Stop & Smell the Roses vlog!

Oh hi there. Don't mind me, the slacker over here posting this a day late. Thankfully Mandy over at House of Rose has such a kind soul & allows us to post this until Friday.

You know for the ahem.. slackers. :)

So take a peek & see what I am thankful for this week!

Oh & let us not forget what I am always thankful for..

how can I not?? Look at those faces.

so precious.

Happy Thursday, friends!!

Stop and Smell the Roses link-up!

Well folks. I didn't see any tomatoes being thrown at me last week for my vlog, so I figured I'd grace you with my presence again this week.

You can thank me later.

Once again I am linking up with the always gorgeous, Mandy to take a minute to Stop and Smell the Roses and tell you what I am thankful for this week.

drumroll please.....

You know the drill.. be kind, friends ;)

Kenne and I are off to do some yardwork/play outside before dinner. Obviously I meant Kennedy will be doing the yardwork while I play. hehe..

Happy happy Wednesday!!

True Life: I married George Clooney.

True life: I married George Clooney

He is no longer America's Bachelor thanks to me.

you're welcome.

What? How can you not believe me?

I have proof.

What more do you need?

I would totally pick out that bouquet of plastic leaves in real life.

We went to Vegas and got married.

Well ok, he was already there, but I met him there.

He is so kind.

And hot. In a waxy figure sort of way.

My husband was the photographer.

Oh, and the witness.

Him and his mom.

So supportive, those two.

In all fairness, Andy then went and had a one-night stand with Jenna Jameson.

Filthy creatures.

And let's not even talk about the sketchy party my MIL attended.

He liquored her up and made her wear the ears.

I let her borrow mine.

Thankfully Jack Sparrow rode up on the Black Pearl and was able to fight them off and save us.

thanks Jack.

"I'll never let go Jack..."

Oh wait, wrong movie.

After all of the family drama with the quickie marriages and rendezvous, we thought it was best we seek out a professional to help us get our family back together.

And just so you know, this was most definitely not just a bunch of celebrity figures at the wax museum. ;)

xo.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I will be working my tail off this holiday weekend at the car sale so if you could, would you mind doing me a favor?

have a green drink for me!

I will for sure be slurping down a Shamrock Shake.

And wearing green.

If anyone dares to pinch me, I will kick some a$$.

ps. who knew leprechauns were so tall?

what are y'all up to this st. patty's day??

do share.

I need to live through your funsies this weekend.

xo

my heart.

my loves.

Gahh. Does this not just melt your heart?

I am so blessed.

so precious.

It is safe to say this will be made into a canvas and displayed in our home.

Hello Gorgeous Weather

Hello Gorgeous.

Mother Nature.. I'm talking to your fine ass.

Thank you for bringing us some sunshine to enjoy.

Don't worry we took full advantage of it.

And will continue to do so if you keeping bringing it to us.

mama wants some new sandals.

So we spent some time at my in-laws house this week.

They have a big enclosed deck on the top floor of their house, and Kennedy loves to run around out there.

It's so nice because she can't get into any trouble out there.. or fall off.


"Kennedy do you want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's?"

......I'll take that as a yes.

well are we going to go??

such a good helper

 ..throwing pine needles off the deck.

for a nominal charge I can arrange to have her clear your porches off as well....

totally kidding.

All of the pine needles are gone??

such a beauty.

peaking at grandma through the door.

Oh hiiii.. just hanging out letting the wind blow through my hair.

enjoying the view.

As you can see in the pictures, she had a ball.

And well that means mama had a ball too.

Not too shabby for March.

I am so excited for summer.

now that is an understatement if there ever was one.

My first Vlog... what a trainwreck.

Ok. Friends.. this is quite the sight to see. You're going to want to watch this.

If you want a laugh of course.

Mandy over at House of Rose has been hosting a vlog link-up about things that make you happy or things you love this week. I decided to participate.

Let's just start off by saying I am NO "public speaker"

More like I stumble upon words, wiggle around the whole time and probably sound like a total dork.

