Others vs. Me

“People are our sunshine, our soil, our rain. When are we going to stop surviving off of people and start living for ourselves?”

– Nadia A

I wrote this quote in the middle of my notes during my Psych class this evening. We were learning about personality and I wondered when will I ever start living for myself? As long as I can remember I’ve always put someone else before me. I can’t say that is necessarily a negative trait but I don’t see much positive in it either. I allow others to “change” me for the time being. I am so wrapped up in being who they want me to be that I forget to be me. Whoever that person may be is an amazing person… before the change. That is who I need to become all the time. I do not want to be that wife and mother (one day) who starts living her life once her kids are ready for college. I am sure I wrote this in a blog post before but for some reason it sticks this time. I am a habitual thinker who is extremely observant and a genius in my own right. Who isn’t? I won’t say that my mind and the way it works is a negative trait because it is something God gave me yet how I use it… well that’s another story. I am learning and unlearning at the same time. Change can only happen if I want it to. One cannot allow another to change them if they are not ready to be changed. I want to change me and someone else may not agree with that change but the people who are supposed to be in my life will embrace the change and accept me for who I am.

This is a new season! I have a new outlook on life and what it means to truly be me and I am looking forward to tomorrow… you should too.

Nadie

Every Woman

“Inside of every woman lives a needy little girl wanting to feel pretty, loved, secure. Expose her to her imperfections, toy with her desire to feel loved, rattle her sense of security, and you bring that needy little girl to the surface.” – Steven James

Five Hour Disaster Flight

I told myself that I would enjoy my five hour flight to Phoenix and would refrain from talking about people but there is just too much to talk about. This blog will be me complaining with a few nice things to say but I am not having a good experience and it is only an hour and a half into my flight. Sigh.

First and foremost I said to my parental on the drive to the airport that I hate going to the airport because they always want to conduct a strip search and ask what color panties you are wearing. It is a huge issue of mine because I am always the one to get “randomly selected” to go to the left. Of course this happens yet again. Is it the way I look? Do I come off as sneaky? Don’t answer that. But I just want to know. So of course I am pulled to the side and asked to wait in this clear glass room with a glass door that I cannot get out of unless someone lets me out. AWESOME. Then this tall dude comes over and says, “This is the one?” Like really what does that even mean? I asked the tall dude to remove my scarf off of the security belt because if it got stuck I was going to get upset and it was yellow it would get dirty fast. So please help a girl out. Scarfs are becoming expensive. Any who, he collects my belongings, I go to the left, and he does a wipe and sniff of my shoes, then tries to make small talk about where I am going and why. I can’t. He then drops my carry-on on the floor and says, “You can go over there and get organized.” Now I am mad. That was it? A scratch and sniff of my shoes and I am done. Hello did they not go through the scanner already? I am puzzled.

So, I have about a half hour to wait until boarding starts and I noticed a baby. Now, I don’t mind the kiddies but I do mind when you can’t keep your kid under control. I just saw on the news a couple that was booted off their flight because they couldn’t keep their kiddie under control. So this is what comes to mind when I see the baby crying. Great, a five hour flight with a crying baby, did I mention that I was sleepy?

Let’s rewind a few days because I was debating on checking in luggage or carrying on luggage and I didn’t like the fact that I wouldn’t be comfortable while waiting so I decided to check in luggage and pay the $25 fee each way. Thank God I did because as we are boarding they tell the last 25 rows that there is no more room and if you have a carry on you must check it in. Awesome. I have some peace of mind because now I don’t have to worry about them losing my luggage when I didn’t want to check in luggage in the first place.

Now we’re on the plane, I notice that I can’t even enjoy my five hour flight with a little television without paying $7.99 for this free feature, which is usually included in the price of the flight. Then I notice two little boys getting closer and closer to my area and wow what do you know? They sit right behind me. Awesome!  All of a sudden this is Toys R Us and I see action figures, cars, and trucks. I start hearing little boy noises while playing with these items as they began to kick my chair. Great. Now the baby starts crying. I can’t win. I am sure the nice lady sitting next to me is upset too because she keeps looking back at these kids who don’t speak English and their parentals aren’t saying anything to them. Why?????????? I should have taken the $300 they offered me when I checked in. I can’t wait until I am on the ground again to upload this blog. It would actually ease my frustration a little.

Oh I forgot to mention, there is a giant sitting in front of me who keeps moving and his seat keeps bumping my laptop. Dude relax, you aren’t going to be as comfortable as you are on your couch. This is a small airplane seat and, oh snap, I just saw blonde hair and a scrunchi it’s a woman!!!!!! LOL Why is this happening? I can’t deal with the seat kicking. Do you think this red button at the top of my seat will help? Maybe the flight attendant can assist and tell these kiddies to stop kicking my chair. Three hours left.

