Day 43-50- ConnectUS and My Husband
I'm baaaaaaaack!
After a brief sickly hiatus, I am happy to be back to blogging and donating. This project is as important to me as it has ever been, and I hope that people are still reading after a few days away. Now to the good stuff... rather than throwing some things together to make up for the days I was "out", I have decided to donate a lump sum to one place to make it count more.
I wrote about Carolyn Whalen at the end of January last year because she is near and dear to my heart. Today I am honored to donate $40 to a charity that is near and dear to her heart, ConnectUS. Here's why the organization is so important to Carolyn (in her own words):
This is actually a charity my mom started with two of her friends for people like my brother. When you are disabled like him and reach the age of 26 in Michigan you can no longer go to school, which leaves you with the options of group homes or sitting at your house all day (not spectacular options). So, what they are doing is trying to create a day program where the disabled peeps (like my bro) work with people in the community to build things (they created this awesome assembly line type thing to make dog biscuits that they send to PAWS for a Cause and made cookies with ginger in them for cancer patients since chemo makes you nauseaus and ginger makes you not nauseaus). It's still a work in progress, but they've already had a slight brush with fame, as they make these puppets and sent one to Dianne Sawyer and she held it up on the show during her last day on Good Morning America.
If you go to the website, you can see the famous puppets and find a lot more great information.
http://connectus-livonia.org/
ConnectUS is based on the belief that everyone has something to offer, and that the needs of one can be an opportunity for another. Our goal is to make the connection happen.
Thanks, Carolyn, for giving me the opportunity to give to such a wonderful organization. I hope my donation will be matched by others too!!
******
I thought about a million different things I could be thankful for over the past few days- soft tissues, jello, a 98.6 temp (I missed that for a few days), my couch, my sweater blanket, sweatsuits, Dr. S., prescription medication, etc.
However, if I'm being totally honest with myself and with you, all of these things can really be traced back to one person. I'd like to let him know once again how thankful and grateful I am to have him in my life every day, but I'd especially like to let him know how much I have appreciated him over the last seven days.
Tom, you are my hero, my nurse, my favorite, my Shipoopi, and my always and forever. I love you.
In the movies and in books, we are led to believe that love is something that happens in softly lit rooms with crackling fires or on beaches at sunset or in exotic countries in faraway places. It's ball gowns and tuxedos. It's dreamy and lovely and abstract. That's not real life. In real life, my husband showed me how much he loved me while I was clammy and shivering on the couch in a sweatsuit with wild hair and no makeup, snotting and coughing and heaving at the same time.
I am thankful to my husband for surrendering the couch and the television for a week.
I am thankful to my husband for calling into work for me when I was insisting that I could go with a 104 temperature.
I am thankful to my husband for making me go to the doctor and for faithfully making sure I took my meds at the right time so I could recover.
I am thankful to my husband for going out in the snow to get me a chocolate milkshake, and I am even more thankful to him for holding my hair back as we both realized what a bad idea the milkshake had been.
I am thankful to my husband for looking at me the same and loving me the same even after seeing me at my worst, a gross, sick mess.
I am thankful to my husband for getting me grapes and jello and graham crackers because they were the only thing I could even think of eating for days.
I am thankful to my husband for forcing me to drink glass after glass of water.
I am thankful to my husband for helping me up and down the stairs, on and off the couch, in and out of the car.
I am thankful to my husband for never once complaining or making me feel as if I was a burden.
I am thankful to my husband for completely taking care of everything around the house for a week by himself.
I could go on and on, but I'll end with this one. I am thankful to my husband for simply shrugging his shoulders and saying, "You would have done the same for me," after I tried to thank him for the trillion things he did for me.
I am grateful to have married the most wonderful man I have ever met. He has been incredible to me over the past week and over the past five years. It is not just a figure of speech when I say I really don't know what I would have done without him this week.
No, there was no softly lit room with a crackling fire in this house this week... just a whole lot of snot and a whole lot of love.
