Today is not only Mickey Mouse's birthday, but it is also my sister's birthday! Where Scorpio's reign you'll find mad organizational skills, a cozy home with every detail tended to, a love for animals, and best of all a great friend. So here is to you Lisa......HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (Glad you liked your present :)

I thought I would also include a lovely scenery pic from the woods of Portland....perhaps yet another nudge at persuading you to move out here!

The Power of Possessing Effectiveness

Think about the people whom you believe to be EFFECTIVE in their lives. What qualities do they possess that cause them to be effective in their lives? This was an exercise done among me and my peers on day as we were asked to ponder this question. And with a 2 minute time limit, we were given the instruction to come up with as many qualities as we could think that would be possessed by highly effective people. Listed below are the qualities we came up with. There are more. Many more. In looking over these qualities.....

What do you notice within yourself?.....Is there an area of your life in which you would like to be more effective? .....Which qualities listed below would you need in order to be successfully effective?

organized, diligent, committed, resourceful, strategic, adaptable, flexible, focused, creative, task-oriented, mobilized, collaboration, conviction,

goal-oriented, vision, balance, consistent, positive energy for tasks, determined, asks for help, engaged, themselves, laughs at challenges, positive energy for tasks, refreshing, planner, thorough, quality, detailed, managing, present, utilize time, efficient, prepared, energetic, motivated, healthy, handles pressure well, satisfied, multi-tasker, driven, joyful, grateful, supported, responsible, responsive, inventive, graceful, boundaried, disciplined, clear future vision, intent, optimistic, flexible, grounded, stress management, logical, reasonable, self affirming, inspired, quick-learner, courage, no defeat, bounce-backer, to-do lists, inventive, confident, realistic, dreaming.

"God dwells within you, as you." ~Elizabeth Gilbert

ponder this....i will come back to it soon....

"The day is ending. It's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, Let Go." ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

"We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."
- Carlos Castaneda

A Day at the Coast

Jason, Heidi, Henry and I adventured to the Coast yesterday....the Pacific Northwest Coast that is....



But before we could go any further, we had to make sure Henry was on his best behavior...



Then off to the beach we went....



Henry just couldnt contain his excitement...



And I must admit, the views were amazing...



Me and Heidi enjoyed our warm chai tea as it was very windy out there...



Henry managed to find his way into the camera's view....ham.



Me and Jason enjoyed our new life view...



It was a great day at the coast. Henry agrees.




PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!!!!!!!!

A Note from the Universe

"Asking someone to change is like pruning a tree: neither will ever be the same again.
Scarier still, is that you can't quite know in what new directions they'll grow.

But hey, it's still your call.

Tallyho,
The Universe "


www.tut.com

A Few Of The Many Portland Photos To Come

Courtesy of Jason Sager, I am providing some photos of ...well basically our backyard. Forest Park: a mountainous ridge spanning over 15 miles through the city- its 2 miles from our backdoor. Coast Pics are to come.....stay tuned!

Safe and Sound...A Little Freaked Out.....A Lot More Spiritual

Well our move to Portland is complete.....well almost. We are waiting on our stuff to show up from the movers. But all in all, we made it safe and sound.....well....almost.....

26 miles outside of Portland. 10 pm. We have driven 18 hours. 75 mph through mountainous canyon turns- sharp and wide. My cell phone battery is dead. I am following Jason's car....

All of a sudden my steering wheel starts to shake. I thought it was odd and didnt remember it doing this before our last gas station stop. As I am pondering this, I hear a loud pop and all chaos breaks loose in my car. I hold onto the wheel with both hands as I am barely able to maintain control of the car as smoke starts bellowing up from somewhere. The car sounds like the engine is falling out as its roaring in my ears. I flash my lights at Jason, turn on the hazards and pull over on a very tiny shoulder. I realize my tire has blown out. Jason runs up to my car after he pulls over and says "You cant park here! You have to keep driving! Pressing on the gas, staying in the shoulder, barely reaching 10mph, I keep driving....CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK.


We find a larger shoulder and Jason begins to do the next logical thing.....look for the spare and change the tire....in the dark....on the highway, a few feet from the fast lane. Murphy's Law entered the picture right when we realized that the car was packed to the hilt and we needed to get down to the bottom of the trunk. So there we go, in the dark, pulling suitcases out, towels, books, etc.

Okay. So Jason miraculously gets the tire changed as I am standing there thinking "I should really learn how to do this someday." We get the spare on and off we go! A minor hiccup on our cross country travels to our new life! So there we are, driving slow but driving nonetheless to our new home. We are on the interstate in downtown portland when all of a sudden the spare blows out!!! So we pull over off the next exit and call AAA. We use our newly purchased AAA account that was urged upon us by my mother a few days before who just kept pushing us to get AAA before the trip. We finally agreed and on this night we were overly grateful for her intuition. Upon waiting for AAA to show up, we realize that another tire on the car was going flat! Hmmmm.......and then our unconscious minds flash a scene in our heads.....

Oh yeah! About 6 hours back we remembered driving over something.....something crunchy.....something brassy.....something that was strewn all over the lane.........NAILS! It happened so fast that I obliviously just never thought twice about it.....until I am looking at 3 flat tires.....at 11:30pm.....in downtown Portland.

How did we not clue into this little...no...HUGE fact 6 hours ago?

And then we realized the reality of the past 6 hours. I had been driving on 3 (we ended up having to replace 3 nail ridden tires) flat tires...all waiting to blow out. I had been driving at high speeds around huge sharp canyon turns with only a small gaurd rail before the drop offs. This happened as I was driving on a straight road- but if this would have happened around a turn.....by a drop off....things could have been a lot worse....

And then I felt it....them. My angels. Surrounding me. I cant see my angels or guides and I dont usually FEEL them. But that night....in hindsight....I felt them flooding my reality. I felt so grateful for them. And for the opportunity to keep moving forward in health to self and others. It was a spiritual rekindling for me. A reminder that there is something bigger.....that I have a destiny.....that I cant be lazy with it.....that its time to awaken again.

I realized that my intuition was telling me something the last 6 hours of the drive.....slow down on the turns.....hold the wheel with both hands....and I had a thought that made me laugh....."What if I got a flat and we had to take everything out of the trunk to get to the spare? That would SUCK!"

Intuition works great.....how come its always in hindsight? How can I start cluing in when it matters??

After the tow truck guy loaded the car up to take away he said "So where are we taking this?" And Jason said "To our house. But we've never been there before. Can you take us there?"