Category Archives: Books

Where The Heck Have I Been?

Year of Yes by Shonda RhimesGood afternoon, my peeps!!

I realize it has been quite a while since I have blogged, and instead of going through everything that has happened between then and now, I thought I would just one thing with you from this hiatus that is making a lot of difference in my life right now. I read a book, yes, I know shocking right??? I read the book, Year of Yes, How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, by Shonda Rhimes, and I can honestly say, that for me, it is a GAME CHANGER!!! 🙂

Rhonda Rhimes is a television producer and writer. She is the creator, head writer, executive producer and showrunner of the medical drama television series Grey’s Anatomy, its spin-off Private Practice, and the political thriller series Scandall, She is also the executive producer of How to Get Away with Murder. As amazing as these shows are, I really have never seen any of them. I can’t remember where I had originally heard about her or her book, but I think I heard about it a couple of times before I broke down and picked up my own copy!

When I finally sat down to start reading this book, I couldn’t put it down, and I read it in one sitting! Quickly after starting the book, I knew that I was in love! Rhonda’s style of writing is very much like you are sitting down and having some tea with a really good girlfriend!! She is extremely funny, and she seems like someone I would LOVE to be friends with! 🙂

I could really relate to Shonda’s story of being such an introverted homebody, and the way that she loved to play as a child in her pantry cupboards, in her make believe world, with her cans of peas, and creamed corn! I knew exactly what she was saying, because I have always been that person too! More comfortable in my head, in my safe make believe world that I always use as my safety net to shield me from anything scary in life. I related to the way that she found that she was always very quick to say no to so many things that came her way, and when she decided to dedicate the next year of her life to saying Yes to the things that she wanted to do, but scared the hell out of her, it inspired me to do the same thing.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Man Yes is so much harder than I thought it was going to be, but so far this year, I have gotten promoted at work, with a nice raise and I took a road trip to California (that old Chrissie would NEVER have said yes to)! I am now signed up to go to the Brave Girl Symposium in Boise, Idaho in July, and I am currently working my way through Marie Forleo’s B-School course!! WHEW!!!

How do I know what to say Yes to? Well, I have personally decided that I will say yes to anything that my gut tells me would be fun, or awesome, or something that I would really love to do, but my heads reaction is, “You can’t do that!”, “OMG, have you lost your EVER-LOVING mind?”, or “ARE YOU CRAZY????”

So, there you go! I am excited to see where my Year of Yes takes me, and I am committing to doing a better job of keeping you abreast of what is going on with all of that! If I can inspire even one single solitary person to step out of there comfort zone and live the life that they so passionately want to live, than my sharing is completely and totally worth it!!

Here is to saying “Yes” to life!!! 😉

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If you want to have a different life, you must live differently! 

Two Week Bariatric Surgerversary!

Good evening!

Today is officially my two week bariatric surgerversary!!! Yes, that is right, it has been exactly two weeks since I had my gastric bypass surgery.Things are going pretty well, I am still at a total 60 pound loss. I am currently plateuing, but am told that that is normal – so I am not going to let myself get too worried about it!! Today is the first day that I am allowed to add some very soft foods to my liquid diet: potato, yam, low sugar instant oatmeal, banana, no sugar added applesauce, and cottage cheese. I know that may not sound too exciting, but I am ECSTATIC!!!! It is nice to have some new food options!! 😉

On to other topics: you know the biggest thing that I have discovered since having surgery, is that being thin is not going to solve my life’s problems!! Surprising, right???? LOL!! No, I have come to the realization that no matter what I look like, I will still be where I end up!! I can not run away from myself!

Thin Christina will still have to pay bills, make decisions, come up against challenges, and still have to figure out what I want to be when I grow up!!! This has really been a revelation to me, and I have been doing a lot of soul-searching the past few days trying to see if I can find my purpose!! Yes, deep, I realize!! Matter-of-fact, I just got home from a long walk through Walmart, because for some reason, I have insanely thought I could somehow find the purpose of my life while perusing the magazine, book, craft, and office supply aisles of my local Walmart. Needless to say, I came up empty-handed!! (THANKFULLY!!!)

