::Shebytches::

Sandy Love Kicking Effexor

I've been taking Effexor since 2002 after first trying both Prozac and Paxil and deciding they weren't for me. I have never felt Effexor was quite right either so I tried to wean off - with my psychiatrists assistance.

Sandy Love It is an amazing thing to be touched by nature. And touched, I truly was.

I was out all afternoon, so the garage door was closed and if I hadn’t gone to put some papers in the recycling box I never would have noticed.

Sandy Love NO MORE TROUBLES - I’M STAYING HERE - The final chapter

On March 15, 2007 my husband, Dennis, myself and our attorney went to Atlanta for my INS interview. This was the make it or break it, hopefully final, part of my green card process. I had already been given my work Visa and a Travel Visa, but I hadn’t brought my belongings down, and I still didn’t feel settled yet.

Sandy Love I QUIT SMOKING

Hypnosis. Yep, did that on June 16^th, 2007, so today makes 8 weeks smoke free. Hooray for me!!

Sandy Love Why does everyone say you have to establish a credit record as soon as you start making money?

No you don't. Not if you plan on paying with real, live, green, dirty, old money for everything.

Sandy Love EVERY TEENAGER THINKS THEY KNOW EVERYTHING!! (Not a new finding) There is a boy who turned 18 in June, just after he graduated from high school. He’s the same kid that he always was, but he no longer has the same routine. Being a smart boy, he received a scholarship for 20 course hours at a local college.

Sandy Love My Driving Habits Bytch What is up with drivers who turn (right or left) into the farthest lane? The whole idea of turning at a red light is to turn tight so you don’t disrupt the flow of traffic. Also, if you turn properly two cars facing each other can each make their turn, one left and the other right, to the same direction simultaneously.

Sandy Love The Troubles I Endured Moving to the United States …continued… Chapter 4
…the continuing saga of my attempts to be a legal resident of the United States. And this time it has nothing to do with the American government

Sandy Love Snowbirds It’s still Sunday. Easter weekend has been good. My parents arrived here on Friday, at noon, and I couldn’t have been happier to see them. They are snowbirds and spend the winter months in Florida. It is nice to know that they are closer to me by proximity, I like the fact that my husband may need to take a business trip, and I can follow along, and sidetrack to stay with them.

Sandy Love a poem

Sandy Love Forgiveness How often do we forgive ourselves? When we forgive someone, we have compassion, we excuse a behavior, we pardon offenses, we renounce anger, or we absolve a debt. It is an understanding, and a cleansing, and a releasing.

Sandy Love Therapy I get it from beading, from painting, oh yeah, and drinking like a fish.

Sandy Love Oh my, my mother-in-law. So, did you think that this was going to be a bad story? Do you think that all mothers-in-law have to be evil? I have lived (on and off) with my m-i-l and my f-i-l in the downstairs apartment for almost a year now. Mind you, when they first moved in the apartment wasn’t finished yet, so it did create a little pressure, and stress

Sandy Love Full Moon I go outside for what I anticipate to be my last smoke of the evening…

Sandy Love KIDS I believe they make you crazy. I have not lived with my son since he was 11. Mick will be graduating from a Lutheran high school in June of this year, and turning 18. Mick and I get along really great when we are together. However, when he is back with ‘you know who’ I am invisible.

Sandy Love Liar, liar, pants on fire The hell of false allegations and a crooked lawsuit continues. It never ceases to amaze me, how people can believe their own lies, once they decide to conger them up.

Sandy Love I’m just the little man. I believe that the law was created to keep men honest. Why does it seem now that the little man cannot be protected by the law? I shouldn’t say cannot, I should say it is very difficult, or in some cases impossible, because of the amount of money that it takes to retain a lawyer.

Sandy Love Kids at Christmas Always when I sit down to write my Shebytches article I think about what is important to me right now. Usually something good will override any bitching I may have and I end up writing about my life, my love, my family, as if it were a journal entry. Here, yet again, is another tale of the recent events of my life.

Sandy Love Aid Well, here I am a week before Christmas, and all I hear is the chatter and whine of how busy people are, and how much shopping there is left to do. Hello people! December 25^th falls on the same day every year — why wait until the last minute to do everything?

Sandy Love And they lived happily ever after… That’s the end of my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Sandy Love Civil Suit There is always some new excitement in my life. This week, Dennis and his partner Alex found out that a complaint for damages was filed in court against them. A Civil Suit, Jury Trial Demanded. Oh joy, something else to waste time on, and take them away from business (and wedding plans)

Sandy Love Wedding DressThis week I’ve been running around trying to pick up things for the wedding. I bought napkins, candle holders and candles, plastic cake plates, and flowers for my 2 flower girls, and got it all for half price. Hooray for Mrs. Coupon-clipper.

