Category Archives: Thanksgivings

Thankful Thursdays #71: tragedy makes us human

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Veronica

A tornado moves on the ground north of Solomon, KS on Saturday evening, April 14, 2012. {Photo source}

Several E3 tornadoes passed through southeast Wichita last Saturday, damaging all three of our aircraft plants and causing significant damage to a mobile home park and the Oaklawn neighborhood. I live on the west side of town, and I can tell you I’d have much rather been at home with my husband and scared doggy than at work, which happened to be quite close to the path that the tornadoes took through Wichita.

This map shows my location (A), along with three areas nearby that were hit: (B) Spirit Aerosystems (C) Pinaire Mobile Home Park, and (D) McConnell Air Force Base.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Although not officially the USPS motto, it may as well be, and it was going through my head as I continued to key mail even when our lights went out (the computers never went down, I believe they are on a backup power supply) and I feared our revolving doors might be ripped from their hinges. Tornado sirens blared, our lights flickered, went out, came back on, went out, our revolving doors were banging back and forth against the force of 135-165 mph winds, rain & debris pounded our roof, and lightening and thunder cracked and rumbled outside. Our windowless cement single-story building was designed to endure the toughest Kansas weather so that mail delivery will never be delayed due to our plant losing power or being damaged, so although many of us may have preferred to crawl underneath our desks and suck our thumbs, there really was no safer place to go and we carried on.

Aerial view of some of the tornado damage in the Oaklawn neighborhood in Wichita. {Photo source}

It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to a devoted mail carrier that endures frostbite and heat stroke in order to get the mail delivered (thank you, Dad!). Keying the mail through a tornado definitely made me feel a little more like one of those hard core mail carriers like my Dad, but although it was a proud moment in retrospect, I have to admit I was terrified out of my mind and a tear or two might have escaped my hard core eyes.

Damage to homes in the Oaklawn neighborhood of Wichita. {Photo source}

I probably didn’t do my best work that night, but hopefully I didn’t direct any of your mail to China…I hope you’ll forgive me if I did. I was praying without ceasing while I typed and listened to updates on where the tornadoes were headed and the devastation they had left in their wake.

Tornado damage to Pinaire Mobile Home Park in Wichita. {Photo source}

As soon as I left work, eyeing the insulation scattered in our parking lot and wondering what unlucky building it had come from, I texted everyone who I thought might have been affected to make sure they were OK. I’m so thankful God answered my prayers—every single person reported back that they were fine! There was some damage to homes reported, but everyone was alive and well and thank God for that!

I’m also thankful that the tornado missed my workplace. All three nearby aircraft plants were hit and damaged by the tornadoes, the worst being Spirit Aerosystems, which is just 1 ½ miles away. A little too close for comfort! I wouldn’t doubt the insulation in our parking lot came from one of their buildings. These photos shows the damage to one of their plants:

{Photo source}

Yowza, this could have been us. You guys can give thanks too that we were unaffected, as your mail delivery will not be affected by the tornadoes! (We key mail all over the US and even to foreign countries-we’re pretty important! :) )

Oaklawn residents join together in the middle of the night to clean up fallen trees after the tornadoes.

{Photo source}

One thing that always touches me when tragedy strikes, is how people and communities pull together to help those affected by the devastation. Last week I commented on how animals can make us human by learning from the kindness and love they have for each other, and I think tragedy is another thing that makes us human. It can bring out the best and worst in a person, but ultimately, I think it brings out the best in us because we can’t stew in our own sadness when there are so many that need help. We come together and help each other out! And those unaffected come forward to help those in need. It heals us, and it is such a wonderful thing to behold.

{Image source}

I know it is a cliché expression, but God does work in mysterious ways. Who knows whether he sent these tornadoes for a specific reason, or if they were just a result of the natural occurrences that happen in his creation. I do know that all these natural disasters are a sign of the end times (Matthew 24:7), and while they are tragic, there is something beautiful about the human kindness that is sparked by them. Sometimes I wonder…if we never had tragedy and disaster in our lives…would we be better people or worse? (I’m speaking in the terms of this world, not the one to come, in which we will be perfect and happy!) I’d hate to think we need tragedy and suffering in this world to give us a reason for kindness and empathy, but I wonder if it wouldn’t lessen. Something to think about.

