Happy Halloween!

Today is a Partak family favorite as far as holidays go. Personally, I love 'em all but I get to really indulge in Halloween because it's in the top two for Dave and Mason.

Did you sign up to join me in creating the world's biggest on line gratitude journal? There's still time, we start tomorrow. I'll be posting at least one thing I'm grateful for each day and encourage you to do the same (using the comments feature of the blog). This should really speak to my ability to motivate people to actually follow through and take action. Come on guys, don't make me look bad!

So we're off early today to do the kid's safe Halloween in downtown Auburn and then we'll go again tonight after it gets dark. When we've tricked and treated all we can, we're going to a party for some refreshments. Sounds like fun. huh? What are you doing to celebrate Halloween? Chime in today so you know you can start journaling with me tomorrow.

Have a great day and take in as much of the excitement of the children around you today. With just an ounce of their energy, you should be able to keep smiling all day long! Happy Halloween.

Taking Pre-Orders!

I'm just about finished with my book Creative and Memorable Ways to Keep in Touch, Back to Basics and want to offer you a pre-order special. Since I'm self publishing this book in a very unorthodox way, it's costing a little more than it might with a publisher and contract. The big up-side is that the book is in full color. I plan to sell them for $15 each plus shipping. If you pre-order your copies, I'm selling them for $12.50 and no shipping costs. Also, I'll be donating seventy-five cents from the sale of every book to Operation Mom, Placer County (http://www.operationmom.org/auburn.html).

They're not big books, in fact they are pretty, little gift books perfect for Christmas gifts. In this economy when money's tight, there are many ideas that only require a few minutes and a postage stamp. For such little effort, you make the day of someone you love. And by the way, there's still a few spaces for pictures. Send me yours today.

Here's the forward and of the book to give you an idea of what to expect.

People First!

I've written this book because as I look at the world around me, all I see are people in such a hurry. They're talking on cell phones, interrupting face-to-face conversations with real live people to read text messages, and even ending long-term relationships via e-mail. What's wrong with this picture? Everything! I believe it's the people in our lives that make life worth living. To me, it appears that living, breathing, feeling people have taken the extreme back seat to technology, and it's a shame. I'm the kind of girl who sends cards and handwritten letters on pretty paper. When I share a recipe, I hand write it on a card with notes about what I love about the dish, or if it's a family favorite and why. I've come to realize that this sort of thing -- sending cards, letters, and creative little gifts -- doesn't come naturally for everybody like it does for me. My friends are always so touched and make it a point to tell me how exceptional I am for making such an effort, when to me it's such a small thing.

I've had so much inspiration and help writing this book that I can't take all the credit. I also want it known that I'm sure I've not been the first to do or suggest every idea in this book, but I assure you I did come by them honestly. I either thought of them on my own or saw something that inspired me to come up with something similar. There has been no specific reference or research done to come up with any of the ideas here and in my other books.
It's also important to note that there may be ideas in this book that will be appropriate in another. I've done my best not to duplicate too many.

Join me now on a journey of connecting or reconnecting with the people in your life. Next time you get a text, dial that number instead and actually talk to the person texting you. Better yet, turn your phone off and talk face to face, even to the kind person making your coffee. And I dare you to thumb through this book and pick one idea you can do today, this very minute. You'll be reminded of how good it feels to touch someone and make yourself feel good along the way! It's just part of my personal makeup to show my loved ones how I feel and even though we are spread all over the world, they're never far from my thoughts and my heart. Join me, won't you?

Creative and Memorable Ways to Keep in Touch. Back to Basics, pre-order your copy today for the introductory price of $12.50 each. E-mail me at Kdpartak@yahoo.com.

Here's The Plan!

For the month of November let's create the world's biggest gratitude journal. I believe in the power of gratitude to multiply itself and manifest in good for all, but working alone, we're not reaching as many beings as we could if we worked together. Think, We Are The World and let's create an undeniable vibration for all to feel. After all, good or bad, it starts with a feeling.

Friday will be a Happy Halloween post and then on Saturday I'm going to start posting a daily entry of gratitude. Join me and post your entry in the comments. You have to sign in as a google user, but it's simple and doesn't create spam. Come on, send this to all your friends and family and let's see how many of us we can get logging on everyday sharing in the good feelings of what we each have to be grateful for! Get your friends involved and create a team so if you can't post everyday, somone can post for the two, three, or four of you. get creative, but get in the game!

At the end of the month I'm going to tally who posted everyday and put those names in a hat to win a prize (if you're anonymous, I won't know who you are). There's going to be more than one prize, but we'll all win every day sharing in the wonderful energy of looking at the light, and the good that all of us have right under our noses. I know I have so much to be grateful for (just look at my family!), I can't wait to share in your loving, living prosperity as well!

What's Coming

It's Halloween week and our house is all abuzz with the spirit of the holiday. Dave and Mason got the house, inside and out, all decked out with tombstones, skeletons, and pumpkins. As we wind down the month of October, we're gearing up for a great November.