Sandy Love Marriage Counseling To the fans of Sandy… I am ghost writing this week for my future bride, so I hope you guys do not mind. I have asked the love of my life to marry me and she hesitated for nary a nanosecond and said yes. I am a very lucky guy to have her and I am pleased she is making many extraordinary changes and sacrifices to spend what we both know will be our final commitment.

Sandy Love Fired means change Dennis got fired from his job today — long story, but the company has been heading down hill and making major cutbacks. It’s got me to thinking though…

Sandy Love Not too long ago... Not too long ago I lived in a four bedroom house with my 'millionaire’s family'. There was Mom (me), Dad, son and daughter happily living life. But wait, Mom was not living life.

Sandy Love There are always a few things in life that you know have to actually happen, but you never hear about them happening. Guess what. My parents got to be one of the unlucky.

Sandy Love HOME I’ve been back in Ontario for a month now. I’m here to help my parents move and to help paint their new place. I’ve been staying in my sister’s basement, which is okay, so far, for all concerned. It means that I’m right between my parents in Bobcaygeon, and my kids in Cambridge.

Sandy Love Scrapbooking My sister teaches scrapbooking classes in Newmarket, and I have always avoided getting involved. It seems to be an obsession that never ends. I said that I’d never get into scrapbooking, but things have changed.

Sandy Love BugsThere is a light shining bright, a beacon at the front door.

It tells you that I’m home, welcomes you.

Sandy Love BOYS SURE PLAY DIFFERENTLY My story about David, Jordan and Ryan I’ve been watching the three boys next door for a couple of days a week, for the last three weeks and I’ve noticed one thing for sure — boys sure play differently than girls. I always knew it, having a boy and a girl myself, but when you’ve got three boys it really reinforces that belief. My two were 18 months apart and since my youngest is my girl, it is the girl’s habits that are foremost in my mind.

Sandy Love Friends I remember all my school buddies. They were "key" at that time in my life. But no matter where Kathy, Wendy, Dana, Jim, Kim, Sylvia, Scott, Tara and Karen are now, I think of them, and thank them for where I am now.

Sandy Love Sleeping Baby What is it about sleeping babies that captivates us? Is it the innocence, the peacefulness, the newness of their whole being?

Sandy Love The Troubles I Endured Moving to the United States …continued… Chapter 3 Okay, not to say that I have a huge, red checkmark beside my passport number at US Customs, but I think the assholes just don’t know what a good person I am and some idiot is making a big mistake.

Sandy Love Quit Smoking I said I wouldn’t smoke American cigarettes. Okay, yeah, I’m into these soft pack Vantage things now.

Sandy Love Coyotes In My Back Yard Coyotes? I’m not kidding. Besides having them live in the forest behind our house, we have Copperhead snakes, deer, red foxes, and who knows what else. And we live in a subdivision!

Sandy Love The Troubles I Endured Moving to the United States …continued…

So it’s February 28^th and Dennis and I had left Cambridge and were trying to cross the border at Detroit. We left a few hours earlier, after packing up the last of my personal belongings in an ABF U-Pack moving truck. The last stop that we made was at the ABF office to make sure that I had dotted all my i’s, and crossed my t’s.

Sandy Love The Troubles I Endured Moving to the United States

…and this is just the beginning.

I’m not sure who they thought I was — small David with a slingshot, or mighty Goliath of strength and clout. Now that my run in with U.S.A. customs is almost a month past I am comfortable talking about the circumstances without getting all riled up.

Sandy Love Can you teach an old dog new tricks? On Sunday, we moved Dennis’ elderly parents into the basement of our home. With them came Lucky, their dog of 5 years. Lucky just showed up one day; he was sitting by the back door when Liz and Vern came home from a trip, and he has been with them ever since.

Sandy Love Who can judge self-expression?

Who can say that her thoughts are wrong?

Who can expect a certain way from her?

Who can ever imagine the tales she has to tell?

