Just Thoughts and Nothing Else

Remember the saying: "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?" Well to hell with that! Whoever told life to give me anything...I was taught at a young age, if you want respect, earn it! You want anything more, take it. Too many times in life people saunter their  way though mediocrity. Only to find themselves looking back in disbelief that they have not progressed any further in life. We spend our lives trying to get ahead, keeping up with the Jones es and running from soccer field to soccer field. All the while, never closer to success than when we started. Why? Is it because we are trying too hard? Do we think that if we work hard and be good, karma will take care of the rest?

I used to. That is until I threw life in a little box, sat on the lid, and figured out what I should really be doing. Take what I want! Make my own path in life. Too many times I found myself walking down the same road everyone else has just wondering when it was my turn. Well, not any more. I jumped the curb and I am running through fresh grass. There are three priorities in life now: Family, Focus, and Re-invent.

The first two are simple, and critical. Family is everything and Focus on life. But, re-invent? Yes, re-invent. Create your own path in life. Take what you want. How many times have you heard "don't re-invent the wheel?" That's just silly. If Edison didn't re-invent the way we lit our homes, we would still be living by candlelight. If Ford was satisfied with the previous mode of transportation, where would we be? How about Bill Gates, the list goes on and on.

So I'll leave you with this, love and cherish your family. Focus on what you want for your family in life and Re-invent yourself to accomplish those things. Jump the curb people and if life gives you lemons, throw them back.

By:LiViN LiFe

Women have strengths that amaze men..... but it's only the smart ones that appreciate them.

They bear hardships and they carry burdens,  But they hold happiness, love and joy.

They smile when they want to scream.  They sing when they want to cry.

They cry when they are happy  and laugh when they 
are nervous.

They fight for what they believe in.. They stand up to injustice.

They don't take "no" for an answer especially when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without so their family can have. They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.

They love unconditionally.  They cry when their children excel.  And cheer when their friends get awards.


They are happy when they hear about  a birth or a wedding.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.  They grieve at the loss of a family member,


Yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left.  They believe that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!

Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you to show how much they care about you. 

 

 

 

Great Depression Picture: A Woman Washing Clothes

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.) REA; "Woman plunges and scrubs"

The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.

They bring joy, hope and love. They have compassion and ideas. They give moral support to their family and friends.

Women have vital things to say and everything to give.


HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Great Depression Picture: A Family of a Coal Miner

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.) Farm Security Administration: Family of coal miner in West Virginia. (Circa 1935)

Memorable Funny Quotes by Great Women

• Inside every older lady is a younger lady  -  -  wondering what the hell happened.  - Cora Harvey Armstrong
• Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut her up with cookies. Anonymous
• The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.  - Helen Hayes (at 73)
• I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows.  - Janette Barber  
• A male gynecologist is like an auto mechanic who never owned a car.  - Carrie Snow
• Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girlfriends.  - Laurie Kuslansky  
• Old age ain't no place for sissies.  - Bette Davis
• A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.  - Rhonda Hansome
• The phrase "working mother" is redundant.  - Jane Sellman
• Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows.  - Jennifer Unlimited  
• Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.  - Charlotte Whitton
• Thirty - five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.  - Caryn Leschen
• I try to take one day at a time  - -  but sometimes several days attack me at once.  - Jennifer Unlimited
• I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on.  - Roseanne Barr
• In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.  - Margaret Thatcher
• I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.  - Gloria Steinem
• I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house.  - Zsa Zsa Gabor 
• Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.  - Eleanor Roosevelt

Now I'm sure some of you men out there are thinking that this has a little bit of male bashing in this, but remember, I am not the one who said these things and you should see how many quotes I deleted from this bunch.

Emily Dickinson, Poet
Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.

Martha Graham, American Choreographer
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

Diane Ackerman, Poet
[quoted in Newsweek, September 22, 1986] I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Activist
[Declaration of Sentiments, First Women's Rights Convention] We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.

