4/23/10

I loveth mine angel

I beseech thee, wilt thou permit me to speaketh my mind? Methinks I am blessed in abundance, with my bairn whom oft lighteth my path, e'en as the glorious midday sun. Wherefore, she doth quench mine anguish and maketh mine heart rejoice. Verily, e'en as I gi' her love, she returneth it o'er 100 fold. Mayhap thou wast privy, but, by your leave, indulge thy cousin, I pray thee. Ne'er hath I been gi'n a greater source o' strength. Methinks there casn't any canker-blossom come betwixt us.

I learned that today was "Talk like Shakespeare Day" and I couldn't resist. Any excuse to talk about my daughter. Hope you had a great "Talk like Shakespeare day" lol. Seriously... who celebrates this stuff? ;)

4/20/10

A "CRAPPY" LESSON IN PROCRASTINATION

Eight months of dog poo is no small amount! (That got your attention). Allow me to indulge you in a story: (It looks long but is so worth the read).

Picking up "fecal matter" is a repulsive, degrading and downright dirty task - making it far to easy to procrastinate. Last Fall I put it off for several weeks, telling myself daily, "I'll do it tomorrow." Tomorrow came, and my husband surprised me with divorce papers. Suddenly, picking up poo became the least of my worries.

My back yard quickly became a war-zone, perilous landmines scattered within every stepping distance. I ignored it for six weeks as I desperately fought to save my marriage - a fight I lost. I was greeted with winter, and the accumulating landmines were enshrouded under a blanket of beautiful white snow. I was at ease.

Until Spring arrived. With the snow now gone, and the soil heating up, the dreadful state (and smell) of my back yard was apparent, revealing eight months of damage. I knew I had to undertake the daunting task eventually... so I grabbed an old garbage bag and went to work.


Two days later I was done! I stood with pride as I admired the fresh earth and huge bag of poo before me - a testament of the feat I had so "courageously" accomplished. (Imagine head held high, hands on hips, legs planted firm and wide, and chest in air. Yeah. It was good to be me). Now to throw it away.

To throw it away. Hmmm... to throw it away. It was heavier than I had expected. I didn't really take that into consideration during the monotonous two days of work. How was I gonna get it into the dumpster? No problem - nothing a little momentum couldn't take care of. I held the dumpster lid up with one hand while mustering all my strength in the other. Swinging the bag I counted silently, "One...two.." (You see it coming, don't you)?

"SHIIIIIIIIIII....P!" (Only I'm pretty sure I didn't use a "P." In this case, completely appropriate)! I was utterly shocked as the bag ripped open and poo rained down upon me in all its forms; old, new, soft, hard, wet, dry, fresh and composted. The best I could do was to cower, as the final mist of pungent poo settled over me, the acrid smell inundating my unsuspecting nostrils. Of course, the wind was against me, insuring complete coverage. (Hilarious, I know).

I let out a loud and excessively long yell of disgust, as I glanced down my street searching for witnesses. I was alone. Are you serious? Did that really just happen? AND NO ONE EVEN SAW IT?! I burst out laughing, as I began brushing myself off and spitting poo-dust from my mouth, still stupefied over what had just happened. I grabbed my push broom, defeated, and began, once again, to clean up 8 months worth of dog-poo, laughing the entire time.

Moral of the story: Clean up life's poo before it's so heavy you're covered in it! I don't know... that or "Use a hefty bag when cleaning up after your dogs." Either way, you get the idea.

The end.

4/17/10

13 Miles with a Smile

13.1, actually. I just ran the Salt Lake City 1/2 marathon and have such a sense of accomplishment! I thought I'd only get that from a marathon but I was wrong. I also thought 1/2 marathon would be easy. Wrong again! I was planning on a marathon this year, but in this moment I have a TINY taste of what it would consist of and now I'm not so sure. Who would do that to themselves?!

Ok. I will. (might) Just give me time to recover and get stupid again.

