Small Thankfuls

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, and my life in chaos right now, I'm not sure if I will be able to post again before the big day, so I'm posting this now and you have a week to think about it ;-) Long ago in a blog far, far away I posted small thankfuls. We all know that at Thanksgiving, we are thankful for all the good things in life. But what about the little day to day things that you rarely think about. For instance, toothpaste. We couldn't get through a day without toothpaste, or maybe it's the smell of rain hitting dirt (my personal favorite) that really makes your day and brings back good memories for you. So just think of three small things that you are thankful for! And if you'd like to share yours with me, I would be ever so thankful.....

Here are my Three Small Thankful's....some of them are not so small I guess, but they are out of the ordinary. Here goes:

1. Mousse and a blow dryer. No, those are not two items. In my world they are one. I can't use one without the other. I have the world's finest, thinnest, limpest hair. I would never leave my house if it weren't for mousse and a blow dryer.

2. The Industrial Revolution. Ok, I know this one is a stretch, but hear me out. I am a person of convenience, and while I love the Revolutionary War period, and sometimes wish I were part of that exciting time.... I know, deep in my heart, I'd never make it without my car, air conditioning, electric appliances, frozen food, and on and on....all made possible by the wonder that was The Industrial Revolution.

3. Any food I don't have to cook. I hate to cook (I guess I should say I hate to cook everyday....I really like making the big holiday meals...is that crazy?). So, any food that is not cooked by me, is heaven.

So, there you have my three small thankfuls. I would like to take this opportunity to mention some of the "big" things I am thankful for. There are so many but here are the ones that really stand out.
1. My Faith
2. A wonderful husband to share my life with
3. Three great kids I would die for
4. Being raised by parents who really cared what kind of person I would turn out to be
5. A Large, extended and loving family
6. A life that has not been filled by monetary riches or possessions but has overflowed with wealth of a different kind. A life that is filled to the brim with all the things that are most important in life: Faith, Family and Friends.

Those are the things I am most thankful for.... and all of you, of course... I am thankful for all my new blogging friends.

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving and many blessings to you all......

My love

Gerri

Weird Weather and Other Stuff

In the fall my heart yearns to be here.........
When in reality....I am here........

But in an effort not to be totally negative about my surroundings, I get to see this on a pretty regular basis.......
I guess the trade off is not that bad. Except for the tempurature. The weather lately has been so weird. Down into the 70's which I wait 8 months for, only to go back up into the 90's. It's done that two or three times in the last couple of weeks. It teases us into thinking the hot weather is over only to blow us the proverbial rasberry full of hot air. Here in the desert we live for the winter months. It's the only thing that keeps us going when it's 115 and you can literally cook an egg on the sidewalk. Right now we are back into the 90's again. I'm done with anything over 85, I want it to be over. I'll let you know when I get my wish.

In other thoughts.....the fact that it is now November has me in full panic mode. I am so far behind where I usually am at this time of year. I am a list maker. I have lists for my lists. It's the only way I know how to accomplish what I want to get done. Of course this is the time of year where I really go crazy on the lists, except that I haven't even started any yet. The panic level is rising. I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house for about 25 people. My dining room is still in shambles. The King of Procrastination is promising it will be done. I choose to believe him because the alternative is just too scary to me. I have bought exactly three presents for Christmas. Oy! I have not started my Christmas Letter (yes I write one of those). I usually start it in October and do various rewrites and additions as they come along. I know it will get done but just knowing I'm behind is giving me a panic attack. I still have not found the trees I want for my Santa and Snowman Christmas trees. I'm sad that I may have to put that off until next year unless Santa delivers an early gift in the form of a pile of money. And I have yet to decide what I am making for my family gift exchange. Guess it better be simple as time is running out.

I tried one year to be all zen about everything around the holidays and nothing got accomplished. So I figure I'm one of those people that needs the panic to fuel the fire. When all is said and done, everything always turns out ok but I sure drive myself crazy getting there.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.......I'm off to make lists.......

