All I Ever Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Found on the Centsational Girl Blog. I felt I should share it with those who follow mine, it is so very true. I like the idea of an afternoon nap...

All I Ever Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

by Robert Fulghum

“Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about ‘Dick and Jane’ and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: Look. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.

Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

Will you give this to my Daddy?

Received via email:

Will you give this to my Daddy?

As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays'

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos.. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.


When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.


Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.


The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.


When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers..


We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Americans supports our troops.



The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out.


WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE.
THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO WEAR RED! --- MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD

Inspiring

I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
–Henry David Thoreau

Refreshing

A new day and a new perspective on life. I'm not sure what provoked this new frame of mind, maybe it was me reconnecting with family, the fresh air from the rain, or just because I realize I had gotten lost in my own world. Whatever it may have been I realized that I have let stress and sadness take over my life the past couple of years. Don't get me wrong, I have been happy too, thanks to JL and all of his patience I have been able to live and make the most of things but I have decided I am done. Done being sad about my Mom, done being stressed, what happens will happen whether I stress about it or not, and I am DONE worrying about everyone and making sure they are all happy, I am not a mother, yet.

So, for many of you, this post may come a surprise. You may be thinking that everything was going great, and it was, for the most part. For the past year JL has been telling me not to stress or worry about everyone, the sadness thing he didn't get close to, but I guess I had to realize it for myself and figure out how to deal with it. The mourning period is over and it's time to look ahead and not in the past. Don't get me wrong, there are good memories to think about, but there are even better memories to be made, so I am going to focus on them.

No more tunnel vision and no more negativity! Life is to be lived and that is what I plan on doing with it.

Live, Laugh, Love

It's the little things in life!

So this past weekend JL and I decided it was time for us to get started on projects around the house. The ones we put off because we either still didn't realize that we actually owned the house or we were making sure our finances were in order. Either way we have begun the renovating process.

For those who know, we have done quite a bit already. This includes, putting a side wall up and gate, painting the exterior and many of the rooms and reorganizing the garage so the 35 or so boxes I inherited were reduced down to a mere 25, keep in mind this also includes holiday decorations.

We went to our favorite hardware store, Home Depot, and searched out what we could do. Note, we had many a projects in mind but were open to new ideas. One thing I have been pining for has been a garbage disposal. For those who have never been with out one, if that day ever comes you will be very sad about it. I have endured over a year without the disposal so you can bet that was at the top.

We aren't avid plumbers, in fact, all I knew about it before this process started was that it smells and plumbers are expensive. We took a look under the sink and decided to just replace all the plumbing so we can start fresh. What an adventure that was going to be!

We bought our 3/4 hp disposal, for those who aren't privy, that is about mid-range and average for any type of household and after several, and I mean several, trips back to Home Depot, our sink is working and the garbage disposal makes me so happy! (I hope this doesn't jinx it.)

The next project: Not sure yet, but we will be attending the "re-do your bathroom" class Thursday. I'm sure we'll come home with a project or two :)

'Till next time, Live, Laugh, Love

Welcome 2010!

With a new year comes the typical life style changes. Such as, eating healthy, working out more, enjoying time off more, spending time relaxing at home, spending more time with family, finishing projects from the previous year, working on the house and the list goes on and on... This tends to make things a bit overwhelming when all these assignments and tasks need to be done with only so much time to do them but every year these ideas come to mind and every year they are attempted and failed. That is why this year I am going to focus on one and then two and so forth until all can be accomplished at the same time.

This week (1): spending more time with family.

Next week (2): eating healthy.

Week 3: exercising more.

Week 4: working on unfinished projects.

Week 5: spending more time relaxing.

Week 6: working on the house.

Sounds like an adventurous idea but it may just work... I decided not to go with the cliche idea of eating healthy this week for a couple of reasons. I'll admit it, I tried and failed. I just couldn't handle it all at once, hence the new idea of gradual progression. Also, Jose's birthday is today and I knew we'd go out for dinner, we are going to his parents for dinner and Saturday we are heading to Sabatino's to enjoy some yummy food with some of our close friends.


Live, Laugh, Love

Our Trip to New York!

Hello all! I know most of you, if not all, were privy to our recent vacation but if not we just got back from 7 days in Manhattan, Midtown to be specific.

Day 1: We arrived in the Big Apple, actually Jersey but no matter, around 3:00 and got in our first cab to the hotel, the beautiful Park Central Hotel right in Midtown. We checked in and headed to our room. I will admit I was a little scared because of the price but we were very happy with our accommodations. We rested and showered and took off to see Times Square, four blocks from our hotel. What a chaos, tourists EVERYWHERE but we were still overjoyed to be there. After a quick bite to eat, pizza of course, we went back to the hotel and rested.

