Gratitude Friday

I am thankful for...
1. seeing friends and family on our trip - so happy that we got to see so many people we love
2. staying at nicest hotel in Norfolk, Nebraska - really beautiful spacious room with lots of amenities
3. getting a chance to go Field of Dreams in Iowa with Tammy
4. sunshine and blue skies on our trip
5. being home - after being gone so long it is nice to be home even though we had a wonderful time with friends and family.

Secrets

I listen to Pandora when I clean.  I have an Adele channel and they play this song often...good thing I like it. I listen to either my Adele channel while I clean or my Abba channel. Abba is always great to clean to because it really makes me move!

Gratitude Friday

old barn in Nebraska - taken by Michael McGruder

I am thankful for...
1. spending time with my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew....had such a nice time with them
2. getting to take a ton of photos of my niece Chloe
3. seeing friends - Michael worked with a young lady that died 6 years ago and we were able to see her parents.  Had such a nice time with them and just thankful to be able to help them out with a website for their foundation in their daughter's name.
4. the Create angel my Mom gave me. It is a Kelly Rae Robert's work and just so pretty
5. meeting up with Tammy here in Davenport...looking forward to having the weekend with her - taking photos and hanging out

Sunset in Sioux City

photo by Michael McGruder

Something you can't get in Colorado is Godfather's Pizza. It is Michael's favorite pizza.  I grew up with Godfather's Pizza in Omaha.  So I really like it too.  It was the place to go after football games in high school so I associate Godfather's with some good memories from my youth. 

When we travel we always look to see if we will be through towns with Godfather's Pizza.  On the way to my sister's right about dinner time we were going through Sioux City which had a Godfather's so we stopped and grabbed a pizza and then went and parked on a country road and watched the sunset.  It was a beautiful sunset to watch with my love while we had pizza.  Maybe kind of silly but these kind of things make the best memories.  I know I will remember our whole day as it was a trip through Nebraska - all the back roads. Seeing lots of little towns and pretty country.  Not just flat boring interstate.  We had great conversations and  just enjoyed our time together. 

Now looking forward to time with my sister and her family and my parents too as they decided to come down and see Michael and I too! 

Call Me

I love traveling  Right now on my way to see my sister. So not home...call me if you need me.

Gratitude Friday

I am thankful for..
1. staying in such a great hotel room in Denver...made me feel spoiled
2. seeing my love speak at a conference and ROCK!
3. seeing family and friends in Denver
4. seeing my sister and her family soon
5. school supplies on clearance at Target

Stepping Stone

Gratitude Friday

I am thankful for...
1. meds that are helping my pain
2. library books
3. sunshine
4. music

5. clean sheets on the bed

Christmas on Pinterest....

It isn't even autumn yet technically, but I am seeing so many cute ideas on Pinterest for Christmas.....

Source: laurengeiger.blogspot.com via Darby on Pinterest

This would be so easy and pretty as a centerpiece for Christmas.

Source: pin4fun5435.blogspot.com via Darby on Pinterest

Love this idea of wrapping up 24 Christmas books and then reading them each night so cute!

Source: justsaysew.blogspot.jp via Darby on Pinterest

I want to do this for my niece and nephew for a stocking stuffer.

Source: utahdealdiva.com via Darby on Pinterest

This looks so yummy! Would be cute in a jar with ribbon and tag for a gift.

Enough

Source: wipkits.blogspot.com via Darby on Pinterest

Some days it is really hard to remember this....believe it.

All the Right Moves

I have been kind of hooked on One Republic lately.

Life in Points

* We have been traveling quite a bit - just day trips or a few days here and there. But soon we will be taking a longer trip. We will be going to see my sister and her family. After a few days with her, we will go do a work project and then after the work is done, we will spend the weekend with Tammy as we will be in her neck of the woods. We see her again in November. She will be spending Thanksgiving with us.

* I have my follow up for my doctor coming up this week - for the sciatica. He did a treatment of cortisone that lasted 10 hours. Then he prescribed a pill that was for 5 days, but my doctor and my pharmacist were really at odds with each other on the drug. After taking this drug and seeing how I reacted, he will know better how to treat me. The drug worked great except for upsetting my stomach just a little bit which was the pharmacist concern. But the positive of the drug it brought my pain down to zero on a pain scale and the most it would go up to is a 3. It still even almost a week after it has been done hasn't brought my pain back up to where it was before (a 7 was pretty much my daily consistent pain level).

* Yesterday we did yard work. Both of us are not fans of it.  I have bad allergies that really just cause me to be miserable because I would love to have some of a garden, but just can't keep up with it. And it isn't fair for it to fall to Michael when he dislikes yard work.  This was icky yard work we had to do yesterday - pulling weeds. We have rock landscaping, but weeds come up in them and with my sciatica being as bad as it has been there has been no way I could do it before now.  It was hard to do it yesterday. Michael  ended up doing the backbreaking stuff. We had put it off until we couldn't any longer.

* The first of February is our anniversary, but the 1st of every month for the last 9 years Michael says Happy Anniversary.  We laughed that our morning was spent doing yard work - fun fun! But really I am thankful that we can have of course lots of fun together, but also make things we don't like doing go a little faster and better by doing them together.  We can laugh and have fun even when pulling weeds.

* We were out of town recently and when we arrived back in town we decided to get some errands out of the way before heading home. One thing was to go to the library as I figured I had some book waiting for me. I came with a HUGE pile.  Michael shouted from the car on my way out of the library carrying the huge pile of books that I didn't need to check whole library out. The lady in front of me got a chuckle. But the sad thing is that huge pile of books I only have like 3 left to read as I am going through a book a day still.  I got through the Anita Blake series. All caught up again...I had been 3 books behind, but reread the entire series.