sick of this weather

I'm a very solar person...so this rainy grey crap is for the birds!
I need some sunshine!

What do you do to bring your energy up on grey days?

And in my search for a sunshine picture, this popped up! Does anyone else remember these books?!?!

Brigg's and Al's Run 2014

Please help us support the NICU here at Wisconsin's Children’s Hospital (CHW)

CHW is the reason we had two months with our Dylan.  The doctors and staff here worked to make Dylan comfortable, and to try and find answers.  He had his favorite nurses (Brenda, Laura, and Sue) who he saved his flirty smiles for.  The lactation team of nurses checked in on me daily to help me with pumping and making sure I was able to provide the best nutrition for my baby.  The doctors realized that Dylan preferred some therapy over others, and adjusted the treatment plans based on Dylan's reactions (he preferred one type of ventilator over the other).  The palliative team (Dr Humphrey)  worked hard to allow us to take our baby home and the genetic team (Dr Basel and wonderful Reagan) are helping us try to figure out the how's and the why's.

We also attend a support group that is 100% funded by CHW for families that have lost a child.  It is a great comfort knowing that you are not alone, that someone DOES understand the pain you are going through.  

We wouldn't be where we are today without the staff and programs here at Children's hospital.  Some of you reading this are local here, and may have not had to use the services here, and I hope you never do.  But I hope that you take immense comfort in knowing they are right next door if you ever do need them.

Al's run is September 13th (Saturday) in downtown Milwaukee 

         (starting line by Marquette University)

The run is an 8K, or 5 miles, and the walk is 3 miles.  Please come run and walk with us in support of Children's hospital.  If you can't run/walk, please consider donating and help keep these programs running and helping families in need.

you can sign up or donate here: http://events.chw.org/goto/dylansmom

Here are some videos and stories to show how wonderful CHW is:

This is LuLu and her strength and wisdom amazed me. 

 "I know mom,  Storm Rainbow, Storm Rainbow"

ok so I'm a couponing junkie :)

But saving money is fun :) it means for money for fun stuff!

So here are the two trips I made this week.

Target:

I spent $2.41 OOP and earned a $5 gift card :)


CVS:

I spent $0 OOP and earned $15 in ECB (extracare bucks)

It was a good week!!

Do you coupon?? If not, you should!!!

Dylan's Trees

We received cards, and other thoughtful gifts after we lost Dylan.  We also received three awesome trees. So we planted them quickly in mid october here in Wisconsin (in 2011).  And today I'll show you some before and after's, I'll do one in the fall as well because that's when one really shows his true colors!

The Autumn Blaze:

The Smoke Tree:

The Lilac hasn't changed much as it's a miniature tree, but here's a recent picture (it hasn't bloomed yet)

The Movie Noah

My husband and I went to see the movie a few weeks ago at a budget theater. And we were disappointed in how Hollywood portrayed Noah.

Looking at other reviews, it's sort of a 50/50 toss up.

Things I liked:

I thought the way they showed how evil/devil can be found everywhere, in all of us.  They went back to the story of Adam and Eve, and the snake.  The snake was first shown as a green snake like the one below.

Then later you see a black snake emerging out of the green snake (or shedding it's skin) But I loved the play with the color.  From English I remember studying archetypes, and black vs white is a very common one.

I also really enjoyed the animal scenes, when the animals all came to the ark.  They were beautifully done and caused me to tear up quite a bit.

These pictures do not do the scenes justice.

Things I didn't like:

I really didn't like how full the entire second half of the movie, Noah is portrayed as a crazed murdering monster, to the point of letting everyone know he plans on killing his unborn grand child once they are born...

That did not sit right with me at all.

What did you like/dislike about the movie? Or did you not see it for any reason?