By: Janice

 Grand Cayman Island

From the small quaint little church to the turquoise blue water it's just beautiful!
They have parasailing, snorkeling and of course good old Margaritaville at your disposal.
The shopping was unbelievable and the people were extremely friendly.
That's the clarity of the water that you can actually see that fish that is called a Tarpon.



Navigational Highlights:  The ship anchored in from of Georgetown.  The Cayman Islands are a British possession in the Caribbean Sea and are three Islands.  Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.  These Islands are in general rather flat and low and are formed from coral.  The Islands were first seen by Christopher Columbus who gave them the name of Las Tortugas (turtles in Spanish)  The Cayman Islands were colonized around 1734 by British colonists who came from Jamaica.

We were only going to be on the Island that day until 4:00 pm and no one wanted to rush to do any excursions that day so we just boarded a tender that took us to the Island at around 11:00.
I think our main purpose for the day was to look over the island and see all the shops and just enjoy the sunshine.

When I look back at all the excursions that were available to us, maybe it would have been nice to go on one but since we had other island that we were going to be visiting and many more things we wanted to do we kind of picked all ahead so we knew what we could enjoy throughout this whole cruise.  Unfortunately you can't do everything because there is just so much to do!
By: Janice

Choose wisely they say for the fool hearty play
Like an old sage who has seen all his days
Living and dying with the choices he's made
Tell me my friend which one is the way?

When it's so hard to do, did you think it all through?
Or did you give no mind to the reasons behind?

Do we dance every dance leaving nothing to chance?
Or dot all the I's and stay in the lines

Ever hoping regret never enters our mind!

By: Sharon

 Freshly fallen snow always makes me smile but then so do many things.
I love the beauty and the peace that freshly fallen snow seems to portray.  I love how it glistens at the first light of day.  In the middle of the night I love to peak out my window and would love to share with all who feel as excited as I do about the beauty of it.
Not a soul has walked upon it yet this morning in my yard and it looks like the most beautiful white blanket I have ever seen.  It's covered up all the old footprints, the mud spots, the bits of green that were starting to show through and replaced it with the blanket of pureness, innocence and cleanliness.
It is a true gift from God.  Sometimes I think that it's his way of him telling us that it's another new day.   


I know that for some it's about traveling to work in it and saying , "Boy this is going to mess up traffic this morning"  and for children it' "Maybe we can make one more snowman in front of our house before it's gone and winter is over"

I have to say that I personally don't like the cold that comes with the beauty of snow, but I do love the way it leaves a blue cast over the earth when you view freshly fallen snow early in the morning.  Or the way it sparkles like diamonds when the sun hits it a certain way.

I think if you give anything you see and experience in life just a little bit of a chance, you can find beauty in everything!

So next time you see a freshly fallen snow, or a sunrise coming up through the trees, or a sunset on a summer's night.  Just stop for a moment and see the true beauty of it all!
It really is God's creation and it's pretty magnificent!

all pictures are the property of Jan Scialabba

By: Janice

I found a lot of romance going on all over the ship I was on and maybe I saw more of this because there were so many people on board the ship that were from all around the country.
There were people from America, England, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, & I guess just about everywhere that I could see.  I also had the privilege of hearing every single thing that was announced or even just introduced to us heard in at least 5 of those languages.  Not that I understood anything other than English, but it was kind of interesting to hear all the time.  Even the elevator spoke 2-3 languages to tell you what floor you were on.

