Fun and Mental Changes

Just a quick one today.  A quick rant I should say.... Just because you forgave, that SHOULD NOT give the one that hurt you free reign to hurt you over and over.  THAT is a matter of self respect.  And quite frankly, it is a matter of respect for the offending person and anyone else they may hurt as well.  NO ONE should walk through life thinking it is ok to hurt someone else.  Forgiveness IS NOT acceptance... it is compassion for the human condition and a recognition of God's love for you and for them.  Release offense (absolutely), but take responsibility for your own happiness!  Being a martyr is every bit as bad as being an abuser! "Hurt me once shame on you, hurt me twice shame on me." It is a totally different scenario when someone hurts you unintentionally... but repeated offense?  There are consequences for our actions and our inaction .  Find the strength to be happy.  You could be saving someone ...

So this post is inspired by the pic above.  It was posted by one of my facebook friends and my response was, "um.... good point!"  And that led to me thinking about WHAT is marriage?  Well, I am a Christian and my Christian friends would say that marriage is a holy and divinely established covenant.  That the "holy" and "divinely" would exclude gay people from marriage based on the whole "and when a man lies down with a male the same as one lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination...Lev. 20:13" keeping the union from being classified as :"divinely ordered".  But then, couldn't the same be held true for divorce?  Why are Christians allowed to divorce?  Doesn't the Bible also say, “So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate . . . And I say to you:  whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery” (Matt...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?  I get a freaking virus RIGHT before I'm to leave for Vegas?!?  Ok, so before I go on my rant, I just want to say that I was able to restore my system quickly and easily, but (as is ALWAYS the case when a virus "surprises" us) I was freaked out for a good 10 minutes this morning.  And I will add that with my HUGE to-do list.... yep, I did it up last night.... I was more than a little irked to have to add "Remove Virus Scam" to it.  But there is a little lesson here to add to my last post... Allow flexibility in your scheduling - hard and fast rules for your daily schedule should just not exist.  There are some appointments or tasks that need to be completed timely and on-time, but allow a bit of wriggle room in your schedule.  That, too, lends itself to relieving a little bit of stress. Now, with that out of the way... UGH!  I DID NOT NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!  THE DANG THING LOCKS YOUR COMPUTER!!!  But luckily I onl...

**** HUGE HALLOWEEN GIVE AWAY... CLICK HERE !!!!****   What's in a name?  Well, a lot actually!!!  I mean really... a rose by any other name would not be as freakin awesome as this!!!  I was recently perusing the web for interesting scrapbooking tid bits when I ran across THE COOLEST name for a blog (honestly, I'm considering buying it from her...hahahahaha)!  Get ready, the blog is: EENKSTAIND !!!! OMG, I love it!!!  I won't lie though, her name sort of made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but checking out her posts made it worth it! You see, the name Tammy Nichols REALLY rung a super sonic bell, but being from Arizona and the backdrop of her profile pic being and ocean, I was instantly drawn (in a big way).  I love the sights, sounds and smell of the ocean... I rarely get to see it... so to see her posts of the ocean makes me forget the whole "Nichols" thing and makes me feel warm, fuzzy and like I'm on vacation all over again....

If you've seen my blog for one second, then you know how much I love to color with Copic markers.  I often tell students in my Copic classes that my love for markers comes from childhood deprivation.  You see, I HATED coloring as a child.  I was always told that we were too poor to afford the "Crayola" crayons; I always went to school with those HORRIBLE JUMBO 8 pack of crayons that were always too waxy to really deposit good color.  Coloring gave me anxiety and I always felt out of place when it was time to color and my friends would pull out this MONSTER 64 pack of crayons that "EVEN INCLUDED A SHARPENER".  And of course, when my crayons were dulled to flattened perfection, they were so big I couldn't even ask my friends to use their sharpener. My crayons wouldn't fit!  How funny that as an adult, I have VIVID memories of grade school and the horror that was coloring.  So now, moving WELL beyond the waxy color box, I stumble upon blendable ink marker...

