The afterlife.... no, not what you think!
dealing with life after cancer, life after marriage, life after having kids, and now life after divorce.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Neverending 'to do' list
Friday, March 1, 2013
Making the world a better place
Her mission: Stop human trafficking
It is a selfless sacrifice. Leaving her job to make a change in this world, relying on her faith. I feel so honored to know someone so inspiring.
She is fully investing herself into Zoe International Ministries and will be running ZOE Children’s Home. She has been to Thailand with her church several times and has see first hand the children that have been rescued from their nightmare.
Am much as I'm gonna miss having her around the office, I support her with all my heart.
If you would like to make a donation to support Vickie's efforts with Zoe, please go to Vickie's donation page.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
New Year...gettin' stuff done
Printing station |
Work station, for card making, scrapbooking, jewelry making or whatever splendidness I find on Pinterest :) |
To the right is going to be a leaf table hanging from the wall for a wrapping station |
Next I'm getting the boys room organized too, by making them a space to work on their homework and shelving to put their toys up...
Homework station for the boys' rooms |
Disassembled an old bookcase to make a home for the Dinos |
Old shelves that were in the garage for the "mans" |
I even got the boys clothes ready for the week! I know that's borderline OCD, but I don't have a lot of time in the morning to get myself ready, so if that saves me even a little bit of time in the morning I'm happy. I'm already starting to feel a little less stressed than I did a week ago!
Still more to do, but I feel like I'm on the right track.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Elf on the shelf: misadventures
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Soccer time!
This year, E has decided he wanted to try soccer. I think seeing D play was encouraging for him. Although he has limitation, he seems to be having a great time. He tries so hard, and this is a great way for him to work on his listening, focus, motor skills, and team work. It's also important for him to expand his experiences.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Raising money to kick some cancer ass
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Oh no! Not humpday!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Game On!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Where to go from here...
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Still missing...
It's been hard this week getting my head around what has happened. I never imagined that I would ever see a missing person poster and see the face of someone I know. It's so easy to look at a missing person poster and not take a second glance, but next time I will remember this feeling of helplessness, fear, anger and sadness.
Bree has a mother, a father, a brother, sisters, and daughters that all want her home. Pray that she makes a safe return.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Praying for Bree
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
A message to parents of autistic children
My name is Lisa. I'm a single mom of two boys and my oldest son has mild/moderate autism. I work full time so I have plenty on my plate managing both work and home and fulfilling the needs of both my boys. Juggling it all can be challenging, but never dull! To make things more interesting, my co-parent seems to be in denial at times because he does not seem to fully accept the limitation our son has.
Some days I'm on the verge of tears, but my boys keep me up beat and going.
I knew very early on he was autistic. Before he was even diagnosed. I saw many characteristic in him that were similar to my cousin's child that has sever autism
When he was 2 he was not yet talking and was having meltdowns over not being able to communicate. To the point that he was bang his head on the floor. We learned sign language and that help A LOT! Since then, with the help of Regional Center, he was getting Early Intervention, Speech therapy and OT. Right now he is in 2nd grade and in the Special Day program at an LAUSD school and is receiving Speech, OT and AEP. I'm also trying to get services for ABA (applied behavior analysis)
Why behavior? He yells, a lot. And not really out of anger. He is very excitable and it can be overwhelming at times. Also, discipline. It can be pretty difficult for an autistic child to comprehend cause and effect and consequences. When I am trying to discipline he laughs uncontrollably and it can be pretty frustrating. Then I find that I get frustrated with myself for not having more patience.
You are NOT alone
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
My meet up group
Monday, October 10, 2011
bloggity blog blog
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Welcome to the survivors club Susan!
When I first interviewed at Regency 12 years ago Susan was the first person I met so I've known her from day one. And when I was diagnosed 10 years ago with Lymphoma, she was one of my many supporters of my Regency "family". Being the HR manager at the time, she handled all the "work" stuff as far as insurance, FMLA, disability goes, but she didn’t stop there. She made herself available on a personal level. As a friend. In our company wide meeting, the owner told us he had a special guest to speak to us, and in walked Susan with her husband David. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was great to see her in such high spirits. She spoke about being thankful; for the love, the support, the prayers, and the cancer. It's not an easy thing to do to come to terms with the diagnosis, but for me, it made the process less stressful. I see how Susan has been so strong in this process and that comes from her faith. She has said that God is ultimately in control in their lives and what a privilege it is for her prayers and the prayers of her supporters to be answer. I think it solidified her faith even more than I think she thought possible.
