Anglophiles

David and I are officially Anglophiles.  We can't stop watching British television... on Netflix and Hulu and PBS.  It's completely addictive.  Our favorites recently have been Downton Abbey, the new version of Sherlock Holmes set in modern day, The I.T. Crowd, Poirot, and our recent favorite, Kingdom.  Have you seen any of these?  Do you have any other recommendations for us?

The British have the very best sense of humor.  It's dry, witty, and intelligent.  And their sense of drama is understated and elegant.  We are utterly enchanted!

It's actually making me yearn to live in another country for a while.  Wouldn't it be grand to be a British aristocrat for a day?!  ;)  I'm not sure I could handle it for more than a day... having to be so proper all the time would drive me nuts.  Clearly, David and I aren't the only ones in love with British Tele though... check out this recent article in the New York Times.

It's amazing to me how many of our American television shows were created in the UK first.  The best example of this being Ricky Gervais' The Office, but I can think of about 4 or 5 others as well.  I was told by a work colleague that they were attempting to make an American version of The I.T. Crowd, but not sure it actually went anywhere... I'm kind of glad it didn't, because I'm a purist.  I'm furious that they re-made the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  What do you think of re-makes?    

Friday the 13th Unlucky? I don't think so...

Most people say Friday the 13th is an unlucky day.  I wonder why?  Actually, most people say the number 13 is unlucky in general.  In fact, my building doesn't even have a 13th floor.  I never thought 13 or Friday the 13th was so unlucky... I mean, I love Fridays, who doesn't?!  AND, my mom and her twin brother were born on January 13th, 1943 (a Wednesday).  So you can see why I've always thought this day was extra lucky.  Without my mom there wouldn't be me.

Today is my Mom, Julianne Kaeser Manchester's birthday.  

Happy Birthday Mamma!  

Thinking about my mom's birthday being on Friday the 13th this year made me wonder why the superstition came about in the first place... so I did a little google search and here's what I found:

From Wikipedia: According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century.^[4][5][6] The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in Henry Sutherland Edwards' 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:

Rossini was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky

Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of theclock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 Descendants of Muhammad Imams, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales,^[3] and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.^[6][7] It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christianscripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.^[8]
• One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth,^[9] in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.^[4] Records of the superstition are rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common.

The connection between the Friday the 13th superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. However, experts agree that this is a relatively recent correlation, and most likely a modern-day invention. Although according to many Freemasons, this date corresponds with the slaughtering of the Knights Templar by the Church.

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So, basically the superstition has its roots in the church.  Interesting... I'm not sure how I feel about that... hmmm?

Well, I think superstitions (like most things) only have power when we give them power, and I've always felt 13 was a lucky day because of my mom, and I'm going to keep on thinking that way.

I hope you'll all join me in wishing my mom a happy birthday and many more to come! 

Tears for a friend

This week, I've had a heavy heart.  My good friend Lisa's husband, Dave Allred passed away suddenly in the night.  He was only 54.  That's so young!  And, although Dave and Lisa have been together for about 4 years and have known each other for probably 20 years longer than that, they only just got married this summer- August 13, 2011 in a beautiful ceremony along the Boise River.  They were soul mates.

My heart is breaking for Lisa.

His memorial service yesterday was very nice.  It was at the Municipal Park near the Boise River.  The sun was shining and people told stories and played music.  It was the perfect celebration of his life.  He was a husband, a father, a step-father, a grandfather, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, a son, and a friend.  His two sisters Jamie and Jole are also good friends of mine, and my love went out to the whole family.

Lisa

Since we found out about his passing though, all I can think about is how fragile life is.  My sister lost her husband 4.5 years ago to cancer, and our whole family misses Eric every single day.  He's was part of my life as long as I can remember, and its hard for me to even write my sister's name without his beside it-when I think Katie, I think Eric.  I can't imagine how Katie feels.  What would I do if my husband David passed away tomorrow?  I honestly don't know, and frankly, I hate to even consider it.  David is my soul mate, my best friend, and my partner in crime.  I would be lost without him.

We have so many dreams together that haven't even been started yet.  Dreams of travel, dreams of children, dreams of doing creative projects together, dreams of growing very very old together, and dreams of creating more dreams together.  Our lives are just beginning, and yet unlike the generation before us, we all started this phase of our lives later.  Most of my friends parents had them before the age of 35, yet most of my friends also haven't started having their own children until at least 35.  Not that I think that's a bad thing, but when doing the math, it does give me pause.

Also, maybe it's the New Year, or the full moon or something all together different, but I'm not the only person feeling this way.  In the past few days, some of my very close friends from around the world have called to chat out of the blue, and all of them have mentioned a similar theme without my prompting the discussion.  On the one hand, its kind of cool to think we are all on a similar wavelength, but on the other it makes me realize how much I take my life for granted.  And how much I take my friends and family for granted.

