Another Email Post: TWO WOLVES

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied,
"The one you feed."

I love a good joke...

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The florist was pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I can not accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

Advice for a Teenage Daughter

I came across this today...I really liked it & wanted to share...

Advice for a Teenage Daughter I Will Never Have

Even if you have just been shot with a tranquilizer dart for elephants, don't sleep in your makeup. Or contact lenses.

What separates a professional eyebrow arch from the amateurs is scissor-trimming. This is the least important item on this list, but It took me 38 years to find out, and I have to pass it onto somebody.

Wear the bikini every chance you can, and use the sunscreen.

Every year you can possibly delay having sex will ultimately make sex that much better. Think of it as the difference between spending every allowance on cheap shoes that don't last, or saving up for some really fabulous Jimmy Choos. Not that you have to go without even touching a pair of shoes in the meantime. Or marry your first pair of Jimmy Choos. Don't tell your mom I said that.

As long as you are in your teens, avoid dating anyone more than three years older than you. At your age, a romantic relationship with an older man is actually neither romantic or a relationship.
You look ugly when you gossip.

Throwing up drunk is not a good look for you.

Save this for later: the person you are now is not the way you behaved then.

Someday, a girl who is horrible to you now will request to be your Facebook friend. And though your cursor will linger a long and delicious moment above the "ignore" button, you will click on "accept" instead, and know that you have grown up.

Go to your prom. Wear the corsage. Stand under the arch. Get the pictures. Really.

Don't waste youth and resiliency. Have adventures. It will never be more appropriate for you to be inappropriate, and society will never be more forgiving. But avoid risks that will narrow your future. Skinny-dipping: yes. Filmed skinny-dipping: no.

Most importantly, hang around for womanhood. I promise, the best is yet to come.

If you liked it as much as I did, jump over to Kyran's blog and tell her!

It's the little things that annoy me...

Okay, so I just need to let.it.go. I know, I know, get on with it. Don't let it get to me. Well, isn't that what a journal is for? Write about it & then get over it. So I'll share it with you...the blog that no one is reading (LOL...I'm laughing alone here, I know).

So today I receive in the mail a membership drive packet for an association for which I am a member. Not only that, I serve on the board. Not only that, I designed some of the original documents for last year's drive. The printing looks great. The color is good. The concept works. The design is screwy.

Okay, so I'm a stickler for detail...I'm picky about layout & design...alright, I'll admit it, I'm anal (that always looks so much worse in print than it does when you say it out loud).

You see, my eye is automatically drawn to typos (not my own of course) and layout flow. So on the very first page I see a bulleted list that isn't set correctly. Okay, so I designed this thing in the latest MS Word (.docx) and the new person needed old Word (.doc). So someone did a save-as for them (I knew it shoulda been me!) and they obviously didn't know how to format bullets.

Okay, breathe Shelly, it's okay, no big deal, let.it.go.

Next page, whew, not one of mine. Oh ick! It's a survey page and they used spaces instead of tabs to line things up, oh ick, they put the answer lines at the END of the sentences! Okay, visual needed here...imagine this...

Survey question number one.      _ _ _ _ _
Survey question number is longer.       _ _ _ _ _
Question for the survey.                _ _ _ _ _

Well, you get the picture. And why put them at the end? Never mind that they used some weird dotted line thingie - why not put them at the beginning of each sentence? ugh.

Okay, last "marketing" page is the application. This one WAS mine (& by "was" I mean it no longer is because someone else made changes to it). All of my check boxes were changed to some weird character (that I later learn is a Euro money symbol). So rather than checking the boxes for your interests, or for your payment choices, etc., you're supposed to what, circle your choice?

Oh the horror of layout and design!

Okay, I'm feeling much better now. Thank you for listening...er reading...er, who am I kidding, I'm alone out here! Well, if it weren't for the whole Facebook thingie, my blog would never get read...so thanks to all my FB peeps....but if you feel compelled to leave a comment, please click on the "View Original Post" link & put it on my blog. It would make me feel more loved. I'm just kidding folks! No really, I'm serious......Okay, I really need a fresh cup of tea now.

