What better way is there to spend a Thursday night than decorating sugar cookies? None. And I’ll tell you why. YOU GET TO EAT THEM WHEN YOU’RE DONE!!

I have like 5 half written blog posts saved as drafts that I want to post but for some reason my creative juices have dried up. You’d THINK I’d be posting all day long at work because my boss has been out sick for two days and I’ve been trying like hell to take advantage of that and do as little work as possible. Unfortunately every time I get up from my desk I come back with two people who need to talk or piles and piles of paperwork I can’t avoid.

Survivor is on! And Cassidy is calling me to watch it so off I go. ‘Night all.

We ate. And we ate. And we ate. And despite the loving doubts of my mother, the turkey I made was juicy and yummy and wonderful. We have enough leftovers to feed us for a week and I sent about half of them home with my mom and Cameron. I guess a 20 pound turkey was a bit overkill for 8 people.

Being back in the kitchen again with Amber was better than I could ever have imagined. I really missed being in the kitchen with her and gabbing and laughing and working around eachother like a well oiled machine.

I’m going to go watch some TV and try and convince myself I’m not STARVING WITH A REFRIGERATOR FULL OF GODDAMN LEFTOVERS. Ultrasound is at 3:00PM and I can’t eat till then…

I’ll leave you with the cuteness of Best Friends Forever:

*click to enlarge*

(I’m writing and posting this today because tomorrow I will have a house full of people I love and a 20 pound turkey to cook. :))

When somebody asks you what you are thankful for what do you say? I think people have this built in response mechanism that just lists off the obvious and expected answers. Health, life, love, dairy foods… But today those things seem like such blanket statements.

I am, for the most part, healthy and I am thankful for that. But what I really am thankful for is that I think I’ve found out what has been making me sick for the last six months. I’m thankful to know that after I eat something I’m not going to feel like all my internal organs are trying to violently mass exodus out the bottom end of my digestive tract.

I am thankful for my life. This has a great deal to do with my completely irrational fear of death, I’m sure. But doesn’t “life” encompass so much more than the fact that we’re still breathing? Life. Work, chores, laundry, cooking, morning coffee, shopping… All things I get to enjoy because I’m alive. I’m thankful for clean clothes. I’m thankful that I get off work at 2:30. I’m thankful that I inherited my daddy’s cooking gene. I’m thankful for all the little things that I seem to forget about in the grand scheme.

I am also very thankful for love. The love that has been the glue that’s held my relationship together. Because without it, I’m not sure where Ben and I would be today. And although I am very thankful for it, I’ve been neglecting it lately. I wish I could blame this on falling into a complacent life. That’s not it though because.. that’s not an excuse. There isn’t one. So I’m going to change that. Because I am very thankful for Ben. I’m thankful that he’s smart, and so extremely giving, and funny, and has magnificent green eyes. And I want to remind him everyday that he is The One.

Lastly, I’m thankful for having such a wonderful daughter. I’m thankful for toothless giggles. I’m thankful for Saturday morning wake-ups at 7:00AM to her smiling hungry face. I’m thankful for her willingness and want to share all her food with me. I’m thankful that she shattered my Sidekick2’s screen yesterday and not her foot instead. I’m thankful that when I yelled at her and was so angry I felt my blood pressure rise with volcanic intensity that she looked at me with tears welling up in her big blue eyes and said, “You still love me even when you’re angry, huh? I’m sorry, mommy.” I’m thankful that she knows and understands that even when I’m mad, I love her so very very much.

I’m thankful for all these things and so much more. And I hope that instead of thinking about this once a year, I can learn to start focusing on all these things every day. Positive. Energy.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Cassidy made her first blog post yesterday. I typed EXACTLY what she wanted me to say. She knows that either I have to write for her or she has to show me in writing what she’s going to blog first. I can’t wait till ten years from now I when I get to show all her friends what a goober she was. heh

I also got some fantastic video of her dancing like a mad child in her room when she didn’t know I was there. Hopefully you all were Seinfeld fans and can remember when Elaine danced and it was more of a total body spasm because then you’d know what Cassidy dancing looks like. She didn’t get that from me because my name means GRACEFUL and at one year older than her I was in the Nutcracker and CLARA HERSELF told me how talented I was. *gloats a little*

I’ll get some video up later. It’s too funny not to share.

The cute hair. Tonight I did black first, but not NEARLY as much as last time, and then we topped it with pink. She wanted a lot of pink around the face though. I did it EXACTLY the way she wanted it this time and she loved it. She also loved that we have a bunch of pink left to play with on the weekends.