Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone. I missed you all so much!

Thank you kindly for pulling us through this past week.

Have I told you lately, you guys are the best!

❤ ❤ ❤

A Little Help From Our Friends

Please keep us close in thought.

Please send every happy, supportive thought our way.

If you are the praying type,

Please pray for the safety of our little family.

Please pray for strength.

Please pray for guidance in helping our girl.

We are needing this a little more now, than ever!

Thank you so very much!

And as always,

We truly appreciate it :o)

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

❤ ❤ Heart Tutorial ❤ ❤

Stephanie asked how to make a heart. I finally learned, and am loving it. I use them everywhere. When I forget to use a heart, I wish I did!

Option 1

I heard you can type < + 3, and that makes a heart. That didn't always work for me, so I learned another way. All too often I see <3 this in messages. In my limited experience, Option 2 always ensure a true heart.


Option 2

A good friend of mine taught me. I have a Mac, so I only know how to do it on this computer. He said I could press control + option + t, and it would open the characters pallet. For some reason, my computer won't allow me to do that. I am sure we can chalk it up to operator error though. So, I go to Edit - Special Characters - Miscellaneous. There are hearts in there, but my very favorite heart is in Ornamental Punctuation, and looks like this...

❤  ❤  ❤

Adding hearts in this way, ensures they will always look like a heart....I think ;o)

You can also use these hearts anywhere, in a blog, on Facebook, wherever your heart desires!

I hope this helped!

Surprise

Over Memorial Day weekend, plans were all over the place. Dave ended up needing to tell me he had a little surprise planned for us, a quick daytime getaway. 

I have a hard time with surprises, so I hounded him! I harassed him by day, and was a pest, well into the night! He stood his ground. The day before though, I laid it on extra thick. He finally cracked!  I twiddled my thumbs, twinkled my eyes, and a half smirk appeared on my face. All in admiration that my master plan had finally worked. You know the one; annoy the heck out of him, until he can't take it anymore, and just wants me to shut the mouth. A day at the park. I tell you, I am a real life picnic!

The plan was to go kart racing, and then continue on to the shooting range. I was over the moon, excited. I have a serious need for speed, and have been known to act as though my Tahoe is a two seater sports car, especially on the curvy roads to Tahoe! I have also always wanted to go to the shooting range!!

It was going to be the perfect day, and I was super excited...did I mention that already :o)

We had the best day ever, with the kart races being the highlight! I am a thrill seeker by nature. The higher. The faster. The whipier (I know that's not a word, but I am going to use it anyway) the ride, the better. The kart races satisfied every single one of those criteria, and more. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it!! It was one of the best things I have ever done in my life ;o)

The shooting range was awesome too. I thought, holy cr*p should I really be holding a gun, and shooting it?? I have a hurt child you know, there's a lot of pent up stuff inside this body of mine!! The answer was YES!! I have shot bee bee guns, and stuff like that, but I have to say, there is nothing quite like holding a 9mm glock in your hand, and shooting it!!

I did awesome at first, you know hitting the target right in the middle, but then got really tired, and lazy towards the end, and was hitting the ground and stuff :o(  I just realized, one should never use the words tired, lazy, and gun in the very same sentence :o) Food for thought!

Thank you to the best husband ever!! The one who knows exactly what a day of fun looks like through my eyes!!!

That's not me, running around, in my helmet and suit, climbing furniture!

These next three pictures are not us, but I stole them from their website to show you what it's like.

Shoot em' up sucker!!

I have to say, it's kind of a weird feeling when a shell casing comes back, and taps you!

Live & Learn

I started this post out as a list of lessons I have learned. I then, excessively elaborated on the very first one! So now, I suppose this has turned itself into a future mini series :o)

************

Throughout this journey, I have learned a great deal. I have so much more to learn, and always will, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some notes I have jotted down in the past few months ;o) These are just my own personal thoughts, and observations. Take them, or leave them, as you so choose.

Always revisit, and question your absolutes. 

As a recovering control freak, I had an awful lot of absolutes. I naively believed I understood the world around me, and in turn, I acted according to what I considered it to be. After the accident, I began to question everything, from the most important of issues, like life and death, to the smallest of things, like food selection. The world actually opened up, and became so incredibly vast. I quickly realized, I was previously stuck. As it turned out, all of my fixed idea lines, blurred!