But I think what I kept noticing more than anything is the way people act, first of all when on vacations and then secondly I noticed how certain Heritages treated affection differently.
But by far I have to say that the French truly were the romantic ones!  At least in my eyes.  So many of them that I seen on board the ship were holding hands, hugging, kissing for absolutely no reason at all!
Now I'm not saying that all these men and women that I saw were beautiful people, I'm saying they were middle age and above mostly and some just not too much to look at, but boy were they loved! Cared For! Shown affection to!
I think I was so amazed because I see now how people are so busy in their daily lives nowadays that they just don't seem to take the time to understand how precious a glance is, a hug is, a small tender peck on the cheek even!  Life is always rushing by with so much to do and so little time to do it in.
Maybe I'm just getting the time to notice more now that I am getting older and wiser and have so much time on my hands.
Maybe it's just because I see life with different eyes since I've become (a bit of a disabled person) different.
What I was once, I am no longer and yet although I'm different now, in some ways I believe I have learned in depth more of what and who I am.  You know that old saying, "When one door closes, another one opens" and God won't take you to the edge and just let you fall off either.
So as I see it, people who experience changes of major proportion in their lives, seem to learn from it or they sit and dwell on what could have been if "only this didn't happen to me"
I won't say it's been easy, but it has at times been quite a challenge.
So when I see people enjoying life, enjoying their times together, enjoying a smile, a laugh, a dance!  I want to get up and dance through the rest of my life!  I want to enjoy laughter from where ever I can find it, even if it's in every corner of the earth.  I want to see someone with no smile and gladly give them mine!


I want to help every person I can in every single way that I am physically capable of.  I want to hug everyone I meet.  I want to dance when I can, sing whenever I feel the need and hear every single word that people say to me, and never be too busy to do so.
I want to explore all of the possibilities of life as long as I am capable.


I want to cherish every moment, every single second of my grandchildren's silliness, laughter, love and smiles!
I want to try and see the good in everyone and share with all who care!
I won't waste my time on selfishness, hatred, fear of the unknown, and unhappiness.
I won't criticize or be judgmental to anyone!

So when you think about all of the wonderful, different people I've met on board a ship that somehow made me keep looking at all our differences and all of our similarities, I thank them for letting me share that moment that they didn't even know I was, because they made me see even just for a moment something that my heart already knew and that was "Life is a wonderful place to be and can be a wonderful state of mind to cherish if only you let it" js
So go ahead and smile, kiss, dance, hug and watch how wonderful you feel!  These people did, and you never know who just might be watching and thinking, How wonderful!

By: Janice

 It's like stepping back in time

 Old World Charm of a time past.

Market Places, Old homes



Unusual Plantlife, Oldest Home in Key West









By: Janice

 What a vacation!  I wished I could have stayed on the boat forever!  I guess I would have to everyone I love join me then because I'd be lonely without them.  It looks like there would be enough room though.  Don't you think?  Our cabins were just above those life boats and had verandas, WOW!



Costa Cruise Line/Atlantica







                                            Ft. Lauderdale



The Ship Atlantica
This is our first day and what a day it was!  We were in the port of Ft. Lauderdale until 7:00 pm and then we started to explore the ship.  It was like one of the most elaborate Hotels I had ever seen!  Main Halls that were just totally unbelievable, and places to dine and bars and theaters and friendly staff.  People everywhere in just as much amazement as myself.  Some people who had never been on a ship before and others who had been cruising for a long time.
I even took this picture pretending I was on the Titanic.  I guess that wasn't such a great thought after I thought about it a little, but Oh Well, it felt good at the time!  Crazy Girl!

Our room was great and with a balcony it made it even a little better!  So that was our first day and it was great!  Can't wait to tell you all about Key West, tomorrow.

By: Janice

 I guess the President had an idea that if he bailed out our banks that this would be a good thing for all the people who have had to loose their homes in the past two years?  Well I don't know how much it has actually helped anyone except the bankers and how they've probably lined their pockets with the money!

Since I am a realtor, I can only tell you how I see things.  I've seen thousands of foreclosures and people so desperate to sell their homes before they lost their homes to the banks, that they've had to reduce prices on homes at minimum of $40,000 with the majority of homes reducing prices by $100,000 or more.
Then there are the homes that could be sold but they ended up where the people lost their shirts there as well by having to sell their homes in short sales just to get out from under the debt.
Then there are those that are struggling to make ends meet as not to loose their homes and are trying to get the banks to answer them with making homes affordable program that doesn't make anything affordable if your set of circumstances have changed so drastically since you applied and got the mortgage in the first place.
They want you to be able to qualify for refinancing or even if you don't qualify because your income has changed so drastically because you've had to take another job that is so much less in pay than you were getting originally and yet they transfer you from person to person on the phone or they disconnect several times in one phone call that you keep giving up waiting for someone to actually know what they are talking about in the first place.  Then they tell you that they'll take your information because your circumstances say you qualify for the program but you'll have to wait anywhere from 4-6 weeks for an answer as to what can be done for you.  You wait 8 weeks you call, and here we go again, you get hung up on, disconnected and pushed around until you are totally frustrated and then you get someone to answer you after many calls back to them and only to find out that you haven't even been considered yet and they don't know what happened to your paperwork.  They say you'll have to go through processing all over again and wait another 4-6 weeks again for either a letter in the mail or something from someone saying you are approved for the program all over again!  Of course it just happens again and again and nothing gets resolved and nothing comes in the mail so you call again and again and maybe that's what our government has decided will take the pressure off the president, the senators and congressman until they figure some other way to distract all the people struggling with their mortgages.
So I guess it was a good theory in a dream world, but most of us don't live in one and in our real world it only consists of disappointments because our government doesn't work unless you have money and always have had money.

Then they put out another deterrent for us people and that's the credit card companies.  They were given another break and because there was time set up by our fine government for them to get their fine print taken care of, they have raised the already struggling consumers interests rates and forced most of them to accept them or close their accounts.

So I ask you, what is our government doing for us?  You know, the hard working people just trying to feed their kids, stay in their homes, and just keep their jobs?
When will it end?  When will they decide that the big guys like the banks and credit card companies aren't the ones to help anymore and it's the people?  When will they stop talking about creating thousands of jobs and yet when you find out that they are employing people from other countries to make this a greener place to live too.  The jobs aren't here, they are abroad.  Our products keep coming from foreign countries while the Americans are out of jobs!  When will anyone in our government open their eyes, make the effort, and make things happen?  When will they really do something???????
When will the people of this country who are struggling see any benefit to all these fictitious plans that are being implemented to help no one???

Added Note:  I've written to my congressman now and we'll see if anything happens there either.

By: Janice

Aren't cakes wonderful?  Birthday's are wonderful too!  But being born on Valentine's Day has got to be one of the most special days of all for a birthday.

This cake was made and created by Nicole & Jan Scialabba.  It's french Vanilla on one layer and chocolate on the second layer and yellow cake mix on the third layer.  All the cakes are made by Jan and the frosting too and then all the balance of the decorations were created by our littlest angels mom.  Yes it is supposed to be that whimsical crooked cake because that's what mommy wanted for her Valentine's Day little girl!
We put red food coloring in the batter and the frosting to make everything PINK for the pretty in pink theme going on.

Everything was fun for our littlest angel and she loves cake!  She started out eating her own heart shaped cake very daintily and then all of a sudden she started eating the cake by handfuls.

It's just so fun to watch what happens at a first birthday and especially when it's a little girl for us because we have only one other girl in our family out of 12 grandchildren so now it's such a treat to see the differences.
It's always a great fun party too because everyone comes to it including all the cousins and 2nd cousins and the kids and grandkids all seem to enjoy things tremendously.

It's funny as a grandmother to sit back and watch how the once small children who once were celebrating  their own birthdays a long time ago, now have children of their own and their children are now playing and running around with thier cousins of cousins.
What it is really all about is families remaining families and enjoying each others company now as adults and the children trying to understand how the children of their parents cousins are so different from them?  How they become so shy and try so hard to all click with each other and yet they don't always.  I see the littlest ones trying the hardest because they don't know any better than to have fun with other children, but the bigger ones that are 9 and above find it difficult to communicate with each other so they stay with the cousins they are used to and don't interact well with the rest.

