Me

My sister, Ren, posted this on her blog. I thought it was kind of fun so I will give it a shot.



You can play by finishing the following sentences about yourself:

“I am.......... wife, mom (the best ever ;), sister, aunt, clogger, yoga teacher, recycler, vegetarian (currently vegan),a free spirit. I am creative, beautiful, complicated, loud, talkative, spiritual.

“Right now I am in............... a state of complete contentment, satisfied and grateful."

“Most people do not know that I................ am a certified ghost hunter. Really, truly. I got certified by Allen McGee in Erwin, TN. Do you have a house being haunted that needs investigating?”

“I am passionate about.................. yoga and all that it entails. It is so much more than a physical exercise but unfortunately, that is mostly what it is here in the Western part of the world."

“Decades from now, when my children think of me, I hope that they remember ................that I completely supported them in all their endeavors; that everything they wanted to do, ask, inquire about, pursue, or delve into was acknowledged and supported fully; that they were respected as fellow human beings, not puppets to be controlled; that there mom was truly their best friend, their soft place to land, their cocoon of safety; that I let down my hair and had fun with them; that I let them be exactly who they were without trying to change or mold them into something that I wished they were.”

“My soul feels warm and I have a big smile when I remember........... our six month trip around the USA in our motorhome. We took huge risks and lived our dream and we didn't let anybody or anything get in our way.”

“If I could go back in time and give one piece of advice to myself when I was 18 years old it would be to.............. stand up and question everything! It was so easy to accept everything as truth. It limited me in being who I really am deep inside. To not be afraid of what other people could do to me. In my younger years I was so concerned with pleasing others instead of living what I was put on this earth for. And to really live, to do those things I was passionate about and not be afraid to try new things.”

“I think that the most important thing about life is....... JOY, it's all in the joy. The joy of living, doing, being.… And being authentic!”

Food For Thought

This article was posted by my friend, Cara, on her blog. I thought it was such an excellent article I had to re-post it. I read it to some public school kids who thought it was SO true! Food for thought!

This article was written by Jason Holm:

Imagine this:

You wake up one morning, pour yourself a bowl of cereal, and turn on the morning news. As you lift your spoon to your lips, you hear the newscaster announce that, starting today, the American government has declared that the nutrition of its citizens is a very important issue. Poor nutrition results in decreased productivity, increased healthcare costs, and additional cost for the airline industry due to seating redesigns. In its infinite wisdom, the government has decided that from now on, it will take responsibility for your personal nutritional intake.

Glancing down at your bowl of Frosted Flakes, a twinge of fear enters your heart.

As the report continues, you hear that each state will be responsible for setting up government-controlled restaurants, and that all adults over age 18 will be required to spend a certain number of hours (generally 8am to 3pm) in these facilities for about 9 months out of the year, for 12 years, eating at these restaurants. Naturally, this upsets you. Turning off the television, you start to get ready for work, hoping you simply swallowed some mouthwash earlier and the alcoholic content was causing hallucinations.

Just then, you hear a knock at the door. To your surprise, there is a police officer standing there.
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am. Would you mind explaining why you aren't in restaurant today?"

"I beg your pardon?" you exclaim, suddenly coming to grips with what is taking place.

"According to state law, you are required to be in restaurant at this time. If you don't comply, there will be legal ramifications."

"Why can't I just eat what I want, when I want?"

The officer explains that, technically, you can. But this new shift in the power structure has had some interesting effects. Due to the fact that there are now a large number of government-run restaurants, and that the majority of the population will be required to attend them,nearly all other restaurants have been put out of business. Those that remain are required to follow government-set menus, cooking methods,and more. For the most part, the only privately-owned restaurants left are so expensive only the elite can afford to eat there -- and are still required to be there all day.

You ask "why can't I simply buy my own groceries, read cookbooks and nutrition manuals, and cook my own meals at home, on my own schedule?"

The officer rolls his eyes, then replies "Well, I suppose, but we'd still have to monitor you. We can't trust that you wouldn't just eat junk food all day, so you would still be required to follow government standards, and we have rules about the qualifications of the people who cook food for you, and you'd have to see a government-set nutritionist every year -- to make sure you're following the rules. You'll have to provide them with a daily meal plan, just so we can be sure.

"He then adds "But everyone you know will be in the restaurants. You'll be home all alone. How will you get any socialization?"

