Melissa (heart heart heart)

tops my gratitude list.

Thanks a bunches Wendy!!!!!! 
This was my sweet co-worker's way of appreciating me 
=) 
Love it!

Look for the beauty

in everyday things.

So far I am successfully maintaining my daily gardening duties.  My flowers are blooming, even my herb garden is thriving!  It's a miracle.   a total freaking miracle.

Now, let me share a story with you.  It is a dramatic story of loss; yet, within this moment of loss you will see how the beauty of others can emerge...

"Kaylee if you bring him in the store you might lose him" I distinctly recall saying to my sweet daughter.
...Moments after arriving home from our shopping excursion, I soon discovered that my daughter lost her Shamu.  I began calling the 3 stores we had visited to try to locate him.  One place we visited was a thrift store.  Great. Good luck on that one, right?!  yes, yes, a long shot, I know...but I called anyways.  A man answered, I detailed my dilemma.  He understood surprisingly well how important a lost toy was to a child, he told me, describing his horrific ordeal trying to comfort a distraught son who too had lost his treasured toy. 

The kind worker searched high and low, securing all workers on the hunt, even calling employees who had been working...Devastation could be heard in his voice as he informed me that they could not find the whale. 

At moments I thought to explain to this kind man the truth.  The truth being that I was not doing this to relieve my daughter, I was doing this because that whale was expensive!  I had just bought him days before at Seaworld, and you can only imagine how much that toy cost!!!  I felt ashamed to tell him the truth, that really Kaylee was not losing any sleep, nor her appetite, over all this.  I will keep that my little secret.

You, yourself

deserve your love and affection.
-Buddha

done.

Listen

...with a willingness to be altered.

Today I had planned to take Kaylee out to a baseball game.  When I picked her up from school I went on and on about how much fun the baseball game would be.  I was so hyped up about it myself I almost forgot to ask if she was excited about it too.  So then I asked.  To my surprise she told me she didn't want to go to the game, she wanted to watch a movie.  I started talking her out of the movie idea and hyping up the baseball game some more.  That's when I realized I wasn't really listening to her.  When I listened to her, I found out that she really wanted to watch a movie, eat PB&Js and have a slumber party with all her stuffed friends (and me!).

Sometimes it's good to be altered.

Cheer for yourself...

...then pass this on to someone else.

Hip hip hooray!  Go me, I rock.  High 5 to self!

Ok, Vickie, new owner of a pasta maker...your turn!  You are the unsuspecting victim recipient of a self-cheering note.  Cheer yourelf on as you slave over making noodles all day.  Then pass that note on to another lucky soul!!

Above all else, I love you.

it's good to review your priorities.

So what is most important to me....let's review this thought for a second.
Family-yes...well my sweet lil Kaylee is tippy-top on my list!  Followed by all other members of my amazing family  :)
Friends-I realized I want to keep better connected to my friends.  Dinner out with my cousin and some closer friends from high school reminded me of this tonight. 
Smarts-I don't want to be stupid, so I'll try to be smart.  It occurs to me that as much as my classes drive me crazy each semester, I like being challenged...and I always like a good chance to flex that lovely gray- and white-matter I call my "brain".
Love-I think I'll defer this one for another day.  You know you can't rush love, alright?!??

*~Being Kind~*

Board Game Night!

Pull out a borad game and engage your child (and your inner child)!

Kaylee and I battled it out in Scrabble Junior.  She won. 
I don't want to talk about it.