Thankful

Yesterday during our harvest luncheon some of the teachers started going around saying what they were thankful for, and then of course everyone had to participate. I dislike being put on the spot and am absolutely terribly awkward speaking in front of groups of my co-workers, so I mumbled something quickly and passed the attention along to the next person. I do realize I teach and am "on the spot" all day and speak in front of groups all day but I do better with middle schoolers, don't ask me why.

 

So I started thinking I have TONS to be thankful for this year, here is my top ten.

 

Mr. B, he is my favorite person!

Words are really meaningless when describing how I feel about him. He is such an amazing sport through all of my antics, even remembered to get me flowers on one of our anniversaries last week. We have three, which he thinks is a bit silly, but regardless he plays along. Over 5 years with him and I still get excited by his texts and when he arrives home. Too cheesy I know!

 

AWOLNATION! We love good concerts.

 

I HEART this man!

 

The card said "happy 71st anniversary" but really its only are 15th, thats not odd at all..

 

Our home.

It might be too large for us, require too much time to clean and be way out of my teacher salary but we HEART it and some how we make it work.

 

 

My job.

Teaching certainly has its ups and downs but at the end of a day or week I am very thankful to have a classroom to go to each day, where hopefully I am making an impact.

 

My students.

Without them I would be incredible lonely in my classroom, or a bit more sane. Regardless of how some of them act towards me or in the room at the end of the day they are mine and make my job worth going to. They challenge me, annoy me and sometimes even thank me and on days when you get an "oh i get it" or "thank you" or "have a great holiday" I feel like its all worth it.

 

Having AC in my classroom. Enough Said.

 

Family.

This year my sister and I managed to work out being able to see both of our parents in one day. As I get older being able to spend time with my family becomes more and more important to me, so despite the 6:45 departure time in the morning and the 4+ hours of driving around, I am blessed to be able to spend time with both of my parents. And get to spend a little time with my grandparents, Aunt/Uncle, cousins and my brothers and sister. And whoever else might show up, my grandparents have an open door policy and generally tons of booze!

 

We probably need some better pictures together...

 Holiday time off!

I know some districts got the whole week off but I am not complaining about getting a five day weekend at all! At the law firm I had to plead A LOT to even get the day after Thanksgiving off for family time, so being at a job where time around the holidays is time off I feel very grateful.

Being financially stable.

I know that that statement seems odd coming from me, a teacher. But when so many of my students won't be having Thanksgiving, don't have winter clothes and can't just go shopping for things they want when they want, I feel blessed to not have to make those hard decisions. Yes I need to budget and watch my money carefully but I always have an option. Or make buying a new pair of shoes a completely justified expense.

To all teacher friends out there, the brand Reefs, are amazingly comfortable...like walking on foam!

Erica aka friendship.

I might do a pretty shitty job at keeping up with my long distance friends sometimes but over the past two months both myself and her have been willing to drop everything for a quick weeknight chat to regain some form of sanity, I use the word loosely, to our lives. I am saddened that she won't be coming to stay with us over the Christmas holidays this year but I know that means I just have to work harder to schedule more skype/wine dates with her. (Or our first one, just the thought of that over a normal cell phone convo sounds amazing!)

 

 Gym Memberships and pinterest/blog motivations!

It might feel like a slow start, two days a week in the gym, but just having the opportunity to try and push the habit back in my life is very nice/stress relieving. I also HEART all of the amazing teaching ideas, cooking recipes and decorating inspirations that exist out there, I feel like our every day life can sometimes be dictated by technology but with so many positive things being shared it can be completely worthwhile.

 

All and all this post was completely cheesy and way mushier that I ever tend to be, but having the luxury to sit at home today browsing the Internet and snacking on sausage balls reminded me that I should be thankful for the opportunity to be such a large bum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Babbling Box!