O Holy Night!

Our blessed Lord and Savior was born on the holiest night of all! It's so wonderful to remember this event, even if it wasn't "exactly" on 12/25. It's the symbolism and the tradition of what Christmas really means. The Christ child born to teach, lead and then sacrifice his humanity for our souls. Thank you Holy God!!

As we embark on this, the holiest holiday, I pray for peace, love and joy in all of your lives. I hope your celebrations are the most wonderful this year of all! Family & Friends are the MOST important part of this holiday, presents are just a nice addition. Of course, don't tell the kids that, they'll think you're nuts!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

"...And in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make."
---The Beatles

Thanks for reading my Heavenly Thoughts

planning a WEDDING

August 17th! We're getting married - finally, after 3 (really 33) long years!! Hawaiian theme wedding - shorts, casual :) It's gonna be "dog days" of summer in Ohio! Gotta make us comfy! Main idea: get married, enjoy ourselves, and have the best day of our lives! More details later as plans come together. I'm just so glad to set the date.

"...And in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make."
---The Beatles

Thanks for reading my Heavenly Thoughts

Our Dream

It's great to be in a loving relationship where we share the same dream. The Toltecs describe the Dream as our own reality. We make it what we want - sometimes it's a bad life full of misery and other times it's a wonderful life full of love and happiness. Since LOVE and HAPPINESS come from our hearts, we are responsible for which way our dream is going - good or bad.

Our dream comes with the dream to move back to Ohio, now that he's retired. Since we are both from there, we find it to be just as beautiful as people find California. I have to say, after living here for 2 years, my observations and viewpoints are still from an outsider point of view. I see people working 2 and 3 jobs just to pay for a stucco house and a "designer" car. It is definitely the land of "who can out do their neighbors". Which house has the best landscaping, the best car, the most stuff........Geez! Get a life! Not our dream!

click here http://flickr.com/photos/disposabl/307405848/ to see more from the same photographer!

There was a song, when I was a teenager, by the Monkees (ok, don't laugh) called Pleasant Valley Sunday. They talked about all the track houses that look the same (just like in the pic), people washing their cars, cutting their grass - yes, believe it or not people in California USED TO cut their own grass!!!

I like where we live - compared to other places in No San Diego County. But look how close everyone lives - I can lie in bed at night and hear people coughing and one neighbor who has a smokers cough I hear her gagging all night long, I hear people dial their cordless phones - you know the "beep beep beep" of numbers? Yea, I can hear that. I hear the young mother next door yelling at her kids all day long while her marine husband is on base. No wonder they are sooo happy when dad gets home! I hear kids telling their parents good night. I mean it's ridiculous. It's never 100% quiet and it's never 100% dark here.

But we have our dream - our dream to live in Cincinnati again, to return to the place where our family and friends live. And it can't be soon enough for me. Don't get me wrong, it's been great living here, I love the ocean, the mountains, the weather - but the truth is friends are few and far between, I spend at least 12 hrs /day commuting and working. I wake up at 5am and have to go to bed around 9:30 or 10. It seems all I do is work, so we can just live.

And now that he's retired, he helps me so much. I don't have to do the grocery shopping or laundry or even clean the house. He does it so I can come home and spend time with him, and on the weekends, we can just do what we want to. That is soooooooooooooo nice! He even cooks dinner most nights. He and I are living our dream. It's great.

Our dream includes that hope to move back to the land of our roots. Here's an example of a dream house for us. Big yard, pool, hot tub, lots of green, privacy, no coughing neighbors right outside! I hope it happens soon!

Lessons Learned

Life sends lots of lessons our way. Ideally, we learn from those lessons so we don't have to keep repeating the past. Life's lessons come in all sizes, all degrees. If we learn from these lessons and grow in wisdom, we can mentor and share support with those going through the same lesson. There is no substitute for experience!

'Don't talk to strangers' 'Lock the doors' 'Put on your seat belt' 'Do unto others...' 'Love like there's no tomorrow' 'Get gas before you run out' (hehe!) 'Don't stop at the Bates Hotel' (ok now I'm being silly) 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' 'Follow your instincts about men' 'If you think they are bad, they probably are' 'Don't spoil the kids, dogs' 'You are what you eat' (OY!) and so on!

Those are the little ones, but are important.

Then there are bigger ones - like trusting strangers, watching out who are your friends, watch the circle you keep. Those can start innocent and you think you're having fun, but before you know it you are into drugs and/or something that you can't easily escape. These days people like that don't let you just "leave"; it's hard and you can find yourself trapped or hurt or worse.

It's unfortunate that the world isn't a wholesome, trusting place as it once was. I grew up in a time when innocence was passing and the result is this world today. It's not all bad, don't get me wrong, but it has changed alot since my parents lifetime. There seems to be more crimes, more child abuse, more child predators, more murders, more drugs, more government in our lives, more fear, more caution, more more more.

You can't let your children go play alone, ride bikes all day, run around i nthe woods (well, there's no woods in SoCali), but you get the drift. We used to get up in the morning, walk to school, cut through the woods to get to school, hang out with our friends, play until dark and I don't think my mom knew exactly where I was - she had an idea. Today, you have to know where your kids are, who they are with, you have to drive them everywhere, you can't let them just go out and play. It's terrible.

I want to go back to a simpler time. Live where there's lots of trees, farms, peace, quiet, families and friends. Hope to be going back to Ohio soon..............lesson learned: California is a GREAT place to visit, but Ohio is a WONDERFUL place to live.

If I won the Lottery

What would I do?

First, I would hope for enough money to live on for the rest of my life.

I would pay off all of mybills, quit working, take my honey to another country and get a kidney transplant, buy a house in all climates that I love - big house with a pool in Tucson, Arizona, beachhouse in SoCal, Cincinnati so I could be near my family, cabin in the mountains by Boulder!! Oh my, that would be AWESOME!! Then I would want to buy cars for the kids, my honey and myself. I would want to buy some nice presents for my friends.

Then after that, I would just want to contribute to help others: start a college scholarship fund with competition for women in technology; I think I would volunteer at a battered women's shelter; take in rescue dogs to save them from the gas chamber and find them homes; and travel to visit my friends and my houses!!

Oh yea, I would visit Dr. 90210 and get an assessment for some lifts, tucks, and makeover items. :)

There is one key about the lottery - you have to play to win!! I quit playing after I NEVER won, so all I can do is.....

DREAM! Hey, a girl can dream, can't she??

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin