Cupcakes, Flowers and Pickled Okra

Today was a fun Valentines Day before the Valentines Day. Lisa brought cupcakes with the cutest heart doilies on them. Normally I hate hearts and I hate doilies, but somehow the combination of the heart and the doilie is a winner. My parents sent me flowers...lovely! And my friend Danny brought me pickled okra. Yum (but random)! It made for the most eclectic Valentines Day yet..and it beats the socks off any old romantic Valentines Day. Thanks guys!

New hair day and Dog dreams

Today is the day I get to get my hair cut (and colored...but shhh don't tell anybody). I always look forward to this day for a couple of reasons: 1. I am so shaggy by the time I actually get to Shannon's chair its just sad (exhibit a: I actually let someone I didn't know cut my hair two weeks ago it was so bad and Shannon couldn't get me in sooner) 2. I rather enjoy the scalp massage that comes along with the shampooing 3. I love to talk to Shannon and I don't mind paying her to be my friend for a couple of hours (haha) 4. When else am I going to have time to catch up on my celebrity gossip magazine reading?

On a different note...do dogs have dreams? Discuss. (Did you just have a flashback from SNL and Coffee Talk because I just did.) My Jack woke up in the middle of the night and woke me up because he was frantically pacing on the bed. Then he laid down horizontally on the pillows and stuck his nose up under my cheek. He was breathing really hard and just seemed unsettled, so of course I started petting him. That seemed to calm him down and then he let out a big sigh and moved back down to the bottom of the bed. He's such a big baby, but I this is unusual behavior even for him. I don't know what scared him but best I can come up with is a nightmare. Maybe he dreamed they stopped selling WagginTrain bones at the grocery. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed the unexpected snuggle.

Today I am thankful for dog dreams that get me unexpected snuggles in the night and I am thankful that in a couple of hours I am going to look like a brand new person...I'm sure of it.

My dad and crab legs

I love watching my dad eat crablegs. For him, it should be a sport...he loves it that much. Maybe that's where I get my love of food...hmmmm..... You should know that this man is unemotional. Doesn't get overly mad about things. Doesn't get overly excited about things. Except. Crablegs. Lucky for him (but unlucky for Browns) it is all-you-can-eat-crableg month. For $18 you can have a whole plate of crableg goodness plus butter...and catfish (but who would want to fill up on catfish?). We went last night and I watched him delve into his crableg sport with joy. Like any good sportsman, he has a system. Nothing but crablegs on the plate, other things like shrimp in a seperate bowl, seperate dish for melted butter, crableg cracker in one hand, small crableg fork in close proximity, napkins distributed around the plate (to gather the butter drippings) and a HUGE stack of napkins. Much like chip and dip, there is an exact science to getting the napkin to crableg ratio even. Too many napkins left, must get another plate of crablegs (you have to have some respect for the environment!). The only hazard to his sport is the napkin lint. When you use the napkin too much and get too much juice on it, it kinda shreds. And it leaves peices on your face. But that's ok, because that's when you know you've really enjoyed your sport. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching him. Today I am thankful for my dad and crab legs.

Being ok

I'm behind in blogging...or I'm ahead in being one of the worst bloggers ever contest...depends on how you look at it. Its just been so hard lately to find anything to be thankful for (except food and I felt I had already exhausted the number of times per week that I could be thankful for a food item). I guess I was kind of in a funk, but now I'm ok. And I'm back to being thankful!

Most of the reason I have been in a funk and something I have battled all of my life is other's opinions of me. I let other's judgemental words affect how I feel about myself...the careless, angry, harsh words seep in and stew until somewhere in my brain something clicks and (here's the ludicrous part) I actually believe them. I do believe there is a time and a place to take constuctive criticism because we cannot always see ourselves in an accurate light, but I ALWAYS take them. After taking all of these opinions in year after year, I was starting to feel a bit crazy...especially because most opinions that come from multiple others contain conflicting information (you're great, but thoughtless, no you're thoughtful, but selfish, giving, but too quiet, too opinionated, but maybe you could be just a little less opinionated in case a,b or c, too fun, not fun enough). Most people who are were giving these opinions are not even people who really care about me. I got to a place that I didn't even know who I was supposed to be day to day.

But lately, because of many prayers, kind words from a couple of friends and a few extinuating circumstances, I know that I am ok in spite of these opinions. I am immune to all of this information. Lets face it, others are always going to be judgemental and say harsh things. Someone told me lately that I can't feel bad about myself for something that someone else is doing. I pledge to only feel bad about myself when I know that I am doing something that doesn't fit within my moral boundaries or when I know that I have hurt someone because I was careless. That's all...otherwise I think that I have turned into a pretty great person. Today I am thankful that I am ok and that the sun shines in my life again. I am happy.

Its the most wonderful time of the year

Today I helped a friend decorate the church for Christmas. This friend is very good at decorating and I have been wanting to "help" him decorate for a while, except he never lets anyone. Today, though, was my lucky day. I love Christmas...the cheesy Christmas movies, the cold weather, peppermint flavored everything, the smell of rosemary...but what I love the most is community. During the Christmas season, people live in community with one another. They help each other, they talk to each other, they shop together, they eat together. We all get to know each other better. Today was community at its best. Christmas decorating, arguing over which ornaments go where, too many ornaments, too few ornaments, the revealing of secrets, making fun of each other and getting scratched arms from the fake Christmas tree. All good stuff...its the most wonderful time of the year! And I'm thankful its here. Does anyone want to decorate my house now? I'm all decorated out :)

Its a stretch

Today I am having to dig deep for something to be thankful for...because I am sick. What could it be? I know definitely what it is not. I am not thankful for feeling awful, not being able to do anything fun while everyone else does fun stuff, getting behind on housework or having to function even when you don't feel like it. The only upside to being sick is that while I can't move off of the couch, Jack snuggles with me (and he's not much of a snuggler) and I can catch up on all of my tv watching. Its not much...what I have to be thankful for...but its something. Here's hoping that I am a little sunnier tomorrow!

My Nana

I have two grandmothers still living...I'm lucky. Nana is my grandmother who will bake you a cake in the shape of Strawberry Shortcake if that's your favorite cartoon character. Every summer I would stay with her for a week and we would sew barbie cloths, crochet long chains because that's all I could do, eat tacos from Taco Bell, pick pecans, shell purple hull peas, and at the end of the week my Papa would set up the Slip and Slide out in the yard. We were also BIG game players. Everytime I saw her we would play dominoes and I would tell her that I was gonna "beat the socks off of her"...and she would let me maybe once or twice...but not everytime (which I appreciate). One time, I convinced her to let me do her hair...I must have used a whole bottle of hair spray. It took an hour. She wouldn't leave the house after that. I wonder why :)She is the best crafter. She has been crafting for as long as I can remember. And she still crafts. I love that I got a love of crafts from her. While I'm still not as good of a sewer or crocheter as she is...and I don't know how to do ceramics at all like she can...I still love to be inspired to make ordinary things into something else completely. She taught me that. She could turn a pair of pantyhose into a potato. She turns rocks into painted animals. Nothing is safe from being turned into a craft when she's around. Broken table...now its a flower arrangement. I am thankful that I got to spend a lot of time with her and I'm thankful that she took time to teach me things that she knew. All of those things that she taught me make up who I am today.