It's Been A While

OK, so it has been just over 4 months since I last wrote a blog post. Here's a summary of what happened.

• After being out of work for month I got a job at a 3PL called Pro Star Logistics.
• I finished my yearly reading of Harry Potter.
  
• My new favorite currently running show "Once Upon a Time" premiered. (LOST is still my all time favorite show in case you were wondering)
  
• The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Premiered.
  
• We had a fun Halloween in which I dressed up as a member of The DHARMA Initiative, Alisa was a witch, Collin was a dinosaur coming out of an egg and Liam was a pea-pod.
• We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma Norberg's house and one at my in-law's house in Idaho.
• I began my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
  
• We all celebrated Kari's return to her family.
• Season 19 of "The Amazing Race" concluded.
  
• The first season of "Terra Nova" concluded.
  
• Collin (or one of his little friends) threw something at my TV and cracked the screen causing an annoying black line that extends from the crack to the edge of the screen.
• We had a wonderful Christmas.
• 2011 ended.
  
• 2012 began.
  
• I began watching the 4th Season of "Merlin" via iTunes
  
• I lost my job at Pro Star and became unemployed again.
• "Alcatraz" premiered.
• Liam turned 1 year old.
  
• The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Concluded.
• Alisa and I started watching the show "Prison Break" on Netflix while up in Idaho and got ourselves hooked.
  
• I finished my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
• Season 20 of "The Amazing Race" began.

So, that's about it. At the moment Alisa and I are waiting for the next few DVDs of "Prison Break" to arrive at the library but my main focus is job searching. Things are going pretty well. I have had several interviews and one coming up tomorrow and I'm actively networking. More posts soon.

Thanksgiving and Grace's Baptism

Last week Alisa, Collin and I went up to Montana to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Kathleen and her family. We had a wonderful time and ate a lot and gave lots of thanks. However, the real highlight of the trip came the day after Thanksgiving when we got to attend the baptism of my lovely niece Grace.As difficult as it may be to believe seeing as how I am the quintessential awesome uncle, this is the first time I have actually been able to attend the baptism for any of my nieces or nephews. Unfortunately, that is one of the prices you pay when you and all your siblings end up spread all over the country. Well, not all over the country; at least we're all in the same time zone now (Thank-you for leaving Pittsburgh Erin). Anyway, it was really great to be there and participate. Congratulations Grace!

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
-President George Washington
October 3, 1789

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
-President Abraham Lincoln
October 3, 1863

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

-H.U. Westermayer

A GRATEFUL HEART

With a grateful heart on Thanksgiving Day,

I see all the blessings that have come to me;

and I know no words could ever say to thee,

how grateful my heart is on Thanksgiving Day.

I didn't earn these blessings, no not one gift,

yet you continue to send them forth my way.

So all that I can give, I give to thee today,

to thee my grateful heart is my greatest gift.

-Ryan O'Berry

Thanksgiving Day 1999*

To the three or four of you who occasionally stumble by accident on to this blog; Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and may we all be a little better at remembering to be grateful for all the blessings we have.

*©1999 Ryan O'Berry. Please do not copy.