Monday, November 15, 2010

Coming Together


Hello all you readers, wow it's been so long I'm not even sure if I have a voice anymore....but I'll try. So I've been in Real Estate for a year now...that flew by! Things are going well.

I have to say, I feel like such a writing sell-out. But, I have to pay the bills. I had to put my dreams of publishing on a back burner for a while. Of course, I do have a new book idea that I soooo want to get started on! But I've decided to just write the pitch and see if it really inspires me. I love the story, and so does Hubby, but It's a huge undertaking to write just to have it sit in my Bookshelf file on my computer.

Everytime I think of writing, I think of this blog. So naturally this morning, I was flipping through some old posts, and thinking that I would repost some of my favorites (and some of your favs too) just to re-introduce myself, but then I realized that I actually do have something to share.....and it's pretty darn cool.

So, reprints are vetoed - for now. (But you are welcome to see the archived stories for some fun.)

This weekend just ended with a total bang!

My hubby who is an artist (shameless blog pitch here) just finished up with Disney's Festival of the Masters 2010. His art was the signature art and they made all kinds of AWESOME merchandise and marketing using it.

The piece is here for you to see, and more pics are available at his blog if you want to see more. Swing on by, and post that you found him through Scribble Ink Cafe, he will be sooooo surprised!

His original sold for $7500. I am so proud!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Fountain Of Youth


If you stop learning, you stop growing. If you stop growing, you start dying. That is something I know for sure. (I’ll tell you about that one some other time.) But that line “When you are not growing, you are dying” is my fountain of youth.

So when I come across a passage or a thought that opens doors for me, I know that today, I will not die. I know that in my heart like I knew that I was going to marry my husband, and like I knew when I walked into my home that it was the one.

Recently, I was reading “Talking to Heaven” by James Van Praagh. I didn’t realize what I was reading until a quarter way through the book.

My mom had gotten it for me like five years ago (maybe more) and it sat in a box in my garage until recently, when I was searching for something, anything, to read - so help me God.

I pulled it out with two others, and it sat on my nightstand for weeks, until last weekend. I didn’t look at the author or read the jacket. I just dove in.

The first few pages were talking about how the author discovered his abilities to speak to the “other side.” (He sees dead people) Then the book goes into specific random readings he did for people over the years and how those reading affected them later.

Once it occurred to me, I knew who this man was. I flipped to the back jacket and realized this author is the guy from TV that does readings for people. Since I had seen every show the man did while I was home nursing my youngest child, I was ready to put the book down. I had soooo been there done that.

But just as I start to skim through the last few pages to finish up the scene before I shoved the book into the donation pile, I ran across this...a passage that said if you wonder if your spirit guides are helping you, then remember this, when you meet a business partner to discuss a future endeavor, but on your way you make a wrong turn, get pulled over, park at the wrong lot, wait on a broken elevator before taking the stairs just to get to the door where the meeting is to take place only to find a note telling you to go to another door that the meeting was moved…..those are your spirit guides trying to warn you not make that deal. But you do it anyway, and your business fails, and your partner runs off with your money.

Huh, I thought - I was raised to believe that walls were meant to be broken. Falling down teaches you how to get up. Roadblocks are just tests to see how badly you want it. But in reading that passage in the book, something rang true. That stuff about failure, never really felt right in my heart, but I ignored those feelings and I never gave up.

In looking back, that was like climbing the rocky side of a mountain, when patients would have revealed the walking path.

James also said in the book, your spirit guides would guide you toward your goal effortlessly. Doors open for you spontaneously. And that is so true. Just in the short time I have had to put those theories to the test, it has been right. Even in hindsight, I can see that those opportunities in my life that worked the best (my marriage, my home, my children, my career choice, my car purchase even) all have come effortlessly. But those things I work so hard at, take work just to keep them alive. They drain me every minute they stay in my life.

So now, I believe in what James Van Praagh revealed to me, which is, I don’t have to charge after things in my life, the right things will come to me. Many people have said that many ways, but James was able to reach me at just the right time that I was ready to hear it.

And so today, I will not die…..and today, I believe, I am saving lives just by sharing my fountain of youth, where the water is beautiful all year around. Hee hee, splash.

Visit Things I Love at the Diaper Diaries Blog for more posts on stuff like this....

Friday, April 9, 2010

Would You Read More?

