Wednesday, March 23, 2011

My Pick-Me-Ups

As of late, J and I have been taking turns being a little bummed out due to 'real estate situations' (I'll leave it at that).  Luckily, when his glass is half empty....mine is half full.  And when my glass is half empty...his is half full.  He is the pea to my pod, the apple of my pie, the (white) chocolate of my chip!  (Apparently I'm craving sweets?!?!)  So far, there have been only a few moments when both our glasses are half empty and last night was one of them!  So he drank Tsingtao and I drank some extremely AWESOME white whine that had peach flavoring added to it...I'll be sure to add a post just about that wine for those of you interested...bonus: it was el cheap-o!!!  So, it's at this moment, that a blog post like this seems to be appropriate.  You see, there are a few things in my life that I purposely arrange in specific areas where I have the chance to look at them on a daily basis to brighten my day as needed.  And so here they are:

1.  The following email that my mom sent me...which is cut out and taped to the wall of my hutch at work with a picture of our dog, and a bunch of pics of J in various cities we've traveled to, and pics of my nieces and nephews:

'Holy Cow!!!  It's 81 here.  I survived my first "official" 5K.  Yeah, I roll up to the park yesterday in street clothes with my coffee and I park and look around and there's all these people stretching, sprinting around, running, etc.  I guess I should have at least shaved my legs and put shorts on.  But in my defense it was 7:00 AM and only 60 degrees and slightly overcast.  Anyways I finished around 77th out of 102 women.  BUT also in my defense, there was tons of high school track girls and I was the sixth oldest person.  Anyway, I wasn't ever sore at all.  I did 53 minutes and I'm sure I could shave 5 off that just by walking faster and even being aware we were being timed.  It was kind of exciting though with loud inspiring rock music blasting and free bagels and all.  I think I'll do it again sometime, just for the heck of it.  Okay gotta get busy.'

2.  Scouring the old posts of my brother's blog that was established solely for niece and nephew updates!  Things such as this:

(OMG!  You just want to pinch those cheeks!)

3. At home, it's the big dark red 'R' for our last name that hangs on the wall with two old wooden antique frames that are two different sizes around it.  We got that 'R' as a wedding gift from my crazy friend Colette who lives in KC and so many fun stories can come out of that 'R'.  From the fact it's the first 'R' I received as newly married chick to the story of how I attempted to hang it, the 2 frames, and about 20 other frames on our wall in this cool pattern as a Christmas gift to J...but the 'R' kept falling and taking down even more frames with it and by the time all was said and done...it was not a gift at all but instead just a huge mess and headache...but a lovable one!

4. A homemade clothespin 'wreath' that I made at home out of brightly colored, funky scrapbook paper.  It just keeps getting added to and has become a memory keeper of sorts.  Each clothespin has things hanging from it such as ticket stubs to games, homemade 'Thank You' cards, wedding 'Thank You' pictures of all our hitched friends or 'Save the Date' pics, an antique B&W of J's gpa, and all sorts of other odd'n'ends that in some way, shape, or form made their way into our lives and created a memory.

5. Lastly, and most recently added, the following email from my sister last week...which now has it's own place on the hutch at work with my mom's.  And after reading both of them, it makes me smile even bigger because it makes me think, 'Good Lord!  There's no denying them for family!' So here it is:

'Btw speaking of delish…I discovered ice cream that has changed my life and may change life as we all know it. It’s at Murray’s Ice Cream in Westport.  The flavor is called Monkey Nuts, which I only ordered because it sounded fun to say. But can I just tell you…seriously…LIFE CHANGING. Now my life is going to be divided into 2 parts; Before I discovered Monkey Nuts and After I became addicted to Monkey Nuts.  It’s banana and peanut butter ice cream with chunks of chocolate in it.  Words cannot describe how totally amazing this stuff is.  Totally worth a 5 hour drive just to come try it. I’m going to get a pint and bring it home the next time you guys are in town.  I’m going to figure out a way to ship it and give it to everyone I know for Christmas.  I want to be buried in a big vat of it when I die.  Hehe…just realized my will would read that I want to be buried in monkey nuts…hehe…you’ll explain that one for them right?'***

I know they all might seem very random and perhaps even meaningless to you all, but for me, they turn a 'glass half empty' day into a 'glass half full' day and for me...that means all the world!

***After asking approval from my sis to post her email (sorry mom...no heads up on that one!) she responded with this:  'Sure, you can include my name and the address to Murray’s so anyone reading your blog can go and see for themselves what an amazing scoop of heaven monkey nuts is.'  (I kid you not people, I can't make this stuff up!)  

So should any of you ever be in the Kansas City area...go eat Monkey Nuts at Murray's in Westport, and tell them Shelly sent you!  (I will vouch that their ice cream rocks...but I can't say anything about their Monkey Nuts!)