
Sweet
Mandy has tagged me .. to share a few things about myself that you might not know. I've always felt compelled to maintain a measure of 'mystique' ;) but there are a few things that I'm happy to share! My life is not extraordinarily interesting, but I hope you'll enjoy getting to know me a bit better. Here goes ~
1~ I'm a huge believer in Aromatherapy. Lavender for a headache. Bergamot & Patchouli when I'm sad. Bergamot blended with Clary Sage ~ mmmmm ~ pure wonderful! Geranium to calm the mind. Rose for joy, happiness & hope. Rose is by far my favorite oil. Did you know that pure rose oil contains the highest healing frequency on the planet?! (Except for prayer, that is.) I keep several little spritzer bottles around the house (and one in my car) filled with pure water and the essence of rose. Heavenly! Instant calm. My 'perfume' of choice.
2~ I can't sleep with a light on. Or the door shut. Or in the car. Or if my teeth aren't brushed. Or with my feet covered up. (Maybe there's an essential oil for this!)
3~ There is not a single stick of new furniture in my home. (With the exception of an OfficeMax desk & chair who's days are numbered :) Purely antique, vintage, and found treasures. I dearly love each piece and wouldn't have it any other way. I simply couldn't imagine not putting my feet up on my sweet (old) couch! Nor could the kitties!
4~
j jill is my favorite line of clothing ~ the only line that fits me perfectly off~the~rack. Some of my favorite finds at the thrifts are faded, worn~in, j
jill anything. I treasure my little collection!
5~ I can't be rushed. Not happening. Don't even try. And I'm not so good at multi~tasking, either. But I have amazing focus. One thing at a time please. If you talk to me with the
tv on, I won't hear you. One thing at a time.
6~ My parents divorced when I was 27. It's no easier on grown children than it is on little children. I was devastated. I still am, even though they have both passed on. It changed
everything.7~ I wore braces for two years and a retainer for two years. The gap between my two front teeth is still there. I'm keeping it.
8~ I can't curl my tongue. Didn't get the gene. Darn.
9~ But I can belch on command. Yeah, I know ... real 'sweet'! There went my image .. .
10~ I was not given a middle name. I was traumatized by this (??!) so I gave one to myself, but never told my parents. Hope. Kimberly Hope. It suits me. To this day, my signature has an H in the middle. I was supposed to be a boy .. oops! My name was going to be Colt. Whew! I've always believed
Kim Novak was my namesake ... my Dad adored her. (That was quite a few all rolled into one, sorry :)
11~ My first kiss was in the seventh grade. At the movies. It was sweet.
12~ I've lived with a vintage 13' diving pool just off my back porch for 18 years now. I can't swim. But it's a great foot~soak!
13~ Biggest pet peeves .. junk mail, litter and daytime t.v. (no, I don't watch Oprah) . ..
14~ I take
very long showers. This is where I decompress. The water helps me problem~solve. And it brings me inspiration.
15~ I was involved in competitive shooting when I was young. My father was an amazing rifleman, passionate about teaching young ones to respect firearms, and he was my coach. He helped me to learn to focus. I won. A lot. I still have all my medals. I often out-scored all the boys on the team, which tickled my Dad. He nicknamed me 'Dead-Eye'. I couldn't pick up a gun today if my life depended on it. Go figure.
16~ During my high school years, the summers were spent working at a local plant that manufactured rubber ear tags for livestock. It was a boring job, to say the least. And tedious. My friend, Kathy, and I spent an entire summer working in the shipping department .. counting out the tags by 50's, packaging, boxing, labeling .. counting, packaging, boxing, labeling . . ..... 1-50, 1-50, 1-50, all day, every day, eight hours a day . ... We would get
sooooo bored, we got goofy-bored. We yearned to be free of this boring drudgery (but it paid well, so we endured). Kathy & I schemed together and plotted our escape. We started, on occasion, slipping little S.O.S. notes into the packages that were to be mailed to other countries, far more interesting places in the world, begging to be rescued from our boredom, from our oh~so~unglamorous jobs in this factory in this little town in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Mum was the word. Our supervisor never knew. (I hope!) I can only imagine what the folks on the receiving end of those silly little notes
must've thought! Alas, no one came. No one called. We were not 'rescued'. We endured. 1-50, 1-50 ... Life went on. The summers came and went. We survived. The factory
(Y-Tex) is still there today, alive and doing well. I miss sweet Kathy, we have lost touch.
