Thankful Thursday - around the house

As I was sitting pondering my Thankful Thursday topics for today, and thinking about maybe doing another 'themed' version (I really don't know how long I'll be able to keep up themes - I'm just not that bright!) aaaaaand I found myself inspired by my house!  hahaha  SO, without further blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaahhh....

THANKFUL THURSDAY

the "around the house" edition

(things to do and/or sitting on the floor or put away in their place around my house as I sit at the computer wondering what things to write about today....)

1) DANCING

(from: http://blog.wfuv.org/?m=201001)

So, I don't think it's weird to love dancing, right? Everyone loves to bust a move now and then, yeah? Some of us are, you know, actually GOOD at it, and thennnn...there are the rest of us.  Who, when we launch into the groove adopt the white-man-overbite, the side-step shuffle, John-Travolta-hand oooooooorrrrrrr one of my personal favourites, the shopping cart!

I believe I am one of these.  When I dance, except for the purple, I think I probably look kinda' like this little guy:

(from: http://baristamagazine.com/blog/?category_name=retailing)

But I'm not going to lie: I REALLY DON'T CARE! I know I look silly soooooo why not have some fun with it and look even sillier? The sillier you make it the more loose you can be and the more fun I have, at least!

DANCING! It's just....pure awesomeness.  Has got to be one of my absolute most favourite things ever.  And I don't know, could you ever really credit ONE person with creating it, being responsible enough for my knee-jerk-to-the-beat movements that there's someone I CAN be grateful to for it?  I mean, it SEEMS to be almost an innate reaction to awesome tunes - Little Miss has ALWAYS bopped to music; she ADORES dancing.  I'll put on a tune and she'll be in the middle of something and it's like she can't HELP but bop her head or waggle her butt in time to the song.

Did I mention it's exercise?  HOLLA!

Have you seen this video yet? (sorry, embedding is unavailable sooooo click the link. For real.) I love it.  I love what the surprise-special-guest-superstar-dancer says at the end about dancing: "...everyone should do this; it's SO much fun."

Maybe I'm grateful that I grew up with some experience dancing and bopping around and that it's totally normal, okay, and EXPECTED even for some of us to bust out into crazy jives when we crank the tunes.

(There may or may not have been an impromptu dance party in my kitchen this afternoon.  Well, what do you think happens when you mix a 28-year-old. 13-year-old, and 3.5-year-old with a room full of dirty dishes and the newest Glee album featuring Justin Bieber ditties?  I HOPE someone saw us 'cause there was some serious fun going on!)

2) PHOTOGRAPHS

I've been working on getting some older photos scrapbooked lately and...I'm just so grateful I HAVE them!

2005 trip to a HOJO in Toronto with visits to the Ontario Science Centre, Metro Toronto Zoo, Tim Hortons and the movies!

2006 trip with my family to Florida, including golf, swimming, being cramped in a rental, lots of mozzarella sticks, and Disney World.

Trying to take pictures of ourselves in California in 2007. Mr. Man was getting up to see if the camera was working....

Very pregnant.  2007.

Later in 2007. She's so huge now!

Always a class act! At our wedding, obviously, in 2003.

Grandma.

Love this lady!

Behind the scenes of a wedding BBQ!

Straigtening out for pictures.

Not every kid can rock a Pebbles hair-do latched onto a neon-green suckie AND hold a ferret!  Feb 2009

 Cue: Barbara Streisand... "Meeeeeeeeemoriiiiiiiieeeeeeeessssssssss......."  (although, I know the song is really "Memory".... just got with it).

3) MY KNIFE SHARPENER

(from: http://blog.asseenonpcnetwork.com/?p=521, and no, neither my knives or my knife sharpener look as fantastically scary as in the picture I choose - I just like the intensity of the picture....) O:-)

So, one day, I "grew up" (HA! hahahahahahaha Oh, THAT'S FUNNY!) got married, and moved into a "house" of my own.