Why I’m thankful post-Midwest tornadoes April 16, 2012:

That we had 24 hours notice and plenty of time to prepare for the serious storms brewing.
For the sirens that warn us to take shelter. And for the people operating them.
For the technology that allowed that very advance notice. And for the people using it and delivering the notice.
None of my family or friends were killed, and in fact, there were NO DEATHS in all of Kansas.

And when it comes down to it, that’s all that matters. Material things are necessary to our lives on Earth, but they can be replaced. Thank God for sparing so many lives that night. He is truly holy and awesome.

{Image source}

If you’d like to help those who have been affected by the Midwest tornadoes, please visit the Huffington Post’s page with links to the different relief efforts helping the different areas. Thank you!

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Posted in Thanksgivings and tagged 2012, April 16, KS, midwest tornadoes, Oaklawn neighborhood, Pinaire mobile home park, Spirit Aerosystems, Wichita, Wichita Remote Encoding Center. Bookmark the permalink.

Thankful Thursdays #70: animals make us human

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Veronica

I’ve been doing Thankful Thursdays for almost a year and a half, and I often get comments from people telling me they wished they were more like me, that they could be more thankful and less pessimistic and negative. While I appreciate the sentiment, I have to admit that I’m not thankful all the time. Truth be told, I really am more of a glass-half-empty kind of girl, and sometimes I really struggle with feeling gratitude for any of the good things in my life when there is something that is not going right.

Which is why I started this series–I realized I had a lot to be thankful for and I wanted to put more energy into being positive and noticing all the blessings in my life. And it has made a difference. Although I’m still more of a pessimist than an optimist, I’m much quicker to see the silver lining in any situation, and a spirit of gratitude has definitely been developing and growing within me.

That said, this was one of the weeks that I just didn’t know what I was going to write about today. Yes, there are many things I’m thankful for, but it’s been a sad couple weeks for me (this situation has gotten me down again–it seems to rear its ugly head once every year or two) and I didn’t exactly feel like talking about why I’m so thankful for fill in the blank.

So I was brainstorming with Dennis while we walked Jessie last night and as I watched Jessie in all her innocent bliss, sniffing and romping, treating each blade of grass as an engrossing and transcendental experience, I started thinking out loud.

“I’ve already written an entire Thankful Thursday about Jessie, but really, I think I’m thankful for animals in general. They teach us so much if we take the time to observe them, don’t you think?”

I have seen a playful, patient, and loving spirit in nearly every animal I’ve ever observed for any length of time. While we may take the many conveniences we have for granted, they seem to really appreciate everything about their world, whether it’s their humans (in the case of pets), or the grass, the wind, and other animals. (Especially if they’re hungry and eat other animals-lol.) Sometimes I wonder if the biggest reason God put them here was to teach us how to be human.

I had quite a few animal pictures saved to my “Amusement & Etc.” and “The Cuteness!” boards on Pinterest, and rather than wax poetic about the lessons animals teach us, I thought I’d share the photos and let them teach you without words.

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Thankful Thursdays #69: home sweet home

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Veronica

I apologize to those who are reading this on a work computer. I copied all the photos from MySpace and Facebook, and they likely will not show up on your computer if your workplace blocks those sites. I hope you will check back when you get home!

Our home is the last thanksgiving on my list of top ten, and I didn’t really expect to devote any more time to it other than mentioning it when I made the list. But we’ve given food to the same homeless man begging in the same spot for the last two Sundays, and I’ve seen more and more people begging in the streets, and it has made me reconsider. Though I’m not sure how many of them are homeless, their growing presence is a poignant reminder to remain thankful for the basic necessities I take for granted, and even complain about, like the humble roof over my head.

