Patience (Fur Babies?)

So my husband and I have been trying to have a baby for almost 2 years now. I'm terrified and would rather he had the baby, but I'm told it doesn't work that way, bummer. There are several reasons why I am afraid, the pain, the future lack of sleep, and the expenses all sound so overwhelming. But after we had this huge talk of God will make it happen and we can handle anything together nothing has happened. In the meantime my husband is a rather bad habit and rescuing animals and bringing them home. At one time we had 4 cats and 2 dogs. Since we moved here we now have 3 male cats and one dog. Three out of the four were found.

Sasha: A beagle mix who was found in a nearby local park was wondering around the park for several days before my husband finally broke down and brought her home. He was still living with his parents at the time and they were not happy. But who could say not the face! She is lazy, snuggly, and extremely loud.

Japetto: Bought from the shelter as a kitten. The only animal we paid for. My husband loves cats and has always had a cat growing up, Japetto was his birthday present. He is grey and adorable. Has so much pride and sneaky habits. One thing that he just can't stop is chewing on charger cables. We buy 2-3 phone chargers a year.

Rusty: On Thanksgiving day my husband kept saying he heard a cat mewing outside. Sure enough an orange kitten was hiding under our porch. He was wild and and terrified of my husband. Took 3 hours to catch him and he bit my husband. For 2 years he was the scared cat that would hide all day long. He never came out unless he was hungry. Since we moved, which was even more traumatic for him, he has opened up a little. He will let us pick him up, snuggle for a little, and sometimes he will sleep near our bed, but hardly ever with us.

Bonkers: Found in the city, he was dangerously thin, scabby, and crazy cuddly. He acclimated with the other cats really well, pretty much ignored them and slept all day. He is lazy, needy, demands snuggling and once in a while he meows loudly until someone holds him or plays with him.

Even though we have been trying for a child I feel like we have 4 already. They all have their strange habits. We spoil them in different ways. We yell at them differently (ex: you say his name sternly and he panics, Japetto you have to yell and chase him, he will continue you do whatever he wants til you get up and got after him). Their personalities are completely different and we would do anything for them. Recently Sasha was diagnosed with cancer, roughly $4,000 dollars later she is walking and thinks she can jump and run.

I guess my positive thought for this week is that sometimes you may be happy and right where you need to be even though you think you want something more. Maybe there is something else we haven't gone through, that God thinks we need more time. Or maybe we are meant to adopt a lonely child who needs our patience. Either way positive thought to meditate on is Patience. Now I'm not saying give up. As a couple trying to add another to the family we haven't given up. But whatever is supposed to happen will happen. In the meantime we can love our Fur Children and plan for other possibilities. So don't stop attempting to reach your dreams. Instead plan, research, and find the path you are supposed to follow.

Have Sweeter Day than Yesterday. 

Amature Photo Shoot

So I finished up the necklaces for my girlfriend's wedding. I made a necklace her with matching earrings and 2 necklaces for her bridesmaids. I was excited how they turned out. I have also thought about selling similar necklaces before and mentioned wanting more professional pictures to my mom. I was on pinterest.com and saw a handmade Light Box. Instead my mom surprised me by buying me a light box for Christmas. Here is a video of someone opening up the kit that my mother bought me. 

I've already tried it out but I wanted to share a photo shoot I did outside. The first couple of times I tried it inside and my lighting was pretty limited, so I decided try to use the sun. There were a couple complications try to use the sun. If my head wasn't casting a shadow my camera was. But I think I finally figured out a solution. I'm sure it will be an adventure every time.

My set up outside:

And here are some before and after editing:

So there you have it. Even though I'm not a pro, I don't think they look that bad. My mom bought the kit from Amazon.com and there are a lot of different sizes and type up kits to choose from. If you are looking to have some simple backgrounds instead of the normal house clutter in the background you should check out some options. 

Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday 

 


                                     

The Flashbacks (Band & Bar review)

So my husband and I went on an impromptu adventure again. Friday night we didn't have any plans, but we wanted to go out and do something within budget. Of course this is always difficult to do. But it is apparently my job to figure out what is going on locally. So I hop online, we're driving around town, and I look up events in Portland, ME.  Behold I find a list on Visit Portland. The list literally has day by day of the events, you can choose what month or even down to the day. So I look up Friday and there's a couple things, but only one that's 15 minutes away. TGIF Maine Band Dance Series is hosted on Fridays in Zackery's Restaurant and Lounge which we would find out later is in the Fireside Inn and Suites hotel.

