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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

What we're thankful for.


Today I am thankful for my family. My wonderful, patient, kind husband, and our beautiful, spirited little boy. I am thankful for Tom's support, his selflessness, his work ethic, his intelligence, and his sense of humor, and I am thankful for Finn's tenacity, persistence, creativity, and endless joy. I am thankful for our health, for having a warm home to live in, and plenty of food and fresh water to eat and drink. I am thankful for indoor plumbing.

I am thankful for my mother, for giving me life, trying to teach me things I didn't want to hear about, and for her good health. I am thankful I had a father to raise me and love me, even though I don't have him any longer. I am thankful for my Gram, who had strong hands, great cookies, and silly names for all her furniture, even though she has left us as well.

I am thankful for my sister, for being my best friend, beautiful, strong, and compassionate. I am thankful she has found the man to spend the rest of her life with, and I am also thankful for him. I am thankful for my brother, who is disciplined, and selfless. I am thankful for his happiness and good health.

I am thankful for my inlaws, for loving me from the moment they 'got me', and for their support. I am thankful for Grandma and Poppa and how much Finn adores them and his cousin Soupie. I am thankful for my cousins, aunts, uncles, and other family members as well, even though I don't see them all nearly enough, and sometimes we don't get along.

I am thankful that I still have two healthy dogs, and that we have the technology to keep Murrey alive with minimal effort.

I am thankful for those that have reached out to us, and who help us. You know who you are, and you have changed our lives. Thank you for such amazing opportunities.

I am thankful for my friends. They support us, they love us despite our flaws, they listen to our bad jokes, and cry with us when we need consoling. I am thankful for the deepness and the strength of the bonds we have, and with so many. I am thankful for each person in my life, their health, and their good fortune. I am thankful that all of our victories are shared.

I am thankful we live in a country where speech and thought and free, and I am thankful to those in our government and military who work to keep it that way. I am thankful for fireman and local law enforcement, and all their work to keep everyone safe. I don't always agree with many of the decisions my government makes, but I am thankful to live here, and to know that I have an opportunity for my voice to be heard. I am thankful that change is possible, and I am thankful for democracy. I am thankful for Barack Obama, and the change he inspires.

I am thankful that we live in a country that is not war torn, or so corrupt that people are sick or starving, and I am hopeful that the future will show us a healthcare reform to change the lives of those in our country who do suffer. I would like all our citizens to have the access to care that my diabetic dog has.

I am thankful for medicine, and medical technology, and for all the lives it improves and saves. I am thankful for healthy babies, innocent smiles, and big, round, pregnant bellies. I am thankful to have an awesome job that allows me to touch people in very big, significant ways. I am thankful to those who have supported my studies and work to get me here. I am thankful for the opportunity to get here, and the people who let me scrub their toilets to pay my way.

I am thankful that our country tolerates all religions, and the lackthereof, and that our lawmakers will support our right to diversity, since many of us have questions, and few of us have answers. I am thankful that people in my country are learning to tolerate homosexuality and same sex adoption, and I hope there is more to be thankful for in the near future.

I am thankful for our oceans, and the vast beautiful wildlife on this planet. I am thankful for those working to research, conserve, and defend our natural resources and wildlife habitats.

I am thankful people are going green.

I am thankful for so much more.... and hope for more to be thankful for next year.

Monday, November 23, 2009

The story of the toybox

Well, you already knew we had an AWESOME train table, which was much more complicated and yielded no injuries. BUT... this cute little cubed toybox with the cloth boxes for toys did me in.

Murrey, as it turns out, is diabetic. And we learned this because he was having accidents. Everywhere. Even on Finn's toys. So, despite Tom's pleas (thanfully) to WAIT A LITTLE LONGER so he can make something, there came a need to get the toys off the ground PRONTO. So I marched right over to Target to get the very toybox I had been dreaming of, AND it was on sale. SWEET.

Well it sat in the foyer in it's very heavy unassembled pressboard box for all of a day and a half, before it happened. I was cleaning for a client, and managed to drop the CORNER of the box on my foot, breaking two toes. It hurt A LOT. I've been wrapping it and icing it for about two weeks now, and it's improving, but MAN was it ugly and MAN did it hurt. It looked like a corpse toe, all gnarly and purple and black. THANKFULLY, this happened while Finn was asleep so I could crawl around and curse as needed until he woke up. :)

Now it hurts when he STEPS on it (which happens a lot) and at the end of the day, but other than a limp and some swelling her and there, it's quite manageable.

BUT, I did manage to build the toybox. 'Mom, you buildin' in. You MOM the Builder!' 'Can Finny have turn, can Finny use hammer?' LOL-- he 'helped' but now we put away the toys every night and it's a glorious thing to see the floor every day-- you sort of forget what it looks like otherwise! LOL






HALLOWEEN!

We're not going to have much trouble with stranger-danger from this one, who was very excited about Halloween, but not as excited about talking to strange people all over town. We didn't trick or treat for long, because it wasn't much fun, but he did love his costume, and getting his pumpkin filled with candy-- and lucky for us, when we switched the candy to a bowl, he forgot all about it, so we didn't have too many sugar highs to deal with either!









This may remind you....


This may remind you of another picture, but let me reassure you that this is BREAD and NOT a real dog biscuit!!! We had a halloween party with lots of ghoulishly themed dishes, including boney garlic bread! I couldn't resist posting this!

A Day at the Riverwalk

This was also taken while Tom was on vacation, and it was another glorious day. The weather was nice, and Finn SO enjoyed our picnic, he's been 'playing picnic' with his animals ever since! He also really liked feeding the ducks!













A Day at the Zoo

Finn's Favorite Place to be. :) It was the PERFECT day at the zoo. Tim had the day off and it was the middle of the week, and it was beautiful fall weather. We were all smitten. :)


Here is tom proving everybody wrong. These are real birds folks, no photoshop here!





He also REALLY likes to stick his head into things. So we did a lot of that, too.






We bought him a 'snakey' because one of the stores had clearance stuff (I struck up quite a deal of a few Christmas gifts), but we had to give him this one now. They're BFFs.



What can I say, mommy has to join in the fun, too. :)

Tumbling and Periscopes

OK, it's been FOREVER. Sorry, I'm doing my best! Finn and I just had a sweet evening and I thought I'd tell you about it.

He told me 'you're the best mommy ever!' and it was so sweet I almost cried. Then in the tub, he put his helicopter under the water and told me it had a PERISCOPE. I made him say it again, but he sure said, it and he knows they're on submarines. I almost fell over.

This is coming off of his pooping in the tub yesterday which was SO GROSS-- I totally thought he'd grown out of that!

He tells us about animals all day, and asks when we're going to the zoo, or the ZOOT (depending what day it is). And he always wants to 'play animals', where he tells you what to be, and you play appropriately. He also sings a few songs, and likes to 'mashup' the songs so they'er all one big mess.

He's doing well in tumbling, and can almost do the balance beam with no help at all, which is advanced for his age. The teacher says there's only one other girl in class who can do it, and she's 4! I really think I have a little track star/soccer player/base jumper on my hands, lol! I want to encourage it as much as possible, but am having trouble looking for classes for kids his age that meet more than once a week and will be more challenging than the park district. In another year or so, we'll do some martial arts, and maybe Irish Dancing, and then we'll be moving into the years of t-ball and soccer!

I'll post some pics later tonight since Tom is working late. Let me put my boy to sleep, now. Night!