Due to some important things going on in my life right now, I am going to take a couple days off from my home away from home so I can pay special attention to those things.

I have reconnected with the daughter of my best friend who passed away Thanksgiving Day '08. Micha, the daughter, is fixing to turn 17 and is just the love of my life right now. She graduated school a year early and just got her diploma today!! I am so proud of her and happy for her!

She is the shine to all my light and I want to take some time to spend with her, even though she is in Tennessee and I am in Texas. I do wish I was more self reliant so she could come stay with me... for the rest of her life!!!!!!!!

I hope nobody misses me too much and that WDC can make it without me! I am only kidding. I will be back in a couple of days!

All my love,
Kristi D'Ann
 

Stacy has left me in charge of tying up some of her loose ends. I am already aware of quite a few of them, but would like for everyone to let me know if she had package donations in your auctions, etc...

Please shoot me an email with the donated packages so I can make a proper call on how to handle it/them.

Thank you so much!!

Kristi
 

At this point, I don't have too much to say except that I miss her more than I can ever express. Stacy Lynn was my everything and I am simply heart broken that all the drama of other people's crap drove her away from the site.

I do hope that everyone is happy now, for I certainly am not.

This is a very sad day for me.
 

Okay, I put it off until today, but today has arrived. Which means I will put forth my best effort at not ever putting another cancer stick in my mouth.

I wish, above all things, I could easily change my negative mentality about my success. I am so not looking forward to this "resolution", as I have already prepared myself for failure. That is NOT the way to go into something hoping for positive results.

This is the primary reason I am going "public" with this. The more people I tell, the more I let down when I don't succeed. Therefore, the more shame I will feel. So, now I am leaving it to all of y'all to hold me to this. I have smoked for almost 30 years and I am not even 40 yet. I damn sure won't make it to 70, or even 60, if I keep sucking in the deadly nicotine.

I don't want to end up not being able to breathe. But is that thought enough to make me stop? Hopefully. In all honesty, I think my success depends on not wanting to shame myself.

I quit the dope, why shouldn't I be able to quit this too?

If anyone out there has any good suggestions to help me along, I am more than eager to hear them! Pass them all my way.

Happy, Happy 2010 to everyone. I hope it is filled with an abundance of "resolved resolutions"!!!!!
 

The time has come for me to take a stand. Although I am not involved at all in the circle of dramatic conflict, I have been brought into it in a round about manner. I do wish to say that I understand I am friends with ALL of the people involved, which is what inadvertently brought me into the whole mess. I do have my opinions, but I wish to keep them all to myself and stay as neutral as I can. The only reason I wish to do this is because I have made a determined attempt at bringing peace into my life over the past year. Even while I was imprisoned, I focused on achieving inner peace, and I don't plan on letting all that wash away - not now - not ever.

With all my love and all my respect, I am asking to be relieved from hearing any more about any of it. It's over. It's done. Now let's please all move on by focusing on things that really need to matter to us. If we can't love each other, then let's walk away. No more fighting. Please. There have been too many people brought into this already - people who DID NOT ask for any of it.

I hope that everyone understands and respects my stance on this as far as I am concerned. I am going to come right out and ask that nobody email me about it again. I hope that doesn't come across as pompous or uncaring, but seriously, I just don't care about this particular situation anymore. My head hurts. That doesn't mean I don't still care for each of you (you all know who you are), because I do, just as much as I ever have. I just don't want to hear any more about it.

With every bit of my love,
Kristi
 

Woooo Hooooie!! I don't think this has happened in like eleven hundred thousand years!!
 

Well, I can't say that my day began the way I wanted it to. I had to be at work at 9 am when I usually don't have to be there until noon. So, that means I lost out on a couple hours sleep and was NOT happy about that! But, I was a trooper and even made it there on time!

I wasn't at work very long when one of my co-workers started giggling and dancing a "It's snowing in Texas" jig!! OMG!! What?? No way. It was 70 degrees yesterday!! Well, sure enough, she was right... it's been snowing all day. The ground was too wet for it to stick and it was like 40 degrees when it started, but now it's 30 or a bit lower and we are expecting up to eight inches. Count 'em! 1,2,3... 8!! I don't believe it for a second.

What I got a kick out of was the meteorologist on the news a bit ago. He was showing us a place that had accumulated about an inch of snow and told us that if we were going to be walking, to please be careful! OMG!! How friggin' silly! But, this IS Texas and we do totally freak out when it snows... even if it's just an inch.

On a side note, my mother and I just went and did a tad bit of shopping and she bought me some flannel sheets for my new Queen bed! The sheets are a real pretty light green color which will come close to matching the color my room will be once it gets remodeled. I just put the sheets on and am soooooo ready for a nap since I had to get up so dang early!

I am very excited to have a day off, which was already my day off, but at least I will get paid for it. I plan on spending all my free time (after a quick nap) catching up on some much needed reviews. So, if I owe you some reviews, get ready for 'em! I promise I will have almost all of them done by the time Christmas is over!

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Happy Chanukah, and all the others that I don't know!

Kristi
 

I need your help. Yes, you! And you, and you, and even you over there! Yesterday, I created a new form of poetry that I think is somewhat borderline cool. The only thing is I am not witty enough to arrive at a spiffy name for the form.

So, I have created a contest for all my lovely WDC family members to join and help. All the details may be found by visiting:

ID: 1615317 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

... that at my ripe old age of almost 40, cellulite didn't go away! But I was wrong! Ssshhhh, please don't tell anyone, they won't believe you as I am never wrong!

But seriously, I was just looking in the full size mirrored bathroom door and am astonished, ASTONISHED I tell ya, that all my "dimples" in my thighs have disappeared. And that is just with sporadic treadmill walking (and some jogging, but not a whole lot!)

Every day is filled with new amazement while I am on this diet. Even if my mom did try to ruin it last night with almost an entire bag of fried okra from KFC and one of the greasiest thighs they could produce! And then, the lasagna tonight!

Even though I still have my weak moments of just wanting to shove something, anything, in my mouth (mainly when I am bored) I am doing much better than I ever imagined. And now, with this new discovery that cellulite DOES in fact disappear, I am that much more encouraged to keep on keeping on!

Watch out world! I will be the sexiest almost 40 year old on the planet by Thanksgiving! Just in time to wreck it all with the holiday feast! NEVER! Once I get all this fluff off, I swear, I am keeping it off!

Will start posting pics as promised. But it wouldn't be very appropriate for me to offer you pics of my rear end, which is the best feature I have going right now! So, we will just have to wait another couple of weeks for some full body shots!
 

After five months of almost constant begging, to the point of nagging, my mother finally came through!! Yep, she sat down at her computer this past Sunday and whipped out 20 pages that will comprise her chapter of my memoir!

She did a marvelous job and I am very proud of her; it was not an easy task for her to have to relive all the gross details of my adolescence which constitute the primary reasons I began doing illegal drugs.

She still needs to add a bit more emotion in places and offer up some personal advice to other mother's out there who are currently struggling with their own children's addictions. She didn't go into any detail about how she is able to sleep at night now knowing I am not strung out or in jail. But all in all, she did great! I am sure we will be working on it and fine tuning it over the next few weeks to a month.

I wish to send a huge thank you to my dear friends, Sticktalker and Love you, Lyle! for coming to my aid in emailing her, urging her to write her part of the story! You two are the very best and I am blessed beyond any normal rhyme or reason to call you my dearest friends!
 

Well, I am doing it!! I am on my way to the vivacious, lean body I have dreamed of having for almost a year now! Over the course of this week, I have lost 6 lbs! And I am not starving myself. I have cut out ALMOST all of my soda intake. That means I have had 3 Code Reds this week which is an astonishing feat since I normally drink an average of six A DAY!

I have been watching my calories and doing my best to eat little amounts throughout the day instead of my usual 10 full meals!! lol Well, that is definitely an exaggeration, but that is what it felt like.

Tonight, I had one piece of grilled chicken with a very healthy salad (with NO salad dressing). I had one slimfast that I make from the powder form and cut the serving size by more than half.

