This is such a wonderful thing to hear about. Since it's from this area, do any of you know who she is referring to? I understand her desire to thank these people when she's a little more on top of things.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
July 31, 2014 at 09:58AM
The guys at work obviously love Michael. When he went in to work this morning his office was full above head level with black balloons in honor of turning 40 yesterday. 800 black balloons!!! Fortunately (and secretly on purpose) we came to work with him this morning, so Liz and Nina helped pop then all. Totally epic. This is a pic of a few of the corpses here. The best pics are on my camera, though. via Instagram http://ift.tt/1rMjAw7
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
July 29, 2014 at 01:07PM
15 years ago tonight I went on a fancy date with my boyfriend and came home engaged to him! Happy "so I was wondering..." / "yeah" Day, Michael! via Facebook
July 29, 2014 at 12:53PM
Amazing thunder storm going on right now. Very few major bangs, but the rumbling just keeps going! They have overlapped so effectively that the rolling thunder sounds have been going on for minutes at a time! I haven't seen visible lightning from where I'm sitting so far, but that's not too surprising during the day. At the same time -- I'm hoping Kate gets a chance to do all the fun things that have been planned for them! I checked out the weather forecast where she is and it's supposed to storm on and off all week. Bummer. via Facebook
Thursday, July 24, 2014
July 24, 2014 at 05:12PM
In preparation for this morning's run I had all the girls show me their shoes, socks, shorts, and tee shirts last night. That way we could sleep in a little longer and still be in plenty of time. Unfortunately we had a brain sputter and neglected to check Sabrina's shoes. Naturally this morning she couldn't find any shoes anywhere. Including the new tennis shoes we bought just a week or two ago. So we started madly searching through her room / closet / laundry. We found about 10 shoes. All for the right foot. So the morning was significantly more stressful than it should have been. And that was just the beginning! After finally finding a pair of decently fitting shoes (one for each foot) we were going to be late picking up Grandma and a cousin to drop them off at the starting line together, so I sent a quick text. I used voice > text while making sure everything was in the car. I didn't properly check the text before sending it and managed a legitimately blushifying oopsie. Yup. To my mother. So now we had the shoe catastrophe, no time for some prep we were going to do, got out the door late, and I'd embarrassed myself. Then I topped it all off by locking my purse (with the keys) in the van when I got to the finish line where I'd wait for the others. It is actually really hard to lock the keys in the van; but trust me, I had specially skills this morning to get things going "just so". Oh, and I picked up some breakfast on my way to the start line, got in two bites, then locked it in the van too. I am fabulous. By the time the girls all made it to the finish line of their 5k I felt like I'd managed one of my own in a very different way. Phew!!! via Facebook
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
July 23, 2014 at 03:34PM
Weeding through a large batch of pictures (many of which are similar) feels like a several hour long eye exam "which one looks better? This one? or this one? a? or b? a? or b? ....a? ....b?" gah!!!!!! And by the end I'm still sure I'm going blind. via Facebook
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
July 22, 2014 at 05:06PM Can We Guess Who You Are in Only 20 Questions?
1. You are female. 2. You are currently in your twenties, you are single, dating at nights and balancing a promising career during the day. 3. You are smart, calculated, funny and imaginative. 4. You have black hair, dark eyes a cute nose. 5. You own a pet. They're totally right! I'm female AND I own at least one pet. Otherwise.... well, I'd like to think 3 is pretty accurate. I can only guess my choice of meal, preferred decade (who the heck cares?!), and lack of drunkenness affected my age.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
July 17, 2014 at 09:01PM
Kate's birthday dinner request: porcupine meatballs and grilled pineapple. We threw in a can of green beans because it makes us feel virtuous. Thankfully we discovered tonight that there was a kink in the hose to the propane tank so the grill wouldn't heat past 250*; we are feeding a horde from the grill on Saturday. I'd much rather figure that out today than then! Once we got things working, though, it was absolutely delicious. Excellent choices. via Facebook
July 17, 2014 at 10:21AM
Happy 12th birthday to my bright, lovely "daisy", Kate. I'm so glad she is part of our family! via Facebook
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 at 11:02PM
Recently had an enlightening conversation with one of the girls: We had seen some port-a-potties and she was talking about how they're not nearly as good as regular bathrooms, especially since the sink in there doesn't even work and there's no soap. Thankfully we verified that she had never tried to manipulate the "sink" in any way. 'Cause that's NOT a sink. . via Facebook
July 16, 2014 at 09:02PM
Oh the joy of a blackout. It's funny to seed how often the girls (and admittedly us as well) keep reaching for something electronically powered! via Facebook
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
July 11, 2014 at 10:00PM
