It’s time for some more of my favorite Quotes!

I think sufficient time has past since I last posted my favorite quotes. Therefore, I’ve decided today would be the day that I’d force some more down your throats. I say it this way because generally I find myself drawn to “preachy” quotes. The kind of quotes that teach or attempt to impart some sort of lesson upon the reader. So if that’s not your cup of tea, then TOO BAD. Heh. I’m just saying, these are my favorites, but I hope you enjoy them as well.

I’m going to start this batch with the coup de grâce:
It is not uncommon for a mother, particularly, to feel overwhelmed by the complexity of her parental assignment. For each child she raises, she is the primary protector of his health, education, intellect, personality, character, and emotional stability. She must serve as physician, nurse, psychologist, teacher, minister, cook, and policeman. Since she is with the children longer each day than her husband, she is the chief disciplinarian and main giver of security and love. She will not know whether or not she is handling these matters properly until it is too late to change her methodology. Furthermore, Mom’s responsibilities extend far beyond her children. She must also meet her obligations to her husband, her church, her relatives, her friends, and in some cases, her employer.
~Dr. James Dobson
Can I get an AMEN?!

All right, moving on…
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
- Aristotle

Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.
– Joan D. Vinge

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
– George Bernard Shaw

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.
– Harry S Truman

You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.
– Olin Miller

Time is like a handful of sand- the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers.
– Anonymous

To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
– Nelson Mandela

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.
– Charlotte Bronte

Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
– M. Scott Peck

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.
– Margaret Atwood

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
– Oscar Wilde Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)

Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.
– Charlotte Bronte

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.
– Margaret Atwood

Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.
– Emily Bronte

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.
– Matthew Arnold, ‘Self-Dependence’ English critic & poet (1822 – 1888)

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky

Look at what your idea of success would be. The more that you take in external motivators, the more it reduces your ultimate satisfaction because it doesn’t come from inside.
– Chris Messina, Cashing In or Selling Out, SXSW 2006

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow US poet (1807 – 1882)

You create your opportunities by asking for them.
– Patty Hansen

The soul is healed by being with children.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky

Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.
– Mary Tyler Moore US television actress (1936 – )

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1600 Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 – 1616)

Enough for now,
Ciao

We’re moving, again -or not (part 7)

Just in case you want to get up to speed on the whole saga of ‘We’re moving, again’ there are seven other posts on the topic.  And I have tried, tried, tried to get the damn things to link here but it just isn’t working so you’ll just have to search.  Sorry.

Ok, are we ready?  Here’s the latest scoop.  It has officially been 12 months (yes, I said 12 months) that our house has been for sale.  You’d think we must have one dump of a house for it not to have sold in 12 months.  Oh, contrare, we have a stunning house.  And if you read any of the above referenced posts on this topic, then you know cause I’ve described the house in detail… anyway, the only thing I can attribute to the house not selling is this unbelieveably horrible housing market. 

Thank heavens we’ve managed to make it this whole year.  Things could have taken a disastrous turn if our business hadn’t picked up during the same time frame.  Luckily it did & we can still (barely) afford to stay in our house.  For at least another year.  Maybe we’ll get really lucky and the market will be back on the upswing this time next year.  Bwahhahahahahaha!

So for now, we are not moving.  The house is officially coming off the market on Saturday and we are now in the process of possibly refinancing in a slightly vain attempt at reducing our monthly payment.

Ciao 

And now we bring you

More on the saga of our house for sale.  It is now month number 9.  Hey perhaps this will be like pregnancy but instead of giving birth to a child, we will sell our house!!  God willing.  We managed to survive Christmas and New Year with the house ready for any Tom, Dick, or Harry to come tramping through.  I somehow kept the house looking like a show piece despite the massive amounts of wrapping paper, ribbons, tie wraps, plastic packaging, and loads of new toys.  The day after Christmas our house looked like it had vomited colored bows, torn bits of paper, and random utensils and plates from the 1,000 piece Tea set my evil  wonderful sister got Pumpkin for a gift.  Ordinarily, it would have taken me weeks to get that mess cleaned up.  This year, I didn’t have weeks, I had a ~as in ONE~ day to get it back to Open House status. 

