Capturing the moment v/s living the moment

A good friend of mine loves to take photos. From time to time she will even bring her camera to work and snap shots of us (whether we are in the mood for it or not) :-) One of the things about her pictures that I always think is so cute is the sheer number of them that she takes! If she printed them out you could use her pictures as a flip book and view animation for goodness sakes. No, I'm not exaggerating.



She and I were talking recently about fun trips we've taken over the past couple of years. She said something that got me thinking. She mentioned that when she's on a trip, she's never really having as much fun as she does looking back on the trip. I found this surprising considering how happy she always looks in the pics. Then I reminded myself of the fact that, again, she always has TONS of pictures to share. I began wondering if this is related. I started thinking about all of my friends who vacation a lot, and it occurred to me that most of them are actually this way. They have several gigabytes of photos accumulated from a trip that only lasted 3 or 4 days. I started wondering whether or not these people are spending a great deal of their trip trying to get the perfect photo to show to others when they get back home. In the age of social networking, are we more concerned with what our Flickr or Facebook friends will think of our photos than we are about having a great time with our friends and loved ones? Interesting times we are living in...they kind of sneaked up on me to be completely honest.

In fact, I even caught myself scrolling through my memory card photos during the drive home, wondering which ones I could share, and what people would think when they saw them. Then I said to myself "Who cares what OTHERS think of MY family photos?" I like the pictures and that's what matters. This attitude should probably be used more often in my life. I'm 33 years old and so far, reacting to the opinions of others has gotten me NOTHING positive in this life. :-)

Fresh Start?

I'm in the process of getting my mind ready for tomorrow. I'm a little tired and I really need to go to bed. But I want to be sure that I am prepared for my day so that it proves productive. I have 5 months left to make the most out of 2008. I need to eat better, pray more, watch less TV, read more, and be a better steward of the money that my family receives.

Let's see, how will I get this started? I will be sure to incorporate at least an hour of exercise into the majority of my week. I will take better care to put good foods into my body. I'm going to start doing bible devotionals every few days. Finally, I am going to take more initiative in caring for my household. This includes taking more control over understanding every bill that gets paid, every debit that hits our checking account, and exercising more will-power when it comes to my debit card.

Tomorrow is a new beginning!

Dream Family Vacation

I know that for most people the words "dream" and "vacation" don't belong in the same sentence as the word "family", unless the word "NOT" is also in place. SO not the case for me and my family.

My entire family has been vacationing in Destin, Florida since early Sunday afternoon. We are staying in a 4-bedroom, 3-story home in a subdivision on the beach. I do not even know how to describe this home and do it justice. I always brag about the villa we stay in every year in Orlando, but this tops that by miles. This home has everything! My parents bedroom has a terrace overlooking the pier. The bedroom Chris and I are staying in has a HUGE garden tub that has gotten much use! (TMI??) My sister and her hubby have a ginormous room on the bottom level that is connected to the kids' room. All four kids are together and loving it! There is a backyard for the kids to play when we're not out on the town. The third floor is a loft with cushy chairs, a tv, bathroom, refrigerator, and TWO more terraces overlooking the pier, beach, and the town of Destin.

This week, we've all gone to the beach together, an amusement park, gone on a glassbottom boat for a dolphin tour, eaten at Fudpucker's restaurant (legendary around these parts, I think), and SO much more! We have been playing board games, and cards together some evenings. Other times, we just sit around and read, surf the web, or whatever we feel like doing, which is in my eyes, the PERFECT vacation!

This morning, we will be checking out something called Gulfarium, and playing the rest of the day by ear. I could not have planned a better vacation if I was given an entire year to do so. I honestly feel that the Lord knew how much my family needed this amazingly wonderful time together after the extremely morbid end of 2007 we experienced. Thank you SO much Lord for blessing my family with this special time together. This has officially become a Hill-Gill-Lyseight family tradition!!!

I'll post pics on Facebook once we arrive back in Atlanta and have time to settle in a bit.

Throwback Jams

Every now and then I find videos that make me incredibly nostalgic. I will start embedding them on this blog as they come to mind. Below is one such video. When this song came out, I was playing hard to get with the man who I am now married to. :-) We were working at Six Flags Over Georgia together, and this song takes me back to that innocent, carefree time in my life.

