In the last week I’ve been consciously re-engaging with life.  I’ve spent the last couple of months doing nothing but planning for, having, and recovering from surgery. I’m very tired of all of that. I still have a couple of weeks to go as far as restrictions from exercise and lifting, but I’m taking on more and more as I can. It is wearing me out, I still have no stamina, but the only way to get that back is to continue to push myself into working more and more, without pushing myself too hard and causing more damage. It’s a delicate balance.  This morning, my bff and I resumed our Sunday morning walking at the arboretum.  This was the first real walking I’ve done in 5 weeks. The last time we went was the sunday before surgery. Today, we hiked 2 different half mile trails.  There was a short break between them, and I had to stop about 2/3 of the way through the second one, but there was a nice bench in the shade and a nice breeze over the meadow lake that we were next to, so we sat there and talked for a while. 

It’s funny how my body tells me that I need to sit down RIGHT NOW!  I told her not 30 yards before that bench that I’d be fine and make it the rest of the way back to the car. My body had other plans.  I keep reminding myself to have patience. They said 6-8 weeks before I felt back to normal. It’s been 4.5. I’m getting there, but I’m not there yet.  The last hike we took last month was 2+ miles on rougher terrain (we mostly stayed on pavement today) and at a much harder pace, but all things considered, I can live with a mile that took the better part of an hour with 2 decent breaks in the middle. It’s a start.

BFF is going through something awful that has a remarkable amount of things in common with what I went through a few years ago. It’s hard for her right now, and it completely sucks in general, but having been through it myself is at least useful for giving her feedback and different ideas on how to look at things.  She’s been there for me through so many things, it’s comforting for me to know that I can be there for her through this. 

Our Sunday morning’s are very closely guarded girl friend time. We went for years not seeing each other for months at a time. We talked on the phone, but that’s not the same. It feels so good to have a couple of hours every week to just get away from everything and talk, or not, and hike, or not. The Arboretum has become a sanctuary for that.  When I became a member there I just wanted to have a nice place to hike a couple of times a week.

We also usually do something responsible after our hikes like grocery shopping after a healthy brunch, or today, she helped me with a little housework.  I like when we go shopping. We’re both living healthy lives now, and we get more tips from each other just walking through a grocery store than I get from reading a good magazine or website.  We didn’t shop today, but she was helpful. I’m still restricted from things like vacuuming, so she hoovered the house while I swept and mopped the kitchen floor. I feel like a helpless, fragile little thang asking my friends for help with the housework, but this too shall pass, and for now, the place is clean enough. I’ve got 5 loads of laundry to do today, but I can mostly do it myself. I drag the full baskets down to the laundry room, so I’m not lifting anything, just dragging. Roomie will help me carry them back upstairs if I need it. I should be OK though, I just bring up a load at a time as it finishes, and they’re not huge loads, so the weight is within my carrying limit.

One of the cats is sick again. I just have to figure out which one.  I think it’s my old guy, but I’m not sure.  I have some high maintenance pets. One gets insulin twice a day, one gets a pill every evening, and the other has just been psycho for the last couple of days which isn’t so normal for him, so it really could be any of them that’s leaving me presents outside of the litterbox.  Hopefully I’ll catch one of them in the act before it gets worse.  Cats are very good at hiding when they need medical care.  Dammit.  I really don’t have the cash for more than a blood test or two, so hopefully whatever it is shows up on that.

Also last week, Minime cancelled the wedding celebration in Jamaica.  They’re already married, but they wanted to take a couple dozen people down there to party this coming midwinter.  Too many people are strapped for cash right now though, including me, although I wasn’t one that spoke up about it.  I am a little relieved that the pressure is off to make that trip, but it’s a bummer for her and my son in law – HeWhoStillDoesn’tHaveABlogname.   Because of the cancellation though, I’ll get the money that I’ve paid toward the trip back, and that will cover 85% of my unexpected out of pocket expenses for the surgery, so there’s a blessing in disguise. I’ll make it to the Carribean one of these winters. I have family that has property on Anguilla and they winter down there, so all I have to do is get there and I’ll have a place to stay for a week. One of these years…

Instead of Jamaica, they are having a celebration of their marriage at their house in a couple of weeks, right near their first anniversary.  They’re renting a tent and chairs and inviting half of the planet to a BBQ, but it should be fun.  I’m bringing a few things, and offering the suggestions that I think she will consider. It’s their party though, so I’m mostly just doing what’s been asked of me.  I am considering changing one of the dishes that I’ve been asked to bring, just because it’s a lot of work for a little bit of food, but I’ll talk to her about that before I do it.  It might also be another good piece of time to spend with BFF and her oldest daughter. That would make it extra cool, if they can get away.