You start to mention all the teenagers running the grocery stores, the folks at the cookbook store, not to mention the folks you'd interact with at the bank, post office, library, your job, and all the other places all day. "It's not like I'd be sitting at home just cooking and eating all day -- there's a whole world out there.

"But eventually, you give in to pressure from friends, family, neighbors, and government officials. While you'd rather cook at eat your own food, it hardly seems to be worth the hassle anymore.

Getting off the restaurant bus, you step into the building. It's obvious most of the other people you see don't want to be there, either. They had plans of their own today. Some people seem to be truly happy - they were very hungry and actually like the menu.

For efficiency, 20 to 30 people are stuffed into a single booth. You start to introduce yourself to your booth mates, only for the waitress to approach and say "I'm going to have to ask you all to quiet down, please." So much for socializing.

You ask the waitress for a menu, only to be told your order has already been made. "Don't we get to choose what we want to eat?" you ask. She informs you that if there is any funding left, you can pick a dessert at the end.

The meal comes - it's some kind of casserole. You take a taste - no flavor whatsoever. Everyone in the restaurant has been given the same meal. Seeing as how it is only 10pm, you're not really hungry yet.

The waitress comes by. "You need to eat that." You explain that you aren't hungry yet, and ask if you can save it for lunch. "No, you'll have another plate at lunch. And you'd better hurry -- the eleven o'clock plate will be here before you know it."

"I have to eat a plate of this every hour?!" you exclaim. She assures you that the contents and portions have been measured by government nutritionists, and they know exactly what and how much food the average American adult needs to consume to be healthy.

You look around the restaurant, failing to see any "average" American adult. "What's in the food, anyway?" You ask the waitress.

"I'm not sure," she replies. "I don't cook it, I just serve it."

Jump ahead twelve years. Americans are even more unhealthy than before, especially considering whenever they see food in real life, they shun or mock it. You avoid eating whenever you can, after having it shoved down your throat for over a decade. You still don't understand why the food you ate was nutritious, and tend to gravitate towards junk food when you are hungry.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Now why, when we apply this same story to education, instead of eating, does it sound like normal, everyday life?

Halloween Party

Don't be fooled, he is the devil in disguise!

The DJ (Ryan) and his sidekick.

My sister and I, the fortune teller and Queen of Atlantis.

Kev's bestest buddy, Sara.

Part of the gang and Calista, er, goth cheerleader.

Sarah gets down.

Tanya, Debbie, and myself.

Martin, 80's rocker maybe? and me.

Most of you know how obsessed I become with the weather this time of year so here we go:) We got our first snowfall on, hmm, I think it was Saturday. Not very much and it has mostly melted off but still patches on the ground. Temperature has been sticking right around the 30 degree mark but no more snow yet. Today is sunny and beautiful! For some reason when there is no snow it feels warmer, psychological I know. There is just enough snow in the backyard so that the sleds will slide. Calista and Tristan have been out there constant since Saturday and Calista is REALLY sore. It's quite the workout I guess:)

I forgot to mention that my cousin, Bill, and his wife, Danielle came out on Saturday too. They are storing their motorhome on our property, until spring, so we had lunch and chatted for four hours. We had a lot of catching up to do! They are planning on some more travel this winter, duh! Danielle said the other day that they have been to 42 countries!! Amazing!! The life that I want to live someday. I would actually love to do some of that with my kids, too bad I don't have travel benefits like they do. That's what you get for working for Alaska Airlines.

I taught my first Ashtanga class this morning; I think that is going to be my favorite class to teach. That is my home practice so it just feels so natural for me. I have been officially hired and will be teaching two Ashtanga classes a week and two hot yoga classes. I'm really, really enjoying it, just in case you didn't get that already. I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of hearing about my yoga classes.............sorry. It's become such a huge part of my life and a huge part of who I am now. If you haven't ever tried it you should!! Life changing!!

Tomorrow my friend and I are hosting a Halloween party at the Palmer Depot, 6:00 pm for anyone who wants to come; family friendly. Bring food to share and come in costume. It should be fun! I'm going as a fortune teller. I'll post pics later on that.

Awesome Week!!

