Days and Days

13 days worth of things I'm thankful for. I really, truly do not want to type these all out right now. One of the reasons I don't feel like it is because while on vacation I got super motivated to start a six week plan to get myself a website and to work on a life coaching blog and to find some people to practice coach on, and to actually start sticking to work hours, Monday thru Thursday, 10 to 4, as soon as I got home. It's 10:17 right now so I would rather do some coach related stuff!

I will give you some highlights of what I'm thankful for though:

Dog Prints - weird but true, there was a rest stop that had a series of giant doggie prints permanently preserved in the concrete, and something about it made me really happy.

No job to go back to - okay, actually I have my own business to go back to, but I'm SO thankful I'm not at my former job, because I literally cried on every other vacation I ever took because I didn't want to go back!

A nice bathroom - the campground where we stayed had a nice, private, clean bathroom! Sometimes those are hard to come by when camping, and I was very, VERY thankful for this!

70+ degrees - our first day on the beach was over 70 degrees, which was such a welcome temperature after being in the cold up north. These temps didn't last, but I was thankful for them while they were around.

A big van - we took Anthony's work van down for our trip and boy was I thankful for it the night we had to sleep in it because of raging thunderstorms! Phew!

How excited I am about coaching - I was doing some practice coaching and learning more and more from my materials and I am definitely headed in the right direction, go me!

Multiple Streams of Coaching Income - this is a book by a woman who coaches other coaches who want to move from a six figure income to a seven figure income! The book is great and really got me excited.

3-D - we went to see Coraline in 3-D after the temps dipped and we had to give up camping. The movie was creepy! But neat and the 3-D made it even better.

Dog shows on TV - I love dogs. They are so darn cute. I was thankful to see some happy, healthy pooches on the tube.

The PERFECT beach walk - after all of the ups and downs with the weather that we dealt with (including wind chills down to 39 degrees! Not what you want when you're in a tent in Florida!) our last day included a gorgeous beach walk where we collected shells and watched the sun go down, it was beautiful.

Vacation is under budget - one the downside vacation was cut short, on the upside I spent less than my vacation budget, which is always awesome.

Kitty forgiveness - the kitties didn't give us the cold shoulder for long once we got home, and I was so thrilled to snuggle with them again.

Great session last night - last night I had another coaching session with Kat, one of my coaching buddies, and she coached me than I coached her, it was fantastic.

Now it's time for me to get to work!

Stoked

I am so stoked right now! Like a campfire! Because I leave to go camping tomorrow. Here's what I'm thankful for today:

1. Four more nights! We are staying at a beautiful state park campground in the Keys but it's so hard to get a reservation - we had four nights locked in and I've been OBSESSIVELY checking to see if more night for any site become available - some had, but they were for a night or something. Finally today when I checked for the third time (of the day) a tent site was open for four more nights, starting the exact night we needed it! So now we have two reservations, each for four nights. The second four nights are in a site that is less than 100 feet from the ocean! Awesome!
2. Chocolate covered almonds. Hey, I write down what comes to mind. Last night we stocked up on nuts and peanut butter and stuff for the trip - and Anthony got a treat from the bulk section and man, they are delicious!
3. RD Jr recovery - what? Last night we watched Chaplin, the movie about Charlie Chaplin's life. It came out in 1992 and stars the superb Robert Downey, Jr. I have always loved him and been interested in his career, and I am so, so thankful that he was able to give up his drug habits for good, because he spent so much time in and out of jail and you could tell he was truly suffering.
4. Toothbrushes - I love clean teeth.
5. Modern dental care - continuing with the theme.
6. My sun collection - I have a couple of clay suns and one sun I made myself, maybe I'll find another one in Florida.
7. Key lime pie? I realized that I am going to be in the Keys so I must try a piece of Key Lime pie while I'm there. I've had it before, but it's not a popular dessert here in the mountains of North Carolina (no bake cookies, yes, Key Lime pie, not so much) and I expect it's awesome down there. I put the question mark because I've never had it there so I don't know if I'm thankful for it yet or not!
8. End game - my class tonight is on our "end game" and it involves picturing in our heads what our careers will be like in three years, and then going from there - writing it down, taking the steps needed to make it come true, making a vision board to really "see" our future, etc.
9. Puppy Bowl footage - have you ever seen the Puppy Bowl??? I think it's Animal Planet that has it on during half time of the Superbowl, and it's so darn cute!
10. The sun - this may have made an appearance here before. Suns are on my mind, I guess!

