Thankful? You Betcha!

Thought for the day:  In all things, give thanks.  [I Thessalonians 5:18]

And thank you for the cat...

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Another year in which my major role was to relax, enjoy myself... and play with the grandchildren. (A role I play very well, if I must say so myself.)

Life is good, and I am thankful.

It's sometimes a challenge to be thankful in all things, though, isn't it? Unless you're as courageous as Corrie Ten Boom, the amazing woman I wrote about in last year's post. While imprisoned in a concentration camp, she was humbly thankful for an infestation of fleas. Can you imagine?

As always, we had a lot of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and thankfully, not having an infestation of fleas is one of them.

This is our son and his younguns. Aaron's in the back; (wearing an "AWESOME" shirt... which he IS) Jaiden is the 100-watt grinner sporting that stylish off-the-shoulder look; Kymber is the cutie with the super sweet smile; and Devyn is the adorable one-year-old. What's especially nice about this picture is... no one is barfing.

Uh, yeah, no fleas, but a felonious belly bug did  infiltrate our festivities. (We did our darnedest to ignore it, though.)

Kymmie on the backyard playset: "I see you!"

Aaron says, "Me, too!"

It's still hard to believe I was in the delivery room when Devyn made her grand entrance into the world.. and that it's already been more than a year ago.

"Grandma!! Why did you stop pushing us?"

Aaron's petting one of their bunnies. Remember when I told you about them getting the rabbits last year? They got four initially, then got two more. Since then, the other short-haired rabbit ran away, but they still have this black-and-white short-hair, two lion-faced bunnies, and two lops. Amazingly, no babies yet! Can you believe it? However, I observed the lops, um, shall we say ... honeymooning ... quite frequently and enthusiastically while we were there, so that situation may very well be changing in the near future.

Our daughter-in-law made turkey hats for the kids, but this is the only picture I got of one being worn. Jaiden was more into wearing the hat he got at Disney world this summer.



We spotted a lizard in the back yard, which launched the kids into some energetic high-pitched squealing like you wouldn't believe. But I caught him, and let them get a close-up, more relaxed look at him. They even got to see him change color. Cool! And Kymmie, who our son swears is afraid of grass, even held the little guy for a couple minutes. Then we sang a heartfelt rendition of Born Free and let him go. (Okay, okay, so technically, I was the only one singing... picky, picky, picky.)

It was a wonderful visit. The girls did a lot of barfing the day before we got there, but all the kids were mostly okay while we were there. A little more lethargic than usual. More cuddly than usual. More curl up on Grandma's lap and go to sleep than usual.

Then Aaron and our son got sick. And we left. And I got sick.

But ya know what? I'm thankful. What could be better than seeing the looks on their little faces, and hearing those squeals of excitement when they came running out the door to greet me? What could be better than feeling those precious arms around my neck? Than having them squabble over who was gonna sit next to me, and over whose turn it was to sit on my lap? Oh, yes, I'm thankful. Being with them was worth every miserable moment I spent shivering under an afghan after we got home.

Besides, I really needed to lose a few pounds.

Hey, wanta see a really cool adrenaline-pumping video with some gorgeous scenery? (Thanks to my brother Ron for sending it to me.) It's more than enough to sit in the comfort of our own homes and enjoy these thrills vicariously. Seeing such amazing feats is enough to make ya ... thankful.

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Loose Translations

Thought for the day:  I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. I'm worried about him, but he swears he can stop any time.

Well. looky here. It's Chopsticks, grinning from ear to ear, and ready to head down the road again. You know what that means, don't you? It means I'm too lazy to do a regular post today we're going to look at some more of those funny Chinese-to-English translation signs, by golly. Yes, sirree, I'm a real slug today some things sure do gain ... or lose... a lot in translation.

As always, sincere thanks to the webmasters of engrish.com for giving me permission to share some of thier unique humor with you.

Ready?

That's it for today. I hope you found something to make you smile. I believe I'm gonna go take a nap do something productive. Yeah, that's the ticket...

                        Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

                                Man with hand in pocket all day feel cocky.

Leftover Turkey

Thought for the day:  Why fix it if it ain't broke?

Grandson Aaron is a rather, um,  exuberant eater at times.

We'll be spending the long Thanksgiving weekend with family, and rather than come up with a new post for today, I'm gonna do a re-run of last year's. (If it ain't broke...) After all, the year may be different, but the sentiment hasn't changed a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!!

The loverly Suze has cancelled the False Start Friday festivities for this week, so I reckon I'll ditch my previously scheduled post, and take the day off. Be back witcha on Monday.  (I plan on doing a lot of serious digesting over the weekend.)

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Thought for the day:  An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving day.  [Irv Kupcine]

I'm optimistic, but I'm not stupid, so I won't even pretend to count calories on Thanksgiving. At best, maybe I'll exercise a little discretion and only eat one piece of pie. And skip the whipped cream. (I know. Such phenomenal control.)

Some years ago, when one of our kids was in middle school, I wrote a silly poem for one of the bulletin boards I'd been asked to design for the school's hallway. The senior Bush was president at that time, but with a quick presto change-o to that part of the poem, I'm gonna go with it here for an easy lazy extremely thoughtful post for your enjoyment.

And so, without further ado, I give you ...




                                                                Turkey Blues


                                                There once was a turkey named Jake,
                                                Said, "How much must we poor turkeys take?
                                                When Thanksgiving rolls round,
                                                We must go underground;
                                                Why can't all those people eat STEAK?"

                                                   Now, turkeys may not be so pretty,

                                                   Can't fly, and aren't very witty,

                                                   But with a leader like Jake, 

                                                   A chance they might take,

                                                   So a bunch of them left for the city.

                                                   Jake led a big march on D.C.

                                                  (The IN place for protests, you see)

                                                  "We don't want any fights.

                                                  But we, too, should have rights,

                                                  For this is the land of the free!"

                                                  Obama came out on the green

                                                  With the most turkeys I've ever seen,

                                                   Said, "The issue is not at all murky ...

                                                   Rights are for MAN and not TURKEY;

                                                   That's the way that it always has been."

                                                  Thanksgiving is special in the U.S. of A.

                                                  And turkeys are heroes, I'd like to say.

                                                  So thank the next turkey you meet on the street

                                                  For being so terribly tasty to eat

                                                  And have a great Thanksgiving Day!

                                                             ***************

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.      Erma Bombeck

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other. 

I YAM wishing you all  a blessed Thanksgiving.