My 30 Days of Thanks for 2011

Leah suggested that we do a separate post with our 30 days of thanks so we will have it for posterity. Good idea Leah!  


1) To be able to participate in this challenge
2) To have a job in this economy
3) I am thankful for my children
4) I am thankful for my SIL and DIL
5) I am thankful to have good friends
6) I am thankful to have the opportunity to take classes
7) I am thankful to have a home
8) I am thankful that a friend got a full time job
9) I am thankful that I can walk
10) I am thankful I don't live in Alaska
11) I am thankful for my freedom
12) I am thankful the car battery died where it did
13) I am thankful for the Biz
14) I am thankful for technology
15) I am thankful for my dog
16) I am thankful for my eyesight
17) I am thankful for my cats
18) I am thankful nobody was seriously hurt in my mother's wreck
19) I am thankful for my brother
20) I am thankful for a vehicle that gets good gas mileage
21) I am thankful for my washer
22) I am thankful for my blogging friends
23) I am thankful for a 4 day weekend
24) I am thankful I got to talk to my son on Thanksgiving
25) I am thankful for all of my kitchen gadgets
26) I am thankful for running water
27) I am thankful my ex and I can tolerate being together at special occasions.
28) I am thankful for memories
29) I am thankful for coffee
30) I am thankful the semester is almost over

Giving Thanks

Last day! Today I am thankful that the semester is almost over. These classes have not been a lot of fun!

Giving Thanks

Today we are just one day away from the end of this challenge and I realize there are sooooooooooo many more things I have to be thankful for: having the privilege of  voting, my clothesline, my dryer (when I don't want to use the clothesline), my sense of smell (so I can smell the sheets after they have dried outside), being able to hear (a baby's laugh), being able to feel (the touch of said baby), my crochet hooks and hands that can still use them, weekends, my nice warm bed, and COFFEE! Looking over my list, I was actually surprised that coffee was not there as I am seriously addicted to my coffee. But hey, there's a lot worse things a person could be addicted to!

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for my memories. My dil just made a comment on one of my posts and now I have all these memories about preparing for the daughter's wedding running around in my head!

Random pictures

My daughter's FAT cat - Miley - all 23 lbs of him!

The daughter - hosting her first Thanksgiving.

My kids' baby brother.  Yesterday was his first birthday. The kids' father will be 78 years old when this guy turns 18. I can't imagine! Grand-babies yes, but a full time parent again - better him than me!

My tree. Normally my tree is nothing but snowmen. This year, since I've gone back to  a real tree I wanted it to look "old fashioned" so I added the glass balls and icicles. Not sure yet if I like it or not.

My nativity - NO WISE MEN - although I would like to get the Shepard and a cow. Last year someone told me that the baby Jesus does not go out until Christmas day. I had never heard of that but it makes sense to me so He is not there yet. Does anyone else do that?

Giving thanks

Today's post is for yesterday and today. While doing dishes at the daughter's house yesterday after the "Thanksgiving" meal, I thought to myself that I was thankful for running water. I have lived without it - for 4 months. In 2000, a friend was going through a bad divorce and offered me the opportunity to "rent to own" her place in the county because she could not afford to keep it up. It was a friend and was just a word of mouth agreement. It was the most perfect spot you could imagine - surrounded by woods with no neighbors close by. I loved it. For ten years my kids and I worked on that place, cleaning up a lot of "trash", making the yard look good, doing all maintenance. It had a well in a pumphouse. We fought that pumphouse every winter - frozen pipes, heat tapes, space heaters..... In 2009, the pump finally gave up - not a cheap fix - either 2000 for a new pump to be put in (it was a drilled well) or 1900 to put rural water in. I told the landlord (my friend) that we should just go ahead and put the place in my name legally and I'd fix the water - she wouldn't do it. Red flags went off in my head. I wasn't about to fix it myself without the place being in my name. The first month, she kept saying she was working on getting it fixed. I was hauling water for the necessities, showering and doing laundry in town. During the second month, I went and got pre-approved to buy a house and started actively looking for one. It took 4 months before I closed on this house and got moved.  I still paid my rent during those 4 months. As far as I know, there is still no water at the old place. The yard wasn't mowed at all last year and the place looks awful. The landlord is no longer my friend which makes me kind of sad. She blamed me for leaving the house "dirty" and I must say, the walls did need to be washed and the carpets could have been shampooed - neither of which can be done without water. Other than that, the place was clean. That's the story of how I ended up here in town. Yes, I am thankful for running water.

  I am also thankful that my ex-husband and I can tolerate being at the same place during special occasions. I think it makes things a lot easier for my kids - knowing that they don't have to worry about inviting us both.

Giving thanks

I didn't get to post yesterday so will do two today. I am thankful that I got to talk to my son yesterday. It was a long lonely day here as I did not have "Thanksgiving" - that is tomorrow at my daughter's house. Talking to him was the highlight of my whole day.

Today I am thankful for all of my kitchen gadgets that will help me speed things up while doing the prep for what I have to take to the daughter's tomorrow.

If you can't tell - I'm in kindof a "funk" right now. Biz says he simply doesn't have time to stop and get a Christmas tree tonight and as far as I'm concerned - if the tree doesn't go up the day after Thanksgiving, it might as well not go up at all. You just don't mess with tradition.

But I am thankful for the things I have - this post may be just what I needed to snap me out of my little "woe-is-me" attitude today.

