hellooooo......

yes....i mean, no....i mean I have SO not been writing much. I've been doing a lot of doing....and little being. and that is ok...it is what has to happen for now to catch up by the end of the year! doesn't scripture say there is a time and place for everything under the sun? AMEN. yet...above all, i'm grateful and complete. i'm completely grateful. and so here is the recent list:

1. Courtney Crow Wyrtzen who is my heart, my sister, my hero...and I swear the BEST mother in the world. She is so completely human...and entirely beautiful and creative and always growing. Oh, and she is 10x the writer that I am....you can follow her heart here http://onerow.wordpress.com/
2. my dang hubby who drives me nutso sometimes...and i do MORE than drive him bonkers...and yet, it seems that marriage is to heal that...to deal with that...and to love completely anyway. Love is a choice....and the cuddling is just the cherry on top! Thanks Billy!
3. real estate....coaching....the work and career of my dreams. The ONLY thing it hasn't provided me with yet is a stylist and free clothes.
4. girlfriends....my girlfriends hold me up each and everyday. laughter, tears, ideas, joy, thought, love, venting, drinking, talking, being, giving, receiving....
5. those dang mutts of mine. faithful love and friendship. nuf said.
   
6. comfort food- mac and cheese, pasta of any sort, cheese of any sort...coffee...and diet coke.
   
7. the gym....to work off all the comfort food and get my body back in shape....

Samantha and Kirsten Pimp Cherrypickyouragnent.com

I'm a sucker for marketing and PRETTY

I have fuzzy hair. Have always had fuzzy hair. Nick names as a child : MOP HEAD Due to the not curly -not straight mousy look of the mop of hair on a lanky girls head. Every time i sit in a new stylist's chair I get a big eyed look of "MY GOODNESS you have TONS of HAIR."
Yep I do. These days...it is taking a break from excessive coloring. (was blond for 34 years....been brunette for 3 and going back to blond earlier this year...really didn't work--at least from home). Most of the summer I have worn my hair back and then smoothed behind a headband. Texas is HUMID folks...and fuzzy hair and humid does not = CUTE.

I admit this budget while it has helped me in many ways, has really cause my looks to suffer. At least according to my standards. I miss the professional hair care...color and cut. I miss the professional facial care.... Ok..no griping. I just put it back on my goal sheet and it will be the first thing to comeback when my business begins booming this fall! In the mean time one of two things will happen....Stacy and Clinton from What not to Wear will show up with that 5K visa gift card.... or I might go 'halvsies' with my teenage daughter on an InStyler!!!

I've read the reviews and they are mixed. I want to see what this baby really does? Who knows...maybe you will get a video review.

Oh by the way...am using this line of new drugstore available products by LOREAL and so far, I think they do a good job. My hair is soft even after it dries and the products don't fade my hair color.

Confessions of a Desperate Housewife

I have just spent the last 52 minutes doing my weekly favorite house chore. Except today I am thoroughly disgusted by it. Carpet is simply FOUL. I mean EEEEWWWWW. And what is the useful life of a vacuum cleaner anyway. Yes I have 3 dogs. And a GOOD -at least I thought it was good Kenmore vacuum cleaner.
I loved you when I first bought you....but soon despite my emptying the container EVERY room and cleaning the filters each time I vacuum....you soon gave way to the YUCK that lives in my carpet. And, it isn't JUST DOG HAIR. I mean where did this ash like dust come from? (The photo is not mine...I thieved it off the web....just ad 3x the amount of short dog hair and you have the DOWNSTAIRS weekly accumulation of my vacuum cleaner. Oh and the spin of the canister molds it in to this egg shaped orb of dustydoghairmuck-- yum huh).

PAUSE: By now you are thinking we a dirty filthy folks. Ah, no- I married MR. Clean and Tidy... and our house is always spotless and clean. I simply think, under the carpet, is a foundation of dirt and ash. Our dogs are inside dogs and are bathed almost every few weeks.

I have decided that tile is disgusting too. Mostly because of the grout. No matter how clean the tile is..the grout gets nasty too. I do not want nasty floors. I have decided that hardwood floors through out the ENTIRE house...yes in the bathrooms are the ONLY way for me to go. Ah the once daily vacuum with the floor attachment to scoop up NORMAL DUST...warm sold floors that I can accessorize with a once-it-gets-nasty-chunk-it-and-get-a-new-one textile.

blackberry iphone wars begin

 

Pluckers Trivia Night

 

what's been going through my head this week

July 1st List of the Day

It has been a while on the blog...yet not in my heart on a regular basis. What are YOU grateful for? To me gratitude is a reminder of the abundance in our lives. You want more abundance and good things, don't you? Then naturally, when we focus on what we are grateful for....we get more of it.

1. One crazy decision made deep in the heart and exercised in faith can bring new life.
2. Every financial need has been met above and beyond.
3. Creating art is back in my life after waiting patiently for years while I was busy striving.
4. My sisters, Meredith and Courtney
5. Friendship with Malia and Nikki who both let me be me in all states and love me well.
   
6. Monday night girl time with my daughter, Samantha--who is getting so tall and so svelte. Manthie, I really love our time laughing and smiling and being girly.
   
7. Soft chalk pastels and colored pencils.
8. All the little problems of life ALWAYS find their way out of the unseemingly endless knots and in the end...it is ALWAYS good.
9. Every single day, Billy makes me laugh.
   
10. When dogs cuddle head first instead of butt first.
    

Life is good.


Photo by srboisvert under creative commons license.

Let me introduce you to my new best friend

This post is probably a little airy-fairy for some of you....so warning. I am pretty airy fairy sometimes and this is my blog. That being said, let me introduce you to my new best friend.