Well I was border line starving, I had a bowl of cereal and a granola bar before the flight and I was very hungry and gave in to purchasing a $9 “snack box” filled with crackers from like three different countries, a cheese spread, almonds, and my fave, olives, as previously noted, I was actually pretty happy because of the olives. The noise and seat kicking didn’t offend me as much…until I was done.

Oh the joys of flying coach.

The Must-Have’s of Life

Over the last few years I have grown to love Suze Orman. She is truly America’s Financial Advisor. She recently started a show on OWN (Oprah Winfrey’s Network) called America’s Money Class which I must say is a must see! After watching the third episode I decided to share some info that I took away from this class session. Now the information that I will share is nothing foreign to anyone. At least once in your life you have heard of them so here they are!

1. A will
2. Life Insurance
3. SAVINGS

A will is probably the most important document you will ever sign ever besides a mortgage, which is the most important investment you will ever make. A will is so critical to have that without it so many issues, court fees, lawyer fees, time and money wasted can come to pass without it. If any of the following pertain to you then you NEED a will yesterday if you do not have one.

If you,

1. Own a home
2. Are married
3. Have children
4. Are sick with disease
5. Own anything

You need a will. People tend to think that if they do not have a million and ten dollars in the bank they do not need a will. This is not true, if you fall into any of the above categories then guess what you need a will. There are many different types of wills: living trust and a will. But let’s say you own a home and you’re married and you die. You don’t have a will or a living trust saying that your wife should get the house. The state now has to decide who will receive your assets and that can take many months. Same scenario but this time you have children and both of you and your hubby or wife die in a car accident now what? Who is going to take care of your children? What will happen to your home? A will can decide all of this. Get a will. Go to legalzoom.com they are cheap and it takes 15 minutes tops!

Life insurance!!!!!! I can’t emphasize how important it is to have a whole life policy and not a term policy. A whole life policy is for your entire life where a term policy is over a certain amount of time. The younger you get it the better. You are less likely to have illnesses and the insurance will be cheap whereas if you were 45 and this will be your first policy ever you will absolutely pay a few hundred dollars more for insurance. Everyone says I have life insurance with my job. Oh that’s nice but your job isn’t guaranteed we know that for sure with today’s world and oh just in case you didn’t realize it, IT IS NOT ENOUGH!!! Especially if you have a family, wife, husband, children, and a home. If you pass and your husband or wife doesn’t work, or they aren’t the bread winner of the household and you have a $200,000 mortgage left, they can be looking at foreclosure. Then what? Please protect your families! It is so vital to do this. Anything can happen at any time. Social security isn’t going to help you, your family isn’t going to help you forever, your job isn’t going to help you. I know I am talking a lot about death but the one thing you’re completely passionate about is your family. They need to be protected after death. That goes for both husband and wife.  Get on it!! So many insurance companies offer this.  A lot of times you can bundle your car insurance with this to get a cheaper policy. DO IT, AND DO IT NOW! Money doesn’t grow on trees and the ones who do not have 8 months stashed away for an emergency fund can and will be in trouble.

Go back and read my 70-10-10-10 post. You can definitely do this and it is very easy to do so. Just live within your means, cut the unnecessary out of your life and make it happen.

Here are 4 must have documents recommended by Suze Orman from her new show on OWN:

http://www.oprah.com/own-americas-money-class-with-suze-orman/4-Must-Have-Documents

Here is an amazing book by Suze Orman that I will always adore and thank her for because without this book you can be completely in the dark about money.

http://www.amazon.com/Money-Young-Fabulous-Broke-FABULOU/dp/B001TMEBEY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327340173&sr=8-2

Here is the link for legalzoom to make a will:

https://www.legalzoom.com/legal-wills/wills-overview.html

When it comes to saving absolutely open an account at a bank that you do not bank at if you are not disciplined enough to have it at your own bank. If you are working, make sure you have 10% of it deposited into this account each and every check so that you are building a fund and keeping it out of site. Just remember to pay attention to service fees and account requirements.

Thanks dolls!

Nadia

Daniel Fast Day 11

Thank you everyone for your continuous encouragement during the Daniel Fast. Today was a bit hard for me because I am missing my normal foods. (This was torture)

I know someone recently commented that I should make this a lifestyle but right now I’m not ready to. I decided to fast for the right reasons, to honor God with a pure heart, willing to give up something to draw closer to Him, and allow myself to gain mental clarity. So far so good. I’m so grateful for that. But, knowing that the entire fast would be a bit of a rocky road is also good. God didn’t intend for our lives to be good all the time. Of course there will be trials and tribulations and this allows us to stay close to God. It allows us to get on our knees and pray to Him to help us get THROUGH the trials. He will never give us more than we can handle. Even if we inflict it upon ourselves. He is always there for us and always there to bring us back to Him by the trials that we face.

