If you have an email address,  you have probably received all kinds of email forwards that promise good luck and to pass along the email for continued blessings. This is one of those emails I have recieved and I am glad to say that after receiving in 2013, I am still alive and kicking. I have not won the lottery yet, but this list  is almost as good as winning any jackpot so I thought I would share it here.

TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone.

Good words for all of us!!

-modalissa

The Halloween candy is almost gone or if you are like me the candy is buried in the freezer. The turkey and all the fixin’s will be on the table very very soon. Then it will be time to pull out all those Ugly Christmas Sweaters, the tackier the better, right?I couldn’t resist when Kerry contacted me and see if I wanted to be a part of her ugly Christmas blocks, sweater blocks that is.

For information on details about the sweater pattern, visit Kid Giddy. There is an a whole group of us making sweater blocks and posting them on Instagram. To follow along search #uglysweaterblock or follow Kerry’s IG. 

I will be sharing my block on my Instagram soon, @modalissa.

Did I say there were  prizes and giveaways?

Of course…

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DISCLAMIER: I am told I am a pretty private person, so I thought I would go ahead and fill you in on the past 5 or 6 months of my life. The post is long, but I wanted to fill in the gap so I can get back to sharing good things.

Several years ago, I read a blog about how people should not be adding “exclamation marks” to the end of all their sentences. This was not proper grammar and we should be able to tell our story with the correct words and not have to emphasize our feelings with “exclamation marks”.

Last week I read an article about many text messages include emojis and the over use of !!. The average text message includes 3 emojis and a few !!. That is my kind of communication. Recently, I noticed that more and more of my messages  and emails to my family and friends have had multiple !!. Thought I should explain.

noun
1. the sign (!) used in writing after an exclamation.
2. this mark sometimes used in writing two or more times in succession to indicate intensity of emotion, loudness, etc.: Long live the Queen!!
3. this mark sometimes used without accompanying words in writing direct discourse to indicate a speaker’s dumbfounded astonishment:
“His wife just gave birth to quintuplets.”(!)

so my story begins……

Since my early forties, I have suffered from migraines, not really suffered, just possibly 2 migraines a year. I know when they were coming on and how to treat them immediately so the effects were not debilitating. Fast forward to late 2015, I had started to have more mild headaches that felt more like sinus pressure. Went to doc and was told to take sinus meds. Things still did not seem right. I went to my eye doctor to see if maybe my contact prescription had changed. It had not.

On March 3rd I spent the night at my son’s house to help with my new granddaughter!!!!
The morning of March 4th, I had a seizure!! Crazy – weird !! I was rushed to the emergency room of a local hospital, spent a week in the hospital as I continued to suffer from mild seizures. This was the same day that I had taken off work and had a doctors appt to get to the bottom of the headaches, the hospital admittance just sped things up a bit.

I stayed in the hospital a few days, overcame the seizures and went home.
Then, March 15th back to ER with headaches and on March 16- Right Crainotomy (brain surgery), then March 23rd  headed home. (thank you to the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff of Medical City- Dallas)

My best friend is a nurse and she came into town during all this and stayed with me at the hospital, explained things to my family, while assuring them everything was going to be okay.  I hope each of you have a friend like this.  Except for the fact that she took pictures of me with staples all through my head and sent it out to her family. I will have to get her back for that.

Once I returned home, I slept in my own bed and was thrilled to be un-hooked from all the machines. My daughter had lined up 24 hour care for me, splitting many of the shifts between my husband and herself. daughter-in-laws, brother, sister-in-law, cousins, mom and friends all took their shifts. All the while my team at work took on more and more responsibility since I was “resting” during the busiest time of the year. They are priceless!!! Thank you to all!!

Texas Law restricts you from driving after having seizures. My daughter knows I am pretty hard headed and she took my car with her just to make sure I didn’t sneak out of the house. One of my first outings, my daughter took me to Target.  I felt as if she wrapped me up in 3 layers of bubble wrap  and put a leash on me.  It really wasn’t that bad, but those of you that know my daughter, Jillian, would certainly believe that I am not exaggerating!!!!!

My mom was showing up for her assigned shifts to take care of me, all the while never  letting us know that she did not feel well. Hard hardheadedness runs in our family. Shortly after Easter weekend, my mom fell and was hospitalized. After many complications, my mom passed away exactly one month after I had returned home from the hospital.  My mom was an incredible spunky, funny and loving woman. She was a breast cancer survivor and had lived through the death of my father and sister. Mom was known for making notes on a small book she kept in her purse.  When cleaning her things I found a torn piece of notebook paper in one of her purses that she had scribbled my doctor’s names on along with…. I like Lissa’s doctors. She is in good hands and will be alright. She also probably thought a few of the doctors were cute and was not afraid to tell them so. Yes, that was my mom!!!!

If my mom would have ever met you she would remember your name and everything about you and quite possibly written a little note about you that she would has stashed away in her purse. Our family is not the same without her!!

Throughout the past months, I have found that my circle of friends is much deeper and wider than I could ever have imagined.  I am so grateful!!

There  are so many reasons for every day to be a good day and to add !!!!!’s to all messages.

Thank you for that.

-modalissa

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Thank you so much for sharing your memories of your favorite teacher. I enjoyed reading each of them. 

The winner of the Varsity Layer Cake is Sandy in St. Louis. Please send me your mailing information. 

Thank you for following along. 

-modalissa

Well I have always been a big girl.

You know the gal that is always on the back row, middle slot for group pictures.

The gal that the basket girl coaches start drooling over my “talent” in 3rd grade.

The gal that was consoled by her father by the repeated saying, “There is always going to be someone shorter than you, there is always going to be someone taller than you, etc.”

My tearful reply was always why does it always have to be the boys that are shorter.

My dad’s patient wisdom had a way of finally balancing my life out. He was right.
There is always someone richer, poorer, smarter, dumber (not as smart), prettier, uglier (not as pretty), you get the drift.

Now that my 3 minutes of therapy is over, what I really mean is I am big girl now
because my platform for my blog has been upgraded.
I have officially moved over to WordPress.
I have so much to learn and so many more options.
I could actually be dangerous.
(Dad, hopefully the smarter part will come in handy here.)

I have some cleaning and rearranging to do but that is all a part of learning.

I want to thank Angela Yosten for squeezing this in between all her other responsibilities.
So bookmark me, sign up for email notifications, FB me or IG me.

-modalissa