The count down has begun

For months I have been waiting to get ready for Christmas, planning what we will eat and do while my friend Anita and her family are here staying with us. I have been so excited and anxious for them to come. Preston has asked me if I think of anything else. Well, sometimes I do. So over Thanksgiving weekend I started getting some of my Christmas decorations up, bought a few gifts and was thinking I was doing pretty well.

Then yesterday it really hit me - I have two and a half weeks before they get here!! I still have more decorations to put up, lots more gifts to purchase, a bathroom to paint, towels and rugs to get, drapes to make, a house to clean, Christmas cards to send, presents to wrap, food to cook, and gifts to finish making. What have I been thinking? Needless to say I don't have time to blog!

Just a few more things I'm thankful for

Since it is the last day of November, I figured I should finish my blogs on things I'm thankful for and unfortunately, or maybe you think it is fortunate, I haven't been able to list anywhere near all the things I'm thankful for. So here are a few other things.

I'm thankful for a desire and love to learn and sense of curiosity that keeps me learning. I love to read about anything, study maps, watch educational shows, listen to NPR, learn a new craft, make something new, do logic or Sudko puzzles, or have great conversations with interesting people. Thanks mom for instilling a desire to learn in me.

I am so thankful for strawberries! I just love when spring comes and so does strawberry season. Ever since I was a little girl I have just loved those sweet, plump, juicy berries. I think more than half of all the birthday cakes I have ever had (and that is quite a few) have had some kind of strawberries on them or in them. I'm very lucky that my birthday is in the middle of strawberry season.

Is there anything better than clouds? I'm so thankful for those fluffy, billowy clumps of water vapor that give us something to look at in the sky. I'm thankful for the days I laid in the grass, on a deck or in a field and spent hours looking for shapes in them. I love to look out of an
airplane or car window and gaze at them and fanticize what it would be like to bounce on them. I'm thankful for the endless changes clouds bring to the sky.

Another thing I'm so thankful for is rain. I think that living in a place where we only get 7 inch of that precious liquid a year has helped. But is there anything more fun than playing in the rain when you were a kid? Or running to the car when the sky has opened up and you are drenched by the time you take two steps? I love having it wake me up in the middle of the night and the cloudy days that bring of promise of it. I especially am thankful for the wonderful smell that fills the air and the cleansing effect it has and of course the delight of seeing a rainbow afterwards.
I think I'm just thankful for anything that falls from the sky because I'm also thankful for snow. I really miss beening able to look out of my house to see snow on the ground. I loved waking up to the surprise of a few inches of snow and hearing that school was cancelled for the day. Snow makes the whole world slow down, become quiet, take a break, and play.

I am so thankful for the beauty it brings to the mountains and I thrill every time I go skiing and look and the beauty around me. I'm thankful to have shared so many delightful days skiing and playing in the snow with my children. Even when some of those days included be in a blizzard, it just added to the adventure and excitement of seeing snow.

At this time of year, I just want to remember all of the things I'm thankful for; a healthy body, many opportunities to have seen this beautiful world, friends who have helped me, cheered for me, set great examples for me and comforted me, family who has enriched my life and made it so wonderful and especially for a husband who is my best friend and still makes me laugh. I am truely blessed!

More things I'm thankful for...

I am so thankful for waterfalls!! I love them!! I have and would gladly walk miles and miles for the chance to see or play in a waterfall. God really created a thing of beauty when He created waterfalls. Here are a few of my favorite waterfalls.

Mt. Timpanogos, Utah

Another one on Timpanogos

Juno, Alaska

Alaska

Waimea Canyon, Hawaii

And one of my favorite place in the world Havasupi, here are three of the falls there.

Mooney Falls
Navajo Falls

Havasupi Falls

The only thing I wish was that I was a better swimmer so I felt comfortable swimming in, behind and through the waterfalls. But I am contented just watching the never ending flow of water fall from above and glisten and dance on its way down to the bottom. I am thankful for the many places I have been able to travel and hike to to see these beautiful falls. Maybe some day I will make it to Victoria Falls!

