Surprises, Surprises, the Week of Surprises

It was an early Saturday morning and all was still in the sack. Maybe I should have just went back to take a nap.  Whatever, it rhymes or something like that.  It is 6 AM on a Saturday.  Here I am awake for no reason.  No better of time to get the blog post wrapped up.  You know the one that should have been done yesterday.   Anywho, ha.

First up, let's discuss Cream of Wheat.   In my little world of feeling funky last week and wanting nothing to do with my normal morning yogurt, I decided to try cream of wheat.  Amazing.  People are absolutely floored that I have never had this before.  Nope, sorry people.  Parents failed to indulge us with cream of wheat.  They will hear about it at some point.  Passed along some to the little bro, who has also been neglected of the cream of wheat goodness for his enitre life. 

 

And remember when we got on board with the whole technology thing and finally upgraded to smart phones.  Think the hubbie appreciates them just a little bit more since I discovered that whole picture in picture feature.

 

Oh yeah check the hat. Nothing better than some little ear flaps on a freezing cold evening.  We are off to the little bro's to visit.....



The TURTLES!!

 

Honestly, as you recall in the post where we talked about the turtle discovery was many, many moons ago.  We have been on turtle watch forever.   Once the little bro had some downtime, he decided to clean out the nest area.  As he started moving the dirt and some of the eggs, he noticed something moving.  There was a bet on the number of eggs that were in the nest, hence why it was done so gently. The number was 48 by the way.  Some of the eggs did hatch!  Those poor little guys or ladies were on the bottom of the pile and just couldn't get out.  Speaking of guys or ladies, how do you tell? Should we lift their little tails and find out?  Hhhmmm.  Anyways. Let's just enjoy some new baby turtle pictures.

Now these little ones above are/were in need of a little TLC before determining whether or not they would make it.  Update as of today, one of the three has moved to the bucket with the other little ones.

 

Then later in the week it happened. I got the(a) phone call from the hubbie.  Dawn Marie what did you do?!? A few more words not to be mentioned here.   This whole time I am suddenly doing this major mental check of seriously what could I have done.  No flippin idea.  Finally he spits it out.  The packages are up to my weiner. OH my goodness.  I know I was kind of stressed during the week.  When I get stressed I do enjoy shopping (obvious) more than usual. Really how bad could it have been. Did I manage to forget truly how much I shopped that week.  Well here is the picture he graced me with.

 

 

Pardon the jack russel photo bomb.   Now when I saw this, I had a serious mental check of what the heck I could have ordered that was in such a large box.   But whatever, by the time I got done unwrapping and opening this glorious stack it looked and felt like Christmas morning.

 

Now how rude would it be if I didn't take you on a venture of what was actually in these boxes.

First there was a Target moment....check out this squirrel.

He just looks all evil.  Like he is plotting some sort of little plan.  Grab your evil squirrel here:  Squirrel

Now he may live with kind of weird owl on my shelf. Maybe they can come together to collaberate an awesomely evil way to take over the world.

And I managed to find some of these awesome sweater leggings.

 

One of the boxes was from mac just some eyeshadow I was out of.  And a box for my shoe obsessed teenager.  Tha would be the boy, Forest.  He pulled out every angle/cash to get Nike Chicago Marathon shoes.

 

According to the views on the website, they glow in the dark.  To date: his have not.

Chicago skyline is in one shoe and the marathon date is in the other.

 

Yes, my teenage boy is obsessed with shoes.  Think these are the bomb, you can find them here:  Nike LunarGlide

 

And last....finally not least was a package from my parents.  Ha ha Ha hubbie that super huge box was not something I ordered.  Here are all the glorious things they sent.

They stopped at a pistachio farm on their way to Arizona.  And I have to say I was absolutely amazed by the packaging of the wine bottle.  Seriously think that to be a packaging designer you need to be a genius.

 

And of course the week would not be complete with out a visit from the little bro and two of the most adorable boys on the planet.   Who just happened to get some new hats.

And yes you are seeing it correctly, the gloves are still attached to the hats. Guess that is one way to ensure they never get lost. Dorkos.  Then there are just those everyday moments caught on camera which are the most precious of all.

 Thats a whole lot of love there, my peeps.

 

Now you...

make sure you stop back at Life in the Sack for more of our moments, per the Moo.

