December 31st, 2008 by Kateastrophe

I’m not even going to lie, the last few days haven’t exactly been the most pleasant in my life. I usually look forward to my birthday week with joyful anticipation, but as of Sunday, my balloon was deflated and I feel as though all the wind has been sucked from my sails.

Negativity? I has it.

So, today I’m roughly 28. I truly don’t have much to complain about. Family drama, some selfishness, and a lack of attentiveness by some that should not really surprise me. I just need to get over it. As of right now I’m putting on my big girl birthday panties and partying like it’s the end of 2008 – a great year.

Today I have much to be happy about. I have at least 15 Facebook birthday wishes and counting. I have about ten text messages, three instant messages and two phone calls thus far. I have a husband who NEVER forgets special days like today and how much they mean to me. There’s a new baby being born right this minute who will be a big part of my life. Oooh and look at that. Three phone calls. Four. Five. Six. Seven . . . they keep coming in and I know I’m loved. Aww and someone just delivered flowers. This might turn out to be my favorite birthday yet!

I wish you all a safe and happy New Year’s Eve. I don’t know about you but I can’t WAIT to see what 2009 brings . . .

December 22nd, 2008 by Kateastrophe

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry you didn’t get a Christmas card from us this year. We were going to send one. We had the cards all ready to go and even had a blog friend help us out with the editing of the picture . . . and then it just sort of . . . didn’t happen. While we all know the reason is just plain old laziness, if I told you we were going green, would you believe me? No? It’s the fact that I still use paper towels and paper toilet paper, huh? Gives my environment hating butt away EVERY TIME!

This has been a fun and exciting year in the Murphy household. Or just a normal boring one, I guess it depends on your definition of fun and excitement. We worked a lot, played some and (wait for it) still aren’t having a baby. (I know, you’re shocked. We’re getting so OLD, right? We might as well start looking for alternatives NOW. I mean my eggs must have dried up YEARS ago!) I just killed a supposedly un-killable species of house plant so I am seriously in doubt regarding my ability to keep something that bleeds when it falls over alive. We’re getting our first niece, so that should count for something, right?

Matt is still working for the ever evil Homeowners Association Management Company, helping waste budget away your monthly dues (if you live in a dues paying community, of course)on frivolous things like street lights, community landscaping road pavement and security. Despite the housing market crisis, his company seems to be rolling in money but have used the excuse of the bad economy to put a raise freeze on their little world. Ahh the joys of corporate jobs.

My job continues . . . so far my four (almost five) years of working here have included; Twelve boxes of Diet Coke syrup ingested, eleven RFP’s completed, ten different laptops, nine system crashes, eight rounds of funding, seven corporate layoffs, six marketing directors, five different cubies, four CEO’s, three titles and counting, two nervous break-downs and a patridge in a freaking pear tree. I’ve made it through all of that so bring on 2009, beotches.

Our annual vacation this year took us to the Far East, specifically China. We learned many things there, but some of the most life changing were things like how to best stab a won-ton with your chopsticks, the appropriate way to shoot a snot-rocket onto the street, the feminine way to hock a loogie, why to always carry an “f-ing handkerchief”, how to piss off your hired tour guide so she refuses to come back and MOST important, how to turn left into speeding, oncoming traffic and not die.

Christmas this year will find us in rainy Southern California with my Grandparents, Mom and brothers and sisters. This is the first time they will all be together in quite a long time, so we’re excited (and scared). There’s sure to be hilarity and drama all mixed into one big bowl of fun. My family isn’t exactly known for our mellow holiday celebrations. Hopefully everyone will go home with their spleen intact and no trips to the hospital. (Mental or otherwise)

This year for my birthday and New Year’s Eve we’re throwing a little party at our house. I’m inviting several people from church so I’ve already begun working on substituting words like “s**t” with “oh darn.” Seriously. There’s a reason I don’t often invite church people over. I’m preparing myself now for the “sorry I offended you by saying the f-word while getting my a**, er BUTT, kicked playing Wii Tennis” talk now. Pray for me. (Hmm, I smell irony there. Hahah) I blame my father.

There have been a few wrenches thrown into the works of our year, such as my Dad and Step-mother’s thinking they are allowed to get divorced and my Mom and her husband’s thinking they should stay married (I kid. Seriously) but overall we are happy and healthy and that’s all we could ask for. Well not ALL I could ask for, just all I feel comfortable admitting I’ll ask for. (SHOES, I ask for expensive SHOES! And that the Buckeye’s can beat Texas. Neither thing I will get but it doesn’t mean I won’t ASK!)

So, while I’m hoping for a prosperous, cussing free New Year, I’m also hoping that all of you will get exactly what YOU want.

All my love (and randomness)

Kate

December 11th, 2008 by Kateastrophe

Your Blackberry “accidentally” erases FOUR YEARS worth of Contacts in Outlook?