I'll be keeping my list up but not posting here for a little while, since my tent doesn't have a wifi connection and I don't own a laptop even if it did!

Thank Cake

Can you see my drawing today? There are little drawing of Bundt cakes back there. Why? Because it's the first thing on my Thankful List today;

1. My Bundt cake didn't break! This might seem like a small thing, but I regularly screw up baked goods (their looks, never their flavors!) But this is today's cake:

Mmmm. I don't even care if it tastes good, because it looks so purdy!
2. Coaching session one - I had my last session with Barbara today. Gee, do you think I've changed much? When I started for the month of October I was unbelievably sad and miserable in a job that made me cry about as often as I ate lunch. Now I'm free, starting my own business, writing, and enrolled in a life coaching course.
3. Coaching session two - I also had a group session today with some people in my course, it was fun.
4. Dinner tonight - the above Bundt cake is for the dinner Anthony and I are going to at my parent's house tonight, which I'm looking forward to.
5. No more rain soon! I think it's finally going to be sunny tomorrow...
6. Common themes - I have noticed that the more I read books that speak to me, the more they all sound the same. This is from the intro to The Alchemist, which I picked up this morning. "...we come up against the third obstacle: fear of defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn't work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: 'Oh, well, I didn't really want it anyway.'...Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how." Can I get an Amen?
7. Love and acceptance - I don't even know who I was referring to here when I wrote this, but I'm thankful for it whenever I find it.
8. More Facebook friends - I connected with an old college friend last night!
9. Silly kitties - today during my group session I was on Skype and Nola jumped up on my keyboard and it made all sort of beeping sounds - everyone could tell it was from my end and I was cracking up telling them it was my cat!
10. Oprah - I love Oprah.

What are you thankful for today?

5 Short

Okay, today I only have five things in my journal that I'm thankful for. I'm hoping as I type more stuff will pour out of me. I'm in a low mood because even my makeshift workshop fell through, as one half of the team had to work late and one half really didn't have the energy for it. This also changed some of my other plans regarding errands I had to run in the big city where I was going for dinner. Changed plans tend to make me grumpy. I'm real mature like that.

So here's what I have so far:
1. I have a house. Today's the three year anniversary of the closing. I'm glad to be here.
2. Facebook. What a great way to reconnect with old friends and learn more about new friends.
3. Jillian Michaels. She's the chick from The Biggest Loser and she was on TV this morning. I've always liked her, but today she was asked about her own insecurities and she was open and honest about them. They pretty much mirrored my fears: failure and not being good enough. Come to think of it, I think that's every human's biggest fear.
4. Mmmm lunch. I started my list whilst I was making lunch, which involved some of my favorite foods.
5. The town I grew up in. I grew up on the coast of Connecticut, and it was a great place to grow up.

Okay, here's where I stopped, let's see what I can think of on the fly.

6. I faced my feelings today. I have had a few things that made me feel "off" starting this afternoon, and I've done a good job of writing down what I'm feeling instead of avoiding it or eating it.
7. My quiet night. The boy headed over to a friend's house, so it means a nice quiet night for me and my girls - once Nola Diablo comes inside.
8. Ingles gift card. Back in November my former place of employment gave out $50 gift cards for Thanksgiving, and I got one even though I had put in my resignation. Today I used it to stock up on canned and dry goods for my upcoming camping trip.
9. Our body's natural signals. I'm thankful that my body tells me what it needs and that I can listen.
10. Photographs. I want to see the world, but looking at pictures online and in books is a good substitute for now.

Okay, I did it, I'll add those into my journal for the day. Tomorrow is a new day, a busy day, and soon I'll be enjoying 70 degree weather. Oh the pleasures that will bring.

What are you thankful for?

Tough Day

Today is a tough day for the Thankful List. Years ago, when I was in college, I worked for six months with a woman who I was somewhat friendly with. A couple years later my mother got a job at the same business and spent about four years there and she also became much friendlier with that same woman. Today we found out this person lost her son to a car accident over the weekend. He was her only child, just a couple years younger than me.

There is no way I know to properly convey to the universe how much I feel for this woman or her husband or the other families who are feeling the same way (there were two people in the car, both were killed). I know we should all love what is, but it must be incredibly hard to do so.

This happening makes me feel thankful for EVERYTHING in my life, but at the same time I feel like no list on a blog is enough to really represent how thankful I am to be here and to have the time I've had. But I'll try anyways.