So today, I am pondering the word "mistake".   I've personally experienced MANY apologies in my life where the person asking for forgiveness states they made a mistake.  Like many (and I would even venture to say all at one time or another), I've searched myself, relying on my own heart for guidance.  I think for the most part, swift forgiveness is key to dealing with any transgression.  However, where you go beyond that is a completely different thing.  Just because you've forgiven someone doesn't mean things should stay the same.  Sometimes real forgiveness is the direct result of hard resolutions.  So I wanna start here with the word "mistake". First off.... A mistake is an action that you thought was right but it turned out to be wrong.  When someone knowingly hurts another (doing something they already know is wrong or SHOULD have known was wrong because it's soooooo blatantly obvious), they should not be allowed to...

This is what I'm doing at 2 AM!!!  I got the Tim Holtz Rosette die two days ago and decided I needed to use it at least once, so I got to work.  Well, since I was already cutting the rosette, I decided to pull out my scalloped circle Spellbinders and make another paper flower.... AND since I was making flowers, and one of them was a rosette bringing to mind roses, I decided to make some ribbon roses.  I have to say, the one made with the tule-type material turned out a bit better... crisper.  But MAN!  I cannot get a good shot of it! The white one definitely photographs better and I'm so freakin tired, I really should just leave it at that... if I knew what was good for me.  News flash.... I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME!!! So here I am STILL trying to get a good shot of the black rose....[**YAWN**].... I love this rose.  Nope, not enough detail.  Maybe if I get out of direct light? Crap!  NICE SHADOW!!!  Someone put me ...

Ok, so today's post is just a little venting for the day.... WHY are all my friends at the Winter CHA and I'm sitter here typing up this babble on my blog??? WHY am I not blogging FROM CHA??? And finally, WHY are all my friends sending little facebook messages from CHA seemingly guilt free. My friends are braggers..... HUGE BRAGGERS!!! Shame on all of you. If I was at CHA, I surely wouldn't be bragging about it. I wouldn't post pics of all the cool people I'm meeting and all the awesome new products that I'm playing with. And I certainly wouldn't be trying to score a pic with Tim Holtz like we're both old friends just meeting up at CHA. I wouldn't think that scoring that pic is like Tim and I are new BFF's.... I wouldn't!!! I would attend with the proper decorum befitting a CIVILIZED crafter and I DEFINITELY would wouldn't be shouting about it to all my friends who had to stay home. Shame, SHAME, SHAME !!!

Whoa!!! What a couple of days I've had! First of all, Thanksgiving went without a hitch and executed perfectly with the help of the home-made-like pies (from Costco)... I mean, after all, it's tradition right? I mean the Costco pies of course!!! So I scarfed the yummy turkey dinner and headed out promptly at 3 p.m. to stand in line over at Michaels only to find that there wasn't a line... well, why the heck not? Then I checked out their black Friday ads (that actually began on Thursday) and discovered that EVERYTHING cool and worth waiting in a line for was marked "EXCLUDED" in ultra fine print on their Black Friday ad! And the "great deal" they had for Cricut cartridges were easily $15-$20 higher than what you can get them for everyday on Ebay. Finally, when they DID open their door at 4:30 p.m. the Ott Light they advertised (one of the VERY FEW items that was actually a great Black Friday deal) wasn't even in stock.... bait and switch much? Oh, t...

** The following blog post is the insane rantings of an Alice In Wonderland freak. This post may not be suitable for all audiences.... * I can usually get inspired by a trip to my local craft store, but today I've got a story of being overtaken and molested by it. I was going through the clearance aisle of my local Joann's craft store when I spied the mother of all punches. In fact, this is BY FAR THE COOLEST punch I've ever seen!!! Now WHY was this punch being given away at the mere price tag of $3.00 (ok, and there were TWO THERE...that's NUTS)? HOW did I manage to be in the right place at the right time to snag this hidden gem? And WHY had I never seen this punch before? I gotta be honest, I not only would have paid full price for this beauty, I would have probably paid double on steal-bay... that's how great this punch is. There HAD to be a catch here.... did this punch not work? At $3, who cares! I took it and RAN to the checkout. Well, you can tell by the abov...