Your head explodes and you die.

The. End.

December 9th, 2008 by Kateastrophe

Woah there. It’s getting a bit serious around here! Yikes! Sorry I’m Debbie Downer (wah wah wah)! I’ll try to drink my Diet Coke and perk right up and present you with . . . random thoughts, ala Kate. YAY!

• The mat sensor (the who-be-what?) in my car is broken. This means that it thinks people are in the car when they’re not and vise versa. This is all well and good when someone is in the car who refuses to wear their seatbelt (*coughPETEMYCOWORKERcough*FATHERINLAW*cough) and the dinger forgets to go off, but it’s NOT all well and good when someone ISN’T in the car and the car thinks there is. Then the dinger goes into hyperdrive and there is NOTHING I can do to make it stop. Lucky for me this happens randomly so getting in the car is always a new experience. Will it ding? Won’t it ding? Will the airbag decide to be on or off? It’s like a tasty surprise, only not usually tasty and mostly annoying.

   

• Said mat sensor is being repaired right now and the dealership gave me a Yaris to drive for the day. Is it just me or do those cars look like a Hershey squirt? Well, I think they do, and I sort of feel like I’m driving a fake plastic clown car compared to my hunk-a-burnin’-German-metal. Maybe for fun this afternoon I’ll see how many co-workers fit in the car . . . interesting idea.

   

• I am on the edge of a sinus infection. This sucks for many reasons (can’t breathe, can’t hear being two of them) but the MAIN reason this sucks is because my girlfriends and I are supposed to be recording some of the songs we’ve sung over the years this Friday afternoon. Where’s my prescription pad when I need it . . . anyone have an extra Z-Pac they want to send me? No?

   

• We got some painting done in our house yesterday!! Our master suite, family room and powder room all got a much needed make-over. That builder standard white flat paint was giving me a condition from all the vomiting it was making me do. The family room has one dark, luscious, rich red wall and tan everywhere else, and our master is these two cool shades of palm green. Now, this was a stretch for the Tuscan-leaning decorator in me, and brighter than I would normally go, but with our distressed black furniture and ivory linens, I’m LOVING the way it looks. Our neighbor calls it the Kermit room, but he can eat it. Matt and I both love it. I’ll post pictures tomorrow. We don’t have our wall art and stuff up yet, but at least you’ll get the idea. Oh and if you hate the green, I hate you. Ok not really. Mark my words, I’ll never paint my own house again. I woke up, went upstairs and worked a full day and when I was done working, the house was done. Oh the bliss.

   

• I think I might still be high on paint fumes

   

• My girlfriend Rhonda and I went to Celine Dion this weekend and OHMYGOSH she was so good. I know many of you will mock me for loving her as I do, but I swear to you that was the best concert I’ve ever been to. EVER. And I’ve been to some amazing concerts. If you have a chance to see her, TAKE IT. Seriously.

   

• The Ohio State Buckeyes made it to the Fiesta Bowl! Now, for those of you who hate them for this, know that I understand. They probably shouldn’t be there over some of the other schools that got screwed (seriously, Boise State I’m so sorry. Truly.). I think the BCS is broken too, but that doesn’t mean I don’t LOVE the fact that the Bucks are going to a big bowl game AND that that bowl games happens to practically be in my back yard. I will be there with my nuts on. (Can I say that in public? Haha.)

   

• The Buckeyes coming to Phoenix will most likely bring many of the Kateastrophe Clan with them. I’m hoping for lots of cousins and maybe a brother or two as well as my Dad. Party at Kate’s house!

   

• We are getting our tree tonight!!! I am so very excited. The rest of the house is almost finished and while I’m lacking a lot of fun Christmas décor for my pad, the tree is always a sight to behold. My gift from my Grandma last year was this UNBELIEVABLE tree skirt that I cannot wait to put to use. Crushed red velvet with gold beading? Stopit.

   

• I did most of my Christmas shopping in China, which is good, but what is not good is the fact that I have no motivation to do the rest of it. I did a little Black Friday online this year (so great. You should try it) but now I’m stumped. What does one get their father, who buys himself everything he wants? I mean really that’s not very nice of him.

   

• I go to Utah this weekend to see my idol, Brian Stokes Mitchell (I realize since I’m a girl I can’t be just like him, but if I was a boy, trust me I would want to be) sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I get chills just thinking about it and I CANNOT WAIT. Oh and we’re going to a fancy pants steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris afterward. My joy will be full. Plus I get to see my friends and my Mom and snow and those are all VERY good things. The only downside is that it’s going to be very cold. Like colder than the 50 degrees I think is cold in Phoenix. Yeah. I’m a pansy. Shut up.

   

And now this list is getting very long so I’m just gonna quit while I’m behind. I need some more Diet Coke . . .

December 3rd, 2008 by Kateastrophe

The world is full of cheaters and liars, this fact I know to be true because I myself, who I know to be a good person, am still a cheater and a liar.

