Texas Lou

Good morning and welcome to my Monday morning Thankful Monday post!

I feel like everyone is especially thankful this week because Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  Here’s my thankful list for today:’

1. I am thankful for my husband Ben.  He made me french toast for breakfast yesterday, and even though he has this week off of work and didn’t have to get up early, he got up at 6:30 AM and offered to make me breakfast before work.  He made me french toast again (DELICIOUS) and it’s the first time in a long time I can remember eating my breakfast at home and not taking it with me to work!  He is also coming to meet me for lunch today since he has the day off!  I love him and I’m so lucky to have him!
2. I’m thankful for having a working heater and for modern heating systems.  It was 17 degree this morning when I left the house and yesterday the high was only 35 degrees.  I am definitely not a fan of winter and cold weather so to be able to stay nice and warm inside is something I appreciate greatly!
3. I’m thankful for a healthier mind, body, and outlook on life this year.  This time last year, I was very depressed and anxious.  I knew I was going to have to spend the holidays (both Thanksgiving, my birthday, AND Christmas) without my family for the first time ever and I wasn’t adjusting well to having to leave my old job and everyone that I loved working with as well as my wedding being over.  Thanks to a great deal of hard work, research, soul searching, and mindfulness techniques that I learned (including these Thankful Monday blog posts), I am learning how to be happy and find happiness from within.  I still have a long way to go and recognize that this is a lifetime process that I can’t just stop once I think I’ve mastered it.  I’m just so happy to be in a much better place than I was a year ago.
4. I’m thankful for wonderful friends who brighten up my life.  Tuesday, I enjoyed girls night with two good friends and their lovely daughters.  It’s always fun to see their babies growing up and to catch up with them.  Then Friday, I had frozen yogurt (YUM) with Sarah, Meghan, and Meghan’s cut little baby at Bloop, followed by dinner with lots of friends at Miller’s to bid farewell to my awesome friend Wilson before she moves to the west coast.  Then I got my Bodo’s fix (I hadn’t had Bodo’s in way tooo long) while visiting with Ian, Sarah, and Cris.  My life is full of wonderful friends!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for a family to spend the holidays with.  I know that alot of people don’t have anyone close to them to spend Thanksgiving with or can’t afford to travel home to be with the ones they love, so I am thankful that I married a man whose family loves me and lives nearby.  I always remember a man that I worked with at VGT named Charles.  Every year, he and his wife would invite everyone in the company (there were at least 250 of us) to his home for Thanksgiving dinner.  Alot of people at VGT relocated for the job so I think this gesture was especially generous because so many people were living far from their families.  Sadly, Charles died not too long ago, but I will always remember his generosity, especially around Thanksgiving time.

Happy Thanksgiving and have a wonderful week!