I guess as you become grandparents, you see so many things in your life that make you wonder, make you smile, make you laugh, make you want to cry even, but life becomes so different in this phase of your life.
You realize you are not the one responsible for watching over the grandkids even though you still do, and you are not the one that if you feed them an extra cookie or lollipop that's loaded with sugar, you won't have to suffer the consequences of them bouncing off the walls later and it almost makes you giggle a bit.
You sit back and watch in amazement of all of those children that fill a household to it's max!

The amazing thing for me is that it all came from a brother and sister and their 4 children each and those 4 children having 3 each in one family and 2,4,1, & 2 in the other.  Yes, 21 little ones running around in one household.

So all I can say is "FUN, FUN, FUN" & "ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY"




By: Janice

"Living for Today"

When you think about the saying “Live for today”, is that how people should really live? Is that how you should care about life? Do you have time to do things any other way?
I think that when you live for today and to hell with what’s going to happen tomorrow you still find things that you wish you still had the chance to do. I think that even living with that kind of reckless abandon, this happens.
Then if you live your life saving for the future and don’t live a few moments in the present enjoying and living life to the fullest, you’ll have regrets too.

So what’s the answer? Where and when do you stop being a workaholic and start saying time is of the essence and I need to make sure I live this moment, and take the time to smell the roses and save a little bit of time to worry about my future too.
How do we understand that life is too short and maybe there won’t be time when we finally allow for time to be had!

I think some men do this a lot. I think they take on responsibilities and undue stress and work load because that is what they think they must do. Is it though?
Do they really ever learn to live and let go and say no once in a while to work?
Do they really know how to stop and smell the roses? Do they know how to relax other than just escape for a brief moment? Do they know that they are entitled to it? Just as they are entitled to have love and laughter in their lives they are entitled to have relaxation for a week or two every year! It's part of something called stopping for the moment....

Then I hear other men say, to hell with all of it and I’m not saving for my future and I’m going to live for today only! Is that the way to go? I think that’s a good philosophy in theory, but not the answer either.

Some people who don’t worry about tomorrow, end up not having a tomorrow either. They wake up one morning and find that the tomorrow is now here and they have nothing put away to enjoy their tomorrows. They no longer have that job to provide for their retirement or that ability to have a job past retirement age and now they can’t enjoy the later years in their lives because they have nothing but their memories that they lived well while they could. Hmmmmmmm.

It all sort of reminds me of moms who put their lives on hold because they’ve got families to take care of and raise. Let’s put our careers on hold because my children need me more right now.
Let me do this before I can do this for me. I don’t need that because the kids need shoes or medicine, or books or college degrees.
So what’s the answer? When and how much living should you be doing?
How much of your life do you sacrifice hoping that there will be a tomorrow to worry about? How many times do you say to yourself, I’ve got time and I'm a healthy person so I'll be able to do the things I’ve planned when my future does come.

Will you be that lucky? Will your tomorrow really come?
Or will it ever? Because tomorrow will be today when tomorrow actually gets here.

My thoughts have been affected by lots of things and it changed how I thought the process should go, and mostly because while I was waiting for tomorrow to come and I put all kinds of things aside in my life foolishly thinking I had that tomorrow due me, it suddenly came and I was not prepared for it at all. I wasn’t living so much for the moment, but putting my needs last, my wishes last, my life on hold, always allowing time for the kids, time for my husband, time for never saying no to anyone.

But life changes in an instant and I know that first hand. You just don’t know what’s going to happen to you in your life. Sometimes it goes great and you can handle it all, and other times you can’t.

So sometimes when I think of people who say they aren’t going to enjoy all that life has to offer today, that worries me a little, and yet I wonder if they really have the real answers. I just don’t think so. I think you are allowed to live a little for today and still be logical enough to know that you you have to save for your future as well.

But the way I see it, life is too short to waste time, or to do without something that might be important to you or your family, make your moments in life happen because you made time for them and you didn't always put them on hold for the sake of being that bread winner or that workaholic.

