Thankfulness Day 14

Wednesday
Today was busy in the morning. I'm training to take over as primary treasurer for our church and did training with the current primary. Geesh! I had forgotten how chilly a cinder-block structure can get in late autumn without a heat source. Yeah, not even winter and I had to turn on the under-the-desk heater or I may have frozen! Oy! To get an idea.....find a storm cellar and go down into it (must not be attached to the house....like a basement-type of one). You'll get an idea. After, I had more blood drawn and bought a sandwich from the cafe in the clinic before I left. The blood thing? Long story.....another post. Short answer....skin infection that I'm still fighting since the end of July. Yeah....told ya it was a long one.

I am thankful for my sister.
*No pic since I'm probably not going to post pics of family members....other than my little immediate family*
I was a "menopausal" baby. Mom was 42; dad was 54....second marriage for both. My sister (according to her) prayed for a baby sister since she was small. She had a brother, but wanted a sister to chat with and do girlie things. Well.....it took a while and a different hubby for her (and mine) mom, but at age 17, her baby sister (me) was born. Our relationship has had its ups and downs. I grew up at times wanting to be just like her and then wanting to be nothing like her. Part of it was mom. She would say I had a lazy intelligence and if I just tried, I could be a straight-A student like my sister (the nothing like). Then I would talk to her and hear all of the "cool" grown-up stuff she was doing was dreamt of "one day" (the just like). Somewhere down the line, she fell off the pedestal I had put her on and I almost hated her. So it went....back and forth....for many years.

Through elementary school.
Middle School.
High School.
Her divorce.
Living with her first semester of university.
Having a HUGE fight and joining the Air Force.
Me not speaking to her for months at a time.
Picking a guy she didn't approve of.
I got married to said guy. She loved him (told her ;-) )
Moving to a small island out in the middle of the ocean.
Her move across three states.
Our move to Florida.
Then.....hubby went on a deployment {It was supposed to be 3-months, but came back 7 1/2 months later}.
I got lonely.
So.....I called the sister.
And slowly we worked to build a relationship. Not just because God made it to where we had the same mom, but as someone I can call and talk for hours with. Our longest at-one-time conversation was during our time in Florida. It was.....over 12 hours. We went through two batteries on our house phones. We would switch to the other one while that first one charged....over and over. We both straightened our houses and watched a show or two "together." That phone call cemented it. Do we still talk that long? No. It's not because we can't find the time. It's that pesky time zone difference. I'm 7 hours ahead. Which is not a good thing unless it's on the weekend, but since we both have lives and things we do, it's not easy. So, it's normally a 3 hour conversation instead. I got Magic Jack and "he" kicks us off and 90 minutes. So, we hang up; wait a few; and I'll call back to "finish" the conversation.

Thankful for her innocent, child prayer all of those years ago. We're both better because of it.

Thankfulness Day 13

Yep, waaaaay behind again. I will not give up, but will catch up. Well, maybe not before the end of the month given.....well, life. I'll explain why when I get to those days :-)

Tuesday. Woke up with another migraine. Seriously?!?!?! That's two in one month. Oy! I dread thinking what's going on inside my brain. I've heard rumors and theories about what migraines (constant ones anyway) cause. Am I in that category? How many a month is constant? One? More? Does skipping a month take me off the list? Well, guess we shall see....eventually. Hmmmm

Instead of sitting home and....oh, taking drugs and sleeping it off (not me...), I went to the market.
Now, if you're in America, that means the grocery store. Here in Italy, that means an outdoor market. Which...is part of what my "Thankful" is today. I'll tell what it is, then explain more. I am thankful for Italian culture. One thing that is hard for Americans here is reposo. Hubby calls it "sleepy time." {I'll get into the history in a later post} The majority of the stores (pretty much all but malls) and restaurants close from 1230/1:00 until 230/3:00. When the actual closing is depends on the specific store. But pretty much everything has reopened by 3:30. Including petrol stations. You can still "fill 'er up", but you're doing the pumping. Odd? Being part of the military stationed here, we buy Gas Coupons. We pay $X for up to 300 liters (depending on the size of the engine in the primary car) and "Pay" with those coupons when we go to certain petrol station chains. If they're closed, we have to pay out of pocket. Yeah....no thanks....not unless we have no choice. 1 liter=almost 3,50 Euros. That's over $4 a liter not gallon. Put it this way. When we fill up our jeep when it's about 1/4 left (like today), we paid 35 liters. Here, I'll do the math: 35 liters X $4 (cheaper than it is)=$140. The whole 300 liter book cost roughly (depending on the exchange rate) $130. See why we gauge our fill times?

