positive thinking....

So back in "the day" I was a huge fan of Monty Python movies. Lame, right? One of my NOT so favorites was the "Life of Brian". The ONLY fun thing about this movie was the song "always look on the bright side of life". Let's see if I can link up to it just in case you haven't heard of it before... (warning... it's a bit off the charts in sacreligiousness)

*please click here*

okay so i have NO idea of how to REALLY download a video to my blog. I'll figure it out later... :)

ANYWHO... after my last post (aka: pity party) I decided to post some POSITIVE things about having thyroid cancer... in particular the RAI (this would be the radiation portion of our program...).

SO... I have to be in complete seclusion for 7 days. This means NO contact with the "outside" world... I will be literally locked in our master bedroom. At first I thought what a huge drag this would be. BORING! But... I have some plans... :)

#1. I've been wanting to paint our master bathroom FOREVER! The walls and the vanity. What better time?!?! No reasons for my NOT to be able to finish it... it's the perfect time!! It'll be fun to surprise the husband with it when it's finished... he won't have to deal with the in between stuff.

#2. I've been meaning to read through the WHOLE Bible for a while now. Being a Christian for a majority of my life and having NEVER done this... pathetic. I'll have to pick up an old copy somewhere (I have to toss pretty much anything tossable when I'm ready to emerge from my lair) but that should be easy enough. Some good God time will be a great way to spend isolation time :).

#3. A GREAT excuse to get a new bedding set for our bed! I know, I know... silliness. BUT.... I'll have to toss all the sheets and whatnot from the bed anyway... so... hmmmm... time to start shopping. I actually already have a set picked out - just waiting for Macy's to have free shipping again :).

So now I have THREE positive things that will come out of my having cancer. Like our dear Monty Python friends sing... it's time to start looking at the BRIGHT side of life!

Struggles.....

No pictures this time... (again!)... but I feel like I need to share what is on my heart.

Never in my 35 years did I think that I would hear the words "you have cancer". It's something that happens to OTHER people... not me.

Yeah... not so much. It's amazing how these "simple" words completely change your life. For some good... and some bad. I have been beyond blessed by the kindness and love of friends and family. Back in December when I had my surgery, they pretty much took over the day to day stuff for me. I'm not one to ask for help... but have I ever learned that sometimes, you just need to accept it when it's offered! :)

It's been over a month since my original surgery... the surgery itself has healed fine. A minor scar... but nothing (thankfully) to horrible. Life has gone back to normal for the most part... at least it appears that way to most...

But I'm struggling. Deeply. Sometimes I feel like depression is going to take over.... my mind is constantly churning out different scenarios. I pray all day long for God to take over my thoughts... to not let Satan have his way. I try to remind myself that everything happens for a reason and I only need to trust HIM.

I've tried SO hard to stay strong and positive through this whole ordeal... I haven't really had a "WHY ME?!?!" moment. But the longer I deal with it, the more I find myself wondering... "why me?". I don't like pity parties... and I've tried REALLY hard to not have one for myself. But right now, I'm not sure what positive can come from all this.

All this being said... it leads me to my "word of the year". Apparently these are pretty popular in the bloggy world :). My word this year...

Trust

Simple as that (HA HA HA!). I have to trust that God has a plan. I have to trust that in the end all will be okay... and if it's not, that HE will take care of both myself and my little family. I have to trust Him to not give me more than what I can handle... or if it feels that way that he will provide a way to best deal with it. My pastor once said that our lives are "God's story". I have literally clung to those words over the last few months. HE has a plan... I just have to be willing to follow his lead.

So... if you're a praying sort of person, I could use some :). I'm working to protect my heart and mind from the negativity that Satan breeds. Working SO hard to stay focused on the goal of glorifying Christ in EVERYTHING... both good and bad. Working beyond hard to simply TRUST....

looking back at 2010...

I decided to take a trip down memory lane this afternoon... NOT a good thing. :) Here are the goals I set for myself to work towards in 2010... (I wanted to be able to say these things as of 12/31/10)....

1. I have lost 20 pounds

2. I have quit soda altogether

3. We FINALLY finished painting the interior of our home... (this has been an ongoing project for over 4 years.... you can stop laughing now...)

4. I tried seafood (I have a weird seafood phobia.... just typing that out has me almost "enjoying" a panic attack... it's rather bizarre...)

5. I no longer spend just because I can... I have been able to put more into savings rather than into junk we don't need.

Well... I can officially say one of them. #3... the house was FINALLY painted this summer/fall. As for the rest of them... yeah.... not happening.

Let's reflect a moment on each task...

1. I tried REALLY hard to lose the 20lbs. Was working out 4 times a week doing an hour of cardio each time. Also incorporated strength training. I never saw any sort of results... NADA, ZIP... NOTHING! But... now I sort of know why. The big "C" - cancer. Now saying this is all to blame... but thyroid cancer totally screws up your metabolism. HOPEFULLY now that the path to health has been embarked upon... but this time in 2011, I will have lost 30 lbs! :)

2. soda... i tried SEVERAL times. lame, right? not sure what it's going to take to quit drinking soda. miracle? :)

3. YEAH!!!

4. I was sincerely planning to try seafood while on our annual FL vacation this year. Had it all planned out - a grouper sandwich from Pompano Joe's. :) BUT... then the oil spill happened and I decided I'd rather wait a year. So... 2011 is my year! :)

5. I've done better with this. Not perfection by any claim... but better. Rather than boosting our savings, we've been trying to pay down debt... in a MAJOR way.

So that's the official rundown of 2010 goals. Time to start thinking about 2011... it's been a rough end to 2010... and possibly a rough start to 2011... but it can only go up, right?!

HAPPY NEW YEAR (a bit early...!)!!!!!

A GREAT day for a hike in the woods... :)

Let me preface this whole ditty by saying that I REALLY need a better camera to catch the kids at the "perfect" moment. As you can see with the Chud below... I would LOVE to have him not be blurry in this picture! At least you can still see how cool this place is...

A few weeks ago we packed up the kids after church and headed to Hocking Hills. It's about an hour from our house... and SO amazing! Even though we've lived here for 5 years now we had never taken the time to drive out to hike around. It's a huge gorge type area just to the west (or is it east... maybe north... or even south... yeah... I really don't know) of C-bus. AMAZING!!!! The kids had a billion places to climb into... water to toss rocks into... in their minds... perfection!

I love this picture of "miss thing" below... you can totally see that she is absolutely SICK of my taking pictures. HA! The joys of being the mom! :) It's so rare to get all three looking at the camera, almost smiling, with their eyes open. I personally thing this picture is nothing short of a MIRACLE!

What have you done this fall with YOUR family?

Our annual FL vacation... August 2010

Every year (almost) we head down to Destin, FL to enjoy the sun, sand, and pool. The kids love it, we love it... it's perfect. We stay at the same place every year... which is kind of nice. I like to be able to "be" on vacation when we "go" on vacation. Not stressing about getting lost or if our condo is going to be crap :). We did stay in a different condo this year... at the same complex. LOVED IT! It was our favorite out of the 3 we've stayed in for previous visits. Can't wait to go back!! Here are some pics of our time... nothing to life changing... just fun shots... except for the first pic...

see that nasty green goop.... it's algae. We've NEVER had an issue with it before. Apparently, due to the heavy rains in the Midwest... the fertilizer farms use along the mighty Mississippi has washed into the gulf. Gross. So... with all the HOT weather the gulf has had this summer.... the fertilizer has blossomed into some lovely green goo. Usually they have an "offshore flow" (winds blow yuk stuff out), but oh no... not this year. They've had a consistent "onshore flow". Figures. Enough with our nature/weather lesson.... let's move on.....

Miss Thing was SO proud of this hole... "mom... I have water!!!". She worked HARD on this... very hard. Kind of cute to see the kids applying themselves to something as mundane as digging a sand hold. Wish it would translate to room cleaning...

