I just recieved an email newsletter that I subscribe to called Images of One. It contained some alarming information regarding something that many of us consume on a daily basis, thinking that it is a fairly safe product. The article was about the additive aspartame that is used in nearly all of the diet sodas, drink mixes and other products sold as light or diet foods. I remember that saccharin was removed from diet drinks for being a carcinogen. This article claims that aspartame is also a carcinogen. Aspartine is, scientifically speaking, a member of a group of chemicals called excitotoxins. This group of chemicals stimulate the neurons in the nervous system and makes it fire excessively. When used excessively, it can exhaust the system. Aspartine is made up of a methyl ester, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. In the body, the methyl ester is comverted to formaldehyde, you know, like what's used to embalm bodies. When the aspartic acid and phenylalanine are split, you get a neurotoxin. Phenylalanine itself carries some damage that includes depletion of serotonin, mood swings and the lowering of the siezure threshold. Pretty scary huh? For more info, you might want to go to http://www/ImagesOfOne.com

The Fourth of July

Another 4th of July has passed. We had a fairly quiet day, just a barbeque for my Aunts, my Daughter and me. I had to get my Daughter home by 3 PM, so we didn't worry too much about fireworks, except for the effects on the dog. She held up pretty good, but was plainly unhappy with the noise. We didn't get up quite early enough to walk down to the park to see the end of the parade, though we did see some of the entrants going down our street afterward. We were also out for a walk when the Air Force jets flew over, folowed by their flying "gas tank". The jets were flying over all the smaller towns and their celebrations, so the refueling plane was probably more convenient and more cost effective than going back to base for a fill up.

It was quite hot, but we frequently have hot Fourths. It will be even hotter the next 3 days, which are expected to go to 100 degrees and higher. The whole West seems to be sweltering. Still, the Midwest is busy being flooded and having oil slicks in thier rivers, probably worse for disrupting families and causing property damage. The west is having some disruptions and property damage in the form of wild fires, which are likely to get worse rather than better as the summer progresses.

It's funny how we all seem to so look forward to the summer months and frequently, before the summer is over, we're looking forward to the relief of Fall. Maybe we should try to look for the best whatever the season, just live each day the best we can and hopefully find the good in our lives.

Lovely, Lovely Water

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent several days in and around Vancouver, Wa. One day, the rest of the family was busy, so my Aunt and I decided to go to the coast for the day. Notice I said "coast" not"beach". Beach conjures up images of southern California style beaches and the beaches of northern Oregon and Washington are not the same. They tend to be a little wilder and less civilised than in So. Cal.

We had been to the coast in Oregon,in Astoria and Seaside, so we decided to tale I 5 up to Longview, Wa and get off on highway 4 and make our way to the coast. Now we had just come from drought plagued Utah, so even the views on the interstate were showing us bounteous amounts of water. In Utah, we'd gladly take even a quarter of the water this area has.

Highway 4 is a small 2 lane koad, very picturesque, that stays fairly close to the Columbia River. We did run into about 3 areas of road work. I guess summer's the same everywhere on that count. We must have missed a sign because soon we were away from the river, but we kept going as the signs still proclaimed Long Beach ahead and that was our destination.

Eventually, we saw more water, then a really lot of water! There were islands and somehow,it didn't quite look like the Columbia River. We pulled over to take some pictures and stretch our legs.I mentioned to my Aunt that I bet the water was salty. Later, after checking a map, we realised we had gone north and were at the bottom of a huge bay that actually is behind Long Beach.

We did make it to Long Beach, a kitzy little tourist town with lots of places to buy seashells, sea food and kites.(They have a kite festival there.) The beach is sand, quite hard packed, not ankle deep like SoCal beaches. My Aunt thought the ocean was dirty as the waves were rolling up lots of sand and seaweed. To me, it was beautiful! I love the sound of the waves and the calls of the sea birds. I really hated to leave.

We crossedthe bridge over to Astoria. It's quite a climb. I'd had to have to use it on an icy day. They have to have it high for the big ships that go up the river. We took highway 30 and went over the Longview bridge to go back to Vancouver.

