Category Archives: Motivation

Be It Ever So Humble!

Good evening!

Jason and I are happy to report that we have made it home from our visit with our family, safe and sound!! We were a little unsure that that would happen because on our return home, when we stopped on our way out of town to get gas, our car decided not to start! EEK!! Thankfully we have AAA and they were able to send assistance to us, and we were only delayed 45 minutes in total!! So, I say, I am soooo thankful that we have made it home safe and sound!!

I would love to tell you that since our return home, we have been productive, and unpacked everything and put it all away into it’s proper places, but that would be so untrue!! We got home at about 3:30, and then by 4 we were so zonked, that we decided to go take a nap, and have only just awoken within the past 15 minutes. So, our day is pretty much gone!! 🙂

Jason is in the kitchen cleaning up all of his baking evidence, as I sit in the living room, chatting with you, while at the same time, I have a virtual fireplace crackling on my television. It is strangely soothing. LOL! Does anyone else know what I am talking about?? Or is it just me who is loving this little “program”!?!? 😉

Anyway, I don’t actually return to work until Wednesday, which means I will have some active thinking and planning to do tomorrow. I have realized that my health life is spiraling out of control, nutrition and fitness-wise. I am not sure that I have actually taken the time to plan a healthy meal in almost 3 weeks, and the good Lord Himself knows when I have purposefully done any kind of exercise. That is soooo unlike me, and soooooo very UNACCEPTABLE!!! It is causing me to sit on the sidelines and watching my life go by because I am either too sore or too tired to do anything else.  SO, this has caused me to want to take a good hard look at what is working and not working in all areas of my life, so that Jason and I can have the life we want, and not the life that we accidentally stumble into!! I will keep you posted!!

Tomorrow may just turn into a vision board day! I will have to get creative on how in the world I am going to share pics with you because my camera is still on the fritz, which by the way, is very discombobulating!! (Ooh!! I love that I got to use that word, that may just have to be my word of the day!!!) 😉 Ok, so I digress!

“Either you live the life you create for yourself, or you live the life that someone else creates for you. You choose!” ~Me

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Ta-Dat-Dat-Daaah!!

Good evening!

Tonight is my 365th post in a row!! YEAH!!!! I had set a goal for myself that I would blog every day for one year, and I am very happy to announce that I HAVE MET THIS GOAL!!! 😉

You know, I have learned a lot about myself and of life while blogging this past year, and I thought I would share some of those things that I have learned with you!

  1. If you don’t live your life, you don’t have a life!
  2. Experiences are waaaay more important than material things!
  3. It is ok to ask for help!
  4. Even when you think you are all alone, there is someone out there who is willing to lend you some encouragement!
  5. Even the scariest goals can be accomplished if you are determined enough to make the needed sacrifices!
  6. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you want to do something you should, just doing it feels great!
  7. There is a whole world of people, ideas, and places right outside the door of my little world!
  8. I only know what I know, and I still have a LOT left to learn!
  9. There is a whole community of creative people who are willing to cheer you on!
  10. No matter what you are going through, there is always someone who is going through the same thing themselves!
  11. Kindness and sincerity is always a fan pleaser!
  12. Taking a leap of faith may be scary, but landing further than you expected is always worth it!
  13. You can always do one more thing!
  14. Taking time to do nothing is medicine for the soul!
  15. So is laughter!
  16. You attract to you what you send out!
  17. Even after 17 years my sweetie can still dazzle me!
  18. It is ok to pick and choose your family!
  19. You can’t please everyone at all times!
  20. Learning to say no is so difficult, but once you say it once, it becomes a lifesaver!
  21. Children grow so quickly, but are great at keeping you feeling young!
  22. There isn’t such a thing as being too sparkly!
  23. Sexy doesn’t just come in one size!
  24. You are never too old to begin again!
  25. You really only do get one life!
  26. Just because the corporation owns your job doesn’t mean you don’t still own your career!
  27. It is therapeutic to often let your inner child out to play!
  28. It is ok to have a bad day every once in a while, you are human after all!
  29. People are more precious than gold!
  30. It is ok to listen to my intuition, she knows what she is talking about!!

I hope you have enjoyed following my blog for the past year!! By no means do I plan on stopping now, but I may not be quite so hard on myself if I don’t blog EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I will continue to share my stories with you to hopefully provide encouragement to someone to try something new, or to let someone else know that they are not alone, or to even just share something inspiring!!  Thank you so much to those of you who stop by every day to see what is going on, those who comments and offer words of encouragement! I hope that I have given to you even a small slice of what you have given to me, I appreciate you!! 😉

In the next coming weeks I have some ideas to give my blog a fresh new take that I have been toying with, and I hope that as I start to implement some of these ideas that you will continue to give me your honest feedback, and encouragement! I always look forward to hearing from you! 🙂 I am so very excited to see what this next year brings!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

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! :-)

Taking Time with My Sweetie!

