Hey! You're Awesome.

I've been concentrating on my health quite a bit lately and making some changes in my lifestyle.  For instance, I now exercise regularly.  For anyone that knows me well, that's most likely a surprise.
I also continue to learn more about nutrition and eating well.  This is a process for a fast food junkie like myself!
I'm learning alot about who I am and how I work as well.  As it turns out--I'm a planner.  I love planning on Sundays.  Laying out the week and looking at each day and fitting this or that in where I have the most time.
I love thinking about what's happening and scheduling my commitments in the way that most sets me up for success.  Love, love, love.

Additionally, this week I began a course in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  During the first 4 hour session I thought many times that my timing for taking this course is fantastic with all of the things I have been reviewing in trying to make my life and myself as good as I can possibly be.  I learned about changing my paradigm and have had opportunities to practice this at home and at work.  Guess what???  It's working!  I still have to stop and remind myself, but none the less.

I guess where I'm going with all of this is that I'm learning how I can like myself as I am and still be able to see the room for improvement without putting myself down and letting my self talk become negative.  This is a gigantic "non scale victory" for me!  There was a time when I didn't realize my self talk was my self talk.  I did not view things in the context of "I choose".  While introspection can be a dangerous and emotional process, I'm enjoying the outcomes.

I love being home

This last week, Tom (my husband), Toby (our dog), and I took a road trip to Hernando, MS to visit my parents.
I usually take this trip alone, but since Tom is retired now, he came along.
It was a really good visit and I absolutely loved having my two favorite fellas with me!
We cleaned out two garages, washed windows, cleaned off the patio, and generally prepped the homestead for winter.
My relationship with my parents is strained to my mind, and these trips are usually emotionally exhausting and traumatic.  While this visit was no different; I handled it much better than usual because I had the hubs with me for moral support.
I told him I'm never going without him again.  And I meant it!
The funny thing is that each time I go there, I can see myself living there.  Until I get home.  I also have a renewed sense of belonging and ambition when I arrive home.
It's the first time to get back in my bed.  The first walk in the door to familiar sounds and smells that are so familiar.  The first drive down the neighborhood streets.
Just like Dorothy says:  There's no place like home!

I've gotten old enough to remember

Last night I watched the movie "Argo".  It was interesting.  I was about 11 years old when the hostage crisis was going on. 
I remember seeing the footage from Tehran on the TV and asking my dad about it. 
I remember him trying to explain to me why terrorists would take hostages or burn the American Flag, or blindfold their prisoners, etc.
This was a turning point in my life as I recall.
It's when I stopped watching the news every night with my dad.
It's when I first realized there was an entire world other than America and that other countries were extremely different.
It's when I became fascinated with soldier"y", spy"y", secret mission"y" type books and movies.
Earlier today when I was having my weekly phone call with my mom, I mentioned that I had watched the movie.
For some reason, I was expecting it to be as momentous an occasion in her life as it was mine.  Not so.
I guess when you live through Vietnam, Korea, JFK, so on, so on, so on, the hostage crisis was just another drop in the bucket of uckiness that happens in the world.
Interesting the way memories work.  Interesting the triggers our brains make to take us back in time to feel as though we're right there in the midst of it again.