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.