Emotional Stability

I am sure that most people want stability in their lives. Who wouldn't? But what about those who aren't even stable themselves? I'm talking about emotional stability.
Most everyone has mood swings, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a person who swings moods by the minute or less. We're talking about SEVERE too.

Nope, I'm not describing myself. I'm actually proud to say that I am one of the most stable people I know. I was thinking about someone else and it got me pondering their situation. This person (who will remain nameless) is so emotionally unstable that sometimes they appear to be different people in less than a minute. I'm not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, but it doesn't take a degree to know that something is seriously wrong with this person. Yes, this person needs some serious help from a professional.

In my opinion, this person's life could be a lot better if they would 1. acknowledge that they had a problem, and 2. seek help for their problem. Now, try to explain that to this person. They won't hear of it. They don't want to admit that they might need help. Their pride and image persuades themselves that they are perfect and there is nothing wrong with them. And so you go along your way leaving it their choice. You sit back and watch and shake your head as this person continues on swinging back and forth and unhappy.

Being an emotionally stable person, I do not know how it is to live with someone like that, but I can imagine. It also makes me more grateful for being emotionally stable. And so ends my thought for the day...

Have a great weekend.

Chocolate Cake in Less Than 5 Minutes

My neighbor posted this in her blog yesterday and I thought I would pass it along too. It looks really good and I think I'm going to give it a try today.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

Sim Me!

I'm sure you have all heard of The Sims, right? One of the hottest games for the PC, The Sims (or Sims 2 or 3) lets you turn your world into a digital version or lets you make up whatever you like.

I had forgotten about my old Sims game I got years ago, the original Sims. As I was cleaning up, I found the disks and decided that I wanted to play again. But this time, I had a story in mind for my Sims and their neighbors, friends, and enemies.

Though it's not real revenge, it sure is fun to mess around with the Sims in the game... better than fantasizing! So don't piss me off, you will most likely end up drowning or burning in a kitchen fire. LOL

Now if I could only afford Sims 2 and all the expansion packs!

A New Chapter

Many times I feel as if our lives pass as if one was reading a book; there are chapters and each chapter ends and a new one begins. Yesterday marked the end of a chapter in our lives. It was a somewhat of a sad ending, but also left us feeling excited and hopeful for the coming chapter.

Seeing life as a book and parts of life as a chapter seems to make things easier for me, especially when things look bleak. It is less overwhelming and stressful.

So Monday begins a new chapter in our lives. Will it be a good one? I don't know, but I feel positive about it. :D

Movie Review

Need a movie to watch all weekend?

If you like fantasy and fairytale type movies, The 10th Kingdom is great movie! The 10th Kingdom is a good family, watch all day while sitting by the fire kind of movie.

It starts out with a girl named Virginia living in New York City with her janitor father in an apartment building and she works are a restaurant as a waitress. She doesn't see herself as anything special and feels rejected by the fact that her mother left when she was very young. But that's where she is wrong.

Virginia ends up in a magical land of fairytale where she has many adventures with queens, trolls, dwarves, elves, wolves, and many others. The lands are divided into kingdoms in which some of the most famous fairytale women rule. There is Cinderella, Snow White, and even Red Riding Hood.

Her adventures end up being a journey of self discovery and a discovery of what happened to her mother. There are many references to many of the fairytales that we all grew up reading such as Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin and even the writers of these famous takes, The Brother's Grimm.

It's funny, it's sad, it's adventurous and it's fun. The movie lasts for about 8 hours or so and there are even some really fun special features to watch too. If you have a weekend, check out The 10th Kingdom, grab a blanket and cuddle up on the couch.

Dysfunctional Families

What is a dysfunctional family? Is it a divorced family? How about one with an alcoholic in it? What about poor? Dysfunction is relative. Here are several examples, by the way, all of the 6 families below are real families that I know.

Family 1- Here is a family in which the parents are arguing constantly, but they keep the arguments from their children. They argue about everything from money to who does the dishes. The children think everything is just perfect when mom and dad are very unhappy.

Family 2- Here is a family in which the parents have divorced and the mom has sacrificed everything for her children. Visits with dad are there, and the children enjoy them. Things aren't perfect, but they could be a lot worse.

Family 3- Here is a family that puts on a mask so to speak. This family appears perfect to everyone around them but to themselves have serious problems. Mom, dad, and children are all unhappy.

Family 4- Here is a family run by a feminist mom, dad is just a bystander, one child has severe OCD, one child is gay and married to a transsexual, one beats himself and takes drugs, and one has multiple personalities.

Family 5- Here is a family in which mom and dad are happy with themselves and with their relationship, the children are happy. The only thing wrong is that this family is poor.

Family 6- Here is a family in which mom raises the kids, dad works and comes home and gets drunk, the children aren't aware, but their life isn't perfect.

So I ask you, which family is dysfunctional? Can you even answer that? All of these families are dysfunctional. You see, every family has it's problems, but it's really all about how you deal with it. Communication is probably the first thing to try. Without communication, none of these families would make it. With most of these families, if things were communicated properly, more than half of their conflicts could be resolved. So ponder this the next time you think about what dysfunction is.

Reading - Try It!

I love to read. My son loves to read. My husband loves to read. Reading is obviously a big deal for us. Not only is it a great way to pass time, but there are many things you can learn from reading, not just from a textbook either.

