Dream Job

Guys, I finally figured out my dream job!!  I want to be an assistant photographer that helps a professional photographer capture the moment when a couple gets engaged!  Pretty specific, but I think this is the one.  Do you want to know how I even know this is a thing?  Because I got to do it on Friday afternoon and it was AWESOME!!!

There are just a couple caveats to my future employment in this field.  First, I can only work with Eagle 1 (Professional Photographers Super Secret Service Undercover Spy Name) because she is an awesome photographer and super fun to hang out with in the woods and now she is unfortunately aware of my shortcomings as an assistant.  Second, I can't be paid.  This might be a problem with making this my dream job, because I absolutely could not accept any form of payment. There is just too much pressure to get a good shot.  So, it really needs to be someone I know well.  Really well.  The kind of person who is a dear enough friend that if I forget to push the record button on the video camera because I am caught up in this once in a lifetime moment, they will forgive me.  Also, you can't mind if the video is full of someone muttering "Ahhh, Ohhh, Sweet" and making other baby kitten sounds because what is happening in front of them is so darn precious!  But other than that....PERFECT JOB FOR ME!

Let me tell you all about it!   On Thursday afternoon Martha called to see if I was available Friday afternoon to help Eagle 1 capture her son proposing to his sweet girlfriend!  She needed someone on video support!  Of course, I said YES, but seriously in the future I need more than 24 hours to prepare for an assignment this important!  I mean, I hardly had time to charge up all my camera equipment and figure out where I was supposed to show up.  Nevermind, that I did not have time to practice drive to the location, prepare a fun stakeout backpack with donuts, binoculars and other stakeout items.  I woke up six times Thursday night worried about rain, someone dropping the ring in the water, being spotted before the proposal started, not pressing the record button!  On second thought, maybe it was better that I only had one night to lose sleep before the big day!

Friday morning dawned and it was dreary and overcast.  I swear it has been raining and dreary here for 749 days straight. I was really hoping it would clear out so he could propose outside on the sweet little bridge where he had planned!  The drizzle and fog moved out just in the nick of time!!!

Eagle 1 and I (First Assistant - Eagle 2) met in the parking lot about an hour before the proposal time.  We FaceTimed with Mom (Eagle 3) and Dad (Eagle 4)....you can see this naming convention is not unique and thank goodness we didn't have anyone else in on this assignment or we would have to come up with something a little more creative!  We told the parental units that we had arrived at the location and were going in to set up!  It really felt like we were going undercover on assignment!

We scoped out the area near the bridge and found our hiding spot and started testing our equipment.  Wouldn't you know a park employee showed up and started cleaning filters on the very bridge where the proposal was going to take place.  We still had 45 minutes until proposal time, but we really wanted him to wrap it up and move on!  He worked quickly and was out of there with plenty of time to spare.  We had another close call with a family that was walking the trail and spent some time on the bridge.  We did not want to have to be the crazy ladies telling them to clear the bridge...but we were willing!  Thankfully, it did not come to that.

In addition to keeping the bridge clear, we tried out lots of places where we would put our multiple cameras and recording devices.

We hid them and moved them and re-hid them again.  Or maybe that was just me.

Can you see the camera?   

We were anxiously waiting on the text that they were headed our way! 

We found our spot to hide in the woods and cleared the path of rocks, debris, limbs and backpacks so we could be real quiet getting out of the woods.  We took pictures of each other because FUN! 

We also took pictures of our equipment!  We basically had a party while we waited.  We laughed, talked about Jesus, marriage, proposals, divorce, cancer, we covered it ALL.  

I might have even cried at some point, but no huge surprise there!  Poor Eagle 1.

AND THEN WE GOT THE TEXT AND IT GOT SERIOUS!!!!  

I was obviously, calm, cool and collected and didn't panic at all.  

No, that is a lie. 

I felt a little sick, had to pee, would have loved a Xanax or a drink or both!  

As our cover in case they glanced our way, I was pretending to photograph something super interesting in the woods while watching the sidewalk out of the side of my head.  Basically, I was trying to turn my eyeball all the way to the left so I could see out of my ear!  We knew we had to move quickly once their backs were to us so we could get in position!  Once my ear was able to pick up the lovebirds making the turn, I gave Eagle 1 the signal (and it was not a loud CAWCAW, although that would have been hilarious!) and she stealthy moved down to start taking photographs.  I was not quite as stealth as I tried to quickly move to my video camera. I had strategically stuck some rocks in the ground to mark exactly where to put my tripod so it would be perfectly aimed at the bridge and in my panic mode COULDN'T FIND THE DAMN ROCKS ANYWHERE!   

