Thankful Thursday

The last few weeks have brought many financial demands on our family...I won't go into it all, but let's just say, everything needed maintenance or replacement all at once! Instead of dwelling on the mere pennies left in the home/car maintenance account, I will instead be thankful that we had the means to fix and replace!

Other things I am thankful for today:

• Two safe vehicles
• A cool air-conditioned home (temps have been over 100 for quite a few days now)
• Clean clothes all put away in their place
• A strong, able body
• A clear mind amidst all the chaos of the past few weeks due to much prayer and faith
• The man in my life that is a best friend, loving husband, and so caring and compassionate a father
• Two little people that are so full of energy it just takes my breath away
• My family
• A few days break to relax with my husband and children and reflect on our many blessings

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."-- Melody Beattie

What are you thankful for my friends?

My Children Inspire Me...

"Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply..." ~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

"We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break. ~Marquise de Sévigné "

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” -Charles R. Swindoll

We're Off to See the Wizard...er...Shamu!

We are so excited about our trip to Sea World!

The Princess and I went and found some Sketchers Cali Gear shoes today on sale. She found some cute mosaic shoes and I found some white shoes (they don't make cute mosaic ones in mommy size!). They are like Crocs but have a closed heel so we can wear them on the roller coasters. I remember the last time my sister and I went to Sea World we had to sit on our flip flops on some of the rides so they would not fly off! Of course we had to get some cute little Cali Bits to go on them...I found a daisy, ladybug, and bee with some white jewels. The princess's shoes came with some but we added some more multi-colored jewels. I found the Prince some Thomas the Tank Engine Crocs, but they were not in his size....they had the size above and the size below...will have to hunt those down when we get back as he was going nuts over them!

We went to Michael's on the way home and I found the PERFECT little notebooks in the $1 bins. They are blue on the front and have that hard plastic cover page. They have a little band around the edge of the pages to keep them together. I found stickers of sea animals in the scrap booking section along with letter stickers in with different colors of blue on them to look like waves! I wrote the kids names on each using the sticker letters then in a Sharpie marker underneath their name wrote "Sea World Memories", and then back to the stickers to spell out 2008. I then let them put whatever stickers they wanted on the pages inside. I figure they can use them for an autograph book for the characters they will meet on our 'Seafari' tour and the Princess will like to record her favorite things from the trip in it as a journal! She is excited and the Prince was squealing with delight as he put on this sea animal stickers!