30 Days of Thankfulness

I missed yesterday's Thankful post because by the time I got around to writing my post I was too tired to sit down and do it! So today you get a two-fer!

Yesterday That Other Kid and I ventured out to the mall to visit with Santa, hang out with a good friend and do a bit of shopping! This is something we do EVERY year! It kind of kicks off our Christmas season! Although That Other Kid doesn't believe in Santa he still likes to "talk to Santa", listen to the story he tells and spend time enjoying all the holiday festivities.

Yesterday, after Santa was done talking to That Other Kid and he was about to see his next little ones Santa asked if he knew why we celebrate Christmas. I'm not sure if Santa asks every child this or not but I loved That Other Kid's response - "We celebrate Christmas because it's Jesus' birthday!" That warmed my heart and made me thankful for the privilege of being his mom! Indeed Jesus is the reason for the Season!

And although this picture makes him look like a little alien and some sort of demon child (which sometimes is true!) I love him like nothing else!

Today I am thankful that it is the last day of November!

That may seem strange to most of you, but I am so happy to see December come up on my calendar! December means that I get a mini-vacation because of the generosity of friends! December means "My Marine" comes home from boot camp! December means I get to meet Adah! December means Christmas time and 20 days with "My Marine". December means That Other Kid turns 8! December means 1 year since my friend, Glenna discovered her breast cancer....and now she is 100% cancer free!

December is going to be a great month!

I am also thankful that during the month of November I found plenty of things to be thankful for! Yes, I truly am blessed with family, friends and plenty of other blessings! I'm so glad I took this month to reflect on so many of them!

Happy December! Only 15 days till I see my first born! What a day that will be!

Thankfulness Day 27

Today I am thankful for the generosity of That Other Kid! See these toys? These are things he is donating to a family of 5 children whose mother has died. They have nothing but the clothes on their back due to some terrible living arrangements. They are now living with their aunt and things are improving daily! This week will be even better due to the generosity of lots of people in the area!

He told me that it's terrible to not have toys to play with or books to read! I agree....we truly are blessed!

Thankful Day 26 - 3 Minutes of Heaven!

This is a picture of the call from "My Marine" that I've been waiting nearly 10 weeks for!

I was over at our Team Leader's house this afternoon for our Thanksgiving Potluck just relaxing. I had been told by numerous moms that I should expect a phone call to discuss travel plans for after graduation but I really had no idea when it would come! When I saw this number come across my caller id on my cell phone I nearly peed my pants! I knew it had to be My Marine! So I went out and found a quiet corner and took the call! It was a tiny bit of heaven for this momma! I started crying as soon as I answered the phone and heard his deep voice on the other end!

I knew the call would be short (from what I had been told) so I tried to listen and ask vital questions. It was sooooo wonderful to talk to him. He sounded great! He wants to get the "hxxx" out of there as fast as possible on the 16th so I'm hoping we can all get flights home that afternoon after graduation. He wants to take us to a hockey game while he is home. He wants to relax and enjoy spending time with his family! Sounds perfectly wonderful to me!

19 days till I see my Marine son -- not that I'm counting! -)

Thankful Day 25

Rarely do we put our Christmas tree up this early but December is gonna be a busy month with That Other Kid and I gone for a several days in the middle of the month and "My Marine" coming home so I decided to get the tree up early. It feels great to have that out of the way.

For today, I am thankful for the wonderful Christmas holiday that we are entering! I am also thankful that the tree is decorated so I can enjoy it for the whole month!

I am also extremely thankful that we will all be together this year for Christmas! I know there are many families that can't say the same.

Thanksgiving - Time to be Thankful

It's Thanksgiving evening and I'm sitting here typing this post from my IPhone! For this I am thankful cuz I don't want to get out of my comfy chair to go over the 10 feet to my old, slow computer!

We had a pretty laid back Thanksgiving. I prepared a small Thanksgiving meal, ate and watched Cars2 on DVD. The hubs relaxed and played a video game and That Other Kid watched him play and built with legos and talked constantly!