Day 2: Our journey to Greenwich Village... well it was more of a search for Greenwich Village and we couldn't honestly say we knew we were ever there until the end of the day... After our journey down town, we ate some lunch and headed back to our hotel and took a nap. That was one thing I loved, we took a nap everyday! After the nap, we headed to Columbus Circle and to the Winter Festival. Good times with the Mariachi band and the adjacent mall. On our way home we walked, briefly, through Central Park, it was dark but an experience we won't forget!

Day 3: Liberty Island, here we come! Jose's favorite part of our trip was visiting Ellis Island because you can feel the spirits around you. Kinda freaky but neat at the same time because you can feel a little bit like they did at the time. So much fun history there, and sad history too. Did you know 2% of all the immigrants that traveled there were turned away? Sad... After that we walked up Broadway, by Wall Street, Trinity Church and Ground Zero. Not much to see at Ground Zero since they are starting to construct the new monument but still interesting to visit and remember. After that we journeyed up to Chinatown and Little Italy. We didn't stop for Italian food as we weren't hungry but we did get some good shopping in around Chinatown. After our nap we went out for dinner and walked around 5th Avenue a bit.

Day 4: Ice Skating in Central Park, Idyllic huh? It was so fun but Jose was a bit nervous on skates. I had taken lessons when I was younger so I just needed to warm up but after a couple of laps he was done and enjoyed the view while I got some exercise in. After that we went to FAO Schwartz and walked to the hotel, only a couple of blocks away. After our lunch and nap, we went to try and see the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center and how silly that was... Lines to get in lines to be in lines... We stopped trying after about 15 minutes of standing in the rain. We went back to the hotel and watched it live, Jose was sad to see that he could have seen Shakira but I told him tough :)

Day 5: Downtown to the Empire State Building, Macy's, the Met, tour of the Upper East Side and Madison Avenue. Let me just say that the ride up to the top of the ESB is FREAKY, I'm not one for heights but I didn't want to miss out... Macy's is just like any other Macy's but the Met was amazing! I saw a real Picasso and mummies and a whole lot of other really interesting stuff. I could have spent all day in there but after everything we were a bit tired so we journeyed back to the Hotel. We rested and then went out for some much needed Chinese food and the best I have ever had!

Day 6: We realized that we needed to bring stuff back for people so Friday was our shopping day. In the morning we went to Central Park and walked around a bit and sat out in the sun. There was an outdoor market that we visited and then journeyed to 5th Ave, which was crazy busy. We napped and went to Columbus Circle, after our Chinese food, and just enjoyed our last night in the big city. Excited to go home, we were eager to start our journey back.

Day 7: Last day, happy and sad at the same time. We went for our usual stop at the corner deli for a breakfast sandwich and just waited for time to pass. We finally checked out and they suggested we take a car back since Taxi fares can be unpredictable. We took the offer and the bellman took our luggage to a white stretch limo... hmmm... we really hoped it wouldn't be more than what they told us and to our surprise it wasn't! We had fun but I would say that was the best part of the day, that and seeing our babies when we got back. To briefly describe why it was bad... We got to the airport at 12 pm ish EST, and checked our bags... Found out the flight was delayed an hour... then another hour.... then another 30 minutes... Finally boarded and had to sit in the plane for another 45 minutes as they ran tests and de-iced the plane... finally got off the ground around 8 pm EST... Arrived around 11 pm PST and drove home from LAX to get the dogs... Finally got home around 1 am PST... So to sum it up, we were traveling for 17 hours... We were tired when we got home and spent all day yesterday sleeping, running errands and trying to make sense of our clothes...

We had a great time and are already thinking of when we might be able to go back, we love NYC! Pictures will follow soon!

Wise Words

Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Failures keeps You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing!


And remember: "Whenever God Closes One Door He Always Opens Another , Even Though Sometimes It's Hell in the Hallway"

Live, Laugh, Love!

11 days and counting...

We have been kinda lagging on getting clothes for Jose for New York. Now that it is getting closer and closer we realize, oh crap, he is going to freeze! Not really, he has quite a few flannels and jeans but he needs another coat and would like new shirts and jeans before we go... Goodness...

Other news, Thanksgiving will be pretty quiet this year, compared to last year and I am excited to eat turkey! Other things on the menu:

Chex Mix (old family tradition)
Turkey
Ham (it has become a tradition...)
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Mac N Cheese (weird I know)
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls
Pumpkin Pie (fresh baked, yumm...)
Oreo Pie (for the pumpkin haters, they are crazy!)

I can't wait to make all that this year! It is going to be fun, since I won't have to do it all in bulk for 30 people! Yay :) It's making me hungry just thinking about it... hmmm...

I wish you all a nice holiday and I hope it is fun and relaxing, as they are meant to be!

Live, Laugh, Love