Patience? Luck?

So now that we have done our fair share of celebrating around here regarding my husbands newly acquired A.C.A.S. status, of course I have set to thinking about what that could mean for us.  And of course  I am thinking that anyone in their right mind looking for an actuary should be beating down our door just now.

"Opened Door With Bright Light" by ponsulak found at: freedigitalphotos.net

Never mind that it doesn't work that way.  I won't be convinced.

But seriously, something has clicked inside me and I can feel what everyone said about how things would certainly change for us once my husband was able to meet this first of his two main goals.  (The second being to become a fellow in the Society of Actuaries.  Give it another couple of years for that one.) 

I feel doors opening and opportunities knocking.  I actually can't remember feeling this 'open' to new possibilities. 

And yes, it absolutely feels downright weird and wrong to be feeling so hopeful while witnessing so many people that we are close to still struggling mightily just to get by.  That is absolutely not lost on me.

"Breaking Rope" by scottchan found at freedigitalphotos.net

Over the weekend, my husband and I sat down and went over our budget and future plans because that's what we always do when anything is changed up in our lives and because that's just how we roll.  I think being raised in poverty either makes you never able to deal with finances or makes you super careful.  We are certainly the latter.

My plans to start flight lessons will happen soon.  Not just yet, as we never count chickens before they hatch and Fall weather in Seattle is not a great time to start that sort of thing.  However, I can actually envision being able to tuck my two small dogs into the back seat of an airplane rather than the car and get down to sunny Palm Springs in half the time it takes to drive...

With that said, I will admit that I am hoping that my feelings of something else big coming are about us moving to a warmer weather place.  No, I don't have any solid evidence for my feelings.  I'm just really hoping.  It is hard to be patient sometimes.

"Business Art" by digitalart found at: freedigitalphotos.net

The other day I mentioned to a checker that I believed in the old adage that 'the harder you work, the luckier you get' and I couldn't believe that he was so quick to say that he didn't think he could agree.  I didn't know whether he was saying that because he felt that lots of people work hard and don't get anywhere or because he felt that people who are fortunate don't work hard to get where they are.  I didn't ask because I was afraid of the answer and how it might make me feel. 

Being bold usually pays off and I should have been willing to chance what that moment might have lead to.....

Have you had moments in life when you knew that things were changing in a nearly tangible way?  How do you feel about hard work and what it leads to?   How much control does anyone really have over life direction?

Dear NYC-

Dear New Yorkers,
With over 8 million people in your city, is anyone really supposed to believe that the best mayoral candidate you can come up with is Anthony Weiner?!


Whatever the excuses, this man is not fit for public office.
Please, I beg of you, show the country and the world that you can find a better representative of yourselves.
Show that respect for women is alive and that the good old boys club is dead. 
Do this for real; not just with the same old democrat lip service. 
Please New York, you can and must do better.

Liebster Award

Thank you Jodi over at KY Fire Wife for giving me a Liebster Award!  I am sometimes very bad about responding to these and answering all the questions and such.  (Just ask Robin.  Sorry, Robin.)  This time I am going to give it a try. ***Over the weekend I messed around on blogger and lo and behold what do I see?  I see that Robin over at YOUR DAILY DOSE has also bestowed the Liebster Award upon me.  So yes, I will be answering her questions as well.  And I'm glad to get a second chance at responding to an award from Robin!***

After digging around on the net a bit I found this:
The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. So, what is a Liebster?  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Isn't that sweet? Blogging is about building a community and it's a great way to connect with other bloggers and help spread the word about newer bloggers/blogs.

Well... I do try to be pleasant most of the time, so here goes!  I need to give 11 facts about myself, answer 11 questions from the person who gave the award & ask other bloggers, that I pass the award on to, 11 questions of my own.

I've really been struggling with coming up with facts about myself, so I am just gonna' go with whatever comes to mind right now.  Hopefully this goes well!

11 Facts about me:

1) I like fun girly things.  Not fussy things that require tons of time and effort, but the little touches that make things unmistakably feminine.

2) I can go to the store and pick out something that is an exact color match to something I would like to match at home- like a fabric or paint, without bringing said item with me.  For the longest time I thought everyone did this.

3) If I spend more than one day at home without leaving the house I go stir crazy!

4) I am blessed with natural energy. 

5) I am often the hardest working person on the job.

6) Outside of being stuck in a lousy class with a lousy teacher, I can't remember ever really being bored.

7) I would rather be too hot than too cold.  I spend most of my time being too cold.

8) I can't stand maybe.  It's yes or no for me!

9) I love color, texture and design.

10) I am much more likely to use power tools than my husband is.  We blur the traditional roles very comfortably around here.

11) I would rather be constantly traveling and moving around than be stuck in one place forever.

