I cannot be a hero!

The other day Khlia thought it would be fun to play guitar hero with me, well all I can say is there is a reason I don't play video games, I SUCK!

This crazy video is me attemping to play, but dying and sending most of my time yelling at the game. ENJOY my lack of talent!

beauty all around!

All these flowers are from my very own garden! Aren't they beautiful? I have been spending every possibly sunny moment working on the yard and it's never ending, but when I can put together a lovely bouquet from my own garden it makes it worth it.

I eat well!

So, I have had a never ending sweet tooth for the past few weeks and it's been driving me crazy because all I want is stuff with TONS of sugar!

The other night I was bound and determined to eat healthy and still have some sweets.

And I made this amazing salad - with baby greens, strawberries, candied nuts, feta cheese and raspberry dressing, it was so yummy and I thought I was eating dessert.

Every since then I have been adding fruit to my salad's to make them have a little sweetness to them, but I still eat better than had I just opened up the ice cream for dinner. Some fruits I have tired: strawberries, blackberries, pears, apples, grapefruit and oranges. If anyone has any other ideas let me know.

I know the candied nuts are not the best option (just plain nuts would be fine and better for me) but I have tons of candied nuts left over from an event, so I can't let them go to waste.

IT'S A BOY!

Therefore I will be having a great nephew! I am super excited along with the rest of the family. We found out last night after I with held ice cream from the whole family until the beans were spilled. The things one must do to get my family to talk about stuff!

Congrats to the cute happy couple! And I am looking forward to meeting the little man!

good one!

Pisces:
You will be extremely articulate today, and able to express exactly what you mean and want.

So I don't normally buy into all this, I just find them interesting and lately they have been right on the money... I guess today I need to get all the talking/writing done that I have been putting off because I didn't feel like I knew how to say what I wanted to say.

another tag post

I think I am developing a love hate relationship with these tag things. If you know me you know I love things like these, RANDOM facts about people, often things you might never know about the people you call friends. But, at the same time the little time I have to blog seems to sometimes be taken up by honoring your tag requests.

So, here goes this one.

3 Joys:
1.The sights of spring with the wide array of colors, it just brightens my day.
2.This will be odd, there is a dairy farm near my mom's house and I LOVE the smell of it because it tells me that I only have about 15 minutes of the almost 1.5 hours drive left.
3. Three little words... you've got mail!

3 Fears:

I think I need to take the 5th of this question this week... it far too personal right now.

3 Goals: I am currently trying to focus on SHORT term goals because I feel like nothing is getting done...
1. Get my website done
2. Get my office to a place were I feel I can actually work in there
3. Get a new car - Okay that one becomes more and more long term as more and more bills have to be paid. I will soon be taking the bus or max every where, because it's going to DIE on me any moment.

3 Current Obsessions:
1. Sugar
2. Lifetime movies
3. OJ

3 Random Facts: As if this blog needs any more...
1. I love to pull weeds... although my current house has more weeds then the whole world should have and it's quickly becoming something I loathe. And no, I will not come help you pull weeds!
2. I often put things in special places so they won't get lost and then can't remember where I put them... for example last summer when I returned from Europe my sister gave me back my house key and I put in one of those special places and about three months later I found where that special place had been, next to the DVD player. For three months I went through the back door because it was the only front door key I had.
3. I don't like having other people in the car with me... it's has nothing to do with worrying what people might think of my driving or what not but it's more about that's when I do my best thinking while I am driving and if someone is with me then most often they want to talk - so if there is carpooling to be done, I prefer that the other person drives. I try to be fair and dive my share of the time... but I don't like it. It feel very awkward to drive and not be able to think about all the things there are to think about in ones life. I don't feel as prepared mentally for something when we get there, etc.
I know I am odd!

