Loretta Was Here

When you first become parents, from the moment you hold your baby in your arms, people are telling you "Enjoy them! They grow up so fast!" And in the blink of an eye... or about 20 years time give or take... they've done it! and you wonder if you taught them what they need to know and how to deal with every possible situation and how to keep themselves from getting hurt and how to take care of themselves and how to get along with people and how to do all the things that we all have to do in this world and you realize that there's no way that a person or persons could cover everything that it feels like you need to convey... like a history teacher trying to decide what parts of history to include and what parts to leave out for lack of time and the sheer enormity of all the things that can happen in a lifetime... so, you pray... and you love... and you're there when they need you... and you pray and you love and you trust that they can handle whatever comes the

Yeah, it's a controversial subject... and everybody has an opinion. Maybe it's time to look at the FACTS. This is a great video!

it's the second half of summer now, well into, and young lives are in a whirl... that last summer of freedom - before you all begin new adventures in your lives. Whether you're heading off to college in a new place without all your friends along, or separating from loved ones for the first time, really, in your lives, things are changing. And it's exciting and its maddening and it's sounds like fun and it gives you the feeling in the pit of your stomach that can only be compared to the feeling you get on the final ascent of a great roller coaster ride. the only real "solution" is to sit back and enjoy the ride, knowing in your heart of hearts that it's all gonna turn out like it's supposed to turn out. :) you'll go away and you'll come back and you'll have new friends and you'll still love your best friends. and you'll fall more in love or you'll meet your new love, and still it will all turn out like it's supposed to turn

We all make mistakes. Some of them are bigger than others, have more repercussions, generally have a heavier impact on our lives... BUT all are recoverable.... long as you're alive. So, what do you do when you screw up and people seem to revel in attaching some stigma to you? "headed down the wrong path", "hangin' with a 'bad' crowd", just a "dreamer", whatever dumbass label you've gotten stuck with...? Well, simplest way..........prove 'em wrong. Become a successful person - become the person you've always wanted to be or you're just now deciding you'll be... and prove 'em wrong. Blaze a path! Achieve your goals. Prove 'em wrong! I'm not advocating seeking approval from outside sources... pssshht. Ya know me better than that, right? I'm saying... channel the energy derived from your anger and your frustration at whatever label gets under your skin into becoming what you know you can be... prove 

When do you become an adult? Some say 18.. I say you're an adult when you are able to provide the material means (income) to support yourself in the world - when you make enough money in your chosen field, whatever it may be, to pay all your own expenses. You can afford the rent on your own place and pay the electricity, water, and sewer bill. You pay your own car payment, car insurance, gasoline, groceries, toiletries, hair cuts, makeup, clothes, laundry costs, medical insurance - doctor co-payments and prescriptions, and your own telephone bill. And if there's any money left over, you pay your own entertainment expenses - eating out, movies, and whatever else you have in mind. When you can do all that, provide completely for your own material needs, without resorting to borrowing, begging. stealing or prostituting yourself, you're an adult, and not before. You're not an adult until you can stand on your own and support yourself in this world. And age has very little

My backyard flower bed has been taken over by my rosemary bushes. And they're so hale and hearty that I'm going to graft some and put rosemary in my front flower beds, along the front of the house, like regular bushes would be. My parents' place in South Texas had rosemary bushes tall as a little kid - big, fat and bushy. And the smell of rosemary is amazing! And this past spring, I tilled up my smaller flowerbed in the backyard and tossed out some wildflower seeds that I bought for $1 for a pretty big box at Walgreens. And they took! And it was wild and crazy and beautiful. So my flowers for filling my front bed, and the smaller one behind will be wildflowers this year. More carefully selected perhaps, but no less wildly strewn. And if I'm lucky, I'll have landscape without hassle! And I'm going to grow tomatoes up off the ground away from the dogs, probably in a raised cart or bench with a box on top. And I'll watch for pests and fertilize like you're

"If I told you that when you woke up tomorrow you could do anything, with anybody and be anywhere you wanted, what would you do? There are no constraints whatsoever. This has nothing to do with being reasonable or sensible. ...The idea is not to set this up as your goal, but it’s to clarify the kind of things you really want out of life. People are absolutely brilliant at compromising their hopes and dreams and trust me, it’s a crap thing to do so don’t be one of them." - Tim Brownson at The Discomfort Zone I know very few people who've always known what they were meant to do with their lives. I met a guy when I was in college at UTA. He was going to be an accountant. He had grown up wanting to be an accountant. I'm sure that by now he is as he predicted and aspired to be... an accountant. And I know of one other. She has been an actor since the day she was born. She's known it since she was 5 years old. And she is convinced and convicted to be one. It's what

