Free Hugs - Check this Out!

Happy Birthday My Love!

I love our life together -

there's nowhere else I'd rather be!

We're Back!

We're back from our visit with Trent's Mom in Naples, Florida.

We went down to spend Easter with her and her husband Hank. We had a great time, got some sun, ate a lot of good food, did some photography on the beach at sunset, shopped, played tennis, shuffleboard and went boating and fishing on the gulf. Good times, good times!

That's lot of action for living in the retirement park for a week!

Money - a different view (worth the read)

God said:

When you think about money, when you are concerned about it, you bog yourself down.

Much of the time, when you think about money, you are bemoaning the lack of it. Innocently, you put yourself back into the need mode. When do you feel you have enough money, beloveds?

Money is not the mainspring of your life. It is meant to be a convenience. It's easier to carry around paper than gold. Paper takes up much less space in your pocket. A nice convenience. Money is not meant to be the focus of your life. How much you earn, or how much you have saved, how much you have lost are not the substance of you.

Even so, how you spend money, whether you are generous or whether you stint, whether you hold on or let go, reveals you. How you are with money may well be a metaphor for your life. How you deal with money may well be how you deal with love. Not that love is meant to be dealt with. Love is just to be.

Once in a while there is someone who has a lot of money and is reluctant to part with it. He wants to be loved for himself. He fears people will love him for his money only. And, yes, there are those in the world who would.

Sometimes there is someone who is very generous with money, and he sees this as the way to receive love. In a sense, he buys love, for he has yet to learn his worth.

And then, as in the story of The Three Bears, there is one who is just right. He is generous for no other motive but to nurture the world. Like his life, his money is not for himself alone. It is not even his, you understand. He knows it is not his to flaunt nor his to keep nor even his to spend.

He understands that the money bequeathed him is Mine. He understands that he is the bookkeeper or accountant. He carries the cash for Me. That he has money is a gift, and he wishes to pass on the gift. He is a free-giver.

It is not that he feels he owes. It is not from a sense of obligation that he donates his wealth. A sense of responsibility is different from a sense of obligation. It is not that he has a debt to pay. It is that the money is not his possession, and yet he has say over it, and he wishes to use his money for the good of the universe, for this is his place in the world. He knows the importance of what he does. He knows he turns the tide of the world. He knows that he donates to Me.

Sometimes those who have the least give the most. They are wealthy.

This world you live in is to be shared. Share your heart because it is the natural thing to do. Your heart is your wealth. Stinginess with money may reveal stinginess of the heart.

Sometimes the expenditure of money is control. The one who holds the purse-strings is the controller. Yet money is not meant to be a whip to goad others to dance to the controller's tune. Let your money be a balm to the world. Free the world, not command it.

Are you your brother's keeper? That thought may make you feel burdened and your heart sink. It's not like that. You are not to feel burdened. You are not all responsible for your brother's actions, inactions, nor poverty. He is responsible for himself. Yet, you, too, however, are responsible for yourself, and that means you keep an eye out for your brother and see that he is not in poverty.

You stand in for Me, and you serve Me, and so you serve the commonwealth of man on Earth, and this is your gratitude to Me, beloveds, not the words you say.

http://www.heavenletters.org/are-you-your-brothers-keeper.html

Letter from God - Sunglasses

Oh, My, such a little picture of yourself you have had. If you want to see yourself as you are, you will have to put sunglasses on. You may have to look into a mirror, or, otherwise, you would be too dazzled. As it is now, you are not dazzled enough

You tend to take yourself for granted, not reminding yourself that you are a creation of Mine! You, who are always wanting evidence of My existence, miss out on the most amazing evidence, and that is you, beloveds. You are evidence.

And yet your eyes do not see. But your eyes are going to. You will see yourself and every other Being on Earth as the marvelous God Creations you are. You are My dreams-come-true. I assure you, beloveds, you were not an afterthought. My whole focus has been and is on you, you, worthy to be called Child of God and just beginning to catch a glimpse of the Truth of Yourself.

LOVE, GOD
From http://www.heavenletters.org/

My son is the best!

Right now, as I speak, my son is making me homemade garlic mashed potatoes at 10:00! My teeth are real sore and I can only eat soft foods and I'm really HUNGRY!. I was sitting here saying that I wished I had some mashed potatoes and he jumped up and said "I'll make some for you Mom!" Wow!

