Thankful Thursday... On A Wednesday.

:::::looks around:::::

Am I able to do that?

...

I'm a little worried that the Earth might shift on its axis and the mountains might turn to ash. Perhaps there will be a bit of blood in the rivers and the fish will all die?

:::::whispers::::: I'm going to try it anyways. This is totally worth it heh heh heh.

On a serious note, people, I tried really hard to wait this out. I wanted to post this on Thursday but I got the blogging bug (or the muse, rather... that sounds prettier) and I can never ignore my muse.

I hope you like pictures. You've been warned.

I have many things to be thankful for. Today I want to focus on my one and only best friend. Her name is Ondrea, but I call her Drea for short.

This is us:
Ok, ok, that's not REALLY us. That's CC Bloom and Hilary from the movie Beaches. But whatever, that movie was made specifically for us. How do I know? Easy. Those characters are the *exact* embodiment of our personalities. Drea is CC Bloom and I am Hilary (why do I always have to be the one that dies at the end?). Yeah, it is totally lame for me to compare our relationship to a cheesy 80's movie, but I'm not embarassed. I will belt out Otto Titsling in the middle of a shopping mall if I feel the need. So will Drea... no seriously, we will. Don't doubt our awsomeness, we are pretty fearless.

Here we are for real this time:

We were pretty hot stuff back in those days (oh yeah, all of these pictures are a good 10 years old). Check us out!
Drea:
And me:

And here's my favorite picture ever of Drea because I think it pretty much sums up her personality:

I think every girl should have a BFF. Someone she can call when she's down, hang with when she needs some girl time and just someone to be yourself around. Drea has been my BFF for close to 13 years now. She was the maid of honor at my wedding (she also happens to be my husband's cousin, that's how I met him!) and we've been inseparable ever since the first day we met on the school bus in 8th grade.
Remember how I said she was just like CC Bloom? She basically sat down next to me on the bus and said "Hey, I'm Ondrea. I'm going to come over your house and we're going to be best friends."
And I, being the shy outcast that I was just sort of said "Ok, that sounds cool."
The rest is pretty much history. :)

Drea is honestly my soul mate. I firmly believe that soul mates come in all shapes and sizes and I don't believe that a soul mate is someone you have to be in a romantic relationship with.

I just know that Drea literally completes me. If we go more than 48 hours without talking, something just seems wrong.

Our friendship has lasted through the major distance that was put between us when she moved from Florida to Vegas and then when I moved from Florida to North Carolina and she moved from Vegas to California and then from California back to Vegas and then from Vegas to Colorado. Are you getting all this? Distance doesn't get in the way of our friendship. Nothing ever does. It's so nice to have an unconditional friend. Those don't come around very often, if they ever do at all.

So, I am dedicating this Thankful Thendnesursday (that's right, I combined Wednesday and Thursday into one awesome word) to my best friend, Drea. I could never in a million years wish for a better friend.

PS - I'm so excited that I finally get to follow a blog from her. She has such an amazing talent with words. If you want to check out her blog (you'd be just in time for her Wicked Wednesdays which are so great!) click Here . Even our blogs are inextricably linked for some reason, as you'll see if you visit her and take a look at the "If She Didn't Laugh, I Would Cry" post.

And, Drea, since I know you're reading this... I toatz love you (that's WAY more than totally). Thanks for giving me something to be thankful for :).

PPS - It's my birthday. I'm pretty sure someone needs to find me a cupcake and stat.

When Time Flies, Where Does It Go?

What an awful blogger I have been. Two months and no posts. Come to think of it, I haven't even read any of the blogs I used to frequent on a daily basis. Life has just been so overwhelming, and not necessarily in a bad way.
I'm always amazed at just how fast time goes by, and not only when I'm having fun. My life seems to just keep flying by and, even through the bad times, I'm shocked at how quickly the days turn into weeks and months and years.
Among the many things swirling around in this proverbial town called Amberville, there was the death of my dog, Danzig, last Sunday. It was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to try and overcome. He was just a baby, getting ready to turn 4 next month. In a fun twist of fate, he was born on my birthday and I used to always refer to him as my cutest gift ever. He died of kidney and liver failure... the vet at the animal hospital said there was absolutely nothing more we could have done for him because it was something that had been happening for a long time, probably since he was born. I felt absolutely awful and helpless, but we did everything we could to keep him comfortable on his last night. We took him home from the hospital so he could be with us in the comfort of our home and we cuddled with him until he died about an hour later.
I miss him so much and I think today was actually the first day that I didn't cry. I know I'll always miss him, but he taught me so much about kindness, patience, love and (with his passing) the acceptance that there are things in life I will never be able to control.
He also helped me to understand that I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit for. Throughout the entire ordeal, Russell and I maintained the most positive outlook that we could. When they told us that he was doing poorly, we told ourselves that with the IVs and medical attention he would pull through it and he'd get better. When they told us that they didn't think he was well enough for surgery, we told them to keep him at the hospital no matter what the cost and that he'd be ready for surgery soon. When they told us to euthanize him because there was no way he was going to make it, we told them we wanted to take him home so that we could be with him and, perhaps because we were in denial, nurse him back to health ourselves.
At each negative turning point I told myself that I couldn't deal with any more, that I'd become physically ill if I got more bad news... and yet every time poor Danzig was dealt another blow I managed to listen and hope for the best.
Even when we had a funeral for him and we buried him under the weeping willow tree in our back yard, when I could hear my heart beat in my ears because I was crying so hard, I picked up a shovel and helped pour the dirt into his grave. I wanted to do whatever I could to carry some of what was happening on my shoulders. He was my baby, what else could I do?
I wish we could have had Ziggy in our lives forever, or at least for a while longer than we did.
The time really did fly by... and I have no idea where it went.

