30 Days of Thanks: Day 30

This one is kind of strange but here goes anyway - I am thankful for my memories. Especially at this time of year, I'm glad I have the memories of holidays past, with all of my family. With grandparents that are gone, with friends that live far away now, with my immediate family that has grown from five (my parents, my sisters, and me) to 12 (add three husbands, four kids, and three dogs). I know a lot of people don't have memories like I do - because they weren't lucky enough to live near grandparents, or because holidays weren't a big deal with their families, or any number of reasons. But they're a big deal to us. Not because of presents or food, but because we get to spend time together and do silly things like wear redbirds on our clothes and make crazy bedazzled "glamour shots" Christmas ornaments. And because I have the blessing of having such great memories, I want to be sure that Milo has the same opportunities to make memories as well!

This is the last post in this series - I know some of these things have been silly, some serious, but it's helped me to remember, I have SO much to be thankful for and this list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface! Thanks for sticking with me!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 29

I am thankful for my health. Overall, I'm pretty healthy. No major issues, just some allergies here and there and minor annoyances, but I'm able to get out of bed every day and take care of my baby boy and go for runs and go to work and do all sorts of other things a lot of people aren't able to do. When I was pregnant I questioned whether I'd ever feel good again but I do and I am SOOOOO thankful for that! I probably feel better now than at any point before in my life!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 28

I am thankful for home. I have already been thankful for my house but this is entirely different. For the better part of my life, I've loved traveling. I mean, for a few years, I owned a house that I was only actually physically present in for about 30% of the time, at most. And that didn't bother me. But now, I am turning into a home body. It happened even before we had Milo. I love being at home. That doesn't necessarily mean this house in particular, just the place where Nathan, Milo and I hang our hats. Right now it happens to be this house.

It was nice to see family over the holidays but it was equally nice to get home last night. To go to "my chair" (which oddly enough used to be Nathan's chair) where I feed Milo. To tuck Milo into his bed. To have our usual bedtime rituals. To NOT have to hurdle over the three truckloads of stuff we took to my parents and subsequently had COVERING the floor of our room there. To wake up this morning and not have to open my eyes to get to the coffee pot. And now, to sit on our bed, listening to Milo as he half-heartedly whimpers (with eyes CLOSED mind you) trying to keep himself awake at naptime.

Yep, it's good to be home!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 27

I am thankful for 2 hour naps for the baby (finally!). His mama needed a good long stretch and even though I didn't take a nap, I felt better that HE got a good one!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 26

I am thankful for laughing so hard my stomach hurts. My sister and I had some fun with photo booth on my brother-in-laws Macbook and oh my goodness...it's been a long time since I laughed that hard but my stomach hurt, I was crying. Good stuff. If you want to see what we did, she tagged the pics of me on FB so you can go find them there, but I certainly am not going to do anything to make them easier to find. :)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 25

Today I am thankful for yummy food and that I am inside where it's warm and dry while it's cold and rainy and windy out!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 24

I am thankful for vacation days and time with family. We are spending Milo's first holiday with our families and so far we're having a great time. His cousins are just so excited to play with him (even though he's not really playing much yet) and this is his first time to meet a lot of my family. We're going to take it easy the next couple of days and just enjoy our time off!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 23

Today I am thankful (mostly on behalf of my coworkers but also for myself) that the Great Flood: Round 2 did NOT happen at the height of tax season! In fact, I think if we had to choose a time for it to happen, this would have been it. There's definitely a mess to clean up but it's minuscule compared to the disaster we would have had on our hands had this happened just 6 weeks ago. I am also (selfishly) thankful that my personal space at the office went completely unscathed in said flood.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 22

I am thankful for warm weather for my run this morning! It's that last gasp of summer (yes, summer) before winter roars in here in a couple of days.

We had our windows open last night and during one of our wakeups we decided it was TOO HOT AND HUMID...IN LATE NOVEMBER. So, we did what any normal people would do, we closed the windows and TURNED ON THE A/C...IN LATE NOVEMBER. Yes, really. I was annoyed with the heat last night but I assure you when I saw that "66" on my iPhone weather this morning at 5:45 when I got up to get ready for my run, that put a little spring in my step! Fabulous!!!

I will continue to enjoy it until the 20 degree lows come in later this week. At which point I will be thankful for down blankets, warm hats, and hot chocolate. :)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 21

I am thankful for short work weeks and family time. I know it hasn't started yet (and who are we kidding, technically EVERY week is a short work week for me) but I'm excited that Nathan is only working two days and we get to spend four or five days in a row together and with our families. Most days it seems like the day is gone before we know it. I'm up early and out of the house for a run, then home to trade off watching the kiddo and then Nathan's at work all day then when he's home it's time to trade again so I can get some things done and before we know it, it's bedtime. I'm thankful I'll get to spend a little quality time with both of my boys in the daylight! I'm excited for Milo's first Thanksgiving as well!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 20

Today I am thankful for our dog, Kona.

Even though he doesn't get quite as much attention as he used to, we still love him and he still makes us laugh! Example: Kona usually sleeps in his bed underneath the table next to my side of our bed. His bed has a blanket in it and he must be covered up at all times in order to sleep. Funny at first, annoying after the 500th time he wakes us up crying because he's come uncovered. But I digress... One other piece of background information, in the winter, Kona has a fleece hoodie that he wears (and I'd include a pic here except that we haven't reloaded our pics onto this computer after having to reformat and reinstall our OS after my e-mail got hacked earlier this week). I know, it seems ridiculous to put a sweater on a dog, but really, he's much happier with it on. Again I digress...