A few weeks ago, I asked Dave to rip me to shreds. I wanted to hear it all. The good. The bad. The ugly.  All of it! I felt it was a good idea. I thought, who better to ask, than the one person who knows you best. The one who is with you, day in, and day out ;o) He was sweet, and uncomfortable, at first. After I repeatedly insisted, the roast of Jen was in full swing :o) This was his chance after all; I thought he should go for it. There may never be another ;o)

After the typical neat freak, OCD stuff, I gathered that before the accident, I made decisions quickly, and without hesitation. If asked anything, I came back with an answer...fast. I knew what I wanted, and when. He said, I am now, not as sure of things. I go back, and forth. I asked him if that was a bad thing, and he said, it's just different.

I instantly understood exactly what he was saying, and it got me thinking. I too, have noticed the difference and, in some instances, have actually tried to act in this particular manner. For example, I used to go to the same places, and order the same things. I used to want to go on the same trips, and knew exactly what I wanted to see, and do. I used to feel pretty confident in knowing how I would feel, and act in certain situations.

I have to say, when your entire world is flipped on its head, and you haven't a clue as to which way is up, you have no choice, but to see through different lenses!

The world, and everything in it, is suddenly unrecognizable. It is not as you once thought it was, and never will be again. For that reason, you start to live your life as though anything can happen, and at any given time. You quickly realize just how very fragile life is, and your priorities adjust accordingly.

Trust me, I am well aware that I am a work in progress. I am still trying to find my way to a more balanced life, but what I am trying to say is, once you are rocked to the core, a funny thing happens, that very same, scary, new world becomes your oyster!

From some of the things I write, it may not seem I feel this way, but please remember, this is my dumping ground. This is my place to let it all hang out. This is where I come to leave my deepest, darkest, happiest, and truest feelings. This is where I let everyone know what this is really like! You won't find any sugar coating here.

I am this way for one, single reason. I feel a false perception doesn't help anyone. I feel a story of grief, loss, hope, and recovery should be shared in its entirety. I would feel I am doing everyone, including myself, a disservice to only share the positive, uplifting moments, as those are only part of the story. Believe me, this journey certainly has its fair share of dark, lonely, desperate, and gloomy moments, too.

Overall though, this experience has taught me to be less rigid, and absolute. It has taught me that just like the wind, we can change direction at any given moment. Most importantly, I have learned to always open yourself to the never ending world of possibility!

I Speak in Quotes

:o) :o) :o)

Me

In Cahoots!

We walked in from the movies, and this was what I saw in the hall. I knew from this tiny piece of evidence, we were in trouble :o)

Apparently, even Rainey is sick, and tired of patterning! Something tells me the two of them are in cahoots, and this was the result!

I think Aviana is secretly looking over her shoulder, thanking Rainey for her good work!

I have to show you the progression of pictures, because Rainey's face is hilarious! She really didn't get in hardly any trouble. How can you, with a face like that?

"I'll just close me eyes. Maybe they'll disappear."

"Are they still looking at me?"

I was actually secretly pleased with Rainey, too. I thought it was an omen, and we would be forced to take a break from patterning. Dave yanked me right out of my dreamy state of mind when he said, "Well, I guess we'll have to go back to using the pink patterning table in the meantime." I screamed, "WHAT?!!" I forgot, we have a pink back up patterning table :o(

You know, because our hard core attitude used to be...

"Have table, will travel."

Seriously though, we are pretty much taking this entire week off in order to mentally, and physically prepare for Philadelphia :o)

We all need it BAD! It feels amazing!

More About You Monday's

If you watched Friends, do you remember the one with "The List?" The top five 'freebie' celebrities? 

Here is a refresher if you don't remember, or haven't seen it. Sorry, in advance, about the quality ;o)

http://youtu.be/ARNsAbDZt4k

So this week, my question to you is....

Who are the top 5 on your list?

Out

He sleeps.

I wander.

**********

In, and out of bed.

Up, and down the hall.

Restless limbs here, restless limbs there.

Room, to room, to room.

Clean this, clean that.

To water, and back.

To the bathroom, and back.

Water on, water off.

TV on, TV off.

Rainey up, Rainey down.

Alarm unset, alarm set.

Rainey in, Rainey out.

Lights on, lights off.

In, out, in, out.

Music on, music off.

Backlight on, backlight off.

Keyboard clicks on, clicks off.

**********

Alarm sounds.

He wakes.

He has no idea what has transpired the entire night before.

For that, I am lucky!