Facebook vs. Blog

I found it is so much easier posting pictures on facebook and as you can tell I rarely give my blog any attention. I just realized I haven't put pictures from our big Emory family beach trip on and that was months ago. I know some of my blog friends don't do facebook.. so I apologize..

Here are just a few, we were there 7 days and what an amazing time we had!

Carol & Gary

that which matters the most.....

should never give way to that which matters the least.

now if only I could have this mind set.

the lululemon manifesto
•Drink FRESH water and as much water as you can. Water flushes unwanted toxins from your body and keeps your brain sharp.
•A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
•Do one thing a day that scares you.
•Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic questions.
•Write down your short and long-term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and two health goals for the next 1, 5 and 10 years. Goal setting triggers your subconscious computer.
•Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks.
•Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.
•That which matters the most should never give way to that which matters the least.
•Stress is related to 99% of all illness.
•Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.
•The world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW!
•Friends are more important than money.
•Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.
•Take various vitamins. You never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck to everlasting health.
•Don’t trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.
•Visualize your eventual demise. It can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.
•The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought.
•Live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Vancouver will do nicely.
•Observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.
•Practice yoga so you can remain active in physical sports as you age.
•Dance, sing, floss and travel.
•Children are the orgasm of life. Just like you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you have them.
•Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” and “try” with “I will”.
•Creativity is maximized when you’re living in the moment.
•Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce. Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top, and will give you a lousy life.
•lululemon athletica creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives. If we can produce products to keep people active and stress-free, we believe the world will become a much better place.
•Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter.
•SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.
•Communication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur.
•What we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
•The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

inspirational quote

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end".
-unknown

if you know a cool inspirational quote, please share it with me :)

on that note... I'm leaving in the morning for a week, yes 7 whole days, with my siblings (Donna, my brother, 2 sisters,and their spouses, their kids and grandkids. Oh what fun!

On this trip... I'm leaving Eastin at her grandparents house (her Craft cousins will be there so she won't even miss me) and Russ & Miller will be "keeping house" while I'm away... hmmmmmmmmm.....

It is my first trip away from Russ & Eastin so I'm feeling a bit anxious, but to tell the truth.. what is causing me the most anxiety is leaving Miller behind. He is my side kick, the one that never gets mad at me, the one that is always happy to see me and since I work from home, I'm with him pretty much all day, every day. I hope he will be okay, he is epileptic.. I worry when I'm not home to hear if he is having a seizure. When he has a seizure, I hold his head to keep him from slamming it into the hardwood floors or the ceramic tile. I also immediately give him extra medicine and lay beside him until I know he has recovered. Russ works 10 hours.......... so he'll be alone for long periods.... I pray he will be okay. I believe God watches closely over kids and animals... I know there are many epileptic animals out there that have to be left alone....

now Russ... that is another story.. I've given him lectures.. do not leave the remotes out (Miller is known to eat them).. be sure to flush the potties so they are full of FRESH water, (those are Miller's water bowls).. be sure the curtains are open so he can see out, and leave the television on for him.... do you think I have spoiled my boy??

I'll be posting pictures of my beach trip when I return. I'm sure I'll have many great stories too..

please.... let me know you are stopping by my blog by leaving your favorite quote in the comments :)

Is happiness a choice??

I've come to admire a rockin' photographer by the name of Jasmine Star that lives in Orange County Cali... She posted an off the wall question on facebook

"is happiness a choice"....

and I've been watching the responses since her post appeared on facebook.

So what do you think???

My answer..... Yes, I belive it is a choice, hands down!

Personally, my glass is half-full.. no matter if I'm having a "life is so damn unfair" day... I can have tears streaming down my face and blubbering that it isn't fair that I've lost all 4 of my grandparents, along with my father when I was 8, my mother 5 years ago and my brother last year.. but even during these snot-filled moments, I know I am so fortunate to have awesome memories! I make a conscious effort to look for the good in people, the good aspect of a bad situation, etc....