And now it's onto the 11 questions and their answers from my nominee, Jodi, over at kyfirewife.
1) How do you usually spend your free time?  I try to be productive whenever possible.  I usually turn to fixing, cleaning or making something.  I'm not much for sitting still.

2) How would you like to spend your free time?  I really should think more about getting out and being active as much as I can as I know darn well how much more toned I could be and when the weather is decent I should be taking advantage of it!

3) If you could live anywhere, where would it be, and why?  I actually started this blog so I could document how I'm feeling as I accomplish a long distance move to Texas and that is still where I really long to be.

4) How long have you been blogging?  Since September of 2010.
5) High heels or flats?  Definitely high heels.  I don't wear them on a daily basis or anything, but I am certainly willing to give up a little comfort for fashion and I love how I feel when I wear them.
6) What advice would you give to your former 18-year-old-self?  Get out of the house as soon as humanly possible.  You WILL finish college and make something of yourself and staying 4 more years in a hell hole is totally not necessary to prove anything.
7) What color is your car?  Red!
8) You just won the lottery, check has been deposited... what do you do first?  I actually told my nephew the other day that if I won the lottery he would know it because I would arrive on his doorstep with lots of guns and ammo and have a private jet waiting outside for him.  Yeah, I come from a long line of crazy, what can I say?!
9) On an average day, how much time do you spend watching television?  The TV is almost always on at my house.  I don't do quiet.  It makes me think something bad is about to happen.  But actually watching it, ummm, maybe 2-3 hours a day between news, some HGTV and maybe a reality show on TLC.
10) Have every played an organized sport? if so, what / when?  I'm pretty much a dance girl only, but I did play on the church soft ball team once back in high school.

11) Do you have any siblings?  Yes, only one half sister that I share a mother with.  However, I am pretty sure there are others on my Dad's side that I don't actually know... it's a long story.

And now onto Robin's questions:
1. Who do you miss the most?
I think that would be my friend Donna.  I actually visit her grave site on a regular basis where I talk to her and look out at the beautiful lake view.  This is SO not like me.  I  hate funerals and don't actually dig cemeteries so much either.  I think I feel like we were so much alike and we didn't have very much time together.  I met Donna only 4 years before she died.
2. What is your favorite word, and why?
I have never actually thought about this!  So for now I'll say that it's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because that's kind of fun!  By the way, I hate the term 'for now'.  It says 'this is going to be done half-assed and never really finished' to me. 
3. Where do you want to go that you have never been, and why?
I have a long list of National Parks to get to.  I need to see the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, etc.  I also need to spend more time on tropical islands!
4. Where do you want to you go that you have already been, and why?
I need to get back to Montana in the summertime and I need to take my husband to see Cancun as that is the place that I just can never get over.
5. If you could relive any experience in your life just for the pleasure of doing it one more time, what would you choose?
I might go back to when I was 10 and spent the summer before my favorite aunt turned 18, having her read the Winnie The Pooh chapter books to me.  She is probably the only person who ever really tried to nurture me in any way and I remember loving that she was doing this with me, even though I was never really into kids stuff.
6. What is your favorite holiday?
Definitely Thanksgiving.  A pretty easy going holiday as holidays go, and I absolutely love to cook!
7. Do you feel like you are doing what you are meant to be doing?  If so, what is that?  If not, what is holding you back?
I definitely know that I am meant to be serving people's needs in some fashion that allows me to use my creative flair. And I do that quite a bit right now.  I also know that I like change and I sense that I will probably find a new way to anticipate and fulfull others' needs in the future.  I see myself dancing again in the future as well.  Sometimes I have such a vision of myself leading dance classes for senior citizens.  I think that would be so much fun!  Right now, I need to know that I'm not preparing to move in order to be comfortable in changing things up.
8. Do you remember your dreams?  Have any of them ever been significant in your life?
Once in a while I remember dreams, but I mostly remember very vivid nightmares that leave me breathless and terrified.  I try to analyze them and see if I can learn something.  I often can.
9. Tell me about the first time you learned the lesson that life simply was not fair.  (It's not a question because I know it has happened to you.)
On the day that I fell in the mud on the way to school and had to go back to my grandma's house to wait out the day, with nothing to do and no one there to talk to.  I hated missing school and she had only diet food in the house!
10.  Who, or what, did you want to be when you grew up (earliest memory)?   (For example, I wanted to be Cher when I grew up when I was about five or six.  That is my earliest desire that I can recall.)
A writer in New York City.  So funny now- I can't stand NYC!
11. Why do you blog?
I started out wanting to document the process of moving out of my home state to a place that felt more like home.  Now I do it because I like the way it makes me think about things and I like the interaction with other bloggers.  :) :)

Now, I don't have a full list of 11 bloggers to pass my questions on to mainly because so many of the bloggers I read have already been included from the 2 people that I received the award from.  However, here are some people I'd like to pass the award on to and will ask my questions of-
 
Arlee Bird @ Tossing It Out
Amber @ Faith, Love, Kids and Me 2
Loretta @ Loretta's Journey
Myra @ Myra's Journey
 
And now here's the list of my own questions:

1) Do you speak any other language, other than English?

