Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Thankful Mondays’ Category

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday blog post!

Today, I’m thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful for life!  Life is a gift and an amazing one!  I’m thankful for my life and all of the lives around me and every single day, hour, minute, and second that these lives encompass!
2. I’m thankful for the chance to celebrate my friend Dana’s marriage to her new husband Evan.  They hosted a small party on Saturday to celebrate and I got to meet and talk to so many wonderful and interesting people.  I’m wishing Dana and Evan a lifetime of love and happiness!
3. Although it gets old and I don’t like it, I am grateful for all of the rain we had last week and this weekend.  Its good to know that our area is very healthy this year when it comes to rainfall and water levels.
4. I’m thankful that I married into a fun and loving family.  Last night we had dinner with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law and the meal was filled with great conversation and delicious food. I’m so lucky to love and enjoy the people in my family, both by marriage and by blood!
5. Again, I’m thankful for life!  I just can’t say it enough!

Have a wonderful week!

Good morning and happy thankful Monday!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful to be back home with my husband and kitties after a week away in Reston for training.  I missed them alot and being away from them always makes my heart grow fonder! <3
2. I’m thankful to my work for giving me the opportunity to attend a really informative and well-done Learning Tree course last week on web development.  I learned so much and got to check out Reston, an area I had never been to.  My hotel and training center were in Reston Town Center, a really cool place if you ever have the opportunity to check it out.  The whole experience was wonderful and I’m really grateful to my work for paying for the trip and giving me the opportunity to learn!
3. I’m thankful that I got to see my yaya Cris last week.  She lives in Northern Virginia and since I was there for training, we hung out Thursday night and went to Mister Days with some of her friends.  I had a great time and was soooo happy I got to catch up with her!
4. I’m thankful for date days/nights with my husband!  Yesterday, we went to see Gravity with free movie tickets I had and then we had lunch together at one of our favorite places, Sticks Kebob Shop.  The movie was really good but caused me alot of anxiety…if you see it, you’ll know what I mean!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for a healthier me.  In the past 7 weeks, I’ve worked really hard and lost 14.5 pounds!  I’m at my lowest and healthiest weight since 2007 and I am motivated and excited to lose more!

Have a great week!

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday post.

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m very grateful that my work is sending me to a 4-day training course covering ASP.NET, web application development, JQuery Mobile, and many other tools and technologies.  Since I have no formal training in web development (everything I know, I taught myself or learned from coworkers), I think this class is going to greatly benefit me!  Thanks to my job for the wonderful opportunity!
2. I’m thankful for good friends!  Over the past week, I was able to spend a lot of time with great friends.  Last Wednesday, I went to the free beer tasting at Market Street Wine Shop with Sarah and my friend Marian who I hadn’t seen in months.  Then Marian, her daughter Katie, and I checked out the new Livery Stable for dinner.  I also got to spend a wonderful evening drinking wine, eating Lindsey’s homemade chili, enjoying music, and watching the sunset at Carter Mountain Orchard‘s Sunset Series.  It was great to hang out with Sarah, Ian, Lindsey, Greg, and their family!  Then Saturday, we got to hang out with my friend Becky and her family at the race we participated in.  To top it all off, we had lunch with Robert and Crystal at Olive Garden on Saturday!  What a wonderful week filled with great friends!
3. I’m thankful that a lot of important people in my life have made it through surgeries safely lately.  My dad and some friends have had recent surgeries and though they are still recovering, I’m very grateful they made it through risky medical procedures and are on the mend.
4. I’m thankful for the opportunity to help raise money for a little girl in need.  Saturday, Ben and I ran the Benefit 5K for Shiloh Thompson.  It was a really fun race with great prizes and they had a skydiver show at the end of the race where we got to watch 3 skydivers jump from a plane and land in the neighborhood where the race took place.  Ben even won 4th place in the race and 1st place in his age group!  Most importantly, it was great to help a little girl in need and her family!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for a close family.  My brother got to go to Houston for his birthday this weekend and even though I wasn’t there to help him celebrate, I’m very happy that the rest of my family was there to help him enjoy his birthday weekend!

Have a wonderful week!

