Archive March 10, 2014

We are a break this week….horray. We are just a week behind. Cofffee finished her prednisone yesterday and she seems to be going back to regular drinking, eating and peeing. I am so happy we trained her to puppy pads first and then outside. Saves so many accidents. Anyway she is doing well. We went for walk yesterday and I let her walk a little and pushed her in her stroller.

Today we had a good walk and Coffee decided since it was 50 degrees, that there was no sweaters, no shirts and no winter coats! Naked walking, the dogs were so happy. At one point they had sweaters, winter coats and boots and could only make it a few houses before they went back on the stroller. “Frozen feet” was bad this winter.

I found this on www.lifehack.org. The idea is that you can always relate to something you have learned and apply it to your own life……and to learn from it.

1. Stop justifying

2. Stop making excuses

3. Start taking responsibility

4. Rise above other people opinion

5. Quit your bad habits

6. Think before you respond

7. Just let go

8. Remove “I can’t”

9. Be grateful

I am still working on the organizing book but my new book is The Happiness Project by Rubin. I have only gotten to the month of March but each month has something to work on, so I am working on happiness. I guess really I have to find it, if it’s here I have to recognize it.

Content from the book:
January Vitality boost energy
February Marriage remember love
March. Work aim higher
April Parenthood lighten up
May Leisure be serious about play
June Friendship make time for friends
July Money buy some happiness
August Eternity contemplate the heavens
September Books pursue a passion
October Mindfullness pay attention
November Attitude keep a contented heart
December Happiness boot camp perfect

Now I am working on my health and boosting energy. Chia seeds, probiotics, accupuncture, cleanses.

I guess I have to work on the love part. My fiancé and I need to spend more time together, we used to go out every Friday night and just chill out a couple hours. But then we got Coffee puppy and I got assaulted, and I was so wasted at the end of everyday….we just stopped. So this is something we have to work on, I miss the Friday nights out.

Working and aiming higher, not too bad…..I paint chairs, fun furniture and I donate them to organizations that can sell them. What’s the difference if you give money or donate items to their causes. I like helping people.

We are in week 5 Chemo treatment 4.

Doesn’t it see like five weeks that we have been battling cancer? Have made five trip to Madison and my little Coffee dog has been given treatments? Wow.
I talk to lots of people here waiting for their dogs treatments. Since we are an oncology center we talk to a lot of dog parents that have chemo. Many are experiencing problems with the chemo, being sick, losing their hair, very fatigued. Until I talk to them I don’t realize how lucky WE are. COFFEE gets tired and we have to stay on our nap schedule, but it’s the nap schedule for me. So she adjusted to me being sick and having to rest, other than that she doesn’t know she’s sick. Thank you god! We have three more prednisone treatments and she’s finished with that part of the treatment.
This chemo is the worst of the four types. It’s the one that if a dog is going to have a reaction this is the one they do it with, so my little “radioactive red” hopefully will get thru this too!
We were having fun and trying to decide what new nickname for Coffee….radioactive red, nutro nugget, or glow girl. So fun. We have to laugh and have some fun in the middle of the big “c”

No doctors appointments, no friend lunches, no errands, no nothing, I get to stay home a whole day! I can’t believe it!
Maybe with help I can get some things done.

Being a teacher is all about getting a million things done at one time or in one day all while dealing with a million things the students are doing. It is constant stimulation no matter what a teacher tries to accomplish. You are always “on” and teachers do not get much down time, not even when they eat lunch. I so miss that but I also know that I couldn’t do it anymore. It’s sad, I used to like the hustle and bustle and now I can’t function inside the hustle and bustle. So sad.

I have always loved new recipes and trying new dishes. When I was a teacher I could not cook very much. We were lucky for awhile to have take out. Today we are trying slow cooker chicken and dumplings made with refrigerator pillsbury biscuits.
Aren’t slow cookers wonderful. I used to use the electric skillet to cook with my students on Fridays. We even made cakes in that electric skillet. Actually there wasn’t much you couldn’t make. I guess it worked like a slow cooker on the right temperature. My mother, on the other hand, was a pressure cooker person. She would used the pressure cooker a lot to make dinners.

I can definitely say chicken and dumplings turned out very good.

I will put the link to the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-chicken-and-dumplings/

I added finely diced onion, celery and carrots to this recipe. I also cut the biscuits in small chunks instead of strips.

I may no longer believe in Cinderella but I do believe a new pair of shoes can change you life, or at least your day!

I do have to say David and I have been together 18.5 years and he’s stuck by me thru everything, and he’s been great (most of the time) laughing out loud

I bought this little insure book quite awhile ago, and easy read called “When God Winks” and I loved it. There are now several different versions on god winks and I gave my book to a good friend.
God winks are those coincidences in life that you can’t explain or when you go back to look at events in your life, they are little occupancies that guided you in one direction or another. I ignored a few. God winks and then I guess you could say god got tired of sending me little signs and booted me in the ass. 🙂 Sometimes you know it’s a god wink and sometimes you don’t know until it’s over or you have moved away and looked back in retrospect. But god winks are all around you.

I recently read a book and wrote about it leaning to mindfulness. Then I found an old article that talked about happiness and mindfullness. I have talked about both of them in this blog. I was at the acupuncturist Friday and there is a flyer for a class on mindfullness. So I am signing up for it. This is a god wink. I just don’t know where it leads yet. I will write and addendum to this when and if I find out.

I have a money tree. I have taught Hmong students for a long time. They loved the bamboo plant, it brings luck and they loved the the money tree. So I take good care of those two plants. I just read an article Good Housekeeping 2/14. How to live richer. By Rapoport

Open your palm, take $10, in $1 bills and give it away. One lady put her dollars in books at the library. I loved that, being a teacher you know. Great idea. Can you imagine being a kid and finding a $1 in a book…..so cool!

Pay it forward. Did you see that movie. I loved the concept hated the fact the kid died. Volunteer have some fun don’t worry about money. Generosity like money is a currency, David’s nephew is serving in Afghanistan and his young wife is missing him. I have lots of purses so I took my next purse fund ( which I save in a jar) and sent her a coach bag, it made her so happy. She was so happy her parents private messaged me to tell me thank you for making her so happy. I have never met her parents (actually I never met her either) but she was so happy. Actually Coach always gibes me thrill.

Invest in happiness. The author suggests on investing in others happiness, instead of yours. They suggested donar’s choose and picking a teacher and funding their project. I was a teacher and I got a project funded. I was so happy. It was a right spot in a ten weeks of darkness so dark I thought I’d never see the sun again and if I saw it I would never feel it. The donors choose cordless headphones were a bright spot. I could let the kids go anywhere and still hear the book on tape….no cords. In half a classroom, with 18 student in tight quarters…..no cords are a god wink.