Today was record breaking. I had an unaccountable spurt of energy (perhaps due to finally getting rid of a recent nasty infection? No idea. Wish I knew so I could make it happen again!) and I used it to keep working on the kitchen. The kitchen is the one room in the house that is left to me to manage. Which means it has been in really sad shape for quite a while. I work on it as much as possible as often as possible, but it has been driving me crazy. For a very long time. This week I finally got some serious work done. With an ineffective dishwasher, aka the very large dish drainer, it takes more time and energy to hand wash everything. But I DID IT! Today I finally got all the counter tops completely cleared all the way to the edges with nothing leftover at all!!! No, I've never been a big fan of cleaning the kitchen, but for a few years things have been consistently decent, until things got really bad for me physically. The last year has been exceptionally difficult. I've even had to give up showering. Okay, I can often half-shower, but cannot even wash my own hair. I can bathe, but still require help even getting in and out of the tub. While it sounds lovely when one has choices, to park in the handicap parking spots, ride the motorized shopping carts, let someone else wash your hair, have someone else fetch and carry everything for you, etc. etc., the reality is not something you'd much enjoy for long, I promise you. Try doing the shopping for the next couple of weeks with only that tiny basket attached to the putt-putt (what we call the motorized carts), where you cannot reach many items, cannot always navigate aisles, and have to either kill yourself (not quite literally) with the pain by walking to just get a couple of items, or turn around and leave when the store has no putt-putts available. Humbling indeed; and sometimes more than a little humiliating. For example, we needed to do shopping at Home Depot and their one putt-putt was dead I had to sit in a wheel chair and let my daughters push me around. As a 34 year old healthy-*looking* individual that is still hard to swallow. Or any of a hundred other things I've learned to not take for granted. Tying shoes? Painting your own toenails? Rolling over in bed? Running upstairs to grab something you forgot? Running "just really quick" anywhere? Sitting for longer than a few minutes on a bad chair? Sitting for longer than an hour or two on a good chair? Weeding the garden? Picking produce from the garden? Opening a jar? Brushing out your own hair? Choosing clothes based on style rather than comfort? etc. etc. Don't get me wrong, I know I am incredibly blessed. I know there are all too many people who live in a situation like mine, or even more difficult, and don't have the support and willing help that I have. The fact that I can decide to sit in the stupid wheelchair and know that my kids and / or husband will push it without complaint makes my life fabulous. The fact that my husband will learn how to wash this huge mass of hair and that my daughters happily paint my toenails every single color imaginable (at the same time, of course!) is amazing. The fact that my doctors trust and believe me and do everything possible to give me every freedom available to me is wonderful. The fact that I have many family members and friends who have put an effort in to understanding my life, accepting when I have to cancel or change plans all too often, and try to be aware of what allowances I may need to be have made for me is incredible. All of which is my way of expression how very excited and proud of myself I am for doing this thing today. It may sound pitiful or gross to you, but I'm thrilled that after months of effort and irritation over this project I have succeeded. I DID IT! It was my own Everest, and it may have taken me months but I won. Yes, I realize that dirty dishes will continue to happen. Let's just not talk about that tonight, 'kay? And please, use a disposable cup ;) via Facebook
Thursday, July 10, 2014
July 10, 2014 at 07:01PM
Kate came up with this for a friend's birthday party tomorrow. She says "sorry, I could only get you a card". That's why it required a huge envelope. via Facebook
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
July 08, 2014 at 12:23PM See It First! Colbie Caillat Premieres Self-Acceptance Anthem, 'Try'
Ignore the picture and headline below (the picture doesn't fit the message, and the headline is so full of feel-good words it would automatically make me skip this). The video linked, though, is fantastic. I just watched it with my girls. Beautiful message to not have to try so hard only to please others while making yourself miserable in the process.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
July 05, 2014 at 12:34PM My husband is 100% Awesome. How awesome is your husband? Take the quiz!.
Yeah, I knew that. Good on ya, Michael Southern :) I like you!
Friday, July 4, 2014
July 04, 2014 at 10:49PM
You can't really see fireworks in this shot (being a fast handheld shot from a cell phone) but you can probably imagine all the aerials from this vista! via Instagram http://ift.tt/1xuDqzm
July 04, 2014 at 10:47PM
Our favorite place to watch fireworks away from crowds, no more nose than fairly gentle pop-pops, thousands of fireworks to see, and no hiking required :-) also, about 2 minutes from home. via Instagram http://ift.tt/1xuDpLS
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
July 02, 2014 at 02:05PM
Last night Kate made us tacos for dinner. We had a whole bunch of shells and I knew we'd likely use them all, but sometimes someone who doesn't like many vegetables (no names named, naturally) puts a lot more meat in them than the other people do, so we run out too soon. I was remembering something I saw a glimpse of online once and thought I'd give it a try. So I put the shells in a pan and filled them equally with the meat/bean/seasoning mixture, added the shredded cheese, then put them under the broiler. So we ended up with plenty of meat mixture for all the shells, the shells were extra toasty, the cheese was melted, and NONE of the shell bottoms split while eating them! Adding the bit of heat and moisture from the meat mixture softened the bottom "hinge" part just enough to prevent cracking!!! Definitely will use that trick again! It made for a delicious "Taco Tuesday". via Facebook
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
July 01, 2014 at 09:29PM
Our very own Princess Uni-Kitty! (But without the uni part...) via Instagram http://ift.tt/1z6wFWb
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