Feeling Thankful

I think that like many people this week, I am really reflecting on all that I am thankful for.  While this is how I generally live my life, I have an awareness of how much my life has changed in just a year.  Last year at this time, I was dealing with a serious health condition and worried about the future.  This year has been so extraordinary and I feel profoundly blessed.  I got a job in a new industry and have been learning so much.  My Liesl continues to make me laugh and I love her so much.  My friendships continue to grow and flourish.  My children are doing well and are happy.  Best of all, God brought new love into my life.  He is the person that I always hoped existed and feel so profoundly blessed to share the journey with him.  He is the kindest, sweetest, most honest person that I have ever known. Plus he has a very silly sense of humor and loves Liesl.  When he leaves the house he always leaves her a little treasure hunt by hiding little cookies around for her to find.  I thought that I spoiled her until I met him.  

My honey and I are in charge of the Thanksgiving dinner at church this week, so I will be cooking a lot tomorrow.  Everyone who is coming is bringing something yummy so it should be quite a feast.  It should be a lot of fun.  I can't wait.

Liesl will get a little feast on Thanksgiving.  She is still on her home cooked diet.  She gets pork and potato every night.  It was balanced by a top notch veterinary school, so she also gets prescribed vitamins, and two kinds of oil added to her meals.  However, on Thanksgiving she will get some turkey, sweet potato and maybe a little cranberry sauce.  She might even get a little taste of pumpkin pie.  Remember if you give your doggie Thanksgiving dinner, turkey should be white meat only.  Dark meat is extremely high in fat, and not so good for our furry friends as it could result in a painful episode of pancreatitus.  Let's keep our furbabies safe.

Before I sign off tonight I have to share that I think those commercials with James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell are hilarious.  James Earl Jones was super cool to begin with, but now he is even cooler.  Those commercials make me laugh out loud.

Well, a little schnauzer is awaiting her tucking into her pink blankie.  It has been so cold here that she has actually been wanting to come up on the bed in the middle of the night to snuggle.  If you have been reading this blog for the past couple of years then you know cuddling is not Liesl's thing.  So when she does choose to snuggle, it is truly a gift.  Puppy cuddles when one is sleeping are truly the best.  There is nothing like that kind of warmth.  It warms you heart most of all.

Girl's Night

Well, it is a girl's night at the cozy cottage.  My sweet guy has a meeting at church tonight so it is just Liesl and me.  I came home and got directly into my polar tek jammies.  Then I made dinner for Liesl and made a baked potato for dinner for me, which I promptly ate in front of the television.  By 7 pm I was in bed, taking a test for my online class. 

One of the nice things I got to do while I was taking my test was give myself a pedi.  I always have my toe nails done.  This time I have them done in a super sparkly red by Butter.  I love me some Butter nail polish.  It goes on, well, like buttah.  Being a bargain conscience girl, I picked up 3-4 bottles when they were only $10 each at Ulta last month.  If you have not tried Ulta yet, you must.  It is like a big Costco for girls, filled with all kinds of wonderful things like nail polish and hair products.  I even get my eyebrows done there.  My sweetheart, being a total guy's guy, does get that slight look of terror when I say I just need to run in there for one thing. LOL

So, as I said, the sweetie had to be at a meeting.  He had a late patient so he had to go directly to the church meeting from his office.  So Liesl is in withdrawal.  She looks totally bummed out.  She keeps getting up to go look at the front door.  These two are so cute together.  

So I am totally getting ready to read my book.  I am reading Dan Brown's new book, Inferno.  It is my first book on my new Kindle Paperwhite, which I LOVE.  I bought it to replace my old Kindle, which died a slow death.  I think I wore it out.  Anyway, I so love the Paperwhite.  That little glow light is particularly helpful at times.  The Dan Brown book is super.  

So I guess I will go read now that Liesl has fallen totally asleep.  I will probably be right behind her.  

