Most proud of....

My blogger friend Sarah, challenged us to say what we are most proud of this year. I being the woman I am have risen to the challenge and ask all of you, my loyal readers, to do the same! So here it goes...

1. I am proud of my kids. They are quirky, weird, and sometimes annoying but they are mine, all mine. I am proud I have kids that people actually like, with their own opinions and personalities. I have kids who will shake your hand when they meet you, look you in the eye when they speak to you, kids that are aware of the world around them. I have kids who do not blindly bow to authority simply because they should. I have kids who question things and try and make sense of the things that are hard to make sense of. I have kids who are people I like and want to be around. They are not perfect, but are pretty perfect to me.

2. I am proud of my man. I don't think I could ask for a harder working husband. He works six days a week and has for years with never a complaint while doing so, mind you I think work is a lot quieter than home....I have a husband who provides for us far above what I could have ever asked for and because of this I can stay home with the kids, which may simply be his plan to slowly erode my will to live and collect the insurance money, but regardless he is a good man. After 18 years of being "together" he still thinks I am hot, still grabs my butt as I walk ahead of him up the stairs, still loves me the best.

3. I am proud I do not wear tapered, pale, jeans. I am proud I am not stuck in some weird fashion vortex and still believe that the lighter the better. I am proud my jeans cover my ankles and do not ride up around my belly button. I am proud I do not wear stirrup pants with over sized sweaters. I am proud I have moved past banana clips, and feathered hair. I am proud to have left blue eye liner in the 90's and that my lipstick does not look like Crisco.

4. I am proud of my friends. They are a weird bunch, none the same but all great. I think our friends play such an important role in our lives and as we get older and get consumed in family life so many of those friendships get forgotten. I have friends that I can not talk to for weeks and pick up right where we left off. They are fun, they are insane at times. They have been there for me always.

5. I am proud I am not a member of the Duggar family. Those have to be the weirdest bunch of people I have ever seen. I am proud I do not have 18 kids and still wanting for more. I am proud I am not trying some weird alliteration record with my kids first names. I am proud my uterus and bladder is not moments away from falling out of my vagina from so many births. I am proud my home is a home and not an assembly line of robotic children working to care for those younger than them because Jim-Bob can't keep it in his pants.

6. I am proud we can expose our kids to the world. I know how lucky we are to be able to travel with our brood and expose them to all the world has to offer. I am proud my kids adapt to where they are, try new foods and see new sights. I am thrilled to be able to take them places that they may never see again, to create memories that they will have forever.

7. I am proud I am not a lazy slob anymore. I have always hated exercise. I have always heard people go on and on about how they are addicted to it and if they don't get an exercise fix they feel gross, I have never for the life of me understood it. I do now. I am proud that three times a week I drag my flat butt off to the Y and run. I am proud I am now able to do so without feeling like I was going to barf. I am proud my waist is slowly coming back, although finding my old butt still eludes me.

8. I am proud I am sane and remain unmedicated. I am thrilled that I have been able to stay sane with the chaos of my life. I am proud that I can juggle a clean home, mountains of laundry, five loud kids, all of their friends, and still not be addicted to any substance other than diet coke. I am proud I can still remember how to form words at the end of the night when a few hours earlier I was contemplating how much of my frontal lobe had melted that day.

9. I am proud of my home. I love a clean and somewhat orderly home and for the most part that is what I have. I am proud that people can come over and I do not have to use a snow shovel to clean the debris to make room for them on the couch. I am proud that I do not stick to the floor when I walk on it, although it has been known to be on the crunchy side after meals. I am proud the toilet does not resemble Shrek's swamp and that when using the facilities one does not have to close their eyes and plug their nose.

10. Finally, I am proud of this season of the Bachelor. I love that wimpy, single dad and hope he finds true love this season, which by the way starts in only a few short weeks. I am proud that every Monday night starting on January 5th, I will plop my flat butt down on the couch and watch true love bloom. I will listen to my husbands moan and groan about me watching it and then he too will become addicted and watch right along with me. For this I am proud.....