 

xoxo,  Dawn Marie

 

ps...more love on the way soon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Thankful Project

Today I am linking up with Chasing Happy on the Thankful Project. From Chasing Happy: "The Thankful Project will be 28 days of intentional gratitude and community. Each day, we'll write a post in response to a gratitude prompt".

Apologize everyone that I am so behind on this.  Since this is the thankful project, I am thankful that my life is full.  Enjoy.

November 5th A talent I have: Until about 4 or 5 years ago, I never even realized I had this talent. The talent is running.  Very thankful it provided mommie and me time for my son and I, fired up my competetive nature, provided stress relief, showed me the amount of determination I had deep down, and most of all it makes me feel awesome.

November 6th a failure:  Old relationships.  Without my failure at those relationships, I would not be where I am today.  Not have the drive ambition and attitude I do today. Nor would I have my hubbie.  Very thankful for those past failures in my relationships.  They helped me grow as a person.

November 7th a job: Crazy, but I am thankful for the job(s) I have had at my current company.  Been here for an amazing 16 years.  I have grown and learned here. It makes me thankful for all the people who have tolerated/taught me along the way.

November 8th words:  Words that I am most thankful for to this day.  If you don't love him or are unsure, don't marry him just because of the baby.  The greatest words I heard. Obivous that whole relationship didn't work.  Today though, aside from the rough patches Forest's dad and I have a pretty good working relationship.  Doing what is right for him.

November 9th a photo: This holds a huge place in my heart.

Hard to see in this version. My mother was looking over at her mother holding her first great grandbaby with such a joy.  This moment I am thankful and will always cherish.

November 10th a memory:  The memory I am most thankful for is actually rather silly.  Most people would say the birth of their child, you know the first time they looked into their eyes.  Now that moment I will of course be thankkful for my entire life.  Another memory I am thankful for, would be of my grandfather.  When I was a little girl, I would sit on the arm of the recliner with him.  We would watch the birds at the window.  I recall placing my hand on his and running my finger over the little ridges he had on his fingernails.  One day as I looked at my own fingernails, I realized tthey had the same little ridges.  Maybe everyone has them, but I still love remembering sitting with him watching the birds at the window.  That would just be one of the memories I am thankful for.

November 11th something you were taught:  This one is very simple.  Hardwork.  I am very thankful my parents taught me to work hard.  I have gotten where I am and became who I am because they taught me hard work.

November 12th an opportunity:  The opportunity I am most thankful for is that my body allows me to get up everyday.  Really you never know when it is your time, so love the moment.

November 13th an ability: It took my friend making a comment to me one day for me to realize this ability.  The comment was:  "you will never here say that she can't".  My ability to look out and beyond to get things accomplished and push thru.  That is what I am tahnkful for.  If there is a will, there always is a way.  It is just how you accomplish it.

With all this thankfulness going on, this very greatful girl is going to head out of here for the day.

Thank you for visiting my blog and please stop back, xoxo   Dawn Marie

Just Kill it Already

Yep, let's just kill it already. Hit the switch and move on.  For some reason looking back this weekend had an eerie theme going on. Let's just take a look now shall we.

Friday evening we decided on a movie. Thanks Redbox for the wonderful suggestions you place in my inbox.  Movie of the night:  The Purge



Beleive it or not, I think it actually had a nice little life lesson built into the chaos. Here it is: Helping someone less fortunate may help you in the long run.

Saturday = New phones.  We have finally moved out of the stoneage and have smart phones.  Oh my goodness are these things huge (yeah that's what she said).  Not sure if we are going thru growing pains or if these will survive.

See what I mean people. Huge, gnormous, like the size of my head.

 

Teenager also had a fun purchase this weekend while with his daddie.  New basketball shoes.  If for some reason I forgot to mention, he loves LeBron James.

We swear that these boys are ten times worse with their shoes then girls at times.

 

After picking up the phones and doing some very unneeded shopping. Yeah I said unneeeded. Well maybe not really, after all I did pick up a furnace filter, a new house calendar, stabucks (win) and some Noodles & Co. for dinner (2nd win).

Red cups are out (argh, too soon people) and they still had my fave salted carmel mocha, bonus.

Later it was family game night and then a movie. Little bro and the new gf (girlfriend) were joining us for an intense game of clue and some dinner.  Needless to say I was the first one to attempt this whole guess who done it.  Why? Could  have very much been attributed to the fact that I was very thritsy. The wine was almost gone...say what?!? 3/4 quarters of a bottle all on my own. Whoops.  I think they changed the cards in the little envelope on me without looking.  I could have swore I had it.  At some moments there is just too much thinking going on in that game.  Little bro's new gf won the game.  We will just go with the fact that we let her win since it was the first time she came for family game night.  

