Giving Thanks

When I was a child my father wrote this grace that we said before every meal.

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food. Thank you for helping us through the day. Thank you for our love and our lives and everything we have especially eachother. Amen."

As a child I would make everyone at the table say "We love eachother" at the end. I liked that extra affirmation and we would all hold hands around the kitchen table and say it. I said this grace at my wedding reception where I made everyone there say "we love eachother."

I don't say any other grace because none means as much to me as that one because I think it sums it all up.

I am thankful everyday that I wake up. I wake up with my health, which I am thankful for. I wake up with my amazing loving kind incredible husband, whom I could never ever ever thank the universe for enough. I'm thankful that I have food in my home for breakfast. I'm thankful that I can afford to heat my house. I am thankful that I walk out to my car and drive to a job that makes me giggle. I am thankful for my job, that I work with 15 little brilliant stars. I am thankful for my co-teacher, Karen and all her infinite wisdom. I am thankful that as I move through my day I have a family supporting me that extends past bloodlines and moves to the family that I have created for myself. I am thankful that my sister married her perfect match and is happy in Pennsyltucky. I am thankful that 2 doors down, in the toddler room I have a friend who I can walk and talk with at lunch about our first year of teaching and our lives. I am thankful that my best friend is here and I can call her or text her and she gets it, and she supports me even when I'm crazy. I am thankful that my friend has found a job within driving distance and a girlfriend who makes him look dizzy with happiness. I am thankful that I have the smartest cutest niece in the universe! and that she makes her parents shine brighter than they ever have. I am thankful for my friends who have found resolution within them, have been through hell and have found the light inside themselves. I am thankful that I have friends who have supported me when I was heartbroken and who will continue to do so even when I am not. I am thankful that I know that I don't have to be just like my girlfriends to love and appreciate them. I am thankful that I wound up with inlaws who love me just for being me. I am thankful for my grandparents and their home which has given me a place of solace for 29 years. I am thankful for my parents, who even though they can be nuts, instilled in me a sense of value of myself and influenced the strong woman that I have become. I am thankful that I have a full heart. I am thankful that at the end of the night, when I climb into bed, I have spent another day of my life with Nick Corcoran.

gratitude and procrastination

I woke up at 530a. Ready, set, paper writing!

yeah right...

but as I was checking my email I ran across this beautiful thought and decided to share. I'll write about my own gratitude at a later date.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie

november

wow... it's been a REALLY long time since I have written an entry here... it's been a VERY LONG month!

After Obama won the campaign I began writing my oral presentation for my Romantic Lit class. There were a few things I touched on in the poems I was comparing both entitled "To a Skylark" - one by Wordsworth, one by Shelley. I shared a little background on the skylark, including a clip of what the bird sounds like (thanks to the ipod and ilive!) and then I tried to look at the poems through the lens which the author of the poems views poets and poetry. For WW, he views the poet’s art as an “acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe.” WW sees the poet AS a divine spirit, part of the divine or voice of divine. For Shelley poetry is a fire which is sparked by a diviner nature. The poet will never be equal to a voice of the divine. He laments that he cannot pour fourth as naturally as a skylark which is part of the divine.

That's it in a nutshell...if you want more info just let me know. i doubt you do.

So that went well and then that weekend it was off to NYC. I took the bus down which was super easy and relatively inexpensive. Ilyse took me to Chat-n-Chew for lunch which was delicious. We watched Penn State's only loss of the season (booo!) and had some dinner and time out. It was an interesting time. I highly recommend the shortline bus out of bingo for trips to the city. I doubt if I will be returning any time soon, though. I am a country girl. Even in the "big city" of Binghamton I still feel like this is 100 times more country than the concrete jungle of NYC.

I took a Medication Administration Training course and passed on November 13th. Now I can give children medication. Isn't that EXCITING!! It certainly is for my center.

I've also been to two Binghamton University Men's Basketball games. My inlaws get season tickets and have been on a cruise so we were able to take another couple with us to the Friday 14th game. It was a blast. I love being at collegiate level games. I love the fans. I love the feeling and the school spirit. I am a Penn State girl and with that comes this familiar feeling when everyone is cheering. It feels like "home."

