I'm Just Too Happy!

On Facebook, my teacher daughter challenged me to share three things a day - for five days - I'm grateful for.  That is an awkward sentence.  For five days, I'm going to write three daily things for which I'm grateful.

That doesn't read any better.

Anyhoo....I'm going to change it.  I'm going to write here fifteen things for which I'm grateful. I hope my alteration to this assignment flies with the teacher.  I've had so many blessings this week, it's delightful to ruminate on all the goodies.

Here we go...

1.  Our teacher daughter did not go to China.  China cancelled the trip for various reasons that we don't fully understand, but if things are not squared away in China...I'm happy she's not going.  She was disappointed, but got over it.  She'll likely have the opportunity to go next year.

2.  Our girl is still getting PAID for going to China, even though she's not going.  How incredible is that?  She'll be paying off a credit card, getting some house upgrades, some car work done, taking a trip to SC with her favorite mom and saving some bucks.  China pays very well for work you don't do.

3.  Our girl is also getting free travel miles - as many as it takes to get to Beijing and back.  The airline tickets were non-refundable, so our teacher gets the miles on a gift card.  We were astonished.  She's already planning where to go and who to see.  I might be able to sneak in on some of that too.

4.  Our daughter surprised me this week with three tubs of dark chocolate malted milk balls!  I didn't know they made them, but she found a small company here in Melbourne that does.  I am in heaven.  And so grateful for my money-bags daughter's generosity.  

5.  In completing my manuscript, The 12 Days of Christmas Adventure, I'm seeking trademark/copyright permissions from some big businesses/manufacturers.   So far, every single company, except one, has granted permission for me to use an image of their product in my book.  This has shocked me.  I thought big businesses would not be interested in helping a first time author.

I was wrong.  Jordan Almonds will be in my book, along with Swiss Miss, Mattel, Fisher-Price, and my favorite - Harry Potter.  Scholastic books is sharing with me Harry Potter!  I am so grateful, I keep celebrating by eating dark chocolate malted milk balls.

6.  We had a Canadian visitor this week who brought REAL maple syrup and homemade strawberry jam with her to Florida.  Get a load of this syrup bottle. 

It looks like a bottle of rum.  It's the most delicious syrup on the planet.  This freezer jam is also the best on the planet.  My husband ate the entire first jar in about four days. 

Our Canadian friend is our favorite alien.

7.  I ordered new glasses last month that came in wonky.  I tried them for a week and kept hating them.  I took them back to Lens Crafters, and they discovered my pupillary distance was off.  I asked them if it had anything to do with the retina hole I had in my eye the week before.  They said no, pupils don't move, no matter what kind of holes you have in your eyes.  They made me another pair of lenses, and they are great.
 

The frames are red and bold because I decided I was going to need some color on my face as my wisdom highlights come in.  AUGH!  I have recipes dangling from the cupboards, this is why it looks like trash is sprouting from my head and right ear. 

8.  It's mango season here!  I can't touch mango sap or the inside skin because I break out with poison ivy (for that story, READ THIS.)  But, I LOVE the fruit and have no trouble eating it.  A friend of ours who has a mango tree gave us ten mangoes - half of them are gone already.  Our girl, Money-bags, purchased even more.  The area that grows them here - Merritt Island - is one of the best three mango producers in the world.  And we live 20 minutes away!  We are happy mango gluttons.

9.  My Dad has another UTI.   This is not the grateful part.  The grateful part is that we learned yesterday he can go to the walk-in clinic and get an antibiotic infusion daily for about a week rather than being admitted to the hospital for the same thing.   Because of all the meds he's on, he needs IV infusions when he develops a UTI.  In the past, he had been hospitalized for this, but that won't be needed anymore.  I can't even express what good new this is.  At 91, Dad needs to be up and around as much as possible.  Five days in the hospital never serves him well.

10.  I got a new phone, and I really like it.  I've never been able to say that about a new phone before.  Wonders never cease.

11.  My check-up with my eye surgeon today went well.  My holey retina has sealed properly.  I'm so grateful for Dr. Paul Winslow.  Anybody who can use a laser on an eyeball and not blast the eyeball apart gets a ten in my book.

12.  I'm changing general practitioners, and the doc I want to start seeing is taking new patients.  He's actually my parents' doc, and I know the man well because for five years, we've been a team when dealing with the folks.   He knows all the family quirks.

13.  I've found a supplement that is helping my fibromyalgia.  It's called Curamin, and the basis of it is turmeric.   My pain is reduced by 30-40%.  Curamin is not cheap, but I'm not griping about that today.  This is a grateful list.

14.  Dad, whom we call Pops, was going to travel to China with our daughter by way of this...

She glued this image of him eating a hot fudge sundae onto a tongue depressor.  She was going to hold this in all her photographs (like Flat Stanley), so he could say he'd been to China.  This is her Pops-sicle.  HA!  I smile every time I look at it.

15.  My girl and I are heading to South Carolina next week to visit her godson and his parents.  I'm going to help his mom re-organize her kitchen.  I love to sort and clean and donate.  I think I'll take a tub of malted milk balls with us.

God has so blessed me recently, I almost feel guilty.

I'm sure there's a challenge around the corner.

Until it gets here, I'm soaking up every minute.