Mantras - Update

It works.
It really works!
Okay, I knew it did, but sometimes it's hard to be positive and do what I know I should do.
But I feel far better than I did before I posted the Monday Mantras. I am doing my best to live the mantras, and it's amazing what a difference it makes.
I'm also reading a book called Embraced by the Light.
It's an old book, you probably read it years ago. It's a woman's true account of her near-death experience, and what she learned from it. It really resonates for me; so much of what she says she learned is stuff that I believe in the core of my being. That life is all about how we treat others, and about LOVE. And the fact that most of our reactions are based on love or fear. When it's fear, we have to identify that fear in order to solve the problem. It makes so much sense.
See, without going into too much detail........there's someone on the outer fringes of my personal life. Actually there are two someones, and I will have to deal with them for the rest of my life, in some way or another. So, I tried my best to get along well with them, and it's been a roller coaster ride. We're at the bottom of the hill now, and I don't see us ever going back up.
One of these someones posts on a website, and literally every day, without fail, there is a negative comment about me. Whether direct or indirect, it's there. Daily. At least one comment, usually more. Anything I do, is commented about in a nasty way by this person.

Examples:
Reality: We rescue/foster dogs.
This person's spin: She has 5 dogs in a little box of a house and I feel sorry for those poor kids having to live like that, blah blah blah.

Reality: I had weight loss surgery.
This person's spin: She took the easy way out. People who have that surgery always look SICK when they lose weight. I only respect people who lose weight the 'normal' way.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. This has been going on for many months. It's hard, when you know someone is posting about you, to avoid reading it. It's out there, every day, just a google search away. But I came to a realization the day I posted my Monday Mantras. I am choosing to read this garbage. Then I'm choosing to let it tick me off. I'm letting this person control my emotions. And I'm even stooping to their level by sometimes responding to it.
And I decided, no more! I won't let this person have this effect on me. If they want to spend their time talking about me....more power to them! I never knew I was so fascinating, but whatevah.
But I won't be a part of this drama any longer.
Thus, the Monday Mantras. And let me tell you, I feel free. Free of the negativity and drama and ugliness of it all. I haven't even peeked ONCE to see what this person is saying about me lately since I did the Mantras. Not even once, and I'm proud of myself. I'm done. I'm rising above it. I won't allow that stuff into my life any more. I won't allow it to color my world, or my day, or my mood. That's not how I live my life. It was just a temporary ditch I stepped in. But I'm out of it now, and enjoying my wonderful life without the darkness slipping in.
Personally....I have to live for the day, make the most of it, and not let negative junk take up unnecessary time. That's how I choose to live my life, and I'm so glad I got my focus back where it belongs.

How I Met My Honey

Ramblings by Reba is hosting a fun blog carnival today.
She wants us to talk about how we met our honey!

Since I just talked about this on my anniversary, I am simply linking that post.
I don't know about you, but I love reading LOVE stories! So join the fun, inquiring minds wanna know how you met YOUR honey.

I try to take one day at a time.........

This is how I've been feeling this past week. It's been one of those weeks when a few big things went wrong, so then every little thing that went wrong seemed magnified x10.
It was overwhelming. It seems to be getting better.....but I don't want to jinx anything!
So, with life going crazy, it took me forever to thank Tara for this super-sweet award!



Which made me smile at a time when I really needed a pick-me-up. It truly made MY day! Tara, I'm so happy that I found your blog. I really love it.
The rules for this award are to ‘pay it forward’ to ten other bloggers who make my day. It's not hard to find 10! Only hard to narrow it down to 10. But here goes:

* Krissy (who can make me laugh even when she's being totally serious)
* Sue (and her boobs)
* Lunanik (who is just plain wonderful)
* Kathryn (who is going through a tough time {{{}}} but still makes my day)
* Kathleen (so glad I found your blog too!)
* Red (yours too!)
* Alison (who is driving me crazy by keeping me hanging with her adoption story!)
* Karen (another new read for me that I'm loving)
* A Bun's Life (one of my favorite daily reads)
* Groovy Mom (who is totally groovy!)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. Please check out another blog to which I am contributing, Weighting for Change. I'd love to see you there!

~50 lbs, gone forever!

Suzi's in da House

We got a new foster doggie today.
Her former owners surrendered her because she's around 14 years old, and has bad teeth. They also said that she won't keep weight on. They wanted her to be euthanized.
Fortunately, the shelter called our rescue group instead. They said we had to pick her up by 5:30 yesterday or she would be put to sleep. Thankfully, the rescue group got them to hold her until today. I picked her up first thing this morning.
She's the sweetest, tiny little thing! Her name is Suzi. She's scared, but friendly with all of us, including dogs, cats, and kids.
I'm so glad we'll be able to provide comfort and love for her, for whatever time she has left.

