THANKSGIVING!

Well, another year has gone by and Thanksgiving is upon us once again.....and once again, I have much to be thankful for.

Here goes:

1. My health - I had a co-worker/friend die of breast cancer in the past year and she was just about my age and life stage. It really puts things in perspective and I am thankful for my body carrying me through another year.

2. I have a job. Even that simple fact is reason to be thankful this year. But even more than that, I just recently changed the scope of my position and I am embarking on a big new project and I am very excited about that.....nervous, but excited. :)

3. As always, my Maggie-girl. She is my best friend, comforter, roommate, 'child', confidant, companion and most importantly - a source of never-ending and unconditional love. I couldn't ask for more!

4. My friends - I have the best friends in the world and I know it! As I have gotten older, I prefer a smaller group of closer friends rather than a larger group of more surface friends. And the ones that are in 'the inner circle' are just absolutely fantastic and I love them so much!

5. A great childhood - my parents selflessly gave me all of the things I needed growing up and I am very grateful for that. They not only provided the basic needs like food, shelter, etc......but they also gave me love, affection, a college education, confidence, independence, money skills, responsibility, standards, new experiences, exposure to traveling and more. I know that not everyone has those luxuries and opportunities and I am very aware of how fortunate I am and was.

6. The ability to travel. It's one of the things that makes me feel ALIVE, truly ALIVE. This past year I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Harlingen, TX (to see my Mom), Waco, Amarillo, Hot Springs, San Antonio, New Braunfels/Greune, New York City, Orlando, etc. I love exploring new places and I am very thankful for the means to do so.

7. Visits from my far-away friends. I miss my friends in other states and I absolutely feel blessed when they come and visit me. I realize they are taking time off of work and spending a chunk of money to do so, and I love that they come to see me! I try to be a good host and make them feel welcome and entertain them while they are here and it just makes me so happy to see friends that I don't get to see often - most of them live in Minnesota or Ohio.

8. Grace - last, but certainly not least. Sometimes I say, think or do things that I know I shouldn't, or that I just simply wish I could take back. We all make mistakes and I'm no different. I'm thankful that God is a God of GRACE and He gives us do-overs when we screw up. He loves us no matter what mistakes we make or stupid things we say. What a great God!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Top Of The World

One of our goals in the Hot Springs National Park was to go to the Mountain Tower and see for miles into the Ouachita Mountains surrounding the area.

There were a few places to stop for photo ops before we got to the top where the tower was. This was one of them:

It was beautiful scenery and this little gazebo thing provided the 'frame' for my photos! So cool!

This was the stairway/path out of the white gazebo and I thought it was so neat.

And the obligatory self-portrait in the gazebo - here's April and I:

And we took this one by accident. We were doing the self-portrait, but I accidentally left the zoom on, so we got this close-up. At first, I was going to delete this 'mistake,' but then after looking at it on my computer, I decided that I really liked it and it's one of my favorites from the trip. Her dark brown eye and my blue eye. A unique picture, indeed (and all by accident)!

Here's me, enjoying the gorgeous day at the scenic overlook:

And so we finally get up to the tower and here it is:

It kind of looks like a NASA structure or something, but it did the trick. Here's the fantastic view from the top!

Here is part of Hot Springs and the Ouachita Mountains:

And here's a view down from the top - that little structure in the picture is the white gazebo that we took the previous pictures from. Such a relaxing day!

Amongst The Leaves

On our trip to Hot Springs, we decided to hike in the woods a little bit - in the National Park. It was early/mid November and everything was beautiful. We don't really get 'fall/autumn' in Texas - at least as far as the whole leaf progression goes, so this was a treat to see so many pretty leaves changing color!

We probably should've made the trip a week earlier, because a lot of brown leaves were on the ground, but we still saw some beautiful sights and I got my fix of fall.....Here are April and Lauren on the trail. We definitely didn't think about where we were going to hide our purses while hiking, so we had to bring them with us.....

Me, Jen & Lauren

Here are the girls, taking pictures by a really cool little tunnel in the hill.....

Sometimes you just need to LOOK UP to see the most magnificent views!

This tree was gorgeous and showed the whole cycle of leaf colors - green, yellow, orange, red. BEAUTIFUL!

And at this particular place, the ivy was so cool - totally wrapped these trees' trunks....

Here is the tunnel in the side of the hill - I'm sure it was for water drainage or something, but I like to think that it was something more mysterious and exciting....

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip - a perfectly serene place with the beautiful trees all around!

Roadtrip to Arkansas!

About a week ago, I went on a long weekend roadtrip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was a group of 4 girls and April was the leader.....which means that ANYTHING can and WILL happen. I have been to Hot Springs before and the quickest route is just to go diagonally through Texas and then right into Arkansas, but we were taking the 'scenic' route up there, which means going north into Oklahoma and then east into Arkansas.

I have never been to Oklahoma before, so this was exciting for me - another state to cross off my list! And what a friend April is - she screeched on the breaks at the border and lets me jump out and take my picture by the Oklahoma sign!

And what a sport - she gets a picture too!

April is such a fun roadtripper - she will stop for any silly reason and ALWAYS participates in my ridiculous photo op requests. Anyway, this next stop was April's idea. She has a thing about getting beef jerky on roadtrips and she loves this Robertson's place, so we stopped and I found this cool sign.

