what i'm thankful for. . .

i never made my baja 1k trip. ye and i rode to yuma on wednesday night. arrived about 10 p.m. we grabbed something to eat, chips and mojito, went back to the room ate and crashed.

when we awoke in the morning, i was going to ride to calexico to meet george, cross the border and head to san felipe. so, i was waiting for the shower, decided to check my phone for messages. there was one from my daughter.

my youngest son, 20 year old austin, had been in a motorcycle accident.



my trip was over. now i had to stuff his broken bones in the back of my mind and ride 3 hours home, another 45 minutes up to the hospital.



it's been a long week, needless to say. he ended up with two broken bones in his forearm, 3 broken bones in his hand and 3 crushed fingers. his left kneecap was broken, with torn tendons. his right leg sports a torn ACL and LCL. all the surgery for the broken bones was done last wednesday night/thursday morning. his surgery to reconnect his LCL is tomorrow and then he has a long rehab/recovery ahead of him. he will need to have rods and plates removed in about 3 months and is on blood thinners to provent blood clots for the next 6 months.





but i'm thankful.

thankful that he's alive today.
thankful that he did not sustain head, neck, back, chest or organ damage.
thankful that God kept him wrapped in His loving hands and guided his surgeons.

i'm thankful for my family. my beautiful grandchildren, my wonderful children, for the new grandbaby that will arrive next april, a boy, gavin lane. i'm thankful for my wonderful, rock of a husband, he's my anchor in the storm.

i'm thankful that God has chosen to bless me so richly.

heading out

i'm heading down to the baja 1k again this year. like last year, i find myself unemployed, so here i go.

before i leave, some things to get off my mind. while visiting with a good friend yesterday, it dawned on me that christmas has become so commercial i find it just a drudge anymore. never did decorate last year. the thought of hauling out all that stuff was just too much to handle. made for a VERY short cleanup. :-D

so this year it's going to be back to basics at this house. it is the year to really impress on the grandkids the true meaning of christmas. not the santa clause stuff, not the gift giving hullabaloo, it's about celebrating the birth of Christ.

and so this year we will look for ways to show them, teach them about what really matters. teach them it's about giving, not receiving, it's about celebrating that God sent His Son to us to save us from ourselves. and look at what we've done with it. but that's another story for another day.

i'm sharing a drawing my grandson did. he's got a heart of gold this one.



across the bottom are dad, victoria, mom, chris, austin, nana, wallace, buddah, brutus, shelby and bella.

the heart in the middle says "love evreone". it's no wonder kids are so special.

WHAM

just when you think you've got things figured out. right when you feel content. you are in the "zone", sailing through life with a job you love, family you adore, back brilliantly on the mend. . .

then,

WHAM!

i was "re-organized" out of my job last week.

now i have to tell you, this isn't the first time this has happened to me, but it is by far the most surprising. normally you hear rumblings about things not going well, etc. nope, nothing. when they called us in, i thought they were going to put us all on a project together.

i. was. totally. clueless.

what an idiot i am sometimes. i got all wrapped up in the food drive, donating my thanksgiving turkey to the homeless. . .what a naive idiot.

so i'm licking my wounds right now, trying to find sure footing once again. i have to confess, this one has sent me spiraling.

ouch.