GOAL!!!

Day 1 -- Day 2 -- Day 3 -- Day 4 -- Day 5 -- Day 6 -- Day 7

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Goals.

We all make them, we all try to reach them, we all sometimes fail. Every person has a different set of goals in their life. Some people want to save money to buy a house, some people want to travel all over the world. Goals are an inevitable part of our lives and will always be.

For Day 8 of "30 Days of Me", I am meant to tell you what my short term goals are for this month...and why. Seeing as October is pretty much over, I'm going to go with November. The problem is, I hadn't really thought about my goals for the month, I was just trying to get through October! But we'll have a go.....

#1 - Continue with my non yelling goal from October (I mentioned this on Day 4). Why? Because it's been going fairly well. I still find myself yelling occasionally but it is finally starting to be at a time that actually warrants it. I'm not yelling for silly things as much, and am beginning to pause for thought before reacting to whatever problem is at hand. Perhaps I'll be able to break the habit after all?

#2 - Amp up my exercise regime. Or rather....create a proper one. Why? Because my sister is getting married in April and I need to shift a TON more of this weight. I let some of my old, bad habits creep back in over the winter and ended up hitting a plateau. So now is the time to start fresh. It's Spring and I'm loving that the scale is finally going down again.

#3 - Spend more time with my hubby. Why? Because I've been working too many evenings and weekends lately and it is starting to take its toll on both of us. I've already made a good start on this goal by setting some much needed boundaries at work and ask for some evenings off. Bring on the date nights!!

#4 - Finish organizing the house. Why? We've only lived here just over a year but I'm amazed at the sheer amount of crap we seem to have gathered. So I've been organizing, purging, sorting, moving and tidying. Ideally I would have someone who would come and do my vacuuming and bathrooms for me, but seeing as that isn't an option, I will have to do it my way. *sigh*

That's about it. I'm not a big goal maker, so this will have to do.

Deep Impact

Day 1 -- Day 2 -- Day 3 -- Day 4 -- Day 5 -- Day 6

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Sometimes it can be very difficult to follow something like these prompts. As I go through the "30 Days of Me", I can find some that are incredibly easy and some that actually make me sit and think for awhile. If you look for long enough, you could probably see the smoke coming out of my ears and my eyes spinning around just from the sheer hard work that thinking requires.

Day 7 is exactly that kind of prompt. I'm supposed to post a picture of someone or something that has had the biggest impact on me.

Um. Wow?!

I suppose that for some of you, choosing that someone or something might be easy. For me, it opened up a million doors of consideration. Should it be a good or a bad impact? Is it better for it to be a someONE or a someTHING? If I choose a person, do I do so at the risk of offending everyone else in my life by not picking them? If I choose a thing, do I look like a bit of a tool? And how do you decide what the biggest impact was? A significant impact to me, might seem just run of the mill to the rest of you.

I considered choosing books and waxing lyrical about the profound effect that they've had on my life and how if I had to live without books, I might have to gouge my eyes out with a hot spoon.

But, we already know about my passion for literature (and the fluffy crap that they like to publish these days). So I abandoned that thought.

I thought about telling you all about my love of travel and how living all over the world has had such an amazing impact on my life - from meeting new people, to learning about new cultures, travel is amazing.

In the end though, I decided that this is what has had the biggest impact by FAR on my life to this point:

Cheesy. I know. But true. The fruit of my loins, the spawn, the ones I call the life suckers - my beautiful children.

From the moment that my daughter was born over 8 years ago and my son two years later, I have learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of.

I am capable of loving more than I ever thought possible. My heart grew a hundred fold with each of the kids and with everything they do, it grows more.

I am capable of handling more than I would care to but again, more than I ever thought I could. Watching your child struggle for breath in the hospital, or watching them drift in and out of consciousness is a real test of your strength. Thankfully I have never had to deal with anything major, like some of you, and I pray I never will....but I am happy to know that I can deal with more than I ever thought.

I have also discovered how incapable I am of dealing with some things.

I am not able to sit idly by and watch anyone purposely hurt my children.

I can't bear to see my children hurt for any reason. Skinned knee, hurt feelings, illness - it all makes my heart hurt with the pain of a thousand arrows.

I am finding it increasingly hard to deal with the fact that eventually they will not need me anymore. As they get older and more independent, I realise that there will come a day when they leave me behind to begin a life of their own. With every birthday, I shed a few more tears.


