A little pre-thanks

We leave in two days. The trip will take over six hours that will feel like six days if her highness holds true to car-seat hating form. The visit will last five-ish days, which will feel like...oh never mind.

Perhaps I'll get time to blog. Perhaps I won't. Tomorrow night I expect to come home from work and pack clothes for three - Bruce can handle his own bag thankfully. Wednesday morning we'll load up the car with suitcases, booster seats, strollers, various kid items, toys and family. We'll hope the few hand-held games and magnadoodles entertain the imps long enough to stave off the screeches of "Out! Want out!" that I expect will comingle with the whine "Are we there?! Are we now? I want to get out!" (Or even worse, the last time we had Logan in the car for a stretch of time he announced that he no longer liked Daddy about 2 and half hours into the three hour ride because it was Daddy that was driving the car.)

Since I don't know if I'll get to express my thankfulness on Thanksgiving, I figure I ought to do it now. Of course I'm thankful for the things you'd expect - my family, my friends, our health and so on. Who wouldn't be. Those things are a given. I think at this time of year, as important as it is to be thankful for the easy stuff, we ought to dig deeper and tap into gratitude we hadn't realized we had.

So here goes in no particular order. I am thankful for:

1. My children's strong will - when I'm the one running head first into the stone wall that can be either of my children, it's hard to see this for the gift that it is. I want my children to be strong adults that stand for what they believe in and so I am thankful they seem headed in that direction.

2. Megan's independence - one of her most favorite new phrases is "I do!" A fourteen month old can't do nearly as much as she thinks she can, but it doesn't stop her from trying. And that, let's be honest, can try one's nerves. However, I am thankful that she's in possession of this independent streak. It will serve her well someday.

3. Logan's curiosity - the endless stream of questions can become overbearing if not impossible to keep up with. As humans, however, it's curiosity that drives us forward to learn and to grow. I am thankful that his thirst for understanding and knowledge continue to drive him forward.

4. The bad/tough times - one of the first things they taught us in my very first quilting class was how to mix light and dark fabrics when creating quilts. The general rule of thumb (although not always followed) is to select three colors for a basic quilt - one white/cream, one light and one dark. The instructor tied those fabrics to life by saying, ". . .if there was no dark, the light wouldn't shine nearly as bright. If we never struggled, we wouldn't realize how good the good times were."

5. Those that take on jobs I could never do - from our soldiers to our public servants and everything else I couldn't or wouldn't do. It could be teaching children or researching cures. These are the people that make the world a better place. Like the individuals or not, you have to admit they're pretty awesome for taking on these tasks with the goal of building a better tomorrow.

6. The guy I make fun of for putting out his Christmas decorations in mid-November - he has provided my children with several nights worth of glee. Meg may not *know* what Santa is about, but she loves him anyway, and heck, I think Logan just likes getting to go for walks at night.

7. To the snotty man that laid me off a job and half ago (don't ask about the half) -if it weren't for him I'd not be where I am today. I don't know many places that would have let me quit a full-time position in order to hire me back as a part-time consultant just so I could have the best of both worlds.

8. For the one that never called me - if he had, I might not have asked a particular man to go to a certain wedding with me and well, the rest is history.