Thankful Thursday

I haven't posted a Thankful Thursday in quite sometime, but that does not mean I haven't had anything to be thankful about! I know I have posted about my husband before, but I again must shout it on the rooftops about how very thankful I am for my amazing husband Tim.  He has been so supportive this year as we have gone through our struggles of me leaving my job and having a miscarriage.  Through all times of turmoil he has been my rock, my man, my amazing husband and I am astonished every day at his amazing love.  With Thanksgiving coming up next week, please take a moment to reflect on all that you have to be thankful for this year.  Even in hard times, there is always something to thank God for, to be thankful for even the small blessings in your life. 

Thankful Thursday - FOOTBALL!!!!

So for those of you who do not know me, I am a HUGE football fan - particularly the Denver Broncos (stop laughing), but a football fan in general as well.  I have played fantasy football for the past 5 years and won 1st place in all years except last year (mumble).  This year, I plan to bring it back!

I am ever-so-thankful that the players and owners were able to work out their ridiculous disagreements so that us fans could enjoy another football season which starts TONIGHT!

Tonight I am rooting for Green Bay - not just because Aaron Rodgers is my starting QB in fantasy, but also because I've liked Rodgers since he took over that position - or maybe I just hated Farve so much that it seems like I like Rodgers.  Shrug.  Either way, GO GREEN BAY!!!!!

Here is my starting line-up for my fantasy team in Week One.  Wish me luck!

QB: Aaron Rodgers - GB
WR: Andre Johnson - HOU
WR: DeSean Jackson - PHI (I had him last year and was pleased)
RB: Peyton Hillis - CLE
RB: Matt Forte - CHI (I had him last year and was pleased)
TE: Rob Gronkowski - NE
TE: Dallas Clark - IND
W/R/T: Brandon Lloyd - DEN (WR)
K: Sebastian Janikowski - OAK (it pains me to have a Raider on my roster, but he's good, so I have to suck it up)
DEF (team): New England
D (individual): DeAngelo Hall (I had him last year and was pleased)
D (individual): Ray Lewis (it also pains me to have him on my team as I despise him, but again, he's good, so I have to suck it up)

Do you play Fantasy Football or watch Football? Who's on your fantasy team or who is your favorite NFL team?

Thankful Thursday - Kudos to BJ's Brewery

I am so lucky and thankful to live in California where BJ's Breweries are abundant. 

I LOVE BJ's and was so thrilled when they added the GF pizza last year and even more thrilled when they recently added the GF pazooki.  I love them both - the pizza is more like a thin crust pizza rather than their usual deep dish style.  I prefer deep dish style, but this is still delicious and the best GF pizza I have tried to date (much better than the new California Pizza Kitchen gluten free pizza in my humble opinion).  The pazooki is also fabulous.  However, my 2 non-GF friends did not care for it - perhaps its because they have the regular one to compare it to, which I do not.  Whatever, more for me and I scraped my pan clean :)

I also love that they have made the gluten free pizza and pazooki available for their Party for Two promotion (which my friend Jenny and I took advantage of on Tuesday night), however I was bummed at my birthday celebration (back in June) that they do not offer the GF pazooki in the free birthday size so we had to pay for it in order for me to have my birthday treat.  It was still worth it.

Kudos to BJ's for keeping up with the need for gluten free alternatives! They are definitely on my short list of restaurants which have REAL gluten free menus - PF Changs and Melting Pot round up that list.  Outback and Lonestar I enjoy too, however when you order its more like you are ordering from their regular meal without all the good stuff like seasonings and marinades - I like the PF Changs, Melting Pot, and now BJ's have SPECIAL items just for Gluten Free folks like me where you don't feel like you're missing out on anything. Although the Outback flourless brownie is bomb-diggity (ya I said that). 

Happy Thursday everyone, and thanks for reading.  If you're gluten free - where is your favorite place to dine out and your favorite menu item to order there?

Thankful Thursday

This may seem a bit obscure, but today I am thankful for all of the volunteers and organizers behind the website Find A Grave.  This website's purpose is to allow people to search for graves of their family members/friends/ancestors/celebrites/etc. no matter where the grave is located in the world.

According to their website:

What is Find A Grave?
Find A Grave is a resource for finding the final resting place of family, friends, and 'famous' individuals.

With millions of names and photos, it is an invaluable tool for the genealogist and family history buff. Find A Grave memorials can contain rich content including photos, biographies and dates. Visitors can leave 'virtual flowers' on the memorials they visit, completing the online cemetery experience.

Find A Grave's primary purpose is a graves registration website.

Find A Grave's secondary purpose is a memorialization/remembrance site.

Find A Grave's tertiary purpose is a genealogical resource.

Memorial contributions to Find A Grave should at the least fulfill the primary purpose, registration of the final resting place. If a memorial contribution corresponds with only the primary purpose, it has fulfilled its part of Find A Grave's mission and is not required to correspond with the secondary and tertiary purposes. Fulfilling the other two is welcomed, encouraged and deeply appreciated, but as far as Find A Grave's mission goes, a memorial page isn't lacking if it does not.