The only thing missing to make this day even better would have been a phone call from My Marine but it didn't happen so I just have to wait 3 more weeks!

I am so thankful that I live in a free country and get to pause and Thank God for all that I have! That's what I have done today. Thank you God for all that I am and all that I have!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankfulness Day 23

Today I am thankful for all my wonderful friends and family that made this Komen 3 Day thermometer full! Not only is it full but it is Overflowing! My goal was $2300 - my total was $2722.61!! Whoohooooo!

Thanks so much for all your donations, prayers and support to make this possible!

I will be signing up for next years 3 Day walk this weekend and I would love to have your support again for next year - or if you are so inclined walk with me! Hint, hint Christy!

Thankful Day 22

Today I am thankful for places to take That Other Kid where he can burn excessive amounts of energy! We went to a place today called JumpStreet and he ran around, and bounced around for 2 hours! He even got to ride a "bull"!

What a great metroplex we live in!

For some reason I can't get this video to post on here so go watch it HERE!

Thankful Day 21 plus 12 Days of Christmas - Marine Style!

Today I am thankful to have access to the public libraries! I went there this afternoon while That Other Kid was in his karate class (3 hours of PE, HELLO!) and found several books on my list of books to read this week and next. I also found a book about the history of Thanksgiving that I thought would be fun to read on Thanksgiving morning. I am so thankful to have a library that I can use as much as I want to! The area libraries enhance our school studies sooooo much!

Now...onto something fun that I found from one of my new Marine mom friends on Facebook! Enjoy!


MARINE CORPS CHRISTMAS
On the first day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, a D.I. yelling at me.

... On the second day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the third day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the fourth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the fifth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the sixth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the seventh day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the eighth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Eight brand new rifles, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the ninth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Nine ladies dancing, Eight brand new rifles, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, the Tenth of November, Nine ladies dancing, Eight brand new rifles, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Eleven general orders, the Tenth of November, Nine ladies dancing, Eight brand new rifles, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Marine Corps sent to me, Twelve months of training, Eleven general orders, the Tenth of November, Nine ladies dancing, Eight brand new rifles, Seven seas to sail, a Six month deployment, Five M.R.E.'s, Four days of "Libo", Three months of bootcamp, Two yellow footprints, And a D.I. yelling at me!

Thankful Day 20

Today I am thankful for something most of take for granted these days! The convenience of the Internet and all that we have at our finger tips because of it!

My life has changed dramatically because of the Internet - mostly in a good way! I have a lot more friends; and everyone knows how important friends are, right? I have information available to me within seconds (usually!) I play games via the Internet. I get school resources via the Internet. I watch movies, read books and type blog entries all via the Internet! I often exercise via the Internet - and the 'hood is my biggest source of support for losing weight!

So today I am thankful for the Internet and all the wonderful things I have today because of it!

Thankful Saturday Night

Before beginning the training for the Komen 3 Day for the Cure hubby and I were watching movies rented from Netflix nearly every weekend. Once I started the training we were trying to do our "date night" on Sunday nights but by the time 10 p.m. came around I was ready to go to sleep. For a few weeks we just watched a short "tv" show off Netflix Instant. But before you know it we weren't watching anything together....No more date nights! boo!

Now that the 3 Day is done for the season I wanted to start back to our Saturday night date night, so tonight we watched "Date Night"! I thought it was appropriate to start the ball rolling for our "at home dates". It was a pretty funny movie and it was nice to spend time with the hubby!

So for today I am thankful for Netflix, and "at home date nights" with the hubby! We get to watch a movie in the comfort of our home, with That Other Kid in bed and eat theater food that doesn't costs us $30!!

Do you have any movie suggestions? We tend to lean toward comedy and romance....

Thankful Day 18- My Marine

In honor of my son who will graduate Marine bootcamp I am posting this prayer for him and all the other recruits graduating in 28 days!!

Father, in the coming days I will need You, but my recruit will need You more.

