Christmas to you! And New Year, too! You see, we are not having Happy and Merry this year. It is just Birthday, Christmas and New Year. So understand when the greeting is simply, New Year to you!
I am so glad that Christmas is over. Late Christmas Eve, I had created a nice morning scenario, the house was clean, Riley was finally asleep so I could hang his stocking and the tree was the only light in the house. I experienced the strangest sensation of wanting time to stop, you know, when you have something that you know will come and you just can' t bear the thought of experiencing it? It sort of felt like what we all know to be the morning after you lose someone you love, either through a bad break up, divorce and even death. You wake and for just a split second, you open your eyes and it is just another morning.....until you remember what happened the day before and you start to hurt and cry with absolutely no control. All this while wanting deeply for time to jump ahead to Dave being home. My stomach actually hurt at the thought of going to sleep and waking up with Mason and Riley experiencing Santa together without Dave. Well, as you know, time stops for no one and I did finally watch the sunrise and waited for Mason to wake up. This is where parents with a spouse away have to buck up and make it nice for the little ones who don't know why mommy or daddy have a blue, heavy heart.
I had time to have coffee, shower and dry my hair and cuddle with Riley before Mason called me to come get him. We walked out into the kitchen and he could see "something" in the living room. I put him down and went ahead hoping he would follow so I could get some pictures and video of him seeing what Santa brought. Of course Riley has been looking at his stocking on the wall all week so he saw right away that he had goods! Mason was happily surprised and loved all the shiny wrap and big bows. The gifts were okay too, but I think the paper was the best. Hopefully I will have some pictures for you next week.
So now a new year looms and I am one of many millions resolving to get back on my fitness bandwagon. I have been pretty good through the holidays working out 4-5 days and week and only gaining a mere 2 lbs. I can only reckon what it would have been like without the work outs. Do you make a New Years Resolution? If so, what will it be this year? I hope all is well with you, that your holidays were warm and wonderful and you have a bright outlook on the new year! I really like this motivator and even if you do not usually read past here, take a moment today as I think this is a Great Motivator to kick off a new year with! Lots of love!
Kathy
Convincing Actions
The best way to convince people that you will do something is to do it. Promises can be broken, but actions and results cannot be denied.
The best way to sell yourself is to be yourself, without pretense, with sincerity and enthusiasm. Your actions are more powerful and more genuinely compelling than any words or mere appearances could be.
The best way to make a good impression is to accomplish something truly impressive. Focus on creating real value and you won't have to be concerned with what others think.
It's great when you do what you say you're going to do. It's even better when you don't need to say what you're going to do because it has already been done.
You don't need permission or approval to move forward on your own initiative. See a need and fill it, or find a problem and solve it.
Success is more than being able to wish, plan, talk, convince, promise and persuade. Success belongs to those who take action.
Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Monday, December 27, 2004
Monday, December 20, 2004
Baby Signs. I Love Them!
Hi Guys!
Well, I just finished wrapping my presents but under my tree is still bare. You see, Mason does not get the concept of this program...or, he is simply my son and cannot wait to open presents. I think the new commercial running where the woman is opening presents in the living room and her husband comes in and shakes his head. She is looking up at in with that "hand in the cookie jar forgive me smile" on her face and he says "Wow, good job, you made it to the 18th this year" This is SO me! Laughing. Ask my mom, ask Dave, they will tell you. And then there is the one where the dog opens all the gifts until he finds the squeaky hamburger! This is our life. In any case, I will let Santa put them out for Riley and Mason on the 24th.
I had a great birthday party. A whole bunch of us met at Joe's Crab Shack in old Sacramento and had a wonderful time. We met Lisa Sulik's new beau Jeff and really like him. We celebrated my neighbor Paul's birthday which is not only the same day as me, but the same year, too! Mike and Patty announced their engagement (Hooray, Yeah, Yippee!) and it was a Merry time all around!
Mason is signing all kinds of signs with me, Finally! I gave up. I have been signing to him since he was 8 weeks old and finally figured he was going to be like many of the men I know and just not communicate beyond the absolute minimum required to get what he needs. Not so, it turns out... he signs, more, eat, all done, yes, down, up, good-bye drink and milk. He even did two signs together today, more and milk back to back. He understands more than he does but as he does more, he is getting his coordination together to do more of them and do them correctly. I am so happy, It is amazing how the frustration level drops when real communication sets in. He will scream and reach and I just look and him and say "show me your signs" and he will. It is very, very cool! Dave, I will be sending you a copy of the pages so you can learn the signs before you come home. You will love it, too!
So I have to get to bed, I have to be up very early to get to the gym and then the post office before I go to work. A quick note that Operation New Release is being extended with Tower through the first of the year. We will hopefully have some more sales for all the after Christmas shoppers. Take care and have a Very Merry Christmas! It will be fun to write next week and tell you all about Christmas morning. Love to you all!
