A Sad Heart

22 Saturday Mar 2014

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A Sad Heart…

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Who ever thought being a mother would be so hard? I thought it was a rough day when I walked her to her Kindergarten classroom and now I’m saying goodbye at the airport as she goes back to college.

The tears never cease to amaze me, but with the tears comes an overwhelming sense of pride for who she has become and is continuing to become with each passing day.

As I wave goodbye until next time, I am proud of myself, for she wouldn’t be who she is today if it weren’t for me, her mother.

Written By: Ask Ms Mandi

Going off to College…

16 Sunday Feb 2014

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Going off to College…

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I think one of the hardest things in life is leaving your child behind to begin a new life.

As mothers, we live and breathe our children. We nurture and protect them as infants, watching them as they take their first steps, walking them to their classroom in Kindergarten, going to their graduations, the prom, drivers’ education and watching them as they start their new lives at a University.

It seems as if life goes by in an instant. We know they are going to grow up, but time seems to speed up and they are grown before our very eyes. We are happy for them to start their new lives, but it is a bittersweet occasion. We spend eighteen years of our lives with them and in an instant, they are gone.

Can we really prepare ourselves for this? It has been six months now and I still wonder around the house, lost. Where did the years go? I ask myself this daily.

Enjoy each day and enjoy the moment because it goes too fast.

Written By: Ask Ms Mandi

Why are you Thankful?

28 Thursday Nov 2013

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Why are you thankful?

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Being thankful has many different meanings for different people. I am thankful for so many reasons this year. I am thankful for getting our house back from the bank. I am thankful for having a great job. I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for my health.

My gratitude for this year has grown tremendously. This has been a year of growth and learning to not take for granted those wonderful people and things I have been blessed with in life.

Every day is a gift. Love is a gift. Hold on to what you have and don’t let go. You may think that others have more than you, but once you lose what you had, you will realize how much you really did appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving…Ask Ms Mandi

Forty…

28 Saturday Sep 2013

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Forty…

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Forty is a time to grow.  This is a crucial age.  This is a time for women to make changes.  These changes may be related to relationships, career, inspirational, or soul-searching.  The decade when woman are forty, she must make some serious decisions.  When she was younger, time wasn’t against her.  Now that she is getting older, time is more of a factor. 

During a women’s forties, she needs to make some life-long decisions.  Don’t stay in an unhealthy relationship.  Find true love.  Don’t stay in a career that bores you.  Find out what is exciting and go after that job prospect.  This is the time to travel and meet new people and experience new places.  Your children are probably old enough to take care of themselves, so this is the time to re-connect with yourself or to find your self again.

Enjoy being forty.  You are still young and beautiful.  This is the time to shine, so shine.

Written By:  Ask Ms Mandi

Sisters

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

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Sisters…

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What is the meaning of a sister. A sister is someone you can talk to about anything. She is always there for you when you need her. She is a shoulder to cry on. She is a friend to laugh with on long rainy days. Distance can not keep you apart. Time stands still when you are together. She doesn’t judge you and you don’t judge her. You can fight like cats and dogs and still be the best of friends in the morning. You will grow old together.

There is nothing in the world that should keep sisters apart from each other; not distance, husbands, or hateful words. A sister is a best friend.

One of the best times I can remember with my sister, were times of moving. I went to her home in Reno, Nevada to help her pack. We didn’t do much packing on the first day. Something about my sister and I…we love to eat when we are together. So, we went to the store and bought a bunch of green grapes and sat in front of the television for most of the day watching Montel Williams…eating grapes. The funny part of the story is when her husband came home from work and expected that we would be pretty much finished packing. He caught us on our butts, as we turned around to look at him with a guilty look in our eyes. All we could do was crack up laughing as he asked what we were doing and we said we were packing.

Reach out to your sister and tell her you love her. I love you sis!

Written By: Ask Ms Mandi

Always Remembering 911…

10 Tuesday Sep 2013

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Always Remembering 911…

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September 11, 2001.  I remember the day as if it were yesterday.  I remember walking into my house around 8:30 am, turning on the television, and watching in horror as the second airplane crashed into the Twin Towers.  The thing that struck me most odd that morning was watching the individual white sheets of paper flutter around the streets of New York, thousands and thousands of paper.  I remembered thinking who had touched them, who had just recently stored them into the filing system, who was missing them?  It was an eerie thought to wonder about these thousands of sheets of papers coming from the Twin Towers.  I do not know why this particular image has stayed in my mind for all these years, but it has.  Perhaps my mind needed to fixate onto something less horrific than watching a city fall apart to an awful bout of terrorism.  The images we endured that day will forever be stuck in our minds.