I get on the treadmill all throughout the day and am really liking that! The only other thing I have done is put the digital scales right smack dab in the middle of the kitchen so I have to stumble over them if I go to search for a brownie! lol I really am not having a hard time with the sweets. Obviously, if I have already lost six pounds, I am not having a hard time with any of it!

Will post pictures along the way, but am not starting yet as I am not quite vivacious enough!

My goal is to get down to at least 135. When I started this, I was at 157. So, if I can do 4-5 lbs a week, I should be quite the sexy thing by the time Thanksgiving gets here to tempt me with all the goodies my mother swears she is going to shove down my throat! I can take her, so I'm not worried!
 

Well, it all started on Monday, when the average person's week begins. I drove what seemed to be eleventy seven thousand miles to my sister's house in Alvaredo, TX. Where, you ask? I don't really know, I answer! Somewhere south of Arlington, the state's 7th largest city. We had a great evening watching Da 'Boys scrape out a win against the Carolina Panthers. I thought for sure my sister was going to knock herself out with the random fits of rage she threw! After the game, we ventured to her Facebook account so I could help her upload 250+ pictures she had recently taken with her brand new, snazzy digital camera. That took every bit of 3 hours. Then, I started packing some of her stuff for the move the next day.

Tuesday started way too early when she woke me at 5:30 a.m.!! I was NOT happy about having to rise and shine, but did so anyway. I knew she was counting on me, along with a couple of other friends, to have her moved into her new home in Arlington by late afternoon. Somehow, we unloaded the last bit of furniture in the vicinity of 1:00. Then, we had to travel back to Alvaredo to un-enroll her daughter from school and then back to Arlington. I tell ya, I was beat.

I left my sister's new house promptly at 4 p.m. and drove like a maniac to get to Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas. I was meeting a dear friend at her apartment so we could get dressed and get to the American Airlines Center in Downtown Dallas for the Metallica concert! What a friggin' kick ass concert that was!! I had the time of my life! I have seen Metallica 5 times prior to this one and was shocked that I could still thrash at my old age!

I got home around 2 a.m. and had to go immediately to bed so I could get up by 9 a.m. to go to the oral surgeon to have two teeth surgically removed from my jaw. Oh, the pain the dentist inflicted upon me! At times, it was almost unbearable, but I did my best to continually convince myself to breathe and relax. As soon as I got back home, I went straight to bed, which was around noon. I slept until supper time when my mother brought me some mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese from KFC. I gobbled down the mac and cheese in somewhat of a dazed stupor and then stumbled back to bed. I slept all the rest of the evening, the entire night, all the next morning, and part of the afternoon! Guess I was exhausted!

Miraculously enough, I have had no pain from the extractions and I think it is safe to assume that I have taken proper care and measure not to acquire a dry socket.

Now, I am back at my favorite place in the world, besides a Metallica concert, and am not missing a beat. I have auctions to help run, contests to judge, contests to create and contests to join! I even went through all my email folders and deleted stuff that was almost 2 years old in an attempt to free up some space. I was somewhat successful, but still have quite a few more that need to be trashed.

In the midst of all of this excitement, I have lost 4 lbs!!!!!!!!! WOOOO HOOOIE, ME!!! I am on a mission to get down to at least 135 from this whopping 153. I was 157 just two days ago! And, no, I am not starving myself. I am eating little amounts of food all throughout the day. And slimfast. Only, I make my own and chop the serving sizes in half. I am very proud of myself. Only 18 more pounds to go! I have placed the digital scales right smack dab in the middle of the kitchen so I have to trip over it if I go to get something to snack on! It serves as a constant reminder to grab some raw broccoli instead of ramen noodles or brownies!

All in all, a very productive week that I am more than satisfied with!
 

Just want to take a second to give myself a big shout out!! Has anyone ever done that before? Shouted out to him/herself?

I was just voted as the Member of the Month for September '09 for the "The First Peoples' Home Page" !! It is quite an honor and very satisfying to know that I have done well to touch the lives of my fellow "tribesmen/women". There is so much kindness and oneness within that group. I am very much a proud member and thank everyone who had a part in giving me this title!!

WOOOO HOOOO, ME!!!
 

