Day 6: Wet Paint

I was pretty (ahem!) busy in town with Brandilyn most of today. We had lots to do. We got home about an hour before I had to leave for drill but I noticed that Dave had whipped the troops into shape, somewhat. They were all outside doing "something". There was a lot of work getting done.

I left for drill practice. Imagine my surprise when I came home and found that there were signs that said "wet paint" around the stairs that enter into our house from the garage. Dave had painted the stairs!

Thank you, Dave. Thank you for bringing my wonderful daughter out here for a visit. Thank you for just diving in and helping us get stuff finished. Thank you for just being a wonderful you.

Day 5: Sunday!

Once again, after a long busy and extremely emotional week, it was soooo nice to decide that Sunday we were OFF!!! Of course, going to church is nothing new for our family but it felt even sweeter this week. No cleaning, no packing and no worries about the house. Right?

We actually filled a whole pew and even spilled over into the one behind us! At one point I looked back at Demariea, Brian and Robbie all sitting behind us in the pew and they ALL had their cell phones out and were going to town with texting like crazy. Of course, heaven forbid if you should ever call them on this. They looked absolutely ridiculous. I mentioned it to Skip and he said, "Yeah, they are all texting each other!" Lol.

I really got a lot out of the talks this week. Brandilyn gave me "the look" because I typically don't go to Sunday School so I reluctantly went and really actually enjoyed myself.

When we got home from church, our realtor came up to take more photos so we had to do an emergency run of the house to put everything in order. Not an easy task. This makes me pretty scared for when we actually go on the market coming up on Thursday.

Yes, Sunday was a day of rest (somewhat) from our routine and from our cares of the world.

Day 4: Date Night

After busting my tail for the whole week cleaning and putting together our home for the market, it was such a sweet reward to get to go out to dinner with Skip on Saturday night. Brandilyn and Dave were just arriving into town from Rexburg and we all met at Chevy's.

The downside? (Even though I'm supposed to Happy Holly in these 10 days). Well, that would be the fact that I continually consider it my personal duty for consume as many chips with salsa as I possibly can. I DID have a salad, however, but it certainly didn't even come close to making up for all the chips that I ate.

Dinner was fabulous and the company was even more fabulouser. Being the party animals that we were, we all went home and turned in for a fairly early evening.

This was definitely the highlight of my Saturday. Thank you, Skip for indulging me even though you were VERY busy with your various duties and thank you, Dave and Brandilyn for coming out here to visit.

Day 3: Yoga

I LOVE yoga! I can pretty much say that yoga has saved me. I am much more grounded and centered because of my practice. I'm just so "off" when I miss my practice (and I've missed quite a few practices this week because of this dang house thing).

Of course, when I think of yoga, I so very often associate yoga with Gloria, one of my yoga teachers. I have gone on two retreats with her (one to Costa Rica and one to Belize) and am going to Thialand with her in October. She is so wonderful at helping us to really get in and experience each pose to the full potential. Going on retreat is an experience that is just beyond my most vivid imagination.

Laurie Gallagher, though, was my motivation to start the practice like 4 or so years ago. She was/is my friend. I was her visiting teacher when she lived in our ward in Livermore and she would so often talk about how much she loved yoga. I was intrigued and took one of her classes at the club where she occasionally taught. She then managed a studio that opened up (and closed shortly thereafter, much to our dismay) locally and I embraced the practice with all the fiber of my being. Since then, she is now the co-owner of Cosmic Yoga Dog here in Livermore. The studio is fab, the vibe is so very perfect and I just look so forward to almost every day showing up on my mat to practice.

Thank you, all of you, for opening up this wonderful world to me.

Day 2: My BFF's

Nancy and Brandilyn (yes, Brandilyn, even though she IS my daughter, I'm proud to say that she is also my BFF). Both of these girls are my rock! Yesterday (when I SHOULD have posted this) they were there for me when I was having a pretty rough time and was hysterical in tears. They both listened, without judgement, and just gave me what I needed the most. LOVE!

Brandilyn always makes me feel like I'm talking to someone really safe. She was a butt when she was younger but she has more than made up for the grief that she caused me. It makes me love her all the more when she says she's sorry for the trouble I'm going through right now.