It’s all about not just escaping so that you can survive another month or so of work, but knowing that you have something to look forward to and that if you work hard, you should always be allowed to play hard and do both with all the gusto you can.
What I mean by escaping is just grabbing a quick weekend just to have peace just so you can face the world again and your hectic schedule, but you should be allowed that as well, and it should not be the only thing you allow yourself because of demands you put on yourself and being the person that you are.

I personally don’t like having regrets that I didn’t take that vacation, because I’ve been there before.
I do deserve it and I do deserve life today, because that vacation that I waited for, may not come on that day we call tomorrow, and my question would then be; will I be well enough, strong enough, agile enough to do all I was capable of doing today while I was just working and putting my life on hold?

So Jan says, “Live for today with just a bit of caution, take your moments when you can that set you free, and always remember that planning for your future is a very good thing, but living for today is equally important because we never know what tomorrow may bring nor do we know if it will be there when we finally arrive!

The old saying is “Time waits for No one” That sure is a true statement, and it really makes you think about time you waste. But it also makes you understand that time is a valuable asset and assets are a very desirable thing. js

By: Janice

I'm going on another winter vacation!  Whooooo  Hooooooo!
I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  I am going on a cruise for the first time in 15 years!  The last one I was on I happened to be a fifth wheel with everyone and unfortunately it didn't turn out that great but I didn't know the difference because I know I was having fun!  Just not everyone else!

But this time it will be different, because I'm going with just my girlfriends and that is always a hoot!  Two of the girls going have never been on a cruise before and aren't too crazy about the water, but we booked a balcony suite (which is even more scary for them)  but I'm sure we'll have fun in spite of their fears.....

I intend to take tons of pictures and I intend to take pictures of all of the food just in case any of you want to take advantage of going on a cruise in the future!  We happen to be going with Costa cruise lines this time on a Western Caribbean vacation.   Ooooo La La.  I'm so excited as if you couldn't tell already?

Anyways, you won't be hearing from me for a week until after Valentine's Day and then boy oh boy, will I have a lot to say then!  And the pictures...Whooooooo Weeeee.  will I have pictures!  I'm for sure going to be taking pictures of at least all of the food they serve so many times a day!  No wonder people gain weight on those things.
I am going to try and not gain weight on this cruise, but I've usually been pretty much a failure when it comes to resisting great food so this might be quite the challenge to me.  I'll let you know if it can be done.

I figure, if I only eat one bite of every single thing that looks enticing to me, I shouldn't have really bad odds????You think?????
What EVER!

So I will see all of you in a week or so and I hope it will be worth the wait!

Love ya,

Jan





By: Janice

What a concept Laughter is, isn't it?


When you think of laughter in your life and how many times it's happened, doesn't it make you smile or giggle a little all over again?  As I sit here writing about laughter, it brings a smile to my face and then I start to think about all the times in our lives when we enjoyed the sound of laughter in our homes, our businesses, our nights out with the girls/guys, and the way children can make you laugh just by the silly little things they say and do.
Sometimes it's just because you were told a great joke for that day and it made you think of it all day long!  Remember how many times you just quickly thought of it again and again throughout the day and just gave a little chuckle again or at least a little smile?  Isn't that a great feeling?

I truly believe that Laughter is the best medicine and I'll bet you could even prove it if you tried.
Just have a child with a good belly laugh sit in front of someone who seems a bit depressed and just sit back and watch the magic.  Sometimes it's probably better than an aspirin for headaches.  Of course that is just my opinion but I believe it helps so many of our saddest moments in life!

I remember when my grandchildren were babies and the first time I heard them give a good belly laugh, what a way to start your day!  No matter what is going on around you, no matter the chaos in your life, laughter makes the mood brighter, and lighter and full of fun.  I really don't know anyone who can resist the laughter of others laughing?
I think it's something that everyone should have in their lives several times a day!

So here are a few pictures of laughter at work, enjoy!
Then try and think all day how happy a little chuckle makes you feel, all day long....








By: Janice