Top Ten Tuesday #25: What I'm Thankful For

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is:

Top Ten Things I'm Thankful For

Going mostly outside of blogging and books for today's TTT, but if you would like to know the list of things that I'm grateful for in regards to blogging, you can go here. Also, if anyone featured in these photos would like one removed, let me know.

1. My family. Always the top of my list, I am grateful for the group of weirdos with whom I share a percentage of DNA. We're a ragtag group with extremely varied interests and skills and taste in everything, but we love each other something fierce. Most of the time.

I am not in this picture because as the youngest & least

loved, I was forced to take this pic. Also, I'm the only

single one in the fam so there's that too. We're also

missing the two latest additions, but they didn't

exist when this picture was taken.

Oh, THERE I am. As the youngest, I am also, naturally, the most adorable.

2. My friends. Despite being a complete introvert, I have been very blessed with the most insane, ridiculous, loyal and loving groups of friends at every stage of my life.

We took about 200 pictures with a computer over

the course of a couple hours and uploaded them

ALL onto Facebook. I was blocked from

Facebook's image center for tagging

them all in one day. Ah, college.

Guys, it's Maura of Whimsical Mama! Don't let the

innocent faces and lack of red solo cups fool you;

we were totally at a crazy band party in this pic.

3. My religion. I am very grateful for my parents for instilling in me a sense of spirituality very early in my life. I only really talk about religion with people I'm close with because religion is enormously personal, but I love my faith.

4. My education. My parents also made sure that I got a darn good education. I'm a public school kid and proud of it. From elementary to middle to high school, I was fortunate to have amazing teachers who challenged and encouraged me. My English/language arts teachers were particularly helpful. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am now or love reading so much. My college career was long, confusing, and a little torturous at times, but I'm grateful for it.

Oh, yeah. I make red polyester look dang good!

5. Marching band. Oh, boy. Being a member of a high school band and moving on to college was quite the experience. Music education is wonderful for many things. I love band music. I loved every minute that I played the flute, the piccolo, and percussion. I gave up a lot of things to be part of marching band, and I would make those sacrifices again. If I could, I'd go back right now to do it all over. Marching band gave me a home in high school and again in college. When I was bullied by a "friend" in HS, I had over a hundred people with my back. When I went to college, I never felt lost because I knew I had three hundred instant friends. I miss you guys terribly! Thanks for all the good times. Red Devils and Big Loud & Funky Band o' Blue forever! Also, yes, marching band is very life educational as well. ;) ;)

Oh. You want it.

Oh hai blog reader Aleesha!

Maura and me again (sorry, Maura!)

Pretty sure I was staring at the cutest

basketball player. Otherwise I'd have

been yelling my head off.

Kinda like that.

6. Books. You didn't think I'd go an entire blog post without mentioning reading, did you? Books have been my constant companion since I learned how to read. When I couldn't face being around people, I always had literary friends to turn to.

Yes, this was posed, but who cares?

I see this every time I open my closet door.

And this is just the Dallas bookshelf. It pales

in comparison to the Tennessee shelves.

7. My job. Oh, man, this frustrates me to no end. My job is at times the most ridiculous thing ever, but I am endlessly grateful for it. It not only gives me the funds to support myself comfortably, but I always have enough left over for giveaways too. Plus, when work isn't a drag (and what job isn't sometimes?), it's SO much fun. I basically get paid to play around with toys all day.

Why, YES, that is a pumpkin-launching catapult! Jealous?

And while there are many, many, many other things for which I am endlessly grateful, I think I'll leave the list at that today. Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone!