Wow, Worst Blogger Ever Award? Yep - goes to me!
Sorry for being MIA lately, if anyone actually noticed the absence of my obnoxious posting. Although it sounds like an excuse, my crazy busy job and life have kind of taken over lately and to be frank, I really was having trouble coming up with ideas for good blog topics. I don't want to keep writing about cancer, tv shows, my boring life or other things that just aren't that exciting or thought provoking. But, over the past few days I have been thinking about something and figured I would share in the hopes that you will share with me as well.
So unless you've been living under a rock this week you know that the Mega Millions lottery is close to $600 Million. Holy crap, right!?! While everyone's instinct is to go out and buy a bunch of lottery tickets, mine is to constantly day dream about what I would do with the money. For me the fun of pretending and imagining what that money could do far outweighs the waste of money, hope and disappointment that comes with buying a losing lottery ticket (a little pessimistic? maybe...). An amount of money of that caliber can do so much and fill so many dreams. A few blog posts ago I talked about goals. Now, I'm talking about DREAMS. Dreams are things that you would love to do, but may not be the most practical or obtainable. So while I have been living in a day dream land of paid off student loans, fancy houses and wonderful vacations one of my life-long dreams keeps floating into the forefront. My dream of owning my own non-profit organization keeps coming up and I am constantly wondering how much of a "dream" this is and how much of a "goal" it could become.
As someone who already works in the non-profit world I know what how much the right programming, staff and passion can help those in need but that means I also know how hard this mission can be. We all know our state is not in the best position, we have children dropping out of school, not having food in the bellies, no heat in the winter, men and women living on the streets, people struggling to find work or even hold onto the work they already have. It seems extremely daunting and incredibly sad that there is all this need around us and very little resources to fulfill it. I guess that's another part of my dream, helping and putting an end to something that is plaguing our communities... maybe I should buy a Mega Millions ticket after all :)
So, now that you know one of my biggest dreams, I want to know yours.
If you were to win the $600 Million tonight - what would you do with it?
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Three Things I Think You Should Do
Hey people! (If there's actually people reading this)
1. Read the Hunger Games: I have been slightly MIA lately as it concerns this little blog here... BUT I have a good reason. I have been totally engrossed in the Hunger Games series! It takes a lot for a book to hold my attention and actually keep me hooked like this and honestly I am enjoying more than I did the Twilight series. (insert appalling gasp here) I love the story line, the romance and the fact that there is a movie coming out next week!! I have to say though that I am slightly nervous about seeing the movie because I have a feeling it might disappoint when compared to the book...they always do. I'm hoping that I can drag my sister to the movie since she has yet to read the book so I can see what her perspective is on the film without reading the book... I told her I would prepare discussion questions for afterward but she didn't seem too into it :)
2. Stop drinking pop, soda or whatever you want to call it: So in addition to reading the Hunger Games, I have been trying to do little things that make me laugh and keep me happy lately. It's going over pretty well if I do say so myself. I gave up drinking all pop, which was a lot harder then I thought it would be, but honestly, I feel a lot better and have saved some money by not buying diet coke everyday. So if you need a sponsor for your diet coke addiction - hit me up!
3. Be nice to people: I really can't believe how rude people are to each other. When did it become okay to treat other people like crap? Everyone needs to slow down, take a breath realize that EVERYONE has stuff going on in their lives that distracts them, frustrates them, is depressing or makes them late for work. None of these things are a reason or excuse to treat those around you like they don't matter. Instead of blowing up, take a moment and think of the 10,000 things that might be going on in that persons life that might make them a little less than perfect.
Here's an extra one for you:
4. Comment on Emily's blog so she feels like people are out there. Kthanks!
1. Read the Hunger Games: I have been slightly MIA lately as it concerns this little blog here... BUT I have a good reason. I have been totally engrossed in the Hunger Games series! It takes a lot for a book to hold my attention and actually keep me hooked like this and honestly I am enjoying more than I did the Twilight series. (insert appalling gasp here) I love the story line, the romance and the fact that there is a movie coming out next week!! I have to say though that I am slightly nervous about seeing the movie because I have a feeling it might disappoint when compared to the book...they always do. I'm hoping that I can drag my sister to the movie since she has yet to read the book so I can see what her perspective is on the film without reading the book... I told her I would prepare discussion questions for afterward but she didn't seem too into it :)
2. Stop drinking pop, soda or whatever you want to call it: So in addition to reading the Hunger Games, I have been trying to do little things that make me laugh and keep me happy lately. It's going over pretty well if I do say so myself. I gave up drinking all pop, which was a lot harder then I thought it would be, but honestly, I feel a lot better and have saved some money by not buying diet coke everyday. So if you need a sponsor for your diet coke addiction - hit me up!