A couple of mornings ago Nathan woke me up and he was laughing. He said he'd taken a couple of pictures for me. Here is the first:

Kona's bed was empty. The obvious question: so where is Kona? And where's his blanket? The answer:

Under the bench on the other side of our room. Apparently he'd gotten out of his bed but the fleece had caught the blanket and instead of getting out from under the blanket, Kona, the blanket and all had walked (or more likely wandered blindly) across our room, coming to rest under this bench. We suspect he'd been getting up for a drink of water, couldn't find his way out, and just stayed here for the rest of the night. He didn't seem any worse for the wear.

Anyway, we love him and he keeps us entertained, and most times alerts us to unusal activity around our house. He's a good dog. :)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 19

I am thankful for weekends! Weekends mean Nathan is home and we get to spend our time together. Even if it's cleaning house or grocery shopping, we get to spend time as a family. Plus, he's usually hopped up on caffeine on Saturday mornings so I get free entertainment! :)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 18

Today I am thankful for late breakfast with friends, pumpkin pancakes (with caramel apples on top!), and the willpower (that I'm pretty sure came straight from God) to do my run today!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 17

I am thankful for middle of the night feedings. I grumble about them sometimes but I try and remind myself to enjoy this time with my little man before he grows into a big man and goes away to college and so on. Besides, the middle of the night is when I get some of the sweetest smiles!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 15

Today I am thankful for my cousin. Of course I'm thankful for all of them, because I'm actually friends with all of them besides just being related to them. But today, specifically I am thankful for my cousin that lives just a few blocks away and is my running partner! A few weeks ago at lunch she randomly asked if I'd be interested in training for a half marathon in May. I had actually wanted to do it this year but was pregnant so obviously running (or even walking) 13.1 miles at that point was out of the question. So, I told her sure, thinking in a week or two we'd get a plan together and get started. Much to my surprise (and somewhat to my dismay) that afternoon I received a Google calendar link to a training schedule that started THAT DAY.

There I was just barely 3 months after having a baby and not having done any sort of regular exercise in quite some time and I was about to start running? We did start our training and as of today have finished four weeks! I can very honestly say that if I didn't know she'd be waiting outside my house at 6:30 a.m. three days a week, I would have already quit. But I'm still going! It's great because she's patient with my slow pace, she's encouraging, and she's helping me get back into shape (probably better shape than before the baby)!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 14

I am thankful for our house. It's not my dream home, but it's a very comfortable roof over our heads. It's pretty in the snow.


It's got character. It's got great woodwork, wood floors, and more than TWENTY original glass (from 1918!) windows that offer views like this:


There's plenty of room for our little family and we even have an apartment that allows one of our good friends (and a wonderful baby sitter) to live close by! We live close to my cousin, Nathan's cousin, my aunt and uncle, and close to Nathan's job. When I say close, I mean within 9 blocks of all of the parties mentioned and within 2 miles of Nathan's office. I complain about our house often - being as old as it is, it's got it's issues. But it's really a good house, and a great place for us to start our family!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 13

I am thankful for early Saturday mornings....seriously, who WOULDN'T be a morning person with this sweet face to look at?



...and puppy dog feet. I don't mean actual feet on a puppy dog, I mean this kind:

I was up and at 'em early today because the little man decided 6:15 was wake up time. And I was OK with that. I was able to wake up a little bit before heading out for my run, and we got a lot done today. Yay for early Saturdays! (Never in a million years thought I'd say that.)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 12

I am thankful for praying friends. Last night we had our first outing sans bambino. We have both gone to work at the same time before but this was different - we left him with a sitter and went to an awards dinner where my uncle was being honored. We love the sitter we left him with and we totally trust her but that didn't stop me from feeling a little anxiety. OK, a lot of anxiety. So, I texted a good friend who I knew would pray for me and told her what the deal was. I had no doubt she'd pray but her response was so great. By the time she texted me back (just a few minutes later) she told me she had already prayed, and would continue to pray. But she didn't stop there. She told me specifically what she was praying for me so that I could (as Beth Moore would say) "claim it". I have no doubt this is what kept me from being a COMPLETE basket case last night.

In my discipleship group in high school one of the things that I remember one of our leaders telling us was that if someone asks us to pray for them that a great thing to do is to do it, right there, with them on the phone or wherever you are. That always stuck with me but it was one of those things I either never had the guts to do or didn't think about until after the fact. But, being on the other side of that last night, I can say that was truly such a blessing to me. So, to my friend who did that for me, thank you!

(By the way, everything was totally fine, the little man was sound asleep when I got home and no one seemed any worse for the wear.)

30 Days of Thanks: Day 11

Today I am thankful for all of our servicemen and women. From my uncle Kit's facebook post today (speaking about my grandparents, uncle, and great-uncle):

My mom was "Rosie the Riviter" at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. She assembled DC-3 aircraft... a work horse in WWII. Dad was in the Navy and had the USS Houston shot out from under him in the Pacific. Brother George was a MACV advisor in the Nam and uncle Ike was a tail gunner in a B-24... they are all my heros.

I'm thankful for all of their hard work and sacrifices so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do!

30 Days of Thanks: Day 10

I am thankful for my family, but in particular my grandparents and great-grandparents. I have been blessed to know all of my grandparents and two of my great-grandparents (that I can remember). In fact, my Granny (my dad's grandmother) was alive until I was 23!

I have learned from all of them and have had a close relationship with all of them since I grew up in the town where they all lived. I am lucky enough to have FIVE grandparents who have been examples for me of what a Christian life looks like. From what I see from my friends, growing up that close to, and spending that much time with, any grandparents at all is pretty rare, much less getting that relationship with ALL of your grandparents! And even though we don't live in the same place as our parents (Milo's grandparents) we are close enough that they get to see him pretty regularly and they can be involved in his life, and for that I am also thankful!