By the way...

I am back on the workout train this week...today was my 3rd day in a row of working out. Only one word can explain how it is going "OUCH!" It can only get better....

Memorialized forever...

I am going backwards in my blogging this week, but since I haven't blogged in I don't know how long, I think it will be okay. This just couldn't go without recognition...

Usually I dread Mondays, not so much because of work but because usually all of my good intentions of cleaning house, doing laundry, grocery shopping and getting organized for the week to come were pushed aside after recieving a phone call from a friend with a more inviting offer. "It will still be there when I get back" I say to myself. And so it is and I am left starting the week out with a messy house, overflowing laudry baskets, an empty fridge and a disorganized mess sprawled out all over my bedroom.

This Monday was no different, except when I arrived at work, I was greeted by the other half of my brain, aka my sister from another, aka Sue Sue. I noted that there was a bit of a Cheshire Cat grin on her face but just assumed that she had some great story to tell me from her weekend adventures and didn't question it. However, when she asked me to sit down I got a bit worried, knowing that there couldn't be a "15" I flood of concern went through me, but she assured me nothing bad was about to happen. She turned to her computer and opened this up.......



Without warning the flood gates open and the tears flowed....My 4 legged princess memorialized forever in watercolor. What an awesome gift that I will forever cherish...just like her friendship. I am truly a blessed women. Love you Sue-Sue.

The Next Book is about to begin....

Seems like only yesterday I was laying in a hospital bed praying to God not to let me die as I just knew there was no possible way something called "natural child birth" could hurt this much. I was going to die, I knew it, but, I didn't, and this beautiful baby girl was born and my life was never the same again..I would never be the same again. Trust me this was a good thing. This tiny little miracle, I know you was sent straight from heaven to give me a much needed reality check... Everything happens for a reason and this angel that had been handed to me set my life back on track and gave me the strength and drive to do anything. Nothing could stop me for she deserved the best in life and I was going to make sure she had it. And so the Book of life as Tiffany the mother began...

Somewhere around Chapter 5 Brandi started kindgarten...no biggy, she going to school, what's the big deal, I could handle it. Hopefully she didn't see me peaking in the windows of the classroom with my box of Kleenex crying my eyes out. My angel baby was growing up...

The years went by in leaps and bounds and the pages turned faster and faster...the next thing I knew I had a teenager...not just any teenager...a teenage "mini me", head strong, determined free spirit, with a mind of her own that no one I mean no one could tell what to do. She knew it all. About that time my angel baby transformed into something I had seen in the Exorcist. I was pretty sure one of us was not going to make it through these years and the odds were definitely stacked against me. But, like many before me and many to come I survived these rough teenage years and out of the fires grew this beautiful young woman.

Chapter 17 was coming to an end and the next thing I knew she was graduating high school. How could this be happening? Yes, again, just like in kindergarten, (and many times in between I may add) I cried. My baby was not growing up, she had grown up and was now an adult, by legal standards at least, I have my own opinion on that.

On to the next Chapter she went....Cosmetology school.

That brings us to present time...today she told me she is graduating on September 13th and on September 29th she is taking her state board and soon after that and when I say soon I mean weeks, she is moving San Diego to start her own book, The Life of Brandi Howe.

One book ends and another begins....and...once again...I am crying.....I love you my angel baby. Thank you for all you have done for me, I hope I have given you the tools you will need to survive this crazy world we live in. Most importantly, I hope you will look back on your life with a smile and warm heart knowing how loved you are and how proud I am of you.

Spread your wings and fly.....

How can you argue...

My brother just shared with me a conversation he recently had with my 10 year old nephew that I thought I would share. Seems Blake (my nephew) is a bit of a slob, leaves stuff laying around everywhere, wears a good majority of his food, doesn't take care of his stuff, the regular 10 year old boy stuff. Anyhow, my bro was explaining to him how he needs to change his ways if he ever wanted to have a releationship with someone. No one wants to live with a pig. Without hesitation Blake spouts out "Even pigs mate".....where do you go from there?

Television sure has come a long way....can we go back?