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday blog post!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful that I got to watch the Houston Texans game on TV here even if they did lose against the Baltimore Ravens.  Very rarely do they show the Texans games here but since they were playing a team that is based not too far from where I live, the game was shown on CBS.
2. I’m thankful for winning the Big Greasy Office Pool last week!  I’ve played the last two years and never won, but last week, I had the most accurate NFL picks for the week and won a $30 McGrady’s Gift Certificate, a Wild Wolf Brewery Prize Pack, a Gift Pack from Century Link, a $30 University Dive & Hobby Center Gift Card, and 4 passes to the Virginia Chili Brews n’ Brews Festival in Waynesboro!  Sarah, Ben, and I went to the Chili Cookoff/Festival on Saturday and even though it rained, we had a blast and tasted some interesting chili!
3. I’m thankful that my husband is so handy and seems to have fixed our TV!  With everything that we’ve had break in the past couple of months, it’s nice that there is something that seems to have been an easy fix (fingers crossed it is actually fixed and will stay that way)!
4. I’m thankful for the opportunity to start mentoring at Computers 4 Kids again.  I’ve mentored two students in the past and had taken a break during wedding planning and house searching but now I am ready for student number 3!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for the cooler weather.  Although I’m not crazy about the shorter days and it getting dark earlier, I am loving the cooler weather, especially with two broken AC units!

Have a great week!

Good morning and happy Monday!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for a healthy body and strong legs that allowed me to have a wonderful 6.2 mile run on Saturday morning in support of the Special Olympics.  Ben, Sarah, and I ran the Gene Arnold Memorial Special Olympics Pepsi 10K.  The weather was beautiful, the temperature was perfect, and the company was great!  And we got to catch up with our friend Jamie who we hadn’t see in a long time!  My time was an hour, 4 minutes, and 53 seconds which I think is pretty great!
2. I’m also thankful for free tickets to the Charlottesville Top of the Hops Beer Festival.  Ben and I went the previous 2 years and had a blast but we decided not to go this year because tickets are pretty expensive.  Well last week, I won tickets on Facebook from Champion Brewing Company, one of the newer local breweries, so we were able to go for free.  We had a great time together, tasted some amazing beers, saw a lot of friends at the festival, and even tried a new restaurant, Now & Zen, for some delicious sushi!
3. I’m grateful for my in-laws and the endless supply of fresh eggs and homegrown vegetables they give us.  This weekend, they sent us home with 3 dozen eggs laid by their chickens, basil, salad greens, and beans.
4. I’m thankful for such a hard working husband.  Ben works hard as a programmer every day and then comes home and spends hours taking care of our yard, house, plants, and cats.  And he always finds time to workout too!  He is my superman!
5. I’m grateful to get the chance to see good friends for dinner tomorrow night at the Tavern on the James!

BONUS:  I’m thankful the Texans won yesterday!  I didn’t get to watch the game because it wasn’t shown here, but I hear it was a close game ending in overtime!  Go Texans!

Have a great week!

Good morning and happy Thankful Monday!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for beautiful weather this weekend that allowed me to spend a great deal of time enjoying the outdoors.  I’m especially grateful for this since the weather will soon be turning cooler and the days are already getting shorter.  My husband and I enjoyed the weather by running several miles and doing lots of productive yard work.
2. I’m thankful for a wonderful and amazing massage I got at Oasis Day Spa & Body Shop and I’m also so grateful for the gift certificate that my sister-in-law sister and brother-in-law gave me for Christmas.  I’ve been saving it for a special occasion and I decided to treat myself as a reward for losing 9 pounds on Friday.  The massage was great and they worked out several crazy knots I didn’t even know I had!
3. I’m thankful for the chance to support a great cause on Sunday by running the inaugural 9/11 Heroes Run on the University of Virginia grounds.  The race was in support of the Travis Manion Foundation which supports our nations veterans and service members and their families.  This race is especially close to the hearts of firefighters and rescue squad members, like my father-in-law (who told us about the race and has been an active rescue squad member/firefighter for over 3 decades), because the race benefits first responders and service members like Travis Manion for whom the foundation is named.
4.  I’m thankful for a new phone!  There are probably more important things to be thankful for, but sometimes you’ve just got to focus on the simple things.  I’m very thankful that Verizon shipped me a new phone for free(thanks to my foresight in choosing to pay for phone insurance) especially since last week we had 2 broken air conditioning units, Ben’s broken car, my broken phone, and a leak in our bathtub.  My old phone had been acting up for months and continued to get worse and worse so a new phone that, so far, works seamlessly is a blessing!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for the opportunity this week to get together with some of my old friends from VGT and catch up.  A VGT Girl’s Night Out has been long overdue!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Labor Day!  I hope everyone is enjoying a day off and if you’re working today, thank you for your hard work!

