Barbara

I have been going to get a massage once a month for the past three years and it is my very favorite hour of the entire month.  I go to the same massage therapist each time as well - Barbara.  She knows what I like, what I need and she is such a nice lady.

Barbara believes that your mind, body and spirit truly are all connected, and that emotional issues definitely manifest themselves in your physical body.  I tend to agree!  When I'm under a lot of stress or am depressed, I get tired, achy, and I have a ton of back pain.  Well this past year has been a bad one for back pain, that's for sure!

Anyway, normally I don't like to talk or chit chat during my massage - only before and after.  During the massage is my time to daydream, relax, whatever.  But this last time it just seemed very natural to talk with Barbara throughout the massage.  And we found out that we have a lot in common.  My massage was the day before the anniversary of my Dad's death - turns out it was the day before the anniversary of her Mom's death.  And apparently have a lot of the same family dynamics and history too.  Bizarre!

We got to talking about what our triggers were for emotional upheaval and our issues are.  Something I found interesting was that she said that she had always believed that the right side of the body is "male" and the left side is "female".....that was weird to me - never thought about it!  But I consistently have MAJOR back/neck issues on my right side - WAY more than on my left side.  Maybe she's on to something!

But she said that as long as I have been coming to see her, she could tell that I have been holding on to some things emotionally and that I need to release them and things will improve with my back/neck.  Even as we talked about emotional stuff, some of the tougher knots were loosening up in my back! 

It was a very strange, but rewarding experience....maybe I need to go see a therapist.......I haven't been to one since the year after my divorce, but it might be time........

Complete Life

OK, folks - it's been a while since I ranted about something, so let me get on my soapbox real quick.....

Here's what I need to rant about:  Just because I am single and don't have kids, doesn't mean that I'm not busy or have a life!  OK, I got it out there in the open.  Lately, I feel like (*some*) people who have kids are acting like they are the only ones with busy lives and a lot of stuff to do.   Uhhhhhhhh - no, that's not the case, people!

I don't just sit around looking at the ceiling all day - I have a very stressful full-time job, 2 dogs to take care of, a 25-year-old house to maintain, yard work, grocery shopping, car repairs, errands, volunteering in 4 different ministries at church, and trying to have a semblance of a social life.  That's a LOT to take care of for ONE person, if you ask me!  I don't have hubby or kids to help me do ANY of it, nor do I have parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles or anyone else to stop over and pitch in when I need it.  I'm on my own and doing it all myself.

I chose the life I have - to have dogs, to buy a house by myself, to get involved at church, etc.....so I'm not complaining that I have a very busy and full life - actually, just the opposite.  I did all of that on purpose - I like to be busy and involved, while having my down time and alone time as well.

But I do NOT appreciate when people with kids look at you like you're going skydiving every day just because you didn't birth a bundle of joy and dote on said child every night.  I'm just as busy as the next person and perfectly happy without children in my life.  We all make choices and are doing different things in our lives and that's great - more variety and we all get the freedom to choose how our lives are laid out.  Isn't America great?!  But one way is not the ONLY way, nor is there a BEST way to do life.  So get over it!

OK, I'm done now.  Thanks for listening.

List Friday

Top 10 Favorite Apps On My Phone (an Android)

1.  WordFeud (Scrabble)

2.  Pandora

3.  Google Maps

4.  NFL Mobile

5.  Gin Rummy

6.  iHeartRadio

7.  Yahoo Fantasy Football

8.  Shazam

9.  Flixster (movies)

10. The Weather Channel

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for home ownership.  This might sound very weird considering my recent bad luck with house/plumbing issues, but I truly am thankful for the ability to own a home of my own. 

Not to get overly dramatic, but I realize that there are places in this world TODAY that women are not allowed to own property at all, just by virtue of being a female.  I also realize that I was blessed with parents who taught me good financial management skills so that I can handle the financial responsibility of owning a home. 

In addition, since I spent the last year worrying about my job ending and thus my income as well, I am also incredibly grateful that the right job presented itself just in time so that my income wasn't interrupted.  I know that others haven't been as fortunate in that area, through no fault of their own.

So this week, even though I'm still annoyed at the toilet drama, I choose to still be thankful that I have a roof over my head and safe place to call home.

