Thankful Thurday...the Pups

These gorgeous wonders are our Furry Children.

Still puppies believe it or not.

They are only two years old!!

Leelu is the white one and she is 70 lbs of  puppy.

Percy is the brown one and she weighs in at 60lbs.

They have another year before puppy hood is officially done.

We're hoping the Lu only has 10lbs left and that Perce is done.

We rescued these two from deathrow when were only about eight months old.

The single best thing we did for our whole family.

They babysit the girl, she pokes and prods ears, noses, and mouths and they are so patient with her.

We are a family that lets our furry kids live IN the house with us, sharing space.

So many sleepless nights, they lay at my feet in the middle of the night.

I'm so thankful that we had the chance to take them in.

We, as a family have been through a time when it was tough to find food for ALL of us to eat.

But they stuck it out with us.

I love them for it, grateful for my fur babies.

Happy Thursday!!

Life's Ups and Downs

My hubby and I have been through quite a few of these patterns in our lives.  Both together and apart.  Our apart years are slowly growing way out numbered by our together years.  We met when we were nineteen years old.  Two completely different childhoods, two ways of looking at the world.  We bashed heads for a few of our first years together, thank the Goddess he's a patient man.
I have learned so much from him.  I can't even imagine not having him by my side.
He was a little shocked the other day when we were in the throngs of a discussion, and I told him that his gift of calmness and patience is what most people would die to have.  That I have been trying to learn that from him for the last 15 years!!
Just in the last few weeks, we have had quite a few friends get hit with devastating news.  Some of the news are things we could never imagine happening to us, other news, we've been through and are now looking at life on the other side.
I see alot of the reactions to the things that are coming from these folks from the news.  I wonder how different the reactions would be if the went through the process in a positive light instead of negative.
I told a friend the other day, because she was worried about being too negative about her situation, that it only becomes negative when it no longer helps you to heal, when its excessive.
We were given emotions to help us through our plights, not to restrain from using them. So often we believe that we have to restrain from using our emotions, when in fact the gift of emotion is what helps us heal.It was a very difficult thing changing our point view to a positive one, it is hard to stay on track sometimes.  I find now, more times than not, putting myself back on the positive train, than jumping off.  I can promote this way of thought and life all I want, but those who want it have to be open to it.
You have to want that change, keep yourself in check.  Fall down and allow yourself a minute to regroup, then pick up and get going again.
Are you up for that?  Can you give yourself that?  I can't answer that for you, the first step is yours to take.  What I can promise is if you decide to take this leap, bounty will abound sweet friend, bounty will abound.

Thankful Thursday...

Me and Nae, just a month ago, so glad I still get moments like these.

I have this amazing friend, who just got amazing news.

They are gonna have baby #2!!

Its been awhile, and they have been trying and trying. They kept thier struggle quiet and now they are over the Moon!! Their Daughter Elly is SO excited.

I'm Thankful this Thursday for the chance they get to have Baby #2

So happy that I get to witness thier happiness, and even if its over the internets, I get to watch her grow.

Congratulations Blake Family!!!







Thankful Thursday

So, its Wednesday morning, and I have actually thought of what I wanted to be Thankful for a whole day ahead instead of just the night before!! I know, I KNOW....I'm shocked too!! LOL
I try to get up with Hubby before he leaves for work.  My reward for that is great chatting time with him on the front porch before his carpool gets here.  AND, he makes my cup of coffee for me!! I know, SPOILED!!  I'm always grateful for that time, but that is not my thankful Thursday item.
Sometimes, its rough getting up to spend the time with him, but try and stick with it.
After he leaves, I have at least an hour of glorious quiet time, before the Nae jumps out of bed.  I can catch up on FB and all the Blogs I follow.  READ!!! And get a few minutes to organize my thoughts on how the day should go.
I would not trade Nae the Whirlwind for anything, I love her for that.  But I'm thankful to have to time to myself.
Happy Thursday!!

Its not really pain, its not really agony....its just really annoying!!!!!!

