Grains of Gratitude

My heart is heavy this morning. A mom I met on a Down syndrome message board has been battling cancer for almost 2 years. Annette has been strong throughout, but her battle ended early this morning - the Lord called her home. She's no longer suffering with this awful disease, but she leaves behind her husband Tom, and 2 boys Kurtis and Ryan - my heart is heavy thinking of them without Annette in their lives anymore. My heartfelt prayers go out to her family; rest in peace Annette.

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I debated whether to do a gratitude post this morning, I didn't have the best of weeks feeling emotional, stressed out, and then the ticket incident, but even more so after reading the news about Annette. Then I thought that I need to do this, need to remind myself of the good things that happen. I need this time every Sunday to reflect back on the things that have happened that I'm grateful for.

1. For the past 4 years I've been going to MOPS. Each year we have a Christmas program where the 3-5 year old kids sing a few songs for us moms. Every year I imagined when I would get to see my daughter up there on the stage singing with the kids. Kayla didn't attend MOPS last year because she was in morning preschool, but since she's in afternoon preschool she goes to MOPS with me this year. I was so grateful to see her up there with the other kids singing. Unfortunately my camera battery died, but I'm grateful I was able to get one picture of something I had been looking forward to! (She won't be with MOPS next year as she'll be in Kindergarten, so this was the only time she would be doing this). They were singing "This Little Light Of Mine"


2. As much as I enjoy MOPS, right now I'm grateful that Tues was our last one until Jan 15. I need this break (I'm the finance person). This week was also our Steering meeting, so that means I had to go into town 3 days in a row - Mon for set up, Tues for MOPS, and Wed for the Steering meeting. Yeah I'm lazy and don't like driving into town every day! LOL

3. I'm grateful for the Families Apart Dinner on Wed (we won't talk about what happened on the way home though! LOL) It's nice that they do this for the families. They had 4 crockpots of different soups and I had 2 helpings of the baked potato soup - it was really good! I also won a box of stationary from the door prizes.

4. On Saturday the housing office had a Christmas party for the kids. They even had gifts for all the kids; Kayla had a great time seeing Santa again. I should be able to get her pictures next week. I'm grateful Kayla took a nap when we got home as we were going to another event that afternoon!

5. Saturday we went to the base community center for the annual Children's International Festival. The kids get a little passport and go to the different tables to get a stamp, then when they leave they get a goody bag. My two favorite stations are the Asian-Pacific and German rooms. They serve food LOL We get rice, chicken, noodles, and lumpia from the Asian-Pacific group and yummy desserts in the German room. This year they were packing up early and trying to get rid of their food so I was able to take home a plate full of lumpia. Then Jennifer and I hightailed it to the German room and grabbed a carry out box for some pies and cake. I thought I would take a few home to sample, but they kept loading me up and giving me so many desserts I had 2 carry-out boxes! What am I going to do with all these desserts? I definitely don't need all the extra calories LOL Too bad Joe isn't here to help me eat it, or that it didn't happen next weekend when my mom will be here! I wonder if any of it will freeze well. I'm still grateful for the yummy food I was able to take home, even if I can't eat it all!

If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my Photo Book Contest -I'll be drawing the winners tomorrow.

Speaking of contests - check out this one out I really really want a sling for this baby so I'm crossing my fingers that I win!