My two year old grandson came barreling in the door of the house calling out “Grandma…Grandma” as he ran over to me to give me a hug.  I’m telling ya….that is seriously just about THE GREATEST thing in the entire world!

As I sat with him playing it made me long for the days when my own two children were still young and living at home with me….  If I close my eyes I can still hear the sound of their laughter coming from upstairs as they played together.  I can still picture them dancing around in the kitchen and laughing like crazy when they were supposed to be helping set the table for dinner. I see them lying on the living room floor watching cartoons together and giggling like crazy. Oh how I miss those times….

I started looking through some old photos and reading past journal entries from the time my kids were still at home. I came across an entry about an experience with my daughter Ashley that I wanted to share:

“I saw the funniest quote today that I just had to share with Ashley:

“When your home alone and someone knocks on your door:
10% say “who is it?”
64% look through the peep hole.
25% open the door.
1% crawl around on the ground like a ninja and look through the
window very quietly to make sure it isn’t a masked murderer.”

When I finished reading it we both started busting up because Ashley is TOTALLY part of the 1%!  I asked Ashley why she does that whole ninja thing and she answered, “Cause I know you won’t let me open the door for strangers, but I also know you want me to get the packages from the UPS guy, so I have to crawl around to see if his truck is out there first so I know it’s okay to answer the door”. I laughed so hard my sides hurt…some days that child cracks me up beyond belief… 

Once we stopped laughing Ashley immediately said, “Hey one day when Dad was here and he answered the door I heard him say “Thanks” to the UPS guy and I thought that was really cool, so we should always remember to do that.  Yeah, him and the person who hands you toilet paper when you are in a stall that doesn’t have any in a public restroom and you have to scream for help…We should remember to thank them as well.” 

She then started listing all the people in life she thought we should all remember to thank a little more often – she referred to them as the unsung heroes that help us every day:

-The UPS Guy that brings your packages (especially the ones from zappos!)

-The Mailman who brings your mail each day, even in the bad weather

-The Person at the Grocery store that bags your groceries for you

-The parking garage attendant that takes your ticket and lets you out

-The receptionist at the front desk

-The garbage man that comes each week to take the trash

-The person who serves your food at the restaurant

-The pharmacist that fills a prescription for you

-The person working the counter at the gas station

I so love being her Mom. And I’m grateful for her reminder of how important it is to say “THANK YOU” to all of those people who help us with the everyday things in our lives that we so often tend to overlook… (end of journal entry) 

Today I just want to say THANK YOU Dalton and Ashley for being such great kids, and thank you Alexis and Alex for being such great kid-in-laws, and thanks to Flynn and Magnolia for being the most amazing grandbabies in the world. Being your Mom and Grandma is the highlight of my life.

And I want to say THANK YOU to all of you for taking the time to read my blogs each day, and THANK YOU for liking them, and sharing them, and sending kind comments about them.  I THANK YOU for letting me share so much of me and my life with all of you…THANK YOU!

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )