Thankful Thursday

1. Sleeping in your own bed after being away

Last week I was staying in a hotel in Plano, TX (a northern suburb of Dallas) because I was on the committee for our user conference at work and it was just easier for the team to be staying near the conference. The hotel was SUPER nice and the beds were great, but there's just something about coming home to your familiar surroundings and sleeping in your own bed again after being gone. Priceless.

2. A successful conference!

And to go along with #1, we had a great conference! It was a LONG time coming and a LOT of work went into it, but it was all worth it. Everything went smoothly, the whole team pitched in and did what needed to be done to ensure success. We are all thrilled with how everything went. What a great feeling!

3. Making a friend laugh REALLY hard....then joining them

I like to think that I laugh regularly in my life, but I never realize how little I REALLY laugh until something super funny happens and my stomach is aching from laughing so hard. I totally agree with the scientists when they say that laughing is good for your health - both mentally and physically. It must be a chemical thing in the brain - it's like a high to laugh really hard. During our conference lasts week, I just said one little thing and Mayce just erupted in laughter and we all were doubling over in a matter of seconds. It's just the greatest feeling!

4. Finding the perfect gift for a special person

Thinking of the 'perfect gift' idea is something I struggle with. I never mind coming up with the money, or wrapping the gift, or anything like that....it's just that I struggle to find that perfect "something" that they would just love. There's nothing like the feeling of finding "IT" and being able to give them the gift and seeing the look of joy on their face when they open it!

5. Knowing that God always keeps His promises

This one is a matter of faith.....and I have to keep reminding myself that God never fails - He always keeps his promises. I love that verse in Jeremiah 29 - it goes like this: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Sometimes I wonder if I will get married again, will I have kids?, will I change careers?, will I find a different path in life that I never would have imagined? And for all of those questions, I just make myself go back to that verse and remember that God always keeps his promises - we just don't know exactly what they will look like yet!

I recently found the following 10 strange facts (I'm a dork like Cliff Clavin from Cheers) and I thought they were interesting, so I am sharing them with you! (I've been at a conference all week, so I'm low on blog topics this week....I promise they will get more interesting!)

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad in first class.

30% of Chinese adults live with their parents.

200 million people in China live on less than $1 a day.

There are 100 million internet users in China. Some of the sites they can't access are BBC news, Amnesty International and Dalailama.com.

In 2006, there were 398 million mobile (or cell) phones in China.

China is the source of 70% of the worlds pirated goods.

20% of the world's population lives in China.

People spend about two weeks of their lives at traffic lights!

Left handed people live slightly shorter lives than right handed people.

This Little Piggy Went Bye-Bye

You know how the story line goes about “bigger in Texas”?? Well, maybe they were right!

A cute little Texas pig was killed in the town of Cut-N-Shoot, TX. They are called Piney Wood Rooters. Weighing over 1,800 pounds, this wild boar was shot and killed in Conroe, Texas near the county airport, east of I-45 and near the community of Cut-N-Shoot. It was killed by a medical radiology worker.

What would you do if this beast was coming at you? Would you run for dear life? Climb a tree? Or simply get run over??

Yep......only in Texas! We were taught to stand still because their eye sight is poor. By standing still they probably would not see you and walk right on by. And no, you can't out run them!! Look at how tall the grass and weeds are. How fast do you think you would be running thru that?

Undivided Attention, Please!

I had an epiphany recently and I'm not sure why I didn't connect all of the dots sooner, but better late than never, huh?? Anyway, it's about giving people your undivided attention and why I am so sensitive about this topic.....

In the last few years as cell phones have gotten way more complicated and addicting (due to the iPhone, texting, internet on the phones, etc.), I have developed a pet peeve that is very intense.....I HATE it when I go out to eat or sit in a meeting with someone (or a group of people) and everyone whips out their phones and puts them on the table so that they can see every single text, email, IM or call that is coming in..........and respond to it.

I know that sometimes it's necessary to be 'accessible' and that's a good thing - technology really has made our lives easier and more mobile. That's a fantastic thing and I will admit, I don't leave the house without my cell phone......However...........when I go out to eat with someone and we are having a conversation (complete with eye contact) and then they get a text and the whole conversation derails because they just can't NOT answer it, I just find that WILDLY inappropriate and rude. I know this seems to bother me more than it does other people and recently I think I figured out why.

My Dad was a work-a-holic. I don't mean to throw him under the bus or anything, but it's just a fact. He was a great provider for our family, but he was also obsessed with his job and work. I remember one time I had a piano recital and he brought his briefcase. He had work out before the recital and it really hurt my feelings that he couldn't even take an hour and a half out of his Saturday to devote to something special to me.

