One eskimO new music!

Hi everyone!

It's been way too long since I've pushed the buttons required to get me to where I am now...and maybe that is because I've been letting too many other people push my buttons lately! (That sounds probablay more deep than it is!)

I wanted to let you know about a new cd I have recently had the chance to review. I was sent the new CD from One eskimO and it took me a while to listen to it after it arrived. Hubby and I were not around home long enough to even remember to put it in the player...and in the car I usually am listening to one talk radio show or the other so that I will have conversation starters with hubby when we have two seconds to talk!

But then the daughters came home. Not only did the quiet of our home disappear, but the music choices sure did change! In an effort to remind the college girls just how cool I can be I popped in the One eskimO cd! It was an instant hit, and the girls wondered just why I had music that they like blaring in the living room. It was SO unusual!!

So, thanks to One eskimO I was a cool mom...for a split second! If you'd like to know more about One eskimO or hear some of their music check them out at http://www.oneeskimo.com/ ,on Facebook or on Twitter. Leave me a comment by August 15th and you'll be eligible to win my copy of this cd!

It might not be my cup of tea for regular listening, but I understood the words, didn't end up with a headache, and best of all...my 19 and 21 year old daughters like it and put up with me for that split second!

Now THAT is a plus side of life!!

It's Monday....all week long!

It's MONDAY!!  Today I've realized that it's going to be ONE of those weeks!  I LOVE my place of business, my friends at work, my boss, and my work...the job I do there!! At work there is ALWAYS something to do...and this week there will be an extra lot of things to do!  We have a wonderful jewlery trunk show on Thursday.  The Fisherman's Wife is the first of many stops for Towne & Reese in the new company's climb into the retail ring!  Check them out at http://www.towneandreese.com/ .  Come by the shop to see the real jewelry!  There is always a PLUS side about being at The Fisherman's Wife!  But it's gonna be busy!

I'm trying to find my way...what should I write about... how can I help use this blog to release my desire to write and with a focus beyond myself.  There is so much ahead of us now that the day to day job of raising children is done.  The potential is so huge!  I want to be able to embrace the future fully.  To do that I'm going to have to make some major changes in my PLUS sized world, I think.  Health concerns are rising, and I'm feeling lost for how to start prioritizing changes needed.  Life is changing quickly, and the PLUS side of things is full of positives and negatives.  Where to go from here........................ ? 

hmmm...Wordless Wednesday

Can I just tell you??

This has been a wild week....can I just tell you?!  The plus side of the week...well there were many!...but the one I loved the most included laughing!!  And DID I laugh?!  It happened Thursday night.  I was in Raleigh to watch the play at NCSU that Red Daughter (RD in the future) has been working on.  The play was funny...chuckle funny and also belly laugh funny.  But that was not what caused the most laughter.  My parents met me at the theater for the show...They are season ticket holders to the plays that RD is involved in. Me, the mom, I get the cheap variety of tickets...either RD's comp tickets or the $5 variety that RD pays for using her All Campus card, and therfore Mo (hubby and RD's dad) ends up paying for!!  A chuckle-able twist of fortune...but that wasn't it either!  After the play we waited for a minute to be able to have a face to face with RD, as it was a stressful week for her...another story...!  We saw her, blew kisses, and were summarily dismissed!  The grandparents and I then headed back to their home and it was well past bedtime when we arrived...BUT  the men's Olympic figure skating finals were still underway so we stayed up to watch.  This gave me a moment to interact with my 'sister'.  My brother and I were just placeholders it seems for our much younger sibling... Sophie, a 5ish year old black schnoodle (schnauzer/poodle mix).  So... we played and Sophie bragged about her new larger than life dog bone and the grandparents bragged about how well she chewed said bone...and I once again was reminded of my place in their lives.  The winner of the figure skating competition was announced and motions were made toward bedtime.  The dog was put outside for one last chance to...well...you get the picture...and end of day rituals ensued...when all at once there came a huge racket of yappie dog barking outside.  You know the sound...that of a dog that has taken off in chase of wildlife...but this is a little yappie sound...of little yappie spoiled rotten dog taking off in chase.  This is not unusual for Sophie as the yard is wooded and full of woodland creatures; deer, possom and squirrels to name a few.  Mom has this nifty little whistle that she blows with all her might and normally Sohpie comes running.  This dog LOVES the grandparents almost as much as they love her!  Well...mom blows and blows...and still there is barking....mom tells dad he'll have to come get Sophie...that she is not coming when blown for....So dad paddles into the kitchen as mom hangs the whistle on its hook by the back door and takes off to the front door to see if the wandering mutt is there.  I hear the rattle of the whistle as mom hangs it up...and then as dad takes it back down and begins blowing with all his might.  Now dad...he blows and hollers and blows the wistle some more...mom is hollering from the front door...  I'm shaking my head...close the door and leave the mutt out there...that'll teach her.... and I wander into the kichen, also sorta sing-song hollering Sophie's name thinking she'll come to me since we're so close and all!  I notice that the barking has stopped outside.   Hmmmm, wonder where that mutt has gone now.  As I start to approach the back door to go out and look I stop dead in my tracks.  That jingling I heard must not have been the whistle after all, because sitting right behind my dad, on the pillow inside her crate by the back door, is the sweet little Sophie herself, looking around at us like we were out of our cotten pickin' minds.  And then I LAUGHED!