So I went with first person for the POV in my book CRACKED. Tell me if you would read on after reading this intro:


INTRODUCTION:

Our minds are built with a Yin and Yang. I know this, because for every action I take, I receive an equal and opposite reaction.

In my life, there were the stories I told others, and then there were the stories I told myself. The truth melted between the lines. For me, there was a day, actually a single moment in time, where the two stories revealed themselves like whales crashing from beneath the surface of a wild ocean. They seemed to be gasping, for air, for survival, life. That, for me, was a glimpse of the disconnection I had within myself.

As we witness moments like that in our lives, it is what we do with those images that will define us. For some, the meaning of life becomes clear. For others it is the moment that takes them under.

As travelers, we have many goals to achieve in a lifetime. And when I reached this goal, I realized I had always been walking toward it, only the wind was in my face. Those stories, holding me back. As I began to reveal myself, it was as if the wind had changed direction and suddenly, it blew at my back. Pushing me into the future.

In retrospect, I realize that the wind had been the story I told, my mind. It was the thing that had me standing like a rock in rushing water. Water, that was not only rushing around me, it was rising...

END

Now, take the poll at the top right :)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Fighting Rules?


by Amy Platon

Hubby and I have a 7 year old boy.

This weekend we “hit” on a topic that we don’t seem to agree on, and I want your opinion.

It’s a question that we parents with boys have all asked ourselves. What do we tell our son to do when another boy hits him?

My husband is of the “Hit him back” school of thinking. But he also went his whole adolescence without a single brawl.

And if you all know me at all you’ve probably guessed, I totally disagree. However, in an effort to find the middle ground, I offered this as a solution:

If our boy gets hit in the chest first, then it’s ok for our son to hit back, but only in the chest, equal to his punch.

I was pretty proud of that solution actually. But my husband said that that too much for our son to consider when he’s in the heat of it all. My expectation would be too high of him.

Of course, I’m thinking of the mom-to-mom aftermath. “My son hit your son in the chest, and your son hit him back in the nose and now it’s bleeding. That’s out of line!”

I feel like if my son at least understood the rules of “fair fighting” then I could at least back him up as responsibly as possible, and not feel totally wrong.

What are your thoughts? I would especially love it if you ask your husbands opinion and would love comments from dads who have been in school hood fights themselves. I’m looking forward to your thoughts!


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Monday, January 11, 2010

Eye Level

by Amy Platon

My anniversary and New Years come hand in hand, like a gay couple gallivanting through a poppy field. They skip past me down the yellow brick road. I usually shout something like, “Hey, what are you, running in circles? I saw you two last year, and what are you always so happy about anyway?”

There are a few things I know for sure. Like, the best thing about being married is that I have someone else to bounce ideas off of. Someone credible that when he says, “go for it,” I know he means it, having all the same things at stake. Ahh, that rocks!

I’m so proud of my relationship because hubby and I are at such a beautiful and delicate place - that eight-year mark. Where I have seen in other relationships, the end or a departure of sorts. And although I would never be so naive to say that won’t happen to us, I can say with some confidence that it won't happen to us today.

And I remember the moment that it all started for us. Again, I mean. And I’m amazed at how simple an accomplishment it was.

We were often wrapped up in our routine, like workers in a factory, watching the clock, getting the work done - all of it serious business.

Until it occurred to me that the boy in the 'work station' next to mine, was my husband. When his eyes wandered up and connected with mine, unexpected to him. I smiled. Not just at the thought of him, but because in that moment I saw him. Until then I realized that I had been looking at him all these years. My smile, so genuine I guess, he couldn’t help but smile back.

I tried again in the mirror that day. It took a few tries, because the first couple of smiles looked painfully like a school yearbook photo. But when I got it, I saw that I looked prettier that way.

It’s something about the meaningfulness in the lines around my mouth and the ones that shoot out from my eyes. So now I smile when I see my husband, not just for my marriage, but so that he can see the person I want him to see. The one, that is in love with him - for all he does for us, and for what he does to me.

And those two (New Years & Anniversary), they can run right past me. Prancing in their popularity. But for me, there will be no running. I would just like to sit here and enjoy what I have right now, today. I’ll take it all in and let it resonate. I will live my life at eye level. That is my anniversary gift. That is my new year’s resolution.

Want More?
Another 'Smile' Story by me :)
Another one I know you'll like
Also intrinsic about me and hubby
This one too!

Read more at the lovely Diaper Diaries Blog