7 Rules for Life

  Last night as I was scrolling through Pinterest, which I love, and I came across this little gem.  Since then, I have really been thinking about the above rules for life.   I live in a butterfly rainbow world.  The glass in not only 1/2 full, but 3/4 full.  I am a forever optimist.  I have always been this way and I think it is because I pretty much follow the above rules.

1.  Making peace with your past.  I like that this is number 1.  I have a saying in life: "Life is not a series of could haves, should haves and would haves.  You have lived the past.  Accept it and move on.  Learn from your mistakes, but do not dwell on them.

2.  Who cares what others think of you?  I certainly do not.  I live my life the way I see fit.  If others do not like it, oh well.

3.  Time most certainly heals all things.  It may take more time than you would like, but you will heal.

4.  Do not rely on others for your happy.  Be happy with who you are.  If not, then fix it.

5.  I have never understood the comparison thing.  You are comparing apples to oranges when you do this.  No one is like you, so what are you comparing it too?  And, everyone is dealing with something, please do not kid yourself that they are not.  No one has a "perfect" life.  Mine is pretty close to being perfect, I think ;)

6.  Do not over think, over analyze, etc....it hurts your brain.  Make a decision, be happy with it and move on.

7.  Smile.  No one likes the RBF (resting bitch face).  I am in my mid 40's and have earned my smile lines.  It is hard to look ugly with a genuine smile.

Have a fabulous Thursday my friends!

Hugs

My baby is a Senior

  Sniff, sniff   Proud yet sad this morning as my oldest son starts his last first day of high school.  Proud because of all of the things he has achieved over the past 12 years of school.  I remember when I dropped him off for the first day of kindergarten.  He looked over at me and said "Mom, I got this".  And he most assuredly has.  I am also sad as this is ending the chapter of his boyhood years.  This time next year we will be packing the car ready to send him off to college.  I will not see him every day and will have to rely on text messages and phone calls for communication.  So I am going to embrace this last year of school with joy and and sadness.  And, I will not apologize for it.  

 Freshman Year

Sophomore Year with the Freshman Step Brother

Junior Year with the Sophomore Step Brother

Senior Year with the Junior Step Brother

I love these boys and am so proud of them.  Here is to a great school year!  Go Rockets!

Hugs

I am mad today

  I am mad today.  We lost a fabulous actor/comedian yesterday.  Robin Williams took his life yesterday.  Yes, he was battling the mental illness of depression and yes, I understand it is a horrible mental illness, but that does not make me any less mad.  Suicide is a selfish act and leaves a path of destruction to those who are left behind to deal with the many questions that will be forever left unanswered.  I hate suicide.  Hate, hate, hate, hate.  Jake lost a friend his sophomore year because of it and a good friend of mine lost his brother from it 4 years ago.  So, I am mad today.

  That is all for today.

Hugs

 

The fun part of Saturday night

  The party was fabulous.  We are going to let go of the fact that we spent Saturday night in the emergency room and focus on the fun part of the evening.  Saturday night we celebrated this girl:

This is my awesome friend Jill I was telling you about. Talk about making an entrance! I told you she was fun.  She is sporting the latest in shot attire.  Those are yummy shots she is wearing  appropriately named "birthday cake"  and they were wonderful.  The rest of the evening was spent eating, toasting, unwrapping presents, and of course dancing.  There is always dancing when we are all get together.  I have a wonderful group of friends.  Pictured below are just a few of them.  Beautiful, aren't they?  Make sure you are surrounding yourself with beautiful people inside and out.   

  

  Happy Monday, my friends!!!

Hugs!

Our new friend, the EpiPen

 

  Does this look familiar?  In case you do not know, it is an EpiPen used when a person has a severe allergic reaction.  This EpiPen now resides in our home.  Last night, hubby had a severe allergic reaction to shrimp.  We attended a shrimp boil last night at a friend's house(more about that tomorrow) and Mark was one of the chef's as well as one of the partakers of said shrimp boil.  Things were going well, and I noticed about an hour into the evening that he was turning a bit red. He had been on the soccer field all day, it was a bit warm in the house, and the champagne and wine were flowing so I did not think much about it.  Well, around 11:00 pm, his palms started itching.  We gave him some benadryl and made our way home.  After we got home, the symptoms kept getting worse.  He started itching all over and then his chest started tightening.  Now, when your chest starts tightening, it is time for medical intervention.  We headed over to St Vincent Emergency Room and got in straight away.  By this time, he was turning as red as a lobster and the itching became unbearable.  They gave him a shot of benadryl and a shot of steroid.  This seemed to be working until they gave him an IV with saline solution to re hydrate him.  He became very dizzy and started itching again, now down his legs and feet and his blood pressure and pulse ox shot up sky high.  This action bought him an ekg.  By this point, I started to go a little into freak out mode.  I mean, this is my Mark.  It was awful to see him this way.  They finally gave him a shot of epinephrine which then caused his heart to race, gave him the shakes, and his blood pressure shot up even more.  Scary stuff.  Finally, about a very long 20 minutes later, the shot started to work.  Within another 30 minutes his redness was almost completely gone and he fell sound asleep.  This was around 2 am.  I climbed in and snuggled up against him as we were going to be there at least another 2 hours.  At 4:30 am we were released, me armed with prescriptions and strict orders to go to the 24 hour pharmacy to get our new EpiPen.  I dropped Mark off at home, and left Jake to "babysit" him while I went to get our Pen.  The pharmacist at the Walgreens on Bowman was so nice and helpful.  She gave me refresher course on how to use it and sent me home with two pens and a tester so we could practice.  I got home and got us all tucked in around 5:30 am.  Needless to say it was an exhausting night.  I have not had many dealings with allergies so this episode completely freaked me out.  Everyone in our house is now well versed in the use of an EpiPen.  I want to thank everyone for their texts, calls and messages regarding my Mark.  He is doing much better today, but is exhausted.  We are now aware of his shellfish allergy and are taking this very seriously.  I have definitely been the helicopter wife today, but I will not apologize.  We went through some scary stuff last night and I am still not completely recovered.  Anyway, to all my friends and family out there who suffer with allergies, I have a much greater appreciation of what you go through.  So, when you come visit us, please leave your shellfish at home and if you come around him with shellfish, I will take you out.  Not really, but really.   I personally, am done with it myself.  I am a huge seafood lover, but I do not want to put hubby in danger, EVER.  It is just not worth it.   