3. Be nice to people: I really can't believe how rude people are to each other. When did it become okay to treat other people like crap? Everyone needs to slow down, take a breath realize that EVERYONE has stuff going on in their lives that distracts them, frustrates them, is depressing or makes them late for work. None of these things are a reason or excuse to treat those around you like they don't matter. Instead of blowing up, take a moment and think of the 10,000 things that might be going on in that persons life that might make them a little less than perfect.
Here's an extra one for you:
4. Comment on Emily's blog so she feels like people are out there. Kthanks!
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Last "Normal" Day - Part One
I remember our last "normal" day - It was Wednesday, August 3rd 2011. It was a partly cloudy, windy day in the Upper Peninsula - about 65 degrees. Not a bad day for making the eight hour drive home from our vacation in Munising. We had just spent four days up north at my aunt's cabin, fishing, swimming, reading and being lazy - it was an amazingly perfect vacation. We had a lot of fun and even spent a couple days with my parents before heading home to go back to our real lives. Going home was a bummer, but we didn't mind. We both had work to get back to and we were waiting for the final word on a house we had put an offer on months before. We were happy.
When we pulled into the parking lot at home, Justin got out of the car and said he couldn't feel his foot. After an eight hour drive, I figured it was normal and even poked fun at him - calling him an old man. We both figured it would go away, no big deal. The next day I went to work and he went to a big work meeting (even though he was still technically on vacation) - when I got home from work that day he told me he still had no feeling in his foot and it was actually kind of tingly. I thought it was strange, but really didn't think it was a big deal. Justin had a friend who was in the process of finishing his bachelors in nursing at the time and Justin had him check out his foot before they took off to play disc golf for the rest of the afternoon. His friend made a comment that he really needed to get his foot checked out, just in case, but they were still going to go disc golfing after they visited the doctor. So, I stayed home and emptied out my DVR, while they went to urgent care.
I don't know the details of events of the next few hours so I will paraphrase: While in urgent care, the doctors had a hard time finding a pulse in Justin's right foot but thought they might not have the right equipment to do so and they sent Justin to the emergency room to have everything checked out. At about 9 o'clock that night, I got a call from Justin. He told me that he had been checked out by quite a few doctors and they couldn't find a pulse in his foot and they were preparing to do emergency surgery if necessary. I got in my car.
When I found Justin in the ER, he was laughing and having fun with the staff, but I was panicking. Surgery? Emergency Surgery?!?! How did this happen? WHAT was happening? I was pretty much going crazy. At about midnight, the doctors decided that it wasn't necessary for Justin to have surgery right then, but they wanted to keep him overnight so the vascular surgeon could see him in the morning. The three of us spent the night in a very nice, private hospital room - I got about 15 minutes of sleep. Justin got very little sleep as they have to check his vitals every hour or so. Overall it was not a fun night.
The next morning after we spoke with the vascular surgeon and numerous tests later, they diagnosed Justin with popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. It's an issue that happened when he was developing before he was born. Readers Digest Version: the artery carrying blood from the thigh to his foot developed inside of his calf muscle instead of around it. His calf muscle was squeezing off the blood supply to his foot. A few more hours without going to the hospital and Justin would have lost his foot. (P.S. I feel totally awful about calling him an old man now). With constant monitoring and preparations to go into surgery if needed, they scheduled the surgery for Monday (at this point it was Friday morning). They put him on blood thinners and kept him under constant watch in the hospital.
I know you're thinking - "um...what the hell does this have to do with cancer?"...
I'm getting to that :)
The results of one of the 10,000 tests that Justin had done over that weekend showed some enlarged lymphnodes in his abdomen. The vascular surgeon said it could just look big on the scan because Justin is so thin, but they wanted to biopsy one of them and bring in a hematologist while they were in surgery on Monday just to be sure. This seemed super scary at the time but honestly, no one really made a big deal of it...it just seemed like something they were double checking. Everyone's main concern was his leg and the artery bypass surgery on Monday. Looking back, I wish I could have that carefree (lets face it, I was a basket case, my husband was having emergency surgery on his leg, but in terms of what I have gone through since then, this was nothing) feeling again, even if it's just for a few minutes.
