Thankful Wednesday (?) Pre-Trip Edition

 

I'm posting a day ahead of time because I'm driving all day tomorrow and I'm not sure what my schedule will look like.

This week I'm thankful for:

1. I was able to get mom to Shrove Tuesday pancakes at church last night. She really enjoyed being with friends and kept saying we should do this more than once a year :o)

2. I got reports submitted for work. Sometimes the portal I have to submit things through is temperamental, but it worked pretty well this time. Thankful the portal worked AND that the reports are done.

3. We played a really beautiful bell piece on Sunday.

4. The Olympics, again. I love watching every day and will miss them when they are over.

5. The ice might finally be melting? Today, a month to the day of the snow/ice storm, and I was finally able to shovel my deck and open my backdoor all the way.

6. I'm off for a week and a half to go visit family and friends. Perks of only working part time, is that I'm only taking 3 days off work to be off 12 days :oP

7. Luna is doing great post-op. Acting like her normal self and even countersurfing a bag of flour lol.

Thankful Friday, Olympics Edition

 Yesterday got away from me because work was a little crazy. So here's a thankful Thursday on a Friday!

I'm thankful for: 

1. The Olympics! I absolutely love watching the Olympics. I watched the opening ceremonies last week with Garth, Karen and Kate, and I've been watching the games all week. So far my favorites are figure skating, snowboard cross, halfpipe and curling. The downhill is so cool but terrifying when people crash out. 

2. Crafting during the Olympics. I'm not great at watching TV for long periods without doing something with my hands, so I craft a lot during the Olympics every 2 years. So far I've painted a bunch of small doll houses to make a little village to display on my shelf. Next up is earrings and scrapbooking.

3. Luna came through her surgery well! She had a tooth extracted today, and also had her teeth cleaned and her back end x-rayed while she was under. X-rays are clear (she's been guarding a leg recently, just wanted to make sure nothing was going on), broken tooth is out, and we are waiting on biopsy results from a mole they removed on her lip. She's a little woozy but doing great. 

4. A great vet. They took the time to answer all my questions and called twice with updates while she was having her procedures.

5. Lots of patient friends that endured lots of texts from me today as I was a nervous dog mom. I have LOTS of good friends, and had several group chats going about pet parent anxiety. We love our fur babies.

6. My church has a new pastor and we installed him last Saturday. In the Presbyterian church, we call pastors and then 2-3 months after they start, have a formal service of installation and a big celebration. It was great to celebrate pastor Joshua and meet some of the important people in his life. 

Thankful Thursday, Snowcrete edition

 This week I am thankful for:

1. A small amount of snow clearing. A couple of days above freezing let me chisel out my trashcan and some more neighbors were able to shovel their sidewalks. I even saw MoCo blocking some lanes of 355 by the church today to use bulldozers to move ice off the roads and sidewalk. Small wins!

2. I got hang out with my cousin Stephanie on Saturday. She's in town from California visiting her dad and cleaning out a storage unit. We had fun talking for several hours over lunch and then the assortment of things we found in the storage unit, including fun family photos.

3. My girl scout troop. We prepared for thinking day on Sunday with crafts and learning about Madagascar. I'm excited to camp with them again in April too.

4. I finally got an electrician to my house. The company that does my HVAC also does electrical and plumbing, and they do free annual inspections. I had gotten rescheduled 3 times previously, and so it was nice to finally get someone out to look at things. Bonus- I also can now put all the boxes back in my closet where my electrical panel is!

5. My knee is getting better! Almost 3 months to the day when I over-hiked in November, I can do more in PT with little to no pain. YAY! Still more strengthening to be done, but this is huge progress.

6. Plans to see family in South Carolina at the end of the month. Vacations are joyous even before they begin- I always like having something to look forward to.

Thankful Thursday, Hoth Edition

 

It is SO cold. Here are some things I'm thankful for!

1. So far I have kept power. There was a decent chance we were going to get freezing rain during last weekend's storm, and the one thing I was worried about was losing power when the temperature was in the single digits. 

2. I managed to chisel out my car on Monday. It took over 2 hours, but I think if I had waited any longer it would have been permanently iced into until this mess thaws someday.

3. Snow storms are pretty. After all the prep leading up to the storm, I loved just watching it snow and sleet. Luna was not a fan of walking in the storm, but it was fun to listen to all snuggled in bed.

4. My in-person work meeting got moved from Tuesday to Thursday. This made it much easier to get into the office, and it meant I could stay for our office warming party. Win-win!

5. Board game birthday party for Elisa last Friday night, with our tradition of playing Settlers. Baa thump!

6. I got some more LOE allocated to a work project.

7. Read 2 more good books. Castle in the Sky (Howl's Moving Castle #2) and The Bakers Secret (WWII fiction). 

Thankful Thursday, Snow prep edition

 Happy Thursday folks!

This week I'm thankful for: 

1. I was able to see a close family friend in the hospital last week. For a while it looked like circumstances were conspiring against us, but we made it work. Vague-booking on purpose.

2. I'm over my food poisoning. Holy crow, did I eat something last weekend that angered my tummy. Possible culprits were raw cookie dough (most likely), tacos (relatively unlikely, I've been to that taco place a bunch), or a burger (also unlikely because it was well done, but I've never eaten there before). I was down for the count Sunday through Tuesday, and only began to slightly feel normal yesterday. Let's... not do that again, eh?

3. Good books! I finished 'The Other Americans' by Laila Lalami and 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama this week and both were excellent. I've now started 'Castle in the Sky' by Diana Wynne Jones and its a fun read so far.

4. Incoming snow! I am so excited we might get some good snow this weekend. Less excited for the potential of ice, but we'll see what happens. I braved Costco today because I am insane, so I have yummy food for a while.

5. A successful work presentation on Wednesday. Sometimes presenting virtually over Teams can be bumpy, but I think this went well and we had a good discussion.

Thankful Thursday, 2 weeks into 2026

 

There's a lot going on and the world feels like it's on fire, but I'm still searching for the big and small ways to be grateful.

1. Luna. My fast-acting, non-aspirin pain reliever. I gave her a bath this week and all day I kept exclaiming, you're so fluffy!!

2. Some mild weather to get a few outdoors things done. We had a couple days of January thaw earlier this week, which helped me cut up and move a branch in my yard without freezing to death. Now? Currently the feels like is 9, which leads me to...

3. Central heat and warm blankets- mainstays of January in the mid-Atlantic.

4. A good visit with my mom yesterday. Alzheimer's makes things like visits and plans very apt to change, so it was nice to bring Luna over and just chat for an hour.

5. A very fun dinner at Carol and David's house Monday evening, getting to know some people better including our new pastor Joshua!

Thankful Thursday, I mean Friday

 I'm a day late, oops!

This week I'm thankful for:

1. Warmer weather. I squeezed in a quick hike with Luna late yesterday afternoon, and we saw a fox. And it barked at us! Once Luna saw it, she of course barked back :)

2. PT for my knee. I over-hiked in November and my knee has been a little angry at me since then. I'm glad I can get some PT so I can continue hiking and dancing without hurting it.

3. Catching up with friends. I finally was able to catch up with my friend Joanna last week, and I miss her so much. It's lovely to have friends that we can just pick up where we left off even if we haven't seen each other in a while.

4. Movie night with local friends last week. Elisa, Alexandra and I watched American President in honor/memory of Rob Riener.

5. An easy week back to work after the holidays. It was nice to just be able to write and not have a lot of meetings this week.

6. Drawing. I'm doing birbfest, which is drawing a bird each day of January, and I'm really enjoying it!