I have spent the past couple of hours getting my financial house in order! Budgets, bills, filing, scheduling, etc, etc, etc. WHEW!!! It is exhausting work, but work that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to knowing where my money is going!!

My sweetie and I are having a really good week! Ok I realize it is only Monday, but really our last two weeks seemed to have been running much smoother than they have lately! We have been working on our communication skills, and with a little help, my sweetie is learning how to get his business life organized, and tonight we even sat down and wrote out goals for 2012 TOGETHER!!! I mean, really, this man has NEVER had any kind of ambition to join me in any of my goal setting, and I mean like, EVER!!! It has literally made my evening!! LOL!

Anyway, on a different note, my sweetie and I are having a Cosby Show marathon this evening! We LOVE this show!! It reminds me of my childhood when my parents and I used to watch every week. I remember all of us laughing sooo hard, especially my dad! He is the one who introduced us to the clean but uber-funny comedy of Bill Cosby! My sweetie and I also love the messages in every episode, and I find that we are laughing , and then crying, and then talking seriously about what lessons we would impart on our child if we were ever so blessed to have one. It is a great show! Well, we watch this show from NetFlix live streaming, and The Cosby Show actually leaves the queue tonight at midnight, which means we are watching as many as we can fit in before we have to go to bed this evening!! BTW, bedtime is in 5 minutes, UGH!

Anyway, I think that this is a series that I am seriously considering purchasing and adding to our collection, which takes me back to my starting topic of getting my financial house in order – I am just going to have to add The Cosby Show to our someday fund! Financial freedom is just too important of a goal right now, and we have got some serious work to do in that aread!! (but, then again, don’t we all!?!?!?) 

Well, I am going to call it a night!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

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

I have had a VERY nice weekend!! The house is clean, the chores are done, and I have been soaking up all sorts of inspirational and positive messages all weekend!! I have had a great time with my sweetie baking, trying new recipes, going out on the town, taking a ton of pictures, going out with our girlfriend, Rachel, and catching up! Having a nice lazy day today, re-energizing before my work week starts. The only way I can sum it up is that life is good!!

I am busy planning some new decorating projects for our little place. I am excited to get both my energy and my creative mojo back!! Some things I inspired to do/make for our little place:

1. A faux fireplace to our master bedroom
2. Use a long and low bookcase to create an entry way into our home
3. Painting vertical stripes on one wall in our dining room
4. Wallpapering a small hallway with damask paper
5. Hanging a family/friends photo gallery up our stairway
6. Tiling the walls in our kitchen with white subway tiles
7. Hanging a new chandelier in our dining room
8. Adding bead board to our kitchen island
9. Creating a burlap wreath
10. Creating a new tabletop for our dining room table using reclaimed barn wood
11. Refinishing our French inspired coffee table

Hmmmm…I am sure that the sky, and my imagination are the limit! I can not wait to share my results with you!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

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

I am having such a FABULOUS day, that it made me feel froggy enough to want to share how my day has been going since I decided to start a revolution in my life!!

Here is something I texted to myself after having completed the first portion of my walk this morning:

“WOW! I feel AMAZING!! I just spent the last 1/2 hour walking from my old High School all the way to one of my first places of employment, downtown – and all I can say is WHOO! HOO! My sweetie was very surprised I made it down to him so quickly!! We are now at one of the local Starbuck’s where he is playing on his computer and I am thoroughly enjoying a nice large glass of ice water!! I am not sure what to do now, but I am having the hardest time holding still now. Who would have thought that the act of expending energy, would actually give you energy? What a good day!”

After sending this to myself, I tried really hard to hold still and read  a little, and I just couldn’t do it – hold still that is. So, I decided to walk a little bit further. I ended up spending the next hour or so walking everywhere I could think of just taking pictures like a maniac! It was soooo much fun!! I finally had to have my sweetie come pick me up because my camera battery had died, and my back up was dead too! So, here I am now at home, at least for a few hours before we go out to dinner with a girlfriend of mine this evening! I can’t wait!!!

Here’s to having a FABULOUS day!!