Today I’m thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful for a day off.  So far, I’ve enjoyed Labor Day by making breakfast, going for a 5 mile run with my husband, and doing laundry.  This evening we’re going to cook-out with my in-laws for dinner.
2. I’m thankful for a good friend and his expertise regarding HVACs.  Our friend Robert has helped us diagnose broken coils/leaks in two of our air conditioning units and he is hopefully going to help us fix them which will save us alot of money.  I’m very thankful for the time and effort he has put in to help us.
3. I’m grateful for my health.  I recently quit taking a medication I’ve been on for nearly a decade and it looks like a side effect of that combined with exercise and a healthy diet is finally helping me to lose weight.  I’m at my lowest weight since 2007 and feel great!
4. I’m thankful for a short week at work.  One of the great things about a 3 day weekend is a 4 day week!
5. I’m thankful for the labor of everyone throughout history who we should remember today on Labor Day.

Have a great week!

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Thankful Monday blog post!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend the wedding of Scott and Shelly this past weekend and share in their special day as well as getting to hang out with so many awesome people who I don’t get to see often enough.  Scott and Shelly threw a beautiful and amazing wedding and the weather was perfect for the outdoor ceremony and reception.  I’m so happy for them and am thankful they allowed me to celebrate with them on Saturday.
2. I’m so grateful for a husband that knows what is important to me and accompanies me to events even when I know he’d rather be doing something else.  Ben attended the third wedding of the summer with me (1 in June, 1 in July, and 1 in August) and they were all for my friends or family members.  He’s a pretty strong introvert so I know going to these big social gatherings takes alot out of him.  I’m just so thankful that he realizes how important it is for me to attend and how thankful I am for him to be there with me.
3. I recently stopped taking a medication that I’ve been taking for over ten years and I am so happy and grateful to report that I feel a thousand times better both mentally and physically!  I was especially worried that the side effects and coming off a medication I’d been on for so long would be adverse so I am very thankful that the side effects have been virtually non-existent.  I feel so good that I wish I had stopped taking it years ago!
4. I’m thankful for wonderful friends!  After the past week and weekend of spending time with awesome people, I look around and realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by these amazing friends.  I’m so happy to have them all in my life!
5. I’m thankful for a successful surgery for my dad.  He had back surgery recently to remove a very painful cyst he had on his back for a long time.  He seems to be recovering quickly and successfully and I’m so grateful for that!

Have a great week!

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday blog post!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to see The Book of Mormon musical with my friends Cris and Carolyn at the Kennedy Center on Friday.  Thanks to all of us working together, the plans for the night turned out great!  I’m cherishing these little trips right now as once I have kids they will be fewer and far between.  The play was hilarious and the Kennedy Center was a beautiful venue!  What a great night!
2. I’m thankful for the generosity from my sister-in-law’s dad.  He was cleaning out a storage unit this weekend and gave us several items that homeowners would need including a shop-vac and a miter saw!  I’m so grateful for his generosity and the future spending he has saved us!
3. I’m thankful for family.  Sunday, we had lunch with my in-laws to celebrate my nephew’s 20th birthday.  It was nice to spend time with the whole family and enjoy my mother-in-law’s awesome lunch, including her famous coconut raspberry cake!  She and I also made bacon wrapped figs using the figs from our fig tree.
4. I’m thankful for the cooler weather we’ve been having.  Our air conditioner has been broken so the cooler weather in August has been a blessing!
5. I’m thankful for a fresh start this Monday!

Have a great week!

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Thankful Monday post!  Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful to live in a city where you are almost always guaranteed to run into people you know.  Some may not consider this a good thing, but I love it!  Friday, while hanging out with my friend Kristen, I ran into Kevin, Dolly, Tracy, Wendy, Stephanie, Carolyn, and many other awesome folks!  It felt good to see so many friends!
2. I’m thankful for great in-laws who spent their entire Sunday helping to fix up our condo so that we can hopefully get it rented soon.
3. I’m thankful for a nice dinner last Monday at Guadalajara with good friends and their kids.  It’s always great to see my old friends from Albemarle County and their kiddos are growing so fast!
4. I’m thankful for a restful weekend.  After being out of town for the last three weekends, I was so grateful to have a travel-free weekend.  I did do alot of work around our house, yard, and condo, but it was still nice not to have to spend a significant part of the weekend traveling.
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for hope.  I won’t say what it is, but I’ve recently taken some steps to help myself and this action gives me hope for the future.

Have a great week!