THINGS I WANT TO DO

TEACH ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE…



For years, I have wanted to learn Spanish. I took a nighttime Adult Ed. class at one point…

Then…A few years ago, I took a couple of college classes from a really good White-American-who-lived-and-grew-up-part-time-in-Spanish-speaking-countries professor.

In between those endeavors…I have self-studied and taken opportunities to learn from any Spanish natives that am fortunate enough to run into.



So…I know about an eighth of a cup of Spanish, and it’s time to get fluent!

TEACHING has always been in me…I currently teach and now that my children have flown the coop, I really think that it’s time to follow this dream…



TRAVEL…



I remember sitting in a classroom in the second grade. We were watching a movie, in which was shown a large city with cars everywhere…Moving swiftly on the freeways…It was at that point that I felt a surge of excitement…There was a part of me that awoke and has never gone to sleep.





Myriads of opportunity exist Travel…There is history…There is culture.

Moving about from one point to the next brings the great adventure of learning…!

I am quite sure that at some remote point in the history of my descendents, there must have been a nomadic relative…



When I lived in a large metropolis on the coast, there was SO much to do…And much of it was free…Driving downtown in the wee hours just looking at the window displays was exciting…Things that are never seen in towns are there displayed…Watching the street people…Taking the children to the sea to catch eels, crawdads, starfish, and the like…Riding the fairies…So much to do!

While living on the road, in an RV, for a spot of time, we traveled and learned…There is so much out there to soak up in our great country…In our great world! I feel much like a sponge…

SIDE NOTE…

For years, as I did self-hypnosis while lying in bed at night, I would picture a set of stairs leading me down to the warm sand of the beach…Over and over, this was the picture I created in my mind to relax me and take me to a far-away place. I felt the warm sand upon my feet, I smelled the salty air, and I heard the gentle waves break upon the sand.

Years later…From when I started the self-hypnosis and this vision in my mind…I had the opportunity to accompany my mom to Cancun. What a marvelous trip it was. As we walked from the hotel room among the palm trees, across the pool decks, there were stairs leading down to the ocean.

I halted…

They were my stairs! The ones I had seen in my mind! I cannot explain the feelings the engulfed me…They were my stairs!...Can we create what we want to happen? I’ll let you decide.



IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN DO IT!

HOW IS YOUR WEEK GOING?

Just dropping a quick note to whomever is reading. I hope that your weeks are going well, and if they're not, MAKE THEM!

Remember, we have the control over how we react to any circumstances we face. Fix what's broken, mend what's hurt, make a list each day and complete it...But most of all work hard and JUST do the VERY BEST YOU CAN...

Little demon trolls will sneak in and try to tell you that you're lazy, you're not worth anything, you're fat, you never get anything done...And on and on and on. You've all heard them. Shut them out, know that you are a worthwhile person, and JUST DO THE BEST YOU CAN!

If you have fallen short this week, so have I! My goal of tidying my bedroom every morning...Well, let's just say that it looked (before tonight) almost as bad as before I started this project.

My healthy eating...Hmmmm...Hear and there, yes, but Mc D's, BK, and Taco John's have been my companions this week.

If you're tired, I'm right there with ya! Mentally wiped out.

If your house isn't clean, I hear ya there too!

The Good News...And there always is some...Is that I got one of my chores done this week...Wednesday's cleaning of my room...

And...I got my car cleaned! After waiting and waiting...I gotter done! Ended up taking it back because new stains appeared, but I planned for it, I waited, and I accomplished!

So, Ladies, JUST DO THE BEST YOU CAN--And then you have succeeded, so sleep tight and know that.



Have a Beautiful and Happy Thursday!

FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART

I feel to tell of the blessings of my friends in Blog land. Perhaps I should not name them as I certainly don’t want to being going along my day tomorrow and think, “Oh no! I forgot so and so!” That would be much too sad, as they would then think that they weren’t as important as the rest, when really is was just my own silly foible. So…I wish to say to all of you who are my friends…Whose blogs I follow (as lamely as that my be for I get not the time that I wish to thoroughly visit each of you as long and as often as I wish)…Thank you for being an example to me!



I say “Hello” to any of you who may be so kind as to read my words from my little corner of the world. I say to you also, “Thank you”. You too are a blessing in my life.



What a marvelous thing…Technology. It frustrates me so much at times and at others I think, “My, what a glorious time I live in to have this good fortune of being able to visit many people in different parts of this country and even the world….

You have allowed me to peek upon your lives and to be able to learn from you and be humbled by you and to take from you examples to better my own life…

The Lord indeed uses the hands and hearts of others to bless each of our lives, and I thank you.



I am blessed to be able to offer up prayers for you as well, when you are struggling….Not that I am a great prayer warrior, but I know that our Heavenly Father honors prayers, and I am so happy to add mine to yours in hopes of you getting the strength you need to carry on.



I tear up as I write this…Because I am so thankful for you. What AWESOME and OUTSTANDING examples you are to me. If you are thinking, “I wonder if she is speaking of me.” Yes, my dear, I am. :0) Again, would that I could name names, but I cannot…

Just know that I am astonished at what you accomplish…Even when you feel like you aren’t…I am just amazed. I can Truthfully say that I have grown, that I am accomplishing more than I would without knowing you through reading your blogs, and that my life is so much better because of you!



