E-mail

I have a love/hate relationship with e-mail.

I love getting it but I hate trying to decide what I should do with it. When I moved to my new job - I deleted lots of e-mail. Much of it I hadn't looked at since the day it was sent.

I was reading the Lifehacker blog last night and there was a good tip on managing e-mail. The gentleman writing the article said that his replies aren't more than 5 sentences long. I tried to do that today - it worked for the most part. (Lifehacker is a great blog by the way.)

Day of Mourning

If you know me - you know I live in a very close-knit neighborhood.
We play together, eat together, and vacation together.

Today I found out that Marcie, my very sweet neighbor right next door, died this morning.
She was the first person to welcome us to the neighborhood. I remember she brought us a cake and told us all about the couple that had lived in the house before us. Oliver and Sophie.

Every Spring I would look forward to seeing her out in the yard. We would chat about the neighborhood and share stories about what we were doing. She was always good to B and took time to get to know her.

You are missed Marcie!

Remember to take time today to tell those around you how much you love them and how important they are to you.

Do you ever...

Do you ever click on 'next blog' at the top of the page?

It is interesting to click through other blogs. A couple of clicks after mine - there is a man blogging and he has pictures of his garage that he just finished. He also has a ticker up counting down to Hawaii. There are also many blogs in different languages - Italian (I think) and Arabic (I think). I need to get out and travel more.

The other thing I just found out is that the blogs aren't in a static order. I just tried to click forward and find the blog I was just looking at and new blogs popped up. FUN!

I also found a new game online from 'Unclutterer'. Chainfactor.com
If you need to find another distraction from your life - here is another time sucker.
I am all about the time suckers.
HA!

I also want to apologize - I cleaned up my links. I was frustrated that those people weren't updating their blogs. Another Day of Paradise and 50 is the new 40 - hint hint!!!

Happy Daylights Savings.

Birds

Sitting in my window, I like to watch the birds in our neighborhood.

I saw a hawk in my neighbors' yard. I want to say that it is either a Cooper's or sharp shinned hawk. The bird above is the sharp shinned hawk.

Today I also watched my neighbor come out and fill his bird feeders. They have about 5 feeders hanging from the tree. Peanuts attract nuthatches which I think are the neatest little birds. I also like slate juncos.

A cardinal also came to the feeder in front of our house today. B got to see it.

B is fine

Just thought I would let those of you that know that B is okay.

She fell on Wed night and caught her head on something and had a bleeder.
It stopped almost immediately but there was still more blood than I wanted to see.

She was back to playing Barbie's in about 15 minutes.

Time Flies...

Well... time sure does fly - even when you aren't having fun. I wouldn't say my life isn't fun right now - just in a bit of turmoil. I just can't believe that it is Thursday already! Heck - it's Friday!
I mentioned the other day that the fam is going through some changes and more came today. I am not going to go into it here but it is amazing how you can travel a path for so long and then one thing after another starts changing and soon there is a new normal. I wonder how much visualization helps that process along. I have always thought that the brain is a much more powerful organ than we know - so I wouldn't doubt that if you think and plan - you are much more likely to start to see changes.

A little look back and forward

At this time last year, MD and I were wondering if we were going to get to go on our trip to Costa Rica. MD had applied for his passport with more than enough time to spare but we still hadn't seen it at this point and we were only 4 weeks away from our trip. Luckily, it came the FRIDAY before the MONDAY we left. Talk about cutting it close. Ugh. The picture to the right is from that wonderful place.

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Since I have been going through some huge life changing experiences - all with a tiny little bit of stress - I dream about where my life will be in 2 weeks, 2 months, a year from now. I try to step out of the situation to give myself a little perspective. I hate to say this but I have been imagining myself not working at the Y and what that would look like. This transition so far has been VERY trying. I am trying to do two jobs at once - including training my 'replacement' and being trained at my new location. I have two supervisors, two locations, and lots of driving.
So I am trying to get myself pumped up to stay on top of this job searching business.

Wish me luck.

Sunday Morning

Do you ever watch 'Sunday Morning' on CBS?

It is an amazing show.

Kind of like MPR with more in depth reporting on certain topics.

Love it!

In like a lamb.

I did hear one television station say that March came in like a lamb this year. I wonder when this tradition started with March weather. I wonder if the same people that started the groundhog tradition started this one. Most 'holidays' today seem to be created by retailers so they can sell their goods - were these traditions started by weather predictors? No, probably not.

I have to say that I haven't done any research into these questions - I am just wondering 'aloud'.
Let me know if there are any good websites or books out there that discuss these types of topics.

The End of an Era

Today was my last day working at the EBH Family YMCA. I have worked at this location for almost 8 years - 5 of those years in my current position.
For the most part, I am pretty excited to be moving on. I am really ready for a change of scenery and all that goes with it.
I still have junk in my old office. I would compare cleaning out my office to moving out of my college dorm room at the end of the school year. I think I told my parents I could be packed up in an hour and I think it ended up taking more like three or more. I knew my office pack up would take a while but I don't think I realized it would take as long as it did. Time isn't my friend.

I will miss all those people I have worked with for so long and not so long. You know you always think you will keep in touch with people after you leave a job and maybe I will with this group because we all still work for the same company.
I was told to mention one person in particular today in this blog - so Taryn - I will miss you too!!

Have a good day.