I love Thanksgiving. No gifts to buy. No costumes to sew. No tree to trim.

Just cook some food, and share with family & friends. Hang out, watch TV, play games…

This morning I started my day with morning 7 mile run with May. It’s been 10 days since the last time I ran, which is, I believe, the longest time I’ve gone without running since I started this crazy train (running train, that is). But I *love* pre-burning calories on Thanksgiving – it’s a healthy way to start the day.

It was a good run – I ran comfortably and felt good when we were done. We moved through a wide variety of topics during that run: the tragedy of a friends’ wife’s recent death, husband frustrations, kid stories, motivation to lose weight, faith/manifestation, swim meet software, interesting client stories, javascript, job hunting, charity… and a few other topics am sure I forgot about.

We finished with about a half mile walk to the cars. And then I told my friend how thankful I am for her friendship. Because life is short, and you have to tell the people who mean the most to you that you value them.

I got in the car and had voicemails from Doug asking me to pick up ground pepper and a new peeler on the way home.

As I got to King Soopers, I was feeling light and hopeful. I smiled at the people doing their last minute shopping for the holiday meal.

When I came home, I was welcomed by a piano/guitar duet played by Zander and Doug – The Main Theme from Star Wars.

After a while, we all headed to the kitchen for various peeling and chopping tasks for the cranberry apple relish and the mashed potatoes. The boys were excited to help with everything. This year they really were a big help. It was a nice family thing to do together.

Later, as we picked up the toys downstairs, the boys helped me sort their toys – we put things away and got rid of broken toys.

Then we all hit the showers to get cleaned up and dressed for Thanksgiving at Georgiana & Tom’s house. It’s going to be a big gathering- The Scotts, The Scotts, The Reynolds, The Carpios, The Scott/Dukes… There’s going to be turkey, stuffing, salad, dressing, pies, lumpia, sweet potato casserole, mac & cheese, coconut cake and flan… I can’t wait!

7:15 AM – I woke up and had a lot of stuff to talk about with Mom.

Is today Monday?

It’s Sunday. (said sleepily)

I’m glad it’s Sunday, and not Monday.
Actually, it’s okay if it’s Monday because we are having an assistant teacher this week. I think it’s Miss Doris. I think Miss Catherine said it was Miss Doris.

Mmm hmm.(said sleepily)

This week is Thanksgiving! Are we going to have a feast?

:: insert discussion here about the food we are going to have, with lots of “mmm,” “I like that!” type comments ::

Okay, ssshhh… let’s just be quiet and sleep a little longer…

7:45 AM – Mom sent me to my room to play with Zevan

We play knights, built stuff with Magnetix, played half-boy/half-robot on the purple couch, moved downstairs when mom said we were being too loud.

8:15 AM – Breakfast. Mom made us french toast and eggs with cheese and her special ingredient (garlic powder). Dad made us bacon. I drank milk.

8:40 AM – I announced that I would go upstairs and wash my hands, brush my teeth, do mouth rinse and get dressed.

8:50 AM – I went upstairs, washed my hands, brushed my teeth and did mouth rinse. Oh, what’s this? My Godzilla book! I think I’ll read it.

10:00 AM – I read the whole book! I’m going to tell Mom and Dad!

10:10 AM – I taught Zevan to draw a person in only brown. And I also drew some stuff on Dad’s dragon and he thought it was cool.

10:30 AM – Oh! I need to get dressed. I told Zevan to get me regular pants with no buttons and a short sleeve shirt.

10:40 AM – I came upstairs and mom was typing this story about me. I read it over her shoulder and had to tell her what to fix.

10:50 AM – He’s still not dressed…

10 minutes away from a hike in Garden of the Gods

First, I had a good night of climbing. The routes are still up from the comp two weekends ago, and it’s a lot of fun to try all the routes. The Recreational routes are super easy, the intermediate routes are very do-able, and the advanced routes are definitely a challenge.

The mood in the gym tonight was really positive, encouraging and friendly. Lots of helpful hints from other climbers as we puzzled over some of the routes. I really enjoyed it.

Whenever someone gives me a tip, I feel obligated (in a good way) to work hard and try to use that tip to get to the next move. It’s great motivation that I might not otherwise have.

After climbing, Tiffany and I met up with Lisa at Ruby Tuesday. Our conversations, as usual, ran the gamut from kids to life before parenting and everything in between.

Somehow we got on the topic of infertility/miscarriages/pregnancy. It’s been so long since I talked about our struggles, and it still stirs up my emotions to remember that time in our lives.

I don’t think blogging even existed then (2000-2002 timeframe), but somewhere I have email conversations throughout that experience.

The infertility, 2 rounds of clomid which resulted in 2 miscarriages, and a diagnosis of “unexplained recurring miscarriage.” Then I found Brenda at www.infertilityworkshop.com and made a commitment to change my diet, followed the shutdown/cleansing program, and 3 months later, I was pregnant with Zander. Unwilling to go through that experience again, we explored adoption and surrogacy for our next child. Not long after enduring colic with Zander, the 2nd miracle of all miracles occurred. A mere nine months after Zander was born, I got pregnant with Zevan.

My life perspective shifted dramatically during those years.

And looking back on those times again now, gives me even more perspective on my life as a mom now.

A reminder of how lucky I am. And how thankful I am.

ran the last race of the Fall Series – missed the start by about 3 minutes and had to work my way past the back of the pack. Oy!

is home from a great evening with Candy & Lindsey -dinner@Biaggi’s, saw Role Models (HILARIOUS), dessert@PF Chang’s. Ahhh…

was on TV – http://tinyurl.com/6ex2q3 – don’t blink or you’ll miss me.