The website said there was a $5.00 cover charge, which my husband and I comprised on by eating at home first. Again to stay within budget. Because we were more than half an hour late since we went home to eat, my husband gave Zach's a call to see if it would be okay if we showed up late. They said sure the band would be performing until 11:00 that night and best news yet, no cover charge that night. Woo who! Free tunes.

Place: is was a little strange going in because we didn't know it was in a hotel. But the hotel atmosphere was really pretty and homie. I loved the fire place! Made of stones and looking warm and cozy. We Found a sign stating Zach's and a man at the asked for our ID's. We walked in to a dimly lit little bar and found a spot to sit. The layout was small but had enough seating and a great view of the band.

The Band: The Flashbacks were a lively group, that joked with the audience and filled up the room with their energy. I liked their interactions between each other. An awesome team and well played songs too. They played modern songs like Uptown Funk and older songs. The main singer the woman was a ball of energy, with the biggest smile. Later they joked that she was getting over a cold. Fooled me! My husband liked the men that say too. 

So off we went. 

Place: is was a little strange going in because we didn't know it was in a hotel. But the hotel atmosphere was really pretty and homie. I loved the fire place! Made of stones and looking warm and cozy. We Found a sign stating Zach's and a man at the asked for our ID's. We walked in to a dimly lit little bar and found a spot to sit. The layout was small but had enough seating and a great view of the band.

The Band: The Flashbacks were a lively group, that joked with the audience and filled up the room with their energy. I liked their interactions between each other. An awesome team and well played songs too. They played modern songs like Uptown Funk and older songs. The main singer the woman was a ball of energy, with the biggest smile. She danced all over the stage and stood next to the other band members bringing attention to them too. Later they joked that she was getting over a cold. Fooled me! My husband liked the men that say too. Their raspy deep tones got his bead bobbing to the beat. Glad they share their talents and share the stage. A true team of talent and fun.

Customer Service: The bartender was patient with my husband asking about all the prices and helped him choose a beer. One man had way too many to drink and she helped him get a cab and apologized to a couple he had been a little overly friendly with. Handling the situation very well. Around 11 pm we started to head out. The band was only taking a couple minute and planned to start right back up again, but my husband had to be up early the next morning. As we were leaving I noticed a sign that said Ballroom and wondered if someone could have a wedding there. We know couple getting married and it was a cute little place. I asked the front desk and they directed me to the bartender who is their events coordinator also. She was amazing. Providing us with packets, information, possible dates available, even showed us what the conference rooms looked like and let me take pictures. A+

Over all the night was great. Not too many people, but it was nice not to be crowded and fight for seating or not be able to see the band. A very relaxed atmosphere. Somewhere you bring a couple of friends listen to some tunes and chill.

Thanks for reading! 

Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday! 

Les Brown (Video Review)

So I am a pretty big fan of John Maxwell and while watching one of his Minute with Maxwell daily videos he had A guest speaker named Les Brown was on the video and John mentioned that Les had been doing motivational speaking just as long as John had. I got curious and wanted to see his style of speaking. I found this older video on youtube.com and loved it! 

This Les Brown video is 48.59 minutes long. The Title is "You Deserve" with an introduction at the beginning and a short biography of the speaker. One thing that shocked me in the quick facts mentioned about Led is that growing up he was diagnosed EMR or Educated Mentally Retarded. During Les' speech he explains that when was young a teacher asked him to write something on the board, and Les told him he wasn't able to. The teacher insisted and when he asked Les why he couldn't Les explained that he was EMR. The teacher said, "Don't ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to be your reality." Les has done great things in his life time that he couldn't have done had he not started to think about himself differently.

It is an older video but still amazing lessons to be learned and right from the beginning you can feel Les' energy. I loved his booming voice and his timely placed humor. One thing he said that made me giggle was your always going to have problems. Life is hard, it's not perfect. So you need to invest in yourself. Take time to work on yourself. Ask what things do you need to improve? If you don't you: "Will wake up one day and find that your behind on your dreams and you bills"

I found myself laughing a lot and soaking in so much information. Les' energy was all over the stage and in his hands. He has a different technique that I hadn't seen yet. One thing he did was make the audience repeat phrases throughout his speech. He would say something and make the ground repeat it word for word. From it I got, if you say it yourself about yourself it's possible because you believe it. But you need to start believing it. Start by saying your goals or writing them down somewhere you can read it everyday.   