WOW! That was a rabbit trail. hehe
Another culture item is the town market. {Yep, finally getting back to that} This is when vendors set up stalls or flip the sides of their trucks up and sell everything from shoes to rugs to produce to seafood. Here's some pics from two different markets.

Gloves, scarfs, umbrellas

Yellow one sells cheeses; front right womens clothes

Plants....flowering and not

Close-up of a few of those plants

Random booths

Shoes and boots

Tuesday is market day for the town close to us. Not our town. Our town only has a hand-ful of vendors. The one I go to nearly every week is not too far away; most of my church friends go (we meet for shopping and then a cafe....YUM); there's a good amount of vendors, but kinda spread out, so you get your walking in without realizing it. ;-) The other market is further away and on Thursdays. One or 2 pics are from that one. I've only been to that one twice. There is a market in nearly every decent-sized town here. It is where the folks wen before the chain stores started. Farmers set-up their trucks and sold fresh produce (in season=healthier) and they bought for the week until the next market. Some of the bigger towns have a market twice a week.

I love the "old-time" feel. Back to Basics is a theme I'm working on working on. Soooo much healthier and better for me. :-)

Thankfulness Day 12

Monday:

I have an on-going To Do list. I have never finished everything on it. Every time I cross one item off, I tend to add at least one or two more to it. Part of that reason is "stick-to-it-ness". I will be in the midst of doing one thing and happen to notice something out of place. Next thing you know, I stop doing A to take care of B. While I'm in the room where B is/goes, I notice C out of place. Well, you get the point. This is a normal day for me. It's not that I don't want to finish A, I just get very easily....oooo butterfly. ;-)

Another reason for the Never Ending To Do List is that I can always find something to do or add to it. As we all know, the one thing constant about life is change. Whether that is clothes that never stay clean or dishes that never stay washed or a floor that never stays de-haired or....well, things Don't. Stay. Put. Ever.

However, today I was able to tick off two items (well, biggies) from that list. One was to hang up hubby's autumn/winter clothes that I had brought up....oh, a week or so ago. You see, hubby left on his extended business trip back in the summer. Back in late spring/early summer, he decided to pack his "cold weather" clothes into two totes and carry them downstairs and put them in the garage. Not long after, he found out that he was definitely leaving on business. When is he scheduled to be home? Not sure, but sometime between the proverbial now and mid-February. Yep, during that nice cool weather. Sooooo I decided to be nice and bring up the totes. Not easy given that stairs are a way of going to and from the garage. And carrying anything that requires both hands is not something I plan on doing anytime soon. Fortunately, I bought a collapsible dolly. That $30 item has been a life saver. So I loaded up both totes and pulled it upstairs. And that's where they sat. Until the 12th. All clothes from those totes are now sorted and hung up.
The other will remain description-less since it's a Christmas present for my family. Do the parents read this? Nope...no computer. *gasp! Other than that, no clue....at least they haven't mentioned it, but I'm not going to take any chances. But....the other tick was creating and ordering said gifts. :-)

Although the 11th was technically the day, it is observed today. I'm talking about Veterans Day. And I am thankful for the reason for this day. I come from a family of veterans.
My dad was in WWII (not a typo).
One uncle was in Korea.
Another uncle was in Vietnam.
A dear friend was in the Gulf.
I served 4 years myself during the mid-90s.
I am currently married to an active duty Air Force guy.
And that's just me. My husband comes from proud military members as well. As do quite a few of my friends.

The reason that the US has the freedoms it currently has it through their veterans. It started after the pilgrims landed. They fought for the land...for religious freedom. They made peace and settled....and expanded. The Crown didn't like that, so they yet again fought for freedom.....to rule independent of Great Britain. There has been a civil war and two world wars. Current war is nothing like that first war...a time we'll remember within the next week or so. Current wars aren't fought on American soil at hand-to-hand anymore. A lot of the reasons is to go to the baddies because they can sit in a spot miles away and destroy lives.
This isn't a post however about pro or anti war. This is about being thankful for those men and women who have vowed and signed a contract to "support and defend the Constitution". I am thankful that the majority of people (regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the war(s)) do support the troops. There are a few ill-informed idiots that pick on the "worker" as opposed to the "boss-in-charge", but fortunately I haven't met many.