Reading is fundamental. If you don't read, it's almost like your brain shuts down to creative thinking. I'm not talking about just reading a newspaper or your any reading you might do for work or study. I'm talking about reading for pleasure.

Fantasy books really open the creative parts of our brains. It opens the mind. It gives you a sense of magic and takes away the stress away.

Mystery books really get your brain ticking away. It's solving a puzzle and making you think.

I love fantasy and mysteries, but I also like books that are informational. Not textbooks necessarily, but books that go into detail on any subject that I'm interested in.

Overall, reading is great. If you don't read much, I'd suggest going to the library and looking up a subject you like - be it dragons and wizards or erotic love stories, pick up a few good books and read.

Greed

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."
- Frederick Keonig

I don't know how many people I've heard whine about what they don't have. I ran across a woman that was whining about how her husband only gave her $1200 a week. Hello?! $1200 a week? That's more than most people make, and you are whining about only getting that much? Here I was struggling to even buy groceries that week and it disgusted me that this woman was having a temper tantrum over only getting only $1200 a week.

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every person's need, but not every person's greed."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Yup. The Earth does provide all you need. I guess it's just a matter of whether or not a person will work the Earth and benefits from it or be lazy and depend on others to do the work. But being lazy is yet another blog. haha

Be appreciative of what you have. That's not to say you can't strive for better, just be thankful for what you have.

Fortune Cookies

There's a really good Chinese restaurant in town. I just love their almond chicken...MMMmmm.

Anyway, we went there last weekend and I was lucky and got two fortunes in my fortune cookie. They said :

"Now is the best time for you to be spontaneous. Serendipity!" and
"You will soon by greeted with unlimited opportunities."

Sounds pretty good.

Well, we went to the restaurant again this weekend, and once again I got two fortunes. They said:

"You will make a change for the better within the year." and
"Investigate new possibilities with friends. Now is the time!"

Woot! Sounds good again.

I know, you're probably thinking that every fortune cookie has something good. Well, you're probably right, but most people don't really pay attention to their fortune cookies. Call me weird if you like, but I do. They are important little slips of paper that, if nothing else, give me encouragement.

So the next time you get a fortune cookie, pay attention. ;)

Obsessions

What is your obsession?

My husband and I were talking about our son's current obsession and how it would affect his life. Our son is completely obsessed with building toys - not that it's a bad thing. Our son loves anything that he can build and create, and he is quite creative when he builds. Perhaps one day he'll be an architect or something that requires perspicacious problem solving skills.

At the moment I don't think I have any obsessions. There are times when I do, especially when I am designing and working on a new costume. There was a period of time when I was obsessed with creating pixel graphics that I spent the entire day drawing on the computer with my mouse.

I know of people whose obsession it is to alway seek revenge. Though revenge has already been taken, they seem to think otherwise. I know of people whose obsession it is to always look like the perfect person, and in doing so they loose sight of what's really important. I know of people whose obsession it is to always best another person, and when they end up crashing further than they could even imagine. I know of people whose obsession is chocolate.

To me, taming your obsession is extremely important...or at least one should direct it in a positive manner...otherwise the object of one's obsession ends up taking over their entire life and leaves them feeling inadequate and/or unfulfilled, which then leaves that person with a stronger desire to pursue their obsession. It turns into a vicious cycle. So how *can* one tame their obsession? Well that's really what each person needs to figure out for themselves. For some people, and I have a couple of people in mind, they need professional help. For others, it's just a matter of moderation and balance.

Try tackling one of your obsessions this week and see what kind of balance you can have in life.

My Celebrity Look Alike

I always have fun with these generator things. I ran across this one tonight. According to this face recognition thing, I look like these celebrities. Some of them I can't even see any kind of resemblance, but it was still kind of fun.

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Silly Sunday

My son and I were invited to a birthday party yesterday at our neighbor's house. It was a sledding birthday party, which was tons of fun, by the way. Not only were the kids sledding, but all us adults were too. After a couple hours of sledding, there was birthday cake and all the kids were sitting around the table eating and telling silly jokes and laughing hysterically. So today I feel like posting a few silly jokes they were telling.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Abbott!
Abbott who?
Abbott time you answered the door!

What do you call a sheep without legs?
A cloud.

How do you make milk shake?
Give it a good scare!

Where do snowmen go to dance?
A snowball!

Yes, so they are really cheesy jokes, I know. But you can't help but let out a little chuckle when a kid comes up to you and tells you one of these. :)
Wishing you all a little bit of silliness this Sunday!

Welcome 2009!

Heh. Sorry I didn't blog yesterday, I was really busy helping my husband with something. By the time we finished, I was too tired to blog. :P

So I'm sure the question you're all wanting the answer to is how 2009 will be. My first impression of 2009 was that it was going to be an awesome year for us. Yes, there will be some things that we have to deal with that aren't so great, but overall, it's going to be an excellent year.

Before the new year even came, I already knew that there would be a few things happening this year that would bring some conclusion and open new doors, so I am fairly excited about that. And we also knew last week that I would have to replace the water pump in my car, but that's nothing unbearable.

But there are things that have yet to be seen. Unlike most people though, I'm not at all stressed by the unknown. In fact, I have such a positive feeling for this year, that I want these things to happen, it's almost a cocky feeling.

We'll see how 2009 unfolds, but I am feeling very good about it. :) Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to go play in the snow for a bit. :D