And I subjected my little bro and her to a little corruption with a Rob Zombie movie, House of 1,000 Corpses. Now if that didn't freak her out not sure if anything else will. Hey it is still kind of close to Halloween and the little brother never saw that movie.

Sunday...I felt like dog poo again. And this time I know it was definetly not the wine. By any means. Wine hangovers have a distinction about them.  This was just the darn cold that my ubberly cute nephew decided to give me rearing it's ugly head yet again.  I even took a nap (again) on Sunday (I never nap). Then desperation hit Sunday afternoon and I was done.  Like seriously done with this whole being sick thing.  Modern medicine was doing nothing for me people, nothing.  It was time to go old school style.  Liquor store run for the necessities.   Grandma's concotions - brandy hot water honey and lemon.   And another one of a shot of blackberry brandy.  Well since I didn't want to take any chances I did both home remedies.  The brandy hot water thing I enjoyed sipping while the hubbie had a fire outside.  See fresh air too.  Sure to cure it.  Just in case it didn't work....I did what I consider the unthinkable and broke down and got one of those nettie pot things.  That is the weirdest, most disgusting things ever.  Just let me say if it works I am so doing it again. Couple shots of blackberry brandy too for extra measure just before bed.  Sad to say...woke up Monday still feeling like ick.  Broke down and called the doctor.  Last resort. Appointment is today, so basically I should be fine by then. Isn't that how it works.

Now of course while I was being sick.  The hubbie was diligently working outside.  Seriously people I think we have the biggest leaf pile in the city. And the trees still have leaves on them yet.

 

And there we have another weekend buried in the books.

 

xoxo, Dawn Marie

 

 

Linking Up with:

The Thankful Project - Day 4 Catching Up

Today I am linking up with Chasing Happy on the Thankful Project. From Chasing Happy: "The Thankful Project will be 28 days of intentional gratitude and community. Each day, we'll write a post in response to a gratitude prompt".

Day 4's prompt is "an experience".  Now this could be a rather morbid experience that I had but it was eye opening.  Eye opening in the fact that it gave me a new outlook in my life.  That you never know when your story will end, how, when or where. 

Sit back my little pretties for a story.  It seemed to be a normal Saturday.  I am up early while everyone else was sleeping.  Sit down at the computer for the cup of coffee, email and cyber world check.   Feel an excrutiating headache come on.  I suffer from migraines.  So no big deal, right.  Get up take some meds, sit back down.  Headache just doesn't want to go away.   Then my right hand goes numb.   Curse myself and think goodness I have been sitting here way to long.  Medicine just didn't seem to be working. Decide it is time to go lay down.

Attempt to go to my bedroom.  Realize that I just can't manage to get walking down.  Decided to crawl to my bed.  Think my son saw me go past his room when he was waking.  My boyfriend at the time woke up.  My son comes in to see if I am ok.   Tell him I am fine, just a migraine monster, and could you get me a cold rag.  Wait, wait, and where is my rag.  Yell to Forest.  Right next to me he says ever so calmly, "It's in your hand mom". I shed a tear and tell them to take me to the hospital. I knew I wasn't right, I knew I was dying.

At the hospital, I am taken into a room, IV in and doctors around.  I have to sign the paperwork for admittance.  No one person would recognize that as my signature.  They had to tell me there was a pen in my hand. Some point I am taken to what I believe (and later learn) was an MRI.  Remember someone, maybe even myself, moving me from or to a table.  Back to the room at a point. Open my eyes to see my boyfriend talking to a doctor.  He is explaining that I get migraines.  I try to say something, nothing comes out of my mouth.  I just wanted to shout "no it is not a migraine, it is somethign else, I think I am dying, help me".  I see my son standing there.  My light, my love, and my reason for living. 

Must have drifted off to sleep. Wake to find the room darkened and no one.  I was scared. What happened.  Is this real, why is no one here. Push the button for the nurse. Thankfully someone came. And my son was there. Shortly afterwards, I was sent home.  I apologized for yelling and told him how much I loved him.  

The outcome/conclusion of this day was I had a stroke. The result of the stroke was a permanent partial loss of my vision.  They never determined why it happened but it did. Sometimes I try to remember what it is like to be able to see everywhere.  Not getting frustrated when you run into things or even someone.  I am grateful I survived. And will not take that for granted.