So there you have it. I can't think of any other thing that has had quite the impact on my life that those two have had. And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Up, Up and AWAY!

Day 1 -- Day 2 -- Day 3 -- Day 4 -- Day 5

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Superheroes. They climb walls, they fly, they have cool cars, they have alter egos and they keep the world safe from the scum of the earth. As children, we watched the movies and the tv shows.

For Day 6 of "30 Days of Me", I'm to tell you who my favorite superhero was and why. You might be surprised to find that I'm not entirely sure who that person might be. How can you choose from so many seemingly amazing characters?

Superman - the dude can FLY! Full on, up in the air, carrying planes, FLY! And his cape isn't just for show like some other heroes. He can do things with his eyes that most men can only ever dream of and the only thing that can really bring him down is an ugly crystal.

Spiderman - so the climbing up walls thing is pretty cool but the suit was never my thing. Plus, while Superman was the somewhat hunky Clark Kent by day, Peter Parker was a bit of a dweeb. On the other hand, if you ever wanted to be tied up........

Wonder Woman - OOohhh look at her. She can spin. And deflect things with her wrists. Guess what...so can I. Mind you, my wrist deflection usually involves me going one step further and bitch slapping someone, but it's still wrist action right?

Batman - For a guy with that much money, I'm a little disappointed that he keeps his gear stashed in a cave instead of a gold plated vault. Plus, the fact that he keeps a skinny minny, named after a bird, around for company is a bit odd. But the car......I'd leave my husband for that car.

Catwoman...yawn. Iron Man....cool suit. Hellboy....scary, how'd he get hero status?

There's so many superheroes that it really is hard to pick one. I think some people might say a nice mash-up of all of them might be nice.

**I've linked up for all you uber geeks like The Man**

But those are all the big name people. What about the little guys? What about people like Captain Planet, She-Ra, Velma from Scooby Doo? Let's not forget about them!

For the purposes of this exercise, I think I'll choose one that I've always thought was kind of awesome.

Elektra!!

She is all kinds of fantastic and her outfit is H-O-T.

So, who would YOU be?

Oh the places you'll go!

Day 1 -- Day 2 -- Day 3 -- Day 4

*****

For today's "30 Days of Me", I'm meant to show you a picture of somewhere I've been to.

Well, I've been lots of places. So how do you choose? I currently live in a very beautiful country, I was born in a beautiful country and I've lived in and traveled in many more over the years. I considered trying to be funny and posting a picture of a toilet; after all, I've been there!

Instead, I think I'll leave you with this:

That is Mont St. Michel in France. It's beautiful there! It is very quaint, it is amazing and it is worth the journey to get there. Should you ever have the chance to be in France, I highly recommend a trip to see this place. You won't regret it!

You Are Beautiful - Winner

Oh this is one of my favourite things to do. I love giving things away. In this case, I am particularly happy because it is the wonderful "Operation Beautiful" book. I happen to be a big fan of this project because I honestly believe that you can never be told too often how awesome you are.

So, it is with fantastic delight that I used the trust number generator to pick the winners of these two books:

Winner #1 - Mumma Boo


Winner #2 - The Blue Zoo



Congratulations to both of you! Send me and email with your address and I'll get those books out to you ASAP!

Breaking the habit

**Today is your LAST day to enter to win one of two copies of the "Operation Beautiful" book for you or another beautiful person in your life. Click HERE to enter!**

Day 1 -- Day 2 -- Day 3

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And we're back for another "30 Days of Me" post. For day 4 I'm meant to tell you all about a habit I wish I didn't have. Oh my lovelies, how I wish you had all day to sit and digest the mile long list of bad habits that I could divulge. I shall try and keep it brief though and just follow the instructions.

So bad habit........I yell too much.

That may not sound like a habit but it seems to have become one over the years. I yell about the silliest things and at the drop of a hat. I'm not talking about just speaking at a loud volume, I'm talking about yelling at my spawnlets when I could just have a talk with them about something.

Example: Boy Spawn knocks over his glass of milk on the table and instead of commenting on how he should be more careful, I go ape shit and yell at him.

Example: Girl Spawn has been asked to tidy up her room, has gotten distracted and is now busy playing with something in the living room. Instead of asking her to please return to her own den of despair to finish her task, I find myself yelling at her about why she can't just do as she's told the first frickin' time.