Believe it or not, there was actually a call from a realtor who wanted to show the house the day after Christmas.  I suppose we could have said no.  But we are trying to sell the house.  So we got it ready for them…  Yeah… they didn’t show up.  Big *f-in* surprise.  Gggrrrr.   

I have just finally agreed with the Husband to stop obsessively cleaning the house on the “possibility” that someone might be coming by to view the house.  Yes, it’s been 9 months and I am so incredibly tired of the constant cleaning.  So we decided that we would bring the lockbox in the house & make all agents call to schedule an appointment before they just show up with their clients.  One agent actually called & said, “we’re outside your house, can you come up and let us in?”  Hmmm, let me think about that…. “No”.  For goodness sake, make an appointment and give us a little tiny bit of notice.  That way the house looks presentable for you, not as if a twister had just blown through.  So no, a minute notice is not enough, but perhaps a days notice??!!  Or at the very least a half an hour notice?

Basically, moving the lock box inside frees me up tremendously.  It means that I don’t have to flip out over every toy Pumpkin drags out of her room to play with in the morning, cause I DON’T HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP BEFORE I leave the house!!  I don’t have to make three beds before I leave the house!  I don’t have to wash every dish before I leave the house!!  You have no idea what a relief it is.  Plus, I’m not constantly yelling at the children not to make a mess.  This is better for my mommy self-image, my mental health, and the gremlins mental health.  And you know, when you really think about, what I consider a mess, to them is just being creative children at play having fun. 

So we came to the conclussion, after reviewing data on the market and discussing the absolute least amount we could accept ~and still have money left for a downpayment on a new house~ that we should reduce the sale price.  This is the second time that we are dropping the price.  Believe me when I say that it makes me want to be sick when I think about how much money we are potentially leaving with this house.  I don’t want to go into the details since I don’t feel up for vomitting right now… suffice it to say that we will barely have enough left to make a minimum downpayment on another house.  And the housing prices here are still ridiculously high even on a simple single family home.  I try not to think about this overly much since it’s fairly depressing.  It is what it is.  I just need to learn to deal with the reality of the situation as it is now.  However, on the upside, once we reduced the price we had about 150 views per day of the virtual tour which was up by almost 100 pre-reduction.  More traffic viewing the house means more chances of the house selling.

********************

So, yesterday we had two agents bring their clients over to see the house.  One agent was bringing the second half of a couple to view.  This could be promising.  If the wife saw the house first and now wants her husband to see the house, then we might have a potential offer.  However, if it was the husband that saw the house first and now wants his wife to see it, then it probably won’t go anywhere.  Reason being, the wife almost always makes the decision about which house they will live in… think about it, you know this is true.  The husband may set the price limit but the wife will ultimately decide which house will be most comfortable for her family.  The other agent has never been out to the house before so his clients are really a long shot.  I sent all the info to our agent last night for him to follow-up.  We shall see if anything comes of this.  I try not to get my hopes up since it has been so long already without any offers.  I’m just going with the flow, what will be will be, and all those other corny expressions.

Enough for now,

Ciao 

More Quotes

OK, more quotes that I find interesting.  Still too busy to think for myself and write a post about something or anything of real import.  Although, I can blame part of it on the fact that I got a new laptop to replace my home & work computer so I’ve spent the last 4 days trying to reload all my programs, files, etc.  It’s crazy how long that stuff takes.  Really, it’s difficult enough trying to reload items from a single computer, imagine doing twice as much.

Anyhoozlebee, hopefully you’ll find one or two of these quotes thought provoking.

Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them.
- Suzanne Necker

The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is.
- John Lancaster Spalding

It is how people respond to stress that determines whether they will profit from misfortune or be miserable.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.
- Leo J. Burke

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same.
- Pearl Buck, quoted in O Magazine, May 2003 US novelist in China (1892 – 1973)

The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold.
- Glenn Doman

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
- Walter Bagehot

If you don’t accept responsibility for your own actions, then you are forever chained to a position of defense.
- Holly Lisle, Fire In The Mist, 1992

What’s the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile.
- George Asaf

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. 
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi US (Hungarian-born) biochemist (1893 – 1986)

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.
- Marilyn vos Savant

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
- Benjamin Franklin US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 – 1790)

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
- George Bernard Shaw

I think when I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky.
- Armand Hammer US industrialist & philanthropist (1898 – 1990)

Each new day presents an opportunity to start all over again, to cleanse our minds and our hearts anew, and to clarify our vision.
– Mary Kay Ash

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
- Booker T. Washington US educator (1856 – 1915)

We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
- Cato the Elder Roman orator & politician (234 BC – 149 BC)

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.
- Oprah Winfrey, in Good Housekeeping US actress & television talk show host (1954 – )

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
- C. S. Lewis English essayist & juvenile novelist (1898 – 1963)

Say not, when I have leisure I will study; you may not have leisure.
- The Mishnah

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man; it is what he wants and must have to be good for anything. Hardship and opposition are the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.
- John Neal

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
- Seneca Roman dramatist, philosopher, & politician (5 BC – 65 AD)

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- George Bernard Shaw

Quotes part deux

I have been freakin’ busy lately so I have been unable to come up with anything original to write in this blog.  Then again, I don’t think that what I’ve written so far has been all that original either, but anywhoozlebee, here is a bunch more of my favorite quotes. 
Bon Appetit!  (Geez, I must be in a french frame of mind or something.) 

All of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
-Dale Carnegie

If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.
-Dorothee Solle 

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
- Robert Anton Wilson

The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
-Gordon Parks

The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
-Pablo Casals

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.
-Shana Alexander

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
-Henri-Frédéric Amiel

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
- Aesop

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
-Unknown

Perfectionism is simply putting a limit on your future. When you have an idea of perfect in your mind, you open the door to constantly comparing what you have now with what you want. That type of self criticism is significantly deterring.
-John Eliot, Ph.D., Reverse Psychology for Success

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill

The best cure for worry, depression, melancholy, brooding, is to go deliberately forth and try to lift with one’s sympathy the gloom of somebody else.
-Arnold Bennett

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
-Marcel Proust French novelist (1871 – 1922)

There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.
- Edith Wharton

Enough for now,

Ciao

Favorite Quotes

Here are a few of my favorite quotes.  I won’t waste my time explaining each of these as I assume you all have a brain (not one shared brain, of course, but one inside each of your own head) and can figure them out for yourself.  Besides, in some cases my interpretation may be different… so read, think, and comment ~if you wish.  Enjoy.  

The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.
-Barbara Hall

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
- AA Milne

I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life….Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.
-Abigail Adams

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
- James F. Byrnes

At every party there are two kinds of people – those who want to go home and those who don’t.  The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.
-Ann Landers

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
- Elbert Hubbard

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
-Carl Jung

Do not measure your loss by itself; if you do, it will seem intolerable; but if you will take all human affairs into account you will find that some comfort is to be derived from them.
-Saint Basil

There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women.  Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL.
-Qoute by Unknown Author

If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.
-Yugoslav Proverb

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
-Aristotle

It’s never too late to be who you might have been.
-George Eliot

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever, have enough.
-Oprah Winfrey

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
- Virginia Woolf

The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught.
- Marquis de Vauvenargues

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
-Marcel Proust

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.
- John Ruskin

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

We’re moving, again (part 5)

Well, well, well, here we are in OCTOBER!!  October 3rd to be exact.  It has been months since we put our house on the market.  Sadly, not a single offer to date.  I guess it is to be expected.  What with the mortgage industry in the shambles, people forclosing on their homes so frequently now it’s like going through tissue in allergy season.  Plus, there are more houses on the market than people able to qualify for them.  Not to mention the fact that we are in a higher end home; therefore less people looking in that price range.