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, it's a natural time to slow down and look around at all we have to be thankful for. Not only as we see 2008 come to a close, we can look ahead to an abundant and prosperous new year. It all starts with a feeling and the best way to feel good is to acknowledge all the good that surrounds you. That's all I'll say for now, but get ready to join me is creating a feeling of gratitude bigger than one you can create all by yourself!

Sign Up Now!

I've got something fun planned for the month of November so subscribe to this blog today. Go to the bottom of the page and click the "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" link (maybe it will work if you click it right here) and have an e-mail automatically sent to you every time I update the blog. For the month of November you'll want to be in the loop.

Fun, sharing, a contest, and prizes...you won't want to miss a beat!

Decisions, Decisions.

There's so much going on in life right now with a difficult economy, people struggling with personal finances and that can certainly lead to relationships being stressed. With that in mind, I have something special planned for the IWIL blog and the month of November. Next week I'll tell you what we're going to do and how you can participate and actually win some prizes.

November 1st is my one-year IWIL blog anniversary and I think we should celebrate together. Not only is this a great opportunity to (hopefully) make some announcements, but also to look ahead to the new year and see if we can't make some plans to apply the intentional winning concepts and ideas to the new year and maybe a new you! Start thinking about how you can adjust your life (job, family, business, finances) to this changing economy to take some stress off and start to get back to basics. If you haven't already, subscribe to this blog so you won't miss a beat!

Finally, I've not received many photos for the Creative and Memorable Ways to Keep in Touch book so if you want to be included, send me happy pictures of you with the people you most want to (or would want to) keep in touch with. You don't need a story, we only need to be able to have all people pictured be willing to sign a photo release if I use the shot. E-mail me at Kdpartak@yahoo.com with your picture. This is a picture of our gorgeous Japanese maple welcoming you to our back yard. It's not quite this vibrant yet, but I'm excited to see the changes starting.

Glove Update

Hi Friends,

So what's new? We're getting back in the swing of things here at home and I'm feeling much better. After two surgeries (all the meds) and a ten day vacation (eating on the road), my body was begging for a break. I put myself on a ten day system cleanse, I'm eating lots of fruits and vegetables, drinking plenty of water, and getting back to intentional exercise. It's amazing how fast we bounce back when we take care to put the good stuff in. The finger is healing but until the pin comes out, I'm having to be be very careful with everything I do with my left hand.

On the glove front, we got the second round of prototypes on Saturday. They look good, but still need work. The thumb is in the wrong place (too far in the palm of the hand), and the zipper isn't right. We really need to have a high quality zipper, higher quality than came in this new proto. I sent the changes back and will hopefully have an appointment to talk with our people this week.

Happy Friday!

So what do you think, has this been fun not rambling on about the same topic all month? I don't know, I like having one specific thing we're talking about, but in light of my injured hand, it's been good to do smaller posts and less research.

On the hand (or more specifically, finger), I saw Dr. C on Wednesday to have the stitches taken out and it was another traumatic office visit. It started out okay, but the last two sutures were healed over so on came the nausea, heavy sweat, and near fainting. No kidding! I ended up leaving the office weak and in tears. The pin has to stay in for another four weeks but for the most part, in my day to day activities, it doesn't really hurt. Oddly enough, when I left the docs office crying it wasn't because of pain, it was more a release of the intensely painful experience I'd just had. It's all very weird to me.

So an update and I'll see you Monday!

Silly Stuff Answers

Why do cowboys wear their pants too long? Cowboys wear their pants too long so when they're sitting in the saddle with their legs bent, their pants aren't too short.

And why do young children only want to eat bland or simple tasting foods? Because they're born with more than 10,000 taste buds as a defense mechanism to help them survive. Since they have such hyper-tasters, they prefer the hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and generally milder flavored foods. As we get older (and wiser knowing not to eat poison), those taste bud numbers decrease and we can then tolerate and enjoy bolder flavors.

Why Do People Cross Their Fingers For Luck?

Sandy asked this question and I found an answer at ask Yahoo.

There are a number of curious gestures and sayings in our modern society that leave us scratching our heads. Apparently, we have superstitious folk in merry old England to thank for the peculiar practice of crossing our fingers for luck.

Witches, ghosts, and other supernatural ghouls were very real to people living in the 16th century. Illnesses and bad luck were blamed on these evil forces. Faith in the power of the Christian cross, therefore, was strong. A cough, a sneeze, or even a mention of a cold (thought to be a sign of the plague) was reason enough to cross yourself. The proper way to make the sign of the cross involves four steps -- touch the forehead, heart, left shoulder, then right shoulder with you right hand.

When a suspected witch crossed your path, you could make a cross shortcut by crossing your index and second finger or the index fingers of both hands. This would provide protection and ward off the evil influence. Just like in Dracula movies, it was believed the power of the cross or any religious talisman would combat the forces of darkness. People also wore crosses or carried their Bibles in case they happened upon a nefarious being. A clove of garlic worn around the neck was ammunition against werewolves and bad spirits, and both peasants and nobles attached bells known as "bezants" to their garments, hoping the sound would scare away evil spirits.

