sooooo.....they say it's your burfday! It's my burfday too!

If we could be twice young and twice old we could 

correct all our mistakes.

You are only young once, but you can be immature for 

a lifetime.

Honey, time marches on and eventually you realize it 

is marchin’ across your face.

I’m just here for the cake.

Old enough to know better, and young enough to do it 

again!

And all I am wishing for this year on my birthday....is a calm and peaceful and successful 2012!  Please make it good for me....God, the Universe....whoever I can count on!  Please and thank you! 

Please make that wish come true!!!!

{all images via}

a Merry Christmas!

Hi guys!  And a Merry {belated} Christmas to you....

Christmas came and went....and we were left with an extremely spoiled little girl!  But, this is nothing new.  We are blessed....and I count my blessings.

In other news....my poppa celebrated 70 wonderful years of life on Christmas Eve!

It was a fabulous celebration.  Happy Birthday, Daddy, and thank you for all the love and support....I couldn't ask for better I tell ya!

And in semi-unimportant news, Chris Rene placed 3rd on X Factor.  That sucks....but he will be fine anyway.

Hope your Christmas was all that and more.....many blessings to you and yours!

Chris Rene got our vote!

Myself and Layla were kinda sorta really into X Factor....and I adored Chris Rene from the beginning. 

So the finale is tonight and you know....all three finalists are worthy....but to say I am pulling for this young man...is an extreme understatement.  Chris Rene....all.the.way!!!!

It's always my favorite feeling in the world, when I sit, in this chair, and I meet a star for the first time. There is something about you....

Maybe you need the show; maybe we need you?

~ Simon Cowell

{quote about Chris Rene on his 1st audition}

Manic Monday - 12.19.11

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,

we must carry it with us or we find it not.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Beauty is not in the face;

beauty is a light in the heart.

~ Khalil Gibran

For Deb - Rest in Peace, beautiful heart!

for Debbie

I lost a friend today.  Young, old...it doesn't matter...they are gone.  And that always hurts.  That's the truth of it all. 

Rest In Peace Deb.  I will continue to pray for your daughter...your husband.  You all are fighters....and my thoughts are with you, with them. 

Memories last forever, never do they die,

{via}

friends stick together and never really say Goodbye.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

{via}

'Tis the Season!

{Layla's Christmas Program 2011}

Holy cow, ya'll!  I have not even started Christmas Shopping....how crazy {busy} am I?!?! Anyway - that starts on Saturday for me, and luckily, I don't have a lot of peeps to buy for....but maaaan!!!  That was dumb.  But, such is the Meli Faif Life!  It's just how I roll....

I hope you all have been well.  I miss the blogging world, and hope my presence is more frequent after the New Year.  On the up side...I have received my Christmas Cards and I am addressing them as we speak I type...so stop holding your breath!  ha....as if....

{via}

Have any of you noticed how the 'Tis the Season time gets a lil cray cray and not so carefree, nice!?!  This crazy lady in her Mercedes SUV sped around me and my boss in a very crowded parking lot at lunch today....only to stop at the front entrance to Home Goods to load 2 paintings she had obviously just purchased.  Seriously!?  If looks could kill....I would have committed murder.  Just sayin'!  So dangerous.  Not to mention idiotic.  

Speaking of more idiotic things....my dreams!  They have been crazy stupid.  And vivid lately.  And draining.  I wake up spent.  Grrrreat....I am already lucky to get 4 hours a sleep at night.  Now I am waking up feeling like I've run a marathon.  That's a joke in and of itself!  But this ish ain't funny.  

I've dreampt of a fellow blogger, Justin Bieber, and me chewing up Kale and repeatedly spitting it in some girls face.  I mean, wow!?!  What gives? 

So I finished the Hunger Games trilogy of books....so fantastic.  I could go on and on....but instead I'll say, go read em!!!!!  They will not disappoint.  Now I am reading Dear John.  (yawn!)  But it seems fitting since we have officially ended our Iraq War.  (Thank the Lord!)  

Anyway....I'm out!  Don't forget the reason for the season, ya'll!  

{via}

In spite of the many benefits God has blessed us with, how many times do we complain about little difficulties and trials? We lose sight of the big picture and fail to appreciate the really important things. Just as we cannot benefit from a wrapped gift under a Christmas tree until we open it, so gratitude can be seen as our way of opening the gift of God's love intended by all the small and big positive events of our lives. 

~ Ronda De Sola Chervin 

Manic Monday - 12.12.11

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life.

I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy;

I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

~ Bertrand Russell

{images via}

Layla's Christmas Program...the long and straight of it!

Layla has her Christmas Program tonight.  Her class is singing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" and she is really excited about it.  As are we!  She has been practicing and has.it.down!

Speaking of down....she asked "for hair like Emma's" last night....and I finally obliged.  But only after telling her again...that her hair is fabulous.  I just WISH I could have curls like hers....

So here is Layla....long and straight!

{It took me 1.5 hours, in case you were wondering.}

Stop growing up so fast baby girl.  And best wishes tonight.  I love you.

{her tree}

70 years....

{via}

With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

~ Franklin Roosevelt

so vague

Hi friends!

I know the pace and overall feel around my blog has changed over the last three weeks or so.  I am definitely going through a transition.  I know it will be for the best, but for now, I am vague.

I am okay.  I don't want any of you worrying about lil ole me.

But prayers, positive thoughts and love and light are always welcome here. 

Honestly, I am all out of sorts.  But just trying to relish in the good.  Soak up the joy.  Live in peace.

I hope you are all doing the same. 

Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic.

~ Rosalind Russell

{via}

Manic Monday - 12.05.11

Some people are afraid of what they might find if they try to analyze themselves too much,

but you have to crawl into your wounds to discover where your fears are.

Once the bleeding starts, the cleansing can begin.

~ Tori Amos

{I am trying.}

{all images via}

start December off right

Our destinty changes with our thoughts;

we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do,

when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires.

{all images via}

~  Orison Swett Marden

what is holding me together

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

{via}

randoms

{all images from we heart it}

Manic Monday - 11.28.11

Every king was once a helpless baby and every great structure once a blueprint... it's not where you are today, but where you'll reach that counts.

{via}

Things happen to you to make you realize your true potential, strength, will power, and heart.

{via}

I truly respect the people who stay strong, even when they have every right to break down.

{via}

Manic Monday - Overcome 11.19.11

The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.

~ Nelson Mandela

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

~ Martin Luther King

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.

~ Robert Schuller

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. 

~ Chinese proverb

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

~ Japanese proverb

{all images via}

P.S. If the winner of the My Memories giveaway, KEPACANINS, does not contact melifaif(at)yahoo.com by Sunday, 11.27.11 to collect their winnings, I will announce a new winner on Monday. 11.28.11.