25 random things that most could care less about but are kind of interesting to me!

1.  I was just laid off...bring on unemployment and all the fun that goes along with that??? Any advice from someone who knows how this all works.

2.  I love water!!  I love to sit in a boat and look down...I love to sit at a river and stare at it for hours.  I love waterfalls...little streams...the ocean!  I love to this day to float boats in rain water( you have to make your boats from random stuff...wood, leaves, sticks,etc).  I also love to stand out in the rain and get soaking wet and to run thru it even if others think I'm crazy...K do you remember that?  I also want to go swimming in my wedding dress if I ever get married..

3.  I love to swim in lakes free of all "things" if you know what I mean...My goal is to swim in a mountain lake of some kind each month of the year.  I only have November, December, January, and February to go...I think I will go south for these.  All the other months have been accomplished in the great state of Montana!

4.  I love music.  I think life should be a musical and everyone should be part of it.  I dream of being a great musician but it just doesn't seem to be happening so I will stick with my voice that has some to be desired.

5.  I come from a huge family....I have 5 brothers and 2 sisters...wouldn't change it for nothing!

6.  I love plants!! I have way to many in my house.  I love to grow stuff.....I can't wait to have a garden again!

7.  I  love wheat!! I love it when it is green and once it has turned golden!  I love to watch the wind blow thru it!  I love harvest time even though I can't breath!  I love to make wheat gum!!  I love to run my hands thru the grains in the silos.

8.  I love to fish...Actually I just love to go more with boys.  I like to watch them and take the fish off the hook once they catch them.  I don't mind cleaning them and I love to cook them over a fire or fry in a pan!  I love sushi as well...kind of a shock but I even like the little eggs.  However when a fish has eggs in it I kind of fill sorry for it when it gets caught...all those little eggs could have been fish

9.  I love turtles.  I once kissed one and it bit my lip....my family still brings that up.  I also love frogs of all kinds!

10.  Have lived for a year in the hood of Philly.  I miss it sooo much.  I miss the action on the streets.  I miss how people sit on their stoops in the summer.  I miss the corner stores.  I miss the cheap food.  I miss the people that live there.   So open and real about life even when it is crazy.  I even kind of miss the little mice and roaches that lived with us....well not that much but I do have some fun stories....Like when our friend pulled one out of our wall and stabbed it with a knife...Or when one was living in our fridge...those were the days mice traps in the fridge.

11.  I have been to Brazil and Europe and so want to go spend some time in both Africa and Central America.  Mexico is also calling to me and I so want to go and stay with some of my old coworkers. 

12.  I love many illegal immigrants!   I would give my freedom for them.  I have even thought about giving up my singleness so they can live in peace...I'm just not there just yet...maybe someday!

13.I love cards....and games.  I could play like everyday and I don't think I would get tired of it.

14.  I haven't gone to the theater in 10 years...it drives my friends crazy but I can't help it and now I just kind of don't want to let the 10 year record go!

15.  I love to cook for others and have gatherings!

16.  I love to B-B-Q and eat it!

17.  I love to camp....Lay out under the stars and smell the fresh air!  I also love camp fires  I could sit by them like forever.  I love to burn pine cones.

18.  I like to do yard work.  Mowing is relaxing to me! 

19  I love flowers!! I wish I got more but I guess then maybe I wouldn't like them as much.  I really love wild ones picked fresh!

20.  I love to knit and drink tea

21.  I have always loved people with darker skin than mine...I don't know how to say that but as my African friend says...you love little  Chocolates...he is so right!

22. I have had over 20 different roommates since highschool and have moved14 times..it is time to settle down.

23.  I love road trips...longest one I've gone on is to Arkansas to visit my brother.  It was a little long but I still loved it.  I love to see new places...see it fly by and turn up the music and sing!

24.  Have some hope for the future...it was growing but was kind of stunted in the last few days but It will grow again.

25. Love to have visitors so if anyone wants to come to MT please don't hesitate...I have nothing to do for the next unknown amount of time.....

Inspired finally.....

So I haven't been inspired by much lately but last night on the news was a different story.  I found my heart warmed....and I was moved to tears.  Check out the web site: anangelinqueens.com  Its an amazing story and challenged me to think about what I should be spending my time and money on!  Maybe a move to New York??? Maybe a little much but who knows.

I hope you all enjoy...be inspired...be moved to do something good...care for someone other than yourself!

My beautiful friend the tumbleweed

Have you ever seen them blow'n across the prairie?  Those round, once alive balls of joy....I speak of the ever famous tumbleweed.   They are so amazing even songs have been written about them.  If you haven't seen one, you should travel to the great plans of Montana in the late summer and sit out in a cow pasture and just watch as the wind blows down the rolling hills.  Before long you will see one come bobbing your way....Or how about a tornado.  I've always wanted to see one and haven't yet....but I hear talk of them alot in the news these days...my brother once said that my sister was about as stable as one......