You know, I am reading a new book called, “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” written by Beth Hoffman, which by-the-way is a FABULOUS book, and is going to be added to one of my all-time favorite reads!!! What has really got me to thinking is that there is a discussion in the book where one of the matriarch-type characters says the following:

“If there is one thing I’d like most for you, is that you’ll find your calling in life. That is where true happiness and purpose lies. Whether it is taking care of abandoned animals, saving old houses from the wreckin’ ball, or reading to the blind, you’ve got to find your fire, sugar. You’ll never be fulfilled if you don’t.”

She continues with,

“One day you’ll do something, see something, or get an idea that seems to pop up from nowhere. And you’ll feel a kind of stirring – like a warm flicker inside your chest. When that happens, whatever you do, don’t ignore it. Open your mind and explore the idea. Fan your flame. And when you do, you’ll have found it.”

This little talk she gives has really inspired me to go out and try to figure out what my life’s fire is. I know I have a lot of things that I like to do, but I am not sure if any of those things add up to my actual life’s bliss. I know, now more than ever, that God has placed me on this earth to do something important, I have always known it, even when I was a young girl. I just pray that I haven’t missed my opportunity, and If I did, I guess I will just have to go out and create a new opportunity for myself!! Where God opens a door, He opens up a window!!!

Here is to us all finding our fire!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

 

Friday Night at the Manse!

Good evening!

I am spending this time this evening with my two four-legged girls this evening, as my sweetie is out having fun with the guys! So, I an spending some time at the manse this evening doing a little bit of WHATEVER I WANT!!! 😉

I can’t decide if I want to curl up with a good book, or if I want to watch a sappy chick-flick!! Oh, so much to do, so little time!! 😉

And, I realize I haven’t really arted much in the past week, but I think I have really pooped myself out with all of the art class stuff that I have been trying to keep up with for the past 6 months! and even though, I am enjoying my current class, I think that this will be my last soul-searching/art class I am going to take for a while! I need to just get to the arting of it all, and get some new pieces made!!

On the bariatric surgery/dieting front, I met with my physical therapist today, and I was pretty impressed with m’bad self. I say that because I was able to do a lot more physical activity than I think she was expecting! Heck, I do a lot more physical activity than even I expect! I have usually been pretty active even as a fat-chick! 😉 Anyway, she has helped me write out some of my physical goals, and given me some homework to help me work…er…I mean…train for these goals. So, I left there feeling pretty jazzed about all of that!

Oh, I want to tell you about this AWESOME book that I read. Yesterday, after I got home from work, I couldn’t decide what to do, so instead of flip on the tele, I decided to pick up a book that I had borrowed from the hospital’s community library, and give it a try. The book was called Tuesdays with Morrie. After about 2 hours, before I knew it, the book was finished, and my perception of death and dying has literally changed!! I know that sounds deep, but it is such a LOVELY book!

Tuesdays with Morrie is about an old man, a retired professor, who is dying, and a young man, who was one of his students about 16 years earlier. They meet together on Tuesdays, where they share stories, and the old man shares his life’s lessons about living and dying. It is such a beautiful story, oh, and did I mention that it is a true story?? I found myself laughing out loud, crying like a baby, and wondering why in the world I hadn’t read this little gem of a book sooner?? I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even lost a loved one – it might just change your perception on life and death too! 🙂

Some of Morrie’s lessons are:

  • Don’t assume that is too late to get involved.
  • The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.
  • Love is the only rational act.
  • Don’t cling to things because everything is impermanent.
  • Love each other or perish.
  • Don’t let go to soon, or hang on too long.
  • You are not a wave, you are part of the ocean.
  • Sometimes you can’t believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel.
  • Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do.
  • Death ends a life, not a relationship.

Meet Morrie – Such a happy, happy man!!

