Gratitude Post #22

Today I am grateful for Thanksgiving.  Really this means that I am grateful for family gatherings not the enormous amount of food or football, although both are very enjoyable.  Thanksgiving dinner was always held at my parents home, except for the one Thanksgiving that my mom was very pregnant with Kellie and we went to my Aunt Merilyn's.  I remember the smell of waking up at my parents and the warmth of the cooking, listening to my grandpa snoring in the other room, and my mom banging pots and pans.  Then there was the hustle and bustle to get everything ready, tables set up, chairs around the table, places set.  I know that I didn't appreciate it like I do now.  All of my mom's sisters and brothers and their families would come to my mom's house and eat, catch up, play games, watch football, and sleep.  I remember the year that we were each supposed to write down what we were grateful for and then it was shared with everyone. Then there was the year that my Aunt Merilyn brought her guitar and we sang Thanksgiving songs ("Hang down your head, Tom Turkey" and "Oh a Turkey Tom and a Turkey Mom go gobble, gobble, gobble all the day").  Then there was the time that all the cousins were playing with a ball  and it busted, so of course we needed to get a new one, so a lot of us piled into my cousin,Paige's Supra and went to the grocery store to get a ball.  That was a highlight for me because I was accepted as a "big kid" although they may have just thought I was a pest.  And of course, the food.  It was tough to wait for a warm roll from Grandma.  I look back on all of those family gatherings with fond memories.  I am so grateful that my parents and their siblings and parents worked hard to coordinate these events and mostly keep the peace.  I did miss a raucous event a few years ago and quickly booked my trip for the next year only to have no sparks fly.  I am so grateful that I am able to keep in contact with aunts, uncles, and cousins even though I am so far away.  But, I'll be back. 

Gratitude Post #21

Today I am grateful for my heritage.  I have great parents and super great grandparents.  I recently read the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and he writes in there about how previous generations and the choices that they have made and what they are exposed to and how they interact with other people affects future generations.  Which is interesting to me and I reflect back on what I picture my grandparents may have gone through when they were my age and the challenges that they may have had.  I think about my grandmas giving birth during the Depression or World War II years and what that must have been like.  I think about my grandpas and what they did to earn money for their families and the struggles that they had during those times.  Then I think about what they were like when I knew them.  My Grandma Reese called me her Black Eyed Pickle Pie, which I believe that this is the reason why I give children nicknames as well.  She was a spunky grandma and was always hiding treats.  I do this too.  I think of her when I use her green mixing bowl.  I think about her making bread and her famous rolls.  My sisters said they knew who got the Grandma Reese gene (no pun intended since her first name was Gene) when I stopped to chat with the Ranger at the Grand Canyon pay station.  She read from the encyclopedia every day, and tat reminds me of my insatiable need to read.  My Grandma Gillette I didn't know well since she died when I was eight, but I became a nurse because of her, so that caring gene must have come down from her.  She always sent us a card for each holiday and I still have some of the cards that she sent me.  But mostly, I am grateful that they were all faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  They all have strong testimonies of the church.  I don't know how difficult it was for them to be faithful members nor do I know if they understood how their faithfulness would affect generations living now and those still to come. 

Gratitude Post #20

Today I am grateful that our violin teacher, Shari Parris, kept teaching my children after Chloe threw up on me at the first lesson we took with her.  Now a little explanation.  Dillan started taking violin lessons when he was about seven from a teacher that we called "Tsunami".  This was not a reflection on her playing style or personal hygiene, but her name was Hisami, so it rhymed and we went with it.  If anything, it was the antithesis of her personality, which I would call reserved at best.  Whenever Dillan had his lesson, it didn't matter if he rocked the Twinkles or messed up, her response was the same.  We had to drive twenty minutes and Olivia was a baby, so I started shopping for a teacher closer to us.  My friend, Laura, who may or may not be better than me, told me about the teacher the Sophia went to, Miss Shari.  I called her and knew instantly that I loved her because she sang a response to me on the phone.  A kindred spirit.  I figured since Dillan was starting, why not Chloe too?  The first lesson was directly after the first swim team practice of the summer.  Chloe had been telling me that her stomach was upset, but this was nothing new for her, so we went to the violin lesson.  Dillan was up first and Miss Shari was a JOY.  She is a born teacher.  She came up with the ways to teach each of her students to master their abilities.  So Chloe's turn was up.  She stood there with a pained look on her face and I was unsympathetic.  That is until she turned to me and said one last time "Mom, I don't feel......BLECH" and proceeded to throw up on me as I sat on Miss Shari's couch. Miss Shari took it all in stride and helped us clean up and get us out the door, since the lesson was almost over anyway.  She never mentioned it again to Chloe, which was a good thing since Chloe was horrified about this and would not let us talk about it for a very long time.  Chloe did not keep up the violin like Dillan did, which was a good thing, since she had a pained look on her face when she played.  Dillan has continued his career and is still in the high school orchestra playing sixth chair, he tells me.  Miss Shari also taught Olivia in a music class and taught her violin for a few months, but that proved to be a waste of money since Olivia is destined for the stage, but not behind a fiddle.  All of my children have benefited from Miss Shari's vivacious, infectious personality.  We always looked forward to our lessons, even more so when there was consistent practice.  One of my children almost poked her eye out with their bow.  She saw me "blossom" with Blake.  She knew that I always wanted to shout "That's my baby!" at a violin recital, but since they were held in a church I had to refrain (but I did think it in my head and said it at lessons).  I hope that she will still be teaching when I get ready to put Blake in violin lessons in a couple of years.  I am so grateful that she has shared her gift with our family.

Gratitude Post #19

Today I am grateful that not all of my children are teenagers at the same time, nor toddlers.  When I had just Dillan and Chloe, I was talking with a woman about how I loved him as a 3 year old with all the funny things that he said and Chloe as a baby that I got to dress up as my living doll, and how I loved these ages and dreaded when they were teenagers.  She said that she loved her children at all stages of their lives, even when they were teenagers.  I looked at her incredulously because I remembered what I was like as a teenager and we don't need to call my parents or siblings to confirm that I was a HUGE pain as a teenager.  I picture my parents singing songs of joy when they dropped me off at college. I couldn't believe that any sane person would enjoy a teenager.  Now, truth be told, this woman that I was talking to is not a sane person, I don't mean that she has been diagnosed with any mental disorder, but she does punch my husband in the arm every time she sees him and calls him a jerk, and Kevin has seen her puppy climb down her dress and come out the bottom, so her opinion is not completely balanced, but I do understand her point.  As my children have grown, I can appreciate them at each stage in their lives.  I love babies and their smell and the funny faces that they make when they sleep.  I love toddlers and their curiosity.  I love preschoolers and their perspective of the world.  I love school age when they are able to play and have fun.  I love teenagers WHEN I can talk to them and discuss what is going on (NOTE:  I did put WHEN in caps on purpose.  I believe I am getting a taste of my own medicine with this one.  I used to tell my mom to stop looking at me and I would not converse as a mature individual.  I was a stinker.).  And I look forward to when my children become parents and then I get to be the grandma.  And I will tell their children all about their parents silliness.  But, boy, am I grateful that I'm not Nadya Sulemon (aka "Octomom"), and not just because she has fourteen children, eight of which are the same age.  I can't even wrap my brain around having more than one person in each stage.  I'm glad that I get to appreciate each one of them as they go through each phase. 

Gratitude Post #18

Today, I am grateful for the wonderful neighborhood we live in.  I love our neighborhood and the wonderful neighbors that we have.  When Kevin and I were looking for a home in Phoenix thirteen years ago, we did not really have much of a clue as to what we were looking for besides the kind of house that we wanted, which for me, included a bathtub, since the house that we had in the Avenues in Salt Lake did not have a bathtub, but only a small shower.  I knew that I wanted a pool as well.  And grass.  A lot of homes in the desert southwest have "kitty litter" front yards, which is rocks that are low maintenance and don't require water, but you do need to rake the rocks regularly for your yard to look nice.  We found our house after Kevin was working here and looking while I was still living in Salt Lake, and we had to move quickly since it was a sellers market at the time.  We had Dillan as our only child at the time, and he was 1 1/2, so we were not thinking about schools at all.  But we found the perfect location for some great schools.  We are equidistant to the elementary school, middle school, and high school, which are all in walking distance.  The ward that we live in is amazing, but that really is for a different post.  What makes our neighborhood so great is the community that we have here.  A lot of neighborhoods in this day and age have people that come and go through their garages and do not see each other.  But here, we know all of our neighbors (and we are very glad that we have new neighbors next door), and every spring there is an Easter Egg Hunt with a golden egg as the major prize and a brunch, and then in the fall there is another gathering sometimes with a hay ride, and there has even been a band.  It was so fun to go trick or treating in our neighborhood and find more people that we don't see regularly.  One evening when we were out at a swim meet this summer, we came home to find our driveway flooded.  Neither Kevin or I could figure out what had happened.  As I was scooping the water out with a bucket onto the lawn (you don't waste water here, so I put it to good use to water the lawn) and as I was doing so, a car pulled up and a man came out that I hadn't met before that said that he had come by and seen the flooding, so he turned off the main water valve.  Who knows how much more water would have been wasted if not for our kind neighbor?  Our neighbor just to the north of us had a blood clot and was whisked away in a ambulance and we were glad to know them and be able to keeps tabs on them and Chloe and her friend made a get well poster for our neighbor that she loved and put in her hospital room until she returned.  And even though I apologize to them when our children get extra wild and crazy in the backyard, they tell me that they love hearing the sound of kids playing.  I know that Heavenly Father was guiding us to our home when we were searching for a new home.

