30 Days of Gratitude - Day 30

Today, I want to profess my gratitude for Life!!

Because I can I not only want to live but I want to LIVE!! While we are stepping into the final month of the year, I want to say goodbye to gratitude and hello to a month of reflection and then starting the new year full of LIFE and CREATIVITY!!

Thank you all for joining me on my continued journey. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 29

I cannot believe that I have gone this whole month and have not recognized the gratitude that I have for my fantastic sister, Marti (and by extension her husband Graham). Marti was my first friend and my best friend and will remain so forever. She is a wonderful mother to Kathleen and Colin:

Kathleen, who, sadly decided to go to the University of Texas in Austin
and is now a Longhorn. She is an amazing kid with an old soul.

Colin, in September celebrating his 15 birthday. Sitting next to him is his cousin, Luke.
Colin has been a charmer since the day he was born.  

Marti is also a great teacher and from what I understand has the patience of the angels to tolerate her classes. She has an incredibly sensitive heart and cries when she reads "Where the Red Fern Grows" to her students. Marti and I can get tickled at the silliest things together, usually our mom. My only wish is that we would spend more time together just the two of us, but I know she is busy with the kids right now, but hopefully in a couple of more years we can hang out together for sister time.

In the meantime, I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful sister who has given our family two great additions as well as brought into our fold her husband, Graham and via Graham a whole extension of his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. When Marti and Graham got married, we increased our family not by just one but by 6 and then some.

Oh, and one last thing, totally unrelated to my gratitude for my sister.....

There was a time many, many moons ago when Kathleen wore a Texas A&M shirt!!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 28

Today I am grateful that I have a house where I can escape and be myself. We live in a time where I, as a single woman, can purchase a house on my own and make it into a home for me, my puppy, and hopefully a place where my friends and family feel comfortable enough to make it their home as well.

If home is where the heart is and if this is the case, then my home is where ever my friends and family are because that is really where my heart resides. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 27

Today I want to state how grateful that I live in a place where potable water is plenty and I do not have to worry about staying hydrated.

Sadly, there is still parts of this world that water is not as plentiful and people still struggle to just live. Here are some statistics that I found on Water.org.

• Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness. 
• Women spend 200 million hours a day collecting water. 
• 3.4 million people die each year from a water related disease. That is almost the entire city of Los Angeles. Nearly all deaths, 99%, occur in the developing world.  
• 780 million people lack access to clean water. That's more than 2.5 times the United States population; or approximately one in nine people. 
• Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every four hours. 
• Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities. 

These are just a couple of sobering thoughts about how important water is to this world and even though it is the most abundant compound on Earth's surface, covering about 70 percent of the planet, providing it in a safe and drinkable way to all of the inhabitants is still an ongoing challenge. Consider how important water is to you the next time you fill up your glass or wash your hands or do you laundry. Imagine living in a world where it is not so readily available to you.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 26

Today, I am grateful for audiobooks. I know, weird thing to be grateful for, but I do enjoy them as I can listen to one while I'm doing other things, like working on reports at the office or designing and putting together a quilt at home. If it didn't confuse me, I would listen to one while I was reading another book.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 25

Today, I want to profess my gratitude for Wishlists!!

I have created one for myself on Amazon.com. Actually, I have a number of lists out there that help me sort out mostly books or music that I want to purchase at some point. I also set one up for people who are looking for things to give to me.

I've been making wishlists since I was a small child and it is so much easier now....just a click of a button.

However, I will never forget the year that I provided a multi-paged wishlist based on the Sear's Wishbook where to each of my grandparents. I wrote down the page, item number, color, and all other important information that they might need to provide appropriate Christmas presents. Mom tried to tell me that I wan't going to get EVERYTHING on the list, as if.... I replied to her that I was only providing them lots of OPTIONS!!

I still like to offer lots of options on my Wishlists!!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 24

Today I want to go a little light and profess my gratitude for puzzles.

I am a huge fan of puzzles and have been for a long time. I love doing crosswod puzzles, especially over breakfast with my parents (they do the ones in the newspaper every morning, just to keep their minds sharp).

I love doing search a words primarily as a way to sort of relax the mind and yet doing these puzzles has trained me to be able to look at things differently when life just isn't quite right.