Kathy
Acceptance
Resentment only wastes your energy and keeps your creativity suppressed. Instead of resenting what has happened, accept what is, and you put yourself in a position to do something about it.
You do not always get the results you desire, and conditions are not always what you would like for them to be. Yet you can always accept where you are and then move on ahead.
In fact, the fastest way to move forward is to be realistic about where you are. Accept and acknowledge what you have to work with, and you'll begin to see plenty of positive possibilities.
Acceptance of what is does not mean that you're giving in or giving up on where you can go. In fact, by fully accepting where you are, you enable yourself to make positive use of everything available to you.
By accepting what is, you can make positive use of the triumphs and the disappointments. By letting go of your resentment and anger for what has been, you can put all your focus on the best of what can be.
Stop fighting the battles that are already over. Accept what is, and you've already begun to win.
Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Well, I just finished wrapping my presents but under my tree is still bare. You see, Mason does not get the concept of this program...or, he is simply my son and cannot wait to open presents. I think the new commercial running where the woman is opening presents in the living room and her husband comes in and shakes his head. She is looking up at in with that "hand in the cookie jar forgive me smile" on her face and he says "Wow, good job, you made it to the 18th this year" This is SO me! Laughing. Ask my mom, ask Dave, they will tell you. And then there is the one where the dog opens all the gifts until he finds the squeaky hamburger! This is our life. In any case, I will let Santa put them out for Riley and Mason on the 24th.
I had a great birthday party. A whole bunch of us met at Joe's Crab Shack in old Sacramento and had a wonderful time. We met Lisa Sulik's new beau Jeff and really like him. We celebrated my neighbor Paul's birthday which is not only the same day as me, but the same year, too! Mike and Patty announced their engagement (Hooray, Yeah, Yippee!) and it was a Merry time all around!
Mason is signing all kinds of signs with me, Finally! I gave up. I have been signing to him since he was 8 weeks old and finally figured he was going to be like many of the men I know and just not communicate beyond the absolute minimum required to get what he needs. Not so, it turns out... he signs, more, eat, all done, yes, down, up, good-bye drink and milk. He even did two signs together today, more and milk back to back. He understands more than he does but as he does more, he is getting his coordination together to do more of them and do them correctly. I am so happy, It is amazing how the frustration level drops when real communication sets in. He will scream and reach and I just look and him and say "show me your signs" and he will. It is very, very cool! Dave, I will be sending you a copy of the pages so you can learn the signs before you come home. You will love it, too!
So I have to get to bed, I have to be up very early to get to the gym and then the post office before I go to work. A quick note that Operation New Release is being extended with Tower through the first of the year. We will hopefully have some more sales for all the after Christmas shoppers. Take care and have a Very Merry Christmas! It will be fun to write next week and tell you all about Christmas morning. Love to you all!
Kathy
Acceptance
Resentment only wastes your energy and keeps your creativity suppressed. Instead of resenting what has happened, accept what is, and you put yourself in a position to do something about it.
You do not always get the results you desire, and conditions are not always what you would like for them to be. Yet you can always accept where you are and then move on ahead.
In fact, the fastest way to move forward is to be realistic about where you are. Accept and acknowledge what you have to work with, and you'll begin to see plenty of positive possibilities.
Acceptance of what is does not mean that you're giving in or giving up on where you can go. In fact, by fully accepting where you are, you enable yourself to make positive use of everything available to you.
By accepting what is, you can make positive use of the triumphs and the disappointments. By letting go of your resentment and anger for what has been, you can put all your focus on the best of what can be.
Stop fighting the battles that are already over. Accept what is, and you've already begun to win.
Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Monday, December 13, 2004
The Christmas Rush. Is It On Or Not?
Hi All!
Welcome to Monday and the final sopping days before Christmas. For some, it is time to relax and enjoy all the cookies already baked, decorations hung and gifts all wrapped under the beautifully decorated tree. For others, it is not the final days until December 23rd! I am somewhere in the middle this year. My shopping is done, my few decorations are up, my little fiber optic tree is decorated with pictures of me, Dave and Mason and my baking is scheduled for the 18th when Julie can come bake and visit with us. I am also waiting to wrap presents as if I do them now, Mason will open them and I am guessing I will have to warp and re wrap them many times over.
Dave and I seem to be in sync with our feelings of loneliness and excitement. The holidays are a tough time to be without each other BUT, we are also both feeling the excitement of this deployment finally nearing its end. Once we ring in the new year, it is all down hill. I am sure the date he is slated to leave Iraq will change more than 100 times in the coming weeks but there will be a date. Right now it is March 8. We have tentative dates for Poobah and Mexico so it won't be long until we get to the business of living our lives. Rest assured there will be many parties in 2005. Two to make note of will be Dave's homecoming party and our anniversary in Nevada City. I think we may do it the weekend of November 11, 12 and 13. We can celebrate our anniversary and Veterans Day in one fun weekend. Just think replay of our wedding and it should be pretty clear the kind of fun we will be having!
