30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 21

Today I am thankful for an unexpected trip to the beach! We flew to Corpus this morning to visit my Dad and Linda for Thanksgiving, and he suggested a trip to the beach this afternoon. We were more than happy to oblige him and head to the beach to dip our feet in the water.

Gracie loved every minute of it, even dodging the huge jellyfish in the water!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 19

Today I am thankful for my sweet daughter, Gracie! She has changed our lives in so many ways, but it has been worth every change. I don't even have the words to describe the love I have for her or the joy she brings me each and every day. She is an amazing little girl.

Today Trinity and I attended Grace's Thanksgiving lunch to see our little pilgrim. She was so excited to see us. I just love the squeals of joy when she sees us at daycare! She was so proud to have us there with her, and we were so happy to be eat with her.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 14 to 18

Day 14: Today I am thankful to have slept in, if only for 30 minutes! With Trinity out of town, I don't have someone to make me get out of bed when my alarm goes off in the morning! It felt great to sleep in a little bit, even if it meant rushing around to get Grace and myself out the door!

Day 15: Today I am thankful to be CC and student loan debt free! We paid off our last balances today, and it couldn't feel any better! We have worked so hard this year to pay off all our debt, and we did it a whole month earlier than planned! So proud of Trinity and myself to sticking to our budget. Now on to our next goal: padding the savings and contributing a higher percentage to retirement!

Day 16: Today I am thankful for Parents' Night Out at Grace's daycare. Trinity and I had a wonderful date at a hibachi grill followed by Wreck It Ralph. You can guess who chose the movie, but I was pleasantly surprised by how cute it was. Definitely a much needed night out for both of us!

Day 17: Today I am thankful for the company of friends! Grace and I spent the morning shopping at the Chi Omega Christmas market with Jen before heading to her house to watch the Tech game. We were sad that our other friends couldn't join us, and then even more sad after Tech's embarrassing loss. But we still had a great day catching up with Jen and Mike! Thanks for hosting, guys!

Day 18: Today I am thankful for Steven and Megan. They are the best uncle and aunt to Gracie, and she loves them unconditionally! They are so good to us and more than willing to go out of their way to help us! I don't know what we would do without them. We love you both!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 13

I was going to wait until the week of Thanksgiving to blog about the things I am MOST thankful for in my life. Of course one of those people is Trinity, but after what he did for me this week, I just had to dedicate today's post to him.

You see, it's been a crazy week, month, quarter at work. I've been working more than I have ever worked since joining Dean Foods in January of 2011, and I'm tired. Because of all this work, I was four days behind in my 30 days of thankfulness blogging. Trinity was sweet enough to write and post three thankful posts on my behalf when he noticed how far behind I had gotten! What a sweet gesture! But I am thankful for Trinity for many more reasons that a few short blog posts...

I am thankful that he fell in love with me and convinced me to do the same at a time when I didn't think I could ever trust anyone enough.

I am thankful that I can always be 100% myself around him.

I am thankful that he wants to be involved in all decisions affecting our home.

I am thankful that he stood beside me as I tried to deliver our first child (and may have even cleaned up a little poop from the table in the process)... and eased my fears when we realized we would have to have a c-section.

I am thankful that he has and always will be my equal partner in raising our child(ren).

I am thankful that he loves to read as much as I do.

I am thankful that he made the decision that our family needed to start attending church.

I am thankful that he knows how and when to make me laugh.

I am thankful that he loves me, despite all of my flaws and short-comings.

30 Days of Thankfulness Day 11

Today I, Trinity, am extremely thankful for charity.  Namely an organization that I got involved in with some other friends in the Flower Mound/ Lewisville Area.  Last week, The Dinner Project held their annual fair trade shopping event and today I attended a board meeting to calculate the total sales for the event.  We sold over $2,000 in fair trade merchandise for an organization called SERRV.  SERRV is dedicated to eradicating poverty through working with thousands of small-scale artisans and farmers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other developing regions of the world by marketing their handcrafts and foods.

I have been working with The Dinner Project for a couple of years now and have seen how this group does such amazing work both for local charities and foreign organizations.   The members of our group take time out of their day to make amazing events to raise awareness and money for charities and I have been honored to be a part of it.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 9, 10, 11 and 12

Wow, I can't believe I got so far behind... and over a weekend! Oops.

Friday I was thankful for several beers with my coworkers at two fun bars in Uptown. It was nice to catch up in non-work-related gossip while enjoying adult beverages and the wonderful weather.

Saturday, I was thankful for Grace's gymnastics teacher, Coach Stacey! She is awesome and wasn't supposed to be at Grace's class this weekend, but she somehow made it happen. She is by far the best coach for the little kids, and I can tell a difference is Grace's performance when Coach Stacey is there! Grace loves her and always wants to give her a hug (and sometimes a kiss) when she says goodbye. We love her gym and are so glad to have an outing every weekend to give Grace some good exercise!

