Why I'll never forget Veteran's Day

One year ago today, James proposed to me. It was a Wednesday, he had class the next day, and with Thanksgiving break only a couple weeks away I would have never suspected it. (which, I think was his point) It was a red letter day for sure. We were married 6 months later and haven't wasted any time taking the next steps in life. I have never been happier.

On a side note, I remember after I got engaged how frequently I was asked "How did James propose?" I retold that story time and time again and it really never got old. After I was married the question was always, "When are you going to start a family?" I was always uncomfortable answering that question, and usually just lied and said, "I don't know, we'll see." When in fact I did know, and didn't feel it was anybodies business to ask. Now that I am pregnant the question I hear more often than any other question in the world is, "How are you feeling?" I get asked this a dozen or more times in a day from, co-workers, people I rarely associate with in the office and at church, and by strangers wherever I go. I find it interesting that people care so much about how I am feeling. And how the question changes drastically from the regular "how ya doin'?" to how are you feeling? when you are pregnant. And maybe I have found this question so strange, because other than the fact that my belly is getting huge, I feel great and really haven't felt too bad the entire time I've been pregnant. I guess I could complain about the heart burn, the fact that none of my pants will button up and how I am hungry all the time, but the truth is I really do feel great. I am happy and very excited to be a mother and especially to watch James be a father.

Never a bad time to be grateful

I guess I don't update my blog because I think I always have to have something significant to write about, and the perfect pictures to accompany my thoughts. I am going to throw away that notion that I have tonight and just write a little bit about some of the things I am especially grateful for tonight. I don't think there is ever a bad time to show a little bit of gratitude.

Sometimes I hate that other people's tragedies have to be reminders of why I should be grateful for something that I have. I know that God gives us individual challenges that our individual strengths help us to overcome. Often time it's hard being the one looking in on someones life wondering how they can ever get through such a thing. A lot of the problem is just that I personally was not given the right juice or the right stuff to handle such a tragedy at this time. But still I can trust that if given the same trial that the right juice would be provided by a loving Heavenly Father. I have faith that that is the case but it does not change the personal challenge that we each feel when trying to help friends and loved ones during these hard times.

With all of that said, tonight I am grateful for my dear James. I came home from a very long day of work, errands, grocery shopping, fully expecting to find the house as I left it this morning, (a smelly mess, with laundry needing to be done) only to be pleasantly surprised by a clean orderly house with laundry done and folded. James has been sick and out of commission for a couple of days so this really was a surprise, but I was so grateful for it.

I am grateful for the gorgeous fall weather. It was sunny today and I ate my lunch out on the lawn of the park next to my work. It felt wonderful.

I am grateful for a really great job. I hear constantly about people finishing school, only to be unable to locate any type of employment. I have been extremely blessed in this area of my life. I've been able to find a job at the right time at the right place for the last few years since I've graduated. It really is a miracle that I can't attribute to anything else but my Heavenly Father.

Working with children and people with disabilities, has made me ever grateful that my brain is able to send the correct signals to my arms and legs that make them move in the way that I choose, that my eyes are properly attached to occipital lobe that allow me to see images wherever I am, that I can see someone crying and understand what it means to be sad and provide some sort of comfort for that person, and that my mouth will produce the sounds that are appropriate for what I am trying to say. The brain does so many wonderful things, and it is very difficult to not take advantage of all the functions that it performs each day that allow us freedoms that some will not have in this life.

This has turned into a much lengthier post than I anticipated, but there are my thoughts tonight none the less. I am grateful to be an expecting mother, and with the growing pains of pregnancy I will be grateful also when I get to experience the pains of motherhood.