Did you know November is Gratitude Month?

Well, it is!  I don’t know who comes up with these specialty months; probably the same people who come up with “Grandparents’ Day”.  For the record, every day is Grandparents’ Day, just like every month should be Gratitude Month.  Right?  It’s like I tell my kids when they are coveting something new immediately after a birthday, we should be grateful and enjoy the things we have, right now.  And then I go and spoil it all by purchasing a new black sweater or a yoga top.

But truly, I have so much to be grateful for, every day, and not just the obvious things like health, family, drawers full of black sweaters, etc. 

Things I am grateful for:

1) Jake can sing Gangnam Style, and his mastery of Korean lyrics is comparable to his mastery of English ones.  Heeeeyyyyy, sexy lay-day.  His rendition is equal, if not greater than, his rendition of I’m Sexy And I Know It.  There’s nothing quite so inappropriately cute as a seven year old boy singing “I’ve got action in my pants and I ain’t afraid to show it”.  He is pretty fly. 

2) The boys both like to dance Gangnam Style, although it is really just their regular dance moves, which leads me to believe that Psy stole their moves.  Imitation, sincerest form of flattery, etc. 

3) I went to an assembly at the kids’ school yesterday where there was a visit from several Calgary Stampeders and cheerleaders.  I wasn’t going to go but I ran into a friend who was going and she totally peer pressured me.  It turned out to be hugely fun, complete with student MC who, in a completely robot-like monotone, said how exciting it was to have the football players visit our school, and Go Stamps.  Then the Ralph the Dog mascot pretended to lick the principal, and hilarity ensued. 

4) Prior to attending the assembly, I was at the school photocopying things for next week’s book fair – what else do you do with a Master’s in Economics these days? – and a kid ran down the hall and barfed all over the hallway, because, as he said between retches to a teacher who was passing by, he couldn’t make it to the bathroom.  I am very grateful that child is not in class with either of mine and we have – so far, knock wood and knock back more vitamins – not had the barfing plague hit our house.

5) I am ever-so-grateful for PVR technology.  It is the technological advancement of our time.  Better than sliced bread, voice mail, and the printing press, although not superior to automatic washers and dryers, email, or the wheel.  I recorded Top Gun on TV and I’m thinking of watching it and live-blogging.  While drinking wine.  Don’t you think that would be fun?  Son, your ego is writing cheques your body can’t cash.  In any event, my husband noticed that I was recording it and asked why.  NO REASON.  I like the dialogue?  Now, where is that aviator suit? 

6) People is going to come out with it’s Sexiest Man Alive, which means BLOGGING MANIA.  Remember my list from last year, and the accompanying addendum?  Well, my friend Nan just took it to a whole new level.  Her post made my whole entire day.  And my day started off with a friend buying me a soy latte with sugar-free vanilla so it was already pretty damn good.  Go read it, and just think – NICK NOLTE won?  Whaaaa?  Where were all the other men in the world that year?

To be fair, his win was prior to this sexy photo, but still.  Still.

7) I heard Rock Me Amadeus on the radio today.  AMADEUS AMADEUS AMADEUS AMADEUS AMADEUS.

8) I bought a new cocoa-butter handcream for my hands which are so dry and cracked that clothing snags on them.  The cream works a treat, and it also smells exactly like a cocoa-butter stick I used on my giant pregnant belly back in the day.  The scent takes me back, in a very good way.  I know it’s unpopular to say so, but I loved being pregnant.  I wasn’t ever sick, and I loved getting Princess Treatment.  I loved how people would express concern over me lifting a finger doing anything, I loved how the guys I worked with constantly brought me snacks and worried about me working too hard, I loved how people opened doors for me and helped me cross the street like a whale-like octogenarian.  The cocoa-butter smell makes me feel all the warm fuzziness about being pregnant, without the inconvenience of actually being pregnant.

9) I am so grateful my kids are old enough to have normal, and frequently actually interesting conversations, they are old enough to do most things independently, and yet they still like to receive hugs, albeit not in public.  I am grateful I can look back at pictures like this with nostalgia:

Remember the days that sitting up was too much effort due to massive sleep deprivation?  I’m grateful to sleep.  While I’m in the business of cute old pictures:

Jake has a wee little Tom Brady jersey on!  Death by cuteness!

Look at the cute little bookworm!  We seem to have the same facial expression, and it’s saying “Fuck off, we’re trying to read here.”  And we can’t forget Barkley-when-he-was-a-puppy:

He is watching the Dog Whisperer!!!!

10) I am ever-so-grateful for you lovely readers, as always.  xoxo

So tell me, darlings, what are you grateful for?

Comments

  1. That I organized a whack of pictures into a pretty box last night. That I looked at old pictures of me and even though I look fat I didn’t fall into a pit of self-loathing and destroy all evidence of happy fat pictures of me with my children, because the happy is more important, fuck off it is so!

    When I think of the year my husband said we should get a PVR and I kept saying we didn’t need one I want to go back and punch myself in the face. I would make out with my PVR if it had a face.

  2. Nick Nolte’s photo — HAHAHAHA!

    Horizontal parenting! It does — I’m sad to admit — work much better than horizontal homeschooling.

    I was not aware that you were pregnant in the the 1950s. How ever did you swing that? Oh. Don’t mind me. I’m just bitter because I missed out on the princess treatment, and the door opening, and the not getting sick part. I live in a town full of assholes evidently.

  3. I’m grateful that the episode of The Walking Dead my husband was watching tonight is finally over because lord I hate this show.

    Also! Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. I’m grateful for that.

  4. worth visiting…
    rosesandgifts.com

  5. I am grateful for you, dear friend who lives in my laptop. Also Thursday night Chinese take-out, my healthy boisterous boys, sleep when I get it, coffee when I don’t, and all types of cheese.

    That picture of you two reading slayed me dead.

  6. I am grateful for online shopping and Visa Debit card that allows me to do it without getting in debt loll, Grateful for love, my Kureig coffee machine with the reservoir,family, friends ,good job,my cats and good winter tires LoL..ohhh and historical romance novels..the unsavoury type loll..*Sigh*

  7. Oh I found my old pregnant cocoa butter stick in my bedside table with some five year old condoms and yes! It did take me back to a happy, hopeful time. I still threw it out though because it was totally solid.

    I am grateful that I got antibiotics this week to kick my strep/sinus infection in the pants so I can now enjoy a glass of Friday wine and breathe at the same time.

    I am grateful for sunshine for a few days, that we might run and scream in the outside world and get our yayas out, and a nice break from the dark, dark, dark, dark? rain.

    I am grateful for people who love Top Gun as much as I do. I used to watch it once a year on video tape with my best friend (86-91) and then in University (91-98) I met another best friend and she loved Top Gun too! so now I am quite bereft because my husband refuses to watch Top Gun with me. Why? WHY? *sigh*. You gotta let him go, sir.

    OMGosh cute babies.

  8. Happy Little Feet says

    I love your list. I am grateful for smiles and baby giggles the warmth of their bodies after a nap. Grateful for my kids, learning and life.

  9. I will grateful for my little one sleeping in her own bed when it finally happens.

  10. This has nothing to do with your post, but I watched ‘Shooter’ last night and thought of you.

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