For those of you who actually read this poor blog, Good Morning.  I will start this one with a warning, I'm gonna whine A LOT more than usual in this one.  You may stop reading now if you wish.  I love you anyway. LOL
I have been fighting a tension headache since Thursday morning.  I went to bed with a slight headache last night, and woke REALLY early this morning with a headache that wouldn't let me sleep peacefully.
Hubby was up getting ready for his Saturday shift.  I didn't realize how much it hurt until I sat up. 
I went to the bathroom for Excedrin and peppermint oil (its soothes a migraine/headache faster than ANY drugs).  I tried to open my mouth to take the oil, and.......  my jaw joint snapped from a lock!! 
Hello TMJ, nice to see you are wanting to join the Headache party.  What's that? Sure, come on in.  There's plenty of room.
In tears, I got to the kitchen for a glass of water.  Trav about fell over, I never cry from pain.  I got the peppermint down and the pills.  Got a blanket and sat up in his chair.  Throb, throb.  In five minutes the headache started to subside.  Muscle tension.....from the front of my chest up my face, top of my head, down to my middle back.  LOVELY.
The muscles INSIDE my mouth ache!!!  As I sat there, feeling all of the ache, I realized it had been a very long time since I had felt this horrible.
Seven months of not trading a monthly massage has made all the aches and pains come back full force.  I had done SO much damage to this little body.  Over worked for years. So many overuse syndromes.  So sad.  I think back to all that hard work, trying to keep up with the boys, pushing to do even better than the best one there.  Trying to out do my own bests.
I look forward to growing old with my husband, yet I fear the with age my body is gonna break down to something pretty ugly.
I write this squinting from the glow of the light on the screen, wiggling my jaw because I can't feel the lower part of my face its so numb.
I stopped to assess if I'm in pain, nope. 
Back to my old mind frame.....Its just annoying!!!!!
It needs to hurry up and go away, I have Transformers to see today with the family!!
That's gonna be a LOAD of fun with this headache if it doesn't go away. :)
What's that? No thank you, I won't take Life lying down.

Its Thankful Thursday!!!!!

I was surfing FB this morning, and noticed that there are A LOT of people going through some really rough stuff at this current time in the universe.  A ton of major stuff, in all different lives all over the world.
It's a rough day this Thursday.  Trav's Sis got hit with some rough news.  I got a text from her early this morning.
Today, I'm grateful that I was there to walk with her through the first rough steps of her news.  I'm Thankful that I love my sister-in-law like she is my blood. She is, after all, my sister.
I'm honored that she can lean on me, that there is something I know that I can do to help her through.
Things for all those will get better.  Just glad I can be helpful.

Always Grateful,
Norms

A Life rethought...

Do you live a Life of Gratitude or a Life of Deserving???
I wonder if anyone will really know the difference if you have never heard my"terms" before.
I have been thinking about our families commitment to live in Gratitude.  Some days are harder than others to keep the positive out look.  Yet, in the last five years, I believe that the transition has been the single most moving thing in our lives.  I say moving, because literally Gratitude moves With you.  Or, rather, YOU move with it.
This topic came to a head today while out on the front porch reading.  It has become one of the most comfortable places to read, talk, relax.  Nae goes in and out of the house to check on Trav and I.  Today, she crawled up into my lap as she normally does.  I was relishing the moment, loving that she still loves to sit there.  She put her hand lovingly on my face, and in a blink of a moment my life and time stood still.  Its no longer a chore to be grateful for these things in my life.  I could feel the gratitude flow out of me, honored to have a little moment with her in my lap.  Just as a half hour before I had that the feeling as I sat quietly next to my husband and watched him read in grateful silence to be able to sit with him this way.
This is our attempt at Gratitude, I describe to you what I try to do, but my husband does the same things on a daily basis.
We led a Life of Deserving for so many years.  Looking at Life as though we deserved every little bit of what Life offered us.  Selfish and thoughtless to the fact that we were digging ourselves an emotional hole of debt.   New car? Yup, we worked hard we deserved it.  Eat out?  Yup, we had the money, we deserved.  New clothes? Why not, I already had a bunch, but I deserved it.
Even now, writing these words, seeing SO many still not "Getting It".  I'm so attuned to think just how grateful we are to have learned this lesson so much younger than if we stayed ignorant.
Don't get me wrong we still get the fact that new cars, eating out, and new clothes are good things.  But these thing are about necessity and in a Grateful mind frame, you think a lot more simply about those things.  A newer car, safe and reasonable.  We can make it at home better than most restaurants.  I just need the one tank top really. I don't need to get the same one in all the colors just because I know it'll be comfortable.
It has a lot to do with finishing your race with the Jones's.  We live a a society where we always believe we need to keep up.   Trav and I let go of that years ago.  We have always ran behind the curve, and have never really felt all that bad about it.  Our own pace, our own Drummer.  Now, seeing how different our relationship is, with each other, our daughter, our families.  Yeah, a Life of Gratitude was always in the cards.