Ackkkk, I had to just hold the camera attached to the tripod and hope for the best!  

I did remember to turn it on!!! 

Then it was over!  There was hugging and joy and jumping and kissing and all the sweetness you can imagine!  Then he pointed us out to his new fiancee and she smiled and laughed and we made them take a ton more pictures to document this beautiful day! 

Then we joined their little engagement celebration!  It was so heartwarming to see how happy they were and the congratulations from their friends and families!

These two kids were so happy and excited to get engaged!  It was joyous!  

I was so happy to be part of it! 

I can't wait for the wedding!!!

Finally, from this honest retelling of my performance as an photographer's assistant, it is likely that this was my first and last opportunity to enjoy my dream job.  But now that you know what I am looking for, please keep me in mind if you think of anything else that is kinda spy related, super fun to do, a little stressful so you get all the benefits of an adrenaline rush and also let's you witness happiness and joy play out right in front of you!   Forward all job suggestions to me ASAP!  

Bang Recovery

Well, she did it!  Brenda somehow managed to work the disaster bang situation into a decent hair cut.  She asked that next time I take scissors to my own bangs to video it for her! 

Big piles of hair left behind on her floor. 

Plenty of hair still on my head!  

It is so short and I am so happy about it. 

I can go to bed, sleep eight hours, wake up and it will look exactly the same.  

Easy peasy! 

Also, during my outdoor hair photo shoot I got this picture that really shows my grey highlights. 

Maybe they will draw attention away from my wrinkled neck!   

Finally, my friend sent me this picture today and said "This had you written all over it!" 

Hilarious because it is true! 

Black Panther

Real quick!

Me and my Chip went to see the new Black Panther movie last night.  It was so great!  The women warriors were total bad asses!  We loved it.

I am getting my haircut today!  HOORAY!!!  Can't wait to see what Brenda can do with my self-trimmed fire damaged bangs.  Hopefully she can fix the mess I have made!   I am going back to a real short style, so hopefully she can just cut the rest to match the short bangs.  I keep thinking I would like to grow my hair out, but in my heart I really just don't.  I don't love the medium length straggling look that I am sporting now.  It makes me feel a mess and I don't like that feeling.  Too much work to make it look like it isn't any work!  Bring on the short, sassy hair that takes no time to dry or style!

Hope your Tuesday is terrific!

My Weekend and My Bladder

A few quick things I need to you to know about my weekend and my bladder:

• I had lunch with my friends Connie and Sheri at Honest Mary's on Saturday. Usually I like to try something new every time I go back to a restaurant, but the last salad I got at Honest Mary's was so good, I got the same exact salad again.  It did not disappoint.  So good.  Company was even better!  Long lunches with great conversation are a rare and wonderful treat. 

• I also have a serious love for Trader Joe's.  They have such cool vegetables and they have COOKIE BUTTER!  Had a blast cruising all the aisles with Sheri.  Thank goodness the place is kind of small or we would have been there all day. Here is my loot!  I already made scallops, used the potatoes, basil and ate the pomegranate seeds.  So fun to eat them without all the work of pulling them out of the pod! 

• One indication of getting old....you are walking to your car with your groceries and just about the time you are going to open the car door to get in, you have to pee.  Now, when you are old and the urge to pee hits you it means you should have found a bathroom 45 minutes ago.  There is exactly zero time between "Oh I think I need to pee" to standing with your legs crossed trying not to pee in the parking lot of Trader Joe's.  No time.  None.  So I spent a few minutes outside my car, practicing Kegel exercises, pretending to examine something really interesting in the back seat while Sheri laughed her face off.  Getting old is not for wimps. 

• Our local dog park is having some work done, so we have been checking out another dog park in the area.  This one is a bit of a drive and since TWDITW doesn't really love being in the car,  it is not a particularly pleasant drive.  Nevertheless, the park itself is LOVELY!  Thirteen acres of trees and grass and big tubs to jump in.  Coop and I have met Tibi and Lori a couple of times this weekend and it is great!  Can't wait to visit when the trees are full of leaves.

