Happy Thanksgiving

I am wishing all of my family and friends and happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday. We are staying in Arizona for the holiday (like we do every year) and will be enjoying the beautiful 70 degree temperature. With that said, here is what I am thankful for this year.

1. An amazing, happy and healthy child. With Maxim being a 10 week premie anything could have happened, so I am extremely happy that he is a strong and healthy baby boy. He is very smart, adorable and I could go on and on about how perfect he is...but I won't.

2. Green tea to get me through the days. I don't drink coffee or soda, so the only thing that gets me through the long days is tea...and lots of it. I would say I drink about four cups of green tea a day...at least four cups.

3. Awesome friends...near and far. I have this saying "You can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends, so choose wisely." I definitely picked a great group of friends who mean a lot to me. I have friends all over the U.S. and wish I could see them all the time, but I can't. Even though there is distance between us I know that when we do touch base it's like no time has passed at all. Those are the good friends that I choose to have in my life.

4. Family...near and far. Unfortunately our blood family lives far away, but even so, I am very thankful for them and I look forward to seeing everyone next month at Christmas. I am also thankful for the family close by that we have in our lives. They may not be blood related, but they sure are family.

5. An awesome husband and daddy. Let's face it, Andy is a pretty awesome husband and daddy. He helps out a lot and definitely shares parenting duties. I do know that not every mamma out there has that support so I definitely appreciate it and am thankful I have Andy.

6. The HOV Lane. This might seem trivial to some people, but when you have an extremely long commute like I do, you would be thankful for an HOV lane. I am glad I found a sitter for Max by my work so I can take the HOV lane both ways because without it my commute would be close to an hour instead of 35 minutes.

7. My-Grastick. I was introduced to this recently and I absolutely love it. Basically, it's oils that help with headaches. I don't get a lot of headaches, but I do have a lot of tension on my neck so I use it to release the tension. It works great and I would definitely recommend using it if you are prone to headaches or just have a lot of tension.

8. A career that makes me happy. Not everybody has a job, or a job they like, or even a career, but I do and I am thankful for that. To leave Maxim every day like I do, it has to be for something I love doing, and I do love my career.

9. FaceTime. I don't know how parents got away back in the days without FaceTime. It's the only thing that keeps me sane when I get out of dodge. It's hard enough to leave the big man behind, but it does help when I can see him (and he can see me) whenever I want. It makes the distance a little easier on this mamma.

10. A great sitter for Max. I truly lucked out on this one. Earlier this year we found the perfect person to watch Max while we work during the week. Ms. Marie is amazing and so good with toddlers. I am very grateful for such a caring individual to watch my sweet little boy who teaches him new things and does arts & crafts with him.