It’s Thanksgiving time again! This has been one heck of a year with a lot of changes and a lot to be thankful for.
1. Always and forever, my husband. Even when he is grouchy, or hungry, or walks around with headphones in for approximately 12 hours a day, he is the best part of my life.
2. My crazy family. We may fight like crazy and be emotional and do stupid stuff, but we love each other fiercely and I hope that will never change.
3. The Bunn/Dravis/Dan/Beanblossom family. Without them, I wouldn’t have pulled off surprising Matt for an early 40th birthday surprise and I have loved to be part of their family.
4. Starting a new job and jumping right in. Miami was super welcoming in January and have continued to be.
5. Camp T for GLACUHO…met some awesome people and planned some awesome work for this year on the Professional Foundations committee
6. Meeting this munchkin and her parents. I love that Sarah makes sure I get baby time!
7. Running a successful RA Selection process. I feel like I am still learning the ropes, but I have an awesome committee backing me up.
8. Meeting some fantastic graduate students and professional staff and helping them on their journeys to their next steps.
9. Team Miami…even if it resulted in a stress fracture, it got me back out running again!
10. Having a garden this year. We had an awesome crop and I can’t wait to grow things again!
11. The lovely ladies who helped me plan Megan’s shower. The event was as lovely as them!
12. 10 Year College Graduations-and getting to hang out with Brenda!
13. Full sized stoves and refrigerators…and storage spaces!
14. My sister’s beautiful wedding…we are happy to have Joe in the family!
15. Having our family and friends write cards to Matt for his birthday. The outpouring of love was pretty fantastic.
16. 12 hour car rides to hang out with my Grandma
17. Yuengling on top in Ohio!
18. Finding cool restaurants and breweries in Cincinnati
19. Being able to walk to work and uptown
20. Having the Raders only two hours away in Columbus aka random visits with Rader when I show up in Columbus
21. Ballet classes! I have loved getting back into dancing and will continue to do it as long as the class if offered!
22. The Cincinnati Zoo with Matt’s parents! Penguins, tigers, lions and giraffes!
23. Getting accepted to present at NWSA! Literally ran down the hall with joy!
24. Livestreaming the ConnColl commencement…tears as I watched some of my favorites graduate when I was 700 miles away!
25. Donating my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths
26. Getting a piece of Michelle’s artwork for my birthday!
27. Extracting honey with my boss
28. Surprising Dad with a 60th surprise birthday party! So much love in one room…and food!
29. Karaoke!
30. F-WORD: The students have been amazing and I love that I get to be a radical feminist with them two nights out of the week.
31. The annual anniversary photo:
32. Going to Puerto Rico and hanging out with these amazing women:
33. Seeing bell hooks speak for the NWSA keynote!
34. Father John Ferone…he makes me believe in the Catholic Church again.
35. My awesome Team Colleen. They work so hard and deserve so much more credit for what they do!
36. My fem theory doc class. I have loved turning that part of my brain on and I really hope I can continue it formally by being accepted into the SAHE doc program!
37. Smartwool socks
38. Flying Pig Half training and Kelsey signed up to run with me.
39. Going to church on Sunday which meant only one of our cars got totaled by a tree.
40. Being really happy with myself and the work I am doing. I am thankful for me. 🙂