Help Amy help others

I have a girlfriend named Amy who is seriously one of the most caring and gracious people I know. I have known her for a very long time, but just recently "found" her again on Facebook. I love Facebook (and myspace) because I am now in touch with people that I grew up with, that otherwise I would never see or hear from. But that is another post. Back to Amy....she is a single mom and her son has Aspergers syndrome. She single-handedly fought to get him the help he needs to grow and learn. She had no help from her ex....in fact, from what I have seen he has done nothing but cause her and her son more obstacles. Nevertheless, she pushes on and does an awesome job. Speaking of jobs, she works for a non-profit group which helps hundreds if not thousands of people. How much better can she get??? Well, she also donates her time and energy to raise money for Special Olympics. Right now she is trying to raise funds towards her Polar Bear Plunge. (Personally, I think this is nuts.....it is much safer and warmer to just ask people for donations....but that is why you will never see someone write a blog about how generous I am....because I am not) I seriously wish I could help Amy to reach her goal, but we are not in the position to do that right now....so then a thought came to my head to ask my bloggy friends to help. If anyone is reading this and CAN help, please do so. Help her to raise her goal....or more!! Do it for Amy and do it for the Special Olympics. Both are worthy causes :-) Love Ya Amy!!!!

Here is the link to her fund raising page through the Special Olympics...HERE

P.S. I am NOT her friend Denise that she talks about in her Polar Bear Plunge donation page. I can barely move now, let alone if I jumped in freezing cold water. The mental picture that gives me is a scary, scary one.

3/365
This whole Grace thing is doing good things for me. I am now constantly walking around looking at everything from a new perspective. I look at everything in a positive light, looking for things to add to my Daily Grace list. Im not saying it is easy....and it isnt easy to come up with 5 things a day but I am working on it. So here goes todays list....
#1 is Amy....see Above. She is wonderful and Graces many people. Im just thankful I am one of them.
#2 is the smell of my Roses when they bloom. That soft, beautiful smell cheers me up everytime. Hubby told me he is ordering a few more Rose bushes to plant in the spring. I have to say that he has his own way of doing things....most men give bouquets of roses. Mine gives Rose bushes. That way I am in a constant supply of fresh cut Roses. How thoughtful is that??
#3 Cuddling with R this afternoon was wonderful. He sure a a cuddle-bug and I love it. You can't be stressed out when a 3 year old is snuggled up in your arms and telling you he loves you.
#4 Hubby didnt lose his temper today...not even once. He has been really stressed out lately (bills, etc) and hasnt been handling it very well. Please pray for him...and me :-)
#5 Well, Im still waiting for that one to happen. My Mom was going for an out-patient procedure today and I am waiting to hear that she is home and ok. WOW! I just finished typing that and the phone rang...it is her, she is home, uncomfortable but home. {{{HUGS}}}} Mom!

2/365

Hubby has a new hobby, and I love it. He recently learned how to take pictures and turn them into slideshow movies with music. The first one he made was of the boys and it made me cry. I cried happy tears and sad tears. And seeing all those baby faces made me wish I could have another one. Too bad that can't happen. Now Hubby is making a movie made of pictures of Poppop. So we spent over an hour this morning scanning old pictures into the computer. I still need to find more because we don't have any pictures of him from the 1970's or 80's. This movie (and it isn't even made yet) is making me happy and sad, just like the movie of the boys. Of course seeing pictures makes everyone happy but I also get sad because I miss the old days. The old days when Poppop was healthy and didn't have Alzheimer's (and the old days when my little guys were such cute babies).



Day 2 of Daily Grace....
First I want everyone to go read Kristins Blog today at The way it is.....This is my #1 today. Hearing her story definitely Graced my day.

Second is that silly little thoughts graced my mind and I didn't even notice my teenage son and his girlfriend sucking face in the back seat of the minivan this afternoon....but my hubby made sure I knew about it later. Ugh. Now I can never look back in the van when they are back there. I do NOT want to see that.

