Thankful

What am I thankful for this year?

I guess a lot of things.  I’m thankful as always for my loving husband and our precious dogs.

I’m thankful for a great long trip home to Maine earlier this year.  Though it had it’s frustrating moments I got to do most everything I wanted to and had the longest visit I’d had with my mom in a long time.  In the same vein, I’m grateful that while my mother’s health isn’t perfect, she is doing much better than she had been in the past.

I’m thankful that I married into a very loving and caring family.  My in laws are some really great people and I just adore them.  I hear a lot of horror stories fly around about in laws and how horrible they can be but I’ve never had an issue.  I think that if I actually sat down and dreamed up the perfect in laws, my actual in laws would surpass them in terms of awesomeness.

I’m grateful for that I am employed and actually get paid pretty well for what I do.  While I get frustrated at times when my callers aren’t the nicest, I really enjoy the people I work with and the sweet customers make it worthwhile.

I’m extremely thankful for the great health insurance that my husband’s work provides.   Especially with what I see other people going through right now, I am really pleased that Rob works for a company that can provide for their employees the the best of their abilities and really go the extra mile to see that they and their families are cared for in the best way possible.  It is rare in this day and age.

I am over the moon with gratitude for paying of our credit cards this year.  It was a long hard struggle and it literally paid off.  There were years where we had to use the credit cards to survive and to no longer be a slave to that AND to have more money in our savings because we no longer have to pay off the balances is amazing.

I’m glad for a successful Vegas trip this year in that we didn’t lose our shirts, had the perfect amount of downtime and on the go time and we had a lot of fun.

I’m grateful that I found the desire and willpower to quit smoking this year.   8 months ago in fact.  This is the first time that I have quit smoking where I didn’t resort to smoking socially.  The only trip I’ve ever taken to Vegas where I didn’t smoke and the first play I did a full run of other than Repo where I was more disciplined because Rob was in it with me, where I didn’t smoke while at the theater.  It’s also the first time that I have quit that I feel like I’m really DONE with it.

I’m thankful for my friends.  I have a lot of acquaintances and a few really close friends.  My close friends know me inside and out and are talked to on an almost daily basis.  That is not to discredit my other friends with whom I can have amazing fun and fantastic conversations with even though we don’t speak on a regular basis anymore.  I’ve been missing  a lot of those friendships lately, but I’m glad that they existed and will hopefully always be around.

I’m forever thankful to have theater as an outlet but am also glad to have free time on my hands.  When I first started theater I jumped in with both feet and did back to back shows for a year.  I burned myself out and made myself depressed and miserable.  I’m happy that I have found a balance between my home life and my theater life that seems to be working to give me the stage fix I so desire but the boring home life that I love.

I’m sure there is tons more that I’m thankful for but I’m going to close until next year.