Had to include Red's hole... he's such a goofball. He wanted his picture to look like he fell into a huge hole... pretty convincing, eh?

the Chud had issues with digging a hole... he never seemed to sit in one place long enough to actually get anything started. Crazy kid... where he gets his energy... I'll NEVER know! I'll be curious next year if his hole digging skills have improved... :)

This is every mother's dream... all the kids playing together without bickering, yelling, or any other negative form of anything. This was toward the end of the week (maybe even the morning we left...) so thankfully most of the nasty green goo had moved a bit farther off shore (like 10 feet... but enough to make a difference!!). They sat and did whatever they do along the shore for quite a while. WONDERFUL! This is why I LOVE taking the kids to the beach... they're finally content.

What to do... what to do?

Toward the middle of summer, I started to hear "MOM... I'M BORED!!!". Not really sure how it's possible with the GAZILLIONS of toys they have and all the fun outdoor stuff available to them... but none-the-less... I put my thinking cap on and came up with this...

SHAVING CREAM FUN!!!

Not exactly a "new" idea... but it was new to my 3 little schwadlings :)....

This is about the ONLY kind of graffiti I'd ever let the kids take part in... :) ... the kind that washes away. I (back in my rebel days... ha ha ha), along with some junior high friends decided it would be fun to use shaving cream all over a local elementary school one night at a sleepover. Yeah, the cops didn't like it so much (lame). That was my first run in with the law. I still don't think my parents know about it... my friends parents were FREAKING out! :) Anyway...

This was SEVERAL weeks ago, but I swear, he still smells like Barbasol. He loved it... he's a very touchy-feely kid... so this was great for him!

It was fun to watch once they really started to get into it. At first Miss Thing was all worried that it was going to "ruin my hair or swimsuit". Whatever. So NOT her mother's daughter in that regard. Once they figured it all out... WATCH OUT! As you can see even the little neighbor boy Dougie got into it (he would be the one in the blue shirt) - sorry Cliff and Anne! :)

I think Miss Thing decided it was revenge time on all the boys. Being the only girl sometimes she has to put up with a LOT of boy stuff. She took FULL advantage of this opportunity (you GO girl!!)...

One day, I WILL get a picture of all three of them with their eyes open! :) HA! They really did have SO much fun... you should totally try it if you have kids. It's cheap (less than $1.50 a can for the Barbasol) and cleans up easy. Must say, the clean up was the best part for me. I took the hose sprayer and told them to hold still. I LOVE spraying people... so it was perfect! BBBWWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :)....

FINALLY!!!!

The shutters have been done for a while... but I've been such a slacker with sharing ANYTHING on this lovely blog :). SO here is the "not" so grand reveal of this project that ended up being the thorn in my flesh for many weeks!

Painting (what felt like) millions of boards - outside - in the sun - on our black driveway... yeah... not so fun. After painting them the lovely shade of "Napolean" (aka: dark gray) I realized I probably should've primed them first. Oops. Oh well... what's done is done. We had to make 10 of these babies... felt SO good to see them done and put together!

My uber-brave husband had to literally FORCE the nasty vinyl shutters from the house. I thought he was going to fall with them a few times... he seemed to enjoy it. Maybe a little bit too much....

Here you can witness the nastiness that WAS our faded, crappy vinyl shutters. These were DARK red when we moved in 5 years ago. Now they look pink. Gross. Who wants PINK shutters??

Not the best picture... but look how much better these look!?! We also painted our front door BRIGHT RED (think 16 coats of red paint... seriously) which really helped to bring it all together. I added some new pots of flowers and PRESTO CHANGO... so much better!

We saved so much $$ doing these ourselves (one set of shutters would've cost what we paid for 5 sets had we purchased them) so all the sweat, tears, and sunburn was totally worth it. I have to give props to Miss Thrifty Decor Chick who inspired me to try this project. You totally have to check out her blog. She's got some amazing ideas and she's so darn creative (yes... I'm jealous....) - you'll probably be sucked into it all like I have :). Consider this your warning...

On to the next project... painting our master bath. STILL don't have a color... so it may NEVER get done! :)