Hello world

Hello to this day!! This is the last time we will ever have today! So we best use it to the fullest, right? I awoke around 8:45 this morning and Molly, Althea, and I chanted in my living room after talking for about an hour. Lots of exciting things to look forward to in the coming months within the SGI. New Years Day is the most celebrated "holiday" within Buddhism, it's a rather big deal actually. :) And it's not too far away from now!! What are some of your New Years resolutions? Do New Years resolutions ever work? I suppose they could, but you can start making goals any day of the year - and of course, the sooner you get started on them the better - you don't have to wait until January 1st!!! Sheesh! A few of my goals are:

*To continue eating 80-90% raw vegan
*to continue going to the gym a minimum of three times per week
*to start buying more childrens' books, toys, and clothes for my hope chest
*to start reading at least one chapter book per week (of leisure reading)
*take as many credits as possible each semester and learn more than I ever knew I could

I have many others as well, but I don't want to sound like I'm creating a bucket list either - I plan to live at least another 40-50 years. :)

Today, I am going to go and visit a friend in treatment after my math class. Wish me luck. It's always hard to visit people in treatment. If you can't see why, then that's probably a good thing. It means you must never have been an alcoholic or ex-drug-user, and the less of those around the better, too. LOL. Here's a picture of me today, around week 3 on at least 80% raw foods:

Not too much different, but a slight one, at the very least! I think my complexion has gotten better. So, I referred my sister Molly to SNAP Fitness, and for doing so I got to choose between having one free month of membership (I'm on a contract), or two free months of tanning. I chose the two free months of tanning. And my back is just BURNED!! It's intense! I woke up today and felt like i had just slept in a fire all night... Better give the tanning bed a rest. I am very fair-skinned so I burn quite easily, but it is very difficult for me to burn enough to form in to a tan. It usually fades off long before turning in to a tan.

Doot, doot, doot.... Oh, as I was chanting today, I focused my chanting on my womb of all things. Sounds crazy, right? But I just want to have the healthiest child ever when I finally do get pregnant. So I am putting a lot of effort in to making causes that will help aid and assist in that however and wherever possible. I also focused a lot of my daimoku to things I can do to really raise some great kids. I saw the cutest books last night at Seward co-op, yoga books for children! Poses for children to do. I am totally going to buy it. I would love to have my children doing yoga, and I will definitely try to get them to chant from a very young age as well. What they choose to do for religion and spirituality later in life is entirely their choice, but I think it's great for kids to have some religion and spirituality in their lives while being raised too. As if it's not already TOO obvious that I am so very excited about having kids in the future, I would also like to point out that I've been looking in to what activities to plan for them, pottery, art, jewelry-making, sports, dance, theater, reading clubs, oh you name it!!! :) OK, sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

I am going to read for about a half hour before it's time to head to class, will update more later!

Nam myoho renge kyo!!!-Rickie