Changes a brewing....

Lots of changes are a brewing in my life right now....not sure I want to speak with specifics about them just yet on here...BUT...I will say this: some of the changes are my own doing and some were forced upon me. However, in either case, I think all the changes are going to provide a needed course correction for me. Actually, I think my life the last few years has been a course correction and that these changes are where I get to see the good results of that correction or, if you will, the budding of the fruits of my labours. One of those fruits? Courage. I can't quite say I have it yet but it is there, beginning to bud. Change is scary for me and the unknown is terrifying for me, yet I am looking forward with a completely terrified shaking in my boots self to what is coming. Strange...

why?

Why is it that people ( myself included) do the things we do? I mean why, for instance, do we tear down others and their ideas? Maybe idea isn't the correct word...dream might fit better but then it isn't necessarily a dream it may just be a thought. Why must we point out the negative and minimize the positives?or compliment and then say but or don't you think this would be better? why not just say you look nice or that sounds like a fun idea? why add in but we really need to get you a hair cut or you glasses are crooked or but wouldn't it be dangerous to do it why not do this...?are we all such Eeyore's that we can't ever be Pollyanna? why is it that people can't see the beauty in things but always see the ugly or the bad in things? There is I dare say more things of beauty, goodness, and positive out there than we ( any of us) are seeing and commenting on. why is it that lately I want my soundtrack to be more of the hard angry stuff than the happy upbeat stuff? That might be strong again there hard angry is probably a bit darker than I want but lets just say I am leaning more toward the def leppard and not the Il Divo songs lately. I need to change my soundtrack to something upbeat and motivating but how? Maybe Pollyanna was right. Maybe all I need to do is play the "glad game" and find the beauty and the positive around me and share it with others. Maybe by forcing myself to find it I will start seeing it more easily and it will uplift me and my soundtrack and maybe...just maybe it will help someone else to do the same.The challenge will be to be sincere and honest and not a hypocrite as I find the silver lining the rainbows and the happy flowers of life. This is my challenge to myself this week: to find the good , the happy, the positive out there and share it with others.

.Music musings or affects

On Sunday mornings I have to be to work much earlier than any other day so on my way I get to listen to Music and the Spoken Word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There is never a Sunday when I am not touched and uplifted by what I hear but occasionally it still manages to affect me in ways that surprise me. Sometimes it is a song they sing that I know they sang just for me. For example, during the Christmas season last year they sang a Christmas hymn that most don't know but is one of my favorites "Once in Royal David's City". Sometimes it is a story that is part of the Spoken Word section that touches me. this past Sunday it was a combination of both. In the spoken word part they talked of choosing to be happy or friendly because you never know how that might affect someone else but what struck me strongly is that is was choosing...choosing to be kind...choosing to be happy...choosing. What really affected me was the song they sung afterwards, mind you I found it strange that this song affected me so but it did, 76 trombones from The Music Man. I was literally moved to tears. After contemplating it for a bit I decided it had to be because Harold Hill and those who were his friends chose to believe chose to see chose to be confident and to be happy. Plus the music itself is powerful and strong and upbeat. It is music that never fails to bring a smile to me and get me pumped up and read y to go. Music is POWERFUL stuff. How does music affect you?

my life's soundtrack

I admit it I am stealing this from a friend she did a post on this and it got me thinking so much I just had to steal it for my own. :) Those of you who know me know I wish life were a musical you know breaking out into song and dance and everyone joining in...it would make things so much more fun. SO that said I have obviously thought about what songs or types of songs would create my musical soundtrack. They are as varied and weird as I am. everything and everyone from classical symphonic music to Joe Scruggs to Def Leppard to George Strait to Sesame Street to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir to...well you get the idea. So to name some names here...Somewhere over the rainbow probably by at least three different artists would be in there, It's not easy being green, All By Myself ( Il Divo version), Step that Step, Cheeseburger in paradise, Rubber Ducky, Dancing Queen, Pour some Sugar, Battle hymn of the republic ( is it bad to go from def leppard to a hymn...?), My Life, Handel's Dream,Once in Royal Davids city, Amazing grace, The Morning Breaks, Puppy Love, Soldier of Love, I'll Make a man out of you, Reflection, Dance with me tonight, several parody songs like Weird Al music and music from Top Secret, lots of eighties stuff, swing/big band music, Bruckner, Beethoven, Seven nights in Eire, Suzy Snowflake, I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, late last night, oh by the way, It wasn't his child,...and the list goes on. I have always thought it was almost mean that as much as I love music I have no talent for it and almost no skill to learn it but maybe if I did I wouldn't love it as much? what are some of the songs of your soundtrack?