During my childhood, I felt like I had to get in his face to really get attention from him. I always knew he loved me and cared about me, but I was just starved for his UNDIVIDED attention. Ya know, the kind of attention where someone looks in your eyes and is "plugged in" - they are truly listening to you and caring about what you have to say. I didn't get much of that from my Dad and I always wanted it.

I hear people talking about 'love languages' (based off of a Christian book) and since I haven't read the book, I am not sure exactly what my love language is, but I'm pretty sure that if I evaluate myself, I will find that mine is eye-to-eye, plugged-in listening/attention. Money, gifts, fancy vacations are nice, but I really crave one-on-one interaction where somebody pays attention and makes me the most important conversation in that moment - they hear me, understand me and care about what I have to say. That is priceless to me.

When I get to Heaven, I'll have to tell Dad he owes me for therapy....HAHAHA!

Creativity - I like that!

So for a fun Friday post, here are some marketing ideas that are AWESOME (and some are just cheesy), but ALL are creative. ENJOY!

OK, I am going to seriously buy the next one!


Wow - this last one is pretty disturbing - maybe it was custom-made for Pamela Anderson!

Thankful Thursday

1. A fresh-cut lawn

Ever since my Dad taught me how to mow the lawn when I was about 13 years old, I have admired how great it looks afterward - with all of the lines and patterns, how it all looks even and fabulous. I know, I know - I'm Type A and I like all of the lines to be straight and perfect. But every single time I mow - even now almost 20 years since he taught me how to fire up the Toro, I STILL stand at the corner of the lawn and admire my work. I love it!

2. Pine-scented candles

I think my tastes are somewhat abnormal, but I LOVE pine-scented candles. That doesn't sound that weird, except for the the fact that I burn them year round. I don't care if it's 110 degrees outside - I have my pine candle burning inside in the living room. It's just such a great scent that I can't save it for just one month out of the year!

3. Guy friends

Ya just gotta love guy friends....ones that are platonic and you can get the male prospective from. They are not catty, do not gossip, are protective, give great hugs and give great advice on everything from what guys are thinking to how to fix things. I love my guy friends!!

4. Silence

I think silence is one of the most underrated things in our society these days. Those of you with spouses & kids probably don't even remember what you are missing because your house is never silent anymore! But I live alone with Maggie and I enjoy a lot of silence - whenever I want it. There are definitely down sides to being single or living alone, but this is one of the perks and I enjoy it a lot! Like right now - I'm sitting at my kitchen table blogging in complete and utter silence (Maggie is sleeping on the couch). It really clears the mind and allows you to focus - try to fit some silent time into each day!

5. Sunsets over water

There's not much to say about this one - I don't know anyone who would say that they DON'T like sunsets over water, but I had to give them a shout-out. I grew up on the lakes of Minnesota and I have seen some absolutely breathtaking sunsets over those lakes and they are amazing. It's a chance to see how BIG God really is - a little gift from Him to close out the day.

What's "HOME"?

Recently, a friend of mine wrote on my Facebook wall the following (after I posted pics of my NYC trip):

"It looks like you have been on a lot of fun trips! When are you coming home?!?!?"

I didn't think much of it and at first glance, I thought she meant 'when are you coming home from your trips, you're gone a lot.' So I commented back that I was done traveling for a while after the Florida trip in April. It was a couple days later when I was reading things on my wall that I realized she actually meant "When are you coming HOME - to Minnesota?" It didn't even occur to me when I initially read her comment!

In some ways, Minnesota will ALWAYS be home - it's where I grew up and experienced all of the fun and wonder of childhood. Other than my 5 years in college - which I spent in Wisconsin - I have lived in Minnesota from conception to age 27. I very much associate myself with being a Minnesotan - even now, having been gone for 6 years. I will always see Minnesota as my beginning, but I have to say that I feel Texas is my HOME now.

I basically don't have any family left in Minneapolis (where I grew up) so I don't see it as "going home" because there's not really a "home" to go to anymore. If I go back, I am staying in a hotel or a friend's house and that is fine, but I wouldn't consider it "home." I would consider that visiting friends. My Mom lives in northern Minnesota for half the year, but that house is "my parents' house" - I never called that home, even when I lived in Minneapolis and they were up north. I always felt that it was their retirement home, not "Home" to me because I never lived there. There are no memories there.

I haven't been back to Minnesota since 2007 and some would think that's weird or crazy, but it just doesn't feel natural to go back anymore. I love love love Minnesota and have FANTASTIC memories of my childhood there and a lot of my WONDERFUL friends live there, but it just feels different to go back - like I'm a stranger or a prodigal daughter, returning to a place that I left a long time ago for greener pastures. When I drive past my childhood home and see that the current owners have changed things, it upsets me - as if they are stomping on the grave of my childhood without any regard for my memories! I know this is irrational, but I really do have such STRONG emotions when I go back to my old neighborhood. It makes me almost cry just thinking about it right now!

