Love and Loss

Disclaimer: This entry isn't going to be as upbeat as the others, but it's to remind you to have a positive outlook.
   
Life and death are the two things that I deem "surreal".  The feelings I get during these two occasions - the love for people I am or am not familiar with... The sense of urgency behind their stories, and the overwhelming thoughts of "what-if".  What if I were in their shoes: celebrating an additional headcount, or mourning the loss of a loved one...

• A friend from work and his wife were recently blessed with new babies.  Yes, babies.  I'm biased... I LOVE multiples.  These people were blessed with Triplets!  Their lives are overflowing with joy and I read her blog frequently to see what new milestones their family has approached...  From the posts about giving birth to her three beautiful healthy babies, to the eagerness she and her husband feel while waiting for the first poop... and soon after, their ride home from the hospital.
• Another friend was told it was going to be challenging to have children... She and her husband were trying to get pregnant for a while, when one day she came to me and said "I'm pregnant!"  And soon after, I got a text message from her saying "TWINS!!"  Again.. overflowing emotion and excitement!  Their beautiful twin girls are now 6.5 months old and just as beautiful as their mama.

(I seem to know a lot of people that have multiples... that's not the point.  It's just an interesting coincidence.  Having one baby at a time is pretty cool too!)

   

Along with these fantastic announcements, this week has proven to be exceptionally challenging for a couple of families...

• I was getting an oil change on my way home from Wisconsin on Monday.  We (my family and I) have developed a pretty good relationship with the people that manage this place (who happen to be brother and sister).  I asked the million dollar question "How are you doing?" and got sad eyes from the two of them.  They then proceeded to tell me about a horrible house fire the weekend prior that left their sister-in-law severely burned and killed their 19-year-old nephew.  The loss has undoubtedly crippled the family.  The manager at Applebee's had heard the story and asked if he could hold a fundraiser to assist with the financial burden that comes with losing a loved one.  What a fantastic thing for them to offer to alleviate some of their stresses!

(for those of you that are local and/or interested in contributing to the fund raiser at the local Applebee's for his funeral, please let me know...)

• Lastly, a girlfriend of mine has been posting updates on "baby Owen" on her Facebook.  Owen is one of three babies (yes, another set of triplets) that her friends was blessed with around 7 months ago.  Baby Owen "grew his wings" Wednesday evening after losing consciousness 4 days prior.  He had rolled over on his belly and was not able to roll back.  After 4 days, their family is searching for peace at the loss of their baby (her blog can be found [here]).  Mel (Owen's mom) has turned in the direction of faith and has now begun the slow process of recovery from such a traumatic experience... Not only does she have the support from her family, but from hundreds of people that have heard her story. 

I don't know some of these families exceptionally well but I feel the joys and sadness as they share their stories.  Times like these are pleasant, solemn, prominent reminders of the blessing held in every breath... 

    

My reminder to all of you tonight is to forgive and forget, live in the moment, be grateful, be gracious and lastly, don't count the wrongs that are inflicted on you... instead, count the blessings you've received in exchange.

Have a fantastic, relaxing long weekend, and thank you for taking the time to visit!

16 days to Melissa's Wedding... Must. Start. Diet.

Procrastinator is such a dirty word.... It just sounds so mean.

But it's what I've become.  Especially when it comes to this whole diet thing.  People always say "Do what makes you happy!"  Well for me, that's eating.  Cooking is my detox from things that stress me out, i.e.: that four letter word that starts with W and ends with K and consists of cubicles. 

*Note: I have banned the use of the word from my blernal.  Which is what I have come to call this handy little thing here.  I don't prefer the word blog... Then people call you a blogger.  I don't like that word either.  (not that I don't LIKE it or the people that DO it, for all of you die-hard bloggers out there)  I don't want to call it a journal because.. well.. I feel journals are meant to be private.  Having little stories told about my life on the famous world wide web doesn't sound too private.  So I've compromised.  Welcome to my "Blernal".

When I cook I love to use random ingredients and hope for the best.  I'm a regular 5-star chef!!  Or that's what I tell myself until I forget to put the flour in the homemade cookies. (that may or may not have actually happened...)

Moving on.. My sister gets married in 2.5 weeks.  Let me rephrase... "the diet Rebecca was supposed to start 6 months ago, now has to be crammed into 16 days."  Well that's promising.

Today I started this diet with the most ridiculous name.  "The Brazil Butt Lift".  It's not horrible, and I actually prefer it over the previous eleven attempts at starting the P90X.  Which, again, isn't horrible... it just takes a lot more time than I'm willing to spend inflicting pain on myself.  (an hour and 30 minutes of YOGA?!)

So the 6-day jump-start detox program (yes, that's what it's called) is actually better than I expected...  If you think that starving and teasing yourself with minuscule quantities of the most succulent fruits is good.  The serving sizes are small.  OR so I thought.

The picture below is a picture of my first meal of day 1:

• 1 Poached Egg
• 1/2 Whole Wheat English Muffin
• 1/2 Medium Grapefruit
• 5 Asparagus Spears

(and a partridge in a pear tree, right?!)

Looks pretty tasty, right?!

Snack time (yes, I get a snack time.. I actually get TWO of 'em!) came and I got to indulge in 1 cup of chopped watermelon. 

I'm not sure what is in store for lunch but I get to find out in 1 hour.  I think it's something along the lines of
1/2 stick string cheese
1 carrot stick
and (if I'm good) TWO celery sticks.

Wish me luck!

And so it begins...

I hear blogging is the new "best thing since sliced bread".  Well I love sliced bread... so I can't imagine I won't love dishing every detail about the crazy things I encounter everyday. Well I can't promise Everyday, but I can promise sporadic updates.

**Disclaimer: This is not like the {People of Walmart} type updates, it's much less disturbing.

I will probably give you a little history (I'm sure you don't know EVERYTHING already) mixed in with some current events, and a little about what I expect to happen... Though there are no guarantee's these things will happen.  Actually, I know they won't happen, but it doesn't hurt to dream, right??


I understand you're thinking "This post is useless and unnecessary, and there are probably better things I could have done for the last 2 minutes I just wasted reading (and re-reading, for those of you that had too-high expectations) your post."  But seriously... This is just the beginning!!