Example: I come home from work on a Saturday morning and find The Man has only crawled out of bed an hour ago and has spent the hour sitting on his ass instead of doing anything useful. Because it's a Saturday. And he works HARD all week. Which I know. Instead of just remembering those two things and accepting that he needs to have a rest once in awhile, I turn into a total asshat and yell about all the things he could have been doing and why the hell weren't they done and why does it feel like I have to do every damn thing around here and ohmygodyou'resuchanasshole!!!!

Yeah. It's become a habit. It has become my default setting. And I don't like it.

I have to say though, it is something I've been working on changing!

We are now 8 days into October and I have yelled at my children twice and never at my husband. I'm so proud of myself.

The spawn think that an alien being has taken their mother and moved in because all of a sudden I am talking rationally to them and dealing with things like a normal human being. The Man? I don't think he's noticed because he's not normally around enough to see the difference.

So there you have it. One bad habit and an effort to change.

With a little help from my friends

**Don't forget to enter to win one of TWO copies of the "Operation Beautiful" book. Open WORLDWIDE! Go HERE to enter!**

Day 1 -- Day 2

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Hm. Day 3 of "30 Days of Me" asks me to show you a picture of me and my friends. Here you go.

Picture from nydailynews.com

Obviously I'm the one in the blue bikini.

Honestly it's hard to find a picture of me with any of my friends. For one very good reason - I don't like being in front of a camera. So, I went trolling the pictures of me that various people have posted on Facebook and found this one:

I am the one in the top right corner with the long blond hair, the bottle in my hand and a serious lean going on. I'm pretty sure this was taken on my friend Kelly's 16th birthday. In her basement. We spent a lot of time in basements in those days. Kelly would tell you that that was because we shouldn't have been allowed out in public looking the way we did.

Seriously, what was up with the fashion back then??

Kelly is the one in the bottom left of the picture. The red head propping up the other girl (who, for some reason, I don't remember). In the back with me is Shoned on the left and Nikki C in the middle.

When I moved to Germany in 1993, I didn't know anyone. By the time I been at school for a short time, those 3 were my closest friends. They saw me through a boyfriend or two, the rumour mill at school, the loss of my virginity, the breakup from my first real boyfriend and major love of my teen years, and many a fight with my mother.

We used to get on our bikes on some summer weekends and head into a nearby town to have a treat at the ice cream parlour. HUGE ice creams, with booze on them!

There were gates on the air base where we lived and my mother had a rule that I was not allowed past them, into the area where the single guys were barracked. The four of us ignored that rule time and again and by the time the summer rolled around when I was 16, we were friends with many a single guy. I have a vague memory of me and Shoned almost getting caught at a party in one of the barrack blocks but that might have been our trampy friend, Vicki. The girl wore so much make up that she must have needed a trowel to put it on.

After that summer, I went off to boarding school in England and made new friends. I knew that those three were still back in Germany and I saw them once at a careers fair that both our schools attended and couldn't bring myself to say anything. It's only in retrospect that I realize what a snob I had turned into. We lost touch....until a year or so ago when I found them all on Facebook, the magical tool of reconnection.

Y'all know my story. Kelly is in the army, married to an army guy. Shoned is a vet nurse and with a long term boyfriend. Nikki has a confusing sounding job that I've never really gotten the title for and updated her status with wittiness from time to time. We've all got far different lives than I ever thought we would, but as far as I can tell we're happy.

Those three were some of the best friends I ever had, and possibly the most important ones I had growing up. After all....when you're a teenager, it's your friends that get you through right?

So there you have it. Me....and my friends.

What's in a name?

For Day 2 of the "30 Days of Me", I am meant to tell y'all the meaning behind my blog name.

Yawn.

It's very simple. It's the name that I came up with in conjunction with the guy who originally set me up in the blog world. It was going to be something like Ramblings of a Busy Mom and instead turned into Mind of a Mad Woman. I try not think about its reflection on my mental state. I know I'm crazy, you know I'm crazy, let's call a spade a freakin' shovel shall we?

After I got torn apart over at The Site Who Shall Not Be Named Again, I seriously considered changing my blog name. After all, all the cool people have awesome blog names.