I wonder if the people up there know how blessed with water they are. There were ferns next to the road growing thigh high and Queen Ann's Lace as high as my waist, plus larkspur and flowers I didn't have a name for. It was a wonderful trip that I was sorry yo see end!

Proud Grandmother

I went to Vancouver WA last week for my oldest grandchild's high school graduation. What a wonderful experience! My oldest Grandson and my Granddaughter attend Vancouver School of Arts and Acedemics or VSAA for short. To say I'm impressed with the school would be faint praise. This is a wonderful school....small class sizes.....personal teacher advocats for each student...a 7 year curriculum where students can start in 6th grade.....all this and it's public not private. Here in Utah, students would only get these advantages in a private school setting with expensive tuition. I was also impressed with the encouragement of diversity. Each student is encouraged to go with thier dreams. A very lofty goal.

My graduation was quite awhile ago, but I don't seem to remember it as being quite so raucus and joyful. Mine was nice, I remember a feeling of anticipation about going out in the "real" world, but these students seemed to bring a joy to the celebration, a confidence of their being capable of living their dreams, and there were many under classmen there cheering on the new graduates and plainly anticipating thier own glory in the future.

My Grandson played in his string quintet, He also gave a talk. He has some good comedic talent. I'm very proud of the young man he's become.

Another thing I approve, they save and raise money all year for an all night party for the graduates, no drugs,booze or crazy driving.They get transport from the school to a nice place, like a hotel where they have a variety of fun activities for the night with breakfast in the morning before returning to the school and home. I'm sure they all will have some wonderful memories!

Congratulations

As I may have mentioned before, my oldest Grandson is graduating in a little over a week. He was also chosen by his peers to be one of 3 speakers, a nice accomplishment. I talked to him on the phone recently, to make sure there will be space for my Aunt and I if we drive up. Fortunately, he did have extra tickets for us as I had made arrangements to take a couple of days off and my Aunt had reserved space for the dog in the kennal. We're looking forward to the trip, despite the high gas prices. We haven't seen my Son and his family for over a year and we both miss them.

I remember when my Grandson was a cute, chubby baby. He had a ready smile and giggled easily. Now he's a lean 6 footer, sometimes sullen, as teens can be, but still with a ready smile. I'm frequently amazed at the able young man he has grown to be. Of course, he still has growing to do, but that's true of most of us. I firmly believe, that growing is a lifetime thing, if you're lucky. If you don't grow, you stagnate. Though you are allowed some rest periods I guess.

I remember my own graduation. I felt like the world was spread out before me, like a banquet. Life is probably still that way, if we could just see it. It seems that we often let the everyday events of life take over and wear us down, but there's still a banquet out there if we'll just see it!






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Dealing With Stress

It seems to me , that dealing with stress starts with recognising things that give you stress and anticipating whether you're coping adequately on a daily basis. If you're just going on with your life, going from day to day without checking in with yourself, noticing behaviors or symptoms that usually indicate stress for you,you may wait until you are overstressed before you act. When you do that, it can take more actions to get you back on track and centered.

I can usually take changes fairly well unless they are really big changes, or thing that may really complicate my life. If it is a change that I have initiated or I'm enthusiatic about, then I usually will have "good" stress. Of course even good stress can get out of hand. Changes that are required of me, but without my choice, like new procedures at work can get stressful. Sometimes, these changes are easier than anticipated, so they go pretty well. We recently had to start using handheld scanning computers to record the products that we use in our demos. It turned out to be fairly easy and not all that stressful. The stressful part is the difference in our work orders, harder to understand and harder to figure out if you're making your sales goals or not. Since our pay raises are tied to preformance, this gets stressful. Still, you do your best and watch the stats and hope it all works out. Not the best way to manage stress.

A big stressor for me is worrying about disappointing a loved one, like maybe not being able to attend a function because of your work schedule. Hopefully,a supervisor will be accomodating, but the stress is there until the problem is resolved.