So many things in nature can be reflected on.  I have been thinking alot of tumbleweeds and how I think they describe my season of live.  Tumbleweeds were once healthy alive plants (weeds)  that nature only allowed to live so long.  They dry up and the wind picks them up and blows them away.  Their destination....unknown...  What will stop them...unknown....Will they get caught under a car and have their destination determined for them...unknown......Their life is unknown...but it is in that "unknown"  that the tumbleweed is beautiful to me.  It blows from here to there never knowing where it will go, who it will see, or where it will stop.  It just knows that it has to let the wind take it to where it must go.

As I reflect on yet another year, I too feel the unknown calling my name.  Where will I stop and what will make me stop?  I have died to all that once held me to the ground and now I'm freely blowing across the prairie.  Destination....unknown.  But I'm learning to find beauty in that.  I'm learning to enjoy the wind.  The storms don't hurt as much cause I am free to move with them.  So this I believe is going to be a year of blowing across the prairie....what fence will stop me only God knows.   But I choose to let the winds come and the storms blow around me and I'm becoming ok with bobbing here and there until I find what seems to be the path.  And if a tornado should come along and pick me up I guess I will be with good company.......

xanga...where screams happen!!

So I could scream right now...I can't get my pictures to upload...I once thought that this little blog site would be a relaxing thing that would bring some peace to my life and an avenue of which to write some thoughts down.  Who was I kidding?  Technology and me don't get along too well.  I want to add a picture of me and my niece to my site...and I can't....I want to scream.  So instead of screaming I will answer the eight questions put before me some time ago by me dear friend Holly. 

Eight little known facts about me...

I come from a family of eight if you include me and I'm part of the family so I say we have eight...5 boys and 3 girls....got to love the big families.

I can sit by a river and just take it in for hours.

I'm afraid of needles but at times want a tattoo.

I have great big hopes for a great future but then I often talk myself out of those very same hopes I hope for.

I love to swim in cold dark lakes with nothing on...some call it crazy.  We Montana girls call if fun!

Is that eight yet???? Only five

I've kissed a turtle and in return it bit me back...

I had the record in highschool for opening a starburst without your hands.  It was supposed to mean you were a good kisser...the turtle didn't think so but actually I think I took up the starburst thing after the turtle so maybe I wouldn't get that response now!!

And the final little random thing about myself is that I........drum roll....ya I can't think of a number eight...again I scratch my head...kind of want to scream but wont cause you probably had enough with Seven.

The story of my life

So I get all these forward that I hardly ever read...sorry to those of you that send them.  However, today of all days I got one from an old friend from Philly.  The first part of this stroy so explains where I feel in life right now.  I feel like giving up on everything I once held so close to my heart.  I feel like I have been broken down by the world around me and sometimes wonder what in the @#%# I'm doing with my life.  Have I somehow missed something?  Anyways, sad to say yesterday was actually the breaking point for me.  I had nothing.  I would like to say I did something spiritual like pray or read my bible but I didn't even have that in me.  I went to bed at like before 8 p.m.  Sad I know.   I woke this morning not much better than yesterday but I did ask for some help from my Father who l know still cares. 

Got to work today and this email was there.  I red it and it gave a little hope.  The sun is shining today and I know that I too may be Bamboo.  I guess I just live with a bunch of Ferns who make me wonder what is going on....Don't you know I'm growing roots...I'm not dead.  This time is root growing time...watch out!!  I hope that this little cheesy stroy may encourage some of you Bamboo out there.  Our time is coming.  We just have to fight harder I guess than some to get our top.  I pray however that my time may be coming sooner than later....I really don't have much more energy.  Maybe my roots are almost done growing....or maybe they are just starting....ahhh I can't think like that right now. 

Enjoy the story....

The Fern and the Bamboo.....

One day I decided to quit ... I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality.  I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me ..................

"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"

"Yes", I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.  I gave them light.  I gave them water.  The fern quickly grew from the earth.  Its' brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.  And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo".

He said. "In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.

In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.

He said. "Then in the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.  Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.  It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.  I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."

He said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots.  I would not quit on the bamboo. 

I will never quit on you.    "Don't compare yourself to others."

He said. "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern, yet, they both make the forest beautiful." "Your time will come," God said to me.

"You will rise high!"

"How high should I rise?" I asked.

"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.

"As high as it can?" I questioned.

"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."

I left the forest and brought back this story.  I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you ........

Never regret a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life.

Keep going ...

Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing, ............... But Only God keeps You Going!

Have a great day! The Son is shining!!

God is so big he can cover the whole world with his Love and so small he can curl up inside your heart.