I know, I know - I'm a very emotional person.....but I can't help it. I want to go back to Minnesota to visit my friends, many of whom I haven't seen in a long time....but I have reservations about the emotions that will resurface. You would think that it would be such a happy thing to go back, but it makes me miss my Dad, Grandma and my family as one unit, back in the New Hope house. I am a very nostalgic person and it's sad that all of that is just gone. Even going back to Ohio last summer to visit friends....I was really worried about how I would feel going back there - since I spent the darkest days of my life there. But I was pleasantly surprised....the trip was fantastic and I had a BLAST seeing my friends and enjoying every minute. I guess you just never know how you will feel about something until you just overcome those reservations and try it, huh?

At any rate, I think that the only place that I can call home is where I am resting my head. That makes me sound like a nomad, a drifter......but I'm not. I finally feel like I belong somewhere....and that somewhere is right here in my house in Texas. I'm home!

Wisdom

"I used to think that you got wiser as you got older, but now I realize that you get wiser as you live. Wisdom doesn't come for free." ~Unknown

I saw this quote on a friend's Facebook status and I just loved it. How true it is! I used to think that if someone was older than me, then they must be wiser or smarter than me. This has proven to NOT be the case in many instances. And I also must distinguish between 'book smarts' and 'common sense wisdom' because they are two COMPLETELY different things.

When I read this quote, I immediately thought of wrinkles. Weird, huh? It's probably because I have heard quotes similar to this one that talk about how you should try to eliminate or hide your wrinkles as you age - but they are a part of your life, of who you are and where you've been! I subscribe to that philosophy - and that's one of the reasons I didn't change my name back to my maiden name after my divorce too. I felt like if I changed it back, then I would be denying that that part of my life happened. It definitely DID happen - the good, the bad and everything in between. It changed me - some for the better, some for the worse - but it shifted my composition and I'm now a different human being because of it. I compare it to the couples who choose to get their marriage annulled when they have children together! WHAT?! It's like you're asking the court to say that your marriage never happened - so then are you saying your kids never happened either??

Whenever something crazy or hard happens to me, I just say "Now I'll have some exciting stories to tell my grandkids." I don't know if I will have grandkids of my own, but I'll tell someone! I've made a few bold decisions in my life and they ended up being the best decisions I've ever made. Two that come to mind are studying abroad in Spain during college and moving to Texas by myself. They are nothing that special to the general public, but they were HUGE for me - because I like to plan, know what's going to happen, and predict how things are going to be, but for these two decisions I had to take a BIG leap of faith and hope for the best. That's not to say that either were easy all the time - quite the contrary. Both of them really stretched me and tested what I was made of for sure! But I would do both again in a heartbeat.

Lately I have been feeling like I'm in a rut and I'm getting restless or bored - like life is passing me by in a way. There are goals that I would like to achieve and I am going to work on those, but I want to 'feel alive' and be challenged, so I feel like God has a BOLD 'something' coming for me - I am watching for it because I need more exciting stories to tell my grandkids! Bring on the wrinkles - I will have earned them!

Office Supplies as ART!

I saw this article the other day and I thought this guy's art was AMAZING - making a city out of staples!

Staples Hold Artist's City Together

by Ben Muessig

(May 7) -- Los Angeles has the Staples Center. Guernsey has the staple city.

Artist Peter Root used 100,000 staples to construct a miniature metropolis on the floor of a bank atrium in the British Channel island, where the ubiquitous office supplies mimic a sprawling city with 4-inch-tall skyscrapers, 1-staple-tall low-rise buildings, and everything in between.

For the work -- dubbed "Ephemicropolis" -- Root toiled for 40 hours, meticulously piecing together the imaginary city. That wasn't easy, because the tiniest errant gesture could have made the metropolis collapse like a set of dominoes.

"[I]ts grandeur is precarious and highly vulnerable to micro-apocalyptic events such as a light breeze or a falling leaf," Root told AOL News in an e-mail interview.

This isn't the first time Root used staples in his art. The little metal fasteners played big roles in his works "Under Construction" and "Bath 2001."

But "Ephemicropolis" is bigger and more uniform than his past staple creations.

"I wanted to create a more refined piece using a single type of unit," said Root, who noted that his work is inspired by architecture, maps, computer games and toys he played with as a kid, among other things.

"Staples are available in epic quantities for a relatively low cost," he said. "They have a shiny, brand-new, perfect, man-made quality that, when viewed in a specific way, can suggest both micro and macro scale."

