How Cool is This!!

So this weekend was the annual Christmas parade in our sweet little town.  Wifey and I decide to go down-town and partake in the fun and festivities.  Sadly, due to some terrible weather on the original date, this was the rescheduled date so there wasn’t as much stuff going on but it was still festive.

As part of the day, we decided to go down early and check out some of the shops down-town.  We went to the Gallery on the Square, and we checked out a couple of little clothing shops.

But the find of the day??  Grumpy Girl Candle and Bath... .  Wifey said she had seen this shop and had always wanted to check it out so we did.  What we found was a very delightful bath and body shop with great names for the scents like “Draft Up Your Skirt” and “Fat Bottom Girls” (Check out the “Scents” page for explanation and other awesome scents.)

We had a great time looking through the shop and talking with the owner.  It’s no secret that Wifey and I have a sometimes ‘twisted’ since of humor.  We have totally found a kindred spirit in the owner Sharon.  It was also great to find another way that our little town has changed, and in my opinion for the better.

Everyone check this site out.  They have a great on-line store and LOTs of fun gifts.  My only regret is that I didn’t find this earlier so she could get some business from my tens of readers.  (I do what I can.)
Great thing here, all of my out of town readers can join in the fun too!  Check out her on-line store.
Again, the site is http://grumpygirlcandles.com.  Check it out.

Things I believe.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon here on something.  My wife over at Tinfoil Magnolia expanded today on a blog from a friend of hers on another blog here.

I will not say that the things I believe would fit on a clean-cut list of 10.  But here are the first 10 that came to mind.

1. In the game of life and who you choose to spend it with, I chose well.  My wife is my best friend, my confidant, my love, my life, and why I get up in the morning.
2. You get what you give.  If you are good to people they will be good to you.  If you are generally crappy to others, reread the first part of this bullet point.
3. Love is possibly the best thing you can truly experience in life.  If you know or have learned what "Waiting to Exhale" means then you are there.
4. Take time for yourself.  Decompress.  You are not being selfish when you take time to center yourself.  On the contrary, you are a lot easier to get along with, and you are more open to listen and be a good friend when you have your own baggage sorted.
5. Your problem with me for not agreeing 100% with you is your problem.  I have just as much right as you to my beliefs.
6. I know it sounds like a 80's hair band, but you really don't know what you've got until it's gone.
7. Your friends are the family you choose.  And although you don't choose your family, you are truely blessed when your family is close and can laugh and love openly.
8. You have to stop every day and look at what you have and be grateful.  Otherwise, life is just marking time.
9. Life is life.  Sometimes life is really hard.  Sometimes life is really good.  You HAVE to take the good with the bad.  And cherish each.
10. Finally, I'm one of those people that almost died in a horrible accident.  Really.  On the brink.  My beliefs (personal and spiritual) didn't change after my accident from that I believed before my accident.  What that tells me is that the beliefs I had before the accident I owned.  I owned them because I had thought, studied, and learned what was right for me.  Because I didn't have a big 'Eureka' moment afterword and 'change my ways' was because I was already grounded and didn't have to fall back to something else.

So there you go.  Do I know everything? No.  Am I an authority on anything? Only myself and sometimes I'm not sure of that.

Self-inspection is a good thing.  Try it.

Ebb and Flow

Ebb and Flow, come and go, in and out, good and bad, better and worse.  These are just several of the words that come to mind lately.  Words that describe life, work, family, and just about everything.

When wifey and I were first married and our life together was young, these oscillations between the highs and lows were there, but the swings were small and so manageable.   

Now, the world is just screwy.  The oscillation has gotten further and further apart.  Good happens, bad happens, but it seems that I’m currently on a way extended ‘bad’ cycle and it’s REALLY getting on my nerves.

Now, as for me and wifey, it’s definitely on the up.  That’s actually the one thing I know.  Regardless of what happens, she is on my side.  Period.  No question.  Yes she may have to help me pull my head out of ‘you know where’ some times and give me perspective, but she IS on my side.   Home life is good.  We are near family again.  We are getting to see our nephews and nieces grow up and they know us by our faces, voices, and hugs, not by pictures on the wall.  And that is great.

Other things in life are just not as great right now.  Part of it is that I’m still in a tail-spin from being laid off over a year ago.  

Well not in a tail-spin, but have you ever seen one of those World-War II movies where the good-guys are trying to get home on the stolen cargo plane.  Then they get one engine shot out over Europe and you think all is lost?  And they have to fight to keep the plane flying straight because all the pull is on one side of the plane?  That’s kind of how I feel right now.

I’m making progress.  My career lost a lot of altitude when the engine went out.  Right now I’m just above the channel making my way to England and safety.  The imminent danger has passed. 

But there are those cliffs at Dover.  You remember from the movie, the plane is too close to the water, the huge limestone white cliffs are looming in the distance.  Will they make it?  Will they come so far only to crash so close to home?

This is me.  This is how I feel right now.  I’m in pretty good shape.  I survived the initial calamity of my engine being shot out.  I was lucky and got a job in a very bad economy.  Was it where I was?  No.  Did it get me home? Yes.  Was it at the level I was career-wise? No.  Am I still able to use the skills I’ve gained over the years to be a very productive person that helps people daily? Yes.

Will I get over the cliffs?

 

Commercial………

 

I know this is a bad analogy especially coming from me.  Those of you know me personally know what happened the last time I was in the pilot seat of a plane. (For those of you who don’t look me up on the NTSB web-site.  Yeah, you only get on that web site for one reason..)