there will be tears.....

tomorrow our sweet girl leaves for australia and there will be tears, lots of them, but first i have to  share the yucky faces created when many of us decided to try her vegemite. the family she'll be working for sent her a wonderful care package last week, and personally i gravitated towards the boomerang when i read "yeast extract" as to what vegemite actually is...so with family and friends gathering for one last good-bye on sunday, we decided we just had to give it a try. no toast, no crackers, just fingers with globs of vegemite. believe me, toast would not have made it taste better.

only a few of us were brave enough to try this australian spread and well, let's just say, it was awful. i tried it, but since i was taking the photos, there isn't a photo of my face. let's just say it's safe to say that it was very familiar to those below.

her friend getting ready

her friend done and now reaching for her bottled water

now my mom doesn't seem to be too phased based on this photo, but i did hear her say, yuck.

my little sister really knows how to sum up what vegemite tastes like.

our son's girlfriend was grossed out, but laughed throughout the taste test.

my nephew...well he had his water ready and instantly tired to remove the taste from his tongue.

guess what, it's not that easy...but chocolate chip cookies remove the taste :)

our daughter, "brave brave girl, i'm going to australia, i can eat vegemite" hated it, too.

~~

i think it's safe to say that we need to send peanut butter, almond butter and nutella in the first care package that leaves our house.

thoughts for the weekend.....

stephen r. covey

~~

the words above speak the truth. unfortunately for too many of us.

have i shared this tumblr site...or possibly this one? it's impossible for me to keep track and these are two of the newest ones that i've added to my "reading bar" on my mac. i think maybe though i need a disclosure or something when it comes to the tumblr sites that i share here, since at any given time, there could be naked or very provocative photos shown on them. just saying. it's how tumblr works.

i'm in the middle of writing a poem and i'm loving it. it's filled with words like fire, flame, soul, speechless and breathing and i'd love to share it when it's done, but why do i feel that no matter how i write a poem, especially one that lives in my heart, it's too personal to share?

tell me...what do you think of "web journaling" vs "blogging?"

if you come here regularly you know i've been sharing bits of "this i know" for susannah conway's august break, so here we go.....

excerpt #3 

"it was during a writing marathon one afternoon that it occurred to me that my thoughts were sabotaging my life, that i was so invested in them being The Truth there was no room for anything else."

something you probably don't know about me.....

i like weird art

at a recent art show, this {i refer to her as "she"} jumped out at me and into my arms

my hubby said "happy birthday" and i smiled all the way home. 

we've been happy ever since.

~~

art is subjective, so to those of you who are totally grossed out by my newest love, i totally understand...my family was, too. granted, she's grown on them a bit, now that's she unpacked her bags and has a seat at the table. secretly though, they'd never admit it if you asked them and they still walk by her and act as if she's the scariest thing they've ever seen, but deep down, they love my strange art just as much as they love me and all my other little quirks. i know they do.

oh and yes, her eye sockets are empty in case you were wondering. come on people, it's weird lovable art. eyeballs would have made her so normal. 

something else you probably didn't know about me.....i can be a smart ass.

play a game with me?

today is my 49th birthday and i'd love it if you played a game with me.

{please}

~~

since we're all spread out, touching so many corners of the world, real birthday games like pin the tail on the donkey and swinging at a pinata just won't work. so instead, will you shower me with your words in this "fill in the blank" game?

all i know for sure, after all these years of living, is                                                 .

honestly, i had a hard time coming up with words myself and i hit delete way too many times, but this is what i finally ended up with. "all i know for sure, after all these years of living, is that my hubby and our kids comes first, no matter what and as long as you love and i mean love big, really really big, with every ounce of your heart to the point where you can barely breathe, you will have everything you've ever dreamed of. oh, and make out with your spouse often. it's such a gift.

just one of you.....

i don't know how days literally just disappear the way they have been lately, but it's kind of blowing my mind. seriously, i think if i ran into you at the grocery store, you'd be like, "whoa, mind blown freak. get to another aisle quickly."

i'm been a lousy blogger this summer and even worse when it comes to reading and commenting on other blogs. if you feel left out, i'm sorry. please know it's all me and has nothing to do with you.

august break has diagonals for the "daily prompt." sorry, i'm not playing today. i just don't feel it. what i do feel like doing though, is sharing another excerpt from susannah's book, "this i know" and my sunflower photo. am i nuts for turning it black and white? it's okay, you can tell me the truth.

excerpt #2

"I want to walk along the middle road, between vanity and not caring; I want to be seen and loved by the person i need it from most. To look in the mirror and smile at an ally i can always count on, the girl who overcame her fuckups and fears, the woman who has seen things she'll never forget."

"I am original. Unique. And everyday i will do my best to remember this and graciously accept the extraordinary me-ness that is not ego or arrogance, but a gentle and humble recognition of the fact that there is only one of me. JUST LIKE THERE IS ONLY ONE OF YOU."

a few days behind, with susannah.....

i'm playing along with susannah and her august break again this year, mostly because i adore her and her lack of rules. the "break" basically means you can do whatever you want to do, however you want to do it, but if you want to play along and need some basic prompting, she has that, too. yesterday and today her prompts were, "yellow and love" and since i love these yellow flowers, well, enough said.

have you read her book, "this i know." i've read it twice now and i have to tell you, GO BUY IT. the second time i read it, i put paragraphs i loved in parenthesis, took words {that i wanted to hold in my hands like a smooth rock rubbing them over and over again} and circled them and then starred sentences that sank down deep inside of me that i knew i'd have to come back and read again, slowly.

so as part of her august break, i'm going to share with you little bits of her book. she doesn't know yet that i'm doing this, but she'll find out, as she's so extremely clever...and if you don't fall in love with her, want her book and then then think, wow, i'd love to have dinner with this person...well, let's just say all of that is going to happen!!

so here's excerpt one:

"i believe we are all artists at our core, all of us endlessly creative, using our lives as canvases, our imaginations as tools. children are born artists, seeing the potential in every cardboard box and dried leaf, remaking their world as fast as they discover it. we don't lose that innate creativity, but many of us repress it, weighed down by all the grown-up responsibility adulthood brings. but with a camera, a pencil, a ball of yarn, we can make something out of nothing; dinner served with a flourish, a bed made with vintage linens, a garden border planted with tulips. we simply need to open our eyes and put some thought into the details. we are the curators of our lives-we decide what they look like."

just in time.....

how did august get here so quickly? seriously, is anyone else feeling like they blinked and july just disappeared? i feel like i got here just in time to throw out the welcome mat for august.

august is my birthday month and yup, that makes me a leo. i love astrology, but honestly, not everything they write about "a leo" fits me. have you ever taken the time to read "who you are" astrologically wise and found it to be filled with a few, "whoa, that's not me?"

now granted, they have the impatient part right and i know i'm extremely loyal to a fault, but arrogant and dominating...no way. i've also read that supposedly "we don't share well with others"...huh, are you kidding me. i always share. okay fine, i have been known to actually lick the last cookie that's left in order to stop anyone else from eating it...but, whatever. {seriously though, i love to share.}

oh, and if i read one more time that "we" are hugely opinionated, i'll scream. sure if you ask for my opinion regarding anything, i'll be totally honest with you, but otherwise, i am fifty shades of grey. do i enjoy debating a bit about certain issues? sure, who doesn't...but is my way {or my thoughts} the only way...nope, not at all.

so hello august. i've been waiting for you.