I was looking into getting a passport too. I’ve never been out of the country, but the possibility exists that I’ll visit my friend in NY in the fall for a photo walk through the Adorandacks, and while I’m up there I’d like to see Niagra Falls from both sides. Crossing into Canada now requires either a passport or a passport card.  The fees for them go up Tuesday, so I blew it by not getting that done while I was off, but I’m thinking that I’ll just get the passport card, because that’s all you need to drive through any border near us. It’s good for Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas on the one condition that you arrive by land based craft, so either car or boat. If I fly I’ll need a real passport. I need to apply soon though because it takes a month or two to get it in the mail. 

I was also reading about the passport cards and how they have RFID chips in them. They come in a pouch that supposedly blocks the signal.  That’s probably crap, unless the pouch is made out of some kind of thin metal. I thought about it though, and I carry a smart phone that tracks everywhere I go and pretty much everything that I do anyway.  I suppose that if I were doing something wrong, I’d care more, but the price of the technology these days is giving up certain privacies, and I have nothing to hide. There is also safety in these devices. If something happens, they can track my location by just a phone signal, so it goes both ways.  In any case, I don’t think that a card with an RFID in it, that will live at my house in my safe unless I’m traveling, is a problem.  Bummer that I now have to pay a bunch more to get one, but such is life.

I guess that’s it for now. I’m too tired to be profound. I do have some thoughts that I’m putting together though. Maybe next time… Have a good week.

2. I tried to wear jeans yesterday. This weekend I’ll be washing a few skirts so that I can avoid pants for a couple more weeks. My belly is just too tender for anything pressing on it. The jeans aren’t even tight, and I took them off after about 45 min, but I hurt all day because of them.

3. I have a new mobile phone. I dropped my AT&T service because I refuse to pay that much for a service that drops every other call, so my iPhone is now an iPod touch, and my new phone is a Droid Incredible.  It’s pretty slick.  I also have a new policy of not buying any apps. The free ones are fine, and abundant. I left more than $100 of apps on my iphone, and the most expensive one doesn’t even work now that I don’t have cell service to it anymore. Lesson learned. Also Verizon service is about $15 cheaper per month, and they have better coverage when I travel.  I’ve been slowly gettingthe new phone set up. Yesterday I got all of my e-mail accounts onto it. The Droid OS handles mail differently than the Apple OS, so I have to figure that out too. The last things that I have to do is figure out how it handles pictures and music files. Once that’s done, I’m all set to go.  I’m glad I got the phone while I have time to learn my way around it.

4. I’m doing a little financial clean up and slimming down my electronics diet.  All the services that I’m paying for are adding up and I’ve been pretty strapped lately.  I have a friend that is buying my satelite radio, so I can cancel that subscription and put the money toward paying down a credit card.  I’m reducing my cable package too, but I have to decide which way to go with that. If I drop down to the next lower package, I save $15 a month and only lose about 3 channels that I watch consistently, and the movie channels.  The next package lower than that would save me $30 a month, but then I’d lose nearly all the channels that Roomie and I both watch. If I do the first, and only go down one package, I’ll also kill my Netflix subscription, so I save $24 a month total.  If I kill it down to just the basic “family” package, I lose most of the stations that I watch, so I’d keep Netflix because I can stream it on my Wii to my TV but the savings by doing it that way is only $21 a month, but I get any movies that I want to see for that $3 difference.   Decisions decisions.

Between doing all of that and switching from AT&T to Verizon, I cut my bills by more than $50 a month with really not a lot of pain.  All that I’m really still paying for on an ongoing basis that I don’t consider a “required for living” bill is my web hosting, it’s less than $10 a month and I’ll keep that going.  I am going to change it from going on a credit card, to coming out of my bank account though. The bigger picture here is to stop bleeding financially, pay off the credit cards for the last time, and live on a cash basis.   I’m also going to sell a few things too. I have a bunch of old video games, and the only one I every use is my Wii. They can all go to Gamestop. I might get $50 out of them. I also don’t really need the iPhone anymore once my new phone is set up to play music, so I have another friend that will buy that.  All the little things add up and I’ll have a couple hundred $$ to throw at medical bills next month, so good for me for getting that stuff out of the way that much quicker.

