Work or Off for Labor Day?

I'm still awake - sleeping at the facility tonight as to get to a friend's home to babysit her children tomorrow morning.


Today was nice, I was able to do two massages, but my shoulder was hurting after the first one. Sad to say, the second one was still good, but I had to do some Thai stretching and other things as to not engage my shoulder. It was nice to work a little again, even though the first one was a 2 hour complimentary/"Thank you for your patience and understanding" massage while I've spent most of the summer away for military.


Anyway, I pick the children up again tomorrow and then are off to go huckleberry picking! YAY!!! I haven't been huckleberry picking since 2006. Kind of sad! But what can I say, I didn't really get out much before.


If any of you have to work tomorrow, I hope your employers pay you time and a half, and if not - enjoy your day in the sun with family and friends.


Much love and light.


XOXOXOXO

Another Song...

I was going to put another fun list of songs... just this one will have to do. It's just a song that feels good... AND, I love this version. Don't read into it. LOL


Just A Fool - Cover 


XOXOXOXO

Naked Pictures!!!!!

Totally kidding people. No naked pictures, but my entire back and neck is exposed. I was the class hands-on demo person. It rocked and felt so good.

I love taking Continuing Education classes. Each class makes me a better person, or in my case- a used and abused person.  Lol.... just kidding. Here are a few pictures of me getting Gua Sha and cupping done.

By the way..... it's supposed to look like this... A little anyway.  The red spotted color shown indicates stagnation. The darker/purple the color - the longer the stagnation has been there in the area.

My Silence...

Today has been somewhat of an emotional day. It started last night with the call from one of my brothers indicating that I would probably get one of my nephews. (I believe I wrote part of that on the previous post.)


Last night I had a dream that a change was coming. One that I didn't know about or had not anticipated. Not sure what that will be.


Just a little stressed today. Feeling the weight of everything on me... the choices I have to make, where to move, medical stuff, to close my practice or not... Where I am, who I am, where do I feel safe and like me, military issues... the list could go on...


I did, however, get to take the first part of my 2 day class learning about different acupressure points on the body and their whole body association. It was quite delightful. I think, I was also triggered emotionally because now I have a lot of anger coming up that I feel like I'm suppressing. Waiting for the right moment to explode. It's a strange feeling.


Anyway, if I am silent on here for the next few days, it's not that I'm ignoring anyone or am hiding anything.... I just need some time to get my life a little in order.


So, I'll go off the grid for a little while and embrace my personal silence.
XOXOXOXO

Fighting, Yelling, Swimming, Time Outs, and Reunited

Well.... The title says it all! I baby sat again today and oh my! I don't know how I did it. I had to speak several times and raise my voice twice. How you mothers handle the arguing, fighting, yelling, pinching, hitting, biting.... I almost wanted to pin children up by their toes. Apparently I have a trigger when children start sassing, backing talking A LOT (continuously while I'm still attempting to talk), or when the start hitting each other while we're in a moving car and there's no place for me to pull over! Lol..... Oh goodness!

I think what about made me flip my lid was when one if the children twisted the other's arm and then put her hand over his mouth! I swear to Buddha It took everything in my power to not spout a potty mouth word and treat her like I would one of my Soldiers. That was definitely one of my raised voices moments and told her that was unacceptable.... that she could be upset and mad but was NOT allowed to do that to her brother who was almost 4 years younger. Blah! I honestly have to laugh about it or I'd burst out in teats or something.

Needless to say,  it was a rough day. Especially a rough morning. But moving on!

While the children finished whatever Netflix they were watching when I arrived, I prepared the lunch for the day and felt pretty proud of myself. (I even got some puppy commands training in with the scraps of human food I snuck them.) I wish I took a picture of all the treats and lunch I made. The children were so excited that they got their own lunch/goodie bag. I also had a bag with lunch and goodies. In theirs they had the following: peanut butter, honey, and jelly sandwich, carrots, and green and red grapes. In my bag I carried their left over pizza, extra carrots,  nectarines,  another sandwich, and a large container of cut up watermelon. Man, talk about yummy!!!!! Today at the pool rocked because the babies weren't complain that they wanted to leave because they were hungry.  Phew! Brownie points for me!

This evening I went and saw an old friend who moved to Oregon but was in town visiting for the week. It was really nice to see her and to also see some of my old friends I had gone to church with years ago. One of them I didn't know got married, another couple I hadn't seen since their second child was an infant and now they are expecting baby number 3 in a couple of weeks.... just so weird! I must admit, I found my comfort place at the grill. One of the other girls didn't know how to grill meat.... It was almost appalling. (Honey - I know you think that's hilarious that I was grilling "meat" even though I went on that week of giving up meat.... but yes, "I grilled" burgers and hot dogs, and even ate the meat. Yummy!!!!!! LOL)

It was a really nice little evening of catching up with old friends from years ago and seeing where people are in their lives now.