So…From the bottom of my heart…Thank you dear friends!

And…I am proud to call you that. Blessings to YOU this day!

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO

Twenty-seven years ago this very minute, 3:10 in the morning, life changed forever. So many years ago yet affected by it EVERY SINGLE DAY…NUMEROUS times a day--No one could ever even begin to know.

Nonetheless, I am blessed to have my Heavenly Father, His love, the Gospel...and a really good dog! Oh yeah, and a brown belt martial artist son...and a kick-bootie martial artist brother!

Oh...and the Glock...and the cattle prod...and the mace...

And a lot of attitude! I ain't goin' down that easy next time!



I haven’t gone around freely speaking about it at every turn. Somehow though, for the last couple of years, I have felt the need to. It happened to me, and whether you (family, friends) remember or not, it was real! Oh boy, was it real. And, I have talking (for lack of a better comparison…”bragging”) rights.

So, as this is my blog, and this is my outlet, I share my story.

If anyone in Blog land is reading and doesn’t like crime-show type scenarios, you will want to turn back now.

And so I begin…



THE READER’S DIGEST VERSION…

I had lived 30 miles out in the country…By myself…With my two dogs. Winters were bad, and the road home could not always be navigated. So…I moved in to town.

I ended up living in the duplex for one month. In that short time frame, this is what happened...

I came home from work, and my front porch light was out. I turned the bulb, and it was just loose and so lit back up. This happened the next night and the next night and so on.

I had two cats…One was a beautiful Himalayan with Blue eyes. I came home from work and found him meowing from inside the house (other side of the duplex) next door. I knocked on the door, and no one answered. At some point, maybe the next morning, my kitty was back. I came home the next day, and Malcolm was meowing for me from inside the next-door neighbor’s house again. Again I knocked…Again no answer. This happened again and again; I put a note on the guys car saying to stop taking my cat. I got no reply.

Malcolm came up missing and two weeks later was found in the ditch…dead. I hate to think of what the poor thing had to go through before he died.

One night a couple of weeks later, I went out with a girlfriend. Arriving home late and still not tired (night owl), I decided to bake some bread. At 3:10 a.m., there was a knock at the door.

Upon answering, I saw my next-door neighbor standing there. He had no shirt, and his arm was behind his back. he asked if he could use my phone because he was hurt. Of course, I let him in…BIG mistake.

He pulled a gun on me then ordered me to go back to my bedroom. Some not so good things happened there.

Then, he hit me over the back of the head with the gun, drug me to the bathroom, put me in the tub, and turned on the water…He left.

I heard him come back…Just as the water was encircling my nose and mouth, I got out. Showing me a knife, he asked me if I wanted that.

He made me kneel down, showed me where he was going to hit me (at the base of my head) with an 18-inch pipe wrench, asked me if I was ready, and struck me.

He shoved my head under water. The Lord helped me get up just as I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

He made me kneel down again, showed me where he was going to hit me, asked me if I was ready, and struck me again.

He shoved my head under water. The Lord again helped me get up just as I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

This happened over and over.

He then told me to get dressed (no shoes or socks allowed) and then hand-cuffed me. I was made to get into his car.

He drove very slowly…out of town into the dark. Alongside the road, by an irrigation ditch and a farmer’s field, he stopped. I was uncuffed long enough to be able to get through the barbed-wire gate then made to walk along a frosty dirt path. We stopped, and he hand-cuffed me.

I was told to kneel down…He showed me where he was going to hit me; he asked me if I was ready and smashed the pipe wrench down upon me. I fell to the ground. He stabbed me in the chest and left.

I heard him come back. He put his ear to my face…Listening to see if I was breathing. I tried so hard not too.

He stabbed me in the chest once again, this time turning the knife before he pulled it out. He drug me to a ditch and left me for dead.

Even now I occassionaly can’t believe that it really happened, but believe me, it did. It was barbaric and extremely sureel…one of those things where you think, “I can not believe that this is happening to ME!”

DH and I went out there tonight…To the field. I have driven by a few times over the years (not many), but other than taking the detectives out there right after it happened, I have never walked the path that I walked…Literally. For some reason, this was the year. So…DH, Dog, and I pulled up, alongside the road, by the irrigation ditch and the farmer’s field, and stopped. We crossed the barbed-wire gate then walked along the frozen dirt path. It was only 3-7 degrees cooler tonight then it was that night of February 19th twenty-seven years ago, it was just as dark, and the lights of town seemed just as far away as they did then. But tonight…No one MADE me walk that path…I chose to. I chose to…And it was o.k. It was really o.k.



I got back into our nice warm car with my hubby and dog, and we went home.

MY PRAYER FOR TODAY

My prayer for today…

That I would be open to the Lord’s will for the remainder of my life.

As I struggle through this existence, I want everything...And I want nothing.

Often times, I feel as if I am just wandering…And that after all these years...20-30...I still don’t have solutions to two of my biggest challenges...

I don’t understand.

But...

