Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone has a great day with their friends and family. I stopped in to share a story for inspiration. We're doing a wellness program at work currently to help people realize where they are spending their time and how they can rearrange priorities to get more time for family, health and less stress! This was a motivational story we used and I think it applies greatly to Thanksgiving - reminding us to be thankful for every day!

Imagine that you had won the grand prize in a contest - each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 into your private account for your use, and there were only two stipulations:
1. Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken away from you. You may not simply transfer money into some other account. You may only spend it. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day.

2. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, it's over, the game is over! It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do? You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right? Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right? Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right? You would try to spend every cent, use it all, right?

Although this is a ficticious contest, the theory behind it is real. Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can't seem to see it. The "magical bank" is time! Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us. What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time without warning. What will you do with your 86,400 seconds? Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

Keep this story in mind as you evaluate your personal time management, and what goals you have for "spending" your time.

Finally, a peek at Brode in his Thanksgiving checklist shirt!

Milwaukee Tuesday?

We are so used to Milwaukee Mondays that this Milwaukee Tuesday is throwing my whole schedule out of whack! The craniofacial clinic where Brode has has all of his appointments is only open on Mondays so we always set the appointments on Monday mornings to leave room for afternoon activities. After doing it so many times I don't panic about havnig to pack stuff up, find directions, etc. Boy, you move the appointment 24hrs later and it all changes. I was afraid I'd forget to wake up and go!

This time around we had an eye doctor appointment. The annoying ones (I shouldn't say that, they are all in the best interest of Brode's care). But really, the ones where we drive down there he identifies a house, a heart, a square, and a circle a few times, they tell us the plan and send us back home within 10 minutes all because the clinic here doesn't take our insurance provider for the same doctor. ANNOYING!

I was a bit worried about this appointment being so close to snow season. We had one experience driving down in a blizzard last winter and it definetaly ranks into my top 3 most stressful days ever. Thankfully we didn't get any snow taking that out of the equation. For the first time we brought our personal DVD player so Brode watched a movie on the way down keeping questions and dropping toys all over the floor out of the equation as well. Wonderful.

As for the appointment..... we made progress! Kind of. In one way but not another. We did all the matching game eye tests with Brode and although we pushed farther than he could possibly handle it was stil determined the vision in his eyes did not BUDGE this time! When we patched for 2 months his eye went from 20/50 to 20/40 and after 3 more months it's still stuck at 20/40. So although there was no progress there, since it maintained for so long they believe this is the farthest they can push it. Many of you know I was frustrated with going down and back and hearing the same thing over and over so after we tested vision we moved on to next steps. Because the vision will not change we will go down in another 3 months (oh yay.) and meet with the doctor (we meet with his assistant for these patching appointments) and test vision, alignment, and tracking to get full test levels and determine what surgical procedures will assist in his tracking. They have waited so long because they want to be extremely positive which muscles need help and now that Brode identifies the shapes/colors/moveis/etc. with words and his own knowledge the guessing game is over and they can move forward.

There is nothing like a trip to the Children's Hospital the week of Thanksgiving. Talk about reminding us what we're thankful for. The pediatric intensive care unit changed me in the middle of the summer, you can't avoid the overwhelming feeling of sympathy and desire to help all the families there through the holidays.

Barnes and Noble is doing a donation drive right now when you make a purchase to donate a book to Children's Hospital (in our hometown/Wisconsin at least). In each waiting room of every clinic, waiting room, playroom, and treatment room is a cart of books donated by patrons of Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble Bookstores that donate for children. Each appointment children are not only welcome to enjoy the books, but they are also able to pick one out and bring them home. Picking out a book helps tears from 'owies', temper tantrums from waiting, and keeps minds off of being at the hospital. We love them, as a parent and as a child. We have a good collection going on at home of our CHW books. If you're looking to donate directly to a good cause this winter instead of a dollar here or change from your pocket there, throw in a small book with your BandN purchase for families close to home!

Sorry for all the words! Thanks for hanging in there! Check back tomorrow for a peek at Brode's Thanksgiving shirt!

Catch Up

I don't know why I've fallen out of writing but it really has been a struggle to keep up. Ever since my computer crashed and burned I haven't gotten back in the habit very well (yeah that was approx. 2 years ago. whoops).

Anyways, another catch up. Hopefully through the holidays as I catch more pictures and we're inside a bit more I'll find time for regular posts again. Looks like I've got to go all the way back to Halloween!

Brode was a "fighterfighter" - A Firefighter. He was so excited about his costume at school this year and had a lot of fun with it on. That changed when he got home, he wanted to wear it but didn't want anything to do with going to the houses and getting candy. That changed quickly when all the high school neighbor boys joined us and ran him through the yards and up the doors. He LOVED it!

Since then we have had random things between going to the cottage to rake, volunteering at events for the YMCA I work at, showers, and weddings. I also accepted a job at a corporate fitness center so that makes 3 locations I'm working at causing complete chaos.

We're slowly preparing for our holiday season. We have a trip to Milwaukee for a Children's appointment next week then after that it's full on Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating! This week I went and purchased our "Elf of the Shelf" so we're excited to start the new tradition this year. If you haven't heard of Elf on the Shelf is a story based off of one of Santa's elves sneaking in the house and keeping watch over the kids for Santa. The Elf on the Shelf kit comes with the elf and the story book.  He usually appears around Thanksgiving, we'll see if Brode enjoys him or is fearful! Hopefully it's a tradition we can have for years to come.

Thanks for catching up with us, I'll really work on keeping up to date!