30 Days of Thanks #12

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY GPS.

How in God's green earth did I ever EVER survive without my GPS?!

No for real.

It's insane how amazing this little device is.

I can remember the good old days when you would drive to an unknown city with just a map and a prayer in hopes of finding your destination. And then, after many MANY failed attempts at finding said destination, stopping and (gasp) asking for directions.

Better yet, I can remember the days of Yahoo maps and their step-by-step, turn-by-turn directions. And I can remember finding that the roads on the directions do not exist. Or did exist at one time, but not anymore. Or have not been built yet. Or telling you to bear right on a road where there is no bear...or bearing to be done.

And the days of two young girls trying desperately to get themselves to a concert at Mile High Stadium by randomly picking an exit and hoping for the best.

(Speaking of remembering, remember Mile High Stadium?)

Or two young girls trying to find their way from the airport to a bridal shop and screaming as they try to make it across 5 lanes of traffic to get to their exit...

Or ending up in towns that should be much further south...

Or on roads that don't appear to exist anywhere on the map...

Denver will never be the same now that I have a GPS.

It has taken all the adventure and near death experiences out of driving through that city...

AND I AM SO THANKFUL!

30 Days of Thanks #11

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY COUNTRY.

It's true. I am proud to be an American. I am not saying it's a perfect place, I don't really know of a place that is. But I love it nonetheless.

I am thankful for my grandfathers and forefathers who fought to protect our rights and our freedoms.

I am so glad to be able to worship the way I want to, to speak freely and have all the liberties I enjoy.

I am thankful for our leaders and government. I would NOT want any of their jobs.

I am thankful for those who continue to fight to protect our home.

I love my country and and so very thankful for it. The good and the bad, I'll take it all.

30 Days of Thanks #10

I AM THANKFUL FOR COOKING AND RECIPES.

I love food. Most food. I have an ongoing love affair with food, more of a love/hate relationship, really. I am an all-star dieter. I feel as though I've been on a diet since I was 16. It's kind of sad because it's mostly true in one form or another. Lose weight, maintain, gain. It's a vicious cycle. Throw in a pregnancy or two and that's just asking for trouble!

So it goes without saying that my food repertoire has been quite, um, limited. Between my personal tastes and "good" foods and "bad" foods, well, let's just say I was not using my full food potential.

I've been broadening my horizons. I've been making new foods for dinners for the past few weeks. I've never felt more, um, grown up? I don't know, it's hard to explain. I feel like I'm finally becoming the mommy/wife I've always wanted to be. I'm learning so much about cooking and tastes and food combinations and it's so FUN! It's like what the heck have I been doing for the past 10 years because this is AWESOME!! I am so thankful for food! AND I can't wait for THANKSGIVING so I can try out a bunch of exciting new recipes!



On a side note, I recently just learned the correct way to spell recipe. Honestly, ALWAYS spelled it wrong.

30 Days of Thanks #9

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY SEWING MACHINE.

Better yet, I am thankful that I know how to use said sewing machine.
I am thankful for my mother for teaching me how to use a sewing machine.
I am thankful for Denise for furthering my knowledge of sewing machines.
I am thankful for my husband for forcing me to buy said sewing machine.
I am thankful for being able to sew and make fun things with my sewing machine.

(pictures of what exactly I've been up to will follow...)

30 Days of Thanks #8

I AM THANKFUL FOR OUR WATER.

I am talking about our hot water.
I like to call it devil water.
And it can come out and burn you at times. Devil water can be mean.
I mean, it even goes hot before it goes cold.
It's mad crazy!
However, I am so thankful that it is so near the boiling point that it only takes a few minutes to get it piping hot for boiling eggs or noodles and for making nice warm drinks to soothe a sore throat.
Ahhh.
Also, it's nice for taking hot baths. It's like my own private hot tub.

Alls I need are some jets.
(insert crude fart joke here)

30 Days of Thanks #7

I AM THANKFUL FOR TIME.