But whatevs. It's all in fun.

Maybe doing these vlogs each week will help me progress with speaking.

One could only hope.

So lets take a peaksy at my first attempt of vlogging.

Be kind.

Can we please take a moment to discuss how it just ends abruptly?

Yeah, that was my doing.

It was for your own good, friends.

Let's just say, as bad as the beginning & middle were... the end was worse :)

Until next week lovers!

I promise I will get better with time.

fingers crossed.

Children's Museum trip!

We took Kennedy to the children's museum on Sunday.

So much fun.. she loved it.

She insisted on stacking all the trains on this chair.

She did however take some time to draw pictures.

She is turning into such a doodl-er.

Is that even a word?

is now.

Oh, hi mom!

And what is a trip to the Children's museum if we don't creep me her out a little by the reptile tanks.

gross.

When we head to Chicago next month with Becky & family, we are bringing the girls to the Children's Museum there.

It is going to be even MORE fun, than going to the one here in town.

Mostly because of the company.

duh.

Oh, and if you were wondering by the pictures.... daddy picked out her outfit on Sunday.

twinsies.

Oh & notice anything else about the pictures? Yup, watermarked.

After Becky's post about people stealing her pictures... freaked me out.

So I will not be handing over pictures to thieves willingly.

Not up in here.



Rest In Peace

My blogging has been hit or miss lately.  If you read my last blog post, I had asked for prayers for my grandma. If you follow me on twitter, than you already know, but if not... she passed away in the early hours of Monday morning.

It has thrown a wrench into my heart and life.

I was so close with my grandma. She lived with my mom since I graduated high school. I saw her practically every day of my life. She was full of life, and spunk. We had such a special relationship and she loved my daughter to pieces.  My grandmother had 5 other great-grandchildren, but her and Kennedy were so connected. Connected more than any other two people in my family.  She saw her two days a week when my mom babysat Kennedy and she would just engulf herself in all things baby. She could be in the worst pain ever and as soon as we would walk through the door in the morning and she heard Kennedy running back to her room, her face would lighten up and her spirits were instantly better. It breaks my heart not only for losing my grandma, and my mom losing her mother, but for Kennedy. Being only 16 months old, she will never remember all of these memories they had. She will never remember just how close they were and how much she meant to my grandma.  I wish I could have bottled all of that love up and kept it forever.

I know she isn't in pain anymore. I know she is with my grandpa and her family and loved ones she has lost. It is just so hard to not be selfish in this grieving and wish just for "our" sake down here that she was still here. God has a plan. God is amazing. I have to always remember to have trust in that.

Today we go to say our final goodbye to an amazing woman, the best way that we can. I am hoping that today will bring some sort of understanding to my mother of what was meant to be at this time. It will be a long road to acceptance that she is gone, and there will be plenty of mourning and tears, but I know that my grandmother would have wanted us to celebrate her life. Remember the good times. That is what she worked so hard for, for us to appreciate life and remember all the special times we had with her.

Today our family will mourn a great woman. Tomorrow, we will continue life, honoring her memory.

Rest in peace Grandma.

ice skating with my sisters

Last weekend my older sister and I took one of our younger sisters ice skating.

Oh you didn't know I have a younger sister?

I do. I have 2 of them actually. 

M & S

My dad had two daughters with his second wife.

One is 14 and one is 12.

They live about 30 miles away with their mom.

(My dad and her are divorced now)

I call them by their first initial on here because they are still young, and I want to protect their privacy.

But anyway.. Jamie and I took our youngest one ice skating.

The older one was too busy hanging out with her boyfriend. 9th grade problems.

So we had lunch, went ice skating and had an all around great time.

Jamie & S

getting laced up!

S and myself

the three of us.. clearly we know who the star of the picture is.. haha

I like to think that I am pretty good at ice skating. Well I can hold my own without falling. haha

But S is in ice skating.

Since she was in 1st grade, so basically she skated circles around me.

whatevs.

little sisters are sassy. ;)

say a prayer?

