AF Daily Friday 15 May

[Loppy lugs]

Good morning all,

Nothing profound to say this morning. Just enjoying playing with the bunnies and feeling like one of the luckiest people in the world.

Take care all

[Sheepish]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Hopping on to say I am so happy your bunnies are back and doing well Loppy.
Still lurking and getting a lot out of this thread. Will post when I can contribute something of value.
Take care all and Happy Friday
-Sheep

[Accountable for Me]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

HAPPY Friday! Lots of love, me!

[startingover]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Loppy, thats BRILLIANT to hear. I am delighted for you!
Have a wonderful friday everyone.

[Doggygirl]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Good morning! Loppy I am so happy to hear about the bunnies! That is awesome news. I also really enjoyed your post yesterday about your changed thinking. That sounds like such a huge and positive step forward. I'm happy to hear that so many good things are going on in Loppy Land on all fronts!

TG - I hope your exams are going well and that life is good.

Sheep and Starting it's always good to see you!

Hi AFM! What's up in AFM land these days? (I haven't been on for long periods lately so probably have missed a lot!)

Winefree congrats on 16 (now 17) days AF! That is a great start.

Dill, am I gonna have to come over there and :b&d:???? Seriously, right back on the wagon you go. You can do this. After my relapse spanning about 8 months in 2007/2008 I finally got sick and tired of starting over again and again, and going through that early phase of getting sober. That got so ungratifying and old after a while. I think that was what finally motivated me to get my rear in gear. I already figured out I couldn't drink but just kept bashing my head against the same brick wall. Anyway...YOU CAN DO THIS.

What a good spring for gardening! Everything is up and alive. The only thing that's sort of "not doing great" is my carrots. None came up from my first planting (might have gotten too much rain) and only a few are up from my second planting. Maybe I need to add more sand for them next year. At any rate - no complaints! I love having the leaf lettuce in pots on the back porch. Making a salad for lunch is fun.

I'm a little sore today from Gym Girl kicking my butt yesterday. Life is good. I need to do some lower body and abs and cardio this morning after my usual 7AM Friday leads group meeting. Had to go back and ad in the "abs" part. Best not be forgetting that.

Have a great day all! TGIAFF!!

DG

[hiddengoal]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Good Morning AFreedom Riders -

Just good morning today.....and hope everyone is happy where they are.

[retteacher]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Relapses are so difficult. I've been hearing about them at AA meetings. Perhaps the change in weather has something to do w/it (more socializing?). Last week 2 guys at an AA meeting shared about relapses & broke down & cried. This week I didn't see either one of them at the meeting. I absolutely must remember that a relapse can occur any time. I shared yesterday that on Tues. I had a drinking thought. It was the most natural thought to cross my mind: "Hmmm...I think I'll go get a bottle of wine." Nothing sparked the thought...it just came to me. I didn't get that bottle, but I could have. The lesson for me is that I cannot ever let up on my program of recovery.

I have a nice day planned. Some relaxing time, some time shopping w/my daughter, & maybe going to see my g-son at the bike races.

Take care everyone.

Mary

[rustop61]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Hi everyone

A quick check in again. The madness continues. My daughter just texted to say she won the poetry competition she was in this morning and the prize was a laptop!! She is now through to a final and the prize there is a trip to New York. I am so proud of her. She also captained the school debating team yesterday and they won so it's been a good week for her. It makes all the running about and supporting them worthwhile. Very high achiever and I do worry about her especially where alcohol is involved. She will legally be able to drink next year. Has anyone else faced this and how did they deal with it?

Enough about me, everyone sounds good this morning and I hope you all have a great week-end.

Rustop

[speedster]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

I accidentally posted this on Thursday, I'll re-post here. Happy Friday!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning Ablanders!

I haven’t posted in about a week. I went to an agility trial last weekend. Had a great time and earned two qualifying runs on Sat. Sunday, my pup had a mental meltdown. The stress of the trial got to him and he worried. So we had fun, made up our own courses and celebrated with treats.

I loved reading Pamina’s 1-yr thread and Loppy’s comment yesterday about “recognizing the real emotions behind thoughts of drinking.” While at the dog trial I decided to have a couple lite beers with my agility buddies. That was okay, but one night this week I mowed the lawn and had thoughts of resentment towards my husband and towards volunteer work. I escaped to 4 beers instead of dealing with the resentment. Had a long talk with my husband who’s really tired of me whining about the volunteer work and me trying to change him. Conclusion was I need to deal with it. I need to step down as president at the September election and not feel badly about it. I’ve done my duty. I need to accept hubby for who he is and know he’ll talk about house projects but doing them is another matter.

I have learned to deal with frustration, boredom, and emotional highs AF. But resentment is my weak spot.

