Andrea & Adam...the wedding

Andrea married Adam yesterday (March 28th) at 2 PM. It was truly a lovely wedding. She was a beautiful bride as you can see from the pictures. I was so very privileged to spend the final 24 hours leading up to the wedding with her. And not having a daughter of my own, I took great pleasure in being "Momma 2" and feel her mother (my sister, Nancy) was seeing her through my eyes. I know Annie was glad to have me with her even though she ended up taking care of me!! Neither of us slept the night before, hahaha.

Adam is a wonderful young man and I couldn't be happier in her choice of a mate. He is as loving, caring, and fun as she is. I have a good feeling about their union and know they will make it as long as they keep God in the center as they do now.

And this is how life passes you by.....

I'm finally sitting down to blog. I haven't written since November.....this is how time passes you by. BUT, in my defense, I will say my absence of writing has only been because I have been ridiculously busy with other pursuits. Since my last blog I (and Leah on the business stuff) have:

1. Created, developed, and manufactured a second therapy product for our 2 Gals Speech Products company. F.A.M.E. Articulation Workbook on CD. You can check it out on our website.

2. Leah and I have begun speaking professionally at state conferences. We have presented at WV, KY, and Ohio state Speech Conferences. We offer a 3 hour course on "Enhancing Your Therapy Through the use of Technology". It has been exceedingly well received. We plan to develop a second course called "The Practical Side of Therapy: insider tips from 60+ years in therapy"

3. Secured a contract with a national catalog company to distribute our products and have a second company express their desire to distribute for us as well :)

We continue to let God lead our every step in this company and still feel He will bless us when He wants us to receive His gifts. Yep, you're right I do live my life in simple blind faith in the One who has a plan for me :)

Sometimes, I feel like all I do is work and watch TV in the evenings and that's not good. I feel I have no social life, but that's just because of my present financial state. But I knew I would have to live like a pauper for 18 months when I decided on an early retirement. And too, I knew I'd be working for at least 3 years without compensation from the company, so this is not me whinning about my dire financial straights, this is just a verbal reminder to self of my conscious choice to live like this for peace of mind. Believe me when I say peace of mind is worth more to me that the paycheck :)

I promise to try to do better in posting.
For your enjoyment,
Dean


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"Speak it into being"

I was thinking this morning that it's getting near time to send out my Holidays wishes to those I love and hold dear. So I thought I'd go ahead and compose my holiday letter, which in turn got me to thinking about my life this year. As I started to mentally review my (and Lee's) year I quickly realized that the tag line which I use on my email came true......"2008 my year of abundance and success"...and that prompted this post.

2008 has truly been a year of abundance and success for me (and Lee too).
Lee moved to DC
Lee got engaged
We developed/produced software
I retired
I went to Italy
I got a puppy
Leah and I are developing a speech workbook
So many wonderful things, which at the end of 2007, we had no idea would happen! But so many things that would not have happened if we had entertained negative thoughts.

"Speak it into being".......
I believe that we can "speak things into being".....ok, before you freak out on me, no, I don't mean like I can just say it and whammo it appears, hahaha. What do I mean is that I think we can "speak things into being" by our mental frame of mind or mental outlook. I believe in the power of positive thinking. I think our success or failure; our abundance or scarcity is directly affected by our way of thinking. Believing you will succeed or believing you will fail will have a direct impact on the outcome of whatever you attempt. Believing you will have abundance or believing you will have little is again impacted by your thought processes.

Each thought we have has the power to make good things or bad things happen. An example: We believed we could produce a game CD for speech therapy and we did! Had it not have been for positive thoughts (attitude) which brought about positive actions to do whatever it took to make it happen, it would not have come to fruition. Had we let negative thoughts enter into our minds we would have become defeated before we ever started and we'd be sitting here today with a dream instead of a product. It would have been easy to let negative thoughts like, "How could 2 speech therapists and 1 computer guy from eastern KY produce software?" "Who'd want to buy our software?", "What if nobody buys it?", enter our minds and so easy to speak that into being, instead of keeping our focus on the positive. But we kept our thoughts positive and spoke it into being. How often in life do we let good things go simply because we entertain negative defeatism thoughts? How often do we give up because of a negative thoughts before we even try? How often do we speak the negative thoughts into being?

