Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (39)

Today was a sucky day for me, don't ask my why. I was in a foul mood from the moment I got up, and no matter what I did, it wouldn't improve, I was simply annoyed as hell. I tried cappuccino for breakfast, even got some time to myself to read my magazine. I tried baking, I tried soup, but nothing seemed to help. Therefore, this week's TToT is definitely an excercise of focussing and meditation of the blessings in my life.

This week's top ten:

1. Having a good appointment with our midwife and OB/GYN on Monday. Baby was hiding from the doppler again, but we got a good heartbeat after searching a little. And we found out that we'll have our big ultrasound on our wedding anniversary!

2. Work being not overly busy this week, which helped a lot subbing for two colleagues on vacation on top of my own work. Still got some overtime in.

3. The weather, beautiful, beautiful spring weather.

4. Being off work on Thursday and very, very productive. I took off work because it was sign-up day for elementary school, and the kids of working parents were conveniently scheduled in the middle of the day. But that way, hubby and I shared a quiet breakfast at home, I folded two loads of laundry (or what was left of it after we started picking the clean clothes out of the basket already), we comleted the paperwork and faced the reality that come September, we'll have a 1st-grader, spring-cleaned the car, I ran a round with my neighbor, and got to spend some time crafting with the girls.

5. Orange-ginger infused green tea. My vanilla black tea had run out, and I felt adventurous...

6. Another impromptu  geeky-date with hubby watching "Cosmos" by and with Neil deGrass Tyson, and I even managed to stay awake!

7. My colleague cooking some veggie stew and sharing it with me.

8. Patient, patient little girls. I know, I was a really mean parent today, and they were still so sweet. Tomorrow will be a better day.

9. Finding a show with David Tennant for tonight. The dubbing is weird, and I may have to get the show again in English, but I guess any David Tennant is better than the other stuff that's on.

10. Not being able to drink wine at the moment. If I could, I guess tonight would be a night when I'd drink a glass or five too many and would regret it tomorrow.


Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, and thank you, Lizzi et al. for hosting this wonderful link-up!

Why The 2000s Were Awesome-Ish

Today was a weird Friday, because I was off yesterday and kept referring to Wednesday as "last Friday", I think people thought I'm not quite there. But a wacky schedule and having to sub for two coworkers does that to me.  And here comes today's Finish The Sentence Friday, something I felt like I answered a few weeks ago, wondering whether I was ready to turn 30:

My favorite decade is...

... the 2000s.

I know, it sounds boring, but I'm still one of the young'ns. The 80s, I don't remember much of, I was only 6 when it all ended. The 90s, well the teenage time wasn't my friend. Add weird hair, even weirder clothes my mom got me, and some extra punds (besides being an awkward kid in general), and you have the class target.  On to the 2000s, time of my evolution, my rebellions, my time as a party girl, and eventually calming down. I remember decent clothing (the revival of the extreme flare pants had died down again), better hair (bye-bye perm), and somewhat better music, even though Metallica's "St. Anger" was a huge disappointment!



On the upside, Ville Valo cleaned up his act and managed to do concerts sober! (Yes, I sometimes have a weakness for goth lads)



The 2000s were also the revival of one of the best TV shows ever. Susannah knows which one I mean  :-)



It was also the high time of a certain pre-FaceBook platform that lead to me tripping over that certain lad to whom I'll be married for 8 years come April.


And that's the 2000s for me.

What's your favorite decade??

Wordless Wednesday - Starry Nights

Source

I love the painting, I love the Doctor. I NEEEEEED this print!!!!

From The Bully's Perspective

Lily has been having issues with a bully in her kindergarten class. At first, I thought that it was only Lily, but now it seems that many other kids have issues with this particular kid as well. A few weeks ago, we had one of the bi-annual meetings with Lily's teacher, discussing her progress and any issues she may have. And since it is really something on Lily's heart, we also discussed that particular boy. Which options there are to not only help Lily but also the boy.

It actually turns out that the two have a few things in common. When Lily started kindergarten, she also still had issues with the language. She started to have issues with other kids, which was partly caused by the language barrier, and partly by Lily trying to be one of the adults, the only group of people who have offered stability in her life.  But the big difference is that Lily was a 3-year odl girl back then; the boy is now 5, only a year away from 1st grade.

Tonight at dinner, Lily suddenly started bad-mouthing the boy, how he was annoying and always bothering everyone and that she would never let him write in her kindergarten class-mate book. While we definitely dislike bullying, ostracizing a kid that obviously has troubles and not way to express his feelings than being mean or violent against others is not a solution either. And bad-mouthing is certainly not tolerated in our house.

She became quiet and listened as we explained to her possible reasons why the boy behaved the way he does, and that excluding him would not help the situation but rather make everything worse. We are really lucky that Lily is not only a very kind little girl (mostly) but that she also has a very soft heart and feels for others. We suggested that instead of writing him off as a trouble-maker, she should meet him with friendliness and show him that he is still welcome in the group. 

She definitely got the idea, so we need to see how the next weeks go and if the situation improves.  Keep you fingers crossed!

Be A Match

I know, I'm pretty late jumping on the band wagon, if you can actually call it that, maybe more a public service announcement?