When you get several problems all giving you stress and the problems will not be solved very quickly, you may just have to have faith in yourself and the people that you deal with and in the power of Spirit. And whilr you're waiting for resolution, do something for yourself. Relax, meditate, listen to good music, plant some flowers, read a good book and be sure and laugh!

Just Musing

I had a nice birthday. My Aunts insisted in giving me more than I thought I needed, but still, it's nice adding to your wardrobe right? The weather has been as changable as is typical in Utah's springtime. We got some pretty good rain on Monday, but we're still heading for a draught this year. It seems like we only just got over one.

I just bought African Daisies and Zinnias to plant. It's nice to have a yard to grow stuff again.

I'm finally getting to the point where I have very little furniture left in my condo. I've sold or given away most of the larger stuff. There's still "stuff" there, but I'm making headway--good thing too, as my storage is pretty full.

We've got a large bush of old fashioned yellow roses in the backyard and even some Oriental Poppies coming over from the nieghbor's yard. The peonies are blooming and the roses are starting to bloom. We have Geraniums and Dianthus in pots on the steps.The tulips are finished and the Irises nearly done.Spring seems to go so fast, but I love it! Yesterday, I was coming home from Salt Lake and came over a hill and saw the Great Salt Lake. It was so blue! The air was clear and you could see many of the islands so sharply. I wish I'd had my camera, we don't always have such clear days anymore.

My oldest Grandson graduates high school this year. I have a picture of him in the living room and he's less than a year old and so cute. It seems like just a few years ago he was so small. Now he's over 6 feet tall and getting ready to venture out into the world. It really seems amazing.

Odd Musings

I thought I'd better write something, here it is mid May and I haven't posted yet. I've been working a little more, and I've been a bit lazy.

We've had only a few days of spring here, but more summer weather than spring. We've aldeady been into the ninety degree weather. The last 2 days have been in the seventies, more spring like. Tomorrow we'll be pushing back into the eighties.

My birthday is tomorrow and I'll be celebrating with a shopping trip and a lunch out. It will be nice I think. It's always good to have a little fun once in a while.

I've been thinking of planning a get-away this summer. It's been awhile since I've been anywhere. The gas prices may dictate how far I'll go, or maybe I won't be able to go at all if prices keep climbing. It's hard not to believe in some sort of conspiracy sometimes, especially with the prices going up almost daily. I mean really, the prices really are changing several times a week. What's up with that? One of these days, maybe this country will finally get it's act back on track. Well, that's my soapbox speech for today.

Progress?

Since my last post, I did manage to sell one bed, a bookcase and both the washer and dryer, all thanks to my wonderful nieghbor. I'm thinking that it is definitely time to let go of the condo if I can. I really need to cut down on trips between Tooele and Salt Lake. My last gasoline bill was $130.!....and the cost of gas keeps going up! To make matters worse, I'm working an extra day a week for the next 3 weeks. I suppose I'll make more than spend in gas, but maybe not much more.

I haven't heard from my kids who live out of state for awhile. Hopefully, they're just busy,but I can't help but worry. Time to make contact or at least try to I guess.

We are having summer here lately, though just a bit over a week ago we were back to winter for a few days after some lovely spring days. Hopefully we'll go back to spring again and get to summer gradually over weeks and not days.

Catching Up

It's been a long time between posts.I've been busy trying to finish up with my moving. It seems to take forever! I still have quite a lot of things left in the condo and very little space left in my storage unit. I really don't have any space left in my bedroom and the basement is getting full. I may have buyers for my 2 beds and even possibly for my washer and dryer. I've been thinking of ways to donate the rest that will have someone other than myself doing pick-up. One of my problems is that I can't always be available at the condo, but I have a wonderful neighbor there whom I've left with a key. I will certainly be glad when I can finally let go of the condo permanently.

Living with someone again has been good. I seem to function better when there is someone else in the household to consider. Both my Aunt and I have lived alone for quite a few years, though I did have a few years recently with my Mom. I think there are advantages to being alone, but only if you can keep active and busy,otherwise, it's too easy to spend your time in front of the TV watching things you don't even care about rather than actually doing something alone. Of course that's just where my life is now.

