I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so avante garde on my patio.


Instead I spend my time indulging in the things I want, enjoying the mess and loving my trinkets that help make my home a fun special place for me to enjoy! 


What things do you do to pamper yourself? 

Life Lessons

Life Lessons 

You can't trust dogs to watch your food.

Reading what people write can teach you a lot.

Observing peoples actions can teach you a lot about them

Being right does not always mean being happy!

under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved

opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss

the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never saying a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had

And this is how it all started..........

As 2011 came to a close I was so happy because I had dealt with so many issues during the year. Was I kidding myself? Let's see what kind of start the New Year has gotten off to:

The first couple of weeks weren't too bad and I actually enjoyed them, taking a short trip the 1st weekend with NaKoda for no reason and then snuggling up during the 2nd week when the weather was cold and reading but then the 3rd week hit and it seemed all hell has started to break free and it's just pouring down on me!

Prior to the end of December after some rain I had pulled my lawn mower out to mow the lawn. In the middle of mowing my yard it just stops. No warning, no reason, just stopped. With Christmas approaching and the possibility of people being at my house I wanted the yard to look nice so after tinkering with the mower and not being able to figure out what was wrong with it, I sucked it up and broke out the weed eater and did the entire yard with the weed eater. Well now here we are about a month later and due to moisture and rain my grass is now about 2 ft tall again in the back and in desperate need of a mowing. Instead of pulling the trusty weed eater out again and the mower still not wanting to start I decide to hire someone to do it. Of course they can't get here until next week so I have to deal with it until next Wednesday.

In the meantime.......................

Friday morning  my new tenant calls me and let's me know there is a leak in the yard at the rent house! Yippie! More repairs on the rent house, because new sub-floors, floor covering, and a new roof was just not enough work and boy do I love dishing out money for things I can't enjoy! Nothing like going hungry for a few weeks to help me meet my weight loss goals!

Sunday night after spending the entire day relaxing and finishing a book I had been reading around 9:30pm I suddenly hear the rushing sound of water. Where could this be coming from? The washer, dishwasher, shower/bath are all off. I am not watering anything outside??? Where is that sound coming from? It sounds like it's in my closet? Why would it sound like that? There's no water in the closet?  Of course a pipe under the house has busted & water is just flowing under my house. So in the dark of night I turn off the water, call a plumber to try and get them here because my water is now off. The plumber tells me he can't get there till Tuesday so I turn the water back on and fill up jugs to get me through till Tuesday thinking that will be enough for Sunday night and all of Monday. After all, how much water can one woman and a Rottweiler possibly use in a given day? Well let me tell you, more than you think and it's mainly the toilet!  Monday night by 5pm I was already down to 1 bottle of water and a friend has to bring me a giant container of water to get me through the night and morning.

Of course in the middle of all the plumbing issues it's raining again but luckily it held off until Tuesday afternoon after the plumbers had already left but my yard now is already overgrown and the guys I have hired to come mow now won't be able to come and as I sit here typing this I am hoping the sun and wind was enough for the grass to dry out for them to come tomorrow! At least I will have a pretty yard to sit and contemplate all the possibilities for February! Lord knows I won't have any money to do anything else for awhile!

I swear if I didn't hit the gym 3-5 times a week my community might have a seriously aggressive and violent woman on their hands!

With all this happening just in the first month of the year there better be something ridiculously amazing waiting ahead for me! Now, with all my work done for the week, my weekly blog written & a filthy house needing cleaning, bills needing paying, & a 130lb rottie wanting to play I am off to hit the bottle of wine I have had chilling in my refrigerator all day!

Dating after 35

You have done the bar scene, you have done the online thing, your friends have set you up with men that have made you think, "what about him made you think he was perfect for me?", and still for some reason you are single.

Have all the good single men fallen off the face of the earth?

I read a line in an article the other day that said, "If you continually meet men who only talk about themselves, only call late in the evenings, are terminally cheap, who do not seem to know what honesty means, then there's a problem." Well, of course there's a problem I didn't need someone to tell me that!

My question is where do you meet them? Where are all those single guys over 30 at? You know they are out there but where? If you live in a small town the frustration you experience grows even more because there is honestly not that many places for them to be hiding. Are they all sitting at home too?

Life Lessons .........continued

Being an adult can be fun when you are acting like a child.

Bullshit might get you to the top, but it wont keep you there.

Love has nothing to do with looks, but everything to do with time, trust, and interest.

when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

Laughing, crying, joy and anger… All are a vital.  All make us human.

The greatest truths in life are uncovered with simple, steady awareness.

Greed will bury even the lucky eventually.

Can Single People and Married People Be Friends?

One thing I have noticed in the past few years is that not only has my dating life taken a downward spiral but my overall social life seems to be in a never ending slump too. With each passing week I feel like I am growing further and further apart from my friends and loved ones. Is it because I am so socially retarded or is it because all my friends and loved ones are married? 


