For a Smile toDay

Come One + Come All!

Inspiring and fun for the day:

Here

&

Here

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Now that my son is born and we are spending lots of time together I am working on finding new ways to make ends meet. Here I am hitting the circuit again in hopes that something will seed and take growth. 

I am living a little greener every day and teaching the values of that life style to my child. As I read up on organic eating and green living, I am pulled back to my childhood where I remember my mother doing things green and I just thought she was being stingy. The truth to the matter is that my mother was living green based on how her parents tough her to use what was available to her in the area. She would use vinegar and water for the windows, lemon and salt on the cutting board, and she always grew things in the garden. For summers I remember seeing my moms butt in the air weeding her garden and bring in fresh cucumbers and tomatoes that we would eat without washing. She was even kind enough to lend some of her chives to a mud pie. She gave me so much and now I want to give that back to my family and anyone willing to partake in my writings. 

Now I ask you to post any ideas or knowledge that you want to share that you use in your house to make your life a little greener.

PS: CHECK ME OUT AT ESTY 

It is official I have finished school and am now a graduate for the second time. Really I don’t know what I was thinking but I am glad I did it. Adjusting to the free time I have had, I started to study sign language. This is something I have always wanted to learn but never had the time or the drive, but now that the baby is coming I really want to test his skills of development. I have been reading all kinds of books and practicing words all over the place. As of right now I can sign about 35 different signs. Manny has taken well to this and has been very supportive demonstrating to me the ones he remembers. I am total stoked about this!
The baby is fine and growing like a weed, literally I think he has taken up residency in my ribs. Let me tell you I have a new respect for mothers all over the world.

Ouch!

But I know it is all worth it.

Official news in the family is that my sister-in-law is pregnant again with their second and we are counting the days till we can find out what the sex is. I think we are all hopping for a girl considering both Manny’s side and my side have all had boys. We need some chicas!

Well that is all that is going on in our house and for those of you who may read this I just sent out pictures of the pregnancy so I hope you enjoy them.

Growing

I am starting to really hear the threads of my clothing screaming at me.

5 months

Ok here it is the first picture of me on the internet, pregnant.
I am working my way into the 5th month and things are good. I am sleepy all the time and a little moodie/weepie but all and all things are good. Everything is growing and though I am still wearing my normal size jeans with the top button undone I feel huge. I find that I need a shopping partner just for moral support. And in case I try on something that will put me into a size that I haven’t seen since I was in high school making me go into shock and fall to the ground in convulsions.
I start back to school this week and am hoping for a fast quarter. Manolo and his friends are looking into and buying motorcycles which I am into but a little jealous and scared at the same time. Lets hope for the best.
We are finishing up the baby’s room and I hope to post some pictures soon.
OOO and on Thursday we find out the sex of the baby, this is big news for us and we will keep you posted.
Till then!

SuperheroDesign Response - click here

Well, I didn’t exactly take the same challenge as you but I have had some time off from school (which keeps from home till 9:30pm 4 nights a week) were I can come home make dinner and spend time with my husband. I am not a big TV or internet fan, so to take time off from that is not a big deal for me (other then getting caught up on the past episodes of Lost).
The time I am having off right now before I head back to school for my final quarter has given me the onsite of time to come and how I want to spend it. I realized that I have time to make jam and work on my pottery and take pictures documenting the time before the baby comes. The clarity of boredom is fresh in my mind and sitting on my porch going through old newspaper clippings my mom saves from 1982 is way better then any TV show or internet search, at least for me. I organized the shed and watched Manolo (my husband) paint the baby’s room a narly green that almost glows and goes with nothing in my house. I just love it! I worked on putting together a fish tank for the baby’s room and placed the rocks just so. I am hoping that the time before the baby comes and after I finish school will give me more of this boredom time.
However much like you I found that there was much more communication between friends and family in the house. The music also seemed to follow, filling the house and car with everything from Flogging Molly to The Weepies.
Ultimately just knowing that I am not going too be a couch potato in my life, makes for an exciting future. Maybe this weekend will yield some live music. I can only hope!

Schools OUT

It is official. School is out for two weeks then back for my final quarter. I never really thought that I would see the end of my college years. But here they come not in years but in mounts only to be followed by weeks then days.
I can not express to you the joy I feel for having done something I never set out to do but did all by myself.
Soon I would like to retire to my farm out in the sticks and keep to my self. No traffic, no helicopters, very little concrete. Looking for my slice of the American dirt pie with extra nature and topped with the songs of the crickets.
Oh how I do go on!

Well my pregnancy is moving along just swimmingly and I have made it official news. I hope to post a picture very soon but have been buried in homework for most of the week. This weekend we are heading out to Naples to see some friends and maybe see the beach, it is suppose to be in the 80’s.
Sorry ANG!
I have been dreaming on my real estate sites and hoping for the future to come soon.

PS

The Strawberry Festival is coming soon
Talk at ya’ll later!

Happy Valentines day

Where Have You Been?

As you can guess I have a lot going on right now. 

I will tell you all about it but for right now I have to write a 5 page report about Target Markets and SWOT analysis. 

Be back soon!

But till there here is a sneak peek.

To diet or not to diet, what is the question???

