Big weekend

This is a really big weekend for me. Why you ask? Let me enlighten you… Sunday will be my 12 year wedding anniversary. WOW! Have I really been married twelve years? That hardly seems possible. Also this weekend is my sister’s birthday… Happy Birthday girl! Wish I could be with you.

So continuing with my blessings post, I’d like to discuss what a blessing it was to marry into the family that I did. I think everyone has heard horror stories about the “in-laws”.  And after seeing how involved you become in your new family, I can only imagine how rough it would be if you had monster in-laws. But that’s not what happened to me.

I got a new set of parents to love me unconditionally. A new Mom to give me hugs and tell me it will be alright. A new Dad that picks on me, and jokes with me. And an awesome brother and sister. My new brother is a goof ball that never fails to make me laugh and sets such an amazing example of what a strong man of God can be. Then there is my sister. I have jokingly said God brought me and Clif together just so I could find the sister I never knew I had. She is great. She listens, laughs with me, encourages me, and picks me up when I fall down. Oh and I got such an amazing set of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I truly can’t imagine not getting “big love” from Grandma or having these amazing people in my life.

So in short, God blessed me so abundantly with the family he brought me into I can do nothing but give thanks. Love you guys!

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Report Cards

Today I was quite rudely jarred awake by my phone blaring next to my ear. I look at the caller ID and get that tummy flip – it was the middle school. Am I the only parent that gets an icky sick feeling when the school calls during the day? I guess I subscribe to the no news is good news philosophy when it comes to my kids. Sorry got sidetracked for a second there…

The call… it was the lovely auto dialer imparting the message the interim report cards were being sent home today. I guess they have had trouble getting the middle schoolers to turn them over to their parent 🙂 I’m not at all worried, Skyler is a rock star when it comes to school and as a matter of fact brought home her report from math yesterday saying she currently has a 97% in that class.

But it got me to thinking… what would the results be if I was given a mid-life rather than mid-term report card? So here is my self graded report card:

Writing- B (I do write, so that is a plus, but spent my years in the military neglecting to write enough)

Reading – A++ (I am a book-worm and always will be, so this one was a gimme)

Math – C- (I was horrendously bad with my finances in my early 20’s but am slowly improving on that as time goes by)

Social Studies – C (I don’t spend nearly enough time trying to learn from those around me)

Science – B- (I definitely deserve an A for being married to a science geek and having all of those deep scientific discussions, but lose points for not applying the things I learn)

Humanities – C (I don’t give enough or help others enough to rank much higher than this)

Geography – B+ (while I haven’t been everywhere, I have visited some really cool places)

So tell me, if you were to grade yourself, how would you do?

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Counting My Blessings

It has been a while since I posted, but more and more lately I have been counting the blessings in my life… and there are many.

I’m not sure if it is the change in my situation, or more likely just a general maturing that comes with age, but I am awed daily by the blessings in my life. In my early  to mid twenties life was a struggle. No way to sugar coat that, times were tough for our little family. Not to say there weren’t plenty of blessings mixed in, but maybe because of the struggle I was never really able to appreciate the blessings in my life. I was so focused on what went wrong, what didn’t happen as expected, what we didnt’ have, to see the blessings that were all around me.

God has really been good to us and every time I think about it, I get this warm fuzzy feeling. So no matter where you are in your life right now, I hope that you will be able to see the beautiful things mixed in there.

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