It was so fun to see people from every walk of life: The young and old, thin and not-so-thin, (and the thin-thin-thin), punks and preps, men and women. There were nearly 4400 participants in the 1/2 marathon alone, 2662 of which were women. I came in 1210 place, 469th in women. Amazing? Not really. BUT... My time was 1:55:55 (an 8:51 mile pace), an entire 11 minutes better than my goal! I ran the entire race without stopping once, and I can say I did my best. Therein lies the satisfaction. As I finished up the last mile I kept telling myself over and over, "You'll never regret giving it your all, you'll never regret giving it your all."

I was right.

Those same words have been running through my mind the last 6 months of life. I love Hebrews 12:1 and have it on my fridge: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

I haven't been entirely consistent nor patient in the race set before me, walking at times and probably even lying down once in awhile. I do, however, have a sure knowledge that if I can just press my way to the top of every hill, giving it my all, there is always relief provided in the much-welcomed downhill. I also have the sure knowledge that at the bottom of every down-hill, the uphill starts. Such is life, and life will never change. We either conquer each hill, or each hill conquers us.

Everyday I remind myself that now is the time to run with patience (trusting God) the race that is set before me....for I will never regret giving it my all.

Thank you to my friend, Catherine, for coming over at 5:30 am to watch Gracie while she slept, for breakfast after, and for stopping the car so I could puke 10 minutes later lol.

WHAT A GREAT DAY! I made a friend in the parking garage and we entertained each other the whole way up. A girlfriend. (Don't be ridiculous). Amy. Thanks to her - I got a picture of my first race. I have a feeling there will be many more to come.

4/10/10

An ugly board with beautiful results

In 2006 I had an entire "dry-erase board" wall, designated solely for goals. It was unsightly. (It was actually a sheet of shower-wall from Home Depot - about $10. Genius). This morning I woke up thinking about goals, and decided I needed to pull out the "shower wall" again. "But where will you put it? It's so ugly. Wait a minute... who cares! You live alone, put it wherever you want." And so I did.

My bedroom wall now has a grotesque white-board on it - sure to become my secret pride and joy, a source of utter satisfaction. (I pulled out the circular saw and cut it into 3rds so it's not quite so gaudy).

Few things are as rewarding as a goal accomplished. As I was preparing my "goal-wall," I went through past year's goal charts and felt such a sense of pride. It was fun to see all the goals, big and small, I had fulfilled - which left me to marvel over the power of writing goals down. I'm in awe of what can be accomplished when a target is broken down by month, week, day and even hour. From acquiring characteristics to acquiring "things" - the formula proves successful.

Below are 7 goals over the last few years, those which took the most work to obtain and, as I look back on them, created the greatest sense of accomplishment. Funny pattern... THE MORE CHALLENGING THE GOAL, THE GREATER THE SATISFACTION. I wonder if I would have been so persistent, had I not written them down.

2006: Buy a home
2006: Go to the Temple
2007: Get my Realtor's license
2007: Buy and remodel an investment property
2008: Have no debt (except home)
2008: Start a family (originally set in 2006, finally fulfilled in 2009)
2009: Weigh xxxlbs :)

Here's to a fresh board, and a fresh start! Love me some goals! :)

4/9/10

Something worth promoting

Customer Service is dead. In our fast-paced, high-demand world it seems companies search for any way to save a dime and cut a corner, usually at the expense of customer service. Hence, if a company goes above and beyond they certainly deserve recognition for such.

This is me - giving props to a company I'm extremely impressed with.

It's not often I come across a service that is truly life-changing, but I have to say - LDSjournal.com is one of those! I've been using LDSjournal.com for over a year now and I LOVE IT! I've gotten half of my family hooked and they all agree - IT'S THE BEST WAY TO JOURNAL!

I've had a passion for this service, but it wasn't until last week that I also fell in-love with the people behind the service. I had a question, and they replied within the hour. I elaborated, they replied again... within the hour. This occurred two more times before I got an email with a video attached, a quick tutorial they had made JUST FOR ME! As a visual learner I was very grateful, and especially impressed to see them go the extra mile. I told them so and they replied, "We're glad to hear that it helped. ;-) Feel free to tell everyone that we're the "coolest". Have a great evening!!!"