On a more frivolous note, (my, my, my this one of those random thought kind of posts this evening!) I received a package in the mail this afternoon. Since I am getting ready for bariatric surgery, and it has been pushed out by a month – did I tell you that??? Well, my surgery is now September 4th – I was a little bummed when I found out it was pushed out so far, but I know it will still be worth it! Anyway, this package I got this afternoon was a package of new clothes that had I found online at Lane Bryant. These clothes were on clearance sale with a special additional 50% off, so I got them dirt cheap!! The screwy thing is, is that I ordered them all in my post-surgery goal size – a size 14!! I am a little embarrassed to admit that, but I just could not pass up that kind of sale, and I KNOW that I will get there, AND in only about a year after surgery, sooooo…it seemed like a GREAT idea to me, and I am still pretty excited about it. However, the only thing that kind of scares me, is that I haven’t seen this size since I was 18, and a size 14 just looks sooooo tiny!! Now I am starting to second guess my goal!! I am not going to dwell too much on it now, and just keep doing what I know I need to be doing! So there – I feel like I have just gone to some kind of confessional, and now I feel SO MUCH BETTER!! Thanks for that!!! My check for your psychologist’s fee will be coming in the mail!! 😉

So, I am going to wrap this up. I have decided to go take another evening walk before I plant my hieney in front of the tele to watch some episodes of Sex in the City, while pulling pics of my dream outfits out of fashion magazines!! Yeah, that sounds good!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Some New Books!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I got home from work this evening, and I was very happily surprised to see that I had not one, but two packages in the mail!! BOOKS!!! Yeah!! 😉

Last week I finally broke down and ordered 4 books that I have been drooling over for quite some time now!!

Life is a Verb by Patti Digh

Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh

Surface Treatment Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson

and last, but not least:

Simple Soldered Jewelry and Accessories by Lisa Bluhm

I normally would not buy 4 new books at a get-go, not since my Border’s days anyway, but these were at such a great discounted price on Amazon, that there was no way that I could make myself pass them up!! Anyway, I am so excited to read them, and put their knowledge to good use!! I most definitely need to keep creativity alive in my life! It makes me a happy girl!!!

What else is going on in my little world?? Well, I have implemented a daily chore chart – I think I had mentioned that I was going to do that in an earlier post – and I did, and my sweetie and I really liking it! We don’t have to guess what still needs done, and we both get a sense of accomplishment when we get to cross out things off of our list! Besides our Christmas stuff being scattered all over the living room (still working on re-organizing that), our house is now the cleanest that it has been in weeks!! YEAH!!! 😉

Tomorrow night is Chunky Dunker’s night here in Christinaville, and then on Thursday night, I am planning on sharing some pics with you of my niece and nephew’s basketball games that we got to go to this past Saturday! I know you will love them!

Anyway, I am going to get some try and make some more headway on getting this Christmas stuff put away before we call it a night!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

“If you want to have a different life, live differently!”

Getting Things Done!

Good evening!

This evening, I am working on getting my day’s to-do list done so that I can spend some additional time reading for bed this evening! I am reading two really great books at once. One book is called Living the Savvy Life, and the other book is called, The Sorceress, (book 3 of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel Series) !! 😉

I don’t have anything deep or profound this evening. I am just focusing on creating balance in my life for just this evening. Baby steps, baby steps!! Do a chore, do something you want to do, do something fun, do something you want to do. It is slow going, but it seems to be working!!

Jason is in the kitchen making dinner. He is grilling some barbecue chicken (one of my FAVORITES!!), and making some steamed broccoli, and steamed rice. We are going to eat well this evening! 😉

Talking about eating well, tomorrow is my very first Weight Watcher weigh in day, and I have to confess I am a little bit nervous!! I have been writing down what I eat, but not really tracking my points well. That is one of the hard things about not being able to go on the internet while at work to track my points. WW does have an app available, but unfortunately not for Blackberry – dang phone.

Which segues me nicely into the fact that my sweetie is trying to talk me into getting a new phone. I am a creature of habit, and I have grown accustomed to having my Blackberry, so I am not sure how I feel about a new phone. However, it would be really nice to have one that takes pictures, and doesn’t click when you are texting someone!! So we will see, I have been eying the new Samsung phone that is out, and an i-phone might be kind of cool, but I would have to change carriers to get an i-phone!! Hmmmm…decisions, decisions!! 😉

Anyway, I have got a few more chores this evening that need my attention, including hopping on over to my Fly Tribe’s Blog site, to check out some more of the artists who are currently participating in our blog hop!! It has been fun seeing everyone’s blogs, and getting to know all of the fun people that I have been “Flying” with!! I hope you take the time to go check them all out!! 😉

So, I am going to call it a night for now!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

“If you want to have a different life, live differently!”