First Aid3

OK last one or two or three we shall see just how many stories I get into this post.
First is about that same dirt bike from the other day. Only difference is now it is several years later, the bike no longer has brakes ( I don't mean they don't work I mean they are no longer even part of the bike), we are living in Malaysia at the top of a hill and I am now probably 11 years old. So on this beautiful sunny day I decide to go for a bike ride, somewhere in my brain I thought it would be fun to take the dirt bike out with no shoes on and go see my friends who lived at the bottom of the hill. The road was pretty steep but their driveway was twice as steep. As I am zooming down the road I wave at my Dad who is shocked and I am sure a bit worried at seeing his youngest zooming down the street with no shoes on and no brakes. I remember not being worried until I hit their driveway and then trying to figure out it ditching the bike and wiping out would be worse than hitting the back of the carport. Don't think I made a decision think it was made for me as the carport wall and my front tire then my head hit it. I remember my friends being out swimming in their concrete fish pond and laughing at me ( I think I was laughing too) it had to have looked pretty funny seeing this grinning idiot screaming towards a cement wall! Their Dad was outside too and he told them to stop laughing and then tried to see if I was alright. A scrap or two on my nose and forehead that were washed and alcohol applied to and I was out playing with my friends. Guess I am hardheaded in more than one way. I don't even recall a headache or any soreness at all later.
Now I will end with not with the final story because there are many many more but with the one that I think trumps all others. Please note if I had been living in the United States at the time of this next incident the first aid required would have been lots more but because of the fact that I was living in Singapore it was definitely an easier recovery and treatment. My Dad and were going to take our Dog Candy for a walk I was about 5. Dad and I had just walked through and closed the gate to our driveway when a local man and his monkey ( a monkey used to climb fruit trees and toss the fruit down) came walking by, Dad being the friendly fellow that is was starting chatting with the man. While they were chatting the monkey climbed a tree and I was over by this cement block/bench thing that divided our driveway from the ditch next to the tree the monkey climbed doing whatever 5 year olds do on such things. I guess the monkey got upset that there wasn't any fruit on the tree or something because all of a sudden he is leaping down onto and biting my knee. I don't recall screaming or crying I do recall limping over to dad and him telling me to go inside and show my Mom. Mom was on the phone and said she had to go because her daughter was bleeding. It was a Sunday so she called the doctor at home and told him I just got bit by a monkey. The doctor asked her if it was deep enough for stitches Mom said she thought she could stop the bleeding and all with some butterfly bandages but what about rabies and such? The Doctor said there wasn't any rabies in Singapore so no need to worry about that and was I up on my tetanus? I was and so no visit to the doctor or hospital. Here in the US it would have ended up with all kinds of shots and stitches but as it was a mothers love and care was all that was needed.
write for slice of life

