Monday

Today, Monday, March 17, my husband comes home today from a business trip to Vegas!!!!!!!! HORRRAY!! Its amazing how time & distance makes the heart grow fonder for someone I'm so in love with! At the same time I realize how blessed I am, my heart aches for friends and family dredging through difficult times in their lives. {If you read this, please say a prayer for these friends and family.}

Courtney's blog sparked my thoughts [thanks for sharing it with me (letting me steal it from you)]. Today, I am thankful for MANY things I can't even begin to describe - however, to temporarily satisfy your palate, here is a short list (an outpouring of thoughts I've gathered over the past week):

NICK: Words can't even describe how elated I am to walk through life with this wonderful man God has blessed me with!

LIFE: waking up each morning in the safe arms of my Lord, especially while Nick has to be on travel,

LOVE: the promise of everlasting life, the sacrifice my Lord made and the overwhelming excitement of my husband's return from his trip in Vegas,

PARENTS: Wonderful parents and parents-in-law and a very coolllllll brother (words also can't explain my appreciate and gratefulness for their love, support, and guidance),

PRAYER: the invitation to talk with God (although many times my issues are so childlike) and His desire to communicate and have a relationship with us, and His willingness to listen

THE BODY OF CHRIST: the demonstration of holding each other up in prayer, caring and loving for the parts (people) of the body that are weak or strong and trusting the Lord during all times of life

BLOGS (technology in general): staying connected with many friends and walk, in prayer, from a distance with those experiencing physical and emotional pain

COFFEE (& dessert occasionally): putting the pep in my step, keeping the eyelids open while I work on spreadsheets, enjoying it every evening with my handsome husband, discussing God & life with friends over a cup of it, getting me through late nights in college, not phasing me when I have a cup of it at 9pm and go to bed at 10pm (thanks to those late nights in college)... and the beautiful memories that are associated,

SHOPPING: teaching me to be thankful for what God has blessed me with while continually teaching me self discipline and stewardship (although I seem to fail at those often) and its just fun,

COMMUNITY GROUP: This wonderful group of people that I've grown to love, enjoy serving with, sharing life with, and opening up my heart to,

FRIENDS from AFAR: my dear friends that are in other cities that I miss seeing everyday/every once in a while, just to name a few: Michelle, Courtney & Tim, Heather, Summer, Mrs. Debbie, many friends from Campbell,

I guess I define the above as a short list - however, there are so many more things I'm thankful for...

Springtime
Daffodils
Coworkers that openly share their faith at work
Mentors
Baking
Taking pictures
Breakfast parties
Weddings
Sunshine and longer days
My little class of Inchworms (aka Hippos or Sunday school class of 12-18 month olds)
My cool new IPOD
Freedom
Overwhelming sense of emotion (and the resulting tears) anytime anyone talks about our men fighting for the US over seas, missionaries following the calling of the Lord, and watching God do his thing!

and still so many things I'm thankful for...