Making HEADLINES!!

http://cleverlychanging.com/2011/04/manage-monday-fun-spring-cleaning-tip-clothing-swap/

Please check out my friend's site.  After a successful and super fun clothing swap a few weeks back, I now am more stylish not to mention now FAMOUS! 

If you're wondering, what's with all the baby stuff on this site, it's because my friend is a mother of twins and has the scoop on everything that's necessary for mothers. I have no babies, yet, but I still go to her site to reference things about cleaning and saving money and just to get inspired!

On your next list of things to do is to visit her site!

What One Day Off Can Do

I had a super duper spring break even though Kevin got the days off and I still went to work. Today I did take off and Kevin and I had an awesome staycation.  The plan was to go to the beach, but I was much happier with our plan B.  How'd the day go?

9:00am - Breakfast at Ize's Bagel Bakery - A few years back I went to Ize's at 7am in the morning and came back home with a bagel that literally had just been baked in the oven.  I love Ize's bagels and this morning Kev and I went there for our staycation breakfast.  The food was DEELICIOUS and of course, we did not pay full price.  HeLLLO Groupon!  We got a dozen bagels to go along with it. Yumyum.

10:00am - Target run - Our vacations typically always include some sort of run to a superstore like Target so we followed that tradition to make our "vacation" more productive.  It always feels nice just walking the aisles of Target and Kev and I always have fun there.  One time we decided to exercise and try to walk everyaisle of the store.  Got a little dizzy and probably made it around half of the place, but it was fun anyhow. Today our Target run was "normal" compared to other visits and I even was able to pick up some things for my sister while there! Woo hoo. 

11:15am - Tickets to the Movies - In my entire lifetime, I've literally gone to the theaters probably only a little more than 10 times.  It was either too expensive and I think our family wasn't really a movie family.  We typically watch movies at home. The last movie I watched in the theatre was with Kevin and we watched Rocky Balboa (He was trying to educate me since I had never watched any of the other Rocky movies).  My husband loves action movies with fighting and war and all that, but there was NO way I was going into a movie theater to watch that type of movie when I actually get a little scared watching cartoons on big screen sometimes.  Let's be serious, doesn't the music make things scarier?!?!  So instead of a thriller, we watched Soul Surfer and we both loved it.  I think the nuns who sat behind us loved it too.  That's how you know it's a safe movie. haha.  Not only was it an inspiring and real story, they had real actors in it that were good. I was also really surprised and happy to see that they portrayed Bethany's faith and included bible verses without making it sound cheesy.  I barely ever pay to watch movies in the theater for I'd say Bethany Hamilton's story is definitely one you should watch.  

3pm  - NAP - You know when you are feeling relaxed when you just take a nap in the middle of your day.  

4pm - 4 mile run.  NOT outside, are you kidding me? Today's heat made me sweat just sitting in the car, but a staycation would not be anygood without some exercise.  Oh and what made the run so enjoyable? Of course! Oprah!  Since I don't have a TV and I have been working around 4pm for the past few years, I have not been able to watch Oprah for way too long. I know people oppose how she's made her own religion and all, but honestly after Oprah is gone, I'm not sure there are any other talkshows worth watching.  

  

6pm - family dinner - Something I'm so thankful for is family, and cute family makes things even better!  My husband is quite cute and he also happens to be an amazing cook! He cooked dinner for family dinner tonight and even after having a super delicious breakfast, his dinner was still hands down tasty. How did I land a man who's got all 5 C's?  Sigh... in addition to him, I also feel so lucky to have landed a spot as aunt of the CUTEST CUTEST nieces and nephews. It's definitely like having children without the tantrums.=)  

8:30pm - Yogiberry and Trader Joes - I probably would not go on any other "staycations" if we didn't have some sort of ice cream treat.  So of course we topped off the night with froyo and a bar of dark chocolate with almonds at Trader Joes.  

Off to work again tomorrow, but feel refreshed.  God bless you this week.

Death and Old People - Not So Depressing After All

I've figured out that blogging prevents me from talking too much...to Kevin that is.=)  It's been awhile, but glad to be back blogging. There's almost too much that's been on my mind to share.

It seems like I talk about my grandpa, Yeye, a lot at least in my blogs.   While the world continues to go round and round, I still think about him and miss him.  It can make you feel alone sometimes when you feel like you need or really want someone's presence back, but yet everyone else seems to be able to get by without.  Since he passed away, Friday mornings still tend to hit me deep.  Tomorrow marks exactly six months since Yeye passed. Ironically it's also Good Friday when Jesus died and it also happens to be the 22nd, which is also the day Yeye passed in October.   I try not to be a basket case at work, but just imagine going to meetings where death is a common theme.

It sounds morbid, but in reality, it makes each day of work for me extremely meaningful, not to mention I'm easily in situations that can put me on the edge of tears.  Today I went to a program that our hospice took part in with the Hospice Foundation of America on "Spirituality at the End of Life".  Interesting topic huh?  Exactly.  One of the stories in this video that touched me most was a story of this woman whose husband had passed.   Before she took off her wedding ring after the death, she had a ritual where she went to her church and in front of her family and friends, the pastor or priest (can't remember) asked her vows again just like when she first got married.  As opposed to "Do you promise to?..." it was all stated in the past tense, "Did you take your husband to have and to hold... for better or worse, in sickness and in health?" "Were you faithful until the end?" The ceremony marked the importance of her ring and the vows she had taken in marriage and evenmore represented vows that she had kept until the end.  She was able to see her marriage as a vow that she had done well and completed. When she took off her ring it was framed and hung with her husbands ring.   To me, that's just beautiful and something I hope to do imagining that Kevin will pass before me.  And don't worry, he is well aware and has stated that he prefers go first!

Working in senior care and in hospice really gets my mind thinking and I feel like I'm filled with deep insight often.  I had the fortune of attending an online class with the Erickson School of Aging last week about dementia care. WOW is all I can say.  Honestly I can pick up books and put them down in a heartbeat (I don't love reading), but the book The Silverado Story is definitely a MUST READ. It's about this man who started a memory care community that is different than anywhere else around.  At Silverado, they believe that even when someone has dementia, they are not children, but still human beings that we can connect with. They each have a spirit within them that is very capable and alive.  Life does not need to end after someone becomes cognitively impaired.   

I often feel like our society has totally disrespected not just memory impaired people, but also older adults in general. And in fact, we often ignore them and even worse, we treat them and think of them like children.  When you're a teenager and your parent treats you like a child, how does that make you feel? Imagine being older and having your adult child treat you like the child? What does that do to your worth? How would that make you feel?  The Silverado Story reminded me that people with cognitive issues can still be treated much better and we can expect more from them. They can ride bikes, ride on boats, cook and build things even with memory impairment.  I thank God for the opportunity to get to read this book for work and for the opportunity to take this exceptional course where one of the founders of Silverado Senior Living is teaching the class. How often do you read a really really good book and then get to take a class taught by the author himself?  Umm.. pretty much NEVER!!  Reading this entire book (including acknowledgements!) encouraged and reminded me that me that even when everyone else is doing things one way, it can be healthy and loving to go against the norm.  

Side note- in reading the acknowledgements I realized that the main author goes to Rick Warren's church. Pretty cool!