Inching closer into your living rooms!

I have my first meeting with the local TV station tomorrow AM. They said my idea is very doable, and they are looking forward to getting started. Me too!! I'm tempted to fly my sister up to do the first cooking show with me. I think that would be a good thing.

Oh, Stephanie! You in??

:)

I think the prospect of having a healthy living TV show is very, very fun. It will also be just another venue to keep me on the straight and narrow with my own healthy living goals.

Move over Tyra, here I come! ;-)

KC - soon to be in your living room

That's right, folks!  I'm in the process of setting up a local cable access show.  I find the idea *quite* humorous, and I think it would be a lot of fun too.  The idea I've pitched is a Living Well/Choosing Joy show - either weekly or monthly.  Sometimes it will be a healthy cooking show, other times it will be a book club, sometimes it will be a local restaurant review, maybe even a local guide for fun things to do in the area...possibly an art show...possibly a panel show to talk about local issues, etc...

I can't wait to hear back from them, and I will keep you posted!

Breast Cancer Walk

The tool bar at the top of this blog window isn't populating, so no picture - sorry! Imagine this: a gray, rainy day, a large crowd of people with red cheeks and noses traipsing up a medium incline hill, smatterings of umbrellas and few smiles to be seen: that is what the breast cancer walk looked like this past Sunday. LOL

It was 30 something degrees out, but with the wind chill factor it felt much colder. We tried to avoid the large puddles as much as possible, but some could not be avoided, so our feet were wet, our ears were burning cold, our clothes were soaked, our lungs were hard to fill from the cold and of course, it was worth every minute.

We ended up doing the 3 mile walk, rather than the 5 mile walk we had planned on, since it was so cold and rainy. I hope none of my sponsors mind! As I walked, I thought about all the people I know who have been touched by breast cancer.

One friend of ours from Goffstown had quite an episode with breast cancer in her 20's, and now, 15 years later, she is having a severe relapse. Tomorrow, she is having a double mastectomy, and after that, she faces an aggressive regimin of chemo and radiation. I just learned about her relapse the day before the walk, so she was most on my mind on Sunday.

We have made great strides to fight breast cancer, but the work is not yet done, by a long shot. It's just one of so many battles we face, but since I'm not gifted with a scientific mind to personally find cures, I can give of my time and my resources to try to help out in the little way that I can. I can also choose to live a healthy life, and work to honor my body.

I would still like to do the breast cancer 3 day walk, and I'm thinking that next year may be the year.

Quality, Comfort and Price...That's Nice!

I made my first Bernie and Phyl's furniture purchase yesterday.  We are redoing the upstairs, and in our new TV nook, we won't have a ton of room, so we decided to get theater seating.  LOL - yesterday, we bought 2 of the very obnoxious chairs pictured above.  Let me tell you, they are SUPER comfortable, and it's a motorized recliner...with 2 cupholders!  We didn't get the wedge between the 2 chairs because they will be separate, but if we change our minds, it's only $200 more, and it has a cooler in it.  LOL - how funny.

I can't wait to have my sweet set up, and I think I'm going to paint a red accent wall, and hang movie theater posters on it to go with the theme! 

Today, Raul is building the 3rd bedroom, which will have storage built in (hallelujah!), and I'll have plenty of surfaces for my computers and keyboard.  It's all coming together!

Dress for Success

I was driving to work this morning, and the sun was out, the leaves were changing colors, and overall, I finally felt (almost) like I imagine people in the movies do when they are driving to work in a good mood with the sun out, listening to tunes...I also romanticize about how nice it must be to head to work in such an upbeat way.

In New England, it's usually either dark, rainy, foggy or snowy on the way to work.  Sunny mornings are not always the usher to our workplaces, and they cannot be taken for granted.  I was thinking that the one thing that would make my experience totally movie fabulous was if I liked my outfit.

Since I lost a bunch of weight and I was only working in an office a few days a week, I don't have enough clothes in the rotation.  Also, I'm really sick of a lot of them, and some of the clothes I wear are just plain ugly, such as the outfit I have on today.  I look like a librarian, and I'm so *not* a librarian...I hardly know how to read.

