Happy Birthday to Me

It's my birthday.

I am 37 years old.

I do not feel "old." I just feel... like me!

It is FREEZIN FREAKIN COLD TODAY!!!!! Though, earlier, I did thank God that my birthday is a cold day this year. I still mean it.

I am grateful for my job, my home, my pets, my Lena, my church, my relationship with God and my family.

This past year (11/28 to 11/28) I have worked all at the same job, lived at the same place (well starting 12/1/11), gotten in a great new relationship (4/19), consolidated my school loan payments into one, and paid off a few debts. I also saw Melissa Etheridge in concert in Biloxi, MS and spend an amazing weekend in Pensacola Beach with Lena. I have fostered and adopted out somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-14 kittens and have done a little volunteer work at CAAWS, the Capital Area Animal Welfare Society here in Baton Rouge. I feel very good about that.

This next year, I need to pay off a lot more debts, have a substantial increase in income to be able to do so, fix up some things on my vehicle and put more effort into self-discipline including exercise and keeping my house clean.

This next year, I WANT to take Lena to Dallas, go to Chicago, go to Memphis, save up a lot of money, have plenty to spend next Black Friday, lose some weight and get in better shape.

All in all, I'd say my life is between pretty and really damn good. I am truly grateful for that and look forward to this next year... not as one more year to grow older, but as another year of opportunity to do good things and also to improve my own life!

And, as always, my goal remains to be a VERY sexy 40-year-old one day. :)

Here is a picture I took yesterday of my sweet girl Luna, who I've had for 6 years and is one of my closest and dearest friends:

Wednesday Update

Presidential election... I guess yay, mostly I'm glad the campaigning is over. I hope this 4 years is better than the last. I hope people elected to whatever they were elected to... keep their valiant promises and do what they said. We shall see.

I feel like a big ball of snot today. Yuck. At least I'm feeling better than last night. Weird how sinuses can turn especially evil when it's dark outside.

I learned who had been declared the President by listening to NPR on the way to work this morning. Ha... cold medicine knocked me out long before the results were in.

I woke up a few times in the night. It was one of those really great nights where, when you wake up, it feels like you've been sleeping for HOURS, then you look at the clock and see you've only been asleep an hour or two. Realizing you have so much nighttime left is a good incentive to smile. :-)

Hmmm... what else has been going on in my life... things with Lena are good... things with God are good... got to spend a lot of time with my little nephews 2 recent weekends in a row. All the pets are healthy and I was able to find a home for 3 more formerly-stray kittens... which brings my total adoptions coordinated to about... 12??... since I've been living where I do now, over the past year. That makes me happy.

I know I blog a bit about the Bible... I don't want to run off anybody who is just seeking a "normal" blog to read... but I also want this blog to truly represent me as an individual and who I am. So I hope you will read this blog even when I get Bible-ey, even if that's not your thing. I'm not a thumper, just a believer; sometimes I learn things that help me a lot and I want to share them.

Just checking in. Now back to battling my sinuses... and a heavily-forecasted return to Benadryl-land this evening when I get home.

To close, here's a picture of my Hippie. He's the little kitten by my old laptop in the picture at the top of this blog. All grown up now... my sweet, sweet boy :-)