At the location we were at in Oklahoma, here are the stats:

And here's another stop somewhere in Oklahoma....it was totally impromptu and we were laughing so hard. These weird dressed-up scarecrow people were on every street corner!

So of course, April had to make it spank her while we almost wet our pants laughing!

Here's where we finally stopped for dinner - it was a very cool place in the middle of nowhere, near the Oklahoma/Arkansas border. Good food and lots of laughs! (That's Lauren and April in the picture)

Ummmm.....and this might be the funniest bumper sticker I have EVER seen. I laughed so hard when I saw it!!!!

A Moment of Clarity

During Barb's visit recently, an idea emerged (it was Barb's idea).....why don't I sell the center stone diamond from my wedding ring and then get LASIK with the money? I have had my wedding ring in a box in a fire safe for the almost 6 years since my ex walked out the door and haven't known what to do with it. I LOVED LOVED LOVED that ring, but I obviously cannot wear it anymore and I do NOT want to 'make something else out of it.' So alas, it has sat unused and untouched for nearly 6 years......until now.

I have been wanting LASIK for a long time now, but wasn't a 'good candidate' for the surgery until just recently when my eye doctor gave me the green light. I knew I wanted to do something with my wedding ring and I also knew that I wanted LASIK, but I never connected the two until Barb visited and suggested that I sell the diamond/ring and use that money for the surgery. PERFECT!


It would be both logical AND symbolic in a number of ways if it worked out:

1. Something good could come out of something that ended in a bad situation.

2. I would 'see the light' about what happened and what I should be looking for in the future.

3. I wouldn't have to look at it and be sad - no need to keep painful reminders around longer than you have to.

4. Gold is at all-time high prices right now, so I would probably get the most I am ever going to get out of it if I sell it soon.

5. Hopefully someone else could benefit from my misfortune - once again, good can come from bad.

6. I would get some closure with this process - something I unfortunately did not get much of at the time of the divorce.

Thoughts???

Thankful Thursday

Today's edition of Thankful Thursday is focused on ONE thing that I am WILDLY thankful for this week: side-splitting laughter. I don't think that I realize how seldom it happens.....until it happens a lot and I think about how long it's been since the last time it happened!

Last weekend, I took a roadtrip with 3 girlfriends to Hot Springs, Arkansas and it was an absolute blast! Some crazy stuff happened - we came within less than 10 miles of running out of gas at 10pm in rural Arkansas, Lauren's jeans busted in the crotch and we had to go jeans shopping, etc.

I haven't laughed that much in a LONG time and I really needed that - more than I thought I did prior to the trip. I guess I just don't realize how serious I can be and how serious I take myself and this world....until I am immersed in utter ridiculousness for a few days in Arkansas! We laughed about all kinds of things and just enjoyed the sarcastic banter, insane people-watching and the mixing of 4 personalities!

It truly was a therapeutic long weekend and I bet that did more for my physical, mental and spiritual health than anything a doctor could prescribe - FOR SURE!

Vision

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. -Andrew Carnegie

Sometimes I wonder if I have adult onset ADD or something because my passions, interests and attention are all over the place. I want to do so many different things in life that I never totally master or immerse myself in one particular thing at a time.

I very much thrive on variety and being well-rounded in my experiences, travel, interests, learning, etc. I could be going to the symphony one day, watching football in my PJ's the next day and then kayaking the day after that.

I personally love that flexibility and variety, but sometimes I just sit back and ask myself what my passion really is in life. I see people who are passionate in one area and that is what they focus their time, energy, money and talents on. They are immersed in that hobby and master it. I look at those people with envy - why don't I have 'that one thing' that I am obsessed with and am able to 'master' and become an expert at? And then I stop myself and say "Who cares? Don't compare yourself to others!"

It's a battle in my head at times and I don't know why I am so preoccupied with 'mastering' one single thing. I really do enjoy the variety and balance that I have created in my life, but yet I still look longingly at those who are focused intensely on one thing and I wish that I knew what my 'one thing' is! Ugh.

What is YOUR 'one thing' or do you enjoy the variety of life like I do? Maybe my 'one thing' has yet to present itself and it will hit me like a ton of bricks when I 'meet' it!

Premature Decoration

OK, ladies & gentleman - I broke ALL the rules this year. I decorated my house for Christmas on the weekend of November 6th! That sets an all-time EARLY record for me.

Since I was going to be out of town for the November 13th weekend, I decided to do it earlier rather than later. It's a TON of work to lug the tree in from the garage and set it up, and then lug all of those Rubbermaid tubs of decorations down from the guest room upstairs. I need to get my 'use' out of the decorations to make all of that work worth it!

Here is my tree that I love looking at:

Why is Maggie posing in front of it, as if she helped??? She did NOT.

I love my Christmas bulb wreath and mantle.

Gotta have ice skates to remind me of my Minnesota heritage!

I am obsessed with Christmas bulbs and decorating with them. It really is a sickness, I think. They are EVERYWHERE in my house!

In the kitchen.....

In a cabinet in the living room...

In baskets.....


Here's my stocking...

And Maggie's stocking...

More bulbs on the coffee table.....

Here you can see both of my bulb wreaths. I love to make them, but I can't have 15 in my house. I need to stop the madness!