Day 7: my mom.

If you've met my mom then you have probably met one of the happiest people in the world! Seriously, just walking through the front door as a complete stranger she could make you feel like she's waiting her entire life just to meet you. My dad, her children and grandchildren and any person in our lives are her most prized possessions. My mother takes lemons and makes a whole assortment of any delectable lemon dessert you can imagine. I am so grateful for this gift of hers because it's how I grew up and it is something she has passed down to me.

She's my example of how I look at life.

Day 6: life friends.

My best friend, Lisa, just got engaged a week ago! We've been best friends since we met on our first day of first grade when we got paired up in line together because our last names both started with "D." Needless to say we've been through life together. From trying on our first sleepover together to going to prom. It's been one of the greatest treasures life has given me. Tonight we were on the phone talking about venues and wedding details when the tears started to come for the both of us. It was another pivotal moment in our life that our friendship was sharing. It made me realize how thankful I am for Lisa and the love of so many of my great friends. Life would seriously suck without the love of friends. We need these people in our lives who have made the choice to love us. Who choose to stick around and love us when we go through our bratty years of high school, crazy nights in college and bring us back to reality when we get too caught up in the hustle of life.


So today I am thankful for all of my great friends who have helped me live life. Life would suck without y'all.

Day 5: this blog.

Today I received a "friendly" reminder that I had to go pick up my contacts that had been delivered to the store 2 months ago...I guess life got ahead of me (opps). But conveniently there's a Barnes and Noble in the parking lot of my eye doctor so I decided to wander. I wandered through the travel section looking for ideas on where to vacation next. Then I traveled to the next aisle, the Christian section. I read a few title but then I realized I wasn't in the mood for self-help. I read the titles of new releases then looked at calendars. Then I looked at magazines and the feminist in me got upset when I saw "Women's Interests" compared to the "Men's Interests." So I marched over to the Men's Interests, picked up Bloomberg and started to reading it upwardly so people would notice that women are interested in business too! After I felt like I made my point I made another loop to the travel section then into the cookbook section because I was hungry. I only liked the cookbooks with pages that had a cool texture but realized I would probably just do an online search of anything I wanted to cook so $40 would be a waste.

I don't know why I just rambled about my really boring adventure through Barnes and Noble on a Tuesday night, but I did. So I'm thankful for this blog where I can.

day 4: co-workers.

Often times I can get caught up in work that I forget to take some time out of the day to just talk and laugh with people I work with. Today I was pulling samples for a meeting in the morning and started to overhear conversations about movies and hot male celebrities so I decided to stop for a break. It was a nice reminder of how much I really enjoy the people I work with and even though I left a bit later because of the break I don't regret it. It's a huge win to not only have a job I enjoy but more so to do it alongside great people.

day 3: fall in georgia.

It's hard to ignore the beauty in Georgia right now and it's hard to resist just driving to admire all the new colors. Fall is in full bloom, the air is crisp and the leaves are every color you could imagine. So today I'm thankful for the beauty of fall in Georgia!

....I'm also thankful for the crunchiness of the leaves that puts enjoyment into every step. :)

Day 1: Reunions. Day 2: Home.

Day 1

There's nothing better than seeing friends you haven't seen in years and being able to catch up. Last night I was thankful to go to two dear friends engagement party, one who I grew up with and the other was my college roommate. I'm grateful for the friends who will always be in your life everyday but I'm also thankful for those friends who come in and out every few years. 

Day 2

This morning I woke up in the bed I grew up in, needless to say I was at my parents house. It becomes strange once you're on your own, have your own place (which is another thing I'm so grateful for, but another day :)) to come back to your parents. It's no longer the bed that you're use to sleeping in and the noises you forgot your house made. But at the same time there's a great comfort of waking up to your dad singing in the morning, something that occurs every morning in the Dittmeier household.

I'm grateful to have another house to always come back to. To get refueled on love or great food or both. To have 2 incredible parents at home that will wait up for me just to see how I'm doing when I stayed out late with friends. There's always a comfort in the house you grew up in. So today I am grateful for home, which today is at my parents house.

Make today a good day.

We all want to make the good days last and the bad be nothing more than a blink. "Wake Me Up " or if you want to go back a few years to "Wake Me Up When September Ends" are clear examples of songs that speak to that. Add a great melody and there's a chart topper.

Lately I've been thinking about the movie "13 Going on 30," all she wants is to be 30 where everything will appear to be better and life will be figured out. When she wakes up one morning as a 30 year old, she discovers that life is okay but she missed out; on the good and bad. And she was still a 13 year old girl that had not faced life. 

I was talking to a friend the other night about how we need the hard times to appreciate the good times and we also need those hard times to make us the person we are meant to become. Equally important we need the good times, as well as embrace the good times. My sister-in-law, Brooke, told me one morning to "make today a good day." I doubt she meant for it to be my new motto but it has. (Thanks Brooke!) I've realized that life is a choice. Every minute. It's choice to be happy and how we view things. Life is never ideal but we can choose to make our attitudes ideal. 

And with this thought and November starting tomorrow I'm going to give my 30 days of thankfulness another shot! Last year I think I made it to Day 10 and then got distracted by food or something. But here's to another effort of choosing to see the good, in the good and the bad.

Oh, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!