Happy Turkey Day!! (Thankful Thursday)

Happy Turkey Day to all! I hope that everyone had a great day full of family, friends and everything there is to be thankful for. I am thankful for so many things so I thought I would post a Thankful Thursday post on this very special day.

I am very thankful for my family. I have a wonderful, thoughtful husband that is so great. I have been sick for the past few days and he has taken good care of me. Today, we started our day at Bobby's parents at a large gathering of his mom's family (and when I say large it was actually small. Today there were about 40 people at his parents and if everyone would have been there it would have been closer to 70-80). We then went to my aunt and uncles for a very nice gathering of my (much) smaller family. We played Left, Right, Center and mom ended up winning $30.00! What a great win!

I can't express how thankful I am for my freedom and the men and women who have dedicated and sacrificed their lives to the preservation of that freedom. I love that I live in a country where I am not censored and the only limits are those that I impose upon myself.

I am thankful for my job. In a time when there are family's struggling to make ends meet, I have a career that I can count on.

And even though I can not include everything, (this may sound silly) I am very thankful for Sophie and Lucky. Every morning when I come home from work they are waiting for me at the door and they let me know how much they love me. While I've been sick this week, they've stayed with me to keep me company and cared for me in their own ways. They always know if I'm having a bad day- they are such good kids!

This was a great Thanksgiving. We had an enjoyable day with our families and, as always, the food was fantastic! I hope everyone has fun Black-Friday shopping!

November!

I can't believe this year is almost over! Last night we went to a friends wedding and my husbands cousin reminded me that I hadn't blogged in a while- thanks Paula! So, here's the update:

Bobby's doing well at work and is glad to be back. He's on the ambo and surviving but ready to go back to the engine.

We held our annual Pumpkin Carving Party and it went well. I was really behind this year; I didn't send out invitations and ended up having to send out a mass text a few weeks before. I was so unprepared for the party (funny since I set the date and time and Halloween comes at the same time every year) that I didn't have any of my fall/Halloween decorations out until the day before.

Saturday (11-5), my mom and I went to the Indiana Dunes to see the South Bend Elkhart Audubon Society's private presentation of Saw-whet Owl banding. The Saw-whet Owl is a very small owl that travels through Indiana on it's migration to warmer climates. This presentation was very interesting and we were even able to pet the owl- she was very soft!

A few days ago Bobby and I took a trip to our favorite Indiana getaway- Nashville (Brown County), Indiana. We rented a beautiful "cabin" that was on 10 acres and had a small fishing pond. We went down on Sunday and started our vacation by visiting the Indiana Raptor Center located in Nashville. Lori and Patty were great! We learned so much and got to see the most beautiful birds. We saw a Kestrel, owls, vultures, falcons, hawks and the most beautiful Bald Eagles. That was SO amazing! We toured the facility, watched the birds eat and were offered knowledge of the birds and what the facility does to teach the public and rehab/release injured animals back to the wild. These ladies were amazing!

Monday morning we were eating breakfast on the front porch and had a wonderful show. We saw so many birds- I was in bird overload! I didn't know where to look and just when I thought I saw something in the tree I would hear another bird and look in that direction. It was great! If this place was so busy in the fall I wonder what it's like in the Spring when the migrating birds are headed north. We've already started talking about our Spring trip to Nashville.

On Tuesday we packed up and thought we would toss a line one last time into the pond to try and catch something. The previous day was unsuccessful and we both wanted to leave having caught something. So we fished for about 25 minutes on our way out and NOTHING! Not even a bite! but just as Bobby shut his door a fish jumped in the pond, kinda like a big HA HA from the fish. Bobby was not too happy. After we turned in our key we went to the Brown County State Park and decided to do a trail before we left. The park is beautiful and a must see! There is so much to do: hiking, horseback riding, camping, a swimming pool (summer) and the lodge in the park has an indoor water park. I think we will try to stay in the park on our next trip.

Even though we had a great time and we are already planning our next trip to Nashville, it was nice to be home. I missed the "kids" and there's nothing like your own bed. Now, I just have to get used to this silly Eastern time change. I HATE that it gets dark so early in the winter.