• A second indication of getting old....your friend says something so funny in the middle of the dog park and you laugh really hard and then freeze in panic.  Because, guess why?  You have to pee!  WHAT THE HECK!  Twice in one weekend I was frozen in place with a bladder that had I moved even a fraction of an inch would have emptied on the spot.  I swear.  Why are my friends so funny?  I am also so old that I don't even try to pretend it isn't happening.  I just make an announcement that I am going to have to stand locked in place until I can get control of my bladder and make haste towards a restroom.  It is the worst!  Of course, I am also laughing the whole time which doesn't help a bit. I am a joy to be around.  

• The Worst Dog In the World sleeps like a baby after frantically protesting for the twenty minute drive to the dog park, romping at the park for an hour and a half and then frantically protesting for the twenty minute drive home.  He hasn't moved.  This is when I love him most.

That is all for now!  I have to go get ready for a Broadway Play! Going to see School of Rock tonight!  Can't wait! 

The Rest of the Week

I had such great blog material yesterday after I nearly set myself on fire, that I didn't post about some other things from this week.  I don't want you to miss even a moment of the excitement around here, so here's what else has been going on:

• I had a sweet, sweet little dinner with my great neighbor Judy on Valentine's Day.  We had crab cakes and cheese and crackers and wine and cake!  We talked, we laughed...it was the best Valentine's date ever!  She is pretty awesome!  

• How about this salad I made?  Isn't it gorgeous?  I even made the tostones, which were amazing on a salad.  Pretty food for the win! 

• The pork shoulder that tried to kill me yesterday was delicious!  A little spicy and so, so tender!  I wrapped it up in tortillas with a little cheese for Chip.  For myself, I just piled it up on a bed of quinoa and black beans.  Leftovers went into the freezer for another day.  Thanks for the recipe Mary! 

• I tried to surprise Bob and Lana with a dozen heavily seasoned steamed crabs from Baltimore for Valentines!  Who needs roses?  Unfortunately, there was a delay with the shipment because the crabs that came in that day to the seafood company just weren't that great.  The company called and said they were going to hold off until they got better crabs so delivery would not happen on Valentine's Day.  I called to share the delay news with the parental unit and they were just ecstatic when I told them what was being delivered.  On Wednesday I got the news that delivery would happen on Friday.  Bob sent me this picture yesterday and said "Does it look like we are excited?"  They already have a newspaper covered table all set up with their crab eating tools a full 24 hours in advance!  What a bunch of nuts! 

On a much, much more serious note, the school shooting in Florida has my heart ripped open and my blood boiling.  I am so over children being shot in their classroom. What in the world?  Why is this a thing?  I have a kid that I drop off at school every day.  Can you imagine instead of getting a embarrassed call of "I forgot my lunch" that you get a call from a panicked child with gunfire in the background and they are calling to say their teacher is dead in the doorway and that they love you one more time? Can you imagine getting a call that instead of picking him up in the car line and hearing about his day that I have to wait at the morgue to identify his body?  Can you even imagine? The empathy thing I have is in full overdrive.  I am not smart enough to know what the answer is, but I am a mother and I know we have to do better than this.  I absolutely cannot stand by and wait for it to happen at my school before I get frantic about it. I can't wait for it to be my kid's body covered in blood in the middle of a school hallway before I freak the hell out.  So many parents are living this nightmare right now.  I do not want to be one of them.  I don't want my kid to ever have this kind of experience in his memory.  Already, they talk about it in school, what to do, where to hide if a gunman is loose on campus. I find that terrifying.  So, I have to get educated.  I have to find a fight to fight.  I have to find some smart people that have a plan. I am smart enough to know that no plan will solve the entire problem, but we have to do something. Anything.  Doing nothing is not working for me. 

PSA: Trimming Your Bangs with a Pork Shoulder

What a title that is, right?  A Public Service Announcement to address trimming your bangs with a pork shoulder.  Is there a typo in that title?  Why would anyone need a PSA about trimming their bangs?  HaHa!  Please consider the author of this announcement and the sad state of her bangs.  She could have used a PSA on that subject a couple of weeks ago. But trimming your bangs with a pork shoulder?  Did the author accidentally mix two separate PSAs together?