Ever since I was a little kid I've loved to do jigsaw puzzles and for a while I received one every year for Christmas. I had one that was like 500 pieces and all chocolates and I would challenge myself to see how quickly I could put it back together. Because I put that one together so many times, I think I got my best time under 5 minutes....of course it helps if you don't tear it apart completed.

I have rencently downloaded a jigsaw app on my Kindle Fire, and I am enjoying putting together jigsaw puzzles on that while watching mundane television in the background. The only problem that I find is once in a while, Leo demands that I pet him instead of play....ah the horror!!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 23

Today, I am grateful that I do not feel the need to shop on Black Friday. In fact, I am grateful that there is such a place as the Internet (see earlier post) where I will be doing ALL of my Christmas shopping. I do not intend to step foot anywhere near a department store or mall for the next 6 weeks...

Instead, I will be spending this day hanging out with my folks for awhile and catching up and maybe doing to quilt designing with my mom...or reading....or working on the crossword puzzles....or just staring off into space and enjoying the quiet of the country.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 22

Today I am spending time with my family and extended family via my brother-in-law. I am grateful that I have them and that we all live near enough to be able to spend this time together.

I wish each and everyone of you out there a Happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to spend this time in the company of people that you love.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 21

Today, I am grateful to the life sucking entity that is the Internet. Without this amazing thing (Thank you Al Gore), I would not be able to:

• Diagnose my dog's illness
• Identify whether what I'm about to feed my dog will kill him
• See what each of my friends is doing AT THIS VERY MOMENT
• Read and learn about all sorts of fascinating people
• Find recipes for my crockpot, cakes, pork tenderloin, and silly putty
• Find quilt patterns that I will never use
• Find ceramics tutorials that I will forget about
• Do all my Christmas, Birthday, I'm sad and I want something shopping
• Try and find a date
• Create wishlists of books, music, movies, shoes that I want to get
• Reserve my seat on a plane
• Purchase tickets to a fair
• And so many other exciting and/or mundane things.

 Thank you Internet for making my life.... sad and lonely and never experiencing the great outdoors....

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 20

Well, I've put it off long enough. I have to mention how grateful I am to have my Leo in my life.

As you may know, Leo has had some challenging health issues. Ever since I recieved his a year ago in July, he has been on one type of antibiotic or another for an upper respiratory problem or pneumonia, or at least that is what we assumed it was. I'm having second thoughts on all of that at this time.

We recently had another bout of illness, but I decided to just ride it out rather than rush to the vet, just to see how he faired. I also started thinking about what happens prior to him getting sick. For the longest time, I would blame it on Petsmart, because I would take him to get groomed and within 24 hours, he would be sick. However, I started thinking and realized that he has been to the groomers and NOT gotten sick, so was it possibly something else?!?

I then realized that on the first weekend of the month, the weekend that he normally goes to the groomers, I also give him his heartworm pill. Ding Ding Ding Ding!! I decided to do some research on possible side effects of giving him this medication, which is basically a pesticide that he ingests. It turns out that there are some side effects (the following is taken directly from drugs.com):

Adverse Reactions


In clinical field trials with Heartgard Plus, vomiting or diarrhea within 24 hours of dosing was rarely observed (1.1% of administered doses). The following adverse reactions have been reported following the use of HEARTGARD: Depression/lethargy, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, mydriasis, ataxia, staggering, convulsions and hypersalivation.

Well, upon reading this, I made the determination that his issues may lie more in his medication than in his bath. He experiences a number of the symptoms, including vomiting, lethargy, anorexia (loss of appetite - not the psycological issue), and probably some ataxia or convulsions, because he does have more leg and foot spasms during this time than normal. With this being said, I'm going to perform an experiment next month and NOT do the hearworm and the grooming on the same weekend. I'm also going to go ahead and start researching what options are out there for preventative heartworm medications that are not administered orally.

I just have to think that we know he has an impaired immune system due to his childhood illnesses, compounding that with giving him a strong pesticide has to make me reconsider everything that I've done for this poor baby... How can I give him something that causes him so much distress?!?