I am so very grateful for Thom's jobs. Yup, that's right. If you didn't already know, my Thommy is working two jobs. Which is totally sucks as far as I'm concerned, but at the same time, it's good. Especially at a time when the economy sucks so bad and lots and lots of people are having a hard time even finding one job, so I'm very grateful for the income which allows me to be a stay at home mommy.

BUT it's hard being a "single mom". I know I really don't have any idea what it must be like to be a REAL single mommy. That's a whole different ballgame! I just feel alone at this. We see Thom at noon for an hour when he comes home for lunch and at 5 for an hour before he goes to the other job. He gets home around 11 and sleeps. So there's no time to even sit down and chat. I feel really bad for him. He works really hard to keep us afloat.

That being said, I am grateful for days like today. He didn't have to work at either job. We stayed in bed, bummed around, went shopping, ate dinner, watched a movie, he even got to give Izacc a bath.

Izacc especially loves time with Daddy. Daddy reads his stories WAY better than Mommy ever could!

Ahh, now we are just chillin watching some tv.

It's been a great day.

I LOVE days like this when all we've got is time!

30 Days of Thanks #6

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY CHRISTINE.

My dear sweet Christine. My amazing friend of ten years now? Sheesh. This girl is amazing. Do you know her? Well you should.

Good grief! Look how young!

We've been the best of friends since college. What a time that was! She invited me to live with her our second year and I said yes, even though I didn't know her that well. There was a big mix up involving my then roommate and, well, that's another story altogether and it didn't end well. Anyway, we got to know each other, perhaps two weeks before school started. She came to stay with me in my apartment off campus. Again, another long story is involved. Don't worry. You shall all know the details when my book comes out.



ANYWAY, have you ever had a friend that you felt like you knew before? I mean, we'd met a long time before, but hadn't really gotten to know one another. So we start talking and we were very similar and had a lot in common and laughed and giggled and I am positive I knew this girl in heaven.



We had an amazing year and it's hard to believe that we only lived together for 9 months. For real! All, well, most of our crazy memories are from one school year. That's all it took, really. We had so so so much fun. And we had bad times and hard times and sad times and downright weird times.


We hosted a Thanksgiving for all our friends and somehow managed to squeeze like 20 people into our tiny living room. We went on insane road trips and met some out of this world people. We dressed up and had girls nights. We sat around and did nothing. We made fun of people and had our inside jokes. We annoyed each other, I'm sure. But not enough to remember. We talked about boys and cried about boys and laughed about boys and gave each other pep talks about boys. We were girly and hormonal and crazy and it was one of the best times of my life.



Poor girl put up with a lot living with me. Once we were getting ready to go to a dance and I got out of the shower and got dressed and out of pure hormonal rage declared that we were NOT going because I was too fat. (we ended up going) She had to put up with Thom and my lovey-dovey making out and hugging and blah blah. (we lived four hours apart and he came to see me every two weeks er so. what do you expect?) She lived with my grumpy PMS-y sad self. And I'm pretty sure I can embarrass her like no one can. She makes me happy.

Me, Christine, and Stephanie, who is a pretty amazing girl herself!

We've basically grown up together. Not through the necessarily awkward stages, thank goodness, but through all the good stuff, you know? College, weddings, baby showers, moving, deaths, missionaries, haircuts, gay ex-boyfriends. You name it, we've been through it together.

There's that cute Stephanie again!

So in my life I have had a lot of friends. Good friends, you know? But I move or they and we grow apart and we still know each other, but don't keep in touch very well. Such is not the case with my dear Bikini. (my little pet name for her. You know she loves it!) She is my sister I never had. She is my bestest friend in the whole entire world. She knows me better than almost anyone. She is awesome.

She is currently in Denver. She had her baby, Kaeleigh, 7 weeks early. Kaeleigh is in the NICU and Christine and her wonderful, phenomenal hubby Mike, are living temporarily nearby. She is going through SO much and I want to help her with all my heart. I will be traveling to see her soon...as soon as the plague leaves my home. (no not H1N1, just crappy nasty boogies and coughs)

She puts up with my boy too!

