I don't care if he picks up his socks or not...

Well, that's not true actually.  I do care...I'm pretty anal about being organized, not a clean freak, but an 'organized' freak.  I believe there is a place for everything.  But I digress...

Yesterday, I posted about how I'll be moving into Mr Fix It's house which he had previously bought and lived in with his ex.  Well, I don't mind that at all.  And I'm not super concerned about whether or not he picks up his socks...I don't mind picking them up if I come across them.  But what I am concerned about is how he and my 15 year old daughter will do living together.

Now don't get me wrong, Mr Fix It and Little Miss (that's what I'll call my hormonal, attitude ridden teenage freshmen) totally get along.  Sometimes too well.  Little Miss loves to pick up on all of Mr Fix It's little jokes and annoying teasing habits.  Like when I'm backing into the garage, Mr Fix It will slam his hand on the car in an effort to make me think I hit something.  Yeah, whatever...after the 100th time, I know I am not hitting anything you idiot!  But now Little Miss will do the same thing when Mr Fix It is not with us.  Oh, so funny.  Or not.

So as I talked about yesterday, Mr Fix It's ex is not in the picture anymore (obviously).  But my ex-boyfriend, my daughter's father, is absolutely a huge part of our lives.  In fact, his entire family is...his mother, his two sisters and brother and their families.  We all live local to one another and for the past 15 years, we have all been at almost all of Little Miss's softball and soccer games, school plays, awards ceremonies, birthday parties, etc.  It didn't start off great.  As I mentioned before, her dad and I went through a bitter custody fight back when I left him when Little Miss was only a year old.  But as the years went on, we reconciled and truly have a partnership in raising our daughter together.  She spends a few nights/days a week at his house and he is very involved in her life.  So she has a dad.  Though Mr Fix It will be the official step-dad, the reality is, he won't be getting to make too many decisions when it comes to Little Miss.  Those will be made between her father and I.  Now Mr Fix It gets along with my ex and his whole family.  In fact, their entire family (aunts, uncle, grandma and cousins) will all be at our wedding this April.  It's a blessing to be able to all get along.  I know there are horror stories out there about children being put in the middle of unfortunate break ups and divorces. 

Anyway, to sum all this up...my biggest fear is that Mr Fix It is going to have a lot of input or opinions about my daughter and how she should be raised.  And it's always so much easier to tell someone how to raise their children and how to discipline them and what to let them do or not do when you don't have kids yourself, ya know?  Walk a mile in my shoes, mister!  While I will absolutely consult Mr Fix It and expect him to be the head of our household and therefore an integral part of disciplining or correcting her when needed, I also know that he seems to swing to the far end of the spectrum when it comes to Little Miss.

He absolutely believes she is a good kid.  In fact, he jokes that if she wasn't a good kid, he wouldn't have proposed.  However, Little Miss doesn't have a totally typical life.  Granted, we live in a nice city, she plays sports in the local leagues and now attends the local high school and has grown up here and has best friends she's known since grade school.  But there's a little bit of a difference...her Aunt and Uncle work for Jay Leno.  They have been with him for years.  So she is blessed to be able to get things like this:

And we get to meet people like these:

And she gets to go to concerts and get back stage passes and she has signed posters, beach towels, CD's and such from people like Zac Effron and Vanessa Hudgens and Raven Simone.  She's been on vacations to Hawaii, a cruise to Mexico, a castle in Canada, she's traveled to Seattle and goes to San Francisco, Vegas and Spring Training baseball camps in Arizona all the time.  She has autographs from all kinds of baseball players and even got to go down in the dugout last summer at Angel stadium to watch the fireworks after the game.  And last season, we got to be there in the audience at American Idol when the winner Kris Allen was announced over Adam Lambert.  17 rows back, sitting amidst all those stars.  Yeah, she's pretty lucky.

And so Mr Fix It feels the need to 'put her in her place' sometimes and not allow her to have everything she wants.  Neither Mr Fix It nor I ever had a childhood like hers growing up.  We came from pretty dysfunctional alcoholic households.  And so for me, it's a blessing to know my daughter has such a wonderful life and as 'normal' as a healthy childhood as we can give her with all our faults.  So my biggest fear, is that Mr Fix It is going to be a slave driver once we are all living together.  And then Little Miss will go running to daddy wanting to stay at his house all the time because he lets her get away with everything.  (sigh)

I just keep telling myself not to stress out about any of this until we area actually living together and see how things unravel.  I will definitely be on my knees in a lot of prayer as the move begins :)

So, what are your biggest fears, concerns or doubts about what might be a problem for you in your transition into marriage and living together?

PS  Today's the last day to enter my first giveaway...check it out here!

More blog love!

So thankful to Bicoastal Bride, Miss Pug, New Mexican Bride and NuFlaiir for recognizing me on their blogs with a lovely new award.  I hate to admit I received it a while ago and have not gotten around to posting it, but here goes.

Rules: list 10 things that make you happy. Then, pass it on to 10 bloggers that make your day a better one!

1.  My daughter, Jordan Kaylie. 

That is a horrible pic of me but a super cute one of her from when she competed in the National American Miss Pageant this past August.  She's 14, a freshmen in  high school (God help me) and super athletic and smart.  I am so blessed and so proud to have such a beautiful, fun and talented daughter who loves Jesus!

2.  My fiance, Mr Fix It.

I am so blessed to have this man in my life and am thrilled beyond belief that he has chosen to make me his wife just four short months from now!  It's so crazy to think that after 37 years, I have finally met someone who is everything I ever needed but never would have expected for myself.  :)  Funny how the Lord works in mysterious ways.  I can't imagine my life without him...the thought of that just makes me nauseous. 

