time marches on....

i can't believe that this whole year i've only taken the time to post a couple times. amazing what being busy will do for you. i think it's really true that you don't know what you have until it's gone. i have so very many blessings to be thankful for, and in this season of thanks-giving, i am thankful for all that i have. truly....

i am thankful for my family, more than i can say. life has been pretty stressful the last year and a half, and without my partner in crime, my partner in everything, i would surely have gone crazy by now. i am so thankful for dan and our life. i am thankful that i am in the process of owning the home where i grew up and in a very real sense, it is home. it's not a perfect house and i am far from perfect, but home is the place that when you go there, they have to let you in =)

i am thankful for my adult children. i am so proud of my son, seeing the world, stationed in germany and living the dream with his lovely wife. i am thankful for my beautiful daughter who is probably my best friend, i adore that she lives with me and i hope she is here for a very long time. i am thankful that she is in college and doing something she will hopefully love. i am so very proud of my daughter this year. she got a scholarship at her school. she had to attend an awards dinner and she could have taken anyone in the entire world to help her celebrate this achievement. she invited me and it about made me cry and burst with pride. here's my beautiful baby girl:

 i am thankful for beautiful friends and family of choice that help me get through my tough times. i know everyone says this but i have the best friends a girl could ask for. one of my best friends, pinktini, seems to have a sense of when i am at my lowest, and she always has a plan to pick me up or get me out of my head. earlier in the fall, we went to adult night at the children's museum. i always said the worst thing about our town's new children's museum was that it was made for kids! they must have heard me, as once a month they offer an adult night and serve booze and good food and grown-ups get to go find their inner child. there has been far too little of that for me lately. that has to change. here we are, in the reflection of a cool mirrored art piece. kind of blurry, but this was a fun time!

i am thankful for my relative good health and continued well-being. some things, i need to change. working a football game this season, i tore the meniscus in my knee. i did it at work, so i was injured on september 21st and had surgery to repair the tear on october 5th. it's been a whirlwind, for sure. when i first saw the doctor, she had the nerve to tell me i wasn't 20 any more. now, about seven weeks after surgery, i must concede she may have been right. i surely don't heal like i used to, the going is slow, and the residual stiffness and pain i have in physical therapy make me none too keen to have another injury any time soon. here is the knee in all it's awful glory, complete with ice pack
again and puncture wounds:

 

this is a picture of grizzly helping me heal. this had to have been 1-3 days after surgery:

 

i am thankful for goofy animals and the joy that is having silly little birdies in my life. dan had said a lot while he was unemployed and down that he credited the birds with keeping him sane. he says it's impossible to be sad or upset when you have little birdies around. case in point:

this is the binny bird. i guess, formally, his name is cinnamon, but we call him binny bird. we thought he was a girl for a long time because he's very pretty, but we think now he's a boy. if that changes, we will let you know. hahaha...sometimes you think you have them sexed appropriately, right up until they lay an egg =) this is binny's neat little trick of turning his head upside down and pretty much demanding that you rub his head. that a little bird could be so trusting and just lean it's head down when it must know that you could crush it so easily and yet they are trusting and loving. pretty amazing, really. and they have so much love to give. i adore having little birdies in my life. except for the poo. i could do without the poo.

life is always interesting, but i am feeling worn down lately. they say, if there's something we don't like about our lives, we are masters of our own destiny and only we can make a change for the better or do something to make ourselves happy. it's time i heeded that, and am working to make those changes. i will post more when i can. i don't do super well at the holidays, but so far, it's been okay. looking forward to the future and seeing what it holds.

for now, i am thankful, but also experience a certain amount of "meh". life's to short for "meh"...time to move along...

peace out, and stay tuned.....