Hug your loved ones today.  I am definitely holding on extra tight to my Mark today.

Hugs!!!

It's raining!

  Yes, a Saturday post.  I have been super busy at work and have basically couch potatoed almost every night this week.  It could be due to the fact that hubby and I are addicted to British TV.  Right now we are knee deep in Doc Martin.  Fantastic show and absolutely gorgeous scenery.  If you here me talking in an English accent, you will know why.

Oh my gosh!  It has been raining and pouring and I do not mean just the weather!  Last week, youngest step son totaled his car, hubby's car broke down, the shower in our main bathroom is busted(thank goodness we have 3!), and now the ceramic top on our stove top cracked.  Enough!!! Luckily my hubby is quite handy around the house, but the whole car thing?  Not so much.  He can do minor stuff, but thankfully we have a great mechanic who is trying to fix the hubby's car for as cheaply as possible.  So from 4 cars, we are down to two.  Very inconvenient for all around.  Hubby and I work at the same company, but I had 3 meetings this past week that I needed the car for, so we have been doing the driving juggling dance.  Not very fun.  We used our in laws car while they were out of town, so it was not too bad and the boys start school Wednesday and we live walking distance from school, but still.  We need at least our third car.  Hopefully we can get it repaired soon.

  My last blog post, way back on Tuesday(again, sorry!) I mentioned briefly about different  parenting styles.  Mr. Straessle, the principal at the boy's school, mentioned two different types of styles you do not want to take on.  One was the absentee parent.  This type of parent, is like "woo hoo! My kid made it to high school!  I am done!".  The other is the helicopter parent who hovers around way too much.  I like to think that I am somewhere in between.  I may hover a bit too much, but that is me.  I am a planner and I need to know my kid's have a plan as well.  Especially the oldest son as we are deep into making college decisions.  I am not the absentee parent at all.  I know my kids need me around for guidance because let's face it, teenagers think they know it all and we know nothing and they tend to make some not so smart decisions.  So, I am trying to put myself more in the middle so as to not take my kids out with the helicopter blade.

  How is your fitness life going?  I am still going strong with my old school fitness routine.  I still feel funny doing jumping jacks, but hey, they work.  Calf raises are awesome.  I can whip 50 out in no time.  So I am doing 50 in the am and 50 in the pm.  Quick, easy, great results.  I am going to add hand weights tomorrow.  I tend to alter my fitness plan on a Sunday.  No waiting till Monday for me.  Get used to it on the weekend and then I am raring to go the following work week.

  To close, I want to wish my beautiful yaya, Jill, a very happy birthday.  She is full of love and has an amazing zest for life.  She is so fun to be around and you cannot help but be in the best of moods when she is there.   Love you Jill!!!!

Hugs!

Crazy Life

  Happy Tuesday!  Life has been crazy these last few days, what else is new, so I will summarize what has been going on in list type fashion in no particular order.

1.  Youngest stepson totaled his car on Friday morning.  He was ticketed and faulted.  One of the scariest phone calls to receive is hearing your child has been in a car accident.  Your heart stops.  My oldest totaled his car last year, so this is twice in one year.  Luckily in both accidents all parties were fine.  Like I told the youngest stepson, cars are replaceable, people are not.

2.  Saturday morning hubby and I were at the Rivermarket looking at some lovely glass art by local artist, Judd Mann, when we received a call that the car youngest stepson was driving broke down on the freeway.  Sigh....another car repair.   I promise, Judd, I will get there so we can talk.  He really does amazing work and I am so excited to get a piece for our house.  Check out his website:  juddmann.com

3.  Meetings, meetings and more meetings.  This is our busy time at work and I am enjoying getting out of the office and meeting new people.  

4.  Calf raises.  Do them.  They are awesome.  I follow quite a few fitness buffs on twitter and one says she does hers in the shower.  I thought why not.  I started off with 50 and now am up to 100.  I do them while waiting for the water to warm up and then finish the reps in the shower.  Your calves will not thank you at first, but then you will be amazed at the results.  Push through.  You can do it.

5.  I registered princess for her last year of junior high school yesterday.  Sniff sniff.  Today I will register the oldest for his last year of high school.  Sniff sniff  Hubby registered stepson for his Junior year yesterday.  Sniff sniff    I will admit though, we do enjoy these moments with our kids. We are both very involved parents, but not too much.  That is the topic of tomorrow's post.

6.  Oldest son and I started filling out college applications yesterday.  Reality is setting in.  I will be sending by baby off to school.  This time next year we will be packing the car ready to ship him off.  Sigh....I need a hug

7.  Went out on Saturday night and saw a great band, The Intruders.  They are Catholic High grads from '82ish.  It was a mini Catholic High and Mt. St. Mary Reunion at the Afterthought.  Hubby went to Catholic and I went to the Mount.  It is so fun that we have all types of  friends in common.  It seems like who he did not know, I did and vice versa.

  I think I have hit the highlights.  I have missed my blogging world.  I will try not to be absent for so long next time.

Hugs!