Tomorrow I am getting a massage (oh darn) and then will be in class. This weekend I am taking some CEU (continuing education unit) classes from my co-worker who is an acupuncturist.  He'll be teaching on accupressure, gua sha,  and cupping. I'm super excited!

Oh, and on a random note. ... I may be getting my nephew to help him with some recovery stuff. Who knows. Anyway. ... One Love! Happy happy!!!!!

Long Day

On Tuesday I  suggested to the children that we make their mom dinner on Wednesday night, so after a long and somewhat chilled day we made dinner. For the dessert I decided that I'd make this awesome grape  salad loaded with tons of sugar that is both yummy and would definitely hype up the children. The oldest helped me wash and dry the grapes and wanted to "draw a surprise" with the grapes. She asked how to spell my name and her you go!  She especially loved that she had enough grapples to put a heart at the end of my name. That was too cute!

I gave the children a dollar each in quarters (that's all the cash I had on me) and for lunch we had pizza, salad, and I was definitely entertained by watching the children have fun and play games or get treats. It was especially entertaining watching Dominic play. He didn't need money to be entertained. He just played on everything anyway.

What would be a dinner without making chipmunk cheeks with the grapes?!? It was so much fun. I'm glad I was able to reach far enough away to get everyone in the photo.  This us one if my favorite pictures for sure!!!!! Happy chubby cheeks!

Dominic was such a great helper mixing the secret ingredients for the dessert. I think he especially liked it when some of it would get on his arm or hands. That meant he got to stop and lock it off.

Although my day started with getting up at 515am, I'm glad the children didn't really wake up until 9 am. That gave me about an hour and a half nap before we were up and at 'em. Breakfast was oatmeal with molasses and organic raspberry flavoring. .. yummy! I had Aryana, the oldest, help me make breakfast.

Then,  we got ready and headed to my work facility where Trent, Jasmine's husband, watched and played with the children for an hour and a half, while I got to get a massage for a massage final. (Oh darn, right?!? Lol)

After we left the facility it was lunch time.... hence the pizza and game picture above. Took them to Papa Tom's where the pizza is amazing!

Once they children were done eating and playing around we headed to the museum where we got to look at the exhibit "Race to the End of the Earth". It was really neat to see how the Norwegian and British teams raced to claim victory to be the first people to get to the South Pole. The trials and hardships they went through was immense! I know from my background and training that I could almost survive everywhere, but to build an entire underground village under ice, and to consistently live in -112° weather for at least 6 months is craziness.  I definitely had a lot of respect for those men that went. I really enjoyed watching the children ooh and aah over the things they were seeing and experiencing. It reminded me of my sister - in - law Foeata and my brother, Keoki, because they home school their children and take them on all kinds of adventures like the one I did with my kiddos. It was fun.

Oh.... quick funny story. Well, I thought it was funny. We went grocery shopping after the museum so we could get the ingredients to make dinner, and Autumn was hanging on the cart by her brother. Well, you know what happens when siblings are in each other's space.... someone's going to end up crying, and it wasn't going to be me. Lol!!!! Well, not quite sure what happened but I turned to see Dominic latched on to Autumn's arm in a full mouth teeth grip and she's bursting into tears. My instant reaction has a nail flick to the arm and a stern "No biting". Dominic looked at me with shock and started crying really loud. I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. Long story short. .. There were these other mother's around us staring with the "poor thing" look on their face. Part of it I don't think it was for the children, but more for me! A single woman in a GROCERY store with 3 children. Yeah..... I think the pitty look was for me.

Anyway. ... The dinner and day was a success. NAcole needed that special dinner and surprise when she got home. It was a hard depressing day for her at work.

Today is my last day watching the children and we're going to the pool.... allllllll day! Wish me luck!

P.S. My darling..... I love you.  XOXOXOXO

Barely 10am...

Well.... day three of the mommy sitter.... lol.... I thought most of you would like to see the little adventure I've been on all before 10am this morning. The only picture not on here is the one when purple nail polish was spilled in my hair. Oh yes indeed! Lol 

This is where the parrot but me. ... it almost became lunch.

The results of a 6 year old imagination of what "pretty feet" look like. Lmao

The results of a 7 year old. Pink nails with purple dots, lines, and swirls.

Buddha

In July I got to go to the Garden of A Thousand Buddhas, and it was pretty awesome. It was unique to see that there was this beautiful garden on the Indian Reservation of Flathead Montana. It was lovely. Anyway, I'm putting some pictures on here for y'all to see/read. Enjoy!