Counting my Blessings and Reflecting a bit...

What I'm Thankful For

I was tinkering around on facebook a while ago and I noticed that a lot of my friends had a "countdown to thanksgiving" as their statuses. I thought "awesome! I get to see what my friends are thankful for." Here's a description of what I saw. Each day, they would say, "today I am thankful for..." from the first of November, all the way to thanksgiving. I loved this idea so much that I was wondering why I didn't start one. And then I thought "why not make a list of all these things that I am thankful for all year round and not just one month of the year?"

So this is what this blog is for. I have such a large support system full of people who love me no matter what and encourage me all the time to go for what I love to do. here's to them:

• The Lord and My Savior. His love and grace continue to amaze me each day.
• My Parents. they have helped to shape the person I am today
• My Dad who can make me laugh even when I feel like crying
• My Mom who loves to pamper me and is always there to talk to about anything without making me feel ridiculous
• My brothers. they are the most loving, sweet, intelligent people I have ever met. They are the only ones who understand me 100% and have continued to love me no matter what my mood is like.
• My extended family. I often take them for granted. not everyone has the amazing family I do. they are such a blessing to have in my life. I have no idea what I would do without them. their love is so overwhelming, I often tear up when I think about them. wow!
• My friends
• My Best Friends.
• My pets
• Love
• Laughter
• Pictures
• Music
• My Education. Even the student loans, without them, I wouldn't be able to finish this beautiful and at times difficult journey I am on.
• Imagination
• My cozy room
• My bed with flannel sheets
• people who believe in me as much as I believe in me and know I love what I'm doing, and are able to SEE how passionate I am about teaching! :)
• Boots
• Faith
• Good books
• The nicest staff at the school I'm doing my student teaching at (terms 1-3)
• my wonderful supportive, encouraging mentor teacher
• my silly, smart, adorable, incredible 2nd graders
• the parent helpers
• Memories
• sleeping in on the weekends
• Starbucks Signature hot chocolate and eggnog lattes with pumpkin loaf on crisp fall days.

Life Lessons

Read Each One Carefully & Think About It a Second or Two

1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you..

2. No man or woman is worth your tears, & the one who is, won't make you cry.

3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand & touches your heart.

5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.

6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

8. Don't waste your time on someone, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.

9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting & just be more careful about who you trust next time around.

12. Make yourself a better person & know who you are before you try & know someone else & expect them to know you.

13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

REMEMBER: WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR A REASON

Pondering Life and Love

Just fyi, this blog will probably not make a lot of sense to a lot of people because I am going in no particular order or flow...it's just me thinking about life and love.

I have been single for about 5 years now mostly because I need to get to know myself and be happy without a man for a while. I have become more confident in myself over the past few years. It took some serious soul searching, but I now realize that I am never going to be perfect, but I do know that I am a good person with faults. (aren't we all??).

I truly believe that in order to be happy with another person, you have to have a relationship with yourself and (in my case) God. If I don't have that, then what do I have to give to a person I am sharing so much with? not a heck of a whole lot.

• why is it that people ask me if I have a boyfriend or love interest? don't they realize that there is nothing wrong with me? I know they mean well, but they way they talk about me "needing to find someone" makes me feel like there must be something wrong with me and I know for sure there isn't.
• Men aren't going anywhere. I know that if I wait for a while, they will still be there and I will have time to actually BE with someone and care for them in the way both they and I deserve.
• I am so busy with school. I have the entire ed. program ahead of me and it consumes my life. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids in the classroom I'm assigned to and my mentor teacher is so wonderful and supportive. I am so thankful for that. I know that I am one of the lucky ones who have a teacher, principal, staff and class who are just plain wonderful and supportive of me. Any free time I have, I have to schedule to do homework, sleep, shower, or even be with my family. how sad is that? really...scheduling things other people take for granted. who needs more complications like relationships when dealing with this other stuff?
• I noticed I am so much more confident of myself in the classroom and that is reflecting on the rest of my life and other areas in my life. i think that will reflect and show for something when i do get a chance to actually date. this is who i really am. yes i am single, but I am happy and confident in my abilities, life, etc for the first time in a LONG time.
• people should be able to celebrate my new found confidence rather than waiting to celebrate me finding a boyfriend. or worse yet, making the fact that i don't have a relationship with a man, a terrible "ordeal" and something that needs to be "fixed". there's nothing wrong with me.

It's possible to be happy without a man. I am. I'm Independent. Maybe that scares some people. They should evaluate their own lives. Because if you need a man or woman to be happy, you are really not happy with yourself and need to not be in a relationship either.