Thank you, my husband, you made my day (week!).
After a brief sickly hiatus, I am happy to be back to blogging and donating. This project is as important to me as it has ever been, and I hope that people are still reading after a few days away. Now to the good stuff... rather than throwing some things together to make up for the days I was "out", I have decided to donate a lump sum to one place to make it count more.
I wrote about Carolyn Whalen at the end of January last year because she is near and dear to my heart. Today I am honored to donate $40 to a charity that is near and dear to her heart, ConnectUS. Here's why the organization is so important to Carolyn (in her own words):
This is actually a charity my mom started with two of her friends for people like my brother. When you are disabled like him and reach the age of 26 in Michigan you can no longer go to school, which leaves you with the options of group homes or sitting at your house all day (not spectacular options). So, what they are doing is trying to create a day program where the disabled peeps (like my bro) work with people in the community to build things (they created this awesome assembly line type thing to make dog biscuits that they send to PAWS for a Cause and made cookies with ginger in them for cancer patients since chemo makes you nauseaus and ginger makes you not nauseaus). It's still a work in progress, but they've already had a slight brush with fame, as they make these puppets and sent one to Dianne Sawyer and she held it up on the show during her last day on Good Morning America.
If you go to the website, you can see the famous puppets and find a lot more great information.
http://connectus-livonia.org/
ConnectUS is based on the belief that everyone has something to offer, and that the needs of one can be an opportunity for another. Our goal is to make the connection happen.
Thanks, Carolyn, for giving me the opportunity to give to such a wonderful organization. I hope my donation will be matched by others too!!
******
I thought about a million different things I could be thankful for over the past few days- soft tissues, jello, a 98.6 temp (I missed that for a few days), my couch, my sweater blanket, sweatsuits, Dr. S., prescription medication, etc.
However, if I'm being totally honest with myself and with you, all of these things can really be traced back to one person. I'd like to let him know once again how thankful and grateful I am to have him in my life every day, but I'd especially like to let him know how much I have appreciated him over the last seven days.
Tom, you are my hero, my nurse, my favorite, my Shipoopi, and my always and forever. I love you.
In the movies and in books, we are led to believe that love is something that happens in softly lit rooms with crackling fires or on beaches at sunset or in exotic countries in faraway places. It's ball gowns and tuxedos. It's dreamy and lovely and abstract. That's not real life. In real life, my husband showed me how much he loved me while I was clammy and shivering on the couch in a sweatsuit with wild hair and no makeup, snotting and coughing and heaving at the same time.
I am thankful to my husband for surrendering the couch and the television for a week.
I am thankful to my husband for calling into work for me when I was insisting that I could go with a 104 temperature.
I am thankful to my husband for making me go to the doctor and for faithfully making sure I took my meds at the right time so I could recover.
I am thankful to my husband for going out in the snow to get me a chocolate milkshake, and I am even more thankful to him for holding my hair back as we both realized what a bad idea the milkshake had been.
I am thankful to my husband for looking at me the same and loving me the same even after seeing me at my worst, a gross, sick mess.
I am thankful to my husband for getting me grapes and jello and graham crackers because they were the only thing I could even think of eating for days.
I am thankful to my husband for forcing me to drink glass after glass of water.
I am thankful to my husband for helping me up and down the stairs, on and off the couch, in and out of the car.
I am thankful to my husband for never once complaining or making me feel as if I was a burden.
I am thankful to my husband for completely taking care of everything around the house for a week by himself.
I could go on and on, but I'll end with this one. I am thankful to my husband for simply shrugging his shoulders and saying, "You would have done the same for me," after I tried to thank him for the trillion things he did for me.
I am grateful to have married the most wonderful man I have ever met. He has been incredible to me over the past week and over the past five years. It is not just a figure of speech when I say I really don't know what I would have done without him this week.
No, there was no softly lit room with a crackling fire in this house this week... just a whole lot of snot and a whole lot of love.
Thank you, my husband, you made my day (week!).
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