25 (the last birthday...right Micki?)

#25
Free Haircuts.
I have a friend that works for Marilyn Ihloff (a nice swanky salon here in T-town), and she tells me that they are looking for "secret shoppers" that are willing to fill out an on-line survey afterwards and in turn they get their hair services for free. She set me up and today I had my first one. It saved me 50 bucks, I only had to pay the tip. If only they would do it for mani/pedi's too! Thanks Cat!

Took the weekend off

I took the weekend off, but I'm back with my grateful list of the days I missed...

#22

TU Football! We had our last home game on Saturday. We spent the first half in the stands (amongst the common people). We spent the 2nd half in the Letterman's Suite--the perks of being a "jersey chaser" in college and marrying my catch :). It got pretty chilly when the sun went down so it was nice to be indoors with free food/drink (even if I couldn't partake in the drink part).

Nice pic huh? This is from my phone...we laughed forever about this. Wade doesn't like the pic I have on Facebook of us, so DeSpain said we should switch it out with this...2 blobs. BTW...we won 56-7.

#23

Family Movie Night---This time it was Kung Fu Panda, which Wade may have liked more than the kids. Seriously...he laughed more than the kids did.

#24

Amazon.com

I've had to order a lot on-line lately...gifts, books, etc for different things. They make everything very easy. I had free 2 day shipping and for a month (nice!) and I had to make a return and they made that super easy...even provided a postage paid return label so I don't have to pay to ship it back.

The first 20's

#20

The little "treasures" you run across with kids in the house...

This is Elasti-Girl from the Incredibles---not quite sure how she got stuck in the mixer...
This is from earlier this year, but Riley used to "hide" flowers from outside all around the house for me to find.

#21

Getting to be a kid again, with your kids.

We made this "Fruit Gobbler" turkey after school this week. We've eaten all his "feathers" (which are just grapes and cheese), but we all had a good time making him-even Brooke got in on it. I think we ate more than we put on him...nobody ate a good dinner that night. But that's ok...there are worse things.

#19
70 degree days in November.

18

#18
My Laptop and Wireless Internet.
The ability to be anywhere in my house and get on-line.

Seventeen

#17 The Library
I like it as much as the kids do.
What I didn't know until a year or two ago was that you can get DVD's, we just got the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special, but they have "big people" movies too.
I get all my book club books, some of which I'm glad I didn't buy (Moab is my Washpot--all-time worst book ever, group consensus).
If I didn't have the kids I could spend hours there. The children do not have that attention span, but they do love to go.

Sweet Sixteen

Kids that say the sweetest things.

Tonight I was combing Cade's hair.
He looks at me with his little sparkly eyes and says, "Mommy, I love you".
To which I said, "Cade, I love you too"
And then Cade said, "Mommy, I love you more than MOVIES!"
Wow. That's a lot!

Half way through the month!

#15 - All the laundry in my house done. And put away.

2 for the price one

So I didn't get my "thankful" blog out yesterday because all afternoon and evening I was sick on the couch...but when you're sick there's still things to be grateful for.
#13...the couch potato in me is grateful for my DVR. Wade and I were late in coming to the DVR craze, but can't imagine going back. It's so nice to rewind and pause live TV because with kids you often have someone talking over what you want to hear or you can pause TV while you bathe and put kids to bed...come out and not miss a moment...love it!
#14...my neighbors--with some of our house under the weather - my bus stop moms have helped get the kids on the bus for me and brought over dinner tonight. Wade's mom (also a neighbor) also brought over dinner last night and fed the kids.

Twelve

#12--My Book Club.
One of my dearest friends got me involved in this book club and I just really love getting back into reading. My first degree in college was going to be in English Literature...until I realized they probably weren't going to pay me to read all day. So I had to make a change. Bummer. Not that I get paid for my current job either.
We've recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary and I've read so many things I wouldn't have touched otherwise. Tonight's discussion was about Bel Canto...a pretty good read. Jen mentioned that on my blog bio - somewhere I wrote that I don't get to read books and that I needed to change that - I do read about 2 books a month...so I will update the blog here soon. You just have to make time for it...now I need to make time for cleaning my house. Yuck!
So thank you Jennifer for getting me back into it....I'm thankful for you too!

Playing Catch Up

So we made it back from our crazy trip to St. Louis.