Thankfulness Day 11

Sunday:

Starting last night, it rained off and on all night and most of the day. The way our house is built, if you have the windows and doors closed and can still hear the rain, it's raining pretty hard. I could hear it pouring. That meant it was raining a lot harder than I could hear. I read on a Facebook page that someone had asked if there was a river that had formed in anyone else's street. Yep, it was that bad for our section of the region.

Given that it was a Sunday, I would normally get up, get dressed, and normally either eat something waiting for Belle to come in (after letting her out while I get dressed) or eat on the way. The destination? Church. Growing up, Sundays have meant a day of rest and to worship at the Lord's House. This Sunday.....everything was off. I went to bed in a bad sullen mood. I got up in a sullen mood. I hadn't finished schoolwork that was due around midnight (an on-line class). It was pouring rain, which meant wet feet. So, I thought I would wear jeans and a nice shirt. And yes, that's an okay outfit for our church.
And that's when the already yucky day got worse. The jeans I grabbed fit fine last December, but somehow they didn't fit anymore. I will say that the weather fit my mood or vice versa.

The day was spent in a kind of a sulk. I could've cared less if homework was done or anything else for that matter. My blah mood turned into a case of the "Who Cares?!?!". The night finished off with the storm doing something to the house and the power going out. I waited for almost an hour before going to bed. CREEPY!!!!! I've learned that I do not want to live in the country....too quiet. I like noise when I go to bed. If it wasn't for a clock ticking the seconds by, the house would have been completely quiet. No. Thank. You!!!

The way the electricity is installed in the houses here, there's a safety mechanism built in. Whenever a light bulb blows or an electrical component pops, a breaker pops. If it's something like a light bulb, it could pop a single breaker. OR if the house (or a transformer outside up on one of those poles) gets zapped by lightning, the main breaker pops. THAT is a good thing.

However, there is one tiny issue.....the breaker box is downstairs. There are two ways to get to it: 1. Down the inside stairs....the same stairs I had my accident on or 2. Down the front stairs, through the garage door. Ummmmm....definite NO on #1....at least I don't feel faint when looking at the stairs anymore. As for #2, not at midnight, in a quiet village, when it's pitch black, in the pouring rain/windy/storm. Soooooo I decided to deal with it in the morning and went to bed (see above).

I woke up, grabbed a light (electric was still out), put shoes on, and went down the front stairs, through the garage door, and turned on the popped main breaker. Belle was nice enough protective enough to go with and stay with me while I did so. :-D

That major minor detail of going to bed, alone (Belle deserted me for her bed in the lounge), in a creepily quiet house made my thankful for the 11th very easy....I am beyond thankful for a cold, dark evening and a man named Benjamin Franklin and his invention of......electricity!

Image found: http://www.electronicsandyou.com/electronics-history/inventions_and_contribution_of_ben_franklin_to_electronics.html

Thankfulness Day 10

Saturday:

On Christmas Eve 1999 around 7:30pm, there was a knock at our front door. Hubby went to go answer it while I held onto the collar of our dog Danny. He spoke to the visitor for a few minutes in low tones; wished the person a Merry Christmas; then I heard the door shut. I let Danny go and stood so we could leave to go look at Christmas lights (our original plan). Lights left my mind when he walked around the corner. In his arms was a tan length of fluff with a huge red bow around her neck. She was sooooo tiny and nervous. We learned she was born about 2 weeks after we got married. By the time she arrived at our door (an early Christmas present from my darling hubby), she was only 4 months old.

From that time on, her and her brother (not by birth) have been constant companions to us. Since hubby's job takes him away for weeks or sometimes months at a time, those moving pieces of furniture have been with me through thick and thin. Through good and bad. Through tears and smiles. Through hurrahs and fears. Through health and sickness. Through an accident (post after November thankfulness is over) and through the healing process.

June 14, 2012 was a rough day. Belle's brother Danny passed away. The vet believes that it was because of a tumor...either in his liver or pancreas. Since that time, Belle has been a sweet, caring companion that has helped me get through another one of hubby's looooong work trips. She is sweet, cheeky, loving, and a comforting presence. I am thankful that God has given us such a sweet friend.

I was on my way to bed and found this....