Life Lessons on Friendship and Other Facts...

In honor of Halloween I will do ORANGE today :O)

Well, let me tell you a little about friends. Friends do not shame, friends do not guilt, friends do not force, friends do not tell secrets. Friends make time, don't demand it. Friends share their joy and pain, not just their pain. Friends ask how YOU are, not insist on dumping all their crap on you. Friends make you laugh, not stress out. Friends phone calls are welcome, not dreaded. Freinds spontanious visits are short and sweet, not long and disruptive.

do you see a pattern?

I have gone through my life choosing some pretty mean and thoughtless friends. I used to think that it was because I had such a low self esteem...but I think somehow I tend to go for 'needy' people. NO MORE! I refuse to be used, dumped on, guilted out and demanded of. I will choose friends who are fun, loving, crazy, silly, spontaneous, caring, thoughtful, and true. I will choose freinds who CARE about ME and will listen. I will choose freinds who have time for my concerns.

I don't know what else to say.....but this was one hell of a lesson to learn at 34 freakin' years of age!

Darla

PS HAPPY HALLOWEEN (maybe it was ME who got tricked??)

WID Day...no, not WED Day...WID

Happy WID Day...HA! NOT! What is WID Day? Today is Weigh In Day for me and my friend Lisa. We are doing this 'sort of' weight loss/health challenge and every WED Day we do a WID Day... (ok not so funny after all) Well, I am not thrilled to do this today. I have been doing everything in my plan except getting off my big butt and walking or excersizing. I have been very conciously watching my food, journaling everything, drinking water till' I might float away and taking my vitamins. I have been able to track in my journaling and find my 2 KEY problems with eating so I can start to work on that. I just need to MOVE... I am not sure what is going to motivate me to do it, but I just have to. I am hoping this WID will make me stronger, make me mad, make me WANT to do it. This is rediculous, I can't blame my expanded waist and tush to baby fat anymore... I have got to slim it down! DO IT DO IT DO IT! (my own cheer squad)...

*sigh* Darla

Life In Idaho

I was just sitting here reading a fellow bloggers notes about the hurricanes and latest news in Florida and thinking how grateful I am for my happy home in Idaho! Now some, they may think we are in 'po dunk ville' up here in Idaho, but in reality, this is THE place to be! I have several reasons I love it here, I guess maily cuz' I have never lived anywhere else LOL but honestly it is a wonderful state! We get all 4 seasons, in all degrees, we rarely have a natural disaster... only a handful I can think of. In my lifetime, Teton Dam, Challis Earthquake, Valentine Day Microburst storm and the flood in 97'. That is not too bad! The Teton Dam was of course, a man made disaster so that really doesn't even count, right? LOL So, I will take the 100+ degree heat a few days in the summer and the nasty windy snow storms in the winter...and I will relish the lovely springtime (even with snow on EAster) and the gorgous fall days (with snow on Halloween) and just be content!!! If I ever had to leave, I dont' know that I would go far...maybe to Oregon or Washington? I have no desire to head into disaster areas...hurricanes, floods, earthquakes OR anywhere with extreme heat and humidity issues! I could not make it, if I did not turn into a giant ball of stress I would bake to death! LOL I LOVE IDAHO!

Darla

No Deep Thoughts Tonight...I'm Tapped Out!

Nothing important or pertinent to report here so just a quick little 'hello' to my fellow bloggers and a :O) for those who need one. Kind of a slow day around here, Sundays are one of my favorite days because we just get lazy and relax...a day for naps, scrapbooking and lots of dumb TV! One day to wind down to gear up for the next 6 ahead...good perspective! LOL
On a sad note, my sis is sure having a tough time with some personal things in her life and that is certainly weighing on my heart and mind. I never realized how much I can hurt for my sisters. Almost like you hurt for your own kids or spouse ... different, but similar. But my hands are tied on this one and all I can do is be a shoulder and an ear when she needs me. :O( Pretty tough to sit back and do nothing at all.

Well, what an interesting day today was... can we say LAZY? I slept in till' 11:00 am and then mozied around till' I realized I had a ton of housework looming over me and company coming for dinner! :O) ack! Well, I managed to pull it all off and get a shower on top! whoowhoo... really not much else to report or tell. No whitty little whimsical stories tonight. Guess I will call it good. Darla

BLOODY FINGERS....