Package In the Mail!

Good evening!

Do you ever get excited whenever you get a package in the mail???

or is that just me???

Well, tonight, after I got home from work, I found a package in my mail!! YEAH!!! 😉

Yes, I really do get that excited!!

In it, was my new 2012 Curly Girl calendar. I am not sure if you know who Curly Girl is, but she is one of my FAVORITE artists. She is a collage artist specializing in uplifting and girl power type artwork!! I am sooooo excited for the new year so that I can put it up in my office!!

I also received a new book called, The Right-Brain Business Plan. This book is by Jennifer Lee, and I have been drooling over this book seemingly FOREVER!!! I finally decided it was time to break down and treat myself to this little book! It is basically a book that helps visual people, like myself, visually map out a plan of action to get to where they want to be. I have needed this kind of help for a while now, because for some reason I seem to get all excited about something, get overwhelmed and then sabotage myself and end up back at the beginning of my progress!! So, I am at least hoping that this book will have some fun, and creative ideas for getting inspired!!!

There was one more thing in this package I received, but I am not at liberty to share what it was, because it was a Christmas gift for my sweetie, and he reads my blog faithfully!! I am SOOO NOT going to spoil that surprise!! 😉

What else happened today? Well, we had our Christmas luncheon at work today. It is always such a nice treat to have a delicious meal, served by our administration!! Plus, we usually take a bit of a longer lunch so we can just take some time to catch up on how everyone is doing. It was really quite a treat!!

I realized today that it is only one week from tomorrow until we are traveling down to Roseburg to see family for Christmas. I am just so excited to get there, and just hang out and have some fun!!! I will have to see if we can have our friend come over and babysit our girls while we are gone. I really do hate leaving them, but they really need to stay in there own habitat!! It is just safer for them!! I am hoping to someday have an RV where we can have a mini home away from home and then they could easily travel with us, but until then, a dog-sitter it is!!! 😉

Alright, that is enough rambling for one night!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Reading!

Good evening!

As most of you may have noticed, but I am quite the reader. I really love falling into a great book, and this week, I had the pleasure of falling into a total of 3 great books. The Magic Thief, The Magic Thief Lost, and The Magic Thief Found.

These are great books that tell the story of a boy named Connwaer, he is a thief and a guttersnipe, who inadvertently becomes a wizard’s apprentice, after trying to picpocket a wizard of his locus magicalis, which is a wizard’s tool for casting spells. These magical books take you on an adventure as Connwaer tries to figure out how to save the magic that inhabits their little city of Wellmet; if the magic dies, then the city dies as well.

Anyway, I read all three books of this trilogy, this week; mostly by waking up early and reading on my lunch breaks. It is amazing how much reading you can get done just be squeezing in a little reading during your normally wasted time!

Ok, I am hopping off of my literary soap box now. I am not sure what I am going to read next, but I can guess that I will have chosen a new book to read by the end of the evening!

In the meantime, I have got some chores to get done before bed tonight!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Do You Have a Dream?

Good evening!

I have had an Ah-Ha moment this evening. A couple of weeks ago I had picked up a copy of a book called The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. It was one of those purchases that was unplanned and kind of random, but I had read one of his other books called The Prayer of Jabez, and loved it so thought, why not? Well, for some reason, I decided to carry it around with me today. I just had this strange feeling that I really needed to read this book, and NOW!! Well, as I got home from work today, I sat right down and started to read.

WHAT AN AMAZING LITTLE BOOK!!

It is basically a little story about a very big idea. This modern-day parable tells the story of a man named Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his BIG DREAM.

This book, in a very interesting, and compelling way shows you how, with Faith, and some truths that you learn along the way,  you too can leave your own Land of Familiar and pursue your big dream, the one that God had made you for, too!!

