Pre-A to Z Thankfuls

Imma slipping a Ten Things of Thankful in here (early, for a change) before I start posting my A to Z Challenge posts, which begin tomorrow. In case you aren't familiar with the A to Z Challenge, for the month of April (excluding Sundays, except THIS Sunday, and I don't know why they chose to start it on Sunday except that it's the 1st but that makes for six days IN A ROW of posts and I'm kind of panicking a little, can you tell?!) you write one post a day and theme each post with the letter of the alphabet for that day. 

It is fun but HARD.

In the meantime, here goes the thankfuls:

1. I will be so thankful if you will follow along on my A to Z journey. My theme for the month is Pinterest Wins or Losses. I start out of the block pretty low key, but I've got some doozies planned.

2. Spring is being kind of snarky this year. It's been rainy. It's been cold. It's supposed to snow on Easter Sunday. But the flowers are popping out regardless and they are lovely.

A violet fighting its way up through the dead
grass and old gumballs.

3. My dad had to go to the ophthalmologist last week, had his eyes dilated, and couldn't drive until they UNdilated, so I made him run some errands with me rather than sit around the doctor's office. We got some items needed for my A to Z Challenge posts (it feels as though I spend several thousand dollars on the thing, although that could be a slight exaggeration), and I took him into Red Racks for his first visit to a thrift store. I think he will want to go back there, as we happened to hit it on Senior Citizen Discount Day AND he found this sign to hang up at the lake house:

He was pretty amused by this. It's
now hanging outside the front door.

4. I got tired of my hair and cut three inches off of the front and it's mostly even (or, as my mother would have said about it being uneven, "Can't tell it from a moving horse").

5. I don't shop for myself much, but I ran into Old Navy and came out with three t-shirts and two pairs of capris and only spent $50.

6. Emma got to join us at the lake house this weekend. She was going to stay at school and do homework but changed her mind and came home. (The Med School Student has a big exam on Monday, so he couldn't come.)

7. We haven't brought the cats with us to the lake house since Christmas, so they came this time, and right this minute, they are snuggling together in a chair and SOMEONE LOOK OUTSIDE TO SEE IF A LEAD BALLOON IS RISING.

Spooning kitties.

8. I have my first two A to Z posts written. Already! My usual MO is to write them and post them with mere minutes to spare before the daily deadline. A turning point perhaps?

9. After running an errand with my dad today (turn about is fair play), we ran across a couple of tom turkeys and their harem of about a dozen females. I did an abysmal job of getting a picture, but the fellas were all puffed up and pimpy and would have made a great photo if I had been quicker:

They unfluffed as they approached the road, but
they were certainly gentlemen about watching
their ladies cross the road safely.

Turkey butt.

10. This week marked the sixth anniversary of my bilateral mastectomy and free tram reconstruction surgery. Monthly self examinations are CRUCIAL, my friends! KNOW. YOUR. BODY. Annual mammograms are not sufficient. 

Now, go out and be thankful!

Linking up with Josie Two Shoes and Ten Things of Thankful