ACK! Bloody fingers...yup. True story! LOL My dear son Chris (14) has been working on a Scout project carving a block of wood into a chess piece (hmm?) with a pocket knife. Well, today was the THIRD time he has cut himself...and third time IS a charm, right? The first two cuts were minor...'ahhh mere' flesh wounds'... and then tonight he comes to me with blood running down his hand!? So I am thinking "what the heck?" and he proceeds to tell me he cut his hand earlier in the day... put a bandaid on real tight and it was fine. Then tonight he took it off and BAM! it starts gushing blood! EWWWWW! Well, we ran it under cold water, put pressure, it just bled more and more....off to the ER we go. We get there and after "the wait" then the grilling by the triage nurse, we get seen. DING DONG TEENAGE SON proceeds to explain that the cut ORIGINALLY happened at about 4:30 this afternoon!!!!??? What the heck! (It was after 9:00 pm by now) OK nix the stitches... but it was ok anyway bc it was so dirty and so old and in a bad spot (next to the nail) that they couldn't stitch anyway. Whew! Whoever inveted DERMABOND skin glue....bless you. So, cleaned the cut, squished it together, glued it up....went home! All is good. That was MY night...how about yours?

OH, and I missed watching the "real" ER on Tv for all this? Geeeeeeeesh!

Now I am in OFFICIAL Night Owl Mode...

Lord help me tommorrow morn when I don't want to get up! YIKES! Well, here I am , it is nearly 1:30 am and I am wide awake! I am such a night owl. Don't know how or why but I love my quiet nightime. I have been better lately and getting to bed close to midnight, but today, I am wide awake and ready to roll! LOL I sat up and watched two fave TV shows, sorted all my scrapbooking fibers, buttons, and other misc embellishments so they are all neat and tidy AND I gave each storage box a nice new label with description of it's content! Now what to do? I really should TRY to get some sleep but I am seriously pumped up tonight! What is it that is in us that determines the early birds vs the night owls?? Not in reference to the chatters on my fave mb... CKMB, but in our own personal ways... some rise early automatically...some cannot. Some cannot even rise early to an alarm clock!! Then there are those of us who could dance the whole night away and never blink an eye....
AH HA! I yawned! Must be a *sign*..... goodnight, er, good morning?
Darla

TODAY... the first day of the rest of my life! What will I do with it?

Well, today IS the day! Yes, of course it is the first day of the rest of my life... but a healthier life at that! Today is my first official 'weigh in' with my health buddy Lisa! We will be doing the nasty little chore of weighing and measuring and I am NOT looking forward to the numbers :O(
HOWEVER, being optimistic as I am... he he... I am looking at this as a HUGE starting point for me, a true, solid base for me to start being more healthy and loosing some of this huge belly I have accumulated over the past 15 years! (ahhh marriage is good?!) I have never had a good body image, as a matter of fact, I have struggled with my weight for most of my life. I have a very matter-of-fact look though...love me, all of me, or leave me! Right? Well, there is getting to be TOO much of me to love and there won't be enough of me when I am dead because I am too full of fat and cholesterol and gunk to live anymore! ACK! It is time to get down and dirty, 100% honest and true... time to do this! For me, for my family for those I love! I CAN do this...
So, when you see and talk to me, reinforce it folks! Tell me to get moovin' and groovin' baby!

Darla

Wonders Never Cease...

I am a follower. Never had the leader role in my sights...don't want it...dont' like it. I am too wishy washy indecisive to be a leader. So, in my 'follower' role, I also tend to do the "idol" thing as well. I have all my life, I see someone or something and I become obsessed with it... then I move on. LOL I DO! Well, a whole new world of scrapbooking has been poured upon me and I am now a 'follower' once again and I am "idolizing" once again. Two words:
CATHY ZIELSKE

Where has she been all my life!? LOL Seriously, I got my hands on her book "Clean and Simple Scrapbooking" and I am in total awe of her work! She can write like none other, true, blunt, straght forward words, tells a story and you SEE the action taking place. You FEEL it in your heart. And her photos...well in her case, a PICTURE IS WORTH 1000000 WORDS! Wow! She is just so so talented. Lastly, her design. Now, she is a professional graphic designer so I will give her a step up for that...but the clean, simple, clear, precise detail on her pages is just awesome!
So, I am a fan. Enough said. Right? No...well, I could go on...but anyone who has seen her work knows more than too well what talented individual she is. I have always been a HUGE Becky Higgins fan...but sorry girl, Cathy knocks you OFF the dock into the water!! WOW!

So, that is my blog for today...if you have NOT seen this book and her work, GO looking for it, NOW! This will better your scrapbooking and your life!
Darla

Just another manic monday...whooooaah whoooaah...

OK! OK! So I cannot sing, forgive me! Just one of my many NON-God-Given talents... just ask my kids! :OD
However, that title is true to form today, it was a busy busy day with lots of running around and lots of chaos. I wont' bore you all with the details, but I cleaned house, played taxi and played ref to wannabe romper room then came home to cook a chefboyardee, er, Darla, style dinner!
Manic Monday = My Life.

