Bring On Lemons

I didn't get much sleep the night before last. My husband has this alarm issue that I won't go into, but I will just tell you that from 12:30am until 5:30am either his phone or his alarm were going off every ten minutes. I love him dearly and wouldn't want him sleeping anywhere other than right next to me ... but I would have preferred a solid five hours of sleep as opposed to eight minute increments. Last night I didn't get much sleep either - and I was really optimistic about it. I purchased a body pillow which I was confident would help me sleep better and wake up more refreshed (for those who have never slept with me, I'm a tummy sleeper - but with this baby in my belly, that doesn't work so well). The pillow made all the difference in the world and I was snoring, drooling, and dreaming in no time. Weird dreams too ... but again, that's a story for a different day. At nearly 1am I heard screaming from my little guy who is four. I jumped out of bed and ra...

It's a gorgeous day here - the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it was warm enough to leave my sweater at home. It's certainly not the weather that put me in a bit of a funk this morning ... and I'm not sure if that's the best way to describe my emotions anyway ... let me explain: I've been the super busy burning the candle at both ends person. The one who feels under appreciated and over-worked as well as the one with that voice inside screaming "what about what I want? Does NOBODY care what I want?" When I was living that life, I thought I was doing a good job being mindful of others. I would talk about 'perception is everything' and I thought I was being careful of my tone, my body language, and choosing my words carefully. You get the picture. I felt like I was walking on a tightrope that was a bit frayed on one end - I knew eventually the darn thing was going to give and I was going to plummet toward the ground. I didn't think...

Raining on the Inside If you're anything like me, you don't really enjoy crying in front of people. That means happy tears as well as those of pain and sadness. Such an outflow of emotion is something I feel comfortable doing in the shower, and on rare occasion, in front of my husband. This said, if you've seen me cry, I was likely incredible uncomfortable at that moment. If you've seen my cry more than once, you're probably a dear friend or family member (or a stalker with a stool who can see into my bathroom window). I have plenty of emotions, but I prefer to share the happy ones and leave the tears for private. This morning I logged into my social media accounts (since I own a business where I help businesses with social media, I get to call this "work") - so I started 'working' and my news feed was flooded. 1) The mayor's grandfather died 2) A dear friend described herself as "broken" after the death of yet another family...

New Years is a time to reflect, make resolutions, blah blah blah ... but what if it was more than that? What if you could go back and change the past instead of simply changing the future? What if you had magical powers for a day? Better yet, a fairy god mother/father who could help you travel back in time to right a wrong or change the outcome of a difficult situation? Here's a little story about just that ... is there a moral to the story? maybe...but that's for you to decide. Enjoy! Time to Decide My throat dry, my eyes felt full of sand, and my head was throbbing. I should blame the Marlboro Lights and the red wine but instead I will blame the son of a gun who promised to love honor and cherish me until death. Dammit Ben, you swore this was happily ever after. Where are you now? You may not care, but I’m staying in some shit hole hotel in the middle of nowhere. I pick up my cell phone to text him something smarmy about today being Christmas day or a happy annive...

Yesterday I received an updated email regarding my pregnancy. The email said that the baby was the size of a lemon. At the time, I didn't think much about the comparison since each week there was some talk of food. The size of a walnut, the size of a this or that...and until this very moment, I didn't realize just how appropriate the lemony reference was. Let me explain... At 2pm today, my husband my son and I walked into the clinic for our scheduled OB appointment. I was 12 weeks pregnant and we were all very excited about hearing the baby's heartbeat and sharing a special family moment. We waiting patiently and then the big moment arrived. The doctor pulled out the electronic stethescope to listen to the heart beat. He had trouble finding it which wasn't all that concerning. He asked the nurse to bring in an ultrasound machine and then a special vaginal ultrasound machine. It was obvious there was a problem. There was a large pink elephant in the middle of the room ...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/902432461/tell-em-new-book-by-liysa-callsen Below is my book review of Tell 'Em by Liysa Callsen - enjoy! If you can help fund the project, there is a link at the top and bottom of the article - donations of any amount are accepted and I know Liysa will appreciate them! Tell'em by Liysa Callsen is a soulful sharing of one woman's journey in finding herself and her purpose. Callsen pours her soul out to her readers, sharing both triumphs and tribulations. Tell'em is entertaining at times, but at others you just want to grab Liysa and hug her because the imagery is so strong. You feel the pain of the child who is being teased, the child who wants so badly to belong and has no one to turn to because her instinct is to protect the family she loves. She is victim and hero and it's her turn to tell her story! Tell'em brings to light a world most of us have not had the pleasure to experience - the Deaf world. Callsen entert...

