With November being the month that "houses" the Thanksgiving holiday, I find this the perfect time to be reflective & thankful and to express my gratitiude.
In each of our lives, there is always something, no matter the size, of which we can be thankful. After this week's "Frankenstorm" Sandy that walloped the East Coast, WOW! All of us not affected should be counting our blessings! What those people, communities, cities will endure during the cleanup and rebuilding, I cannot imagine ... and hope like hell I never have to experience!!!
While we haven't yet begun our new adventure in Colorado, I am grateful that we can afford to live in our new community for the time being, where we get to live among the trees, with the deer, near the beach ... to be so attuned to nature for the next year!!! Ogden Dunes is a very good substitute...which could turn into a longer "layover" should we decide to buy a place next year.
I am so thankful for our health! We are pretty fitness-focused and I want that to always be our lifestyle. As a matter of fact, while I will dearly miss my LA Boxing, I look forward to all the hiking outdoors that we will do when we live in CO!
I am glad that I can try out new recipes and that Chris is willing to eat whatever I make! Today, I am thankful that the pumpkin cupcakes (new recipe from Pinterest) that I made for yesterday's Halloween luncheon at work are so good and that I was able to snag 2 this morning for a breakfast treat!! I look forward to trying, at least, one new recipe for Thanksgiving at my aunt's.
I am thankful to have my mom in my life and I want it to be for as long as possible. I hope for her to finally realize that her health and her life are in her hands and to make the changes necessary to be able to watch her grandchildren, great grandchild, and not-yet-born grandchild (my nephew due in January) growing up.
I am so very grateful that my grandparents, my mom's parents, are alive and that we have been able to enjoy so many good times with them, both during our visits to Florida and theirs up here to visit my grandma's sister and her family.
I am glad that my relationships with my younger sisters are developing and that they are learning to know me (not from impressions but from ME). I am grateful that their daughters will know me, even tho we live so many states apart. (I love you, Shyla Lynn & Kennedy Harper!!!)
I am thankful for the friends that we have, both together and individually! I have a few friends from as far back as I can remember and I am lucky to have some really recent new ones!! I have friends from so many walks of life! We respect & support one another's differences and rejoice in our similarities. I appreciate the real, the 100% authentic, the tried & true, the honest-about-themselves kind of folks and those are the ones who will remain in my circle.
I am thankful that this year we made it to Ghostwood Farm for their annual open house and that we have gotten to know Adam & Melissa Phelps!!
I am so glad I laced up some roller skates and joined the Illiana Derby Dames, and another CPHS Class of 1990 alum, for their Halloween roller skating party! Reignited my love of roller skating and I hope to hit a local rink a few times this winter with our friends: Dave & Sandra, Kim, Paul, Mahdi & Che and maybe a few adventurous others!
I am thankful for our friends, Bart & Bobby, who have led to our friends, Dino, Tony, Jackie & Nancy. We have had some of the best times enjoying the Chicago nightlife with most of them! And I really look forward to many, many more! Chicago Pride 2013 will be celebrated to the hilt!!!
I am so very grateful that I could visit my Florida family again this year. Getting to meet Kennedy Harper, even tho she will be too young to remember, was very important to me. Along with meeting my great-nephew, Casey Isaac, who was only weeks old!! Spending time with just my mom in John's Pass ~~ a wonderfully thoughtful 40th birthday present. Spending time with my brother (the grandpa!!!) on my last day.
I am lucky that my nephew Jake had time in his schedule when I visited Florida and then just a few short weeks later we got to see him in Chicago for an evening that included my first ferris wheel ride!!!
I am thankful that I was able to rock out to the 80's for my 40th birthday! A party I had dreamed about for years and years. I am so lucky that my honey was willing to DJ to save us a few hundred bucks (and sacrificing his fun) while dressed up as Adam Ant (you make those pants pop, Chris!!).
I am thankful that I have developed relationships with extended family, alot of credit going to Facebook. While we didn't go together (total bummer), I did get to "share" the experience of a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football game with my cousin, Matt. And, altho we didn't see them this year, I am so glad for the friendships with my cousin, Nathan, and his wife, Jennifer.
I have lost some "friends" this year, too, which has been difficult, but I am always learning who fits in my life and who doesn't. It is best to move forward with the BEST.
This month, Chris & I celebrate 20 years of marriage!
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| Chris, 22, and Jennifer, 20 ~ Simply Meant to Be |
Whoa!!! Seriously, where does the time go?!? 2012 went by fast....but how about the time between November 25, 1992 and now??
I am most thankful for the man in my life! Chris has taught me so much over our 23 years together and I learn from him everyday! He is my world and my best friend! I could not have imagined loving him more now than I did 20 years ago, but the feelings I have for him run far deeper than any other. I love you, Wolfie!
We are going to enjoy some spa treatments right before our anniversary and then a week in Las Vegas a month later. And while I had dreamed of spending our 20th in Italy for 2 weeks, I am thankful that we have the ability to celebrate as is planned.
I know there is more (much, much more) for which I am thankful and I plan to come back here to "write" them down as a reminder to myself how very fortunate a life I live!
Wishing us all small moments in every day to reflect on what matters.
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