Wordless Wednesday - Caution!

Decision Time

With all the drama going on in the last few weeks at work, I checked our job website and applied for a few positions on different units. I didn't hear anything back and had put it in the back of my mind.
Until today...I got a message from someone from the NICU. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
She said the position she has available is Night Shift, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in that.
Uh, YEAH!
So, I'm calling her back tomorrow, and then I guess they'll call me in for an interview.
Change is not easy for me, so I have to think about this. But, I really think this would be a good thing for me. I need to get away from the drama and negativity of the unit I'm working at.
Since I'm hopefully going back to school in the fall, this would be a great way for me to see if I could actually handle nursing in the NICU.
I haven't even been offered the position yet and I'm already stressing!
But, like Ness said to me in a comment today....If not now, when?

Monday Mantras

I'm skipping "Get Moving Monday" this week, because I need to tend to my emotional health and put the physical health on the back burner, just for a moment.
I am sad to say I've been letting myself get dragged down into someone else's petty nastiness. I finally realized today that this is NOT me, this goes against who I am and what I believe in, and I have to make a change. I can only control myself, not these other people.
So I am posting my Monday Mantras.

Mantra #1. I will no longer stoop to the level of immaturity and ugliness of certain people in my personal life.
Mantra #2. I will remember that they are acting out of jealousy and immaturity, and an obvious lack of true happiness in their own lives.
Mantra #3. I will ALWAYS remember to focus on the positives and blessings in my own life, which are plentiful!


Mantra #4. Live and let live....COEXIST.


Mantra #5. Misery loves company, but I won't be that company. They're gonna have to find it elsewhere!


Mantra #6. I must remember my focus in life....Live, Laugh, Love. Truly, not much else matters!


Mantra #7. I have never felt better and never been happier in my life.

Mantra #8. I am exactly where I want to be, and working on goals to make our lives even better than they already are.

Mantra #9. Keeping my attitude and actions positive sends a great message to my children.

Mantra #10. Life is Good!



I will repeat these to myself as often as I need to, in order to cleanse my spirit and get rid of the negative energy I have allowed to manifest in recent weeks.
Let the positive energy flow!

A Retirement Home for Horses

The Mill Creek Farm is a place for horses to spend the rest of their lives in peace. It's full of horses who were formerly in the circus or other performances. Some of them were rescued from neglectful owners. Many of them are blind.
They open for visitors every Saturday, and we were privileged to visit them yesterday.
Admission is 2 carrots. We took 2 bags, but it wasn't nearly enough! Next time, we're going to take....a truckload.
It was a very moving experience.

The Princess wanted to feed them, but she couldn't get over her fear.
She came close, though.....


Ladybug was not afraid.


She even fed the little donkey!


"We may be blind, but we still love carrots!"


The Princess was very proud that she was brave enough to pet this horse, and told me I should put this picture on my blog.


So many beautiful animals were there, and I admire these people for dedicating their lives to them.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

This is an awesome 'first dance' video. It starts out slow but it's totally worth the wait of watching it until the fun starts! (if you're terribly impatient, scoot up to about 1:30.)

Weding Party Dance - Watch more amazing videos here

You haz my Interest..........

Seriously, you do. I love to read about what's going on in your life, or the funny thing that happened yesterday, or what you're doing next week. And especially the funny things your kids say! I miss when my kids were so young and said funny stuff every day.
We had a blast at work last night, we laughed all night long. It put me in such a great mood! Kind of like when I go down my blog roll and read all of my favorite blogs.
Sometimes they're funny, sometimes insightful, sometimes sad. Sometimes they provoke laughter, other times thought, other times tears.
But it's a wonderful blogosphere out there, an amazing way we share ourselves and our lives with others.
My favorite blogs are the ones in which the author doesn't feel compelled to entertain their readers. They blog from the heart. They blog about what's on their mind and what's going on in their lives. They blog about that which they feel passionate. Large or small.
Those are the best kinds of blogs. Those bloggers let us have a tiny peek in their windows. We get to see a piece of what their life is like, and realize that we have something in common. A goofy husband, a picky kid, a crazy mother-in-law. We can commiserate, laugh, or cry. We worry about our bloggy friends when they're going through a rough time, or when they suddenly don't blog for a few days.
It's an amazing community, and I'm so proud to be a part of it.

Thursday Thirteen

I'm ripping off Jogging in Circles and also posting 13 Random thoughts today.

1. I have had some work issues this week but they seemed to be resolved now, and it feels like a burden has been lifted off of me!

2. I am (literally) working my butt off to lose this weight! I am exercising more and more and being sure to eat right, even though I can eat basically anything I want, within reason, now that I am 7 weeks out. And I'm darned proud!

