De-cluttering!!

It seems the spring cleaning bug bit me a little late this year but better late than never! Yesterday I made a list of all the places that collect junk around the house. We are tackling them one by one—doing smaller jobs during the week and saving the bigger ones for the weekend.

This has also extended to the Garages and basement. We would love to make a little area in the basement as an emergency shelter but we also have to have room for seasonal storage and the fireplace. Did I mention our basement is just two rooms—the first room holds the water heater and water filter the second the furnace and fireplace. It isn’t a finished basement just a small concrete canning basement.  

I love getting rid of clutter! It makes me feel more free and able to breathe easier! I get excited at the thought of organization! It’s silly I know, but I have always been a fan of everything having a place!

Monday we organized the kitchen—junk drawer, drawers, candle cabinet, above refrigerator and under the stink.

Tuesday—the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, drawers, and closet in bedroom.
Wednesday—the bathroom. Under the sink all three closets and drawers. A big job!
Thursday—class night
Friday—living room closet and coffee table drawers and pantry.

Duste’s job is to deal with the garages and basement. She is working on the garages this week and on Friday she will work on the basement.

By the end of this week we should be clutter free!! I think I hear singing…..

Changes

Changes can be a good thing, changes give us a chance to take a deep breath and give our minds and soul and new start.

I recently had my house Feng Shuied. For the most part we were correct in paint choices and placement. With only a few things to change/add I got busy right away making list. I had the few things I could do now and a few things I could do later once we moved our living room to the new space. We only need to paint one full room; mostly our homework consisted of adding art work in the right places. We added a small fish tank in the entry way and a picture of a map. I am adding a shelf in the laundry room to have some bamboo with jade and emerald rocks. I need to hang some metal art work at the top of the basement stairs and some black and white art work in the dining room. I moved some of my crystals, added some statues, more house plants and plans of de-cluttering are in the works!

 I love the way positive changes make me feel—all fresh and new, moving in a new direction, the right direction!

I also found a new favorite store! It is called Inner Path Books. They have books, crystals, physics and classes! I seen a physic and was told once again I should pursue being a healer and open myself back up. She also said I was on the right path and this year is all about coming into myself, being ok with who I am and letting go. Shedding the old me that held on to all the pain from the past and looking at the negative. I am excited to become me; I am excited to see where this takes me.

I bought a pendulum and practicing with that every night.

 I am so lucky to have a loving partner that is open to let me explore!

 Next time I talk to a physic I think I will ask about my Desmoid Tumors but I think they are gone for good! Speaking of which I hear that Rosie O’Donnell’s girlfriend has be blessed with these as well, sad to say but this will be a good thing for the rest of us with this. She will bring a face to the media; talk of this rare disease will bring more research and maybe a cure. I feel I am cured, I feel good with little to no pain and I am in the best physical shape I have been in for awhile.  I would like to put this rare disease behind me—but I am only able to forget about it for 6 months at a time then reality comes back to me in the form of a MRI scan.

My favorite quote right now is:

                                Keep Trying

                                Keep Believing
                                Be Happy
                                Don’t get discouraged
                                Things will work out!

                                                                ~Gordon B Hinckley

Living in the moment and Patience

Living in the moment

 I think that is what I am supposed to learn in this life time. I have never really lived in the moment. I have always looked to the future and treated the present like something I had to get through. I think that comes from my experiences as a child and it became a habit. My present isn’t bad, my present is great. I need to learn to live in the present. I am a planner, always planning for the future, that is another reason it is hard to live in the now.

Right now I have a loving, wonderful, caring soul mate; a supportive soul mother and two reliable in laws. Both my sisters are relatively stable and doing so independently. I have a beautiful home that we are still able to remodel into our dream home. We have Ivy Rose the crazy high energy puppy! We have a saving account and we are able to pay all our bills every month without fail. We have a new to us car that is dependable. I have a job that supplies me with good insurance which allows me to take care of myself. I am tumor free for 2yrs now and more physically active then I ever have been. The present is a great shinny place! I should stay here more often.

 Patience

I believe I am getting better at this one. I feel I am a more patient person than I was a year ago. I know with every fiber of my being that when the time is right our career life will get back on track. I believe it was derailed for some unforeseen health issues we couldn’t have planned for nor handled if we were where we thought we should be. Instead of sulking and feeling sorry for us, I instead chose to see the good in the situation and take advantage of it. Everything is going to be ok!

My goals in life are to be as happy as possible, work on being patient and living in the moment.

I think all these are reachable; after all it’s all about attitude. Which my happy pills are helping me adjust!

Ivy Rose

Ivy Rose is 4 Months old!

She weighs 21 lbs and is so smart!

She knows how to:

Sit and to only get up with command word

Stay
Come
Retrieve
Roll over and show her belly
Shake
Touch—touch her nose to your hand
Lay Down
Crawl
Step up
Speak
Kisses
Drop it
Ring bell to go out
Go to her Bed and Home when asked to and we are working on walking on a leash!

She loves to swim in the big pool! She jumps in on her own and swims a few laps by herself! She also loves to go on rides in the pool on her floaty! She loves finding treats in her Brain Game and will do anything for some turkey!

She is finally finished getting her puppy shots and next week gets enrolled to attend Doggie Daycare! She will also be getting some training there to help with the jumping and nipping.

Ivy Rose has a lot of energy and is taking fewer puppy naps throughout the day. She sleeps all night in her home and lets her mommies sleep in!

Her puppy teething are really giving her a hard time and anything can be a victim of those sharp teeth!