Let him perform his tasks with a sense of duty, not of anger or vengeance.

Let his reflexes be quick and his hands steady.
Let his head be clear and his eyes sharp.
Let his mind and body be strong and his spirit stronger.

Christ, please stand by my recruit and watch his back when he cannot.

Father, I love this recruit of mine! Take from ME,
what he needs and give me what he does not.
I will pace the nights, if it means he gets some sleep.
I will deal with fatigue, if it means he will have energy.
I will carry his fear if it means it gives him courage.
I will take his pain, if it means he is healthy and whole.
I will take his anger, if it means he is at peace.

Take from me my love and pride and let him feel it! Let him know that I am with him every step of the way.

Please, take from me what You can; I give it willingly and with love.
It is all that I have besides my prayers.

Above all, please help my recruit achieve his goal of becoming a United States Marine. This I ask on bended knee, that which I cannot do without You.

Amen.

Thankfulness - Day 17

I sent out a plea last night for plane tickets to go see "My Marine". I am pleased to tell y'all that I have the best friends EVER!! I now have a plan for our trip to San Diego! That Other Kid and I get to go see "My Marine" at the biggest event of his life! I also get to have a bit of fun and go see Adah and the San Diego Zoo! It's gonna be a great December!!

I am soooo thankful to God for blessing me in this way! I was so disappointed that I was possibly going to have to miss this graduation. Now plans are in the making!! Whooohooo!

I am sooooooo thankful for my friends who have helped me! Thanks sooooo much for blessing me!!

I love each and every one of you!!

Thankfulness - Day 16 (with weigh in)

Today I am thankful that it is November 16th! That means in just 1 month "My Marine" will graduate from boot camp! Sometimes it seems like just yesterday he left and other times it seems like he has been gone FOREVER!! It was one year ago Thanksgiving he told us that he was "done" with college and was going to join the Marines. I will never forget that shock! And here we are almost a year later and he is nearly done with the most rewarding, challenging thing he has ever done....BOOT CAMP!

Today is also Wednesday which means it is weigh in day at Shrinking Jeans. It is the final day of Shrinkvivor and although I was sent to Exile Island a few weeks I still need to weigh in.

My starting weight for this challenge: 200.8
Today's weight: 202.6

So...instead of losing weight this challenge I gained. I'm upset with myself but I know that during distance training it is difficult to lose weight and I definitely was training and walking long distances!! I am now done with that training for a while and now I've got to find my fitness/weight loss/healthy living mojo back! This week I have improved but haven't exercised much still. I went for a 30 minute walk with a friend and That Other Kid yesterday and that was really the first time I have done anything since the 3 Day. That must change!!

I changed the way I am approaching school, chores and many other things around here this week and now it is time to start meal planning, exercising etc to make better use of my time! If you have suggestions on "organizing" my life I am open to them! I need some structure so I can accomplish all that needs to be done!

Ok...so there's a new challenge coming up at the 'hood next week and I'm planning to make that one shine for me! Are you in???

Thankfulness - Day 15

Today I am thankful for the opportunity to be flexible with the new schedule I created for That Other Kid in our homeschooling journey. He decided he wanted to do spelling today even though it wasn't on our schedule! Because we have the freedom to create our own schedule I was able to forego history today and we did spelling instead! I love that he wanted to do spelling - All About Spelling is a great program!

I am also thankful for my friends who told me about All About Spelling! I had never heard of this program; even though I have been homeschooling FOREVER!! Whooohooo for friends who try new programs and aren't afraid to recommend them even to a veteran homeschooler!

Thankful for Homeschooling...

Today I am thankful for the privilege of homeschooling! I spent time this afternoon working on some lesson plans which for some strange reason excited me and made me think of how thankful I am for this opportunity.

I was also at the library gathering books for the next couple of weeks. I found this to be both exciting and frustrating! There are so many great books I want to read with That Other Kid but I just don't have the time to do it all. Our library has a decent number of classics and books off my list but there were some they didn't have! Ugh! That means I forgo reading those or I look elsewhere!

