TIGF

Hosted by Ashley, Laura and Nay
In my opinion, there is no better time than November to focus on the things in your world you're grateful for.  I understand that there are folks out there who are very antsy for and already starting to celebrate Christmas and you have my love and respect on that - but I still champion the sweet holiday stuck between Halloween and Christmas.  What can I say,  I just love the turkey.  We also have several (and by several I mean almost every member of our family) birthdays that fall the week of Thanksgiving, so you'll just have to forgive me for not jumping on the Christmas bandwagon quite yet.  So, I'm all about the thankfulness, I'm all about the gratitude (I'm also all about that bass, but that's not what this post is about).  So anyway, I don't always do the weekly TIGF posts, but I most definitely will every Friday in November in the spirit of Thanksgiving.  So, here is what I'm grateful and thankful for this week!
New goodies from the Gnarly Whale and freebees - shout out to one of our TIGF hosts Ashley and her shop Gnarly Whale.  I started using these products late in the summer and I tell you the Tea Tree toner has saved my life.  I will always have some form of cystic acne, but this toner really keeps it at bay more than any I've ever tried.  So even though I am still on a project "use it up" for most things, when I ran out of my toner I had to get some more.  They were running a special if you spent enough you'd also get a free pumpkin cheesecake lip balm, so I picked out a body spray too that reminds me of my favorite Snowcake scent from LUSH cosmetics.  Anyway, my package arrived yesterday and Ashley not only included an extremely sweet card, she also gave me some freebees that are amazing - the pumpkin shampoo???  I want to use it every day until the end of time.  So anyway, gush fest over, but if you haven't checked this awesome shop out you should.  And you should also check out Ashley's blog because she is awesome as well.

My furballs - Oh these kitties.  I heart them so.  I love when it starts to get colder outside, you will almost always find them sleeping together somewhere.  They may not love each other more than about 50% of the time, but they certainly do love each other in the winter.  I'm so proud of Taylor too, we seriously thought she'd be the one to have a hard time with Oliver, but she's been so good to him.  He adores her, chases her, grabs her fur, tries to pet her (usually ends up hitting her a little) and she just puts up with it.  She doesn't lash out, if she has enough she just walks away.  Pippin still is very leery of Ollie, but she just keeps her distance for now.  I think she'll come around more when he less jerky in his movements, so you know, when he goes to college.  They're both good cats though and they've put up with a lot from Ollie.  They both get rewarded with pets and cuddles at night while we watch TV after Ollie is in bed.

This boy - I know, I say it a lot, but I am still so amazed he's mine.  I can't believe a year ago we were mere weeks from meeting him for the first time.  Sometimes I get a little nostalgic for those days - not to be so heavily and uncomfortably pregnant (it was an easy pregnancy but the last month definitely was the hardest) - but for all the things Nate and I did together, we took a lot of time for the two of us as it would be the last time we'd be just us two.  But, I wouldn't trade where we're at now for the world.  I thank my lucky stars every day for this amazing little boy and I will never stop shouting it from the rooftops.

Living in an awesome place to raise a kid - We have so much culture in our city, so many great places to explore.  We took Oliver to our Science Museum last weekend and it was so fun.  They have a live butterfly house exhibit right now and it was just so fun to walk around and let butterflies land on you.  Ollie was more interested in crawling around than really looking at the butterflies.  It was just a great place to hang out on a cold day.  I look forward to taking him to our Children's Museum, History Center and when he's a little older, our Children's Theatre too.  We have a great aquarium at the Mall of America that I also want to take him to.  And I have talked a ton about the wonderful zoo in the middle of our city too.  This is seriously a wonderful place to be raising a child, there is always something to do!

So there you have it for this week!  I am also always grateful for all of you who stop by here to share in my life just a little bit!  I wish I could reach through the computer and hug every one of you!  Have a great weekend!