That's it! All of it! What a day huh? Hope you all had a great day and maybe later tonight I can enlighten you all with more musings and enlightening info on my SAHM world!
Darla

I FINALLY Figured it out...Why the sad mood today?

Feeling a tad blue today. Literally. I originally thought that I was just having some Sunday blahhs... You know, the lazy, do-nothing kind of day that often just rushes by us and before you realize it, bedtime is upon you? Well, I just could not shake that feeling today, I even took on some scrapbook shopping therapy and it just didn't 'do it' for me. I went and took a splurge visit with a good friend this afternoon... great time, but still that feeling lingered. Cooked dinner, watched some TV, did the family thing... nope, still that big blue blob of unhappiness floated above me! WHAT ?! WHAT IS IT? Well, I finally sat down here at my computer day planner to work on my schedule for tommorrow and THERE IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Today is the day that we lost my Daddy 9 years ago. Not something I usually "note" in my book to remember...not a day I tend to dwell on or whatever you want to call it. The funny thing is, just yesterday I thought about it, yet I must have put it out of my mind. I don't know, just odd that I literally forgot overnight. Well, I am certain that this was the reason for my gloomy day but it was totally subconcious, isn't that wild how our minds protect our spirits? So, some years I move right along through this date, some years are harder than others, this year was not necessarily hard, but, I still have my moments where I hear or see something that sure reminds me of Dad. I miss him, there is no doubt, and I am not a believer that time heals your heart...but I think time makes you more fond of the memories, more appriciative of those special times, even the not so special times! I love to sit with my sisters and reminicse of Dad and his oddball ways! What a tender hearted, stubborn, pushover, kind, friendly, cowpoke of a man!!!
I miss ya Dad! XOXO

Personal Moral Thoughts...

I had an enlightening experience this evening. Went out with some friends, dinner and a movie. We had breifly discussed the movie rating on our choice and then somehow ended up going to the show that was indeed R rated when we had (or so we thought) decided to go to the PG13. OK so we are all adults, grow up, deal with it, right? Or not? The show was VERY hysterical and had tons and tons of good laughs... it also had outrageously vulgar language AND a lot of sexual content. ALOT. So, in the midst of laughter and literally tears (from the laughter) the moral dilemna tugged....finally, one of our party got up and walked out. A while later her spouse up and walked out. Sad part was, the vulgar parts slowed down and the end of the show wound up being much more mellow and equally as funny and it ended in a good sweet love story. After the show we discussed how it had made the one gal feel and I 'sort' of felt guilty, yet, sort of felt like it was not a big deal. I guess the biggest frustration with this is that I know it is not the type of entertainment our religious beliefs would stand for... so essentially I would be denouncing what I believe in... ahhhhhhhhh morals... such a fine line and such a personal choice. I guess rambling on about it is not an answer hugh? I think I have found my own answer...or I knew it all along. *sigh*

HAPPY 'SWEETEST DAY' TO EVERYONE!

What a nice, bright autumn morn we are having here in Eastern Idaho! The sun is out and the reflection on the gorgeous fall leaves makes them just look like pure gold! It is an amazing morning .... just a bit crisp and cool out but still looks to be a beautiful October day!
I hope that today brings you all much joy and fun...Saturday's tend to be work days or total relaxation days... I think today for us it will be work! The 'landscape' (ha ha) of our home needs final winter weather check and we need to do the weatherization on our windows and so forth. I also have more than my fair share INDOORS that needs attention. Since Sat evening is our standard 'night out' with our good freinds, The Browns... (ahh yes, the Black and Browns!) I feel like I will need to push double today to get the house in order so we can go out in peace. :O)
Today is "SWEETEST DAY"... a not so well known holiday established in 1922... candy factory workers wanted to sweetin' up the lives of orphans and shut in's and brought them sweet treats to bright thier days! Over the years it has evolved in many ways, but essentially it is a more or less forgotten celebration! I HOPE YOU EACH HAVE A SWEETEST DAY TODAY! I hope that you can find something 'sweet' to do for someone, if it be a sweet treat such as chocolate or just a sweet thought or gesture or even a kind word. Spread the LOVE baby! Darla

Testing this out...

please just work with me here while I pidder padder around and figure this whole system out....

A NEW HOME FOR ME! Darla's Blog

Well, I am giving it a whirl...taking the big step and joining the world of online journaling! Hope this does not get complicated because some of us are SO not computer inclined! :O) Please feel free to drop me tips and comments any time! Welcome to the most optimistic blog in the world!

DarlaLOU