Thankful Thursday- Holy Cow!

Wowwee this has been an amazing few weeks!  I've been fairly quiet about things online because most of the stuff that's been going on has been job related and of course it's never a good idea to speak too publically about how that stuff is going when you're in the midst of it.   Well it's all settled and done and all I can say is that God is good!

I've been struggling for a while with staying at the job I have because there were somethings that just didn't fit with my personality about it.  The company is a small family owned company which has been in business for a long time.  Although it's a tight knit group and things have been done the same way (and fairly well) for a long time, I really didn't fit in.  I was the youngest person in the office by about 10 years (unless you count the grouchy IT guy).  Beyond being a little bit of an outsider, I also struggled with continuing to work toward making one person rich. Don't get me wrong, I believe in hard work and that people should work for what they earn, however, I struggled with making someone who already had a lot of money richer on the backs of people who struggle.  I'm not struggling by any means as I've been given an incredible opportunity with my degree!  However, I did watch a lot of people in the shop work very hard for not very much money.  In fact, to the point where they struggled from paycheck to paycheck without living extravagant lives.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of company I wanted to work for.  I wanted to do something that would make a difference in people's lives.  I am an accountant though, and I love what I do.  The best way I figured out I could affect others is to work by supporting an organization whose mission was to help others.   With the weight loss that my husband and I have had in recent months health has become more important to us than ever, so a hospital or health care organization was really what I wanted.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a recruiter that I'd worked with a couple of years ago when I was making my transition from public accounting out to regular industry accounting.  She sends out a periodic email about what positions she's trying to place and this one was for EXACTLY what I was looking for.  I sent her an email and wanted to find out more.  Well over the next couple of weeks I had two interviews and I ended up getting the job!!  I start with a large integrated health insurance company and provider on August 23rd.  I'm excited because the position I will be starting at has a lot of potential for growth as well as being able to really affect people's lives :)  

The only thing that I'm actually a little bit bummed about is leaving my boss.  She's been a great teacher and a friend over the last two years!  At least we can keep in touch.  She was also very gracious when I gave her my notice, which was a relief to me as I was afraid she would freak out at me.

Ok-enough about the job.

The other big news we have going right now is the continued weight loss.  I am coming up on 20 lbs lost!  I will know if I made it for sure on Saturday but I'm pretty sure I made it.   Also Jesse as of last Friday had lost 81 lbs so between us we've lost more than 100lbs.....how cool is that!  Not only that but our relationship continues to get better and better (not that it was bad before) but as we head up on our 6 year anniversary next month, I'm more in love with my husband than I have ever been :)

So that's why I'm thankful this week :)  I love writing this stuff down so I can bottle it up and read it again later :)

God is so good!

Thankful Thursday-Blessed!

I love mornings where you wake up and feel completely over-flowed with how good things are....Thankfully today is Thursday so I can blog about it :)

Today I am thankful for:

• Continued changes in my body as I continue to lose weight- I'm down 14.5 lbs.  I have completely kicked my caffine addiction!  Hallajeah! I also had to change my pants twice this morning to be able to find something that fit well enough that I didn't look like I was wearing hammer pants....I'm so thankful to have that problem :)

• Thankful to have choices...I don't really want to say more about this one, but knowing that God has put me where I am for the time I'm here and loves me so much that he gives me a choice about doing things makes my heart overflow!  Perhaps someday soon I'll be able to blog a little about this one.

• I have the best husband- litterally mine is the best- don't care what you say mine is the best!  He loves me enough that he's willing to look at his life and make BIG changes to make our lives better.  I know he's going to be a great father some day. 

Well that's the high points today, but needless to say I'm in a great mood!  Hope you have a great day !

Thankful Thursday!

Yay!  It's Thursday again!  Which means that it's only one more day until we have a weekend.  I keep sitting back and realizing how lucky I really am to have the life I do and here's a couple of reasons why I'm Thankful this week :

• The seasons change here....sometimes multiple times in a day.  Last night it was super-hot when I got home and I was not looking forward to sitting in my house.   Well, I got to enjoy a wonderful rain storm which cooled everything off by about 30 degrees!  Along with the rainstorm came a beautiful rainbow :)

•  The other thing that is making life really good right now is success with weight-loss.  In the last 4 weeks I've lost 10.5 lbs!  I've been sticking to my program and the weight has been falling off.  The thing that I'm thankful for is that it really hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be!  I'm thankful that I'm not missing my old habits (soda and sugar!).  It makes me hopeful that I'll get to my goal and that I'll be able to be healthy during a pregnancy (sometime in the future.)  The other thing in this arenar that I'm proud of is that my hubby is sticking to his program and has lost over 65 lbs (he has another weigh-in today and I'm sure we'll have a firmer number).   He's a super-star!