I am thankful for this event for everything it taught me.  You never know when your time is up. Appreciate your life and live it.  Always be mindful of what you say, those maybe your last words. Never give up.  Find the beauty and most of all love.

xoxo, Dawn Marie

 

Boys, Boys, Boys

This weekend was all about the boys.  Which when I am basically outnumbered by boys on a regular basis is truly no surprise.   Wouldn't have it any other way though.

Friday after school the hubbie helped me out tremendously and took the Forest job hunting.  Now not saying that I am old or anything, but this whole concept of walking into a place and just being told to apply online....what ?!?  Here we are filling out an application for his job choice number uno...McDonalds.   I do have to say that rather surprised me.  Of course, if there is the possibility of free french fries and hamburgers for the impossible to feed teenage boy, I am completely on board.  And let's not forget the possiblity of him bringing his mommie those delicious warm apple pies (hint, Hint)

 

Then there was Chuck.  Chuck equals no explanation.  He is just kind of freaky cute adorable.

 

Satruday morning, in doing some shopping with the teenager.  Came across this glorious find.  Tra La La...my gum.  Thank you Shopko.  I bought every pack they had in the check out line I was in.  With the issues I have had finding this seriously contemplated checking other aisles.  This is my go to gum for running.

Then Saturday evening happened....and here is our start of Movember picture of the boys.  As of today, Forest and Robyn are in.  Nice photo bomb their hubbie, real nice.  Believe he will be participating just after his conference this week.

Now I have to say the whole rumor thing or whatever about the girl no shave November going on is well freaky.  Don't shave your legs and underarms for a month.  Say What?!?   This girl would freak out.

Now after getting the documentation in order.  Time for big boy sleepover.  Yay.  We had homemade pizza.  Oh yes little bro, like mom used to make. 

 

 And Auntie Dawn even got everyone matching Spider Man since we would be watching Spiderman that evening. 

 Of course we couldn't get the teenager to play along with spiderman dress up. And yep, you are seeing that correctly, we completely mixed up the pj's.  Taking cool to a whole new level.

 

 Sunday breakfast was donuts.  Those things were as big as their heads.

 

 And here we have the Moo, properly demostrating how to eat a donut.  Take notes.  Not everyone can pull it off with this much class and grace.

Then it was a little train time before Dad showed.  Transporting various little animals and my washi tape to the drop offs.

 

Sunday evening was spent attending the cross country banquet.  Once again I sit here and can not say enough about how awesome of a group these kids are.  They have amazing coaches.  Sadly one will be leaving for another job.

 

One of the points of the evening was when the coach stated at every meet they have a thank you crew.  This crew is responsible for thanking the event organizers for putting the event together. Teaching appreciation and thankfulness.  Awesome.  Another item worth mentioning is the continous mention of the kids going back to the finish to cheer on the other runners from their team.  I am so grateful that they have such wonderful coaches teaching them valuable life lessons. 

 

Other highlights of the evening.  The coaches ask the teammates to write something brief about each of their teammates.  Here is what they had to say about Forest:  "Great Runner. Very Helpful. Cute. A leader. You're a cutie. Awesome. You always cheer and work hard. You make people laugh. Easy to get along with. Funny. You are nice. Toughest - even with the bad knee." 

 

 And we ended the evening with Forest getting his second Varsity letter for Cross Country. As you can see below.  He is also sporting a t-shirt of where he thinks he would like to go to school.  The smug grin is because he knows mommie is just ok with the choice.  What he does forget that if that is his choice come any point of celebration by us adults in the city, we are crashing at his pad. Boom, how you like that Forest.

Another fun mention.  At each cross country meet they are given a quote to tuck in their shoes for good luck and keep them going.  Here are some to hopefully inspire you:

• Whose hero will you be
• When is the last time you heard a hero make excuses?
• Your mind will quit 100 times before your body ever does. Feel the pain and do it anyway.
• You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. - Henry Ford
• Reaching my goal doesn't prove what I'm made of. Not quitting does.
• You can never guarantee the wins, but you can guarantee that you gave 100%
• The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you.
• The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painfull is the man who will win.
• There are only two options regarding commitment: you're either in or you're out
• There may be people that have more talent that you but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you
• The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

And with all that warm fuzzy motivation being said...the closing photo of the post.  Photobombers.

 

xoxo, Dawn Marie