While I was working on the lesson plans and looking over my stack of books I realized how blessed I am to have a husband who works so much so I don't have to. I would hate to miss this opportunity to homeschool That Other Kid!

Thankful for our Veterans! 11/11/11

I grew up in a family with many veterans - my Dad, my uncles, my grandfather...all served in our military and fought for our freedoms! I have cousins that served as well! My brother also joined the Marines while he was in his early 20's and when I received the phone call saying he was joining the Marines I freaked out thinking it was the worst decision of his life I now openly say it was the best thing he has ever done!

Sooooo why was I surprised when my oldest son came home last Thanksgiving and announced he was joining the Marines? I don't know but now I realize it should have been one of those 'duh' moments! In just 5 weeks my son will graduate from Marine bootcamp and I couldn't be prouder to add just one more member of my family to my military family!

So THANK YOU VETERANS FOR SERVING OUR COUNTRY AND BEING A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE TO MEN AND WOMEN OF TODAY WHO DESIRE TO SERVE OUR COUNTRY!

Thankful for USMC - Happy Birthday Marines!!

Happy birthday!

I am thankful that my son is over half way done with bootcamp and in just 5 weeks will officially be one of The Few, The Proud, The Marines! I am thankful that he has found a purpose and a group of men to call his brothers. I am also thankful for the wonderful support system I have found online to help me come to not only accept his decision to become a Marine, but to be proud of him! Semper Fi means Always Faithful and that is exactly what Marines are! I'm proud to call my brother one and now my son!

Thankfulness and Confessions

I'm going to take this opportunity to say thank you to whoever created the massage industry! Yesterday I was sore from my weekend (can't imagine why though) and so I decided a massage would be a good idea. Tried getting into 5 different places yesterday with no luck but got in this morning at 9:30 and I'm so glad I did! I feel like a whole different woman!

Now....onto the confessions portion of this blog post.

Mel posted her confessions this morning telling us about how she has been struggling! I have to say it again...I am too!

During all the training for the Komen 3 Day I felt confident that I would lose weight and hit goal weight before the actual walk. Instead I weigh pretty much the same as I did this summer when I first started training for the walk. Late last night and this morning I was looking at some of the pictures from this weekend and there were a couple of them that I literally felt sick about! Here I am walking 60 miles and doing all this training to prepare for it and I'm still sitting around the 200 pound mark! Unbelievable!

I'm sick of being in this weight range. I want to be sitting at my goal weight. I want to go see my son at Camp Pendleton, San Diego and not feel fat, frumpy and out of shape. But we are only about 6 weeks away from that time and I don't see how I can lose 20 or 30 pounds in that time (in a healthy way). I'm so frustrated with myself. I know he won't care how I look. He will just be happy to have a couple of weeks of freedom..it's all about how I feel about my appearance. It's all about disappointing myself and the lack of self-control I have exhibited.

This weekend I did walk 60 miles in 3 days! It was the most exhilarating and empowering experience of my life and I ate the whole time I was walking! I had so much food as I was walking that at "meal times" I wasn't really hungry. That is just pathetic if you ask me. So I'm almost afraid to look at the scale tomorrow morning. But...I will own up to it and accept the number and realize that my self-worth is not defined by the number on the scale or the appearance of my body in a picture (no matter how much my head screams that it is!)

I'm ready to turn a new leaf and get back to the healthy eating and exercise. Now...the million dollar question is, "will I do it?" or "will I continue to make excuses?" Only time will tell, right?

Thankfulness - Days 4, 5, 6, and 7!

Yes, I'm a bit behind....but at least I have a good excuse, right? In case you haven't figured it out I walked the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure this past weekend; that's 60 miles in 3 Days! Let me tell you that's a lot of freaking miles!

I walked from Plano, TX down to Farmers Branch, then all around north Dallas, Farmers Branch, and Addison and then I turned around and walked down to Fair Park in Dallas. If you are not from the Dallas area, you need to google map this and see just how far I traveled! If you are from the area then you already know this is a long way!!