Find A Grave has grown to be a wonderful and valuable resource for genealogy and genealogists, but that is adjunct to its main purpose.

As I stated back in June, I have been working feverishly on my family history and this website has been very helpful in locating grave stones of my ancestors which have in turn assisted me in filling in the missing pieces such as dates of birth, death, and sometimes even marriage dates.  However, this site would not be possible without the volunteers who sign up to help with photographing and documents grave sites. 

Since using the site I have signed up as a volunteer at my local cemetery.  How it works is when someone requests a photo of a particular person's grave at the cemetery I am registered with, I get an email notification and can claim it if it has not already been claimed by another volunteer in the area.  I would then go to the cemetery, locate the particular grave, clean it and photograph it, then upload the photos and any other notes from the grave such as an inscription to the website. 

This is such a great service and relies on the kind-heartedness of all of the people. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Thankful Thursday - Faith

My husband and I recently started attending a wonderful church, South Hills, in Corona, CA.  Not only is it a new church for my husband and I, but church is new all together for the both of us. 

Shortly after we got married we thought about how blessed we are and decided that we should start attending church.  Neither of us grew up in a family that attended church, so we in kind of blind.  Our church offered a class called First Steps which was basically an intro not only to the specific church, but kind of to religion as a whole.

Since about September 2010 we have been attending weekly and have greatly enjoyed our time thus far.  I recently read about a Bible study on a new blog that I am following (check it out here - Social Studies Momma).  She mentioned a Bible study that she picked up and invited others to join her in her study.  The book is titled For Women Only: The Bible Study (you can find it here).  Basically it is a book for women to better understand the men in their lives and guide them in providing the support the men need.  I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival in the mail and can't wait to get started.  Thank you to Social Studies Momma for the inspiration and letting me crash the party. 

My husband and I's new faith, I feel, has brought us closer together and has really taught us not only to respect each other, but how to love each other and appreciate each other on a new level.

I have also been volunteering weekly in the church's nursery since about November.  Although I joke that it's a natural birth control, I really enjoy showing the children God's love.

If anyone else wants to pick up this book I would love to discuss the contents of the study so we can learn with and through each other.

Thankful Thursday - Skype

Today I am thankful for Skype - as I'm sure many of us are.  Although when my husband was on Active Duty and deployed he was on a ship, and thus Skype was not an option for us, I know of many military members who utilize this service to communicate and "see" their families back home.  In fact, one of my girlfriends gave birth while her husband was away and her husband was able to "witness" this magnificent event through Skype.

Personally, I love Skype because I am able to communicate and "see" my husband while he is on business trips, which he has been quite often.  It's nice to see his face and his smile.  Sometimes we just Skype but go about our own business - me working around the house and he doing homework, not even really talking, but pretending we are in the same location.  It's nice sometimes. 

We also enjoy using Skype to communicate with Tim's parents, siblings, friends, and other family who are all in Michigan.  It's great to have a free service from which we can talk to people in Michigan from our cozy couch in California.  We recently gave a "tour" so to speak of our house to Tim's dad's family who weren't able to make it out to California for the wedding or to see our new house.  That was so nice to have that option. 

What a fabulous invention!

Happy St. Patty's Day (and a Thankful Thursday)

Happy St. Patty's Day to all of my followers and readers! I'm so sorry I've been MIA for about a week.  I came down with a nasty cold on Thursday and had to take a few days off of work.  Now that I'm back at work it's catch up time and I've been slammed.  Oh and my Internet at home is down and the hubby is out of town.  I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things very soon!

Anywho - Happy St. Patty's Day to all! Hope you're all wearing GREEN!! I am:

Today I am thankful for my Irish heritage. Hooray! I actually love ancestry and spent countless hours a few years back tracing various lineages.  I did trace one of my lines all the way back to Ireland, which was difficult exciting.  I still have much work to do on completing my ancestry, just as soon as I have a few thousand spare hours (ha ha ha). 

What are your plans for St. Patty's Day?  I am going to do something with my dear friend Jessica today.  Who knows, maybe we'll find an fun Irish Pub to get drunk eat at.  Have a wonderful day everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful this lovely Thursday morning for my health.  Although I am not in tip top shape, I am, overall, healthy.  I am alive and well and able to do most things.  I can run, walk, jump, etc.  Not everyone can, and for that ability to do as I please without physical limitations, I am thankful and appreciative.  So many people take such small things for granted, they don't realize how blessed they are to be able to do such things. 

My New Years resolution this year was to continue to pursue a healthy lifestyle and be the best me I can be.  I need to do more.  I need to exercise more.  I know this.  I will try harder. 

I don't want to take advantage of this life I have been given by not treating my body how it should be treated.  So thank you for giving me this health and I won't let you down.

Thankful Thursday

Today, I am thankful for having common sense.  In a field that is heavy in customer service, I have come to realize that not everyone is as lucky as me to have been born with such an asset.

Examples you say? Ironically both examples don't have to do with clients but ex coworkers.