Last Saturday (the 15th) I was able to hang out with my favorite little girl, Miss G along with her padre, John, and Shane and Nick. It was BY FAR a "best day." Her mama had her first full day away from the house, going on a delicious wine tour on the finger lakes! We watched noggin, my new favorite show is Jack's Big Music Show. Not only because they played EXCELLENT music but because Miss G was too friggen cute dancing to it. We really just spent the day watching the baby play and Bear Grylls survive in nature. It was so relaxing and really exactly what I needed. To actually relax for a day. I was sick earlier that week due to a weakened immune system caused by exhaustion. oy!

The BAEYC has also been working on a conference for the past few months. We brought national speaker Larry Griffin in for the day this past Saturday. I am hospitality chairwoman so it was up to me to feed the masses. I was able to get my friends at Starbucks Front Street to donate coffee for the morning. I had Gance's do the catering for lunch, sammie boxes. I was ready to have a heart attack by this past Thrusday night! I was thinking of everything that could go wrong and how I would fix it. (awful concept) Would there be enough? I wondered. Would it get there on time? 1 MILLION thanks to Gance's who did an INCREDIBLE job they did. Holy crap. Highly highly reccommended!!

Larry Griffin was amazing. He spoke about "Challenging Behaviors" in children. His message was basically, get to know your children. There are things that you can't change in their lives but they are with you for X hours a day and during that time you have to give your all to them. He spoke about the brain and the differences within according to gender. He spoke about teaching the children that we are all here to help eachother. It was beautiful. I, of course, cried. It was a great reminder that I LOVE WHAT I DO. I love love love love love all of the children in my classroom and I am so glad that they are part of my world.

You see, in addition to freaking out about the sandwich boxes on Thursday night I was also freaking out about the fact that I will have a Master's Degree by the end of August. oy. Then what? Well, I don't need to decide that now. I have ALWAYS trusted in the universe, the hp, to guide me. It hasn't lead me astray thus far.

So what's next??

-FIVE DAYS OFF!!!!! For the first time in YEARS i'm not working Thanksgiving. Sweeeeet! I'm having dinner here with my adorable inlaws and my lovely friends the KOZs. But first... I have to make serious strides on my 20 page paper (due: 12/11). I also will be sharing beautiful times with much of my family of friends this week and I can't wait! Hopefully it won't be a MONTH before I update this thing again!

enjoy...

true. hope.

After eight years of disenfranchisement and disenchantment the tide changed last night. For eight years of my life (the defining years of 20-29) I have lived with GWB as the president of my country. I finally feel that a president who will listen to my hopes and dreams and fears is running our country. I can't wait to see what the next four years will bring.

PS Did you hear about the GWU students who went to the White House last night??

VOTE!!!

I took the following from a moveon.org email I received yesterday. During of the first presidential election I ever voted in I wandered the streets of State College, PA, asking people if they had voted that day and giving them pretty much the same speech as you see below. I also ran into Republican Headquarters when we thought GWB had lost and yelled "George Bush Sucks!" Yeah...that kind of backfired...

I'm also wondering if anyone knows whether or not it is legal for an "election official" to tell you that if your name was any longer it would need it's own zipcode while you are in the voting booth. This is the second time I've gotten comments about my last name at the place where I vote. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to say something this time...

Anyway...from Adam Ruben of moveon.org...


People died so you'd have the right to vote. Self-government—voting to choose our own leaders—is the original American dream. We are heir to a centuries-long struggle for freedom: the American Revolution, and the battles to extend the franchise to those without property, to women, to people of color, and to young people. This year, many will still be denied their right to vote. For those of us who have that right, it's precious. If we waste it, we dishonor those who fought for it and those who fight still.

Live your values. Love your country. Vote.

P.S. It ain't right but it happened! A guy dressed like the traditional depiction Jesus Christ handed this to my girlfriends outside a restaurant on Saturday night. (that's my hand, isn't it beautiful, haha)