Overflowing with Thankfulness

24. Ah, Thanksgiving Day has finally arrived (and just 2 hours shy of leaving). What a great day filled with family, laughs, and let's not forget - food! My belly hurts thinking about it. Some highlights of today: getting a run in with D before festivities began (which I totally "un-did" with the amounts of food I consumed today), Seeing my amazing parents and sisters (and their husbands), quality time with our cousins, our nephew's awesome dance moves, my sister's belly (such a cute prego lady!), laughing with my mom and sisters about some pretty ridiculous things, listening to my mom and aunt's conversations, delicious food, watching Moose try to play with Emma (sister's dog), my cousin's sweet, super smiley baby girl (would that be 2nd cousin?), going to the grocery with my sister to get cookie ingredients because she was craving them (which we all took advantage of and ate as well), watching my bro-in-law play Angry Birds for hours...

I could go on and on. Today I am thankful for all of God's blessings. What a great Thanksgiving.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7

Let's See...

13: Thankful for my husband. I am thankful to have such a caring, funny, genuine (seriously, the guy wears his emotions on his sleeve - while he might have a blunt way of telling you how he feels about something, you know he is giving his honest opinion), handsome, smart, loving, and Godly man by my side. The 13th was his birthday and spent it in Florida this year: we played tennis, went to the beach, and then we went to a delicious restaurant to celebrate.

14-17: Thankful for sun, relaxation, good books (which includes finally TIME to read a good book!), and safe flight back home. We had a great rest of our Florida vacation. A huge THANK YOU to Popo & Jojo for letting us take over their condo for the week!

18: Thankful for NyQuil and a good night's rest. I wasn't feeling too hot - or I guess I was feeling too hot since I had a temperature - on Friday, so I snuggled up on the couch with a blanket and Moose for the evening. I woke up on Saturday feeling so much better (and sans sore throat!!).

19: Thankful for picking a good book to read. I downloaded Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret? and loved it. It was just a fun, light chick-lit read. I must say, I wasn't sure if it was going to be very good since it was on the "$3.99 and below" bookshelf (which is awesome, by the way), but I was very surprised. Kinsella is the author of the Shopaholic series. This book (not a part of Shopaholic) was one of her earlier books - 2004, I believe.

20: Thankful for a quiet afternoon. The husb and I spent the afternoon relaxing (as if we didn't get enough of that earlier in the week) and it was nice to just hang out after church in the morning. I eventually went to the grocery store to stock up on some groceries and some Thanksgiving dinner items...so I wasn't lazy all afternoon :)

21: Thankful for my Crockpot. Ok, this is a little lame, but so very true. I'm not sure where you're from, but it has been cold, rainy, and windy this week...and what doesn't sound better than warm soup on cold, dreary days?! I made some white chicken chili on Monday and it was so warm and delicious (if I do say so myself). Even better? I made it in the Crockpot, so when we got home from work it was already done. Oh yeahhh!

22: Thankful for an almost completed work to-do list. I made a "Before-I-can-eat-green beans-mashed-potatoes-and-pumpkin-pie" to-do list for the work week and I had just about everything checked off before I headed out of the office last night. Such a great feeling.

23: Thankful for a short week of work. I think we planned our vacation just right - 2 short weeks in a row!

On the 12th Day of Thanksgiving...

My true love gave to me:

8...9...10...ELEVEN!

Weird. I'm behind...again. It has been a busy week, but I am still thankful!


I am thankful for being busy. Yes, I am one of THOSE weirdos who actually enjoys being busy. I have had jobs in the past that I would just watch minute-by-minute go by on the clock...and just count down the hours until I could go home. Boring. Needless-to-say, it was a great way to figure out that job wasn't the job for me! In my new role, I am very busy. Like crazy. Granted, there have been times when my head would spin, but I can honestly say that at the end of the day I still love what I do.

I am thankful for 4 different seasons.