Last month, someone here in our LA office made a quilt for Susan and the owner of our company hand deliver it to her on her last day of chemo on 9/16/11. The quilt included 20 squares where the executive team wrote some words of prayer, encouragement and inspiration. Imagine my surprise when I was asked to also write a special note to Susan on one of these squares! I was so honored. I am also so very honored that I could be here for her as she was for me 10 years ago. The quilt also included untied pink ribbons and everyone in our building was invited to tie bows with the ribbons as a symbol of payer and support. It was a truly remarkable day.
Monday, September 12, 2011
So much to do!
I love when I get these little burst of creative ideas. I saw some fabulous ideas this weekend for rings and cuffs that I can not wait to get started on. So many things I just want to get started on and I'd much rather be doing that stuff than being at work some days!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
About Meetup
I received an email today from Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder & CEO of Meetup and it's an interesting story of how this came about.
Fellow Meetuppers,
I don't write to our whole community often, but this week is special because it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many people don't know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.
Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought local community doesn't matter much if we've got the internet
and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I hoped they wouldn't bother me.
When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they'd normally
ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being neighborly.
A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet -- and grow local communities?
We didn't know if it would work. Most people thought it was a crazy idea -- especially because terrorism is designed to make people distrust one another.
A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months after 9/11.
Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it's working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups, Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups... a wild variety of
100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common -- except one thing.
Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me. They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and motivate each other, they babysit each other's kids and find other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace together. They make friends and form powerful community. It's powerful stuff.
It's a wonderful revolution in local community, and it's thanks to everyone who shows up.
Meetups aren't about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it weren't for 9/11.
9/11 didn't make us too scared to go outside or talk to strangers. 9/11 didn't rip us apart. No, we're building new community together!!!!
The towers fell, but we rise up. And we're just getting started with these Meetups.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Yeah, I fight like a girl
I received a link to a wonderful site. I love the campaign, Fight Like A Girl! It's full of info and inspiring stories for not only cancer (of which I am 9 years in remission of) but for many different diseases. I hope you will join me in spreading the word. I fight like a girl and I'm damn proud of it!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Another school year begins.
The kids had their first day of school yesterday. I took the day off so I could be at there when Emileo was greeted by his teacher and find out who's class Diego would be in. It was a very exciting day for all of us. Kinder and 2nd grade; where has the time gone. I hope that I will always be able to take the first day back to school off. I just want to make it a special day for them and see them off to their next milestone in their school life. They were very cooperative getting out of bed (yay), had their breakfast, brushed their teeth and made their bed. I'm so proud of them taking on responsibilities.
Then it was off to school. Once we dropped off Emileo at the gate where his teacher was waiting for him and all his other students, we walked over to the auditorium where the Kinder teachers would be to take all the pre-school grads to their new class. He saw many of his friends there. One by one each teacher went to the front of the auditorium and started calling names. Diego would get so excited when he'd hear one of his old class mates get called up; and then slightly disappointed when he didn't get called. Me too. There are 4 kinder classes and he wasn't called up until finally the 4th group of kids. Thankfully there were a few kids from his old class.
What an exciting time it must be for them. I'm sure they were filled with a mix of excitement and nerves. Or maybe that was just me :)
Once the kids were off, me and mom ran some errands and meet back at my house so that we could pick up the boys. It was such a long day and I was wondering if it felt long for the boys too. While I was out I stopped at the market and picked up so donuts as a special treat. When we got to the school they were so happy and excited. They had a good day.
Friday, August 26, 2011
one day, at the swap meet
I am an amateur photographer. I take pics with little thought, just what looks good to me. I'm learning to edit photos with my software and want to learn more about composition and use it when taking pics. I've taken photo classes way back in the day when we actually used film, manually used aperture and shutter settings to achieve different effects, developed our own film with smelly chemicals, and exposed out images onto photo paper in a dark room. I want to learn to be a great photographer