Changes

Earlier in March, my supervisor was wanting me to give up shifts, as there were'nt enough demos being ordered. By the end of the month, there were suddenly more demos than we had people and they all had to be done by March 31. I went from sometimes only 2 days a week to 5 days a week and working any hours I wished, as long as I worked. Since my health has finally improved, I was able to to do the work and enjoy it too. Mother Nature decided to flex her sense of humor again too..We had been having beautiful spring weather, then getting a couple of cold days with a storm most of the month, but the end of the month brought some real changes to some of us. I'm now living west of Salt Lake, though I still drive into the city for work. The city mainly got lots of rain, the the town I live in now got 12 inches of snow in 2 days. It was very wet snow and I'm still sore from shoveling. Amazingly, the desert west of us got 36 inches of snow in 1 day while the ski resorts got 18 to 20 inches. Really strange. Now it's April and the spring lowers are blooming and the sun is shining. We're still holding our breaths a bit waiting to see if we get an even later snowstorm.

Endless Moving

My last post was March 12 and here it is March 26 and I'm still trying to get the rest of my stuff out of my old condo! It doesn't help that I usually only get one or 2 days to work. This week, I'll only get one day as I am working extra hours. I did manage to sell some furniture, but still have beds, bookcases and TV and entertainment center. I still have dishes and books to take to storage. I'm beginning to think I'll never be finished, especially when you factor in all the stuff I have in storage that I'll probably never use.

I've had an idea for quite some time that we don't own our stuff, it owns us. Now, I'm pretty well convinced that this is a truth, especially with things you don't really need. They take up space, or you pay for storage. This certainly isn't economical. It also drags down your energy. I think my goal for the rest of this year is to get rid of stuff that isn't used or really wanted. That should free up both space, money and energy.

Moving

I'm sort of moved. That is, I'm now sleeping in the new place, but there's still gobs of stuff in the old place. I find myself almost hoping to be robbed. It's amazing how much "stuff" you can accumulate. The last time I moved, about 12 years ago, I had 17 years of accumulation. I sent truck loads to the dump and to charity. Still, I managed to keep a lot and accumulate more. Now, here I am again, trying to devest myself of a bunch of stuff.

I had always fantisized about moving with just a small trailer, only taking the very basics. It's hard to really throw stuff away when it comes right to it though. I did get away with very little, but now, what do I do with the rest? It would help if I still owned a truck, but I don't. I guess I'll just keep trying, or maybe hold a moving sale.

What Fun!

I went to work yesterday,not because I was healthy, but because I couldn't afford another day off. I was still having some problems with laryngitis, sometimes my voice was there, sometimes not so much. I'd originally been scheduled for a cooking demo, but my supervisor traded me to a demo of giving away a product. The product was a high quality bathroom tissue, something everyone needs. I had boxes and boxes of roles of bathroom tissue to give away on my shift. Voice or no voice, I still managed to convey to people that it was free. It was so much fun! After 6 days of being sick and basically self concerned, giving something away was just what I needed. Normally, my feet hurt half way into my shift. Last night I got home and realised that my feet hadn't bothered me. What's up with that?

Despite the fact that it was a pretty universal use product, there were people who turned down the freebie. My only conclusion is that they were afraid there were strings attatched. All the manufacturer wanted was for people to take home the product and try it. If they didn't like it, they could throw it away. If they did, then it was hoped that the customer would give consideration to purchasing the product the next time they needed some. All the risk was on the manufacturer. Plainly, they have confidence in their product. Still, the power of habit in the buying public cannot be over-estimated.