On Sunday, I was thankful for a two hour nap!

Tonight, I am thankful for the progress we made in Grace's new playroom! It is so nice to have all her toys out of the living room and dining room. When we got home tonight, she happily played upstairs while I got dinner ready! I think she loves it as much as I do. We went with a Sesame Street theme so that we could include the Gracie Street lightpost and character tissue poms that we made for her birthday party. Now we just have to decide on wall art!

30 Days of Thankfulness Day 10

Today I know Diana and Trinity were both thankful for a responsible babysitter.  Diana's coworker has a 15 year old daughter that we have been waiting to try out as a babysitter and tonight we finally found a reason to.  We went to a country/western bar with Steven and Megan and were able to have a responsible young adult take care of Grace while we boozed it up while listening to some decent country music.

I am also thankful for my designated driver as I was not in a condition to drive after said boozing and country music.

30 Days of Thankfulness Day 9

Diana has been extremely busy being an accountant so I, Trinity, have decided to try to help her out a bit and fill in the Thankfulness days that she hasn't had a chance to fill out. 

For Day 9, what the Vaughn Household is Happy Hour.  Diana got to actually go out and have adult conversations with someone other than her husband.  On Friday, Diana and her coworkers took a MUCH needed break from their crazy schedules and headed to happy hour.  Diana didn't get home til 10 pm and was much relaxed compared to any other night this week.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 8

Today I am thankful for meeting a deadline!

We filed our Q3 10-Q today, and we always have some sort of celebration each quarter. This time around, we have so many other concurrent projects that we didn't have time to take a long lunch or leave early, so I suggested a cookie cake for an afternoon meeting. I ordered the cookie cake with a surprise message, which everyone loved.

Keep Chuggin' Along!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 7

Today I am thankful for Grace's amazing daycare and teachers. She is so spoiled at her school, and she loves going every day to learn and play with her friends.

Last week, her school had a Halloween party, and her teachers emailed pictures to us during the party. It was such a sweet gesture and made me smile to see my little girl so happy at school! We hope to instill a love for learning throughout her life!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 6

Today I am thankful for the right to vote. I actually voted on Monday morning, so I am also thankful that Texas has early voting! :)

This morning I promised myself that no matter which party wins the election tonight, I will be thankful to live in a country where everyone has a say on our elected officers. We are so blessed to have such an important right, and I wish more people took it seriously. Too many men and women have fought and died for this right.

I hope that regardless of the outcome tonight, that citizens of the USA will rally in support of our next leader and pray that he makes good decisions as he guides our nation.

I'm settling in for a long evening... There is no way I will be able to sleep before results are official!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 5

Today I am thankful for a job that allows for some flexibility! It's been a crazy busy month of work for my group, but today when I needed to leave before 5pm to pick-up Grace from daycare, there were no questions asked.

I am back online now working from home, but that beats having to stay at the office after hours to work, which I've only had to do once in the 23 months I've worked at Dean Foods!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 4

Today I am so very thankful to have electricity.

This morning, Trinity woke me up to tell me we didn't have power. We immediately called the power company, who already had a recorded message that they were working on the outage and hoped to have power restored to the area by 10am. My first thought was, "How are we going to get ready for church if the power doesn't come back on for two more hours?"

And then I felt foolish... I have seen several friends from the northeast coast post on Facebook about their power outages. And they have been without power for days. The least I could do was take a quick cold shower, pull my wet hair back and get my family to church!

Within ten minutes, our power was restored, and I enjoyed a hot shower and dried my hair with my blow dryer.

So thank you, Lord, for the not-so-shuttle reminder that we are blessed with power.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 3

Today I am thankful for college football! Even though Tech didn't win, we enjoyed watching two games while Grace played in the living room. She even had a good time cheering for the Longhorns, Red Raiders and Aggies! She may be a little confused with the rivalries, but she sure knows her college hand signs. So cute!

She missed the Longhorn win after falling asleep in the fourth quarter, which is a good thing because we caught her singing the entire Texas Fight song in her crib during nap time today. I don't think I could take the loss with my two year old rubbing it in my face!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 2

Today I was thankful for a tall pumpkin spice latte... In my first Starbucks Christmas cup of the season!

It was the perfect treat for a long morning at work. Somehow all it takes is a little red Christmas cup to bring a smile to my face!

'Tis the season!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 1

I have seen several people post about 30 days of Thankfulness on Facebook today. I decided to try the 30 days on my blog, with an attempt at a picture to go along with most, of not all, of the days.

Today I am thankful for my housekeeper, who came today! I love walking into our home after she has been here. It just smells so clean, and everything is in it's place.

And it is about the only time out bed gets made these days!