thanksgivingfullness

I know...a tacky post title, but at least you get my reasoning right off the bat. Before I get into those notes, an update on the Springer life:

We are about to dive into a commitment for 30 yrs = our first mortgage payment is due on the 1st of December. YIKES! But, in order to save money in the log run and to pay off this puppy quicker, we are going with biweekly payments. Statistics say it could save us 10-12 years on our mortgage and $95k...I'll take it!

Ella enjoyed watching the wheel (Wheel of Fortune) and playing peek-a-boo with us tonight. She is dancing every second she is standing too! Go figure...the one song she danced to when we watched the top 20 video countdown on Saturday was lady gaga. Bleh. I have a thing or two to teach her about taste in music. It is strange to believe that our nightly conversations consist of "Ella is crawling around so pickup Gage's food bowl", "Did you make her bottle yet", and "Is it bath night". I know, most people comment on how their lives change when babies are young and its all about diapers, bottles, and naps. But life was too crazy and exciting to even have that cross our minds at the time. It, indeed, is crazy to think of how life has changed and how far we have come in the last 12 months.

In terms of thanksgiving, we are the most thankful for our health and our employment. Without those two, we wouldn't be in the fantastic place we are now. Along with that is our families. Although we don't get to see our No Dak family nearly as much as we would like to, all of our family and our dearest friends have been an amazing support through our move to the cities and to our new house, Ella's 1st year of life, and learning to adjust to family life! Before this day is too far gone, I do want to say how thankful I am of being able to get to know my grandpa before he passed. Yesterday was the five year anniversary of Grandpa Hugh's passing from cancer. He has been greatly missed and I can't wait to meet him again one day. You better have an American Spirit with my name on it when I get up there, Grandpa! Someday I will tell a story or two about Grandpa Hugh (haha, poet). He was a good man with haunting memories which make it difficult at times...anyway. More thankful notes this week.

Song: instead of browsing for a good music selection before diving into projects at work today, I spent time updating my Geni Family Tree. It's fun to keep that kind of thing up to date and hope to add to it this holiday season when I can glean more information from relatives. Between our two families, we have over 375 folks in our family tree!

Memory: As I have mentioned in the past, I was (and still have flashbacks here and there) a pansy growing up. I didn't like getting hurt, plain and simple. I didn't climb trees, I didn't go off big jumps with my bike, I...you get the point. It was all the same with water sports. My Dad grew up on a lake, and thanks to God's blessings, my parents bought a cabin on North Long Lake in MN in the early 1980's on the same lake as Ed & Bernie Boegamann and Brad & Patty Bye (whom I am sure will be in future posts). Because of that, living on the lake was what we did in the summer. And what we did was ski (well, what everyone else did was ski). I took more to the grass skiing and water chariotting (sp?). I used to pretend to ski by bringing water skis to the front lawn and holding my hands out like I was bring towed. And, my dad, being the compassionate one that he is, bought a ski chariot. As you can see by this picture (although the actor posing in the shot makes it look riveting and stellar), its nothing more than a tube with three sides so no harm or danger can be experiences by the rider. I loved it. I rode in that thing till...well, last year. Ha, kidding. Through the mockery of Kyle Bye and the encourage of my Dad, I started skiing when I was 14 or so and I am not afraid to say it! Speaking of being a pansy...my next memory will be of when I fell up the stairs and almost got an ambulance ride out of the deal.

I hear snow is in the forecast. We can't complain about the fabulous weather we have had up till this point. I put the flippin' Christmas lights up in a t-shirt yesterday for gosh sakes. And who are we kidding, it's not fun unless we have a white Christmas.

I do want to mention again that this blog is merely for fun and remembrance purposes. So if you find grammatical errors...deal with it.