Good evening!

This is going to be a rather short post. I feel a little like the white rabbit, saying, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!”

Tonight, after getting some chores done, my sweetie and I are going to spend some quality time together, and for that I am supremely grateful! With me being sick, and him getting busy in his work life, we haven’t had a whole lot of quality time together lately!!

After work today, we stopped and had a lovely dinner together, where we could just catch up and check in with each other! I knew that I was going to head up to snuggle down in bed early tonight, but I also knew that I have some chores that need to get done, who doesn’t have those, and I also knew that I wanted to spend a few moments enjoying my Christmas tree tonight. So, I am doing that now while I am getting my posting done!!

Chores:

  • Swap laundry
  • Sweep
  • Vacuum
  • Clear off stair
  • Load dishwasher
  • Tidy up bathrooms
  • Change bedding/make bed

On another to-do list type note, we are almost ready for Christmas – Whoo! Hoo!! I have just one more person on my list to shop for, and then my sweetie has got to get all of the fixings so that we can put together goodie baskets for all of the families, just like we do every year!! He is a phenomenal baker, and I always love helping him in the kitchen wherever I am needed, even if that is just to make sure he doesn’t eat all of the goodies!!!! Hmmm…I wonder what we will make this year?

  • Marshapine
  • Peanut butter crunchies
  • Peppermint bark
  • Peanut butter fudge
  • Mini chocolate chunk cookies with butterscotch chips

That should please the masses!! I know that will please us!!! YUM!! I can’t wait to get cooking!! 😉

What else?? Well, not too much! Now that I have freed up my head with my lists, I really am just itchin’ to get my chores done, so I can squiddle down in my freshly made bed, with my sweetie, my girls and a great romance novel! Yes, that is the genre du jour!! It will be SA-WHEET!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 

Setting Up Shop!

Good evening!

So, my sweetie and I made it to Roseburg! WHEW!!! We headed straight to my sister’s house, picked her up, and long story short, Jennifer, Trina, Sweetie, and myself all ended up at the Douglas County fairgrounds so we could set up our booth! Of course I forgot my camera, so I will be taking pics of our booth first thing in the morning, but I have to admit that we were all pleasantly surprised that we were able to make it look so nice, PLUS fill up a double booth!!! My sisters have been hard at work creating handicrafts all year to make this weekend possible!

I had the opportunity to pull all of my old jewelry out to sell in the booth too, which really made me nostalgic for creating jewelry again! I will make sure to take pics of those too!

I wanted to especially share one thing that happened this evening that has really made this trip worthwhile already and that is, after we had finished setting up the booth, Austin met us at Denny’s and we all sat down for dinner. As we all held hand so my sweetie could pray over our dinner, in that moment, as I was holding Jennifer and Trina’s hand, I had great feeling of being blessed that I was able to be in that moment with my family. It was a priceless feeling that I have really been missing lately! God is good!! 😉

With that, it has been a long day, and we have got to get up very early tomorrow to go finish any last minute preparations, so I am going to call it a night and get some much needed sleep!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Treasure Hunting!

Good evening!
The other day, I had the opportunity to go treasure hunting, and I thought today that I would share two of my finds with you!

I found these two spectacular pieces at Aunt Bee’s here in town! I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first laid eyes on them, I just KNEW they had to come home with me! They were a little spendier than I am used to spending on a whim, but I knew that they would be a great investment and a great addition to my ever growing art collection. That sounds so cool to me! 😉

These pictures make me long to visit Europe. I dream of what it would be like if I could live there someday. Maybe live in the countryside of France, or the hustle and bustle of an Italian Villa, or maybe even live on a remote and isolated  emerald isle of Ireland. DREAMY!

I can imagine myself walking endlessly, just enjoying the scenery, or holding hands with my sweetie as we enjoy the sights of Europe together. Reading on a blanket under a shady tree, or sloshing in puddles while wearing my wellies, and the rain is coming down pitter-patting on my umbrella, that of course I would have right on hand! I would love to see the magnificent architecture, and learn about the vast history, and I would be proficient in every language – ok that may be pushing it, but I think you get what I mean. I would love to be blend in with the locals, and live the culture the way that they really live it. Living life, loving life, enjoying my friends and family! That would be AMAZING!!!

Someday, you will see. I am not sure how, and I am not sure when, but it will happen!! And when it does maybe I will be able to see these actual scenes first hand. For now, I will settle with enjoying my European view through these small paintings that I will truly treasure! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good evening!