After grocery shopping, Jazzercise, cooking dinner, and packing the trailer for our weekend away, I sit down to relax for a minute and decide to turn on the T.V. and flip through the channels. Starting at channel 2, some ridciulous people who think they can dance...NOT, 4 a show that looks like it may have something to do with the military, 5 Criminal Minds, not a bad show about FBI investigators, but I have seen this one, on to 7, I am stuck, I am watching an obvious gay man sitting with an asian baby on his lap while louging outside on a chaise, up walks another gay gentleman who I came to realize was his boyfriend/girlfriend since they were massaging each others legs. I wanted to change the channel but I was mezzerise...In the next 10 minutes, I was introduced to the following scenario's, a teenage girl who went out and got drunk and was puking in her hotel bathroom, and older gentleman who was having relations with a women that could have been his child and lastly the gay couple lost their asian baby in the elevator....so I ask....What happened to the Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver and who decides to put this, excuse me, CRAP on television? I don't get it, no wonder our world is so screwed up :0(

Glass Houses and Mirrors

As I get older and hopefully wiser, I realize that I spend alot more time looking in the proverbial "mirror". Admittedly I have "thrown stones", alot of stones in the past, but I am here tonight to say "I am going to do my best not to anymore".

The other day I was witness to a conversation that deeply disturbed and yes saddened me. A women was speaking of her step child and was saying how her step daughter was getting fatter and fatter everytime she saw her, looking more and more like her mother. The first problem I had with this is that she herself could stand to lose 50 if not more pounds, how can she comment on someone elses weight. The huger (is that a word) issue I had was that 3 days earlier I heard her reading off a shopping list to her other half telling him what to buy for the kids to eat for the next few days that they would be spending with them. The list went like this soda, juice, Hot Pockets, Lunchables, cereal & bag snacks. Hmmm.....what is wrong with this picture??? Veggies, fruits, healthy snacks, water???? Why am I not hearing these words?? You are judging this child yet you are contributing factor to her road to a Biggest Loser contestant. How dare you? ....look in the mirror...you have no room to talk and until you are taking care of your own "weight issues" and helping that child on a road to eating healthy and and making healthy choices...you need to shut the bleepity bleep up!

It's so easy to judge other people, but unless our "houses" are spotless I suggest we "look in that mirror"...and look in it often...I know I will be.

To all those people whom I threw stones...I am truly sorry, I will be taking extreme care of my glass house in the future.

On a side note...Koli you are the Biggest Loser...CONGRATS my fellow Rohnert Parkian.

I vote to do away with the word "don't"....

Why is it when someone tells you "don't" do something you have this overwhelming desire to do it 100 times over even if you have never done it before.

Don't look in the closet, your presents are in there. REALLY, now all I can think about is looking in the closet.

Don't use the toliet it's broken. Are you kidding me, did you have to mention it, I would have been fine if I didn't know, but now my tonsils are instantly floating and I feel like my bladder is going to explode.

Your cholesterol is high so "don't" eat fried fatty foods....Where's the closest In-n-Out burger? I need a double cheeseburger animal style with a french fries and a chocolate shake.

Don't scratch that mosquito bite, you'll make it worse...gee thanks for that it didn't itch until you said it and now I want to scratch my arm off.

Don't be late. Well I hadn't planned on it but now that you felt the need to poison my mind with your "don't-ease" I think I just might have to make you suffer, 5...10...or maybe even 15 minutes.

There are so many more....

Just to give you a little background to this rant, last Monday in my exercise class I pulled something in my calf, at least that is what I thought. I've gone about life this last week, in pain, surprised every day by the new colors that our appearing not only on my calf but my ankle,foot and entire leg below the knee. (I've included a pic so you can see the beauty of it...lol...trust me the pic does not do it justice)

Unfortunately, it wasn't getting better in what I thought was an acceptable time frame so at a friends recommendation I went to a chiropractor who specializes in sports injuries. Much to my dismay I found out that what I thought was a pulled muscle was actually a tear...No bueno....after 45 minutes of "therapy" she tells me, "Whatever you do DON'T stretch the muscle" Easy for you to say lady, I would like all of you to try to go about your every day not stretching your calf muscle. It is in no uncertain terms impossible. Just about every move you make somehow stretches tht muscle. I will do my best but just know I won't be successful. If only you didn't use that word?

So....all that said, my proposal is to do a way with the word "don't". Suggestions welcome.....