slice of life "First Aid" 2

So here I am for the second time in as many days when I haven't posted twice in a month in months! I guess Texasblu really got my writing juices flowing with this topic!
This story takes place in Singapore when I was about 6 years old. I love my brother and back then I worshipped him. He is 7 years older than I am and I adored anytime he would spend with me. So one day we go for a bike ride on one dirt bike. Me sitting on the handle bars him peddling. Everything is going well for what, in my memory, seems like hours but I am sure it is really more like 10 minutes or so, when my brother reminds me to not look down or put my feet in the tire...so...naturally what do I do? I looked down as I put my feet into the tire. The bike flipped we went flying. don't remember anything more than road rash and scraps as a result for either of us but by then I think both of our heads had given up on concussions and just developed cushioning on the inside and helmets on the outside. I believe when we went home it was a good washing and alcohol or iodine on the cuts. The next case of road rash was also in Singapore courtesy of a friends bike with two flat tires. We were biking from her house to mine to get my bike. I was on her sisters bike with the two flat tires all was going well when a BIG lorrie ( TRUCK) came barrelling down the road so I swerved off the road onto the gravel side and the bike didn't like that at all so down it and I went. I barely got my leg out of the road before the truck went roaring on down the road past me. I was very glad the only injury was a bad case of road rash on my leg and half my face! Soap water and Iodine to the rescue again!

Once again this is a "Slice of Life" post

slice of life first aid

Well, Texasblu did it she got me to write on here again. Her "Slice of Life" this week is First Aid. I have lots of first aid stories. I am a klutz I guess or maybe just don't have good depth perception but regardless makes for several moments in my life I wish I could rewind and watch from the other side to see how the heck did I do that! SOME of the moments really aren't due to anything I did or didn't do, SOME are due to what others did, but MOST are all on me and my clumsiness. I think I will try to write about several over the next few days just for fun and exercising of my mind.
So which first...?
How about one that really was just a weird accident of no one's making? my Broken toe.
When I was living in Malaysia the school would have what they called intersession for the middle schoolers (7&8th grades) where for a week you would get to go away to some "exotic" local with some of the other students. There were about 10 or so locals to choose from you picked your top three and somehow the school placed all of us in the varying places. It was a fun week. It was the year I was in 8th grade I can't remember where I went might have been Port Dickson I know it was a beach. anyway there were bunk beds, I slept on the top bunk. On the last night there ( pretty sure it was the last night but we may have been there one more night) I...umm...was sleeping dancing and tripped over the bar that is there to keep you in and fell off the bunk! I did not wake up! the others heard me fall ( or rather land) and came and helped me back up into my bunk the teacher there ( can't remember her name) told me later she was amazed that i didn't wake up with the fall. About 20 minutes later I woke up in tears trying to figure out why my toe was hurting so bad. I went and woke up the teacher and she told me what had happened and I can't remember what we did that night but maybe some ice (?) but the knowledge of why it was hurting may have been enough to calm me down so I could sleep. I do remember the dream I was having which is why i say I was sleep dancing not walking in the dream I was boogieing my little 8th grade heart out! Amazingly I still remember enough of that dream that I could tell you with whom I was dream dancing. You know all they can do for a broken toe? Tape it to the one next to it strange as it sounds that really did help with the pain. That is until my P.E. teacher didn't believe me and made me run track told me if I didn't she would fail me! Then the vice principal ( who was at the intersession with me) saw me running track and asked her why I was running with a broken toe she told him she didn't believe I had a broken toe he said he was there when it happened and I had a doctors note and I most certainly was NOT to be running and it would NOT affect my grade. Ruined me for running though I still run on the outside of that foot and hate running. Took rhythm and dance for my P.E. credit the next year. :)
go read the other first aid slices of life.

Not that anyone is reading anymore or ever was but just in case....I don't have much of a life to write about and anyone who may care about it is part of my life either in person or elsewhere o nthe web so for now I will stop this...maybe in the new year I will exciting news but for now the only news is I lost my job and I am looking for a new one so far no luck... be back next year