I've come across some people who think, act & bitch and moan that that their lives are the worst ever. That their lives have always been this way. "It is a fact of life that they have come to accept".. .uhhhhhhhhhhhh... what??? does that mean the future is destined to be sucky too??? heck no!! but heck yeah with that sucky attitude. These people have so much to be appreciative of... but they choose to focus on the bad... don't you just want to slap the stupid out of them??? LOL... (I guess that isn't a positive response on my part 'eh?)

But geeze, Louise,,,, get a grip.. this is your life - it is up to you how you live it!

.....................................

Here are some copy and paste responses on facebook tonight:

Do you even remember what the question was again???

"Is happiness a choice??"

Attitude + Gratitude = Happiness

Absolutely! A friend of mine once told me this quote "life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it"....I think it is so true and definitely supports that happiness is a choice!

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Viktor Frankl.....Happiness is definitely a choice regardless of our circumstance!

Yes, I believe happiness is a choice. You choose to see the good in life. You choose to find value and worth in others, no matter how hard they may try to discourage you from searching. And You choose to recognize each moment as it comes, because another just it like will NEVER come again. Happiness, joy, love, faith, trust...all choices.

Oh Jasmine! I have a whole "step up on my soap box" speech on the subject. I think we are all predisposed to be UNHAPPY. We love to complain. About work. The weather. Family. That crazy driver. We can choose to be happy. Like you, in how you quit law school, I did the same thing with my job. I drove to work in tears. I had enough. I chose Happiness instead. I walked in and quit. (My husband was out of the country - I told him after I did it - and he supported me 100%). Sure, I'm not Suzy Sunshine every second of every day, but I am happy with my choices. No regrets. Live. Love. Laugh. And be Happy!

Yes! The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences & I don’t believe you can do this w/out being happy. Even on my worse day, I take a step back & realize that I’m so very blessed & have many things to be happy about & someone out there is worse off than me & I shouldn’t complain.

yes! it is a choice. so many people don't realize that you can simply have happiness if you choose it. i think this is what is wrong with the world. i think that unhappiness is a weakness. we all have the power within ourselves to control our own minds. most people just let their minds run away with itself & turn their lives into miserable messes.i highly recommend eckhart Tolle's books, "a new earth" and "the power of now". he taught me this tool.

It is a choice and more than that, I agree with Dennis Prager who states that "Happiness is a moral obligation. Happiness - or at least acting happy, or at the very least not inflicting one's unhappiness on other - is no less important in making the world better than any other human trait."

Yes it absolutley, 100%, without a question is a choice! I think circumstances can get you down but it up to you where you go from there.

happiness isn't a given....we can choose to let things get us down or rise above it. God gave us the gift of free will, so it's up to use to be happy no matter our circumstances. With all the negativity that's in the world, we need to just shout out loud everyday BRING IT! Just remember there's alot more good in this world than bad, if we focus only on the bad, we'll never see the good.

Happiness is definitely a choice...you can either choose to be miserable and negative or you can choose to have a positive attitude even in the hardest of times...I much rather be happy and positive!! :)

..............................................................

hmmmmmmmmmmmm..... so where are all of the negative people's responses??

I'm waiting for Jasmine's conclusion


I end this post with my favorite quote that my dear friend shared with me:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."
~Author unknown


to all of my friends & family....
I wish you enough
XOX - Kris

A week at Folly Beach

FollyBeach is only 15 minutes from downtown Charleston South Carolina, just over the bridge from James Island... and oh my goodness... What an absolutely gorgeous beach! Full of shells and surfers and not many people.

We were there on the 1st anniversary of Rod's death. It is hard to believe it has been a year. Each day seems to be getting more emotional and "real" for Donna. Having to rebuild her life without him. It is hard to believe he is not here anymore.. he was such an awesome and unique brother!

This is a picture of Donna and Miller (yes! Miller made it to the beach)! and behind the dunes is the house we stayed in. It was just perfect for the 5 of us. I loved the screened porch and big deck. Donna plans on taking her two cats back in the Fall.

