A couple of months ago, JAZZ Solar Solutions, the company Kyle works at had an information booth at the Green Expo here in Ottawa. I decided to go out help out with making contacts and meeting potential customers. In preparation of that, I decided that I better brush up on my technical knowledge and learn everything about Photo Voltaics also know as Solar Panels. The design and multiple and applications. Having the engineering background helped a lot with understanding the workings of the system. It was so much fun to learn again, it has been so long since I did any sort of technical application. What I didn’t know, I had an in-house teacher in Kyle and I figured I would learn on the job.

So I spent 2 days at the Green Expo and met so many cool people from different walks of life with different needs and ideas. I really enjoyed that. After that I was hooked, I did another show the weekend after and now I am back in the work force, doing sales for JAZZ Solar Solutions.

It has been a challenging couple of months. Learning about all this new stuff, talking to and teaching potential customers. Working on fitting in the sales calls and meetings into my already busy schedule. Like they said if you want anything done, give it to a busy person.

My main priority in life is still the kids and family so I only work in between school, activities and meals. Sometimes I think I am crazy adding work into my life but it is quite exciting to be back working.  I have the idea job, working around my schedule, working when I can and if I can.

While I was home full time, I would be visit my friends at their work place, I would sometimes wonder what it would be like to be back working outside the home, and knew I wouldn’t be able to do a 9-5 and be home for the children. Now I am in an ideal situation. I am back in the workforce and work around the family’s schedule.

Sometime, I do information seminars at night and if Kyle is working late, I take the kids with me on the bus. They occupy themselves with their books and crafts and on his way home, Kyle comes and picks them up. One Saturday Kyle even took them on a job site with him. I had sales training and he had to finish a ground mount installation. The property was really sandy so we bought them some sand toys at a garage sale and they spent the afternoon hanging out with daddy. They had a blast. They also came to one of the trade shows with us. Hung around the booth and did their own thing.

I am fortunate that the kids are so flexible, they are learning to respect my time when I am working. They understand when I am working at home, they cannot bother unless it is really pressing.  They have to solve their own issues which mostly involves each other….

My life is never dull, sometimes I think I am crazy for taking on more.  I realize I am doing what I believe in and it is all worth it!

This is attitude
IT’S BETTER TO LOSE YOUR EGO TO THE ONE YOU LOVE.
THAN TO LOSE THE ONE YOU LOVE ……. BECAUSE OF EGO

This is attitude
WHY WE HAVE SO MANY TEMPLES, IF GOD IS EVERYWHERE ?
A WISE MAN SAID :
AIR IS EVERYWHERE,
BUT WE STILL NEED A FAN TO FEEL IT .

This is attitude
WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT
ANY DOUBT……. AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO :
EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON

This is attitude
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ……..
IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK

This is attitude
SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES ,
MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.

This is attitude
THE WORST IN LIFE IS “ATTACHMENT ” IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS ” LONELINESS ”
BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.

This is attitude
“You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away.”
-Arlene Blum

This is attitude
“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
Chinese proverb

This is attitude
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”
Ben Herbste

Here are a couple more quotes that I read and liked:

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
~ Brian Tracy ~

You cannot tailor make your situation in life, but you can tailor make your attitudes to fit those situations.
~ Zig Ziglar ~

What is your attitude?

The Rosary – Simply Amazing!

Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati Ohio, that night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had put on a week long series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City, Kansas .

As more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with  the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell silent. The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake behind a boat. Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and his mouth dropped open.

Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, and the eyes warmly intent. This was a face he’d seen in newscasts and on the cover of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was going to be Mother Teresa!

Mother Teresa

As the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion pulled out rosaries. Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim noticed. The decades represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him later, and added, ‘I pray for the poor and dying on each continent.’

The airplane taxied to the runway and the two women began to pray, their voices a low murmur. Though Jim considered himself not a very religious Catholic who went to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found himself joining in.

By the time they murmured the final prayer, the plane had reached cruising altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in his life,Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person possessing an ‘aura’. As she gazed at him, a sense of peace filled him; he could no more see it than he could see the wind but he felt it, just as surely as he felt a warm summer breeze.

‘Young man,’ she inquired, ‘do you say the rosary often?’ ‘No, notreally,’  he admitted. She took his hand, while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled. ‘Well, you will now.’ And she dropped her rosary into his palm.

An hour later Jim entered the airport where he was met by his wife, Ruth. ‘What in the world?’ Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in his hand. They kissed and Jim described his encounter.

Driving home, he said. ‘I feel as if I met a true sister of God.’