I'm thankful for sunsets

Another thing I'm thankful for are sunsets. I love watching the sun go down and the sky change from light to pastel to darkness. There isn't anything more calming and peaceful than watching the sun go down, especially over a body of water. It does make you realize how fast this world really is spinning though.

Here are a few of my favorite sunsets. Of course, the ones I have pictures of are the ones when I'm on vacation. Luckily, I live in Arizona where spectacular sunsets are almost a daily occurance. Unfortunately, I don't take the time to look at them every day or take pictures of them.

The North SeaKauai
Mexico

Hawaii Hawaii The Netherlands Aren't they beautiful?
I think they are God's way of telling us He loves us and yes, you made it through another day.

Things I'm thankful for con't

I am really thankful for flowers. I love the variety there is, the colors, smells, sizes and the way they can take your breath away. I love seeing a whole field of them like I did in the Netherlands this summer or when the blue bonnets bloomed in Texas or when you are hiking in the spring and they just surprise you as you walk over a hill. I just love their color and contrast to the rest of the world.
I think my favorite are roses and I have worked for years in different houses to grow roses. I love the feel of their petals, the wide variety of colors and of course their smell.

My second favorite flower has to be pansies. Like Meg Ryan said in You've Got Mail, "I just think they are happy flowers." While she was talking about daisies, I think pansies are happy flowers, plus they are hardy. They can with stand a freeze and even some of our heat. I'm thankful for their bright colors and the contrast between their centers and the outer part of their petals. They never fail to make me happy when I look at them and they add beauty wherever they are planted.

I am thankful God created a never ending source of beauty in flowers.

Things I'm thankful for

We all know that the month of November is suppose to remind us of all we are thankful for, so I thought I would share some of the things I am thankful for. Now I could list health, family, friends, etc. and I am thankful for all those things, but I thought I would let you know of some of the little things that I love.
One thing I love and am very thankful for are Gala apples, especially crisp juicy ones. I love taking one in my lunch and biting into it and eating it while I visit with my friends. I love Gala apples because they are a little bit tart and a little bit sweet - just right. I love their crispness and I like the color varieties in them - from almost completely yellow with a few red stripes to almost completely red with a few yellow stripes. That apple just makes my day.

Maybe Garth and I are getting old

You have to have an idea that you are getting old when:

Garth gets all the bills ready to mail and forgets to put stamps on them. Then I take them all to the mailbox and don't even notice they don't have stamps and mail them all.

I go out of my way to buy my mom a birthday card and then promptly forget all about it and don't send it.

Garth puts out the wrong garbage cans on trash day and neither of us notice until we come home that night. Our neighbors must really wonder about us.

Last weekend a friend calls and ask Garth to play golf. Terry books the tee time and takes Garth to an executive course in a retirement community and Garth can't even win on a bunch of par threes. But Terry left one golf shoe in the golf cart and didn't notice until they got home, at least Garth hasn't done that yet.

Finally, I take Garth's pants to the cleaners, fill out my information and proceed to walk out the door and get in my car. The cleaner had to chase me down to get the pants back because I had carried them to the car with me.

Yikes, I'm not even 50 yet, what will I be like in a couple more years! All of these only happened in the last week.

To every season, turn, turn, turn...

The Byrds told and we all know that the seasons are suppose to turn or change, but this year I think we are in perpetual summer. I know that it is suppose to be fall. The calendar says it is fall and last night was Halloween, but we had little girls come trick-or-treating in skimpy strapless ballerina costumes and not even shiver.
I saw trees with their leaves changing three weeks ago in Ohio so why on November 1st did I have to turn my air conditioner on by 10:00 am? And by 3:00 the thermometer in my car read 92.

Every day I check the weather forecast for Phoenix hoping to see the temperatures drop. Every week the weather man plays to our sympathies and dangles hope in front of us that by the end of the week we will have highs in the 80's. But by the end of the week the forecast is revised and we are still in the 90's!

After seven months of blistering heat you would think we could have some cool weather in November! This is suppose to be the time of year where we get a reprieve from the heat and can gloat about our beautiful weather and be rewarded for living through another summer. It continues to make you wonder why we live in this desert.