3.  My family.

 

My mother and my baby sister are daily parts of my life.  If we do not see each other, we speak on the phone.  We live within 15 minutes of each other and are constantly together.  My sister keeps me laughing always and my mother makes me feel grounded and established.  The three of us 'Campbell' girls have been a strong unit for our entire lives and happiness just isn't the same without them contributing to it.

4.  My job (and my boss).

No pic for this one...just the recognition that I am truly blessed by an unbelievably amazing boss and a job I have been at for 7 1/2 years now.  This job came to me via some serious hardships but God was so good in how He worked everything out for the best for me.  Because of this job, I was able to finally gain financial independence as a single mom, pay for this wedding without going into debt, take family vacations for the first time each year, work only 4 1/2 days a week and have the freedom to leave when I need to so that I can be at my daughter's school and sporting events and just overall live a stress free life without the worry of overtime and anxiety.  This job is what allows me to blog and read all day long and to plan our wedding without the stress of not having enough time for everything.  :)

5.  Jesus and the Bible.

Ok, this one should be number one, but God knows that without Him, nothing would be possible in my life.  For all of my fears and failures and faults, Jesus has been right there through every one of them correcting me, encouraging me, loving me...I am by no means perfect but I am perfect in His eyes.  I thank Him daily for what I don't deserve but am blessed with and remind myself daily to live my life in a way that honors Him.  My biggest hope for our wedding is that it will overflow with the name and love of Jesus and that our guests will know Him more personally through the ceremony and elements of our marriage and vows.

6.  The blogosphere

When I found my way into the blogosphere just a few short months ago I never would have dreamed of having 74 fellow blogger friends following along with me as I spill out my thoughts and ideas.  I am so grateful for this new medium and how happy it makes me to know I have 'someone' out there who can relate to me on some level. 

7.  The internet.

What would I have done without the internet?  Thanks to my job, I am able to browse online all day long and have made almost every one of my bookings and purchases for the wedding based on web sites I found.  I do all my Christmas shopping online and have everything come to me!  I am able to keep track of everything with e-mail and come up with all kinds of inspiration and ideas just from typing in a few words into Google.  Love it!

8.  TV.

I hate to admit I am a tv addict in many respects.  The funny thing is, I don't really watch a ton of tv when I am at home.  I actually watch it mostly at work!  Isn't that bad?  But my job (my amazing dream job as I mentioned above) is not really a full time job even though as an executive assistant my boss requires me to be in the office for 4 1/2 days a week.  So most of the day, I am just sitting around by myself in an empty office without anything to do.  Therefore, I do most of my tv viewing from the internet thanks to the networks new web sites that offer full episodes online.  I admit that I watch shows online I would normally never watch at home.  Things like the City, the Hills, Desperate Housewives, etc. But my absolute faves that I *do* watch at home are probably Lost, the Colbert Report, How I Met Your Mother, anything wedding related, and Bones.

9.  Cooking.

I love to cook and am a self taught chef thanks to the Food Network!  With the internet and cable in today's day and age, just about anyone can learn just about anything and DIY.  Cooking included.  My fiance thinks I'm a great cook and my mom refers to me as a 'gourmet' cook...that's a little overboard.  She's just shocked because I cook with mostly fresh ingredients and not things out of a can like she did when we were growing up.  :)

10.  Sleep!

Sleep makes me SO happy...unfortunately, in my late 30's, my body has decided it doesn't need much sleep and I am usually not in bed until 11 pm or later and then I usually cannot sleep past 5 or 6 am regardless of whether or not I set an alarm! UGH!  How I miss the days of my twenties when I could sleep until 11 am!  That is until my daughter was born of course.

So there you have it...10 things that make me truly, utterly happy.  As far as passing this award on, I would like to give it to my 10 most recent followers as every single follower makes me so so happy!  I love finding new blogs to stalk and knowing there are some out there who find I have something worth reading as well.  :)

Thankful Thursdays

So Ashley over at Ramirez Family blog has this thing she calls Thankful Thursdays.  I am all about giving thanks (not just on the holiday) but every single day of my life.  Because I know that without my Jesus, I would have nothing.  I know that every good and perfect gift comes from my Father above and I know that the people (family, friends, acquaintances) in my life have blessed me beyond belief.

So I just think this is such a great idea that I am going to 'borrow' it from Ashley and start my own Thankful Thursdays.  Now I know you might think this is getting a little ridiculous since I am already incorporating Music Mondays and Seriously Saturdays.  You might be wondering "Is this chick gonna make every single day of the week a theme related post?"  Well, I can't make you any promises...I do love me a good theme.  Maybe I will start Terrible Tuesdays, Wacky Wednesdays and Friday Funnies?  So what if I do?  :)

Anyway, it doesn't matter...the fact is, I think it's good to have a direction or 'open ended' question to get conversations and thoughts flowing.  So here it is, my first Thankful Thursday.  And what am I going to reflect upon that I am thankful for in my very first Thursday post?

The two things (people) I am most thankful for:  Mr. Fix It and my mini-me...otherwise as known as my fiance and daughter.  These two people make me want to be a better person.  They make me want to love as deeply as possible and stand up for truth and justice.  They make me want to give more than I get.  They make me laugh (and sometimes cry)...but they make me 'feel' my emotions.  They remind me how good my God is and they reflect His presence in my life.  But most importantly, they love me unconditionally...and I am so thankful for that.

So what about all you lovely ladies...as we head into Thanksgiving season, what are you thankful for?