Thankful Thursday

1. A couple of weeks ago Paul fixed the drain in my sink in the bathroom.  He also changed the battery on my cell phone. I purchased my phone four years ago, and I bought a refurbished one. I was thinking I might need to buy a new phone, but all I needed was a new battery. Paul felt like he was doing  brain surgery trying to replace the battery, but he was successful! Now if he could just repair the floor in our bathroom. We are still all sharing one bathtub/shower.

2. Oliver left his lasso (Christmas gift from my dad and Margie) in Maryland on January 1. Margie mailed it back to him a couple of weeks ago, and she also included a few other things in there which the kids appreciated.

3. After tomorrow there are just nine weeks left in the semester. Whenever I feel like I am drowning, I keep saying "I think I can, I think I can" (from the Little Engine that Could). I bought cookies at the grocery store this week. I usually make cookies from scratch, but I need to find ways to accomplish everything on my to do list. I am making progress. My goal is to finish my student teaching evaluations by Saturday night so that I

truly can have three days off (Sunday-Tuesday) while we are taking our trip to Philadelphia.

4. Paul's mom has agreed to take care of our guinea pigs while we're away. Paul will be transporting the beloved rodents to their house tomorrow morning in connection with going to work.

5. Ian's basketball team had a pizza party tonight. Tonight was his last practice, and Saturday will be his last game.

6. I paid off our mortgage on Tuesday! We had pizza Tuesday night, and I declared it to be our "mortgage burning party." Not that I actually set anything on fire. It's a nice feeling knowing that a bank doesn't own any part of our house. Now I just need to pay back my retirement account loan...

7. Maurice called me on Tuesday with the thrilling news that NYU had made him an offer! This is quite an honor as they make offers to less than 1% of their applicants. We're still praying that maybe Penn will

make him an offer. We should know in a little over a month where he'll be doing his doctorate (Austin, Philadelphia, or NYC). I'm very proud of my brother!

8. Over the last few weeks I purchased two dresses for myself from Sears (online). I paid about $25 total for the two dresses put together. The first one arrived in the mail yesterday. I was happy it fit as usually I prefer to try on a dress before buying it. I don't like it as much as the ones I bought at JcPenney last summer, but it still felt nice to wear something new. When Oliver saw me this morning he told me I looked beautiful and was very specific in giving additional compliments (he liked the polka dots, liked my necklace, etc.). Five year olds are honest. They don't give insincere compliments. It meant a lot to me. The dress had a price tag of $90 on it. I would never have paid that much for it, but it felt like a bargain to get it for about $14.