sisters

Today is the day I am thankful for my little sister.  She's my only sister and she is the best.  We are ten years apart but the age difference isn't remotely recognizable to me.  I have always treated her as if she was my own age (sorry mom!) and I will take all the responsibility for why she is so mature!  Ha - not really all thanks to me - but seriously, she has always acted much older than her age.  Elizabeth gives me the gift of myself every time I'm with her.  She is one of the only people in this world that I can truly be who I am completely.  We have the ability to make each other laugh (even with her all the way over in Italy I still look up to her bedroom windows whenever I drive over my parents house expecting to see a nice "full moon" - typical, Eliz).  She's seen me cry more times than you could count and never has judged my reasons for tears.  She has always provided such a sense of comfort for me.  She brings out the best of me and has always given me a large amount of confidence in myself.  She and I love each other unconditionally!  No matter what we are always and will always be there for each other.

me, our brother michael and eliz

Elizabeth is currently in Italy for the entire school year living the traveling college girl dream.  As happy as I am for her excursion it has been hard having my little sister so far away from me.  I miss texting and chatting and seeing her so badly.  Luckily, we can skype and email and facebook but there is nothing like sitting on the couch and hearing her coming down the stairs to hangout "late night" in our basement.  Pete and I have been so lucky that she (and her friends!) enjoy hanging out with us so much.  When we first moved into our house, she still was a senior in high school, living five minutes down the road.  We had so much fun having her and her friends coming over to hang out.  It's amazing how "used" to things you can get.  I totally took it for granted and I realize now how much I miss her in my daily life.

Eliz is an amazing sister but she's even more of an amazing aunt.  She loves Braden (her godson!) and Gracie so much.  She loves to play with them.  They love to play with her.  B used to call her "uh-riz" and now Gracie girl calls her "Lala".  It's so cute!  They both LOVE to skype with her.  I don't feel like I get many words in when they are around because they both are constantly yelling, "hiiiiiii!!!!!".  It's cute.  One of my most favorite memories with her since I've had kids was the day she came to visit me in the hospital with Gracie.  It was a quiet day and her and I just literally laid in my hospital bed while she held Gracie.  She and Gracie just cuddled and got to know each other.  It was so sweet and special.

So today, on November 21st, I'm thankful for Eliz.  It's her 21st birthday.  I'm so proud of her.  She's beautiful, bright, happy, smart, funny, talented, passionate, committed, loving and enthusiastic lady.  She loves the people in her life, especially her family, with all her heart.  I'm so thankful for each and every moment she and I have together!  I love you Eliz!  Happy Birthday!!

Energized and Ready to Go

As I'm sitting here tonight watching Sunday night football with my hubby I'm finally feeling a little more like myself.  Last week was just an "off" week.  Pete was away, I was sick and daylight savings changed.  Individually all of those things are doable but together they completely rocked my week.  Thankfully, I'm starting to feel better or at least a little less beat up.  Pete is back in town (after three days away for work last week and then being gone all weekend working the ski show).  I'm still not completely used to the time change.  Is it me or does it feel awful that it is getting dark so early?  This year it feels like the change happened so abruptly.  I feel like it was light until 9 pm and then suddenly dark at 4 pm.  Obviously, that isn't true but, man, does it ever feel like it is.

Tonight I'm feeling energized.  Back to my usual "life is good" attitude.  Feeling all warm and happy about where I am in life, how great my kids and hubby are and how amazing this little world I call home is.  Thank goodness!  I wasn't into blogging, I wasn't into eating well, I barely worked out.  Blah, what a bad week.  But, hey, we all have them.  Can't beat ourselves up for having them.  Just need to move on and be more grateful for what we have.

I'm ready to tackle this week.  Pete and I had a kid free night away last night (free hotel room for working at the ski show) in Boston thanks to my incredible friends and neighbors for taking care of the babies and doggy.  Sometimes I think just a few hours of alone time with the hubby can be a game changer.  I think I needed it more than I realized.  Looking ahead at the week, I can barely believe we're almost within a week away from Thanksgiving.  I'm feeling that giddy Christmas season is just around the corner feeling.  Christmas music and movies are starting to sneak into our lives.  I can't wait!

I hope everyone out there has had a few good days and are ready for a good week!

I owe a few days of thanks...

11th:  Running.  It's always been my go to workout and my body craves it.  I am by no means a "runner" but I certainly enjoy doing it.  It makes me feel great and I love that feeling of knowing my body can do something that sometimes feels so difficult.  My biggest running accomplishment is running the Disney World Half Marathon in January 2008.  I would love to run the Boston Marathon someday.  We'll see.  For now I'm pretty excited to be getting a treadmill and starting my adventures in "basement running towards weight loss".  Yippee!

12th: Sleep.  Seriously, what Momma isn't thankful for sleep.  Both of my babies are great sleepers now. Now being the operative word.  People always talk about how lucky we are because our kids sleep so much and give us looks like we're nuts and aren't grateful enough for it.  Trust me.  We know how amazing it is to have your kids sleep.  Both of them did not sleep for more than 2 hours chunks for the first 4 months of their lives.  It wasn't until about 5 or so months that we finally could consider them "sleep through the nighters".  I was a walking zombie.  All I did was nurse for those first 4 months.  I LOVE getting a full nights rest.  I am SO thankful that I can go to bed most nights and not expect to see one of my children until the morning (knocking on wood currently).

