Birthday inspiration....

Yesterday was my birthday.....and I was sent an e- greeting from Spark People.....the site that I use to manage my weight. It was quite inspirational and I thought I would share it with you.....
Enjoy!!




Slainte!!!

Coping.....

Why is it, as one gets older, that good things and bad things all happen at the same time....
Case in point....
Our son is getting married in 2 weeks.....we have just had a wonderful weekend with family and friends......both very positive things....then....
My dear aunt was in hospital with heart problems which will be ongoing...... I talked on the phone with a friend in England this morning and her husband possibly has liver cancer....

How does one cope with this anomaly....how do you express joy,happiness and sorrow at the same time....

When my mother died, it was on my brother's 60th birthday.....he said it was bizarre, on the one hand people were saying happy birthday and then sympathizing with him for the loss of his parent.

Life has a way of coming at you from all sides, good, bad and indifferent....and it seems to be more prevalent as we get older. I can think back over the last couple of years and realize why we act as we do....it's a coping mechanism....we do what we have to do to deal with the multitude of feelings within us. For me....lately...prayer helps and I shall keep on that road I think in this latest onslaught..

Sigh....

Slainte!!

We're back!

The cruise was marvelous!!! I loved the whole trip and I wasn't queasy at all. Now I miss being rocked to sleep at night.

There were 4 other ladies at my dinner table, all about the same age, and on the last night we cut loose and really had fun at a sock hop that the ship sponsored. The music was from the 50s and 60s and these gals really got into it. My DH even danced a slow one with me.

I gained a few pounds on the food. My DH insisted I go up and down using the stairs and not the elevator, so I suppose my weight gain could have been worse. I did go into the hot tub and then a quick swim in the cold salt water pool, which was quite energizing. We hiked around the towns whenever we stopped somewhere and that helped a bit too.

We went out in a small boat with another couple, to an island where puffins nest. The ride was like being on a bucking bronco! The swells were quite big and the guide was in a hurry to get us out and back so he could pick up his next fare. But we did see the puffins and are they ever cute. It was worth it. We also saw whales quite close up, otters, dolphins, orcas, bears, a porcupine, spawning salmon and a dipper (a bird that walks under water). So, on the wildlife side of things, it was a very successful trip. I guess if I had had a list of things to do before I die, seeing a puffin in the wild would have been on it, so now I can cross it off my minds list - but what about the Atlantic puffin? Maybe next year.

North to Alaska

We leave on Sunday for our Alaskan cruise, I'm so excited! But before we do that we have to attend my nieces wedding on Saturday night. I'm not packed or anything... h e l p ! I did buy the wedding present and some shoes for the trip. I think I know what I'm going to put into the bags, but there is so much to do first. D&T will arrive tomorrow night, so there will be visiting to do. Little Ethan has to be babysat and I have to find a sitter. I'm hyperventilating just thinking about it. I think I should not be blogging, I'd better get back to work. I just wanted you to know why you will not hear from me again until well after the 18th when I get back. Oh, yeah, my doctor wants to see me, something about high cholesterol. I'll tell you more when I get back. Have a wonderful two weeks and I'll catch up with you two when I get back.
Daphne.

First off, thank you for your comment Daphne. I don't know how to use this setup for sure yet, so I hope you're seeing this. :)

This was a good week as far as new things go. I opened my own chequing account at the bank, and even such a simple thing as that gave me such a feeling of satisfaction, that I went hog wild and opened a savings account as well. lol Then I went to Costco to take out a membership through my karate club, but the store was closed. I haven't been back there yet, but I'm looking forward to doing a big shopping when I return to it.

Yesterday was my first day at work. I'm working 5 days per week, 4 hours per day. This is perfect for me right now because it gives me time to do things with my family and work at other things that interest me as well. So yesterday what I had to do was take a four hour training session on hazardous materials and bio chemicals, then write a LONG test on it. If I scored 80% or better, I would have my 'safety license' which would allow me to handle & transport these chemicals. I must have passed, because I was given my ticket. :) Then I was given my name tag with the title of "Office Specialist, followed by my name, then "I'm In Charge Of Customer Service". But what I'd really like to know is.....how come somebody with all these fancy titles only gets slave wages? lolol

So today was my second day at work. This time I was trained (translation: sat and watched) my trainer do her day's work. It took the whole four hours for her to show me which papers go with which receipts, where to staple them, what to add to them, what to initial, what to sign in full, which envelope, bag, book, box or filebox each piece goes into, and at the end of the four hours we made the bank deposit. Upon returning to the office, she said "O.k, have you got it now? Tomorrow you'll do everything I did today while I sit here and watch you, then you're on your own because I have the weekend off.". All I could do was say "HUH?" I have no idea what all this woman did today! I have to admit, I'm feeling rather ill at the prospect of doing this by myself on Saturday & Sunday!What if I'm too old to start over again like this. If you hear I've been fired this coming weekend, so be it. I really like where I'm working, but I think half the fun is that I just like to be out working! NO! I'M GOING TO LEARN THIS JOB AND KEEP IT! I'm getting old. I'm not dead!

What kind of example would I be to my kids if I let this get the better of me?! I was going to return to college for my Herbal Consultant Certification in September, but I think I'll put my income toward the family's karate tests in December, then start the college course in January.

OH!! BEFORE I FORGET....The other night my mom's dog was barking like a loonatic upstairs at 3:00 a.m. I got up and looked outside just as my mom's lights all came on upstairs. So I turned mine on also so she'd know I was up in case something was wrong. After checking out the yard front and back (through the windows), without seeing anything amiss, we both shut our lights off and went back to bed. The next morning the neighbour behind us called us outside. He said somebody was trying to break into his house the night before via the sliding glass door. He got up and turned on the floodlights, but by the time he made it back to the glass door, whomever was there had run away. However, they kicked the fence down between his property and ours in their haste to escape. These are 6 foot tall cedar boards, and they were smashed right through the middle. After looking through the yard here, we discovered the front gate (chain link) was on the ground at one end because the hinges had been bent down at the other end. We figured whomever it was, they must have jumped over the gate when they ran away. It does have a U shaped piece of metal that slides down over a post to open & close the gate with, but if you didn't know it was there you'd never get the gate open. And it was black as pitch that night. The neighbour called the police, but they don't respond to B&Es anymore. There are just too many of them here. But THAT'S why the dog barked like that! Anyway, that was our excitement for the week. Time to get my things laid out for tomorrow. Another 6:00 a.m. start!

I do paper crafts, not very professional looking yet, but the things you can do with paper fascinates me. I would love to start a home based business too, that's always been my dream. I have a room to myself, now that all the kids have flown the coop, all my paper things are in there and when I'm off my real job, I can sit and snip. My sister made an altered book for me of me and my family. That is a big project, but I have cut up a book into a triangular shape and have started gluing pages together and cutting some out to get it ready for my first effort at that.

Christmas is coming and the last blog has given me some motivation to start preparing for that. I won't be going to any craft fairs, at least I don't think I will at this point, but there's lots to do just for family. Thanks for the inspiration.