You cheated....yourself?!?

So why is it that when we do something great....we can't wait for someone to notice and praise us. But, when life isn't going our way...we have a bad boss...or an employer that is in trouble...or the economy has affected something of value in our life....it isn't really about us? I know this may be a hard message to hear (it was for me....)! But the only person who can cheat you out of success is YOURSELF! If you have a boss that is too busy, unavailable, or even plain incompetent, you must NOT be a victim of that situation! Create your OWN expectations, set your own GOALS, and move ahead!



We have heard about goals and having goals our whole life. I would like to take it one step further from just a goal to an all out MISSION! Your own personal MISSION! Why is it MISSION CRITICAL to give your life some direction? The top five reasons you should take the time to make it formal (write it down, chart it out, create a vision board):

1. You need a guide to give your work a direction! Much of your everyday "busyness" fails to make a meaningful contribution to the life you REALLY want to have!

2. It will help you to objectify your work! Because goals are specific, they help eliminate the confusion of subjective expectations.

3. It will assert your intentions! What you think about you WILL bring about! It's amazing how well you can manage your priorities, when your priorities are clear!

4. Create a direct link to what is important. Individual goals can connect you to your ultimate mission and your life's purpose.

5. ACTION...it will SPUR you into action! Creating a dynamic tension that spurs you to take action steps toward accomplishment!

If you find that you are blaming others for your lack of progress, perhaps it is because YOU haven't initiated YOUR OWN direction. Self-leaders create and attract energy through defining their goals, their mission! If you don't take the time to do this for yourself, you are only cheating yourself! No one can do that for you!

Let's Share

Hi my friends! I have been CRAZY busy lately pulling together all the different blogs, posts, etc from my different sites through the years and getting ready to launch a BRAND NEW blog site! I am so so excited about the new site! The designers are putting together the layout and linking the all new twitter and youtube channels! If you were ever a part of my Myspace community you know that a long long long time ago I shared my musings. I really enjoyed being positive and sharing that with the world. I have a friend and we were talking about the different motivational speakers that we have seen and what fun it would be to do that job! I know I know...some of you would just CRINGE to do that job! So why not? I will be adding a little bit of me in full motivational form to the new site ;-)

I have also had a lot of success in my home based business and I have learned a lot about establishing an online presence and how to drive business to your home based business. So I want to share what I have learned and that will be built out on the new site as well! If you have ever blogged you know that you are always thinking of what your "latest content" is going to be about! If you have any home based business questions that you would like to know about...send me a message and I will work on putting together a post for you!

However, most importantly....I am trying to decide the best way to incorporate a "little love" and sharing into my new blog. I would like to share web addresses or information about my friends home based businesses on my blog! We all know that it IS ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW! If you are running a home based business and no one knows about it...how can they support you? You never know when someone is looking for a certain product and would buy "from a friend" if they just KNEW that that friend had it to offer. So here is what you can do for me. Leave me a comment (on facebook if you want) and let me know what YOUR BUSINESS is! Maybe even a message with a little information. I know that several people have businesses...but instead of trying to find it...you just TELL ME! I want all my friends to know each other!


Just the other day I went to a Pampered Chef party at a friends house. I didn't think the host seemed like someone she would normally be friends with...so I asked her how she knew the host. She said that she decided she needed some new pampered chef stuff and so she wanted to host a party...so she went to the internet, googled it...and took a random stranger. That mad me sad....I KNOW someone who sells Pampered Chef that would have LOVED to host her party (and would have been awesome mind you) but she didn't know who I knew...I don't want that to happen again....."share the love" and let me know what your business is so can add it to the new site!

Pay It Forward

Hi my friends and family! I have really enjoyed reading everyone's summer updates! I have really gotten good at making video's for our weightloss company! Business is starting to really take off. I am actually just hosting those videos right on the server for the sight versus Youtube. I would like to give a shout out to Rachel Jackson. If she had not introduced me to the concept of "video sharing" I might not have decided to try it for myself! So today I have done something a little odd. I made a video about resumes! ha! I know...I know...who wants to talk about resumes?!? BUT I have so many people that I am working with or mentoring that have been or are unemployed and the number one request I get is to help them with their resume. So I decided to put together my top pieces of advice and post it out to Youtube for all of you to have! It is "free" information that I hope everyone will take advantage of if you are wanting a different job or are currently unemployed and want to know what the latest tips are! So I am "paying it forward"! I took my personal time, with no reward built in for me, and I have put it out there for my colleagues, friends and family! I hope that this helps you!