Oh, and as a funny story... Leo is no longer being put into his crate when I leave the house. Since he is in daycare at least 3 times a week, he has a lot less energy and boredom, so I feel comfortable with the knowledge that he isn't going to destroy anything. However, I still do not allow him to just roam free throughout the house. Instead I gate off my kitchen, which has tile floors, and close all of the doors along the hallway. This gives him plenty of space to roam up and down the hall, I also leave him with water and food, if he hasn't eaten it for the day, as well as his bed (unless he starts tearing it up). He seems to be okay with this, he doesn't enjoy me leaving him behind and he has started refusing to eat his treat and/or his food until I return. I feel a little guilty over this, but he has to learn that I will always (I hope) come back to him. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I left to go to dinner with a friend and he was alone in his space. When I returned a few hours later, I opened the door from the garage and expected to have him come flying down the hall to greet me, which is the norm. Well, he wasn't there. The house was completely silent and he wasn't in the kitchen or garage. I started to panic, until I opened the door to the pantry (one of 2 doors that are off of this hall) and he comes shooting out of the dark in a complete panic. After hugging on him and calming him down, I took a look in the pantry. Now, there is no telling how long he was actually in that pantry, I mean did he find his way in there as soon as I closed the door and pulled out of the garage or was it right before I returned home, no matter, though because he did not get into a single thing...even though his treat bag is on the floor, the trashcan is in there, he was within grabbing distance of any number of things....nothing was touched. I figure the door hadn't been latched tightly and he bumped it with his nose in his sniffing around and when he went in and sniffed behind the door it was pushed shut. Since he does not have opposable thumbs nor the understanding of pulling the door open, he was trapped.....poor baby. He has been avoiding the pantry ever since that event.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 19

Well, I couldn't be grateful for my Mom without being equally grateful for my Dad.

I'm grateful for my dad, this year especially, because he is on the mend. He was diagnosed with cancer in February and has been battling it via chemo therapy for many months. He recently finished up his last round and went back for another scan. We are all thrilled to learn that the cancer is gone, for the most part, and we expect many, many more years of him being around.

My dad has always been sort of a moral, ethical, career, life touchstone for me. While Mom has been the comfort and encouragement that I've needed, Dad has been the voice in the back of my head...much like my conscience. I've always thought about what I was about to do as to whether Dad would be proud or angry or discouraged in me. I've always wanted Dad to be proud of me, and I think I've accomplished that....and now I'm working really hard to not worry so much about what Dad is going to think because I know that he will love me....no matter what.

So, I am grateful for having two parents who love and respect me (and whom I love and respect and am in awe of).

And, since I put some embarrassing pictures of my mom out here yesterday, I have to post some of my dad as well....

Dad would be willing to entertain us by coming in from the garage
(you can tell he was working on something based on his attire) and
show how he could do a headstand in the middle of the floor.
The man had skills!!

For a brief couple of years, we were the proud owners of a
Model T Ford. Dad was never really big on fixing up engines
so nothing really came of this car, but it did run briefly...

Dad is an amazing artist and woodcraftsman. This is in one of his
classes that he has taken to learn how to make amazing sculpture
out of wood...I tell you, I come from crazy, talented stock!!

I just love this picture. This is Dad and me standing on the beach
in Florida one Christmas, just watching the waves come in...

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 18

Today, I am grateful for the most amazing woman that I know....My Mom. Today is her birthday. For some reason, I cannot find any recent pictures of her, however, I have found some doozies from years past....

Birthday Cake made from scratch by my sister and I in 1980ish.
That was perhaps the densest cake ever made....there is no
telling what ingredient we may have left out....but the imporant
one, Love, was in there and doubled.

Mom, beautiful 30+ years ago. Still beautiful today, although now she
wears less polyester and lots more cotton.

Mom was always willing to join in the fun....

....Or just be the fun at any party...She still is our social butterfly.

After retiring, Mom's opportunity to expand her art has increased
and she is an amazin artist!!

Mom a few years back at Frank Lloyd Write's house Falling Waters.
Mom is a huge FLW fan.

There are so many things that I can say about my mom, besides the fact that she is an amazing wife and mother, artist, teacher, life student, inspiration. My mom has been such an influence on who I am today. Don't get me wrong, we have had our issues, but what parent/child relationship hasn't had issues, but those battle wounds have only allowed our bond to become stronger.

Mom, I love you and I hope that you have an amazing birthday, even if you do nothing more than the crossword puzzle and drink coffee.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 17

Today, I am grateful for old photographs. I spent some time today going through some old pictures that I have scanned from the boxes and boxes of ones at my parents' house. Looking at them made me laugh and remember the simple times of when I was a kid. I had a great life growing up....

Looking at these pictures makes me think of the song "Photograph" by Nickleback:


Oh, and just as a warning, my family may come and pinch my head off my body when I post some of these photographs....

