Let's catch up real quick!

Well, i am back at it... Finding time to spend with this blog of mine. So much has changed in my life in the last year that I do not even know where to begin. Let's see... If you scroll down and read my previous blogs, you can see that I am madly in love with Kelsey Smith! That certainly has not changed. In fact, with the exception of one minor mishap involving an avacado... We are doing great! I genuinely fall more and more in love with her every day!

That is a great place to begin... I will start by saying this... On April 17th, 2011 she said YES!!! So, for the last 7 months and 2 days I have been happily engaged to be married to the love of my life and I couldn't be happier. Kelsey truly makes every day spectacular... But don't try to get in on any of the spectacular as she only has enough to go around this household... I am very demanding!

Our first kitten, Gatsby, is getting older and fiestier every minute! In so many ways she reminds me of Kelsey... Can a cat and a human have similar personalities or am I crazy? (insert crazy cat lady comment) I call her my "lil pink nosed bandit" (Gatsby, not Kelsey... I call Kelsey my... Oh, nevermind) because she is always getting into interesting situations that require us to remove large balls of recently matted hair, hide sharp objects, drink out of sippy cups and sleep with one eye open! Seriously, she is intense! And, she is hilarious!

Kirby is just a butterball delight! He spends most of his days lounging, walking slowly to nowhere, eating, snorting, sneezing, begging for "nookie" and just being an all-around good little Persian kitty boy! We have batted around the idea of changing his name many times. Borris was our most recent option but at the end of every day, we look at him and all we see is our wonderful Kirby... And then he sneezes right in our face and we call him 20 other names, none of which would ever pass a Registered Pedigree certification.

What else... What else... Oh, yeah, we now reside in Fargo, ND. It is a big change from Austin, TX but being close to Kelsey's family has already proven to be extremely entertaining. Bryon the Bison loving goof ball has really become one of my favorite people... And I just love being able to get to know Ms. Joni and all of her sweet motherly ways! She is very hard working and decorates like no one I have ever met before! Seriously, I think she gives Martha Stewart a run for her heavily invested insider trading money! They are quite possibly the best neighbors ever... Well, they are tied with Suzette (that girl can cook!)... And I do mean neighbors as the Smith clan lives a total of 24 seconds away! Sometimes I wonder why we didn't move closer.

Being in Fargo is wonderful but I have been dealing with bouts of home sickness a lot lately. And by "dealing" I mean that I often curl up in a ball in the corner of our bedroom and squeal like a baby because I miss my mommy! If Kelsey ever walks in, I can easily pretend I am attempting to repair something and the horrible squeals that she heard must have been the neighbors or the pipes or the wind. Unless I spot Kirby and then he gets the blame! All this to say... I MISS YOU MAMA!!!

Since I am catching you up on life, let me also state this before I forget... The McRib is back!

I started a new position at Staples. I am a B2B sales consultant for the contract division. Don't I sound important? No?? Well, I am. The position is taking me all over the state and I love it. Well, I did love it but my car's name is not Boitano or Kwan or even Hamilton so I am going to try to stay a bit closer to home now that winter is coming through. I truly love my new position and I hope that Staples provides us opportunities over the next few years to really achieve a few goals...like becoming millionaires, seeing the world and, of course, opening our own Persian kitten petting zoo!

Well, i think I have caught you up on my life right now... I have a lot of pictures to share in my next few blog posts so don't worry... I won't be so "wordy" next time!

Congratulations on making it all the way to the end of this post!

Time to blog with a purpose!

I am ready...

I am happy...

I am loved...

I am healthy...

Let's do this...

I am forever in love...

...with Kelsey Kay Smith.

Be Inspired...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. . . . Explore. Dream."
Mark Twain

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better than they otherwise would."
Nelson Mandela

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin

"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in."
Isaac Asimov

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
Muhammad Ali

"The normal and the stigmatized are not persons, but perspectives."
Erving Goffman

“Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better than they otherwise would be."
Nelson Mandela

“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”
Maya Angelou

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

"One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay 'in kind' somewhere else
in life."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the
world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman

“Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what
you have.”
Doris Mortman

"Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be
entirely with us."
Jawaharlal Nehru

“Make it your business to know yourself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.”
Miguel De Cervantes

“To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
Joseph Chilton Pearce

”Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start
from now and make a brand new ending.”
Carl Bard

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Albert Einstein

”Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”
Albert Schweitzer

”The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and
controversy.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

”Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

”Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man
to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”
Henry David Thoreau

”The secret of happiness is not doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.”
Sir James M. Barrie

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."
Chinese Proverb

“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the
dark with a mosquito.”
Betty Reese

”The journey of discovery begins not with new vistas but with having new eyes with which to behold them."
Marcel Proust

”The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."
Linus Pauling

“Tell me I'll forget, show me, I may remember, but involve me and I'll understand.
Chinese Proverb

”Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
St. Francis of Assisi

”The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy
lies in having no goal to reach.”
Benjamin Mays

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."
Nelson Mandela

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.”
Agnes Repplier

“If you put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.”
Anonymous

“The definition of a bore: a person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.”
Ambrose Bierce

”To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.”
Johann von Goethe

“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
Soren Kierkegaard

”Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it “
Henry David Thoreau

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Alexander Graham Bell

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.”
Kahlil Gibran

”Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
Carl Jung

”Friendship with one's self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

”Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw

”I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
Thomas Jefferson

”First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi

”Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
Oscar Wilde

”The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
Albert Einstein

Sunset Smiles

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


A smile confuses an approaching frown. ~Author Unknown


People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile. ~Lee Mildon


A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller


The world always looks brighter from behind a smile. ~Author Unknown

This really brightened my day today!

