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I am so excited about Thanksgiving this year!  In years past, we had a full house for Thanksgiving but as our children and our nephews grew up and had their own families our Thanksgivings were smaller. But this year, we will again be having a big Thanksgiving.  We are expecting 16 family members and friends, but it could be more, or it could be less.  We never know for sure.  And that is quite all right with us.  Our house has always been open to everyone who would like to join us.

One of my favorite Thanksgivings was a few years ago at my sister and brother in law’s house in Lincoln, NM.  She lives about 3 hours away and so we drove up Thanksgiving morning.  Her oldest son, Brandon, had flown in the night before to surprise us all.  He had told no one except the friend who picked him up at the airport that he was coming.  My mother, who Brandon is very close to, was riding in the car with me.  And boy… was it hard to not say anything on the 3-hour drive to my sister’s house.  My husband, daughter and nephew were in another vehicle about 15 minutes behind us.

My mother and I arrived at the house and unloaded the food we brought to the celebration.  I could hardly contain my excitement as I waited for the other vehicle to arrive.  All the family were on the front lawn when my husband and daughter drove up the driveway (Brandon was lying down in the back seat), parked and joined everyone on the front lawn.  As we all stood around visiting, Brandon suddenly burst from the house, surprising everyone.  There were lots of hugs, tears and laughter. It was such a fun surprise.  The day was beautiful.  The temperature was 56 degrees, but the sun was warm, and the sky was bright blue.  The long Thanksgiving table was set in the front lawn.  The day was like a picture our of Country Living magazine.  We ate and laughed and visited on the porch under a propane heater until the night became too cold.  It will always be one of my most favorite Thanksgivings.  Those same family members will be here this year and although it will not be the same, I know we will have just as much fun. What is your favorite Thanksgiving?

This year the Thanksgiving tables are set inside the house.  It will be a casual lunch but the china and crystal will be used.  I have these things and I hate to see them just sitting in the china cabinet, so why not use my best china and crystal for my family since they are my VIP’s.

Psalm 92:1 says “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.”  I am so thankful for my family and the time we will spend together, for a roof over our heads, for the abundance we as American’s enjoy, for my family’s health and the upcoming birth of our great niece.  We have been blessed with so much.

I wish all of you a fun and joyful Thanksgiving!

 

Today is Veteran’s Day.  It is uplifting to see all the flags flying as I drive down the street and around the campus of my church.  That is why today I want to honor my Dad, John Phillips.  Dad died 9 years ago this month and he was a veteran of WWII and the Korean War.  I won’t say his service defined his life, but I will say it had a tremendous impact.

On his last day as he laid in the hospital, he said to me “You know I went AWOL in Korea.”  I knew the story and I knew he had not really gone AWOL.  He was a Lieutenant in the Army when he was in Korea and he had been wounded.  He felt like he was letting his men down lying in a hospital bed, so he left without being released from the hospital and returned to his men.  Dad was an honorable man and therefore, I understand why he wanted to get back to his men as soon as possible.  I am sure he was reprimanded but he did not go AWOL.

Although, the men of his generation were very proud of their service they did not like to talk about their experiences.  This may have contributed to the health issues my father had in his later years.  But in those last years, Dad talked more and more about his time in the service.  So, what he said to me on that last day was not surprising.

When my parents were first married Mom said Dad would fight the lamp in the middle of the night as he dreamed about his time in Korea.  But during the day he just kept quiet about what he saw and what he did.  That was how his generation dealt with things.

In my eyes,  Dad was a big man.  He was 6’ tall with blue eyes and very handsome.  Dad provided wonderfully for his family, he took us on great adventures, he gave us all a wonderful work ethic, he gave us all he could, and he loved us.  He always encouraged me in my education and taught me about business.  He was not a perfect man.  He had flaws and personality quirks just like we all do but he gave his best for his family.

He served both in the Navy and the Army.  I know little about his time in the Navy, but I know he always loved the ocean, specifically the Pacific Ocean and that is probably why most of our vacations were spent in California.  I am sure my love of the ocean comes from him.

When our son was about 11 or 12, Dad gave him his white Navy uniform to wear as a Halloween costume.  Our son was only about 5’ tall and very thin and although the uniform was long it fit perfectly every where else.  All  Dad would say is he must have been much thinner when he wore it.

I miss Dad.  When he passed away I took the shadow box with his colorful fishing lures.  Those lures hang in my office and give me the opportunity to think about him every day.

 

Thank you, Dad, today on Veterans Day, for your service to the United States of American and for being a great Dad!  And to my nephew Levi Phillips, we are so proud of you and your service to our country!  I know Granddad would be so proud of you too!

October is Breast Cancer awareness month.  This is the month where you will see a lot of pink.  It is a reminder to all women to go get their mammograms.  As women we know this is important, but mammograms are uncomfortable, they take time out of our day, and they can be scary.  But a mammogram may just save your life.  It did mine.

