NoJoMo – 17 Thanksgiving Plans
So, I got the kids set up for the upcoming holidays. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through Thanksgiving without spending over $500!
$100 for Italic’s shots
$150 to board them for a week ( we could have gone the cheaper route and had Grant’s friend come check on them but I’d have spent the entire vacation panicked that someone had broken in and let one of them out into the woods to be eaten or frozen to death!! )
$250 gas – conservative, assuming it COULD go up and we MAY have to take the Jeep because my car is just having some issues right now. Besides, the Jeep is new and pretty… and more… impressive.
$100 food/misc on the way there and back
I doubt we’ll spend much while we’re there. My grandparents always insist on buying everything. And we’re staying in the house with them, so no hotel or morning fast food expense. All food and drinks are covered. And if I said, oh, you know, I’m really like Sprite Zero my grandfather would make a special trip the ten miles into town just to get it… he’s that kind of grandpa… and Melba would probably have nugged him a little… she’s that kind of grandma. It’ll be worth it—the money—to expose Grant finally to my family. I mean, my grandfather is such a huge part of who I am. There is a whole aspect of my personality, based in old fashioned character and morals that come from him and my mother. Grant’s seen my mother, but it’s hard to appreciate the old ways in her… they’re buried so deep. In my grandfather, the old fashion is right on top. The morals, the sense of purpose, the work-hard-until-the-work-gets-done way of thinking is so thick in the air you can smell it, like old books in a small town thrift store. I remember talking about philosophy and religion with him when I was only five—knee high to a grasshopper. And Grant’s barely had a handful of conversations with him. I know he’ll never have the connection I have… I know he’ll never understand what an amazing man my grandfather is, because he didn’t get to spend hours upon hours at the foot of the ugliest lime green chair as a child, listening to Bible stories and tales of past….but I want to expose my husband to that part of me that he doesn’t seem to understand yet… the part of me that is most like my grandfather (at least, I strive to achieve)… the part of me that can look at a situation from all angles, not just my own. (Or, as I’ve been known to put it, the ability to see past the end of one’s own nose)
You know, on the drive home today, I heard a song. It resonated so strongly that I instantly began crying and my heart ached so much that I felt as if I could never return the love I have received from my husband.
The song:
Every Day by Rascal Flatts
You could’ve bowed out gracefully
But you didn’t
You knew enough to know
To leave well enough alone
But you wouldn’t
I drive myself crazy
Tryin’ to stay out of my own way
The messes that I make
But my secrets are so safe
The only one who gets me
Yeah, you get me
It’s amazing to me
[CHORUS]
How every day
Every day, every day
You save my life
I come around all broken down and
Crowded out
And you’re comfort
Sometimes the place I go
Is so deep and dark and desperate
I don’t know, I don’t know
[Repeat Chorus]
Sometimes I swear, I don’t know if
I’m comin’ or goin’
But you always say something
Without even knowin’
That I’m hangin’ on to your words
With all of my might and it’s alright
Yeah, I’m alright for one more night-
Every day
Every day, every day, every day
Every day, every day
You save me, you save me, oh, oh, oh
Every day
Every, every, every day-
Every day you save my life
I’ll never be able to repay Grant for the things he does… for taking care of me the way he does. I know Chrissy knows how I feel (at least on some days 😛 ). I hope he knows hope wonderful he is… I hope he doesn’t have to read this to know.