Thankful always...

This past week has been filled with happy and sad moments.

Chris and I celebrated our 14th anniversary on Tuesday. Am I old enough to be married for 14 years? That would be a rhetorical question because the answer is, obviously, yes. In some ways it feels like yesterday but in other ways it feels like another lifetime ago. And as one of my coworkers puts it, "That's two seven year itches." I know we'll be marking many more seven year itches! ;-)

On our anniversary, we headed up to NY to spend Thanksgiving with my family and take care of some family stuff. On the way out of town, we stopped at a friend's viewing...he passed away last weekend...so that kind of mellowed the mood on our anniversary and for Thanksgiving week.

We originally had intended to go to NY for Thanksgiving to spend it with my grandma, but as many of you might already know, she passed away last month. Our original thought was not to make another trip up there so quickly, but we decided to go because the family decided we'd take a day to go through her room and sort things out. The family got together for a yummy Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and then I got to watch the Dallas game with my dad. I don't often get to watch football with him, let alone, watch our team win so that was pretty cool.*

On Friday, we spent the majority of the day in her room (she was living at my cousin's house) and went through her things. What an odd feeling. Picking up things and deciding if one of us wanted to keep it or if it should go into a donate/yard sale pile. Let me just say that my grandma kept everything. We found a bag of ziplock backs that no doubt had been used, rinsed out and dried to someday be used again.

We found some cool stuff too...a baby blanket that she made but didn't finish...so my cousin is going to finish it for me...who knows, we might need it one day. And I found two letters I had written my grandparents back in 1991. I sat on the floor next to her bed and read one of them. Boy was that weird. It's funny to look back at the things that seemed so important and caused so much drama in my life as a teenager that now seem so silly...but I guess that's normal.

On Friday afternoon we headed back into town since Chris had to be back for Saturday services.

So while this week has been filled with great milestones and good memories, it's also been kind of a sad week. The lesson for me is that I should always be thankful for what I have and for what God has done for me...despite the circumstances of my daily life. It's as simple as that.


*It was actually the second Dallas game this season I got to watch with him. They played when we were up for my grandma's funeral and we got to watch the game together. That's kind of cool for me.