. I'm already reading the Steve Jobs biography and I'm figuring that when I finish both books, I'll be able to use my Apple "i" products to solve the current world economic crisis! I got Steve a Cracker Barrel rocking chair, maybe he'll have it put together by the time he retires! lol
I hope each of you create a memory or two of your own this Christmas. We are all blessed beyond comprehension in our least favorite moments. I don't really even like pictures but the day of my daughters wedding, I was so busy making sure everything was going correctly (being Tammy) that I didn't really "enjoy" the day, I was managing it without a thought that we would still be picture-less 10 weeks after the wedding. Pictures are nice but I've learned a valuable lesson. Don't rely on them to enjoy and reminisce big events in your life. Breathe in each moment you live embedding your own data or images into your brain and then you can random access them whenever you choose, even without a power supply.
Merry Christmas,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
Thursday, November 17, 2011
things every woman should know about men
i have learned so much in 26 years of marriage that i can't possibly post it all. i created a video that says it better. the video can be watched from the video bar. It shows how a wife should treat her husband!
i've learned that the way to a man's heart is not through his stomach. i don't disagree that men love good cookin', but i've always wondered about this cliche because according to the human body, once you've reached a man's stomach, you've already passed his heart! what about women who can't cook? do men not love them? the answer is yes they do because food doesn't have anything to do with the heart nor a man's love. if a man loves you, he'll like your cookin' whether it's good or not. for example, if i burn dinner, steve says "i love burnt biscuits or i like mine burned", whatever it takes to make me feel good. lesson #1: the way to a man's heart is to be sure he loves you before you start cooking for him!
i've also learned that the phrase "if momma ain't happy, nobody ain't happy" should be like this "if daddy ain't happy, nobody ain't happy"! You're probably wondering how to keep daddy happy? here's how:
1. If he's mowing or working outside, always carry him a drink of water
2. If you borrow one of his tools, return it to it's proper place the same day
3. Don't borrow his beard trimmers to cut anything
4. When using the bathroom, please close the door
5. When positioning a tv in a room, make sure the sun don't effect the picture
6. If you drive his truck, make sure the seat and mirrors are back in their original position
7. His place setting at the table should include a big fork, a big glass and a big plate
If you're laughing because some of these sound familiar, our men could make the list for making momma happy and it would sound just as ridiculous and petty!
I've also learned that:
Happy 26th anniversary to me,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
i've learned that the way to a man's heart is not through his stomach. i don't disagree that men love good cookin', but i've always wondered about this cliche because according to the human body, once you've reached a man's stomach, you've already passed his heart! what about women who can't cook? do men not love them? the answer is yes they do because food doesn't have anything to do with the heart nor a man's love. if a man loves you, he'll like your cookin' whether it's good or not. for example, if i burn dinner, steve says "i love burnt biscuits or i like mine burned", whatever it takes to make me feel good. lesson #1: the way to a man's heart is to be sure he loves you before you start cooking for him!
i've also learned that the phrase "if momma ain't happy, nobody ain't happy" should be like this "if daddy ain't happy, nobody ain't happy"! You're probably wondering how to keep daddy happy? here's how:
1. If he's mowing or working outside, always carry him a drink of water
2. If you borrow one of his tools, return it to it's proper place the same day
3. Don't borrow his beard trimmers to cut anything
4. When using the bathroom, please close the door
5. When positioning a tv in a room, make sure the sun don't effect the picture
6. If you drive his truck, make sure the seat and mirrors are back in their original position
7. His place setting at the table should include a big fork, a big glass and a big plate
If you're laughing because some of these sound familiar, our men could make the list for making momma happy and it would sound just as ridiculous and petty!
I've also learned that:
- My husband is part of me. I wouldn't treat myself poorly, so don't treat him poorly
- Whatever I need, he's also been able to provide
- When I cry, he can make me laugh
- When I'm weak, he's strong
- Trust, honesty and commitment are priceless
- He's smarter than you think, listen to him
- Nurture his dreams, fulfill his desires
Happy 26th anniversary to me,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
Friday, October 21, 2011
the MOB dress!
Well. Sunday, October 16, 2011, my oldest daughter Sydnee married her childhood sweetheart James Leroy Epperson III, better known as Trey! Now you know I worried about this wedding. I wanted everything to be perfect, the timing, the sound, the food, the cake, the band, etc. etc. I also wanted the mother of the bride, ME, to look nice. You know I can't wear high heels or any dress shoe comfortably because I'm handicapped. So, with that in mind, I decided to buy myself a nice dress at a boutique in Marietta. You always need a good reason to justify buying an expensive dress and I HAD ONE! The boutique had nothing in the store that I liked so I mail ordered a dress out of a catalog from New York City! No joke! I really did. It took about 6 weeks to get it because it was made when it was ordered.
On my way to the boutique for the first try-on, I was getting anxious. I had worked hard to lose 12 pounds and obviously wanted people to notice it! When I put the dress on, I looked like a scaly whale or an oompa loompa on the downswing of singing Dippity Do! You know, the point where they are their shortest, bobbing up and down to the beat of the music. For a good laugh, check out the pic below. And yes, after I looked at it once, I couldn't look at it again, I closed my eyes shut.....tightly!
On my way to the boutique for the first try-on, I was getting anxious. I had worked hard to lose 12 pounds and obviously wanted people to notice it! When I put the dress on, I looked like a scaly whale or an oompa loompa on the downswing of singing Dippity Do! You know, the point where they are their shortest, bobbing up and down to the beat of the music. For a good laugh, check out the pic below. And yes, after I looked at it once, I couldn't look at it again, I closed my eyes shut.....tightly!
If you could have seen the look on my Mom's face when I walked out of the dressing room in that dress! Despite the fact that I looked like I had gained 45 pounds, all she could talk about was covering up my cleavage which was the only thing that DID look good in my mind! I left the shop shaking my head wondering how in the world could the seamstress and the shop owner tell me I looked good in that dress? Because they sold it to me, that's how! My Mom kept right on trying to convince me "It didn't look that bad" she said and "I wish I had paid more attention to the dress you ordered. I could have told you those pleats would make you look big"! I said, "Mom, you are not helping and I am not wearing that dress. I refuse to pay $!X%#@ for a wedding and arrive at it looking like a hog ready for slaughter!" Anyway, I went to Macy's that same afternoon and found the dress I wore to Sydnee and Trey's wedding. I was very happy with it. I looked the way I had imagined and we took it home. Feast your eyes on this one!
Quite the difference! Now there was only one other thing wrong. The overlay of the dress was so sheer that my Mom's sewing machine would not hem it without pulling the material. I took it to the cleaners in Chatsworth to see if they could hem it and he said he couldn't do it, material too sheer. I asked if he knew who could and he said "Not in this town". So, I decided to just cut off the dress and not hem it and pray it wouldn't ravel. I took the attitude of "If anybody notices it's not hemmed, they shouldn't be looking that closely". It did ravel a bit and Can you believe I had two people that day tell me my dress was coming unhemmed? One woman and yes, one man! Unbelievable. The bride was gorgeous, the weather was beautiful, the band was amazing, the food was great, and so on but they were interested in my dress hem!
The moral of this story is (1) Never, ever buy a dress from a catalog that you haven't tried on, (2) People will notice if your dress is not hemmed and (3) the Mother of the Bride (MOB) has to look skinny no matter what!
Unraveled and hemmed in,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
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