Thanks, Mimi!

 Holy moly, what a week! I lead a fairly quiet life. Well, when you teach 2-3 year olds, your days are far from quiet, but at the end of the school day? I. Am. Dead. I fall asleep in my chair, get up long enough to wash my face and put on my jammies, and I fall into bed, and if you think I'm exaggerating, my husband would be happy to confirm this.

But THIS week, I had sooooo much going on that I forgot to post the link to the Ten Things of Thankful hop on Friday, and that will bring me to my own list for this week:

1. I am extremely thankful for Mimi of Messy Mimi's Meanderings for many reasons, but for this list, it's also because she emailed me on Saturday afternoon to let me know that I hadn't posted the link. Whoopsie! 

2. While I'm on the subject of Mimi, and to show another reason just why she is awesome, she reached out to me about the link because she was worried about me when I hadn't posted it. She's an awesome person, and if you've never read any of her posts, you should follow the link in #1 and do so. She is a kind and good person, plus she's funny!

3. Since February, I have been the lead teacher who opens the preschool at 6:45 every morning, and I live in fear that I will get there and not have my school keys and we will all be sitting outside as the children arrive until I can get ahold of someone with a key to rescue us. I check and re-check my purse for the school keys before I leave the house, but Tuesday morning, I checked and THEY WEREN'T THERE. They weren't somewhere else in my purse and they weren't in the pocket of the pants I had worn the day before and I knew I was screwed. I called the university police department but didn't get an answer, and I was contemplating which student worker would be able to climb the fence to the playground and let us in a coded door when I saw Mr. Kenton in the parking lot. He works for the State (they have an office on the other side of our building) and he also arrives at the buttcrack of dawn for work. He doesn't have a key to our side, but he has one to the basement, and both sides connect there. Whew! Saved! 

4. My friend Julie and I bought tickets to see Book of Mormon back in July or August, and Tuesday was the day of the show - finally! Bad news. Julie had a tummy bug and was siiiiiiick. She tried to rally, but it wasn't going to happen for her. My immediate other two options were not fans of musicals, but I knew one of my co-workers DID like musicals, and she agreed to go with me. We were like little kids going to the circus, we were both so excited to go, and it was worth the trip (70 miles each way) and the late night (we got home close to midnight). 

the lighting made our hair look translucent 

5. Rebecca and I not only didn't have any close encounters with deer on our way home that night, we didn't even SEE a deer the entire way. 

6. I still hesitate to say anything until the deal has closed, but I drove up to my dad's to sign some papers at a title company. Fingers crossed the closing goes as planned and I'll have a future thankful in a couple of weeks.

7. About a week before I heard Book of Mormon was coming to Springfield, I saw that Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt were performing in Springfield in October, and I told my husband we were going. We NEVER go to concerts, but after the high I got from going to Steely Dan this summer, I was going to this! Now, both events two days apart in a city 70 miles away and both on school nights was not ideal, but it was WORTH IT. Lovett and Hiatt played a 2-1/2 hour acoustic set where they took turns playing songs and shared stories with the audience. It was an intimate evening at the beautifully restored Gillioz Theater and I loved it.

dark but not worth trying to fix

8. Once again made the trip to Springfield and back in the dark and had no deer encounters.

9. It was homecoming weekend at the university where I work, and as self-proclaimed Cruise Director of our child development center, I was in charge of our float for the homecoming parade. There were times when I wasn't sure we were going to pull it off, but with outstanding help from student workers, parents, and co-workers, we got 'er done. Did we win? No. Do we care? Yes, so we will work harder next year! (In all honesty, we were hoping the cute factor of having our kids on a float and a candy bribe for the judges would override any lack of design aesthetics, but I guess we were mistaken. We will be back with a vengeance NEXT year.)

Emily, student worker and master of sign making ,
and the Cruise Director

10. Fall has really and truly made it to the Ozarks. Jackets in the morning, shirtsleeves in the afternoons, falling leaves, and beautiful blue skies. Ahhhh!!!

I hope you always have the keys you need, be they to a door or to your heart. I hope you have friends who check on you and that you indulge yourself in activities that make your soul happy (although two in one week is not recommended). I hope you find candy raining down on you from a parade, be it real or metaphorical. And I hope are looking for the thankfuls in your life, because in spite of everything else that may happen, the thankfuls are there; sometimes, you just have to look a little harder to find them.

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