We all talked about the fact that because it is so easy to communicate these days, and yet we can never seem to find the time, thinking, "I'll just call her/him later."  Only "later" gets pushed back further and further, because we're always so busy.  Wasn't technology created to make our lives easier?

This life we live in these days is so much more complicated than the life of our parents, our grandparents, etc.  Communication has been made easy and commonplace, and yet because its so easy, we hardly ever really communicate with each other.  That is, except to post a note on Facebook or Twitter... send a text message or drop someone a two sentence email... but is that really communicating?

What I know for sure is that no matter how exhausted we are at the end of the day, taking that extra five or even 60 minutes to touch base with a loved one is so important.  Our friends and family make up our world... without them, life is meaningless.  And, like a marriage, all relationships take a bit of effort to nurture and grow.  I know I need to make more of an effort to let my family and friends know I love them, to call them and to see them and be part of their lives.  

David always says, "You are the person you are becoming."  I'm sure he's quoting someone, but I'm not sure exactly who... Buddha maybe?  Anyway, what he means is to make something happen we have to start taking the steps to make it happen.  Just talking about it or dreaming about it or even praying about it won't do anything without some sort of action... we have to make our luck-- make our dreams a reality.

I'm off to start work on a few of mine before life passes me by...

Snow Day!

Usually at this time of year, I'm over the snow fall in town... if it snows in the mountains- great!  But I'm usually over the snow in town.

This year is different.  Apart from a dusting back in early November, we haven't had a drop of snow.  The skiing is crap, and "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas..." well I'm actually dreaming of a white snow hill, since Christmas has already come and gone with not even a drop (sad).

This morning the sunset was bright red as I drove my husband to work, and I told him my mom's old saying from her days living on a ship... "Red skies at night, sailor's delight.  Red skies in the morning, sailor's take warning."

Bikers in Boise just don't seem to mind.

And now as I look out the window the snow if finally falling:

Let's hope this keeps up all day and we can go skiing next weekend!  I'm dying to hit the slopes.  I've been told the Pray for Snow Parties here in Boise are turning into riots with all the lack of that fluffy white stuff (wink). Our poor local mountain, Bogus Basin hasn't even been able to open its doors yet, and people are starting to lose their jobs because of it.

Let's just hope it snows and snows and snows!  Cross your fingers!

"Lately Lily," I'm so inspired...

This evening I came across one of the most inventive blogs I've ever seen, so I just had to share it with you... have you been to Lately Lily yet?  Thank you to Gabrielle Blair over at Design Mom for pointing me to it.

Meet Lily

I have to admit, I actually think this website is so cool, I'm a little bit jealous that it's not mine.  I've always wanted to be a world traveler, flitting from one amazing destination to the next, and toting my little family along with me... Living out of trunks, and only staying in destinations for a maximum of 6 months to a year... homeschooling our would-be children and all the while learning every language from every destination fluently.  Doesn't it sound awfully romantic and dreamy?!

This picture reminds me of my niece Kitty

  Although, in reality, to do that you either have to have gobs of money, or really cool job with like National Geographic or something similar like Lily's parents do.  And now that I have Ulcerative Colitis, that kind of puts a damper on my big plans as well... but things can change!  In the mean time, I'm going to continue to read Lately Lily, live vicariously through her, and be utterly inspired.

Decisions, decisions...

These days, as I'm sure you can imagine if you read some of my previous posts , the conversation at our house tends to focus around one thing:  children.  Do we adopt?  Do we find a surrogate?  Do we wait and see how my health improves (I can tell you already that this is my least favorite... I'm craving a baby!)?  No matter what we do its a huge life changing decision.

To help further facilitate the decision making process and in an attempt to be as open with each other (and ourselves) as possible. David and I have decided to individually create a list of pros and cons for each possible decision, and then in just over one week (specifically, Saturday, January 14th) we will discuss our lists over dinner, and officially make our decision on which plan we will pursue.

There are a lot of variables and potential problems in each scenario, not to mention costs, but with each option comes a plethora of different wonderful rewards as well.  We figure this time of individual contemplation gives us a chance to really flush out our thoughts, feelings, and desires, before making the final decision together.  There will be a lot of soul searching and prayer involved in our decision, and I am certain we will make the right one for our family, together.

I'm actually very excited about this... Did I already tell you, we're starting a family together!?!!

12 Things

I recently read this great article about happiness that I wanted to share with you all.  Specifically, the article discusses what happy people do differently than unhappy people.  


The article, by Jacob Sokol talks about a study by this psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky which pinpointed 12 specific things that happy people do differently to increase their happiness.  Being that its the start of the New Year, I thought I'd go through the list, and try my hardest to make this the happiest year I've ever had by putting the techniques into action... and I thought sharing it might inspire some of you too!

Pure happiness... Kitty and Gee-ma, best friends forever.

Below is the list.  How many of these 12 points do you practice on a daily basis?  How many of the pitfalls do you get stuck in?  I can already see a few that I need to work on toward making my life happier, but I'll start with the first one: Expressing gratitude.


