What the....

So, Paulo and I have been trying to do something outside the normal 'go to the store, get a movie at the Redbox, come home and go to bed' date nights. Last night we went on a walk up in Bountiful around the temple. Tonight, we broke out the crayons, markers, and coloring pages. Sounds funny, but you would be amazed at how wonderfully therapeutic coloring is. I bet if you took my blood pressure and heart rate while I was coloring, it probably was the lowest it's been in a LONG time tonight. We put the ipod on shuffle and sat for about 2 hours making our creations.

Here's one of the pages I colored:

And here's the one that Paulo colored:

So the question, now, is this: Should I call this "creativity," or should I call a therapist? :)
My miracle today was this simple childhood activity and the great effect it had on both of us. I think sometimes I expect too much of whatever can help me bring things back down to normal.

Clusters of Crocus

I planted crocus bulbs in my front yard about 5 years ago and every year they come popping up around this time. I can see them from my front window, and they make me happy every time! At the same time, however, I always want to yell to the tiny, delicate flowers "Hold on! Springtime isn't here yet!" Because, no matter how hard they try to wait until Springtime is actually here, they always bloom, and then get snowed on. Last week, these two little gems were covered in snow. Today, while the sun shines, they are soaking up the rays and loving it!
I've got other gems coming out around the yard too- tulips, irises, and daffodils are the ones that I know about. I'm really excited to work in the yard this year and make it a pretty one again! Last summer was really busy so I totally neglected it.
Yardwork- making things grow and bloom- it's my summertime miracle!!!

Return To The Heart

I reunited with an old friend today. I've known this friend longer than I've known anyone but my family. Unlike other friends, this friend has moved from city to city, and state to state with me. As I approached my old friend today I felt a little guilty because I hadn't spent much time with my friend for a very long time. Time together was well over due.

I started playing the piano when I was 8 years old. I took lessons from a lady in our ward, and HATED it. I can't remember how long I lasted, but it wasn't much longer than 6 or 8 months. I stopped taking lessons until I was about 12 years old, when my younger brother who had been taking lessons decided piano wasn't for him. It makes me sad that I can't remember my piano teacher's name at this point, but I will never forget our lessons together. Playing the piano quickly became not only a hobby or skill that I was developing: it quickly became a passion. I loved sitting down at the piano and playing for hours sometimes. I would play for so long sometimes that I didn't realize how long I had played until my hands literally started cramping up. When we moved to Puerto Rico, the main thing that broke my heart was that I wouldn't be able to take piano lessons any more. But, I didn't let that stop me. The piano was in my bedroom, and I continued to practice and develop as a player. We moved here to Utah and I started taking lessons again, and did until I graduated High School. I loved it so much! Went off to college and kept playing. Came back from school and nothing changed- I loved playing the piano, and it was when I was sitting in front of the piano that I would relax and unwind. When I went on my mission I was able to share my talent and teach other people how to play. I came home and bought my home, and the piano came with me of course! It was actually the first piece of furniture that I put into my home. I love my piano. Even though it's a little out of tune, and every time I play it I seem to find a new key that sticks, it's mine. An old friend who I could never get rid of.

Today I sat down at the piano as a test for myself. I wanted to see if the one thing that I know makes me feel happy and peaceful inside would still do it. So I sat down and started playing one of my favorite songs by David Lanz, "Return to the Heart" I played it over and over and over. It was beautiful. I felt happy, calm, complete and relieved that I could still find peace and calm in something.

My miracle today was music. And it wasn't a small one. Music, along with a few other things like family and friends, will keep me safe and secure in a life full of insecurity and doubt.

Patience

I'm not even lying when I say he sat frozen in this position, looking at the behind-neighbor dogs, for 15 minutes.

Which got me thinking about patience. I used to think I was a pretty patient person. HONESTLY- I did! But then I had a few experiences that held the mirror right in front of me and helped me see that my bucket of patience wasn't as overflowing, or even as full (or empty? depends on how you look at it I guess) as I nearly imagined. I'm trying to take advantage of the experiences that I am blessed with to develop more attributes that help prepare me for future roles and responsibilities. Unfortunately for me, PATIENCE seems to be one of those that constantly eludes me. But I will keep on trying.