New Commitment

One of the new things I'm starting this year is tithing to my church.  I have attended my church for about 3.5 years and I have given money here and there, but nothing consistent or premeditated.  I volunteer my time in the nursery, hospitality ministry and also in the finance ministry as well.  However, I have never made tithing as a regular, conscious commitment part of my life....until now.

I feel like it's time to grow as a Christian and make it a priority to financially support the church that I get so much out of.  So last week I wrote out the first check and it felt great.  I gave the money with a joyful spirit, expecting nothing in return.  I didn't do it begrudgingly or out of guilt, but because I truly felt that it was time to take this next step in my faith.

I'm excited to contribute to my church in a new way and I feel totally at peace with donating my money in this way.  What a great feeling!

5 Best Days

I saw a friend post this concept on their Facebook status recently and I found it thought-provoking....

What are your 5 BEST DAYS?

Here are mine (well, the 5 BEST DAYS in my ADULT LIFE):

1.  Closing on my first house in April 2008

2.  Adopting Owen in November 2010

3.  Adopting Maggie in April 2004

4.  Day I flew to Spain to study abroad in January 1999

5.  My wedding day in August 2003 (well, it was the best day at the time!)

It's Raining.......Inside the Garage!

So on Tuesday night last week, I came home from work very late because I was hanging out with friends in Irving until about 10pm.  When I drove into the garage, I saw that the floor was wet with standing water in one area......it was NOT raining that day.......

I jumped out of the car and looked up.  Sure enough, it was dripping from the soggy sheetrock ceiling.......I ran upstairs to my master bathroom that sits directly over this area of the garage.  Turns out my toilet tank was leaking and the water was running between the tile and the wall/trim and leaking through to the garage below.  UUGGGGGHHHHHH!

Oh, and when I passed through the kitchen, I also noticed that both of my dogs were covered in clay mud from digging in the backyard all day.  Beautiful, just beautiful. 

So at 11pm, I was emptying out a toilet tank with plastic cups and towels, mopping up a wet floor and poking holes in soggy drywall in the garage to get air flow in there to prevent mold.  I put fans in garage pointed at the ceiling and up in the bathroom as well.

Then I had to give my two muddy dogs baths and after that, figure out who I was going to call to fix this mess!  Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until after 1a.m.  It was a horrible night!

But alas, I did find a handyman to come out and tear out the damaged sheetrock in the garage and replace my toilet upstairs.  The subfloor has been airing out all week, so now I just need to have him come back to put up a new sheetrock ceiling in the garage and then all will be well in the world again.  What a pain in the rear!!

Anyway, in true Lauri fashion, I took pictures!

Here is what your toilet looks like underneath the subfloor of your bathroom, in case you were curious.......

Here's the drain from the toilet and then the pipe that runs over to the 2 sinks in my master bathroom (along with some wiring and insulation).

Lots of sheetrock taken down.  Oh well - out with the old, in with the new, right??

And upstairs, here is my brand new Kohler toilet!  I didn't realize that toilets were so inexpensive....This one was only $149 - that surprised me for whatever reason.

At any rate, I hope by replacing it rather than repairing it, that I won't have to come home to this kind of mess again!!

List Friday

Top 10 Behaviors I Cannot Stand

1.  Arrogance

2.  "Victim" mentality

3.  Passive-agressive talk

4.  Bragging/Showing Off

5.  One-Upping

6.  Fakeness

7.  Drama (and most of drama is brought on one's self)

8.  Excuses for making poor choices (especially when that person knows better)

9.  Entitlement

10. Lying/cheating

Thankful Thursday

This week I am crazy thankful for my friends April and Lauren.  Since I don't work with them anymore, it is a special treat to see them, talk, hang out and laugh with them.  It's almost like I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them again last week when we went out to dinner at i Fratelli after work.

We laughed about ridiculous stuff, reminisced about old road trips (like the one to Hot Springs, Arkansas in the picture above), talked about the challenges in our lives, gave each other input on major life decisions that need to be made, and just plain "plugged in" to each other's lives.  I love friends who can point out the flaws in your thinking so that you consider all sides of an issue.  And ones that offer to help, provide objective wisdom, needed laughs and just plain companionship.  These two ladies do all of that and I love them for it!