I am posting much later than I usually do, but that is because I have just finished having a lovely Thanksgiving day with our friends Dawn and Errin! We had a large Thanksgiving dinner, played a few rounds of Taboo, fun game, hadn’t played that in a VERY long time!! Then we watched a Christmas movie, Scrooged, had some pie – YUM!! and finally ended the evening with laughter with some Jeff Dunham. I am so thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving, that I thought I would share a list of things that I am thankful for…

  1. I am uniquely and wonderfully made, by a God who loves me even more than I could ever imagine
  2. God has provided everything that my husband and I have ever needed and more.
  3. My husband is extremely supportive, and is one of the funniest people – I am so thankful to have him in my life
  4. I have an amazing family that loves me
  5. I have close friends that I can share my hopes and dreams with and that I know have my back
  6. I have a job that most people would dream of that has great pay and amazing bennies
  7. I have a roof over my head, one that I am allowed to paint, and remodel, and decorate to my hearts content
  8. I have a safe, comfortable vehicle that has done an amazing job at getting us from point a to point b
  9. I live in a free country where I am allowed to speak my mind, and live the life that I want to live
  10. Life is just so precious, and I am so thankful that I get to live my day every single day, just to see what happens next

Have a a FABULOUS evening!!

Ready for Thanksgiving!

Good evening!

I have had a pretty darn good day today! It completely helped that today is my Friday to a 4-day weekend, I got off work a little early this afternoon, and that my sweetie has been completely and totally charmingly helpful this evening! What a gem he is!!!

Not only that, but he has single-handedly prepped everything for Thanksgiving dinner, so besides the actual cooking, everything that can be ready for Thanksgiving is ready. WHEW!! Although he did get enough groceries to feed an army!!!  LOL!!

Tomorrow, we are expecting our very good friends, Dawn and Errin to join us for our Thanksgiving !! I am so excited, I really can not wait!! I am also planning on making the calls to all the family to make sure that the family is doing well, and enjoying their Thanksgivings as well!! I just need to make sure that I don’t get so busy that I forget! SHEESH!! That would make me bad daughter/sister for the year!!! 😉

What are all of your plans for Thanksgiving? Are you planning on spending it with your loved ones?

So for some randomness:

It has been a really rainy week here in Oregon, matter of fact, I am wondering when it is going to start flooding here, if it hasn’t already! I absolutely adore rainy days, which is one of the main reasons I live here in Oregon.  I was reading today that 2 of the top 50 healthiest US cities for Women are Seatlle, WA, which is #15, and Beaverton, OR/Vancouver, WA are #30, which makes me happier about living here, but makes me think about the possibility of moving up north to either Portland or Seattle again. Anyway, I am not sure where those thoughts came from, but I am just keepin’ it real here!! 😉

Anyway, I am off to enjoy the rest of my night!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

 

My Tree Is Done!!

Good evening!

It has taken me three days, but I have finally finished decorating my Christmas tree!! WHOO! HOO!!! I know it is early, but I really have needed a little Christmas spirit early this year! 😉

I wasn’t going to put up our tree this year, because I was thinking that it is an awful lot of work for just my sweetie and I, and we aren’t even going to be here at Christmas, however, when I expressed my thoughts to my sis, Alex she convinced me that even if it was just to enjoy the Christmas tree while I am reading on a quiet evening – it would be worth the work!!! 😉 She was absolutely right! AS SOON as I got the Christmas lights on the tree I was IMMEDIATELY put me in the Christmas spirit! It also helped that my sweetie helped my put the tree up this year, which I REALLY appreciated it!!

My theory on decorating my Christmas tree is to basically put EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that I LOVE on the tree!!! Which means that every single solitary inch of that tree has something on it!!

I love to tuck little treasures and momentos into our tree too. I especially LOVE pictures of my sweetie and from various different Christmas’!

We are such babies in this picture. This is one of our first Christmas’ with my sweetie’s family.

I also have lots of little signs, and this little red bird. One of my pastors, growing up, used to tell me that the little bird in her tree would wake up every evening and fly to the north pole to report to Santa whether or not we were behaving or not. Even though we don’t have children, I sometimes wonder if our little red bird flies to the north pole while we sleep and give a full report of our behavior to the man in the big red suit too!! 😉

Oh, and with my love of Santas, how could I not at least have one or 10 Santas on my tree??? 😉

Here is our Christmas star. Everyone always makes fun of me for this topper. Apparently it isn’t quite as flashy as the rest of our tree, however Jason and I bought this tree for our very first Christmas almost 17 years ago and every year I pull it out and PRAY that all of the lights in it still work. Every year, I am always amazed when they do!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

When I describe our tree to anyone who has never seen it before, I always say that it looks like a jewelry box exploded ALL OVER our Christmas tree!! I still think that is pretty fitting!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

PS. Thank you, Alex, for cheering me on when I was having a moment of weekness!! I dedicate this blog posting, and my lovely Christmas tree, that has made me ABSOLUTELY SMILE to you!!!You were 100% right!!! I love you, Sissy!! 😉

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! 😉