Nov. 14- Beth

Benjamin reminded me to post today! So, here goes.

1. I was very much blessed by my coworkers bringing me flowers and a card and an ice cream cake for my birthday yesterday (well, my birthday was on Sunday, but I got them yesterday). They have cheered me up all day today, and that’s because of my coworkers’ generosity, and the general loveliness of flowers.

2. I came up with a great idea for homemade Christmas presents yesterday (and Benjamin’s daughter actually had a hand in it!). My family has decided to put a $20 limit on presents for Christmastime (after years of each member trying to outdo the others in expense). Anyway, the other night at his party, Benjamin’s youngest was pretending to be a “good baby lion,” and her antics made me think an excellent children’s book title would be “C., the Good Baby Lion.” Eventually, this translated into “I should totally write children’s books,” which translated into thinking perhaps I should start by writing down fun memories of my family from my childhood and creating homemade books for them as presents for Christmas. So, I’ve spent part of the day working on a book for one of my cousins (or at least coming up with the story). I am scared of how I’m going to do the art, having no observable artistic skills, but I’ll figure something out. Anyway, I’ve been blessed by getting to write down these fun memories of my cousin, and thinking about how to illustrate them, and it’s made my day much more enjoyable. This happened because I guess I’m more creative than I thought, and because Benjamin’s youngest has a very active imagination that translates well into literary fantasy.

3. One of my stories for work today led me to a website detailing how one buys a lighthouse, which led me to another website on how one buys an island. Both websites have captured my imagination this morning and kept me happy, daydreaming about life after retirement (a long ways off, I know, but fun to daydream about). This happened because I, too, have a great imagination, and because people actually buy and sell islands and lighthouses. How lovely!

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Nov. 12- Beth

Pooh, I can’t use yesterday’s lovely visit from the founder of this blog for today’s blessings… I guess I’ll just have to start updating more often!

1. My jeans have now dried off from being forced to step in an ankle-deep puddle to get to my ride’s car. I am thankful that they’re dry now, because my feet were very cold earlier! This happened because it is warm and dry in my building.

2. Starbucks has brought back peppermint flavor in spades 🙂 Peppermint mochas, peppermint bark brownies… etc. This is a blessing because I like peppermint, and it makes me happy. This happened because Starbucks is amazingly genius 😉

3. Umm, shoot. Oooh! So, the weather here? Even though it’s wet, it’s like 50 degrees outside and lovely for the middle of November! Yay Seattle weather patterns 😀

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August 3, Beth

Ack, I keep forgetting to update here. Our life has been so full of blessings that we don’t know what to do with ourselves. I’ll try to relegate it to the … um, daily?

1.  We go in for our second ultrasound tomorrow 😀 I’m pretty excited about this, and I guess it’s a blessing that I’m getting to have so many of them because I’m technically, erm, “high risk.” But… I’m totally excited, moreso than last time, though last time they discovered that it might be twins! (You see what I mean about having too many blessings to list!) I just want some verification 😀

2. Today at work went much better than the rest of this week, because I wasn’t so focused on the negative stuff. Yay! I felt productive and was interested in what I was doing, and accomplished a lot!

3. We’re having friends over for dinner tonight, and I fully expect that to be a very exciting blessing, because they seem like such great people. This happened because I extended an invitation that they accepted! 😀

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June 10- Beth

Not even all the way through the day, and I already have three blessings!

1. My husband and I drove up to Magnolia and walked along the boulevard, and sat on the benches and enjoyed the beautiful view. It was his surprise to me, after church, and it was lovely. It’s beautiful outside today, and it was  refreshing to get out in the sunlight, after yesterday’s yuckiness.

2. As we sat on the park benches, we saw not one, but two! bald eagles fly by 😀 I had never seen one before (well, not in captivity), and that was super-exciting.  I called my parents to share my excitement… but they didn’t pick up their phone. Oh well…

3. I got to sleep in this morning! Woohoo!

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June 9- Beth

Wow- I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve had lots of good stuff going on, I just haven’t had time to post! 🙂 Good problem to have, I suppose 😀 Here are my three for today.

1. A good friend, actually from Seattle proper, called to talk to me today 🙂 Mostly just to tell me that she and another friend had been talking about me at a meeting they went to, and were play-fighting about whose friend I was. “My friend, Beth,” says one… the other says “No, *my* friend Beth.” This is a lovely fun story, and I’m glad that my friends (plural) like me enough to joke about whose friend I am, and that I have friends out here, and that my friend thought the story was worth sharing with me 😀 It was lovely.  It’s nice to feel wanted. This happened… because I have friends? 🙂 Because they are good people 😀

2. I caught the tail end of a Billy Graham special today. Usually, I find televangelism really cheesy and avoid it at all costs. But it seemed like a good idea after watching Saw III and… it was very encouraging and inspiring. This happened because I finished the movie in time to catch the show, and because Billy Graham is having his “crusade” or whatever, and because a whole mess of people made that decision. Anyway, it was neat. Don’t worry, I’m making fun of myself, too.

3. I started a new diet today. Despite my generally bad feelings about dieting (it’s a long story, but it involves a parent who was a yo-yo dieter) … I think this one is low-maintenance enough that I won’t have to think about it (because thinking about it makes me anxious and unhappy) too much, and I’m hopeful that it will make a real improvement in my health (trust me, this isn’t about watching pounds!). So, it’s been one successful day, and that’s good, because I was a little concerned that because I have such negative feelings toward dieting that I wouldn’t even be able to handle this low maintenance one. I am glad, because I have made it through Day 1, and because I have some hope of making it to the weight-loss phase. Yay… ish.