Thank you Miss Anne!

My journey through pictures will begin today!

So, I am officially going to start using this blog as a way to keep amazing moments in my life alive through pictures and stories. While I am not quite sure how often I will be able to get to this, at least I will know that my memories are safe and well put together here for me to look back on! Hopefully, I will be able to really begin my story this weekend when I have time available. Until then, here is one of my favorite pictures of me and my beautiful love, Kelsey.

While You Are Gone

Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle... rather a beautiful reminder of just how strong true love can be.

Dance In The Rain

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."

All I Really Need To Know...

I stumbled across Robert Fulghum's poem, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. I have read this poem countless times... but today's reading was different. I read it with a bit more life experience under my belt... much more than I had the last time my eyes met his words. And, it is for this reason that I am posting it: so that someone else might stumble across it and be reminded of the simple truths in life, the ones that can genuinely be adapted to any situation we might be facing. So, take a second look with fresh eyes and a fresh mind and remember a simpler time in your life and, of course, take something positive away from this.

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

by Robert Fulghum

- an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think someand draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Reasons To Smile

When you reflect on the journeys you have gone through in life up to this point, I hope that the ones that have made you smile the biggest, in turn, ring the loudest! All too often I cross paths with people, whether complete strangers, acquaintences, friends or family members, and there is no smile to be found. In good fashion, I enjoy taking advantage of this moment! A refreshing joke, a nod of my head or even a simple smile across my face tends to reciprocate to me a dancing smile from the once somber person across from me. Now, don't get me wrong... I, too, have those moments where a smile cannot be found. But, somehow, my subconscious generally knows to guide my synapses to a place of happiness, where I am enveloped in all of the delicate thoughts of peace and love and the occassional trip and fall that I witness (yes, I typically smile/laugh hysterically at the unfortunate tumbles I am privy to). Smiling is addictive and, whether you know it or not, may be just the thing that the people you come in contact with need the most. While one of the easiest things to give, it can often be one of the most overlooked. So, in an effort to convince people of the benefits of smiling AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, I will share with you 10 reasons why "I love smiling! Smiling's my favorite!". (list cited from Gillian Fisher, 6/19/09)

1. Health
Smiling changes the chemistry in your body and not just puts a smile on your face, but it sends a smile through your whole body. All the cells in your body plump up and become more resilient, because of positive hormones that flow through.

2. Mental Well being
Smiling is contagious, usually if you see one person smiling other people are smiling around them. Strangely enough as an onlooker you may just start smiling yourself.

3. Psychologically
Smiling can change your mood. One day you may be in a real slump of a mood and all you have to do is smile and your day creeps slowly out of it's mote and starts to shine.

4. Social Life
Smiling is fresh to look at and more people are attracted to you. If you are usually a smiling person, you are like a breath of fresh air that walks into a room.

5. Family Life
If you are a parent or sibling in a family, you can really warm up your family life and take tension away by just casting a smile to your family members. Being conscious of how many times you don't smile will make you conscious to smile. Why not smile?

6. Builds Self Esteem
When you smile you take away negative thoughts, hence are more apt to do things that you might normally be afraid to do. Bringing you closer to your life path.

7. Teaches Forgiveness
Sometimes it is very difficult to smile when you see a person you are angry with. When you think about what a smile does...and you just smile, the other person reflects your smile. It may take a few minutes, but a laugh may ensue...Forgiveness has already happened.

8. Emotion
If you are depressed and are having difficulty getting out of you're downing life. A conscious smile done daily, more often enough will eventually shine a light on depression. Life will start to unfold in good ways that you never thought possible.

9. Faith
Smiling is real and can awaken ideas, thoughts and faith.

10. Free
Smiling won't cost you a dime, nickel or penny. It is free for the taking and the giving. It is not only for just some people, but also for all people. It is our unique innate way of healing us in our daily life!

If you don't think these 10 reasons are reasons enough to smile, just look at this picture! Sometimes, this is the only reason anyone needs!

Have a great day and don't forget to smile!

My Kelsey Kay

It is true! My life is great and it is because of what one person is bringing to and pouring into my life. Just a simple, "Hello!" with that sweet voice can turn the worst of headaches into a wave of fluttering calmness. I now know and truly feel that there is no greater gift than that of love, a love that is more than words, more than a touch, going beyond any boundaries that have ever been. With such a deep, gentle love, there are no boundaries. There is only a path paved with all of my hopes, all of my dreams and really, all of my self.

Though never enough, every word is for you. I meant it when I said that I had wished for you with every birthday candle blown out! And now, I will wish for us with every birthday candle remaining in this life. I love you, Kelsey!