Friday, November 7, 2014

Thankfuls Big and Small

I've gotta say, I'm glad this week is over! My preschoolers have been post-Halloween, pre-Christmas wild animals. This weekend I shall recuperate by relaxing and taking it easy. PAHAHAHAA! Not really. It will be spent doing laundry, cleaning house, taking Emma to club ball tryouts and getting out the rest of the winter clothes before the Polar Vortex comes to visit next week. 

Here are my thankfuls for the week:

1. Back to Standard Time! I love Daylight Savings Time in the spring and summer, but I am so ready for the time change in the fall! Unlike SOME whiners out there *cough cough Lizzi cough cough Clark cough cough** I like it when the evenings are dark and I'm in my nice, cozy house. I also hate, hate, HAAAAATE having to get up in the morning when it's still dark outside. (I hate it so much that I don't do it, causing me to arrive at work progressively later and later until the time finally changes.)

2. Crock pots. Or slow cookers, if you will. I've used mine nearly every day for the past week.

3. Elections are over! I'm not happy about how most of them ended up, but I am grateful not to have to hear campaign ads on tv or on the radio anymore.  

4. There has been some grumbling and talks of rebuttal posts by the other two cats in my house, but no outright war has broken out since Ruby guest posted last weekend for my TToT entry.

5. Playdough sculptures. 


Are those the cutest little playdough snails you've ever seen?!



This is a gadicator. Sometimes known as an alligator.


6. Playdough sculptures that make me think of something ever so slightly inappropriate.


It's a pencil.



And this is a cherry popsicle.

7. Playdough sculptures that TOTALLY make me think of something inappropriate.


It's a SNOWMAN.

8. Ruby lovin'. Every time I walk in the front door, Ruby comes to greet me. This morning, I realized I forgot my sunglasses after I got to the car, so I ran back inside the house, aaaaand Ruby came to greet me. She loves her mama!

9. In August, I fell going up our basement stairs and cracked the side of my knee and shin on the tile steps. I had bruises and swelling for weeks from it, but they finally faded EXCEPT for a pretty good sized bump on the side of my shin. It is very tender when touched, and my husband's leg thrown over it in the night will send me straight to the ceiling. At the oncologist's office yesterday, I told him I still had pain and a bump from that fall. He looked at it, FELT it (and I DID NOT kick him in the teeth when he did so, although I could have), and said I had apparently chipped the bone when I fell. Nothing thankful about THAT, except that I had a little niggling fear that it was something horrible, like a blood clot, given how badly it was bruised when I first fell. No blood clot that's going to kill me; just a chipped bone that will heal on its own, eventually.

10. With any luck, I am officially half way through my cancer treatments! Two and a half years down, two and a half to go - yeehaw!

How's your week been? Have you been able to find thankfulness in little things like playdough sculptures and crock pots? Link up with us, below.


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44 comments:

  1. HOOPLA #10... okay... those playdoughs... ahem ... and the snails look like little hands flipping the bird.... I believe in equal time so bring those other kitties on... Im sorry that Zoe (my namesake) never had an opportunity to write a post. She was a bit of a crank so I can only imagine... gotta love that Ruby though!

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    1. Okay, I TOTALLY did not see the little hands flipping the bird until you pointed it out! The boys are laying low tonight; having battery issues in our security alarm and it keeps going off and beeping. Ruby is annoyed by it but otherwise non-plussed.

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    2. Me too Zoe! The first thing I "saw" was a finger giving the flip off LOL
      Now what does that say about us, huh Z?

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    3. uh... great minds think alike?

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  2. It is SO nice not to have my nightly Jeopardy watching disrupted by political ads.

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  3. Your playdough snails are lovely.

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  4. of course it is!

    Hey! do me a favor? I need some help being 'oh so clever' this week, so I'm placing my Items out here amongst* the other Posts.

    8) to have work that allows me the luxury of having the time to spend on things like these 'hops… and no, having to work on Saturday does not negate that advantage.

    thanks for the use of the comment space, Dyanne


    *yeah, I did mean to spell it amongst

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    1. The snowman is from a couple of years ago, and I love it.