That dialogue between the big and the small helps make the work engaging to art viewers. So does the fact that "Ephemicropolis" could fall down at any moment.

"The work seems to benefit from having a limited life span and not existing permanently unchanged in a glass case," said Root, whose piece has stood for three weeks and is scheduled to come down next week.

"I feel people are able to recognize and connect with the labor involved in the creation process of [a] work like 'Ephemicropolis,' and that there is an element of excitement knowing that 40 hours of the hard work could be destroyed in a few seconds."

That explains why Root recently purchased a number of high-strength magnets, which he says will play an "important role in the demolition of the work."

Burning Hut

I just love this little lesson that I got in an email recently. I had to share it because I think the moral of the story rings true with all of us at one time or another. I know it's true for me! ENJOY and Happy Friday!

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers.

'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.

The Moral of This Story:

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

Thankful Thursday

1. Proving yourself wrong

I just love it when I prove myself wrong - ok, let me explain with an example. My Mom grew up on a dairy farm and helped her Dad with the planting of the crops and loved to watch them grow. She naturally has a green thumb (or learned it over the years) and is very good at planting, growing and taking care of flowers/vegetables/grass/etc. She just knows what to do to make things grow, to keep the animals away, how much to water and when.

I, on the other hand, would forget to water any of my mere houseplants if I didn't put "water plants" in my planner every single week! It just doesn't come naturally to me to think of these things. I have managed to somewhat master the indoor houseplant now, and since I'm a homeowner, I have ventured OUTside.

So far, I have planted flowers in my big pot in the backyard, hung 2 hanging flowers/plants, and kept many shrubs and monkey grass alive and well for 2 years now. How's that for a start on the outdoor stuff?? Well, now I can add another accomplishment that I never thought I would figure out (for some odd reason....it's not like this stuff is rocket science): GRASS SEED!

About 1/3 of my front yard just had no grass - it got worse since I moved in, so this spring I knew I needed to deal with it. I bought one of those manual tillers and dug up all the top soil (which in Texas, it's clay - aka: hard-as-a-rock clay), put down fertilizer and grass seed and then watered the heck out of it for days and days. A couple weeks later....I have a beautiful carpet of green grass that is alive and well! I shock myself sometimes! I might have a green thumb yet!

2. Going to sleep during a thunderstorm

This is the time of year when thunderstorms are common, I thought I would give them a shout-out. While I never am happy when someone has damage that was caused by one, at the same time they are FREAKING AWESOME.

The sheer power that you feel when everything shakes from the thunder - amazing! And falling asleep to that hard rain and thunder rumbling - PRICELESS.

3. Being at peace with a decision you made

Recently, I ended a 9-month relationship that I was in and while it hurt and I really struggled with it, I knew it was the right decision. He was and is a great guy and has a whole slew of wonderful qualities, but I know that he and I are not a good match long-term. Our hobbies, ideas on how a relationship should be, parenting styles, etc. are very different and so I didn't see our lives going in the same direction.

So while my heart hurts and I miss him, and am sad that it didn't work out for us as a couple, I am at peace with the decision. I guess that's my consolation prize.

4. Bold, bright flowers

I don't know if there's something chemical that happens in my brain, but I just find so much joy in REALLY bright, bold-colored flowers! They are just gorgeous to me and I am drawn to them.

I have never really been a pastel person....I am much more drawn to jewel tones and BOLD colors. The picture above is one I took in Florida a couple weeks ago at Universal Studios. It was just mesmorizing to me!

5. Knowing God's in control of my life's course and I'm along for the ride

Being a control freak and Type-A personality, you would think that I would hate to hand over the reigns to God or anyone else. You would be right. But time and time again, I am reminded that I do not know more than God and I do not always make the right decisions on my own.

Through the last 10 years or so, a lot has changed in my life - good and bad. God has gotten me through all of it and put me in the right place with the right people at the right time....EVERY time. I have been learning lately that I should just go to Him FIRST and trust that He knows best and has a plan, instead of trying my own plans and then wondering why they don't work. It's a process, but I'm trying to hand over the reigns of control to God - little by little....

What's For Lunch?

A couple weeks ago, as part of my Thankful Thursday, I talked about 'personalized gifts' as something I was thankful for. This bag below is what inspired me writing about them.

My friend Erin from work gave me this lunch thermal tote for my birthday (yes, 4 months early) because she had just ordered it and was excited to give it to me since the other 2 women in our department have spring birthdays and they got their personalized bag and she wanted to give me mine at the same time!

They are super cute patterns and then embroidered in whatever color you want and you can pick your font too. They hold a lot and keep everything nice and cold. I just think it was a super cute idea and it means a lot when a gift is personalized. Nice job and thank you, Erin - I love mine!!