Even though the video is a bit long I did learn a lot. And it kind of opened my eyes on a couple view points. For example: "Develop the habit of doing more than what you're paid for." if you go into work right on time and you pack up your stuff 15 minutes before it's time to leave you're not cheating the company that you work for. You're cheating yourself by limiting yourself and creating bad habits. Get a habit of being mediocre than that is what you will become. Need to set high standards for yourself and who are want to be for your next job. We talk ourselves out of greatness all the time. Stop holding yourself back."   

Les also through out many quotes that I hadn't heard of before. Here a couple more things that I go from the video.  

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have one and not be prepared.”

– Whitney Young, Jr., American Civil Rights Leader

It doesn't take much to be a loser. Actually it takes no effort at all. It's easy to do nothing. It's easy to complain about your life and how people around you are succeeding. 

Practice makes Improvements, it's doesn't make perfection. There is not such thing. But you can always make improvements. Practice, Practice, Practice. 

Overall an amazing video and seeing the different hair style in the audience were pretty entertaining too. If you have time I definitely suggest you watch it. And if you don't have time do what I did, listened to it while working and cleaning my house. Remember that you have to take the time to invest in yourself. 

Thanks for Reading 

Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday! 

Negative Ninees

You guesses it! This blog is about those Negative Ninees in your life.

They are everywhere. You can't get away from them. They're your friends, your coworkers and even your family members. If you read my blog Be Happy I mention an article that had a list of 39 things or habits happy people do daily. Check out the list. There's some good stuff on there. However, there is number 9, which says, "there best friends are happy people too." Now I'm expanding that thought from just friends but to people in general that are close to you. I've also read in other articles that people who are getting on a track of success need to get rid of those negative people in order to focus on their success and not let those no sayers drag them down. But sometimes these people are not so easy to get rid of and obviously if it's family you still want those people in your life.So this weeks positive thought is just some How To's that I learned the hard way and some I read about.

How to handle with Nay Sayers

1.) Stop telling them your dreams: if you have over the top dreams and you've mentioned it to a family member or friend and nothing good comes out of their mouth, you should probably stop trying to share your ambitions. In fact the people you should be talking to are people who are doing what you want to be doing, aka Networking. These people will help you by giving you advice or you may just watch and learn from the pros. Now some negative people may think that they are trying to help, they believe you are reaching to high. That's understandable, however, hearing over and over again that your dream is not realistic will end up turning into a reality because you too will start to believe it. So stop asking for advice or confiding in the wrong people, they will see your greatness soon enough.

2.) Spend more time away from them: again family and friends are hard to stay away from. But if you know you have to do a big project at work and that certain someone in your life is going to say, "well you don't have enough time," or "you don't have the resources." I read an article that was titled, How To Deal With Energy Vampires: 8 Simple Tips and found it not only a little humorous but helpful. Some people don't know how to be supportive. They are just naturally negative. Just remember that negative energy is contagious and you don't want to catch it.

3.) Ignore their criticisms: The link beside #3 is a pretty good article that might help you ignore negative people. The best way to be around people who are always saying negative things is to ignore them. Or you could try to be extremely positive and always have nice and kind things to say about everything and anything. Why? Just like negative energy, positive energy is also contagious. I do, however, know a few people who can not be happy. In fact they are not happy unless they are complaining. But I still try my hardest to be a ray of sunshine because you never know when you can be a positive influence on someone.

4.) Understand they may be jealous of your passion: a lot of negative people have things in their lives that are dragging them down. So when you come in as a ball of energy singing about a new job opportunity or about your new invention or your new dream to star on The Voice, they are not so supportive. They tend to break your dreams done with realistic logic. One thing to notice though is that these same people are where they are because of that same logic. It obviously pays to think logically when reaching for your dreams, coming up with plans of attack that will align you on the right path. However, you must also take risks and get out of your comfort zone in order to do great things. So again don't let them take your dreams from you because they are afraid to reach for theirs. Instead understand their limitations, but don't judge them.

So that's my thoughts for this week. Hope this helps you the next time you're super excited about your next adventure and you know a Negative Ninee isn't going to have faith in you, don't despair. Just ignore those dark comments and pointed jabs. Keep your distance mentally and if you can try to bring some light to those Debbie Downers, DO IT. Keep your dreams high, reach out to them daily, and be a shiny spot in someone's life.

Thanks for Reading!

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Have a Sweeter Day than Yesterday