"How are you, Daddy?" "I'm breathing, sweet stufflings."

That is how the beginning of my conversations go with my father when things are not going as well as we would like.
To say that this past week was hellacious would be a gross understatement. From terrifying marital problems to my grandmother getting a potentially bad outcome on her quarterly cancer checkups, it seems that we are destined to feel misery and the weight of our worlds crushing our shoulders.
Through all of these obstacles I have tried to maintain a positive attitude, lest I damage my marriage further with my negative outlook on life.
I think, in times of woe, that it can be beneficial to familiarize yourself with the suffering of others. As morbid as it sounds, there is a certain gratification in knowing that, yes, it can get worse... it can get much worse.
In a moment of clarity, I stopped at the library to check out Night by Elie Wiesel. I knew full well that I was about to embark on a nightmarish journey where babies are ripped from their mother's arms and thrown into crematoriums while they are still alive. I knew that, in my mind's eye, I would witness the death of Elie's father, as he was beaten relentlessly, all the while pleading for his son. I cried as a starving old man's son beat him to death for a small chunk of stale bread, only to find out soon after that the old man had intended to feed the bread to his son anyway. A sad twist of irony.
And to think that more than one of these six million men, women and children, were my blood. My very own great aunts, uncles and cousins. So many lost... we'll never know what sort of impact they would have had on our lives. What a waste of potential.
One line from that book rings in my ears more than any other. As a Kapo at Auschwitz was preparing a gallow to hang a small child, one of the concentration camp prisoners said "For God's sake, where is God?"
It's something to contemplate.
I have 10 pages left of Night, and I am terrified to finish it. My heart is broken from reading this book.
And so, while looking at the problems I've encountered this past week, it is safe to say that things could get worse. I could lose my family, my belongings, my dignity, my life... my name and my spirit.
In retrospect, you could say that I'm lucky.
How am I doing? I'm breathing.

Look how skinny we are!!!!!

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

I don't know why I am so mesmermized by these awesome stick figures of us... but I really am :P.

Honestly, I'm not sure if that thing I'm carrying is a briefcase or a shopping bag, but I'm going to call it a shopping bag because that would keep it accurate.

I'm also bummed that they cut out Maya (my other Chihuahua)... I guess the format for the picture is too big, and I'm clueless as to how to change that. :(

Raleigh Museum of Natural Sciences

On Father's Day we took Javon to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. It was our first trip to Raleigh and I have to say, I was really impressed. First of all, I-40 has the most beautiful rest stops ever. They were equipped with very clean bathrooms, travel information centers, picnic benches, vending machines, and beautiful flower beds. The first one we stopped at was so gorgeous, that I had to take a picture of my mom and Javon stopping to admire the flowers.

I also managed to take a mug shot photo of my step dad, Joe:

And I even got one with Russell doing a great police officer impersonation (though he didn't know it at the time hehe):

The museum was amazing... and how lucky are we? They had an exhibit on CHOCOLATE. While we were there, we bought a bar of authentic dark chocolate laced (yes, "laced") with pieces of some type of chili pepper. It was pretty spicy, but the effect of the spiciness combined with the semi-bitter / semi-sweetness of the chocolate was really interesting. We also bought a bar of dark chocolate with organic banana bits in it. I'm a total banana-head, I loooove bananas, so obviously this was a real treat for me.

I think Javon's favorite part was the massive amount of dinosaur skeletons. He mentioned *maybe* wanting to be a paleontologist when he grows up. I was able to get a few good shots of him with us around the dinosaur exhibits:

I got to hang out with natives made of plastic... that's always a plus, right?

It was a pretty relaxing drive home. Russell crashed (as you can see in the background of the picture below) and Javon stole my Gucci knock-off sunglasses so he could strike a pose.

I'm really glad we got to make the trip. We're dreading the day when Javon has to go back down to Florida, so it's been fun soaking up every free minute we have with him.