Little did I know the worst days of my life were not too far into the future...
I don't know the details of events of the next few hours so I will paraphrase: While in urgent care, the doctors had a hard time finding a pulse in Justin's right foot but thought they might not have the right equipment to do so and they sent Justin to the emergency room to have everything checked out. At about 9 o'clock that night, I got a call from Justin. He told me that he had been checked out by quite a few doctors and they couldn't find a pulse in his foot and they were preparing to do emergency surgery if necessary. I got in my car.
When I found Justin in the ER, he was laughing and having fun with the staff, but I was panicking. Surgery? Emergency Surgery?!?! How did this happen? WHAT was happening? I was pretty much going crazy. At about midnight, the doctors decided that it wasn't necessary for Justin to have surgery right then, but they wanted to keep him overnight so the vascular surgeon could see him in the morning. The three of us spent the night in a very nice, private hospital room - I got about 15 minutes of sleep. Justin got very little sleep as they have to check his vitals every hour or so. Overall it was not a fun night.
The next morning after we spoke with the vascular surgeon and numerous tests later, they diagnosed Justin with popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. It's an issue that happened when he was developing before he was born. Readers Digest Version: the artery carrying blood from the thigh to his foot developed inside of his calf muscle instead of around it. His calf muscle was squeezing off the blood supply to his foot. A few more hours without going to the hospital and Justin would have lost his foot. (P.S. I feel totally awful about calling him an old man now). With constant monitoring and preparations to go into surgery if needed, they scheduled the surgery for Monday (at this point it was Friday morning). They put him on blood thinners and kept him under constant watch in the hospital.
I know you're thinking - "um...what the hell does this have to do with cancer?"...
I'm getting to that :)
The results of one of the 10,000 tests that Justin had done over that weekend showed some enlarged lymphnodes in his abdomen. The vascular surgeon said it could just look big on the scan because Justin is so thin, but they wanted to biopsy one of them and bring in a hematologist while they were in surgery on Monday just to be sure. This seemed super scary at the time but honestly, no one really made a big deal of it...it just seemed like something they were double checking. Everyone's main concern was his leg and the artery bypass surgery on Monday. Looking back, I wish I could have that carefree (lets face it, I was a basket case, my husband was having emergency surgery on his leg, but in terms of what I have gone through since then, this was nothing) feeling again, even if it's just for a few minutes.
Little did I know the worst days of my life were not too far into the future...
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Goals - Tiny and Tremendous (and everywhere in between)
We all have them - sometimes they're little goals like making it through the day without drinking pop (ok, that might be a tremendous goal for some, mainly me and my good friend diet coke) or they can be huge and include major life changes. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the time we tend to set negative goals for ourselves by taking something away from our lives and we rarely look for positive goals, especially when looking at small goals. I also think we are so incredibly hard on ourselves for not successfully reaching our goals - why not celebrate the time and effort you put into your goals and adapting your expectations to set yourself up for success?
In the spirit of tiny and tremendous goals, I thought I would share some of mine with you in the hopes that you will also share some of yours (SERIOUSLY people, share stuff with me so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself. Please and Thank You :))
I am an organizational junkie so my first goal, while tiny, is going to bring me A LOT of relief, happiness and calmness - I plan on cleaning out my purse before going to bed tonight. I have a rather large purse and I tend to just shove things in there and that has resulted in about six birthday cards (my birthday was about two months ago, btw), old receipts, about four mini bottles of hand sanitizers, etc. Who knows what I might find in there - maybe I'm a millionaire and don't know it ;)
This next goal is a little bit on the tremendous side because it requires me to wake up a little earlier and put in more effort in the morning - I am going to start making my own breakfast at home. For months I have been picking up breakfast on the way to work (along with a giant, cold, diet coke...soooo good) and not only is that incredibly unhealthy, it's also ridiculously expensive. If you're spending about $4 a morning, 5 days a week that's $20 a week on breakfast when I already have bagels, cereal, carnation instant breakfast and eggs at home...what a waste!! So far this week, I have been successful and have even brought my lunch to work both yesterday and today - I must admit, it's nice to know I'm saving money and not wasting the food I already bought from the store. Score!!