I am sending out our Christmas card with a mini "Year in Review" letter. It is not really going to be a year in review as much as it is a prelude to the story of how we tried to get our Christmas card photo. Take a minute to read it and have a good laugh on us. I am celebrating my birthday month and am looking forward to wrapping this year up. Come on 2005! Have a wonderful holiday season and remember, it is incredibly relaxing to celebrate with the "Gift of Nothing." Lots of love!
Kathy
Time Is Now
Time is neither your servant nor your oppressor. It is your workplace.
The passing of time can bring you down or lift you up. It all depends on how you make use of that time.
Time always comes to you packaged as now. To make full use of time, you must make full use of now.
If you put your efforts off until later, time will keep the fruits of those efforts always out of your reach. Yet when you let your efforts fill the time of now, time will deliver great rewards as it flows along.
With time on your side, any dream can become real, any goal can be reached. The time you have to work with is now, and in now is the seed for the best you can imagine.
Plant that seed of achievement and real fulfillment now. And time will bear its magnificent fruit. Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Welcome to Monday and the final sopping days before Christmas. For some, it is time to relax and enjoy all the cookies already baked, decorations hung and gifts all wrapped under the beautifully decorated tree. For others, it is not the final days until December 23rd! I am somewhere in the middle this year. My shopping is done, my few decorations are up, my little fiber optic tree is decorated with pictures of me, Dave and Mason and my baking is scheduled for the 18th when Julie can come bake and visit with us. I am also waiting to wrap presents as if I do them now, Mason will open them and I am guessing I will have to warp and re wrap them many times over.
Dave and I seem to be in sync with our feelings of loneliness and excitement. The holidays are a tough time to be without each other BUT, we are also both feeling the excitement of this deployment finally nearing its end. Once we ring in the new year, it is all down hill. I am sure the date he is slated to leave Iraq will change more than 100 times in the coming weeks but there will be a date. Right now it is March 8. We have tentative dates for Poobah and Mexico so it won't be long until we get to the business of living our lives. Rest assured there will be many parties in 2005. Two to make note of will be Dave's homecoming party and our anniversary in Nevada City. I think we may do it the weekend of November 11, 12 and 13. We can celebrate our anniversary and Veterans Day in one fun weekend. Just think replay of our wedding and it should be pretty clear the kind of fun we will be having!
I am sending out our Christmas card with a mini "Year in Review" letter. It is not really going to be a year in review as much as it is a prelude to the story of how we tried to get our Christmas card photo. Take a minute to read it and have a good laugh on us. I am celebrating my birthday month and am looking forward to wrapping this year up. Come on 2005! Have a wonderful holiday season and remember, it is incredibly relaxing to celebrate with the "Gift of Nothing." Lots of love!
Kathy
Time Is Now
Time is neither your servant nor your oppressor. It is your workplace.
The passing of time can bring you down or lift you up. It all depends on how you make use of that time.
Time always comes to you packaged as now. To make full use of time, you must make full use of now.
If you put your efforts off until later, time will keep the fruits of those efforts always out of your reach. Yet when you let your efforts fill the time of now, time will deliver great rewards as it flows along.
With time on your side, any dream can become real, any goal can be reached. The time you have to work with is now, and in now is the seed for the best you can imagine.
Plant that seed of achievement and real fulfillment now. And time will bear its magnificent fruit. Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Monday, December 6, 2004
Visits Galore!
Good Morning!
What a weekend and a fine time to have to catch up two weeks! Let me just say about last week that Thanksgiving was nice. It was quiet in that we were home, dinner was great and Al came up from Alameda to see us and take some pictures. It was awful in that Dave was not here, Mason cut three teeth and cried all day and thus, the pictures were just that, crying. Not to mention, shooting me was nearly impossible with poison oak everywhere!
