Gratitude 2010 - Day Eleven

1 - Friends from long ago. I was going to say 'old friends,' but I didn't want to offend them by calling them old. Besides, if they're old, then I'm old and that can't be possible. Plus, one of them didn't get the chance to grow old. She was gone at 31, dead from brain cancer. Today is the 14th anniversary of her death.

Facebook helps us keep windows into each other's current day-to-day lives. I'm not saying "reconnect" because I was never "disconnected" from them. One of them recently referred to our teenage years as 'idyllic.' It's an apt description. Loved them all then; love them all now. Grateful for what they added to the foundation of my life.

Oh, and 'Nae, your children have grown into beautiful people (I'm sure you know that). They are smart and kind, friendly and service-oriented. They are talented and so very loved by their aunts, uncles and grandparents. But, of course, you know all that, too.

2 - The nation's soldiers, past and present. On Veterans' Day, it seems appropriate to acknowledge all they have done. Grateful for their service and their sacrifices. I know a few first-hand. I know their families. I have seen the impact on both. Their service comes with a price... sometimes a high one. Sometimes the ultimate one. The experiences they have, the images they see, do not just go away once they have come home. They carry them in memory... and sometimes in body. It's a lot for a nation to ask of people. We should be more grateful.

3 - The Hill family. Kyle, Tanya, Rutger, Kylee and Porter. See item #2 above. My friends for 20 years. My neighbors for 17 of those 20 years. I am grateful for (Orem): impromptu Sunday meals in the yard between our two houses; help setting up a swingset; joint rental and tilling of gardens side-by-side; hilarious memories of dealing with the drug dealers and punk teenagers from across the street; night-vision goggles from Camp Williams used for watching Macey's shoppers two miles away; introduction to Stephen's Hot Cocoa mix late at night; helping me to keep my sanity during 'the bad times' of my first marriage; moving three different times to three different houses all on the same street; cross-stitching and crafts; Porter's birth and Tanya's recovery from it; Disneyland 2001. (Elk Ridge): fishing at Maple Lake; workouts in the basement gym; Super Bowl get togethers; cooking in the kitchen; answering the door at night in Oct 2005; opening it again in April 2006; the place Katie could 'run away' to; good friends for my children; Halloween parties through the years; more combined dinners than I can count; prayers and Family Home Evenings together; borrowed Boy Scout uniforms; the Hill/Munson two-way grocery store; taste testers. My dear, dear friends.