I could really use your prayers, friends.
My grandma has been in ICU since Friday night.
She isn't in the greatest health.
I'll start with telling you what she has.
My grandma has type 2 diabetes, renal kidney failure and was just diagnosed a month ago with congestive heart failure.

She needs oxygen all the time to help her breathe. She went to her check-up about a week ago and the doctor told her that one of her heart valves is almost completely closed off. He then told her that something needs to be done "asap" about it.  With that news, he then went on to tell her that she isn't a candidate for open heart surgery but that there is a procedure that she may be a candidate for at Beaumont University in Royal Oak, downstate. This procedure would go in through her groin. Before they can figure out if she is a candidate, protocol is that she has to meet with the heart surgeon here to be cleared that there is nothing anyone here can do for her. The soonest she could get in was 2 weeks from now.

Friday night she started having trouble breathing even with her oxygen tank and had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance. She has been on the ICU floor since then and on a biPAP machine. Which is basically a mask that goes on that forces oxygen into her lungs.  At this point we don't really know what the next step is. The doctor is going to talk to the surgeon and get on the phone with beaumont univ.

We will go from there.

I am not sure how we will get her to Beaumont since it is an "elective" procedure, her insurance won't cover the transfer and it is an 8 hour drive there. Without oxygen available besides her regular machine, we aren't sure what to do. But again, we will figure those things out when we hear back from the cardiologist.

If she is a candidate for the procedure we definitely aren't out of the woods. This procedure is only done on high-risk patients. Which, you guessed it...she is. There is high risk of her stroking out during the procedure or her kidneys shutting down which would inturn put her on permanent dialysis. Right now we are just trying to figure out what the lesser of the two evils are.

She is a fighter and I know she will give it all she has.  I normally don't ask anything from my readers, but if there was ever a time it was appropriate to do so.. I feel like now would be that circumstance.  So.. if you could just take a second and say a little prayer for my grandmother, I would really be grateful for that.  Every little bit helps. and I believe prayer is a powerful thing.

God is great.
thank you friends.

craft weekend!

The Grundstrom household will be doing crafts this weekend.

Husband, if you are reading this... surprise!!

You can blame it on pinterest.

That site is addicting, yet so, so helpful.

Pat on the back to the person who thought up that one.

So anyway.. I was thinking this weekend we can do finger painting with Kenne.

I found a great recipe for homemade, non-toxic, EDIBLE (though it doesn't taste good) finger paint.

Double Score!!

Kenne is going to squeal with excitement when I let her dig in.

I also plan to get some deglossing spray & work on getting my console table painted so I can bring it back into the living room.

You see, it has been living in our spare room.

Along with a guest bed, dresser, coffee table, my craft things.. and probably a few gnomes for all I know.

Let's just say we don't go in there often.

And that's a shame, and it really needs to be cleared out and actually used.

That is why I am glad we are finally home & not traveling for a weekend and Andy doesn't work.

He will be on moving furniture duty, since the stuff in there ways a ton.

I definitely do not want that job.

I do much better giving orders anyways ;)

justttt kiddinggggg.

And last but not least, within our weekend plans is getting a few canvases and making some wall decor.

I did make a chalkboard frame for our kitchen area.

Super easy!

The only items you need are, a picture frame (I bought mine at Michaels in the 65% off section), chalkboard spray and sand paper.

Sand the glass on the frame so that it is kind of ruffed up (if you don't the chalk won't write on it), then spray the chalk on the glass (which I also picked up at Michaels) according to the directions on the spray can. And done!

I still haven't decided what I am going to write on it, so it is sitting on the floor in our dining room, waiting to be put on the wall.

I should probably add that to the list too.

Well looks like we are going to be busy bees this weekend!

It will keep us occupied while locked in the house because of the nasty snow storm we are getting tonight.

And on that note, all of my midwest friends in the heart of the storms going through, stay safe, you are in my thoughts and prayers for safety of you and your families!

Have a great weekend everyone!!