On My Soapbox

I have to say, I am a very lucky girl.  My sweetheart is an extremely romantic man, and does a lot of really romantic things as a habit.  One thing that he does is that he insists on taking me out for a very fancy romantic dinner once a week.  He often makes a reservation for sunset so we can watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean while we have supper.  This weekend he took me to a lovely candlelight dinner, which had amazing service and incredible food.  It was a beautiful evening that started with us having a glass of champagne and ended with us sharing a beautiful dessert.

What made me sad was that a beautiful young couple were seated at the table next to us.  I think they were married and obviously had some wealth, as she had a huge ring on.  They were beautifully dressed.  Here is the sad part.  She was texting someone else throughout the entire dinner.  They barely spoke to one another.  He looked a bit sad and ignored and just sort of swiveled his wineglass around and around.  It was sad to watch.

I have a couple of thoughts on this.  The first is, that I think that cell phones are breaking down a lot of interpersonal relationships.  I see a lot of people on the phone with other people instead of being present with the person they are with.  Now I will text (generally back and forth with my honey or my kids) but the phone never comes out when I am having a meal or conversation with someone.  I just think it is rude.  Recently we were out and a family was having dinner at a nearby table.  The parents were playing games on their phones and the kids were totally ignored.

Secondly, I do not understand why people throw away love.  Here was a couple that obviously cared about each other and here was one taking it all for granted, particularly in such a romantic restaurant.  I do not understand treating someone else carelessly and with a lack of respect.  I just think one should absolutely treasure the person one chooses as a partner.  

I feel pretty fortunate to be with the person that I am with.  It is unimaginable to me to not look at that handsome face throughout dinner.  I am grateful that God has brought love and such an amazing person into my life.  I can not imagine texting anyone else through a dinner I am having with him.  I just can't.

Love one another.

An Absolutely Perfect Day

First of all, today we honor all men, women and four legged creatures that have served our country in our Armed Services.  We are all extremely grateful for your service and the sacrifices that you have made on our behalf for our nation.  While we honor and celebrate you today, every day you are in our prayers, and we pray that all whom are currently on active duty would be returned home safe and sound very soon.

Today was an absolutely perfect day.  The only bummer part was that my sweet guy, a Navy vet himself, had to work.  I decided that today was a day to be a domestic diva.  I started the day drinking a cup of coffee with pumpkin spice creamer, with the Bach channel on Pandora, checking my email with a little dog sleeping next to me on the sofa.  It was a perfect moment for which I am so grateful.

After psyching my myself, I tore my house apart in a cleaning frenzy.  I cleaned kitchen cabinets, polished the furniture, purged a bunch of stuff, pre-made enough of Liesl's meals for about a week to ten days, and scoured my kitchen.  It felt great.  I got so much done.  This is going to be a busy week at work, so it is kind of nice to be a little bit ahead.  I am hoping to be far enough ahead that I may be able to stitch an ornament this week.

My sweetheart came for dinner after he got off work.  He has taken over walking Liesl out on possum patrol after dinner.  He tells her they are going possum hunting.  She seems to understand because she goes trotting outside with a little skip in her step, like this is going to her lucky day.  LOL  Afterwards, he always tells her that she is doing such a good job keeping the possum out of the house.  

I got to give Liesl lots of belly rubs and extra attention today.  We are starting to get our cozy inside weather, so it was nice to stay home and nest.  

While I loved staying home today, it has stayed with me today that there are so many in the Phillipines that have lost theirs as well as loved ones.  Our prayers are being raised up for those impacted by the typhoon.  It has been heart wrenching to see the pictures.  We are joining our prayers with all of yours for all who were in the typhoon's path.  

