Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 125 "Chocolate therapy is oh so good." PROMISES Messages

Mmmm...I agree!!!

Chocolate therapy is most certainly "oh so good!" As well as bath therapy, tea therapy, and sleep therapy. Definitely sleep therapy! Uh huh! I love me some good ol' sleep! :)

I am so stuffed right now, we ended the day with a trip to Denny's with Leah, Stacy, Brian, Alex, Walter, and John. It was fun. John, Walter, and Alex left to go watch a movie so grabbed some to-go plates (although they still ended up eating with us and they left their junk for us! LOL!). And then it was just me, Leah, Stacy, and Brian. We finished off the night and just had a good time.

The day started off early for me cause I went to Door of Hope to learn how to make coffee for work with Nick! He was a pretty good teacher. And I made a mean mocha! It was good! So, I am proud of myself! Whaaa-hooo! I now know how to make good coffee!

The day ended with The Well, music, food, and of course Dennys. And now...I am going to fall over and fall asleep. I am tired.

Well,

Gotsta go!

You know, I didn't do as much relaxing as I would have liked today, but it was a good day anyway!


Too - da - loo!

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier

P.S., I also went to the UAF library and studied! I had some reading assingments that I had to read. So today was kind of a busy dizzy day. BED!

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 124 "Close your eyes and relax." PROMISES Messages

Hey ya'll!

 I'm watching Bible stories with Brian. The t.v. ones. :)

Today has been a pretty good day. Went on a little shopping spree to Old Navy with my cousin, and afterwards she took me out to "AJMI Shushi." And it was gooooood!!! It's a new little only Sushi restauraunt! And it's delicious! I've never been to a strictly shushi joint, so it was fun! I just finished off my left over shushi! Yum! I've learned that I like the plain shushi best, you know, like the California rolls (which are probably my favorite). I ordered some spicy/crunchy sushi rolls, they were good but a bit too spicy. So Nina and I ended up trading dishes. :) Nonetheless, it was all pretty tasty!

After lunch, I picked up Brian and drove him to work, we got into a little tiff, but all is well now. :)

Because I almost overworked my 40 hour work week, I had to take a break, so my friend / co-worker and I drove to Chartreuse and took pictures of my artwork before it was taken down! That was fun! And I bought a pair of $25 dollar earrings there which I have been eye-ballin' since about August! They are beautiful! Very Hawaiian I might add, which is exactly what we need in this cold Alaskan winter! =P

Anyway, we took pics of my artwork and I'll post them up soon as promised! I was kinda bummed that one of my paintings was sold (the hummingbird one), because I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it, but I was happy that it got sold!

Anyway, I took a little break today. We just got a super comfy couch at work in the upstairs office, so after my 40 hours were up, I totally crashed on it, and it was niiiiiiiiiiiiicccce! :) I definitely took advantage of some relax time. :) That's the way to do it! :) You have to take a break once in awhile, I know I've gotta!

And I ended the day by rocking out with John on the stage! We were awesome! It was amazing!

And of course, Brian took me out to Ichiban, our favorite restaurant in town. It  was the perfect way to end the day!

The day went well, except for the tiff we had earlier, but we won't let that put a damper to our spirits!

Well, off to bed, early morning tomorrow (learning to make coffee from Nick). Learning to use the espresso machine for work!

LOVE YA'LL!!!

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 123 "Do not waste a moment. Love Life." Deb / Helena, MT

Hey guy!

 Today was a great night!

The birthday party was so much fun! I had a blast! And my most favorite thing about the night was hearing everybody at there laugh. I had to step out to the ladies room, and on my way back, I heard a bunch of roaring laughter coming out of the main room and I saw a bunch of red faces and a bunch of smiles! That made my day! Knowing that everybody had a good time made me happy! I loved it! Although we didn't have much food (or variety of food, it was a smorgesboard of cakes and chips and salsa), I think that all had fun enjoying each
other's presence and sharing the laughter. Afterall, laughter is good for the heart! :) 

We had a lot of inside jokes come out of tonight, and I was just super happy to see everyone's faces. I felt loved. Knowing that I had so many friends that cared and seeing them there to celebrate my 22nd trip around the earth (my birthday), was just a big huge blessing. I definitely feel loved. I loved being around everyone. :)

Well guys,

I definitely loved life today, and I hope to say this about every single day for the rest of my life, no matter how crappy or how great!

AND I had a bunch of facebook birthday wishes written on my wall and I saved a bunch of fun birthday messages on my phone. I still have some saved from last year on my phone! LOL! They are precious! And they make me smile!

Well ya'll, have a good night!

Blessing to all!

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier

P.S., for dinner tonight, at work, I made tuna melts and grilled cheese! The kids loved it!

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 122 "Chocolate brings good things to life." PROMISES Messages

Hey ya'll!!!

 I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! GUESS WHAT?!? In half an hour, at the stroke of midnight, I will no longer be 21 years old!!! I'm going to be an old fart! Hah! :) Actually, I'm pretty young, the older I get, the more convinced I am that 30 is actually quite young yet.

And forty isn't all that bad either, neither is 50, I guess I'm one of those, "love every season" type of people. :) I am like that with age, moments, and actual weather seasons.

I think that life is a beautiful thing, so you gotta take a day at a time and a moment at a time.

You know, I've always said that I want to be the type of grandma that can run and play with her kids. I definitely want to keep up a fit regime so that I can be healthy! I want to be an active parent and an active grandma! I don't want to sit on my butt! Although, we'll see where life takes me right? I hope for the best! :)

The ballet class that I'm taking is quite amazing by the way! I'm lovin' it! :)

Well guys...today has been a pretty good day but the night was kinda rocky. I work from 2-9pm, and I am the cafe manager, so we had a bunch of oranges and lemons that we picked up from the food bank last week, and they were starting to go bad, so today we made real lemonade (yum!), and we made orange juice...except...we did that all by hand, the lemons were easier cause we only had to cutt them once, but the oranges took about an hour and a half to squeeze the juice out of. They were a bit tricky because we had to cutt them a few times and pitt them. So two kids decided to volunteer their time to help me. They volunteered an entire hour to juicing the oranges...and when we were about 3 cups of juice away from done...one of the kids named Lee decided to be a bit obnoxious by purposefully pouring his cup of water that he was drinking into our almost finished oragne juice....and so...we had to throw the orange juice down the drange...and you pretty much can guess how the rest of the night went down. All the kids that were around including those that were jucicing were mad a Lee, and Lee got kicked out for tonight and all day tomorrow. It was quite the stupid thing...but that's what happened.

I wasn't so much upset with the fact that he poured his water/spit/backwash into our orange juice as I was upset about how much work was put into juicing the oranges by the kids. That's what upset me, the disrespect.

Well...guys...I am going to bed!!! Well...maybe I'll drink some tea first! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! (I'm counting down for the next 8 minutes!!!) Crazy!!!! I will be double trouble now! Twenty-two! Craziness!

***Thank you God for letting me live!!!

Goodnight ya'll!!!

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier

P.S., Today, I indulged in a bit of chocolate for breakfast lol! Chocolate does bring good things to life!

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 121 "Celebrate what you want to see more of." PROMISES Messages

Hey!

Awww man, my eyes hurt so bad! My computer screen doesn't light up very well, so I have to squint my eyes to type pretty much everyday. I feel like I'm ruininng my eyes by constantly straining them, you know what I mean?

Well anyhow, today has been a pretty normal day I suppose. Very chill.

Ah! But wait! The exciting part of my day was that I had my very first Beginners Ballet class today! And it was a BLAST! I had so much fun! I felt very at peace, and strong! You know, although ballet doesn't require sweating moves such as Insanity or P90X or Karate, it is a slow stretching, muscle building, strength building type of sport. I mean, wow! I did have a lot of fun today, and I love all of the crazy fun classical music we listen to while we do ballet! I felt like I was in France today because of it! Haha!