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 16

This is NOT a picture of me and I do NOT have manly feet!!

Today, I am grateful that I have a job that allows me to work from home a couple of days a week. I could probably work from home every day of the week, as long as I actually get my work done, but I know that if I don't go into the office and see other human beings that I will lose all ability to maintain my personal hygiene and will never put on pants that aren't stretchy again.

The benefits of working from home are too numerous to really go into, but the primary ones are that it gives me the chance to do things like laundry and dishes in between meetings and reports, thereby freeing up my weekends to do the stuff that I REALLY love to do like watching marathons of America's Next Top Model (Freudian slip that I first typed "marathongs"?). It also will alleviate some of the stress that my poor puppy has when I leave him (more on that in a separate posting).

Thank you technology gods who have created the ability to get my work done even when I'm not at the office....as long as I do not turn into Homer Simpson when he worked from home....

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 15

Today I want to pronounce my gratitude for my church, Horizon Unitarian Universalist church.

I've only recently started attending, well this past summer, and it has been a great experience. I had looked into the church about 10 years ago, but only in a cursory way. It wasn't until this summer that I decided that I really wanted to find out what the church was all about and I went to investigate. I was happily surprised at how open and welcoming the members were.

The services open with the following Affirmation:
Love is the doctrine of our church;
The quest for truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve humanity in harmony with the earth,
Thus do we covenant together. 

They also pronounce the importance of the "Free Pulpit and Free Pew" which states that we come together with the freedom that the Minister may say what he wants without fear and that we as congregants are free to accept what is being spoken or not accept it. It is a very open church and that is what I really enjoy about it.

I chose today to be grateful for my church because I am part of a small group that meets every other Thursday, this being one such day, where we are exploring Spirituality and what it is and how it impacts us. It is allowing me the opportunity to discuss my ideas in a safe environment and learn from others. In the end, I hope to gain a new perspective on myself and to improve who I am....make me a better me.

If you are unfamiliar with the Unitarian Universalists (UUs), here is a list of what the UU Association promotes:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person,
• Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, 
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations, 
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning, 
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large, 
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all, 
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part. 

Okay, to be totally, 100% honest I am not "officially" a member yet, I have only been considered a visitor. However, on Sunday, I will be "signing the book" as they call it and becoming an official member of the church. This is a little exciting for me as I have never been a member of a church as an adult.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 14

Today, I am grateful for a football game that was played some 20+ years ago that sealed my decision to go to Texas A&M. I admit that I'm not a rabid A&M football fan like some people (Sara), but I do like to see my team win.

This past weekend, we won and we won BIG!! We beat the hell outta the number 1 team, Alabama and it was exciting. I was watching the last couple of minutes of the game with some friends in a bar after Sara's bridal shower, and needless to say we were on pins and needles.

Well done, Aggies. Well done. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 13

Today I want to express my gratitude for the written word. I love books. I love physical books that I have stacked on the bedside, coffee table, shelves, etc. and I love my electronic books on my Kindle that I flip through reading off and on. I love going out to Amazon.com and perusing what books they have recommended for me. When I'm in Target, I wander through the book aisle. If I'm at a mall, I will swing through a Barnes and Noble just because. I love books.

Sadly, I do not have a library card because, well, I don't like to read books that have been man-handled by other people. My parents are BIG library book borrowers, which is great for them. I just can't do it. I'm like George Kastanza from Seinfeld who got in trouble for taking a book into the restroom at the book store...I imagine everybody takes their books to the bathroom, especially library books and I just don't want to think about it. 

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 12

Today I am grateful that my customer is a department of the U.S. Government, because that means that I have a holiday today. This will give me the change to kick back and relax and have some ABBA time. My plan for the day is to take Leo to daycare and come home and hole myself up in my studio and work on a couple of projects.... I can't wait!!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 11

I am grateful for all the men and women in our Armed Forces...past, present, and future. Thank you for stepping up to care for and defend our nation.

I especially want to recognize those members of the Armed Forces that are a part of my family:

• My dad, Richard
• My grandpa, Edmunds
• My cousin's boys, Christopher, Billy, and Josh
• My brother-in-law's brother-in-law, Brant 
• My sister-friend's fiance, Randall
• My friends, Christine (Chris), Scott, and Phil
• And all the others that are out there that I've either not been aware of or have forgotten.