Five years ago, I went in for a routine mammogram.  I had not had one for about 3 years.  I did a self-exam every time I was in the shower and I would lie down on the bed occasionally and do a self-exam.  I would never feel anything unusual.  But silently, a small tumor was growing inside my left breast.  I never felt it and I had no symptoms.  But the tumor was found, and a biopsy was done.  It was small and after consulting with a surgeon and an oncologist, it was decided a lumpectomy would be the best course of action followed by 6 weeks of radiation.

Little did I know, several months before my diagnosis God had put a person in my life to help me through this stressful time.  Let me tell you her story.   Her name is Christy.  Christy and her husband called my office one day to talk to us about doing a kitchen remodel.  She had been referred to us by a mutual friend, Ed, who owns the company where we buy our granite and quartz countertops.  We looked at the job and gave Christy and her husband a bid for the kitchen remodel.  When I called to follow up a few days later, I found out Christy was in the hospital having a double mastectomy.  My heart broke for her.  She is a young woman barely in her 40’s and at that time her youngest daughter was 4 years old.  During her recovery, we got together to sign the contract for the remodel and that is when she told me her story.

She went in for a mammogram.  A very, very small spot was seen by the mammogram.  The doctor wanted to wait and watch it and do another mammogram in a year.  But Christy said no.  Something inside her told her there was something wrong. She insisted on having a biopsy.  The biopsy was done and sure enough it came back as malignant.  Christy was frightened but determined.  She had older children and her young daughter, and she needed to make sure she would be around for a long time for them.  After finding a wonderful, young female surgeon who is a Christian and after lots of prayer, she and her husband decided to have the double mastectomy.  She was taking no chances.  She made the right decision and saved her own life.  It has been 5 years, she has had breast reconstruction and is cancer free.

But like I said earlier, God put Christy in my life at the right time.  Once I found out I had breast cancer, I called Christy.  She talked me through the process and calmed my fears.  She told me about her wonderful surgeon, Dr. Brown, and I immediately made an appointment with her and the surgery date was set.  I had uterine cancer and thyroid cancer, 5 years before the breast cancer.  Everything was caught early and through surgery I had been cancer free.  Getting a third cancer was a difficult pill to swallow.  I have always felt a positive attitude, faith and prayer will get you through everything.  However, I had a day of feeling sorry for myself and being angry.  I was alone in my house that Sunday morning a week after my diagnosis.  As I sat there crying, I text Christy.  For the next 2 hours we text back and forth and during those 2 hours I came to grips with my cancer.  My feeling sorry for myself and my anger were gone.  Christy knew all the right things to say, she let me express my anger and calm my fears.  The things I could not say to my family and close friends because I did not want to show my fear and anger, I was able to say to Christy because she had already been through all of this.  She helped me to move forward and conquer the unknown.  Although, Christy and I don’t see each other much and follow each other mostly on Facebook, we will always have a special bond.  See God knew what I needed months before I knew.  It was just one more time, God used someone special to guide me down life’s road.

Today, I implore all you women to get your mammograms and do your self-exams it could save your life!

 

 

New Mexico here we come!   My husband, Jim, and I are born and raised Texans.  Even though we live in far west Texas and are on the border of Mexico and New Mexico, we are diehard Texans.  However, last month, we purchased 3 1/2 acres in Capitan, NM,  a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico located north of the Lincoln National Forest between the Capitan and Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 6,530 feet and a population of about 1,500.  This is the home of the one and only, Smokey the Bear who was found burned as a cub in the Capitan Mountains, was rescued and became the symbol to prevent forest fire.  He  lived his life at the National Zoo in Washington DC  and is now buried in Capitan at the Smokey Bear Museum.  The landscape is grassy ranch land with pine and juniper trees.  Our view to the south is the popular ski resort mountain of Sierra Blanca located in Ruidoso and to the east are the beautiful Capitan Mountains and to the west is a grassy valley with horses.  To us it is breathtaking.  We looked for over a year and a half to find the right property with the right view and God sent us to this property.

Now our work begins!!  What do we do first?  Fortunately, the property already had a well, a septic tank and electrical hooked up.  Jim was able to get the well going with the help of one of our new neighbors who just happens to be an electrician.  But now we must figure out if the water is drinkable or do we need a filtering system.  We have time to get things figured out though.  This is where we plan to retire in a few years.  So while we are figuring things out, we have brought our small travel trailer to the property to be our weekend getaway.

We love getting up in the morning, opening the curtains and enjoying our coffee as we search for the location of the seven horse that graze the adjoining property.  They seem to take the same path every day.  So we know exactly where to look.  It is very reassuring.

After getting the well running, we have now started cleaning up the property by cutting down some dead trees, trimming up trees and clearing out the underbrush.  This will be a job that will probably take a long time.  We started with an island in the middle of a dirt circular driveway.  We removed a dead Juniper tree, cut the underbrush and trimmed the remaining trees.  We gathered  rocks from all over the property and outlined the island and then set up an iron and wood bench that Jim refurbished.  The bench had belonged to a customer and was to be thrown away.  Jim knew immediately it would be a fun refurbishing project and a great addition to our property someday.   We then added his small windmill, a solar light in the pine tree and 12 solar lights around the rock edge.  Already the place is beginning to look like home.

I hope you will join Jim and me on our new adventure there is so much more to come.