Lizzi, aka The Considerer, and Zoe from Rewritten have brought the attention to a young boy in need of a blood marrow donor to save his life. But not only little Steven needs a donor, thousands of people worldwide are hoping every day for the call that a donor was found. Most cases are not known, many people suffer and die in quit, but they are still there.

So what can YOU do?  Find a local or national bone marrow registry and get registered. It's easy and completely painless: cells are taken with a cheek swab, examined, and your markers saved in the registry.

The largest bone marrow registry in the U.S. is Be A Match, which also shares its information with other registries worldwide. You can join the registry online and receive your test swabs in the mail or search for a local bone marrow drive.

If you live in the U.K., register at the British Bone Marrow Registry. If you are a regular (or first time) blood donor, an extra sample can be taken during that appointment to determine your markers for the registry. If you are not a blood donor, simply contact the BBMR via phone or email for further information.

I, myself, am registered with the German bone marrow database, DKMS. Registration was easy and painless. I know that the chances of ever receiving a call is only about 5%, but should the call ever come, I will be ready to donate.

You are eligible to become a donor if you are generally healthy and between the age of 18 and 59. The process of donation is described at the homepage of the BBMR:

The first, and most frequently used, is to donate stem cells from circulating blood. For the four days preceding the donation a nurse will inject you with a drug which vastly increases the number of stem cells in your circulating blood. On the fifth day you will have a blood test to check that you have enough circulating stem cells. You will then be connected to a cell-separator machine, without the need for a general anaesthetic. The machine collects the stem cells from your blood via a vein in one arm, returning the blood to your body through a vein in your other arm. If you are already a platelet donor you will be familiar with this type of machine. Occasionally you may be asked back on the sixth day for a further donation, if the dose of cells obtained is not sufficient.

The second method is donation of bone marrow itself, which involves the removal of stem cells from your hip bones. This is done using a needle and syringe under a general anaesthetic in a hospital. Although this is not a surgical operation, there will be marks on the skin made by the needle. As there may be some discomfort where the needle has been inserted, you will need to stay in hospital for up to 48 hours and have a period of recovery at home of up to five days.

So gather your information, get registered, and maybe save a live. Should you not be eligible or able to register, you can still help by donating. Testing all those countless tissue samples and storing the information is expensive, and all registries, big and small, are thankful; even small amounts help. Especially consider registering if you are a minority or bi-racial, as it is often especially difficult to find matches for those groups.

Thank you all so much for reading and considering your options!

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (38)

I received a completely unexpected phone call today. I'm not ready yet to share any details yet, but hopefully soon. Besides that, this first half of my weekend was pretty uneventful, as planned after this week. I got to sleep plenty, and this annoying pony tail is finally off. Not quite as short as I had planned, but definitely better than before.

Ten more things to be thankful this week:

1. An unexpected and spontaneous couch date with the hubby on Thursday. As usual, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I saw hubby watching me instead of Myth Busters, mentioning that he had already seen that episode, but it was always funny again to watch me fight sleep and losing.

2. Doing well answering to Lily's question: "Mami, there is no hole in the belly, how does the baby come out??"  At least, she's not freaked out about my response..

3. Carneval being over. I hate this so-called 5th season, and coem Ash Wednesday every year, I feel relieved that it's going to be almost another year until I'm tortured with horrible music and loads of drunk people again.

4. Hearing the hubby giggle from our bedroom. Tonight is game night for him, and two more of our friends in the U.S. have joined in. I'm so glad he still can play with this group of wonderful people, and that we do have the technological means nowadays.

5. Surviving the office move, and having a hubby and daughters considerate enough to let me collapse on the couch and nap for an hour right after getting home from work.

6. A lovely colleague who acts as my external hard-drive at the moment and calls me after I had completely forgotten an important appointment with HR and went shopping during my lunchbreak.

7. Another great colleague saving me from moving chaos and convincing me that an early lunch break in town is absolutely necessary.

8. Great cuddles with both Lily and Violet this evening. I had one little girl in each arm, while watching The Simpsons with them and letting them rubbing my tummy.

9. The beautiful weather during the last few days. The girls got to play at the playground in Erlangen today, after everyone got a hair cut and Lily's glasses were fixed.  Can't believe it's only early March and already so beautiful outside! On Friday, I even saw the first bushes starting to blossom. Hoping for an easter egg hunt outside this year!!

10. Lily being able to communicate her feelings better these days. She's been dealing with quite some mood-swings in the past weeks, and instead of letting us know what was going on she withdrew and moped quietly, which was stressful for her and us. This morning, when she was in one of her moods again, she walked up to me, saying that she was not feeling well and would rather be left alone and sleep a little more. And off she went, just to emerge as her usual happy self an hour later.



Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

TGIF

What I really want to scream out loud is:

THANKS GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY!!!

Today was fairly good, apart from just being mommy-brained so badly it annoys me. But the days before were chaos. Moving office was more stressful than I'd thought, not being able to work, stepping between moving boxes, saving my delicate orchids from the movers, being in the way, etc. My sleep wasn't the best all week, and towards the end of the week, I just became increasingly exhausted. But now, it's weekend, I get to sleep in and take naps during the day. I get to relax, and finally, finally (!!!) get that pony tail cut off tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!  And thank you to Janine for hosting this great link-up!