Happy Friday Eve!

Thankful Thursday!

I've been quite a while between Thankful Thursday posts.  It's not because I don't think about it, I just have trouble getting the words together and down on "paper" sometimes.  

So here's what I'm thankful for:

• the upcoming three day weekend!  I have had lots around my house that I want to get done and this is a perfect time to do it.
• My job.  Although I'm busy and there's been some shake up in management this week I'm thankful I have a good place to work.
• I'm thankful for my hubby!  He's continuing to grow into such a good man and I love him lots!  He encourages me all the time and challenges me to think about things.
• Summer!  I'm thankful that summer is just around the corner and it means time outside and good stuff from the garden.

Oh btw- BINGO update- I got three words today :)

Thankful Thursday- My Marriage

Today is Thursday and although I've been sort of spotty this year with Thankful Thursday, but I couldn't let the day go by without saying how thankful I am for my husband and our marriage. 

We've been married 5 years and I can't think of someone I'd rather spend my life with.  Jesse is exactly the person that is the very best for me and I'm so happy that we've been able to make a life together.  We have learned so much and grown together. 

I'm thankful for his willingness to change and grow where he sees that it's needed and that he always offers to help me.  I'm thankful that he takes care of the cars and the electronics in our house!  I can't tell you how stressed out it makes me to get the car serviced and he always takes care of it.   I'm thankful that he makes me slow down so that I don't wear myself out.  I'm thankful that he loves to watch moves and that he has shown me movies that I wouldn't have watched otherwise. 

Most of all I'm thankful to have a partner in life.  Someone who I want to talk to last thing at night and first in the morning.  Someone who I am happy to have kids with some day and someone who I will grow old with.

I'm so thankful for Jesse!

Thankful Thursday- Life is just plain good!

This week has been a good week! I'm thankful for so much and it's a little hard to get it all down so I'll shoot for the big things:

• I'm thankful for vacation days! I love my job but also having time off is an amazing gift. I'm thankful to have a job that gives me the opportunity to be off sometimes.
• I'm thankful for my husband. I've been getting ready to have a friend stay over before we head out of town this weekend. He's been amazing helping out with some of the cleaning and with puppy duty.
• I'm thankful for creativity and actually having the follow through to finish up my friend's baby shower gift.
• I'm thankful for the ability to take a road trip to Durango.
• I'm thankful for friends and catching up :)

Here's a picture of the diaper bag and other items that I made for my friend's baby shower. I can't wait to give them to her on Saturday :)

Thankful Thursday

I've been very reflective this week and overall very thankful. I have so much to be thankful for and I'm also thankful that I keep having it brought to my attention.

• I'm thankful for my routine in the morning. I get up fairly early (4:30 am) not because I really have to but because I love the sweet time because it's quiet and the animals are happy to have the routine together with me.
• I continue to be very very thankful for my job. I spent today at a Sales/Use Tax class which although not the most exciting thing the world reminded me of a couple of things that made me happy. 1)I have balance with this job! I finally get to leave work at work and enjoy my time with my husband. 2) I don't have crazy commute (going to this class today took me 45 minutes in the car one way! and normally it only takes me 20 minutes when there is traffic). 3)People at my new job appreciate how hard I work and the changes I've made since I got there.
• I'm thankful for Jesse. I fall more in love with him every day. I love how hard he works for us to have a good life!
• Finally something small but so cool...I got to get my desk at work cleaned up and organized on Wednesday. I feel so much better about work when I can spend time to get things organized.

Happy Thursday and also the best part about Thursday is that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that this week is quickly coming to an end. This week has been long and I'm struggling to get back and hang onto a good attitude.

This week I'm thankful for:

• my husband and how hard is working for school and at his job so that we can have a better life.
• our garden and our home. I'm excited to see our tomatoes ripen up very soon.
• my puppy Calvin. He loves us unconditionally and who else is going to be so excited to see you :)
• my parents and the fact that their marriage has not only been repaired but gotten better over the last several years.
• the weight I've lost over the last several weeks (4 lbs!) and the changes I've seen in my body because of it.
• diet coke :)

Hope you have a good week and thanks for reading!

Thankful Thursday- Friends

YAY! I got to have dinner last night with two very dear friends from college. Renee Peter and Rachelle Alewine. What a blessing to be able to catch up with them and to realize that once you are heart friends it's that way for life! I'm so thankful to be able to share and hear about their lives too. It was a great ending to a vacation day. I'm so thankful for friends :)

Thankful Thursday- Summer!

