Painting Birch

So my friend, Cindi, sent me an email and told me of this painting class.  You get to paint a picture and do some wine tasting.  SOLD!  This particular week they were going to paint birch trees.  BONUS!  WIN, WIN!

It was so relaxing and fun.  I would do it again in a heat beat.  Step out that box and try something new.

Redirectional Gift From God

Over the weekend, my husband and I ran into the lady who runs the daycare our kids used to go to.  She looked a little thin and she was wearing a bandana on her head.  We hadn't seen her in a year.  Apparently back in June she found out she had a rare form of breast cancer.  She had just had her first baby and noticed her nipples were exceptionally sore.  Her doctor just associated it with beastfeeding.  It contined without getting better so she followed her instinct and sought out a second opinion.  Boom.  Breast cancer.  Chemo.  Double mastectomy.  She's younger than me.  I fought back tears the whole time she was telling her story.  What a scary experience for her.  Was she going to get through this?  Would her baby have to grow up without her?  I can't imagine what she dealt with.  And yet here she was in front of me.  All of that long red hair gone.  Her face hollowed.  But smiling and positive and thankful for life.  In that moment I fought the tears because I knew that she was beyond them.  She wouldn't have wanted to see them.  She wanted us to see her victory and hear the happy ending to her story.

We wished her well and spent the rest of the afternoon feeling grateful for good health.  Feeling silly for wasting energy worrying or being mad about things that just don't mean shit in the bigger picture.  I am constantly redirecting myself to live that way.  To live gratefully without tragedy happening first.  We shouldn't wait until an unfortunate life-altering experience to live fully.  I believe running into my friend and hearing her story was a little redirectional gift from God.

Stay strong, my friend.

Tubing Time!

We went to our friends' camp on Saturday.  It was a beautiful and unusually warm February day for us here.  We went tubing and snowshoeing.  The kids would sit in the sauna and then go down the hill a couple times before getting cold again.  We also fed the chickadees right out of our hands! 

Girlfriends.

I was just reading one of my earliest posts:  Xmas Xtravaganza

It's an extraordinary relationship between girlfriends.  We can laugh and fight and cry together.  I feel most like my true self when I'm with my girlfriends.  Not that I'm not myself when I'm with others in my life but I feel the most comfortable with the girls.  I don't have to behave.  I don't have to watch my language.  I don't have to have my filter on.  They understand what I'm going through as a wife, a mom, a sister, a working woman.

Love you, girls!

For Cindi...

My plants are growing!  Slowly but surely for the donkey tail but the wandering jew is doing pretty awesome!

Dishes from my friends!

So some of the people in my office rounded up some cash for a housewarming present for me which was super thoughtful! I finally spent it on a new set of dishes. I wanted something a little more funky than what I had before. Aren't they cool?!

Xmas Xtravaganza With The Office Bitches

Every year since I've worked in my office, we "office bitches" (as I fondly refer to us), have our Xmas Xtravaganza. Basically, it's a night on the town consisting of dinner, lots of drinking, and a barrel of laughs. This year, I must say, was one for the books. We began at 6:30 in the evening and didn't get home until after two in the morning. We all wore gaudy jewelry. Sitting at the table, you would have seen Christmas pins, big ugly beads, snowflake garland, shells, a Santa hat, and, well, I guess you'd call it a clit clip!!!! Frickin hilarious. We managed to make a few heads turn, a few eyes roll, and a few grins to appear on strangers' faces. DIDN'T CARE!!!

What I kept thinking before and after our little shindig was how happy I am to have a group of girlfriends in my life. I went several years without a group of girlfriends to hang out with. My husband and I moved around a lot in the first years of our marriage so I never really had time to bond with anyone. I can laugh and cry with these girls. They listen to me, laugh at me (notice I said "at me" and not "with me"), watch my dog when I travel, and have even babysat my kids on occasion. I appreciate them everyday but especially when things are not going too well in other parts of my life. I can remain grumpy for an entire five minutes in their presence before I'm laughing my mascara off! Believe me. I have never gone through so many bottles of mascara in my life!!! Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion and I love doing it with the office bitches. They make me smile, make my heart warm, and I know I'm never alone.

Merry Christmas to my wacky girlfriends and to yours. May we always laugh through tears, turn heads, be obnoxious, and be there for each other. I think Ralph Waldo Emerson summed it up pretty darn good when he said, "It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

...Yep, that be us.