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween 1991

Halloween 1992

Here are a couple of pictures of my gobblins when they were little. I really miss having little ones around this time of year. Like Christmas, Halloween is just more magical with little kids around. Dan put some orange lights up around the house and we did decorate a little bit. Our neighborhood is older so we don't have a huge number of trick-or-treaters but I so enjoy the ones that do come. I remember the days when my kids were little, our streets were packed with little ghosties and gobblins. Fun stuff.

I'm not dressing up, I'm scary enough just being me ;-) I will be handing out candy by myself as Beth has a party to go to and the guys are going to a hockey game. I plan on watching the live Ghost Hunters episode and hope it is really scary.

Well, I'm off to make a pot of my famous spaghetti. A request from my youngest gobblin.

I hope you all have a very Happy and Scary Halloween.....muahhhhhh........

Kelly over at My Voice, My View gave me this nice award. I do not at all feel worthy since I have not blogged in ages, but it was so nice of her to do it for me. Please go check out Kelly's blog, she one of the nicest people I've met in my short time here. She is a wonderful, inspiring poet and a great mom.

I was actually planning a blog for tomorrow since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I promise to come back tomorrow and do that.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Under Achieving

I had a co-worker tell me today that she thought I should aim my sights higher when it comes to my job. She feels I'm smart, organized and very detailed oriented. I agree with the last two and was flattered by the first. She thinks I'm wasting my talents in my current position. I, however, really like what I do. I'm sure part of it is a comfort level. I've been in my current position about 7 years. I will celebrate my 19th anniversary at the hospital next month. I've worked in lots of different departments and done a myriad of different jobs and this is by far my favorite. I'm in a place where I'm very autonomous and not micromanaged. Those two things are very important to me.



Her comments got me to thinking though. Is liking your job and being comfortable enough, or should you try to challenge yourself? Should I give up a working environment which makes me very happy for one that may drive me crazy? I've interviewed for a couple of other positions during my tenure at my current one. I was offered those jobs and eventually turned them down because I'm scared of getting into a job that I dread going to everyday. Been there, done that.....don't want to do it again. Is having a more prestigious position worth possibly being miserable while working?



And then there is this: I'm liking my life right now. My kids are well adjusted adults who really don't need me anymore except for moral support. I can pick up and go when I want and I'm not accountable to anyone but Dan when I get home from work. I'm so comfortable in my position that I'm able to leave it at work. When I walk out the door I rarely think of work until I walk back in the next day.



I know my answer, and that is that I will stay where I'm at and be happy, comfortable and yes complacent. My question is this:



Do you think it's wrong to not use the potential you know you have and instead are just complacent with what you've got. Does that make you an under achiever? Is that a bad thing? I wonder........



(after reading this back I just want to say that I do realize how lucky I am that 1) I have a job at all and 2) there are options for me to move to another job if I wanted to. I know that is a rare thing in this economy and I am very grateful and thankful)

Christmas is Coming!!

A few months ago I posted about my love, some would say obscession, with Hallmark ornaments. At that time I was getting ready to go to the Hallmark Premier Weekend and stock up on all my ornament buddies. I did go, and got some wonderful ornaments and spent way too much money. So, this weekend is another premier weekend and there are several ornaments that I've had my eye on to add to my collections:

So, I think I need this little guy to add to my snowman tree. Isn't he adorable?

And this is perfect for my Santa tree, plus it plays music! What could be better than that?

Of course, I have to have this for my bear tree. Everytime I look at it I will remember how much fun I had reading to my kids.

So as this weekend was approaching I was starting to doubt my financial ability to add more ornaments to my already overflowing collection. It made me sad but I thought it might not be so fiscally responsible in these times to spend money on these little guys. I could do it, and I wouldn't be taking food out of anyone's mouth but it just made me feel kind of guilty, you know? So feeling kind of dejected, I resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to have to be happy with what I had.

Then what to my wondering eyes did appear? A bonus check from my new best friend, the CEO of my hospital. We usually get a bonus check every year around this time. It's never a huge amount but it's nice that they share with us. This year we didn't expect to get anything because of the economy. We had already made some sacrifices by giving up a lot of the perks we were used to. I guess it helped, and we have been busy, so they decided to give us the bonus.

