Thankful

Well another TG has come and gone and this one was one of the best in a while for several reasons. We actually had my whole family together for the first time in 3-4 years. It was so nice to have my sister, stepsisters, parents, nephews and brother in law's together!!! On Wednesday night we went down to Children's Hospital and brought in some sheet cakes to share with the children and families that would have to be spending their Thanksgiving there. It was a very enjoyable experience but totally not what I expected it to be. We arrived at the hospital a bit before 6pm and went to the volunteers office. There we cut up the cakes into 4 sections and placed them in the red wagons along with the plates, silverware and coffee that the hospital provided. I thought that all 10 of us were going to be doing this together but what they did was split us up to cover 4 different floors; 2,3,4,5. I was assigned floor 4 with the hospital volunteer Linda. We were pretty slow up there, had a few kids who stopped by and were so cute, they seemed to really appreciate the cake. Most of the people who stopped by were family members or passers by. After about 15 minutes my stepsister Allison came up to serve with me. We didn't have too many more visitors and heard that my family on the 2nd floor was running out of cake so we gave them half of what we had left. We were done by 7pm and gave our leftover cake to the nurses who were pretty happy to be getting some. All in all it was an enjoyable experience but I felt like we weren't giving back enough for everything that they did for us in taking care of Grayson during the 15 days he was there for his heart surgery. We discussed afterwards that for next year we would like to do something where we're helping people out more (soup kitchen is what we'll probably do) but it was nice to see the smiles on the faces of the few children who stopped by.

Volunteering @ the hospital made me think about all the things that I am grateful for.

To have my health, after being in the hospital thinking of all the children and others who are in the hospital I am so thankful to have my health and the ability to run half marathons and play sports and do the normal day to day things.

My family, without them i wouldn't be the person that i am today.

My family's health, Grayson is the toughest person that I've ever met and he's only 5 months old!! he has been through more in his 5 months than most people have in their whole lives!! he's such a trooper and i am so thankful that he's made it through his surgery's and is on his way to becoming a happy, healthy baby!!

Chinchilla, she is such an amazing woman, she is so smart, beautiful, kind, caring, considerate, has a really big heart, did i mention she's beautiful??? confident, compassionate, fun to be with, we have a great time going out and doing things or staying at home and doing nothing. I am so thankful and happy that she is in my life!!! She is the best!!!!!!

My really close friends (u know who you are) without you I wouldn't have made it through the bankruptcy & repo of my jeep, I am thankful for the talks with them, the fun times that we've had, the encouragement that things will turn around for me, you are awesome!!

For not being in debt like i was anymore. It's so nice now to not have to worry about hiding my jeep so they don't take it, to get 2-3 calls a day from collection agencies, to have money to pay for things, to own my car, to not be embarrased about my finances.

To live in the USA, to have the freedom that we have, to all the men and women who have given their lives so that we can keep this freedom.