Remembering 9/11

I still can't get through the day without at least one good crying jag.

I hope I never do.

Less Words Wednesday – Rest in peace, Sweet Kitty

Usually when my cats are the subject of a Wednesday post, it is comical.  

Unfortunately, this week, it is sad.

Our sweet girl passed away last night and there have been many tears shed.



The Quotes on the photo didn't shrink down very well, so I will put them here, too.

“PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way.
GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?
GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
PIPPIN: Well, that isn't so bad.
GANDALF: No. No, it isn't.”

(Credit to the genius of Tolkien)

Less Words Wednesday – Twins: Compare and Contrast - Two Months vs Twelve Years

This is a photo of my sweet twin babies taken when they were two months old.

Aren't they precious?

This is a photo of my sweet twin babies taken this morning - they are now twelve years old.  

(and still quite precious!)

They grow up much too fast...

Congratulations to the #NHL Champions, The LA Kings

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings, the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Champions

It is a fantastic moment when the captain gets to lift the trophy for the first time.  Can you see the joy?

It has been a long nine weeks, and the road to the cup this year was a good one.  

If my team couldn't win, well, I'm glad it was these guys. =)

Hmm... only four more months until hockey season begins!

Wordless Wednesday – Ten Years Ago Today - Double Dip

Wordless Wednesday - A Thud in the Night #WW

First, the thud in the night.

                   I got to the stairs and found the culprit!




Come up one more flight!!  



 See!  There's More!!




Note to self:  Next time, close the bag!




Crazy Kitty!

I Am No Laura Ingalls! #IHateSnow

Trick or Sleet! Or Snow. Or Slush. Or Power Outage.

I'm dealing with all of these things right now. And my 3G is spotty, at best. If my power doesn't come back on tonight, I will be delayed in posting winners. My apologies. I'm still hoping for the best.

Thank You, Laura O, For the Sunshine Award!

A long, long, time ago, (Okay, it was only in June, but it's the longest I have ever gone before writing a thank you note!) a dear bloggy friend gave me a fun award for my efforts here at Our Village is a Little Different.

Laura blogs at Day by Day in Our World.  Like me, she's a Catholic Homeschooling mom of boys.  She lives in Alaska, and she often treats us to some amazing photos, like this day they took a hike around Exit Glacier.  The header photo on her blog is a beautiful panoramic shot of one of her local views.   Laura just moved her blog to her own self hosted WordPress page, and she did a fantastic job!  You should stop by for a visit.

Part of accepting this Sunshine Award is that I must now divulge seven facts about my life to you.  Bear with me, and I will try not to bore you.  :)

1. I am a huge hockey fan.  Before our boys were born, the word huge could have been replaced with "rabid".     Very high on my list of "greatest moments in my life" is being present for the New Jersey Devils first Stanley Cup win.   Now, again, this was before children, so try not to judge!  I was so happy that day that I actually cried.   When we were dating, my husband would buy me hockey cards the way other men buy their beaus flowers, and memorabilia made me swoon.
2. I also used to do some hockey goaltending, but mostly with rollerblades.  I had some beat up ice hockey goalie gear, too.  That could get a little treacherous, so I didn't get on the ice as much - but it was fun!!
3. My other athletic endeavors that I did well included gymnastics and diving.  I also played softball, badly.
4. Every night I have something very special that  I say to each of the boys before I kiss them goodnight.  It takes less than a minute.  Pretty soon, they won't want me to do this routine with them anymore, so I hope that they always remember it by heart.
5. I have lupus and fibromyalgia.  It has put a tremendous cramp in my life.  That said, if I had not been diagnosed and treated for lupus, I would never have been able to have our twins, so... it's not ALL bad.
6. Before I had my sonogram for the boys, I dreamt that I was having twins.  I told my neonatologist and my mother before my sonogram.  The doctor was amazed, and my mother almost fainted.  That was pretty cool, right?
7. I never wanted a blog.  I reluctantly started this one because I was accepted as a member of the TOS Review Crew.   