Interesting information

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Well, lets see - I was getting ready to graduate high school and deciding what to do with the rest of my life... I was involved with a children's theatre and dancing like 6 days a week. I was like 30 lbs less than I am now, now that's sad. I was living in Moorpark with the family. Taking classes at Moorpark college. Buying a dress for prom which I did not attend. I just looked through old journals and either I didn't have one and write during 1998 or I don't have it any more, which would make me wonder where it is...

5 Things on my to do list today:
Well, on the list was...
1. pick up living room
2. finish cleaning bathroom
3. dishes
4. weed the garden beds
5. laundry

The only thing I did was the dishes and weed 1/2 of one of the garden beds, but I did take a whole car full (yes I filled my WHOLE car) of stuff to Good Will. I made HUGE progress on the garage and I sprayed bug killer all around the house.

3 bad habits:
1. I am lazy when it comes to house work
2. I forget to eat
3. I yell at people while I drive and call them names

If I were suddenly a billionaire:
First thing I would do is buy a ticket so I could go see Ali graduate this weekend... then I would buy my house and remodel it just the way I want it. I would get a new car (mine is going to die pretty much any day) and then I would invite Stacy and Clinton on a shopping spree with me to pick out all the clothes in the world that are perfect for my body. I would take a year or so and travel all around the world... and maybe pick up a few kids along the way to adopt.

4 Places I have lived:
Newbury Park, CA
Moorpark, CA
Thousand Oaks, CA
Portland, OR

5 Jobs I have had:
1. Teacher - many different places including two colleges
2. Bead store clerk
3. Case Manager with CASA
4. Event Manager, Community Outreach and Volunteer Manager for One Circle
5. Weekend Manager at RMH

3 things people don't know about me:
I am a total open book and tell people TMI all the time... really can't think of anything.
Okay, maybe this... I am totally vain and take pictures of myself a few days out of each month when I am having a good hair day. I some times sleep on what to say in an email before sending a response because I fear saying the wrong thing... so if you get emails back the same day, I value as someone I can say anything to and you will always love me. I always expect things to go horribly wrong so that I am pleasantly surprised when things work out. Though I don't know if that is all things NO ONE KNOWS... I am sure one or two people know each of those things about me.

Dinner with a VIEW!

Last night in honor of Laura leaving the great Northwest for grad school in New York, we went to Beaches for dinner - yummy food, a great view, but most of all the BEST company - Laura and Kristen!

After dinner we walked along the water, taking silly pictures of ourselves and enjoying the sites.

Like this amazing picture...

I think I need to wash something

I think I might be officially lazy... if you know me, you know I hate to do laundry. In my house my laundry room is in the basement, which I don't often go down into - partly because I fear falling down the steps and laying there until I die because I live alone and no one would know I am dying because of the fall... so unless I took my cell phone with me to call someone and say "I've fallen and I can't get up" only to be laughed at and not helped. Sorry for the side stepped story... back to the wash.

I also don't go down much because I am spoiled and have a laundry shoot (you can see it at the top of the picture).

Well, yesterday I had to go down to get a bag to wrap a gift for my friend Laura who is leaving me (see another post) and we were having a going away dinner. I was pretty surprised when I walked down into the basement and saw this pile of laundry...

And if you didn't know... this is why I own so much clothing... I hate doing laundry and therefore need a million and one pieces of clothing so I always have something to wear.

I will let you know that last night after the said dinner I shorted all that laundry and started ONE load... yes just one, more than that would have been too much.

Another reason I hate doing laundry even more now is that in my cute little old house that was built in the 50's is that my electricity is not so great in the house, so I can't run the washer and the dryer at the same time or I blow a fuse. I also have to whack the lights in the kitchen to get them to work, they have shorts. The joys of old houses, but I love my house... it's just too cute for words.

Really, the world needs this?!?!?!?!

