this is how i feel today.......

i have been fighting back a cold or the flu (terrified of getting the swine flu!) and this morning, I just feel so totally exhausted! it's a major effort just to type. mike and i have been so busy lately that we definitely are getting run down. we manage an apartment complex (40 hours a month), have our gallery to keep going, are doing the Farmer's Market every Saturday (with our art) and also work full time. even just typing all of that makes me tired.....just thinking of all of that. we usually do not have so many responsibilities, but now it seems like that's all we have. we hardly have any time for fun or for going on a vacation. whenever i visit other people's blogs and see the wonderful pictures they have of their trips and vacations.....i get so sad and melancholy! how i wish and dream that mike and i could go to europe!! (our biggest, most precious dream.....) i worry that we will keep saying...."we're going there someday"....but never get there. does anyone have any suggestions about how to plan for going to europe?? we would love to move there, but even if we could go there for a short time.....a working vacation, assisting someone who is traveling there....something!! i wish we could just plan on something so we won't feel like our dream of going to europe is so allusive and faraway!! i especially want to go to england and france and ireland!! something inside my soul just longs to see these beautiful places!!!!

i've posted some photos that have lifted my heart over these past few weeks.....found them on different blogs and sites. sorry, i don't have the energy to list where i found them. write to me if you want info on a certain picture or pictures.

i have found so many wonderful, amazing and incredible blogs lately!! here's some of my most favorites.....

la porte rouge

abby trys again

a view to

snapping twig

lobster and swan

the drifter and the gypsy

fine little love

red otter

pia jane bijkerk

liivian taloosa

there are so many more, but i am just too tired to list them.

i hope you have a wonderful weekend.....do something nice for someone else sometime......i am so amazed at how sometimes even just a little smile can bring me out of a dark forest.....it always surprises me when someone unexpected smiles at me!! they must somehow know that i am floundering and they reach out with their souls!! thank you.....

debbie