Nine months later Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a friend of theirs for several years. Connie confessed that she’d been told she had ovarian cancer. ‘The doctor says it’s a tough case,’ said Connie, ‘but I’m going to fight it. I won’t give up.’ Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his pocket, he gently twined Mother Teresa’s rosary around her fingers. He told her the story and said, ‘Keep it with you Connie. It may help.’

Although Connie wasn’t Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small plastic beads. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I hope I can return it.’

More than a year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time her face was glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary. ‘I carried it with me all year,’ she said. ‘I’ve had surgery and have been on chemotherapy, too. Last month, the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor’s gone.. Completely!’ Her eyes met Jim’s. ‘I knew it was time to give the rosary back.’

In the fall of 1987, Ruth’s sister, Liz, fell into a deep depression after her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow the rosary, and when he sent  it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag. At night I held on to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid,’ she says,’yet  when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a loving hand.’

Gradually, Liz pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back. ‘Someone else may need it,’ she said.

Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She’d heard about the rosary from a neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to take to the hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might help their mother die peacefully. A few days later, the woman returned the beads. ‘The nurses told me a coma patient can still hear,’ she said, ‘so I explained to my mother that I had Mother Teresa’s rosary and that when I gave it to her she could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand. Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she looked so peaceful, so young.’ The woman’s voice caught. ‘A few minutes later she was  gone.’

Fervently, she gripped Ruth’s hands. ‘Thank you.’

Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only knows  that requests continue to come, often unexpectedly. He always responds though, whenever he lends the rosary, ‘When you’re through needing it,send  it back. Someone else may need it.’

Jim’s own life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the airplane. When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life.

‘I try to remember what really counts – not money or titles or possessions, but the way we love others,’ he says.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MAY MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO SHOWER  YOU WITH GRACES.

Please feel free to pass on this post, especially to all those in despair so that they might know that they are not alone in their hour of need.

Every sacrifice has a fruitful reward. Every failure has a second chance.

We only have to be strong through God’s grace and persevere in life’s many tests! May GOD bless you always.

Working on our vision boards

For those of you who do not know what a vision board is, it is a simple yet powerful visualization tool that activates the universal law of attraction to begin manifesting your dreams into reality. A vision board is simply a visual representation or collage of the things that you want to have, be, or do in your life. It consists of a poster or foam board (books in our case) with cut-out pictures, drawings and/or writing on it of the things that you want in your life or the things that you want to become. The purpose of a vision board is to activate the law of attraction to begin to pull things from your external environment that will enable you to realize your dream. By selecting pictures and writing that charges your emotions with feelings of passion, you will begin to manifest those things into your life.

I made sure the kids understood what a vision board was and everyone went to work…  They had tons of fun cutting and pasting.  It is never too early to start.  We have it by our school books so we go through at it every morning before school.  The law of attraction states that we attract into our lives anything that we give attention to, regardless whether it be positive or negative so that is why we look at it everyday.  As the kids do not have a specific desk or wall, a book works really well for our situation.

Start your vision board today, it is super easy and you’d be surprised on what happens…

Our cheering leaders at the end of the race

Today, I participated in my 3rd mini Triathlon with my friend Nicola.  Unfortunately, it didn’t feel right from the start.  I had trouble with my breathing in the pool (It was a little upsetting as my swim has always been my strongest points) and then it was cold and windy on my mountain bike. (I really need a road bike, didn’t I say that before?)  I wore my rain coat on which acted like a parachute,  I finally took it off for my run but that wasn’t too late for the bike ride.  I am very happy to say though that initially the run was tough as I was figuring out my breathing but once I got it, the run felt really good.  Perhaps it was because of the new shoes I won on at my “mothers day run” .

It didn’t help that I didn’t sleep well the night before either.  I was up half the night moving stuff off the basement floor.  A few of the neighbours has sewer backup so we just wanted protect our stuff just in case.  With the dust and my allergies, I had to take an antihistamine as my eye swelled up.

I am the one with the red swim cap

Me on my mountain bike

Almost done...

So now that I have gone through all my excuses, I am more determined to keep in shape and keep active.   I have made up my mind to continue doing at least 15 minutes of exercise per day (which has slacked in the last couple of months) and perhaps add a run once a week or more.  My experience of completing this triathlon was less than ideal for me, but it has given me more stronger desire to keep in shape and stay healthy.  I like my “girly” figure!  he he he…  Perhaps I will do a sprint triathlon soon…

For your information:

Try-a-Tri distance 300m swim, 15km bike, 3km run

Sprint distance 750km swim, 20km bike, 5 km run