Do you feel like things are out of control? Too many irons in the fire? Too many things on the 'to do' list? Not enough hours in the day? Feel like someone else is driving the bus and you aren't liking the direction it's heading? YOU have choices... breathe Stop whatever you are doing right now. Close your eyes. Breathe in, Breathe out. Put down your smart phone. Grab something to drink (ie: water, coffee, etc...) and take a seat. I want the next 7 minutes of your life...starting now... Here's a gift I want to give you: I met a man who was a college football star. He went surfing and had a terrible accident. He woke up paralyzed from the neck down. That's right...he can't move his arms, he can't urinate without help, he can't dress himself, feed himself, make love to his wife, hold his children, etc...(I know...you're wondering what kind of gift this is...). I don't want you to feel more fortunate because someone is in a worse situati...

Each day is a gift in and of itself. Each day is actually a two-fer...as in: the day is a gift, and the day brings you a gift. The key is finding the gift some days. Today we received some bad news about the farm transition and expansion. I won't go into details, but there were so many gifts buried beneath the superficial struggles throughout the day. The struggle: The cows were too hot and not milking much The gift: Mark got to spend time with his Dad putting together the sprinkler system The struggle: Financing problems we had not planned for The gift: a team of professionals on the county/state/and bank level who pulled together to help us understand what we can do moving forward to make this less problematic. The struggle: Finding time for engagement pictures The gift: We scheduled them...and it means we have an afternoon together (may not be the location or time of day we originally planned, but it will be perfect since we are together) The struggle: No help for mil...

Today's blog post is the rambling mess going on inside my head this morning - if you've ever been overwhelmed, this one's for you...you're not alone! The house is still for sale - not that I expected it to sell in three weeks...but one can hope, right? It sounds like the farm transition is going to happen right after the wedding. This means we have a lot of decisions to make. Reduce the price of the house to sell it? Rent it out and still use part of it as an office for Relax Consulting? How do we keep the Two Rivers house furnished and ready for showing, if we are remodeling the new house? What school should the children be enrolled in (Valders or Two Rivers)? Come to find out Valders doesn't have a 4k...so another decision to make. Then there's the question of owning a business versus the benefits that come with being an employee. Do I throw the towel in on Relax Consulting and take a job? Then there's the question of child care...and we want another bab...

A sweet (and brutally honest) friend shared the following quote with me on Friday afternoon and it's still bee-bopping around in my head - which usually means I am meant to share it. So here is your gift from me this Memorial weekend:  "What people in the world think of you is really none of your business." ~Martha Graham This conversation came about because I have a lot of self doubt because I have always cared too much about what other people think, how they feel, and what they are saying about me. I can say that I don't care what other people think, but deep down inside, I want to be like-able. I try to never offend, treat others the way I would want to be treated, and if I have to deliver bad news...I try to do it as tactfully as possible while pointing out as many positives as possible. I try to see the good in others and I hope they'll do the same for me. When I find a fault I try to fix it, and I believe that people are always well-intended. I trus...

Believe In Yourself - there are enough people out there ready to knock you down or kick your a__, why do it for them?  Now don't go thinking that based on this title I am back to driving the bus...I definitely believe that God is the bus driver. Now that I've offended some, onto today's point which I'll get to via a story. I previously worked in a large office that had an IT department with several incredibly helpful people who would replace, repair, reboot, computers and could fix network problems, understood firewalls, etc... I was a bit more techy than some, but less than most, and when I got home at the end of the day I had trouble installing anything (including virus protection) on my home PC and went for years without a printer at home because I thought it was too confusing to get it networked correctly. Last week I paid $6.75 to have 9 pages scanned to a PDF and put on a memory stick. That was it for me, I knew it was time to upgrade my printer. I had a ...