Today marked the beginning of a new learning experience for me. I am a student in the New Horizons Writing Academy and am excited about turning my lack of creative writing skill into something that all writers will be envious of!

Already, just through the posts of a couple of my classmates, I have realized the importance of creating an outline before actually diving into a story. I have never been one who could effectively utilize an outline because I am too impatient and never want to put in the required time of thinking things through. That is one reason, probably the biggest reason, I have yet to become a published author.

If anyone out there has a "no fail" outlining system, please pass it my way. I will take all kinds of help and advice! At this point, I really don't think I should be too picky. I just need to learn how to incorporate this invaluable tool into my writing.

So, wish me luck in this new adventure I am on! And feel free to keep up with me and my assignments. There is a special folder titled "Sunrise" that will house all my assignments as well as a neat little static item that will contain all of the discussion topic posts I will be required to make.
 

My very dear and true friend, Omni~pink bubbles r everywhere , has created her very first site auction and asked me to help her along with it. Of course, I was honored to be asked as well as pleased to do anything I could. I check on the auction at least five times a day to see if new packages have been donated and just to make sure all is going well.

Yesterday, during one of my "looksies", I saw a donation made by my very favorite person in the whole, wide world, stacylynn71!! As some of you may be aware, Stace has had "real life" issues and had to take a longer than desired break from wdc.

I am not at all ashamed to admit that I peed my britches when I saw her name along with three awesome package donations!! Gawd, I can only hope this is a sign of her return. Nobody, and I stress NOBODY, can imagine the feeling that I have in my heart and soul to know that her presence here again is a possibility. I love Stacy Lynn with every single fiber of my being, whether she realizes that to the fullest extent or not. I honestly don't think she has a clue, although I tell her every chance I get.

Even though I am so ecstatic I can barely sit still, I will not push her to return to ME immediately. I will continue to give her the space she needs in order to get her real life things in order.

Why, oh why, do she and I have to be so far apart geographically? Why can't Texas and Wisconsin be right next to each other? Any geographers out there that can help me with this dilemma? Can we do some simple rearranging to put the best thing that has ever happened to me within my reach?

I want to hug her so bad. I want to plant eleventy seven hundred and eighty thousand kisses on her cheeks, forehead, and chin!!! Can everyone please join me in a silent prayer that she is able to return, if only to get back in touch with her superb writing? Others have tried to fill the "Stacy Void" within me, and I more than appreciate all attempts. But I must be honest and say that nothing or no one can fill that emptiness.

I LOVE YOU, STACY LYNN!!!
 

When holidays roll around, WDC is soooooo boring for me! All my friends are out celebrating and whooping it up with their friends and families and I am left here to just keep refreshing my page to see if anything at all has happened within the past three minutes - sometimes I don't even wait that long to refresh!

On a typical, non holiday day, I receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 emails. On holidays, I can't even max out at 20!! B O R I N G!!

I am sure I overwhelm all my friends' inboxes while they are away. And I don't care! I really should be capitalizing on this time doing reviews for the Anything Goes poetry contest that is hosted by my dear friend, ~*~Damiana Renewed~*~ . It is a couple rounds behind and has enough entries to keep a person busy for months!

So, I guess instead of using my blog to complain about missing all my homies, I should get my tush over to the contest page!

HAPPY LABOR DAY, Y'ALL!
 

As it was nearing my bedtime tonight, I took Freddi out for one last pee pee potty. I glanced up at the sky as I always do (I get so much comfort and peace from the night sky) and saw something I have never before seen. I stood with my mouth agape and my eyes widened with awe as I stared at the massive rainbowed halo around the bright full moon! I noticed that the rainbow effect was not consistent throughout the entire ring, but was mainly positioned at the very top.

After reveling in such a discovery, wondering if the people driving by had even noticed it, I came in and instantly googled "rainbow halo around the moon". Much to my surprise, since I have been a sky gazer all my life, there was an abundance of information pertaining to this awesome sight.

I just wanted to share my newest nighttime lesson with everyone and offer a photo I found on the web that looks almost exactly like what I just observed from my driveway.