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  5. Most important? #10 Hurray and hurray Dyanne! You can have all my luck for the next 2 1/2 years. Wait! I mean the "good" luck lol

    Yeah, right. Who in the world thought THAT was a snowman! Oh...5 year olds:)

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    1. Thank youuuu!
      I love how she worked on that sculpture and TOTALLY saw a snowman.

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  6. I'm concerned about your students. Those sculptures are highly inappropriate no matter what they claimed they were.

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    1. Aren't they funny? They have such imaginations when three sculptures, nearly the same shape, are three completely different things.

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  7. Those are the cutest playdough creations I've ever seen. I'd love your job.

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  8. *snorks* I LOVE that your littlies made penis playdough for you to take photos of :D

    I more love that you're 2.5 years til DONE. Then there's all that wonderful time to relax and enjoy life, til you're 106.

    I got called up for being later and later to work. Gotta buck my ideas up.

    As for whining...I OWN IT! YES I DO! But you will NEVER hear me complain about 'too hot' in summer.

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    1. Whaaat? I thought they were a popsicle, a snowman and a pencil?
      Only 30 more Zoladex injections! Wheeee!
      It's a good thing I only live a mile from work. I was only REALLY late a couple of times, and even then, the latest was only 10 minutes.
      I try very hard not to complain about being too hot in the summer when I HAAAAATE being cold. Our too hot might actually BE too hot for you, though.

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  9. P.S. That's wonderful that you're 1/2 way through your treatments!

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  10. I'm so happy you are half way through your chemo and you can sigh relief very soon. I loved the Ruby post, but I think the other cats are entitled to say their pieces as well. I would enjoy reading them. Hope your chipped bone heals nicely and no more night pain surprises from a restless sleeping husband.

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    1. Thanks, Val! Really looking forward to that magical 5 year anniversary!
      I'll think about letting the boys have their say, if they can watch their mouths.
      I forgot to ask how long it takes for a chipped bone to heal, but it's obviously longer than two months!

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  11. I missed the snails flipping the bird but on second look. YES! And of course thats a snowman! Cough cough. sure it is.

    I love the early evenings. It would just be perfect for me if sunrise didn't happen until eightish... I really hate that the sun peeks into our window now at a godforsaken hour that I refuse to be conscience for.

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    1. I would never have seen the snails flipping the bird if it weren't for Zoe, and now that's all I see. And of COURSE it's a snowman! What else could it possibly be?!
      I would be good if I could lie in bed until 8 every morning. I'm not a late sleeper, but a little bit LATER sleeper would be nice!

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  12. Yay for the halfway mile-stone! I once had my shin bone cracked and I do remember the pain as well as the epic bruising. Wait until the bruise moves down into your foot; it won't hurt but look horrific!

    Honestly, I don't care whether daytime savings or standard time, I just wished they'd quit jumping back and forth in between both; it's a mini jetlag every time!

    Ohhh, the joys of being a teacher. Love the playdough sculptures, epic!

    Enjoy your weekend, Dyanne!

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    1. I know what you're talking about with the bruise moving down, but mine didn't do it! It happens to my mom when she bruises badly, though (a black eye she had ended up "running" all the way down her neck!).
      It always takes me a couple of weeks to adjust to the time change, no matter which direction the clock gets turned.
      Aren't those fantastic sculptures?

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  13. Do the parents of these little children in your care know that you get such inappropriate amusement from their sculptures? (Meanwhile, I cracked up ... especially the last one. That kid's an artist.)
    I'm very glad you are not going to die from your bone chip. And yay for halfway through treatment! I got my yearly mammogram (finally - so over due - had to reschedule) and I have to tell you I'm nervous this time. Don't know why.
    And what is it with kids and post-Halloween pre-Christmas? What the hell happened to Thanksgiving??? I feel like poor Linus in the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie.

