in the dry

"two things to remember in life.

take care of your thoughts when you are alone,

and take care of your words when you are with people."

(unknown)

we are back home.

things are dry.

reconstruction is yet to be done.

but we are home.

and life is starting to be feel kind of normal again.

minus the lack of floors here and there.

i looked at my september goal list and kind of laughed yesterday.

but then realized through all of the craziness of the last two weeks,

i am actually not doing too bad on crossing them off.

so you can still bust out some goals when all is going down the drain,

oh wait, i mean when all is going down the walls.

happy tuesday.

perspective

our plumbing drama has continued on.

wet walls. wet floors. and then folks that were supposed to help to start to dry things out created an even bigger problem. it is amazing the problems that can be caused by one little hose not being connected to a drain like it should have been, and instead pumping water right back into the room you are trying to dry out. ugh.

crazy how your life starts to look very differently the moment that you determine that you need to shut off all water in your house, that the fans running to try and dry out rooms sound like a jet engine, and your home suddenly becomes an entirely different place.

nerves frayed and stress levels climbing high.

but in between all of that chaos, the most important things shine through.

beth got good news on friday and her tests results came back clean. so thankful for that news, exactly what we were all hoping for.

even in the midst of everything else going on, that makes friday a great day.

i have no clue what this week is going to look like for us.

but here we go.

i hope this is a good week for you, and may the plumbing fates be good to you;)

just what you need

wednesday night.

your daughter wants to play tag so you are running around your house.

you run into one of your downstairs room and it is like running into a full on rain puddle.

you immediately realize you have a big problem.

busted pipe.

wet carpets. wet walls. wet floor.

ugh.

your night quickly changes direction to calls to insurance and claim adjusters.

you go to bed a bit frazzled and trying to figure out how your thursday is going to look.

you wake up and you have text from one of your favorite people that has a link and simply says "good morning. you are welcome"

without even having a clue of what is going on, your friend makes you laugh and you realize that whatever your day ends up like, it started with a really good laugh so it can't be that bad.

if you need a laugh too, you should check out this ellen degeneres and jimmy fallon lip sync.

good morning and you are welcome.

hello september + good vibes for beth

ok, the game plan for this post was to kick off the fall with a great to do list for the month.

the problem is that apparently blogger hates me tonight and it is not letting me load the picture of the list.

maybe it is mad at me because i haven't been on here too much lately.

paybacks i guess.

but after trying to figure it out for about 5 minutes (beyond my patience threshold with blogger) i am moving on, and therefore making this just a little less interesting because you won't see it with my amazing photography (you know, the picture i took one shot of and called it good).

maybe blogger will let me load the picture when the month is done. but i am not holding my breath.

so here are the september to do's:

+++ run

+++ finish my book (currently reading "is everyone hanging out without me" by mindy kaling and it is really good/funny)

+++ send happy mail

+++ take a nap

+++ make popcorn

+++ celebrate family bdays

+++ get some pictures into albums

+++ try a new recipe

+++ make some cards

+++ take a nap, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

+++ drink a cider on my deck with the patio lights twinkling

as you can see, there are no specific numbers in any of these goals. yep, taking it easy this month and just focusing on the activities, not the miles or the pages. that is a much more important focus anyways, right? right.

also -- and really the most important part of this post - please send your good vibes/prayers/thoughts/mojo to my dear friend beth this week. she has a checkup round of tests this week to make sure that everything is going well, and she meets with her doctor on friday. i know, we all know that these tests are going to be just fine and squeaky clean, but just for some extra insurance, let's send the love her way anyways.

happy wednesday peeps, we are already half way there, how awesome is that?

pretty awesome if you ask me.

thanks for asking.

day one

so this day.

she did it.

she rocked it.

she got on the bus.

she found her way into her new school.

she found the line that she belonged in for her class.

she helped another new student clean the tables after lunch (can i tell you how much i loved that email from the teacher around noon which made me even more proud of her - as if that was even possible).

she was all smiles when i picked her up.

she decided that she wanted frozen yogurt to celebrate her big day -- with four toppings.

she told us all about the day, even the part about having to wear necklaces to go to the restroom which she quickly told us was "ridiculous" because her teacher already knew where she was going.

she was so brave.

she had a mom that had tears streaming down as she drove away.

she was so brave.

she was my hero.

she always, always is.

tuesday is the big day

you guys.

first grade.

it is happening.

in less than 12 hours.

she is already asleep, i might be up all night.

will she find her way to her class? will someone help her at lunchtime? will someone play with her at recess? will she be scared?

i am in knots.

tomorrow is a big day, and i wish that i could shadow her all day long.

there are two posts by glennon at momastery that say exactly what i feel.

watching him walk away is like looking at the sun. and have this conversation before you send your baby back to school

"just be grateful and kind and brave. that’s all you ever need to be."

that is all anyone of us need to be.

i will brave tomorrow just like she is going to be, and i will watch her walk away as she starts this new adventure.

growing up is not easy, especially when you go through it the second time with your heart walking outside of your body.

so here we go.

anywhere she goes, i go.

jimmy

i had heard weeks ago that jimmy carter had been diagnosed with cancer.

it is always hard to hear about cancer because you just do not want anyone to have to ever have to deal with it.

it was yesterday when i heard that jimmy had been diagnosed with melanoma and that it was stage iv. and that it had spread to his brain.

that makes it even harder.

hearing about someone being diagnosed with the same cancer is really difficult. for many reasons.

if like me, you actually hadn't thought about melanoma that day, it brings it all to the surface. you hear the statistics. the focus on it being stage iv and that stage iv is not good and almost always terminal. you hear people speculate that he probably won't have much time. you hear all of the things that you make you want to crawl into a teeny tiny ball under your covers.

so i am sending my good thoughts to jimmy today.

i am also also sending love and prayers to my friend judy and her entire family as she undergoes another surgery today to keep on fighting cancer.

please send your love, good vibes, and prayers to both of them.