I consider this found money. Yes, I could pay a bill or buy a weeks worth of groceries, but I have money for that. So, I'm going this weekend to buy my Hallmark ornaments. I think it's kismet, karma and proof positive that God approves of my obscession. At least that's what I'm telling myself so I don't feel so guilty. (I can never get away from the guilt thing....but that's a topic for another post.)

Merry Christmas!! Remember....only 77 days left! Are you ready yet?

T-Minus One and Counting

( Wow, we were so young. I was only 21 years old. I can't even imagine my daughters married yet and one of them is almost 4 years older than I was then. Oh, and I thought I was fat then too. Body image...blech)

Today I have been married for 29 years. Yes, all to the same man. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. Although when I think back on all we have been through together it's hard to believe we shoved it all into 29 years. Not that we are world travelers or anything like that but we did raise three kids and survived baseball, softball, girl scouts, boy scouts, violin lessons, orchestra concerts, band practices, band competitions, band drama and Friday night football. Not to mention three economic downturns, one firing, a couple of layoffs and two broken ankles (they were both mine at the same time and that's when you find out how much someone really loves you.) Last year I put my children on notice that they had two years to plan a big 30th Anniversary bash....don't know if they remember or not, guess we'll see. So....T-minus one and counting ;-)

Seems like just yesterday we were walking down the aisle, bringing our first born home, taking our son to his first little league game, watching our baby go to kindergarten. Where does the time fly? I love my husband more than any one human can love another. At least that's what it feels like to me. I'm so lucky that I get to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful man. In honor of our anniversary, I give you......

THE STORY OF DAN AND GERRI

Or

How I married my best friends brother

The year was 1972. The Viet Nam war was raging, Watergate became a household word, tragedy happened at the Munich Olympics, Carol King was singing, "It's Too Late" and I was just beginning high school. I also met the man that would someday be my husband.

I became friends with a girl named Debbie. She was interesting and funny, and it didn't hurt that her brother was a senior and played baseball. I would have liked her regardless of the brother thing, but it was a perk, you know? So, all freshman year I smiled at the brother, said hi and went to baseball games to cheer him on. He didn't know I existed. The year went quickly and Debbie and I settled into an easy friendship that we were sure would last a lifetime. Summer came and went and soon we were sophomores. I would call Debbie's house, knowing she was not there, just so I could hear the brothers' voice. Yes, I was a nerd. We were happy in our relationship, Debbie, the brother and I. She and I had great times together and he still did not know I was a living breathing being. Oh, well. I held out hope. At the end of the year both our lives were turned upside down. My father accepted a job 200 miles away and Debbie's mom got married and moved to the other side of town. We got together before the big moves to sign each other's yearbooks for the last time. I wrote in her yearbook that someday I would marry her brother. I was joking. Soon, our only communication was letters (remember when you used to write letters?) and an occasional long distance call. But, we remained the best of friends. I had a boyfriend in my new town and thoughts of the brother were all but non-existent.

In 1976, we graduated and started our lives. Still living miles from each other we kept the friendship alive. Then, in January 1977, I accepted a job back in my hometown. I had no place to stay so Debbie's mom invited me to live with them. The brother was still living at home, working and going to school and fresh out of a relationship. I decided it was now or never. I flirted, talked baseball, flirted some more and finally, he knew I was alive. We started dating on January 22, 1977. For me, it was love right away. I knew within the first few months that this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It took Dan just a bit longer. It took almost 4 years, me having to move away, and his mom threatening to just adopt me into the family before he finally decided that we were meant to be (we don't call him the King of Procrastination for nothing!).

On September 27, 1980 I married the man of my dreams. My best friend was my maid of honor and my sister-in-law. The yearbook prediction came true.

Now, 29 years later, I still can't believe how lucky I am. He makes me laugh every day and I still get butterflies in my stomach when I see him. I feel honored just knowing I get to spend the rest of my life with this man. Our life is not perfect and we've had our rough spots but we've loved each other enough to work through it. I thank God everyday for bringing us together and helping us to keep it together. I've been so blessed these last 29 years, I can't wait to see what the next 29 bring.