Okay now I have seen it ALL... I was so not even looking for this book Beautiful Mommy: Plastic Surgery Picture Book but I found it none the less.As someone who believes very much in bibliotheraphy one might think I am all for this... but I am not! I am more for us raising generations of children, particularly girls who can love themselves for who they are (not what they will become with plastic surgery) if we as the adult women in their lives, mother's, aunts, friends, etc. don't model for them that we love ourselves and can find happiness with who we are, how can we expect our children or any other child for that matter to learn to do the same.

Sure there are things about myself that I don't like... sure I would love the magic cure of plastic surgery on some areas of my body. But more importantly I also want a world of children who can believe that they can do anything they set their mind to and that LOOKS DON'T MATTER! That looks shouldn't hold you back. I know this seems like an impossible task living in today's society, but I would like to hope that each of us can make a difference in the lives of the children we come into contact with, simply by modeling that no matter what we like who we are. Sorry to have gotten on my soap box for the day! And trust me I need to work on this just as much as the next person.

http://www.ibabuzz.com/aparentlyspeaking/2008/04/18/beautiful-mommy-plastic-surgery-picture-book/

a few random things

apparently I am "too beautiful for McDonald's"... not sure even a day later how to take that complement. It took everything in my to just smile and say thank you and not just burst our laughing. He was old enough to be my father I am sure of that and I know I should be using criminal profiling anymore (it's racial if you didn't know) but he looked like he might have killed a few people here and there over the years. Sorry to disappoint you all but I DID NOT give him my number nor did I continue to have a conversation with him.

random fact about me... at home I sit on the toilet sideways. I have just noticed that I do this recently and needed to ponder why. Here's what I came up with, pretty much the only times I use my home potty is first thing in the morning or at night. First thing in the morning I am normally getting in the shower so I sit sideways so I can multi-task, pee and turn on the water. I almost always take a bath at night, one because I feel stressed and two because I don't like to feel dirty (I know it's a total waste of water to shower and bathe twice in one day, but I don't care) so again, I multi-task and pee and get the bath ready. But I also have discovered that it's far more comfortable to sit sideways on the toilet, your booty has more room. I am sure this is more then you ever wanted to know about me, my thinking and my life. At least it's something you can laugh at today.

sorry...

for my lack of blogging... been super duper busy the last two weeks. Two major events took place in the last two weekends, that needed all of my attention. One was a event for a non-profit I have worked for over the past ten years One Circle it was an awesome event and I am very thankful for all my wonderful volunteers that helped me pull off yet another successful event - I work as their events manager.

then this past weekend I fulfilled a life long dream - I LECTURED AT A MAJOR UNIVERSITY! UCLA! I didn't sleep for weeks leading up to this, as I am sure you can imagine. The night before was the worst (my poor mother who was sharing a hotel room with me) I kept getting up turning on the lights and writing down the latest grand thing that came to mind. It wasn't PERFECT, but I didn't expect it to be. Because I was not a senior lecturer, I didn't get a tech support person, so I had to figure out UCLA's super high-tech system on my own, I did okay! I was sick to my stomach and just wanted to barf... I tried trust me, but nothing would come out, I thought it would make me less nervous. I thought I was going to pass out for the 1.5 hours I was up in front of everyone. Thankfully I was able to talk my mother into not coming in to listen, I just knew that if I looked out and saw someone I knew that I wouldn't be able to carry on... She won't admit this, but I think she sat outside and listened. About 20 people who were there came up afterwards and personally thanked me, that was cool and two people stayed to ask me further questions... even though the last 15 minutes I took questions from the group. Nearly 20 people took my business card... that makes me feel totally special. It wasn't a bust but any means, but I learned a lot and next time (if there ever is a next time) it will be better - you live and learn. My lecture was on Gross Motor Development in Infancy - I started off by sharing a picture with the group of me as a baby learning to walk - I think that helped me seem more personable to these people and less like someone lecturing at them.... I also had volunteers come up and try out being babies - that was totally fun for all!

I will write more when I have a chance to catch my breath and get back into the swing of a normal life (wait, what's that again?).