Little Happies - For the Very First Time!

Enough doom and gloom on here. C'mon get happy! Stephanie at Blessed to Be hosts Little Happies every Monday, and it's about time I jumped in. It's time to look back on the last few weeks and be thankful for the good stuff, because I really do have a blessed a life, and my blog should reflect that often! I think you're encouraged to pick 5 things to highlight, but I'm going a little overboard this week.

-one-

This is on the water at Madeline Island. My best friend from high school had just tied the knot, and KK and I went out the water on these paddle boards to make a memory. The water was so calm. It was like floating on glass. This photo reminds me that KK and I are meant to be, and we can do great things in this life as long as we are together.

-two-

This was the beautiful sunrise we experienced during our last day on the water on our amazing trip in the Boundary Waters. I'm reminded of the splendor of our world, and how lucky I am to experience it with all my senses and my able body every day. The trip was so fun. All we did was paddle, eat, set up/take down camp, and enjoy each other's company. I just want to go back!

-three-

Tell me you see them: the faint yet totally there tan lines from my Teva sandals! Normally, the only tan lines I get in the summer are from running. But these... these are from vacation! Looking at them reminds me that our trip was real! I will be so sad when I look down one time and realize they aren't there anymore. Now, thanks to Little Happies, then will forever be in my blog, in case I need to remember that they were real!

-four-

Three cheers for impromptu date night! I had a crazy and long week at work. Once I finally snapped shut my laptop around 6:30 on Friday, I headed over to our local grocery store for a beer tasting KK had arranged. (He's the Beer Specialist there for 8-ish hours a week for fun.) We decided to eat at the deli there, and then we decided to walk down to the movie theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Sweet-man-that's-a-tree, it was so good! One of the nice things about being a family of two is the ability to just decide whenever to do something you want to do - no worrying about if it's kid-friendly or if you can get a sitter.

-five-

That's an iced mocha for him, a coffee (caramel flavored, no syrup) with almond milk for me. After mass, I suggested to KK that we go get coffee before running errands. We ended up sitting down and talking for almost an hour about serious stuff: our faith, adoption, the frustrations of infertility. KK shared that at work, his patients and their families ask him all the time if he has kids. He seriously gets asked several times a day. I didn't know he was dealing with that. I get asked that once a month max. I don't know how he does it. Please keep him in your prayers. I'm grateful that the coffee break made us really talk about some serious items. It set the stage for a wonderful Sunday together. 

-six-

We bought this card/dice game at Wal-mart today. It was an impulse buy. The game itself wasn't incredibly fun. The rules were poorly written and confusing. We couldn't figure out how we were supposed to tally scores (I promise we are smart people), so we ended up playing for two hours until we finally called the game (I "won"). But in those two hours, we just enjoyed each other's company, made each other laugh, and listed to our Jimmy Buffett channel on Pandora. I'm grateful for the time we spent on Sunday just being with each other.

-seven-

This is me at the gym this morning! After a long time away from home and then the gym being closed for cleaning all last week (seriously, who does that), I was able to get physical with the weights. I've never been a big lifter. I've always preferred running and then supplementing with short HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts, but since I don't know when I'll get to train for a long-distance race again (or anything really), I started a 12-week weight lifting program for beginners about a month post-op. I've been pretty good staying with it. I've missed a workout here/there, but I'm going back in time to the week I left home so I can really work through the whole program. It's good to be back in a habit I really enjoy.

I'm looking forward to documenting this week and taking a stab at another round of Little Happies. Here's to a positive week for all of you!