High Five Friday

We had a parent meeting for Makayla's hockey team last night and I completely spaced off writing my High Fives when we got back home...so needless to say this will be a quick one and no pictures.

1. Made carpool arrangements with Justin and fellow teammates for a 5:50AM pick-up and us bringing them home at 8:10AM.  Nothing like friends helping each other out to make work schedules work!
2. Received the Holiday cookie cookbook I ordered on Tuesday, let the baking begin! (I'll share recipes for those that turn out well)
3. I compared the listing of the weekend hockey games for both the kid's teams through March and it looks like this year we will not be apart every weekend, but rather the games for the most part have ligned up where we are in town or even in the same away town and able to see BOTH kids play.  Double high-five here baby!
4. Got word last night that my aunt and uncle from South Dakota (formally Washington) will be with us this year for Thanksgiving.  I'll add a whoop-whoop here!
5. Got the kids report cards yesterday and I see an A' honor roll and a B' honor roll!  Way to go kiddos!!

Have a FABULOUS (warm) weekend everyone,

and thanks for checking in!

thankful for you

With Thanksgiving seemingly right around the corner, I think we all have been seeing the array of Facebook posts on daily reminders of what each person is thankful for.  Because of these, it has brought some warm fuzzies reading how happy and thankful everyone seems to be and I am thankful for how lucky I am well as all of you.

But then images go through my mind of those that are not so lucky, happy or as thankful.

Not so long ago we witnessed an elderly man sleeping outside on a sidewalk under a building awning; this is not something I had seen before and my heart broke for him.  When I saw this I instantly thought of my family and knew how devastated I would be if I found out they were as unfortunate as he.  What if my grandpa had ended up like this, would someone have helped him?   And then I wonder where his family is and if they cannot help or if they do not know.

My point is, we all need to not just wait for Thanksgiving to be thankful but rather remember how fortunate we all are.  Remember that there are others who need our help, others that need a friend, others that need to know someone cares.

So while you go about your next busy couple of weeks, please remember to pick up a few extra things for the food shelters, drop that extra change off at the bell ringers (they will be out soon!), and volunteer at the homeless shelters. 

And don't forget your family and friends. I cannot tell you how great it feels (to me) when someone remembers me for no specific reason.  A simple email, phone call, text message or a smile and a hello can go miles for somone who just feels down, alone or maybe even left out and forgotten, your little pick-me-up just might make someones day.

 

Thanks for checking in!

 

High Five Friday!!

1.  Hockey teams have been selected and we have the first of 3 games starting tonight.  This game is for Justins' team with the PeeWee AA's against Rosemont.  It's gonna be a great year - - I can feel it!
Sorry no kid picture, with middle school starting later this year I am out the door before the kids are dressed.

2.  Noticed a few weeks ago that my middle fur baby had been limping, spending more time in bed and not jumping on furniture.  Tried baby aspirin for awhile and noticed him becoming more active.  Took the meds away and he slowly declined.  So while I am sad to say he is getting older and must have some arthritis starting; I will high five that an easy remedy is in place that gets his little feet pattering again when its suppertime.

3.  My biggest fur baby and also the youngest, has a hard time understanding that he is not "little" and completely doesn't understand why I will not let him on my white bed...but he is slowly figuring it out that "uh-uh" means he cannot come up and only gives me those sad brown eyes on occasions.

4.  Holiday season is right around the corner, Kayla and I made this cute little candy jar for Thanksgiving.  We have others projects done and other plans, but this was one of four we did last weekend.

5.  Last but not least, I am just plain happy it's Friday.  I need a day to sleep-in (Hockey practice starts at 6:30 so the house has been getting up at 5:30); this old body takes awhile to get used to it!

 

 

Have a GREAT weekend!



Together we can...

Hey everyone - have you met Vicky?

If not, you need to listed to her story here, this is just one of the stories listed out on the Edith Sanford website.

Vicky was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer just some 20 months ago and today she is still inspiring people with her astonishing outlook and zest for life, her compassion for others and her tremendous generosity.

One of my favorite quotes from her is from one of her recent blogs, it reads:

"I think we need to untie the pink ribbon.  We need to loosen the strings and unwrap the pink ribbon from awareness and re-tie those pink ribbons around research.  We need to shift not just out thinking, but our actions."

If you're interested in some good reading that will make you laugh, cry and fall in love with her like the rest of us did you can find her blog at thewestraworld.blogspot.com; and I hope you will also help in her dream of untying those ribbons around awareness and re-tying them around research - let's get this cure figured out!

ooohra

Ooohra

 - A motivational cry used by the United States Marine Corps.

Sometimes also used as a general response to an order or question.

What guy doesn't like an "I Love Me Wall"?  Well in our house we not only have an I Love Me Wall but an I Love Me Room.  It all started with the decision to pull up some old carpeting and replace with easily washable flooring since this is the room the dogs spend the majority of their day in.  And as the saying goes...one change leads to another. 

After spending a good day pulling carpet, painting walls, buying flooring, cutting and placing we retired for the evening knowing the next day would be me alone putting everything back into place as Blaine would be out of town.

We had original plans of adding a linoleum to this room but found this flooring on sale, I can't say that I am disappointed that we found laminate as cheap as we did!

The top shelf holds various meritorious awards for exceptional service.  I noticed after adding this that one of his medals had fallen and the other is about too...guess I better get that fixed!  I also need to find a better frame for his boot camp photo.

We had decided together to hang some shelving and put up Blaine's medal and sorts on them but it was after Blaine had left for the day that Justin pulled down Blaine's military pack from the attic and started finding some other things to add to make a surprise "I Love Me Room".

It is just a start but it was fun digging through his things and finding places to add them, the kids got a kick out of looking at all the photos he had too.  We didn't hang any of the ones from Desert Storm but rather found some that were based more on his military occupation and about happier times in his career.

The flag we have hopes of it being hung outside, but with all our MN winds and our lack of large trees in our yard for protection we need to get a pretty sturdy flag pole; so for now it will hang proudly in this room. 

As far the hats, the top is from Desert Storm and the bottom is the standard issued cover.

In the frame is Blaine's proudest award that he was given; this was awarded to him for taking prisoners of war while being under enemy fire during Desert Storm - it is the highest award he could receive before getting the bronze star.

The figurine is a Marine that Justin made in art class a few years ago,

the helmet which I think is super cool is standard issue; and yes that is a clock holding it up for now.

Yes, we even made the spare bed look like a military rack...but we added his tent blanket at the foot and a dust ruffle, these are not standard - LOL!

I am looking for more ideas as we have a full wall open, surprisingly in our area finding military or patriotic pictures, decorations or really anything is slim to nothing at this time.  I would love to hear your suggestions if you have any!



Semper Fi



High Five Friday

1.  Re-entering my blog world...found I missed it.

2.  Halloween was a tad "different" this year.  No costumes, no makeup and no rush to get dinner made and finished as neither of the kids dressed up or went out collecting candy.  Instead the both declared they were too old.  It is sad that they are growing up and out of this stage but it was fun to see them help hand out the candy and comment on the cute little ones!

3.  The kids Hockey Try-outs wrapped up on Thursday.  The group Justin played with last night did a scrimmage against EGF and they sunk that puck repeatedly for a large win - they looked pretty darn good.  Team selection announcements will be made tonight at 4:00PM; good luck to all the players and I hope you are proud of the team you are on!

4.  In 2013 we will have prescription coverage for "preventative" medicines.  Yay, no more big bucks handed over each month to keep me breathing!

5.  I found this little reminder and I think it is a good one.

Thanks for checking in!