Someday, I will be passing this award on to seven other blogger who brighten my day.  For now, I'll thank Laura for thinking of me, and all of you for reading.

-

Memorial Day Thoughts

I am so grateful for all of all the brave men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this great country and our freedoms.

I Didn't Do It!

I apologize for the ugly, obnoxious, Google Ads all over my page.   I have always been very clear to all companies that I DO NOT post ads and I DO NOT accept affiliates.   These Google Ads were added by the HSB powers that be, and I can assure you, I do not like them, do not encourage them, and do not endorse anything that they may link to.  I will not make one cent off of these ads and I am sorry that you have to see them.

Now, I believe I have some disgruntled emails to write.. *sigh*

Update:  This was the day  I realized that homeschoolblogger dot com was the worst blog platform service on the planet.  It took me a while to move, but I finally did - so, thankfully, there are no Google ads to see here.

Happy Spring?

I was so happy last week, enjoying the warm weather, being outdoors, seeing all the green sprouty things...  We woke up today to snow, and ice, and some slushy rain mixed in.  LOL.

We marked the equinox by balancing an egg on the counter.

Of course, I have only ever tried this on Spring Equinox days, it could be entirely possible that eggs ALWAYS balance on the counter, but it was fun, and I impressed two ten year old boys.  They were amazed to see it still standing this morning.

Gratitude ~ and a Public Service Announcement

photo credit ~ dare2dream4ever

This afternoon, while the boys were playing together downstairs, my husband and I had a few quiet moments to ourselves. I was lying down, with my head on his chest listening to the gentle lub~dub of his heart beat, and it was a very sweet sound, indeed.

Today could have easily been the one year anniversary of the day I became a widow. Instead, thankfully, it is the one year anniversary of the day my husband had a cardiac catheterization and stent placement.

When my husband arrived at the ER, pale, sweating, short of breath with pain in his chest, he had been feeling milder forms of these symptoms for at least 12 hours. When we discussed them, my nurse radar went off. Although he insisted he was just tired and was probably getting a bronchial infection, I made a snarky comment. Something to the effect of, "Perhaps you're right, or you could be dying of a heart attack!". Even knowing I was right, I didn't insist he go to a hospital and be seen. In hindsight, I beat myself up over it, often.

As he went to bed that night, he had "only" been feeling intermittent pain in his chest, some shortness of breath after walking, and he was tired. I ran through the checklist with him. No sweating, no pain in his jaw, no pain radiating down his arm. His pulse felt steady, and was an easy 78 beats per minute. He insisted he was fine. He had just practiced with his band, and it was a little bit late. I let it go, but made him promise that if it got worse he would go to the ER, no arguing.

Sometime after midnight, he touched my shoulder. I woke up slightly, and he told me he was going to the hospital. I vaguely remember this, but he was so nonchalant about it, I didn't even fully wake up. So yes, the man drove himself - to the hospital - while having a heart attack. (For the record, this is NOT the suggested form of transport during a cardiac emergency. Please call 9-1-1) Thankfully, the hospital is about 5 minutes from our house.

By the time the boys and I woke up in the morning, my husband had been sent by ambulance to another hospital, whisked into a cardiac catheterization lab, had a 90% blockage removed, a stent had been placed and he was resting comfortably in a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

So, why didn't he go to he hospital sooner? Why didn't I make him?

• He was 43 years old 
• He was in great physical shape 
• He worked out at the gym 5 nights a week 
• He had just spent the evening doing normal activity 
• He appeared to be fine

So here is the public service announcement part of my post. DO NOT IGNORE THE SIGNS OF A HEART ATTACK!! The chest clutching and falling to the floor heart attacks of movies and TV are very rare. More often, it happens like I just described. Subtle, nagging discomfort. things being "not quite right" and they progressively worsen. Precious time is wasted and in the case of heart attack or stroke, waiting too long can result in permanent damage or death.

Do you know what the signs are?