5. I still have plenty of toys.  There becomes a point where living with the excess is just pointless and expensive. It’s a bad habit that I got from my ex. That is what #4 is all about. That stuff doesn’t add enough quality to my life to justify the cost.  I’m really just simplifying things, like I’ve been doing for months now.   I think that tomorrow’s project will be to clean another bag of crap out of my junk room. I haven’t done one of those in a while.  In a few weeks I’ll be able to use my elliptical agian too. It has been stored in there for months because my kidney couldn’t handle the strain. Now that the kidney is gone, my heart will appreciate the aerobics, and I’ll be back to my favorite machine.  Yay!

6.   I’ve been doing my monthly cat grooming this week. My female Maine Coon has IBS, so her getting hairballs causes issues. I keep her fur trimmed to short fur length and then she doesn’t get hairballs, but it’s a pain, and it takes a few hours over 3 or 4 days before she’s completely groomed. I think she likes her coat shorter like I keep it. It’s much easier for her to clean. Boy does it make a mess though. 

7. Five days until I return to working.  I’ll be thankful to have something that’s not mind numbing to do with my brain all day again, but I’m a little worried about my physical condition and state of recuperation. I have a new laptop from the office to work on from now on, and I have it at home to give it a test run for a week before I go back into the office. We’ll see how I do, starting next wednesday.  

That’s it for now.
Namaste

I planned a few weeks ago that I’d only spend a small portion of my bonus. The rest goes to the house, bills, and savings.

Today I bought:

• a new purse- I’m a one purse kind of girl, and the one that I’ve been using is 2 years old. 
• one last pair of shoes (flats)  to go with the other 2 pairs (walkers and I don’t know what they’re called but they are kind of like a moc but with a small heel that I can wear to work)  that I got last week. This was my first purchase ever from Zappos.com and I’m seriously impressed with their site. Totally easy to use, they take PayPal! and they’re cheaper than the place where I got the other 2 pairs. I have really wide feet. Tomorrow’s first task is to toss all of the Payless shoes that I shouldn’t have bought in the first place but coudln’t afford shoes that are actually constructed for my feet. YAY!
• a small storage unit for my office, because my desk is big and gorgeous and useless. Two little drawers and a PC cabinet don’t cut it so now I’ll have a cabinet and 3 more drawers and I can organize properly in there. And it will double as a printer stand so I get that part of my desk back.

That was all from the fun money portion of my bonus

My last “extravigant” purchases will be some photo software so I can venture into the land of HDR, as decent of a tripod as I can get for less than $50, and a HDR book by one of the coolest photogs I’ve ever stumbled accross. Seriously, stroll through his portfolio  and be impressed.   I have to learn how to do that. His work is seriously beautiful.  On a side note, I used to be a purist when it comes to photography. I thought that digital manipulation was for people that couldn’t get those images themselves, so they created them. Now that digital photography has evolved so much and become it’s own art form, I don’t have a problem with it. I want to play with it and see what I can come up with myself. I have a good friend that also has his work on SmugMug.com.  I think that once I get into it, I’ll set up my own place there and see what happens.

I also got:

• Furnace filters
• Water filters for my fridge
• a gardening tool that we’ve been looking for that I stumbled across at Target
• and a few extra things at Costco (thanks to minime’s mom’s day present of a membership there) along with generally stocking up on healthy food to continue down my road to wellness.
• an appointment to take the cats to the vet in a couple of weeks.

Those were from the responsible portion of my bonus.

Today I’ve also successfully talked myself out of buying a $300 netbook, $300 CS5, a really nice $400 lens, and a couple other multi hundred dollar things that I don’t really need.  Go Me! I got it back under control with each of those conversations with myself.

I  openly admit that now that I’ve given up emotional eating, I really have to keep myself in check with the emotional spending.   The feelings that I buried with food also like to be buried by the short term thrill that being spendy gives me. So, I got a little spendy for a few hours, and now that’s done.  Time to be a grown up again.  I’ve contributed enough to my photography hobby to be happy with it  for a while.