3. I am so happy that my husband holds down a steady job. Although his employers drive me nuts sometimes, he has worked at this job for over 5 years (longer than we've known each other!), which provides myself and my children with a stability that we have never before known. With my ex, I literally never knew when he was going to come home and tell me that his boss had 'pissed him off', so he'd quit his job. It happened often and it was a scary way to live.

4. I feel sorry for 'outside' pets. I can't imagine leaving my little doggies outside all night and/or day. Would you want to be outside all the time? Dogs are pack animals and want to be with their people. Statistically, inside animals live longer (although my parents had an outside cat who lived to be 19 years old.....I swear she truly had 9 lives.)

5. I have the coolest kids on the planet. Some days, something happens...something small.....that makes me realize that although I make mistakes, I do a pretty good job, and I am teaching them what I feel is important, and it really is sinking in. Case in point: when we adopted our cat last weekend, the group had a jar for donations. My Princess had a dollar in her purse, and asked me if she could put it in the jar. All on her own. She knew she was helping the animals. I nearly cried. The rescue group was very appreciative and made her feel awesome.

6. I feel so good about putting our blood, sweat, tears, and a chunk of money into fencing our back yard. None of us really knew what we were doing, but we figured it out and have a strong, sturdy fence and we go out and play every day. It's a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

7. My house is quickly becoming a zoo. In addition to four dogs and one cat, we may soon be adding a Sugar Glider. This will be primarily my son's pet. We also foster for the dachshund rescue, and we offered to foster & volunteer for Animal People, the group from which we adopted our cat.
And I love every minute of it all!

8. We love festivals and carnivals and goofy stuff like that. This summer, I hope to take the kids to all of them that fall on our 'kid weekends'. I want my kids to experience things, and have fun doing it. It's really not that hard to find inexpensive things to do, instead of sitting home on our hineys watching TV all weekend!

9. We're also going to start playing Disc Golf. Ever heard of it? Hubby has played before and says it's a blast.

10. This must be the most boring Thursday Thirteen EVER!

11. Many of your blogs inspire me in so many ways. I am so glad I found the Blogosphere!

12. Every fall, we do something called the Gator Walk. It's a smaller version of the March for Babies, hosted by the University of Florida. We started after Mr Wonderful and I got married. His firstborn son died from complications of prematurity, so we decided to do this as a way of honoring him. Last year, my kids came along too.
I will be hitting you up for money come fall! =)

13. When we adopted our cat, I asked Mr W for help in naming her. It seems like I always end up naming our pets, fosters included. He said he wasn't good at naming pets. I asked him "well, what were some of your cats' names, growing up?" and he said, "Mama Kitty, Big Kitty, and Baby Kitty."
I told him he is now officially never having any input into pet naming.

~43 lbs, gone forever!

Get Moving Monday!

It's Get Moving Monday, courtesy of The Mombabe.

I have to start with yesterday. We put up a fence!
We spent the whole weekend outside, and we fenced our backyard.
This was mostly done for the benefit of our dogs, who have never had a yard and totally do not know how to act! They are so happy to have a place to run and play.
And we did it ourselves. DH's aunt and my son helped us, and I don't know what we'd have done without them.
It was frustrating and aggravating, but it's so nice to look at it and know that we did it.
And all that work was good for us! My total weight loss is now 38.5 lbs.

From the Mind of Spiderman

My stepson, Spiderman, is 8. He's one of those kids who has no filter; if it pops into his head, it's coming out of his mouth.
Here are two recent quotes from Spidey that had us cracking up.

1. Spidey, MIL, GrandMIL, and AuntIL stopped at a Shoney's recently (don't ask me why, ick!). While at the buffet, they saw a german cockroach. MIL made the comment that if there's one, there are thousands more somewhere.
So then the waitress comes up, and Spiderman loudly says, "Guess what we saw! We saw a German cockroach, and if there's one there are THOUSANDS MORE somewhere!" When the IL's tried to shush him, he just said, "well, it's true!" To him, if it's true, it's fair game.

2. Spidey asked GrandMIL "Grandma, how old are you?" GrandMIL said, "My birthday is in May and I will be 78."
Spiderman: "Oh.
I hope you don't pass away a couple of days later."
Baa ha ha ha!

Update: We adopted the kitty! Her name is Lilly and we adore her. So far she's a little stand-offish with the dogs, so we keep her in our bedroom for now, but I really think they're all going to adjust well.

Oh.My.Gah!

The girls are I were perusing Petsmart today, just minding our own business. We passed by the cat adoption area, and the girls wanted to go in. I said, suuure! Let's go look at the kitties.
I pet them and talked to them, and when I got down to the last cage....I nearly fainted.
Is this not THE most gorgeous cat you've ever seen?