So...here are the things I am thankful for from this weekend and today!

From Friday the 4th - I am thankful for the Angels for the Cure team that I joined back in July! Without this team I would never have been able to walk the 3 Days. From the very first training walk I joined in on with these wonderful people I felt that these women were special and really cared about me. They made getting up at 4 am on the weekends something I kind of looked forward to! They made fundraising not look so scary to me. They made me feel like I was a part of something bigger than myself! Because of this wonderful team I not only MET my goal of raising $2300 but I exceeded it! I am waiting for "matching funds" to come in so it doesn't look like I'm quite there yet, but I am! I owe a special thank you to our team leader Debby Rich! She is an inspiration and a wonderful leader! Out of this team I have gained another group of friends that I will treasure forever!

From Saturday the 5th - I am thankful for my legs and feet that carried me through a really rough day! Typically from what I was told Saturday is the hardest day of the weekend so I was prepared mentally for it and even wore the appropriate shirt for the day! I have often complained that my legs and calves are huge and that my feet are ugly but on this day, I was thankful that they were so muscular. They carried me over rough sidewalks for somewhere in the area of 25 miles over a time span of somewhere in the area of 9 hours. Most of those miles were done AFTER I had tripped over a crappy sidewalk and fallen early in the day. I wasn't hurt AT ALL for which I am thankful to God for...except as I was falling I tried to catch myself and tightened up my calf muscle. From that point on I had a charley horse that wouldn't go away! Do you realize how far 20 miles is when you are walking with a charley horse??? My feet carried me EVERY MILE on Saturday without a single problem! Yes, they were tired but they didn't hurt because of blisters or other issues! I owe most of that to the people that produced HikeGoo. I made it through Saturday without blisters whereas a lot of my team mates came out of Saturday with blisters and were in pain on their feet. Blisters make walking really hard, in case you didn't know that! lol

From Sunday the 6th - I am thankful for my family and friends that have supported me while I have been training and fundraising. They also came out to support me this weekend as I was walking. Hubby and That Other Kid came out several times to cheer me on while I was walking. I even had a couple of friends "walk with me" for a while. Glenna (my best friend who underwent breast cancer this year) came out and sat and watched me eat lunch Saturday and encouraged me to keep going!

Without my family, friends and the constant encouragement from everyone I don't think I would have been able to keep going during the training and then the actual walk, so THANK YOU! I received numerous letters from family and friends this weekend also and I can't express how special it was to read letters and notes from all of my friends and from my parents who each sent me a card telling me how proud they were of me! A HUGE THANKS goes to all my Sisterhood friends! Without the financial support and continual encouragement of all of you I would not have met my goal.

From today, Monday the 7th - I am thankful that I didn't have to do much of anything! I sat around a lot, soaking my weary feet in epsom salt water and caught up on emails and facebook and snuggling with That Other Kid as much as he wanted! I did have a few things to do; like laundry, changing sandboxes, unloading and reloading the dishwasher and a quick run to Target. But..for the most part I sat and vegged out today! I didn't even have to cook...For that I am MOST thankful! Tomorrow morning I get to go get a massage, so I can assure you I will be thankful for that!

Shrinkvivor and Thankfulness Day 2

Today I am thankful that my self-worth is not wrapped up in the number on the scale any longer!

Granted I'm not happy about this number but I'm not surprised that the number went up this week. If you read my confession yesterday you noticed that I'm not concerning myself with stressing out about much of anything till after this weekend. So... When the scale went up a tad bit I just took it in stride.

Life will get back to normal after this weekend when I am done walking my 60 miles!

As for the mini-challenge I bombed Monday night....with Having some tootsie rolls.

This weeks challenge is to de-stress before getting out of bed! Perfect time for me...I need this so much!

We also counting minutes again for exercise! Watch out y'all! I'm walking 60 miles this weekend and that's gonna take awhile! Lol!