The Strange Effects of Illness

I've spent the last 6 days experiencing the joys and tribulations of a major cold. Instead of getting a scratchy throat, then sneezing, then a cough, I just started right in with a persistant cough, then the sneezing and stuffiness. I even got a fever and body aches, so maybe I've got the flu. Anyway, when I get a virus that causes a cough, I generally get asthma symptons as well. It's so fun to try to sleep while listening to your own wheezing. I thought I'd go to work today, but discovered that I couldn't talk. It's funny, when you live alone, you don't really realise you have larangitis until you try to talk outloud and you don't usually talk outloud except maybe to answer the phone......very embarassing. Still, the mega-sore throat should have been some indication.

When I'm quite sick, and I finally give in to it, it seems like the world just goes away a little, or at least recedes a bit. I guess that's purposeful on my part.I only answer phone calls from people I know and want to talk to. I leave my mail in a pile, to get to later. I watch kid's shows on TV. Sometimes I wonder if I've gotten sick in order to give myself a break? If so, I may have overdone things this time. Even if I like this tiny little world I'm in right now, I've got to break out and get back to the real world, tomorrrow, hopefully.

Moving

Life just seems to go on whether we want it to or not. I guess maybe you can take a break sometimes, but then everything is just waiting for you when you come back. I'm supposed to be moving this week, but I got another cold. ( maybe there's a reason for that ) Fortunately, I have an extra day off this week, so I can postpone moving day one more day.

It's amazing how much "stuff"we accumulate in 11 years! Now I get to decide what to store for possible selling or give away, what to move, and what to throw away. The longer I work and the worse I feel, the more I throw away. Hey, maybe that's the reason for the new cold!

It's Snowing!

After the frigid weather in January we finally got temps closer to normal.This past weekend was beautiful with temps in the middle fifties. It was a great precoursor to spring, but Mother Nature was just teasing us. I got up this morning to a couple of inches of snow and it's still coming down. Not to fear, it's supposed to clear later and be warmer tomorrow. The ski resorts are probably loving the new powder for the President's Day crowd! This is my week to move, so hopefully, the weather will really do as predicted.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is about love. Today, it seems that romantic love is the most celebrated. There are hearts with arrows and little cupids flying around, but the original purpose of the day was to honor Saint Valentine,a man filled with love for all. Valentine's Day is about LOVE, in all it's forms. There is love of our children, of our families, our spouses,our fellowman,Mother Nature and the world, even love of ourselves. It's too bad we only have one day to celebrate love. We need to remember that all of the Universe and it's Creator is LOVE and we are LOVE. The strongest power in the Universe is LOVE, and our Creator loves us unconditionally. Can we do any less than to try to do the same in our lives?

Free Will or Determinism?

I just read an article from the New York Times speculating whether we have free will or are our lives predetermined? As near as I could understand in the article, if our acts are pre determined, that determining factor seems to be our subconscious mind. Excuse me, but isn't our subconscious mind a part of us? While it's true, our parents and culture tend to program certain things into our subconscious, it also gets programed by our experiences and observations as they impact our conscious mind. The article talked about genetic and evolutional programing as well, even mentioned particle physics. There was a study done where people were told to make random movements. Supposedly, the movements came a fraction before cognition, or the mind deciding the movement. The conclusion to the article was that we had enough free choice, or illusion of free choice for us to be comfortable.

Nowhere in this article was there any reference to a Spiritual Element. Maybe the author didn't want to bring another source of determinism, or he was just skirting the issue. I've always believed we could be moved by Spirit, if we're open and listening, but that it was our choice as to whether we took Spirit's advise. Then again, if Spirit is really serious about us doing something, I suppose It could manage conditions in our lives to encourage us to decide to do as It suggests eventually, even if we're stubborn. There are others who believe that our Souls determine our path in each lifetime. That's probably as good an idea as any other. Maybe we'll find out all about how things work sometime. In the meantime, we'll just keep muddling through.

Mommy, Inc.: * Tea Time With Shannon: Got milk?

Mommy, Inc.: * Tea Time With Shannon: Got milk?Here is a great post by Shannon. She is getting her milk delivered by a local farmer. It's a little more money, but in return, she supports her local economy.gets really fresh milk( she can get to know her cows personally), she saves the environment as her milk doesn't get trucked in from who knows where. All of this and it tastes better too!