Third was dinner tonight....made completely by my Hubby. The only thing missing is a visit from the dish fairy tonight.

#4....Church this morning Graced me with lots of smiles. Actually J graced me with smiles during Church. Sometimes he says the cutest stuff, even when he isn't trying. Today he actually cried (loudly) because he thought he was missing out when we all went up for communion and he stayed behind in the pew. When we asked why he was crying he told us that he didn't get any of the Jello they were handing out up front. We all had a big laugh over that one. Only a 5 year old could think that they give you jello during communion. LOL

And 5th would have to be God blessing me with the patience to not get mad when J cries over silly stuff and to enjoy those moments instead. I treasure the patience that I have because I didnt have it when C was growing up. This time around, with J and R, I know that all those small things kids do arent worth getting upset or mad about....and most times they can even put a smile on your face. Now if Hubby could just learn that we would be in good shape.

365 Days of Grace

I stumbled across this idea today and I love it. Even though it is a much bigger commitment than that goofy NABLAbbblallla(whatever) I still want to try. I found this at Schmutzie Loves you. The main idea is to write 5 things each day that have Graced your life, either today or in the past. It can be a person, place, thing or action....you get the idea, right? Sounds cool, huh? So here it goes.....

1. My daily nap. Oh yes! This of course HAD to make the top of my very first list. And even thought most days I need a nap (because of my illness) I still feel they are a blessing that everyone should have, because all the stresses of life seem smaller after a nap. Believe me, they do.

2. Prayer. And knowing that even if God says no to my request, I still know he is listening. It is an awesome feeling to know he always has my back.

3. Chocolate. Because what isn't graceful about Chocolate?? As we speak I am making Chocolate cupcakes so they can grace me as my nighttime snack.

4. Listening to my kids laughing. Nothing beats this sound....EVER.

5. Playdough. Seriously, playdough has graced my life with at least one hour everyday of quiet, peacefully playing boys. Not many toys can do that.

This list was tougher than I thought. Maybe because I have so many other things swirling around in my brain and I cant concentrate. Who knows. Hopefully it will get easier and I can stick with it.

On another note....I hate Moonsand. I hate the company that made Moonsand. I hate the company that makes Moonsand commercials. Moonsand is evil. It brainwashes children and convinces them that they are playing with something much more fun and exciting than regular old sand. WRONG! It is like handing your child a piece of firewood and convincing him that it is the newest, coolest toy EVER. Ugh. If you wouldn't normally bring in a bucket of sand and dump it on your table, then DON'T buy Moonsand. Plus is stains clothes. And it is hard to clean up all that gritty, stupid, overly colored sand. Did I mention how much I HATE Moonsand?

Poop

Yep, we're gonna talk about Poop. J is 5 and hasnt had any potty accidents for a year and a half. Up until last week I have helped him to wipe after he poops but I want him to learn to be more independent so I stopped helping him. Now, for some unknown reason, when he goes to my MIL's he poops his pants. And it isnt like she is babysitting, we are there too. At home he goes poop on the potty but for some reason he wont go at her house. He did, when I was helping him wipe. He keeps telling us that he is messing his pants because he doesnt want to wipe. But he also knows that if he messes his pants I make him clean himself up and also rinse out his dirty underpants. So why, oh why would he be doing this.....any ideas or tips are welcome.