Maybe there have been answers, and I have just been unwilling to listen.

I must…I will…gain more faith. I know that my Father in Heaven is aware of me and loves me, as he does all of us, His Children, and that He is there to help us up...



During one of the most difficult times in my life, I came upon (was lead to) this scripture...

I typed it...Printed it...Hung it upon my wall...

And, I committed it to memory.

It is a different wall now, but it still hangs.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

May we all strive today to strengthen our faith

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

A Yummy Cod Bake...



Some left-over acorn squash…Added in are some left-over buttered carrots…(One wouldn’t think that this sounded very enticing, but...



Sprinkle on some brown sugar...And...



Oooo, it was scrumptions!



A Cozy Kitty…



A little man’s drawing…



Love letters…



And a family portrait…



And these are a few of my favorite things...

This family portrait is representative…Though it was not purposefully arranged, it quite ironically turned into a true illustration of our family…

The GNE bag was my husband (the name of his work at the time)…He enveloped all of us.

The leash…Me…(I trained dogs)…was under his covering but at the same time…beside him (the dog’s Kong) as co-leader in our home.

Daughter #2 was/is a voracious reader and Boy played soccer…They too were enclosed within the family.

Daughter #1 was, at the time, going away and though still young, wanting to disengage. She is represented here by the inline skate (something she loved to do), outside of but yet leaning upon the family.

This was DH’s very first oil painting.



A Happy Thursday to You All!

WEEK 3

WEEK 3...Or is it the end of week 4?

The week didn’t end on such a positive note.

Discouraging…Sure.

Life-altering…No.

I actually have more determination to do better. Why? Because, when you're lying at the bottom of the hole, that light at the top REALLY beckons loudly!



Today, and actually for the past four, I have been bedridden…I now feel renewed and almost symptom free, so I am ready to take the world by the tail…Well, almost ;)

So, onward we go!



ASPIRATIONS

ANYTHING that we are aspiring to…Going for the Olympic medal…Or, cleaning your house…It needs to be taken One step at a time…

Life can be too overwhelming when viewing the entire picture. Even if it is something as small as doing homework, take one step at a time.

Do a bit…Take a break.

Do a bit…Take a break…

Do a bit…Take a break…

One…Step…At…A…Time is imperative!



Of course, the more you can do the better, and if you’re up to it, great! But if you’re just feeling overwhelmed and like you can’t do it, there is great worth in SMALL ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

There are some days where just getting ready for the day is too much...

Putting on my makeup...



Brushing my teeth...



Doing my hair...



Getting my outfit together and getting dressed...



And...Taking care of the animals can be too much to handle--funny as it may seem...



So, I break it up.

It doesn’t always go like this, but here is an example of what I may do on some days…

I do a bit…Put my mascara on…Then, eat my breakfast…Take care of the animals…Then get dressed…Put on the rest of my makeup…Get my materials for work together…Etc.

So, rather than doing something all at once, I alternate my tasks. By doing that, I am more easily able to accomplish them and feel quite successful once they ARE done!

A whole LOT can be achieved by taking it bit by bit by bit.

I have always felt sorry for the proverbial elephant, but the saying holds true…



So, Take charge of today...One bite at a time!

Life, so they say, is but a game and we let it slip away…

…And all the years will come and go, take us up, always up.

We may never pass this way again. We may never pass this way again.

We may never pass this way again.

Dreams, so they say, are for the fools and they let 'em drift away…

…Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage.
Sail our ships out on the open sea. Cast away our fears
And all the years will come and go, and take us up, always up.

We may never pass this way again. We may never pass this way again.

We may never pass this way again.

Do you remember this Seals and Croft song? Life really does slip away…Before we even realize it.

One day, we are young and raising our brood…The next, retirement is just around the corner…And then the next moment, we’re just a memory.

Indeed...We may never pass this way again...So...

I believe that we MUST dream…



And then…

I believe that we MUST make those dreams come true…

There will ALWAYS be the many who dissuade you…

And…There will ALWAYS be the great majority who say that YOU MUST NOT DO IT…

DO IT ANYWAY!

If it is not going to hurt anyone…Do it…

If it is not going to bring to another some harm…Do it…

We live but such a short life…We are here, and then we are gone.

There is work enough…There is sorrow enough…There is worry enough…There is pressure enough…

Why then not DREAMS enough?



Let me tell you a story…


I knew a man…Who dreamed of doing good things…Big things…

This man indeed accomplished many things and in the end…

He became a rocket scientist…


I knew a man…Who dreamed of doing good things…Big things…

This man indeed accomplished many things, and in the end…

He became a Navy fighter pilot…And then…

He became a lawyer…And then…

He became a professor…


I knew a man…Who dreamed of doing bad things…Big things…

This man indeed accomplished many things, and in the end…

He became a drug user…And then…

He became a robber…And then…

He became a rapist…And then…

In the very end…He became a torturer…And a murderer…


So you see...there is a high chance that we WILL accomplish what we set out to do...

So...Let us dream!

Let us dream MANY things…

Let us dream GOOD things…

Let us dream BIG things…

It is all in the Dream…

And in the end...

Our Dreams WILL come true!