Slice of life:SNAKES

well, I have entirely too many snake stories....which to tell? do I talk about feeding king cobras in our front yard in Malaysia? or about nearly stepping on a slithering friend there? or maybe about keeping the Cotton mouth snake out of the daycare I worked at and yet on the proprty so it could be captured? or about shooing a snake out of the daycare in the early hours of the morning? or about...? see? so many stories to tell... I think I one I like best for this post is the fun one.
( I know Texasblu your thinking "fun one?")
When we lived in Kuala Lumpur (KL) our house was in front of a piece of jungle that was surrounded by our house and several others in such a way that is would never (easily) be able to have a house in it. Across the street was a large area of jungle so our yard was the highway to and from these two bits of jungle. This highway saw all sorts of traffic...monitor lizards( HUGE ONES) were constantly moving through as were monkeys, birds, reptiles off shapes and sizes and KING COBRAS. I remember playing with friends and we spotted a king cobra, we decided the smart ( read fun/dangerous) thing to do would be to go capture a frog and bring it to the snake to see if it was hungry. SO one of us ( not me but not remembering who) watched the snake while the rest searched and found a suitable frog to sacrifice. ☺ Once we found it we took it over to the snake and placed it close enough for the snake to grab and eat if it was hungry. sometimes the snake wasnot hungry ( yes we did this more than once) but I remember one time when it was and it was the COOLEST thing to watch thesnake strike, pull the frog in and dislocate its jaw and then very slowly move thefrog down its body.
Disclaimer here: I have the utmost respect for nature and as long as it stays in nature we are all happy but once a snake or any other wild thing comes into my territory I will be ridding my space of it. I don't believe that snakes make good pets so don't anyone ever give me one K? this is a slice of life post

go check out the other snake stories

dancing

Slice of Life this week is dancing... I immediatly thought of Gene Kelly and Singing in the rain...but that is singing not dancing so then my brain went to Shall we Dance from The King and I. In searching for the clip I came across this one too from Sesame Street so for giggles I am putting it on here as well...enjoy!

Ok now that the fun part is over you get my writing... ☺

I love dancing! Always have if it wasn't for my lack of singing ability I would go through life as a musical. Wouldn't that be fun to tango, waltz, and cha-cha your way through life? Oh I would also disco, two-step and line dance my way through....

ok so ONE more video but come on! It's Ferris! Dancing makes life fun...wether you are dancing in the kitchen while cooking, dancing in the halls or dancing down the road life is more fun with a little boot scootin boogie or salsa added in for flavor and energy so in the words of Ren Mc Cormack..."Lets Dance"

This another slice of life click to see others who joined in...

Friends

Friends come and go and then come back into our lives. Some friends you grow up with, some you grow with. There are friends you can call at midnight and ones you can knock on their door at midnight. There are friends briefly flash through your life bringing joy and laughter for just a moment before they (or you) move onto a path that leads away from you. Some friends are family by blood , others are family by choice. I was going to share some stories about one such friend who is family by choice but she beat me to it over on her blog blessingsrealized. My problem then became what to say...so here goes...
I have friends that I have known for decades and others I met more recently but be they old or new the ones I cherish are the ones that I have "known" forever. The ones from grade school days whom I recently found again on Facebook where I never would have been if it hadn't been for a blogging world friend that I will one day meet in person. I love catching up with them even if it is through silly little statements and games. The friends from high school who knew me when I was....um...well let's just say they knew me when and still seem to like me now ☺ then there are the friends who others introduced me to so we could be friends because they thought we would be good for each other and help each other. Pinkie over at blessing realized is one of those. I had known her parents for a while and had probably met her before but she is 7 years younger than I and so when I might have met her I was in my early 20's so she was just a kid ☺she told some good stories about our friendship on her blog but one she missed was one that involved two other friends that I have talked about on here before baseballguy and vetboy. We were over at baseballguys place for his traditional gingerbread house decorating party a fun evening to say the least. However, someone had brought some root beer to the party when Pinkie poured herself some and took a sip. After her sip, she said it tasted gross and handed me her cup for me to confirm that it tasted bad. What do I do? I take a sip! To me that is the kind of friendship we have, one where we support one another even if it means we taste gross things.
To quote a poem by Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had wit to win:
we drew a circle and took him in!