Truth be told, we live in a small home. 550 square feet to be exact. And yes, I have been known to complain about it.

I get frustrated that I don’t have enough room to store my cake pans, that I have to have a clothes rack in the garage because we don’t have enough closet space for our clothes (especially since I turned half of one closet into my cake stuff storage area), that there’s nowhere to store the vacuum so we have to drag it up and down the basement stairs to use it, that we have to move our (very heavy) coffee table every time I want to work out to a video.

We also live in a house with lots of problems. The basement leaks, the garage leaks, we have no guttering, the walls are cracking, the porch is sinking and separating from the house, and did I mention my lack of cake pan storage space?

Jenna recently tickled me when she wrote a very upbeat post on Monday, in which she was showing step-by-step photos of her recipe process, including one with bacon grease spilled on the counter. Her take on the spilled grease? “Look at the grease you spattered on the counter and also feel good. Because you can just wipe it up with a soapy sponge, and the problem disappears. And when your “problems” can be fixed with a sponge . . . well, then you can really count your blessings.” This is what I will remember next time I can’t find a place for my 14″ cake pan. If that’s the biggest of my problems at the moment, I can rejoice!

Because I not only have a home, but I have too much stuff to even fit in it. What luxury!

Within my home, I can shower, cook food on the stove or in the microwave or oven, and store the leftovers in the refrigerator. I drink purified water from a water cooler, go online and communicate with my friends by email. I can write a letter and mail it from the mailbox on the front porch, and I receive cards and letters and packages here–a great perk of having a place to live! I can watch a movie with my husband, I can give my dog a place to sleep, and keep her safe from the storms that terrify her.

Our home protects us from the cold & heat, sun & rain, wind, hail & tornadoes, but the biggest blessing is the many beautiful memories that have been made in it. This home is integral to those memories, and each time I look at certain things in my home, it brings those memories back. They are intrinsically interwoven, and it is a joy to have a place to come to every day, to have parties, to have friends and families over, so those memories can be made.

If you have ever had a reason to complain about the home you’re living in, I encourage you to say a prayer of thanksgiving today. Whether it be grand or humble, you have a home, and that is a blessing. May yours be filled with many, many happy memories.

***

A jaunt down memory lane in our home:

The Davis girls on Halloween 2004. My sisters are the hotness!

We used to have Halloween parties every year. Our spread from 2007, above, was one of my favorites! OK, this is a little embarrassing, but you see the cheese balls and cheese log arrangement on the far left? Um, yeah. That was my sister, Lacey’s, “Lorena Bobbit Cheese ‘Balls’ platter.” Oy. :)

She couldnt get enough of my fingers Veronica

Showing off my new baby girl in 2004.

What I love most about my home is the man (and dog) I share it with!

Have I ever shared a photo of my Mom with you guys? If not, I am now! Here I am with Mom and Dad after cake on my 27th birthday.

With Danielle and Mom after a holiday dinner at our house.

Goofing with Everett and Danielle in X-Men masks on Den’s birthday several years ago. Have I ever told you I LOVE the X-Men movies? It’s weird b/c I’m so not a sci-fi girl. But I got pretty obsessed with X-Men. I watched the first one so many times, I could quote it word for word from beginning to end. I had way too much time on my hands!

Lacey (second from right) and I had a Mary Kay party at my house with our sister, Danielle (middle) and our friends, Jen and Carly. Girl time is so much fun!

Dennis Jessie 1/3/09 Veronica

These two make our house a home.

Dad and his girls in My Photos by Veronica Miller

Dad and his “men” as he always called us. We had a barbecue in our backyard for his 60th birthday.

My cutie-patootie nephew, Owen, making a magnificent cupcake creation! He loves helping me bake. :)

Doggy sleep over: Jessie and her friend Jenny, tired from staying up late giggling. :)

My friend, Heather, stopped in for dinner while visiting family in Wichita, 2010.

