Ah, do you remember when...

I hate New Years Resolutions.  Not because I can't list.  I think all of us know I can.  I hate New Years Resolutions because I think we set ourselves up for failure and then peruse our list to flog ourselves about how we didn't loose the weight, the excercise routine only lasted a mere 3 days, and we did NOT keep the laundry room clean!  I have but one "Resolution" this year and it is simple.

I resolve to flow.

(Hubby would grin and shake his head at the "hippy-ness" of that statement.)

I resolve to live in the moment more, enjoy what I have more, strive less and flow.

Do you remember the flow?  That blissful place you were, long about 11 or 12 years old, before puberty and yet after awareness set in about how weird your parents were, freaking out over parties and how clean the house was or wasn't...  Remember flow?  I do.  I want it back.  I resolve to pursue my flow.

I will flow into my creativeness in my card room.  I will flow into my job as a wife, business owner, partner and client confidant.  I will flow more.  I will.

So there it is...  My one "non-resolution", if you will.  I am going to go with the flow!

Tis the season...

There are certain times of year that just stick with you.  From childhood on, good or bad, they become this thing you deal with for the rest of your life.  Fortunately for me, my experiences with Christmas have by and large been good ones and I enjoy the season.  I love the smells and the fellowship, the cheer and the drinks, the presents under a tree decorated to bending under the weight...

Image by Zellaby via Flickr

I seem to over schedule this time of year more than most. The Client Christmas party is before the actual holiday, and I love the preparations.  I love putting together the baskets, making the small items and finding incredible deals that help us make it special and individualized...  This year I even made carmel corn for the first time! I love all the parties and the folks you get to see.  I love the "holiday cheer" served up in shiny crystal glasses and the sound of laughter and chatter and conversations all around the house.  I love driving to Dad's and watching his latest light show and all the different music he uses...  (We refer to Dad as "Sparky" from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.)  And speaking of Christmas Vacation, this was the year I finally purchased the movie to watch as a family and we all laughed and laughed and laughed.  The kids are finally old enough to know not to repeat the rather colorful language... ("Shitter's Full!" OMG! I love that movie!!!)

As I sit and type this out, Hubby is putting together Boy's new bed that we are hoping will afford him much more room, despite the rather large lizard cage he has to contend with.  There isn't any cussing yet, and there has been lots of child helping, so I will stay out of the room.  Makes being married much easier.  After a bowl of chili I will retire to the bath while he assembles Girl's bed (which she has grand plans to paint lime green...).  Maybe I will even make it into the massage chair - My neck is crying out to me that it is a necessity, not a luxury...

I truly hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas season.  The New Year looms and I have no illusions of setting any lifelong goals to have fizzle out and frustrate me.  Hubby will be traveling to another horse show on the 31st, so no party this year... Maybe next.

I hope to be back to blogging my regular posts very soon.  I miss it.  Cathartic...  Revealing...  Ethereal...  Bliss.

It's been a while...

You know when life sneaks up on you and you just can't seem to find your proverbial butt with both hands???? Well, no big shock - It has happened to me!

For the last month I have been literally running from one business to the other, not able to figure out what has changed and what has made my schedule a thing of the distant past. I am slowly coming out of a desperate dash into the Christmas season, but I have to say - Still no light at the end of the tunnel. (I am a bit of an optimist. I keep hoping the light isn't that far away, just a twist in the tunnel and I will be out of this in no time!)

I have had some very lovely travels in my sojourn, of late. I was able to spend the first Thanksgiving in maybe 10 years with Hubby and our little family. We simply packed up my lovely Ford Edge and headed south to Oklahoma City. If the darned show schedule won't cooperate, join the silliness and be flexible!!!! (I hate to inform family members here at home, but we had so much fun, we may just make it tradition!) I returned to OKC for the big Finals weekend that has become tradition the following week. After two more days with Hubby, I lit out for Louisiana to see my precious niece. What a joy!!!!!!

All this travel was a little harrying in that I had to rely on others to be here at home and do what I normally do... Well, some of what I do. And it is a very difficult thing for a control freak to do. I literally had to duck my head and ignore a lot of things so that I could just get through. I didn't want to miss out on the plans I had, because those too were very good things. I know my obsessive personality was stretched and I thank those that helped me get a grip! I need to learn to trust more that those I have set in place to help are so very capable... that is why I chose them!

Tonight is the big client Christmas Party and I am almost ready. I am burning off Christmas music to have playing while we all enjoy each other... Thus the splinter in time that I can log in and update my poor list of readers... I thank you for not deserting me as I wandered off into oblivion for a time... Hang in there! I am hoping to be back soon. Maybe. Sort of.

Merry Merry!

I can't live without my camera (Even if it is P&S)

Image via Wikipedia

(Yeah, yeah, yeah... We have heard it all before, Stacey... You want a new camera. Blah, blah, blah! )

Seems a bit ridiculous that my new phone has a better camera on it than my actual camera, though. The camera is a 3.0 pixel and the phone camera is 5.0 - Ironic isn't it?

Regardless, I still love taking pictures and sharing them. I love making the yearly calendar that chronicles our clients and the horses they have. It shows them how well they have done from year to year and serves as a marker for times (and horses) gone by. Pictures often make me smile. They can make me wistful, lonely, sad, ecstatic, longingly envious... Pictures evoke in me myriad emotions that words don't.

Thus, I love cameras. I would be terribly in over my head with the newest professional get-up, although I covet and slobber over them. So I am very likely to just upgrade to a better point and shoot. (gasp! Did she really SAY that???) I simply don't have time for another hobby.