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

I woke up in a great mood this morning. I am not sure if that is because I am on day two of my four-day weekend, or if it might be because I had such a good day getting my house back in order yesterday that now I am ready to get out and conquer the world!!

You know I have been using the phrase “If you want a different life, you have to live differently” as my daily matra, and it has really got me questioning how and why I do everything.

Why do I have so much stuff?

Why do I spend so much time watching television?

Why am I not arting?

Why aren’t I doing the things that I know I need to be doing?

Why am I not living in the city I want to be living in?

Why am I not working towards my dream career?

Why am I not happy?

In asking myself all of these questions, I am quickly realizing that all of this is because of the choices I am making in my daily life. Not even just the big choices, but all of the small, seemingly insignificant choices as well. They are taking me down the path that is called my life, but unfortunately right now, I have been letting those things take me down this path while I have been numbingly on autopilot. It has just seemed safer that way.  Safer, but not better.

When I was a teenager I used to walk everywhere, and I really mean EVERYWHERE!!! I had filled out a questionnaire while I had worked for this small Risk Management office, and it asked how much walking do you do on a daily basis, and I remember answering something like 4 hours a day! and if I remember correctly, that was a CONSERVATIVE guess!! I walked to school every morning, then downtown to work after school, then to my boyfriend’s place, then back to school for practice in the evening, which had another two hours of walking a couple of times a week.

No wonder I had so much energy!!!

I was like the energizer bunny, and although I am about double the age I was then, I wonder what would happen if I started walking out of the need to get from one place to another again? Would it start a revolution? Would the masses rebel? Ok, so I don’t really have “masses”, but I wonder what my sweetie would think? Would he think that I have lost my mind? or would this just seem like another “Chrissy Transformation” that he has come so used to expecting from me over the years??

What if I were to completely remove the television from our living room?

Would we spend more quality time together?

Would we do more outings?

Would it make us happier?

Would we be bored out of our minds?

Are we those people???

Or is it me? Am I THAT person?

The answer to that scares me, because I know that I AM!!

I watch the world go by.

It seems safer that way.

Sadder, but safer.

I know that it doesn’t have to be this way, I am starting a revolution!! I am taking my life back! No longer do I want to play it safe, sitting on the sidelines watching as others live, laugh, and love! I WANT THAT FOR ME! I WANT THAT FOR US! I WANT THAT FOR MY FAMILY!!!!

So, I am going to take it!! We only get this one life, and if I don’t start now, then WHEN??? So, today, right now is as good a time as any!!! My sweetie is going to take me to my old High School so that I can walk from there to downtown, just to see how far it is/how long that will take me, and I will meet up with him there. Then we are going down to the University so that I can FINALLY take pictures of their gorgeous historical buildings (I have lived in this city on and off for the past 24 years afterall!!!) that I have ALWAYS wanted to take!

I am a loooong way from the girl I used to be, but if I can borrow some of her abundance of joy, my life’s happiness would improve drastically!!! Wish me luck!!

Here’s to a FABULOUS day!!

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

I know, I’m late, late, late!!!

Chunky Dunker’s night is a casual, but fun group for people from all walks of life to get together online to support one another in their health and fitness goals, whether it be to lose a few pounds, or to do one situp; I am very happy to welcome you here every Wednesday evening, where we “meet” in the comments section to catch up, share hints, tips, and ideas and to just encourage each other as we go through our health &  fitness path together!!

I have had an alright kind of week health-wise, but I still managed to gain .8 pounds. Oh bother!!! Very Eeyore of me, I know!! But, I just had an EXTREMELY healthy, and yummy dinner that my sweetie cooked for us, thank you, Love!!! Now I am eating a sweet treat of a dumb-dumb, you know those little suckers that have all different kinds of flavors? Those are a big hit at my place with the kiddos!

I am sorry this post is so short, but I am running late this evening and I want to make sure that I am able to get into the chat room and start chatting!!!

See you there!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

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

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!”

