New sight

I was bored this evening and don't even know how I made my way to this website but . . .
check it out.
If you like cats, you'll love this.
It's called "stuff on my cat"
http://www.stuffonmycat.com/

Fun stuff!

from the absurd to the more absurd.
did you read the news today about the family that just had their 18th child?
well yes, It's the Duggar family of Arkansas. And here is something unexpected (not)
All 18 of their children have names with the same first letter. (J)
sorry to be judgmental here but I find that particular naming pattern odd.
and, how the hell do you come up with 18 good ones?
p.s., they want more children . . . .

Shhhhhhhhh

I think I'm probably the only person walking the planet who hadn't heard of the new literary sensation "The Secret" If you, like me, don't know what the "Secret" is all about, here is a snippet from Publishers Weekly to sum it up

Supporters will hail this New Age self-help book on the law of attraction as a groundbreaking and life-changing work, finding validation in its thesis that one's positive thoughts are powerful magnets that attract wealth, health, happiness...

That is probably over simplistic, and since I haven't read the secret, I have no idea what the entire thesis is. But here is the thing. Remember yesterdays post? I was lamenting the fact that I just haven't been "feeling" the Holiday's yet. Last night I was talking with Ashley on the phone and she had just read a bit from the Secret and had purposefully applied the principles of positive thought etc. Immediately she noticed a change in the attitudes of people around her- friends and strangers. I realized that this was what we had always taught our kids but somehow I had lost that myself in the recent past. I was succumbing to outside pressure to have everything done just so by date certain. When you do that you lose the important aspect of enjoying the journey!

I awoke this morning to a whole different set of goals.
I'm back to basics. If the house is decorated for Christmas, great. If the family is participating to achieve that, excellent. I will enjoy my time with my family and not stress about external "stuff".
These are not the principles of the Secret, but they work for me. Somehow I had just lost site of them. That is my secret

tis the season?

Okay, maybe I'm not quite that bad but . . . I just haven't gotten into the spirit yet.

When Randy's work party occurred in November it was one of those incredibe unseasonably warm days . . .kind of hard to think of the Holiday's when the thermometer was at 70 that day.

We got our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving as is our tradition. This year we had one heck of a time finding one we all liked. We brought it home, stuck it in water outside and it cooled it's heals there until just last Saturday. Now it's in the house, but still unadorned. Christmas decorations are in the house, tucked safely in their boxes! Randy managed to hang Christmas lights up outside this weekend, just ahead of that COLD storm.

I did get the cards in the mail- more than 100 thank you very much.
I've finished all the gift shopping excepting a couple of little items.
Now I have to make the house feel "Christmasy" Maybe tonight? tomorrow? the weekend?

boys are funny . . .

No matter how old they are, what kind of shape they are in, they simply CANNOT let a girl win.

case in point:

I was swimming today. In the lane to my left a man who appeared to be somewhere in his forties was swimming. I didn't notice him until I took a break after my first mile. As I stood at the wall and sipped water I casually took inventory of the other swimmers in the pool. 2 lanes to my left was the infamous "big bird" a man who simply cannot swim, lies on his back and makes flying motions. He kicks up a furious wake which disables breathing on that side when you swim beside him. To my right was a very old gentleman- a daily swimmer with a killer tan and a pretty good stroke. And to my left, a man who I graded a mid level swimmer. Quick assessment: jammer bathing suit (not the confidence of a speedo, yet more confident than a board short) and oversized dorky goggles (spouse probably purchased them on sale at Big-5) . I noticed too he was swimming with GIANT hand paddles for pulling and had a pull bouy between his legs. I kept taking inventory of other swimmers and then took off for my next set.

I swam up, but remained behind my neighbor to the left. He was pulling as would be expected. Since I've perfected the flip turn I can overtake a person doing open turns pretty easily- I did.
I then had to laugh as I felt splashing and wild swimming to my right (( had turned now remember) Mr. Jammer/big goggle had probably noticed my big pink suit, realized it was a girl and decided that there was NO WAY a girl was beating him back to the other wall. Big paddles on, pull bouy on, he kicked like a mad man to pass me. "go for it dude" was all I could think and at the wall, passed him again- Oh yikkes, he did not like that. Even more splashing as he fought to overtake me. This continued at each way for about 100 yards at which point he stopped at the wall panting. Lesson learned, slow and steady always wins the race. I kept up, unabated for another 1000 yards . . . poor poor competitive man.

(haha)