Now, a super duper tremendous goal of mine is to save enough money to buy a house. We are so over living in an apartment and really need more space but have been screwed several times in the home purchasing department and pretty much have to start over again...in a couple years. With everything going on in our lives right now we are extremely thankful for not being stuck with a mortgage, but boy, would we love to have a house right now. Can someone just deposit a couple hundred thousand dollars in my bank account? kthanks.
These are just a couple of my goals and I'm sure I'll post more but for now I'm going to try and work on my tiny, kinda tremendous and totally tremendous goals.
Tell me about your goals!
xo Em
In the spirit of tiny and tremendous goals, I thought I would share some of mine with you in the hopes that you will also share some of yours (SERIOUSLY people, share stuff with me so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself. Please and Thank You :))
I am an organizational junkie so my first goal, while tiny, is going to bring me A LOT of relief, happiness and calmness - I plan on cleaning out my purse before going to bed tonight. I have a rather large purse and I tend to just shove things in there and that has resulted in about six birthday cards (my birthday was about two months ago, btw), old receipts, about four mini bottles of hand sanitizers, etc. Who knows what I might find in there - maybe I'm a millionaire and don't know it ;)
This next goal is a little bit on the tremendous side because it requires me to wake up a little earlier and put in more effort in the morning - I am going to start making my own breakfast at home. For months I have been picking up breakfast on the way to work (along with a giant, cold, diet coke...soooo good) and not only is that incredibly unhealthy, it's also ridiculously expensive. If you're spending about $4 a morning, 5 days a week that's $20 a week on breakfast when I already have bagels, cereal, carnation instant breakfast and eggs at home...what a waste!! So far this week, I have been successful and have even brought my lunch to work both yesterday and today - I must admit, it's nice to know I'm saving money and not wasting the food I already bought from the store. Score!!
Now, a super duper tremendous goal of mine is to save enough money to buy a house. We are so over living in an apartment and really need more space but have been screwed several times in the home purchasing department and pretty much have to start over again...in a couple years. With everything going on in our lives right now we are extremely thankful for not being stuck with a mortgage, but boy, would we love to have a house right now. Can someone just deposit a couple hundred thousand dollars in my bank account? kthanks.
These are just a couple of my goals and I'm sure I'll post more but for now I'm going to try and work on my tiny, kinda tremendous and totally tremendous goals.
Tell me about your goals!
xo Em
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday Night Traditions!
Saturday nights have become full if traditions for Justin and I. A few months ago we started coming over to my parent's house for dinner. We are going on four months and have only missed one Saturday! Its tons of fun and nice to spend time with family.
Tonight we joined two traditions, our Saturday night dinner and what we call "hockey snacks"! Hockey snacks are a bunch of yummy appetizer type of foods that my mom makes to eat during a Wings game. We have been doing it forever and it is a favorite tradition for each of us. I took some pics of the yumminess that will be consumed tonight :) we have mexican dip, mini reubens, bagel bites, cheese sticks, etc.
What are some of your favorite family traditions?
Happy Saturday & GO WINGS!!!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Cold Feet and Crock Pot Pork Chops
Michigan officially has the craziest weather, ever! Yesterday it was about 45 degrees - I didn't wear my coat for most of the day and actually had to open a window in the office because it was too hot in there. Today it was chilly but not too bad in the wee hours of the morning, but it started snowing like crazy around 9am...just enough to make it slippery, slushy and wet. Now, as I look out our window I see ZERO snow. Kind of irritating considering I wore my ballet flats today and ended up with soaking wet feet for about five hours and then snow decides to melt as soon as I get home and don't have to bother with it. BAH!
So I'm all snuggled up at home now, in the lazy-boy under my favorite purple blanket with dinner in the crock pot, catching up on the DVR with the hubs. I have to admit, I feel super strange not being at work (and hesitate to admit that I've been on my work e-mail all afternoon even though I got off work at 2p) but I am enjoying my afternoon off with Justin, who had his fourth chemotherapy treatment this morning. Looks like the drugs are kicking in since he's eating us out of house and home - in the last three hours he has consumed lunch, a bowl of chili and a bag of popcorn. THIS is why they say you gain weight while going through CHOP chemotherapy, haha.
