Thanksgiving

How can you not love a holiday that is all about gratitude (and lots of food and football)? We should have gratitude holidays all the time. They should all be about gratitude! I am thankful for:

• My family. My wonderful, perplexing, supportive, sometimes crazy family. Every single one of them is amazing. From our dear cousin just getting through with the monsoons in India, to our other cousin and her husband, aunt, and lots of second cousins just getting ready for a frigid Norwegian winter. From those here in Boise that we don't see nearly enough of, to my sister and her family in Indiana - which seems so much further away during the holidays. My grandparents that are an inspiration to everyone. And my brother and my mom-in-law who made the trip from one side of the state of Oregon to the other just to be here with us. My father-in-law in California and all of Michael's sisters and brothers - the ones I met and the ones I didn't. And my new sister-in-law (and dog-sitter extraordinaire) and of course my husband and our menagerie of beautiful mischievous dogs and our grumpy cat. Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple will be filled with the sounds of a family - loud and laughing and hungry all sitting down together for dinner. Even if we aren't all in the same room.
• My friends. My beautiful, fun-loving, friends. Every single one of them is incredible. I am so blessed that I can't even begin to list them all here. So many changes in the last year. New babies, failed relationships, new triumphs at work, races run, weddings, new love. Another year has past and I feel even closer to them all. They are spread out all over the world and the country and the state, but they will all be right there with me when I sit down at the Thanksgiving table.
• My failures. Weird one - I know. Just stay with me here a minute. With each time I have failed, I have learned a lesson. Only four months into this marriage I have learned so much(Insert here: I am VERY THANKFUL for Michael's patience). Every bad day has helped me to appreciate the good ones that much more. Being married is like having a huge mirror put in front of your face. It forces you to look more closely at some of your "traits" that maybe need a bit of work. I am grateful for my failures, because they are teaching me how to succeed in this life.

I try to make it a point each day to find something to be grateful for. There is no way I could list all of those things here. The big three are above, covering most of it. The most important things in life are not good jobs and nice houses. Fancy cars and expensive clothes. Everyone intuitively knows this, but what better time of year to remind ourselves then right before the gluttony of Christmas begins? Lots of love and gratitude to everyone out there that takes the time to read this blog. Be safe and happy this weekend. -M

November Blues

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things are going well, as usual. We live such a charmed life (insert knocking on wood here). I am running in a Turkey Trot tomorrow morning. If our team wins we all get turkeys, which would be great since MJ and I are cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving again this year. Peggy is coming up from Portland next week for an extended stay, which we are looking forward to.
We were going to remodel the bathroom next weekend, but now I am not so sure. I really hope we can get it done by Christmas, we are having a tough time picking out all of the things that we need and there is probably a bit of procrastination of the daunting task of doing it ourselves built in there, too. Hopefully soon I will have before and after pictures to post and you can all ohh and awe over our amazing bathroom remodeling skills. I wouldn't hold your collective breath, though.
I have been to two baby showers in the past month and have another one next week. It's raining babies in our crowd. We figured out the other night that out of the 12 members in our Bunco group, 8 have had babies in the past year and a half or are pregnant now. Crazy.
I signed up for a marathon in February. It's in Huntington Beach, California and I am already looking forward to some warmer weather, even if it is only for a weekend and ends with me torturing myself for 26.2 miles. I love the crisp fall air and crunchy leaves, but by the end of November it starts to get cold and soggy here. The time change forces a ride home from work in the dark every night. The dogs get restless from being cooped up. MJ and I get restless from being cooped up. The transition to winter is frankly a bit depressing. I am learning to love winter, but until it snows and its time to ski it's just dark and damp and a big fat bummer.
I can't wait for Thanksgiving weekend, though. Four days off of work and a huge amount of food shared with the family sound like just what the doctor ordered for the November Blues.

Happy Halloween!

BOO!

We didn't dress up this year, so we tried to dress up the yard as best we could... apparently it was too scary... we only had TWO trick-or-treaters and to be honest their costumes were not all that great. Sigh.
Hope you all fared better on the ghosties and goblins front than we did. Lots of love, -M