Getting Ready

It's Sunday night, I have had a good weekend. Rich and I saw the "Dark Night" yesterday afternoon, we both enjoyed the movie. It was mostly a lazy day... just hanging around the house getting ready for vacation. Last night for dinner we walked down to China Jade on Edgewater, had a nice dinner outside. We walked home and to our surprise Bekah had returned from her trip to Smith Lake with Jackson's Family earlier than we expected. It was a nice surprise. We all vegged out on Bekah's bed... dogs and all and listen to her stories about her week. She had a great time! It is back to work tomorrow, I leave for Louisville in the afternoon. Rich, Bekah and Jackson will join me on Friday. The Dave Matthews Concert is Friday night at Slugger Field, we are all looking forward to that! Then Saturday morning we have reservations at Lynn's Paradise Cafe http://www.lynnsparadisecafe.com/ for breakfast. We plan to go horseback riding later that day, but I have yet to make reservations for that. I need to do that tomorrow. Sunday we drive to Chicago, we are going to drop the car off at the airport as we will not need it while in the city. We are looking forward to exploring the sights of Chicago... Monday night we have tickets to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field! It will be a little strange not having Zack with us this year for our vacation. I spoke to him the other night, he is doing well. Got a new tattoo, it is very cool... a Spartan helmet and working out a lot. Classes are going well. He said he is just ready to be with a fleet. It was good to hear from him.
I believe that I have everything I need ready now for the next two weeks. I'm ready! I have a busy week ahead and can't wait to start our vacation on Friday!

"Goals" vs. "I Wants"

Good morning. It is Sunday morning in Orlando. I woke up and began playing with Blue and Bebe, our dogs, which is often my morning routine when I am at home. It is a great way to start the day. All they want is to play, be fed and take an occasional nap. Those things seemingly are the main desires of our dogs. Let me play... and feed me, I will rest when I need to. Wow.... you gotta love a dog's life? As least our dog's life, right? As far as we know, they do what they want and their tail's wag indicating happiness.
I posted an "I Want" List in yesterday's blog. It was a strange feeling. When I was writing it, I thought, well maybe I should change the verbiage to "Goals." That just seems more "acceptable" than just wanting something. Then I decided, nope... I am going to leave it as "I Wants"- it has not been easy. It might sound silly, but I kept second guessing my title and oddly enough, what I put in the list. Do I really want these things? I don't really "need" them... (except for good health) is it going to look like I am selfish for writing down things I want? If I change it to my personal goals, that just sounds better.... all of these thoughts were going through my head. I resisted the urge to change anything. I wanted to see where this would lead me. I wasn't even sure why I wrote the list in the first place. It just kind of happened. These are things that "I want" to do and I shouldn't feel bad about them. But there isn't anything on the list about my children, about my husband or even my friends, how can that be? How can I not want to do something for them? (More questions I asked myself!) In my soul searching... I realized, I am making myself feel bad for wanting to do something just for me. I already spend most of my time doing for others and I love it. My brain is telling me that logically it is okay to want to do something for myself, I even know it is healthy, my emotions are questioning my motive. Not sure if it is the way we (women) are raised, is it a society acceptance issue, is it genetics, I don't know... but most women I know are last on their list. Their wants are at the end of a long list of "what I need to do for others" if they are there at all. I need to do what I can to make myself as happy as I can, if these things on my list support that, what is wrong with it? I will always take care of my friends and family, that is what I love to do, that makes me happy. I want to achieve some personal "I wants" too! Just to clarify, it isn't that I don't get what I want, I certaintly do. This for me is about SAYING IT OUT LOUD!
Starting now, I am going to have "I wants" lists, just for me! Furthermore, I am also going to really try to achieve them and I am not going to have any self imposed guilt for wanting something.
At the end of the day, this feels pretty good. It's a start.

A List of "I WANTS"

Things I want to do....for Me!

I want to go to a music festival
I want to travel more (not including to and from Louisville!)
I want to get healthy and get energized
I want to get another tattoo
I want to volunteer more
I want to take a wine paring class
I want to learn digital art (last blog)
I want to have a beach shack
I want to express myself through various art mediums

I think that is a good start.

Photographs

Wow... how quickly photographs can get out of control. Well, at least for me. I take lots and lots of pictures and I have not done a good job keeping them organized. I have pictures online (in more than one place), I have pictures on my hard drive, I have pictures on a separate hard drive, I have prints, albums, scrapbooks, CDs and good old photo boxes! I am going to have to get it all organized someday. I am considering purchasing another computer just for my photos and projects, maybe that will help? For now, I am going to try to get my pictures on my home computer organized. I hope to do a little at a time when I am home on the weekends. Wish me luck!
I love photographs. Photographs of people, animals, nature, doesn't matter... I like them all. I would like to learn how to create digital art with my photographs. That is on my list of things to accomplish. I have Photo Elements 5.0. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to really learn the features of the program. I bought a couple of books about using technology to create digital art. I can't wait to read them and start experimenting. Once I am home, back in Orlando. I would like to take a class on Digital Art. -
I better get back to organizing, so when the fun part begins... I will be ready! Hope everyone has a good week.

"Each of us is an artist capable of conceiving and creating a vision from the depths of our being." Dorothy Fadiman

The photograph in this post was taken in New Orleans, Garden District in March 2003.

Keep Moving

Good morning. It's Sunday morning, Rich is washing the cars, Bekah is sleeping and I am doing my usual, playing with the dogs and updating myfamily.com while ignoring the laundry that needs to be folded. Rich, Bekah and I got back from Pensacola, Florida last night where we visited Zack for the 4th of July holiday. Seemed appropriate to visit our Marine son on the day we celebrate our Country's independence. What else could we do really? We had a great time catching up with him. It is very apparent to both Rich and I that Zack is loving the Marine way of life, especially with comments like..."civilians are sloppy and undisciplined" but he was quick to say, not you, Mom and Bekah, that is different. It didn't bother me at all really. I understand or as much as I can where he is coming from. The point is, he is grown up. He has found who he is, he is happier than I have seen him in awhile, he is healthy and fit, mentally and physically. He is proud of what he is doing, who he is becoming and what he is accomplishing. Rich and I during the course of our last couple of days, at different times have looked at one another and recounted some of the conversations we had with Zack. Like when he asked us, "So, what did you do with my room, it would make a nice TV room." Zack is on his life's journey and he is not turning around, I am so happy for him.
With both the kids doing so well, it is probably time to start taking care of myself. That is easier said than done. It has been very hard to stick to any kind of healthy eating or exercise plan since I have been working in Indiana. I need to get over it and just figure out how to do something about it. I know what I need to do, it is time once again to do it. I owe it to myself. In the spirit of today's blog, it is important that we continue to "keep moving" moving spiritually, mentally and physically to be healthy and to continue to grow. Experiencing Zack and Bekah "Moving" is such a joy, hard at times absolutely, but a great adventure. Now it's time for me to create my adventure, to keep moving...