Happy Birthday Kel! & Gratitude Day 6

Today is Kellie's birthday! I'm thrilled to wish her a wonderful, glorious day. Kellie and I are friends from college and Kappa. When Jason was living in South Korea and I was in Oregon I stayed in Seattle with Kellie and Alex on a fairly regular basis. :) I think it's safe to say that I really don't know what I would have done without her that year!

She and Alex came to visit us while we were living in Italy (okay, so we all know that they came to see Italy, but let me keep my illusions, okay?) and we traveled all over, including the most stressful driving situation I have ever had to endure. Going to Florence? Yeah, take the train. :) But no matter where we are or what we're doing, when we're together we're having fun!

It doesn't hurt that our husbands were separated at birth are so similar it's scary (and funny)! And that we both love to make things and be artistic and creative and crafty, and that we're passionate about so many of the same things. But most importantly, Kellie is just a wonderful soul. She takes time to cultivate her friendships (and somehow forgives me that I'm such a flake sometimes). :) When we were in Italy she called me more than almost everyone else combined; she even writes letters and cards (and has the most beautiful handwriting)! She strives to constantly improve herself and wants only the best for her friends, and will go to great lengths (despite her busy schedule) to help them. She's smart and kind and compassionate and strong and hopeful and determined and humble and funny and beautiful inside and out; all those things that we all hope we can be, she is. She is one of my very favorite people on this planet, and I am so very blessed to call her my friend.

Kel, I hope you have a wonderful day today and that it's the start of the best year yet for you. I wish I were there to help you celebrate (oh wouldn't that be fun!!) but I hope you know that I love you dearly and hope you're having an amazing day! :)

I can't believe it's already day six of the Gratitude Project!

I am thankful (for):

1. The "soul sister" I have in Kellie!
2. My now-clean floors (oh how I hate vacuuming and mopping but I'm sooo glad to have it done!).
3. Eating breakfast at the table this morning instead of on the couch and the surprising and insightful discussion with Jason that resulted from it.
4. Jason discovering this morning that his OSU game won't be on television (even though we're paying extra for the sports package), so we had time to plan for him to go into a sports bar in DC to watch it! [Alternate phrasing: I am thankful for a narrowly-averted major crisis that almost happened at 5:50 p.m. when Jason would have tried to tune in to the game! LOL]
5. The deal I just got on the Silhouette and the fact that I hadn't spent all of my birthday money yet so I could take advantage of it!!
6. That I decided to not care that the people coming over this morning would see me in my pajamas because I wanted to clean the house after they left (instead of taking a shower before they got here and messing up the rest of my plans). [Alternate phrasing: I'm thankful that I decided to go about my day instead of caring too much what other people think of me when they probably didn't give a rip that I was in my pajamas with bed-head anyway!]
7. Jason's funny observation that it must be weird to be a girl because, unlike boys who are born with all of their "parts," girls have the chance to realize that they're going to get boobs at some point, and to wonder what it will be like to have them and what they will look like when they grow in. HA!
8. Oprah's all-about-sex show with the sex therapist on Monday, did you see it? Oh my goodness. But very interesting!
9. A hilarious e-mail from Sooz.
10. Taking time to tell a few people how awesome I think they are ('cause I do) and having them tell me they think I'm awesome too! Oh, oh, oh, I love it when that happens!
11. Our super-cool washer and dryer.
12. NO CAR PAYMENTS.
13. My aunt Susan being so easy-going that I can just call her and say, "Can we come over in a couple hours and hang out all afternoon/evening and maybe stay the night?" and she says, "Okay, see you then!"
14. A digital photo storage system that works for me.
15. Facebook now that so many other people have decided to hop on!
16. High school being not even close to the best four years of my life. :)
17. Jason being such an easy eater; he will eat anything I make even if it is just whatever is left over in the fridge + popcorn. :)
18. Finding the book I need for book club next Wednesday (whether or not I finish it, at least I'll have started it!), and realizing that it's better to go and socialize even if I haven't finished the book by then. I never would have done that five years ago!
19. A clean car with an oil change (thanks Baby!)!
20. Jason selling his truck this morning, wooo hooo!! I will miss that turquoise beast; Jason bought it brand-new about the same time we got together ten+ years ago, so we have a lot of history with that truck! But it was past time for it to go. Bye-bye, truck; we had so much fun and now it's time for you to live with someone else! :P