This weekend was just over the top jam packed! Mason and I left early Saturday morning to head to the bay area. We had a brief visit with my Aunt Jeannette and a "Stop and see" with my niece Tammy who is in Vacaville visiting her mother in law. We spent most of the weekend with Dave's mom and Colton. We went to a spectacular Christmas Party held in honor of families of CA National Guard soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was amazing. We boarded buses and had a CHP escort to the home of Earl Riggs in Pleasanton. He is the founder of AMR Ambulance (ironically) and hosts a party every year. Usually it is for families who have very little and may not see a holiday party. This year, he decided to honor us and honor us he did! If you live in the bay area, you may have seen the news coverage. We had people on the streets with signs and flags greeting us as we approached his home (that is another motivator all together!). There were dancing elves, face painting, live music, prime rib dinner, all the lighted decorations you can imagine, Santa and all the wives got a box of letters of thanks and $300 in AM EX gift checks. Pretty Amazing. Dave's mom and Colton had a ball and I think it made them feel really good to be included. Mason wanted nothing to do with Santa. He couldn't take his eyes off him while we waited in line but the idea of touching him, NO WAY! I held him and as long as I sat on Santa's lap, that was OK, just ok, not good, but ok. The picture is priceless. Sunday we had a lovely visit with Dave's sister and her family. We all went out for breakfast (Colton and Mary too!) and everyone got to spend some quality time with Mason. It was a nice weekend.
A quick update on ONR. It is not going so well with Tower. I'm sorry to report that sales are worse than low, they are dismal. Anything you can do to encourage your family and friends to make a purchase would be great. If you need an email piece you can send out, I have them. Any support would be greatly appreciated!
I hope all is well with you and you have a great week! I am off to the shower to get ready for work! I missed the gym today as I woke up with a "I think I did too much and didn't drink enough water" headache! I will get back to it first think tomorrow! I hope you like this motivator. I do.
Lots of love!
Kathy
Meaningful choices
Every action you take has consequences. That may at first seem to be a burden, but it is actually very empowering.
For consequences are what make progress possible. It is in the consequences that life's treasures are to be found.
Yes, many of life's consequences are burdensome. Yet a life with no consequences at all would carry with it a far greater and unbearable burden.
If there were no consequences, there would be no pathway to desired results. Without consequences, true achievement would be impossible.
Though some of them are painful, consequences ultimately point you in a positive direction. By experiencing consequences, both the positive and the negative ones, you learn which actions to take.
Though consequences can make life difficult, they also make it rich. For consequences give real meaning and value to the choices that you make.
Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
What a weekend and a fine time to have to catch up two weeks! Let me just say about last week that Thanksgiving was nice. It was quiet in that we were home, dinner was great and Al came up from Alameda to see us and take some pictures. It was awful in that Dave was not here, Mason cut three teeth and cried all day and thus, the pictures were just that, crying. Not to mention, shooting me was nearly impossible with poison oak everywhere!
This weekend was just over the top jam packed! Mason and I left early Saturday morning to head to the bay area. We had a brief visit with my Aunt Jeannette and a "Stop and see" with my niece Tammy who is in Vacaville visiting her mother in law. We spent most of the weekend with Dave's mom and Colton. We went to a spectacular Christmas Party held in honor of families of CA National Guard soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was amazing. We boarded buses and had a CHP escort to the home of Earl Riggs in Pleasanton. He is the founder of AMR Ambulance (ironically) and hosts a party every year. Usually it is for families who have very little and may not see a holiday party. This year, he decided to honor us and honor us he did! If you live in the bay area, you may have seen the news coverage. We had people on the streets with signs and flags greeting us as we approached his home (that is another motivator all together!). There were dancing elves, face painting, live music, prime rib dinner, all the lighted decorations you can imagine, Santa and all the wives got a box of letters of thanks and $300 in AM EX gift checks. Pretty Amazing. Dave's mom and Colton had a ball and I think it made them feel really good to be included. Mason wanted nothing to do with Santa. He couldn't take his eyes off him while we waited in line but the idea of touching him, NO WAY! I held him and as long as I sat on Santa's lap, that was OK, just ok, not good, but ok. The picture is priceless. Sunday we had a lovely visit with Dave's sister and her family. We all went out for breakfast (Colton and Mary too!) and everyone got to spend some quality time with Mason. It was a nice weekend.
A quick update on ONR. It is not going so well with Tower. I'm sorry to report that sales are worse than low, they are dismal. Anything you can do to encourage your family and friends to make a purchase would be great. If you need an email piece you can send out, I have them. Any support would be greatly appreciated!
I hope all is well with you and you have a great week! I am off to the shower to get ready for work! I missed the gym today as I woke up with a "I think I did too much and didn't drink enough water" headache! I will get back to it first think tomorrow! I hope you like this motivator. I do.
Lots of love!
Kathy
Meaningful choices
Every action you take has consequences. That may at first seem to be a burden, but it is actually very empowering.
For consequences are what make progress possible. It is in the consequences that life's treasures are to be found.
Yes, many of life's consequences are burdensome. Yet a life with no consequences at all would carry with it a far greater and unbearable burden.
If there were no consequences, there would be no pathway to desired results. Without consequences, true achievement would be impossible.
Though some of them are painful, consequences ultimately point you in a positive direction. By experiencing consequences, both the positive and the negative ones, you learn which actions to take.
Though consequences can make life difficult, they also make it rich. For consequences give real meaning and value to the choices that you make.
Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)