It is definitely not an ideal time to be attempting to sell one’s house.  We have already reduced the price of the house by $100k.  We really don’t want to reduce it again.  If we have to drop the price again we will be running into a situation where we may not have enough money left over to buy another home!  WTF?! For almost the entire time the husband & I have been together we have owned the home we lived in.  We never rented an apt or condo or anything else.  We have always owned.

So, now it is almost Halloween and Thanksgiving and then Christmas.  I love decorating for each of those times and I don’t know whether I should or not.  On the one hand, we should be able to decorate and enjoy the season but on the other hand I don’t want the house to look cluttered or crappy when prospective buyers come tour the house.  Then I think, well, we are still living here, so F**K them.  We are real people with young children who deserve to have the of fun of putting up pumpkins or scary skeletons or spooky ghosts.  But then I think I want the house to look immaculate and not distract buyers with all that stuff.  AAAAAHHHH!! What to do… what to do?!

On a brighter note, we have had three different people tour the house within the last week.  That is more in one week than in the last month!  I’m not wanting to get my hopes up but am still hopeful that someone is interested in buying the house.  Soon.

Enough for now,

Ciao

Fire (part 3)

Well, it’s been over a week since the fire first started and it is now about 95% contained.  It has burned nearly 48,000 acres of land.  Becoming the largest fire in the county; quite possibly the whole state.  And costing nearly 10 million dollars, yes, I said 10 MILLION dollars, to fight.  The fire fighters were working 24 hr on/off and sleeping in a make-shift camp set-up in a nearby city. 

Thank goodness most of the land affected was not full of homes, businesses, and schools.  If it had burned in a south or north westerly direction, then it would have burned through thousands of homes, businesses, schools, and churches costing probably 100 times that amount in damages.  It’s hard to say whether as much would have burned if it had been in less difficult terrain.  Since there were many steep hills and no real roads, it made for a challenge.  Increasing the level of difficulty in extinguishing the fire.  It certainly is possible to speculate that it wouldn’t have burned as much if it WERE in a more easily accessible area. 

I have to say that I am so grateful that the fire didn’t change direction.  We could have been one of the many affected by the fire.  Instead it was merely grass, trees, shrubs, etc. that burned.  Leaving charred ground in its wake and not devastated families and communities.

Thank you, again, to the fire fighters for all your time and energy! 

Enough for now,

Ciao

All I can say is wow

I was shocked when I read this article about obesity. Who knew?!  All this time I thought I was fat because I wasn’t eating healthy foods and exercising properly.  But as it turns out, I can blame it all on someone else!  Now, I’ll be realistic and say that it probably had something do to with those factors but it sounds like it is really plausible, either my family or friends are making me fat!  Unfortunately, it works both ways… maybe I’m making some of my friends fat.  Sorry =)). 

But what I think is so interesting about this study is, are we trying to find ways to PROVE that other people are responsible for making us fat?  OR is it perhaps that during general research they stumbled upon this result? 

We are a nation of finger pointers.  ‘It’s not my fault, it’s his/hers/theirs!’  How many rediculous lawsuits have been won by people blaming others for their own idiocy?  I will refrain from ranting on and on because I don’t have the time necessary to fully GO OFF on the stupidity of people.  “oh gosh, I don’t know how I got so fat, I mean I only ate McDonalds (or fill in the blank of your favorite fast food joint) every day.”  Come on!  Let’s all learn how to be responsible for our own actions again!!  If you eat junk food all the time and you don’t exercise, then you are going to get fat.  I’m pretty sure that’s a proven fact.

Anyhooo, over the past couple of years, I have been steadily working to lose the excess weight (cause I was eating too much junk food, eating portions of food that were too large, and not exercising consistently ~ but now I am!) so hopefully that will filter thru to friends and family, if this study is to be believed.  And in truth, I think that it probably has made a difference with the husband.  He has made some changes (not so much fast food ~no more big macs, ~no more three sodas a day) that have helped him slim down a bit.  But for him, he was always sort of a scrawny skinny kid, he finally feels normal having a few extra pounds on.  But I think that not only the husband & I will benefit from eating healthier, our children will immediately benefit as well.  And when you have girls, who are so easily influenced by pop culture (my 7 yr old is trying to tell me that she is fat ~ just for the record she is NOT AT ALL FAT~ and that she needs to exercise more), it is even more important to stress that good eating habits & normal play/exercise is really all it takes to maintain a healthy mind and body. 

