One day scrolling through Facebook I noticed my Friend Emery posting photos.  Uplifting photos.  Photos that I would look at and smile at.  Then I noticed the little tag under them, #1000thanks.  She has been documenting things in her life that she is thankful for. I read it and then thought I could do that.  But, then I thought….who really captures those moments?  In my head I guess I thought they had to be big things.  Huge things.  Later that week I was driving down the road and my little puppy was being so cute and I started smiling and all the sudden I realized, "wait, this is one of those things, those amazing moments I take for granted."  I snapped a picture and posted my very first #1000things.

1. Morning driving buddies who keep my seat warm while I'm away #1000thanks

 

Then that same day I opened my mail box and found my second thing.  Something so small and trivial but something that I realized brought a smile to my face.  How was I overlooking these tiny things that made me smile for a second.  That let me breath for a moment.  That brought me peace for an instant.

Number 2: finding a savior in my mail box this monday morning when im broke from Lego land and exhausted from a ten hour drive #1000thanks

I started to really "stop and smell the roses" in my life.  Document the small things that made me happy.

‎12. Home grown. #1000thanks

I grew those.  My mom planted them but I DIDN'T KILL THEM!!!  How had I not stopped to see the beauty in that?  I had made myself healthy salads all week with food I had grown and I wasn't even stopping to appreciate it.

‎16. A happy family after homemade ice cream #1000thanks

I love my family.  I appreciate them daily, but this #1000thanks wasn't about them. It was about me.  It was that I had made homemade ice cream and that I, ME, MYSELF had made them happy.  Sometimes I feel useless.  I feel un-needed.  I feel like if I ran away they wouldn't notice.  Sometimes I feel like my kids love everyone in the world more then me.  But Saturday night after making them ice cream and sitting at the table listening to Codi say, "you are my best mom ever, you made me the best ice cream and I love my best mom ever." I paused.  I smiled and I listened.  Later when I walked by all of my boys on the couch, their bellies full of home made ice cream with big smiles I took a second to capture it.  Becuase I want to be able to look back and remember that they do need me.  They do love me.  I do make them happy.  I need that.  I needed to know that there are times I do more then just yell and pack lunches.  I needed to know that they walked away from me sometimes feeling happy.  

I needed this challenge.  A lot.  With everything going on in my head I can sometimes find reasons to hate myself.  If the challenge was #1000thingswrongwithme I would be at a 1000 in a day.  Finding things good seemed so much more difficult in the beginning but now, now I'm having fun with it.  I'm taking my time.  I'm stopping to freeze it in a photograph and remember it.

Thank you Em.  For starting this.  For sharing it with all of us.  Mostly, thank you for opening my eyes to the beauty I was surrounded by that I never even noticed!

I guess thats why it makes sense that #20 would be this;

‎20. An eye opener #1000thanks

So I’m sitting here on the couch and my husband freaks out and is like, “babe HELP ME.”. So I go running in the kitchen and he hands me his shoe and tells me there is a giant spider and that I need to kill it.
Did you read that right? My husband wanted ME the GIRL to kill the spider. The spider that was the size of my head.
It gets better. He then runs to the garage gets the vacuum and the raid and tells me to spray it because I have to get close and he will stand back with the hose and just suck it up. I try hitting it with the shoe which he wont do because he has to get too close to it. It doesn’t work and the spied runs in a corner. I grab the raid, spray the spider and then remain totally calm when 40 billion spiders jump off the back of the big spider and go running all over the place. He manages to suck them all up from about 10 feet away while I’m down on the ground trying to mash the remaining spiders.
We get them all sucked up and then he tells me that I have go carry the canister outside and empty it because he is too affraid to even carry the canister.
Then we look down and there is another spider. Which he tries to get me to kill. I’m in my house shoes though so I refuse and he gets stuck killing the small non scary spider.
Moral of the story?
MY HUSBAND IS A TOTAL WUSSY BABY ABOUT SPIDERS!!!!!
Can’t believe he made me the fragile lady of the house kill it.
SISSY.

If you can't find me, I'm the one buried in cucumbers and string beans.  Save me.

So. Let’s start with the obvious. Google should be taken away from me. Last week I was doing some research to find out when my chickens would lay eggs. I was googling around when I read this:

After the yolk is formed in the hen's single ovary, the yolk drops into the body cavity. From there it goes into the infundibulum, or "funnel". It then starts it on its way down the oviduct. The oviduct is more than 2 feet long and is lined with glands that secrete the materials for the albumen (egg white), shell membranes, and shell. The egg color pigment is added in the last stages of this process. It takes twenty-four hours or more from the time the yolk is released until the completed egg is laid.

You should know, I already had issues with eggs. They smell. If I ate it, it had to be hard boiled or fried until it was no longer resembling an egg. If anything smelled like egg forget it I wouldn’t touch it. If you scrambled an egg in a bowl you better wash it, then put it in the dishwasher and use the sanitize setting and scalding hot water. If food smells like egg I’ll straight up throw it away.

So imagine me sitting there reading the above statement, then imagine the wheels in my head turning and now where are we?

Right after I ovulate my body releases this gelatinous stuff that contains the unused egg. Since I obviously relate everything to humans I realized that eggs are nothing more then ovulation, dead egg secretion and I TOTALLY FREAKED THE FUCK OUT MAN. I mean I would never fry up that ovulation juice and cook it. I would never eat one of my own eggs so why in shit sake would I eat a chicken egg?

Just like that I was off eggs. No more baked goods. No more egg sammiches. No more egg washed pretzels. No more ranch dressing. No more beloved mayo. NO MORE ICE CREAM.

So imagine during our recent trip to Lego Land when I got my husband an ice cream cone while he was on a ride, and it starts melting everywhere.  Instead of doing the logical thing and licking the sides clean for him I wrapped the whole mess in a bunch of paper towels and handed him a gooey cone full of melted mush when he was done with the ride.  He wanted to drop kick me right then.  Why couldn't I be normal?  Why couldn't I just lick the fucking ice cream and clean it up?  BECAUSE IT'S OVARY JUICE.  IT COMES OUT OF A CHICKENS POOTER.  NO THANK YOU MAN!

So. In honor of my new found egg hatred I’m giving away a voucher from Dove Ice cream for Any (1) Dove ice cream 8.67 oz or larger, Dovebar multi pack, or Dove bar miniatures multi pack. You can go ahead and eat the chocolate covered ovulation juice. Me? I’ll be watching from the sidelines wondering who let me have Google. How do you enter?

1. Leave a comment

2. Follow me on Twitter @wilddreemer and tweet about this give away (tell me about it in the comments)

3. Link to this post on your Facebook and tell me how I can find it in the comments section

4. Link to this post on your blog.

I will pick a winner on Monday the 5th.

I think, free ice cream is definitely once contest you want to enter. Because a whole multi pack of Dove bars….That is like a little bit of sex in a box if you ask me.  Or, if you asked me two weeks ago.

I’m featured today on shoe Friday. Come drool over my sweet heels
http://jodifur.com/2011/08/shoe-friday-139.html

How to love your wife lesson #1

When you receive the following text:

"BABE, ABOUT DINNER."

With the following picture….

Followed by a second photo like this…

A good husband replies

"MMMM CAJUN STYLE, MY FAVORITE."

 

Be this a lesson to all men.  That is the only appropriate answer.  

Men.  Take note!