I *hate* to buy clothes now while I'm losing, but I'm thinking of getting a few new jackets that I can coordinate with dress pants and shirts I already have.  If I buy jackets just a little on the small side, I should be able to get 6 months use out of them, and as long as I buy them on sale, that's good enough for me.

Liking the way you look is very central to feeling good about yourself, and of course, choosing joy.  I make sure my face and hair looks good each day, and I should take more caution with the rest of the package.  I just ordered a few new things online, and it's a start.  I can't buy a new wardrobe today on a whim...can I?  ;-)

I can't wait until the day when I can fit into exactly whatever I want to wear, and I don't have to buy clothing that I know is only going to be temporary.  That will be a great day!

Making a house a home

I've always moved around... a lot. I averaged one move per year since I was 18 until a few years ago. I've lived at my current house for almost 3 years - quite a record for me. I do have flights of fancy, and if the market were different, I probably would have sold the 2 housed and moved into one really nice house (that was still cheaper than the 2 separate houses), but I'm stuck.

When I moved into the house in Lynn, we worked really hard to upgrade the place, and we spent time giving thought to decorating. People would tell us it was a cozy place, and I liked that. When we moved into the house in NH, it was already furnished, so we moved in with our suitcases and that was that.

It was a weekend/summer home, so we put up with the inconveniences that came along with moving into, basically, someone else's home. The owner before had used the home for a tryst of his, and while I gain amusement from that scenario, I gain no functionality in the house at all. When we moved in, the only full bath was off the master bedroom upstairs - completely insane.

There is absolutely *no* storage, and it's not practical as a full time home, which it has turned into for us. Despite how much I love living on the water, and I love the proximity to the big city (LOL), I have never thought of this place as a long term home for me. It's filled with furniture that someone else bought, and it's just not designed to be a full time home.

I often have the desire to move. I feel like this housing crisis is holding me back, but really, what else would I be doing? Yes, I'd love to have a home in Florida or somewhere warm, but that can wait until I'm more financially stable. I think I need to embrace the fact that I'm going to be "stuck" here for a while, and I need to make my house a home.

I've started making it more functional, by adding the shower and a full size washer and dryer in the downstairs bathroom, and next weekend, we're starting work on the 3rd bedroom that will also be my (much larger) office, that I so desperately need.

Over the weekend, I ordered a couple new TVs for the place, and a stereo system for downstairs. Next, I'm going to see if my dear friend Karen wants a job painting. We need to make it ours, both in functionality and style. Perhaps if I feel like the house is a candidate for long term living, I won't be so tempted to want to move.

It really is a beautiful house, and I'm blessed to have it. Now, I just need to make it a home.

Peace of mind

There is never enough time. The only time I take to rest (usually) is when I don't feel well. I don't know how other people have time to argue with Amazon.com about incorrect charges - I end up kissing the $600 goodbye, because who has the time?? Who has the time to read their mail? I can't imagine. Seriously.

I have taken on a bit much, as usual, and my first step in clearing the insanity away is getting more organized at home. I need a bigger office. I have sooooo many projects I'm working on, in addition to the jobs, school work, bible study, lake association, etc..., and I need space for all of them.

I am a creative being, and my creativity gets stifled in all the clutter that I surround myself with - mentally and physically. My CD is being held up because there are a few administrative things I have to do on my end, and I just haven't had the chance to - who has the time?? :)

I just emailed TJ's awesome contractor, who I have used before, to see if he can come up here asap to build the 3rd bedroom/office for me. I have found someone to take the gargantuan entertainment center for free (a $4000 value - who has the time to sell it?), and all I need is a giant desk. Actually, I'm thinking of just having Raul (contractor) build me one for the room, but I'm open to his thoughts. He usually talks me out of my bad ideas.

The bedroom doesn't work for me either. The furniture is huge, but I still have way too much stuff for it. Maybe I should simplify, rather than buying more furniture. Yeah, probably. I suppose I don't need 500 hats and 3000 t shirts...don't get me started on the shoe problem.

I think part of mental health is a well organized house/life. I hope I am feeling up to the challenge to take on sorting out my clothes/house/life this weekend, so I'll be better prepared to fight Amazon.com, get my CD finalized (finally), and do the rest of the stuff I was put on this earth to do.