Gratitude Challenge

Happy Sunday everyone!!  We've had a good weekend.  I got off early Friday and was able to go around town and start enjoying some of the Pretty Fall I've been waiting for, took some pictures, hung out with Mike, and played with Remi.  Saturday, we got up early for the 11:30 OSU Football game!  We beat the Baylor Bears.  Rick and Mel gave us there Club Seat Tickets, so once we got there, I got to enjoy the start of the game with a Mimosa!!  Perfect way to start the morning! Then we came home and napped and then went out to celebrate Mike's birthday (Oct. 26th, he turned 30!!!).  His birthday falls between Homecoming weekend and Halloween weekend.  He doesn't dress up, so we don't do the whole Halloween party stuff since it's kinda his day we do what he wants.  So we waited a weekend and met up with several friends at The Grill on Riverwalk.  We had a great time even though the service wasn't too hot.  Today we are lounging around, had some Dixie Cream donuts, waiting to meet little Miss Lola (a friends new puppy), and enjoy the beautiful day.  I plan on getting some 365 pictures up this evening also, but for now here is the Gratitude Challenge.

Gratitude Challenge day 4 say write about some of the negative things you are thankful for...

Well, I know that there have been negative things happen in my life...but thankfully I usually look at most everything glass half full-and with the gratitude challenge, it's helping me to continue to see things in a positive light.  By the grace of God, I haven't really had "bad" things happens in my life so far, and I am very grateful for that.  Sure I've had things not go my way, but nothing that I truly feel is life changing.  So here are a few of my 'negatives'...

Mike's Poker Night-Sometimes I get a little jealous when he goes to poker night, because I am being selfish and don't want to share him...that's okay, right?  I'm mean he is fantastic and I just like spending all the time in the world him, but I guess I should share too.  But anyway, the reason I am grateful for poker night is because it does give me time to myself too.  I love getting to catch up on all my DVR shows, editing some pictures without having to share the computer, and sometimes when Mike is gone is when I get into the cleaning mode, so I turn my old school Shakira or Tom Petty and clean while jamming.  And it's also good to have time away from each other too. 

Daylight Savings Time-Not a fan of daylight light savings...even though we 'fall back' and get an extra hour of sleep...I dread the early early sunsets.  But I will be grateful that it will be light outside when I go on my early morning walks now.  I may even go more often now.

Wednesday Playground Time at Work-I work at an inpatient behavioral health facility and we don't have great access to the outdoors for the kiddos...which I think is AWFUL!!  But DHS came and said we have to give opportunity for outside time.  So we put into the schedule on Wednesday for outside time for everyone regardless of levels (there are a few precautions we take were kids may not get to go on that day).  Well being one of CTRS's, we were picked to be in charge of it.  So now, I GET to stay late and take the kids outside to the playground on Wednesdays.  The down side is I have to stay late, usually leaving between 8-9 at night, keep in mind that I'm also getting there around 8:00-8:30.  I still have all my groups, assessments, paper work, filing, and other things that come up.  So it makes for a really long day.  On the UP side, the side I am grateful for is I believe that everyone needs to be outside.  It's so therapeutic on its own.  The kids ABSOLUTELY LOVE it too.  It's so fun to get to see the kids be kids (or at least practicing to be 'kids'), in a much more informal setting.  The kids look forward to it every week and they know that I am taking them out, so I get to be the good guy.  Another UP is that since I do have to stay late...I now usually get to leave early on Fridays and that is SOOO much fun to get out around 2-3 sometimes!

Family Quarreling-I'm not going into detail, but there were some Family issues that were just horrible and I always knew in the end that it would be great just because we wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.  So it was finally resolved and now, we don't have  to worry about it and we've moved on and we are so grateful.

Mike's Parents Living in Florida-They moved there about 10-11 years ago now for Rick's work.  It's sad not getting to see them as often as we'd like or for them to just being 15 minutes away for dinner or for an awesome night of Spades or Hand & Foot.   But I am grateful, because Florida is a great place to go visit!  The last couple of years we haven't been there, but they come here quite often, which is nice.  Another reason it's great is that they have Oklahoma State University football tickets...nice ones too.  So they don't make it for EVERY game and the graciously let us have the tickets.  Hopefully grandkids may sway them to move back in the future!




Day 5 says to take five minutes to write about how grateful you are for all of the wonderful things that you currently have in your life. Don’t long for what you don’t possess—instead, take stock of all the blessings you already enjoy.

mike, mom, dad, brother-casey, home, melanie, rick, sil-joanna, pets-remi & nellie, tv, dvr, computer, internet, iphone, health, job, OSU, opportunity, freedom, friends, fun co-workers, sports, pi phi, photography, family, get-togethers, gameday saturdays, lazy sundays, my bubble, beautiful weather, walks, water, blogging, vacations, naps, sunshine, panoramic sunroof, chocolate, movies, dinner nights, dates....I know there are so many more, but this is what I got for now.