Despite a a significant age gap, Bobby and Dennis were great friends for years. He visited us after he came home from Afghanistan in 2010 (he was in the Marines), but he now lives far, far away. We miss him so!

Dennis curled up with Jessie after he had oral surgery to remove a cyst. Jessie’s a great comforter.

Pizza night! Danielle and Everett broke up last November, so the pictures with him are terribly bittersweet for me (they were together 6 years!), but I’m so glad for the time shared with him and the memories. We will always love him.

Action shot! This is Jessie and her best friend, Doc. They have sleepovers every few months. They have known each other since they were puppies–they met at the doggy day care we used to take Jessie to.

I teamed up with a few co-workers for a weight loss competition in November of 2010 and they all came over to weigh-in.

At the end of three months, Erika won! We had a final weigh in party with plenty of fattening foods to celebrate our weight loss. :) The Huggies in the background shall be explained shortly.

Nicole and her kiddos were supposed to join us for the final weigh-in party b/c we had planned a surprise shower (hence the Huggies and flying stork), but she didn’t come until everyone had left! Her kids went wild drawing pictures while we chatted for hours. I still have their drawings on my fridge and it makes my heart happy every time I see them.

Last July, my friend Teri came over for a pie crust lesson. She wanted to learn how to make pretty pies, and I needed some help making the kind of down-home-cookin’ my husband loves, so we made a deal to teach each other. So much fun!!

Ever since we made these cut out pie crust cookies last summer (after a day of swimming, hence his trunks), Owen always asks if we can make these again! “Can we make cookies in animal shapes with jelly in the middle?” I’m so glad he loves to bake as much as I do! We will definitely be making a lot of memories in this kitchen. :)

***

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Posted in Thanksgivings and tagged Home, homeless, house, memories, shelter, thankful. Bookmark the permalink.

Thankful Thursdays #68: quotes

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Veronica

Although I mostly use Pinterest as a place to collect online recipes I want to try, I also run across quotes and food for thought while browsing pins, and I wanted to share the ones I’ve found that are centered around gratitude. I hope you enjoy these, I found them all very inspiring, encouraging, motivating, and uplifting!

And here’s a video bonus, a song called “Thankful,” sung by perhaps my most favorite male vocalist, Josh Groban. It is a powerful, inspiring song, with a powerful voice behind it.

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Thankful Thursdays #67: ding dong, the glasses are dead!

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Veronica

Happy happy, joy joy! I never thought the day would come when I would be thankful for the death and destruction of Den’s glasses. I often threatened to burn them, to run over them, to toss them in the trash, but alas I couldn’t do that to my hubby, who was hopelessly devoted to them. He was bound and determined, it seemed, to keep them for all eternity. But blessedly, the day has finally come when they snapped under the pressure of being the ugliest, oldest pair of glasses on the planet. I think the shame of their ugliness led them to commit suicide.

Dennis bought these glasses in 1985, people. I was five years old when he bought them!! Who keeps a pair of glasses that long? They turned gangrenous the way cheap metal does, and there is some really horrid-looking stuff seemingly growing beneath the nose piece. BLARF.

I can’t believe I even touched these. *shudder*

I feel the urge to soak my hands in bleach just looking at this photo.

By the way, on a total random note, but sort of related since I’m thinking of my poor hand, check out the wicked manicure I did for St. Patrick’s Day:

ANYWAY. Although this style of glasses actually came back into fashion recently (seriously, who keeps something so long that it goes in and out of fashion before you get rid of it???), they were never a good look for him.

To prove my point, I submit exhibit A, B & C:

Not. a. good. look.

In contrast, here is Dennis wearing the glasses that I helped him pick out:

Much better.

The old glasses have made me gag since the first time he put them on in front of me. He doesn’t wear his glasses all the time (though he’s supposed to), only for driving, so the first time we went for a ride together, despite not knowing him very well, I laughed out loud.

“What us UP with your glasses?! They make you look like a beefcake.”