The weird part is that I’ve been struggling with the eating all week because we had our national sales meeting. I did my best to make good choices, but I also had a couple of drinks, and a couple of small desserts that I could have skipped.  I decided going into this, that this lifestyle that I’ve adopted isn’t one of deprivation. It’s very much one of joy, and self love, so I won’t beat myself up over a couple of drinks, just acknowledge that I had them and it’s only every 6 months that I even have occasion or desire to do that.   Desserts are a little more difficult, but I have a treat of some sort every day, and for the most part, between that and keeping my regular food as non-boring, flavorful, and enjoyable as possible, I really, honestly, haven’t felt deprived.  After a week of not being in full control though, the eating and the being spendy was beckoning me.  I think I’ve got both out of my system for now though.

Yay!

I hit the 40 pound gone mark before the sales meeting too.  Yay! 

Oh, and I carried all that stuff into the house, along with groceries, 4 cases of cat food, and 70 pounds of cat litter.  Seven trips up and down stairs, carrying significantly heavy stuff.  Can I tell you how good it feels to be able to do that, then not have to sit down before I put everything away.  My life is so much better now than it was a few months ago.

Yay!

My best friend and I have been spending Sunday mornings at the arboretum. They have miles of trails there to explore.  Last weekend the bluebells were blooming, and the plum trees, and lots of other things. It is an arboretum, after all.   I took BFF on the two trails that I hike every time I go.  It’s really amazing to see things that were in bloom one week be totally gone and the next thing blooming.  The meadow that was barren, in the span of a week, is green and almost hidden by the bushes that were bare twigs a week ago, that are in there full flowery goodness now.  If the rain holds off, we’ll go again tomorrow. I have another path picked out. One that we can discover together. I’ve never been down it before.  We go early in the morning, when the birds are chirping, and the forest mammals are still around.  It’s very pretty, and very life affirming. 

I got a new hair cut last week. I also had it highlighted, which I do every few months. I said “a little lighter” so now instead of a reddish light brown, I’m basically blonde with some strawberry and brown streaks. It’s taken a few days to get used to, but I’m starting to like it.  I have bangs again, which I mostly comb back, but I think I need a little short hair to add some body and movement.  I’ve spent a few years growing out the last bangs that I had because I was tired of them, but I think I’m resolved to them now. They style well, and half the people at work said that between the cut and the color, I look about 10 years younger. Gotta love that.

I’ve also lost 34 pounds now, so that might have something to do with looking younger.  I was looking in the mirror the other day, and I can see the weight loss in my face. I can also see the same sag around the chin that my mom had, except I’m 20 years younger than when I remember it on her.  I hit menopause 14 years before her too though, so that probably has something to do with it too.  I’ll go see a dermatologist soon. My skin doesn’t like menopause. My face has never been this dry.  I’m not big on plastic surgery, but after I lose 34 pounds a couple more times, if my face sags like I know my belly will, I’m not opposed to getting my chin tucked back up to where it should be.  I don’t mind the lines that I’m developing, but just once in my life I’d like something to not sag.

My project for the rest of the afternoon is closet shopping    I have 2 closets full of clothes in various sizes.  I’ve now lost at least one pants size and my shirts are getting a little loose too, so it’s time to re-evaluate the wardrobe, and pull out some things that I haven’t worn in a couple of years.   The fun part is that it’s spring, so I can wear skirts that will fit forever.  Most of my skirts are the long flowy peasant (minime would call them hippie skirts) kind with drawstring waists, so they adjust to smaller waists easily.  Elastic can also be tightened pretty easily too, so while it’s warm and I’m on a downward size trend, maybe I can get through a couple of pants sizes during the summer so the interim wardrobe won’t cost so much.  I have 2 more smaller sizes of jeans to get through before I ‘m out of jeans, but the office clothes are expensive, so I’ll do what I can with what I have and buy some warmer clothes that fit in the fall.  

I had a nice dream last night. Usually my dreams are dark, and somewhat weird. This one was full of light and love, and abundance.  I had won the lottery, a HUGE jackpot, and after all of our debt was gone and the house paid for, and new cars for roomie and I were bought, I went around and made a lot of people’s lives much easier.  It was so much fun, and very vivid and real.  I might be so bold as to say now that my life is getting on track, I’m feeling better, taking better care of myself, and my dreams are reflecting it.   The laws of the universe are funny things.  Hopefully I’m attracting that kind of abundance in my dreams, and that will help me out in real life. I don’t know. It’s a nice thought though, to be able to help all the people out that I did in that dream.

For now, I’ll keep taking care of myself and thinking good thoughts.  Something good is bound to happen.

