Too long. Christmas is over finally, a holiday that causes so much strain and frustration. I work retail so I see the ugliness of the holiday on a daily basis with customers that were too cheap to buy that gift when it first came in and waited for it to go 75% off....guess what....we no longer have the size or color they want and it is our fault!!!!!!! Please, look to the true meaning of Christmas and leave sales clerks alone. Yes we want you to be happy, but no we don't want you to yell at us because you made a mistake. And gift givers please stop putting the inexpensive Dollar Tree item you gave to Aunt Sarah in a major department stores box and tell her you bought it there. We will not take it back and you have now confused your sweet Aunt Sarah, she just found out that you have misled her. Shame on you.

I look for the beauty of the season, but I'll be honest... it sometimes is hard to find.

Finished me first set of classes

I finished me first set of belly dance classes and absolutely loved it. KayLouise is a fabulous teacher. She really went into detail on the different muscle groups that we needed to discover to make our bodies move fluidly. I have a long way to go, but I get really excited when I am able to improve a move or get my lower ab muscle to move without moving my upper ab muscle. I'll take the winter to study through Rachel Brice's dvds, then look to KayLouise's classes again in the spring. Retail hours during the holiday season just aren't cooperative with taking any classes.

I need someone to help me!

I have been wracking my brain trying to remember a title to a book that I read last year. It was about this woman who was at the South Pole and ended up being the last person in world. The story traveled back and forth between her struggle and final death to another realm where everyone that she knew who had passed on was in limbo. The theroy being that as long as there is one person alive that still has memories of you, you don't pass into the afterlife. If any one can recall the name of this book please post me.


Thank you Tara! That is the book that I have been thinking of!

School is back!!!!!!

Yeah! It's that time of the year that I absolutely love. The end of summer, warm days still here and my daughter returns to school. This means that my days off during the week are just that.....MY DAYS OFF. No running her on errands, to friends houses, no little friends spending the day here. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone of her moments and friends, but I lived alone for so long before I married John and had a child. I treasure my quiet time that there in no one to disturb me.



So today I didn't get up at my usual time of 7 am. Today for the first time in a long time, I got up at 9 am. I am leisurely drinking my coffee, eating a cinnamon biscotti and planning how I will spend my own day.



I received an email from a friend and I want to pass on this webcast for all women to view. If just may save your life.



Irritable Breast Cancer



http://komonews.s3.amazon.ws.com/ibc/komo_ibc.wmv



I didn't mean to get off the subject of enjoying me time. This was just something that I felt needed to me out there.

Back to Work

Well, my 10 day vacation is over and it's back to the rush of retail life. I work as a sales manager for a major department store in Ohio. It seems that every day is a constant change. I tried the 8 to 5 desk job years ago, and to be honest.... it just didn't suit me. Sitting looking at the same thing day after day is sooooooo boring. Here I meet new people everyday, I am out walking around, and I can do my grocery shopping on my day off during the week instead of fighting the lines and crowd on the weekends.

Yeah, my husband has that Monday through Friday job and is off on the weekends, but I look at it as his time to spend with our daughter without me . Good bonding time.

Just finished baking chocolate chip cookies for the family. They all have smiles on their faces. Lifes little pleasure is a warm cookie, and with chocolate in it...... well it doesn't get much better than that.

I just need to stop eating all these baked goods. I really need to exercise both self control and exercise period.

As Scarlet once said, I can't think about this right now, tomorrow's another day.....Hey! Pass me the cookies!!!!!

A Day At The Beach

Saturday, the sun is bright, the clouds are few, and the family heads in two different directions.

One heads camping with friends and the others head to the beach. When family is here and it is summer Lake Erie beckons to the sand bar and we all load up in my sister/brother-in-laws boat and away we go.

Water calls me in hot weather, in stormy weather, and even in the freezing cold of winter I am pulled to the shore to see the pattern of ice that has formed.

But my most favorite view of water is this one. Easy resting at Myrtle Beach from 2007.

I HAVE PEACHES:)

Yeah! Success was ours! Daughter is happy with jeans, shorts and tshirts, I am happy with red haven peaches, and hubbie's car made it there and back. Thank you!

Loved the new Plato's Closet that opened earlier this year. They bought back 2 pair of jeans from us and the new(used) items were so inexpensive!!!!!

Now my weekend will be filled with smiles. Hubbie is getting peanut butter chocolate chocolate chip cookies, so he will have a smile on his face too!!!!

All is well in the little Ohio town.

My life is a very very _______ Life

Okay, so one very is missing today. Just when I think that we are finally getting somewhere fate strik....es its blow. My daughter and I are driving down the highway, going to get those fantastic Red Haven peaches that are is season for such a short time, and the lights for ABS, the battery, and the brake start flashing on my dashboard. Call hubbie and he suggests driving it to his shop so that he can look at it. Okay, the pout appears on the teenager because after the peaches, it was back toschool shopping for her.

Turn the car around and daughter starts to open the glove compartment to look up ABS in the owners manual when the seatbelt warning light starts flashing and beeping. I felt like we were in a possessed car. Suddenly nothing, I mean NOTHING!!!!!, as I slowly drift to the side of the deserted country road with no power. Call hubbie again and he sends a tow truck.

Alternator is shot! Where or Where has my money gone?

Today I have the hubbie's work car and we will try again. Pray to the electronic auto gods that we will be successful today as we voyage out into that cruel and expensive world.

Books that I really enjoyed

The Historian, The DaVinci Code.....they both took me awhile to read but once I started it was difficult to put down.



The Lovely Bones haunted me, being a rape survivor (that's right, if my attacker is reading this, I live a fine and happy life.....you DID NOT WIN)



Me and Emma, what a fascinating book!



The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. These I believe started my interest in Middle East culture including belly dancing.



The Long Walk was loaned to me by my sister, who had it loaned to her. Truly moving book about a group of people that escape from Siberia.

This may take awhile, I love to read and will add more to this list later.

Baking Frenzy

I really missed my callling. Got up this morning and baked chocolate chip scones then cinnamon sugar biscotti. My house smells heavenly.

And naturally my little sister called to see how I was doing and to find out if I wanted to go out on the boat today. I told her that I knew she was going to call.....her scone esp was on high alert.
Double batch.... got to call Jo Ann......besides she owes me since she borrowed my lawn chairs to see Rod Stewart last week......

Yes, you may have some of them.:)

Still feel like baking some more but the days of sunshine will be shorter and shorter as fall arrives .... got to get into the sun for my dose of vitamin D.

So, I am an avid reader. At one time, I felt a great desire to write a novel, but that has been stifled for the time being, I mean, I have an idea about a story, but can't quite get it out of my head onto the page. I can be very satirical with thoughts about things, but the committment of a novel is alittle overwhelming.

I am so pleased that as I look up from this page, I see my teenage daughter completely involved in a book, too. She finally developed my reading gene that I knew I had passed on to her. That's my girl!!!!!

So this is my first attempt at blogging. I hope that I neither offend or upset anyone that may read my random thoughts about life and my view of it. If so, remember that in the great scheme of things, does it really matter?