I am Thankful

She said, "it's just another day." And while I get why some of my family doesn't want to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is most certainly not just another day to me. I may not care what we eat for the dinner. I may not even be able to tolerate extended family for long. But I do like to observe the day.

Yes, I love holidays. But that's not why. I'm thankful. I'm thankful everyday. Even after a rant or string of complaints, I am still thankful. I wish she could see it. I feel so blessed. We have so much to be thankful for, and I hope my family and friends see that even if they have their reasons for not being cheerful.

I was born legally blind, but God blessed me with sight enough to enjoy the beauty in this world.

I have never been financially rich, but God blessed me with family and friends who love me and whom I love.

I may never live in a mansion, but God has made sure I never spent a night on the streets.

I may not be model thin or overly glamorous, but God made sure I have never gone hungry or hated myself.

I may not get to do all the adventures I want, but God blessed me with an imagination to go anywhere.

I may not have alot of material goods, but God blessed me with soo many beautiful memories.

I may complain now and then, but I know God has truly blessed my life.

So, no... Thursday is not just another day. It is the day of Thanks. I am thankful everyday, but it is this time of year I reflect on it all the more and want to give thanks to my Lord that much more.

Ever since our preparations for the move to our wonderful new place, this song has been in my head... in my heart. I tried to find a video of it, but none of them had the life in it that I hear when I play this song in my head. So hears the lyrics:

I Will Enter His Gates

I will enter His gates with thanksgivings in my heart,

I will enter His courts with praise!

I will say this is the day that the Lord has made,

I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

He has made me glad, oh, He has made me glad.

I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

Arg!

Ever notice how someone can be consistant until you plan on it? For months and months, Mom goes to bed around eight or nine at the latest, sometimes even a couple hours earlier. She'd go to bed and I could watch TV while online or be productive without worrying I'd wake her with the noise. But not this week.... Oh no...

Thursday, since I wasted away the day, I was gonna unpack the last few boxes while watching Grey's Anatomy and ER... I watch em every Thursday since Mom's usually asleep or in bed... But no... She stayed out in the living room... Can't unpack cuz the tissue paper woulda been too noisey. I mean I tried to unpack a little... But ya can only keep tissue paper so quiet... Fine... I stayed up all night unpacking those LAST boxes cuz I had a mission and it was my own fault for wasting the daytime... My fault there...

Friday... Friday night AMC was showing "scary" movies... And I wanted to watch 'em. But it was Friday and Mom stays awake longer then, but that was okay cuz they were gonna replay at a later hour. Told her they started at eight, in case she wanted to watch 'em with me. And while she went "oo" by that time of night she was all pissy with me and we didn't watch. 11:45 rolled around and she was still out there... Falling asleep of course but to frelling stubborn to go to bed. So no movies for me. She finally left after the first movie was half over... By then I was like forget it...

Month ago.. She woulda been in bed and Thursdeay I woulda watched my shows and unpacked... Friday I woulda watched my scary movies... Instead I found myself irritated with her on both nights... Silly of me, I know... But whatev....

Good news though.. Those last boxes WERE unpacked.. Well the last ones possible anyway. :)

Psalm 55:22

I recently received this in an e-mail and felt the need to share it, especially with the holidays just around the corner. I of course editted out the "pass this on to X people", but don't let that stop you from sharing with those who may need to read it or praying for those you care about. - Carisa

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Psalm 55:22

"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."

This was written by a Metro Denver Hospice Physician:

I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and splutter and die - I barely managed to coast, cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. It wouldn't even turn over. Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the 'quickie mart ' building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay.

When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.

At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95.

I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying 'don't want my kids to see me crying,' so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, 'And you were praying?' That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, 'He heard you, and He sent me.'

I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fuelling, walked to the next door McDonald's and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little. She told me her name, and that she lived in Kansas City . Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn't have money to pay rent Jan 1, and finally in desperation had finally called her parents, with whom she had not spoken in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there.

So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there. I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, 'So, are you like an angel or something?'This definitely made me cry. I said, 'Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so some times God uses regular people.' It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong. Some times the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings...

Psalms 55:22 'Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.'
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'Father, I ask You to bless my children, grandchildren, friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace, In Jesus' precious name. Amen.'
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When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, 'Jesus, could You please get that for me.'

Another Reason to Love Doctor Who...

Mom and were watching Doctor Who the other day and I caught something I missed the first time I'd seen that particular episode. Season 4 opens with an episode called Voyage of the Damned, where this humanoid race are on a flying ship modelled after the most famous Earth ship, the Titanic. On board is a tour guide for when the go "ashore"... He's got a degree on earthonomics. :P Anywho, the ships travelling during Christmas time, so he explains about what the holiday is to the humans.

