Funnily enough, I was considering doing a weekly top ten about different things for which I'm thankful, because sometimes I don't think I publicly mention those things as often as they enter my mind. I have lots to be thankful for, and it never hurts to say so. :) Maybe I'll make it Thankful Thursday and just have a few things to say each week rather than a full ten each Tuesday, but for today, it'll be more along the lines of "Ten things I've purchased that have been worth every single penny I spent" (and I'm thankful for them). ;)
1. The Pictures on my walls. There is a lot of money hanging on my walls in the form of Olan Mills, Sears, Portraits by Greg, Picture People, and several others, and I don't regret a penny of it. I can look around anywhere in my house and see pictures of Devon from birth through a year, and I can see pictures of Kaylee as she grows up. She's a newborn on my desk, opposite her brother. She's a bald one-year old on the wall to the right, our family portrait is to the left, she's a lovely ballerina on the shelf, next to the strong gymnast, next to the cute cheerleader; the refrigerator is covered in photos of aunts, cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents. Okay, and under the bald one-year-old is a photo of a not-bald-at-all 35-year-old sitting in a Mustang. All photos worth every penny spent. The walls in my house may not be covered in expensive fashionable art, but they certainly reflect what is important to me. :)
2. The books on my shelves. Steve will disagree strongly, but hey, this is my list. ;) I love my books. Every time I get to sit down and get lost someplace else for awhile, it's worth every penny I spent to get there.
3. The Computer. Oh my. My heart beats rapidly at the thought of not having this lovely piece of equipment sitting here humming and waiting for me every day. The majority of my work and my communication is done on this thing. Whatever the actual cost was, it was worth every penny--and then some!
4. The Chrysler. Ya know, my first car was a burnt orange Mazda GLC hatchback, very well used, and driven to death. My second car was my parents' car, a gray Chevy Nova, one that I got my driver's license in at age 16 and was driving well after Steve and I got married. That thing lasted *forever* and was a really good car for me during that time of life, reliable and inexpensive and couldn't go over 60 mph without its cute little engine screaming, which I suppose made me safer. ;) My third car was the gray Oldsmobile from Steve's Mom & Dad, which has also been a very reliable and good car. In fact, it took a pretty hard blow to the right rear side, protected my daughter who was sitting directly in the impact path, and after replacing the door, is still doing great as a back-up car. And then there's the Chrysler. It's the first time I've ever bought a car within the same decade, let alone the same year, that it came off the assembly line. It's comfortable. It's attractive. It has an iPod jack and a cd player and a portable GPS. The heater and air conditioner and defroster all three work all the time. The round dials glow green in the dark, I can lock and unlock it from inside a restaurant, the trunk space is huge. And...silly as it may be, it's mine, from day one.
5. 100LL and Jet A. Okay, so it definitely takes a few 'pennies'. But those are two types of aviation fuel, and quietly droning along in the Citabria on a sunny afternoon or playing in the Baron or winging towards a distant destination in the Cheyenne are all experiences well worth the cost. Well, I can't say that about the Cheyenne since it takes more fuel than I can actually buy and I don't have to actually buy it. I'd best stick to the 100LL airplanes. lol
6. My Education. Knowledge and information are doors; the more of each you have, the more doors become available to you, until you may find that one (or three) you are meant to step through. I was fortunate to go to good schools with strict academics and decent equipment (for the most part) all the way through high school. I was fortunate (and stubborn) enough to go through college, and that was worth every penny that I've spent a long time finishing paying for. :) It's not just the classes where you can learn some things that interest you, some that bore you, and some that are utterly pointless, but the transition of child to adult, the learning process, the preparation. Pre-veterinary medicine at Cedarville University for that year taught me some things, Aviation Flight Technology at Vincennes University taught me quite a few other things, and Management/Business at Purdue University taught me still others. Each time of life was very different from the others, but informative and life-changing.
7. The Cats. Oh yes, I just said the cats. Both cats were in and of themselves free of charge. However, their upkeep is certainly a penny or two. Vet bills (maybe I *should* have been a vet!), food, litter, litter box stuff, repairs to leather couch, carpet cleaner for throw-up spots, new vacuum after fur clogs everything up, you know, pet bills. But they keep our laps warm in the evenings and our legs warm at night. They provide company for Kaylee, they play with each other and provide a little entertainment, and they're actually very sweet, both of them. No, we are not getting any more.
8. Wii. Now that was money well-spent. It's fun! I need to get a couple more games for it coming up here. I get sore muscles from playing it, which tells me that I need to do a bit more of it. ;) Kaylee loves playing, and while it's still a "video game", at least it's one that you have to stand up and move while doing in order to play.
9. Digital Camera. My Canon Rebel is several years old now, and I didn't buy it, it was a Christmas present, so it doesn't count, but IT was worth every penny too. If you can snap enough photos to kill a camera, I've probably about done it. But I bought this other "under $200" digital camera on my way out to the Mustangs and Legends Gathering, and that thing has been worth every penny too. It does great little movie clips, it takes good photos with high resolution, has an easy to use macro feature UNlike my Canon, and it's lightweight and easy to carry around. I felt guilty at the time I bought it for 'wasting' the money on a cheapy camera when I already had a great one. I don't feel guilty any more.
10. Extracurricular Activities. Kaylee doesn't like to stop moving. She wants to be doing something ALL the time, and she wants to learn and try a bunch of stuff. Since we don't have to divide that among several kids in the family, she gets to try a lot of things. Right now she's in gymnastics, cheer, and ballet/tap. She wants to take hip hop dance, guitar lessons, Girl Scouts, horse riding lessons, and karate. She'd much prefer to skip school altogether and just go with the extracurricular stuff, because school gets in her way as far as doing the rest. Now these extracurricular activities aren't cheap, but they're worth it. I've seen her go from "gross" to "graceful" when the ballet music comes on. I've seen her concentrate and conquer a gymnastics move that I never could do. I've seen her confidently do her thing in front of a gymnasium full of people at halftime of a basket ball game. She gets an opportunity not everyone gets...to try on different shoes until she finds the ones that fit her the best. That seems pretty priceless to me. :)
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