I have missed the last 3 days for posts, and I know it. I purposely didn't do anything on the computer on Tuesday, since it was our Anniversary. We had a lovely dinner out and just relaxed at home. It was nothing like the day we got married. Even though that day was so much fun, it was exausting. Wednesday was a stressfull day at work with lots of anxiety levels high. I tend to feel other people's emotions, especially when they're really strong, so it gave me a headache. Thursday night was..... can't remember what happened Thursday. Oh yeah- I was putting together a book for my work (which, consequently, has landed me some extra spending cash- that story in a post yet to come). Yesterday night we worked on making more of the books (the extra spending cash came from people literally BUYING my book of notes from me, even though I offered to just email them the file) and here we are at Saturday. My hair is fabulous again, Paulo is just about to get off of work, and I haven't done ANYTHING as far as house work goes. I'm really thinking I need to strike it rich so I can have a personal assistant that I can call and have do my stuff, like blog, email, etc. Until then I guess I'll just have to dig in and get it done. Oh well.
Tomorrow brings the start of my new adventure...... and if you can't tell by my smile in this picture, I'm pretty excited about it.

just in case you were wondering....

I'm not perfect. I know, I know- that comes as a shock to most of you, but I'm not. And so I figured I would miss the last 3 days of entries to prove it to you.

The weekend went by so fast that I hardly even had time to think about how I hadn't blogged each day. It was good though- I got to relax and clean on Saturday, then go out with the hubby. Sunday was full of 11 year olds that think they're too cool for Primary any more, and then a delicious dinner at Mama and Daddy's. It's always so fun to go and visit with them.

Today was a frustrating day in training for the new job, but not because I wasn't understanding things. The technology wasn't loving us so much today, so most of the day was spent by sitting around while some IT guy was trying his best to figure out why our systems weren't running the way they were. It reminded me of the good old days with the suckers at Zions when we would spend anywhere from 30 minutes to on one occasion about 11 hours trying to fix things that had mysteriously broken. I'm so grateful to not be there any more. In just in the 2 weeks that I have been with my new job, I have made more friends than I did in almost 2 years at Zions. I guess IT people and I were never meant to be.....

I'm looking out my kitchen window and remembering one of the reasons I love this time of day. Not just because I'm home and get to spend the rest of the night with my best friend and man's best friend, but also because we can be witness to some of the most amazing sunsets from our back deck. My Miracle today is sunlight. All it takes is a little bit to get me feeling happy again.

Thursday

I passed! Got my test results for my first 2 weeks of training and I have passed! I'm officially not getting walked out to my car for not learning my new job quickly enough!!!! IT'S A MIRACLE!!!

Not that I really thought that I would fail, but after my humbling experience last year with Zions, you never can be too sure...

free advertising

The internet, thanks to Al Gore, has changed how everything works these days. Information is available at lightning speeds, people who went to nursery school suddenly reconnect after a lifetime of no contact, and now know EVERYTHING about each other- the credibility of a business is widely based on their 'web presence'- it is truly Big Brother out there watching us and keeping his hand on us! (ok- enough conspiracy theorizing, etc)

I ran across a post on my friend's blog today- a posting about a contest for free stuff that a company is giving away- if you will just advertise it on your BLOG, Facebook, etc. It's amazing how the internet is now getting companies (big and small) free advertising, just by creating a buzz about something, nothing, or everything.

What I'm trying to say, is that even though I think I've used it before (did I set any non-repeat rules or clauses at the beginning of this thing?)- technology and the advances we have seen even in the last 10 years alone is my miracle today.

I remember working at Marriott as a reservation agent about 13 or 14 years ago, and having a customer call asking for help because they were trying to book "online." I helped her all I could, and when I hung up I leaned over to my friend and said "can you believe they're LETTING CUSTOMERS book online!?!?!?!?" It seemed like a surefire way to put yourself out of business at the time, but now it's a one way ticket to the soup line if your customers CAN'T book or access your services online. Crizzzayzeee if you ask me.

So, since I have no shame, and love free stuff too, here's the site that's giving away cute stuff for little girls' hair:

http://katelynandco.com/blog/