VOTE PLEASE!

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e


Would you vote for me please?? And tell all your friends to vote, too?!

One vote per day, per IP address til Nov 6th...so use all your 'puters every day ;) I want to make it to the second round and I need THOUSANDS of votes to get into the top 20 (what in the heck are they people doing to get so many votes?) so I'm looking to go VIRAL!

Thanks so much for helping me become the "Good Mood Blogger" lol

cidlicious.com

hey peeps!

come check out my bright shiny new blog!! I'm trying wordpress (cidlicious.wordpress.com), so we'll see how it goes...I may be back at Blogger sometime soon...who knows? All I know is I have blogger's wrist already- it's fun to have a new addiction :)

Wellness and Abundance, Cid

BACK at it...

okay, i obviously haven't learned the "back lesson" well enough, because once again, God is giving me an opportunity to grow through pain. Thinking back over the last week, I can see (pretty darn clearly) that I've regressed into "do it all" mode. I gave Torin a piggyback ride into Toys R Us on Sunday (we were shopping for his bday for Declan)...yesterday I picked up a laundry basket of books from the floor and put them on the bed (and put back down on the floor later). I feel healthy, therefore I ACT healthy...I struggle with my belief system about this whole thing.

My mom pointed out, and I agree, that this is the perfect weekend for this to happen. No plans to get out of, and nothing riding on me getting anywhere. I was suprised, last week, when Mr. C changed the testing for karate...originally it would have been this morning, when I couldn't get out of bed. My friend, Julie's babyshower was today...with my main babysitter in Alaska, and the friends that the boys are comfortable staying with either out of town or busy, I told them I couldn't go. I wouldn't have been able to anyway!

Dirk left this morning for his "Climb Mt. Whitney" trip...I mentioned that I had a pinched nerve or something when he got up at 5:30am (I'd woken up to the realization that something was going on with my back around 4:45 when T came in to use our bathroom and climbed in bed with us.) I didn't share my fears with D because I wanted him to enjoy his trip...I'm sure, however, that the boys will tell him what happened and we'll have to discuss it when he gets home on Monday.

I have friends that can help me if I need it, and I will take them up on it if I have to. The boys are both learning a valuable lesson in giving help and taking care of some of their own needs. I'm afraid to say, but have to admit that it takes something like a pinched nerve to make me ask that of them...and of Dirk. Why is that?! Why do I feel the need to take care of everyone else and not ask for help when I need it?

I need to get rid of the Ego identity with "the one who does it all/can do it all" and accept my limitations. I need to find a way to use EFT, visualization, angels and prayer, and REALISTICALLY deal with healing my body. I had such an awesome EFT session with Sunday last week and we got through some major links in emotion and my back issues. This morning when that searing pain shot through me (I almost passed out) I was overwhelmed with fear. I've only experienced pain like this when my disc ruptured (both times) and I was immediately transported back to that place. I laid down on the bed and tapped like a mad woman. Tapped on the fear, tapped on the pain...and realized that this didn't have to be another rupture. The pain before happened because the contents of the disc were pressing on nerves. It could just be a pinched nerve!! And so I tapped on that :) and the fact that my body is perfectly designed to heal itself and communicate it's needs to me. I haven't been a good listener lately...and it had to kick it up a notch, lol. I need to look up some Abe quotes on pain and body issues.

I am able to walk around a bit. I'm taking mega-doses of ibuprofen, some Flexeril, and icing every couple of hours. I've been in bed alot. I'm listening now...and I'm going to have to create a plan to listen more intently in the future...

My world's been fried...

Someone posted a link to Kentucky Fried Cruelty on our local homeschool yahoo group yesterday, and I watched it. Well, actually, I watched about half of it before I couldn't bring myself to watch anymore. Since then, I've gone to peta.org and signed up for their "try being a vegetarian for a month" challenge and honestly, I don't think I'll be able to eat meat for at least that long anyway.

I'm seriously messed up over this...

Silver lining...I haven't been hungry, lol.

I'm just wondering if this is one of those "consciousness" things...maybe even a month ago, I wouldn't have had the same reaction? I don't know, but now that I've been awakened I don't see going back. I haven't figured it all out yet...like shellfish :) Declan asked me about that & golly I love crab legs, lol.

Dirk was very sweet when I was all shook up and crying yesterday...today, he's ready for me to go back to "normal" and tried convince me that I'm overreacting and I "love that stuff" (I think he was referring to meat?) and said that if this was him I'd try to change his mind.

silly boy...

I Am Woman...

I loved this post from Millionaire Mommy Next Door and really love her blog in general, so I thought I'd share :)

Have a hap, hap, happy day!! I just realized (DH called to coordinate for his schedule) that we leave for Life is Good Conference a week from today! Holy Shit!! I'm not even sure that I spoke with the animalsitter yet. argh...

Continuing this post because I left it unfinished and forgot about it, lol. It's now Thursday and we're having to miss park day for the fourth time :( Declan's having congestion/vomiting issues...poor guy.

I came across an Abraham quote that spoke to me today:

" Through the power of your thought, and through the power of your
intentions, you will draw those beings to you who are harmonious, in
intent, with you. And you will repel those beings who are not in harmony
with your intentions.