This book starts out with Ordinary living his life day in and day out going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, etc. Sound familiar to anyone out there? Well, Ordinary starts to become sad as he realizes that there has to be more than life to this. Sure it is comfortable, but he is not content to live the same life he has been living for so long. So he embarks on a journey to go towards his big dream. What an awesome little book. I truly believe that it was serendipitous that it almost literally landed in my hands that day!!

Anyway, before I leave you for this evening, I thought I would share some of the pics that I had taken from my dad and his wife’s visit with us this past weekend!

This is my sweetie and my dad “cooperating” to have their pictures taken!! I couldn’t get them to look at the camera, and when I told them to scootch closer together, they literally just leaned there upper bodies towards each other while hiding behind their menus! Thanks guys!! 😉

Here is a book set that Trudi found at a large antique store we were in, she said she had this set as a kid. I want this set as an adult!! 😉

Here is Jason’s dream find of the day! It is a Dutch cast iron Aebelskiver pan. Aebelskivers are like Dutch pancake balls – they are truly very DELICIOUS!! Here is a recipe in case you are interested! 😉

Here is a Shriner’s tunic my dad found. Is what really cool! I love the colors and the designs of this!!

We went to a brass band concert on Saturday night, and I will share pics of that with you tomorrow!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

Sunday Evening Update!

Good evening!

What a lovely day today was here in rainy Oregon! I just LOVE the rain! I love that it is cool, wet, and that a really good rainy day makes you want to stay inside all snuggled up reading a good book! Today, I did just that, amongst other things!!

The book I read today was the Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder! I have the whole set, and I actually had just gotten to reading them today. This first book was such an enchanting peek into Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pioneer life as a child living in the woods in Wisconsin in the late 1800s. One of the things I really loved about reading this story is that they tell you how they did a lot of things that our modern culture really take for granted such as churning butter, making maple syrup, homemade cheese, how to make homemade bullets, and the dangers of living out in the wild, and off of the land.

The  Little House in the Big Woods is a great story, about love, hope, family, and all of the exciting adventures that Laura Ingalls and her family has growing up together, and it is quite a fun read – especially for a rainy day! It ALMOST makes me wish I could live the way that her family did…

ALMOST!!! 😉

Ok, maybe for a weekend!! 😉

Anyway, on this fabulously rainy day, I have also helped get some of the house chores done – you know the typical cleaning, that you have no problem helping everyone and their mother do, but you would rather chew off your own arm instead of doing it at your house – that is what we did today!! Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, making the bed, etc, etc, etc!! 😉 I have also spent a fair amount of time crocheting some more on my sweetie’s blanket!! I had discovered that I had made a mistake somewhere and not wanting to just ignore it, I ended up having to pull out 10 complete rows, which if you know anything about granny squares, that is A LOT!! To put it into perspective, when I had first discovered my mistake the blanket covered me from chin to toe, and after pulling out the 10 rows, it is once again a small lap blanket!! DARN!! But, all is good – I am glad I pulled it out, I want to be really proud of this blanket, and make it something for my sweetie that I know I did the VERY BEST that I could on it for him. He is TOTALLY worth it!!

As I get back to doing some more crocheting before bed…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye!

Good evening!

Have I ever told you that I have a really hard time with goodbyes? My sweetie and I did something that we probably shouldn’t have done and that was made ONE MORE trip down to Borders before it actually closes it’s doors this week!

It was a little weird being there. Everything was for sale, and I mean EVERYTHING!! Fixtures, counter tops, bookshelves, mixers, chairs, tables, if it was in the store, it was for SALE!! I would REALLY LOVE to replace my cheapie bookshelves up in my office with a wall full of Borders book cases, but I am going to refrain – believe it or not!! I think I just want to somehow keep a piece of Borders alive – sad right???

Anyway, we had told ourselves that we would never go back again, since we had such a bad experience the last time we had gone there since their closing was announced, but they were claiming 70-90% off!!

HOW CAN YOU PASS THAT UP?????

Anyway, we ended up getting something like 20 books for less than $100!!

SHUT UP!!!

No seriously!! 😉

I honestly don’t know where I am going to put all of these little treasures, but I am very happy to be able to add them to my EVER-GROWING library collection!! 😉 I know, I will have to have another intervention with myself about my excessive book shopping, but truly I am working on it!! LOL!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