If you find yourself curious, I encourage you to do a simple search and learn about this fascinating occurrence!


 

Have I? Well, just in case I haven't, I want to send a very quick shout out to all my wdc best friends. There is no particular order to my list; I love all of you equally in one way or another for all that you allow me to be!!

Omni~pink bubbles r everywhere
Love you, Lyle!
Sticktalker
ShellySunshine
stacylynn71
~*~Damiana Renewed~*~
Wyn - missing III
Krislgreen celebrates WDC
R, at work
Jewel Busy Busy Busy!
HuntersMoon - Gone4Awhile
SummerLyn Guthrie
mystic_writer
Jen D'Arque R.I.P. Lyle
Shannon
simply_complex
Rogue♥SimplyPos+WDC
Gabriella's 6th !! :))
1leila123 says Hello!
Cissy-

I love y'all so much!! Thank you for everything you are and everything you do! Each of you mean the world to me in so many ways.
 

For most of the American population, summer does not officially begin until June 21st. That is not the case here in North Central Texas; it begins quite a bit earlier. So, for the sake of any argument, I have declared June 13th as the beginning of my summer. Why? Well, because that is my birthday and with it comes a natural sense of celebration!

My birthday this year marked my 39th year of existence and was filled with laughter, joy, friends and family, and of course, sunshine! Not only did my mother take me out to eat at a fancy Mexican restaurant, one friend took me out for Bar-B-Q while another took me out to a high class Italian place in the heart of Downtown Dallas. After dinner with my mother, she presented me with a birthday cake - red velvet with my very favorite whipped, creamy butter icing. This cake held a bit more sentiment than just the typical message of "Happy Birthday". Below those decorated words was another message: "Congratulations on 6 months of Sobriety"! She cried and cried, all over my delicious looking cake, before we were actually allowed to dive into it! Happy tears of course. Ya see, until December 10, 2008, I was a daily abuser of methamphetamine. This addiction had me in its evil clutch for 25 years.

The majority of my summer has been centered around reclaiming my life. I can't say I have worked hard at that, for I have lounged by the huge swimming pool surrounded by palm trees in my mother's delightful and serene back yard. The gentle breeze kept me entertained with its ability to make the elegant wind chimes sing their song in unison with the peaceful background sound of the waterfall from the hot tub. Chirping birds, floating butterflies, soft pillowy clouds all added to the wonderful effect of my calm environment.

My mother and I have had an opportunity to laugh and enjoy each others company - something I have robbed her of being able to do for the past 25 years. We have danced around her over-sized living room, we tried our hand at yoga, and we have spent hours upon hours playing with Freddi, my 5 month old female German Shepherd. Freddi, in German, means Peaceful Ruler and I selected this name in the hopes of it rubbing off on her! Yes, my puppy was an evil monster for the first couple of months. But now, she is quite the pleasant addition to our family. She knows how to shake with the appropriate paw. She knows the difference between High Five and High Ten. She knows all the basics of sit, lay down, and Tell Me. She even knows how to whisper!! She is completely house broken and is nearing 40 lbs. Mom loves her like the grand child I have never been able to give her and refers to her Freddi Lue Poopi Doo.

I have spent a good amount of time creating a writing workshop for troubled teens in the Dallas area that I call Scribbling for Self Discovery. The workshop has not formed into total fruition yet, as I am working on finding a sponsor. The workbook is very near completion and may be viewed here at WDC.

ID: 1589173   (Rated: E) Scribbling for Self Discovery  Workbook for the writing workshop I host. by Kristi

ID: 1553543   (Rated: 18+) My Escapade Through Hell  My book; my story. by Kristi

It is just mind-boggling how a tooth can create so much displeasure, discord, discomfort and all around agony. Ya know it's bad when Vicodin doesn't help any at all. And a four month old German Shepherd puppy who wants to play by pouncing on your head with her big, real log toy doesn't make the all around agony any easier to handle. I will be okay, though, 'cause I am a big girl who will beat this stupid tooth! I will be the victorious one... after I save for the next three years for the estimated cost of $600 for the stupid, stupid, stupid oral surgeon!!