Strange days..strange moods..the week has been full of opportunities and new experiences..which has me between jaded excited and exhausted all at the same time..life has been busy to say the least..I am not permitted to talk about the work that I will be doing in the coming months other than to say that next week I get to take a polygraph exam..ya kind of freaked out about that..I wasn't always an angel:) Low key weekend and just as well..playing catch up on school work is never ending. You name it I am learning it or so it feels:) Thanks for being patient the few of you that stop in once in a while..things will cool down as of next week and return to normal..and some things may be heating up..more on that to come.. but for now just know

Heart, 1984 ( I Love You) Andy Warhol

Every once in a while you stumble across a blog or a website that inspires and makes you take notice and think in a new direction or look at things a little different. If even just for a while. Through reading a friends blog I came across these fine women over at Brave Girls Club and I have to say the work they are doing is that of sheer beauty. To say that you will come away from viewing this site feeling good and a little more on your toes is an understatement. I hope that you will check them out...I love these images found on their Facebook page,  like them and you will be so blessed as to receive their daily doses of inspirational messages called A Little Bird Told Me...their motto being Love the Life Your In..I encourage sharing this special little place with your daughters, sisters and all important women in your life, it is places like this that fuel human connection and help to make us the extraordinary and strong women that we are..

Paradise Labor Day Weekend 2k11

If I was one of those people who say liked to write down self affirmations on sticky notes and post them on my mirrors so that I can look at them in the morning while I brush my teeth and give myself a mental marathon before I start the day I would make it a point to remind myself of a few key things ..

BE THE BEST YOU YOU CAN BE!!

This would help me to curb my sarcasm and remind myself that sometimes I just need to put a sock in it. It may perhaps help me to keep my commitments and even be timely. Miraculous!

KEEP IT REAL

Okay so the REAL reason I have no interest in attending my 20 yr. high school reunion other than I thought high school was a complete drag is that I have no ex boyfriends who will be there to show off in front of because they were all older..in some cases much older and therefore it doesn't sound like much fun and why would I want to pay $200 to go mingle with people that couldn't care less if I ever saw again... The REAL reason I hardly ever eat out is because service is a joke in most places and paying a pretty penny for mediocre food just irks me and unfortunately poor service and okay food seems to be the norm nowadays..I have spent $300 on a dinner for 2 and $30 on a dinner for 5 and yet 90% of the time the experience just sucks so I stay home and save myself the aggravation.

YOU WILL FIND THAT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO EVERYTHING ..WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT YOU JUST KEEP DOING SOMETHING..

I am never going to save the world but I can help a select few in my life and do my best to raise decent human beings. I may not be a rockstar wife but I can keep doing the little things that make up the foundation of our relationship so that we have room to grow. I may not have the time or will to complete nor to follow through with the hundreds of good ideas or places I want to go or things I want to incorporate into my life but even if I just accomplish a few its okay. In 20 years the last thing I will remember are the dishes left in the sink or the workout I didn't get in today, it will be the moments in between that I spent with the people I loved.

LOOK ALIVE!

No matter what you do for a living whether you manage a huge company or look after wild children you will always feel better and deal better when you look good. Take care of the inside, the outside and everything in between doing only what makes sense. It truly does affect everything.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU TELL THE PEOPLE THAT MEAN EVERYTHING TO YOU THAT YOU LOVE THEM EVERY DAY!

There is nothing more heartbreaking than loosing someone who is dear to you due to the unexpected and realizing that you never said it that last time or that you didn't say it enough.This rule applies to the people that you have told a thousand times and the ones that haven't a clue..

Life is a precious gift and noone really knows what happens when we leave here..

Now it's time to get out the sharpie and postits and drive my husband mad..

Maybe I can use them to remind him to take out the garbage and finish the painting he started 2 mos ago?

JT: What has sobriety meant for you personally?
AK: Drugs and alcohol were an exciting shortcut to a false sense of well-being. They were like medicine to my spiritually deficient existence that stopped working and left me with an even bigger void. So, basically I loved them, but they didn’t love me back. Most people can’t relate to being powerless over mind-altering substances, so even some close friends give me the blank stare when I explain that I don’t drink or use at all. I totally understand that reaction because I can’t relate to what it might feel like to be schizophrenic or have manic depression. As for being in the stride of change, I love the recovery path. We all have a path and this one just happened to speak to me.

One of the greatest answers to a very personal question by the enigmatic Anthony Kiedis..by the way have you had a listen to the new Red Hots album yet..frickin brilliant to say the least but I really didn't expect anything less.

I have spent the week spinning my wheels..trying to get into a groove when truth is sometimes it feels as though the days go by so so fast. I hope to spend a full day in the pool this weekend and am looking forward to doing a photo project at Taliesin West on Monday with my oldest son..What is capturing my attention this week..The Crock Pot Girls, these gals now have almost a million likes on Facebook..a MILLION! They are 3 stay at home moms who started a little page to exchange crock pot recipes and not like they were the first to have this idea and throw up a fan page but for whatever reason it took off like crazy and their likes continue to go through the roof..and get this they didn't even have a website or a blog yet..they are frantically trying to pull one together. Kudos ladies!!It doesn't look like their server is handling the amount of traffic very well yet but when they get it all together I will surely be stalking to not only check out these great recipes (choc. lava cake anyone) but to watch these rising stars.
I have spent the week with my nose in the books..studying about PreSocratic philosophers ..appreciating Socrates ever so much more..pouring over maps, comparing population figures...writing about popular vs folk culture as well as adaptive reuse. My architecture class is a blast so far..it is like my dessert. We are going over the Chicago Worlds Fair and how the Industrial Revolution impacted building, city planning and design in the years that would follow.I am not a big fan of my sport in society class which is a prerequisite for my degree. I am trying to look at the positives but 4 pages on why children in New Guinea prefer to play street hockey really? Guess what I will be doing Sunday night? But that's enough about school..I have been making time for relaxation and family as well and have been enjoying helping out at my sons school and reading to the boys just about every night. It is so important to read to your children, even if it is just for a half hour and of course if they are able have them read to you. We have been reading lots of Dr Seuss as my youngest son has been making these choices from his school library..tonight we read one of our William Wegman books, the kids just love the photos and I am looking for a poster to have framed for my middle son. We have been fascinated with monster fish, alien fish and finger monkeys..and we have been playing Chinese checkers like crazy and building card houses. It's hard to think of Halloween and all of the excitement that Fall brings when it is 115 degrees outside. It has been so darn hot we have been spending all our time inside, heck the schools aren't even having recess outside right now. We celebrated my husbands birthday Monday..he hates his birthdays something which I just cannot understand for the life of me. He is overworked and when he isn't working he is sleeping which has been the norm for some time now I only hope there is a light at the end of this tunnel for him.
Heading to the resort this weekend will be a welcome treat even if just for 2 days being inside all the time gives me a case of cabin fever and severe wanderlust..but I have been having fun at the theatre..this is the first season I have season tickets and have been taking the boys..we saw Beauty & the Beast last weekend and they loved it and I enrolled my middle son in an after school workshop..I am so looking forward to the upcoming shows especially at Christmastime...enough about me its time for something beautiful..the day just calls for it..



The Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton. Considered to be the first modern building it was the inspiration behind the designs of Walt Disney (his father worked on the project) as well as the magical land of OZ. Destroyed by fire in the 1930's after years of being in ruin this is how I prefer to remember it, in all of it's glory.