• Chest discomfort or pain in the upper torso - it is often intermittent. It can feel like pressure, squeezing, or a fullness in your chest. 
• Pain in the jaw, arms, back, or stomach 
• Shortness of breath, with or without chest pain. (In my husband's case this was his major symptom, the chest pain didn't become severe until hours later) 
• Breaking out in a cold sweat 
• Nausea 
• Lightheadedness

If you come upon a person who is unresponsive to touch or having irregular breathing, call 9-1-1 and begin CPR.

Every second counts. If you think you, or someone else is having a heart attack or stroke, call 9-1-1 (or your local emergency response number) immediately.

February is American Heart Month. Heart disease has probably already touched you or someone you love. Visit the American Heart Association web page and learn more.

Tonight, my husband is out with his band, playing bass, having fun, and rocking out. For that, I am very grateful.

I Hope the Groundhog was Right

For the past few days, we have had temperatures in the 50's and things are starting to melt a little bit. There's still a nice hard pack of ice coating everything, but it's been nice to hear the drip, drip of melting, and see the nice bright sun.

Our poor back yard! It's usually an oasis of fun for kids. Now it looks like this:

(I probably should have taken those during daylight hours and not while the sun was setting.. LOL)

Hopefully, it will become a fun place to play again. We're all kind of tired of the ice rink, and would like a little bit of fresh air! I'm hoping that the groundhog was right, and that soon we'll see the crocuses and tulips.

Ahhh... Saturday!!

I love Saturdays. My husband gets up with the boys. I get to sleep late. Then they go out together for a few hours while I catch up on anything with loose ends, and relax.

This has been a very long week. We had so much snow and ice. There was more overnight, and even more coming on Tuesday and Thursday.

It feels a little bit like this cartoon when I walk out and have snow as high as my waist.

Thankfully, we had plenty to do while the snow came down. We did schoolwork, cooked and baked, I had some reviews to do, and I also organized all of the work samples I had collected over the last semester and prepared them for portfolios. Now I am ready to make copies for our support school. On Thursday we went to Mass. Because of all the snow, I had forgotten is was the feast of Saint Blaise! We had our throats blessed, which the boys liked. We also made it to the library and the chiropractor when the sun finally came out.

I'm going to enjoy these two days of relaxation. I'll probably read, play POGO games, and catch up with email and facebook. We have a new game/puzzle to work on too, so that will be fun.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend, too.

You Just Never Know

The snowplow came down our street way too early this (Friday) morning. I almost fell back to sleep after the first pass. The second time, I flipped over kind of agitated. Even the cats looked up with disdain. Then it came back for a third pass at it. The fourth time was a charm, and it finally went away - but by then the whole house was awake.

I figured with all of that plowing we must have gotten at least a foot of snow.. I peeked out the window, and was surprised to see it was only about 4 inches. Apparently all we really got was a guy who didn't know how to work the plow.

My first thought was that this had the makings of a rotten day. My joints were aching, we were up way too early, and the boys were trying to persuade me that they should get snow days. (it might have worked if they had gone back to bed for another three hours, but they were raring to go)

The funny thing is, it wound up being a really GOOD day. Not a "Wow, I'll never forget this day for the rest of my life!!" good, but productive and happy. I cooked, baked, cleaned and did laundry. A few nice things happened. I got a couple of emails that made me smile, some new review products came in the mail, the boys abandoned their complaining and did their school work. They were actually quite cheerful considering how much we have been cooped up inside the house this month.

I do feel like I've been beaten up a bit now, but some Tylenol PM should do the trick. I'll even be able to sleep tomorrow morning - thanks to a good husband who lets me sleep late on weekends!

I'm glad I didn't let the first few moments determine the outcome of my day.

It's Snowing... again!!

Even the Snowmen want it to stop.

(my apologies, I don't know who gets credit for the viral photo)

In spite of my displeasure toward the weather, I still have plenty to laugh about. These thoughts occurred to me as I was outside shoveling the nasty stuff.

• You know you're a homeschool family when the kids wonder if shoveling snow could count as their daily PE.
• You know you're a homeschool product reviewer when you clear the mailbox sidewalk and porch before the driveway.

For this one, the credit is all Bill Watterson. I sympathize with Calvin.

Stay warm and think sunny thoughts,