The group singing the song is called "702". It is comprised of three members: Irish (long hair) and LaMisha (short hair, light complexion) who are sisters, along with Kameelah Williams (lead singer). Irish's twin sister (Orish) performed on a few songs with the group, but left before the group became more popular, at which point Kameelah was added to the group. Orish died a few months ago, sadly, at age 27. She suffered kidney failure along with a form of cancer and other health issues. It is said that her death was not a shock to her family at the time of her passing due to her lengthy battle with illness.

Although the song "Where My Girls At" was probably the most popular mainstream hit by "702", my favorite song of theirs is "Steelo" which you will see below. Funny the things you remember...I was always a little envious of Irish and LaMisha because they both have such pretty features, even though they look so different from one another. Still think they're very cute girls!! Enjoy the video!

How to determine if you are narcissistic

Update: I felt the need to give a little added clarity into what I meant by a couple of these after my friend Chris identified herself as borderline narcissistic in the comments section. :-) She is honestly about as far from selfish as you can get. Added items are bold.
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–noun
1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.

Above is the definition of narcissism as defined by dictionary.com. Similar to other obsessions, compulsions, or addictions, narcissistic people are in denial that they have this problem. By definition, one is so wrapped up in oneself, that they are completely unaware of their effect on others. It took me 25 years to determine that I was a narcissist. Due to my own experience with this affliction (and my exposure to several people close to me who unknowingly suffer from this as well) here are a few indicators that you may, in fact, be a narcissist:

1) You absolutely HATE narcissists.
In other words, you have ZERO tolerance for these kind of people. This is the #1 sign. I think it's due to the fact that narcissists are not only into themselves, but expect others to be into them as well. A fellow narcissist will get your goat everytime.

2) You find yourself complaining about other people. Alot.
It seems that people who want the world to revolve around them are often disappointed each and every time they find out that it does not. And they tend to blame and criticize the people who's worlds do NOT revolve around their every whim and/or need.

3) You have a picture(s) of yourself (only you) in a frame on display in your home or office, or you have pictures of yourself as a part of your desktop slideshow or background. This one is probably more obvious than the others, and most likely doesn't need much explanation. People tend to want to display what they're most proud of. For most, that means spouse, kids, other family members...narcissists are most proud of themselves.

4) You find yourself REGULARLY updating your Facebook status message, Twitter, Pownce, etc..., with information about what you're currently doing MORE THAN once or twice per day. To me, this borders on not only obsession with oneself, but also the misguided impression that others are obsessed with you as well. I'm all for great blogs, letting everyone know that you're having an exceptional day or that you're about to leave for a nice vacation...anything along those lines that communicates a non-typical part of our normal routine. But I can assure you that no one really cares that you are on the way to breakfast with your spouse, and that you made it to the mall afterward, oh, and that you are about to go to dinner now, and oh joy, then about to hangout some more afterward. I promise you that NO ONE cares to hear about every single thing you did today. The only people that do care are the ones you are doing these things with, and thus, don't need to be updated via Facebook, Myspace, etc....

5) If you drop by the store to pick up something, it WOULD NEVER occur to you to ask your spouse/roommate if they need anything I'm not saying that you should do their weekly shopping for them, especially if you were just running into the store to get a pack of paper towels. But narcissists just don't come naturally equipped with the understanding that others have needs too! And guess what? Others' needs aren't always satisfied simply because YOU happen to be having a great day.

6) When you're talking, you are often told by others that you've already told them this story before...or that they themselves just told you this same thing the other day!! Good listening skills is DEFINITELY not a trait of narcissists. In fact, narcissists usually ONLY listen if you're complimenting them. Want to grab a narcissists attention? Preface anything important you need to communicate to them with mention of how great they are. They LOVE that!! You will be putty in their hands from that point forward...well, at least for the next hour.

I've got more...believe me, I've got tons more!! But in the essence of time, I'll stop here for now. Trust me on the points above people. If you're shaking your head in disdain at what I've wrote, then you've just added #7 to my list. :-)