Playin' Possum

Well, we had quite the adventure around here last night.  I made eggplant Parmesan for dinner last night so my ever-so-wonderful honey was over for dinner.  He said that he would finish up cleaning up after supper while I took Liesl outside. Now that we are on daylight savings time, it is super dark at 8pm.  I have shared with you that my yard has the tendency to be like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.  For some reason, even with Barky von Schnauzer, my yard attracts varmints.  So when it is dark, one or both of us will take her outside so that she is not attacked by a raccoon or something.  

So last night Liesl goes bounding out the back door straight for the back fence.  Then she starts her shrieking barks and running and jumping up.  I look up and there is a HUGE possum on the fence, a bit larger than Liesl.  So huge that I am afraid to go near the fence in case it jumps on either of us.  I am yelling at Liesl to come. (I am sure the neighbors were thrilled.)   Liesl is running back and forth along the fence, shrieking, jumping, etc., and totally ignoring me calling her with me in hot pursuit.  So I called to my honey to come help. The possum was just going slowly along the fence following Liesl.  

My sweet boyfriend comes out of the house, and calmly asks if I need help.  Then he walks over near the fence, tells Liesl to come over to him and calmly picks her up.  Liesl just looked at him like," Oh, hey, since you picked me up and all, can you lift me up to the top of the fence?  At this point, the possum just walks slowly along the fence away from us.

Now I have mentioned that Liesl thinks that he is HER boyfriend.  I found it interesting that she went to him after ignoring me.  (She is in SO much trouble.  LOL )  I asked him why the possum had not run away.  He explained that the possum was taunting Liesl.  I found this totally weird, so I asked him why a possum would do that.  He said that it was probably fun for him to see Liesl so excited.  

I thought the matter was over, however, it became the night from heck.  That possum was all Liesl could think about.  I was awoken by Liesl ringing her bell to go outside at 12:30 am.  In general, she knows that I will not let her out in the middle of the night so she does not even try.  But the possibility of possum was too great, so she rang that darn bell at 12:30...and 2 am...and 3:15 and 4:10. I was a very grumpy, sleep deprived puppy momma at work today...

I am off to bed now, ridiculously early.

I am totally in need of sleep so I will sign off.  Wish me good luck that we will have a possum free night tonight.  Oy vey.

Wow!

Okay, are these the awesomest shoes ever, or what?!  I will now admit to you that I am a total girlie-girl.  I love make-up (thank goodness we have an Ulta nearby!) sparkly jewelry and shoes.  Most days I wear a dress or a skirt to work.  I feel more comfortable in them.  I like pedicures and nailpolish. Mostly, I like anything sparkly.  My son says that I am like a racoon and drawn to anything shiny.  

I so love shoes.  I like to patrol the shoe aisles of Marshall's or Ross.  My beloved partner knows that I have more shoes than I should and yet he makes no discouraging remarks as I pick up a prospective new pair to add to my little shoe family.  This, as I exclaim, "Oooooh.  Lookie!!!!"  In fact, he will even carry the boxes around for me.  He is my shining prince.

So we were out today poking around in Marshal'ls when my eyes fell upon these beauties and I knew instantly that I must make them mine.  Sequins and patent leather.  They are awesome in every sense of the word.  A lady in the store said that they were beautiful and asked where I might wear them.   I exclaimed, "Everywhere!"  I said that I would even wear these with jeans.  She said that she has a lot of pretty dress shoes and only gets to wear them once and then they just sit in the closet.

So I will share my personal philosophy.  Wear your good stuff.  If it makes you happy, wear it.  Do not save things for a special occasion.  Several years ago I worked in the fine jewelry business and women would come in and finally get the dream ring or string of pearls only to go put it in the safety deposit box.  I told them to wear it.  

Several years ago I had a friend that every time her girlfriends came over for lunch, even if she was making them a tuna sandwich, she served it on her best china.  I really think that each day is special.  It is a blessing.  Life is fragile and we should use and wear our special things to make ordinary days special.  So wear the sparkly shoes, use the good china and break open that special bottle of perfume you have been saving.  Today is your special occasion because you are special.