Daily: Reflect on 5 things for which I'm grateful.

I am grateful for…

• the telephone conversation with my sister last night
• my talkative son tonight
• that my daughter was happy with the way I shaped her eyebrows
• for the ability to ride my bike to the grocery store, the bank, and Subway. I’ve been without a car for over 3 weeks now because my husband’s has been in the shop so he’s taken mine. I had forgotten how easy it is to get around by bike. My daughter and I agree that we will continue to get around by bike even when my husband isn’t using my car anymore. That’s much better for the environment and our health!
• that we were able to file the littlest dog’s nails and that the biggest dog finally sat still enough for me to clip them
• for my “Fitting Gift” from CVS Pharmacy of Kotex samples that arrived on the exact same day my period started (and for Ben who got the Fitting Gift, too. Bizarre that I would stumble upon his blog the same day I got my Fitting Gift – but I’m sure my husband would have agreed with him had the “Fitting Gift” been in my husband’s name.)

I am grateful for my friend, Lindsay, who sent me the book he just recently published. I can’t wait to read it even if I’ve read most of it already. Thank you Lindsay!

I am grateful to have watched Hellboy for the second time. The first time I was busy trying to organize my website so wasn’t paying that much attention. I would have dismissed it as a confusing movie altogether. But the second time I paid far closer attention and was far more appreciative of it’s nuances.

I am grateful for my husband who has decided he is going to start taking his bike to work. We don’t live in a particularly bike friendly area so this worries me a bit. But I do greatly appreciate his desire to cut back on our oil dependency. He practiced both Saturday and Sunday trying to decide on which route would be safest during rush hour traffic. I hope all goes well for him. Have to say – it’s incredibly inspiring.

I am grateful to my daughter who helped me fix the CSS styling on my blog. I had no idea she was an expert in such things. My kids are constantly amazing me.

I am grateful for a rare quiet evening.

We have been extremely busy this weekend and I haven’t had a chance to post so I’m going to post for the past few days as well as today…

I am grateful for the Ken Carver and the Rhythm Dawgs who let my son’s band, Prime Rose, play at Oakstock 9. My son’s band had a great time and got a tremendous response. Very encouraging for the young band.

I’m grateful for all of the family we had in town over the weekend and that we got to have a luncheon on the day of my nephew’s birthday.

I’m grateful for my sister in-law who is staying with us today. Her daughter is going to UT next year so is in town for Orientation. My husband joined my sister in-law for the parents orientation (because my brother in-law is currently in India.) My husband came back completely enthused. Not sure we are going to produce a kid that can make it into UT – but if we do, my husband knows the ropes. (My son, at the moment, has his sights set on music and not college. Not sure what to do about that.)

I am grateful for the message that my husband says was repeatedly given at the UT orientation today… If your kid flunks out of college, it isn’t a big deal. It just means he’s not mature enough right now. Send him back later and he’ll likely do fine. Apparently, parents are the number one cause of student burn-out. They don’t know how to let their children become adults.

I am grateful to have accidentally stumbled upon the Peter Gabriel concert on Ovation today while trying to fine-tune my website. And I’m grateful to have fine-tuned my website.

I am grateful for being able to talk to my sister in-law for a little while today. She hasn’t been feeling well. I really hope things get better for her soon.

I am grateful for Kay who helped me figure out how to make my tags work on my blog. I had spent a lot of the day yesterday trying to figure out how that worked and she was able to show me in one nice little piece of a code and a screen shot. It worked beautifully.

I am glad that I finally figured out how to get LibraryThing on my blog even though it’s pretty much rigged and therefore somewhat wonkered. But at least it’s on. I’ll figure out how to do it better later.

I am grateful that I remembered to feed the neighbors cat.

I am very glad that my husband is off work tomorrow.

I am so grateful to have received two cheers already. That feels good. Thank you!

I am grateful that the Cutco Knives we bought from my nephew finally arrived. No more mushed up and juice-less tomatoes (if all goes according to his convincing advertising.)

I am grateful for the the Anagram Genius. My daughter and I spent a lot of time on it tonight. Arulba is an anagram of my name and I’m very thankful for it. But my name is totally boring in comparison to hers! We were laughing so hard at the names it gave us. My son’s were equally hilarious.

I am very grateful that I am figuring out how to run Wordpress on my own blog. This has been a huge learning curve but I am at last beginning to realize I’m going to be thankful I made the effort. (Yesterday I was wondering if I hadn’t made a huge mistake!)

I am grateful to not have a whole bunch of teens spending the night tonight. It’s so quiet!

Today I am grateful for the memory of my father. His birthday was today. I am so grateful for my Dad!

At the moment, I am listening to a CD by The New Vaudeville Band in his honor. He had me convinced that he was the lead singer for the New Vaudeville Band and I believed him up until very recently. (He also had me convinced that if you made a lake of butter in your mashed potatoes and watched closely, you’d see ducks.) I am grateful for music that so can immediately transport you back to significant moments in time.

I am grateful for all of the teens spending the night tonight. I love the kids my son hangs out with even though they aren’t exactly the upstanding, clean cut kids of the neighborhood. (And let’s be honest – we all know the clean cut kids are not necessarily the most clean! These “unclean” cut kids were having a huge discussion about why it is wrong to kill a big spider just because it is big. I love them!!!)

I am grateful for the lovely conversation I had with my neighbor across the street about the love and care of animals.

That I finally set up my own website. Haven’t done anything with it yet. But I got it up and working!