Gratitude Monday week 4: on Wednesday

Sorry for the belated Gratitude day - my whole life has been a bit belated recently - if that makes any sense :)


1. I am so grateful for my husband who never lets me settle into complacent, mediocre living. He challenges me to keep my mind sharp, to live in a manner consistent with my expressed beliefs, and to be excellent in the spheres of life in which I flutter. He is such a wonderful man to walk side by side with through life. (Yes - sometimes I do have to remind myself that its wonderful to be constantly called farther up and further in!)
2-5. I again am grateful for my families proximity, generosity, and helpfulness. This week has been a bad week for cars in our family. An inopportunely bad week. It all started on Monday when I loaded up the car for errands, turned the key, and... Bilbo (our forest green Volvo) wouldn't start. The radio etc worked so I knew it wasn't the battery. From the back I had a concerned little voice pleading "Go, go, gooooo?!" And I had to tell him that our car was "broke". "Boke? Boke?? It boke...no..." So, I called my mom and cancelled our plans, and she
sent out my dad to try to jump us just in case. So within a few hours my dad came and tried to jump us to no avail. My parents are amazing.
Ben had a business party in the city that I had been planing to drive to that my sweet mama babysat during (4:30-11:30 yikes!) (For those who went to high school with me, it was on the Odyssey. Remember our after Jr/Sr "cruise ship?") So instead I hopped on a train and everything worked out ok. Yesterday they let us borrow a car, and it worked fine all day until I made the unwise decision of running over to check out the house my grandparents were emptying (they run estate sales and sometimes let us treasure hunt) less than 1 1/2 hours before I was supposed to hop on the train for the second night of festivities, this time at the ESPN zone, that my mama was again babysitting during. Right as I turned onto the street where the house was located I heard an awful metallic grating noise. I pulled over, looked under the car, and sure enough, some misc. car part had partially dislodged and was dragging on the ground. "Great! Now I've broken their car too!" So, I called my mom and she came and picked me up in her car, so I could get home in time to freshen up and go downtown. We lingered and talked a bit when all of a sudden my husband called me in a panic bc he had arranged for his wonderful brother to use his AAA to tow our car for free, but I was gone with both sets of keys! "Where was I? Why did I have both sets of keys? Did I think I had time to go to the mechanic with his brother?" By now it was 4 and I had to catch the 4:57 into the city. My wonderful husband had been coordinating things with his brother from afar, and had failed to let me in on the details. So, things were a bit crazy. But, with the help of all of my family, our car got to the shop free of charge, my parents car was fixed sans my help, I was whisked home and prepped in time for my second evening out getting to know Ben's new coworkers, my son was fed and loved, and through all that I came home with bags and bags of beautiful linen tunics, tribal jewelry and rugs, art books, vegetarian cookbooks, vintage toys for lil rascal, a gorgeous sheet set, stationary, Aveda beauty products, perfumes, etc etc etc.
6-9. And the night at the ESPN zone was a blast. We don't make enough of an effort to get out alone together. Since Ben didn't have any clients at the event it was "revert to little kid - fun time." Ben called it "guy heaven" but I thought it was more like a deluxe Chucky Cheese! We walked up the stairs and waitresses were holding trays full of icy drinks. To our left was a long table set up with chefs who would make you burgers to order on the spot and to our right was a room full of lazy boys, 20 television screens, and tables and tables full of more food. (They even had great veggie options -yea!!) Once we had eaten to the point of bursting (mmmmm.... I can still taste the pound cake topped with fresh whipped cream and berries!) we took our unlimited play cards and ran into the game room and skied, kayaked, bmx raced, rode motorcycles and race cars and motor boats, played basketball and had tons and tons of fun just being stupid together. This night also reaffirmed something that I love about his job - a lot of people brought their whole families. It was adorable to watch guys wave running with their pig tailed 10 year olds! I really appreciate the family friendly attitude in his company - at least three of the lead guys have five or more kids - thats not common anywhere anymore, let alone in the world of finance,
The beautiful finale to our evening was a raincoat-less, umbrella-less, run from the train station to our apartment late at night, in the midst of pounding rain. I love being in the middle of rainstorms at night - it makes me feel alive.
10. Today I am just grateful simply for a day OFF. Other than grocery shopping and cleaning house, I have NOTHING on my agenda, so I get to crash for awhile, while my poor husband is plugging away at another day of work. (Although I found out last night that their lunches have been at the Ritz all week bc of their conference, so I don't feel too bad for him!) Plus, tonight my beloved brother comes home from college for a week (although my sweet brother in law leaves tomorrow), and we already have plans to hit the free iced coffee promotional at Dunkin Donuts. PS Did you know that they often give out free munchkins if you bring your kids?

Wow this post is different than most of mine - HA! The ESPN Zone, the Ritz, Dunkin Donuts...
Forgive me, every life needs a bit of variety!