Sunday Seven Thankful Thursday Thirteen

I'm thankful for:
1 - My husband, Joe.
2 - My kids, Giselle and Paul.
3 - My Mom & Dad and 6 sisters and 3 brothers, Suzanne, Angie, Cea, Joan, Carol and Mary, JJ, Dan and Vlad, and their spouses and kids.
4 - My BFsF, Marie and Gayla.
5 - My friends from grade school that I'm still friends with, Betsy and others.
6 - My health.
7 - My friends from LLL, Paige, Cathy, Bridget, Kelly and others.
8 - My friends from CHEACT park day, Susan, Teresa, Kathleen, Ruth, Leslee and others
9 - My neighbors.
10 - My other friends from other places, Mary, Rhonda and others.
11 - My ability to stay at home and take care of my kids and husband and household.
12 - My husband's kind family.
13 - My wonderful life!
I guess I could have just listed number 13 as number 1 and been done with it all.

Thursday 13 #4

The First 13 States of the United States of America

1 – Delaware – December 7, 1787 – Once I got to go inside a giant cargo plane at the Dover Air Force base.
2 – Pennsylvania – December 12, 1787 – We went to the annual Pennsylvania Dutch festival in Kutztown every few years when I was growing up.
3 – New Jersey – December 18, 1787 – I rode the bus through here on the way to visit my grandparents.
4 – Georgia – January 2, 1788 – We visited my Uncle Ted in Atlanta on the way to Texas once.
5 – Connecticut – January 9, 1788
6 – Massachusetts – February 6, 1788 – My Uncle Dan was from Boston.
7 – Maryland – April 28, 1788 – My husband used to live here.
8 – South Carolina – May 23, 1788 – My dad is from Charleston.
9 – New Hampshire – June 21, 1788
10 – Virginia – June 25, 1788 – I used to live here.
11 – New York – July 26, 1788 – My grandparents lived in Little Russia in New York City.
12 – North Carolina - November 21, 1789 – My sister Cea lives in Durham.
13 – Rhode Island – May 29, 1790

Texas joined up on December 29, 1845 – I live in the Capitol city, Austin.

Thursday 13 #3

13 advantages of nursing my children
1 – I never had to deal with cleaning bottles – Breastmilk comes straight from the source.
2 – They never ran out of food – The body makes as much or as little milk as the child wants so it never runs out and your breasts never get left at home by accident.
3 – I saved us over $5000 by not buying formula – A $7 32oz can of ready-made formula every day for a year for 2 kids = $5110.
4 – I’ve decreased my chance of ovarian cancer – Extended breastfeeding delays the return of ovulation thus lowering the risk of ovarian cancer.
5 – I’ve decreased my chance of breast cancer by 32% and still counting - According to a study, a woman's risk for breast cancer decreased by about 4.3 percent for every 12 months she breast-fed. The risk went down 7 percent more for every child born.
6 – The kids had fewer and less severe illnesses than if they didn’t nurse – The month after Giselle weaned she got sick every week at gymnastics, the month before she was weaned she never got sick.
7 – I feel that my bond with my children would not be this strong if just anyone could have fed and comforted them - I intuitively know when they need something and what it is that they need.
8 – I would be a lot crabbier if I didn’t get that relax hormone kicking in every time my child nurses – Oxytocin is released when a woman nurses and gives her a relaxed feeling.
9 – My kids know what breasts are really for - Nourishing a child.
10 – I would have never joined La Leche League and consequently I would have never met some of my closest friends – La Leche League is an international mother-to-mother breastfeeding support group that meets once a month in communities everywhere.
11 – My kids’ first Spanish word was comida (food) – It’s our codeword for nursing.
12 – My kids ate 100% organic for the first 6 months of their lives – Eating organic has been shown to be healthier than eating non-organic.
13 – It’s a great excuse to sit on my bottom and play on the computer every 2 hours - Yes my kids were the kind that nursed every 2 hours for their first 2.5 YEARS.

Thursday Thirteen #2

My 13 Earliest Childhood Friends*
1 – Paul H (same age) – lived across the street when I was 3 & we later went to school together. My son is NOT named after him!
2 – Soraya S (older) – lived up & across the street for 13 years until they moved to the upscale custom homes on the other side of the GW Parkway. She went to Ascension Academy. She was the first person I knew that had colored contact lenses.
3 – Dominique C (same age) – lived around the corner when she was visiting her dad during the summers. Her baby brother was the first diaper I changed – he peed on us.
4 – Beth & Jay P (same age) – lived up the street but went to Saint Mary’s. We picked on their little sister a lot.
5 – Heather C (same age) – lived in another neighborhood and went to a different elementary school but we went to the same church and our moms were friends.
6 – Bill & Jim W (younger) – next door neighbors since I was 8 and Bill still lives there. We pretended that we were KISS on snow days.
7 – Anne P (same age) – lived in the neighborhood on the other side of our elementary school. We were in the same class (and the tallest ones) for most of elementary school.
8 – Joan C (same age) – lived around the corner but my mom didn’t want me to play with her (ha). I think she went to St Mary’s.
9 – Dan B (363 days older) – my brother.
10 – Suzanne B (same age) – lived down the street and around the corner but later (in jr high) moved to nearby neighborhood. Probably my first best friend after Paul.
11 – Stephanie P (same age) – lived in another neighborhood but she was in my brownie troop.
12 – Kim T (same age) – lived over in Pinewood Lake but got bused to our elementary school.
13 – Leslie H (older) – also lived in Pinewood Lake. The first slumber party I went to was at her house, there was pizza too (maybe from Shakey’s?).

* This is an incomplete list of friends acquired prior to and during the first half of elementary school. MANY others came along in the second half - so don’t scream at me Betsy!

Thursday 13

So there is this thing that I've seen called 'Thursday 13' on some homeschooling blogs that I visit, it seems really neat! So I went to the head website http://ThursdayThirteen.com and found out this:

What is the Thursday Thirteen?
Thursday Thirteen is a blog meme with one purpose - to get to know bloggers better. Thirteen is the magic number - because Thursday Thirty is too many!
Every Thursday, bloggers jot down thirteen things about their week, Thirteen secrets they have never shared before, Thirteen random things about themselves or their lives that give the reader a better idea of who they are. Then the fun begins, you go bloghopping! Find other Thursday Thirteeners, spend some quality time getting to know your fellow bloggers, interact with them through their lists and invite them to yours!
Is there a theme every week?
Nope! Your Thirteen Things can be about whatever you want. Just remember, most of your fellow Thirteeners expect to learn more about who you are or what you have been up to that week! If you do a themed list, you may want to keep that in mind.

There is all this other stuff like joining a blog roll so that you link to other people's blogs and they link to yours, but I'm not sure if I really want that much traffic here - are our lives really that interesting? Do I really have that much to say? BUT the true intent seems really cool! SO, I'm going to start doing it today and maybe my friends will too. I'm not linking to the mothership yet, just going it alone at first.

MY FIRST THURSDAY 13

13 things about the Casa De Galletti that you may or may not already know

1. We are not Latino.
2. None of us are fluent in any languages other than English.
3. Other than going to the Bahamas, none of us have ever left the North American continent.
4. Our dog's middle name is Moments.
5. Joe and I love the shows Scrubs and My Name Is Earl.
6. We love Sci-Fi.
7. Joe and I were both in Young Life in high school.
8. It works but we don't ever use our dishwasher.
9. Joe and I were together for 8 years before we combined our CD collections.
10. Our house was built in 1983, we bought it in 1995.
11. We have never bought a brand new car.
12. Joe and I have never gone to the beach together.
13. We have the perfect life.