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    1. I take pictures of the appropriate sculptures, too, LIKE SNAILS and things they cut out with cookie cutters. I have a hilarious picture a preschooler drew of her mom. I'm not sure where it is, but when I find it, I will post it. The girl's parents thought it was so hysterically funny that they made a color copy of it and gave it to me as a greeting card.
      DON'T BORROW TROUBLE. Odds are your results will be just fine. Just happy that you got it done!
      We spend the whole month of November learning about the first Thanksgiving, but we are also working on Christmas songs for our program in December. No other way for them to learn the songs in time.

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  14. I hear you loud and clear on those political ads. I even got daily recorded phone calls on my answering machine and it drove me batty. Halfway through the cancer treatments is most definitely something to be happy about! I'll add my own YEEHAW to yours!!
    I'm not really sure how I feel about the time change. I feel so tired. I don't know....maybe that's just my life!
    The play dough sculptures are, um, interesting.

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    1. I voted "against" a candidate last week, saying I would have voted for satan if he were the one running against this guy!
      Thanks for the yeehaw!
      I'm tired of being tired.
      Yes, interesting would be a good word for them!

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  15. well, it's not that I hate Winters per say?! (cough cough) it's just that I hate the part where water becomes solid and day becomes night… in the middle of the damn afternoon!! (we had a rainy day that I would swear I saw a walrus looking at the noonday sun in wonder!)

    #7 ? as Freud was reputed to have said, 'sometimes a Playdough snowman is really just a Playdough snow man'*


    * "...yah,richtig! Wer ist dieser "Dyanne 'glaube, sie Witze? lol"

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    1. I love a good snow day, as you know, as long as I only get one or two at a time, and then the streets miraculously become clean and dry.

      OF COURSE it's a snowman...

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  16. Crockpots are great. I just finished freezing a bunch of crockpot meals, because what is easier than throwing stuff in a crockpot to cook? Just opening a bag and putting the contents in the crockpot to cook!
    Congrats on being halfway done with cancer treatments! Are you planning what you're going to do in 2-1/2 years?

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    1. Crock pots are da bomb. When I found out you can throw frozen meat in there and it will cook just fine, it rocked my world.

      Thanks! I'm planning to enjoy not getting a monthly shot in my stomach in two and a half years!

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  17. I used both of my slow cookers this week, so I'm a big fan, too.

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    1. I only wish you could put pasta in with the other ingredients. I dismiss any recipe with pasta in it, because I know I'll go to the work of preparing a meal for the crockpot and still have to come home and cook pasta at the end of the day. Is that lazy?

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  18. You've been business as usual with a cracked knee cap. Holy cow. You are an Ironwoman. And I love my crockpot too though I'd love some new tried and true favorite recipes. Maybe we should have a swap one week? And you are way, way too funny with the phallic Play-doh.

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    1. Cracked shin bone. Not as bad as a knee cap. It only hurts when I touch it.

      We SHOULD do a crock pot swap some day. Get everyone to post several recipes, all on the same day. Except Clark.

      I am handy with a camera when a preschooler produces a wonderful sculpture....

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  19. If someone would come up with a crockpot recipe that uses up all of the playdoh, I could kill two birds.

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    1. You'd definitely kill two birds. You realize how much snot ends up in preschool playdough? I don't touch the stuff, except to hand it out.

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  20. R to nearly X rated Playdough sculptures are hilarious. And they totally count as art. Crock pots are awesome. Complete bummer about your chipped bone. I fell in July and my arm bone still freaking hurts. This getting old business is not for the weak. And....halfway through treatment for anything is great. Kicking cancer's ass is even better. Hope this week is acting right for you.

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    1. Such innocence and all I see is, well, snowmen....
      Who knew getting older would be like this? Not me!
      And thanks! The first two and a half years have gone by pretty fast.

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  21. OH MY GOSH! As you so often do, you have totally made me miss being a preschool and kindergarten teacher. That snowman left me speechless! Its not that I no longer see art like that in the middle school. It is just that it is no longer a snowman!

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    1. Yeah, as we've said before, it's kind of a fine line between preschoolers and middle schoolers. I'll keep the preschoolers!

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