Everyone: www.LDSjournal.com is the coolest.

A few months ago I met the owner of LDSjournal.com and spent a good 45 minutes talking to him, asking questions, making suggestions and picking his brain. As it stands right now, I believe most people (or everyone) behind the company work as volunteers. Funding is low and it's apparent there isn't a huge stream of revenue, as the service is free. This is one free service I NEVER want to lose, so if the best way I can help is to tell all my friends about it, then that's exactly what I'm going to do! Check them out. Sign up. Use it once or twice and if you don't like it, nothing lost, but I can pretty much guarantee you'll love it!

I could be wrong. It might not be for you. Maybe you LIKE writing for an hour, when you could have typed the same thing in 10 minutes. Maybe you LIKE noticing an error and passing it by, because it's not worth all the erasing necessary to correct. Maybe you LIKE half-finished entries, because you ran out of steam near the end. Maybe you LIKE putting off an entry or accumulating blank spaces, because you want your journal in chronological order. Maybe you LIKE forgetting incredible experiences, because you never found the time necessary to write it all out or you didn't have your journal with you (but of course your lap-top was right by your side).

Come-on! Go check 'em out. It's free, it's fast, it's smart. You can print out a book from your writing, you can tag and categorize entries, you can back-date an entry, search by key-word, edit and easily finish entries. If you like to write beautifully - THIS SERVICE IS FOR YOU. If you like to write short and sweet - THIS SERVICE IS FOR YOU. The upside is obvious, and I have yet to find any downside.

PS - You don't get "Spell check" with a hand-written journal ;)

4/4/10

Saved by Gracie


HOW I LOVE BEING A MOTHER!!! There is nothing in the world that compares to the euphoric and rewarding moments I share with my Gracie. I cherish dancing with her, sharing a silly giggle, watching her eyes light up in discovery, "chasing" her (both of us screaming), and witnessing her every-day small, yet significant, achievements.

By the end of each day I assess my energy, and if I'm not completley worn out then I know I didn't play hard enough. Suffice it to say, surplus energy is not in abundance - but oh, the satisfaction! (You momma's know what I'm talkin' about).

Although my divorce has produced excruciating heartache and disappointment, it has also yielded some marvelous fruit. The ability to give myself entirely to my daughter is one of them. I'm relishing in the lack of necessity to balance love - to juggle meeting her demands while meeting the needs of a husband. Don't get me wrong, I would be most grateful to juggle both, but I trust that there will be a season for that. Until that season arrives (if ever), I'm savoring my one-on-one time with her and feel quite gratified knowing that she's receiving every ounce of my love, affection and devotion. (This isn't to say I'm a hermit. I've created a well-balanced social life, but at the end of the day I have the duty and desire to love only one person. My Gracie).

In pouring myself into her I've discovered an invigorating strength, which has left me with pregnant anticipation for the future.
My ambition has been pricked, and greatness lies ahead. I'm not implying I'm great, rather I've found myself at the bottom of the barrel, with nothing left to give but that darn "greatness" I've never dared pick up. Now, Gracie is my reason to do so.

I'm eternally grateful to my Father in Heaven for entrusting me with her. He knew what was in my future, and he gave me just the "tool" to survive. Not only to survive, but to thrive. I am most literal when I say, "I have been saved by Gracie."

4/2/10

I hope you get a child just like you!

An angry parents favorite phrase.... "I hope you get a child just like you" And I just might have. I came across a few of my baby pictures and had to smile at how much my little girl looks like me (although I was more of a chunk, thanks to the benefits of breast milk. Gracie was allergic.) Am I the only woman that gets a thrill out of seeing myself in my own daughter?

Let's just hope she didn't get my strong will and stubborn personality. Ok I lie. Secretly I even want her to have that. shhhhh

"MINI-ME, YOU COMPLETE ME!"