This is sunrise from our deck. Just positively breath-taking!

Such a wonderful place to "get away" from it all but yet perfect for thinking with no interruptions.

The times it hits me is when I look towards our front door just waiting to see his forehead pressed to it.. he always did that to try to see through our prismatic glass. He'd have a 6 pack in one hand and we'd head out to the deck or screened porch and chat. Other times we'd head down to the dock and Eastin would finally talk him into going swimming with her. She loved it when he took her under the dock, between the gaps in the floatations.

One fireworks picture taken from our dock on the 4th of July. Shooting fireworks definitely isn't the same.. he would "try" to keep Russ from getting hurt, both of them would end up tripping over the rocks trying to get out of the way before the firework fired.

Now I sit on the deck, looking towards the dock every evening @ sunset...

I look to the right and there is this one area that he, Gary, Linda and Donna were sitting on our last 4th of July together, 2 years ago.

It seems so unreal he will not be here in all of our future gatherings.. but he will always be here in spirit.

Family

I have an awesome family! Every family has a member that is known as "the crazy one", "the ecentric one", "the loud one", the "obnoxious one", the "snobby one", the "neat" one, the "slobby" one, the "creative" one, the "military" one or two or three :) ... and so on and so on, and yes! I will, along with most every one of my other family members will, agree this is our family to the "t"...... But we still love one another, and accept who they are and we will be there for them when they need us.

With this being said... the anniversary of my brother Rod's death is coming up in a few days. It makes me think about the past year and how our family has interacted. Some families fall apart during the hard times, but ours has grown closer. I'm so fortunate to have the family I do.

Donna didn't want to be at home on "that" day (the 23rd of June) .... so we are packing up and heading to Folly Beach for a change of scenery. I know Rod's spirit will be with us.

There are times over the past month that I have pictured him laughing and shaking his head at me. I do also know he is soooooooooo proud of Donna for getting out of bed everyday, and not giving into the darkness of him not being here to help her anymore. There are so many things that were once his responsibility and now have become her job. Little things and big things and she is standing on her two feet doing them.

We all miss his laugh - as obnoxious as it was and his loud sneezes... as much as they always made us jump. We were lucky to have so many awesome memories of him and he will never be forgotten.

As strange as it might sound, I'm no longer scared of death because of Rod. I know there is life after this life and I will see him again, until that time.. I know he is watching over us and enjoying the show.

It sure feels like Summer here in South Carolina!

What a wonderful day we had yesterday!

Eastin, Russ, Miller and I took out Uncle Hal's pontoon.
Eastin wanted to go tubing... Last year she tried and cried the whole time.
This year was much better!

We also went by party island... talk about bringing back memories...
ohhhhhhhhhh the good times I've had there :)
The boats start off pulling onto the shore of the island and then there is no more shoreline left and the boats end up tying up to one another and making a floating party!

It sure feels like Summer already, one more week of school... two weeks planned at the beach with family, Eastin is going to High School Musical Camp, I've been volunteering along with sewing, planting a garden, working on our lack of landscaping. It is going to be a busy but full of memory making moments!

After all.. isn't that what life is about?? Good memories that make you smile, even on the gloomiest of days??

my life has come full circle

My life has come full circle and I will be posting again soon :)
I needed to take a break for a while

until my next post, I wanted to share:

T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets,

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning É
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And to know the place for the first time.


Benediction by Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
Everything the 'power of the world' does in done in circles.
The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball,
and so are the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come
back again to where they were.
Life is a circle from childhood to childhood.
And so it is in everything where power moves.

It's been a while

Wow.. where does the time go? It sure has been a while since I blogged.. before Thanksgiving.

but what got me motivated about blogging this evening was the MOST incredible show I saw this afternoon! I only saw one portion but have the whole episode on DVR.. I will watch later when the whole house is quiet.

On Oprah.. Wed the 14th..

The one episode I saw was Breaking open your spirit

I can't wait to watch the rest of the show.

I'll be back soon :)
I promise