Moment 19

I just spent 5 days in Wisconsin visiting my parents and long time friends.  The above picture is the sunrise from my parents deck and it literally made me gasp when I saw it on the last day I was there.  What a fitting send-off, a reminder that this place where I grew up holds such beauty.  It also holds much sadness these days.  I will never return without thinking of my best childhood friend that I lost almost 3 years ago.  The memories are there but the present moment, without her, is not what I imagined.  I am realizing that there is a lot in life that is not what I imagined.  I didn't imagine that I wouldn't see my parents nearly enough and that they wouldn't know my children in the way that I had hoped.  I didn't imagine that my health would be anything but stellar at the "young" age of 38 and I didn't imagine that my heart would break so much having the ones I love spread so far apart.  Oh, but wait, this blog is for Grateful Moments so let me just say that even though there are struggles that I never imagined there are also joys that I couldn't have planned.  And when I fall into the arms of my parents when I come home to Wisconsin and when my children fall into my arms when I return home to California I am reminded how grateful I am to have two homes, no matter how far apart.

Moment 18

This cute little Dolphin pillow pet taught me a lesson....See we were at the store and my 7 yr. old picked him up and wanted to add him to his Christmas list.  I saw the moose one and pointed out how cool that one was and we checked the name and it was, "Chocolate Moose"...come on, that's so clever, anyway, my 7 yr. old then said he couldn't decide which one he wanted so he would let Santa choose.  The next day Santa I went back to the store and guess which one I bought??  The Moose.  I have to admit I was worried that the dolphin one was more "girlie" and yes, I want to smack myself for saying that and thinking that.  I also just liked the Moose better, remember that clever name....anyway, as soon as I was almost home it started to bother me.  I bought the one I wanted and for an underlying closed minded reason and I was so ashamed.  So, you guessed it (you did, right?) the next day I went back and returned the Chocolate Moose and bought the Darling Dolphin and I can't wait to see his happy face when he gets the one that HE wants on Christmas.

Moment 17

My 7 yr. is going to be in a play.  They type of play that is on a big stage at a nice theater with seating, lighting, sound, the whole shebang!!  I am so amazed and proud of his courage.  He's not a super precocious kid, he's actually rather shy, but he is dramatic and creative and he has wanted to be a singer or actor since he was 3 yrs. old.  Okay, there was a phase when he wanted to be an architect by day and singer/actor at night but he quickly realized that (the night gig would be shady) 2 jobs was too much so now he is back to acting and singing.  Today when I picked him up from rehearsal he was beaming.  "Mom, they only gave out 3 Starbucks gift cards tonight to the people that were doing the best and I got one!!!!"  Yep, pretty much teared up in the dark Porche mini-van because hearing him so happy and watching him be so brave just turns me to mush.  So many times I am reminded about what it means to have your heart walk outside your body.  Without a doubt today's grateful moment was when be bounded into the mini-van with such pride in his sweet little boy voice.

Moment 16

Today was a doozie....Horrible head cold, trying to quit caffeine, cramps (TMI...sorry, but it's relevant;)...UGH...let's just say I was not working with a full deck!!!  Because of my personal circumstances I completely had the wrong time in mind for my son's basketball practice and I missed it; he was SOOOO upset....double UGH.  We went home and to make it up to him I said we could play outside even though it was getting dark and cold.  My 4 yr. old and I were playing hockey in the street and my 7 yr old walked up right when I took a goal shot (pretty good shot if I say so myself)...and....I hit him in the face with the stick.  Yep, this day just kept going from bad to worse.  Let's just say it was hard to find a grateful moment today, but this blog is not about craptitude (just made that up)....it's about gratitude.  Because I didn't want it to end on a bad note I made chocolate chip cookies...from scratch even....and they were delicious.  So my grateful moment was right at the end when we all sat around the table eating warm cookies with our cold milk and laughing (a little) at our crazy day.

Moment 15

I joined my town's Art League (more on that later) and tonight at the monthly meeting a representative from Golden Paints did a 2 hour demo of a ton of their products....it kind of blew my mind!!  We were also given a little goodie bag of samples to go home with, so tonight I am grateful for Golden Paints!!

Moment 14

I must toot my own horn today because even though I am coming down with a wicked cold I somehow managed to plan and prepare a delicious manicotti BEFORE dinner time.  I can be a great cook and do enjoy cooking but my major issue is planning and organizing....I like to say that is due to my ADD the prominent creative right side brain that I have...so usually 10 minutes before I need to start dinner I still have no idea what I am going to do.  But not today, oh no, today I started my manicotti at 2:00 and had it in the fridge ready to go in the oven right after we returned from basketball practice.  So today I am grateful for my planning skills....and yes, I just wrote a whole post about manicotti, did I mention I was coming down with a cold?

Moment 13

Oh how I loved watching Football with my dad on Sundays so seeing my kids starting to enjoy the tradition is so sweet.  I am grateful for Sunday Football (except when the Cowboys lose, then we all hide from my husband for the rest of the day ;)!!!