I love my camera for the pictures it provided to chronicle my kids' growth. I love my camera for capturing moments in time I often forget about but can revisit whenever... I love my camera for zooming in to cut out the mess that is my home on a regular basis. I love my camera for the times it has brought me joy, as in this blog. I love that my camera will now capture the images of my beautiful new niece so that I may annoy countless hundreds with her ethereal guise!

I simply couldn't live with out my camera!

It's a sickness... I need serious help!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If you follow my Twitter posts, you know I went and got it. I couldn't help it. I had a friend who needed my help getting hers, and even though I knew it wasn't healthy for me to go along, her need for techy help swayed me into the Verizon store...

(Cue spotlight and ethereal music) There it was... Illuminated and ready for touching. (I had hand sanitizer so the myriad fingerprints on the little sample screen would not deter me!) My friend asked all the right questions, we played, we touched, we ooohed and we ahhhed... She bought. I felt "spent" - Yes, that kind of "spent". I told you, it is a sickness...

That was on a Sunday. By Tuesday, I was back in the Verizon store to investigate a way I could walk out with the ultimate in shiny phones...

A Droid! A Motorola, shiny, slick, slightly heavy and definitely clunkier than an iPhone, but as close as I will get for years, Droid!

I have played, I have downloaded apps, I have logged on to wireless, I have done it all! I have called customer support, I have set up my home screen, I have set up all the wonderfulness that is this phone...

I know there are those who would scoff at such a purchase. I don't care. I am deep in my addiction and I am one happy camper!

Have I told you lately I love my phone?

My phone is a life line... And a sickness.

Image by scottpowerz via Flickr

Hello, my name is Stacey (all intone, Hello Stacey...). I have a Crackberry Blackberry and I can't put it down!

We all know I am a Techy. Love new technology. I am a pariah in my own home! An example: Just recently, I employed a new remote for the myriad of electrical devices I we have in the living room. I actually purchased said remote two years ago in hopes of putting to bed the four remotes Hubby insisted on using for each item. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to find the remote clicker, much less trying to find FOUR of them. The first "launch" went miserably! Even frustrated myself! But two years later when the kindergarten simple remote's channel up button went bad, I refused to spend another $20 on a new one, since I had one that cost over $100 in a drawer just begging to be of use! I got it out, learned it's ins and outs, and put it into action... I still find them using 4 remotes! And none of them well! They resist new things and the remote takes a bit of time to learn. I have been called into the living room on many occasions to "FIX IT!" I guess I will smile and call that job security! But I digress...

When it comes to my phone, I just love the newest and the most innovative. I have a Blackberry and couldn't be happier... Ahem. I think my nose just grew! I AM happy with my phone... For now. (Since I have to wait until January for the newest one.) I love to text, send video, pictures, play games and listen to music - and all of these things I can do from my phone! I can keep in touch with Hubby, my kids, my mother, my dad, get strange texts from my Uncle (everyone has an Uncle Bob). I can check the weather, find a sushi bar, book a flight, get driving directions... All from the tee-tiny keyboard on my Crackberry. Aptly nick-named, as I can't seem to be anywhere without it and touching it just makes everything better! (An aside: Hubby cannot even answer my phone. Has no clue which button to push and usually hits 3 or 4 of them with his cute sausage-like fingers in the process!)

Since the hullabaloo about the iPhone possibly moving to Verizon - We all know that was a lie! - I have been waiting to see what the Tech-horizon has in store for me. I have been very happy with my Blackberry. I have a lot of things on there that I just love using - Programs you can't get anymore.... And it will be an adjustment to get a new phone. But you know me well! It is an adjustment I am willing to make! I cannot live without my cell phone!

Isn't Vodka like breathing?

Image by necopunch via Flickr

Yes, we all know it. I am a Vodka hound. I love martinis. I love the dirty kind, the sweetie kind, the fruity kind... I love Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, White Russians, Black Russians, Colorado Bull Dogs, Vodka Collins, Vodka Tonic... I love me a good old fashioned vodka cocktail!

I have had trysts with other alcohols.... Tequila: Little feller makes me all shaky the next morning. All I wanted was a Margarita, not to feel like a recovering Meth addict! Wine: Now THAT is a headache! Doesn't matter, white, red or champagne (although reds give me the headache BEFORE the buzz - How can THAT be right??), I get a monstrous headache! Rum: Meh... Just a nonstarter. I can handle it, but unless I get the coconut flavored kind in Pineapple/Orange juice, I really don't see the point! My stint with Liqueurs failed big time when I poured out curdled Bailey's and Cream over ice... Not happening!

Nope, I'm a Vodka girl! Not a vodka snob... I have no real "brand" I stick to. Although, with my gluten intolerance, I tend to stay away from Absolute... There is something in there that just doesn't compute! I cheap out on vodka for sweet mixes and Bloody Marys. Greatest advice I have gotten from a bartender friend of mine: If you are mixing it, no need to shell out the big bucks. Now in a good Dirty Martini? Spend, spend, spend! The smoother the better. I am not a huge fan of the Goose, but she will do in a pinch. I prefer a Ketel of the stuff! I like the new coolio Grape distillates, but that did give me a headache worse than the cheap stuff....

I am an inventor. I love to dream stuff up to put in the shaker. I love going to the local martini bar and then duplicating at home those concoctions that don't have to cost me $15 a glass! That would be where I got the Screamin' Grape Ape! And sista! She screams!

Lest you are concerned: I don't drink all the time. In fact, I rarely drink. (Thank you empty-calorie weight gain and colon polyps!) But when I do, I reach for the vodka bottle! "What can I make with this?" And the possibilities are endless!

C'mon over! I'll pour us a "yummy" outta the shaker... Because I cannot live without Vodka!