Gratitude Post #16-17

Yup, this is a two for one.  That's because I was enjoying an evening with Kevin last night.  So yesterday, I was grateful that I don't have a broken toe.  I have not broken my toe today (yet), but I have broken several toes.  The first one came when I was so excited that I was going to start a ballet class that I started practicing in the kitchen and kicked the door frame in an enthusiastic jete.  Needless to say, the ballet class was delayed a few weeks.  The latest broken toe happened when I was laying in bed and Dillan's phone rang in our bedroom as it was charging in the early morning and I leapt out of bed to silence it and not wake anyone and kicked the frame of the treadmill.  The sad part about that was that Kevin and I were scheduled to go on a romatic weekend where there was beautiful hiking (it wasn't the Grand Canyon) and here I had a black and blue toe and couldn't wear any shoes except for flip flops.  And then I was supposed to start training for a marathon which had to be delayed by a few weeks.  So, yay me for not having a broken toe (yet). 
Today, I am grateful that I learned to dance.  I love dancing.  Love it.  I started when I was probably three in a basement tap class, and then moved to a almost ground level ballet class, and finally an above ground ballet class.  But wait.  Then I moved to a SECOND STORY ballet class.  I have just realized all of this as I am writing it down.  I guess it's good that I didn't continue my career because I may have a class in an airplane at that rate.  Which I am not opposed to dancing in an airplane as long as it did not detract from other passengers enjoyment, and if it embarrassed my children just a little bit.  I danced in high school and college teams and loved the friednships that I made there.  I remember being so sore from dance camps in high school that it hurt to walk.  But it was a good hurt.  I loved the costumes and the rehearsals and especially the performances.  I've had a few embarrsassing moments, like when I was in the middle of a kick line in college (LOVED the kick line.  Not only could I kick the highest, but since I was the tallest, I was in the front row and center!  That doesn't happen to the tall girls in a group formation) and turned to look to the side where a boy that I was dating at the time had a huge sign asking me to Homecoming that caused me to miss two critical kicks which drew attention to me.  But I loved dancing and have such fond memories.  Thanks Mom and Dad for putting me in dance classes and believing in me, even though I'm sure it would have been easier for you if I was a swimmer or runner.  Thanks for coming to all of the recitals and thanks Mom for sewing all of those costumes. 

Gratitude Post #15

Today I am grateful that grass grows, trees need to be trimmed, people litter, buildings need to be cleaned, and that the monsoon season causes havoc and downed trees.  This may seem odd unless you know that all of these things are what Kevin needs to run his business and support our family. Kevin started his commercial building maintenance company 4 1/2 years ago, pretty much at the same time that I had Blake.  It was a little stressful.  But he had been telling me for a looooong time that he wanted to start his own business.  He had been working with a partner doing the same thing and it was not working out on the business end, but he did learn a lot about the business from this partnership.  I was a chicken and thought that him starting a business was too risky.  I wanted a sure thing.  A paycheck that came regularly and didn't depend on whether or not he was able to get clients and operate a business.  I have kicked myself over and over again for not having more faith in him.  He is a natural when it comes to business.  He has exceeded my expectations for his business.  Now that's not to say that it has been all smooth sailing.  There have been plenty of bumps in the road, but for the most part, this has been a huge blessing for our family.  I would really have liked Romney to win the Presidential election to help with the taxes that we have to pay, but not everyone agreed with that philosophy.  I know that Kevin is grateful to have the business he has and to be able to employ people so they can provide for their families.  He has been able to teach Dillan about his business and had him doing manual labor out there with his guys.  Plus, I have the benefit of getting new plants and trees whenever Kevin finds a good deal.