Back to the Basics - Happy Thoughts

I've abandoned this blog for awhile and well, I quite miss it. Tired of doing spring cleaning pretty much all day, so in order to prepare for spring, which happens to be 8-9 months away, I thought I'd think happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts

- dance parties with beckah shae and my nieces + nephews
- fresh handpicked blueberries
- finding an old CD you used to listen to all the time (Today I found Delirious)
- After a struggle and having to force myself out the door, running 10 miles.  The possibilities of how far you can run by foot and the freedom when you realize you can run out of your neighborhood.
- being up when noone else is
- the beach not in the summer, cool breeze, empty beaches, peace and quiet and waves
- sleeping in
- a clean carpet that you put your whole face on
- clean sheets for bedtime with cool temperatures inhouse
- Knowing that while life is confusing, direction comes from the Lord my Maker.  He loves me and is better than everything else.

The Story of My Ring

I've been neglecting my TRUE blog followers over the past two weeks.  It sure is hard and time consuming to blog all the time I tell you.

Well how have you all been? (as if you could answer)

It's been a hard weekend.  Sunday was seven months since Yeye passed away and then on Saturday I lost my ring, yes both engagement and wedding band.  I was searching for it on Saturday and then all day at church on Sunday, I was pretty much moping around thinking how sad it would make me to have only been married for less than two years and not having a ring for the next 30+ years of marriage.  Kevin could buy me another replacement if I didn't find it RIGHT?  Um... judging that this is the second time I've lost the diamond, I don't think I would let him buy me another one.  But then I was thinking that if I didn't find it, every time someone got engaged or anytime I saw someone with a ring, I'd just be staring at it and then it'd make me mope again.

Best piece of advice?  Of course, from Mama.  "If you lose it, you lose it."  She said it is the heart that really matters. So I convinced myself that yes, I would rather have my marriage than the ring.  For real, I would.  But I want my ring too!

Best source of comfort?  A sermon on Sunday where I learned that "Jesus wept" after seeing Mary's brokenness.  My lesson was not to get mad at God, after all, it was my fault, but to be broken before him and beg him to help me find it. =)

Best verse? I know this is slightly or very superstitious but sometimes I "feel" like bad things happen because God wants me to read my bible. And so I picked up that NIV and found the perfect verse for me... Psalm 34:18..."The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Of course, by now, you already know that I have FOUND the ring. And I've learned that you never find things when you actually look for them. They just decide to show up.  Yay! celebration!

CARDS!

A college friend, Sooz, visited me a few weeks ago and aside from introducing her to yogiberry and some tasty Chinese cuisine, we also made cards. How could my day have gotten better?

If you know me, I love paper and color and there is nothing more satisfying then making a mess with paper, scissors and glue.  In honor of the cards being given to mothers across the globe, Happy Mothers Day. Cards GALORE!

Wanna see my mother's day card? If you can keep a secret, one of the cards above is being reserved for tomorrow.  

Where's Waldo - My husband's latest prank

I have to say that life married to my husband is never boring.  He's a prankster and it makes me laugh.  Yes, we have a lot of fun together.

This past weekend, Julia and Jonathan and my grandma came over for a day of fun at their Auntie Bel and Uncle Kevin's and I'm not sure who had more fun, them or us!  

We played Chutes and Ladders (Julia won), then Kevin made up this game where you toss my old jewelry into a hole, we read books, ate popsicles, and then we made cards with Bel's scrapbooking stuff and then... well that's when we were going to go to the park. The only problem is we couldn't find Kevin!  Now you'd think that being much older than a 3 and 6 years old, I would have been able to find Kevin, but think again.

We went in our bedroom, jumped on the bed, looked in the closet, went in the bathroom and I was sure that he was in the tub.... nope! We looked in the hall closet.  If you've ever come into my house, it's only a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, so really there aren't many places to hide. 

15 minutes after my husband hid, look where we found him!  If you've ever been in my house, I swear you would have been fooled too.   

Can't figure it out? Check out the second pictures. A classic where's waldo! These cardboard cutouts are from our wedding and have been next to our kitchen table for the past year and a half.  Not only have they scared neighbors and visitors when they come in, we put them to good use and scare each other=). 

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!