Saturday, July 9, 2011

Days 18 - 30



Ok...this is getting ridiculous! I find myself avoiding this blog because I am so completely over the 30 Day Challenge. So in the interest of getting it done and freeing me up to write when I feel like it and about what I want I am just going to quickly do the last few...sans pictures (except one).






Day 18 - Your Biggest Insecurity - My biggest insecurity is my body...more specifically...my weight. I am always working on it, but very little changes over the years. I see people find success with all these different weight loss strategies, but none of them ever seem to work for me. So...I keep trying...






Day 19 - A Letter - I have kept every letter that Bear has ever written me. I cherish every single one of them.






Day 20 - Somewhere You'd Love To Travel - I would love to be able to take a cruise.






Day 21 - Something You Wish You Could Forget - I wish I could forget all of the negative things she has said about me through the years. It would make it a lot easier to accept the change.






Day 22 - Something You Wish You Were Better At - Singing.






Day 23 - Your Favorite Book - My favorite book is ever changing. Right now it is probably The Hunger Games. I read the entire series a while ago, but am rereading it with Bubbles. It is just as good the second time.






Day 24 - Something You Wish You Could Change - My commute.






Day 25 - Your Day - I am having a lovely day with friends...watching movies and talking.






Day 26 - Something That Means A Lot To You - My family!






Day 27 - Yourself & A Family Member - This is supposed to be a picture...I would probably cheat and use a picture of myself with Bear, Bubbles & Animal...I can't pick just one!






Day 28 - Something You're Afraid Of - Losing my family.






Day 29 - Something That Can Always Make You Smile - The picture at the beginning of this post. It is of Animal and me in one of the lobbies of Great Wolf Lodge. We were having a wonderful time and couldn't have been happier, but we were so tired from a day of swimming and MagiQuesting that we both look a bit sad. Every time I see that picture it makes me smile!






Day 30 - Someone You Miss - I miss my Kimi every single day that we aren't together!



Thursday, April 14, 2011

Day 17 - Something That Made A Huge Impact


Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.


This here would be one of the main reasons that I have been MIA at The Endless Drama lately.


About a month and a half ago, Animal broke his arm trying on clothes (talk about lame! He doesn't even have a cool story to tell!).


While he was trying on a stack of jeans one night, he lifted his leg and got it caught in the arm of a chair. He tumbled over backwards, taking the chair with him. He landed palm down on his left hand and screamed. After Bear got home and looked him over, we decided I should take him to the ER. X-rays confirmed that he had broken both bones in his arm about 2 inches above the wrist.


This is where I need to point out that Animal is one of the most left handed people I have ever met. He does almost NOTHING with his right hand. This meant that he needed help with almost everything...from writing (he has an awesome teacher who did all of his classwork writing for him and gave us permission to write for him on his homework), to dressing, to eating, to basic bathroom functions. I swear he was more labor intensive over the last month and a half than he was as an infant!


Luckily, the cast is off and he has been cleared for normal activity again, so HOPEFULLY our lives can regain some semblence of normality again.

Day 16 - Someone Who Inspires You


Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you.


For this one, I have to go with Tim. He inspires me on so many levels.


He is a marine who live and breaths that life. He would gladly do anything necessary for his country.


He is my best friend's husband and loves her exactly how she needs to be loved.


He is a father who puts his whole heart into his sons and is raising them to be wonderful men.


He is my husband's best friend and is the type of friend that everyone needs in their life.


And he is my friend and can ALWAYS make me laugh (a very important trait in my opinion).

Day 15 - Something You Want to Do Before You Die


Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.


I REALLY want to go on a cruise before I die! Superficial? Yes, but there you go.

Day 14 - Someone You Could Never Live Without


Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.


Kimi and I have only known each other for 7 years, but I feel closer to her than most people in my life. I thank God every day for bringing her into my life and though we live WAY too far away from each other these days, I know that she is always there if I need her. I can't imagine what my life would be like without her in it!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Day 13 - A Picture of Your Favorite Band or Artist

Day 13 - I am going with my favorite artist for this one. And I have two pictures because I couldn't POSSIBLY choose one over the other. This artist is just TOO talented!










Day 12 - A Picture of Something You Love


I love pigs. When I was a teenager, I BEGGED my parents to let me get a pet pot-belly pig...no. When Bear and I first moved in together, I tried to convince him to let me get one...no. I even had a couple names picked out for my precious piggy. I would call him (I always assumed it would be a boy) either Ham-I-Am or Lord Bacon. Unfortunately, the people I love are hell-bent on keeping me from my destiny...sigh.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Day 11 - A Picture of Something You Hate


I HATE BRUSSEL SPROUTS! With every ounce of my being!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Day 10 - The Person You Do Weird Things With


Day 10 - A picture of the person(s) you do the most weird things with.


I am feeling inspired, so I decided to do two today.


As any of my friends can tell you, I am not shy about doing strange things. But my children just seem to bring the craziness out in me!