Why not speak good things into being? Why not have positive thoughts? Because regardless of which way go with your thoughts...positive or negative....you will speak it into being. Your thoughts will drive your actions. And your actions will produce your abundance or scarcity...your success or failure.

So here's to making 2009 your year of abundance and success!

Streets in Florence

This is a view of one of the many streets. To us Americans it looks like an alley and we have a tendency to avoid passage through them. I was a little hesitate the first day too, but as I learned a little more about European culture I started relaxing with traversing them. Now they do have some larger 2 and even 4 lane streets but this is more the norm.

As you'll see, the streets are lined with Vespas. They are the main mode of transportation within the city. I found it odd, to my American way of life, to see older business men and women get on their Vespas to head for home or elsewhere at the end of the day. It seemed every available space was used for parking them.

Bicycles are a close second in transportation. I found myself surprised to see elderly men and women riding them. I know it is because here in America, especially rural America, bikes are for used more for entertainment with children 5-13 years of age, or for traversing college students. Beyond those about the only segment of people left in the US that ride bikes for transportation are the young men who work in urban/metropolitan areas (such as my son in the DC area).

I have always noted that European cars are so much smaller than US cars but had never really given thought as to the reason behind it. The reason for the small cars is simply because the streets in Europe are so narrow. I suppose if you've every watched Chevy Chase in European Vacation you already knew that....haha.

People, Vespas, bicycles, all share the road. The sidewalks are narrow too and really only wide enough for one person, so when you encounter someone somebody has to give way :). Thus more often than not you decide to simply walk in the street only to be ran back to the sidewalk by the Vespas....haha.

Since I'm talking about the streets, I'll also mention that ALL the streets are a cobblestone of sorts and can make walking more difficult in a tiresome sort of way. You can never put your foot down to where it is totally level. It is either tilted to the right, left, forward, or backward....definitely not a pleasure if you have Fibromyalgia as it messes with your support and puts undue stress on your ankle, knee, and hip. After the first day I ended up hobbling all around Italy like an old woman.....LOL. But I do it again in a heartbeat!!

Meet my new love

I'd like to introduce my new love and companion....Chrissy. She's an 11 week old Shih Tzu that has the funniest face and the sweetest disposition ever (just like me, haha). As most of you know I've been thinking about getting a dog for over a year. I took a full year to debate the pros and cons of dog ownership because I didn't want to get a dog and not keep it forever. I decide to wait until after I retired so that I would have the time to devote to training a dog. Then I decided to wait until after my trip because I felt it wouldn't be fair to get a puppy and then turn around and leave it. So now I'm retired and have completed my trip :) I didn't go out with the intent of getting a puppy Sat. but that is what transpired anyway....haha. Mary and I had walked out of Hobby Lobby and I looked up and saw Petland and said let's go look in Petland. They had dozens of really cute puppies of several varieties, but when Chrissy and I made eye contact, she stole my heart. There was just an instantaneous bond....then of course, when I held her, well, I just had to bring her home!

Ponte Vecchio

This is the Ponte Vecchio which crosses the Arno River in Florence. There are several bridges that conveniently crosses the river, but this is the oldest. It was originally built in the 12th century but this particular incarnation dates back to 1345. The shops on the bridge have taken advantage of foot traffic for all these years. The shops on the bridge were originally occupied by blacksmiths, butchers and tanners. Today the shops offer all sorts of things such as leather, jewelry, etc.

This is the subject of many of the paintings you'll find for sale by the street artist because it's a good seller with tourist. :) No, I didn't purchase one. I bought works with different subject matter.

City of Florence, Italy

This is the city of Florence, Italy as seen from the Piazzale Michelangelo. It was a hike to get up there but as I previously said well worth the huffin' and puffin' :) NOTE: it's not hard to get up there if you're young, haha.