2) Do you have any serious regrets? 

3) Have you ever broken a bone?

4) If you could change one major law, what would it be- and why?

5) Have you ever had a pet that was truly a terror, but you loved it anyway?

6) Are you a home body?  If so, why?

7) Do you sometimes break the law if nobody gets hurt?  Or do you always toe the line?

8) Have you ever discovered something that you absolutely love that you thought you never could or would?

9) What is your guiltiest pleasure?

10) What is the biggest surprise of your life?

11) If you needed to live somewhere outside of the United States, where would you choose? 

Again, I thank anyone who has read all of this and hopefully you've found something interesting here.  If I didn't nominate you but you're reading and would like to get in on the fun, hit me up in the comments and tell me where I can read your answers! 

I Refuse To Glorify Terrorism

Here is the email that I sent to Experience Music Project museum here in Seattle, just the other day.

To Whom It May Concern:

Being musicians ourselves, my husband and I became founding members of the EMP as a way to promote music and knowledge of the history of music in Seattle.  We feel strongly about the positive influence that music can have in everyone's life, especially for students as they pursue music education along with their core subjects.  We have seen the EMP as a productive player in this endeavor.  

However, over the last couple of years we have been especially disturbed by the choice of the EMP to include a free subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine along with membership to the museum.  Several times we asked to have that subscription cancelled on our behalf as we do not support it and find it to be of especially poor quality, full of political far leftist politics that have nothing to do with music.  Unfortunately, for only one year has our request been fulfilled to not have that magazine delivered to our home.  As we do not have time to constantly remind you that we don't want the magazine delivered to us, we have resorted to simply tossing it into the trash every month as that is where that particular publication belongs.

This month as I tossed the magazine I noticed something completely shocking.  On the cover of Rolling Stone magazine was a photo of one of the Boston terrorists with a reference to an article inside.  It seems that Rolling Stone magazine has taken to glorifying an anti-American terrorist by placing his photo on their cover while running a full story inside.

This is completely unacceptable.  We will no longer stand for having our membership money or anything having to do with our EMP  membership support Rolling Stone magazine.  That magazine is simply not a good representation of the EMP and we would ask that its association with the EMP be ended immediately.

Our membership is due to be renewed by the end of the summer.  If we cannot be assured that the EMP will no longer be associated with Rolling Stone magazine, then our membership will not be renewed.  I'm sure you can understand that with the ramifications of glorifying a terrorist that killed and maimed American people, Rolling Stone has simply gone too far.

As you can see, I am very happy that I am not the only one who has a problem with Rolling Stone magazine giving a terrorist the 'Rock Star Treatment'.  Thank you CVS for refusing to sell this garbage!

Special Souvenir

We're back from a wonderful trip to Yellowstone National Park.

"Scenic View At Midway Geyser Basin" by aeypix, found at freedigitalphotos.net

I should be right back at it with the blog and sharing some cool photos from the trip and such.

However, I seem to have brought back the ultimate souvenir.  You see, my nephew is here with me for the next week or so while his Dad takes a motorcycle license course.  With all the 11 year old energy added to the house, I'm not sure I'll be able to blog much for the next little while. 

We have so much swimming and running and biking, etc. to do....

I don't know how you bloggers with kids do this!

Free Beer

I couldn't help myself.

My local grocery store had an advertisement for a $40.00 rebate on a $100 purchase if you also purchased a certain major brand of beer.

I don't drink beer.  Not because I'm a teetotaler, but because I've tried a bunch and they just don't float my boat.

However, my little old lady neighbor likes beer.  And one of the types that you could buy for the rebate was her favorite kind.

So I played beer fairy.

I bought the beer and brought it home to my neighbor and sent away for the $40 rebate. 

It'll take 6-8 weeks to get it back and by then I'll be all surprised and happy to get it.  And then I'll be smiling again like I was when I saw my neighbors face when she got some free beer right before the holiday weekend.

Beer Bottles On Ice by Napong, found at freedigitalphotos.net

 

 

 

Have a wonderful, happy and safe 4th of July! 

US flag backround with fireworks by Nirot, found at freedigitalphotos.net

My husband and I will be in Idaho Falls for the big fireworks show and then it's off to Yellowstone with my nephew and his Dad for their first time ever seeing the park!