Unbeknownst to me, beefcake actually refers to a hot semi-nude male, which Dennis took great delight in telling me.

Only momentarily flustered, I countered, “OK, well, it makes you the opposite of a beefcake, then. Like a beefy jock, and not the beefcake kind, that is illiterate and maybe was dropped on his head as a kid…and uses steroids that makes him look fluffy instead of defined. Those glasses totally take away your definition. They are so. wrong.”

Yes, I was harsh, but need I remind you how bad his glasses were???

Dennis never had any great rebuttals to my tirades, which he was exposed to many times over the years as my hatred of the glasses grew, as did the many ways I plotted to destroy them if he refused to throw them away, but he always found them hilarious. (Honestly, I would have stopped if it hurt his feelings, but I did it mostly for the satisfaction of making him laugh.)

My hatred for his beloved glasses became a running joke between us, to the point that when we witnessed the ear piece fall off when he tried to put them on before an errand, we both laughed uproariously. Dennis asked if I was going to burn them the next time we went camping, a scenario I had vocally fantasized about on numerous occasions, but I told him no. They had suffered enough. They deserved to rest in peace.

Fare thee well, my tenacious gangrenous foes. Enjoy your afterlife in the dump.

Amen and amen.

P.S. Can you tell what kind of recipe I’ll be sharing on Friday? :)

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Posted in Dennis, Manicures/Nail Art, Thanksgivings and tagged funny, men use stuff until it dies, old, ugly glasses. Bookmark the permalink.

Thankful Thursdays #66: modern medicine

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Veronica

My appreciation for modern medicine is surely shared by many. I’m sure most everyone alive has been thankful for it at some point in their lives, those that have survived cancer and life-threatening injuries probably more than we will ever know. Personally, I depend on it daily to survive and that constant reminder when I take my pills and my insulin makes me continually thankful.

Without modern medicine, I would have died before my 21st birthday.

I was diagnosed with Graves disease, a thyroid disease, when I was 19. This is a hyperthyroid disease (which means faster metabolism, faster heartbeat, etc.-my resting heart rate was 140 beats per minute) and has the fun bonus symptoms of a goiter and bulging eyes. Being young and reckless, I thought I knew better than my doctor and decided that rather than take the pills he gave me or take radioactive iodine to kill my overactive thyroid, I would try natural remedies and cure myself that way. Unfortunately in my case, I really needed an aggressive treatment to nip the disease in the bud, and while I was able to significantly improve my bulging eyes through chiropracty, bringing them back to the state you see them today, my disease was too progressed to be taken care of quickly enough with natural cures.

I clearly had a goiter on my wedding day, but I wouldn't be diagnosed with Graves Disease for another three months.

I let it go on for a year after my diagnosis. Then I started getting new symptoms. I would get strange floaters in my vision that became larger and larger as weeks passed, until I wouldn’t be able to see at all for 30 minutes to an hour after I ate. I was thirsty all the time and had to pee all the time. This too progressed until I kept the largest size cup that Quik Trip offered at my desk and drank one filled with water every half hour, and literally peed every five to ten minutes. I became weaker and weaker, and I remember going to buffets and Dennis having to get my plates of food for me because I couldn’t get up. I made a point never to squat or sit down on the floor because I wouldn’t have the strength to get back up. Eventually I couldn’t muster enough energy to even leave our apartment and I stopped going to work. When I did leave, Dennis had to carry me out to the truck. Despite eating tons of fattening food, I lost 30 pounds in 3 months.

Some people thought I held my eyes unnaturally wide, but this was my relaxed look. My eyes were so distended that when I blinked, one of them didn't fully close. You can also see the goiter on my neck is much more pronounced.

Dennis was worried I had diabetes but I refused to accept this. I knew it was just my Graves Disease getting worse, so I finally broke down and scheduled my date with the radioactive iodine pill. I hated the idea of taking a pill to replace my thyroid hormone for the rest of my life, but now that prospect seemed so much better than what I was living through.

