Thanksgiving Ups & Downs

Things are unusually quiet around here tonight- girls are in bed, Paul's at work, Nick's on a date, Josh with his buddies, and Trevor is next door. Wow, I should grab a good book, chocolate, and enjoy a Jacuzzi, but I'm a sick mom not literally that blogs about her kids when they're gone. Good time for a quick Thanksgiving post...

drumstick hat idea from M3, cute idea

Thanksgiving turned out very nice, even with a sudden change of plans that wasn't so sweet at first. I have so much to be thankful for.

I'm thankful that my babe is 100% better. Paul was down for 5 days with the swine flu he got at work, so he was pretty much quarantined to his room. It was a bit crazy taking care of him without letting it spread through the family, but we took all the precautions- hand washing, vitamins, gargling, disinfected everything every few hours, more hand washing, slept on the cold couch (me)... and it didn't spread! Luckily he was able to eat well and wasn't puky, but he was drained, poor guy. The rest of us have received our shots now and Paul is back to his healthy self again, yahoo! So glad you're better hon! We definitely appreciate our health. He appreciated all the phone calls checking up and the refreshing Jamba Juice from my mom :).

I'm thankful for my fun mother-in-law and cute niece that saved the day. We take turns with the holidays, and this year we were spending Thanksgiving with my famiy. We were looking forward to it, but... to make a long story short, we were uninvited last minute. Paul's been better for half a week, but my mom didn't feel comfortable about it (she's changed some since her retirement). She felt bad and offered to bring dinner to us, nice jester but no thanks. I love my mom to pieces, but give me a little credit, I wouldn't bring my family out if they were sick, I never have, and I knew they weren't sick. I know she was trying to think of others but Ouch. I mainly felt bad for the kids, they were excited to see their cousins and G & G, and my brother was coming in from out of town. Oh well, I don't hold grudges, but it helps me to talk about it and get it off my chest.

So, Paul and I quickly planned our Thanksgiving meal and shopped late that night for our favorite dishes (btw, turkeys are cheap the night before:). We figured it would be nice to have it with just our family, although we knew the kids would be bummed with the change of plans. The next morning the boys went on their traditional target & skeet outing with dad & his brothers, while we had some fun girl time here. When they found out we weren't going anywhere, Paul's mom called me right away and enthusiastically invited us to join them at Crystal's for Thanksgiving. They were thrilled to have us and had us come over early as they pulled out the huge home grown turkey from the pit, it cooked all night, delich! We all had a delightful time- good food, great company, and fun games afterwards. Thanks guys for saving room for us, it meant a lot!

I'm so happy to finally hear Sophie say she likes school now. They had a rough start, being in seperate classes this year, but they are survivors and have done very well. They always look happy when I peek in at them. Sophie has a great teacher and is having a better experience then Sage teacher makes a huge difference. I feel for Sage, but she is a trooper. They are excelling and enjoying their friends, and get to hang out together at recess- monkey bars, soccer, and jump rope with the group, can't beat that.

I'm very thankful for my job, especially during frugal times. My first passion and priority is being a mom & wife, best and sometimes hardest job ever, and then a designer. I'm able to schedule my appointments while they're in school so I can be here when they get home. It's great using my degree, getting back into business & design, and doing something else I have a passion for. I know I've been blessed, top in sales and closing rates in my region, I'm sure it changes often, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity and success and I'm having fun, helping others, helping pay off our adoption, and meeting such great clients! most of the time. What a blessing!

I'm thrilled to hear that my dad is doing better. I talked to him a few Sundays ago and he sounded great, then later that week he went in for an emergency surgery, and the next thing you know he was having kidney failure. I was so worried, but he is doing quite a bit better. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers on his behalf, he is a fighter and a great dad!

Last, I'm thankful I've been able to coach my girls soccer team this fall. We had our last game last week, and our first win, Yae! they played hard and are all winners in my book. I'm thankful for the fun kids, grateful parents, and a tearful mom that thanked me so much for helping her twin boys (they were quite a handful, tried to score in the opposite goal, grabbed the ball from the ref, rambunctious boys... one of the other coaches chewed them out after the first game for wrestling after the ball with each other. Of course I reinforced the rules but they deserved patience, love, and a chance like everyone else, and it was great to see them improve and take it more seriously). It was fun helping the kids and seeing them work together as a team. Sophie and Sage loved indoor soccer with mom as coach!

So much for a quick post, but so much to be thankful for. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!