With the opening of the new film The Social Network this weekend, all the news channels are jumping on the opinion bandwagon regarding the phenomena that is social networking. I've heard everything from "I don't get it" to "it's perpetuating our narcissistic society". It seems the news reporters (and some celebrities) have some pretty succinct reasoning as to why they are or are not participating in social networking. With all the sharing of opinions on the matter, I wanted to take a sec and chime in with my own. For the record, my usage of "the twitter" (thanx Betty White), Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace is in NO WAY narcissistic. In EVERY case, these wonderful networks are simply sounding boards. It is probably true that no one wants to know "what I am doing now", but what I am doing now isn't what I'm communicating. I share what I think and what I feel, giving away little pieces of who I am to the world that may or may not inc...

Breakfast At Subway! Wow! Subway did it again! A healthy option for the fast food crazed nation. And like their classic lunch menu, this breakfast blows what others offer AWAY! Here's what I ordered today: WESTERN EGG WHITE MELT Multi-grain muffin (toasted) Egg white Ham Onions Green bell pepper Then Toasted a second time... a matter of seconds in the toaster Salt and pepper Provolone cheese A TON of spinach That's it! Nothings fried or greasy or sticking to any one's ribs. It's just whole and hearty and DELICIOUS!!! And you Weight Watchers fans out there will be thrilled to learn that the sandwich I just ate had only 3 points!!! Not bad for a complete breakfast that included a serving of vegetables!!! Take that McDonald's! And since I'm bringing up McDonald's.... now's the perfect time to mention, "BOYCOTT MCDONALD'S"!!! Last year I saw Food Inc. when it was in theaters (now it can be found at Blockbuster) and heard how McDonald's pret...

Dear City of Chandler Officials, I watched your council meeting last night on the cable access channel and I have some things I want to say as one of your residents regarding the contract impass that you failed to rectify for the City of Chandler law enforcement personnel and what that says to me. I want to believe that I am safe. I want to believe that I live in a city that IS ahead of the rest. But I'm convinced that I don't and honestly believe that I should move out of this city as soon as I can. I drive down Arizona Avenue on, pretty much, a daily basis and see MILLIONS of my tax dollars "working" (see the NEW city offices being constructed above) while hearing last night that the city cannot afford to pay the city's emergency service personnel. I watched as the council berated a speaker for pointing out the selfishness and greed that is being shown in the improper use of funds during a struggling economy while you officials saw RAISES! The Chandler officers ...

Well... all is well! It has been a tough two weeks, but as always, when you make it through, things get significantly brighter. As is the case today. I'm on the Master Cleanse again (it's that time again folks... I'm twice a year now) and I'm doing very well. I'm going to cleanse for 40 days this time, so I'm in it for the long haul. I'm reaching for homeostasis, and only TIME cleansing can give you that. I will then be following that up with a much slower cleanse with raw food so hopefully by the end of the year I will look 10 years younger! HA! Don't judge! God uses vanity to motivate too! LOL! Seriously though, my goal is ALWAYS divine health!!! So if things weren't already wonderful today with the cleanse, I was also just asked to be a Copic Marker demonstrator for a scrapping event this weekend!!! What an amazing honor! And this will work out perfectly with this cleanse because it will occupy my hands and my mind and keep me from eating!!! LOVE ...

Ok all my beloved bloggers... I have been sorely neglecting all of you, I know! Life has been down right out of control for the past couple of months. After packing and moving, dealing with some disappointment that we all experience in life, and saying good-bye to loved ones, I'm finally getting things "back to normal". Actually, I'm working on getting everything "BETTER than normal". I joined a new gym and am getting ready to start my scheduled Master Cleanse tomorrow! I unpacked and arranged my craft room and am working on getting the entire house RE-organized. Finally, I'm trying to grow my nails back out. Packing up my house resulted in broken nails and the drama, that always accompanies moving, got me gnawing at them. It's past time to chill out and let them grow back! Lucky for me, I JUST unpacked my Nail Aid Ultra Rapid Growth! I know one girl who will be having a manicure tonight! hahahahahaha! Anyway gang, thanx so much for hangin ...

