Gratitude

So a friend of ours Becca Lloyd posted a blog about being grateful for the things you have. I really thought it was a great blog because it got to the heart of enjoying life in the present and not always waiting for the "next step". I guess we all struggle with this a bit (especially if you are a student it seems) but it made me realize that I need to look around and realize how lucky and blessed I am with the things I have. I really have so much to be grateful for.

First off, it goes without saying that I am so grateful for my sweet family. Sean has got to be the world's best husband and father. Can I just say how lucky I am? He often gets up in the morning when Annie wakes up (between 6 and 7) and feeds her breakfast so I can get a few more minutes of sleep (she is still waking up once a night to feed). He loves to read her stories in the morning and has a little cuddle with her right after she gets up in our rocker. How adorable is that? I feel so lucky to have him.

Second, I am so grateful for our home. We were SO lucky when we moved to Hamden to buy a house. I think back and realize how blessed we were to get this home. We had a meager down payment and a meager income and somehow (by the hand of God I think) we got approved for a loan. Yes, it was a big "fixer-upper" but it has been such a wonderful place to come home to. We LOVE our home and it will be so hard to leave. We have definately put our blood, sweat and tears into this place. It is so nice to come home to a comfortable, warm house. I grumble about how old it is and all its quirkiness but really it is a great place. (That picture of our house is a couple of years old--I'll have to post a new one--we've done a ton to the outside!)

Third, I am grateful for our car. When we got married, my parent gave us their 1996 Toyota Camry and it has faithfully served us for the 6 1/2 years we've been married. Even though it's had it's share of problems (replacing the A/C, shocks, electrical issues), it has been a GREAT car. It has almost 300,000 KM (about 200, 000 miles) on it and still seems to be going strong. We are just praying it can get us through one more year of grad school...but we are really lucky to have a reliable car that has served us well.

Fourth, I am actually grateful for our couch "Lucy". "Lucy" has been our faithful couch for 6 1/2 years also but actually has served as a bum cushion for many more years than that (thus the name--it's so old, we named her after the hominid fossil "Lucy", the oldest known human fossil on earth). I have a love/hate relationship with her--I SO wish we could get a new nice couch but then again, I am lucky to have a couch at all. It has moved with us 3 times and has sat with me (or I guess I have sat on her) many late nights working on school, papers, studying, etc. The cushions have fallen off the top and dig into my neck when I work and it sags in the middle now but it is a place to sit or take a nap on. I hope we won't be taking her on our next adventure (aka move) but who knows. However, without her, we'd be sitting on the floor so who's complaining:).

Fifth, I am grateful for my Kitchen Aid Mixer. This was a wedding gift from my sister-in-law and her in-laws. It has served me so well preparing countless batches of cookies, bread, rolls, desserts, pastry dough, you name it. I realize it's one of those things you don't know how great it is until you don't have one--it would be so much harder to make our homemade bread without it!

Finally, I am grateful for my piano. We were so lucky to get this piano--we actually won it at a Orem, Utah Community Fair in a drawing. I started learning how to play the piano when I was 9 years old. I haven't taken lessons since I was in high school but I really enjoy playing. I play the piano for the primary and since having Annie, this has been the only time I really play the piano. I am so lucky to have this piano to practice on and hopefully in the future (when I'm not in school), I'll be able to play it more and perhaps even take lessons again.

Well, it's really time for bed. This isn't an exhaustive list of the things I am grateful for but the blog is getting rather long. Oh-that's another thing I'm grateful for--SLEEP!