No.  She did not.

Let me tell you how you can give your bangs a quick little trim with a pork shoulder.

First, put a stainless steel pan on the stovetop and crank it up real high.

Drizzle in a tiny bit of oil just to keep things interesting and get a nice crisp sear on the meat.

Season the bejeeze out of a huge pork shoulder.  Make sure you get the seasoning on all sides.

Evaluate the size of the pork shoulder and the size of your pan.  Hmmm, is this pork shoulder too big for this pan?  It doesn't matter, because you already have put the oil in the pan and it is blazing hot and who wants to dirty another, bigger pan just to get a sear on a piece of meat?  Not me.  That is for dang sure.  Surely it will be fine.  Famous last words.

Heave the giant pork shoulder into the searing hot pan and step back and watch the smoke.  Woooo, that is hot, but it is going to be fantastic.

When you think the pork shoulder is caramelized enough on the first side, take a fork and a pair of tongs and try to rotate it a half turn.

WATCH OUT!   Here comes the warning!

Some pork fat may come out of the tiny pan or drip off the wad of meat and hit the gas flame causing a fire ball to shoot up into the air!

Pay attention....this is wear the bang trim comes in!

If you are just close enough to the wad of pork, and the jumping burst of flame, you can singe your bangs a little bit.  You can also think you are on fire and rip your shirt completely off your body and throw it in the kitchen floor, but maybe that is a separate PSA.

You might smell burning hair and quickly glance into the reflection in the microwave door just to make sure your hair isn't on fire.  It isn't, but the bangs unfortunately have been singed a little bit.  It is not horrible, but you will see a few curled up ends that come off like dust in your hand when you touch them.

It is not a good way to trim your already horrible bangs.

As a visual for this lesson, please see the photo below.  This pan is NOT big enough for this size of meat.  Do the hard work.  Dirty a bigger pan.  Save your bangs.  They are worth it.

You are welcome. 

Cooper's Valentine

Cooper and Tibi had a little Valentine's play date today. 

Let's flashback to when these two five month old pups started playing together.

Weren't they precious with their snarling lips and angry puppy teeth? 

They have played together a hundred times since that first play date and they still snarl their lips and show their angry teeth.  Sometimes they growl real angry at each other and try to to rip each others face off.  It is just darling...and also a little frightening. 

Today, we met at our local pool area because it has been raining and yucky lately and the dog park is a muddy pit.  

The pups don't seem to mind! 

Tibi brought TWDITW a little Valentine Cookie just for pups! 

Peanut butter, oatmeal and yogurt frosting.  Cooper loved it! 

While we were at the park, the pool guy came to clean the neighborhood pool.  He turned on the drain to run some water out and the dogs were in heaven.  Take a look at Tibi in water!  You have never seen a happier dog than this girl. 

I am so glad that she and Coop found each other and get along so well!  

It has been the biggest blessing to their mothers!

Hope you got to romp in a giant puddle with your sweetheart!  

Happy Valentine's Eve!

Me and my little (not really) Chip celebrated Valentine's Day a day early, since he normally goes to dinner with his Dad on Wednesday nights.  A special dinner complete with candles and decorations is a longstanding tradition that we did not want to miss, so Valentine's Eve it is! 

I had the table all set when he got home from school.  

On the menu...Sesame Chicken with Rice Noodles.  

It's a Chip favorite. 

It requires several steps and lots of dishes, but he is worth it! 

For dessert, I made the most delicious chocolate cake recipe from my friend Sheri.  It is called "Grandma Helen's Brownies", but it is really more like a sheet cake.  Regardless of whether it is brownies or a cake, it is scrumptious. 

Hearts are just festive!  

I put a little Valentine treat on Chip's plate.

He thought it was candy, but it was really some cold, hard cash.  

Nothing says I Love You like money.  

Treat yo' self! 

It was a sweet night! 

  💘    I hope you have a beautiful day today!    💘

Almost an Epilepsy Emergency

Yesterday, I dropped Chip off at his Young Men's Service League meeting and was hanging out in the hallway talking with some other mothers.  The speaker of the boys meeting came running out of the room and said "Does anyone know if one of these boys has epilepsy, someone is having a seizure."  I said "That's my kid!" and I BOLTED, DASHED, RAN AS FAST AS I HAVE EVER RAN into that room.  I was terrified of what I was going to find, but I knew I had to get there quickly.  All the other moms came running too.