By the time this picture was taken, my eyes had gone back into place thanks to months of chiropracty, but you can see how unhealthy I still look. My hair and eyebrows were thinning and I was losing weight. My bathing suit was hanging off me and my arms have never been this thin in my adult life, before or after.

Dennis had to roll me into the hospital in a wheelchair because I didn’t have the strength to walk. Simply standing and moving from the wheelchair into the doctor’s chair caused me to pant with exertion. The nurse who was only there to do some preliminary stuff caught a whiff of my breath and said it smelled like acetone, which she was familiar with because her Mom was diabetic. She checked my blood sugar and it was 697. I hadn’t eaten anything that morning so that was my fasting blood sugar. I can’t imagine how high it had been after meals.

I found out later that thyroid disease will eventually affect every organ in your body if left untreated, and that’s why my pancreas shut down. Because I didn’t want to utilize a cure for it that would leave me taking a pill for the rest of my life, I ended up causing myself another disease which requires four shots a day minimum.

So what was supposed to be just a quick swallowing of a pill turned into a week-long hospital stay while they brought my blood sugar into a normal range, replenished my electrolytes and taught me how to manage my disease, including the hardest part–injecting insulin. I nearly passed out before I got the gumption to stick that first needle into myself! Thank God my Mom was there with me, or I never would have been able to do it. We agreed to do it together on the count of three (hers was filled with saline solution) and that’s the only reason I was able to finally stick the needle in my stomach. After that, it was much easier.

This photo was taken five years after the last one. Happy and healthy again!

I know the normal reaction to discovering you have a disease is shock, denial, and “why me?” but all I felt was THANKFUL. While I’d been outraged when Dennis suggested I had diabetes, I had been through such hell before the official diagnosis that all I felt when I got it was relief. I’d already went through the shock, denial, and “why me?” when I was diagnosed with Graves Disease. But when I went into the hospital that day, I was at death’s door and a part of me knew it. When I found out there was an explanation for it, and that it could be managed with modern medicine, I was happy. Seriously happy. Overjoyed. Every day I was in the hospital, I felt better and better, was able to start taking walks, and it was like I was really living again. I was so thankful for modern medicine because I knew it had saved my life, despite my ignorance that had nearly snuffed it out. Modern medicine gave my life back.

That same thankfulness that was overflowing in my heart while I was in the hospital is still with me today. Because of it, I’ve never dealt with the regrets of diabetes. It has never felt like a burden to me. Sure, there have been times when I’ve wished I could just go on vacation without having to tote enough medicine to allow me to live through it. Sure, I’ve wished I could just eat a piece of chocolate cake without calculating how much insulin I’ll need to take to cover it. Sure, had terrifying experiences with low blood sugar that brought me closer to death than I’m comfortable with. But those thoughts are few and far between. Mostly when I think of my diabetes, I still feel that same thankfulness that I have something that can be managed with modern medicine. This wasn’t always true, and even when insulin finally began to be used, it was a terrible and painful process to administer it (in earlier times, they used reusable huge glass syringes that they boiled after using!!) and there was no way to monitor blood sugar so there was much more room for error.

So now you know why I have such incredible gratitude for modern medicine. Despite my pancreas not working, which is something required for my survival, I’m still able to live simply because of the time I live in. Thank God for modern medicine.

In what ways have you been/are you thankful for modern medicine? How has it impacted you personally?

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Thankful Thursdays #65: Meet Baby-my first thankful vlog!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Veronica

My car is one of my top ten thanksgivings and although I hadn’t planned on expanding any of that list beyond the top five, I thought it would be fun to show you guys how many issues Baby has (I know, what an original car name, right?) and still manages to get her basic job done *almost* every day.