Sandy Love Decorating Dennis and I moved into our new house a week ago, and are just now starting to settle. Most of the house was white — an old white and I wonder how much of it is still builders’ paint. The kitchen was wallpapered (with big gaudy flowers), the dining room is painted pink, and the bathrooms are taupe, but everything else is colourless. It really is time to add some colour to this place

Sandy Love Friends Forever My daughter, Stacey has been riding for a year and a half now. She only has a lesson once a week, but it’s amazing how quickly she’s learned. I’m proud of her, and enjoy watching her ride, and I’m picking up on the language and meaning of everything, too. You Go Girl! Keep enjoying it.

Sandy Love Life changes. Been there, done that; married, kids, moving, job restructuring, separation, and now I’m moving on to divorce.

Sandy Love Times… they are a changin’. I’m about to give up my one bedroom apartment and move into a four-bedroom home with a man in Georgia.

Sandy Love Welcome Little Emily She’s here! Emily Grace Dawson was born on Thursday, January 20th at 7:47 p.m., weighing in at 8 lb. 9 oz.

Sandy Love I had such a time getting the Internet hooked up, that I wrote a letter to Bell. The trouble is I didn’t really think that I would get a decent answer, so I never sent it. Here’s my vent.

Sandy Love Modd My daughter thinks that I’m odd. I used to be funny, but now I’m odd. You guessed it – she’s 13 now.

Sandy Love Death Waits At Every Door (a rewrite of It Can Happen to You 1984) It's really too bad, you know - that people take things for granted. Like teenagers, and their parents. Until it's close to curtains, or something bad happens, you don't realize that they won't be here forever.

Sandy Love Customer Service I’ve got a bee in my bonnet, and I have to vent. I hate to group a bunch of young people together, because (I hope) there are some decent workers out there, but it seems to be people of around the same age that are the ones not measuring up here. So what is customer service?

Sandy Love The Christmas Rush It’s only 6 weeks to Christmas! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? The Christmas rush - what makes it crazy? ARRRRGH, some of you may say.

Sandy Love Reach For the Moon The mother said to her two children, "I have to go away for awhile now."
"Where are you going?", the two chimed together. "I have to go to the moon", she said. "But Momma, why?" they inquired.

Sandy Love Heather, my friend, I have so much to say thank you for. I am so glad that you are my sister.

My sister, Heather, is 3-years younger than me. You wouldn’t know we are sisters, by our appearance. She has brown eyes, brown hair, and a bigger build (yeah, that means boobs), than I have. Me, I’m taller, with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, glasses and an athletic build.

Sandy Love FALL What are the signs of fall that you notice, enjoy, or begrudge? Relax in this in-between, stop, look, and become aware. Let fall settle on you.

Sandy Love What motivates you? What motivates you? Is it morals, legalities, pleasure, faith, hope?

Sandy Love Tranquility Everyone wants to feel it. What carries you to a place of tranquility? What feelings does it give you? Is it a place you can go to often? Do you long for this calm? What is the price you will pay for tranquility?

Sandy Love Do you have a will? Yes, we all will die someday, but it’s not something we want to spend our time contemplating. "…There 's nothing serious in mortality…" –Shakespeare

Sandy Love A Bucket of Scorn I woke one day, a few days ago, with words on my tongue, "puked up a bucket full of scorn". Where did that come from? I don’t remember dreams very often at all, and did not have the feeling of having been dreaming, but these words flew out of my head, as soon as I was awake. (Subconscious, you are a strange, strong part of me.)

Sandy Love Depression is an Illness Everyone has ups and downs in life. In April of 2002, I was working, taking care of our kids, and the household, but enjoying nothing. I was sleeping a lot, just trudging along, not realizing how much I was pulling away from others, and withdrawing into a solitary place of darkness. It was my sister that first suggested I go see my family physician.

Sandy Love I am…I can 12 months in a year, 52 weeks, 365 days. 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute, and me living every second. It’s just a moment at a time - believing, being and loving.

Sandy Love She’s searching again - Can I Love What I Do? Can I Do What I Love? I have always questioned. Why am I here? What is my purpose? How do I find the answer? Who am I? Isn’t this supposed to be something we go through when we’re 17 or 18, and considering an education, to carry us through to our career? I didn’t realize that at 42 I would still be asking the same things of myself.

Sandy Love Me Time I am trying to remember the last vacation I took by myself. I mean, besides the week I spent taking a self-help course. (It worked – but it wasn’t exactly the Greek Islands). In January my 12 year-old daughter and I spent a week with my parents (longtime Snowbirds), in Florida – but that was "us time".

Sandy Love Creative Expression by Sandy Love Creative – am I? What is it? A lot of people say they "aren’t crafty", or don’t "have vision". That is the head talking and not letting the child that lives inside play.