Thankful Tuesday

1. I used some credit cards points to get an AMC gift card last month. The credit card added an extra $5 to the gift card, and the gift card ended up almost being enough to buy 3 tickets to see Aladdin in SC plus 4 tickets for Secret Life of Pets 2 (at 1:00 today after VBS) and 4 tickets to see Toy Story 4 this Saturday before we take Ian to camp. I only had to pay $6 total for 11 movie tickets! The kids had picked those three as the movies they wanted to see this summer when we worked on our "bucket list" for the summer. Usually we wait for movies to come out on DVD and get them from the library for free, but it is a fun splurge to see a few movies in the theater this summer.

2. Speaking of DVDs, we've rented three from Redbox over the past few weeks, and we've paid a grand total of $2.35 for three DVDs. Yes, we could have gotten them for free from the library, but we got 2 on vacation to help with the long drives and one this past weekend to watch in our hotel room. We hadn't used Netflix in a few years, so I recently signed up for a free one Beautifully Broken. It's a tear jerker, but Paul and I would recommend it for adults. It's NOT a movie for kids.

month trial to the DVD part of Netflix. Nadia had been wanting to see Princess Diaries 2, and they didn't have it at our library. We watched it last night, and we're supposed to be getting Wonder Park tomorrow, which was also on our summer bucket list. So we'll be getting more DVDs than usual thanks to our one month free trial with Netflix. One DVD we got from the library recently was called

3. Tab and I enjoyed a nice walk and also some time to talk last Friday morning. Over the past week I was able to walk with two friends (Cheri and Tab), talk to both of my sisters on the phone, and also talk to my friend Joyce on the phone. Usually I can go weeks (sometimes months) without having a conversation with any of them let alone all of them in one week. This was possible due to horse back riding camp. The kids had fun, and I had kid free time. I will say that on Thursday I was really missing them, which shows I would not want to send them on a yellow bus during the school year as after three days I was ready for my kid free time to come to an end.

4. I'm thankful for safety on the road as the kids and I traveled to Big Pool, Maryland on Saturday to spend 5 hours at Fort Frederick State Park so the kids could learn what it would have been like to be an officer during the French and Indian War. The program provided the kids with lunch. I packed mine. The hotel offered a lovely free hot breakfast, which meant for our two day getaway we only paid for two meals - dinner both days. I would like to go a very long time before I eat at McDonald's again, but the upside is I haven't done much cooking over the past three weeks.

5. We're thankful for Grandpa, Pop Pop, and Paul as we celebrated Father's Day recently! Paul was able to spend Father's Day at one of his favorite places - Gettysburg. The kids were able to earn another Junior Ranger badge. Their collection has grown quite a bit in 2019! Considering how rainy it has been, I was thankful we stayed dry those two days. It rained some while we were driving but not during the 6 hours we were at the National

Park.

6. We have recently really enjoyed two books. First, we listened to the second book in the Penderwicks series, and we're in line for the third book with the Free Library of Philadelphia. Nadia didn't want to read Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, so we listened to it on vacation together. Although she loves our guinea pigs, that has not caused her to love other rodents. We all ended up loving the book. They only have the first one as an audiobook, so Nadia started reading the second book in the series that we got from our library yesterday. Ian said he also wants to read the other two books in the series. We're listening to All of a Kind Family now, which was a favorite of mine when I was a child. I'm hoping Nadia will want to read the others in that series after we finish this one.

7. Ian lost another tooth yesterday. I pulled it out. It had been ready to come out for quite awhile, and the kids had dentist appointments yesterday. All three got a good report at the dentist yesterday. Nadia was told

that she needs to get a baby tooth out, or they are going to pull it in three months because the permanent tooth is ready but the baby tooth isn't loose yet. The dentist pulled two other baby teeth of hers previously, and she told me she'll make SURE that baby tooth comes out prior to the deadline as she doesn't want him pulling any more of her teeth. That's fine with me as it costs us money when the dentist does it.

8. We were able to help out at our church for about 90 minutes yesterday. I did a lot of cutting things out in preparation for crafts. This morning we're headed to VBS! I am helping with the craft station for the next four days.

9. Paul's parents plus Uncle Al and Aunt Millie were able to come up last night for Nadia's birthday celebration. Ian was very thankful that we did it a week early as otherwise he would have missed it while he was at Camp Susque next Monday. We had Venarri's pizza (at Nadia's request), which is fine with me because it's my favorite pizza place. They

started a loyalty card program this year, and so yesterday we earned a free large one topping pizza. That meant I paid $24 for three large pizzas yesterday. Not bad! We had enough left over for dinner tonight. Nadia said she wanted chocolate covered pretzels from Aunt Millie instead of a birthday cake. Aunt Millie brought a big box of beautifully decorated pretzels! She also brought some cupcakes. Nadia will open her gifts from her parents on her actual birthday (24th), but yesterday she received spending money to use at Creation (to buy CDs), an Ariel Lego set, two Chronicles of Narnia DVDs, and stilts. The rain stopped for a bit, and she already started working on learning how to use her stilts. Oliver also wants to give those a whirl, and a couple of neighbor kids tried them out as well last night. I think multiple kids will be using those stilts!

10. During the end of May I was able to help two friends (Tab plus a neighbor) get reservations at a resort for a week through my time share for very reasonable prices. One of our neighbors will be staying at our favorite resort in Orlando for a week in August (we have spent 3 weeks at that resort in past years), and Tab's family (including her in-laws) will be spending a week in Williamsburg in September. I'm happy to play the role of travel agent and help friends out since our time share gives us so many extra weeks each year.

11. The kids enjoyed eating sloppy joes at the playground yesterday. It was our first time at Kid's Café this summer, which is the free lunch provided in our town for kids during the summer.

12. I lost another pound last week, which brings my total to 29 and means I only need to lose 6 more to reach my goal. I'm enjoying wearing clothes I hadn't worn in a few years.