I got in the room and all the boys were sitting in their chairs in a circle.  I immediately found Chip...locked eyes with him and knew he was okay.  We saw all the other kids sitting in their chairs and were trying to figure out what was happening.  We said "Who is hurt, who is sick?"  All the kids silently pointed at one boy who upon further inspection really looked ashen and pale.  He was very disoriented and was saying "What happened?  Was I on the floor?  I don't know what happened? Did I fall down?"  He was talking and moving which was a huge relief.  He said he did not have epilepsy.

Someone got on the phone with his mom and she said he had episodes of passing out before, but hadn't in a long time. She was on her way to get him.

We moved him to the floor and he laid down for a bit, and then a hospital administrator came by and gave him a quick look.  We got him a coke and some crackers and he ate and drank them and started to get his color back.

It was terrifying.

The kids mom texted me last night and thanked me and the other moms for looking out for him.  I told her Chip was an epileptic and I had been dreading the day this might happen to him.  She said that her son said I was awesome and helpful, so perhaps that meant I was ready for anything.  Thank you, Jesus.

Chip said he was glad I helped the kid but did mention my shirt raised up and my bare back was showing when I was crawling on the floor talking to the kid.  So, mental note...wear longer shirts when kids might pass out at future YMSL meetings.

I hope to goodness Chip's medication always works and I never have to run into a room where it is him that is having a seizure.  I think I could do it, but I might throw up and then cry my eyes flat out when it is over.

In other much more hilarious news.....

I talked to Harry this afternoon and he was filling me in on his weekend activities.  Harry and his boys had an intramural basketball game Sunday night.  They showed up and were warming up and the other team was nowhere to be found.  They were thinking it might be a forfeit.  At the last minute, the other team walked through the door and there were only four of them.  Harry's squad is seven strong.  They would definitely have an advantage if the other team had to play a man down for the whole game.

Turns out, being down a man was not a problem at all for this squad.  They beat Harry's team by 30 points.

I cracked up when he said that.  What in the world?  How?

Harry said the other team had one kid that was Steph Curry junior and was dropping threes like a pro.  He said "He wasn't even excited about. He just went to work.  It was humiliating."

Tonight is flag football.  CANNOT wait for that update!

Swedish Death Cleaning

Not sure how many sets of sheets and pillowcases are normal for a household, but I know without a doubt that I had WAY too many.  I cranked up the Swedish Death Cleaning mentality Saturday and did a HARD purge on the two main linen closets in my house.

I no longer have a twin bed anywhere in my house, so all of those sheets were out.  There were some sheets that were stained or ripped or just not comfy that I have been holding on to for some stupid reason.  Those were all purged.  I went through the pillowcases, blankets, old pillows, ripped up towels.   If I didn't use them or love them - they were out.  I had a pile of donations and a pile going straight to the trash!  It was magnificent!

I did not take a before picture, but I sure wish I had.  Here is the finished product.  I still have too many pillowcases, but they are small and I love them all, so they stay.  Purged my baskets and just kept my favorites.  Nothing on the floor where before it was cram packed with stuff.

The other linen closet looks just as glorious and even has two empty shelves!  Hooray!  

In other areas of the house, I thought I would share a couple pictures of Harry's room.  It is coming together.  Still need a few things, but I am happy with the way things are headed. 

Chip worked his "SlawEdit" magic on these pictures that we then had mounted on canvas.  Aren't they cool?  I sent Harry a picture and he loved them.

I still need a few things for the bed area - but even it looks pretty good and someone could definitely sleep here. 

Love this little pillow I found on Amazon.  Perfect for a Celtics/RedSox fan. 

                         

That is about it for the latest Saturday purging and projects around the house.  Hope your Saturday was productive!  

EEG Results are In

Happy Saturday.  It is early.  The house is quiet.  It looks rainy and cold outside, but inside I am cozy and warm in my big blue fleece robe and fuzzy slippers.  The coffee is hot and plentiful.  Chip is still snuggled upstairs in his bid.  Even TWDITW is still sleeping and not bothering me yet.  I relish mornings like this.

