The Other Side

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him , he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher "Oh wise one , can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river"?
The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back "My son, you are on the other side" .

Friend or Foe?

Sometimes you think you know who your friends are. But then you find out they were really just waiting for you to fall down so they could kick you. Or maybe I'm just naive and I want to believe the best about people even when it's not true.

Thank you to those people who offered me a hand up when I fell down.

Mean people suck

Mean people really really really suck.

You can't please everybody....

It seems that no matter what I do or how hard I try, I just can't make people happy. It's the little comments that chip away at my confidence. Sometimes they are "well meaning" and sometimes they are just thoughtless and mean things that someone says, but they all hurt.

I might not do things perfectly according to everyone else, but I do live my life with little regrets. I know that I can't please everybody and I know that I shouldn't try either. But knowing that doesn't stop the comments from hurting.

Perks to being broke

There are some perks to being totally broke. Since we moved into our new house almost a month ago, we have been pretty broke. Well, I think anyone who had to make 2 mortgage payments would be. Since we've been broke, we have given up our near daily eating out. Between that and running up and down all my new stairs, I have lost a jeans size!

Pictures of our new house!

I finally got things organized enough to share some pictures of the new place. Just so you can see how much nicer our new house is, here is a side by side comparison.
Old dining area:

New dining room:

Old kitchen:

New kitchen:

Old living room:

New living room:

Old master bedroom:


New master bedroom:

Totally burnt out

Between all the drama with moving, trying to keep up with the kids and school...I am totally burnt out. I am trying so hard to get everything done that I find I have no time for myself. I am so exhausted every day lately. I find that I need to take a nap when Abby does and go to bed early. It really sucks.

I hope that we sell the condo soon and life gets back to normal soon. I only have a few boxes left to unpack, which is cool. I just want to get back to playing with Abby during the day and I'm sure she's tired of me being distracted while I try to get a zillion things done. I am anxious to be done with school for the semester too. I find that I'm just doing enough to get by rather than learning.

My bathrobe escapades

I awoke this morning shortly before 7:00am to my doorbell ringing. So I put on my fuzzy pink bathrobe and hobbled downstairs. I found a trollish old man on my porch who wanted me to move my car....right now of course so that some crew could work on my driveway. I knew that they were supposed to work on our driveways today, but they weren't supposed to start until 8am. And my hubby was SUPPOSED to move my car this morning. Hmpf.

So I asked Evan to run up and grab my glasses while I looked for my keys. When he was taking too long (and I was scared the troll would come back), I went upstairs to find Evan jumping on my bed! WTH?!?! So I grabbed my glasses and rushed out to move my car in my bathrobe. I'm sure the construction workers got a good laugh out of that.

So I drove around the block to park on my side of the street and of course everyone else was already taking up those spots, so I had to park on the other side of the street. And the high school kids were just getting on their bus when I got out of the car. Well, at least I gave them something to talk about on the way to school!

I went back in the house to find that Evan had eaten cake for breakfast! Not the half slice that was there, but the whole slice!

I felt like my head was going to explode by this time, so I called up my hubby and shared my story. I added some adjecties that would make a sailor blush though.

And now I have really bad cramps. Why does the universe hate me today!?!?

I hate people sometimes....

Our contract fell through AGAIN! Why are there so many dumb dishonest people out in this world?!? And why do they try to buy MY house? Aaaack!

Some good advice for today

"Let go, and respond to the immediate needs around you. Don't get caught in some false perception of yourself. There will always be another person more gifted than you. And don't perceive your position as important, but be ready to serve at any moment. If you can let go of who you think you are, you will become free - ready to love others. If you learn to see your impermanence, you will be able to live for the moment and not miss opportunities to love by pushing things into the future."

--Thich Nhat Hanh

In our new house!

So we are in our new house now. It doesn't feel quite like "home" yet. It's really exhausting to move stuff up two flights of stairs and upack things. It's hard on little Abby too. She doesn't understand what's going on, so she's very short-tempered. Evan seems to just be excited and really loving his new room. Hopefully, it will feel like home here soon.