If your intentions are not clear, then you will attract confusion, but
as you are more specifically defining, in every day, what you want, then
you will, more specifically, draw those individuals to you who will
enhance that.
As you attract those of like intent, you will have joyous interaction."

- Abraham-Hicks, A New Beginning

I have had a joyous friendship that has come to an end...and this helps me realize that maybe my friend and I are just not in harmony with each other's intentions. Still hurts, still sucks, but thanks to Eckhart Tolle, I'm at a place where I'm okay with endings and beginnings...it's just life, lol.

All is well.

A f'n lightbulb moment...

Please excuse my crassitude (yep, it's a word...I found it when I was looking up crassness to make sure that IT was a word!) with the post title, but I came to a huge realization today when I was working out. Yep, working out....that thing that I've been avoiding for a couple of weeks...fyi, this is going to be a major example of stream of consciousness writing. I haven't gotten all my thoughts out yet and I probably won't go back and edit so *reader beware*. I've been reading Tolle's "A New Earth" (who hasn't, right?) and even though I'm only through Chapter 4, BIG things are happening in this scattered brain of mine.

1. my weight issues...am I sabotaging myself?? Sure is easier to have that 20 pounds to "worry about" than the real stuff that's deep inside. I'm going to take a cue from Christine Kane's (one of my favorite musicians and bloggers!) recent post "Creating vs. Getting" and change my focus. I don't need to "get the weight off" or "get into a size 10 jeans"...I'm going to create a healthy, strong body. I feel GREAT when I'm sweating at the gym! I'm worth it :) and if I don't focus on my health, the boys won't see that being healthy is important to me and I won't have the energy to play with them all day, every day!

And along with that, I'm going to listen to what Eckhart said on one of the Oprah webcasts and really listen to my body as I'm eating. Does it really want what I'm about to put in it? As far as snacking goes, am I really hungry or just lonely? (klaxon is going off inside my heart on this question) Why am I drinking a soda when it doesn't really even taste good to me? WTF? The food doesn't really work as the bandaid that I'm using it for.

2. my awareness of my Inner Being...I've been struggling with my Faith lately. Namely, the noise in my head that is the guilt of the Catholic faith that I still often enjoy :) But something Oprah said on a webcast of the book discussion (I found them to download free at iTunes, btw) really speaks to me... "God is a feeling experience, not a believing experience. If God, for you, is still about a belief then it's not truly God."

I'm not sure what I'm saying here, just that I'm so confused, lol. I am so grateful to God, the Source, the Universe...whatever you want to call Him/Her/It for my life and the path that I'm learning and growing on. I'm coming into closer contact with the Light within myself...and a quote from Eckhart (p.78) "Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think or feel is ultimately not who I am, that I cannot find myself in all those things that continuously pass away."

And that what remains, after the Ego is no longer, is "the light of consciousness... That is Being, that is the deeper, true I... whatever happens in my life is no longer of absolute but only of relative importance. I honor it, but it loses its absolute seriousness, its heaviness."

Today, when I was at the gym, sweating and focusing on the MOMENT, which was the creation of health and strength, I could feel the *energy* of my Inner Being, my real self...and it was awesome!

Now, I need to keep reading and see if Ekhart can help me figure out what my Purpose is, lol. There are so many things that I am drawn to and I have no idea how to balance it all. Being in the moment, each moment, helps....but there is still only so much of this "structure" I'm inhabiting to go around!

Love and Light, Cid

Day 17

My creation yesterday was a "Passions and Projects" poster (thanks to Jules for the idea!!) We had a family discussion (while I was lazy-ing outside in the beautiful sunshine, the boys were playing and Dirk was working on the car :)) about what each person was interested in, and what we'd like to do in the future.




Some common themes on the boys' lists: travel, having friends over, family trips to the beach (versus boy trips with mom staying home to read and relax, lol)...



D and I both listed the tree house that we want to build for the boys in the front tree, and the "loft" addition above the boys' rooms as passions...I wonder which one we'll get to first?! FUN< FUN< FUN!!!

one of those "get to know me" email thingies...

This is a combination of two different "getting to know your friends" "things you don't know about me" emails I've gotten recently...enjoy, lol!! I know that most of you don't have time to do these...I usually don't either, but one of the silver-linings of having less than healthy kiddos is couch time :) so, I thought it would be fun. And since I took the time to do it, I thought I'd add it to my blog!


Four things about me that you may or may not have
known in no particular order.



Four jobs I have had in my life (all of these were during high school/college...and this isn't all!)

