and they lived happily ever after

Mark and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday. In this day and age, and considering all that life can throw your way in general, I am very proud of this. On the snowy, cold day that we said "I do" to each other we really couldn't have any idea what that really meant. Three step-sons, two children and a grandchild later...we are only just beginning to figure it out. But God put us together for better and for worse--we've seen both. He put us together in sickness and in health--we've see both. For richer and for poorer--we've seen both. And we're only just beginning. To celebrate, we finally made arrangements for a weekend away without kids. We didn't want to be gone too far so we decided to stay in Chicago. We booked a nice hotel, ate delicious food, shopped, talked, drank wine, saw a comedy show, napped. It was a great comfort knowing that our kids were excited for their planned sleepovers with family members, and we could enjoy the time with each other. Here's to many more years to come; to living  happily ever after.

how getting kicked out of the blood drive turned out to be a good thing

Two weeks ago, our church held a blood drive. I haven't given in a very long time and by the time our worship service was over, something had grabbed hold of my heart so hard that I just knew that I was going to donate that day. I whispered over to Mark what my plans were. He looked surprised, knowing that I'm no fan of needles, but said "good for you."  He took the kids to get a little snack, and enjoyed a cup of coffee for himself and would wait for me while I gave. So I hesitantly walked in and began facing the multitude of questions that are in the giant folder of information required for a happy, healthy blood donation. No, haven't been out of the country (boooo). No, haven't had -insert scary disease name here- (yayyyy). Done. Next, I was sent on to the screening panel of wonderful people at Heartland Blood Center. On a sidenote, they really ARE an amazing group of people doing honorable work! This is the part that you answer a couple of verifying questions, get your blood pressure taken, and a finger prick to float your blood in some sort of liquid to check for something very official. This is also the part that I failed.
The gentleman working on my chart frowned, and decided to take my blood pressure again, And again. Then he went and retrieved another friend to take it again on my other arm before stamping my paperwork with a "denied" block and apologized ----but my blood pressure is too high to donate blood today. Then I had to face the music and tell my husband. And call my doctor. Honestly, I've been thinking about calling the doctor for many weeks. I just haven't felt "right" but there hasn't been anything concrete or serious enough to get me to make that call. Until now. So I called. He got me in right away --conveniently on the same day I already took off to take my son to his own check up. I figured it was nothing...but that wasn't quite right.
So the nurse took my blood pressure. Three times. And then stared in  my face asking me "so how do you feel RIGHT NOW?"  ("a little freaked out that you're staring me down ...thanks.") She went to get our long-time doctor (awesome!) and I could hear her talking to him in the hallway about my blood pressure. ("Look at her BP and she's just sitting there without chest pain or anything!") Ugh. Doctor and I talk, he takes my pressure too, does what he does and wants to see me next week. Turns out much of my feeling "not right" is due to super high blood pressure that can be managed with a bunch of meds. So....although I was bummed that I couldn't give blood....I am happy that it resulted in a visit to avoid scary things like "permanent heart and kidney damage" and clearly resulted in saving someone's life. Mine.Thanks be to God. And getting kicked out of the blood drive.

blah! or maybe not...

I came out the house this morning to get into my car and before I could even set down my coffee cup I noticed the little bit of frost on my windshield. I took a quick look around the yard noticed more of the white stuff on the grass, on the flowerbeds, on the bird feeder and mailbox. Driving to work I saw the gross, dingy remants of what used to be someone's snowman, but all it is now is a pathetic, dirty lump of ice. Covered in slush. Covered in cold. That's what I told like about February...the cold and wet and dark. It's this time of year when I REALLY get "blah". The days are still dark and cold. (did I mention cold?) Everything looks gray, brown or beige. I WANT to see THIS:

 

But instead I have to be content with flower and seed catalogs and looking back at our summer fun photos! Tonight I just can't seem to get warm so I'm looking at lots of our summer vacation pictures. It actually makes me  start thinking about this year's Spring Break, and even in to summer plans. Which makes me happy. And excited...and looking forward to warm weather that is sure to be coming soon. So maybe it's not "blah" that's going to win tonight.

blogs and inspiration

I've been reading some wonderful blogs lately. The Zielke Hut, miss mustard seed, Whimsical Perspective and Blondie in Bombay to name a few. The blogs are written about very different experiences, too. Family life and faith, travel, design, creativity....but they all have ONE thing in common. They are written by FABULOUS women that I admire on many different levels. I realized that I haven't written in my own blog in a long, long time. (October????!!!) I miss it. It's an outlet for me, therapy of  some kind I guess. But I am inspired by these wonderful women. Today has been a crummy day after a few other crummy days and I'm feeling a little unsatisfied and sad. After seeing their photos and reading their recent posts...I'm feeling inspired to get up and get writing again. Thank you ladies!