Though many of these beliefs have slowly died, the gestures they inspired have lived on. Let's face it, in today's scary world, we need all the luck we can get. If crossing your fingers, carrying a rabbit's foot, hanging a horseshoe, or rubbing a lucky penny helps you through the day, more power to you!

Silly Stuff I Know...

What is the silly stuff you know? Do you know why tennis balls are fuzzy? If they weren't the game would be impossible to play. The ball if it were only rubber (without the fabric), would never stay on the court. See what I mean?

I'm one of those people who love to use silly stuff to start up conversations and get to know people. You might think this is useless space being used in my brain, not so. I've won many a prize, large and small with this "useless" information. Tell me this, why do cowboys wear their pants too long? Or one of my favorites, why do all children only want to eat bland or simple tasting foods? I'll give you the answers on Wednesday. In the meantime, post a question or little known fact back to me, I'd love to learn what you know!

Breaking News!

This week we're in Florida, and I've had two wonderful communications from the primary glove company we're talking with. The first was on Monday from the CEO. He let us know that the initial numbers were in and it's time to talk about how we want to structure our relationship. Awesome! How many inventors get to this point in the process all on their own?

The other one was from the VP of manufacturing for the same company letting us know the second round of prototyping is due in her hands today or Monday. She let us know that they made three versions of our gloves with the revisions from the first set. I can't wait until next week to see what we have and to start penning our deal.

I'll keep you posted!

A Glove Update

I spoke again with the glove company and it looks like things are finally moving forward. We have an appointment to talk on the 17th to run numbers and do costing. This is very exciting and even more promising is that the CEO advised me we would likely be in touch before then as the second round of proto types would be ready! Hooray!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Actually, it's a little belated, but my Mr. Riley turned 6 on Saturday the 4th.

Dave gave Riley to me for my birthday in 2002. He's as much the light of my life as any of my family and friends are. Happy Birthday Riley!

I Love That I Have You To Help Me.

Happy October to all!

Before we start, introductions are in order. My name is Dahlynn McKowen and I'm part of Kathy's IW team.

For reasons beyond her control, Kathy is unable to type and asked me to pen this column. When she asked me—no, begged me—to take on the task, she carried on over the phone for several minutes as to what was in her head and what I should write about. Then she asked me to "squish" it all down to something reasonable. I just smiled to myself.

Now for some editorializing on my end; "squish" is an appropriate word when describing one of my dearest friends in the entire world, but only when it comes to her communication via writing. She writes like she talks. Seriously. Now, now—there's no need to get defensive. I'm not picking on her. She agrees with me. When working on writing projects with Kathy, she'll put dozens upon dozens of paragraphs on paper to get to that one solid paragraph. She squishes it all together, and for a professional writer and editor like myself, all I can do is sigh, then grin, at her very unique style. Through lots of squishing and squashing, Kathy eventually pulls it off and comes up with an awesome piece of writing, to my amazement.

But I'm getting off track—let's revisit why Kathy can't type this entry. She and her horse Chance had "squishy" intentions that just didn't work together at the right time. While in the saddle, Kathy intended to move one way, and Chance the other. The result? Kathy was thrown to the ground. Chance was okay but showed immediate concern for his "person" (Kathy said he had a look of, "How did you get down there?"). Besides a concussion, bruises and aches all over, Kathy ended up having two surgeries in three weeks' time on her hand. The last one rendered her hand useless for a good while, thus this guest column.

Kathy wanted me to talk about myself and hubby Ken, but that's not my intention (to humor Kathy, pop into http://www.publishingsyndicate.com/ to learn more about us). My intention was to share my feelings about Kathy and the way she communicates with you.

Recently, she wrote a story for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Resolutions in which she told of her desire/resolution to not talk so much. But that would be a HUGE mistake. Through all of her intensity and all of the good and true words that cascade out of her mouth and soul each and every day, her intentions are beyond pure and simple. She talks because she truly cares. She cares like no other person I know on this planet, and her desire to make the world a better place is so completely evident in every thing she does. As our leader in our upcoming release of the Intentional Winning series of books, there's no one better to guide the way—as squishy as it may be some days!

P.S. Kathy didn't read this prior to posting. I love you, Kathy! :)

Happy Friday

I'm happy to report that though I'm having to be SUPER careful with how I use my right hand, I'm not in the kind of pain I was in with the first surgery. I've found that I can take the cast and wrap off while I sleep and when I am home, but really need the reminder while out and about in the outside world.

I know this isn't anything all that to read about, but hey, it's real life!

Seeing Dr. C

I get to see the new & improved Halloween style finger today. I'm going to take a picture of it because I'm one of those people who wants to see. I look once and look away. Then
I have to look again, more closely, really look, you know? My Aunt Jeannette is like this, too, only more. I think she'll even ask if she can touch! Laughing.

Hopefully I'll get the use of some of the fingers on my left hand soon. I'll let you know on Friday.