We left Tulsa on Wed. after Wade got home from work and got in town LATE. Thursday Wade had a business downtown that morning - but didn't get home until 4 that afternoon, so the day was shot, but we went to Rich n Charlies (my fave) for dinner.
Friday we took the "train" (really the Metro Link) to Union Station and on down to the Arch with the kids and bummed around a little. Friday all my brothers were arriving in town and we had dinner at mom's and celebrated Lori (my sis-in-law's) b-day.
Saturday the boys went skeet shooting (which took entirely too long) as Lori and I were waiting to go to Archivers (scrapbook store) for their Holiday Extravaganza, which we thoroughly enjoyed...once we got there. That night was Christmas at Chad's house (we moved Christmas up because Heath and Pearl are expecting and can't travel in December).
Sunday we had a baby shower for them.
To all my friends from STL that didn't know I was coming, or that I was in town, I'm sorry...this was a jammed packed family weekend and I knew it'd be hard to see you, I didn't see anyone...Next time, I promise.

During ALL of this we had "Vomit-Fest 2008" going on. It started Friday with Riley (middle of the night...real pleasant, she made it to the toilet all but one time).
Saturday belonged to Cade (this was the most brutal...he just had to keep running to the bathroom, it was so incredibly sad). I continued into the night and on Sunday. We almost had to take him to the ER, we were worried about him getting dehydrated...he was such a champ though and all but once made it to the bathroom or into a bucket.
Monday was the drive back and everyone did great. That night and this morning was Brooke's turn. My kids also managed to get my niece, my brother, and my nephew sick, so far...but there seems to be more casualties every day.

Which leaves me with catching up on my gratitude journaling:
#6 - So grateful to be done Christmas shopping for one side of our family. It was a bit hard getting into the spirit of Christmas...but we had a great night and we all enjoyed seeing the kids excited about their gifts...that's the best part of the holiday for me...watching the kids get excited about everything.

Cousins

#7 - Grateful that 2 of my 3 children know the sensation of throwing up and can make it to the toilet or bucket next to their bed

Before Vomit-Fest Began, down on the Arch grounds

#8 - No cleaning puke out of the van, or having to smell it for the 6 hour ride home. Seriously this was the BEST thing about Vomit-Fest '08
#9 - My favorite person...my hubby, who was up with me during each puke session and helped clean up the kids, while I cleaned the bedding and changed their sheets---we make a good team.
#10 - Home Sweet Home....how good it is to be home.
#11 - Veteran's Day...I come from a military family, so I understand some of the sacrifices they make to serve this country. Our Veterans made it possible for us to keep our freedoms. It's like that old quote that says, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" Case in point...(Dad you will like this one...we all know what you think of air traffic controllers...this just proves your point)

As a mom, I got a giggle out of this. Riley had a Veteran's Day assembly at school today and this was the little song her class sang. If you're wondering what Cade is up to, he is saying "Cheese" nearly every time you see him (funny if you can hear him over Brooke). You may need to turn off the song playing on the blog (mom and dad...you can do that by scrolling to the bottom and click on the stop or pause the song in the box). She also sang kinda quiet so you may need to turn up your computer volume.

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!

Temporary Pause

Had to travel this weekend.
Will resume list next week...

Fifth on the List

#5 - Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks.

I don't drink coffee, but love Starbucks for their Apple Cider this time of year. It's THE best!

Seriously, one try and you'll be addicted.

#4 on the Gratitude List

This is a gimme today...

I think we all take for granted the country live in, in the famous words of Tim Russert, "what a country". I liked him so much, I miss him, especially tonight.

#4 -- I exercised my right to vote...waited an hour and 15 minutes. Some of that time is because the vote counting machine broke down and we had to wait for it to get fixed, but our polling place was the social place to be. We probably ran into a dozen people we knew, it was fun.

#3

#3 Bunco Night
Once a month my neighbors meet at the clubhouse for Bunco and it's just really nice to have a night off...but what I like most is to talk to big people. When your home with little ones all day you can go a little loopy. Tonight was extra good because I won (well I tied with Dee so we split the pot) but I still walked out with some extra cash in my pocket. But I'm still a Wilson and I don't like losing, so more than winning the cash I like the bragging rights as Bunco Champion.

Gratitude #2

2. Fall Daylight Savings Time. I volunteer at our church on Sunday so instead of leaving at 7:45 this morning, I got to leave at 7:45 (really 8:45 body clock time).

Gratitude...

We're trying to teach the kids a little about gratitude. They (as I imagine most kids ) have A LOT and take it for granted. So for about a week, each night at dinner we all tell at least 2 things that happened that day that we are thankful for. We've been doing that about a week now and the kids come up with some pretty nice things (and sometimes really funny).
Since November is all about Thanksgiving, I thought I'd try to update my blog each day with something I'm grateful for.

1. Today I filled up my car, gas in Tulsa is $1.95/gallon. Not only is gas low everywhere, but Tulsa often has the lowest in the country...gotta love that!