17~ Last December, mostly at the urging of my lovely (and brilliant) daughter, but also because I knew deep~down that I needed to, I signed a six~month contract with a Personal Fitness Trainer. I chose not to blog about this, I didn't know how things would go.
'Real' exercise has not been a part of my life for some 30 years. In spite of knowing how vital it is .. I was ignoring it. Both of my parents had heart attacks and subsequent (numerous) heart surgeries when they were my age. I am 50. I am
not going there. I
won't go there. Holding their hands through the last days of their lives left an impression I cannot forget. I have been diligent (and focused) in my efforts, working out 3 and sometimes 4 times per week. I haven't missed a single session. More on this later, but I can tell you with certainty, it has been a very positive and life~changing experience. In many ways. For one, there are 18 inches less of me now. Food has become my friend for the first time EVER. Tofu, tuna, and egg whites are my candy. Candy was never the problem. Starving myself was the problem. One's body needs simply to know that it will be nourished and cared for .. only then can it respond .. and let go. A lesson it's taken me far too long to get. Don't know how much weight I've 'lost', I threw my scales away. It's just a number. What I have 'gained' though has been immeasurable. Planks, squats, curls, throw-downs, crunches .. bring them on! I feel strong. I've pushed through much more than pain these last five months. I've accomplished things I never imagined possible for myself. It's mental. I'm proud. My new mantra .. "I CAN DO IT"! And I will. Wanna arm~wrestle!! ;)
18~ I've been
seriously blocked lately as to what to blog about. Completely, totally, utterly blocked. Frozen. Shut down. Numb. HUGE funk. Photo~shooting every day .. but nothing looks quite right to me. I can't see the pretty right now. Thank You, Mandy, for tagging me. It felt good to open up blogger today with a reason. Quite honestly, and because I don't know the words for it ..
LIFE is RAINING. All around me. It's a
hard rain. It's not sprinkling, or tinkling, or misting. It's pouring. It's hailing. It's dumping. Cats & Dogs Dumping. Not a pretty rain. Not a sweet Springtime afternoon rain. I'm soaked. I'm drenched.
I can't seem to come up with anything even remotely pretty right now. Or profound. Or creative. The extent of my 'creativity' of late has been to work with a designer of monuments .. in creating the final detail of my Dad's life ~ his headstone. I have been so remiss with this task. Painfully remiss, and I cannot explain why, it is beyond me. It has taken me more than three years since his death to come to terms with this difficult task. The details have been so complicated. He trusted me to handle the details. This is not the venue. Tough stuff.
I have always wished for my blog to be a happy place. A peaceful, pretty place. A place to come for vintage sweetness. But I've lived enough life to know that it's not always 100% sweet. Life is real. I am human. The only way through .. is
through. (See #17 .. "I'm strong". :) Postings may be sparse until the storm clears. My heart knows the peace will return. And the pretty.
19~ Admitting I'm troubled is hard.
Mandy listed 6 things. I'm rambling. But let's just go for an even 20, shall we?! ..
20~ I have one child. A daughter. She's the LOVE of my life. The greatest gift I've ever received. Beyond words
beautiful. You will find her picture in Webster's .. under
precious. And beautiful.
This is one of my favorite photos of us. We were in Yellowstone Park, Summer 1986. We were
enroute to my 10~year high school reunion. She is the age now that I was then. Oh, how this plays tricks with my head. We've both changed a bit. :) She has grown up and become a uniquely~skilled & highly sought after
aesthetician, thriving and making a wonderful living doing what she loves to do. She loved playing with make~up from the time she was two! I miss those days. She will always and forever be 'my little girl'. (Thankfully, she has had no hesitation in cleaning up those brows of mine :)
Long before Google was Google, she used to tell me that she loved me "a google", because that was the biggest number she could think of! (??!!) So now, every time I Google something, which is often, I can hear her in my heart telling me how much she loves me. :)
And then one day on Sesame Street she learned the meaning of the word
infinity. She changed her mind about the google, and decided that she loved me "infinity".
"I Love You Infinity, Mom". I loved her infinity, too.
Still do. We said it to each other often. So sweet. :)
Though she lives only an hour away, we don't see each other nearly often enough. Life .. you know. But the mere sound of her voice still melts my heart. And the touch of her hand can carry me for miles. And miles. And miles and miles ..
infinite miles
.And by the way ~ her middle name is
FAITH ~ bestowed upon her at birth.
Thanks for letting me share.
I now tag EVERYONE!
I love you all and couldn't possibly pick just a few!