On another note, I spent all day napping and curled up in a ball praying my meds would work better and/or quicker. Thankfully tonight I am feeling a bit better and Im at least sitting up. Tomorrow I should find out the results of my x-rays and blood test (all 15 vials that they took)

I am ready for 2009

I am so ready for 2008 to be over. What a long, strange year. Not one of the best ones either. So I am glad it will be over soon. I wont dwell on things from 2008....I have accepted them and moved on. But I am going to name some hopes I have for the new year. I don't make resolutions either, they are too easy to name and then break in a few days. Instead I will hope for the following changes to happen.
In 2009 I hope to:
Read the entire Bible
Pray more
Trust God more
Potty Train R
Lose weight and eat healthy
Watch less TV (my boys included)
Have a less messy house
Do more meal planning (and stick to my meal plans)
Spend less



I'm sure I will think of more things later, but I think that the shorter the list, the better chance I have of doing these things. Does anyone else have any plans or hopes for the New Year? Do you have any special ways of sticking to your plans?


I wish all of you a safe and Happy New Year! Enjoy yourselves tonight and be safe!

Is it really Tuesday already?

Last week was wonderful. Seeing my parents is always a blessing and seeing them during the holidays was a double-blessing. With them here, I was able to not dwell on missing C and Poppop on Christmas. Not that I didn't think about them, it was just that they kept my mind occupied enough that I didn't get too sad. Mom and Dad made it home safe and sound and they told me they will be back when C graduates high school, which will be in June 2010.
Let's talk about Christmas...mine was wonderful. We got up and watched the boys open presents. It doesn't get much better than watching the amazement and gratefulness in the faces of little ones on Christmas morning. Even though they didn't get much, they were thrilled with EVERYTHING they got. I know that when C was little I would go totally overboard. I wanted to give him the same kinds of Christmas's that I remembered growing up. I remember presents overflowing under the tree, so many that it took forever to open them all. But (and I HATE to admit this) I only remember one particular toy. My Barbie RV. I know that I got pretty much everything I asked for but when I think back, I only remember the wrapped presents and I remember who I was with on Christmas. I remember my immediate family being there, and occasionally my grandparents. I remember going to my grandparents, opening presents (again, I don't remember anything that I got) and eating. Lots of eating. I remember going to see my other grandparents too. I can tell you all about my grandparents living rooms, decorations, food and how I felt on those days. And now that I am older I realize that it isn't about the presents and my kids wont remember their presents any more that I do. Hopefully we will make enough happy memories for them to look back on and then share with their children. If not, then at least we didn't go broke buying toys, lol.

This a a beautiful hand painted vase that my BFF Val sent me for Christmas. She is so talented, in so many ways...including making hand painted vases. I LOVE her!!!

Now I am going to read some of the blogs I missed....I'm sure I missed a ton. Please be patient with me if I don't post comments for another day or two. But eventually I will get caught up and be back to normal.

One more time......Go Nancy!!

My parents are heading back to AZ today...so I am very, very sad. Mom wanted to write another blog before she left so here it is....

Hi Bloggers, It is Denise's mom Nancy again. Wow we are so sad this week is over. It went by so fast and we didn't do half of the things we wanted to do while we were here. We laughed, cried, hugged and kissed everyday. Her Dad and I are exhausted and everything hurts from playing with J and R (plus she has TOO MANY stairs for us old people). I have one knee that is bone on bone and it popped out twice this week, which was horrible. We feel like all we have done here is complain about one pain or another. We played with the kiddie kitchen set and then went on a picnic. We played trains and I wont miss that sound till at least next year. We took over 100 pictures that we will download to our computer at home and Denise can decide if she wants to put any of them on here for all of you to see. As for C (her 17 year old) OMG! He has changed and grown up to be a fine young man. We have always enjoyed our time with him but this time was extra special. In fact, all 3 of them have grown up and changed so much we feel bad about living so far away. Like Denise tells people...We live 3 miles from the Sun, lol. Arizona is hot but it is a dry heat.
J got an Easy Bake Oven and made hot pretzels for us. R got a Cars Laptop and he made a letter which we couldn't read, but we love it because it was made from his heart.
It was nice being a guest Blogger and since I am unemployed looking for a job I will have time to continue reading your blogs everyday. I cant promise to read them after I find a new job but I will check in occasionally. Hope you all have a Happy New Year and a safe one too!