She is a snowshoe ragdoll. And if all goes well.....she will be mine tonight.
The only concern is how my dogs will get along with her. She is used to dogs, in fact she was fostered with dachshunds! But my dogs aren't used to cats. But they're sweeties and I really think they'll be ok. I talked to the lady from the rescue group at length, and we're convinced she was meant to be ours.
So, tonight, after I do a home visit for my Dachshund Rescue Group, we're all going to meet her.
What's one more animal to add to the zoo, right?

"Springs" Break

The kiddos are on Spring Break this week. Spiderman is at a cabin in the mountains with MIL. T-bone is at his dad's house, babysitting his stepsister. The girls stayed with my mom & dad until Tuesday, and now they're home.
Since I just had surgery and had time off work, we couldn't go on a vacation with them this year. Hopefully next year!
But we wanted to do something fun. DH had Wednesday off, so we took the girls to Poe Springs for the day.
The water was COLD, of course. But the girls still had a blast. We grilled hot dogs and played and relaxed. And I called out of work last night!
As soon as we got there, the Princess saw a friend of hers from school, so they played together and had a great time.



DH threw bread into the river, trying to attract ducks or turtles, while I warned him that he was going to attract alligators! They usually stay away from the cold water of the Springs, but let's not tempt fate, ya know?



The girls swam in that freezing water. I mostly stayed on shore!





Playing around on picnik.com....



And a good time was had by all!

3 Wonderful Years

Today is our anniversary. Three wonderful years!
When I met my husband, I had no idea how my life was about to change.
I had just finally wrapped up my nasty divorce, and then had a few brief but frustrating, unhealthy relationships.
I was having a blast, don't get me wrong! Every other weekend, my kids went to their dad's house and I went out and partied. I mean PAR-TAYED!!! I had a great time. I lived out the youth I never had, since I got married when I was 18 and had a child before I turned 20.
But relationship-wise, things were disastrous and I'd pretty much sworn off of the them for the time being.
Then, my white knight rode in.
I was skeptical. The more we talked, the more perfect he seemed. Which made me even more skeptical! Surely, he was married. Or lying. Or psychotic. Serial killer, perhaps? Nobody could be this perfect for me!
But as time went on, I realized.....he was. He was everything he seemed to be, and so much more.
I was terrified. How could I fall in love and trust someone again? How could I put my heart on the line again and risk it getting torn apart?
But, how could I not?
He made it so easy. He promised to never hurt me. He told me his only goal was to make me happy.
And three years later, he has never, ever let me down. I am still amazed. I never thought anyone could love me like this. I thought relationships like ours only existed on TV and in the movies. But it's real, and I'm living it every day. And I am so very blessed!
I can't imagine how I lived without him for all those years, but I hope I never have to live without him again.
Happy Anniversary to Us!

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Arts Festival

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty Princess





Scary Princess




~37 lbs. gone forever!

Get off yer high horse!

see more crazy cat pics

Don't you hate people like this?
They think they're superior to others, for no apparent reason?
I have a couple of these people in my life. Well, a couple in my personal life, and a couple at work.
Generally, it's more amusing than anything else. But of course, at times, it does get annoying.
But inevitably, at some point, they all fall off of the high horse.
Which is why I choose to stay grounded!

~35.5 lbs, gone forever!

Real Mothers

I got this in an email, and I liked it so much, I decided it needed to be on my blog.

REAL MOTHERS
Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the
sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of shag
carpets.
Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Mothers sometimes ask "Why me?" and get their answer when a little
voice says, "Because I love you best."
Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or
years or grade...It is marked by the progression of Mama to Mom to
Mother...

Wordless Wednesday: @#$%*!

Wordless Wednesday


That dog....that sweet-looking mopey grey dog in the foreground...yeah, that one?
@#$%*!
I came home from work yesterday to find garbage all over the kitchen floor.
Not only had he eaten God-knows-what.....God-knows-what gave him diarrhea.
@#$%*!

Get Moving Monday: Slightly Late

Today is Get Moving Monday, courtesy of the Mombabe.

As you all know, I am for really on a weight loss mission.
To date I have lost 31 lbs. Last week was a slower weight loss week, but I think it was because of Aunt Flow being in the house.
But now that I'm feeling totally awesome (better than pre-surgery!), I have starting doing more exercising.
Every night that I work, I take a break and take a LONG walk around the hospital.
I also try to take the stairs; I take them down almost every time, but walking up the stairs is harder due to asthma. I'm trying to gradually be able to do more and more floors.
I also bought hand weights to try to tone my poor upper arms.
And, this weekend we took our dogs on a long walk.
I'm able to eat more things now, but still in very small quantities.
Which is a good thing.
If anyone else would like to participate, head on over to the Mombabe's place, and good luck!