She is a wonderful baby and going to be an amazing dog!

Doing the Happy Dance

Good News! We are the proud owners of a new to us 2005 Ford Focus!! It is black and a 4 door! It will be getting customized to look a little more like us but we are already in love with it! Miss Ivy Rose seems happy as well, so it is a keeper! This weekend my little man Keaton will get to see his NawNaw has a new car—these can be confusing times for a 3 yr old.

 My last car,  a 1994 Grand Am 4 door,  air conditioner could not be revived no matter how hard we tried  without putting a butt load more money into it.  We had to say enough was enough. So, it has found a new spot in the front yard and will have a new owner soon.  After all, A/C is important when you are a female and these summers can bring temps in the 90’s and up. The other girls in the office would not appreciate it if I came in stinky from the drive over. Yuck!

It is true I didn’t go to the dealers looking for this type of car. I really didn’t know what I wanted. I had a few in mind, none a ford. But it looks sporty, is good on gas, has 4 doors and was in my price range—what else can a girl ask for! I am all about my cars looking cute but I am practical too!

We are impressed with the "get up and go" this little car has and its ability to "hug" the curves--important to an amateur Indy 500 driver like me! It also has a 6 disk CD Player and a awesome speaker system for all my jamming needs!

So here it is—we named him Johnny Cash!

Pre-Customized!

Ivy Rose and Talisa in the new Family Car!

Social Anxiety and Mild Depression

The diagnosis is in, it is official—I’m on medication.  I fought a hard battle not to have any mental illness but I have lost. Depression runs strong in my family; parents, siblings and cousins all suffer from it. This social anxiety I’m not sure when it started but it got worse recently. I was shy as a child; could that have been the start of it?

 I am ready now. I am ready to get better; I am ready to feel better! The future is bright once again—with this help I will make it out of the dark clouds that seemed to have moved in and never left. I am so excited to feel happy again! 2-6wks she said it would take to start feeling the good vibes but until then I have my instant sunshine pill that get me through.

I feel…..like I am able to breathe again. The tightness, aggravation and worry are gone. It is so nice to know I am on the road to recovery!

Everything is going to be alright….it really is!

                      *Ivy is going to grow and be a wonderful healthy dog.

                      *Duste is going to get called back and hired on when the time is right for us.

                      *I will get to leave my job.

 Every day I will put one foot in front of the other getting me a step closer. I will take a deep breath and enjoy my life one moment at a time….because everything is going to be alright!

Miss Ivy Rose

Little Miss Ivy Rose is a handful! She was 10wk old and 7lbs when we picked her up from her foster home on Friday June 15^th. It was a two hr drive of anticipation to meet her! Her foster parents were so sweet and she was the smallest one they had at the time. We were shocked by how small she was! We have never had a puppy this young or small before! The two hr ride home she slept and only woke because she had to potty!

Now a week later we are all adjusting fairly well to each other and the daily routine. She is doing better at night in her crate—she sleeps with a Snuggle Pup and has two night lights and a sound machine. Her crate is in our room so she doesn’t feel so alone. She is getting on a schedule of only waking once at night, after holding it 5hrs and wants to get up to play at 6:30am. She goes out for a long walk and plays until around 7:30 and then likes to sleep for an hour or two. We are trying to encourage her to take naps in her crate but most of the times she has a different plan. We have also started crating her for short times during the day when neither of us can be home with her. She does very well during the day! We always make sure she has gone potty and is worn out by lots of play before she goes in. We have learned there is a balance of naps –too many or too long and she keeps us up all night, too few or not long enough and she isn’t happy. So we are still learning! We are working on not chasing the ducks or chickens and about 90% of the time she does great. She is still learning her boundaries with the outside and inside cats; they are quick to remind her. Ivy is getting better at walking on a leash and learning what certain words mean. She is very close to being house trained. She will not potty in her crate, in the car or on furniture but when she is playing in the house she won’t always let us know when she has to go. We are working on this by following her around the yard and giving her treats when she “goes” outside. She has quickly caught on and will look up at you when she is done, waiting for her treat. She also learned her name by the second day! She is a really smart girl

and I think she will take to training really well!

Ivy Rose starts Puppy Preschool Thursday July 5^th! We are so excited! She will also be going to Doggie Daycare once she has had all her puppy shots and is 4 months. We thought that would be a great way to get her socialized with other dogs. After she starts Daycare we will enroll her in Beginner Obedience Classes. She is a very busy girl but we are hoping all this will help her be a good girl and help us be better owners. We are also reading lots of Cesar Millan books!

We are eager to see what she looks like when she gets older—how tall when she be, what will her face look like?

I am really trying hard to go with the flow of things—my anxiety is still a little high from all the stress of the last few months but I am doing my best. Sometimes the anxiety still gets the best of me but I am a firm believer in “Fake it till you make it!” Meaning if I go through the correct motions at some point that will become the new normal and feel more natural, it has worked for me many times in the past!

Duste has been wonderful through all my issues and reactions. I don’t know how she does it—sometimes I act so bipolar it is crazy. But those are the times I am trying to fake it then my anxiety takes over. She is always right there with me doing her best to make things better and to make me happy, taking all the crap I give her when my true issue is with myself or someone else. I hate that I put her through so much. I am seriously considering going to a Dr to get a better grip on this. I don’t want to be put on pills, I don’t want to have to take another pill but I can’t keep doing this to her. I love you Duste and I am sorry I am such a mess~I am trying to fix it, I swear! I would be so lost without her….