She has been there for me so many times and I am just so grateful for her. She is fabulous and smart and funny and beautiful and has been my dearest friend when I needed one. I don't know what I would have done with out her all these years. I hope she knows how much I loves her. Because it's lots. And lots.

You see! I told you she was beautiful!

PS Her hubby is also one of my good friends and I am SO glad they are together. He takes such good care of her and they make each other so happy. And he is awesome. I love them both. I am thankful for them.

Mike and Izacc. They both had plaid shirts on. There is a pretty funny story that goes along with this picture. It involes Izacc tipping over and Mike not exactly knowing how to handle the situation. Let's just say it was priceless.

30 Days of Thanks #5

I AM THANKFUL FOR SLEEP.

Man oh man am I thankful for sleep. How could you not love some good zzzzzz's, huh? Sleep is one thing I feel that I take for granted all the time! The older I get, the more I realize when I have not gotten enough.

When I was in college I pulled all-nighters ALL.THE.TIME. Not kidding. There was a reason our a capella group was called 3 am at the Dounut Shop. For real, we were there at least once a week at that time. I can remember sleeping for, perhaps, maybe 2 hrs a night and being fine. FINE.

Fast forward 10 years and I could literally sleep all day. No really. I feel tired ALL.THE.TIME. Let's blame the kids because honestly, they are the number one and number three reasons I don't get enough sleep. (number two, of course, would be the freekin Internet)

However, when I do get a good solid dose of the good stuff, man oh man. Heaven on a pillow. Ian slept through the night for the first time in months last night...and I am thankful. He's asleep now. Good night.

30 Days of Thanks #4

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY IZACC.


Oh my sweet baby Izacc. How I am so grateful to have him in my life. He is so amazing. Honestly one of the smartest kids I've ever met. Too smart for his own good, actually. He is my little Mcgyver, always figuring out ways to get things done for himself. He's started to pour his own drinks and he can get into the fridge and cupboards, much to my disdain.

He's an unbelievable brother to Ian. He is always first on the scene to make Ian happy when he's crying. He is very helpful and almost always shares his toys. (I mean c'mon! I can't even share ALL the time!)

His vocabulary is astounding and he speaks very, very well. I think he watches too much TV, that's to say DVDs on the TV because we don't really get any channels. He can quote movies or shows that he's only seen once. It's pretty comical when he pulls one out at the appropriate time...or inappropriate time as the case may be.

He loves his Daddy. He loves his "Dama and Papa" He loves his aunts and uncles "Pee and Nee", "Brot and Rena", and or course, "Ben". He once told me that he was friends with everyone and that means he is nice to them and they are nice to him. I hope he always has that beautiful viewpoint.

He is so sweet and sensitive, especially to me and my feelings. If I am sad or upset, he comes to me with a hug and kiss and tells me not to be upset, it will be ok. He is considerate and so full of love and innocents. He is such a blessing to me and I am so grateful to have this sweet spirit in our home. I honestly don't know what I'd do without him.

Love you Boy! (Even if you NEVER look at the camera anymore!)

30 Days of Thanks #3

I AM THANKFUL FOR BABY IAN.

Ian Reed came into the world 6 months ago. He was so sweet from day one. He's so mellow and easy going. He is my little angel baby and we are so lucky to have him. He makes my heart melt
I mean how could it not? I fear for my life as he gets older because I'm afraid I will not be able to say no to that sweet, sweet face. He's so yummy!

He sits, he drools, he's got 2 teeth coming in, he's making the most adorable sounds now. He sings and he LOVES his brother. I mean love. No one can make him smile like Izacc can. And he's huge. I'm talking large and in charge. He's wearing 12 month clothes and size 4 shoes. His head size is LITERALLY off the chart. Sometimes I feel like I've been ripped off because he was only small for a month or so. It's like he skipped right past the newborn phase and right into toddlerhood. Oh well, he sure is a cute toddler/babyman.
I am thankful for this baby. He is ours on behalf of much prayer and wishing and hoping and it took awhile to get him here, but he is so worth the wait.

Is there a more adorable baby in all the land? I kinda think not!