A Miracle in Chile

Tonight I watched live coverage of the first Chilean miners to be rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days.

The joy and exuberance of the men, their rescuers, family and country was incredible to witness.

It is truly amazing what perseverance, collaboration and faith can accomplish.

A true miracle!

Petition for Cats in the Workplace

I don’t know about you, but I’m an animal lover – and a big one at that.

Animals are loving and loyal; they don’t hold grudges or talk back and I find everything about them inspiring. And my two cats are no exception.

Adopting each of them was a big undertaking for me but they have become the loves of my life. And every Monday morning I wish that I could bring them with me to the office.

I mean, how can you have a bad day when looking at these faces?

Wylie “Big Mitts” – age 3 ½
(in his favorite perch by the windowsill)

Sami “Cupcakes” – age 1 ½
(caught red-handed on the counter)

Pumpkin Picking in 80 Degrees

Friends

Pumpkins

And a bulldog puppy named Watson

That about sums up my Saturday - a great afternoon in the country!

Oh and it was over 80 degrees in the sun. It felt a little strange to be sweating while picking out pumpkins but I wasn’t complaining. It was simply nice to be outdoors and taking advantage of a beautiful ‘fall’ day.

I hope your weekend was just as lovely!

My Happy Place: Horseback

On any given day when the sun is shining and there’s a nice breeze in the air, I wish I were horseback.

Yes, I was that cliché little girl who was obsessed with horses. I read horse books by the dozens, collected toy horses and took riding lessons.

Even though the lessons eventually stopped, I never outgrew my passion for horses and I still dream of the day when I'll have my own horse to ride whenever I feel like it.

Committing to the schedule and cost of taking riding lessons again isn’t feasible right now but I do treat myself at least once a year to getting back on the horse for a trail ride with the family. Last year my sister and I had the ride of our lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico but this year we kept it local at one of our favorite trail ride establishments in the Blue Ridge Mountains – the Marriott Ranch in Hume, VA.

The staff is super friendly and the cost for a ninety-minute trail ride can’t be beat! Plus you get to leave the city for some time out in the country. It always amazes me how quiet it is out there…I miss that.

But for ninety minutes this past Saturday, I soaked up the quiet, the sun, the smell of horses and the gorgeous landscape. It was pure bliss and I got to check off another item on my goals list.

It was the perfect escape from these past few hectic months and I could have stayed out there all day!

What happy place do you picture when you’re feeling worn out and stressed? How often do you get there in real life?

A Day Off for Sanity's Sake

September 30th was the ‘hard deadline’ for my three-month long project at work and I’d been looking forward to that day pretty much since the project started.

It meant that the long, draining days would be behind me and I could start to regain some normalcy in my life and get back to more important things – like Live Love Life Now™.

It also meant that I could finally take a day off!

I almost didn’t take today off though because things at work are far from being completely done. But I realized that they are at a stage where everything isn’t an emergency and I’m not so egotistical to think that things couldn’t be managed for a day without me.

I’ve also come to realize how important personal days are to my mental health. It’d been a challenging summer at work and I’ve been waiting for the chance to take a day to recover and reward myself for a job well done.

So I put in my vacation request and spent this morning sleeping in. And it felt lovely! It’s officially fall outside (i.e. gloomy, windy, cold) and I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than in my pajamas at home with my cats.

Hmm…if I had more sense I’d probably rewrite that last sentence to make myself sound a little less like a crazy, cat lady. But in reality I’m sometimes borderline crazy, cat lady and I love it.

And I love three-day weekends!

The Moral? Don’t forget to make yourself a priority once in awhile and know when you need a break. When’s the last time you took a random day off from work just because??

Piece O’ Cake

My internal (formerly dormant) designer has been awoken and I think I could easily become addicted to this.

Turns out I didn’t need as much technical assistance as I thought to get the new header in place. All I really needed was to know somebody was there to help me in case I caused irreparable damage to my blog.

But I needn’t have been so concerned because I had the new header up in no time and was soon on to altering the background image, fonts and colors.

Now I’m thinking of playing with the gadgets feature next and was curious which ones are your favorites to use?

But that’s for another day because for now I think I’m going to call it a night. I’m ecstatic with my progress and deserve a break…with popcorn.

But before I sign off, how about a walk down memory lane?

January 1, 2010 – July 24, 2010

July 25, 2010 – October 2, 2010

Would You Believe My Cat Ate My Homework??

Oh the shame…

It’s been two days since my declaration about posting a new header and re-committing to my blog.

And I’ve got zip to show for it. Sigh.

I was feeling so guilty over this that I almost didn’t want to show my face today and post anything at all. But then the guilt over not posting anything for the last two days won out over the guilt of not having posted the new header.

Welcome to my crazy little world of procrastination, self-doubt and guilt!

But in all sincerity, I’m blaming the delay on the fact that I’ve needed some technical assistance that hasn’t been available. But things are looking up as I have begged my sister (aka html guru) for help this weekend.

Thank goodness for free help! Er, I mean family.