Well, and of course, another interesting part of my day was that I made sloppy joes for the very first time and they were delish! Yay me! I was super happy! A couple of kids came back for 2nds, and one kid came back for thirds! It was funny! You know, I've come to the conclusion that kids like messy foods, simple foods, and pasta-rich foods. They also love tomato rich foods! A good example of all of that is "spahgetti," which I am making tomorrow! One kid even mentioned it after I thought of it! He's allergic to wheat, so he saw some rice noodles in the cabinet, and his eyes got all big and wide-eyed, and he said to me, "you know, you can use those noodles for spaghetti for me next time you make spaghetti for everybody. I like rice noodles." And he was super happy when he told me that too! It was sweet! And so then I looked at him and smiled and said, "well guess what, I'm making spaghetti tomorrow!" And he told me that he would try to be there! LOL! It was a fun moment. :)

Well...lately I've been a little more patient, and I also have been able to somehow miraculosly laugh at life's imperfections, usually I get upset and shut down for a bit, but lately, I've just been laughing everything off. And not just like a little laugh, but a full blown, that's hilarious type of laughter! And it's been great! I've gone from one extreme to the other. Not sure if that's good or not, but is feels good. It feels good to laugh rather than shlump! :) I feel so much more light-hearted and playful nowawdays! I don't know, but lately, in these past couple of days, especially yesterday (although I had a pretty crappy night yesterday), I have seen a positive change in myself. It's been kind of a liberating, freeing, a good kind of careless type of change. Like a no-fear of man type of change. You get what I mean? I feel more confident in just being myself! And that is something I would like to see myself doing more often. I am celebrating myself, the process of accepting myself, and liking myself. I thought I liked myself, but now I realize that I was kind of in the side lines, I wasn't really all that kind to the person of who I am, at least, not really. I've just been finding out more about myself lately, and I have been accepting of myself more than I have ever before, and it feels great. I'm learning things about myself, what I like, what I don't, who I am, what I stand for, what matters, what doesn't, what things I need to shrug my shoulders to and let go of, what and who I need to forgive, including myself. I am not perfect, but I am perfectly me, and this year, I hope to celebrate that even more, and I hope to celebrate that by lots of laughter! I love laughter! So I hope I experience it much more often!

I am excited! ARe you? :)

Well, night night guys!

Sweet dreams! Too-da-loo! :)

-Love Your newly acquainted with oneself Fellow Chocolatier

P.S., I challenge you to stand up in front of the mirror sometime very soon and say Hi to yourself, and notice yourself outside yourself! Notice you from an outsider's point of view, as a person. :) Be kind. :) In fact, I dare you to that right now! Turn your computer off, and go find a mirror and wave hi to yourself! (You might want to do this in the bathroom, by yourself, so it won't appear as though you have an imaginary friend, lol, or you can, whatever...sometimes, imaginary friends are cool too! lol)

Well guys!

Have at it! ***NOtice yourself from another's eyes***, some say, *Look at yourself through God's eyes."

So, take a look! And tell me, what do you see?



I was looking for eye pictures and I found this on somebody's page; "God wants you to know… that when you feel down, look at yourself through God’s eyes. There are times when no matter how hard you try, you just cannot accept yourself as you are. During such times, think of how you look to God’s eyes. In God’s eyes, there is no judgment, there is only acceptance. God sees your light when all that you can see are your shadows. God loves you more than anyone could ever love you as you really are."

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 120 "All the world's a stage, be a star!" PROMISES Messages

Tell you what!

I definitely don't feel like a star right now! I'm having a pretty crappy night!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so freakin' frustrated right now!!!! BAHHHH!!!!