No one ever wants to be the last single friend. I use to have nightmarish visions of growing old alone but now those nightmares have turned into visions of being the eternal "3rd wheel".  Then a new situation happened that I never even thought about. The babies started coming. As the years went by I was excited for all my friends who were starting their new families. Many had already started their families while I was married. Even more began after though. 


It doesn't bother me that my "parent" friends can't go out every weekend anymore, because frankly I am not into the bar scene any longer, when I do have the occasional date I can always go see a movie and more often I can go to the movies by myself (which I often do). I am actually pretty happy to go over to their houses, have a couple of drinks (or not) and play with their kids! The discussions of breast feeding, developmental disorders, how smart their kid is, and who put what up their noses, soccer games, baseball games, etc. I have totally immersed myself in as any good friend would do. 


However, while this all seems to work in theory I still could help but feel something was off and the friendships were changing. While I could relate to their daily lives it seems as my "married friends" couldn't relate to my life any longer. One would think that the "married friends" would want their "single friend" to find true love and happiness in a relationship too, but do they ever ask?  Sometimes it appeared that if a situation didn't have to do with being a parent or a spouse it didn't even register on their brain.  


This just doesn't seem to make sense to me. While I am the divorced/single person who has never had kids, I seem to be able to find ways to fit into my "married friends" world but now that they are married they can't seem to remember what it is like to be single. Much less single and over 30.  My "married friends" all apologize to for being so boring. Like watching a movie on their couch is any different than what I would be doing if I weren't there with them. 


When you are single and the weekend or time off approaches you think about spending time with your friends - married or not. It seems that when you are single and all your friends are married you are always the one doing the inviting. I guess when you have a partner you don't sit around on a Saturday night saying, "hey honey let's invite NaKoda over to watch a movie".  


Dating has even become a substitute for having to invite myself to spend time with my friends. It's not always the easiest or most comfortable thing to invite yourself over to someones house, but 9 out of 10 times if I am going to spend time with my friends that's how it has to be.  


Sometimes I wonder if my "married friends" ever put themselves in my shoes. With the high divorce rates or even natural life events could easily put my "married friends" back into my shoes. I just think if I can sit and listen to their incessant complaints about how big a slob their husbands are, how lazy their husband's are, or redecorating the kids rooms, they can definitely find a level to relate to me on. Hell, we all have jobs, ask me about my work. I have a family. Ask me about my nieces, my mom, my sister. Anything! I may be single but there is a lot more to me than my current marital status....even if my "married friends" don't seem to realize it! 

Random Questions

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, and loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly, but can't I have all these things and my friends? 

Making Time For Others.......

Sometimes I feel like I am always the person making the effort.

When I lived away from "old" friends and family I always was the one who made the effort to come and visit. This is not to say that no one ever made the effort to come see me, but the majority of the time the responsibility of maintain the relationship seemed to be on my shoulders.

Now that I have moved back home it still seems like I am the person making the effort.  I always have to be the one going to other people's houses, I get texts or calls saying "let's do something" but then "something" never seems to materialize. I get calls when it's convenient for the other person but it feels like in between those times (sometimes months on end) no one seems to be interested in how I am doing.

Once I had a person who hadn't contacted me in months call and want me to drop what I was doing that day to come spend the day with them.  When I told this person they should have given me some notice because I had things I had to accomplish that particular day they said to me, "well you don't do anything, you can do that later and come with me now". I was so offended by this comment. How does this person know what I do? I run my own business, I volunteer, at the time I was working on my rent house and my own home and I do have other people in my life.  What makes this person think I should drop everything I am doing and run to them, just because they are ready to spend time with me? Where were they the 6 months prior to this call?

I guess it just bothers me that I don't seem to be important to many of the people in my life. Sometimes it feels like people in my life truly do not realize how their actions effect the person on the receiving end.

Managing Rental Property

 Advertise vacant property for rent
 Show available property for rent and interview prospective tenants.
 Screen candidates for your rental property by requiring written applications with credit and employment references.
 Evaluate prospective tenants by investigating their backgrounds, credit histories, personal references and employment histories.
 Obtain liability, fire, theft and other insurance on rental property
 Arrange for regular maintenance and necessary repairs of the property.
 Assure that tenants comply with rental policies and procedures.
 Supervise repairs and maintenance work.
 Conduct inspections of the property on a periodic basis.
 Establish and maintain an organized system of collecting rental payments and security deposits.

Things I have learned from my dog

If you stare at someone long enough, eventually you'll get what you want.
Leave room in your schedule for a good nap.
If I like it, it's mine.
I will not roll around in the dirt right after just getting a bath.
More meatballs, less spaghetti, please.
Always run to greet loved ones when they come home.

Never pass the opportunity to go for a joy ride.

Recognize the ecstasy of fresh air and wind in your face.
Stretch before rising.

Run, romp and play daily.

Thrive on attention (I do that) and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, lie on your back in the grass. On hot days, drink lots of water and find the shade.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Enjoy long walks.

Be loyal. 

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want is buried, dig deep until you find it.

And, when someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.