With some knives.

And I didn't notice it happen, but I eventually discovered how really displeased I was with my knives! I'd go home to my Mom's fantastic kitchen and her fantastic kitchen things and I'd cut with her knives, and then trudge home to my tiny kitchen with my not-so-fantastic kitchen things (some of my stuff is fantastic, some of my stuff is young-married-ish. I mean, it happens, right?) and I'd really really notice how much I hated my knives.

Then one day my MIL, knowing I hated my knives, found a whole SET on sale somewhere, and picked them up for me as a gift!

HOORAY! New knives! They work, they're great, they're wonderful! I love my knives!!

But then I'd go home and use my mom's stuff and then trudge home to MY stuff.... and my knives weren't so great.

I mean, the grass is always greener, right??

.....THEN one day my Mom and Dad were cleaning out the extras from their house.

And they offered me their no-longer-in-use knife sharpener.


Wait, WHAT?

Soooooo.....my knives are STILL not as great as my mom's - she just got a really fancy-schmancy super-dee-duper professional-and-then-some holy-mackeral-knives-cost-HOW-much set for her birthday last October....that grass is like, unbelievable. I can't imagine ever needing knives like my mom has, (they're probably kinda' crazy intense like the one in the picture that mine aren't like?) ;) buuuut I LOVE MY KNIVES!

So, THANKS MIL for my knives, and THANKS SO MUCH to MY parents for cluing me in on how the heck to get my great knives to actually cut things after they dulled.

shaking head

Yeah, I know.  Sometimes I'm a moron....

4) KRAFT DINNER

(from: http://starktower.blogspot.com/2010/08/theres-always-kraft-dinner.html)

Today, I went to Costco. And bought a ginormous box of Kraft Dinner for less than $10.

I know, I know. There are MANY evils to Kraft dinner.  Like, empty-caloric white pasta, POWDERED cheese (really, yeah, 'cause THAT sounds all-natural), aaaaaand a heck of a lot of 'orange-number-whatever'....

BUT IT'S SO GOOD!

For a few reasons:

1. EVERYBODY loves it. 
2. ESPECIALLY Little Miss, aaaaaaand I'm not going to lie, I LOVE making that kid happy. 
3. It's so darn EASY
4. It's so darn FAST
5. It's inexpensive
6. It really DOES taste good
7. .....you can add your own twist and make it even less healthy yummier! (Like, sometimes, instead of mixing in milk and butter we use whipping cream and butter....droooooll... OH and finish it off with some freshly-grated-into-the-pot old (strong) cheddar - creamy, sharp, delicious KD taste.  Ooooooooooohhhh yeaaaaaaaahhhh..... 
8. One pot to clean!

So I KNOW that there is little to no nutritional value to this meal, ESPECIALLY when we make up the extra-fattening version above.  But I'm sure glad it's around 'cause it's such an easy meal, it's a treat, and it makes us all happy.

And don't worry. The giant box will last us a while.  .....at least until next week.....

5) SPLURGES
..........I dunno. I don't buy myself a lot - or at least it feels that way; Mr. Man may have another thought on this statement, but... this isn't his blog! - buuuut today, I splurged.  A whopping $13.49 I spent on absolutely nothing but myself.  I saw it, I wanted it, and I only debated with myself for a moment and then said, you know what? I'm BUYING it.

You know how many people CAN'T DO THAT??  Aaaaaaand really, probably, I really shouldn't do that.  I mean, we have some serious financial things going on being ex-students-new-workers-with-not-humongous-paycheques, and a house to keep up, a family to look after....

But I splurged. Today, I can splurge, and I did. And it feels a little like a well-deserved pat on the back and I'm okay with that today.  And unbelievably grateful that I live in a place where and with people for whom that is a-okay.

AND my splurge may or may not have been the thing that instigated the rockin' dance party mentioned before.... just sayin'. :-)

And THAT, my friends, is this week's Thankful Thursday.