Day Fourteen

Day Fourteen

Today I am thankful for my neighborhood book club.  It allows me to spend a few hours with my amazing neighbors which I always enjoy.  I really love the experience of getting together with an eclectic group of women and discussing books.  It allows me to see the different life experiences we all carry with us in everything we do but more importantly it allows me to realize how incredibly similar we can all be, regardless of the paths we've walked.

Day Thirteen

Day Thirteen

Today I am thankful for my friends.  My friendships all seem to have evolved over the years.  Regardless of how or when I meet the friend, there always seems to be the same flow.  I make a new friend, spend tons of time together and then inevitably life gets in the way or takes us down different paths and we drift apart.  Sometime this drifting takes us so far apart it leaves one or both of us wondering if it's worth the work to re-establish the relationship.  But I am thankful that I am at a place in my life where all of my friendships have gone through this tough stage and come out stronger on the other side.  

It is a place where we can go months without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off.  It's also a place where we may manage to schedule a dinner date once a month.  It is a place where we are comfortable enough in our relationship that we can just stand back and let the natural flow of life take over. (Special shout out to Carla, so great to catch up tonight)

Day Twelve

Day Twelve

Today I am thankful for my husband.  Yesterday he stayed home from work because I thought school was closed for Veterans day.  He called me that morning to let me know I was in fact wrong and the bus had just passed our house.  He got Garrett ready and ran him up school without so much as a tardy slip to show my parenting fail.  

Today I was reminded that there is no one in the world I would rather walk through this parenting journey with.  He always has my back, although he doesn't hesitate to tell me when he thinks I am wrong behind closed doors.  He is always able to jump in and fill in where I fall short, especially when it comes to Garrett.  We work as a team and the house stays (somewhat) clean, dogs are taken care of and Garrett has his needs meet because of this team work.  I could truly never do it all on my own and I don't think I tell him how much I appreciate him enough.  He goes along with all of my crazy ideas and rolls with the punches with most things life has thrown our way.  I am excited to spend the rest of our life together as parents and partners, trying to navigates these waters.

Day Nine through Eleven

Day Nine

Saturday we spent the day at Garrett's soccer tournament.  His team struggled all season, only winning one game in spite of all the talent on the team.  Saturday morning was a single elimination tournament with Garrett's team starting at 10.  I was sure this would be a short day and the end of our season would come at 10:50 and many of the parents joked that we had 11:30 plans.  Saturday I was thankful to Garrett's team for reminding all of us adults to never count the underdog out.  Our team went on to win the first game in a shoot out in overtime and won the second game by 3 goals.  The lost the championship game by the same number of points but the boys were happy to have made it to that point and ready to go home after spending all day on the field.

Day Ten

Sunday I was thankful for the NCR being so close to us.  We have short 2 mile drive to a trail that runs 20 miles from Southern PA to Hunt Valley, MD.  Sundays in the fall always involve some sort of football on Mike's schedule so while he headed off the Ravens game early, Garrett and I took his bike and Mishka to the trail.  Garrett was able to ride almost three miles while I ran/walked behind them with Mishka to try to burn off some of her energy.

Day Eleven

Today I was thankful for my crockpot.  I had really gotten away from cooking in the two months leading up the wedding.  Most meals were eaten out and the few we did have in were made by Mike.  I knew as soon as we got back from the honeymoon that I needed to get our diets back on track by getting back by cooking good healthy foods at home.  Monday's are always tough in our house, the first day back to work and school brings little to look forward to and even less motivation to spend 45 minutes or more in the kitchen making dinner.  This particular Monday was even more busy because we know have basketball practice Monday night and I needed to be in to work early for a call with a client.  In comes the crockpot.  I try to use it once a week and it is almost always on the day we have practice.  It's so nice to come home to the smell of dinner cooking knowing we are only a few minutes away from a great meal.

Day Eight

Today I am thankful for a very active PTA at Garrett's school. We are lucky enough to have many great events throughout the year including Hula for Hopkins, ice cream social tonights movie night (and thats just the events through the beginning of November).  Tonight the kids all huddled together on gym mats with blankets and snacks and watched Monsters University.

Day Seven

Today I am thankful for the best want-to-be bridesmaids in the world.  (*I typed most of this last night before I feel asleep... at 7:30 so this really was my day 7)

Mike and I decided early on that we wanted to keep our bridal party small. There was no doubt that my maid of honor would be my best friend Abby and my two sisters would be my bridesmaids. I am lucky enough to have remained very close with my girlfriends from high school so it came down to either 3 or 8.

I sat each of them down (with a hefty amount of guilt on my side) and explained the situation. And of course, "don't worry, we understand" was the response of everyone.

We did a lot of DIY for the wedding which meant I needed a lot of help those last few weeks. With a maid of honor in North Carolina and two bridesmaids with small children, these 3 answered the call to action without hesitation (and they brought wine). 

Staining pallets

Apparently all Garrett and I did was supervise as Tori worked on my table numbers

I attempted to help but she thought I was terrible and quickly took the project back

Kathleen mostly just watched the football.  

Spray painting picture frames

I can't thank any of them enough for all of their help with these projects.  They helped leading up to the wedding and were busy right up to the rehearsal dinner the night before.  I had an amazing time planning my wedding and while I am glad it's over, I really think my stress level was manageable the whole time in no small part because of all the help I got from these three.  And I know they were standing up next to me in every sense but the physical one when Mike and I exchanged our vows.

Day Four, Five, and Six

Day four

I'm thankful that I work so close to home. I know that many people in and around Baltimore deal with an hour long commute everyday and I count myself very lucky to have a five mile commute. I forgot my lunch and was able to come home, eat said lunch and let the dogs run around for a few minutes. (I am not thankful that one of said dogs didn't want to come in and my 20 minute lunch break turned into chasing a dog for 30 minutes in heels)

Day five

I am thankful for good books (and more time for them). Leading up to the wedding I somehow managed get some reading done . Between that stolen time, the honeymoon and having more time on my hands now that the wedding is over, I've managed to put away more books in the last month and 1/2 then I had in the prior year.  And to top it off they were all fantastic books:

A Promise of Stardust

The Secret Life of Bees

Pride and Prejudice

A Thousand Splendid Suns - this one I read in one day

Currently working on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Day six

Today I am thankful that I was able to drag my behind out of bed at 5:30 to get back into my am gym routine. I'm also thankful Wednesdays are yoga so it was a gentle way to ease back into things.

Day One, Two and Three

Alright, I'm bringing back the thankful November from last year a few days late so I have a few days to catch up on.  

Day One

Friday I was thankful for an extra day to catch up.  Mike and I were married on Friday 10/18 which gave us one day to get packed for our honeymoon.  We returned very late Monday night which gave us one day to rest before returning to work on Wednesday.  I had forgotten about school being closed on Friday and took the day off since I think the honeymoon has temporarily exhausted our pool of child watching grandparents.  

My brothers two dogs are temporarily staying with us while he is on his 3rd deployment with the Army.  I think his dog Pecan was thankful for my unpacked suitcase.

Day Two

Speaking of my brother, I am thankful for the Viber app which allows us to text and call internationally for free.  It means staying in contact a  lot more than any of his previous deployments.

Day Three

Something about November has me feeling the pull to be inside despite the beautiful weather we've been having. I've felt a little guilty about not getting outside to enjoy the weather since we've been back but it felt good to spend the weekend cleaning the house to get ready for the hibernation that I know is right around the corner.  But I did get to enjoy the beautiful ride through horse country we make once a week to take Garrett to his indoor lacrosse game so today I am thankful for the breathtaking views we have so close to home.