I am grateful for so much in my life, but I am supremely grateful for the good news at Chip's doctor's appointment yesterday. The results from his EEG a couple of weeks ago show the abnormalities in his brain are very infrequent.  I don't know what "very infrequent" means in terms of number of abnormalities per hour or per day, but in his past EEGs he was having many, many abnormalities every hour. Vast improvement.  The longest abnormality recorded with this recent EEG was 2 seconds.  The doctor said with those results Chip is not having seizures and the medication is at the correct dosage and doing its job.  Hooray!  Outside of an answer to my big prayer that one day the doctor can say, "It's a miracle! His brain activity is perfectly normal!" it was a pretty great report!

The doctor then stood up, looked at Chip and said this:  "Now, I am going to lecture you.  I am a parent and a doctor, so I need you to hear this loud and clear.  Your brain is doing 90% of the work to suppress this irregular activity in your brain and protect your body from having a seizure.  You MUST provide the other 10% of support that helps keep the lid on the pressure cooker of activity that is happening in your brain.  First, you absolutely MUST take your medication.  And don't get mad at your parents when they ask you if you have taken it.  It takes a team to manage a condition like this and it is not because they don't trust you, but because they care so much about you that they want you to take your medication.  Second, you absolutely MUST get plenty of rest.  Sleep deprivation is one of the worst ways you can weaken the strength of your brain and its ability to hold back a seizure.  You must rest to give your brain the support it needs.  Third, even a small amount of drugs and alcohol can affect your brain and weaken its ability to do what it has to do to hold back these seizures.  You might get lucky a time or two of missing your meds or staying up until 3 in the morning, but I promise it only takes one time where the lid blows off the pressure cooker and you have a seizure.  So, you do everything you can to support your brain and give yourself the best chance for success."

Do you love this guy, or what?

It is hard to hear this kind of warning because you don't want to believe the situation is so dire, but it will inspire you to do what you can to help yourself.  Also, really appreciate him telling Chip it is my job to ask if he took his meds and to go to bed!

Next up, we will get Chip moving forward on some driving lessons and get his driver's permit in hand so he can start practicing behind the wheel of a car!  Yikes!  Did I really want that?

In other news....

• My girl Beth is moving to a new neighborhood and I went out to see her new house this week.  It is gorgeous.  There will definitely be some wine consumed on that back patio!  So happy for her and can't wait to see the place with her lovely touch on it. 
• Work has been busy.  I got to work on a hard price analysis this week for a co-worker and it was challenging because MATH - but it felt good to stick my toe into proposal work for a minute.
• TWDITW bit me a couple two or three times this week.  Not through the skin and there was no blood, but it hurt.  Such a jerk face.  All of the incidents happened while I was sitting on the couch.  As soon as I sit down, he jumps up and lays next to me or on me and when I try to move him to get up or adjust his elbow so it isn't digging into my leg, he snaps.  I am not a super fast learner, but after this week his days of laying next to anyone on the couch are over.  I just want him to be as sweet at the end of the day as he is in the morning.  Mornings he is just darling and playful and sweet and cute.  Evenings, not so much.  
• I have several little projects to work on around the house on this rainy weekend.  Going to hang some new art and continue my Swedish death purge.  I am finding this process so dang satisfying! 
• I have not been juicing as much as I intended to, so I am going to try prepping some veggies so they are all clean, cut and ready to shove through the juicer.  I think veggies start losing some of their goodness once they are cut, but it is time consuming to do all that washing and cutting in the mornings.  I will forgo a little vegetable deterioration to remove any obstacle (excuse) to getting a green juice in my body every single day. 

That is all I have for this lovely Saturday morning!  I hope your weekend is excellent and you do something kind for yourself!

Bob's Birthday Weekend

This handsome fella turned 74 last weekend and I was in Alabama to help celebrate!  We visited, we cooked, we ate and we laughed a ton.  It was a quick 48 hour trip, but was such good medicine for my hard week.  I also got to spend some time at The Bad Farm and that was good for my soul.

I sure wish I could remember what we laughed so hard about over the weekend, because I am certain it was good blog material.  Unfortunately, the only specific things I recall are how Bob has genetically gifted me with his wrinkled up old neck.  Not the best trait he could have passed on to his daughter, but there is so much other good stuff he has gifted me with that I am going to let the neck thing slide.  ALSO - do not be staring at my neck the next time you see me.  It will be wrapped in a scarf until further notice!