I would ask that if you know anyone that is looking you will send them a link to the page! If I helped someone today...I did my job!

My thought for the day is "When all else seems to fail...you can always help someone else, and succeed!"

You know that I like to end my posts with what I am thankful for! Today I am so very grateful for all the mentors that have come through my life! Some of them stayed only long enough to teach me one thing and then move on. Others have become lifelong mentors and even friends! I am SO thankful for all the blessings I have achieved by becoming ALL that my mentors believed I already was! I would list them out.....but the list would be so so so long! And for that...I am thankful!!!

Are you "wishing" for something?!? Go Water the Flowers!

So in preparation for summer I planted some beautiful annuals in pots on my front porch. In the back yard in pots we planted some blueberry, strawberry and raspberry plants for us and the kids (we all LOVE LOVE berries). So now that the Texas heat is kicking in I must take the time to water our pots daily or the flowers will wilt just when the sun 'thinks' about coming up! hee hee hee! Seriously....just look at my petunia's when I wait until 6 pm to water them! They will tell you!

So after taking the kids to school this morning, I stopped to water my flowers before starting my day. As I waited {patiently...tapping my foot} for each pot to fill with water {and wondering why we planted sooo many pots} I thought how this was like having a pet. You have to feed them, water them, walk them. We have avoided a new pet at all costs. I was thinking, well humpf this is like having a pet! We have to move them to mow around them, we have to fertilize them, and water them. And if I don't...they just look so sad. Then I noticed the tinest little beautiful bud opening on one of the pocket roses and thought how beautiful! I can't wait to show that to Leigh-Ann when she gets home. She loves those tight and beautiful rose buds (they are pink you know!). I decided that the joy that I get while looking at them each day, the way they make my house look special, the way the kids had so much fun picking strawberries with awe last weekend....is SSSOO definately worth the 15 mins that I have to spend watering them each morning.

And since I could not do anything but THINK while I was doing this it made me realize: The biggest difference between "wishing" for something and "having" something is often the motivation to become a doer! I read this by Og Mandino recently "Life isn't a game, is it? It's a battlefield. Instead of players and spectators, we're all soldiers, including some goldbrickers and some AWOL's! But we're all in the struggle, whether we know it or not. And the person who knows how to be motivated doesn't need any cheering section. He has motivation built in. He's not looking for that crutch that might break, a bonus that will be taxed away, he's learning motivation from within."

Instead of "wishing" for something personal and valuable to share with my children. I create it everyday in the little things that I do. Today I watered the flowers. Tonight I will be able to sit on the porch and show my children a flower blooming (children 4 and under still see the awe in this...and I LOVE that). Today I did not rush about only doing dishes, running errands, doing something a boss wanted. I took action on something that was important to me...just watering the flowers. But that ACTION will reap so many rewards.

It was just a simple thing watering the flowers today. But it made me think, I need to choose something that I "wish" for and just work towards it! Motivation and ACTION are very powerful together. Don't sit on your couch and let your life pass you by today...I want you to water your flowers too...whatever that special "little" thing is in your life!

This is going to be a most amazing summer! I am looking forward to every single day that I get to wake up and "water my flowers". I love my flowers, Lance, Leigh-Ann, Landon and Landry with all my heart. I am going to remember to "water" them too! My thought (journal take-away) is that it is 100% obvious if my flowers did not get water. It is not 100% obvious if we did not water the flowers (aka people) in our life today! If there are people in your life that make you happy...don't forget to water them! Friends add value to our life...we need to keep them alive with praise, support, and attention!

Now I am so grateful for the people in my life...I am off to schedule a few too long delayed lunches and playdates! They need some "water"!!

Am I outdated?

I thought the technology of the new decade should always be something you can learn in 5 mins or less! HUMPF!!!! When did I become my parents?? I remember when I was a child the VCR came out! WOW, what an invention that was. But then there was the setting of the clock on the VCR. Once that was done you could get really fancy and set it to record at a specific time. I learned how to do that in about 2 mins. Seemed like my parents worked at it for hours and then just said "Misty, come set this thing up!"

