*PSA……if you would like to be Chica for a Day and come guest blog…speak up.

**PSA TWO: Raine won the Restless Dawn writing contest. Take a minute to go read her entry if you haven’t. It’s awesome!

Okay if you read my blog post tomorrow at Naughty and Spice you are going to see the same if not a similiar post. Karen came up with the brilliant idea of giving thanks and instead of posting on Poignancy which I might post later this week (it was a really good post when I wrote it in my head last night while laying in bed–shush) I’m going to repeat myself!

I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to share some rather personal stuff (And I hope in return ya’ll will share what you’re thankful for or maybe something important you’ve learned this year). For what it’s worth, I’m not saying this so you’ll tell me how wonderful I am (I already know :cloud9: ). I say this so that if there is one person out there who thinks they can’t change their life, maybe they’ll think again.

I want to start by saying that I Am So Blessed!

This has been a hard year health-wise but I have good friends online who have stood by me and prayed and sent me positive energy, and I have good friends offline who have gone above and beyond the call of duty for me…something I haven’t experienced in a really long time. Good friends are hard to come by.

I’ll admit, when it comes to the holidays I’m a bit of a scrooge. I still remember the years after I left the ex when there would have been no Christmas for my children but for the kindness of strangers (and a Chrsitmas tree that came out of a friend’s dumpster), and I’m sure that’s why…I was a college student, and a welfare mom–I made 7.50 an hour working at the kid’s daycare and even with a discount still had to cough up 160.00 a week for care for two kids. I ended up dropping out of college and ended up falling into the most amazing job working for a writer, which is what gave me the impetus to start writing myself. But there were still some pretty tough times–two years with no child support, battling depression, the shitty apartment, the repossessed car, borrowing money from the folks, the welfare office (and I had the most AWFUL caseworker).

It’s been twelve years since I left the ex (best thing I EVAH did), and I have to tell you it’s been an amazing twelve years! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have two writing contracts under my belt, my own house (and the darned payment! LOL), and two beautiful, healthy intelligent, fun-loving (if occasionally lacking in common sense) sons.

I’m thankful for my children. They keep me going because I want to show them that you CAN go after the craziest of dreams.

I’m thankful for where I’ve been because it helps me stay focused on where I’m going.

I’m thankful for the hard times, because they make me appreciate the good times that much more.

I’m thankful for my friends, for the roof over my head, for the food on my table, for all the life’s lessons I’ve learned and all the lucky breaks I’ve gotten.

So what about ya’ll? What are you thankful for and what are you doing for Thanksgiving?