Grains of Gratitude

This morning is not starting off well at all. I just typed out a pretty long post and somehow lost it. In the past when I thought I lost a post I could click on "recover post" and it would be there, or go to edit posts and it would be there in draft form, but not this time, of course. So now I have to sit here and type it out all again. Can we just start the day all over again?

It was a long night last night, more so for Joe than me, but I didn't get a lot of sleep either. As I mentioned in yesterday's post he went it to work about noon. (I'm not even going to try and attempt to explain what they had to do with the network/computers/servers because I don't understand myself!) The point is he didn't get home until 5:10 this morning! Yes you read that right...seventeen hours later! 17!! Good grief! Can you imagine the overtime pay for something like that? Except this is the military and there is no overtime pay!

And of course I don't sleep well when he's not home, but I was up about every hour or 2 to see if he was home yet. I could only doze off for small periods of time. I was up at 7 with Kayla and now I'm trying to keep her quiet and occupied while he catches up on sleep. We're supposed to go to 2 birthday parties today; in between Kayla will have her nap and I'm taking one too!

I do actually have things to be grateful for - the whole point of this post!

1. I'm grateful I got another email from my brother. He's about 1/2 way through his tour in Afghanistan. He did end his email by saying the only "excitement" so far was being woken up by a durka (?) rocket that landed about 200 yards away. Ok did he really need to include that in his email? Especially knowing he was sending it to our mom? I'm grateful there were no injuries from that incident.

2. I'm grateful for good books to read. For Christmas my in-laws gave me the new Dean Koontz book Brother Odd that I had requested. When my MIL found out that I hadn't read the first 2 books in that series yet - Odd Thomas and Forever Odd - she told me I couldn't read it yet; I had to start at the beginning. I finally got to the base library and thankfully they had both of those books. I read them in about a week. They were really, really good. I finally started Brother Odd last night.

3. I'm grateful I had the opportunity to attend a "Ladies' Luncheon" with the 12th Air Force's general's wife. They were here for a visit and board members from the enlisted and officers' spouses' organization were invited to lunch with the general's wife. Dress was slacks or a long skirt. So I got to dress up and have an adults-only lunch!

4. Grateful that I married a genuinely nice guy. Not only did he take his lunch so he could be home with Kayla while I went to that luncheon (which meant he would have to be gone more than an hour) but he also watched a friend of ours son. Her husband had an appt and couldn't go home to watch their son (she was going to the luncheon too) so she dropped him off here to play with Kayla (and it's not the first time he's watched him).

5. Another reason he's a great guy: A guy he works with slipped on some ice about a month ago and broke his foot/ankle. His surgery was on Mon in El Paso. El Paso is 1.5 hrs away and he can't drive himself there. He's single and has no family in the area. You see where this is going right? Joe took him there, but he even got up at 3AM since he had to be there at 5:30. He told me I would do the same thing for Sue if her husband was gone and she needed to go to Willam Beaumont. I looked at him like he was crazy. At 3AM? I don't think so! I'd tell her I could take her up the day before and she could stay at lodging and get there bright and early the next day! Besides, at 3AM it's still dark outside and I don't have very good night vision. Anyway, he drove him there, walked him in to the hospital, through admissions, and to the lab for his bloodwork. He was home by 7AM and went to work. I asked him if he was going to work 1/2 day since he was up so early. He said he was going to try and come home after lunch, but wasn't sure because there is a big inspection coming up; he didn't get home until 5PM that day. Yep, genuinely nice guy.