Here we go..... I am paraphrasing as my memory may not be 100% accurate on the exact verbiage used, but I kid you not these things actually happened.

Example 1

[Male Secretary, age 18, is grunting and slamming the stapler on the table.]

Me: Name, is the stapler jammed?

Male Secretary: I don't know, it's not working.  I think we're going to have to throw it away.

[I walk over and open the stapler and see it is out of staples.]

Me: It's out of staples, you just need to refill it.

Male Secretary: You can do that!?

[I stare blankly.]

Example 2

Male paralegal, age 40: Elizabeth, I am going to Subway, do you want me to pick you up anything?

Me: Sure, that would be awesome, thanks! I'll write down what I want and give you some money.

[I write down Italian Salad (not sandwich), with onions, feta, avocado, tomato & all of the same meat as the sandwich.  I then hand said list and money to coworker.]

30 minutes later.

[Male paralegal arrives back at the office with a plate of meat, onions, feta, avocado, and tomato....... no lettuce.]

Me: Is the lettuce in a separate container or something?

Male paralegal: What lettuce?

Me: For the salad.

Male paralegal: You didn't write lettuce.

[Raises eyebrow.]

As you can see..... not everyone is graced with the asset of common sense, so for being one of those more fortunate ones, I am thankful.

Thankful Thursday

This is really a follow up or update to last week's Thankful Thursday post found here. 

Unfortunately with the burglary of our home we were unable to visit our new baby cousin last week, so we had a rain check until this past Monday.

Tim and I took breakfast down, as we both had the day off, and got to see my cousin and her husband and their two beautiful sons.  Here is the newest addition to their family.  Meet Jack (posing ever so angelically with my husband and I):

Again, we are so thankful that he is healthy and that his mama is doing well.  Big brother also appears to be doing well and I just know he will make an excellent big brother. 

Thankful Thursday - part 2

Our house was burglarized this afternoon.  I know you're thinking, that's a really weird thing to be thankful about..... well sorta. 

I'm thankful we had an alarm system which scared the suspects away - they were in the house less than a minute.

I'm thankful they got away with very little because of their minimal time in the house.

I'm thankful no one was home and Tim and I are unharmed.

I'm thankful we were able to find a 24 hour glass door repair company to come out and replace our glass bedroom slider that same night.

Finally, I'm thankful the police responded so quickly and I hope they take this seriously. 

I live in a fairly middle class neighborhood, and 2 weeks ago exactly the house 2 doors down was hit.  It appears we have a serial burglar, and I hope the police continue to take this seriously and are able to find the suspects.  Our next door neighbor got home approximately 15 minutes prior to the burglary and noticed a car parked in front of our house and was able to give a description to the police.  The car had some identifying features (she didn't get a license), so I am hopeful. 

We are safe, the items taken, although disappointing, are replaceable.  What they really took though is my sense of security.  My stomach is in knots.  I hope this will be a learning experience for Tim and I.  I hope this will never happen again.  Oh and I hope we win the lotto so we can pay off our credit card that we had to put the new slider on :(

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful and blessed to have a new addition to our family.  My cousin Jill gave birth to her second son on Monday, Valentine's Day. 

We are blessed that it was a smooth delivery and baby Jack is already home, happy, and healthy.

Tim and I will be taking dinner over to the proud parents tonight, which also happens to be Jill's birthday.  I can't wait to meet baby Jack!

I now have 4 beautiful little cousins (whom I call my niece and nephews as I have no siblings) on my side.  Hooray!!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am going to write about my husband.  When I told him I started a blog he immediately asked, "Is it about me!?".  Unfortunately (fortunately?) this blog is not all about Tim, maybe I will start a second blog all about Tim some day, but in the interim, this post will do. 

I truly do have an amazing husband.  Believe it or not we met on match.com nearly 4 years ago (I believe it was early May 2007).  We chatted for a few weeks until he peer pressured me into meeting for a date (5/27/2007).  After our first date I never looked back. 

He is patient, forgiving, generous, passionate, caring, and the most loving man I have ever known.  He always puts me first and I know he loves me with all of his heart. 

Best of all, he loves me for me.  Even with all of my flaws and moods, he loves me, he supports me, and he never turns his back on me. 

I was fortunate to marry this wonderful man on August 21, 2010.  We are currently enjoying being newlyweds and I try to show him every day how thankful I am to have him in my life. 

I love you Timmy.

Thankful Thursday

A quick shout out to my friend Stacy Scott.  She has taken it upon herself to make people realize how very blessed they are in this life. 

She has committed herself to posting (on facebook) each day in February a reason for which she is blessed and is encouraging her friends to do the same.  At the end of February she will email each friend with a compilation of what they are thankful for. 

I just love this idea!

Many of us don't "stop and smell the roses" so to speak. We don't think about the reasons for which we are blessed or the things we should be thankful for in this life.  I will post my compiled report, courtesy of Stacy, once received at the end of February/beginning of March.  I look forward to reflecting on all of the reasons for which I should be thankful.  I encourage each of you to think each day about what you are thankful for, you'd be surprised how many things there are! Life isn't that bad after all :)