Giving thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - so today is my last day of work this week :). I am thankful for the 4 day weekend ahead!

Giving thanks

Today I am thankful for all my new blogging friends. I truly enjoy reading everyone's posts although I don't have time to get to them all.

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for my washing machine. I always have though that I should have been born a century earlier. I think I could live the old way - gardening, raising kids, cooking, sewing - all things I like to do. I could probably even get used to not having internet. But one thing I have no desire to do - washing clothes on a washboard. I am thankful for my washer.

Giving thanks

Today I am thankful to have a vehicle that gets relatively good gas mileage. I drove a truck for years ( needed the 4 wheel drive to get in and out of the place in the country) and I loved that truck. I miss it a lot - but I am very thankful that the car I bought gets MUCH better gas mileage.

Giving thanks

Today I am thankful for my brother and for his proximity to, and ability to deal with our mother. I am 700 miles away - he is right next door. All the problems with dealing with an aging parent fall to him. I'm glad he was there to deal with the wreck. Also, being that both my sisters are deceased, he is the only sibling I have left. I am thankful he is there.

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful that nobody was seriously injured when my mother pulled out in front of someone yesterday. She had to have one stitch in her head, other driver was not injured. Car is totaled. Could have been a lot worse. I'm thankful it wasn't.

Giving Thanks

I went to bed last night thinking about what to use for my thankfulness post today. I curled up on my side with my "body pillow" and was watching TV through the mirror on the wall. Miss Pandora, the Queen of the house, jumped up and laid halfway on the pillow and halfway across me. For some reason she HAS to sleep across me in one way or another, be it across a leg, arm, chest, or even my head; sometimes I think that she thinks it's her job to hold me down - I could just levitate up off of the bed you know. About 5 minutes passed and Macy also came to bed. She chose to lay in the crook of my legs, with her feet on top of me. I was lying there with 20 some pounds of cats on me which is nothing unusual but can be somewhat annoying. I was just about to try to rearrange things when they both, simultaneously started purring. OK, I do love my cats. They're my girls and they obviously love me too. So today, I'm thankful for Pandora the Queen and Macy the Princess.

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for my eyesight which isn't perfect - I have to admit that I have reading glasses all over the house, in the car, and at work. Can't even see to read the computer screen without them - but my distance vision is almost perfect. A friend is having surgery today for a detached retina. Within the past 2 years they have had lasik surgery, cataracts removed, and now this. Pretty scary - we only have 2 eyes you know. I am thankful mine work as well as they do.

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful that my dog did not leave the yard when the fence blew down. Some background - my dog is a husky mix and grew up in the country - never caged or chained. She was a neighborhood dog who spent time in the woods with the neighbor's dogs chasing deer, raccoons....whatever. When I moved to town she was confined to the fenced in back yard. I felt really sorry for her cause I knew she didn't understand. Last weekend on Sunday I noticed that one 8-ft section of the privacy fence had blown down. I have no idea how long it was down. Freedom - right there - all she had to do was walk out of the hole. And I live right on the highway - she could have been easily hit. But she didn't leave. She stayed right there in the back yard. She's a good dog. I'm thankful for that.

Giving Thanks

Today, I am thankful for "technology." For the ability to keep in touch with family members hundreds and even thousands of miles away - for the ability to take some classes online, without having to go to a classroom at a predetermined time - for cell phones that can call anywhere and anytime for a set amount per month - for the ability to use this blog - all of it. It's amazing how far we've come from when I was a kid and a letter sent to a family member would take a week to get there and a response another week to get back. Back then, we couldn't even use the phone without worrying about the cost. We've come a long way. I'm thankful for that.

Christmas Dress Challenge

Christmas Dress Challenge

Last week's wt.      163.2
This week's wt.      161.2
Difference                -2

Wow! Can't believe I actually lost 2 whole pounds! I think that's the most I've lost in a week with this challenge - and I have to admit I'm still not doing the tae bo! But I think maybe this way is better - just being conscious of what I put in my mouth.  Looking forward to seeing how everyone else is doing!

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for the Biz and his willingness to help me do all the projects that I come up with for him.
Cabinet is starting to look much better - although it is a slow process but one that I definitely couldn't do by myself - or afford to have done. I am going to have to have the drawers built - probably by the Amish and probably not until after Christmas - but it's coming along.The "plan" is to replace 2 walls of the knotty pine with drywall to brighten up the kitchen. The cabinet will be used for it's original purpose - to hold the dishes which will free up a lot of cabinet space for foodstuffs which are right now stored in the basement.

Giving Thanks

Today is veterans day so obviously, today I am thankful for my freedom and for all those who have served and are serving to protect my right to freedom. I come from a long line of military service men - from grandfathers, father, brother, uncles and son. I am thankful to them all.
I'm also going to go ahead and post for tomorrow since I will be gone on the annual Christmas shopping trip and won't be able to post. For the past couple of days I have been noticing that my car did not start right up when I turned the key. Last night I got off work and went to pick Biz up at his work and shut the car off while waiting for him. When he came out - nothing - dead - crap! I am not happy about having to buy a battery - especially not happy about having to use $100 of my Christmas fund to do it - BUT - did I tell you that Biz works at an auto parts store and gets a discount? Now, if the battery had to die- I must say that it couldn't have picked a better spot to do it - right there at the parts store with Biz and his co-workers right there to change it. I am thankful that it died where it did.