Thanksgiving 2013

This Thanksgiving was quite fun. Willie and I got to go to his grandma and grandpa's, where a lot of his family gathered. Paige, Willie's sister, was also there and we were able to spend some time with her before she had to go back to a girl's home that's under the state's custody. She is in the process of getting adopted by Willie's aunt and uncle, Rosie and Shawn Lindsay.

Paige got to meet her brothers for the first time (Willie and Chase) on October 8 of this year, whom she had no idea she had until recently. They hadn't seen her since they were little, and since she was a newborn. We are all very excited for her to come to Monroe. It's crazy to me how a year ago we were all wondering where in the world she could be. Thankfully Paige was assigned a new social worker, one who actually cared to do her job and did some deep researching. It was then when she discovered Paige had brothers, and shortly after that we were all notified.

After Paige had to go back home, Willie and I went to Circleville to spend the rest of the Thanksgiving night with my family. It was nice to go there because I don't often get the chance to spend time with them. It was also a treat to have the chance of going to two Thanksgiving dinners! I felt a little spoiled :)

Which brings me to this year's things to be thankful for. I would probably be writing for hours if I were to name everything I was thankful for! But here are some of the most important ones:

One, I am thankful for my backbone, Willie. He's my best friend, my love, my partner in crime, my other half. He's the one I can tell anything to. Although we've been together for almost four years, our love for each other keeps growing, rather than becoming dull like it tends to do with a lot of couples. We've become cheesier with each other it seems like, which I love. We've somewhat made a little tradition of watching our favorite TV shows after he gets home from work. We feel a little guilty because we kind of spend a lot of time watching these shows, but in our defense, it's winter time and there is not a lot to do in this little town this time a year! Our favorite TV shows at the moment include The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, The Mentalist, and The Walking Dead. Our TV show obsession started out with our ultimate favorite, Dexter. But after watching the final episode of its season finale we moved on to other shows!

I'm thankful for my family. I love my parents to death, and my sister. I feel like I have an amazing relationship with each one of them, although I wished we lived a little closer. I am also thankful for Willie's family. His grandparents are sweethearts and I am thankful I get the chance to spend a lot of time with them. I am also thankful we've gotten to know Paige a little bit, and can't wait until her adoption is complete. It will be a fun summer because we will be able to take her to California to meet her biological mom's side of the family (as Paige, Willie and Chase share the same mom.) I am thankful for my own little family, with Sam (our dog) and Bella and Kibbles (our two cats.)

I am thankful for the little things that a lot of people take for granted, like being able to hear, smell, touch, walk and see. I'm thankful for being able to have relatively good health. I'm thankful we have a roof to live under, we have food, and we have people we care about that care about us. We are lucky to have these things that a lot of people don't get the chance to sometimes. I am also happy with the fact that Willie and I share the same mentality about the importance of becoming a successful person. My time will come when I continue going to school and proceed with moving towards what I want to become in life, but for now Willie is the one that is busting his butt taking care of his business. I think we work well together as a team. For these and many other things I am thankful for this year!

Our Story

I never imagined that I would one day have such a loving and caring boyfriend. Willie and I have been together for a little over three and a half years now. We dated almost a year, and then moved in together. We are now a family with three furry kiddos. He is always so sweet to me, and he's an extremely hard worker. He is a full-time student, with only one semester left after this one. He also works full time at nights as a waiter. Not only that, but he still finds time to go to the gym, and also to help his grandparents on the weekends. He is so sweet not only to me but to our fur balls as well. We all love him to pieces!

Him and I met back when I was completing my hours to become a certified nursing assistant. We would go do our hours in a care center of the elderly, where he happened to work. When I first saw him, I thought to myself "Ohh he's cute, I wonder who he is!" Luckily my friends in my class filled me in. We didn't start talking until later though, where we found each other on MySpace (oh yes the good ol' ancient MySpace!) We then started to hang out quite a bit. I lived in Piute County at the time, where I lived about 50 minutes away from where he lived with his grandparents. After us hanging out a few times, it continued to me coming Saturdays and Sundays to see him. He had a suspended license at the time, and no vehicle, so it was up to me to get us together then. He had a rocky phase shortly before we met, where he often got himself into trouble. Luckily he grew into a very responsible man, who I even more fell in love with.

After that it evolved to me coming to see him every Friday or Saturday, and I would stay at his place for the rest of the weekend. I think his grandparents may have gotten a little sick of it, even though they'd never admit it haha. One of their rentals opened up, and it felt a little as if they kind of rushed us into it, but we had no problem with that of course. We have lived in their same rental for almost three years now.

The first of our "kids" was Samurai, our black Pomeranian. He was five when we fist got him, and he is now eight, so he's getting up there unfortunately. He is seriously the best dog ever though. He isn't loud and yappy like most Pomeranians. In fact, we had to encourage him to start barking more! Despite his age, we were still able to teach him quite a few tricks.

We then got an orange tabby kitten who we named Bella, and she is now two and a half years old. She is the princess of the house. She is only picked up or cuddled with only when SHE wants to, and she can have quite an attitude sometimes. When she is affectionate though, she can be the sweetest cat ever. And she is an extraordinary hunter. She is always dropping dead mice on our porch (as the cats are able to go outside whenever they'd like.) We think that's her way of "providing for the family" haha.

Our third kid, Kibbles Cooper, more so adopted us. He's also an orange tabby cat. He showed up outside our house when he was a kitten, and no matter how hard I tried to find him a good home, he wasn't going anywhere. We think someone just dropped him off here, like a lot of people tend to do around this small town, whenever they don't know what to do with their huge litters of kittens. That's one of the reasons we strongly believe in fixing our animals. When you fix your pet, you avoid having a bunch of animals that take away the second chance of life for shelter animals on death row. Anyway, we are glad Kibbles stuck around. He is the sweetest cat we could ever ask for. He always automatically purrs when you touch him or pick him up. He is super cuddable and often gives you his I-love-you squinty eyes.

We are truly blessed with amazing pets. I have the best little family unit I could ever ask for, for now anyway. I would like children of my own, and I often find myself wishing we could have some already. We have both decided that it would be best to wait however, until we are married of course, and a little bit longer after that so we can enjoy our marriage as well.