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June 1, Beth

1. My coworkers showed me a shortcut to get onto 520 later, which made my commute about an *hour* shorter than it was on Thursday. Lovely! That happened because I shared with my coworkers about my commute frustrations, because they shared their insider knowledge of Bellevue, and because I listened and took their advice, and wasn’t too scared to try something new!

2. A friend took me out for dinner at a lovely restaurant on the waterfront last night, where I could look at rows and rows of sailboats, and daydream about owning one someday. The food was good, too 🙂 This all started because my husband went to her husband’s LAN party, and so us girls were left to hang out with each other, which worked out incredibly.

3. Same friend also introduced me to Kerry Park. I am… so excited to have found that spot- it’s gorgeous!  She’s an excellent hostess for the city at large, and I’m just blessed to have her take me under her wing 🙂

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May 30 Beth

1. On my drive home from work this afternoon, even though it took (!) an hour and fifteen minutes, I got to let a grand total of five cars into my lane. I don’t really know why I consider that a blessing, but it makes me feel good about myself! 🙂 This happened because 520 is one busy freeway! And because people need to change lanes, I guess…

2. One of my coworkers invited me out to lunch today. This happened because she forgot to bring her lunch, and because she’s friendly. I was just the lucky recipient. And it was a lovely day to eat on an outside patio.

3. Tonight, after Carl got home from work, we walked to Gasworks Park, and spent some lovely time soaking up the sunshine and giggling for no good reason, and watching boats drive by while blasting their music. This happened because I was *very* insistent that we go to the park after he got home, because I was patient while he played his requisite 30 minutes of video games instead of nagging, and because it was a lovely, superhot day.

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May 29

Today was all around lovely!

1. It was my first day of work at a new job, which is certainly a blessing, both financially and well, sanity-wise, if we’re being honest. This happened because I interviewed well, because I was prepared with questions, because I wasn’t freaked out by going to interview at the same company twice, and because the rest of the people at my work are very friendly. And because I like learning things, and I was definitely doing a lot of learning today. Anyway, yay!

2. We went out to lunch, and our tech guy paid for the whole group! Another blessing, particularly since we’ve been feeling a little cash-strapped lately (partly due to my lack of employment for the last couple months). And it was Chinese buffet 🙂 This happened because, well, tech guy is generous?

3. It is a beautiful day outside, and I got to drive back and forth from Bellevue across the floating bridge, which means that I got to enjoy the sunshine sparkling off the water, and all the boaters enjoying playing in the waves. I suppose this happened because I wasn’t too busy cursing the guy in front of me for whatever traffic infraction to notice the gorgeous day, and I suppose because God made a beautiful day? 🙂 Just a blessing without much of my influence on it, I guess.

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May 27

1. I was most blessed today by the services of a kind stranger, who offered online his services as a notary, for the simple price of a cup of coffee. My husband and I are in the process of selling our house back in Illinois, and while our realtor had sent all the paperwork on our end in a large obvious envelope, which we duly signed, notarized and took care of a week and a half ago, the buyer’s realtor had sent his documents in a regular business envelope with a simple “National City Mortgage” on the front. We thought it was junk mail, but had the good sense to open it to check before tossing it. Once we found the paperwork last night, and realized we didn’t have much time until our closing on Wednesday, I frantically dug through Seattle’s livejournal, having noted a weekend notary post earlier in the week. So, I guess it happened  because I was attentive, but mostly because this kind soul was happy to provide a public service, and because we were sensible enough not to toss our “junk mail” without first double-checking it.

2.  My husband and I had two good conversations today in the car about important topics. And that happened because I was confident enough to bring the subjects up, and because he was willing to listen and respond- fortunately neither of the conversations ended in anger, which can sometimes happen when discussing volatile topics (like a cat who pees on *everything*). Anyway, it was excellent.

3. Not only was the notary good enough to sign our paperwork, but he and his companion were also very amiable, which was really nice. We had a good friendly conversation over coffee with them, and with lots of smiles. Us newbies to the land of Seattle enjoy proving that the Seattle Freeze is a myth, and these two guys certainly helped us on our way to breaking the stereotype 😀 I supposed it happened because Seattle actually does produce friendly people, and because we were just as willing to listen and ask questions as they were 🙂

But man, I totally wish I’d gotten the bee swarm 😀 That’s pretty awesome, if you ask me!

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May 25

 I’m new- I don’t have much to introduce myself with, but I’m 25, married, recently transplanted to Seattle, and that’s about all I really have to say, I guess. Except that if Ben was cheating a little, I’m cheating a lot. Here are my three blessings from yesterday.

1. I got to meet an online friend for the first time yesterday, and that went well because I kept up with her schedule changes, and because I’d set aside time to meet her.

2. I went to a party and stayed talking to friends until the wee hours of the night, which is one of my favorite things in the world to do (the talking, not the partying). This happened because we were invited, rsvped, and rather than leaving when most of the group did, I decided to come back and hang around and because I did my best to listen to the other people rather than just talking about myself.

3. My husband’s glasses were repaired for free yesterday! I don’t know exactly why it happened, other than that I chose to use the Lenscrafters I noticed in the mall the other day, but it was definitely a high point, particularly after expecting at least a $50 charge. Yay Lenscrafters and the nice girl who restrung his glasses for free!

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