How will they improve it

I've been condition to believe medicine won't make me well unless it tastes nasty. My kids enjoy tasty medicine.

We looked forward to days off of school so we could do nothing. My kids want to know what I'm going to do to entertain them.

McDonalds was a once a month treat, my kids don't understand why I refuse to only let them eat that once a week at the most (and we didn't get happy meals either!).

So many things that as kids we wished we had, so when we grew up we made it happen for our kids. What will they improve? What else did we improve?

And yes, I did walk a mile in the snow to school, up-hill, both ways...with plastic breadbags for boots! ;-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sometimes it is the destination

I got an iPhone for Christmas and all thru the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (because we set traps).

The stockings weren't hung, because we couldn't find the drill, and for our trip to Texas we packed in a hurry because its a thrill (well, not really, I'm making a rhyme).

With my husband and children all bundled into the car, we started off for a long ride afar. We left at 20:50 which was way later than planned, but were excited to get started and at work had been slammed.

But what should my eyes see from above? A whole lot of rain, ice & snow in a blizzard coming down on our car (hmm, no rhyme there!).

With cars in ditches and trucks jack-knifed, we made our way thru the treachorus night (it was mostly during the day by then, really).

With many delays and blinding white outs, we pushed ahead until it was again lights out.

So much for our 18 hour drive, it turns out we're in for a record breaking 25 (okay, so it was really 23 but I'm rhyming here!).

But finally after those long hours on the road, ready to strangle my family from head to toe, we arrived safely in Clyde, Texas, grateful to arrive in one piece and ready to say, Merry Christmas to all and someone get me a drink!

Gift Idea: Journal in a Jar

I came across this idea from an email newsletter I subscribe to and thought it was a great idea.

You've seen, I'm sure, stuff-in-a-jar kind of gifts (cookie mix in a jar, jams in a jar, etc), there's even a booklet from the same source I got this idea detailing loads of idea. Well, the premise of this one is to give someone a journal with a nice pen and a jar filled with ideas on what to write.

For a little kid, there would be things like "Draw a picture of your favorite pet or animal. Draw a picture of your favorite thing to do in the summertime. Draw a picture of your favorite place to go."

For an older child or teen the prompts could be more like: "Tell about your favorite pet–-what kind of animal is it? When did you get him/her? Tell about your hardest day at school. What is your favorite band? Why do you like them?"

There's even ones for adults: "Why was your name chosen for you? What was happening in the world when you were born? What is your earliest memory of home?"

Then the piece of paper would taped/pasted onto a journal page and let the memories and writing begin.

I decided I would try this gift for my niece and nephew this year (11 & 15). My nephew is not so much into writing, so his journal won't have lines so he can do more drawing than writing. I'll post a photo of the finished gifts...once I do the in the jar parts.

I'm sure you're thinking "how on earth will I figure out what to put IN the jar", well my source even provides this for you! She has links on our site to PDF & Excel files that contain plenty of ideas...so many that you'd probably be hard pressed to think up ones that aren't already provided...but feel free to add to it! Then you cut up each idea and put it in the jar.

My husband thinks the idea is cheesey, but I did confirm w/ my sister-in-law that she thought it was a good before doing it. She thinks her kids will love it, especially since I'm using nice sketch pad for my nephew instead of a lined journal.

Let me know what you think of the idea...cheesey? ingenious? love it? hate it? Feel free to leave me a comment.

...and of course, happy holidays to all!

As promised...pix of the journals...

My niece's journal - it looks dark, but it's actually a nice shade of pink

And this is my nephew's sketchbook/journal.

And this is what you get when you buy cute small jars...more journal ideas than you can fit in one...take my advice - buy a bigger jar! These are extras for each journal in a jar set.