1. ice cream scooper extraordinaire at Baskin-Robbins

2. Santa's helper/picture taker at the mall

3. lunchroom/playground attendant at a Catholic elementary school

4. Tanning salon attendant



Four movies I would watch over and over:

1. Love Actually

2. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

3. Gone With the Wind

4. any Matthew McConaughey movie


Four places I have lived:

1. Tucson, AZ

2. Enid, Oklahoma

3. Riverside, CA

4. Madera, Clovis CA


Four TV Shows that I watch

1. Greys Anatomy

2. The Amazing Race

3. Chuck

4. whatever the boys have on :)



Four places I have been:

1. Hawaii

2. Venice, Italy

3. Paris, France

4. Frankfurt, Germany (and a few other cool places on a high school singing tour)



People who email me (regularly):

1. Jules

2. Billy

3. Book club gals

4. my mom & dad



Four of my favorite foods:

1. Shrimp Payaso

2. Mexican food of all sorts

3. Browned Butter/Mizithra cheese pasta at Old Spaghetti Factory

4. Calamari salad at Andiamo's



Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Mexico

2. somewhere with no tv or phone :)

3. San Francisco

4. on a beach, with just the right amount of sun (not too hot)

Four friends I think will respond:

1. not sure...I'm just doin this for fun and because Torin needs me in front of the tv with him

2.

3.

4.



Four Things I am looking forward to in 2008:

1. learning more through life, every day!

2. travel

3. creating art of all sorts

4. practicing the piano more, and singing



Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your
friends. (this is the other one, lol)

1. What time did you get up this morning? too damn early

2. Diamonds or pearls? both (I prefer diamonds, but pearls are my birthstone)

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Alvin and the Chipmunks (I think?)

4. What is your favorite TV shows? see answers above

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? coffee w/choc soy or iced tea...waffle/pbj sandwich or granola

6. What is your middle name? Lynn

7. What foods do you dislike? greasy stuff or food that makes me bloat, lol

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Sara Bareilles- Little Voice; Josh Kelley- Special Company; Amy Steinberg-Must Be the Moon... (oops, just one!?)

9. What kind of car do you drive? 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid

10. Favorite sandwich? mmmmmm. I love sandwiches, lol. um, turkey, bacon, avocado on hearty wheat (or croissant on occasion) with lettuce and a bit o mayo

11. What characteristic do you despise? goofiness.....LMAO, just kiddin!

12. Favorite item of clothing? my Lucky jeans and my orange hoodie

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Ireland

14. What color is your bathroom? kinda rusty red color :)

15. Favorite brand of clothing? Bitten by SJP

16. Where would you retire? a beach somewhere

17. What was your most memorable birthday? I plead the 5th

18. Favorite sport to watch? Boxing or more recently, UFC

19. Farthest place you are sending this? don't know

20. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Don't know...doin it for fun!

21. Person you expect to send it back first? same answer

22. Favorite saying? I don't know! I don't listen to myself :) maybe "please be kind to your brother"

23. When is your birthday? June 7th

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night. I only like mornings if I don't have to talk to anyone, lol

25. What is your shoe size? 8.5-9

26. Pets? family pets are- dogs (Bogart & Dash), cat (Tigger), fish (Morticia just died, so just Slimey left), leopard geckos (Junie and Carmen), White's tree frogs (Drake and Mylie), parakeets (Blueboy and Snowbell)

27. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? ummmm. I'm creating peace, abundance and health in my life in 2008 :)

28. What did you want to be when you were little? be a mommy, and a kindergarten teacher

29. What are you today? A wife and stay-at-home mom

30. What is your favorite candy? english toffee

31. What is your favorite flower? Stargazer Lily (oh, and alstroemeria, I know they're filler flowers, but I love'm)

32. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? can't think of one specifically

33. What church do you attend? Our Lady of Perpetual Help and recently, The Well

34. What is your full name? Cynthia Lynn (Madden) Lough

35. What are you listening to right now? Charlie & the Choc Factory

36. What was the last thing you ate? pasta with mozzarella

37. Do you wish on stars? yep :)

38. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? one of those muli-colored ones in the plastic case that you twist up (the closest I can get to tie-dye!)

39. How is the weather right now? Beautiful :)

40. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Jules

41. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, I do!

42. Favorite soft drink? um, Dr. Pepper, I guess...

43. Favorite restaurant? local-Salsa's in Old Town Clovis; anywhere- El Corral in Tucson AZ

44. Hair color? dark brown with red highlights (that what color the silver ones change to when I color it, tee hee!)

45. Siblings? "little brother" Chris

46. Favorite day of the year? Easter

47. What was your favorite toy as a child? a microphone, lol

48. Summer or winter? Summer!!!!

49. Hugs or kisses? both, depending on who's giving/receiving

50. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla Bean

51. Do you want your friends to email you this back? whatever :)

52. When was the last time you cried? um, last week....overwhelmed by trying to have a healthy home

53. What is under your bed? underbed storage box of "off season" favorites

54. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Frank

55. What did you do last night? normal bedtime business....then tried to watch Apprentice with Dirk until Torin called for me :(

56. Favorite smell? Bed Bath & Beyond's Vanilla Sugar

57. What are you afraid of? Nothing ;)

58. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? all of the above....I LOVE popcorn

59. How many keys on your key ring? 2

60. How many years at your current job? 10 (same # that we've been married!)

61. Favorite day of the week? every day is the same....so whatever day Dirk has off and we get to hang out all together

62. How many towns have you lived in? 5

63. Do you make friends easily? I think so

64. How many people will you be sending this to? not sure! Torin is wanting me to play Tac and the Power of Juju so I can't concentrate any more!!