I’m actually excited that all of this happened. It’s now very clear that resentment is the root cause of my escaping to AL.

I have to give credit to this thread for helping me come to this realization. I know I’ve read time and time again about dealing with emotions, especially resentment, on this thread. It’s easy to read about it and think “that makes sense” but then applying what I read in the heat of the emotion is another story.

So I’m totally happy and perky to have had this lesson and look forward to meeting Resentment head on when it rears it’s ugly head again. Well, I don’t really look forward to it but I know what I need to do.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for being there.

[Preciouspinot]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Speedster, I can totally identify with the resentment trigger. When I feel resentment towards hubby is when I have my strongest craving pop into my head. They call it "drinking AT somebody".

I am learning so much about myself these days and what makes me tick. Very interesting.

Today the nanny has the day off so, I am not going into work and I am hanging out with my kids. Two of them don't have school today.

[Determinator]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Aloha AF Friday ABlanders far and wide!!!!!

just a quickie here, zooming around today playing catchup.

Mary, thank you for the reminder....a relapse is but a moment away if we don't keep our guard up. en guarde!

Rustop, you must be beaming with your daughter! how wonderful.

gotta zoom

be well everyone

[Doggygirl]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Hi HG and Deter! Love the Freedom Riders image. We need a Freedom Rider smilie! And :soapbox: bigger smilie rations per post!



Rustop you must be SO proud of your daughter. I don't have kids so haven't a clue the best way to handle discussions about alcohol cons with one who is about to come of age. My parents ignored those types of discussions and I don't think that was helpful. I'm not sure if a more honest discussion would have made a difference. Hard to say. I bet LVT has something more enlightened to say about this through her work with the youth program. Mean time, MAN a laptop is a cool prize!!

Speedster, it sounds like you handled things really well with your doggy melt down at the trial. Things like that happen in Schutzhund too - it's always a fine balance between things being too easy, and putting on too much pressure. It's obvious to anyone watching how this could be true in protection work, but it can also happen in tracking and obedience too. Giving doggy a fun experience to end with was IMO a good move. They don't know what score they get, as our trainer is always reminding people in our group! Mean time, it sounds like you've had some really good opportunity for reflection and growth. Cool innit??? And yes - I couldn't agree more about resentment being :devil:

I've come to realize that drinking wasn't my problem, it was my attempted and poorly thought out solution to every problem such as:

Boredom
Stress
Nervous or excited energy
Worry
Depression
RESENTMENT
Guilt
etc.

Booze is just not a good solution to those problems! It felt really good to finally gain a little bit of understanding about that.

PP I hope you are having fun with your little ones this afternoon!

Mary, I know I need a constant reminder that relapse is one small drink away at any time.

Here is another good saying I like:

"It doesn't matter how far away from your last drink you are. It matters how close you are to your next one."

By working towards a healthy body and mind, I attempt to keep a good distance between myself and a "next one."

TGIAFF! Now I'm off to pack up some too big clothes - I've been procrastinating that task for so long they have probably fossilized (is that a word) by now.

DG

[ThatGirl]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Hey guys, glad to see so many people still doing well for those interested I have 2 exams down and onyl a couple to go, one of which is on Monday so I'm going to be revision crazy on Sunday, but not saturday (work followed by eurovision, one of my spring highlights xD) Hope eveyrbody has a lovely weekend

-TG

[Cinders]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Hi my AF friends,

I spent the day with my very ready-to-go-at-any-minute daughter. At the last of the shopping, she locked her keys in the car and we were "stuck together" for a little while longer. Actually, a good $45.00 US spent.

I have to fly out Monday a.m. very early, i.e. 6:30 a.m. and she is going to go to the hospital Sunday night to be put on a "drip."

I think I will be spending Sunday night at the hospital and have a cab take me to the airport. She and hubby both want me there, "just in case."

I do too.

I hope my hubby has no heartburn with this plan.

Love,
Cindi

[hiddengoal]

AF Daily Friday 15 May

Ahh..."Babies are the Best of Life!" - truly

So first big test tonite, as we are going to hear music at a local Brewing Company Pub. I don't like beer so figured this is a good place to go. I have not been out, or seen friends in many moons, so am a bit excited.

Now, going out like this would not be my worst situation - I am a reasonable imbiber when out and paying 'by the glass'. it was when I was home that the wine flowed down my gullet.

Anyway, I just found out that they now serve wine form a local winery - gee, it will be a little tempting and this news comes just hours before we are going. So what do I do?

'Make a plan', I would hear many of you say. OK, I will have water and soft drinks. But I still feel like I will 'need something to do'. I could bring cards, a knitting project...but that would be weird. What will I do with myself when everyone is drinking and chattering? I think I will go read some more...

Oh, PS, today is the 1st day of my second 30 days=Day 31