Thank you to all of my faithful readers for joining me on my Kookoobirdies journey.  I've really enjoyed my part in it, and I hope you've enjoyed following along!  It this were a toast, I would tell you all to raise your glass and toast to a happy, healthy year ahead for everyone!  Please stay tuned... and thank you!    

12 Things

Express gratitude. – When you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value.  Kinda cool right?  So basically, being grateful for the goodness that is already evident in your life will bring you a deeper sense of happiness.  And that’s without having to go out and buy anything.  It makes sense.  We’re gonna have a hard time ever being happy if we aren’t thankful for what we already have.

Cultivate optimism. – Winners have the ability to manufacture their own optimism.  No matter what the situation, the successful diva is the chick who will always find a way to put an optimistic spin on it.  She knows failure only as an opportunity to grow and learn a new lesson from life.  People who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times.

Avoid over-thinking and social comparison. – Comparing yourself to someone else can be poisonous.  If we’re somehow ‘better’ than the person that we’re comparing ourselves to, it gives us an unhealthy sense of superiority.  Our ego inflates – KABOOM – our inner Kanye West comes out!  If we’re ‘worse’ than the person that we’re comparing ourselves to, we usually discredit the hard work that we’ve done and dismiss all the progress that we’ve made.  What I’ve found is that the majority of the time this type of social comparison doesn’t stem from a healthy place.  If you feel called to compare yourself to something, compare yourself to an earlier version of yourself.

Practice acts of kindness. – Performing an act of kindness releases serotonin in your brain.  (Serotonin is a substance that has TREMENDOUS health benefits, including making us feel more blissful.)  Selflessly helping someone is a super powerful way to feel good inside.  What’s even cooler about this kindness kick is that not only will you feel better, but so will people watching the act of kindness.  How extraordinary is that?  Bystanders will be blessed with a release of serotonin just by watching what’s going on.  A side note is that the job of most anti-depressants is to release more serotonin.  Move over Pfizer, kindness is kicking ass and taking names.

Nurture social relationships. – The happiest people on the planet are the ones who have deep, meaningful relationships.  Did you know studies show that people’s mortality rates are DOUBLED when they’re lonely?  WHOA!  There’s a warm fuzzy feeling that comes from having an active circle of good friends who you can share your experiences with.  We feel connected and a part of something more meaningful than our lonesome existence.

Develop strategies for coping. – How you respond to the ‘craptastic’ moments is what shapes your character.  Sometimes crap happens – it’s inevitable.  Forrest Gump knows the deal.  It can be hard to come up with creative solutions in the moment when manure is making its way up toward the fan.  It helps to have healthy strategies for coping pre-rehearsed, on-call, and in your arsenal at your disposal.

Learn to forgive. – Harboring feelings of hatred is horrible for your well-being.  You see, your mind doesn’t know the difference between past and present emotion.  When you ‘hate’ someone, and you’re continuously thinking about it, those negative emotions are eating away at your immune system.  You put yourself in a state of suckerism (technical term) and it stays with you throughout your day.

Increase flow experiences. – Flow is a state in which it feels like time stands still.  It’s when you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you become one with the task.  Action and awareness are merged.  You’re not hungry, sleepy, or emotional.  You’re just completely engaged in the activity that you’re doing.  Nothing is distracting you or competing for your focus.

Savor life’s joys. – Deep happiness cannot exist without slowing down to enjoy the joy.  It’s easy in a world of wild stimuli and omnipresent movement to forget to embrace life’s enjoyable experiences.  When we neglect to appreciate, we rob the moment of its magic.  It’s the simple things in life that can be the most rewarding if we remember to fully experience them.

Commit to your goals. – Being wholeheartedly dedicated to doing something comes fully-equipped with an ineffable force.  Magical things start happening when we commit ourselves to doing whatever it takes to get somewhere.  When you’re fully committed to doing something, you have no choice but to do that thing.  Counter-intuitively, having no option – where you can’t change your mind – subconsciously makes humans happier because they know part of their purpose.

Practice spirituality. – When we practice spirituality or religion, we recognize that life is bigger than us.  We surrender the silly idea that we are the mightiest thing ever.  It enables us to connect to the source of all creation and embrace a connectedness with everything that exists.  Some of the most accomplished people I know feel that they’re here doing work they’re “called to do.”

Take care of your body. – Taking care of your body is crucial to being the happiest person you can be.  If you don’t have your physical energy in good shape, then your mental energy (your focus), your emotional energy (your feelings), and your spiritual energy (your purpose) will all be negatively affected.  Did you know that studies conducted on people who were clinically depressed showed that consistent exercise raises happiness levels just as much as Zoloft?  Not only that, but here’s the double whammy… Six months later, the people who participated in exercise were less likely to relapse because they had a higher sense of self-accomplishment and self-worth.