Let me back up a little bit:

The other day when I was so worried that I was going to have our place flooded, I sat at work with that thought in my head for almost 8 hours. Over and over, I kept making a mental note of what things I HAD to have saved from the first floor of the house. What both surprised, and disturbed me to know is that there isn’t much that I care about losing down here. Besides my sweetie and my two dogs, I have a chest that belonged to my grandpa – he was an artist, and it is where he kept his art pens, that I would want saved, and the other thing would be my books that live downstairs. Not all of those, but a few that I consider “friends”, I would feel sick if I lost those too.

What does that mean in the big scheme of things???

Well, what kept going through my mind as I was thinking of these “HAD TO HAVE” items, is that maybe I have surrounded myself with things that I thought were bringing me happiness, when in reality, they might just be taking up space in both my home and in my life. I don’t want things that just take up space, I want things that add joy and value to my life. Even in saying that I know that things will never really do that, only people and experiences will bring me joy and value, but I live here. This is the place that should rise up to meet me when I get home. I started to wonder if that was what was making me feel run down and overwhelmed in my life.

I literally spent all weekend wallowing about this, and pining for the life I might have been if I would have not been focusing on unimportant “things” (yes, it was a very deep weekend for me!)  This morning I woke up and decided I was done wallowing. Today is that day that I start taking some kind of action to clean it all out, clear it all out, and decide what I am going to surround myself with from now on. No more unconscious living for me, thank you very much.

So, this morning as I sit in my living room, writing all of this down, I am surrounded by all of our Christmas containers, both old and new. I am working on getting all of the Christmas decorations cleaned out and re-organized into new, un-mangled bins/drawers  so that I can help make Christmas decorating more fun, less chore. It may take me all week to get this all put away, but as in all things baby steps, baby steps.

In the meantime, I have also created a daily chore list for my sweetie and I, so we can get make the cleaning of this place a little more manageable as well. No ladies, chore charts are not just for your children any longer!! Before I zip off to work this morning, I just thought I would share this new chore chart with you!!

Daily:

• Make the bed
• Cycle the dishes through the dishwasher
• Wipe down stove top, counters, and microwave, if needed
• Take the garbage out, if needed
• Wipe down the dining room table
• Straighten the sofa
• Clean the dog’s water bowl, if needed
• Fill the dog’s water bowl
• Pack lunches
• Empty lunch bags as soon as get home so it is ready for next days’ lunch
• Cycle laundry, if needed
• Remove garbage from car if needed
• 15 minutes picking up after ourselves before heading up to bed

Whew!! between the two of us, we should be able to manage that pretty well!! and I bet it will make a nice difference on how well this place looks. I will keep you posted!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!

It has been a really busy here, in my little hometown. We have been dealing with the first day of a very heavy rainstorm, and man has it been a doozy! It is expected to rain throughout the next week, and even though it has only rained hard one day, there has been flooding all over town already. The newscasters are calling this a 40 year event, it happens so rarely. Matter of fact, the street I live on is really flooded – so much so that it is closed, and most of it has been evacuated – SCARY!! My sweetie helped our neighbors fill sandbags, and thankfully our condo is safe for now, we are on a little bit higher ground than most of the other homeowners in our area, so I think we will be alright.

While at the office today, I, along with two of my co-workers, decided to go for a little walk to see what kind of flooding was happening. We knew that the creek that runs along side the hospital had crested, and was flooding the main back street into the hospital, so we wanted to see it for ourselves.

I am not sure exactly how to describe this picture, but normally there is at least a 10-15  foot drop here, some grass, and a very light creek that runs under the hospital. Obviously, not today!

This is a picture of where the creek that runs alongside the back of the hospital. It normally runs within the two rows of trees pictured here. I have worked at the hospital for over 11 years, and I have NEVER seen the creek get this high before.

Here is the same overflowing creek, but this is the park that sits alongside the creek. What you can’t see is that this water is so high that all of the picnic tables are completely submerged, and off to the right, which is not shown in the picture, there is a building that is about 1/4 submerged. Sad! This is usually the place we take our walking breaks! It is usually so peaceful here.

Here is half of the stairway that leads down to this park. The other half is underwater!

