30 Days of Happiness? Challenge Accepted!

As of yesterday it was decided:

I am going to create a personal 30 day Happiness Challenge.

Sounds silly? Sure, suppose it is. I mean, we should aim to be happy everyday and not for only thirty of them. However, My life hasn’t been a bowl of rainbows and marshmallows, so why not start recognizing what brings happiness into my life?
What I should be thankful to have.

Being constantly ill takes a lot away from you. The little things in life that we all take for granted or never realized play an important role in who we are, and those seem to be the first we forget about.
Today.
Today, I wanted to make the very first of my thirty.

My List of Happys

Kaitlin Approved This Picture

1. A week ago, a girlfriend of mine my best friend of twenty years and I had made plans for massages and pedicures.
What?!
Yes, my very first massage EVER.
What makes this so special?
She used her gift card that her hubby had gifted her for Christmas on the two of us, instead of treating only herself. My friend shared her gift with me. The place was very nice, very clean, smelled amazing, and my masseuse was from Upstate New York like myself! It was a pleasantly wonderful feeling that I cannot wait to experience again, because, it was beyond necessary.

Ja-Ja-Ja-Jaded

2. After our fun-tastic hour of bliss, we headed out to grab a quick bite to eat and drove about town in search of a nail salon opened on a Sunday for a long overdue pedicure. For having such a loving, long-time friend that I know will be there for me no matter how crazy our lives become, it was my turn to treat her.
The most ridiculous sign that states you are best friends is when you subconsciously pick complimentary colors.
Our toes are inappropriately festive for Christmas.

3. Seeing how my gal pal had the brilliant idea of hitting the South Mall here, we swung through TooJay’s across the hall with freshly soft feet, to purchase a cake – a flourless chocolate cake of thick love, comically named “The Killer”. It’s diabeetus in a bite!
[Note: Before you get all butt-hurt, Diabetes is in my family & I had to change my diet once before due to a scare]

STOP FR Y I

4. When we arrived back at my place (because my Kaitlin is awesome for driving Miss Crazy), where we left our men and my child, I began to prepare dinner.
As I was sauteing veggies and filling the house with delicious scents from the kitchen, my wonderful Harloh emerged from her nap and immediately wrapped her arms around my legs. My heart melts for moments like this. When she is given the ability to actually miss me, because I’m gone for more than an hour or two… Sometime after this, I happened to look over and noticed the word STOP on Harloh’s magnetic dry erase board. Why could this possibly be a big deal? Because after asking her father and Uncle Lance, it came to light that my daughter can officially spell the word. The other half told me how he had asked her about the word when he saw it and Harloh was able to tell him what it spelled out.
It’s a word she pauses for every time we go for a walk and she saw it today when they took her down to the water. It’s recognizable. Memorable.

5. Having great friends that make time for your daughter: Priceless. Watching two grown people entertain a toddler with stuffed ponies does not happen very often because, let’s face it, we do not get a whole lot of company.
Uncle Lance and Aunt Kaitlin had Harloh rolling in squeaky giggles.

6. For dinner, I made another seafood dish.
Bay Scallops, Kale, Spaghetti Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Turkey Bacon, Shallots, Garlic, and seasonings made for a nice light dinner that complimented the brick slices of cake.
I know Omega-3 is supposed to be really beneficial, which is why I try to supplement. But, this is not enough and even though I love red meat, it is better for myself and my tiny family to not consume too much of it. Chicken and pork can only go so far before you get bored and seafood is also another fine source of protein.
It is pretty fabulous to have great people in my life that love seafood… and my cooking!

This was the first of many.
I’m pretty excited at giving myself this challenge.

Especially when the this day was pretty incredible. 🙂

Sunday Fun… Well, It Was Sunday.

*Warning: Slight tangent rant*

Every single time I start to feel better, I do too much.
You would think I learned by now. But, the fact is, I hate feeling like an invalid.

Yesterday, I started with a simple scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast for the family. We ate and got ready for the day, which consisted on going to grandma and grandpa’s house. Seeing how my father is behind on getting his paperwork together and organized, numbers situated and inventory properly accounted for, I told him I would help him set up some sort of organization and spreadsheets until getting an accounting software with the appropriate functions for a small business.

Harloh and I arrived at my parents a little before 10am. I wasn’t going to bring her, however, I knew my parents would be a bit bummed if I didn’t.
Not too long after arriving, things went sideways. Apparently, the man who came and installed my parents’ Verizon claimed that their DVD player was too old to hook up into their new HD Smart TV. (Seriously, I would throw the remote into this television if I owned one. Who really needs Facebook on their television?) Anywho, they are slowly getting into the times of the 21st Century and do not own an HD DVD player, so this man automatically assumed because it wasn’t HD, it wouldn’t work… WRONG. It took me, who has very limited knowledge, to figure this out. Now, I am not saying this man was lazy, but at the same time I am. I know it really isn’t their responsibility to make sure a DVD player is working, however, do not tell my parents incorrect information if you do not really know if it will work.
That is irresponsible as a professional.