Oh, I have no doubt that someone could say that this point isn’t true.  And sure, there are medical conditions that do cause certain people to have weight issues.  BUT, for the majority of Americans, I don’t believe it has anything to do with medical issues.  Merely our laziness and bad eating habits.

All right, enough for now,

Ciao

We’re moving, again. (part 3)

It has officially been 6 weeks since we put our house on the market.  And I’m *sad* to say that we have not had any offers to-date.  Many people have driven by & taken flyers, come to the multitude of open house, and scheduled appts. to view the house with their realtors but alas, not one single offer.  This is starting to get depressing.  I know that I’m probably expecting too much to think that our house should have sold by now, but I can’t seem to help myself.  We’ve always sold our previous homes so quickly, generally within the first 30 days of it being on the market.  If I’m more realistic, then I’ll look at what’s truly happening with the housing market.  But then it will really, really depress me because there ain’t shit happening with the market (and just so you know, I don’t care that ‘ain’t’ isn’t proper English).

I’m doing my best to stay positive.  It will sell when the time is right.  When the right person finds the house.  I need to be patient, I know.  At times it’s difficult.  Especially when things have been extremely slow for our business.  It’s fairly fightening.  I wander, like a lost child, all over the spectrum of emotions and thoughts.  From hour to hour, occasionally, starting at ‘everything will work out fine’ and ending with ‘we are going to lose everything that we’ve worked our whole lives for’.  Then I contemplate the latter scenario… what would it really mean to lose everything?  What if it lead us down another path?  The path for which we were truly destined?  What if we are meant to be free of these things that tie us down, and in a way, keep us prisoner.  When you have so many “things” that have to be paid for, you aren’t free.  You must always work to pay for the house, cars, cleaners, gardeners, PG & E, telephone, water, garbage, and so on and so on ad nauseam!

We are so fortunate to have family close by us, so it isn’t as if we would have to live on the streets.  As some are forced to do.  No, we would ultimately be just fine.  And I generally operate until the philosophy that everything has a way of working out the way it’s meant to be.  Call me a Pollyanna if you want, but I think I do like the world with rose colored glasses.

Besides, what if everything that we are currently experiencing is shaping us?  Forming us?  Molding us?  Because isn’t that one of the purposes of life?  Learning and growing by the myriad of life experiences.  And it’s not just happening for myself or the husband but our children too.  We tend to forget that they are influenced by these events because we see them as so young ~they aren’t actually involved.  But I’m beginning to realize how wrong I am in that judgement.  Even our 2yr old asks, ”is my crib comin to da new house?” or “is da doggies comin to da new house?”  She understands enough to pose these questions.  She comprehends that we will be leaving this house and moving to another and just wants to make sure that her favorite things will be coming with us.  It really is quite adorable, in a slightly heartbreaking way.  I wish that we didn’t have to make the move, for the girls sake.  That’s when I start thinking about the future again… what’s around the corner?  More challenges to be faced with our business?  Random other things that could pop-up completely out of nowhere?  What if the next house fits our life more perfectly than this house?

Even if things turn around completely for our business and we have tremendous growth, my thought on this house is that it’s time to cut our loses.  But when it boils right down to the bottom, it’s completely out of my control WHEN or even IF the house sells.  Maybe I’ll just sing the Bob Marley song, ’Everything will be all right’, in my head ~of course.  Or maybe I will just walk around all day singing it out loud, that will be my new theme song.  And I will make people wonder if I’ve finally lost all my marbles.  But then again, they might just start singing with me!  One can only hope….

In the mean time, we are having another series of open houses, next weekend & the following weekend so wish us luck on finding a buyer!

Enough for now,

Ciao