Thankful I am emotional. It means I care. That I have a heart. That I can be sympathetic (although I may choose to be apathetic). Thankful I’m picky, why settle for less than what I really deserve? Thankful I can be stubborn, sometimes my ideas are just better & you don’t realize it until I’ve talked myself blue telling you 😉 Thankful I don’t have to be perfect. Thankful for the One that was, & thankful I know Him.
Today I am thankful for two important men in my life: My stepdad Scott, who is really more of my Dad than my Dad ever was. He has shown me how men are supposed to treat their wives (I think mom would agree) & how to be gentle & loving towards animals. He has a very tender heart. He is an EXTREMELY patient man, & can walk me through minor plumbing/ electrical/ mechanical issues from miles away and is GPS and Mapquest all rolled into one. Most recently, he took a very special trip with me down a very looooong aisle that I know wasn’t easy between his bad knees & the zillion degree weather. <3 ya Scott!
The other one is my Uncle Dale, some of you know him as “Tiny”. (He is anything but!) He is a lot of fun, and very knowledgeable about the great outdoors. He always took time when I was growing up to teach me about different kinds of trees, how to shoot a variety of guns, the value of hard work, right from wrong, & a little bit of politics along the way. He has taken me on countless fishing trips over the years, and one very memorable deer hunting trip. Some of my earliest memories are of him. I love him more than he will ever know.
Day 10: thankful for technology! Thank God for Google! Where would we be without cell phones? Sometimes its a pain being so connected, but consider the alternative. And GPS? There’s more than a few people out there who can’t leave home without it. And I’m a big fan of air conditioning, myself. I know the Amish make it work, so maybe I’m being too materialistic. I’m thankful for medicine & MRI’s. How awesome is it that you don’t have to be cut open to see what lies beneath your skin? I’m just disappointed that a lot of innovative electronics originate overseas. So, as I post this status from my smartphone, I’m thankful I don’t have to walk to all y’alls houses in deerskins to spread my holiday cheer.
Today I am thankful for a couple of brilliant ladies! My work momma, Robin, who has to watch every move I make. I very nearly wore the tags on my sweater to the big to-do annual meeting tonight. She saved me a lot of embarrassment & spared me from being called Minnie Pearl all night.
I am also thankful for my good friend Christy who is also my hairdresser. She helps me & my unruly mop the best she can. I’m totally at ease with her & is a lot of fun to be around. Stylists double as therapists, you know. My hair was one of two things I didn’t worry about on my wedding day. Thats saying a lot because I am a World Class Worrier. Fortunate to have these two women in my life for many years. Blessed to call them dear friends.
11-8-12 7:56pm
Thankful today (& every day) for my husband. Its so personal that I don’t know how much I will be able to write. It was honestly love at first sight. He came in work to buy dog food & I was like, “oh, WOW. I HAVE to go out with him.” Before we ever had our first date, I proclaimed to my coworkers & good friends that I had met the man I was going to marry. That was September of 2008. We didn’t get our date until spring. We went hiking. I knew it was gonna be great because I didn’t have to dress up in heels & a skirt, or wear makeup. Excellent. 🙂 We didn’t have the perfect relationship from the get-go, a few of you know the history, but I believe God was making sure I knew what I wanted. And Johnny is everything I was waiting for. I was 33 years old when I married for the first (& only) time. I don’t rush into things. I want to be absolutely positively sure before I commit my lifetime to someone. I was beginning to wonder if that someone was ever going to make an appearance in my life. And I bet my mom was, too. Lol! All my friends kept telling me to stop looking. Easy for them to say, they were all married! It is not easy to be a single woman over the age of 25 in my beloved south. People wonder whats wrong with you. But I’m so glad I held out. He is hard working, funny, sweet, loving, God-fearing, intelligent, patriotic, and oh-so-handsome. He is also extremely laid back which is (generally) good for me as I can be a tad bit…ahhhh….high strung? 😉 thank you Lord, for sending the perfect man for me! Good things come to those who wait, I promise you.
This was one of those turnaround posts. One that people loved and shared and complimented me on for days after. And made me consider getting serious about my writing.
Today I’m thankful I live in the south. Can y’all even imagine me in Yankeeland? I’m thankful for the flowering dogwoods, magnolias, and crepe myrtles. I’m thankful for the summer days where it’s too hot to even swim, {forget about getting married 😉}I’m thankful for the accents that use every letter in the word. I’m thankful that most people still have enough manners to hold a door open or let you in front of them in line if you’ve only got an item or two. I’m thankful that we have people willing to keep history alive by re-creating the War of Northern Aggression. I’m thankful for the music of cicadas in the late evenings. I’m thankful for all the little festivals celebrating bar-be-que, apples, & catfish. I’m thankful for fried food, sweet tea, cornbread, and beans. I’m thankful that we’ve captured the hearts of everyone who passes through. I’m thankful that we have a church on every corner. I’m thankful for days spent fishing for trout on the foggy Clinch river, hiking and tripping over the mountains in the Great Smokies, & going even further south to visit the historic cities of Charleston and Savannah. I am thankful the south still exists as a place and as a mindset. Wherever you go, take the south with you. Its the best.
Day three: Thankful that I have a fun place to work (most days). Thankful for the fudge lady who bakes awesome cinnamon raison bread. Thankful that I know most of the clientele and they are friendly and care enough to ask how I’m doin’, how Johnny’s doin’, how Crockett’s doin’, and how my momma’s doin’ 🙂 Some even bring me oreos! Thankful that most of my co-workers are more like family than fellow inmates. Thankful that when I’m sad, they cheer me up, when I’m tired, they bury me with even more work to push me over the edge, and when I’m angry, they pick on me till I’m over it or stomp off even madder. Thankful we have the prettiest Co-op in the state & people always tell us so. That being said, I am also thankful that renovation is over.
I participated in the challenge on Facebook for a couple of years until the griping got to me. Granted, most people weren’t very creative, but give me a break. It was nice to see people being grateful.
Alright, 30 Days of Thankfulness are here again. I challenge you, facebook friends, to do the same. Its much nicer than reading all the down-and-out posts that have become so commonplace. These will be in no order of importance, just whatever comes to mind on a particular day. There is no limit on how many things you can be thankful for 😉 So, today, November 1st, I’m thankful for my momma. Because she did something for me from day one that has influenced me every day since: she read to me while she was pregnant. Not only that, she took me on countless trips to the library after I learned to read myself. Seymour’s first very modest library was located in our bank’s parking lot in a camper & I remember making a couple of trips there a week. You could only checkout like, five books at a time & I was blowing through them. Soon, even the Sevierville library didn’t have any I hadn’t read. I still love to read and spend a few hours every day buried in one book or another. Luckily, Johnny understands. He saw straight-away there was no hope for prying me away.(He’s a bit of a bookworm, himself. And yes, he has his very own bookshelf in our library) Thank you, mom, for encouraging this all-consuming habit.
I’ve been thankful for a lot of things on here this month & I meant every one of them. However, I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface on the number of things I should be thankful for every single day. Today, on the last day, I’m going to be thankful for my Facebook peeps! I’m thankful that it’s been a way to reunite with people from high school, past co-workers, and people I don’t see nearly often enough! It’s been awesome checking my news feed throughout the day & seeing everybody posting what they’re thankful for. I have two very close friends who refuse to join fb b/c of the “drama”. I tell them they’re just not friends with the right people 🙂 I love you’ns all!!! Happy Month of Thankfulness!
