Saturday, January 24, 2009

Politics! *chuckle*


Change.. VP vs VP
The Look... We've all seen it before.. hahaha
Diplomatic Excitement!
Guantanamo.. synchronized dance squad?

Monday, January 12, 2009

To Puff or not to Puff?



October 3rd, 1993

The day after anniversary of my Father's birthday and the day before the anniversary of his death. Needless to say, that's a very emotional time for me. To add insult to injury, my husband (who is my one and only exhusband), decided to share with me some emotionally devastating news on that third day of October. It shattered me so much that I proceeded to hyperventilate to the point of almost passing out. I excused myself from the room and proceeded to spend the next several hours sitting on the bathroom floor crying. For some reason when I cried, laying my head against the cold porcelain of the tub made me feel better.

October 4th, 1993

I awoke to the laughter of my children. I knew I had to be strong for them, but every inch me felt like dying. Eating, well, that's something that the mere thought of made me want to vomit. So what did I do? I stopped eating and I started smoking. I still cooked, after all my husband and my children had to eat, right? I myself survived on coffee (which I've drank since I was five years old), coca-cola (which I had never drank before), and cigarette's (which I abhorred). Smoking to me was disgusting, unladylike, and something that I knew would dramatically reduce my life. Maybe I wanted my shell to die as I had already felt as though my soul was gone.

December 24th, 1993

From the lack of food, my body shook uncontrollably. I still couldn't imagine eating, but my body could no longer survive without some sort of nourishment. My family and I were due to visit my Mom in a few days and my husband knew he couldn't take me there in the condition I was in. So he took me to the doctor. The Doctor prescribed anti-depressants, muscle relaxers, and some type of medicine to soothe and relax my stomach. The medications seemed to calm my quivering, which was a blessing in itself. The next day I was able to eat a few bites of food, but not much.

It took me several months before I could tolerate eating a full meal again. Unfortunately, I didn't stop the smoking.

Yes, Angie's a smoker!

Yes, Angie is VERY ashamed of this fact and hid it from many.

January 1st, 2009

2008 wasn't a good year for me. Heck, it hadn't been very good to many of us. But here we are in 2009 with a renewed sense of hope. Hope for a better economy, hope for better health, and hope for a brighter future.

I called the Florida Stop Smoking hotline to get some help to kick my habit. They've provided me with phone counseling and nicotine replacement therapy. All free of charge. The only thing I had to do was quit! So I did. Sure, I'll still call myself a smoker for quite some time now because I'm a long way from kicking the addiction. I've started the process... I plan to continue it! I can succeed!

I'm also going to be joining Martha in her choice to live by taking off this excess weight that seems to love me way too much! By the way Martha, CONGRATULATIONS on your 6+ pound loss so far!! I'm so proud of you!! In another week, I'll be joining Jim on his runs. I used to run 10 miles a day and loved it! So, I'll be replacing the cigarette's with running! Seems like a good trade off to me! *smile* Jim, congratulations on your weight loss thus far this year too! It seems y'all are already ahead of me! But I'll catch up, just watch me!

January 12, 2009

The mail ran. In the mail today was not one, not two, but THREE "letters" from Marlboro. All three included coupons for cigarettes. I thought about offering them on freecycle.org, so I laid them on the counter. I told my daughter about them and told her my intent for them. Now, I'm honest in telling you that I HIGHLY considered using those coupons... I thought, what's the big deal... I'll use the coupons, smoke for the next several months then quit again. Somehow my daughter NEW I had this inner struggle. It was then that she asked me for the coupons. I gave them to her but told her to not throw them out, that I was going to give them to someone on freecycle. She looked at me, then grinned, as she took a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut each coupon into a million tiny little pieces. I'm like what are you doing... I'm smiling... face clenched... tiny tears coming out of the corner of my eyes... pleading with her to not waste them. She proceeded to tell me that I don't need to help someone else kill themselves! Later on she came up to me and asked me if I was mad at her for destroying the coupons. I of course told her I wasn't. Then she told me that she was afraid I might be tempted to use them for myself so she had to make them disappear. She told me that she knew me being upset was a risk, but it was the chance she was willing to take. The alternative, in her mind, was that I'd cause myself more harm if they still existed. So she did the only thing she could. She did the RIGHT thing! I'm glad they're gone!

Many years ago, when my son was still in elementary school, he came up to me after school one day and started shaking his hands really fast. I was like, what are you doing? He said: "Mommy, this is what your heart does every time you smoke". Why didn't I quit then?

Huckabee Praises Apple


Mike Huckabee talks about the poor customer service with his airline and phone company and then praises Apple for great customer service.

We've all had really positive, and really negative, experiences with customer service! I'd like to hear about yours (tell me about them, not Mike.. he'll just exploit your views and use them to increase his own ratings). *smile*

As for Apple, my son and I have spent countless hours at the Apple store and dealt with them on the phone. It's ALWAYS been a wonderful experience!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

To Switch or Not to Switch?


My son had a project to do at the end of last semester. The project was to make a 30 second video advertisement for a product of their own choosing. Well, anyone who knows my son would know that he'd pick something Apple related. LOL

Each student was to do everything from filming, to script writing, lighting, editing, and voice overs.. you name it, it was part of that project.

He used my daughter (Sarah) as the actress in the video. Sarah is really shy so for her to even allow this to be posted on a web site is a BIG deal! She doesn't like her image out there at all.

A few things to note on the video.
Blue Screen of Death: This was photo shopped in along with Sarah's 'reflection' in the blue screen. William filmed a blank/black monitor.
The blue hue you see on the keyboard, and on Sarah, from the Blue Screen of Death, was also photo shopped in.
He also used an older MAC laptop in the advertisement because Apple no longer uses the "switch" ads.. thus using his new one would have seemed out of place for anyone who is familiar with Apple.

I know the hours he spent filming this, and editing it. It was a great deal of work. But, in my opinion, he achieved very professional results.

Grade on the project: A (99% ~ I'm not sure what he got marked off on).

Now, before y'all fuss at me for bragging on my kids again.. I'm sorry, I can't help myself!! Biased me thinks he did an excellent job, and she was wonderful in her acting and voice overs.

If y'all would like to see any of his other work here's his NEW YT channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wbokunic

Below is his old channel that he no longer uploads new videos on. If you don't do anything else on his channels, check out his new introduction which is featured on the below channel ~ I think it's cool:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MacintechStudios

Sarah's Channel.. it's secret! Like I said, she's shy! =)

I hope all y'all have a GREAT week!!! *big hugs*

Special Note: Always remember, squirrels have feelings too!!! =)~~

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A New Years Day Lesson





I couldn't help myself, here's a third video.



A few of you have written me over this past week. I did get your emails and they were very much appreciated. I'm a little behind on writing back though, I promise to catch up in the next few days.

I'm also WAY behind on the blogs... I'll be catching up on these too. I'm sorry that I've been less than attentive to each of you. I'm a better friend that I've exhibited recently and I sincerely apologize for failing to show that!!!

The video attached to this blog.. well.. it was a much needed slap across my face! That young man, he's amazing! What an incredible inspiration!! I got the video in an email today, I think God knew I desperately needed to see it!!

Happy New Year y'all! We will ALL succeed in 2009 because we WILL make it happen!! Many blessings, much love, and the utmost of respect to each of you! ~Angie