I am thankful for my coworkers. Who else gets to work with one of their best friends? It certainly makes getting up and going to work so much easier knowing that I have fantastic people to work with who make work fun and enjoyable!

I am thankful for coffee. SO good on a cold day! I'm especially thankful for the FREE fancy coffee I got today. :)

However, let's not forget the significance of today: Veteran's Day. I am so very thankful for the strong, brave men and women who have fought and who continue to fight for our freedom today. 

T H A N K  Y O U!

Número Siete

I am thankful dinner turned out great last night. I tried something new and it was tasty! Now, it certainly wasn't a very difficult recipe, but it was my first time making it - so you just never know...

Also, funny thing from yesterday? D decided to use the punching bag. Not a big deal, right? Well, that's a different story with a puppy. Moose couldn't figure out where the noise from the punching bag was coming from in the house! He kept looking at me and turning his head, while pacing back and forth in the kitchen. Oh, and another thing... During all of this, I was busy making dinner and happened to take my eyes off of Moose for maybe 2 minutes. In those 2 minutes, Moose disappeared. I started looking for him and could NOT find him. I was thinking, "Really? I lost a dog in our own house? How does that happen?" I even had to pull D away from working on his boxing game to help me. No worries, we found him. Moose managed to bolt it all the way upstairs to hide under our bed! Lesson in all of this? Whenever we want Moose upstairs we just need to do work on the punching bag. Ok, maybe not.

Month of Thanks: #5 and #6

Yesterday was a good day. I got some (much needed!) cleaning done at our house and got to enjoy the wonderful weather outside at a football game (bro-in-law plays college fball). All and all it was a wonderful day spent with some great people; however, I was exhausted when we got home! I crashed so early. Am I old? Anyway, I have some catching up to do:

Nov. 5: Thankful for motivation to do laundry and clean the house. If you know me even just a little bit, you probably know that I like things to be tidy. Yes, I'm one of "those" who puts something away right after I'm done using it (so I won't have to dread putting it away later!). Call it what you want - efficient or anal - I really do enjoy cleaning. Moreso than the act of cleaning? The way it looks when I'm DONE! Oh, the little things.

TODAY: Thankful for lounging around with the husb and Moose this morning before church. We had a fun morning drinking some coffee (well, not the furry guy) and just relaxing.

Chillin' with Moose

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures FOREVER." [1 Chronicles 16:34]

Time for Thanks

Really? It is November? I'm still looking for August. I'll be caught up eventually :)

For this month, I'm going to dedicate my blog to giving thanks. Sometimes (ok, a lot more than "sometimes") I find myself taking things for granted and forgetting to really step back and just thank God for the many, many blessings. It is so easy (sometimes TOO easy) to get caught up in what isn't right, what doesn't work, and things that hurt my feelings, rather than looking at what is right, what does work, and true happiness. This month I am striving to change that thinking of mine and my hope is that by giving thanks by writing typing on a daily basis, for one month, it will help me to squash the negative thoughts and create positive thoughts during difficult moments. I realize I'm most likely not the only one in the blogworld who is writing about Thanksgiving this month, but I thought it would be a good exercise for myself. Now, let me catch up:

Nov. 1 - I am thankful for the month of November!

Nov. 2 - I am thankful for attentive students. Ok, I'm not a professor and my job is actually to build alumni relations, but I do work with the college students at times. This week I invited some alumni back to campus to speak on an alumni panel for a course that all freshmen students are required to take. I realize that it is close to finals (we are on quarters here), but the students on Wednesday were very engaged and asked great questions. It made the day go quickly and run smoothly.

Nov. 3 - I am thankful for good runs. The thought of putting in my run at the end of day yesterday just sounded awful. I was dreading it all day long. BUT to my surprise? I had my best run of the week! Just when I was down, I was reminded why I run - I love the challenge (most days;)).

TODAY! - I am thankful for the sunshine. Seriously, what a gorgeous little Friday afternoon we are having today!

Until tomorrow...

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7