Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 5

Today I am thankful for my mom & stepdad and all they do to help me with my house.  Four years ago, Garry put a new metal roof on my house and covered all of my soffits and overhangs with vinyl and metal to protect them from rotting.  Today, for my birthday present (in 16 days!) they replaced my front door.

It's really sad how pitiful my original front door was.  It was hollow (like an interior door) and it turns out someone had actually sawed off the bottom of the door!  The door didn't even seal like it was supposed to, so I'm sure that let out an unknown sum of the A/C and heat I've been paying for all these years.  Truthfully I did not feel very safe with such a flimsy door out front.

The new door is fiberglass.  It is much more sturdy and energy efficient.  I'm pretty sure it's eligible for a tax credit (yay!).  The things you get excited about in your old age.

As for the color... yuck.  This beigy color is the base/primer color that it comes in, but I will be changing that soon.  Hopefully next weekend!  But even with the ugly color I am still so excited about my new door!

Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 4

Today I am thankful for my job.  I have been there for 8 years, and I think I am very fortunate to have found a home there.  Ok, so there are a lot of days that I wish I didn't have to get up and go to work, and sometimes I get frustrated and stressed out, but every day I am thankful for my job.  I work for a great company and have great bosses.  And recently, they've given me a wonderful opportunity and I'm so very excited about the upcoming year!  Terrified, but excited!  2012 will be a great year!

Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 3

Today I am thankful for having a roof over my head, a car to drive and always having plenty to eat and drink.  This is just a short list of every day comforts that most of us take for granted, but there are many people who have to do without.

On a selfish note, I would be even more thankful if the Facebook photo uploader would work properly.  I've been trying for two evenings now to create a photo album from my trip this weekend, but the uploader isn't cooperating.

Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 2

Today I am thankful for Nyquil.  I haven't been feeling so hot since the marathon.  Apparently, between airports and public transportation and running a race with 40,000 people, I may have picked up a germ or something.  Whoodathunkit.  Anyway, I decided to take a dose of Nyquil and go to bed early.  Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 1

It's November 1st and I see many people are sharing things they are thankful for.  I think out of all the crazy Facebook fads, this is a good one to follow.

Today I am thankful for good friends who care about what's important to me, or at least they do a good job of pretending to care.  ;)

It's That Time Again!

I leave tomorrow morning heading to Washington, DC... Sunday morning is the Marine Corps Marathon!  I am probably about 65% excited and 35% nervous.  This is my third marathon, but this will also be the largest I've ever run.  43,000 people have registered for this race!

I am looking forward to getting to do a little sightseeing in Washington, DC.  The only time I have ever been to DC was while I was in college, and that was back in 2002.  I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see it again.  I am also really excited about the sights I will see along the race course.  I'm going to take a disposable camera with me and try to take pictures along the way.

Well I need to finish packing.  Gotta get up early tomorrow and head to the airport!

Forgiveness

Yesterday at church, we had a guest speaker.  He is a lay leader from a church in the area.  He chose to speak about forgiveness, and as he got started I thought to myself "well this is certainly a topic I need to pay attention to."  I know that I am not a perfect person, and I can easily identify a laundry list of my own faults.  One of those faults happens to be holding onto to something that has angered me or hurt my feelings.  I have a really hard time with the part where you are supposed to forgive and not forget; I need to work on learning how to separate the two.

The part of his message that really spoke to me was a story about a man who had an estranged relationship with his parents and had come to our speaker for advice.  He basically had an attitude of "if they want to reconcile, then why haven't they come to me?"  Mr. Hand told him that he should accept that responsibility and contact his parents to initiate a reconcilitation.  He promptly did, and was able to repair his relationship with his parents before his mother passed away shortly thereafter.  Boy did I need to hear that!  That is an important lesson not only about forgiveness, but about relationships in general.  As Christians we believe "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," but when someone is not treating you as well as you would like, it's easy to lower your standards and not put out the effort that you should.  It got me to thinking that maybe I need treat others better than they treat me.  I just pray that God knows what is in my heart and helps me to be a more forgiving and kind person.