Well today I decided I wanted to upload my first You Tube video. Now mind you that You Tube has been around forever (it seems) and even a 5 year old has probably uploaded video's. But I just spent (well I won't tell you how long...but toooo long) just trying to figure out how to add a header page so that my friends and family knew what the video was and then created my You Tube account. So my friends and family you will be able to see my daughters end of year performance in her school play very soon (after I upload it to my new "channel")!

Although I have never uploaded a video, it should be noted that my four year old can manuever You Tube on my iPhone without me! So our video, to be posted soon, is her Spanish School class doing a cute little song and she even has a "lead" kind of spot :) She has had such a breakthrough with her bilingual abilities in just the last few weeks! Now she can just rattle away at me...and I have NO CLUE what she is saying :)

Enjoy the video...we enjoyed the show!

Finding my authentic self

Wow, it has been over a year since I blogged! That is what having a third child, giving you three under four years old will do for you! It has been a crazy wild ride. Today is May 9th and it is Mother's Day. So for me this has been quite a week. My birthday was on the 4th, makes me the big 3-6...it is official I am now on the downhill slide and closer to 40 than to 30! Those of you who knew me at 30 knew I had this amazing meltdown (life crisis) feeling like my life was ALL about Corporate America and I never knew when I was going to have children. Wow how just a little time changes life! Now I have NO current Corporate America (yes I am now one of the millions of laid-off workers in America) in my life, but I have this amazing family!

I have reflected today on where I am, where I have been and where I may be going. Throughout my life I have always found a peace in writing. I think now is the time that I need to find that peace again, be quite with myself, and just listen. Trying to determine what path is right for me next, I need to listen to my innerself and to the world around me to hear and see where I need to go. So I invite you, on my journey, if you want to go....

This is going to be MY YEAR. I now have three small babies so in Eat, Pray, Love discovery style I can not LEAVE my current reality to find my destiny (although some days that seems sssoooo beautiful in thought...any mother knows that the thought of being ALL ALONE for just a little bound sounds so NICE). I am going to have to find it in the everday journey that is here with me every day. So today I revive my blog, and recommit myself to myself! Happy Mother's Day!

Below you can see the beatiful Fruit Basket I got for Mother's Day!

Lance, Landon, and Leigh-Ann bringing me my surprise!

Definately Not Cut out to be a Single Parent!

So just a brief update, I took the kids to the park to meet up with "the Mommy's" and participate in an Easter Egg Hunt. I thought what the heck, I will take both of them with me! It is the park, we will have a good time! Oh crazy, crazy me! What was I thinking?!? hee hee hee All in all we did have a good time, but they have such different abilities right now, I was worried that they were going to knock their teeth out, while at opposite ends of the slides! Leigh-Ann is all about the big slides and the fun monkey bars now! Landon also wants to slide, and climb, and do it himself! So he needs to be on the smaller playsets! So trying to keep an eye on both of them and make sure no one ran off with them (which would be almost impossible surrounded by so many friends) made me sort of frantic. My lesson learned was that it was a good thing that I am not a single parent and do not usually have to brave the park alone (with two children under the age of 3!!!). I promptly called Lance as we left the park to let him know how much we loved and appreciated him, and to drive very careful on his way home from the park. I informed him that if anything happened to him, his children might not get to go back to park until they were pre-teens! Unless of course, Gramps and Big Mom want to come back and take them again.....ahhhhh Grandparents!!!! Such a beautiful thing!!!



So here are some pics of our egg hunt and our time together at the park!


Here is Landon! I had to carry the basket and follow him around. But once he had his hands full he didn't really see the need to "gather" more bounty!

Here is Leigh-Ann with the bigger kids getting some eggs too!

Landon had almost as much fun trying to go up the slide the wrong way as he did going down the slide!

Here is Landon going back up the stairs...so he can go back down the slide....so he can go back up the stairs....so he can go back down the slide.......where is sissy?!? Oh wait....he doesn't care.....back up the stairs.....

Oh there is Leigh-Ann.....climbing like a monkey all over the play area....for just a little bit Mommy conned her to playing on the "baby" play area with Landon!

She is testing out the little slide....Landon is heading back to the stairs......

And up the monkey bars again....

All smiles.....we are having a good time....