1.My time so far with my family
2. My work on my beliefs
3. My coaching session today
4. Anthony's work (he got a big job for the spring)
5. My individuality
6. Christy & Amy (who I have been thankful for before, but they are going to meet with me so I can do a mini version of my now canceled workshop)
7. Cathe
8. Play time
9. Events that remind us....
10. Faith

What are you thankful for?

Good Sunday

I futzed with the contrast and brightness too much on this puppy.

Today's thankful stuff:
1. Mel and my evening. I had fun last night!
2. Nola this morning. She was cuddled next to me with her head on my pillow when I woke up. Great way to start the day.
3. My run & the lake. It was so beautiful out this morning.
4. My tax return. Yee ha refund, baby!
5. My willingness to be scared. Doing this coaching stuff is opening up a whole can of worms (very emotional worms) so I'm glad I can be scared.
6. Anthony's good mood. Who doesn't love it when their sweetie is happy?
7. My kinda busy week. I actually have things to do each day this week, which is fun for me.
8. My 2 gift cards. To grocery stores. Which I will use to supply my groceries for ye olde campinge tripe.
9. Jazz
10. Oranges

What are you thankful for??

So Behind...Oh Well!

So what have I been doing instead of writing what I'm thankful for? Mostly being very involved in the books I got from the library the other day, dancing around my living room, and doing stuff related to becoming a life coach. I'm still very thankful and I listed 30 things here to get back on track!

1. Campfires. I love them, and in 8 days I'm going to be sitting in front of one!
2. Warm weather. It's warmer here and it will be SO nice and warm in Florida!
3. Saag Paneer. It's an Indian dish with cooked spinach and cubes of Paneer cheese. Growing up I DESPISED spinach. I never knew how much I loved it until about a year ago when I first had this dish. And I had it last night, mmmmm.
4. Martha's friendliness. Martha Beck, the author and my life coaching teacher's presence over the phone the other day during our session was amazing. I get to meet her in July!
5. Good Examples. When I wrote this I was referring to the Obama's. They seem to be great parents, so they are good examples to their children and other parents in the United States. They are in great shape and both workout, also a great example to the people of America. I just like them, and I'm thankful for them.
6. A real sense of connection. I'm just so thankful for the people I've gotten to know in my life coaching program so far.
7. Failures.
8. Brooke Castillo.
9. Tax stuff received - I'm so happy to have it all in my hands for this year's tax returns.
10. Joe does my taxes. I could write this one down for all 30 of my entries today. Joe, my step dad, had been doing my taxes for years, then I moved away from being near him. Since he and my mom moved to where I live, he's started doing them again AND I AM SO THANKFUL! I did them myself a couple times and although I love math and money, I hated all the rules and formulas.
11. Emiko.
12. Upcoming buddy session. Nan and I are coaching each other for the first time on Monday.
13. Cooking outside. Another perk of camping
14. No minimum. On my bank account that I was worried about.
15. I can eat ice cream.
16. Air conditioning. I'm not a huge fan of A/C, but if it gets hot at all in Florida when we're driving around we can turn it on in Anthony's van.
17. CD Player. Also a perk of his van.
18. Candlelight. Who doesn't like candlelight?
19. My evening out. I had fun last night.
20. Discounted Spanish tapes. B. Dalton at the mall had a 40% off everything sale going on.
21. Skype. Haven't used it yet, but it's free.
22. Kitties in the closet. Nola just wanted to go in the shoe and coat closet. She cracks me up.
23. Cat sitters. My mom and step dad are the best cat grandparents EVER.
24. Always away at the Superbowl. I should have written that I'm thankful for the growing tradition Anthony and I have accidentally started - always being on vacation when the Superbowl happens. In 2007 we were in Savannah, GA, I remember we ate dinner at this awesome Japanese place and the Superbowl was on - I had completely forgotten it was happening. In 2008 we were in Hawaii and I went to a Superbowl party while Anthony recuped from a scuba trip. This year we'll be in Florida, camping, nowhere near a TV. Who knows where we'll be next year...
25. Joey's Pancake House. Where I'll be having lunch in two hours!
26. Asheville. I love Asheville. Last night I was there and it was warm enough for the street musicians to be out.
27. A good night's sleep. Ooops, I think I've been thankful for this one before. Such a blessing though.
28. TAO. Stands for Transparency, Authenticity and Openness. The way Martha wants us to coach.
29. Learning.
30. Contact Lenses.

What are you thankful for today?