13th: The fact that my hubby doesn't travel all that often.  I have other mommy friends (one in particular who has TWINS Gracie's age) who's  husbands travel weekly for many days at a time.  I cannot imagine how hard that must be.  Well, I can, after this week.  Three full days and nights of no one but me doing everything was tough.  I can link this day of thanks back to my first day of thanks because I'm clearly just super duper grateful to have my hubby.  But this thanks is for his job.  He loves it, he's good at it and it doesn't require major traveling.  I am a much better human being because of this.

Blogging Guilt

For whatever reason I'm having total blogging guilt today.  I didn't write yesterday because I just wasn't really in the mood.  I thought that was completely acceptable and let it go.  Today, I have had my two days worth of thanks in the back of my head but haven't had the motivation to open up the laptop to write!  The only thing I can blame it on is that I'm completely under the weather.  I have a cold that seems to be brewing up pretty strong.  Topping off the cold I'm feeling all achy and nauseous and exhausted!  Yuck.  Being a sick momma is an impossible job.  We don't have a sub line or a boss to call and announce we won't be coming to work so we have to just buck up and show up!  Handsome hubby has been out of town since Monday morning, which always gets me out of sorts in itself.  I guess it makes sense that I'm off on my usual doings!

Eh, with all of that said...

I'm thankful yesterday for the fantastic preschool Braden goes to.  His two teachers Beth and Judy are simply wonderful.  They love and care for their 12 little students.  The happiness that preschool has brought to B's life is something I am so grateful for.  I know there will be days in our future when he'll dread school and for now the fact that his face brightens up when he knows its a school day makes me pretty happy!

Today I'm thank for my above average immune system.  Although, I'm sick right now, it is a rare occurrence for me.  Fingers crossed whatever I have now comes and goes without a long stay!!

Self Improvement and Positive Attitudes and Home Sweet Home

Reading over this I realize this is a bit of a random, rambling, and multi-subjected post but it's where I am today...

Self-Improvement:  Over the weekend I took advantage of Pete being around and went for a run both on Saturday and Sunday.  I love this alone time so much and I don't know why I don't push myself to do it more often.  I've been really wanting to lose the rest of my pregnancy weight (yes, Gracie's 15 months old but I'm still calling it pregnancy weight!) and am finally feeling motivated/capable/sick of the way I look enough to do it!  I started counting points again thanks to weight watchers.  I am starting to be "active" again.  And lastly I've decided I'm going to work hard at cutting out the "bad" things I do too often (alcohol, dessert, watch tv, not drink enough water) and lets just hope that this is the beginning of a good thing!  We'll see...maybe since I wrote it here I'll feel more accountable for it.  Maybe I'll even get gutsy and take a "before" picture so I can post it next to my "after" picture soon :o)

Positive Attitude: I realized as I was out running along the pretty tree-lined streets in my neighborhood, how one of the things I love about exercising is how it provides me a quiet time to think.  It is a rarity for me to have time that isn't interrupted.  When I'm running (minus the running stroller) I find myself in a silent, peaceful situation that allows for some good thinking time.  During this "me time" yesterday, I noticed how easily I allow myself to think negatively.  Mostly of of things that I want to change about myself, my house, my habits, my parenting, my wifing.  I find myself thinking of my "I wish I had this/I wish this was different/I wish I was better at" list.  I think these lists are important and good for me but I realized how negative it can be if I am to focus all my thoughts on things I don't have or things I wish were different.  It is important to me to be a positive person.  If I'm consistently thinking negative thoughts about myself or other things in my life I'm not being the person that I want to be.  Sometimes its easy to let this get away from us - especially during a particularly frustrating moment as a mommy, wife, homeowner, sister, daughter, friend...the list could go on.  Let's be honest, life can throw us some lemons but all we can do is make is spectacular lemonade - at least that's type of person I want to be.  It's not always easy to maintain that - but it's an ongoing goal of mine.

Sticking with my 30 Days of Thanks promise...Day #7 I'm thankful for Where I live.  


Home Sweet Home: Moving to our cute little burb outside of boston has been one of the best decisions Pete and I have ever made.  This town has...  Great schools.  Fun playgrounds.  Good pizza.  Pretty neighborhoods.  Fun events in town (one of my fave's coming up soon: the tree lighting ceremony).  A cute town center (that we can walk to!  Pete likes to ask me if this is Stars Hollow enough for me?  Any Gilmore Girls fans out there!?)  And lastly, great neighbors.  We're so lucky to live next to and near some pretty great people.  I'm thankful for how easy life is thanks to our wonderful little place we call home.  I can see us here years and years from now even happier than we are already.  How lucky are we to be so in love with our cute little town?

For those of you craving cute pics of my little sweeties...

B did this whole alphabet puzzle by himself while
we were at Gracie's 15 mo appointment 

She's a ham - posing for the paparazzi! 

Go Patriots!  Love how cute they are in their
matching jerseys!