Then, my father and I decided to go to Wal-Mart to purchase some ledger paper to start the bookkeeping process and breakdown of the months. This became an adventure.
Wal-Mart had a very small selection, which was not very surprising. While there we each picked up a couple of items that were needed for our own personal use and headed to the next interstate exit for Office Depot.
While there, I decided to check out the accounting software. Holy. Priceness. It’s astounding how much they charge for these programs, especially when you have a very small business that is steadily growing. To my surprise, my father actually asked someone for assistance to go over the programs and let me do most of the talking (not to sound ridiculous, but numbers are my thing) and the sales associate pretty much told him the same thing I have been trying to tell him for almost two months: Excel. I do not fault him, though, because he has always been stubborn and he is not too familiar with many programs. However, I have quite the background with numerous softwares and Excel itself, so….
The point is, surprisingly, he purchased it!

Now, when we get back to the house, it is already about 12:30pm and we have not accomplished really anything. At all.
To make me feel old and completely out-of-touch with the way things work now, the basic disc was not supplied. It was a card with a product key to download and install. The instructions said it would automatically update and show up in the system, however, after a few minutes, the only way I could use the program was online! What is going on?! A simple install became a nuisance because nowhere does/did it say that you had to restart the computer. No-Stinking-Where. It was a bit of a blow to my confidence because I know the disc versions you always had to, but here it made it seem as if it was supposed to magically pop up on the desktop.
Sigh.

So, we finally have it on the desktop, free of being online, and I start to layout the spreadsheet and go over with him on how I am going to initially organize these.
All the way back from March. MARCH. I didn’t realize it went that far back.
It got to the point that I decided to just take it all home. I know my father. He will just get frustrated because he is hasn’t been out of the two-digit typing stage long and he squints at the computer, even with glasses on – I cannot help but laugh at him for this. It is pretty funny.

We didn’t get home until about 5:30pm. My whole day did not go as planned and throughout I had this persistent cough. I felt wore out and dragged through the mud. Exhausted.
After a quick and unhealthy meal (ugh), Harloh got a bath and I continued to work on the spreadsheet.
We hung out, did some ABC Mouse and story time. Fed the fishies.

Francis put in Boyhood and it was so good. During the movie I was still able to work on the spreadsheets…
The movie ran longer than expected (guess we should have looked at the minutes) and didn’t fall asleep until sometime after midnight…. There was just no blog posting yesterday.

Ugh. Not to sound like a party-pooper, but if you made it this far in my long-winded post – I’m now feeling worse than yesterday. This cough is now producing phlegm that seems to be clear and my throat is on fire.
My voice is cracking…

And, I have a lot to do the next few days in the world of doctor appointments and errands.

Yay, Immunosuppresants!

Happy Monday!

Local Newsvideo

Can’t say I watch a whole lot of news lately.
Not that I don’t keep up with what is going on, but if I want to hear about shootings/stabbings/drownings or any other murderous tragedy, I can stick to my Investigation Discovery.

This is pretty much how the news went tonight:

1. Murder by gun
2. Murder by gun (Accidental?)
3. “Bigfoot” sighting
4. A father drowned/missing infant
5. Benefit for fallen police officer’s widow and six children
6. Seven year-old sole survivor of plane crash
7. 12 year-old only child dies in elevator accident
8. Murder victim saves family member with kidney transplant
9. Four year-old almost drowned on cruise ship/hospitalized

Then…

Yep.
If you didn’t watch the whole thing, I cannot blame you.
I only request you slide it to the 1:20 mark.

This is one of the most awkward music video commercials they’ve made yet.
Not sure how to react to it!

Goodnight, Friends!

Saturday in GIFs/Sunday in Pain

Saturday was our pre-Christmas with my other half’s family:

And so it began…

Bring in Uncle Jimmy…

Then Daddy…

Aunt Alice…

Mommy…

And Horst…

That last one still cracks me up haha!

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Pass the Tylenol

We left for home late morning Sunday and decided to stop and grab something to eat. (Granted, most places do not have foods that will keep me from keeling over, but we had to eat and feed our Itty Bit.) It didn’t take long before this intensely sharp pain shot from the left side of my lower jaw and into my ear.
I tried to shake it off like it was nothing and kept going.

By the time we got home, the pain resurfaced and spread from my ear and into my eye and nasal cavity.
Squinting like Popeye, I took a couple of extra-strength Tylenol and waited for it to dissipate… but, it never really did. Weaken? Yes.
Disappear? No.

Needless to say, I pushed through it to read my daughter a couple of stories and crawled into bed very early.

Too bad this flare can’t make up its mind.
Several times last night I awoke in a gross puddle of sweat, freezing my tush off.
Twice, the bathroom and I got friendly.
Twice, my temperature was a little elevated…

The countdown to nap-time is happening RIGHT NOW.
REST.

There is just too much that needs to be done this week to let this, well, whatever the hell this combination is, interfere. Tonight we start the purchase process of the fish tank for Harloh and I NEED to be well enough to leave this house.

HAPPY MONDAY!