Baby takes me to and from work five days a week, takes me to the grocery store, post office, and library every week, takes us to and from Abilene to visit Den’s family every holiday, totes us and bretheren who don’t have vehicles of their own to church and Bible studies, gives my other baby, Jessie, so much joy when we let her ride in the back seat (especially if we’re going through the drive-thru, her favorite ride), allows me to whisk my Dad off to his doctor appointments and stop by his house each week to divvy up his medicines and pay the bills, takes me off to my own doctor appointments for that matter, to vet appointments (though I can tell you Jessie is NOT thankful for that), takes my nephew and I off on various and sundry adventures (though last time that resulted in us being stranded an hour away from home when she wouldn’t start!), and takes us on most of our stay-cations to places in the surrounding area. She has pretty great gas mileage (*supposedly* 36 mpg highway, though I’m sure it’s not that good any more), which is why we take her everywhere instead of Den’s truck. (The truck’s name is Henry. He’s a Ford. :)) She’s a survivor–takes a lickin’ and keeps on kickin’. She’s had a hard life, but she’s a determined car. And I appreciate her so much! She is a very necessary part of my life.

So here’s my video, presenting my car in all her abused glory with eye bags and wet hair. You know I never have a problem keepin’ it real. Enjoy!

In case you’re wondering, no, my car won’t start if I don’t push the unlock button at the same time. It doesn’t even act like I turned the key unless I push the unlock button simultaneously. And because I’ve been starting it this way for four years, the unlock button now sticks and I have to very gently press the lock button after the car starts (you can see me do this if you watch closely) so that it doesn’t start spazzing out and making unlocking and grinding noises. Craziness!

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Thankful Thursday #64: hands

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Veronica

Hands. Like many parts of our body, we take them for granted…but what would we do without them? Have you ever thought about how many times you use them a day?

I have been pondering this because Jessie bit my hand today, making it semi-useless, when I tried to take something from her forcefully that she didn’t want to give me, and her animal instincts kicked in. I knew better, but I was mad. Note to self: don’t get mad and scare your dog by yelling at her, then try to take something forcefully from her possessive mouth–the combination of your anger and quick forward motion will make her animal instincts kick in and she will attack. Duh.

So now I have a swollen and bruised hand that is painful to use. I have it bandaged where her teeth punctured (that part isn’t too bad), and am thinking about how many times I’m going to have to change my bandages a day since I wash my hands often. I’m thankful that it isn’t painful to type (after all, my job depends on that ability!), but it seems I can’t use it for anything else: grasping a knife, lifting, even using it to push up my sleeves. I really miss my hand.

We often don’t consider our blessings until we don’t have them any more. Thankfully this is an injury and not a permanent setback. But it was enough to make me consider something as “minor” as my hands and how useful they are, and how thankful I am to have both of mine.

God gave us an incredible ability to adapt to our situations as humans, and I know there are people without hands that learn to use their feet for everything…there are even artists who use their feet for painting! But I bet they would tell you they wish they still had their hands. Just like I wish I still had a working pancreas, though I’ve learned to manage my blood sugar well without it.

Today, let’s not wait until we’ve lost something to appreciate it. What can you think of that you usually take for granted that you are thankful for today?

Atlantic Records doesn’t allow embedding of this video, but please watch it on Youtube (push play and a link will appear that you can click to do so)! It is powerful.

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Thankful Thursdays #63: Friends part 2, Memories

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Veronica

I hid behind the refrigerator with my friends at a neighbor’s house, waiting to scare the neighbor’s Mom, who was coming through the door. Unable to hold in my giggles, I ruined it by drawing the others to giggles and soon I was laughing so hard that I peed my pants, causing the others to laugh even harder while the Mom stared at us in bewilderment.

My third grade crush insulted me in front of the whole class, but I held in my tears until it was recess time. My friends surrounded me and hid me from view, ready and willing with hugs that soon mended my broken little heart.

My best friend and I stayed up late, playing MASH, and giggling. We were so afraid of anyone finding out our secret desires of who we wanted to marry that we tore each paper up after it was filled, and flushed them down the toilet.

