Happy Birthday to ME!

Twenty three! Twenty three! Twenty three! Yay just twenty three days until I am the big 4-0! Yes I am actually excited to be turning forty and yes I know lots of people will think I am crazy for feeling that way. Forty is usually a birthday that many, many people dread to see coming. I, on the other hand, look at it like this; there is no magic time machine to let me move backwards through time and the other alternative is death, which I am far from excited about, so yes, turning forty is exciting. I get to move into a new decade of my life with anticipation of the fun and excitement that will hit me head on. I don't look back at any other decade and regret a thing, so why worry about jumping into my forties? The biggest reason for my excitement though is that I am about to make a major transformation in my life, I will be changing my lifestyle and will become more healthy and physically fit than I have been since my twenties. I am giving this gift of a new lifestyle to myself for my birthday. As of 10/16/2011 I have officially started training with the P90X program. I will admit, it is hard, very, very hard, but I am one dedicated gal, and I will do this! My goal is to complete the 90 days and get rid of as much of my flab as possible. I don't expect it to all disappear within this 90 day program, but what I do expect is to get so accustomed to my new way of life that once my program is complete I will have the knowledge and tools necessary to continue on with my routine and make the rest of it disappear! My goal is to be one hot mom for my son Tyler's graduation in June, 2012. Can I do it? HECK YES!!! I will blog weekly to let you know how I am doing and you will see the good, the bad and the ugly. I hope that by following me, you can learn with me, you can see what works for me, and what doesn't. I hope that you will be motivated to get moving and make changes for yourself too. Get ready to see this girl transformed! I am going to do this, no chickening out, no whimping out and no excuses! I have lots of new goals in life, but number one is to take care of myself so I can take care of others. I accomplished many goals this year despite some crazy, crazy crap in my life, Yes crap, excuse the language but that is the nicest way I want to put it, using a nice word like adversity just softens it a bit too much. It was crap, crap, crap! Health issues, legal issues, teenage drama, you name it, it hit me, but I survived and went on to accomplish the biggest physical feat of my life, The Warrior Dash. This was a 3 mile obstacle course that kicked my butt, left me battered and bruised, slightly intoxicated, and as high on life and proud as I have ever been. It taught me that I can do anything I want to, period! God has blessed me beyond belief and gives me faith and courage and I thank Him and I will look to him daily to help guide me on this journey. So here goes, I'm ready to do this! Here's to my family and friends, and here's to me, I will do this, I will be better for it and I will share my journey with you! Let's roll!  

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I have read and heard several things lately that are in favor of our President and many more that are seemingly against him with full force. Unfortunately,in both cases the race card always gets thrown up. I just wanted to speak up and say that it is time that we stop playing this color game and realize that regardless of color, religion and even political beliefs, President Obama is just that, our President and deserves the respect due him for that point alone. I feel ashamed at the message all of these disrespectful asses are sending to citizens but mostly to kids and to the leaders and citizens of other countries. The reasons that our country is falling apart boil down to greed and disrespect, period. We the American public elected President Obama to lead our country, whether you or I voted for him doesn't matter at this point, HE WON! We evidently have a society of bad sports who refuse to play fair and let the winner do his job and lead our team to victory. Is it because he's black? Sure, but more importantly it's because he is black and nice, kind and intelligent. I do not agree with all of his views, nor do I ever agree completely with anyone's, but I was raised to believe that in OUR country The President of the United States is "The main man" you afford him utmost respect regardless of his party, and now that also means regardless of his color. I hate the fact that racism has to even be an issue but reality is that it is, but I am happy to say that in my family we still respect the President, and we do not see him as The Black President only as Our President. I see what is going on amongst all of our leaders and I think all of them need to get back to their roots and think about these basic life lessons that hopefully they were taught, the ones about respect and sharing, caring and doing unto others as you want done unto you. Somewhere along the way, many of our leaders have forgotten their purpose and as citizens we have forgotten that it is our job to remind them. If by some odd chance a leader reads this I hope that he or she will stop and think about these things and maybe start by offering an apology to our President for the blatantly disrespectful behavior that is going on and maybe pass it on so that someone else will do the same. How can we teach our youth respect for others when the most important leader  in their world, other than God of course, is being being disrespected in front of them and in front of the world? Why should the leaders of other countries respect the good ol' US of A when we don't respect our own country? Come on people face reality, as a country we have never had 100% agreement on any issues, much less any President so just agree to disagree and face the reality of issues not skin color or political party. We are supposed to be the UNITED States of America, we need to get a grip on the unification and start appreciating, respecting and giving our kids the same or better future that our parents gave us. Respect your friends, respect your families and for God's sake please respect OUR President!