That is how some of my best and longest friendships from high school ( truly from all the time periods of my life but high school was particularly rough) were I drew a circle and then someone drew a new one and took me in. Open hearts and minds is how friendships form and open hearts and minds is how they last. To all my friends, from whatever era, from whatever place and however we met... I love you all. I could write forever and not come close to all the stories that need telling on this one so I am stopping here. maybe I will revisit this topic another time... in the mean time check out the other posts on this "slice of life"

this and that, gardens and limbs....

Lots has been going on but then again not much happening...☺

we had a salt garden growing for a few days..remember growing those as kids?





we have a visitor for a couple of weeks. We are watching Skipper for CP's aunt while she is away.

My garden hasn't produce the way I had hoped it would but my watermelon and squash both have blooms so there is hope yet...☺

oh and I woke up yesterday mornign at 3:30 to find this in my bedroom:

yup that is a tree limb that decided to spear the roof and ceiling in my room. It was about 2 feet off of my bed... it is tarped and awaiting the final repairs now...

video

well lets see if we can get this to upload tonight... if it does we went out to eat at Wild Ginger and this is at their Hibachi table...

WATERMELONS!!

Well, watermelon plants anyway...☺ so here is a video of what I did this morning

Need to get better at this again...

I think facebook has stolen me! I really need to fight the urge to put everything there because there are just details that can't be expressed in the alloted space. Though it is so much easier to post pictures with my new droid phone on there. Just open up the fb app and click take picture, point, shoot and send.

Been busy with the garden. Been able to harvest lots of spinach and lettuce, hoping to keep being able to by having some of the plants shaded by my tomato plants and by putting some later crops in but I know with lettuce I may be sparse during the hot summer.☼ hopefully the berries will be keeping me busy then. Have planted strawberries in a topsy-turvy planter and at a friends we have blue and black berry plants in, so heres hoping to be doing some canning this summer ( or at least a cobbler or two). My tomato plants are doing well have a few blooms on a couple of them and the others are looking strong and healthy. Getting ready to put in a watermelon mound tomorrow and planted a couple of cucumbers today. So that means that I have: tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, onions, garlic, squash, strawberries, cucumbers, watermelons, basil, cilantro, thyme, and several mints thus far in the garden. Thinking about doing some mustard greens, carrots, and beans as well. posting a few pictures and a video as well.

Old Man WInter's last kick?

Hopefully, the snow and winter weather we got yesterday was the final kick of winter for us. I don't mind snow...it is beautiful but round these parts it is messy and makes the roads scary. The snow falling yesterday was actually perfect for me because I was off work and could just enjoy it. ☺ The really neat thing was they were big fluffy flakes like what you see in Utah or Colorado not the anemic flakes we normally get here.

I am excited for spring. I have my garden(s) almost completely planned out and I am itching to get them going. Have some spinach and lettuce going right now ( you can see the little guys in the video above) which hopefully means in a few weeks I can start getting my salad from my garden. ☻

What I have been cooking up lately

this post is going to be mainly pictures...
today I baked the sugar cookies I made on Saturday but didn't get around to cutting out and baking till today. I made two different doughs a gluten-free one and a regular one.

since Valentine's Day is over I decided to do some Mardi Gras hearts as well.☺

My friend who I made the gluten free ones for said they tasted great. ☼ I have more of both doughs left so I think tomorrow I will make some more...wish I could figure out how to make a tiger for Chinese New Year's...

I am teaching myself how to cake decorate...these are some of my practice sheets of leaves and branches.

this is a cake I practiced on...☺didn't really have anythign to decorate the center with so...Hi it was.

One of my favorite things is baking bread. I have fun adding flavors and extras to the basic recipe. Fooling around with things to get better texture and just to give extra nutrition kick to the bread.

award...promised post

ok here is the deal...I made a promise so I am doing this tonight! Luv ya TexasBlu! I received this award from TexasBlu...The recipient of said award must list 10 things that makes them happy. In no particular order as trying to order them would be more difficult than thinking of them was.