It was our first middle school dance and we were so excited. I met my friends at the dance and not long after I arrived, wearing my tiny mother’s dress that was way too adult for me, I proceeded to rip the seam up the back almost to my butt while doing the running man (as a joke). My friends stayed around me in a circle the whole night so no one would see.

It was the night before a big test. I met my best friend at her house and we quizzed one another relentlessly and every time I missed a question, she thought of a way to help me remember the answer.

We sat on the kitchen floor of a friend’s house in a circle, eating cookies and telling each other funny stories. “OK, don’t make me laugh,” I warned them. “I’m going to get up because I have to pee. Don’t. Make. Me. Laugh.” As soon as I stood up, one burst into giggles and the rest followed suit. I crossed my legs as tight as I could while I squealed with laughter, but it was no use. I peed all over the floor and my friend’s Dad came running just in time to witness the glorious event.

Swimming at El Dorado Lake, the wind caught my inner tube and, wanting to show off to the surrounding boys, I quickly took off after the float. Not realizing how far I might have to swim, I started to panic as I reached the halfway point, trying to float on my back to avoid drowning as I sputtered and gasped for air. Suddenly, my best friend was beside me and gave me her float before swimming after the runaway float. She probably saved my life!

We walked in the procession to pomp and circumstance, eager, excited, and sad. Would this be the end of our friendship? Would our separate journeys as adults divide us? What did the future hold?

It was my big day, and I’d just gotten married. I hugged person after person who went through the reception line, and I kept looking to see where my best friend was. She waited until the very last to join the line and when she hugged me, she burst into tears. “What’s wrong?” I cried. “I just feel like, you’re leaving me behind. That you’ve found a new best friend.” “No, we’ll always be friends,” I promised.

We were painting addresses on curbs to make some extra money, and my best friend and I came across a freshly paved square of sidewalk. Looking at each other with juvenile orneriness dancing in our eyes, we conspired together and wrote on it: “Let me out! I’m underneath this square of pavement!” before jumping in the car and taking off in a fit of girlish giggles.

We got a job together at the same place and sometimes I’d find a note underneath my windshield wiper after work that would make me bust out in laughter.

Scloomp, scloomp, scloomp. You've officially been scloomptified!

She brought me to Christ, is my long distance pen pal, makes recipes she finds on my blog and uploads pictures and pimps me out on Facebook, which always makes me smile.

We walked to the park with her kids and my other bestie, and when the latter joined the children in playing on the playground, we gave in and joined her, realizing how fun it is to let loose and not let the expectations of adulthood inhibit us.

We take vacations and weekend retreats together. We call and text each other with good and bad news. We mail each other packages and letters, share our favorite music by sending CDs. We email frequently. We buy things impulsively that reminds us of one another. We rejoice in each others’ triumphs, and console each other when tragedy strikes. Through the years, I can say that I made it through them joyfully because of my friends. Friendship is one of God’s greatest blessings to us because when we call on Him for comfort, it seems like that is how it is delivered, through a smile, kind words, a hug from a friend.

And then there are my online friends, who are just as important to me as my real-life face-to-face friends. Our connections vary in depth, but every one is a blessing to me, bringing me joy daily, and comfort in times of distress. Some I confide in, baring my soul to them, including some readers who I know through no other medium than my blog. Some have become so close to me that I do consider them real-life friends, even if I’ve never seen their face other than in pictures. You know who you are. :)

Thank God for my friends. You are my “quiet angels,” and I dedicate this song to you.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” C.S. Lewis

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Thankful Thursdays #62: friends part 1

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Veronica

Continuing in my venture to flesh out my top ten thanksgivings, I’ve now worked my way down to #5, my friends, the thanksgiving I’m sure most everyone will agree is not only one of life’s greatest treasures, but what helps make life a treasure itself.

This is a difficult post for me to write, and I was unable to finish it in time, so until I can bring my thoughts together in a more coherent way, I thought I would just share some uplifting friendship quotes and a few pictures to give you the happies. Give thanks for your friends, they are precious!

Hugs to my online friends!!

Love, Veronica