Well...I guess this writing is semi-theraputic. I think sleep will be even more theraputic. Everybody has pretty crappy days and nights though right? I know that I am. And you know what the funny thing is? Is that I am the culprit of my own problems. I see myself creating a super storm of problems and my attitude runs to home base with them. If only I could control my thoughts and actions. I used to be able to easily, but somehow...over the course of the last couple of months, my nerves and patience has run short. Its sucks. Gahhhhh!!!!


WEll...I guess I am a work in progress, and I am working on getting back to the healthier, more balanced, patience part of me. Lord knows I am definitely a work in progress. LOL! Ay-ya-yai!

Well...Today was day numero uno of my acting class. It went pretty well. We went over the class syllabus, learned each others' names through silly ice breaker games, and got out early. Which reminds me since I'm typing about my class that I need to go buy my acting books. Yes. We have assigned reading, and quite a bit actually, but I don't mind much at all because it's all about acting, and lately I've been trying to get my hands on any acting material that I could possibly find.

Well guys,

I better get to bed. I am plain cranky. Just ask my husband. You know...it's a wonder of families and spouses stay together when they get to see the best AND the worst sides of a person. It's really quite a miracle I should say.

Anyway...I should probably go ask for forgiveness and probably forgive myself and go to bed with a peaceful conscience and mind, and heart including.

Well peeps,

I am off to bed.

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier

P.S., never take vengeance into your own hands, it belongs to God and God alone.

Dove Chocolate Challenge Day # 119 "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link." PROMISES Messages

Huh!

I did not get today's quote! My husband man had to explain it to me! Don't make fun of me! =D

It took me a little while to get it too. Haha.

Hmm...this makes me think of community. The chain concept reminds me of the word community which is among some of my most favorite words. Community is a beautiful thing / idea. When people come together for a common purpose, it creates a co-unity, which is community! And it's amazing when everybody works together to create a safe, strong, and healthy community! I love it! I love that the entire world centers around some sort of community! One or another, a community is a part of our daily lives, in fact, that's what makes up our lives, is the relationships that we are in. We live for each other, we serve each other, we celebrate our birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and we comfort each other at funerals and tragic events. We co-habitate. We live in a community. The entire world is made up of communities. It's just SO BEAUTIFUL! I'd have to call it "All the peoples of the World." Infact, I think I might just plaint a painting called exactly that! "Light bulb!" :)

Well, I believe in empowerment, encouragement, enablement, and healing, and I favor love. :) I enjoy human relationships and think that they are among the most beautiful things that exist on this planet. Sometimes, we become weak, and when we're weak, we break, just like the link on the chain. And when the link breaks, that link affects the entire chain. And so it is in our lives. Each life is like an individual link connected in a big chain, and when a link breaks or is weakened, the entire chain (community) weakens. When we lose a loved one, our chain is broken, and all of the other individual links are affected and are not as strong as they used to be, they no longer make up the same chain. And so we are. Each of us has a beautiful mission in life. YOU ARE BORN WITH REASON AND PURPOSE. AND YOUR LIFE IS IMPORTANT. YOUR ARE NOT A PROBLEM, YOU ARE A SOLUTION TO THIS WORLD, OUR WORLD. AND WE NEED YOU. YOU ARE A LINK, AND WITHOUT YOU, THE CHAIN IS WEAKEND.

So don't give up. Whatever you are going through, know that you are loved, and you live in a community of people, a chain. And you were born into a chain called family. And you add more links as you go along, called friends. So when you break or weaken, the rest of us are affected and we are no longer as strong as we used to be. You are needed and wanted, because without you, the entire chain is affected like a ripple effect. You are an important link. You bring a uniqueness and strength to the chain, so if you need any help, let someone in your family or let one of your friends know what is going on. Let us help you. Let us love you. And let us ask you for forgiveness if we need to. But don't give up, because you are needed and loved. YOU, my dear friend, are a link, and together, we make a strong and beautiful chain. Don't give up friend, keep pressing on.

Well, that's all I have to say.

-Love Your Fellow Chocolatier