Today I read Luke 8 and enjoyed a great bible study.

I ate potatoes with veggie sausages for breakfast, organic steel oats with apples and cinnamon for lunch, and a veggie stir fry for dinner.

This evening I decided to no longer document my journey and again I thank everyone for your kind thoughts and encouragement. I have 9 days left and I am looking forward to them, God willing. I will continue blogging but just know I will complete the fast! Thanks for your support especially Willow, nightshade, watw, worrywarts, John, poeticjourney, and Bernadette!

Xoxo

Princess NadieLaLa

Tears

T traces of
E egotistical fears
A affecting
R realistic
S scars.

Evidence of the former existance of selfish fears moving or exciting the feelings of emotions that are truly resembling real life lasting effects of trouble.

-Me

Odd but worth posting!

67 Ways that Make Him Feel Super Respected

http://advancedlifeskills.com/blog/67-ways-to-make-him-feel-super-respected/

Daniel Fast Day 2

This morning I woke up a little hungry so I did what I said I was going to do and ate some Old Fashioned Oats with a banana on the side. It wasn’t bad at all. I heated it in the microwave for about 2 minutes and that was it. Then I went to the gym. I was a little hungry after the gym but I decided that I will only eat when I am hungry so I decided to shower and make something to eat. I decided on making a stir-fry for lunch and it was very good! I make stir-fry’s all the time but this time it would be different because there would be no chicken or shrimp. I used broccoli, squash, zucchini, snow peas, spinach, garlic, raw sunflower seeds, olive oil, stir fry oil, cooked brown rice, and lemon. It was amazing!! Probably one of the best stir-fry’s I’ve ever made and I will definitely make it again.

I also finally decided to make the hummus which came out very good. I used a recipe from http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/tag/daniel-fast/ she has tons of recipes on here. So I used the bread from Daniel-fast.com and the hummus together. I also made tomato sauce from scratch using a recipe that I found on another tomato can while shopping in the stores yesterday. It came out amazing and I also added my veggie sausages instead of meatballs to it so I will have that with my wheat penne this evening for dinner! I also prepared some freshly popped popcorn with a little bit of garlic powder for a snack later.

 Here is what I ate spelled out in black and white one more time:

Breakfast: Old fashioned Oats with a Banana

Lunch: Vegetable Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Dinner: Homemade Italian Sauce with wheat penne pasta with some of my flat bread

Tonight I will continue my daily bible reading for bible study: Revelation 7-9 and Luke 1 for the Daniel Fast.

Please check out my sister’s blog site she is an amazing artist and all of her work is special and has her own personal touch to it. She is also participating in the fast and has encouraged me to join her. I pray that you are blessed by her work. www.creativelysaving.blogspot.com

Be blessed!

It’s a New, New Year!

What does that even mean…Happy New Year? Are you wishing me a happy new day instead of a new year? Technically this New Year will bring me the same stuff as last year. Happiness, health, wealth, heartbreak, anger, attitude, disappointment, grief and love amongst many other things. Are you wishing me a Happy New Year to avoid these things? There is no way you will never feel any of these things, at some point during the year you are guaranteed to feel one of the above. New year, new beginnings, goals, achievements, thoughts, oh isn’t this called a resolution? Yes a New Year’s Resolution! Yeah…no, I agree on the goal making part because you are always supposed to have goals. You are supposed to have goals set all the time. If changing your attitude is one of these goals, why is this a New Year’s Resolution? Why can it not be something you work on prior to the New Year knowing you should be doing this now? Isn’t a resolution and a goal the same? Why is it better to have a New Year’s Resolution and not a goal? Excuse me for being a New Year’s Bitch but what is all the hype about? There is nothing to be excited about…in my opinion. My goal is to make the best of everyday. Be thankful that I woke up today. Be grateful for all that I have. Continue to do what I can do to make myself happy and keep it moving. So, Happy New Day or Year! Which ever makes you happy!

Here is a recycled post from last year hope you love it! See you in the New Year! Be safe and be blessed everyone!

2012 less than a week away!

I just realized that 2012 is less than a week away! So here’s the good news…it’s a new year and it’s time for change. The bad news you will get a year older, God willing. Just kidding. There is no bad news but the good news is today you lived to see another day.
However, I am not one to get caught up in the New Year’s resolution trend but I will be starting the Daniel Fast on Jan 2. I do look forward to the encouragement (hint, hint) 😉 from my family who will join me during the 21 days of fasting. I look forward to it. It’ll be a bit of a challenge but if I didn’t realize the year was almost over then it’ll be a piece of cake right! Of course! I’ll keep you up to date on emotions, thoughts, etc during the fast. Until then ill talk to you soon.

Nadie