The first and only time I ever cheated on a test I got caught. I was in fifth grade and we were required to write down all of the Presidents of the United States in order. I couldn’t remember Polk for the life of me. So I glanced at the girl next to me and found the missing name, filled it in on my paper and got 100% on the test. Someone saw and told on me and I was asked to take the test again. That time I missed Taft. I guess missing on out of 41 (I think there were 41 at that time) wasn’t so bad, but I felt like a failure. AND I cheated.

I’m pretty sure that cheating on my President’s test in fifth grade didn’t affect the person I became or have a huge impact on my life now, but I sometimes feel lucky that I got caught because it scared me into never cheating in school again. Maybe I would have turned into a super cheater and cheated my way through life after that. Who knows? And I’d be lying if I said I haven’t cheated on anything since then.

When I was in high school my girlfriends and I were all really good kids. We weren’t underage drinking or having sex under the bleachers. We had a tight group of friends and going to bed on the weekends just wasn’t fun. We used to sneak out of whichever house we were staying at that weekend and just drive around our little town, laughing and having a good old time. Every once in a while we’d get caught and the lies would spew forth. Someone had been sick. We’d been at one persons house and our parents had misheard we’d been somewhere else. On and on it would go. Then, one day we spent the night at our friend Katy’s house. We came in at 4 am, just as her Mom was getting up for work. We all freaked out, knowing all our parents were going to be called and grounding would ensue. Elizabeth, Katy’s mom, looked at all of us and asked us where we’d been. “Out and about, just hanging out. We just got back about five minutes ago.” Katy replied. “Awesome! Glad you’re home. Sleep well, girls!”

I’d never seen anything like it. Katy just looked at her Mom, told her the truth, and Elizabeth trusted her and knew we weren’t in any trouble and let it go. Now, I realize a bunch of teenage girls out on the town isn’t NORMALLY no trouble, but we really were and Elizabeth knew it and we didn’t have to lie.

I wish I’d learned my lesson then, but I continued to lie . . . and still do. I justify it by saying that my lies don’t affect anyone or that they’re just little white lies but I’m well aware those aren’t such a great idea either.

Someone very close to me has a huge cheating and lying problem. It’s gotten him into more trouble in his life than I can even begin to explain. It’s happened again and again and again. It’s a sickness and it sucks for both him and those who love him. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how someone gets to be that way. How someone looks their loved ones in the face and blatantly lies about everything. I mean EVERYTHING. From the big stuff about being faithful to a spouse to things that don’t even matter like what kind of medication he took for his cold. How does this happen? Is it just in his nature? Can he help it?

I don’t know the ultimate answer but the more I think about it the more I think that it starts out small. It starts as a small lie you tell your friend or your husband about where you’re going or where you’ve been or whatever. That was easy enough, so next time you’re doing it, you lie again, then again. You’re not doing anything wrong, you just don’t want to be bothered or whatever. Maybe you mess up and don’t keep your stories straight or someone seems suspicious and you don’t want to look stupid for lying for no good reason, so you lie bigger. Then you’re in a web that you can’t escape and before you know it, you’re asking others to lie for you and lying more and then inevitably, you get caught. Now, because you lied to begin with, you look all kinds of guilty and what started out as not wanting to be bothered causes your loved ones to no longer trust you. It’s a nasty, vicious cycle. Now, imagine what it’s like if you’re actually doing something wrong! Holy crap!

A friend of mine recently said “if you feel like you have to lie, you’ve already crossed the line.” Amen, sister. Amen.

There is a line in the movie “Meet Joe Black” that affected me deeply when I saw the movie way back in 1998. Joe and Quince, the goofy brother-in-law are talking after Quince finds out something he said cause his wife’s father to be fired. He knows he has to tell his wife but is terrified. Joe says ” . . . but Allison loves you? How do you know?” And Quince looks at him and says “Because she knows the worst thing about me and it’s ok.”

I decided the moment I heard that line – THAT is how I wanted my marriage to be. Matt really does know the worst things about me. Things I’ve never told anyone but him. Things I’m ashamed of. Stupid things I do all the time. I decided that if he couldn’t love ALL of me, no matter how bad it was, it would never work. So anytime he asks me a question, I do my best to answer truthfully. When my ex-boyfriend calls, it’s not a secret. Matt doesn’t love it, but it’s not a secret. I don’t ever want to give him a reason to be suspicious of me, because the second the trust is gone is the second my marriage isn’t working. I’ve seen too many lives and marriages torn apart by lies to even start down that road. So, if I can do it with my husband I should really be able to do it with everyone in my life.

I resolve today to be more honest and upfront, even in the little, insignificant things. The commandment doesn’t say “thou shalt not lie unless it’s just a little lie.” It says “thou shalt not lie.” Period.

So I shalt not lie. Period.