It's LOVE day....Valentine's Day...

Love day happens this year on a Sunday, the full day of love when I consider the love remembered and felt at church on a normal day! 

Today is a bit of a different day!  Mo (husband nickname) went to Sunday school today, and I slept off a dose of cold medicine.  I've been struggling with my place in our church and while I probably coulda made it thru Sunday school I found it easier to fall back to sleep when he left. 

My struggle at church stems from several reasons but the most easily explained is our recently emptied nest.  The is the first year having both children in college.  Mo and I watched as No. 2 left for college last August.  She is in school almost 5 hours away.  No. 1 is in her first of two senior years of college only 2 hours away and near many family and friends that woud be able to be by her side in minutes if needed.  BUT... for No. 2 that is not possible.  I struggle wanting to fix all their troubles, help with homework and deliver a pizza for lunch.  I am hugely proud of both girls...but what about me?  I've been not much else but MOM for the past 21+ years. 

Mo will be the first to tell you I've had a hard time adjusting to the 'empty nest' situation!  We both have said frequently that No. 2 leaving happened just in time.  She is fiercely independent and was ready to be 'on her own' about a year before her high school time was up!  All that being said...I miss her!  I am quickly slowly learning how to redefine myself...from babysitting co-op, PTA mom, band mom, volunteer extraordinaire, fieldtrip chaperone, late night video store driver, forgotten homework or lunch deliverer...into what???

So now...While I continue loving...I am learning new...new ideas, new work endeavors, new crafts, new ways to clean house (a biggie!) ...I am a lifelong learner ... So I'm pondering...what to do?!   How do I love without smothering my 'adult' daughters...Do you have any ideas? 

Is this real??  This is real!

It is going to happen! 

I am going to try to live up to a promise made to my grandfather several years ago.  Well, I guess I never promised, but he strongly suggetsted that I write.

Write what?

"Write anything," Harry said.

So...a year (or two) before I begin my 50th year on God's planet I am going to make an earnest attempt to begin... 

Or...continue.  Poetry when in middle school at Camden County urged on by Mrs. Stuart, thank you notes to my...well...my world, in response to the gifts I've been given, required urged on by my mom...notes to my daughters' teachers, urged on by my parental responsibility, ...communication between our friends at church either in Sunday school or Circle 5, urged on by the sense of community I love...

Words can be a powerful tool. 

Words are an offering. 

My offering. 

From me; from my heart.  Here it goes.....