Then, last night for like 4 hours or so, Nan went shopping with me to help me get the stuff I was assigned to purchase for the staging of our home. She allowed me to vent about my issues. By the end of the evening, I was pretty much back to my ol' joking around self.

While we were in Marshalls (a store I really don't like but Nan swears by), Nan was very intently looking at some stuff for MY house. I, being me, became bored and started wandering around (like a little kid). I started picking up some random, really radical junk, and casually walked back up to her. When she looked up at me, she started laughing and said, "What the heck are you doing?" It felt good to start letting go of the troubles that keep wanting to bestow themselves on my shoulders of late. We then went out to dinner at Baja Fresh and I went home feeling a little bit lighter.

Thank you, both of you, for your love and patience while I'm going through this stuff. I love you both so much!!

Day 1: Pony Express

Since I seem to have been in a serious downer for the last like 11 months, I decided that it would be good for me to start seeking the positive and zero in on that for a bit. For the next 10 days I'm going to seek something positive and wonderful in my life each day, take a picture of it, and blog about it. Sorry if that sounds boring to you, but it IS my blog and I'm the one that needs the lift.

My NEW horse trailer makes me happy. Really happy. Skip bought this little beauty with the help of Brandilyn and Dave (mostly Dave) and brought it home with him when he came home from Idaho with Brian.

It's a two horse slant with a HUGE tack room. No, I mean H U G E tackroom. I could even sleep in there if I wanted (kidding, I wouldn't really sleep in there unless I HAD to).

My babies seem so much happier too. They load without any fuss and can turn around and just jump out when we have reached our destination. We are all just happy little campers.

The downside (if there has to be one)? I have to sell my old one. It's not really that big of a deal. I have to put it on Craigslist as soon as Skip gets me the pink so I can be intelligent about the year, etc. Robbie already cleaned it up and it's good to go.

So there you have it . . . Debbie Downer found her first thing to be excited about, lol.

The Neglected Blog

Dear Blog:

I've been avoiding you lately. Oh, yes, I've bopped in here and there to see if I had anything positive to say to you but, nay, it was not to be. Life just hasn't handed me much to be uplifted about.

However, I have been pondering a lot and have come up with a couple uplifting diddies to share with you. They are (in no particular order - okay, well maybe the first one is my fave):

• Brandilyn called and her and Dave are coming next week. Kiyiyippieyiyay!! I'm so stoked. My life has just been kind of a downer lately with all the stuff that this just brightened my day yesterday.
• Jasmine and her family did FHE yesterday in our garden. Of course, we split the produce but it made my heart happy to see her little family out there weeding and harvesting.
• Skip brought my new horse trailer home from Idaho and I just love it! It's so much nicer to work with than the old brown one.
• We listed our home Friday night with the realtor (I have mixed feelings about this but I'm gonna put it on my happy list to show that I'm trying to be positive)
• I spent the afternoon with Nan Saturday looking at property and areas up east of Sacramento. Didn't find a whole lot I love but it was nice to spend the day with my friend.
• Still trying to convince Skip that I love Arizona and want to be near Julie. So far it's a no-go but, then, you never know. Right?
• My garden is starting to pump out some pretty righteous produce. Yay!
• I sold a few things on Craigslist
• Did I mention that Brandilyn is coming in a week?

There you have it, my lovely blogspot. I do miss you and I'm grateful that I can still easily tap into Brandilyn's blog from here. I promise that I will do my best to look for positive things in my life to write about. Oh, I just rememebered something funny that happened the other day . . .

My brother, Barry, called me and we were talking awhile on the phone. I was sharing some stuff that I'm not sharing here and he finally said, "Wow, your life sounds pretty rough right now." I affirmed what he had said as I was fighting back tears. He then burst into loud laughter and said, "Hey Jody, you NEED to put all this in your Christmas letter so that people will see that you really are a normal person and that you really do have rough days. Bahahahaha!!!" Well, HE got a good laugh out of that and I have to admit it was kind of funny. Will I do it? Probably not but it IS tempting!