Amazing Paths

 Since I absolutely LOVE looking at cool photography and I have received/found some amazing photos lately, I guess this week is just full of it on the blog!  I really need to hit the road and go on another roadtrip so I can take some pictures of my own for a change.......I miss that a lot and haven't done any traveling in a while.....

At any rate, today's post highlights some incredible "paths" all around the world - enjoy!

 Holy crap - fear of heights!

Reminds me of the Frost poem about two roads diverging.......

 Amazing and TERRIFYING at the same time......

 Very cool!

 The long and winding road......

 This would be awesome to walk through - unless you have allergies  :)

 How would this even be built?!

 How pretty would this drive be??

 Love me some castles...........

 Ummmmm - Alaska?!  Looks very claustrophobic to me!

 The eye of a needle........

 Uhhhhh - great in theory, but I don't know if I would be brave enough....

 Roller coaster!  I would love this one!

 Gorgeous........

 What a backdrop for an open road car trip!

 It's like a castle road!

 Ahhhh - yes, please!

 How freaking cool would this drive be?!

Photography Greatness

I guess it's "Photography Week" on my blog - received so many AMAZING photos that I wanted to share......

 The world's highest chained carousel, located in Vienna, at a height of 117 meters.

Thor's Well a/k/a "the gates of the dungeon" on Cape Perpetua, Oregon.  At moderate tide and strong surf, flowing water creates a fantastic landscape.

 Emerald Lake in the crater of an extinct volcano.  Tongariro National Park - New Zealand

Restaurant on a cliff on the east coast of Zanzibar.  Depending on the tide the restaurant can be reached both on foot and by boat.

 Office of Selgas Cano in Madrid

 Desert with Phacelia (Scorpion Weed). Flowering once in several years.

 Balloons in Cappadocia

 Dubai. The view from the skyscraper BurjKhalifa. The height of buildings is 828 m (163 floors).

 And this is the view down

 These trees grow in the forest near Gryfino, Poland. The cause of the curvature is unknown.

 The border between Belgium and the Netherlands in a cafe.

Twice a year in the Gulf of Mexico rays migrate. About 10 thousand stingrays swim from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida in the spring and back in the fall.

In the resort town of Skagen  you can watch an amazing natural phenomenon. This city is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North  Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place can not merge because they have different densities.

In the Chinese province of  Shandong  is a bridge across the Gulf of  Jiaozhou . The bridge length over 36 km is calculated for eight car lanes, and is the longest sea bridge in the world.

 Day and night. The monument in Kaunas, Lithuania

 An unusual tunnel in California's Sequoia National Park

 This statue, created by Bruno Catalano, is located in France

 The longest traffic jam in the world recorded in China. Its length is 260 kilometers.

 Paris computer games store. In fact, the floor is absolutely flat.

Marcus Levine - slaughtering an artist in the literal sense. He creates his paintings by nailing a white wooden panel. At his latest series of paintings exhibited in a gallery in London, Marcus has spent more than 50,000 pieces of iron.

 In the city of Buford (USA) lives just one person. He works as a janitor and as a mayor.

 Autumn camouflage

 Haus Rizzi - Germany

 Lena Pillars.  Russia, the Lena River

 Banpo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea

 Favelas of Brazil. The boundary between wealth and poverty.

 Lost paradise in the Indian Ocean. Isle of Lamu.

 Balcony of floor 103 in Chicago.

 From the outside it looks like:

 View of the sunset from inside the wave.

This is a unique geological phenomenon known as Danxia landform. These phenomena can be observed in several places in China. This example is located in Zhangye, Province of Gansu. The color is the result of an accumulation for millions of years of red sandstone and other rocks.

In northwestern Montana, USA. The water is so transparent that it seems that this is a quite shallow lake. In fact, it's very deep.

 Airport in the Maldives is located on an artificial island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

 Lighthouse guard in Mare, France must be one of the most courageous people on the planet!  Not everyone will have a smoke in such weather, and in such a place!

 Photo of storm in Montana, USA, 2010

 Skyscraper- Crescent Moon Tower (Dubai)

 Heavy fog in Sydney, which enveloped the whole city

 The river above the river: Magdeburg Water Bridge, Germany.

 Morning Glory - kind of clouds observed in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia

 Gibraltar Airport is one of the most extraordinary airports around the world