Expect The Unexpected: April 2011

I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to other or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am Me, and I am Okay.

~ Virginia Satir
American psychologist and educator, 1916-1988

Save the Whales

I found these among some pictures of my inlaws. I didn't even know they existed. For any of you interested in knowing what it looks like during the final stages of pregnancy with twins, this is it. WOW...I was REALLY big....Enjoy

What just happened?

Never a dull moment in this house of mine. Just last week I caught the 3 little ones out the upstairs window on the roof. Yeah! I guess they were practicing the fire drill? It scares me to think what might have and could have happened had I not gotten up there when I did. They had only been up there a couple of minutes before I ventured up to check. I was telling this story to some friends of mine from Arkansas and their oldest (age 15) asked, "Who was watching them?" After some chuckling I answered. "I was." Even when you watch them, there is always a moment they find to do something totally unexpected.
I always thought I wanted an older 2-story house like the one we are living in now. Wrong. Unless of course I didn't have children. Ok, maybe not even then. I have begun to dread climbing the stairs to check on little ones, get kids up in the morning, clean and ensure my youngest haven't ventured outside. We have found a place in the country that should do the trick. No more 2-story climbing on the roof. If they fall out a window, they'll survive. Guaranteed. While I dread moving again, I embrace the idea of safety. Safety for my children, my sanity and my household in general.

A girl can dream...

I have always wanted to find out where these are located. I used to tell myself as a kid I must be related, since it's not a common name (at least where I'm from). I even have a tin my mother gave me from a Morrow's Nut House. My ultimate favorite possession. Yeah, I'm a little strange that way.