September 11th is a very special and memorable day to my family and I because we named our second daughter after a Naval Contractor who had died on September 11th in the Pentagon.  We named her Julian Cooper.  She reminds us every year on 911 of the loss, we as individuals, families, and as a nation, had to endure on that fateful day twelve years ago on September 11, 2001.

Written By:  Ask Ms Mandi

Happy Birthday Mandi

06 Friday Sep 2013

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Happy Birthday Mandi

Mandi and Me

Today would have been Mandi’s birthday. For those of you who have been following me; you know that my website, Ask Ms Mandi is a tribute to my first Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Mandi. We raised her from a mere five weeks old, until she got jaw cancer in 2006 and passed away. My family and I still miss, even though it has been almost seven years now since she has passed. She was twelve years old.

She was a great dog. I remember when she was just six months old. I was really sick and had to stay inside the house for a week straight. She didn’t bother me to go outside and play, she just lay next to me in my bed, patiently. She was always there for me and I will never forget her.

“Pit Bulls” have a bad reputation with the media and such. I am sure that there are evil dogs out there that harms others. This is sad because a dog is the reflection of its owner. There are bad people and bad dogs. Needless to say, Mandi was one of the kindest animals I have ever had the pleasure of spending 12 years. She was kind to children, animals and all people. She did not discriminate.

RIP Mandi and we will always love you.

Written By: Ask Ms Mandi

Finding Your Child’s Talents

01 Sunday Sep 2013

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Finding Your Child’s Talents:

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How do we know as parents when are child or children are really talented in something or just lucky?  Isn’t it odd how some children are just born with the nack of being able to draw portraits or play a musical instrument?  Do we ever question this or just go about our normal lives as if it were a perfectly natural occurrence.  

The scientific study to this fascinating phenomena is called genetics.  Of course our children are born with a part of us and our spouse, but sometimes a genetic trait will be picked up from a far away, remote relative we have never met.  This would explain why a child would become an artist at a young age when neither parent has an ounce of artistic ability, not even in their pinky finger. 

It is still amazing and amazes me an a daily basis.  Watching a young child, sitting contentedly in her chair with a drawing tablet on her lap and a pencil in her hand, drawing a replica of Mary Cassatt.    And a darn good replica I may add.  For all of you that may not be familiar with the paintings of Mary Cassatt….. she is widely known for her work of painting and drawing portraits of woman with children and / or children with animals.  Not an easy task by any means.

Find your child’s talents, encourage their dreams, and let them play around with their ideas.  You may be happily surprised to find that your average child may be anything but average, growing up to be another Mary Cassatt.

Written By:  Ask Ms Mandi

When a House is More than just a House…

23 Friday Aug 2013

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We have all wondered how much more our economy and as people can take.  The mortgage crash of 2006 has severely affected our country and other countries.  So many families have lost and are still losing their homes.  It may just be a home to some.  It may just be hard times, some may say.  However, true these statements are, the fact of it is that a house holds a lot more than merely a roof over our heads. 

A house is our home.  A home is a place where we raise our children.  A home is a place where we keep our memories.  A home is a place where we grow as a family.  A home is a place to feel safe in.  A home is a place where we gain our future.  A house is a lot more than just a dwelling.  Our home is our house.

If you are losing your home, do not give up.  Write letters to your lending company.  I do not mean one letter, but letter after letter after letter, until you are heard.  Study your mortgage documents so you understand what the legalities of your documents mean.  What kind of mortgage do you have?  Was income verified and documented?  Do you have a fixed interest rate or a variable interest rate?  Is your mortgage owned by one investor or several investors?  Find any discrepancies you can in your documents.  The Government is working to create new programs for homes in distress and the longer you can hold on to your home, means the better chances are for you to save your home from foreclosure.  Fight back and do not give up.

Written By:  Ask Ms Mandi

A Poem

17 Saturday Aug 2013

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Someday you will cry for me,

like I cried for you.

Someday you will miss me,

like I missed you.

Someday you will need me,

like I needed you.

Someday you will love me,

but I won’t love you.

Written By: An Anonymous Writer