UNPREDICTABLE

Mother Nature must be going through the change. Today we are in the high 60s and guess what, later this week, the highs will only be in the 20s and a chance for snow. YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME???? Talk about your mood swings….. :-)

Thanksgiving was splendid. We had a great time at David and Debbie’s house. The food was great and the company was pleasant. Laughter was bountiful and plentiful. Nothing like getting all of us together and laughing until we cry. Seriously though, trying to watch a movie with them is hopeless. Everyone talking at the same time, people asking questions about what is going on, rewinding the movie more than once. My advice, save the movie for another day and watch the football games instead.

We decided to do some holiday shopping. Yes, we braved the “After Thanksgiving” shoppers. However, there weren’t any crowds to our delight. It was nice to enjoy our time out with the holiday season in full swing and to get our decorations up, well, at least the decorations we didn’t have all packed up in storage. :-) We also met with our builder over the weekend and went over some of the designs for our house. We have attached a few more pictures of the construction. They are putting a “hip” roof on our house. Should be interesting. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Thanksgiving

To honor this week’s holiday, this Blog is dedicated to what we are thankful for.

We are thankful for God’s presence in our life. For the peace we have each and every day and for all the blessings He has given to us through the year.

We are thankful for our family. You all have stayed true to your beliefs, always spoke your mind, never took any grief from anyone and, if necessary, fought your battles to remain faithful to your own standards and principles. Time after time, our families have proven that there are few people as selfless and generous as they are.

We are thankful for our friends. We have fantastic friends. They are smart, witty, interesting and compassionate. For the most part, we have known many of them for years. We realize how rare that is and we are thankful to have all of them be a part of our past, present and future.

So on this day of turkey (or pumpkin pie) consumption and watching football with our family and friends, we hope you all remember how grateful and blessed you all are (we know we do) SMILES. May we all remember to reach out and lend a hand to someone in need during this holiday season and may we all remember to be appreciative for our health, family and friendships.

God bless you all this Thanksgiving Day!

P.S. Here are the latest pictures from our construction.

Elizabeth standing in the dining room :-)

Tranquility

This past weekend, Kevin and I drove down to our lake property to view our new house. (attached are a few pictures). As you can see some progress has been made. The picture of Kevin is of him standing in what will be our bedroom. As the temperature dips and the days are growing shorter, life and events are changing rapidly for us. We wish our house was completely finished and we were sitting on our deck in front of a crackling fire overlooking the lake. Instead we are thinking about the rapidly approaching holidays and learning (trying) to be patient. When we first started looking for a new house to buy, the lake property kind of fell into our lap. We found it by "accident." In our minds, however, it was meant to be. This property reminds us of Canada and we feel right at home. This property and lake offers a serenity that is unmatched, a landscape that is beautiful beyond words, and has a refreshingly tranquil environment. We believe it was an ideal location to build our home so that we can unwind at the day's end. Now you might understand why we are so anxious to move.

On Saturday, as we stood on our property taking in the view, we both took in a deep breath of the crisp November day, and thanked God that we can still extract joy from the simple things in life and that our future is as bright as the star-lit skies on a Fall night in Kansas or Canada (smiles).

Life and Its Curves

Today marks the first day of my Blog. I will be posting about my favorite subject, health, but also about the status of our new house and other events that are taking place in our life. Hope you enjoy.

Now on to my very first post. Enjoy. :-)

Do you wonder why life throws us fast balls? curves? Why aren't there ever any slow balls? SMILES...... Because we all need to learn some lessons. Don't you think?

Well, I'm starting to get back into the cheerful mode of my old-self. It sure has taken awhile. I'm still not 100% there, but I am definitely heading in the right direction. I think perhaps the reason that I let myself get down was because of all the drastic changes in our life of late (selling our house, moving, helping out with charitable events, traveling, building a new home, etc.). More than anything, I want to be in our new house but know I have to be patient, just like being on any wellness program. Things just don't happen over night and I have to keep reminding myself that I have come so far already.

With that being said, I have learned that getting beyond the difficult challenges will require persistence and diligence and the thing to do is to keep going. I have to keep looking forward. When I am not sure where to start, the thing to do is to find some action (something) that will move me forward towards my goals. Even if I start slowly, it is much better than falling further behind. When I didn't know how to continue, the thing I needed to do was to focus on the next effort or step. The more diligently I worked on my efforts/steps, the more good and valuable options I could see opening up to me and WHAAAALAAAAA, I'm starting to feel better again.

Whatever may come your way, the thing to do is to make the most of all that you have to work with and every moment will move you closer to where you want to go. So start kicking some serious butt. NOW is the time for YOU to start focusing on YOU..... You deserve to take care of yourself.... Whatever you do, don't give up. Give it all you have and feel better about yourself. And better yet, throw those curve balls right back! SMILES.