Namaste

Tomorrow and Wednesday are my free days.  I scheduled 4 doctors appts (chiro, GP, dentist, Kidney doc), and probably an oil change on Tuesday.  Might as well get it all done and over with at once.  The only one that I’m nervous about is the kidney doc. Three months ago I didn’t feel like I was strong enough physically to do another major surgery yet, so that was one of my motivating reasons to change my life a bit. Three months later, I’ve lost 31 pounds, gotten off one of my two blood pressure meds, all the symptoms of type 2 pre-diabetes are gone, and my left hamstring is screaming because I’ve been exercising it more than it’s used to.

So tomorrow, I’ll stretch it really good before I spend a good part of the day walking and hiking at the arboretum again.  There’s a new exhibit there that I want to see, and the daffodils are in bloom, and there are beavers in the lake, and there are all kinds of reasons to go spend the morning with my camera and nature. It is so peaceful there early in the morning, hopefully I’ll wake up and get going early enough to catch the early morning light. We’ll see.

Maybe it’s my upcoming surgery, maybe it’s because I’m feeling better, but more now than I can remember for the last few years, I’m drawn to life, to growing things, to listening to the birds as the sun comes up, to capturing the essense of that that feeling with my camera in a futile attempt to remember those few sweet moments. 

The focus isn’t where I wanted it on that one, but it’s still stunning, and sweet. Those flowers were less than an inch across.  After I came up on these few, there was another patch of a few, and then up over the crest of the hill that I was walking up, there was an entire field of them. No taller than the grass, just a carpet of pretty little blue flowers in a small prairie in the middle of an oak forest.

The last time I remember enjoying the moment so much was standing on roomie’s deck at his house, just after sunrise, watching the barn swallows do their morning acrobatics, munching on the swarm of whatever little bug that was. The horses in the prairie behind the house were grazing, the fish in the pond were jumping at the same bugs that the birds were. It was one of those moments.

But I digress.

Tomorrow I”ll go there, and check out the exhibit, and the pretty, and the peaceful. Then I’ll come home and do some organizing in my junk room.  My company is sponsoring an electronics recycling week, and a friend at work’s son  is raising funds for a worthy cause through a garage sale that he’s having. So I’ve got an opportunity to donate to a good cause, and responsibly get rid of a bunch of computer crap that I no longer have use for. That will empty a good part of that room, I just have to work at it.

Tuesday is Dr day. At least I’ll have clean teeth for the urologist. LOL  The GP appt is just a check up to get my one blood pressure drug renewed, and I need a referral to a dermatologist. Menopause is not being kind to my skin. The chiropractor can crack my neck and stretch my hamstring. All in all it’s mostly just a “chore” day, except for the urologist.  Facing another major surgery can’t be put off much longer. The good news is that I’m in a lot better place physically and mentally than I was a few months ago, and judging how much my side has been hurting lately, it’s probably wise not to delay the inevitable any longer.  We’ll get the plan in motion to get that over with.

Wednesday I have to work for a couple of hours to get ready for a work meeting on Thursday that I’m not ready for yet, then I haven’t decided what to do for the rest of the day yet. I’d go to the zoo and play with my long zoom lens but the powers that be have put 20 miles of construction between me and there, so that’s probably out. I’ll probably just stay home and clean my yard, and get the garden ready for the plants that I’ve been seeding this week. They won’t get planted outside for a month or so, but I can rake the garden where they are going, and clean out where I want to put a few other plants this year. There’s no lack of stuff that needs to be done here and it’s supposed to be gorgeous out, so that’s the plan at the moment. We’ll see if something better comes up.

Namaste

Namaste

That’s it for now. TGIF tomorrow. My boss is cooking breakfast for everyone. Hopefully we’ll get out a little early too. Superbowl weekend is a big deal at the office.  I couldn’t care less about football, but the celebrations are fun.