I had the last two weeks off from yoga teacher training. Georgia (our teacher) was on vacation this last week so Heather and I taught all her classes. I had four that I taught this week and it was awesome!! It is such a rewarding job! The first two classes were a little awkward but by the third and fourth class I had a rhythm going and it just felt very comfortable. The thing I love about teaching yoga is that it doesn't have a teacher/student feel, rather it's more like sharing an experience with others. You are just there guiding them through their own practice, and at the same time learning so much from the students and even improving your own practice. I really enjoyed this week and can't wait to teach more classes. I have two more months in teacher training before I'm certified but am pretty sure Georgia is going to let us continue teaching through our training.

We took the kids to a haunted house last night. It must have been pretty scary because our group of kids and the group behind them were all huddled together when they came out. It seemed to be a well thought out haunted house. After the haunted house everyone ended up congregating at our house (some of the kids and Debbie and Ryan). Martin got to mixing some drinks and we had a little too much fun; doing yoga (I know, not very smart), listening to Saturday Night Fever, doing slides through the living room, lip sync, and dancing with the kids. We didn't wind down until around 3:00am! The teens crashed here, as usual, and Martin woke up and made them a big batch of vegan pancakes this morning...................................well, afternoon :) It was just a FUN evening!! I just can't say enough how blessed I am to have kids that enjoy playing with us and hanging around.

I woke up to a TON of dishes covering my counters. It took me three dishwasher loads to get them all cleared off. And the entire time I just kept thinking how great my life is!! I guess I need to tackle the office next. I've really let the house go, especially since I started teacher training. Some of it is on purpose because it's not worth it, you clean and the next day you start over, so why bother. But I do get tired of dirt and grime and I'm almost to that point where I will do a marathon cleaning. We still have remodel projects in the basement, which doesn't help with the mess. There is never enough money to get it all done at once, oh well.

Well, not feeling very inspired to blog but will give a short update.

We have had some cool weather, definitely headed into winter. No snow yet but temp.'s have definitely dropped and we have had enough wind that all the leaves have dropped. It's clear and sunny today but the snow has come all the way down the mountains so it is just a matter of time before it hits us. I know some people that live up the hill farther that got a little yesterday but none at our house. We got the motorhome winterized and parked so it won't be coming out until spring. There are plans to take it south this next spring but we will see how everything falls into place. Seems like for every ten things planned, one actually comes through for us. But that is why we dream all the time!! You gotta put it out there into the universe and see how the universe responds.

Robin hosted two bonfires, the first two Saturdays this month. She had pretty lights hung up on torches and a nice little crowd, not too many but enough to make it fun. The first time we got rained on towards the end of the evening but it was still fun. The picture is of my sister and her good friend, Suzanne. Little too chilly this last Saturday so we ended up going over to the Murphy's for family game night. We all played Pictionary until the kids lost interest and left to go jump on the trampoline. Actually, they ended up hauling blankets and pillows out there and all curling up together and chit chatting. Debbie, Sharon, Calista and I played a game of Life, Simpson style. It was a great evening!!

I've had last week and this week off from school so am getting lots done around the house. I taught one class last week and this week am teaching 4 or 5 classes while Georgia is out of town. It will give me some good practice and hopefully everyone will give me good feedback as to how I can teach better. I got some good feedback from the last class I taught so I know what to work on for this week.

Other than that, not much new around here. Feeling a little angst, as I always do at this time of year. It's a time of transition and for some reason it's always a little difficult for me. I'm not too much of a cool weather person so it's very challenging that way, on top of the fact that I have a hard time finding things to do in the cooler weather. It's good I have teacher training to focus on but could definitely use a trip outside this year.

Yoga Teacher Training

Well, I taught my first yoga class last night! I co-taught with a fellow student, Heather. I did all the cueing and she did all the poses off my cues. I think it went really well, I felt very comfortable and at ease and look forward to many more classes. I will get a little evaluation from Georgia (my teacher) some time this week to see how she thought I did. I got lots of positive feedback after the class so that felt good.

I really feel like I'm on the right path for me. I just have this sense of peace and contentment being where I am at right now. I have been blessed to meet Heather, who I have a tremendous amount in common with. We have had some fun discussions and I'm sure she will end up being a good friend. She is vegan, as Kev is, and so I'm going to give it another shot. Just remembering how good I felt, along with the fact that Kev needs a good support system. I remember how many tries it took me to go vegetarian, just trying to figure it all out, and that was 12 years ago so here I go! I will be posting on my other blog again, I know it's been a while, so if you were reading over there go ahead and pick it up again. The address is veganforamonth_snavleys.blogspot.com.