Bob always does a photo album of our gatherings and this time was no exception.  However, he has apparently dropped his camera repeatedly or left it out in the rain because the picture quality leaves a lot to be desired.  His captions however are right on target.

Neck defects aside, I do vividly recall that we cooked 82 pieces of schnitzel for Bob's birthday lunch. There were twelve people in attendance.  What the heck were we thinking?  Left overs for days.  It was a delicious meal shared with my people and it doesn't get much better than that.

I came home from Alabama to a sick kid who stayed home from school for a few days with a case of the "I feel like crap."  He didn't ever run a fever, but he felt like he had been hit by a truck.  I sent him back to school yesterday and now it will be a mad scramble to do all the makeup work before the grading period ends tomorrow.  Send help.

This morning I am going to read with my little pumpkins at school and take in some Valentine's treats for their party next week.  I love an elementary school Valentine's party.

Have a terrific Thursday!  

Cracks of Sunshine

This has been a hard week for me.  I won't detail all the heartache, but bad news and sad news have been in abundance.  Mostly about stupid cancer.  Cancer is the biggest jerk. It has had me a bit down in the dumps.  My heart has a very big empathy component and even when things are not happening directly to me, I immediately try to imagine how it would feel to be in the shoes of the person diagnosed or the children and parents of those that are sick.  UGH!  The worst.  Sometimes I wish my heart could turn down the empathy about fifty notches. 

But in and amongst the bad and sad, there have been so many lovely cracks of sunshine breaking through the gloom.

I went to lunch with a friend to a beautiful little cafe. The cafe is called BiG and their mission is to provide an educational environment that creates meaningful jobs, builds a sense of belonging and validates dignity and respect for adults with disabilities.  I am all on board with that mission.  They had the cutest little gift shop and a greenhouse. And the food was terrific and the coffee was exceptional.  And the conversation with my sweet friend Jeanne was deep and tender and soulful and lifted my spirits immensely.  We both got teared up more than once and neither one of us cared a bit.  We also laughed a lot.  Bring on the Sunshine! 

My darling friend Lori dropped by the house with a plant for me.  A beautiful burst of live greenery for my office to put off good oxygen and remove toxins from the air and basically make my heart smile every time I see it. Bring on the Sunshine!

I went to a YMSL Mom's meeting this week and our activity was yoga.  I was dreading it. I have tried yoga before and it was hard.  I did not want to do it at all and told several of my friends I would be in the way back drinking wine.  But turns out, doing chair yoga in a room full of 50 women, especially next to some of your favorite people in the world is pretty excellent.  It was relaxing and fabulous and I LOVED it.  No handstands, no downward dog, no twisting yourself into a pretzel.  Just gentle stretching, lots of deep breathing and those two things together are pretty spectacular.  So, if there is a chair yoga class out there like that...SIGN ME UP!  In fact, I am really going to try to sign up.  Wanna join me?  Bring on the Sunshine! 

My sweet Chip and I had some hard conversations about hard things and although those kinds of talks can be exhausting and emotional, it was also a relief.  Speaking your feelings out loud instead of letting them stew inside is always challenging, but I think speaking them takes away some of their power and then maybe they don't seem so bad.  I love that kid.  He has the kindest, most tender big ol' heart.  A huge ray of Sunshine! 

I talked to Harry several times this week and a friend of mine works at UT in Austin and she is going to throw Harry's resume around a little bit to see if we can shake loose a first job for him.  When I called to ask him if he would consider UT or if it was too close to home, he said "Actually, the more time I spend away from family I realize that I really should do everything I can to get closer to the people I love."  My heart did a back flip and then a front somersault and a double back pike half twist.  If heart gymnastics were a thing, I would be in the Olympics.  Regardless of whether it works out or not, it was so nice to know that coming home doesn't make him scream and run in the opposite direction!  Magnificent ray of Sunshine! 

So lots of good and wonderful this week that made the gloom bearable.  Today, I am flying to Bama to spend Bob's birthday weekend with the family.  It will be a wonderful dose of love and laughter and just what I need. 

Have a spectacular weekend!  Snag all the sunshine you can!