Namaste

• Barfy cat is barfy again. She’s not as bad as before, but every time she has an episode, there’s extra meds, and close watching, and the worry.  I know she’s just a cat, but she’s my cat. I’m responsible for her, and I do what needs to be done to keep her healthy and out of pain.  Hopefully this episode was short. She hasn’t barfed today.  I got the meds in her yesterday, so we’ll see if just that one extra dose worked.
• Conan O’Brien is getting screwed, but he’s also getting $40 million, so I can’t feel really bad for him.  Jay Leno is just doing what the network tells him to do and everyone’s blaming him for the shake up. I kind of feel bad for him. I’m not really a fan though. Conan’s got amazing energy, Letterman is amusing and I usually watch him, but if there was a guest on the Tonight Show I sometimes watch that.  Out of the three of them, Jay Leno is kind of past his peak and not as funny as he used to be.  I hope Letterman gets really good ratings after the change happens, if it happens.  NBC blows lately anyway.
• and really, with the news out of Haiti, why is that such a big story? If you can spare even $10, please give it to the Red Cross, or other charity of your choice that is directly involved with the rescue and care of the people that were fortunate enough to live through the shake.  It’s been more than a week and the story is losing interest in the news. It’s up to us to keep the effort up until every life that can be saved, is saved.
• I’ve been doing the bodybugg thing, and it’s giving me good feedback. I’m still tweaking it because I’m losing more weight than it says I should be losing.  I can live on 1800ish calories a day quite nicely for long periods of time. I just need to up the exercise now. One step at a time. The exercise gets easier after I drop the first 10 or 15 pounds. I’m most of the way to 10 now, and I’m feeling better except sleep has been hell for the last week, so maybe a few workouts will help me sleep a little better.

OK, the new-ish musician is Matt Morris. He’s got a new CD out, so he’s been doing a press tour. He was on Letterman last Friday, and one of the Saturday morning news shows, and on Ellen today. Most of what I found on YouTube is acoustic, and he’s very good at it, but the band that he plays with totally fills out his sound. I don’t know how to describe his sound other than it makes me mellow. Sort of an easy jazzy carribeanish rock. That clip that I linked to is a decent representation.  His new CD is on iTunes. I have been listening to it for a couple of hours today.  He is a spiritual creature and it shows in his lyrics. It’s just good music all the way around.

Bedtime here.

Namaste

Help Yourself By Helping Children . . .
The 9th Annual Internet Toy Drive!!

We are proud to be a partner with the official U.S. Marines “Toys for Tots” program in The Ninth Annual Internet Toy Drive. It’s a sad fact that millions of children in the United States will NOT have a single gift to open on Christmas Day! We aim to change that and make sure EVERY child has at least one present ‘from Santa’ under their tree. Help a needy child in YOUR community right now:
http://www.internettoydrive.org

I spent the afternoon with my best friend, exploring a grocery store that I hadn’t been to before. They’re fairly local, just in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. I’ve had a few people tell me about them now, so I thought I’d give it a go. My best friend lives 15 min from there so I called her and we made the trek.  I don’t get too excited about grocery stores, but Woodmans is pretty cool.  Aside from the selection, and the good prices, the best part is the carts and checking out. The carts are the kind that the front unhooks and the checker takes everything out of the cart, then there’s a bagger that loads everything into another cart while the checker is still emptying mine. It’s a beautiful system.  I remember a few stores that did that when I was a kid but stopped as they realized that they could get away with one checker/bagger at a register if the customer helped load and unload, and they wouldn’t have to pay the extra salary. Woodman’s even does the “Paper or Plastic” trip. Most stores around here don’t give you a choice anymore.  I’d have gotten paper if it was a normal shopping trip, but my cart was packed full, and I can carry more plastic bags at a time up to the kitchen when I get home.  All in all, I’ve found a new grocery store that will get more of my business than any local chain. They do things right, the way stores used to be. I like that.

Best friend and I got to catch up too. We need to do that more often.  It’s about a 40 minute ride to her house from mine.  That’s a lot better than the 8 hour drive that it was for the previous 5 years.  We’re getting better at calling more often, and even if it’s just grocery shopping we’re seeing each other more often. The holidays are coming which usually means that we’ll see even more of each other.  That’s the best part of the holidays for me. The people that I love all get together at one house or another. With best friend there will probably be a couple of gatherings. YAY!

This week coming will be short. YAY for 3 day work weeks. YAY even more for time to be thankful for the love that I have in my life.  I’m very blessed.  Even when things get a little hard all it takes is reminding myself of how much my life has changed in the last few years.  I live with an awesome guy, I’m blessed with good friends, my job has been stable, I’m cancer free for 2 years now, and the backbone behind it all is a family that’s grounded in love and laughter. Even  in the every day mundane routine of my days, my life is richer than I ever imagined it could be. That is what I’m thankful for this year. Life is good.