Thankful Tuesday

1. I've definitely had more consistent pregnancy symptoms lately. Although these are annoying at times (physically), they are oh so reassuring emotionally. Therefore, I am very grateful for heartburn, tenderness, light headedness, etc. Only 9 more days until the ultrasound...

2. A few weeks ago I did an application for Paul to have the same credit card I applied for around Christmas. We found out yesterday he was approved. PTL! This will mean another $500+ in savings for us.

3. I was going to redeem my $500 as a credit to my statement, but then I discovered yesterday that if I purchased two of our airline tickets through our points, they would give us more points. I feel silly that I haven't done this in the past, but it turns out you get more bang for your buck if you use your points to do things like buy airline tickets. Typically I get things like gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and TGIFridays. Because of using points, I got two free roundtrip tickets to Grand Cayman. I can't believe they didn't cost me a penny. It's so helpful since this is the first time we need 4 tickets. The last time Ian flew he was still able to sit on my lap for free. I'm grateful that we still only needed to buy 2 tickets because of being able to use these points.

4. I'm so glad we are going to Grand Cayman in May! We booked the resort last month, and it seems even more real now that we've also booked our airfare.

5. Nadia is making great progress with her puzzle skills. She did a 48 piece puzzle ALL by herself yesterday. That was a first! Prior to that the biggest one she'd done on her own had 27 pieces. She also attempted a 100 piece puzzle for the first time, but she definitely needed some help on that one.

6. I'm also pleased with her progress at learning her capital letters. She knows the following letters at this point: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, N, O, Q, U, W, and X. Of those, her weakest one is "E." She always wants to call it "F" and sometimes she confuses D and B.

7. My department chair called me today, and he was oh so very happy because the accreditation report I wrote last summer passed with flying colors. We've never had this particular form of "national recognition" before (NAEYC). I'm glad I could help, and it's nice to feel like I earned some "brownie points" so to speak since they have been less than thrilled with my unpaid leave. I learned later that my report was the only one from our department that passed.

8. On this Valentine's Day, I am so grateful for my family. I love my husband and three kids SO much. Yes, I already am in love with the one I haven't even seen on an ultrasound yet let alone held in my arms. I am so grateful for the Lord's blessings. My hubby got me a box of turtles and a card. I haven't had a turtle in years. It's my most favorite kind of candy. I'm pretty certain my days of being able to eat candy are numbered (due to gestational diabetes), but I'll enjoy them until I have to start checking my blood sugar on a regular basis.

9. I decided to skip the pancakes today, but I haven't gotten on the GD diet yet. One plus of the GD diet is that it will be really easy to keep my weight in check. I actually lost weight at the end of my pregnancy with Ian due to the GD diet.

10. Ian's Elecare arrived today! PTL! I had been adding a little vanilla to the unflavored Elecare I bought on eBay. Today we received 14 cans of vanilla Elecare. PTL!

11. I am thankful for sheet protectors. I learned recently that if you put a piece of paper in it and use a dry erase marker on it, you can wipe it right off! Wow! This will save me a lot of ink as I have Nadia working on fine motor skills with tracing differnt lines and shapes and such.