22,23,24,25

I do have four days worth of things that I am thankful for.

First on my mind, I was pulled over yesterday as we were pulling into our neighborhood. The police officer informed me I was speeding which I may have been I was in autopilot driving home with the kids. He took my drivers license back to his car, Cooper was somewhat traumatized telling me that I was going to be "under the rest". And kept asking me what was taking him so long, he commented that he must be reading my license very slowly, I thought that was funny.
The cop didn't give me a ticket and I am extremely thankful for that, it definitely would have cramped my spending money for Christmas.

Ben and his amazing work ethic, I have commented many times about that but he never ceases to amaze me.
Wednesday he went to work at 2pm and got home at 6am the next day slept for most of the day, ate Thanksgiving dinner and went back to work at 9pm and worked until 10am today, slept until 4pm and then went back to work at 5pm today and will be there until midnight or so.
Crazy retail life!

I love online Christmas shopping!! I love searching deals and making sure I have it all planned out what I am going to get the kids.

I am thankful for nice people, When Ben and I were talking about a possible move to Canada we were talking about what we would do with the dogs. Well we decided it would be best to put Lulu up for adoption on a local classified website, (even though we found out we were not moving) well we had lots of people respond and adopted her to a cute local family. The husband wanted a not so "wimpy" dog. The had a lab mix that I think was pretty mellow. I was super worried that she would be mean to the other dog and she was very aggressive at first, I realized she was just trying to protect me because their dog was friendly and trying to go up to everyone who would pet him.
Lulu left with them for a trial period and they called me and told me that she was doing really great. They live on a half acre and take their dogs to a ranch they have during the summer.

I have been sad knowing that she is not here, but it is better for our family. Incredible is a little lost but is loving the extra attention and probably doesn't miss how much Lulu would try to play with him.
We love Lulu and are hopeful that she will be happy with another family.

21

I am thankful today for sisters.

20

Today I am thankful for some little boys with crazy, amazing imaginations. It is never a dull moment around here.

16,17,18,19

Whew, things are not turning out like I wanted them to this month and my blog is suffering as well.
As some of you know Ben is from Canada and Target is opening 200 new stores over a few years and Ben applied to be one of the first store managers to move up there and we obviously would move with him.
He went through two interviews and felt the first one went bad and the 2nd went well.
Well......he didn't get chosen to go up there, to be honest I was completely shocked he didn't get it, I thought since he was a Canadian national he would have a good chance and I was getting excited about the possibility of going on this new adventure.
I think I might have been more sad than Ben was, but he doesn't have roller coaster emotions to begin with so I didn't expect him to burst into tears and cry on my shoulder.
But with the spirit of the month, it would be silly not to be thankful for the opportunity he had to interview, he needs all the practice he can get, also we are thankful that he has a good job and he likes his job.
In spite of the "bad" news Ben did get some good news, he was nominated to go onto something called ADP, it is a process in which he will go through a series of interviews and then prep sessions, once he completes the sessions they will send him to a final interview to be passed of as a DTL (he is a STL a DTL is the manager of a few STL's) . However that news wasn't Ben's idea of good news, he hates interviewing because he thinks he stinks at it.
We are thankful for good jobs, jobs that afford us some travel perks and a steady income.

15

Maybe it is a theme for the day, but I just read on someone else's daily Thanksgiving about friends.
My life has gone in many different directions with friends, but the one thing that has never changed it what and how much I learn from my friends...... from being a better mom, to more fashionable, more spiritual, I could go on and on.
I know that some friends are lifelong friends and some are not, some friendships that end might be a blessing in disguise and some friendships are just blessings.

I guess I will get on my little soapbox about being friendly, and please understand I don't do these all of the time either, but here we go.
If you see someone in the store, why pretend like you don't see them, why is it so hard to smile and wave?
If you see someone at church why is it so hard to pay someone a compliment?
When walking down a hallway with someone you don't know how come it is hard to say Good Morning or hello and smile?
Even if you don't say something to someone you are walking past, how about a smile?

I learned a really good lesson once at work, as the passengers were deplaning a was standing there with a straight face saying goodbye and thank you and a man walked up to me as he was about to walk off the plane and said something to the extent, that "it wouldn't kill you to smile". I will never forget that. EVER. I think about that a lot and the way our body language and words affect other people.

Some of us have lots of friends- some of us have a few friends-some of us want more friends and some of us feel like they don't need friends,  I know I have felt all of those feelings but the feeling today and many days is I am thankful for every one of my friends, each has more positives than negatives and I know that my friends make me want to be a better person and I would be sad if they didn't know that I was thankful for them.

14

Today is another lame post without a photo but maybe with some background music to get into the spirit of the post.
I am thankful for music, it has always been a big part of my life, and is not as big right now as I would like it to be.
I would have music playing all day if I could get away with it.

10,11,12,13

Wow, I am a little behind...not that I am not grateful but a little busy. We had an awesome anniversary weekend this last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We got an awesome hookup to stay up at Stein Erickson Lodge in Park City, Utah. It was nothing short of amazing, it is the only 5 star hotel in Utah. It is a little hard to get used to the amazing treatment, the only valet parking, the bellmen desk, concierge, the turn down service, the papers on your door, I could go on and on.
Our anniversary was on 11.11.11 this year, our original plan was to go the 11state which is New York btw, but we decided to save some cash and time with black Friday less than 2 weeks away.
Ben commented on facebook at 11:11 am we had been married for 11 years but at 1:00pm we were married for 12 years.
The kids stayed at Grandma's house, she is probably home right now passed out on the couch. They had a great time and didn't want to leave even when we got there.
Friday night, we went out to dinner and hung out at the hotel.
Saturday we went to see a movie and not a cartoon movie or rated G. (Tower Heist, pretty good and funny)
Sunday we went to the Stein Erickson Brunch, if you have not gone and need to add something to your bucket list or need a gift for the person that is hard to shop for, treat them to that. It was so AWESOME and hopefully someday will be able to take my Mom back up there for watching my kids for the weekend.

It was so fun and really nice to be just hang out with Ben and be able to talk to one another, without any interruptions.