Has anyone else seen this commercial? I think it's hilarious!!
I plan on updating with more substantial things soon, but thought I would brag about my cozy afternoon ;) Also, if this new pork chop recipe turns out well, I plan on completely bragging about that later too!
xo Em.
So I'm all snuggled up at home now, in the lazy-boy under my favorite purple blanket with dinner in the crock pot, catching up on the DVR with the hubs. I have to admit, I feel super strange not being at work (and hesitate to admit that I've been on my work e-mail all afternoon even though I got off work at 2p) but I am enjoying my afternoon off with Justin, who had his fourth chemotherapy treatment this morning. Looks like the drugs are kicking in since he's eating us out of house and home - in the last three hours he has consumed lunch, a bowl of chili and a bag of popcorn. THIS is why they say you gain weight while going through CHOP chemotherapy, haha.
Has anyone else seen this commercial? I think it's hilarious!!
I plan on updating with more substantial things soon, but thought I would brag about my cozy afternoon ;) Also, if this new pork chop recipe turns out well, I plan on completely bragging about that later too!
xo Em.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
50/50
So it might be a little early in my blogger life to bring up my husband's cancer, but if I'm going to be honest, cancer is what I think about 90% of the time so it's going to pop up in here from time to time.
My husband was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma in August and I have been dreading seeing this movie since the first time I saw the preview. I knew I HAD to see it, but I also knew that I couldn't see it before I was ready. Justin watched it a couple weeks ago after his chemo treatment and said it was hilarious and amazing so I figured it was safe. This morning was my first opportunity to actually sit down and watch, so I pushed aside my apprehensions and pushed play.
I am about an hour and a half in and I have to say this movie is extremely real, raw and emotional. Recently I have been seeing "cancer" in the media as jokes, lame story lines and something that hollywood uses as an indication of drama. This. This Movie is what cancer is. It really lets you see into the world of someone with cancer - it helped me understand a little bit more of what my husband is going through and instead of making me feel awful it encouraged me to continue the fight along side Justin (not that ANYTHING could ever convince me otherwise).
The level of acting in this movie is the best I've ever seen, Anna Kendrick is stellar! I didn't realize she was in the movie until I watched the On Demand preview, I was expecting to love Seth Rogen like always (which I did) but Anna Kendrick was quite inspiring. I've been a fan of hers since the first Twilight Movie and I have to say, she was the only interesting thing in Breaking Dawn but I'm sure I'll whine more about that later.
So, if you're holding out on seeing 50/50 - Don't! It's great, emotional but inspiring all at the same time. If I can make it through it while feeling inspired and not like all hope in the world is lost - you can too!
Who else has seen 50/50? What did you think?
What other movies have just completely surprised you? Inspired you?
Who's your favorite actor/actress? Why?
Happy Saturday!
xo Em
My husband was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma in August and I have been dreading seeing this movie since the first time I saw the preview. I knew I HAD to see it, but I also knew that I couldn't see it before I was ready. Justin watched it a couple weeks ago after his chemo treatment and said it was hilarious and amazing so I figured it was safe. This morning was my first opportunity to actually sit down and watch, so I pushed aside my apprehensions and pushed play.
I am about an hour and a half in and I have to say this movie is extremely real, raw and emotional. Recently I have been seeing "cancer" in the media as jokes, lame story lines and something that hollywood uses as an indication of drama. This. This Movie is what cancer is. It really lets you see into the world of someone with cancer - it helped me understand a little bit more of what my husband is going through and instead of making me feel awful it encouraged me to continue the fight along side Justin (not that ANYTHING could ever convince me otherwise).
The level of acting in this movie is the best I've ever seen, Anna Kendrick is stellar! I didn't realize she was in the movie until I watched the On Demand preview, I was expecting to love Seth Rogen like always (which I did) but Anna Kendrick was quite inspiring. I've been a fan of hers since the first Twilight Movie and I have to say, she was the only interesting thing in Breaking Dawn but I'm sure I'll whine more about that later. So, if you're holding out on seeing 50/50 - Don't! It's great, emotional but inspiring all at the same time. If I can make it through it while feeling inspired and not like all hope in the world is lost - you can too!
Who else has seen 50/50? What did you think?
What other movies have just completely surprised you? Inspired you?
Who's your favorite actor/actress? Why?
Happy Saturday!
xo Em
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