Badass Geek

Moonspun

Magneto Bold Too

....for a different kind of girl

Twenty Four at Heart

Us and Them

Bacon Is My Lover

Frogs In My Formula

I Like to Fish

Out-Numbered

Striking Keys

.......and SO many more.

I changed my mind. I'm embracing my Mad Woman status and everyone else can suck big hair monkey nuts. I reserve the right to change the look of my blog whenever I want though.

Me. In a bullet point nutshell.

** Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win one of two copies of the "Operation Beautiful" book. Go HERE **

This is the first of my "30 Days of Me" posts and I'm meant to share a recent picture of myself and 15 interesting facts about myself. The picture I can do easily. Here ya go:

That was taken recently at a place called Monkey Bay, which is about 20 minutes from my house. It was beautiful there!

Now, the 15 interesting facts were a little harder to come up with.

1. I was born in Bermuda. Pink sandy beaches, Portugese man o' war and gorgeous blue water. I got to go back and visit when I was 12 (I think) and it was awesome. Just a beautiful place. I hope one day to visit with the spawnlets.

2. There are 11 years between LilSis and me. For all intents and purposes we grew up as only children, which makes for an interesting dynamic now that we're both adults.

3. I am a huge movie buff. The Man will call me from work to ask me to settle an argument that he and the guys are having. "Honey, you know that movie with the guy who goes to that place where the girl is and they do this....what's it called?" 99% of the time I get it right. He's duly impressed.

4. I share a birthday with the awesome Stevie Nicks & Lenny Kravitz, the annoying Bobcat Goldthwaite (his voice makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a hot spoon) and the crude Matt Stone of South Park fame. I'm not impressed by any of this because I happen to think I'm more awesome than all of them combined, just not as rich.

5. When I get to know you, there's no shutting me up. Until then, I can come across as quite a snob because I can actually be quite shy. This won me the enviable title of "cold, snobby bitch" from The Man's family because very few of them actually took the time to get to know me. You know you want that title too. You can't have it. It's mine. All mine.

6. I hate shopping. Going to a mall and walking around for 2 hours just looking at things is absolute TORTURE to me. I am the kind of girl that goes in with a mission and emerges 20 minutes later with exactly what I was looking for. Window shopping is this girl's equivalent to water torture.

7. Much to my husband's dismay, I could quite happily go my entire life without ever having sex again. I won't...but I could. (You're welcome for this tidbit, oh visiting family members!)

8. I have lived in 7 different countries (Bermuda, Canada, England, Wales, Germany and NZ) and travelled in many more. During my most recent stint in Canada, I lived in 8 different houses in 8 years. It's the curse (or gift) of being a military brat, I have a need to move around.

9. I love, love, LOVE horror movies. However, I can only watch them with all the lights on, a blanket over me, a pillow on my lap and another pillow to put in front of my face to hide behind. Under no circumstances will you get me to watch a horror movie with the lights out. That would just be inviting the boogie man to get me.

10. I have never broken anything. Except dishes. As far as I know, all bones in my body are still in the most excellent condition that they always have been. Of course, now that I have said that, I will fall off a ladder or get beaten by an old woman with a stick and break my arm.

11. I never thought that I would work with old people. I worked in pet stores and had dreams of working with animals, I babysat and knew I would never work with children (shudder) and I went to school and trained as a Legal Secretary...but never did I think I would be happy working with old folks (and disabled people). Turns out, I love it. And I'm good at it!

12. I seem to be horribly addicted to chick lit, vampire novels (especially the ones that use their "big girl words", like J.R. Ward), and books about witches. I'm not sure what's going on. I've read War & Peace. Twice. And yet I find myself reading things like Twilight and getting excited about the sequels. *sigh*

13. I am a Christian but tend to keep that to myself because the vast majority of our friends are not. And neither is The Man. It's not that I'm embarrassed, it's just that I'm afraid of being ridiculed. Silly? Perhaps. Safe? Feels that way.

14. I hate socks. And shoes. I would happily go barefoot all year were it not for safety at work and the fear of losing my toes to frostbite in the winter. Given the choice, it would be me and 50 pairs of flip flops....all the time.

15. I don't like phones. I have a cellphone, but no home line. If you call me, I might answer but I'll try and keep the conversation as short as possible. If you text me or email me, you can bet your perky little ass that I'll be having a full on conversation with you. And no, I don't miss the expression that comes with an actual conversation.