I was recently introduced to my angel-ness and her purpose for my life. I'm grateful for the introduction and for the many messages she has been giving me since I met her. Today was the day I first drew her and put her to a visual symbol. She is the very best version of myself. The one God created me to be. She is here to remind me that I brave and strong and the words on her spirit tail are just some of the qualities that I know I have and am growing every day.
Here are a few of the other messages she has helped me uncover:

• Watch out for downplaying who you are
• Leave the small shit behind
• Validation comes from the SPIRIT, not from the world.
• You have an infinite capacity to grow and love and evolve
• You are an artist--always have been.
• You are able to trust completely...those wings are strong and will guard my heart when needed.
• Life is meant to be enjoyed abundantly...this abundance is for all of us...including you, Allison
• Laugh
• Don't take life so seriously
• God takes care of the birds doesn't he? and they are just birds...
• Delight in the people you love
• Just be. Just be has been your motto for a long long time...bring it back...and be all that you want to be. Be love-don't DO love...just be.

I guess I share...because I'd love for YOU to have the gift of hearing what your angel-ness has to say for you? How can he/she/it contribute to your spirit...and then your life?


To the one who introduced me to my angel-ness, I am grateful for your contribution to my life..I look forward to speaking again soon...and learning more.

Accidental image

It was pretty so I posted.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Birds and Worrying

I've been worrying a bunch lately. After stepping out of a crazy lucrative job and health benefits...I chose a different path. I'm still coaching...and I re-started my business with MAPS. I've also stepped back in to my real estate sales business. I pulled the stability out from under my family a bit and they have been gracious as I build it back up. I've got two houses on the market- one under contract-negotiations-repairs-more negotiations...blah blah blah blah ulcer blah. Kids becoming teenagers, friends with cancer, insurance bills, clients dropping, unsure about the next path to take, a million problems to solve, and more blah blah blah blah...WE all have the crap to deal with. Overwhelmed one day a few weeks ago...I went out to the hammock and as soon as my head hit the pillow a bird flew right over my head....and INSTANTLY....this came to mind:

"Look at the birds in the sky. They don't plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren't you? Can any of you add a single hour to the length of your life by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies in the field and how they grow. They don't work or spin yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. Now if that is the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, won't he clothe you much better-you who have little faith? So don't ever worry by saying, 'What are we going to eat?' or 'What are we going to drink?' or 'What are we going to wear." Everyone is concerned about these things, and your heavenly Father certainly knows you need all of them. But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition." -Matthew 6:27-33

photo credit: Swami Stream

8 Easy Ways to Add Color to Your Home

8 Easy Ways to Add Color to Your Home

Shared via AddThis

things i'm thinking about

things i'm thinking about these days:

1. i'm thinking about writing about things that really might not go over well in the corporate world...but that would go over very well with an authentic audience.
2. i'm thinking about how well dark chocolate m&m's go with a good cabernet i'm thinking about my big sister having a child. i want her to be deliriously happy
3. i'm thinking about God...and how sadly i often only think of him in extreme good or extreme hard situations. i'd like to think about him a little more in the everydays of life. and am sure glad he's there during the hard times.
4. i'm mindful that people out there are praying for me and my family. that is a warm thought.
5. i'm thinking about completely and utterly and drastically simplifying my life---aka getting rid of massive amounts of stuff.
6. i'm thinking i want to live where love live.
7. i'm thinking about going blonde again. except i really don't want to pay for the upkeep.
8. i'm thinking about reading more and worrying less.
9. i'm thinking about my big dog...and how he's getting older and bumpier every day.
10. i'm thinking about NOT thinking at 2 am, 3 am 4 am.
    

what are YOU thinking about?

This makes my ears happy

I hope it makes yours happy too.

reminds me of this great moment with my kids last christmas:

Ways to Handle the Muck

What do you do when you really couldn't care less to do anything at all--
I'm writing from my hammock and my heart today and know that I am not the only one out there stuck in the muck from time to time. I pulled my computer away from my work desk, because really no work was getting done. A change of scenery and humidity and here I am on the hammock in the back yard. Not the most comfortable place to write...nap yes, laptop no.

As a coach, I'm used to supporting others who are in the muck and helping them create and implement a plan for getting through and out of it and on to a better place in life, work, etc. I know what the great thinkers and motivators and nlp practitioners say. I know what therapists would say, and what spiritual writers, doctors, and even scriptures say. I know many of the traditional and non traditional "prescriptions" for this kind of state.

As a human being, I'm vulnerable to the nothingness of a grey day, to the frustration of procrastination, to getting easily off track and to the deviation of the dreams that normally propel me in to action. Just as often as I give my help and coaching, I need it too.

Havi Brooks, of the Fluent Self discusess 3 of these traditional perscriptions in a blog post called Destuckification 101. At the end she talks about anotherway of "going deeper in to destuckification" that for today works for me and so I wanted to share what she talks about in her blog....she talks about:

About having a conscious, active, intentional relationship with yourself. About what happens when you’re allowed to drop all the shoulds.

Including the ones that say you should be able to push through it. And the ones that say you should be able to sit with it. And the ones that say you should be more grateful.

So that you can give yourself permission to not have to be there yet.

So that you can find out what you need right now. And find ways to give it to yourself. Or at least get better at being eventually ready to receive it.

Interesting I have so much in my mind in the way of all these methods for getting out of this muck. What about being attentive to the muck and what it is saying? It is uncomfortable for me to be in this state...and I'm reminded of the saying....get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Yesterday, my muck terrified me. Today I'm able to be slightly more comfortable with it. I'm finding kindess for myself along the way and staying in that kindess. Cool thing is, I know by tomorrow, that kindess will have filled me up and I'll be ready again, to pour out to those around me.

What do you do when you are stuck in the muck?

And thanks Havi Brooks, for writing in the "REAL"