So I want to clean up my diet. I have been really looking at what I eat and when I eat it. Really I am not consuming bad things like cake, chips, and sodas. When I divvy out my food it is not in abundance, so when I started looking into dieting I came with the approach that it is not a diet but a life change. I mean really it is my diet but there seems to be some confusion as to what a diet is. I mean if I tell someone I am planning on changing my diet they just look at me as say that I don’t need to lose any weight. But the thing is that in the 80’s to tell someone you are going on a diet means you are giving up all the bad food that makes one fat. But today it is more about eating the right stuff without all the chemicals and in portions that will be digested before you go to sleep. Not to hard right?
Step one: look at what I am eating and read the labels.
Step two: freak out and passout in front of the pantry. When I regain consciousness I trash half the stuff on the shelves.
The labels are there to help not hurt, just read them and know that this is not going to happen in a day.
Biggest thing to give up is SUGAR…
Baby steps.
I will keep you posted.

I have not had a chance to stop and think about my last entry, but I sold the car and have all my homework in.
I did however have the opportunity to watch a re-run of the documentary called “Crazy, Sexy Cancer”.
Not that I am trying to make a habit of staying up late and watching documentaries and crying for hours on end. As I was watching it it occurred to me that my voice on the issue of women with cancer seems to be drowned out in my head by all the other voices with their own stories. I felt lost in my own head knowing full well that I am not alone and those others, a mass of people, are also feeling the same loss. I watched this show and thought about my mom, who was a 7 year survivor of Brest cancer until she was taken by a spreading of Bone cancer throughout her body. I watched these strong willed women and their bodies change with the signs of cancer. The swelling limbs, the lose of hair, tubes coming from versus pars of their bodies and I thought what overwhelming power they have. I can only wish that I was there for my mom when she went through that. The problem with my mom; however, was that she was a very private woman and kept much of her cancer to herself. I envy these women who have the strength to get mad and speak out because my mom didn’t and never wanted to. I can’t help but think that if she had she might be here today still fighting.
I just can't put in word the deep respect I have for those who can look death in the face, throw there arms up (ballerina style) and skip away smiling. There way of saying "You will get me soon enough but until then, you will not bother me, now shuw"

Considering the thought
For a moment of my day I am going to try to meditate on the idea of quitting what I know and image what it would be like to embark on a dream of doing what I want, when I want, and be profitable in doing so.
Dreamers are just dreamers and a wast if those dreams aren’t turned into reality, thus changing the name from dreamer to inventor.
I want to be a dreamer that becomes the inventor without denying or compromising my well being.
I don’t expect it to be easy or without tears.
I also don’t want to dwell on it as if I was writing up a business plan.
That is too binding and limits my dream.
To much reality

I will try to keep you posted.

I haven’t written anything in ages and I wanted it to be worth reading.
So I started writing anything and everything.
About my anniversary of two years with my husband.
About my heading back to school and the miserable feeling I have about it and how I had to get drunk for the first class just to get through it.
About how I miss the cold weather and am quite ready for the fall.
There are so many things that I want to talk about but I didn’t want to bore you with a grocery list of things going on in my life.
So I think I am going to tell you a short story.
Well…
I thought it over and decided that I would not bore you with that either.
Wow what does that tell you about my inspiring mind.
You know I was told that school and teachers would do their very best to destroy or distort that part of my the body and they where right.
I got nothing.
For right now anyway.

Endurance and Hope

Endurance will keep my breathing strong and my rhythm steady.
I just need to get to that stop sign at the church parking lot, and then I can stop and take a breath.
It empowers my will and takes charge over all internal and external feelings making me numb from the pain of my ankles and the cramp in my ribs, so now my attention is only on how far I have to go.
It is the point where I mentally go to a strong place in my mind that is my focus, my center.
It takes me beyond my breaking point to concerns, even if it is just to the stop sign at the church.

Endurance is also how much you can take.
I can endure a lot without giving up hope.
However the down side of that is when you want something you know you are not ready for and even though I know it is not the right time, there is that ever nagging hope that brings me to how much I can ENDURE.
I want to, just this time, stop the endurance and hope.
I want to have had enough but my endurance and hope are to strong, it is back firing on me.

SuPErHerO Challenge # 3

This was taken on my way into work one morning.
Enjoy.

Sweet Memories

I was just reading back on some of my posts and this one made me laugh so I had to bring it back to the surface. I hope ya'll get as much enjoyment from this as I just did.
By the way I still have weeks like this.

BAD DAYZ

It has taken me a whole week to be able to talk about last weeks events.
For starters Mondays always suck and I spent the day thinking about how I was late on some homework and had a test to take on Tuesday. Not to mention I started my Monday morning off with my cold tea landing in my lap with white pants on…
Tuesday- I had my class and took my test and had another run in with my teacher because, this guy doesn’t want to give me extra credit because he doesn’t want to be bothered with it. (I am paying 60,000 dollars to go to this school and he has the audacity to tell me he doesn’t want to be bothered…ok I don’t want to be bothered with paying my bill…)
Wednesday was a heavy load work day at my so called career, and when I was studding in my car, eating a little din-din my soda exploded all over my lap and I swear it looked like I had wet my pants. Great I will not be defeated by drinks!! So I hoist my legs up into the air flying eagle/porn queen style and point my vents down full blast and dry my crotch out like a pro.
But hope came to me in class when I received a few complements for my photograph…”A” to me!
Thursday I didn’t have class so it was all good.
Friday I don’t remember I think I blocked out all the bad memories.

Back Home

Just to keep everyone posted.
Red Soda has been very busy planning for the little package growing in her belly. By this she and her Smooch have been working out the logistics of buying a new house and filling it with their worldly positions. She is also busy trying for a new position at work. You can see why she has had no time to write.
Crab with a Spot of Ink has had her little sack of sugar with hair and is busy being mommy.
I am very happy for them both and can’t wait to see my ever growing family.

SuPeRHeRo Challenge

What is it?