Today I am grateful and happy that my knee, while still a little crunchy, is well enough that I can get back to Jillian's abuse, LOL! (I signed up for JillianMichaels.com, for weight loss and exercise). I completed her 5 circuit program today in a 1 hour record (for me) and I now feel pumped and ready to go. I am also grateful for 80's "Hair Guitar" music (channel 829) and that I am well enough to be able to dance like a crazy woman to it in my living room! (Yes, I AM that old. I will be 42 tomorrow, and am super blessed to add another year to my life. It's a gift, and I won't take it for granted!).

ROCK ON!

Moyamoya Awareness...

Here is another good link to a story with a woman with Moyamoya. Her mother works at Stanford, in the Moyamoya area (Neurology) so they really advocate for it.

One woman's experience with Moyamoya Disease. I just wanted to share it...by Linda M. Arnold...survivor.

Linda's story.

I'm sharing this for a friend of mine...and my heart is absolutely breaking for her and her family...

 A friend of mine, Crissa, has been put on hospice care for Moyamoya Disease.  There will be a benefit for Crissa's family on February 17th all day at Buffalo Wild Wings. Visit any of these Buffalo Wild Wings locations: Elk River, Plymouth, MOA, Crystal, or Chanhassen. Just ***mention her name*** (very important) and 15% of your bill will go to her family. They will be at the Plymouth location throughout the day and night and they hope to see lots of familiar faces!!!!

My heart is absolutely breaking for this family. One in two million, and here she and I are, in the same small town, both with Moyamoya but with very different outcomes. Our daughters are in the same 2nd grade class. Please pray for her and her family. She has 4 young children. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I am grateful for all my loves...my friends, my family...and more intimately my children and my husband.

I am so blessed and grateful to my husband, Bruce. Twenty-one years of marriage takes work and dedication. We aren't perfect by any means, but we truly love and respect each other. He really is my best friend and the only person in the entire world I can truly be myself around. And trust me...I am NO picnic, that's for sure. I'm insecure and broken, yet he still loves me and chooses to be with me. I am very blessed!

I am also very blessed and grateful for my two beautiful little miraculous gifts from God, my children. It took us 11 years, 3 months and 21 days to get pregnant with Emily, including IVF and many IUI's. I remember the pain of every single day...4,129 of them...and they are both worth every day, every hurt, every pain. They were worth the wait, and I am so grateful and blessed that God gave them to me to be their Mommy!

Reason, Season, or Lifetime Friends

When someone is in your life for a reason, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. S/he has come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

S/he is there to meet a need. Then without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, s/he will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes s/he dies. Sometimes s/he walks away. Sometimes s/he acts up or out and forces you to take a stand. What we must realize is that the need has been met.

When a person comes into your life for a season, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. S/he may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. S/he may teach you something you have never done. S/he usually gives you an unbelievable amount of joy.

Lifetime relationships teach you lifetime lessons. Those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. You must accept the lesson, love the person/people anyway, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

I am grateful for my friends. I don't have many, and sometimes that makes me sad, but then I realize it's quality, not quantity. Love those who love you, uphold you, and those that you grow from, and let those who's season have come and gone, go, with a footprint on your heart.

Living in Gratitude

I just started a book study with a group of women, mostly from my church, about Living in Gratitude. I think this is really important, and something that everyone can agree on, on how important it is to be grateful, and thankful for what you have.

Too often we see and dwell on what other people have...bigger, newer houses, cars, clothes, better acting kids, a bigger paycheck, a more impressive job title...you name it. These feelings create unhappiness and ungrateful hearts which can cause depression and jealousy between people. The only person we should compare ourselves to is who we were yesterday and try to learn more every day. Open up, be vulnerable, admit your faults...it is only then that you can truly grow as a person and start to be grateful for what you have and who you are.

I am challenging myself (and you) to be intentional about your gratitude. Be thankful and grateful for something every day. Say thank you, do nice things for other, and really live by The Golden Rule. wouldn't the world be so much better if we all did this?