Thankfulness Day 7

Today I am thankful for my kitties. I have had cats as an adult since 1999. That is when I got K.C. (her names was Kisses, but I thought she was also a cuddler so I tweaked her name to Kisses and Cuddles and called her K.C. for short). I got my Holly a year later. The two were good friends. I miss those two. K.C. did not really meow much. She would come when I sang. She was a dilute tortie. Holly was a Ragdoll mix. She was my talker girl. It was hard for me after Holly passed away. Sugar started the new grouping of cats that I have now. I had said I would have no more than two at one time, but that got thrown out the window. I had Sugar for six months before I got Ella. It also took me six months to tell Sugar that I loved her (I think my heart had to heal). I do love her very much. She is 13 years old now. The oldest cat that I have ever had. I call her Sugar mama even though she has never had kittens.

Ella is black. I got her off of Craigslist. She was 12 weeks old when I got her. Now she is nine. She will be 10 in February. She is something else. She likes to jump on my back even when she has no place to go. No other cat has ever done that. She likes to run outside and lay on the balcony. Sometimes she will just chill outside mt front door. She also likes to drink from the faucet. She is a lover girl. She and Sugar have a close sister bond.

I got Callie in 2010. I miss that girl. She escaped outside in December and I have not seen her, Not sure where she is. I still want her to come back.

Etta is also black. I got her in 2014 on Jason and Beth's anniversary. She is a bit of a wild child. But she loves me (and no one else). Her personality seems to be similar to Ella's.

I am thankful for these kitties of mine. I know that one day it may be just Etta and me. That will be interesting. I thank God for allowing me to have these sweeties in my life.

Thankfulness Day 6

Today I am thankful that I am employed (even if I am underemployed and even if I have multiple jobs). I am glad to have some sort of an income coming in and I am glad I am learning to be resourceful. I thank God for teaching me to do whatever gets put in front of me. I do pray a lot for me to have a full time job again. I really want to wok with high school students full time and would love to be a school counselor. I hope and pray that is what He has in store for me. I have been enjoying y students this semester and have come to the conclusion that God for some reason has wanted me to be teaching my students this semester. I am glad because this has been one of the best groups o students I have ever had. So thank you God for my job with the college. 

Thankfulness Day 5

Today I am thankful for true friends that uplift and encourage me and not tear me down. I do have some of those. I remember when I started going to my church. I prayed for some friends. Guess what! God answered that prayer. There is my friend Susan who I have spent a couple of holidays with. Who has helped me out with rides. Who I like to go to Ross with or the Half Price Books clearance sale at Market Hall (two years in a row now). Or Jim and Benji. They let me borrow their car for four months. They took in my three cats and Jim let Ella live after she jumped on his back. There is David who I am getting to know and who did not run away after I told him he was a character in my book. There is Susan who I used to work with and I have spent a Thanksgiving with. I am her translator lol. There are some I have not seen in a while, but they encourage me and pray for me. There is my friend Julie who also helped me with rides (when I had no car) and has helped me out with some money this year when times have been tough. Then there is Jesus. The BEST friend anyone could have. He never leaves me nor forsakes me. He loves me as I am. I am grateful for true friends.

Thankfulness Day 4

Before I say what I am thankful for, I want to say that today was a bit hard for my family. Today would have been my parents 51st anniversary. My dad, sister, and not sure who else was with them - went to see my mom's grave in Porterville. My sister was kind to take pictures. It is so very bittersweet as last year on November 4th we were getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary (which it was a miracle that I made it since I got a stomach virus before I left to go to Arizona). I miss my mama and I am praying for a miracle of me being able to go see my family in California at Christmas since it will be the first one without my mom (her birthday is two days before).

Okay. Today I am thankful that I have never been homeless. Even during the toughest of times God has helped me to keep a roof over my head. Oh how grateful I am for that because my kitties have been able to be with me (except when I stayed with some friends for a couple of months after moving back here, but my kitties were with Jim and Benji so all was good). Not even my kitties have been homeless. Etta was dumped off at Crystal Canyon Nature area, but was rescued by a neighbor and then kicked out and taken in by me. Sugar was found in the country - probably wandered off. Ella ws returned after a month, but promptly found a home with me. Callie was found by my old boss and hopefully she is with someone and will get sense enough to come back home. But my cats have all had roofs over their heads as well as me. I thank God for that. He cares about my babies.

Thankfulness Day 3

Today I am thankful that I have never had to go hungry. Yes I said this when I was getting ready to make breakfast. I may have been close to running completely out of food (God did not let me) and I may not have had fancy meals, but I have never been without. Not even my cats during tough times. They have always had full bowls of food. For that I am thankful. Thank you God!

Thankfulness Day 2

Today I am thankful for coffee. Yep. I admit right now that when I decided that I was thankful for coffee that I was having my first cup of the day and trying to wake up. But I am still thankful for coffee. There was a time (17 years ago - seems so long ago) that I did not really care for coffee. My morning caffeine was a glass of Diet Pepsi. Now I need me some coffee. I decided back around 2000 or 2001 that I needed to switch to coffee and start liking it since it was cheaper. Now I like it cold. Iced coffee, iced lattes. I like it hot. Fresh in the morning. I like it straight up black. Green Mountain Coffee at Sonic is great. I love me some Farmer Brothers Coffee over at Henk's in Dallas. I like it flavored. Give me a pumpkin spice coffee in the fall. I will take the special order cheg at Starbucks (a combination egg nog latte and chai latte). I like me some Quik Trip (favorite gas station) coffee - the sugar free white chocolate is awesome. Just whatever it is I like coffee. With the caffeine in it preferably. Yes I am thankful for coffee!

Thankfulness Day 1

Today is November 1st. I cannot believe it is already November. I was thinking for a bit that I might try something different this year. I managed to make it through the 25 Days of Christmas with a different Christmas song each day back in 2014. I decided this year that I would do 30 days of thankfulness for the month of November. I also saw when my last post was. Yikes. I need to be more regular over here. Soooo. Here I go with Day 1

I am thankful that God has brought me this far in the year. I am not going to lie. 2017 has been a tough year. In the words of Flo on Alice - it can kiss my grits (I am soooo going to teach my students that lol). It started off great with my job with the college - there was some adjustment teaching four dual credit psychology classes at four different high schools and having 79 students and all of the other work I was having to do outside of teaching (I am sorry, but just because I was teaching 12 hours a week did not mean that I was working 12 hours a week - teaching encompasses so much more). Then my mom got sick. And she got sicker. And I found out chemotherapy would kill her so I had to make an emergency trip to Arizona to see my mom at the end of March for what turned out to be her last few days on this Earth, Then I had to do another one a week later for her memorial service. Then a month later to help my dad move and get some stuff of my mom's that I was wanting (this time I drove to Arizona and back in one weekend - I saw Mexico on Cinco de Mayo and I drove from Gilbert, AZ back to Arlington, TX in one day. Literally. I even took a picture of the speedometer. Then May hit and I found out I was only going to have one summer term 1 class to teach. So basically stuff has been not fun. But here it is. I wrapped up another month. I have started a new month and God has brought me this far. I have some challenges still. I am going to keep praying and asking Him to help me through. I am thankful He has brought me this far in the year and I want to see how He moves in my life.

Okay that is it. Stay tuned for Day 2. You never know what I will be thankful for.