Chicago Chick: Things to Be Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I may come off as a pessimist, but I'm not. I'm probably not a complete optimist, but I really am a "glass is half full" kind of gal. This year, I have bitched and moaned about everything and anything - more this year than any other, but I realize that I am very very lucky. For starters, I am able to change jobs relatively quickly.

At the end of this month I will make my 3rd job change of the year. It's not something that I'm proud of because it makes me look very fickle and I assure you that I am not. I take my career very seriously - so much so that I am not willing to "stick it out for a year or two" in a job that I feel will not help me steer my career in the right direction. For example, I am not going to be happy copying information from one report and pasting it into a spreadsheet no matter how much they pay me. The thought of my brain shriveling to nothing for the all-mighty dollar does not appeal to me. Enough said - I'm thankful for the fact that I am able to change jobs quickly (I'm thankful that my luck has not quite run out).

In the bigger scheme of things, I am thankful most of all for my family. My husband, although I complain about him at times and life is not always sunshine and flowers, is an amazing guy. When we first decided that he would stay home with the boys we weren't quite sure how we were going to do it. We, or at least I, didn't know if we would be okay financially. It's been almost 2 years since we became a single income family and we're okay. It took a little time to adjust and things have changed. We don't go on vacations or eat out a lot but we're financially solvent which is something that I am thankful for.

Plus, there are occasions such as Nick's preschool Thanksgiving skit that make me realize how lucky and thankful I am. After this fall's preschool drama, I'm happy that we've found a preschool that fits Nick better. I fully realize that finding this great preschool would not have been possible if we had not moved to the suburbs. So, yeah - I guess you could say that I'm grateful that we moved to the suburbs (in some cases).

Nick loves his preschool and his teachers. When I tell him that he has school the next day, his face lights up and he usually says, "I can't wait to go to college tomorrow and play!" For those of you who are obsessed with counting the number of words your kid says, that's 10 - count 'em 10 words.