Here is the creek right behind my little building at the hospital.

It is crazy fast, and sounds beautifully loud. It would be fun to be able to go kayaking in the middle of my workday here!! LOL!!

I feel bad for all of these trees. There is so much debris being carried in the swift moving creek, that I am sure that these poor trees are just getting battered!!

It is kind of hard to see here, but this is a large trunk of a broken tree that has been brought downstream and is just banging into this bridge. Eventually so much water was coming over the bridge walls, that the police ended up cordoning off this section and closed the street down.

It is amazing how voluminous one rain storm can make all of these creeks around here. I am hoping that the water will slowly start to recede now that we have had a few hours of clear skies, but I hear we have a second rainstorm hitting tomorrow. EEK!! AND, working at the hospital, they have activated a disaster code, so all of staff are working 12 hour shifts, 24/7 this weekend. It is going to be a LOOOOOONG week until next weekend. I pray that I get to have at least one day off this week, I am most definitely going to need a break!!

Anyway, I will keep you posted on how things are going. My prayers go out to all of the families whose homes are truly affected with all of this flooding, and I thank God that he has kept my family and my hairy four-legged  girls safe!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

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

It is that time of week again, Chunky Dunker’s night!! A casual, but fun group for people from all walks of life to get together online to support one another in their health and fitness goals, whether it be to lose a few pounds, or to do one situp; I am very happy to welcome you here every Wednesday evening, where we “meet” in the comments section to catch up, share hints, tips, and ideas and to just encourage each other as we go through our health &  fitness path together!!

I don’t really have too much to report this evening! This is officially my second weigh-in day since on Weight Watchers online. I have to admit I didn’t lose any weight this week, but I didn’t gain any either, so I am going to call it a good week!! I did have quite the splurge on Monday evening, going to a Chinese restaurant, and then making a beeline to Cold Stone Creamery. UGH!! It was yummy, and I would probably do it again, if I had the points for it, which I did! Dinner, I didn’t do so hot choice-wise, but instead of having my own ice cream at Cold Stone, my sweetie and I shared one, so it could have been much MUCH worse!!

Anyway, I got my camera back from the repair service place!! YEAH!! It took a couple of weeks to get back and I have just been going crazy waiting for it to get here! I am happy to report that it seems to be in working order, and I will be back to taking a ton of pictures of anything and everything starting tomorrow morning, I have even warned my co-workers!! MWA-HA-HAAAAAA!!! I have noticed that my blog posts have been looking a little sad without their pictures, so I will be fixing that SOON!!

Oh, and a slight explanation about tonight’s pic. This is how I look right now, as I post this evening. I am in my jammies, and ready for bed. I know I look tired in this pic, and that is because I AM!!! I have been keeping myself pretty busy!!!  I just love talking to all of you for as long as possible, but being someone who habitually goes to bed early, I thought tonight I would just be  little proactive, and get all my ablutions done BEFORE I get online to to chat this evening!!! So, my apologies if my pic scared anyone!! LOL!! Now you know what my sweetie gets to look forward to every night!!! I love you, Babe!!

Anyway, I look forward to seeing you all in the comments section!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

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

I wasn’t planning on posting tonight, and I know that I have been out for the past couple of evenings. I have been having a rough few days; a pretty bad case of “the mean reds” a la Breakfast at Tiffany’s, if you know what that means?

Anyway,  I have a dream – not a Martin Luther King Jr grand kind of a dream, but a small, made just for me and my little family kind of dream. I have been wallowing, because I really just didn’t know how I was going to make my little dream come true, and then this evening, I ran across a post that said…

You Have to Start Somewhere!

That one little phrase got me to thinking; I need to start somewhere, which is right here, right now, and with what I have on hand, which happens to be quite a lot!! My word for 2012 is Freedom, but true freedom is not going to happen because I wish it to happen!! I have got to stop sniveling, and whining, and I have got to start taking some action. So, here I am, shouting it out to the universe that I am ready to stop talking and start doing.

I have to go grab a pen and some paper and get a rough plan out on paper!!! Here’s to making my little dreams come true!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!

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