I know I've missed a few Thursdays but here goes for this one!

Spring has coming and moved into summer in the last two weeks! I'm thankful for:

• Our backyard- It's amazing to have your own outdoor space. This will be our first full summer in this house and I'm totally excited to spend evenings in the backyard :)
• Waking up early and listening to the birds outside
• Waiting four our rose bushes to bloom- Roses are my very favorite flower.
• Shorts! I dug out my shorts from last year which is usually a traumatic experience because I gain 15 pounds in the winter......my shorts from last year fit this week!!!
• Planting our garden- I got veggie plants in this last week. We'll see how everything turns out.
• Rain! It rained really hard the other night and the smell was amazing.

Happy Thursday!

Thankful Thursday!

I keeping thinking that my Thankful Thursday post needs to have a theme of some kind but I just can't string things together this week so here's the randomness in my head.

• I'm thankful for Facebook- I've got back in touch and kept in better touch with friends since I got sucked into this phenomenon. Last night I got to have dinner with a friend from high school who has been serving in Indonesia with her church. It was interesting to me to see how different and how the same we are.
• I'm thankful for my job. This week has been stressful because I've been handed a lot more work to do in the next month. I'm trying to remain thankful that I have a job! There's quite a few people at my company that have been laid off in the past several months and it's a good feeling to know that I've survived the layoffs.
• I'm thankful for the oppourtunity to learn new things! This week has definitely brought a lot of that.
• I'm thankful for my husband and all he does around our house. He make dinner a lot and he mowed the lawn yesterday. I hate to mow the lawn (long story about why!).
• I'm thankful for our puppy. He makes me so happy when he wants to hang out and when he plays with pine cones in the backyard....very goofy dog but he's awesome.
• I'm thankful for my Ipod touch! It's silly but it makes my work day go faster because I've got something to listen to and all the cool apps are helping me to be better organized.
• I'm thankful for our health and that we live in a country where we can get help with illness when we need it.

That's about it for Thankful Thursday. Please pray for my friend (mentioned above). She'll be having reconstructive knee surgery tomorrow and I'm praying that everything goes well and her recovery is easy.

Thankful Thursday- Coffee!

Well it's Thursday again, which as my friend Tiff pointed out....means that tomorrow is Friday!

I've been struggling a lot this week with attitude at work. It seems like I would get to about 2 in the afternoon and I just couldn't stay awake. It's been hard to focus on it and be happy there but I'm sure as most things it will pass. This morning I got up and was determined to have a good attitude and not be cranky. I lasted about 5 minutes when I got up to take the dog out and realized that I was out of coffee. This is a very big disruption to my morning (I'm sort of addicted to coffee).

The thing is that it's more the ritual of coffee that makes me happy than anything. When I was in college, I got to live this amazing girl (Tiffany Tucker then but now Tiffany Blegert). Tiffany did so much for me when we lived together but mostly she taught me to be comfortable with who I was and to revel in the little things. Tiffany also taught me to love coffee! She got me started drinking coffee each morning. I can remember so many mornings when I would start a new pot and Tiff would warm up the left0ver coffee from the day before (still something I can't bring myself to do!)

Anyway, I made it through today! My attitude wasn't even that bad.
I'm thankful tomorrow is Friday! I'm thankful for coffee which makes me feel grounded and reminds me of good times. And most importantly I'm thankful for good friends who no matter how far away you live and how long it is between visits it's just like yesterday when you see each other again. Happy Thursday :)

Thankful Thursday- Snow!

Well it's Thursday which means that the week is almost over! It is also the day that a lot of my friends are taking time to think about what they are grateful for (Tiff, Jill, Jo and Linn-their pastor's wife http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/search/label/Thankful%20Thursday). I've been noticing that I can tend to be a little bit negative and I hate when I get that way some I'm going to take my eyes off me and put them back on what I'm thankful for.

So here goes my Thankful Thursday for Thursday March 26, 2009:

1. Making it home safe! We had about 2 feet of snow while I was at work this morning. Athough it took me about 2 hours and I almost got hit after spinning out God protected me and now I get to spend the evening with my husband. We'll see what tomorrow brings...it could be another snow day.
2. My husband Jesse. Best friend, comedian and my generally favoritest person to be around.
3. My parents- although I don't see them as much lately I love that they always have great advice!
4. My puppy Calvin! His energy makes me happy :)
5. My kitties- they are such good cuddlers.

I'll keep thinking about what I'm grateful for. You should do the same!
Have a happy Thursday :)