London is in the country of U-Kay, ruled by King Wensleslas (sp?). The great god of the holiday is Santa who has claws and is married to Mary. At Christmas Great France and Great Germany go to war with Turkey, And as part of the victory they eat the people as a delicacy.... Suffice it to say, his history is a little off. :P

ANYwho... the Doctor was asked what the holiday was REALLY about... He says it's a long story... and that he should know, he "got the last room".... That's like one of the only sci-fi shows I know that makes any mention of the birth of Christ. No it wasn't preachy or spilling out the whole story, but that's not what Doctor Who is about anyway. I don't know... Just the fact that it was mentioned... I mean shoot... According to Trek universe, we were all created (aliens and humans alike) from one being or whatever nonesense they spewed on that one episode of Next Gen... I kinda ignore that episode. And BSG is all about the Greek gods....

I don't expect sci-fi shows to mention God or Christ. It seems like sci-fi is created by people of science beliefs and not faith beliefs... And I guess it makes sense... I mean in high school I wondered if there was Christian geared sci-fi books and someone looked at me like I was on crack. Like I was asking for something contradictory. Turns out there is... so there... :P Plus ONE of these days in the far far future I'm sure... I'll publish sci-fi books with that hint of my Christian faith (cuz I'm by no means an expert in my faith so I'm not about to lead anyone astray with LOTS of stuff....)

Anyway... It's 230am... I shoulda been in bed an hour ago... Still gotta season the chicken before it spoils (it's defrosted already but been too hot to turn the oven on :P )... Clean up after the kitties.... and get ready for bed...

v--v

Okay... I think it as a sign that I am a little vampire obsessive when I start dreaming about them.... Right?

Both my mother and I are both reading vampire books (me, Betsy, Queen of the Dead series, and her, Black Dagger Brotherhood which I will be reading next)... We're waiting the Twilight to come out in theatres... No, we have not read the books... Heck, I had to keep reminding her it WAS off a book series.... Now she wants to buy them now that SHE discovered there were SEVERAL books to the series... :P I'm like... Finish the books ya got! But I know I'll be dying to read more vampy books too...

Too bad I don't have anymore vampy TV... I heard Moonlight and Blood Ties was cancelled... Blood+ ended... True Blood is of course a premium channel only thing.... Bastards.... Heck I'd settle for reruns of what was that show... Dark Knight? Anywho.. old show... I'd watch my few vampire movies... but how many time can ya watch Interview with a Vampre or the Underworld movies? Plus they lack the feel I get from my books anyway....

Then there's the RPing... I stick to that little grid game mainly for the RPing... :P

Anywho... I musta fallen asleep to a Twilight trailer on TV or something.. cuz my dreams last night were ALL about vampires. Like lotsa mini episodes of a vampy show created in my dreamland. It was awesome.... if freaky. :P Had a very real quality to it... you know, not counting the fact that it was about vampires. Wish I'd written it down while it was fresh in my head.. Ah well.. Maybe tonight. :P

v--v Lotsa love bites for you all! v--v

Updates... Take Two....

Okay soo.... Wednesday the last of our utilities were turned on. Water & Power had been turned .. we moved in cuz landlords were doing some work in here. Telephone and Cable (yes we count it as a utility :P ) was turned on the day after we moved in..... Gas... Oh boy.. No we had to wait near a week for that one. Did you know end of October is a BIG moving period for alot of folks? I didn't. Yep, those appointments filled up fast for the Gas Co. So we had a long wait. No cooking.... No heater... No hot water!

Cold showers suck when it's freezing... Yucky as it sounds, I didn't wash my hair everyday. And the day the lady from the gas co. came, I waited as long as possible hoping they'd come before I HAD to shower. And I was almost in ... okay I WAS in tears when she said she couldn't light the pilot on the water heater cuz the vent tube whatever wasn't connected right. Luckily the land lord came right over and fixed it before she left. So yay for heat and hot water. We cooked that very night... Okay heated up a frozen lasagna dinner in the oven. :P And omg! Hot showers here with the super shower head (which we only had on trickle to reduce the cold water on us before) is absolutely heavenly! I mean it practically massages you!

Okay I'll stop babbling about that, cuz that's not why I started this anyway... Week one of unpacking fun.... Kitchen is all functional finally. :) Laundry room/kitty's room is all set. Linens are all put away... That leaves just the bathroom to figure out to be a fully functional home. With a counter-less sink area and a different storage system than we're used to, I'm just not sure what I want in the bathroom and what I want in the surplus supplies closet. Things would be much easier if Mom didn't have tons of make up and hair crap. :P But then I can't fault her for being your average female. :P So I figure I'll do that tomorrow or Monday.... Probably Monday..

That leaves the decorating stuff left... The purdies that belong in the hutch.. the little table decorations I had... pulling out the knickknacks and finding new homes for them both in the living room and my room... Then trying to figure out where to put ALL our books and movies and oh boy do we have a lot of both!

The personal crap like miscelleneous crap that goes in nightstands and various drawers or various files and paperwork will find their homes in time... I'm not touching her mountain of files and records... :P But I figure the bulk of the unpacking will be over by Friday.