He seriously makes the best mashed potatoes in the world - If there was a mashed potato contest, he would win. These ARE NOT boxed or quickie potatoes, he actually hand chops the garlic and browns it, then puts the potatoes through a ricer and adds all kinds of good stuff.

The Food Network has been the best influence on him - I'm glad I used to sit him in front of it when he was a baby! :0)

Open Wide!!

What a funny day yesterday! This is me in the orthodontist office getting the top braces done. They have to put this big spreader thing in your mouth so they can work.

What do you think? Should I have it enlarged for Trent's desk?

:0)

Taking off the mask . . .

I can't believe I'm posting this on the world wide web, but in an effort to "Live Happy and help others do the same" I am committed to being completely authentic and transparent in my life.

This is me without my fake tooth.

Soooo. . . long story short:

• I have terribly crooked teeth that I've always been ashamed of and when I was a kid I always covered my mouth when I smiled because I thought my smile was so nasty.


• Circumstances while I was growing up did not allow me to get my teeth fixed.


• When I was 20 and out on my own, I went to the orthodontist to get braces. At that time a new thing called "bonding and veneering" had just come out and I was given the choice to either fix my teeth right but it would take a few years, or spend less money and cover them up with a bunch of fake stuff. Of course I chose the immediate "fake" fix.


• My teeth continue to move as I get older even with the bonding on and I'm still extremely self conscious and HATE my pictures and the way I look.


• So 22 years later (the bonding was only supposed to last 7 - 10 years) - last Friday - I'm getting ready to take Cody to the bus stop and one of my "fake" teeth felt weird. I pushed on it with my tongue and it popped out! YIKES!


• Now you have to understand this is a recurring nightmare of mine (for real) and it was coming true. So I kept pinching myself and telling myself to wake up!


• I had quite a meltdown for about 5 minutes and then I sucked it up - decided I was calling the orthodontist to proceed with my treatment (I had been procrastinating because of money) and made the appointment.


• I was planning on going to the dentist and have him glue the tooth back on for the time being, but decided that I was going to rise to the challenge of living without the fake stuff on my tooth. I am who I am and I decided to take that mask off.

A week later, it's not so bad. I'm very self conscious but I have to admit there is something cool about just being who I am, even thought I don't look like I would like to. Half of my braces are on and I'm one step closer to my dream of having a beautiful smile!

It might not sound like a big deal to you, but for me going around without that tooth covered up is like being NAKED in front of the entire world. So I am proud of myself that I've risen to the challenge, embraced who I am and am taking steps (although painful) to fix the problem instead of masking it.

It makes me wonder what else in my life have I been masking and need to take the mask off? Hmmm . . .

(There's my fake tooth - but it's not in my mouth!)

24 Hours til B-Day (Braces Day)

24 hours from now I will be sitting in a chair at Dr. Long's office getting my braces on (to fix a severe crossbite and straighten my teeth). I have very mixed emotions about this. I'm excited to finally have a smile that I'm not ashamed of but I'm also a little embarrassed to wear braces at 42 years old! I'm also a little worried about the pain factor - Cody's mouth was like hamburger when he got his braces on. YIKES!!!

I Got a New Hair-Do!

I really needed a cut!

Curly Do!

Straight Do!

This weekend I took a group of girlfriends up North to the "shack". Two of them happen to be amazing hair stylists. As we were sitting around Friday night somehow we came up with the idea of cutting my hair all off. I was completely up for whatever they wanted to do -so the party began! Debbie Mann was the consultant and Kim Stewart was the stylist and they did a great job - I really love it! I was so lucky to have TWO stylists at the same time!!

How to Choose What to Weed Out

Check out this site to help get control of your crazy busy life!
www.crazybusylife.com

Here's an excerpt from the site that I found helpful today:

How to Choose What To Weed Out

A reader who is a productivity trainer by profession sent in this tip:
"As a mom, wife and business owner I find myself having to weed things out of my life from time to time in order to stay balanced.

In those cases, I've had the best success by asking myself what my natural child - the part of me that is curious and delighted by life - would like to do.

I haven't regretted one of those decisions yet."

This is a great way to start thinking about what you would keep in your life - and weed out - if you wanted to simplify things.