My backyard is my "oasis". It's raining right now, and me and my four mutts can't go outside and hang out. They can't go outside and pee and poo and play. And I can't go outside and watch all that. My backyard has been my refuge throughout the last 23 years - the place I go to sort out stuff and kinda chill. Yeah, it doesn't have all the accoutrements of a backyard oasis (yet). But it has something that seems kinda rare these days... it has my sky. I can go outside with my hounds and sit on the deck box and feel the sun on my face when it's out there. I can look up facing any direction in my backyard and see the cool, night sky - and our moon and our stars and all the artistry that's been put there for our eyes to glimpse. One of my favorite memories in my backyard is watching the meteor showers that came thru this past year. Lying out on a lounger, with my daughter, looking up into the sky and watching the most amazing light show I've ever see

So you've finally done it. You've reached that wondrous state known as adulthood! You may still be living with Mom & Dad; you may be living in a college dorm; or perhaps you've moved out into your own place. Regardless of where you live, things are different now that you're "all grown up". If you're my child, you know that I've always been the record-keeper at our house. But now that you're 18, you'll be buying your own stuff, entering into contracts and learning slowly but surely how to do all the stuff that grown-ups get to do in the course of living, working, going to school. Along with all that, you're going to have to start keeping some very important records of your own. So, here it is - my "crash course" in what to keep, what to file into your own permanent record, and how to create your own paper trail! To start with, you're going to need a file system. And since you probably won't have too terribly many catego

I tend to go contrary to the "norm" when I do things. It's a "rebel" sorta thing deeply ingrained in my psyche, neither bad nor good. It's just the way I am. And my wind-down/rev-back-up-again day of the week is Monday . I do Mondays, absolutely. But I do Mondays in my own personal way. On the one hand, I do Mondays. I actually get a lot done. I put my self and my home and my attitude back together from last week and our wonderful whatever we did weekend - one of many with all the chaos that accompanies any given weekend in our home with our two teenage daughters, four wildly lovable dogs, me, and their Dad! On the other hand, I don't do Mondays. I don't schedule appointments on Mondays. I only run errands if I feel like going out. I do things around our house all day, but I do whatever strikes my fancy. Mondays are my "day off". I don't do anything on Monday that I don't absolutely , positively have to do unless I feel like

I SO need a way to jump-start my weight loss. Left to my own devices, I've let my weight slowly creep back toward my last starting point with Weight Watchers . Yes, I could go back to Weight Watchers, and I may yet. But for now, I want something that will show me quick results. To that end, I was using Stumble!Upon during a lag in productive computer activity, and ran across the General Motors Weight Loss Diet Program . Although it has components of a fad diet - restricted food lists, elimination of entire food groups on a temporary basis - it also promises weight loss of 10-17 pounds over 7 days. Wouldn't that be nice? And to boot, it doesn't have you eat weird and far-out foods. It relies on real foods, the ones we all know we're supposed to eat more of anyway - fruits and vegetables. Now starting out, I know that I may not do the full 7 days at one shot. I have a birthday party to attend on Day 6. After debating whether to wait until after the birthday party to atte

One thing on my mind this morning is the fact that my daughter is performing in a musical at her high school. Performances were last night and tonight. We - my hubby, my mom & my daughter - are going tonight to see her perform, and I'm excited. My other daughter, her older sister, went last night as well, and says it's an excellent show. But that's not what's on my mind.... Whenever we go to see my kids in any type of performance, we make an educated guess beforehand as to the optimal time to arrive in order to get good seats and be able to see all the action, but most particularly to see our kid in action. And it really hits me the wrong way when we get there, ALL OF US, when the house opens, and someone has sent their snivelly little ambassador ahead armed with handbags and coats and programs to save seats for their own entourage! I have taken the time to calculate out when we have to leave the house, including the trip across town to pick up Grandma et al, to get

You may have noticed an emphasis on listening to your feelings in recent posts - DUH. In my eternal quest to "fix what's wrong with me" I've read many a book from the Self-Improvement Aisle or Self-Help Category. Okay, and yeah, the genre has it's own box in the bookshelves out in my garage...But I've read (or in some cases not read) these books not believing in a one-size-fits-all method of "feeling better" but to see what I might learn that could really help me see my "problems" in a different light. Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings is one of those books. Plausible. Interesting. One law. The Law of Attraction and a belief that the feeling s you feel are the only true way to create your authentic self, by attracting back to you the same sorts of feelings and occurrences that you're transmitting out - kinda like a tuning fork of the self. I'd guess you have to read it yourself to know if it wou

Sam my oldest, has moved off to college. Not across the country or anything - after all, she can be home or we can be at school in under an hour. But she's, like, all-growed up! And I was sitting on (no honestly - lying on) the couch last night with the Christmas tree lighted up and the rest of the house dark. It's one of those things I do EVERY Christmas at least once. And as I lay there last night, my eyes landed on an ornament* on the tree. See, this year I decided ornaments only. I didn't add those shiny red balls, or the shiny silver ones, just our ornaments. And I liked it. (Some day I'll blog the "Evolution of Our Christmas Tree". I think it's a story of it's own.) But I digress... My eyes fixed upon an adorable little teddy bear hugging a Christmas Candy Cane - Baby's 1st Christmas '91. And it hits me once again, that after 18, no 19, years, my oldest is out there IN the world. And this year - 2010 - Alex, my youngest will leave our