This 4th of July has been seriously tainted for me... like it was exposed to E-coli! I have an unbelievable discouragement for our government, the American people and the state of our union that is just exacerbated by news reports that financially strapped states are proposing to require sales tax on items purchased online. This report aired minutes after a news report of local cities looking to cut MORE emergency services because our "local governments can't afford" to pay salaries. But yet, I drive down my own city's main street to see multi-million dollar government buildings being erected.** I'M SICK OF IT!!! Why is no one talking about the REAL issue with our economy today???? Our governments are not being held accountable for their spending!!! Money is being wasted at a time when there IS NONE! And instead of our governments perfecting the fine art of budgeting (which REQUIRES that spending habits must change as financial flow changes), they continue their s...

Today I would like to walk you through my adventure to draw and cut the ice cream cone on this card using only my Cricut Expression. But first, I would like to say "Thank you" to Provocraft and the moderators of the Cricut message board for deleting my request for assistance with gel pens from their board. I appreciate the lack of customer service that goes into just about every issue I have had with Provocraft products inspiring me to solve problems on my own and create much more than solutions, but works of art. I would like to believe THAT is the reason that Provocraft neglects me as a customer... not because they are greedy and require that ONLY their products be discussed on the message board while failing to establish cooperative relationships with companies that work to improve upon their products... no, let's believe it's because they are trying to inspire our greatness through poor business practices and that their bottom line is not their only concern. And i...

This American believes: No matter what side of ANY issue "the people" are on, it is NEVER alright for a representative "of the people" to shirk their fiduciary responsibilities. If discovered (even worse if openly admitted) that our representatives are not even reading bills that are presented to them, they ABSOLUTELY should be tried for HIGH treason. What is it going to take.... There is no greater #FAIL than what has become of America right now. What WE have allowed to transpire over the years, our lack of personal responsibility and integrity and the laziness that has been cultivated in this country makes my heart cry. I am truly worried for America. Who we are right now.... are we really worth ANYONE dying for? All those who sacrificed to make America great, was it all in vain? Can we REALLY look at ourselves as one nation... under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice FOR ALL??? I think we are SOON to find out.

So! There have been a few pivotal bonding moments between me and my sister over the years. 1) When I saved her life from a pending scorpion attack. 2) When we stayed up all night playing Super Mario Brothers. 3) When we saw Road Trip in the theater. AND 4) When we went to see Hot Tub Time Machine... oh, wait, that hasn't happened yet! hahaha ! I'm going out on a limb here and saying that this is going to be the MUST SEE MOVIE event of the year. Not only does it star one of the best known heart throbs of the 80's, Mr. John Cusack , but the premise of the film is (DARE I SAY?) BRILLIANT!!!! The movie is set back in the 80's, probably THE SINGLE BEST DECADE EVER, which leads me to believe that the soundtrack ALONE is going to be worth the price of admission. Did I mention that 80's heart throb John Cusack is in this??? Those who have seen Better Off Dead know EXACTLY why this is significant. Where was I? OH! And the plot line is hysterical with four grown men going ba...

A couple of days ago I warned everyone of the pending doom that is the girl scout cookie drive. Well, I thought I would follow up this warning with some steadfast survival tips to get you through the cookie domination. For most critical mass situations, it is wisely advised to remain in your homes, however no one is safe... especially in your homes. So please, please, please take heed to the following tips; they could just save your life. KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR Evil presents itself in many different forms. But from January to March every year, evil looks like an angelic little girl usually sporting pig tails. They adorn themselves with sashes displaying their victories over various conquests while dressing in military-esque green uniforms. They are always accompanied with what is usually disguised as an authority figure also called "Mom" or "Troop Leader"... but don't be fooled, you can tell by the eyes that this "authority figure" is really the one bei...