The stories of our weirdness are endless, but my favorite one was when we went to an amusement park with Bear and my sister. Late in the afternoon, a unexpected storm came out of nowhere and it was an absolute downpour! Everyone was running for cover. We joined a large group of people standing under a restaurant overhang. The storm dragged on for quite a while...showing no signs of letting up. The kids were getting restless and the wall the wall people was getting to me (I don't do crowds!). So...I decided it was high time I taught my kids to dance in the rain! There was no lightening to worry about, so we ran out into the middle of the walkway where a big puddle had accumulated and jumped and danced and made complete fools of ourselves. No one joined us, but everyone watching had big smiles on their faces as my babies giggled and squealed. We got completely soaked and had to stop in the souvenier shop for something dry to wear home, but we had THE BEST TIME!

Day 9 - The Person Who Has Gotten You Through The Most


Day 9 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.


Bear and I have known each other since the first day of 7th grade. He has been there as I have grown up from a truly annoying teenager to the (hopefully less annoying) wife and mother I am today. He stood by me through some really hard times with both his family and my own...overriding his own distaste for conflict to defend me from those who should be most supportive in our lives and then biting his tongue until it bled when I asked. He put up with my craziness as we planned our wedding. He took exceptional care of me as I struggled through a very rough pregnancy and delivery to bring Bubbles into the world. He worked hard (as did I) to get out of crushing debt in order to buy our home. He provided a strong shoulder through months of devastation following a miscarriage. He tried every tactic he could think of to calm my fears through another (much easier) pregnancy and delivery as we completed our family with Animal. He stands firmly by my side on this bumpy journey to raise our children. And he loves me unwaveringly despite my many shortcomings.


That first paragraph makes it sound like our lives together have been rife with sorrow, but in reality those are just snippets of time in the 25 years we have known each other. Though some of those moments have really tested the strength of our love and still weigh heavy on my heart, the good times FAR outweigh the bad.


Bear has been there for me through thick and thin, good and bad, hard and easy. And with every passing snippet, I have become more certain that I can count on him to see me through anything this world throws at us.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 8 - A Picture That Makes You Laugh


This was my wallpaper at work for a LONG time because no matter how bad my day was going, this could always make me laugh.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day 07 - A Picture of Your Most Treasured Item


Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item.

When Bear and I were still dating, he worked as a cashier for a major grocery store near my parents' house. One Christmas, I was very excited about the holidays and was constantly running around saying "Merry Chrismoose!" to everyone (I was very young). His store often decorated the cash registers with stuffed animals and the like for whatever holiday was coming up. One day, shortly before Christmas, Bear arrived at his register to find that it was decorated with a stuffed moose. The tag even read "ChrisMoose". He said it made him think of me and how excited I was about the holidays and he knew it needed to be mine. Chrismoose was one of my Christmas presents that year, and is one of my most precious possessions. It showed me that he paid attention to what I said and really thought about what would make me happy. He has given me MANY awesome gifts in the years since then, but ChrisMoose will always be my favorite, and one of my most treasured items!

Day 07 COMING SOON!

Ok...I have been stalling on this one. It is REALLY hard to narrow down all the wonderful things in my life (both material and not) to one most treasured thing. I thought about stealing Kimi's idea again (she has such good ideas and she is SO far ahead of me), but decided that would be cheating.

Then this morning it hit me! I know EXACTLY what to use. Unfortunately, this revelation hit me at work...the item is at home...and I don't have any pictures of it.

So...I will try my very best to take a picture of it as soon as I get home and then get on with this 30 Day thing! Who wants to lay odds on whether I finish before the end of 2011?

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 06 - Someone You Would Like To Trade Places With For A day


Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

I am stealing Kimi's idea for this one. I can't think of any people I would like to trade places with, but man would I LOVE to be one of my pets!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Day 05 - Favorite Memory


Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory.


I want to start by saying that there was nothing in the rules that said you had to do 30 days in a row! So I am going to keep plugging away at this...SO THERE!


Ok...So I am blessed with a wonderful life full of tons of favorite memory fodder. I am also cursed with terrible long term memory (now my short term memory ROCKS...just ask Kimi...I can get any conversation back on track no matter how far off course we might get!).


My top 3 favorite memories of the past would be my wedding and the births of my two wonderful children. However, since I couldn't possibly put one of those above the others, I am going to go with something more recent that happens to include all of the people from those 3 memories.


Bear and I try to take a family vacation at least every other summer. We would love to go every year, but we have an older house that requires maintenance, so that isn't fiscally possible.


This summer was a vacation year and we decided to take a week long trip to Great Wolf Lodge - Williamsburg. This is the best vacation our family has ever taken. We were all so happy the whole time. There was minimal whining. We were there long enough to do everything that we wanted to do (and there is A LOT to do at GWL!!!) but not so long that we got tired of it. The kids are finally old enough to not only remember the trips we take, but to really enjoy and appreciate them.


I wish I had a picture of all 4 of us from this trip, but unfortunately, we never took one. So I decided to go with my favorite one of the kids together. They are playing Magiquest here and having the time of their lives!