Then the joyous job of calling everyone (bill ppl mostly) and telling them we moved... Blah blah... Speaking of calling people.. My cell phone is like on it's death bed. That is to say it can't charge anymore. I can hear lil bits rattling inside the charger port. Fun stuff... Luckily we still have insurance on that line. So once I get over the hope of a brand new phone I'll probably just call and have them send me a new one of the model I have now. Currently Mom and I both have to charge our batteries using an old cell phone that doesn't work except for charging. But taking the batt out alot and charging that way is slowly killing Mom's batt... So I imagine mine will die too... Ah well...

Soo... Thursday we had a fun mishap...... Emphasis on sarcasm there..... I was doing laundry and I guess the sink got full of towl fuzz or something. I dunno.. I'm used to big laundry rooms where the water doesn't drain out into a sink! Anywho... the fuzz got clogged in the drain... and yay the sink overflowed..... Water all over the floor... and filled the litter box! Well there's a waste of half a box of litter.... And we had no more... so had to run out and buy some... And yay for me.. had to clean out a muddy litter box and muddy floor cuz our retarded cats like to kick litter out of their box... Thoroughly disgusting night. Got bitched at for something not my fault.. but life's too short so I'm not gonna elaborate and get mad all over again...

The only bad thing about living here... :P .... is no dishwasher! :P Okay, just kidding.. I don't mind TOO much unless I wait too long to do them. But dude... we totally need a dish rack or something... cuz right now I'm using ice cube trays to put stuff on just so they can dry! None of our kitchen towels are all that absorbant or I'd dry them and just put them away. Yet another thing to get for our New Home shopping list. :)

Exhausting unpacking... Disgusting litter mess... Cold showers... And weird climbing into bed (cuz my side's against the wall til Mom gets her own set of furniture)... All that said.. I'm still glad we moved. :) I love it here. :) And so do my furry babies!

Updates.....

Where to start.... Well sad news... Tweedledum got hit by a car sometime month before last... Poor lil Dumdum... That was sad for a little while until Tweezers started coming around more.. As if Dum had been keeping Tweezy away...

End of September I got a computer virus. FUN stuff man... No really.... >.< Yeah... Took me ages to save my crap to discs and emails. Then dropped off my poor baby at my Dad's place so my bro could fix it... Wiped it clean... Reformatted... Put on new Norton crap... Lemme tell ya, the week comp was gone, I used mobile web-ness ALOT. Then you know.. You get the comp back and have to put your own crap back on it... Catch up on a week's worth of emails and month's worth of forum posts and stuff from my various net activities. Still playing catch up on those by the way...

Like a week or so after getting the comp back, so began the packing adventure. Yep... Packing for... MOVING! Let me tell ya, I was not as organized this move. I dunno what went wrong or where I dropped the ball.. But much of the packing took place the last week and some still on moving days. It was crazy! And then setting up utilities I guess was later than usual (I can't remember when I started them last two moves). As a result, we are sans gas (stove and hot water) for a few more days...and we've been here since Thurday night already!

Had to hire movers. Note to self: make more male friends.... It was steeper than planned.. but without them I dunno how we woulda done it all without being exhausted ten times worse than we were and with broken backs... Though, we took a couple casualties... Two TV carts broke. Mom's is functional.. Mine was shot. Thank GOD I packed my VCR and DVD player and didn't leave them in the cart... But they seran wrapped everything... made comps and desks they sat on all one movable unit.. no unhooking things or packing needed.. it was great for "unpacking" when we got there.

Ditched the massive fridge we've had for years. To tall and too wide to fit in most places.. Mom was too tired to care. So we left it outside and gave it away. We're using the land lady's fridge for now. We really don't need the huge one anymore anyway...

Moving days, the strays kept coming around for food... but like early on the food got packed up and lost in the shuffle. So all they got was dry food. Tweezy and Tigger figured out they could get food from neighbor on the end. She has a cat and a dog already but she practically adopted Bandit (formerly known as Tweedledee). And she feeds the strays too. So I'm not worried... Did feel bad about Jacob though. Maybe I'll write a letter to the asshat who only sorta owns him now. I know his address after all... That or give SoCal's Humaine Society a jingle.

Thursday we moved most of the stuff... Mom made a few trips solo on Friday while I waited around for cable guy to arrive and finish up... >.< I mean I unloaded for her but still she hefted up ALOT on her own...After we unloaded her second trip's worth, we took off for one last load. Odds and ends that fit really ackwardly. But they DID fit. I cleaned up (vacuum only cuz mopping fluid got packed :P ) and then we took our last hot showers... We like just left the keys in the apartment and left :P

Oh! and we found this four wheel flat bed cart thingie the movers were looking for in the bushes. :P We kept it... Cost of damages. :P

Anywho... We're moved in... Happy... Tired, but happy... Unpacking adventure begins tomorrow while Mom's working. :)