1. Sunshine and azure blue skies butterflies fluttering

2. Happy flowers...the ones that bloom at odd or unexpected times...bring a little brightness and a smile to me.

3. friends who remember friends who forget ;)

4. helping someone to have a good or better day

5. my job....I love what I do even if it is stressful right now and sometimes I forget to "have fun" doing it I do love it and the people I work with.

6. my puppy and the add on pups they are so loving and fun.

7. baking

8. reading a good book

9. music...there are specific songs that do more than others for me depending on the moment and what I need... like "somewhere over the rainbow", "the Battle hymn of the republic" "Step That step" "pour some Sugar on Me" various others including all types and time periods. Music makes me happy. :)

10. spending time doing something with a friend and that isn't limited to physically being in the same place it can be that we are separated by thousands of miles but are "together" doing something and conversing about it or life. love cell phone and internet chat for this reason being together without being together.

Supposed to pass this on to ten others...sadly not sure who still reads this who hasn't already done this... so some ideas... Joy, tanya, carla, teresa, andrew, diana...rest of you I think already have been tagged to do this if not and you want to please be my guest. if you don't have a blog FB...

the changes of life

Funny thing happened about 4 hours after I last posted on here...I got a new job!!! It was a shock to say the least. I was out to lunch with a friend on my day off when CP called and told me to get over to his work and fill out the paper work he had just fired someone. Silly me I thought it would just be an application... instead I ended up working about three hours that day and working both the new job and the old that weekend. The new job is as a line cook at The Caddy Shack which is the restaurant at the golf course in Walden. At the beginning ( and still at times) I felt totally unable to do the job of course that was complicated by the fact that during that first weekend I was working 15-18 hour days between the jobs and getting maybe an hour or two a night of sleep. sleep deprivation can do all kinds of things to your perspective. Been at the new job for almost a month now. I am learning lots and getting better and faster ( though CP might not agree on the faster part) Still not completely thinking of everything and the last two weeks Wednesdays have been horrible in a good way, that is if horrible can be good ☺. Last week it was a lack of prep on my part that did it. None of the customers knew there were issues in the kitchen so in the end it was ok and I learned a lesson in prepping properly. Last night or properly yesterday afternoon I was scrambling eggs ( a case of them) in the industrial mixer when I went to turn it off I accidentally turned it up and the eggs exploded out of the mixer and all over the place there were eggs everywhere!!! I am sure in the not distant future I will be able to laugh at it but yesterday instead of a comedy it was a tragedy. Everyone else had a good laugh at it. It tainted the rest of my day though not in the least because cleaning it up took a good 45 minutes of my timed and put me behind on my list of things to do. Which gave CP more fodder for teasing and more reason for singing his favorite song..."I'm doing everything". The only thing I wish is that we had caught on tape the egg explosion. I love the challenge of my new job I am learning lots and growing in it.
On a more personal note... I bought the first course of Wilton's cake decorating class so since I don't have time to attend a class right now I going to try to self teach. will be posting my efforts.

the randomness that is a catch up post :)

went to visit my mom in New Mexico. This is a picture from Old Town

Been baking a lot lately this is rye

white bread

Going for walks and visiting with a friend from Hummingbird days allows our pups to play too!

Thought I had pictures or video from the Def Leppard concert but they are lost on my computer somewhere. the concert was AWESOME!!!
work has been up and down with the stress/fun factor but I still enjoy my job especially on the days when I get to do more line cook duties than dish washing but that said I LOVE the days when I can do nothing but one or the other. It gets to be a bit stressful when I have to do double duty and cook and do the dishes. I wish I had had the time to get pictures during the tournament in October alas there was barely time to stop much less be a tourist with a camera!With the baking I am doing I am hoping to get good enough to start a business selling my wares online and such.

Thanksgiving day at work there was a buffet and I got to be bananas foster lady and be the "action" station flambeing the bananas. Was a lot of fun! unfortunately everyone was so busy no pics from that either. :(
ife is good and busy.